4 - No ignorance but darkness
Sweetie let out a groan as consciousness returned like a hammer to the head. She was only vaguely aware of the sobbing sounds to her left and the slight wetness of her fetlock, her mind preoccupied by the throbbed in her forehead and eye.
Slowly, she shifted beneath the soft hospital bedsheet and stared at the source of the dampness, her sister Rarity.
"Sweetie!" Rarity quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, although the streaks of mascara across her pristine white coat remained. "Oh darling, you-you're awake!"
Sweetie was roused out of her groggy state by her sister's repeated kisses to her cheeks and forehead.
"Don't you ever run off like that again!" She said, wrapping her hooves around Sweetie's midsection and drying her wet eyes on the coat of Sweetie's underside. "I was afraid you wouldn't wake up..." She admitted in barely more than a whisper.
Sweetie winced, then smiled, carefully extending a leg and wrapping it around her sister’s head. "Where's mom and dad?" She asked with a croak.
"They're talking to the doctor outside. He said you should stay overnight for observation." Rarity said. She looked up at Sweetie for a moment and then her eyes welled. "Sweetie, I just wanted to apologize. I know that I'm not the easiest pony to live with and-and you were right...I was acting awfully and I'm sorry."
Sweetie sighed. "No, Rarity...you didn't do anything wrong. I-I was just hurting because...the special pony that I asked to the dance doesn't like me back. And I took it out on you instead of talking about it..."
"Oh, Sweetie...you know that I've had romances that turned out badly before."
Sweetie gave her a skeptical look.
"It's true. Part of the reason I was so excited somepony wanted me...was because things haven't worked out in that department for me before." Rarity reached out, brushing some of Sweetie's mane out of her eyes. "The truth is, I still think of you as a filly." She looked away. "But you aren't...I should have known you'd have heartbreaks of your own."
Sweetie's eyes dropped. Then she looked back up at Rarity.
"Did you really have crushes that turned out badly?' She asked.
Rarity smiled and nodded.
Sweetie Belle shifted beneath her covers. "Would you mind telling me about them?"
Ponyville Hospital was like the rest of the town, its pastels muted only for the effect of sterilization and its staff genial to the point of obsequiousness. It's chief doctor, Dr. Horse, reflected this in the rather pediatric manner in which he addressed and cared for his patients. Like most ponies since the Reign of the Alicorns began, he had never been exposed to a lethal injury or a fatal disease.
As a result, when he attempted to give The Bad Newstm to Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles, his composure evaporated with such rapidity, that Nurse Tenderheart had to hightail him out of the sight of Sweetie Belle's parents, before he made them think she'd somehow expired from a horn injury.
That left it to Nurse Redheart to give The Bad Newstm. Like all good nurses, Redheart was constantly on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, and like all exhausted creatures, dwelled beyond the subtleties of etiquette.
"We've healed the damage to her muzzle and jaw, but there was one thing we couldn't fix. Her horn was cracked around the base." She paused. "She should still be able to cast spells, but her concentration will be impaired, and the buildup of unused mana may cause migraines."
Hondo and Cookie shared a look. Then Hondo spoke. "But she'll be alright?"
Redheart nodded.
"And...there's nothing you can do to fix her horn?" Cookie asked, leaning towards the nurse.
Redheart took a deep breath. "Thanks to our friends in the Crystal Empire, there's an experimental procedure which might help. But we've never had to cause to use it before."
Hondo nodded and eyed his wife. "Thank you so much, for all you've done. I...think we should talk to Sweetie before we make any decisions."
Redheart nodded stepped aside to allow them into the hospital room beyond. "Of course. Please advise her against trying to cast spells for the time being, any use of magic could worsen the damage."
Scootaloo sat in the waiting room, just down the hall, listening to the hushed conversation, as she examined the linoleum tiles. The whole building smelled like lemon-scented cleaning fluid, enough that most ponies chose to wait just outside of the hospital, by the flowers and the topiaries sculpted to amuse and distract the bored patients on this side of the building.
Scootaloo just sat on the plastic chair and stewed in her own anger. Right next to her was Rainbow Dash, the first pony to find out what had happened during her search for Sweetie Belle. She'd tried to hug Scootaloo when she first arrived, with Rarity and Sweetie's parents close behind. Scootaloo hadn't been in the mood for being hugged though.
"Are you okay, buddy?" Rainbow asked, when the silence became too brutal for her overactive mind.
"I'm fine." Scootaloo answered. She didn't want to be comforted; she didn't want to talk about her feelings. She wanted to sink into in the mire of hate filling her mind. She deserved to be angry. She liked its acrid taste. There was strength in it's sting, especially right now, when she felt more useless than she ever had.
"What happened?" Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo glared at the floor, unsure if she could give her testimony without unleashing a barrage of obscenities from her admittedly limited vocabulary.
"I mean, I heard that Sweetie got attacked...but...whatever it was, me and my friends can deal with it, I promise."
Scootaloo felt like she was going to scream. But Applejack and Apple Bloom rushed in, worried looks on their faces, and the waves of frustration receded.
"Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom said, rushing over and not bothering with the "offering bit", instead jumping straight to the comfort of affection.
Scootaloo continued to stare at her reflection on the shiny linoleum as she felt Apple Bloom's warm body press to hers. A little while ago, she would have given anything for this embrace. Now, she couldn't help but feel undeserving of it.
"I...I was so worried about you." Apple Bloom said, awkwardly untangling herself from the hug but resting her hooves on Scootaloo's shoulders. "How...how is she?"
Scootaloo shared a look with Rainbow, both of them knowing it wasn't their place to repeat what they'd overheard from Redheart's disclosure.
"She'll be fine." Rainbow said.
"What about you Scoots? Are you alright?" Apple Bloom asked.
When Scootaloo didn't answer, Applejack followed her sister's lead. "What happened to y'all?"
Scootaloo looked away and then back at the three ponies focused on her. She squirmed. "Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara were bullying Sweetie. So, I told them to leave her alone, then Diamond Tiara...started making fun of me. So, Sweetie hit her. Then Silver Spoon went nuts..."
Applejack glanced between Apple Bloom's shock and Scootaloo's sullenness. "I don't understand. I thought Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were friends with y'all?"
"They were." Scootaloo answered.
"Silver attacked Sweetie? Why? I-I don't understand." Apple Bloom was looking between Scootaloo and her sister, as if either of them might be hiding the answer.
Scootaloo brought her hooves close to her chest and pressed her wings subconsciously against her sides. "It looked like...if we hadn't done something...I-I think that Silver Spoon might have..."
She stopped herself, too focused on trying to hold back the horror bubbling to the surface to finish the thought. She was sure now that she was going to start shaking and sobbing like a filly and she was sure she'd scream if everypony tried to comfort her right now, after all that Sweetie was going through.
Applejack's eyes widened and put a hoof to her mouth to stop herself from gasping at the thought.
"Wha-what you mean Scoots? What was she gonna do?" Apple Bloom asked.
Rainbow gently leaned in, putting a hoof on Scootaloo's back and guiding her off the chair and onto the floor. "C'mon, I'll walk you home, alright?"
Applejack moved closer to Apple Bloom and shared a knowing look with Rainbow before the two of them moved beyond the automatic doors. From the hill atop which the hospital had been built, they could see the whole of Ponyville, bathed in a soft orange glow from the already disappearing sun. Scootaloo suddenly realized she didn't know how long she had been at the hospital.
"You wanna get back at her, don't you?" Rainbow asked, sidling up to where Scootaloo was standing.
Scootaloo hung her head. "You-you heard what they said in there. Sweetie might not be able to do magic ever again...at least not like she used to." Her throat was suddenly clogged with phlegm and her chest swollen with emotion. Still, she gritted her teeth and talked through the pain, sure that the words would burn up inside her otherwise. "You can't just do that to somepony and deserve to be forgiven." She turned back to Rainbow. "And-and I know what you're gonna say...I-I know that you're gonna tell me that...that hurting her won't solve anything. Well, well...I don't care, okay? I don't care...I can't just go home and do nothing..."
Rainbow's face remained impassive.
"Not...not when I saw Sweetie like that. Not when I carried her in my arms...you...you don't know what she looked like..." Scootaloo couldn't hold it back anymore. She wanted to scream. To wail like a newborn. Instead, she lay down on the dirt, next to one of the nicer looking bushes and allowed the terrible vibrations to begin at her hooves and work their way up through her body, all the way through her wings.
She heard the sound of hoofbeats approaching and then felt the warmth of Rainbow sitting down next to her. "I'm proud of you, little buddy. You stood up for your friend, you carried her all the way here by yourself. I know what it's like...when a creature hurts one of your friends. You want to make them hurt so that they never do it again...but Silver Spoon's not a chaos god or a prisoner of Tartarus...she's a pony like you and me. I don't know why she did what she did, but I know that Twilight is with her now. And if anypony knows what to do, it's that egghead."
Twilight didn't know what to do.
Silver Spoon's parents had just appeared at the Castle telling her that their daughter had been chased out of town by hooligans. Mayor Mare, being the only member of the local government with the slightest authority, had accompanied them to relay a slightly less jaundiced, but no less disturbing account.
Twilight had assured both Mare and Silver Spoon's parents (who she'd never even held a conversation with before this moment) that she would handle the situation and a simple tracking spell and a flight through the Everfree had brought her to the Silver Spoon's hiding spot with minutes. That had been the easy part.
Twilight had fought other ponies before. Tempest Shadow and Starlight, both convinced of the rightness of their actions by obsession and heartbreak. She had fought Sombra and Cozy Glow as well, both of whom had relished the malice they inflicted on others.
