The Withering Rose

The Canterlot Experiments

It'd been a few weeks and I'd finally gotten used to living somewhere so large, beautiful and often times crowded.
I knew where everything I needed would be and how to get there by myself, the only thing I hadn't gotten used to were the experiments.

Despite the dampening ring disabling my cutie mark's power, the search for a permanent solution to the problem continued and was being worked on almost every day.
Powerful unicorns were called to Canterlot castle constantly to work with Celestia to figure out how my cutie mark worked and if there was some way they could make it less dangerous.

I'm not going to pretend that I understand all of the advanced spells that they tried using on me, what I do know is that none of them were working.
They tried to change the nature of my cutie mark, create potions to permanently nullify it and at some point they even tried to remove my cutie mark entirely.
Apparently removing a cutie mark isn't possible, or if it is, nopony in Canterlot had discovered a spell that could do it yet.

Every day passed by with no progress and it was clear to see that the lack of a solution was frustrating all involved.
I tried to spend as much time with Celestia as possible, she had become like family to me and I hated to think that I may have been causing her stress.

More time passed and eventually it had been over a month since I was brought to Canterlot.
Something worrying started around that time, I had been getting headaches, multiple times a day.
I was eating fine, drinking plenty and there shouldn't have been any problems at all with my health... I didn't tell anypony what was happening, they had enough to worry about as it was.

Two months in and everypony was beginning to abandon any hope of fixing me.
The headaches got worse, they were migraines now and Celestia had noticed something was wrong with me.
It was too painful to hide from her at that point.

The discovery of my headaches changed everything for the worse, the experiments became more frequent and the methods more desperate.
Ancient spells that nopony other than Celestia had ever heard of were brought back to modern times in hope that something could be done to help me.
None of it worked.

After four months had passed, something terrifying happened... the ring stopped working.
It turns out that the ring itself only functioned because of the magic from a rare and mystical tree found in Griffonstone.
The bark of the tree could reduce the power of any cutie mark entirely, the problem was that my cutie mark killed any organic material.
The magic in the bark was still effective but after being in direct contact with me for so long, it began to fail and eventually disintegrated like everything else.

It happened during another experiment, Celestia and a group of unicorns were in the room with me when suddenly the ring cracked and fell apart.
The moment it happened they all stopped what they were doing and froze in fear.
The next few minutes were chaotic as every unicorn in the room rushed for the exit to get as much distance from me as possible.

I froze too, realising that the only thing that had worked until now had suddenly become useless.
Even Celestia had backed away from me cautiously, I looked to her, fear and dread in my eyes, hoping that she could do something.
She stared back with a face that gave no comfort and showed no sign of confidence.

The effect began almost immediately, a few potted plants around the room quickly began to wilt and die, I wasn't even touching them this time, just being close to me was enough to kill them.

Celestia recovered from her shock and told me to stay where I was and that she was going to find another cutie mark dampening ring. A few minutes of uncertainty passed while I waited for her to return, Celestia walked back into the room holding another ring in her magic.
The ring floated towards me, it was carefully levitated onto my horn and the magic took effect.

Celestia brought one of the researchers back into the room and instructed them to move another potted plant towards me to test if the ring was working.
The unicorn levitated one that was decorating the hallway into the room and it landed at my hooves.
A few moments passed, the plant was healthy.
The researcher asked me to touch the plant, I did, the plant remained healthy.

Everypony breathed a sigh of relief as it became clear that it was safe once again.
That day we learnt that the rings would only last up to four months, the real problem was that there were only three other cutie mark dampening rings in Canterlot.

More months passed and so many more experiments failed, every day it seemed Celestia was becoming less hopeful, less kind and more distant.
I'd seen her discussing secrets with the cutie mark researchers, hidden meetings I was never invited to.
Whatever they were talking about, it couldn't be good.

Eventually we had reached the final cutie mark dampening ring in Canterlot and Celestia had ordered for the collection of more rings from other major cities around Equestria.
Not long after, every ring from every city in the land had been gathered in Canterlot, there were five of them and it became clear this temporary solution would not work for much longer.
My cutie mark continued to grow in strength, every ring broke faster than the last.
The first lasted four months, the third lasted three and the fifth crumbled after only two.

Celestia had a paranoid look in her eyes all the time.
I tried to be with her, I wanted to help her but she was always busy...

Another ring failed and now I was wearing the eighth one, there were only two left in all of Equestria and the only way to make more would be to hunt down an extremely rare tree in another land.
That night I had been lying in my bed, too stressed to fall asleep, it seemed as though it would be another horrendous night.
I had taken some more medication for my headaches and I was attempting to relax when I heard the door of my room open and somepony enter.

The glowing of Celestia's magic made it clear who had entered my room, I sat up in my bed and turned to face her, something was wrong.
It wasn't the caring and kind Celestia I knew, a hopeless and despair-filled pony looked into my eyes from the doorway.

She had been crying, here eyes were bloodshot and her magical mane seemed lifeless.
I'll never forget the words that she said to me that night.
"I am truly sorry, my little pony... but I must keep Equestria safe... even if it means I cannot save you."

Celestia's magic took effect quickly as a bubble of magic surrounded me, it was like a powerful shield that was slowing closing around me.
I cried for her help, I had never been so desperate in my life.
As the bubble continued to grow smaller, it was clear that she was not listening to me.

I had been abandoned again, and as I screamed in fear, my vision became darker until I could see no more.
I blacked out.