Painful Reprieve

by Shinigamimirror

Revelations

Revelations

Bon-Bon, Triage, and Lyra stared in disbelief as the pink blur converted the basement turned hospital room into a colorfully decorated ‘Welcome to Ponyville and hope you get better soon’ party. There were streamers covering every inch of the ceiling with a net filled with balloons in the corner. Pinkie had also produced a tray of cupcakes from her mane and set them on the nightstand by the bed. The cupcakes were followed by several ‘get well soon’ cards and a vase full of flowers. Pinkie was extra careful around the medical equipment and surprisingly did not unplug any machines in her whirlwind party planning. By the time Fluttershy and Twilight rushed into the room, Pinkie had finished.

The Pink one sat by the foot of the bed and wiped a few beads of sweat off her forehead with a fetlock. “Wowee, it sure is hard substituting for all the confetti! Usually, it would have been faster with my confetti cannons.” Pinkie then looked up and caught sight of Bon-Bon and Lyra. “Hey guys, what are you doing here? Did you come for the party?” Pinkie then wriggled her eyebrows and stretched her forelegs to impossible lengths to bring them both into a crushing hug. “I’m so glad you guys could make it! Bon-Bon do you have any new candy we could sample for the party?!”

Bon-Bon tried to wriggle out of Pinkie’s grasp in vain. “If you would...let go...I could give you a few...to sample.” She said in between pained breaths.

Twilight took a deep breath to collect her thoughts and began. “Pinkie, as much as I appreciate you decorating my basement for a party, there are more pressing matters we need to attend to.” Just then Twilight got an idea. She smiled impishly with a 500 watt industrial halogen idea. “Pinkie, why don’t you go help Spike upstairs make the cake.”

Pinkie’s eyes lit up and she squee’d with a bright smile. She deposited the creamy and minty mares back down on the floor in a heap and bobbed her head. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” She affirmed before pronking away upstairs.

Bon-Bon blushed heavily under the weight of her filly-friend as she struggled to compose herself. Lyra responded by snuggling into Bon-Bon and inhaling deeply. “Mmm, you always smell so good Bonnie.” Lyra whispered into her ear.

“Lyra!” Bon-Bon hissed. “Not right now. There are others watching!”

“Fine.” Lyra relinquished her snuggles and whispered back. “We’ll do this later.”

“Lyra!”

Triage just shook her head and sighed. “I heard rumors that strange things happened around you Princess, but seeing it for myself, I am at a loss for words. Is this normal for you?”

Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Yup, that’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.” Twilight shook her head. She frowned and took a more subdued tone. “But now that she is distracted, we need to talk.”

At this point Lyra and Bon-Bon picked themselves up with both sporting a pink hue to their coats.

Triage nodded and looked to Lyra. “I have been consulting with Lyra and we have come to several conclusions.” Triage nodded in confirmation. “His body is going through thaumaturgical exposure sickness as Lyra has concluded that where he comes from does not have any magic. His body is building ley lines as we speak.” Triage pointed to the x-rays. “As you can see, the ambient magic is being absorbed through his horn into his main cranial mana pool and is slowly building ley lines. There is no way we can predict how his body will react to the magic coursing through his ley lines. Lyra has hypothesized that ambient magic is not strong enough to change his DNA however. That is something we must still look into.”

Triage looked at Twilight with a scowl. “Any spells cast on him or around him will be absorbed and speed up whatever process he is going through, so please refrain from any more magical outbursts please. I am trusting you can control yourself around our patient and there will not be any more magical mishaps.

Twilight gasped and put a hoof to her mouth. “Are you saying the counter spell I tried to cast on him earlier might have made things worse.”

“Yes.” Triage spoke with certainty. “If you could put an anti-magical barrier around him, I think that would be for the best. We can’t remove ambient magic, but we can prevent anypony else from casting around him. Once we have that barrier up, we can discuss anything you have discovered while you were out.”

Twilight looked around at all the medical equipment and frowned. “Will an anti-magical field interfere with the medical equipment?”

Triage shook her head. “No, it runs off ambient magic and its own power source. We will still be able to tend to Charlie’s medical needs with the barrier up. I can do rudimentary scans with the equipment I have to monitor his thaumic exposure. The only thing we won’t be able to do is conduct magical scans.”

“Hold on. There is one scan that I need to conduct before we put up the barrier. There is a chance whatever did this was using dark magic and I need to do a scan. It’s my fault I didn’t consider the dark triad.”

At the mention of the dark triad, Lyra began to sweat and put a hoof behind her head. Bon-Bon noticed and elbowed her. “Is everything alright Lyra? You look like you’re about to be sick.”

“Yes, I’m fine” Lyra answered curtly.

Triage stared at Twilight for a moment and then nodded. “Very well. We can monitor him while you cast the spell to measure the exact absorption rate he has with magnified magic.”

Twilight took a step back and her horn began to glow. At the same time Triage’s horn glowed. Anypony watching them wouldn't see anything, their horns only glowing briefly before they stopped. Twilight looked as pale as a ghost while Triage looked contemplative. “It appears his body has a nearly 100% absorption rate.” Triage then began to print out another scan from one of her machines. Upon inspection she declared the results. “The magic is being absorbed and fed directly into his ley line construction. I’m not seeing any physical distress from the thaumic exposure. It seems his body is tolerating it well.”

