Chapter 1-Status Quo
Here comes our queen, so beautiful and divine.
The turquoise unicorn shook her sister frantically. What if she doesn’t get up in time? What if we’re late? That invoked a series of terrible images, and the unicorn mare with the golden mane began to shout.
“Bee Bop! Bee Bop, get up! She’s coming! She’s coming!” All this yelling finally aroused the unicorn’s identical twin. They were only separated by their different mane styles and that fact that one was a unicorn and one was a pegasus. Bee Bop cracked her green eyes and glanced up at her sister.
“It’s not today. She’s coming tomorrow,” The pegasus mare mumbled and rolled over, swatting her sibling’s hoof away.
“Yes! Yes it is! It’s today!” Sun Glimmer shrieked. “Bee Bop, please! She’s coming in ten minutes on the other side of town!”
Suddenly Bee Bop shot into the air, throwing her covers off of her. She flapped her wings at a faster rate than normal, a sign that she was alarmed. “Ten minutes!” She dashed over to the other side of the room and landed, allowing her to slam open the door to their tiny restroom and comb her scraggly golden mane with her hooves. Sun Glimmer followed her as Bee Bop snatched up the brush and jerked it through her mane, a cry of pain unconsciously escaping her lips as she took no caution. Sun Glimmer took a hold of the section of her mane that wasn’t being worked on currently and quickly untangled it with her levitation, using her hooves too. When her twin’s mane looked presentable they dashed out the door, sprinting to make it to the town hall.
It’s time to grab the young ones and leave your homes behind.
The day was bright and sunny, courtesy of the pegasi of Ponyville. The birds chirped, oblivious of the danger that awaited the ponies below them. Sun Glimmer looked up at the ominous, looming capital of Equestria, Canterlot. She swore she saw a golden speck that was her chariot, but it could be her eyes playing tricks on her. The unicorn squinted at it while galloping down the streets of Ponyville.
She felt something hit her hoof and down she went, banging her jaw. The mare darted to her hooves, terrified at arriving there late. However, it was only her bad luck that she happened to crash into a yellow earth pony mare just exiting from her own house. The two mares scrambled to their hooves.
“I’m sorry,” Sun Glimmer said to her former classmate, Lemon Scratch. Before the earth pony could respond, a white unicorn with an electric blue mane tapped her on the shoulder. Sun Glimmer recognized her as the famous DJ P0N3, but there was no time to shake hooves or sign autographs. Vinyl and her sister, Lemon, were already consumed in the bright light of a teleportation spell. Sun Glimmer galloped forward to catch up with her sister flying above her. She spotted the two reappear some ways down the street. Suddenly, the unicorn mare shouted as she was scooped up from behind. She looked up to see her sister grasping her by the forelegs.
“You’re too slow! Come on!” Bee Bop yelled and sped up. Even with the additional weight, the pegasus was still one of the fastest flyers in Ponyville. Sun Glimmer wished she could’ve learned a teleportation spell, but unfortunately, her cutie mark, a speech bubble with a musical note inside it, meant she only had to hold a pencil with her magic to write the lyrics and sing for her sister’s songs. Vinyl, on the other hoof, had to basically have a magical grip on almost every button in the massive machine she had in her bedroom.
This would be good exercise for Bee Bop. She should write this down in her log.
Wait, the logs?! “Bee Bop, did you bring the logs?!” Sun Glimmer shouted, partly to let her sister hear her over the roaring wind and also out of alarm.
Bee Bop stopped flapping as her eyes grew wide open and they began to plummet from the sky. Their freefalling only lasted a few seconds until she got a hold of herself and fought to gain altitude and velocity. “No, no I didn’t!”
“You forgot the logs?!”
“Maybe they won’t notice, but anyways, leaving our logs at home won’t be as bad as getting there late!” Bee Bop shouted over the wind. Sun Glimmer’s forelegs were beginning to hurt as she dangled from her sister’s hooves. However, they were almost there and the unicorn could see the town square and the multicolored shapes below that were ponies. Bee Bop came in for a steep descent, and a shout escaped Sun Glimmer’s mouth as the ground seemed to rush up to meet them. Bee Bop dove away from her sister and the two ponies tumbled and turned with their momentum until they came to a stop, both mares on their backs. Bee Bop reached out, and Sun Glimmer hoofbumped her sister, grinning as she realized they had made it in time. The unicorn and pegasus froze as they heard ominous hoofsteps approaching them. Their momentary joy was forgotten as they stared up into the stern face of Rainbow Dash.
