Elements of Insanity

by Emeral Bookwise

Chapter 1: "...What Friendship Could Be"

It was a moonless night in Fillydelphia. Outside the city's most prestigious college, all was still and quiet, all except for a lone figure that snuck through the shadows.

The figure slowly approached the campus library; a repository of knowledge second only to the royal archives in Canterlot, but far less guarded. Surely the solution would be located among the tome and scrolls held within its wall.

Keeping to the shadows, the figure crept along the building's perimeter. On finding a window low enough to see through, the shadowed sneak stood tall to peer inside. The room beyond appeared empty, not a guard or late night student in sight. The figure stepped back, took a deep breath, and then channeled a familiar spell. A unicorn's horn began to glow a soft magenta, and then — *POP* —in a flash of light the figure vanished.

With a second — *POP* —the intruder reappeared inside the building.

The figure glanced about attentively to ensure the room was devoid of any other presence. After assuring herself that she was alone the trespasser decided to take a chance. Now that she was safe from the prying eyes of any passing strangers in the night, she decided to conjure a light to guide her path and so illuminated her horn.

It glowed ever so dimly from beneath the hood of her burlap cloak, but it was enough to cast herself and the area about her in a soft magenta light. She released the orb of light, allowing it to float beside her as she passed by rows upon rows of shelves, each full of countless written materials of every conceivable variety.

This wasn't her first time sneaking into a library. Even so, Twilight Sparkle wasn't a bad pony, just a curious one. She'd never used her abilities to do anything that would actually hurt somepony, not intentionally. All she ever wanted was knowledge, and in that pursuit, what was the harm in breaking a few rules? Sure, many of the tomes she had secretly read were forbidden, full of highly illegal magic, but it wasn't like she had ever intended to use those spell to any malicious end.

However, it wasn't forbidden secrets that brought Twilight to these archives tonight. No, she came instead to seek a solution to a most dreadful misfortune that had befallen her. It had been a little over a week now, but the memories still haunted her; Ponyville, the ursa, and — her. Trixie Lulamoon: personal student to Princess Luna Equestris, savior of Equestria, the supposed living embodiment of magic itself… and the most obnoxious and deceitful pony Twilight Sparkle had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

Twilight could still remember how overjoyed she had been to go to Ponyville; to meet the legend made flesh. Oh, the things she had hoped to learn from somepony that must have been the most magical unicorn since Starswirl the Bearded. What she found instead had been… disappointing, to say the least.

At first she had thought Trixie a mere fraud, but then it became clear to her. Trixie had only been putting up a front to keep away less qualified apprentices, or so Twilight had thought. Thinking back on it, marching into town with an ursa minor in an attempt to prove her own worth hadn't been her most well thought out plan. Sure it was impressive, but even if nothing had gone wrong she'd have had an awful lot of explaining to do. She had, however, learned something very valuable from the incident.

Trixie Lulamoon really was a fraud.

After all, Twilight was the one who had to do all the real work in saving the town, even if she had sort of been responsible for causing the danger in the first place. After all, how many unicorns could have single hoofedly teleported a giant star beast? All that hack had done was perform a few cheap parlor tricks to distract it. Worse still though was when Twilight figure out the whole truth.

It had taken a few days, but once she'd puzzled it out the answer was beyond clear.

Miss Lulamoon was jealous, and not just that, but also afraid. She'd seen Twilight's potential, and it was obvious who the superior unicorn was. So that… that jezebel had set her up. Sabotaged Twilight's entire life, just so Luna would keep thinking her precious student was the best. Twilight Sparkle was the true, one and only best. And tonight, she would take her first steps in proving it.

Twilight gathered a dozen books in her magic, flipping pages and turning from one to the next and then to another as she referenced and cross referenced. It was a familiar routine, one that brought her more comfort than she had since the start of her forced exile. As she proceeded about her oldest of rituals she found an odd melody filling her head. Words came shortly thereafter.

I'll look up a solution; I've got knowledge to accrue
That witch will learn her lesson; I won't play her number two

I'll gather the ingredients to make some harmony
The Princess will reward me; that is a certainty

Now is the time to prove my magic; somepone true for Honesty
There's no distress just need some Kindness; to claim my destiny

Yes, this plan would work; it was perfect, her very best ever. Twilight skipped over to a filing drawer, gathering up several census ledgers. She had a list to make.

