Author's Note
You know who I am. You know what it is I write for this website. And consequently, you know those stories to be happy, to be fun, emotional and fulfilling tales of love and passion. You know those stories quite well.
This is not one of those stories.
This is a foray into thinking that happens when the lights flicker on a quiet, cold night at home. When the creaks in the room sound from a corner you don't think should make that sound. When your heart trembles when the question of "what if" becomes a reality. If you wish to stop here, I won't fault you. But if you press on, just remember:
You were warned.
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Why We Forget
Twilight Sparkle was many things.
She was a scholar, educated, and knowledgeable in things not just academic, but in social, economic, metaphysical, even Chaotic fields. One needed to have an expansive knowledge if you were going to hold a title as Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship all in one body. Sure, she had the occasional lapse in judgment or awareness at times, but those were learning experiences. So she might’ve danced like a complete goofball at a birthday party, or maybe mind-controlled the whole town of Ponyville over a faux friendship report. She learned!
The alicorn was also courageous. She had to be, in order to face down the many terrors that besieged the town she’d come to consider her home. Born in Canterlot or not, one couldn’t have a fond attachment for the place that had given so much to her: her newfound friendships with her fellow Elements, the townsfolk, and so many ponies and creatures beyond its borders. It was for them that she braved terrors like Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Tirek on and on. No matter how terrified she was of the monsters threatening the world, somepony had to stand up to do what was right.
Only now...she was dealing with something she could never have foreseen. Never could have been warned about. All alone in a darkness she never knew was there.
The day had begun simple enough: morning breakfast with Spike and Starlight, checking in on the upcoming classes at the school. It was an easy day for her, a break day since many of her duties had been allocated to her friends and fellow teachers. The break would allow her to wander the town, foregoing Spike’s company so even he could enjoy a labor-free day as well. The youthful drake took to it gladly, retiring to his abode for comics and snacks aplenty to relish in. Twilight settled for a walk among the markets, maybe a bit of shopping for the sake of shopping. Rarity used that excuse aplenty in her spare time, whether she needed to or not.
“Good morning, Princess Twilight!” Roseluck said from her flower shop. She’d just settled in some fresh plants, colorful bouquets looking delectable and delightful in their wrapped paper.
“Morning, Roseluck! Happy to see those new flowers have come in!” she called back before carrying on. She might have to stop by on her way back in to see about buying a set. There was a Fall dance tradition schools often practiced, and some particular flowers would do well with decorating. It would make for a great social interaction system if she made the flowers coordinate with particular interests in dancing, or social relationships maybe!
And Rarity teased her about not learning social cues.
“Maybe you’ll be surprised, Rarity,” Twilight told herself before turning to walk towards the town square. It was a route she consistently followed on her walks for a light bit of exercise. Celestia might have been blessed with a larger than life figure, but considering she was still her normal stature, the newly-turned alicorn was going to need to continue the exercise in light of all the parties and social gatherings that didn’t quite serve “healthy” foods for the attendees. Only Pinkie could ingest that much sugar content and not look bad for it.
A buzzing noise went off in her ear, causing Twilight to whip her head side to side. It must’ve been a fly or bug. She sometimes had them fly by when she was walking...wait. Twilight frowned. Where was she walking to? She knew this route. This was her regular route. To go around Ponyville.
Another buzzing sound whipped behind her. Twilight’s hooves stopped in their tracks, digging into the earth before she turned about, looking up at the sky. Was there some sort of bee migration going on? A fly infestation? She couldn’t remember. It didn’t sound right. It was...heavier. Louder than the normal. But she wasn’t going this way and running into them all the time...right? Her mind itched, stretching for a memory like what was transpiring. But there was nothing there. To any normal pony, they’d just think they’ve forgotten, but to Twilight, it was akin to a slap in the face.
