Twi-Light: The Twilight Twins

by TMH

...Through the Night...

Chapter 3: ...Through the Night...

☾♀☀♂☽

The moonlight had never felt quite so intimidating to Dusk as he galloped down the streets of Ponyville. At some point along the journey from the town hall to the Golden Oak Library Dusk had managed to snap out of complete autopilot, and in his mind he ran through the events that had transpired only a couple of minutes ago again and again, desperate to find some excuse to deny it had really happened. But it had.

Princess Celestia was gone. He refused to consider the full implications of what that might mean. If Celestia was dead, if she could even be killed, then they were already doomed, even if they could devise some way to defeat Nightmare Moon.

He caught sight of the tree just over the rooftops and looked back to check that Twilight and Spike were still with him. A tension he hadn’t even realize he’d been holding dispersed as he confirmed they were.

That relief gained, Dusk put his eyes back on the road in front of him, just in time to catch a glimpse of an overturned cart that had been carelessly left on the side of the street. The incredible stress he was under summoned grace and strength he hadn’t known he possessed, and in less than a blink of an eye he was in the air, easily clearing the obstacle and landing on the other side with no loss of speed but a very undignified neigh.

Approaching the Golden Oak, Dusk started to brake while opening the door with his magic. He didn’t quite judge it right and stumbled into the library, knocking his hooves on the door frame. He was forced into a quick circuit of the room to avoid impacting the walls, slowing from a full gallop to a nervous prance, and he was only just able to avoid Twilight as she entered in a similar fashion.

“We only have one chance…” Twilight muttered nervously, almost whinnied really, as she scanned the bookshelves of the first floor, occasionally tossing a book to the ground after closer inspection revealed it to be impertinent.

Dusk, doing the same but with the occasional glance to the window replied, “If they’re real…”

“Nightmare Moon obviously is, and most of our primary sources mention both.”

“Roselight’s Compendium of Classical Equestrian Legends specifically treats them as a myth, though.”

“But Highlight’s Collection of Lesser Known Equestrian History is a far more reliable source, we’ve been over this! Plus Roselight-”

“-is given to bias against those legends from the political pressures of fourth century revisionism, I know, but-”

“-she still has the most complete and well-sourced research, I know. We’ll just have to hope.”

The two siblings had dedicated only their ears and mouths to their argument, both having kept their eyes solidly glued to the spines of the books under their care, searching desperately for The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. A book Twilight had found listed in the library’s catalog just before they’d had to leave for the Sunrise.

Twilight felt a shifting weight on her back and reflexively grabbed a dozing Spike in her telekinesis before he impacted the ground. She frowned and ran to the stairs, sprinting up them two at a time she shouted down to Dusk, “I’m going to put Spike to bed. I’ll be right back!”

Dusk didn’t take the time to respond as he continued the search, his mind racing through the multitude of criteria they used to organize their collection back home: publication date, number of sources, field of inquiry, complexity of proofs, and so on. “Elements of Harmony, where are you?” He spoke absentmindedly.

“And just what are the Elements of Harmony?” Came a familiar, and grating, female voice from behind him.

He didn’t turn away from his search. The combination of stress, fear, and his own dislike for the mare caused him to snap at her however, “I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with yo-”

“And how did your sister know about Nightmare Moon, huh? Are you two spies? I bet-whoa!” Dash was cut off by Applejack pulling her down by her tail and she impacted the ground roughly.

Dusk turned towards the sound and found Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie entering the library. Oh, and Fluttershy, but she was managing to hide herself fairly well behind the others. Rainbow was rubbing her newly sore flank and glaring at Applejack who returned a stern gaze to the pegasus, “Simmer down there Sally. They ain’t no spies, but I reckon they do have an idea what’s going on, don’t you?” She addressed Dusk Shine.

“Yes, yes we do. As you all might have surmised, Nightmare Moon is quite real and has returned. She’s defeated Princess Celestia, somehow, and has now, presumably, run off to find the only thing that can stop her, the Elements of Harmony. That is, if they exist at all, we’re still a bit fuzzy on that. There should be a reference guide to them, their myth at least, somewhere here but this library’s sorting system is still alien to m-”

“Found it! The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide!” Pinkie proclaimed cheerily, hoisting the very tome aloft in her pink hoof.

