• Published 9th Mar 2013
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Vengeance of Dawn - Scipio Smith



Princess Twilight Sparkle comes under attack by a foe seeking revenge for something Twilight does not even remember. It seems that finding your destiny can steal others' away.

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Long Dark Night: Counsel of the Princesses

Chapter 10

Long Dark Night: Counsel of the Princesses

Twilight Sparkle lay face down upon her bed, in the plush comfort of her home, and sobbed into her pillow. Her sorrows poured outwards while cruel words whirled around her mind and would not leave her be.

"Twily?" Shining Armour pushed open the door to Twilight's bedroom, poking his head inside. "Twily, are you okay?"

"Do I sound like I'm okay?" Twilight wailed.

Shining Armour walked softly into the room, his tread soft upon the carpet, "Come on, talk to me. What's wrong?"

Twilight didn't look up from her pillow, "Scarlet Shine, that filly I met at school, you remember?"

Shining Armour nodded, "Yeah, your friend who was hanging around when I picked you up that one time."

"That's just it," Twilight sobbed. "She kept on asking me when she could get to meet Princess Celestia. She was always pushing it and pushing it. And at first I thought it was just because she thought Princess Celestia was as cool as I do. But I talked to the Princess about it and she said that Scarlet Shine's parents are always trying to get to see Princess Celestia about...something I don't remember. And when I asked Scarlet about it, she told me that her parents had told her to be my friend so that they could get in to see the Princess."

Shining Armour was at a loss for anything to say. Looking at it, it seemed inevitable that some ponies would try to take advantage of Twily's closeness to Princess Celestia to further their own ambitions, but he knew that Mom and Dad had hoped to avoid having to tell Twily that, that the school would protect her from it. Among the guards he had recieved a bit of good natured banter - 'Hey, Shining Armour, ask your sister to get me a promotion will you?' 'So when's your sister gonna make you First Captain, huh?' - but nopony seriously expected him to go to his baby sister and ask for favours from the Princess. Apparently there were someponies who really were that unscrupulous.

"That's rough, Twily," he said lamely. "So, what happened after that?"

"I asked her why, and Scarlet Shine she said," Twilight paused as more tears fell. "She said that nopony would ever want to be my friend. She said that I was an egghead and a loser and she'd been bored stupid every minute she's spent with me. How could she say stuff like that?"

"Because she's an idiot and she isn't worthy of you," Shining Armour said, putting one leg around Twilight's shoulders. "Twily, believe me, some day you'll fine real friends who appreciate you for the clever, brave, kind pony that you are. Who value you and your friendship for your own sake for who you are, not for what they can get out of you. Until then, you just have to be on your guard okay. Don't give too much to ponies you don't trust, and don't trust everypony without good cause."

"I'm not going to give anything to anypony any more," Twilight growled. "Who needs friends anyway? All they are is a distraction. I've got you and Spike and Cadance. That's all I need."

Shining Armour gave a small smile, "I think you may change your mind about that one day."

"No I won't," Twilight insisted. "I'm never going to need anypony else, ever!"

***

The dungeons of Canterlot were not so grim nor ghoulish as the wild imaginings of Twilight or Fluttershy would have made them, but they were not a cheerful place by any measure. Beneath the gleaming marble of the palace lay cold grey stone, beneath the red and gold-leafed doors lay hard iron bars. In place of fluffy mattresses and lavish hangings there were spring beds. Cleanliness was the place's only recommending feature.

Twilight stood outside of one of these cells, her brow knitted in a furious glower. There was a guard standing nearby the door, Captain Lancer standing behind her, but she was barely aware of them. Like the dungeons themselves, they were mere scenery to her. She had ordered her friends - huh, how that word seemed to cry out for sarcastic venom to her now - back to her own palace. She would deal with them later. For now, she was all alone. As she wanted.

Inside the cell, separated from her by the bars of the door, Shining Armour sat on the ground.

"Why?" Twilight demanded. "Why did you do it? Why did you betray Cadance like that?"

"Because I wasn't happy, Twilight Sparkle," Shining Armour replied. "You want me to be happy, don't you?"

"Not happy? Not happy!" Twilight's voice rose, high pitched with incredulous fury. "You think that that gives you the right to...do you even realise what you've done? To Cadance, to me?"

"I freed myself," Shining Armour said, "from the shackles of a cold union. Now Rarity and I can be together."

"You're going to sit in this cell until Rarity's teeth rot and her mane falls out and she has to dye her tail to keep it that pretty colour, I guarantee it," Twilight snarled, her horn bubbling black and green as she pressed her face against the bars of the cell door. "We'll see how much you love her then, or how much she cares for you when you're nothing but skin draped on old bones."

