Chapter 6
Princess Luna led Overdrive into the Canterlot throne room, where her sister was sitting, looking through various papers, she looked up at the two Alicorns as they entered.
Overdrive bowed slightly, a gesture that would have been considered polite had it been coming from any other pony, but the Princess understood it to be mocking her and her authority.
"Hello sister," the Princess said. "To what do I owe the visit?"
Overdrive looked up at her. "I understand that you wished to speak to me, and that the postal worker was awake."
Luna made a distressed face at her sister, indicating that she needed her help. Celestia understood the message clearly.
"As a matter of fact I did wish to see you," Celestia said, "I was merely not expecting my sister to come with you... As for the postal worker, Derpy Hooves, she was awake; however the doctors were forced to put her back under a magical coma in order to keep her injuries from worsening."
Overdrive looked at the Princess, his glowing red eyes piercing through her, he saw the lie, but decided not to press it. "Pity, she was the only one who saw what happened to the Ponyville post office. I have been investigating the matter on my own, and a statement from her would have been most... useful."
Celestia nodded at the Alicorn before her. "Indeed, but there is a matter more important to discuss, you clearly have my subjects in Ponyville's best interests at heart, defeating the dragon and investigating the cause of the post office explosion, and for that I am issuing a royal decree. I am establishing the Barony of Ponyville, of which lands include the town proper, and I am appointing you as the Baron Ponyville."
The Alicorn cocked his head slightly, and then bowed even less than before. "Thank you your highness, I shall govern the land to the best of my ability."
"I am sure that you will. I expect regular reports from you." Celestia said.
"You shall have one at eight o'clock, on the dot, every Monday." The Alicorn said.
"Excellent, You are dismissed, Baron Ponyville," Celestia said.
Overdrive bowed, and he along with Princess Luna departed from the Castle back towards Ponyville.
--
The two Alicorns landed on the outskirts of town. Luna looked at the new Baron of Ponyville, and with a small smile, she bid him goodnight.
"Hold."
Luna looked back at him; his eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, his eyes were drilling through her in anger. She knew she was about to pay for lying to him.
"Give me a reason, why I should not rip you apart, atom by atom, for lying to me," the Baron Ponyville said, his voice was filled with malice when he spoke, quite unlike the soft, emotionless voice he normally used.
Luna gulped a little in fear, but she quickly regained her composure. "Because, killing the Co-princess of Equestria would create undue chaos in this land, riots and mass hysteria would become commonplace, something that you, a paragon of order, would rather have your head explode then be the cause of widespread chaos."
The Alicorn looked at the Princess, cocking his head to the side and did something that Luna had never seen him do, and she never wanted to see him do it again. He smiled.
"I believe I misjudged you. Here I thought you to be weak, but no, clearly I was wrong," The Alicorn said. "Despite the fact that your sister had no want to see me, she has given me what I want."
Luna did not understand.
"Your sister believed that I did not care about being the Baron Ponyville, she merely installed me in this position so it would be easier to keep an eye on me. I do however want to be in this position, because it gives me legitimate authority. I wanted the Princess to give me this, but you see that's where the beauty of it is, I made her believe that making me Baron Ponyville was her idea." The Alicorn said, grinning.
Luna's mind was beginning to falter; his eyes were not looking at her. They were looking through her. She was frightened by this creature. She understood now that he had the power to kill anyone with a single thought, but he didn't need to. His true power was that he could manipulate others into taking their own lives.
That was far more power than she had.
Luna wanted to die at this point, she was so overcome by fear that she felt that death would be the only way to escape it. She had never been more afraid in her life, Overdrive outclassed even Nightmare Moon.
Luna turned and ran as fast as she could, away from the Alicorn and burst into the Library, scrambling to shut the door behind her.
She dropped to the floor and placed her hooves over her head, and she shook with fear.
Twilight dashed down the stairs to find her friend trembling on the floor alone. "Princess Luna?"
Twilight went and attempted to comfort her friend, but the Princess pushed her away.
"No! No no no!" she cried out. "Stay away from me!"
Twilight didn't understand.
"Princess Luna?" she asked.
"I want to be alone."
Twilight didn't know what to do; she stood over her friend, a concerned look forming on her face.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Luna shouted at her.
Twilight backed off, she didn't know what had happened, but she went back upstairs, and hoped that her friend would tell her what had happened in the morning.
--
Luna watched Twilight go back upstairs. Her mind had gone, the Alicorn had made his way inside it and ripped it to pieces, she was broken, and she needed to escape.
Luna quietly rose from her place and began rummaging though some of the odds and ends Twilight had in her Library.
Twilight was well prepared for adventuring, she and her friends had been forced by things beyond their control to go out into the wilderness, and she had at least one of everything that they could possibly need.
Luna discovered what she was looking for, a six metre coil of rope.
"Perfect!" The Princess had said weakly. She returned to the main room, and quietly pushed the round table into the centre of the room; she gingerly climbed on top of it, and tied a loop into one end of the rope, the other end she fastened to a support beam.
She pulled the looped end over her head and fastened it around her neck. There was just enough slack in the rope for it to droop several centimetres.
She had to escape.
Princess Luna kicked the table out from under her; it fell over and rolled away, leaving the Princess to dangle freely in the air.
She had to escape, and she was so very close.
--
Twilight heard the crash from down stairs as the table kicked over. She got up and ran down the stairs again, to her horror; her friend was dangling in the air a metre off the ground by her neck.
Twilight leaped into action, she used her magic to sever the rope, allowing her friend to fall on the floor.
Twilight rushed over to her. The Princess was lying on the floor, shuttering intensely,
"Must... escape," she said weakly.
Tears formed in her eyes, one of Twilight's best friends had tried to commit suicide.
