The Thin Line Between
I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!
Warren G. Harding
To say that Princess Cadence was having a weird day would be an understatement.
Her routine had been broken, but that wasn’t all that terrible. After all, her routine for the last few weeks had been ‘Get Up’, ‘Get Mocked by Queen Chrysalis’, ‘Eat Gruel’, ‘Stare at Rocks’, and ‘Sleep’.
Her rescue had begun Act Two of the weird day: finding out that the changeling invasion had been stopped by Twilight Sparkle, the mare she use to foalsit. That wouldn’t have been weird, except Twilight had been consumed by darkness and was now some rage-filled shadow witch who gave the changeling queen such a beat down that Chrysalis wasn’t expected to last the night. The unicorn had been right: hate was a poison to changelings and Twilight had pumped the queen with so much that she was now lying on death’s door. Already most of the swarm had perished from shock.
After that it had been a whirlwind. She’d been taken to the hospital, talked with her aunts, found out that Twilight had escaped after assaulting an entire team of doctors, and rushed out to try and track down the confused mare before she did something horrible.
She had thought going into the club was a dead-end; the stallion that had claimed to see a mare matching Twilight’s description was shady at best and Cadence just couldn’t see Twilight being in a place like that. But she’d reminded herself that she wasn’t dealing with the Twilight she’d foalsat; this Twilight was high on dark magic and not thinking clearly. Cadence had decided to let the others search the libraries and the museums… she was going to take a risk.
And boy did it pay off.
“Cadence,” Twilight whispered. A myriad of emotions flashed across the unicorns face as she slowly made her way towards her old foalsitter. Twilight tilted her head, looking at her with unblinking eyes and Cadence took a step back, preparing herself for the attack.
Twilight hugged Cadence, sending the two of them toppling to the floor. “I am so sorry! I totally forgot about you and I should have gone looking for you as soon as I woke up but I was so drained and wanted to relieve some stress…” Cadence stared at Twilight as she babbled, wondering how anypony could this THIS mare was evil and corrupted. “Where did they hide you? Did the changelings have you locked up or something? Did a guard find you? Geez, what am I doing, lying on the floor with you like this; ponies are going to talk! Come on, let’s get a drink! I think we both need one after the day we had!”
The pink alicorn followed the lavender mare, her brain playing catchup. A small baby dragon (‘Spike… Twilight’s familiar’ Cadence recalled) looked at both of them in surprise from the table he was seated at and Twilight happily trotted over to him.
“Spike, this is Cadence!”
“…the real one, right?” Spike asked.
“The real one,” Cadence echoed.
“Glad to meet you… well, the real you.” Spike picked up his gemstone and began to nibble on it. “What are you doing here?”
“Came looking for Twilight,” Cadence said honestly, turning to look at the unicorn. “We were all worried about you.”
Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “I don’t know why you would be.” Her horn flashed black as she levitated her soda to her lips.
The princess raised her eyebrow, giving Twilight a fearful smile. “Might have something to do with the black magic you have there, Twilight.”
The unicorn rolled her eyes. “What is with ponies and the color of my magic? White magic, black magic, polka dot magic… does it really matter? I mean, Princess Luna uses shadow magic and no one bats an eye.”
“Yes, but you aren’t Princess Luna.”
Twilight shrugged. “Why would I want to be? All that responsibility… having to be under Celestia’s watchful eye all the time… did that, got the t-shirt.”
Cadence was truly startled by just how flippant Twilight was acting. “How… how can you say that? You’ve loved Princess Celestia since you were 3.”
“Yes, when I was 3. I also enjoyed hoofpainting and playing with my Smartypants doll. Ponies grow up.” Twilight’s brow crinkled for a moment. “Speaking of that…” Without even focusing on the spell Twilight formed an orb of magic, which twisted and turned until it transformed into her Smartypants doll. “About time I got you back,” Twilight said with a smile, bopping the toy’s nose with her hoof.
“Where did that come from?” Spike asked.
“Big Macintosh had her. I never asked for it back because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle… didn’t want Applejack thinking I was a baby, wanting my doll. Well, luckily for me I could care less about what Applejack thinks, so I am taking back my doll.” Twilight levitated the doll before using a flash of black magic to send Miss Smartypants back to the library where she belonged. “Now then, where were we?”