The buzzing noise returned a third time. She could smell something putrid in the air. The instinct of self-protection came upon her, and with a burst of magic, Twilight pushed out in all directions away from her. Being so in tune with her magic, to Twilight, the spell force was like one giant sweep of her hoof around and about her body, swiping at anything it came into contact with. Being in the middle of a town square, it rustled the earth beneath her and beside her, the air above her head whipping about in a light gust.
And then it hit something wet, but solid. Twilight’s whole body froze on contact. Whatever was behind her felt irrevocably, inconceivably wrong. It was behind her left side, and she turned and gazed up with eyes that widened at what they beheld.
It had wings like a fly’s, the same coloring and semi-transparent material that shaped the insect’s wings. But it was larger, much larger, enough so that a smaller second set also buzzed beneath them. They explained the buzzing sound she heard before, but the creature they were attached to was unlike anything she’d ever witnessed. Four eyes, solid red and positioned in a diamond design, glared at her in an unblinking stare. Its face was horrid, blackened, and wide with dirt, mucus, and slime that trailed over a stretched thin face. It wasn’t a pony’s face, not anymore: it was too stretched, too wide. The other features of it were lost in the terror of beholding a waving, wet appendage that either worked as its mouth or as an extension of it, bobbing towards her as it hovered closer.
Instinct lashed out, her horn glowing alight before she shot a bolt at the monstrosity, the spell arcing over its head as it ducked. The clearly directed assault upon it seemed to communicate plenty where words did not, as the monstrous insect flew away and down a nearby alley.
“C-come back here!” Twilight’s declaration lacked some of the bravado she’d hoped to muster, but the facts were clear: something foul was loose in Ponyville, and it knew it could be harmed by her magic. Her horn stayed primed as she flew after the creature, listening for it’s buzzing and turning this way and that to follow.
It tried to lose her in the alleys, zipping back and forth, but the fog that had overcome Twilight before was gone now, mental clarity primed. She could outfly the bug by guiding it down the right long alleyway, past the residential sector, and out into the open town square again. It took two tries, the bug trying to avoid the open air as she gave pursuit. But her knowledge won out and drove the insect from its hiding finally to emerge into the open. She expected to hear cries of shock or terror from any civilians walking in the area. It was the middle of the day, so the market would be full of ponies, yet not one cry was heard.
Twilight came to a stop when the bug finally seemed to realize it was cornered, hovering before the water fountain and maintaining its position. The alicorn had to resist the grimace that came to her face on seeing its features again. The torso was like a blob, a muddy green, and black but with the limbs being tiny and almost purposeless on its disproportionate form. It was just plain wrong.
“I’ve got you now...whatever you are.” Her horn’s glow intensified as she prepared to blast whatever this bug was out of the town. The rest of the populace must’ve been watching in shock, it was the only reason she could explain for it being so quiet despite all the noise she and the creature had made. The intruder didn’t budge, staying put as Twilight mustered the will needed for her magic.
“Now, now. That’s quite enough.”
The voice cut through Twilight’s being, making her stumble and the spell to dissipate from her grasp. It was like being caught by a moving cart inside her brain, jumbled and with the force of a battering ram. Twilight shook her head and regained her bearings, glaring at the creature still watching her.
“Was that you? If you can talk, speak up now and tell me what you’re doing here! What are you?” She questioned.
“He’s hardly going to answer you. They lost the capacity for speech long ago.”
“Then whoever is speaking!” She retorted. “If you’re this...thing’s, owner. Or master, or whatever! It tried to do...something to a Princess of Equestria!” Twilight’s lessons with her brother on commanding authority rang in her ears: chest puffed out and hooves firm to the ground, defiant to your opponent. “Show yourself!”
“Well, if the Princess must so insist.”
