Part V - Chapter 10: Mists Of Time
Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Part V - Chapter 10: Mists Of Time
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Silvery mists gathered at Starlit's hooves, perfectly complimenting the sliver, hazy environment she now found herself in. It was one she recognized from her conversation inside of Luna's prison, except instead of a full-grown alicorn in front of her there was just a pony shaped figure made of raw silver light.
"What is this?" Starlit asked the figure. "Are you the Heart of Fate?"
The figure said nothing in response, simply turned away from Starlit and began to walk forward. Starlit broke into a quick trot to keep up with it.
"Not much for conversation, I take it," Starlit said to the being. "You must've wanted to tell or show me something if you dragged me into… wherever this is. Are we inside of you?"
The figure kept quiet and kept its brisk pace, one that Starlit was finding herself starting to work to keep up with. Starlit could feel the thumping of her necklace against her chest, despite not wearing it anymore, and it was forceful enough that she could feel it throughout her body.
"Look, if this is going to be some kind of vision quest, then please spare me," Starlit said. "I've had enough shocking revelations to last me a lifetime, and all that matters right now is stopping Twilight. Whatever wisdom you are going to impart time, let's just get it done with."
The pony of light turned its head slightly to the side, as if eyeing Starlit up with eyes that she couldn't find. Slowly it turned back to face forward, before dissipating in a puff of smoke as the environment warmed and shifted into a scene of abject horror.
It was a vision she had received once before, over a month before on the night that Twilight Sparkle had first come to her home with an offer of lies. It felt as though a lifetime had passed since she last had seen the scene before her, but the images, sounds, and sensations were as crystal clear in her mind as when she had first seen it when a sprite of magic descended down her horn one lonesome night.
The sky above was as red as blood, the sun itself blotted out behind the thick, crimson cloud cover. All around there were shouts of orders, screams of terror and pain, and the thunderous crash of stone against stone, steel against steel. Spells whizzed and hummed through the air, most of their arcane noise punctuated by a shout of shock and the thudding of a body crumpling to the ground.
Starlit quickly scanned the area, drawing the spear still hooked to her belt in a quick flash of magic. With a deft step to the side Starlit dodged an errant bolt of magic as she took note of the fact that the mysterious pony of light was nowhere to be found.
"Alright Starlit, focus up, you've done this before," Starlit muttered to herself.
Looking to her left Starlit saw the familiar battlement wall separating the castle from Canterlot itself. She quickly ran for it, finding the entrance at the bottom she remembered from her last vision. She ran up the stone, swirling stairs, having to jump over a few bodies of the defenders that had fallen in the stairwell.
When she made it to the ramparts Starlit was hit with a gust of hot wind as she took note of the entire city on fire not fifty feet below her. She saw ponies running to and fro, trying to save themselves and their loved ones from the soldiers clogging the already crowded streets. So many ponies were desperately running for the Gate of Antiquities, enough that they were trampling each other in their panic.
A cry of rage broke Starlit out of her stupor at the sheer scale of the ceaseless, futile carnage, and on instinct Starlit whirled her spear around behind her head to strike fast. She felt no resistance against her blade of muscle and bone, and when she turned around she saw one of the Canterlot defenders with the edge of a blade buried about halfway through his neck. A quick, gurgling spray of blood from the mouth was the last sound he made before his eyes rolled back. Stepping back from the grisly scene, Starlit watched as a pony wearing armor of dark blue and black not dissimilar from her own stepped through her, yanking her sword out from the defender's neck before having her eye blasted out by a beam of magic.
"I need to keep moving," Starlit said to herself as she continued down the rampart, looking for the Princesses battling in the sky. Flaming stones and bolts of magic criss-crossed the sky, making finding anything pony sized a near impossibility, and after running back and forth down the ramparts she had to conclude that they weren't even there.
"Just another of Twilight's lies, it would seem," Starlit groused. "There has to be a reason I'm seeing this again, has to be something Twilight didn't show me the fi—"
A quick flash of inspiration shot through Starlit's mind, and she hoped upon hope that it would pay off.
Concentrating her magic as hard as she could, Starlit began to channel it into her shoulders. The last time she had manifested this has been from sheer desperation and panic, so she hoped that creating her wings again would be easier and not require another near death experience.
