Magic
Twilight Sparkle stood with her hooves at the lip of a stone ledge. She held her chin up, and her eyes closed. A gust of wind rippled through her mane and the feathers of her newfound wings. Gradually, she eased them open. She could feel the air, the way it moved, the way it lifted. She leaned forward.
“What’re you doing?” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight’s eyes shot open. A chasm cut into the ground at the edge of the ruins yawned beneath her. Yelping, she scrambled back from the ledge. Her rear hoof failed to find footing, and she fell backward onto her rump. Wincing, she picked herself up. She’d fallen off the thick crenelated wall of one of the ruined towers.
“If you jumped, I would’ve had to catch you,” Rainbow Dash said dryly.
Twilight glanced over at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus folded her wings. She must have just landed on top of the tower. “I could have cast Stoneskin before I hit the ground. I wouldn’t have felt a thing.”
“That’s not how you felt last time I caught you.”
“Last time I was spell-depleted,” Twilight said. She turned back to the wall and looked over it, out into the Everfree Forest. Sunlight played on the broad green leaves of the canopy. With another gust of wind, a flock of birds took to the air, their plumage a fluttering mix of red and blue.
“Just do me a favor and don’t practice on your own,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I didn’t come up here to practice,” Twilight said.
Rainbow chuckled. “Really? Then why were you about two seconds from a long fall and a short stop?”
“That kind of... happened.” Twilight said. She ran a hoof along the top of the wall. “I climbed up for a better view, and the wind felt so good.”
“Heh, airsick ground-hugger,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight shot a glare over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. She stepped up and leaned on the ledge beside Twilight. “Well, according to an old pegasus tale, once upon a time there was a pegasus born a cripple. She lived on the ground, believing himself never able to fly. But, a cleric happened upon him, and out of the kindness of her heart, healed the cripple.”
“You’re the last pony I’d expect to try and get a point across through a fable,” Twilight said.
“Hey, let me finish,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Anyways, she healed the cripple. He goes to a clifftop to feel the wind, gets airsick, jumps, and splat! The end.” She tapped Twilight’s wing with a hoof. “Your wings think you’re ready.” She tapped Twilight’s head. “But your mind is so used to being on the ground that it doesn’t know how to ride the air.”
“Let me guess, this is a story pegasi tell their young to keep them from trying to fly without being taught?” Twilight said.
“Nah,” Rainbow Dash said. “Pegasi foals can fly about as soon as they can walk. It’s actually easy for them, because they're so light. The middle years can get a little tough, and advanced skills have to be learned, but it’s mostly instinctive. The moral of the story is that Castouts can never come back.”
Twilight grimaced. “I see.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Somepony has to stop the storms that roll out of the Everfree, and it’s pretty hard to live in Cloudsdale if you can’t fly.”
Twilight looked out over the forest. “Well, maybe it’ll get better now that we’ve dealt with Nightmare Moon. It already seems brighter.”
“But still pretty wild,” Rainbow Dash said. “The Everfree is just... different. The other places we’ve been that ponies don’t go to, the Frozen North and the Badlands, are empty and lifeless. This place is chock full of life.”
Twilight nodded. Another gust of wind kicked up, tossing her and Rainbow’s manes. She blew a stray strand out of her face. “Anyways,” Twilight said, “I think I figured out where we are.”
“Oh?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Yep. The Palace of the Royal Sisters. Celestia and Luna used to live here, in the center of the Everfree Forest,” Twilight said. “Which means, no matter which direction we go, we’ve got a roughly equally long walk through dangerous territory.”
“Hold up,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing out into the forest with a hoof. “Who’s that?”
A figure in a brown cloak moved through a stretch of long grass growing in front of the treeline on the far side of the chasm. She approached a crumbling stone bridge. Twilight squinted. “Celestia’s friend, maybe? Let’s go find out.” She turned toward the spiral steps that led down the tower.
Rainbow Dash caught her shoulder. “Not that way, we’re gliding down.”
Twilight shook her head. “No, I think the stairs will do.”
“Come on,” Rainbow Dash said, pulling her toward a part of the tower’s wall that had crumbled away. “Gliding is easy. You just lock your wings, and drift on down.”
Twilight nickered, but let Rainbow Dash pull her along. She neared the edge of the tower. Her hooves reached where the masonry crumbled away. She looked down at the overgrown courtyard far below. Her stomach jumped into her throat.
“No way!” Twilight said, digging her hooves in.
Rainbow Dash grinned and stepped back. “Okay, fine.”
Twilight took a deep breath and turned away from the edge. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and smirked. “What?” Twilight said. Her eyes widened. “Dash, don’t you dare—”
The blast of wind from Rainbow Dash’s wingblades hit her full force. She tumbled backwards, head over hooves, off the tower. Her breath left her as acceleration took over. She twisted in the air and snapped her wings open. The rushing air wrenched at them, driving spikes of pain into her shoulders, but her tumble stopped, and she leveled off.
“See, easy!” Rainbow Dash said, gliding at her side.
Twilight blinked, expecting to have to squint at the wind in her face, but found it didn’t bother her. She looked to the side. The primary feathers on her wing spread, wide open to catch the air. Experimentally, she twitched them. Her wing dipped, then leveled out again. The courtyard sped past beneath. From the ground, Pinkie grinned up at her and waved.
“So, we’re going to bank right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Just lower the tip of your right wing.”
