Fall
In the aftermath of Twilight’s violent departure, Spike was left at a loss for what to do. He eventually settled on trying to comfort Rainbow, but all he could muster was putting his claws on her shoulder and back and being there for her. There wasn’t really anything he could say that would make this situation any better, after all.
It must have been an age before Rainbow, at last, began to calm down. Her hysterical weeps and sobs slowly but surely began to dwindle as her energy was spent. Soon enough, her cries fell still, and she weakly lifted her head from her hooves to stare at the door to the room. “...Sp-Spike,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “What have I done?”
Spike cringed upon hearing that. Slowly, he guided her up into a sitting position before standing in front of her. “I don’t think you want me to answer that,” he said simply, placing a claw over her heart with a small smile. “We both know the answer.”
Rainbow closed her eyes and looked down, more tears running down her cheeks. “...I screwed up.”
Spike sighed and looked away. “Yeah…” he aknowledged before forcing himself to give her an encouraging smile. “But hey, you’ve made mistakes before, and you always came back from them before. This won’t be any different.”
Rainbow shook her head. “No… not this time. I… If I didn’t lose Twilight when she died, then I sure have, now…” she whispered before another, smaller sob slipped out of her.
Spike frowned. “Hey, now, come on,” he tried, gingerly lifting Rainbow’s chin and looking into her bloodshot eyes. “Twilight’s a little upset, yeah, and she does have a right to be. But we know her. She’ll come around soon enough, and you two can start to patch things up.”
Rainbow pushed his claw away and rose to her hooves so she could take a few steps back. “I don’t see how we could… I ruined everything. And she’s right… how can she trust me? Or any of us? We were all quiet about what happened to her…”
Spike sighed and walked up to her again. “I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. Celestia knows it was hard after the incident on the train,” he pointed out, cringing himself at that unpleasant memory. He shook it off after a moment and put a claw on her shoulder again, trying to impart what strength and optimism he could into one of his oldest friends. “But you two came back from that. Give it time and a lot of effort, and things’ll get better.”
“That was different,” Rainbow shook her head. “That incident only happened because of what Discord put inside my head. I attacked Starlight because he made me hate her. I couldn’t be held fully responsible for that-”
“None of us knew that,” Spike countered without missing a beat, his expression hardening. “None of us knew that there was a spell on you until well after all of that went down. As far as we knew, everything you did on that train was one hundred percent you. But you still swung back and managed to come back and make up for your mistakes. Which, if we’re being honest, makes it even more impressive that you pulled it off.”
Rainbow winced and looked away, and Spike knew he had her argument cornered. He’d gone through the process of breaking down her own self-deprecation enough times in the past to almost have it down to a science. It was a lot like stopping one of Twilight’s long-winded lectures before they could start, really. Although, he hadn’t had to do that since she had gotten amnesia.
Spike guided Rainbow over to the bed and urged her to sit down, which she did. Once Spike was sure she was comfy, he gave her a pat on the back. “Just sit here and cool off for a little while, okay? I’ll go find Twilight and make sure she’s alright.”
“She said she wanted to be left alone,” Rainbow reminded him as he turned for the door. “She isn’t gonna be happy to see you.”
Spike paused, his claws hovering a few inches from the doorknob. He sighed and looked back at her. “I know… but whether or not she’s angry at me, I gotta be there for her. I’m her number one assistant, and she’s my friend,” he resolved before pulling open the door and offering up one more small smile. “We’ll figure this out. I promise. We always do.”
Rainbow was quiet for a moment before looking down. “...I hope you’re right, Spike,” she whispered, her voice barely audible in the dark room. “I really, really do.”
Spike’s smile faded. “You and me both, Rainbow.”
Without another word, Spike stepped out and shut the door behind him, leaving Rainbow to her own devices for the time being.
Twilight wasn’t paying any attention to where she was going. Her mind was far too clouded with thoughts and feelings to give her any room to even care. She occasionally passed by members of the lunar guard, who would try to stop her and ask if she was alright, but one and all were left behind as she pressed on.
“She lied to me.”
Those four words rang out over and over in Twilight’s mind, drowning out almost anything else. With every repetition, her teeth ground together more and more behind her lips, and the freezing fire in her heart burned and froze her even more. How much of what she knew was a lie? How much had been omitted? How much had been changed to try and make her behave a certain way?
“She lied to me. She lied to me. She lied to me.”
Twilight growled angrily as another door put itself in her path. Why did so many things insist on getting in her way?! Why couldn’t she just walk in peace?! With a frustrated grunt, she blew the doors open with her magic and strode through without a care for the alarmed gasps of the two thestrals who stood watch outside.