The magic coursing down her horn and into her body started as a small tingling sensation, before growing more and more intense until it felt like somepony was taking a hammer to her shoulder blades. Her magic pulsed with the beat of her heart, every wave sending a new jolt of electrical pain into her nerves until Starlit felt that she couldn't take it anymore.
Just when her resolve was about to give out, Starlit heard a sound like metal skating off of metal, a high, clinking sound as all of the tension and energy in her shoulders burst forth. She could feel the hot wind hitting the blades of energy now emanating from her shoulders, and a giddiness Starlit hadn't known since she was a child suddenly flooded her heart.
"Alright Twilight, let's see what you didn't want to show me," Starlit declared to herself. With a swift pump downwards from her new appendages Starlit lifted a few feet off of the ground, and with some careful angling as she descended from the ramparts she gained speed before angling her torso upwards like she had once seen Rainbow Dash do.
Her ascent to the balcony of the central spire was more taxing than she had intended, still getting used to the mechanics of flight, but after a few harrowing minutes of dodging magic and flying debris she alighted onto the balcony. The energy quickly dispelled as she got back to her hooves, and Starlit felt the ache in her horn that told her she wouldn't be able to do that again for a while.
Keeping her blade aloft in her magic, Starlit slowly made her way into the central spire's upper floors. In stark contrast to the utter ruination in the city below these halls were immaculate and resplendent. Their rich furnishings hadn't been marred by the struggles just outside, and as Starlit rounded around a familiar stone pillar she could see that the throne room was in no worse shape.
A rich purple carpet formed a long, narrow path up to a raised dais whereupon five thrones were perched. Currently seated at the central throne, clad in glittering golden armor that Starlit had seen once before, was Celestia. Her mane was once again in the form of rainbow-colored fire, and her eyes were burning orange.
"So you finally come to face me yourself, coward," Celestia called out contemptuously, manifesting her glimmering spear of rainbow fire with a flick of her horn.
Starlit quickly swung around as the sound of hooves clattered up the polished marble floor, in enough time to see a cadre of those blue and black clad soldiers running towards and through her as if Starlit weren't even there. There was no sensation as the figures moved through her, but she could still feel the immense power radiating off of the final pony to enter.
Standing at a height commensurate with Celestia was Twilight Sparkle, gliding into the throne room with an ethereal air that Starlit had never seen her give off in the flesh. Her eyes glowed magenta with raw magical energy, her dark purple and silver armor glittered and glimmered despite the copious amount of blood and grime coating it, and even her hair floated and swayed as though it were submerged in water.
"I will admit, Celestia, that your defenders put up much more of a fight than I had anticipated," Twilight stated, her voice reverberating with power. "Shame your sister spent more time trying to ascend the mountain than holding us up in forest; if she hadn't thrown such an almighty tantrum then maybe you'd be in a better position."
"Is this naught but a game to you, witch?!" Celestia roared back, leveling her spear down and rising from her throne.
"No, because games are fun, and this has grown exceptionally tedious," Twilight countered. "You know exactly what I want, so I intend to claim it."
"And you think I'll let you get to Chrysalis to enact your mad scheme?" Celestia snapped back with a smirk.
"To be entirely honest, your compliance isn't a factor here. Step aside and I may yet let you live. I only want the Changeling's head, and the precious resource she is hoarding."
Celestia stepped down off the dais, approaching a small podium and twirling the flaming spear around her head. With a single swing the spear cleaved through all of Twilight's soldiers at the neck, their heads bursting into flame before their bodies had even hit the floor. Twilight deflected the attack without a motion as a magenta shield blocked the spear's strike, and her brow furrowed deeply.
"Then we do this the hard way, it would seem," Twilight said, an edge to her voice that hadn't been there before.
Celestia lunged forward, her wings spreading wide as she crested the podium and dove down towards Twilight with the spear point rocketing towards Twilight's face. A second magenta shield manifested to block the shield, its flaming point stopping mere inches from her face, before Twilight illuminated her horn, wrapped her magic around the spear and dispelled it without so much as a flick of the head.
Celestia was still on her collision course, her horn radiating golden light as she sped towards Twilight. The Sun Princess's expression changed from righteous fury to shock, however, as a field of magenta magic enraptured her. Celestia snarled and screamed impotently as Twilight walked her over to one of the windows that allowed the crimson light of the shaded sun to stream in, blasting it open with another beam of magic and sending a stream of rainbow glass descending down.
