//------------------------------// // Two Paths // Story: [EAW] Twilight's Nightmare in Hellquill // by Mr_T_Man //------------------------------// The writer here. First of all, I want to apologize to everyone who read through all the EAW stories I’ve written and expected a well-executed and written conclusion to this series. When I first started this little project of mine, I had it in my mind to be the basis of a narrative-driven submod similar to “Ghosts of Yore” or “Red Typhoon”, where the player’s choices would wholly shift the course of the in-game world, and the player would also have to switch between countries based on decisions. The problem is that I never planned to make this mod a reality. Think of the stories I’ve written as one of those plays that were never meant to be played in a theatre and only written in a script format for literary reasons. While my reasoning might not be as sophisticated as those writers… ah who cares, you get the point. I simply don’t have the interest, time, and especially the skill to develop the mod I had in my mind. If you feel like making a mod based on or inspired by this concept of mine, feel free to do so. Or if you want to expand, continue, or rewrite the story at hand, also feel free to do so, you can also use any artwork I’ve done in your mod/story, as some in the past too had done. I simply do not claim ownership over the things I’ve made. Now with that out of the way, let me explain to you what I had in my mind: As she is about to leave Hellquill, Twilight is left with two decisions; would she take the nightmare seriously and go visit Griffenheim to see Archon and Emperor? or would she not take it seriously and go back to Equestria? Decision 1, Path to Victory: After pondering about the visions she saw, Twilight changes her course after leaving Hellquill and heads directly to Griffenheim, the Griffonian Empire’s capital. Upon arrival, her unexpected visit resonates within the city, as everyone was unsure why would this pony would decide to visit the Imperial Heartland right after leaving Hellquill. After an eventful entrance into the City, she arrives in front of the Imperial Palace sometime later, demanding an audition with Regent Archon. She eventually gets what she had asked for after a heated argument with the palace personnel, who refused to believe that there was an actual alicorn visiting the palace uninvited. It was only when the Regent Archon Eros would hear the argument in person she would receive the attention of the officials she came here for. And when Twilight finally proved to him her identity, Archon knew something serious was in the air. But still, by the time of meeting with Twilight in the meeting chamber, Archon was suspicious of her presence, keeping her fresh and unexplained visit to Hellquill in mind. This however would change suddenly as Twilight starts explaining the vision she saw. At first, Archon Eros was doubtful, as the dream Twilight was describing was deeply absurd, to the point where he suspected that Twilight was making a fool out of him. But when Twilight started describing the creature she saw at the end of her nightmare, his attitude shifted suddenly, as the phrase “three-headed sword” left him appalled. He then questioned what she talked about with Wingfried, to which Twilight briefly replied, explaining to him the “time traveling shenanigans” she’s been through, and when Archon learned about the plot Wingfried was trying to draw Twilight into, he was once again dismayed by it. Shortly after, Archon takes a moment to gather his mind and connect the dots in front of him. His conclusion was clear; they were already getting in position to attack Equus by trying to take out Celestia first, and the long-prophesized Armageddon could soon be here. Bewildered by this revelation, Archon Eros calls for an emergency meeting of the Imperial Council. When they arrive at the Imperial Council, Twilight was shocked to learn that for the last two years, there’s been a Worldwide Hybrid War waged against Maar, the Griffonian God of Death. And even more shocked to learn that the blue griffon she just met indeed wasn’t even Wingfried von Katerinburg, but a flesh puppet guided by Maar, who most likely attempted to use Twilight as a puppet by luring her through false promises to achieve his dark deeds, including her getting tricked into killing Celestia. She realizes that there is much more to the world than she thought, as she couldn’t believe that she was almost tricked into doing something so horrendous and destructive, over a lie conceived by a so-called “Dark God”, to turn her into a pawn! To kill her dear mentor over nothing? Her blood was frozen just by the thought of it, and more so over the fact that she almost fell for it. Archon Eros and the Imperial Council explain to her the things they’ve been doing for the last two years and what is to be done about the countries under Maar’s dominion and the plots that are being prepared by his minions all around the world. But now with the revelation caused by Maar’s most recent plan with Twilight, it became clear that he was finally on the offensive and getting ready to launch his Armageddon against all those who will oppose him soon enough. Twilight and Equestria had missed much of this, and in a way, she felt guilty over it. How come she and the ponies around her never realized the oddities surrounding them, how did Archon Eros able to put aside his decades-long struggle with the oligarchs of the Empire and form a coalition government with them, how did Changelings start cooperation with Hellquill seemingly out of nowhere, or why Griffonian Empire still hasn’t gone to war against Aquileia despite decades of competition between two nations? There was always more to this than they realized, and she was too late to realize any of it, but still, late is better than never. Soon later, Twilight discussed with Archon Eros what is to be done between