Cadence was staring at the table, the gears in her brain grinding to a halt at the sight of Twilight’s flippant use of dark magic. It wasn’t even the type of magic that was startling her; she had always known that Twilight was powerful, but to be able to command spells with such little need to prepare… all those that practiced magic strove for the skill that Twilight was now showing. To see her doing so with black magic…
It was terrible and beautiful.
“Uh, Cadence?” Twilight said, waving her hoof in front of the princess’ face. “You sure you are ok? Kinda zoned out on me?”
“I… I honestly don’t know,” Cadence stammered. “You… aren’t acting like I expected.”
“What? Wallowing in self-pity, crying that my friends abandoned me and our relationship is over?” Twilight puckered up her face. “Boo hoo… boo hoo.”
‘Actually, I expected you to begin gutting me like a fish and using my entrails to make a party dress,’ Cadence thought to herself. “Well…”
Twilight laughed, taking another sip of her drink. “Why should I feel down about that? I mean-mmm, this is so good, you have to try one-they are the ones that screwed up. They allied themselves with the bug-witch, not me. I’m the one that saw through her lies. They are the ones that threw away our friendship in the name of fame and fortune… I’m the one that saved all of friggin’ Canterlot! If anypony should feel bad, it is them.” Twilight clicked her hooves together, a waitress drifting over. “Yeah, can we get three more cheery pops? Thanks.” Twilight turned back to Cadence. “Anyway, I am not going to cry my eyes out because they made a mistake. I was pissed, I got it out of my system, and now I just want to celebrate. Heck, kinda feels good to be free of burden.”
“What burden?” Cadence asked as the waitress brought another round of soda.
“Well, I don’t have to be so focused on pleasing every pony. Shining Armor disowned me-“ Cadence choked on her drink, making a mental note to have a talk with her fiancé, “-and my parents are going to side with him anyway because hey, that is what they do, so I don’t have to worry about bringing ‘shame to the family’ or ‘living up to the family name’. My name is my own now! And guess what, Cadence… really not caring about the whole ‘shame’ thing at the moment.
“Same with my friends. Now that I don’t have to work every day to keep our friendship together, I finally have some time to relax! No more panicking, no more fear about them judging me… only pony I care about is myself.” She paused, looking at Spike. “And the only dragon I care about is you, of course.” Spike smiled, though Cadence could see he wasn’t as gung-ho as Twilight was about all of this. “Best of all, now that I’m not Celestia’s student-“
Spike and Cadence coughed, both having sent soda swishing down the wrong pipe.
“What?” Spike croaked. “But I-“
“Come on, you heard her at the rehersal, Spike. After I tried to warn her about Ca…the doppelganger… she blew me off. Cast me out. Twilight is pony-no-grata. And that was before I tapped into my true power” Twilight merely sipped her drink, which showed the two just how bad things had gotten and how far down the rabbit hole they’d ended up. “Wonder if that is why I have trouble with spells? Can’t force a square peg in a round hole.” Twilight shrugged. “Besides, I haven’t been her student for quite some time.”
“Huh?” the two said, staring at the librarian.
Twilight giggled, swishing her mane about. “Come on Spike, think about it! When is the last time you saw Celestia teach me anything? It’s been years since she assigned me any real homework and the only contact we have is those friendship letters.” Twilight rolled her eyes, a smile that was not at all pleasant playing on her lips. “Of course, those are just silly. The ruler of Equestria wanted me to study friendship? Please.”
To Spike, it felt like everything he knew was being ripped away. It was terrifying but he couldn’t deny the truth in Twilight’s words. But he would still fight. “Then… then why did she-“
“-let me stay in Ponyville?” Twilight said, finishing his thought. “Because she knew I wanted to. That was maybe one of the few selfless things that she ever did for me. I’d made friends and she let me keep them. Sure, it turned out bad in the end but hey, at least I got to experience new things. And when I make new friends it will even be better.” Twilight blinked. “Oh! Not that I am ditching you, Spike! Like I said, you’re my BDBFF.”
