Dani Alicornia
In a hallway in Canterlot High School on an average school day, a lavender-skinned girl with violet hair wearing a stunning dress suddenly let out a primal scream, shot down the hall like a comet, and slammed her fist into the face of a muscular, red-skinned teenage boy while an almost identical lavender-skinned, violet-haired girl wearing a school uniform and black-rimmed glasses stared in wide-eyed shock.
"TIREK!" Princess Twilight Sparkle screeched as she flailed away at her quarry with fists and feet. "YOU! MONSTER! I WON'T...LET YOU...again..." Suddenly, she sank to her knees, all the energy and fury draining out of her body. She panted heavily, then turned a murderous glare up at the boy, who was staring down at her with a bemused expression. "Monster," she hissed.
Six girls materialized around her, lifting her gently to her feet and supporting her. They were torn between checking on her with concern, staring at her doppelganger with wonder, and shooting suspicious glares at the boy she had just assaulted out of nowhere. All around them, other students had stopped in their tracks and were watching, whispering and murmuring.
"Twilight, are you okay?" Sunset Shimmer asked worriedly, checking her friend over. "What just...what just happened?" She glared suspiciously at the red-skinned boy. "What did you do to her?"
He scowled. "I have done nothing to her," he rumbled.
The other Twilight finally found her voice as she stepped forward, adjusting her glasses. "She really does look just like me," she said. "She even sounds like me. Except I've never been that, well...shouty..."
Suddenly, Princess Twilight seized her counterpart by the shoulders and shook her. "Twilight! You have to listen to me! You can't...don't trust him! Stay away from him! He's pure evil!"
Twilight frowned, disengaging herself. "Excuse me," she said coolly, "but right now, the most suspicious person here is you. Tirek looks and sounds scary, and maybe he has a bit of an...intense personality, but he's been nothing but respectful and helpful to me and Dean Cadance."
Dean Cadance, for her part, snapped out of her shock and confusion at the unexpected display and cleared her throat. "Would anyone care to explain why this girl assaulted one of my students and possibly caused a diplomatic incident?"
"I'm rather curious about that myself," a new voice intruded. Principal Celestia cut through the crowds, her face stern and all-business. She regarded the two groups facing off against one another, her face registering surprise at the presence of two Twilight Sparkles. "Explain," she snapped in Sunset Shimmer's general direction.
Sunset sighed. "Twilight—our Twilight—came back to help with our little problem," she said. "This other Twilight is this world's Twilight, and she goes to Crystal Prep. I recognize Cadance here, but I have no idea who this guy is, or why our Twilight just completely freaked out when she saw him."
"Because he's a monster," Princess Twilight said. "He almost destroyed Equestria. I have no idea how he escaped Tartarus or what he's doing here, but—"
"Uhh, Twilight?" Sunset interrupted. "D'you think maaaaybe he's just, y'know, this world's version of whoever you're talking about?"
That took the wind out of Princess Twilight's sails. Her eyes widened. "Oh," she said quietly. She blinked, then looked from the other Twilight to the scowling Cadance, then to the contemplative Tirek, then to a visibly angry Celestia. Her shoulders slumped. "Right. I...I'm sorry." She took a deep breath, sighed, then glared at Tirek. "But I still don't trust you," she said. "Twilight, Cadance, you shouldn't trust him either. What are you even doing with him?"
Principal Celestia clapped her hands loudly. "Alright everyone, get to class!" she yelled. "Right now! Not you, Sunset," she added. "You, Twilight, the other Twilight, and you two, come with me."
"But—" Rainbow Dash started.
"CLASS," Celestia said sternly. Her eyes softened. "I know you're involved in this, but right now the fewer people shouting over each other, the better."
Rainbow sighed. "Fine." She glanced at her friends, nodded, and skulked off to class. The crowd in the hall dispersed slowly.
"We'll see you two later," Fluttershy said as she passed, giving Princess Twilight's shoulder a squeeze. The other Rainbooms expressed similar sentiments of encouragement as they drifted off to their own classes.
Soon, it was just the two adults and four teens. Principal Celestia regarded Dean Cadance coolly, affording her a respectful nod. "Cadance," she said.
"Hello, Celestia," Cadance said a bit sheepishly. "Umm..."
Celestia held up a hand to stall her. "Not here." She marched crisply down the hall, making it clear everyone was to follow her. Glancing around awkwardly at one another, the rest of the group followed.
Princess Twilight cast a glance at the glowing, chiming crystal around Tirek's neck. "You have magic," she said quietly. "Magic that shouldn't exist in this world."
