Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero

by GreenS21

Castle Mane-ia Revisited

Zecora was in her hut looking over a weathered tome from her homeland when she heard a frantic tapping on her front door, causing her to look up and turn her head towards it. She wondered who it was, but before she could move or say anything, the door suddenly burst open, a frantic Rainbow Dash landing inside and looking around quickly. Through the open doorway, Zecora could see Spike standing outside, a worried expression on his face.

Rainbow soon noticed Zecora as she walked over to the front door. The zebra had an annoyed look on her face, but Rainbow didn’t notice it. “Zecora, have you seen Twilight today?!” she asked, almost shouting.

Zecora, still looking annoyed, replied, “Rainbow Dash, how nice to see you too, though you’ve yet to give me a ‘hello’ and ‘how do you do?’.”

Rainbow didn’t really heed the zebra pointing out her lack of pleasantries seeing as she didn’t tell the pegasus what she wanted to hear. “Yeah, whatever! Look, something weird happened with Twilight a little while ago and she just ran off without warning! Some of the ponies we asked around town said they saw her running towards the Everfree Forest, so if you’ve seen her, we’d kind of like to know so we can find her and figure out what’s going on with her!” she said.

Spike carefully stepped inside the hut and walked over, standing next to Rainbow. “Please, Zecora. If you saw her at all, please tell us. I don’t know what set her off at Sugarcube Corner, and that’s the worst part. I’ve seen all of Twilight’s highs and lows, but I’ve never seen her show so much terror before. It was nothing like when she’s overstressing about something. I’m really worried about what she might do if we don’t find her.”

Zecora’s annoyance faded as she listened to Spike and watched his nervous shifting. She closed her eyes for a moment to gather her thoughts and opened them, glancing between Spike and Rainbow as she started, “Indeed, I did see Twilight passing through, while I was out collecting ingredients for my brew. Where she went, I do not know, but deeper in the forest, there are only so many places for a pony to go.”

Rainbow asked, “So you saw her run deeper into the forest? Why didn’t you try to stop her?!”

Zecora replied, “Twilight was running very fast, but I still saw her face as she ran past.” She shook her head, “Terror-stricken and full of grief; attempting to stop her would’ve done little good, that is my belief.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “What?”

Zecora turned and walked over to her table while saying, “To help someone through grief requires a special trust, and establishing it is a must.” She looked back at Rainbow and Spike, “Acting at the wrong time or with force will only cause harm. Great care must be taken, or she may buy the farm.” She then turned back to the table and picked up the cup atop it, raising it to her mouth to take a drink.

Rainbow grunted, “Yeah, like Applejack or her family would ever allow that! Come on, Spike! Let’s go get the others!”

Spike asked, “Where are we going?”

Rainbow replied, “There’s only other place in this forest that Twilight would go: The Castle of the Two Sisters! That’s gotta be where she is!” Without another word, she turned and ran out the door, heading back to Ponyville. Spike ran after her, but stopped when he reached the door and looked back at Zecora over his shoulder. She was looking back at him as well and gave him a knowing nod, her expression set. Spike looked at her for a moment after she faced forward again before running out, grabbing the front door and pulling it closed as he went.

________________________________________

Twilight was pacing around the main hall of the Castle of the Two Sisters, her steps rapid as she walked up and down. Her cheeks were streaked with wet lines and her eyes were a bit red, indicating she’d been crying for a while. Try as she might, it seemed she just couldn’t keep her feelings about the past under control anymore due to how she kept muttering to herself as she stared at the floor.

“What will it take…? What can I use…? I don’t… I can’t… What… Why wasn’t I…?” She began to get annoyed by her own mutterings, her light steps becoming more like stomps and her pace slowing. “What was I thinking that night? Why didn’t I do something? As soon as I thought something was wrong, I should’ve… disregarded orders and returned to base immediately. I would’ve… I could’ve… WHY DIDN’T I DO MORE?!” She kicked a piece of rubble as she finished her anguished scream, groaning afterwards and grabbing her hoof with her other hoof, falling over onto her side as she clutched it.

