The Titans' Orb: Rising Storm

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Sixteen - Fifty Shades of Purple

My eyes opened wide and I tried to sit up, only to find my body didn’t respond, I was completely paralysed. I was just able to roll my eyes to my side and spotted Twilight lying on the bed, her chest still covered in dried blood, one of her legs was in a thick cast of dried Oozima, and her lower chest was strapped in a binder, also coated in a dry cast.

Her breaths were shallow and rapid, I assumed she was unconscious, but as I made my best efforts to move and emitted a quiet grunt, her eyes opened and looked at me.

“C… Ca… Callum…” She breathed, barely able to create the word.

I tried to speak, but nothing but a wheeze came from my dry lips. Twilight made her best attempt at crawling towards the edge of the bed, she quickly lost strength and gave up. It appeared we were both in the same boat, neither of us could move.

With great effort, I was just able to tilt my head sideways and look at the rest of the room, in the corner I spotted Applejack asleep on a mattress. I needed to wake her up, but all my efforts to create any sound of movement were futile. I looked back to Twilight, who was looking at me with desperation, we both knew that whatever was going on, we needed someone’s help. I noticed we were both still wearing the collars, which was possibly the problem.

{Think, Twilight. Think!} I heard Twilight’s voice in my mind.

{Whoa, Twilight?} I thought.

{Callum!?}

{Yeah it’s me, I can hear your thoughts…}

{How?}

{It’s most likely the collars, its kept our brains connected. Probably what’s causing the paralysis, our brains aren’t sure which body belongs to who, or something like that…}

{Makes sense, but this is weird, hearing you inside my head.} She replied.

{While I’d agree with you, I’ve kinda had some practice.}

{Player Three has joined the party chat.} Conscio announced.

{Who’s that!?}

{The name’s Conscio, pleased to meet you.}

Twilight’s pupils shrank slightly from concern, and I rolled my eyes up to my own forehead.

{He’s, well… Actually I have no bloody clue what Conscio is. When I made contact with the first orb shard back in Brazil, I heard his voice inside my head, and he’s been here ever since. I originally thought he was just my conscience, but I’m starting to have other ideas…}

At this, Conscio went silent.

{What do you mean?} Twilight asked.

{Nah’Lek knew him…} I replied.

Twilight, even while paralysed, flinched upon hearing the name. Just his name was enough to strike terror into her, and I finally understood why.

{He will never touch you again, I’ve cured you.}

Twilight didn’t reply, I noticed her eyes darting around and could tell she was extremely anxious.

{Hey.} I thought.

Her eyes looked back to me, and her pupils slowly began to dilate to their normal size.

{You’re safe now.}

{How do you know?} She responded, even in thought, her voice was full of uncertainty.

I was about to respond when Twilight’s eyes widened and she jolted slightly in shock.

{Callum! Your nose!}

Without warning, my body started convulsing lightly and I quickly realised I couldn’t breathe properly. That’s when I felt it, slowly oozing from my nostrils was warm blood. Being on my back, only a small amount could escape, while the rest of it was forced the wrong way and entered my mouth and throat.

{Twilight, Twilight I can’t breathe!} I told her with panic.

{Oh shit… Oh shit… Oh shit…}

I tried my hardest to move, my right arm responded slightly and twitched a few times, I tried desperately to roll onto my side, which was when Twilight’s body moved slightly.

{For fuck sake, my brain’s trying to move YOU.} I growled.

{Hang on, let me try.} Twilight replied.

I noticed Twilight’s jaw tense up as she tried to move with all her might, her back legs responded and she moved closer towards the edge of the bed, while my left shoulder rolled backwards and I moved about an inch closer to her.

{I hate to be the dull one, but it appears we’re choking on our own blood.} Connie said dryly.

{SHUT UP!} Twilight and I thought at the same time.

I looked at her, and noticed her nose was also streaming with blood now, thankfully she was on her front so she could still breathe at least.

{Twi, you’re bleeding too, we need to wake Applejack, now!} I ordered.

I tried to kick out, only for one of my feet to respond, Twilight and I needed to work together. I focused on the edge of the bed and had a plan, and tried to relax as much as possible.

{When I say ‘go’, I want you to reach forward and pull yourself off the bed.} I said calmly.

{There’s no use, I can’t!}

{Trust me.}

She looked at me, and I could sense her trying to nod her head, ironically, it was my head that shifted slightly instead of hers.