A chilly breeze washed over her, and the sound of crickets chirping brought Twilight to the conclusion that she had wandered outside. For a brief moment, she looked around to get her bearings and figure out where she was.
She recognized the courtyard, and her eyes soon landed on the observatory that overlooked it all. The same observatory she had slept in when she first came to Canterlot for the celebration this year. The same observatory that she had been told was once her home before she moved to Ponyville.
With a huff, she pressed on for the tall structure, disregarding the questioning call from one of the thestrals. The mantra was starting up in her mind, again.
“She lied to me. She lied to me. She lied to me.”
Soon enough, Twilight found herself stepping into the tower’s entrance lobby. The moment the door closed behind her, shutting out the sounds of the wind and the crickets, the mantra in her mind ground to a halt. She was left in total silence, with only herself and her thoughts for company.
Twilight looked down, her chest starting to convulse as sobs tried to force themselves out of her. “...How could she…?” she choked out.
With slow, sluggish movements, Twilight dragged herself up the stairs to the second floor. The great, bubble-shaped window that sat at the far end of the room allowed moonlight to stream in and afforded her a breathtaking view of the courtyard and the city beyond. She came to a stop in front of it, shaking horribly.
“...I trusted you,” she whispered, a tear finally burning a hot trail down her cheek. “Rainbow Dash… I trusted you. I believed in you… how could you do this to me…?”
She looked up at the moon, her heart wilting in her chest and leaving her feeling cold, hopeless, and so alone. The moon’s near-featureless face stared back at her, mimicking the cold emptiness that was steadily spreading out from her heart.
“...What do I do?” Twilight eventually asked, slumped to her haunches and screwing her eyes shut. “I don’t know who I am, or what to do... Please, somepony… anypony... help me.”
“...But they won’t will they?” she thought, despair gripping her heart. “I’ve been relying on everypony else for so long. But how can I trust them, now? How can I trust any of them?!”
Twilight’s eyes clenched tighter as despair began to swallow her from the inside out. She crumpled to the floor, covering her head with her hooves and crying openly into the floor.
“They knew. They all KNEW!” she continued in her mind, the words echoing louder and louder and washing away everything else. “They all knew that I died! They all know more about me than I did! And none of them told me! None of them! How much more are they hiding from me?! Why are they hiding it?! Why? Why, why, why, WHY, WHY?!”
It was getting hard to breathe. Twilight’s eyes snapped open and she suddenly rose to her hooves. The ice was melting. In its place, a fire began to flood her veins, filling her with a rage she had never felt before. With something between a sob of grief and a scream of anger, she spun on her hooves and unleashed a wave of raw, unfocused magic into the room. Books were sent flying from their shelves, loose papers were scattered to the winds, and a few smaller items fell to break on the floor.
“HOW MUCH?!” She wailed, turning and firing another blast at her bed, reducing it to ashes. “HOW MUCH DONT I KNOW?! HOW MUCH ARE THEY KEEPING FROM ME?!”
Another blast of magic came, this one sent towards the roof, incidentally vaporizing an unlit chandelier that had been rocking back and forth as she brutalized her former home.
As her cries grew in volume, something began to emerge from somewhere inside of her. With every scream, every cry, and every blast of magic she unleashed, it became more and more apparent. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but whatever it was, it felt… oddly inviting.
Whatever it was, it drove her to greater and greater hysteria. Twilight shrieked at the top of her lungs, making her throat burn. Any further words died before they could reach her lips, however. All that came out of her was a series of incoherent sobs and wails as, piece by piece, she dismantled the inside of the observatory until, soon, she was the only thing left unphased. Her wings had flared out at some point during her rampage, and tears were dripping from her cheeks in excessive amounts.
She stood there, breathing heavily for several seconds. Slowly, her wings began to fold up at her sides. With a sigh, Twilight crumpled to the floor again, burying her face in her hooves and starting to sob again.
Something was wrong.
Spike stood at the door of the observatory, having figured out where Twilight had gone by asking the ponies he passed in the halls. With each one he had spoken to, his confidence in Twilight’s wellbeing wavered. All of them recounted an encounter with an increasingly distressed Twilight. If their words were to be believed, she had rapidly gone from angry to on the verge of tears, never stopping for anypony and all but ripping several doors out of their frames as she stormed her way to the observatory.
And now that he stood here, some primal fight or flight instinct had kicked in in Spike’s chest. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to run, to run away and find help. But no matter how much they screamed at him, he had no choice but to ignore them. He couldn’t go and get help when he was the help, could he?