As she lay on the floor, she murmured to herself, “Why…? Why am I here? Why only me? Snake, Miller, Chico, Morpho, Lark, Stag Beetle, Viper… what happened to them? They can’t be gone, can they?” She closed her eyes, “I don’t know how to get back, and months have to have passed by now. I’d never be able to find them.” She let go of her leg and relaxed her body. She looked at her hooves, “They’re all gone. So much blood spilled, and for what? What purpose? What cause?” She glared at her hooves, “There’s still one. One whose blood hasn’t been spilled yet.” She rolled over onto her front, “It’s time to fix that.”

She walked to the far end of the hall, up the small set of stairs where she left her saddlebags. She grabbed her knife when she reached them, pulling it from its holster and holding it up in front of her. She examined it for a few moments, turning it over and looking at its faint reflective surface before taking it in a reverse grip. She decided to drag it out for as long as possible; it seemed like the only fitting way to end it. “I wonder how long it’ll take me to pass out,” she muttered as she began to lower the knife’s tip to the top of her left hoof.

Before it could reach her hoof, Rainbow suddenly entered the main hall, yelling, “Twilight!” The alicorn quickly looked up towards other end of the hall and saw her standing in the entrance. Even as far away as she was, Rainbow was able to see the knife in her friend’s hoof. “What the hay are you doing?!” she asked. Twilight’s expression shifted from surprised to a look of contempt, starting to lower the knife again while still looking at the pegasus. She saw this and shouted, “Hey, hey, that’s not funny, Twilight! Stop it!” Twilight’s hoof slowed at this, but it kept moving down. “Put the knife down, Twi’, it’s not a toy! Think about it, egghead!” Twilight’s hoof stopped at that, but a moment later, she raised it above her head like she was going to swing it down in one swift motion. Rainbow spread her wings as she said, “That’s it!” and shot down the hall towards her.

She was so focused on getting the knife that she failed to see Twilight’s horn light up as she got closer. She was brought to a stop when a magic force field appeared around her, surrounding her like a bubble. She swung a hoof forward at it after a moment, but the field pushed it back and, to her surprise, stayed pushed in. She tried with her back hooves as well, only for the same thing to happen. “The more you try to get out, Rainbow, the more it’s going to compress. Might want to stop if you don’t want all your bones to break,” Twilight said idly as she traced the tip of her knife over her foreleg, though not hard enough to cut through her Sneaking Suit.

Rainbow paled at the thought of what Twilight was implying, but before she could do anything, they both heard Celestia’s voice call out, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Both mares looked to see her appear from a bright flash of light, alone. She must’ve teleported to the castle ahead of everyone else. She saw the predicament Rainbow was in and ordered, in no uncertain terms, “Release her from that spell.” Twilight simply gave her a sidelong glance, still toying with the knife. Celestia’s eyes narrowed and she began to walk closer, “Release her and put down that knife, Twilight!”

Rainbow quickly jumped in, “Yeah, just take it easy, Twilight! Don’t do this! Princess Celestia obviously isn’t cool with this; you think Big Boss would be?”

Twilight had been keeping an eye on Celestia since she entered, but at Rainbow’s mention of Snake, her eyes snapped up to glare at her, “Big Boss can go to Tartarus before he goes to Hell for all I care. At least he has somewhere to go, that closeminded, warmongering son of a…”

Her words were cut off by Celestia as she stopped in the middle of the hall, “That’s enough, Twilight!” Twilight looked back down at her. “Let Rainbow Dash go and give me that knife!” she commanded.

Twilight replied after a moment, “As you wish, Princess.” Her horn lit up and she made the field around Rainbow disappear, though she quickly grabbed the pegasus and threw her at Celestia, managing to catch the princess off-guard and knock her onto her side. While the two were disoriented, Twilight threw her knife straight up and shot a bolt of magic up at it, causing a magenta aura to surround it.

Both Celestia and Rainbow looked up a second later to see the knife suddenly split into several dozen knives, all of them pointing directly down at them. Rainbow’s eyes widened and she whirled around, throwing herself onto Celestia to protect her while crying out, “Princess!”

Despite how things looked, Celestia struggled to get Rainbow off of her, or at least get her wing out of her face. “Rainbow, stop! They’re not…!” Her words were cut off by a whooshing sound as the knives came flying at them… and shot right through them. Finally managing to get Rainbow’s wing off, Celestia said, “They’re not real, Rainbow Dash! They’re illusions!”

