The main six found the doors to the darkened main chamber of the Royal Temple to be unpowered, as was most of everything in the very still, very expansive room, and they all pushed it open together to let themselves in. The girls very slowly and cautiously walked into the eerie, empty silence of the chamber; each and every one of them raised their respective weapons as they entered, but to their surprise they had not seen a soul since they had crossed the Light Bridge to enter these centrally located ruins within the Equestrian temple complex.
The walls were entirely covered with equine frescoes, some friendly looking and others not so much. The girls all turned to admire The Elements of Harmony, now finally there before them; The Elements were truly a sight to behold, like some sort of miniature multicolored constellation hovering right in the air, each shining so brightly that the translucent container they sat in seemed to be throwing off most of the ambient light still left in the room. Underneath the elements, a massive golden base covered in emitter consoles propped up the very heart of Canterlot’s power, this the very source of The Alicorn Queen’s mechanical onslaught itself. The Elements of Harmony were emitting a soft, pleasing hum, almost as if they were beckoning the six of them in a very friendly welcome.
However, if The Elements were saying anything to Twilight, she didn’t hear a single thing; her eyes were widened in shock and horror like the those of her friends’ as she tried to take in the rest of the room. The floor of the main chamber was littered with the grisly remains of dead soldiers and scientists; Twilight fought the tremendous walls of despair and bile rising up through her being as she walked among what appeared the aftermath of a vicious massacre. Her hands were cold and clammy as she broke out into a cold sweat, and her breathing grew faster and faster until she had begun hyperventilating in earnest. While she had borne witness to the deaths of many innocent people earlier that day, it was only now that she was forced to look upon the casualties of this hopeless situation with a kind of unbearable intimacy. The macabre sight eventually became too much for her to bear and her mind slowed down even further from the emotional and psychological trauma, beginning to only then register flashes of the group’s unspeakable discovery in the main chamber… a flash of a white lab coat covered with dust here, the torn BDUs of a soldier there… over in the corner, near the wall, a dead woman who looked just like her-
A massive, belated heart attack finally struck the very core of Twilight’s heart. She dropped her weapon, choking for breath, and it clattered to the floor. All of her friends jumped in alarm and turned to her in an instant.
“MOOOOOOOOM!!!!” Twilight shrieked at the top of her lungs and ran forward as fast as she could. Whatever strength and resolve she had built up over the course of her journey seemed to evaporate in a single instant as her eyes locked on the still, unmoving form of Velvet Sparkle, crumpled against the wall like the rag doll that she once carried everywhere with her as a child.
“Oh my God, oh my God- MOOOOOOOOOM!!!” she began to sob loudly in fear and desperation as she reached her mother’s still form and bent down to check on her. Velvet Sparkle was in bad shape, there’s was no doubt about that. However, as Twilight’s uncontrollably shaking hand stumbled towards Velvet’s neck, it found a very faint pulse still beating; she let out a teary gasp with emotion, sniffling as she felt an enormous wave of gratitude wash over all of the dark, dreary thoughts she had carried within her since this whole ordeal had begun. The other five came running towards her, staring in shock at Velvet and lowering their weapons to the ground; Fluttershy immediately bent down next to Twilight, whose breath was still jagged from a mixture of relief and great sadness to see her mother in such a condition. Fluttershy checked for Velvet’s pulse herself; she then pulled out everything she had in her Equestrian medical kit, placing it all beside her, and began to scan Twilight’s mother with her EGO.
“She’s hurt bad, Twilight,” Fluttershy knit her brow in both worry and intense concentration. “She’s got multiple broken ribs, her skull is fractured, and she’s bleeding internally… oh my goodness, we need to get her back quickly to Canterlot if we’re going to keep her from getting any worse…”
Twilight sniffled again as she placed her hand, vey gingerly, on Velvet’s shoulder. “Mom? Mother, can you hear me?”
Although she hadn’t dared to shake the woman in her present state, Velvet suddenly began to groan and move her head at Twilight’s beckoning, which immediately prompted her daughter to once again gasp for breath. She was still in a daze and didn’t seem to be able to fully regain consciousness.
