A long and steady yawn cut through the mysterious bedchamber Twilight had found herself in. “What time is…oh, for pony’s sake. Twilight, darling, the sun hasn’t even risen yet. Be a dear and come back to bed.”
“Rarity?!” Twilight asked. What are you doing here?! What am I doing here?! Where are we? What happened to my face? Why are you…are we…? A million questions caught in Twilight’s mind at once, wrestling for control of her voice.
Rarity sat upright, blinking her eyes in the light. Even in the dead of night, her mane and coat seemed immaculate. Twilight had never noticed before, but Rarity’s ability to maintain the curls of her mane even in bed was nothing short of miraculous.
In the luminescence created by her magic, Twilight could easily make out the violet comforter on the bed. The dark purple was accented by clovers, each made from four hearts conjoined in the middle. Twilight had seen the pattern before in Rarity’s bedroom, but she seemed to have added crescent moons to form each heart’s curves. At the center, each clover was held together by the six-pointed star of Twilight’s cutie mark.
“Twilight!” Rarity shouted in response. “There, we’ve identified each other. May we please return to bed? I need my beauty rest for tomorrow’s unveiling. It’s for the foals, Twilight. Think of the foals.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked.
“You can’t have forgotten.” She sighed. “I guess we’re doing this now.” She dropped from the bed, but not to approach Twilight. Instead, she moved to a door along the side of the room, levitating it open.
Twilight listened to Rarity speak to somepony outside. “Vigilant, would you be a dear and run down to the kitchen? I fear it’s looking like another early morning, and I’ll be needing a cup if I’m to manage. Thank you ever so much.”
“Rarity, I need you to listen to me,” Twilight insisted. Rarity closed the door in front of her, giving Twilight her attention. “Something is terribly wrong here.”
“I know, dear. Something’s always terribly wrong,” Rarity answered. She approached Twilight, reaching out with a hoof to caress her chin. Twilight jerked her head back, avoiding the touch and causing a scowl to emerge on Rarity’s face. With bitterness suddenly emerging from her voice, Rarity said, “Fine. Shut me out. What would I care? I’m just your wife.”
“My WHAT?!” Twilight’s stomach caught in her throat at the offending word. She and Rarity were--
“You know what? Fine. Tell Vigilant I changed my mind about the coffee. If you woke me up just to be in one of your moods then I’m not dealing with it.” Rarity whirled towards the bed, lightly smacking Twilight with her tail as she stormed off, taking the answers Twilight needed with her.
“Wait, don’t go.”
“Why, so you can lecture me about whatever new project you’re on about? The new schoolhouse opens tomorrow and you are going to be there. I do what I can, but the ponies need their Princess, Twilight. It comforts them to see you. It makes them feel like everything is still under control.”
Twilight’s mind whirled with Rarity’s words. Every shred of information that emerged from her snout seemed to raise further questions. There were so many things wrong with her predicament, she struggled to even think of which to address.
The only certainty in the moment was that Rarity was now angry, and upsetting her wasn’t going to help the situation any. “I’m sorry,” Twilight said quickly.
Rarity abruptly stopped moving. She remained where she was, with one hoof on the bed in preparation for pouncing. After a few seconds she turned her head, facing Twilight. “That’s a rare set of words coming from you.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Twilight said, approaching her friend. “It’s been a weird….” Day? Night? How long had she plunged through the abyss? She tried to think of that place, of the shifting colors and impossible geometries she’d seen. She remembered--
“NGGH!” Twilight shouted, pressing a hoof to the top of her head. She could feel her skull splitting open, as a tearing force of raw ferocity seemed to tear its way through her mind. She felt her senses unravel and watched the world around her fracture and split open, streaming a rainbow of colors that seared away everything they touched until the world was cold and black.
She was vaguely aware of her legs giving out under her and she heard Rarity screaming, “TWILIGHT?!” before the universe faded into black and reality abandoned her once more.
“Oh, Flash, it’s beautiful,” Twilight beamed. She blinked, trying to choke back the tears threatening to overwhelm this moment. Her hands drifted to her collarbone and she took a step back, never taking her eyes off the sparkling diamond ring in front of her. She reached out with a single shaking hand and took the box from him.
Flash Sentry smiled up at her from his kneeling position. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this,” he said. “I’m coming up on my Bachelor’s in a couple of weeks, and I’ve been trying to think about what I’m going to be doing once I graduate.”
Standing up, Flash reached out for Twilight’s free hand, gently grasping it between his. “In a short while, I won’t be in school anymore. I don’t know how to feel about that. I’ve only ever been a student. I don’t know where I’m going to go or what I’m going to do, but every time I think about it, the one thing I’m sure of is you.”
Twilight looked up from the ring. She heard the sincerity in Flash’s words. She witnessed the love and desire in his eyes, and she felt her heart filling her body with warmth. Her cheeks hurt from all of the smiling, but her lips refused to abate. She lost the battle with her tears, letting them flow down the sides of her face.
