Twilight Sparkle was pacing, her mind a whirling confusion of thoughts. It seemed her brain wanted one thing, and her body wanted… something else entirely. Why? She’d never had these sorts of… feelings… before. She liked books and studying; things that were logical. Books weren’t like ponies; they were predictable, solid… they followed a formula, and no matter how many times she read one, it would end the same way. Books made sense. These feelings, these… these urges… made no sense whatsoever.
As she paced, back and forth, back and forth, her mind returned to the events that had left her in this turmoil of confusion…
When Princess Celestia had sent her to Ponyville to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, Twilight had been more worried about Nightmare Moon’s prophesied return than the Celebration itself. But as it turned out, she had no need to worry. The Princess had been right; it was just an old pony's tale. Nightmare Moon didn’t return.
Around noon the following day, there was a display by several local ponies showing off their talents. The huge red stallion she’d met at the farm performed feats of strength, a white filly with a light pink-and-purple mane sang the Equestria anthem, and the unicorn who’d tried to give Twilight a makeover modeled some of her dress designs.
Twilight ignored all this. Leaving Spike to watch the fashion show and drool over the white unicorn, she approached Princess Celestia sheepishly. When Twilight apologized for making such a big fuss over an old legend, the Princess appeared worried about something… but at that moment, something happened to tear Twilight’s attention away, and drive all thoughts of Nightmare Moon out of her mind.
The cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane, the one who’d cleared the clouds yesterday, began a display of acrobatic aerial stunts. As she soared, swooped, and dived, Twilight watched, utterly captivated. Seeing the pegasus’ lithe body flying through the air with infinite grace, something stirred within her. She began to feel… hot. Despite the pleasantly cool summer day, she was almost panting.
Clip-clop went her hooves on the floor, back and forth…
Feeling the appreciation of the crowd, the pegasus’ stunts became faster, more reckless. Suddenly, she careened out of control and rammed full-tilt into one of the support beams on the Town Hall. With a mighty cracking sound, the beam shuddered and fell… directly toward the spot where the Sun Princess stood.
Everypony gasped. The world seemed to slow down. Twilight heard herself calling out the Princess’ name, as if from a great distance.
Celestia saw the beam falling. She tried to duck out of the way... but too late. The beam made contact with her skull. Her eyes rolled back into her head, then closed. The Princess crumpled limply to the ground and lay there, unmoving.
“Celestia!” Twilight ran to her fallen mentor’s side. Oh, please be breathing please be breathing please…
A doctor pony rushed forward as well. He put a stethoscope to the Princess’ chest and listened. “She’s alive!” The entire town seemed to breath a sigh of relief. “But she’s unconscious. We need to get her to Ponyville General, now!”
Twilight paused in her directionless tread, once more feeling relief fill her. At least the Princess was alive. At least there was that.
But Twilight’s problems had been far from over...
As the comatose Princess was taken away, Twilight saw a flash of color out of the corner of her eye. Rainbow Dash hovered to one side, looking painfully guilty. Twilight saw red. “You!” She pointed an accusing hoof at the pegasus.
“It was an accident, honest!” Rainbow Dash said hastily. “I swear I didn’t mean—”
But Twilight cut her off. “This is all your fault!” Then, turning to several police ponies patrolling the crowd, “Arrest her!” They hesitated. “I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess’ prize pupil! I assume the duties of the Princess’ deputy in her absence! And I said arrest that pegasus!”
The police ponies moved toward Rainbow Dash. The pegasus tried to escape, but Twilight used her magic to tie a rope around her wing, restraining her. More ropes, glowing with purple magic, snaked around her legs, her torso, her neck. The pegasus bucked and strained against the ropes, trying to free herself, but to no avail.
Twilight levitated the restrained mare into an empty cart. “Take her away!”
The police ponies looked at each other. One of them stepped forward. “Um, Miss Twilight... meaning no disrespect, but... her actions were clearly accidental, and therefore not criminal. We can’t take her to jail because of an accident.”
Twilight ground her teeth. “‘Not criminal’? What about reckless endangerment? What if the Princess is really hurt? What if she doesn’t recover?!”
The police ponies conferred quietly. Then one, clearly designated as the spokespony by the others, announced, “We can’t take Rainbow Dash to jail, but we can temporarily incarcerate her in a residence until we decide what to do.”
A shy voice spoke up softly. “Um... she can stay at my place…” Everypony turned to see a pink-maned yellow pegasus looking anxiously at them.
“Very good, Miss Fluttershy.” The police pony nodded at her. Then, turning to Twilight, “Rainbow Dash will placed under house arrest at the home of this pegasus until further notice.”
“Fine.” Twilight huffed. She turned to the yellow pegasus. “But keep her under supervision at all times! She’s not allowed to leave, under any circumstances! Understand?”
“Um... y-yes…” the pegasus whispered anxiously, shying away from Twilight's fury.
And Rainbow Dash was carted off. The police ponies got the crowd to disperse, and Twilight returned to her temporary residence at the Ponyville library.
Twilight looked down and saw that she’d worn a path into the floor. She realized she’d been pacing for hours. It was nighttime again, and the moon was up. The library was lit only by a single candle, and by the silvery moonlight spilling in through the window.
What could she do? Who could she tell?
Spike? No, never! He was a baby dragon… despite his crush on the white mare with the purple mane, he could never understand what she was going through. These feelings, she understood instinctively, were very adult. They also felt somehow… wrong. They felt slimy, like a rotting apple.