“BDBFF?” Spike questioned.
“Baby Dragon Best Friend Forever,” Twilight answered. She turned to Cadence. “Listen, I don’t know if you are going to stick around with my brother, considering he couldn’t see that a crunchy bug had taken your place, but if you want you’re welcome to crash at my place. We’re both adults now and I’d love to hang out with you too, Cadence.”
“I’d like that, Twilight,” Cadence said sweetly, before shaking her head violently. “What… what am I saying? This is wrong?”
“You don’t want to be friends?” Twilight asked softly.
“No! No no no! Of course I want to be your friend I just mean… I didn’t come here to drink and listen to music; I came to ask you to come back to the hospital. Everypony is worried about you-“
“Oh, I’m sure they are,” Twilight said simply. “But that doesn’t mean I need to go back.”
“What… what do you mean?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Cadence, just because they are concerned doesn’t mean I need to listen to them. Feeling worry or scared doesn’t give them free reign to control my life. If that is the case, then I am worried about Soarin’ from the Wonderbolts and think he should come visit me to put my mind at ease!” She giggled at her joke but Cadence wasn’t laughing. “Come on, that was funny! Geez, I know you had a rough day but I thought you said you were doing ok. This is like a bad open mic night!”
“I am doing ok, Twilight, but I don’t think you are. You aren’t acting like yourself-“
“I am more myself than I’ve been in years,” Twilight grunted. She perked up, moving towards the dance floor. “Ooooh, this song sounds so cool! It’s like he took 10 different songs and squished them together! I’m going to get my groove on! Order me another drink, will you?”
“Twilight, wait!” Cadence called out, using her magic to drag the mare back to the table. “I need to say this, ok? I want you to listen and not get mad, alright?”
Twilight glowered. “Why do I get the feeling you are going to tell me to go back to the hospital and forgive my friends and family?”
“Because that is what I am going to say!” Cadence said sternly. “You aren’t thinking clearly. Did they screw up? Yes, of course they did. But that is what happens when you make connections with ponies. They make mistakes, you work through it, and you forgive them. And they do the same for you when you screw up. That is how life is. You can’t just run away when ponies don’t behave the way you want them too. Your friends made a mistake, Celestia made a mistake and Shining Armor made a mistake. They want to tell you that they are sorry and make up for it but you are being petty and refusing to give them a chance!”
Cadence, seeing all goodwill draining from Twilight’s body, realized she had made a terrible mistake. Her own words to her aunt floated about her head: ‘Twilight isn’t in a safe place to see you or her friends right now. She needs to talk to somepony she doesn’t see as an enemy.’ Cadence groaned as she realized that she had just asked Twilight to do the very thing she had set out to prevent. Worse… she had just made herself into a target.
“Twilight, I-“
The dark magic user chuckled but there was no real humor or mirth that warmed her laughter. It felt like the cruel laughter of the windigos and Cadence shivered under the onslaught. “You know what? I should have figured you’d side with your hubby over me. Nopony ever sides with me, so why bother?” Twilight tossed a few bits on the table and motioned for Spike to follow her. “Come on, let’s go Spike. Suddenly I don’t feel like dancing.”
“Twilight, please!” Cadence called out, using her magic to grab the mare’s shoulder. Twilight whipped around, pure fury flashing across her features.
“Don’t touch me!” Twilight hissed.
“Twilight…” Cadence was stumbling, wondering how this had gone so wrong so fast. “Please… let me use one of my spells. Once you let love back into your heart-“
“Don’t you dare,” Twilight asked coldly. She jabbed her hoof into Cadence’s chest, forcing the alicorn to back up. “You hear me, Cadence? Don’t you dare pull one of those little mind rape spells on me.” Cadence shrank back as if physically struck.
“It… it isn’t mind rape…” she said softly.
“Really?” Twilight snapped. “You force ponies to forget why they are fighting and just go back to loving each other.”
