//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: A Desperate Plea // Story: Glowing in Everglow // by Darkmoon9 //------------------------------// Diary of Twilight Sparkle I must admit the last couple of months had been overwhelming, I had spent most of my time with my muzzle in books trying to find a spell that can do interdimensional travel, but to no avail. The magic users of this world just didn’t seem to have that level of power. I had told Sunset to keep an eye on Cipher for me, I couldn’t go to the king yet as I didn’t have solid proof against either him or Cozy, plus Sunset wouldn’t let me publicly accuse Cozy without solid proof. Imagine my surprise when the assassination attempt was thwarted by Cozy of all people. According to Cozy, Cipher had led her on with false promises for quite a while, Cipher deciding to kill her once she was able to see through his charade. The wounds Cipher inflicted on Cozy were quite bad, it was a good thing that Night’s Blessing had gone to get Sunset as fast as she could. Sunset had managed to heal her, leaving only a faint scar on her back, but the situation was further complicated when Cozy entered a coma a few days after her injury. The coma seemed unrelated to her injury, I detected traces of strong necromantic magic, something similar to an astral projection spell, magic far more powerful than anything I could currently cast. I wasn’t even sure I could cast a spell like that at the height of my power back in Equestria. The very thought of a being holding such power was enough to send a chill down my spine. Sunset asked me to prepare a spell to allow her to enter Cozy’s mind, in order to follow her to whatever plane her soul had been sent to. While it wasn’t something I could do on my own, me and Sunset worked together to devise a spell using both arcane and divine magic. Upon casting it, Sunset entered the same kind of coma as Cozy. I guess she was successful in bringing Cozy back from the brink, as both of them awoke about a day later. But neither of them would speak about what they had seen on the other side. It must’ve been really really bad. After making sure they were both safe, I decided to apologize to Cozy, I had been treating her like a criminal this entire time, not even allowing her a chance to reform. But I saw now that whenever I liked it or not, me and Cozy were on the same side, at least for now. She wouldn’t be the first villain I had met that had reformed, maybe Sunset was right, maybe I should put more faith in rehabilitation. Soon after this incident, I went back to my books. Among the many hours of research, I found a strange notebook among my possessions. It was unmarked, with no name or title on the cover. Upon opening the first page I could see an entry titled: “a Distress Call to Twilight Sparkle”. I recognized the hoofwriting, it was that of my faithful student Starlight Glimmer. I will now repeat what was written in the notebook word for word: I hope this message will reach you Twilight, wherever you are, you have been gone from Equestria for many years now and your friends were starting to wonder where you went. With Celestia and Luna out of the picture, the people of Equestria elected me, Starlight Glimmer as regent in your stead, with my best friend Trixie taking over as headmaster of the School of Friendship. I am proud to say I think I managed to keep the country together during this time, even if you were still dearly missed. There was no real serious crisis during this time with the exception of a few minor squabbles between ponies and other creatures, squabbles me, Trixie, and the remaining Elements of Harmony were easily able to fix with a friendship speech or two. But that was until she arrived… A couple of years ago we celebrated what we thought was your return. Someone that looked like Princess Twilight Sparkle showed up at your castle in Ponyville and asked for her throne back. I gracefully stepped down, thinking she was the true monarch. At that time, I hardly suspected anything was wrong, but looking back she had been acting uncharacteristically cold and distant, she did at this point look exactly like you, but her demeanor was haughty and regal, like someone used to being in charge. The first act of the pony I thought was Twilight Sparkle was to summon the other Elements of Harmony and Discord to her castle. I was also present at this meeting. Twilight gave us a speech equally authoritative and frightening: “Citizens of Equestria, I, your dear Princess have returned to you, on my journeys to the planes beyond I have seen many things, chaos and disharmony without measure. I fear that if we don’t take the necessary measures to guard against disunity, this kingdom will also fall. I hope you; my dear friends, will join me in this endeavor, chaos will be cleansed from the lands. To do that you need to sacrifice whatever lives you have established in my absence and dedicate yourself full-time to the eradication of disorder. My first act in this quest is to contain the living embodiment of chaos itself. Discord, I sentence you to an eternity in stone!” Discord acted fast, channeling all his chaotic magic at Twilight, who just flicked her horn and dispersed the chaotic energies like it was nothing. A counterspell to chaotic omnipotence, something that should be impossible. Discord quickly surrendered and begged for mercy; the pretender wouldn’t have any of that. Fluttershy had to put her hoof down, telling the pony I thought was Twilight that if Discord was going to become a statue, so would she. The imposter let a sinister smile consume her face for a split second before returning to a cold neutral expression as she spoke her sentence: “Very well, Fluttershy, I sentence you to an eternity in stone for treason against the crown.” Twilight’s eyes turned green for a moment before a ray of burning light emerged from her horn, Discord and Fluttershy huddled together with expressions of horror upon her face as they were turned to stone. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie just stared with her mouth open. The False Twilight turned her attention upon them: “Now, if any of you object you will be sharing their fate, got it?” The other Elements all seemed to be ready to join their companion in stone until I telepathically told them that resisting now would be futile, we would play along for now and figure out what is going on. With that the imposter didn’t waste any time promoting Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to her own personal enforcers. I was made into the False Twilight’s right-hoof mare, because I kept quiet the entire time, hiding my horror behind a stoic face. Turns out this new Twilight admired my work with the Equalist sect I used to run. But definitely seemed off, not that anything she had done so far wasn’t off from the Twilight we used to know. The Imposter didn’t waste any time transforming Equestria, the first edict The False Twilight enacted was to change her title from Princess of Friendship to Empress of Friendship. Wasn’t that what Cozy Glow used to call herself? Cozy Glow’s statue did go missing about the same time the real Twilight disappeared from Equestria after all. Was this False Twilight Cozy Glow? Whoever she was, she wasn’t Twilight, at least not the Twilight I knew. The second edict the False Twilight…Cozy…or whoever she was made was to make the virtues that made up the Elements of Harmony mandatory. Soon there was plaques in Ponyville with various bizarre laws. Twilight’s Law of Honesty: thou shall not lie, or thou shall lose thy tongue. Twilight’s Law of Generosity: thou shall donate half your income to charity, or thou shall have no income. Twilight’s Law of Loyalty: if thou betray the crown, thy shall spend an eternity as a statue. Twilight’s Law of Laughter: thou shall smile and make merry, or thy frown shall become permanent. Twilight’s Law of Friendship: thou shall enforce the Laws of Harmony, or thou shall suffer the fate of the heretic. There was no Law of Kindness, the imposter seemed to have dispensed with the concept after Fluttershy was petrified. Horrible things started happening to ponies who disobeyed these laws, some were given the exact fate proscribed by the laws, others were taken away never to be seen again. I was forced to carry out some punishments, fish I personally petrified mares, stallions, even young foals, I hated every moment of it, but I couldn’t let the tyrant become suspicious of my real plans. In secret I worked together with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to form an underground resistance against The False Twilight, who we collectively started to call Midnight. Whenever we thought she was Cozy Glow or someone else, Midnight needed to be stopped. But thanks to the draconian measures inflicted by Midnight’s regime, very few ponies dared to openly stand against her, worse, some started to believe in her radical interpretation of Harmony and Friendship. It was quite risky to reveal we opposed Midnight to anyone, lest they sell us out to the tyrant, and we might suffer a fate worse than death for our “betrayal”. For now, we could do little but work within the system, trying to minimize its cruelties wherever we could without being discovered. This involved releasing a prisoner here and there and telling Midnight they escaped, but only so often, we couldn’t afford to let her become suspicious. Midnight spared no time in using her magic to erect a massive black tower where Twilight’s Castle used to stand, it quickly became a monument to tyranny, feared by all. It’s massive size casting a dark shadow over Ponyville. The top of the power was constantly burning with magical energy, I suspected it was some kind of beacon to further strengthen Midnight’s magic. Midnight was truly unstoppable. By this point Midnight’s appearance had also shifted, she was no bigger, as big as Celestia or Luna, she was clad in a cloak that appeared to be made from the night sky, the stars on the cloak moving and shifting as she moved. She wore an iron crown on her head, much like King Sombra and her eyes were always green, exuding the purple smoke that was the signature of dark magic. The theory that Midnight was Cozy Glow crashed and burned after Midnight decided she trusted me enough to let me into the deepest dungeons beneath the tower. The horrors that I saw in those dark halls defied description, but let’s say that there were countless ponies, horribly mutilated, strapped to the magical machinery, screaming in agony as their vital essence was sucked out of them. The machines letting the ponies rest for only as long as they needed to recover the vital essence it seemed to be harvesting from them. Midnight seemed quite proud of her creations as she told me: “Don’t you enjoy the screams of agony from traitors, heretics and sinners? These halls house the worst of the worst, the people that don’t only need to be removed, they need to suffer. Their righteous suffering further fuels my power. This is the result of our glorious work and one day I will use this power to cleanse this world of disharmony forever.” I nodded, pretending to agree with her, it was obvious what she would do to me if she suspected my true intentions. Midnight took me into the very depths of the tower, into the darkest cell beneath all the rest. Only the radiant glow from Midnight’s horn and mine provided any light. The room was empty except for a single figure, a pony, at least what might’ve once been a pony, each and every limb was broken, rendered into limp tentacle like appendages the creature tried to move, but couldn’t. The mass of its body still had tuffs of a soft pink coat, most of the coat shaven off together with its mane, the body was filled with various runes, I recognized them as life-sustaining runes meant for healing, but here they obviously served a much darker purpose. The only thing that could be used to identify who this creature might have once been, was a cutie mark of a rook on what used to be its flank. Upon making the realization of who this used to be, it horrified me to my core. Midnight wasn’t Cozy Glow; she was something much worse. The scarlet eyes of what had once been Cozy betrayed a fear greater than any I had ever seen in a creature when she saw Midnight approach, her mouth was sown shut to prevent her from screaming, but I could still hear a muffled sound. Midnight carrying that sadistic smile on her face that I first saw when she turned Fluttershy to stone. Midnight did things to what remained of Cozy, things that I will not talk write about for the sake of mine and your sanity. The life sustaining runes on Cozy’s body keeping her alive no matter what cruelties Midnight inflicted upon her. After she was finished with her