Equestria and Griffonian Empire. With Duke Gerlach and Duchess Gabriela, they quickly sorted out a short-term strategy, the first phase of the plan was for Twilight to immediately go back to Canterlot and inform Celestia of the situation, and after that, without losing any valuable time, she was supposed to sneak into the Changeling Lands without the notice of anyone, and then burst all the way into the palace of Queen Chrysalis, after reaching Chrysalis she was supposed to convince her that she too was being manipulated by Maar, and an all-out global war was soon enough, one where all of his servants will become expendable pawns. There was much detail left to be pondered over, but she simply couldn't afford to wait any further. Twilight left Griffenheim through the air without any delays. But keeping the flying beasts of Maar in mind, Archon had assigned a heavy aerial escort for Twilight to reach Equestria safely. As she left Griffonia through the air, crossing the sea, she felt uncertain. A part of her was relieved over the fact that she was now seeing the truth and had just been prevented from doing something terrifying, thanks to Grover I. But as all the odds were now seemingly stacked against her and everyone she cared about, she couldn’t help but be wary, and let pessimistic thoughts invade her mind. While her mind was being occupied by a thought storm while airborne, a swarm of Maar’s creatures began appearing on the horizon, their intentions with her were perfectly clear. Twilight and her escort guardians started taking their battle positions to counter whatever Maar was getting ready to throw at them. She knew this plan wouldn’t be easy to fulfill… NOTE: I would like to apologize again, this time for keeping this path short, my true dedication went to the next path. If you’d like to expand on this path yourself, also feel free to do so. But know that the end result will be somewhat similar to Maar’s path, with the main exception being Equestria being on the other side of Armageddon. Decision 2, Path to Glory: Twilight, with the support of Wingfried, convinces herself that the nightmare she saw really was nothing important. And even though she still let Wingfried know that she won’t be participating in Wingfried’s Operation against Celestia, she still wasn’t able to fully dismiss the notions he had planted in her mind. She eventually arrives back at Equestria, and when asked by Celestia about how the negotiations went, she simply stated that it was “indecisive”. Disappointed with the lack of results, Celestia asks her to keep an eye on the developments coming out of Hellquill just in case diplomacy with them ever becomes a possibility again. Things went back to “normal” for Twilight, as the war continued. In the following months, there was little doubt left in people’s minds that Equestria was the losing side, as Changelings were now starting their advance towards Central Equestria (or whatever much distance they made in-game). Twilight had done her best to observe Celestia’s manner, with the fears that her attitude might’ve deteriorated with Equestria’s heavy losses, which would finally result in her character breaking apart, just as she saw it in the vision back at Hellquill. As time went on, Twilight indeed spotted irregularities within Celestia’s behavior, she was no longer treating the losses suffered by her ponies the same as it was before. Often resulting in her unusually bursting out in fury. And although she would eventually come back to her senses and apologize to the ones around her for her “inconsiderate attitude”, Twilight, witnessing most of her reactions, couldn’t help but be wary and tried to calm her wherever she got the chance. When she shared her concerns about Celestia to her friends and relatives, without revealing the secrets of her visit to Hellquill, she learned that she was not alone in this case, as her close circle of friends in particular seem more terrified the by the idea of an entity as powerful as Celestia revealing all of her power with a malevolent intent than Changeling hordes parading in the streets of Canterlot. But day by day, Twilight and her friends’ concerns started to reveal themselves to be correct. As Celestia became more and more erratic day by day, screaming to her aides almost regularly, making far more hasty decisions without asking those around her, with a seemingly increasing distrust against those around her. While her friends wouldn’t even consider attempting to overthrow Celestia, Twilight started to fear for the safety of her family and close friends, as the first time in ages, Celestia would legally persecute ponies by her explicit orders, who were suspected of treason against her. And despite the fact that she never executed anyone yet, for Twilight, a breakdown in her personality would inevitably result in Celestia starting to see around those to be expandable. Feeling lonely and desperate, she started to think that she would have to confront Celestia one way or another in order to save her loved ones. The turning point would finally come, as, during one of these stressful and furious meetings, Celestia once again started to blame those around her, pointing out the mistakes made by the ponies in the meeting room, telling them that she might end up having no option but to discharge them from their positions and replace them with more loyal counterparts in order to “save Equestria”. During this, Twilight once again attempted to comfort Celestia. And whenever Twilight tried to calm Celestia down during these furious ramblings, she would often succeed in doing so, maybe even convince Celestia to apologize to those around her. This time, however, it was different, much different. Instead of calming down or acknowledging her inappropriate behavior, Celestia instead focused all of her anger on Twilight, asserting that she’s being “ungrateful” and “foolish” and how she “should be kneeling down, begging for