The pegasus looked up at that and saw one of the remaining knives vanish as it came into contact with the floor. “Wha…? Then why-?”

She was stopped by Twilight calling, “Made you look… away!” Rainbow turned her head around and saw Twilight’s tail disappear through the doorway to her left on the balcony at the end of the hall.

“Shoot…” Rainbow muttered, realizing she’d been tricked. Spike, Discord, and the other ponies arrived shortly she had gotten off of Celestia and, when they asked where Twilight was, Rainbow sheepishly explained that she’d made her look.

“I had a feeling there’d be trouble if we didn’t all confront her together,” Luna sighed.

“‘Confront’? You make it sound like she’s a threat, Luna,” Celestia said.

“Well, she’s clearly one to herself if she’s contemplating cutting herself,” Luna retorted.

“Did she really not like my party that much…?” Pinkie murmured sadly.

Applejack shook her head to clear the images this new information had stirred up, “We gotta find her. She’s gotta still be in this castle somewhere.”

Celestia nodded, “I agree. We can’t let her wander freely with the means to harm herself in her possession. We have to get her knife away from her, but she’ll be on alert now. I fear we won’t be able to approach her all together now. Our best chance may be for one of us to sneak up on her.” Once they were all clear on what to do, they all picked a way to go and split up, all of them moving quickly with the exception of Discord, who moved more lazily and seemed remarkably unconcerned about the situation.

________________________________________

Rarity was searching the castle dungeon when she spotted Twilight sitting in the hallway with her back to her. She could see the lavender alicorn shaking as she sat there as well as the fact that her knife had been returned to its holster. “This is my chance!” she thought as she began to quietly tiptoe towards Twilight. The unicorn felt she could do this; as somepony who was constantly looking to impress, she had to be careful how she stepped figuratively, and as a bit of a mystery lover and a sleuth in her own right, she had to know how to do so literally. It seemed to be working so far; her hooves made no noise on the stone and Twilight hadn’t moved yet. She just had to get a little closer in order to grab the knife…

Almost as soon as she began channeling magic into her horn, Twilight’s head snapped up and she spun her head around, her eyes narrowing as soon as she saw Rarity. The unicorn let out a gasp and tried to grab the knife, but she wasn’t fast enough. Twilight disappeared in a flash and reappeared directly in front of Rarity, swinging her hind legs straight up underneath the unicorn’s chest and sending her flying back into the wall at the end of the hall with a cry before she took off running.

Eventually, Twilight slowed to a stop and saw she was in a different hallway now, a carpet under her hooves and suits of armor lining the walls. After looking around for a moment, she began to stagger her way down the hall, her steps slow and uneven partly due to her trying to catch her breath, but mainly because she wasn’t feeling very composed at the moment. She felt no push, no ambition, no…

Her thoughts were cut off when she heard Shining shout, “Now!” Her head shot up in the direction she heard his voice from, only to look down when she caught sight of a rope drop down past her vision. It was a loop, one that wrapped around her forelegs and, with a tug, forced her to stand up on her hind legs and turn around. There she saw Applejack emerging from behind one of the suits of armor, part of the length of the rope in her mouth, and moments later, her brother came up behind her and wrapped his forelegs around her, constricting her further.

Feeling her shake a little in his grip, Shining said, “Calm down, Twily, this isn’t like you. Cadance is looking for you too; she’ll find us soon and help you relax. Whatever happened earlier, I’m sure it’s not a big deal.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she let out a snort at that, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

She managed to turn her head around enough to glance back at him as she spoke, “Of course you would say that, CAPTAIN, but you wouldn’t get it. You had to learn so many things to be in the Royal Guard, but that’s the hardest thing you’ve had to deal with. When have you had to actually apply what you’ve learned? Probably never, considering the cushy job you have; you never had an actual problem to deal with until I left and came back into your life.”

Shining became a little irritated at her words and he started, “Now you see here, little filly…”

Applejack cut him off as she carefully worked her way closer, “Shining Armor, no! We got ‘er; we’ve got it under control! We just need ta keep her like this ‘til the others get here.”

