//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 - Part 1 - Blooming of a New Kingdom // Story: Dreams in Discord // by Gsbrill //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy pushed open the trapdoor above them, and heard the cries of the crowd become even louder. They found themselves in the middle of what appeared to be a large arena, probably the large round building they could see from the entrance of the forest. In front of them, two ponies fought fiercely against each other. One of them was a tall red-coated earth pony, wearing a heavy set of armor and wielding a battle axe in its mouth. The other one was a white coated unicorn. He had a yellow mane and his cutie mark was a bow crossed with a sword. He wielded a thin but very long sword and a shield, carrying both with his magic, and his armor set was composed of simple leather plates strapped around his torso and legs. The battle was going far better for the unicorn, since he used a much lighter set of armor and was able to move around much faster, using his speed to dodge or block every incoming blow from the heavy axe. He waved his sword around with ease, despite its great length and weight. By the looks of it, the battle was already nearing its end. The earth pony was visibly exausted and his swings were slow and predictable. Several small cuts could be seen between the metal plates where the flesh was exposed. He swung his axe down onto the unicorn, which blocked his attack with ease using the shield and with a single move, turned around and bucked the earth pony right in the chest. Before he could manage to get up, he saw the shining blade being placed at his throat. The cheers at the arena stopped and everypony looked up, at a large balcony located at the top of the arena. In it, two guards could be seen standing at the sides of a small earth pony, wearing a laurel wreath. He raised his hoof in the air and brought it down, eliciting even louder cheers from the crowd. The two mares had no idea of what was going on and decided not to interfere. The unicorn took one last look at its opponent’s eyes and with a movement of his sword cut open his throat. Then he turned towards the mares with a look of disappointment. “So, which one of you is going to be my opponent?” He asked without much enthusiasm. Fluttershy was hiding behind Pinkie with a terrified look on her face. Pinkie, still smiling asked the unicorn. “Why do we have to fight anyway? We just want to help our friend, we won’t bother you I promise” The gladiator stared annoyed at her. “Why must we fight?” He laughed “I fight for glory! I am a gladiator; I need no more reasons to it. The crowd demands blood and the only ones I see that can quench that thirst are you” The crowd screamed in joy, and once again the name of the stallion before them. “A-chi-lles! A-chi-lles! A-chi-lles!” “So, which one of you will face me? I wouldn’t mind fighting the two at once if that would be the case” He said arrogantly. Pinkie stepped forward. “I guess that’s me” she sounded gleeful as always. “Wait Pinkie! You can’t go; he is going to hurt you!” Flutteshy pleaded. “Don’t worry about me; just go on, Twilight is waiting. You trust me right?” Fluttershy nodded without much enthusiasm, her eyes beginning to get wet. “Don’t do that Flutershy, remember, you promised me that you wouldn’t cry anymore” She wiped her face and put on the most determined expression that she managed. “That’s better. Now just run past him, I can hold him until you get to the gate” She pointed at the large metal gate that exited the arena, which had been left open. “Are you done already? Look, whoever chooses to fight, just know that I am honorable enough to let the other one pass through. One of you will be enough to entertain the crowd, and I wouldn’t backstab someone in a duel” Fluttershy then ran as fast as she could without even looking back. She knew that if she did she would probably go back and try to help somehow, and would end up getting in the way. No matter what Pinkie told her, she still felt like a burden to the others, and now she was alone. The unicorn kicked the axe from the fallen body towards Pinkie. “I don’t fight against an unarmed opponent, but don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you’re a mare” “Thanks! What’s your name?” The unicorn was taken aback by the question. “Didn’t you hear them shout my name?” He pointed around “I am Achilles, son of Peleus. Tell me your name your tombstone won’t be blank” “I’m Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you! And I don’t think you’re going to need that. I can’t die here because my friends would get sad and if I’m dead who would throw them a party to cheer them up? And if I appeared there then I would be a ghost and they would be scared of me and wouldn’t want to be my friends anymore” She finished in a single breath. “You are quite…unique, I must say. Let’s see you put all that breath to good use!” She quickly grabbed the axe from the ground and Achilles charged towards her, sword pointed forward. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spike felt time slow down as the large hoof went into collision course with his skull. He closed his eyes and waited for the worst. And waited. And waited. He opened his eyes and saw the hoof frozen in the air. Apparently, time had indeed stopped, and he also couldn’t move. “Wow, this is just great. Looks like this thing really has some utility. Now I can be frozen here forever staring at this hoof in my face. Just great.” He complained to himself, remembering the hourglass, not even being able to speak. “What do you seek young one?” Came a powerful voice from below. “What do I seek? You could say that I “seek” a way to get out of here alive” He answered without giving it much thought, not even caring about who he was talking to. “So you seek power. Very well, time shall grant you power” “I don’t know who you are or if you noticed that I don’t exactly have much time” He answered motioning towards the hoof with his eyes as they were the only thing that he could still move. “Then I will give you time” And with that last remark, the voice went silent. Very slowly, Spike could see time move again, as the hoof gradually regained speed towards him. Just as it was about to hit, a loud crack coming from his chest and an explosion blasted the Princess away from him. The hourglass had exploded and the sand was now swirling around Spike forming a small tornado. The sand started glowing and moving faster, increasing the size of the hurricane. With another explosion, louder than the first one, the cave fell apart. The river above started trembling, and from it emerged an enormous purple and green shade, that dashed towards the sky. Spike was now a full grown dragon, his wounds long gone. Unlike the unforeseen event in Ponyville, when he quickly matured through greedy behavior, this time he looked like a true ancient dragon. His body was slender and powerful, with claws as big as a buffalo and wings that could cover half of Ponyville. He looked down to the water, hoping that the other creature was killed in the explosion, but he felt that he could take her now. He let out a loud roar that shook the ground around the entire forest and made even the other dragons that roamed the skies flee in terror. A third explosion could be heard, and the creature rose from the river, following the opening made by Spike. She was visibly wounded, one of her hind legs cracked, exposing the bones, and a large gash across her face. But she didn’t seem to mind, for her face had a wide smile plastered on it. “Finally! I’m free! And it is all thanks to you. I’m sorry but I’ll have to kill you now” “You’re welcome to try!” Spike said firing a large fireball towards her, that she deflected into the river with ease using her horn. The water where the green flames landed quickly evaporated, creating a thin fog around them. The creature’s horn started glowing, and a dark light surrounded her, taking the form of an alicorn, nearly as large as the dragon before her. Even though it was made out of pure energy, it still carried the same wounds as the alicorn inside of it. She grinned, and the avatar did the same. Her voce now echoed like it came from two creatures at once, and was much louder than before, as she asked calmly. “Shall we get started?” Once again the large bell inside the clock could be heard from afar, but this time it suddenly stopped, followed by the sound of breaking glass. None of the two creatures heard it, but a scream came from the same direction, although too distant to be comprehensible. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash stared straight at the face of the pony piloting the clockwork golem. She had been in there for over an hour looking for a way out, and there was no sign of any. Her wings and muscles were burning and she was exhausted. Up to that point, none of the gears or the golem had managed to hit her even once. Her ability as a flyer and her endurance were being put to the test, as she rolled around the air and charged away from punches and flying metal pieces. It seemed like the only way to get out of there would be breaking the glass on top of the clock, but that was out of the question. The glass wall was thick as a tree trunk, and even if she managed to break it, the shards would surely impale her. She looked at the mechanical creature. The glass that protected its chest and the pilot seemed to be thin enough. It was not like she had a choice. She flew away from it, going as high as she could until she was back to back with the glass dome. Then, she placed her rear legs against it and bent them. With a quick motion of her legs, pushing her body like a pair of springs, she charged down towards the glass. The distance wasn’t big enough for her to reach sonic speed, but being charged with adrenaline, she managed to hit the glass with enough strength to shatter it, covering her body in small cuts, the worst one being right above her left eye. She barely managed to dodge the control panel and with her hooves pointed forward, she tackled the pony inside, ramming him on the wall behind. The impact was so great that she could feel it hitting back at her shoulders and sending a surge of pain through her body. But the paper pony took the most of it, blowing up into a storm of pages and ink. Rainbow Dash, now covered in blood and black ink walked towards the console and saw the dozens of buttons. “Alright, I can do this, I can do anything” She pushed a button, and the golem began to ascend, almost breaking her balance. She was too weak and wounded to fly now, so she clung to the console before her with all her strength. It wasn’t long before it reached the top of the dome and stopped. The bell started ringing again. Inside the clock the noise was deafening. Rainbow Dash protected her ears with her hooves, but lost her balance in the process, and ended up falling onto the console, hitting many buttons in the process. The golem smashed its fists against the walls repeatedly, breaking both the bell and the glass dome in the process. “Oh, well, that works too” She analyzed the panel before her. Each button had a small inscription below it, mentioning its purpose “This is going to be easier than I thought” she smiled. Armed with something like that there was nothing that could stand in her way. She drove the golem out of the large clock and shouted. “WAIT FOR ME GUYS! I’M COMING!” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applejack was running away. The hydra had already grown eight more heads, that she had no choice but to keep cutting. Applejack’s strength had never been planning ahead, so she thought that eventually the heads would stop growing. Now she was being proven wrong in the worst way possible. She ran back the way they came, still with the sword in mouth, in a feeble attempt to outrun it. The hydra was clearly an aquatic creature, but she was far larger that Applejack and that made up for it. “At least ah managed to beat it up a bit” She thought to herself proudly. She had a large cut at her side from one of the attempts to cut a head off, when she tricked it into breaking down a tree that fell right on two of its heads, crushing their skulls. She didn’t account for the large branches on the tree, and one of them opened a large cut on her back. She looked back and noted that the crushed heads weren’t regenerating, and that no others had grown to take their place. Something clicked inside her head. “Ah’l be damned! Ah just have ta find a way to crush it!” She smiled proudly of her newly devised strategy. She looked behind again at the creature and her smile disappeared. “How the hay do ah crush that!?” A loud crashing noise dragged her out of her inner debate, and she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice screaming something she just couldn’t make out. She ran towards it. A series of rhythmic smashing sounds coming from the direction she was going made her flinch for a second but the creature running right behind her encouraged her to keep going and the noise only got louder. A few minutes later, a gigantic humanoid creature could be seen walking towards her, casting its shadow above a large portion of the forest. Applejack didn’t know what was worst, getting crushed or getting eaten by the beast behind her so she just stopped running and faced it. She didn’t have much time to contemplate, as the foot of the giant smashed over the hydra, crushing all of her heads at once. Just its foot was half the size of the hydra. “Hey Applejack! Need a ride?” She looked up and saw Rainbow Dash’s head poking from the torso of the giant. Before she had a chance to answer, the metallic hand grabbed her and brought her in front of the “entrance” Rainbow Dash had made. “Hop in” She motioned with a hoof. “What in tarnation is this thing? How did ya get it anyway?” Applejack looked around mesmerized. “Isn’t it awesome? I got if from the clock back there. C’mon! Let’s go show this off to the others” She smiled. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy left the arena, expecting to come out at the forest once again. She gasped at the sight before her. She stood by a narrow passage that led straight to a small, two-storied house. In front of it there was a small garden, covered in herbs and dead leaves. The house itself seemed abandoned, with cracks on the walls and a rusty metal fence, leading to a small gate. In front of the gate there were two knight statues, made entirely of jade, detuning completely from the rest of the place. But what actually made Fluttershy gasp was the area around it. There was absolutely nothing around the house. Looking behind, she could see that the whole place had turned into nothingness. The house was basically, placed into an endless ocean of white, and Fluttershy had no idea of how everything else had disappeared. She looked down to the small path leading to the house. The golden bricks were gone but she knew she was going to the right place. She walked towards the house, only to be stopped by the statues, who crossed their arms in front of her as she was about to open the gate. “Halt. Who goes there?” the thunderous voices startled her, causing her to jump back. “I-I’m Fluttershy” She whimpered at a barely audible volume. The statues didn’t move. She took a deep breath to calm herself and announced properly. “My name is Fluttershhy” She said, sounding calmer now. “Very well. What do you wish?” The voices thundered in choir once again “I want to pass, if it isn’t much trouble” Her voice began to return to the usual volume. “If you want to get through you must first answer this riddle” She raised her head with curiosity. She had heard many of those from Twilight, as they eventually played together. Twilight always won, but she was quite good at it. “I have four wings, but cannot fly, I never laugh and never cry; On the same spot I'm always found, toiling away with little sound.” Fluttershy sat down in the ground. She looked at the statues, which didn’t move or give any sign of life, just standing still in their eternal guarding duty. “A dragonfly?” She stopped for a second and facehoofed at her own stupidity. DragonFLY. A plant? But plants have no wings! What could it be? It suddenly hit her and she smiled to herself as the answer became obvious. “A windmill” She said confidently. The statues before her lost their green color and crumbled as if they were made of sand. She stepped