//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Madness // by ManeWriter //------------------------------// Twilight was stuttering from the kick to the head like a speech impediment. She regained her balance quite slowly watching the mysterious mare run away into the semi-dark fog. “D… Don’t run, I n.. n… eed answers, I… NEED TO KNOW!!!” Twilight said starting to brace into racing form slightly off balance. She dashed as fast as her hind legs could go, but it simply wasn’t enough to catch up to the mare. She couldn’t get her mind off of the incident tearing apart her memories. Each time she looked back, the burnt library only seemed to tear more thoroughly into her mind. While distracted from memories, Twilight then tripped on her own sluggish legs and felt a face full of ruff black striped floor. “Who… are you?” She whispered to herself as she leaned her head down. Her mind was starting to process that sudden burst of pain from that mare’s back hoof and recover itself. After realizing everything else that occurred over again, she started to tear. The droplets ran down her face unpredictably, fitting her feelings of everything around her. Even something as simple as a teardrop is victim under Discord’s corrupted rule. She began to think about everything that happened and process the information at a normal pace again after her remorse. “*Sigh* enough Twilight, your stronger then this I know it” She said trying to boost her own self esteem. Her head was brought back up with a look through her shattered window of confidence and hope. “Ok let’s try to make the best out of this situation; first thing is first, check the remains of my…. Our… library” slowly pausing after correcting herself. Tears began to slowly shed again, but she suppressed them with sheer will. “No…. No more tears, another time.” She held her head with a slight arrogance and false reassurance trying to keep herself upbeat. It seemed to work effectively; even her hoof steps were keeping upright to her falsely proud approach. As she stepped further away from the lingering fog mixing with the black skies, her approach to the library section grew closer. “Almost there twilight almost there!” Said with a more willful tone. She then presumed to walk foot among the charred area of smoldering memories. The ashes wrapped around her feet like her old pillow that sat 10 feet higher on her bed from where she stood. Memories were returning, but the task at hand was more important. “Alright, time to take some notes.” Twilight then pulled out her quill and paper… but something wasn’t right, the paper went missing! In a panic, she looked through all her pockets to check if any of her other contents were in check. Force of habit made her pick up the messaged scroll lying on the ground from before to use as a checklist. The scroll was frightening knowing it was exactly the same as pinkie’s quote, but she turned the scroll around and tended to ignore the message. “Pockets, pockets… ahh here we go. Ok, quill; check. Discord’s Elements; check. Note paper… not check.” She said with a slightly darkened tone. She is used to having everything, even if it’s an insignificant small piece of paper. Even ignoring the paper, something was still not right about it missing. “No matter, the paper shouldn’t be too important to me, I should be able to still find the elements… but what happened to that sheet?” Twilight then thought and thought, tapping her hoof onto her egg-like forehead. Ideas started to form, but she didn’t know how they connected to everything as a whole. “That mysterious mare could have taken them… that seems about right… but why did she need them?” She still thought of why that mare wanted them and how she took them. Things were starting to go off course; she still needs to set her focus straight. “Too many questions and not enough evidence, let’s leave this whole thing behind and focus on what we have in front of us.” She said as her quill and new note pad were lifted besides her. She examined every detail from top to bottom and took notes on everything she felt, smelled, heard, and saw. She finished around 10 minutes after pulling the notes out, writing down all the details she needed. “There, done. I’ll keep a hold on this; it might be handy later on.” She said as she slipped the piece of newly written paper into her back pocket. The scroll read exactly as quoted: “The Library: Notes. My first examination on this destruction seems fair weather and normal so far. The ground is slightly warm with small glowing sparks flying across my eyes from the wind blowing in all directions and all temperatures; the smoke clouds seem unaffected though. The area smells of burnt flesh and charred documents with a slight hint of demolished memories and hopes. The ashes circled perfectly around my property not touching a spec onto the street located next to it. It’s impossible to have the wind so unpredictable, yet perfectly centered ashes around where my property still stand. Guessing by the timing, the fire had to have been planned by someone; spike would never do that, would he? Why would he anyways? This library had all of my documents inside of it which mysteriously disappeared; Spike had no use for them. The fire caught on quickly and ended quickly, odd considering the entire home was made of wood; it could have easily lasted an hour or 2. Instead, the fire lasted exactly 7 minutes from what I could tell and didn’t leave anything behind except char, bones, and a perfect condition scroll reading ‘It’s not over Twilight, it’s not over’ in bold and irregular sized text. I find this odd considering the entire place burned into a smoldering heap of ashes, yet this scroll with the same quote as that once friended pink menace had was in absolute perfect condition without a single ash sitting upon it. There must be a reason this scroll was in perfect condition, the quote has something to do with it I’m sure. Discord is up to it, I’m just not sure how yet.” Twilight then presumed to re-read it and thought of something else. “Normally the letters are sent to the Princess from spikes fire… so that means discord has ALL of my information!” Twilight said hyperventilating slightly. “My valuable information is now in the hands of my dire enemy! Dear Celestia what have you done spike!” She started to panic and grabbed the dismantled skull of her once thriving friend and shook it as hard as she could. “THIS INFORMATION COULD PUT AN END TO ALL OF US! WHY SPIKE WHY!!! DON’T DO THIS TO ME YOU LITTLE RUNT!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. She then started to regain her senses and snapped back to it knowing she disrupted his rightful grave in her anger. “Dear Canterlot I’ve lost my mind! Oh spike, please forgive me…” Slowly putting her head down starting the next sentence. “Please, Please, Forgive me spike, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you spike and I would never do that… you understand right?” She said while oddly staring closely at the skull for several seconds. “There I go again, I just did it didn’t I?” Sitting there waiting for a reply from the skull. “Now I just asked you if I asked you a question, I really am insane!” She said with a bit of a panic. “I don’t think your insane…” “Oh great, talking voices now. Yep, I’ve lost all moral sense.” Twilight said with strong sarcasm. “You’re not insane, I can hear you.” “So… if I’m not insane, then who are you?!” Slightly raising her voice “No need to raise your voice Twilight, you know who I am.” “I don’t know who you are, you don’t sound familiar.” Twilight said taking her voice down to a library pitch she is normally accustomed too. “Don’t worry twilight, you’re more than familiar to me” The mysterious figure stepped out from the shadows and flew herself a couple feet off the ground over to Twilight. Her mane was silky and long flowing down to her side hip following accustom by her perfectly straight tail. Her eyes shined an innocent look with a blue outline around her big black pupils. Her fur coat showed a glossy yellow shine all leading up to one pony we all know and love. “FLUTTERSHY!!! Oh thank goodness, I thought I wouldn’t see anyone of my friends who remember me still.” “Of course Twilight, I’ll always remember my BEST of friends like no other. Speaking of friends, all of these other ponies are acting strange don’t you think?” “Tell me about it, they always kept fighting over each other and what they wanted.” “Follow me; I have my own patch of sanctuary right past this marine layer of fog.” She said with her commonly soft tone. “Wow Fluttershy, I never knew you researched the weather.” “All Pegasus have to, you know that very well twilight.” Fluttershy said with a hoof over her mouth to muffle her giggle. Twilight then facehoofed herself in embarrassment. “Heh… sorry, still a bit mixed up after all this chaos.” She said starting to blush with cherry red cheeks. “Don’t worry Twilight; you’ll forget all about this chaos after you take a little trip down memory lane.” Fluttershy said with a kind and loving voice. They both headed down through the fog slowly pacing themselves ignoring the chaos around them, togethe