Fading Sanity

by MorganaTheNotCat

Light?

"So what's this all about?" Like usual, Spike was lounging on my back, eating gems as he always does.

"Moondancer needs our help, and I'm not one to turn down helping an old friend." I can't even remember the last time I spoke with her, but I'll be more than happy to see her again. "She says there's magic involved, and If there's any pony who knows magic, that's me!" I extended my wings with a proud smile.

"Yeah, sure, as long as we stop on our way to that donut place you used to go to!" I rolled my eyes at Spike's comment.

"14 Crescent Moon Lane, that's here." I stopped before a house. It looked old, overgrown, it hadn't been taken care of for a good while. Moss on the roof, a dead tree on the front garden, broken windows.

"Ugh." Spike shuttered. "This place makes my scales stand. Are you sure we're on the right place?"

"She said this is where she lives... Maybe she moved out? Letters do take a while to go from place to place, but this one was labeled as urgent and the date on the envelope lists 4 days ago." Spike was right, something about this place felt off. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what, but it just felt weird. Like the house itself was an ominous presence.

I had to step through some dead branches on the garden to reach the front door, the wood was almost rotting away. I knocked twice on it with my right hoof. "Moondancer!" I called out. "It's me, Twilight! I got your letter!" But... Nothing.

"Maybe she's out?" Spike made a good point, I couldn't see any movement inside and I didn't know for how long she'd been out either.

"Let's go check around the back, if she's not there, we'll come back later." With Spike's nod, we headed around the side and into the backyard. To my surprise, I found her. Moondancer was laying on the grass, she seemed to be mumbling gibberish while sobbing into her sweater. She looked so different from back then... Something clearly changed along our years of separation.

"Moondancer! Are you okay!?" I didn't waste a second and rushed over, Inspecting her body. There were no bruises, cuts, or anything of the sort. But Moondancer... She seemed completely lost. "Moondancer, what's going on? What happened? Why are you crying?" I touched her with my hoof, and when she looked up at me, I could see her watering eyes. How long had she been crying for? I was about to continue my questioning, but she just reached up and hugged me with both of her front hooves instead, burying her face in my shoulder.

I was surprised by the sudden hug, but I wouldn't deny her. I wrapped my own hooves and wings around her body. I didn't know what she was going through, but it was clear that she was happy to see me. In a moment where she needed me, I wouldn't run away like I had before. We shared that sweet hug, I could feel the warmth of her body despite the short duration.

"It's okay, I'm here for you." I spoke softly to her, and I could hear her sobbing getting softer while her grip got tighter.

---

"An entire maze?" Spike seemed excited with wide eyes, I settled him down with a gesture of my hoof.

"Yes. Underneath my house." Moondancer spoke after sipping a bit of her tea, then let out a sigh. "I don't know how I got out. There's a... Trapdoor, or something. In the backyard. It goes down into it."

"I don't remember seeing a trapdoor when I came into the backyard. Do you, Spike?" Spike shook his head. After recovering her from her state, it took her a second to come back to herself. But once she did, I brought her to Joe's donut shop. A quiet place where she can regain her strength. "Okay, so it started with furniture and small items, but then whole rooms started to appear?"

"Yes. And after that, I found the maze." Moondancer stared blankly into her cup of tea. "I'm so glad you came by when you did... If you hadn't... I'd still be lost inside..."

"But you weren't in the maze when we found you. You were in the backyard, crying. We never even saw the entrance to maze." I don't remember seeing it, but maybe my memory's just bad. I didn't pay much attention to it either, but if I hadn't noticed it, Spike surely would have. That's why I'm bring him on most missions, a second pair of reptilian eyes when you need it. He's very useful in other ways too.

"But-" Moondancer stopped dead on her tracks, she looked lost in thought, breaking the stare contest between her and her teacup to look up at me with a puzzled expression. "I saw it! I went inside it, I've been there! I mapped it out even! It's in my bag-" She tried to reach for her back, but she wasn't wearing a bag. "Look, you gotta believe me! I know I'm not crazy, I can still tell what is real. This is real, isn't it?"

"What?" I took a glance at Spike with a raised brow. He looked back at me and shrugged. Moondancer pushed her seat away, standing up as she stared me dead in the eyes. She didn't say a word, it was like she had seen a ghost. I had never seen someone that lost in their own mind. I could tell she was confuse, and that something terrified her. Her expression wasn't like she was thinking, more-so like she had just unraveled a horrible truth.

"You're... Not an illusion, like my birthday? This isn't fake?" How do I answer her question? What am I supposed to answer to this?

"Yes Moondancer, we're both real. We're in the real world right now. Are you okay?" She was reluctant to accept this, and I wouldn't even know what to say if she didn't. What kind of experience did she go through that made her question her own reality?