There was none of that in Silver Spoon when Twilight found her. Instead, Silver Spoon seemed to have genuinely wanted to harm Sweetie Belle, for no other reason than the fact that she had stuck Diamond Tiara. Her feral possessiveness had melded with some kind of highly outdated chivalric code, one which had been outdated even in Starswirl's age. Still, even the most of self-righteous and violent pegasus knight had never demonstrated so much over the top savagery. It was profoundly disturbing, to witness the normally amiable if often sarcastic Earth Pony throwing herself against the inside of Twilight's forcefield with increasing desperation. Her frothing indignity was only made more unnatural by the unfamiliar dialect and loquacious manner of speech she'd adopted.
Whatever animalistic pique had overtaken her, it was the only thing driving her at this point. She had long used up her magic, and now her legs trembled underneath her, even as she persisted in her fruitless escape attempts, her actions all the while accompanied by muffled insistence that Twilight and "her kin" would not keep her from her so called "beloved."
Eventually, when it became clear that discussion would not be an option, Twilight had to use a sleeping spell on the poor mare before she hurt herself any more than she already had in her flight from Ponyville.
As Silver Spoon snored into the cool black earth of the Everfree Forest, Twilight dropped the barrier. Using her telekinesis, she cradled her slumbering subject and lifted off before anything too hungry had the chance to stumble onto them. After a quick flight, she landed on the balcony of her room, almost slipping on the gemstones that had spilled across the threshold and thanking her lucky stars that Silver Spoon's parents weren't present to witness the gaff. It was only natural for them to be anxious about placing their daughter's fate into the hooves of another, even if she was a princess and the brief indignity which had almost caused her to drop concentration on her telekinesis and break Silver Spoon's supernatural slumber would have done her no favors in assuaging their discomfort.
Carefully watching where she stepped, Twilight lowered Silver Spoon onto her bed and shut the doors to the balcony behind her. Looking over Silver Spoon's curled up body, Twilight took note of every cut and bruise and each stain of dust on the young mare's normally spotless coat. Then she closed her eyes and focused, the neon pink of her magic filling her horn and illuminating the room.
When she opened her eyes, Silver Spoon's aura, a glowing readout of her emotional and metaphysical state, encircled her sleeping form. Twilight almost recoiled. She'd used this spell countless times before since her coronation; usually to determine the intentions of an untrustworthy creature but sometimes to make it easier to empathize with ponies who had trouble adequately expressing their distress. She had a pretty good idea of what a healthy aura constituted, with each one of the Elements of Harmony feeding into the healthy development of one's magic. In world without strife, all auras would be a shining rainbow of multicolored elements peacefully intermingling.
But Silver Spoon's aura was bruised red and purple, all other elements consumed by mindless Loyalty and perverse Generosity. Even more unsettling, the longer she stared at the map of Silver Spoon's rapidly degrading soul, the more she realized that the bloated elements were growing, consuming all Kindness, Honesty and Joy within Silver Spoon. Soon there would be none left, no longer even the capacity to make friends and Silver Spoon would be left with...what?
With a spark of her horn, she magnified the spell, focusing in on the middle of Silver Spoon's aura, where the red and purple blobs overlapped. There she saw something else, something half-pink and half-scarlet. It almost looked like Love. But it wasn't. Twilight had read books on magic; she knew what the Element of Love was supposed to look like. She had witnessed its firsthand effects when Cadence and her brother had used it to repel the Changeling invasion and banish Sombra back into the cold wastes.
Love was multifacted, just like friendship. There was the doting between a parent and their child. The competition between a friend or a sibling. The infatuation of a filly's first crush, unspoiled yet by the depravities of lust. The intense shyness at the beginning before lovers became friends. And then there was the enduring reliance which held marriages together for decades. Each came in a different flavor, each branded with its own symbols.
This was like none of them. This was as alien to the oldest scholars of magic as it was to Twilight, something that not even Celestia could have forewarned her of. All Twilight knew is that it burned, at the center of Silver Spoon's soul, with such luminosity that she almost wanted to release the aura spell.
Instead, she increased the magnification. Whatever malady now afflicted Silver Spoon, it was stripping away all charm and intelligence in her, in a manner in which Twilight had not had the displeasure of encountering before.
As she stared at that place where the disturbance seeped forth, she saw it. Stars. Two tiny stars, encircling one another, moving in perfect syncopation with the rise and fall of Silver Spoon's heart.
So that was what it was.
It was like the love that happened only in stories. The "True Love" which was talked about in hushed and she realized now, terrified tones, the same kind of passion which the ancient fillyosophers of Poseidonia had branded as "mania". It was an all-devouring, all-consuming love, closer to madness than affection.
And it was out of her control. Love magic was Cadence's domain. She was sure that she could try to remove the tumorous spell overtaking Silver Spoon. But she could not be sure that Silver Spoon's aura would survive the intensity of such an expansive surgery. What if she took too much? This was a delicate operation, requiring magic she'd never had cause to practice the use of. She thought about Silver Spoon's parents, the looks on their faces when she'd promised to return their daughter to them safely.
No, it was too risky. Instead, Twilight deepened the enchantment she'd placed on Silver Spoon, ensuring that she would not wake until after Cadence's arrival in tomorrow morning. Then she turned away, sealing the room with protective and imprisoning magics as she exited it.
