"Wake up...You must awaken, Mistress Twi- Hecate. On your hooves, Lazybones!"
The voice pulled Twilight out of the depths of blackness she had fallen into. Little by little, she could feel consciousness returning to her. Energy flowed into her body from somewhere, revitalizing her with each passing moment. What happened? I was about to kill the Mayor and then...Lilith. She could still feel Lilith there, her hooves gently lifting her from the ground. She was feeding Twilight strength somehow, letting Twilight recover more quickly from the magical backlash.
The Mayor hovered nearby, her mane quite thoroughly frazzled but looking otherwise unharmed. She gently pulled Twilight back up to her hooves, shaking her head in amazement. "I had known you were powerful, but that..." Mayor Mare gently whistled, looking abashed. " I underestimated you quite badly. Not that I am angry about being wrong, or still alive." She chuckled richly, in that stuffy older mare voice she liked to affect.
Twilight shook the cobwebs out of her head. She doesn't realize that was not entirely me. Maybe I should keep that under my saddle for now. Twilight's voice croaked out, but she could not speak. Her throat had gone dry and scratchy. Moments later, the Mayor was pressing a large mug full of cold water up to her lips and helping her drink. Twilight gasped at the chill of the water against her scratchy through, but she drank deeply anyway.
After several more mugs, Twilight nearly felt like a living pony again. She pushed up to a standing position and smiled a little at Mayor Mare. "Mayor...I promised you. I wasn't going to let you die." The grey maned eminence laughed brightly and bowed deeply to her. Twilight felt a bit of sarcasm coming on, and decided to indulge herself. "I certainly was not going to let you get out of all the paperwork we're going to have to do."
The mayor stared at her for a moment, then laughed. "Now that sounds like Twilight Sparkle, and you can call me Scrolls, dear. Calling me Mayor is a bit redundant now that I work for you." Mayor Mar- er, Scrolls winked cheekily at her, trotting back a few steps and bowing deeply to Twilight. "The King has gone to gather the leaders of our cause. He intends to challenge you to take your place amongst the Trinity. I am to give you a brief tutoring as to what that will entail." Scrolls tilted her head, smiling. "Though I have little doubt none will be able to bar your way."
Twilight frowned slightly, as the Mayor - she wouldn't be able to stop thinking of her that way, anyway - led the way out of the room. "May- Scrolls. Scrolls." She repeated, getting a little cross look on her face. "By harmony, I'm never going to get used to all of these use-names. This has something to do with the final part of the code, doesn't it?" The mayor nodded her head, stopping for a moment to grasp a brush out of a side room, and started to tug and pull her mane into line.
The mayor flinched as she caught a burr, but continued talking as they walked. "Yes. You will be placed in extremely heavy chains and magical restraints. Nothing upon your horn, but there will be a great deal holding you back. You will need to strip them off one by one, building your magic as you go. It is a painful, painstaking process to remove them and will test the power of your dissonance. When you have removed all of the chains, you will need to cross the great hall without falling."
The mayor winced again as she tugged her grey mane back down into something approaching reasonable, continuing to speak crisply. "The great leaders will do everything in their power to trip you up. It is a test of your willpower, your strength and cunning to evade the traps. At the end, you will have to light the third torch of the Trinity. When you have done that, you will.."
The mayor hesitated, then continued. "You will draw the magic from the torches. They will burn you Mistress. They will burn away your mark, and with it all of the limits of harmony. The last is a test of endurance, of inner strength. Should you survive, you will take up a new symbol of your power and become our new Queen."
Twilight stared for a moment, feeling fear touch the base of her spine. That does not sound pleasant in the least. She gulped, pushing down the lump in her throat for a moment. "Well, I suppose it could all be worse." She did her best to force out a grin. "It's definitely no Discord." She certainly sounded brave, even if the Mayor obviously was not buying it.
Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. I'm not alone. she reminded herself, and sure enough she could feel the ghostly hooves of Lilith upon her shoulders. I know this pony. her mind whispered, and then the thought whispered away. She had a job to do. "Lead the way, Mayor." Twilight commanded firmly.
~~~~~~~
Twilight waited in silence as the dark cloaked ponies carefully wound the steel and silver chains around her as she lay on the floor, weaving it through the iron grate that surrounded the dais. She simply kept her eyes closed, breathing in and out in a slow pattern. It's strange. Only a few days ago, I was preparing to become the ultimate champion of harmony. I had no thoughts of my future but that. It was a sober thing to reflect on. It was equally sobering that she might not survive this.