“Twilight, honey?” she grumbled tiredly, her eyes still shut. “…Just let me sleep one more minute, sweetheart… really, I mean it this time…”
Twilight chuckled at that in spite of the copious amount of tears she was simultaneously crying for her mother. “No, mom… you… you’ve been badly hurt… mom, can you still hear me? You’re at The Harmonics Division…”
Slowly, Velvet began opening her eyes as she came back into the land of the living. She stared around her, slowly, as her newly reignited brain began to take in the ghastly massacre still lying all around her, and she began to remember what had happened earlier. Her widened eyes turned back to face her snot- nosed, bleary- eyed child, who was gasping with emotion as she gazed down upon her. Velvet immediately grabbed Twilight and began to hug her, yelping in pain because she still had many ribs broken. Twilight sobbed as she returned the hug as loosely and gently as possible.
“Mom, you need to be careful, your ribs are broken,” Twilight tried to release her grip but found that Velvet wouldn’t let go.
“Twilight… oh, thank God, Twilight… oh, my little baby girl, you’re all right, my God, you’re all right…” Velvet began to cry as well as she hugged her daughter’s warm body to her in order to make sure that it was all really happening.
Twilight finally got Velvet to release her little baby girl, and now smiled at her as a great weight on her shoulders, well, at least one of them, was finally released. She wiped her eyes.
“Mom, you’ve been hurt, really, really badly… we need to get you back to Canterlot right away… do you think you can walk at all?”
Velvet slowly tried to get up, but screamed in agony and resettled against the wall, gritting her teeth and clutching her broken ribs.
“Easy, Dr. Sparkle, easy now,” Fluttershy helped her back into a sitting position; she turned to her daughter. “If she can’t walk, then we’ll just have to carry her back, Twilight…” Fluttershy, her medical training taking over, quickly turned to the others. “Girls, I need you all to help me find something to make into a stretcher!”
The others all nodded, touching Twilight’s shoulder in support before quickly moving on to scour the main chamber for anything usable. As Fluttershy applied some sort of bandage around Velvet’s torso, she winced and whimpered, still locking eyes with her daughter who was crying as she smiled at her, gently holding and stroking her hand in comfort. When the doctor moved to the side and began applying an analgesic patch on Velvet’s arm, she moved forward to embrace her only daughter again.
“Mom,” Twilight sniffed, laughing, “Seriously, mother, you need to stop doing that, already… broken ribs, remember?”
“Oh, Twilight…” Velvet spoke, choking with tremendous emotion, “Oh, kiddo… I’m so, so sorry,”
Twilight hugged her back, again gently, hot tears still freely streaming down her face.
“…Me too, mom… me too…”
As the other four were busy scavenging the main chamber for materials, a sudden gust of wind kicked up in the center of the room. It coalesced into a glowing maelstrom of light, and without warning a sudden flash of energy burst out. Twilight gasped and began to cover her mother protectively; the other girls looked up in complete surprise and horror as The Alicorn Queen, The Living Nightmare herself suddenly materialized right before their eyes, laughing maniacally and floating on her big, black wings in the middle of the air. Twilight began breathing hard as all of her friends besides Fluttershy immediately began to aim their weapons at her, growling fiercely upon recognizing the root of all their troubles. When Nightmare saw this, she only laughed harder before sneering evilly and opening her mouth to address them-
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Another sound effect suddenly roared out through the room.
Twilight, her mother, and her friends all gasped in total shock as an enormous blue wave of telekinetic energy suddenly slammed into The Alicorn Queen, driving her into the wall like a massive wrecking ball completely made out of light. Nightmare, clearly caught off her guard, only had time to emit a pathetic little “oh” before she impacted the wall with a loud crushing sound, the stone fresco behind her cracking and crumbling to pieces. When the energy wave began to dissipate, she hung in a large crater for a second, groaning with flickering eyes, before gravity began to pull down her spikey, black body towards the floor again. However, before she fell another enormous energy wave, identical to the first, slammed into her, soon followed by another, and then another, each successive wave issuing forth like bullets from a machine gun. Twilight watched this little scene play out in front of her, feeling just a little bit of satisfaction, a sort of well- deserved schadenfreude, mixed in with all of the confusion about what she was looking at, exactly.
The gigantic chain of energy blasts eventually subsided in full, and Nightmare was finally allowed to fall, quite ungracefully, to the floor, heavily damaged and groaning in a daze. When the majestic display before them was finally over, all of the people in the room spun their heads around to look towards the source of it all, and their eyes unexpectedly rested on a seriously pissed off Luna, still very much alive but struggling to stand to her feet; a fierce, enraged look played upon her face as one arm held a greivous wound on her chest and the other stuck straight out at The Alicorn Queen, a heavily smoking horn wrapped around it. She breathed hard, gasping for air, even as she glared daggers at the motionless Nightmare.
