Corruption is Magic

“Hello Twilight Sparkle.” Luna happily says as she comes to my bedside, but she soon loses her smile as she sits beside my bed and looks at me. The look of curiosity and horror mixing with her features as she looks me up and down. “Thou… hast seen fairer days.”

“I… I guess you could say that… but why are you here?” I ask, getting a look from Luna resembling confusion.

“We art here to help thou come home.” I flinch hearing her say those words and I look away from Luna as the all too familiar weight on my heart returns.

“I… I appreciate it, Luna, but… I shouldn’t return home.”

“Don’t be ridiculous Dear Twilight. Equestria is thy home-”

“I know!” I yell feeling my nerves turn into a rumbling static across my body. “I know… I just… I’ve done things Luna. Things I don’t like and that would mark me as a Villain back home.”

“Art thou referring to the mark of dark magic?” Luna asks and I chuckle dryly as I bring a hand up to my eyes having gotten used to the look my eyes now have by this point.

“These are the lease of it.”

“Well, We believe thou art a good pony… person still Twilight.”

“You don’t even know Luna.”

“In our twelve days being here we have seen much Twilight Sparkle. The fact thou holds remorse and grief in thy heart tells us you art still you.” Luna calmly and soothingly says as her hoof touches my chin drawing me to look at her. “Thou art still that well intentioned mare that saved us from our darkest shadow.”
“Luna… I’ve… I-” I say, feeling my words being caught in my throat as I look at the princess before me who places a hoof over my lips.

“Hush now Dear Twilight. Thou art doing what thou deems necessary we are certain. We haven’t been informed of much but we do know of thy… substance problem.”

“I… I don’t have a problem. I’ve been only using Glory when I want to.” I say feeling offended a bit at the notion I have a problem with using it.

“Twilight Sparkle. How many days hast thou been on thy… Bender.” Luna says, the sound of the modern term in her sentence feeling out of place.

“Did Gaurt teach you that word?” I ask and Luna looks over to her as I gesture to the sleeping Lycan.

“Ah, the crass one. Yes, They also mentioned a few other things along the lines of how smart yet stupid thou art.” Luna says matter of factly and I shoot the sleeping girl a glare before it melts away at seeing her breathing. "Thou art avoiding the question Sparkle."

"I… It couldn't have been more than a few days." I say dismissively as I look back to Luna who shakes her head.

"If our talk with the one named Alexander isn't misremembered then thou hast been on a long streak this time around. Two weeks long." Two weeks? Why can't I remember much of it? I can only grasp flashes here or there… what happened in that time?

"I… that can't be."

"It is, we do not know what brought thou to this low Dear Twilight but finding thou was strenuous, for we arrived within this city but thou had already moved on by the time we arrived." I sit there, unable to keep my head from falling and looking downwards, the thought of causing so much problems for everyone stabbing me in the chest.

"I… I'm sorry Luna."

"Do not apologize, simply be willing to accept help to get past this… substance."

"I… I'll try."

"Good. Now… we have heard a small bit of what has happened but we would rather hear it from thou."

"I mean… I appreciate it Luna but…" I trail off as I remember all the things that have happened in my time being here. "I'd rather not live through those memories again."

"We understand how you feel, Twilight. Though the past will always be there, no matter how much thou wishes to bury it. Sometimes thou must work through it and dull pain those memories create piece by piece."

"But I… I hurt people I love. I have… killed people." I say with my voice catching but Luna quietly opened her mouth and speaks in a sad tone.

"We understand how thou feels… tis hard, carrying the burden of knowing thou hast taken a life. We know it from our… rebellion against out sister… and we know the pain of knowing that we have caused someone we love, pain. Be it physically or… psychological." Luna laments as she sits there. I ponder on her words and after many minutes of thinking I look to her, a question that has been in my head for a bit of time coming to the surface to fill the silence around us.

"Luna… why do you still use the old Equestria way of speaking?" I ask looking at Luna who looks back at me in confusion but something else under the surface. Something they are hiding behind the Facade.

"You also use the royal we."

"Tis the norm back when Dear Tia and us ruled."

"Luna." I say looking at her with worry in my heart. "Was Nightmare Moon a voice in your head… a voice that you still have in your head but that went crazy at some point." Luna looks at me in confusion opening her mouth to respond but as she does I can see gears behind her Facade turning and she closes her mouth, thinking. Finally after a minute of silence she sighs.

"We see thou knows about it so we shall relent. Indeed we have another… voice in our head. We have come to know her as Nightmare and we… are almost the same mare." Luna says but suddenly jumps and shouts. "We won't become like Nightmare Moon though! We simply had stress along with desires eating us up inside back then."

"Luna, it's okay… I also have something like that." I say getting a look of genuine confusion from Luna.

"Thou … does?"

"It's Corruption. Well, it's a form of Wellspring that can think and feel. It's… unique and as it grows and mixes with your other Wellsprings it becomes like you. It's hard to explain easily but I think you unwittingly got some and were ill prepared to handle it." I say with a chuckle. "Same can kind of be said for me."

"Well… it seems we have some things to catch up on."