Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“So what do you propose to do now?”
“I’ll head to Appleoosa,” Twilight responded, the Elements hovering beside her in the alicorn’s telekinetic grip. “It’s closest to these mountains, and I’ll regroup from there. Surely there’ll be some ponies sympathetic to my cause—Braeburn’s part of the Apple family, perhaps—and if not, I can nevertheless disguise myself and ride the rails to the more central settlements of Equestria.”
“Sounds feasible,” Discord mused. “But what I was actually referring to were the Elements. How do you plan to make use of them should…trouble arise…before you can free me?”
Twilight turned to face the floating gemstones, each flickering with light of their own and reflecting the new alicorn’s puzzled face with five different distortions. In fact, the reflections looked a lot more like the ponies who had once borne each stone than Twilight herself, a fact that both panged at her heart and gave her small comfort all at the same time.
“I was hoping that the Elements would kind of show me what to do on their own,” Twilight said. “In the meantime I suppose I can just wear them all around my neck as I don’t exactly have any spare saddlebags with me, even though five golden necklaces studded with rather large gemstones will be awkward. I can conceal them and my wings with an invisibility spell. Or better yet, I can just cast an illusion over my entire body to make me look like some other pony.”
“Not what I was hoping for,” Discord sighed. “But I suppose we’ll have to make do with that arrangement in the meantime. I may know more about the Elements’ history than you do, but I haven’t the slightest idea how they work or how to use them as you ponies do. Should trouble arise and you don’t know how to use the Elements all at once, you’ll be on your own.”
“It feels like I already am,” Twilight sighed herself.
“And what am I, chop liver?” Discord inquired indignantly. “You’ll have me to guide you every step of the way, even if I won’t be able to do anything but offer advice until you free me. At least nopony else can listen in on our telepathic conversation—even Celestia and Luna are oblivious to my monitoring of the outside world.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized. “I guess… I guess I just don’t really know how to trust anypony anymore. Not after what happened…”
“I understand,” Discord soothed. “But you CAN trust me—remember, you already knew what I wanted, even before all this. The princesses fall and we’re both happy.”
Twilight grunted in what might have been agreement and levitated the Elements closer to her, lowering them over her head and over the tiara holding the Element of Magic. It was indeed awkward being weighed down so much in the front with all this gold, even with Twilight’s new alicorn strength.
But then, just as suddenly as Twilight had almost fallen forward from the tug of the Elements, the weight melted away as if it was redistributing itself equally throughout the new alicorn’s body.
“Huh?” Twilight wondered, glancing down, and then gasped.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Discord commented. “But it’s a welcome surprise all the same. It seems the Elements are even more connected to you than I thought.”
The Elements had changed shape, had shifted. Instead of five golden collars on Twilight’s neck, the gemstones now sparkled in five different sections of interlocking golden armor. The suit, unlike anything Twilight had ever seen, was comfortable, light, and sturdy all at once. The segments even interlocked in such a loose way as to allow for easier movement, though they could just as easily cover every inch of Twilight in protective casing. The only Element that hadn’t changed was her own, the gemstone of Magic still glimmering in its tiara on Twilight’s head, giving her the appearance of a warrior princess.
Which, Twilight angrily realized, was probably exactly what the Elements now wanted Twilight to be.
“No!” the armored alicorn snorted, stamping her hoof. The mountain seemed to quake ever so slightly as Twilight did so.
“Am I missing something here?” Discord wondered. “‘No’ what?”
“I will NOT be the next princess!” Twilight instructed the Elements as if they were a biological being that she could reason with rather than a crux of this reality. “This is only so we can take down Celestia and Luna, and that’s all! After all this is over, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t be a ruler! I won’t be your pawn any more than I’ll be Celestia’s! Look what your attempts to make me so have done already!”