But even in this moment, despite her heart urging her that everything was perfect, her mind refused to turn off. “Flash,” she said softly, her voice catching in her throat. She took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and tried again. “Flash, I can’t,” she answered him. “I have responsibilities to Equestria. It’s my home. It’s where I belong.”
“Then take me with you,” he said without hesitation. “I’ve wanted to see your world since that night at the Fall Formal. It doesn’t matter to me where we go, as long as we’re….”
Twilight blinked her eyes against the intrusion of artificial light. She lifted her head off of a velvet cushion, casting a blurry gaze around at her surroundings. She could clearly make out the crystal pillars and gleaming white walls surrounding her; she was back in the Crystal Empire to be certain.
Rarity pushed into her vision, resting a hoof beside her head. “Oh, my dearest, are you okay?” she asked frantically. Before Twilight could even answer, Rarity squeezed her head, pressing her face into the unicorn’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” Rarity whispered. “I didn’t realize you were ill. I shouldn’t have been so short with you.”
The left side of Twilight’s face stung as it made contact with Rarity’s hide. So that was back. Yay. Twilight pushed back with her hooves, trying to pry her snout free. She’d never noticed how strong Rarity was before; it took more effort than she would have expected to extricate herself. “Rarity, it’s okay,” she managed to grunt out.
“Come now, your highness,” a voice called out across the room. “Give Twily some space. She’s been through a lot lately.” Twilight perked up instantly. As Rarity withdrew from her, she lifted her head to find--
A brick wall of white fuzz and polished steel crashed into her, hoisting her from the bed in which she lay and twirling her through the air. After the second rotation, Shining Armor set her back down upon the bed, grinning like a madpony. “What happened to giving me space?!” Twilight demanded.
“It was my turn,” her brother said with a laugh. “We thought we’d lost you.”
“I was gone for two minutes!” Twilight retorted.
Softly, Rarity corrected, “You were catatonic for three hours, darling.” She sniffled, and Twilight noticed the streaks of mascara running down the sides of her face. “You were completely unresponsive. I was beginning to fear the worst!”
“Beginning,” Shining Armor scoffed. “Twily, you should have seen her. She kept going back and forth between bawling her eyes out and color-coordinating your funeral.”
With her cheeks glowing beet red, Rarity snapped into a violent glare at Shining Armor. “You be quiet!” she shouted.
Shining Armor replied simply by pantomiming crying. “But the tulips won’t go with black sa-a-ati-in!!!”
Rarity levitated a nearby magazine, lightly bopping Shining Armor across the back of his helmet. This succeeded only in widening his grin, prompting Rarity to huff.
“Three hours?!” Twilight asked. The strange vision she’d received certainly hadn’t taken that long. She leapt to her hooves, racing back out to the balcony. She longed to spread her wings and soar across the city, to take in this strange new place and find understanding from above. She was once more acutely aware that her ascension had somehow regressed in placing her here, and it caused her heart to ache.
From the balcony, she could see the sun creeping over the horizon, spilling its light over the Crystal Empire. In the radiant glow of dawn, she could take in more details about the city below her. Many of the crystal structures she recognized were present, but countless new buildings had cropped up between them. Cottages constructed from wood and hay squeezed between the buildings, cutting off avenues and narrowing transit options through the streets.
Beyond the edge of the city, she could see the vast expanse of plains between the city’s end and the translucent barrier had been converted to farmland, with a single apple grove bordered by what looked to be crops of varying types, too distant to make out.
Placed sporadically throughout the city were large blue crystals as tall as a house. Twilight had noticed a similar crystal in the corner of the bedroom she apparently shared with Rarity. In the center of town, a single large crystal stretched up from the marketplace, rising several stories into the air to rival the Crystal Palace in height.
Twilight could see ponies filing out of their homes to gather around them. A few ponies had a familiar crystal sheen, but many more seemed to be regular unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Twilight was startled at how small a percentage the crystal ponies represented within their own city.
But as she watched the crowds assemble, a thought began to cross her mind. I know what this is. I’ve seen this before.
“Is that right?” The booming voice from the void echoed through Twilight’s body, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “By all means, I can’t wait to hear. I’m positively giddy with excitement!” The voice let out a familiar giggle. “Tell us, Twilight Sparkle. Where are you right now?”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Rarity sidled up to Twilight on her right side where she’d be clearly in sight, cutting off her train of thought. “I always love the way the Empire glimmers in the morning sun.” She hooked a single hoof around Twilight’s in the same fashion that Applejack typically did, sending a creeping feeling from the bottom of Twilight’s stomach through her spine.
Twilight’s instinct was to pull away, but she remembered how her rejection had hurt Rarity earlier. Rarity’s behavior made her deeply uncomfortable, but if there was any chance that this was really her friend, she hated the thought of hurting her. She chose to focus on something else instead. “Rarity, listen to me. I need to find Tom. He has to be around somewhere.”
Rarity blinked at Twilight’s statement. “…and Tom is?”
