Twilight's Empire

by Redbook

Empress Twilight

The sound of a lone pony filled the massive hallways of Canterlot castle. The pony passed many guards, and they all bowed to her. The mare smiled as her darkly colored magic opened the door. On the throne sat Princess Celestia and Luna; neither notice the mare right away as they talked between each other. The mare cleared her throat to call their attention to her.

“I hope I have not come at a bad time, Celestia.” her words flowed past her lips with a sickly tone. She moved closer to the princesses, each clop of her hooves echoed in the room. Both Celestia and Luna looked at her with a warm smile.

“Of course not, Twilight. What can we do for you?” Celestia placed the scroll between her and Luna. Twilight smiled and flashed the scroll to herself. Her eyes skimmed over and sighed.

“Another land dispute? I see that you have put an order to form a committee, but I have a different idea.” She grinned as the scroll bursted into flames. Luna blinked and moved toward Twilight.

“What art thou meaning, Twilight? Twas a peaceful means to a potential violence.” Luna took a step back as Twilight started to chuckle. Celestia just looked stunned.

“A little violence might not be such a bad thing; it would weed out the weak and help get things in order.” Her horn glowed a darkly green and black as the grand doors slammed shut and sealed. The windows followed till the room was locked tight.

“Twilight, what is the meaning of this?” Celestia moved from her seat to tower over Twilight;t didn’t have any effect over the smaller mare. Her eyes followed Twilight as she moved toward them.

“Just something that I have been waiting to do for a long time. Do you remember King Sombra?” Twilight waited for either princess to say something, but neither said a word. “He was smart, but still foolish in his attempt at taking over.” Celestia started to charge her horn, but before she could cast the spell. Twilight casted one and a now dark ring wrapped around the white alicorn’s horn.

“Twilight, what has gotten into you?! Release your spell this once!” Celestia’s voice lowered to a growl. Luna looked between the two before her mind kicked into gear; she charged at Twilight, but didn’t make it halfway before Twilight casted another spell that froze Luna midair.

“I have been waiting to this for a long time, unlike Sombra’ I have saved my power up for this very moment! Equestria needs to change, it needs to open it’s eyes to the truth of the world as a whole!” Twilight turned to look up at one of the many stained glass windows that lined the room. She stopped at the one of her coronation. She closed her eyes as purple flames flowed out of the corners of her eyes; she slowly open them to reveal red pupils in a sea of green. Twilight turned to Celestia as tears rolled down her face.

“Twilight, please. It’s not too late! We can put this behind us, and move on!” Celestia screamed as Twilight looked down.

“I am afraid it is too late. You don’t know how long I have been waiting for this day. It’s pained me to hold back and wear the mask of a ‘faithful’ student and caring friend!” Twilight’s horn glowed the sickly dark green as Celestia was forced to the ground in a bowing position.

“Twilight, please stop!” Celestia cried as Twilight toward over her. Twilight sighed as she watched her former teacher cry like a little filly.

“Please don’t cry, it will be over soon.” Twilight held up a hoof as black shadows moved to bottom of her hoof before it elongated into a spike. She jabbed her hoof down on Celestia’s head. The blood spattered and Twilight smiled as the sound of pitter patter of blood landed around her; it felt so warm on Twilight’s face. Luna looked on in horror as Celestia’s blood landed on Twilight’s face.

“Twilight Sparkle, we are friends, or I thought we were, but I see now that that was a lie.” Luna’s eyes started to glow white as blast of magic freed her. Twilight smiled and turned as the shadow faded and the blood dripped on the floor.

“It was not all a lie, Luna. I had hopes that we could be, but you turned out like her.” Twilight moved toward Luna. Luna put herself in a fighting position. Both of them charged up their horns, but Twilight casted her’s first. Luna howled in pain as both of her wings were twisted in odd angles.

“Thou art not a pony, thou art demon! Kill me if thou wants, but know that it will not mean thou art victorious.” Luna looked at Twilight. Twilight looked down at her with a proud smile.

“I hope that if your spirit is to return to this world, it would remember this life,” a dark green glow covered Luna. Twilight turned away from her as Luna started to gasp for air; more tears rolled down her face. “These pesky tears... I guess I still cared about them.”

Twilight moved toward the thorn and gently tapped her hoof, and a wave of magic spared over the room. The white stones changed to light black and the flags of the two sister changed to an image of her cutie mark. It was darker and was in field black with a dark green border.

Soon the guards took down the door and charged into room. A few guards vomited at the sight of Celestia and Luna’s dead bodies. But the rest pointed their spears and charged their horns. Twilight just yawned as her horned flash. The spears bursted into flames and black rings formed around the horns.

“Bow to me. Your princesses are dead and your new empress needs to ready to speech for the public.” Her eyes flared and the unicorns bowed before her before they left the room. The other guards glared for a few seconds longer, their eyes drifted to the dead bodies of the princesses, then they turned and walked with their heads hung low.

Once the doors shut behind the guards, green flames popped next to Twilight and she smiled as the little dragon bowed his head.

“Waiting ‘till it was safe?” Spike lowered his head more.

