The Curse of Discord

by Creative Charmer

Chapter 8: A Disease of the Mind 2/2

After coming inside the library and closing the door, Twilight's cheerful expression faded. She began to act as dejected as she had really been feeling the whole time while talking to her friends. Twilight started to feel the recurring pain again, but it was only a fraction of what she had felt before. This time it felt like more of a normal headache. She places her hoof on her forehead and tries to cope with the intermediate pain.

Spike now noticed Twilight looking disconsolate, and became concerned. "Twilight, are you okay?"

Twilight wasn't very focused on what was happening around her, but she soon snapped to attention. "What..? Oh; it's nothing, Spike."

"Oh, come on, Twilight. I know that you never actually mean it when you say nothing's wrong. Something's making you feel bad and I want to know what it is!" he said with gruffness.

Twilight looked towards Spike for a few moment, and then she sighed, knowing she couldn't deceive Spike any longer. "You're right, Spike. I didn't want you or anypony else to worry, but I've been feeling pain in my head that's been going on and off for quite a while now," she said as she cringed.

"Pain?" Spike queried. "What kind of pain?"

"The pain has always come in the form of a headache each time I have felt it. So far I have experienced several degrees of these headaches—some more agonizing than others," Twilight explained, sounding quite distressed.

"Woah..." Spike couldn't believe that Twilight had been going through such hardships without saying a word to anybody. "...how are you feeling now?"

"Right now, it's not that bad of a headache, but it still hurts very much," she cringed a bit again.

"How long has this been going on for?"

"I believe the first occurrence was right before I made Fluttershy trip on that rock. After that, I've just been feeling it at random times, each time feeling a different headache than the previous one," Twilight's face quickly turned to a grimace, stung by the memory of causing pain to her dear friend. "And when I shouted at you and the others...it felt even worse..." With Twilight feeling so bad, Spike walked over to her and placed his hand on her leg to show his concern. "I still can't imagine why I would do such terrible things. I mean, it isn't like me at all to act out in such cruel manners."

"Well, I have to agree that I've never seen you act like that before, but I'm sure nobody holds anything against you," Spike said as he patted Twilight's leg.

"It doesn't matter if they do or not. The point is that I projected my anger onto my friends, and that is not something that anyone should ever do," she said as she shook her head, feeling more anguished than ever.

Spike hated seeing Twilight like this, and tried to think of anything at all that would ease her troubled self. "...well..maybe it won't happen again."

"Well..maybe...but I'm still doubtful that a problem such as this would just simply 'go away'," she dropped her head down once more, lacking any confidence that she would be able to get through this troubled time. Spike was unsure of what else he could say to ease the tension that encompassed twilight, but still felt that he had to do something. Before he could make a response, Twilight had lifted her head back up again. "You know, Spike, there's one other thing about these pains that I didn't tell you."

"Really? What?"

"Well, it's very strange, and I don't know how to explain it, but..whenever I caused one those incidents—it didn't feel like it was me who was doing any of it," Spike looked astonished to hear this new circumstance. "To me it felt like...it was somepony else made me do those terrible things. Somepony who forced me to trip Fluttershy and be mean to my friends," a single tear fell from Twilight's eye.

"But who or what could, or would, make you do something like that?"

"I don't know, Spike...I just don't know..." Twilight was feeling exceptionally terrible right now, and she was afraid that she was going to feel yet another headache, and now was especially not a time when she needed to feel that kind of unbearable pain. "You know, Spike, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm really not feeling like dictating a letter to the princess right now."

Spike was even more shocked than he was before. "You really don't want to write a letter? But you love doing homework!"

"I know, Spike, but after all that's happened, I'm just not in the mood..." Spike was genuinely concerned for Twilight, since she had never been in a situation where she would willingly choose not to write a letter to Princess Celestia. He knew she must be in a lot of distress at the moment to be feeling such a way. "If it's all right with you, Spike, I'm just going to go to bed now," Spike was also surprised to hear this, but seeing how bad Twilight was feeling, he didn't want to put any more tension on her by talking about it.

"Well, if you say so, Twilight. I'll stay here and continue my chores while you go and rest up."

"Thank you, Spike," Twilight responded, sounding a bit better. "We can write the letter tomorrow, after I'm feeling better," Twilight then turned and walked through the door into her room. After closing the door, her face grew saddened again. "I hope."

Twilight walked up the stairs and got into bed. Still feeling troubled from everything that happened, she found it quite difficult to fall asleep, with so many aching thoughts in her head. She tossed and turned, trying to get herself comfortable, but she could not force herself to fall asleep, no matter how badly she wanted to. She then turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "Come on, Twilight. Don't let all these bad thoughts get to you. Just remember what a good day tomorrow will be, and your troubles will melt away," Twilight took her own advice, and began focusing her mind on what enjoyable times she would have with her friends tomorrow, and it starts to work. The storms in her mind begin to dissipate, easing her troubled self and calming her to much more soothed state of mind. Twilight smiles, happy to get over the dreadful pain that ailed her so, and she quietly and peacefully drifts off to a nightly slumber.

