Chapter Two: Determination
Twilight stood over Rainbows grave shovel in hand. The storm still raged about her flapping her raincoat about her, she still had plenty of time, everything was on schedule, all the other steps were taken... but, was she really about to do this?
Desecrate the final resting place of one of her best friends? She had gathered the other materials easily from graves too ancient to be missed, but now she was going to dig up her friends corpse and carry it back to Ponyville? In all honesty Twilight was terrified. It took her two days to gather the materials and build the machine. Meaning she had three days to prepare Dash... but it also meant that if it wasn’t dead at all, that this really was all a prank she had been underground for two whole days with no food or water, and most assuredly no oxygen left by now. And if it wasn’t a prank, that was two days of decomposition. According to Twilights books the brain should be for the most part intact, but her skin would begin to rot by now. Twilight shuddered imagining a zombie of her best friend. The unicorn shook her head. She was still avoiding the issue. She was about to dig up one of her friends. See there body laid to rest peacefully, then drag it through town in the dead of night with a storm raging. All in an effort to bring her back that may not even work.
Twilight stood still in the poring rain, hands trembling. The lantern she brought flickered signaling it was half empty. If she didn’t start digging soon then she would need to go back for more oil. But still she stood, the rain coming down like a blanket of judgement. She already committed many sins to get the materials, prying open graves and tombs that had been undisturbed since before Ponyville was even a town. But right now she felt sicker than ever. Even sicker then when she opened the grave of someone who died a month before Dash, just to get some spare organs. Just in case. His body was bloated, maggots consumed him and his eyes sunken in. Lips curled and blood trickling down his open puss filled soars. She didn’t need the organs that badly. But she wanted to be sure. She had nightmares of that stallions face last night. Starring at her at the foot of her bed. Those milk white eyes looking so confused and lost, wondering why? Why couldn’t she just let him rest in piece? Why was she ruining his body for another’s? She never knew the stallion. But she remembered every detail of his corpses visage as she reburied him. She kept carful notes of all the graves and organs she robbed. From him she got intestines, some ear bones, a liver, and bladder. Twilight was terrified of seeing Dash like that. Eyes open bloodshot, chest about to burst open a nest of insects into the damp foal smelling grave yard.
Twilight put her shovel down and gently lifted a single pebble placing it down on the wet grass. Trembling she then stuck her shovel down and lifted a second pebble. It was going to take her all night at this pace.
Twilight held her breath, closed her eyes and brought her shovel down for real. Making her first real scoop she dumped it to the side. Then she came back and made another of the same gesture. She repeated this over and over, pretending it was just another grave like the 12 others she robbed over the past two days. She focused on her movement at getting done as soon as she could. She stopped trembling enjoying the familiarity. Finally she hit something hard and began trembling again. She cleared the dirt around much slower than her previous operations.
Soon she was starting down at the face of the smooth coffin Applejack had built. It still looked clean and shiny. The wood was from Apple trees and sanded down covered in lacer looking professionally crafted. Twilight wiped water from her face realizing she was crying again. No matter how she tried the tears kept flowing. She couldn’t focus on her magic. She had to open Rainbows coffin by hand. So she did, slowly prying open the lid with all the care she could muster, her hooves scrapping in the mud, the wood creaking slowly as thunder rumbled. Once it was open Twilight peaked inside the coffin.
There sleeping soundly on a bed of flowers representing all her friends was Rainbow Dash. Eyes closed lips curled in a smile as she lay there without breathing, hands rapped firmly around one another. She still had the beautiful leaf green dress Rarity made for her but she never wore in life. Twilight smiled, brushing her chromatic mane aside and planting a kiss on her stone cold forehead. The mare didn’t stir at this. Nor the raindrops falling on her head. She just lay there eyes closed. Twilight smiled taking Rainbow’s icy hand into her grip. She was still well preserved. That was a good sign. But there were still other matters to attend to.
Twilight grabbed Rainbow Dash by the arm and hoisted the flyer onto her shoulders dashing the hand placed flowers onto the mud revealing the soft white fabric underneath. She then closed Rainbow’s coffin before more water could get in. She levitated herself out off the hole holding onto Rainbows limp body making sure she wouldn’t fall. Finally Twilight used her magic to put all the dirt back into the hole reburying the coffin. It would all be worth it soon, but she couldn’t let her friends know what she was doing otherwise they might try to stop her when she was so close to bringing there friend back. She also couldn’t let anyone know someone was poking around Rainbow Dash’s grave otherwise they may try to find her and again reveal her plan before they were finished. Once the dirt in the grave was replaced as best Twilight could without making it look disturbed she began trodding home. Back to her lab.
