It’s been three days since Octomare’s defeat and Twilight continued arresting criminals, one by one. Very quickly, of course, she wasn’t the only hero in the city, but that was another matter. What we want to know is, how did she become “Princess Midnight”? How did she earn her powers? Well, it all started when she was 11.
***
At Twilight’s parents home, Twilight’s room.
Twilight was in her room, reading a book. She smiled and looked around her room. She loved doing this, because on every wall, there was a poster of the heroine: Princess Celestia. She always admired her, well, firstly because they were both girls and because she was so good at magic that she could levitate an entire building without breaking a sweat, but the best part of all was that she was the one to raise and lower the sun. Twilight must be her fan number one for sure! She giggled as she imagined herself meeting Princess Celestia, only to talk to her, not try to become her sidekick or something, like so many did, she wasn’t interested in being a superhero, there were already many superheroes, the society didn’t need more of them, I mean what could happen?
Suddenly, Twilight heard her stomach grumbling. She stood up and came out of her room, then ran to the kitchen where she saw her dad eating a sandwich.
“Where’s mom?” Twilight asked. Night Light swallowed a part of the sandwich and looked at her.
“It’s midnight and as you know we can see the stars from our house; your mom is on the terrace, looking at them like always,” he answered as he took another bite of his sandwich.
Well, Twilight could ask her dad to make her food, but she definitely prefered mom’s food. Twilight ran to the terrace and saw her mom sitting, looking at the sky. Twilight approached her slowly and sat beside her.
“Hey mom, I…”
“Look, Twilight. Don’t you think it’s magnificent?” Velvet said, interrupting Twilight. The young filly looked above her and saw the night sky, and it was for sure the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, aside from Princess Celestia of course.
“So, that must be why you always stargaze. This is so beautiful,” Twilight said as her mother giggled.
“Tell me Twilight, do you know what you want to do when you grow up? Many ponies know what they want to do by looking at their cutie mark.”
“Well, I don’t know, something involving books I guess.”
“Don’t you want to learn new spells? Learn to improve your magic abilities?”
“No, I don’t see why that would be important. I love magic, but I don’t know why I would need to learn new spells. I’m fine with what I have.”
“Twilight, your cutie mark is magic. Magic connects everything, magic allows this world to exist,” Velvet said enigmatically. Twilight looked at her for a second, not understanding. “I’ll come back, Twilight. Stay here, I’ll be fast,” Velvet said as she stood up and went inside of the house. Twilight looked at her and went back to stargazing.
These stars, this sky, she couldn’t bring herself to not look at it until she saw something strange. There was a big light; it looked like a star, but that light was way too big to be one. Twilight noticed it was getting larger, wait, no! it wasn’t getting larger, it was coming closer! Twilight stood up in fear, but she didn’t have enough time to run as the light engulfed her. She howled in pain. She had never suffered like that! The pain was unbearable! She felt like somepony was trying to tear her apart from the inside! After what seemed to be an eternity, she fell on the ground, unconscious.
***
“How is she, doctor?” Night Light asked to the doctor.
He and his wife were in front of Twilight’s hospital room. They heard her howl, and as soon as they heard her they rushed to see how she was. They’d never been so afraid before! Twilight really seemed to be in pain, she was even unconscious!
Meanwhile in Twilight’s hospital room
Twilight was laying on the bed, covered by sheets, connected to an electrocardiograph. She began shaking and sweating, and after some seconds, she opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a white room surrounded by medical equipment, she thought. She got out of the bed and saw a mirror, then approached it and saw her reflection. She looked so pale, what happened? Suddenly, she felt it again, the pain. She gritted her teeth, trying not to cry as her horn glowed. She widened her eyes as she saw her magic engulf her, and closed her eyes in fear. Then, the pain stopped. Twilight opened her eyes with hesitation and saw a new pony in the mirror, a tall alicorn with flowing mane and tail and a long horn.
