Shining Armor solemnly levitated a candle to place it on a low table near the fireplace. The small flame joined a few others standing at attention in front of a large, black-framed picture of myself, surrounded by flowers. He seemed to whisper a few words, his whole body shaken by sporadic sobs. After a couple of seconds, he backed away from the display to take a seat next to Cadance, where the two hugged. My parents were nearby, embracing each other in a perfect mirror of their son and his wife. All four were shedding tears and occasionally patting their backs for comfort.
“W-wha…” I stammered.
They were mourning.
“Wha-What?” I snarled through gritted teeth.
They were holding a funeral wake. For me.
“What. What…” I lost sight of them for a moment, a blinding flash of light smothering the scene playing before my eyes.
“WHAT IS THIS!?” I screamed as soon as my teleportation into the room was complete, the instinctive, barely-controlled burst of magic displacing and scattering the table and its contents into a room-wide shower of splinters.
The various gasps and panicked cries caused by my explosive irruption were all mostly drowned out by the ear-splitting scream that my mother made before fainting.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I screamed to those who were still conscious as they scrambled away from me. My father dragged his wife with him as he scurried away, while Shining took position between them and I. He bore a neutral expression, the one he had practiced during his training and the years of service as a guard. The ‘duty’ expression, the one that meant business. I could still see the fear in his eyes, though.
“How dare you?” I asked, my ears splaying back. “How dare you act like I’m dead? How could you of all ponies believe those lies? Who told you I was dead?”
“Stand back, who- whatever you are!” Shining barked at me when I took a step forward. He even went so far as to charge magic into his horn.
The seconds stretched, our eyes locked and unflinching.
The fireplace was reflected in his eyes, from somewhere behind me. A flash of purple was visible when he snarled at me.
“How dare you take my sister’s identity, monster? Don’t you have any respect for the dead?
“I’m not dead!” I screamed, the cry loud enough to reverberate faintly in the room.
I lowered my tone to barely more than a whisper. “Who told you I was dead?” I asked once more.
“No one! I... I did. My eyes…” His face fell a bit, a crease forming on his brow as he looked down at the ground with sorrow. “My eyes told me she was dead when I found her in the ruins of that Canterlot University lab. My hooves told me she was… dead when I picked up her cold, limp body. My heart told me she was gone when we put her in her tomb!” Tears were streaming down his face when he looked back up at me. “So whatever you are, you are not my sister! Twilight is dead!”
Never in my life had I seen my brother cry. Not those pitiful, pathetic tears at least. Never in all these years had I heard his voice so… broken and defeated. My brother had never acted that way. My real brother.
“Oh,” I said, “I see. They got to my family already. Of course.”
I took a step forward.
Shining Armor immediately raised a shield to block my path. Cadance was charging up her own horn, though she did not seem to know what she even planned to do with that magic. My mother was still splayed unconscious across the legs of my father, the latter pressed against the wall and staring at me while both shaking his head and clutching it.
Impostors.
Filthy lookalikes.
“My family”, I began, “my real family, I mean, would never betray me like this.” I took another step. “My family would never have agreed to participate in this… disgusting charade,” I pressed my nose to the shield and locked eyes with my so-called brother. “So where are they?”
“W-what? You…” His eyes narrowed. “You come in here, pretending to be my dead sister, while we’re mourning her, and you’re actually implying we are fakes?”
“Where. Is. My. Family.”
“We’re right here you deranged monster!”
I never knew pure anger could facilitate spellcasting so much. I barely felt the slip between dimensions when I teleported through his shield. And despite earlier worries about my reserves, I almost didn’t even register the drain when I emptied half of my magic into a pure discharge of ambient mana.
Fun thing about unicorns –or alicorns, for that matter- : we can actually sense the general level of ambient magic. Variations in that level are fairly easy to acclimate to, but in the case of say, a top-tier magic user suddenly flooding a room with more magic at once than most unicorns use in a whole year, the effect is roughly similar to a punch right in the horn.
I didn’t give ‘Shining’ any time to recover before delivering an actual punch to his horn, bringing him to his knees with a cry. To be honest, at that point I had stopped thinking about my own actions. I just wanted those impostors to suffer. Having them tell me where they kept my real family would be a nice bonus of course, but the punishment came first. I tackled him, throwing us both to the ground where I landed on top of him and began hammering at his face and neck with my hooves.
“Where! Family! Who! How! Why! Are! You! D-this! AAAH!” Words stumbled out of my mouth with every strike, each one a part of a sentence that my anger couldn’t even let me finish or follow coherently. I could not tell for how long I kept this up. The anger, and no doubt a fair bit of adrenaline, dulled my sense to almost everything; even the blows he gave me in retaliation felt like gentle taps.
