Decay

Chapters

Another notch is carved away
In the thoughts of mass decay
Funny how things end up this way
Things keep ending up this way

Another notch is carved away

The throne room was comfortably clean as they all moved into the spacious interior surrounding the ‘crystal map’ and its thrones, normally the dust was now swept away as best Spike could manage and the giant plateau where the map once displayed itself was clear and lain with a simple golden tablecloth, a gorgeous array of exotic flowers in its centre sitting within an ornate vase that Princess Celestia had gifted Twilight.

It was one of the few objects Twilight still prized and cared for beyond anything else, including herself. The enchanted vase had runes of protection and inscribings on its inner sides and warding spells of truly ancient magic stronger than anything Rarity could conjure, and as such it was like her spell she’d pieced together, only much more refined and powerful.

It made the group smile as Twilight shakily fluttered forward on her disarrayed wings towards her small bastion, Rarity barely managing to keep her spell focused on Twilight alone and breaking into a sweat to extend the distance as she left the limited zone she casted her aura from, a vein beginning to strain against her neck.

Noticing her grimace, Spike rested his hands on Rarity’s shoulders and comforted her.

“It’s alright, you can drop the spell now.” He hummed, working his claws into the tense muscles of her back. “I think Twilight appreciates the sentiment more than the brief respite from invisible critters.”

Rarity nodded, letting the flare of her horn fade and the magic dissipate. They all either shuddered or gave a small twitch as if a chill had worked its way through them and the room, as they felt a ghostly feeling along their bodies. Twilight had of course explained this to them in the past, that whenever they had a strange cold shiver up their spines when it was nice and warm, or perhaps felt like a spider was crawling on them and yet there wasn’t one, or maybe they felt like they’d suddenly walked through a cobweb; it was simply them moving around quicker than usual or swarming.

That information was likely very clear to each of them now as they all felt the familiar sensations. Of course none of them paid it much attention after the thought, simply writing it off as one of those everyday occurrences that older ponies might refer to as ‘somepony walking on your grave’, but not Twilight; she screamed out as if she’d been struck with a burning lance when the magic faded.

They bristled and came over at her distress, seeing her wrap her hooves around the impenetrable vase of flowers and whispering into them.

“It’s alright they can’t eat me, they can’t eat meee…” She lamented to herself, rocking the vase as if it were a small filly in her grasp. “They can dance and play, but the pets will never get their prize, they misbehave.”

Climbing up onto the plinth, Spike knelt down beside her.

“Twilight?” He asked unsurely.

“I’m here, Spike.” She crooned into the petals of a lily. “All that’s left...”

“Alright then. Do you maybe want to have some cake? Maybe play some games?” He said, brushing through her mane again trying to neaten it. “You love pin the tail on the Princess still, right? And you’ve already got a blindfold.”

He shivered at the small tinny laugh she emitted but smiled nonetheless, it was always a small victory when she laughed, even if it wasn’t too pleasing to hear nowadays. Rainbow Dash had appeared beside him when he looked to his right, he gave her a greeting and backed off to let her do what she needed.

“Hey Twi, how you doing?” She said, carefully beginning to smooth and preen Twilight’s wings that were still quite a mess. Taking extremely delicate motions she trimmed the damaged feathers and cleaned up the ones still remaining that were usable. Twilight shuddered at the caring contact her friend was showing. “You really gotta take better care of yourself, yannow?”

“It’s not too important.” Twilight lowly told her. “Monsters surround us all, Rot eats it all away.”

“We can’t see them, or feel ourselves… rotting.” Dash replied, fixing a particularly troublesome feather along Twilight’s left wing. “But I get that it’s a big issue for you. We’re always gonna be here to help, but you can fight this thing by looking after yourself.”

“Rot doesn’t care about prettiness, Dashie.” She grinned. “All it wants is our death, it wants to kill us all until there’s nothing left but nothingness, because then when we’re all dead and our bodies have long since been consumed by its little beasts and Equestria lies in ashes, they’ll eat the ashes as well then turn on each other and eat themselves and Rot will kill them too.”

“I’ve told you this before?” Twilight wondered, turning her blindfolded eyes to her friend, who simply shook her head.

“I think I was more concerned about your mental state during the egghead talk.” Dash smiled, finishing her cleanup of the former Princess’s wings.

“It’s the sound that’s the worst, Dashie. Even though Discord dulled it. Rot makes this purely abhorrent noise you can’t hear, but I can always hear it. I can’t shut it out.” She moaned, her voice cracking slightly. “But what the little things can’t eat… it still dies. You’d call me crazy if I told you your words die as they leave your mouth, but they do. Mine too.”

“Alright… maybe we should do something els--” Dash began, but Twilight continued.

“Your face is dying before my eyes, not that I can see it.” She continued over Dash, who decided it was probably best to let her get this out. “Rot tears away at everything that isn’t immortal, I bet it hates me and the Princesses for that. I wonder if it’s trying to figure out how it can make us Rot too. Discord told me once that he created entire planets full of life and love to save energy from being destroyed, but I can’t do that... I’m not strong enough.”

At least she was speaking coherently, Dash thought.

“Twilight, we have your cake over here.” Spike said quietly to the Alicorn, who registered the voice and turned ever so slightly. “I also made some nice daisy sandwiches if you’re up for them, you haven’t eaten very much for a while.”

More of that disturbing laughter came from her.

“Spike, I don’t want to eat.” She patted his shoulder, then immediately stopping and trying to wipe her hoof on something. “Food doesn’t taste good anymore, the only reason I do eat is because my body needs more energy than I can give it without food.”

“Exactly.” Spike agreed. “So please, eat something. I’m worried about you, always am.”

Making an unsure noise, she wordlessly extended her senses outward, feeling her friends auras burning away and decaying as she did. Ignoring that pang in her heart, she felt the rotting of the food Spike had prepared for her. She could smell it from here, it was disgusting and as vile as most the food he made for her. It didn’t matter that it was fresh, or that Spike had probably picked those daisies from the gardens barely less than a half-hour ago, or baked the bread himself this morning.

It was all dying anyway. Despite that, she levitated over a plate with a sandwich on it. Daisy sandwiches used to be one of her favourites, now it was all she could do to not hate them.

Her friends were concerned for her but it was misplaced, they should have been worrying about themselves. No matter that two years had passed and her state of mind continued to descend into madness, they still stood by her. They shouldn’t, they should have abandoned her long ago when she’d done this to herself, they should have forgotten all about her and lived what little they had left of their lives.

She saw everything, she couldn’t not. Everything had energy, and that was more than enough for it to be destroyed. She’d had a plan when this had begun, but it was getting harder and harder to enact it every day as she declined. She wanted to use Rot as a power source like Discord did, to try and use whatever this force was for good, but deep down she wondered if it would ever matter anymore, she couldn’t stop the Rot everywhere it’d simply be impossible, and these bursts of clarity where she could think were becoming so rare.

Not that her friends knew, but she’d spoken with Discord a year or so back on his own plane of existence. He’d only ever invited Fluttershy before, but as time passed they’d become very close friends from the shared burden, and Discord had come to love her company as much as she now enjoyed being in his. The Draconequus had been experimentally playing with a few ideas Twilight had told him, ones that he’d long since abandoned as much too practical for himself and not being in his style, only taking them up at her request.

Her simple ideas of warping reality in such specific and strangely normal ways that to his mind it was simply unthinkable. Of course it all led up to the final idea of her creating whole new universes in her own image, but that was quickly becoming something she didn’t feel like she could do with how fast her mind was deteriorating.

How does somepony explain to their friends that they wield a power so vastly phenomenal that they can theoretically create entire universes and then fill them with entire galaxies and star systems, all of them capable of supporting life? She’d try to tell the girls this and they’d smile and nod like they always did, they didn’t believe Discord could do it as she’d told them he did daily, and of course she knew what they truly thought.

‘Oh no, the poor dear really has gone insane. Not even the Princesses can do that.’

‘Gal’s gone an’ lost her apples, damn cryin’ shame.’

‘Pft, good luck there, egghead. You’d have more luck moving the Sun.’

That last one was actually quite doable, not that she’d ever consider doing it.

Uh-oh, Spike was getting agitated again, she must have been sitting still and quiet for too long. That happened when she actually managed to have coherent thoughts and think like she used to. It was always when the girls visited or when Spike was singing to her --His voice was amazing-- when she tried to sleep.

“I’m here, Spike.” She’d told the drake before he’d even raised his arms to touch her shoulder, making her giggle at his alarm from her perception. “I’m always here.”