Twilight glanced down at a nearby desk where she saw a pile of newspaper clippings, probably left by some careless student. Among them was a picture of Luna at the Grand Galloping Gala, greeting various officials and dignitaries, but it wasn't the princess or any of the guests that drew her gaze. No, her eyes focused squarely on the young azure unicorn standing next to the royal alicorn.

She was dressed in an outfit even more gaudy than when Twilight had last seen her. Most infuriating of all though was that lazy grin, as though the unicorn was bored. Anger flared as the mental tune continued.

Rude shrew; you will fear me, Lulamoon!
You life's been just a cake walk; but I'll take your silver spoon

Find a joke; to get some Laughs and…

Work and toil, earn the Loyal; Generosity, reciprocity
Make enticing, fate revising; plans devising, rectifying

Meanwhile, far away in Canterlot, an armor clad unicorn stared up at the star filled sky. He was the captain of the royal guard, but more importantly he was a big brother.

Legend had it that if two ponies looked upon the exact same star they could hear each other, no matter how great the distance between them. As he picked out her favorite constellation, Shining Armor hoped beyond hope that his lost sister might be looking up at that same moment.

Twilie could you hear me; I'd only want you home
Please don't sink to madness; I can't bear that you're alone

Alas, even were such legends true, Twilight Sparkle was well beyond such simple reason.

My subjects are selected; soon I'll have them in my thrall
I've hit the books, now time to look; I'm gonna meet them all

Now is the time to prove my magic; friendship's power I won't postpone
No more an outcast, found salvation; so I can finally go home

Twilight hesitated, realization slowly sinking into her soul as she repeated…

So I … can finally go … home …

She stood in silence, still mouthing that last word as a single tear rolled down her cheek. As she stared out a window at the star filled sky, she wondered. Was it really so simple; was that truly all she really wanted?

For a brief moment she felt as though her B.B.B.F.F stood before her, eyes pleading and full of forgiveness. She wanted so desperately to rush forward, to embrace the phantom, but…

Twilight shook her head. No. It didn't matter how much she wanted it, she couldn't, not yet. Not until she cleared her name. Not until she had proven her worth. Not until Lulamoon learned the meaning of REAL MAGIC.

---

Author's Note:

• Proof reading by LDLUYAB and Mally

Comments

[RainbowDoubleDash]

I was wondering what had become of this song! It certainly looks like you've got the making of quite a tale, here.

[Emeral Bookwise]

So, um... yeah, this is a thing now; Don't ask me how or why.

Anyway, this might have only been a one time deal, although chapter 2 is already well underway, and I do have further ideas on how this might proceed after that. Oh, and just to cut off dead-end speculation, no, she is not going to recruit the other M6. That said, don't count on me getting back to this regularly or soon, but next part should be up before the weekend is over. Updates to this story will still likely be infrequent and/or inconsistent at best. Then again, I never thought even this much would go up, or that I'd write a good chunk of Ch2 before Ch1 even went live, so who knows?

Also big thanks go out to the folks at Friendship is Witchcraft for writing the music that inspired all of this.

────────────────
Oh and sorry, Fizzy Orange. Looks like I lied about my next fic having no L!M6. I didn't mean for this to happen instead, honest.

[Blackbelt]

Oh god......Is it sad that I actually sung the lyrics out loud as I was reading?

[nemryn]

Whoops, you forgot to close your bold and color tags.

[Emeral Bookwise]

788174
What? Where? Story looks completely fine on my end

788102
It pleases me that my lyrics were good enough to sing.

[Starcat5]

785010
Ah yes. John Wayne. Patron Saint of Westerns and War movies alike.

...at least my father seems to think so, anyway. He has a bible and a cross by his bed, and a picture of John Wayne bigger than the fireplace over the mantle, and a replica of the man's rifle over THAT.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

Speaking of which, where do you want this to take place, chronologically?

