As Twilight and Midnight battled, everyone else is still trying to recover from that sudden violent shift from the ship. Spike gets up and sees Midnight pull a fast move on Twilight which ends with Twilight being pinned and strangled and he growls in anger before going and jumping on Midnight's back and biting her on the shoulder, his teeth managing to draw blood. She growls in pain before blasting and elbowing him in the face, grabbing him by his tail then slamming him through the floor. Applejack and Rarity who were nearby, going to help, fall with him through the massive ship. Midnight smirks and sends some dark magic into the hole.
“That should keep them busy.” Midnight says and she sees everyone standing back up to fight and she gets ready to do the same before another violent shake from the ship causes everyone to stumble a bit and Midnight smirks even more. “Right on time.” She says and before anyone can question what she means or what caused that.
“Guys! On the radar, we’ve got multiple targets coming towards the ship!” They hear Flash Magnus say over the intercom. Just as he says that, the ship once again rocks violently but this time, flashing red lights come on along with an alarm.
“That can’t be good…” Sunset says before Midnight chuckles, gaining everyone’s attention.
“For all of you it’s not…” She says before her gaze shifts to the former villains. “You all can still make it out of this alive. You can come back to the side of evil or die horrific deaths here with all these other… pathetic creatures. You know as well as I do that you’d be avoiding a lot of pain… including the same pain you’ve all experienced that led you to be evil in the first place so even if you stop me now, it’s only a matter of time… you know I’m right. You’re letting them take away the one thing that makes you all stronger than you’ve ever been.” Midnight says and she can see some of the villains seeming to think about this but hesitating.
“Don’t listen to her! None of you need to be evil to be strong. Hurting others isn’t the way to avoid being hurt!” Twilight says before Midnight sends a magical tendril at her that wraps around her throat and pins her to the wall. She goes to get it off but more wrap around her body and horn, immobilizing her.
“Princess, the adults are talking.” Midnight says and just as everyone gets ready to attack her, Astelle and Sky Blazer both appear and send magic at them all, knocking them back before they proceed to attack them and keep them away from Midnight and the former villains. “You know the thing about Princess Twilight… it’s the difference between her and real leaders. She hasn’t had to make a sacrifice that wasn’t temporary… she hasn’t experienced true loss or any of the hardships that you all have… so she doesn’t really understand any of you… she never has… but I do. So would you rather take your chances with her and burn your bridges with me? Or… would you rather rise to the top and achieve your dreams?” Midnight asks and Twilight tries to say something but the tendril wraps around her mouth so she can only let out muffled warnings and pleas.
The former villains continue to think about this until they need to discuss it among themselves. After a bit, they all turn back to Midnight and she crosses her arms, waiting for an answer. “We’ve decided… to return to your side once more.” Chrysalis says and Midnight smirks before they all notice a bright purple glow coming from behind them, reminding them of one of the other Alicorns in the room. They all look to see Twilight glowing more and more with every second that goes by until a burst of magic knocks everypony back, but surprisingly, Midnight is the only one mainly injured. Twilight takes the chance to blast her through the ship’s walls, sending her plummeting down to whatever lies below them, whether it be land or ocean. Twilight falls to her knees after a few seconds and when her family comes into the room, panicking and Flurry Heart runs up to her, she gently grabs her niece by her shoulders, giving her a serious but reassuring look.
“Don’t worry, everything will be ok. Everyone will be ok… alright?” She asks and Flurry nods, trying to smile but Twilight could tell she was terrified. Just as she’s about to say something else, they all hear the sound of an explosion somewhere inside the ship, being quickly followed by a loud, familiar roar. “I’m gonna go help everypony else, so I need you to stay and help protect everyone else but be careful, ok sweetie?” Twilight asks and Flurry Heart nods, growing a determined look.
“You be careful too… I love you auntie Twilight…” Flurry says and Twilight smiles before hugging her, prompting her to hug back.