Sun Glimmer began to hyperventilate. The turquoise mare leaped to her hooves and bowed.
“Get up,” Rainbow Dash said. The two sisters rose to their hooves and subconsciously stepped closer to each other. Bee Bop unfolded her wing and draped it over the unicorn’s back as a way of saying we’ll do this together. Sun Glimmer felt slightly assured, but her heart was still hammering away in her chest. She gulped.
“Can I see your logs?” Rainbow Dash said. The unicorn mare shied away, letting her much braver sister handle this one. She averted her eyes to a nearby sign next to a desk that looked like it was formerly occupied by the blue pegasus. The sign read, TURN IN YOUR LOGS* and featured three pictures of happy ponies. One was two pegasi flying through the air and grinning at each other, depicting the exercise logs that the ruler of Equestria required. Another was a photo of an earth pony playing fetch with a dog and the last one was of a unicorn turning out the lights in her room while a nearby clock read eight p.m. These were for the pet logs and the sleeping logs, respectively. The bottom had lines of small font that Sun Glimmer couldn’t read from this distance.
“Um, they’re at our house…but they’re complete!” Bee Bop blurted out, nervous. “We’ll get them right now if you want!” She shouted, out of tension rather than excitement.
Rainbow Dash’s magenta eye narrowed. “Really?” She said, sounding doubtful.
Sun Glimmer’s heart was pumping like she had just been chased by an army of angry changelings. She looked uneasily at the pegasus’s club hung on her neck. The unicorn didn’t want to feel what would happen if that hit her. Rainbow Dash was one of the strongest of the ruler’s circle of friends, or ‘The Clique’ as the townsfolk shortened it when the guards weren’t around.
Sun Glimmer continued to stare at Rainbow Dash’s club. She began to tremble as fear raced through her.
“I guess you’ll have to have an appointment with Rarity,” Rainbow said coolly, like it was nothing.
Rarity? Sun Glimmer’s mind froze as her panicked mind processed this new information. Suddenly, her instincts took control and decided on a course of action.
The unicorn screamed at the top of her lungs and began to sprint away, dragging Bee Bop with her. Bee Bop flapped her wings as she tried to get her hooves under her. The two mares ran away, holding hooves. They sprinted across somepony’s lawn and Bee Bop dragged her twin over a fence. Sun Glimmer cried, as she came to the realization that, because of this single, stupid action, she was going to die today. She galloped, holding onto the thin thread of hope that she might escape.
Go far from here and don’t you dare look back.
The identical twins sprinted as they heard Rainbow Dash yell something unintelligible. Sun Glimmer had broken down, and Bee Bop was doing her best to keep her sister running. They crossed a deserted intersection, and the pegasus cast a glance behind her to see if the guards were following. Her heart sank as she saw they were hot on the trail of the sisters.
“They’re on us!” The pegasus screamed to her sibling. Sun Glimmer glanced behind her, and a new wave of tears fell down her cheeks. Suddenly, when the guards’ shouts reached their ears, Bee Bop’s vision was obscured by a bright flash of light. When her vision cleared she looked down at her hooves to see she was about ten paces ahead of where she was before the spell.
“How did you do that?” Bee Bop asked her sister.
Sun Glimmer laughed as the tears streaked her face. “I don’t know! I guess I got so nervous I just--” Bee Bop watched as her twin broke out into giggles and they moved again. “—teleported!” The unicorn laughed, but it wasn’t one of joy. It was one of those insane giggles.
She’s losing it. She knows we’re going to die today. Sun Glimmer had broken down before, resulting in brief, minor bouts of insanity, but this was the worst of them all. However, Bee Bop had to abandon her train of thought as she ducked under a low tree branch.
Bee Bop screamed as they skidded out onto an intersection and two guards waited for them. The pegasus dragged her sister to the left and they began to sprint down that road, only to skid to a halt as they saw another guard. She whipped her head to the left only to see another closing in. They backed up against a house as the circle tightened. Sun Glimmer collapsed onto her sister’s lap, giggling and crying at the same time.
“They’re closing in, just like the noose!” The unicorn clapped her hooves at the analogy while Bee Bop, her strong resolve breaking, covered her face with her wings and began to bawl like a filly.
The princess she’s no longer, compassion she will lack.