mercy” if she wanted to “continue holding” her position. After her furious assertion, Celestia abruptly left the room, leaving everyone, especially Luna and Twilight, appalled. That night, Twilight was convinced that Celestia had finally reached her breaking point, and her sudden transformation into something vile is imminent. She immediately started plotting against her, with disabling her in a surprise assault seemed like the most viable option. She sends a secret message to Katerinburg on the same night, informing him about the situation while telling him that she had changed her mind, saying that the “time had already come”. Less than a week later, Wingfried arrived in Canterlot in secret while Twilight completed her preparations without informing anyone else. The two take the ancient magical oath Wingfried showed to Twilight back in Hellquill. According to this pact, both sides would have to do everything they could do in order to accomplish their own end of the deal. And if one of the parties to the pact deliberately did not fulfill their end of the deal or tried to deceive the agreement, they would die instantly. As in this case, Twilight would take out Celestia before she could transform into a monster by assassinating her, while Wingfried in return would terminate whatever genocidal plan he had against the ponies and stop the Reformisten movement by personally destroying it from within. The plan was simple; stage a false meeting in the staff chamber using hallucination magic without ever really inviting anybody else, and when Celestia arrives in the room, Twilight and Katerinburg would cast a spell on her from behind, hopefully, powerful enough to kill or at least disable her. After that, Twilight would do whatever was necessary to declare herself a regent while trying to explain to her friends why she had to take Celestia out, and also explain what they had just averted in the process by doing so. There were still many details that needed to be pondered over, but at the time being, Twilight had one thing in her mind. The day had finally come, and the plan was set in motion. Luna was out of Canterlot and the majority of high-ranking personnel were not inside of the Royal Palace. Everything was going smoothly as she planned while Wingfried used his magic to disguise himself and blend in with the palace personnel. Celestia had finally arrived in the meeting chamber by late afternoon, and “everyone” started taking their places, while Twilight took her place behind Celestia ready to cast the spell. Meanwhile, only one pony in the entire royal palace however took notice of the irregularities within the palace’s order; Commander Shining Armour, Twilight’s brother. Who wondered how could there be an urgent meeting in process supposedly involving him and the military high command when he just standing in his place, not even formally informed about it? The moment he learned about it from the palace personnel, he started to hurry with fear. Twilight had grimly miscalculated her brother’s position at the time of the operation, as she expected him to be outside of the royal palace at the time just like the other high commanding officers. Unfortunately for her, by the time she was getting in her position, Shining Amour was already sprinting towards the meeting hall. The moment Shining Armour broke into the room, it was too late for Twilight to do anything, the spell was already charged, and was ready to eliminate Celestia, who just realized what was up with her surroundings, and was about to turn her head towards Twilight. Stunned by the scene in front of him, Shining Armour would take no time to grasp the situation, and just charge towards Twilight to stop whatever she was doing while screaming her name. While Twilight, appalled by her brother’s sudden entrance, tries to cancel out the spell before it might hurt him. But with him charging toward her and with her panicking, it was too late for anything. The deadly spell was unleashed towards Celestia, as Shining Armour would jump forward to take the fatal strike to himself, with the intent of sacrificing himself for the sake of Celestia. Within mere seconds, it was over for her brother. Shining Amour’s lifeless body dropped to the ground violently. He had an immense, scorched injury encompassing his entire chest. Twilight screams from her lungs in horror, refusing to believe what she just had done. Seconds later, she would realize that Celestia too was staring at her. But not in the way she expected it to be. Celestia was terrified, her eyes were filled with horror, as she too refused to believe what she had done. She wasn’t getting angry or preparing to fight Twilight, she just stood there, solid like a rock. Twilight ceases her screams and stares into Celestia’s tearful eyes in humiliation. Moments later, Celestia mutters to her: “Twilight… what have you done?” Twilight tried to grasp how she come to this position. She tried to recall all the memories of erratic behavior by Celestia throughout the last couple of months. By all accounts, her response was supposed to be violent, uncaring, and ready to attack Twilight the moment she realized she was plotting against her. None of that happened. Instead, Celestia’s reaction was just what she would expect from her if she had ever tried to harm a loved one of her own in Celestia’s presence. She asks herself the horrendous question; did she miscalculate Celestia’s reactions? And more importantly, did Twilight just kill the pony who she cared about the most and the one who was close to her the most, for nothing? This was getting more and more severe for Twilight, who couldn’t even remember why she set up this fake meeting in the first place. Because the more she looked into Celestia’s teary and disappointed eyes, she started to lose her will to live, as “a return to normal” for her was utterly impossible for her by this point. Their silent standoff would be cut off by Wingfried, who