Chapter Fifteen
Turning the Tables
A smart pony learns from her mistakes.
A wise pony learns from the mistakes of others.
A desperate pony invents entirely new and fascinating mistakes.
May 6th, 1014, Twilight, edging toward Night
Between the heavens and the deepest depths
.
The rubble of the landslide blasted into the air as I hit it with a concentrated cone of telekinetic force. I shot upward as fast as my wings could carry me, trailing dark purple flames and a roiling darkness that was not smoke.
"WHO DARES DEFILE THE HOME OF THE NIGHT-BRINGER?" I bellowed out with all the force I could put behind the Royal Voice. Several small falls of rock tumbled down as my shout echoed within the cavernous space of the eye socket.[1]
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[1] During the short trot from the top landing to the base of the stone stairs, Rarity had convinced me that it would help my plan to frighten away most of the zebras if we made a dramatic entrance. Of course, Rarity likes to make dramatic entrances no matter the occasion, but I agreed with her in that instance.
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There was an airship tethered beside Nebula and two holding station overhead, just above the rim of the eye socket. A small squad of zebras were running full speed for the tethered ship. Apparently, they had been standing guard near the landslide, and rightly assumed that anything that could fling tons of stone around was something they didn't want to face down.
So far, so good.
The first thing to do was to free Nebula's crew and regain possession of the Eye of Rushwa, so I immediately swooped down toward her. Rainbow Dash's job was to provide me with air cover. The rest of the girls were to pitch in wherever they felt it would help the most. Just before we made our grand entrance, I had cautioned them all to stick to tactics they would normally use, and not try to rely on their newfound, temporary abilities.
Right.
Just try giving Pinkie Pie and Rarity wings and telling them not to use them.
The engines of the two airships above roared to life and they began to accelerate away, leaving behind a couple flocks of pegasus mercenaries to cover their retreat. At a glance, it was ten-to-one odds, assuming Pinkie and Rarity went to support Rainbow Dash. The pegasi-for-hire were in for a rather unpleasant surprise.
The tethered ship began to rise but I ignored it as I dropped into the group of zebras on Nebula's main deck.
I glared balefully around at the zebras, bared my fangs, and said, "SUCH TENDER MEAT FOR MY DINNER!" I'd always wondered why villains tended to be showy and loud, and finding out that it was a whole lot of fun was a bit of a shock.
"Do not fear this illusion here!" cried a mare near the center of the group facing me. From the gourds slung on her saddle and the bandoleer of glass bulbs across her chest, I assumed she was an mganga. The rhyming was a pretty good clue, too. Her word must have carried a deal of weight with the warriors, because they all stopped shuffling away and threw a volley of spears at me.
As long as I had energy to burn, I could use something a bit more fun than a simple shield spell. I locally increased the entropy around the spears, while simultaneously spreading out the waste heat caused by vastly accelerated oxidation. Before they got anywhere near me, the weapons transformed into dusty streaks of rust and ash that dissipated on the wind.
"I will reveal the form you conceal!" the mganga shouted, and threw a half gourd of powder at me.
I was just about to fling it back in her face when I recognized it: It was the Truth Powder that Zecora had used on Spike and me when she'd thought we were changelings. So I grinned and let it hit me in the chest.
All the fight went out of the zebras. The warriors dropped their weapons, and most turned and leaped over the rail. Only one of the stallions remained, and he moved to place himself between the mare and I.
For her part, she desperately fumbled at her bandoleer until I used a bit of magic to shove her forehooves down and stick them to the deck. Then her head drooped, and she leaned against the stallion's barrel.
"This is the end." She shut her eyes and laid her head against the stallion's neck. "Goodbye, old friend."
Well, that dropped a wet blanket over my plans. Spooking the enemy was fine, but I'd been revealed as a princess of Equestria, and I had to comport myself like one. "DON'T BE AFRAID!" Oops. Inside voice, Twilight, I told myself. "If you surrender, I won't hurt you! I was just trying to scare you away! I'm not really a monster."
The mganga opened her eyes. "My spell is true. A fiend are you."
That angered me. "I am a princess of Equestria, and you should know what that means!"
