Longing for the Past

by Fantasia

Nighttime Intrusions

"Wake up, Twilight Sparkle..."

Twilight's muzzled crinkled, her eyes opening groggily to the sight of a black figure looming over her. She was sure it was the middle of the night, and thanks to the moonlight pouring in from outside, could vaguely make out its equine form... and green eyes leering down at her.

She stiffened, and jumped back in fright, ready to scream, or perhaps ask the intruder who they were and what they wanted with her... only to find that she couldn't. The most that came from her throat was a muffled and pitiful squeak, as if something covered her mouth, sealing her lips together.

The intruder reared their hooves up and brought them down on either side of her, rearing their face closer... their sickly hair draping along her stomach.

Twilight winced, her eyes trembling.

Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings. Here, in her home...

How the hay did she get in?

Again the same voice hissed, "Remember me, Sparkle?"

How... could I forget? she replied in her head. Whatever was on her face, she figured, must have been that changeling slime.

"You've caused a lot of trouble for my changelings, Sparkle... You've made it harder for us to feed, why... you've forced us into a corner."

Twilight furled her brow, staring back angrily into the face of the changeling queen.

The look itself spoke volumes.

Well, tough luck, she growled in thought. Villainizing me for protecting my citizens who are peaceful and kind, when your kind goes around terrorizing us, treating us like prey... And I don't care if it's to survive, you selfish, bullheaded bug!

The queen snarled, "Your love sustains us! We need it to survive, don't you understand?"

Hay, maybe you should share it then, scoffed Twilight before rolling her eyes. Maybe then you'd begin to care about the lives you take—

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, little pony." One of her hooves pulled up, before striking Twilight in her shoulder for her insolence.

Twilight winced as Chrysalis now gripped her by both her shoulders.

"You couldn't just let us do as we please..."

No, because that isn't what heroes do, Twilight shot back, warily.

Chrysalis sneered, as if understanding what the pony at her mercy had just thought.

"You ponies think you're in the right, that... compassion and friendship are words to live by... Well... I say that's nonsense!" Her hooves threw Twilight into the opposite corner of the couch, increasing the poor pony's heartbeat.

Suddenly she felt very sick, and nervous... and it occurred to her right then, that she could very well die. Here, like this... at the hooves of her own worst enemy.

She directed her trembling gaze past Chrysalis, to the stairs leading high into the cloudominium.

Where the hay was Rainbow Dash?

"Everycreature has its own view on life, Princess, and frankly we changelings think that life is just too short. Are we really in the wrong for doing... what we think is right? You princesses are doing what you think is right... and all anycreature ever does is what they think is right. I mean... who ever said life was valuable? That... taking a life was wrong?"

My conscience, Twilight remarked, then redirected her thoughts back upstairs. Come on, Rainbow Dash... C'mon... Chrysalis didn't get you too, did she?

"Your friend's a heavy sleeper, Sparkle. I wouldn't count on her to come to your rescue any time soon—not that you have to worry." Chrysalis grinned, amused as Twilight's own brow lifted. "I'm not going to hurt you, Princess. I only came to offer a proposition, from one governing body to another. See, my subjects are dying, as you're well aware... and I only ask that you offer up a small token of remorse."

Twilight glowered. Humor me.

"Ponyville," the changeling queen declared. "You hand it over willingly, or my remaining forces and I will forcibly take it tomorrow, by sunset."

Fat chance, Twilight replied firmly, in her head. She swallowed hard, and nervously shook her head no. Chrysalis didn't look all that surprised, only her eyes narrowing. I'll fight you to my last breath if I had to, Chrysalis—

"Then you and your friends better prepare yourselves, Princess... because come tomorrow, we will blot out your precious sun, and feast upon your bleeding hearts. Ponyville will become our new feeding ground... and you will have no one to blame but yourself." Chrysalis turned swiftly towards the front door. "Thanks for being such a patient listener... and sleep well. You have a big day ahead of you, Sparkle."

The queen disappeared into the shadows, and soon... only the buzzing of her wings was heard as they faded into the night.

Twilight remained in the corner, feeling her blood begin to boil. She was rigid, and breathed in deeply to try and relax her nerves to no avail. She was trembling too badly, her eyes falling shut.

She grit her teeth. Chrysalis... had the nerve...!

Twilight wanted to scream, if only it weren't for the gunk sealing her mouth shut.

She peered around the living room desperately, mewling over her options. For a second, she debated going to wake up Rainbow Dash... but then she spotted a better solution. The storage cabinet.