“Oh, having a discussion with the Elements, I see,” Discord almost laughed. “A word of advice: they’re not the most negotiable of…entities. They want you to take down Celestia and Luna, and so they’ll help you to do that. But they also want you to replace the princesses afterwards, so they’ll never leave you alone until you accept your destiny. And believe me, you don’t want to get on the bad side of the Elements. I mean, just look at MY predicament, not to mention what they’re planning for Celestia and Luna…”
“Whatever,” Twilight huffed. “If they want to try and make me their next princess, then let them try. But I’ll never go willingly and I’ll never stop resisting a destiny that cost me my friend’s lives.”
“Arguing with you against the futility of such a course of action, would, I see, be futile in itself,” Discord assumed. “So I’ll leave that to you and the Elements. For now, let’s just concentrate on liberating a certain draconequus, shall we?”
“Right,” Twilight affirmed, focusing her energy. Her horn began to glow, began to spark, and with a flash of light, Twilight was gone…
…only to reappear a few feet away, melting the snow and scorching the rock beneath.
“What?!” Twilight gaped.
“I told you the princesses set up an anti-long-distance-teleportation barrier around Equestria,” Discord reminded her. “It’s taking almost all of their strength to maintain it too, which means that it's more than a match for you.”
“I know that,” Twilight exasperated. “I just didn’t think that ‘long-distance’ meant anything more than a meter! How else am I supposed to get down from these mountains?”
“Like I said, the old-fashioned way,” Discord told her. “I think your friend Rainbow Dash would’ve called such an action ‘flying.’”
“The snarky attitude isn’t exactly helping,” Twilight spat. “And besides, I don’t know how to use these!”
The new alicorn attempted to lift her wings, which were far larger proportionally than that of a pegasus, only to have them twitch in the snow.
“YOU might not know,” Discord explained. “But your body does. It comes with the territory of being a magical avian. I would suggest jumping off that cliff there—”
“Are you crazy?!”
“—and instinct should take over,” Discord finished. “Besides, if instinct fails you, it’s not like you’ll die when you hit the bottom, no matter how sharp those rocks are.”
Again, Discord had a good point, and Twilight almost hated him for it. Was there going to be anything easy and not-terrifying about this ordeal? But then Twilight remembered her friends’ faces, the looks in their eyes as the glimmers within them died. Twilight remembered seeing more terror and pain in those eyes than anypony should ever have to see, much less experience as her friends had as their lives had been snuffed out one by one.
Twilight thought of what the brave Rainbow Dash would’ve done in her situation, or determined Applejack, or even the relentless will of Fluttershy. They wouldn’t have complained about how saving Equestria wasn’t easy, so neither would she. Twilight didn’t need easy. She needed resolution. She needed vengeance. She needed justice.
And even if it was the hardest, least easy, most terrifying thing she had ever done (and in all likelihood it would be), Twilight would see to it that justice was served. For her friends’ sake as well as Equestria’s.
Not thinking of how terrified she was of the drop below and the razor rocks that waited at the bottom or, even worse, of Celestia and Luna waiting in the Palace at Canterlot a thousand miles away, Twilight thought only of her friends, how they had always been there for her—and how she would always be there for them, even now. Twilight took a tentative step forward, and then broke into a trot that turned into a canter. Almost just as instantaneously Twilight quickened to a full-out gallop…
…and leapt over the side of the mountain.
Twilight fell at first, trying desperately to force her wings to extend and flap furiously. Twilight focused all her strength on the feathery new appendages, but they flared up uselessly against the shrill shriek of the icy wind rushing past her as the stony fangs below rushed up to meet her.
“No, no, NO!” Twilight roared, looking around desperately. She was too far from the side of the cliff wall, and she doubted that chomping onto to an outcropping of rock (if there had been any to chomp onto in the first place, that is) would slow her fall in the slightest anyway. The rocks were rising fast, too fast, but Twilight’s wings, now flapping frantically, were doing nothing to slow her descent. “Come on, fly, Twilight! FLY!”
“You can do it!” Discord called. “Just trust your instincts!”
“What instincts?!” Twilight demanded.
“Maybe I should help out a bit.”
Twilight’s head jerked up at this last voice, for it surprised her even more than Discord’s had. Far more.