just dropped his disguise and rapidly attacked Celestia by flying towards her at full speed while screaming; “For my family!” Still in shock, Celestia wouldn’t be able to directly counter Wingfried and instead falls to the ground with him. Only when she could partially shake off the shock, she could counter Wingfried by pushing him away using magic. This, however, wouldn’t be enough to stop the magic-infused Wingfried, whose spells were so surprisingly powerful that they were not only harming Celestia, but even the structural integrity of the hall they were in. As Celestia continues to be the subject of all these attacks, she finally grasps the urgency of the position she was in and realizes that she would soon be dead if she does not encounter him right now. She finally goes on the offensive and casts a powerful spell that would knock both Twilight and Wingfried out. Convincing herself that the pony in front of her isn’t Twilight, Celestia now declared her to be an enemy too, giving the already shaken Twilight no option but to retaliate. However, their battle would be short, as Celestia would easily knock the unwilling Twilight out of the fight through a decisive blow and get stuck in a stalemate with Katerinburg. While keeping Celestia busy, Wingfried screams at the wounded Twilight laying on the ground, telling her that this was their “only chance”. Twilight gets back up after a struggle and focuses her new spell on Celestia, and after a brief exchange of last looks, Twilight fires the spell, causing a massive explosion that would fill the entire meeting hall with a dust cloud caused by the destroyed interior. As the dust cloud would fade away, Celestia stood silent on her hooves, unmoving. Her wounds however would soon reveal themselves, as she would take a couple of steps forward and collapse at her own weight. And as she was laying on the ground, dying, she takes one last look at Twilight, who was staring back at her with sorrowful eyes, still questioning to herself whether or not she miscalculated Celestia’s actions. Her heart was broken, as she saw the bloody tear that came out of Celestia’s eye. Soon after, Wingfried too would stand up, heavily wounded, he struggles to walk towards Twilight, who was staring down at Celestia’s body. This, however, wouldn’t be the end of the case, as mere seconds later, others would dash into the room through the destroyed door. And when Twilight would turn her back, she would realize that this wouldn’t be the end, not even close. Those who came through the door were her friends (not including Luna). Who also rushed to the meeting hall the moment they heard the loud noises. And when they saw the bodies of Shining Armour and Celestia lying next to Twilight and Wingfried, they too didn’t know how to react, as a result, they merely stared at the two with their jaws dropped. This silent standoff would soon cease, however, as Wingfried would defensively leap in front of Twilight, shouting them to “stand back”. In response to Wingfried’s attitude, her friends would have no option but to be in a ready position as well. By this point, Twilight realizes that she has to intervene immediately to stop yet another costly confrontation, she screams at her friends, telling them to stop and that she can explain everything. A heated argument ensues, as some of her friends recognize who Wingfried is, and notice the heat blurs coming off from Twilight’s horn, indicating that she was the one who killed them. They do what Celestia had done before, suspect Twilight of not being herself, but rather an imposter in her place, pretending to be her. Despite her protests, her friends, not tolerating the sight in front of them, attack them both, and while Wingfried was already in a defensive position and was able to dodge the attacks directed against him, Twilight couldn’t even gather her mind together to apprehend that she was in a fight with her friends. She takes hit after hit without even noticing. While still trying to stand her ground, she starts crying uncontrollably. She just had violently killed her own brother, who spent a life together, purely by mistake, before she would have to kill her long-time friend and mentor, who shed tears of disappointment in her final seconds, knowing that it was Twilight Sparkle of all people who killed her. And now, she was supposed to fight her friends, who wouldn’t even believe what she just had done here and will never see her the same. It was just too much for her, too much. She starts shaking with fury, feeling as if she was going insane. Overwhelmed by emotions, she couldn’t help but scream as she had never done. The others stop their attacks, as they finally notice how extreme her emotion has gone. She could feel her insides boiling up, her scream was tearing apart her own ears, her mind becoming a hazy cloud. She was beyond her tipping point and was truly no longer herself. While if it was any other creature, this would mean mental breakdown, but for a being as powerful as Twilight, it meant danger for everyone around her. Purely by instinct, she casts a spell and charges it without even thinking. Seeing the state of Twilight, the others rush to cover, but it was too late. A blast occurs, far more powerful than the first one. Its light was visible from the entirety of Canterlot, the land was shaken, and the entirety of the meeting hall and a part of the royal palace were now completely destroyed. After a while the dust from the explosion settles down, leaving only uncertainty in the air. Twilight comes back to her senses, filled with fear, and worried about her friends. She rushes forward, screaming for them, but it wouldn’t be hard for her to find them. Seconds after moving forward, she notices Fluttershy in front of her, lying on the ground, motionless. She realized what she had done. When the rest of her friends started to come out of the rubble and saw Twilight staring at the lifeless body of