End of hatred, Beginning of Hope

by Legendbringer

to make new planS

When heroes fight, the villains win, but when heroes stand together then they can conquer many things. I know that battles are not always won with violence, but through the cooperation of friends.

---

Twilight opened her eyes, finding herself in a dark void and surrounded by bright white orbs. For a moment, she could hear faint voices, only for them to get louder and louder with a faint beat of ‘failure’. Panting, she began to look back and forth, trying to see where the voices were coming from, “Failure? Who, what is a failure?”

...

...

Friendship

Hope

Justice

Twilight looked confused, walking forward. With a shake of her head, she reached out and asked, “What do you mean. How is... how is friendship a failure?”

At this, the orbs began to come alive with imagery of ponies failing at their dreams, of hearts broken, and death. Everywhere she could look, she saw ponies in pain and in despair as they screamed in rage. Turning her head towards the voices, she said, “You think this means anything? How any of this is showing me that friendship is a failure? All I see are ponies willing who are willing to quit and run away. They are all trying to push away those who could help them and are the worst for it. Friendship is not the failure here, it’s them.”

You say that, you believe that; however, it changes nothing. Friendship fails so easily. War, hate, anger, and rage. Just look at the worlds around you.

Twilight stepped back and gasped as the orbs changed from the view of the worlds of Equestria, to the human worlds.

“Mutants go home!!!”

“They didn’t arrest Captain America, they arrested Steve Rogers.”

“Of course we’re criminals, we’ve always been criminals.”

“He was a good Green Lantern, broken by tragedy”

Twilight stepped back, watching as friend turned against friend, brother against brother. Looking behind her, she asked, “Did this all happen in this world?”

Not this one, but in the worlds close to it. But you see what I mean, in so many worlds, in so many ways, friendship fails. You cannot stop it, you cannot control it. All you can do is watch...

“You think I’m naive? That I don’t know how the world works? Of course, that can happen,” Twilight sighed and looked down, “If that wasn’t the case, then I wouldn’t fight with my friends once in a while, monsters like Tirek wouldn’t be walking my home.”

But you can change that. All of it, you have the power.

Twilight gasped as she watched her hand began to glow with power.

It would be so simple...to bind them and make them bow before you. You can change them, fix it and force them to all submit to friendship. You are a goddess.

“NO!” Twilight said, disengaging her power. “No one has the right to take free will away from someone!”

But you do. Just use your magic and-

---

“NO!” Twilight screamed, sitting up in a bed. Looking around, her mind tried to connect the previous events of the other day to her current location. Running her hands onto the white sheet, she said, “A bed?”

“Ah, you are awake,” Jean said, walking into the room and placing a crawfish omelet on the stand next to her. Smiling, she said, “Compliments of our cajun chef.”

Twilight looked at the plate and smiled. After nodding her thanks, she lifted the plate and began to eat, pulling away from the crawfish and focusing on the eggs, “Um, how did I get here by the way? I remember we were taken away by a time vortex and then nothing.”

“What you saw was an illusion. A very powerful one that was cast by Elect,” Jean said. “I don’t know how he cast it, but as the vortex appeared, I began to know something was up as I felt psionic energy ripple through the area.”

“I see,” Twilight said, looking down, “And where are my friends?”

“Enjoying the hospitality of the X-mansion, wich is where you are.” Jean said, closing her eyes for a moment, and letting a purple glow surround her head. “Although, one of them seems to be impatient for you to wake up.”

Twilight chuckled, “That would be Rainbow Dash. Are you psychic?”

“Why yes I am,” Jean said proudly, only to watch as Twilight came face to face with her.

“Oh my gosh, this is so interesting!” Twilight said, leaning forward with an excited look in her eyes, “When I saw your powers in action back furing our fight with the sentenels, I was so intrigued by how they work and how you activated them and how you could do all of those things and-” upon realizing she was blabbing on, she pulled back and blushed, “Sorry, I tend to babble on when I see something fascinating.”

Jean laughed at this and smiled warmly at Twilight, “It’s ok Twilight, we all get a little curious about new experiences. Especially when we come from other worlds, right Princess?”

“You knew?” Twilihgt said.

“Well, less of knowing,” Jean said, looking out the window as she thought she heard an excited yell from outside, “And more of one of your friends doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.”

Twilight sighed and said, “And that would be Pinkie.”

“Yes, she is an excitable girl,” Jean said, getting up and walking to the door, “When you are finished with breakfast, the other teams are going to have a meeting.”

Twilight nodded and waved Jean off. Then she began to eat, slowly remembering the rest of the illusion that she had seen that night.

Surrounded by desolation, a world in ruin. Any sign of life was but a faint flicker around her, with no one to answer her call. As she continued to stare at the end of the world, she could feel the cold tingle run along her spine. Alone, she tried to call out for her friends but found no noise coming from her throat. As she stepped back in fear, she heard a voice

“It will be all right. I promise. When you need a hand, come find me” a whisper sounded to her.

Twilight shook her head, and said, “That illusion spell... how did he cause it, and who was that voice. And why, if his goal was to show us what happens when we fail, did he show us a destroyed world and not a void?”

---

“So, let me get this straight,” Cyborg said, looking back at the six former equines as they sat across from the two teams in the living room of the mansion. Taking the time to look over each one and running his red eye over the girls, he said, “You six are all from a world where each one of you is a pony and all Ungulates can talk. Two of you are pegasi, two are earth ponies, one is a unicorn, and one is a winged unicorn?”

