• Published 7th Oct 2014
  • 11,732 Views, 418 Comments

Starting Over - Twilight Nightmare



After feeling unwanted and abandoned during the Canterlot Wedding, Twilight leaves to try and make a new start for her only to fall prey to a gang. Now Twilight tries to rebuild a life with no memories of her past until circumstances guide her home.

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Sisters

Author's Note:

If you are reading this as an update you may be a little lost as I have rewritten chapters 1 wnd 2 so plezse check them out and let me know of any problems that need fixed, thanks. :twilightsmile:

Rose sighed as she shelved a few more books, a couple days passing since she apparently came home. Something felt off about the situation, but she just couldn’t put a hoof on it no matter how much she tried. As Nomad, or her supposed father claimed, she may have forgotten who she was, but her heart still remembered where she came from and brought her home. She had to admit that being around so many books did seem familiar, almost comforting after everything.

Comforting was something that she didn’t want to admit that she needed, but she had been unable to deny it all the time as her sister had found her curled up and sobbing a couple times. Trixie had seemed really hesitant at first to do so, but seeing how much tension between her and their father, Rose could understand it. The three of them must have not gotten along very well together before…before her attack.

Shaking a little Rose managed to get herself under control. It helped that she couldn’t remember what had actually happened, it might as well just been a piece of news she heard about someone else. She felt bad about it, but a part of her seemed to not care about it. Then there was a part when she felt alone and couldn’t help but feel…afraid. She couldn’t explain it, everything just crashed in on herself as flashes of shadows flitted across her memories. She couldn’t really make any details out, only that it made her feel afraid and helpless to such a degree she felt as if she was going to have a breakdown.

“Hello…Rose.” Trixie said as she picked up a book Rose dropped. Rose just couldn’t seem to keep a magical grip on anything for too long and had a feeling that it wasn’t normal for her. Especially if her sister was any indication as she could see just how powerful Trixie was.

“Hi sis.” Rose beemed at her sister, noticing Trixie wince a little before looking back over her shoulder before turning back.

“Rose…I…” Trixie started, rubbing a leg with a hoof in nervousness.

“Trixie!” Nomad’s voice came bellowing from the back interrupting anything that Trixie was going to say.

“I guess we’ll have to talk later.” Trixie sighed as she turned to slowly go back towards where their father’s voice came from. Rose couldn’t help feel a little worry for her sister as Trixie seemed to be worried about something. At first Rose was going to follow her, but someone was coming to the shop so she needed to pull the hood of her cloak up to hide her face. No use in scaring any more ponies.

“Trixie was trying to talk to Trixie’s sister.” Trixie snarked as she entered the back to see her father glaring at her. She gulped when his magic picked her up and threw her across the room to slam into a wall rattling the shelf overhead.

“So I saw…” Nomad growled out as he stomped over to where Trixie winced in pain on the floor. She looked up with fear as her father towered over her making her wonder what just happened. Sure her father was as ass, but he never really hurt her before outside of intimidation and demeaning her. Throwing her like that…it was shocking despite already hearing his threats. Despite his words, a part of Trixie never believed he would physically harm her…but now she knew.

At the same time she was worried about Twilight and what she had gone through. She wanted to hate the mare, but seeing just what happened to her Trixie just couldn’t. And now her father wanted her for some reason which worried Trixie as she felt Twilight already suffered enough as it was.

“Father…please…just tell her the truth and send her home. Don’t you think she’s been through enough as it is?” Trixie whimpered as she pushed herself up on her four hooves before being thrown across the room again.

“Trixie…me dear, dear Trixie.” Nomad said as he shook his head and walked over to her as she shakily climbed to her feet. She would have whimpered if she saw the calculating look in his eyes as he ran over dozens of plans in a matter of moments before grinning. “Are you really that foalish? As to challenge me? As to think I’d be planning to hurt my own daughter?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Trixie gasped out as she finally looked up into his eyes. Trixie could see that he was hiding things, but she also knew he serious and telling the truth.