There was work to be done, vital work to be sure that whatever this was, it wasn't spreading.
And she knew exactly who she needed to ask.
Diamond Tiara shook the house with the slam of her bedroom door behind her. She was surprised but relieved when her mother didn't come running up to tell her how unladylike it was. Though she had long ago mastered the art of tuning out her parents, she was too exasperated at the moment to stand another lecture.
She paused to glare at her reflection. Sweetie Belle was supposed to be all soft and girly like her sister. Where did she learn to hit like that?
Diamond grabbed a handkerchief and held it to her muzzle, tilting her head back to stop the blood flowing. As she did, she had a strange impression that she'd forgotten something. She looked around the room and even checked her head for her crown. She chalked the feeling up to a concussion and made a mental note to ask her father if they could sue Sweetie's parents for physical assault. Of course, Rarity was loaded thanks to her fashion empire. But maybe they could force Sweetie's parents to commit their daughter.
That would take away the sting a little.
Although based on today's events, it was Silver Spoon who would likely be looking at a padded cell. Diamond sighed. It wasn't like she'd told Silver to attack Sweetie like that. Not that she hadn't enjoyed the sight anyway.
She had long ago learned that the only real joy which could be supped from life came at the cost of others happiness. Oh yes, ponies talked about the magic of friendship, but no creature had ever offered any to her. Her cries for companionship had gone unanswered. Well, if ponies were going to pretend they were too good for her, then she would show them the same courtesy.
Diamond Tiara had only one real friend in this town and that friend had turned out just like them. Completely and utterly deluded. No wonder Silver Spoon had gone nuts, Diamond Tiara had probably made her feel needed.
No pony was needed. That was the truth no pony wanted to admit. They talked big about love and friendship, until they saw the shiny bits spilling out of your father's pockets. They hated her family the same way they hated her. She had what every pony wanted.
Her father didn't seem to notice this, no matter how obvious she tried to make it to him. He was too concerned with her taking over the family business. Her, sitting behind the counter and smiling at all the slack jawed yokels she was selling groceries to. No thank you. They had set her up for failure, but she wouldn't let them or anyone else in this town win. She knew she was important and beautiful and built for some place better than this. Soon, she'd be rid of it all.
There'd be dozens of rich and handsome stallions at the dance tomorrow, come to gawk and drool all over the princess and her sister-in-law. She'd wrap one the hungriest one around her hoof and they'd gallop off into the sunset and she'd never have to think about this stupid town again.
Meanwhile, ponies like Sweetie Belle and her dorky little friends would be gushing all over each other about the beauty of wuv. Sweetie had seen where that ended. Oh sure, you started out happy. You started out thinking each other's farts smelled like flowers. Then before you knew it, you were seven years into an unhappy marriage with a child who wanted nothing to do with you.
The only reason her parents doted on her so much was because it meant they didn't have to spend time talking to each other. Still, there weren't enough extravagantly wrapped gifts in the world to make up for a lousy childhood. They probably thought they were staying together for her benefit.
Speaking of which...they had quit laughing at whatever joke had been occupying their measly minds and were making conversation with somepony downstairs. Probably one of the idiots who'd chased Silver Spoon out of town, come to make things hard for her.
Diamond Tiara grabbed a loose strand of her mane and plucked it off, allowing the sharp pain to well into tears. Then she smeared the salty wetness across her face and peeked out of the bedroom. When her parents realized what had been done to her, they'd trip over themselves to defend her. That was how it worked.
She was surprised to find that it was Princess Twilight downstairs, talking to them. She noticed then, how bloodshot their eyes were and how disturbingly wide their smiles were. As if they were just holding back tears. She felt again that she'd forgotten something, something important...
Then the Princess stamped her forehooves and strands of neon purple lashed out of her horn and wrapped around the heads of Filthy and Spoiled. The two twitched against the pulsating streams of magic, before their eyes rolled back and they dropped limply to the carpet.
The magic drew back into Twilight's horn and she put a hoof to her head, as if she'd just gotten a headache. Then her lower lip quivered. She snorted. Then she chuckled. Then she howled in the ecstasy of imbecility, while Diamond Tiara's parents drooled into the carpet.
Diamond Tiara galloped back to the safety of her room, quickly barricading the door and then shoving open the window and climbing down the trellis like she had many times before. She had gotten half a dozen strides from the house when
there was a flash of purple and a cringing, giggling alicorn appeared inches from her.
"Ah! Oh...P-Princess Twilight. To what do I owe the honor?" Diamond Tiara asked, backing away as slowly as she could.
Twilight snickered and snorted and Diamond Tiara searched the darkened street for somepony who could save her. Even if there had been anypony around though, she knew they would be of limited help.
"Hello, Diamond Tiara." Twilight said, before bursting into another round of rib-shaking laughter.
"I umm...I would love to stop and chat, Princess, but I really have to get going." Diamond Tiara said, backing up against a trash bin and almost falling over.