Spike blinked, raising his hand. “Uh, Twilight? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“No, Spike, it isn’t,” the unicorn said softly, the rage that had been building dissipating as she looked upon her frightened best friend. “You can’t repress things like that. Look at what happened to me! I got so tightly wound trying to bottle up my disgust and annoyance that it all burst out and nearly ruined my brother’s wedding! Thank the Creator I was right.” Twilight shook her head sadly, looking at her former foalsitter. “You did it with good intentions, Cadence, but don’t you see that the spell you used is just a Band-Aid?” She began to circle the mare, not noticing that the shadows seemed to swirl around her like a cloak, blanketing them in darkness. “It doesn’t cure the problem it just covers it up. Have you ever gone back to visit the ponies you ‘helped’?” Cadence weakly shook her head and Twilight rolled her eyes. All around them mirrors trembled. “Of course not, you just assumed they were ok. But what if they weren’t? What if, by never solving that small issue that had then so upset, they ended up carrying around that hate bottled up inside and it caused problems later?”
“I… I never thought about that,” Cadence whispered, her eyes misting over as she was consumed with doubt.
Twilight stepped towards her friend, her horn glowing black as she gently lifted a napkin to wipe away Cadence’s tears. “If I had let everypony know how I felt early on, maybe I could have fixed things.” Twilight shrugged. “Or, more likely, I would have left sooner. But it would have saved me some heartache at least.”
“Twilight…” Cadence lowered her head, shame flooding her body as she thought of all she had done. How many lives had she ruined because of her desire to make ponies get along? Had she only caused pain? Had her actions hurt more than they helped? All she wanted to do was spread love, but what Twilight whispered took root in her mind and all she could hear was a little voice whispering ‘Didn’t think it through. Didn’t plan ahead. Abused your powers. Abused your subjects.’ Over and over the voice spoke, till it rung in her ears and all the noise in the club was mute-
“Twilight!”
The three of them turned, only for Twilight to go crashing to the ground, tackled by a cyan torpedo.
“Uh oh,” Spike said, slowly backing away. “This is bad.”
“Twilight, where did you go? We’ve been worried sick about you! Come on, you need to go back to the hospital! Everypony is waiting and we want to talk to you about everything!”
“Hello Rainbow Dash,” Twilight growled, the fire in her belly suddenly burning white once again.
“Rainbow Dash, please step away from Twilight,” Spike begged.
“What are ya talking about, Spike?” Rainbow Dash said cluelessly, picking Twilight up, failing to notice her friend gritting her teeth. “What are you doing here, anyway? Get lost going to the library?” Rainbow laughed at her own joke.
“Cadence, now might be a good time to do something!” Spike hissed. Rainbow Dash might not see it, but the baby dragon could feel the air crackling with magic. “Cadence?”
“What… what have I done?” Cadence asked, her eyes going unfocused… and slowly turning black… and the normal pink glow of her magic began to darken…
Spike stared at the alicorn in horror, backing away from her. “Twilight, something is wrong with Cadence!”
“Don’t worry, Spike, we’ll figure it out!” Rainbow Dash boasted before Twilight could get a word in. The pegasus’ joy at finding her friend alive and well had her shooting about without comprehension of the world around her. “Listen Twilight, we have lots to deal with when we get back. But I want you to know I am sorry for not believing you back at the dress rehearsal. I mean, you’re usually on the ball so I should have figured something was-“
Rainbow never got to finish, as a tendril of dark magic wrapped around her middle. She squeaked as she was thrown onto the dance floor, the club patrons backing away nervously as Twilight walked towards her fallen friend, her eyes shining like ebony pools as her magic crackled around her.
“What did I tell you, Spike?” Twilight whispered. “Apologizing for the wrong thing.”
“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash groaned, slowly standing up. “What is the hay?”
Another tendril struck just to her right, leaving a dent in the floor.
“You have to ask?” Twilight took another step forward, a near manic grin on her face. “Of course you do. Always rushing around with your head in the clouds, never thinking about how others feel. You just insult and mock ponies and then think you can apologize? You don’t even know what you did!” Twilight rolled her neck, the bones popped. “You know, I already beat down a copy of you… I don’t think you want to face me right now. Do the smart thing, Rainbow Dash… and get… the hell… out of my face.”
If there was one thing you could say about Rainbow Dash, it was that she was competitive to a fault.
