//------------------------------// // Her sick mind… // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// “Twiliiiight~” a faint distorted voice calls to Twilight in a sing-song voice who slowly opens her eyes. When she does, her vision is very blurry and she hears the voice again. “Twiliiight~” the voice calls again but this time louder and clearer. Twilight looks around, her vision still blurry and she sees a figure right in front of her. As she tries to focus her vision more, she notices that the figure almost looks exactly… “Wake up!” Twilight jumps awake and looks around frantically, breathing quickly and heavily. She feels a hand on her shoulder and hears a familiar voice speaking to her. “Whoa whoa, easy there egghead. You’re safe now.” Rainbow Dash says to her with a smile on her face and Twilight sighs in relief and lays back down, looking around and seeing all her friends are in the room, including Spike, Starlight, Celestia and Luna. She smiles at them all. “I see you all got my letters.” Twilight says weakly and they all laugh a bit and nod. “Good, I’m glad you were all able to make it.” She says before sitting up again and Celestia walks up to her. “Easy Twilight, you’re still recovering.. but now that you’re awake, I would like to ask what they wanted with you.. and how you escaped.” She says and Twilight tries to remember but the only thing she doesn’t remember.. is how she escaped. “Take your time, you must’ve been through a lot in your short time with them.” Celestia says and Twilight nods, trying to remember more. “Ummm.. I remember that I asked if they wanted revenge on me and my friends.. they said yes. They said that this time revenge would pay off after I said it wouldn’t and then they.. they.. tortured me.” She says, getting gasps from Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity but angry growls from Spike, Applejack, and Rainbow. Celestia, Luna, and Starlight all frown after hearing what their friend had been through. “Something happened after that.. I don’t remember much.. but one thing I do remember is seeing an alicorn or at least a shadow of one. But after that.. I only remember when Rainbow Dash found me.” Twilight continues and Celestia nods in understanding. “I see.. Twilight.. it’s about time Luna and I told you and your friends about something.. or someone that almost no one knows about. Her name.. is Midnight Starkiller. An alicorn like us but the very first natural-born one, before Flurry Heart. Older than even us.” She says and everyone looks shocked except Luna of course. “She’s even more powerful too.. she is very dangerous.” She continues before looking at Luna who frowns but nods and Celestia sighs. “And she is also the real reason Luna became Nightmare Moon..” She says and obviously, no one believes it at first until Luna sighs and speaks up. “It’s true.. had it not been for her, I never would have been able to achieve my transformation.. because I never would have been frustrated enough with my sister to go up against her.” Luna says before walking to the window and frowning more. “I never would have become the nightmare that ponies had come to fear and hate..” She says with sadness and a slight hint of anger in her voice and everyone can see just how much Nightmare Moon still haunts her. Celestia steps beside her and nuzzles her, prompting her to nuzzle back. Twilight gets up, walks to them and takes both of Luna’s hands in her own. “That’s not who you are anymore, it never was.. you were always Luna. Princess of the Night. Not Nightmare Moon. She may have been a part of you then, but she isn’t now.” Twilight says and Luna smiles at her and Twilight smiles back. “Thank you Twilight Sparkle..” Luna says and Twilight nods before turning to Celestia who has a proud smile on her face. Starlight speaks up and everyone turns their attention to her. “Wait so Midnight is the first naturally born alicorn, but do you know why she.. turned out like she did? She can’t have been all bad.” She says and Celestia and Luna frown. “It’s.. not exactly a friendly tale.” Celestia says but the others don’t show a change in their curiosity and she sighs. “Alright.. follow us.” She says before she and Luna lead them all to an area hidden deep beneath Canterlot. There were multiple spaces, one with a cave full of gems and a pool that quickly caught Spike's attention until Starlight called him over. A area with a bunch of old relics and paintings and finally a room that was very beautiful and full of magical looking gems that were surrounded by magical illusions and everyone looks amazed. “This is where we will show you how Midnight came to be..” Celestia says before she and Luna send a wave of magic throughout the room and the gems all start moving and rotating until slowly, the room looks different and looks like the outside of a