She scrambled to her hooves, and hopped down from the couch, running up to, and throwing open the doors to the cabinet... to reveal Sombra's horn, exactly where Rainbow had left it.

She wasted no time in grabbing it, undoing the cover and tossing aside the glass container... clasping it now tightly within her grasp, and knowing what it was she had to do.

Holding it snug against her beating heart, she hobbled the rest of the way to the kitchen, in order to find something to remove her own horn.

Rummaging around in the drawers, she quickly found a knife fit for the task, and falling back on her haunches—a tongue poking past her lips in concentration—raised it to the base of her horn.

She winced at first, sucking in a sharp breath through her teeth at the stinging sensation, but the soothing remedy of her magic quickly set in, numbing the pain.

There was no blood—Twilight knew that much going in. Horns were hollow, acting as nothing more than a funnel for magic, and the magic inside would quickly numb the procedure. Still... did knifes have to be so hard to wield for non-magic users?

At least this will keep Rainbow Dash and the others safe, she thought sourly. I'll show that... bug how much of a pushover she thinks I am!

She set her old horn aside, almost passing out as her magic largely spilled out from the hole on her head. Her eyelids drooped, with her mind fading fast, but with trembling hooves, placed the base of his horn on her remaining stump. The horn aligned itself instantly, melding with the stump... her magic acting as a cement of sorts.

The magic that had seeped free, dissolved in the air, her reserves adjusting to the new horn. It... felt like they were adjusting nicely, as Twilight could feel magic ready to fire from the tip.

Her eyes lit up, her mind unclouded, and with a determined smirk, focused some of her telekinetic magic onto the knife she had been wielding. The glow was no longer a moderate violet, but was rather now a deep red, and... it worked! The knife levitated in her grasp, and in turn, a large smile formed on her lips.

Twilight sprang to her hooves, dissolving the gunk on her face with another quick spell... and jumped around the room in joy, chanting over and over, "Yes, yes, yes, yes!"

Her steps slowed, and her excitement quickly died as everything began to sink in. I... I have magic again... a-and a red horn now too, I suppose. She stared contemplatively into her reflection on the kitchen knife, before setting it down on the counter. That'll no doubt scare some ponies... and Rainbow Dash will probably be more than a little miffed with me... at least until she sees how I handle this invasion!

"I mean, pfft!" Twilight grinned, shrugging off the concern. "My, my h-head feels so... clear," she reasoned with herself; "and we'll finally all be rid of these changelings once and for all!" She walked back out into the living room, but not before tossing her old, malleable horn in the trash. "Spike's death will finally be avenged... and... and..."

A cough passed by her lips suddenly, taking her aback.

Wha—?

Another cough cut her off, filling her mouth with a pungent... smoke—like that of a fire. It reminded her of the smoke that had flooded her nostrils the day her library had burned to the ground.

She blew out a mouthful of the foul-smelling black smoke, and as it rose to the ceiling... she found herself with another lungful.

Her eyes widened at the realization this wasn't just some cough.

Her entire body was filling up with this stuff, and fast.

Her heart sank, and she forced herself to begin coughing, desperate to expel whatever it was from her body... only to feel the thick smog remaining within her lungs.

Her eyes began watering, the tears quickly becoming flickering purple trails of smoke, drying them... reddening them.

This stuff was suffocating her!

My... thr... throat f-feels s-so... dry! What... i-is causing...? Her first instinct led her back into the kitchen, where she raided the fridge for water, doing her best to stifle her coughs all the while. She gulped down around five bottles, and spit up some of it, before realizing it wasn't quenching a thing.

A light flicked on upstairs, Twilight barely picking up on it.

Her eyes widened at the clip clops of somepony's hooves coming down the stairs.

Rainbow Dash... It... must be, she dreaded, stumbling to her hooves. Why n-now...? O-okay... I suppose Chrysalis was spe-speaking in, in a... h-hushed tone, b-but—!

"Twilight...?" Rainbow rounded the corner to the kitchen, and instantly the alicorn stiffened, backing up against the counter. "Are you alright?" she asked a little cautiously, now standing in the doorway and rubbing the sleep from one of her eyes. "I, I heard you coughing—well, it sounded like coughing anyway... and..." Though the darkness of the kitchen, Rainbow could only make out her friend's eyes, seemingly bloodshot. "Jeez..." Her face immediately took on a look of concern.