Swallowing heavily, Spike opened the door. Immediately he wished he hadn’t, as the stench of burning paper and leather reached his nostrils, making him flinch back out of reflex. His eyes widened when he saw a few small plumes of smoke drifting out through the gap in the doorway, rising up to disperse into the air.
“...Twilight?” he whispered anxiously before forcing himself to step inside.
The observatory was an absolute mess. Spike’s heart fell into the pits of his stomach when he saw scorch marks marring almost every single surface, and most of the furniture was gone, reduced to ashen smears that smothered the walls, floors, and even the ceiling.
But that was far from the worst part. Even more unnerving and chilling than the sight of his former home reduced to such a sorry state were the quiet whimpers coming from the upper level. In all of his years, Spike had only ever heard such a heart-wrenching sound a few times.
Spike froze at the base of the stairs for several seconds before forcing himself to advance. Chills danced up and down his spine like an army of millipedes as he went, that darned fight-or-flight response going into a frenzy at his continued refusal to acknowledge it.
When he came to the top of the stairs, he saw that most of the second level had been completely cleared of just about everything; the furniture, the diagrams, the notes. Even the bookcases and all of their contents were gone, seemingly reduced to dust. The only part of the entire room that wasn’t stained with ash and char marks was in front of the window that overlooked the city. In the heart of that clearing was the prone form of Twilight Sparkle, weeping quietly into her hooves.
Spike didn’t move an inch. How in the world was he supposed to approach this? He’d been expecting Twilight to be upset, sure, but to walk in and find that she had completely obliterated everything they had once had here? “She must be feeling worse than I thought…” he said to himself before timidly taking a step forward. “But that just means she needs me more.”
“Spike…” Twilight suddenly said, her cries coming to an abrupt end.
Spike stopped in his tracks, his claws anxiously tapping together over his chest. “Uh… h-hey, Twilight. Um…” he looked around, her spines flattening back uneasily. “Are you feeling… okay?”
“That’s a stupid question,” he thought to himself.
But to his surprise, Twilight actually let out a quiet little laugh. The alicorn slowly and lazily rose to her hooves, her back to the baby dragon and her head hung low. “Am I feeling okay?” she echoed after a few seconds before throwing back her head and laughing even louder. When they died down, she lowered her head again and fell utterly silent.
Spike took a tentative step forward. “Twi… I’m really worried about you,” he tried, gingerly, to speak, but flinched when his foot brushed through a notably tall pile of ashes. Had that once been his bed?
Twilight didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then she lifted her head to look out at Canterlot. When she spoke again, her voice was calm and on the verge of emotionless. “...Memories are funny things, aren’t they?”
Spike froze, his heart skipping a beat in dread. “Wha… w-what do you mean?”
Twilight didn’t move an inch as she spoke. “Our memories shape us into who we are. Every lesson, every moment, every feeling. Over our entire lives, we absorb so much information, and all of that information makes us who we are. So… what happens, then, when you take those memories away?”
Spike didn’t dare answer, his heart starting to hammer wildly in his chest.
Twilight slowly, ever so slowly, began to turn in place. “Take me for an example,” she went on. “When I was killed in the Empire, I lost all of my memories. I became an empty shell, a clean slate. All I had left of myself was a body, a voice, and the friends and family who claimed to know and love me oh so much.”
Spike gasped when Twilight’s eyes came into view. Her pupils had narrowed into vertical slits and wisps of ghostly, pale-blue magic were leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She grinned at him, revealing that her teeth were slowly but surely starting to contort into razor-sharp blades. “Tw-Twilight?” Spike asked, his voice trembling.
Twilight took a step forward, her eyes narrowing and her grin disappearing. “I’ve wanted, for so long, to know everything there is to know about myself, Spike. I’ve told myself from the day I woke up that, one day, I’d figure out who I am, and everything could go back to normal for my friends. For the ponies I told myself I loved... But I’ve been a fool.”
Spike fell onto his rump as Twilight advanced, watching with horror as more of that ghostly magic began to seep out of her mane, sending it drifting lazily in an unfelt breeze.
“Because Twilight Sparkle is dead, isn’t she?” she went on, her voice taking on a cold, sinister edge. “Murdered by a vengeful changeling drone in the Crystal Empire. And no matter how hard I wish for it, Twilight cannot come back as long as everypony keeps hiding the truth from me.”
“Twilight, please,” Spike said weakly, knowing full well what it was he was witnessing. “Listen to me. You need to calm down and-”
Twilight threw her head back and laughed again, a dark, sinister laugh filled with equal parts madness and sorrow. She looked back down at him with a giant grin and ghostly tears dripping down her cheeks. “Calm down? Spike, I don’t think you understand… I finally get it. I know what I have to do!” she whispered to him before turning back to look at the window. Her expression soured almost immediately. “And it’s well past time that I did it.”
