Twilight winds up in Tartarus and is forced to adapt to survive. When she finally gets out, how will this new Twilight change things?
When Twilight loses control of her magic, she finds herself in the realm of the the eternally damned, Tartarus. In order to survive she is forced to learn and change. However, when Twilight finally escaped from Tartarus, how will Equestria deal with a Twilight who has been forged in hellfire?
Author's Note: I want to point out that the Dark and Gore tags are not all consuming. They are there only by necessity. There are going to be some dark material in here, but nothing grim.
On the same note, Twilight is the only anthro in the story, and there is an in-story reason for it, so don't let that big nasty Anthro tag scare you.
One final thing. It has been some time since I've done any real work on this story. To make clear how long, this portion of the author note was added July 5th, 2019. This story is currently sitting in that little area between "Hiatus" and "Cancelled". Time will tell if I revitalize it.
“Good, Twilight,” Celestia complimented, watching as Twilight maintained a mystical light purple flame over a circle. “Tell me what you’re doing to maintain the spell.” She instructed.
Small droplets of sweat ran down Twilight's face and body from the effort she was exerting on the flame. “I’m running my magic through a variety of filters to make my magic neutral. By removing my signature from it, I am capable of using it to maintain Magic Fire, a spell which creates a flame that will not go out unless the source of magic fueling it is either exhausted, cut off, or incompatible."
Twilight Sparkle had been the personal student of Princess Celestia for five years now. Her larger-than-average reserves of magic had required the Princess' direct assistance to learn to control, but she was slowly and steadily making progress.
Her powers had first awakened when she very nearly failed her entrance exam to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Despite all of her efforts, she had not been able to muster the power needed to hatch the dragon egg set before her. She had been about to tearfully admit failure, when a mysterious rainbow-colored explosion in the sky had startled her. That on its own would have either caused her attempted spell to simply backfire or not work at all, but the explosion was magical in nature, and its magic interacted with her magic, altering the regulation centers in her magical core.
Typically, a foal’s body could only handle a limited amount of magic before it started to hurt them, so their magical core restrained the amount of magic it could produce. As the foal grew up and their body became stronger, the restraints would loosen until they were no longer necessary. In Twilight's case though, the magical explosion removed the restraints entirely, causing her body to produce far more magic than it was safely able to handle.
Thankfully, Twilight had managed to react on instinct and started shunting the magic outside of her body. However, she was unable to give it direction in her rush to vent the magic, flooding the immediate area with raw mana. Her magic twisted and distorted the local space, leading to completely random effects; her parents became potted plants, her examiners flailed helplessly in midair, and the egg she was supposed to hatch had indeed hatched... and then proceeded to explosively grow upwards, breaking the ceiling in the process.
Fortunately, Princess Celestia had been nearby and managed to help Twilight vent her magic. When it was over, Celestia undid the damage of Twilight's magical surge and gave Twilight the offer to study under her directly in the hopes that she could regain control of her magic.
Today was Twilight’s most recent aptitude exam, a test devised by Celestia to examine both the size of her reserves, which still grew alongside her body, and how well she could control them.
Celestia nodded at Twilight, noting that she had studied thoroughly as usual. “And what about the fail-safes?” She prodded.
Twilight blinked. “Fail-safes? Oh no…” She muttered, her eyes widening with the realization that she had forgotten arguably the most important step. Her eyes widened further upon feeling a familiar building sensation within her chest and at the base of her horn.
Celestia’s eyes also widened, and her horn ignited with golden magic as she rapidly prepared a counter-spell.
She wasn’t fast enough.
A shock-wave rippled outwards as Twilight’s magic hit critical and she was forced to expel it. The filters protecting the Magic Fire were shredded by the surge of power, and the flame itself flared and became a raging inferno, shifting from light purple to a malevolent crimson.
Celestia was thrown backwards by the expelled magic and managed to catch herself before she hit a wall. She got up and threw up a shield as a second shock-wave ripped from Twilight’s body. She winced when her student screamed. ‘This is far more powerful than all of her other surges!’ She realized. She didn’t have time to question why this surge was so powerful though, she had to save her student.
She immediately got to work trying to funnel all of the magic into her own core, and from there to the sun through her connection with it. It was the safest method she had to keep the magic from building so high that it irradiated everything it touched.
Slowly, the levels of magic began to die down in the room. Even so, Twilight was still floating in the air from the force of her magic as she struggled to control it. Celestia, too focused on funneling the magic into the sun, didn’t notice the glow building in Twilight’s eyes. If she had, she may have been able to at least strengthen her shield.
---
Canterlot was rocked when one of the towers connected to the castle suddenly erupted in a massive conflagration of crimson fire and lavender magic, easily destroying the tower and parts of the castle connected to it.
Half an hour later, as emergency personnel worked to dig at the rubble in safety suits that protected them from the magic irradiation, they found the unconscious form of Princess Celestia, bruised and bearing a multitude of cuts and gashes that bled freely, but alive.
They found nopony else.
---
He frowned as he examined the crater. There were a lot of demons down there, greedily absorbing the magic radiating from whatever had caused the magical explosion that brought him here. With nothing more than a wave of his hand, he destroyed a vast majority of them. Finally realizing he was there, the rest had the sense to scatter.
He jumped down into the crater, and found himself examining a small form. A familiar form. “A pony? Here? Curious.” He leaned forward to get a better look at the lavender-furred form. He frowned at the damage her body bore. She was cut in various spots, likely from the claws of the demons that had been feeding from her magic, and her horn was nothing more than a shattered mess. Without that, she could not safely use her magic.
Normally, he wouldn’t care about what happened to others here, but the power he could feel in this mare… it sparked ideas. So, with a wave of his hand, he healed a majority of her wounds. Not all though. The scars from those wounds would serve to remind her of this day.
After all, if she was going to be useful to him, she needed to know that he, Tirek, was the only one in charge here.
It was a slow process, returning to awareness. Twilight groaned as the first real thing that registered in her mind was the pain only a migraine could cause, but even then it seemed to be focused on the base of her horn.
Had she passed out trying to use too much magic again?
Slowly, she started to shuffle slightly, causing her body to re-register what her senses were telling her. She was sore. Very sore. She hadn't felt this sore since that spar with Shining Armor two years ago. The next thing she noticed was that she was on something… not comfortable, but not a hard floor either. A few blankets maybe?
Deciding to just get it over with, she opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a ceiling made of red stone bricks.
She rolled over and slowly got to her knees, looking around. The room was completely made of the red stone. There was a simple desk and chair with some stationary, a candle that burned with a green flame, and then the "bed” she was laying on, but that was it, barring the entrance into the room.
“I see you’re awake.”
Twilight looked over towards the entrance when she heard the unfamiliar male voice. She blinked as she took in the strange creature before her. He was tall, easily taller than Princess Celestia, and looked to be some bizarre combination of Pony and Minotaur. His lower body was covered in black fur, while most of his upper body was coated in red. He had white hair done up in a tail, and two rather impressive black horns that curved their way up over his head.
It was his eyes though that unnerved Twilight. Those yellow eyes with black sclera... they spoke of power and apathy, mixed with a good bit of confidence.
“Who are you? And where am I?” Twilight asked with some trepidation.
The creature chuckled. “I’m not surprised you don’t know where you are. This is very much an out-of-the-way place for Ponies. As for my name, I am Lord Tirek, ruler of this realm.”
Twilight frowned, her memory, rattled by her still slightly sleepy mind, sparking at the name but not offering any information beyond that.
Tirek approached. “As for how you got here, I do not know beyond the fact that a great deal of magic went into what brought you here. I found you after I sensed the magical expulsion, and saved you from a hoard of demons trying to feast on the magic you were radiating. I brought you here to recover after healing most of your wounds.”
Twilight smiled up at him. “Thank you then… wait, demons? In Equestria!? How!?” She panicked slightly.
Tirek chuckled. “You think demons have escaped Tartarus to Equestria, don’t you? Well, you are mistaken. In fact, it is the other way around. Somehow, you’ve found your way to Tartarus.” He then pointed at her forehead, at her horn. “And discovered quickly one of the effects this realm has.”
Twilight looked up cross-eyed at her horn, or tried to, before giving up and conjuring a mirror. Her attempt instead rewarded her with pure agony.
Tirek crossed his arms and waited patiently for Twilight to stop screaming and writhing in pain from trying to run her magic through the shattered stump of her horn. When she finally stopped, panting and sweating, he spoke. “Tartarus forces its inhabitants to rely on nothing more than skill, destroying all forms of boosting any abilities you may have. As your horn is a magical foci Unicorns use to cast spells, it was destroyed upon your arrival.” He chuckled, this time a bit darkly. “If you are anything like the Unicorns of over a thousand years ago, you are helpless without your horn, leaving you at my mercy.” He grinned, revealing sharp canines.
---
Equestria Two days after Twilight vanished...
With a suddenness that startled the onduty nurse, Celestia sat up in her bed with a gasp., and then the pain of her various injuries registered and she just managed to hold in the scream that tried to escape. Slowly, she relaxed her body and laid back down. As she adjusted to the pain, the nurse, a Unicorn with a red coat and pink mane, approached.
"Your Highness, how do you feel?" the mare asked.
Celestia glanced at her and smiled slightly. "Pained, but nothing I can't handle. How did this happen?" she asked, knowing full well that if whatever happened had put her in the hospital, it was big, and had likely affected her short-term memory.
