I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!
Warren G. Harding
To say that Princess Cadence was having a weird day would be an understatement.
Her routine had been broken, but that wasn’t all that terrible. After all, her routine for the last few weeks had been ‘Get Up’, ‘Get Mocked by Queen Chrysalis’, ‘Eat Gruel’, ‘Stare at Rocks’, and ‘Sleep’.
Her rescue had begun Act Two of the weird day: finding out that the changeling invasion had been stopped by Twilight Sparkle, the mare she use to foalsit. That wouldn’t have been weird, except Twilight had been consumed by darkness and was now some rage-filled shadow witch who gave the changeling queen such a beat down that Chrysalis wasn’t expected to last the night. The unicorn had been right: hate was a poison to changelings and Twilight had pumped the queen with so much that she was now lying on death’s door. Already most of the swarm had perished from shock.
After that it had been a whirlwind. She’d been taken to the hospital, talked with her aunts, found out that Twilight had escaped after assaulting an entire team of doctors, and rushed out to try and track down the confused mare before she did something horrible.
She had thought going into the club was a dead-end; the stallion that had claimed to see a mare matching Twilight’s description was shady at best and Cadence just couldn’t see Twilight being in a place like that. But she’d reminded herself that she wasn’t dealing with the Twilight she’d foalsat; this Twilight was high on dark magic and not thinking clearly. Cadence had decided to let the others search the libraries and the museums… she was going to take a risk.
And boy did it pay off.
“Cadence,” Twilight whispered. A myriad of emotions flashed across the unicorns face as she slowly made her way towards her old foalsitter. Twilight tilted her head, looking at her with unblinking eyes and Cadence took a step back, preparing herself for the attack.
Twilight hugged Cadence, sending the two of them toppling to the floor. “I am so sorry! I totally forgot about you and I should have gone looking for you as soon as I woke up but I was so drained and wanted to relieve some stress…” Cadence stared at Twilight as she babbled, wondering how anypony could this THIS mare was evil and corrupted. “Where did they hide you? Did the changelings have you locked up or something? Did a guard find you? Geez, what am I doing, lying on the floor with you like this; ponies are going to talk! Come on, let’s get a drink! I think we both need one after the day we had!”
The pink alicorn followed the lavender mare, her brain playing catchup. A small baby dragon (‘Spike… Twilight’s familiar’ Cadence recalled) looked at both of them in surprise from the table he was seated at and Twilight happily trotted over to him.
“Spike, this is Cadence!”
“…the real one, right?” Spike asked.
“The real one,” Cadence echoed.
“Glad to meet you… well, the real you.” Spike picked up his gemstone and began to nibble on it. “What are you doing here?”
“Came looking for Twilight,” Cadence said honestly, turning to look at the unicorn. “We were all worried about you.”
Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “I don’t know why you would be.” Her horn flashed black as she levitated her soda to her lips.
The princess raised her eyebrow, giving Twilight a fearful smile. “Might have something to do with the black magic you have there, Twilight.”
The unicorn rolled her eyes. “What is with ponies and the color of my magic? White magic, black magic, polka dot magic… does it really matter? I mean, Princess Luna uses shadow magic and no one bats an eye.”
“Yes, but you aren’t Princess Luna.”
Twilight shrugged. “Why would I want to be? All that responsibility… having to be under Celestia’s watchful eye all the time… did that, got the t-shirt.”
Cadence was truly startled by just how flippant Twilight was acting. “How… how can you say that? You’ve loved Princess Celestia since you were 3.”
“Yes, when I was 3. I also enjoyed hoofpainting and playing with my Smartypants doll. Ponies grow up.” Twilight’s brow crinkled for a moment. “Speaking of that…” Without even focusing on the spell Twilight formed an orb of magic, which twisted and turned until it transformed into her Smartypants doll. “About time I got you back,” Twilight said with a smile, bopping the toy’s nose with her hoof.
“Where did that come from?” Spike asked.
“Big Macintosh had her. I never asked for it back because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle… didn’t want Applejack thinking I was a baby, wanting my doll. Well, luckily for me I could care less about what Applejack thinks, so I am taking back my doll.” Twilight levitated the doll before using a flash of black magic to send Miss Smartypants back to the library where she belonged. “Now then, where were we?”