"Your parents...there was something wrong with them." Twilight said, her telekinesis gripping Diamond Tiara and yanking her closer. "I can't let you go until I'm sure you don't have it too."
Diamond struggled against the pink energy encasing her, using every ounce of magic she had to summon the magnified strength she'd never had cause to exert before. Twilight didn't even notice her attempts to break free.
"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt, I promise." Twilight's compassion was undercut by another undignified snort. "In fact, why-why don't I tell you a joke to ease you into it? Okay, so once upon a time there was a cat princess, and she was set to inherit a mighty empire. Then one day, a sphinx came to her home and ate her mother, the queen in front of her. That's not the funny part though, so just bear with me. The funny part comes later. Anyway, then the sphinx forced her into exile...and made it that she had to walk out into the desert until she couldn't even see the gold-tipped pyramids anymore. So, the princess walks out into the desert and is pretty sure she's going to die of dehydration. That night she decides to play one last song her lute, the only thing the sphinx let her take with her and she plays a song to make the gods remember her. But while she's playing, she begins to hear all these voices in her head, thousands of voices, asking her to play more for them, asking her to let them help her so she can save her people and play always and be joyful forever. Then the next day she returns and traps the sphinx with the power of her newfound friends. But and this is the punchline...the rest of the cats, they don't want her to be queen of the cats now, because of the dark magic she used to save them from slavery. And because they disown her, their empire becomes corrupt and decadent and the creatures they've oppressed rise up against them and there's war and madness and disease for a thousand years so princess of the cats she tries to take her own life by letting a snake bite her because she blames herself for all this. But she can't die because she promised she was going to sing for the stars!"
Twilight paused as if waiting for Diamond to laugh. Then she coughed. "Well, it loses some of its effect in translation." Then her eyes burned white with power. "Why don't I just show it to you instead?"
Pinkie skipped along the path up to Fluttershy's cottage, skidding to a halt to listen to the calls of the various birds who lived just beyond Fluttershy's porch. She noticed their song was melancholier this evening than normal, but the observation did nothing to defuse her excitement. Still, she managed to contain the part of her which wanted to fling open the door and instead took a deep breath and lightly rapped on it.
She had just woken from the most relaxing nap and after finishing up the baking for tomorrow, she was ready to hear some good news. After her strange conversation with Maud, it would soothe her to hear that Fluttershy had finally asked out Rarity.
Realizing she'd been standing in front of the door for a whole minute without hearing response, she knocked again, this time unable to contain her enthusiasm. She couldn't wait to ask a million questions and then Fluttershy would smile shyly in that way she always did and answer barely any of them. But that was the point of asking a million questions anyway, if she wanted them all answered she wouldn't ask them so quickly.
Slowly, the door opened, a familiar bunny sticking his head out through the crack and fixing his beady black eyes on her with a hateful look. Pinkie frowned.
"Hey, Angel. What's wrong?" She asked, leaning down towards him.
He just pointed behind her and when she turned to look at what he was gesturing at, he slammed the door closed, causing her to jump.
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" She demanded, pounding on the door again.
"GO AWAY!" Wailed a voice from inside.
So. This was not going to be a happy visit after all.
For a moment, Pinkie floundered, unable to tell what to do. Then she narrowed her eyes and barreled through the front door, sending it flying off its hinges and disrupting the swarms of critters crowded around the prone pony in the center of the living space. As she watched Fluttershy's pink mane bob with each sob, she looked down to find Angel Bunny pushing on her left forehoof in an attempt to drive her out of the house.
"Fluttershy...what's wrong?" Pinkie asked, stepping over him.
"Ruh-Rarity...she found somepony else..." Fluttershy said. "It...it's better like this anyway..."
Pinkie looked at the mournful looks on the faces of Constance, Mr. Mousy and Harry. Then she stepped closer, wading through the sea of fuzzy faces to reach her friend. "No, it's not!! How could it possibly be better!?"
Fluttershy cast her tearful gaze at Pinkie. "You can't make somepony love you, Pinkie."
Pinkie's ears drooped. Then she straightened back up. "No! I'm not gonna just let you be unhappy for the rest of your life. You're my friend and it's my job-"
"Pinkie..." Fluttershy said, wiping her face with her hoof. "I really need to be alone right now..."
Pinkie's whole form slumped to the ground. "Oh. Right...I'm sorry..." Then she straightened for a second time. "Don't worry, Fluttershy, I'm gonna fix this! Cross my heart and hope to fly!"
"But it's not your fault..." Fluttershy began.
It was too late. Pinkie Pie had already bolted out of the cottage and disappeared into the night.
Fluttershy groaned and turned to the exhausted Angel. "She at least could have put the door back on her way out."
There was a general chittering of agreement from her animal friends.
Twilight hated using mind magic. First off, it was unethical, the kind of thing which her worst enemies had resorted to in their efforts to manipulate and enslave others.
