//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Midnight // Story: Return of the Ancient Mage // by Zoshe //------------------------------// Smokey made his way to the edge of town. He was feeling more than a little tired and just a bit bad about what he had to do to get away. "I think I've finally lost them," he said as he looked back at the town. "Heh, and now I'm talking to myself. Has being able to hear my own voice after so long really become that novel of an experience?" He looked at the Everfree forest behind him. "This is way too much trouble to go through. I know you want to put Sombra down for good, but there has to be a better way to go about it. None of those girls deserved what I did to them." He gave a bit of thought to how they found him out, "is that why you did it, Whisper? Are you trying to get through to him?" Smokey took a couple of steps towards the Everfree Forest. He was hoping that the wild magic of the forest would be enough to mask the trail that the purple alicorn has used to follow him. He lost his footing and stumbled forward, confused as his chest slammed against the dirt and his breath was driven out of him. He tried to push himself back up but was unable to find any immediate purchase on the ground in front of him. His eyes came back into focus after the jarring impact he had just suffered and his eyes went wide at what he was seeing or more importantly, what he wasn't seeing. There was no ground before him. Even if it was just a hole in the ground, you would still be able to see the sides of the hole from the angle he was looking at it. However, there was nothing. Literally nothing. He scrambled to climb back up, pushing himself away from the impossibility that appeared in front of him. As he backed away from the void in front of him, a chilling voice manifested behind him. "Who said you could leave?" The voice was twisted, yet there was an innocence to it, and there was just a hint of malice hidden within it. Smokey turned towards the source of the voice, immediately noticing the dark purple glow the sky had taken on. In front of him was Twilight Sparkle, but something seemed different about her. Small wisps of magic flickered through the air around her, taking on shades of magenta and blue as she slowly walked towards him. As she got closer, he could see the pale glow her eyes had taken on. It was different than the ability she had been using to find him. "What happened to you, princess?" He asked as some unnamed fear began to crawl down his back. "What do you think happened to me?" Twilight asked as she slowly began walking towards him. "You happened to me. You and everypony else that decided to hurt me and my friends." Smokey tried to back away from her as she approached, but with the unknown void laying behind him, he didn't have anywhere he could really go. Long bright purple cracks began to form in the ground around his hooves as he tried to circle around the unstable alicorn. "Twilight... Whatever else is happening, you need to calm down." "Calm down!" She roared as tears ran down her face. "You don't get to tell me to calm down after everything you did!" The lights were gathering around her as the magic in the air began to condense. "Why did you do it? What did we ever do to you?" "You didn't do anything to deserve what happened. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." He was looking for an opportunity to make a run for it, but it wasn't looking good. "Are you trying to escape?" Her voice began to take on a sultry tone. "Evil creatures like you don't get to do as you please and I won't let you hurt anypony ever again." As she spoke those last words, a bright, six pointed star appeared in the sky above her. The light from the star shone down on her and wrapped her in its brilliant light. Twilight's body lifted into the air as powerful magic wrapped itself around her body, obscuring her from view. The surrounding space began to warp and crack as a ball of light engulfed Twilight's body and began to spin in place. Smokey started to panic as he desperately looked for an escape. He wasn't completely sure what was happening, but he had a fairly good feeling what it was and it wasn't something he could handle by himself. He tried several times to run around the spinning orb of magic, but every time he thought he found another route to escape, another bolt of power flew out from the orb and cut off his escape as well as tearing another hole in the world. The orb began to spin faster and grow brighter as the air around it began to feel more and more charged with magic. With a snap, magic flew out from the center like broken glass. Each of the shards catching on empty space as they hung in the air, some of them tore open holes that opened to more than just empty space. Places that had never been seen before were made visible through some of them and a few even had creatures that no pony had ever seen before. Twilight Sparkle floated in the center of the nexus of destruction, changed by the torrent of magic she had wrapped herself in. Blue flames licked off the edges of her eyes and wrapped itself around her horn. Her two-tone mane and tail had gained long black streaks through them and they danced in the wind like they had taken on a fiery life of their own. Her wings had taken on a dark purple color even as