Cadence was staring at the table, the gears in her brain grinding to a halt at the sight of Twilight’s flippant use of dark magic. It wasn’t even the type of magic that was startling her; she had always known that Twilight was powerful, but to be able to command spells with such little need to prepare… all those that practiced magic strove for the skill that Twilight was now showing. To see her doing so with black magic…
It was terrible and beautiful.
“Uh, Cadence?” Twilight said, waving her hoof in front of the princess’ face. “You sure you are ok? Kinda zoned out on me?”
“I… I honestly don’t know,” Cadence stammered. “You… aren’t acting like I expected.”
“What? Wallowing in self-pity, crying that my friends abandoned me and our relationship is over?” Twilight puckered up her face. “Boo hoo… boo hoo.”
‘Actually, I expected you to begin gutting me like a fish and using my entrails to make a party dress,’ Cadence thought to herself. “Well…”
Twilight laughed, taking another sip of her drink. “Why should I feel down about that? I mean-mmm, this is so good, you have to try one-they are the ones that screwed up. They allied themselves with the bug-witch, not me. I’m the one that saw through her lies. They are the ones that threw away our friendship in the name of fame and fortune… I’m the one that saved all of friggin’ Canterlot! If anypony should feel bad, it is them.” Twilight clicked her hooves together, a waitress drifting over. “Yeah, can we get three more cheery pops? Thanks.” Twilight turned back to Cadence. “Anyway, I am not going to cry my eyes out because they made a mistake. I was pissed, I got it out of my system, and now I just want to celebrate. Heck, kinda feels good to be free of burden.”
“What burden?” Cadence asked as the waitress brought another round of soda.
“Well, I don’t have to be so focused on pleasing every pony. Shining Armor disowned me-“ Cadence choked on her drink, making a mental note to have a talk with her fiancé, “-and my parents are going to side with him anyway because hey, that is what they do, so I don’t have to worry about bringing ‘shame to the family’ or ‘living up to the family name’. My name is my own now! And guess what, Cadence… really not caring about the whole ‘shame’ thing at the moment.
“Same with my friends. Now that I don’t have to work every day to keep our friendship together, I finally have some time to relax! No more panicking, no more fear about them judging me… only pony I care about is myself.” She paused, looking at Spike. “And the only dragon I care about is you, of course.” Spike smiled, though Cadence could see he wasn’t as gung-ho as Twilight was about all of this. “Best of all, now that I’m not Celestia’s student-“
Spike and Cadence coughed, both having sent soda swishing down the wrong pipe.
“What?” Spike croaked. “But I-“
“Come on, you heard her at the rehersal, Spike. After I tried to warn her about Ca…the doppelganger… she blew me off. Cast me out. Twilight is pony-no-grata. And that was before I tapped into my true power” Twilight merely sipped her drink, which showed the two just how bad things had gotten and how far down the rabbit hole they’d ended up. “Wonder if that is why I have trouble with spells? Can’t force a square peg in a round hole.” Twilight shrugged. “Besides, I haven’t been her student for quite some time.”
“Huh?” the two said, staring at the librarian.
Twilight giggled, swishing her mane about. “Come on Spike, think about it! When is the last time you saw Celestia teach me anything? It’s been years since she assigned me any real homework and the only contact we have is those friendship letters.” Twilight rolled her eyes, a smile that was not at all pleasant playing on her lips. “Of course, those are just silly. The ruler of Equestria wanted me to study friendship? Please.”
To Spike, it felt like everything he knew was being ripped away. It was terrifying but he couldn’t deny the truth in Twilight’s words. But he would still fight. “Then… then why did she-“
“-let me stay in Ponyville?” Twilight said, finishing his thought. “Because she knew I wanted to. That was maybe one of the few selfless things that she ever did for me. I’d made friends and she let me keep them. Sure, it turned out bad in the end but hey, at least I got to experience new things. And when I make new friends it will even be better.” Twilight blinked. “Oh! Not that I am ditching you, Spike! Like I said, you’re my BDBFF.”
“BDBFF?” Spike questioned.
“Baby Dragon Best Friend Forever,” Twilight answered. She turned to Cadence. “Listen, I don’t know if you are going to stick around with my brother, considering he couldn’t see that a crunchy bug had taken your place, but if you want you’re welcome to crash at my place. We’re both adults now and I’d love to hang out with you too, Cadence.”