"I could say the same of you," Tirek rumbled. "The two of you clearly possess incredible magical power."
"Oh, you have no idea," Princess Twilight said with a dangerous, menacing chuckle. "And since I'm not stuck in this form this time around, you REALLY don't want to make me angry."
"Twilight," Sunset said in a warning tone.
"What do you mean 'stuck in this form'?" the other Twilight asked, glancing at her doppelganger curiously. "And why are you stealing my face and my name?"
"I'm not stealing anything from you!" Princess Twilight retorted. "I am Twilight Sparkle!"
"That's funny, because I'm pretty sure I'm Twilight Sparkle," Twilight countered tartly. "Says so on my birth certificate, my student ID, my—"
"Okay, both of you, enough," Cadance said wearily, massaging the bridge of her nose.
"Sorry," both Twilights said at once. They glanced at each other, frowned, and looked away.
Sunset facepalmed. "Way to make a first impression," she muttered.
Celestia led them to a conference room. Once they were all inside and seated, she sat down at the head of the table and folded her arms. She gave Cadance a hard stare. "You first," she said.
Cadance sighed. "Twilight, Tirek, and I are investigating the..." She frowned. "Well, it's..."
"There is magic at this school," Tirek said brusquely. "Twilight detected it. We came here to study it after discovering similar magic at Crystal Prep."
Princess Twilight groaned. "The backup portal," she said, covering her head with her arms. "This is all my fault..."
"So, you created that portal in the girls' bathroom," Tirek said. "Interesting."
"How...?" Twilight asked, staring at her counterpart.
Celestia held up a hand. "So you thought it'd be okay to bring two students from your school here to poke around, without consulting me?"
Cadance winced. "I, umm...I did clear us being here with Luna," she said. "I just...didn't tell her the real reason. I said we were studying student culture here."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Alright. We'll discuss that later. More importantly..." She glanced at Tirek. "That glowing crystal."
"A relic passed on to me by my mentor in my homeland," Tirek said. "It detects sources of magic." He snorted. "It's detected quite a lot of it recently."
"Something that dangerous shouldn't be in your hands," Princess Twilight said.
Tirek frowned at her. "You continue to judge me when you do not even know me," he said. "It grows tiresome."
"Yeah, quit picking on him!" Twilight said. "We have no reason whatsoever to trust you!"
"What is your problem with this guy?" Sunset asked curiously. "I've never seen you freak out like that."
Princess Twilight scowled. "Tirek came closer to destroying Equestria than anyone ever has," she said. "Nightmare Moon, Discord, even King Sombra...none of them came anywhere close to his level of carnage."
"Equestria?" Twilight asked, tilting her head.
Sunset frowned. "Okay, I know I haven't been home in a really long time and I may be a little rusty, but I think I'd have heard of something like that."
"It happened a few months ago," Twilight said. "Tirek escaped Tartarus after over a thousand years of imprisonment. He stole pony magic. First he went after unicorns. Then pegasi. Then earth ponies." She bowed her head. "Then he came after the alicorns. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance all transferred their alicorn magic to me. It was the only way to protect all the alicorn magic in Equestria...to stop Tirek from taking it and dooming Equestria."
Dean Cadance blinked. "Princess Cadance...?"
Tirek rubbed his chin. "I believe I'm beginning to understand," he mused. "Dean Cadance, you mentioned seeing a pink horse come out of that mirror. One who looked like you and spoke to you."
Cadance nodded. "Yeah..."
Tirek looked between the two Twilights, his eyes narrowing. "Yes. I do understand," he said. "The portal connects to a parallel world. A magic world, where there are counterparts of people here."
Twilight gasped. "That...! That explains so much..."
"Yes," Princess Twilight said in a steely tone. "And your counterpart hurt my friends and destroyed my home. Tried to KILL me to get all the alicorn magic in Equestria. So you'll understand when I say I have very good reason to distrust you."
Tirek nodded. "Were I in your place, I would likely have the same reaction," he agreed. "It is sensible to be wary of me when my counterpart has caused you such grief." He stared into her eyes. "But understand this. I am not the Tirek you know. I am not your enemy. I merely seek...an understanding of that which, to this world, is fantastical and unknown."
"I'm after the same thing," Twilight said. "I want to study this magic and understand it. I...I need to know."
"What worries me is what you'd do with that knowledge," Princess Twilight said. She glanced from Tirek to Twilight, then added, "Both of you."
Twilight blinked. "Both of...? You don't trust me?!"
"If you're anything like me? You mean well, but you'll get too caught up in what you're doing, get in over your head, do something stupid, and..." She made a vague 'explosion' gesture with her hands.