"Nopony knows, Your Highness. All anypony knows is that your student's tower exploded violently. You were found among the rubble in your current condition."
Celestia frowned, her memory shifting at the reminder. That's right, she had been testing Twilight on her control when... something had happened. It was still a blurry mess. "And Twilight? Is she okay?"
The nurse shook her head. "The rescue teams are still combing through the rubble, but so far there's been no sign of Twilight Sparkle, alive or otherwise. life-scanning spells have been used in and around the area repeatedly, but there's nothing alive in there as far as they can tell. If your student is in the rubble..." she trailed off.
Celestia's expression fell. "I see." She schooled her features and locked down her emotions. It was a trick all rulers learned at one point or another. "Please, send for my aide when you can."
The nurse nodded, recognizing the dismissal for what it was. She finished checking Celestia's vitals and left.
Celestia waited until the nurse was gone before igniting her horn with magic. Gathering power, she then let off a subtle, but powerful tracking spell. She had long since tagged Twilight with a magical mark on her body as a reassurance for the likely scenario of her student being kidnapped. The spell itself would slowly make its way along the leylines of the planet in search of the marker. The downside to this particular spell was that it could be easily blocked if one knew what to look for. Thankfully, she hadn't yet taught Twilight the spell, so the young mare shouldn't be able to block it. Unfortunately, it took some time to complete its scan, so she had at most a week or two of waiting before she got results.
One thing she did know though... she hadn't gotten an instant result, meaning that Twilight was nowhere near Canterlot. That was both reassuring, since Twilight wasn't in the rubble, and worrying.
The stallion in armor bowed. “It’s as you suspected, Your Highness. Twilight Sparkle was not at the village, but we did find somepony else. Purple coat, peculiar magic… and somewhat neurotic in the right circumstances,” He looked away. “It… would probably be a good idea to have a counselor arranged for Captain Armor. He didn’t take this revelation well.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Who is this pony?”
“She calls herself Starlight Glimmer, and she was in charge of the village. As we swept through, some of us noticed how odd the ponies there were acting. They were happy, but it was like a forced happiness... like a mask.”
“They were hiding something,” Celestia surmised.
The stallion paused, before slowly shaking his head. “No, Your Highness. It’s… a bit more complicated than that.” He removed a photograph from a pouch in his armor and gave it to the Princess.
Celestia examined it. It appeared to be a black equal sign. Judging by the flank it was on, it was likely a Cutie-Mark. “Interesting Cutie-Mark,” she remarked.
“Every pony in the town bore that Cutie-Mark,” the soldier explained.
Celestia’s eyes snapped to the soldier. “That’s not possible. Cutie-Marks are as unique as the pony bearing them. There are similar marks, but none that are exactly the same.”
“It was Starlight Glimmer’s magic, Your Highness. She has the ability to remove Cutie-Marks and enforce a compulsion of equality on the one who had their Cutie-Mark removed. That mark appeared on the flank of all who had their Cutie-Marks removed via her magic.”
Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she felt a stirring of anger. “Are you telling me that a Unicorn was experimenting on other ponies in this town?” she asked dangerously.
The soldier shook his head. “Again, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Every pony there had apparently willingly given up their Cutie-Marks. Starlight Glimmer has done nothing illegal. She was very careful in the fact that she has the written permission of every single pony she ever took a Cutie-Mark from, they all asked her to do it.”
“Is there any sign they are being compelled to answer that way?”
The guard frowned. “We thought that too after seeing how the magic enforced thoughts of equality in them, but Starlight agreed to return the Cutie-Marks of any number of ponies so that we may ask them without her magic influencing them. They all gave her their permission without magical influence. Apparently, they were unhappy with their Cutie-Marks, and supposedly the destiny that it implied, and leapt at the chance to have a second chance at something else.”
Celestia sighed. “Then there’s nothing more to be done. Did Starlight Glimmer explain why she was doing this?”
“We asked, but the only answer she gave was that a Cutie-Mark ruined her friendship with another pony. She won’t force her beliefs on anypony, but will happily remove the Cutie-Mark of any who asks her to.”
Celestia frowned. “Did she say who this pony was?” she asked.
“Sunburst, an orange and red stallion with a talent for organization.” the guard answered.
Celestia paused, and then started chuckling. “Truly, it is a small world.”
“Your Highness?” the guard asked.
“You’re dismissed, soldier. Good job.” Celestia smiled at the guard. After he saluted and left, she turned to Raven, her aide. “Fetch me my stationary, would you please? Oh, and send for Captain Armor as well.”
---
Tartarus Five years after arrival…
“You’re back.”
Twilight grunted and threw the body she had been dragging behind her at the hooves of the Centaur Lord. “He pretty much wet himself when he saw me coming. He wasn’t even all that difficult to find and catch.”
“So I see. Why did you bring him here?” Tirek asked, not glancing away from the paperwork he was writing on.
Twilight kicked the body. “Go on, tell him.”
The demon shivered at the glare the purple mare was giving him. “S-Sire… I… there is a group of Wrath and Greed demons preparing to use an artifact from Equestria to bind your power and overthrow you. I was on my way here to tell you when your dog attacked-GAH!”
Twilight slammed her hoof into the demon’s back hard, smashing him into the stone floor and cracking it. Judging by the wet crunch, she definitely broke something. “Try again.” She said.
“Agh! My spine! Nightmare damn you, you psychotic-!” His words were cut off by a long metal object cracking against his temple, making him see stars.
“One last chance, or I will kill you.” Twilight growled, the metal pole in her hoof dripping some of the demon’s blood.
The demon scrabbled away from her, only to bump into the legs of the centaur watching with an amused expression. He looked up at the ruler of Tartarus with pleading eyes.
Tirek chuckled. “Oh no, don’t try that on me. If she’s giving out death threats, then you must have done something to anger her. You’re only digging a deeper hole by not doing as she says.”
The demon looked at Twilight. “…Promise me you won’t kill me if I tell the truth.”
“Sure. I promise not to kill you if you tell him the truth.” She waved her hoof. “Now, get on with it!” She growled.
“I was part of the group trying to overthrow you, but was captured by your dog. She captured me and brought me back here after slaughtering everyone else to confess to you directly.”
Tirek frowned. “I see. What of the artifact you spoke of?”
“It’s a sword of some kind that repulses dark magic with ease. Any dark magic it strikes will be rebound unto the caster, and any dark barrier cut with it will instantly shatter. It will also painfully kill any demon stabbed with it.” The demon answered.
“And how did your group plan on getting close to me to use it? It sounds to me like a holy blade, and there isn’t a demon in Tartarus that can hold such a weapon,” Tirek asked.
“They tried to get me to do it. I turned them down,” Twilight spoke up.
Tirek chuckled. “I see. Yes, that would have worked.”
“So you’ll let me go now?” the demon asked.
Tirek pointed his palm at the demon, and energy gathered at the end. “No. I don’t let traitors live.”
The demon began panicking, but found himself bound by magic and unable to move. “But… But she promised I wouldn’t get killed!”
Twilight snorted. “No, I promised that I wouldn’t kill you. I said nothing about him.”
The demon’s eyes narrowed in rage. “I’ll get you for this, Dog of Tirek!”
Twilight waved a hoof. “Sure you will. You and every other demon that made that promise.”
Tirek unleashed his attack, and the demon was destroyed. Its remains slowly turned to dust as the Centaur Lord turned to Twilight. “Once again, you do not fail me.” He paused, before smiling. “Tell me… why did you really turn them down? Why did you slaughter them for that matter? You’re normally more lenient,” he asked.
“I didn’t at first. I went along with it until they gave me the sword, and then I chopped off the head of every demon involved except for him. The sword’s in my room if you’re interested in studying it,” Twilight shrugged. “As for why… It’s only really effective against demons and creatures made of dark magic, neither of which you are. If nothing else, it gives me an additional tool to protect myself with in this wretched place. And the mass murder…” Twilight’s eyes darkened. “They were devouring souls. When I get home, I wouldn’t have been able to look myself in the mirror and call myself a moral pony if I hadn’t killed them.”
Tirek chuckled. “It amuses me how you cling to your morality in Tartarus, of all places,” He placed a hand on his chin and thought. “Yes… I do believe you have earned a reward.” He began gathering magic in both of his hands, which he pointed at Twilight. “Brace yourself, my dog. This will hurt.”
Twilight sighed, knowing it was pointless to try and run. She had been slowly learning how to channel some of her magic through her hooves, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to attempt teleportation. Besides, he would just hunt her down and make it more painful when he caught her. “I hate you sometimes,” she quipped, just before being engulfed in orange and black magic.
Then the screaming started, alongside the sounds of bones snapping, tendons ripping, and flesh tearing.
“Your Highness, Princess Cadence here to see you.”
Celestia looked up from the tea she was enjoying, and smiled at the guard. “Please, let her in.”
The guard bowed and left the Princess’ bedroom. Her door opened a moment later to admit a pink Alicorn into the room.
Celestia motioned towards the chair opposite her, where an empty tea cup and a steaming pot of tea sat on the table in wait. “Please, have a seat,” she said. She waited until her niece was seated before taking another sip of her tea. “Ah… Zebrican tea, made in Teaport by a family that perfected the craft over… what was it?... Ah! Four hundred and eighty-two years. Truly, some of the best tea I’ve ever had. Remarkable for calming nerves just before a stressful meeting.”