inside the house and opened the door. Inside, the house looked was completely different. It was lively, the walls were painted with bright colors and the fireplace was lit. She jumped at the sound of a voice behind her. “Hi there dear. Are you Twilight’s friend?” Asked the voice unknown voice, with a gentle tone. Fluttershy turned around to look and saw a strange pony that seemed to be covered in book pages. Upon closer inspection it could be seen that it was made out of paper, and it had no features, no eyes and the only discernible part was the mouth, that moved naturally. “Oh…hi I’m looking for her. Is she here?” she took a few steps back from the paper pony. “She’s upstairs in her room, you can go see her. I’m glad that you came. I wasn’t sure if Twilight had any friends, she studies all day you see, we were beginning to get worried about her” Fluttershy thanked the strange pony and started making her way upstairs, while thinking about what she heard. That could be Twilight’s mother. She never spoke about her parents with her friends so she didn’t know how they were. Apparently Twilight had a pretty lonely childhood, being sent to a gifted unicorn’s school so young, and being Celestia’s student nevertheless! Her trail of thoughts stopped as she made her way towards a white door with a small sign hanging from the middle of it that said “Twilight” written in large purple letters. She could hear crying from the other side of the door. She put a hoof to the handle and opened, not sure of what to expect inside. The room was a simple children bedroom. It had a bed, a wardrobe, a small table covered in writing instruments and droplets of ink, and a short bookshelf, covered in books and a few toys. The walls were covered in pages, all coming from the same book and all of them had the letters mirrored. In a corner opposing the door, Fluttershy saw what she wasn’t expecting. A little purple unicorn filly, lying by the corner sobbing uncontrollably. Her heart sunk at the sight and she knew she had to do something. She approached the filly and spoke as gently as she could. “Hi there little filly. What happened?” The filly looked at her and she stared in daze. It was unmistakably her friend, Twilight. Her small face was covered in tears and she had a devastated look. “I hurt someone” She muttered between sobs. Fluttershy understood what happened. “But I bet it wasn’t your fault” “It wasn’t!” She raised her voice “But I can’t just apologize!” Fluttershy came closer to her and held her in her hooves, looking straight into her eyes. “Why can’t you apologize to her? I bet she will forgive you” She started crying openly this time “Because she’s gone. That mean Discord made me hurt her and now…and now…” she didn’t manage to finish, and burst out in tears again. Fluttershy hugged her tight, slightly surprising the filly. “Shhh. It wasn’t your fault, I know that, but you can’t just run away all the time” She stopped for a few seconds, thinking about it herself and how dumb that sounded coming from her “But I’m sure she is still there, waiting for you to apologize, and I know she’ll forgive you Twilight” She looked up “How do you know my name?” “I’m your friend. I’ve been for a while now” “My friend?” “Yeah, me and the others came here to take you home and help beat Discord. We need your help Twilight. Celestia needs your help” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flames and bolts of magic flew through the sky as the battle between spike and Celestia’s doppelganger went on. Both of them flew low above the forest and danced through the air, while avoiding the other one’s projectiles. Spike charged towards the alicorn, breathing a wave of fire while he did. She projected a magic barrier in front of her magical form, stopping the flames but not the impact as he flew upwards and slammed his spiked tail right in her chest. She reacted quickly by firing a bolt of energy towards the dragon’s head, that was barely dodged with a spin to the side, slightly scorching him on the side. They flew towards each other, and the battle became a furious dance of hooves, claws, fangs and horns. While the two of them were entangled in the fight, the mechanical giant driven by Dash was going their way. “So, Applejack, what happened to the others?” Asked Rainbow Dash. “Beats me to it. Ah was separated from’em right after you. That dragon-snake thingie you smashed attacked me and ah had to stay behind. Ah’m not really worried about’em, they can handle themselves but Fluttershy must be frightened” “Yeah, I think you’re right. We’ll probably meet up with them anyway; I’m still following the road. What about that cool sword there, where did you get it?” “Oh, this? Ah got it from a weird guy with no legs” She answered with disdain. “What do you meaaahn” she was cut by a stranded bolt of energy that hit the golem in the head, making him shake around a bit before regaining balance. “What was that?” Asked Applejack. “Looks like someone is fighting over there. We’ll have to get through, but with this thing” She hit the wall with her hoof “It’s going to be easy. They moved towards the fighters, who were entangled in the air, Spike attempting to bite her throat without much success. He saw the golem approaching and who was inside of it and moved away from the alicorn, but not before letting out a large wave of fire. “Hey girls! Are you alright?” He tried to smile, but seeing a 10 stories tall dragon smile is not something very hearth warming, especially