• Published 20th Oct 2014
  • 864 Views, 14 Comments

Paths of Fate - LordLycaon



Twilight has awakened in a dystopian Equestria. Everything she believes and loves is thrown into question as she faces a world filled with suspicion and anger, and is now forced to fight in a rebellion against cold-hearted tyranny.

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Suspicion

This was unbelievable. Inconceivable. Impossible by every definition of the word. But this was real. After her "conversation" with Pinkie – who had continually insisted on being called Pinkamena – the once-party-animal-turned-military-captain had one of the guards strap a metal brace over Twilight's wings to ensure that she wouldn't escape and led the young alicorn out of her cell. She tried to get some information out of Pinkamena, but she wouldn't say much, except:

"They caught everypony completely off guard," she had said. When asked what she meant, she said one word that very nearly made Twilight panic: "The changelings." Just the word was enough to make Twilight's mind go into overdrive. What had happened here? What did the changelings do exactly? What were their methods?

Pinkie had gone unnaturally silent for a while afterward. She wouldn't say anything again, no matter what Twilight asked about. And she had asked about a lot of things. After a while, the young alicorn gave up and just observed her surroundings as Pinkie led her… somewhere.

They were clearly in some kind of bunker, but she had no idea where one would be. Perhaps this place was constructed fairly recently? As they walked through the halls, she saw ponies who looked as though they were starving, exhausted, immensely pained, or all three. All of them, even the foals, looked at her with suspicion and borderline hatred. She saw a small group of foals huddled together in a corner, one of them a young unicorn holding onto a ruined stuffed bear. This was horrible. Heartbreaking. She had never seen anything like this except in illustrated depictions of old wars between the pony races and others, whether it was amongst themselves or against other nations.

These ponies were refugees.

"We're here," Pinkie suddenly stated, pulling Twilight from her thoughts. They stood in front of a door that bore a battered symbol that Twilight recognized as the emblem on the Equestrian flag, complete with depictions of Celestia and Luna flying in unison around the sun and moon. One of the guards opened the door and ushered the mares inside, where Twilight saw her brother at a table with a worn-looking Rainbow Dash and an earth pony stallion that she didn't recognize. "Commander, I've brought a guest."

Shining Armor perked up at that and turned. Twilight only now noticed that half of his horn was gone. What remained was a jagged mess. His eyes went wide when he saw her. "T-Twily?"

"There's no way…" Rainbow muttered in disbelief. Her mane and tail looked sloppier than Twilight remembered, and she had a large burn scar on her upper right foreleg that stretched to just below her wing.

The earth pony raised an eyebrow at the purple mare, clearly not convinced of anything. His mane and tail were scruffy and red, his coat being a dark shade of blue. His eyes were dark green, with an X-shaped scar just above the left one. His cutie mark was an image of two swords crossing violently.

"Shining Armor, Rainbow," Twilight said, her expression contorting to one of shock at their appearances. "Wha-what happened to you? What's going on?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Rainbow suddenly shouted. "Just who the hell are you?"

"She says that she's Twilight," Pinkie answered before Twilight had a chance to speak.

Shining stared at the mare for several silent moments. Then he shook his head. "Impossible. My sister is dead."

Twilight's heart fell. Her own brother believed she was dead. "But… I…" She sighed and shook her head. More questions were flooding her mind as minutes passed. "Can you at least tell me what's going on? The most I got out of Pinkie-"

"Pinkamena," said mare stated for the umpteenth time, earning a slight glare from Twilight.

"Fine! Look, all she told me is that the changelings were behind all this. What, exactly, happened?"

Everypony else was quiet for almost a minute. It was a cold, uncomfortable silence that Twilight just wanted to end. Soon enough, Shining Armor spoke again.

"We thought that we'd dealt with them at my wedding with Cadance," he said, turning his back on the younger mare. "Turns out, they'd just been biding their time since then. They infiltrated every major city as thoroughly as possible, tearing everything apart from the inside. Canterlot got the worst of it, and is now Queen Chrysalis' base of operations."

"But what about the princesses?" Twilight inquired as they trotted down the halls of some kind of huge bunker that she didn't recognize. "What about Cadance?"