...
The streets of Ponyville were still dead and empty. Starting to flood from the last two days of nonstop storm. Twilight’s hoof steps made loud splashes echoing through the empty streets. With no stop the sound traveled down every street signaling her arrival in the dead of night. She was more paranoid now than ever. Sure no one has caught her on her previous trips, and those had been nerve racking. But those had been a few organs and spare parts. Now she was hailing the body of one of her beloved friend. She heard a slashing hoof step behind her and turned around horn glowing with a lethal spell ready if needed. No one would stop her. No witnesses.
It was nothing.
No one was there.
Twilight started panting and dropped the spell. She realized what she almost did. What if someone was there? She could have almost killed someone. A foul. She could have killed a kid if one was there.
Twilight turned away from the darkness and to her familiar tree house.
...
Opening the door to her lab levitating Dash over to the operating table stripping down to her birthday suit. Since she began her study Twilight made a startling discovery. She did her best work naked. The first time had been an accident. She was too busy to notice she got her plans and most of the machines were finished with her completely exposed. But the second time was on purpose, feeling constricted by her clothes, once she removed them she got more done then she initially sought out to do. Soon she did it just for the shear thrill of experimenting with her flank out. Plus given her experiments recently, it also saved on laundry given all the blood.
The now fully stripped Twilight got to work on her best friend. Taking her scalpel and cutting down the fliers chest exposing her organs and blood. Twilight sighed taking in the smell and putting on a surgical mask that served as her only covering.
As noted before, the subjects expiration was caused by blunt trauma induced by a less than perfect switching from an aerial possession into a terrestrial one. This resulted in the severing of the spinal cord, the shattering of numerous vertebrae, the fracturing of several bones, the crumpling of her aviary apparatuses, the powdering of her ribs, and rupturing of several instruments due to said powdering of ribs. Due to these reasons, though the subjects exterior flesh appears intact for the most part, the real damage is done to the internal workings. As such they need to be replaced. For this we will start by opening the chest cavity observing what organs are in need of replacement, tossing aside useless ones and replacing them with fresh undamaged ones. Now we move onto the scaffolding of the body, making several incisions seeing many fractures have taken place. Once determined how many need to be replaced toss aside the damaged corpus and insert the replacement, taking care of the vertebrae which is in need of the most repair replacing several shattered components and soddening them into the greater connection. The aviary apparatuses are too badly damaged with replacement parts too hard to come by intact, due to the finality of cartilage and feathers so they are removed entirely from the subject. Once that is finished we move onto the four humors. Brewed earlier: Black Bile for the spleen. Yellow Bile for the galled bladder. Red Bile for the Heart. And finally. Phlegm Bile for the Brain. Once all four humors are inserted, seal closed all openings on the subject with common thread, and move onto insert the metallic lightning conductor into the base of the subjects spine just above the nape of the neck hammering when necessary carful not to damage the subjects nervous system, but making sure to come in contact with it as to allow the energy to travel. Once completed attach conductors to the conductor and raise energy capturers to the heavens above awaiting the luck of the night for --
A bolt struck the extended antennae extending from Twilights home breaking the mare from her trance of scientific genius. That had been happening a lot recently, especially when she was working naked. She would loose herself in her science and awaken hours later to find finished notes in her own hand writing. The lightning above her writhed and twisted, jumping from machine to machine taking on new qualities, changing color before finally coming to the spike extending from Rainbow Dash's neck. Her body spasmed and shook almost as if she was in pain. The machines concentrated their might, focusing their energy to the mare before finally dying in an explosion of sparks one by one. Some blew up all together, others merely shut down automatically there task completed. The multi colored lightning was gone leaving Twilight's lab in total darkness before she lit a single candle.
Regardless, she turned the crank and lowered Rainbow Dash, her friend, not test subject onto the iron bed. She checked the mare's pulse and noticed something odd. Dash's flesh was a patchwork of stitches. Twilight wondered if any would heal or if she would be stuck with them for the rest of her life, if this even worked. In her trance like state she had removed Dash's wings. She remembered them being broken without a way to replace them, but still the cold logic in it made her shiver. Though that could also be because the heater was powered down in the black out and she was still naked except for her surgical mask and lab coat. Still, another odd change was Dash's bust. It had tripled in size, now sitting at a D cup. Twilight looked down at her A's peaking out from her lab coat and grimaced a ting of jealousy washing over her. Still, why would she do that in her state? Was it because of the lightning? She remembered clipping Dash's wings due to them being broken, but why would she add in a boob job? She didn't even know she could do one of those. Maybe she should tr--
Suddenly Dash's hand twitched. Twilight held it in hers checking for a pulse, but found nothing. No pulse. Still it defiantly moved. It had to. She was alive. Otherwise she had done all this for no--
Dash's eyes shot open instantly.