I might have continued this for a while, the fury in my mind fueling my violence to the point where I didn’t even feel myself tiring. Aside from my indignant, disjointed shouts, I wasn’t nearly out of breath as much as I would have expected from such a physical activity. I could have done this all night.
And I probably would have, were it not for a sudden shout of “Leave him alone!” immediately followed by a heavy object striking my head with a deafening crash. My head was jerked to the side and a thousand porcelain pieces bloomed in my vision, surging away in the direction I found myself looking at. A deep, orange clay, almost red, one side of which held a layer of shining paint. Light blue with lavender flower motifs. My mother always loved the contrast between the light, gentle outside shell and the deep, vibrant tones of the interior.
As the pieces settled on the ground, I slowly turned my head back towards the obvious thrower. The room was deathly silent, save for the quiet twinkling of the few still-spinning pieces. I didn’t have to raise my voice to make my seething fury known as I spoke to ‘Cadance’.
“That… was my mother’s favorite vase, you BITCH!”
I took a single step towards her.
*ftlp*
The room, despite already being in a state one might consider ‘frozen’, grew even more so. ‘Petrified’ would be an adequate descriptor. I slowly looked down, trying to find the strange purple object I had felt slipping through my mane and seen from the corner of my eye. My gaze traveled down, searching among the red-and-blue debris of the vase until I spotted it.
An ear.
A severed ear, matching the color of my coat, lying on the ground. Bloodless cuts could be seen over most of its surface, although none were as horrifying as the jagged rip where it should have been attached to somepony’s head.
My ear.
NoNoNoNoImpossibleThatCouldn’tBemyseveredearPreposterousWhoCouldEverBelieveThatNoNONowhywasn’titbleedingitshouldhavebeenbleedingIfItWasRealWhichItCouldn’tBeObviouslyBecauseThatWasImpossibleEmpiricallyImpossiblebutIrecognizeditasmyowndidn’tINoNoNoNoNoThatWasALieAnIllusionIdidn’tevenfeelitgetcutoffBecauseTheIllusionWasAHackjobFromAnAmateurFakeFakeFakeFakeBadIllusionFakeEarHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaNotCredibleForAnInstantIWasAliveAndLivingPoniesFeelPainAndLosingAnEarIsPainfulAndIHadn’tFeltAnythingAndErgoIwasdeadIHadBeenTargetedByAnIllusionOrSomethingAndTheRoomWasSpinningAndIHadToGetOutOfHereBeforeIacceptedthetruthFellUnderTheInfluenceOfEvenWorseLiesLiesLiesLiesLiesGetMeOutOfHereOutOfThisNightmareOutOutOut
The window exploded away from me as I plunged through it while simultaneously shooting a beam of magic forward. The instant my hooves touched the ground outside I was already pushing upwards, immediately jumping while my wings pushed down. My take-off was worthy of Rainbow Dash yet it wasn’t nearly fast enough; I also teleported fifty feet straight up to get as far as possible from the sever- To get a clearer view of the castle.
They had so much more power than I could have guessed. They had such reach, such dedication, that they could abduct and replace my entire close family, two members of which were either highly trained or extremely well-defended.
This conspiracy ran deeper than I would have imagined, and much deeper than I would have liked. Someone very powerful was behind this, someone with reach, resources and contacts. Someone whose assets either allowed them to take the very throne of Equestria, or had been acquired by usurping the position some time ago.
Yes. Definitely. The only logical explanation. Yes.
And even if neither she nor her sister were the masterminds, they were beginning to look increasingly like my last hope.
The castle grew closer, its white walls and countless gardens forming a patchwork of blues and blacks punctuated by twinkling pools of light where torches or enchanted lanterns stood to brighten key points along the paths. The windows either reflecting the moonlight or shining from a light within.
It was time to pay the princess a visit.
Okay, fine! I'll post a chapter each day!
But it's not because I love you guys! ...Baka.
Oh damn! She's gonna go to the top, and probably get her ass beat down by a hundred royal guards and Princess Luna.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
hmmmm. I don't know how I feel about this. I mean, I expected the insanity, but I just assumed something would have snapped her out of it by now. It's just that we're over half way through the story (presumably) and nothing has really been accomplished.
This was updated as I read it.
Twilight's checklist
1. Go to friends or families house.
2. Tell them "I'm not dead" and fuck up everything.
3. Leave immediately and try to solve without others help.
4. Repeat.
4840964
4840964
Is it because you hate us and wish to corrupt our souls in the name of Slaanesh... I mean Discord, yeah, Discord is what I meant to say...
So much denial.
4840964
admit it you love us.
Yay for fast updates!
Heh, so: Twilight has lost it. Given the circumstances, and how you explain her increasingly-panicked reasoning behind it all, I am yet to find her reactions unbelievable. Some maybe more unlikely - as the overly-harsh attitude towards AJ - but not unbelievable.
And I'm continuously looking forward to how this will, well, continue.