Pinkie sighed depressingly. "Princess Cadance and Shining Armor were in the Crystal Empire at the time. They were able to escape and make it back to Equestria. The rest of the city wasn't so lucky. Princess Luna was most likely on her nightly watch at the time, so she might've been able to avoid the changelings' initial assaults with relative ease, but we haven't been able to find her." She was silent again. That unnerved Twilight immensely. Pinkie Pie was supposed to be wild, happy, loud, and almost blindingly optimistic. Seeing her like this was… it was disconcerting, to say the least.

"You didn't mention what happened to Princess Celestia," the purple mare pointed out. "And what about me? You said that I'm… d-dead."

"Princess Celestia was asleep at the time," Rainbow said quietly. "The changelings went to her first." She ran a hoof across her neck, easily getting her point across. "She didn't even have a chance to defend herself. As for Twilight – the real Twilight…" She closed her eyes, as if trying to fight off tears. "She sacrificed herself to make sure the rest of us got out of Ponyville safely. She died a hero." She then gave Twilight a scathing glare. "And you have the gall to say that you're Twilight Sparkle?"

"Because I am!" Twilight affirmed in an admittedly harsh tone. "What do I have to do to prove it to you?"

"You can't," Shining Armor said dismissively, returning his focus to the table in the center of the room, which had a map of Equestria marked with several X's laid out on it. "My sister was killed by the changelings. There are eyewitness accounts."

Pinkamena then cleared her throat, calling everypony's attention. "Well, she can't be a changeling. I've already had my boys run analysis spells on her, and she came out clean."

"She could still be a threat," the red-haired stallion stated in a gruff tone. "She could be some sort of clone. A copy of the original designed by the bugs to infiltrate us."

"I'd considered that as well," the pink mare replied. "My team said that she's a legitimate pony in every way, right down to the wings and horn."

"Can you please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Twilight requested, slightly annoyed that she was basically being thrown out of the conversation now.

"I don't care who or what she is," Shining announced. "Get her out of my sight." Without hesitation, Pinkamena saluted and grabbed Twilight roughly by her right foreleg, pulling back toward the door. The purple alicorn struggled against Pinkie's surprisingly strong grasp, trying to break free.

"Wait!" she shouted. "Please, I am Twilight!" The others ignored her as Pinkie nearly forced her out of the room. "Shining, please! Shiny!"

Shining suddenly perked up at that, turning to face Twilight with an incredulous, disbelieving stare. He raised his hoof and said, "Hold on a minute." Pinkie obediently stopped, but didn't release her hold on Twilight. He approached Twilight with a different look in his eyes. What was that? Was it sorrow? Joy? Melancholy? Minutes passed without giving her any sort of answers.

Finally, he spoke again: "Only two ponies have ever called me that: my wife and my sister. Nopony else knows about that except my parents, and they're gone."

Twilight's eyes widened at that for a number of reasons. Did he finally believe her? What did he mean that their parents were gone? What must've been going on through his head right now? She had too many questions to verbalize. She felt as though she had forgotten how to speak.

Shining was silent for a few moments after that before speaking again. "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Keep in mind that you'll be under heavy watch. Pinkamena will be your guide and warden." He turned to said mare. "Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Pinkie said in a neutral tone with a quick salute.

Twilight stared at her 'brother' with a mixed look of gratitude and disappointment. She was hoping that he would at least have a little more faith in her, but she couldn't complain, given the circumstances, even if she didn't know for certain what those circumstances were. She wanted to thank him for at least this, but all she could really manage was a grateful nod as she was escorted out of the room by Pinkamena and the guards who had accompanied them. Once she was gone, Shining sighed and returned to the table.

"I still say that she's a potential threat," the earth pony stated adamantly.

"I'm well aware of that, Cutlass," the former guard captain acknowledged. "I'm not throwing that possibility out the window entirely, but she called me by a nickname that only Twilight and Cadance ever used for me. Rest assured, she'll be monitored closely."

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "So… 'Shiny,' eh?"

"Shut up." Shining's response only made the mare laugh harder. He honestly couldn't help but give a small grin himself. Any form of humor would be a welcome change after the last three years. He could only hope that everypony would be able to laugh with a lot more vigor someday, but the way things were going, that was likely going to be just a pipe dream. Still, it never hurt to hope.