“What?”
Without warning, Twilight’s horn flared to life, and a beam of pale blue magic was sent into the window. It shattered immediately, any shards unfortunate to fall in its path immediately melting and splattering to the floor to sizzle and pop. With a huff, Twilight advanced on the new exit to the tower before glaring back at Spike.
“I am going to solve the mystery of Twilight Sparkle,” she stated plainly, a malevolent smile spreading on her lips. “Of the mare who gave up her life to save Princess Rainbow Dash. If everypony is so determined to make sure I don’t know the whole truth, then I guess there’s nothing else for me to do but rip the truth out of them.”
“WHAT?!” Spike cried out, forcing himself to stand. “Twilight, that’s crazy-”
“DONT CALL ME THAT!” ‘Twilight’ suddenly snapped, whirling on Spike and showing him her teeth. Somehow, she was right in front of him, her fangs mere inches from his face. They were made all the more threatening as ‘Twilight’s’ fur slowly began to darken to a far more menacing shade of purple. “Didn’t I just say that Twilight Sparkle is dead?!”
Spike fell back again, covering his face with his arms and praying to Celestia that he would be alright.
Several seconds passed before Twilight withdrew, staring down her nose at Spike impassively. With a snort, she turned and made her way for the window again, her wings unfolding. “I am going to learn the truth. The whole truth,” she declared. “Nopony is going to hide it from me. Not anymore.”
With a great flap of her wings, Twilight departed through the window, swiftly leaving the courtyard and vanishing into the city beyond.
Spike remained where he was for several seconds, petrified with terror and unbelieving at what he had just seen. Finally, with a lump forming in his throat, he stood up and backed away from the shattered window. “Oh, no…” he choked out, looking back over his shoulder.
“I have to tell Rainbow Dash.”
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Alicorn + Mental Breakdown equals doom!!!!! And she is wrong as this is full Twilynanas. Only TwilightSparkle has a mental break down like this. How will she restore her memory? By going completely nuts first!
I hope she finds what she's looking for without undue bloodshed.
Oh.....dear.
First it was Celestia and Everypony else that unintentionally turned her sister into Nightmare Moon. Now it’s Rainbow Dash and everypony else that unintentionally turned the mare that she loves into Midnight Sparkle. How will all of this be resolved. Will it be resolved before the story ends or will it lead to the next story? Why the suspense!?
That A/N.....surely you haven't been setting this up this entire series have you?
Y'know....Luna was just worried about Twilight hurting Rainbow Dash again. I don't think Twilight becoming corrupted was part of the conversation. This....ah boy. None of this is good. Not sure what Twilight's even looking for anymore. The only lies Rainbow told were omitting how Twilight lost her memories and Discord's offer. Well, ok, the details of their relationship, too, but Twilight's known about that since meeting her parents.
9971465
I have had this plot twist planned since I first decided to make Twilight an amnesiac. So somewhere in the middle of writing Consequences.
9971498
I see. I may have asked this before, but did you originally think you were going to make a series out of this when working on Glimpses? Or did it just kind of naturally happen that you had more stories to tell in this world.
9971462
Just a gut feeling, but I think there's time left in this story to resolve it here. And man...this is probably worse in some ways than Nightmare Moon. Even if Twilight hadn't returned the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, they wouldn't work with one of their bearers corrupted like this. Rainbow is going to have to actually talk Twilight/Midnight down somehow...
9971508
Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into X-Men 3 with Rainbow Dash having to kill Twilight “Jean Grey” Sparkle.
9971512
The thought itself is VERY unpleasant and ringing many "please stop giving the author ideas" bells, but I find it unlikely. Couple reasons. One, Rainbow will never harm Twilight again. It's just not happening. She can't. At least not physically or intentionally. She wouldn't be able to actually attack the mare she loves, even in this state. Two, Twilight is very magically strong, and Rainbow can't really compete with that on the fly. Three...all Twilight has to do is cast the most basic of spells on Rainbow and it'll incapacitate her. Holding her in a simple telekinesis spell would absolutely paralyze Rainbow. Even if she's gotten passed the worst of her PTSD, it's still enough.
Luna, though....Luna would have no such reservations or weaknesses.
9971519
The third option could happen, but perhaps not entirely. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Another question, even if Twilight does get her memories back and is sane once more, would Luna still hold a serious grudge on her?
9971530
This would probably just add to it, honestly. And I'm really not counting on Twilight's amnesia going away just because she beat answers out of all her friends.
9971534
There are other ways besides beating up.