Twilight stared blankly at her for a couple seconds. She’d expected a few different responses, but that hadn’t been among them. “Tom. Tom. Big rock, kinda diamond-shaped, you were obsessed with him for a while?”
Rarity grimaced at Twilight’s explanation. She took a moment to think, then suddenly a light seemed to go off in her head, followed by another grimace. “Ugh, is this a Maud thing?”
“…who’s Maud?”
Rarity laughed. “I couldn’t have put it better myself. Honestly, the way she carries on….”
Twilight pulled her hoof away from Rarity’s, stepping around to face her. “Rarity, please, I need you to focus. Tom is a weapon Discord created to attack us. He’s out there and he’s done something and--”
Rarity raised a hoof, taking a step back from Twilight. “I’m sorry, Discord? I can’t help you if you keep throwing these wild names at me and expecting me to know what you’re talking about, darling. Are you quite certain you’re feeling well enough to be on your hooves?”
Twilight tried to back away from Rarity, but the railing blocked her retreat. She shot a look over to Shining Armor, who stepped through the open doorway to join them. “You can’t have forgotten about Discord. The Master of Chaos, which is kind of an oxymoron but he claims it anyways! Rarity, he made it rain chocolate milk.”
Rarity and Shining Armor exchanged confused glances. Rarity looked back to Twilight and opened her snout as if to speak, then seemed to think better of it. Shining Armor scratched at his mane, stating, “I’m sorry, Twily, but that’s not ringing any bells. You’re sure he’s a pony here in the Empire?”
“He’s not a pony!” Twilight shouted. “He’s a draconequus.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow, looking once more to Shining Armor. “Is that a real thing?”
“Probably not!” Twilight asserted.
Shining Armor made a quick gesture to Rarity before approaching Twilight. “Listen, Twily, do you think maybe the stress is getting to you? You did have that collapse earlier. Maybe you should take some time away. Rarity can run the empire while you’re gone.”
Twilight groaned audibly. Neither of them were getting it. “This is not about the Empire! There shouldn’t even be an Empire! I mean, there should, but not with--”
“--without you,” Rarity finished. “We know, darling. We are all so proud of what you’ve managed to build here, and we would never suggest that you could be replaced. We’re just worried about your health, because we love you. The Empire can survive a few days of bedrest, but it won’t survive if we lose you.”
Shining Armor put a hoof around Twilight’s neck, turning her towards the massive crystal in the center of town. “You know, it’s almost time for the broadcast. How about we shelve this talk until it’s over? You always love the broadcasts.” He led her back inside, towards the crystal in the corner.
Broadcast? What in the hay was that supposed to mean? It seemed like the longer Twilight stayed here, the more questions were raised. She was beginning to lose track of the sheer quantity of things that seemed wrong with the world around her. Was she the one that was crazy? Could that be--
“GOOD MORNING, CRYSTAL EMPIRE!!!” Before Twilight had a chance to collect her thoughts, the peppy, energized voice of Pinkie Pie shot out across the Empire. All at once, each crystal lit up with blue flames, revealing Pinkie’s smiling face to everypony in the nation.
Without stopping to explain herself, Pinkie launched into a speech that seemed so well rehearsed it almost sounded routine. “It’s shaping up to be another beautiful day in the Empire, all thanks to the magic barrier of our Crystal Heart, so I want to see some smiles on those faces, everypony! And before we begin, let’s all take a moment to give thanks to Acting Princess Twilight Sparkle, who works so hard every day to make all of this possible!”
“Acting Princess?” Twilight mouthed silently.
The broadcast of Pinkie Pie continued on, oblivious to Twilight’s confusion. “Now, I know we’re all hearing rumors about trouble with the yaks up north and trust me, I was just as worried as some of you when I heard about it. But I want you to do something, I want you to look at me. Look at me. Everypony? You looking?”
Pinkie Pie held up a single hoof and shook it back and forth dismissively. “Nonono. You tell that worry voice that you’re on the Smile Train to Calm Central, choo-choo! Twilight has a plan. Twilight always has a plan. She can’t talk about it just yet, but she will and it’s gonna be a doozy.
“And speaking of plans, I want to personally thank each and every one of you who stepped up to help out with the Solar Committee yesterday. Having some of our friends fall ill when they’re channeling the solar rings is no good for us, so thank you, Fancy Pants and Cinnamon Chai for volunteering. There’ll be pies with your names on them personally delivered by yours truly this afternoon, just to show you how much we all love you!
“The Solar Committee! It’s not optional; we need the sun to live.” Pinkie punctuated her statement with a wide, toothy grin.
“But enough about dreary news, blegh.” Pinkie Pie stuck out her tongue to accentuate her statement. “Guess what day it is? That’s right! It’s Silver Spoon’s BIRTHDAY!!!” Party poppers exploded behind Pinkie, and Twilight could see streamers and confetti raining down behind her in the broadcast. Pinkie Pie threw up her forelegs and danced back and forth, chanting, “Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Got a birthday! Happy birthday!”