{One, two, three, GO.}

I imagined myself in Twilight’s body again and tried to reach forward with everything I had. With both of our brains focusing on the same movement, Twilight was able to gradually extend her forelegs and place her hooves over the bedside, we both pulled as much as we could, while also attempting to roll her hips, slowly but surely, her body edged over towards me. She was just about to reach the edge when I felt blood run into my lungs and my body started convulsing again, breaking my focus. Thankfully, this ended up playing in our favour as it caused Twilight to have a small convulsion of her own, which caused her to slide off the bed and smack the hardwood floor.

Applejack sat bolt upright and quickly realised something was wrong, she rushed over to us and spotted the blood leaking from our noses. She held her head high and bellowed as loud as she could.

“GIRLS! GIRLS! QUICK! SOMETHING’S WRONG! IT’S CALLUM AND TWILIGHT!”

She tried to sit me up and shook me slightly, which didn’t help in the slightest, I tried to open my mouth to speak, only for a zombie-like ‘ugh’, to emerge. The bedroom door was burst open and the other four ponies entered the room, Rarity switched on the light and they all approached us.

“What’s going on!?” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“I don’t know! Twi just fell off the bed and they’re both bleeding!” Applejack replied.

Fluttershy very quickly ran to me and pushed Applejack aside, before putting her hooves on my shoulder and rolling me onto my side, and put me into the recovery position, this prevented any further blood from going down my throat and it left my mouth instead. She did the same for Twilight, before she noticed both of us had our eyes wide open, and were looking around frantically.

“Can you hear me?” She asked.

“N’nf!” I grunted, unable to form words.

“They’re paralysed!” Rarity cried out.

My eyes darted from pony to pony, and I spotted Rainbow Dash was shaking, she was quite evidently having a panic attack.

{TAKE, OFF, THE COLLARS!} I thought angrily.

“C… C…” Twilight coughed, staring at me.

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked, crouching beside Twilight.

“C… C… C’guh…”

“Callum?”

“C… Col… Coll…”

Fluttershy jumped back and understood her, finally.

“The collars! Get the collars off them!” She yelped.

Rarity’s horn lit up and the buckles on the belt were undone, and everything went white for a few seconds, before my vision returned, along with full control over my body once more. I went into spasm and tensed all my muscles, feeling the pins and needles sensation across my entire body. It subsided and I got up to my knees, coughing and spluttering, before my stomach turned and I vomited, blood and bile splashed onto the floor and I retched a few times, before falling onto my back and gasping, now exhausted.

“Can someone get my bag please?” Fluttershy asked openly.

Rarity hurried out of the room, while Applejack tried to calm Rainbow Dash down, who was still hyperventilating, I looked to Twilight, who was looking at me, her face contorted with fear. Rarity returned with the bag and Fluttershy opened it, pulling out two odd looking syringes. I wasn’t fond of needles, and looked at her with an uncertain glance.

“You need it, it stops inflammation and clots any broken blood vessel.” She explained, before sticking the syringe into Twilight’s neck.

Reluctant as I was, I allowed her to plant the needle into my neck, the substance felt icy cold and I could temporally feel it travelling through my artery and spread through my bloodstream before I lost the sensation. She then pulled out a couple of tissues and helped me clean my face and chest from the blood.

“Thank you…” I breathed, my voice dry and hoarse.

“I’ll get some water.” Rarity said and left the room again.

Pinkie followed her, most probably uncomfortable with the amount of blood in the room. Rainbow Dash had calmed down and came over to me alongside Applejack.

“What happened to you both?” She asked.

I was going to answer when my stomach growled loudly, I then remembered I hadn’t eaten since the celebration party with the Blood Family, I was utterly starving.

“It’s a long story, can I tell you over a meal?” I requested sheepishly.

“Actually, we were going to have dinner soon...” Fluttershy pointed out.

I looked to Twilight, who gave me a nod in agreement. I went to stand, only for my legs to respond as though they were made of jelly, Applejack quickly rushed over and caught me.

“Alright, alright, I got you, just take it slow.” She said.

Twilight tried to help, only to find she could barely walk herself, and wobbled alongside us as we went to a room that wasn’t full of blood. We settled for the second largest room, which had another king-sized bed, just without the large frame around it. I sat down on the end of the bed, and Twilight sat next to me. Rarity came along with two glasses of water and put them on the bedside table for us.

