//------------------------------// // Chapter XCVII // Story: Journey to the center of Equestria // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// The unicorn soothsayer had managed to hoist herself out of bed. She had allowed herself to change into an attire that was actually a whole lot more fitting for her. It was her normal teaching attire that had wrapped itself around her body before she dropped down in the chair of her desk. The chair had been turned around though. The unicorn was facing the wall with the bookshelves on the opposing side of her room. Her horn had charged itself lightly in order to summon a freshly made cup of steaming tea. The mare held the cup up within her magic and took a gentle sip from it. Her mind still couldn’t have wrapped itself around the fact that everything was over. It still didn’t wanted to believe that it all was over actually. Yet at the other end she seemed to have been rather content with the fact that it all was over. For it meant that she could return to her normal life. For as normal as it actually was to begin with. Another yawn managed to escape her mouth before she closed her eyes for just a singular moment in time. A singular moment that actually became minutes on end. Her mind travelled to places that laid far and wide apart from each other. Which resulted within the facts of her being mentally absent and having not a clue of what was going on around her. The words that the goddesses had spoken to her by the pond of creation still lingered deep within her mind. Yet at the same time there wasn’t a lick of sense that could have been made out of them. Which in return actually managed to anger the unicorn. The words were just so vague to begin with, but once again she couldn’t refuse a request from the goddesses themselves. The unicorn was brought back to the real world via something that she hadn’t expected to happen that day. There was a sudden knock upon her door. A knock that brought her back out of her trance just before the eyes blinked. Twilight turned her attention over to the door and spoke her words in a calm tone. “Come in,” she said before a sip was taken. The door was opened with a gentle motion. It almost appeared as if her visitor couldn’t have believed that the unicorn had returned. Once the door was opened completely and the mysterious visitor stood in the opening was Twilight looking at one of the guards. To be a little bit more specific, she was staring at a guard with whom she had spoken perhaps numerous times before. “What can I do for you today?” Twilight asked him just before she took another sip of her tea. “G-Good morning, miss Sparkle. It’s, it’s great to see you again, a-and still alive,” the guard spoke to her in a tone of disbelief. The massive amounts of disbelief that were racing through his eyes told her everything. But there was also the feeling of relief that went through him. “In your absence, I have been keeping track of the tremors that plagued the land, up to the point when they stopped. If you want to have a look at them, that is.” The soothsayer had to think a little bit about the offer that was being made to her. Naturally she wanted to know what and where else the tremors had been hitting in the time that they were upon their quest. At the other end she didn’t wanted to know it at all. She was terrified of the things that she could have found. Just for a couple of seconds did the two of them remain in silence to one another. The unicorn took a gentle sip from her tea again as she then nodded with her head. “You have my curiosity and attention, please give me the reports that you have gathered over time,” said Twilight to him before she charged her horn a little bit further. The guard nodded and revealed the vast amount of documents that he had gathered during her absence. The raspberry colored magical aura of the unicorn wrapped itself around the stack of papers and they were brought before her. The guard remained standing in the door opening when it happened and he could see how everything was just dropped upon her desk. He then made a gentle bow before her. Only to then leave the room of the soothsayer again in silence. What managed to surprise Twilight though was the fact that he didn’t ask for how her journey was. She could understand why he hadn’t asked about it though. Yet it was strange in perhaps more than one manner. Another sip had been taken by her before she shook her head with calm from side to side. There was no haste in thinking too much about it. She still had to process a ton of information herself in fact. Facts and figures as they were, all had to be collected within her mind and gently processed before they all would be placed into their right places. Though out of everything there seemed to have been one matter that would have kept hammering itself upon her mind. A matter that she actually had to do in order to complete everything. The horn was charged up even further once more as before her some arcane scrolls appeared before her. The eyes of Twilight glanced from left to right while she wrote the words upon her. Via telepathy she spoke against the scrolls who then made the words appear. The message was the same upon every single one though. It was a request that came from Twilight herself. A request that needed to be send to four mares all over the land of Equestria. Whatever would have happened to Twilight, whatever would have happened to them all when the time was there remained a mystery. All that was known to the mare in the moment was that she had to drum them all up again. She had to drum up the company yet again so quickly after they had separated from themselves. A deep sigh went through her nostrils before she wiped away a gentle tear from her eyes. The unicorn had then one last glance