Shadows suddenly rose from every direction around Twilight, making her flinch and look about as the entirety of her world became utter darkness. The pitch-black nothingness encompassing her vision remained for a few moments before slowly peeling away, coalescing into shape in front of the fountain. Despite the sun shining above her head and the weather being clear, the world still seemed...bleaker in the wake of the entity’s reveal. Shadows took shape and formed around it, revealing a long, slender shape that stood on two legs. It towered over Twilight with ease, almost tall enough to match the spray of the fountain behind it.
The shadows that crisscrossed over its form stayed pitch black but almost appeared to pulse with some sort of tandem or rhythm to them. If it was akin to a heartbeat, she’d say the creature’s heart was at risk of collapsing, but it bore no difficulty or strain in front of her. They writhed and slid about it, two solid masses crossing over what she guessed was its middle before her gaze rose higher. Its face made the hairs on the back of her neck rise, for there was no face to stare back at her. The only metaphor she could compare it to was a mannequin’s head, colored pale white with lumps and odd shapes where one might imagine a pair of ears or a nose to go. Its eyes were slits of red, narrow, and cut across the face with no eyebrows above them.
“Ask and you shall receive, your majesty.” The entity said, getting Twilight to stop staring and to put her perspective back on the moment at hoof. Why wasn’t anypony screaming? Why did nopony run away, why were they just carrying on as if there was no ethereal monster right here in the town square?!
“W-what is this? What are you?!” Twilight demanded.
“Indeed, what am I? I've been alive for so long, it's hard to trace back my origins. Perhaps I am a remnant of what once was,” The entity replied. No mouth moved to vocalize the words, but they rang plenty loud in Twilight’s ears and her mind. Its voice was old, raspy, and absolutely worn, almost like an elder that hadn't spoken in years and could barely remember how to talk.
“What's happening?! Why is no one reacting to you or those atrocities?!” She questioned once more.
“A strange anomaly. Our forms should not be seen. Our voices should not be heard. And yet you...” The entity’s eye-slits stretched a little further on either side as if to examine the alicorn. “You and I speak in the same space. How peculiar.”
“Peculiar barely describes it,” Twilight said, taking two steps back to keep distance between her and the monster before her. Her attention returned to the floating creature beside him. “What is this...thing? What was it doing here?”
“Worry not. The poor dear has grown starved and gorged itself too much.” The entity’s shadowy form reached out to it with a long, gangly limb, elongated fingers ending in sharpened pinpricks hovering just under the creature’s floating body. “Run along now. Return with your siblings.” The shoo-ing motion the entity made caused the grotesque creature to fly away, prompting Twilight to start after it before he spoke again, making her stop. “They don't hurt anyone. They never have. Just aimlessly wandering with the swarm in search of food.”
“Swarm?” Twilight repeated before her eyes followed where the fly monster had gone. Her heart lurched and her stomach turned as she became aware of more and more of the things flying around them. Two, then five, then ten she could count. There were likely more going around past what she could see in the town. All of them floating or hanging about innocent bystanders, all carrying on with little awareness or heed of the terrors just above them. “Oh, Celestia, I can't--I can't breathe! This can't be real! How could this exist? Why do you exist?! How is any of this possible!?” She rambled, pulling at her mane to try and make sense out of things.
“So many questions. Quite the inquisitive one you are, Twilight Sparkle,” The entity said before bending back, parking itself on the fountain’s stone. Her eyes darted back to it in alarm at the sound of her name, which made the creature chuckle. The deep rumble she felt in her chest and barrel could only be attributed to it. “Oh, yes. I know your name. I've known you ever since you were so tiny.”
Her body quivered. The thought that this invisible monstrosity had been watching her all this time made caused anxiety and vulnerability to spike. “And what’s your name? Do you even have one?”
“We have no use for names. No one to share them with. No one who could recognize us. Though I suppose it would be easier for you to address me with something. Let me think... hmm.” the entity’s fingertips tapped the lower end of its face, which Twilight would call a chin if there even was such a thing there, “I know. Call me...Delirium.”