Twilight nodded. She moved her feathers again and dipped the leading edge of her wing. The air flowed around her, and partially, she willed herself to bank right, like when she used her innate levitation magic. The air responded, easing her into a turn. She glanced at Rainbow Dash, smiling.
Rainbow smiled back. “Alright, eyes on me. Don’t look—”
Twilight looked forward. The wall of a building rushed toward her. She yelped, focus shattered. Her wingtip plummeted. The world spun. She closed her eyes and cast Stoneskin.
She heard the crack of impact when she hit the wall, but didn’t feel it. She fell backwards, her wings trailing out behind her. Brambles crunched beneath her. Her back hit the ground, and she came to a complete stop. Vegetation entangled her wings.
“Ugh,” Twilight said, opening her eyes. She pulled Solstice out of its sheath at her side and slashed away the brambles. Hooffalls signaled a pony’s approach.
Applejack poked her head into the bush. “You okay, Twi?”
Twilight took another swing, cutting her left wing free. “Tell Rainbow she’s crazy.” She climbed to her feet and stepped out of the brambles. She touched her chest, wondering how many layers she had left in her Stoneskin. Only two impacts, she thought, but she had no way of telling how many layers the brambles had broken as she crashed through them.
Applejack chuckled. “Well, there’s a zebra here to see you.”
Twilight sat beneath a willow tree, near the same overgrown fountain she’d found Rainbow Dash at the night before. Zecora sat across from her, brown hood thrown back, and a steaming cup of tea in her hooves. She held it out to Twilight.
Twilight eyed the cup. “I think I’ll pass.”
Zecora smiled. She set the tea on a flat stone between them. “Later, I think you will decide to drink.”
“So, what’s this about?” Twilight asked.
“She sent me to guide you. To show you the way through,” Zecora said.
Twilight raised a brow. “Through the Everfree?”
Zecora shook her head. “A path swifter than that. A way beyond where you are at.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “I can’t teleport, if that’s what you’re talking about. I could make a gateway here, but I doubt I could connect through to any of the Grey Wizard’s gateways.”
Zecora shrugged, sipping from her own cup of tea in her hooves. “A wizard, I am not. Although, I thought you could use your own domain, not unlike the celestial plane.”
Twilight furrowed her brows. She stared at the moss covered stone between her forehooves. “My own domain...” I teleported Candlekeep there. “Ah!” she cried. “I just need to figure out how to get back there!”
“Think fast,” Zecora said. “Before too much time has passed.”
“Why the rush?” Twilight said. “I was thinking of staying here another day. We’ve been through a lot.”
Zecora gestured at the cup of tea on the stone between them.
Twilight picked it up in her levitation. “What’s this going to make me see?” Not waiting for an answer, she brought the cup to her lips and took a gulp.
Smoke clogged the sky. A mix of ash and snow flurried through the air, falling around where Twilight stood in the middle of a narrow street. Flames raged in a burning building beside her. Shadows crept past her. They flitted between patches of darkness, wearing the skins of ponies.
Twilight rushed down the street, following the shadows. The narrow, winding causeway terminated in a plaza where five streets met. Two ponies stood in the center of the plaza. An alicorn, and a stallion with a silver shield. They both looked up at something, and Twilight followed their gaze.
A towering figure with a blazing sword approached down one on the streets. On its head was a crown of fire. Its sides scraped the buildings. From its sword, it shot a ray of fire. The stallion raised his shield.
Twilight blinked, clearing her eyes. The scattered fragments of a shattered teacup lay on the weathered stones in front of her. Zecora watched her.
“Was that now!” Twilight shouted.
Zecora nodded.
Less than thirty seconds later, Twilight stood with her friends gathered in a huddle around her. “Stay close,” she said. Magic built on the tip of her horn. Brilliant overglow coursed around her horn. Closing her eyes against the brightness, she released the spell. With her power, she drove a path through the barriers between planes. With her, she pulled five threads.
Twilight opened her eyes. Her friends looked up, blinking. They stood in front of Candlekeep’s gates in the Abyss. Empty, blank plains surrounded them, stretching into the distance. “Stay with me,” Twilight said. “Pinkie, rear. AJ, Fluttershy, right. Rainbow, Rarity, left. I’ll take front.”
Her friends nodded She repeated the spell, a modified teleport, and focused on the individuals in the plaza in Canterlot, Shining Armor and Cadance. Breaking back through to the Prime Material was more difficult than the first casting had been. She drew on the Elements.
With a violent crack, Twilight landed in a crouch. Her hooves crunched in a layer of soot-darkened snow. Rainbow light swirled around her. She looked up. A Pit Fiend towered over her. As it emerged onto the plaza, it drug its sword through a building. Fire exploded throughout the structure. Chunks of masonry rained around Twilight.
“Break,” Twilight said. Her friends moved away from her. She triggered the sequencer in her necklace. Improved Haste slowed the world around her.
Twilight drew her swords, Celestial Fury to her right, Solstice to her left, Eclipse poised above her head. “You stand between me and my prey, little pony,” a voice said, thundering in her mind and through the air around her. The Pit Fiend gazed down at her with its four red eyes through the slits in its faceplate. A terrifying shadow fell over her mind, but it was familiar. This time, she carried Eclipse.
Twilight Sparkle smiled. She spread her wings and took a step forward. “Three seconds.” Until you die.
“What?!” The Pit Fiend said. Twilight pictured sprinting toward its hooves. She poised.
The Pit Fiend moved in response, It leveled its sword at her, and began to close its claw-blade wings in front of itself to block her path. Twilight focused on a point directly in front of its head.
