“Let me in!!”

“Twilight, you’ve never even been in this school.“

“Yes I have!! I’m Princess Celestia’s prized student!! SHE TOLD ME THAT I BELONG HERE!!!!”

“Twilight, you’re going crazy. This isn’t like you.”

…

“The Summer Sun Celebration was destiny!! I was born to study under her!! I will become the most powerful unicorn in Equestria!!”

“Twilight, you will not go back to that school. And that is final.”

“But momma-“

“Do you understand me, young mare?!”

“Yes…”

…

“Your sister’s getting worse, Shining. I don’t know how much longer we can tolerate this. She’s practically visiting that school every day. What if she hurts somepony?”

“It’ll be fine, Mom. I know Twily. She would never hurt anypony. It’s probably just another phase. She’ll grow out of it.”

“If you’re sure…”

…

“YOU WILL NOT DENY ME MY DESTINY!!!!!”

“Twilight, no!!”

“Twilight!!”

“I AM THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC!!! I WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE WITH PRINCESS CELESTIA!! AND I WILL SHOW YOU PONIES HOW POWERFUL I REALLY AM!!!!”

“NOOOOO!!!!”

“MOON DANCER, NO!!”

“GET AWAY FROM HE-AGHHHHHH!!!!!”

“MOON DANCER!!!!!”

“Minuette, get Mrs. Honey!! Hurry-“

“NO!!”

“YOU’RE EVIL!!!! YOU’RE TRYING TO CONTROL MEEEE!!!!!!!!”

“No!!”

“STOP!!!!”

…

“Freeze!!!! Come out with your hooves up!!”

“STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!”

“Get Moon Dancer to an ambulance now!! She’s losing blood fast!!”

“Oh my Celestia…her entire right hoof has been fractured…”

“You’re under ARREST!!!”

“Let me GO!!!!!”

“RESISTING!!!”

…

“Captain, we need the prognosis.”

“…Captain…?”

“Twily…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

…

“Mrs. Sparkle, I’m sorry,” Doctor Rose said in a somber voice, dropping the files onto his desk. “But we cannot bring ourselves to release your daughter. After conducting a thorough mental evaluation, we’ve determined the source of her attack to be grandiose delusions, compounded by a rare form of obsessive, compulsive personality disorder.”

“Surely there’s something else you can do,” Twilight Velvet begged, stroking young Twilight’s blue and pink mane. The filly was sitting on her mother’s lap, eyes red from crying. She was in a green hospital gown with a grey sheath around her horn. They called it a horn limiter. “There’s no programs? Anything?”

Doctor Rose shook his head. “Her release was conditional on the evaluation, and we believe our resources are far better suited to treat her than those horrible social programs.” He sighed deeply. “They haven’t cured a single patient in the hundreds of years since their establishment. And we’d be damned if we threw a filly into prison. This is the only way…”

Tears filled Velvet’s eyes and she hugged her daughter tightly, knowing this likely would be the last time she would ever see her again. Twilight began to cry as well. There was no other way. She had done this. She had crippled several ponies, and her own brother. She couldn’t be trusted.

“I won’t let you go…I won’t…” Velvet repeated over and over, shaking with grief. “I won’t…I won’t…”

Twilight remembered it. She remembered it all. Once she had seen Moon Dancer again, the memories that she had been trying to repress came flooding back to the surface. This time, she had no way to deny it. No way to bury her feelings under a mountain of false stories delusions of grandeur. She was a monster, and she would always be one. She could not change. She could not make things up with the one pony she hurt the most, no matter how hard she tried.

She could still hear the screams, the cries, the roar of magic from her horn as she tore into Moon Dancer’s skull. The cracking of bones and the blood spilled from the fractured hoof. It had happened so many years ago, yet seemed so fresh at the same time. Her head was still pounding as she sat up from the ground, the place she had been content to die on just an hour ago.

She looked around to see where she had run to. It was an abandoned alleyway somewhere in the city. She didn’t know where, but it wasn’t that far from where Moon Dancer’s house was. The Sun was setting over the horizon. Sooner or later, she would have to go home and report her failure to Shining Armor, tell her BBBFF that she had failed and that she would never have friends again. She would never be a normal pony. That time was long gone, and she could never make up for something that would never come again.

All she wanted to do was sit it out and hope her friends would never find her. She wanted nothing more than to say that trying to make amends for the past was a terrible idea, and she should have never agreed to it. It was foolish. What chance did she even have anyway? She was just a freak, nothing more, nothing less.

She didn’t deserve to live.

Now you see the full ramifications of your actions, don’t you? The voice in her head taunted her. You had every pony fooled into thinking you were cured. But one simply does not cure themselves by ignoring their past, do they?

You were right… Twilight thought back, hanging her head low in despair. I couldn’t do this. I hurt Moon Dancer. I’m the reason why she’s like this.

Bingo.

And now you’re going to rub this in my face, aren’t you?

Why would I do that? I only wanted you to own up to everything. You can’t just ask for somepony’s forgiveness after hurting them this badly. Minuette, bless her soul, seems to do it easily. But there’s time and work involved when you do this. As long as you call me evil, as long as you continue to think you can easily resolve your conflicts with just a simple speech about how much you’ve changed, you will continue to be sick.

