In Her Mind

by SeventhElement

VII. Remembrance In Suspended Animation

“Indeed!” a voice grumbles from inside the doorway. Discord walks in from the darkness, clearly annoyed. “Do you have any idea what I had to go through? I had no idea the memory repository could be so violent! But then again, this is your mind.” Discord perks up. “Ahh! You found the map! It took me a long time to figure it out, but basically this is a roadmap to your noggin. Though, it seems incomplete.”

“Can you read the words inscribed here?” Twilight asks.

“Words? What words? All I see are dots and lines.” Discord says, legitimately puzzled about what Twilight says. She looks down and finds that the words have vanished from the carving. Discord stares briefly, but decides to look away. When he does, the words flicker back into existence.

“Hmph, maybe you are crazy.” Discord says. Twilight shakes her head.

“Maybe I am...Discord I think I know what’s wrong with me!” Twilight says in a nervous excitement.

“Ooooh do tell!” Discord says, leaning over as if to eat from a bag of popcorn that would materialize, but didn’t. A scowl crosses his face.

Twilight hesitates briefly to collect her thoughts. She explains that casting a spell from Starswirl’s forbidden library caused her sorrow and grief to manifest physically into a warped version of herself. She killed this creature by burning it, and in doing so actually excised the ability to feel sorrow. This caused such great exhaustion she stumbled out of her chamber window. The whole time she explains this, Discord is deep in thought. Near the end, he gets a glimmer in his eye.

“Are you absolutely sure you are now incapable of feeling such things?” he says in an extremely serious tone. The question and the way it was asked resonantes with Twilight. After a moment, she responds.

“Yes.”

“Care to put it to the test?”

“Test? How?”

Discord leans up, and extends his paw to the map. “Here, where you started. I don’t know what that room is called, but clearly you can shape it to your will.”

“My will? But you-”

“No, you. You turned the room into your own hospital room. I told you, I have no powers here.” Discord says bitterly. “Now, if you’ll accompany me.”

Twilight concedes and follows him out the door. A series of winding paths made of floating white blocks lies before them. They walked for what felt like an hour to Twilight before she found herself once again in the white room with ornate walls.

“Alright, we’re here. Now what?”

“I want you to think really hard about the event that killed me. What have you been calling it…’The Tartarus Incident’? A bland name for such an exciting event including an Eldritch Horror if you ask me.”

“‘Eldritch Horror’? What are you-? Nevermind. Why? Why do you want me to think about that?”

“If you truly lost your ability for grief, then watching it all over again wouldn’t really bother you that much would it?” Discord said, almost reveling in it.

Twilight saw his point, but was still quite anxious about it. “Alright...stand back. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Twilight closes her eyes and concentrates very deeply. She recalls that day: The Summer Sun Celebration. Every creature was there. Her sisters. Her parents and her brother. The other former “Elements of Harmony”. Graduated and currently attending classes of her friendship school. Starswirl and friends. Foreign dignitaries. Everyone of note in Equestria really. It was a beautiful day.

Twilight opens her eyes and sees the festivities. Food and merriment abound, as everything is occurring at a strange pace. Time is dilating and contracting in this recollection, no doubt from the mental scars associated. Key figures like the Cutie Mark Crusaders are having the times of their young lives. An expedition to the South has given the trio an important discovery: three archaic weapons. These are dated far before any previous pony artifacts. Twilight suddenly notices an aura around them, a green haze emits from everyone, with notable strength surrounding and the past version of herself and her five friends.

“What is that?” Twilight mutters. She feels a longing for these ponies, but still no sadness. Soon, dark clouds and a fog gather from the horizon as the event begins to unfold. The clouds were there before the pegasi could do anything, and moments later that terrible roar booms from the distance. The beast emerges from the fog: a fetid amalgamation of stone, fire, and teeth breaths toxic gas as it begins tearing through every living thing it can see with its seemingly infinite eyes. Everyone springs into action, with time slowing down every time Twilight sees someone die. She tries to look away, but can’t as the world forces her to see the view she originally saw. Seemingly infinite tentacles extend from the creature bearing a new set of eyes and teeth each time. It was then Twilight notices a different aura emits from this creature, not even the miasma could cloak the red glow it gave off.

Twilight sees each of her friends cut down brutally and feels...something. Fear, primarily, the horror of the event giving way to the anger she felt towards the creature. She happened to notice Flurry Heart enter the fray, leading the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They charged at the beast with violent fervor. Flurry deflects the tentacles repeatedly to give them an opening; unfortunately for her, this proved to be fatal. One of the many jaws of the creature finds its way to Flurry Heart and clamps down. Twilight noticed a strange reaction: the aura of the creature flickered yellow. The Crusaders do not waste time in this moment; all three strike the beast using the artifacts in a hole in the creature’s stony armor. The creature stops suddenly, and a groaning noise is made as the magic courses through it. After a few seconds creature explodes. It was almost like those specific events weren’t supposed to happen, but these perfect conditions did and the thing was slain. The explosion wasn’t just for show however, it leveled the entire town and all the creatures in it. The only survivors were the 4 princesses and Shining Armor. He only survived because Cadence shielded him at the last second. The impact however left him covered in scars, the loss of an eye, and with a terrible limp. A tear begins to form in Twilight’s eye, she feels a brief glint of total and utter grief, but it was gone almost immediately. Twilight collapses under the weight of her other emotions. A flood of tears of distress cover her cheeks. She knows that she’ll never be normal again.

Comments

[Rewan Demontay]

Damn, that's what happened. In a few minutes, all lain slain, and Shining crippled until he passed. No wonder Candance is cold-hearted now. Though it is odd for Flurry, a born alicorn to die, but such is being so young and gifted of the status.
This ancient language seems THE language of everything as known.
And what a lovely, quirky soul remnant of Discord. No popcorn for him, unfortunately.