Balance

The Darkness Within

After a strange night, Equinox was brought to see the family doctor, Dr. Herbal Remedy. After waiting in the waiting room for forty-five minutes, Equinox is called back to the room. The nurse takes her blood pressure and weighs her, then tell her to wait for the doctor.

The door opens, and in walks Dr. Remedy, “Hello there Equinox, what seems to be the problem?”

“I'm not sure doctor, I had a weird dream last night, and my cutie mark and appearance changed.”

“Really now? I have never heard of anything like that before. Can you tell me what you looked like before?”

“Sure, I had a dark grey coat, with a silver mane and tail, and my cutie mark was a black and white yin-yang, and I had purple eyes.”

“I see, has anything strange happened to you before this happened?”

“I am not sure, I remember leaving school yesterday, but I can't remember anything between then and when I got home.”

The doctor thinks for a moment before responding, “I see, we can do a mental examination and see if we can recover your lost memories during that time, it could help. Of course we would need parental consent and everything, but I feel that it would be worth trying.”

“My mother is out in the waiting room if you would like to see if we can do that.”

“Okay, I will have one of the nurses fetch her.”

The doctor leaves the room for a minute, and he returns with Equinox's mother in tow. After Dr. Remedy explained the situation, Equinox's mother decided to go ahead with the memory treatment, and they are asked to go into the waiting room until the mental specialist is free. After about an hour and a half of waiting, they are finally called back and led to another room.

“Hello, I am Doctor Clear Thoughts, and I am going to try to restore your memory that is missing. Can you sit down and tell me when you left school yesterday, so I can find the missing memory?”

“Well, I left school around two fifteen or so, I am sorry, I cannot remember exactly when I left.”

“That is fine, I just needed a ballpark time frame, let us begin.”

The doctor casts a memory viewing spell, and begins to track the memory stream for the offending gap. After a while, he finds the blank area, and starts to put mental effort to try and clean up the interference.

“Ugh, where did all this interference come from?”, the doctor mumbled as he tried to clean up the mess.

As the interference finally clears, something interrupts the doctor's efforts...

“Well, the interference is clearing, I better hurry up and view the memory before I leave her mind.”

~“I do not think you will be leaving here as easily as you hoped.”~ stated a menacing voice that seemed to come from everywhere.

“Huh? What? Who is in here?”

~“A better question would be, 'Will I get out of here alive', but that is just what I would ask in your situation.”~

“Okay... Will I Ever-” The voice cut off the doctor.

~“The answer to your first real question is simple, I am the manifestation of anger, violence, and pain, in Equinox's mind. As for the second question, not if I have anything to say about you leaving without severe mental damage, I will try to keep it in mind though.”~

The doctor tries to end the spell, but as it is fading, his mental self suddenly feels a sharp metallic stab to his side from a mental blade, and the spell fades to darkness.

Dr. Clear Thoughts immediately entered a state of neurological shock, and he would never be able to live without life support. The hospital management comes to the room to tell Equinox and her mother that they will not be taken to court, but that they are not welcome to use any mental services until the end of time, or if the hospital shuts down for good. The memory doesn't come back, but Equinox can now see some very disturbing flashes of things. Things like dark mage circles and misfired spells.