Beyond Madness Somewhere Past Depravity

There are lines and boundaries to the mind. Limits and guards meant to keep things stable and safe for the survival. And what lies beyond those limits is a never-ending sea of madness and dark depravities born within the consciousness of every living and breathing thing held back by the gifts of God. And beyond that… lies something else entirely.

She had failed. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and even Rainbow Dash had all left her despite all they had been through. They were supposed to be friends. Her family, even her dear BBFFF had disgraced and renounced her.

Spike didn’t even spare a glance as he rushed to the side of Princess Cadance.

She was already having a hard time standing at that point. The sheer magnitude of her mistake had just smashed her full force. No one believed her.

Then, at last, Princess Celestia came to her side. In the small, still functioning, pieces of her mind, she begged for hope. She begged for some semblance of comfort or grace. The princess’s face shined out to her, filled with the love and compassion Twilight had always found in the Sun Princess growing up, with all her infinite wisdom and compassion.

What lesson would she learn?

What words would she use to soothe her heart?

Would she tell Twilight to beg for forgiveness from everypony? After all, she gives and gives, and Twilight takes and takes.

But now she needs a bit more.

“Oh, Princess, I’m so sorry, how do I fix-“

The sound of something slamming came harshly.

Twilight's optimistic smile dropped as she realized she wasn’t looking at the Princess anymore, she never had been.

She was now staring at the empty ceiling of the ceremony room. The room was dark and empty, save the sunset leaking through the windows. In her lonesome whilst in the ceremony room, she came to a bitter conclusion. She finally grasped just how far she had fallen. How she was now completely abandoned. Completely alone, more than she had ever been before.

Tears began to stream down her cheek. Her feet falling from beneath her while she collapsed completely on the floor. She cried harder than ever before. She screamed, though her voice eventually clamored down to cry more and more.

Even the guards posted down the hall felt guilty, they could not abandon their post to provide any support. But the news of Twilight’s actions steeled their heart from breaking protocol.

It had been minutes, though those quickly turned into hours before she had no more tears to cry. No energy to grieve. Now she could no longer ignore dwelling on her failure, it was all that was left to do. Crying was only a safeguard to keep her from thinking, from focusing on her failure. But now her inner demons swarmed her. Feeding her thoughts of doubt, fear, jealousy and self-pity. All these thoughts swirled in her mind as she cringed on the ground, shivering and hyperventilating.

Though these emotions quickly turned to something else. Similar to how fire turned to ashes and ember after a fire, her emotions turned to one last form of expression.

Anger.

“How dare they abandon me like that!? after all I-” She shouted internally.

“Why me!? Why did I barge in like some stupid fucking idiot and embarrass myself in front-“

“Maybe I was wrong. What do I know? Maybe it was a simple headache spell and Shining is just-” She thought to herself, attempting to provide reason, thought it didn't seem to work, so she returned to angry, rage filled, thought.

“Nightmare Moon! Discord! I saved them all! They owe their lives to me! This is my thanks!? This is-”

“I should go back to Ponyville. I need to leave them. They don’t want me here. Their better off-“

“Why did I do that? I’m so stupid. Now my friends will always think of this everytime-“

These dark thoughts screamed and echoed in her mind as she neared her limits. Her energy was feeling sapped. Her will to live withdrawing. Her eyes closed as her body began to shut down and leave her in the loving grace of unconsciousness. But as she neared sleep, just before she could drift off, one last thought streamed into her head. One sweet whisper, that could not have been more misplaced. As if the devil wanted one last suicidal hooray, Twilight listened to just three words.

“You failed Twilight”

The impact of those three words surged through the unicorn. The bomb was lit. Her eyes pierced open and her body shivered. The words came from the voice of Princess Celestia herself.

“You failed Twilight”

Her body lifted back up on her four hooves like a puppet coming to life. Her bones felt hollow her blood ran ice cold. The fur on her spine pricked up in place and her mane flowed chaotically in an invisible wind.

“This was an important test, and here you went and failed. I am extremely disappointed.”

It was known among the elite psychologists and twilight's past therapists in Canterlot, that below Discord and Nightmaremoon, the greatest threat to all Equestria is in Celestia’s hooves, the time bomb known as Twilight Sparkle. Under the constant gaze and scrutiny of an alicorn, no friends growing up. Mother was a dutchess, her brother was captain of the guard, and not to mention her high magic concentration in her body being a direct link to her suffering consciousness, which was kept in check with the daily dose of 400 mL of Manadrix.

It was a recipe for disaster, that causes Canterlot’s best to drink just enough every night to get a good night’s sleep.

“Aye Twiilit Spurkle!”

The purple pony with the swirling irises looked up around her. Sure enough found a floating gray Earth Pony with a long white beard and a pointy blue hat with bells adorn it.

“St-Star Swirl the Bearded,” Twilight asked with a smile, “What are you doing here?”

Star Swirls' Scottish accent came in force, “Ay comfrem the fuehture. Canterlut is en trrable! We need yahr healp!”

The proud purple unicorn stood tall and proud, “Twilight Sparkle is always ready to help a,” Twilight’s head skipped off the record as the odd word came off her tounge with the grace of a wrecking ball, “fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-friend in need. What do we need to do?” She asked.

Star Swirl smiled, “That’s the attatude lassie! We need to stohp Queen Zorgnoz fram Area 57! She’s here to eat yer brather!”

Twilight gasped loudly, “Not Shiny!”

“Aye lassie, he’s in great danejjer!”

“How do we stop him, Star Swirl!?”

Meanwhile outside the hall…

Private Hammers looked over to partner with a worried look, “Dude, I don’t like the sound of this.”

Private Wine nodded agreement. He was getting goose bumps all over. They hoped after the crying, Twilight would finally come out and walk of shame herself to her private quarters and sleep it off like Celestia planned, but now…

Twilight’s voice leaked into the hall again, “Time to. Go to. Theh LIBRARY~!”

A powerful flash leaked from the double doors of the ceremonies room and powerful thunder heard.

It was seconds before the two soldiers shared a look.

Private Hammers took a deep breath before he slowly spoke up, “It was Princess Celestia’s orders to not make contact with Twilight, but…”

“Yeah, I think this is worth mentioning to the sergeant when we shift posts,” Wine agreed.

The Statue of Discord stood alone in the moonlit gardens outside of Canterlot Castle. Frozen in a state of shock, he stood less than graceful among the rest of Equestria’s worst nightmares. The spell cast upon him by the Elements of Harmony kept him from reaching out into the world around or stirring up the magic to escape his prison.

He could not see, nor could he hear, for that was taken away from him; leaving him to think and feel.

But he could feel alright, though feel isn’t quite the right term. A being as powerful as him could sense on even higher levels than the common crowd his world has host to. The energy and magic stirring about in the blood of the royal pony guards, the leaves in the trees, in the air, even small pebbles had something to feel. In Discord’s chaos driven mind he looked not at a dark concrete sheet before his eyes, but at the magical essence in the air and could see a beautiful canvas of reds, blues, greens, whites and more all under the large blue dome overhead of Canterlot.

Discord was back to doing what he had done for the last thousand years. Watching, waiting, and plotting.

But then something different happened.

Something new. Something rather… disturbing, even to a being of his acquired taste.

The maelstrom plane on which all magic existed on was brewing in sinister fashion within the castle. A giant aura of black and violet expanded and deflated at the beat of heart. Slowly growing to encompass the library.

Already the stone sarcophagus powered by stagnation of peace and harmony started to chip away at his right claw.