Twilight through her hooves around the Princess, in a full out embrace, she concentrated as hard as she could, and the two of them disappeared from Ponyville.
--
Twilight and Luna reappeared in Princess Celestia's throne room, Celestia was still there looking over paperwork. She looked up to see her prized student and her baby sister huddled together, but her smile quickly turned to a look of horror as she saw the rope around Luna's neck.
She rose to her hooves and galloped down to where the two were lying.
"What happened?" she asked.
Twilight looked up at her mentor, but could not manage any words, only tears.
Princess Celestia leaned in closer, and spoke more sternly. "What happened?"
Twilight shuttered and pulled the night princess closer to her. She gently pulled the noose from around Luna's neck, and gave it Celestia.
She looked at it and tears formed in her eyes. Celestia joined her student in the embrace of her sister, and many tears fell between the two that night.
Luna had lost all touch with reality at this point, and continued to mutter "must escape" to herself, even as doctors were called and hauled her away to the Royal Hospital Psychiatric ward.
--
The following morning, Twilight and Princess Celestia were sitting with each other outside Luna's room in the Psychiatric hospital. They had been there all night, and had not spoken a word the entire time.
Twilight was filled with guilt. She remembered what the other had said to her in the Mohoofie desert. That she had to let go, and stop thinking that everything was her fault.
This time however, she knew that this was her fault. She had left Luna alone when it was clear that something was wrong. Luna had asked to be alone, but Twilight had never imagined it would have been to kill herself. She felt that in this case, her guilt was justified.
Celestia looked at her student, she could see that Twilight was blaming herself, she came close to letting her feel the guilt, but then she realised how counterproductive it was to what she had told her in the Mohoofie desert under the guise of a figment for Twilight's imagination.
"It's not your fault Twilight Sparkle. This could have happened to anypony."
Twilight jumped a little at the Princess' speaking, they had been silent for the entire night. She looked up at her mentor, her tears had dried up hours ago, otherwise she'd still be crying.
Celestia wanted to cry along with her, but she did her best to keep a brave face. She didn't want to show weakness, even though it was with her prized student, and she would likely understand.
"What could have done this to her?" Twilight asked.
"Let's just say, I have a theory," Celestia said, but did not elaborate further. There was no way she could prove it. "You should go home Twilight, your friends are going to need you now more than ever."
Twilight remembered what the other had said to her. She nodded to the Princess. She shut her eyes tight and popped away back towards Ponyville.
Celestia looked into her sister's room; she was lying on the floor in the padded room, in a straight jacket, muttering to herself.
This isn't what you deserve; this isn't what I wanted for you. I'm so sorry.
--
Twilight reappeared in the Library, her friends had gathered there, waiting for her to get back. Even Pinkie Pie was there, even though she too had lost her mind.
Twilight wanted to share what she had found with her friends the night prior reading Floppy Disk's journal, but it would have to wait until she was gone.
"How is the poor dear?" Rarity asked.
"She'd locked in a padded room in a straight jacket, mumbling something about escape." Twilight said with a shrug. "She's gone..."
"Oh but she can't be! That's so horrible!" Rarity exclaimed.
"The Doctors are going to try to do everything they can... but the prognosis wasn't good." Twilight said.
In the corner, Pinkie Pie began twitching slightly. Her eyes grew very small, and she quickly attracted the attention of her friends. "Um... I have to go, I'm sorry. I wish I could spend more time with you girls... lot of work to do."
Pinkie Pie walked out of the Library without another word.
"Did anyone else notice how sick she looked?" Fluttershy asked. "It's like something is draining the life out of her."
"Actually I think that's exactly what happened." Twilight said, "You remember what happened to Pinkie when Floppy Disk looked at her the first time?"
"Yeah, she flipped and ran off screaming." Rainbow Dash said. "So what?"
"He did it twice. It happened again just before the Dragon appeared, and then Overdrive showed up and defeated it. Not to mention that Overdrive was alone with Luna when she was distracting him. I've read Floppy's journal cover to cover, what happened with Pinkie Pie was a common occurrence. It's why everybody turned on him."
Twilight paused, and grabbed the journal with her magic, flipping it open to a page. "I also found Floppy's name, his real name, the one instance of it where it wasn't crossed out."
She set the book on the table, and everypony looked at it.
"Montana Uhlan? No wonder he changed his name." Rainbow Dash said reading the name, her eyes became small and she realised what Twilight was getting at. "Monty!"
Twilight nodded in affirmation. "Whatever happened, it must have left some kind of imprint on Pinkie Pie, whatever is left of Floppy Disk's consciousness is inside her, and it's working her to death."
Twilight grabbed another book and set it on the table. "There's more, I found Overdrive in a history book. 20 years before Celestia's reign, an Alicorn called The Paragon of Order was waging a personal war against the Cult of Chaos Undivided, the cult's leader, an earth pony by the name of Adamus Uhlan, and the cult's sorcerer led him into a trap, and sealed his spirit inside Adamus, where he could keep the Paragon in check. It's said that holding the paragon must be passed from father to son. But if Floppy died before the consciousness could be transferred, then it could go free."
"Whoa there sugar cube!" Applejack said. "Yer gonna have ta back up a lil' hun, ah ain't heard o' no Paragon of Order or a Cult of Chaos Undivided."
"Neither have I," Twilight said with a shrug. "And the book doesn't go into it any more than that, so much history from before the reign of Celestia has been lost to time. The book does say that the Cult of Chaos Undivided eventually disbanded, and its membership eventually made the transition back into society. I can only imagine that the Uhlan Stallions had the same social problems as Floppy Disk had."
"All right, so what do we do?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight looked at her friends uneasily.
"I haven't the faintest idea."