Well, if you think you know so much, Twilight challenged herself. Tell me what your solution is. What’s your cure?

Own it, Twilight. Face Moon Dancer. Tell her you messed up, but that you don’t expect her forgiveness, nor do you demand it.

Then how does that-

The first step towards deserving something is admitting you don’t deserve that thing.

Oh.

“Twilight?!”

Twilight looked up, her eyes still filled with tears. Her thoughts were interrupted in an instant and she locked eyes with a concerned Minuette, who was running as fast as she could towards her. She skidded to a halt in front of her, exhaling a sigh of relief.

“Minuette…” Twilight realized with a choked sob. She wiped an escaping tear that was streaming down her cheek with her hoof. “I messed up so bad…” She sniffled.

“No,” Minuette replied quickly, shaking her head. “No. No. Don’t even think that. You didn’t say anything wrong. Moon Dancer just…she can’t get over what happened all those years ago, and I don’t blame her. It was awful, but…you were sick, and no one can blame you for that.”

“It sure seems like they can.”

Minuette walked over slowly and sat down next to her. “Do you know why I forgave you so easily? Why all three of us did?”

“Because you didn’t receive the worst of it.” Twilight deduced. “Especially you. You went to go find help, whereas the others were…” She trailed off.

Minuette nodded. “True, but like I said before…I saw in you a genuine desire to be better. You came to my house on your own free will and owned up to everything without a second thought. You knew you did something horrible, but you didn’t let that stop you. You didn’t let that deter you from facing your fears, no matter how much they weighed down on you.”

“Minuette-“

“When I look at you,” she finished. “Twilight Sparkle…I don’t see the sick filly with delusions of grandeur. I see a reformed mare who has had time to reflect and heal. You’ve changed, Twilight. You really have. And Moon Dancer sees that too. It’s just that her lingering trauma prevents her from truly believing it. She’s had so much time to think of the best way to get back at you that she never expected that…you would be the one to try and approach her.”

“It’s too late,” Twilight answered glumly. “She still hates me. And so should you, by the way.”

“Why?”

“Because what’s stopping me from doing it again?!” Twilight snapped, throwing her hooves up into the air. “What’s stopping me from…contracting that disease again mysteriously and going on a rampage?! What if I’m not even cured, but only believe myself to be?!” She shuddered. “What if I truly can’t move on from everything…?”

Minuette took a deep breath. “You’re trapped by your mind. You’ve spent so long blaming yourself for what your disease compelled you to do that you don’t know how to let go. The truth is…it isn’t easy. I spent a long time trying to reconcile what you did too. But eventually I realized…you…weren’t to blame for being sick. It wasn’t you. It was the disorder. And…realizing that made me sympathize with you a lot more. I wanted to say I forgave you, but I’m sure you know how tight communication with the outside world at Broadhoof is.”

Twilight nodded.

“The point is…” Minuette told her, eyes glistening with tears. “You need to believe that you’ve changed. It can’t just be me. You can’t…keep seeing yourself as the sick pony. Otherwise…you’ll never be cured.”

…As long as you continue to think you can easily resolve your conflicts with just a simple speech about how much you’ve changed, you will continue to be sick.

“But I just have so much baggage with Moon Dancer…” Twilight said sadly. “I know I have to face her again, but…would she even accept my apology…?”

Minuette smiled. “I’m sure she wouldn’t accept it any less than the way I did. You just gotta find the right way to approach it. Don’t ask for forgiveness. Just say you’re sorry and…give her time. Sometimes, ponies need time to forgive. But you’re not wrong for reaching out regardless.”

The first step towards deserving something is admitting you don’t deserve that thing.

It was at that moment that Twilight realized something. All of this advice that Minuette was giving her…was advice that she already knew. The voice in her head wasn’t an alter ego or an evil shadow. It was her conscience parroting everything she already knew back at her. Because of her Ponyville delusions, she had more than several years worth of friendship lessons up her belt that she had made up within her own mind. She knew what it was like to be a good friend. The voice was the repressed half of her, the fake Twilight that existed only within her mind. The Element of Magic, and savior of Equestria. It was begging to be acknowledged. She couldn’t deny that part of her anymore. It was just as much a part of her now as her real life was.

Perhaps the key to finally curing herself for good wasn’t just letting go of the past and her false life…but embracing and making peace with it, while also moving forward with her real life. The path towards self-healing involved acknowledging your mistakes as a part of you, and using it to better yourself in the process. Whether she liked it or not, Twilight was still sick; not from any sort of disease or mental illness anymore, but from her own mental and emotional baggage.

And the only way to cure herself was to finally complete her mission.

“Hey…are you ready to join us again?” Minuette asked her hopefully.

Twilight stood up, getting to her hooves and taking a deep breath. “Yeah. I think I know what to say. But we’re gonna need to do it fast before Mom and Shining Armor get home.”