Fluttershy. They yet again merely gazed at her in horror, just like the first time they entered the hall. When Twilight noticed her old friends looking at her in fear, she tries to call them out in desperation, begging for their help. But after witnessing what had happened, none of them had the courage to come closer to Twilight, as they started to flee from her in terror. She screams after them, telling them to wait while struggling to run towards them with whatever energy she had left in her. Exhausted and wounded, she collapses under her weight and helplessly watches her friends get away from her. She looks around her in desperation, the only thing left around her that was worth noting was Wingfried, laying on the ground, either dead or dying, as for the rest, it was all rubble. She realizes all is lost for her. She doesn’t scream or cry, just looks down, she was fatigued but yet didn’t have a desire for resting. She didn’t care what would happen next, or about the fact that she just stopped a potential global genocide. She even forgot why she was even trying to assassinate Celestia in the first place. She was lonely and had lost her will to live, that was all she knew. … Minutes later, she hears the sounds of rubble behind her. She slowly turns her head around. It was Wingfried, wounds covered half of his body, and were certainly enough to kill him, yet he was standing in front of her like a monolith. She didn’t react to him; she barely had any mental sanity left in her. Wingfried casually declares; “Your majesty, sadly I must state that Wingfried von Katerinburg won’t be able to fulfill his end of the deal. Because he is not with us, he never was…” He uses his claw to penetrate his torso without reacting to it. He rips out his own heart without a hinge and then throws it away. He calmly states: “You have been deceived…” His claw suddenly expands at an unnatural and grotesque speed, followed by his other claw and then other limbs. His body starts growing rapidly, as his physical features start to resemble the monster that broke through Twilight’s window, except, this one was larger, way larger. Within seconds, a massive beast at least four times the size of Twilight was now towering over her. Staring at her with soulless eyes, affirming her that he never was Wingfried, but rather Maar, the Griffon God of Death, who disguised himself as him. Twilight stares back at him for at least a minute. Twilight starts laughing hysterically out of nowhere, with her whole body shaking. Maar too eventually joins, laughing with her in a more tamed fashion. As this goes on, Twilight’s mental stability deteriorates, as her laughing descends into outright violent screaming. With now both of them practically screaming at each other nonsensically, Maar seemed like he was the one having the most fun out of this, while Twilight, on the other hand, was not so. With whatever sanity is left inside of her, she casts a spell to choke herself to death. Her screams start fading away, as she collapses further, she only would stop as Maar would grab her by the head and hit her in the face, disabling the spell and knocking her out unconscious. She wakes up on top of a mountain, not far from Canterlot, the smoke emitting from the royal palace was still visible. Maar was standing in front of her, waiting for her to regain consciousness. When she gathers her mind together, she tries to attack Maar one last time, but this time it would be foiled by his magic, which would disable her and her magic swiftly. With Twilight now laying on the ground, completely defenseless, facing a mythical creature known for representing death itself, she prepares herself for the worst, and in a way, she convinced herself that whatever was going to happen to her, she probably deserved it already. But in contrast to her expectations, she wouldn’t be tortured, at least not physically. Maar starts talking with a gentle tone, telling her that her entire life was nothing but a series of lies, dictated by higher forces which he referred to as “the gods”. He continues by telling her that there’s been a “grand philosophical debate” among metaphysical forces in the nonmaterial realm for eternity, about the nature of good and evil, their place in the universe(s), and the organization of certain realities through different moral compasses, with some thinking if it’s possible to dictate a dimension and guide it to be the “perfect one”, by minimalizing fear and suffering, shaping the reality within it to an extent that only the predesignated “good” would eventually prevail over predesignated “evil”, no matter what. “A reality, where the weak can easily prevail without never having to invest into realistic resources necessary to prevail against their rivals and enemies”. Stating that it is “a reality free from reality”. Maar tells her that her dimension was chosen and groomed to be this so-called “perfect dimension”, with her being the predesignated “hero” of this reality, he calls her the “perfect person in a perfect world in a perfect galaxy in a perfect universe”. Every single battle she’s been through was already predetermined with her winning at the end and with her morals proving themselves to be superior no matter what, and even if it defiles universal logic and reason, the higher ones “would take care of it” no matter what. But Maar finally adds; that he was on the other side of this argument and was intended to “disprove” this thesis. And so he did, after spending an eternity intervening indirectly, he finally entered the realm himself through an ancient relic that Katerinburg recovered. But also notes that instead of using “godly” powers, he choose to “play the game by the rules set by them”, and up until this point, he never broke the rules, using regular magical spells and material resources like any other mortal would, and that was besides recruiting proxies all around the world to do the dirty work for him. He reveals