Twilight turned to her and huffed, “You’re clearly not paying attention, Applejack, or you’d know how little control you actually have.” Applejack stopped at that and saw Twilight’s horn light up with magic. Shining noticed it too and reached up with his right hoof, pressing against it to interrupt what was no doubt a teleport spell. That left Twilight’s right foreleg less bound and she managed to slide it back into one of the pockets on her saddlebags, a small click sounding afterwards. Shining and Applejack heard it, but they were unable to do anything about it.

A smoke grenade fell out of the pocket and went off when it hit the floor, the resulting smoke engulfing all three ponies. Applejack let go of the rope and held her hooves up to her muzzle, coughing as she tried to keep the smoke out. Shining tried to resist it and still keep a hold on Twilight, but she was able to kick at his hind legs and make him unsteady. She quickly bowed forward and sent him flying forward into Applejack, both ponies ending up in a heap. They soon felt the rope being wrapped around them and managed to catch sight of Twilight’s form disappear from the smoke cloud. She was gone by the time the smoke dissipated and the two began struggling to get free from the rope.

As she ran through the halls of the castle, Twilight’s pace eventually slowed as she didn’t run into anyone else. She guessed the smoke grenade going off must’ve attracted everyone’s attention. Feeling safe for the time being, she looked at her surroundings and realized she was near Celestia and Luna’s personal reading room. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stop and rest in there for a moment,” she thought as she continued down the hall. When she was almost there, she saw a book lying on the floor. It was leather-bound, looked quite old… and when she glanced up, she saw several more ahead of it, all laid out in a line leading to the reading room. “Really?” she thought with a deadpan expression. She stepped over the first book and continued on down the hall, deciding to skip the reading room and continuing on past it.

She didn’t get far before an explosion of colorful smoke appeared in front of her. She reared back in surprise and suddenly found herself lifted up into the air, a familiar grip around her waist. She looked behind her and was not surprised by the face she saw. “Discord,” she grunted plainly.

“And there she goes! Back to normal!” the draconequus in question grinned. He brought her close to the side of his face and glanced down at her, “Celestia and your friends were quite worried about you, you know. They all thought something was wrong with you, but I knew better. The only reason I’m here is because Fluttershy begged me to come help.”

Twilight huffed, “Of course.”

Discord held her out in front of him and turned her around to face him. “Is that all you’ve got to say, Twilight? And after ruining your own party too!” he exclaimed.

“Do you know why that happened, Discord?” Twilight questioned.

The draconequus replied, “Well, obviously, someone felt the need to cause a little bit of chaos so she could feel good, but didn’t know how to do it. Chaos doesn’t ruin a perfectly good party, after all.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Clearly, being the Lord of Chaos doesn’t mean you know everything about it.”

Discord’s eyes narrowed and he brought her closer to stare directly into her eyes as he spoke, “Oh? In case you’ve forgotten, Your Not-So-Highness, I’ve been around longer than a thousand years. I’ve never once lost control of my magic since I gave myself that title. I know everything there is to know about chaos. What do YOU know?”

Twilight replied, “I know where everything of mine is, for one.” Discord raised an eyebrow at this, maintaining his grip on her when he felt her right foreleg seemingly trying to pull free. He glanced down at it for a moment and Twilight took advantage of it, filling her horn with her magic.

There was a pop a moment later and Discord suddenly felt something drop onto his tongue. He also noticed that it tasted like metal. He opened his mouth and brought his tongue out when he heard a click, revealing the object to be a smoke grenade. “What’s this, a piece of rock candy?” he asked around his tongue, not realizing what it was. He got an answer a second later when it exploded, causing him to turn his head away. Twilight used the opportunity to teleport out of his grip and make a break for it.

She eventually came to a stop in another hallway and leaned against one of the walls as she tried to catch her breath. Her senses were still overstimulated, however, particularly her sense of hearing, and it was messing with her head. She felt like she could hear a lot of different sounds around her. Voices, hooves against the floor, the castle creaking, sounds near and far away… It was getting to be too much and she placed her hooves on the side of her head, trying to block it out.