“That…” she rasped in between breaths, still raising her dark blue horn, “…is for stabbing me, you ugly, DECEITFUL bitch.”
Eventually, though, the pain from her wound overtook her, and Luna gasped as she collapsed to the floor, grimacing.
“LUNA!!!” Twilight shouted to her.
She looked at her mother, who only nodded, and Twilight ran over to the director with all of her friends, helping her to sit up and checking that she was ok.
“Oh my goodness, oh dear…” Fluttershy nervously exclaimed and she examined Luna’s completely penetrating stab wound. “…She needs to get back to Canterlot, too, right away,”
“Oh God…” Twilight gasped as she helped Luna up, looking over the extent of her injury. “Oh, hang on, Luna, you’ll be ok, we’re all going to take you back to get help, I promise…”
Luna, extremely pale and her breathing growing more and more shallow, glanced up at Twilight and gave a small, tired smile.
“Why, Twilight Sparkle, do my ears deceive me?” she rasped softly in jest, “or did you really just call me Luna?”
Twilight frowned, but then started to grin back at her. “I’ll tell you what, we’ll split the difference… Director Luna,”
Luna tried to laugh, but immediately began to cough up a fair amount of blood, and Fluttershy worriedly instructed her to settle back as she started to administer emergency care.
Suddenly, the main six all heard the sound of glass shattering and a strong gust of wind blowing behind them; they turned around to find Nightmare up and about again and standing right on the base of The Elements of Harmony, The Elements themselves swirling madly next to her. The Alicorn Queen gave a crazed laugh as she began to gather crackling energy around her to teleport the alien artifacts away.
The main six all gasped in shock; something deep within Twilight snapped at that very moment and she immediately bolted towards The Alicorn Queen, running as fast as she possibly could.
“TWILIGHT!” her friends all called out to her as they got up and ran behind her to catch up.
Twilight’s face was contorted in infinite rage as she grit her teeth and pumped her legs, the energy field around Nightmare humming louder and louder…
OH.
Her friends called out to her again as they attempted, in vain, to catch up with her; however, their leader and friend was now being fueled by pure hatred along with a fair amount of adrenaline…
NO.
Twilight started to pant hard, almost reaching the glowing sphere of energy as it threatened to disappear on her…
SHE.
She was right on top of it now, and as the crackling ball of energy began to contract and disappear along with Nightmare’s hideous laughter, Twilight screamed out and lunged forward, jumping as hard as she could to make contact with the escaping Alicorn Queen and The Elements of Harmony…
DIDN’T!!!!!
Twilight lept into the teleportation field as it shrunk into non- existence, disappearing entirely right along with it. Her friends behind her all skidded and looked around, breathing hard and panicking, screaming her name and calling out to her towards all of the corners of the main chamber.
“Twilight?”
“What?!”
“Where did she go?!”
“What happened?!”
“What’s going on?!”
“Twilight?” Applejack spun about, “Where are you?”
“LOOK!!!” Rarity shouted, and the others all turned towards where she was pointing; they all raced towards the window, looking out across the temple complex and finding a bright glow emanating from a large tower far away.
The girls all worriedly turned back to the two wounded women that were lying on the floor. Both in terrible condition, Velvet and Luna glanced at each other with grim looks on their faces.
“We’ll be fine here,” Luna nodded to them.
“Go,” Velvet added with pointed anguish for her daughter, looking them dead in the eye, “Please,”
The girls all turned back to each other, nodding.
“Alright, ladies, ya heard the doctor…” Applejack raised her Light Rifle, ready for battle. “For Twilight,”
Her friends all raised their own weapons, prepared to give everything they had to save her.
“FOR TWILIGHT!!!” they all responded resoundingly. In the heat of the moment, Pinkie Pie accidentally pressed her trigger again but caught it much quicker this time.
The five of them ran out of the main chamber as fast as they could to Twilight’s rescue. Velvet watched them go with great emotion, smiling, silently wishing them all the very best of luck.
*************************************************************************************************
A sudden bang and a bright flash erupted inside of a dark, empty chamber in a faraway tower of the ancient Equestrian temple complex. As the teleportation field expanded, Twilight Sparkle found herself thrown out of it, grunting as she hit the floor and rolled some distance away. Rubbing her head, she turned to see the teleportation field dissipate, revealing a maniacally laughing Nightmare standing over the glowing Elements of Harmony.