Suddenly the lightning bolt-shaped Element of Loyalty began to glow, a steady, warm hum that launched into a crescendo and suddenly became a blazing beacon.
And memories that weren’t Twilight’s flooded her mind.
She remembered walking excitedly out onto the clouds, marveling in wide-eyed awe at the sheer bigness and blueness of the sky. It never ceased to amaze her no matter how many times she had seen it, and being a newborn filly, that number wasn’t actually all that high.
Then there were others, older ponies, a strong yet kind-looking stallion and a fierce yet loving-looking mare, both sporting wings like her own, smiling at her, pushing her forward towards the edge of the cloud and egging her on with the encouraging assertions that she could do it.
And though she did fall at first, and terror seized her heart when she saw just how very far she could fall, adrenaline began to pump through her veins as the wind rushed past her. The sheer speed of it all was exhilarating. It was like she had been born to do this, but not in this direction, not zooming towards the not-so-far-away-anymore ground and away from her parents and her friends and everything she had ever known in her cottony, cloudy home. She was supposed to be going up. Skyward.
Her wings launched out, and with a few strokes, her falling slowed. With a few more, she began to change direction. With a furious and joyous barrage of wing beats, she stopped falling altogether, and did the exact opposite—she rose. She skyrocketed.
Into the welcoming arms of the air, the sheer endless playground that awaited her.
The smiles of her parents filled her with even more pride, knowing that she had pleased them—but more importantly, knowing she had pleased herself. She had found out where she belonged. Up here, soaring through the sky, where the air was the same color as her coat, and all the colors imaginable danced across the atmosphere in bands of light, just like her mane flowing in the wind.
And all at once the memories faded into reality. Twilight still felt the real wind as the sensation of the foreign memory left her, but it was flowing past her in a different direction this time, moving caressingly across her coat as if welcoming her rather than trying to throw an outsider from its domain. The wind, in its wordless whisper that was no longer a raging shout, seemed to say that she belonged here, in the sky.
Twilight looked below her to see that the sky was indeed exactly where she was—the mountains were far below, and receding fast. The snow-filled clouds rushed past her next, and when Twilight breached the ocean of white into the bright blue of the unhidden sun, she saw that her wings were flowing in time with the dance of the wind, with the general secret music that pervaded this atmospheric kingdom. The dance was known to none but its subjects, of which Twilight had just become, welcomed with open arms.
Twilight was flying. She was soaring. She was accelerating, and all at her own subconscious will, not even putting forth any effort in the matter. When Twilight cautiously probed the part of her brain making this happen with her conscious mind, it stepped silently aside to let her take over from autopilot. Twilight found that she knew the steps just as well when she tried the dance of the air intentionally as she did by the bare essence of her nature, by her instinct.
And when Twilight was engaging in the dance of flight of her own fully conscious mind, she could do more than simply follow along to the tune. She could experiment; she could branch off into new directions, adding her own notes to the music and her own steps to the motions. She could rise or fall, speed up or slow down.
Then, for the first time in her life, Twilight felt what it truly meant to be free.
Sure, she had known what the word meant—she could recite dozens of different dictionaries’ unique definitions of the term, could even tell you what it had evolved from in pre-Equestrian languages dating back to the dawn of recorded history. Twilight knew all of the ways in which the word ‘free’ could be incorporated into spells, in the act of anything from breaking out of a confinement to unlocking a door.
But before, she had only know the shadow of the word. Now she knew the real thing, and she lived it. And she loved it.
For just a moment, Twilight was lost in the ecstasy of her first flight, and the dire situation at hand slipped to the back of her mind.
“There’s nothing quite like it, is there?” whispered the voice that wasn’t Discord’s, breaking Twilight out of her memory. The new flier almost lost tempo with the beat of the aerial dance, faltering and nearly falling. But Twilight righted herself again, and continued on, as the echoes of the whisper were lost to the wind and the glow of the Element of Loyalty began to subside. Its work was done, and for now, its spirit could rest until it was needed again.
