Twilight Sparkle found herself in a black expanse. An invisible floor was met with a black depth below her. She raised her hoof in a quick motion. Her senses were wrong, her sense of smell couldn’t pick up a thing. It was cold, yet there wasn’t a breeze of wind or a presence of air. Twilight looked up with a blank stare. Her body felt stiff and cold. There was nothing, but darkness above her. There was no recollection of how she got here. Then, a droplet fell from the empty sky and landed in front of her.
Twilight watched the droplet with its red hue. It didn’t seem to come from anywhere predictable. The juice appeared as if it was raining. She turned around herself and saw another come from the heavens. A deluge of red rain went down. It covered her and she felt an unusual churn in her stomach. In seconds she was bathed in its properties and grown in its splendor. There was a misunderstanding of thought. She couldn’t quite explain it, but this rain felt so foreign yet invigorating.
She gave a smile and leaped around. Her filly disposition was old yet a part of her. All she could think of was how warm she felt against the cold. How the rain had given her life with its heat. Once again, she looked upwards where the gift had been bestowed upon her.
There was a eyeless ponies corpse with a broken, twisted neck bleeding from a gutted stomach.
It screamed with a deep howl.
Twilight awoke, the sun shined through a window. She felt sweat that dripped down her face and body. Her legs were covered in it. The pores wouldn’t relent on their cries. She pulled down her blanket and breathed deep breaths. She went to the mirror in the front of her room. There she stared into its image. Her face seemed fine, lacking sleep, but healthy as a whole.
There, a peculiarity caught her. In her mane, there was a red strand of dark hue. It seemed natural as if it was a part of her. She touched it and walked aback. It looked kinda nice in her own unusual state. Still, she didn’t want to call it a new hairstyle. There was only one option amidst the dream and this strange discoloration. To find any help that could rectify what just happened.
“Spike!” she called out. “Can you come over here?”
The thud of dragon steps that climbed up came with haste. Her door creaked open as the tired dragon rubbed his eyes.
“What is it Twilight?” he asked.
She stood towards him with a face of concern. Her stance is tall, yet worried towards this.
“Notice anything different?” she said.
Spike gave out a questioning hum and laid his claws on his chin. There, he studied her serious demeanor for any sign of a problem. Then, he saw the strain of hair that Spike felt unsettled by.
“Did you get a new highlight, Twilight?” he said.
She covered her mouth as a chuckle went through her throat. The small chuckle grew into a laugh that continued for a few moments. Spike watched her intently and raised his claws in a confused stance. Twilight grinned, turned her head away, and pushed against her own throat before she went into a full bellow of uncontrolled deep chortles. Spike shook, rattled his teeth, and leaned in the corner with a bright blue pillow he grabbed for protection. Dark energy surrounded Twilight, all her belongings from the books she read to the pens and clothes she had strewn around levitated with black energy.
Then, they all fell and Twilight gave Spike a soft smile.
“That was a good one Spike!” she said with a trot. “Well, I’m gonna go see Zecora about my dream and this weird highlight, she’d probably know if it means anything”.
Spike shivered as Twilight went out the door. His pillow cradled tight around his arms. The door slammed shut with her gone, Spike laid in the corner and waved her a shaky goodbye with what willpower he could muster.
Twilight walked out of Golden Oaks Library and felt so warm and tingly inside. The tree’s color that littered the library turned brown as she walked past. Her morning stroll was paused by the fact that she saw the crusaders with their terrified screams. She didn’t understand what had caused such a thing, but it felt so funny to her.
She thought, so what if her neck contorted and bent over her spine from out of its place, she was just happy to see them, that was just her way of saying hello.
After a long trip through the inordinate path that was way longer than needed to get there, Twilight was at Zecora’s hut. She thought that if she stood like a scarecrow and twisted her head ninety degrees it would be a funny prank to laugh at. Twilight made sure to stand absolutely still as if frozen. That way, Zecora would laugh out loud with her. She felt so happy inside, it was enough to warrant absolute joy.
It turned out that Zecora didn’t want to come out, so Twilight just had to go over there herself.