Please eat Twilight… please...

Ah right yes, he’d wanted her to eat didn’t he? She let herself smile as his relief washed over her in droves when she lifted the sandwich to her mouth. It did indeed smell vile and she really did want to throw it across the room and vomit, but instead she took a few bites. It also tasted horrible, and it was all she could do to only gag once or twice. The Rot had taken taste from her, when in the beginning it was one of the few things she could still enjoy.

The next half an hour was taken up with her friends not so casually being worried for her as she sat by trying not to be violently ill. The Rot and its little beasts were eating away at the sandwich and her tongue was coated in a layer of saliva that still tasted of the sandwich, and her stomach was the loudest thing in the room to her senses. She was thankful she wasn’t needing to belch, and she dared not open her mouth to smell the sandwich she’d just ate.

With a quick teleport she was on the other side of the plateau next to the cake Pinkie had made for her. She could smell the ruby and sweet chilli sauce within it, which weren’t as offensive as the daisy sandwich had been. Immediately cutting a large slice away with her telekinesis she bit into the sponge and almost moaned in delight as the powdered ruby immediately and temporarily destroyed most of the ability of her taste buds. She could only --if just for now-- taste a bare hint of sweetness from the sweet chilli sauce within the offputting mixture.

She couldn’t help but eat another slice despite the overall taste, already sighing in contentment as the ruby went to work suppressing the churning of her digestion and stopping the worst of it from coming back up her throat as she breathed out. It all felt like so much effort just for the tiniest amount of good.

Depressing as it was, she brought herself some amusement by picking up the fake tail from the pin-tail game in her magic, and feeling where the hole was on the card stuck to the wall, placing it perfectly into the groove. She laughed quietly at some of her friends surprised ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ to this simple trick of sensory awareness. To this day only Pinkie knew how she did it, and that was because she was Pinkie.

Unfortunately, she found her throat was on fire suddenly as she vomited without warning, the pain wasn’t overwhelming but it was incredibly unpleasant as she did taste blood among the disgusting taste of rotting cake. She directed her head down so she didn’t get it everywhere, and only when it stopped did she lift her head up. She felt like she hadn’t drank anything in years, her throat as parched as the deserts of Neigypt.

Oh, she’d fallen over right into the vomit, going by the quick lurch and stickiness that surrounded her…

Well that was lovely, things had been going well up until that point.

She heard the cries of distress from the girls, Spike being the loudest. The noise hurt her head as it echoed through her skull like fiery needles being driven into a pane of glass, the sounds screaming in their own agony as they eroded into nothing, it was all she could do to not scream from her own displeasure.

Feeling her weight shift, she thought she mumbled an apology to Spike as he hurriedly lifted her up and ran with her body in his arms, but it probably got lost among all the other noise and chaos as she was rushed elsewhere. What little weight she had was jumbling around as she was carried through the castle.

Where they were going, she didn’t know, and right now she didn’t care. She’d have loved a glass of water, despite that it would taste stale and tainted. The noises were getting louder, the screams of activity were bouncing through her head so hard she feared her ears might bleed, the decay of the sounds endlessly petering out as new ones rushed in.

It took a moment to realise she was bawling like a little foal, stopping as best she could manage once that was apparent, it would only concern her friends more.

Spike for his part, was almost knocked out cold when Twilight started to go into a full blown panic attack, thrashing wildly upon leaving the castle. She hadn’t immediately figured out where they were going, and they had hoped she wouldn’t realise, but the Sun hitting her was enough for her to become very aware of the situation. It took a lot of energy from Rarity to cast a spell that lulled Twilight into a state of drowsiness, she nearly passing out herself from the sheer amount of effort it took to attempt such a measure upon even a weak Alicorn. Fluttershy caught and kept Rarity steady as she tripped over herself after the casting.

“Oh, thank-you darling.” She murmured as her eyelids fluttered dangerously low, resting herself on Fluttershy while Twilight began to fully collapse in Spikes grasp. “That took more out of me than I believed it would.”

They watched Twilight go limp, the drake holding her gently repositioning so she would be more comfortable and her wings weren’t awkwardly sticking out. She was still awake and mumbling things they couldn’t understand, her mouth moving and chanting phrases unknown to them. The scene of a dragon carrying the former Princess across town with her five best friends following was drawing a lot of attention, many ponies looking on in a mix of fear or worry, a few taking their foals behind them.

Had ponies known Twilight had brought this entire condition upon herself, they’d likely be much less sympathetic to her, but as it was they simply knew that something had befell their Princess and she’d gone insane, so many were supportive and offered wishes for her health or a concerned look as she was taken through the town centre towards Ponyville’s hospital.

It didn’t take very long for doctors to grab Twilight in their magic and take her to assess her situation. Spike explained what had happened and they hoped things would progress for the better from there.

Everything was simply a blur of motion for Twilight.

She’d not really registered their small trek across the town, and she hadn’t seen the white uniforms and the clean walls of the hospital, but she could sense the air of it all and the general feeling of illness that surrounded her. She tried to teleport away but found she was too weak to do so. That would have scared her but she had to admit she was feeling very relaxed right now, even if her throat felt like it was being scratched over and over by Opalescence while having salt poured into the wounds.

She abhorred hospitals.

They weren’t so bad before all of this, but since the change they’d become houses of horror and the primary reason she’d been driven to want to wear the blindfold all the time. Right now she could sense everything dying as usual, but it was going over the top. If there was a limit to a pony’s decay simply by living then it became tenfold when they were hurt, they would simply waste away all the more and the little parasites would redouble their efforts and be almost frenzied to eat what was parting from their life. The dead were the worst of it all; if a deceased pony happened to be taken to the morgue in passing, the sheer volume in both noise and amount from the beasts skittering over the carcass was downright evil as they all became nothing.

So in short, hospitals were the Rots favourite mainstay.

And here she was.

Struggling feebly as she was lifted onto a bed, she managed to get off of it for less than a second before collapsing in a heap. The ponies around her were thinking such irritating things about how she was so interesting to have here or how sorry they felt for her, she’d probably smack them if she could. She tried again to get free as she was placed back onto the clean cot, this time earning a forceful bout of magic that immobilised her limbs.

“Don’t you worry, we’ll have Miss Sparkle in tip-top shape in no time.”

Bite me. She thought, annoyed at the stallion’s happy demeanour. Still sensing her friends around her, their pain was more apparent than her own. For now, she accepted she wasn’t getting out of here, laying back as the beasts crawled all over her. It didn’t matter how many times this bed was cleaned, nor how sterile they thought this place was.

“You’re not going to live much longer.” Twilight giggled to the doctor that came over to inspect her throat. His thoughts were erratic as his brief panic from her lie allowed her to enter his thoughts more deeply; he was still quite new here, his family was proud of his achievement of becoming a doctor, he hated cherry, he loved hoofball, the mare he was dating was very gorgeous and he felt like the luckiest stallion to have won her love, he didn’t want to be near the crazy purple Alicorn that creeped him out, and now add ‘He was afraid of what that Alicorn meant’ to the list.. “Don’t worry, I don’t taste of cherry.”

His fear rose a little more and he retreated as fast as his hooves would carry him. She could feel Spike’s eyes focus on her in disapproval as she laughed like a madmare. It was sobering that the girls also didn’t like that, but at least Dash and Pinkie found some humour in it.

It took the medical staff almost half an hour before they could check Twilight properly due to her constant playing up and downright refusal to be seen. In the end it took another spell from Rarity to make her manageable, Rarity herself passing out after the casting with Spike gently holding her after catching her from hitting the floor.

Twilight’s throat was slightly blistered from the ruby, which had caused great irritation in her stomach as well as a few small ulcers. The doctors had guessed the only reason this was the first time her body had reacted so violently was because she’d been healthier when having eaten ruby powder before and her Alicorn physiology had likely meant she’d healed the damage before any true harm could happen, but with her condition as bad as it was they were quite surprised she was still functioning at all.

“She hasn’t been eating much, or looking after herself at all.” Spike explained sadly to the head doctor who’d performed the examination. “Obviously the girls and me do try to look after her as best we can, but we can’t force her to do anything. Last time I tried to make her sit down and actually eat a decent meal she teleported me into another room and escaped elsewhere into the castle.”

Thankfully the doctor understood, having had a few patients that refused help until they were too weak to do anything about being helped. He turned around, going back to the dazed Alicorn who was mumbling to herself.

