Twilily Saga: Past, Present, Or Damnation

by Lighttone GryphonStar

Chapter 2: The Darkest Mare

<1,000 years earlier>

Sunfire showed up in the garden for his first day of training, walking until he reached the courtyard in the garden. It was beautiful there, the trees stood just right as the Sun shined through them, lighting the place perfectly.

He looked to see Celestia sitting in a chair by a small table. She was sipping some tea. He tried not to stare as the light shined off her pristine white fur, she looked quite beautiful.

Celestia noticed that he had shown up and waved him over. He walked over and sat in the extra chair just as Celestia finished her tea. "Lovely day isn't it?" she questioned.

"Of course Princess Celestia."

"Please, just Celestia will be fine Sunfire. You are my student now."

"No, I would rather still call you Princess. At least in honor of...the royal family," he stuttered.

She giggled, "Well you honor my family well. Though I thought most ponies saw Luna and I as the only rulers of the Shangri-La kingdoms."

"Well, truth be told I majored in history during my university years." He wondered when the training would actually happen. So far all they were doing was talking.

"Oh, so you are a former scholar. I had no idea I would be taking on such a smart student," she smiled.

Sunfire became more nervous as things went on. They still weren't training, but why? "Um, Princess Celestia. I thought you wanted to take me in as your student."

"Well, I already have."

"But--" she stopped him as she waved her hand dismissively.

"Listen Sunfire. Before training can begin, I would like to know you better."

"But you have files on all your guards."

"Yes, but files only tell so much." She floated over another cup and poured some tea for him as well as herself. "I would like to know the real you. Things that only you know."

"Like?"

"Well, how about you start with the reason you switch from a promising career as a historian to being a soldier."

"Well it all started..."

The two continued to talk throughout that day. Meanwhile, Luna was just about to receive the letter. She was up in her room when her night guard knocked. Opening her door, they handed her the letter. She looked at it with confusion. Just who would nearly kill a guard just to send a letter. The writing on the outside seemed familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen it before. She closed her door and walked to her bed.

Opening it, she read. As she did her eyes slowly widen and a small sparkle could be seen in them. Something was clearly important in this letter. But what was it? She was not about to let anyone know, for as soon she finished she closed it and hid the letter under her bed. There it would stay until the right day. As said on the bottom of the letter, 'Wait until the return of the Crystal Empire. Only then will everything change.'

<1,000 years later>

Twilight found herself floating in a black space. She quickly realized that it seemed too familiar. Last time she was here it was either Nightmare or Sombra trying to talk to her. She knew at this time Sombra would be locked up and considering where she was in time, there was only one she knew it could be...Nightmare.

Suddenly she found herself falling at high speeds. She looked around and saw in the distance what looked like chains. Several of them surrounded her. Without warning, they moved in close and wrapped tightly around her. She realized they were chain blades as the sharp points dug into her flesh. She knew this was a dream, yet she was feeling pain. She had enough. “Nightmare stop this!” she yelled.

It stopped, however it was followed by laughter that could be heard in all directions. Twilight’s eyes widened. It was not Nightmare’s voice. “You think she is the only one who can access the dreamscape?”

“What? Who are you?” Twilight looked around in confusion.

The chain blades swung her around and around. They swung her faster and faster. Soon she saw snow fall around her. In the distance, it looked like she could see the Crystal Empire. She was swung faster and the image of the Crystal Empire disappeared and was randomly replaced by the Moon.

Without warning, the chain blades let go, sending her flying to the Moon. She crashed into it. It cracked and rip apart like glass. She screamed as she fell through the cracks. The voice spoke again as Twilight landed on some sort of ground. “Tell me your name,” the voice questioned.

“No, I asked you first.”

“You refuse to answer? Fine, I’ll take it from your memories.” Two new strange-looking chain blades showed themselves as they tore their way into her ears. She screamed in agony as they tore through her skull. This made no sense - this was a dream. How was she feeling this much pain? Eventually, they ripped out of her ears, covered in blood. Twilight fell to the ground in agony. Soon the voice spoke once more. “Sorry this is turning more gruesome than Nightmare’s dreams, I haven’t mastered this spell as well as my Auntie Nightmare. Oh hold on, what is this I see?”

“What do you mean?”

“I was looking through your memories and a few things showed up that looked so familiar,” the mare’s voice snickered. “Well, let’s start with the first one, or is it the last one?”

Suddenly five liquid tanks appeared around Twilight. They had numbers on them, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007. “What are these?” Twilight questioned.

“I know what they are, but do you know?”

“What?”

“I’m not sure if they are from your past or you will see them in your future. Either way, on to the next one.”

