Chapter IV: The Pact
The red dragon woke from her slumber, and glanced up at Twilight. “I believe you are quite capable of shouting without need of my tutelage, young one.”
Twilight stomped her foot impatiently. “Don’t give me that. I want to learn to Shout the way dragons do.”
Yolvahdin stood, stretching her limbs before fully face Twilight. “You are quite bold, little key. You may be the prized pupil of Celestia, but that hardly gives you the authority to demand anything of me… Twilight Sparkle.”
“Wait, how do you know who I am?” Twilight didn’t remember introducing herself to Yolvahdin. In fact, she’d barely said two words to the red dragon since she’d arrived here.
“The Kulaas speaks fondly of you during her visits to our abode. And I will concede that your accomplishments are most impressive. But regardless, I cannot teach you the Way of the Voice.”
“Is it that you can’t… or that you won’t?” When she received no answer, the lavender unicorn turned away in anger. “Fine! Don’t help me! But I’m not just going to sit and watch you send Spike off to die!”
A massive claw was rested on her shoulder. “You misunderstand, kiir- the Thu’um is not merely a skill that can be taught. I could teach you every rotmulaag that I know, but without the sos- the blood of a dovah flowing through your veins to give them power, my words would be of no use to you.”
“But, Princess Celestia can Shout… I saw it.”
“Need I remind you of her lineage? Of the union between her grandmother Queen Aura and the dovah you knew as Fang?” Yolvahdin stood up and began to pace back and forth. “Or of her father King Solaris’s numerous dovah consorts, of which his wife Nahfahlaar was just one? Need I remind you that the Kulaas herself took on a dovah as her lover? …Though in all fairness, nothing came of it and it was before she and her briinah were crowned as rulers of Equestria.”
The red dragon sat down again. “The point is, the Royal Family of Equestria has always shared an… intimate bond with the dov. And it is this bond which grants them the power of the Thu’um.”
Twilight tried her hardest to contain her disappointment. “I… I understand.” She turned away so the dragon would not see her tears. “But with… or without the Thu’um, when Alduin returns, I will stand by Spike… until the end.” She slowly began to walk back to bed, a stone where her heart had once been.
But before she left the chamber, Yolvahdin said, “…There is a way.”
Twilight’s tears stopped in an instant. She rushed up to the red dragon, placing her hooves on her leg. “What is it? What do I have to do? Tell me, please!”
“I shall. But first, I must deliver to you a warning. This decision is not one to be made lightly. Many have tried to walk down this path… and many do not return.”
What did that mean? Was Yolvahdin saying that ponies… died trying to learn the Voice? A chill traveled up her spine, but Twilight suppressed it. She would learn the Voice, she would survive, if not for her own sake, then for Spike’s. “…Just tell me what I need to do.”
“You are firm in your conviction, I see. This is good- there can be no room for uncertainty while learning the Thu’um. For the power of the Voice to become yours, you must enter a sosmir with a dovah.”
“And that would be…?”
“…a blood pact.”
Twilight’s heart stopped in her chest. Blood pacts were a necessary step to casting some of the most vile, evil spells Equestria had ever known. What was next? Would she be asked to stab at somepony’s corpse? Tear the still-beating heart from another’s chest? She shook her head- no, if this is what it took, then she would do it. “Alright. So… how does this work exactly? Do I just exchange blood with you and that’s it? I’ll be able to Shout?”
“Not quite, child. The sos must come from a dovah with whom you are intimately acquainted with.”
“So… Spike then? Would it work if I made the pact with him?”
Yolvahdin brought a claw to her chin. “Hmm… if what the Kulaas has told me holds true, then the Dovahkiin would be the most suitable candidate. But we will not know for certain until the pact is made.” There was a brief moment of silence; then, the red dragon looked to the lavender unicorn. “You are quite protective of him. The Dovahkiin, I mean. Why is this? I was under the impression that the keyye feared the dov.”
Twilight sat down. “Well, why wouldn’t I be protective of Spike? I hatched him. I’ve raised him since I was just a filly. He’s like a little brother to me… most of the time. Sometimes though, I treat him more like… sometimes I can’t help but see him as… “
“…as a son?”
Twilight blushed a little. “Yeah…”
“Then I understand why you do this. Form the sosmir if you feel you must- I ask only that you understand the risks you undertake by doing so.”
She looked up at the red dragon. “Do… you have any children?”
“I had a son, once.” Her voice dropped an octave. “He was killed by the Nameless One.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. What… what was he like?”
The red dragon looked away, her voice becoming almost a whisper. “…I fear that I will never know.”
“What do you-” At that moment, Twilight recalled a horrific albeit dubious tale that she read while learning about the Dragon War in her time at the academy. It claimed that during the final years of the War, Alduin began to gather dragon’s eggs and… break them in an effort to avert an ancient prophecy he believed would lead to his downfall, going so far as to take them from the still-warm corpses of their mothers. Twilight always thought that the story was skewed, distorted over time to make Alduin seem more evil than she actually was.