Twilight took another deep breath in, and out. If I die, the Princess will have no reason to call an inquisition. I will have protected the ponies I loved. It was enough. She would very much like to live, to know the truth. Yet she would not face this test fearing failure. Through Truth, I gain Courage. The chains were secured. She could see them hanging magic absorbent crystals from the ceiling, and they were drawing runes all around her little prison here.
She closed her eyes again, and kept breathing. She had left a final letter with the mayor. It would find its way into the hooves of her friends. The mayor had sworn no other pony would read it. Twilight had made certain to include everything she knew upon the parchment, written in the secret code she'd shared with Princess Celestia. She thought about her friends, drawing strength from those old memories.
The world would change tonight. She knew her friends would never be the same, and neither would she. For not the first time today, Twilight wished she could cry. She wished she dared use Starswirl's time travel spell again, and damn the consequences. Anything to make things go back to the way they were. But that's never going to happen.
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, wondering what was causing all of this introspection. Being faced with death? What did Celestia use to tell me? You can’t put the syrup back in the bottle once it's in the oatmeal. and Twilight couldn't make all she had learned vanish. She couldn't purge her mind of the horrifying truth of the situation.
The veil had been lifted from her eyes, and she couldn't put it back down. Not and be her true self. I'll have to take a symbol of my power huh? I Think I already know what that will be. She knew what to say too. It would be her declaration of war on every secret that had been used against her.
The chains were finally locked tight. The cloaked ponies bowed and left the room. Sombra paced into the room in front of her, melting out of the shadows. He wore the white ruffled red cape and armor she'd seen him in at the Crystal Empire, his Iron Crown's gems gleamed with power. "My Apprentice. Would that we had time to prepare you for this." He shook his head once, as if in regret. "Time is not on our side however. You must be ready to face the Tyrant and soon. Precisely one hundred yards ahead of you..." He gestured behind him. "Is your prize. Once the test has begun, it must be finished. You cannot turn aside." He laid his hoof on the ground next to her, leaning down. "Are you prepared to know freedom?"
Twilight inhaled once more and opened her eyes. They were not glowing, but simply tinted the dark green power of dissonance. Her pupils had become red, and faint shadows slowly twisted from her eyelashes. "Yes." Lilith. I need you. Once again, she could sense those ghostly hooves next to her - though she knew not even Sombra could feel them now. A warmth settled deep inside of her, the strength of another. Scrolls. I call upon my Faithful. The scent of dusty parchment and ink seemed to flow through the air, and a stern hoof lay upon her shoulder. Not in comfort, but in confidence. Their strength waited for her command.
Sombra lifted his head and nodded in satisfaction, and vanished from the room. "Let the Trial Begin!" A voice rang through the room, shaking the dust from the ceiling. Twilight waited only a moment. She could sense Lilith's amusement, and the Mayor's anxiety. They need not have feared. Through Victory, my chains are broken.
Twilight had known victory in ways that most ponies could never dream of. Twilight simply gathered her power into her, drawing from her two greatest Acolytes. I will need them both in the years to come. The strength flowing through her was magnitudes above and beyond anything she had drawn before, but Twilight wanted to make a statement.
She wanted to leave every creature that watched her now with no doubts as to her power. Let them fear her, let them cower before her. She, who had made the Night bow to her. She, who had made Chaos itself give way. She was the Element of Magic, that which connected all the powers of the world. Twilight planted her hooves on the ground and simply allowed the power to swell around her.
The chains began to strain outwards, lifted by the pure magical force they sought to contain. Twilight simply poured the power out, her eyes closed in gentle concentration. Magic will make me free. The chains began to snap and burst, and a moment later, they exploded away from her. Metal flung against the walls, gouging divots into the stone. Silver and steel snapped like twigs under the force of the aura she'd gathered around her. The crystals shattered above her head and rained down in glittering shards.
Twilight's eyes opened to reveal the deep green flame that lurked within, and began to slowly stalk forward. She kept building the aura of power, even as she stepped through the shadowy doorway into a vast hall of stone. She could sense thousands upon thousands of creatures all around her as she walked boldly amongst them.
Her aura shifted in her mind, and she hammered it into place with the force of her mind. Her horn glowed blinding violet silver, and a cloak of green fire and power laid down upon her shoulders. The shadows that hid the path gave way in hisses of pain and shock. Twilight was not going to play by Sombras' rules.