The two mares were dragged back to the town square and thrust into the back of the crowd. Some ponies turned around and stared at the new arrivals, but their attention was quickly diverted as the chariot landed. The ponies in the chariot filed out and four ponies were revealed. The first was an orange earth pony with a country hat; Applejack. There was a yellow pegasus with a long, pink mane; Fluttershy. The next was a white unicorn with a purple mane. Bee Bop stared at her. This would be the pony that would end her life.
And finally, a pony with a purple coat and a blue mane ascended the stairs to her elevated podium where she could address the citizens of the town in which she had met her friends. Her unemotional, glowing, eerie, white eyes, the result of a spell gone wrong, gazed out at the crowd. Her horn glinted in the sunlight as she spread her large, feathery wings.
Queen Twilight Sparkle had arrived.
She began to speak about what this town meant to her and how it had united her with her friends, but Bee Bop tuned it out and listened to her own thoughts.
What if…what if I asked her for forgiveness? We had completed our logs; it was just Sun Glimmer having a freak out. Maybe we could do that.
But how would I explain why I kept running?
I was caught up in the moment, and mainly, it was Sun Glimmer dragging me along.
I’d be blaming her when really it was my own fault!
She’s was the one who screamed in the first place.
I was strong enough to resist! Why did I keep running?
Because, I was scared too.
Consumed by power, her feelings of worth.
Bee Bop’s thoughts shifted and she tried to remember Queen Twilight before…it happened.
The strongest memory was Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceanera. She remembered it clearly: Apple Bloom tripping over her own dress, revealing she didn’t really have a cutie mark, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo coming out to yell at Diamond Tiara, she remembering crowding in to look at the trio of blank flank fillies. After the crowd dissolved, she watched as a purple unicorn glanced fondly at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The pegasus filly had thought nothing of it.
Earlier, Bee Bop faintly remembered Twilight worried about her own abilities to organize. She was working herself up into a frenzy until her friends consoled her. They told her she could do it, that she could it if she just tried.
That year’s Winter Wrap Up, the unicorn stepped up for the challenge, and when she was appointed the Organizer of Winter Wrap Up, her pride grew and grew until the day—
We owe it all to her,
Bee Bop was jerked out of her thoughts when the crowd suddenly roared in applause. The ground shook with the masses of ponies pounding their hooves. However, the pegasus slunk lower, hiding herself behind the pony in front of her. She had no wish to cheer for the pony she hated.
The mare began to see the crowd felt that way too. Some of the cheers were flat-out sarcastic, and the brave ones didn’t stomp their hooves at all. Only one pony had the nerve to glare up at the queen, and Bee Bop spotted guards approaching that earth pony from behind. She shielded her face with her wing as a piercing shriek sounded from the rebellious earth pony. The mare then realized everyone’s cheers were fake when they continued to stomp their hooves, terrified of looking away to investigate the scream. The crowd kept shouting and stomping and smiling. They yelled words of praise, talking about how they owed it all to the queen. Bee Bop looked up to see a faint smile creeping up the Queen’s face. She enjoyed this fake praise. The pegasus wondered if she knew the truth.
The turquoise mare glanced over at her sister. Sun Glimmer was mumbling something under her breath. Curled up on the floor, the unicorn rocked herself back and forth, her green eyes shut tight in fear. Bee Bop scooted over to her sister, feeling sorry for her. She held her twin in her wing and Sun Glimmer nuzzled Bee Bop, leaning on her. The pegasus poked her head under the feathers of her wing and began to quietly hum a lullaby their mother used to sing to them as the crowd cheered. The song was barely noticeable, but Sun Glimmer heard the fragments and softly sang along.
Our lives held ransom from our birth.
They had been through so much together, and now it was all concluding today. All of it. Bee Bop giggled a little, now a bit hysterical about their fast approaching death. The end! The end! It was just like the fairytale stories that her mother would read to her and her sister when they were little. The brave hero facing their imminent death. And ironic, given her life was far from a fairytale.
She began to remember little things her sister used to do with her, like braiding each other's manes and playing catch. When they were fillies, their parents had died and they were sent to the Ponyville Orphanage together. They hid their secret from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon together, and stood up against their bullying when it came out together.
Her memories turned sour as she began to hear praises to the Queen. She started to remember the tyranny, the horror, of this one being she oh-so hated. Loathed.
