After the utter mindfuckery that was Twilight's memory spell, and the inevitable mental breakdown that ensued following the confirmation of all of Twilight's fears, things began to slow down a bit.

...Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Basically, the spell Twilight used, hurt... a lot. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I found out the hard way that Discord botched his transference of power, but it was still far from pleasant.

Twilight, the inquisitive little darling that she was, decided to look into not just my rather fantastical story, but more than a bit of my own comparatively mundane past from back when I was on Earth.

How do I know this?

As it turns out, I was more or less forced to relive almost my entire life in the blink of an eye, and it was some kind of experience. Everything I saw, she saw, and I don't know how, but I could feel her watching, like she was looking over my shoulder.

And yes, it was exactly as creepy as it sounds.

I know I said I'd agree to a memory scan via potion or spell or whatever, but this was pushing it by a wide margin. Having my mind read was definitely near the top of the list of things I never expected, nor wanted to happen to me, yet here we were.

I suppose it was partially my fault for not setting up some kind of line that shouldn't be crossed, but seriously, I'd assumed it was simple common courtesy not to go snooping around in someone else's brain looking for private info without consent.

Then again I had to consider who I was dealing with, and in what situation she was in.

I didn't have all that much to hide—like I said before, my life had been fairly mundane up to this point—but, like everyone else, there were some things I would've rather she not have seen. Unfortunately for me, she very much did see quite a few things that I had no doubt I'd be talking to her about later.

In any case, once everything was said and done and the spell ran its course, the two of us just kind of sat there. Well, Twilight just kind of sat there, I had to pick myself up from the ground, groaning and cursing from the throbbing pain in my head, back, and one of my elbows that had banged against the ground when I fell.

I picked the chair up and sat back down across from the unmoving mare, ready to demand just what the hell that was all about, but quickly changed my mind at the wide eyed expression on her face.

Rather than looking at me, Twilight's pupils were small pinpricks, shifting this way and that, as though she were going through REM sleep with her eyes open. It had a profoundly unnerving effect on me, and I reflexively turned away from the odd sight.

I could hear her mumbling a string of complete nonsense, and wondered if she'd entered some kind of actual waking sleep or trance or something. The whole thing was extremely creepy and I found my indignation snuffed out by the sheer shock of seeing Twilight in this state.

I looked back at her just in time to see her blink once and let out a sharp gasp, her eyes thankfully returning to normal. She rapidly shook her head a few times before blinking again and rubbing her eyes. I waited for her to collect herself for a few moments, only speaking again when she turned her stunned gaze towards me.

"You okay there?" I asked in genuine concern, "you need another minute, or are you good?"

"I..." she blinked stupidly before looking around the room and back to me a moment later. She visibly swallowed before giving me a guilty look, "Salvatore I... I didn't mean to go that far. That... that was actually the first time I've ever had to use that spell, and I think... I think I might've lost control of it... a bit."

"Mmhmmm," I replied with a slow nod, "so I don't have to tell you how completely uncalled for and immoral that was then. Good to know. Also, you definitely lost more than 'a bit' of control."

I leaned back in my chair and eyed the lavender mare critically. She was looking off to the side distractedly, no doubt trying to process everything she'd seen. She had a faraway look on her face that made it seem like she'd completely forgotten I was there or that she'd just apologized for the apparently unintended mind rape.

"Hey, Twilight," I replied, snapping my fingers, "I need you to focus here, and more importantly, not freak out suddenly. I don't know if either of us can handle that right now."

She snapped her eyes back to me, opened her mouth to say something, and froze. I looked back at her with a raised eyebrow and a wary frown, waiting to see what she'd do next. She slowly closed her mouth again, her face becoming unreadable. Before I could say anything else, she lit up her horn and popped out of existence.

Now it was my turn to blink.

"...Okay then, I guess she needs some time?" I muttered to myself, "maybe the whole thing broke her."

I sat there for another few minutes or so to see if she'd appear again, and when she didn't, I sighed and got up from the table. I made my way back into the actual library to pick where I'd left off in my book, not really having much else to do.

I'd only been reading for maybe five minutes when I heard the tell-tale pop of one of Twilight's teleportation spells from in the dining room. I didn't bother to get up or say anything, knowing she'd find me eventually, and I was proven right when she popped into the library a moment later.

I looked from my book and furrowed my brow at Twilight's strained smile and even more disheveled appearance. How she managed to always outdo herself when it came to looking distraught confounded me.

Did she leave so she could freak out in private?

"Did you leave so you could freak out in private?" I decided to ask aloud, "because if that's the case... thanks, and are you feeling better now?"

