Time

1 Hour

Magic pulsed around the workshop, causing long shadows to be thrown across the walls. A gentle thrum filled the air in time with the pulses, echoing around the room in an almost hypnotic way. He stood in front of the desk, eyes closed as he kept his head lowered, his horn crossed with hers. She was placed back on the desk, still as lifeless as before. Slumped over, her horn was resting on top of his. A golden aura cascaded down her horn, snaking around her body and seeping into her stitching.

He gritted his teeth and concentrated harder, the glow around his horn increasing in intensity. Cracking open a glowing eye, he glanced down at the spellbook in his hooves. Some of the words were smudged, and parts of the page were missing, having been torn out ages ago. Still, he worked with what little he could decipher, struggling to control the spell. It was taxing, and he could feel his magical reserves slowly depleting the longer he held the spell. Closing his eye again, he returned his focus to the intricate web of magic he was weaving through the mare's body.

Working his magic into her head, he examined the garnet placed there. The runes were still active, and he could see them pulsing through his mind's eye. Red tendrils snaked from the gem, worming their way through the mare's head and into her body. Following them with his magic, he smiled inwardly when he saw that they headed towards the mare's legs. Just as they should be. That meant that the garnet wasn't the issue. Placing a marker on the garnet for later, he wormed his way towards the second source of magic within the mare's body: the ruby in her chest. Red and blue tendrils of magic extended from the gem, branching their way out through her body. They thinned as they went, until they became impossible to see.

Working his way carefully through the sea of magical veins, he turned his attention towards the ruby itself. The runes were still on its surface, and were still glowing softly. However, it wasn't pulsing. it remained still, lifeless. He pushed some of his magic into the gem, searching for any indication as to why it wasn't working. It had magic inside of it, the energy swirling lethargically around the ruby. He tried to start the magical reaction with a burst of his own, only to frown as his magic was immediately absorbed into a void of nothingness. He tried again, this time pushing a little more magic into the gem. It met with the same result, the magic sucked into a void within the matrix of the ruby.

Canceling the flow of magic into the ruby, he sat back and studied the gem, trying to figure out the best course of action. A spike of panic flared up in his chest. Did he use a defective gem? He couldn't change it; that would take too much time! Enveloping it in his magic again, he searched for any cracks in the gem's facets, or any other imperfections that magic could be leaking out of. Finding none, he concentrated his searching, looking for any hairline cracks that wouldn't be visible to his eye. The result came back negative; the ruby was whole and undamaged.

So why wasn't it working?!

Pulling himself out of his trance for a moment, he glanced up at the hourglass. His heart skipped a beat upon seeing that it was nearing the end of its cycle, only a small amount of sand remaining within the top half. Throwing himself back into a trance, he focused all his attention onto the ruby. Placing a marker on the ruby, he connected it to the marker on the garnet, before linking both gems back to his horn. He ran a secondary loop, leading from his own chest, up through his horn, and down to her chest. With the two circuits complete, he opened up his internal ley lines and began to push as much magic as possible down the circuits at once. A tsunami of magic raced down his horn and into the mare's body, smashing into the garnet, which immediately flared to life as it was flooded with excess magic. The magic didn't stop there, racing down the arcane connections until it reached the ruby as well, which immediately began to absorb the extra magic at an alarming rate. Gritting his teeth, he pushed more and more magic towards the ruby. It burned through the magic, its own latent magic unaffected by his attempts to get it started.

Focusing on the last remaining vestiges of his magic, he gritted his teeth so hard that they creaked and groaned, threatening to crack. His eyes opened, revealing twin pools of glowing white light. Wings flaring by his side, he gave one final burst of magic into the ruby.

Immediately, the world dissolved into pain. Grabbing his head in his hooves, he toppled backwards with a yelp. He yelped again upon landing on one of his wings wrong, causing it to bend beneath him. Lying on the ground, he stared up at the ceiling above him, breathing heavily. The tip of his horn was blackened and smoking, and felt like all of his limbs were suddenly turned to lead. Pushing himself up into a seated position, he tried to cast a spell, only to hiss in pain as sparks erupted form the tip of his horn. He had used all of his magical reserve: he had nothing left.

Getting shakily to his hooves, he glanced at the mare on the desk. She remained motionless. He swallowed thickly before tentatively approaching and placing his ear to her chest. He wanted for a second. Two seconds. Three seconds. After ten seconds had past and no sound was coming from her chest, he pulled back, forlorn. Ears laying flat against his head, he blinked back the tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. Leaning forward, he nosed the mare's ear, whimpering softly.

She did not respond.