She never could have imagined that such a horrifying tale had a basis in reality.
“Oh… oh I, I’m sorry…” Twilight stammered.
“You have nothing to apologize for, kiir.” The red dragon turned away completely. “Go. Awaken the Dovahkiin and bring him to the central chamber. I must inform the others of your decision.”
Twilight trotted back to her chamber, finding Spike still fast asleep in her bed. She put a hoof on her back and shook him. “Spike… Spike… wake up…”
He stirred, but groaned and turned his back on her. “Uhhng… sleeping. Go away.”
She shook him more firmly. “Get up, Spike. It’s important.”
He sat up, bleary eyed. “What could be so important that you have to wake me up at dawn?”
“I’ll explain on the way. Now come on.” As she levitated the half-asleep Spike onto her back, Thorn jolted awake on the other side of the room. He quickly noticed the two, and called out, “Hey. You guys are up early.” The elder dragon approached. “What’s going on?”
“Spike and I are going to make a blood pact.”
“Huh? W…Why would you do that?”
“I want to learn how to Shout. And Yolvahdin told me that’s how I would learn.”
“Is that… safe?”
“I don’t know. And to be honest, I don’t care. I’m not letting Spike fight Alduin alone.”
“Twilight, you-” Thorn caught himself. Then, he sighed. “…Look, I know better than to try to talk you out of this, but… just be careful, okay? Don’t take any unnecessary risks like you did last-” He slapped a claw over his mouth, his eyes widened in horror.
“Like I did last what?” she asked.
Thorn stammered- despite now being several centuries older than her, Twilight would never fail to make him feel like a child. “I- it’s- y-you’re… it’s just… WULD!” He dashed off.
“What was that all about?” Spike asked, now fully awake.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Twilight replied. The way Thorn had stammered just now, the guilty look in his eye, the way he’d darted off like that, they all reminded her of… She shook her head. No, it was just a coincidence. A very unusual coincidence, no doubt, but a coincidence nonetheless.
Brushing off the odd incident, she carried Spike into the main chamber.
Yolvahdin and the other Masters waited for the two in the next chamber. “Ah, there you are,” the red dragon said. “The other Masters and I were nearly finished discussing the procedure.”
Spike hopped off her back. “Wait, you agreed to this and they didn’t even know what they were doing, Twilight?” he asked in a low voice.
Yolvahdin caught his comment. “Nid, you misunderstand, Dovahkiin. It has been many years since an outsider has requested to form a sosmir. We simply wished to verify the process before beginning.”
“How long has it been?” Twilight asked.
“…Four centuries, if I recall correctly. A strunkey much like yourself traveled here from your land to learn our ways. After the pact was formed, we gifted him the name Sadon Luftom, but you most likely know him as ‘Star Swirl the Bearded.’ Tell me, whatever became of him?”
“Uh, well, all the books say he continued with his travels, and then just… vanished in a distant land. But the Princess told me once that he came back to Equestria… but she also said he spent the rest of his life in complete isolation, and changed his name to ‘Star Swirl Greybeard.’”
“Is that so? Pity- he was gifted, truly. The world would be a much different place had he taken a more active role in shaping it, I’m certain.” She shook her head. “Ah, but I forget myself. Krosis. There is work to be done.” She took a breath, and breathed a long plume of fire toward the center of the room. Despite having no fuel, the fire continued to burn. “Now, take your places by the fire.”
Spike and Twilight did as the red dragon asked of them- as they did, the Masters formed a circle around them and the fire. Then, Yolvahdin began to speak again. “Nau daar sul, mu kodaav ya ol daar sille voth mu meyz al gein,” she said. “On this day, we bear witness as the two souls before us become as one.”
“Mu kodaav ya.” the others whispered; the entire cavern shook as they spoke.
“Enook fen wahl sos fah zeymah- ful,nust enook zahrahmiik zeymahii sos nu wahl tol ov. Each would spill blood for the other- so, they spill each other’s blood now to demonstrate that trust.”
“Mu kodaav ya.”
“Nol daar tiid nau, nustii sos- nustii sille- fen kos mahfaeraak aavaan. Nol daar tiid nau,nust fen kos krif voth nustii zeymah, ful faal lein aal ni kron nust. From this time forward, their blood- their souls- will be forever joined. From this time forward, they shall stand at each other’s backs, so that the world may never overtake them.”
“Mu kodaav ya.”
The red dragon looked down at them, a deadly serious expression on her face. “By forming this pact, the two of you enter an agreement that ends only with death. Firm in your convictions as you may be, still I must ask… do you accept the terms of this agreement?”
Twilight’s answer was instantaneous. “I accept.”
Spike was silent for several moments, staring at the floor. Come on… Twilight thought impatiently. Just say yes. After what felt like an eternity to her, Spike looked up at Yolvahdin and said, “…I accept too.”
