Twilight sat with her back turned to the door. The alicorn stared out a window.
Her friends entered along with Cadence. Twilight made no intention she heard them. The ponies filed in the sunroom and sat down in the sofas and chairs around Twilight. She glanced away from the window to briefly figure out who had just come in, and then looked down at the floor.
Applejack cut straight to the point. “Twilight, why were ya using dark magic? How do you even know what it is?”
Twilight refused to acknowledge her.
The earth pony began to repeat her question until Twilight interrupted her. “A Princess of Magic has to know all types, doesn’t she?”
“She can know what it is but she doesn’t have to know how to cast it!” Applejack retorted.
“You shouldn’t be casting dark magic spells,” Fluttershy said softly. “It’s corrupting.”
“I know it is.” Twilight looked out the window again. “But I’m fine. It’s not working on me.”
“Darling,” Rarity began, “that’s because you haven’t performed enough dark magic for it to corrupt your appearances. But it starts with the heart.”
“Yeah, it must, because you weren’t reasonable at all, Twilight!” Rainbow said angrily. “You didn’t care at all about us and you had all these stupid, stupid rules and no pony could persuade you otherwise! All you wanted was control!”
“I didn’t care about you?” Twilight looked Rainbow in the eye. “Do you even know how distraught I was when I thought you died?! You are the one who doesn’t care, just tearing me apart by pretending you’re dead and then betraying me by bringing her here!” Twilight pointed a hoof at Cadence.
“Twilight, Rainbow!” Fluttershy said firmly. “Let’s discuss this without yelling and getting riled up.”
“All we want to know is why you learned dark magic,” Applejack said.
“Fine, fine, I’ll tell you!” Twilight snapped. “It was the night after it happened. I wandered into the forbidden section of the Canterlot Library and I read about dark magic because—I was still hurting and my entire world had just been shattered! Blame her, not me!”
Cadence rose from her seat, angry. “We all know Princess Celestia killed herself because she was so tired of living and ruling and that nice pony we all knew was just a fake! We know she didn’t want to go on anymore and was depressed! We all were there!”
“But Twilight,” Cadence continued, “you weren’t the only one hurting.”
“I was her protégé!” Twilight shouted. “I was closer to her than any other pony who still is around today!”
“And I was her niece! She raised me since I ascended to an alicorn and treated me like a daughter. You can’t use Princess Celestia’s death as an excuse for the way you acted.” Cadence said.
“But there’s one thing you are forgetting,” Twilight said in an eerie quiet voice. “You weren’t there in the room when she killed herself. You didn’t have to watch her as she told you the pony you knew and admired and looked up to was a fake! I had to listen to her final words, every single reason why she was going to do it!”
“And I—,” Twilight gasped shakily as tears ran down her cheeks. “did absolutely nothing to stop her. NOTHING!”
With that, the alicorn galloped out of the room.
The ponies left behind sat in a stunned silence.
A couple days later, Rainbow Dash opened the door to one of the identical guest bedrooms in Canterlot Castle. Twilight sat inside her temporary room, lying on the bed and staring off into space. She was clearly in deep thought. When she heard the door, Twilight turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash.
“Hey Twilight,” Rainbow said. Twilight, as had been the usual for her now, didn’t respond.
“Uh…Twilight…can you tell me the real reason Princess Luna died?” Rainbow asked awkwardly. “You’re not a queen anymore, so you don’t really have to keep secrets about why she died.”
“I’ve told you this before and I’ll tell you it again,” Twilight said. “Princess Luna was ruling Equestria by herself when she got stressed and decided to take a vacation to the beach. She then drowned in a rip tide. They told the ponies to get out of the water, but Princess Luna didn’t think she had anything to fear and died.”
“Come on, Twilight,” Rainbow pleaded. “I won’t tell anyone if you…like…purposely killed her…”
“No!” Twilight responded with surprising ferocity. “I would never do anything like that! I didn’t want to rule!”
“And yet you told Princess Cadence to scram to the Crystal Empire when she propose you rule together,” Rainbow murmured just loud enough so Twilight could hear her.