On that, the tanks disappeared and were replaced by a yellow pegasus stallion with a blue mane in armor. Twilight’s eyes widened. “Flash Sentry?”

“Sentry? Same last name,” the mare voice snickered aloud. “I wondered why he looked so similar to him.”

“To who? To what?” This voice was making no sense to Twilight at all.

“You don’t know, do you?”

Suddenly the image of Flash was replaced by an image of a unicorn mare and pegasus stallion embracing each other. Then without warning, they were stabbed right through the heart.

Twilight looked beyond them as they vanished to see a mare. The mare slowly walked towards her as everything else vanished. As the mare walked, she spoke with the same voice as the mysterious mare’s voice. “Now I have my answer,” she charged at Twilight. Twilight tried to take up her guard, but then she found that her arms couldn’t move. Finally, the dream cleared.

******

Twilight woke up and found herself chained up to a sidewaystable. She looked in shock to see the mare from the dream now standing in front of her. She was a gray pony with a short red mane hanging in her face, making her glowing winter blue eyes barely noticeable. She was wearing a purple turban, a blood-stained dark purple cape over a red long wide-sleeved, arabian robe and bladed high heels, as well as two kopises at her sides.

“It’s Twilight, isn’t it?”

“What? How did you know?”

“I took it from your memories.”

“You seem to know who I am, now who are you? What is your name?” Twilight questioned.

“No. I threw away my actual name long ago,” the mare answered. This confused Twilight. “But if you want to call me something, call me Selena Moondie. It's the name my ex-coltfriend gave me.”

“What? Nevermind, where is my ally? Where is ‘F’?”

Suddenly a new voice spoke, “Enough my little princess.”

Selena Moondie turned and yelled in annoyance, “Grandfather, don’t call me that in front of the prisoner!”

Twilight looked in the direction that Selena Moondie was looking and saw the emperor himself. He stepped forward and looked at her. Twilight still felt an instinctual fear that was telling her to run though it was not as strong as it was before. Unfortunately, due to her being chained up, running wasn’t an option. “Tell me, Twilight why are you here? Who sent you through time?” he questioned.

Twilight tried her best to hold a strong face as she answered, “I was sent here by an immortal creature named ‘F’ to fight the greatest evil.” She knew she couldn’t lie to him. She didn’t know how or why, but she felt like no matter what, she couldn’t lie to him, at all. Grogar was a confusion to her. She had never heard of such a creature. Just what was he?

He still seemed curious. He knew she was hiding something. Telling him the truth did not mean that she had told him everything. He turned to Selena Moondie and asked, “What else could you get from her brain?”

“Aside from her memories of some yellow stallion and those tanks, there was an image of a mare named Starlight Glimmer. From what I saw Twilight is supposed to save this mare from the ‘Greatest Evil’ in order to get the time spell back and go home to the future.”

“Anything else.” He rubbed his hairy chin in thought on who this 'Greatest Evil' could be.

“Nothing else.”

“And what of her blood?”

Twilight’s eyes widened as Selena Moondie’s hand rose up and a strange-looking chain blade rose forth. However what sent chills up her spine was the fact that this weapon was the same one from the dream that had carved through her skull, and it was covered in blood. It was at that point that Twilight realized there was blood dripping down to her shoulder at a slow rate. The blood was coming from her ears. Was that part of the dream real? Or was it something else?

Selena Moondie moved the weapon in a magical grasp as she held it near her face. This was odd to Twilight - she had almost mistaken Selena Moondie’s form for an earth pony, but clearly she was levitating her weapons, like a unicorn.

Selena licked the blade, tasting the blood. Randomly her eyes widened and then set back to a normal state. “Tart, not sweet. She definitely has darkness within her.”

“Well of course she does. How else would I have such will over her? What about the table? Where did she get a hold of such a large chunk of--”

“What? What do you mean darkness?” questioned Twilight interrupting Grogar mid-sentence, as she struggled in her chains.

He stopped his train of thought. Soon something formed in his mind. Something very clever. He turned to her and smiled. “So you were never told about your alicorn heritages.”

“What? Of course I--” It was at this point Twilight looked to her sides, sighing with relief that her wings were still hidden under the spell.

“Oh, we already know about your wings.” Her eyes widened at his words. “Did you not hear me before I knocked you out? I am a demigod, and unlike your false goddesses Celestia and Luna, I am very real. Do you really think I can't see that you're wearing an illusion?” He held out his hands. In one hand he had a maroon red knife, to which he then used to cut off a finger on his other hand.