“I love you too Ladybug…” Twilight says before the rest of her family shows up and she looks up at them with the same look she gave Flurry. “I love you all.” Twilight says before she stands up and her mask forms on her face, her eyes glowing purple when it fully forms. She gives them all a quick nod before running towards the hole she had made in the ship and jumping out to help fight off the villains, using magic to drag Astelle and Sky Blazer out with her.
She trusts that the rest of her friends could handle the other villains. They would come out on top, like they always did in the past… they had to.
A few minutes earlier
As Applejack, Rarity, and Spike all tumbled to some unknown section of the ship, they tried their best to stop, meanwhile they were receiving painful bumps along the way, slamming against more and more metal. Applejack gets an idea and tries using a transparent Ursa claw from her powers to stop by stabbing into the ground, hoping it would be enough to stop her decent. This only makes things so much worse for the three of them though as whatever they were sliding on collapses and makes so many different openings. Because of this, Applejack falls through a different one than Rarity and Spike who fell through the same one. They both land painfully hard, both grunting and groaning in pain when and after they land.
They both just stay down for a bit to let themselves recover. Rarity recovers faster due to her newly discovered ability: ice healing. She gets up and looks around, specifically for a way to get out, until she notices Spike groaning and growling and pain. She goes to check on him, reaching her hand towards him as she can tell something’s wrong. “Spike, are you-“ She tries to ask but before she can finish her sentence, he snaps his gaze into her direction, fixing her in place with a death glare. Usually she wouldn’t be so shocked at this but that wasn’t the case this time as she saw his eyes… They were glowing… purple. Rarity slowly backs up, shocked and more than a little scared at the moment. “S-Spike…?” She asks in a shaky voice as the young dragon continues to glare until he suddenly roars in pain and scuffles away from her, his body size increasing along with his muscles starting to expand. His voice was also getting deeper as purple started to shine throughout a few small areas in his body.
Rarity backs away further, especially when she notices his transformation starting to cause damage around them. “Rarity… RUN!!!” Spike yells/roars out at her and that’s enough to get her moving. She sees an opening and immediately breaks out into a sprint through it. She hears Spike roar again before she feels the floor shaking beneath her, the shaking getting more violent with every step she took… Spike was chasing her. She makes ice walls behind herself as she continues to run but she can hear them shattering faster and faster, and immediately knows that they’re not even managing to slow him down. She sees a path to her right and makes the floor behind her icy before she quickly goes down it, causing Spike to slip and slide past it and roll into a wall before he quickly recovers and gives chase after her.
“Spike, please! This isn’t you! You wouldn’t hurt anypony!” Rarity yells but Spike doesn’t listen, continuing to barrel towards her, knocking down anything in his path. Meanwhile in his head, his thoughts were only filled with anger… and a voice that he thought was his own but is actually Midnight’s.
“You never had a chance with her… she chose Applejack over you. Well if you can’t have Rarity… then nobody can! Not you, not Applejack, not anypony!!!” The voice says. Normally he would’ve tried not to listen until he confirmed it was true and even then, he wouldn’t be so… angry… just disappointed. But due to the dark magic that Midnight had sent into the hole they fell into, this was not the case. To him, what he was going to do to Rarity once he caught her was the right thing to do… He speeds up, running on all fours until he’s right behind Rarity. Once he’s close, he gets back on his feet and uses his right arm to knock her to the side, launching her into the wall and allowing himself to run into the wall in front of them.
Rarity groans in pain as she tries to get up, only for a surge of pain to run through her body as a sign to stay down. Spike wasn’t even using his full strength and yet he hit her hard enough to send her flying into a wall and leave a massive dent where she had crashed against it. Not to mention the bones that had likely been damaged in her body. She looks to see Spike stopping right in front of her, glaring down at her menacingly. Rarity struggles to move away and lean against the wall, groaning in pain the whole time. “Spike… please don’t do this…” Rarity pleads, only gaining a growl from him as he raises his razor sharp claws. Rarity now has tears in her eyes as she looks up at him, silently pleading for the spike she knew to come back and fight whatever had taken hold of him.