“We’ll come and get you when dinner’s ready.” Applejack said kindly.

I gave her a thankful smile and she left the room with Rarity and shut the door, giving us the room alone together. Twilight let out a long sigh and fell backwards onto her back.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, flopping next to her.

“Like I’ve just been dragged through a sawmill…” She huffed.

“I mean emotionally.”

She sat up to look at me, and then looked down.

“I don’t know, I feel blank and empty; as though I had no emotions at all.” I said, her nose twitching.

I stretched, before sitting up and putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Give it time, you’ll get better.”

“What if I don’t? What if he was right? What if I never recover? I’m scared that I’ll lash out again, or do something without meaning to. I killed someone Callum…” She whispered, her eyes watering up.

I slid my hand from her shoulder to her neck, and lightly massaged it to relieve some tension, she had been through hell and back.

“Just breathe, tell me what happened.” I asked quietly.

She took a deep breath, and recollected the event.

“It was the day before I sent you a message on your phone, we were trying to find shelter from the rain, and we found a small abandoned shack. We had just relaxed when we heard a car outside, there were three men, all of them had knives; they came inside and we all tried to hide. They found Rainbow Dash and started shouting at her in a foreign language, I thought they were going to kill her. Then I felt this sudden wave of anger and hatred, and the only thing I could think about was killing them, and the idea felt good, just imagining their dead faces made me feel pleasure, it was sick. I came around from my hiding place and used my magic to steal their knives, and stabbed two of them repeatedly until they stopped moving; the third one ran away and I chased him. I don’t know why I did it, I just, I just…”

She paused, and I rubbed her back to reassure her.

“It’s okay Twilight, just tell me what you did.” I spoke softly.

Twilight swallowed, and then continued.

“I didn’t know my own strength, my magic was stronger than usual, I tried to grab his arms and pull him back to me, but I ripped them off completely, there was blood everywhere, and he wouldn’t stop screaming. I took him to the ground and bashed his skull in, with my bare hooves.
It took nearly two minutes until he stopped squirming, I just kept hitting and hitting…”

She took in a breath of air, before she sighed.

“I’m a monster…”

Horrible as the act was, I knew it wasn’t down to Twilight, the Fel had driven her mad and she was not to be held accountable. No matter how hard it was to forgive her after Bunnie, I knew I had to.
I noticed a tear leave her eye, and I brought my hand to her face and wiped it away. I looked into her eyes and furrowed my brow.

“You aren’t a monster. You saw the state of your mana well; you were sick, and now you’re going to get better. Nothing you’ve done was your fault, you understand?” I told her firmly.

She looked at me, her lips quivering slightly. As she gazed into my eyes, she could see the pain that I was so desperately trying to conceal at the moment.

“I took away the girl you loved…”

I looked away instantly and threw my head backwards, trying not to cry.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” She whimpered.

{Callum, I love you so much…} Bunnie’s last words echoed in my head.

Her face, the tears running down her cheeks, that moment when she knew she was going to die. Seeing it in my mind felt like a dagger to the heart, my chest physically hurt just from the emotional distress. Twilight put her hoof onto my leg, which finally set me off, I didn’t even bother to cover my face as the tears began streaming from my eyes, and I inhaled shakily. I gritted my teeth and let out a low growl of anguish as my brain was flooded with Bunnie’s last words, and the heat of the napalm that took her.

Twilight couldn’t cope knowing the suffering she had caused, and began to sob beside me, not knowing what to do, or what to say. I took her by the shoulders and stared at her bloodshot eyes, which I could barely see through the blurry vision.

“I know you took her away…” I choked, “But it wasn’t… Your… Fault…”

“But I was consciously thinking, I could have saved her!” She spluttered.

“You were delirious, the Fel was in your body, you couldn’t have done anything.”

I continued to cry, and Twilight hugged me tightly. It was strange to think I was being comforted by the one who had previously bullied, abused, and mistreated me. She copied my actions in the Frozen Forest and rested my head onto the fluffy section of her chest, it reminded me of Chilli’s fur back at home, I missed that dog.

After a while, we had both calmed down; I wiped my eyes and Twilight did the same. We exchanged another brief hug before I reached for my glass of water, I was extremely thirsty and downed the glass. Without warning, Twilight gasped with pain and rubbed her temples with her hooves.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I tried to use magic to lift my glass, it felt like a shard of ice went through my brain.” She replied.

