You mean running of the leaves not winter wrap up.

I am optimistic about this story, hope to see more.

Fixed -- thanks. Glad you're following it!

Why can I see this going horribly, horribly, horribly wrong?

We've got Twilight Sparkles friends paying a visit during the week of these deathmatches...and we all know how bad a liar Twilight is....

I'm forseeing (somehow, I don't yet know how) Pinkie Pie discovering Twilight Swords secret and these being the reactions.    Okay, maybe not the Rarity one there, but I can't find a suitable one in the emoticon list that I can see... You get the idea

*kicks back and watches the blood and chaos ensue* Khorne approves of this fimfic.

humm could be an interesting tale, Twilight trying to reconcile her 2 identities. Is she Twilight Sparkle or Twilight Sword, or somepony in between the two.  Also I can't see Celestia casting the memory charm with out reason, not having some plan that involved Twilight needing to live a second much different life. And What kind of conflict will Twilight and Violet have, don't see Luna planning a rebellion but can't have 2 competing champions of Equestia with out some reason.

Well this can't go well...

I'm getting the feeling that AJ's going to eventually say "You're not my friend.  I was friends with Twilight Sparkle, a bookworm librarian.  Not this cold-blooded killer, Twilight Sword.  You're just a stranger."

Well....this can't go over very well with Pinkie... I wonder if the other participants/leaders will try to call interference on this match given the pink party ponies prescence...

>>594825594825  Perhaps, but from what Pinkie said, it was Goliath who tricked Pinkie into showing up in the arena in the first place. That implies that Goliath and her team gave tacit consent for Pinkie's presence, so they can't really complain afterwards. As for the others, Celestia can just point out that Pinkie was much more of an impediment to Twilight than a help -- PInkie certainly didn't do anything to hurt Goliath, and Twilight had to use energy and attention to keep her alive.

"How long do you think Apple Blossom would last--"

Her name is Apple Bloom, last time I checked.

I am greatly concerned that that you would make an error like that.

However, I am more concerned that no one else picked up on it.

Im going to go fix my suspension of disbelief now. Bye.

>>614728614728: Fixed. Thanks for catching that! Guess that one slipped by me. :-)

Damn

Image: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/002/393/snapsjoseph_copy.png

you call Rainbow a he and him in this chapter. I'm pretty sure that Rainbow is female

"Dash said he found a way that you wouldn't"

"She didn't know what Dash was thinking, or with what magic Luna had brainwashed him to do this."

>>624078624078: Fixed. Thanks for telling me. I was originally thinking of using a male OC here as Violet's substitute, decided to make it Dash, but I guess I forgot to change a couple pronouns.

PLEASE don't tell me she actually killed her!

This isn't good...this is not good.... Wait...hang on... Celestia said at the beginning this was a test...of character...

*crosses hooves and hopes this is all either a dream or some kind of simulation spell*

>>582534582534 BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD AND SKULLS FOR HIS SKULL THRONE!

'Tis a good fic, I rather enjoy this one.  looking forward to the complications.....

>>624851624851: *whistles innocently*

>>625522625522 figgered as much.

One more chapter to go! Will Twilight awake to find that it's all a dream? Will she awake to find it's some kind of magical simulation? Will she awake in pony Hell to find that she's damned to the lowest circle for betraying a friend? Or perhaps she'll awake in a Pinkie party, but it'll be one of those ironic Twilight Zone Hell-parties where the food and music suck and she can't leave and all the guests are the people she hurt in life and all the games involve dumping acid on her. Tune in next time for the answer!

>>630881630881

ohmanihateyousomuchrightnowwhereisthenextchapter?

>>630881630881

1 & 2 would be cliche, 3 would be cruel, and 4 would just make no sense. Im gonna go 5: None of the above. But if I had to chose, I would do 3, then 1.

But you've already chosen. So this thought is now derp.

This last part ran much longer than I thought, so I split it into two chapters... meaning there's still one more to go. Very last chapter (for real this time!) should be out tomorrow evening-ish.

Aaaawkwarrd.... Methinks the Sparkle is over-reacting as usual... and not exactly the best timing on RD's part I must say...

Tracking.

for once i have no idea what's going to happen.. i like that.

Keep it up! <3

>>641654641654

Hmm, not really.  In her 'test', she'd done things that she honestly doesn't think even Discord or Nightmare Moon would stoop to.  Slitting the throat of a non-combatant, murdering Dash in cold blood.

As far as she's concerned, she's failed it. Hard.  Not only that, but it revealed something about herself that she never wanted to know.

>>642062642062 I meant with trying to run away from Celestia cus she thinks she's failed the test. That's what I meant by the over-reacting bit.

As a brony, I can not agree with the cold hearted murder of Rainbow Dash, Twilight or somepony else, dood.

But as a prinny and a demon, I'd be begging her to be a overlord, dood, Demons that do that kind of thing are worshipped here in the Netherworld, go go sparkle GO, dood.

In the last couple lines I think it should be "She" not "He"

Twilight's freak out is understandable, being put into a test that doesn't end until you fail, with some as OCD as she is about tests having to deal with something like that would really mess you up.  I am glad the direction you took this in the "everyone dies/lives miserably ever after" ending doesn't really suit MLP fanfiction to me, even when you go as dark as this story having a "happy" ending that isn't sappy feels good.