Cadance giggled. "That...does sound a bit like Twilight," she said.
Twilight blushed. "Dean Cadance!"
"And honestly, right now isn't the best time to have you poking around," Princess Twilight continued. "We're having...a bit of a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Twilight asked.
Princess Twilight frowned hesitantly. Sunset touched her arm. "She might be able to help," she said. "I mean, you never know."
Princess Twilight sighed. "There's too much Equestrian magic in this world," she said. "It's screwing up the balance of magic here. We're trying to figure out exactly what the source of the imbalance is and how to fix it. There are a couple of probable causes, but the most immediate cause is a problem with our original portal to this world. It's no longer functioning properly, and one of the safeguard spells Starswirl the Bearded built into it has failed. Sunset..." She frowned.
Sunset grimaced. "The portal's supposed to turn you into a human when you cross into this world from Equestria," she said. "A few days ago, I woke up in my original form. Twilight had to figure out a way for both of us to appear human in this world, but it's temporary and takes a lot of magic to maintain."
Princess Twilight nodded. "We created a second stable portal that opens up at your school so I could come across and try to figure out what's going on and how to restore the natural magical balance of this world."
Tirek raised an eyebrow. "So your idea of correcting the flow of magic from your world into this world is cutting open another wound for your world to bleed from?"
"That we can collapse without incident if it makes things worse," Princess Twilight said a bit hotly. "Besides, it was necessary so I can determine if the portal here is what's causing the imbalance in the first place."
"See, the portal at this school is only supposed to open once every thirty moons," Sunset explained. "On its own, it opens for three days every thirty moons, then closes. But when we had some...trouble here not long ago, we needed help from Equestria, so Twilight found a way to open the portal and keep it open."
"And that might be the problem," Princess Twilight finished, grimacing. "I mean, it's not like we're just leaving the portal open all the time, but we have a way to force it open that bypasses the original spells Starswirl used in its creation."
"So you hacked it," Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. "And you introduced a bug into the source code."
"That's a good analogy," Sunset agreed.
"And now we need to figure out if that's what's causing the problem," Princess Twilight said. "If it is, then I'll need to find a way to fix it without collapsing the portal entirely. We...really want to keep it open if we possibly can."
"Because if we can't, then every source of Equestrian magic has to be removed from this world," Sunset said with a heavy sigh. "Including me, and I don't really want to leave. This is my home now."
"And if it isn't the cause?" Cadance asked.
Princess Twilight shrugged. "Then we'll need to examine every person and every thing in this world that's either from Equestria or has been touched by Equestrian magic, and that...could take a while."
"Yeah, especially if we don't know how many problems Starswirl tossed through that portal," Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. "Honestly, after the Sirens, I'm wondering if he didn't make that portal to be Equestria's magical garbage disposal."
"I think that's pretty much exactly what it was meant to be," Princess Twilight said with a pained grimace.
"What, you don't have dungeons or prisons in your magical world?" Twilight asked, arching an eyebrow.
"We do," Princess Twilight said. "And we even have ways to suppress magic. But some threats are too dangerous even for Tartarus. Or at least, that was the case back when the Sirens were around."
A silence fell as the group from Crystal Prep digested everything they'd heard.
"If you can't fix this magical imbalance," Cadance asked slowly, "what does that mean for this world?"
Princess Twilight grimaced. "We don't know," she admitted. "But I don't want to risk having to find out."
Tirek and Twilight exchanged a glance. Twilight took a deep breath. "We want to help you," she said. "But in return, we want to know everything. About magic, about your world...all of it."
Princess Twilight frowned. "I...don't know..."
"Wait," Sunset said, holding up a hand. "Twilight," she began, addressing the human Twilight, "how did you even know about the magic here at CHS in the first place?"
Twilight pushed her glasses up her nose. "I have a lab full of sensitive measuring equipment," she said. "Seismographs, EM frequency and radiation detectors, pretty much everything to measure everything. Everything that's been going on over here over the last several months has been generating bizarre readings on all my equipment. It took me a while to create a custom tracker that would measure the specific frequencies of energy and particle emissions this...magic is creating, but now I can scan specifically for magic and filter everything else out." She frowned. "Or I could until you two shorted out my tracker."
"She's a genius with electronics and gadgets," Cadance said with a hint of pride.
Sunset raised an eyebrow, then turned to Princess Twilight. "Could be helpful," she said.
Princess Twilight sighed. "Alright," she said. "You can help, and...and I'll answer any questions that are safe to answer."