She looked in shock as it fell to the ground. Suddenly it changed shape and take the form of a spider. “This is the power of a real demigod. The power to create and destroy.” Twilight watched as the spider crawled up Grogar’s robe and then crawled into his free hand. At that point, she saw that the finger had regenerated. “You see although normal creatures require mating to procreate, demigods do not. All I need to do is remove my flesh or even any amount of blood and I produce children.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Under that illusion, you are an alicorn, and your young age shows you’re clearly not a pure-blooded alicorn. So logically you must have ascended, which means you must have an alicorn in your blood line. Did you know that?”

“Yes, I was told that once,” she confirmed.

“Good, but did anypony tell you the truth about the three alicorn species?”

“I know there are light alicorns and dark alicorns,” she confirmed. Where was he going with this? What was he after? These things raced over and over through Twilight’s mind as the questions were asked.

“But has anypony told you why they are different from normal alicorns?”

“I was told that it was the forms of magic they used.”

“Yes and no. True, dark alicorns use dark magic and light alicorns use light magic. But what about other forms of magic, like crystal, sound, fire and ice?” This questioned confused her even more. “But what if I were to tell you that light and dark magic aren’t actually different forms of magic at all?”

This left her completely at a loss of words. This was totally confusing. What did he mean? How? “This makes no sense?” she questioned. “I was told that dark magic in its strongest form bends space--”

“And light magic in its strongest form can bend time. So how can they be similar, yet act so different?” He chuckled at the end. He looked at Selena Moondie and then back to Twilight. “Well, it seems you only know half the story, so to help you understand, here is a riddle. What holds you together, yet keeps you separate? What binds your soul, yet if removed, loses your sanity?” On that final note, he took his leave.

But before he was out of sight, he turned back to Selena Moondie, “We will be arriving soon, when she is ready to give me her answer, bring her to me.”

******

Back in Canterlot, the night guard made their return. As they did, they were greeted by Princess Luna who was on her throne. “We have returned your majesty. We bring news of a strange-looking crystal table, as well as some sort of strange red dust, and finally what appears to be a lock of zebra mane that stinks of drugs.”

The first two things confused her, however, “Wait, you said, the zebra fur stunk of what?”

“Drugs, milady.”

“Bring it here,” she motioned.

They brought it over and placed it on a table. She levitated it towards her. Once it was in front of her, she took a whiff. “Cocaine, alcohol, methamphetamine, sage and…. cinnamon.”

“Sage, and cinnamon?” this confused the guards. Who would make such a strange cocktail? And for what purpose?

Her eyes widened as she took another whiff. She knew this combination smelled familiar, “Zeb Zecobra.”

“Who is this Zeb, your majesty?” they questioned.

She placed the lock of mane down and then looked back at them. “Of course, it was a long time ago. Zeb was a commander from Sombra’s armies. Nowadays, though, he is more of a very high up drug lord and a witch doctor. All you need to know is that Zeb has a hatred for Zebrica. And with the ambassadors soon to be arriving, I need you to go and meet them ahead so to make sure he doesn’t try anything.”

“Of course your majesty.”

“But be careful out there. Keep your mouths and noses covered. He has many drugs and chemicals in his arsenal. Drugs that mess with the mind, alter the body or even kill. So double the squad you have with you and don’t let your guard down.”

“Hold on your majesty. There was also some strange red dust, that Celestia was looking at.” They showed her the bag of red dust.

She took it in her magical grasp and placed it on the table. “Okay, I’m sure my sister will give it another look over in the morning. Now get moving.” On that, they took their leave.

After they left Luna took a deep breath. It was hard work being on duty at night. Not many were awake to keep her company. She did the best she could, yet she always felt that she got very little respect for doing all this work.

She got up from her throne and went for a walk around the castle before going on patrol through the dreams as she did every night. As she walked, she remembered better days. Days where she didn’t spend her nights alone. In the past, he was always there beside her, watching the night with her. The stallion she loved. She often wandered if he was warm where he was now.

She quickly cleared her mind as she didn’t want to remember what had happened to him in the end. As she finished her walk, she went to her room to dream walk. Yet unbeknown to her, the memory lingered.

*******

Several miles away, the deadly assassin was getting closer to his prize as he climbed up a cliff. Looking over it, he saw a pink unicorn with a purple mane, Starlight Glimmer, down below. She was wearing a purple jacket and black shirt and pants. She was hiding behind a building, trying her best to look around without being noticed.

She looked confused. It was clear to her that this was not the time she wanted to travel to. “Damn it, somepony must have altered the spell,” she whispered. “I was supposed to go to the time of that sonic rainboom event. Now I’m here in some random time and now the spell won’t reactivate.”

She ran over to an alley, hoping to find somewhere to rest. She had not noticed that she was being watched. Soon the assassin smiled, “So that's where the magical signature came from. And that means this is my target." His head tilted as he continued, "Let the hunt begin.”