"Ma'am," Lancer began warily.

"Silence!" Twilight shouted. "If I want a word from you I'll ask you for it." Her skin began to darken, black lines spreading up and down her body. Anger was like oozing ecstasy inside her, suffusing her, completing her. Her state of rage felt natural, the way she ought to be.

Shining Armour showed no fear of her. In fact he smiled. He did not seem so much like the brother she knew, but then the brother she knew would never have confessed to the things he had confessed to doing.

"Twilight Sparkle, why don't you ask me what we both know is really on your mind? Did Rarity know what I was going to do?"

Twilight's apoplexy shuddered to an abrupt halt in the face of her brother's cold, cutting barb. She scowled, "I already know the answer, I heard what passed between you."

"You heard her lying, you mean?" Shining Armour's smile never faltered. "Ask her about the love letters. She knew. Since the moment we met we've both known. Rarity only tried to lie because she thought you were on to her."

"That's a lie," Twilight growled. "You, and Rarity? I was at your wedding remember, I saw how you were with Cadance, the way you danced together you─"

"Loved her once?"

Twilight snorted, "I believed it, yes."

"More fool you then Twilight Sparkle. I never loved her. It was Rarity all along."

"But poison? Why?"

Shining Armour shrugged.

A growl of anger rose from the back of Twilight's throat. Her head pounded. She wanted to tear down the door to that cell and throttle the answers from him. No, no she didn't. She wanted to get out of here before she was sick.

"You know, you were right all along BBBFF," Twilight said as she turned away, tears in her eyes. "I should have learnt better than to trust anypony who could hurt me."

***

Lancer watched out of the side of his eye as Princess Twilight stalked away. He suppressed a shiver with great effort. Lately, his mistress had begun to scare him just a little and that was an uncomfortable position for a guard to be in. Still, what she was doing, what she was becoming, that was not his concern. His duty was to serve, to protect and to obey and he would do all those things to the best of his ability. And hopefully he would catch whoever was out to destroy her while he was about it.

He did not follow in her wake. Princess Twilight had made clear that she did not want his company. He stayed where he was, looking Shining Armour square in the face. Shining Armour stared back.

Lancer smirked, "So who are you really? Or should I maybe say what are you? A changeling? Is this some complicated plot by Queen Chrysalis? Or are you under a spell of some kind because the one thing I know is that is not Shining Armour looking back at me."

"I don't want your talking about," Shining Armour said. "I'm me."

Lancer shook his head, "I taught you once that nopony pays attention to the guard. Certainly not our mistresses. But we're always there, always watching, and we keep their secrets and know more than they realise. You called the princess Twilight Sparkle. Shining Armour calls his sister Twily, sometimes Twilight."

Shining Armour blinked, his face expressionless as he stared back at Lancer, "Twily didn't-"

"Too late for that now," Lancer snapped. "Princess Twilight is not thinking clearly. I am. I was at your wedding too. I saw the look on your face when you showed up for duty after your first date. I remember the day before you asked her to marry you, it was all you could talk about. You won't convince me that that was all an act. I've seen you trying to lie, your terrible. You weren't faking how you felt about Princess Cadance. But someone's faking now. Open the door."

The turnkey frowned, "Sir?"

"I said open it," Lancer commanded.

"Yes sir, right away," the key rattled in the lock, the iron door squealed as it slid open. Shining Armour didn't move.

Lancer walked into the cell, pressing his face close against Shining Armour, "I don't know who you are or what you've done to the real Shining Armour, but I know you set him up. I don't fully know what your game is yet, but I'll stop it and I will find you."

Shining Armour smirked as he leaned in to whisper in Lancer's ear, "Prove it."

Lancer scowled as he belted Shining Armour across the jaw, knocking him flying into the corner of the cell.

"Sir!" gasped the horrifed guard upon the door.

"Eyes front," Lancer snapped. In a softer tone he said, "See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing. Understand me lad?"

The guard looked dead ahead of himself, "Yes, sir!"

Shining Armour rubbed his jaw with one hoof, "Did that make you feel better?"

Lancer glared at him, "Changelings reveal themselves under attack. Of course that might not have been attack enough." He hauled Shining Armour and up and struck him down again.

He resolutely refused to change into a changeling.

"Pity," Lancer said. "Must be a curse then." He hit Shining Armour a third time, "Shining Armour lad, I'm sorry about this but I know you're in there. Come on boy, snap out of it."

"There isn't anything to snap out of."

"Don't give me that, I taught you, I know you," Lancer hit him again. "I know this isn't you, I know the real Shining Armour is trapped inside fighting to get out. Fight harder! Maybe if I hit you enough times you'll weaken enough to let him out."