Cadence poured herself some tea from the pot. She sipped the tea after a moment of letting it cool, and smiled. “I remember this. You used to give me some when I was still stressing over being a Princess. I used to accuse you of slipping calming potions in it.”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, and you would get so adorably frustrated when every analysis spell you used on the tea I gave you came up negative.”
Cadence blushed at the reminder of how hot-tempered she was when she was still relatively young. She snorted at that thought. According to Celestia, she was still an adolescent by Alicorn standards.
Celestia sighed. “I also used to give some to Twilight when she would get stressed over a test. She also accused me of slipping her a calming draught, and got just as frustrated when all of her tests against the tea I brewed and the leaves themselves didn’t show the potion.”
Cadence felt a pang in her heart at the reminder of the missing Unicorn. Even now, Shining Armor and his parents were running themselves ragged hunting down even the smallest clue regarding the child she used to foal-sit.
“Is Twilight why you called me here?” Cadence asked after a moment of silence.
Celestia didn’t respond at first, staring into her tea-cup. Cadence knew better than to assume her aunt had not heard her, so she waited. Finally, after a moment, Celestia looked up and spoke. “You recall Starlight Glimmer?”
Cadence nodded, remembering the Unicorn that was so like Twilight, that it was scary. Shining was the one that had headed the investigation into the rumors that led to them finding her. And, if gossip could be believed, many of the guards under his command had been forced to restrain the Captain when they found Starlight and her village of equality. He had been desperate to find Twilight, and that latest dead-end had nearly shattered him, considering how confident his sources were that Starlight was Twilight. He had lashed out at the most convenient outlet for his stress, and Starlight had gained a healthy respect, alongside a healthy fear, of the Captain of the Royal Guard.
“She and Sunburst have made a breakthrough regarding Twilight when I let them examine the ruins of the tower.”
Cadence went from half-listening as she recalled Shining’s condition when he came back, to completely and utterly focused on her aunt with a zeal that somewhat surprised Celestia. “They found her?” she asked with such naked desperation, that it made Celestia’s heart ache.
Celestia sighed. “No… but we now know why we can’t find her. From what they tell me, Twilight was swallowed by a magic-fueled rip in time and space.”
She shook her head, purposefully avoiding looking at her niece. “Further investigation led to the conclusion that Twilight isn’t just not in Equestria; she’s not even in this dimension. Furthermore, the time magic was warped according to them. Whatever happened, it’s knocked our dimension’s chronological flow out of sync with the rest of reality.”
Cadence frowned. “That’s bad, right?”
Celestia also frowned. “Not for the safety of our world, no. Our dimension will realign itself in time. The problem is that Twilight is outside of our dimension, meaning she’s operating on a different time-frame than us. Even if she came back tomorrow, there’s just no way to tell how long Twilight was gone on her end, whether it’s a day, a year, or even a decade.”
Left unsaid, but was understood by both, was the fact that at that exact moment, Twilight could possibly even be dead of old age and her body reduced to dust.
“Is it even possible to get her back?” Cadence asked, hating herself for asking the question in the first place. It felt like admitting defeat. “As far as I know, there’s no such thing as magic that can safely cross dimensions.”
Celestia looked away. “There is… but the only magic I know for sure that can safely ensure passage across the dimensional barriers is chaos magic.”
“You’re considering releasing Discord.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
Celestia shook her head. “I'm sorely tempted... but no. There’s no guarantee that he’ll help without being coerced with threats of being re-encased in stone. The magic used to seal Discord is long-lost, though.” Celestia sighed.
“… Why did you call me here?” Cadence asked again suddenly. “While it’s nice to have an update and to know progress is being made, you could have just told Shiny and he would have eventually told me. Why did you call me specifically?”
Celestia sipped her tea, gathering her thoughts. “I have a mission for you and Shining Armor. It will take you to the desert kingdom of Techstoria. I have been hearing rumors for the last ten years of a cult worshipping the Dark Gods of the old religions growing in the desert cities to the South. I dismissed it at first, not caring who worshiped what, but then I got a report yesterday about an artifact being stolen from the Vault.”
“What was the artifact?” Cadence asked, instantly concerned.
The Vault was the most secure structure in all of Equestria, used to house the most dangerous artifacts (magical or otherwise) artifacts and keep them from the hooves, or hands as the case can sometimes be, of those who would misuse them. The Vault was enchanted in so many ways, and layered with so many protection spells that not even Celestia believed she could break in without consequences to her health.
That anypony managed to get in, let alone back out with an artifact, was both surprising and alarming.
Celestia grimaced. “A sword... It’s called God’s Tear.”
Using her magic, she conjured an illusion of a half-teardrop shaped weapon, with a handle built into the bulb.
“It doesn’t have an edge,” Cadence noted, seeing the lack of sharpness needed to make it an effective sword.
“It doesn’t need it,” Celestia answered the unspoken question. “This sword contains the power to cut what normal swords can’t cut.”
Cadence blinked. “What do you mean?”
Celestia poured herself a refill of tea. “Magical seals are the most notable thing it can cut, as that is what it was mainly used for before being locked in the Vault.”
Cadence paused, her eyes widening. “When you say magical seals, you don’t mean…?” She trailed off.
“If used on the statue of Discord, it would free him instantly. If used on a Unicorn with a seal on their power, it would be lifted. And that is only one method of which the sword can be used; it works on anything that is widely considered unbreakable. You can see why I am uneasy with it being in the hooves of the cultists.”
“Why do you suspect the cultists?” Cadence asked.
“A robe was left behind during their escape. It bears the mark of their cult.” Celestia answered, making an illusion of a stylized eye sitting on a flame background. “I want you and Shining Armor to go to the desert cities and try and put a stop to whatever they’re planning.”
Celestia paused. “Oh yes, and a word of warning: The cultists also made off with a few other magical artifacts. One of them will grant the holder the ability to hide themselves and a large group from all magical senses.”
Cadence grimaced. “So much for the easy solution,” she grumbled, getting up to leave and inform her fiancé of their new mission.
Once the pink Alicorn was gone, Celestia sighed and stared into her teacup. “I hate manipulating the ponies I care for... but if all else fails, she's our last hope."
---
Tartarus Ten years after arrival...
Twilight ran for all she was worth, firing blasts of magic from her hands over her shoulder whenever she had a moment and wasn’t frantically dodging the fireballs her enemy was trying to kill her with. It was unfocused magic due to her state of half panic and half desperation, but at least it provided a somewhat decent distraction.
“What is it with you and fireballs!?” She screamed at her tormentor, sliding behind a boulder to get a moment to herself.
Tirek laughed to himself, both hands engulfed in red fire as he approached. “There’s nothing quite like the smell of your enemy’s burning flesh to accentuate your victory over them.”
“I’m not your enemy!” Twilight shot back, focusing her magic between her hands.
“No, but I won’t have a weak dog. That means live-fire training.” He leapt over the rock and threw two exploding fireballs down at Twilight… only to find said mare not there.
He then took a rather powerful kick to the side of his head, making him stumble. “Ding-Dong!” Twilight grinned, thanking every god she could think of that she had finally figured out how to reinforce her new body with magic. It made for some interesting effects.
Enhanced speed for getting behind an unsuspecting enemy, and enhanced strength for drop-kicking said enemy in the head for instance.
She had to be careful though. If she reinforced her body too far, it would cause said parts of her body to become over-saturated with magic. Like overinflating a balloon, the magic would start looking for a way out. She had blown off her arm at the shoulder doing that. Thankfully, Tirek was willing to heal the injury, but it had still made her much more cautious.
She also knew that his kindness was slaved to his whims. When a demon had successfully gouged out her left eye two years ago, he told her to live with it. She wore an eye-patch over that empty eye socket now.
Five years ago, Tirek had rewarded her for stopping the group attempting to usurp him. Said reward consisted of rearranging her biology until she was what he called a "Half-Pony, half-Human". She had, of course, asked him what a human was, but the only answer he gave was that they were considered the Race of Grey by the vast majority of the multiverse. The plus side to this new body? She could channel magic through her hands almost as easily as she could have channeled it through her horn when it wasn't broken. The downside? She had to learn how to walk and take care of her body all over again, leading to her trying to throttle the Centaur Lord multiple times when he laughed at her.
Twilight teleported away when Tirek tried to retaliate by backhanding her. She exited the teleport a few meters away, staggering as she nearly didn’t have enough magic to perform the action, and then felt her legs give out. She gave a tired laugh at her condition. They had been “sparring” for almost eight hours now, so she wasn’t surprised her body was throwing in the towel.
“Seven hours and forty-eight minutes,” Tirek said, looking at the stopwatch hanging from his neck. “Not bad. Our last session was seven hours and twelve minutes. You’re getting a lot better at using that body I gave you five years ago. Rest. I have a mission for you to undertake tomorrow.” He turned and began walking away.
Twilight groaned and began the long process of crawling towards her room, which thankfully now had a real bed instead of just some blankets on the stone floor.
5. Prologue, Part Five: Failure Is Just A Step Closer To Success
Equestria One year and six months after Twilight vanished…
Moondancer looked up when she heard the chair across from her get pulled out. She watched as a white stallion with a blue two-toned mane and light blue eyes sat down in front of her. “I’m not interested,” she growled, despite feeling like she should know this stallion. She reached for the bottle in front of her.
“I have to wonder what Twilight would think if she saw you like this,” he said, using his magic to pull the bottle away from the mare’s reach.