unspeakable acts, Midnight turned towards me: “This is what remains of my once greatest enemy, reduced to nothing, a sad creature that cannot do anything but suffer the righteous torment I have in store for it. Burn what you have seen here today into your mind Starlight, for if you were to ever think of treason, I will prepare a similar fate in store for you. But as long as you remain loyal, don’t fret, for you are about to help me bring about a glorious future of ultimate harmony and order, where the guilty and disharmonious will suffer the punishment, they truly deserve and the righteous will reap their eternal reward.” These events horrified me so much I realized that we couldn’t do this alone, we needed the real Twilight, we needed you. Once I got back to my own quarters, I wrote what I had to say down in this very Journal, and summoned what I could of my magical might, casting a locate spell together with an interdimensional portal spell. Hoping this will somehow reach you. Please, Twilight, I don’t know what you are doing or why you have remained away from your homeland for so long. But please, heed these words, if you can read this, come home. We need you more than ever. For I am worried what Midnight will manage to do to Equestria if she gets what she wants. I put the hope of Equestrian in your hooves. This entire document disturbed me beyond words. The things I had just read were so disgusting that I couldn’t believe they were done by a being wearing my face. If I wasn’t motivated enough previously to my research to devise a spell to get home, now it was my number one priority, beyond even protecting Taralos. I stormed into Sunset’s room and gave her the Journal. After she read it, her face went white. “This is bad Twilight, this is really bad. You should try to find a way home, it’s imperative that you go back to Equestria to stop her. But Midnight is powerful, more powerful than you, even in your prime, you need all the help you can get to defeat her. I think we need to gather a new team of Elements of Harmony, you can’t guarantee that your friends would be okay when you manage to get back. I think we have already found a couple.” I saw that look in her eyes, like she knew I knew exactly the people she was referring to. “Cozy Glow and the Defenders of Taralos? You really think she’s capable of becoming an Element? By the way, Starlight said she saw Cozy in Midnight’s dungeon, how can she be in two places at once? ” Sunset took a deep breath and try to explain things the best she could: “Midnight is from another reality, she was the protégé of the duo of tyrants who ruled over that realm, Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, but she proved worse than both combined. There were people who resisted the tyrannical trio, a group known as the Guardians of Freedom, a group led by King Lumen of the Crystal Empire, who is basically the good equivalent to King Sombra, and Queen Chrysalis of a hive of freedom loving changelings, much like the hive Thorax now leads. The two of them were married and adopted a filly who they had grown attached to, that filly was Cozy Glow. Cozy proved to be a master strategist and was partially responsible for the Guardians of Freedom being able to gain the upper hand against the Trio of Tyranny. Cozy’s plans succeeded in destroying Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon with the help of the full power of King Lumen and Queen Chrysalis. But they couldn’t overcome Midnight, and upon the defeat of the Guardians of Freedom, Midnight made sure its leaders would suffer a fate worse than death. I also aided the Guardians of Freedom in this battle, but fortunately I was able to escape through a portal before I was also captured by Midnight.“ I think I was finally starting to understand things, understanding why Sunset had been acting so strangely lately. She did know the other Cozy, the one who had been fighting against tyranny. It was a shame that in a universe where Cozy actually was on the side of good, she would suffer that kind of fate. That was poor thanks for being a hero. “So, is that why you think Cozy has potential? Is that why you seem to have such a fear of me turning evil? I promise you Sunset, I will never turn into a monster like her no matter what happens.” Sunset gave me a warm smile before trying her best to explain herself: “The multiverse is an amazing thing; it can essentially be understood as what if scenarios of what would happen if people would make different choices in life, probably they were raised in different circumstances than the world you are used to. All these scenarios are true at the same time and as real as the reality we are from. But it doesn’t alter who people are at the core, there is a fundament to their souls that always remains the same. That means both you and Cozy had the potential within you to become a hero or a villain depending entirely on the events you experienced and the choices you made. There is no such thing as an inherently evil soul, I have seen good versions of even the worst of people. You Twilight are a prime example of that, I can’t believe someone as good as you could become someone as vile as Midnight given different circumstances, but that is what happened, so I know that you can. But despite what I said, even I think there is a line from which there is no going back, a line once crossed there is little hope for redemption, and Midnight has crossed that line long ago. I would save her if I could, but I just don’t think it is possible. Midnight is one of very few villains I believe cannot be redeemed, she is that bad. By the way, can you do me a favor and not tell Cozy about this journal or its contents, I am not sure she is ready to learn what happened to her counterpart.” I promised her that I would leave Cozy out of this for now. After that it was time to leave, I needed to get back to my studies, as I now felt time was of the essence. I left Sunset’s room that evening with a lot to think about. Sunset Shimmer, the pony who believed in the goodness of even the worst criminal, the pony who would give a second chance to someone like Cozy Glow and somehow succeeded in reforming even her, even Sunset didn’t think she could save Midnight. That spoke volumes to me, this Midnight might be the most dangerous foe I had ever come across. How ironic that I would become my own greatest enemy.