"No, no it's not true! Twilight would never do that!" Spike said after hearing what happened as he covered his ears in denial.
"I'm afraid it's true," Celestia said with her heart broken. "Twilight has come back into our lives, but now." Celestia stopped as she had a hard time believing it herself even though she was there.
"Why would Twilight do this?" Rarity asked.
"Who cares?" Applejack said. "We have to stop her."
"But how? Without her we can't even use the Elements of Harmony," Rarity said.
"The elements," Fluttershy said after a short pause. "Maybe those can help."
"Huh?" The others said as they turned to her.
"Well I was just thinking that time when Twilight was able to snap us out of Discord's magic by reminding us who we are, maybe we can return the favor." The others agreed with Fluttershy's plan and got ready to head where Twilight said she'd be, with Shining Armor as well in case they needed extra magic.
"Don't worry we'll bring Twily home," Shining Armor said to Princess Celestia.
"Good luck." Celestia said as they went off.
"A storm is coming," Forest said who was right next to Celestia as he looked into a clear blue sky.
"Yes," Celestia replied. "I can feel it too."
***
As the mane 5 and Shining Armor made their way to where Twilight said she'd be, Discord was watching them coming via a crystal ball he created.
"Well well, Twilight's friends and her brother," Chrysalis said as she was watching with Discord. "Though the plan was for just the other element wielders to come here, Shining Armor might change things."
"This changes nothing. We can handle him. Well maybe not we, I think it's time to set up a little family reunion." Before long the mane five and Shining Armor made it to the mountain but before they could make a plan they fell through a hole and were separated. It happened so fast Shining Armor didn't even have time to stop it with his magic."
"Oh I see divide and conquer," Chrysalis said. "So with Shining Armor on the verge of his surprise that leaves five ponies between the two of us."
"Oh no," Discord said. "I'll handle those 5 you just get the changelings ready for your new attack on Canterlot."
"What? I see, you told me of this the last time you faced them, are you going to repeat what you did?"
"Something like that, last time I made them into the opposites of themselves. This time I'm going to destroy them."
"You mean you're going to kill them?!" Pharynx asked.
"Not quite, to break an opponent's body is one thing, but to break a spirit is to truly destroy them." Discord then disappeared after letting out a very wicked laugh leaving the changelings a bit uncomfortable.
"That guy scares me." Pharynx said.
***
Shining Armor after getting separated from the others got up and tried to find them by having a look around while making sure not to lose the Element of Magic. One of the few things he had left to remember his sister by. "Okay down and a little bruised but I'm not out," Shining Armor said as he looked around for the others and his sister. "Don't worry Twily, I'll bring you home."
"Oh really," a voice echoed through the mines of the mountain which almost sent a chill up Shining Armor's spine. "Now you care about her, but who am I kidding when have you ever cared about your sister." the voice continued to Shining Armor's annoyance.
"What are you talking about? I love my sister!"
"Despite evidence to the contrary," the voice replied as the walls of the mountain changed showing when Shining Armor left Twilight in the dungeon.
"I know what you're doing and it's not going to work." Shining Armor said, sounding a tad unconvincing.
"Really? Then you won't mind if I sing."
"What?" Shining Armor said confused to what he just heard when suddenly the mountain filled with a somber musical tone and the screens showed Twilight when she was younger.
"When she was just a filly she found it rather silly to see how many other ponies she could meet. She had her books to read. She didn't think she'd ever need other ponies to make her life complete, but there was one colt that she cared for she thought would be there for her." Shining Armor then tried to run away from the screens but no matter how far he ran the screens were always in sight.
"I'm not listening, and that last part didn't even rhyme."
"Her big brother best friend forever like 2 peas in a pod you did everything together. You taught her how to fly a kite, but then you got into a fight," the voice said as the screens showed when Shining Armor chewed out Twilight at the wedding rehearsal. "You crushed her hopes, you crushed her dreams, you didn't care for her at all it seems."
"NO IT'S NOT TRUE!" Shining Armor yelled as she stopped running and put his front legs over his ears to try blocking out the song.
"She then ran far away. Why oh why should she have stayed."
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
"You cared more about the wedding, and you lost her forever." The final part was the last nail in the coffin as hearing that Shining Armor's insecurities finally got the best of him as he started to cry.