Just as he brings his claw down, Applejack bursts through the wall next to them, an orange aura radiating off of her, making it look as if she was on fire. Her eyes and mane were slightly glowing orange. She heads straight towards Spike and punches him, also tackling him, the shockwave sending him flying through another wall and into another section of the ship, this one containing smaller vehicles that look built for flying. They both tumble along the ground for a bit before separating and rolling to a stop. They both slowly get up and face each other, starting to circle each other as well.
“Spike… I really don’t wanna hurt ya Sugarcube. I know this isn’t you so I’m gonna do my best to help ya snap out of it… ok?” She says, keeping her eye on him and paying attention to every single movement he makes. She notices that his breathing had sped up as soon as he saw it was her he was about to fight. Whatever happened to him had obviously made her and Rarity his main targets. Before she can say anything else, he roars and charges at her. She sighs before charging back with a yell/roar of her own. Rarity, who was still injured despite her ice healing, had managed to get up and walk to the hole they had made but that was just about all she could do for now. So she watches as both dragon and pony clash in a battle that- unknown to her, was actually for her in a way.
Everything was in complete chaos, Flurry, Cadance, and Shining Armor were stuck fighting Sombra and Cozy Glow. Starlight, Trixie, Sunset, and Tempest were occupied with Chrysalis, The Dazzlings, and the Storm King. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were doing their best to handle the Washouts. Pinkie was helping the young six and the Pillars of Old protect everyone’s families from Tirek. Celestia and Luna were taking on Astelle and Midnight's dragon along with Snowdrop who was hesitant to fight at first but eventually realized it was more than necessary. And to top it all off, Twilight was struggling to hold her own against Sky Blazer and Midnight. All in all, their plan had obviously been ruined from the start… but that didn’t mean it was completely ruined. All they had to do was make it to the coast of their destination safely and they could work things up from there.
The storm and the villains were majorly damaging the ship though and the bunch of holes that it now had weren’t exactly helping. The air pressure was actually lowering drastically and it was making it harder for everyone who was on the ship. Twilight notices this and realizes she has to finish this fight quickly. She sees Sky Blazer coming at her and only has a second to react as she casts a spell that allows Sky Blazer to pass through her and run into Midnight who was on her other side. She quickly traps them and throws them far away from the ship. Or at least she tries to, but Midnight breaks them out with a burst of magic and they both blast Twilight while she’s stunned. This knocks her to the edge of the ship and she struggles to hang on as it continues flying through the storm that surrounded them.
After she recovers, she starts climbing up before she sees Sky Blazer jump up and flap her powerful wings to dash towards her. Before she can get too close, she’s tackled and kicked away by Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash then runs to Twilight and tries to help her up. “Rainbow! Behind you!” Twilight yells but just as Rainbow Dash turns around, Midnight is right in front of her, already swinging a blade towards her. She only has a second to dodge and she does but barely as it manages to leave a cut over her right eyelid, just narrowly missing her actual eye. Another swing causes her to try and block on instinct only to receive a cut on both her arms. One final swing makes her flap her wings to move back but the sword releases a wave of magic that hits Rainbow Dash, majorly injuring her and sending her flying off the ship and into the storm.
“RAINBOW!!!” Twilight screams before jumping off the side and reaching towards her to use her magic and grab her but before her magical grip could fully surround Dash, Midnight tackles her from the side and drags her away from her, allowing her to disappear into the clouds. “NO!!!” Twilight screams in anguish as Midnight continues to drag her further and further away from Rainbow. Suddenly sadness… is replaced with anger and hatred. She slams her fists down on Midnight's body again and again, trying to get her to stop before she cuts on of her wings, making her scream in pain and crash through the ship’s hull, still holding Twilight before they separate.
Twilight slowly gets up and faces Midnight, glaring at her with nothing but pure hatred. Dash was gone because of her… and she would suffer for it. Twilight would kill her in the most painful way she could imagine. She’d tear her apart piece by piece until there was nothing left. These were both Twivine's thoughts… and Twilight's.