9971539
Yes. Yes, there are. However, does Twilight seem like she's going to explore those other options? Does her mental state seem stable?
9971543
Nnnnnooppe!
interesting take on how Princess Twi would go Midnight. The other wants to know everything about magic, this one wants to know the Element of Magic herself, Twilight Sparkle. Very nicely done.
9971508
When I was working on Glimpses, I could not deny the possibility of a series, but I didn't have many plans beyond a few fragmented ideas. That's why story one is so self-contained and can stand perfectly well on its own. I spent some time mulling it over after I finished Glimpses before the ideas of Choices and Consequences came to me, and I set to work.
TL;DR - I knew I could, didn't know if I was going to for sure.
What's Midnight's plan after she "learns the truth of who Twilight Sparkle was", if she gets to that point? That's what worries me more!
OH [BEEP], things are getting real. The fact you had this planned for months while still tying it back to something Celestia said in “Glimpses” shows just why I love this series so much.
Yikes! Yeah, this has gotten REALLY ugly REALLY fast. Yeah, Twi's gone WAY past the point of "understandably upset" and into the sort of territory where, well, we're just going to have to wait and see if and how this gets resolved in five chapters without anybody getting more hurt (at least physically) than absolutely necessary. But, still, Spike AT LEAST gets points for TRYING.
At any rate, very good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter/finale arc set-up in all the right places. DEFINITELY be looking forward to more of this.
Well, bollocks. With no elements to purify her, she's basically unbeatable. I really want to know how this turns out.
Honestly this feels out of nowhere. And the reason I say that is because you've never had Twilight really get angry before; not in any way that would even hint at this being a possibility. You didn't show that she was ready to snap, in fact you did just the opposite, and in the last few chapters Twilight has seemed more stable.
Twilight. Rainbow didn't lie. she was waiting for the right time to tell you but never lied.
Twilight wins the biggest overreaction of the century award.
"My best friend, who's devoted the last two years to helping me put my life back together, cared too much about protecting me to tell me a terrifying and totally irrelevant fact, and she made the logical choice not to let millions of innocent people suffer so an untrustworthy manipulator could f*** around with my head. Guess I'll burn down some cities now!"
I thought Luna was being unfair when she held her grudge against Twilight, but it looks like I bet the wrong horse there, didn't I? Turns out she had Twilight pegged all along. (Unless Discord planted another "make her pay" type impulse in Twilight's head when her face was getting sucked by that plant?)
I predict Twilight is going to extract some payback against Luna. Without the Elements, I guess Rainbow is going to have to talk Twilight down off the ledge. Which is even more difficult because first, Rainbow has to talk HERSELF off the ledge. Speaking of Rainbow...
...Did she make a mistake?
I don't blame Rainbow Dash for having a complex at this point; she keeps getting stabbed between the wings again and again, and none of her friends are willing to stand up for her or take her side. Why is it exclusively Rainbow who's supposed to be at fault here? Why isn't it Spike's fault too? Spike loves Twilight, Spike lives with Twilight, Spike had plenty of time to observe what Rainbow was saying to Twilight, Spike presumably had a finger on the pulse of what Twilight did and didn't know, Spike had ample opportunity to tell her. But nah, who cares. It's all your fault, Rainbow. There's nobody else who has any share of this blame. Not your little brother, or your other friends, or Princess Celestia, who should have taken it as her responsibility to TELL TWILIGHT from DAY ONE instead of outsourcing the bad news to her daughter. Nope! You're to blame, Rainbow. This one's all on you. But hey, it's okay! You've made mistakes before, and look how THOSE turned out!
Just once, I wish someone would give Rainbow Dash the absolution she needs. She's not the perpetrator, and she never has been. Her legacy is littered with all these so-called mistakes that really aren't mistakes, but are treated as these mortal sins she shall forever have to bear. The Crystal Empire is under siege by Sombra, Twilight and Starlight are about to die from over-exertion, the barrier is about to come down, thousands of innocent ponies are about to get slaughtered, Rainbow Dash has no choice but to strike a bargain with Somba to buy time and keep hope alive — UNPARDONABLE! STARLIGHT WILL NEVER FORGIVE HER! Rainbow's mind is altered by a demigod of chaos who implants a magical suggestion in her that overrides her logic and emotions and causes her to experience unquenchable bloodlust, and she attacks someone because of it — THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE YOU MADE, RAINBOW! YOU SHOULD HAVE CONTROLLED YOURSELF BETTER! SHAME ON YOU!
Rainbow is the victim in all this. It's Rainbow who's forced to make the impossible decisions, it's Rainbow whose psyche takes the beating every time, it's Rainbow who nobody will ever, ever stand up for, not ever. Even Luna, as true a friend as she's been to Rainbow, wouldn't completely absolve Rainbow of guilt in her dream therapy session.