Dusk Shine was astounded she had discovered it nearly immediately and ran over. He immediately took it out of her grasp with his magic and started flipping through the pages, glancing through it to get a quick grasp on its contents, “How’d you know where to look?”

Pinkie Pie, smiling like the world wasn’t in the early stages of oblivion, replied melodiously, “It was under ‘E’~”

Dusk’s gaze flew to her, mouth slightly agape in disbelief, “This library is sorted alphabetica-LLY!” He asked bewildered, until the end of the sentence when Twilight, who had returned from upstairs, noticed the book and galloped over to him at full speed, knocking him off his hooves and into the wall, and took it into her own magic.

She was apparently completely ignorant, or indifferent, to her brother’s latest slapstick wall slam and immediately had her muzzle in the book. Rainbow Dash snickered at the stallion as he groaned and got to his hooves. Applejack rolled her eyes while smirking. Rarity looked aghast. Pinkie was too busy reading over Twilight’s shoulder to care.

Dusk, for his part, merely groaned in pain and shot Twilight a venomous glare that she didn’t notice whatsoever. He was about to get up when Fluttershy’s face, half hidden behind her mane and radiating concern, suddenly appeared a couple of hooves in front of him, “Oh my, are you okay, Dusk?” She asked and offered a hoof to help him up.

Dusk grabbed it, noting that she was stronger than he expected, and got back onto his hooves. He glanced over to his sister, who was now explaining Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony to the other mares, and sighed, “Yeah, I’ll be alright. When you live with someone as powerful, reckless, and distrait as Twilight you get use to the occasional punting. Although I do think I’ve gone a bit over my quota in the last several hours.” Dusk chuckled amiably and turned his attention to Fluttershy.

“Oh...” She didn’t seem to know what to say to that, and so she settled on pawing the ground and retreating further behind her mane while lightly blushing at the attention, although she did smile softly.

“...and that’s why we’re going to the Everfree Forest!” Twilight announced confidently while the other mares gasped.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy whispered from behind her new Dusk Shine shaped cover.

“Well, at least I’ll die with mares that aren’t my sister, more than I ever really expected. Ponyville has really been everything I’d hoped it would be.” Dusk muttered sarcastically mostly to himself as he gathered his saddlebags, but somewhere he hoped Celestia could sense his displeasure.

☾♀☀♂☽

Somewhere along the journey from the Golden Oak Library to the edge of the Everfree Forest Twilight and Dusk had become the pointponies for the ragtag group’s foray into the most infamous and dangerous region within Equestria.

That promptly changed when Pinkie Pie bounced jubilantly into the air and overtook the twins, “Whee! Let’s go! I gotta get Black Snooty’s birthday!”

Twilight spoke up before the marbles missing mare could run headlong to her untimely demise, “I appreciate the sentiment Pinkie Pie, but I think my brother and I should be the ones to handle this. We may not be guards but we can handle ourselves, and as Princess Celestia’s students we have a royal duty to protect Her and Equestria, I think. I need to brush up on The Complete Rules and Regulations Concerning Celestial Pupils, actually, now that I think about it…” Twilight trailed off and levitated her saddlebags in front of her and began searching through them.

Dusk sighed and resisted the strong urge to facehoof. The aforementioned rules books Twilight was searching for was made specifically for her by Princess Celestia after one too many late nights discussing exactly what their role as her pupils entailed. He was pretty sure it was the four hour discussion about a hypothetical grandfather paradox caused parallel universe thaumic hyper-influx recursion matrix scenario that was the proverbial backbreaking straw. For a self proclaimed “serious academician,” Twilight was obsessed with time travel, parallel universes, and other magic-fiction, Dusk thought.

Regardless, however, this was certainly going to be a very dangerous, suicidal really, mission, and Twilight was right in saying that this was actually their responsibility. Shining Armor and the rest of the leadership of the Royal Guard commanders would definitely already know something was wrong considering it was over an hour past sunrise and it was dark as midnight, not to mention the guards stationed in Ponyville for the festival had surely already sent word to Canterlot of Nightmare Moon’s return.

