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// Ch. 8 Who is Twilight? 
// Story: The Sirens Remorse: Resurgence of the Dazzlings 
// by TheronSniper 
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Sitting in her old laboratory inside Crystal Prep Academy, Twilight worked away at the new magically fueled device which would allow continuous momentum generated power for localities with a single spell caste every two days. It was her first draft ever made since Yellow Tail had introduced her to the theory of mana and spell craft, and for that she was proud to finally make the initial idea come true for third world countries and disaster stricken areas. Drabbed in her lab coat her hair had been tied in a bun with a pencil stuck in it as usual with strands sticking out every which way from hours of labor with little in terms of a coffee break. Sparkle’s safety goggles protected her delicate eyes from the danger of the use of grinding gear to which she had to employ in the housing of the device. Some parts refused to fit in their particular spot even though she fine tuned the additive manufacturing machine recently produced that could make anything she’d need after some personal modifications of course.

It had been a few days since she’d last seen the Dazzlings, the most recent had been a late morning brunch with the trio complimented by a side dish of the usual bear hug Sonata always enjoyed supplying. They had given up seeking conquest over their old home world and had decided that it would be best to come back to her universe and live in harmony among her kind. They were preparing for a new album debut after the last two records had created a craze for their voices through their precious pendants, no longer stricken out of luck from being who they were and still loved by many. Dazzle and her Dazzlings had been happy to receive the energy from the crowd and feed off them, but she never took advantage of them and simple removed their bad tendencies for the moment like a sponge which absorbed negative intentions. The sirens were no longer seeking dominance over others and actually helped people who listened to them free themselves from repressed emotions, it lead to a better world wherever they performed. A whole new age of humanity that actually progressed in life rather than mire in stagnation she’d seen in the past before going to Equestria, it was odd to finally return and find out how little time had moved between universes.

As great as that was, she herself had been putting magic to the test in human applications for everyday life. Sending her successful findings to the National Scientific Journal where it was tested by many others with the instructions she sent and tools that would allow them to utilize mana through specialized gems from Equestria. Many still did not accept the power of magic however, the capacitor stones she charged herself from her own mana well converted the smartest brains of the world when they duplicated the process and achieved the intended results. The letters she received following the first dozen projects were a mixture of awe and shock, even with the many physicists of the likes of Cosmo De Grassi finding no way of disregarding her research as merely hocus pocus. She had finally reached the point she’d long since aimed to accomplish with her brother and the rest of the family in full support and in actual communication on a common basis. Twilight had found nirvana in her beloved field and life goals, from then on she continued to create what would save her race from a bitter end of poisoning their only home.

Tweaking a little screw into a tight fit, “There… that should complete the Mirinom Generator. It’s ready for the last prototype experiment!” She sighed happily looking at her latest creation while wiping away sweat that formed on her brow with her gloved hand, a large yet portable generator appeared as a segmented cubicle with a hollow core. Within it housed a series of rotating rings awaiting the spell which would send them into movement and begin the electrical potential energy.

She admired her work where a single quartz stone levitated in the center of the halos that hovered within the containment field she placed. The capacitor stone embedded in the circuitry poised ready to act, keeping the system in a state of idleness so it would readily activate. The very design would revolutionize the entire world for the better with a simple act or in this case a spell, so many lives would be saved by the devices and it made her ecstatic with the rising case of monster storms around the world. Her mind swarmed with further advancements to the technology to utilize mana even further to the point a single spell would last a month with only one operator, but she was happy with the current model.

Her smart phone rang on the distant countertop behind her where it rattled on the metal surface with each vibration until the call was taken. She turned in her wheeled chair to the sound before pushing herself over to the little communication device as Sonata’s face had been depicted as the call incoming. Sparkle smiled to herself having befriended the sirens to the point they had such friendly tendencies like checking in on her. Even before she had become a Dazzling the three seemed to treat her in a unique way that she found humbling even if at times Aria was rather crass, though whether that was her own assumption it was not clear enough beyond the obvious.

