//------------------------------// // In the eye of the storm // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// The Next Day As the Mane 6 all walk to the meeting room where the Friendship map resided, they all notice that out of all of them, Twilight looks the most exhausted. Unknowingly to them- and to herself- she/Twivine had been out all night looking for the Washouts and she had eventually found them, getting into a fight with them before sending them to Midnight, shortly after looking for the last remainder of the Storm King's body: his skull. It was in Canterlot and she had almost found it until she felt Twilight starting to wake up and felt herself starting to lose energy and get really tired. Luckily the clone had gotten Rainbow Dash back to the castle in her stead, just in time which ended up tricking the Pegasus into thinking Twilight had gone to sleep. “Whoa Twilight.. you alright? You look like ya didn’t get one blink of sleep last night.” Applejack points out and Twilight yawns, nods and stretches. “I’m alright, just.. had a rough night.” Twilight says before somehow receiving the clone’s memories of her interaction with Rainbow but not Twivine’s memories. “Ummm thanks for flying with me Rainbow, it was really nice.” She says and Rainbow Dash smiles and nods before they all sit down and start eating their breakfast, made specially by Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Celestia. Applejack doesn’t take her eyes off Twilight just in case she does something else that’s unlike her. She eventually decides it best to speak up. “Well in other business, I think it’s time the truth finally came out.” She says before looking at Twilight and her question turns everyone’s attention to her and Twilight. “What were you doing next to the mirror Twilight? Really, I wanna know.” She asks and Twilight goes wide-eyed before thinking about it only to find that.. she can’t remember anything. “I.. I don’t remember.. I don’t even remember going to the mirror.” She says and everyone looks surprised and don’t believe her until Applejack says something that completely stuns them. “She.. she’s telling the truth.” She says, earning an overdramatic gasp from Pinkie Pie and shocked looks from everyone else. “But.. when I asked ya' before, you were lying.. why tell the truth now?” She asks and Twilight rubs her temples to try and remember but she really doesn’t remember even responding to the question. “I don’t remember answering your question either.. all I remember was thinking about it but then I.. I was in my room and I was confused but then I went to sleep and somehow.. I ended up out with Rainbow Dash.. I..” Twilight says as she stands up and holds her head as new memories start coming to her but they’re coming so fast she can’t even focus on any of them. She grows more and more confused until she hits her breaking point and slams her hands down on the friendship map table, cracking it and startling everyone as she yells out. “What’s going on?!” “Twilight, it’s alright. Calm down.” Celestia says as she goes to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder but Twilight just backs away from it when she gets close. “I can’t calm down! I keep forgetting things, my memories don’t match, everytime I’m in one place I end up in another, it’s like.. it’s like I’m in a dream.. or a nightmare more like it.” Twilight says, still holding her head, trying to deal with the migraine she now had. The rest of her friends all watch on with concerned looks and Luna stands up and walks to Twilight and her sister. “Sister, a word please?” She asks and Celestia nods before they both walk out of the room and Twilight’s friends go to comfort her. When they’re far enough, that’s when Luna decides to address the situation. “Tia, don’t you see? This is just like last time.” Luna says, earning a confused look from Celestia. “What are you talking about Luna?” She asks and Luna clenches her fists. “It’s another nightmare moon situation! Can’t you sense the darkness inside Twilight?” Luna half-shouts, growing irritated. “It’s the same as when-“ she starts to say only to freeze up, shaking as the memories of all the terrible things she did as Nightmare Moon come flooding back to her and she wraps her arms around herself. “We cannot allow her to repeat my mistakes.. meaning you can’t repeat yours. Just sitting by as she slowly becomes a being made only for destruction.” Luna says and Celestia immediately flares her wings as she towers over Luna. “Enough!” Celestia says angrily but it’s clear that her guilt still remains as she knows her little sister is right. She then sighs and turns back towards the room where everypony else is, staying silent before slightly turning her head to look at Luna. “When we’re done here, have some of your guards let Starswirl know what we’re dealing with.. and warn him that the Sirens have returned.” She says and Luna tells her that she’d already done so and Celestia nods before both of them walk back to the room. If Luna was right and there really was a darkness with a mind of it’s own inside Twilight.. then she can’t let what happened a thousand years ago.. ever happen again. Three hours later, In Canterlot As Twilight laid down on a table with three magic crystals on either side of her, she was starting to feel rather nervous. It helped that Celestia said that a few familiar faces would be here soon. Her friends were already by her side, telling her not to be scared. That definitely helped but Twilight wasn’t sure why she was still nervous. Spike turns to Celestia and asks her what he’s been wondering for the past fifteen minutes. “Soooo.. what do these crystals do again? And are we sure they won’t hurt Twilight?” He asks and Celestia smiles before explaining. “These crystals, once charged with a few specific spells, will start putting magical energy into Twilight’s body, depending on if this darkness inside her has a mind of it’s own, it should expose itself.. it shouldn’t harm Twilight as long as she stays calm.. and as long as this entity doesn’t start violently acting out.” She says and everyone looks shocked and concerned and Rainbow Dash steps up to her and asks. “Ok ok but.. what if it does start acting violent, what happens to Twilight?” She asks and this conversation clearly wasn’t helping to ease Twilight’s nerves. Celestia gives a nervous look. “Let’s just say the process will be.. far from comfortable.” She says and Twilight suddenly feels light headed as she reminds the room of her presence. “I am right here, ya know.” She says and before she can say anything else, the pillars of old all walk in.. along with Cadance, Shining Armor, and an