“Ok. Delirium.” Twilight repeated. Stick to the facts of the situation, and you keep your ground, she told herself. “You said these creatures don’t harm anypony. They don’t exactly look safe, to me. What are they? And you, for that matter?”
“We have not the time to fulfill all of your curiosity, not before you’d forget where we started or where we could end.” Delirium answered before gesturing at the farther away creatures, “Their forms may be quite grotesque, I know. We have none to compare it to. None ever see us. None know of us. If I were to give them a name, I would call them...Recollectors. Yes. Recollectors, to use your wording.”
“What are these Recollectors doing?”
“Why, they are here to eat memories, Princess.”
“Eat memories?!”
“Yes. Your kind devours things you call...sweets. Flowers. Vegetables.” The words sounded so alien coming from him, as if it were the first time. “We dine upon memories for our existence. All of memory. From the very first to the very last. The young to the old.” His eyes seemed to glow a little. “They all taste exquisite.”
“How is that not harmful?!!” She declared. “Eating memories, are you insane?! That’s an attack upon a pony’s well-being!”
“You forget what I told you already. No harm is rendered upon your fellow mortals. No being is given injury or forced into pain.” It made a sweeping gesture about itself at the town. “Were we to be so merciless and destructive as you’d claim, perhaps we’d have met long ago.”
“How is eating memories not harmful? Those memories belong to us! Not to you!” Twilight declared.
“You presume I keep them all for myself?”
“Yes! Aren’t you?”
“The truth is far simpler. I have no concept of wealth or greed. I am no dragon. The few I keep are...unique, to me. I have no need to explain it to the likes of you. Only to share that I do so. Hardly a crime when nothing is taken that no one remembers.”
“We don’t steal them from unsuspecting others.” Twilight insisted. “Give me one good reason not to get rid of all of you right now!”
“I have no reason to give for you to not try. Please, by all means.” Delirium lifted up slightly, his form becoming exactly upright and straight as his red-slit eyes stared down at her. “I recommend you give your best. To fail would be a disappointment. Just like the rest.”
Twilight called upon her magic, willing every ounce of her might, before she stopped herself and stared at Delirium’s face. He waited, patient, unmoving. The world around them continued to carry on without a care for the staredown between the alicorn and the shadow. Lyra and Bon-Bon trotted by, a singular Recollector floating after them, mandibles clicking and tube-like tongue waving as it flew.
She eased back, but kept her stance at the ready, horn pointed at Delirium’s chest. She guessed it was his chest, at least. The shadowy writhing over his form gave little hint to his biology beyond what she could guess at.
“Change of heart, Princess?”
“...too much collateral damage. You might have, somehow, made us invisible to everypony. But houses and streets being blasted away are hard to miss for anypony.” She reasoned.
“A thinker. You have been since you were a child. Pragmatic. Planning. Persistent.” Delirium noted. “No wonder that Recollector was enamored to try and have a bite. It was like a walking buffet.”
“Please don’t address me as food.”
“Very well.”
“...you said they eat memories. I...felt like he, it, tried to do that. I stopped it. What would have happened if I hadn’t?”
“You would have forgotten. It’s what they do. They eat memories, they survive on them. Scrounging like little scavengers and sniffers. You have so many memories, you ponies do, it’s hard for them to resist. Memorizing all kinds of things: facts, history, recipes, routes, friendships. Names and places and faces. But I assure you, Princess, that they are simply another fact of life you are only now realizing exists. You should be glad to discover something so old, yet so new.”
“Not if that discovery is harmful to ponies under our care.”
“The barons of war and strife would beg to differ.”
“So they eat memories. Do those memories come back?” She persisted.
“Tis the nature of memories to be remembered. They grow, fresh and pure in the mind of a pony beset upon committing their learnings to be remembered. Those memories are polished, nurtured, admired by others. And when they’re ripe and ready,” Delirium brought a gnarled hand up, palm facing upwards before his extended fingers pinched together, “we pluck them. Tug them free of their mental vines and take them for our sustenance. A small fee for life. And even better, in the empty branch’s stead, a new memory grows in its place. The cycle carries on, forevermore, until it can no longer. When it inevitably dies.”
