The Fifty Shades of Twilight

by Ecstatic

Regarding Ponies

Twilight Sparkle woke, her mind blissfully empty of the events of the night before...

Sitting up and rubbing her bleary eyes with her front hooves, her subconscious took an inventory of the things she had noticed; I smell breakfast downstairs, oatmeal and cinnamon, but I don't hear Spike... And my bedsheet is missing.

This last thought was excessively puzzling to Sparkle, as she self-consciously adjusted to a more appropriate posture and glanced downwards.

this is a mess! Ran frantically through Sparkle's mind, until the events of the night before caused her to drop the scraps of fabric she had been gathering in her hooves.

Nightmare Moon.

The intensity of those words made Sparkle shiver in the now-sunny Summer heat, her mane standing on end in the long-remembered fright of her first day in Ponyville, all those years ago.

Reaching up a hoof in a vain attempt to soothe the nervous tick that threatened to cascade into an emotional melt-down, Sparkle poured her concentration into the simple task of knitting her sheet back together with a simple spell that Rarity had shown her once for minor fabric mishaps. This application of knowledge calmed her into the mindless placidity that she always felt after the nervous high of being given a test that she knew she would ace.

Looking up with a determined glint in her violet eyes, Sparkle slid off the mattress as her barely-ruffled linens fell back into place and forwent the stairs, instead teleporting directly onto the first floor, she would eat her breakfast; hoofidly kept warm in a bowl of her design, enchanted to keep the food inside in it's original state for long durations.

Thank Spike later, check! her mind provided helpfully, and as she pulled up a chair and levitated a spoon over to her breakfast, she finished the thought...

And then I'll study that dream spell, I must have cast it wrong! Oooh, what would Luna think? What would anypony think?! I might have broken the past! she almost dropped her now-empty bowl before it reached the sink, a nervous ball of energy as she danced from one hoof to the other into the main library.

Collapsing into the chair with a thump, she pulled nearly a dozen books from the shelves into a neat stack on the desk before her, and with her horn still glowing, flipped open the book Luna had sent her to the correct page.

"I'll fix this, even if it takes all day!" she muttered to herself, not noticing Spike's letter finish falling to the floor in the midst of the breeze her levitation had kicked up, but Sparkle was right; he was at Rarity's.

Her last thought before losing herself in the pages was that she'd study all night too, if it came to that.

------

Snapping to alertness, Sparkle raised her head, barely noticing the unfamiliarity of her location as her eyes were drawn to the midnight Alicorn standing before her.

Nightmare Moon! her mind shrieked for the second time that day, Am I sleeping? How could I be sleeping, the last thing I remember...

Was being tired, a dragging sensation as her head drooped towards the desk, words becoming blurry as she fell into this abyss.

For an abyss it seemed, a ghastly fog rolled across the bare rock, towering walls of glimmering obsidian rose to the sky, casting a dark shadow over the narrow space between them... And in the middle of it all, the nightmarish countenance of a corrupted Luna strode towards her.

"Welcome..."

Sparkle felt a brief invasion in her mind, like a mental equivalent of the Ponyville nurse checking her pulse as Nightmare Moon intoned those words.

"Twilight Sparkle," the voice came again, chipping away at her very essence before continuing; "That is thou name, is it not? Thou hast caused Us great trouble this Night, thou were exceedingly difficult to locate..."

Sparkle, ears pressed backwards to her skull, backed up until she hit a wall as the Nightmare came ever closer.

"Thou doth need not worry, Sparkle." Nightmare Moon said as she picked up the terrified unicorn in a almost gentle embrace and nuzzled their horns together, her voice losing it's Canterlot pattern and becoming almost seductive, as the Nightmare whispered in her ear.

"We only want to know how you came to enter our realm, just a few hours ago, we want to know who gave you the forbidden knowledge of dreams." The voice lulled Twilight Sparkle into a daze, what harm could ever come to her here? Or so her mind insisted with all the fervor of a child...

As Sparkle opened her mouth, the words right on her tongue, to tell her beloved sister everything, she felt herself falling again, and heard an blood-chilling scream of rage as she fell from the elaborate dream-world into wakefulness...

------

Her eyes clenched shut.

An uncomfortably hard surface pressing into her back.

The smell of lavender and mint pressed against her fur.

Hooves shaking her fiercely.

...And a welcome voice, her brain flooded with adrenaline and her eyes snapped open to see the concerned expression of Luna quickly melt into a relieved smile.

Without thinking, Sparkle threw herself into Luna's embrace and sobbed into her mane, all the horrors, the manipulations, wiping from her soul like a tidal wave.

After some time, she heard Luna ask if she were okay...

And are you okay? she asked herself, the answer being decidedly No.