Settling down, Pinkie explained, “We’re going to be throwing a great big birthday festival in the plaza! Same as yesterday! And everypony is invited to attend, so come on out and wish the super special birthday girl a happy happy super-duper birthday!”
Pinkie Pie smiled. “That’s all today’s news, so make sure you come on down to Birthday Plaza and I hope to see you there! Have a wonderful, happy, superiffic day!” The flames vanished from the crystals as quickly as they’d appeared and, with that, Pinkie Pie was gone.
I want to go home.
The thought came unbidden, and it made Twilight’s heart ache. Her mind was sore from trying to take in everything that was happening. She told herself not to let it get to her; the regression into her unicorn state and Pinkie Pie’s broadcasts and whatever the Solar Committee was? Trouble with yaks? None of it was real, she knew that much, but her curiosity refused to quit--
That was when she saw it. Her jaw slowly opened of its own accord and she stared into the reflective sheen of the broadcast crystal, struggling to breathe. At last, Twilight could finally see where the stinging on her face was coming from.
The entire left half of her face was gone. Where violet skin and light hairs had once been, there was now only cracked and reddened flesh. The burns traveled up the length of her snout and past her eye, then a short ways down her neck.
Twilight raised a single hoof to the crystal, setting it down gently on the burns in her reflection. She’d never been a pony who worried overmuch about her appearance. She had her vices, certainly, but vanity wasn’t typically among them. Even so, it broke her heart to see the scars that had somehow been permanently embedded on her visage.
In what had already become an emotionally exhausting day, this new horror was--
Twilight’s hoof was suddenly pulled away and she felt a pony leading her from the crystal. “Wait, I’m not done,” she protested to no avail.
“You must be,” Rarity answered her. “For your own sake, dearest. You must learn to stop dwelling on matters that can only hurt you. I’ve told you a thousand times, that pony you see in the reflection, that’s not what defines you.” Rarity walked Twilight to the bed, cradling her hoof in her own. “Look at me, Twilight,” she requested gently.
When Twilight locked eyes with hers, Rarity continued. “You are Twilight Sparkle. You are the Acting Princess of the Crystal Empire. You are beautiful and you are strong and you are full of love for every pony in the Empire. That is what defines you. Your scars are just cosmetic, darling. Nothing more.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked. “Rarity, please, what happened to me?”
Rarity smiled. “Nothing happened to you. You are every bit the brave and brilliant pony that I fell in love with. You just need to open your eye and see yourself the way I see you.” Twilight suddenly became aware of just how physically close to her Rarity had become. Before she could articulate a response, she felt Rarity’s lips press against hers. She felt the unicorn’s weight pressing into her, watched Rarity’s eyes close--
Roughly, Twilight pushed back against Rarity, tearing her lips from the kiss in the process. She backed up out of her friend’s personal space, shouting, “Stop! Stop. I can’t do this, I shouldn’t be doing this, this is wrong. Everything is wrong.” Her heart pounded in her chest, piling guilt on top of--
“It’s Applejack, isn’t it?” Twilight perked up suddenly at the name. She looked to Rarity and saw, for just a brief moment, a look of pain cross her friend’s face. It was gone nearly as quick as it came, however, and Rarity closed her eyes and sighed with conviction. “Of course it is. It’s always Applejack.”
“Rarity,” Twilight started, but Rarity cut her off.
“I know.” She took a deep breath. “This is what’s important to you and I shouldn’t begrudge you. So far as I know, there’s nothing new. Spearhead’s search party is still out there looking for her. If she’s anywhere in Equestria, we’ll find her.”
“Wait, what?!” Twilight shrieked.
“Are you quite sure you’re feeling alright?” Rarity asked. “After the events of earlier, perhaps it’d be good for you to lie down.”
“What?! No, go back, what did you say about….” Twilight stopped herself. It was a trick. She knew it to be a trick and she’d almost blundered into it. Tom was trying to hurt her. He was trying to tempt her through Rarity and he was using Applejack to make her rash, make her reckless. She reminded herself once more that she couldn’t trust anything she saw or felt here.
Centering herself, she accepted Rarity’s offer. “You’re right. I should lie down. I have a lot to think about. Thank you.”
“Of course.” Rarity forced a smile, but Twilight could all but feel the lack of sincerity behind it. “I’ll take care of everything. You just focus on getting some rest.”
“Yeah.” Coldly, Twilight turned away from Rarity, climbing up into the bed. She looked away, waiting until she heard the click of the door closing before easing her tension. In a strange way, she almost missed the strange fantasy world with faceless ponies that Tom had stuck her in before. It was much easier to see through the lies.
She glanced across the room to find herself alone. Shining Armor must have seen himself out. She had to admit that however Tom had done this, it was certainly impressive. Actual ponies with defined characteristics and personality traits were a huge advance from what he’d done to her and her friends before, and he’d needed the Elements of Harmony then to even accomplish that much.
This was something else entirely, something new. Had he been active all this time, channeling the magic he’d need for this? No, he would have needed to drain so much magical energy that there’s no way it would have gone unnoticed. Was there something in the Everfree, perhaps, that had allowed this? For a second, she thought of the Mirror Pool, but she couldn’t fathom anything about it that would allow for an illusion or potential reality reconfiguring of this magnitude.