Quicker than ever before, Twilight brought a Dimension Door spell to completion. From its sword, the Pit Fiend shot a blazing ray of flame at her, but long before it could reach her, she teleported. She appeared in the air, less than three hoofspans away from the demon’s blazing crown.
She plunged Celestial Fury into the Fiend’s forehead until the blade’s hilt lodged against the armored plate. As she fell, she ripped it free. Sizzling black blood flew into the air, trailing after the blade in an arc. The Pit Fiend fell with her, its body limp. The glow in its eyes faded.
As she plummeted toward the street, a second Pit Fiend burst from the wall of the burning building. Flaming debris flew through the air around her. A chunk struck her, shattering a layer of Stoneskin. A second story window across from the burning building neared. She snapped her wings open.
Her feathers caught air. With all the momentum from her fall, she shot through the window, forehooves extended. The shutters shattered when she hit. As she rolled on the floorboards beyond the window, she hit a table, sending the objects on it flying, and tipping it on its side. Her breath left her as the shock shot through her ribcage. The Contingency in Solstice fired instantly, protecting her with another Stoneskin.
I guess I only had two layers left, she thought. Hooking a foreleg around one of the table legs, she picked herself up with groan. A pot clattered on the floor as she bumped it, watery stew still spilling onto the floor from within it. Wooden bowls and bits of carrots and potatoes lay strewn on the floor around her. She heard a gasp.
She focused on the source of the sound. Huddled in a back corner up against a cupboard, a mare sat with her forelegs wrapped around two foals. She locked eyes with Twilight.
Any second, a blazing sword meant for her would pass through the wall and sweep the second story, turning the mare and her foals to ash. Immediately, Twilight began a casting of Time Stop. Her horn flared with power. The wall exploded inward. With a flash, her spell completed.
Where the wall used to be, frozen flames swept back to reveal an obsidian edge. Shattered fragments of wood floated in the air. Twilight blinked. Everything moved even slower than the last time she’d used the spell. Improved Haste, she realized. The effects are compounding. She stopped next to the family. With Solstice, she sliced a ring through the floor beneath them. They would fall a story, but hopefully escape the blade. I should have twice as long as I did against Nightmare Moon.
She pressed against the back wall. The Pit Fiend’s four red eyes stared at her through the window. She sprang forward, sprinting for the window. As she neared, she jumped up, pushed off the windowsill with her forehooves, and launched herself into the air. She opened her wings, catching air, and managed to turn enough to glide past the Pit Fiend’s head.
Hooves outstretched, she hooked the base of one of the Pit Fiend’s wings. She jerked to a stop and planted her three free hooves on the Pit Fiend’s back. Careful to keep her footing, she turned to face the intersection.
In the center of the plaza, Shining Armor stood next to Cadance, his armor gleaming in the firelight, and his shield raised high. Her friends fanned around them. Dozens of Skinstealers, some in their true forms, and some wearing the skins of dead ponies, covered the plaza to the rear and to the left. To the right, a third Pit Fiend stood frozen mid-step. It was a trap with one jaw made of Pit Fiends and the other from Skinstealers. Somepony really wants Cadance dead, Twilight thought
Applejack faced the Pit Fiend, eyes wide. The Pit Fiend’s gaze is getting to her, Twilight thought. On the opposite side of the plaza from Applejack, Rainbow Dash streaked through the air, her wings angled in a dive. She plunged toward the swarm of Skinstealers on the left side.
Focusing, Twilight launched a Fireball. She targeted a point to the rear, on the opposite side of the plaza from her own position, and well beyond Pinkie. The red spark launched from her horn, then froze in the air. Twilight followed with a second Fireball, finding the recovery time she needed between spells much shorter than before the encounter with Nightmare Moon.
Twilight turned to face the back of the Pit Fiend’s neck. With Celestial Fury, she took a swing. The first strike buried nearly halfway through. She pulled the blade free and swung twice more before her blade passed through.
She flicked Celestial Fury through the air as she turned back to the third Pit Fiend. The black blood slid off the blade, then stopped in the air in a frozen arc. How do I deal with you? Twilight wondered. Pit Fiends had a resistance to magic far beyond any lesser demon. She furrowed her brows. I wonder how many Magic Missiles I can cast before Time Stop ends.
One after another, she cast the five Magic Missile spells she’d prepared. Each time she finished a casting, five lavender orbs burst from her horn, then slowed to a near-stop. That should do it, she thought, eyeing the twenty-five frozen orbs. One of her hooves started to slip on the Pit Fiend’s back. She shifted, regaining her footing. Now what?
For a moment, Twilight waited.
Time came back. The Pit Fiend lurched beneath her, falling, its severed head separating from its neck. Its sword extinguished, but the momentum it held carried it deeper into the structure until it lodged in the second story. Her two fireballs launched into the air. A swarm of magic missiles shot toward the third Pit Fiend. The red sparks impacted amongst the Skinstealers. Twin bursts of fire covered the far end of the plaza.
At nearly the same moment, a rainbow shockwave rolled off Rainbow Dash. With all the force of a Rainboom, she smashed into the the Skinstealers on the left side of the plaza. The crack rang in Twilight’s ears.
Twenty-five orbs of concussive force impacted the third Pit Fiend. More than half burst harmlessly on its red hide and black armored plates, absorbed by magic resistance, but the rest passed into it. It stumbled, its focus on Applejack broken.