I hummed, it seemed Nah’Lek was right about one thing, Twilight wouldn’t have magic for a long time, she would need my help to adjust to life without it.

“Let me help you.”

“What? Let you degrade me? Do I look like some sort of cripple to you?” She spat suddenly.

I raised my hands to gesture for her to calm down, and gave her a concerned look.

“Hey, easy.” I spoke softly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean that…” She sighed.

Twilight looked down and looked at her own hooves, clearly upset and disappointed in herself. I put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder gently.

“Your brain is heavily scarred from the Fel, it will take some time for you to heal, I’m sure you’ll have a few outbursts like that. Just let me help you, and we’ll get through this, okay?”

She looked at me and nodded, giving me a weak smile. I took her glass of water and raised it to her lips, she puckered her lips and was able to drink from the glass, some of it spilt onto her neck and she jolted her head backwards.

“Oh that’s cold!” She squeaked.

We giggled together for a short moment, before I helped her finish the rest of the glass.

“I needed that.” She gasped.

“Yeah, so much that you spilt quarter of the glass onto yourself.” I teased.

“Hey, you were holding the glass!”

“You should have opened your mouth wider.”

She frowned at me and I stuck my tongue out at her, we laughed for a while before Applejack opened the door and stepped into the room, her face lit up with a motherly smile.

“Well I’ll be… Did I just see you laughing Twilight?” She exclaimed.

“Absent as it’s been, I think my sense of humour still exists.” Twi replied sheepishly.

“Well, it’s wonderful to see your smile again, would you care to wear it to dinner?” She requested.

“It would be my pleasure.”

Twilight and I stood up, and thankfully could walk well enough on our own, and followed Applejack to the dining room downstairs.

The dining room was huge; the previous owner had clearly lots of money to burn as they’d left a lot of furniture behind, which included a beautiful table about the size of a car. The other ponies were sat around it in large chairs from other rooms, patiently waiting for us to arrive before starting dinner, which looked absolutely divine. I could smell the mushroom stroganoff from the doorway and my mouth salivated, I knew my brother’s cooking from anywhere, and assumed Oliver had taught the ponies how to cook it before my departure to Chernobyl. The stroganoff was served with buttered bread and some salad, it went without saying, there was a very good chef amongst us.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry…” I groaned.

“Me too…” Twilight sighed.

Applejack chuckled and went to sit down, Twilight sat opposite me beside Pinkie, while I sat next to Rainbow Dash, giving her a playful poke. She replied by sticking her tongue out at me.

“Well, no need to sit here letting the food go cold, dig in everyone!” Rarity said heartily.

Nobody needed to tell me twice, I dunked some bread into the stroganoff and took a bite, memories of home flooded my mouth and I closed my eyes, beaming as I slowly chewed and let each ingredient mingle on my taste buds. It was utterly heavenly.

“So, we’ve been all dying to hear, what actually happened to you both?” Rarity asked.

I gestured to Twilight, who began telling the tale, right from the beginning.

“I’ve told you little about the creature who sent the Titan’s Orb to Earth, Nah’Lek. This monster has been using me like a puppet for the entire time we’ve been here. He’s been able to get inside my head and has been tormenting me in my sleep, torturing me every night into submission.”

“Oh my goodness…” Fluttershy gasped.

“He took me to a dreamland, which he called the Frozen Forest. In this arctic woodland, I was attacked, violently beaten, and eventually killed, each way was more horrible and barbaric than the last. Throughout my torment, he would whisper things to me, telling me of all the horrible things he would do to me, and to my friends and family.”

“Sugarcube… Why didn’t you tell us?” Applejack sighed.

“That’s the worst part, he said if I spoke to anyone about it, he would know, and that when he finds me in person, he’ll do things to me, unspeakable things, I can’t even repeat it…” Twilight said, her voice shaking.

I could tell she was struggling to keep it together, and so I took over telling the story so she could have a moment to gather herself again. I cleared my throat loudly to draw the group’s attention.