The door smashed open and Zecora gave a terrified cry. Twilight didn’t understand this, it was just a funny prank afterall.
“Dear goodness Twilight, what's wrong with your light!?” said Zecora as she hid behind the black kettle pot.
Twilight gave out a demonic laugh that jiggled the little hut’s wooden walls.
“Haha, did you like my prank Zecora, it was so comedic, I feel I should become a comedian don't you think, I’ve made so many funny jokes and pranks, aren’t I funny!?”
Zecora cowered behind the pot.
“You need help Twilight, please, this is not right!”
Twilight lifted her hoof.
“Help, what do you mean I need…”
Twilight’s eyes stared at her body and watched with an unrelenting gaze towards her hoof. There she saw it much darker than usual. She screamed with a deep spectral yell and looked towards the black kettle pot’s reflection. Her eyes were consumed with darkness, the mane completely colored blood red, the body’s color of darkened purple.
“What, what's happening to me!?” she said.
Twilight gave out a loud ghostly howl and disappeared in a miasma of dark smoke that appeared. The gass dissipated with her gone from sight. Zecora closed her eyes and reeled from the power of the dark howl before she opened them to the sight of an empty space.
=
Twilight Velvet stared around and found that her room was a bit of a bore to look at. It didn’t have any decorative items like she painstakingly added at the sparkle estate. With different odds and ends that she got from her life over its course. Still, for a writer’s apartment, it was usable as a way to find new perspectives. A necessity for a long time for selling multi million dollar ventures in Daring Do. It had a location near Manehattan, so it would prove a unique area to formulate a new story. She hoped it would work out, since she had been in writer’s block for so long.
Hee hee hee hee
Her eyes shot up from the sound of deep laughter. She turned around through the apartment as her heart raced. There, she saw a black skeletal figure from across the room. Twilight Velvet couldn’t believe her eyes, yet knew exactly what the spector was. It came when it was the time for it, but she didn’t want to think of it.
“You!’ she said. “What do you want!?”. Her body pressed to the reaches of her rollable chair.
She has come
“No, did it come at this generation, but it's impossible... for right now it's not even the sixth generation of the line, so it can’t be…” Twilight Velvet covered her head. “The only female left is me and I haven’t turned so… no…”
The spector laughed at her confusion, so gullible, so weak towards the darkness of theirs.
“You stay away from my daughter!” she screamed. It disappeared into the shadows as it came with whatever its intention now done. Its black laughter resonated across the apartment as it went.
“No… Twilight!!”, Twilight Velvet eyes went wide as she reached for her notebook. There, she unveiled a scroll in between a section of her scribbles. With her magic, the scroll unraveled and the runes inside glowed.
“I’m coming baby, I won’t let you succumb to this!” she said. Magical signets appeared around her and a bright light emanated out. In a flash, she vanished, her belongings fell to the ground in a mess.
=
Another day of boredom, Princess Celestia awaited the next issue that had come to her royal palace as per the usual. Many ponies had come to help fix their issues with utmost respect, but the requests were always stupid or a waste of time and logic. One pony asked why the dirt would not grow crops of the vedallium onion when for the longest time, the vedallium onion can only be harnessed in supreme cold conditions. She had been asked that question in different variances of, “Is it possible to grow the onion in hotter conditions?” or “Can we make Equestria colder so we can grow the onion somehow?”. The very responses of her ponies were simply aggravating at times, but at least they had the gusto to ask them anyways to find ways to solve things. The onion itself does have powerful healing properties, but it can only be harnessed at less than zero degree celsius which is impossible to farm outright.
Then, from the corner of her shoulder, she heard the sound of bone that chattered behind her. She gasped and turned her head around to find nothing there.
“Uh, great princess, are you alright?” said the pony denizen. “I was thinking we could somehow simulate the coldness of less than zero degree celsius somehow to facilitate an environment for the growth of this onion”.
Princess Celestia sighed.
“Well, if we do somehow get the onion to be farmable, how would you farm the said onion when ponies can’t survive in such temperatures?” she said.
