Starting Over

by Twilight Nightmare


Through the Everfree

The castle has been restored Mistressss…

…tressss…

“Good.” Twilight said, smirking to herself. She could feel part of herself fighting against what she was doing, but it was an insignificant part. A part that she didn’t need as it brought weakness, a weakness she refused to ever go back to. She now had power, much more power than she ever dreamed of, and she refused to give it up. Sure it took a lot of concentration to keep the fire coming from her hooves, nose and mouth from catching anything on fire…but after the first three tapestries, she had quickly learned to keep it under control.

The door is found…

…found…

Another of her shadow minions hissed as it sunk up from the floor, its beady white eyes a little unsettling to the newly transformed pony…even if it was now basically a part of herself. It had some free will of it’s own as it was remnants of a soul that was taken for payment for creating a contract with Legion. She could see all of its memories, as well as all of the memories of every single soul remnant that was now a part of her being. She had learned things that had long been forgotten in the matter of hours as those memories had assimilated into her own.

“Show me.” Twilight demanded, following the shadow that slunk back into the darkness. Following the memories that were flowing into her mind, she found her way to a piece of floor that had been destroyed in the lowest part of the castle leading to an ancient looking cave with a large silver door with chains sealing it shut. She knew that she was the reincarnation of the pony who led the ancient ponies into sealing these doors. This one seemed damaged though, leaking dark power through it…power that seemed to corrupt the surrounding environment.

“Could this be how the Everfree was created?” Twilight mused to herself as she ran a hoof along where all of the chains converged into a single large lock that was sealed with numerous runes that she recognized incorporated blood magic. It was kind of ironic that the seal keeping Tartarus sealed off from their world was created with the same power that the creature they sealed away.

Feeling a surge of panic, Twilight looked up feeling a source of strong white magic nearby. It was very powerful, and while it most likely didn’t stand a chance against her, there was something screaming at her to hurt. Swallowing nervously, Twilight took her horn and tore a gash in her foreleg, letting blood seep down and cover her hoof. Setting her hoof at the center of the sealing array on the lock, she sent a surge of magic though it.

At first she was worried that maybe with Legion’s power filling her that the seal didn’t recognize her as Marelin’s reincarnation. Finally a clicking noise could be heard as a flash of light temporarily blinded Twilight. When her vision cleared she found the chains and lock missing and the door had dimmed in brightness. Slowly she opened the door to find a shimmering portal that after a few moments of hesitation. Twilight took a step through. It was a little gut wrenching, but she quickly got over it as she landed on the other side. It looked as if she was in a forest similar to the Everfree, though the sky was a mix of dark purples, red and blacks.

Feeling a presence appearing behind her she quickly spun around to find three mares of dark purple, nearly black, with a flaming tail and mane much like Twilight’s…only they were actually the color of fire. Their eyes, nose and mouth all matched Twilight’s perfectly as a red glow seemed to always be present as flames came from them as well as their hooves.

“Mistress, we have been awaiting your arrival.” The center mare said as the other two bowed low, followed by the middle one moments later. A small smirk crossed over Twilight’s face as she realized just what and who these creatures were.


“We have to hurry!” Discord said, panic filling his voice as the group traveled quickly through the Everfree forest. Trixie had to admit she was a little surprised that Fluttershy and Rarity was keeping up with the fast pace as they didn’t seem very athletic. Still, they seemed truly worried about Twilight which she was happy about as it showed that they really cared for her sister.

“What’s wrong Sugarcube?” Applejack asked, barely sounding winded as they weaved around trees and roots sticking up from the ground. Thankfully that was the worse they had to worry about so far, the creatures seeming to be in hiding or something as none were out stalking the forest as they usually did.

“I felt it to, there was a strong surge of magic and…” Luna said, swallowing nervously as she realized what was going on. She had felt the power before, just not so strong. The castle’s gate had been opened which meant they were too late.

“Tartarus is open…if you are Starswirl, surely you know a way to close the gate?” Celestia said, slowing to a stop.

“I didn’t create the gates in the first place, so how would I know how to restore them?” Discord asked, his mismatched form floating close to Pinkie Pie protectively. “And don’t call me Shirley.”

“What are you doing?” Trixie demanded, the group coming to a halt as she turned to glare at the Princess. “Now isn’t the time for a break!”

“Don’t take that tone with my sister, peasant!” Luna snapped.

“I’ll take whatever tone I want! We wouldn’t even be in this mess if she hadn’t driven Twilight away!” Trixie screamed at the Lunar Princess without showing any fear. “If she wants me to show respect she can earn it!”

“Now calm down there sugarcube. We don’t need to be fighting among ourselves now, not when we have a friend to save.” Applejack said, putting a comforting hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. “We do need to hurry Princess, so why are we stopping?”

“If the gates are open we could be in trouble as all kinds of creatures could be escaping. Things much worse than Tirek himself.” Celestia warned.

“Pffffttt…Princess Luna kicked his flank! I’m sure we can handle anything that they throw at us.” Rainbow Dash scoffed getting a raised eyebrow from Celestia.

“That may be so, but we need to get decide what to do if we have to face off against that is difficult to handle. We don’t really know if the new Elements will work as intended. Twilight didn’t turn her Element over to the Tree of harmony, it was given to it by my niece. So Twilight should still have her bond with it.” Celestia explained, “While you girls freely gave your elements to the tree, you kept a very powerful link to them even though the focus gems were no longer there. The new Elements aren’t really replacements for the Elements of Harmony, they are amplifiers that should work just as the old ones did since the Tree of Harmony has always been what powered them while your friendship activated and guided them.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a lot of rotten apples to me.” Applejack said, “Those magic things sure didn’t feel like the power was coming from somewhere else.”