Unless it was the Tree of Harmony. So much was still unknown about the Tree and what it could do. Perhaps he’d gone to the Tree, feeding off of its…no, she once again had to assume that surely somepony would have noticed if the Tree was being leeched of its magic. The Plundervines had the advantage of striking swiftly and without warning, but that wasn’t how Tom operated.
“You are beautiful and you are strong and you are full of love for every pony in the Empire.”
Rarity’s words hung in her mind. She felt confident assuming that the pony who’d said them wasn’t the real Rarity. After all, if Tom had somehow rewritten her memories, there was no reason to believe he couldn’t have done the same to Twilight, was there? The visible discrepancy between experiences was enough for her to assume that Rarity was as much a part of the illusion as Shining Armor or the Crystal Empire itself.
And yet, she couldn’t shake the way the words had made her feel. It was as though Rarity appreciated her. In a few minutes of conversation, Rarity had made her feel more beloved and accepted than she had since she gained her wings. And when she’d kissed her….
No, stop. She couldn’t think about that right now. She and Applejack were having problems, but she didn’t….
“Twilight?” Applejack asked. “Twi, sugar, you up?”
Twilight’s eyes opened only under protest. She groaned audibly, trying to lift her head from the warmth of the pillow. Her neck muscles strained, urging her to stop, and she…no, wait, that wasn’t a pillow. Not unless pillows usually had orange fuzz on them.
Did pillows have orange fuzz? Was that a thing? Maybe she should research that in the morning, when she’s--
“Reckon y’ain’t,” Applejack whispered in the dark. “Figures. I ain’t no good with fancy words anyhow. It’s just…you’re good to me, Twilight. You’re good to my family and you’re good to me. You got a lot of love to give, and me and mine gettin’ so much of it’s just about the best danged gift anypony’s ever given me.”
Twilight felt a hoof brush through her mane, and she smiled at the way her skin tingled with her partner’s touch. “I love you, Twilight. I say that a lot, ‘cause it’s easy. Said those words a lot in my life, truth be told. They’re easy. Why I love you, that’s the hard part. The words are quick, they’re easy, they don’t linger. They don’t hurt.”
Applejack sighed. “Listen to me, yammerin’ on. I don’t even know what I’m doin’ half the time I’m with you. I don’t got a lot to offer, but I hope I make you happy, Twilight.”
Twilight clenched her eyes tight and forced herself to shut out the memory. It wasn’t helping and it certainly wasn’t going to get her out of this situation now. She needed to focus on what was in front of her and then worry about Applejack later.
Facts. That’s what she needed.
Twilight was once again trapped inside of Tom’s strange illusory world. But Rarity was not. At least one of her friends had avoided becoming trapped here. If she understood the effect of what Tom had done to them before, it was probable that her physical body was still back in the library, standing catatonic while her mind was imprisoned here. If her friends were free, they were surely already researching a means to break Tom’s hold on her.
This meant that she could in theory wait for her friends to rescue her, but that seemed like a terrible idea. Twilight Sparkle had never been a pony to sit by while others were working. She wished Spike were here; if there were any mistakes that stood out and made the unreality of this place clear, it was that Tom had forgotten to place Spike’s bed in her room. Even in this bizarre reality where she married Rarity, she’d never have left Spike behind.
But even with him gone, she’d still have to do what she could, and that started by seeing just how far Tom’s illusion extended. Twilight stood and hopped down off the bed. With a simple gesture of magic, she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
“Twily?” Shining Armor asked. He stood vigilant just outside the door. “Rarity said you were resting.”
“I need some fresh air,” Twilight answered. “I thought I’d take a walk around the Empire, see if anything’s amiss.”
Shining Armor smiled. “I’m sure your subjects will be happy to see you.” Subjects. That was weird. It felt strange to see her brother watching over her room like this. This was, after all, supposed to be Cadance’s and his Empire. She hadn’t heard anything of Cadance at all since waking up here, and that bothered her. She was hesitant to ask, however; the others seemed to expect her to know what was going on, and she couldn’t help but feel like it would go easier if she played along.
“I’m sure.” Twilight turned away and started down the hall, only to hear the click of hooves against the crystalline floor behind her. Shining Armor was following her. Of course he was. He was probably her bodyguard or something. She’d need to be wary; putting Shining Armor here was a clever move, and she knew it. She trusted him implicitly, and that made this construct of him a dangerous threat. She couldn’t let herself fall into the mental trap of believing he was really there.
The Crystal Empire was as much a strange mixture of the familiar and the unknown on the ground as it had been from the balcony. The streets were full of Crystal ponies intermixed with ordinary. Twilight could see the new structures more closely, and they reminded her of Ponyville; thatched rooves over modest homes, squeezed between the Empire’s implacable stone architecture.