"I'm glad we settled that," Principal Celestia said with a tired sigh.
"The first question I have," Twilight said, holding up a finger. "I want to know exactly who and what you are." She fixed a stern gaze on Princess Twilight. "If we're dealing with parallel worlds here, I'm gonna assume you're another version of me, but I need to know."
"You did mention the two of you are not human," Tirek pointed out. "I admit to being curious about that point."
Princess Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other nervously. Sunset gestured vaguely with her hand. "You're the alicorn," she said. "This one's all up to you."
Princess Twilight sighed and stood up, slipping off her shoes as she did so. Brushing aside her hair, she pulled the glowing crystal amulet out of her dress, then unfastened the chain and dropped the still-glowing amulet onto the table. A bright magenta glow suffused her body, and a blinding white flash filled the conference room, forcing everyone to cover their eyes.
As the light faded, her empty dress and underwear pooled on the floor. The native humans looked on in stunned awe at the small yet majestic equine suspended in midair, slowly gliding to the table surface on massive, feathery wings.
"I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship," she said as her hooves touched down. "One of the four alicorn princesses of Equestria."
Tirek's crystal let out a loud, sharp sound and shattered.
"And I am Magic," Princess Twilight added with a smirk.
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Not sure if well played Princess Sparkle, but still. Nice outcome.
Damn. That ending was epicly badass.
s2.quickmeme.com/img/42/4217e8b3ecf2731202368c43112bf0181661ee63cc31a5d00fcc9516d9b5b4a2.jpg
Great chapter as usual. You're really nailing the personality of each character perfectly, which is probably very difficult since you're using so many characters. Fantastic job!
Now I'm wondering if the crystal burst on its own because of magic-overflow or if Princess Twilight destroyed it before anyone could react.
Well hey that was a great chapter. Now i just gotta wait for an update and fine something else to read. Well written and i'm extremely sorry at how rude i may have seemed my previous comment, I in no way meant to look or sound desperate for the next chapter. I hadnt realised it was just recently posted as my phone doesnt exactly tell me when it has last been updated. Can't wait to read the next chapter!
Nice ending, good chapter.
I'd love to see the reactions of the other folk around the table next chapter
That didn't totally blow up in our faces, maybe Twilight has indeed grown!
Expressing using magic is probably only spreading it, soon enough it won't be able to be contained.
Also, that moment when the humans all realize she's nude
Keep going! ;)
7718010 Agree. His first question to Sunset Shimmer (according to plan) was why she transform in she-demon and how escape this. Witch made him reasonable in my book.
This is my favorite chapter so far and I totally like this storys version of Tirek :)
7717972
Tirek: (trying to keep his cool) "Fine, but you still owe me a Crystal. Ancient magical relics don't grow on trees, you know? "
Twilight: (still smirking) "Oh Tirek, if you only knew..."
Pretty epic. I would like to thank you for updating this again so quickly, in light of the cliffhanger last chapter. It was a pretty awesome thing to do. Have mustaches.
Well, Princess Twilight does not have to keep Human Tirek's crystal now..
Because she just destroyed it.
DUN DUN DUUUUUN!
....I rather like this Tirek....
wonder if they can swap?
Equestria gets a non evil Tirek, the Human world gets an older and weaker Tirek they can lock up?
7718001 DBZ Scouter Effect.
7718057
Hahaha.
7718057 Ha! Good one.
But I don't understand if Twilight destroyed the amulet intentionally or if it overloaded.
I think it's the latter.
Great chapter as always.
7718143 I think it is because a lot of her magic was what was keeping her human but when she took off the amulet nothing was useing and in a way holding back her magic so Tirek's crystal got overloded by Twilight's true magic level and just shattered.
7718143
7718185 Pretty much this. Like I said in an earlier comment, DBZ Scouter Effect. Or more to the point, being locked in a human form was suppressing a lot of Twilight's alicorn magic. Releasing the lock on her transformation spell removed the suppression.
Tirek, what does the crystal say about her magic level?
I loved this.
7718143
I think the answer to that is yes, on both counts.
Hey Tirek! What's Twilight's magic level?
I'll tell you it's OVER 9000!!!
"And I am Magic" BEST LINE OF THE CHAPTER!
Did she destroy it intentionally or was is simply overloaded like human Twilight's gadget?
Edit: You had already answered the question while I was reading the story and writing this comment. (See 7718190 )
Interesting chapter!
(It came faster than I expected... But I'm not complaining.)
I'm curious to see what happens next.
