In Her Mind

by SeventhElement

XI. Remaining Ichor

A white void appears to replace the blackness surrounding Twilight. “Ah, there you are. I apparently no longer have the luxury of underestimating you.” Discord says with a hint of remorse. “Tor’anin, or, ‘Return’. You only had to say one word of the inscription to activate it. I never thought you had the potential for reading it honestly.”

“I don’t know what came over me, I just knew it said that and I said it. I had no idea what it meant!” Twilight said, flustered. “What do you even mean ‘potential’?”

“Potential for power. Power and chaos. And all you had to do was sacrifice your sorrows. Touching, really.” Discord says idly.

“Chaos? Are you serious?”

“I am deadly serious.” Discord’s talon extends downward, a black electricity radiates from it.

“I thought you said you didn’t have any powers here…”

“I lied.” He raises the claw up in the air, causing a bolt to strike the ground. From this spot arose a shape. A pony made of nothing but black goo. The goo recedes back into the pony’s eyes and mouth, revealing the other Twilight from before.

“No…”

“Oh yes. You still feel, and we can’t have that. You must destroy her Twilight. Drop the moral high ground nonsense. You’ll never be the same again. You’ll only hurt those you love, and alienate everyone further.” The creature begins weakly shambling towards Twilight, softly groaning and occasionally spewing a familiar black ooze.

Twilight is terrified. She takes a step back and whimpers. “This can’t be happening again.” The creature continues to limp towards her, almost falling on every other step. The more Twilight looked at it, the less scary it became however. This thing is falling apart: it’s weak, it’s shriveled, and can barely keep itself up. She felt sorry for this pony, but if she killed it, it would mean she could experience life without regretting the sorrow she had lost.

Twilight shakily took a few steps towards the other. Discord rubbed his hands together expectantly. “He’s getting something out of this” Twilight thought to herself “I absolutely can’t trust him.” Twilight straightened her posture and got in close. The creature reeked of death and sweat. This wasn’t the exact monster she had encountered before, but it was close enough to give her pause. She held her breath, and hugged the other Twilight.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Discord states in disbelief. “I hate ponies.” The creature disperses in fine particles of light, working their way into Twilight, making her feel more whole.

Comments

[Rewan Demontay]

Ooohhh, a touch of evil Discord, gambiting to ensure survival of his existence no matter what.
A single word to do it all, cheeky Starswirl.
Twilght's sorrow being her anchor to reality makes sense.