“Both parties have accepted the terms. Dovahkiin, your claw.” Spike held out his claw; he winced in pain as the red dragon dragged a talon across it, leaving a deep gash. “Twilight Sparkle, your leg.” She held up a foreleg. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as the claw tore open her skin. Then, the red dragon took hold of both Spike and Twilight, pressing their wounds together; she clasped her claws over their limbs, preventing them from pulling away. “Allow your blood to enter the other,” she whispered. “Allow your blood- your souls- to become as one.”
She held the two for several long moments, before finally releasing them. “Ii oblaan. It is done. The blood pact has been formed.”
Twilight rubbed her fresh wound. “…that’s it?” she asked. “That’s all we had to do? It seems kind of anticlimac-” Suddenly, Twilight doubled over, her head pounding. Her vision swam, and she stumbled about as though she’d suddenly landed on a ship traveling rough seas. “Twilight?” She heard Spike ask. He put his hands on her face and looked into her eyes. “Twilight, what’s wrong? Twilight? Twilight!” The baby dragon’s voice faded as he crumbled into ash before her very eyes.
She stood up straight, looking around, and saw that not only had Spike disappeared, but so had everyone else. “Spike?” She called. “Spike! Yolvahdin! …Anyone?” She received no answer. She quickly realized the doorways leading to the other chambers were gone as well. She concentrated, her horn glowing as she prepared to cast a teleportation spell, but a sudden, stabbing pain right at the base of her horn broke her concentration, and the glow faded. She tried again, only to earn another stabbing pain for her trouble. She couldn’t cast magic, she realized.
She was trapped. Or, so Twilight thought at first.
Suddenly, cracks began to form in the icy wall in front of her. Several ear-splitting snaps echoed in the small room, before the wall was suddenly blown open, as though something had just smashed through it, revealing… a shimmering golden desert. Speechless, she stepped out.
This couldn’t be happening. This shouldn’t be happening. What she was seeing in front of her was physically impossible. But the sun beating down on her at that moment felt quite real, as did the sand beneath her hooves. As impossible as it may have seemed, it didn’t change the fact that she now stood in the heart of a burning desert.
Twilight looked around- massive, sweeping dunes stretched for as far as the eye could see. The chamber of ice she emerged from was nowhere to be found. Her mind raced as she tried to recall any books on how she might survive, but her thoughts were interrupted by an ear-splitting shriek from overhead. She looked up- circling over her was a dragon as black as the night sky. But there was something odd about the dragon- its form shimmered and wavered, as though its body wasn’t entirely solid, and it left a short trail of smoke behind him wherever it flew. The black dragon let out another ear-shattering screech, before flying over the dunes and disappearing over the horizon.
Twilight simply stared after the dragon for a few moments before a thought occurred to her. A trial. This- all of this- was some kind of test. It just had to be. What else could it be? So, she began to follow the dragon, trotting at first, before eventually breaking into a full-on sprint. She didn’t know where this road would lead her, but she was certain she would find that black dragon waiting at the end of it.
So she ran. And ran. And ran. In all that time, she noticed that she never began sweating, and never ran out of breath. But at the same time, her destination, wherever it may have been, never seemed to grow any closer. She passed many odd things on the way: a forest of stacked-up books that seemed to stretch up into the sky forever, a number of statues of the Princesses and other famous figures rising from the dunes, and what seemed to be a perfect reconstruction of Ponyville’s town square half-buried in the sand. But Twilight pressed on, not giving these items even a second glance. If she was right, then all these objects were just diversions, meant to lure her away from her real objective.
It wasn’t long before she found herself at the edge of a vast canyon. In fact, she didn’t discover it until she’d almost sent herself hurtling over the edge. It was too far to jump, and the stabbing pain in her horn meant she couldn’t teleport across. Twilight looked to her left, and then to her right, but at first glance there appeared to be nothing bridging the two sides of the canyon; she thought for a moment that she could simply conjure a bridge to span the gap, but another stabbing pain put such thoughts to rest. It looked like she’d just have to cross the hard way.
She approached the edge-climbing down the face of the canyon without any sort of gear was probably the absolute worst decision she could have made regarding this situation, but with no magic and no natural formations to climb across, she had no choice. But just one look over the edge made her back away; rather than the bottom of the canyon, all she saw was a deep, forbidding black.
Twilight brought a hoof to her temple, straining her brain for some kind of solution. She hated to admit it, but without magic, she was almost helpless- it reminded her of the time Discord had taken her horn away. She had no idea how Applejack or Rainbow Dash or even Spike could live without it. She swept her eyes across the canyon again, but this time she spotted something: a series of narrow rock columns stretching from one end of the canyon to the other. Twilight sprinted to the columns as fast as she could; ordinarily she would have preferred to cross over some sort of land bridge, but at this point she would take whatever blessings she could get.