Thus, the Crystal Prep student reached for the phone only for her hand to surprisingly go through it as if it were intangible. She wondered if it was just a missed attempt and tried once more, but again and again her hands failed to feel and grasp the metal and polymer instrument till she fell out of her chair trying. Twilight rose from the floor blowing a strand of hair from her face and readjusting her crooked glasses before her frustration at the trick had gotten the better of her. Peeved to the point of irrational action, the girl even jumped upon the hologram and the desk it sat upon while achieving nothing out of it but hurting herself. The attempts yielded no success and the truth of the moment dawned on her like a growing dread as chicken pox pocked the flesh with pustules.

All her hopes and dreams soon became a bleak void out in despair when her reality melted into a portrait made by the famous painter Knight Gentle himself, though she was never one for surreal art herself. Her prized possession and the workstation of which she had toiled over for days on end had begun to fall apart as they too were affected by the growing infection. Surfaces and textures began to merge into nothing more than globs of a wet clay like substance. Heaping over one another till even their original colors had lost their tones, just gray nothingness persisted her sweeping eyes as the room soon fell away in loud sodden plops from tables giving in to the sheer weight­ of their malformation.

It dawned on her soon enough that she was not living a true life but a simulation of her thoughts, she panicked and searched for Spike only to find that he had vanished. Trying every cabinet and file drawer within reach when he failed to appear anywhere else at her call, her fingers found no purchase amid the lack of support in the matter that were furnishings. Her fingers tugged off the knobs and handles of each one she tried where she immediately shook off the damp doughy filth in disgust.

“Spike?” she cried out when her dream forced her to feel the muck of the fading laboratory in her hands.

“SPIKE!! Where are you?!” she tried again to no avail as the only hiding places left collapsed into themselves and there was not a single lump that might indicate the puppy might be within them.

She scooted away to the middle of the room on the still firm tile floor though even the corners of the nightmare realm were losing their structure just like everything else. When the molten state of the ground nearly reached her by merely feet away it seemed to stop abruptly, her body had since contracted upon itself in terror of what might happen to her own form. Not one for wanting to experience such a horrendous sensation of becoming an amorphous blob she tried to wake up, screaming in her own head as a last ditch shot. Her REM state must have been severely affected by her transformation and near traumatic experience at the crystalline structure, she didn’t know how else to force herself awake. Her anxious expectation of something else to happen petered out as nothing else happened and her panic lessened just enough for her to peer about, there was nothing familiar about where she had been at work only a moment ago. What appeared to be bulbous stalagmites akin to the cave system outside the town, a treasure protected and run by a camp of some kind that she knew not of beyond what social media had mentioned courtesy of Sonata. It then occurred to her she was in a cave, a little chamber closed off from anything else where the only door to escape was little more than stone etched by water with what oxygen she had to breathe. As crazy as the dream had gone she didn't put it past herself that the dread would involve suffocation.

While it should be dark and abyssal, she could still see the surroundings about her as if there were just enough ambient light, “This isn’t real Twilight… just an amalgamation of memories your… mind has put into a… a jumbled slide show! Yes! Exactly that!” she tried to tell herself with little effect as her hope crumbled quickly.

“I’ve lost Spike even in my own dreams… or whatever this is. I don’t even know anymore… gosh why have I never dreamed so vividly before?” she peered at the ground where limestone met ceramic tiles like some unreal melding of eons of time against man made flooring, “I knew I should have covered the psychology of dreaming after Adagio had her moment! This has all been… been…”

Something glittered softly three feet away from her in the dismal disorder of rock like some child had ran their hands through it and the state of the matter had then been pliable. From the niches and smeared texture came a shine though it was tiny, five more poked into the darkness of varying colors each making their uniqueness memorable even as they were slow to appear. The one she had been looking at soon sprouted from the limestone bedding, coming into sight was a brilliant Sphalerite with an internal light source making it stand out even more as it was revealed for her to gander at like a rising sun. The fact that it came into being was a perplexing notion even for her to figure out, it perhaps was an image from one of the tomes Yellow Tail gave her. It would have made sense if it were a ruby as it would have entailed something about the Dazzlings and the magic lesson on modifying their stones, then she’d be less confused.

That had not been the only weird thing to come forth as the other alluring gems materialized from the cavern floor all around her into a total of six. They repeated the same way the first had and glistened from their own inner light, none were of course rough and raw as she’d naturally expect. Each of the precious stones were cut and polished, she had begun to believe they were in fact a memory of her research into magic, quite possibly the capacitor gems and their other uses upon processing.

