Internal struggle

by lunaisbestpony1

The Storm Before The Twister

Anger is a hard emotion to sustain for two hours, but the dark Twilight had somehow managed.

When the cab arrived on the outskirts of Canterlot, the city didn’t seem to be experiencing the sunniest weather. Grey clouds hovered above the abandoned side of town, rain drizzled from the sky, the sun behind the clouds glowed with a strange dimness, like the very essence of nature was in a state of despair. “Driver,” Said the Dark Twilight, her voice only barely above the sound of the downpour, “Stop here.”

The cab pulled over to the side and the alicorn stepped off the vehicle. She trotted around to the front of the cab and gave panic stricken the changeling an amused grin. “Hmm,” She pondered, “What to do with you?”

The bug fixed the princess with a look of absolute fear, “Please great princess…please don’t kill me.” He whimpered.

Twilight leaned on the windowsill and with a fiendishly delighted chuckle said, “You know I much prefer your kind to ponies. I’ve decided to allow you to continue your pitiful existence.”

The changelings lip quivered, “Thank you.” He squeaked.

Twilight gave no response. Her horn began to glow with a shadow fueled green, the driver was lit with the aura. He screeched, his hooves flying up to his head in pain as his mind was erased, then he stopped, blinked, and looked up confused at the strange pony. “Um, who are you?” The driver asked, slightly leaning away from the terror emitting Princess.

Dark Twilight smiled, “I’m the being who just gave you mercy, bug. A rare gift indeed. Do not squander it.” She turned on her hoof and walked off into the rain. Cooley disappearing into the mist.

But the deed of mercy was too nice, she began to twitch, the fire of her mane dying, her whole being becoming meek and childlike. Her last thought before she changed was ‘Next time, this will be different.’ The thought rang through her head as more of a promise, as everything went black.

Twilight opened her eyes and shivered. She was sitting in a puddle in the empty roads of Canterlot, she didn’t know how she had gotten there. Nothing to do now but find her way home.

She wondered the empty streets trying not to sob. She knew this neighborhood all too well, but the streets looked almost deserted. Like a part of town that had been abandoned with time. Once brightly colored houses were boarded up and grey. Once clean lawns were overgrown and full of weeds. How long had she been gone?

In a deep puddle she caught sight of her reflection, she noted that her body was taller, her unkempt mane was longer than she had remembered. Her once childlike features had expanded. She looked like a grownup mare. But how?

After some thought and many minutes spent in the dreary streets, she decided that whatever had happened to her must have been magical.

Possibly a spell had gone wrong and her spirit or mind had traveled forward in time. That was likely enough.

Here she was an alicorn after all, something magical and life changing most defiantly had happened. Maybe she had jumped into another dimension where everything was weird. That was possible. She’d have to ask around when she next saw somepony, but whenever that was, it wasn’t now.

Next she pondered the time skips, why she kept blacking out.

Before waking up in Canterlot, the last thing she remembered was standing before the guard. She remembered the guard being confused, and she remembered a very small voice right before the world went black, she couldn’t make out the voice’s words, but they had made her angry, very angry. And she hadn't know why she was angry, it was illogical to be so. But the surge of rage had pushed her under, and the next thing she knew she was soaking wet in a puddle of mud. That wasn’t good at all.

‘Note to self,’ she thought, ‘don’t get angry. I hope the guard is okay.’

She was getting closer to her side of the neighborhood now, civilization was signaled by the many streetlights beginning to light up as she walked. The closer she got to the residential side of Canterlot, the less streetlights seemed to be broken. Twilight tried to stay close to the dots of shimmering light as the moon slowly roved into the sky. The rain didn’t light up with the darkness of night. Nopony within their houses dared venture into the falling rain, leaving the alicorn quite alone and scared.

Twilight pushed on. Soon she saw a darkened house just like any other, but she recognized the familiar number above the door. The address 42 Chocolate Lane. Her home.

She walked onto the old porch, ignoring a flash of lightning behind her, and noting a few items placed against the wall. Pictures of her accompanied by scented candles and teddy bears. She gulped, didn’t pictures and candles signify…she shook it off. She was fine. Here and alive.

The Princess was about to go inside when one of the plushies caught her eye, a smarty pants doll. Her smarty pants doll. It sat atop a picture. Curious and nostalgic, she wrapped the doll in her magic and hugged it to her chest with her hoof. Then she studied the picture. Her and five mares sat on a picnic blanket. Behind them the sun was shining and everypony was grinning ear to ear, lost in laughter at some forgotten joke.

Looking at the picture, Twilight felt all warm inside, like she knew the unknown ponies. But she also felt sad. She levitated the picture to her and turned it around, looking for some explanation of the event. There was no date written, but a small message shone through in pink sparkly ink.

‘Don’t forget to laugh.’ It said.

Twilight didn’t know why, but something broke when she read the words. She gasped in a shaky breath, and sniffed. A single word came to her mind, ‘Pinkie.’ It was the most important word she could think of. She held onto it.