They both just stared at me, resigned to their imagined fates.
I growled. Just because they were murderous, red-hoofed lackeys of a despotic ruler didn't mean they should assume everypony else was the same! Making them realize exactly what the situation was had suddenly become a challenge. I turned to search out my friends. Applejack had gone belowdecks, and from the hull-shaking thumps, I assumed that there had been a few zebra guards left with the prisoners. Blasts of air, swashbuckling battle cries, and high-pitched giggling told me that Pinkie, Dash, and Rarity were still dealing with the pegasi, and evidently enjoying themselves.
That left Fluttershy. It took me a moment to spot her, because even with alicorn-sized wings, she wasn't in the air. She was tending to the wounded and dazed pegasi that littered the sand at the bottom of the eye socket. She would be perfect.
"Look," I said, turning back to the terrified zebras, "Here's somepony who will vouch for me. She's the nicest pony I know. You'll see!"
I teleported Fluttershy onto the deck next to me. She gasped in surprise and then, catching sight of me, gave a little squeak of… well, it sounded an awful lot like fear. I resisted the urge to stamp my hoof and chide her. "Tell them I'm a good pony!" I demanded.
"Twilight is a good pony," Fluttershy said, woodenly. "Most of the time."
"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!"
Fluttershy squealed and flattened herself on the deck, peering out from behind her wings.
I didn't want to take my anger out on her, so I rounded on the shivering zebras. "YOU ARE GOING TO ADMIT THAT I AM A GOOD PONY OR I'M GOING TO PEEL THE STRIPES OFF OF YOU!"
I really don't know what would have happened if Applejack's sharp voice hadn't snapped me out of my obsessive little feedback loop.
"Twilight!" she shouted at me as she came up from belowdecks leading the freed crewponies. "What the hay are you doing?"
"I AM… uhmn… I am trying to convince these stubborn, stupid zebras that I'm not going to hurt them!"
She looked at me for a long moment as one of her eyebrows slowly climbed up her forehead. "Uh-huh. And how's that workin' out for you?"
There was no reason I should have been angry with her, but I felt a flare of heat in my cheeks and my teeth clenched at her impertinent snark. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I didn't bother with the hoof gesture, but I visualized it. It helped. A bit.
Before I could say anything, Applejack spoke again. "Look, sugarcube, I've got bad news. The crew is fine, 'cept for Ket. I don't know where she is, and neither do any o' these lot."
"That's not too bad, " I replied. "She's probably hiding out among the zebras."
"That ain't the bad news. The Eye o' Rushwa is gone. The zebras took it, an' it's on one o' their ships, on the way back to the sultan in Nagala."
"We can't let him get that gem back!" I said. "He'll kill thousands of innocents!"
"How're we gonna stop 'em?"
I thought furiously for a moment and then reached out for the mganga's weapons. The thaumophobic coating on the gourds and glass bulbs made it difficult even for my supercharged telekinesis to take hold, but that didn't stop me. I surrounded each container with a little shield and tore them off off the zebra's saddle and bandoleer. I then conjoined the fields and threw the whole mess out toward a distant patch of sky. It made a very interesting explosion when the shield released.
I turned to Nebula's crew. "Tie up these two. We'll release them later when it's safe."
Mr. Fairlead peered at me doubtfully. "Is that you, captain?"
"Huh? Oh yes, just regular old me. I… uhmn…."
Several of the crew were bowing, and I heard a muttered "Highness" or two. I may have heard a whispered "Nightmare," but I wasn't certain. They weren't buying it.
"Look! This is just temporary. We found an ancient magical artifact and... Argh! I'll explain later. Right now I've got an airship to run down."
"I don't know if'n I can fly all that well, Twi," Applejack said.
"It's all right, AJ. I don't want to depend on the magical boost not wearing off when we're all mid-air. You stay here and keep an eye on things. Get everypony together and be ready to lift as soon as I get back."
"I'm not so sure that…"
I teleported away before she could finish.