Moondancer’s expression darkened as she finally recognized the stallion. “If you came here to yell at me some more, save your breath. I’ve been getting shit over my part in Twilight’s disappearance for a year and a half. Whatever you have to say doesn’t hurt any more than it did the first time,” she said, trying to use her magic to take the bottle back. It fizzled out, her inebriated state shooting her concentration straight to Tartarus.
Shining Armor flinched. “I… There’s nothing I can say to excuse the things I said to you. They were wrong, and the only excuse I have is that I was looking for anypony to blame. That doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t deserve it.”
Moondancer snorted. “It wasn’t what you said that hurt, Armor. It was how absolutely spot on you were,” Her bitter expression softened, becoming sad. “I messed up and made a mistake. The rune array just wasn't ready, but I never once thought it would backfire on her. I never once thought that there was a spell in existence she couldn’t make bow to her whims."
She shook her head. “One bucked up way to have your beliefs shattered.”
“Tell me about the rune array,” Shining requested.
Moondancer’s eyes grew unfocused as she drudged up memories she both cherished and hated. “It was brilliant. Signature corruption is a major problem when it comes to rituals and high-level spells. A pony’s magical signature carries a part of them in it, a part of their soul, and it can affect ambient magic it intermingles with. It can influence it, even shape it with enough power and will. But that’s bad when you’re dealing with incredibly precise spells that have little-to-no-room for error. A small drop in your focus, one slip of the control on your magic, and it corrupts the spell matrix.” She spread her hooves. “Boom. You’re instantly at the center of Maroshima.”
“The spell was supposed to fix that somehow?” Shining asked.
Moondancer shook her head. “No. The spell itself was more a proof of concept than the solution. The real treasure was the rune array she was using to cast the spell. We had developed a series of runes and sigils that would filter the signature of the caster from magic run through them, making it neutral magic and therefore safe for use in powerful precision spells. If we could have made it work, it would have made using those spells so much easier, as the caster can place their focus squarely on shaping the spell.”
“It would have revolutionized thaumaturgy,” Shining Armor admitted.
Moondancer slammed her hoof on the table in a sudden rage, making the Royal Guard jump. “It would have put Twilight’s name in the history books right next to Starswirl’s!” she shouted. “I was so happy to have helped her develop something like this! She valued my input! She wanted my opinion!” The mare suddenly seemed to lose her anger, deflating and slumping. “And in my ecstasy over her noticing me, I got sloppy. I messed up the failsafe rune matrix that took into account her Surges. Instead of feeding it through a loop as the filters slowly dispersed it as neutral magic, she brute-forced her way through every rune, shredding them… and causing a feedback loop that I’m still having trouble understanding. The resulting Surge was so strong that it tore at reality itself.”
Moondancer sighed, and this time successfully managed to get the bottle from Shining Armor’s grasp. She took a hard slug of it. “So no, I don’t want your apology. I don’t deserve it. You were right in everything you said. It was my fault this happened. It was my fault Twilight vanished…” Her eyes glassed over slightly. “Nothing anypony says or does to me hurts more than that fact.”
Shining took a moment to examine the mare in front of him. Her fur was dirty and unkempt, her mane was an absolute mess, her clothes were filthy and heavily stained, and he could smell her from where he sat. It was easy to see she had been living on the streets for a while now.
Ever since it got out that Moondancer was partially to blame for Twilight’s disappearance… Ponies could be cruel creatures sometimes. No one would associate with her. The nobility was outright calling her a traitor and demanding she be hanged, she was fired from her job at the Canterlot Center of Thaumaturgical Research, and no pony would hire her anywhere in Equestria.
And the worst part was that it was his fault. The moment Celestia had accidentally let slip that Moondancer was helping Twilight with the spell that failed and swallowed her, he had chased her down and, very loudly and in a very public place, tore her apart verbally. He probably would have attacked her too if it wasn’t for somepony calling the Royal Guard.
Celestia had been… well, outraged wasn’t the word he would use, but it was damn close. She took him off the search for Twilight, as it was becoming increasingly obvious he could not control himself with it. His only source of information now was Cadence, and the information had slowed since they came to Techstoria in search of the cult that had robbed The Vault. Imagine his surprise when he found Moondancer in Cybertail getting drunk in one of the seedier bars.
He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised Moondancer had left Equestria, it had become a place impossible for her to live in.
Shining looked at Moondancer again. His eyes widened though when he no longer saw the yellow Unicorn with the taped glasses. No, now he was looking at himself. His uniform was torn and filthy, his eyes were distant, and his fur and mane was a mess.
And then he was looking at Moondancer again. His expression firmed up as he made a decision.
Moondancer looked up when she felt the table shudder alongside the unmistakable sound of a bag of bits clinking. She found said bag in front of her nose. She looked at Shining Armor in confusion.
“Magic has hit a dead end in regards to finding Twilight,” Shining Armor said, standing up and straightening his cloak. “So let’s try a different avenue. Get yourself cleaned up and sober, and then start researching the technology of this kingdom and whether or not it can help find Twilight. I’ll be in this city for a while, so if you need more funds, let me know.”
Moondancer stared at Shining Armor as he left, and then at the bag of coins on the table when he was gone. She sat there for an hour, just staring at the bag, trying to decide if she could actually bring herself to do what he told her to do. She had failed Twilight once… who was to say it wouldn’t happen again?
“I have to wonder what Twilight would think if she saw you like this.”
Shining Armor’s words suddenly sprang up in her mind, and her eyes focused, narrowing. Twilight was her friend. What would Twilight say if she saw her now? Moondancer snorted, knowing exactly what she would say.
“Come on, ‘dancer! You can’t give up now! Every time you fail, that’s just you getting closer to success!”
They were words Twilight had said to her multiple times when Moondancer would get dejected over the failures they encountered over the course of their research. The mare looked down at herself, and grimaced at the state her body was in.
“Come on, ‘dancer,” she mumbled, forcing herself to stand despite wobbly drunken legs. She looked at the bag of bits. “You can’t give up now…” She grabbed it, leaving a few as payment for her drinks. A light entered Moondancer’s eyes as a familiar feeling overcame her, causing her to grin. She thought she never would have felt this feeling again… this passion. Unknown to her, her Cutie-Mark was glowing as she once again felt determination course through her veins.
Determination to learn about the unknown.
“Every time you fail… that’s just you getting closer to success.”
---
“You finally forgave her,” Cadence mused as she and Shining Armor walked away from the bar.
Shining glanced at his fiancé, before turning his attention to the road they walked along. He had known Cadence was watching him as he talked with Moondancer, ready to leap in and pull him away in case he attacked the mare again. “I saw myself in there, Cady,” he whispered. “I saw myself just as drunk as her, just as filthy, and just as close to the edge.” He shook his head. “I realized with a startling clarity that Moondancer is far more like me than I ever thought… but she’s suffering more over Twilight’s disappearance than I am.”
“Oh?” Cadence asked with a raised eyebrow. “One would argue that’s impossible, considering you’re Twilight’s brother.”
“I’m upset and hurt over the fact that Twilight’s gone… but I ultimately didn’t have a hoof in it. Moondancer… she blames herself to the point that I could see exactly what she was considering in her eyes. If I hadn’t given her something to focus on and latch onto… she would have been dead within the week.”
“I see. Do you think technology really can find Twilight?” Cadence asked.
Shining Armor shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
---
Tartarus… Fifteen years after arrival…
Twilight’s eye widened and she stood up, staring down at the page of the book she was reading. “No way…” she whispered, and then started to grin. “Finally! I finally found it!”
That was when she realized that the spell in question had a list of items required to make it work. She grimaced as she read the list. “This… this will take some time to prepare.” she muttered to herself, using a memory spell to make sure she memorized every single aspect of the spell and the list of items.
“Finally… after all this time, I’m so close to getting home.”
“This spell is both old and only partially understood. Crossing the dimensional barriers on faith and hope alone is a recipe for disaster. There are quite literately an unlimited amount of ways you could die. You know that, right?” Tirek pointed out.
“Tartarus and the planet Equus are connected,” Twilight stated somewhat distractedly. She was busy alchemically crafting one of the ingredients she needed for the spell. “I’m not sure what exactly the connection itself is, but it is there. If I use the connection as an anchor, and use my magic, a magic born of Equus, as a secondary anchor, the spell should drop me in Equestria.”
Tirek nodded. “A fairly good theory… but ultimately flawed.”
Twilight sighed and gave Tirek a mild glare. “Fine, oh wise and trolling one. What am I missing?” she asked with not a little sarcasm.
“Your magic was born of Equus, but you’re forgetting that the magic of Equus suffuses everything, not just the surface. If you use your magic as a secondary anchor, you could wind up teleporting yourself right into the bedrock, the core, the ocean, a mountain… and yes, there is a small chance you’ll wind up on the surface, though where on the surface is anyone’s guess.” He chuckled at Twilight’s rapidly paling face.
“I… um… Then how do you explain how I arrived here?” she asked defiantly.
“Recall that you arrived in a crater, the bottom of which was well over a hundred feet below the surface. The crater was not there before your arrival, and you were surging explosively at the time as well. Do the math.”
“Oh,” Twilight’s face became downcast. Contrary to what she had assumed, she didn’t arrive on the surface and then cause the crater by Surging. She had arrived in the ground at least a hundred feet down, and then her Surge caused the explosion that made the crater, likely saving her life. “…oh.”