eleven year-old Flurry Heart. She smiles at them all and they smile back. “Hello Twilight, it’s very good to see you again.” Starswirl says and everyone agrees as Twilight sits up, prompting Cadance, Shining, and Flurry to hug her. “I just wish it was under better circumstances..” she says and Cadance puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder when she notices Twilight starting to frown. Twilight smiles and Flurry Heart hops onto the table to sit next to her and hugs Twilight, prompting her to hug back. “You’ll be alright Twily, this’ll all be over soon.” Shining armor says and Twilight smiles and playfully rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to talk to me like I’m still a little filly. I am 38 years old now.” She says and Shining armor chuckles and playfully punches her in the shoulder. “Just doing my job, which is being there for my little sister.” He says and Twilight smiles more before frowning, closing her eyes, breathing in, and opening them again. “Whatever happens.. I’ll try not to do anything.. dangerous.. I’m not sure what this.. other side of me is even fully capable of.” Twilight says and everyone looks at each other then at her, nodding. She then lays back down on the table as Flurry Heart hops down and she closes her eyes as Starswirl and Celestia walk to either side of the table and start casting the required spells on the crystals. This causes them to glow along with the table which starts sending the energy into Twilight’s body. For a while it goes pretty well.. until Twilight starts twitching, her fur and mane colors start changing along with her cutie mark and when she suddenly opens her eyes, they’re like King Sombra’s and have purple mist coming out of them. Everyone looks shock and backs up, realization suddenly hitting Starlight as she remembers when she first saw them like that. She eventually had just taken it as her mind playing tricks on her, but now she sees that was a mistake. Twilight suddenly grabs the side of the table as she sits up and tries to fight the effect but everyone tries holding her down. Even with all their combined strength, she’s slowly starting to overpower all of them. “Get.. off of.. me!!!” She yells in a deeper, pained voice as she squeezes the sides of the table, crushing them and damaging some of the crystals as her voice echoes. This causes everyone to cover or close their ears and Twilight- now Twivine once again- breaks free, sending everyone who was holding her down into a wall before dodging a blast from Celestia and returning one of her own which knocks her through the doors. She quickly follows and flys past Celestia as fast as she can, Rainbow Dash immediately getting up and giving chase. She manages to tackle Twilight and pin her. “Twilight, stop! We’re trying to-“ She says but is cut off as Twilight uses her magic to blast Rainbow into the roof, moving out of the way as she falls back down. “.. help you..” Rainbow dash says, wincing in pain as she gets up but Twilight is already on the move again. She reaches her arm out, ready to chase and grab her again but before she can run, lightning shoots out of her hand and hits Twilight in the back, making her fall and slide across the ground. “Whoa..” she says as she looks at her hands, amazed. Twivine gets up, enraged and annoyed and readies her own magic. “You’ll regret that!” She yells before firing at Rainbow who dodges at incredibly fast speeds, multicolored lightning trailing behind her. She was moving so fast that whenever she did, the world slowed to a crawl for her. She quickly charges up to Twivine and rams into her, sending her flying back. She growls in frustration until she sees that she’s right outside of where she was going anyway and she gets up, smirking at Rainbow. They have a little stand-off for a bit until Twivine taunts Rainbow Dash. Rainbow charges at her but Twivine ducks under it, grabbing her leg at the last second and throwing her through a wall and running into the next room that contained what she had come here for: The Storm King’s remains. She starts casting the reanimation spell that Midnight taught her along with other spells that would give him incredible power. “By the will of Midnight.. you are reborn.” She says as a small storm starts to form inside the room and she can sense a storm starting outside as his eyes start to glow purple, electricity of the same color radiating off his horned crown. The stone skull starts rising off the podium it was rested on. Twivine smirks evilly until Rainbow Dash bursts through the door and blasts lightning at her but she dodges it, which allows it to hit the skull. This causes it to explode, which sends out a powerful wave of magic that destroys part of the castle and injures a large number of ponies. When the smoke clears and Twivine gets up, she sees the damage the explosion caused and sees that the skull is destroyed. “No.. NO!!!” Twivine yells in anger before she tackles a barely recovering Rainbow Dash and pins her down. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?!” She asks as she starts strangling the downed pegasus. Rainbow tries to get Twilight to let go but since she’s an alicorn, she’s much stronger than herself, plus the added strength she gets from this other side of her. Unknown to them, the part of the Storm King's skull that survived: his eye, was starting to glow purple and his skull was starting to reform itself and all the pieces float into the sky as storm clouds start to form around them. Twivine receives a blast of yellow magic that knocks her off of Rainbow Dash and looks to see it was Celestia who delivered it. She glares at her weaker half’s former mentor with pure hatred and anger and Celestia glares back but there’s only intimidation meant behind it. She’s about to attack until they all hear a loud, monstrous roar boom through the sky, prompting them all to look up. When they do, two giant purple eyes made of electricity form in the clouds and stare down at the kingdom of Canterlot. Slowly the clouds start to spin and the wind picks up until a giant tornado forms.. but above it is a monster made of black stone with purple cracks going throughout it’s body. No one knew what it was.. until they saw the crown that rested on it's head. They then heard it say something that sent a pang of fear throughout the kingdom.. while Twivine just smirked and teleported her own armor and weapons to herself. “Equestria! The Storm King is back.. and you will feel my wrath!!” He says before roaring, lightning coming from his crown and claws and blasting into the sky.. before the lightning starts striking against the kingdom, beginning it’s destruction.