Her high seemed to thin a bit after a couple of moments and she opened her eyes, glancing around to see that she was still alone. She reached her right hoof down to her saddlebags and realized she’d used up the last of the smoke grenades she’d had. Her gaze shifted to the right a second later, hearing hoof steps coming. She quickly ducked into a nearby opening and pressed against the wall as she thought, “It’s starting to feel a little tight around here.” She reached for the zipper on her Sneaking Suit, “I think it’s time to make like a snake and shed my skin.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash came around the corner, both having heard the burst of magic from her teleport. They looked and saw a figure standing in the middle of the hall. They couldn’t see very well due to the hallway’s dim lighting, but they were able to make out Twilight’s saddlebags and assumed it was her. “Grab her!” Rainbow yelled as she shot forward, Applejack hot on her hooves. They both managed to tackle the figure and pin it against the ground, but they soon realized something was off about it.

Applejack moved to get a look at the face and immediately saw what it actually was. “Rebound! Why, you little…” she groaned. The commotion attracted the rest of the girls, who saw that while Twilight had ditched her Sneaking Suit, she still must’ve had the knife since the holster was empty. They still had to hurry up and find her before she did something drastic.

Spike could hear them talking from around the corner, trying to come up with a way to find Twilight and restrain her. He was already tired of hearing about how their efforts to do so had been for naught so far and decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He took off running through the castle, hoping to find her in one of the rooms he had been in. The Princesses’ private reading room, the library, the room that contained the Organ to the Outside… He checked every spot he knew, but he still couldn’t find her. He stopped for a moment near the castle entrance to catch his breath and was about to resume his search when he caught a glimpse of something off-color out of the corner of his eye and turned to look.

Lying on the floor was a piece of white gauze shaped like a square and a similarly colored strip of gauze that had been unrolled. Spike blinked; he didn’t remember seeing them before. He walked over to them and looked them over. The gauze strip looked like it had been hastily torn off, the material looking stretched in a few places. He picked up both pieces of gauze and gave them an experimental sniff. He recognized the familiar scent after a few moments and realized they were Twilight’s dressings. This fact cheered him up since it might help him find Twilight, but it soon gave way to worry as he wondered why she would be tearing off her own bandages.

Spike dropped the dressings and raised his nose up, sniffing for a moment before dropping down onto his claws and sniffing the ground, trying to recall his few days spent as a dog and what he had learned from them. His nose led him to more discarded bandages that had Twilight’s scent on them outside. Smelling her scent made it easier for him to pick up on it, even if it was faint, and he hoped it would lead him right to her. By the time he found the patch that had been taped to her cheek, he found himself in a part of the castle he had never been to: the same room where the girls’ first adventure together had come to an end.

As soon as Spike finished climbing the stairs and entered the large room, he spotted Twilight sitting on the ground near the raised dais on the other side of the chamber, her lavender coat sticking out against all the gray. “Twilight!” he exclaimed, the mare in question raising her head and turning it until she was looking back at him over her left shoulder with one eye in response. Spike immediately ran towards her as fast as his little legs could carry him.

He was a little more than halfway to her when her horn lit up and her knife floated up, coming to a stop above her left shoulder with the blade pointing towards Spike, who quickly slid to a stop when he saw it. “Not another step, Spike,” she said. Spike gulped nervously. He wasn’t worried about himself; with how close the knife was to her, one quick spin would be all it would take for Twilight to slit her throat. His mind raced at what to do, knowing he couldn’t leave her alone but not sure what do next. He soon remembered Zecora’s words from earlier and realized his only option was to keep going and hope he didn’t say the wrong thing.

He held up his claws as he spoke, “O-Okay, Twilight. I won’t move at all until you say I can.” Twilight didn’t respond, leaving an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air for several minutes. Neither one moved, both staring and studying the other. Seeing that it was unlikely anything was going to happen if he didn’t do anything, Spike spoke up again, “I, uh, I really don’t have a problem just standing here, Twilight, but the way you’re pointing your knife at me is… kind of making that hard to do. I-It’s almost like you don’t want me to breathe or something. I-I’ll do that if that’s what you want, but… you don’t need to point a knife at me to make me do it. Maybe you could… well, you can’t put it away right now, but maybe you could just set it down? Right next to you? Within reach? It’s just… I’m really nervous right now…” The silence returned, stagnant as before, and Spike immediately feared he’d said something wrong. He braced himself, waiting for the inevitable.

Suddenly, as expected, the knife moved, but not in the way he expected. Instead of the tip swinging towards Twilight, it dipped down for a moment before she flicked her head up and sent it spinning end over end towards Spike in a rather casual manner. Its tip hit the ground first and it bounced, spinning sideways a bit when it landed and slid on the floor, coming to a stop near Spike. He looked back up at her and saw she had turned her head away from him. “There. I put it down, Spike. Now go away,” she said.