“It all comes crumbling down… We’re not going to fly…” She whispered, her limbs twitching as she still tried in vain to move, likely out of the bed. “Rosemary will hate that dress and wants it in red…”

Taken aback, the doctor faced Twilight directly. “Pardon? What did you say?”

“We’re going to crash, doctor.”

“No, about Rosemary.”

“It’s a very nice herb to put on your food.” She smiled. “Well it used to be.”

“No! Rosemary’s dress!” He urged. “What did you mean she’ll hate it?”

Both Spike and Applejack came forwards, realising Twilight had done that thing where she knew things she shouldn’t. It was something she did to them on occasion but thankfully it wasn’t often or at least wasn’t as often as she let them know, as they knew she’d likely done the same with the young doctor earlier, but that wasn’t why they were reaching out for this stallion. Clearly this doctor preferred a direct approach, which wouldn’t work with Twilight, and it was very unfortunate that apparently it required him to try making eye contact.

“Doctor, stop!” Spike shouted, but it was too late.

Twilight was very calm and very quiet as the sheer piercing of noise ripped through her head when both the doctor and all of the girls screamed in what was either fear or revulsion. Spike pushed him aside forcefully and tried to hold back the tears as Twilight stared back at him.

Or she would have, if she had any eyes.

In the thoughts of mass decay

“It was… four? Maybe five months back now.” Spike sighed, head in his hands. His friends sat around a small table that had been set up in Twilight’s room, and the air was depressingly solemn. “She’d been manic for weeks about the little beasts she always goes on about, but this was reaching a dangerous level of fear and disgust, full on attempts to rid herself of what only she saw.”

The girls were all silent as the lithe drake explained, all attention focused on him between small sips of a drink or a bite of food. The aura in the room was dark and solemn, and they all felt the despair heavy on their hearts for their dearest friend.

“After she tried fire spells and burned her fur and skin off in places, I intervened as best I could, I managed to convince her to try not using her eyes for a while. I thought I’d calmed her down, we tied that blindfold she has around her head and she seemed happier after…” He whispered, moving his hands under his chin. “Then I woke up to screaming, but it wasn’t the usual kind, it was pain. She’d had enough of the monsters she said, didn’t want to see them anymore, not for a single moment when the blindfold came off, so she’d grabbed a… a cheese knife… a-and she… she gouged her eyes out.”

AJ leant her head on Spike’s shoulder and rested an arm around him as he suppressed a shudder at the memory, the girls following suit with them all ending up in a sorrowful comfort hug. Everyone pulled back after shedding some shared tears at the revelation, their breathing still shaky.

“That’s s-so horrible, that you went through that alone.” Fluttershy sniffled, wiping her eyes on her wingtips. “We would have helped you then.”

“I know, I know… I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to burden anypony with that knowledge.” Spike breathed out, taking in another few slow lungfuls of air. “I wasn’t really thinking rationally through all the sleepless nights and, well, that seemed like a good idea you know, not to tell anypony. She’s already so weak, and you all worry so much. Didn’t seem right to make everypony worry even more.”

“I get ya reasonin’.” Applejack nodded with a great understanding. “Think we all do, ah don’t blame ya, an’ it does go without sayin’ we would have been supportive, but it’s past now.”

Everypony nodded or hummed in agreement.

“So… what now?” Rarity wondered, looking around the group, and again at Spike with a great amount of worry in her eyes. “We surely can't keep going on like this, it’s true what you say Spikey, Twilight hasn’t been getting better, and you’ve still been as attendant to her now as you always were…”

“...But she keeps getting worse.” Rainbow Dash finished with a concerned, hard edge to her voice, slightly cracking as she maintained her false bravado.

There was a silence for a few semi-peaceful moments, with nothing but the sounds of nurses and doctors going to and from places, until all six of them jumped slightly as there was a sudden crack in the air.

“My apologies for being late, I feel Twilight has seriously hurt herself again.”

Discord in all his glory looked no worse for wear than he had ever done, but his idea of being formal, kind, and respectful was of course to show up in a fluorescent pinstripe suit with a gaudy hat to match. Despite himself, Spike gave the Draconequus a small smile, and tried his best to pretend his friends other than Fluttershy weren’t trying to burn holes in him with their eyes, while Pinkie’s glare was much less intense, it was no less welcoming.

As of course they blamed all of this in full or part on him.

Spike didn’t deny he’d had a hand, and perhaps Discord never truly knew this would happen to an Alicorn with his same curse, but hating or otherwise alienating the chaotic god would be pointless in the long run of things. Fluttershy herself forgave Discord very early on in all of this as she was want to do, and Pinkie could never hate someone, and Spike didn’t like holding grudges against those that were truly sorry.

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash on the other hoof, had a much harsher view of him than the rest of them did, possibly even more so than Celestia who blamed it entirely on Discord, despite Twilight’s complete conviction and unwillingness to say no in her endless pursuit of knowledge.

“Hey, Discord.” Spike greeted with a slight raise of his hand. “Twilight’s recovering in the ICU right now, don’t know if the doctors’ll let yo-”

With a snap he was gone.

Sure enough, when Spike got up and made his way to where Twilight was being looked after, poking his head around the doorway he saw Discord standing over her with a warm smile on his wizened features.

“I don’t think she’ll wake for a while.” Spike commented, hearing the girls approach behind him as entered the room. “Where are the nurses?”

“They said I couldn’t be here. I did not accept that.” Discord chuckled, his lips upturning ever so slightly. “They’re now elsewhere in the hospital.”

“They’re just trying to do their job.” Spike sighed, pacing over and taking a seat near the door and quietly bringing it beside Twilight’s bed where she lay unconscious. He briefly turned his head as the girls came through and nodded to them, but his attention was back on Twilight again within the second. “She’s not doing so well so they’re keeping constant watch on her.”

“I’d imagine so, she is a Princess after all.” Discord nodded, absentmindedly creating what Spike thought was an almost iridescently beautiful rose that shimmered with each catch of the light, all the time looking at Twilight’s face. “I just come to bring gifts.”

Placing the fiery rose within an equally gorgeous and intricate vase that swirled into existence upon the bedside table, he gently rested his paw upon her brow after a moment. Twilight stirred briefly, but remained asleep. Discord’s expression turned into a grimace as he did what Spike assumed was looking into her mind.

“Oh.”

Spike glanced in confusion to him, then to Twilight, but didn’t see anything the matter, looking back to Discord whose face was progressively turning into a questioning frown. He felt the girls shuffle around him, in quite the same level of puzzlement he was experiencing for not knowing what the problem was right now.

“Well...” Discord muttered, as he began to smile. “That’s an interesting development.”

“Discord?” Fluttershy whispered beside Spike. “What’s going on?”

He said nothing to her for the next minute, which stretched out as they watched the chaos god stand there with an interested stare. She was about to ask again until he shifted slightly and removed his paw from Twilight’s head.

“A slight hiccup, dear Fluttershy. Nothing more.” He smiled at her, the rose he created flaring as if it were alive. Noticing their eyes fall upon it, Discord gestured to the plant. “Just a little experiment I’ve been working on help Twilight in her goal of getting rid of all these tiresome pests that keep annoying us.”

“To explain though, there does exist some powerful magic, warding spells and the like, very ancient and mostly lost to time, Celestia used it on a vase of flowers that Twilight has, and I do believe Rarity has dabbled in something similar.” He started, seeing Rarity nod to her creation of the pieced-together spell she used earlier in the day. “Well sadly, that ancient magic has limits. However, I found out that once upon a time it very briefly touched on utilising a form of chaos magic, but abandoned its usage in favour of something else, to which I retouched on that chaos aspect. Using that in this rose, with any luck once it becomes attuned to Twilight’s ‘frequency’ such as it is, it might just help to mostly ward off the parasites that ail her.”

All of them perked up immediately at the sound of that.

“T-that’s wonderful, Discord!” Fluttershy squeaked, followed by nods and agreements by the group. “She’ll be able to make a major recovery if she’s not worrying about… um… the bugs, or… whatever they are.”

“They are a part of Rot, dear Fluttershy.” Discord said to her. “It is very tenacious though, so I’m unsure if this will work in the long run but it’s certainly worth a shot. I am just so sorry it took so long for me to do something like this, if it doesn’t work then the great amount of time spent doing it shall have been wasted.”

“If it’s fer Twi it aint wasted time, even if it don’t work that’s still knowin’ what don’t work an’ makin’ progress.” Applejack reasoned.