The door to Moon Dancer’s house slammed open. The other ponies turned at once, startled, only relaxing once they saw Twilight and Minuette on the other side of it, panting from exhaustion. They looked like they had run a long time, even though it had only been a couple blocks.

“There you two are!” all three ponies exclaimed. Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine washed no time in running towards them and hugging them both, only letting go after a few minutes. Tears of happiness streamed down their faces and they sobbed as they expressed their gratitude that their friends were alive and well.

“We were so worried!!” Twinkleshine added, checking Twilight all over from head to hoof. “We thought you left Canterlot or something!”

“Or worse! Gone back to Broadhoof!” Lemon Hearts exclaimed in a panic. “Don’t ever do that again, okay?! We just got you back!”

Twilight watched them all go nuts over her silently, taking in their concern and their fear. They were genuinely worried about her. They cared for her. They considered her a friend. In spite of everything she had done, they had no problem accepting her as one of them again. Even Moon Dancer looked relieved, standing near the doorway and giving a small smile of her own. Despite her negative feelings towards Twilight, she was concerned for her safety as well, and didn’t want her to be hurt.

“Don’t worry,” Minuette assured them, giving a reassuring smile. “We’re okay. Twilight wasn’t far. She just ran towards an alleyway. We’re here now.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Moon Dancer replied grimly, her smile evaporating and being replaced by an angry scowl. “You had us worried sick, Twilight. First you randomly show up to my house with zero explanation after years of being locked away in a loony bin to do I don’t know what, and then you run away for several hours, forcing one of us to come look for you?! What the hay is your problem?!”

Twilight sighed deeply. This was the moment that this whole day had been building towards, and she could not mess it up. She took a step forward, her heart racing as she finally faced the pony she had multilated and maimed many years ago. Moon Dancer was the embodiment of her past, her mistakes, her greatest fears. And now she was finally facing them with her true friends by her side.

She was taking the leap.

“Moon Dancer…” Twilight stated solemnly. “I hurt you. I’m the reason why you’re crippled, got your hoof amputated, everything. I remember it all, and I know you do too. I did all this and you didn’t do a thing to me except try to be my friend. I was so caught up in my delusional thinking, so lost in my own illness that…I lost control of myself. And I did something to you that can never be reversed, never be forgotten. You have every right to be mad at me.”

Moon Dancer blinked twice in surprise, seemingly never expecting an apology like this. Her stern expression was still there, but it was beginning to melt slowly. She was listening. Encouraged by this nonverbal response, Twilight continued.

“For the longest time,” she continued, tears appearing at the corners of her eyes. “My greatest fear was…facing you, owning up to what I did as a filly and telling you…I’m sorry…I was awful to you and you never deserved this. I don’t think I deserve your forgiveness, nor do I think you would believe it if I just said I changed.”

Moon Dancer’s anger had completely evaporated at this point and in the place of her stern and tough demeanor was the face of the awkward and introverted unicorn she used to know, genuinely listening and hearing her old friend out after a day gone wrong.

“Rather,” Twilight finished sincerely. “I want to do whatever it takes to prove…that I’m not that sick filly anymore. No matter what it takes to one day earn your trust back, I’m willing to put in the work, and…perhaps start over with you. I know it will take time, but that’s okay. Take all the time you need.”

It was at that point that Moon Dancer couldn’t keep it in anymore. She broke down in tears and rushed into Twilight’s hooves, sobbing relentlessly. The years of heartache and pain were finally coming to the surface and bursting out of the crippled unicorn in a grand display of vulnerability. She had kept all of her emotions to herself for so long, and now the pony who had once hurt her was coming forward with a genuine attempt to make amends. She didn’t know how to feel. Twilight consoled her, telling her to let it out. Minuette then joined in the hug, followed by Twinkleshine, and finally Lemon Hearts.

The five of them were gathered together in a circle, each sharing in the intimate moment. They didn’t want it to end. It was emotional catharsis for all of them. After years of being separated and apart, their fillyhood friendship once broken by betrayal, they were finally back together again and comforting one another.

At long last, Twilight felt the weight of the past finally lift off of her shoulders. She felt all of her guilt wash away like a grand tidal wave crashing on the beach. She was finally free, unbound by regret. She could feel herself smile again as the realization finally set in. She had done it. She had faced her past mistakes and banished it. She was no longer sick.

She was cured.

And so it appears you have finally learned to let go. The voice conceded. No thanks to me, of course. We’re square, Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps there is hope for you yet.

Perhaps there is.

It was a feeling of confidence Twilight had not felt in a long time. But at last, she had conquered every aspect of herself once more and cured each part. She was whole again. She had been through a massive ordeal over the course of a single day, but she wouldn’t change one thing about it. She had friends. She had family. She had love.

And her future was looking as bright as the divine light of Celestia’s Sun.

Author's Note

Man was this an emotional chapter to write. It’s all been building to this climax, where Twilight finally faces her past and apologizes to Moon Dancer. And I even gave a concrete answer as to who ‘the voice’ is too. Figured I might as well solve the biggest mystery in the whole Asylumverse canon. As always, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below. Only one chapter left coming Wednesday, and that’s the Epilogue. Stay tuned!