//------------------------------// // Darkness // Story: Marjoram // by Nekiyha //------------------------------// The next morning, Twilight had decided to give a tour of Canterlot Castle to her friends. Rarity was enamoured with the style and elegance that the castle displayed, and the rest were simply in awe of the capital city itself, not able to really process the finer details like Rarity was. Around midday, a loud explosion sounded from the other side of the palace, and Twilight could feel a familiar shift in magic. Her heart skipped a beat, and Twilight ran toward the sound without pause. It sounded like the explosion had come from some of the rooms guests and palace residents lived in. All Twilight could think of was Marjoram. Using her magic, she teleported to the section where Marjoram lived, and was immediately blown back by how much angry magic was in the air. Before Twilight had a chance to collect herself, a heart-wrenching, wordless scream stunned her. Once Twilight had collected herself, she moved quickly through the maze of hallways, following the sounds of shouting and destruction to Marjoram’s room. Where there had been a door; a crumbling wall, scorched black remained. Twilight peered carefully around the remnants of the wall, and felt her heart skip a beat. Marjoram stood, surrounded by the destruction. The whites of his eyes glowed green, with dark tendrils of purple flowing from them, like a mockery of tears. His magic was alight, but it wasn’t the golden familiar light that Twilight recognized. It was a sickly, unnatural blackish purple. The wall facing the palace gardens had been obliterated. If Twilight looked carefully, she could see chunks of brick and marble laying on the ground stories below. Twilight took a steadying breath and stepped around the wall, “Marjoram?” Marjoram spun to face her, his unnatural eyes filled with a cloud of emotions Twilight couldn’t identify. “You,” Marjoram’s already rasping voice was weaker than before, and filled with malice. Twilight felt shivers of fear running up and down her spine, and she moved to leave, to fetch help. Marjoram had other ideas. The magic that was keeping his horn lit erupted from it like a creeping sickness, like a viscous liquid crawling and bubbling forth from a cauldron. Twilight barely had time to erect a magical barrier. Immediately, the barrier began to crack, but Twilight forced more magic into it, thinking of the love and protection of her friends. Another, unearthly howl, and the strength of Marjoram’s magic increased. “Help!” Twilight shrieked, both feeling and seeing the barrier begin to crack. Through streaming eyes, Twilight could see a golden light wrap around her barrier, and Twilight let it fall, sweat streaming down her body, and her entire body trembling. Celestia flew in through a massive hole in the side of the palace,  her eyes bright with worry. Behind the barrier, Twilight watched Celestia land, as well as drawing Marjoram’s ire. He turned his magic to her, which she deflected in kind, blowing out another wall in the meantime. Twilight ducked reflexively, but the barrier effectively shielded her from the debris. “Marjoram!” Celestia bellowed, her usual gentle voice was low and commanding. Marjoram said nothing, letting out a wordless growl instead. Celestia squared herself, and Twilight could feel the sudden lack of magic in the air seconds before Celestia let out a beam of magic so bright and strong that Twilight had to shield her eyes. Silence reigned, and the barrier dropped. Twilight opened her eyes to find Marjoram apparently back to normal, unconscious on the chipped tiles of the floor. Celestia looked more curious than anything else, striding over to Marjoram to check his vitals. Once that was done, she shot a spark of golden light into the air, which zoomed off and out of sight. “Wh-what was that?” Twilight asked shakily, striding forward cautiously around chunks of stonework and other debris. “I can’t know for certain right now, Twilight,” Celestia intoned seriously, “Though I have an idea.” Something cracked under Twilight’s hoof, and she looked down at a glass phial. Bending down, Twilight could smell the she’d made for Marjoram. Her heart sank, also noting the testing materials that were commonly used when testing an unknown substance. “Did you find something?” Celestia asked, striding over. She examined the phial, and