Twilight looked at the columns lined up before her; they were narrow, thin, and in all frankness, they didn’t look like they would support her weight. Well, appearances could be deceiving. She scooted back, and with a small, terrified cry, she leapt over the abyss to the first column. She landed with a thump; Twilight froze, listening for any signs that the column had become unstable… but there were none. The situation reminded her of when she and the others had escaped a hydra in Froggy Bottom Bog, but with no angry monster at her back this time around, she could afford to take her time. This shouldn’t be too bad… she thought to herself.
Those thoughts were instantly vanquished when she felt the column beneath her hooves rumble violently. Her stomach floated, and she found herself staring into the black as the column toppled over.
She didn’t think. There was no time. She simply jumped.
By some miracle, her aim was true, and she landed squarely on the next column. But there was no time to relax. She felt a violent tremor and heard the scraping of stone as the first column collided into the second, and her stomach floated as she fell once again. Twilight leapt to the next column, and leapt again as the preceding one fell against it. The entire effort required no conscious thought on Twilight’s part- her body seemed to simply know what to do, even if her mind did not.
After what seemed like both an eternity and only a second, she found herself at the last column. The other side awaited her. Twilight prepared to jump… only to realize that the gap before her was just slightly longer than her leap. She waited, shaking with the column as the one before slammed into it. As it toppled, the world seemed to slow to a crawl. Twilight tensed, waiting for exactly the right moment; if she was off by even a fraction of a second, then… well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen then. Finally, the column came as close to the canyon wall as it would ever be.
Twilight jumped.
But as she jumped, she felt her hooves lose traction. For one terrified moment, she thought she wouldn’t make it… but she did. Half of her did, at least.
Twilight cried out in pain as her chest slammed against the unforgiving stone edge, forcing the air from her lungs. Her forelegs dragged across the rock as gravity threatened to plunge her into the darkness. She desperately dug her hooves against the rock, coming to a merciful stop. But her respite wouldn’t hold, and she knew it; already she was beginning to slip. She slid, coming one inch closer to oblivion; her rear legs kicked wildly, desperately searching for a foothold of any kind, and found none. She slid again; she tried to hoist herself up, but she just didn’t have the strength to do it. She slid a third time- now, only her hooves still clung to the edge. She tried to pull herself up, but as hard as she tried, she simply couldn’t.
As hard as she tried to stop it, Twilight began to cry. She was going to die here. She would never see Spike, or the Princess, or her friends or her parents or Cadence or Shining Armor or anyone else ever again. Spike would have to face Alduin… alone. She was going to die… and he… he…
No… she thought. She strained, and slowly, she lifted herself up. No no no no no no…
“…no no no no NO!” With all of her might, Twilight yanked herself up, throwing out a foreleg to catch the edge. She brought up her other foreleg, and slowly, with every fiber of her being, she dragged herself leg-over-leg until she was completely on solid ground. Completely exhausted by her effort, she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, struggling to catch her breath.
Twilight wasn’t sure if she should laugh, or cry. So she did both.
Tears spilled from her eyes as she alternated between laughter and sobs that hurt her stomach. She had no idea how long she lay there, simultaneously laughing and crying, but when she finally managed to compose herself, she got to her feet and looked around. She realized that her surroundings had changed yet again. Rather than the burning desert she’d seen before she crossed, she now found herself looking at a very familiar road set into a familiar mountainside. Behind her, the canyon had shrunk down to a mere ravine, though the gap was still too far to jump across. Clearly, the only path was forward.
As she climbed, white flakes began to fall from the sky. Snow? Twilight thought. How strange. But then again, she had crossed from the arctic to a burning desert in the blink of an eye- anything was possible here. She caught one of the strange flakes on her tongue, only to spit and splutter in disgust the moment it made contact.
It wasn’t snow at all.
It was ash.
And when Twilight reached the top of the hill, she discovered its source.
Before her lay the city of Canterlot… swallowed by flames.
For several moments, Twilight could only stare at the horrific sight. But then she shook her head. It isn’t real, she told herself, again and again. It isn’t real… it isn’t real…
But as she entered the city, she saw something that made her doubt. Translucent figures began to appear in the street, undefined at first, but quickly took the unmistakable form of ponies. Sounds came to Twilight’s ears, the sounds of screams and battle. A line of guards appeared and charged toward her; before she could get out of their way, they simply phased through her. They didn’t show any indication that they had seen her at all. She couldn’t help but notice that the armor they wore was a style that hadn’t been used in Canterlot for hundreds of years.
Twilight turned, and watched as they formed a line; one of them stepped forward, and began to pace. “Alright stallions, this is it!” he shouted; his voice rang hollow, and echoed faintly. “I know that most of you have never even seen a dragon, let alone been expected to fight one. But these monsters have taken the fight to our home, to our city, and threaten the citizens we have sworn to protect with slavery and death! And we will show these animals just what’s in store for them when they dare to challenge the might of the Imperial Guard!” The other guards cheered wildly, raising their weapons. “Now what do you say? Shall we go kill us a dragon?”
The guards cheered again. One of their number called out “I’ll kill me ten dragons!”