Ergo, literally the entire Guard were, or shortly would be, on their way to Ponyville. Moving that many troops would take hours, though, hours that Nightmare Moon would be spending searching for the Elements of Harmony. And if she got her hooves on them, well, considering their close relation to Princess Celestia, Dusk was pretty sure a lifetime in the oubliette was the best he and his family could hope for.

So as much as I’d like to claim I’m being brave for the sake of all ponykind the reality is that if we don’t stop Nightmare Moon I’m dead, or worse, anyway. Harmony, if I survive this I’m going to buck Celestia across the muzzle. Dusk turned to address the five mares that had spent the last few seconds staring at his sister like she was crazy, “What my attention-span-of-a-goldfish sister is trying to say is that this is going to be very, very dangerous. We’re both powerful mages that can handle ourselves, and if Nightmare Moon wins we’re both going to be targeted anyway. You five, no offense, are just regular ponies, if things do go her way you’ll probably have a strong chance of living unbothered by her. There’s no reason for you girls to put yourselves in danger.”

Applejack shook her head and smirked, then straightened her stetson, “Listen here sugarcube, what you’re saying is mighty noble and whatnot, but I’ll let Sweet Apple Acres become a desert before I let friends of mine gallop off into danger without backup.”

Rainbow Dash nodded her ascent, “And don’t think I missed your little ‘regular ponies’ comment. You’re gonna see just what the fastest pegasus alive is made of. Heck, danger is my middle name!” She flashed a winning smile which Dusk could only roll his eyes at.

Then Rarity spoke up, “You and your sister are no doubt very capable, darling, and you’re both certainly noble, but just because I’m not from Canterlot doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use my horn. Besides, what kind of lady would I be if I just let my friends run off to face goodness knows what while I sit and cower at home? I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer my presence as well, dear.”

Fluttershy, hiding in her mane and half behind Rarity, looked Dusk straight in the eyes, “I-I’m going too. I know a lot about the forest and the dangerous creatures in it, and I can’t let some big meanie ruin the world. My animal friends are counting on me, and my pony friends too.” Then she seemed to notice Dusk wasn’t the only one listening to her and eeped deeper into her mane, but she didn’t step back one hoof.

Pinkie Pie strode up to Dusk and booped him, grinning like a maniac, “Silly Dusky, you can’t just get rid of us like that, think of how boring the story would be!”

While Dusk looked at her bewildered, Applejack reaffirmed their commitment, “That’s right Dusk, we’re sticking to you and Twilight like caramel on a candy apple. Now I reckon we best get a move on. Come on, everypony!” And she trotted into the forest with three mares following her.

Pinkie Pie made to follow and winked back at Dusk, “Especially if there are candy apples in there!” When Dusk just continued to look at her bewildered she tilted her head and sounded bemused, “What? Those things are good!” And then bounced her way into the forest.

“Found it!” Twilight called, having retrieved the book she was searching for from her saddlebags. Then she looked around confused, “Hey, where’d everypony go?” Dusk walked up to her, took the book in his magic, put it back in her saddlebags, then put said saddlebags back on her rear with perhaps a tad more force than was necessary. Twilight grunted under the sudden force and glared at the back of her brother who was trotting away to catch up with the others. “What was that for?”

She saw Dusk shake his head, “Just come on, Twi. I don’t want to have to tie our tails together to keep you from zoning out and getting lost. Again.”

☾♀☀♂☽

Several minutes into the ill-advised trip, Dusk Shine was beginning to wonder if maybe nighttime eternal under the tyrannical rule of an evil goddess would really be all that bad compared to being brutally torn limb from limb by some nocturnal predator.

He suspected it would be, but that did little to assuage his prey instincts that every shadow and bend in the trail hid some bloodthirsty carnivore. He was aware of his companions making small talk, something about the unnaturalness of the forest, when he suddenly realized he wasn’t walking anymore.

In fact, he discovered as he reflexively started to scream, he was falling. Shortly thereafter he impacted the ground with a considerable amount of force and started bouncing, rolling, and sliding down a hill that somepony really needed to remove the rocks and briars from. The world was spinning around and he couldn’t focus on much of anything besides the pain. He heard mares screaming and then the ground disappeared again.