She was not going to play by these creatures rules either. The cloak billowed out behind and in front of her, searing away the trip wires and the ropes. False stones crumbled into the floor, and Twilight ignored every divot and spiked ball, brushing them aside with a sweep of her horn.
After a few moments, the creatures even ceased trying to trip her up. Her regal gait neither hurried nor caring of the looks of hunger, terror and respect that spread throughout her audience. Twilight almost thought she could hear Lilith's voice in her ear as she walked. Let them know who will rule here. Who will lead them in a way no one else could. They will follow the most powerful, for it is our way. Become their Nightmare.
Twilight slowly approached the far wall, where two lit torches hung from some kind of ancient iron work. Above them, two banners shrouded in shadows hung from the wall. Twilight looked at the final unlit torch that hung next to them, and nodded slightly. She dipped her horn towards the torch and let the flames of dissonance light it.
It lit after a moment, and she stood back, planting her hooves and glaring brazenly at the torches. "Come. I'm not afraid." She tossed off the line coolly, as though she were a character in some kind of pulp novel. The fires began to grow from the torches, growing slowly into tight balls of raging fire. Lilith's hooves steadied her shoulders, and the Mayors lifted her head up. Then they were gone. She would have to face this herself.
The fires exploded out towards her in columns of power, and wove around her body with impossible heat. She winced a little from the waves of hot air pounding at her body, but stood her ground. The fire struck at her once, twice. Burning fur and flesh without mercy, but leaving no mark. It was pain, she realized but no damage to her body. That banished the fear. They think I cannot handle a little pain? They don’t know what pain is.
Pain was watching your closest friends betray you. Pain was watching them be discorded into false versions of themselves and abandoning the fight. Pain was the fear that you could not save your oldest friend. Pain was your brother being mind controlled by a sadist, and no one would believe you.
Pain was the betrayal of a teacher who had not told you the truth. Pain was a teacher who wished to turn you into a weapon. Pain was the knowledge that she would destroy everything you loved because it dared suggest her way was not perfect. Pain was accepting that the only thing you could do was fight her to save everything else you loved.
As the fires closed in around her, certainly it hurt. Certainly her body was in agony, but it was not pain. It was something to endure, something she would endure for every pony that relied upon her. She closed her eyes and focused at her center. This was just another step, another beginning for her.
This was not pain. Pain was what was coming. Pain was a confrontation with Celestia.
This was just a warm-up.
The fires raged around Twilight's Body for several agonizing minutes, or hours, or perhaps days. Twilight could not tell. Her world was a sea of hurt and ache, and the fires of dissonance ravaging her body within and without. It did not last forever though, soon enough it retreated back into the sconces and was simply fire once again.
Twilight had not buckled, she had not fallen. Twilight raised her head in defiance against the flame and tsked at it. Then she turned her head to regard her flank, and true enough it was blank. It held no mark, not even a sign of who she had once been. She had been purified in purpose and in soul. She knew what she had to do now, no matter how much pain it might cost her.
The room lit up in a blast of fire from the torches, and dozens of torches and wall sconces lit up with green flames that cast deep warm light all around the cavern. All around her, a sea of ponies and creatures like she had seen earlier erupted into cheers and celebration. The room echoed with cries of joy and the weeping of those whose faith had been renewed.
Twilight turned towards the center of the room, where a massive Triangle stone table had lifted from the ground. Sombra stood at one tip of that table, his iron shod hoof resting on a symbol carved into the stone - one of a shining faceted crystal with a crown set upon its top. He bowed his head to her, in the respect given to equals.
Across from him, Queen Chrysalis stood with a smile on her face. Her much holed hoof laid on the table over a stone symbol of a Changeling skull wearing a crown. To Twilight's amazement, Chrysalis bowed her head towards her too. As she lifted it, there was a challenging look in her eye - but also a warm one.Is she attempting to bury the hatchet? Hmph. We'll see.
Twilight could see the final tip of the triangle before her, and she walked unhurriedly towards it. She mounted the stone dais on which the table stood and raised her hoof up to the crowd. In an instant, silence fell and a hushed feel of anticipation settled upon the room. Twilight smiled a little at Sombra, and then at Chrysalis before she began to speak.
