Unfortunate Side Effects

by DWhay

Luna's Arrival

“Wake up.”

Spike shot straight up in bed, clutching his heart. The air in the room was freezing, his breathe coming out in billowing plumes. He felt a faint pressure in his neck, like someone, or something, had tried to strangle him. The room that he had fell asleep to was no longer there, replaced with another purgatory-esque chamber. It seemed that every time he had a lapse in attention, dozed off for a moment, the library would change in some way or another. Now all of the books were bound in black, a small purple line traced down the spine. The walls were now the color of ash, as if the wood had been aged a millennium while he’d slept.

Spike crawled out of his bed, limbs protesting, stiff from his short, uncomfortable sleep. A fountain was standing where the reading table once was, making for a grim centerpiece in the center of the library. It leaked a foul-smelling black liquid. Thick and congealed it slid down the obsidian, reeking like decomposed carrion. Even more unsettling was the effigy on the very top of the fountain. It was Twilight, her wings bare and plucked clean of all feathers, horn snapped and legs shackled, the fetid liquid draining from her lips. At the sight of it Spike’s skin crawled violently, as if there were snakes underneath his scales. Something about the effigy disturbed him more than anything else so far.

“It’s just a statue…” He told himself, reaching for the candle next to his bed.

There was no candle; instead there was four floating candelabras near the ceiling, lit with Twilight’s signature purple-pink flames. The lighting cast the effigy atop the fountain in elongated shadows, stretching across the floor and painted across the shelves in various depictions of agony. Spike did his best to ignore it all, but somewhere in his heart he knew that this was chipping away at what little courage he had left. Not to mention his sanity.

“Just find Twilight.” He said, standing, praying she wasn’t too far gone by the time found her.

The way to the basement was gone, and the only way to go was upstairs unless he went out the front door. With his destination decided, Spike set towards the stairs. Halfway there he stopped, looking back towards the front door. He could have sworn that somepony had knocked. It was so faint that he couldn’t even tell if it had been real. Was he losing his mind just as fast as Twilight was? Deciding to verify his own sanity, he walked over to the front door. There it was again, so faint that one could hardly hear it over the sloshing of the grisly fountain. With slight hesitation he turned the handle, imagining what other horrible creations of Twilight’s subconscious were behind it.

“I was knocking for ten minutes.” Luna griped, striding inside impatiently. “What’s all this? I told you to stay by her until I got here, Spike.”

Spike let out his held breathe, relieved beyond words to have somepony to help him. For a moment he thought that it would just be him trapped inside this artificial hell. “You’ve got no idea how glad I am to see you, Luna. I mean, uh, Princess.”

“Just address me as Luna, its fine.” The alicorn said, conjuring a scarf for herself. “It is miserably cold in here. Where is she? And… may I ask what that awful stench is?” She asked, doing her best not to express her disgust. “It smells like a compost heap.”

Spike only pointed to the fountain, and the corrupted idol that stood atop it. “I think she’s upstairs. The last time I went up there she was sleeping.”

“Oh… I see. This is pretty far along. We need to find her, soon. I’m not sure that she’s not already lost to us, but I need to be sure. In the letter, my sister told Twilight not to eat anything, yes?”

Spike nodded. “She said it would make her sick if she-“

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, my sister lies.” Luna hissed in distaste. “She wanted to keep Twilight weak so that she’d be easier to handle when she gets here. Whenever she even planned to visit, if that was even her intention. Unfortunately for poor Twilight it’s only making her weaker mentally, not physically. It’s forcing her to succumb faster. I think I have a way to bring her back from this, but I have to warn you it’s not going to be very pretty. It’s the best shot we’ve got, though. Follow me.”

With that the mare attempted to conjure a lamp to better see in the dimly lit room. She took a hasty step back when her newly conjured oil lamp erupted into flames, which then leapt towards the fountain. The liquid in the fountain erupted into flames, arcing into a huge pillar of fire, the idol perched amidst the embers, suffering amongst the destruction. Luna didn’t attempt to summon another. Instead she continued on her way up the stairs, muttering curses under her breathe.

When they reached the obsidian gates they swung open to their own accord, revealing the new setting for their meeting. Thick tar, the same stench and consistency of the one at the fountain, covered the ground. Tall trees, roots embedded in the soil hidden beneath the swamp, blocked any attempt for the moon to shine light on the clearing. The hollow was made by roots, which were weaved together into walls. On the other side of the pool of decay was Twilight, laying on a bed of reeds. She was almost unrecognizable. Luna herself looked slightly taken aback by her appearance.