Rule number one of every encounter with a suspicious individual; if they are emotionally charged and liable to making accusations, they do most likely have intentions different than the ones you perceive. Twilight may be deranged, but every pony in Equestria who has gone through royal guard training should know this
Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.
Shall you lose yourself to anger,
fall instead to that fear of your flesh!
Upon this tower of despair,
blinded by your grief,
you seek,
you flail
and the dread grips you tight and dear.
What a terrible fate,
all this foolishness of which you approach
this cold and restless night.
Awaiting further releases.
4841043
N-No! I hate you!
...Don't leave me!
Oh lord, and even after all that, up to and including a bloodlessly severed ear she is still in denial?
Like I said last chapter, but emphasized a bit stronger since it's gone on longer, this is starting to stress disbelief. Twilight may have her manic moments, but she is still a logical pony at heart and what we're seeing her is less and less Twilight and more and more undead abomination wearing her skin.
Man, she's fucking missed going over the edge, she going into the damn abyss.
...Can't wait for the next one!
4841103 Actually, she's experiencing Major Denial.
Sweet Jesus, I wonder how this is going to end. Surely Celestia or Luna will be able to get through to her... Assuming they themselves are not in denial about it.
This can only end badly
4841098
Agreed. At this point, even if there is some reason for Twilight's behavior (say, the capability for empathy died with her and didn't ressurect), the story seems to have fallen into one of the pitfalls of many "Twilight is consumed by dark magic" stories: Twilight's memories do not a believable Twilight make.
Twilight can still be Twilight even if she does things that the canon Twilight would never do, but such behaviors need to be justified by circumstance and/or character development.
As it stands, I'm struggling to see any of Twilight's empathy, rationality, tendency towards organization and plans, or drive explain things to people she thinks are wrong.
If you take away all of that, we're reading about a creature with Twilight's memories and magic, but not much else. This could be an interesting way to take the story (have it be that memories are stored in the brain, magic somewhere else, but the "soul" left when Twilight originally died), but it'd only be interesting if we got to see more than "now Twilight's an irrational dick".
4841088
ill never leave you
4840964 One day Lord Destrustor-senpai will notice me.
What I can't wrap my head around is that Twilight was able to calm down and think rationally to solve her earlier problems and yet cannot conclude her current one.
1. Prevent magic from leaking.
2. Calm down and exit the coffin in a logical and timely manner.
3. Make a list of all of the facts and theories to come to the conclusion that she has died and yet is still conscious and magical.
(I guess we can just sweep this under the 'denial' rug)
Best of luck, stay healthy, and update soon!
-Sky66
4841098
I'm sorry you feel that way.
I know she seems out of character, but that's... sort of the point.
This is basically the kind of freak out I imagine Twilight having while in the throes of extreme, psychotic denial.
The thing to consider is that even if she was to try to analyze the situation rationally (which she is in no condition to do at the moment), she would have to accept that:
a) Necromancy happened (which, with lines like "zombies don't exist" and "the dead don't come back", she finds at least highly implausible if not utterly impossible.)
b) Everything everyone said is true (which, considering it means that her entire future is gone and all her dreams are as dead as herself, she is very reluctant to accept.)
c) it's not some sort of conspiracy (which, with things like the changelings' near-victory, the enslavement of the entire crystal empire by Sombra, the whole "Tirek single-handedly taking over Equestria" thing, and Discord's immense reality-altering powers and propensity for manipulation, seems much more likely than both 'a' and 'b'.)
A delusional mind doesn't care about facts and such petty things as reality, all that matters is what she wants. She would scour the entire planet for the one thing that proves her point, even if it means ignoring the mountains of evidence otherwise.
But, I guess I can't change your mind if you don't agree, and I'm sorry if my story isn't up to your liking.
The next chapter is the climax, where she snaps out of it. If you still care to read it, I can tell you she isn't irremediably lost.
4830434
You filthy liar.
4841343
Oh good. Because in my opinion, the biggest problem here isn't that Twilight's actions are hard to believe. The biggest problem was that I got bored of reading about Twilight irrationally denying her death and coming up with awful conspiracy theories sometime during the last chapter. So I didn't really find this chapter entertaining at all. And if it goes on much longer, I doubt I'll stick around.
Wait, I just thought of something.
Her resurrection has something to do with that experiment she was doing at the beginning, doesn't it? Even if it wasn't explicitly an 'immortality' experiment or something, it exploded in her face, and exploding experiment + magical alicorn + world where logic and physics don't always work COULD = dead alicorn coming back to life.
4837963 Heheh, thanks. I usually get ranted at for voicing my opinion. It's nice to have someone pleasantly reply to my comment.
4841422 It's not that logic and physics don't always work. It's more that the laws of physics are not the same there as here, and thus 'illogical' things happen there.