The body Twilight rode hit the ground, launching her onto the cobblestones. She tumbled, a layer of her Stoneskin shattering, and came to rest next to where the first Pit Fiend had fallen. She lifted her head, just in time to see Applejack buck Truthseeker into the third Pit Fiend’s forehead.
Twilight glanced at the first Pit Fiend’s lifeless eyes. Black blood still oozed from a hole in the center of its armored face. “I did warn you.”
A Skinstealer with singed wings and a broken leg crawled away from Twilight. Trotting, she caught up to it. She swiped with Celestial Fury and severed through its black carapace. Two separate chunks of its body fell to the ground.
Nearby, Truthseeker cracked. “That’s all of ‘em,” Rainbow Dash shouted from above.
Twilight looked around the plaza. Bodies, ponies, and the demons they’d dispatched with Celestial Fury and Truthseeker littered the ground. A mix of snow flurries and smoky haze filled the air. A slurry of half-melted snow mixed with ash and blood ran in the gutters. Black mist from the dissolving Skinstealer bodies flowed over the ground. Craters marred the surface of the plaza. After her Fireballs, and Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom, only a few wounded Skinstealers had remained.
“Good work everypony!” Twilight called.
Stepping over bodies, Shining Armor approached her. He stopped a few paces away. “I don’t believe it... I thought we were dead. How?”
“Magic,” Twilight said. She trotted forward, brushing past Shining Armor. “Cadance? Are you okay?”
Cadance stared at an expanding patch of blood on the snow. She took a step back to keep it from touching her hooves and nodded vigorously. “I’m alright.”
“What in Equestria is happening here?!” Twilight said.
“You know more than we do,” Shining Armor said. “A group of Grey Wizards was escorting us to a meeting when those things showed up.” He nodded at the Pit Fiends. “Our carriage tipped. We ran. They herded us here.” He shook his head. “Hell of a Hearth’s Warming.”
Twilight turned back to Shining Armor. “Somepony is trying to kill one or both of you. Any idea who?”
Shining Armor shrugged. “No idea. You don’t know?”
Twilight shook her head.
“Really?” Shining Armor said. “We stopped by Ponyville on the way here, and word was you’d left for Canterlot about a month ago.” He paused, staring at her. “Why do you have—”
“Wings?” Twilight said. “Magic. I don’t really know what to think about it yet either.” She glanced around the plaza. At the moment, the five surrounding streets were empty. Won’t be like that for long, she thought.
Rainbow Dash touched down beside Twilight. “I see shapes moving in the streets. Can’t make them out through the smoke, but there could be more.”
Twilight looked at Rainbow and nodded. “We need to move.” And I know just the place to go. She turned to Canterlot Castle to get her bearings. Only the silhouette of the structure was visible through the smoke. She pointed down the street where she’d killed the first two Pit Fiends. “Rarity, that way will take us to the docks right?”
Rarity nodded. “I think so, if my memory serves.”
“Why the docks?” Shining Armor said. “Shouldn’t we be getting out of the city?”
“Two reasons,” Twilight said. “There’s a pony there who’s bound to have information, and I have unfinished business to take care of.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Rarity, Fluttershy, Shining, stick to Cadance. I’ll lead. AJ, cover our rear. Rainbow, be our eyes. Pinkie, back me up.”
Rainbow Dash launched herself into the air. Around her, her friends moved into place. Twilight trotted forward, toward the two giant demon corpses. Black smoke billowed from the buildings on both sides of the street, making the air particularly thick. She squinted. Three shapes moved in the smoke, one the size of a pony, the other two the size of foals. They made it, she thought. Good. She coughed.
Shining Armor stamped down a hoof on the stone, drawing her attention. Twilight turned. “We need to get out of the city,” he said.
Behind him, Fluttershy’s eyes flared with magic. A bubble of clear air pulsed out from her and pushed back the smoke. Twilight narrowed her eyes at Shining Armor. “You have two options. Stick with us, or we take Cadance and leave you behind,” Twilight said.
“Over my dead body!” Shining Armor shouted.
Twilight flared her wings and took a step toward Shining Armor. “You. Are. Not. My. Friend.” Bile rose in her throat. Just give me a reason, she thought. “For months I chased you. For months I dreamed of the power I hold now. Power that would make you helpless before me.”
Twilight glared at Shining Armor. “Do you know what it’s like to stand there helpless, watching? Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?” She paused, folded her wings, and took a deep breath. “If your dead body is what it takes, gladly. I won’t leave Cadance to die, and I won’t be second-guessed by you.”
“Shining, Twilight, please,” Cadance said. “Let’s stick together.”
Shining Armor gave a fraction of a nod.
Snorting, Twilight turned away from him, and trotted down the path she’d chosen. “Apparently, we didn’t stamp out the Skinstealers last time we were here. Anypony could be one, so stay ready.”
As they neared the docks, the smoke thinned, giving way to the sea breeze. They found the streets strangely empty, especially for a day of celebration like Hearth’s Warming. A few ponies down winding side-streets at their approach. Shutters closed, and doors bolted when they neared.
“This is eerie,” Rarity said.
Beside Twilight, Pinkie’s left eye twitched. “Something strange is going on.”
Rainbow Dash swooped in, kicking up flurries of snow as she landed. “Got something up ahead. Some kind of barrier.” She looked up. “That, and Wonderbolts.”
Overhead, four pegasi flying in a lopsided V and trailing stormclouds shot past. They swooped back around, coming in low along the street. Twilight drew her swords and stepped forward.