“W… What is this?” she asked herself as she looked at her hooves. “I… somehow look like Princess Celestia! Change my colors, give me a hero costume and I’ll be her twin!” She touched her face, what did that mean? Did that light do this to her? She even felt stronger, what did it want? Well, it didn’t matter that much when she thought about it. It didn’t change her plans for the future. She still wanted to do something where she’d need to be smart, or something like that. She didn’t need all that power, what could she do with that?
Suddenly, she felt pain again as she was covered in magic, but this time, she couldn’t keep herself from yelling in pain. She returned to her normal form as she collapsed on the ground, still conscious. Her parents and the doctor ran into the room when they heard the cry, and saw in shock that Twilight was on the ground.
“Oh, my poor little filly,” Velvet said as she put her in bed with her magic.
“It… it hurts,” Twilight murmured.
“I don’t understand, what is wrong with her?” Night Light asked to the doctor.
“I don’t see anything wrong, sir. I mean, we did so many tests and we didn’t detect any anomalies, so she should be perfectly healthy,” the doctor explained, confused.
Suddenly, they heard somepony open the door. It was a filly of Twilight’s age, a unicorn with a yellow coat and a red mane with purple strands.
“I’m with my parents, the nurse told us we could visit. Is that okay?” she asked shyly. The doctor looked at Twilight’s parents as they nodded.
“Yes, come in. You’re Twilight’s friend, Moondancer?” Velvet said. Moondancer nodded and ran to Twilight’s side.
“Moondancer, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked happily.
“Well, did you forget we’re neighbors? My parents saw an ambulance come to your house, so when we were ready we came here as fast as we could! I wanted to make sure you were doing fine!” Moondancer exclaimed, happy that Twilight was okay.
“Thank you for worrying about me, Moondancer,” Twilight said with a sincere smile. Since Twilight kept studying for school and didn’t take time to make friends, Moondancer was the only pony she knew as a friend.
***
Three years later, Twilight is 14.
Twilight was sleeping nicely in her bed. Why was everything was perfect in her life? Well, first of all, she was the best in school, all the teachers praised her, and that was good if she wanted to have a formidable work she loved in the future. She had good relationships with her friends, well, with her only friend Moondancer. Now, for some reason, she remembered what happened years ago, that beam of light which hit her. She hadn’t used that form again, but she had a bad feeling about it. She knew that things like these happened for a reason, a purpose. She opened her eyes. She looked around her. She was in her room. She looked through the window and saw red and blue lights, but most of all, she heard sirens. She got off her bed and ran down the stairs out of her room until she arrived at the entrance of her house where she saw her parents talking with a police officer.
Twilight came closer and looked outside. The police cars were in front of Moondancer’s house, and she could hear the police officer talking.
“I’m really sorry to tell you this. The maniac’s name is John Kassady. He was running away, so I think he came to steal a car. Looks like he did it, but stay calm; there are officers in pursuit as we speak,” the police officer explained to Twilight’s parents as Velvet cried.
“How can we stay calm!? That maniac killed everypony in that house! Even a filly!” Night Light shouted, pointing at Moondancer’s house. He hugged his wife, who was crying like she never had before.
Twilight was shocked. She opened her mouth as she felt tears coming down. No, that’s impossible! It couldn’t be happening! Velvet turned around. Twilight gasped as she saw her mother’s face deformed by sadness and tears.
“I… I’m… sorry Twilight… but your friend Moondancer…” Velvet started with a trembling voice as Twilight shook. “Is… oh… oh my god.” She tried to not cry.
Then Twilight felt something snap. She stopped crying and kept her face blocked in an expression of shock and sadness. Her parents were telling her something, but she couldn’t hear them. It was as if the entire world was muted. Then she felt something new… hate. Suddenly, she ran to her room. Night Light was ready to stop her, but Velvet grabbed him by the tail. He looked at her as she shook her head.
