In Her Mind

by SeventhElement

IX. The Oldest, Wisest

Twilight opens her eyes, she’s on the floor in the original room. She collects herself off the ground and brushes herself off.

“Good morning sleepy head! I trust you slept well?” Discord coos, leaning against one of the walls behind Twilight. “Did you feel anything?”

“Yes!” Twilight perked up. “Uh...well...kind of.” She slumped back down and sighs. “Basically nothing.”

“Bah, who needs sympathy anyways? That stuff is for the birds! I would know, I’m part bird!” Discord’s feigned attempt at humor fell flatter than the color scheme of the room. Discord’s smile deflated “Well, now what? You can’t feel sad and you’re traumatized, what else is new? How are you going to get out of here? It’s very boring not being able to see you out in the world doing...whatever.”

Twilight’s mind was consumed with other thoughts. Why Starswirl? Why did a clock stop this strange dream? Why the eyepatch?

“Eyepatch?” Discord attempted to hear her thoughts, but was totally and completely lost. “What does an eyepatch have to do with anything?”

“Wait!” Twilight said excitedly. She closes her eyes to focus, and immediately the room shifts into being the hospital room.

“Here again? What could you possibly learn from here?” A nurse pony trots right through Discord and over to her patient. Twilight notices that the bedridden version of her no longer has any bandages on her head. She also has considerably longer hair than she usually keeps it.

Discord smacks his ear. “There has to be something going on in that head of yours...why can’t I hear it?”

“Time!” Twilight shouts, the room blooms back into its former state.

“Uh. Say again?” Discord asks.

“Time, Discord! Time!” Twilight says, beaming. “Time isn’t working here like it does out there.”

“Eh, perhaps I missed that part of my magic courses?” Discord says.

Twilight groans in frustration. “Ugh, nevermind. So does the Memory Repository store spells or?”

“Oh heavens no, you’re far too pragmatic for that. Come on, I’ll show you another room.” Discord leads Twilight out of the room once again, this time leading through a completely different path. The in-between pathways have no landmarks, and nothing beside a white path hanging in an empty void. After a few minutes, Twilight’s curiosity gets to her.

“How do you find your way around here anyways?” Twilight says.

“How do you?” Discord says dismissively. A few more silent moments pass and they have arrived at another grand door.

“What does this one say?” Twilight says.

“There really isn’t a translation. I once said the word out loud at a party and everyone in the room went deaf! Blood coming out of their ears and everything!” Discord chuckles. “Good times. Anyways, I usually think of this room as “The Library”. He pushes open the door and walks in. The room is a mess: books scattered about everywhere, loose leaf papers float about, and there are bookcases warping and cracking under immense pressure. The lighting was dim and the air was dusty. One could likely audibly hear Twilight’s eyelid twitching.

“Yes, this room has seen better days.” Discord mutters, scratching his chin.

“Looks like we got our work cut out for us. This is a spell I saw maybe 3 times before burning the scroll. Who knows, it just might be in here?” Twilight says.

“Kill me now.” Discord mumbles under his breath. The next few hours are spent combing the library for the right book or paper. Twilight does what she always does when trying to find something: organize. Despite the complete disarray from before, the library is now completely sorted, but no sign of the spell.

“All that work for nothing! If I had pores I’d be sweating like a Yak.” Discord complains. Twilight is sitting at a reading table they uncovered while working. She has her head down, and is repeatedly bumping it on the surface. She leans her chair back and falls over to the ground in frustration. In doing so she finally gets a good look at the ceiling and notices a series of gold inlays in the dark wood texture. They glisten in the light of the room just enough for her to be able to see it. It’s that dead language. Twilight happens to see a word, and absentmindedly mutters “Tor’anin”. The gold shimmers and glows as the room brightens.

“What did you just say?!” Discord yells.

“I don’t know I just said it!” Twilight exclaims, feeling the onset of panic. A beam of light engulfs her as she’s ripped from the library.

Comments

[Rewan Demontay]

Of course, a party is dead pones amuse Discord. I love-hate the tongue in cheek black comedy moments.
And let's hope the universal language of reality's undercurrents and layers doesn't harm Twilight... too much.