Secondly, it was as uncomfortable an experience for the user as it was for their victim. When she reached out to calm another pony's heart, all the fear, despair and anger they felt ended up inside her, emptied into her soul like the contents of septic tank. And boy did Diamond Tiara have those things in spades. It was if someone had taken the book containing all her memories and re-written all the parts containing Sweetie and the other Crusaders. The whole thing had been gutted, parties never gone to, conversations never had. Expectations had faded, dreams left out to dry.
It was a terrible collaboration of loneliness and pride, and the longer Twilight stared into it, the deeper it bored back into her. Almost instinctually, she wanted to give back all the carefully cultivated cynicism and unanswered need. She wanted to let Diamond Tiara continue to wallow in bitterness and let it destroy her as it so clearly was on a path to doing so.
But deeper inside, she knew it was her duty to protect her subjects. And she knew that whatever creature had done this, it was not Diamond Tiara. Whatever had done this, had taken away all her memories of the friendships which had saved her, it was far more powerful and more sinister than she'd predicted.
As the hollowness came away with the unspooling of the psychic whip, Twilight did what she was best at. She flooded her with friendship, blasting down each clumsily constructed mental dam with no regard for restraint. She'd barely finished, and Diamond Tiara had already started to cry, from all love and hope pouring back into her.
Twilight didn't have the time nor the capacity to help with that. At the moment she was currently battling two very powerful curses attempting to take root in her brain. The first was like an annoying ditty, the kind which got stuck in your head and took up permanent residence. The second was like a beautiful song, but only beautiful because of how much misery it conveyed. And right now, they were both trying to deprive her of her friends, trying to strip away everything that made her whole. She fought back as hard as she could, but the magic was unfamiliar. It was like when Starlight had taken her Cutie Mark and when Sombra had invaded her mind, all rolled into one. It was old, older than possibly anything she'd yet encountered. It was a curse from a time before words, when lyrics and lines did the job just fine and when the shadows on the wall were as good as the real thing.
The songs were melding together, the chipperness of one only emphasizing the morbidity of the other. She was consumed by the simplicity of the two-folded ballad, quickly losing ground to each defiling note. There was only one way to counteract it, only one alkaline to the acidification forming grooves in her mind. Without another word to the sobbing mare in front of her, she flew back in the direction of the castle.
Spike swore that if he ever got his claws on Silver Spoon, well, he knew he was supposed to just be glad that Sweetie Belle was apparently fine. But sometimes he got so angry. It was something about being a dragon, he was sure of it. He had lived with ponies his whole life, but whatever mollifying effect the Elements of Harmony had on Ponykind, it didn't affect him the same way.
He knew why Princess Celestia had done away with dungeons, but it seemed wrong that Twilight was running around trying to help Silver Spoon when she'd caused so much harm.
He shook his head as he headed for bed early, having just spent the last hour ushering out the host of ponies who had come to Twilight's castle for some kind of comfort after today's events. He was halfway up the staircase when there was a thundering knock at the front door.
With a groan, he descended the staircase and jogged over to the door, as the knocking grew in speed and force. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." He grumbled, as he dragged open one of the massive crystal doors.
He was immediately grabbed by a claw and hoisted off the ground, so he was face to face with two burning red eyes.
"Do you think it's a good idea to keep the lord of all dragons waiting?" Ember snarled, her teeth poking out just beneath her snout.
Spike let out an audible gulp and shook his head.
Then Ember smiled. "So did I do it? Did I make a pony joke?"
Spike felt his heart return to a normal rate as he remembered his discussion with Ember on their last meeting, regarding the nature of "Pony humor." He'd been trying to explain that it involved no creature actually getting hurt, but merely the suggestion of something bad and then the relief that it wasn't.
"It was a little more terrifying than funny..." Spike pointed out, knowing Ember well enough to understand that any attempt to conceal the truth from her would only worsen her temper.
She snorted. "I should have declared war instead, that would have gotten you laughing." Gently, she set him down, stepping past him.
"You uh, you're early..." Spike said, rubbing his neck.
"Yup! Now we get to spend more time together." Ember said, glancing around the interior of the Castle of Friendship. "Twilight should really put up some battle trophies on the walls of this place."
"Ponies don't really do battles." Spike pointed out. He was still shorter than her by half, although he didn't have to crane his neck up at her like he once had.
"Oh c'mon! What about the time the Changelings invaded? Or you fought off that centaur? Or what about the Battle for Equestria?" Ember said, floating up above the pristine floor. "You don't give yourselves enough credit. Anyway, you can always just make up a battle. Dragons do it all the time. If we did half the stuff we boast about doing, well, we'd never get anything done."
"I'll be sure to suggest that to Twilight." Spike said, as he flew up to her.
Yeah, right. On the 32nd of Neveruary. He thought. "Ember, we weren't expecting you until tomorrow morning."
Ember frowned. "What, so I have to leave and come back now?"
"No! It's just...it's just that...well, in pony culture sometimes it's a little rude to go to a place before every creature is ready for you."
Ember just stared at him. "That doesn't make any sense! You told me it was rude to arrive after you're supposed to. This is the opposite, so it must be right."