Tirek held up a book. Twilight realized it was the very same book she had found the spell to get her home in. “You need two things to make this spell work. A way to indicate what universe you want to go to, and a way to focus the exit point at one specific location. Using the connection between Tartarus and Equus as the anchor is a bad idea for two reasons. First, by your own words, you do not understand the connection. Even a novice spell-caster knows you don’t use magic you don’t completely understand. Second, Equus is far from the only world Tartarus is connected to. One small mistake and you might end up following the wrong connection.”
Twilight winced. She had forgotten about that, actually. In her giddiness at finding a means of getting home she had completely forgotten that there were other worlds that connected to Tartarus, some connections far more open than the one to Equestria. It would be very easy to accidentally latch onto the wrong one.
Tirek continued after a moment. “Using your magic is a bad idea because, as I already explained, your magic alone will get you to the planet you came from, but beyond that it’s random. You need something more defined. If I hadn’t altered your body I would have suggested your blood, but that’s pointless now. There are no humans in Equestria, meaning your blood as a stabilizer would just make the spell implode on itself trying to locate a viable exit point related to humans.”
“Then…” Twilight sank into her chair. “Then this is pointless?”
Tirek shrugged and dropped the book on her desk. “I promised to not stop you if you found a way home in exchange for your service. I won’t stop you, but helping you will shorten your stay, meaning I get less use out of you. Figure this out for yourself.” He turned to leave.
“Wait…” Twilight called, making him look over his shoulder at her. “If you aren’t going to help me, then why did you just do exactly that?” she asked, more curious than anything at his apparent hypocrisy.
“What good is a tool that is dead or beyond my grasp?” Tirek asked in turn, and then left.
Twilight stared at the book for a few minutes, upset at how close her apparent salvation was, only to be snatched away. She picked up the book and leafed through it, not really paying attention to what she was reading. The action was more for comfort than anything.
…and do not add the powdered undead tooth. The magic inherent within the powder will cause necrosis once the salve is applied on the…
The book itself was found in Tirek’s library, and the centaur hated anything that wasn’t useful. If the spell wasn’t torn out of the book, then that meant it would work. However, as he had pointed out, she was missing a key ingredient. Something to define the exit point beyond “Equus”. Her magic would be a suitable primary anchor, but she still needed the secondary anchor.
…Now, while the solution is bubbling, add Nightshade and let boil under the full moon for exactly one hour…
Her blood was useless, her fur was likely useless, and even her body was useless. For all the perks Tirek’s fiddling with her biology had given her, there were also drawbacks, and one of them was biting her in the flank right now. Maybe an artifact from Equestria?
No, the artifact wouldn’t define a location, other than possibly where it was made, or where the material that made it came from. Considering the vast majority was likely metal ore, then that was a bad idea.
…While the nature of the soul isn’t completely understood, it is well known that the soul never forgets its home…
She glanced at the workstation where she had been mixing things to create ingredients for the spell. She decided after a moment of thought to continue acquiring the ingredients she would need. After all, the spell wasn’t useless, just incomplete at the moment.
…careful when mixing the light and dark magic together, as both are temperamental when applied to each other...
Twilight blinked. “Wait…” She scanned back through the book and focused on the passage she had skimmed over.
The soul is both a powerful and fragile component to life. It is also the key ingredient in most spells performed by necromancers. While the nature of the soul isn’t completely understood, it is well known that the soul never forgets its home, allowing a necromancer to recall a soul from beyond the veil if the ritual is performed in the soul’s old home.
“That’s it!” Twilight stood, grinning. “My soul! It knows where in Equestria is my home!” She grimaced after a moment. “I better be careful. Tampering with my soul could go very badly if I make a mistake…”
Course set, Twilight cast a stasis charm on her workstation to prevent anything bad from happening while she was gone. Then she set off for Tirek’s library again to find any material on the soul she could. She needed to be absolutely certain about everything if she was going to do this.
---
Equestria… One year and eight months after Twilight vanished…
“Good morning everpony…” Starlight yawned, walking into the dining room of the castle. A few guards returned her greeting with a nod, and the few servants at the table did likewise.
She smiled at Sunburst, her friend, as she sat next to him, and then looked around. “You know, even after a year of eating in here, I still can’t believe I eat breakfast and dinner with Princess Celestia every day.”
Sunburst chuckled. “Indeed. I still marvel at it myself sometimes, and I was her student!”
Starlight nodded. She frowned as she stared at the table. “Yeah… I just can’t believe you became her student. I mean, that spell was impressive for one done on the fly, but to become her student?” She shook her head.
Sunburst shrugged. “I asked her that myself, and why she made my sister her student alongside me. She never really answered me beyond the fact that we were twins and our magic was uniquely attuned to each other.”
Starlight also shrugged. “I guess…” She noticed Sunburst looking a bit forlorn. “She’s still not answering your mail, is she?” she asked, putting a hoof on Sunburst’s shoulder.
Sunburst shook his head. “No. I don’t know why, either. We never let an argument keep us apart for long. This? It’s been almost five years now.”
He sighed. “I miss her.”
The doors leading into the more restricted area of the castle opened at that moment. In walked Princess Celestia, and behind her was an orange coated mare with a red and yellow mane and tail and teal colored eyes. Her coat was somewhat scruffy and dirty, but her eyes were sharp and focused.
“It is good that I managed to convince her to return then, is it not?” Celestia asked with a smile.
Sunburst’s magic flickered out, dropping the utensil he was eating with as he stared at the mare in shock. “S-Sunset?”
Sunset Shimmer, sister of Sunburst and once Celestia’s student as well, smiled at her brother. “Hey ‘Burst.”
Her expression darkened however when it turned back to Celestia. “Alright, you told me you would explain everything after you dragged me here. Start explaining.”
Sunburst ears flipped backwards at the harshness in his sister’s voice and expression. Starlight leaned towards him, not taking her eyes off Sunset.
“Is it me… or is she more of a jerk than I remember?” she asked her friend.
Sunset heard her though and turned to the mare. “I don’t want to be here,” she growled. “Right now, I’m only here because she,” She pointed at Celestia. “Grabbed me in a targeted teleport from out of the blue and called in a favor I owe her. I shouldn’t even be in Equestria, on account of the fact that I was exiled.” She glared at Celestia, who didn’t even bat and eye. Sunburst gaped at this revelation.
Sunset looked back at Starlight. “I’m not here to pander to anypony’s sensibilities. I’m going to do my work, and then I will hopefully never see the inside of this place again.”
Starlight’s eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to say something in return, but Celestia chose that moment to speak up.
“That will be enough,” Celestia admonished gently. “Sit, Sunset, and enjoy a nice breakfast. We will get to the details once everypony is fed and ready to work.”
Sunset grunted, but walked over to Sunburst and sat on his other side. “Fine.”
Everypony resumed eating, or in some cases began to eat. As she did every morning, Celestia made small talk with everypony else. Sunset however ignored the Princess’ every attempt to include her in any conversation, eating slowly with her magic. Sunburst frowned, noticing that his sister was eying the food strangely, like she half expected it to explode in her face.
Sunburst and Starlight glanced at each other in confusion. They both silently asked the same question. “What happened between those two?”
Twilight looked away. She didn’t know why this was so difficult. “… Thank you. For everything. I probably would have died who knows how many times if not for you. I know you only did it to use me, and I know you don’t care about sentimentality, but I just had to say it. Thank you.”
She jumped when a large hand landed on her shoulder, and looked up at Tirek. “If you ever grow bored of Equestria, you will always have a place here, Twilight Sparkle,” He then chuckled. “After all, you have amassed quite the reputation here.”
Twilight smiled and nodded, and then turned to the prepared ritual in the center of the room. She stepped into its center, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “Right. Wish me luck.”
“My dog doesn’t need luck.”
There was a time when such a blunt reminder of her indentured servitude would have made her wince, but after twenty years of working for and learning under the centaur, Twilight now knew it was just his way of saying good luck.
Magical energy flared to life in her hands, and she directed it through the intricate ritual below her, making it come to life with swirling light. Waves of magic began to hide her from Tirek’s sight, and the world shuddered.
Twenty years ago, using this much magic would have triggered a Surge. Twenty years ago, she wasn’t trained by a master of controlling magic. Twenty years ago, she was Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s Faithful Student.
There was a sound akin to the end of the world for just one brief moment… and then Twilight Sparkle, the Hound of Tirek, vanished with one final flash of light and power.
---
Deep in the void between worlds, a brilliant meteor of purple light streaked through the emptiness. Twilight kept her eyes forward and expression determined. After a small amount of time, a speck of yellow and blue light met her vision, and she felt her soul, her guide, swell with nostalgia.
‘Here I come!’ she thought with an almost feral grin, pouring even more magic into her propulsion.
She hit the barrier protecting her world from the ravages of the multiverse like a train, and passed right through it. Suddenly, a strange thought occurred to the once-Unicorn. She shrugged and grinned.
“Geronimo!” she hollered with glee on her approach to the planet below.
She never noticed the tingling in her body the moment she entered the dimension. She never knew that her biological clock was once more ticking.
She never knew Time had marked her.
---
Equestria… Two years after Twilight vanished…
Sunset Shimmer grunted as she slid to a stop. She glared at her assailant, a shadow that imitated the basic Pony body structure, and using magic to attack her with a wicked looking crescent shaped sword and the occasional spell.
