Screwball's Insanity

by piefan

Chapter 3

A dark blue alicorn flew to a coconut tree. She picked a coconut and used magic to cut it open. Her ears perked up as she heard a sound. Other ponies... they'd survived? She'd thought she was the only one. Even her sister hadn't survived... she'd sacrificed herself. The dark alicorn wiped a tear from her eye. No, don't think about her, she thought. There's no use crying.

She, still holding her coconut, flew under the tree to protect herself from the heat, and continued to think about the ponies who'd came. Who were they? Were they going to attack? She may be a princess, but she might not be able to fight off everypony. Finally, she decided she'd go down. But she'd need to act tough. Make sure they knew she wasn't to be messed with. She flew down from the tree and shouted, "Why are thou-?" She stopped mid-sentence. Two of the ponies were familiar, the other was not. "Twilight? Applejack?"

"Princess Luna?" All three ponies gasped.

Luna nodded. "Yes, it is me." She gestured to Thunderlane. "Who is your friend?"

"My name's Thunderlane."

"It is nice to meet you, Thunderlane." She pointed to Screwball. "And who is this?"

"My name is Screwball."

"Princess Luna, what are you doing here?" asked Twilight. "Where's Princess Celestia?"

Luna's expression changed to sadness. "She died."

"But I thought alicorns are immortal," said Thunder.

"They cannot die of old age, but they can die of other causes."

"So, what exactly happened?" asked Applejack. "How did disasters hit all of this planet?"

"I do not know. It was simply a strange event, a coincidence."

"But I have a question," said Twilight. "If Princess Celestia has passed away, then what about the sun? It's been rising and setting normally for days!"

Luna smiled. "I do not think you have noticed, but by now the sun should be setting," she answered. "I now control it. However, it is not an easy task. Sister is the only pony who can do it properly. It takes me a long time to do it."

---

The five ponies had bonded after a few days. They knew a few things about each other, and their past. This still did not prepare Luna from staring at Screwball every time she talked with inanimate objects. The others had expected hr to go back to normal now that she was around ponies, but she sadly didn't.

Luna, Twilight, Applejack and Thunder watched as Screwball started a conversation with rocks.

"What is she attempting to do?" asked Luna.

"This isn't that crazy. It's better to watch her talk about vamponies than talk about eating animals," said Thunderlane.

---

While Screwball was off doing whatever, the four ponies were discussing survival. Not too much had come out of it, however. All they'd decided was that their main goal was to use psychology and stuff to cure Screwball of her hallucinations. Twilight was going to be in charge of this, as she had suggested it first.

"It is best for us to get some sleep," said Luna, looking up. "I shall set the sun." Twilight did the same as they both focused on the sun. Twilight's magic, as a mere unicorn, didn't make much difference, but it helped. Applejack and Thunderlane looked at the sun as it began to slowly go down. Darkness filled the sky and the moon rose, much faster. Luna seemed to be better at controlling the moon than the sun.

Screwball passed by them, seeming to say goodbye to her new friends, Moondancer and Twinkleshine. Twilight turned to her friends. "I'll start on the therapy now." She walked behind Screwball, who didn't appear to notice her. Twilight wasn't sure what she was going to do exactly; she was just going to follow her. The rest of the ponies went off to make their beds.

Screwball soon reached what she called her house, and fell asleep under a tree. If I'm going to start therapy, I might as well try to find out about her past, she thought. But how... She searched her mind for the right spell. She knew the how to perform it, but she didn't know the name of the spell. Oh, forget about the name, that doesn't matter. She closed her eyes, and Screwball's memories came into her mind.

---

Screwball sat in her chair at Sugarcube Corner. Just then, a magenta unicorn appeared. "Hey, I'm here to test out this theory! They say that unintelligent ponies can be hypnotised easily." The unicorn's horn glowed as she attempted hypnotism.

"When I say the word..." The unicorn tried to think of a word that not many would use, "Volcano, you will obey everything I say!" By now, other ponies were watching the unicorn and Screwball, but nopony did anything. "Volcano!" shouted the unicorn. Screwball now seemed to have no mind of her own. The unicorn snickered. "There's an earthquake! Run!" Now under the spell, Screwball started to run south, fast. Ponies still just watched. Soon, Screwball was way out of sight.

An orange pegasus called out, "Are you gonna go after her?"

The unicorn watched as Screwball kept running. "Um, I guess so." She din't want to get arrested if the Earth pony never returned again. She started to go south, yelling out, "Volcano!"

Screwball kept going, not running out of energy. For some reason, nopony stopped to even wonder about what she was doing. Maybe they thought it was normal for her to run like that. Whatever it was, they just continued doing whatever they were doing before. She never stopped dashing.

She turned to the direction of the Everfree forest, and kept running.

She soon started to slow down, but still walked. Days passed. Screwball barely ate or drank, apart from the times when she tripped and fell into lakes and plants. Luckily for her, there were no animals that wanted to eat her. After days of running in random directions, she reached a place with few plants.