“No, there isn’t,” Twilight whispered in reply, smiling despite the tear that fled down her cheek. “Thank you for showing that to me, Rainbow Dash.”
There was no answer, and the lightning bolt-shaped Elemental gem didn’t so much as flicker.
“And I thought I had seen everything the Elements could dish up,” Discord laughed wryly. “Obviously I was sorely mistaken.”
“You’re the one who told me the bearer’s spirits are still connected to the Elements, even in death,” Twilight reminded him with a wry smile of her own.
“Indeed,” Discord responded. “But I had never seen just how connected. Even death is nothing to the Elements. I fear them, and am glad they are, for once, on my side.”
“Me too,” Twilight agreed, though she knew this wasn’t entirely true. She wasn’t entirely on the Elements’ side. She wouldn’t be their pawn. But, nevertheless, she did have to silently thank them—Twilight had never thought she would hear the cyan pegasus’ voice again. But, despite even death itself, it was there when she needed it, and even if the voice's owner couldn’t be seen or even felt, so too was she.
“Appleoosa should be coming up below,” Discord told her, breaking Twilight out of another reverie. “Thankfully the cloud cover has shielded showing which direction you came from, but be careful. The Royal Guards are everywhere down there.”
“Duly noted,” affirmed Twilight. Casting an illusion over herself, Twilight descended through the clouds, seeing the familiar frontier settlement of Appleoosa from an unfamiliar angle. Twilight had never expected to see the fledgling town from above, nor had she ever expected to see it swarmed with guards.
The armor-clad strong-looking stallions and mean-looking mares were everywhere, and as Twilight touched down onto the soft dust of the Appleoosa Town Square she witnessed just what they were doing here. Several of the guards were simply pulling wagons, but each wagon was loaded with precisely the same thing. Towers of paper, barely restrained by thin string, weighed down each wagon, some stray leaflets floating away on the breeze as others were unpacked and presented to the local shopkeepers and other denizens of Appleoosa.
When confronted with one of the papers being shoved into their noses by a guard, the residents would nervously shake their heads in the universal negative, and the guards would either move on to the next townsfolk unfortunate enough to get caught up in the ordeal or stamp the papers to whatever surfaces they could find. The storefronts were already covered with the things, each bearing the same message a hundred times over.
One of the stray papers blew towards Twilight, who snatched it up in her mouth and laid it flat on the ground to read. Twilight couldn’t levitate the thing with her invisible horn, as the illusion she had cast on herslef showed anypony who looked her way a perfectly innocent pegasus of nondescript height, build, or really just about anything that would make other ponies stand out at least in some way. Twilight had taken the guise of a winged pony—and nothing more—to belay any suspicion of how the newcomer had gotten to the settlement with neither carriage nor train or any other registered and tracked mode of transportation. Flying was now the only unsuspicious mode of travel over long distances.
But before Twilight could study the paper, a guard caught sight of her and rushed over.
“Hey, you!” the guard, a bulky earth pony, called. “The pegasus! Stay where you are!”
Twilight did as she was told, as anything else was likely to warrant arrest on the spot in this high-alert state Celestia and Luna had thrust Appleoosa, and presumably all of Equestria, into. The phony pegasus’ heart beat fearfully in her chest as the guard screeched to a halt in front of Twilight. The secret alicorn had no doubt that he would pose any threat to her on his own, but the slightest hint of suspicious behavior was likely to be the match to the kindling. The guards would all swarm her like flies to a corpse, and Celestia and Luna would finally know where she had escaped to. Twilight also knew that without teleportation, she was unlikely to escape them again.
“Ah, I see you’ve already got a flier,” the earth pony gruffly noticed. “Have you seen the pony depicted there? She’s an enemy of the state, a high-class anarchist who must be stopped. The very well-being of all Equestria could hinge on any information you give us about this highly dangerous individual.”
Twilight, still unnerved by the guard’s seemingly disinterested—surely he already had done this countless times today—yet still unwavering and attentive gaze, finally allowed herself a glance down at the paper. Her suspicions were confirmed.