She charges at Midnight and jumps, wrapping her legs around her and spinning before practically throwing her with them. Just as Midnight gets up, Twilight kicks her in the face then punches her again and again. “This is all your fault! All of it!!” Twilight yells angrily at her as her eyes and mane start changing color. “Everything was fine before you showed up, released the Legion of Doom, targeted me and my friends and killed so many ponies… and you just had to kill one! MORE!!!” Twilight yells as her voice also starts to change before delivering one more final punch to her face, dislocating her nose.
Midnight slowly turns her head to face her before fixing her nose back in place like it was nothing. Midnight then growls angrily. “My turn.” She says before Twilight blasts her over and over again and tries landing one more punch, only for it to be caught. Midnight smirks before punching Twilight in the gut, knocking the air out of her. Before she can recover, she pulls Twilight’s head back and hits her in the throat before grabbing her arm, swinging her around and punching her as hard as she can, knocking her to the ground and sending her rolling away. Twilight slowly tries to get up, but Midnight kicks her in the stomach, practically forcing her up to her feet and then punching her before she can get the chance to fall back down… and Midnight still wasn’t done.
She grabs Twilight and swings her over her, slamming her and then pulling her back up and head-butting her away. “This is just sad… you’re an alicorn, an immortal being… so much power and all you do is hold back… Strong enough to have it all-“ Midnight starts before Twilight forms a magical glyph and throws it at her and she’s forced to knock it away then block a punch from Twilight before grabbing her and turning around with her. “And too weak to take it!!!” Midnight yells before punching Twilight again, sending her flying down the hallway. Twilight recovers surprisingly fast though and flys at her, dodging a blast before latching on to her with her arms and legs and spinning which ends up taking them both down to the ground.
This maneuver catches Midnight off guard and Twilight takes the chance to punch her over and over again while charging magic into her fists. Midnight grows annoyed at this and looks just in time to see Twilight forming a magic blade around her fist before blocking it with a dark magic shield. She then head-butts Twilight before grabbing the blade, breaking it in half and stabbing Twilight in the side with it. Twilight screams in pain before receiving a punch in the face which sends her flying back with a broken nose. Twilight takes a bit to recover but before she fully can, Midnight grabs her, throws her into the ceiling and catches her when she comes down only to slam her down onto the floor, sending her and herself through it and down to the very bottom.
By the time they stop, they both have lots of cuts and bruises but Twilight's injuries were worse than Midnight’s… and that was only surface damage. Twilight groans in pain as she slowly opens her eyes, only to see Midnight standing over her menacingly. She tries to slide away but Midnight picks her up by her arm and she tries blasting her but Midnight knees her in the stomach before turning her around and winding up a punch that would end this fight. Twilight struggles to get free but to no avail and Midnight finally throws the punch right at Twilight’s spine… breaking it and immobilizing her, causing her to scream in pain. Midnight smirks before carelessly dropping the now crippled princess on the floor.
Twilight struggles to process what Midnight just did and was now in a state of shock… but it wasn’t over just yet. Midnight grabs her by her horn and starts absorbing the dark magic out of her, making her scream in pain once again as she could feel part of herself literally being sucked out of her… and it felt like she was dying. It feels like it goes on for eternity but after a few seconds, Midnight uses her other hand to release dark magic to the space beside them. As time passes by and the dark magic begins to form into the shape of a alicorn, Twilight’s horn gets weaker until Midnight lets out a huff and with one extra effort… she breaks it and an explosion of magic deals the final blow to the ship, finally making it go down and take even more damage, losing more parts as it crashes in a fiery heap towards the ground.
