Twilight was ecstatic.
Hungry, tired, but ecstatic nonetheless.
It had taken all day and good bit of the night, but through constant practice she had finally managed to properly cast a Transmogrification spell. Using every ounce of concentration she possessed, she managed to turn an apple into an orange, then a pear, then a peach, and back into an apple again -- by no means an easy feat for a filly her age.
She was so excited, she gathered her entire family together to witness the accomplishment -- despite the fact that everypony else had already been in bed at the time. Through careful use of the puppy dog stare, she convinced them all to gather in her room and proceed to begin her demonstration.
Then it all went wrong.
The only warning any of them got was the sound of splintering wood followed by a loud bang. They all turned to the bedroom door just in time to see it fly across the room and smash against the opposite wall.
Before she could fully comprehend what was going on she heard her mother scream and then found herself pulled backwards into a tight embrace by a pair of light grey forelegs. A loud, melodious laugh drew the lavender filly's attention to the doorway.
Two ponies casually trotted into the room -- a pegasus mare and a unicorn stallion. Twilight's initial panic was momentarily overridden by the sheer strangeness of the two.
Aside from one having wings and the other a horn, and the slight differences in the shape of their muzzles, she could barely tell the two apart. They both shared bright orange coats, dark green eyes, a bright -- almost neon green -- mane and tail, and malicious grins.
They briefly surveyed the scene before turning to each other with matching smirks.
"How did you get in here?" Night Light demanded, taking a threatening step towards the two, "Who are you two?"
The pegasus mare just laughed again in response.
"Are you suuuure you wanna know, stud?" the mare asked playfully, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, y'know?"
The orange unicorn turned to the mare with a disapproving frown.
"What?" the mare asked seeing his look, "how many times am I going to get a chance to use that line?"
Twilight Velvet slowly backed herself into the open closet behind her as the mare spoke -- her hooves wrapped tightly around her children.
"Mommy, what's going on?" the lavender filly asked nervously, "who are those ponies?"
"I don't know, dear," her mother whispered, "just stay quiet for now and let your father handle it."
Twilight nodded and buried herself further into her mother's chest. Shining grit his teeth and glared at the two intruders. He knew as much as the rest of them about what was happening, but he didn't like the mares words.
He knew something bad was about to happen.
Unfortunately, Twilight's question had drawn the attention of the two strange ponies and they turned to face the three. The mare furrowed her brow in thought and nudged her twin.
"Hey," she asked, "isn't she the one we're supposed to be looking for?"
"HEY!"
The two turned back to the blue unicorn stallion before them as he stomped a hoof.
"I don't who you are, and I don't how you got in," Night Light growled, "but I'll be damned to Tartarus before I let you lay one hoof on my family!"
The orange pegasus and her unicorn twin stared at Night Light with unreadable expressions.
For a few heartbeats, nopony spoke.
Then the mare smiled.
"My name is Razor Wire, and this here is my brother, Razor Blade. He's not much of a conversationalist, but he does know some neat tricks."
The mare's smile widened into a toothy grin of anticipation and she glanced at her brother before turning back to Night Light.
"Wanna see one?"
Before any of them could react, the orange unicorn stallion cracked his neck a few times before his horn flashed.
Twilight wasn't quite sure what happened next.
Some kind of large magic circle appeared on the hardwood floor in front of her father. It pulsated with an eerie red light and strange symbols the lavender filly didn't understand.
Night Light tried to scramble away from the circle but before he could get too far, the magic circle flashed brightly and the floor beneath it fell away.
Twilight, her mother, and her brother looked on in horror as a long spindly black arm rose from the hole in the ground and grabbed a screaming Night Light in it's claw before slamming him into Twilight's own bed. The impact split the bed right down the middle and Twilight winced at the sickening crunch that resulted.
All sight and sound seemed to disappear for the lavender filly -- save for the gruesome sight on the bed and a cold, cruel laugh that seemed to echo through the room. The arm had retreated back into the hole and the floor closed itself back up, but Twilight didn't see that, as she found her vision engulfed by a pair of wide, teary arctic blue eyes.
It took Twilight a moment to realize she was being forced to look into her mother's eyes and another moment to realize her mother was speaking to her.
"D-Don't look, sweetie," she cried frantically. Twilight could feel her mother shaking as she spoke, "just... j-just keep your eyes on mommy, alright? Can you do that?"