over the arcane scrolls. She nodded to the text that had appeared upon it and they were rolled up. Her eyes went shut for a short while as the scrolls seemed to just vanish into thin air. The sounds of a fire were caught within her ears for a moment or two before it all ceased to exist. Twilight then opened her eyes again and saw how none of the scrolls kept on floating in front of her. They had been sent away just like that. Sent away to those that needed to know the content upon them. From there on outwards, it only would have been another matter of time. Another matter of time that would have decided how the fate of the six mares would have been going. Twilight leaned a little bit further back in her chair before she began to shake her head again. Something about it all just wasn’t feeling right to her. Yet she couldn’t place her finger on exactly what it was that plagued her mind. The eyes of the unicorn began to glance over the wall that had almost countless pieces of paper stuck to it. Upon the entire face of the wall was all of the available information about the tremors placed with lines, charts and who knew what else. The unicorn had become obsessed with the tremors that managed to haunt over their land as time went on. Though the longer she looked at it, the more she realized that everything had gotten to an end and that she could make a report about it, if she wanted to. Twilight shook her head quick while she tried to get the thought out of her mind. She didn’t wanted to think about the thing that she thought about. She glanced over to the paper covered wall time and time again, there was another thought that managed to make its way into her mind. One that actually happened to be a whole lot darker than anything she had ever thought about before. A thought that was being banished from her mind to the best of her abilities. Twilight’s natural fears had managed to have been let it enter once more. The unicorn could only have blamed Nightmare Moon herself for the thought recurring inside of her mind. But the shudder of coldness that went over her spine was a cold kick back to reality itself. A kick that she had tried to avoid for the longest of times actually. The very thought that entered the mind of the mare was one that could have been seen as pure and utter horror. A thought that was so black that it could have consumed her if her lights weren’t that brought. A thought that could have drove her over the edge of craziness. Just like the snap of a finger. Madness –like gravity– only needs a little push. “No, no, no, no!” Twilight muttered to herself while she tightened the magical grip around the cup even more. She wasn’t in the mood for anything along the lines of what her mind was being filled with. But there was no escaping from it anymore. Somehow had her mental floodgates been opened and every last thing poured just right back into her. Twilight rubbed one side of her head under the sounds of a groan while she tried her utmost best to just keep everything out of her. It wasn’t of any worth though. The battle had been decided a long time ago and she happened to be standing at the receiving end of the blow. The dark magic that must have been left within her body had broken her up like an egg, or at least managed to crack the shell. The thoughts that were flowing through the mind of Twilight were those of the numerous times that she could have actually died during their trip. All of the times where she could have left life behind her flashed before her eyes. Though to make things possibly even worse, the unicorn saw everything from the perspective of a third being. And as cherry on top of the cake, she saw an alternative universe where she did die. All of those thoughts only added to the insanity that was already brewing inside of Twilight’s very mind. All of the madness that she had collected over the years of being a soothsayer just got a massive new upgrade to torture her with. Of course wasn’t the unicorn glad with it and she wanted to block the thoughts once more from her mind. But the sheer amount of times that she could have died caused her mind to go haywire. There wouldn’t have been any stopping about what would be happening to her. She had lost all control of her own mind yet remaining sitting within the chair. She just sat there, like a zombie that didn’t had anything better to do. Her body looked calm, collected perhaps, yet deep inside of it was another war going on. A war that was fought at perhaps the smallest level as possible in their realm of existence. Tears had begun to collect themselves within the eyes of the mare before she closed them forcefully. She didn’t wanted to cry them, she had to be tough. Not just for those around her, but mostly for herself. The last thing that the mare needed was to be called a wuss for whatever reason. She shook her head once more from side to side as the magical grip was tightened even more about the cup. All of the thoughts that flooded her mind continued to just torment her though. There was no amount of magic that could be used to rebuild the mental wall, it wouldn’t have been enough. The gaps in her mental barrier were beyond repair by her alone. With only the help of outside sources would she have been able to restore that what once was so precious to her. Though the revelations made to her also had an interesting yet creepy side effect. The mare thought about alternative universes where she had died and thought about how it would have been if others continued their lives. Basically had she thought about what kinds of different fates could have been brought over upon Equestria itself. A true thought of horror and terror but also one that spooked Twilight to near death itself. The magical grip around her cup became even tighter while she