Twilight ducked her head away, turning to conceal herself better in the shadows of the room.

Rainbow swore her eyes had a hint of... green in them, and that... it was actually the irises that had been red.

She stepped closer, fearing something was seriously wrong with her friend, and that's when Twilight broke out into a nasty cough.

Something seemed to expel from her mouth, causing Rainbow to freeze in her tracks. A cloud of black smoke, and it was quickly spreading.

Rainbow hopped into the air to avoid it, not quite knowing what it was... only that Twilight's body seemed to be... rejecting it.

She was also struggling to breath, Rainbow realized, putting aside her momentary fear, and dashing forward to console her friend.

"H-hey," Rainbow shushed, raising a hoof of hers. "Can, can you tell me what's...?"

"St... stay a, away-ay-ay!" she blurted out between a fit of harsh coughs.

Rainbow stared down at her warily, then flew closer, insisting, "I'm trying to help you, Twilight."

Twilight turned to face away from her, but Rainbow circled her, following her and trying to understand what her friend was attempting to hide from her.

Then it hit her, and it hit her hard.

Twilight had a hoof covering her horn, and was vomiting up smoke that reminded her of...

"You didn't..."

Twilight froze, and reluctantly peered up at her hovering friend. As Rainbow had thought, the whites of her friend's eyes were a sickly shade of green... and her pupils were indeed red.

Rainbow's expression saddened, her ears folding against her head. "Twilight. Tell me... that you didn't...!"

Twilight's brow creased, and she wanted to cry... if only her eyes could form the tears.

She bit her lip, then blurted out in a coughing fit, that it was Chrysalis. That she had made a threat against her and Ponyville, and that she did what she thought she had to... and that... she was so, so sorry...

Rainbow hardly understood a word.

She instead frowned, and spun around to dash back into the living room.

"Wa, ai-ait!" Twilight coughed out, holding out a hoof after her. Her whole body shook, and she was regretting her action now more than ever.

Would Rainbow forgive her this time? Would she even live to find out...?

She hobbled out of the kitchen, hearing Rainbow murmur, despite the daze her mind was in, "Oh, Twilight... You didn't..."

Her gaze swept the room, catching a blurred image of her friend standing over the glass container.

Her heart broke in two.

She felt sick, she felt... cold, and she pushed past the front door in a stumble, out into the night.

She stumbled until she was walking on air, and unknowingly plummeting towards the ground. Her eyes widened, and her wings pulled back just in time to soften her landing.

She collided with the ground, exploding into a black mass of smoke before... somehow reforming.

Twilight stared down at herself, dumbfounded at what just happened as her body pulled itself back together.

What j-just...?

She sat up and held out her forelegs, watching as they slowly dematerialized before her very eyes, as if becoming one with the night sky.

She gasped, and folded them at her sides... only for them to fold into her.

Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach at the transparent feeling—of her body becoming exactly what she was coughing up...

Twilight laid her forelegs out at her sides, glancing in horror between the... two smoke plumes that were once her arms.

What is this... h-horn do, do-ing to me—?

Without warning, she fell onto her back—it becoming a cloud of smoke before taking shape again as her hind legs and flanks came apart.

She couldn't breath, couldn't speak... the black smoke filling every orifice of hers.

This i-s-sn't d-dark mag-gic... It's like I'm... c-changing...!

The feeling of her face becoming chilled all of a sudden distracted her from the thought, and she realized quickly that that feeling was her jaw... mouth, and lips... being carried off by the wind.

She panicked and clutched desperately at the fleeting smoke with her own translucent arms before it drifted too far, and packed it underneath the lower half of her face.

You feeble-minded mare! a voice, like a thought, made her freeze as it barked at her suddenly. Look what you've done! You'll kill us both at this rate! Luckily for you... Her new horn sparked to life. The spell that... Radiant Hope used on me still lingers, acting as a safeguard— Crystals began materializing, as if out of thin air, and began forming around the fleeting smoke. —to help piece myself... back together.

Wh... what...?

The crystals worked their way up her body, and had reached her neck when the voice in her head snarled, You belong to me now, little pony...

Twilight's heart beat faster and faster, her thoughts raced...

Smooth crystal encased both her head and horn, and once they did... her mind went blank.

She sat up like a marionette on strings.

"I'm yours," Twilight breathed out, her eyes half-lidded under the voice's control.

Good, it said, then growled, now go! To Canterlot... to usurp Celestia's, and her sister's reign!