The Wonderbolts braked sharply, looping up and outward. After shedding their speed, they hovered down and landed in the street a good distance away from Twilight. “Easy!” a mare shouted. “We don’t want a fight.”
Twilight smirked. “I guess they remember us.” She strode forward, letting the tips of her swords drop, but keeping them drawn.
Rainbow shrugged. “Or they remember you.”
“Come closer, on the ground! You take off, I start slinging spells!” Twilight shouted.
The four Wonderbolts advanced. “We just came to talk!” The mare shouted. She lifted her goggles onto her forehead and ran a hoof through her fiery orange mane. As she neared, Twilight recognized her.
“Spitfire, right?” Twilight said. She stopped. Less than ten paces separated her and the Wonderbolts.
The mare nodded. “Right.”
“What happened? Did the Grey Wizards stop wanting to kill me, or did you stop doing what they told you to?” Twilight asked.
“Mix of both,” Spitfire said. “Thirty minutes ago Thieves Guild informants spotted you in town. The Grey Wizards and the Grey Fox tripped over each other trying to panic first. They sent me out to find you.”
Twilight sheathed her swords. “Just to find me?”
Spitfire nodded. “And report back.”
“So why are we talking right now?” Twilight said.
“I think the odds are better for my team if we’re on good terms,” Spitfire said. She dropped down, kneeling. The other Wonderbolts followed her lead.
Twilight furrowed her brows and glanced at her shoulder. She’d thought her cloak was doing a decent job of hiding her wings.
“You and the Crystal Princess,” Spitfire said. “We owe you our allegiance.”
“Rise,” Cadance said, shaking her head. “This is exactly what I was coming here to try and prevent.”
Spitfire stood up. “Canterlot needs a leader, Princess. Not the Grey Wizards, not the Grey Fox, and certainly not King Sombra.”
“Wait,” Twilight said. “King Sombra?”
Spitfire shrugged. “It’s what he calls himself.”
“Elaborate,” Twilight said. “What’s going on. What did I miss?”
“After the incident with you, the Grey Wizards and the Thieves Guild became very close.” Spitfire said. “Even though they tried to keep it under wraps, but everypony knew something had happened to their magic. They needed to work with the Thieves Guild to keep order.” She shook her head and looked down. “There were all sorts of rumors. Demons that would come and suck your life in the night. Ponies that weren’t ponies. Everypony was scared.”
Spitfire raised her head and looked up at Canterlot Castle. “Then King Sombra showed up. The Demons, the Thieves Guild calls them Skinstealers, followed him. He took the castle and declared himself ruler of the Crystal Empire. Killed most of the Grey Wizards. All the ones that are left are holed up in the Thieves Guild compound.” She nodded toward Cadance. “He stole the Gates from the Grey Wizards. He probably tried to kill the Princess.”
Sombra has some of the essence Trixie stole from me and Pinkie, Twilight thought. There’s no telling what he’s capable of. “Alright, stay here. I’m going to pay Fancy Pants a visit.”
“Who?” Spitfire said.
“The Grey Fox.” Twilight turned to her friends. “Everypony hold tight. Rarity, come with me.”
Rarity stepped forward. “Just the two of us?”
Twilight nodded. She formed a spell, and touched her glowing horn to Rarity. A shroud of invisibility fell over the white unicorn. “In a moment, you won’t be able to see me, but I’ll be able to see you. I’ll follow you. Head into the mansion, then stop in the hallway outside of Fancy Pant’s Office. I’ll pass you in the hallway, and deal with him. Don’t try to do anything. If anything goes wrong, hide. The form of Invisibility I’ve cast on you is fragile. Shooting your bow, for example, would definitely break it.”
Shrouded in invisibility, and hidden with Non-Detection, Twilight trotted after Rarity’s white form. With Truesight, she could see her invisible friend clearly. They’d easily slipped past the barricade the Thieves Guild had set up in the street, and a second closer to the Mansion. As a pony passed through the front door of the mansion, Rarity moved to slip inside with him, but stopped short. She took a step back, away from two guards posted outside the door.
Twilight approached from behind Rarity. She stopped with her muzzle close to Rarity’s ear and tapped her gently on the shoulder. “What?” she whispered as quietly as she could.
“Trap, Alarm. If I step across the threshold, I’ll set it off,” Rarity whispered back.
“Alright, sit tight. You should be able to slip in in a moment,” Twilight said, not even bothering to whisper.
With a wave of levitation magic, Twilight blasted the doors open. Unlike the spell she’d used on Rarity, her own Invisibility would keep her hidden. A sound like a ringing bell filled the air. The glowing forms of the two guards jumped in surprise.
Before they could react, Twilight swept between them. She turned left and headed for the hallway to Fancy Pants office. The well-muscled stallion she’d met the first time she’d been in the mansion, Bouncer, stepped off the wall to block the door to Fancy Pant’s office. “Who’s there!” he shouted.
Twilight snatched him in her levitation and dashed him against the wall. He fell in a heap, blood gushing from his nose. She stepped over him and smashed the door open, shattering the hinges. With a start, the ponies inside snapped their gaze to the open door.
Twilight stepped through. With her Truesight, she instantly identified every glowing form in the room. Fancy Pants sat behind his desk. Two Grey Wizards stood to his left. To his right, Fleur De Lis sat on the desk, leaning back on one outstretched foreleg. She started to move.
In one fluid motion, Twilight drew Eclipse and thrust at Fleur's head. The blade lanced clean through. Twilight pulled the blade free as the body slumped, brilliant red lifeblood clinging to the tip. She drew Solstice and Celestial Fury, leveling them at the Grey Wizards. “Try it,”
“Shit!” Fancy Pants said, jumping out of his chair as Fleur’s body fell toward him.