“...we’re like trees to you. Crops.” Twilight summarized.
“If you must see it that way. But there is more to this than just endless devouring.” Delirium told her, “Without me, without us, there is no remembrance. No growing that memory again to fruition. We pluck all memories: the happy, the sad, the bitter, the angry, the anxious, the depressed. Each their own flavor, each their own piece to be savored.” The hunger in Delirium’s voice made Twilight shiver and take a step back as he continued. “Is it not a blessing to these creatures, to be allowed to forget? To let go of their pain, their misery, and thrive in happiness as they bumble on their way?”
The alicorn stayed quiet for a moment, contemplating Delirium’s words. “You make it sound nice. But you’re still consuming memories.” She said.
Delirium brought his hand to his face, the sharpened tips scraping the bottom of his face again. “Perhaps...a demonstration. Yes.” His head swiveled, a creaking sound emanating from his neck and making Twilight wince before he zeroed in on one of the ponies going by, ignorant to their conversation and in fact their entire presence. Twilight followed his gaze and saw Derpy on her mail route, the saddlebag of envelopes wobbling against her side as she flew. Her pace was normal as ever, but the alicorn watched as Derpy seemed to slow down as she passed by them. Delirium’s hand reached out towards her, stretched black fingers aimed for her head.
“Stop!” Twilight yelled.
He did not even slow, his limb coming to rest atop the pegasus’ head. From there, a dark miasma seemed to leak from his fingers, seeping into the blonde pegasus through her ears. Twilight twitched in place before flapping frantically to move in front of Derpy. The mare’s face was scrunched up, all but ignorant of the seeming malevolence taking hold of her.
“This little one has had so many moments...such bitter memories. Such a burden on her soul.” Delirium noted. “But suppose we pluck some of them free. We lessen her load.” His fingers twitched, and Twilight saw Derpy’s eyes slowly blink before a bright orb was pulled out from the side of her head, Delirium’s fingers pinching onto it tightly before pulling back. As soon as he withdrew, Derpy’s pace resumed and Twilight had to duck to avoid being hit by the mare. She listened for any pain, any sort of cry, but nothing came forward.
“Ahh…” the sigh that came from Delirium brought the alicorn back to the moment, and it took a great deal of will to not turn sickly. The dark entity had brought the orb to his face, and...something was sucking it into himself. She saw no limb, no orifice, just the satisfied sound from the being tore Twilight’s insides apart into a shambling mess. It was the sound of satiated hunger. “Tell me, Twilight; was there any pain in the pony? I remember her. Her wandering eyes. Always looking, but never quite seeing what’s truly there.”
“What memory did you consume?” She questioned.
“The memory of a lost lover. Abandoned. Forgotten and left to wither on her own.” Delirium answered. “And you call me the monster? She no longer has it buried inside her consciousness, it doesn’t weigh her down. Who knows? Without it to nip at her hooves, she could become lighter, happier. New memories can take place. Perhaps one even sweeter.” His eyes glowed again. “And then I’ll return. And pluck them once again. Every. Last. One.”
Delirium stood up and approached Twilight, his limbs folding behind his back as he stared down at her. The red slits shimmered a little before angling themselves diagonally, still watching her. “You can hardly call such charity harm when I relieve you of your worst moments. Is it not better to forget than to cling to such hurt?”
Twilight was quiet for several moments, her mind trying to absorb all she was seeing and learning on this day. One moment she was just enjoying a day off; the next, she was meeting an otherworldly demon whose entire presence seemed to warp everything she understood. But his question brought clarity to her fog, and Twilight frowned up at him.
“No. It isn’t.”
“Do tell how.”