= = =
I reappeared so high up that the sky above me was black and pocked with stars. The fleeing airships were easy to spot. Even from my vantage point, it was simple to figure out which one carried the Eye. It had to be the fastest one, the one all the others were trying to screen from pursuit. They must have taken off with the Eye as soon as they had recovered it. The ships were already through the Dragon's Teeth and approaching the city walls of Nagala. I didn't have much time to stop them.
The envelopes and gas cells of the warships were shielded from direct magical attack, and burning though that protection would set fires that could endanger the lives of the crews. I didn't much care at that moment, but if what I was doing was to be laid at the hooves of Equestria, as it looked all too likely it might, I had to show some restraint.
So I threw rocks at them. I threw them very, very fast.
Hundreds of hoof-sized stones rose from the desert below and accelerated. The cascade of sharp bangs as the missiles broke the sound barrier was fairly impressive. The armor and shielding didn't slow them down at all and they passed through the forward two cells of every ship except the one carrying the Eye.
The nice, neat formation of warships fell apart instantly. They swerved off course and pitched downward. I had to use a blast of magic to shove one away from the lead craft to avoid a collision. It would take the concerted efforts of all their crews to land them safely, and that left me free to address the real problem.
Taking a page from Applejack's book, I tried the direct approach. I swooped down to half a furlong from the transom of the ship carrying the evil crystal and called out to them.
"SURRENDER THE EYE OF RUSHWA TO ME OR DIE HORRIBLY! MWAHAHAHAHA!"[2]
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[2] I really got the laugh spot-on that time. The secret was to let go and enjoy myself.
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Quite a number of arrows, catapult shots, and strange spells comprised their immediate answer. I was shielded, of course, and let it all bounce harmlessly away. Perhaps I had not been direct enough.
I tightened my shield around myself and dove on the ship. A second before I landed, I heated my hooves up so that the deck smoked and charred where I stepped. I thought that was a nice touch.
Lots of things continued to bounce off of or shatter on my shield, and it was beginning to annoy me. I cast a general stunning spell and dropped all the unprotected zebras in their tracks. One, who had been in the rigging trying to draw a bead on the back of my head with a crossbow, hit the rail and went over as he fell. It was hard luck for him that I didn't feel like saving a pony who had been trying to put a steel shaft through my brain.
There was no sign of the Eye, so I paused and extended my magical senses. I found it below decks and surrounded by a network of other spells. Well, I wasn't about to go crawling down hatches in search of the thing. The whole imposing foe act was hard to pull off while crouching in cramped quarters, so I tore away the intervening decks and flung the shattered timbers overboard.
And there they were.
I certainly couldn't be considered an expert in zebra magic, but I'd studied with Zecora for several years and had a good grasp of the essentials. So it only took me a few seconds to realize what the six waganga surrounding the Eye had set up.
Three had created a shield around it and themselves, designed to violently collapse if any one of them stopped feeding energy into the spell. Just the feel of the mana field told me that the implosion would be more than strong enough to shatter the gem. It was, essentially, a deadpony switch. If I tried to interfere with what they were doing, we would all die in the resulting release of hideous force.
As close as we were to the city, many of the inhabitants would be killed as well. But the sultan's war-witches didn't seem to care about that little detail. I was starting to lose sympathy for them.
The other three inside the shield were crafting a set of directives to guide the power of the Eye into an attack. An attack directed entirely at me. I knew the thing contained enough dark magic to infect a whole kingdom with a deadly plague, and suspected that it would be more than capable of dealing with me.
That left me with a decision to make, and not a whole lot of time to make it.
I mentally ticked off the obvious choices. I could back off to a safe distance and throw one last supersonic stone, condemning thousands of innocent zebras because of the evil of their ruler. I could flee, give up on recovering the gem, and let the Sultan carry out his vile plan. I could try to act in the instant between when the waganga would have to drop the shield and when they would launch the attack... and probably die uselessly.
Or I could devour them.
I've never thought of myself as a truly bad pony, not even when I'd first returned home and found myself branded as… unworthy. I'd made mistakes, of course. What pony hasn't? Because I am more gifted than most, my mistakes can have extraordinary consequences, and I have always tried to be mindful of that. With a few exceptions, for which I am properly ashamed, I have always tried to do what is right and correct and good.