“All this time, we never understood how Nah’Lek had been able to get inside Twilight’s head, nor did we understand why her behaviour and emotional state has changed for the worst over all these months. Finally, we know why. As I briefly explained to you before, the deathly magic known as the Fel has been the reason for Twilight’s corruption. It enters the mind and body of anything it touches directly, and unfortunately, it touched Twilight. When you were given your mission by Celestia, she gave Twilight the essence left over from the Titan’s Orb, unaware that it had been poisoned by Nah’Lek’s magic. It was only a small amount, but just enough to slowly cultivate deep inside her. This gave Nah’Lek the ability to enter her mind and torment her, Twilight’s terror slowly grew into hatred as the Fel was nourished by her negative emotions; thus creating a snowball effect, the worst she felt, the stronger the Fel grew.”

I looked around to find everyone was transfixed on me, occasionally glancing at Twilight as they began to understand why their best friend had become so wicked and immoral.

“Twilight’s fear, became anger, which became hatred. She started losing clarity of vision, and began to act with malice and cruelty, but at this point, she had no control over what she was doing, without knowing the Fel was inside her head, she couldn’t have known her actions were wrong. The Fel creates delusions that can trick one into believing everyone is an enemy, even your closest friends…”

Twilight looked down, while I’d been away from the ponies in Paulo's gang, I had a bad feeling Twilight had ended up treating the others the same way she had treated me. I had another mouthful of the stroganoff and had a sip of water before continuing.

“In the beginning, before the serious corruption took place, Twilight was still living in fear of Nah’Lek and his endless torture. She was forced to keep quiet, pretending everything was fine while she experienced her worst nightmare every time she went to sleep. The amount of stress was unbearable for Twilight, and so she needed to find an outlet, something to let out her torment without telling anyone about Nah’Lek. Obviously, she didn’t want to let it out on you guys, you’re her closest friends, so she needed something else, and the only thing she could find, was me.”

Everyone stopped eating, and looked at me, that’s when Rainbow Dash frowned at Twilight.

“You’re telling me Twilight’s idea of an outlet, was to be a massive cunt?” She asked dryly.

“Dashie!” Fluttershy gasped.

“What? Come on, it’s true! She thought the only good idea was to make Callum just as miserable as her? That’s not stress relief, that’s just a dick move!” She growled in defence.

“Don’t be so insensitive! She’s been through Tartarus and back!” Applejack scolded.

“Oh, and we haven’t? We’ve been through some shit too you know!” Dash spat.

She stood up from the table and pointed at her own wings, which were still wrapped in bandages since the horrific abuse she’d suffered in Brazil, her feathers were still growing back from the event. Applejack was just about to speak, when Rarity pitched in.

“I have to say, I’m with Rainbow Dash. We have all suffered copious amounts since embarking on this quest, and I think it was unfair to use Callum as cannon fodder just because she was stressed.”

“STRESSED? She was TORTURED!” Applejack yelled.

Fluttershy agreed with Applejack and sided with her.

“Nopony should experience that, ever! It’s absurd to think Twilight should have just bottled it up all this time, while Callum’s treatment was unfair, I think it’s wrong to blame her!”

The dinner had become a shouting match, and Pinkie Pie was having none of it, she stuck five slices of bread into her mane and then picked up the entire stroganoff dish, before slithering out of the room to eat the rest of her dinner in peace.

“Twilight tortured Callum as well, she tricked him into thinking he was a murderer, and manipulated him into being her personal tool, she’s no worse than Nah’Lek!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

I slammed my fist on the table, angered by that comment.

“Don’t you DARE make such a comparison, I’ve seen Nah’Lek with my own eyes, I’ve seen what he’s capable of. I’ll admit Twilight treated me horribly, and I’ll admit it was unfair, but don’t you EVER say something like that again!” I boomed.

“You’re defending her? Why!? She’s made you miserable for the entire journey, and don’t even pretend you weren’t, I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve stormed off to get some space!” She barked back defiantly, not at all intimidated by my sudden anger.

“I was miserable LONG before you all came along.” I snarled.

“What do you mean?” She asked, taken aback.

“He’s depressed…” Twilight sighed.

Everyone turned to face Twilight, who had been quiet during the argument. She stood up from the table but continued to look at the ground.

“What?” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“Callum’s depressed, before we came into his life, he had attempted suicide, more than once. I’ve seen some of his memories when we switched bodies. I’ve felt the overwhelming darkness he feels every day, even after we embarked on this mission, he’s felt miserable.” She explained.

I opened my mouth to speak, before she continued.

