//------------------------------// // Black And Silver // Story: The Unchosen One // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// The Unchosen One Chapter 10: Black and Silver by MagnetBolt “Kneel before me!” Nightmare Twilight demanded, baring her fangs. “I have been kind enough not to kill you ponies where you stand, and this is your last chance before I am forced to take action. Consider it a gesture of...” She rolled her slitted eyes. “Friendship.” “How generous,” Rarity said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Come ta' yer senses, Twi! You know this ain't right!”Applejack looked up at her from where the group stood in the middle of the solarium, the round room around them like they stood in the center of a stadium. “No, this is the first time it's been right,” Twilight replied, her mane flowing behind her as she stalked, circling the group of her former friends. “You've seen the mess Celestia has made of Equestria. It's all completely out of order. Monsters lurk at our borders. Ancient evils show up every week to plague us because she can't get rid of them for good.” “But Twilight, if there was a better way, Celestia would have done it already...” Fluttershy offered. Twilight shot her a glare. The pegasus hid behind Rainbow Dash. “I really did want you to join me. It would have made things so much easier.” Twilight sighed. “It could have been wonderful. A new Equestria built on our efforts. But if I have to build it on a foundation of your corpses, so be it.” A magical aura built up on her horn, sparks twinkling at the tip, bursting like tiny novas with a sound like chimes. A beam of black and red magic scythed down towards the group. Rarity threw up a shield, and the magic simply shattered as Twilight's beam struck it, the spell itself breaking apart. Fluttershy screamed. Pinkie Pie had the most useful reaction, picking up Trixie and throwing her into the path of the beam, the attack rebounding as her coat flashed pure white and silver. The beam struck Twilight's face, and the Nightmare screamed in surprise. “You little-!” She roared, her coat smoking where the beam had hit it, a black cloud steaming up slowly like some kind of thick smoke, her eye visible only as a glow from within the gloom. Trixie landed, head spinning. She shook her head to try and clear her dizziness and glared at Pinkie Pie. “Trixie would appreciate a little warning next time before you throw her into the path of a death beam!” “Sorry!” Pinkie said, smiling. “She ain't gonna listen to reason,” Applejack said. “Let's um... darnit. Twilight knows all our usual plans.” “We'll just have to go faster than she can plan!” Dash blasted towards Twilight in a rainbow-trailing blur. Just before Dash hit her, Twilight vanished, leaving no time for the pegasus to stop. She Rainbow Crashed into the wall, barely slowing down enough to avoid being seriously hurt. “You forget that I have an advantage none of our enemies ever had,” Twilight said, reappearing behind them. “I know all of you. I've seen you at your best and at your worst.” She grinned madly. “Do you remember when Discord turned all of you against me?” “Oh! I do!” Pinkie Pie raised her hand, volunteering. “He made all of us act really mean!” “Thank you, Pinkie.” Twilight laughed. “Ever since then, I realized that you five were among the greatest threats to Equestria. If an enemy could turn you against me once, what if it happened again? So I spent some time thinking about how to handle it next time that it came up.” She vanished in a bubble of light, teleporting to their side. “For a while I didn't think I'd actually need to use my plans, but it just goes to show you that foresight is its own reward!” “I don't like th' sound of that,” Applejack muttered. Trixie coughed. “Excuse me, but Trixie wants to point out that there are six of us.” “You didn't even have to count on your hooves for that.” Twilight smirked. “But that's okay. I didn't think I'd need a plan to defeat somepony as pathetic as you. I'll just have to improvise.” “Wonderful,” Rarity said. “Please continue to bait her, Trixie. It's good that you're making her too angry to even begin to listen to reason.” “It's what Trixie does best,” Dash rolled her eyes. “Trixie is- sorry.” Trixie looked down. “Don't worry, guys. She already threw her giant death spell at us. She's about as angry as it gets!” Pinkie Pie smiled. “Of course the biggest threat is Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said. “If things go badly, she's the only one of you who can go for help, since Fluttershy is too timid to do anything useful, Rarity can't learn a spell more complicated than making a torch, and you two, well...” she snickered and looked at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “It's not like two earth ponies can outrun me.” “Oh no,” Dash said, as Twilight turned her gaze on the pegasus. Dash tried to fly away, still dizzy. Twilight's horn glowed, and the rubble below Dash suddenly fell up, and she screamed and lost control, slamming into the roof of