“My dear Trixie, your mother left when Celestia came and took Twilight from us. The princess wanted to take our Midnight Rose as her personal student seeing how she had so much potential. In the end we refused so the princess ordered her guards to subdue us and took our baby from us and renamed her Twilight Sparkle.” Nomad said dramatically, though Trixie could tell that he was lying about that part…but he looked to serious when claiming that Twilight was Trixie’s sister. “If you want, I have a book that teaches a simple spell that can tell you if two ponies are related by analyzing a strand of hair from each. We don’t even have to tell your sister, just get a single strand of hair.”

“Then why not tell her the truth?” Trixie asked, favoring one of her front legs. It wasn’t broke, but it hurt pretty badly.

“That’s simple my dear, I plan to write a letter to your mother tonight and tell her that both of her little girls are under one roof. With both of you here, she’ll come back to us.” Nomad said frightening Trixie a little. Once again she could tell that what he said was mostly the truth, but the look in his eyes were unsettling. He seemed almost obsessive when he mentioned Trixie’s mother.

“Mother!” Trixie gasped in shock. She could barely remember her mother, a mare that often wore silks and many bangles and had large hoop earings. She loved to dance and listen to a strange music that seemed so upbeat and just made you want to dance. Her mother had left them when Trixie was very young, leaving Trixie her hat and cape, her most prized possessions. “Mom will come back? Trixie will be able to see Trixie’s mother again?”

“Of course dear. She loves you very much you know, she just blames herself for what happened to her sister and couldn’t stay.” Nomad said, his voice taking on a tone that seemed a mixture of sadness and anger.

A part of Trixie didn’t believe him in the least, but the prospect of seeing her mother again was too tempting to dismiss the idea completely. If her father could prove that Twilight really was Trixie’s sister, if the mare was truly Midnight Rose, then Trixie would give it a chance and hope for the best. If Twilight was her sister though, then Trixie would do her best to protect her no matter what.