Her tones rang throughout the room, enhanced by the special acoustics built into the stone. It seemed to echo off the walls and reverberate in the ear of all the watchers. "My Brothers!" She cried out, and the males of the room roared back, even Sombra joining the cheer. "My Sisters!" She cried to the many female creatures, which buzzed and stomped and cried back in response. "Today, I taste freedom for the first time in my entire life! And I find that taste to be sweet!" More cheering, stomping and cries of approval.
Twilight lifted her hoof again, and silence fell reverently. "But I cannot forget who I was. I cannot dismiss my past. Today I have been reborn, and for the first time I can choose my destiny." Silence answered her as she lifted her gaze across the audience. "So I tell you this, my brethren. Today, I choose my name not because it is what I was born to be, not because it is what I was forced to be - but because it is what I CHOOSE To be!"
Her hoof came down with a triumphant smack against the stone table, and the stone transformed before the eyes of the crowd. It shifted and melted like wax under her touch, imprinting it with the symbol of a shining spark of magic, surrounded by six stars, the spark and each star set into the point of a crown. "I am Magic. It is who I am. It is my soul, my blood and my bone. I shall carry its symbol and its name with me forever. Both as an inspiration - that without it, I could never have become free. And as a reminder - That without choice, even magic is meaningless."
She lifted her head up high, satisfied with her words. Sombra lifted his other iron hoof into the air and bellowed out in a basso voice that filled the room, his eyes excited beyond all reason as magic began to erupt beneath their hooves and fill them with strength.
"The Trinity stands once again! We, the three rulers of Dissonance shall bring about a new age! Let our names be laid down into the history of our cause, and we shall renew our pledge to cast down the Tyrant of Harmony!"
Magic drew in around the table, and flooded out into the room around her. Chrysalis' horn burst to life with a bright green and fire and energy flowed from her shoulders and wings like a swarm of her changelings. Many of those changelings within the crowd bowed to her at this display of power as her voice rang throughout the room. "I am Queen Chrysalis, Mother of the Hives! Let my children once again move freely through the land, and feed deeply upon all who would have them! Let our long exile in darkness end, and may all the hives know freedom!"
Sombra's horn shone a baleful red, and shadows erupted from his shoulders, billowing off his body like a massive cloak of darkness. It spun and pulsed in the air, and then settled about him like a royal train, making his baleful green eyes seem even brighter by comparison as his voice roared. "I am Sombra, the Shadow King! Let all of the dark creatures of the land know that their time in hiding is over! Let them come forth and once again live amongst ponykind without fear, and may they once again know freedom!"
Twilight paused for a moment, and then smiled as a devilish idea entered her mind. Her horn lit up with bright violet power, and she could feel the room feeding her spell from some kind of ancient ambient magic’s. She carefully crafted her spell form, welding it to her shoulders as bright purple magic began to spiral out of her horn.
The magic twisted and spun through the air, dancing amidst the crowds. It touched every being there, even if only briefly and whirled around Twilight's body like a hurricane of power. She could feel the power slowly filling up the spell form she had created, and constructs began to come into existence from her back.
A long sweeping shape that slowly filled with iridescent feathers and joints, flaring out behind her in a display of brilliant violet magic that caught the breath of every creature within the room. Beautiful wings of arcane energy mantled and flared, for the moment making her look for the entire world like an Alicorn ascendant. Except Twilight had not been given this power, this form. She had taken it for herself, and created it with her own horn.
She had not needed Celestia to give her this. She had made it for herself, and in doing so had taken her life into her own hooves. I will not be manipulated. I will not be controlled. I will make my own path, my own way. At last, I will make my own choices. Her magic settled around her as the vast magical wings folded behind her, and a crystalline violet crown seemed to appear into being from nowhere, settling about her brow.
Twilight spoke softly into the dead silence, with every eye in the room upon her.
"I rule over Magic itself. Let every sorcerer and spell caster come unto me, and let us build a new world. Let us combine the powers of all races and forge them together in ways that have never been known before. Let us find the means to bring equality and hope to all the peoples of the world, without restrictions of blood or lineage. Let it be known that I stand for all the ponies of the world, and let them rejoice. The old chains will be cast aside, the tyranny of those who used Harmony for their own power will be broken. A new day has dawned in Equestria and in our world."
Twilight took a deep breath, and smiled slightly, her last words echoing throughout the cavernous halls, signaling a battle cry of sorts.
"I am the Nightmare Queen, Twilight Sparkle. And I carry my name as a reminder that one day, we all shall know freedom."