"I'm sorry Twily," he said as he continued crying. "I'm so so sorry." Suddenly the screens all vanished, not that Shining Armor noticed as he was still crying and as he did a shadowy figure made its way out of the darkness. As the figure crept closer Shining Armor could hear the hoof steps of the figure approaching.
"Of course you're sorry everypony is sorry when it's too late." the voice from before said but since it was much closer now Shining Armor was able to recognize it.
"T-Twily?!" Shining Armor said as he looked up and smiled but suddenly a surge of magical energy pushed him back and made him hit the ground several times.
"MY NAME IS NOT TWILY!" She said as she jumped down to get closer to Shining Armor. "That ship is sailed, it sailed when you abandoned me."
"That's not what I did."
"No?" Twilight showed what happened at the rehearsal again. "All I wanted was to help you, I ONLY WANTED TO HELP and what did you do to me!?" Twilight then showed her getting looked in the dungeon again. "You broke my heart."
"I was wrong to treat you that way, I'm sorry."
"Yeah now you respect me, BECAUSE I'M A THREAT!" Twilight then blasted her brother that made him hit the wall. "Well now you're about to see just how much of a threat that I can be." Twilight then let out a series of spells that Shining Armor could barely dodge or block.
"Stop please, I don't want to fight!"
"You could have fooled me!" Twilight then showed me Shining Armor hitting her with the stun spell once again breaking her brother's heart as he was forced to watch his cruel actions once again. "Do you have any idea how painful that was? Let me give you an idea!" Twilight then blasted Shining Armor who wasn't able to block it with his magic this time and was slammed through the wall of the mountain.
"Twilight please don't do this!" Shining Armor said as he tried to get up but Twilight stomped on his head with her front right hoof.
"I will hate you until the day I die!" She said as she continued to press her hoof on her brother's head. Hearing that once again brought Shining Armor to tears for his heart was truly broken, hearing and seeing how hateful his sister had become. Despite his feelings he had a duty to protect Equestria and knew she had to be stopped. Like how Celestia stopped her sister when she became Nightmare Moon. So Shining Armor pushed back his sister with a magical burst of his own and while still hurt quickly got back up.
"I can't let you do this Twily, I'm truly sorry for what I did to you in the past-" Shining Armor was cut off when Twilight fired a series of spells at him. He summoned his shield but eventually it was broken and when he tried a larger barrier spell Twilight broke through that as well. Shining Armor was a powerful unicorn but Discord had given Twilight a large portion of his chaos magic. Twilight then charged straight at Shining Armor with murder in her eyes.
"Time to finish you off!" Twilight said. Yet Shining Armor could still only see the adorable little filly that followed her around all the time. Shining Armor knew she had gone beyond a point of no return and for the sake of Equestria he had to stop her, but how could he. The warrior in him lost to the brother in him allowing Twilight to somewhat stab him with her horn and fired a powerful blast at point blank range.
"No," Shining Armor whispered as the blast sent him off a cliff within the mountain. It wasn't all that deep a fall but was enough for him to break his neck on impact with the ground. "Forgive me Twily…" he said as he looked up, seeing his sister staring down at him just before the life left his eyes. As Twilight looked down seeing that her brother was no more she had only one thing to say before leaving to meet up with Discord.
"Good riddance."
***
With the mane 5 separated they tried to find each other, Applejack most of all as she was running all across the mountain trying to find the others. And one by one she did, however they weren't quite themselves. "What's going on?" She asked. "What could have happened to all of them? It's like that time when we first met, Discord!" Applejack said as she finally put 2 and 2 together, and as she did the spirit of chaos appeared in front of her.
"Took you long enough to figure it out, you never were the brains of the group were you? What happened to her again? Oh yeah, you left her to rot in the dungeon!"
"No that's not what happened!" Applejack said defensively.
"Is it though?" Discord then made a large screen showing the horrible actions that took place that day and much like Shining Armor, Applejack was forced to watch how monstrous she had been. "I've been watching you ponies for quite some time and I've got to say, it's amazing what you can realize when you watch a creature's actions."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"After Twilight left you acted the most cold of all, why do you think that is?"