And that is why I spent several precious seconds announcing my intent. Oh, I'm sure they could hardly hear me over their own chants of "Sifa Rushwa! Heshima Rushwa!" and I spoke in Equuish, which they may not have understood in any case, but I needed to say the words.
"For your crimes against everything that is good and right in this world, I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, condemn you to death. I am truly sorry for what I am about to do."
Maybe it was the tone of my voice. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was my imagination. But in the instant before I struck out, one of the zebras met my gaze and her eyes widened in horror. She couldn't have known what I was about to do, and she had obviously been fearless in the face of death. But I was sure she looked at me… and was terrified.
The needle-sharp lance of force that I had carefully shaped rammed through the defensive shield and pierced the gem before anypony could react. The dark energy erupted out of the hole and my precisely crafted tubular shield guided it into my waiting jaws, the flow accelerating as the collapsing spell of the waganga crushed down on them and their holy relic. The zebras were killed, disintegrated in a fraction of a second, and their magic and their essence joined the flood that I struggled to absorb.
= = =
If a foal is forced to eat nothing but garbage, she will grow up sickly and weak.
If a brilliant mind is forced to learn nothing but lies and dogma, it will never develop the ability to reason clearly.
If a heart desiring goodness is forced to do evil, can it ever come back to the light?
I don't know.
I spread my wings wide and grinned with satisfaction at the huge, jagged shadow I cast across the walls of the city. Crowds had begun to gather in the streets, and I could hear cries of surprise and fear in the still evening air.
A light flick of my razor-edged pinions drove me forward and downward, toward the palace complex. Sultan Zatar and his corrupt court were about to become an object lesson.
Oh, it was going to be such fun!
= = =
=
Oooo shit son, i got the chills from Twilights evil thrills.
Did i mention, i love the way you describe the adorkable, evil Sperglord Sparkle?
So. I guess the position of 'Element of Magic' just became vacated.
So Twilight is good, yet bad... and she dominates totally like the badflank she is...
Welp, I hope Luna is somewhere nearby to help Twi chillax and get rid of that power...
Sky pirates r from lego ninjago, dude. Another crossover
This is what we like to call 'Extreme Chaotic Good'.
Twilight is about to learn just how very, very easy it is for a hero to become a villain. She is going to learn what it means to wake one morning and see in the mirror the face of all the monsters from which she'd spent her entire adult life striving to defend the world!
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I am reminded of the discussion that Death had with the parent of a little girl to whom he had just given a sword, in Hogfather.
Father: You can't give her that! It's not safe!
Death: It's a sword, it's not supposed to be safe.
Father: She's just a little girl!
Death: It's educational.
Father: What if she cuts herself?
Death: That will be a lesson.
Twilight is going to have a lesson.
Twilight likes lessons.
You don't say.
Frankly, I can't say I feel even distantly sorry for anyzebra Twilight kills at the moment. I would not be nearly so merciful in her position.
I have to say, it is ENORMOUSLY cathartic for me to see, just occasionally, some bad guys actually getting what they deserve, For once, even if everyone is going to tear strips out of Twilight hereafter., because consequences. So, seriously, even for just this little burst, THANK YOU, iisaw. I am so well-past tired of bad guys suffering less than the heroes in current media. (And while I would say MLP's typical redemption thing (a rare exception) is laudable, I don't necessarily 100% agree with it - I'm a "you suffer the damned consequences of your action, sunshine" kind of guy; so, in my opinion, if, y'know, you don't want to be punished, then, y'know, don't do any fracking evil.)
(But as I often observe, I am not a very nice person; and arguably only a "person" at all in the loosest possible sense.)
6840685
The Dark Side is seductive...
We can only hope that Twilight's friends will be able to help her should she ever start using her darker powers on ponies that don't deserve it.
...Even if Twilight did perform magic surgery on them without their permission.
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... and already her girlfriend.
6840997
Twilight needs to sit down with about 300 fluffy puppies and 4 fridges' worth of ice cream.
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Sky Pirates hail from a thousand points of reference taken from approximately the last 125 years of speculative/adventure fiction.
