Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

by Broseph_Stalin

Solitary Shell

Chapter VI. - Solitary Shell: Briar Bush

"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."

-Hans Margolius

. . . .

Twilight joined the doctor as they journeyed back inside the hospital. As they entered the rumpus room, her eyes rested keenly on a brown stallion that sat scribbling away madly with magic into a very large book. She stopped, smiling, and pondered at what she saw before her.

He seemed no different from the rest. Twilight's eyes hardened as she focused on his wildly-flailing quill. Just a healthy, normal pony. Content that he seemed regular enough, she started to step forward to talk to a fellow wordsmith.

Doctor Glass stepped up behind her. “Ah, I see you’ve found Briar Bush,” he commented lightly. Twilight stopped in place.

“Yes,” she answered, and turned around to face the doctor. “But he doesn’t even look like there is anything wrong with him, doctor. In fact, I was going to go talk to him about what he's writing. I always enjoy talking with other authors.” A large grin spread across her face at the thought.

“You might be surprised, Twilight.” He looked up past Twilight, a private smile spreading across his sawdust-colored face. He glanced up, and then looked back to his guest. "Here, watch now, if you will," and he pointed gently in the direction of another pony that had walked into the room. Twilight and turned back around to look to whatever the doctor was indicating.

A rosy mare, a patient dressed in yellow plainclothes, had stopped directly in front of him. The stallion was fast at work; his thoughts were ablaze as his horn sparked to keep up with the furious amounts of writing he had been doing. He looked up suddenly with a jolt, as though he had been shaken awake from a dream.

The mare smiled widely, a milk-white wildflower grasped in between her teeth. The flower looked as though it had been rooted from out of the ground in the garden, as clumps of loamy dirt still clung to the ripped out roots. The mare's misty azure eyes seemed to steal Briar's very breath away as he squirmed incessantly.

“Hi,” she said plainly, her mouth still full of flower and her mind far away. “Hi. Hi. Hello,” she said over and over again. The brown unicorn's mind was in a blind panic, and he stumbled around as it tried to fix this inexcusable interruption in his story.

"I got this for you." The rosy mare dropped the flower she had been holding in her mouth onto the paper that Briar had been working on. Bits of dirt spilled on the paper, and stained the virginal alabaster parchment. Briar's mouth went agape in a look of intense horror at the action.

"You can be my coltfriend now, right Briar?" The quirky mare merely looked slightly past a stunned Briar, and her smile was a goofy crack across her face that betrayed her simple mind.

“T-t-Tear D-Drop!” he stammered dumbly to the white-garbed guard. As quickly as he called, the large, snowy stallion came over to escort the mare away from Briar.

“Come on now, Matilda, let’s leave Briar alone okay? Let’s go see what’s going on outside,” Twilight heard Tear Drop say calmly as the two walked outside. The mare's eyes got moist as she was led away.

"B-but I was askin' Briar to be my coltfriend, Tear Drop. Oh-honest! I even g-got a flower for 'im." Matilda simpered as she was led outside.

"Mm-hmm, that's right, ma'am. But he's usually busy, so I don’t think he could be a very good coltfriend for a gal like you, okay Matil’..." The assistant's deep voice trailed off as the pair disappeared behind the wide screen door outside.

Finally contented that he was to be left well enough alone, Briar jumped back to where he had left off with a methodical twitch of his right hoof, and a shiver of his tail. Back to the furious scribbling.

"A normal pony, would you say, Twilight?" came the doctor's voice behind the addressed unicorn. Twilight merely glanced back with a deeply puzzled look on her face. That was certainly not what she had expected.

"A first glance certainly isn't the best to go off, now is it?" the doctor chuckled. Twilight's face became even more confused as the doctor's words revealed that there was more to the simple statement than what he let on. “Here, I’ll start from the beginning so you can understand, okay?” Twilight nodded affirmative. The doctor cleared his throat patiently.

“Well, his mother always did her best, and he was daddy’s pride and joy. He learned to walk and talk on time, you see, but, he never cared much to be held.” His face dropped slightly. “And, steadily, he would decline into a solitary shell.

“As a colt, he was considered somewhat odd. Kept to himself most of the time. He would daydream in and out of his own world…But in every other way he was fine,” the doctor said, adding particular emphasis on his last word. Twilight nodded along.

“He’s…well, a Monday morning lunatic. Disturbed from time to time, he's simply lost within himself...in his solitary shell. A temporary catatonic madman, on occasion, if you will,” he finished with a chuckle.

Twilight looked on at the brown pony with a face etched in deep concern.

“When will he break out of his solitary shell?”

Doctor Glass shrugged.

“Nopony could say for sure. It all started out normally, but soon he struggled to get through his day, and he was helplessly behind. So, he poured himself on the page,” he said, indicating with a hoof at the intense writing that Briar was working on. “He just sits there, writing for hours at a time.” The doctor's aged face dropped again slightly. He began again with a sigh.

“As a stallion he was a danger to himself…Fearful and sad most of the time, he was drifting in and out of sanity. Eventually, his parents passed away, and left him in our care indefinitely. We have found that he cannot form solid connections with another pony. We even have to switch out therapists every few weeks. But, again, in every other way he is perfectly fine.”

Twilight pulled her PP-DSM-IV manual from out of her pack with a sparkle of magic, and flipped through the pages methodically. Finally she stopped, scanning the page.

“Schizoid Personality Disorder?” she asked carefully. Dr. Glass nodded.

“Yes. Well, to a certain degree. We are still learning more about him and his life through therapy.”

Twilight scanned the page further, reading over her notes.

A momentary maniac, Twilight reflected to herself, with casual delusions.

When will he be let out of his solitary shell?

She looked to Briar again, who paused for a brief moment to ink his quill and turn the large, blank page of the book he was writing. She was struck with an arresting sensation as she wondered with a feeling of disquiet how a pony could lose such a large part of themselves, only to retain the brilliant ability to think and live in an entirely fictional world.

And boy, she thought to herself, does this strike home. With almost a physical wince, she grimaced as she thought to her own writings. Of course, she loved to write, but what could it possibly be like to be stuck like this for your entire life? Was mad brilliance worth any price, including permanent solitude?

Twilight sighed.

Another thought to add to today's seemingly unending pile, she thought morbidly, and followed the doctor out through the colorful rumpus room.

Comments

[Pleaseworkforonce]

wow next day update

[MisterMoniker]

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

[Broseph_Stalin]

883958
Get out of here, you.

[moviemaster8510]

I edited the entire second half of this album into an entire song for my iPod, and I got to see DT perform War Inside My Head and The Test That Stumped Them All live a couple of weeks ago. I can seriously cannot think of a more musically godlike band such as Dream Theater. Bless you and your amazing taste in music.