Twilight stared at them with deep bruises around her eyes, which barely focused at the sight of the princess. No spark of warmth lit them. If it was anypony else looking at her they would have a hard time recognizing that she was a sentient being. Her expression was glazed over, lost. The only interest she displayed was in the way the tar reacted to Luna’s hooves. Luna walked on top of the murky liquid, whereas Spike had to wade his way through it, chest deep in the cold, slimy substance.

“Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said to get her attention. “Do you recognize me?”

Twilight blinked, the glazed expression leaving her. “Leave. Now.” She said, resting her head on her hooves like a wildcat. “It’s too late for you to help me now.”

“The fact that you are speaking to me tells me otherwise.” Luna said, walking towards the other mare as slowly as possible. “I came here to help. Do you remember the letter that Celestia sent you just two brief days ago?”

“Ye-… okay… no.” Twilight confessed, sitting up. “But I still remember the gist of what it said.”

“Do you remember it telling you to not eat?” Luna asked.

“Yes.”

Slowly, as to avoid alarming her, Luna lit her horn and summoned a simple cup of tea, hot and fresh from the kettle. It seemed so out of place there that Spike had a hard time convincing himself it was real. The princess held it out to her, offering the beverage to the deranged mare.

“I think that, since things have changed, it would be best if you were reminded what it’s like to be mortal. I know it might seem… frivolous, but it goes a long way towards settling the nerves.”

“But Celestia told me that-“

“That was two days ago, Twi.” Spike spoke up, hoping his word would convince her. “You need your strength if you’re going to get through this. I want you to drink it.”

Twilight looked from Luna to Spike, taking the tea from the princess. She looked at the cup suspiciously, as if it might be poison. Deciding it was safe, she took a light sip. Luna turned to Spike, giving him the unspoken signal that he might not want to see what was going to happen next. He quickly looked at a tree branch with a snake sliding over it. As much as he trusted Luna, he couldn’t help but look over at what she was doing. He regretted it immediately.

Twilight had thrown all composure out the window and was chugging the bottomless cup of tea, ravenously gulping the sweet substance. She didn’t seem to care that it was running down her front or that she was starting to cry. She was occupied with sating a thirst that had built up over the last week. Luna shook her head, trying to get her to stop drinking. Twilight didn’t react to her. Then, just when Spike thought that Luna was going to take the cup from her, Twilight stopped. Just before she doubled over, vomiting the gallon and a half of sweet tea she’d just downed.

“Oh you poor dear…” Luna said, rubbing her back as she purged her stomach. “I tried to tell you.”

Spike busied himself with turning a twig over in his claws, blocking out the sounds of Twilight being sick and Luna trying to comfort her. He didn’t know which was worse, that he’d looked, or that he would never be able to get the image of Twilight behaving like an animal out of his head. Once he couldn’t hear his mentor puking anymore he turned to see her resting her head on Luna’s shoulder, crying like a lost filly. He’d never seen her so vulnerable. Every memory he had of her was her being so strong, iron-willed. Now here she was, fractured and weak. It felt shameful to look at her in such a state, so he turned and gazed at his feet.

“Spike dear, head downstairs and make her something to eat.” Luna said, wrapping her wing around Twilight. “Make sure it’s light.”

Spike did as he was told, hurrying out of the chamber. Something he noticed as he passed through the library was that it was yet again back to normal. No fountain spewed tar, and the books were bound in every color of the rainbow. The wood under his feet had returned to its light brown-tan hue, and the stairs were yet again wood. For the first time in a week, things were back to normal. Twilight herself seemed to be back to a normal, albeit downcast, mental state. All in the brief time that Luna had been there. Even by his standards for a princess, that was impressive.

Shortly after he arrived in the kitchen Luna followed, Twilight beside her. He busied himself with making her a salad while Luna sat her down, hoping to get her comfortable enough to talk to her. Spike finished what he was doing and sat down beside Twilight, Luna opposite them. Twilight ate slowly, tentatively lifting the fork with magic and taking a single leaf at a time. Luna nodded, glad that Twilight was back to normal. It would make the conversation they were about to have a lot easier.