It worked. It really worked. Dash was alive again. She started to cry and hugged the mare. She kept crying as Dash's cold arms rapped around her bringing her in closer to the hug. For a solid minute Twilight didn't move from her friends arms. It was her. She was right. She smiled nuzzling against her. She was so cold. But Twilight would warm her up.
"Twilight." Dash said in her sweet scratchy voice that always made the unicorn smile.
Twilight cried even more now. She still had her memories. It worked. Nothing could ruin this moment.
"Why are you hugging me naked on your bed in the basement with all the lights off?"
Twilight's muzzle turned scarlet instantly.
…
After much apologizing Twilight retrieved the gown Dash was wearing when she was buried. Only... it was in tatters. Twilight had cut it off Dash and tossed it off to the side like a rapper for candy. In her hastiness Twilight sewed some buttons on and tossed it to Dash before turning around and letting her get dressed.
"How do you feel Dash?" Twilight said awkwardly, unsure what else to ask a mare that had been dead till a few minutes ago.
"Kinda tired..." She said slowly, "but also... good?" Dash sounded unsure of that last part as she looked down at her stitches. She reached a hand behind her head and felt a giant nail sticking out. She touched it and felt a static shock "ouch" she mumbled.
"Don't touch that!" Twilight shouted. She then blushed when she saw Dash. The dress had become a tube top and short shorts frayed at the edges. It looked incredible on the reanimated mare. It barely covered anything leaving her stitches open out in the open for all to see. Twilight's heart flittered as Dash tilted her head dumbly, like she had no idea what she did wrong.
"Why?" Dash asked, she looked down at her arms finally noticing with wide eyes. "What's with all the stitches?"
Twilight rubbed her hands together thinking how to break it to her that she had died and was brought back along with never being able to fly again.
"There was an... accident" Twilight said gently hoping it wouldn't trigger any bad memories. It didn't seam to as Dash just sat there. "You were... hurt badly. Aaaaaaaaaand I fixed you up... Good as new.... But that magic nail is your... power source... until your.... healed all the way." Technically true enough not to be a lie.
"Ok." Dash said not even questioning Twilight for more details. Was it just her or did Rainbow seam more dossal then normal. Maybe she was just tired.
But it was still Dash. She was back, now she can take her to her friends and... NO! She couldn't do that. Everyone was at the funeral. There would be a lot of questions raised by Dash suddenly coming back, especially for Twilight. Her friends can not find out about this... at least not yet, it pained her to do this because she knew her friends all missed Dash just as much as she did. But it was for the best in the long run.
"Can I see my friends now?" Rainbow asked tilting her head adorably.
"NO!" Twilight snapped instantly scarring the former cadaver ears dropping scared.
"At least... not yet..." Twilight calmed down. "Not Applejack, or Rarity, or Fluttershy, or Pinki--"
"Umm Twilight?" Rainbow interrupted raising her hand above her head like a filly in class.
Twilight sighed "Yes dear?"
"What is a... Flutter Shy?"
Twilights eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as realization of the question dawned...
Chapter Three: Experiments
“What is the last thing you remember?” Twilight asked.
“Talking to you.” Dash responded.
“Before that?”
“....Waking up with you hu—“
“B-b- before that to.” Twilight said waving her hands in front of her while she finally buttoned up her lab coat.
“Umm” Dash thought scratching her head. “I was... flying... and I... hit my head. Hard.”
“Can you say the alphabet for me?”
“A, B, C, D, E, F............ f?...............f? Ummmmm..........................f?”
“Stop, stop, that’s good enough.”
Twilight paced from side to side. Rainbow Dash watching as her lab coat blew in the wind. She mumbled magic equations to herself that Rainbow didn't understand. Finally she stopped and looked at Dash.
"My theory is when you... got hurt…. not all of you... healed properly." Twilight finally said. Dash scratched her back, still hoping Twilight would find a way to put her wings back on one day. Twilight looked sad for some reason.
“I’m going to have to teach you all the information you have forgotten.”