Right now, Twilight is "drunk on blood" as the saying is. She is going to need some help to deal w the hangover tomorrow. I'd suggest Luna, but season 5 suggests she isn't dealing too well with this, either.
6840355 6841371
Yup. The genre pretty much started with Robur the Conqueror in 1886. That's seventeen years before the Wright brothers' first successful powered flight, and twenty-eight years before World War I introduced strategic aerial bombardment to the world—using Zeppelins!
sil.si.edu/PAID/fullsize/Verne/SIL28-091-02.jpg
Yes, that Jules Verne. The man was darn near clairvoyant.
Hmm.
The impact of an Equestian princess embarking on what appears to be a very public assassination of the leader of the Zebra nation will almost certainly not go down well, aka, Fallout: Equestria.
I'm a little concerned for Ket, who was apparently on board one of the ships Twilight just shot down.
6843004
Disney made it and its sequel into Master of the World in 1961. I loved it as a kid, but a recent re-watch was very painful. I think I need to go back and reread the books... along with Mysterious Island. Great stuff!
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Yup. "Big, hot mess" doesn't even begin to cover the situation!
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I cannot say what lesson Celestia et al. will teach Twilight after her escapade here, but I would imagine Twilight's first lesson to the Zebra Politburo will be "How Not To Be Seen"
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But Twilight does not like puppy flavoured ice cream...
6844125
I am not quite so sure about "hot mess"; the vitrified remains of the palace will have plenty of time to cool off to ambient temperature...
6844824
Certain aspects of this story remind me of the Edge Chronicles.
I'm thinking 'Lesson Zero' only all the ponies involved died. I wonder what Celestia's reaction would have been.
Oh, I guess we're about to find out.
6846002
Hadn't heard of those books before, but I looked them up on Amazon, and they sound really good!
6846368
That's... a pretty good comparison, actually.
Oh sure, devour an evil gem capable of spread magic plague to thousands of zebras at once. That can't possibly be bad for your digestion.
6846739
#22 - No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.
—"The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord," Peter Anspach.
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Ponies have very large heads.
As much as i love this story, which is not exactly a little, i am rather annoyed by the writing style of this part, from which i mean the fact that you seem to like stuttering a story around more chapters, interrupted by as much of a completely different story. Now, had you incorporated that in the story with a good excuse e.g. flasbacks from certain thought pathways, i would even like it. However, here it is presented as an annoyance rather than a something i could enjoy. Still like the story, but just letting you know.
6848162
Thanks for the feedback.
" i am rather annoyed by the writing style of this part, from which i mean the fact that you seem to like stuttering a story around more chapters, "
I somewhat presumptously want to address this because I'm still clutching at straws that Twilight isn't all the way gone here.
Iisaw hinted in the previous update why the story is 'jumping around' a bit - it's a game of chess. Future Twilight versus Past Twilight. Until very recently, this didn't have much meaning since there wasn't anything to discriminate between the two of them aside from one of them being more exhausted and beaten up than the other. The next big clue is that Past Twilight still hasn't gotten rid of the Nightmare (somewhere in between Then and Now, Nightmare goes into the amulet), and the second thing is that we didn't actually find out yet what Twilight did with the engine, or why it required open brain surgery on her friends to temporarily boost them in to Alicorns. Whatever Past Twilight planned to do, Future Twilight has forgotten about it.
We can see Future Twilight getting kicked out of the Elements - this was hinted at early on in a previous story; when we learned why Celestia couldn't use the Elements herself - and in a way, Twilight has further and further being supplanting her source of power from harmony to darkness. Right now, the only reason she is still conscious is because she's hopped up on Nightmare/Gem/Zebra-mana, but don't forget that immediately before putting on the amulet, she was barely able to function after having spent a couple hours passed out.
If that was all there is to it, then this looks like a simple case of the inevitable - the last 1% of Twilight is suppressed by the overwhelming evil filling her up, she goes in to Zebra town, and does terrible, terrible things until she finally exhausts what magic is supporting her, or she is somehow defeated. Perhaps Celestia and Luna appear. Perhaps Ket intervenes somehow. Perhaps the Sultan and the Zebra kingdom have more tricks up there sleeves. Ultimately, Twilight is melting down right now - even if she runs through the Zebra's and takes out the Sultan, she'll just go down to the next thing on her 'problem' checklist (Chrysalis, perhaps) until one of these things ultimately become true. A - She runs out of magic and passes out. B - She runs into something too big for her to handle.