“And I made it worse, I’ve prevented him from getting better. I used him, abused him, and took out all my pain on him. He deserved none of it, and yet I treated him like dirt. At first, it was just because I didn’t want to hurt my friends, I needed to let it out. But soon afterwards, I began to enjoy it, I craved making him miserable, I wanted him to suffer.”

“Twilight…” I breathed, noticing the tears in her eyes.

“I couldn’t stop myself until it went too far, I sent him to the other side of Portugal, hoping he would die before he reached us at the next orb shard. I even took the time to send him a text, asking him if he was dead yet, hoping I wouldn’t get a reply. I wanted him dead.”

She choked up and looked up at me, and the tears finally left her eyes.

“Then one night, I woke up in Callum’s body, and I felt something worse than Nah’Lek’s torture. I felt the same anger, hatred, and pain as before, but towards myself! The next thing I know, I’m walking around in the Frozen Forest again, and I find Callum in my body. That’s when I realised I was experiencing his emotions, I finally realised how I was making him feel!”

At this point, everyone else was getting emotional as they listened to the tale. The emotions were a mixture, Fluttershy, Applejack, were torn up over the distress Twilight was in, while Dashie and Rarity were distraught over Twilight’s confession to my mistreatment, and how badly she had affected me.

“I wanted to apologise there and then, but I didn’t, I couldn’t find the words. After that, I was conflicted with my emotions, and I started to hate myself for what I’d done. The Fel exploited this to corrupt me further, and I began to feel hateful towards everyone, and I forgot who I truly was.”

Twilight bowed her head in shame as she began to cry harder. None of us knew what to say, we just stood there and stared at her as she pleaded guilty to everything she had ever done.

“When we found Callum’s whereabouts, my first intention was to kill him, I blamed him for my emotional state, still unaware of the Fel in my body, I thought he was the cause of my actions and state of mind. Princess Celestia warned me of the human race, and not to trust them. She told me that Callum was an asset to the mission, but it was wise not to grow attached to him. The Fel played on those words, and tricked me into thinking Callum was the root of all my problems.”

{FINALLY! We Know What Celestia Said! After all this time!} Conscio cheered.

I shook my head to silently order him to shut up, while he had a point about finally understanding what Celestia had said to Twilight, now was hardly the time for celebration.

“When I teleported into the compound and found Callum, the very little good inside me was just enough to stop me from trying to kill him. But then I realised he was trying to save Bunnie, and I very quickly realised how badly he wanted to keep her alive, I suspected he loved her, and while I was just strong enough to fight the urge to kill him, I wasn’t strong enough to prevent what I did next…”

I felt a hard lump in my throat, and my vision went blurry again as the tears formed. Twilight looked up at me, her mouth wide open and her face painted with anguish.

“I could have saved her...”

Her voice was quieter than a mouse, her lips trembled as she emotionally imploded. Fluttershy walked over to her and draped her wing over her back to comfort her.

“I’m a murderer…”

She paused, not breaking eye contact, and then gritted her teeth.

“I, KILLED, BUNNIE!” She screeched.

She shook Fluttershy’s wing away and bolted, ramming open the door to the main hall and towards the front doors to the mansion. Everyone was frozen, trying to digest all the information and emotion they’d just been delivered. As painful as Twilight’s words were, I knew she needed someone to look after her right now, and I was the only one who could. I wiped away my tears and looked at Rarity.

“Thank you for dinner.” I grunted coldly.

I headed after Twilight, and found the front doors wide open; I ran outside and quickly found her hoofprints, I tracked her as fast as I could. Her brain was still heavily damaged from the Fel and I knew she would be extremely unstable, she needed to be protected.

{She’s heading for the cliff…} Conscio stated.

“Oh fuck…”

I ran as fast as I could, and soon enough I found her, standing on the jagged edge of the cliff. The same part where I had fallen when it collapsed. I approached her slowly, and happened to step onto a twig, it snapped and she whipped around.

“Stay back!” She spat.

“Twilight, get away from the edge.” I said calmly.

“I tried to kill you in this very spot, when I should have fallen, I deserved to die.” She shouted.

She was hyperventilating and hysterical, I needed to calm her down.

“You weren’t yourself, you were being controlled by the Fel; I saw your eyes glowing green when you threw me over the edge, you weren’t even conscious at that point, you were completely under its corruption, you weren’t responsible for your actions.” I told her.

“Why are you trying to help me? I deserve this!” She spat.

Her voice was barely audible through her tears; she was shaking all over. I looked at her and was surprised with what I found looking back; it was like looking into a mirror.