Why is it so hard for people to say the obvious thing, the thing that Rainbow so desperately needs to hear: "You WEREN'T IN YOUR RIGHT MIND, it ISN'T YOUR FAULT, and it NEVER WAS!"
And now, here we go! Twilight has become a fallen alicorn, and I'm sure ponies will look to cast blame on Rainbow for that "mistake" too. Never mind that every choice Rainbow made was made out of love. Never mind that Discord could easily have butchered Twilight's mind, made a sham out of the whole bargain, and vanished off the grid for the next century. Never mind that Discord could have brought torment to thousands, if not millions of innocents. Never mind the fact that Celestia had full knowledge that Rainbow was going to withhold the truth about Discord's offer from Twilight, and was complicit in the decision not to tell her. Never mind that Twilight is acting COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE and has BETRAYED RAINBOW AGAIN. Every sensible and correct course of action Rainbow Dash takes is made out to be a mistake. Every venial sin she makes is made out to be a mortal sin. She really has the worst friends. Spike's just the latest in a long line. Truth is, she'll never be able to move past her past issues and trauma, because her friends will never let her — they'll keep on hanging her for her every difficult decision, every time. No slack for Rainbow, just a tighter noose.
I really just pity her so, so much.
9972281
If I may offer a quick correction: What Discord implanted was nothing more or less than a hard-wired emotional response and a phrase to accompany it. All his spell on Rainbow did was make her hate Starlight. It did not, in any way, actually force her to act. That was still all her when she lashed out at Starlight. And she did control herself better after that. She wouldn't have been able to do that if the spell actually dictated her actions.
As for the rest of your comment, feels kinda hostile, but I see where you're coming from.
9971967
I see your point, but I also need to remind you that, as far as Twilight knows, her ability to trust Rainbow Dash's word has been called into serious question, and she has been relying on that to chart her course ever since she got amnesia. It caused an emotional reaction she was not prepared to handle or used to, and when all was said and done, that lack of experience and preparation was what led to the intensity of it, as well as the following fall.
9972461
I'm just saying a little more foreshadowing probably would have helped. Without much of a lead up, big changes like this can easily feel forced.
9972676
I gotcha. I was trying to foreshadow it, but I recognize that I didn't do the best job, in retrospect.
Ooooooooooooooh shit.
Welp, we’re dead.
How many times had Twilight "died"? (death of personality due lose of memories/history/sanity)
I'm starting to think the author doesn't like Twilight for some reason. :-)
9973148
Oh, no, I love Twilight. Tied for first place for my fave of the mane 6 with RD.
9972691
9972676
I think Twilight's fall was foreshadowed pretty well here:
Well, that's the mark of a compelling story, isn't it? The ability to make a reader feel strong emotions?
Every time something like this happens, I come away feeling so awful for Rainbow Dash. Since the dawn of the new timeline, she's been tormented by this vicious cycle of powerlessness feeding guilt, guilt feeding powerlessness. She was powerless to save her parents, powerless to stop Discord from controlling her, powerless to stop Canterlot from being overrun, powerless to keep her loved ones from being taken, powerless to stop Sombra, powerless when Chrysalis was torturing and mutilating her, powerless to prevent Twilight from being murdered. Rainbow's powerlessness and the guilt it spawns is, like, the recurring theme of this series.
Every time, she puts herself out there and does what it takes to keep hope alive. She risks her own life by tying a rope around herself and walking into the storm. She faces down Chrysalis to give Twilight time to keep up the barrier, even though she's terrified. She sacrifices years of her life to help Twilight recover. She's forced into this horrible, impossible choice between (possibly) restoring Twilight's memories and letting a monster loose on the world... And she does the right thing.
And where are her friends? Right there to judge her and blame her for it. To say the words she doesn't need to hear, to feed into her trauma and her complex, every time.
When I look at this situation, I have to ask myself: who screwed up here? Every reader is going to arrive at a different conclusion based on their subjective interpretation of the characters and the events of the story. Here's mine.
Canonically, we know freeing Discord and reforming him would have been the correct choice, so Rainbow's decision to keep him in stone was, objectively, a mistake. The optimal decision would have been to say, "No, Discord, I won't accept your bargain, but I will agree to free you from stone on the condition that you not disappear; that you stay here and let us try to reform you." But outside of the occasional glimpse, nobody in this story has any knowledge of the events of the alternate timeline. It's hard to fault Rainbow Dash for making a logical decision borne out of loyalty and the desire to keep everyone safe.