“At least this is less upsetting for me…" she squinted at two of the stones, "Is that a Padparadscha Sapphire and an Orange Spinel? The ponies used Spinels for amplifying spells and the Padparadscha for enhancing charms, specifically defensive magic?” she looked at the others as well who had almost completed their emergence, “Blue Topaz for controlling fire based spells, Red Tourmaline for healing potions and salves… Purple Lepidolite is the equivalent to a void stone against dark magic.”

She studied them while they remained for the time being, hoping to find some true reason for their placement around her. Yet for all her hurried analysis she came up short, fearful of even touching them lest the nightmare come back and she’d experience not the melting effect that ruined her lab but crystallization. How would that even feel aside the pain as every cell solidified, every neuron severed from its mineralized connection one piece at a time?

Twilight couldn’t contend with the horrific notion and shook her head to clear the idea away. When she came back to the Sphalerite at the left side of the former lab, it appeared to be its own sun radiating outwards more than the others, she couldn’t help but remember how it was used in magic as it distracted her well enough.

Sighing as likely something else terrible might come or hopefully she’d awaken from the debacle of a sleep she endured, “Yellow Sphalerite… the grounding zinc ore for all magical acts of pegasus, unicorns, and earth ponies. All three tribes can use it to stabilize their internal mana well if stricken by illness or if their magic is in flux. Something I probably need to acquire before my magic comes back… if it ever does.” She mourned her siren state which denied her the ability to use the ethereal energy of the very world she was stuck in, having no ruby herself to at least experience singing to feed on negative energy for research alone.

While having become a siren did bold well with the Dazzlings in terms of affinity, the incident had her in a quandary as to how to even caste spells. The initial thought of using transformation magic might have been a bit hasty, but the more she let herself sit on it in the strange dream amidst the stones the more it seemed practical. She’d have to find a wizard who’d help her, though she’d have to hope they were not xenophobic as the old tales said of Equestrians especially in her current form with rather hideous looking wings. Appearing like some twisted aquatic wyvern when dragons were not so well received by the everyday pony who were frightened of being eaten by them.

“Why can I not wake up yet? Shouldn’t dreams be just a flicker of sights and sounds?” she asked herself before going back into a fetal sitting position, hugging her legs close to her chest in the audience of the floating gems.

“Maybe something’s happening to my human brain in a world saturated with mana? Perhaps it is like some form of background radiation like radon and my physiology is adjusting to it… perhaps even dying?" her head rose at the realization that scared her, "I mean I know the scanner was the only thing allowing me to use magic in the first place so the dose of magic was limited and brief. Ohh… my… gosh! Is magic toxic to us?! Have I been slowly poisoning myself?!” her conscious thought process started to flicker as if she were really awake.

It wasn’t true that she did not run initial tests on the wavelength and frequency patterns of magic itself, the readings were detected and catalogued after the first burst and then again when the sirens were made harmless by the so called guardians. Nothing seemed to hint at anything as dangerous as gamma let alone alpha radiation, then again she hadn’t put much thought into the issue further when she had been gifted knowledge of the unearthly power to do godly things. She was tossed too quickly into the banished plans to help the sirens survive to take the extra precautions especially after the device had given her some ability to act with. That night at the home of the exiles when she apparently transformed into something horrible and powerful, that alone was the point of no return for her system if it found the energy hostile. The utter fear she might even be on borrowed time threw her for a whole other loop into madness, one which the dream world seemed to react to.

“I can’t be in danger!?! I… I… I haven’t even begun to start my research projects into utilizing magic! But if my theory is right then I’ll only be bringing destruction to my world? Has this been nothing but a wild diphoton excess chase?!” she grasped her head trying to calm herself down as she rocked on her bottom back and forth.

The six stones soon shone brighter than before to the point they were nearly spotlights upon her, but to the poor girl they were still nothing to notice with glued shut eyes. Only the soft touch of a hand upon her shoulder could bring her out of her stress and oddly enough one did. It removed the shroud of hopelessness when Twilight realized that there shouldn’t be anyone else in the cave pocket with her. Slowly she looked peered through over to her left where the hand had perched itself, she swallowed the growing lump in her throat when her sight almost mistook it for her own flesh and bone had the skin been a couple shades lighter. Soft dainty fingers barely gripped her shoulder sporting a dark amethyst nail polish which seemed to absorb the very light around her that then threatened to blind Twilight as she fought to see through it. Through squinted eyes the hand led up to a being standing behind her though before she could properly see who they were large obsidian wings flung outwards and quieted the gemstones light.