Emblazoned across the front of the page was the image of Twilight Sparkle, or at least an artist’s best interpretation of how she would look as an alicorn. ‘WANTED’ headed the picture in red, and beneath the hasty sketch was a written profile of the culprit.
“This pony wanted for treasonous plotting against the crown,” Twilight read. “Formerly known as ‘Twilight Sparkle,’ this unusually magically gifted unicorn has disguised herself as an alicorn with forbidden spells and is seeking to corrupt other Equestrians against the princesses. Any and all information about Twilight or her whereabouts or those in any way affiliated with her is to be reported to the Royal Guard at once. Until this vile threat to our land is vanquished, martial law shall be in effect, and all objectors shall be apprehended and severely punished on sight.
“In Twilight’s mad attempts to seize the crown for herself, the rogue unicorn has brutally killed the other Elements of Harmony in Ponyville. Our beloved princess Celestia was regrettably too late to save them…”
Twilight’s voice trailed off, her eyes not able to believe what she had just read. Celestia was blaming HER for the deaths of her friends, when hundreds of ponies, least of all Twilight herself, had seen the princess massacre them in broad daylight?
“Yes, horrible tragedy, that was,” the guard snorted in disgust, seeming to completely believe it without question. And why wouldn’t he? Celestia had probably made the announcement to the Royal Guard herself. “The whole town’s been quarantined as a crime scene, nopony allowed in or out. That daft traitor even used some confounded spell to make half the town think that it was Celestia who had murdered the Element bearers. Can you believe that?”
“…No, I can’t…” Twilight whispered.
“Something…wrong, miss?” the guard said uncertainly. “Did you know any of the Element bearers personally?”
“You could say that,” Twilight snorted, hardly caring anymore whether the guard thought that she was acting suspiciously or not. But no, she had to remain composed—she couldn’t blow her cover, for the sake of her friends and all of Equestria. If Celestia and Luna had already turned it into a police state in less than a day, what else were they willing to do to find her?
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the guard apologized. “I heard that they were great young mares, had so much potential left in them, even if they did make the mistake of hanging around that traitorous loony.”
“Yeah,” Twilight sniffed, unable to help it. “I guess it is all her fault.”
“You alright, miss?” the guard asked, just the slightest bit of suspicion—or perhaps it was only Twilight’s own paranoia—creeping into his voice. “Do you know anything about this whole mess?”
“I’m…fine,” Twilight struggled to remain calm. “It’s just… all this is a little overwhelming… And no, I don’t know anything.”
“It sure is,” the guard agreed. “But if you ever do receive information, the Royal Guard asks that you report it immediately.”
“Duly noted,” Twilight smiled, every fiber in her being threatening to break out through the cracked, forced expression in a mix of fire and tears.
“Good day, ma’am,” the guard dismissed her, trotting off to ask the same questions to an elderly couple crossing the street, despite the fact that they’d probably already been interrogated dozens of times.
“No,” Twilight said to nopony. “It isn’t.”
“Whew, good going there, Twilight,” Discord breathed a sigh of relief in her mind. “But you might want to take a look at the rest of your mug shot.”
“Why?” Twilight inquired. “What else could I possibly learn from this? Celestia’s made things as bad as they can be.”
“Not by half,” Discord warned her sadly.
Twilight looked down at the ‘wanted’ poster again to see what the draconequus was talking about. And, once again, to Twilight’s utter horrified dismay, Discord was right.
There, at the bottom of the paper, was a list of those already captured and on trial for suspected association with the ‘villain formerly known as Twilight Sparkle.’ Every name of every family member of the Element bearers was listed, from the Apples to the Pies to Rarity’s family. Even Braeburn and Appleoosa’s herd of the Apple family was listed as in custody at the local jail.
But no matter how horrifying those names in red were to Twilight, her heart stopped dead cold when she read the final listings.
“In the Canterlot dungeon,” Twilight read. “Are held those believed to have been most involved with the conspirator, including Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle (parents) and Spike (draconic familiar). Their execution is scheduled tomorrow at dawn.”