Twilight let her invisibility drop.
“It’s you!” One of the Grey Wizards said. She took a step forward, toward her blade. “Come to finish the job, Deathmage?”
Twilight glared at her. “Why not?” she asked. “How many ponies did you kill to have those Pit Fiends at your call? How much blood is on your hooves?”
“Those Gates were more than a century old!” the Grey WIzard said. “And your master seemed eager enough to use them.”
Twilight blinked. “My master?” She chuckled. “Wait, you think I’m working with Sombra?”
“You’re not?” the mare said. She shook her head. “He said you’d given him the Crystal Heart. He thanked us for sending you his way.”
“Not by choice,” Twilight said. She eyed the mare. “We don’t have to be enemies.”
“You killed so many of us! Apprentices and masters!” the Grey Wizard shouted.
Twilight nodded. “I did.” She took a step forward, into the the office, and let the points of her swords drop. “All you needed to do to stop the bloodshed was give me my friend.” She advanced a step, glaring at Fancy Pants. “And you! You stabbed me in the back!”
Fancy Pants cringed behind the high back of his chair. “I’m sorry!” he said. “Fleur told me you were too unstable, too dangerous.”
Twilight ripped the desk out of the way. Ink and paper scattered as it flipped onto its top. “Don’t blame her!” Twilight shouted. “I was desperate, and you took advantage of me!” She threw aside his chair and leveled the bloody point of Eclipse at him. “I should kill you too.”
Fancy Pants swallowed audibly. “It was business! Not personal!”
Twilight snorted. “I should kill you, but you’re useful.” She glanced over her shoulder. Rarity’s glowing form stood in the hallway. “Rarity, come on in here.”
As Rarity stepped into the office, Twilight canceled the spell keeping her invisible. “Here’s how this is going to work. You’re going to do what Rarity tells you,” she gestured at Fleur’s body with Eclipse, “or you’ll get what you deserve.”
She turned to the Grey Wizards. “As for you, your order has a choice. I intend to kill Sombra and return stability to Canterlot by putting Princess Cadance on the throne.” She extended her hoof. “Work with me. Let’s stop the bloodshed.”
The glowing form of the Grey Wizard who’d confronted her flickered in hesitation. After a moment, she took Twilight’s offered hoof. “We were trying to get the Princess here. We heard she was ambushed. What happened?”
“She was, by your Pit Fiends.” Twilight said. “I saved her.” She frowned. “How many Gates did you have?”
“Seven,” the Grey Wizard said. “All from relics from the days of the Platinum Dynasty. We used one in desperation to try and get the Fragment back.”
“Sombra used three,” Twilight said. “Three left.” She turned to exit. She stopped beside Rarity and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m going to get our friends.” She winked at Rarity, then nodded toward Fancy Pants. “If he gives you any trouble, let me know.”
Rarity winked back. “I will.” She leaned close and whispered to Twilight. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“We’re going to need the Thieves Guild’s resources.” Twilight whispered.
“I meant putting me in charge,” Rarity whispered.
Twilight smiled and stepped past Rarity. “You’ll be fine. Do what you think is right.”
On a third story balcony, Twilight rested her forelegs on a railing covered in snow. Smoke rose from Canterlot, fed by multiple fires. Her breath misted in the chill air, mixing with steam rising from a mug of warm tea floating in her levitation. She took a sip. Over the rim of the mug, she stared up at the castle. Out of the smoke in the city, she could see its outline more clearly. Jagged black crystals jutted from the towers.
Behind her, a door opened and closed. She glanced over her shoulder. Shining Armor stepped out onto the balcony with her. She frowned.
Shining Armor sighed and leaned on the railing beside her. It creaked as he rested his hooves on it, protesting his stature and armor. After a moment of silence, he said, “I do know.”
With a hoof, Twilight pushed some snow off the railing, clearing herself more space. “I came out here to be alone for a moment,” she said.
“I know what it’s like to be helpless,” Shining Armor said. “You were too young to remember the night Star Swirl found you. I wasn’t.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes and took another sip of tea.
“I was small, alone, and weak when my world crumbled around me. My own mother wanted to see me sacrificed to you.”
Twilight’s ears perked. “Sacrificed to me?”
Shining Armor nodded. “The cultists seemed to think you were Azrael reborn. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Star Swirl that came with fire and saved my life. And I had to live, one little colt against the streets of Manehatten.”
It’s what Azrael wanted me to be, Twilight thought. She glanced at Shining Armor. “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” she said. “He tried to find you.”
Shining Armor’s jaw tensed. “I hid. I didn’t understand what was happening. I was terrified.” He shook his head. “No, you aren’t supposed to feel sorry for me. But maybe, if you understood what I saw all those years later, the voice of the pony that turned my parents to ash standing between me and the pony I was meant to be sacrificed to, you’d understand why I did what I did.”
“Understanding isn’t the problem,” Twilight muttered. She sighed and rubbed her temple with a hoof. “Shining, I get it. I do. I know why it happened. I know why you killed him.” She swallowed. “That doesn’t mean I can let it go.”