“I’d like that, Twilight,” Cadence said sweetly, before shaking her head violently. “What… what am I saying? This is wrong?”
“You don’t want to be friends?” Twilight asked softly.
“No! No no no! Of course I want to be your friend I just mean… I didn’t come here to drink and listen to music; I came to ask you to come back to the hospital. Everypony is worried about you-“
“Oh, I’m sure they are,” Twilight said simply. “But that doesn’t mean I need to go back.”
“What… what do you mean?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Cadence, just because they are concerned doesn’t mean I need to listen to them. Feeling worry or scared doesn’t give them free reign to control my life. If that is the case, then I am worried about Soarin’ from the Wonderbolts and think he should come visit me to put my mind at ease!” She giggled at her joke but Cadence wasn’t laughing. “Come on, that was funny! Geez, I know you had a rough day but I thought you said you were doing ok. This is like a bad open mic night!”
“I am doing ok, Twilight, but I don’t think you are. You aren’t acting like yourself-“
“I am more myself than I’ve been in years,” Twilight grunted. She perked up, moving towards the dance floor. “Ooooh, this song sounds so cool! It’s like he took 10 different songs and squished them together! I’m going to get my groove on! Order me another drink, will you?”
“Twilight, wait!” Cadence called out, using her magic to drag the mare back to the table. “I need to say this, ok? I want you to listen and not get mad, alright?”
Twilight glowered. “Why do I get the feeling you are going to tell me to go back to the hospital and forgive my friends and family?”
“Because that is what I am going to say!” Cadence said sternly. “You aren’t thinking clearly. Did they screw up? Yes, of course they did. But that is what happens when you make connections with ponies. They make mistakes, you work through it, and you forgive them. And they do the same for you when you screw up. That is how life is. You can’t just run away when ponies don’t behave the way you want them too. Your friends made a mistake, Celestia made a mistake and Shining Armor made a mistake. They want to tell you that they are sorry and make up for it but you are being petty and refusing to give them a chance!”
Cadence, seeing all goodwill draining from Twilight’s body, realized she had made a terrible mistake. Her own words to her aunt floated about her head: ‘Twilight isn’t in a safe place to see you or her friends right now. She needs to talk to somepony she doesn’t see as an enemy.’ Cadence groaned as she realized that she had just asked Twilight to do the very thing she had set out to prevent. Worse… she had just made herself into a target.
“Twilight, I-“
The dark magic user chuckled but there was no real humor or mirth that warmed her laughter. It felt like the cruel laughter of the windigos and Cadence shivered under the onslaught. “You know what? I should have figured you’d side with your hubby over me. Nopony ever sides with me, so why bother?” Twilight tossed a few bits on the table and motioned for Spike to follow her. “Come on, let’s go Spike. Suddenly I don’t feel like dancing.”
“Twilight, please!” Cadence called out, using her magic to grab the mare’s shoulder. Twilight whipped around, pure fury flashing across her features.
“Don’t touch me!” Twilight hissed.
“Twilight…” Cadence was stumbling, wondering how this had gone so wrong so fast. “Please… let me use one of my spells. Once you let love back into your heart-“
“Don’t you dare,” Twilight asked coldly. She jabbed her hoof into Cadence’s chest, forcing the alicorn to back up. “You hear me, Cadence? Don’t you dare pull one of those little mind rape spells on me.” Cadence shrank back as if physically struck.
“It… it isn’t mind rape…” she said softly.
“Really?” Twilight snapped. “You force ponies to forget why they are fighting and just go back to loving each other.”
Spike blinked, raising his hand. “Uh, Twilight? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“No, Spike, it isn’t,” the unicorn said softly, the rage that had been building dissipating as she looked upon her frightened best friend. “You can’t repress things like that. Look at what happened to me! I got so tightly wound trying to bottle up my disgust and annoyance that it all burst out and nearly ruined my brother’s wedding! Thank the Creator I was right.” Twilight shook her head sadly, looking at her former foalsitter. “You did it with good intentions, Cadence, but don’t you see that the spell you used is just a Band-Aid?” She began to circle the mare, not noticing that the shadows seemed to swirl around her like a cloak, blanketing them in darkness. “It doesn’t cure the problem it just covers it up. Have you ever gone back to visit the ponies you ‘helped’?” Cadence weakly shook her head and Twilight rolled her eyes. All around them mirrors trembled. “Of course not, you just assumed they were ok. But what if they weren’t? What if, by never solving that small issue that had then so upset, they ended up carrying around that hate bottled up inside and it caused problems later?”