"I, I don't know." Applejack replied.
"Oh I think you do know, you're jealous of Twilight."
"What, I am not! You're even crazier than I thought you were."
"Twilight was always the smart one, she always had a plan and was always the type of pony you wanted to be." Applejack didn't say anything as she didn't know what to say, allowing Discord to continue. "Ever since your parents died you tried so hard to pull the weight they carried, to be responsible, to always know what to do, and when to do it. But you never could, however Twilight could, at least that's what you thought ever since she helped you get all the apples on your farm when your brother was hurt."
"N-No! No!"
"Yes yes, you were jealous of her and couldn't stand how she was always the one to save the day. She was always there for you, but where were you when you could have returned the favor?" Discord then showed Applejack's actions and the sight brought her to tears. Applejack had been known to cry on the inside but here she couldn't hold it back anymore.
"You're right I know I can be stubborn but I didn't think it would blind me like this," Applejack said still in tears and then proceeded to throw her Element of Honesty on the ground which rather surprised Discord. "You win." Applejack said still in tears which also surprised Discord.
"What?" He asked not believing what he just heard.
"You win Discord we've already lost, but please give us back Twilight."
"Give her back?" Discord asked as he bent down.
"Even if the land is drowned in chaos we can survive together, so please give her back."
"Oh if only I could. When Chrysalis and I reworked her way of thinking we did it better than I could have imagined, I doubt I could reverse it even if I wanted to."
"What, you mean?"
"Yes the Twilight Sparkle you know, is gone forever," Discord replied, sounding rather sad himself as he said it. "You want to know something else? In a way, this is all thanks to you."
"What?" Discord then showed more of Applejack's actions.
"You saw how she was in there, she deserves to be all alone." the Applejack on the screen said.
"That one sentence gave me the idea for this plan. Well actually it was a few other things too but this especially."
"Wait, you mean?"
"That's right you inspired my whole plan, thank you Applejack," Discord said with a bow. "Thank you for being such a terrible friend, I never would have thought up the perfect plan to stop you all without your help." Hearing that Applejack cried into an utter despair and became corrupted like the others who would wander around the mountain for the rest of their days.
***
With the element wielders taken care of and Twilight saying she dealt with her brother while leaving out the fact she killed him, Discord and the changelings set out to take the capital. Celestia somehow sensing this had her sister Princess Luna get the residents out of Canterlot and then go to the Crystal Empire for backup. Celestia stared out into the night sky and was told everypony that wasn't part of the royal guard made it out, except for one. "Forest," Celestia said while still staring out. "You need to get out of here something big is coming."
"I'm staying right here," he replied Celestia didn't know him all that long but she knew he was stubborn, a bit like her. "I refuse to leave you."
"Very well if that's your decision I won't force you to go." she said. I just hope I won't lose another student after tonight. Before long the changelings attacked and the royal guards put up a much better fight than last time, but Chrysalis helped push them back. Forest went out to stop Chrysalis while Discord stayed back and watched the chaos unravel which he so loved to do, Twilight on the other hoof made her way straight to Princess Celestia who remained stoic when she showed up. "So at long last my faithful student has returned home."
"This is no longer my home and I am no longer your student."
"I see, Twilight please there's still time for you to stop all this."
"No, it's too late." Twilight then attacked with a beam of magic but Celestia dodged and flew up to get some space but Twilight with her newly acquired wings chased after her and attacked with her newly acquired chaos magic.
"Are you really going to give up everything I taught you to dedicate yourself to Discord and those changelings?" Celestia asked as she continued to fly away.
"I dedicated everything to you, because I thought you were my friend," Twilight replied as she finally managed to hit Celestia causing her to fall. "It's time for you to finally suffer for trying to lock me away." Twilight said as she flew down to continue the fight.
"Is that what this is all about? You betrayed us for that?" Celestia said as she stood up.
"You betrayed me first!"
"You were locked in there for half a day at most!"
"I rotted in there for what felt like a lifetime because of your weakness!"
"Doing what you have to in order to keep the peace isn't weakness!"
"You knew what you were doing was wrong, you knew from the very start, but when Shining Armor said otherwise what did you do? What, did, you, do!? NOTHING!" Twilight then charged and continued attacking.