******

<1,000 years ago>

After the random return of the Crystal Empire, royals from all across the cold north gather to see what had happened. One thousand years earlier during the reign of Discord, the Crystal Empire had vanished after an invasion of changelings. The invasion had been led by Queen Chrysalis and though the princesses of Equestria had held back her armies, the empire vanished.

Many had died that day. Though most of the royals that were there managed to escape with their lives, the ruler of the Crystal Empire, and uncle to the princess, didn’t escape. King Emerald Teal had disappeared with the empire.

Now the Crystal Empire had mysteriously returned. Many royals came to see and hoped that the King was okay. The princesses of Equestria were unable to visit at this time due to them attending peace negotiations in the southern end of the continent.

Despite the empire being back at least for a few days before most of them arrived, King Emerald Teal had yet to be found. However, there had been a message to them to gather in the royal hallway.

They all gathered. Among them was King Emerald Teal’s oldest son and crown prince, a pink alicorn always found in golden royal garbs, Golden William. A kind soul, whose heart was always so big, sometimes too big. Beside him was his newest wife, Duchess Jiaozha, a conniving and deceitful unicorn mare who had simply married him for his power and rank. Golden William had always made bad choices in mares since his first wife and daughter died during the changeling invasion.

He had shown up here with one mission - to honor their deaths. Though there was something else bugging him. “Where is that brother of mine? I don’t see him anywhere,” he questioned as he found a spot to stand.

“Why do you care for that freak, Blood Diamond?” questioned his wife.

“He may be the son of --”

They were forced to quiet down as a guard in a black hood was announcing the arrival of the King. Some ponies considered questioning the reason why all the guards were wearing these black hoods, but most of them didn’t care.

They all came to attention as the king walked to his throne. However, as he walked, their eyes slowly widen as this was not Emerald Teal.

Dressed in a silver suit of armor and a royal red cloak was what appeared to be a tall gray charcoal unicorn with a fiery-like black mane and fiery red horn. “Greetings, I am King Sombra, King of the Crystal Empire,” he spoke as he sat down on the throne.

The crowd of royals took major offense to this. A random unicorn claiming to be king. They were about to have an uproar about this when Golden William in his kind-heartedness decided to speak. “I think this joke is going a little too far. That is the throne of my father--”

King Sombra interrupted him. “King Emerald Teal is dead, and I am the one who took his head.” They all were at a gasp of this news. “Therefore I claim the crown.”

As they stood agape, Jiaozha called upon Golden Williams personal guards. “Guards, take that fool and execute him! He's guilty of murdering our King.”

But as they charged towards him, they found themselves being knocked back by a giant fist. Walking forth from the shadows was a zebra in gangster clothing. King Sombra continued. “May I present to you the commander of my royal voodoo zebras guards, Zeb Zecobra.”

The eyes of everypony widened at those words. As if on que the guards that served Sombra dropped their hoods to reveal themselves as undead zebras.

With his personal guards down, the prince tried once more to kindly ask what was the meaning of this, “Please, I think we got ahead of ourselves--”

King Sombra stood up and interrupted. “You're right. I am getting ahead of myself. I can’t claim the crown until the crown prince is dead, too.”

Golden William’s eyes widened at this as without warning a strange-looking chain blade dropped down and wrapped itself tightly around his neck. Selena Moondie dropped down. Duchess Jiaozha charged at her with a knife, only for Selena Moondie to swing a second strange-looking chain blade out of her sleeve and span it as it went right through the duchess’s mouth, shredding her insides and killing her.

The other royals of the north were running to the exits. But they found themselves being stopped by a thick fog that covered the exits. Now they were all trapped.

Sombra walked over to the prince and placed his hand over the prince’s chest. “Say hello to your father for me, and tell him the killer of Resting sent you.” On that word, he ripped out Golden Williams’ heart. He looked to Selena Moondie as she swung her strange-looking chain blades and flung the dead bodies of the two to the side. “Spare only the ones who swear their allegiance to me.”

“Got it,” she gave a wicked smile.

The King crushed the heart and walked back to his throne. As he sat he watched with a truly wicked smile upon the massacre that was happening in front of him.

******

Author's Note:

Well, I was going to post an unproofread chapter, but again this new proofreader just keeps surprising me. As far as I can tell he got this done in around an hour. Oh sure it was later, but damn that was fast. Heck if I hadn't got pulled into watch a random video, you all would be read that unfinished product.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Don't forget to leave a comment and a like. Chapter 3 will be posted on March 29th.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

an immortal creature called 'F'

So Frieza got his wish, then?

[Lighttone GryphonStar]

8032924 Oh shit, I didn't even realize I made that reference. And I'm big Dragon Ball Z fan.