Shining Armor? No, no… hadn’t she just got through thinking that these urges were wrong? She wouldn’t, she couldn’t, destroy her relationship with her BBBFF by telling him about them.
There was nopony else.
She’d never felt so alone.
Or… maybe she'd always felt so alone.
Twilight had never seen the point in having friends before. It had just seemed like a waste of time and energy. But now... now she could really use somepony to talk to, to confide in.
But wait… there was somepony else! The one pony she always turned to whenever things got rough!
That’s it! I’ll send a letter to the Princess at the hospital!
Filled with purpose at this new idea, she leapt up out of the trench she’d created, seized a quill and parchment, and began to write.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
You know I am a righteous mare,
Of my virtue I am justly proud.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
You know I always strive to share
My brilliance with the common, shallow crowd!”
There. So far, so good. Scratch scratch scratch went the quill.
“Then tell me, Celestia,
Why I see her once again;
Why her rosy gaze chills every bone!”
Twilight paused, an image leaping unbidden to her mind. The pegasus pony with the rainbow mane, leaping and twirling through the air. The sky-blue feathers ruffling in the breeze, the muscles moving fluidly under her sleek coat, the rose-colored eyes filled with the unbridled joy of flight, dancing with the wind, so high above, untouchable by mere earth ponies or unicorns, who were bound to the earth and the dirt.
Oh, to nuzzle those feathers… to press against that body… to look into those wild, untamed eyes and tame her with a kiss…
Twilight shook her head rapidly to clear it of these thoughts, and continued writing.
“I feel her, I see her;
The moonlight in her rainbow mane!
You’ve turned your back, and left me all alone…”
She looked out the window at the moon. It was hard to believe that only a day ago, she’d been so obsessed with Nightmare Moon’s supposed return. She’d been wrong. She’d failed. And now this had happened.
“In darkness!
Cold darkness!
The darkness of the Moon!
This mare is
So heartless!
I fear I’ll be lost soon…”
She leaned over the parchment, fervidly scribbling. She had to make Celestia understand that she wasn’t responsible for these slimy feelings; it was the horrible, horrible... situation!
“It’s not my fault!
I’m not to blame!
It was the pegasus, who thinks it’s all a game!
And I blame YOU
The most of all!
You who raised me, like your Sun, to watch me fall!
“Protect me, Celestia!
I crave this one and only boon:
Don’t let her send these shivers down my spine!
DESTROY my tormentor,
And banish her to the dark Moon!
Or else let her belong to me, all mine...”
There was a knock at the door. Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin, and whirled to face the intruder.
The door opened a crack, and Spike poked his head through it, looking nervous. “Uh, Twilight?”
“YES!?!” Twilight barked, her voice too high, her mane disheveled. She cleared her throat and smoothed her mane with a hoof, trying to sound calm, reasonable, not plagued by dark thoughts and unnatural feelings. “I mean, um… yes, Spike?”
He opened the door fully and stepped in, twisting his claws anxiously. “Um, so I just got back from Fluttershy's place, and..." he looked at the floor and trailed off.
"...And?"
"Well, it’s—it's Rainbow Dash. She kinda… escaped…”
“WHAT?!?”
Spike gulped. He’d never seen Twilight look so angry. He was really glad he hadn’t told her the truth; that Fluttershy, being the sympathetic pony she was, had let Dash go. “I’m sorry! I can’t find her anywhere! She’s gone!”
“But how? I...” Twilight stopped mid-sentence and forced herself to calm down. She glared at him. “Never mind! Get out.” He hesitated. “FIND HER!” she shrieked.
He scurried away, with a single worried backwards glance at her. The door closed behind him.
Twilight looked down at the parchment in front of her. It was covered in angry black blotches. She re-read a few of the scribbled words, then, suddenly, she crumpled the whole thing up with her magic and threw it against a bookshelf. The unsent scroll lay on the floor, silently accusing her with its mere presence.
She really was alone.
A new feeling came over her. Like a cold wave, it filled her, body and heart and soul. If she was alone, if she had nowhere to turn, then so be it. Let come what may; she’d have what she desired. And right now, what she desired was the mockingly beautiful pegasus.
She’d have her, or else.
Unbeknownst to Twilight, her coat was slowly darkening, from lilac to violet to black. Her mane became longer, flowing, dotted with pinpoints of light like stars. Her pupils narrowed to cat-like slits. She grew taller and taller…
The Nightmare had returned, after all.
This new, dark Twilight muttered grimly to herself, “I’ll find her… I’ll find her if I have to destroy ALL OF PONYVILLE!!!” She laughed, a high, staccato sound of pure madness.
“This darkness!
Cold darkness!
This darkness all consumes!
Fine then, I’LL
Be heartless!
Choose ME or choose your DOOM!”
Suddenly, a dying ember of the old Twilight emerged. The Twilight who was her parents’ pride and joy, Shining Armor’s sweet little sister, Princess Celestia’s most faithful student. Her next words were soft and forlorn, suddenly sounding like a frightened foal lost on a dark night…
“…Celestia, forgive her…”
A long, painful pause.
“…Celestia, forgive me…”
A whispered plea.
Then it was swallowed up once again.
The Nightmare rose into the air on a cloud of dark magic and looked out the window towards the sleeping Ponyville. Somewhere, out there in the night, was the crafty pegasus. Her pegasus. And she’d claim what was rightfully hers.
She screamed her final words out as a declaration to the cold and the dark.
“But she’ll choose ME or choose…
her…
DOOOOM!!!”
~FIN~