Light. That was the first word that came to the bedridden mares head. Lots of light.
She opened her eyes to a room. Sickly clean walls surrounded her. Sterile bed sheets were pulled up around her body. Her horn was wrapped in clean bandages and a harsh florescent light above her made it hard to do much but squint.
“Hello?” She called, her voice a pitiful croak. “Is anypony there?”
Not long after her call, a white painted door, which blended to the wall so well she hadn’t noticed it, swung open. In walked a strange looking monster. The creature had a black coat, its wings and eyes glowed blue, it looked rather bug like with strangely placed holes on its hooves.
The mare scooted back in her bed in fear, but flinched in a sudden jolt of pain. She gasped, “Who are you?” She squeaked, “Where’s my mommy?”
The creature gave the lavender pony an almost fearful look, then put on a very calm, almost motherly expression. “My name,” it spoke with a fluent female voice, “Is Miss Macy, I’m the nurse here. You’re Miss Princess Twilight Sparkle I assume. As for your mommy, I don’t rightly know. Do you have her contact? We could call her.”
Twilight had a look of bafflement on her face. She sniffed, “No, no, you have it all wrong. I’m Twilight, but I’m no princess miss.” She said carefully, still staring at the strange bug, and trying to ignore the pain she felt. Like she was pushed up against something feathery and it was poking into her sides, weird. But she didn’t pay the pain much mind as she was still focused on the strange creature. “What are you??” She demanded.
Miss Macy shifted uncomfortable, “Well, I’m a changeling. I figure you of all ponies should know that. And our records say you are a princess, so do your wings.”
“Wings?” The mare asked. She quickly tried to look around her. It was then that she noticed two appendages protruding from her torso, they were also wrapped in bandages, and the source of the pain.
Twilight gasped, “I have, I have, I…have…wings. HOW?” She squirmed, causing more pain in her torso. She whimpered, “How??”
The nurse approached twilight and positioned her patient straight in bed. “Shh, shh, you’ll hurt yourself.” The nurse said. “Please stay calm." Her voice was pleading.
“Calm?!?” Twilight demanded, “CALM?!!? I have wings and I’m in a weird hospital, and my mommy’s gone, and, and, and,” The mare was tearing up now. “What happened?”
The nurse took a step back and sighed, “Well miss Sparkle, we don’t rightly know. We found you on the edge of Changeling territory in critical physical and magical condition. So the first respondents brought you here to recover.”
The mare nodded through tears, “Okay, and how long ago was that?” She asked.
“Two weeks ago.”
The mare sucked in a shocked breath. “But, but, I’m on a schedule! Two weeks of learning that I have missed out on, Celestia will be very, very, mad! My magic goes beyond my age, that’s what she said, that’s what she told me! If I don’t study every day and learn to control my power, my magic could destroy the whole of Equestria! Please…I need to get home.” She breathed in shakily. Her entire body seemed to be twitching now. She clutched her head in apparent pain, like she was getting ready to scream.
The changeling nodded, “Okay, we can get you home.” She sounded uncertain. “Just rest here a bit longer. You may have to go through some rehabilitation depending on the damage to your body and”
“BUT I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!” Twilight shrieked the words and the changeling backed up quickly as the young alicorn began to hover over the bed. Her eyes turned black as the night and her wail carried through the room, shattering the windows.
The bandages wound around the mare burst into flames, then turned to black ashes which fell to the white sheets. Wind began to swirl around the mare and she was suddenly enveloped in a bright blue light.
When the light cleared, there stood Twilight atop the ash stained sheets. Her mane blazed with white hot flames, her body was wrapped in dark armor that shimmered as if made from shadows. Her eyes were slits like those of a snakes.
A smile graced the mare’s lips. “Ah.” She sighed, her voice spine chilling and regal, “Two weeks of sleep, I have to say, my magic is,” she gave a very satisfied smile, “charged.” Then she turned to the nurse. “Hello there changeling.” She took a step toward the nurse, the ash swirling around her legs. “You took care of me when my body was in disrepair? Good.” Her words sounded almost disinterested, “Than I will more than likely let you live.” She walked past the changeling and patted her on the head before stating, “I will be off then.”
The strange mare whisked out the door, her purple coat showing its newly acquired dark tint in the cooler light of the hall. She found herself humming a deep tune, one that could only be described as church like. Her posture was one of regality. Every creature she passed in the hospital halls seemed to cower or bow to the mare, influenced by her very presence. But outside of her cool attitude, the dark Twilight’s mind was whirling.
‘This body has sustained damage.’ She thought, ‘Immensely so. If I were to phase out in a moment of magic use, she would be incinerated. I will have to be careful. Minor spells only. ‘
The mare allowed herself a minor health checking spell. She mentally reviewed the results.
‘Ah, clever mare aren’t you Twilight? Yes, I see that you have regressed in mental maturity. Wiped an entire chunk of your memory. Certainly it will keep you from revealing what you have learned. And it will keep you well alive and keep me at bay. Tricky, tricky. But it also seems that you removed a bit too much. Poor child, mentally you’re what? Six? So much for just shedding twenty four hours of thought, you went and shed twenty four years. Ha. I can’t even access your past knowledge, can I? Pity. But your memories will return. Then I will see them. Really this will only keep me around longer. Silly child. Very silly child. And what’s more, as a filly, you can’t fight me off. Brilliant.’
The strange mare strut out of the hospital doors, a smirk on her face. She stood by the road and flagged a taxi carriage. She crawled into the back seat and demanded the driver to take her to Canterlot.
“But, but, that’s outside my route.” The cab driver protested.
Twilight glared, causing the driver to flinch. “Okay, okay, I’m going.” The driver whined. The carriage began to travel.
“Good.” The dark alicorn said. “Now, subject, I have something very important to tell you. If you protest, it will cost you your life.”
The driver squeaked at the pure aura of terror given off by the mare, but nodded.
The false Twilight said, “I want you to keep driving. No matter how much I change, even if I ask you to stop, from here on out, keep driving. If you stop, I will see to it that you die a death of fire and shadows. Understood?” She hissed the words.
The changeling driver nodded. He took in shallow scared breaths under the influence of the dark mares magic.
Evil Twilight smiled. Fear in her subjects was quite satisfactory.
The trip went on in silence from then, the dark alicorn remained deep in thought. But when the group was two hours out from Canterlot, the alicorn began to twitch, the shadow armor died, her mane turned plush and soft the fire fading, her dark aura changed from one giving off fear, to one of innocence and fear. Her eyes were the last to change, they became big and childlike.
Twilight shifted in the carriage, she found herself crawling to the front with careful hooves, still in a good amount of pain, and not used to being on moving objects, nor traveling without her mom or dad. She saw the changeling driver and tapped him lightly with her hoof, “S-sir.” She piped, “Where are we going?”
The driver gave her a strange look, “Canterlot ma’am.”
Twilight nodded scarily, “Good, I live there.”
“Very good ma’am.” The changeling said, confused.
“Can we stop for ice cream?” Twilight gave the Changeling puppy dog eyes, sitting by him and leaning on the driver’s side. “It would be superdy nice of you!”
“No stops ma’am, please sit in the back. We will be arriving in two hours.”
Twilight gave an indignant huff, “Kay.” She said, crawling back and lying out on the seat, studying her wings with fascination. ‘I wonder why I have wings. I’ll have to ask the princess about this.’ She thought.
Little did she know, the Princess would be the one with the questions.