“So… dear. I know that this hasn’t been the easiest time for you, but you have to realize that you’re being very… open about what your thoughts and concerns are. Especially when they’re showing up in the world around you. I saw some things before I went upstairs to see you and they’re… a cause for concern, one would say. If there’s anything you need to tell us, in no way are you shaming yourself by doing so. Spike and I are both here for you, remember that.”

Twilight swallowed the leaf of lettuce she was eating and struggled to keep from shivering. It wasn’t that she was actually cold, but that she was appalled at herself. She had lost everything she stood for. Even though it had only lasted a brief ten seconds, it was horrifying for her to look back and realize that she’d behaved like a complete animal. In front of Luna and Spike, a pony and a dragon she respected more than all the others. She wouldn’t have minded if it was Applejack or Rarity, they’d seen her in plenty of sad states before. But Spike… Spike was different. And Luna was a princess, royalty she’d acted like a beast in front of. She decided that, in the wake of what just happened, she would be better off warning them if she was going to have an episode.

“Look… you two are two of the most important ponies that I know.” Twilight said, setting her fork down. “Without you two, I don’t know if I’d even be sane enough to talk to you right now. And Luna… I understand that offering me food was a way to bring me back, but that was… awful. If you can find another way to do it next time, please don’t ask before you do.”

“I apologize, but I didn’t know how far gone you were. I simply used the most effective means I could.” Luna shrugged, being perfectly honest.

“Anyways, I want to tell you guys that… I’m afraid. I’m afraid that when all this is done, I won’t be the mare that I was anymore. I’m afraid I’ll turn into the next Discord or Chrysalis. That in the process of transforming, I’ll become something… awful. And I’ll try and hurt the ponies that I hold dear. Like Spike, or you, Luna. Or any of my friends. For a second there I thought that it might just be best if I… chained myself, snapped my horn, and made sure that I never hurt anypony ever again. I nearly hurt Spike just yesterday. I was going to… do unspeakable things to him when I found him reading your letter. But then something else happened and I had one of these insane personality changes.

I’m also afraid that, once I’m done transforming, I’ll be carted off to Canterlot and made to be a princess like you. That I’ll never see any of my friends again, or Spike, or anypony I truly care about. To add to everything is that, now, I have to live forever. I have to live long enough to watch the rest of my friends grow old and pass while I’m still here, alive in the prime of my youth. Plus there’s the fact that even then I could become like you, Luna. I could become the next Nightmare Moon. Just… break. Like glass…” She said, tearing up.

“Gosh… dear.” Luna said, handing her a tissue. “I never remember having to worry about any of those things. Celestia and I never had any close friends. We spent so long on our own, and Immortality just seemed… natural. But I can tell you that there is no way that I’d let Celestia take you away from your friends. You will be able to spend as much time with them as you want... Not even Discord would ever be so cruel.”

“Anyways… I guess that I was scared, and I got lost. I was hungry, and sad and afraid I’d never see anypony I loved ever again. So I lost it. I can’t really say any more than that.” She finished, dabbing her eyes and handing the kerchief back to Luna, who promptly made it disappear. “So… what are you doing here Luna? I never remember inviting you.”

“I was… invited. Cordially, by your young assistant.” The princess said, nodding towards Spike.

The young dragon did his best to avoid Twilight’s gaze, afraid she might still be mad at him for going against her rules. By the way she had acted last night in the cellar, she had been on the brink of violence with him when she’d learned of his secret messages with the other alicorn. He was hoping that, in light of the recent circumstances, and how quickly things were changing, she would forgive him.

Instead of commenting on that, Twilight sighed and smiled, still looking at Luna. “Yeah… he does things like that sometimes. I know he worries about me a lot, even when it’s not really necessary.”

The princess looked at her gravely, adopting a serious tone into her normally casual voice. “What Spike did was in every way necessary, Twilight. If anything you owe him a thank you, and an immense amount of gratitude. He was worried sick enough to know that going against everything you’d taught him was the only way to save you. He must love you very much to ensure your well -being like that, especially at the cost of his own personal reputation. “

Twilight looked down at her hooves, taken back by just how much Spike had done for her in the hindsight. How much he had tolerated, and how much it must have hurt him to see her this way. He’d been more influenced by the last few days than he had the whole time he’d been in Ponyville, possibly in the whole time she’d known him. So, even though it required her to unbend her already wounded pride, she turned to Spike and leaned down, looking him in the eyes.