"All force and no finesse," Twilight stated sullenly. "Have you learned nothing these last thousand years?"
With another flick of her horn and a sickening crunch and snap Celestia's wings bent fully backward, breaking all along the main supporting bones and popping out of their joints. Celestia screamed and howled in agony, her wings hanging limp and useless, before Twilight casually tossed her out the window.
"That should keep her occupied for a while," Twilight said, turning to look at the podium in the center of the throne room. With deft, graceful steps she glided to its polished marble frame and gently placed her horn upon it. In a flash of magenta light Twilight vanished, and the scene faded away into silver mists.
Starlit hadn't noticed her own heart hammering away in her throat until the lack of anything to take her attention off of it brought it to the fore. She slowly took a few calming breaths as she processed what she had seen.
"Can I even fight her if she has that level of power?" Starlit muttered to herself. "She tossed Celestia around like it was nothing, and that was at the height of her power."
A glimmer of light ahead drew Starlit's attention o where, just a few yards away, stood the shining pony of light, looking to her with is blank face.
"Why did you show me that?" Starlit asked. "If it was to try and intimidate me, it isn't going to work. I have to stop her, and there's nothing you can do to dissuade me from that."
In the first show of acknowledgement that Starlit had seen from this entity, it slowly shook its head.
"Then if that wasn't to try and get me to stop, what was it for?" Starlit asked, more forcefully this time; she was getting sick of these mind games.
The entity said nothing, instead turning around and walking away. With no other recourse or lead to go off of, Starlit dutifully fully followed it, until slowly but surely the silvery mists she was walking through shifted and changed into a new place, but possibly not a new time.
Starlit was in a room she was familiar with, if only because she had been in it not ten minutes ago. The cavern that contained the Heart of Fate looked cleaner, its workstations and arcane equipment better cared for, but it was also missing its centerpiece feature. In place of the massive obsidian crystal, held aloft in the mechanical arms that had once been housing it, was a tall, lanky pony with skin as black as night, a smooth chitinous horn and diaphanous wings like an insect's, and glowing green eyes filled with malice and hatred for the alicorn they were trained on.
Twilight Sparkle, for her part, was equally as furious at this odd bug-alicorn, and when the Princess of Magic spoke the booming echo of her voice was such that Starlit was worried the cavern would be brought down on their heads by the sound alone.
"Where is it, Chrysalis?!" Twilight demanded, punctuating her declaration with a blast of magenta lightning from her horn that sent Chrysalis's body jerking against its restraints.
"You meddle in things you know not the consequences of, alicorn!" Chrysalis spat back, spittle flying from her fanged mouth. "Your kind has always seen the natural order as something to be shackled to your ambitions, a cudgel to be wielded against those that refuse to consent to your enforced beliefs!"
Another blast of lightning caused Chrysalis to howl in pain, the force of her involuntary spasms making the mechanical arms creak as the flexed in response. The smell of burning hair and flesh filled Starlit's nose, enough that she had to cover it.
"You cannot hope to hold out against me, Chrysalis," Twilight retorted. "You fail to understand exactly what I am, and what exactly I can do."
"Then elaborate for me, since you so clearly adore the sound of your own voice," Chrysalis interjected. "You have already profaned the very source of life itself, what exactly do you intend to do with it?"
"I intend to save us all, and you know I have the skill to do so. You were right about the Crystal Heart, and what sins my forebears committed to bind the magic of all Equestria to it. They were greedy, overly ambitious, and tyrannical to the last of them, siphoning off aspects of the very foundation of existence and daring to call them gifts from their false idol. What I desire is a final answer, a solution to the problem that they created by forging that horrific thing."
"And are you not the Princess of Magic?" Chrysalis cut in, her breathing ragged. "How do you plan to correct their mistake when you are bound up in it down to your rotted, blackened soul?"
Twilight slowly approached Chrysalis, coming close enough that their horns crossed over each other. Chrysalis reflexively moved her head back as Twilight reached up and ran a hoof down her scarred, battered face, maintaining a steely glare the whole while. Starlit felt a shiver run down her own spine from this disgusting display of feigned affection.
"What Equestria needs is a true, empathetic ruler, one who understands her subjects on their own level rather than isolating herself in a castle in the clouds," Twilight answered. "They need a ruler who feels as they feel, suffers as they suffer, loves as they love, and they will rejoice when they know they have not a Princess, but a true Queen who will guide them in every aspect of their lives."