her eyes went wide, “Twilight, what was in the potion you gave him?” Twilight felt heat rise in her face, and the fear increased dramatically, “Umm. Well-” Marjoram let out a wheezing moan, coughing harshly. He stirred, fighting to regain consciousness. To Twilight’s surprise, after a few whispered reassurances from Celestia, he stopped. “Twilight,” Celestia’s voice was tinged with disappointment, “You need to tell me how he’s been acting, what he’s been eating, and what you’ve been giving him.” Before Twilight had a chance to answer, Luna flew in through the broken wall, barely blinking an eye at the destruction. In her magical aura, she held a jeweled ring. Celestia took the ring, and put it on Marjoram’s horn. The blackish magic that Twilight had seen sparked briefly, but seemed to stop once it reached the ring. “What’s that?” Twilight asked cautiously. “It’s a ring that will bring Marjoram’s magic back into balance. Apparently, his dark magic was awakened, and only grew to take up more and more space in his horn, and natural magical reserves. That would be why he was having such difficulty in casting spells before. The ring will force his magic back into tolerable levels. This will be a painful process since Marjoram has no training in dark magic.” “What happens when it’s brought into balance?” “I’ll have to train him,” Celestia replied simply, “before I can do that, however, I need to understand how this happened-” “I’m sorry!” Twilight blurted, “I-I knew something was happening, but I didn’t know what I could do. I just upped the dosage-” Twilight broke off, then took a breath, “It happened after Nightmare Moon, and I thought it was an  outside dark magic trying to take over. The potion I made was supposed to help strengthen his magic so he could fight it off.” “Oh Twilight,” Celestia sighed, “That’s not what happened. It was his own potential for dark magic that was awakened. It grew and grew with every light spell he cast, and since he couldn’t burn off the dark energy building up, it turned into a ticking time bomb of sorts.” “What-what could have set him off?” Twilight asked cautiously. “Many things. Different emotions, stress, pain. All of which he deals with quite a bit. Now, I’m going to bring him to the infirmary. If you would aid Luna in some cleanup, I will inform Shores what happened.” Twilight nodded numbly, staring at the destruction through tear-filled eyes. Princess Luna used her magic to reconstruct the walls, while Twilight tried to salvage what possessions Marjoram had brought with him, cleaning and organizing as she did. To her dismay, Twilight found a glass vial that hadn’t been shattered in the destruction. She found several Zap Apple seeds inside. Nearby, under a large chunk of the ceiling, she found the pages of scientific analysis that went with the test tubes. As she read them, the inevitable conclusions revealed themselves. The Zap Apple jam contained dark magic, as well as light. When Marjoram ate it, what had been left of his light magic had been strengthened, while the dark magic had been allowed to encroach on the light magic slowly enough that it didn’t cause a problem so long as Marjoram’s light magic was fooled into thinking it was strong enough. Between that, and the large amounts of the potion Twilight had been nearly force-feeding him, it was no wonder the problem had escalated. All because Twilight had felt like she’d missed the chance to tell Marjoram what was really going on. The realization that the whole thing was all Twilight’s fault made her sit down heavily, and stare at the results in front of her. “Oh, Twilight,” Twilight started at Princess Luna’s voice sounding to her left. She had been thinking so hard that she hadn’t even noticed Luna reading the results as well. “I didn’t realize,” Twilight whispered, staring at the page, “I didn’t know.” The sound of panicked hoofbeats sounded outside, and Twilight looked over her shoulder in time to see her friends encounter the crumbling wall. They stopped short of the wreckage, staring around at the half-repaired room in concern. “What happened?” Rarity asked, staring at the ruined architecture with sad eyes. Twilight opened her mouth, but found herself unable to say the words. She stared at her friends with sad, horrified eyes, but couldn’t make any sounds come out of her mouth. “Out of my way!” Twilight’s friends parted when the