Their cheers were instantly silenced when a translucent dragon landed on a nearby burned house. They staggered from an unfelt impact; Twilight remained upright. For a long moment, the guards and the dragon simply stared at each other. Then, one of the guards raised his weapon. “Fall to me, dragon!” he bellowed. “Hyrraaaaggh!” He charged, raising his sword over his head.
The dragon’s head snapped forward, seizing the guard in his massive jaws. The dragon swung the helpless guard about, before releasing him; the guard slammed against the stone street in a crumpled, unmoving heap.
“By Aura…” one of the other guards whispered. The dragon reared back. “Everypony get back!” But it was too late. A great burst of fire left the dragon’s mouth, engulfing the guards- they transformed into a white mist, which rapidly dispersed into nothing. The dragon spread his wings, letting out a triumphant roar, before taking flight and fading away as well.
Twilight finally realized where she was- the final battle of the Dragon War… the Battle of Canterlot.
But she didn’t understand. How could she be having a memory of something that she wasn’t alive to see? Did it… have something to do with Spike’s blood? But that didn’t make any sense- he wasn’t alive to see the battle either. Twilight’s speculation was cut short however when she heard an unmistakable screech from overhead. She looked up just in time to see the black dragon dart overhead, weaving amongst the spectral dragons soaring overhead. It screeched again, before flying to the palace, circling above it like a massive vulture.
Twilight’s hooves were carrying her to the palace before she even realized what was happening. She passed other phantom guards on the way, engaged in battle with ethereal dragons- some battles ended in victory, but most ended merely in defeat. As she neared the palace gates, more ponies began to appear- not guards, but mere civilians. They streamed through the courtyard and through the grand doors of the palace entrance. She moved through the crowd with ease, following them into the palace. She heard a voice speaking as she entered.
“…come on, come on, everypony get inside!” the guard called. As a hoofful of stragglers staggered inside, the shades of two more guards pushed echoes of the great golden doors shut, and barred them.
“Is that everyone?” an unmistakable voice asked. Twilight looked; sure enough, the ghostly image of Princess Celestia approached them.
The guard nodded. “It is, as you asked. We just barely managed to fend off the dragons for long enough.”
The Princess allowed herself a small sigh of relief. “Good.” She looked to the guards barring the door. “Dawn Star, Nightwing, you and your force are to escort the populace to the caverns. Guard them, with your lives if you must.”
The guards bowed. “Yes Princess.” They then set to work shepherding the crowd.
Celestia’s shade turned to the remaining guard. “Captain, come with me. I need a status report.”
“Yes Princess.” The two began to trot away with Twilight following, invisible. As they spoke, they snaked through the halls of the palace, their destination unknown; Twilight followed closely, never letting the phantoms out of her sight for even a moment.
“…and Alduin? What of him?”
“The lookouts have kept vigilant, but so far there has been no sign of him.” The guard captain’s shade sighed. “…I’m going to be blunt, Princess. …We may lose this battle. We’ve already lost half of the Guard to the first wave of dragons alone, and out lookouts have confirmed that a second is en route. There’s also the issue of the fires spreading from the south- with the current winds and second assault inbound, it’s very likely that all of Canterlot will be burned to the ground. And if the dragons manage to reach the palace-”
“I’m not going to give them that chance,” she said sternly.
“Princess…” the guard captain’s shade stammered, “…you can’t possibly mean to-”
“I do. The only thing Alduin and his lackeys understand is force. And he is much too proud to deny a direct challenge.” She approached a door and threw out a foreleg; to Twilight’s shock, the door banged open as though the Princess had actually been standing there. She stepped onto the balcony, took a deep breath, and called out, “AL DU IN!” There was a clap of thunder, a brilliant flash of light, and the shades were gone.
Twilight heard a thunderous rumble, felt the entire palace tremble. An ear-shattering roar followed, and what’s more, it sounded as though it had come from somewhere up ahead. She ran ahead, but hid as soon as she saw what waited in the hall; despite the fact that none of the phantoms could see her, she hid all the same. For in the hallway ahead of her lurked… Alduin.
She peeked out from behind the corner, and watched as the ghostly Alduin breathed ethereal fire onto the walls. “Where are you, Kulaas?” the black dragon bellowed. “Do you truly believe you can hide from me?” He looked about- she ducked back before his eyes could sweep over her- but could see nothing. “LAAS… YAH… NIIR!” He looked around again, but this time, his attention focused on a particular section of the wall to his left. He smiled. “Ah… there you are…” he whispered. He reared back, but before he could Shout, the wall before him suddenly exploded. Several bolts of lightning struck him, driving him back. The sounds of splintering wood and falling stones came to Twilight’s ears as the black dragon fell into the wall behind him.
From the hole in the opposite wall emerged the Princess. Twilight shivered; plastered onto the Princess’s face was an expression of deep, unfathomable rage.
Debris fell to the floor as Alduin brought himself to his feet. “You would willingly destroy your own home simply to defeat me, Kulaas? Most unusual.”