The 'If' at the start of the paragraph is why, I think, the 'jumping-back-and-forth' is necessary.
Because this is NOT the first time Twilight has had a gutful of dark magic, and this is also not the first time she's been literally running on Nightmare-Fuel. She knows how corruptive it is and what terrible things she's capable of doing with barely a flick of her wings, and those are things the rational Twilight would not want herself to do. Nonetheless, when Twilight put Nightmare into an amulet, she fully intended to use that amulet at some point. The Twilight we know and love is cautious to a fault; it is not unreasonable for her to add a fail-safe or dead-mare's-switch, or to have some kind of emergency back-up plan. I'm confident we'll see something like that when Past Twilight makes her move. Something like, "I know I'll go crazy and want to do xyz, so here's what I'm going to set up in advance to stop me when that happens."
Secondly, Twilight has stated the boost is temporary, and that she had wanted to talk to her friends about it in advance and have their approval to go forward. What was the point of this if she hasn't used it and it's intended to wear off? I doubt Twilight thought it necessary to scare off some Zebra's. They had a role to play, but in her confused state, she's forgotten, or the power has gone to her head and she feels like she doesn't need her friends. The latter is particularly worrying. Her friends will also be pretty concerned when they find out HOW they got their temporary upgrades.
The last thing that I want to reflect on is why Twilight needed to boost her friends. We don't know what she did to the engine, or, what the engine is doing by itself, now. The writing suggests that, at the very least, it's alerted Celestia that somebody is messing with the engine. I'd expect Celestia to arrive, and when she shows up and sees the rest of the Mane 6 as Alicorns, her first thought might be "Did Twilight just do this to ascend her friends? Wait a minute, where is Twilight..."
Iisaw has another story that covers Twilight committing localised genocide and the subsequent interactions between Celestia and herself and can perhaps give some insight into the fallout. At the moment, there is still time for Celestia/Luna/Somebody to show up and halt Twilight before she commits a major international incident that can't be shoved under the carpet. Can you imagine how Equestria would react if a dark-magic-powered-Zebra-corn suddenly appeared in the throne room and assassinated one of the royals? That's kind of the reverse of what we're seeing. It doesn't matter that Twilight knows the Sultan is evil and wants to kill all his people; the people don't know this, and they love their Sultan.
There is also somewhat of a track record of Twilight taking on darkness, but this is the first time she did it willingly and intentionally. She's also arguably caused more chaos and deaths than Nightmare Moon at this point. If it was Luna doing this, Celestia would put her down at once - she has a soft spot for Twilight, but she may not be able to wash the blood off of her hooves this time.
So, to cut a long story short -
I, at first, found the back and forth disconcerting, and unnecessary. Now, though, knowing it was deliberate and intended to set up this 'battle against self', I understand why Iisaw has done it, and I'm interested to see how it pans out.
By that I mean, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat frantically bashing F5 and waiting for the next update...
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This was an awesome read! The whole "chess game" thing made for a fascinating parallel here. You've observed the game so far, and are laying out the possibilities of how the next moves might go... and they're all well within the "rules" of the game and quite logical. Bravo!
Next chapter coming in a few days!
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I have to curse you and thank you for that comment.
1. I will not be doing anything productive tomorrow because I will have to reread the story with those points you mentioned in mind. That is obviously a bad thing, because I should be studying and all that. Therefore I curse you.
2. Up until now I have read this fic as kind of two storys. Every time a new chapter came out connecting the dots to the chapter before the last. You just pointed out to me, that I was missing a major point. For that I thank you.
MfG NIchtraucher
Okay so back to the future, and time to see just how much further off the cliff of super villainy Twilight goes, and maybe find out exactly what she did to the Mane 6. And what little trick Celestia has in place to deal with it.
Well, that certainly defines Twilight. Though not so sure about the "wise" part, especially in these stories, she is almost a typical "High Int, low Wis" type character.