Spike contemplated flinging himself through the nearest window, surely a safer option to trying to correct Ember. Then he took a deep breath and spoke as quickly as he could. "I know you didn't do this on purpose and I'm glad you are here, I'm not telling you this because I want you to feel bad, but because I don't want you to be offended in case any other creatures are surprised that you're here early."
Ember blinked, then snorted. "Well, then...thank you for being honest with me."
Spike opened one eye and seeing that he hadn't been cut to ribbons relaxed slightly.
Ember groaned. "Ugh, is it gonna be like this with Princess Cadence tomorrow? Is she gonna be mad at me for things I don't know about?"
Spike relaxed. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Cadence is pretty easy going as far as alicorns go..."
Ember smiled. "Good. Because once we get this...what did you call it again?"
"Trade agreement."
"Yeah. Once we get that out of the way, I wanna spend the rest of the day with you. The only time we get to see each other anymore is during a crisis." She said, her tail swinging behind her.
"Oh yeah? Well, there's a ton of carnival games set up for tomorrow's celebration." Spike said, flying closer and nudging her with his elbow. "There's even a game where you can show off how strong you are."
Ember smiled, then frowned. "You're having a celebration just for this trade agreement-thingy?"
Spike's eyes widened. "Uh, Twilight didn't tell you about Hearts and Hooves Day?"
Ember stared at him like he'd just claimed the moon was made of cheese.
Before he could elaborate there was another pounding at the door, this time more frantic and erratic. Ember raised an eyebrow, and Spike smiled. "Uh, let me just go get that."
No sooner had he flown over to the door and dragged it open, then a pink blur knocked him to the floor. "Spike! I know you're angry with me for some reason, and I don't really know why, but I do know that I told Fluttershy that Rarity liked her, and Rarity told Fluttershy that somepony else liked her and now Fluttershy is all sad and if I don't do something about it, she's going to transform into a hermit and never leave her cottage again and then the Everfree Forest is going to grow out of control because Fluttershy isn't there to reason with the monsters and then Ponyville real estate will rise exponentially because there will be less places to build houses and then the Cakes won't be able to afford for me to board with them and so I'll have to move back to the Rock Farm and then our friend group will dissolve and the next time our nation is existentially threatened you'll be like 'where is Pinkie Pie?' and then somepony else will be like 'Oh, she went back to the farm because she made Fluttershy unhappy and ruined Hearts and Hooves Day for everypony forever' and then you'll be like 'That's right. I'm so glad we gave the Element of Laughter to Snails, he's so much funnier than Pinkie Pie is.' and then I'll go to the grave with no hoof to hold and I don't even know what that means!!!"
Spike glared up into Pinkie's watery eyes. "Pinkie..." He rasped. "You're stepping on my larynx."
"Oh, sorry." Pinkie slunk off Spike, allowing him to sit up and rub his neck. "Oh, hey Ember!" She waved.
"Is this what Hearts and Hooves Day is about?" Ember asked, flying over to the two of them. "Jumping on a creature you know and telling them about all your insecurities?"
"More or less." Spike snarked. "Pinkie, I have no idea what you're talking about-" Seeing her open her mouth to repeat her entire diatribe, he lifted a claw. "-but, Twilight is dealing with an emergency right now, okay? I'm sure, that whatever is going on with you and Rarity...it can wait."
"What do you mean she's dealing with an emergency?" Ember asked, landing behind him and putting her claw on his shoulder.
Spike sighed. "There was a fight in the Ponyville Park today. One of Sweetie Belle's friends hurt her, and she ended up in the hospital."
Pinkie stared at him and then at her reflection in the marble floor of the castle. She overheard Ember say "Why didn't you say so earlier?" and Spike reply "I didn't want to spoil your visit, Ember. Twilight's upstairs dealing with it right now..."
"Sweetie Belle is in the hospital?" Pinkie repeated, looking up at both of them.
Spike sighed. "The doctors said she would be fine. If you would just wait-"
Pinkie was already dashing out of the still open door. Spike drew a claw across his face, before turning to look at Ember when she tapped him on the shoulder.
"I want to talk to Twilight." She said, arms folded.
Spike opened his mouth to disagree and she lifted a claw to silence him. "You and her have saved dragonkind more times than I can count. If there is an emergency, I owe it to your kingdom to help."
Twilight bent over Silver Spoon like a bat inspecting a particularly juicy piece of fruit. Wings splayed, eyes wide, she began to weave the incantation to repeat the spell. This was it, take a little out of Silver Spoon, put a little into Diamond Tiara. Ponies were just machines with the perfect adjustments they could always be fixed. Little toys to amuse her and-
No, no, that wasn't her. That was the emptiness she'd absorbed from Diamond Tiara. It was mixing with the hysteria she'd saved Filthy Rich and his wife from and fermenting into something atrocious.
disintegrating her sanity one memory at a time. It wanted her to believe that she'd never been chosen by Celestia. It wanted her to believe that Rainbow Dash's rainboom had never come and that she had been rejected by the School for Gifted Unicorns. It whispered of years struggling to cast the most basic spells, to prove that she was worthy of attention. It spoke at length about how she had never been foalsat by Cadence, instead left for uncounted afternoons in the charge of a filly who barely acknowledged her existence.