“She’s gone too far,” Twilight stated flatly.
“Now, Twilight—” Discord tried to interject.
“She’s gone too far,” Twilight repeated.
“This wasn’t unexpected,” Discord pleaded, seeing he was losing Twilight just as quickly as the disguised alicorn was losing her own grip on reason. “And they’ll be freed as soon as we dethrone the princesses. Please, you have to keep a low profile for now—”
“No,” Twilight said simply. There was no room in her tone for negotiation. “I will free these innocents, and I’m going to free them now—”
“Twilight!” Discord shouted. Instantly, a replay of Celestia’s bloodthirsty rampage filled Twilight’s mind, only this time, in place of her friends, Twilight watched helplessly as the solar princess tore apart Spike, her parents, the other’s parents and families, and everypony else she had ever known. “Look, Twilight! THAT is what they will do to the other ponies and Spike if you give yourself away and try to free them! There are hundreds of innocents unjustly imprisoned, yes, and trust me, I of all beings know how it feels to be unjustly imprisoned. But giving in to your anger here and now is what Celestia and Luna want! They want to use the others as bait, and if you try to free them you’ll be walking right into their trap!”
“But I can’t just let them lock away my friends’ families!” Twilight yelled in her mind, stamping her hoof for emphasis. The residents of Appleoosa as well as the guards currently stationed there shook unsteadily on their hooves as the ground quaked beneath them as a result. Thankfully the source of the tremor couldn’t be traced back to Twilight, but the disguised alicorn couldn’t have cared less right now if it could. “I can’t let them kill my parents and Spike!”
“Then you’ll just have to get to Canterlot by tomorrow morning before the execution, and you’ll have to do so discreetly,” Discord told her. “If you storm around Equestria freeing everypony you’ve ever been in contact with then the princesses will catch you and your family and Spike will be murdered anyway!”
Twilight quivered with rage, but kept the anger inside herself, knowing Discord was right.
“There’s a train leaving for Canterlot in half an hour,” Discord informed Twilight. “You should be there by nightfall, and you can be in the city by dawn. But remember, this will ONLY work if you keep cool!”
Twilight looked like she was about to explode for a moment, and then cooled off, hanging her head.
“Thank you, Discord,” Twilight said meaningfully. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” the draconequus warned. “Now, hurry! Blood will be spilled tomorrow, one way or another. Let’s just make sure it’s Celestia and Luna’s.”
. . .
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Ooo new chapter, much thanks. Will we get a chapter that shows us the day or so before chapter 1?
Okay, I extremely disliked the first part of the first chapter, and I didn't want to read it any further, so I rated it 1/5.
Then, curiosity got the best of me, so I read the second part of the first chapter, and that was better, so I changed my rating to a 3/5
After I read this chapter, I couldn't do something else than changing my rating to 5/5.
Btw, I bumped you up 0.1!
This comment is a placeholder for my actual comment.
The purpose of this comment is to tell you that you receive my customary 4/5 rating until I actually have time to read the fic. Enjoy.
- Thou shalt call me LARS!
5/5 IMO for again IMO opinion accurately portraying Discord, who I'm my eye never meant to harm any-pony.
This sounds pretty epic. Totally gonna read!
I find it to be pretty amazing so far, can't wait for the next chapter!
Ever heard of the phrase "Self-fulfilling prophecy"? Yeah, they're dead.
This is such a great read! I love your writing style and all the characters are potrayed beautifully. I almost cried when Twi heard Rainbow help her. Keep up the great work.
Also, the first chapter was great in my opinion. I'm glad you didn't dwell into the gruesomeness of it all and for that I thank you.
W.T.F
this almost made me cry
Just when you think you hate Celestia enough, someone adds MORE fuel to the fire.
Just because Twilight is immortal doesn't mean she's invaluable, sure she won't die but she will steel feel the pain!
How Celestia managed to fool every being in Equestria about Twilight being a tyrant baffles me, including all the witnesses, surely someone had to take a picture right?