//------------------------------// // Bound to Silence // Story: Little Keys // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Twilight blinked in a mixture of shock, horror, rage, and abject confusion. How? How was this possible? Midnight was an intangible parasite, wasn’t she? She shouldn’t be there. She couldn’t be there. It must have just been an illusion. There was no other possibility. Midnight lifted her head to glare down her nose at Twilight. “Well? Are you going to answer me, or what?” she demanded, the amusement faded from her voice as her grin fell away.  Twilight growled. She slowly pushed herself back to her hooves. Her muscles burned in complaint, and it took her a moment to find her balance, but she wasn’t about to show weakness in front of Midnight, of all things. Once she was stable, she affixed her doppelganger with a murderous glare. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked coldly. Midnight scoffed, looking lazily to one side as if Twilight was unworthy of her attention. “You tell me. I’m from your mind, aren’t I?” she asked mockingly. Twilight grit her teeth, slowly stalking forward. “You’re preventing me from telling my friends about you, aren’t you?!” she demanded, her wings ruffling against her sides. “I tried to tell Applejack, and you stopped me!” Midnight looked at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. “An inaccurate way of phrasing it, but I suppose the result is the same. So sure, let’s roll with that,” she stated before focusing on Twilight again. “Why?!” Twilight seethed, stamping a hoof. “Why would you do that?! It’s not like my friends can do anything against you! You’re my monster to fight, not theirs!” “Calling yourself a monster, are you?” Midnight asked with a fang-filled smirk. “Oh, Rainbow would love to hear that your self-loathing matches hers, wouldn’t she?” “SHUT UP!” Twilight snapped, her horn sparking to life. Oh, how she wanted to take this wretched parasite and rake her over the coals. Midnight’s grin grew. “Oh, if you want to do that, then just find a brazier and throw yourself into it.” Twilight’s pupils dilated. The light on her horn grew brighter and, with a frustrated shout, she unleashed a beam of condensed energy at Midnight. To her surprise, Midnight merely fanned out her wings as if in invitation. The crackling stream of energy closed the gap quickly… And passed right through Midnight. Twilight gasped as, instead of obliterating her target, the spell struck an Everfree tree behind her. The wood splintered and cracked, and the entire trunk shattered under the force of the beam. Twilight immediately cut off the flow of her magic and backed away, her eyes unable to turn away as the remains of the tree crumpled to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Even as the cloud washed over them both, Midnight remained perfectly clear in Twilight’s vision. She shook her head with a dismissive sigh. “Ah, you know I’m an illusion, but you decide to attack me anyway. Really, for all the time you spend disowning me with your words, you should really work harder to match them with your actions.” Twilight took a series of deep breaths, casting a quick pulse of magic from her horn to dispel the dust. She closed her eyes, trying to focus Midnight out. She couldn’t let herself lose control. She had to remain calm and focused. She took a deep breath, trying to listen to the sounds around her, trying to drive out her anger. A cold hoof clapped down on her shoulder. Twilight jumped and spun to face the source. Midnight had practically teleported and now stood behind her. “Oh, no, you don’t get to ignore me this time,” she spat. Twilight backed away, her heart starting to beat harder in her chest as fear replaced her rage. A hoof wandered up to her shoulder. It had felt so real. If Midnight was just an illusion, she was a shockingly convincing one. She shuddered, unsettled by the thought. She focused back on Midnight and set her jaw. “You didn’t answer my question.” Midnight rolled her eyes. “About why I decided to silence you?” she asked, lazily walking to one side, slowly circling Twilight like a cat toying with a mouse. Twilight kept her eyes locked on Midnight, making sure to face her at all times. “You know my thoughts, don’t you? Do I need to answer that?” she demanded. Midnight chuckled, shaking her head. “True enough, but it is so much more satisfying when I get to hear you say things out loud,” she replied before facing Twilight directly. “But in answer to your question… I’m not doing it because your friends are any threat to me.” “Then why?!” Twilight pressed. “Tell me that!” Midnight’s face contorted into an oddly gentle smile. Twilight blinked, taken aback. After a moment, Midnight spoke. “Think it through. What reason could I have for holding your tongue for you? If not to defend myself from your friends, then what?” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “What are you getting at?” Midnight shook her head with a mocking chuckle. “What? Am I simply to reveal my evil plan to you just because you asked?” she pointed out in amusement. “It’d make for a refreshing change of pace,” Twilight snipped. Midnight threw her head back and laughed. “Ha! Oh, you would think so, wouldn’t you?” she asked with a twinkle in her eyes. “But, since we both know you’re just going to keep lying to yourself… I guess I can be upfront with you this time.” Twilight blinked. She wasn’t in Applejack’s orchard anymore. She was suddenly standing in the middle of the living room of the Golden Oaks Library. She could see her friends around her, looking on with a wide range of faces. Rarity and Pinkie appeared shocked into silence, Applejack and Rainbow were leaning back in concern, while Fluttershy had shrunk back and was now looking at Twilight in fear. Twilight looked around, confused. “What the… how did I…?” she mumbled in confusion. “So that’s what the problem was…” Applejack suddenly murmured, taking a few steps back. “Shoulda known… Shoulda known.” “Huh?” Twilight asked, turning back to face Applejack again. “What are you talking about? What’s going on?” “Twilight…” Rainbow spoke up. She didn’t seem to have heard what Twilight had said. Twilight focused on her and shrank back when she saw the deep, deep disappointment in the pegasus’ eyes. Rainbow took a step back as if she was afraid of her. “...Why didn’t you say anything to me?” “Rainbow?” Twilight asked, her heart starting to beat rapidly in her chest. A moment later, she caught herself and shook her head. “No… No, you’re not Rainbow, and this isn’t real.” “But it could be,” Midnight’s voice came from behind her. Twilight turned to her, eyes narrowing. She saw Midnight lounging casually on one of the chairs, watching the scene with a cold, distant look in her eyes. Her slitted pupils locked onto Twilight. “And I would strongly advise you to pay attention to make sure it doesn’t become true.” “But it won’t,” Twilight spat, though she was surprised by the lack of strength in her own voice. “W-whatever you’re showing me… It’s just an illusion. You’re trying to scare me.” “I don’t have to scare you,” Midnight shot back before focusing on the rest of the room. “You beat me to it.” Twilight snarled and stamped a hoof. “I’m not scared!” she shouted. “I’m angry! Because you won’t leave me in peace!” Midnight ignored her. She lifted a hoof and gave it a flick as if to swat away a fly. Twilight knew she would get nothing else out of Midnight right now. With a huff, she turned back to the illusion of her friends to see what Midnight was going to show her. Internally, she kept repeating to herself that all of this was just an illusion. Rarity quiet cleared her throat. “I appreciate you telling us, darling, truly I do,” she began hesitantly. As she spoke, she began to unconsciously tug on her mane, her eyes unable to look into Twilight’s. “But… well, th-that is, you see… I, well, heard about what happened at Applejack’s farm… With the tree you blew up.” “And I remember how you almost blew up my sister…” Pinkie added, her eyes looking down at the ground. “If Rainbow hadn’t been there…” A few seconds passed in silence. Everypony’s eyes were locked on anything but Twilight. Eventually, Applejack broke the quiet by clearing her throat. “Ah think Ah get where they’re goin’ with this, sugarcube… If that Midnight’s still loiterin’ around up there in yer head, then… If ya lose control again…” Twilight blinked, her heart starting to feel cold in her chest.  She slowly shook her head. “I… I won’t lose control,” she said, though her voice came out strangely hollow. “I swear, I won’t.” For a brief moment, the illusion faded, and she was staring at the ruined remains of the tree she had fired on. She sucked in a deep breath as ice flooded her veins before the vision snapped back to a new scene. She was with her friends at an outdoor restaurant in Ponyville. They were laughing and talking and eating their food, enjoying one another’s company. The ambiance was serene and tranquil. Twilight watched as her hoof reached out without her consent, her body acting of its own accord. She was reaching for a salt shaker when her hoof bumped against a tall glass of what looked like juice. She wasn’t fast enough to stop it, and the red contents spilled all over the tablecloth, staining it a deep shade of red. “Gah, DANGIT!” Twilight snapped, the words fleeing her lips unbidden. Her skull began to burn with pain, and she let off a pained grunt, her hooves reaching up to clutch at her head. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down before slowly looking back up. Her friends had all gotten up and backed away from her. Rainbow had placed herself protectively in front of Fluttershy, her wings starting to unfurl slightly. Twilight blinked, her breaths becoming heavier. “They wouldn’t do that!” she protested mentally. “Think it through,” Midnight chided as the scene began to bleed and change again. “If your friends learned about me, then they would see you for what you have become. A threat.” Now Twilight was in front of Fluttershy’s cottage, freshly rebuilt. She had yet to lay eyes on it in person, and so she knew that the recreation before her was merely how she imagined it. Nonetheless, Fluttershy stood in the doorway, shrinking back from her a little bit. “Oh, uhm, I guess, if you want to… Come in?” The door opened, and Fluttershy allowed Twilight to step inside. The interior space was muddy and cloudy to her vision, a byproduct of not really knowing what to expect. After a few seconds, the image stitched itself into a rough facsimile of the interior of her old cottage, with her and Fluttershy seated on the chairs and talking to each other. Though Fluttershy was