they had almost doubled in length, each of them ending in large tufts of feathers with pinions that seemed to play with the air around her as they effortlessly suspended her in the air. "This is bad," Smokey said as he tried to back away, he was genuinely scared at this point. "This has gone way too far." Twilight looked down at her body, smiling as she did so, "I don't know what happened, but I feel good." She smiled a sinister smile. "Everything seems so much clearer now. Magic... The universe... Everything." She turned her pale eyes on Smokey, "even you, my little abomination. I see what you are." A single spark flew off her horn and shot at the earth pony faster than he could react. It impacted with one of his forelegs, the sound of shattering glass pierced the night as the offending leg broke off like it was made of the most fragile crystal. With that leg no longer supporting his weight, he tumbled to the ground. A blank stare masked his face as he looked up at her. He didn't cry or scream as he found himself down to three legs, but instead, a gloom settled over his face. "No..." He said in despair. "You don't understand what you've just tapped into." "I understand enough to know that you present no threat to me." Twilight wrapped her hooves around herself, a look of euphoria filling her eyes as she shivered in delight. "This form though. The magic I now have access to. The things I could do, the things I could learn..." "The damage you could cause!" Smokey shouted even as he clutched the crystal stump of his missing leg. Twilight looked down at him from her place in the air, "oh right. I almost forgot you were here. Be quiet," she dismissed him as both of his back legs exploded into a rain of glass, leaving him with only a single leg left to hold himself up with. "What would Celestia think if she saw you like this?!" He shouted up at her. "Show the princess the respect she is due," ordered Twilight. "What would Princess Celestia think? I'm sure she'll resist, convince me to give it up. But when I show her the good we can do with this. The worlds we can explore," the tips of her wings began to glow and with a lazy swipe of one of them, she cut open the empty space like a hot knife through butter. The rift revealing a whole new world behind it. "The villains who believe that they have a safe haven will no longer be able to hide." With another swipe of the wing, she cut open another space. Floating houses, upside-down roads, and waterfalls that flowed in reverse could be seen within it as well as what fell out of the rift. Discord, the spirit of chaos, tumbled to the ground. A shower cap on his head and a brush in one of his mismatched claws. "What in the name of all things mad is going on here?" He looked annoyed until he looked up at the corrupted Twilight Sparkle, then he just started clapping happily. "Oh my, little princess. What have you done to yourself? I absolutely love it!" "Be quiet and wait your turn, Discord. I haven't forgotten what you did to us back in the maze." Twilight looked down at the draconequus. "Ooo, I love a good supervillain throwdown." Discord excitedly snapped his eagle claw, causing his shower cap and brush to disappear and in its place he found himself on a couch enjoying a bowl of popcorn. "What's this one called? Nightmare Twilight? Nightmare Sparkle?" "Laugh while you can," Twilight sneered down at him. "You pose no threat to me anymore." "Ooo, how bout Midnight Sparkle! Sure we're not supposed to see it for a couple movies yet but who's counting?" Discord stuffed his claw into the popcorn bowl and pulled out a hotdog. "And we're right at my favorite part of the movie, too," he crunched on the hotdog like a pickle. Midnight Sparkle looked down at Discord, slightly amused at his antics, "and what part would that be?" "Oh?" Discord guffawed. "It's the part where the villain monologues a little too long and is interrupted in the most cliché way possible." He took a moment to consider, "come to think of it, I think I did the same thing when I faced you and your friends." Midnight looked back at Smokey who hadn't moved an inch since her exchange with Discord started. With what Discord just said, she had been expecting him to have done something, but he was just laying there, smiling. "What are you smiling about," she said even as the sound of rattling chains penetrated her hearing. Her eyes grew wide with confusion, "what is that sound?!" She didn't have to wait long, for at that moment the ground beneath where Midnight was hovering began to shake. Like a snake lunging at unsuspecting prey, long emerald chains erupted from the ground and began to spiral around the unsuspecting Midnight. Midnight noticed their approach at the last second and failed to get completely out of the way in time. One of the many chains immediately latched onto a leg and began to pull her to the ground. A spark flew from Midnight's horn, severing the chain almost as soon as it tied itself onto her. "I love a good struggle," came the voice of Discord as he started to munch on the popcorn bowl itself. Midnight made the mistake of looking at the draconequus as he shouted out, allowing herself to be quickly overwhelmed by the rest of the chains. "What are these?!" She cried out as she attempted and failed to teleport out of the way. More and more of the chains