When they turned fourteen, Equestria’s government fell apart and they survived together. When Queen Twilight took the throne they lived under her rule together. And now, all of their life’s accomplishments would be ruined, for a simple mistake. Bee Bop would never achieve her dream of being a famous lyre player, and Sun Glimmer wouldn’t join her in her fame by writing the lyrics for the songs.
However, the pegasus felt like her life was always on the line. More than once a guard had yelled at her with thinly veiled death threats, and she had gotten in fights with them late at night often. She had never told Sun Glimmer any of this, for the unicorn would freak out if she discovered the mare was staying out past curfew. Sun Glimmer would be shocked if she found out her twin was regularly breaking the law.
But all those nights, she had felt truly free, yet Bee Bop was only getting herself more trapped. Every time she went out there, it got more addicting, the sheer joy of not following the rules. Every time she went back to bed, she wanted more. True freedom.
The townsfolk have gathered, begging to be seen.
The pegasus was jerked out of her thoughts when a pony shouted a question to the queen. The lavender alicorn turned her head to face the speaker, her face an emotionless mask. Sun Glimmer by now had her head out from under her wing and was looking up at the alicorn. The crowd fell silent as Queen Twilight Sparkle stared at the pony with her glowing white eyes.
Those eyes unnerved Bee Bop. Those deep white pits. Bee Bop used to think perfection was white. Pure white. Now, after Twilight rose to power, white became menacing. Harsh, bright, white.
Another pony so brave it was verging on idiocy spoke up. “Um, Your Highness, there has been a water problem in Ponyville. You don’t suppose you could maybe fix it?” Slowly, gradually, more ponies began to speak up, pleading with the Queen to fix their problems.
The crowd’s volume began to rise, escalating as Bee Bop held her sister in her wings. She was still singing the lullaby, but the noise drowned it out, and Sun Glimmer opened her eyes. Bee Bop raised her head out of the artificial cave she had made with her wings and noticed the ponies were shouting out more and more questions. Bee Bop stood up, trying to protect her twin sister. The unicorn below her covered her ears with her hooves.
The ponies were deafening now. Ponyville was beginning to decline as a town in general, and that arose many problems that hadn’t been addressed for months now by anypony.
An unusually loud shout rang out across the crowd, but Bee Bop didn’t take any notice of it. It was however, what followed that made it distinct.
The crowd fell silent. Deathly silent. And the only one still shouting was the one-eyed Rainbow Dash.
Bee Bop looked at the stage where the five ponies of The Clique were assembled. The Queen’s horn was still glowing. Rainbow Dash hovered above the platform.
“Hey!” She shouted. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just ‘yell out’ requests! You have to submit them through the Ponyville Improvement Committee!”
Bee Bop tried to murmur something to her sister, but no sound came out. It must be a silencing spell.
The Queen resumed her speech, and she kept the silencing spell on the whole time. Bee Bop listened with only a little interest. She continued to watch and guard her twin sister. The speech only lasted a few more minutes; the Queen was almost done.
The alicorn concluded, and Bee Bop felt the hardly noticeable magic on her throat fade away. However, no pony dared to be the first one to speak. The Clique looked at the crowd, as if expecting something.
A silver mare with a braid spoke up. “Hail to the Queen!” She shouted, bowing.
Another pony repeated the same phrase and bowed. More and more joined in, the unsynchronized phrase growing in volume.
Eventually, hundreds had bent their knee, shouting “Hail to the Queen!”
As she glances the crowd, your presence is amiss.
Bee Bop had crouched, but she wasn’t bowing. The pegasus didn’t have the guts to stand up straight, but as a last sign of rebellion she didn’t bow or didn’t say the phrase. All her hatred for the Queen surged through her at that moment, and she looked up, staring defiantly at the Queen. The alicorn was roaming the crowd with her eyes, but even though her pupils were no longer visible Bee Bop knew the ruler of the land was looking right at her.
Those bright white eyes just never fail; your death she will insist.
The Queen narrowed her eyes. She turned her head and whispered something to Rainbow Dash, who nodded and gestured toward them and then Rarity. The Queen smiled.
She turned her head back to Bee Bop. The pegasus, unable to hold out for any longer, averted her gaze and sank slowly into a bow.
“Hail to the Queen,” she whispered.
You find yourself in trouble so just try and stay low.
After the ceremony had finished, the ponies began to dissipate. Bee Bop roused her sister from her mental exile and the two of them, together, slowly walked back to their house. A few ponies stared at them because of Sun Glimmer’s tear-streaked face, but the pegasus just glared back at them. Bee Bop walked slowly with her sister down the walk back to their house, enjoying life for the little they had left of it.