“I suppose.” Discord scoffed, sweeping his eyes across them all. For a brief few minutes the room was silent and pensive, until he hung his head with a abjectly defeated sigh. “I just… I truly wish I’d thought of the consequences back then.”

He was of course referring to giving this ‘power’ to Twilight in the first place.

“I really thought she could handle it, you know.” He uttered. “She is an incredibly strong pony, almost as strong as Celestia in some regards, and Celestia can handle a great deal.”

“It’s all in the past.” Spike spoke up. “You’re trying to atone and that’s good.”

“But it’s not enough.” Discord replied back, shivering slightly and looking around with a small, sly smile. “Ahh… that’s a good sign, though.”

He glanced to the group who were looking at him expectantly.

“The rose is working. It just needed to get used to Twilight.” He smiled, gently placing his claw on Twilight’s forehead again. “While it won’t outright force the Rot away as with the fancy vase, it will stop things from decaying considerably, the aura of the rose should very much slow it to a crawl in comparison.”

“Which means?” Dash asked.

“It means, Rainbow Dash, that she might be able to eat food without wanting to put powdered ruby in it anymore, and seriously injuring herself in the process.” He explained, smiling wider at their pleased responses. “The parasites won’t be able to do what they do as fast, meaning things will not rot as fast and decay into nothing, things will become more bearable.”

“Well that’s excellent news, Discord.”

All heads turned to the source of the voice, all of them knowing who had spoken.

Gracefully entering with her mane waving in a non-existent breeze, Princess Celestia trotted into the room with a solemn smile, made softer from hearing Discord’s new information on her beloved student. Without a word, Spike moved aside with the girls following suit so she could come over to Twilight in her bed.

“It is only right that you should fix this.” She said, not meeting his eyes and keeping her own firmly on Twilight, carefully tucking Twilight’s mane around the back of one ear. Her tone of voice remained calm, caring, and all too motherly. The lack of any apparent anger was what made it all the more concerning. “This is your grievous error, and I will see it corrected.”

It was always a worrying prospect when Celestia didn’t show her true feelings, because that usually meant she needed to hold them back in order to not entirely unload her frustration upon her intended target. Discord knew this, and visibly swallowed a nervous lump in his throat with a small nod of understanding.

“Well, I’m making progress.” He assured, trying to meet her eye.

Of course he was a little regretful when she did. Words didn’t need to be spoken between them when her eyes spoke volumes of her actual feelings on the matter. Staring into those flared eyes was as if the very Sun itself was boring into him and burning him from the inside out. The pain was not the usual type, but one of extreme disdain, as if he’d let down and disappointed a loving parent that had always viewed their child with naught but love, to then discover their child has done something horrendous and the sheer weight of it means they’ll never look at them the same again.

It was crushing, and he had to look away.

“I shall leave now.” He said softly, giving a last look to the Princess of Friendship as she rested soundly.

He was gone when she turned back.

Princess Celestia smiled as she tucked Twilight back into her own bed within the castle she called home. With Spike and the girls saying their little hopes and assurances of recovery they all came to leave her be, until Celestia asked Spike to stay back so they could talk.

“Princess?” He wondered, coming back inside as the rest of them, understanding the situation, went to go back to their daily lives. “What is it you need?”

He blinked in surprise as he found his slender form engulfed in a very large wingspan, and pulled into a most caring hug. He felt as if a divine presence had washed over and absolved him of all his troubles and fatigue. Gently he raised his arms and placed them around the Princess to return the hug, all but melting into the soft feeling of her fur.

“Thankyou, little drake.” Celestia sniffed, her voice a whisper. “You’re such a good boy for your mother, working so tirelessly to care for her even when you yourself are suffering.”

“I-it’s just… what I should do?” Spike felt dumbstruck by the reflection, smiling and then holding her tighter. “She would do the same for me, until she collapsed.”

Holding back a choked laugh, Celestia pulled back. Tears shone in her eyes, but she remained resolute in her expression.

“Yes… she would.” She smiled to him, one she felt him cherish. “Let us go, and let her rest for now. I will remain for a time and be ready should she wake unpleasantly.”

Agreeing, they both left together as Twilight peacefully snoozed away.

"Are you there, Twilight?"

Yes.

"How are you feeling?"

I don't know, my body isn’t doing well, but here I feel fine… Thank you, as well. The rose was lovely. You really shouldn’t tease them all like that, you know. I’m handling the situation quite perfectly fine.

“You know I can’t resist, I can’t wait to see how they react. That rose is a small step in the way of progress, hopefully it means a great deal more in time.

Speaking of progress...

"Indeed, Twilight. Thanks to your extreme efforts you’ve finally done it."

It's really been doing a number on me physically these past months, hasn't it? I hadn't noticed too much, I’m not really there in reality anymore.

"Your friends are very worried."

I feel that. I can't really tell what is what in the world these days, but I always feel that.

"Worry not, all that should soon be behind us. You're quite ready for what comes next."

You really think so?

"But of course, dear Twilight.”

If you say so. Come on, we’ve still got work to do.

“You do, I’m just a helping claw. This is your universe, you created it.”

Yeah I did, didn’t I? Come on then, let’s go explore!

Author's Note

Made an edit.
Don't mind me.

Funny how things end up this way

A simple snap of his claw.

That was all it took for the entire riverbed to explode with teeming new life.

Twilight marveled at it, Discord using his powers to create something truly wonderful, if only for her sake. This was all mostly her doing, with a little guidance from Discord, she molded this world from nothing but thought and of course, the chaos magic she now controlled, and Discord was kindly assisting in abundantly filling it with life, to let it grow on its own. Well, it would need a small amount of nurturing for a while, apparently worlds created with chaos magic tended to be a little chaotic in their evolution processes, oddly enough.

Creating a planet had been no mean feat.

The considerable effort she’d put into it spanned tens of thousands of years, although that was only in the normal realm of reality. Here time was vastly different and didn’t follow the standard law of time, if Twilight had told her friends that here, time was something that was sometimes visible like smoke or flowed erratically back and forth like raindrops caught in the wind, they’d have had a hard time believing her. That time in itself was sometimes a physical entity here that could be manipulated, meant one could find themselves going back in time accidentally, be it mere seconds or minutes, or longer hours and days, and one time Twilight sent herself back in time by a thousand-odd years or so and erased a great deal of progress.

Although going back in time was sometimes intentional, maybe she’d make a mistake during the creation of a plant that meant it would never grow to its full potential in the entirety of its life cycle and thus never spread its pollen and continue to grow on in new plantlife, or a living creature would grow malformed and unlike it should be and thus necessitated a redo, or certain parts of the planet would conflict with other parts that meant where the two met caused a weird tectonic rift and near-planetwide destruction because chaos could be really fucking weird.

So hence the very long progression of time.

But in the end, after all the testing and failed world designs, having doomed countless billions of new lifeforms to their deaths as she kept creating new sections and letting them grow for a time before destroying the section she was working on or the entire planet being currently being created, turning them and the world into pure energy and then something else continuously, again and again recycling everything back into the new creation, she’d actually done it.

This planet worked. No biomes or ecosystems that clashed and erupted into disarray, no worldwide catastrophes that ended in giant earthquakes that ripped the planet apart because of unstable plates somewhere in the planet's core, or half the planet burning and dying horrendously because the ozone layer hadn’t been right and the sun she’d created had practically immolated anything it touched because she put the planet too close to it.

Oh, and the Sun...

Twilight never thought creating a giant fireball that constantly exploded on a nuclear scale would have been so difficult, she didn’t want to think about just how long that had taken right now.

So yes.

No mean feat.

“Thanks for helping out, Discord.” Twilight smiled amicably.

“Not a problem, dear Twilight.” He nodded, snapping again and causing a forest not ten miles away to boom with plentiful wildlife and countless organisms, the very ones Twilight had created, each different and unique in their own way. “I only wish you’d make things a little weirder.”

“You can keep wishing!”

Discord regarded her, she looked positively radiant. While she might have not been entirely sane anymore, she looked to be the purest picture of unnaturally good health. Back in reality might have been a wholly different story, but both of them knew that wouldn’t matter all that much very soon. Her hair shone, her coat was smooth, her hooves were nice and polished, her eyes gleamed with elation at their work.

This had never exactly been how he’d envisioned sharing his secret with Twilight would go, being a being that defied the laws of time and space he had seen countless futures of what could have happened after giving her the information she craved, he’d seen her commit suicide in at least a million of those futures, become murderous in a million others and kill all of her friends, by Tartarus in one or two she even killed Celestia herself and caused the Sun of Equus to go supernova, but of course those futures were limitless so a few million were nothing next to the vastly outweighing positive futures, and here they were in the one of the good timelines, even if it was one he didn’t forsee happening.