[Fizzy Orange]

788187 I see problem with the colour tags too myself. Everything turned lavender until the end.

anyway this is something interesting. I wonder how it'll end up

[Hilltopper]

I'd almost want to see a version of this...

This is going to be epic. Epically hilarious...

[Emeral Bookwise]

788258
Still not seeing it on my end, and the tags all seem to check out. Fimfic or some specific browser/configuration would seem to be the one ing, not me.

788245
Oh my, I have absolutely no clue. Wasn't even sure this would make the cut in a way that mattered. As of right now, since none of the action yet crosses over with the L6, I'd leave it's placement as ambiguous.

788306
Well, that was a decidedly contributing factor responsible for inspiring the last two words of the chapter.

[Tainted-Soul]

Oy, that was intense.
WRITE MOAAAR.
...Please.

[GrassAndClouds2]

Poor Twilight. I like that you managed to evoke feelings of sympathy for her, despite her being so clearly in the wrong and having almost razed a village. I don't want her to succeed, but I don't want her to be totally humiliated and embarassed either. :-)

[Emeral Bookwise]

788521
As per my comment up top, "MOAAAR", is already in the works. Things will be a bit different with each chapter though, as each of the next 5 will be told mostly from the perspective of whatever hapless pony Twilight is trying to recruit. So word of warning, there may be unexpected tonal shifts ahead, but I hop that everyone can enjoy the ride.

788598
Mixed feelings you say? Then I have been successful.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

oh, this is gonna be nuts. And maybe not a good way, either. Twilight... don't make me side against you. It's Trixie you're taking on, after all. She's my number one pony.

[DreadedCandiru2]

Given the poor foal's over-reliance on dictionary meanings and vital statistics, she's going to make a big mistake....especially since she totally ignores the one advantage Trixie has over her in both timelines: the ability to read other ponies. What she'll probably do is fill the elemental slots thusly:

1) Generosity: Locate some jerk who donates loads of bits to charities to get his/her name in the papers; said creep would be like L!Rarity who's only generous so she can help herself.
2) Kindness: The local analogue to a TV preacher. Said icon would be all benevolence in public and thus fool somepony as blind to nuances as L!Twilight but actually be a pious fraud.
3) Honesty: A stroke victim deprived of the ability to filter out what s/he says.
4) Loyalty: Some poor drone like Octavia who's the pawn of an ambitious noble and knows it.
5) Laughter: A crazy pony who makes L!Pinkie Pie look as timid as L!Fluttershy.

Since she wants very much to not get the point because doing so would mean that she should have taken the time to have a life, Twilight is opening herself up for not just another humiliation she'll learn the wrong thing from but becoming another Octavia: the cat's-paw of somepony like Blueblood.

[Emeral Bookwise]

793166
Well, you got one of those mostly right, and another is pretty close depending on how broad a stroke you'd like to take.

And yeah, Twilight is relying on fairly text book like definitions, but given that she is such a giant nerd, it's a pretty advanced text book. So, while her interpretation will be very literal, she does possess a conceptual grasp that goes beyond the smallest most basic understanding. In some cases she might actually miss the mark by interpreting.

[DreadedCandiru2]

793233
True. Still, though, this will not end well for her. I'd say by the time the crossover gets here, she'd be in a really bad way. I have no idea what RainbowDoubleDash has planned for her but I really, really, really do not like L!Twilight's chances of avoiding a lengthy stretch in the custody of the Shadowbolts when the dust settles. Getting a shut-up-Hannibal speech from M!Twilight might be what finally gets her to look in the mirror for the source of her woes.

[Emeral Bookwise]

793332
Only problem there is that she might mistake M!Twilight for the mirror.

[DreadedCandiru2]

793371
Mirrors don't shake you and tell you "Get a grip, lady!!" They also don't weep openly in sympathy for intellect gone rancid and potential squandered in the pursuit of vengeance. Even though the cross-over will be the first time she actually lays eyes on Corona, L!Twilight is marching down the same path to being somepony who could have been a hero but let negativity destroy her. As they say, there is no fire like passion, no shark like hatred, no snare like folly and no torrent like greed.

