• Published 22nd Mar 2019
  • 960 Views, 25 Comments

In Her Mind - SeventhElement



After falling from one Canterlot castle's highest towers, Twilight finds herself comatose, and trapped within her own mind.

  • ...
2
 25
 960

V. The Darkness Within Starswirl

Surrounded in smoke, Twilight seems to fall endlessly. The smoke completely blocks out all light from the once bright world around her. As the smoke enters her lungs she is given flashes of the Tartarus Incident. The ways in which she saw every single one of her friends die, the violence, the creature. All of her anger, her stress, her fear, but there was something missing. She sees the friends that she gained after the incident, she sees their funerals. The Princess of Friendship laid bare, the seemingly never ending tears streaming down her face seems like a distant and impossible memory. All of this sorrow is unnervingly missing. The symphony of emotions that she once had is missing a section, and everything sounds wrong.

She awakens floating in darkness as she did before. A window of light appears in front of her, a clear view of the events of the last two days. Luna freeing her from the recursive nightmare did not absolve Twilight of her grief. Twilight sought out magic to make her sorrow dissipate, so she consulted Starswirl’s Forbidden Library. The spell she was looking for was literally glowing. Twilight didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now she realizes, that was the aura of Celestia’s magic.

“Celestia...why?” She thought. “She’d never hurt me. I’m her sister.” This dark spiral continues further. Anger flares up, she feels deceived. “She must have a reason...she always has a reason.” Twilight cannot breathe, but not because of the smoke. Twilight continues her fall, the miasma following her descent. She remembers.

“Future sight!” Twilight feels the smoke lighten. “Celestia must have been acting out the future like she’s done so many times…” Her anger lightens, knowing that her mentor hadn’t truly hurt her, she was merely forced to do something; The consequences of which were unknown. Twilight turned her thoughts to another pony in her past: Starswirl The Bearded. A different feeling washes over Twilight, betrayal. She knew Starswirl to be a curmudgeonly pony, but with good intentions and a heart of gold. She knew he researched magic at all levels, nothing was taboo to him. He died like many of Twilight’s friends did: during the Incident. Starswirl was an inspiration to Twilight, his forbidden library being the brilliant and all-powerful mark of all of his achievements. Despite his reappearance, little is known about the texts there.

Twilight’s frustration peaked when she thought of how irresponsible it was to just leave a scroll like that lying around. “How could he do this to somepony!” The other Twilight returning to her mind, the black goop dripping from her eyes. She thought it was just her imagination, she thought it was a dream or some kind of nightmare. She burned it, she burned herself. Her fear of dark unbounded, she engulfed the other Twilight in flames. She had no idea what she had done.
Was it a monster? A vision? The darkness exposed by this thought shines a light on the true sin of Starswirl. “No.” Twilight said. Her fall began lightly decelerating. Twilight began reorienting herself such that her hooves may hit the ground. She still could not see her surroundings, but the smoke that was smothering her only moments ago was beginning to thin out. “The other Twilight was a part of me.” The smoke evaporates around Twilight.