"I was in an impossible situation, I care for you greatly but I also feel the same about Cadance and Shining Armor. No matter what I could do I was going to let down one of you."
"So you took the easy way out and screwed me over like you always did! You were a horrible mother and a worse princess!"
"I took you in when your parents died in that accident and raised you along with your brother. I saw you had potential so I made you my student too, I may have been hard on you but I did to help you reach your full potential. But you became a problem child that let her head get too big for the rest of her body. That's not my fault."
"NOT YOUR FAULT?" Twilight then set out more powerful spells and chaos magic attacks that would hit Celestia dead on, but would also drain her energy rapidly. "Who filled my head with dreams?! Who made me practice until it felt like my horn was gonna fall off!? Who left me to rot when I needed her!?"
"ENOUGH!" Celestia screamed in her royal Canterlot voice as she fired a beam that hit Twilight dead on but she charged anyway enduring it and punched Celestia in her face then blasted her into the wall and used magic rings to pin her there. Twilight then continued to punch her face back and forth.
"EVERYTHING, I EVER DID, I DID TO MAKE YOU PROUD, TELL ME HOW PROUD YOU ARE! TELL ME! TELL ME!" Twilight then blasted Celestia so hard she went through the wall.
"I," Celestia stopped to catch her breath as she got back up again. "I have always been proud of you, since day one I've been proud of you, but it was my pride that blinded me. I saw so much of what you could become, I didn't see you for what you were now. I set impossible standards for a gifted filly that was still just a filly and then resented you when you didn't reach them. I got mad at you for things that weren't your fault, they were my fault Twilight, I-I'm sorry." Celestia finished as finally admitting her mistakes brought her to tears. Hearing all this Twilight paused for a moment unsure how to react.
"Even though it was almost over 1000 years since I sealed her away, I didn't want to get that close to ponies because I didn't want to get hurt again. When I brought you and your brother in I tried to be a good teacher and just that, but you didn't need a teacher you needed a mother. Something I was too afraid to be, please forgive me Twilight, though honestly I don't blame you if you didn't, I probably can't forgive myself. But please know I am truly sorry and I'll do anything to make it up to you, even if it takes the rest of my life." Suddenly Twilight attacked Celestia.
"I don't want your apology." Twilight as she attacked once and the two of them one again exchanged blows but this time Twilight took noticeably more damage.
"Twilight please stop, you're using up all your strength and taking a lot of damage, if you keep this up, you'll die." Celestia pleaded not wishing to lose her daughter.
"If it means taking you down it'll be worth it!" Twilight replied as she charged Celestia yet again, this time forcing her to the ground and stomping on her face before flying up. "After today you'll be nothing more than a distant memory." Hearing that made Celestia’s heart break into a thousand little pieces. She was so heartbroken she didn't see Twilight charge up her horn one final time and use it to blast her away. The last few seconds before the life in her left her body Celestia smiled, for if this was to be her fate she hoped that at least her death would make her daughter happy.
"I-I did it." Twilight before plummeting to the ground and coughing up quite a bit of blood.
"What an annoying little pony," Discord said as he made his way to Twilight and was shocked to see Twilight on the ground next to the dead Celestia. "Twilight?"
"I did it," she said as the life started to leave her. "She's dead like my backstabbing brother."
"Dead! You killed them!?"
"My so-called friends have been corrupted, the two who betrayed me the most are dead, and you can more than handle the rest like Cadance." Twilight then cried tears of joy. "I did it, I did it, I got my revenge. I'm so happy." Twilight then cried tears of joy more before she closed her eyes for the final time. Discord then picked her up and almost cried himself.
"Oh Twilight you choose vengeance over ruling this land with me for all eternity, you could have had both. You could have had both."
***
Twilight was buried where Canterlot once stood. "None of this would have been possible without you, love ya Twilight," Discord said before he continued to spread the chaos that he loves so much. "Chaos is a wonderful thing."
Harmony never returned to the land of Equestria. The only sounds of joy heard in it were the cackling of the mad god that transformed this once beautiful land into what it was now. The lesson from this tale of woe, don't take your friends for granted. Because if you do, they won't be there when you need them the most.
The End