The Moon shone brilliantly outside, the Night dominating the landscape. It was well into morning now, almost lunchtime in fact, but that black Alicorn had not cared.
‘Nightmare Moon…’ Sunset thought, deflecting a beam of dark magic with a magic shield and trying, and failing, to use the same trick to kill the shadow. ‘If someone had told me that stupid fairy tale was real yesterday, I would have laughed in their face.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘And Celestia knew. Why hadn’t she said anything before now? Is this the real reason why she’s been gathering magic users together for the last two years? Is that Twilight pony even real, or just another one of her manipulations?’
The black mare that was the Mare in the Moon had appeared just before sundown in the throne room, wiped out the guards with ridiculous ease, conjured the shadow to deal with Sunset, and then proceeded to attack Celestia in an almost feral rage.
‘Glimmer and ‘Burst picked a bad time to disappear,’ she thought ruefully.
Celestia’s words just before she got tied up in fighting the maddened Alicorn were still ringing in her head. Find the Elements of Harmony. Find Twilight.
She had no idea what the Elements of Harmony were, but she knew about Twilight. Maybe she was the owner of the Elements?
Sunset ducked under a horizontal swing, and then she saw her opening. Gripping the sword she had swiped from one of the knocked out guards in her magic, she stabbed it forward, reinforcing it beyond safe levels.
The sword began vibrating just as it slid into the slightly incorporeal body of the shadow, and then violently exploded with a flash of brilliant light. Sunset was knocked backwards by the backlash, and had erected a shield to protect herself from the fragments of the blade.
The shadow shrieked in agony, more from the magical light than the actual explosion. When the light died down, Sunset was relieved to find her opponent nowhere to be found. She turned and started at a dead sprint down the halls. ‘Now to get out of here.’
---
Celestia grimaced as magical blow after magical blow impacted against the golden shield surrounding her. Her reserves of magic were dwindling rapidly. If these attacks had been the work of a Unicorn, she could have outlasted them easily, but this was the full power of an Alicorn in her element. She would be lucky to last five more minutes.
The original plan had been simple. Send Twilight off to Ponyville with enough clues to lead her to the Elements of Harmony, but not enough that Nightmare Moon would be able to draw the location of the Elements from the Unicorn’s dreams in the worst case scenario. Then let her sister lock her in the Sun and conserve her power in case it was needed upon release.
Twilight’s disappearance two years ago threw a wrench in the gears, so to speak. Celestia spent a year desperately searching for the Unicorn, but when twelve months had gone by with no real clue as to where her student was… Celestia had begun to realize that she would have to use a last resort plan.
Cadence was safe from Nightmare Moon’s grasp, for now anyways, so in time a revolution will rise around her, but until then Celestia needed to distract her sister for as long as she could.
“Give up, Celestia. I have spent the last thousand years hoarding my power and training it. Even you cannot hope to match me now.” Nightmare Moon cackled, unleashing a fresh wave of siege spells.
Celestia was beginning to sweat now, and her body was growing sore from how much magic she was channeling through it. She could not win here, and they both knew it.
A crack formed in her shield.
Nightmare Moon seized the opportunity like a mare possessed, funneling a quarter of her immense power into that tiny crack. Celestia closed her eyes, knowing her end was approaching.
The shield shattered.
The ceiling exploded inwards as something moving too fast to be seen clearly hurtled through it, shooting straight for Celestia.
The barrage of magic overwhelmed the white Alicorn.
A very large section of the castle was suddenly much roomier.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting this when I arrived.”
Celestia’s eyes snapped open so fast she was distantly surprised that they didn’t get friction burn. ‘That voice!’
She realized she was being held n a grip vastly unlike a Pony's. The fingers she could feel were a clue. Looking up, she was met with the grinning lavender furred visage of a face she had been having nightmares about for two years.
Celestia examined this new arrival, and the first thing she noticed was her horn. Or, rather, the shattered stub where a horn should be. Eyes trailing down, she felt a part of her cry out at the eye-patch over one eye. She had to force herself to continue her examination. The mare stood tall like a Minotaur, bipedal with two arms and hands. Experience and a bit of guess work told her she was almost six feet tall. She wore a shirt made of durable leather and a pair of pants made of denim.
Strapped to her back was a sword that glowed white in the dark. Celestia could feel the Light magic within it easily. In a holster on her hip was a device Celestia never thought she'd see again; a handgun. It was remnant of a time when another species lived in Equestria alongside Ponies, and Celestia wondered where the mare got it. She had destroyed every last one she could find personally.
There was also a bag hanging from her shoulders that Celestia could feel a great deal of magic radiating from.
“Twilight?” she asked almost tentatively.
Twilight Sparkle smiled down at her. “Hi, Princess Celestia. Been a while, huh?” She chuckled.
Celestia jumped when a rose colored shield flared to life behind Twilight, deflecting a rather powerful siege spell. The bipedal Unicorn didn’t even turn around.
“Who dares interfere?!” Nightmare Moon roared, firing off another siege spell.
Twilight set Celestia down, not seeming to notice as the magic shield behind her didn’t so much as wiggle when the spell bounced off of it. Then she turned to Nightmare Moon.
“So, who are you?” she asked almost conversationally.
The black Alicorn snorted. “Yet another foal who cannot even spot the signs. Has your manipulation of the history books gone so deep, dear sister?” she asked Celestia, who was still staring at Twilight in shock.
Twilight frowned. “Sister?” she asked. After a moment of though she snapped her fingers. “Oh! Princess Luna! I read about you.” The frown returned, and slowly morphed into a glare. “No, that would be Nightmare Moon, wouldn’t it?”
Said entity smiled. It was not a kind smile. “So you do know of me. It seems you have me at a disadvantage. You know me, but I don’t know you.”
Twilight shrugged, and then bowed in exaggeration. “Twilight Sparkle, at your service.”
The sword was off her back and in mid-swing between blinks in Celestia’s point of view, neatly severing the pitch black ball of dark magic Nightmare Moon tried to surprise her student with. Both halves soared past the almost bored looking Twilight on either side.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Twilight said patronizingly, wagging a finger.
Nightmare Moon gaped when she suddenly found the mare less than a foot from her. She made to jump backwards, but was too slow and was punched in the face with far more strength than Twilight looked like she should have. She was sent skipping along the floor of the throne room to crash into the wall hard enough to dislodge some dust.
“Seriously, at least shoot me in the face, instead of waiting until I’m not paying attention. That was just insulting,” Twilight said, wiping some blood off of her knuckles with her shirt.
“T-Twilight?”
“Yes Princess?” Twilight asked, not taking her eye off Nightmare Moon as the Alicorn got her bearings.
Celestia’s poor brain was just getting hit with repeated surprise after surprise. Her student had returned. Her student was no longer a Unicorn. Twilight was actually good at fighting. Twilight had just slugged Nightmare Moon with enough raw physical force to lodge her in the wall!
“How… what…?”
Twilight sighed. “Short story; I landed in Tartarus, spent twenty years there, was forced into servitude under Tirek, and only recently found a way home.”
Celestia blinked. “…oh.” she muttered weakly.
Twilight started counting down in her head. 'Five, four, three, two…'
“What?!”
Twilight grinned, even as Nightmare Moon leveled her horn at her.
“You will pay for striking me,” the Alicorn growled, gathering magic in large quantities at the tip of her horn.
Twilight's grin vanished as she recognized the attack, and her gaze became cold. “If you fire that spell, I will kill you.” she said quietly, yet Celestia and Nightmare Moon heard her all the same.
The spell took on a green tinge.
Twilight slowly drew her sword. “Last warning. Don’t do it.”
“How cute. You think you can kill me.” Nightmare Moon smirked. The spell turned a sickly orange color.
“…I’m sorry, Princess Celestia.” Twilight whispered, just before vanishing in a blur of speed.
Nightmare Moon, however, was ready. She cancelled the spell and spun in place, lashing out with a magic enhanced buck straight into Twilight’s nose. She spun again faster yet and grabbed Twilight’s leg just as she started flying back, and yanked hard.
There was a crack, a scream, and Twilight hit the wall just as hard as Nightmare Moon had earlier. She crumpled to the floor, her sword clattering along the floor a ways away. Nightmare Moon erected a barrier only she could pass around it, having sensed the Light magic in it and not wanting to find out what would happen if she was hit with it.
Nightmare Moon approached the mare, her grin triumphant. “It was the height of arrogance to think you could kill an Alicorn.” She grabbed Twilight with her magic, hoisting her up. “Any last words?”
Twilight smirked despite the pain in her broken leg. “Yeah. Your situational awareness sucks.”
Nightmare Moon blinked, taking a moment to process that statement. And then Celestia slammed into her side like a meteor, wreathed in golden magic.
As Celestia proceeded to show Nightmare Moon why you don’t let the Alicorn of the Sun gather her strength for an extended period of time, Twilight set to work healing her leg. She wasn’t great with medical spells, but she could do a passable enough job until she could get to an expert.
After five minutes, she carefully stood up. It still hurt, but the bone was set and mostly mended. It would suffice. She looked towards the fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon.
Celestia had not wasted her advantage, and had been unleashing spell after spell, punches, kicks, and anything that wouldn’t outright kill her sister. She was moving as fast as her body would allow, and was just managing to keep her sister on her back hoof.
It was becoming clearer and clearer as the fight was drawn out that Celestia had allowed her skills in battle to dwindle, while Nightmare Moon had only grown stronger.