To.A.Fault.
“Oh, is that how you want to play this?” Rainbow snapped. “I dealt with Pinkie Pie when she went nuts and I can take you on too! I don’t know what your problem is but you are clearly crazy and I am not leaving without you. So, why don’t you stop the lightshow before I hurt you.”
The unicorn’s head lowered, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Spike, who had been trying to coax Cadence out of whatever funk she was in, let out a sigh of relief.
“DJ?” Twilight said softly. “Could you do me a favor?” Twilight’s head snapped back up a feral grin on her face. “Put on a good beat for me to kick my friend’s ass to.”
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When you write, you never quite know how long a scene will go on. Originally, my plan was for this chapter to have the complete Dash/Twilight fight and I even considered doing a scene with Shining and his parents. But as I wrote it out, I just kept coming up with more and more to do with Cadence and Twilight, which only served to help build the tension and also express what the two were feeling.
As others pointed out in the review of the last chapter, Twilight holds no grudges (well, she didn't) with Cadence and thus she had no problem chatting with the princess. It would have been cliche to have the two of them instantly at each other's throats...better to have them sit down, try and reach out to the other, only to find the distance too far.
And yes, the ending is a nod to 'Iron Man 2"
As always, any errors, let me know
Woo! Iron Man 2 reference at the end!
I'm loving this.
What particularly makes this Twilight all the more awesome and horrifying is that she isn't lying. All the points she is raising are concrete-clad and irrefutable.
Mind-rape...god, I love that term. Evangelion ftw.
Clearly this Dark Magic is not Twilight's own but rather an entity lending her the power which accelerates her negative spiral.
And it is clearly very infectious.
More, please!
Cheers
GM
I love it. Twilight doesn't even have to trick anypony, because everything she says is completely valid and true. Wonderful.
They should have sent Luna, Twilight needed somepony she could actually vent her spleen to - not that the 'Dark Presence' would have let her get that far, but she might have gotten an inkling that she was being played.
Come to think of it, that seems to be how the darkness gets in, unquestioned anger/guilt.
This really reminds me of the Season 2 First Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer... in a good way.
It just had to be Rainbow to find her
Sure Twi would've turned any of them away, but really, Rainbow...
Hm, it's contagious
I'd guess there's a difference between shadow and dark magic? Unless shadow is just a branch.
I'll go on thinking Twilight is the "light in the darkness" & the darkness in the light. I await dual wielding magic
Why do I have the mortal Combat Theme song playing in my head.
I look forward to Cadence joining the Dark Side as well. I like Cadence....
In this story, shadow is considered to be a lesser form of dark magic. It is possible to use shadow magic without being 'corrupted' (according to unicorn society).
But black magic and dark magic? Those two are nasty.
Hm, Nightmare Moon intereferance? Possibly, smooze consumption? Maybe, chaos magic from Discord? Likely.
I suspect all unicorns inherently posses something akin to Nightmare Moon inside them, only being able to come out when releasing large amounts of anger, hatred, sadness, or any other negative emotion. Would explain Luna turning into Nightmare Moon, Twilight's new found freedom, AJ's almost conversion, and now Cadence's descent.
1363791>>1363779
Never read Pages but I will give it a look.
I will only say that there is a bigger force at work here and while it ties into several villains in the show, it isn't them directly.
No Cadence played the wrong cards and now she has fallen into darkness, and of course Rainbow Dash just HAD to show up at that moment didn't she?!
I'm begining to wonder if anyone can snap Twilight out of her spell or if the Twilgiht everyone knew is gone for good.
i'm beginning to see why you named the fic 'Faith and Doubt'. i'm not quite there yet... dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png
1363872
That title is more important than you realize and you will learn why soon enough.
defender, man.....you did it again. Awe inspiring chapter. You always manage to have me guessing what is going to happen only to find out im a little off, but the unexpected version goes soo much better. I'm always like "this isn't what I anticipated.....awww yeaaah!". Great chapter. Love what you did with twilight and cadance. Love how twilight is still able to feel positive emotions and be kind to others, even while under dark magic. Seems she still has the choice of whether or not she is going to respond negatively or positively, despite the influence of the dark magic. Also love that character flaw in rainbow dash, she had fair warning, and she could have walked away unharmed, but because she just couldn't let it go, she's gonna get her ass kicked. Winrar! (also, being the way it works in real life adds to the win) You're a god at writing. every chapter though....they....LEAVE ME WANTING MOAR!!! I sware, every chapter I click the link knowing its going to be good, yet I can never fully ready myself for just how awesome its going to be.