As she walked, ponies gasped to see her. She could hear them whispering to one another in reverence, and any time she came too close to one, that pony would bow and greet her with a simple, “Your highness,” before stepping out of her way. She quickly grew uncomfortable with the way crowds would part before her in deference. All the while, Shining Armor remained at her back, saying nothing.
At noon, she took lunch with Shining Armor in a quaint diner, where she was immediately seated and served before the other patrons. Many seemed to look away when she glanced at them, as though trying to avert their gaze from her eyes. It had become more unsettling with each passing hour.
“How are you feeling?” Her brother asked her. His voice dripped concern, but Twilight remained on guard.
“I’m feeling better,” she lied. “I was thinking about paying a visit to the Birthday Plaza, but I’m not sure what to bring.” It seemed like a reasonable enough statement. She didn’t know Silver Spoon very well in reality, and she had no idea if she was supposed to be familiar with her here.
“You are?!” Shining Armor seemed shocked, and Twilight watched his face erupt into a smile. “That’d be great! Everypony will be thrilled to see you!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “…I’m sure. What’s gotten into you?”
“It’s just surprising, that’s all. You’ve never visited Birthday Plaza.”
Swing and a miss. “I’m feeling charitable today,” Twilight attempted.
“Are you?” Shining Armor laughed. “Well, whatever gets you out of the palace more. We’re all worried about you, Twily. I think this will be good for you. Mom and Dad….” Shining Armor stopped, choking on his words. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Mom and Dad would be happy to see you out spending time with other ponies.”
What was that supposed to mean? Twilight opened her snout to respond, but the door abruptly slammed open. A white earth pony Twilight recognized as her acquaintance from Ponyville, Bon Bon, approached the table. There was something weird about the way she walked, though; she held her head high and moved her hooves symmetrically in a disciplined fashion she’d seen from the palace guards in Canterlot and here.
Bon Bon arrived in front of Twilight and Shining Armor swiftly, saluting. “Special Agent Sweetie Drops reporting, your highness.”
Twilight looked to Shining Armor, then back at Bon Bon. “Uh….” Special Agent who? “Go ahead.”
Bon Bon nodded. “Some of our scouts have reported in, ma’am. They say Applejack’s been sighted near Ponyville.”
“Applejack?!” Twilight leapt up from the table. “Where is she?”
“According to our scout report, she was seen near the ruins of the old library. Nopony’s sure what she’s doing there, but it sounded like she’s by herself.”
This changed everything. If Applejack was here, then they could work together to figure out Tom’s trickery! Together, they could unravel Tom’s machinations, escape from this cage he’d set up, and undo whatever havoc he must be wreaking on Equestria.
Shining Armor wiped his snout with his napkin. “We’ll have a team ready to move within the hour,” he suggested.
“What? No, I’m going out there.”
Bon Bon’s eyes widened. “You’re going yourself, your highness?”
“Of course, I’m going!” Twilight leapt from the table. “You said Applejack’s out there alone! Why wouldn’t I go get her?” Before Bon Bon could even answer, Twilight bolted out the door.
“Your highness, wait!” Bon Bon shouted. That was the last Twilight heard before she cast her teleportation spell, vanishing from the street in front of the diner.
Applejack was here. Applejack had been missing but now she was here. That could only mean one thing: Tom must have captured her as well. This was great news! Well, not great, because Applejack was captured, but it meant that she’d be able to see her. They could put their heads together and come up with a way to overcome Tom, just as they’d done before.
They could….
“I was born right here in the muck, and I’m gonna die right here in the muck.”
Twilight stopped. She stood in the courtyard of the Crystal Palace, caught up in the memory. Would it be like last time? Could it? She…no, she had to put that out of mind. There was a time and place for it and it wasn’t here. Tom wasn’t going to be defeated by hashing out her feelings with Applejack.
Find Applejack. Make a plan. Defeat Tom. There’d be time for feelings afterwards.
“I need a carriage!” she shouted to the guards as she raced across the courtyard. “As quickly as possible!”
Two royal pegasi approached her, clad in the familiar golden armor of Princess Celestia’s palace guardponies. They saluted her on sight, but she raced past them. Behind the two stood a single golden carriage decorated with gilded stars on each side, reminiscent of her Cutie Mark. She leapt into the back, waiting for the guards to follow.
“Where are we going, ma’am?” One guardpony asked.
“Ponyville. I need you to take me there as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Twilight watched the guards take position at the front of the carriage, slipping into their harnesses without another word. No further questions were asked, nor the slightest bit of hesitation given. The guards did precisely as they were told and before long, Twilight was in the air.
For a couple of hours, Twilight flew through the air and gazed down at the landscape under her carriage. Equestria was as green and full of life as the real Equestria, but something important felt like it was missing from the world. She saw the bright lights of Manehattan and Las Pegasus in the distance as she passed, and they comforted her. They reminded her that for everything that was different some things remained the same.
It felt strange to have so much authority, and yet at the same time, Twilight felt odd for the fact that it felt strange. She had been a Princess, an actual Alicorn Princess and not whatever “Acting Princess” meant, for several weeks now but she still wasn’t accustomed to being treated this way. She was fourth in line and, more importantly, new to the crown. She didn’t even have a proper title.