OHHHHHHHH Me like that time stamp, very appropriate and very creepy.
Wait...what? Okay this is now very interesting
Okay so they are going out, was half expecting that little second trap to reroute them somewhere else.
Ah, smart. Make them thing they just messed around in the hiding place of some ancient evil.
Well it does make sense, and at least Twilight is still, kind of, listening to her friends. Now will she listen at times they don't agree with her?
Also, good they aren't letting issues of "WHAT THE BUCK DID YOU JUST DO!?" get in the way of saving their friends.
Riiiiight, AJ and RD, sure, Fluttershy, yes, Pinkie? Oh hell no.
Wings? Well, Rarity HAS had wings before, and pinkie..... I'd be more terrified of her using that horn. Also so, what are the Zebra's seeing? Twilight, yeah looks nothing lie herself, but five other alicorns?
Well, duh. When you no longer give a fuck about anything else, just cut loose and have some fun with it. Also, Discworld flashback again. Always goo to have. (Specficly, Granny Weatherwax confronting her "evil" sister, who by going evil forced Granny to be the 'good' witch. And the final, biggest thing that had Granny pissed off at her sister? The fact that, if Granny had been allowed to go bad, she would have been having SO much more fun then her sister was.)
Oh that's not going to end well.
'
Twi speak for "I caused them to turn into rust and blow away as dust."
I can speak most dialects of 'nerd'.
So, they were under an illusion still? But yeah, no matter of what, seeing what is basically a full on Nightmare Moon before them, it's going to make Twilight wish Zebra's wore pants... or she still had Cabin Boy Spike around to 'Swab the poop-deck"
Good to see she's able to notice this stuff. Comical running in terror is funny, doleful acceptance of your coming death, not so much.
Oh, so they see it's all out "Nightmare Twilight?" Well, this is going cause some issues. At least she's trying to handle it well.
Nightmare really is messing with her head, isn't it....
Ouch.. that was just painful. Both, the bard to Twi herself, and the way she twisted that wording around to get a rhyme out of it.
Gee, Take the hint Twilight!
Riiiiiiight.
Seriously? in the middle of combat, you are going off on just proving you are right? Maybe, hey Maybe, just maybe Twilight, THEY are the ones in the right here.
You expected her to be?
Well, yes, also, good job Fluttershy.
And they have only YOUR word she's 'the nicest pony in the world".
Perfect delivery. Yeah Twilight does have her moments........ and just, spot on wording Fluttershy.
Twilight, TAKE THE HINT!
Are you even listening to yourself here Twilight?
And Twilight's wall of delusion, is cracking right up agsint AJ's wall of stubborn, plain spoken simplicity. Implacable Force, meet Immovable Object.
How is them being fine bad news? Ket was out on scouting patrol wasn't she? Likely just hiding and waiting to see if she sees a chance to help out.
See.
Okay that, that is more like bad news. Still, not like it'll stop Twilight. Also was kind of figuring that thing they'd take back ASAP.
Smart, also, again, way to channel Littlepip. (No she can't do shields, but she did work out how to carry things she couldn't touch with her magic, by creating a bubble of TK around it and moving it and the air holding it.)
This is going to make for some awkward explanations.
Riiiight, let's see if you still think that come time to take it off.
Ummm, are the repairs done? Or, she just planning on dealing with that the moment she's back?
Well, the first bit, possible but hardly definitive, that second one, yup. Though could be doing a fake out and making it LOOK like more of a target while another one carries it.
Huh, doing better then lat time at least.
Or not... yeah you can so see how the power is twisting her, and yet, not actually controlling her. At least she's worried about long term consequences.... that she knows about, not big on thinking about other long term issues at times....
Taking a page from Luna's book? (Or at least, Luna's book in Days of Wasp and Spider where tossing projectiles at a good fraction if c is her fighting method of choice. Well that, and just conjuring black holes.)
She is just so damn CHEESY at this.. if I wasn't terrified of what she's going to do, and worried about where this is going, when she'll finally just totally snap, and waiting for the moment of realization where she figures out how bad she bucked up......This would be hilarious.