“I would give up my life if that’s what it took!” she shouted back.
“Is that so? Then I fear your sacrifice would be in vain. YOL!” With ease, the Princess evaded the plume of fire, and charged the black dragon; but just as the two were about to collide, the phantoms faded. The sounds of battle faded, leaving behind only silence. Twilight remembered this- she’d read about it in her history textbooks. And if she remembered correctly, the battle ended in…
She sprinted through the halls- though the interior was broken and ruined, Twilight had the interior layout of the palace perfectly memorized. As she approached her destination, she could hear the sounds of battle once more- the roar of flames, the fizzle of magic, and a few pained cries that made Twilight’s stomach turn. She threw open a massive door at the end of a long hall, and emerged in the palace’s gardens.
Mere moments after entering the gardens, the wall behind Twilight blasted open, and the phantom Princess tumbled out. She flopped across the ground like a ragdoll before finally coming to a stop. Slowly, she dragged herself to her feet, spitting out a small amount of blood onto the grass. Celestia looked absolutely horrible- her entire body was covered in deep gouges and slashes and burns, painting her entire body a hideous mix of black and red, and one of her wings was… gone. Not merely tucked away where Twilight couldn’t see it, oh no, but literally gone- all that remained was a ragged, bleeding stump. Alduin emerged from the hole not long after, seemingly unharmed.
The Princess fired a bolt of lightning at the black dragon- the bolt merely bounced off of his scales, and utterly obliterated a nearby statue. He reared back, and released a long jet of frost from his mouth; the Princess tried to conjure a ward to protect herself, but it shattered like glass the moment the frost touched it, hurling her back. As she struggled to rise, Alduin said to her, “Why must you continue to fight?” He approached her. “Look around you- this battle has scarcely begun, and already your city burns, less than half your guard remains to fight. But it can end here. All you need to do is surrender, and the bloodshed will cease.”
She said nothing in reply. Instead, she appeared to draw a stone sphere from out of her own body- Twilight recognized it as one of the Elements of Harmony. It glowed brightly before a lavender beam shot out of it, directly towards Alduin. He blocked the beam with his wing, strange black flames rising from where it touched his scales. “Oh, this again?” he asked, unamused. “You know this will not work, Kulaas. You have seen the prophecy with your own eyes, heard it with your own ears. You are not the one who shall slay me.”
“I know what the prophecy says,” the Princess growled; more spheres, the other Elements of Harmony, began to float out of her body. “So, if I cannot defeat you…” She looked up. “…I will send you to the one who will!” Multicolored beams shot out from the other Elements, but they weren’t aimed at Alduin- rather they curved past him, converging on a single point behind him. The air rippled, before it tearing open to reveal a swirling portal. But the portal wasn’t like the other ghostly constructs- rather than the normal translucent white, the portal was a bright, burning red. Pieces of rubble were lifted from the ground and pulled within, and even Alduin himself was slowly dragged toward the swirling vortex.
He dug his claws into the earth, but the portal continued to draw him in. He took flight, beating his massive wings as hard as he could, but the portal continued to draw him in. “What is this?” he shouted. “What have you done?”
“Give the Dovahkiin my regards, Alduin,” the Princess said flatly. Her horn glowed, and another burst of lightning shot out of it- it bounced off of the black dragon’s scales again, but doing harm to him wasn’t her goal. He instinctively brought up a wing to protect himself, forgetting for a moment that he still airborne. By the time he realized his error, he’d already been pulled beyond the portal. His enraged roars were silenced as the portal sealed shut, as though it had never been. Celestia let out a sigh of relief, before stumbling for a moment, and falling to her side. Between her labored breaths, Twilight heard her whisper , “May you… be forever lost… to the currents… of time… Alduin.”
As the seconds passed, spectral guards began to pour into the gardens; only a few came at first, but before long there were over a hundred. One sprinted up to her, unhesitatingly putting an ear against her side. “A healer!” he shouted. “I need a healer!” The other guards scrambled around the garden, barking orders. Draconic phantoms began landing around the gardens, but took no action other than to watch the spectacle unfold. One landed right next to Twilight, completely oblivious to her presence. “Alduin… los… los rok dilon?” he asked. “Drey faal kulaas… krii rok?” Slowly, the images before her faded, and once again, Twilight was left alone in the silence.
But the silence was broken by an unmistakable screech. She looked up just in time to see the black dragon streaking toward her. Her only response was to fire a magic missile at the dragon- in her panic, she’d forgotten the stabbing pain. Incredibly, the missiles fired out of her horn without pain… but they simply passed through the dragon’s smoky body with no effect. The dragon slammed into her; the two tumbled over the grass as Twilight’s world became an incomprehensible blur of color and light.