Spike blinked. Just because she suddenly threw the knife away didn’t mean she couldn’t do harm to herself in some other way. As long as she was still in the room, he had to keep talking and try to calm her down, try to get her to return to Ponyville and talk with everyone. “N-No, Twilight, I’m not leaving. I’ve left you by yourself before and I’ve always regretted it later. I can’t do that again, not when you need me.”

Twilight replied, “I’m doing just fine, Spike. You can go now.”

Spike asserted, “No, you’re not fine! You wouldn’t be doing all this if you were fine!” His continued in a softer tone, trying to keep his worries under control, “Twilight, something is clearly bothering you that you haven’t told us about. You have to tell us or we can’t help you. You don’t have to worry so much; everything will be okay.”

Twilight’s head shot straight up at his last word, her eyes widening for a moment before they narrowed. “Okay…?” she asked in a quiet tone, though with how quiet the room was, she might as well have been speaking normally. Regardless, it caused Spike to stand at attention. “Okay?!” she asked again, almost yelling. She spread her wings suddenly and flapped them so she was hovering above the ground before spinning around to look at Spike and holding her legs out. “Take a good look at me, Spike! Do I look ‘okay’ to you?!” she demanded in an angry tone.

Struck silent by the volume of her voice and the anger in it, Spike couldn’t do much besides look up at her, specifically at what had been covered up before. Without the patch taped to her right cheek, he could see she had a burn that stretched back to just under her eye, the ending uneven. Her two weeks of rest had given it a chance to fade somewhat, but the red was still very noticeable. Moving down, he saw black burn marks on her chest that looked older than the burn on her cheek, seemingly caused by something else. Not only that, he could see that the marks were positioned around a long cut that ran diagonally across her chest. He didn’t see any other marks that were as glaringly obvious, but a close enough look revealed she had more marks and cuts than she should have, and her wings were shuddering a bit like they were having difficulty holding her up.

After giving him a minute, Twilight asked, “Do you see now, Spike?! Do you see what the problem is?!” She fluttered down and landed in front of him, “You can’t tell me everything’s ‘okay’! All I have to do is look at myself to know how wrong that is! I can see it’s not, and so can everyone else! Do you think anyone can look at me and not wonder what happened to me?! That nobody’s going to look at me and wonder if they can trust me?! How can I possibly be worth anyone’s time after what I’ve experienced?!”

Spike held up his claws again, “I-I’m sorry, Twilight! You’re right; I had no idea how… what exactly you were recovering from. But… it’s not necessarily anything new for you either, right? I mean… you’ve been around Ponyville not looking so great before you disappeared and ponies didn’t look at you any different. And just because you’ve been in a war doesn’t mean you know any less about friendship. You might even know more than you did before, even though you went through things like Paz…”

As soon as the name left his mouth, Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, “SHE DIDN’T BETRAY US!” Spike stood almost completely still at that, only shaking slightly as he looked up at Twilight’s angry expression. She looked so angry and yet she stood so still that he was afraid what she might do next. He certainly didn’t expect it when tears started to run from her eyes as her anger was replaced with sadness, followed by her legs sliding to the sides and causing her to flop onto her front, though she soon slumped over onto her side. “She didn’t betray us… She went through all that hell, put up with all that torture… because she chose Snake in the end… She wanted to protect him, protect us all… only for it to not matter in the end… There was nothing she could’ve done against him…” she sobbed.

In the midst of her sobbing, Spike moved up against her neck and wrapped his arms around it as best he could, one of his claws stroking her mane softly. When he felt there was a lull in her mumblings, he asked softly, “What are you talking about, Twilight? Who’s ‘him’?” Twilight didn’t respond aside from more sobbing. He stayed silent for several moments, still stroking her mane, before trying again, “Come on, Twilight, tell me…”

Twilight sniffled and murmured, “I can’t…. I can’t… Oh god, Spike, I can’t…” Her eyes opened a little, “Every night now… Every night I see it, what happened that night… I see everything I should’ve done, and… no matter what, I always see him, looking at me, taunting me, reminding me that, no matter what I do, I can’t save anyone…” She thought she saw a sudden flash of movement through her blurry vision, but before she could do anything, a sudden drowsiness washed over her and she fell asleep without another thought.

