Twilight's Room
Twilight did not join the others immediately. They knew she was going through a difficult time of her own, they were understanding. They would always be understanding. Dan and the others were her friends, after all. They knew Twilight was getting through a rough patch. They knew Twilight would get through it soon. They knew Twilight was under a lot of stress and pressure. They knew Twilight would undoubtedly get through it, they knew she would, they knew Twilight, they knew Twilight, they knew Twilight, they knew... they knew...
Or did they?
She looked in the mirror. And she didn't recognize the mare that looked back.
"No... no. No. This can't... this isn't happening."
"Has happened. Will happen. Was destined to happen," the voice said. "Happened."
"I can't... I can't..." Her breath came in labored gasps. Was she having a heart attack? Her throat felt cold, each breath was like ice. She coughed. Clutching her forelegs around herself for warmth, she dared not grab her blanket to wrap around her. She dared not.
"You were always suspicious, weren't you? You never shut out any possibilities before. Why start now?"
"I am NOT her. I am NOT the Director," Twilight stated. She turned her back to the mirror. Everything was cold and yet, alive. Everything was alive, moving, seething, running, trickling like water droplets on her body but it really wasn't alive. It was the world. All the world and she felt it, life and death, real and not, unable to be shut out, unable to be denied, a pulsing, beating heart of a contradiction... the impossible. The impossible happening.
"This is just the beginning. You know-"
"Shut up. Okay? SHUT. UP," Twilight said. She was talking to herself. Both voices, her own and the voice of Nightfall, her dark form persona, were coming from her. She perceived both simultaneously, but the mirror had a third mare. A mare made of herself and Nightfall.
"It makes sense, doesn't it? The Director always seemed like more than one pony. It was us, both of us, the whole time."
"I'm going to get Luna. I'm going to get P-Pri-Princess C-Celestia. Sh-she'll help."
"This is a surprise to me as much as it is you."
She grabbed her head in her hooves, pinched her eyes closed. "I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU!! I'M NOT THE DIRECTOR!!"
"We're becoming the Director. Together."
"NO!!!"
"She had to come back. It was only a matter of time. Equestria came back and she came with it. This is how it all started... was destined to start. You and me, Twilight. I am your Nightfall... and your dawn is the Director."
She turned to face the mirror again, her eyes burning like purple embers. The glass was hit by a massive beam of magic from her horn, a twisted and jagged mauve beam that fractured the frame, fractured the mirror, fractured the reality and bent everything in and around it into a fabric so warped, it broke into other dimensions briefly. In a split second, she realized what she had done and reversed the spell.
Twilight gasped for breath again. Steadying herself, her breathing was heavy, hooves shaking, she gripped the bed. It was freezing. A robe draped down over her, one made from the broken pieces of the mirror, reconstituted and reconfigured into something useful. A simple spell. The only problem was-
She hadn't cast any spell. Yet her horn glowed all the same.
"Need some help?"
She spun. The fractal-impact in the fabric of space-time shifted, and exploded just behind the man in her doorway. It was Kent. He held his hand up, palm outward in front of him, as if catching the spell right before his face.
"You should've knocked."
"I apologize. I-" he slowly turned around, "thought I heard a... disturbance."
Reality slowly returned to normal. Perhaps seeing someone new was enough to quiet, or at least distract her inner demons for the moment. Maybe that was enough. She took a seat on her bed and pulled a blanket around her, but not over her head.
"Why are you helping... us?" Twilight asked. Her voice was cold and distorted. Yes, too much like the Director's. Too much like Cleo. Perhaps this was the way she chose to return. But maybe... "Do you know the Director? Cleo?"
Kent stepped forward. "I've heard of someone similar. From old stories. There was an old woman who hated the way things were, an outcast from two sides of a great conflict. She sought to destroy the galaxy, or at least change it, defy it for just a second. She lied and manipulated and betrayed people to get what she wanted, but in the end, another exile was able to learn from her. I think in the end, she might've gotten what she wanted."
"There must always be a Darth Traya."
"That does... that does sound like Cleo. But you didn't answer my question. My first question."
Kent sat on the edge of the bed. "Barro asked me to be here. So I'm here. I owe him... well, let's say I owe him a few favors."
"That's not much of an answer."
"Not everything is so complicated."
She turned to him. "You expect us to trust you. Dan may say he trusts you, but that's only because he thinks he can use you."
Kent folded his arms. "That appears to be the case."
"So you're fine with being a lackey, then? I don't buy that. What's really motivating you, Kentan? If that is your name?" She asked him. "You won't even show us your face."
He sighed. "There's not much to see."
"Maybe you really WANT things to be simpler than they are."
Then, he turned to her. "You want the truth? Fine. I was trying to rebuild a world. Yes, the green swordsman you saw is my former master. And my friend. He trained me for years and finally, I took the trials. I became a Jedi Knight on my own. He was deployed to Balmorra, I was sent to Taris. And on Taris... things changed."
"Go on. What changed?"
"I-" he turned back and forth, trying to suppress his irritation, frustration, stress. But sometimes, the easiest way to pry something out of someone was to do it quickly. "I made friends, I built houses, we worked together to rebuild the planet. And then I..." he trailed off. His head was raised. She couldn't see his eyes, but Twilight had to believe he was looking somewhere far away, somewhere in the distance.
"And then you?"
He grunted and got up. "Enough. You can accept that I'm helping you or not. To be honest, you need all the help you can get."