Just then a button burst off Rainbow Dash’s tight green blouse hitting the wall behind Twilight. The unicorn just sighed levitating the button and a thread forward to Dash’s exposed chest. The rainbow maned mare just looked down as she stitched it on, like a school filly having their parent tie their shoe. There was also the problem with her body.
~~~
Before she started her lesson Twilight took the time to examine Dash’s body. Giving her a health check up. She had rebuilt her from so many different ponies even she lost track after a certain point. It was important that all the parts were working together properly.
Her flesh was the same healthy cyan coat it always was with the addition of amateur stitching, but her skin was also a lot colder.
Despite being animate her body was only room temperature. This was very troubling for Twilight since as far as she could tell blood was pumping through her body. It was not like what she did was necromancy, she used science, or rather as much science as she could on the subject. It may have technically been necromancy, but she didn’t use any necromantic spells to do what she did. Rainbow Dash’s now considerable chest made it hard to get a heart beat, but it was pumping blood, and she was breathing. Her organs also all seamed to be working. Her body should be warm, but it was not. This fact did not seam to bother Dash in the slightest, who had no problem wearing her skimpy outfit Or even nothing at all when Twilight asked she wasn’t even shivering. Twilight wondered if her ability to judge temperature had been damaged.
Physically Twilight tried her best to replace the mare’s muscles to the level she had in life. Aside from the enhanced mammary glands. Which she still did not recall adding.
Twilight tested her with: jumping jacks, push ups, running on a treadmill, crunches, and squats both clothed and unclothed taking extensive notes of her form. Whatever Twilight put her through the mare did not sweat a drop. She even raised the temperature in her lab as high as it would go and told her to run every single test again but this only got Twilight sweaty making her unbutton her lab coat yet again. She added to her notes that Rainbow’s endurance was seemingly limitless as well. Despite doing exorcises designed to test or in some instances break endurance, Dash pulled them off with flying colors never resting for a second. The mare was a machine. A machine constructed from the bodies of countless individuals with the partially damaged mind of one of her best friends.
Twilight watched Dash work out in front of her, taking carful notes of her form. The movement of her muscles. The tugging on the stitches as they tightened and loosened with every flex. Her thin legs and thick thighs smacking into one another after the splits. Her massive tight ass poking up just over the edge of her shorts as she bent down. Not to mention the jiggling of her boobs as they flopped up and down without a bra with each jump, the stitching on her shoulders and chest trying just as hard as the ones in her ill fitting raggedy shirt not to tear. The stitching covered every inch of her body in strange patterns that also made sense when you thought about them. Every part of the former flier was rapped in them, and Twilight took note of each and every one making sure none would rip.
“I think we are done for now.” Twilight said standing up from her chair and popping her back into place.
Dash finished her 3,671st push-up and stood.
“I’m going to bed, you tired?” Twilight asked before yawning.
Dash shook her head.
“Well try to get some sleep anyway.”
Twilight went up the stairs of her lab leaving Rainbow Dash alone. The former cadaver shrugged lying on her back in the very bed she was resurrected on as Twilight extinguished all light sources.
Up stairs it was morning, but it still rained outside. Regardless of what time it was outside Twilight was exhausted. She used magic to close all the curtains in her house, placed the clip board on her night stand, stripped down to nothing and collapsed on her bed collecting her thoughts as she drifted into the land of dreams and emotions.
In her slumber she dreamed of the face of the stallion who’s parts she stole. Not only him but all the others. Their forms were twisted and stitched. Stolen from their graves and used to make a beast like spider of spare parts. Intestines for legs, hands and hooves sewn to the ends a bloated fly body with multiple heads each moaning, and asking the same thing. “Why?” The thing getting closer and closer to the foot of Twilight’s bed. Twilight was paralyzed. It stood over her, dripping its stinking decay onto her. It’s shoulders split down the middle releasing a stench so foul she could taist it. From the center of the pink mouth surrounded by the heads of Twilight’s own victims was a single head. One with a rainbow mane and cyan flesh.
The crescent moon hung low that night as the rain poured down on the Golden Oaks Libraries autumn branches. Waterfalls weeped from its mighty comforting branched. No light came from it’s windows. The tree almost looked dead. Twilight rubbed her freezings shoulders looking up at her home. Comforting yet also ominous and twisted. She made no effort to enter, hooves planted firm as she stood alone looking into the comfort of her home.