“We’re not defined by only happy memories. We’re defined by every memory we have. You taking it away from us might make some of that pain go away, sure. But we lose what we learned from it. Those memories teach us, help us. It’s easier to forget, but if we forget, how do we grow? How do we learn?”
Delirium stayed quiet as Twilight continued. The light buzzing in the background had dimmed some; perhaps the Recollectors had moved away from their master for now. “You can spin it however you want, but at the end of the day, you’re using us as livestock for your own greed. That’s all we are to you, like this. You’re not helping us by treating us this way. You’re keeping us corralled and stuck in an endless loop of forgetting and remembering, all while you sit back and eat.”
There was a twitch in Delirium’s form, running along his right side and making his arm shake. But it stopped when her eyes looked to it before she returned her stare to his face.
“Friendship is stronger than the hurt that comes with memories. Because friendship endures the pain with whoever suffers. We’re made better because we stand together.” Twilight finished, exhaling afterward. “So no, Delirium. You’re still causing harm. I don’t know how. I don’t know yet. But I’m not going to stand for this.”
There was quiet for a few moments after that, Twilight counting the seconds as the red eyes of the entity stared at her. When a sound finally came from Delirium, Twilight had been expecting snark or some kind of vocal rejection of her words. She wasn’t prepared for a grating, awful sound to start building in her ears. It wasn’t the buzz of the Recollectors, but something harsher, louder, like violin strings, pulled too taut as the musician savagely played across them. It became scratchier, rougher as the volume built. Twilight’s hoof came to her ear, then the other as well but the sound continued to build.
“Friendship?” Delirium’s voice cut through the noise before the harsh sound doubled, and Twilight stumbled in place. She looked up, and saw Delirium’s body shaking as he clutched at his chest. With horror in her heart, she realized the terrible sound was Delirium’s laughter, biting at her lungs and making her whole body shake. “Friendship? That little fledgling power you think is so mighty to you mortals. Your ability to persist, to stay in companionship against adversity. What do you think makes it so grand? You mock me! You humor me!” He surged forward, and Twilight couldn’t help but cower in his shadow. He stopped just before her, towering over her as she was left cold under his shadow. “Friendship. All smiles and joy. I am full of joy, dear Princess, that aplenty. The joy of discovered love, the joy of success, and labor. All taken from ponies, older than this town, older than your books can remember. So many lives, oh regal Princess. But lest I forget; a smile is needed to show friendship. My kind is not one to smile. But we shall indulge you.”
Twilight was left to stare as Delirium’s fingers reached for his own face. The red slits of his eyes never left her gaze, his stare unbreaking as they dragged against the lower half of his face. It was like they were searching for his mouth, but he had none. And then they dug in. They tore and scratched and pulled, flecks of white being tossed away by fevered motions. Twilight’s heart plunged when they moved away, and she could see his face plainly again. A jagged, rough line had been torn along his face where his fingers had dug, and it parted to form a jagged, toothy grin that promised nothing but agony. A black goop dripped from his fingers and the holes between the newly torn lips, their shape uneven from the frenzied effort.
“See my smile, dear Twilight. Am I not a friend? Am I not a friend to all who suffer? I, who devour their terrors, their sorrows. But also their joys, their happiness, for why should only they bask in its glow? Why should such selfishness persist when friendship,” he spat the word out, making her wince, “would beckon us all to share? Well, Princess? Defend your claim. Speak now. Speak for the ones who have faded, the friends you claim to hold dear to you. The ponies who are forever gone from memory.”
“W-what do you mean, gone from memory? You said you allowed memories to regrow!” She replied.
“I allow it. I do not enforce it, foolish girl. Do you think you are the first to stumble upon me? To find the frayed edges of your reality and stumble into my realm?” The harsh noise of his laughter dug into her very spirit, tears welling in the corners of her eyes but she held firm. “You are naive to think me so charitable. You, who holds a place among the fates, cannot be so easily done away with. But the forgotten? The neglected? They who were abandoned by your precious friendships and left to the shadows? Oh, they were such delicious morsels. They struggled. They fled. But none can escape me. None ever shall.”