“Alicorn actually,” Twilight corrected.

“And a princess as well,” Starfire added, smiling at the group.

“And now, thanks to Count Logan, you are all stuck here with your superpowers, most of your magic gone, and are playing his game too,” Cyclops finished, his hand on his chin.

Applejack nodded and said, “Ah’m just shocked that y’all are taking this in stride.”

“Trust me,” Logan said, sharpening his blades, “Knowing that the new superhero team in town are a bunch of ponies in another world? That is probably the least crazy thing I’ve heard. And I can bet that is the least crazy thing the Titans had ever to deal with.”

“Indeed, our world is indeed a weird and interesting place,” said Beast with a chuckle. “Now, we should begin to deal with our three individual problems.”

“Three?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“My friend is missing,” Dick said, folding his arms over his chest, “Then we have to worry about Count Logan and his little game.”

“Plus, a book I was looking up has also vanished,” Raven said, looking around the small living room, “The Dark Prognosticus.”

“Isn’t that book from the Egyptian exhibit you were asked to look after?” asked Vic, wich Raven nodding in confirmation.

Cyclops put his finger to his chin and looked back at the small gathering, “Three mysteries, three teams. And for some reason, Count Logan picked us to play his little game. I believe that somehow, all of these are connected. And so, we should split up.”

“One of us should go to Massachusetts, if anyone knows about the truth behind the Dark Prognosticus, it should be Dr. Fate,” Robing said.

“Wait a minute!” Pinkie said, waving her hand, “Who’s Dr. Fate.”

“One of the most powerful mages on the planet, and has ties to Egypt,” Robin said, only to see Twilight run right up to his face with a big grin on her face.

“You mean that there is another powerful mage out there with a very large library with plenty of books to research and spells to examine without any limits whatsoever, oh please let me on that team!” Twilight said, before pulling away and putting her hand behind her head and giggling embarrassingly. “Sorry, new worlds and magic get me excited.”

Pinkie skipped over to Twilight and cheered happily, “I’ll go with Twilight.”

“I’ll head back home,” Raven said, “I need to see if I can find out what happened to the book from there, and locate Beast Boy.”

“Hey, if you’re heading back to the city, I’ll come with ya,” Rainbow Dash said, smirking, “Kind of want to practice flying around the city for a bit.”

“Well, someone better go and join her,” Applejack said, looking to Rainbow Dash, “If it turns out to be a scouting mission, someone will need to keep her feet on the ground,” she said, much to Rainbow’s annoyance. Dash stuck her tongue out in response.

“I’ll stay here with Scott and see if we can figure out Count Logan’s targets,” Jean said, before looking to rarity and Fluttershy, “Would you two care to stay here in the mansion while your friends begin to investigate?”

Rarity let out a small gasp, “ Staying here in a wonderful mansion for a little while? I would love that. Oh, the things I could do here, just think of it.”

Cyclops nodded and said, “All right, everyone, get some sleep and then we’ll start our missions tomorrow morning.”

---

“Now, why did ya call this little meeting Twilight?” Applejack asked, the group sitting around in their room as the moonlight shown through the windows.

“For the past few nights,” Twilight said putting her hands together and looking at her friends, “I have been subjected to nightmares. Horrible visions of things that haven’t happened or versions of the past where things went horribly wrong. I can only guess that-”

“Some idiot is attacking you from the inside,” Rainbow Dash said, “And wants you to go cookoo or-”

“Locco in the coco?” Pinkie finished.

Twilight nodded, and continued, “I think this is somehow linked with Count Logan. Someone out there is trying to manipulate my thoughts. Either trying to break e and turn me evil or break me and make me run away from my responsibilities or fall into depression. The trouble is, I don’t know who.”

“Well, there are a lot of suspects isn’t there.” Rarity said, putting a finger to her chin. “You haven’t given us much to work on.”

“Grrr! I know!” Twilight said throwing her head back, “I just wish more villains were obvious in their plans and make this easy to me! But nope, now I have three mysteries to solve and some person who may or may not have it out for me to worry about.” she let out a small groan and shook her head. “Just, be careful out there girls. If whoever is doing this is trying to destroy me? You guys might be in trouble too, or you might have to save my mind from being destroyed.”

“So watch out or any mental problems and be prepared to save ya,” Dash said, “A normal day right?”

The ease with which Dash said this made her smile and chuckle. Twilight then said, “Beyond that, girl...please be careful.”

The others tucked themselves in for the night.

Author's Note:

Explinations about the missing time back on the blog.

Comments

[Zapper Frost]

Well I can now say that I know the hidden word in the titles

[Night_Moon60606]

10043748
i figured it out as well...all i was told is that its only the first...

[Starlight Nova]

Why isn't there a dark tag?

[Moonlight_Mist]

An antagonistic count, multiple worlds, an empty void as the consequence of failure to stop the count, and a book called 'The Dark Prognosticus'?

When are we going to meet the secretary with hypno-laser eyes, the crass burly scotsman, and the bratty shape shifter who work for him? When will The Joker pretend to ally with him? What will The Joker steal from Count Logan at the moment of betrayal? Is it clear what I'm referencing? No? What form will Beast Boy be taking when they finally find him and discover he's made himself an otaku castle? Will it be a chameleon? I think it'll be a chameleon.

[Purple Patch]

Twilight sees through Count Logan's Horse-Apples!