It was trying to take away Spike. Spike, her little brother, her number one assistant. It was trying to make her forget all her friends, all they had accomplished together, all the times they had been there for her. The song was growing more dissonant by the minute, the sweet seduction of its symphony replaced by atonal vociferation. It was making it impossible to think about anything other than the hole in her heart that it was boring.
It made it difficult to care when Silver Spoon started to scream. Not that the procedure was painful by any means, the spell to transmit emotions from one entity to another was as anodyne as having your hoof trimmed. But Twilight had seen enough of the world to know that too much of anything was a bad thing. Just as a hoarding dragon would raze a city over the loss of the smallest opal, so too would a pony drunk with love cry out at the return of sobriety. Still, she was too concentrated on drowning the cacophony with the discharge from Silver Spoon's spiritual abscess to simultaneously pacify the young mare. Instead, she merely held down her forelegs, allowing her hind legs to buck against her ribcage.
Even if her skin hadn't been harder than diamonds, Twilight wouldn't have noticed. It was impossible as well to pretend that the love suppurating from Silver Spoon's soul tasted bad. Not when it was so rich, so creamy. Not when it tasted of things beyond tasting, of poems exchanged through kisses, of testimonials given in looks. It reeked of trysts held in the dead of night, beneath the light of the laughing stars.
So that was what "true love" meant. It meant uncut. Undiluted. Like pure oxygen it was poison to the body. It carried with it a song unlike any which could be otherwise heard, as lethal as it was captivating. She understood then, how small minded she had always been. Before moving to Ponyville she had considered friendship to be beneath her. Until now, she'd held that same view of romance. A luxury which she might one day enjoy dipping a hoof into, but one which she could do without, and which acted only to distract from the necessities of life.
Now it was clear why Cadence had been granted her charge, a power just as monumental as the sun or the tides. Love was as universal and inevitable a force as gravity. It was the magnetism which unified enemies and the chemical reaction which perpetuated life.
And it would not be denied.
"Twilight, stop it! You're hurting her!"
She felt familiar claws trying to tug her off the bed. It was Spike. He didn't understand, how could he? She wasn't doing this just because it felt good. She wasn't hurting Silver Spoon, she was saving her from a fate worse than death. But she didn't have time to explain that, not right now.
She paused the incantation only long enough to telekinetically pin him to the far wall, careful not to hurt him just as she had been with Silver Spoon. They would all understand, once she was done.
Then a blur of blue scales slammed into her, and she was thrust out the nearest window.
Scootaloo had waited until her aunts were asleep to slip out of the house. Now she sat in the CMC clubhouse, her wings extended as far as they would go. With her eyes closed, she listened to the creaking of the tree and felt the cool night breeze run across her feathers.
It was moments like this when she was sure she could fly. If she just didn't open her eyes, if she just trusted in herself, she was sure that she'd be able to fly as good as any pony.
But it was an illusion. It had all been an illusion. She'd thought that she'd loved Apple Bloom. She'd thought that Diamond Tiara was a good pony.
She, of any pony, should have known better. There were some things which didn't change, no matter how hard you fought for them. That was life. And now, she'd ruined Sweetie Belle's life too. She tried to think about what Rainbow Dash had said, what her aunts had told her. But she knew they had only said that, because they didn't know that it had been her fault.
She closed her wings and allowed the night to spin around her. Maybe if she was lucky they would all forget she existed and she could stay here in the darkness, forever.
That was when she heard it. An eerily jaunty tune filling the night and closing in on her. Without lyrics, it recalled moments with her parents, before they'd become so busy. It was so rich with bittersweetness that she was temporarily overpowered by its timbre. Then she opened her eyes and moved to the front door, peeking out to try to find the source of the sound. She was surprised to find the musician right above her, draped over one of the branches of the tree, melting seamlessly into the white-speckled blackness of the night sky.
"Alas, a bird without wings,
Hath a more tragic fate
been named?"
Scootaloo stared up at the Abyssinian. She wanted to say something in retort, to ask what the cat woman was doing here. But the music...it was cutting through her mind like a hot knife through butter. It wasn't real music, real music wasn't capable of reaching such highs. No, it was better, it was the music that played in the heads of maestros when they composed. It was the idea of music, removed from the disappointments of physical limitations.
It was the soundtrack to the life that she would never share with Apple Bloom and she was useless in its warm grasp.
The Abyssinian landed in front of her, leaning down to curl a claw underneath her chin and gently turn her face up so that she was staring her in the eyes. She smiled and her whiskers captured Scootaloo's great welling tears as she leaned even closer to whisper into her ear.
"I knowest one, child.
Dishonor unrevenged."
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
730 users online
693,196 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This was intense. Awesome!
11633920
Thanks for the encouragement. This story has really been a challenge for me so I'm glad that someone is enjoying it.