4841343 That spoiler does help, in fact. My big concern here was that she was going to continue coming up with wilder and wilder conspiracy theories right up through the end of the story, and never stopping to use that big eggheaded brain of hers to actually think.
Honestly speaking, I suspect I'm still going to end up a little disappointed, but only in that I was hoping to see how Twilight's newfound lich status would play out in the long term, and instead it seems like the story is just going to cover her coming to terms with it. Either way, the chapters are relatively short, and you'd have to do far, far worse things to actually drive me away from reading just two more.
4839471 img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130710154045/cardfight/images/thumb/6/60/Facepalm.png/463px-Facepalm.png
Life question. Why does everyone think dead things would be more powerful than normal, living things? Why do we think like that?
4841429
That name though.
4841498 Usually because the whole 'mind over matter' thing, as it allows people to supersede normal constraints. Dead things usually because of the "lich" aspect or zombies. Can't feel pain, so there is no normal natural body reflex or self preservation.
4841508
To add on to this, the human body is very powerful on it's own, but with many limits.
You hear stories about mothers saving children by lifting cars, which is done under the pressure of the human body in times of stress, but usually too much ends up destroying parts of the body as a result, such as muscles, tendons, can be shredded.
IS it normal if I feel a little bit scared with the crazy Twi part?
Again, I'm really worried now, and I'm hoping for a resolution that doesn't come down to Twilight having to be re-killed.
4841422
I have a suspicion that it was Zecora's meditative technique she used. She removed herself (or spirit self) from her body, then some time later plunged rather dramatically back into it… just her body was slightly less, uhhh, alive when she got back.
4841277
You do remember all those episodes where Twilight went insane, right? Including the wedding, where she could have sat everyone down and had a long discussion rather than screaming out accusations? Or brainwashing an entire town, literally exploding into actual flames, building a decoy Ponyville, cutting off Scootaloo's ear, trying to run a sleep over from an instruction manual, the entire 'magic kindergarten' and 'banished and then imprisoned where she was banished too' and all that?
Twilight's ability to be logical and composed is hit and miss. A few hours of screaming denial and freaking out, even violently, is perfectly in keeping with her OCPD, various neurosises, paranoia and generally having a colony of bats flapping around her belfry.
And she went to the ponies most likely to exacerbate her issues. Fluttershy freaked the hell out, Applejack's pony skills are a bit lacking(the stethoscope was a bit too far too fast) and her family is still grieving. There're numerous other ponies who could've calmed her down her and helped her accept her post life condition.
4841506
4841666
Worm-That-Walks is fun too, just for the sheer horror value.
4841343
It's very tricky trying to envision how a character deals with a situation that's different from their usual day to day villains and humdrum world threatening challenges.
For me, it's not so much that I find Twilight's freak-out unbelievable as I am more interested in getting some pathos out of undead Twilight's reunion with those important to her, and that count-down of chapters at the end of each update shows that time for such things is running out.
4841277
What is WRONG with you people? Do none of you understand the slightest bit of how the sapient mind works? Do you all live sheltered lives where nothing goes completely and totally wrong? How is it so hard to believe this is, actually, the way things play out in an extremely stressful situation? If anything, the fact she's... so organized about this shows that she has a nearly superhuman/equine level of damage control, even in the face of her brain blocking out the fact that she's dead. A fact that she knows and won't let herself admit.
What is so hard to understand about trauma, people? Read the comments, this has all been explained by several of us who actually know what we're talking about - to people who don't and yet still judge things as if they did.
I'm honestly hoping Discord breaks the new to her. I don't know why but I do.
4841714 Ya know....I always wondered if Discord had power over the dead.....if he could bring them back.....it would be EXTREMELY chaotic if he could so.....maybe....
This is really not the direction that I had hoped the story would take. Ill still stick around to see what happens but...to be completely honest...If i knew that this was coming I before started reading, I probably wouldn't have stuck around. Yet I'm still intrigued and I really want to see how this ends now.
I guess I was hoping for a more... "What is happening to me? How did this happen? I'm scared." Approach rather then twilight losing her shit completely and scaring everyone she cares about.
Its still good, and I am really enjoying it still. I just wish the story it had taken a different direction.
4841776 I don't know. His power is the total control of chaos. So I imagine that it would only effect living things. Maybe he could transfer souls...
I'm surprised Twilight hasn't even bothered to check if she looks dead. One look in the mirror is all it would take to change her mind. Then again she'd probably think it was enchanted to do that, along with every other reflective surface in Equestria. They are everywhere!
4841781 WELL then! who to sacrifice.....I have a feeling he'd offer up Celestia and/or Applejack
4841787 THE ILLUMINATI!!
4841787
If they did a half decent funeral, she'd probably look normal or better. No sign she got horribly dismembered/exploded.
Magic, makeup and unlimited royal budget can work wonders.
Luckily for Twi, they didn't go with cremation.