Suddenly, Twilight found herself flat on her back, staring up at the black dragon. Despite the fact that her missiles passed harmlessly through it not seconds earlier, the smoky dragon still somehow pinned her to the ground as though it were an actual, flesh-and-blood creature. From this range, its screeches were absolutely deafening. The missiles Twilight shot at him simply passed through with no ill effects whatsoever. Neither fire nor lightning fazed the dragon… but a frost spell froze its jaws solid. It eased off of her as it tried to smash through the ice, allowing her a chance to rise… but before she could formulate a strategy, the dragon’s body dispersed, the icy chunk dropping to the ground. It reformed in the air, letting out another ear-shattering shriek.
Before her eyes, the palace, Canterlot, everything crumbled away. She was left stranded on a section of the garden, floating in a maelstrom of unnatural green clouds and lightning. Twilight had nowhere to run… so she would fight. With a thump that made the whole floating island shake, the black dragon landed in front of her. Instantly, she fired another frost spell, striking the dragon’s front leg; before it could phase out of or otherwise break its imprisonment he instantly followed with a magic missile, striking the ice, shattering it. The dragon screeched in pain, but Twilight watched in horror as the dragon simply stretched its body to replace the leg it had just lost.
The dragon took flight; Twilight cast several more frost spells, but the dragon evaded them all with ease. He circled overhead, roaring; Twilight could only watch, unable to get a bead on the beast. As she waited, she realized that for whatever reason, the dragon had yet to Shout at her. She could ponder this only for a moment, as the dragon banked and dived directly toward her. She braced herself as it screeched again, and when it was just a few yards away, she fired the largest, most powerful frost spell she could conjure. It struck the dragon right in the middle of his forehead, freezing it, and the rest of its body followed. Twilight dived out of the way just in time as the frozen dragon slammed into the ground, its body shattering into a million tiny shards.
Twilight approached the mass of shards where the dragon had crashed, breathing hard. Was it over? She had to admit, considering all that she had to go through to get here, for it to end that quickly seemed… anticlimactic. Suddenly, every shard of ice that had been thrown across the island shattered. Long black tendrils instantly shot out and wrapped around Twilight tightly- she couldn’t even turn her head. Before her eyes, the dragon reformed. Now that she was so close, she could see its eyes clearly for the first time-they were made up of those same symbols on the wall in the cavern beneath Canterlot, flickering and changing endlessly, glowing a deep, burning yellow. It brought its face up to hers, regarding her closely.
Big mistake.
She hit it with an ice spell, encasing his head in a solid block. She immediately followed with a bolt of lightning, shattering the block. The tendrils holding Twilight released her, dropping her to the ground, as the dragon staggered about with no sensory organs to guide it. She saw the stump at the top of its neck distort as it prepared to regenerate. Twilight wouldn’t give it the chance.
She fired another frost spell, striking it directly in the chest- she shattered the icy block with another bolt of lightning. She fired again, this time hitting its leg, and followed up with a quick fireball. A third spell hit its chest again, shattered by a telekinetically thrown bust. Frost, lightning, fire, telekinesis… spell after spell, Twilight whittled the dragon down until it was reduced to a flopping, helpless torso not much larger than she.
She focused, and once again fired the largest frost spell she could manage. With the dragon frozen again, Twilight lifted up a nearby statue and hurled it at her foe. The dragon shattered, just as before, but it reformed in the blink of an eye and charged her, claw raised. She tried to conjure a ward, but the dragon merely phased through it, and slashed her side.
Intense pain coursed through her entire body, bringing Twilight to her knees. She dared to look to her left to inspect the damage. Sure enough, she found herself staring at three deep gouges, stretching from her shoulder to her flank- rather than blood, thick, black smoke poured from the fresh wounds.
Twilight sluggishly rose to her feet. The dragon had begun circling again. She waited for it to come into range, and hit it with a one-two ice/lightning punch, shattering its rear leg.
Pain. Pain unlike anything Twilight had ever felt in her entire life coursed through her body. She screamed as her wound pulsed with pain, falling to her knees again. She looked back at it- incredibly, the wound appeared to have grown larger, and the smoke that poured from it had grown thicker.
This was bad. If Twilight couldn’t fight back against this monster, it would kill her for sure… or would it? Sure, as menacing as it had been, the dragon hadn’t actually attacked her. …At least, aside from pinning her to the ground and scratching her. Could it be that fighting this dragon was the wrong thing to do? It would have sounded absolutely insane to any other pony… but these weren’t exactly circumstances somepony could call normal. And considering that keeping up the fight with this dragon might kill her, it wasn’t exactly like she had many options.
For some reason, Twilight recalled an incident early in her studies beneath Princess Celestia, when a miscast spell of hers had accidentally blasted a massive hole in the wall separating the gardens from the dining hall. As she cried and pleaded for forgiveness and swore she would never use such high-level magic ever again, the Princess stooped down, embraced her in her forelegs, and whispered, “It’s alright dear. This was only an accident. Learn from the mistake you made here. But you must never, never, be afraid of the power that you have been given. If you fear your power, then one day, you will find yourself ruled by it.”