when each one of its teeth are as big as you are. “Spike? Is that you? What happened?” Inquired Rainbow Dash. “Sincerely? I have no clue, but now I need your help here. That thing over there that looks like Celestia is trying to kill me, I need you to…” He was cut off by a large bolt of magic that hit him in the back. The mares screamed his name but he just stared at the creature with angry eyes. The last flame he spat had hit her in the face, leaving half of it completely scorched, bone tissue being exposed. “I guess you know what to do” Spike said before setting off to fight the creature once again. With the aid of the golem, the balance of the fight tipped towards Spike, who could focus completely on attacking relentlessly as the metallic monster also attacked her, leaving no room for her to breath or fight back, sending waves of punches at the large avatar, while Spike unleashed a blazing inferno upon her. All that she could do was block as many attacks as she could with magic. As one of the punches connected with the avatar’s face, breaking its jaw, and consequently the alicorn’s, she used the last of her forces to make it explode completely, sending her two foes flying away, but also leaving her body defenseless. She stood in the air, flapping her wings as the golem tumbled down and the dragon was sent away by the blast wave. Without a second thought, Applejack grabbed her sword and ran to the broken window, jumping towards the alicorn. Being taken completely by surprise at the unexpected move, the alicorn didn’t have the time to defend herself from the blade that was thrust inside her skull from above, gravity granting the blow enough strength to pierce the skull and reach her lungs. Applejack released the sword inside of the lifeless body, both tumbling down towards the river. A few meters before she hit the river, Spike dove down from the air and grabbed her with one of his claws. “Nice catch Spike. Let’s see how’s Rainbow doing, ah think she’s gonna be mighty pissed now that her toy’s broken” The two of them laughed and flew towards the fallen golem, to find Rainbow Dash standing on its torso yelling at the broken panels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Is the princess still alive?” Asked Twilight, the foalish voice now completely gone, and the tears replaced by hope. “Yes, she is hurt but still alive. Luna sent us here to get you back” Twilight smiled, and tears of joy flowed from her eyes “You came here for me? So you don’t hate me now?” “Of course not. You’re our friend and Celestia knows it wasn’t your fault. Come on, the others are waiting for you” Twilight got up and cleaned the tears from her face. Her friends still trusted her and came to help her, even after what she did. She tried to hold back, but the tears wouldn’t stop, she was happy for everything, the princess was still alive and her friends still had faith in her. “Come on Fluttershy, this is my own mind, let me get us out of here” Her horn started glowing and a warm white glow enveloped them, shooting out towards the sky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinkie looked up to the sky where a white beam of light traveled through the sky, dividing into four smaller ones, one of them going towards her. “Looks like Fluttershy did it! I’ll have to throw her a party later. Aren’t you happy for her too?” She looked down towards the wounded unicorn. She was stepping on the torso of Achilles, with one of her hooves over his snout, who was fallen to the ground with a large cut on his stomach and a deep gash on one of his back hooves, where her axe was stuck. “I’m going to kill you for this!” He tried to shout over the hoof on his mouth. “Why are you guys so obsessed with killing? It’s not even that fun, you should have a party! I would make one for you but I have to go, sorry” She finished as the beam of light hit her and took her away. The same happened to the other three, all of them being surprised by the blinding light that surrounded them, until in a flash; they were kicked out of Twilight’s mind. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rarity gasped in surprise as she saw her friends falling to the ground with a loud THUD as the spell was broken and they fell out of Twilight’s mind. Twilight still had her eyes taped, and with a painful pull she removed the two pieces of tape. “Is everyone alright?” She asked looking around. Upon seeing the state of her friends, Applejack having a wide cut on her side, Spike fallen unconscious to the ground with one leg clearly broken and Rainbow Dash covered in cuts, she broke her shackles with a loud magic explosion. “Oh Twilight, you’re awake” Muttered Rarity, before fainting from exhaustion. That was the last straw. Twilight’s horn lit up and in a flash of magic, they were all gone and reappeared in the palace’s infirmary. “Please someone help! These ponies are wounded!” Twilight shouted around, attracting the attention of the nurse in charge, who upon seeing the scene before her lit her horn up and with a spell amplified her voice. “Call to any doctors available! We have many wounded ponies and one dragon in need of urgent treatment ASAP!” Twilight became calmer knowing help was coming and allowed herself to relax a bit. She looked at her friends and smiled when she saw the group of doctors arrive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie sat at the waiting room of the hospital, along with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both now covered