the planetarium a few moments before the debris crashed down around and onto her. “A simple reverse gravity spell focused on her,” Twilight explained. “Of course, none of you even know how to begin casting a spell like that. Rarity probably didn't even pass magic kindergarten and Trixie is just a liar and a cheat!” Twilight growled, red sparks leaking from her visible eye. “Dash!” Applejack yelled, galloping for her. “Whoops, there goes the spell,” Twilight said, letting it go. The debris and dust crashed back down in a cloud of dust, Dash's limp form lying prone on top of the mess. Applejack pulled Dash away, the pegasus badly shaken up. “Was that your best shot?” Dash asked, blood tricking from where she'd bitten her lip. Twilight smiled and shook her head. “No.” Twilight's horn lit up, and the shadows around Dash's feet surged around her, knocking Applejack away. Dash screamed. When the shadows fell away, Dash stumbled away, something obviously wrong. She tripped over a rock and fell on her face. “I can't see!” She screamed. Her eyes were stark black, as if the shadows were clinging to them. “A modified blindness spell,” Twilight explained. “It makes her almost entirely useless. Especially with her wing broken like that.” “My wing isn't-” Dash screamed again as an aura of red magic surrounded her wing and twisted, breaking one of the long bones. She collapsed in pain. “Sorry, I sometimes forget just how good I am at predicting things. It's like I can see the future! Don't worry, that joke will be a real killer later once you're able to stand up.” Twilight looked at the rest of the ponies. “So, who wants to go next!” “Everypony rush her at once!” Applejack said. “We can't let her focus on one of us at a time!” The five ran for the Nightmare, leaving Rainbow Dash behind. Just as they got close enough to do anything, Twilight vanished again in a teleport spell. “Trixie is starting to really hate that- where's Rarity?!” The white unicorn had vanished along with Twilight. They looked around in a panic. “See, this is why you have to be careful when you teleport,” Twilight said. The ponies turned to look, the alicorn having gone behind them again. Rarity was bent over backwards, her mane and tail fused into the stone of the floor. “Accidents can happen! She's just lucky I was feeling... generous today. I could have used her legs instead of just her hair.” Twilight's eyes glowed, and black crystals covered Rarity's horn, cutting off any chance she'd be able to cast a spell to free herself. “My, this is really disappointing,” Twilight said, with a sigh, as she stepped away from Rarity. “Two of you down already. I didn't think you'd be this useless, but I suppose without my leadership I should have expected it. How about, to make things more fun, I tell you the order I'm going to hurt the rest of you in?” She grinned. “It don't matter!” Applejack said, snorting. “We're gonna fight until the end! We ain't scared of your magic!” “I'm scared of her magic,” Fluttershy whispered. “Fluttershy is the smartest one of you. Because of that, I think I'll start with Pinkie Pie. Then Applejack. Then Fluttershy. I'm going to save Trixie for last, so we can have another one of those magic duels she's so fond of. Did you hear? She actually won one a little while ago! Of course it was against some no-name witch. Barely worthy of even being called a unicorn, and certainly not the kind of person who deserved to use this, the Element of Dominance.” Twilight laughed. “That's just a cheap knockoff Luna made of the real elements!” Trixie shouted. She didn't actually know anything about the Elements of Harmony, except what little she'd read about in the papers. But she knew how to keep a villain talking. “It's far more than that,” Twilight said. Behind her, Pinkie Pie was sneaking around towards Rarity, producing a large pair of scissors. “It's the most powerful magical artifact left in Equestria. At least until I open the Black Archive. Then I can have some real fun!” “Look at what it's done to you! You aren't in control!” “I AM control!” Twilight shouted. “I am going to reshape Equestria to a form that is pleasing to me! You should thank me! I'm your friend and I am trying to do what's best for you!” “Breaking Dash's wing is what's best for her?!” Applejack demanded. Pinkie Pie was getting closer. She tried to quietly snip Rarity's hair, the unicorn's mane pulled taut and obviously painful. “It's about what's best for her in the long run. A world without Discord or changelings or monsters lurking in the woods. That's what's best for everypony.” Twilight sighed. “Now where was I? I think I said I'd deal with Pinkie Pie next.” Twilight turned to where Pinkie was standing with the scissors, Rarity's mane halfway cut. The princess spread her wings and jumped next to her, landing lightly. “Pinkie's greatest weakness was always herself,” Twilight said. “All it has ever taken is the smallest amount of self-doubt and she's turned into a useless wreck. As you'd expect from a pony who can't do anything except