Limits of Mercy

by Beware The Carpenter

7 - Twilight's Questions

Twilight told Obtrillion everything she knew about the Elements of Harmony, and then she slept. It was the first time since meeting him that her mind was relaxed enough to allow itself rest, and even then it was only with the help of one of Obtrillion's spells.

Obtrillion himself, although younger and fitter, had expended most of his magical reserves over the last few days between meeting Zomar, fighting Shining Armor, preparing the warehouse, and conditioning Twilight, so he slept as well. He knew that when he woke, he would need all the remaining strength he could muster, and then it would be three or four days before he was recovered to full strength.

By early evening; the remainder of the pancakes finished their voyage through Twilight's tracts, rousing her, and waking Obtrillion with her departure. After he'd taken his turn after her they both left Twilight's chambers, and found Fidora had, apart from an hour in the gym, spent most of the day cooking a lavish early-dinner for the three of them, particularly suited to unicorns recovering their magic after heavy spell work.

Her voice and face never showed it, but Obtrillion saw clearly in Fidora's mind that she was slightly miffed at being denied last night, then again this morning, and then having Obtrillion spend the entire day in bed with another mare, even if it was flaccid. Of the five methods that competed in Fidora's mind naturally over how to move on him when they were alone, Obtrillion added fuel to the one he wanted, and then cast a shroud over her mind to block his own vision; allowing her to plan the details in private so she might still surprise him.

That would need to wait until later however. Twilight's adrenaline rush that had kept her sustained over the last several days was over, leaving her exhausted; and everything she'd ever believed about herself and morality was currently in doubt, and she hadn't yet figured out what beliefs she would use to replace them. Her mind was scattered, undefended, and would make a soft target.

“You look so relaxed right now.” smiled Obtrillion dreamily to Twilight; once he had had enough to eat.

Twilight looked up, finished chewing and swallowed, “What?”

“Your ideas aren't bouncing off each other anymore.” Twilight smiled happily and then took another bite. “It means.” finished Obtrillion, “That I might now be able to undo the memory block Celestia put on you so you wouldn't remember father.”

Twilight's fork clattered to the table, and she stared up at him, her mouth hanging open and full of food. “You can?”

“Yes. As soon as your done eating I'll see what I can do.”

Twilight pushed her tray away, swallowed, nearly choked, and wiped her muzzle off on the back of her arm, “What do you need me to do?”

“Relax.” ordered Obtrillion, “You being anxious is why I haven't been able to go into your mind until now. Breath.”

Twilight took several deep breaths, her anxiety dropping slowly, and followed Obtrillion's indication to recline on the couch where he started kneading his hooves down her muscles, starting with her neck, and feeling her gradually go limp under his touch. “Breathe in.” he whispered, watching her barrel expand; “Breathe out.” she obeyed.

Fidora looked at the finished table, but a small gesture from Obtrillion pulled her to his side immediately, where she waited patiently until she was needed. Obtrillion reached with his magic to unlock a cabinet in the corner of the room, withdrew a potion he and Fidora had prepared earlier and began warming it slowly. “I'm going to need to put you into a deep form of hypnosis, but first, I need to paralyze you.”

Twilight's ears flickered with confusion, but not fear. She totally trusted him right now. “If I didn't, you might act out your past memories. We don't know what kinds of spells you used in your blackout, and if I touched on a memory of you being attacked, or seeing father killed by Shining Armor, you might start throwing missiles.”

Twilight nodded weakly, and whispered something inaudible that Obtrillion knew was consent. He applied the potion to her lips and she drank disabling her magic and causing almost every one of her muscles go limp. “The year is one thousand and six.” he whispered closely in her ear, “You're in your lab, doing calculations to solve the riddle of the Manehatten Project...”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Chalk scratched noisily on the board, one of many boards which had been placed around the small room, wrapping Twilight almost entirely in a cocoon of her own math; just the way she liked it. Obtrillion watched her for a few moments, unnoticed although in plain sight and then left her to continue her work as he slipped out the back door into an exhibit where Twilight and her team of archeologists were showing off the artifacts they had uncovered from the draquoni curiosity factory.

As Obtrillion moved through the palace the architecture gradually changed, sometimes it was reminiscent of the School for Gifted Unicorns, sometimes of the royal palace, sometimes the halls turned wooden like a tree house, but always it was organized by predictable logic. It wasn’t long before Obtrillion found what he was looking for: a massive, empty stone hall between two libraries filled with facts and calculations pertaining to the Manehattan project.

Obtrillion paced up and down the stone wall, a solid mental barrier, made from the combined magics of Celestia, Shining Armor and Cadance. Obtrillion checked it for weaknesses, tapping it with his hoof and feeling for air from cracks, but despite recent decay, the wall was solid and should be able to take more energy to break than Twilight could muster; but the possibility of her breaking it by herself was still there.

