Sixth Lesson- Twilight's Last Gleaming
As he opened his eyes, the world appeared as a hazy for to him. Where was he? How did he get here? As his head slowly cleared, he could make out two shapes- ponies, by the looks of them- with another pony standing silently behind them. But while the two before his eyes were vaguely familiar to him, the filly standing in the background raised strong emotions in the stallion. There was, dressed all in finery, looking like the true lady she always wanted to be. His Shining pink princess... his radiant unicorn maiden... his...
"TWILIGHT!"
"Well, well, well.... welcome back to the land of the living, thane Firehooves." The crystal pony standing over him sneered. "Though considering the circumstances, I can't guarantee your stay will be a long one."
His vision finally clearing, Tornado saw the forms of a green crystal pony and a unicorn filly standing over him. From the looks of the fancy oak furniture and gaudy trinkets and baubles surrounding the room, he could tell he was someplace fancy.
"E-emerald Ray..." Tornado replied groggily. "What are you doing... where..."
"At my private Chalet, at the edge of Misty Mountain." The crystal stallion snorted in contempt. "Wish Shine brought you here, after realizing I would prefer to keep you alive. A royal historian can be so valuable alive, you know."
"Good thing I did remember, too." The unicorn filly replied with an evil smirk. "A few more seconds, and you'd be in the horsemaster's stable by now."
"How dare you attack the harmony bearers escort, Emerald? You won't get away with this!" Tornado replied angrily, pulling himself back up to his hooves. "What have you done with-" looking again, he saw the pink unicorn in a black maid's outfit, standing behind the two conspirators. "-Twilight!" Pushing past Wish and Emerald, Firehooves rushed to the crystal filly's side. "Oh, Twilight... what have they done to you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, mister." The filly replied in an empty voice, staring at Tornado with empty eyes. "Do I know you?"
"She doesn't remember anything about you, fool." Emerald told him with a laugh. "An ancient love poison saw to that."
"A love poison?" Tornado asked in shock, putting a hoof to Twilight's forehead. "But every copy of that formula was destroyed."
"My ancestor, Twilight Sparkle, managed to keep a small sample of the Formula for study purposes." Wish told him. "I just so happed to run across the vial, and decided it would be the perfect way to neutralize my goody-goody cousin."
"Why you little witch!" Tornado stood up, his horn glowing fiercely. "I should turn you into a snail for this!"
"Don't bother, worm." The yellow snorted. "The blast I gave you has dulled your magic to the point you couldn't even
light a candle right now."
Tornado looked back at the pink filly beside him. "Twilight, please. I know your in there. Don't let these clowns control you!"
"Master doesn't control me." Twilight replied, staring at Tornado with empty eyes. "Master loves me, he made me a crystal pony, He's my prince charming."
"Your wasting your breath, Tornado! She can't possibly hear you!" Emerald mocked him. "Besides, even if You did free her. It's not like she would ever love an old, worn out, lazy excuse for a unicorn like you."
"Do you actually think a beautiful, cultured filly from our proud lineage could ever even consider an aging, ugly brute of a stallion for her true love?" Wish glared at him. "Twilight wants to live in a fairy tale world with her handsome prince, not spend the rest of her life with the ugly troll."
"Which, by the way, is usually slain by the handsome hero in fairy tales." Emerald added, tossing his glittering mane to the side. "Face it Tornado, she's far happier with me than she'd ever be with you."
Tornado closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. "Maybe she never could love a loser like me, Emerald. But there's no way I'm leaving her to be controlled by a jerk like you!" Looking back at Twilight for a second, his eyes suddenly gleamed with understanding. Wait... they said Twilight would rather be in a fairy tale.... THAT'S IT!
Stepping close to Twilight, Tornado suddenly threw his hooves around Twilight neck, and gave her a deep, warm kiss. Pulling away, Tornado saw a confused look on the filly's face.
"Oh brother, like that's going to work." Wish Shine rolled her eyes. "This isn't a fairy tale, Tornado! You can't just kiss her, and- "
BOOM! A powerful blast fired out of Twilight's horn, sending her shocked cousin flying through the opposite wall.
"WISH SHINE YOU HORRIBLE BITCH!" An enraged pink filly roared. "I'M GONNA BUCKING KILL YOU!"
As a snarling Twilight leapt out the window after her cousin, Tornado turned his attention towards the shocked Emerald.
"Ahhhhh! My Wall! How did she break free?!?" An incredulous Emerald shrieked. "Wish shine assured me-"
BAM! A hoof kick to the face from an angry Tornado cut him off.
"You've got worse things to worry about, creep!" The unicorn stallion snarled. "It's payback time!"
Rearing up, the two stallions started kicking, biting, and snarling at each other, knocking over tables and smashing chairs in their struggle.
"My home!" Emerald whinnied, dodging a kick to the head from Tornado. "Oh, I'm going to kill you, hornhead!"
"If you can hit me first!" Tornado shot back, barely missing a bite from the crystal pony's teeth.
The two ponies continued to struggle, until Emerald kicked Tornado back into a glass table, knocking the stallion over, and shattering the glass surface against the wall.