The streets of Ponyville were abandoned save for the solitary unicorn. The windows closed, candles snuffed out. Everyone inside warm and waiting for the storm to pass by. Except for Twilight who stood alone. Uncaring for the cold, the chill of her soaking wet dress had no real effect on her. It was a lovely dress, and it was sad to see it ruined by the weather. Rarity made it special for her, slaving over it for days. She did that a lot now. Locking herself away from the rest of Ponyville, alone in her shop. She focused all her attention on her dresses, rarily leaving only to eat and sometimes get new materials when her younger sister Sweety Bell was at school.
Not that Twilight was any better really. She could easily use magic to shield herself from the rain... But what was the point... Why even bother... Without... Her.
Twilight finally cracked falling to her knees ruining the dress with mud. She didn’t care. What was the point in anything now that Rainbow Dash was gone forever. Twilight cried to the heavens, to Celestia, Luna, anyone to help her. But she was all alone...
The Pegasi had scheduled rain for the next five days straight in her honor, and to symbolize the five remaining elements. The mare was gone. No coming back. Dead! She finally thought. Dead and buried. Stone cold in the ground. They all saw it. It was her, so peaceful and calm it was sickening. It was all a joke right? A prank? She was fine, in a few minutes she would sit up and start laughing saying she got us all. Right? That’s what would happen? But it didn’t. Twilight was just at the funeral. Big Mac dug the grave. Applejack lowered her in. They all said a few words and laid flowers down next to a stone branded by her cutie mark. Leaving before the Pegasi’s scheduled storm after the funeral, leaving Twilight alone next to Dash’s grave. She to eventually left the tomb stone, but after the rain had already come down. The element of loyalty was dead. Leaving the unicorn with a gaping whole where her fiend once resides.
Twilight kept crying, falling to her hands and clutching the mud in a fist. Her tears blended with the rain giving her no satisfaction. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Why was she so stupid? Why was she so impulsive to make a mistake like that. Dash had a bad landing, breaking many bones, most notably her spine and both wings, even more notable her neck killing her (Twilight was told) instantly and painlessly. Why? What was the point of it being painless if she was dead? Was there one? Where all there victories in the end just meaningless in the grand scheme next to the all encompassing mass of death? Who was next? Can the elements even still function?
Twilight curled into the fetal position whining like a foul. Her sadness turned to anger. Anger at Dash, anger at Celestia, anger at her friends, anger at herself. She wanted her friend back.
There was no way.
No spell existed t—
Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck something near the Everfree forest. Twilight shot up wiping her wet mane out of her eyes. She saw the glow of a fire burning just outside Ponyville. The next few days of rain would snuff it out before it reached Ponyville but that wasn’t what she focused on. She saw a spark, not just any spark, but a spark of electricity turn a long dead tree into a pyre of light. An inferno of activity.
If a dead tree could become a forest fire because of a spark of electricity. What could that do for a mare’s brain that’s buried under ground?
Twilight began running calculations in her head. She stood up watching the fire grow outside the town whipping tears from her eyes. It could work. She thought. It would work. She was determined to find a way.
Twilight swung open the door to her home and got to work, lighting every candle with just a flick of her horn. She only had five days before the storm would be over. After that there wouldn’t be another one for a while, and then it might be too late to save Dash.
Twilight whipped all her notes off her desk into the trash. This was far more important than anything before it. Whilst the storm outside raged on, another storm took place inside the town library, brightly lit by candles, a storm of books surrounded Twilight: Weather charts, Engineering diagrams, Pony anatomy, necromancy, electrical engineering. She absorbed it all.
She slipped the dress off over her head with her magic, throwing it on the ground by the door. She didn’t even bother getting dressed again too determined with the details of her plans to worry about modesty. It’s not like Spike was in any condition to complain anyway with him comforting Rarity. She dried herself with magic, levitating over a quill and parchment she started taking down sketches for her invention and a list of materials she would need as well. She could do this. She had to do it before the storm passed otherwise she didn’t know what she would do.
With a sketch done she moved down to her basement, she levitated over her lab coat from the hook, slipping it on over her still nude purple fur. She still didn’t bother buttoning it, letting the white cloth flow down her exposed petite body.
She kept working however, moving several pieces of machinery larger than herself aside with her magic to make room for what she was building.
This is where it would happen, the unicorn thought to herself putting down her notes and her hands on her hips as she looked over the empty space.
This is the place she would bring her friend Rainbow Dash back from the grave...
Author's Note
I have never read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, even though I probably should have by now.
But after seeing this picture I just had to write this.
I know it’s too late for Halloween but I hope you like it regardless.
The next chapter will definitely be what you all came here to see so stay tuned.