It didn’t take long for the black Alicorn to finally get an opening and use it, grabbing Celestia’s hoof just before it impacted her face. “My turn.” she said, grinning maliciously.
“Wrong again!”
Nightmare Moon was, once again, blindsided, this time by Twilight. The bipedal mare drop-kicked her away from Celestia. Nightmare Moon righted herself mid-air, but was forced to dodge further back by a follow up blast of magic.
Twilight took a stance next to Celestia, and Celestia steadied herself, preparing another spell.
Nightmare Moon growled at them from across the room. She charged some magic into her horn, but then suddenly stopped, her ear twitching. She sighed. “It seems my attention is required elsewhere.” she said, stepping backwards and pulling the shadows over herself. “We will meet again, dear sister.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Twilight cried, lunging forward.
Nightmare Moon’s cackling laugh was all that remained as Twilight passed harmlessly through shadows. “Until next time, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Dammit!” Twilight cursed, pounding her fist into the floor and cracking the stonework.
Celestia slowly relaxed as the threat to her life vanished. Then she tensed up again as she looked at Twilight, suddenly realizing something very important when their eyes met.
‘…Now what?’ they both thought nervously.
8. Eternal Night, Part Two: Last Bastion of Ponyville
Twilight frowned as she examined the buildings around her. While it was understandable for most ponies to remain indoors during the Night, this was different. First of all, it was roughly four in the afternoon. Even if it the Moon was still high in the sky and the sky was dark, ponies were creatures of habit. They would still be going about their business in the middle of the “day”.
But there was no one. No, it was more accurate to say the town was deserted. And Twilight would have believed that if not for one thing. Off to the west she could see the glow of a dome-shaped barrier pulsing with intense power. Whoever was powering that thing was both strong and well-read in spells.
“Well, I guess that’s my next stop,” she shrugged, before picking a path that seemed to head in the general direction of the barrier. As she walked, she once more found her mind drifting back to the discussion she and Princess Celestia had after Nightmare Moon had retreated.
Uncomfortable was the word of the day.
In hindsight, admitting that you worked for someone who was once one of Equestria’s greatest enemies in front of Princess Celestia was a bad idea. Admitting as much while exhibiting a willingness to kill was probably also a bad idea. Twilight imagined that the only thing that saved her from the strongest magic suppressing cell in the dungeon, besides the current conflict, was the fact that she could wield the light blade she had acquired so many years ago. Apparently, it was well known to the Princess.
The sword had once been Celestia’s personal weapon in combat, a weapon infused with the intense Light Magic of the Sun itself. Said Light Magic also powered a fail-safe that prevented it from being used for evil. It simply couldn’t be used by someone with malicious intentions.
How it got to Tartarus Twilight didn’t ask, and Celestia didn’t tell.
Still, Twilight had admitted to some very damning things and Celestia made it clear that a more in depth discussion will happen once the current crisis was averted. Afterwards, she told Twilight of the Elements of Harmony, and how they were the only thing that could stop Nightmare Moon and save Princess Luna in the process. She told Twilight that the husks of the Elements were hidden in the Everfree Forest, and that each Element required a wielder to activate them, and that the Elements would choose their bearers.
Twilight was told everything about the Elements. The Elements were not weapons, but rather Equalizers. Each Element was pure, crystalized conceptual magic. Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, and Magic. She had asked how something like the concept of magic got crystalized in a physical object, but Celestia chose that time to be mysterious and feign ignorance.
Celestia told her she had to find bearers for the Elements before she started hunting for them, and that most had gathered in Ponyville. Twilight didn’t see the point. She had already proven able to fight Nightmare Moon, why not just do it again, this time without holding back? Twilight was warned that Luna had been a brilliant tactician before her fall, and would be ready for her in their next fight. Better to have a contingency.
Twilight’s musings were cut short when a… something stepped from the shadows of the path in front of her. She frowned and stopped, examining it.
It looked like living shadows, its body made of mostly cloudy blackness and only barely retaining a shape similar to the body of a pony. Its yellow eyes glowed like beacons in that blackness, and Twilight could feel the corrupt Darkness oozing from it.
In her a mind she recalled reading about these creatures. Unoriginally named Shadows, they were weak on their own, but a serious problem when you get swarmed by multiple, as they make use of something like a hive mind.
Twilight drew her sword, and the Shadow flinched back from the light the blade gave off. She brandished it, expecting the Shadow to retreat in the face of such powerful Light Magic. She was surprised when it instead jumped at her, razor like claws zeroing in on her heart.
She dealt with it easily with a swipe of the sword, making it burst into a cloud of darkness that faded away.
“Odd,” she mused, replacing the sword on her back. She started down the path again, only to freeze at the sight in front of her.
The path was gone, completely covered and hidden by the veritable flood of shifting blackness and beady yellow eyes locked onto her. Twilight’s expression dropped. “You have got to be kidding me…”
The Shadows surged forward, and Twilight yelped, drawing the sword again.
---
Applejack sighed as she scanned the fields she, her brother, and the rest of the farm workers were supposed to be working. It was full of ponies, many of whom she either knew personally, or knew of.
Ponyville was the kind of town that was used to the status quo. She paused at that thought, and rephrased it in her mind. Ponyville was a town that got used to things rather quickly. After all, one just had to look at Pinkie Pie and her history with Ponyville. She was a mare that just popped up one day and proclaimed everyone her friend. Most would scoff at a declaration like that, but Pinkie shortly proved she wasn’t just blowing smoke.
She was also very random on the best of days, saying things that made no sense to anypony but herself, and bouncing around the town like a spring. However, as strange as the mare was, she was always out to make the ponies around her happy. All she seemed to ever want was a smile.
So Ponyville adapted to the random but well-intentioned mare, and in Applejack’s opinion, Ponyville was better for it. Folks were happier, knowing at least one pony was out to cheer them up. Even now, Pinkie Pie went around doing everything in her power to keep morale high, and never let hopes get low. She was met with partial success… but that only made her try harder.
Her gaze fell on the border of the barrier surrounding her farm, and she saw the yellow gaze of the demons on the other side, just waiting for a chance to get inside and wreak havoc. Demons. They had to be demons. What else could they be? What other kind of creature caused gut-wrenching terror with just their presence alone? So many ponies got mauled, killed, or worse before the barrier had been set up.
Applejack had seen that first hoof, seeing a pony she didn’t know get taken down right in front of her eyes when these things first invaded the town. The only compliment she would ever give these things was that they were quick, efficient, and worked like a well-oiled machine. She had been so shocked by the brutality of it all that she would have been next, had Rainbow Dash not dragged her out the way at the last second and flew her to safety.
Rainbow Dash. Applejack never thought she’d ever feel anything other than contempt for that mare. The rainbow maned Pegasus was brash, arrogant, lazy, and a show-off. She acted like only her wants and desires were important enough to be noticed, and Applejack had honestly written her off as a lost cause.
Of course, that was before… well, before this. Now, instead of rarely seeing Rainbow Dash working, it was a rare sight to see the mare doing anything other than work. Patrol, patrol drills with other Pegasi, training to maintain physique and speed. It was like some drill sergeant had woken up in her when the town came under attack, and she became the Commander of the defense. Heck, some of the Pegasi had started calling her just that!
Then again, things were different before the Invasion of the Night, as many had taken to calling it. It had only been a few days, but already things had changed considerably. A quarter of the town’s population was gone, either dead or dragged into the Everfree Forest for who knows what.
For two days the town struggled to stave off the encroaching shadowy demons, and thanks mostly to Rainbow Dash a good three quarters of the town survived, but nothing really stopped them. Slowed them, yes, but not stopped them.
To be honest, the entire town would probably be nothing more than a memory by now if not for the unicorn that arrived yesterday and lead the unicorn population of the town into creating a barrier over the farm. She said her name was Sunset Shimmer, and refused to answer questions beyond that. Applejack would have been suspicious of the mare if she hadn’t personally dragged the fool from helping power the barrier so she could eat and sleep. Dedication like that had a motive behind it, and while it irked her that Sunset would not share this motive, she decided that survival was more important than personal curiosity.
Speaking of survival, Fluttershy, an odd butter-yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail had taken over the barn and turned it into a slapped together Infirmary to help tend to the wounded. Applejack had rarely seen the girl in town, but from what she understood, she was basically the town’s veterinarian for non-sapient creatures. While pony biology was different from the biology of other animals, it wasn’t too different. Fluttershy knew what drugs and herbs to use to stop excessive blood-loss, calm patients, and even numb them to stop the pain.
Applejack called her odd because, unlike most Pegasi in Ponyville, Fluttershy rarely left the ground. In fact, she was so timid and quiet in most cases that many would mistake her for a coward.
But a coward doesn’t take charge of a panicking group of ponies and lead them to safety. A coward doesn’t glare belligerent patients into submission. A coward doesn’t give so much of herself for those around her, expecting nothing in return. She may be shy, but she quickly established herself as a rock that many ponies could cling to in trying times.
And on the topic of rocks, there was Rarity. Applejack gave a strange fusion of a grimace and a smirk at the thought of her. Rarity is, or was, the type of mare Applejack went out of her way to not be like. Feminine, talkative, and obsessed with all things neat and clean. Don’t get her wrong, Applejack appreciated the value of good hygiene, but there was such a thing as going too far, and in her eyes Rarity went beyond too far.