Obtrillion considered trying to bolster it further with his own magic, but to do so would require damaging the wall that was already there, and so he left it as he found it. He left that room and ran up several flights of stairs into another room where hundreds of questions continually buzzed around, waiting to be answered, though most of them were being driven to the remote corners by the swarm of recent questions that had entered now invaded about himself Fidora and Zohan.

Obtrillion looked them over and began picking out questions that had not yet made their way into the forefront of Twilight’s conscious mind:

‘If Obtrillion's father was a zebra, why didn’t he have a single stripe on him?’

‘If Obtrillion's father wasn't a unicorn, how was his magic stronger than her own?’

'How was Obtrillion the first stable telepath to be born since the second reign of Discord?'

'Why hadn't Twilight listed to what Shining Armor tried to say before she attacked him?'

Were just some of the questions Obtrillion chained and buried in the dirt, still buzzing noisily. Eventually, he could smother these thoughts altogether, making it so Twilight would automatically dismiss them the moment they came into her head, but for now he would have to keep her close, reinforcing these chains regularly.

He wanted his mother to love him; and although he knew she would still want him even if she did remember the rape, her feelings would be far stronger for him if she saw him as the only memento of her one true love, than as the result of a breeding program aimed at creating a weapon.

Now there was just a few more things he needed to do…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Twilight couldn’t move, but that was OK. Fidora was watching over her body and Obtrillion was fixing her mind. She could almost feel his presence drifting through her thoughts; soon he would undo the lock Celestia had put on her, and then she would remember Zohan, his family, and what it was like to be loved romantically. All at once, Obtrillion’s hold on her mind stopped and her stillness was shattered by a blood curdling cry of agony.

Her eyes flashed open at the same moment Obtrillion’s hooves were retracted and she saw him there, screaming, curled into the fetal position as he gripped his horn with both hooves. In a flash, Fidora was behind him, leaning him against herself as she cradled his head, her eyes filled with worry and then a flash of anger as she glanced at Twilight, knowing she had failed in her oath that she wouldn’t hurt Obtrillion. “m-methrine.” He whimpered.

Fidora put him down, gently but swiftly, and galloped to a small cupboard, where she began mixing and measuring several urns and mixing them in boiling water. Twilight needed to do something: she tried to step forwards but then realized she was still paralyzed, and there was nothing she could do but watch her son writhe in pain as someone else helped him.

Even now that she had found him, she was useless to him, causing him nothing but pain.

Fidora returned at a gallop, holding a ground filled with steaming liquid. Once again she propped Obtrillion upright against her, and offered him the drink which he drank through agonized gasps. Gradually his breathing began slowing, as Fidora moved him into a more comfortable position, and began massaging his back as they waited for the painkiller to have its effect, while Twilight watched on in guilty envy.

After a minute that lasted for eternity, Obtrillion seemed to be recovering; he gazed dreamily up at Fidora for a moment and then looked worryingly at his mother, standing up and cast the spell that allowed her to move again. Twilight tried to jump up, but had her legs fall out from under her as she tumbled to the floor and then dragged herself to Obtrillion and hugging her son with tears streaming down her face, “I’m so sorry. There wasn’t anything I could-”

Twilight tried to continue but couldn’t, so Obtrillion took the initiative. “Celestia booby trapped your mind to stop you from remembering. I’m sorry, I didn’t find anything-” Obtrillion continued, but for once in her life Twilight didn’t care; she didn’t care that he was explaining to her the secret mechanics of mind magic. It didn’t matter that she might never know who Zohan was. Of the thousands upon thousands of things she'd learned in her life, only two were important to her now; she was a horrible mother who couldn’t help her child when she needed her, and Celestia’s magic had hurt her son. Twilight vowed that the first one would change, and that the second would never, ever happen again.

Author's Note:

This isn't the order that I wanted to post these chapters in, but at this stage I have time for school and not much else, and the Obtrillion/ Twilight line I still have a good reserve of pre-written stuff. This might result in the the first half of this being dark Obtrillion stuff, with lighter Sky Blaze material, which I'm really wanted to get around to, dominating the second half rather than using both of them to foil each other like I had planned.

I'm sorry.

Comments

[the other sans]

into your mind until now. Breath
you might start start throwing missiles
she tried to step forwards but then
took the initiative.“Celestia booby

1. Breathe.
2. Extra Start.
3. Forward.
4. Forgot your spacing.

It's alright, in some cases it might be a silver lining as you know that eventually, the lighter stuff comes out after all the darker ones and that is a point people wait for.

Personally, either or, I'm quite fine.