Trixie had always wanted a family that loved her, though her father was all she had for so long until she ran away to start her showmare career. Nomad could be a caring pony at times, but he was normally more intimidating and demanded complete and utter obedience. A part of her hated the stallion so much, yet a dep part of her loved him. He was her father, her family, and despite not having many happy memories with him she wanted to believe in family.

~~~

“Thank you, please have a pleasant day.” Rose said as the stallion paid for the two used books and trotted off with them in his saddlebags. It wasn’t too hard to run the register like Nomad showed her and finding things in the store seemed second nature to her. It made her want to believe the story he had told her and then there was Trixie…

Trixie seemed kind of familiar for some reason, and if it was true that they were sisters then it would explain it. Trixie had been very nice to her as well despite Rose seeing the look in the mare’s eyes though Trixie doesn’t know that she had seen it. The look went from…an almost hateful expression to one full of worry. Then again, Rose figured that she would be worried about any pony if they showed up looking like Rose had.

“Hey sis.” Trixie greeted as she came from the back, limping a little.

“Oh my gosh, Trixie!” Rose gasped out as she rushed to Trixie’s side, the movement threatening to throw the hood off, but it managed to stay in place as she started checking on Trixie before realizing she didn’t know what she was doing. As far as she knew she didn’t have any kind of medical training.

“It’s okay, Trixie kind of fell over and knocked some stuff off a shelf on top of Trixie.” Trixie said softly nuzzling Rose’s cheek. “Thank you though.”

“That’s what sisters are for.” Rose chirped out making Trixie eyes water a little and let out a soft gasp.

“Well, Trixie came to ask if you wanted to go out with Trixie to dinner tonight. Father is going to be out seeing to some business.” Trixie said hesitantly.

“That sounds great, but can we close up like that?” Rose asked as she remembered that the shop was kept open until well after dark thanks to it being hearth warming in just a few months and business was starting to pick up a little.”

“It’ll be fine, trust Trixie. All we have to do is put the, ‘be back soon’ sign up. Trixie does it all the time.” Trixie stage whispered making Rose giggle a little. She had to admit the way Trixie spoke sometimes was kind of cute, a little funny. “Besides, father actually gave Trixie permission and money to pay for our meal.”

“Okay, sounds great.” Rose said softly, though she had to admit that she was a little excited to be able to get out of the store. She hated having to wear her cloak to hide herself, but she agreed with what their father had cautioned since Rose had already seen it was true. Just remembering the horror etched on those fillies faces when they ran from her had broken her heart.

“Great, Gordon Ponsey is doing some kind of restaurant thing not far from here and we get to use father’s invitation since he can’t make it.” Trixie cheered, wanting so much to taste the famous pony’s food. He was supposed to be the best of the best when it came to cooking and Trixie wanted to see for herself.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Trixie.” Rose whispered drawing in on herself and using her magic to pull her hood closer around her muzzle to hide her face.

“You really do look okay, but Trixie won’t make you leave your cloak if you don’t want.” Trixie sighed, feeling it would be hypocritical if she tried to take her possible sister’s security blanket when trixie treated her hat and cloak as her own security blanket.

“O-okay, I’ll go.” Rose said softly after seeing how excited Trixie was about going to eat. She didn’t understand the excitement, but she wanted to have some fun with her sister away from working in the bookstore since there always seemed to be varying degrees of tension between Trixie and their father. A part of Rose worried that it may be because of her, but she wasn’t sure and hoped that she didn’t cause some kind of trouble for them.

“Great, I need to go do a few quick things and I’ll be right back.” Trixie said as she hugged Rose, making sure to take a loose piece of hair from her sister’s mane. Turning around she hurried back to where she slept where she left the book sitting on her bed. True to his word, Nomad gave her the book and showed her the spell and it seemed like it would really work.

That came after his apology and him giving her money as he always did to go do something fun after bringing her to tears from his putting her down. She knew it was only for him to deal with his guilt doing it, but it did give hope that maybe he really did care about her even if at times it was hard to see. He had never physically hurt her like he did though, but he had also never done anything as nice as giving her the invitation to get a chance to meet Chief Gordon Ponsey. It was going to be AWESOME! She could deal with a little pain if she got to meet him.

Shutting herself in the small room, Trixie took out the book and the small spell circle drawn on a sheet of paper. The paper would be destroyed by doing this spell, but she could always make another. After going over the spell several times to see how easy it was with a spell circle she placed a strand of her hair and the hair from Twilight’s mane on the paper, Trixie touched her horn to the edge and channeled her power as the book described into the circle. A few moments later the circle went up in green flames along with the hair which according to the book meant that they were related.

“Twilight…is…Trixie’s sister?” Trixie gasped as she fell back on her rump. She was partly expecting it, but a large part of her kind of expected it to be some kind of lie.

After taking several breaths Trixie had to force the confused and shocked feelings down to deal with later as she still had a dinner date with her sister. She wanted to kick herself though as she remembered not long ago she hated Twilight with a passion and now…now she found out that the mare she once hated was her sister. And worse yet, some scum had beaten her and left her for dead after raping her. Twilight swore that if she ever found out who did it she would make them suffer.

“No one hurts Trixie’s sister!” Trixie snarled to herself, though a part of her found it ironic to care so much for a pony that she once wanted to make suffer.

~~~

Several days had gone by since her little sister had run away all because of the mare’s friends and family. Of course a large part of it may have been a misunderstanding from what Cadence understood of Twilight’s journal, the younger mare refused to call it a diary saying journal sounded more academic. It was something that often made the alicorn giggle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do that now. Not after reading Twilight’s goodbye letter and the last few weeks worth of entries in the journal that was sitting on her desk.