“It’s just like Discord said.” Twilight began having a staring contest with the floor. “There are traces of...blood magic. This might be what’s behind the DNA transmutation.” Everypony in the room was silent.

Lyra’s eyes went wide, and they began darting around the room. She began to hyperventilate, and her face went pale. “I...um…. I need to go...I think I left... the oven on at home.” Before anypony could say anything more, Lyra ran out of the basement.

“Lyra wait!” Bon-Bon called after her and gave chase.

Ignoring the antics, Triage turned to Fluttershy and smiled. “Fluttershy would you be a dear and check the bandages while we wait for our human expert to return? I need to record the horn growth and determine when it is done. After the horn is complete, we may be able to wake him up and ask him some questions.”

Fluttershy nodded and smiled. “Of course. Right away!” The buttery pegasus began to redress the human’s horn while Triage took measurements.

“If we were to go by average unicorn horn length, I would say his horn will reach full height in roughly fifteen minutes. I’m also detecting a slight increase in growth from the magic absorbed from Twilight’s magical scan. I think Lyra’s theory was correct. Magic is fueling his transformation, with the transmuted DNA being used as a schematic.”

Twilight was looking pensive as she began to piece things together in her head. “Blood magic was used to alter his DNA, but why? It’s highly frowned upon and no one has openly practiced it in centuries.”

Triage looked at Twilight and sighed. “Something tells me your green friend knows more than she lets on judging by the way she ran out of the room like that.”

“Lyra is an eccentric mare. I trust Bon-Bon to bring her back before she gets too far. While we’re waiting I will put up that anti-magic barrier.”

**

---

**

Bon-Bon was racing through Ponyville. She was just far enough behind Lyra to catch her tail going around corners. As Lyra had declared, she was in fact heading towards home. During the chase, there were quite a few things going through the candy-makers head. It clearly had something to do with blood magic. It wasn’t until Twilight mentioned it that Lyra had a near panic attack. She wasn’t going to let Lyra face this alone whatever it was.

When Bon-Bon made it to their shared home, the front door was left wide open. Bon-Bon stopped in the doorway and called out “Lyra honey, are you alright?” She closed the door behind her and took a few steps inside. “You can talk to me. I don’t know what you’re going through unless you use your words.” The kitchen was empty with the half-eaten lunch left still on the table. The oven was in fact not left on. The living room was just as empty. Bon-Bon looked at the stairs and let out an exasperated sigh knowing exactly where her filly friend retreated to.

As Bon-Bon approached Lyra’s study, she could hear shuffling papers and the sound of the mint mare mumbling to herself in a near panic. The door was left ajar with light filtering through the crack.

Bon-Bon nudged the door open and peeked in, only to gasp in shock. There were papers all over the floor and the bookshelf that was normally in the back of the study was moved at an odd angle. In the middle was a desk with a chair and figurines of mythical creatures lining the walls. Lyra’s lyre was resting on one of the shelves on the wall along with other stringed instruments that Lyra liked to experiment with. Lyra’s study also doubled as her music studio with recording equipment piled up neatly in the far corner.

There was light spilling from behind the bookshelf. Bon-Bon took a few tentative steps forward, feeling like she was intruding. As she approached the bookshelf it became clear that Lyra was behind it as the incoherent mumblings became clearer. There was a hidden room behind the bookshelf. Bon-Bon peaked behind the bookshelf and gasped.

Lyra was slumped in the middle of the room with papers scattered all around her. On the floor was a pentagram drawn in what looked like red ink. There was a pedestal in the center with a crystal orb placed at the top. She was sobbing, laying against the pedestal in a heap. Lyra looked up at Bonnie upon hearing Bonnie enter the room. Her eyes were red and filled with tears.

“Bonnie...this is all my fault.” she gasped out between sobs. “I did it. I brought the human here.” She wailed and slumped to the ground.

Bon-Bon ran forward and embraced her filly-friend in a tight hug. “Shhh, honey. I’m here. It’s going to be okay.” Bon-Bon began to run her hoof through Lyra’s mane in a soothing manner. Lyra continued to wail into Bon-bon’s shoulder until she had no more tears to cry.

“Oh Bonnie.” Lyra choked out. “I really messed up big this time. Everypony is going to hate me. I’m going to be put in the dungeon and you will never want to see me again! What am I going to do?”

“Shhh. Whatever you’re going through, we’re going to get through it together. I will never hate you Lyra. I love you, and nothing is going to keep me from loving you. You just need to tell me what you’re going through so I can help. You have to promise me no more secrets.” Bonnie lifted Lyra’s head, so they were looking into each other's eyes. “Can you do that?” Bon-Bon looked into Lyra's watery eyes and saw fear, pain, and remorse. The minty unicorn nodded wordlessly before snuggling into Bon-Bon’s chest fluff. Bon-Bon cradled Lyra and began to stroke her gently. Neither pony kept track of the time and finally the sobbing subsided to occasional whimpers.

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Hah, Lyra is like "This should have been a happy thing, but now I'm making an innocent creature suffer!"
She may be another piece of the puzzle, but not the actual cause of said pain, we think. After all, she wasn't the one that made the contract...

[DovahkiinMaster]

Hmmmmm. I wonder what the contract was then... Did Lyra's spell do that, or... something more or less sinister. And then there's the DNA alteration; I'm pretty sure Lyra didn't cause that. This is getting interesting.

[Ali della Morte]

Good chapter