Twilight entered in her room and closed the door as she focused her mind on one specific thing: revenge. Suddenly, she was covered by purple magic and transformed into her alicorn form. She used her magic to break the window of her room and flew through it too fast for the normal pony eye to see.
She gritted her teeth as she looked below her. It was night but there were many ponies outside, and she didn’t care. She was searching only one pony, and his name was John Kassady!
Suddenly, she heard police sirens! She looked below her and saw three police cars chasing somepony who was driving Moondancer’s parents’ car! They were driving really fast, so fast that the police could barely drive properly.
John Kassady smiled as he saw a police car behind him hit another. He did it, he took out two of those idiots. However, there was still one left! The police car came closer, worrying Kassady. Suddenly the police car bumped into him, making the two of them crash. The police car crashed in a Chinese restaurant, knocking the driver out as Kassady’s car crashed into a civilian’s car. Kassady came out of the car. He saw the ponies around running and yelling in fear. They didn’t want to be caught in a police chase!
Kassady saw a dark alley and smiled with a hopeful look on his face. He ran as fast he could with a bloody knife attached to his torso by a string. He wished he wasn’t an earth pony; if he had been a pegasus, this would have been much easier! He looked behind him. He didn’t see anything, and it was pretty dark here. He must have lost them. This was his lucky day! However, he heard a can fall on the ground and looked ahead of him.
Then, from the darkness, a tall alicorn emerged before him. She came closer without saying anything, and Kassady stepped back.
“Who’re you?!” he asked. Twilight didn’t respond as she came closer. Kassady gritted his teeth, took his knife, and tried to stab her, but was stopped from moving. Twilight used her magic to levitate the knife beside her.
“Is that what you used?” she asked as she gritted her teeth. She was so angry that her veins were visible on her forehead, and suddenly the knife disintegrated in front of him. Kassady gasped; his knife was turned to dust!
“W… wait! I don’t know…” he started, but Twilight used her magic to throw him to the wall. He yelled in pain as the wall cracked. He noticed he was free from her magic and started running, however he received a purple lightning bolt to his back. He cried again as his body shook with painful spasms.
“You will pay for everything you’ve done,” Twilight said as she shot another bolt at him, holding back her strength of course. She wanted to make him suffer as much as possible. Kassady groaned again and drooled, his saliva mixing with his blood. “You, monster, tell me, how many ponies have suffered?” she added as she shot another bolt.
“W… Wha… what… are you… AAAAAAAH!” he shouted as he felt his body tearing apart. Twilight shot another lighting bolt, then punched him in the face, without letting him rest, she kicked him on the stomach, he was throw away in another wall, he coughed blood and received a lightning bolt, he was having so much pain spasms that he couldn’t think of something else anymore.
“Did you enjoy everything you’ve done? Do you understand how it feels to lose somepony you love? DO YOU!?” Twilight shouted as she shot a bigger lightning bolt at him. Kassady cried in pain as he widened his eyes more than before. Twilight approached him and put a hoof on his chest to make him stay in place on the ground, and her horn started glowing.
“Now that you’ve felt my pain, I’ll make you feel Moondancer’s and her family’s,” Twilight murmured with crazy look on her face. However, she looked at Kassady’s face deformed in pain and fear, and gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as her horn stopped glowing. “I… I won’t be a killer and if I kill you, then I won’t be any better than the monsters of your kind. You will be judged in a court, like everypony else,” Twilight said. As she heard sirens approaching, she looked down at Kassady and flew on top of a building.
She looked at the city and heard some ponies screaming while somepony else was laughing, having a good time.
“I was wrong. I was foolish. For all these years I thought that this society we’re in was safe. That heroes were everywhere, protecting everypony. That was my biggest mistake. This pain, this suffering, is unbearable, and now I see why ponies need heroes more than anything. Because there is no hope. They are scared and they crawl into darkness to fill themselves with sorrow. I think I know why I got these powers. It is to make them dream again. I must be a hero that ponies can look up to and hope again. This my duty.”