“You...y-you monster. What did you do with them? Who did you kill?!”
“Your belief that death is so final is endearing. Death is kindness compared to myself. We fed upon them, tearing every scrap of memory they had within them from their wailing spirits, and when their husk gave no more, they were remade. Reborn, with a new purpose. To spare others the pain they suffered, to guard them against their fate.” His clawed hand swept out to the side, as a mass of the Recollectors flew overhead. “Why not allow them to wander where they once could walk? A kindness; courtesy of my will.”
Dread came to Twilight as she connected the dots of what he was laying before her. “...oh Celestia no.”
“She of the Sun will not help you here, nor can she help them. They are forever stricken from your world and serve in mine. Newfound purpose, with the old gone and forgotten.” Delirium said before lowering his hand to his side. The red slits on his face continued to glare at her, while the black ooze still flowed from his torn makeshift mouth.
“I have to stop you. This stops here.” Twilight declared. She mustered her courage, her horn glowing as her magic encompassed her very being. “I am a Princess of Equestria, one of her defenders! The Element of Magic! I’ve faced tyrants like you before; Tirek was more threatening than some stickman with flies!” Her horn surged with heat as she summoned the spell from before again, intent on unleashing it on the monster before her. She would have to aim high, but his height would help her in that regard.
“You may try, child. But Tirek and his ilk are mere pawns compared to me. He sought to consume magic. Such a vapid mindset.” Delirium boasted, unyielding despite her building magic. His hand rose from his side and gestured at her with outstretched fingers. “Ah...I feel his memory in your mind. Anger. Terror. Sorrow. He destroyed your beloved home. He didn’t know he’d awake such a beast of might in his assault, did he?”
“He didn’t. And neither do you, buster!” Twilight exclaimed before throwing her head back and then pushing all of her might forward and out at the entity. It built and swelled, preparing to explode out in one focused blast. If she could move him away from the populated areas at least, it would let her cut loose all the more. If her magic would...her magic…
Twilight’s eyes shot open as the aura surrounding her dimmed and then faded away. It was like she was deflating all at once, making her sputter as her horn went from glowing hot to cold in seconds. She pushed, trying to will it forward again, but it sparked and went silent. There was a glow still in her vision that made her cover her eyes until it dimmed enough, leaving her to stare in horror before the sight of the large orb now in Delirium’s grasp. Clawed fingers held onto the orb tight as he spoke.
“Element of Magic indeed. Such a vast memory. So many learned spells. So many uses. All the practice, the refinement, the trial, and error.” Delirium taunted. “But tell me; what good is a Princess, an Element, when she cannot recall her very being?”
“W-what? But...how?” She stammered out. Again and again, she tried to bring it forward, her pool of strength, but nothing rose forward. Her muscles in her forelegs clenched and unclenched, her teeth grit as she tried and tried. But nothing would come forward. It was gone from her. A core piece of her very self, missing. “What did you do?”
“Why allow myself to become target practice for the likes of you, if you cannot even remember your magic, dear Princess?” Delirium replied. “We fear nothing. We remember pain. Arrogance. You think your magic is powerful, your faith so profound. I took it away from you. Tell us: is it tragic? Terrifying? Imagine your body forgetting the function of its horn. Or better yet, why imagine?”
“B-but my horn is...m-my horn…” Twilight stammered out. Terror gripped her as she reached up to her forehead, searching, growing more feverish as the very protruding construct was gone from the top of her head. But it had to be there! She knew it was there! She was Twilight Sparkle! The alicorn! She had to get away from here, she couldn’t win against something like this! Her body shook and fumbled for the ground, but it was like her limbs were fading. Where she could once feel her hind legs and forelegs, now rested only air in her mind’s awareness. She crumpled to a heap on the ground at the feet of Delirium, tears of fright pouring unbidden from her eyes as she stared up at him.