Not for the first time since her ascension, Twilight wondered if she was even fit for the role. Being a Princess meant leadership. It meant other ponies did what you said, and you had to be responsible for them. It meant that half of Canterlot was missing.
Why was half of Canterlot missing?! As the city came over the horizon, Twilight stared in horror at the wreckage of what had once been Equestria’s crown city. Where the city hung out over the edge of the mountain, a large fissure had broken the royal palace off from the rest of the city, plunging it into the countryside below.
Crumbled piles of marble architecture lay splintered at the bottom of the cliff, reshaping the rivers that Canterlot’s majestic waterfalls created in the landscape. Twilight could easily make out a chunk of the tower where she’d grown up. The top half had been smashed to pieces by the landing, but part of the spire’s structure could be seen embedded in the ground. A river now ran through it, washing away the ruins of Twilight’s memories.
The rest of the city was no better off. Many buildings had been smashed open and several appeared to have been expertly taken apart, the materials used for constructing large walls and watchtowers around the city’s perimeter. As the carriage drew closer, Twilight could see the gleam of soldier armor in the sunlight, as guardponies patrolled the high walls.
Twilight pulled her eyes away. She didn’t want to see any more of what had happened to the city where she was born and raised. She reminded herself once more that this was all an illusion. It was meant to break her, meant to tear her down and strip her of her faith in herself and her friends. Tom was trying to get inside her mind and she knew it, but she was afraid it was working nonetheless.
The more she saw of this place Tom had crafted for her, the less she wanted to be here. She almost didn’t want to see what Ponyville would look like, but she knew that she would have to. It was for Applejack, she reminded herself. Find Applejack and it would all be worthwhile.
Ponyville validated Twilight’s fears, as she knew it would. The city was abandoned entirely, without even the contingent of guard ponies and makeshift construction that composed Canterlot. Large swaths lay cleaved through the dirt, tearing up the roads she knew and loved and rending entire buildings to rubble. Half of Sugarcube Corner had been blown out by whatever had left these trails.
The Carousel Boutique still stood, but the front door hung open, connected only by its lower hinge. The window to the left of the door had been smashed open, but by something smaller than the scars throughout the town; it looked as though it had been done by a thrown rock or other object.
But nothing prepared her for coming home. The Golden Oak Library in the center of the plaza lay upon its side. What had once been a majestic tree large enough to house her home had been torn up by the roots, and the wood burned until its bark whitened to ash.
“Set me down at the library,” Twilight ordered. Her guards complied and as soon as she landed in the plaza, she leapt from the carriage to take a closer look at the tree. The first thing she noticed was that the roots had immolated with the rest of the tree; it had fallen over either before or while it burned, not after.
“Oh, no!” Twilight shouted. She teleported to the top of the trunk in a panic, using her magic to pry away some of the charred lumber. Once she’d created an entrance large enough to fit through, Twilight dropped into the ruins of what was once her home.
The fire had been thorough, sweeping through the library and turning everything she’d known and loved to ash. She found Spike’s tea kettle blackened with soot, but still keeping its shape. She recognized a patch of purple fabric in the cinders, which she knew to be the blanket from her bed. Her telescope lay smashed, broken, and scorched by the flames that had torn through the room. But something was missing.
She searched her bedroom, then climbed the sideways stairs into the foyer. She sifted through the ashes and tossed aside cinders, but found the same results in every room. There were no bindings, no leaves of blackened parchment, no glimpses of white or brown pages spilt among the ash. Not a single book had burned with the rest of the library.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t know if her heart could take the loss of so much valuable knowledge. Still, though, the missing books raised further questions. “Why would somepony burn the rest of it?” Twilight wondered aloud.
“It’s not what you expected, it is?” The voice from nowhere asked suddenly. “You know, they say you can never go home again. I wonder if they meant this?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, something like this is exactly what I expected. I just don’t understand why my books would be spared. Obviously you were going to do something to my home, but this feels like a half-measure.”
“Me?!” Hearing a booming voice that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once scoff in mock offense was a rather surreal experience, Twilight noted. “Why, I am insulted, Twilight. What would I have to do with any of this?”
Opting against dignifying that statement, Twilight took another look around the charred ruins. She reached up with a hoof, gently prodding the scar tissue on her face and wincing at the sting. The seared flesh across the left half of her face was surely meant to be connected to the library in some way. Was she supposed to have been here during this? Was that the implication?
“Fine,” the voice said indignantly. “If you’re going to be like that, then I’m not talking to you. For now.” Twilight couldn’t be certain, but she was reasonably sure that the ominous voice of doom then proceeded to blow a raspberry at her.
Twilight sighed. She had more questions than answers and there was nothing else to find in this burned-out tree. Tom had presented her with a puzzle to solve. It was almost certainly a trick meant to distract her by focusing her mental energies on unraveling the clues, but as much as she hated to admit it, it was working. Although the state of the library was emotionally devastating, it had also piqued her curiosity.