mansion. Celestia and Luna walk inside and everyone follows. They hear voices before they do and when they walk in, they see a small purple alicorn talking with her parents and siblings. “That young alicorn.. is Solaris.. it’s who Midnight was before.” Luna says before the illusion changes to a school. “One day her parents decide to send her to a school, seeing as she wanted to be treated just like everyone else even when she became Queen.” Celestia says and Solaris runs past them, trying to get to class on time and when she just barely makes it, her classmates all tense up until one filly speaks up. “Guess the perfect little princess isn’t so perfect after all. That is if she’s even really a princess.” She says and everyone laughs and Solaris shyly walks to her seat which is unfortunately for her right behind the filly who spoke who trips her when she gets close enough, causing the entire class to laugh. “Oops, I’m sorry about that.” She says with a smirk and Solaris growls before getting up and sitting down. The illusion then changes to a sort of auditorium where a few teachers were watching as students displayed their magical talents. Solaris’s display is the most impressive and everyone quickly gets jealous. “As you can see, Solaris had a great talent for magic.. like you and Sunset Shimmer Twilight.” Celestia says and that catches Twilight off guard. “But..” She starts as something startled Solaris and she accidentally blasts her magic through the roof and into the sky and everyone either laughs or seems to fear her and she starts to panic before running out to who knows where. “Her magic was also very dangerous.. and one push was all it took for that danger to really show itself.” Celestia says before the illusion changes to a hallway in the school and Solaris is walking towards a colt shyly with a blush on her face. Just as she’s about to tap him on the shoulder, the filly who was bullying her steps up to him and asks him if he wants to be her date to the upcoming dance and to Solaris’s horror, shock, and absolute displeasure, he says yes. The filly then looks at Solaris with a smirk and says something that makes Solaris snap. “Guess the little princess can’t even get a coltfriend. Shame.. guess he has real taste though.” She says and the area around Solaris’s eyes blacken and her eyes glow purple and she lets out a rage fueled scream before her magic goes out of control, going in all directions, killing the filly, the colt, multiple students and teachers and finally blowing up a bit of the school. The mane 6, Starlight, and Spike all scream as the explosion reaches them but Celestia and Luna don’t even flinch and the explosion doesn’t touch any of them. They all look to see Solaris standing in the middle of all the death and destruction with a shocked and horrified expression on her face. When some teachers show up along with the principal she slowly turns to them all with the same expression on her face and speaks with a shaky voice. “I.. I-I didn’t mean to..” She says before the illusion shifts again and Solaris is in her house, her expression still the same and she’s silently crying now. “Solaris was expelled instead of arrested.. but she could never forgive herself for the twenty students and staff she injured or the 8 students and 5 teachers that she killed.. so she locked herself in her room for about two weeks.” Luna said with a frown on her face. “And for days, weeks, months, ponies protested against her and her family. When her mother and one of her siblings passed away, things just got harder.” Luna says as the illusion shifted with every word. It then shifted to the house burning, a few of Solaris’s siblings already being dead but the few that were left were trying to escape the house with their father who was fighting off some of the ponies who caused the fire. “Dad! Help!” They all hear Solaris yell and turn to see her trapped under debris. Twilight instinctively almost goes over to try and help, temporarily forgetting it was an illusion but Celestia puts a wing in front of her. “This is just an illusion Twilight, it’s not real.” She says and that does little to make Twilight feel any better but she does stand down. Solaris keeps trying to get free and her father tries to help until debris falls in front of him and her siblings. After that, the ponies who caused the fire all walk in front of her. “Ah, looks like we missed another one.” One of them says and the biggest one steps up to her. “That’s the one that killed my daughter..” He says in a deep voice before he raises up a hammer and is about to smash her head in. Everyone notices that the illusion around them starts flickering between this and just total darkness and the flickering just gets faster with every second and Solaris screams and blacks out before the illusion shifts and she’s outside the house