smiling, there was an unmistakable tension behind her eyes. “They would try to be understanding, of course,” Midnight went on. “They’re good ponies like that. But they would all know. Somewhere, deep down, they would all know that all it would take is one little incident, one tiny thing to set you off…” Fluttershy’s face suddenly paled as her eyes darted to look at something behind Twilight. Twilight began to turn around to look, but to her shock, Fluttershy darted past her. She watched as she scooped up a startled Angel, who squeaked in surprise, dropping the ball of tissue he had been rearing back to throw. A heavy silence hung in the air, with Fluttershy looking back at Twilight with wide, almost frightened eyes. Twilight sagged in her seat and looked away. She didn’t say anything. The scene began to change again. “And they would all fear what would happen next.” Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when she found herself in her room back in the library. She was seated at her desk, reading through some nondescript book. It was a bright day outside, and she could feel the illusory warmth against her coat as if it was real. A few seconds passed before a knocking came on the door. “Come in,” she called, thumping the book shut. The door opened, and Rainbow Dash stepped in, followed shortly by Spike. Twilight stiffened when she caught sight of the scroll clutched in the small dragon’s claws, bound with a red ribbon and clasped with the royal seal. “We, uh, got a letter for you,” Spike said uneasily, holding the letter out. “It just showed up a minute ago.” Twilight smiled. “Thank you,” She replied, though inside she was screaming. She could already tell where this was going, and she did not want it to continue. But no matter how hard she tried to fight it, the vision continued, with her body acting on its own without any say from her. She unfurled the scroll and began to read the contents. The words ran together into a meaningless blur of ink, with no meaning, in particular, standing out to her. All that was clear on the page was the ever-elegant signature, whose graceful curves almost seemed to mock her, now. Most Sincerely, Princess Celestia. Twilight stared at the letter for several long seconds. She could feel her hooves starting to shake, and she knew that in this vision, she was succumbing to more anger. She tried to close her eyes, to block the vision out, but it did not happen. She watched, helpless, as she lifted the letter in her magic, and without warning, the parchment combusted in the air. The flames licked and rolled ominously before her, and then flickered away, leaving naught but ash where the letter had been. “...Twilight?” Spike asked in a timid whisper. “What?!” Twilight snapped, tensing up from the sudden break in the silence. A heavy silence hung in the air, and her ears began to droop. She took in a deep breath and slowly turned around. Rainbow and Spike had both retreated several steps, the former having placed herself between Spike and Twilight, her expression torn between fear and sorrow. Shaking in a whole new way, she slowly reached out. “Dash…” Rainbow took a deep breath and gently ushered Spike out of the room. “...It’s not getting better, is it?” she finally asked. Twilight bit her lip, then shook her head. “No… No, it’s not.” Rainbow took in a deep breath. Then, with a heavy sigh, she turned and slumped against the door. “I dunno if I can keep doing this, Twi,” she said, suddenly sounding exhausted. Twilight blinked, and she felt her actual heart constricting anxiously just at the thought of hearing Rainbow say such words. She didn’t want to contemplate the implication. She took a slow step forward. “What do you mean?” she asked hesitantly. Rainbow looked up, her ears lowering. She gestured vaguely. “This. All of this… Midnight. What Midnight’s doing to you. I don’t know how much longer I can keep going, being scared that she might overtake you again every day. I’m scared for you, I’m scared for Spike, our friends…” “She won’t take over!” Twilight insisted, her voice coming out louder than she intended. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking again. “You know me, Rainbow. You know that this isn’t how I usually am. She’s making everything bad about me worse.” “Yeah, I get that,” Rainbow replied. “But there isn’t anything I can do about it. I feel like I’m walking on eggshells with you all the time. Like, even the tiniest thing could set you off, and if you get too angry…” Rainbow gave a heavy sigh, burying her face in her hooves. “What if you lash out again? What if you go firing off more magic? What if you actually hurt something next time? What if it’s one of our friends? What if it’s Fluttershy? What if it’s Spike?” “I won’t lose control!” Twilight stressed emphatically, her voice trembling as if in desperation. “I would never hurt you! Never, not in a million years!” “But you did lose control!” Rainbow shot back. “Just a second ago! It was only for a moment, but you burnt up a letter from my mom because she denied your request to go to Canterlot.” “But… I…” Twilight hesitated, her words dying in her throat. Rainbow stood up and slowly approached her. “Twilight… I love you, you know that. I’d never do anything to hurt you… But I also can’t just sit by and pretend nothing’s wrong when, any day, you could turn me, or Spike, or