As Lightning Dust struggles to carry an unconscious, half-dead Rainbow Dash out of the ocean, she surveys the destruction left by the crash. The ship had just barely made it to the coast with the back half of it being submerged in water while the front half was on land, a lot of it being either on fire or in pieces. She sees a few of the ponies and other creatures Dash was with and they were all alive but… they weren’t in good shape. She looks at Dash and thinks about the whole reason she had done any of this in the first place. It would be so easy to kill her right here and right now… but just like her other self… she couldn’t… and she didn’t want to anymore… hence why she saved her from drowning in the first place. She thought she would be strong enough to stomach all this… but she was wrong… all of this… was wrong… and she wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
Cozy Glow jumps awake, coughing up water before looking around and seeing Tirek and Chrysalis crouched down by her, fire seeming to be everywhere around them. She then realizes what happened when she sees the worried and relieved looks on their faces. She sits up and crosses her arms, realizing she had some sort of cloth covering her, most likely from them to help keep her warm.
“Why… Why did you save me? What are we, a family or something?” Cozy asks coldly as the guilt was still fresh in her mind because of everything they had just done. Everything she’d said and done to Flurry Heart… the look of pain and betrayal on Flurry's face when they had “turned” on them still burned into her mind. She’s brought out of her thoughts when she hears Tirek say something… unexpected.
“We were worried I suppose… Leaving you to die just… didn’t sit right with either of us.” Tirek says, causing Cozy to look up at them both before Chrysalis also earns a shocked look from Cozy with her words.
“Neither does… any of this… not anymore.” She says and Cozy can’t help but agree. She finally allows herself to break down and cry after a few seconds of trying to keep herself together. When Tirek and Chrysalis both hold one arm towards her, she jumps into their arms, allowing them to hug her as she enjoys the feeling of comfort… or tries to.
The Dazzlings weren’t much better as they left an unconscious and badly wounded Sunset Shimmer close but not too close to the rest of her group. They were already consoling each other and trying to assure each other that what they had done was for the best… at least for them… but they didn’t feel good in the slightest about it. They see somepony ahead and recognize it as Lightning Dust. They all growl at her and she takes out her weapons before frowning, shaking her head, and lowering them. They all calm down and notice that everyone else getting a bit too close. Short Fuze and Rolling Thunder find them and they all agree that it would be best if they got a move on.
The Dazzlings take longer to depart as they all apologize to Sunset, Sonata and Aria going first before leaving. Adagio crouches down next to her and softly grabs her hand, frowning down at her. “I’m so sorry Sunset… for everything. We… we all are. Please… don’t die on us… you deserve so much better after you were willing to give us all a chance… give me and my sisters a chance.” Adagio says before sighing and placing a kiss on Sunset's forehead and departing. She looks towards her one more time then looks at everyone else and sees Applejack and Rarity carrying a unconscious Spike out of the wreckage and limping towards everyone else as Fluttershy carries Rainbow Dash to them as well. She notices that a majority of the group is missing though. One other pony that she doesn’t notice there at this point… is Twilight.
As Twilight comes to, she notices that it hurts to breathe and there was a heavy smell of smoke lingering in the air. She opens her eyes to see smoke in the air before looking turning her head to see fire around her. Her entire body hurt but… she couldn’t feel her legs. She starts panicking as she tries getting her bearings before she looks down… and sees a metal spike going through her side. No wonder it hurt to breathe. Now that she actually noticed this… the pain increased and so did her fear. She slowly reaches a weakened hand towards it and tries straightening it but she can barely even manage to move it, her strength severely diminished.
She hears something and sees a silhouette walking towards her from the fire. She sighs in relief, thinking it was one of her friends… until Midnight exits the fire… with Twivine following close behind her. Twilight immediately tries to teleport a way on instinct, only for nothing to happen and she reaches up only to freeze up in shock when she feels nothing… her horn was gone. “Why the long face… at least we’re not gonna kill you… yet.” Twivine says as she walks up to Twilight with a smirk, earning a weakened glare from the Princess. “Miss me?” She asks and Twilight wants nothing more than to kill both of them and get back to her friends… her family.
“On the downside for you and your friends…” Midnight says before levitating a few things from the other side of the flames and Twilight’s eyes widen in horror when she sees her parents… and some items belonging to Pinkie’s parents, Fluttershy’s father, Rarity’s parents, Dash's mother, and Granny Smith. When she sees this… she could already tell what had happened… they were… gone.