annoy ponies with her antics.” Pinkie held up her scissors for a moment as if to threaten the Nightmare. They twisted and crumpled like they were paper in a thunderstorm, the metal shrieking. Pinkie let go of them, and they curled into a ball as they fell to the floor heavily. Twilight stepped in quickly, touching her horn to Pinkie's forehead. Pinkie gasped, her hair going limp as she curled up on herself in misery, retreating into a ball like the scissors she'd dropped. Twilight kicked her, rolling her like a toy into the wall. Pinkie didn't respond. “See? All it takes is a little application of the memory spell. Really, it's quite clever and humane. Not a mark on her and she's completely disabled.” “W-what did you do to her?” Trixie asked, taken aback, eyes wide. “She just remembered that time she spent a thousand years alone on the moon. A millennium of solitary confinement. That would be hard on anypony. But on somepony like Pinkie Pie, who needs constant validation? I bet she went completely catatonic somewhere around the first decade.” “She never spent a thousand years on no moon!” Applejack yelled. “No, but I did,” Twilight said, gritting her teeth. “You can't imagine what it was like. I was so close to victory, and then she stole it away from me! All because of the Elements of Harmony.” She looked up with a mad grin. “But they're gone now. You're nothing special. You're just a few ponies who happen to know each other.” “She really isn't Twilight,” Trixie whispered. “She don't just look like Nightmare Moon, she is Nightmare Moon!” Applejack replied. “Don't be stupid!” Twilight yelled, stomping her hoof. “I'm nothing like that pathetic excuse for a princess! Twilight- I – am far stronger than Luna ever was! And like this, as a Nightmare, I have the power to make all of my dreams come true.” “Twilight wasn't banished to the moon!” Applejack yelled. “Twi if you're in there somewhere you gotta fight! That thing possessin' you is gonna get the rest of us killed if you don't dig yer heels in and stop it!” “Stop trying to confuse me!” Twilight snapped. “This is just a form I'm taking, using the part of Nightmare Moon she left in the Element of Dominance! Her memories are just a side effect, but they've been useful, too. They've shown me how to find the Black Archive, they've given me whispers about what's inside it.” “They're also driving you insane!” Trixie snapped. “Twilight wouldn't hurt her friends like this no matter what! Especially not for- for some trinkets!” “Please. You barely know me. You think you know what I'm like because you met me a few times and we went on one little adventure together? I can't believe I wanted to spend time with you. It goes to show you how naïve I was just a short time ago.” “I hope you have some kind of idea, Trixie,” Applejack whispered. “If Trixie had an idea she would have used it already!” Trixie said. “I don't think I can do anything without hurting her.” “Then hurt her and apologize later!” Applejack shouted. A wave of magical energy crashed between them as the earth pony dodged away. Trixie winced as the magic fell apart around her. “Trixie regrets having to do this... but face my full power!” She shouted, throwing a lightning bolt at Twilight. The alicorn swatted it out of the air with a wing, not even having to use magic to deflect it. Trixie felt sweat dripping from her brow. Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Your full power? Really? I mean here I am only using about a tenth of my strength and you're going all-out and can't even touch me.” “A tenth?!” Trixie asked, in disbelief. “About. I mean it's not like I can calculate it exactly.” Twilight tilted her head. “No, that's not true. I could work it out. It's just not worth the trouble. The point is that you aren't even worth my time. Not that you ever were.” Twilight sighed. “That said, I think it's about time I got rid of Applejack.” “Oh haystacks,” Applejack said, eyes going wide. She backed up as Twilight's horn started to glow, but before she spotted the danger it was already on her, her lasso wrapping around her neck and dragging her into the air like a noose. The pony kicked as it started to tighten, fighting to try and get free. Trixie jumped for her, but only succeeded in being dragged up as well, her weight making things worse. She let go and glanced at Twilight. No use in trying to ask the Nightmare to have mercy. “Hang on!” Trixie yelled. “This... ain't no time... for puns!” Applejack gasped, fighting for each breath. Trixie narrowed her eyes and carefully aimed a ray of flame at the rope, burning it. Before Applejack fell far, Twilight got a grip on the remaining rope, pulling it even tighter. Trixie refocused her efforts, the ray getting closer to Applejack. The orange pony looked at the encroaching fire in fear as it got closer and then finally touched her neck, the noose going up in blue flames and burning to cinders. Applejack fell to the floor, panting and touching her neck. “Next time watch yer aim...” Applejack said, her voice