Chrysalis's eyes widened at Twilight's proclamation, and for the first time that Starlit could see Twilight smiled, broadly and with a joy in her face that did not match the malice in her eyes.
"That is why you have been breaking my Heart," Chrysalis whispered. "You seek to bind everypony in Equestria to your will, to rule them as a goddess."
"And so, the insect can learn," Twilight replied, stepping away from Chrysalis. "All of Equestria, sharing their thoughts, their magic, and their lives with their Queen who will, in return, bless their lands and heal them from this unending nightmare of war and blood and death. This, Chrysalis, is my great work that I have studied, bargained, and even killed to achieve, and I will not see it stymied when it is so close to coming to fruition."
Starlit felt her heart skip a beat as she reckoned with what she was hearing, and how it made so much of what she had seen make sense. Silence, her premonitions, and the abilities of her own shard of the Heart; it was all coming together.
"You intend to channel fate's power through the magic of all Equestria that is bound in the Crystal Heart, lashing each and every pony to the yoke of your ambition," Chrysalis said, realization heavy in her voice. "You are just as sinful as your ancestors, and doubly as ambitious if you think I intend to hand the Heart of Fate over to you."
"To be perfectly honest, Chrysalis, your compliance isn't exactly a factor in all of this," Twilight curtly replied. "I just wanted to give you the opportunity to give it over willingly and be spared the pain of me having to tear it from you."
"And how do you intend to do that? I have hidden the Heart away, far from Equestria where your stolen magic cannot reach it."
"But you're here, are you not?" Twilight asked.
Chrysalis's smug smile quickly turned into an open-mouthed gape of dawning horror as she realized the gravity of her mistake, before warping into a contorted howl of anguish as Twilight blasted Chrysalis's horn with a beam of magenta magic so bright it was practically white. The light left stark shadows all along the walls of the cavern and across the tables, and Starlit was forced to avert her eyes even as she was forced to listen to Chrysalis's screams of pure, excruciating torment.
Minutes and minutes of this arcane onslaught passed, each one drawn out so long that it felt like an hour just to listen to, before the light faded out and the screaming was replaced by an odd humming sound and the scent of charred flesh and ozone. Starlit looked back to Chrysalis, who now hung limp from the mechanical arms which glowed red from heat and were searing into the carapace around her hooves. Her horn, once polished black and with a gentle convex curve, was now charred, pitted, and twisted, and her pale blue mane was all but seared off of her head.
"Odd," Twilight remarked, the magenta glow in her eyes now dim enough that Starlit could see her irises, "that should've done the trick."
Twilight's comment was quickly followed by a retching sound from Chrysalis, drawing a confused cock of the head from her captor and a twisting in the stomach from Starlit. Clear saliva dribbled out of Chrysalis's agape mouth, followed shortly by another long retch and a splatter on the ground punctuated with a dozen or so clinks like glass. Twilight swiftly illuminated her horn and cast her magic over the puddle of vomit, sifting through it until she held in her arcane grip a cluster of black, polished stone shards that hummed with a silvery energy.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?" Twilight demanded, crinkling her nose and turning her angry eyes to Chrysalis. "Where is the Heart?!"
"You… you think… that I… command the Heart…?" Chrysalis wheezed, barely lifting her head enough to stare back at Twilight. "It… commands me… you idiot. These pieces… are all of… the sway… I have… over it…"
Twilight's head shook, her magic brightening considerably, and she slammed the pieces of the Heart into the floor, sending them scattering with one landing just in front of Starlit. She recognized it all too well.
"You… will never… gain my Heart… your majesty."
Incensed beyond all reasoning, Twilight marched up to Chrysalis and struck her hard across the face with one of her armored hooves. A spray of clear liquid spilled out of the Changeling's mouth as well as a single fang, before another swift swing struck Chrysalis across the other side of her face. Soon Twilight was doing little more than screaming and pummeling Chrysalis, breaking portions of the carapace off of her face and exposing the silvery flesh beneath
"You think you've won?!" Twilight roared, punctuating each sentence with another punch. "You think you have me bested?! My work will be completed, and the world will be remade as one!"
Twilight stood, huffing and puffing and staring down at the battered, mutilated Changeling in front of her with nothing short of utter contempt. Her horn illuminated once more, a bright bead of magic forming at its tip as she took a few paces back from her victim.