The dragon landed in front of Twilight with a thump. She did not rise from her kneeling position. It growled at her, as though anticipating another attack, but Twilight did nothing. Black tendrils extended from its body, wrapping around Twilight once again. Twilight tried to put on a brave face, but as the dragon regarded her again, she sincerely hoped that she hadn’t just willingly handed herself to her death. As the dragon held her, she felt tendrils slide over her wounds; she tried to pull away reflexively, but the tendrils’ grip on her held her firmly in place. Then, without warning, she felt the tendrils push themselves into the wound.
Twilight cried out in pain. She tried to curl up, kick, twist free… she did everything she could to escape from the pain, but the tendrils binding her limbs kept her firmly in place. Her body burned as she felt… something enter her. She felt a creeping across her brain as new knowledge was forced into it, overriding her thoughts so that nothing else remained. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push back the foreign sensations, only for the tendrils to force them open again, and force her to look at the ever changing symbols that were the dragon’s eyes. Don’t be afraid… she heard the Princess say in her mind. Don’t fear this power. Accept it. Welcome it. Embrace it.
She stopped fighting. She simply allowed the knowledge to pour into her brain. She watched as the dragon began to shrink. It grew smaller and smaller- smaller than her, even- before eventually becoming nothing more than a wisp of smoke that streamed toward the wound, disappearing inside her. The pain faded, and Twilight… she…
She understood.
A feeling of peace washed over her. The green clouds rolled away, leaving only a clear blue sky. In her chest, she could feel a fire- not a blazing, uncontrollable inferno, but the comforting warmth of the hearth. She stood, silent, taking in the sight before her.
Sky above… Voice within.
“Lok bo… Thu’um tuum,” she said.
The world trembled at the sound of her Voice.
Twilight groaned. A light that was far too bright shone through her eyelids, filling her vision with red. Her entire body hurt, and she couldn’t help but notice an especially odd sensation just below her shoulders. She swore the she heard her eyelids creak as they opened- an icy ceiling greeted her. She tried to sit up, only to cry out as her stiff joints refused to cooperate.
Slowly, painfully, she turned her head; she could see Spike, standing at the side of the bed. His eyes swept over her for a moment, before returning to the spot directly in front of him. Suddenly, he straightened up, his attention darting right back to Twilight. “T… Twilight?” For a moment, he stared stunned. But then, immeasurable joy spread across his face. “Twilight!” he cried, throwing his arms around her neck. “You’re awake!” He let go. “J-Just… stay here. I’ll go get you some water.” He dashed off, returning a few moments later. He sat her up and held a crude wooden cup to her lips, and she drank, shivering as the cool liquid flowed into her throat and through the rest of her body. “Thank you,” she said weakly as he laid her down again.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Twilight,” he said. “You have no idea how worried I was about you. I mean, when you started foaming at the mouth, and Yolvahdin told me it was normal-”
She tried- and failed- to sit up again. “Wait… Spike… slow down. What happened?”
“Well, as soon as the ceremony was over, you started… convulsing, and foaming at the mouth and… I-I thought you were having a seizure. But then Yolvahdin said it was normal, and… well, you’ve been asleep for a while.”
“How long was I out?”
“…Two days.”
She failed to sit up for a third time. “What?”
“Don’t worry, me and Thorn have been keeping up with our training… when we haven’t been watching over you, of course.” He paused for a moment. “Oh, and Twilight? I think you should know that… something happened to you while you were asleep.”
Despite her body’s cries against it, Twilight’s fourth attempt to sit up was a successful. “What happened? What’s wrong with me?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that anything’s wrong with you- it’s just that you’re… different now.”
“Different how, exactly?”
“I’ll show you. But before I do, I need you to promise me something, Twilight.”
“What?”
“You have to promise me that no matter what you see, you won’t scream, okay? Just don’t scream.”
Twilight hesitated to answer. Why on earth would Spike make such an odd request? Had whatever happened to her really been that bad? She didn’t feel any different, but…
She closed her eyes, and replied cautiously, “…okay.”
“Come on then, let’s get you up.” With Spike’s assistance, Twilight climbed out of her bed. He walked her over to an especially reflective portion of the ice wall; her limbs loosened gradually, and before long she walked without her assistant’s aid. After a moment, she finally came close enough to see her reflection in the ice.
She was completely and utterly unprepared for what she was about to see.
…wings.
She had wings.
She. Had. Wings.
Sure, they were big, leathery, not at all like a normal pony’s… but they were wings all the same.
Twilight looked back, certain it was just a trick from the reflection, but it was no trick. They were still there, right there on her back, just behind her shoulder blades.
She put her hooves against the ice sheet and looked at her reflection, beginning to hyperventilate. “Hah… hah… hahah…”
“Twilight, Twilight calm down. Breathe, breathe…” Spike urged. But Twilight continued to hyperventilate, stammering unintelligently.
“I… I… what… how did… wha… ghhhk…” Twilight began foaming at the mouth. Her eyes rolled back, and she swayed for a moment before toppling over. By the time she hit the floor, she was already unconscious.