Twilight quickly glanced down to realize that she had left her Light Rifle back at the main chamber. Looking towards her left arm, she slammed her right palm down on her EGO and drew out her horn; a ribbon of purple light wrapped gracefully her arm as she stood up to face The Alicorn Queen, her helmet closing, preparing herself for battle.
Nightmare looked upon her and sneered, still laughing. “You’re kidding… you’re kidding, right?”
“I will NOT let you hurt anybody else…” Twilight spoke back to her, charging her horn with as much energy as she could muster. “…I will NOT let you even come CLOSE to the people I love… THIS ENDS HERE, NIGHTMARE- RIGHT NOW!!!”
Twilight gave a ferocious battle cry as she rushed forward, her horn poised for the attack. The Alicorn Queen simply chuckled and began running forward to meet her.
Twilight let loose an enormous purple wave of telekinetic energy rivaling Luna’s, square at Nightmare’s face. The Alicorn Queen simply waved her hand and the wave split evenly down the middle before reaching her; she smirked. Undaunted, Twilight rapidly charged her horn a second time and fired again, this time straight at the ground in front of her; the telekinetic force spread out and shot upwards in a wide sheet of destruction, but Nightmare simply took to the air on her wings, firing down telekinetic bursts of her own at her opponent. Twilight jumped out of the way as the stone floor exploded from the impact, and began running towards the wall beside her. Mustering all of her physical knowledge, every single last bit of information about the natural world that she had hammered into her brain over the years, Twilight finally began to put her scientific genius to work as she began visualizing ways to manipulate the very fabric of spacetime itself using her Unicorn abilities. When she had reached the wall, her horn flickered with purple as she ran forward and began to climb it using just her feet, her powers holding her against the downward pull of gravity. Nightmare began firing enormous telekinetic blasts towards her, and Twilight zig zagged along the wall to avoid being hit as the stone surface exploded all around her, showering her PALADIN with pebbles and shrapnel.
When she had reached the same level that Nightmare was hovering at, Twilight waved her horn and the wall she was standing under began to morph and shift; a great spike of rock began to shoot forward, and Twilight rode it like a surfboard as she barreled towards her opponent; taking a cue from Rarity, she materialized a two- handed, double- edged sword of light and swung it back as she approached The Alicorn Queen.
Nightmare quickly raised her hand and demolished the impromptu spike with a rapid flurry of telekinetic blasts; Twilight was one step ahead of her, however, and quickly jumped up as the bridge under her feet was obliterated, attaching herself to the ceiling right above Nightmare. Not wasting a single moment, she suddenly dropped downwards, screaming, and swung her mighty sword down on Nightmare’s head. The Alicorn Queen smiled as she teleported away, and Twilight’s eyes widened as she rocketed towards the floor. Nightmare appeared with a flash behind her and fired a burst of telekinetic energy into her back, causing Twilight to scream out in pain as she accelerated even quicker with gravity, slamming hard against the ground and forming a small crater with an audible boom.
Twilight stumbled to her feet as her EGO gave out a final warning that her armor had now been completely compromised by the impact. She turned to angrily face The Alicorn Queen again.
“Well, your abilities ARE quite impressive, dear,” Nightmare mocked from above, “But they shall not save you against the full force of my wrath, little one,”
“If I’m going to die, well, then-“ Twilight began forming balls of purple light all around her body, “- I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME!!!”
The balls of light surrounding her all exploded at once and threw forward an entire artillery barrage of Light Bolts, as if from an army of her own. Nightmare merely flew to avoid them, but Twilight rematerialized each ball and continued her ferocious barrage. Smiling, Nightmare began to materialize copies of herself, and Twilight began to lose track of her as she started to destroy her clones.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw a black blur barrel down towards her. She turned to quickly face it but Nightmare impacted hard against her body, cracking her deactivated PALADIN, and threw her with a roar at the wall next to her. Twilight hit it hard, cracking her Paladin helmet open as well as slamming her sideways turned head against the wall, cutting her cheek and lip. As she shook her head to regain focus, Twilight watched as The Alicorn Queen was now running along the ground at her, a Light Foil ready to strike. Thinking quickly, Twilight rolled on the floor, dodging the blow as Nightmare slashed a deep gash into the wall; the tenacious little Unicorn then stuck her leg out, kicking Nightmare square in the back and sending her slamming into the wall, momentarily distracting her opponent; as Nightmare quickly turned back around to attack her again, Twilight gathered large storm clouds all around her, unleashing a crackling barrage of lightning bolts at The Alicorn Queen; she projected a force field in front of her as quickly as she could, but Twilight merely bent the multiple lightning strikes behind the shield and they all struck Nightmare all at once. She jerked and twisted, screaming, and then stumbled back, smoking, as the attack dissipated.