Shining Armor looked up at the layer of grey clouds hovering above Canterlot. Patches of blue shone through. The pegasi that must have moved the snowfall into place were nowhere to be seen. “I know.” He rubbed his hooves together. “And I’m glad it was you. I’m glad, if it had to be one of us, that Star Swirl found you and not me. I’m glad Celestia watched over you. Because, if it had been me that had the pony I cared about most taken away from me, I would have stopped at nothing to kill the pony that did it.” He turned to look at Twilight. “I certainly wouldn’t have saved him.”
What is forgiveness? Twilight thought. “Celestia was wrong,” she murmured. I saved you when I could have killed you. She stared down at her hooves folded on the railing. “I’m sorry I can’t accept you, and I’m sorry I can’t let go, but I do forgive you.” She pushed off the railing and turned to face Shining Armor. “How do you not hate me? I had it easy, safe in Candlekeep. And you—”
“Met Cadance,” Shining Armor said. “And you just saved us, again.” He smiled. “I don’t know how you got to Canterlot, and I don’t know how or why you have wings, but I’m glad you do, and I’m glad we’re on the same side.”
“We should be more than just on the same side.” Twilight looked back out over the city. “We should have been family.”
“I know,” Shining Armor said. “And it’s my fault.”
“No!” Twilight shook her head. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask to be born so close to me. You didn’t ask to be my brother.”
Shining Armor reached out and touched her shoulder with a hoof. She stiffened. “What’re you talking about, Twilight?”
Twilight brushed his hoof away with her magic and turned to the door. I’m the reason you’re a Shadowspawn, Twilight thought. Azrael was after the Element of Magic, and you got caught up in it. She pulled open the balcony door. “Forget it,” she said. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about."
Twilight approached the desk in the Grey Fox’s office. Rarity, Fancy Pants, and one of the Grey Wizards leaned over it. Cups of tea floated in levitation fields. Rarity gestured with her hoof at the map spread on the desk. “We need to move into the city. We can’t just let the Skinstealers run amok.”
Twilight glanced at the carpet. All that remained of Fleur was a red stain. Did I do the right thing? Is loyalty gained through fear worth having?
“The shapeshifters are everywhere,” the Grey Wizard said. “The only way we’ve been able to protect ourselves so far is by securing the docks and keeping everypony else out.”
“We don’t really know what’s going on in the city,” Fancy Pants said. “I can’t imagine this Sombra would be after their lives, it would leave him nothing left to rule.”
Twilight cleared her throat.
All eyes in the room turned to her. “I’m going to fight Sombra tomorrow, after I’ve gotten some rest, and I’m going to do it alone.” Rarity opened her mouth, and Twilight held up a hoof. “I need the five of you to stay here, deal with the Skinstealers, and save the city.” She moved up to the map. “Rarity is right. We need to protect ponies. All I have are guesses, but I think they need an unoccupied body to summon more of them into our plane.” She looked up at the ponies around her. “If I’m right, each pony we let them have becomes one of them.”
At the sound of Pinkie Pie snorting in the doorway, Twilight’s ears turned. “You aren’t going after that monster alone.”
Twilight raised her head high as she turned to face Pinkie. She opened her mouth to argue, then sighed instead. “Fine, you and me, Pinkie.”
“He took just as much from me as he did... wait, what?” Pinkie Pie said. “You aren’t going to argue?” She took a step toward Twilight. “Are you okay?”
Twilight rubbed her temple with a hoof. “Not really.” She eyed the ponies gathered around the table. “I trust you’ll follow Rarity’s orders?”
Fancy Pants sunk into the chair with a grumble. “You’re asking the impossible. If we try and control more of the streets, it’ll be the end of us.”
“Impossible?” Twilight said. She took a long stride toward Fancy Pants, and snapped her wings open, sending her cloak fluttering behind her back. “What do you see?”
Fancy Pants eyes widened. The Grey Wizard dropped her cup of tea. As it bounced off the desk, she said, “Another Alicorn?!”
“I am the impossible!” Twilight took another step to close the gap between her and the desk and jabbed Fancy Pants in the chest with a hoof. “Are you extraordinary? Because these are extraordinary days. Are you sure, beyond any shadow of a chance, that our forces can’t save Canterlot?”
Fancy Pants swallowed audibly. “Maybe there’s a way.”
“Then do what you can,” Twilight said. She turned away from the table and flicked her wings so that her cloak settled over them. She strode out of the office. Pinkie’s light hooffalls clicked down the hallway after her. She swept past a few ponies moving around the mansion and up the steps, toward the room she’d claimed as her own.
Pinkie stayed with her onto the second floor. As her hooves clacked against the hardwood floorboards of the second floor, Twilight turned to look at Pinkie over her shoulder. “Yes, Pinkie?”
Pinkie bit her lip and tilted her head, peering at Twilight.
Twilight glowered. “What?”
“Yep, you’re right,” Pinkie said.
Twilight blinked. “About what?”
“You’re not okay.” Pinkie trotted up to Twilight and leaned forward until her eyes were inches from Twilight’s. “Humm...”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Pinkie, whatever you’re doing, I’m pretty sure it’s not helping.”
“As I suspected!” Pinkie cried. She drew back. “This is very serious!”
Twilight raised a brow. “What?”
Pinkie tapped her chin with a hoof. “Humm...”
Twilight huffed and pulled open the door to her room. She stepped inside, and before she could close the door after her, Pinkie darted inside, then rushed over to the desk and scrawled a wavering line on the parchment with a charcoal stick. “Pinkie...” Twilight said.
Pinkie drew a second line on the parchment, higher up on the page. She doodled wings next to the higher line. She squinted at the parchment appraisingly, then picked it up in her mouth and held it in front of Twilight. “Do you see!” she grunted.