Was withholding Discord's bargain from Twilight a mistake? Seems like it, in retrospect. But hindsight is 20/20. At the time, Rainbow worried that Twilight might not be happy to take no for an answer, she was so wrapped up in trying to regain her lost memories. Then Celestia chimed in that if Twilight were made aware of the opportunity to recover her memories and then denied it, it could trigger a fall. So yet again, this is another damned if you do, damned if you don't type situation, not unlike the devil’s bargain with Sombra. For all we know, revealing Discord's bargain could just as easily have brought about Twilight's fall at an earlier point in the story. So was it a mistake? It's ambiguous.
Then, we have stupid, idiot, moron Twilight. Twilight, who's been Rainbow's best friend for two years now, who Rainbow devoted herself to, didn't have enough respect for Rainbow after all this time to see past one thing Rainbow might have done wrong. Even after Rainbow admitted how terrified she was to lose her! Even after she reduced Rainbow to a sobbing, emotionally devastated wreck! Even after Rainbow gave a reasonable explanation for her actions! Turns out, Luna had Twilight pegged from day one. So who's the worse friend here? Is it Rainbow, who acted out of equal parts love and duty, out of the desire to protect Twilight from the mental anguish of being denied back her memories? Or is it Twilight, who threw Rainbow aside the first chance she got, flew off the handle, and turned into a supervillain?
To be clear, I DON'T THINK this is a problem with the story. Is Twilight acting f***ing crazy, in a way that's completely out of proportion to what Rainbow has done against her? Yep! Is it out of character for her? I don't necessarily think so, because:
1. Discord is involved.
2. She's being undermined by some weird alicorn biology that makes her susceptible to a fall.
3. This isn't Twilight. Twilight died in the Crystal Empire. This is a Twilight copycat: someone who's spent the last two years trying to mimic unicorn Twilight's personality and mannerisms, but whose responses are actually quite different.
So here we have a situation where Rainbow Dash is inevitably going to blame herself — again. Once again, she's powerless. Once again, that powerlessness is going to transmute into guilt. Once again, she's really not responsible for it. How can Rainbow be responsible for someone else's crazy? Once again, her friends are poised to pounce on her for making the "wrong decision." Look at how Applejack, the Bearer of Honesty, cast her judgment on Rainbow Dash a couple chapters ago, even though she herself said absolutely nothing to Twilight about her death for two years — what a hypocrite! Look how automatically Rainbow rushes to blame herself in this chapter, and how quickly Spike rushes to affirm it. It's actually tragic.
Since the incident on the train, it's been one thing after another with her friends putting her in this deep, lightless hole, never to bother themselves over Rainbow’s self-conceptions about her guilt and worth, never to participate in her therapy, never to think before they open their mouths and pile the world’s misfortunes on her shoulders — as if by being a princess in the timeline, she deserves to be loaded with the responsibility and the consequences for everything. Twilight ostracized her for days and walked out on her in Hollow Shades; when she revealed the deal she was forced to strike with Sombra, Starlight Glimmer stopped just short of calling her a monster, Applejack was next in line to condemn her, and none of Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, or Rarity spoke up for her; the incident on the train comes up over and over as something Rainbow deserves to feel guilty about, but the mitigating circumstances of Discord’s spell almost never come up; Celestia resurrected Twilight at the cost of her memories, then walked out on all responsibility for her, apparently taking zero role in her faithful student’s recovery after spending one afternoon with her at her childhood home, leaving Rainbow stuck holding the bag; none of her friends bothered to speak a word to Twilight about her murder in the Crystal Empire, but they sit in judgment of Rainbow for not doing the same; Spike plays right into the existing trope about how everything is Rainbow’s fault, causing her to beat up on herself even more, reinforcing her self-doubt, digging an even deeper rut in her self-confidence; Twilight betrays Rainbow the first chance she gets, turns her back on everything Rainbow has done for her, and becomes a raving psychopath. And now, another knife is poised to drive into Rainbow’s heart which will tear her down further than ever before.
It’s heartbreaking how often Rainbow is made to feel like she’s let everyone else down, when in fact, it’s everyone else who lets her down.
So yeah... I am hostile toward a lot of these characters. Again, this is only my opinion.
9973665
The problem with this is it's telling, not showing. And as Celestia said herself; she barely knows the new Twilight, so she can't accurately predict how things will affect her. And anyway being told that there is a cliff they could fall off of isn't the same as showing that they're on the edge.
9972676
I'm kinda-sorta in agreement here, but.