Nightmare looked at Twilight with pure, seething hatred on her mechanical face, but her opponent only smiled back mockingly. Incensed, The Alicorn Queen summoned up large, hulking behemoths from the floor, gigantic living statues that ran to attack Twilight when they had fully formed. Twilight charged her horn again and another purple ball of energy, this one swirling ferociously, appeared in her hand. She threw it at the statues and the ball detonated, destroying all of the puppets before they could even reach her. Misjudging her own power, Twilight shielded her eyes from the mighty blast, which turned out to be a tactical mistake; she screamed out in pain as Nightmare came at her blindside again, slashing at her with her Light Foil. Twilight’s PALADIN absorbed as much of the energy as it could before it shattered and the blade’s edge cut through and deeply sliced Twilight in her side. As she tried to turn to face her attacker, Nightmare kicked her in the middle of her chest, sending Twilight careening to the floor. She struggled to get up, holding her badly cut torso and trying as hard as she could to avoid passing out from the shock of the enormous pain coursing through her body.
The Alicorn Queen approached her, laughing cruelly, with her Light Foil waving playfully in front of Twilight’s face as she grew closer. She looked down disdainfully upon the Unicorn, her fanged mouth grinning widely.
“You little FOAL! Thinking you could defeat me? You dare challenge The Living Nightmare HERSELF?! Now you will never see your loved ones again, or anything else, for that matter! My night, child, will last for an eternity… but yours… YOURS ENDS NOW!!!”
She raised her up blade to finish off her opponent, and Twilight shut her eyes, preparing for certain death to come down swiftly upon her...
Suddenly, the doors to the room exploded and were thrown outwards; Nightmare stopped her killing blow as both she and Twilight turned to find the other five of her ragtag team running in, screaming and firing their weapons. Having blown the door wide open, Pinkie Pie charged for another shot as Twilight rolled out of the way.
“HAVE A TASTE OF MY PARTY CANNON!!!” She bellowed as she let out another massive blast, forcing The Alicorn Queen to fly back on her wings to avoid being hit.
Twilight rolled on the ground, gasping for breath, and watched as her friends all ran forward without a single moment’s hesitation to defend her. Even Fluttershy was screaming bloody murder as she fired her Light Rifle on full auto at Nightmare, The Alicorn Queen now retreating behind her force field and firing back telekinetic blasts.
“Don’t worry, Twi!!!” Applejack shouted, firing her weapon at full burst. “We’re here!!!”
Twilight…
Twilight was getting very woozy from her sword wound, but she was pretty sure that she had distinctly heard somebody else call out to her from across the room.
Twilight Sparkle…
As her friends continued to fight their way towards her, dodging Nightmare’s attacks as best they could, Twilight slowly turned her head towards the source of the voice: The Elements of Harmony.
Twilight Sparkle… the six rapidly spinning multicolored stars hovering over the floor beyond her called out in a clear, calm voice. …Are you ready?
Without even knowing why, Twilight nodded.
…Then come. It is time.
Twilight suddenly got up to run towards the voice beckoning her, but found that she couldn’t get to her feet in her condition. Concentrating with all her might, she then forced her horn to glow one last time and immediately teleported right next to The Elements of Harmony. When she had arrived, Twilight reached out to them with her horn, her mind still blank in a daze. Her friends battling Nightmare all turned towards her and gasped.
“TWILIGHT!!!” they screamed out to her as telekinetic energy rained down around them.
But it was too late; Twilight was already gone. In fact, the entire universe suddenly seemed to disappear in a blinding flash of white light.
*****************************************************************************************************
“Twilight Sparkle, are you still in bed?” a voice called out.
Twilight thought she recognized her mom’s voice, even as she struggled to regain consciousness.
“Just a minute, mother.” Twilight managed to mumble out, eyelids still closed.