“I did not wish to take away from my mistress’s victory. So how may I serve you now?” He looked up as Twilight summoned a scroll and quill.

“Take a note, Spike.” Twilight moved from her seat to walk around the room. Her eyes darted at each of the stained glass windows. “The rein of old is now gone. Your new empress is willing to guide this nation into a new age, but there will be those who wish to stop her; you know them as the bearers of harmony.” She stopped at the window of her and her five friends defeating Nightmare Moon.

“Is that all, mistress?” Spike followed Twilight. His eyes looked at the white mare shown in the window. He felt a tear run down his face. She shook her head.

“One more, and this one is for Ponyville,” She placed hoof on the glass as tears rolled down her face. “For those who bring the five bearers of harmony to Canterlot shall receive a large sum of bits.” a magic plus spared from her hoof and the stained glass window shattered.

“I shall send these off right away,” he puffed out green flames and the scrolls flew out the window in smoke and green flickers. “What will you do when they arrive?” Twilight looked out the shattered window at the lands beyond Canterlot.

“I’m going to start interviewing for positions in my court.”

Author's Note:

I hope everyone enjoyed part one of my six-part story.
I want to thank TheDarkenedDawn for proofreading.

*note* This chapter was roughly edited by myself. Sorry for any mistakes.

**Thank you to Doug_ for editing and proofreading.**

Comments

[Lon35hadow]

Interesting. I track.

[Felius]

Needs line breaks between paragraphs for better readability.

[UnbelievablyDeadCultist]

It's good to see a dark story with a bit of style. I'm looking forward towards future Chapters.
Keep the good work up.

[Redbook]

6734983
Thank you for pointing that out. It is fixed now and should be easier to read.

[Equitis]

Look into getting a proofreader. Some of the grammar is atrocious, which can distract readers from the story, since they are busy trying to figure out what the sentence they just read meant. A good idea is easily overlooked when it is difficult to interpret.

[Madox]

looks promising, I'm curious how this will go on

[Redbook]

6735108
I posted a thread on a proofreader group just now. Wish me luck in finding one.

[Felius]

6735071 Much better. Now onto the actual content: Twilight feels rather too out of character with little justification, at least as it stands now. Remember that Celestia all but raised her, and it's rather too much of a stretch for Twilight as a young filly to have tricked Celestia, specially for this long, not to mention somehow trick the elements of harmony. Furthermore, given the amount of time that's being presented (since the rest of the bearers are apparently still alive), the change feels rather too through from what she previously was, not only in terms of moral compass but also general personality.

In all, unless some massive justification is somehow pulled out, the only plausible explanation for this Twilight is possession by an outside force, because the "evil in her", so to speak, is not even Twilight's already present negative tendencies and issues magnified and distorted but, as far as it can be seen, something completely unlike her in any way.

[Redbook]

6735247
While I was writing this, I had originally written that this evil side of her came about after the events with King Sombra. It happened after she tries dark magic. But I didn't want to info dump and kill the story. So I took it out and kept what I thought the story needed. This event happens before she became an alicorn.

[Daring Cammie Do]

It would weed out the week

weak

Release your spell this once.”

"This instant," or, "at once".

“Thou are not a pony, thou are demon. Kill me if thou wants, but know that it will not mean thou are victorious.”

"Thou art not a pony, thou art a demon. Kilkk me if that is thy wish, but know that it shalt not mean thou shall be victorious,"

“I hope that if your spirit is return to this world, it remembers this life,”

returned

[Elric of Melnipony]

“What is thou meaning, Twilight? Tis was a peaceful means to a potential violence.”

Two things need to be said here. One, Luna has shown in multiple episodes that she no longer talks like this. Two, if you don't know how to write in what's known as Early Modern English, don't. The word "thou" means "you", not "your". Also, "'tis" is an archaic contraction of "it is", not another way of saying "this".

The rest of your grammar is pretty lacking, too.

[A British Gentleman]

Twilight is very, very out of character here, and that AU tag isn't helping. The AU tag is not a licence to write any character as OOC as you wish: it is intended to indicate sweeping changes to the setting from canon. Consider the recent season finale: several AU's were presented. In the first, Sombra wasn't stopped by the Crystal Heart, and as a consequence, Equestria is in a state of total war. One clear change was made (the rainboom didn't happen) and we have a different world.

That is an AU.

Twilight randomly and nonsensically being Evil All Along isn't an AU, it is just bad writing.

[Redbook]

6736037
As you pointed out, one event changed and caused the AUs in that episode. So we know that if an event occurs that change later events. So what makes it hard to believe that there are events that happen that change Twilight to the one you see in my story here? So the AU tag is there to show that I as a writer changed an event somewhere to cause the story you have read. I am glad that people are pointing out that my Twilight here is out of character. This just means that I need to write more of what happens before the rise of Empress Twilight. So this story will now be placed on hold till this new story is up.

[cherished]

this is the best story ever

/sarcasm

[Redbook]

6736288
Wouldn't #sarcasm work better?

[Penguin Lagann]

It's great, but how about some backstory on how Twilight got like this?