"Or are you just afraid that you don't know me half as well as you thought you did?" Shining Armour asked. "That you aren't half as observant as you think you are?"

Lancer hit him again.

"Come on, come back," Lancer said, standing over Shining Armour, his face imploring. "Wake up and tell me that you didn't do this, Come on!"

Shining Armour said nothing.

***

It was raining now, the sky concealed behind a wall of dark and angry clouds. Twilight paid it no mind. The rain cascaded down upon her and she was heedless of it. Other ponies scuttled to and fro trying to keep dry but not her. She walked unflinching through the tempest to her palace and flung open the gates with her dark magic.

The guards bowed to her, but she ignored them. Just like she ignored the servants as she crossed into the palace itself. Scurrying little insects. She was an alicorn and a princess, elevated above the likes of them. And I can be elevated higher still, if I wish. Twilight stalked through the corridors, her shadow cast by the candles and the lamps, and other shadows gathered around her, trailing in her wake and dancing all about her though she did not see them. Twlight Sparkle was a wraith passing through her own home, and the darkness came on before and followed after.

It was now no effort at all to conjure up the dark magic. In fact the effort lay in not using it. So her horn bubbled and boiled with trouble as she used it to open every door in her path, clear aside every obstacle in her way and storm into the drawing room where her so called friends where gathered waiting for her.

What a sorry sight they were. A milksop, a fool, a braggart and a vain and simpering toady. And a little baby dragon to round them out. Where these companions worthy of a princess? Fit to be cupbearers to a god? Did she even need to ask?

They waited silent in the purple room, standing upon the gilt-edged carpet, Rainbow Dash floating up near the crystal chandelier. They looked apprehensive, as well they might.

While I slept they dined well off of me, grew fat upon my favours, soaked up my indolent goodwill. Now the lean years are arrived and I will squeeze them hard.

"Twilight─" Fluttershy began.

"Get out," Twilight cut her off coldly. "I don't want to speak to you, I don't want to see you. All of you go. Except for you, Rarity."

Rarity looked shocked to be singled out. Twilight wasn't fooled, Thought you'd got away with it huh? Right now she hated everything about Rarity, from her false lashes to her perfectly pedicured hooves.

"Maybe you should calm down first, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said. "You've had a hard evening and you don't look so good."

"Oh, so you're so awesome you can even organise my life now?" Twilight spat. "When I want advice on how to make everypony think I'm the most self-absorbed jerk in Equestria, I'll come to you. Until then, leave. Go to your one fan and see if Scootaloo wants to rub your ego some more."

"Hey! Come on Twilight, there's no need to be mean to Rainbow Dash, she didn't do anything," Pinkie Pie said.

"That's right, she never does anything. Just like you, Pinkie, that must be why you're such good buddies," Twilight snarled. "Sweet Celestia, how things that were charming in a filly become grotesque in a grown pony. Balloons, candy, cake, parties. You just breeze through life with no plan and no ambitions and everypony always dotes on you don't they? You know why that is? Because you've got all the brains and maturity of a two year old and you shouldn't be allowed out of the house without a minder."

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie fled, the latter in tears. Spike and Fluttershy didn't wait for a tongue lashing of their own, but followed the first two out toot sweet. Twilight slammed the door behind them with dark magic.

"The free ride ends now," Twilight shouted. Then she turned her attention to Rarity, "Now then, Rarity darling."

Rarity swallowed, "Twilight, please, you're frightening me."

"Good, you deserve to be frightened," Twilight stalked around her until she was behind Rarity and facing the door. She ran one hoof idly over the piano in the corner, "Tell me Rarity, do you know how to play this piano?"

Rarity looked uncertain, "I'm afraid not."

"It's quite simple. Just press the white or black keys with your hooves and it will make a pretty sound. Try it."

Rarity shook her head, "I don't know how."

"But you though you knew how to play me easily enough, and I don't even have keys for you to press upon," Twilight exploded. "Did you know?"

"I don't─"

"Did you know?" Twilight yelled.

"No, of course not."

"Liar, what about the letters?"

Rarity froze, "You know about that?"

"Now I do," Twilight smiled in vicious triumph. "Tell the truth."

"Shining Armour wrote me letters, love letters. But not until after Cadance was poisoned. I didn't tell you because I thought it was a prank, a sick joke."

"Or because you knew that you were partly to blame," Twilight muttered.

"No!" Rarity insisted. "I was as shocked as you to find out what he'd really done! As horrified as you!"