"Okay. Okay, I believe you. I hope you're not lying, I hope this... This isn't some kind of trick. By the maze again. I can't- I won't handle being toyed with again..." With one sigh she sat back down, covering her eyes with both front hooves. She was already on the brink of tears.

"What do you mean, toyed with again?" This could be the reason why she's so distraught. There's something more than meets the eye here, and maybe Moondancer is the key to solving it.

"I can't take it Twilight... I can't take it..." Tears rolled down her cheek again, she cleared them with the sleeve of her sweater.

"Listen, I can't help you if you don't let me help you." I leaned closer, over the table, speaking in a soft empathetic tone. I didn't want her to break down again, I even held her hoof. "You're clearly scared of opening up, there's something that troubles you deeply. If you keep ignoring it, it's only going to snowball into a larger problem. If you want me to help you, you need to help me too."

Her eyes were fixated elsewhere. She didn't want to look at me. I could see how she was considering the option, I was finally beginning to crack that outer-shell that she used to protect herself, revealing the true pony underneath, one who was troubled and lost. I won't stop until I help her.

"Okay..." Moondancer sighed, her eyes taking a quick glance at mine before pushing my hoof away with a sigh. She shifted on her seat, looking down at the table. "I... Feel..." It was a visible struggle for her to speak her mind. "Alone. I stay home all day, and... I study. I don't know what I study because frankly, I just read. The words on the paper are... Meaningless to me. They're just the best way I can find to cope with everything that's happened to me... I bury my head in the books, so that I won't be touched by the outside world. I push everypony who tries to talk to me away because of what's happened to me. I'm scared it'll go wrong again... It's my own fault that I feel so isolated and alone..."

"What do you mean go wrong again? What happened before all this?" I could see and feel her stare. She was hesitant to speak, and stayed quiet. "Moondancer... You need to tell me. If you keep it all inside, it's only going to get worse."

She played with the spoon in her cup.

"You did." I... Did? I stayed quiet and listened closer. "My birthday party. So many years ago. It took me so long to open up to any pony, and when I did, you brushed me away like I was... Nothing... It made me feel so hopeless and lost, so alone... I didn't want to ever give friendship another try after what you did." I could see her gritting her teeth, furrowed brows and teary eyes in a mixture of spite and sadness... I didn't know how to react. I was the cause of all of this? I could feel the guilt weighing on my chest, my heart beating faster.

"I'm... So sorry Moondancer." I stammered, my voice filled with remorse. "I can't believe I hurt you like that... I was foolish and thoughtless, I pushed you away when all you needed was a friend." My own tears welled up, mirroring the pain in her eyes. "I didn't know the impact it had on you..."

Moondancer's spite shifted into sadness, mixed with understanding. "It's... Not entirely your fault Twilight. I get that we all make mistakes, but it hurt... It hurt so much... And I retreated into myself, building these walls to protect me from ever feeling that kind of pain ever again..."

I reached closer, trying to close the gap between us. "I can't change the past, but I can make it right. Please, let me be there for you now to help you heal." It was the only thing I could offer her.

"I want to believe you Twilight..." She looked at me, her gaze filled with a mix of vulnerability and a flicker of hope. "I want to believe that things can change, that I can find a way out of this loneliness that I've made for myself... But it's hard. It's so hard to trust again."

"I understand," I whispered, my voice filled with sincerity. "I won't ask you to trust me blindly. Let's take it one step at a time. We'll face this together, and I'll be there for you every step of the way."

We sat in silence for a moment, the weight of our shared pain and the possibility of healing hanging in the air. The road ahead would be difficult, but I was determined to help Moondancer find her way back from the depths of her lonely labyrinth. We may not have all the answers right now, but with time and understanding, maybe we could find solace and friendship once again.

---

Comments

[DraconequusInLove]

Wow, this was an amazing story! I loved the maze and the unanswered questions about it, and playing with the format and text font like that was super cool! Thanks for writing this :)

[redmar]

Moondancer really needed a friend. Fortunately Twilight can help her now.

[MorganaTheNotCat]

11623094
And thank you for reading as well!

[SparklingTwilight]

An interestingly stylized descent into madness reimagining of the Moondancer episode--for a bit I was surprised she would write to Twilight during that period--until I realized this was an alternative scenario.

[Felfox]

>be me
>One friend forgot about me once
>She was my favourite friend
> others valued me and offered me their friendship
>Lol no
>My fav friend forgor about my birthday so im worthless
>Mfw i start hallucinating because of it years later

I like how you didnt make the message that everybody eeds friends that obvious and on the nose. And that labirynth really was scary, great stuff