with her family.. holding the hammer.. and she and the hammer are covered in what could only be one thing. The mane 6 all gasp in shock and horror. “Oh good heavens.. she didn’t-“ Rarity tries to say but Luna frowns more and sighs. “She did..” She says and Rarity holds her stomach like she’s about to be sick. “What in Equestria would possess her to do something as.. as barbaric as that?!” Rarity asks and Twilight pieces it together. “That flickering we saw.. it wasn’t the illusion messing up.. was it?” Twilight asks and Celestia stays silent for a bit before turning to her and shaking her head. “It was Midnight.” Celestia says before the illusion shifts to a dream of Solaris with her entire family like nothing had ever happened.. until darkness overtakes it all and a dark figure with purple eyes appears before Solaris, staring down at her. “W-Who are you? What do you want?” Solaris asks, clearly nervous and the dark figure laughs. “I am you.. but better in every way. Call me Midnight Starkiller.. and what I want,” the figure starts as the dream starts to fade away. “Is to be free to do everything that you could not.” She says before Solaris wakes up and looks around to see herself in the living room.. with the remainder of her family dead at her feet. She’s frozen with, shock, fear, and sadness until she falls to her knees and starts crying and holding her head. She then screams as her body glows until the house explodes and her magic shoots up into the sky, creating a blinding light and when it stops.. she’s taller, her fur is as black as night, she has a flowing mane and tail, huge horn and wings, sharp teeth and purple markings all over her body that glow as she laughs evilly. “And that is how Solaris.. came to be Midnight.” Celestia says before the illusion disappears and the young ponies and dragon all need a minute after what they just witnessed. Twilight then remembers what Celestia said while they were in the auditorium and looks at her. “That’s another reason you took me under your wing isn’t it? You.. you didn’t want me to end up like Sunset Shimmer or.. Solaris.” She says and Celestia sadly nods before turning to them all. “We had the chance to stop her for good.. but we didn’t.. she manipulated.. our older sister, Astelle into killing our parents and helping her and we hated her for that.. but we couldn’t kill her.. so we trapped her and our sister in different dimensional prisons. But it seems Midnight has been drawing power from her dimension and has escaped.. or she’s getting ready to and once she does..” Celestia says before shuddering as she remembers how much suffering Midnight caused in the past, not just for them but for everypony. Twilight nods, immediately understanding what she and her friends have to do. “We’ll stop her and whatever plans she comes up with. Don’t worry.” Twilight tells her with a determined look on her face and her friends all agree, causing Celestia and Luna to smile. “We know you will..” Celestia says and Luna agrees before speaking up. “And we will do everything in our power to aid you.” She says and they all nod. Twilight then steps up to Celestia and looks up at her, saying something that catches her off guard. “And I promise you.. I won’t turn out the way Midnight did.” She says and Celestia looks shocked then smiles and hugs her and she hugs back. “I know you won’t.. my faithful student.” Celestia says and Twilight smiles and nuzzles into the hug. “But will you be able to keep that promise~?” The voice from in her dream asks and Twilight jumps a bit and looks around confused and slightly scared. “W-Who said that?” She asks shakily and everyone looks confused and looks at each other then back at her. “Um Twilight.. um no one said anything. Are you sure you’re alright? Do you need more rest?” Fluttershy asks kind of awkwardly but her concern for her friend still shows and Twilight thinks about it before shaking her head and looking at her friend. “I’m fine Fluttershy… just a bit tired, that’s all but I’m good to go, promise.” Twilight says and Fluttershy hesitantly nods. Twilight wished that was true but she doesn’t really know anymore. “Wait you two had a sister? What was she like? What did she look like? Her name was Astelle? What was she the princess of? I mean Celestia is the princess of the sun and Luna is the princess of the moon but-“ Pinkie asks a flurry of questions before Celestia or Luna could answer any of them and she would have continued had Applejack not covered her mouth. “For ponies' sake Pinkie, give 'em time to answer some of yer questions first. One at a time.” Applejack says and Pinkie nods before Applejack uncovers her mouth and Pinkie gives the retired princesses a big, curious smile. “Sooooo?” Pinkie asks and Celestia and Luna both sigh at the same time. This was going to be a long, long explanation.