set her fingers firm in the wooden arms of her chair. She fought so hard to just keep some form of control over her body. The last thing that the unicorn needed was that she erupted out in a massive flood of tears. Though perhaps that happened to be the thing that she needed. All of the sudden there was a loud crack that echoed through the room. But the mare didn’t gave it any attention. Though she did feel some warm liquids running past her right hand, which was followed by her right hoof. There was only one thing that could have caused it. The magical grip around the cup of tea must have been so tight, that it managed to actually break the cup like that. It was the only explanation where the unicorn could have gotten upon in the moment. Which was in fact perhaps for the better as she had more pressing matters to attend to. The magical aura vanished from the plane of existence and the remaining shards of the cup also fell down. They crashed against the floor where they shattered once again in dozens of other pieces. Though once again didn’t the mare gave them any attention. She had more than enough troubles as they were upon her head. She held her eyes still firmly closed as the lips made motions. Words were being said in languages that were unknown to most ears as she appeared to be pleading for help. Watery lines had appeared beneath her eyes when she couldn’t help it anymore. All of the thoughts that were just surging through her mind caused her to become scared and terrified. Which in return caused the tears to be formed as they really were. Of course she happened to be scared, of course it was alright to have been that within the moment. Nopony would have been able to keep itself standing when such horrible thoughts just came to them. But Twilight still tried to fight it all. She still desperately tried to keep herself out of harm’s way for as much as possible. Yet Twilight didn’t realize the fact that that caused more damage to her then healing. There wouldn’t have been anything in the word capable to help her, outside of words of comfort. Words of comfort that had to be spoken by beings that she knew and loved more than anything else. She just didn’t realize the facts as they were. Her vision had been clouded, her judgment for everything had been clouded and shrouded as well. Even her powers had been clouded. In the moment she couldn’t even determine what was right and what was wrong. Or even better said: she forgot the boundaries of reality itself. The unicorn forgot what had actually happened to be the real reality and what were creations of her mind. For all she knew did she would have actually died but allowed to live on in some kind of alternative universe by the goddesses. They had the power over everything and all, not to mention of everything. So the chance was there. But if she really would have gotten into a different reality, would she have been able to sense it? Once again were there also questions filling up her mind. Questions that of course needed answering in one way or the other. All of it together just caused for a massive overload within the brain of the unicorn. There was nothing that could be done by her to save her. The magical aura disappeared from her horn just before the tears began to stream down her cheeks. Silent cries were being made by the unicorn before she gasped for air. Silent cries were released by her as she had done so many years ago. Silent cries were released by her as if she was begging for help of an outside source. The tears began to stream down like rivers over her cheeks before they met upon her chin and travelled down to her robe. Motionless and emotionless she just sat there when it all happened. While the fingers were placed tight upon the wooden arms of the chair. The nails barely set themselves within the wood as she was in pain. She was in a true torture of mental pain. Something had to happen quick or the unicorn as they came to know and love her, would have entered a state of shock from which she possibly wouldn’t have been able to recover. The clock was ticking once again for her. The clock of saving had been set once more, but that time it wasn’t for the land, it wasn’t for their entire civilization. No, that time it was for somepony loved by many. The door of the room was opened up again and Pinkie Pie slithered in with a bright smile upon her face. Her investigation through the castle seemed to have been a rather great success as she didn’t appeared to be hurt or chased. Many more routes and hallways had been discovered by her and she wanted to share them with Twilight. But when she entered the room, she did of course notice the silent sniffs that were made by Twilight. As much as she wanted to hide the fact that she was crying, Pinkie noticed it straight away. So one of her eyes opened up before the other followed suit. Then they went wide as they saw the horrifying position in which the mare sat. A gulp was the only thing that could have been released by the lamia before she shook her head. It wasn’t a good sight at all that she saw. She had seen many sides of the unicorn in her time with the company, but that was the very first time that she saw her mentally truly devastated and crying relentlessly. Pinkie had never pictured herself being able to witness the sights as they were presented before her. She had prayed in silence to everything holy that she wouldn’t have been able to view the horrors as they were. She didn’t wanted to believe it at first as she turned to seemingly stone. Frozen like a statue did Pinkie just stood there. No amount of words would have been able to talk her out of it. The lamia was almost frozen in time itself. She had not a clue of what she could be doing in order to help her friend. Of course did Pinkie wanted to help