"End of the line, Tornado!" Emerald snorted, charging his opponent again. "The medallion is mine!"
It all happened in a split second- the crystal pony went to headbutt him, Tornado grabbed a long shard of the glass from the table in his mouth. The unicorn shoved the glass down into Emerald's skull as he rushed forward, causing the crystal pony to let out a hideous scream as he collapsed on Tornado.
"Ahh!" Tornado yelled in a panic, quickly shoving the corpse off of himself as he pulled himself back up on his hooves. "Oy, what creepy way to go. I hope Twilight is all right."
...
Out in the streets of Misty Mountain, panicked ponies of every size and age ran for cover as two angry fillies traded energy blasts with each other.
"How could you do it, Wish?" Twilight asked, as she leapt out of the way of a magic bolt. "We're family! How could you betray me?"
"Oh like I wouldn't take the chance to take out 'little miss perfect pony', who made my life miserable." Wish replied, teleporting out of the way of a blast. "You, who were the little darling of the family, the icon I could never hope to outshine!"
"Then why did you help me in Fort Dash," Twilight asked, rolling past a magic shot that turned the road sign behind her into a flock of birds. "if you were just going to kill me here?"
"To see you humiliated, reduced to some else's plaything, before I finished you off." Wish snapped, as she used a magic shield to a levitated birdbath Twilight hurled at her. "How did it feel, cousin? To have his lips on yours, to have his hooves all over your-"
"Arggahhhhh!" A furious Twilight charged the other pony, running into her magic shield, and tumbling backwards.
"Your emotions always were your weakness, Twilight." The yellow filly stood over the dazed unicorn, her horn glowing. "Goodbye cousin, say hello to the horasemaster for me."
As the other pony fired a beam at Twilight, the filly rolled to the side, and fired a blast off at Wish, hitting her directly in the horn.
"Aieeeeeee!" The yellow filly cried out, collapsing backwards in pain. Twilight stood back up, gasping for breath, and trotted over to the unconscious form of her cousin.
"You never could tell when I was faking being dazed." Twilight gasped out, looking down at the defeated Wish's charred horn. "I guess all that magical talent went straight to your head.
...
"Chancellor Bramely said your cousin will be delivered to Ironhoof Dungeon." Tornado told her, as the two ponies walked outside Misty Mountain Citadel in silence. "She'll get the best medical treatment in all of Ponyland there."
"I hope they keep her locked up forever." Twilight snorted angrily. "A pity they didn't decide to execute her, like you finished Emerald."
"That is something I'm not really proud of, Twilight." Tornado shivered, trying to put it out of his head. "Anyway, the guards her ranting in her cell about the alicorn amulet, though they didn't know what Wish was talking about."
"The alicorn amulet?" Twilight asked in shock. "So that’s what that medallion is! That does it Tornado, nobody is going to get that thing, neither regular nor crystal pony needs that kind of evil."
"Indeed, I've heard Princess Silver Rain is having it thrown into a volcano near Dream Valley, so we may be rid of it's evil forever." Tornado Sighed. "I only wish an image of the amulet had survived, so we would have known what it looked like. Then we all could have avoided this whole mess in the first place."
The two ponies walked along in silence for several minutes, before Tornado finally spoke up.
"Twilight, are you going to be all right?" The concerned stallion asked.
"Huh? Yes, I'll be okay." The filly shivered at her memories. "I just feel so... exploited. I can't believe that creep stole my first kiss, and had me dress up as a maid and clean for him ."
"Stole your first kiss?!" Tornado asked in shock, his eyes going wide. "Twilight, did you and he-"
"What?! NO! I remember everything that happened, and we didn't do THAT!" Twilight snapped in anger, her face turning a deep shade of red. "He didn't even want to touch me, just use me for his own purposes."
"It's so horrible he poisoned your mind like that." Looking away, he pawed at the ground nervously with his hoof. "So... how'd that kiss knock you out of the love poison, anyway?"
"Like Emerald said, my brain's oriented towards fairy tales." She replied with a small smirk. "I guess being kissed by a handsome knight was enough to break the spell."
"Well that, and a love poison is supposed to be administered to two ponies to work correctly, coupled with the fact that the formula's age probably weakened it." He scratched the back of his neck with his hoof. "You- you really think I'm a handsome knight?"
"You're a knight in Shining armor to me." Twilight trotted over, and gave him a warm kiss on the lips. As she pulled away, the stallion's face turned a bright crimson red.
"I... um... oh...uhhhhh..." He replied sheepishly.
"A stallion of few words." Twilight said with a giggle. Tornado and the filly continued walking, as Twilight gently nuzzled up to him. Smiling, the two ponies continued to walk along under the moonlight.
"Wow the stars are so beautiful tonight." The pink filly commented, finally breaking the silence. "I'm glad you're here to share it with me."
"Well, at least it's better than how Misty Mountain’s sky normally looks." Tornado replied with a laugh. "Our skies are gloomy here, most of the time."
"Gloomy huh?" Twilight asked, leaning her head against him. "Gloom... wait a sec," He eyes went wide, as she looked up at the stallion. "Tornado, which volcano near Dream Valley did they toss the amulet in?!?"