He closed his eyes, saw his family in his mind, and then waited to die.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

…

This is a really long fall. Maybe I’m dead? Celestia, that would be just like me to miss my own death. I should probably open my eyes to check.

He opened his eyes and found that the world was pitch black. He blinked a few times to no effect. He tried to move his legs but found they had no desire to obey him. Slowly his sense of hearing started to return and he heard the flapping of wings and a mare grunting in time with them. He realized his muzzle was buried in something soft and warm and his front legs were wrapped around the same thing. A mare, his shaken, not stirred, mind eventually connected the dots. A pegasus mare.

He debated moving his head back to see his savior, but he didn’t want to risk messing up her focus and getting himself killed.

Also, he was holding the mare in a vice grip and his head was locked stiff as a statue from fear.

His rear legs, previously dangling in the air, found purchase on the ground and his body immediately reacted by releasing their grip on the mare and he landed stiffly on his hooves with a bit of a stumble.

Jittering only slightly with adrenaline he looked up only to see a flash of yellow before it impacted him and forced him to the ground. Several seconds passed as the mare breathed deep, desperate gasps of air before she managed to stumble off of Dusk and collapse in a heap a couple of hooves away.

Dusk was immediately on his hooves and standing over Fluttershy. She looked to be in bad shape, she was panting so hard he worried her throat might collapse from the strain, sweat was running off of her in rivulets, and her wings laid limply on the ground twitching occasionally. Her eyes fluttered open, it was seemingly taking her great effort to do so, and after a few false starts and choking and coughing fits she managed to wheeze out, “S-so-sorry f-f-f-or drop-ping, y-ou-ouuu…”

“You saved my life! Harmony, I almost died! I, uh, I mean, thank you!” Dusk stammered out, coming down from his adrenaline high. Then he remembered he hadn’t been alone and his head flew up, “Twilight!” When he didn’t see her immediately his head whipped around so fast he stumbled sideways and nearly toppled over. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Rainbow Dash lowering her onto the ground. Well, I guess I owe Rainbow Dash now, great.

He heard Fluttershy groan and turned his attention back to her, Speaking of ponies I owe. “Fluttershy, how do you feel?”

The panting, sweating, heap of a pegasus mare strained to look up at him with eyes she struggled to keep open, “I-I’ll, be, oka-” A coughing fit wracked her body.

Dusk scrambled to think of something he could do to help her, “I’m not a nurse or a doctor, but I know a few mending and pain-killing spells I can use on you, okay?” His patient nodded her ascent and he began casting a simple diagnostic spell. Unsurprisingly, she was suffering from overexertion with strains throughout her wings their associated muscle group, also a sprain in her left wing joint. He relayed the information to her, she merely moaned in pain in response, and cast a couple of pain numbing spells on the appropriate sections of her nervous system and an anti-inflammatory spell on her sprain.

Eventually, the rest of the group navigated down to Fluttershy and him. By then she was able to get onto her hooves, though flying would be impossible for several days. Dusk was temporarily left bewildered and frustrated when, after requesting water on her behalf, he was informed they’d brought none. Rainbow Dash merely flexed her wings and brought down a couple clouds to give her friend a drink and a quick shower.

After that, Fluttershy was able to smile and assure everypony that she was fine. Dusk didn’t really buy it, but telling her to go back by herself was more dangerous than letting her continue you forward with the rest of them. Still, she was made of sterner stuff than he ever would have suspected.

Then, wounded wing clutched painfully to her side to keep it off the ground, she had faced down a raging manticore and tamed it. Dusk, and seemingly the rest of the group, had been prepared to wound it and scare it off, but Fluttershy had known exactly what to do to calm it down. Between her incredible abilities with animals, totally selfless nature, strength to stand up for and put herself on the line for her beliefs, and the small detail that she had saved his life, Dusk was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t a suicide mission. And, hay, you could do a lot worse than dying fighting alongside somepony like Fluttershy.