“W… what?” Twilight gasped as the tiny sealed chamber's ceiling up above had started to break apart, falling away as large square pieces of confetti in the wind.

“Settle down child, for you are safe.” Announced a voice eerily similar to her own only authoritative in tone with a softness to it that only do so much could calm her jarred nerves.

Everything vanished like a crumbling house of cards to reveal an expanse of a purple Orion Nebula, just like the one her father had shown her when she was just a child in the sword itself. When the floor she sat on fell away to the bottomless vacuum of space only the new visitor, the stones, and she remained upon an invisible surface. Seeming to float through the vastness of the galaxy in its entire splendor as well as abject horror to how they seemed to simply exist with no end or barrier in either direction. Stars and gaseous clouds encompassed them though it should have been a fascination to behold, the source of the new entity behind her was the most commanding of her focus.

“Who… are you?” she asked plainly with no course of action to take besides seeing what had come next to her in the never ending delusion.

The massive wings she had spotted ruffled just enough to be heard and they appeared to be similar to her own in the waking world. With the exception of being far more avian than that of the mighty aerial reptiles that were Yellow’s and Inferno’s, the being herself walked around Sparkle to appear in all the glory her figure demanded. Something seemed off and very familiar to the girl as if she were intimately knowledgeable about the other young woman from the wardrobe to the glowing horn and masquerade mask of radiating ice blue energy.

The hair seemed to float all on its own into air above her like a flame of a fireplace, deep rose cerise and rich indigo colored what would appear to be the red portion of the conflagration while the hottest part was simply black as the darkest part of the universe beyond the fringe of any distant galaxy. The strapless dress shared the same tones as the demonic looking woman’s ephemeral attire was stylized with two prongs topping above her meager bosom curving to points where they lead the eye to the same symbol that was her birthstone. The eight pointed dark pink star that had been tethered to a choker around the woman’s neck, a fashion statement she was not been herself fond of if anything the other girls seemed to like to wear. Her skirt seemed to spiral from the right as extra cloth tapered off into a ripped end which delicately flowed behind her gait as if it had no mass to the fabric. More of her birthstone complimented the dark wardrobe, another additional skirt that was held by a larger version of the symbol hugged it to the waist of the slender woman. Both her arms and legs had some form of stocking or decorative thin material, her feet sporting wings like the Greek messenger of the pantheon gods known as Hermes. Shoes which had the same power that decorated her face with the mask and horn sported a simple gem she couldn’t remember the name of, but all in all the new transition of her sleeping state then become an interesting one.

“I… am you.” the villainous woman replied having stopped her movement four feet before Twilight with an emanating dominance not directed at Twilight in particular.

“You’re me?” Twilight tried to remember while readjusting her glasses.

The other young woman nodded with no show of emotion, “I am, I am the magic that is inside of you. The very magic denied to you by the blood seal that he put on you.”

Twilight’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she attempted to scoot away only to halt when she remembered there was no floor under her, “You… you can’t be! You’re me when I… I nearly attacked the students and Principle Cinch!”

The creature nodded, “I am the state you assumed when you gave into the power. The power… of MAGIC!!” she rose a closed fist into the air before her, trembling from the exertion to make a point.

“Then… then you are exactly what I need to stay away from! I might be dying because I’m using an energy that does not exist naturally in my world… anymore that is. This whole dream right now may be the onset of hysteria and I don’t know how to stop it!” she fired back though cowering fearfully herself.

What embodiment of magic that was the avatar bore the qualities of her likeness seemed to stop before such an argument, her fist fell back to her side as she resumed to a dormant state. The large raven wings folded inwards as if they had lost all strength, rather unlike a bird as they simply remained behind her.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone! What I nearly did at Canterlot High was inexcusable and not something my brother and my parents would ever be proud of. I will make amends to everyone I scared in doing so. I’ll… I’ll learn more about magic before I ever use it again, for my sake as well as everyone else!” Twilight’s eagerness to prove herself a new person had of course earned no further retaliatory reaction, rather instead it seemed there was something else behind the being’s presence.