Once the twins reached their house, Bee Bop removed her wing from her sister’s back and folded it.
“Can you stay here by yourself for just a little bit? I have something I need to do,” The pegasus said.
Sun Glimmer looked up at her with frightened eyes. “How…how long?”
“Only a few minutes.” The unicorn mumbled an okay. The sisters hugged each other before Bee Bop took to the air.
The pegasus flew back to the town square. She knew there wasn’t hardly any chance of this working, but she needed to at least try. Landing in the deserted grass trampled by hundreds of hooves a lot more gracefully then her earlier arrival, Bee Bop nervously approached Applejack.
The orange earth pony was talking to Fluttershy. Bee Bop, the butterflies in her stomach about to make a hurricane, tapped the pony’s shoulder. The pegasus cringed as Applejack whirled around, obviously startled.
“Um…could I um…talk to you privately?” Bee Bop stammered. Applejack looked back at Fluttershy. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at the fellow pegasus, then walked off.
“What do ya want?” Applejack asked, slightly annoyed.
“I-I wanted to ask you if um…” Bee Bop paused, considering just walking away right now.
“What is it? Ah don’t have all day!” Applejack burst out. Bee Bop made up her mind and decided to go through with her plan.
“I wanted to ask you if maybe the Queen could spare us. I mean, we promise to never, ever do it again. We’ve learned our lesson, and maybe the Queen could have some forgiveness. It was just my sister freaking out, that’s all. All it was.” Bee Bop blurted out, desperately hoping it would work.
She’ll come for you eventually, ensnare you with her glow.
Applejack studied the pegasus. “Listen, sugar cube,” The earth pony said, looking Bee Bop in the eyes. The turquoise mare felt her heart sink.
“When somepony defies the Queen, she’ll get ‘im. Eventually. She’ll come ‘n get ya sooner or later.” The earth pony said. The pegasus’s hopes plummeted.
You’re not the first I’ve warned before; most will take that chance.
“Sorry, but ya can’t just defy her and expect to get away with it.” Applejack finished like she had said that countless times before.
Apparently, Applejack was either a mind reader or Bee Bop’s face betrayed her, because the earth pony seemed to guess what she was thinking.
“You’re not the first I’ve warned, ya know. I’ve told many pleadin’ ponies that. They all took a brave chance in asking me.”
But why’d you place your trust in me? I orchestrate this dance.
“But I always wonder somethin’. Why do y’all come to me? I’m the one who mainly decides who should be punished by death or not.” Applejack looked at the pegasus.
Bee Bop realized she was expecting a response. “Um…you…uh…used to be the Element of Honesty, so you’d probably be the most trustworthy to ask…” The mare’s voice gradually decreased in volume the farther on she went in her sentence. The pegasus didn’t really know why.
You see I’m not a fool here; her highness, she must gleam.
“Really? You remember I’ve been with the Queen since the beginning of her reign, and I knew her even before then. I’m not that mare Derpy; I know what’s going on. I’ll say it again: ya can’t just defy the Queen and get away with it.”
Bee Bop stared at her hooves. It was her sister who had bolted, but saying that out loud would be throwing Sun Glimmer under the wagon and look like a cheap excuse. The turquoise mare stayed silent.
“So when you wave goodbye, I’ll say: Hail to the Queen!”
It didn’t use to be this way; our princess, her esteem.
Twinkleshine glanced over at the newspaper. “TWINS PUT TO DEATH IN PONYVILLE,” it read. She yawned, closing window blinds with her magic, and stood up from the couch. She remembered when the death penalty used to be a big thing.
She remembered back when Equestria was normal, when the Mare in the Moon watched over the ponies, when the Queen was just another student at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
Well, not just another student. She was, after all, Princess Celestia’s prized pupil. But Twilight wasn’t the ruler of anyone. The unicorn was just Twilight.
The white unicorn trotted out of her apartment’s living room.
Twinkleshine remembered the queen used to be terribly shy when she was younger. Twilight didn’t care about anything other than her studies.
When Twilight moved to Ponyville, a show mare had come to town, performing her tricks. She challenged the purple pony’s friends, and used her magic to ensure their defeat. The unicorn had been too scared to defend her friends, afraid that everyone might think she was showing off.
Twinkleshine almost laughed aloud at the thought. That Twilight was the complete opposite of the Queen.