Then, armed with only the word, her doll, and the strange picture, she went inside. The door swung open on the first try. More lightning struck, and this time thunder followed, she jumped in.

She placed her belongings on familiar dining table, hoping that they would be safe there. Then she tried the lights. They flickered on and she sighed with relief as she studied the house.

It looked lived in, but slightly dusty. Like a house left alone for a week or so well the owners were on vacation. She ran from the entry room and checked the fridge first, noting that the milk was still good, and the cheese was lack of mold.

Satisfied, she trotted up the stairs to her old bedroom. It took a second to open the door, as the hinges were rusted. But when the door pushed open she found herself in a room coated in spider webs. An old desk sat in the corner, it was littered with papers. She chuckled, the old place had hardly changed since she got her own room in the castle. Her parents had kept it just the way she left it.

Her bed was made, and a mass amount of old stuffed animals sat atop it. She grinned and lied on the bed, sinking into the old mattress and smiling in remembrance. She may have drifted off, but her stomach began to rumble.

“I’m hungry,” She buzzed, then she turned to her plushies, “What do you think I should eat Mr. Monkey?”

Mr. Monkey gave no response, but the mare nodded as if his silence was profound, “Good idea!” She said. She crawled off her bed, meeting slight trouble with her wings dragging behind her, and ran for the kitchen. She threw open a cabinet and reached for the topmost shelf, noting that she could reach it now with little effort, then she grabbed a bowl from the pantry and began the process of making cereal. She hummed a slight tune, setting the bag down and pouring a bag of oats into the bowl then going for the milk. But as she opened the fridge, thunder sounded, the lights went out.

Twilight fumbled around in the newfound dark, dropping the milk carton on the ground. It spilled all over, accumulating in a big puddle on the tile. She sighed and levitated the milk off the floor, surprised at how effortlessly she levitated liquid. That was new.

Then, not trusting the liquid she had lifted from the floor, she dumped the suspended milk into the sink and returned to her bowl of oats.

“Well, she muttered, dry cereal is good too.” More thunder sounded and she flinched in fear and dove for the main room, grabbing her smarty pants doll on the way and huddling on the nearby couch to eat.

But she didn’t even finish her oats before she drifted off, curled up in the dark room with half a bowl of cereal and her favorite doll.

Lightning flashed as she began to dream.

But her dream was more of a nightmare.

Author's Note:

Next Chapter will more than likely be titled 'Nightmares Lie'.
Hope you liked this, please leave a comment, and thank you for all the love and support on this project.
<3 LiBP

Comments

[Follow Focus]

I can imagine Twilight having a lot of fun rediscovering her powers :D I'm excited to see what you do with a dream sequence! I've written a few and they always turn out... strange. Very strange. :D
Great work as always! Keep it up :D

[lunaisbestpony1]

4558147 Eep! Thank you for the feedback. I was pretty worried about this chapter. But I'm glad somepony thought it was good.

Question, I want to do a scene with the princesses are discussing the events of the story, hopefully, it would be full of hints pertaining to what happened leading up to the beginning of the story. Also, it will show whats been going on since Twilight disappeared. My question is this, should I do the scene next chapter, after the dream sequence (which would include a major POV switch) Or as a stand alone interlude thing, or not at all? I'm having trouble deciding.

[Follow Focus]

4558207 Well if you want a way to transition to this new POV I would recommend that you do it immediately after the dream sequence. Since Luna has the ability to peer into ponies dreams she could feel the disturbance of Nightmare Moon's presence in Twilight's dream and could then discuss it with Celestia. This would be a pretty good segue into the scene you want to do :D

[Follow Focus]

4558260 Awesome :D

[lunaisbestpony1]

4558243 Absolutely! I was thinking of doing something similar. This should be fun.

[Follow Focus]

4558267 Indeed it should be :D

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

Well, I can assume it's gonna be one buck of a nightmare!

[lunaisbestpony1]

4558284
4558667 You'll see

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

4558783
Sounds sketchy...
And that fact make the anticipation all the greater!

[Techgirl]

I hope Luna tries to somehow help Twi in this story.

[lunaisbestpony1]

4569909 Of coarse. I wouldn't be so mean as to make Luna join Nightmare or anything. You beleive me right?

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

not bad. hope for update soon

[MythAndShadow]

Update plz!!!

[Blue Flash]

4558783 This was posted on a padded ponies group. I don't see any padded pony themes yet? When are you going to add the padded pony part?

[fluttershyfan3030]

I look forward to your next chapter this is a very unique story as Nightmare Moon is Twilight's alternate persona and she is unaware of her

[Aunt Celestia]

Update?

[PurpleAcid]

update please

[Raichu]

Me likey. Hopefully this will keep going and keep updating. I'd hate to let it go. For now, I'll be watching, perhaps from the shadows or something. What you have so far is good. Don't let it get away.