Twilight sighed. “What is it?”
Pinkie dropped the parchment onto the floor and pointed at the line nearer the bottom of the page. “This is baseline Twilight intensity,” she pointed to the higher line, “and this is Alicorn Twilight intensity! It’s nearly off the charts!”
Twilight shuffled her wings beneath her cloak. “We’re out of the pan, and into the fire. Nightmare Moon, and now this.” She took a deep breath. “I hardly feel like I have time to think. I’m just... acting.”
Pinkie Pie nodded.
Twilight walked over to the window. She leaned on the sill, folding her forelegs beneath her chin. “I’m not okay. Okay would be curled up in front of a fire with a good book.”
Pinkie rested a forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s okay to be not okay.”
Twilight chuckled halfheartedly. “Do you miss Ponyville?”
“Of course,” Pinkie said. “I miss the smell of freshly baked cupcakes. I miss all the foals. I miss us all together, laughing.”
Twilight stared out over the choppy waves in Canterlot Harbor. “We’re going back there,” she said. “We need to track down Trixie, and beat her, then we’re going home.” She pushed off the windowsill. “One step at a time.”
“And our next step is stepping on Sombra, right?” Pinkie said.
Twilight smiled. “Yep.”
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It's BEEN UPDATED!
Someone open the case of Mixed energy. It's B a c k baby!
[Mixed energy is a soda I came up with. You don't want to know why it's called that. All I say is that it's a parent's worst nightmare in a drink.
Great to see Pinkie trying to keep Twilight grounded and try to cheer her up.
Fancy let me level with you.You see that angry purple pony in front of you.
She's been doing the impossible since she left her castle. First of thing she does is gain the favor of a god, then defeats monsters and a dragon way above her level, moves a castle because she didn't like we're it was, conquers a dark power that normally conquers the user, and when some thing or some one trys to takes her power away. She turns her self into a friken demi god to make up for the lose of power then Gaines the favor of another god as an added bonus. And your telling her its impossible!!! Lol my boy you don't know the meaning of the word
Yay, its alive! More please!
6496182 and 6496259 Every day that it doesn't update, this is why:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/7/29/383881__safe_solo_animated_derpy+hooves_edit_meta_derpibooru_comic+sans_wrench_sparks.gif
6496250 As Twilight once said:
sweetness, it lives
6496382 I rest my case
6496382
That was, by far, my favorite scene so far in this story. It just make you really think about what Twilight has been through in this story. I've never played Baldur's Gate so I have no idea how close this runs to baseline or not, but I imagine that Twilight has been through a hell of a lot more.
And then it's in the form of a verbal beat down on a wannabe upstart that's done basically nothing in his life so far. It's just a perfect contrast.
6499061 I haven't played BG either, but from my experience with DnD and the Forgotten Setting, Gods and Elder Beings very very rarely interact with mortals. So I am guessing all the parts with the 'gods' in this story like Celestia and Luna probably didn't happen. The rest probably happened, but maybe in a different way. The same setup and checklist of stuff happening, but different details.
The Author does have this world explaining away a lot of the MLP stuff to fit into the DnD world. Like changing how Magic works, so Unicorns can't just do magic like in the show, and instead it's like how magic is in the DnD world.
So probably follows very close, just with needed changes here and there for the MLP world.
6499061
Long story short, Twilight has gotten a lot of stuff done by this point that isn'the in, or is heavily altered from the game. The protagonist in the game, who shall be forever known as CHARNAME, is really as important as Twilight is. In the game, he's the offspring of a minorly important God of Murder who occupies a place in a Pantheon that is like Paradise Lost blended with Greek mythology, good vs evil but with lots of gods of varying importance.
The game gets epic towards the end, and direct influence from Gods comes in in the final part.
In this story, Twilight is far more of a
world-changing "Chosen One". She's up against the entity that created the world, so her trails have to be grand enough to build up to that kind of conflict.
6499893
Exactly! And so far you've done a wonderful job of it. I've loved every word. I believe I started reading the first part of your story before I had an account here, but I've just added it to my favorites, and the only reason I don't add this is I prefer to keep things out of my favorites when they aren't done yet. Rest assured that it will be there when the time comes.
Now if only you'd hurry up and write more so I could see where this goes.
Just kidding, take your time.
I believe She should be He, as that is how the pegasus is referred to all the other times in the story.
She said while flipping the bird with one of her primaries.
Forgiving is important, always try to forgive. Forgetting is not always reasonable or even possible.
Man, I can't believe that I waited this long to get caught back up on this story. Twilight is beginning to see herself for what she is beginning to become, and realize that she is more important than she ever believed herself to be.
The other members of the main six have fallen a little out of focus, but that comes with the territory simply given the scale of Twilight's destiny, and new found power. Ultimately I think it is safe to say at this point that Trixie is screwed.
Is this going to continue?
Update?
The amount of badassery here is off the charts!
This is an extraordinary story! Are you planning on continuing it?
I'd love to see this finished since book 1 was epic. Maybe someone will do just that someday...
R.I.P to a legendary author, these stories will forever be in my bookshelves
I hope that wherever you are that you're doing good. God bless
well this story is dead.....quite sad as i really liked book 1...
arthor last online 2016..........
11128120
Yeah, I decided to scroll through my old favorites to see if there has been progress and realized it’s been years since this person has been online. Weirdly depressing, but honestly the first story was so good, and the start is good enough!
Goodbye author, hope you’re kicking ass in life