Cadence would love to believe that Twilight would come back after she cooled down and had time to think. After all the young unicorn was one of the smartest unicorns Cadence had ever met, probably even smarter than the alicorn herself. Yet despite having faith in Twilight’s intelligence and rationality, matters of the heart were neither and the unicorn didn’t have a lot of experience with it as she preferred her world being orderly and logical. Twilight was out there somewhere suffering from she had little experience in dealing with.

If that wasn’t enough to bother Cadence, there was a feeling of something being wrong. She had a bad feeling that something had happened to Twilight, and despite the search of Ponyville and Canterlot coming to a close there were no signs of Twilight anywhere other than the things she left behind. Taking the letter and reading it again, hoping she missed something though she knew she didn’t, Cadence couldn’t help a fresh set of tears as she read.

Hi every pony:

If your reading this, then I guess you actually
cared enough to come looking for me. To be honest,
I’m a little surprised that you bothered. With the way
the girls have been avoiding me, the way Spike can’t
seem to stand me anymore, and the way my family
and the Princess turned their backs on me…it’s hard not to
see how unwanted I am. So I’m leaving to start over, to
make a life somewhere far away where I can escape
the pain of knowing how after all that I’ve done…it just wasn’t
good enough.

Spike, know that even though you prefer to spend all
of your time with Rarity lately, I never stopped loving you.
I left half of the money I have behind since it is yours as well
as all of my personal effects. I also left you a pouch of your
favorite gems to enjoy. I know that you will be glad
that I’m gone so you may be with Rarity without
me getting in your way. I guess all I can say is good luck.

Rarity, you represent the spirit of generosity so you better be
as generous as you claim to be and take good care of Spike.
I know that you weren’t that generous with your feelings
when it came to me, but I understand that. You are a
fashionista and I’m not that into fashion, yet you were
always trying to change that. Maybe if I just tried harder
to change, maybe you wouldn’t have gotten sick of me
but I guess that’s too late now.

Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty, I know you
didn’t like me much. Always calling me egghead
which hurt more than I can ever say. I even told you
more times than I can count and you still did it. Because of
this, I admit I am very confused. If you aren’t my friend,
does that mean that you still have to be loyal? I know you
promised me that you would be loyal and take all of my concerns
to heart after Smarty Pants, yet you ignored my worries about
the fake Cadence then turned your back on me. I can’t really
say I’m surprised, yet I am.

Applejack, I know you are supposed to be the element of honesty
yet you lied to me. You told me you was my friend yet you did
your best to avoid me and when I asked you just brushed me off. You
also promised me to take all of my fears seriously after Smarty Pants, and
yet you lied once again. You ignored me when I tried to tell you something
was wrong with Cadence and then you turned your back on me to kiss
up to a fake princess.

Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter. I truly hope you got a good
laugh out of the hurt you caused me. I hope you laughed with the fake
and the others over my heart shattering into a million pieces. Well, if not
I really hope you get a good laugh out of this letter and throw a big good
riddance party now that you all have what you wanted, me being gone!

Fluttershy, you represent kindness so a part of me can’t really be
too upset over you leaving to check on the fake princess. Yet, was it
really kindness to turn your back on me when I was breaking down
before all of you? Was it kindness to avoid me in Ponyville the last
few weeks like all of the others?

Oh, let’s not forget my BBBFF, the one pony who should have
always been there for me. Yet you couldn’t be bothered to tell me
that you were dating Cadence, much less engaged to her. I can’t
believe you tried to excuse not telling me about the wedding
where I had to learn from a letter that didn’t even come from you!
I should have seen it before you threw me out of your life, but
I was too blind. I thought you loved me, but I can see that was
just a joke. I was just a pest that you couldn’t stand.

Mom and dad, I can’t even believe that you didn’t even bother
Stopping to talk to me after the invasion. I saw you pass by and
You didn’t even bother to stop to ask if I was okay. I should have
known not to expect you to bother as I’ve been in Ponyville for
two years. I’ve asked in my letters for you to come see my new place
in Ponyville. I was so proud to finally be doing something on me own
and I was hoping you could be proud to. With your one letter to my five,
I should have realized sooner that you didn’t really care. You didn’t even
bother to visit me at school when Princess Celestia took me to be her
personal student.