rough. There was a ring around her neck where the fire had burned her coat almost down to the skin. “Nicely done,” Twilight commented. “Next, how about I-” “How about you shut your snout!” Rainbow Dash yelled, connecting with Twilight's face with a flying kick. Dash landed awkwardly, fluttering her good wing, the other sticking out at an awkward angle. “You're talking so much I can find you without even having to use my eyes!” “You little-” Twilight turned on her. Before she could do anything else to the wounded pegasus, Trixie was on her, colliding with her head and grabbing onto her horn. “Nice throw!” Trixie yelled back to Applejack. The farmer smiled and nodded. Trixie held on for dear life as Twilight started tossing her head, trying to get the unicorn away from her horn. “Get off of me!” Nightmare Twilight roared. She launched a wave of force, but with Trixie right there on her horn all it did was reflect right back at her, slamming her back and into a wall. Trixie let go, rolling to the floor, armor clanking on the stone. “Grab the amulet while she's stunned!” Trixie yelled. Fluttershy flew past her, grabbing for the Element of Dominance. Her hooves shook as she felt around the elaborate metal necklace. “T-there's no clasp!” Fluttershy said, terrified. Twilight opened her eyes, crimson fire burning in them as she looked at the yellow pegasus touching her Element. “That isn't for you!” Twilight shouted, flinging Fluttershy away with a kick as she stood up from where the backlash of her attack had put her. “No wonder our enemies always had such a tough time. You girls are incredibly annoying!” Fluttershy squeaked as she landed. Twilight looked at the ponies, then charged up another attack, a wave of energy washing out of her in a wave, pushing the ponies back, even Trixie being knocked away by the force against her armor. “No more Miss Nice Princess. I was hoping when this was over we could still find a way to be friends, but I guess I'll just have to make new friends.” Her eyes lit up with glee. “I'll be easy! People will fight each other to the DEATH just to be friends with me! Who wouldn't want to be best friends with Equestira's new GOD?!” “Trixie, I think ya better get ready to jump in front of another death ray,” Applejack said, looking at Twilight. The corrupted alicorn's mane was starting to glow around the edges. “No, this is something-” Before Trixie could finish, Twilight vanished in a streak of magenta light, reappearing right in front of Trixie, looking down at her with the same cold eyes as she'd had in the Smooze nightmares. Trixie stumbled over her words, the fear from that dream coming back in a wave. Twilight turned and bucked Trixie completely across the room. Trixie smashed into the stone wall, shattering a mosaic of the southern sky. If not for the armor she was wearing, her ribs would have shattered from the force. Even so, she felt something twist inside her, leaving her wincing with pain in every breath. “This is the kind of power I could have been using if I wasn't so afraid of hurting other ponies. All of you know how much I've been holding back. When this pathetic cheat showed up in Ponyville I didn't even want to show her up because I was afraid of displaying my might.” Twilight vanished in a burst of magic and appeared behind Fluttershy. The pegasus squeaked with surprise as she was suddenly enveloped in a sphere of energy and punted across the room, careening into the already-injured Rainbow Dash like a pinball. “This is ridiculous,” Trixie coughed, spitting up blood. “How are we supposed to beat her?” “Discord was even stronger and we still won!” Applejack said. Twilight laughed. “He was stupid and you had the Elements of Harmony. Now I'm the only one with an Element!” She disappeared, getting behind Applejack. Trixie gasped, trying to warn her. Applejack saw the look in her eyes and responded instinctively, with her most well-practiced move, meeting Twilight's kick with one of her own. She wasn't nearly as strong as the alicorn, but it was enough to force the princess to stumble back a step. Applejack winced as one of her hooves cracked from the force. “We didn't come here to lose,” Rarity said. Pinkie Pie was pressed up against her side for support, shivering, her mane still flat and limp. Rarity's tail and hair were cropped roughly, cut by shaking hooves to free her from the floor. “How did you-?!” Nightmare Twilight demanded. Pinkie Pie looked up at her, traumatized but unbroken. “B-because I got her free. N-no matter what you do to me, I won't let you hurt my friends, o-or hurt yourself.” “That's impossible! The memory of a thousand years on the moon should have shattered your mind into powder! You shouldn't even remember how to speak!” “I h-have something Luna didn't,” Pinkie Pie said, smiling weakly. “I-I have all of my friends. When N-Nightmare Moon was sent away it was because s-she was already b-being an assbutt! But I had my friends to come back to. A-and you were all in trouble. Especially you, Twilight.” “Please watch your