Fragility

Chapter 6

Carry On

~~~~~~~~~~

[Grimdark][Tragedy]

~~~~~~~~~~

Day 46 —

Tests today served to do little of what they were meant to accomplish. I’m just as bored as ever, and I know little more about my subjects or their skeletal structures. Perhaps documenting the actual course of testing will appease one or the other. I don’t fucking know.

First, I did a quick scan over the available test subjects. Dropped the cover illusion and all that. As it turns out, many of them are severely degraded from how they started. There were at least fifty-seven cases of exposed back-right femurs alone, not to mention numerous and various entomological wonders in the various cavities of their skulls. Both the original and artificially impacted, as in those that I’ve thrown off of upper stories in the last few days. Or nights, probably. The dark one.

I think I just stopped caring what happened when I realized I’ve gotten to a telekinetic strength to spin two adult ponies twelve feet in the air without even feeling the repercussions. Whether that is due to the strength or my general numbness has yet to be determined.

I’ve hypothesized that this degradation has something to do with their mental domination mixed with my current state. My magic is somehow corrupt, at least by this theory. Alternatively, I could just be mixing the domination spell with the reanimation spell, and possibly something more malicious or destructive.

That reminds me, I looked up the spell I had accidentally cast upon Limelight. Turns out I boiled the bitch from the inside out alright. Honestly I would’ve probably done it sooner or later. I’m about to that point of trying that with the damned children. It was fun at first, but I swear they must think it’s actually just a game.

Actually, I might take the children under my control anyway. Maybe send them through rounds of testing. Sure, they won’t scream anymore, but I’ll know they’re getting what they deserve. A good dozen splinterings of their bones ought to do them good.

They’ve kept me distracted from my purposes for too long. Science. Hypothesizing, testing, results. Rinse, repeat, learn.

That’s just how it fucking works. That’s how the entire world works. That’s what science is. It’s how we know what we do about the world.

Second testing round, before I get too off-track: Pitting two subjects against each other in a “fight to the death” as the command went. I probably should’ve kept a little more control over the specifics of that command, but it didn’t seem to matter much. The results were unanimous. A draw, every single bloody time. And I mean bloody.

This leads me to the second conclusion that I didn’t need to learn today. My magic— the same that seems to be dominating and reanimating everypony here— sustains them well past their usual limits.

Now, not that it wasn’t entertaining to watch masses of bloody stumps try to end each other, but this was hardly scientific by the end. “Negative results are still results” my right hoof. Or that piece that’s still left of it.

Maybe it’s the subjects’ fault. They are the ones completing the tests. Yes, of course it’s their fault. It’s their fault that I’m getting nowhere. It’s their fault that I’m stuck without any real results. And I could end them all, had I the mind to!

But I can’t, not with my power drawn from them. And with them relying on my power in return, we share a sort of symbiosis. I feed them, and they provide me the power I need. As is a proper queen-populace relationship.

Oh, except Honey Comb. I don’t want to even look at what’s become of her. But I can fix her. I have to. And she’s different, after all. She’s an anomaly. None of the other observations mean a thing with regards to her.

Oh, Honey Comb. Princess Honey Comb? No, that still doesn’t sound right aloud.

I wonder if she might be re-reanimated. As in I would let her cease her current state of unlife for just a moment, then revive her as something more intelligent. Perhaps she might be as me, a lich. Or something similar at the least. Then she might be a true Princess, if not my fellow Queen. That is what she deserves. Royalty.

Royalty. The damned University.

That’s what’s causing all of this. The University attracted such low-quality candidates— Myself and Honey Comb excluded— that their use in testing is rendered a moot point. It’s like trying to test the endurance of steel by using the rusty, worn plate armor of the last century.

But no, that’s too many variables. One exclusion, maybe, but two? Too improbable. Possible, but not probable. At least not enough to rely on.

Maybe it’s the University itself. Maybe something is skewing the data, like an unforeseen ward of some sort. But it would have to have been put in place by someone not currently at the University, as I would have terminated it the moment I took over their brain.

It is the University named after Princess Luna... Sorry, Nightmare Moon. That was quite the interesting change to account for when I first heard of it— actually, I frankly don’t give a damn. Nightmare, Luna, they’re the same pony. The same pony that lost her bloody mind and took on the more powerful being. Corrupt by jealousy. A little pitiable, but nonetheless pathetic.

And then the answer reveals itself. Or should I say, herself. The reason for Nightmare Moon. The reason this University was created in Luna’s honor.