Princess Celestia, I trusted you with my life and saw you as a second
mother. Yet more than once you threw me into dangerous situations
with next to no information about it. I’m happy that your sister is
back and no longer Nightmare Moon. I really like Luna, she reminds
me a lot of myself. I don’t regret helping her become herself once
again, but I wonder if you would have really cared if she managed to
kill me. I wonder if you ever cared about me in the least or if I was
just a tool for you. Did you even have faith in me at all? I doubt it
since you chose to believe a fake over me when you should have known
just as easily as me that there was something wrong with Cadence. You know
what Princess? YOU HAVE A LOT TO THINK ABOUT!

Princess Luna, I love you. No, not in a romantic way, but like a friend. Maybe
even a sister. No matter what happens, I hope you find the happiness
you deserve. I look forward to enjoying your night, something I have
always loved dearly.

Princess Cadence, big sister, BSBFF, I am so sorry if I said anything
to upset you in this letter. I’ve debated just ripping this up several times,
but I think I need to get this off my chest. A part of me didn’t want to hurt
any pony, but I can’t help feeling the way I do and I need to get it off my chest
if I want to start a new life. Please don’t turn away Shining Armor, he truly does
love you and from what little I saw I know you love him deeply. You more than
any pony deserves to be happy after what happened. I was scared to death I was
going to die and even though I knew I really wouldn’t be missed, I was still
so scared. I know how bad it was and I was only down there for a few days while
you had to be down there a lot longer. You had to suffer that fear much longer
than I did so you deserve more than any pony to be happy after that. Please, be
happy and forget about me.

I’m sorry if I hurt any pony, I know some of my words probably did, but
as I said, I needed to get it off my chest. I’m also sorry about the state
of this letter, I can’t keep my thoughts straight and I’m having trouble
keeping my concentration enough to write.

Cadence couldn’t help but add that Twilight was crying a lot during writing the letter as there were numerous wet spots and smudges that the alicorn knew in her heart was the unicorns tears. Despite knowing a large portion of the whole situation was a misunderstanding as the girls was planning a huge birthday party for Twilight which was going to happen in two more days.

Twilight’s parents were another huge misunderstanding as Cadence knew just how much they both loved Twilight. They always talked about her, but they had been so busy lately and afraid to write Twilight. They believed honesty was the best policy and tried never to lie to Twilight. They didn’t want to lie to Twilight and say everything was fine when it wasn’t. Night Light, Twilight’s father, had been diagnosed with cancer and had been spending a lot of time with doctors. Thankfully it seemed to be in remission and it looked like Night Light was going to be okay. They had been looking forward to Twilight’s birthday as they were going to surprise the young unicorn at the surprise party.

When it came to Celestia…Cadence had to admit that she was hurt and angry at her aunt. She was hurt that her aunt had actually fallen for her doppelganger’s charade, yet the elder alicorn hadn’t. It hurt that not only did Celestia not know Cadence as well as she once thought, but for her to think that Cadence would treat other ponies so poorly was what hurt the most. Cadence had never once looked down on any pony and would never, ever treat a pony as coldly as the changeling had.

Yet the fake cadence had not only done so, but she did so for well over a week. And the one pony that did see through the disguise, Celestia turned her away crushing the little pony’s heart. Cadence was giving Luna time to try and use the dream realm to try and locate Twilight, but so far had come up with nothing. Luna assured every pony she probably just hasn’t slept much or slept during times the night princess was awake.