our friends, to dust.” Twilight took a step back, her heart hammering harder and harder in her chest. She couldn’t tell if it was part of the vision, or if it was real. “And in the end…” The vision flickered and changed again, and suddenly Twilight was walking back into the Golden Oaks Library on a rainy day. She was carrying a bunch of grocery bags in her magic, grimacing as she focused on keeping the water off of her and her haul. Once she shut the door behind her, she dispelled her magic umbrella and made for the kitchen. It was dark inside, to her surprise. She didn’t give it much thought, though, and simply flicked on the lights with another spark of magic. “Spike! Rainbow! I’m back!” she called out as she stepped into the kitchen. An eerie silence was her answer. Twilight frowned, an uneasy feeling building up in her gut. She set the groceries down on the table and began to sort through everything she had gathered when she spied something on the counter by the stove.  It was a letter, written in Rainbow’s painfully-jarring hoofwriting. Twilight picked it up, suspecting that they had simply gone out to visit one of their friends or something. “Twilight. I’m so sorry. I wish I didn’t have to tell you like this. I wish I could say this to you directly, I really really do, but I just don’t think it’s safe anymore. I’m sure you noticed how dark it was in the library when you get back… The truth is, Spike and I are gone. Your condition has been getting worse and worse. It’s almost like you break and get angry at something every day, and it’s been a miracle you’ve managed to calm yourself down. But we can tell it won’t last…  So we’ve decided we’re gonna move somewhere else in town, for Spike’s sake if nothing else. I know you’re not going to take this news well, and I  really wish I had some way of softening the blow. I’m sorry, really, I am, but I just can’t keep doing this. If something sets you off, and Spike got hurt, and I couldn’t stop it… I could never live with myself. I can barely live with the decision of moving out without telling you about it. It makes me feel sick, but…” Twilight stopped reading. The letter fell out of her arcane grasp, landing on the floor with a barely audible rustle. She just stood there, her eyes wide, unblinking, and unfocused. Inside, she was thrashing violently against what she was seeing. It wasn’t real, she kept telling herself. It wasn’t real, it would never be real, it couldn’t be real, it wasn’t real! But it felt real. And it hurt. In the vision, she crumpled to the floor, and a long, anguished scream tore past her lips, echoing throughout the silent, empty Library. Nothing answered her. Nothing came to her. She was alone. “...They will abandon you.” At last, the vision ended. Twilight gasped as she returned to reality. She had crumpled to the ground and was shaking horribly. Midnight stood over her with a solemn, almost sympathetic look on her face. Twilight looked back up at her, blinking back her tears. “N-no…” she choked out weakly. “That’s not going to happen…” “You’re right,” Midnight replied, turning away from her. “It’s not. Because I won’t let it happen.” With that, Twilight blinked, and Midnight was gone. She could feel the tendrils of her darker side’s influence receding, and she was free to think on her own again. She took a series of deep, deep breaths, trying to calm herself, but the fear she felt would not go away. She thought back on the vision Midnight had shown her, and felt her blood turning into ice. There was no way her friends would do that to her, right? No, no, of course not. They were wonderful, the best friends a pony could ask for. They wouldn’t abandon her, they’d help her… right? After all, it had all been an illusion. A fabrication. A fiction. None of that had been real. She wouldn’t hurt her friends, and she wouldn’t be abandoned by them… would she? She shuddered, the image of Rainbow lifting Maud out of the way of her rage-induced beam of magic filling her mind. She felt her legs going numb, her stomach twisting with guilt. It hit her like a freight train. They would be right to be afraid of her. She hated to admit it, but she was afraid of herself. She kept saying she wouldn’t let Midnight take over, but her history made that assertion less than credible. She looked down, her chest clenching with emotion. Maybe, on this one point, Midnight had the right of it? “Twilight?! Where are ya?!” She froze at the sound of Applejack’s voice slicing through the trees. Twilight rose to her hooves, her heart starting to hammer in her chest in a blind panic. She spun to face the source, a cold sweat building up under her fur. She couldn’t think straight. Fight or flight kicked in as a result of the looming confrontation. She looked back to the obliterated tree, her mind racing. If Applejack came upon her now, she’d probably be even more afraid of her than if she knew about Midnight. And then what? With a quiet whimper, Twilight unfurled her wings and leaped into the air, speeding away from the scene as quickly as she could. She wasn’t thinking about where she was going or what she was doing. All she knew was that she had to get away from there, get away from Applejack. She had to get somewhere safe and take some time to get her thoughts in order. She pumped her wings for all they were worth, leaving the orchard far behind her.