"So you never thought about my brother that way?" Twilight asked. "After the gala he must have seemed like the kind of replacement for Prince Blueblood you were looking for, certainly after he became Prince of the Crystal Empire."

"I have never thought that," Rarity said loudly. "I would never set my sights on another mare's stallion, certainly not Cadance. I told Shining Armour himself your friendship means too much to me."

"Too much, yes," Twilight turned away from her, looking out of the window at night time Canterlot as raindrops pattered on the glass. "I gave too much to all of you."

Rarity said, "Twilight, please I implore you, you have to believe me. Please darling, trust me."

"Oh I'll trust you Rarity," Twilight's smile was something savage to behold as she turned back to look Rarity in the eye. "The same way you trusted me when I told you there was something up with Cadance on her wedding day." Where you planning this even then?

Rarity recoiled, gasping in shock, "Twilight-"

"Go." Twilight commanded. "Get out. Out of this palace, out of this city, out of my sight."

Rarity shook her head desperately, pleading to avoid destruction, "Please, Twilight, don't do this."

"I cast you out," Twilight said coldly. "I never wish to set eyes upon you again."

Rarity stiffened as though she had been frozen. Her words, when she found them, were clipped and precise, "Very well. If that is what you wish. Your Highness, I thank you for the audience." And, with a slow, stiff, certain dignity she turned around and walked with precise steps out of the room. It was only when the door closed that Twilight heard a sob from the other side.

Twilight Sparkle scowled. The nerve of that mare, acting the injured party so. Twilight's scowling eyes fell upon a large picture hanging over the cold and empty fireplace. It had been taken at her coronation, and a second copy had been delivered to the library in Ponyville. Twilight herself stood in the centre of the frame, in her crown and princess gown. Her face was flushed, exhilarated but still not quite believing all of this. Spike sat at her feet, beaming happily. Cadance and Shining Armour stood upon her left, while her friends were clustered about her right. Celestia stood at the back, towering over all others. Everypony looked so happy, so full of joy. Pinkie Pie was making a silly face.

Her precious ponies, her friends, her family. Twilight was filled with such rage, such anger at the sight of it. There was a black flash, an explosion, and burned fragments of the picture floated to the floor as the wall smoked. Rarity's face, singed at the edges, landed at Twilight's hoof. She looked so proud of what Twilight had accomplished. A similar expression was on the face of Cadance, and Princess Celestia.

"What have I done?" Twilight murmured.

***

The train whistled at the station, the engine puffing steam up into the night air. Ponies made their last goodbyes before they climbed aboard onto the sleeper cars. A young stallion leaned out of the window to kiss his marefriend farewell. The conductor, yawning, checked his fob watch for the time.

"All aboard the night train to Appleoosa! Calling at Ponyville, Mustang, Hoofington, Saddale and Appleoosa! All aboard!"

Rarity stepped out of the shadows and onto the platform. Her mane had been matted terribly by the rain and stood in dissheveled contrast to its usual fabulosity. She kept her head bowed and her eyes down as she said, "I'd like a one way ticket to Ponyville please."

"Best get aboard quick miss, the train's about to leave."

"Please hold it for a moment," Princess Celestia swept down onto the platform, causing all still standing on it to bow. In the darkness of the night she was light itself. "I wish to speak with the young lady. Will you tell the driver to wait a while, I will not be long."

The conductor rose from his bow, "Y-yes Your Majesty. I'll uh, I'll do that right away." He hurried off towards the engine.

Celestia looked down at Rarity. Rarity would not meet the gaze of the princess and looked away. Is she here to berate me as well?

"You are leaving?"

"Yes," Rarity said. "It has been made clear to me that I am no longer welcome here."

"If that is what you think is best," Celestia said. "But I would ask one thing of you: keep an open mind and a generous heart. Twilight is not herself, she will repent of all her words."

"Not herself," Rarity frowned. "I don't understand, is she─"

"I fear she is succumbing to despair," Celestia said. "In her efforts to save Cadance she has opened herself up to the malignance that now festers in her. She does not speak entirely of her own free will. You must understand that. It is hard, I know from experience, but you must try to understand."

"But then why don't you do something?"

"I cannot. Only Twilight can resolve to change her ways," Celestia replied. "I have sent Luna to counsel her. I hope that warning will be enough."

Rarity blinked rapidly, "Even if you are right, Your Highness, Twilight will still have heard what passed between Shining Armour and myself, those dreadful letters, I'm afraid she will still hold me responsible." Rarity looked towards the train, "I'm sorry Your Highness, I have to go."

Celestia nodded, "I wish you a safe journey home."