It’s always the one you don’t expect.

Initially there had been some small satisfaction in proving her wrong, she’d always assumed his power had no cost and he’d certainly stung her with the truth of it, that had been a little bit of fun to watch until Twilight really started to descend into madness, he thought it would be fun at first, but the more he felt her the more he realised she wasn’t cut out for his lifestyle, and of course he’d never intended her to harm herself so brutally either, and being the cause of her extreme psychosis had filled him with regret.

At least until she started adapting to it.

How does one adapt to insanity, really? Well he did, although ponies probably wouldn’t call what he did ‘adapting’ to it rather then revelling in it, but wasn’t that just adapting in a different manner? Ponies probably assumed the only way one could acclimate to it was to rid oneself of it over time, like it was a problem that needed flushing out of the body. Discord most certainly didn’t feel that way about it. But Twilight being Twilight simply started breaking it down into something she could quantify and solve like a scientific equation, until she had a good grasp on what she could do with her newfound power.

The results of her unique form of it were… interesting, to say the least. Initially, while most of her chaotic power was channeled into creating what she considered to be a perfect world, it was almost identical to Equus, and that was ultimately very boring. Then things became much more enjoyable as she decided to bend the laws of physics to make it so water defied gravity and flowed upwards, or made it so that volcanos spewed out boiling hot snow and pools of ice as if it were lava, and when it snowed it would spit lava that laid in perfectly cold and soft beds of magma as if it were snow.

He had to admit despite such entry-level chaos, it was quite fun to make a magma-man.

Such things were so basic in his mind that he’d never tried them or wanted to because it just seemed worse than what he could do normally, but to see Twilight do it and be overjoyed in the simple chaos of it was quite wonderful, like nurturing his very own student. In a way he did suppose she was his student, he was teaching her how to harness it properly after all.

There were things she did that he was very intrigued by. He liked to make multiple copies of himself and have a conversation from time to time, but Twilight quite at random would stop what she was doing and just start talking to no one as if Fluttershy or any of her friends had just sat down and began having a chat. Hallucinations were quite a common part of psychosis and admittedly there would be times when he himself would see things that weren’t there, until he decidedly made them real for the fun of it.

But what was intriguing was that these decidedly weren’t hallucinations, there was a great deal of bizarre cosmic energy that surrounded Twilight during these strange chats she had with seemingly no one, another profound aura hidden behind an invisible veil that he couldn’t see or reveal. Whatever it was had no negative impacts or disturbing feelings associated with it and only improved Twilight’s mood when she did talk with it, so really it presented zero issues.

Everything taken into consideration, he’d say it all worked out great.

“Twilight, I think it might be time now.” Discord said, looking at her as she planted numerous seeds next to the riverbed he’d spurred life into. Those trees would become Helix Strands, her own special design that grew to look like a strand of DNA, with bioluminescent petals that grew on the inner bars. “We can always come back later and finish this off.”

“I know.” She smiled, still looking at the seeds as they burrowed into the soil, once they were laid over and given a little zap of energy to kickstart their growth she glanced up to him. “Let’s get going, I don’t want to keep everypony waiting.”

“Of course, dear Twilight.” He bowed his head to her.

With a snap, they were gone.

Spike sighed in dismay, Twilight was only getting worse.

Only a week after they’d taken her to the hospital, and she was barely awake at all during the time. When she was awake she was practically catatonic, not responding to him or eating properly, her body was rapidly thinning despite the short time and her hair falling out in places, but she still kept on saying things to herself when she became lucid, talking about this Rot and how she was going to do what she could to fight it.

He’d feel a flicker of hope when she started talking animatedly, colour would return to her pale face, her eyes would dance with energy, she’d smile and notice him there. Then it’d all peter out and she’d stare, slowly sink back down and do nothing, and the warmth he’d felt inside would die as fast as it had come.

He missed how it was before all this.

Fond memories of them going down to Sugarcube Corner together to pick up Pinkie’s cupcakes were always some of the best he had, she’d order a few special ones with gems in them just for him, for her number one assistant. They’d sit across from one another and chat while enjoying their food, and she’d have the biggest smile on her face, going on about the school’s next big project she’d work on or how the girls had been taken elsewhere in Equestria to solve a friendship problem.

Nothing like that anymore.

The girls had their hooves full with teaching and doing their usual daily jobs, and what little time there was for themselves as a group was always just so melancholic. They’d have a nice time for the most part, it would be lovely to see one another, but everypony would be thinking about Twilight and how they wished she could be there. Of course he’d only ever drop by and say hello, maybe have time for a sandwich and ask them how they were doing before having to go back and tend to Twilight.

Glancing back and going over, he placed a cold damp towel on her forehead. She was running an incredibly high fever and it wasn’t going away, no matter what he tried. Applejack had even bought Zecora in to assist after Granny Smith’s famous remedy soup hadn’t made a dent in her condition, however the tribal pony likewise couldn’t ease the illness. She couldn’t die by any normal means, he knew that, but it didn’t stop him wanting her to not suffer in any way, she didn’t deserve any of it to happen.

Spike quietly got up, turning away to go and grab dinner for the both of them. He made it to the doorway and placed his claws on the handle before there was a strange light that made him immediately halt and look back.

Twilight was glowing.

She’d done that before a couple of times, but not like this. All too fast her coat began radiating more light, pulsing out waves of heat that made him stagger into the door with their powerful intensity. He felt himself shout her name but there was a noise coming from her body that drowned out everything else. Attempting to take a couple of steps towards her, Spike managed to grab the table in the middle of the room for support, before the biggest burst hit the room and it was as if the whole world blacked out.

He felt some pain where the heat had somehow been strong enough to burn him, but it didn’t matter. For a couple of minutes he was blind, that didn’t matter either. He’d been knocked down by whatever had just happened, he told himself it was fine as he shakily got to his feet and felt around for the table again. He had to know if she was alright. His eyes hurt, and no matter how much he blinked everything was still pitch black, his skin and scales ached where it was somehow burned from whatever magic that had been.

As long as she was O.K that was all that mattered.

Pulling himself closer he grabbed at a bedpost, feeling along the duvet that he could smell was singed and burnt, he didn’t feel her legs, or her body. Was it just an extremely powerful teleportation spell? No, it couldn’t have been, teleportation spells don’t harm others.

“T-twilight…” He breathlessly gasped, realising just how much the blast had taken out of him as a hand went to his chest. “Twi…”

She wasn’t there. When he felt around, there were only ashes of the sheets and possibly half the duvet. A terrible thought came to mind that didn’t bear thinking about, that maybe those weren’t just ashes from the bedding.

“Spike?”

He froze.

Wings surrounded him before he could do anything else and he found his vision slowly returning to him, his eyes rapidly unblurring. His odd burns also turned back into his usual nice soft skin and scales, the damage caused from the blast all becoming nothing. The bed was indeed more than just ashes of the bedding, those were clearly remains, a charred part of what appeared to be a hoof sticking out of the mound. Gingerly he reached out and ran a claw along it but the thing collapsed into the pile and joined the rest.

But the wings that held him smelled like Twilight, so how could the ashes be her?

“Twilight?” He whispered softly, feeling tears in his eyes that he blinked away. “W-what happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Really. I’m more concerned about you.”

“Whatever that power was, you fixed me from what it did.” He felt himself smile, she always looked after him when it counted. “So what was that all about?”

“Not right now, the girls are here.”

Her wings lifted, he sharply turned around but she was already gone, just a whisper of smoke left in her wake. Confused, but ultimately relieved, he left the bed as it was and walked over to the door, moving out into the hallway. Having a decent idea of where Twilight might have disappeared to he jogged along to the throne room, and was quite pleased to see he was at least partially correct in that the girls were here when he leaned in.

“Spikey! What’s going on?” Rarity asked as he fully entered the impromptu meeting. “Discord just showed up in my Boutique and took me away from my work. I assume it has something to do with Twilight?”

“Yeah I think so.” He replied to her, shrugging. “Discord never came to me though, just Twilight, she’s… I think she’s better.”

“Oh, better? Discord didn’t mention that.” Fluttershy piped up, Angel Bunny impatiently tapping on the table in front of her as he was apparently taken along too. “He just told me Twilight had a surprise for us.”

“Never said that t’ me.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Just ‘Hey AJ, think fast!’, an’ poof! Here ah am with y’all.”

