My Little Pony XIX: I Emptied Your Thread

[Vent Reynolt]

A Midnight Nightmare, Excerpt #7:

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Love isn't mindless adoration.

The protective spells woven around the library were potent in power, but half-hearted in design. Momma and Mom didn't want to fight, didn't want to hurt her, and so it was a simple matter to snap the weave of the spells, destroying the protection...

Friendship isn't absolute obedience.

The doors to the library were now undefended, the last shelter of those unchanged open to her.

What you are doing to protect me from loss and loneliness will only insure it. Love and friendship can only come from ponies being ponies, to clash and mingle, and to remember that we are never, truly, alone, unless we give up on them.

She knew that.
She knew that.

She knew she had failed her. She knew that she had misunderstood, had allowed her own worry, pain and doubt to misguide her, and now...and now...

Only because she wanted to protect her...

Only because she loved her...

It's not too late. I understand the spell now. It can be so easily broken. We can stop this.

It was too late. They would never forgive her now. Nopony would ever look at her in the same way, they would hate her, they would never love her again.

The best...the best she could offer her was this.

The doors to the library shattered open.

You're wrong.

There they were. The remaining ponies. Her remaining Aunts.

There they were. Front and center, her Momma and her Mom, slowly stepping towards her.

It's not too late for forgiveness.

There was fear in their eyes...but not for themselves. Fear for her. Desperation, but not for their plight, but hers.

They forgave Momma Luna.

They were here. The Princesses, Princess Mommy and Gammy, in all their glory. If she were to defeat them, she would need to capture her Momma now. But, they were not full of wrath, but love, and the words they were speaking, all four of them, not just them, all of them...

They forgave Mom.

Come back to us.
Let us help you.
Don't give up on us.

We love you.

They will forgive you.

Please....
Please...

I forgive you.

Knees buckled. Tears spilled. They collapsed to the floor.

They spoke, for the first time, as one.

"Please help me!"

EDIT: Fixed some grammar and formatting issues.

Wow. Splendiferous work with this. I look forward to the conclusion.

Y'know, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I fail to see the practical difference between a cursed plant and a plant that somehow knows exactly how to magically prank you. For that matter, as much as she was trying to distinguish her magic from curses, once magic is in the picture, it's a meaningless distinction. If Twilight had to mix chemicals to make alchemical effects, and that's how her magic worked, fine. But as long as her magic works by "horn glows, stuff happens," to my mind Twilight was just insisting on her terminology.

There's no such thing as curses. Magic has predictable, distinct effects.

But we just got cursed by a nonsentient entity in personalized ways.

LALALALALALA NO SUCH THINGS AS CURSES THE BOOKS TOLD ME SO.

I think that the reason that Twilight is so insistent on the terminology because this is a case where the magic is sufficiently analyzed to be indistinguishable from science. Despite the fact that there is no practical difference between a curse, and a personalized prank, Twilight is probably insistent on the distinction because only the latter description is useful to her. It's kinda like how there is no practical difference between using pounds (weight) and grams (mass), but there is an important distinction for scientists.

That being said, I could imagine Twilight trying to study the poison joke in order to find out just how it performs those pranks. Is it some kind of spore? Oils secreted by the leaves? Is it intended to scare away animals that would eat poison joke, and simply has this unintended effect on Ponies, or does it affect all animals like this?