Ohhhh very nice.
Damnit Twilight... yeah, get that bucking amulet off, and then you and your friends need to have a very VERY long talk where you actually, bucking, LISTEN! to somepony else for a change.
People never thing to build stuff large enough to be comfortable for overly large villains to look imposing in rather then cramped. Why do you think so many villain lairs go for over sized, ostentatiousness? It's so they have room just in case they find some power source that makes them hulk out.
If I can't have it to commit genocide! I'll just kill everything around me!
Yeeeaaahhhh.. granted that doesn't make you WHOLLY in the right but, that is, kind of a dick move.
Yup, called that, it gets easier and easier to justify that every time.
Wait.. when....was this... oh ohhhhhhhhh shit, that.... ohhh that makes a lot of sense now. TAKE A HINT!
Yes, and that is why, despite all this, you are NOT 'evil', just, mistaken, lashing out in uncertainty, lost, confused. And not seeing how what you think is 'right and good' has large issues then you are looking at.
And yet still.... not fully Evil, there really are. not a lot of good options here but, the cold blooded way you are able to do it...... and yet..... holy fuck are you GOOD and making things morally complex and impossible to find a simple answer to.
pre14.deviantart.net/0d07/th/pre/f/2013/027/a/c/facehoof_by_fedumedu-d5szg58.png
Normal facehoof just is not enough. Have you not learned your lesson about absorbing massive amount of dark magic Twilight!?
Yes, yes it can.... yes YOU can Twilight... you've made mistakes, but you need to stop hiding from the biggest ones, you need to admit this, to realize what you are doing, how far you are going, and simply WANT to come back. That is all. Please.......
For a certain definition of 'fun'.
Wow.. just.... wow. Twilight.. "train wreck" does not even begin to cover it, and yet, as you said, no idiot balls, all her steps make perfect sense, given how skewed reasoning ability. And yet.......
I see that Twilight absorbing dark magic is becoming a running theme of this series. Clearly nothing has or will go wrong from this.
Oh, shit. I love it!
Well, this'll be… well, I quite frankly haven't a clue what this is going to be like. Well, at least it'll be interesting.
Oh piss off :P
I am very afraid thank you very much.
Well, tree and shrub.
Twilight will eat ALL THE DARK MAGIC!
<And ponies chide me for liking cake!)
Number of times that Twilight has eaten dark magic: 7
8263353
She doesn't have a problem! She can stop anytime she wants!
This whole thing is kind of a spoiler.
I'm not liking this as much as I hoped. As much as I like to see tragic descents into villainy and madness in some stories, this is uncomfortable. Due to the switching back and forth, we haven't yet had any warning for Twilight's descent. I'm assuming we'll get more of it later, due to this back-and-forth nature of the story, but as of yet the change feels abrupt. And with the storyline developing as it is, Twilight seems to be going down a path she can't come back from.
Even after we get the whole story, this whole idea of Twilight becoming evil strikes me wrong for a number of reasons. foremost of these is that it's a reversal of what Twilight is supposed to be. The original idea of Twilight's character arc is that she is starts out without valuing other people much, and her character development is that she learns about the value of other people as she has more experience with the world, hence the lessons of friendship. Stories depicting Twilight's moral downfall are like a devolution, her previous character developments going in reverse. In a weird sense, that makes Twilight becoming evil the most Out-Of-Character thing possible.
I'm still holding out hope that I'll be surprised, but it will take a lot to make this story work. I wouldn't think it possible for anyone other than iisaw.
dead a/n pic
Twilight certainly has not suffered ill effects from the use of the NightMareAmulet.
The interaction between Fluttershy and Twilight reminds me about S02E03 Luna Eclipsed:
9429984
Fix'd.
Dang, this is pretty badass.
........ Y'know, when Twilight is doing this, she comes off as more adorkable than actually menacing. It's like she's trying too hard to roleplay NMM and it's great.
Yup, even through all that Nightmare glop she's still Twiggles, the best girl.
Oh yeah, she's a dork.
Oh, yikes.
Damn, this Eye is some serious business.
Good lord. Their essence too? That's... pretty dark.