You did well once more, Defender2222. Tension rising until cliff-hanger... I can't wait to see the next part. I fear for the cyan pegasus and for the pink alicorn there...
Dear Celestia...What an awesome chapter!!
Things are getting good now~ And suddenly Cadence is dragged onto the dark side too!
I can't help thinking that Dark Twilight is really similar to Nightmare moon, and yet...she's not. GAH I need to know what this darkness is!!
And in that sense, I hope Luna gets a main role in this somehow. She knows what it's like to be corrupted, and she's my favourite pony sooo I'm biased
Can't wait for the next chapter!!
It feels like "pleasant" or something is missing from the middle there.
Also, Rainbow.... You can't physically force an extremely powerful magic user to do anything they don't want to... you really need to learn impulse control.
Maybe they should send in Derpy... yelling at her is like kicking a puppy. She can be the new element of laughter.
Just one prereading comment:
In annotation - "But when her friends turn their backs on her and her brother cuts her from her life, Twilight finds herself alone, with only the little voice to comfort" - maybe from his life? (If I misunderstood this sentence - excuse me - English is not my native language).
The inability of anyone to counter Twilight's viewpoints is beginning to drag down the story for me. I wouldn't be a fan of the show if I didn't actually believe in things like forgiveness and friendship and the like, not to mention the fact that I truly do like all of the characters, and so this story is pushing its way into a straw-man political rant as Twilight outlines how the other side is completely wrong and nobody successfully makes any points in return.
Obviously, there may be a plot point to that as Cadance is clearly affected by something that corrupts her as well and makes her despair at Twilight's words... But chapter after chapter of "all the other characters are completely horrible and most accurately defined when viewed in the worst light you can imagine them in" is rather depressing to me personally. Twilight is by far my favorite, but her personality is so different that she's not really in this story, and the rest of it seems to be a hate-letter on why all of the other characters suck. I was down with exploring some grey areas, but for me a whole lot of light would need to be injected into things to get it even noticeably less black.
THE DARKNESS IS SPREADING!
FLEEEEEEEEE!
Dammit Cadence, you dun goofed.
She was so close. she could have stayted by her side with Spike and, perhaps, slowly fought against this corrupting influence, but no. She said exactly the wrong thing.
Ah well.
Shame you didn't use the line exactly, since it was the...Id don't even know what that is? A Pun? Alliteration? in that it was "a beat to beat my friend's ass to"
With that said, I would very much like this to NOT be a curb stomp battle, even if it's just because Twilight is overconfident and fighting like Doc Ock instead of a telekinetic.
...
Twilight's going to end up sending Celestia to the moon isn't she?
Yup... total Renegade Twilight
And Cadance... interesting the stuff Twilight mentioned to her
two suggestion's for the song ever "We are finally cowboys" or "Philistine"
1364310
I am going to point out two things: It hasn't even been a day since Twilight snapped and she is running on high emotions and dark magic.
Second... have you ever been angry? Not frustrated...not upset. Truly full of rage? It is a scary, wonderful, horrible thing. It is like a drug that leaves you feeling strong and weak. And unless you are approached the right way... things go to chaos. When you are full of rage and hate you can't think and can't listen. And the best arguments don't make you stop, they only make you more mad because they are right and you know it and it makes you feel stupid.
Twilight has encountered some unfortunate events: Cadence said the wrong thing, Rainbow Dash didn't walk away. But she also has had some good moments that show a flicker of light: Spike has not been corrupted and has not been a target of attack. Cadence WAS connecting to her.
But you can't break through to someone when they are where Twilight is with one simple speech. You can't reason with them either. Think of Twilight like a drug addict at the moment... she is going to justify everything, throw things in people's faces... because she is focused only on the bad. And that is why things are playing out the way they are.