"Fine!" she replied a little too quickly and loudly, "I'm feeling... I'm..." she dropped the crazy smile and sighed before running a hoof through her mane, "no, Salvatore, I feel awful about what happened, and if it helps, I wiped my mind of anything that didn't have to do with what you'd told me before."

I raised an eyebrow and said nothing, not believing for a moment that was entirely true. She looked back at me, her hopeful expression turning sour, then defensive.

"...What?"

"Everything, huh?" I asked, keeping my skeptical gaze on her as I closed the book and set it down on the table next to me, "did you erase everything, or only the things you'd would've rather not known about me?"

She went to reply, probably with an indignant retort, but I cut her off.

"Before you go off on me, I feel I should remind you that I currently have no way of knowing whether or not what you say is true," I said, leaning forward and resting my arms on my legs, "you can say you removed the memories of my private life, and to be honest, given a few of the things you probably saw, I can believe you got rid of at least some of them, but all of them?"

I shook my head and leaned back again.

"With as studious and inquisitive as you are, I highly doubt you got rid of everything outside of the memories that have to do with our current situation," I shrugged, "in fact, I'd be kind of disappointed if you did, now that I think about it. Humanity has some pretty neat inventions. It'd be a shame to forget all about them."

Twilight stood there, mouth hanging open mid-retort for a good minute before letting out an explosive sigh and sitting back on her haunches. She turn away with an adorably petulant frown and mumbled out a response I couldn't hear.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you," I asked, my professionally polite call center agent voice slipping through unintentionally, "can you say that again?"

Twilight huffed and glared at me, probably thinking I was mocking her.

"I might've held onto a few things here and there, alright?" she replied. Her frown turned thoughtful, "you're right though, some of the things I've seen really are amazing, and..." she fell silent suddenly, her expression becoming somber, "...and Discord pulled you away from all of that."

She winced and turned back to me with an uncomfortably sympathetic look.

"He dragged you away from a normal life and dropped you into such a cruel world," her eyes drifted and glazed over slightly, "I saw it all through your eyes, Salvatore... I saw Ponyville burning, ponies dying, my friends and I..." a shudder ran through her frame, "and there was more..."

She fell silent again and this time she didn't speak for a long while. She simply sat there, staring off into space as she probably remembered the horrible events I'd gone through. I suddenly felt like an asshole, not having realized just how traumatic some of these memories might've been for her.

I was frankly surprised she didn't erase those memories, and I wanted to ask her why, but decided against it. Feeling awkward and uncomfortable with the sudden turn the atmosphere had taken, I went to reach for the book, then stopped.

"Dammit," I muttered, before retracting my hand and turning back to the far-gone mare, "hey, Twilight I... look, don't..."

Don't what? Don't worry about it? Oh sure, don't worry about how you lost your friends once and are now having to relive their deaths through my memories.

What could I even say at this point?

This was the reason I was so terrible at comforting others. Nothing I could've said would've felt genuine enough, but I didn't want to just leave her like that. Something needed to be done, and as I looked at Twilight, I realized what that something may have been.

This is way, way outside my comfort zone, but if it helps...

I groaned inwardly as I rose from my seat and moved over to where Twilight sat. In what I felt was one of the most awkward moments of my life, I kneeled down to her level, reached over and wrapped my arms around her withers, pulling her into an uncomfortable, but ultimately necessary hug.

She tensed for a moment, a sharp intake of breath escaping her. Her fur was coarse and gritty, and she really needed a bath, something made all the more evident this close up, but I ignored that for now as the words I'd been looking for finally came to me.

"Look, I know things really suck right now, and I'm sorry about what happened to your friends," I said quietly, "but dwelling on what happened to them here and in my memories won't help us get out of this place or save Spike."

I winced at that last one, fully aware that saving the baby dragon turned eldritch abomination wasn't a sure thing. Nevertheless I pressed on in my attempts to comfort the mare, or at the very least bring her out of her borderline catatonic state.

"You know what will help though?" I asked, pulling back and staring Twilight in the eye, "magic, study, focusing on the here and now, kicking Discord in the dick, and restoring Equestria to the way it's supposed to be. Y'know... the important things we need to worry about now, as opposed to the depressing things we can dwell on later when we're out of here."

She looked back at me with an expression I didn't really know how to describe. I couldn't tell if it was hopeful, pleading, lost, or a combination of the three. Unfortunately that was all I had, I'd exhausted my supply of motivational dialogue, and I felt like forcing anymore would've been counter-intuitive, so I waited for her to respond.

After a moment of staring at each other, I saw her eyes tear up and braced myself for what I knew was coming. A second later she grabbed me around the middle and began sobbing into my chest. I grimaced and gently rubbed her back, no more comfortable than I was before, but willing to let her do what she needed to do.