☾♀☀♂☽

The next ten or so minutes of the journey were much smoother, chiefly occupied by Rainbow Dash retelling her heroic rescue of Twilight, again, and again, and again. From what Dusk could tell, most of their group seemed entirely unsurprised by this. To Rainbow’s credit, it had been heroic, and she even complimented Fluttershy on her own “awesome saving the stallion-in-distress, moment.” Fluttershy had blushed and affirmed that she would have done it for anypony. Dusk didn’t particularly enjoy being called, “the stallion-in-distress,” though he couldn’t deny it was an accurate description. But for the sake of keeping conflict in the group down, and the whole saving his sister’s life thing, Dusk watched his tongue and contented himself with reliving the tailwhip across the muzzle he’d given the nacreous braggart yesterday.

“Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout Dusky?” Said stallion was brought out of his daydream (nightdream?) by the hopping, smiling Pinkie Pie who’d dropped back from the front of the group to talk to him.

“Dusky?” Dusk Shine questioned.

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, “Yup! Twi’s nickname was easy. I mean I could have gone for Sparky or maybe T-Sparks, but she didn’t like those for some reason. I had to think about yours, though. Dusky doesn’t really have the ring to it I’d like, but what can you do?” Suddenly, the mare’s eyes went wide and she stopped in place, “Shiny! Why didn’t I thi-”

Dusk Shine stopped and wheeled around to look at Pinkie, glaring at her seriously, “Don’t call me that.”

Pinkie frowned slightly and tilted her head like a confused dog, “Why not Shin-”

Dusk stepped forward and a spark popped off his horn, “Don’t!” He closed his eyes and sighed, “Just, ugh, ‘Dusky,’ is fine. Let’s just go with that one.”

When he opened his eyes he found Pinkie standing beside him, her normal smile gracing her bubbly visage, “Okie, dokie, Dusky!” She giggled and started bouncing forward to catch up with the group.

Shaking his head, Dusk followed after the mare slowly, taking time for a few deep breaths to calm himself down. There’s something wrong with that mare.

“Hurry up, Dusky! I can feel a song coming on~” She singsonged up ahead. Dusk trotted a bit faster to catch up.

Of course, a song. Maybe we can defeat Nightmare Moon with the Magic of Music! Dusk scoffed and habitually fell into the haughty eyes closed and head held high posture of condescending nobles. When he opened his eyes again he found that it had perhaps been easier to see with his eyes closed it was so dark, and then he ran into something horn first. A quick lighting spell revealed the forest floor and the tree that he’d impaled. Pulling back did nothing but pinch the base of his horn painfully. Great. “A little help? Somepony?”

Silence met him. And was it just his imagination, or was something moving beyond the circle of light from his horn? Buck it all! “Anypony? Twilight! Fluttershy! Hello!?” He caught a flicker of motion in his peripheral vision and everything seemed to get darker. The trees menaced with shadows and limbs that seemed precisely made to conceal any number of pony eating predators!

Alright, sorry tree but it’s you or me. A quick charge of mana and a bolt of arcane energy shot from the tip of Dusk’s horn to rip apart the tree trunk it was embedded in. That’s what should have happened. Instead, his magic was seemingly absorbed by the tree and dissipated, including his illumination spell. Left in darkness, Dusk tried in vain to force some magic through his horn, but every attempt was dispelled and the magic sucked away off his horn.

Okay, time to panic. “HELP! ANYPONY! Bucking Tartarus!” Suddenly, the cool feeling around his horn started moving down, coming to cover part of his head. Then, it seemed to move into his head, and he was subjected to a feeling like getting the world’s worst brain freeze while falling into arctic water. It was unpleasant, as his shuddering and convulsing body and chattering teeth and pitiful moans attested to.

Just as suddenly, it was gone, and he was left feeling vaguely violated and very vulnerable. His mind was sluggish and his thoughts slippery and hard to focus on for awhile, until his sister’s voice broke through the haze, “-usk, are you okay?”

The world suddenly came into focus like a piece of distorting glass was removed, and he found himself standing freely next to a tree, no horn impalement. He looked around for a moment, thoroughly confused, before responding shakily, “No, I don’t think so. Either I’m losing my mind or I was just subject to some kind of- Wait.” He narrowed his eyes at Twilight, standing alone on the path and looking at him with concern. “Where’s everypony else?”