It must have been Sunday morning because she could smell the assortment of waffles and pancakes down in the kitchen (she couldn’t smell the syrups but she relished their presence nonetheless), as well as that delicious, exotic coffee her parents loved so much. Right about now, her mother, father and brother would all be downstairs, ready to start the day with a little bit of each other’s love and company. It was nice of her mother to be home; she had started to work longer and longer hours at some job that she was extremely reluctant to discuss with her daughter.
“Twilight…”
Didn’t Shining Armor say something about interning in Washington, D.C. this year?
“Twilight….”
Oh, she really hoped she finished her Trig homework… for this weekend…
“Twilight, dear, wake up.”
Twilight’s eyes shot open. She sat up, looking around at her surroundings. She was in her house alright, well, now just her father’s house. The room was decorated with all of the various knickknacks that she had collected in her youth- posters of Good Charlotte and The Notebook adorned her walls, and her various school books littered the floor, right next to her old skateboard. Twilight got up, feeling a very strange sort of déjà vu creeping up on her, and approached the mirror hanging over her dresser littered with pencils and studded leather bracelets. She looked at herself and, sure enough, a fully- grown, albeit still scrawny adult peered back at her, frowning slightly.
“Twilight… time for breakfast,” the voice called up from the kitchen again.
“Alright… coming mom,” she replied, a little unsure of what was going on.
Twilight walked down the familiar stairs of her family home and into the front kitchen, as always, expecting to find her father sitting at the table, a full English breakfast awaiting them on this fine Sunday morning (not that they were English). She heard laughter growing louder and louder as she approached, but, strangely, the voices didn’t sound as familiar to her as they should. She sauntered towards them, anyway, and Twilight found that she could not suppress uncanny feelings of self- awareness as she smelled the delicious varieties of pancakes and waffles waiting on the dining table along with that old favorite of hers, Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Her stomach grumbled as she walked into the dining room for Sunday breakfast with her family, as always, and expected to find her mother, brother and father sitting at the table, her dad wearing his fuzzy bathrobe and koala slippers, as always. Instead, she found Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy all sitting around and enjoying breakfast together, laughing and talking with none other than Twilight Sparkle Junior, who was serving them all another cup of her favorite coffee.
Twilight just stood there and took in the physically impossible scene happening right in front of her. Apparently, Pinkie Pie was just about done regaling them all with a silly story, and she and the girls all burst out in laughter together.
“-And then I said- ‘oatmeal? Are you CRAZY?!’”
That just made everyone laugh even louder; Pinkie slapped the table in good spirits.
As if she sensed her own presence, the Twilight at the table slowly turned around to meet her counterpart, a calm smile on her face as she beckoned her forward.
“Why, good morning, sleepyhead,” Twilight greeted herself in the absolutely most unnerving way possible, revealing herself to be the voice who had first awoken her. “Care to join us? Pinkie Pie brought over some of her world- famous mocha- infused pancakes, with chocolate maple syrup to go along with them.”
The Twilight standing gulped hard, and turned back to her friends, who had all abruptly stopped laughing to gasp and stare at the twin Twilights.
“Girls…” the standing Twilight began, “What are we all doing here? Why aren’t we all back at Harmonics?”
The five of them jumped up from the table and began to move away from the Twilight sitting there; she only smiled in a very friendly way.
“What in tarnation- ?!” Applejack began to get angry.
“None of this is real,” Rarity concluded as Fluttershy ran behind her and squeaked.
“You!!!” Rainbow Dash picked up a butter knife and began waving it at the fake Twilight. “You’re an imposter!”
Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes at her, opening up the spout on a bottle of her chocolate maple syrup and then proceeding to hold it in a threatening manner. “I knew you were just a LITTLE too funny to be Twilight Sparkle!”
The real Twilight frowned at her in indignation; Pinkie merely shrugged at her sheepishly.
The fake Twilight just sat there, continuing to smile warmly at her counterpart.
“We do apologize for bringing all of this back, Twilight Sparkle,” she motioned to the house around them, “but interacting with your kind can be especially difficult for us unless you’ve been given a familiar, comfortable environment.”
“Who are you?” the real Twilight asked. “Nightmare?”
“No, Twilight, we are not the empty husk of that once proud, fair and just Equestrian ruler,” the fake Twilight sighed, but then smiled at her again. “Allow us to properly introduce ourselves… We are The Elements of Harmony, and it is most definitely a pleasure to finally meet you.”