Twilight was laser focused on "She lied to me" despite the fact that, really, no, Rainbow didn't lie to her. She just hadn't told Twilight everything yet. Yet. Yeah, keeping secrets can be dishonest, but it's not the same, especially when those secrets are kept because they're painful, hurtful, or could lead someone in a poor mental state to do something precipitous.
With Discord's offer in particular, Rainbow was right to distrust that he could even keep his end of the bargain (either end, Twilight's memories, or staying out of Equestria) and telling Twilight about it would only have caused Twilight grief, especially if she had to rationally agree that they couldn't trust him, even if they could morally make such a deal.
But. That could be explained by Discord's influence. He doesn't need his magic to mess with your mind; his words are enough to have her focused on the interpretation of events ("She lied to me!") that is most suited to his purposes, be they to create enough chaos to break free again, or merely to get revenge by torturing Twilight and Rainbow emotionally.
If so, when Twilight is eventually un-Fallen again, we'll need to see that she's come to understand that. That what Rainbow didn't tell her was meant to help her, that she would have learned that she'd given her life for Rainbow eventually, that the purpose in keeping that secret was never to hurt her, but to let her find herself before she learned things that could send unstable-her out to do something rash in an attempt to "live up" to what everyone else remembered of her from before.
And that telling her about Discord's offer would have been needlessly cruel, especially given her rapid agreement that Rainbow's decision on the matter was the correct one. Keeping that from her was entirely about sparing her the anguish of knowing that the memories she so badly wanted back could be a simple "yes" away, if only she was willing to doom the rest of the world to a lifetime of chaos and misery (and eventually, Equestria as well!)
That little bit of pure, unadulterated cruelty, really, puts me firmly on Rainbow's side in denying this version of Discord another chance. That he then engineered this situation? They need to grind that statue to powder and launch it into the sun.
9973973
9973955
I agree that the short-term build-up to Twilight's fall is sudden.
She shifts quite rapidly from saving Equestria from the plunder vines; to being angry, but restrained, and motivated by the desire to talk things out (“...You and I, Rainbow, are going to have a very, very long conversation when all of this is over"); to having some small measure of sympathy and understanding for Rainbow's motives ("Twilight was quiet for several moments. Her face was torn between anger, shock, guilt, and sympathy, each one struggling for dominance. “...I appreciate the intention, Rainbow Dash"); to turning her back on everything else Rainbow has done for her, rejecting their friendship, and being all-consumed by rage.
If it were just Twilight walking out of the hospital room, refusing to hear Rainbow Dash out, and leaving her a broken, sobbing mess, I think that was foreshadowed pretty well with Luna's reservations, as well as the Grootslang incident. I think it's very believable for Twilight to experience a moment of selfish anger upon learning these truths, put herself and her own emotional state in front of Rainbow's, and make a total ass of herself a la Hollow Shades 2.0.
I agree that being angry enough to betray Rainbow Dash and everyone else she cares about is on a different level. I agree there isn't a lot to explain why Twilight has flown off the handle here, when previous to this, in A Bond That Cannot Be Undone (ironic name in hindsight), it seemed like she was making good progress towards happiness and towards a growing affection for Rainbow Dash. I agree that the suddenness of her about-face and the magnitude of her overreaction defy all reasonable explanation, and they retroactively paint post-amnesia Twilight as a much less sympathetic character in hindsight.
However, I also think there might be more going on here than we know about yet.
Oh... shit...
Twi's gone Nightmare Moon!
9973973
Or perhaps she is the kind of person who would rather know the horrible truth than live in blissful ignorance.
(I know they exist because i am one of them.)
Discord pops into our universe.
"Yeah, you, the brony-thing that wrote this. Skijara-whatsit. A rainbow maned hooligan needs a book on her life to figure out just how she messed it up, so pass us Flashes and we'll see those cogs inside her head begin to whirl..."
Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend... And Twilight is the Princess of Friendship. She lost trust in friendship itself.
Twilight went something, something.
oh sh*t.
*Remembers Celestia and Rainbow's conversation after Discord's offer.*
OH SH*T.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
*Final Scene*
Damn you Checkov's Gun
This was amazing though. Heart-wrenching and well written. THIS is how you make a character snap. Take notes D&D from GoT.
9983853
They are rare minority apparently, but yes they do. Sad thing is that the rest who prefer to know lies also help to propagate said lies and make point of truth-seekers even more valid and tragic..
Is she... becoming a fallen Alicorn?
I CALLED IT!
I SO CALLED IT!
9972281
i stand by rainbows decision completely. psychologically speaking- last thing you want is to give someone like twilight more to go on, when you know full well they are trying to emulate who they used to be. knowing you didn't hesitate to give your life for someone? is a big character trait.
Oh no, no, no. Midnight's loose!