Twilight to the best of her abilities. But what could have been done in the moment? It wasn’t like before where one hug perhaps would have been able to fix almost everything. No, Twilight’s life seemed to be standing upon the lines there. The eyes of the lamia were the only things that moved around and they shot from left to right. What could she have done? Would she have went straight for the unicorn and hugged the living daylight out of her? It was a viable option for certain but perhaps not the one that she was looking for. The lamia managed to unfreeze herself before she released a stuttering exhale. Words wanted to be brought out into the world but they were swallowed back. Only one anthrony in the entire castle would have been able to help her. Only one being in the entire land could have perhaps saved Twilight’s mind for utter destruction. The lamia turned herself around faster than the blink of an eye and shot out of the room. The door was left open for whatever reason while she slithered through the hallways of the castle. She had to find that one being that slept somewhere else within the borders of the castle. It most likely would have been the only hope that the mare would have had upon saving Twilight. The lamia’s eyes constantly shifted from right to left as she had set her sights upon one being. ~~~~ For dozens of long and agonizing seconds had she continued to just slither through the hallways of the castle. She went straight to the place where she needed to be as it was her literal only hope. It was that, or it would have been nothing. The lamia had entered the barracks of the castle and increased her speed even more. The eyes were narrowed just a little bit in order to read the name tags upon the doors. Speed was of the essence and luckily for her she could and move fast, and read everything correctly. Perhaps the hyperactivity of the lamia finally could be paying off. For perhaps the first time her hyperness was something that came to her aid, instead of having gotten her into trouble. “Ha! Here it is!” she exclaimed before the whole body came to a standstill. One of her hands knocked upon the door and she then waited for a reply to have gotten from the other side. Only problem was that two seconds afterwards, there still was nothing. Patience had never been a real thing for the lamia so she did the only thing that she seemed to have been capable of. Without a secondary thought in her mind did she just rushed through the door after opening it. She just barged straight into the room without any feeling for privacy for the being that slept inside of it. The eyes of a blue haired, white skinned stallion sprung open from the extra dose of light that fell upon them. “What for the devils flanks!?” he exclaimed in an angry tone before he got up from his chair. “You better be having a very good reason for just barging into my room like this!” His eyes were still half shut, but he could make out the shape of a being standing within the light. “It’s your sister, she’s having a mental meltdown!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You have to come, Shining!” Without any further waiting had the lamia turned around and left the room just like that. The stallion was actually baffled about the fact how everything went. “Did she say..?” the stallion asked himself before his eyes went wide. She had indeed said the words that he had on his mind. The stallion shook his head a couple of times and picked up some casual looking clothes. There was no time to think about anything. All that could have been done in the matter was just action. Action upon action upon action. If Twilight indeed had another one of her mental meltdowns, he was going to need much bigger guns as well. Alone he never would have been able to solve whatever was haunting through his sister’s body. The stallion left his room and locked the door behind him tight. With one yawn having left from his mouth, he set his pace into a gentle running one. There was one location where he needed to get to before he would be visiting his sister. He had to go to the place where his secret weapon could have been picked up. There happened to have been only one little problem about it all. The location of said secret weapon happened to be at the outskirts of the castle. Something that he wasn’t really happy about, but it needed to be done. It was the only possible way that the mind of his little sister could have been calmed and saved from the madness within her mind. Shining Armor had ran as fast as he could to a house that stood just outside of the castle. A house where he knocked upon the door and awaited the reply from inside. Mere seconds later was the door opened and the face of an elderly mare was revealed to him. Though before she could have spoken even one single word, the stallion spoke his to the mare, “Twilight, mental breakdown, you and dad, her room in the castle. As soon as you can!” And then he was off again. Just like that had the stallion disappeared again from the door of the house. The mare in the opening blinked a couple of times as she tried to process the received information. Only to have her eyes shot up in fear. “Hun! We gotta go to Twilight, now!” she spoke to another being inside of the house. Shining Armor on the other end had managed to make his way over to his little sister’s room and stood in the door opening. He focused his eyes upon the mentally troubled unicorn and he just couldn’t believe what he saw before him. His own flesh and blood had seen a lot of meltdowns in her earlier age, but the one where she was going through at the moment just managed to hit everything straight out of the park. He had to bring a hand to his mouth in order to just gasp for air like that. But he had to release a loud gulp at the sights