“The Crystal Empire is not like the rest of Equestria. She would have failed,” Twilight responded.
“Princess Luna failed and yet you never told her to leave,” Rainbow pointed out.
“What does this have to do with her death?” Twilight redirected.
“How’d she die?” Rainbow asked yet again.
“I told you: she drowned,” Twilight answered yet again.
Rainbow sighed, seeing she wasn’t going to get an answer out of Twilight. Maybe Twilight was telling the truth and Princess Luna did drown?
A small group of ponies were assembled in the throne room. The chatter fell silent as Twilight entered, being escorted by a guard. Her regal demeanor was gone, replaced by something entirely different. She was much more angry and sad than she was before.
Her five friends followed her, casting glances around the room nervously. Today, Princess Cadence would decide their punishment.
“First of all,” Cadence began, “before I tell you what I have decided, we have to do a quick little something. Twilight Sparkle, step forward.” Twilight did so.
Princess Cadence powered up her horn. She levitated a crystal over to her. “As the first part of your punishment your magical abilities will be reduced to that of an average unicorn.” Cadence released her spell. She had been researching how Tirek had been able to steal magic before Twilight had taken over. Removing some magic, but not all, would be an effective way to constrain dangerous ponies. But instead of consuming the magic herself, it would be redirected into a gem that could store magic.
Twilight’s magic flowed out of her after her anti-magic ring had been removed. It bounced off of Cadence’s horn and was soaked up by the crystal. Every once in a while, a black streak could be seen amongst the purple.
It took a while for her magic to reach a normal level. Cadence ended the spell when her magic finally reached the average. A guard removed the rope around her wings. Cadence didn’t need to remove her pegasus magic. Having not been born a pegasus, Twilight was average at flying.
Twilight, experimentally, lifted up a pen that Cadence wasn’t using with her levitation. The shock was clear on the alicorn’s face. It took up a lot more of her magical abilities than Twilight expected.
“Second, we have decided on your punishment,” Cadence said. Twilight felt nervousness flutter through her. “Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity will resume their jobs in Ponyville before Twilight became a princess. Twilight will be Ponyville’s librarian, Fluttershy will take care of the animals, Applejack will rejoin her family, Pinkie Pie will work at Sugar Cube Corner, and Rarity will move back into Carousel Boutique.”
The train station in Canterlot was busy, but there was a big open area where no pony was standing. A very annoyed Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of that area. Out of Twilight’s vision, Princess Cadence met to talk with Twilight’s friends.
They stood a ways back from the platform. Princess Cadence was in disguise to prevent paparazzi, but the five she was talking to knew her true identity.
“Do you all remember your mission?” Cadence asked. “It will be harder this time around. You can’t use the Elements of Harmony.”
The five nodded. “Reform Twilight,” Rainbow said. “I bet we can do that.”
“We need the Elements up and running, and we want to help Twilight,” Cadence explained. “She’s hurting badly, and you need to be there for her.”
A pony shouted something from the train platform.
“Looks like our train is here,” Rarity said, walking away. The five called out their goodbyes to Princess Cadence and boarded a train to take them back to their old lives.
Twilight entered the building. It smelled like fresh paint and most of the shelves were empty. The library had been constructed just recently. It was vastly different from the Golden Oaks Library. This time around, it actually looked more like a legitimate library.
However, Twilight could tell the architect had in mind her old home when designing this. After climbing some stairs, Twilight could overlook the entire library from the second floor. In the room she had just entered was a bed and some dressers and a nightstand. Twilight had just set down her things when she heard the door open from below.
She looked out of the glass panes to peer down on a colt below. He crept into the library, but after determining he was alone, began to investigate the books.
Twilight descended the stairs to the first floor. “Can I help you?” She asked only for the sake of being polite.
The colt turned around. His face was one of utter shock and fear. With his eyes open wide he stared at the former ruler of Equestria for a full second before screaming and galloping out of the building.
Twilight groaned. This was not going to be easy. She walked to the window and looked out over Ponyville, thinking. Twilight turned around and headed back up to her room.
What she didn't see was a cloaked pony in the bushes staring back at her. Glitch sighed as her plan had been foiled yet again.