But as I have told others... the word Faith is in the title for a reason.
...meep...
I understand how Twilight feels, all right! But she's obviously wrong.
And now Cadence...oh dear...
I think we need Celestia and Luna. Anyone else is going to get beat down before they can get a word in edgewise...
1364409 I recommend Turn it Up by Sonic Syndicate.
That is a song that makes your blood pump. :D
Awwww yeeeaahhh, another great chapter! Nice interaction between Twilight and Cadence. Also, the fact that Cadence is seeming to begin her descent into darkness is going to make things even more interesting! If it's one thing that Cadence royally screwed up on, was that chose the wrong choice of words to try and get Twilight back. As for Rainbow Dash....she picked the wrong time to barge into that club and find Twilight. I have a pretty good feeling that one of two things are going to happen with this fight:
1) Twilight will school Rainbow Dash, BIG TIME!
or
2) Rainbow Dash will win, showing up Twilight's new fond arrogance, but Twilight will escape and go find somewhere else to try and get away from everypony.
Other than Spike, it seems that nopony is on good terms with her and the situation increasingly is seeming more and more bleak. I wonder if Twilight can ever return to normalcy again. Don't get me wrong, bottling stuff up is not healthy (as we've seen the results of that, lol) but I've noticed one thing. Twilight basically is claiming that she's not wallowing in self-pity, but in a way she is. By not just simply moving on and allowing forgiveness after her episode at the wedding, she instead is wrapped up in her new attitude and in a sense, being kinda of a baby about it. Then again, everything is not that easy, so with an end to this overly long comment, I leave to return for the next chapter. Keep up the awesome work!
- Super-Brony12
1364409
Oops! Didn't see your comment, sorry about that. Yeah, I know all too well on several times where my mind has been consumed with so much anger, that it blinds me. Anything that may be alright to others, like you said, only seems to further anger me. Only once when the fog on my mind finally clears, do I see my faults in being so angry.
1364504
Exactly. And you are right that Twilight isn't being 100% honest her...but she is too focused to admit her own faults at the moment.
Twilight accidentally says BDBBF instead of BDBFF the first time.
Good chapter. I love it. It's going to be interesting to see what Cadance does now.
I could care less The expression is 'I couldn't care less'
...Rainbow Dash, you aren't helping things.
well, looks like rainbow screwed up pretty badly.
cant wait to see her friends reactions to this
1363779 Problem with your theory: AJ's no unicorn.
Have a favorite and thumbs up for an awesome story you are weaving. Something I threw together in the past 5 minutes to put a nice image to that last scene with Rainbow Dash and Twi.
i46.tinypic.com/id6bko.jpg
1364097 You know, your comment made me think of Twilght as a Sith Lord, specially because she turned Cadance into the Dark side of the magic
*Insert the Imperial March here* HERE COMES DARTH DUSK!, the kingdom will fall and the empire will rise!
I instantly recognised the Iron Man 2 refference and I loved it!
1364996
The sith are a good example of something similar to what Twilight is becoming. She is embracing darkness but unlike the Sith she still holds her positive emotions she just... is leaning towards the dark.
1364409
I do agree that Twilight is consumed by anger at the moment and she isn't thinking properly... but what the others should realize is that words alone cannot mend wounds of the heart (like Dash's constant teasing and her feeble apologies afterwards... continuously doing so creates cracks that eventually breaks the heart)... yet it seems that the others are still wearing blinders that they are not seeing the whole situation (only focused on 'saying sorry for the wedding incident')
So far as I can tell, you've decided against taking the idea "dark magic is affecting all the ponies." Instead, it's something far more powerful and permanent.
Doubt. That's a very, VERY clever story device, and I absolutely ADORE the direction you've taken.
I believe the term is.... the fecal matter has hit the rotational device?
Awesome chapter loved it Dash is about to end up in the emergency room.
Rainbow Dash verses Twilight Sparkle....round one!
FIGHT!