in bandages. Rarity had fainted from extreme exhaustion and probably wouldn’t wake up for the next two days, but her situation wasn’t grave. What truly worried them was Spike. He had many fractures all over his body, a broken leg, a few broken ribs and one of them had pierced one of his lungs. Two of the guards entered the room. “Which one of you is Twilight Sparkle?” “That would be me” “Follow us, the princess wants to see you” Twilight’s eyes lit up. She had wanted to talk to the princess for a while, and was worried about her condition. She followed the guards to another, larger room in the infirmary. The guards stopped at the door and motioned for her to go inside. Before her, the princess laid on her side at a large bed, her wings closed and her face even whiter than usual, with two black halos surrounding her eyes. She was very weakened, it was plain to see. Twilight felt horrible about what she did, and seeing the princess in such a state didn’t make her feel any better. “Twilight? Is that you?” “Yes princess” “Please, don’t do that” Twilight was confused. “Don’t do what?” “Don’t blame yourself for it. I can see that the guilt is eating you inside but I know it wasn’t your fault. Please come closer, I need to tell you something” Twilight stood at the side of the bed. “My time is coming, and I need you to help me now, more than ever” Her voice was now serious, and Twilight felt herself tear up once again. “Please Celestia don’t say that! You can’t die like this, we still need you! I need you!” “Twilight, you were always like a daughter to me and I know I’m doing the right thing. I don’t have much time left, I have been fighting with all my strength just to be able to tell you this. I need you to wield the Elements once again and fight Discord” “But princess, Rarity is in coma, we can’t use only five of them, we can’t fight without all the elements!” Her tears traced lines in her face. “No Twilight. What I meant is that I want you” She pointed a hoof at her “to wield them. The Elements of Harmony aren’t just a magic catalyst. They were created by my father and even I don’t fully understand them, but he told me they would be a tool to choose the rulers of this land, and I have faith that one day, you will be a better one than I have ever been, and so I choose you as my successor” Celestia’s voice was just as calm as ever, despite her wounded and weakened state. “What do you mean? I’m just a unicorn! I can’t take your place like this, I don’t know if I can do this!” Twilight broke down as she heard what seemed to be the Princess’s final words. “Twilight, I’m sorry for this, I wish this could have happened upon better circumstances, but this how it was. My time here has run out, you will understand everything soon enough” As she spoke, she touched Twilight’s horn with hers, and a blinding white glow covered the room. The light embraced them both, and Twilight felt something change in her body, but she couldn’t tell what. Although she could feel her body change, it wasn’t painful, and she embraced the warmth of the light. At some point in the process she lost consciousness. When she woke up, her entire body felt numb, and her head ached. When she managed to stand up, she looked down at the bed where Celestia once was, and the only thing left was her necklace and the blood stained sheets. The strangest thing was that everything looked different… smaller maybe. She took the necklace in her mouth and walked out of the room, still confused and stumbling on her own legs. She didn’t know why but every single passerby looked at her with a look of confusion or fear. She just wanted to get back to her friends and try to find out what happened. After almost half an hour of trial an error walking through dozens of corridors she finally found her way back to the waiting room. As she tried to enter the room (she had to lower her head in order to pass through the door), all of her friends stared at her in disbelief. “What is it? Why is everyone looking at me like that everywhere I pass through?! I woke up like this and the princess was gone and now I feel weird and everyone keeps acting weird around me!” She took a deep breath after finishing, wondering how Pinkie did that all the time without fainting. Silently one of the nurses dragged a small hand mirror and handed it to her. She grabbed it with her magic and seeing herself she had the same look as her friends. As she had noticed before, she had become taller, nearly as tall as the princess, but not only that. Her horn had grown to more than twice the original size, and she grew a large pair of wings. Her hair, although still the same color, waved in the air despite the lack of wind in the room, and had also grown longer. It all made sense to her when she looked at her cutie mark. The five stars were still present, but now, instead of surrounding a larger one, they orbited a large Sun. Just like Celestia’s. She fell down to the ground, in shock. The princess had turned her into an alicorn. But at what cost? She had sacrificed herself in order to give Twilight her powers. She felt the weight of it all. She was now one of the rulers of Equestria. “Where is Princess Luna?” She asked to no one in particular. “She left to fight Discord, just as we entered your mind. She wanted us to go help her with the Elements after we brought you back” Rainbow Dash answered. “Then I’m going” Twilight said with newfound determination “Where?” Asked Fluttershy worriedly. “I’m going to beat Discord”