began to wrap themselves around her legs, pulling them taut. She gave a few futile flaps of her wings and a new set of chains began to work their way up those as well. "Who's doing this?! Smokey?!" She looked to the still form laying on the ground but got no response. "Discord?!" "Don't look at me. This is far too coordinated to be something I'd do." Discord was now laid out on a beach chair and getting a tan under the moonlight. "Who's there?!" She shouted. "Show yourself!" The chains quickly spiraled up her neck and wrapped themselves around her horn. Breathing started to become difficult as the links constricted around her, and her mind started becoming numb as they tightened around her sensitive horn. "What's happening here?" Asked a voice that carried in on the wind. Midnight strained to look down at where she thought she heard the voice coming from. The Everfree Shade looked up at her with his hood resting against the back of his neck. He had a far away look in his eyes like he was somewhere else even as he was clearly studying her. "It's about time you showed up," said Smokey as he pushed himself up on his one remaining leg. "What took you so long?" Midnight fought to breathe as she forced a few words out, "you two know each other?" She wheezed. "What's this?" Discord got up from his seat and pulled off his sunglasses, revealing tan lines in the process. A look of delight appearing on his face as he looked at the scene in front of him. "Hahaha!" He began to roll with laughter. "So that's what's going on here!" "Hello Discord," the Shade said without taking his eyes off of Midnight. "I see you're enjoying yourself, as always." "Positively so, my good chap" said Discord as he sipped tea and readjusted his monocle. "It's not every day that some pony tries to tear the multiverse apart. I certainly didn't expect it to be perfect little miss Twilight Sparkle doing it." The Shade let out a heavy sigh without once taking his eyes off Midnight. "Discord?" He asked. "Yes? Is there something you need?" He asked while his grin tried to run away from him. "Go away," he said flatly. Discord's smile promptly turned upside down, literally. "Well fine, if you're going to be rude about it," he huffed as he pulled a doorknob from his pocket and used it to open a door in the scenery. "I will be watching though. This is just too interesting to ignore," he stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry before closing the door behind him. "I see he hasn't changed," he turned away from the bound Midnight and stepped up to the broken pony on the ground. "What happened?" "It's a bit of a long story," Smokey said as he laid back on the grass, a tired look on her face. "I definitely wasn't expecting today to go like this." The Shade looked back up at Midnight, who was still struggling to escape her chains even as the rifts around her were beginning to seal themselves shut. "I want you to use it now," he said without once looking away from the mad alicorn. Smokey's eyes grew wide, "are you sure? I won't be ready in time if Celestia decides to interfere." The Shade glanced around at still closing rifts in space that surrounded them. "This is a more immediate problem," he said. "I have other ways of protecting myself from her but this needs to be taken care right away." "So this was all for nothing then," Smokey said as the cracks at the ends of his broken legs began to climb up the rest of his body. His fur began to slowly melt into the skin below it, causing it to take on a glassy appearance. "What... Do you want... With... The princess?" Midnight fought between breaths to ask the question. She was beginning to feel light-headed with the way the chains around her throat restricted her breathing. "Shhh... Be calm Twilight Sparkle," he said softly. "I'm going to do my best to release you from your darker nature, before you end up doing something you'll regret." A sad look showed in his eyes as he said those words. Smokey's body began to steam as wisps of golden smoke began to leak through cracks forming in his body. A bright miasma began to slowly collect around them as the rest of the earth pony's body continued to break down. A small ribbon of light tore from his body as the last of it broke down into mist. The light flew through the air and connected with the Shade's horn, his eyes lit brightly for just a moment before returning to their green color. "I see..." He seemed deep in thought for a moment. "So he captured your friend's brother. That's what started this all." Midnight's flailing mind was still able to piece together what the Shade just did, despite her fading consciousness. "You know his memories?" He stepped right up to Midnight and gently placed a hoof to the side of her head, "it's a good thing you still have some ability to reason. It means you're still in there, Twilight Sparkle," he said as he looked deep into her eyes. The thick miasma began to converge on the two of them, any thought of escape gone from Midnight's addled mind as she hung limply in the air. "It's my fault you're suffering, but I'm going to fix this," he said as the golden cloud rushed in and began to swirl around her. The chains disappeared from her neck without warning. Desperate for air, she took in a sharp breath before she could stop herself from breathing in the thick golden smoke.