“I bet it’s a party!” Pinkie squealed happily, doing a little bounce in her seat. “Why else would Discord bring all of us here at the same time?!”

A deep chuckle diverted everyone’s attention upwards.

“Oh how right you are, Pinkie Pie.” Discord smiled, rolling down from the ceiling in a circular fashion as if he was a coiled spring. “It is indeed a party.”

“I knew it!” She shouted.

“So where is she?” Spike asked the Draconequus as he comfortably settled in the middle of the cutie map, the plinth still covered by a golden tablecloth. “I was with her jus-”

“I’m here now, sorry for the wait!”

Twilight’s unusually cheery voice drew their heads immediately, all of them concerned for her wellbeing. Discord snapped a claw and was instantly beside her in the doorway with a pleased smile, ushering her into the room with the same level of kindness the girls often saw reserved for Fluttershy, but at the current moment that wasn’t what they found strange. Rarity was of course the first to say something, which had come out as a sort of strangled gasp rather than any kind of spoken word.

“Isn’t she just magnificent?” Discord grinned, loving their reactions.

If Alicorns had been capable of dying, then the last time they’d seen her she’d practically been on her deathbed, but right now she was anything but ill. She stood as tall and powerful as Celestia did, with a caring expression on her features, but the similarities ended there.

This wasn’t the Twilight they knew.

Whereas she’d been a pony before, if she still was one now they couldn’t be certain. They’d already seen her height, the elongated slender limbs that led into an incredibly attractive and overly curvaceous figure that put models to shame, her coat and wings were a dark midnight purple in hue that looked as if they pulsed on occasion, her eyes were deep orbs of black prettily flecked with purple motes that if they stared into for too long they would start to wonder if they were staring into space itself, and her mane and tail were lengthier than before, no longer in their neat fringed look but far more wild, wavy, and slightly lighter than her coat now was, both of which defied gravity in a similar fashion to Celestia or Luna’s manes but didn’t flow as if caught in a breeze, only swaying outwards when she turned or walked to then eerily halt all movement around her and stay perfectly motionless.

To top it all off the horn upon her head had become a disturbingly twisted double-helix that glowed with constant energy, and when she smiled at them happily it was more creepy than anything as all of her teeth had become slightly sharpened, with the forefront incisors now essentially being fangs.

“Hey girls.” Twilight greeted, laughed gently. The macabre sound reverberated just as it had done when she sunk into insanity due to the Rot. “It’s still me.”

Unlike the laughter though, she did indeed sound mostly the same despite the echo, that was probably going to take some getting used to if this new form of Twilight's was here to stay.

“Twilight…” Spike awingly breathed out, taking her exotic appearance in with a few tentative steps towards her. “You’re…”

“Better?” She finished for him, trotting over and extending her impressive wingspan out to embrace him in a warm hug, which he gladly returned. “I feel better.”

“That’s good.” Spike nervously laughed, giving her a light squeeze.

Their interaction broke the spell, and the girls began moving in as well, offering their pleasure in her recovery and generally trying their best to compliment her mysterious image. It brought all of them a great amount of amusement as Rarity had gone from her initial shock to trying very poorly to hide her attempts at taking measurements.

“Twilight!”

The familiar voice once again drew all attention.

Celestia, with Luna in tow, gracefully came into the room from its entrance the same as Twilight had done, their faces held no shock as her friends initially had, but just calm serene smiles that bespoke acceptance. No words were exchanged as Twilight whipped about and cantered over to her mentor, contently nuzzling against her neck.

“We felt a greatly powerful presence appear in this world.” Luna intoned in her deep voice. “At first We were both unsure if it boded ill, but We art glad to see it is thou. We must admit, Twilight; Chaos looks good upon thee.”

“Chaos?” Applejack wondered, scrunching her muzzle. “Ah suppose she does look a lil’ chaotic…”

“What are you talking about?” Discord raised an eyebrow at them. “She looks perfectly normal to me.”

“When you say Chaos…” Rainbow Dash started, glancing between the Draconequus and the recovered Alicorn. “Do you mean his type of magic?”

“There is only one type of Chaos magic!” Discord huffed, snapping his paw and bringing a tea-set into existence that poured itself for him, he politely took a cup offered to him by the kettle and drank from it. “Honestly, I’m offended you’d think otherwise.”

Twilight smiled at his antics, properly stepping apart from Celestia and gaining Dash’s attention. With a beautiful swirl of lavender fire, an open gilded cage of white doves were brought into being next to her, all of them flying free of its confines to promptly glide over and settle on Fluttershy, who giggled and happily spoke with them.

“It’s still Chaos magic.” Twilight explained, looking at Fluttershy lovingly stroke the doves. “I just don’t use it in a very chaotic manner.”

“Oh go on.” Discord pleaded, blinking and looking at her with overly large watering eyes, even batting heavy eyelashes. “Be a little more crazy.”

Twilight looked at him for a moment, rolled her eyes with a smile, and issued a series of smaller flames around him that grew into twisting chocolate roses that when he attempted to eat one, squirted strawberry sauce in his face.

“Haha!” He crowed victoriously, quickly swiping all the heads from the roses and shoveling them down his throat. “Much better!”

“This is all very lovely, dear.” Rarity spoke up, looking up at Twilight. “But what about your little bug situation.”

Rarity barely flinched as Twilight met her gaze, she still wasn’t used to those eyes.

“The Rot isn’t too much of an issue for me at this point.” Twilight smiled gently, knowing the source of her friend’s discomfort. She wasn’t too used to it herself, or the resound of her voice every time she spoke. “That doesn’t mean I can’t see it or hear it, the creatures still skitter about and dance, but I can cope well enough with it all now, same as Discord.”

“But darling, Discord doesn’t cope, he’s insane.” Rarity pointed out, seeing out the corner of her eye that he was just proving her right by having a small game between a few copies of himself by throwing the middle copy’s head to one another.

“And it’ll have to do.” Twilight nodded sadly. “I manage in other ways.”

“Well… we’re always here for you.” Rarity assured her, seeing she didn’t want to continue down this line of conversation. “If you ever need to talk to us.”

“I know.” Twilight gave them all a warm smile, being sure not to bear her new teeth. “I’ve always been able to rely on all of you, and it means so much to me that you stuck by me through all of this.”

“Of course we would!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Yeah!” Pinkie beamed, nodding. “You’d have done lots of cool magic to try fixing stuff if it were any of us!”

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike all nodded their agreeance. Celestia and Luna both smiled gently at the direct truth of it, knowing it was exactly the first thing that Twilight would attempt in such a situation.

Twilight regarded the entire group, Discord as well who was now curling around Fluttershy and trying to organise a new picnic for all of them. She was profoundly tranquil in that small moment of time, knowing her friends would always be around to keep her steady and be a shoulder to cry on, or offer her advice and care when it was needed. They’d always been there in any case, but it was the fact that with her as she was now, they would never again have to worry about her falling ill in such a manner.

In time they’d realise the full extent of just how powerful she was as well, and that she was unwilling to let them go while she lived on forever.

The Rot pulsed around everything in the room, she could clearly see both it and the beasts were eating away at her friends no more, their bodies free of the parasites that had feasted on them for so long, the bright balls of energy within them no longer decaying away bit by bit, same as her, Discord, Celestia, and Luna.

She believed Rarity or Pinkie would be the first to notice that they no longer aged. Pinkie because… well, she was Pinkie, but Rarity would notice it soon enough as the one of her friends most concerned with their beauty. She’d clearly see it as the years passed her by that her skin wouldn’t sag, she wouldn’t get those crows feet at the edges of her eyes that she’d been fretting about, and that she didn’t feel any aches or pains that come with growing older.

None of them would.

They might not understand the why of it right now, but she hoped they would in time when they learned of their newfound immortality, and felt as unwilling to part with one anothers company as much as she did. She had no doubt Celestia and Luna knew of the unnatural energy that flowed from them, and she was thankful they didn’t mention it. Discord was of course having a tough time keeping the secret, but she’d made him Pinkie Promise earlier before her arrival.

He winked at her as she looked at him.

“So what’s the plan now, dear Twilight?” Discord smiled. “Shall we return?”

“Not yet, do you have that rose from the hospital?” Twilight wondered.

“But of course.” He gave a nod, zipping open a hole in the air and reaching in, deftly pulling out the iridescent rose he’d created for her. “What do you have in mind?”