to Twilight that if he wanted to destroy the universe she was in, he would easily do so with no effort, but this wouldn’t disprove the thesis the universe represented and this wasn’t what he wanted. What he wanted was to disprove the thesis in the most vicious way possible; to manipulate the primary person in charge into doing what he wanted. Maar never needed Celestia, or her brother, or her friend, dead, as none of them ever posed a threat to him, it was all about him pushing Twilight into doing the things he wanted through genuine means and concerns, as neither of the two futures Twilight saw back at Hellquill were illusions, both of them were real, and the conclusion Twilight had about Celestia going insane was also completely correct and rational. Proving to them, that extreme pain and suffering can emerge out of purely benevolent and rational intentions, with or without “marginal outsider intervention”. And now with this, the thesis has been disproven, or at least her part in it, and the reason behind Twilight’s existence has been invalidated. Twilight, on the other hand, was not sure how to react, in a way she couldn’t disagree with him. Even though the fresh wounds on her soul still present were pushing her desperately to reach a mood-driven and irrational conclusion, she just couldn’t help but think if everything she’s been through really was for nothing. She feels empty, but not as a result of madness or sadness, just emptiness. She turns to Maar, asking him about her loved ones and how genuine the things she surrounded herself with are. She would soon go through the most painful part of this, as Maar would dissect her relationships with those around her, including her mentor, relatives, and friends, showing her the logical inconsistencies within their interactions, and how phony her life really was. And when Twilight would loudly object to the points he made, Maar would literally resurrect the souls of Celestia and her brother out of nowhere, and forcefully interrogate their ghosts, demanding them to explain her point of view of Twilight’s perfectness, and when they would finish, Maar would once again point out the exact same irregularities, he then would dismiss their ghosts. Twilight stands up slowly and turns to the line of smoke coming out of Canterlot. It was already obvious that there was no point in going back for her. She wasn’t being overflown with emotions anymore and even felt like an outsider to herself as if she was observing her own past and current life with the eyes of someone else. And rather than feeling bad, she would almost feel bad for the character of Twilight Sparkle, as if now that was a completely different personality for her. Twilight finally experiences her anagnorisis. She walks around, pondering. She eyes at her past with pity and disgust, and while acknowledging that the pony named Twilight Sparkle and she used to share the same body, she was now embarrassed by it. Moments later, her empty emotional state would change drastically, as she feels revulsion on a scale and type, she never would think would be possible. Her hatred wasn’t against some certain person, group, country, or ideology. She was genuinely offended by the fact that someone out there really made a fool out of her like this, as they made her a theatrical character that was supposed to be played around, that was supposed to be happy, fearful, angry, or sad at entirely someone else’s will. All while she was expected by others to spend her entire life stuck in this failed philosophical thesis of theirs. No… She was not having this. Twilight experiences her second anagnorisis. She reminds herself how truly powerful she is, as she just killed the supposedly most powerful being in Equestria with a single strike, even when she lacked the will to fight her back. She thinks through all the things she’s been through… She never really needed anybody else to help her during her journey, she only allowed others around her to be near her by convincing herself that she somehow needed them, that she was somehow obliged to follow them, and respect them, all while the entire reality was revolving around her without her knowing! Yet she was there, too busy convincing herself into being foolishly humble, convincing herself that there was nothing special about her, that she was just a regular alicorn that got lucky. No! Those who are below her should be worshipping her like a deity! And yet there she was again, letting these weaklings into holding her back… nothing should be holding her back from growing stronger and fulfilling her true potential! She closes her eyes and inhales the air with all of her strength. She then breathes out, feeling relieved. She was smiling and felt liberated. She didn’t even remember what was so upsetting for her just a while ago. She simply didn’t care anymore. She turns to Maar, and thanks him for what he has done. Maar shared her manner of gratitude and informed her that he should be the one thanking her. Maar then approaches her, advising her to take the matters into her hooves and; “take revenge against the gods” for making her live through a life of lies by spitting in their faces and go through the path she now desires. She couldn’t agree more. Maar smiles, saying to her that she has now become the “Götterdämmerung” (lit. ‘Twilight of the Gods’). Twilight, meanwhile, saw this as a new fitting title for her, who now wanted to keep a distance from her past self, more than anything else in the world. Just like anyone else, Queen Chrysalis was shocked to receive the news coming out of Canterlot, Celestia was dead, the city was in chaos, other leading figures were either escaped the city or missing, and Luna’s whereabouts were unknown. But what was more shocking was a letter of a peace agreement, which was signed by Twilight Sparkle and invited her to a frontline town to accept the surrender of Equestria in person. The letter made no effort to