//------------------------------// // Truth // Story: A Love For Madness // by ShadeJak //------------------------------// “And I’ve been here ever since… I don’t know what’s going on outside, but you’re saying there’s others who disappeared, too, right? Look, I know it all sounds completely crazy but it’s all true, I swear!” The alicorn pleaded. Dr. Lance gave a nod and looked over his notes. “It says that Cale's friends Alice and Craig… the latter of whom returned shortly after when Alice had contacted him… had searched for Cale but never found him, yet you seem very insistent you're him. So then Alice has seen you like this…” Dr. Lance said. “Authorities have contacted his ex-wife as well, but she denies ever having seen him since the divorce ended.” “It makes sense nopon—I mean nobody has, I don’t look like Cale at all anymore, do I?” She looked down at herself, raising her hoof and playing with her mane a little, staring at it. “All I want is to be myself again…” She said, looking back at the doctor. “Please, just… making this go away would be all I’d ask for…” "Well, I'm not sure we can do that, but we'll try to help you recover on an emotional level. You've clearly been through a lot." The doctor answered. She looked down again, as if accepting reluctantly that might not happen. “But on the other hoof… I guess… I… I feel a little better now, having had somepony…” she caught herself, but just let it slide this time. “…to talk to. And if I really am her reincarnated and there are… others like me out there, maybe I can learn to live with this.” “I’m glad to hear that.” Dr. Lance said with a genuine smile, shutting off the tape. “It looks like progress was made after all. We’ll keep you informed of any sign of other, well, ponies out there.” The alicorn smiled, truly happy to hear this and instinctively hugged the doctor. “Thank you… so much. I’ll do my best to get better, for next session if we can have more.” At that moment, the radio’s track switched, and the song from earlier, when she’d first met the doctor, played once more, its first lyrics crooning out. --only just begun… The alicorn looked up, confused. “Weird… why is it playing again so soon?” She asked. “Well, why wouldn’t it? I’d say it sums the situation nicely.” Dr. Lance said with a chuckle, and he snapped his finger. The song’s first lyrics played again and again as a dark smile spread on his face. Removing his glasses, his eye pupils were now red, and his right canine appeared to be longer then the other. “No…no, no, nonononono…” The alicorn patient stammered, her confusion turning into complete terror as she realized what was going on, and whom she’d vented her story to. “No, this can’t be real, it can’t be! She backed away until she bumped into the padded wall and the music fell silent. In the doctor’s place stood the chimeric entity who had tormented her since it’d all started. “Oh you’d better believe it, Cadance. It’s all real. You’re trapped here, and your mind is every bit as chaotic as Equestria has become thanks to me!” Discord taunted. “This isn’t real, it’s only a dream, it’s only a dream, it’s only a dream…” Cadance cried out, now cowering and holding her head with her hooves, squeezing her large eyes shut. “Deny it all you want, Princess. It doesn’t make it any less the truth. And don’t worry, you’ll be here long enough to muse over that!” The God of Chaos sneered, letting out a cruel, maniacal laugh as he now stood over her. “All of this? Your life going a serious spiral the previous months? The hallucinations, the nightmares? All of it purely to break you further! To turn you against all you stood for; love and hope that’s now been crushed into delicious fear and despair! Yes, other ponies have reawakened, but your grief and misery has repressed your true self from fully recovering, and it’d take nothing short of a miracle and the restoration of the love in your heart to change that... something I'm not exactly placing bets on happening any time soon! You’ll NEVER see Equestria OR your precious Shining Armor EVER again, and as the song has made so clear, it’s all only just begun!” he declared, laughing even more as Cadance lay at his feet, her body shaking as she continued sobbing. Everything seemed to spin. Cadance could hear that laughter, again it seemed to echo all around her, gloating and mocking her, she couldn’t respond, Discord had pulled this one final trick to restore that thin sliver of hope simply so he could snatch it away from her in the worst and cruelest way… now there she lay, balled up in a fetal position as the draconequus clenched his fist and thrust it in the air in sadistic triumph. ~ Outside, Dr. Lance stood by Dr. Murphy, seeing the alicorn cowering in the corner in her cell, and watched as she cried at the mercy of an invisible enemy. “Thank you for coming. Here are the recordings, Dr. Murphy.” Dr. Lance explained, handing over several tapes. “I was speaking with her and it appeared she was on the verge of recovery, but then it seemed something inside her snapped and she fell into a complete state of hysteria… and now this… a full psychotic breakdown, she no longer seemed aware of me as I left the room, and believes herself to be suffering at the hands of some unseen tormentor, the antagonist from the show she claims to be responsible for her predicament. From my assessment, it began as minor hallucinations, which escalated into elaborate nightmares brought on by the stress of her living situation as well as the transformation, if it is all to be believed, and unfortunately has only worsened into what you see before you. I pity her, but I’ll leave the final decision up to you. Continued containment is my strongest recommendation. It would seem very possible the disappearances are connected to this phenomenon… it’d be hard to ignore, but the experience seems to have taken it’s toll on her sanity… inform me of what you wish to be done next when you’ve come to a decision.” He looked back at within the cell window, and walked away. Dr. Murphy peered in, sighing and shaking his head. “Poor thing, I wish we could do more for her… maybe in time, I can only hope.” The older doctor said, and he, too, left to return to his office. Back in her cell, the alicorn began to softly giggle to herself, singing a song over and over again with an imaginary companion as she stared off into space. “Sunshine, sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”