Spike looked at her in surprise when he saw her head slump to the ground and turned to the side to see Luna approaching with Celestia right behind her. Past them, he could Shining, Cadance, Discord, and the rest of the girls standing in the entrance to the room, looking on. He looked up at Luna and started, “Wha…”

Luna cut him off, “Don’t worry, Spike, I simply put her under a sleeping spell.” She looked down at the lavender alicorn, “Twilight is… as well as she can be at the moment.”

Spike asked, “Why’d you do that?”

Luna closed her eyes and replied, “We overheard what she said. Something happened to her, but whatever it was, it’s too traumatic for her to talk about now. And I’m sure you already mentioned to her we cannot help her if we don’t know. If she can’t tell us herself, then there’s only one option for finding out the cause of her distress.”

Celestia looked at her, “Luna… you’re not suggesting…”

Luna opened her eyes, “I see no other way, sister. I’ve seen how haunted her dreams are already. I can’t dispel or influence it, but I can still trace it back to its source.” Her eyes narrowed slightly, “And once there, perhaps he will reveal himself at last.”

Author's Note:

Alternate chapter title: Extract the Wandering Mother Base Soldier: Twilight Sparkle

Comments

[Edguy0009]

What a chase.

[Lazruth]

Okay, I get that these ponies have been through peace for over a thousand years, but for the love of whatever gods they hold dear, does NOBODY know what PTSD is? Seriously, read a book!

[Night_Moon60606]

9672127
they know of it...weather ponies that have been through everfree storms, fire fighters...Lunas secretary staff...but they also know that healing can take many forms, and until a pony is ready to heal...

[HB_DS2013]

What Celly's doing might make things worse. I know who Twilight's talking about and it won't be pretty for everyone involved. Strange, too- since Twi seemed friendly towards Big Boss.

[neokiva]

9672699
survivors guilt isn't pretty, that insult at snake was more that he died than any actual animosity. "How could you die, your snake! big boss! why did you die and I didn't" that kind of thing.

[sonicandmario826]

“As she lay on the floor, she murmured to herself, “Why…? Why am I here? Why only me? Snake, Miller, Chico, Morpho, Lark, Stag Beetle, Viper… what happened to them?”

Well not sure about your snake but let’s see what another snake is doing now.

https://m.

Ooh... not too good...

“One whose blood hasn’t been spilled yet.” She rolled over onto her front, “It’s time to fix that.”

.... is she talking about what I think she’s talking about?

“I wonder how long it’ll take me to pass out,” she muttered as she began to lower the knife’s tip to the top of her left hoof.“

Dang she is...

Well that was a heavy chapter. Looks like Luna is going to confront the problem directly. Let’s hope things turn out a bit better with next the next chapter.

[Chronokat]

I swear what discords doing can't be accidental... he hits sensitive mental traumas to accurately for it to be an accident. Fluttershy needs to worry more about her psychologically damaged friend then a over grown baby whose whining because no ones paying attention to him. Plus she couldn't spend time with twilight because of her animals missing her.... really fluttershy just really... are they physical hurt, mentality disturbed ,or dying if not they can act like the adult animals they are and go live in the forest tell them to get over it ...because twilight is two of those things. She has 5 friends who can take turns staying over to keep a eye on her.

Im proud of spike he really manned up. I mean wow telling off rarity and the support at the end.

That was some real shiesty crap the city counsel pulled. She literally takes on a evil magic stealing centaur to protect them and they send her a bill. I would've been like ok well take care of it. Oh by the way heres the bill for stopping discord , the dragon air pollution incident , the plunder vines , the ursa minor , id also like all the back pay you owe me for working at the library for years. She loved working at the library i doubt they payed her. Her living their is the equivalent of a live in employee so they cant say its what she's payed with its an enticement for employment since she literally has strangers that can just walk into the place.

[ShadowSpectrumSwordtails]

Okay right here right now I gotta ask will there be a sequel to this story involving Twilight returning to Snake to take part in the phantom pain, and will her friend have followed her there without her knowledge.

[GreenS21]

10441978

Figure out where this is from and you'll have your answer.

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