...
"There's no point in hiding," Lucent Streak hissed, "I know you're here. Do you think me a foal?"
"You don't want to know what I think of you," Twilight snapped back, filling the basement of Lucent's house with the bright glow of her magic. "You're coming back to Canterlot!"
"Mmm, no." Lucent's horn began to glow with a distressingly familiar magic that made Twilight gasp.
"Stop! You'll—'
"I'll roast the southern part of this town once Princess Luna stops fighting me." Lucent's magic flared. "So settle down now, would you?"
Snarling, Twilight let her magic dim but kept the defensive bubble around her and her friends strong. "Fine. Just don't hurt anypony."
Lucent's grin was wolfish. "I think there's something you could offer that would make me consider doing so."
There’s something so off about this chapter. Something so off.
And I love it.
11608718
Makes sense to me. The rest of Twilight's friends have gone completely silent after having been audible in every preceding chapter (well, to be more specific, every chapter that wasn't the professor's exposition dump), and on the meta level I'm assuming this fic is going for, the spite Twilight herself harbors for Lucent — itself removed from most of its context — stands in stark contrast to the sympathy she provided the numerous canonical "reformed rogue unicorns" dotting FiM's run.
That's how I'm looking at it, at the very least. Sorry if I'm sucking the magic out of the off-ness.
aww Twilight is so mean here!