"I take it your efforts to rebuild the planet didn't-"
"I said that's enough. I'm not discussing this any more!" Kent said. "If you want to know what happened you... you can talk to someone else that was there. If you can find them."
"I'm sorry," Twilight said. When Kent raised his voice, it took some of Twilight's own negativity, satiated it. Negativity loves company, it would seem. It was enough for Twilight to get back in control again. "I hope you'll tell me on your own when you're ready."
He didn't say anything, just stood. Breathing.
"What I do know is this," Kent said. "The foes you face are tenacious. They have determination, resources and time. With those things, they can do anything. Where there is a will, there is a way."
"The planet's already been destroyed once. And rebuilt once," Twilight said. "This isn't Taris, Mr. Kent."
"It could be worse," Kent said back. "There are some things worse than death, worse than destruction. Agony, your highness. Unending, unrelenting, undying agony. Taris was one such world and Malachor V was another, transformed and twisted by pain and death into something so horrible it threatened to spread suffering throughout the galaxy. An aching wound, one that does not heal, the dark echo of something that should not exist."
"Wow," Twilight said. "That's pretty edgy." She almost snickered. Again, Nightfall's doing. Dan probably would've said the same thing.
Kent sat back down on the bed again. "It cuts quite deep indeed."
"That's not what I- well, yeah," Twilight said. Might as well give him that one. "So you're trying to prevent that from happening here?"
"Yes," he nodded. "If I can. There's a device that causes such suffering, a superweapon built during a desperate time. I knew of the engineer that designed it. According to some of his notes, he expressed an interest in places like Equestria. I believe he hid the device here, the Mass Shadow Generator, hoping it would never be used again."
The Mass Shadow Generator was indeed on Equestria. It was in a box in Twilight's desk drawer, less than three feet away. It was a small ball you could easily fit in your hand; Bao-Dur's remote was also the Mass Shadow Generator itself. The device had gone dormant and was without power. But power was something it could get back very easily.
Kent was not able to sense the superweapon in her desk. Like the ponies with the Magic Gears, things made of metal and machines were difficult to detect via different forms of extrasensory perception. Living, thinking things, beings of emotion left an impression that could be felt in the psychic sense while most artificial things did not.
"I understand," Twilight said. It seemed like they were both going to keep things from each other, for the time being. If they couldn't fully trust each other, they would have to settle for partial trust. Not ideal, but nothing about this situation was.
"TWILIGHT! KENTY! GET DOWN HERE, WE'RE GOING TO PONE DEPOT!"
Kent rose. "Do you want me to tell them you're staying?"
"No," Twilight rose as well. "I'm coming. I've spent enough time alone." They departed her room together. As they closed the door, a single crack formed in the mirror, one that ran the length from top to bottom.
Happening at the same time
At the far side of the Everfree Forest
"Next."
Like many Team Rocket grunts, Holly and Dale were usually deployed in pairs. They were a team and worked well together, for the most part. Along with Doc, their Houndour mascot, they were one of the first twosomes sent to plunder Equestria.
Things had not gone according to plan. Beaten, chased halfway across the kingdom, out of resources, Team Rocket's activities in Equestria were coming to a close. Rogue Elements, as Equestrians called extradimensional travelers that weren't summoned or invited, were being hunted down. There was a rumor that a group of humans had broken into the Crystal Palace vaults before the entire palace was uprooted, but it couldn't be confirmed. It wasn't something Holly or Dale could look into.
The Sith Assassin behind them pushed them to the ground.
"Stay down, Dale."
"Mmm-mmmff-ffmmm." His face was literally still on the ground.
"So what have you brought to me?" Arteem asked. The dark-robed human sat on a rock, book levitating above his hand.
"Hashaila-bor-grall-hesssssssss. Ashaela-ov-gaaarr bra-hesssssss."
Holly chanced a glance up. "Who... who are you?"
"I'm Arteem Surik," he said. He closed the book. "What's your name?"
"I-I'm Holly. And this is-"
"I'm Dale! And if you mess with us, you better be ready for trouble!"
"That's my line, Dale! I always start it."
"Shut up, Holly!"
Arteem smiled. "Aren't you both cute. I suppose I could use you."
Dale wrestled himself off the ground. "Yeah, well you can forget it! Team Rocket's not joining you ghouls or your spooky-ahhh- aAAAAHHH!" Something wrapped around his wrist, then his other wrist. His ankles were bound. A shadowy force, no, shadow itself wrapped around him and pulled him back down to the ground. Holly was the same; the shadows wrapped around them both and restrained them.
Arteem got down from the rock. "I'm not big on speeches but, suffice to say, I've learned a lot from being here. There is a lot of power in friendship and now, I can use that power, too."
"We're not gonna be friends with you, creep!" Holly shouted.
"Ha! You two really are cute. Because I'm not asking."
A tendril of shadow wrapped itself around both their mouths before they could retort. The world grew dark, shadow engulfed them. They struggled, but shadow itself completely covered them until it was a pool around them, until every part of them had been drowned in shadow. And then, their struggles ended and they were less Holly and Dale and more friends of Arteem Surik.
"Go to the assembly area with the others."
"Hassssss..."
"Saaaaa..."
Arteem hopped back on his rock and opened the book again. He wrote down Holly and Dale's names next to the others. He might need to get a new book soon; he'd made quite a lot of friends today.
"Next."