//------------------------------// // IV: Blooming // Story: Sombra's Crucible, Twilight's Corruption // by Dusk Raven //------------------------------// Twilight turned to face her five former friends with a look of cold contempt on her face. They’d had looks of triumph on their faces only moments before, but these changed as they saw Twilight standing near Sombra, her eyes the same color as his. Twilight liked seeing the collective look on their faces. “I leave this in your hooves, Twilight.” Sombra said before dissolving into shadows and speeding further into the castle. “Twilight, dear,” Rarity began, nervously. “Are you all right?” “Gr-reat!” Twilight grinned as she spoke, seizing them all with her telekinesis, surrounding them with a dark glow and bringing them before her. “Just great.” “What the hay-“ Rainbow Dash began to say, wings flapping uselessly to escape Twilight’s magical grip, before Twilight slammed her into the ground. “Shut up,” she said, bringing Rainbow back up again. “Sugarcube-“ Applejack tried to say. In response, Twilight flipped them all upside-down and slammed them down to the ground on their heads, before releasing them. They sprawled on the ground, dazed, and Twilight continued her tirade, relishing the chance to finally let out her feelings. “All of you, just shut up. I’ve had enough of you, enough of your stupid terms of endearment, enough of your pathetic attempts to suck up to me!” Pinkie Pie was the first to recover. “Huh?” Twilight responded by magically tossing her to the side, where she slammed into a wall. “I’ve dealt with it for years, dealing with your fake friendship only because Celestia wanted me to! Well, now I have a new mentor, and he doesn’t care about friendship!” Fluttershy squeaked, “T-Twilight…” Twilight brought Fluttershy close to her, hanging her head-down while she stared into her terrified eyes. “He values power. And that’s what I have, now that I’m free of all of you!” At that moment she dropped Fluttershy, the reason being that Rainbow Dash had just slammed into her, breaking her concentration. Snarling, she watched as Rainbow made another pass. “Haven’t changed a bit, have you, Rainbow Crash.” As Rainbow zoomed towards her again, Twilight summoned a crystal pillar in front of her, causing to slam into the crystal, smash right through, lose control, and hit the wall behind Twilight before slumping to the ground The next challenger was Applejack, who wordlessly charged towards Twilight but was repelled by a smoky barrier, which clung to her body and started burning away at her fur. Twilight’s next spell was a wave of force which shoved Applejack away and sent her flying in an arc. Twilight grinned. It was actually fun, testing out her new powers on her “friends” like this, far better than on inanimate targets or even strangers. It felt exhilarating, the dark magic flowing through her, sinking into every fiber of her being. “Twilight…” Rarity spoke this time, but Twilight didn’t toss her for her insolence – she was more focused on the others, making sure no surprise attacks were incoming. “Why? What did Sombra do to you?” “He gave me the chance to escape from you!” “But Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said, still upside-down and scrunched against the wall, “Why didn’t you say something? If that’s how you felt?” “I… don’t know…” Twilight hesitated only for a moment. “I guess because Celestia wanted me to! Not like I could refuse her! The things she’d have done to me if I failed her… that’s the only reason I obeyed her!” “That’s not true, Twily.” This time, the voice came from behind her… the voice of a stallion she didn’t recognize. She spun around, and saw at the other end of the hall a tall white unicorn stallion with dark crystals embedded in his horn, flanked on one side by a pink alicorn and on the other side by Spike. “Who are you?!” Twilight shouted at him. “Don’t you recognize me?” The stallion frowned. “I’m your brother, Shining Armor!” “I don’t-” Twilight had been about to sternly proclaim “I don’t have a brother” but somehow something twitched in her memory. She… she couldn’t remember if she had a brother or not. The purple contrails of dark magic flowing from her eyes flickered. “That’s ridiculous.” “Is it? You don’t remember how you foiled the changeling plot at my wedding with Cadence?” “I… who’s Cadence?” The name seemed vaguely familiar to her. Doubt was not a feeling she liked, and it was starting to creep into her. The pink alicorn stepped forward, approaching Twilight, who called out, “Stay back!” The alicorn stopped… and dropped down into a crouch. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake,” – she started doing a strange dance – “Clap your hooves and-” “-Do a little shake.” Twilight’s mouth finished alongside her, though her body didn’t follow Cadence’s prompt. Instead, she took a step back as her magic trails flickered again. “Look, I don’t mean you any harm, but I’m not going to let you interfere!” “Twily,“ Shining Armor said, “Try and remember. Your friendship with them has saved Equestria several times, like banishing Nightmare Moon and Discord. Don’t you remember that?” “I…” Twilight frowned and closed her eyes, struggling at the gaps in her memory. She suddenly remembered herself and her five “friends” facing off against a black alicorn… and she remembered a feeling that she couldn’t quite recognize, yet it felt… good. A strange warmth in her heart which began to drive back the darkness. She shook her head. “They aren’t my friends!” “Yes they are, Twily. You care about each other more than anything else, you’d do anything for each other.” “Why should I believe you?” “Just turn around.” Twilight glanced behind her, and was surprised to see all five of her “friends” standing behind her in a half-circle… alert, but not aggressive. “What…” Twilight was once more at a loss for words as she faced them. “If you had the chance, why didn’t you attack me?” “And get knocked around again, sugarcube?” Applejack gave a small grin. “Fightin’ isn’t the answer.” “We don’t want to hurt you, Twilight.” Rarity said. “What we want is our friend back.” Rainbow Dash held her head. “And trying to knock sense into you wasn’t working.” Pinkie smiled, something she hadn’t done since she first walked into the hall. “Yeah! Sometimes sense just can’t be knocked! You have to ring the doorbell and wait for it to answer the door instead!” “What?” Was all Twilight had to say to that. “What we’re saying,” Fluttershy said, quietly, “Is that we want you back. We trust you, Twilight… enough to leave our fate in your hooves, because we know that, deep inside, we’re still your friends.” It took Twilight a few moments to process that. When it finally happened, she felt the warmth in her heart explode, driving away the darkness and soothing her, like she’d just sat next to a fire after being so cold she couldn’t even feel it. A tear appeared in her eye, and then she rushed into a group hug with her friends. “I’m… I’m so sorry!” Another tear appeared, and then another, washing away the green and the red as they flowed. “I… I didn’t realize… Sombra fooled me, wiping away all the good memories so that it seemed like you were just a bunch of fakes pretending to be friends with me.” “It’s all right, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said. “We forgive you!” Twilight felt a push from behind as Shining Armor, Cadence, and Spike joined the group hug. She smiled and said, "By the way, where were you three? I never thought to ask Sombra where Spike was, and I'd completely forgotten about my brother and sister-in-law..." Spike spoke up nervously, "Well... Sombra captured us, but apparently our friends have been forming a bit of a resistance amongst the crystal ponies. They snuck into the dungeons and freed us while you guys were fighting. Twilight smiled. “Thanks, all of you… I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t gotten through to me.” Cadence spoke up, “No point in dwelling on that. We still have a kingdom to save.” “Yes…” Twilight’s face darkened. “Sombra has to be dealt with and the Crystal Heart has to be recovered. I can tell you where the heart is, but I need to face Sombra myself.” “But Twilight-!” Rainbow started to say. “No buts. I know we’ve always done things together… and doing things by myself may have cost us the Crystal Empire… but you all don’t stand a chance against Sombra. But I can hold him off long enough for you to get the Crystal Heart working.” Shining Armor nodded gravely. “If you’re sure, Twily.” “I’m sure. I’d like to give him a piece of my mind...”