Hopefully she'll feel better once she's cried it out.

Despite my normally boring life, there was still some bullshit in that life I'd had to deal with, especially when it came to family. I'd actually had to do something like this before with some of my own family back when family drama was a major issue in my life.

It was much less of an issue in recent years, as most of my family lived far apart from each other, but it wasn't like I was a stranger to this outpouring of emotion—far from it, actually.

I just wasn't an emotional type of guy normally, and whenever shit hit the fan, I was the middle man in all of it, choosing no one's side, but listening to both. I didn't like confrontation, mostly because I normally couldn't argue to save my life—quite literally now that I thought about it.

I'd figured out a long time ago that even though I was no sort of expert on getting people to feel better, people—in my family at least—still came to talk to me about the issues they were having as though I had the answers they needed.

They knew I wouldn't judge them, they knew I wouldn't argue against their point, and they knew I'd listen, even if I had nothing to say in response. This was something I accepted, but took no pride in, and seeing Twilight in this state, holding her like this as she cried...

If this helped her get past at least some of her issues, then I'd be happy, but seeing her like this, I couldn't help but be reminded of the stupid, petty, and sometimes violent confrontations I was forced into the middle of with my own family in the past.

This wasn't about me and my comparatively minor issues though, this was about someone who'd lost everything, and had to live with that loss completely alone for way longer than anyone should have. This was about making her feel like there were reasons worth fighting against the pain of those losses.

This was about getting the both of us the hell out of here and saving Equestria.

With that in mind, I pushed my own past to the back of my mind and just sat there, holding onto the weeping mare. I don't know how long we sat like that, but eventually the sobs died down and she pulled away, sniffing and wiping her eyes. I did my best to ignore the tears and snot on my shirt and focused on Twilight.

"So I know I've asked this like three times already," I said when she finally regained her composure, "but do you feel any better?"

"Not really," Twilight replied with a shaky smile, "but I'm getting there. Thanks for that, Salvatore, I... you have no idea how much I needed that. I had no idea how much I needed that."

"No, I think I have an idea," I replied, grunting as I straightened up, "that's why I did it. You were spiraling again, and I didn't wanna leave you like that, so... y'know."

She nodded, her smile becoming a bit more genuine.

"Well, I appreciate it all the same, and you're right," she frowned up at me, "we're not going to get anywhere like this. I asked for this," she grimaced, "and... and even if I don't like it, even if they're painful, I'll hold onto the memories."

"Well..." I rubbed the back of my neck before giving another small shrug, "if that's what you want. Just... I dunno, try not to dwell on the bad parts too much, alright?"

"I'll try," Twilight replied, "but I make no promises."

"I suppose that's the best I can hope for, given the circumstances," I responded with a sigh. I looked down at my shirt and grimaced in disgust, "by the way, can you, uh... do something about this? Magically, I mean?"

Twilight followed my gaze and blushed in embarrassment. Her horn flashed and a moment later the mess was gone, my shirt once again free of tears and snot.

"Thanks," I replied, idly glancing around the room before returning my attention back to Twilight, "so... what's next?"

Twilight didn't respond right away, her face downcast and her expression pensive. I frowned, wondering what the issue was this time, as I leaned down slightly and tried again.

"Twilight," I said a bit more loudly, "what are we doing here? What next on the list of things we have to do?"

"Huh?" she blinked before looking back up at me. A second later her eyes widened and she smiled sheepishly, "right, sorry. Um..." she gave a thoughtful hum before nodding to herself, "the Discord I saw in your memories seems careless, so I'm hoping there's a chance he slipped up somewhere in the spell he cast when he transferred his power to you."

"Possible," I replied, "he fucked up pretty bad the first time around."

Twilight winced at the memory.

"Right," she said slowly, "well, I'll need to do some more research and planning before we really get started, so I'll probably be spending most of my time in the lab."

"And me?" I asked, raising my brow, "what do I do in the meantime?"

"I don't know," she replied, turning around and trotting towards the library's entrance, "this is a library, read a book or something," she paused near the doorway and looked back at me over her shoulder, "oh, and let me know if any more odd changes occur. I want to make sure to document them."

"Will do," I replied, plopping back down into my seat and taking up the book I was reading, "have fun, purplesmart."

I watched in amusement as Twilight furrowed her brow and mouthed the word to herself. She shook her head in exasperation a moment later and trotted out of the room. I chuckled lightly before opening the book, then frowned a moment later.

God dammit, forgot to bookmark the page.

I didn't mean for the chapter to get as real as it did, but... here we are.

Anywho, minor timeskip incoming, though not without explanations, so don't worry about that.