Rarity did not reply as she climbed into the rearmost carriage. She sat down by the window, her face reflected ghostly white back at her in the glass, and looked out to find Princess Celestia still staring back at her. The guard blew his whistle, the train hooted and began to move off. The two gazed upon one another until the train had pulled out of Canterlot and each was lost to the sight of the other.

***

Twilight swooped through the rain soaked spires of Canterlot, fleeing into the night from her guilt and from her shame. The rain poured down upon her back, upon her wings, and on her face where the raindrops mingled with the tears running from her eyes.

I just know we're going to be great friends...we shall be the belles of the ball you and I...Twilight Sparkle, I insist on making you a new dress...Hate you? Why whatever do you mean darling?...

"How could I say stuff like that, to Rarity?" Twilight asked of the clouds that hung above. So dark, so bleak, clearly the pegasi responsible for the weather had a sense of pathetic fallacy.

Those things I said to my friends, how could I? And all that stuff I thought. What's happening to me?

You're becoming what you were meant to be. Embrace the dark and you won't ever need them again.

Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Twilight fought to keep the voice out of her head. They helped me save Princess Luna, they helped me defeat Discord, they made my life richer in so many ways, I wouldn't be anything without them.

The power that lies within you doesn't have anything to do with friendship. You were born great, and if anything they're holding you back from achieving your true potential.

Be quiet! Stay out of my head. Twilight swooped into a belltower, driving out the bats that had been sheltering within in a startled swarm. She wrapped her wings about herself and sheltered from the rain while water dripped from her feathers and her mane. Against her back the bronze of the bell was cold.

"What's happening to me?" Twilight murmured.

"You have allowed dark magic to enter your soul, Twilight Sparkle. It has taken seed there, and seeks to choke all else within your garden."

Twilight looked around. Princess Luna stood on the other side of the belltower. She seemed unaffected by the rain, not a hair in her magical mane was out of place, not a feather on her wings had been discomfited. Her face was stern, she glowered down at Twilight with disapproval.

"Princess Luna," Twilight murmured. "I didn't expect to meet anypony else up here."

"I came here looking for you," Luna said. "We are all gravely concerned with you, Twilight Sparkle."

"Me," Twilight shook her head. "You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine."

"Your state of distress and disshevelment would argue otherwise," Luna pointed out.

"I'm just a little shaken up, about Shining Armour and everything. I'll be okay."

"I can feel it within you," Luna said. "The dark magic. It calls out to me as a sister. Just being near you tempts me to sample once against its pleasures."

Twilight's eyes widened, "You mean you-"

Luna nodded, "Yes."

Twilight's breathing became very heavy, "But Princess Luna, this is different. I'm doing this to save Cadance, to bring her back."

"I had my good intentions also," Luna said. "I sought to break King Sombra's curse by using Sombra's own power to restore the Crystal Empire. But it played upon my weaknesses and made me mad. It works upon you in the same way, I feel it."

Don't listen to her. She's lying. She's just jealous of your potential. She doesn't want you to become as strong as it is possible to be.

"This isn't the same thing," Twilight said. "This isn't just something I can let go of. I need this."

"That's the magic talking," Luna pressed. "It tells you that you need it, but nothing good can be accomplished through that power. Put it aside, find another way."

"There is no other way." There is only me.

"There is always another way, but you cannot find it because the dark magic is fogging your mind. If you can control yourself-"

"I don't need Nightmare Moon to teach me self-restraint," Twilight snarled. Her eyes widened and she shrank back, "Princess Luna, I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that."

Luna gave no visible sign the barb had hurt her in any way, "I know why."

"Please, try to understand, if I give up on this then it means giving up on Cadance and I can't. She's the only one who never betrayed me. I have to save her. I can master it until then, I can maintain control-"

"Don't you think that I thought that I was in control?" Luna demanded. "As I turned into Nightmare Moon I still thought that I could master the power I sought for myself. But I could not. Because no one can."

You could.

"I...I," Twilight's head was a thousand banging drums. Her thoughts were jangled beyond recognition. It was all she do to get any words out at all. "I want...I can't...I need to-"

A bell tolled in the distance. A bell of warning from the Twilight Palace. And as the two princesses looked that way, they saw the sky lit up with flame as if Celestia had raised the sun early.

Twilight's palace burned.

Author's Note:

This chapter, and the two which follow, represent the story hitting its lowest in my opinion. I had a brief discussion a few days ago with Space Cowboy on whether the story was getting too dark, and I can say that it will start getting lighter soon.

And I know that the comics established that Luna was transformed by creatures from the moon (though I'm waiting for that arc to come out in trade before I read it) but I liked the idea of Luna being able to counsel Twilight from experience where even Celestia cannot. And hey, AU tag.