“That thirst for knowledge is who I am. I was born of it, given life from the magic you stole from the guardians… to who I now know what they were and their equivalent in this world we reside in. I am not your enemy Twilight Sparkle. And I can assure you… as my vessel from which I was created within, you are not suffering any illness of any kind.” the winged woman kneeled down to her knees as if trying to be less menacing and more equal between the two.

“You’re… not? I’m safe? Then… why can’t I wake up?” she asked while wanting to nudge herself a little farther away, but the fact that stopped her was the void of space itself and where the invisible ground ended.

“If you were to die then so would I. That I cannot allow. You are my vessel and I must know everything there is to learn about magic. For it gave me life from your very ambitions… you are not expendable.” the other her insisted, “What you are feeling… this vision…”

Twilight observed as the other deity seemed to gaze around them at the divine astral phenomenon of the nebula that was part of the sword of Orion. It was rather strange to sense a very human element to her dream, but what if somehow this construct was indeed a manifestation of magic they had sealed away within her?

“… this realm is the magic protecting you from those who’d seek to deny it from you. Did you hear the voice in the previous slumber?” her magical manifestation asked as their glowing electric blue sclera all but entranced her, the lavender irises honing in on her own as if to secure the connection they shared.

Twilight nodded, “I… yes I did hear something. Are you saying someone out there tried to invade my dreams? How is that possible unless there are latent telepaths?”

“Yes and no, something stalks the minds of those who sleep but only during the night as it seems. I may be sealed into inaction in the real world… but I can still protect you from those who would seek to bend your will to theirs.” The woman replied.

“Wow, that’s… not something I expected… I think it may have been Princess Luna? She was the Lord of the Moon and the Keeper of Dreams for all of Equestria? Oh no… if she ever discovered I was the one who brought the exiles over…” Twilight started to worry as likely she’d be given to a manhunt or the equivalent in pony terms.

The other her seemed to notice and extended a hand out in friendship or at least an agreement of some sort, still baring the emotionless face she had worn throughout the encounter. It suddenly broke into the release of a smile of some sort which was unsettling at first until it wore on her in hesitation.

“Worry not as I, Midnight Sparkle, will not allow anyone to harm you. Neither magic nor an aggressor shall lay a hand on you, blood seal or not. I just need you to promise me as I aid in your survival that we will  gain knowledge of the sacred arts we so very crave, everything that there is to learn, nothing forbidden denied to us?” she offered with a still held out arm ready to complete the agreement.

Twilight still seemed reluctant to agree seeing as how her partnership with Yellow Tail had gone as badly as it did, “So you promise me no one will be harmed? No kingdom set on fire? That before you act against anything or anyone you will ask me first?” she tried to read into the fine print of a likely devil's free wish.

Midnight’s weird smile did not falter, “What is a vessel if it repels me in every way? I will not step beyond your comfort zone that we can agree, however… your life means more to me than anything else. I will protect you when the time calls. I do not desire to die either... Do we have a deal?”

With that it seemed as if she’d have no choice but to take the offer, perhaps she might find a way to pacify the magical concentration which yielded the thinking mind of Midnight Sparkle?

“I don’t want to do any more damage out of ignorance of my actions. I want to help Adagio overcome her grief, but I also want to keep the ponies of this world safe from her… understandable hatred of them. I want to be able to use magic since I’m going to trust your word that it is not harming me in any way.” She nervously grinned to the entity before her, “I have enough regret right now, so as long as you do not add to my surmounting list. Then I, Twilight Sparkle, agree to this union.”

Her arm rose and both hands clasped one another, where upon contact their placement in space seemed to waiver and blink through existence of her dream. A cool sensation followed by a spark came from Midnight’s hand and flowed into her body like an invading serpent of electrical energy, it only made her own muscles contract as she yelped feebly. The speed of which the sensation came and went as the world in her mind began to falter had to have been in seconds as before she finally started to wake up. Midnight said a final last few words before their meeting had ended.

“We do it for her.” The Doppelgänger’s voice echoed as alertness came through, nothingness washed in with the feel of something soft under her scaly body.