//------------------------------//
// What is this place? 
// Story: A New Reality 
// by ThecynicalGingerpony 
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	Twilight groaned as she sat up. She felt a bed underneath her. "Thank Celestia. Just a dream." Or so she thought before she opened her eyes.
She was in a beautiful room made of dark colors and silver. The bed she was in was huge and very soft with purple satin sheets. The room seemed fit for royalty. At first, she thought it could belong to Princess Luna, but where there was supposed to be shades of blue and moons there was purples and stars.
The she noticed she was also wearing a long black night gown with silver stars.
"What the hay is this?"
Her body froze with a jolt as she heard the door open. The pony's eyes widened as she looked at the mare that walked in.
The unicorn had a coat that looked like it used to be pure white, but she looked like she had had some hard times so it was a light gray now. Her purple mane was pulled back into a bun with several pins, but you could tell where some curls were trying to escape. Her cutiemark was a brush with a gem in the middle. The bright blue eyes gave away who it was. 
"Rarity..."
"Good morning, Milady. It is time to get ready." Rarity helped her get up and took her over to a big vanity mirror. 
Twilight was severely confused as to everything that was going on. "What are you doing?" She said as she was sat down on a stool.
She noticed a flinch of fright in Rarity's eyes through the mirror. "Getting you ready for your day, Milady. It is my job." She used her magic to pick up a brush and start to brush Twilight mane, which Twilight noticed was now really long. 
"Job? What do you mean?" And what the hay was with the Milady stuff?!
"Your beautician, ma'am. Anything for my queen"
Twilight stiffened. The queen? Wait,what?! Her eyes went to the reflection of Rarity's cutiemark. It was just weird to not see her gems on her flank. Did the rainboom not happening seriously change everything?
She decided to get the information she needed, but she would have to play along. She sat up straight and turned her confused look on her face to one of indifference.
"Tell me. How did you get that cutiemark of your's?"
A faint smile appeared on her who-she-still-saw-as-a-friend's face. "Surely you don't want to hear that old story."
"I told you to tell me, didn't I?" Twilight kind of felt bad talking to her like this, but she needed to.
"In truth, I never wanted to be a mane dresser. I wanted to be a designer. But I lost my inspiration as a young filly. I remember how my horn took me to this huge rock, I knew it wanted to tell me something but I was never able to figure it out. I was one of the last ones in my class to get my cutiemark too.
"I realized how much I loved to play with my little sister's hair. She had the prettiest curls. You might of liked her. She had a wonderful singing voice and she didn't even realize it herself."
Twilight found something in the unicorn's speech that bugged her. "You keep saying had." She felt a chill in her spine. She noticed her friend's eyes go sad and distant as she started to braid Twilight's mane.
"She...she died 3 years ago. The first time you came to take over Ponyville. One of the soldiers set our home on fire. I had been out at the time, grocery shopping. I was going to make her favorite dinner that night."
Twilight felt her blood become like ice in her skin. Sweetie Bell was gone. She had a sick feeling in her throat at the thought of it all. "E-Excuse me!" She ran quickly through one of the doors, luckily it was the restroom. She heard Rarity call after her before leaving herself.
After she finished throwing up, she stared at herself in the mirror. "She said that I...I..." The sick sensation came back as she thought about it. Came to take over Ponyville?! What was she here?
She jumped when there was a knock on the door and a male voice asked if she was okay. "O-one moment." She splashed her face with some cold water before walking out. "Yes-"
She found herself cut-off and stunned by the stallion in front of her. The emerald green eyes that haunted her stared through her.