1.Introduction.
Their first meeting had hardly gone smoothly – what with apocalyptic threats and ancient artefacts – but eventually the dust settled, the wounds were tended to, and that beautiful mare of the night approached Twilight with earnest words of apology and gratitude. The unicorn had floundered incoherently claiming it her ‘duty’ and an ‘honour’ – for some unthinkable reason her voice simply refused to properly obey her in the presence of the dark alicorn. She would later seek an explanation for this anomaly in her numerous books, but ultimately it would not be in their inked pages that she finally finds her answer.
2.Love
In her millennium of banishment the moon goddess had forgotten the feelings that accompanied falling in love. Naturally she had experienced it many times before her fall into corruption – after all being immortal did not make her immune to Cupid’s barbed arrow. But though she knew of love – and all the symptoms there of –she still revelled in the almost unfamiliar sensations: the hammering of her ever-beating heart; the almost painful shortness of breath; the joyful flick of her sensitive ears when they caught the sound of that one unicorn’s laughter. She couldn’t deny it even if she wanted to.
3.Inoccence
“Twilight! ‘Tis this blasphemy truly all that is remembered!?”
Twilight sighed, she had foolishly offered to help Luna catch up on the last one thousand years of history. Glancing at the tome currently being scrutinised. “Hardhoof the bloody? One of the most decorated officers from before the founding of the EUP, executed by his commander for treason? What about him?”
“‘Tis lies! All of it! Hardhoof was under-order! His only crime – neigh, his only fault – was obeying that snake of a commander!”
Twilight blinked “Wait you’re saying that Hardhoof – one of the greatest traitors in Equestrian history – was innocent?!”
“Yes!”
4.Light
Twilight Sparkle lived in the light. She studied ether and mana not dirt nor dark magic. She was the personal student of the sun goddess and she bore an element of pure blinding power. Princess Luna of Equestria lived in an entirely different world. She had long ago mastered the darker arts and cared little for the ‘purer’ magics. She was the moon goddess and mistress of night, her very existence was one of shadow. Yet she would shed her comforting darkness, forsake her power, and force herself into the light if that is what her Twilight asked of her.
5.Dark
As a filly darkness had brought fear; it had promised horrors; told silent tales of disobedient or disappointing fouls being dragged screaming into the night. Darkness meant hiding under her blankets and lighting her horn in the hopes of banishing the grizzly demons that undoubtable prowled the shadows; and sometimes it meant braving cold, shadowy corridors in search of somepony to protect her. But now darkness had an entirely different meaning to Twilight. Now darkness meant night-time rendezvous under starry skies; it meant the purest of temptations and it meant unquestioning trust. Now darkness meant love; now it meant Luna.
6.Past
She still hadn’t truly forgiven herself, not really. How could she? She had so much red on her coat and so many deaths on her horn, how could she ever be redeemed. Twilight often assured her that nopony held her accountably for her crimes; that she shouldn’t bear any guilt over the actions of her nightmarish alter ego. But then, Twilight didn’t really understand. She had never told the unicorn much about the time before she and her sister held the throne – she didn’t want to. How could she explain that not all the lives were claimed by Nightmare Moon?
7.Break_Away
Sometimes Twilight needed escape. Not often and never for long, but occasionally. Whenever it reached a point were she just couldn’t any more, she – exhausted from living on power naps; tired of Spike’s doting and insisting that she eats; and sick of her studies and, usually beloved, books would disappear. Spike, who would have recognized the symptoms before she vanished, would inform any who came looking for her that she was away on important business and that they should return later – as she wouldn’t be gone for long. This was one thing to which the midnight alicorn was no exception.
8.Heaven
‘I’ll never see heaven.’ There was a lot to legitimize this stray thought, for one, she was immortal; there was also the problem of redemption, something which – she was certain – would forever be beyond her reach. Another thing that came to mind was the fact that she didn’t really belong to any faith, being the closest entity to a god – second only to Discord himself – didn’t leave her many avenues of worship. But as she shuffled her wings and drew the sleeping form of her lover closer to her, Luna decided that maybe heaven didn’t have to come after death.
9.Drive
Curiosity. For a long time that was Twilight’s sole motivator: an overwhelming insatiable desire for knowledge; the will to know, to understand. It was the thing that drove her. Perhaps it was even that same curiosity that drew her to the mysterious princess of the night in the first place. All the ancient and forbidden knowledge that the alicorn undoubtable possessed not to mention a mastery of a form of magic that could be considered the exact opposite of her own. It was to learn, that was why she approached the goddess – or at least that’s what she told herself.
10.Breathe
She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs were on fire and her head was spinning and she couldn’t breathe. Fear, anxiety, confusion, confliction, hope: raced in her mind and roared in her ears. She couldn’t remember ever feeling like this; she didn’t try to remember, she didn’t try to think: all that mattered, all that existed, was the disturbingly serene face of the unicorn that she desperately clings to. Forcing her wings to near breaking point she finally breached the water’s surface, but even then she doesn’t breathe, not till she hears a desperate, waterlogged gasp from the mare in her grasp.