//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Path of Damnation // by Lucidenn //------------------------------// Sparkle Sparkle little star, Now you turn our world to char, Up above the world so high, Like a Princess in the sky. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. When the blazing sun is gone, When she nothing shines upon, Then you show your magic might, Sparkle, Sparkle, what a fright. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. Evil breeding in the dark, Equis burns with just a spark, Ponies have nowhere to go, Cursing Twilight Sparkle so. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. In Black Castle you shall keep, And our nightmares you shall reap, All around us ponies die, Sun and Moon fall from the sky. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. Circling just like a shark, Murder Hope inside the dark. Friends and family you do scar, Sparkle, Sparkle, little star. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. Sparkle Sparkle little star, Now you turn our world to char, Up above the world so high, Like a Princess in the sky. Sparkle, Sparkle, little star, Now you turn our world to char. **** "Welcome Princess, to the Shadow Realm." That would have to be the last thing Twilight would have guessed this place to be. She was surrounded by an enormous forest absolutely teeming with life. She could hear birds chirping in the air and squirrels darting across the branches. The ferns at her feet rustled with the movements of small mammals, and somewhere nearby she thought she could hear a river babbling away. The light shining through the canopy of each tree was gentle and somehow distorted, as if there was some large mass of water overhead that the sun was shining through. "Not quite what you expected, is it?" Twilight slowly shook her head no, it was nothing like she would have imagined a place called the Shadow Realm to be. "The Shadow Realm molds itself to reflect the mind of whoever enters it. Since I've already been here several times, it's focusing all of its attention on you. What you see around you is the reflection of the darkness within your very soul." Twilight realized now then why this place seemed so strange yet so familiar. She'd seen it before. With a glance to the sky she searched as hard as she could, until she finally caught a glimmer through the tree branches. Water, she was in the forest on the ocean floor of her mind, but it looked nothing like how she'd seen it from above. "How can my inner darkness look so....?" "Beautiful? Why shouldn't it? Those who are evil are simply doing what they believe to be right. It doesn't see itself as evil after all, that's just the word others describe it by." "You brought me here to face my inner darkness you said, but now that I'm looking at it, how am I supposed to do that?" "Look behind you for that answer" Where there had been a simple clearing in the woods now stood a rocky cave entrance, sticking out of the ground at a 35 degree angle. In the darkness of the tunnel, a faint light could be seen at the very end of it. Sombra strode up next to Twilight and gave her a comforting nuzzle. "You don't have to do this you know, you can still go back to your friends and your home. It's not too late, not until you step into that cave." The concern in his words and in his eyes melted Twilight a little, and combined with his gentle touch helped replace her apprehension with happiness. She was making the right decision, she just knew it. "It's alright Sombra, I know that together we can..." "I will not be able to assist you love, only you can pass over the cave's threshold. Only you can meet whatever waits you down there. Be very careful Twilight, you can still die in this place, and there is no way of knowing what you might come up against. I can only guarantee that when you come back up you won't be the internally divided princess anymore. The choices you make beneath, will define you for the rest of your life." "I can do this, I know I can, and I think I already knew that I wouldn't come out of this unchanged. Just...promise me one thing? That you won't..." "I already love you for everything you are Princess. Whichever side of you wins the battle below, I could never love you any less." Twilight smiled, blushing a little but otherwise glowing with happiness. That was all that she needed to hear, and more. With a deep breath she smiled. She was ready, despite the cheeky voice in her mind that commented on the number of life-changing events happening to her beneath the ground recently. "I'll be back up soon, try not to wonder off." She said with a smirk. "I have nowhere to go if not with you my love." His unexpected romanticism caused her face to flush with blood once more, and after a long, passionate parting kiss (she had originally intended it to be a quick peck on the cheek, but her body had other had other ideas that gave it a mind of its own) Twilight took her first steps beneath the ground. On and on the tunnel stretched, the light at the end never growing any nearer, and the tunnel around her never changing. For all she knew she could have been walking in place for 5 minutes, 10, an hour, a week. Time had lost all meaning except for the rhythmic clopping of her hooves upon stone. After an eternity, or perhaps less than a day, she finally reached a wall of brilliant light. Without missing a beat Twilight strode calmly through to the other side, blinking furiously to adjust to the change in illumination. What she saw once again reminded her about the foolish nature of preconceptions. She was back at her home, the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville. Just behind her was her front door, now closed. She half expected to find Spike engulfed in one of his favorite comic books. Instead in the middle of the room was a rather large book fort, occupied by one decidedly smug Twilight Sparkle. "Ah Twilight! We're just on time, quickly now into the fort, before the trolls and weedlesnips capture us for their nefarious purposes!" Thoroughly bewildered, Twilight sat down midst the heavy fortification with Twilight, who seemed to be preoccupied with scanning the room for signs of danger and threateningly wielding a filly's picture book. Catching the looking Twilight was giving her, she smiled winningly, "It's the best weapon in existence! Remember how the pen is mightier than the sword? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so that means this picture book is a weapon of mass destruction!" "Who are you?" Twilight looked at her in surprise, as if it should have been obvious. "We're Twilight Sparkle of course! That makes you the goody-four-shoes, and me the far less socially acceptable." Still maintaining the grin she hefted the book mightily over the wall and was rewarded by a bloodcurdling scream silenced by an explosion like dynamite. With a wet splat the upper half of a leg landed within the fort. "Drat, a femur. I've got quite a lot of those; trying to collect a full set." A magical flash later and the body part was gone, teleported away to who knew where. "That can't be true, I would never take pleasure in...", Twilight motioned to the wet bloodstain on the floor, "whatever it is that you're doing." "Oh but you do Twilight. We're more powerful than anypony out there, and deep down you love the feeling of exerting that power over others." Looking for a way to fault her argument, Twilight's eyes lit up. "Not Sombra, we, I mean I'm not more powerful then him or the other princesses." "Hmmm yes, Sombra is certainly our equal. We caught a real dreamboat didn't we?" Twilight was most uncomfortable with the way Twilight's eyes gleamed with lusty satisfaction, so she quickly changed the topic. Other self or not, she absolutely did not want to see or hear that about her Sombra from anypony other than herself. "So, what happens next then, what are we supposed to do?" "Now, we talk, fight, or do whatever works. One way or another, we're both trapped in this room until we are resolved. We're here because we are divided Twilight, and neither of us is ever going to leave this room again. Instead we'll finally be whole, complete, one with our self. It's up to us now to determine the truth of who it is we really want to be." Hefting another picture book into the seemingly empty room, Twilight was rewarded with another scream and bloody body part. "Oooooh, a scapula! Those are rare!" **** Sombra's ears perked up at the sound of hoof-steps getting closer. From the depths of the cave entrance a regal purple form began to emerge. Her steps were slow and deliberate, exuding an air of confidence that said she walked the earth as if she owned it. Her eyes glowed green through the darkness, the purple trails of power clearly visible from the corners. Without a word she strode slowly past Sombra, her body but a breath away from his. As she passed by she flicked her tail up and ran it under his chin, and then she had finished circling him, whispering seductively in his left ear. "I have returned, my King." So, after everything they'd been through together...having shared his thoughts, his memories, his teachings...after Twilight had finally understood both paths for the first time in her life, she had come to her decision. Pride and desire filled his eyes as he responded to his magnificent alicorn. "Welcome back, my Queen."