With a determined stare the flower began to quiver, and slowly, dark tendrils swirled around the petals, altogether snapping at once and splitting them apart with ease, each glowing petals beginning to arrange themselves into the shape of a necklace, the flowing energy connecting them starting to become solid gold, until the entire form was a single gorgeous piece of intricate jewelry that surrounded her neck and covered the top of her chest.

“How lovely!” Discord admired the new look. “Stylish and functional!”

“Together, Discord, we’ll solve it.” Twilight grinned, showing him the full creepy visage of her sharp fangs. This necklace would come with her everywhere. “This Rot won’t bother us for much longer.”

It was the first step in stopping it dead.

Soon with the both of them working together, they’d figure out a way to completely halt the beasts from eating at all, and they would die out. They’d make it so the Rot ceased entirely and all the matter from all living things that would have been eaten by the parasites or burned away into nothingness was simply returned back into the world, becoming energy that was ready to be used at will, in the planet and magic itself.

Twilight knew it could be done. It would be.

Nothing would stop her.

Author's Note

Figured finishing this before Halloween hits but during the month was a good move.
I hope you all enjoyed, thanks for being along for the ride.

Things keep ending up this way

It had been two years.

Two years since Discord had given Twilight Sparkle what she had asked for. Two years since the Rot, and pure chaos had taken ahold of the Princess of Friendship's wonderful life. Once, she had been the model student to Celestia; the loving, caring, understanding friend; a paragon of help and sound virtue; a source of hope for anyone wanting to better themselves. But not anymore, not since the day she'd wanted the answer. She loved knowing everything she could, and it had been her ultimate undoing.

With a solemn air to the mood, Fluttershy wordlessly followed behind Pinkie Pie, who wasn't bouncing along the ground happily as she usually did so very often, in front of her were a stoic Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. All of them were visiting their dear friend today, having managed to make the critical time to do so, whereas usually they would tend to visit in pairs or whenever they had time otherwise. In the beginning of this lunacy when Twilight first screamed in anguish from her fateful decision, each friend had near-tirelessly devoted any and all available time seeing her to provide caring support and comfort, and hadn't faltered since, despite their understanding that she'd done this to herself. She was as much the victim in this horrendous situation as she was its perpetrator.

However, today was meant to be a special day though. For in her graceful telekinetic grasp, Rarity carried aloft a lovingly, wonderfully crafted cake, freshly sealed, that had been made by them all. With Pinkie's help and natural talent for baking they had created it in the early hours of the morning, with fresh ingredients all from Sweet Apple Acres too. Even so, the delectable looking baked good was a strange amalgamation, it contained the usual ingredients one would expect a cake to have of course; eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and flour, but Twilight's friends had picked up clues over time or simply learned the inclusion of other things normally considered alien to cakes. This one in particular contained a mixture of powdered ruby and sweet chilli sauce, alongside the standard of chocolate, vanilla extract, and a few pinches of ginger.

Naturally, Pinkie had brought a second cake along for themselves.

The former might not have been the most delicious cake for any of them --Pinkie Pie possibly excluded-- but Twilight had said upon many occasions, mostly to herself during partially incoherent rambling, that ruby had a profound outcome on ones digestive system that helped to prevent the acids in the stomach from becoming more pungent as the food was broken down, as well as suppressing the tongues ability to distinguish certain tastes by effectively, but only temporarily, damaging the clustered nerves of the taste buds in the same manner as capsaicin, but specifically the ones that dealt with bitterness, and to a better degree. Apparently the sweet chilli sauce also helped to that effect of having much less an offending taste and smell to her senses while actually allowing her to taste some small measure of sweetness from enhancing the other components, even though everything was still largely repulsive, to her it simply made it slightly more bearable.

Once Twilight had said she used to enjoy the taste of food, because it had been everything else that was the problem, the taste being entirely unaffected, but as time had crawled along, for some unknown reason that too, had warped as well. It was much to her displeasure that she learned from Discord that the Rot degraded even the 'fine-tuning' he'd set for her, and try as he might to change it again, it proved almost impossible for him despite his truly sincere best efforts, instead only managing to lessen the intensity of her sense of taste entirely.

Approaching the castle their friend called home, they climbed up the opaque crystal steps with quiet tensity. The structure was the same as it ever was, but it seemed much dimmer these days, much less welcoming and more imposing, especially given the numerous growths of plantlife sprawling over the walls and grounds now. Applejack gave one of the mighty doors a firm few knocks, and they all awaited an answer. Not a minute later, one of the heavy doors opened ever so slightly to reveal Spike, looking quite weary. The dragon, now much taller and slender a physique, had of course come of age these past years, both in part due to just growing up, but also due to caring endlessly for his mother figure. The red-rimmed eyes and the dark circles under them could more than attest to that. Regardless of this, he still smiled and greeted them warmly, ushering them inside without a second thought.

"Hey girls, hope you're all doing well." He yawned, closing the crystal door once they were all inside, and craning his neck until he heard a satisfying click, "Thanks for coming today, it means a lot to the both of us. I'm sure Twilight would tell you herself but she's finally managed to get to sleep, for once."

"Oh, that's wonderful news, Spike." Rarity replied, smiling genuinely along with pleased confirmations from the others as well. She stepped forwards and placed a hoof around his midsection in a warm hug, one he happily returned with a contented sigh, it saddened her already somber mood that he all but collapsed into her with his visible fatigue, as if the responsibility he had was literally weighing down on him, with a kiss on his soft cheek she squeezed him again. "How long was it this time? Nine days if I'm not mistaken. I do hope you're feeling alright, it was a few days since my last visit."

He grimaced and nodded, pulling back after a few moments to face them again. "Yeah... nine days straight she's been awake. One minute she was building one of her weird flower sculptures, and the next she's face down and lights out on top of it." He shook his head slightly with a deep pained sigh. "She's getting too easy to carry, she's barely eaten anything for the past two days as well, keeps going on about some legend, I couldn't make sense of it."

"It's fine, Spike. Don't worry yerself none now." Applejack stepped forwards, also leaning in and tightly hugging the worn-out curvy drake. "Why don'tcha go lay yerself down? We know our way about, we can go t' the throne room an' set things up, ready fer when Twi comes to."

"That sounds real good, Appl--" Spike tiredly began, before he was cut off by the massive noise of something breaking further within the castle. He immediately turned around and started running, presumably to where he knew Twilight to be resting. "Please don't have smashed the tea-set I left out, that'd be the sixth one..." He mumbled under his breath as he went, with the girls following behind, also concerned.

Spike skidded to a halt when he arrived to the entrance of Twilights bedchamber, cautiously peeking in as the girls anxiously huddled up behind him. They alarmingly found themselves pushed backwards all too fast as Spike jumped into them, as a teacup loudly shattered against the door. After a calming breath, he once again breached the room with utmost vigilance, this time not having anything thrown at him. He signalled for the group of friends to wait, and after a few seconds he waved that it was alright for them to come in.

They entered to the eerie tone of Twilight's singing.

"Bury the knight with her velvet gloves... bury the thief with the one she loved... bury the priest in her tattered gown... then bury the beggar and his golden crown..." She sang to herself in the middle of the messy room, with her back to them, surrounded by broken shards of ceramic, many of which were unfortunately piercing into her legs and flank. If she was in pain, she wasn't showing any sign of it. "Oh, bury the knight with her broken sword... bury the lady, lovely and pale..."

"Twilight, look who's here." Spike gently spoke, a hurt melancholic expression on his features as he went over and knelt down in the destroyed tea set and its contents to carefully help her to her hooves, his scales entirely impervious to the fragments of porcelain. "The girls are here to see you for your birthday."

At the mention of her friends, Twilight perked up slightly, ignoring Spikes touch, and stopped singing to herself. She turned to them somewhat in the wrong direction, revealing the pitiful sight that was herself. Her eyes were obscured by a dark velvet blindfold; her mane and tail were disheveled, but had clearly been brushed previously, likely the drakes doing; her hooves were cracked and chipped in several places; her body was far leaner than it should have been, the ribs visible through her coat that was also now stained with what was probably tea; her wings too, were uncared for, sticking out randomly or missing in places, likely that Spike couldn't properly do anything besides carefully smooth them; and of course now there were small bleeding cuts where she'd roughly sat in the broken crockery.

In short, she was an utter disaster.

Spike carefully removed the offending slivers, trying not to make contact with her too much, while she smiled honestly towards them as if nothing was wrong. It did look slightly uncertain however, though she thought they might not really be there. She took a few tentative steps forward, only stepping in the smashed tea set again, not that she even noticed much to their troubled gazes.