"More's the shame that you will not live to see it," Twilight stated, the quiver in her voice betraying the unyielding rage laying just beneath her facade of regality. The tip of her horn brightened further and further, until the bead coalesced into a thin beam that lashed forth towards Chrysalis. The Changeling reflexively drew her head back, trying to avoid an end that never came.
Just as the beam was about to strike her flesh a great flash of silver illuminated Chrysalis's eyes and mutilated horn, erecting a field of silvery mist that absorbed the entire beam even as it was a hair's breadth from striking her. With a mighty flex of her legs Chrysalis shattered the restraints Twilight had bound her in, sending metal fragments flying all around that Starlit reflexively tried to dodge even as a few of them passed through her.
"We think not, Twilight Sparkle of Equestria!" boomed a voice through Starlit's mind and, judging by her sudden reel backwards, Twilight's as well. It was deep and stentorian, a far cry from Chrysalis's high, airy tone.
"What is this?! What are you?!" Twilight demanded.
"We are that which thou dost covet most greedily! We are the forebears of thine existence, we are that which perpetuates the gifts thou dost take for granted, and in time we wilt be that which gives rise to the existence after thine own! Thou hast stolen from us a most precious thing, and for thy transgressions we will give thee the gift of our providence! Thou wilt search far and wide for the solution to thy work, but know now that it will come at the hooves of that which will spell thy doom!"
A spray of silver mists slowly spilled out from Chrysalis's horn, billowing downward and wrapping around her body. The only thing visible left on her body were here eyes, piercing silver orbs staring out of the cloud with the wisdom of the ancients and the fury of a god.
"May all thine ambitions become as ashes in thy mouth, and let the knowledge of thine failings be as hot coals upon thy once-proud head!" the entity finished, before the glowing orbs faded away and the cloud dissipated to reveal only an empty space.
Just as Chrysalis had faded away into nothing, so too did the entire scene, leaving Starlit once again alone in the Misty void save for two things; her old shard from the necklace laying at her hooves where Twilight had scattered it, and the pony of light sitting across from her only a few feet away.
"You don't have any answers for me, do you?" Starlit asked the pony as she picked the stone up in her magic.
"That depends," the pony replied, catching Starlit off guard both with the fact that it was speaking and whose voice it was using. The voice was gravelly with age, but still carried a sweet lilt that sent a shock through Starlit's heart and brought tears to her eyes.
"Grandma?" Starlit asked, her voice low and soft. "Is that you?"
"An echo, yes," she answered. "The Heart speaks through me and into you, for it knew that you needed answers and a kind voice to give them."
Without thinking of it Starlit reached forward and wrapped her hooves around this pony of light, soft sobs echoing throughout the misty nothingness as the stone clinked to the immaterial ground. Starlit could feel her grandmother's soft fur beneath her cheek, smell the faint scent of elderberries from the jams she used to make, and hear the faint beat of a heart other than her own that pulsed with soothing warmth.
"I'm so sorry," Starlit sobbed, holding the echo of her greatest mistake tight. "I couldn't do anything to save you, I was too afraid."
The echo rubbed a hoof across Starlit's back, making the small circles on her left shoulder blade that Starlit remembered.
"You were young and scared, sweetie," the echo replied. "I never blamed you, and seeing all that you've done for so long now fills my heart with gladness at the life my sacrifice let you live."
Starlit sat up, keeping her hooves on the echo's shoulders. She suddenly felt so incredibly small.
"You've seen me?" Starlit asked.
"Every step since you picked up that fragment of the Heart, Starlit," the echo answered. "Who do you think has been keeping you alive and guiding your way all this while?"
"That was you?" Starlit asked, a smile breaking across her face. "You were in my shard the whole time?"
"I was, and I couldn't be more proud of what you've done, and what I know you will do," the echo answered. "You know now what Twilight Sparkle intends to do, and you know what you have to do to stop her."
Starlit let her hooves drop to the ground as she picked the stone back up, wiping her eyes as she did so. Its glossy black surface was unmarked and shone merrily in the field of her magic.
"I have to sever whatever connection Twilight has forged between the Crystal Heart and the Heart of Fate," Starlit stated, tucking the stone away into her armor.
"Indeed, but that is only half of the solution," the echo replied, nodding its head. "You must wait for the remaining pieces of the Heart of Fate that still dwells with Chrysalis to arrive, and reforge it. I believe that your companion is close to acquiring it."