Twilight cast a scared glance to her brother to see him staring at the twins across the room -- tears streaming down his face and his mouth set in a furious snarl. She looked back to her mother and gave a small nod.
"O-Okay."
She was scared and confused.
There were several other emotions welling up within her that had never experienced before and she couldn't begin to place them all. So rather than try to understand what she was going through, she tried to ignore the two twins and let herself be comforted by the presence of her mother.
"Hey, kid."
Twilight turned to the orange mare despite herself. The mare was looking in their direction with a scowl, and at first, Twilight thought she was looking at her, but then she spoke again.
"I don't like the way you're looking at me, brat," the mare said taking a steps towards them. She shook her head and snorted in irritation, "this is why I hate dealing with colts -- always looking for a fight."
She flared a wing out and took another step forward, only to be stopped by an orange hoof on her shoulder. She turned to see her brother shaking his head and giving Shining Armor a pointed look.
"What? Why not?" the mare asked with an annoyed frown, "let's just..."
The stallion shook head again and smirked at his sister. The mare's eyes widened in response and she gave a smirk of her own.
"Alright fine, we'll take the brat too," she said, turning to Shining, "this is our first trip to the capital, so we might as well grab ourselves a souvenir for the road."
She continued her trot forward and Twilight Velvet pushed herself further back.
"NO!" she cried, pulling Shining Armor closer to her, "DON'T YOU TOUCH MY S -- ghk!"
Twilight felt her mother go rigid and she looked up in confusion.
"...Mommy?"
Twilight Velvet had frozen mid shout and both Twilight and Shining cried in surprise as their mother fell on top of them. The two sibling scrambled out from under her and turned to see what had happened.
Twilight finally screamed and tried to back away, but only hit the back wall of the closet behind her.
All the emotions she was trying to ignore -- both familiar and unfamiliar -- assaulted her mind at once and she suddenly found it hard to breath. she shivered violently as she looked from her mother's body to the head that had fallen off and rolled to a stop few hoof-lengths away.
The gravity of the situation had finally caught up to her -- smothering her thoughts under its oppressive weight.
Her father was dead.
Her mother was dead.
Her brother...
She heard a scream of rage and turned to see Shining Armor charge the pegasus mare -- his horn lighting up to fire off some kind of spell. Twilight just stood there and watched as her brother's body suddenly locked up and he fell over -- the aura around his horn fading out.
She looked to the orange stallion and saw the bright green glow of his horn fade as well.
"Well," the mare said as she trotted over to the colt and prodded him with a hoof, "that was... interesting," she looked over to Twilight Velvet's body, then at the pulped body of Night Light and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Huh..." she turned to her brother, "didn't that pompous dirtbag say something about being 'discreet'?"
The stallion just shrugged.
"Yeah I guess it's fine. We never leave anything behind anyway," she looked around the room, "well, anything that has to do with us at any rate. Besides," she turned back to the bed with a smirk, "I did tell him what I'd have to do if I gave him our names."
Her brother rolled his eyes and gestured to the lavender filly cowering in the closet. The mare followed his gaze and blinked.
"Oh, right," she muttered, "almost forgot in all the excitement."
She began trotting over to Twilight with a gentle welcoming smile that only frightened the filly more.
"Now don't be shy, dear," the mare purred, "my brother and I are gonna take you someplace niiiiice and safe."
Twilight shook her head rapidly, her eyes wide with fear and her breathing quick and erratic.
The mare's smile slipped into a frown and she trotted closer.
"Look dear, we're on a tight schedule here and to be honest, I hate this city," she said, "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to, so you can either come out of that closet on your own, or I'm gonna drag you out, understand?"
Twilight didn't answer.
The mare's voice was getting further and further away.
She felt sick.
She wanted her mommy and daddy to hold her and tell her it was okay.
She wanted her brother to protect her like he always did.
She wanted these evil ponies to go away.
She wanted all these bad feelings to go away.
She didn't want to be here.
She wanted the pain to stop.
But the pain didn't stop.
In fact the pain was getting worse and worse by the second. It continued to grow until it was all she could feel -- all she could think about. She heard a loud ringing in her ears and her vision darkened for a split second and she screamed before everything went white.
She felt something shift inside her and the pain vanished.
Twilight blacked out before she could register the relief.