For a while Twilight had been sleeping peacefully, but later on in the night, all was not well in her dreams, which were transgressing into the forms of nightmares. Inside her dream world, Twilight was surrounded by an endless veil of darkness. She was standing in the midst of it all, confused and frightened as to where she was. Even though she appeared to be alone, she felt a chill go up her spine, spawned from what felt to be a looming presence nearby. Twilight looked around, trying to see if there really is anypony watching her, but the everlasting darkness that surrounded her made distinguishing any object in the vicinity entirely impossible. Outside of her dreams, Twilight was also not doing well. She looked quite distressed, and was sweating excessively. She continued to toss and turn, kicking off her blanket as her tormenting dream continued.

Twilight had been feeling that she was not alone in her dream, but was unable to confirm this conjecture. But then, she became fully aware somepony else was accompanying her dream when she was startled by a noise. Regrettably, Twilight could not decipher what type of noise she was hearing. But, as the noise became more prevalent, it could be heard more clearly, and then Twilight became vastly alarmed when she realized that the noise was—a voice. A faint, ominous voice echoed from the dark void that engulfed her, and she could not discern what direction the voice was emanating from. Every time she turned around, the voice appeared to stem from an alternate direction, as if she was surrounded by voices.

As the voice became more clear, it began to sound a bit familiar, but also unfamiliar. The voice sounded like a garbled mix of two voices, which made it difficult for Twilight to comprehend what it was the voice was attempting to say.

"...Twiiiliiight..."

The voice grew louder and clearer each time it spoke.

"Twiiiiliiiight..."

Twilight's fear amplified each time she heard the voice.

"Twiiiiliiiight..."

"Wh—who's there?" Twilight asked with fear, as she was feeling great trepidation at this time.

"Twiiiiiiillllliiiiiiiight..."

"Who are you? Why do you keep talking to me?" Twilight fearfully searched the vicinity as she spoke, desperately endeavoring to locate the whereabouts of the voice's origin.

For a short time, the voice had ceased to speak, and there was absolute silence. This did not make Twilight feel any more at ease, as she felt that something, or someone, would soon emerge from the darkness, and even though she expected it, she knew in her mind that would not be ready for it. Then, without warning, a dark mist blew in, encircling Twilight as she filled with panic at what to expect next. As she frantically looked around, her eyes were drawn one part of the mist that was increasing in size. She watched as bulge in the most began to take shape, including growing arms, appendages in its head, and most notably, two large, red, menacing eyes that looked down on Twilight with unmitigated malevolence. Twilight became more frightened than ever before, and she hastily ran away from the figure as fast as she could. But, after running away, the mist easily caught up with her, and the figure reformed in front of her once more. Twilight was both shocked and horrified, and she took off in a different direction, but the figure pursued her yet again.

No matter how fast Twilight would run or where she would run, the figure would catch up to her every time, rearing up before her and gazing down upon her with its eyes that pierced through her very heart. She ran away once more, but this time the figure did not reappear to block her. This time, it followed her, talking all the while.

"You can't escape it, Twiiillliiiight...It's going to happen, and you can't stop it..."

"No!! leave me alone!!"

"You can run all you like, but you will never be able to run away from this..."

"Stop it!!"

Finally, the figure moved ahead of Twilight and obstructed her route. However, when Twilight tried to run away, a second identical form of the figure appeared to block her. Each time she ran for an open spot, the figure created another duplicate, until Twilight was completely surrounded. Twilight gazed at each of the apparitions with unremitting dread. Then, all of the figures began to slowly close in on Twilight. Not wanting anything dreadful to happen to her, Twilight finally tried to fight back with her magic, but when she tried to shoot at the figures, her magic wouldn't work. Twilight was in utter shock that her horn's magic ceased to be. As she looked back up at the figures, she felt totally and completely helpless as the figures got closer, and closer, and closer, until Twilight's entire being was wholly engulfed by the malicious darkness.

Comments

[Brony_Jim]

I'm 10 chapters into this story when I realize that the plot synopsis for it has revealed more than the story itself. I feel like the first chapter should have covered everything the synopsis started talking about.

Also, I think you need to work on your writing technique a bit more. While it conveys what is occuring, it fails to do so in a clear flowing manner. Some more, clever use of descriptive words to define movement and interactions would be helpful. This kind of writing ability is gathered from experience and I'm sure you'll grasp it more as you write.

Just wanted to share my two cents. I don't mean to offend.

[Creative Charmer]

1864085

Hmm, I probably shouldn't have made the synopsis so big.