that were presented. The tears were still streaming out of her eyes as if there was no tomorrow. The unicorn was everything except her true self and that scared Shining Armor the most. But he also knew that there was only one way how it all could have been brought to a closure. He only hoped that it would have worked in the moment of being. He took a couple of steps closer towards the unicorn until he stood right in front of her. “T-Twilight?” he spoke with a slight tremble within his tone. Of course he wanted to know whether or not she was alright, but he could have clearly seen that she wasn’t alright. There was no talking to the mare though. She wouldn’t have replied to anything that he said to her and that only confirmed the thoughts that he had on the matter. Wherever she had managed to work herself into, words wouldn’t have brought her back. So the stallion resorted to perhaps the only thing from which he was certain that would work. Both of the arms managed to find their way over the back of his little sister and he just hoisted her out of the chair with one gentle motion. Almost like a father he then hugged his little sister. The arms of the soothsayer managed to slowly travel up to his back. That little fact alone was a massive relief for him. At least she had control over her body. “Shh, shh, everything is going to be alright, Twilight, everything is going to be alright,” he spoke up to her. In the corner of the room laid Pinkie curled up upon herself. She was just terrified to see what would have happened next. For all she knew there would have been a massive magical discharge from the soothsayer. Fear still played a massive part within the being of Pinkie Pie and nopony could have truly blamed her for the facts as they were. Sometime later though they had appeared as well. While still wearing their morning attire, both the mother and father of Twilight and Shining had walked into the room. They didn’t even greet their son as they knew instantly what was happening to their only daughter. Even they were a little shocked about the facts as they were. “This is far from good,” the mare spoke before she made her way over to the group. The stallion just adjusted his little glasses and silently went with her. There weren’t any words that he could have spoken in the matter to have made it any lighter for any of them. The two of them then just joined the hug that had been initiated by Shining Armor and it suddenly became a massive family hug. The one thing that had managed to calm the unicorn down whenever she happened to have a mental meltdown. A hug given by the beings that she loved most, her own parents and brother were those very beings. There wasn’t anything in the land that she loved more. Not even her job or the goddesses came before her very own family. The warmth that was given off by the hug did already seemed to be having some sort of effect upon the mare. Twilight seemed to be calming down already. Perhaps not enough to talk yet, but the family could tell that the cries were getting less. Pinkie Pie wanted to do something for the soothsayer as well. She felt just so helpless and powerless in the moment as the family seemed to be doing all of the work. She wanted to take some of the burden that was given to them, away from them. Twilight had showed a great care within the lamia already, she found that it was time to return some of that care. The lamia uncurled herself and slithered to the family members before she just joined the hug for what it was. Without asking any kind of permission she just joined the hug that was given to the unicorn soothsayer. Not even the parents seemed to be looking up strange from the fact that she even existed. There would have been time for introductions and everything later, first things had to be done first in their eyes. Excluding Pinkie Pie from the help she wanted to give wasn’t actually the wisest of things to do, so the parents didn’t spoke a word over it. If anything, they were actually glad that the lamia decided to help their daughter. Seconds went by when the hug only became warmer with each passing one. And each passing second managed to calm the mind of the unicorn even more. She had her eyes still firmly closed and the tears still travelled like rivers, but she was at least breathing normally again. Through the sniffles that she made could the words be made out. Faint words were spoken as if they were her last ones. Everypony had to perk their ears greatly if they wanted to hear them. “I, I could have d-died, s-so many times, during the j-journey,” were the words that they managed to hear. “Hun, this is your territory,” the other stallion whispered to the other mare. The elderly mare nodded with her head as she began to stroke the cheek of her daughter. It was indeed her field of expertise to calm down the soothsayer. As a filly wasn’t Twilight much different than her more adult self. She still remained the same from the core. Which was the exact thing that her mother knew. Her mother continued to stroke upon her cheek while she shushed her daughter’s voice away. Only to then speak the words that she wanted to say herself, “you are still here, still among us, Twily. Times change every single second but you remember that the past is set in stone right? You must have been constantly upon the right place, at the right time. Don’t you worry about it my daughter. You have nothing to cry for, release the thoughts from your mind, and become the happy filly that I remember.” The words were certainly powerful to listen to. They were spoken in only the tone that a mother could have done. From that moment onward would it have been another matter of time. Another matter of time that would reveal to them all just what would have happened to the unicorn soothsayer.