Divergent Destinies

by Leondude

Chapter 9 - Painful Reunion

As Twilight sat down on the floor, enamoured by the recent book she acquired, Spike noticed a cloud of dark magic swirling behind them. The magic moved towards the Elements, levitating them in the process.

"Uh...Twilight?" Spike said, pointing at the Elements.

Twilight closed the book she was reading and turned to the Elements, which were being slowly engulfed by a swirling vortex of dark magic. Twilight gasped before running after the Elements in order to catch them. The magic engulfed her before making her and the Elements disappear without a trace.

---

Kain swiped at Sunset with his luminescent talon, intending to decapitate her. Sunset teleported out of the way and behind Kain before blasting him with her magic. Quickly recovering from the attack, Kain telekinetically grabbed Sunset and slammed her down onto the ground repeatedly before pouncing on her, to which Sunset kicked him off and used her own telekinesis to throw him into a tree. Everypony cheered as Sunset was winning the fight. Kain got up and swiftly tackled Sunset off of the ground and into the massive gap between where everypony was and the ruins of the castle. With a magical burst of energy, Sunset managed to escape Kain's grasp and teleported to the other side of the bridge.

---

Twilight woke up after being whisked away by the dark magic. Her head ached as she came to her bearings. She looked around and noticed she was in a different area of the castle ruins, with Nightmare Moon standing in front of her levitating the elements. Nightmare Moon chuckled as she stared at the young dark mage before her.

"You wish to defeat me?" Nightmare Moon asked, "a simple unicorn? You must be joking!"

"Well, if Gusty the Great can imprison Grogar, I don't see why it should be hard for me to defeat you," Twilight replied, "also, wasn't your former teacher a unicorn?"

"What do you mean?"

"Star Swirl the Bearded. Father of the animorphic spell. I heard he used to teach you and your sister."

Nightmare Moon snarled at Twilight before chuckling once again.

"You seem to be very knowledgeable about me, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight's blood ran cold when she heard that statement.

"How do you know my name?" Twilight asked.

"When one has the ability to traverse the dreams of others, one does have an affinity for getting inside ponies' heads," Nightmare Moon replied.

Nightmare Moon trotted towards Twilight, her frame tall and imposing and her expression imperious yet carrying a strange hint of curiosity. Twilight stood her ground, her own expression full of defiance and determination.

"Might I ask why a unicorn that practices dark magic would want to continue the reign of my sister?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"While a night that never ends does sound intriguing, I'm afraid that would result in a lot of dead ponies and wildlife in the long run," Twilight replied.

"We could always resurrect them. Think of it, an undead kingdom for us to rule."

"True, but I have friends that wouldn't want to be dead."

"Friends?"

"Well, just the one friend."

A sudden crash resounded behind Twilight, who flinched and quickly turned to see that a hole had been blasted out of the castle wall. When the smoke cleared, it showed Sunset pinned down by Kain. Traumatic memories flashed through Twilight's mind as she looked at the beast that killed her parents. She looked back at Nightmare Moon before looking back at Kain, her once determined gaze now terribly conflicted. Should she stop Kain from killing her best friend or should she defeat Nightmare Moon? Before she could come to a conclusion, she saw those red eyes staring back at her, burning their way into her soul. If she didn't know any better, there was a good chance that Kain was smiling underneath that mask.

"How good of you to join us," Kain said to Twilight before tossing Sunset aside.

Kain slowly made his way towards Twilight, like a hungry animal waiting to pounce on its prey. Twilight pawed at the ground, ready to charge into him at any moment. She wiped any trace of fear from her face, knowing that Kain could use it to his advantage. They stared at each other, waiting to see who would make the first move. Kain swiped his luminescent claw up from the ground to send a wave of magic at Twilight's way, to which Twilight blocked by forming a force field around herself. Twilight absorbed the impact of the blow into her horn to fire a powerful beam of magic at Kain, which Kain effortlessly swatted away like one would a fly.

"Impressive," Kain said "But it will take more than that to defeat me."

"Lucky for you, there's more where that came from!" Twilight said defiantly as she levitated herself with her magic and fired an assortment of blasts. All but one of the blasts missed Kain or were blocked by him, with the one blast in only managing to singe one of his wings. Kain charged up the magic in his claw and fired emerald electrical bolts at Twilight. Twilight teleported behind Kain and fired another blast at him. The blast managed to hit Kain this time. But even so, Kain got back up as if it was nothing and lunged at Twilight, grabbing her by her neck and slamming her into one of the castle walls.

"You hold nothing back, Miss Sparkle," Kain said "Admirable, but ultimately futile."

Twilight fired another blast, this one directly into Kain's mask. Kain coughed and spluttered as he released Twilight from his grasp. Twilight charged in at Kain as Kain tried fixing his mask. Without hesitation, Kain grabbed onto Twilight's head and pounded it into the floor. Twilight got up and, before she could deal another crippling blow, Kain swatted her into one of the walls. The wall broke upon impact. Twilight formed a force field as Kain charged at her and clawed at her like a rabid animal. All of Kain's calm composure evaporated in that instance, replaced with blind fury as he struck at the force field Twilight was using to protect herself. The field eventually gave way and cracked into pieces before disappearing entirely. Twilight teleported out of the way, now having to deal with Kain's rapid strikes with little to no protection. She felt exhausted, her fight with Kain beginning to wear her down. Everything quickly felt like a blur as Twilight tried with all of her might to stay up, but it was all for naught. Without warning, Kain appeared behind her and dug his glowing talon into her back. Twilight screamed in agony as the talon went even deeper into her back to the point that she could even feel her spine burning. She collapsed onto the floor as all feeling in her legs left her. The fight in her now gone, she watched as everything faded to black.

Author's Note:

Ah, yes. I was wondering what would break first.