“They’re just up the trail.” She stepped closer to him, “What’s wrong?”

Dusk stepped back from her, maintaining distance, and she frowned. Something felt wrong about all this, very wrong, “Why’d you come back alone?”

“They wanted to find the Elements as quickly as possible, but I was concerned about you. Dusk, please, you’re scaring me.” She did sound scared, and tears brimmed in her eyes as her lips quivered. She looked for all the world like a stereotypical little sister looking to her big brother for protection. Twilight, however, was quite fond of using her older sibling card and reminding Dusk that she’d been born an entire six minutes earlier than him. Yeah, that’s probably not Twilight. Buck. Plus, I’m pretty sure the rest of the girls wouldn’t abandon Twilight and me.

“Smarty.” Dusk said simply as he frowned. He tried to surreptitiously move into one of the fighting stances that Shining Armor used to try and teach him all the time.

“Huh?” That’s all not-Twilight was able to say before a burst of arcane energy went straight through her face. Unfortunately for Dusk, it was because she dissolved into a laughing cloud of ethereal blue smoke that quickly reformed into Nightmare Moon grinning predatorily with her razor sharp teeth. “Well done my little pony, you are so very clever.” She chuckled and advanced toward him casually.

Dusk Shine, now very much fearing for his life, trembled as he tried to keep his distance from her while keeping his horn ready to fire. “S-stay back.”

“Or what? You’ll try another immobilization spell on me again? My dear sister seems to have raised such weak stallions in my absence, too weak to fight, too weak to kill, just soft prey.” She continued her advance on the quivering stallion.

Dusk’s heart almost jumped up his throat when his flanks hit a tree behind him, blocking his retreat. With flight no longer an option, process of elimination left him with only choice. He got off one haphazard burst of magic before the cackling alicorn hit him with her own magic. He was unconscious well before he hit the ground.

☾♀☀♂☽

Author's Note:

Long time no see! Yeah, remember when I promised more frequent updates? Well, technically this is more frequent! From six months for an update to one and a half! Progress!

Anywho, this update would have been out a lot earlier, but I could not decide where to end this chapter! I finally decided on this because the rest after this I wasn't really happy with and I wanted to meet the deadline I imposed on myself yesterday to update this story today.

Speaking of other stories, check out Me Amore Cadenza (yes the spelling error is intentional! :3) It's something different, and I'm not entirely happy with the first chapter, but I have a lot of exciting ideas of where I'm going to take it.

Another story is coming out tomorrow, my sequel to the surprisingly well-received The G-Word!

And another new story Sunday!

And this won't even affect the update rate of this story! Well, that's kind of a lie. This story will now be updated every Friday! Starting today! (Yesterday my clock is now informing me. I'll just say I'm superstitious and didn't want to update on Friday the Thirteenth, everyone buys that right?)

This is going to be a big (and long overdue) change for me. And to go along with it I've launched a Twitter to keep anyone who's interested up to date with new stories/updates/my breakfast cereal of choice.

I've also launched a Patreon to appease my own vanity. Also, to potentially make fanfiction pay some of my bills (read: copious amounts of illicit substances).

As always, please leave any questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, and/or intoxicated tirades below!

I'll leave you with the music that got me through this chapter, ciao!

Comments

[Comickook]

Hello there. Thanks very much for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Again, this is some really good stuff. The exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. I particularly liked Dusk's attempts to talk his and Twilight's near-future friends out of accompanying them and the others' equally logical retorts about accompanying them anyway as well as the nickname argument (ESPECIALLY concerning "Shiny" [which I'm guessing Dusk argued against because it would be too similar to his and Twilight's older brother]) and how quickly Dusk saw through Nightmare Moon's attempt to trick him disguised as Twilight .

So, yeah, I will DEFINITELY be looking forward to more of this.

[Mix-up]

This was an interesting story, looks like DushShy ship is in now and now it seems like he is captured by NMM. I Wonder if he will try to bargain for his sister's life in exchange for his loyalty. I can't wait to what will happen next.

[Kasharo]

Excellent work, so far. Thanks for sharing your story with us! Keep it up. 😁

[Relux_the_Relux]

Pretty nice story. Hope it updates again.