“Well, we could make body suits to combat the fierce cold”
If they weren’t so foolish, she would call her ponies downright tenacious. Of all things, that was one thing she could be proud of them for.
“And what substance would you make these suits out of, if made magically, it would take a lot of power to do such a thing, and if they don’t work properly, there is always a chance for error in these circumstances” she said. “You would need an equal amount of heat to combat the sheer cold, how can that be feasible?”
The group of ponies chattered amongst themselves to find an answer and simply scratched their heads.
“Well, come back once you find a solution”, she said.
The group left, next up was a pony in black hood and cape. She went up and unveiled herself to the Princess.
“Twilight Velvet, what brings you to my quarters?” she asked.
Twilight Velvet bowed.
“Great princess, it's… about Twilight, my daughter,” she said gravely.
Celestia rose from her seat and went to her. Twilight Velvet raised her head and was awed by her towering presence yet had a face of concern.
“What happened, is she alright?”
“I don’t know Princess, but I must explain what I do know, and it is a very long story”.
She went back to her seat and watched intently.
“Well, you see, a long time ago, the sparkle family had an ancestor that well… fell in love with a demon from tartarus” she said outright.
The ponies that waited behind and the princess gasped in tandem.
“Yea, so technically, the sparkle family is part tartarus demon, and he is supposedly a duke of Tartarus too, his name is uh… Belias”.
They gasped again, this time much louder.
“Yea, don’t hold all your breaths at the same time” she said with a nervous laugh.
“Wait a minute, so you're telling me that your family has demonic blood?” asked Princess Celestia.
Twilight Velvet scratched the floor.
“Yea, all the way back to the eighteenth century too” she said. “But, we never dealt with demons after, it's just our ancestor, Twilight Swelter, was an orphan without parents, “achem” so the story goes like this”.
Once upon a time, a pony named Twilight Swelter was all alone.
She had it all, servants to call, a mansion so tall.
But there was no friend to talk to
No pony to see through
All alone in her house cage
No one to play her age
So if she couldn’t have a friend
She’d go to tartarus and back with her sos to send
The demon Belias answered her call
He was black and would crawl
But with etiquette and a soul to be offered
The two became friends, and soon became lovers
A child was born, but to protect her son
The one named Twilight Swelter made the deal undone
Sealed Belias back to Tartarus
Never seen his child and never came back to them or us
“That's the Sparkle lineage right there, all in a 200 year old nursery rhyme”
They gasped again; Twilight Velvet gave a nervous smile.
“So why tell us now, you know I never deal with the affairs of Tartarus, except for sealing away those who wronged Equestria” she said.
“Well…”
The group of ponies behind her crept closer, Princess Celestia admittingly moved herself a few inches forward.
“Sigh”..., every sixth generation, a mare may inherit what we like to call, the black gene or as the doctors like to name it, the laughing gene. It's basically the side of Belias recurring in the family. And well, I think my Twilight has inherited it”.
A loud howl cried out into the royal room. The large windows cracked and split into pieces, a loud demonic cry spread across the room. Illumination was sealed by dark energies. Now the room was filled with the shadows, devoid of light. Twilight came through the window; voices and thoughts could be heard in black whispers. The congregation stared at the twisted creature as it levitated through with her eyes that shook violently. She absolutely still as it floated without need of wings. A single red light shined through her black eyes with blood light. Her neck and limbs twisted and turned with loud cracks and spine splitted sounds. Only the moon was a source of light to the evil that spelled their doom.
From behind, Princess Luna at top speeds, dived at her.
“No Luna, don’t hurt her!” screamed Celestia as she turned to action and flew.
Almost about to slam into her, Luna was caught by her sister and they flew, they spiraled into the ground.
Twilight Sparkle twitched and convulsed; the ponies ran for their lives with rapid steps and terrified screams.
Princess Celestia pinned Luna down with all her might.
“Eck, let me go Tia, I must stop this!”
Celestia squeezed tighter.
“Look Luna, isn’t that somepony you know?”
Luna looked up at the twisted pony that floated above and gasped.
Discord watched with a basket of popcorn and sat down.
“Well, who knew your personal protege was demonically linked with a duke of hell, the element of magic is ironic now isn’t it?”