That was the Queen’s problem. She thought she was the only one who could rule Equestria, that she was somehow better equipped for the job.
Someone needed to come and show her that she wasn’t the greatest pony in the world, but unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone who could do that.
Now without the sun and moon a nightmare is our dream.
Twinkleshine sighed as she swung open the door to her room. Hopefully this time she wouldn’t have a nightmare. The pearl white unicorn had been waking up from increasingly scarier dreams.
When Princess Luna drowned (everypony knew that was a lie told by Twilight’s supporters. It was obvious: Twilight must have killed her), there wasn’t anyone to protect the ponies’ dreams anymore. Twinkleshine’s dreams had considerably worsened since her death.
Wait, but if Princess Luna isn’t around to guard dreams anymore, what about when I was a filly?
The mare looked for a possible explanation, but she couldn’t find one. It didn’t make sense. Maybe Princess Celestia did it?
She shrugged. It didn’t really matter.
The pony approached her bed in the dark and climbed under her sheets.
We clutch our pillows at night, children tucked in tight
Twinkleshine lay in bed waiting for herself to fall asleep.
If I’m having so much trouble with these nightmares, I can’t image how my little sister is faring!
Her eyes flew open at the thought. She was filled with concern for her sibling.
I really need to see her sometime soon. The trip from Ponyville to Canterlot isn’t long. Twinkleshine turned over to face the wall.
Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. After all, she’d have a lot more trouble sleeping now, wouldn’t she?
The unicorn shoved the thought into the pits of her mind, disgusted by it.
Living each day in hope we don’t awaken to their screams.
Twinkleshine felt a small surge of hatred for her ruler and her friends.
They should have filled in Princess Luna’s spot with at least someone! But no, they decided it didn’t matter.
A young filly shouldn’t have to go through this!
She used to be a friendly face in sight but all that is done and gone, the shadow is her might.
Twinkleshine wished Twilight could have just stayed the way she was when she first moved to Ponyville. That would be nice, if the Queen never changed. None of this would have ever happened. Her little sister would be fine, ponies wouldn’t live in fear, and Twinkleshine could get a good night’s sleep for once.
But no, it didn’t seem like Twilight had any of that shy, smart and studious young mare left in her. Now she just told everypony to do what she said because it was for their health.
And if you resisted, it seemed like you just disappeared into the shadows, never seen again.
But don’t lose hope yet, the end is still unseen.
A flicker of hope emerged in Twinkleshine. She had heard rumors of “Rebellion,” a group that dedicated their lives to overthrowing the Queen. Maybe they would strike sometime soon.
Anyways, this can’t last forever, right? Twilight’s not immortal.
Well, at least I hope she’s not.
But we’ve still got years to come. Maybe Twilight will die in a one-in-a-millionth-chance accident.
She sighed. No one knows what’s going to happen.
Until then, just remember, it’s Hail to the Queen.
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Grim story, really grim. I am curious just what her friends will do though, from the two we see they seem to be keeping there heads down.
You should put the "Background Character" tag.
Just curious, but how long did this chapter take to write?
Also how many chapters will there be?
5494202
The Background Character tag isn't on there because Bee Bop, Sun Glimmer and Twinkleshine are only seen in the first chapter. The next chapter and all the rest are from Twilight's POV.
I'm not really sure about how long it took to write. Maybe a week off and on?
There will be seven chapters.
Thanks for commenting!
Some really cool dystopia stuff here. The part of having to keep and submit logs of your actions is especially FUBAR.
Wow. Got really dark compared to your previous releases.
Interesting concept, and I appreciate the ambiguity in the details, since "Twilight turns into a tyrant" is not exactly a new premise, so it's better to have an air of mystery than just follow the usual paths that these stories take.
A lot of the content is disjointed or has awkward pacing. One moment they're talking to AJ, the next moment they're dead? As endpoints, those work fine, but what's in between felt a bit rushed. I imagine you tried to follow the lyrics as closely as you could, and while you did capture the song's atmosphere, I suggest not trying to do it "word for word." A songfic should be an adaptation of a song in prose, instead of just "writing the same thing, but with words."
One really good thing you had going, however, was the ambiguity about the source of Twilight's twisted rule. Is it her friends' fault, or her own? Some of the evidence suggests the former, others suggest the latter. I wish you had explored it a little more, but the glimpses I got were interesting enough. Same goes for the fate of Celestia and Luna.
Overall: well done! Could have used a bit more work, but not a bad read.