“I… I never thought about that,” Cadence whispered, her eyes misting over as she was consumed with doubt.
Twilight stepped towards her friend, her horn glowing black as she gently lifted a napkin to wipe away Cadence’s tears. “If I had let everypony know how I felt early on, maybe I could have fixed things.” Twilight shrugged. “Or, more likely, I would have left sooner. But it would have saved me some heartache at least.”
“Twilight…” Cadence lowered her head, shame flooding her body as she thought of all she had done. How many lives had she ruined because of her desire to make ponies get along? Had she only caused pain? Had her actions hurt more than they helped? All she wanted to do was spread love, but what Twilight whispered took root in her mind and all she could hear was a little voice whispering ‘Didn’t think it through. Didn’t plan ahead. Abused your powers. Abused your subjects.’ Over and over the voice spoke, till it rung in her ears and all the noise in the club was mute-
“Twilight!”
The three of them turned, only for Twilight to go crashing to the ground, tackled by a cyan torpedo.
“Uh oh,” Spike said, slowly backing away. “This is bad.”
“Twilight, where did you go? We’ve been worried sick about you! Come on, you need to go back to the hospital! Everypony is waiting and we want to talk to you about everything!”
“Hello Rainbow Dash,” Twilight growled, the fire in her belly suddenly burning white once again.
“Rainbow Dash, please step away from Twilight,” Spike begged.
“What are ya talking about, Spike?” Rainbow Dash said cluelessly, picking Twilight up, failing to notice her friend gritting her teeth. “What are you doing here, anyway? Get lost going to the library?” Rainbow laughed at her own joke.
“Cadence, now might be a good time to do something!” Spike hissed. Rainbow Dash might not see it, but the baby dragon could feel the air crackling with magic. “Cadence?”
“What… what have I done?” Cadence asked, her eyes going unfocused… and slowly turning black… and the normal pink glow of her magic began to darken…
Spike stared at the alicorn in horror, backing away from her. “Twilight, something is wrong with Cadence!”
“Don’t worry, Spike, we’ll figure it out!” Rainbow Dash boasted before Twilight could get a word in. The pegasus’ joy at finding her friend alive and well had her shooting about without comprehension of the world around her. “Listen Twilight, we have lots to deal with when we get back. But I want you to know I am sorry for not believing you back at the dress rehearsal. I mean, you’re usually on the ball so I should have figured something was-“
Rainbow never got to finish, as a tendril of dark magic wrapped around her middle. She squeaked as she was thrown onto the dance floor, the club patrons backing away nervously as Twilight walked towards her fallen friend, her eyes shining like ebony pools as her magic crackled around her.
“What did I tell you, Spike?” Twilight whispered. “Apologizing for the wrong thing.”
“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash groaned, slowly standing up. “What is the hay?”
Another tendril struck just to her right, leaving a dent in the floor.
“You have to ask?” Twilight took another step forward, a near manic grin on her face. “Of course you do. Always rushing around with your head in the clouds, never thinking about how others feel. You just insult and mock ponies and then think you can apologize? You don’t even know what you did!” Twilight rolled her neck, the bones popped. “You know, I already beat down a copy of you… I don’t think you want to face me right now. Do the smart thing, Rainbow Dash… and get… the hell… out of my face.”
If there was one thing you could say about Rainbow Dash, it was that she was competitive to a fault.
To.A.Fault.
“Oh, is that how you want to play this?” Rainbow snapped. “I dealt with Pinkie Pie when she went nuts and I can take you on too! I don’t know what your problem is but you are clearly crazy and I am not leaving without you. So, why don’t you stop the lightshow before I hurt you.”
The unicorn’s head lowered, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Spike, who had been trying to coax Cadence out of whatever funk she was in, let out a sigh of relief.
“DJ?” Twilight said softly. “Could you do me a favor?” Twilight’s head snapped back up a feral grin on her face. “Put on a good beat for me to kick my friend’s ass to.”