The princess's fanatical student. A startlingly honest bootlegger. A prissy high-class escort. A traitor caught between two loyalties. A hyperactive pyromaniac. A quiet assassin who can kill with a word.

The night that has covered Equestria for a thousand years might just be coming to an end. And all of these familiar faces will be engulfed in the war between a victorious Nightmare Moon and her sister, returned from a millennium of exile.

Even as the sun rises, the situation has never seemed so dark.

This story was edited, preread, and otherwise improved by Einhander, Comrade Sparkle, CartsBeforeHorses, Spigo, and IR Pony.

After the changelings' failed invasion of Canterlot, Twilight tries to soothe some of Ponyville's rampant paranoia by casting a spell to prove there are no imposters hiding in the town. But her spell leaves her in an alien body, facing a mob of angry ponies who just don't believe her when she says she is Twilight Sparkle.

Or, at least, she was Twilight Sparkle, anyway...

Featured on Equestria Daily, 2/17/13
Cover art is by the awesome and amazing Conicer

The words flowed across my tongue and out of my lips smoothly. They felt right, they felt... correct.

I felt the familiar thrum of magic throughout my body, a wondrous feeling, a beautiful feeling. It started as a warmth, then a tingle, then a flood of sensation... different feelings based upon the essences of the magic.

The pulsating purple shimmer surrounded my horn, and began to illuminate the different glyphs and geometric patterns I had painstakingly drawn out for the last few hours.

In my past I endeavored to force my magic, to bend it to my will for my own needs, but now it came effortlessly. Softly, gently, the magic lifted me up from the floor. I had closed my eyes previously in order to lessen the sensory input that could distract me, but now I opened my eyes to watch my ascent.

A faint haze encompassed my vision, but rather than clouding the objects around me everything was sharpened, brightened. I could see the aura of each object glowing faintly, and see the ordinarily imperceptible ley lines that connected everything.

I continued to chant, taking in the aromatic scents of fragrant herbs and incense, feeling the light tickle of the supernatural currents that danced through the air around me, tossing my mane this way and that.

I raised my forelegs forward, leaned my head backwards for the final words of power. I filled my lungs with air to expel that last essential command...

...and something went horribly, terribly wrong.