I saw myself…

On the night I had attempted suicide, I had sat there crying for hours in the living room, staring at the pile of pills in front of me, feeling like it was the only way to escape the darkness that swam around in my mind. I was scared, lost, confused, angry, and in pain.

“You’ve lost your way, you’ve gone down a dark path and you don’t know how to turn around, I’ve been there Twilight! Please, let me help you!” I pleaded.

“I JUST WANT TO STOP THIS!” She screamed.

She turned to face the cliff and my heart skipped a beat, she looked over the edge and began to lean forward; I sprinted at her as fast as I could and dived forward just as she went over the edge, I grabbed her tail and was almost taken over the edge with her, it took every muscle in my body to hold onto her without slipping forward. She wriggled around and I almost lost my grip.

“LET ME GO!” She cried.

“Over my dead body!” I growled.

I tugged her upwards and my body slid forward a few inches, I gasped loudly and kept absolutely still in sheer terror. I couldn’t see the bottom with the little light the moon provided, but I knew the drop was about the same as falling from the top of a skyscraper, since I’d already fallen from it once already.

“Why are you doing this? I’ve ruined your life!” Twilight shrieked.

I gritted my teeth as it grew harder and harder to hold onto her.

“You know what would ruin my life? Making my way down this mountain with the others to recover your body, and having to bury you! THAT would ruin my fucking life!”

Twilight sobbed harder as she became conflicted with guilt alongside with wanting to put an end to her suffering. From personal experience, I knew she didn’t really want this.

“Please Twilight, let me help you!” I begged.

“I can’t live with myself, I can’t cope with this! I hate myself!” She wailed.

“I felt like you did once! I felt like nothing in the world could help me cope, and I spent MANY nights considering ending my life. That’s when I started watching a stupid fucking cartoon where a young unicorn started learning the magic of friendship! The more I watched the show, and saw her grow and learn, the more confidence I had, that maybe one day, life would get better, and I’d make some good friends of my own! And I DID, both at my school, and online, I started to make friendships, and for once, I didn’t want to kill myself! I owe that to you; YOU gave me the confidence to carry on.”

She twisted around and looked up at me, taking in my heartfelt words.

“You didn’t ruin my life Twilight! You saved it!” I shouted.

Time seemed to slow down as our eyes met, in this moment, we truly understood each other. She looked down and finally came to her senses, and realised how close she was to death.

“I DON’T WANT THIS! HELP ME! PLEASE!” She howled.

“Put your hooves against the cliff face!” I ordered.

Due to hanging upside down, it wasn’t easy, but she was just able to make contact with the rock and I pulled her backwards, rather than upwards, her legs could take half of the weight, which allowed me to get to my knees and pull her back harder. She flew over the edge and smacked into my chest, she whipped around and latched onto me like a koala, all four legs hugging me as she shook, hyperventilating from the panic, it quickly died down and emotions took over, Twilight buried her face into my shoulder and wept loudly, I just held her tighter and cried with her, both of us shaking like leaves in a hurricane.

“I’ve got you… I’ve got you…”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She spluttered.

I said nothing and just cuddled her, cradling her from side to side. I held on to her for what felt like hours. All past transgressions were forgiven, because in this moment, we shared something that only we understood, which meant in turn, we understood each other.

Eventually she pulled back and I looked at her with a warm smile.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing.”

“Well, it is the middle of night in January…” She giggled sheepishly.

She got off me and we stood up and headed back towards the mansion…

As friends…

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Merciful throne....

Seems both Twi and Callum have suffered through a lot.... only time will tell as they heal....

[Xanatos Speed Chess]

Congratulations on finally fixing Bitchlight!

Now if you'll just fix Bitchlestia...

P.S.: Any chance of Callum learning about Far Cry 3's ending, for closure purposes and whatnot?

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

8264059
Agreed....

[Mister Horncastle]

8263900
It was a longtime coming... But personally, it was worth the wait.
As for your question, you'll just have to wait and see...

[WeepingDiscord]

I’m really sad that most people don’t see this chapter because they leave early because of twilight being a dick for no reason but in reality she was being controlled by the fell and they just leave a dislike and never return because they don’t like twilight.

Ps: yes I did say because a lot in my comment

[MikiStenbeck]

REDEMTION FOR TWILIGHT SPARKLEBUTT!