[Emeral Bookwise]

793414

Mirrors don't shake you and tell you "Get a grip, lady!!" They also don't weep openly in sympathy for intellect gone rancid and potential squandered in the pursuit of vengeance.

Are you so sure about that? This is Twilight —off her rocker— Sparkle we are talking about here after all.

[DreadedCandiru2]

794725
Point taken. She's THE example of RainbowDoubleDash's premise: her less desirable traits (obsessiveness, intellectual arrogance, refusal to admit that she might be wrong) have been amplified while her Harmonic traits (humility, the ability to find worth in others, her ability to laugh at herself) have been all but eliminated.

[Emeral Bookwise]

795275
I'm not sure M!Twilight is all that humble. The only real example of that is Boast Busters and there it was more out of fear of driving away her new found friends, who seemed so put off by Trixie's bragging. I also wouldn't say she's all that good at laughing at herself, more so she's good at working her self into such a stressful frenzy that when it finally all cracks laughter is all she's left with.

The real core of her harmonic qualities, as I see it, is her ability to put faith and trust in others, and to make them do the same for her; the ability to some how inspire disparate individuals to cooperate and achieve a greater goal. She is the magic at the center of the M6s collective friendship; the glue that binds them all together, making each a better pony than they would be alone.

[DreadedCandiru2]

795324
Here, she lacks that ability to put trust in others and be trusted. Sure, she tells herself that she's doing this for the greater good but she really just wants a pat on the head and a cookie for being smarter than the ciphers who only exist to tell her that she's special.

[Emeral Bookwise]

795374
Yeup, though I do at least intend to try showing that while her harmonic quality is lessened in the the Lunaverse, it is still there, no matter how much her more unsavory traits seem to overshadow it.

[DreadedCandiru2]

795410
Too bad that she didn't have a focus for it here. One of the things that happens in both worlds is that her very positive trait of being able to focus on details no one else sees has a revenge effect: it blinds her to the bigger picture. In the Celestiaverse, we see her being too wrapped up in herself to realize ponies do care and enchanting dolls. Here, without someone actively showing her the kindness she craves, she thinks that friendship is a waste of time (all the while blaming the ponies she shoved away for her own failure to act) and gets goaded into smashing up villages by abrasive show-offs.

[garfan]

I'm actually a little disappointed. I'd hoped Twilight would be the cause of the the Crisis crossover. It seems more interesting to me than just Corona, though of course she could take advantage

[Emeral Bookwise]

811551
Don't take anything here as any indication how the crisis crossover will go down. RDD is writing that, not me. This is mostly just a work of passion that I wrote while in a bit of a weird mental place. I have no idea how, or even if, it relates to the wider Lunaverse canon yet. I'm trying to keep consistent, but that's about all I can say.

Right now my focus is purely on telling what I hope is something of an introspective set of character pieces, largely inspired by Twilight's inability to come to terms with her own faults. Though most of that will be indirect for the next few chapters, as I intend to introduce each of her selected alternate elements through their own perspective so that I can focus on the faults that make them poor choices.

Whether I succeed at any of that will be up to the audience to decide. Witch should all start soon when I post the next chapter in a hour or so.

[Scoo]

Someone sing this version of Pinkie's Brew and post it to youtube, NAO.

[Walabio]

Jezebel is a reference to story in our universe. I am not sure that it is a good idea to have references to our universe. It opens up a big can of worms.

[Heart of Blades]

Really like how this is starting out, will have to read the rest soon

[ShadowLDrago]

Oh this will be a fun read I can feel it!

[D48]

Just a heads up, YouTube ate the song with their illegal anti-fair use bullshit so you'll need to either remove or fix the link.

[Emeral Bookwise]

7867783
Yeah, I know, even posted a blog about it. Still, thanks for the reminder that I should do something about it.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

Trixie Lulamoon: personal student to Princess Luna Equestris, savior of Equestria, the supposed living embodiment of magic itself… and the most obnoxious and deceitful pony Twilight Sparkle had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

It must be remembered that at this point in time, Twilight has led a very sheltered life & hasn't yet met:
Celestia/Corona
Discord
Pinkie
Blueblood
Greengrass
Terrorwing
Or a number of other ponies.