She wasn't okay, Nightmare Moon had tried to take everything from her, the demon that had claimed the Princess she now clung to, the Princess still struggling from those thousand years.

Who had ravaged an entire country in search for dominion over the Sun?

Who would never willingly have released Luna from it's grasp?

Sparkle smirked into the glossy midnight coat she was currently pressed tight against.

No, everything isn't okay, she thought....

But I'll make it okay, I'm Twilight Sparkle, I'm the Element of Magic, friend, sister, confident, student. I'll do anything to save those I love. her eyes narrowed with inspiration as a thought occured to her, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I can speak to the past, I know! I'll do it, I'll make him banish the Nightmare to the moon, just like it's all supposed to be! And I'll still have saved her then, it'll all be okay Twilight...

Lifting her head and smiling, a light in her eyes that Luna couldn't quite decipher, she stood up from where she was sitting and tried to relax the muscles in her sore back.

"I'm okay, Luna, really. It was just a nightmare, maybe I studied too hard, hah hah." she said with a smirk and a laugh, and rushed forward to grab one of Luna's front hooves. "What about you? What are you doing here? Is everypony okay, is Celestia okay, is it about Blueblood, did he do something? I thought you wouldn't be here for days!" Sparkle gushed in a Pinkie Pie-esque fashion, not quite realizing that the pink Earth Pony was poking her head every so gradually out of the toaster...

Then again, Luna didn't notice either, and the pair trotted out the door to the library, talking about all manner of things to spend the day together with all of Sparkle's other friends...

And by the time the door closed, leaving the library in a state of darkness? Pinkie Pie was left with the amusement of rubbing off on Sparkle, not that anypony ever truly leaves Pinkie Pie behind, in fact, Pinkie Pie was already far ahead of her two friends.

And while this would easily cause Sparkle to be frustrated, she was calmer than ever, for she viewed the coming night with a satisfied finality, if only it were that easy.

------------

Twilight Shade moved through the clearing in the middle of the camp designated Ponyville, marvelling at the absence of snow.

It's as if just being in Princess Celestia's presence imparts some of the warmth of the Sun...

He groaned softly, remembering the warmth that remained in the very room she slept in. Or any room she stayed in even briefly, his mind steadfastly refusing to dwell on the almost shameful awkwardness of being so close to Equestria's sole beacon in the darkness.

He felt like a filly, clumsy and uncoordinated... He'd trudged through weeks of snow to deliver a hoof-full of messages to Celestia herself, and here he remained, just waiting to be sent off to freeze his tail off for the sake of the same ponies that bask in the comfort of Canterlot...

He kicked a stone morosely as a Royal Guard passed in front of him, That should be me, I can't believe. Nopony should fly in this weather, they told me. And sent me packing for this frozen wasteland to do who knows what. he thought, and threw a glance at the time-piece fastened just above his hoof, "Dr. Whooves incorporated." was stamped into the gold rimming the watch-face... "Hah," Shade remarked cynically, "At least one industry managed to prosper from the irregular schedule of daylight..."

Moving back to his assigned bunk, the day having gone by in a blur, and the winter chill making nights longer for everypony just to have a restful sleep, he passed by a room littered with maps there was the Princess, imposing over her generals as they chattered away, they seemed to get closer to Nightmare Moon daily...

But he barely dwelled on it as he passed by, hardly noticing the look that Celestia threw his way, and fell into his bed, letting sleep claim him.

------------

It'd been a full day for Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash again, Pinkie Pie. And Spike, naturally. Luna? Luna was there the entire time, they'd managed to get their gossip out of the way before Rarity found out, and Sparkle could just imagine that now.

"Hi Rarity! I'm-throwing-a-party-for-Luna-who-just-showed-up-even-though-she-wasn't-supposed-to-be-here-for-days-and-I-heard-she-sure-showed-that-meany-pants-Blueblood-up-and-she's-with-Twilight-now-and-it's-going-to-be-AWESOME! With cupcakes and streamers and streamer decorated cupcakes and cupcake decorated streamers! OOO! Streamer punch, streamer balloons? Streamer presents?!" her mind intoned in an almost perfect imitation of Pinkie Pie's voice, but it felt like reciting from a textbook, it had to, Sparkle couldn't handle actually thinking about Pinkie Pie thinking...

That thought led Sparkle to shudder as she remember the Hydra incident, before her mind blanked out rational thought completely from the wonderful sensation of collapsing into her bed. "Mmm." she moaned into the sheets as she head the front door to the library open below her and Spike called up to her.

"Twilight!!! Luna is-" Looking up she saw Luna standing bemused beside her bed.