"So nice of you to visit me, all together." Twilight spoke, her voice low. It was irregular and distant, sounding almost aberrant. She took another step, emitting a soft crunch beneath her hoof. "I was afraid you weren't going to come, I don't know why. It’s all so dark lately."

Dabbing at the tears in her eyes with a feather-tip, it was Fluttershy that stepped forwards this time, wrapping her wings around her friend with a small sob as she pushed her head against Twilight's neck in a sign of affection, being careful not to tread in the tea-set herself. The gesture wasn't returned as the Alicorn had stood there rigidly with a sharp intake of breath, only releasing it when Fluttershy had withdrawn. They all knew about Twilight’s aversion to physical contact due to her altered state of mind, and even though she now couldn't see... them, what she'd called the parasites, she had told them she still sensed them around her, still heard them crawl on everything and everypony, hear the noise they made as they hungered, still felt them scuttle all over her skin when a connection was made with anything. So they did avoid touching her whenever possible, for her sake. Of course, sometimes they felt they needed to break that barrier to show their concern and friendship more than mere words would allow.

"We brought you a cake, Twilight." Pinkie sniffed quietly, Rarity delicately releasing her magical aura from around the boxed confection into Pinkie's upturned hoof, "Even added ruby to it, so it... doesn't smell as bad when you eat it."

Twilight giggled at that. The sound was disturbingly torturous. "You're always so thoughtful, girls."

She turned away, trotting uneasily towards her desk, which was littered with a myriad of objects. Test tubes and books scattered haphazardly; crumpled notes and uneaten food that was stacked precariously; and several different types of bug entrails in petri dishes, which Fluttershy had never commented on. Nevertheless, this study of viscera wasn't a new development for her, and had been occurring for many months now. Twilight was convinced to the point of mania at times, that she could utilise insects innards to create a spell that would ward off the parasites constantly feasting upon the universes decaying matter. So far, this wasn't proving successful.

In the blink of an eye, they collectively jumped as her horn flashed and she displaced a majority of it on the floor, several dishes both for food and guts, breaking upon impact and causing quite a mess. Spike only sighed in defeat, going over to start clearing up the debris, with a small gasp, Rarity also moved to assist him. Twilight beamed as she gestured towards her now 'clean' workspace.

"We can put the cake here." She stated matter-of-factly with a pleased look. They shifted on their hooves uneasily, until Rarity wordlessly brought forth a small length of cloth to rest over the grimy surface, so they could then they lay the cake on top of it. Once it was down, Twilight rotated again, wandering over to one of her sculptures she'd been working on at some point in time, it now holding her attention, her voice elevated as she spoke. "I've been creating, it's not finished and I'm not sure what I want to call it yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something eventually, what do you think?"

Sculptures of this magnitude were a new development. In all cases thus far when any of them visited, Twilight would all too happily show them something made of flowers she'd brought forth into creation, having said that flowers weren't nearly as bad a smell when they started to die, but this wasn't made of flowers.

"It's... er, it's definitely somethin' alright." Applejack offered lamely, rubbing her neck in a reserved manner.

Rainbow Dash was a little less honest, instead playing it up, even if she sounded slightly dejected. "It's real cool, Twi."

It was all she could manage to offer. Rainbow Dash had never really adjusted as the others had done, to how Twilight had warped, but she still tried her best to be a caring friend whenever possible, even if that simply meant a compliment. But to put it mildly, the piece was bizarre.

The creation was a mix of objects that had no right to look the way they did. There was a saddle that looked as if it had been half-melted into the surface of a giant diamond, to which it likely was a massive gemstone; lifelike statues of pure gold, silver, copper, and dozens of other elements of the periodic table that shouldn’t have been possible, even gallium which was interesting as it had a melting point of roughly room temperature. all misshapen and deformed into a strange abomination throughout the piece; great numbers of household items here and there as well, from knives and forks to a table lamp; several different books as well, all burnt, warped, or ripped apart sticking out anywhere there was space; and of course, the usual array of flowers and vines trailing over the entire thing, as they'd come to expect of Twilight's 'art'.

"But Twilight, you love your books..." Pinkie said, her mane deflating ever so slightly, "Why would you destroy them?"

The Alicorn turned towards the source of the voice, shakily flapping her run-down wings to cross the distance between herself and Pinkie, the action happened so fast Pinkie let out a squeak of surprise when her friend landed before her with a feral smile plastered on her muzzle. "B-because I have it all in my head, Pinkie. I made sure. Every book I know of or have, I remember it. I remember it all." She fell back onto her haunches, speaking still. "Books were nice but they're too slow, learning their contents it takes time just reading, and... and you c-can't... can't read the p-pages because they're always crawling over the words, and the words they scream at me, they scream themselves to sleep and it's too much, I can't read them anymore, I have to... to break them, and then absorb the knowledge through magic instead."

Pinkie simply nodded as if she understood entirely.

Twilight gave pause, sitting there as still as a statue for a few moments. Pinkie leant forward to embrace her before she was slightly displaced backwards from Twilight suddenly teleporting away. For minutes that felt like forever her friends looked around worried, Spike apparently not fazed this magical outburst. They knew Twilight liked to teleport, but only Spike saw it happen often enough to know better. She never left the castle anymore, but the girls always fretted when she did this. She'd be back shortly.

Fluttershy squeaked in equal parts surprise and terror when Twilight came back in a blinding flash of dark-purple light, followed by the strange noise teleportation always created, only it was much more harrowing. As if sensing that fear from the yellow Pegasus, Twilight leant near her and whispered. "Don't be afraid, Shy, it's just the air being displaced as the teleportation spell moves faster than the speed of sound and tears through the sound barrier quicker than it usually allows, which is usually two-thousand-two-hundred-and-fifty-seven hoofsteps per second."

Departing that knowledge with the barest hint of a hug, Twilight moved back to the exact spot where she'd been sitting when they came in. Thankfully the shards of ceramic had all been picked up and the tea cleaned away, so she sat unimpeded. Applejack walked over to her and pulled some plasters, herbal ointment, and dressing from her pack she'd brought along; softly lifting Twilights hooves and placing the appropriate sized bandages over the cuts after dabbing them with the remedy. Twilight understood what the farmhand was doing and stood up briefly so Applejack could dab a particularly large furrow, wiping away the drying blood and wrapping it around with the clean dressing.

"Thanks, AJ." Twilight smiled, sitting back down in her spot. Applejack nodded, not surprised by now Twi knew it was her, even if she was usually the one that brought spare medical supplies along with Shy. Twilight had a sense of each of them, and knew their scents, as it were. She remembered Twilight telling her she smelled of apples and freshly tilled soil, she'd laughed then. It still amused her now, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"How about we move on through to the throne room?" Spike asked as he came over and carefully ran a brush though Twilights mane. "We can bring the cake with us."

The Alicorn gave a curt nod, getting to her hooves. She seemed reluctant to leave her spot, but she did so anyway, shuddering slightly as she began to walk. The girls paced with her, careful not to get too close but keep a watchful eye over the mare. She seemed quite distracted as they went through the halls, moving her head this way and that, she was twitching nervously, more so than usual. Rarity stepped up alongside her, igniting her horn in a faint blue aura. She'd spend a long time learning this spell specifically to help Twilight and it had been very difficult as making spells was not as simple as learning one and using it, or using a spell that came naturally like telekinesis.

She'd hired Sunburst from the Crystal Empire to teach her on the nuances of it as he'd made a few spells in his time as a Crystaller. He'd tried to offer his services for free as it was for a dear friend, but Rarity still paid him a modest stipend anyway. It'd taken so many months of training, and she'd even foregone taking part in numerous pageants and creating new lines for her dressmaking, but she'd succeeded. The glow emitting from her horn was a sort of warding spell, she'd pieced it together from old zebra writings and general knowledge from Sunburst, the effect was a soothing protective field around her, extended over a small surface area. It was incredibly taxing on her energy, but the effect was almost instant and worth the effort.

Twilight sighed in pure bliss as unseen to their senses, the creeping scuttling hordes were shortly forced away from everything within the field. It didn't stop much else though; things still sounded awful, the noise Rarity's horn was making was still creepily faded out and tinny, she could still hear the creatures inside her and everypony else that couldn't be gotten rid of, but it was better. The Princess moved over to the fashionista and gently leaned against her in way of thanks as they walked towards the throne room.

Twilight knew the spell couldn't last forever, but she was going to be much happier until the time it had to end. She tried not to think about when the invasive parasites would come skittering back to feast of them all.