“I’m sorry about… all this. About telling you to do things that you knew were wrong, and demanding that you sit back and watch me fade away when you had the power to save me. I can’t even imagine what it was like, seeing me like that, but refusing to accept help. All the while I wasted away in front of you. I’m… sorry. And really grateful that, for once, you didn’t do what you were told.”

With that Twilight leaned down and planted a light kiss on his cheek, a tear hovering at the corner of her eye. She didn’t want to think about how she’d acted. She lacked the will to even bring up the sickening incident that had happened only a half an hour ago. She wanted to focus on what would happen next. Spike sat flabbergasted, holding the spot where’d she’d kissed him. It was as if the spot on his scales were now branded, and he would never be able to forget that tiny half-a-second where her lips and met his cheek. Luna brought them both back with a hearty clap of her hooves and jovial smile.
“Now that we’ve all made nice, I suppose we can all focus on what’s important now.” The Princess exclaimed, beaming at Twilight and her noble, starstruck young apprentice. “Just how to explain this to everypony you know, and eventually the rest of Ponyville. And after that, the world.”

Twilight, whom had just a moment ago been completely at ease, blinked twice, as if she hadn’t even heard her.

Then she fainted.

Author's Note:

Believe it or not, in this chapter Luna originally spilled the beans, and Celestia turned up just before Twilight snapped and the two had an epic duel to the death. But then I stopped and thought ‘Wow, that was a great chapter, but what do I do now?! You can’t really get a better climax to a story besides that, and it’s pretty hard to top myself after something so awesome.’ So in the end, I cut it in exchange for better atmosphere and suspense. Everypony loves great fights but in the end it’s what makes the story better, and a story ending prematurely is anything but that. So, that scene was cut, and Luna keeps the string on the bag tight instead of spilling the beans to the already emotionally compromised Twilight.

Now to the stuff that really happened. Firstly, there was the Effigy. That thing actually featured in the nightmare that I had about Twilight locking herself away forever because she was afraid of what she was becoming (YAY, NIGHTMARES!). And that thing scored deep. In a way I wanted to draw it and make it the title cover for the fic, but then I stopped and told myself there was no way in heck that I had the talent. Or the cruel mind to burn that into the corneas of my readers. So there’s that story. Then there was Twilight totally losing her cool in front of Luna and Spike. In a way, that one was very heat-of-the-moment writing, and it all came to me in a rush. The way it felt then wasn’t comparable to any of the times that I re-wrote it, so the original copy stayed. I really wanted to nail home the importance of expressing that Twilight is being broken down as a unicorn, and shedding every outer layer she has in front of two of the characters she loves most. Trust me, before the end of this fic, she will land herself in a lot of situations, each much worse than anything you’ve seen so far. (I know my audience is squeamish. They may have, maybe, probably have been grossed out, this is me trying to pat them on the back).

I left the whole chapter off with Twilight coming to the realization that she had to, in the midst of battling psychosis and keeping herself from strangling Spike, explain to her friends what was going on. Then, after that was over, she had to worry about news getting out about her being an alicorn, until the whole town knew. Then she had to deal with all of Equestria knowing. They would expect her to be like Luna and Celestia. Royalty, stable and fair in all things, when in reality she is anything but. They would want her to be a ruler and make decisions for other people when she doesn’t even have the willpower to control herself around food at the moment. It would be like taking a person fresh from the mental institution and crowning them the king or queen of the most prosperous country in all of existence. Basically, what would be expected of her would far outweigh her current abilities. So at the last moment she fainted in the face of this overwhelming tidal wave of realization.

Well, that wraps up this chapter. I hope you enjoyed Luna’s Arrival, I’ll see you guys down there on the comments board. Or you can PM me, if that’s more your style. However you contact me, I’d love to answer any questions you throw at me (Outside of handing out spoilers) and sometimes even a little criticism is nice. But if you want just want to say my story’s cool, please explain why. It helps me make future chapters better if I can figure out what my readers like best.

See you next chapter!

Comments

[KARLOS1234IFY]

Poor Twilight.

[Smurf]

damn poor Twi good thing Spike and Luna was there

[Freya_is_my_cat]

poor poor poor poor poor twi

[MooseWhisker]

I feel like there’s a lot of things that happened in your head that you forgot to actually put into the story. You kept alluding to things that had apparently happened that I had no memory of reading.

Oh, and how tf are Spike and Luna the “two most important ponies” in Twilight’s life. I would think it would be Spike and Celestia, but you seem to be going with an evil Celestia for some reason.