"Flying, I know, Spike, get to sleep!" she shouted back, before turning to the Princess of the Night and scooted back off the mattress, gleefully accepting a hug, the pair exchanged a few regretfully quick goodbye's and promises to write each other soon, before Luna took off again, making way for Canterlot and her own much-needed sleep, having stayed awake through-out the day just to spend time in Ponyville.

Sinking back into her pillow with a contented smile, Sparkle weaved the dream spell in her mind, feeling the now-familiar effort as she traveled backwards in time, the equally familiar stallion standing out in her mind's eye... And it occurred to her that this was why the Nightmare couldn't harm her, not directly, a thousand years is a long time to project your influence through.

And perhaps she couldn't harm the Nightmare either, but she wouldn't have to. All she had to do was influence Celestia to do it for her.

Author's Note:

Finally! This chapter was Tardy, partially due to College, my own bad influence, and the need to decide which ideas would make it into this chapter, how they would make it, and so forth. I'm afraid this leaves us on a bit of a Cliffhanger, this chapter was going to originally contain another dream scene between Sparkle and Shade, but I really wanted this chapter to be about Sparkle.

As always, comments are appreciated.

Now for a quick background on Twilight Shade.
Name: Twilight Lee Shade.

Appearance: [color=16022E]Shade has a deep purple, almost black, coat. [color=1F0939]His eyes are almost the same color of indigo. And his mane is silver. His Cutie Mark is similar to Twilight's, except it's harder to discern against the color of his coat.

I will attempt to write his biography later, for some extra information however:
1) He is 27 years old when he meets Twilight Sparkle.
2) He used to be a working class Pony, his education is largely from governmental programs.
3) He was conscripted into the war effort.
4) Neither of his parents were a Unicorn, I am unsure of the rarity of this considering that the Cake's have both a Pegasus and Unicorn child.
5) He has a respectable amount of latent magical talent.

Comments

[Selene Bright]

I like this fic, it has potential, but you need to work on dialogue and character interactions more. Like if it were me, I would have gone into a full blown conversation with Twilight and Luna. I would have showed the conversation instead of just saying; they had a conversation.

No offence, I'm not trying to be mean or any thing, but your going to bore the crap out of your readers if you continue doing that. Besides that little problem you have a really cool idea; I'm a sucker for time travel. Your grammar is also very good; at least I think so.

If you want, you can get me back, I'm currently working on a story called Nightshade. Post a comment and tell me where I need to improve. I can take it.

[Ecstatic]

3302649
Thanks for your comment! :P

I know that character dialogue is an issue, I will try my hand at writing it next chapter, I have no idea how I'm going to style a full-blown conversation between multiple characters, I'm afraid it will come off as Out-of-Character or kind of stiff/forced in general.

But like I said, next chapter I'm planning to drop a multitude of characters in the same room and see what happens, just bear with me, my sociability is a low level.

This is primarily why I welcome tips from readers and fellow writers, I'm so nervous-cited , and would really like to know what works for other people so that I can more easily find what works for me.

[Selene Bright]

3304486

Try two characters talking to each other first, before you try a room full.

I'm afraid it will come off as Out-of-Character or kind of stiff/forced in general.

When writing dialogue just imagine it being said in the character’s voice and go from there.

I still struggle with it myself, but I believe I've gotten better. Just takes allot of practice.

I hope this helped.

[Ecstatic]

3305755

*ahem*
"Listen here, Sugarcube, ya'll be jus' fine just by buckin' the ever-lovin' sunlight outta anypony that has the gumption to go threatin' Fluttershy."

"Cutie Mark Crusader Vigilantes! Yay!"

"Girls! That's not what she meant at all."

I decided to listen to an episode to have voices in my ears while thinking of how to write them, I chose Cutie Mark Chronicles, and the adorableness of filly Twilight and Applejack... Well, exists.

Then again, the above example probably isn't the best (I notice it bears resemblance to actual quotes from the show, but I suppose using pre-existing vocabulary works.), I just enjoy puns involving the Crusaders turning viciously violent due to bad influence.

Thanks for the suggestion, Kain. Now I'm off to study.

[Ecstatic]

Ouch, it's been three weeks and I haven't posted a new chapter.

Mid-term came and went and I survived, I'm really ready to crack down on writing now. And I'm sorry for anyone who was expecting a chapter sooner. (I only hope I haven't caused anypony to lose interest.)

I do not know when the next chapter will be out; but I believe I can schedule my previous conflicts of interest and studying to really bite the bullet and have one out. I also spent some of my time brain-storming for another story, which may have delayed my brainstorming for this one.

[Cookietheif]

like... check

fav... check

reason why i like it... It includes old equestria, and the war between Celestia and Nightmare Moon! Well made, as expected, and I can only imagine how tragic Twilight's influance could be in the chapters to come! Can't wait, Ecstatic!

[Hello 1234]

When will u add more