“I always could feel the magic flowing from inside myself to it…not from outside…if you don’t mind me saying.” Fluttershy said.

“I don’t really care where it came from, darling, what I care about is saving our friend.” Rarity said, “So why didn’t you bring more guards back with you instead of making Shining Armor and Princess Cadence stay being in Ponyville?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t it have been better if they came to?” Pinkie Pie asked, giving Celestia the evil eye.

“Who cares if they came or not, I’m sure we can handle whatever it is we have to face. Nothing is going to stop up from saving Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“That’s something I can agree with, we have to save my sister.” Trixie said, turning from the group and trotting off into the forest once more before Applejack grabbed her tail.

“Now hold up there, sugarcube.” Applejack said through a mouthful of tail.

“You aren’t stopping me from going after my sister!” Trixie said trying her best to drag the earth pony behind her.

“I’m not trying to sugarcube…but you were heading in the wrong direction. The castle of the two sisters is this direction.” Applejack said, finally letting go as she pointed in another direction that Trixie now realized was where they were heading earlier.

“Ummm…I knew that!” Trixie said, giving a weak laugh while rubbing her foreleg nervously.

“It’s okay darling, we’re actually really impressed with how much you care for Twilight. We’re really that she had you these past five years.” Rarity said as she gave Trixie an encouraging smile.

“Yeah, and when we get Twilight back we will have a huge party for every pony where we can all be the bestest of friends!” Pinkie Pie laughed as the small group started off again. Trixie had to check her saddlebag again as she could have sworn she felt the new, or in her opinion fake Element of Magic, shift and put off a strange feeling power. It was still there so she just dismissed it as being another of those weird things that happens in this pony forsaken forest.

The rest of the trip took the group very little time as they didn’t meet any creatures on their path that was starting to worry them a little. Trixie had a bad feeling that they may have been shying away from the pillar of light that filled the skies earlier. And the closer they got to this castle, the harder it got to keep going. There was this feeling deep inside her warning that she should turn away and run and never look back. She refused to listen to it though as she just couldn’t leave Twilight like that. Maybe five years ago there may have been a small possibility of it…but they were sisters and over the last five years the created a bond of sisterhood that made it like they had never been separated.

Arriving at the castle, the two alicorns landed making Rainbow Dash glare at them a little. She was a little annoyed that she was one of the best fliers in Equestria and still couldn’t really fly that well in the Everfree and here were the princesses making it look like it was normal. Trixie couldn’t help finding it a little amusing in a way.

“So where to?” Trixie asked, looking around.

“I think its best we head to the gate and see what is going on.” Discord said.

“I agree, but where is it? I don’t remember seeing any scary looking gates the last time we were here.” Pinkie Pie asked, swallowing nervously as a dark feeling seemed to hang in the air. Looking to Celestia it seemed she was taking it the worse out of all of them.

“Like this.” Discord said snapping his taloned fingers making the group disappear and reappear in front of a set of gates that looked like some pony tore them to pieces leaving very little left behind.

“If you could do that, why haven’t you done it before?” Rainbow Dash demanded, seeming as angry as Trixie felt. If they could have done that sooner, then they may have made it here much earlier.

“Because the castle is warded against ponies trying to teleport in. If I tried outside of the wards we could have ended up on the other side of Equestria.” Discord said, shrinking down and settling in Pinkie Pie’s mane.

“This isn’t good, there isn’t enough left of the doors to seal it back up.” Luna said.

“I don’t care about that right now! What I care about is my sister, where the hay is she?” Trixie asked, agitated as they reached their destination with no sign of Twilight anywhere.

“I think it’s clear where she went.” Celestia sighed, staring at the gate.

“Then that’s where I’m going.” Trixie snorted before jumping through the portal leaving a shocked group.

“You aren’t showing me up that easy!” Rainbow half joked before she followed after her.

“Will you wait! We don’t know what’s going on or what awaits us on the other side!” Celestia gasped out.

“Sorry sugarcube, but only one way to find out.” Applejack said before jumping through.

“Wait for me.” Fluttershy squeaked out as she also followed.

“Darling, I have to agree with the others. Twilight is our friend, and we won’t abandon her again.” Rarity said jumping through as Celestia watched with her jaw dropped in shock as the Elements of harmony jumped into the unknown.

“Well Sunny, guess we have no choice.” Discord said wearing a cowboy hat as he sat on top of Pinkie’s head. “Giddyup!”

“Weeeee!” Pinkie Pie cried out as she jumped through.

“We better follow them sister.” Luna sighed, a little annoyed at the recklessness…even if she understood the sentiment.

“I guess.” Celestia sighed before she jumped toward the portal only to get repelled by an invisible barrier.

“Sister!” Luna cried out sliding over to Celestia’s prone body as she forced herself back to her hooves.

“It looks like I may not be able to follow after all.” Celestia sighed, having a feeling she knew why. Her power came from the sun, but was also considered divine and creatures of Divinty had to be very weak to avoid the wards preventing them from entering or have an invitation in the form of a talisman that allowed entrance.

“What is going on?” Luna asked as she walked toward the portal. She hesitantly dipped a hoof into it and found nothing preventing her.

“I can’t go, sister…the portal is rejecting me because of my high divinty.” Celestia sighed. “Your powers, while not evil, is dark in nature so you should be able to go. Please go and do what you can for them.”

“Don’t worry sister, we will bring Twilight home.” Luna said confidently before diving through the portal herself.