She sees her parents still moving and she tries harder to straighten the damned piece of metal keeping her trapped. “Midnight, please! You’ve already taken so much… please stop this! Solaris!!! Please stop her!!!” Twilight screams and Midnight laughs at this before suddenly grabbing the metal spike… and ripping it out of her, making her scream before both Midnight and Twivine start casting a spell on her that won’t heal her immediately but it will stabilize her and speed up her recovery process… not fast enough though.
“Don’t be so dramatic Princess… I don’t want you to die yet… I’m just going to… motivate you. And your friends. Into what, you ask? That is really up to you, now isn’t it?” Midnight asks before releasing Twilight’s parents from her magical grasp, dropping them on the ground. She then walks to them as they slowly come to and Twivine pulls them up and holds them still as they suddenly realize what’s going on. A blade comes out of one of Midnight’s gauntlets and Twilight screams in anger, pain, and fear as she tries getting up, crawling to them, blasting Midnight, anything that would by her parents time to run.
“Twilight, stay back and don’t look!” Night Light yells, still hoping to protect his daughter but when he sees her continuing to try and get to them, he decides to take action instead, elbowing Twivine in the face and causing her to let them both go. They both try to run but Midnight cuts Night Light's leg, making him fall before she picks him up by his throat. Twilight Velvet runs to their daughter and tries helping her up until she hears a snap and slowly turns to see Night Light hanging limply in Midnight’s grasp… Both mother and daughter stare in shock and fear as Midnight throws his body to the side.
Midnight looks at them with a smirk before forming a spear, aiming it at Twilight, and throwing it. “No!!” Twilight Velvet yells as she turns to use her own body as a shield to protect her daughter. Before Twilight could do anything, the spear goes through her mother’s back and she’s practically frozen there in shock… until she falls forward onto her side.
“Mom!!!” Twilight screams as she crawls to her and tries to do… something. Anything. Anything at all. “No… no. Not like this. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry… I’m… so… I… please Mom, please… don’t leave me…” Twilight says, crying hysterically at this point. Twilight Velvet places a hand on her cheek and Twilight closes her eyes, placing her hand on hers.
“Don’t cry… it’s alright… you did nothing wrong…” She says and Twilight is about to try and protest but before she can, her mother continues. “This… isn’t… your fault. There was nothing you could do to save us… but you can do something to save… everyone else. So you keep… going. Keep caring. Don’t ever lose sight of yourself… and don’t blame yourself for whatever goes wrong… because at least you tried in the end.” She says and Twilight hesitates but nods, earning a smile. “You’ve made me and your father so proud… we’ll always love you and no matter what… we're with you.” She says and she can see that same spark in her daughter… one that would never die no matter how dark things seemed. Twilight would end this nightmare… she would stop Midnight… and she was at peace with that. She slowly closes her eyes and goes limp, her breathing and heart rate stopping.
Twilight watches in horror and sadness as her mother’s life slowly fades… and she lays there with her head resting against her daughter’s hand. She breaks out into tears again, silently begging for her not to leave her.
“It could’ve been different Twilight… but our fight… our real fight… starts now.” Midnight says and Twilight quickly whirls around to say something truly hateful to her only to see that both she and Twivine are gone. Left in the place they were standing was the belongings of those that had died from all the events that had just transpired. Twilight looks towards her father’s body, then back to her mother’s before gritting her teeth more and more until she lets out an angry, sadness-filled cry that could be heard from miles away. Once she does, she flops onto her side, all the pain from her mental and physical wounds finally weighing down on her.
She was starting to lose consciousness, if she wasn’t dying that is. She notices her element flashing purple but doesn't have enough time to question it as she sees Starlight, Celestia, and Shining Armor running to her but right before they get to her, everything goes dark… and she’s left with nothing but sorrow, hatred…, and a feeling, a yearning… for revenge.