panicked cry of Sea Shores broke the silence. Shores nearly flew into the remains of Marjoram’s door, her eyes wide and panicked, “What happened!? Where is he? Thank goodness you’re alright, Twilight. Where’s Marjoram?” Twilight stared at Shores helplessly, a small shake of her head, as she tried to get over her fear of telling those she loved that this was all her fault. Shore’s face became blank, and she fell to the floor when her wings stopped beating of their own accord. “He’s dead?” Shores whispered brokenly. “No!” Twilight’s voice was harsher than she’d meant it to be. She swallowed, and tried again, “He’s alive. Princess Celestia thinks he’ll be alright.” “Then why do you look like you killed somepony, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. “I almost did,” Twilight whispered brokenly, “I almost killed a lot of ponies here.” “Twilight?” Shores asked. The adrenaline that had been coursing through Twilight finally dissipated. A lump in her throat made it impossible to breathe, much less talk. Feeling overwhelmed, with a swirl of potent emotions, she broke down and cried. (LINE BREAK) Marjoram came into consciousness slowly, his head and mouth feeling like they’d been filled with cotton. Marjoram’s eyes felt heavy, his tongue felt the same, and he had the distinct impression that he’d been sedated. Unsure of where he was, or what had happened, Marjoram tried to say something, but ended up only making an odd noise in the back of his throat, the air scraping out of his sore throat. “Marjoram?” Who was that? Shores? Marjoram’s fuzzy head refused to process anything. Trying to move, but finding his eyes too heavy to open, Marjoram tried to move, he discovered that he was in no condition to move. His head swam dizzyingly, and everything from his mane to his bones ignited in sudden pain. “Sweetie, don’t move,” the voice intoned, “the Princess says you’re really sick.” Marjoram concentrated on his eyes, and focused on trying to at least open the one facing the pony talking to him. After a bit of struggling, Marjoram cracked it open, grimacing at the bright light. After blinking a few times, Marjoram’s vision cleared marginally, and he saw the concerned face of Sea Shores staring down at him. “Can I get you some water?” “Please,” Marjoram whispered, his voice cracking and threatening to send him into a coughing fit. Shores nodded, and moved out of Marjoram’s blurry vision, only to return a few moments later, “I got a straw. Here.” Marjoram drank the water carefully, not wanting to disturb the fragile peace his body had settled into, “What happened?” Marjoram asked, his voice a little stronger now that his mouth didn’t feel like a desert. Shores’ smile faded, “T-Twilight thinks it’s her fault, and her friends think she’s lying to protect you-” Marjoram remembered a flash, of a sickening anger and bitterness that flowed from his very pores like sweat from a fever, “What did I do?” “You ruined part of the castle for a few hours, and a little of the garden come springtime. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” “Who did I hurt?” “You didn’t hurt anyone!” Shores snapped, her ears flying back, and her eyes filling with tears, “No one was physically hurt!” “Shores.” Shores deflated a little, and she hung her head, “You attacked Twilight,” She said reluctantly, “I don’t know why. No one will tell me.” Marjoram’s heart froze in his chest. He grit his teeth, and forced himself to move, battling the pain and the horrible nausea that threatened to overtake him. Marjoram got halfway up before Shores pushed him back down. “You can’t move!” “I attacked her, Shores!” Marjoram growled, his heart beating wildly, “I-I tried to hurt her, and I don’t know why!” Without realizing it, Marjoram’s weak voice had been forced into shouting, despite its shakiness, “I-I need to-” Marjoram’s eyes widened, and he stared at nothing for a moment. “Marjoram?” Shores asked cautiously. “I-I remember,” Marjoram whispered, “Oh, Twilight.” Shores watched Marjoram’s eyes roll back into his head in horror, and screamed when the jeweled ring on his horn sparked a horrible, sick-smelling magic. Marjoram fell limply against the hospital bed, unconscious once more. Shores stepped away from the stallion she viewed as a son, and tried to calm herself down. Shores looked out the window, at the setting son, and wondered why she was being kept in the dark.