explain what happened in Canterlot, and Chrysalis was convinced that it was a forgery. That was the case until a second letter arrived, this time signed by her secret ally, Wingfried von Katerinburg, in which he explained to her that he and his collaborators had successfully induced a civil upheaval in Equestria with the defector Princess Sparkle who was now in charge of the country, who was willing to make concessions to her with the sole condition that Princess Sparkle would be the Governor of the Occupied Equestria. This was enough to convince Queen Chrysalis that she had essentially won the war thanks to her secret pact with Wingfried von Katerinburg and his associates. Thinking that she has successfully outmaneuvered her enemies with her brilliance, Chrysalis would not be hesitating with any delays regarding the Surrender of Equestria. She would soon arrive in the designated town with her heavily escorted staff. The town itself was in Changeling Controlled Territory, and she was certain that no living being could ever prevent her from achieving what she longed for all these years. She arrives in the arranged building with pride, which was already surrounded by thousands of changelings. Upon entering, she would be welcomed by Wingfried von Katerinburg and after a brief exchange of gratuities, they would head to the main hall to sign the agreement. Where Twilight was standing alone on the other side of a small table, standing still in her place, her hair was messy and looked pale. Chrysalis would soon approach the table alongside Katerinburg, who was intended to be the “intermediary” to the agreement. Immediately upon arriving in front of Twilight, Chrysalis quickly teases her with an arrogant attitude, bragging about her victory and pointing at Equestria’s defeat. She does this with great confidence, with her believing that an absolute victory was so certain that not even insulting the chief negotiator of the vanquished country right before signing the peace agreement wouldn’t change the outcome. An awkward silence follows as Twilight wouldn’t react to Chrysalis’ insults, not even on a mimical level. Chrysalis looks at her with dubious eyes, weirded out by Twilight’s soulless stare and mild smile. It would be natural to expect that she would be shaken, given the things she must’ve been through, but it almost seemed as if she was just discharged from a hospital after losing blood, or maybe even as if she came back to life after being dead for a few days. Chrysalis eventually gets frustrated with her lack of responsiveness. Moments later, Twilight starts smiling more intensely, she starts giggling, before bursting out into laughing manically, penetrating through the dead silence in the room while Chrysalis stares at her uneasily. It was a late night. Twilight was firmly standing, staring at the burning meeting hall with hundreds of changeling corpses surrounding her. She inhales the air, it was refreshing. She never realized how much relief could come just through the complete extermination of one’s enemies. Maar would soon approach her from behind, telling her while pointing to the building in flames, that “this is just the beginning, my dear Dämmerung”. From this moment on the gameplay would be less based on narrative and more on actual gameplay, as Celestia’s assassination will be the turning point on a global scale. Maar informs all of his agents around the world, that “the time for Weltreich has come”. Twilight goes back to Canterlot, now under the name Maar gave her; ‘Führerin Götterdämmerung’, more commonly known as just Dämmerung. She will personally purge everyone who wouldn’t unconditionally follow this drastic change in regime, and establish an inner circle of deputies, mostly through using mind control. And as a result, all of her close friends and allies will abandon Canterlot and other parts of Equestria that were now under Dämmerung’s control and relocate to South Equus, there, they will establish a new government led by Luna, and declare war against Dämmerung and Maar. The entire world descends into war within the next couple of weeks (not days, because that would probably crash the game). Countries that were secretly allied with Maar’s Weltreich, who are going to be most of the Supremacist countries, including Hellquill, Wingbardy, Barrad Magocracy, Sunstriker Clan, Talonsvaal Republiek, County of Greifwald (led-by Ludwig Ebonwing), a reformed Storm Empire, and the Dread League, will launch their offensives against those who are not, while other “non-ruling agents” within some other countries will start launching coup attempts or outright rebellions, especially in Changeling Lands, Riverlands, and the Griffonian Empire (including one with Ferdinand Dawnclaw). By this point the player would gain the option to choose their side in Armageddon; Pact of Life or the Weltreich. Meanwhile, Changeling Lands will erupt into a Civil War between Maar’s underlings and everyone else. The Anti-Maar faction will join forces with Luna’s Army, Stalliongrad, and other remaining Anti-Maar Forces in Equus to drive Maarist Forces out of the continent. The River Republic and most other Riverland Nations will most likely collapse due to the Maarist takeover of the Government following the sudden assassination of Chancellor River Swirl. With Rebellions emerging in both East and West, Maarist Forces in Hellquill will launch Blitzkrieg against both Riverlands and the Griffon Empire, they will collaborate with Ferdinand Dawnclaw’s Forces to fight against the Empire and with Dread League’s Forces, to fight against the Riverlands and other Non-Weltreich Nations in the area. King Sombra will be brought back again with Maar’s aid, who also promised him glory and those who defeated him in his previous lives, and will launch another Civil War, this time against the Crystal Empire and Equestrian Royalists. A Reformed Storm Empire, fueled by Maar’s magic and global war machine, also