"Sun made it?" Starlit asked. "That tough little bugger."
"He is far hardier than anypony might've assumed at a first glance, that much is true. But worry not about Setting Sun, my child; your fight yet waits once you leave the confines of the Heart."
Starlit hung her head down low, knowing who was surely awaiting her outside. She felt her throat catch, and her eyes start to burn with fresh tears.
"I don't want this to end yet," Starlit choked out, looking up at the face of the echo and feeling its warmth. "There's so much I want to tell you."
"Do not waste your breath on a ghost, Starlit Sky," the echo replied, placing a hoof on Starlit's cheek that Starlit leaned into. "My pain is ended, and when your time finally comes so will your suffering end as well. Then we can talk for as long as you like."
A single tear fell down Starlit's cheek, glittering agains the glimmering golden hoof pressed against it. It was pain and grief and relief all rolled into one drop of water, but as it fell to the mists below Starlit stood up and drew her spear.
"I'll see you soon, Grandma," Starlit said, her words steely and determined.
"Hopefully not too soon," the echo replied as it faded away, dissipating into the mists that had born it.
As the echo dissolved the mists ahead of Starlit parted, revealing a black portal that seemingly stretched into infinity. Taking a deep breath, Starlit walked through it, feeling a chill wind as she did.
No sooner had she crossed the threshold did she step back into the cavern below the palace to see a scene of utter destruction. The workbenches were little more than splinters, the arcane equipment was nothing more than scrap metal, and standing above the destruction was its source; a purple alicorn with a glare that could kill.
"About time," Twilight declared, exasperation thick on her voice. "You're going to give me the piece of the Heart that I know you still have, and you'll do it with minimal complaint."
"I'd rather not, to be honest with you," Starlit replied, holding her spear aloft point forward and assuming a ready stance.
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<ding ding ding!> And in this corner...
10553796
LLLLLLLLLLLLET’S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLE!!
Well, well, well, if it ain't the sweet backstory. I really like that it helps to understand current conflict and not just serves the purpose of cool side story.
Also, it's interesting to see how Twilight tries to be a god, but fails due to her human (pony) nature. She tries so hard to become an ultimate entity, wise and almighty, but some obstacles are too big even for her. And then Twilight fails, she shows her mortal psychology. Reminds me of Tia, she also was regal and collected then everything was under control.
Good luck Starlit, only plot armor can save you now. (of course it will, right PJ? Nice job, can not wait for the next chapter)
10554134
Yeah, I’ve spent so long playing coy with what everyone wants to accomplish that when I finally had the opportunity to lay it all on the table the words just flowed like water! Man it feels good to finally drop some heavy lore that explains my villains motivations
As for Twilight’s characterization, which I’m glad you enjoyed, the thing I wanted to get across for each of my villainesses is how, for all their delusions of grandeur and regality, they’re still people beneath it all and just as prone to the same flaws and failings as every other character. Celestial’s refusal to admit her own failings and tendency to insulate herself, Luna’s resentment of everyone around her, Cadance’s selfishness and jealousy over those close to her, and now Twilight’s dogged determination to see her plan through, damn the consequences, and her utter audacity and pride in assuming she is the only one who knows what’s good for Equestria are all key parts of their characters. As for Chrysalis’s fatal flaw... well, we’ll get to that.
Thanks again so much for the comment, it really makes me happy to know that people are enjoying my work this much! We’re in the endgame now, but this has been one of the most creatively fulfilling things I’ve ever done, and my readers are what make it all worth it!
harrowing minutes of dodging magic and flying debris...
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Danke Schoen!
This suddenly reminds me of the comic arc where the girls become darker versions of themselves after bathing in a dark magic tainted hot spring, in it Twilight becomes convinced of her own superior intellect and magical prowess and has plans for becoming Ponyville's first empress...
Just had a sudden thought, Twilight in canon is always reined in from her own darker impulses/moods by Spike and her family and friends...what if she never made friends, or lost her dearest friends due to the march of time?
10556097
I remember that comic arc, that was a really good one too!
Also, wink wink, nudge nudge, you might be on to something here
10556288
This was one of my favorite story arcs as well,
I particularly liked Luna's bit at the end when she said
I think that was if not the start it was a stepping stone into the incredibly impressive depth that is pony.