>>646060646060: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. The ending was challenging to write -- I knew that I wanted Dash to be forgiving, but if it was too much 'who cares that you tried to kill me! Friendship!' then it would be silly. That's why Dash ends up explaining more about the test, so as to indicate why exactly she's able to forgive Twilight here. It's not that she's cool with some pony trying to kill her, it's that she knows how tough the test is and that practically no one can fight it, and that Twilight actually put up a very impressive effort.

The original draft of this story was actually even darker -- while, in the published one, Twilight only kills Dash of her friends, in the first draft, she went even crazier after killing Dash and proceeded to track down and kill Applejack (who she thought had convinced Dash to go through with her plan), Pinkie (who wasn't as forgiving of Twilight as she wanted), and also Violet (who at that point had nothing to do with anything, she was just in the same room) in a fit of despair and rage. But I felt that would be going too far. It's a dark story, but I didn't want it to get so dark that it lost its mlp feeling and became a random gorefest. I mean, it's still a violent story, but there;s violent and then there's 'And then Twilight killed another of her friends by crushing her, and then she killed another one by asphyxiation', and the latter didn't work. It didn't really fit in with the mlp feeling.

Technically, the test does have an end point, it's just that almost noone ever gets there. (In one draft, there was a line indicating that a post-Nightmare Moon Luna was able to resist it because of her personal experience in knowing what going evil will cost, but it didn't really add anything so I cut it). I debated having an epilogue where the rest of the mane 6 took the test (to show Twilight that they also wouldn't pass, and to help convince her that even if a pony didn't pass it didn't make them Chaotic Evil) and Fluttershy actually got through it without doing anything horrible, but I decided that it detracted from the ending and so didn't write it. Maybe I'll do it as a one-shot though at some point.

>>645961645961: Fixed, thanks!

>>646238646238no problem.

If rainbow took the test shed become the R-Dash 5000 and CRUSH KILL DESTROY...SWAG

i just want to say first of all that i really liked most of the story (since i will be pointing out a couple of things that i found less than satisfactory), especially from the middle towards the end, but i do have a few things i thought of:

first, her name; twilight sword, that seriously didn't make any sense, why "sword" of all things, she was still not a physical fighter in any sense, not that the name says anything about how she fights, but you know; it's hard to get it out of my mind...

so celestia tells twilight that she is going to take a judge of character test, but she does not tell her that the test is designed to make her fail on top of actually only ending once she does fail, and that she's not a bad person for failing. i feels like it should have been the easiest preparation in the world considering she knows twi pretty well and has both seen others go through with it as well as having gone through with it herself...

you had dash pull kind of a Deus Ex Machina there with the thing that lets her follow twi, you could at least have had her disappear and then have her using something to track her instead, which of she would have gotten after twilight has disappeared

i couldn't believe that i had actually finished the story when i reached the end of the last chapter, felt like you were really picking up with the story, going from good to incredible, but then you just ended it suddenly. i mean, i liked what you wrote in the end, it just didn't feel like an ending. in my opinion you could have at least have her talk to the princesses or/and her other friends a bit, it would be nice to read about her thoughts on going from one "reality" to another

to be honest i think the reveal would be better if twilight got a nasty gash that gave them sucpsions but the storys finished so hay

wow i forgot how to spell suspicions

wait so twilight killing herself is failing the test or killing rainbowdash

im tired by the way so dont judge me for not knowing

I just read through this whole thing today. I loved it. It had me at the edge of  my seat the whole time.

Faved, and you got a new watcher.

So i take it was all Twilight's head?

good story.

SO AWESOME

So then Twilight and Rainbow totally banged. Right?

OK, that was really awesome.  But "if you think X, you've got another THINK coming".  

wha- WHAT?!?!?!?!?! BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU KILLED DASHIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i liked the story but in my personal opinion.... bullshit ending... i hate happy endings.

Celestia...............what did u do?......and why will it have serious consequences because this is a dark fic...............

Celestia......y u cast memory altering spell......u got some spalin to do

ok pause and rewind---WARNING SPOILER SPECULATIONS AHEAD.....before this started Celestia said this was a test of personality.........is this really happening....I wonder if this is a hypothetical and the way she reacts is the test......was the spell really removing a memory block or was it a memory imput

oh my.....is Pinky going to lose it again.....in a way it might be nice is my theory is wrong.....this is rough

this is going to come to a headway.....she's going to go a bit too far and......

yup.........that was the...a bit too much.........oh boy

aha...so I was right....mentioned that theory earlier

its the test or part of it.....that was mean Celestia

its probably better this way......this was really nice....congrats.  I do wish there was 1 more chapter; I would have liked to read her conversation with the Princess(es) about it but still nice job....also when you it that way RD....Twilight did AWESOME

Sequel ? really tho this is a great fic. The idea of twi being a super soldier is super cool and the fights scenes were interesting. Great job sir

Well, i just read this all in one go.  There aren't many words to describe the feeling i've got right now, except detached.

Honestly? since the reveal of twi being a 'super soldier' in the story, i had somehow anticipated how most of the direct plot twists, with the exception of Celestia wishing to swap Twilight and Luna just before the execution.

What really got me is how twi reacted, it seemed as though she were two different minds in one body during most of it, as conflicted as she was.

Great story, It really makes you question some decision you make in life.