“You foolish child. You challenge me, insult my process, with your limited awareness of existence. Yet in but one motion, I take away those very pillars of might you cling so desperately to, and look how you fall. Why, the very air in your lungs is wasted in such a pathetic fool!” Delirium’s outstretched hand reached for her, hovering just over her prone form. The shadow of his limb seemed to grow overtop her, and the air around her grew weaker, fading away. Wordless, Twilight tried to clutch at her throat and chest, desperate to breathe. No matter how hard she struggled, her wings flailing in panic, no break came. The darkness grew at the corner of her eyes, and she shut them to utter a final prayer of mercy to anyone, anything who would get her out of here.
“See how you teeter on the very edge. You are beholden to Death, seated right at his very doorstep by my hand. The arrogance of mortals always crumbles when his scythe comes reaping. You can feel that final breath in your lungs fading, your body failing because I will it so. Because I make it so. Because in the end, Twilight Sparkle, no matter what fate befalls you, I will never taste his metal. I exist forevermore, and you will all continue to forever be nothing more than sustenance.”
Twilight’s consciousness was slipping, but every time she felt herself weaken, some sort of force would keep her in the present, awake and aware yet encompassed in dread. It was torture, and she felt no greater yearning than for one more breath of air, to breathe in life again. She clung to the thought, the sole light amidst the darkness surrounding her.
And suddenly, the pressure was gone. Rejuvenation surged into Twilight, and she spluttered on the ground, coughing and hacking as she gulped in deep breaths of air. She could feel her hooves again, pawing at her chest and holding onto it as she regained her bearings. The darkness that had been encompassing her faded away, leaving her still in the town square, still before the wrathful entity that towered over her.
She didn’t speak as she gazed up at him, feeling a stilled spark come to life within her as her faculties returned to her.
“Defiant. Even in the darkness. But perhaps...that is why you must persist. I could have ended you, Twilight Sparkle. But I choose not to. Not this time.” Delirium’s torn mouth was gone, sealed away again perhaps by his own power. “You experience my mercy. Be grateful.”
“...not to a monster like you. Never.” Her voice rasped out, weaker but still present.
“It is a shame. Were you more agreeable, I’d be willing to let you remember this day. To have this memory of our meeting so you can forever remember why you ponies forget. Why it is necessary for me to exist. But you are too stubborn. Too set in your ways. And so, I will undo this day of yours, Princess Twilight. You will never have met me. You will carry on with your tedious little life.” Twilight felt her body be picked up, left to hover before Delirium’s face, and stare right into the red slits of his eyes. They suddenly tore open, becoming giant pools of red that glowed and filled her vision.
“You. Will. FORGET.”
Twilight Sparkle jolted awake with a start on the bench she was resting on. Her whole body was limp, allowing only her neck to move at first before the rest of her came to consciousness again. A couple of stretches made her hind leg pop as well as her wings before she settled again, looking about the area. The town square was empty save for a few passerby ponies going on their way. Rubbing at her cheek, the alicorn tried to recall what led to her needing a sudden nap in the sun on the bench like that. But it was her day off, so, maybe such a thing was warranted.
The afternoon sun was still overhead, which told her she still had plenty of time to act. Getting up from the bench and walking in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, Twilight reasoned that maybe a snack would help pick her up and get some more energy going for her to use. Nothing wrong with a little dessert for a Princess.
FORGET.
Twilight gave a jump as her mind spontaneously felt an echo within itself. She didn’t know where it came from. Nothing she knew of ever sounded like that. Maybe she was just imagining things from a dream she’d left behind. The alicorn shook her head and focused again, trotting down a familiar path to find Sugarcube Corner. Maybe it’ll come back to her later on tonight.
...now if she could just figure out where that buzzing was coming from.