The remaining royalty: Princess Celestia.

Of course it’s her fault. Everything’s her fault. The University, yes, but even this damned city! Canterlot was her vision. The new royal city. Yes, everything.

Without the city’s construction, Honey Comb’s father would not have died. Honey Comb would not have spiraled into depression, and she would never have had to die in the first place. I wouldn’t have picked up this journal either, but that’s beside the point.

Without the University, I never would’ve discovered the crystals, or their power, either. So in a way I should be grateful, yes? Wrong. Despite this power, I am simply lost. Day-to-day, made all the longer by the fact that I am utterly incapable of sleeping any longer, is a painful dragging-on of pointlessness. I’m just glad that I can feel the pain of boredom! That’s about all I can feel anymore!

No, no, I can’t change what’s happened. But I can rectify the current situation to the best of my ability. Or the best of my potential ability.

I am Queen, after all. I outrank her. What rightful ruler would ignore her coming doom over mourning her own actions?

— Crystal

Day 48 —

Fifty seems like a nice, round number. Two days from now, at dawn—no, dusk—we will strike.

The plans are simple. We need to strike first at the surrounding populace, while keeping it subtle for about an hour. Obviously the royal guard will be in for a rude surprise when they hear about something paramount to genocide slipping past their fuck-all persistent patrols.

The populace, yes. It’s something of scale, if you will. As her support goes down, mine goes up. Literally on my behalf. I need as many bodies as I can get. And crystals. Those arrive tomorrow. The rest at least. There’s a stockpile in the dining hall the size of chandelier. Or the size of twelve ponies, for those unfamiliar with the layout.

Once the outsides are taken, the rest should be pathetically easy. For the record, I tested it on some foal today. Domination through the words of one of my subjects. It’s not as immediate, but it gets the job done.

Side note for myself: the foal’s friend seemed to be enthralled without me needing a second addressing even in his direction. Either he thought the command “Stay right where you are” was aimed at him too, or the mere fact that he was terrified let his mind slip. Test this further.

Oh, what am I saying? Well, writing. I’m sort of dictating now. In any case, I’ll have plenty of testing to do in the upcoming days.

See, I don’t plan on stopping at just Canterlot. No, with Celestia out of the way, I do believe the rest of Equestria will be perfectly fair game. And if my calculations are correct, I’ll need it. Day by day I feel a little more “empty” inside, and I attribute this with a sort of literal meaning, what with my decaying body and all.

I believe that with enough energy to leech off of, I may restore myself to some semblance of being truly “alive”. I might even consider this time to release mental control over those still alive themselves. Not that it would matter for my seat of power. The amount of magical and life energies it would take to re-form a working and stable body would be somewhere in the range of five or six solemes.

I include “life” energy in this due to something of an admitted error in my past judgment. As the pegasus colt I so graciously recruited yesterday shows, even non-unicorns have some value in the world. Much less than a unicorn would, but it’s still something.

Estimating for difference in age, the breakdown works as follows:
Earth Pony or Pegasus adult: 0.01 sm
Dumbass Unicorn adult: 0.01
Unicorn adult: 0.02-0.03
Princess Luna: 0.8
Princess Celestia: 1.0

1.0 is my target to beat. Not counting the Elements of Harmony, but I have a contingency plan for them. Guards fighting guards should provide enough of a distraction to steal them away with a few sneaky pegasi, provided their wings work.

Assuming I stand at approximately 0.36—let’s just say 0.4 to be optimistic—that leaves a huge margin of error.

Or it would, if my brain had actually rotted out.

It’s simple math. I control 200 subjects at the moment, not to mention my own crystal. The surrounding countryside, just the immediate area that includes construction workers and future residents of the city, includes perhaps another thousand, children not included.

I think I’ll be pretty well-set, especially considering not even death can save them from being added to my ranks. Death can’t even remove them from powering me, via the resonance of the crystals. I still have no idea how exactly that works, especially not between walls, but such is the ways of magic.

Perhaps the Princess may answer that question before it’s all over. If not answer the question of "where may I find a throne or two more suited to the size of a normal pony?" Massive freak that she is, it’s a pity her sister is gone. The two would make an excellent pair of test subjects for the strengths of royalty.

Again I’ll try it: Princess Honey Comb.

Queen Honey Comb? Queen Honey?

Oh, I’ll have plenty of time to figure it out.

— Queen Crystal