language, dear,” Rarity noted quietly. “S-sorry,” Pinkie Pie whispered. “I'm j-just a little upset.” “The real Twilight wouldn't do all this!” Dash said, trying to stand up. Fluttershy helped her get her hooves under her. “And I know she's still in there somewhere. We rescued Luna from you and we're gonna do the same for our friend!” “That's right,” Fluttershy agreed. “You're a big meany pretending to be Twilight. She'd never try and hurt us and she'd especially never do what you're doing to Princess Celestia.” “We ain't gonna quit,” Applejack said, limping forwards. “So y'all can either give it up now or we can keep doin' this until the five of us-” “Six of us!” Trixie put in, offended. “Until the six of us wear you down enough that y'all have to give up.” Applejack finished, without missing a beat. “Sorry there, Trix. Still gettin' used to you bein' here.” “No! This is not how this is going to happen!” Twilight screamed, thunder crashing from above. “This isn't something where you're just going to use friendship and determination to win! I can't just be brushed off like that! You are going to kneel before me and you will BEG me for mercy and ADMIT that I was right all along!” “It's not going to happen,” Trixie said. “The Great and Powerful Trixie bows to no mare.” “You know what, let's see about that.” Twilight narrowed her eyes, the room growing darker as the amulet around her neck started glowing, like light was being sucked into the Element of Dominance. A chill washed through the air as the temperature dropped. “I've just been using this Element to enhance my power. I think it's time I used it for what it was really created for.” “Bring it on!” Dash shouted. “Trixie would prefer if she did not bring it on,” Trixie put in. “Now you... will... KNEEL!” There was a flash of darkness, light being shadow and shadow becoming as bright as daylight. Trixie could hear a screaming in her head, like windigos screeching across her soul. Her coat shone black and silver in the witchlight of the Element, waves of magic rolling across her, only barely touching her mind. Even that light touch was enough to make her shudder, like having her will crushed in a vice. One by one, all six ponies facing the Nightmare fell to their knees, eyes glowing with magenta light. Twilight sighed. “I told you when we started this little chapter to bend knee before your better. You could have avoided a lot of pain and trouble by just doing it at the start.” She composed herself and looked up through the hole in the roof to the sky up above. Luna was weakening. “Trixie has never been good at avoiding trouble...” The unicorn said, standing up shakily. Twilight froze in place, the grin on her face vanishing. “She prefers to cause it herself.” “Oh yes. You're very good at that,” Twilight noted, turning to glare at the mare. “I should have known that little curse you're under would protect you from the Element's effects. You might want to consider kneeling again, Trixie. If it's easier to kill you than control you, I'll do the former.” “Trixie isn't easy to kill either, in case you haven't noticed,” She posed. “Trixie just needed that short rest to...” she hesitated. “...to regain her strength! Yes! Now she is at full power. You should consider yourself defeated already.” “I'm just...” Twilight sighed, then laughed. “So that's what it's going to come down to? A magical duel, between the two of us?” “Trixie has almost a fifty-percent win ratio, and she's on the side of justice this time, so she can't possibly lose. Though if you'd prefer we can try something else like... playing Cloud Chess or Monopony.” “I'm sure you'd love that. I wouldn't have to kill you and you'd be able to waste plenty of time while you tried to work out a plan. But it isn't going to work this time. I don't even have to do anything. While we've all been having our little tussle I've been hard at work creating a celestial conjunction.” “Trixie did notice that it was darker than usual.” “It's more than just darker. It's time,” Twilight said, looking up. Visible through the annulus at the top of the planetarium, the moon and the sun met in the sky. A keening sound tore through the sky, black beams of darkness striking out of the total eclipse in a terrible reversal of sunlight. A column of blackness struck down into the center of the room, the floor brightening as previously-invisible sigils of twisted, ancient magic revealed themselves in this new light. The runes flared with a dark rainbow of colors, infrared, ultraviolet, nameless colors that only magic could make visible. The light twisted, space itself distorting, until it rose up into the air like some kind of reverse shadow cast by the runes on the floor, twisting in the air into an arch of light. It stood there, impossibly, before a crack of light broke down the middle, like invisible doors opening in midair, swinging wide in the dark omen of the eclipse. Nightmare Twilight laughed, voice as cold as the icy wind blowing out of that crack in the world. “The Black Archive is open!”