Badass Twilight is best Twilight.
two updates in such a short time period, did I miss my birtday?
understandable that Twilight would flip out at the sight of Tirek, but true, till now he did nothing bad. And somehow I get the feeling that the biggest threat comes from either the sirens or Starlight. I'm inclined to the view that it will be Starlight, but who knows
Okay, that was reasonably awesome.
great chapter I loved flytwis reaction to tirek
7718010
7718075
7718050
Again, guys. Don't forget. We've seen almost no general personality differences between worlds here. Human 6 and Mane 6 have the same general personalities. The principals, Cadence. If we go by logical understanding, then once Tirek has a REASON to be openly evil and can intelligently grasp the ability to be free of consequences, it's entirely probable and likely he will try to seize power for himself. I can easily see him deciding to stage dive through the portal and becoming Tirek demon-monkey-centaur #2 in Equestria after he's learned how they stopped the original Tirek.
The original Tirek was a huge liar and traitor, he betrayed his brother and Discord almost back to back while out of Tartarus. Let's not throw our chips in on this Tirek being a 'good guy' just because he sounds like one. That's how all manipulators sound, like they can be trusted. That's the very basis of manipulation.
Expected FlyTwi to be more angry at Tirek... more shouting in lines directed/talking about him.
Confrontation's sufficiently explanatory.
Expected Twiight to go What is 'hacking' and 'source code'?
Cadence + Celestia subplot, and the other Cadence subplot sufficiently possibly mysterious to hold interest.
That ending with Twilight was badass! Now both groups are starting to clear things with each other so hopefully they can work something out, but I'm still wary of this Tirek. Until he can prove once and for all he is not the same manipulator his counterpart was I don't think it is a good idea for anyone to put too much trust in him.
Now where have I heard something like this before?
Oh yeah!
7718301 I disagree with that. First Celestia and Luna have very different personality. Same for Tirek brother. True he not saint, but when he interact with Sirens, he didn't take the offer. By that I concluded that he willn't go that far on his way on seeking power. Maybe like semi-villain like Trixie, Flim and Flam , and so on. (that idea intriguing me more than old path "evil just because ")
7718304
I half expected pony!Twilight to drop her disguise right there in the hallway and launch a Hadouken at him.
7718139
She's over 9000!
Yep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfcu4GUytIE&t=4m10s
7718301 true, but remember that though both Tireks want magic and power the Tirek of the EQ reality already has power(that's why messing with him might cause a diplomatic incident) and getting ANY magic would be him gaining magic. It's a levels thing. It's why Celestia is a principal instead of some form of politician(mayor, governor, president)
Cadance: *sqeals and glomps the pony Twilight.*
Alicorn Twilight: *panicked horse noises*
Cadence: You're sooo cute!
...uh. Well I did say I was hoping to see some rage this chapter. Still. Wow.
It drained out of her a bit too fast though. Just from a style standpoint, it might have worked better to describe her attack a bit more, drag it out. As it is the pacing is so fast that Twilight comes off as a bit more schizo than you were probably going for, bouncing from one emotional extreme to another very rapidly.
Princess Twilight Sparkle is hereby awarded one (1) win on behalf of the Internets, in the category of epic.
7718330
However when he was introduced he was making more then just veiled threats when he was with his brother. He was talking about power and those too weak to wield it properly. I pulled from that conversation that he wants magic so he can go home and make a power play so he can be in charge.
Hopefully she has the presence of mind not to change back in front of them.
interesting
and I'm honestly hoping Tirek doesn't end up being a bad guy in this
7718448 True. We'll see how it goes later, though .
7718374 you might wanna add a few more 0's buddy
Considering this guy triggered her PTSD from having her magic drained and having her house blown up, no.
She's right, this Tirek isn't the megalomaniac the other Tirek is.
Researching, technically.
Who knew Twilight could be intentionally menacing?
He makes a valid point, while he is, intense, and while I'm sure it's not pretty when he's pissed, he's a far cry from the monstrous Tirek you faced.
She has a point.
In a nutshell, yeah.
That, is one HELL of a good one-liner.
Half the scouters exploded and the other half were smashed out of frustration. Whoever built those things did a piss poor job.
Okay, yeah, this chapter ended on an epic note. And it's good that things are out in the open now. Sorta.
7718517 I like your summary of events.
ok this story just got cranked up to a 10 really fast.
and the ending Tirek's crystal let out a loud, sharp sound and shattered."And I am Magic," Princess Twilight added with a smirk.
scratch off one crystal some things are just meant to handle that much raw power.
7718516
And yet my statement remains correct.
7718143
I think it's a little bit of both, hence her smirking at the end.