But this was a distraction. Applejack was here and she was meant to meet up with her. With a burst of magic, Twilight teleported back outside into the ruins of her town. She knew exactly where to go; if Applejack was here, there was one place she’d surely be drawn to.
The road to Sweet Apple Acres was long and filled with crumbled streets, collapsed homes, and a few of the large grooves carved through the road. As she walked, Twilight couldn’t help but notice the eerie quiet that pervaded the abandoned town. The desolate silence crept into her ears, leaving her with a sense of unease that made her hairs stand on end.
She stopped for a moment as she passed the Ponyville Bowling Alley. She remembered her first date so long ago. Applejack had insisted that they start with something innocuous to try and make her feel comfortable. She’d never been on a real date before then; she’d read about them in books and heard some of her classmates whispering about them, but before Ponyville, she’d never put much thought into it.
She’d been nervous at the time. She was afraid for what Applejack was going to expect from her and how their relationship might change going forward. Looking back, her fears had certainly been validated; nothing was ever the same between them after that day. But Applejack had been perfect; she’d recognized Twilight’s trepidation and chosen this place so that they could have their date in a more casual and less romantic setting, and it worked; Twilight’s fears were eased and she was able to engage the date on a more familiar level.
“Huh,” Twilight reflected to herself. “The benefit of experience, I guess.” Looking back, it was impossible to see Applejack’s choice of venue as anything but a well-reasoned decision by a pony who knew exactly what she was doing and how to make her companion comfortable. Applejack may have flailed about as much as Twilight in the relationship, but she was certainly a master of the first date.
Uncertain how to feel about that, Twilight decided it may be best to move on. She turned to continue down the road, but stopped. Out the corner of her eye, she’d seen something moving. It had vanished around the corner of the flower shop’s ruins, but it had certainly been there. She bolted, galloping in pursuit, heart pounding in her chest. There was only one pony that could have been.
Rounding the corner, she saw a flash of purple and green disappear around another bend. “Wait!” she shouted. Taking a moment to estimate her target’s trajectory, she cast a quick spell and teleported, emerging on the other side of the ruins directly in front of--
“Spike?!” Twilight announced in surprise. The little dragon skidded to a stop and raised his claws defensively, but Twilight quickly scooped him up with one hoof and hugged him. “I can’t believe you’re here! It’s great to see you!”
Spike’s panicked shoving against Twilight’s foreleg stopped when she spoke. “…it is?” he asked, a palpable tinge of confusion on his voice.
Twilight set him down. “You’re not who I was hoping for,” she admitted. “Still, I’m glad you’re here. We have so much that we need to talk about.”
Spike blinked. “We do? I mean, uh…yeah.” He looked down the alleyway, then cast another glance the other way. “It’s, uh…it’s good to see you too, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked. She followed Spike’s gaze down the alley, but saw nothing.
“Of course! I’m just, uh…excited to talk to you.” He fidgeted with his claws, looking behind Twilight down the alley again. “So what do you want to talk about?”
“There’s something terribly wrong,” Twilight told him. “I think that spell we cast might we reawakened Tom.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Spike said, scratching his chin. He put his claw on Twilight’s side and started walking with her back down the alleyway from where they’d come earlier.
Twilight nodded. “It’s not. I think Tom’s done something to us. At least, he’s done something to you and me, but I’m really glad you’re here. I’ve been trying to work this out by myself and it’d really help to have you to bounce ideas off of.”
“Well, that’s what I’m good for,” Spike suggested.
Twilight rounded the corner and stepped out of the flower shop’s shadow. “Well, you’re good for a lot of things, but--”
“GET HER!!!” Before Twilight knew what was happening, a heavy weight struck her from above and to the side. Her body toppled sideways, carried in its force. A weighted net forced her down, pinning her to the cobblestones below her. She struggled against the net, but before she could do anything, two pegasi dropped from the sky to hold her down.
One perched on her haunches, restraining her hind legs while the other sat on her chest, holding down her forelegs. Twilight struggled against them, but even if her unicorn frame was built for wrestling, the net restricted her movement and made it impossible to struggle.
"Whoa,” a voice called out. “That really is her.” Twilight looked out from the ponies holding her to see a turquoise set of hooves approaching her. Spike dashed across the road, taking his place at the unicorn’s side.
Twilight realized instantly that she knew this pony. Although the two scars across her left foreleg and the cold, steely gaze she affixed on Twilight was certainly new, there was no mistaking the harp on her flank or the voice she’d heard so many times growing up. But while she knew that voice to be passive-aggressive at times, judgmental at worst, there was no mistaking the utter malice it carried now.
“Twilight Sparkle in the flesh,” said Lyra Heartstrings with a bemused shake of her head. “Oh, I’m sorry, Acting Princess Twilight. You know, I’m sure everypony’s so impressed by your title, but that’s because they never had to know you. I knew you were full of yourself, Twilight, but this is too much. You should never have come here.”