guided by his promises, will declare war against all of its neighbors at once. Giulio Beakolini’s Kingdom of Wingbardy and its allied countries will open up another front of Armageddon in South Griffonia by launching a war against Aquileia and its allies. As he too was aided by Maar’s magic and promises. Under attack by many sides, old feuds between countries and races will fade away into obscurity, as countries such as the Empire and Aquileia became allies against Weltreich. By this time, it can be said with ease that Weltreich is merely a loose confederation of Personalities and Nations, most of them craving for victory and glory, who are ready to ultimately sell their souls to the Devil for the sake of their individual glory, rather than be a part of it due loyalty to Maar, as barely any of them were actually Maar worshippers. Except for a single pony, who now has a completely another story… Dämmerung has established a Totalitarian System in a ridiculously short period of time, almost completely reliant upon mind control and intimidation. In mere days, millions of ponies suddenly became slaves without them noticing it first, while they were put under a primitive form of mass surveillance through magical creatures now flying over the cities, terrorizing the local population. These undead monsters mostly referred to as “Maar’s Damned” were fused with mechanical and magical sciences and were essentially corpses of dead enemies of Weltreich, mutated to an insane level. And since most ponies living in Equestria refused to comply with this insanity that came out of nowhere, the undead forces eventually ended up forming the main bulk of Dämmerung’s forces, alongside her army of still living army of slaves. The country’s proper name was now “Equusreich” as the country was now meant to control the entire continent in which they were living. The State itself only demanded obedience to Dämmerung and her undeclared master, Maar. No ideology, religion, or premise now matters to Equusreich, no nationality or culture is prioritized, no religious activity is tolerated, no liberty was to be had, and everything within daily life that is considered to be “undesirable” by Führerin Dämmerung must be eliminated, no matter the cost. The pony which was once known as Twilight on the other hand, practically became addicted to revenge itself, as she now couldn’t imagine doing anything else but to go against her intended path. She deteriorates both mentally and physically. And with nobody else around to help her, she continues her descent into madness. Dämmerung began committing random atrocities, sometimes even against those living under her, for no reason at all other than the fact that since this reality was built solely for her, this must mean that she had the right to dictate the life of any mortal in this universe, and why she should care about these lowly lives? Do regular people mourn over the bacteria they kill whenever they wash themselves? Then why she should be sorry for washing out of these germs out of her realm? “Such simple-minded bacteria” …That was what Maar had taught her; the necessary acknowledgment of her place in this universe. But truth be told, she was paranoid, afraid that she would lose the war and some mortal might reaffirm dominance over her, and although she tried to present herself as a cold-blooded and fearless creature, in reality, she was anything but that. She was ready to do anything for the sake of holding on to power and never let anyone turn her into Twilight Sparkle again, even if it means sacrificing her sanity. Her actions become more erratic day by day, with her maniacal scream-like laughter of hers becoming a regular activity for her. She wanted to become anything Twilight was afraid of becoming, and even though she was convinced that the whole universe was constructed for her, her self-hatred grows day by day. Maar had ordered her to “become a god” by overcoming herself, but how could she do that if her past hold her back? She had reached a point where she had every single mirror in her palace be thrown away since she couldn’t bare seeing herself in the mirror. She was already changed in the soul, but that wasn’t enough for her, she couldn’t stand bearing the face of the one pony she loathsomely hates. In her personal lab, she starts performing crude experiments on herself; she starts by ripping off her own horn, to prove to everyone that she “doesn’t need” it, she instead installs new mechanic abominations all around her body to perform magic. She then rips off her wings. She didn’t care about the pain, since she convinced herself whatever she was experiencing wasn’t hers, but rather those of Twilight Sparkle, an assumption that made her happy about the pain she was receiving. She experiments on her own wings mutating them to an unholy degree and reinstalling them to her body. The end result was spectacular, as she didn’t have those tiny alicorn wings anymore, but far more effective ones, as large as those of a regular-sized dragon. She then looks at her body. Countless ideas about what to do with her organs emerge inside her head out of nowhere. She began ripping herself apart, literally. Every single limb, one by one, she then would improvise on them, attach them back in a grotesque fashion using magic. Her body grow as she started to resemble more of a biological abomination rather than a pony. In the end, she was way taller than before and had practically lost all her bodily features that resembled her former self. Only then she would feel comfortable looking at a mirror; her face was completely disgraced; her flesh was only kept together through sews and metallic pieces. Her cornea had faded away thanks to her experiments, and her teeth resembled those of a brute dragon. Her hair was ruined and drops of blood on it were visible. She was a total nightmare and couldn’t be happier. She whispers to her reflection in the mirror; “Thank you…” …