The two sisters both spoke, “shut up discord!”
“Hey, just saying it like it is,” he said before he got up, dropped the popcorn on the floor and walked forward to get a better view. “So what's the plan, use the elements of harmony, oh wait, you can’t do that can’t you huh?”
He scratched his chin in thought before he noticed Twilight Velvet walk forward.
“Now this is an interesting outcome”, Discord jokingly elbowed Celestia and then crossed his arms.
“Twilight!” she said as she crept close. “I know my daughter is in there, fight this influence, I beg you, come back to me please!”
Twilight’s head twisted over her back and stretched down to under her body. There it paused and then stretched further until it surrounded Twilight Velvet and lifted her up into the ceiling. Velvet screamed as her daughter flailed her around and giggled as she did so.
“For goodness sakes Discord, this has gotten out of hoof, do something” said Princess Luna.
And so Discord sighed at some point.
“Fine, right when things were starting to get good”.
With a snap of his claws, Discord opened a swirling portal and reached his full arm into it. From the receiving end, he pulled out Belias straight from Tartarus. The goat demon with horrific black hooves, satanic goat face, and large pronounced black muscles and black horns, screamed a high pitched girl squeal at the sight of Discord and bent down on all fours.
“Lord Discord!” he said. “I didn’t know you came back, what can I d-”
“Is this all you're doing!?” he said as he pointed at Twilight as she flailed her mother around.
“Uh well, sorry, that's my grand daughter and-”
Discord’s eyes turned black with the rage of chaos. Belias cowered at the sight of the chaos god.
“Okay okay, I’ll make it stop, I’m sorry, i’m sorry!!” he begged while he waved his arms around.
“Good, now fix your damned mess” said Discord.
Belias stood up and flew towards Twilight. There he put his demon hand on her face and she fell down to the floor with all the monstrous energy now gone. Her head and body reconstituted back to her normal purple self. She levitated down and landed with a soft thud.
Belias returned to the rest.
“Now apologize to the pony sisters” said Discord.
Belias scratched his demonic claws with a nervous stare.
“Uh sorry”.
The sisters just felt annoyed by all this. All they could do was stand up and walk away to their rooms without a word.
Discord slapped Belias in the back of the head.
“Go make amends with your spawn fool”.
He cried and walked towards the Twilights and scratched his head. Twilight Sparkle rose from her rest with a half competent gaze while Velvet carried her in her hooves.
“Well, sorry great granddaughters, I guess I used you all to pull a sort of prank for keeping me away for so long, I guess I was a bad demon grandpa, sorry”
Discord gave Belias a stern look. Both Twilight’s gave a loud, “hmmph”.
“Heh sorry about that, we’ll keep in touch alright, well gotta go...”
Discord created a portal beneath the demon’s hooves and he fell to the deepest depths of Tartarus.
“Alright show’s over, I’m out” he said. Discord teleported away and went about his business.
Twilight rose up a bit from her mother's hooves.
“Mom, am I a demon?” she asked with an exhausted whisper.
“Oh Twilight don’t be silly, of course you are, it runs in the family after all, except for your father, he is just perfectly average”.
The two of them laughed heartily before the laughter turned into deep chuckles and even more so towards the demonic before the moon and its pristine light.
=
Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash arrived together and busted open the door to the Royal chambers. They looked around and found that other than the broken glass windows, there wasn’t anything to find.
“Aw shoots, we came too late, whatever happened got resolved already” said Applejack.
Rarity groaned.
“Applejack, I thought you said there was something horribly wrong with Twilight!”
Applejack frowned at her misconception.
“Dangit Applebloom, thats the las time I listen to that filly, she’s gonna get some good ol payment for that, if she wasn’t so scared to death, I’d think she be fakin”
“You’ve gotta check for this stuff guys, I missed a whole practice because of this insane Twilight being scary garbage, I mean that egghead can’t be scary, she’s just too much of a bookworm for that”.
“I’m going home, this is a bust and Angel Bunny is waiting for me” said Fluttershy.
The five grumbled and walked back home.