Cadence knew that there were other reasons that could be causing it such as death or something happening to make her harder to track. Maybe some kind of spell blocking her memory or a spell that could wipe her memories to make a whole new start. The problem with the last option was that magic like that was forbidden and as smart and powerful as Twilight was, she didn’t have access to any books or pony who could teach her a spell like that. Not that Cadence could think of anyways.

~~~

Nomad grumbled in annoyance as he waited for his contact from the gypsy caravan that he had once called home. At least at one time it was his home until he was stupid enough and follow Midnight Dancer’s plan to punish a stallion she liked. When the elder’s found out they banished the couple from the caravan while keeping their tradition of not letting outside interference affect them. They dealt with all issues inside the caravan, inside the family including any and all punishments. If any pony came asking they did not see or hear anything. It had been like that for generations and still was.

Only Dancer had been lucky that her father had taken up the mantle of elder after his predecessor died. With him in power he got Dancer’s banishment turned over and allowed back with them while laying all the blame with Nomad. Truthfully he should be angry, and for while he was after Dancer left. He had never stopped loving her and would do anything to have her back, no matter how dirty he had to get.

“What do you want of us outsider?” A large, gruff unicorn demanded sitting across from Nomad. He was a large white stallion with black hair and white streaks and a cuie mark of two crossed swords. Nomad knew who he was, they were once friends a long time ago and was Dancer’s older brother Silver Blades. He was one of the gypsy enforcers that protected the caravan and maintained peace within.

“Why so formal, Silver?” Nomad asked cocking his head in question though he knew the answer. Silver was one of those by the book ponies for the most part, though he did still talk to Nomad when they came through town. This was the stallions vacation and Nomad was happy to have seen him earlier before running into Twilight. It didn’t take long to find out where he was staying and sent a message asking to meet.

“You know why outsider, now why did you summon me?” Silver huffed making Nomad sigh. This may end up being harder than he thought. Still, he pulled a sealed scroll out and pushed it across the table to his old friend.

“Because I need you to deliver this to Dancer. It’s…an apology for everything that happened.” Nomad lied, the letter actually containing a plea for Dancer to come back now that he had what she tried to get all those years ago only to be stopped before they could get the second. He was hoping that Dancer may return to him if he offered a chance to really make those noble ponies suffer for turning Nomad away. A part of him knew that he was being obsessive, but he would do anything just to see Dancer again.

“Out of respect for what we once had as friends, I will deliver this to my sister. Just know that if you hurt her in any way I will kill you.” Silver said seriously making Nomad swallow nervously. He knew Silver was telling the truth as it wouldn’t be the first time the stallion used his blades to kill some pony that dared hurt his sister.

“Thank you Silver. Any idea when I may hear back?” Nomad asked hopefully.

“If she replies it may be a few months before you get a reply. If she wants to see you we won’t be coming through here again until sometime next year.” Silver explained making Nomad slump over. He had been hoping that she would come back sooner, but if he had to take care of that idiot’s daughter for a year then he would. Maybe he would even see if he could get a contact to send back reports about any search that may be going on for her.

Actually that would be a good idea to make sure that no pony suspects him. He would have to make sure to keep her hidden, but with her extremely low self esteem and fear of showing her face uncovered would work in his favor. And if by some miracle she did remember anything, well he would see what he could to keep the lavender unicorn sealed in the basement or seal her memory or something. After all he was a master of hypnonosis magic, he was sure he could plant some kind of subconscious overlays in her memory over her true memories that would temporarily believe what he told her.

“Thank you Silver.” Nomad said as Silver got up from the table.

“Don’t thank me yet, Nomad. Remember that if you hurt my sister you won’t live long enough to do it again.” Silver said sending a burning glare towards Nomad before his horn lit up temporarily blinding Nomad. When his vision cleared the other unicorn was gone. It didn’t matter though, Silver had taken his letter and was going to deliver it which is all Nomad really wanted. Hopefully he would be seeing the gorgeous gypsy mare in a few months time and his life would once again be complete. He didn’t want to entertain the notion that Dancer wouldn’t reply, or if she did that she tell him to go away and leave her alone. Surely that wouldn’t happen, not with the news contained in that letter.