Had to do it, sorry
And I'm waiting for the chapter in which Spike is treated and acts more like an adult then a child, I mean granted he is only a baby dragon but he is mentally very, very wise....and am hoping he is shown as such, he may not like Twi's dark magic now but he'll learn to accept it and love it....hopefully.
And an evil Candence huh? Sure, I'm down....just hoping she does not try to redeem herself and Rainbow is going to gether ass kicked....this should be fun.
I'm not entirely sure how to respond to the way the story is going so far. It's like a double-edged sword...
I am not going to express my opinion too much since its still early in the story. I like the idea, just thinking if the characters are being portrayed the right way and it seems to be heading towards being a bit bias with Twilight (even though she is my favorite character). I don't get the hate with Shining Armor for example, I've the episodes but it just sounds there's no enlightenment for what he and Twilight did in the past, same goes for her friends/Celestia. I kind of have to agree with Harwick about this sounding like a hate letter to the characters.
I'm going to get a lot of rage for this.
Though I really don't get why people are cheering for Twilight and thinking that she's evil, just lol.
Anyway, not saying its bad. Just expressing my thoughts, its too early in the story as I said (like you said its not even been a day), can't wait to see more of it.
1365822
I will only say that we have seen Shining Armor through Twilight and Spike's eyes. There will be a bit coming up where we see the cast with other characters and get their sides of the story and a lighter touch. Also doesn't help that it is clear there is a third party playing puppet master here.
Then again, this is a dark fic, so why people are shocked that I am focusing on the more negative aspects of characters is a mystery.
Yes Cadence, join Twilight on her renegate crusade, and Twilight, it is time for you to teach RainbowDash a lesson of humility, go for it, kick her ass.
I must say that the talk between Twilight and Cadence was perfect, instead of using spell right away or right away trying to convince Twilight to return, she started slowly and let Twilight tell her point of view.
I can not wait when Twilight and Cadence will find Shinning Armor and give him a peace of they mind.
Cadence: " Well Shinning Armor, if it was sooo easy for you to dissown your own sister, than I do not fell bad at all for dissowing you, you can forget about wedding with me, actualy, if I were you I would not show near me at all "
Also I m starting to wonder, do this dark presence what is infecting other ponies is the villan at all, I mean, he give advices to other ponies in they minds, but they are very honest, it offered Twilight power to gain revange again Chrysalis and again all those who hurted her, it opened Twilight eyes that everythink is not sugar, that her mentor is not perfect, that her brother was not so perfect BBBFF, that holding all emotions inside is not healty.
It made Celestia see her mistakes and showed her that simple appology is not enogh, that it require far more efforts to heal wounds, and that there are wounds what she gave Twilight by trying to act like perfect little mare.
It showed Applejack mistakes of the pass, that lesson zero was not just Twilight fault, that they all shared blame too.
And now it show Cadence that her powers what make everypony go love right away is not cure but just cover, and that it is like messing with ponies minds without they permission.
To be honest, if it was not for Luna dream where Twilight and it ( whatever it is ) are leading rebelion forces, I would totaly not think the dark presence is villan, it just open up blind eyes, showing that not everythink is sugar and that you should put efforts to fight for friend, to heal wound, instead of getting easy way out.
1365854
I guess we can only find out and see what happens, i'm still intrigued as to what will come next.
I dunno why honestly, even i'm surprised I asked in a dark fic.
Ah well.
1364734
Innate magic, Earth Ponies and Pegasi have magic just can't channel it like Unicorns can. It's why Earth Ponies are so good at farming and why Pegasi can walk on clouds as well as affect the weather. Still works
1365875
The whole 'truth' thing reminds me of the Fruit of Wisdom story... seeing the truth (which was forbidden etc)... can't wait to see how Dash's gonna cry
Good, good! Let your anger flow through you Twilight Sparkle, and strike Rainbow Dash down with all of your power! Do not remain a pawn of Celestia any longer, she fears your power and dosen't trust you. Together, you and Spike can rule Equestria, as (pseudo) Mother and (adoptive) Son!
1366170 That doesn't quite work. Innate magic doesn't have enough versatility to really be used like that, unless they got some serious power. Also, it's a little condescending that you'd think I don't know about the three pony magics.