Rarity was also a fashion designer, and here Applejack actually appreciated the mare, as she was very accomplished seamstress. Torn overalls? Piece of cake. Hole in her hat? Fixed in exactly one minute and thirty eight seconds. Torn tarp? Well… a torn tarp was a torn tarp. Not much hope for fixing that kind of material, but Rarity could do patch jobs with the best of them.
In fact, Applejack had long been nursing a suspicion that Rarity didn’t have an eye for fashion, so much as she had an eye for details. If the mare actually sat down and went over the manual for the tractor, Rarity could probably repair the thing easily. Of course, she would have to be willing to get dirty, but that was beside the point.
Recently Rarity had taken up sewing whatever dense gemstones she could scavenge on the farm into the clothing of the ponies who patrolled the perimeter of the barrier. Crude, but had in fact saved the life of at least three ponies now from the claws of those creatures. Some managed to get through the barrier somehow, but at this point they were easily disposed of.
And Applejack herself was splitting her time between maintaining a smaller farm to feed those within the barrier, and patrolling alongside the ground-bound ponies. In fact, that was what she was doing at this moment alongside a few Earth Ponies.
Movement in the corner of her eyes pulled her from her thoughts, and she had to stop and do a double take.
Just outside the barrier, there was something fighting the demons. It stood upright on two legs and used two arms to slash its way through demon after demon with a sword that looked like it was glowing. It was hard to tell through the glow of the barrier itself.
She looked to her patrol-mates. Yep, they see it too. “Either of you know what in tarnation that is?” she asked.
“It looks kinda like a mintotaur,” offered the one to her left.
“Female. Minotaurs have breasts on their chests, remember?” the other said.
“What should we do?”
Applejack looked at him like he was crazy. “We get her in here, that’s what we do! Go alert the ponies powering the barrier. They can open a door.” She looked at the other one as the first ran off. “You and I are going to gather some of the others. We may need to fend off some of the demons as she gets in.”
He nodded and they both took off. As they ran, Applejack wondered if this was the break they needed. Whoever that girl was, she was fighting them rather well. Hopefully she knows how to stop them.
Twilight spun and danced through the horde of Shadows with an almost wild grin, the light sword swirling and swinging smoothly through the air and darkness as it dispersed each individual Shadow with the ease of a hot knife through butter. She wasted little energy, and if one were to pay attention to the sword itself they would realize that at no point did it stop moving. Even in the rare case where Twilight had to come to a stop, she never let the blade itself stop.
It was a part of her own sword-style that she developed, one that utilized momentum to her advantage. After all, if the sword was already moving then it would require less energy to swing it. The tricky part was to move in such a way so as to prevent needing to stop the sword. She had spent years training her body to move like water when fighting, every movement leading into the next and never truly standing still.
As a consequence she couldn’t put a lot of power behind her strikes, or risk overextending herself and completely messing up her rhythm. That left her open for a few seconds before she could get balanced and moving again.
There was also a glaring weakness to the style. Everything in it used the weight of the sword as a sort of counterbalance for all of the moving she herself did. If the sword was somehow brought to a sudden stop in the middle of combat, it would completely unbalance her and leave her open to attack for a few seconds.
Of course, being the paranoid sapient that she was, Twilight’s sword-style was far from her only means of battling. Her bag contained a variety of weapons she had gathered and reverse-engineered and sometimes even improved.
Deciding to have a bit of fun, Twilight reached into said bag and pulled an L-shaped device from it, gripping the smaller end in her hand and pointing the longer end at a shadow. With her thumb she pulled back a small lever on the back of the device. With that action the chamber in the center of the device turned. Then she fingered the curved small lever under the device with her index finger. With a grin, she said a phrase that the one who taught her gunplay was rather fond of.
“Jackpot!”
BANG!!!
The end of the device, which had a circular hole, flashed as a tiny piece of solidified purple magic shot from the hole at insane speed, hitting the Shadow she was aiming at before it could even register the attack.
The Shadow burst apart violently, as did the Shadows behind it when the projectile hit them as well. Twilight grinned and pulled back the hammer of her revolver again, swinging around and slashing a few Shadows with her sword in the process. She pointed at another Shadow and fired.
There was just something right about firing guns. Twilight never did find out what it was exactly, but she would never get tired of using them.
After the bang died down, a voice caught Twilight’s attention.
“Hey! Over here!”
She spun around, pointing her gun at the source of the voice on the off chance it was hostile, and found an orange Earth Pony wearing a Stetson near an opening in the barrier waving a hoof, three other ponies working to keep the few Shadows not focused on Twilight away.
“C’mon! It’s safe inside!” the orange pony called, waving her towards the entrance.
Twilight froze for a split second. Instincts warred before logic won out.
She put her gun away and used her sword to carve a path as she ran. When she reached the group, she didn’t stop at all and ran through the opening.
The Earth Pony and her three companions ran in on her heels, the barrier closing behind them. Twilight easily dispatched the few Shadows that made it through the opening before holstering her sword on her back and relaxing.
“Well, that was close!” the orange Earth Pony said with a sigh. Then she smiled at Twilight and extended a hoof. “Howdy! Name’s Applejack! I run this farm, or did before the invasion. Now I manage the crops used to feed the survivors.”
Twilight stared down at the extended hoof, and then at Applejack’s easygoing smile. “Twilight,” she answered briefly.
Applejack frowned after realizing Twilight wasn’t going to shake her hoof, but let it go for now. “Well Miss Twilight, I was hoping you could tell us what in tarnation is going on. None of know why this all happened, and you seem to be the only one who knows what they’re doing.”
Twilight considered that.
Information was valuable, no matter what world you were in. Sometimes it was more valuable than gold. This situation was no different. She needed information, and had information to give in return.
She nodded. “Give me some information in return, and I’ll tell you what’s going on. Though… you may not believe it when I do.”
Applejack deadpanned. “Shadows are coming to life and invading the world, and the Sun hasn’t risen at all, making a permanent Night. At this point the only thing I won’t believe is the long lost sister of Princess Celestia returning and staging a coup.”
Twilight blinked and then smirked at the irony. She didn’t say anything about that though. “Gather whatever you have for leaders and I’ll tell you together, that way I don’t have to repeat myself.”
Applejack nodded and trotted away, Twilight following her.
---
Some time later, Twilight was standing in a barn that looked to have been changed to act as an infirmary. She was leaning against the wall near the barn door, staring at the six ponies gathered inside.
There was Applejack, and next to her was a rainbow maned blue Pegasus that gave off an air of seriousness. The mare was odd to Twilight’s senses. She could feel a rather large well of weather magic sitting in this mare, but she had yet to feel it actually be used, even when the mare was flying.
Then there was a pink Earth Pony who was far too chipper despite the fact the world was virtually ending outside. Twilight was uneasy around her, and couldn’t figure out why. The only thing she knew was that the mare seemed almost more vibrant than anything else, like she didn’t quite fit the world.
A white unicorn with a purple mane that had painstakingly went out her way to bring a pillow to sit on in the dirty barn. Twilight would have dismissed her as a spoiled rich girl if she hadn’t watched the mare throw sewing needles with pinpoint accuracy at a wooden beam to pass the time while they waited. The highly accurate image of a bowtie was still stuck on the beam, and Twilight and the unicorn were so far the only ones who knew it was there.
A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane sat away from the group, shivering every time she looked at Twilight. Twilight wondered if she had been adversely affected by the invasion of Shadows. It would explain the aura of fear she gave off.
And finally, there was the yellow unicorn with a fiery mane and tail. She was powerful. Twilight could feel her magic the moment she entered the barrier, and now, right next to her, it was like standing too close to a bonfire.
Privately, she wondered how they got anything done. They all looked to be about as different as Night and Day to each other and likely bickered a lot.
“We’re all here, Miss Twilight. What can you tell us?” Applejack said.
Twilight noticed that the aquamarine eyes of a yellow unicorn with a red and yellow mane sharpen at her name. Her own eye narrowed briefly at that. That unicorn knew her. How?
“You all want to know what the heck is going on, why shadows are coming to life, and why the Sun hasn’t come up since the Summer Sun Festival, right?”
Everyone nodded, though that yellow unicorn was now staring at her suspiciously.
“Well, I suppose I should start by saying Applejack here already guessed most of the answer.” She motioned to the surprised Earth Pony.
Applejack blinked. “I what?”
“You said that the only thing you wouldn’t believe was the long lost sister of Princess Celestia returning and staging a coup. Well, you were right. That’s the core of this situation.” Twilight explained. She waved a hand that was glowing with magic, making a cartoon-like depiction of Princess Celestia and a blue Alicorn appear, circling each other. “Princess Luna once ruled alongside her sister. Where Princess Celestia ruled and cared for the Day and Sun, Princess Luna ruled and cared for the Night and the Moon. They were a classic case of opposing forces working together to achieve greatness. Sun and Moon, Day and Night… Light and Darkness. Unfortunately, that all came to an end when Princess Luna rose up in rebellion against her sister, and was subsequently banished to the Moon for the last one thousand years.”
The image shifted, this time showing a black circle surrounded by a hazy blue shadow. “Pop quiz time!” Twilight grinned, enjoying the startled looks this garnered. “What was the publicly accepted view on the Night one thousand years ago?”
“Er, that it was Night? I mean, what’s so special about it compared to the Day?” the Rainbow maned Pegasus ventured.
Twilight pointed at her. “Close, but wrong. Anyone else?”
“Ooooh! Did they party all Night back then?” the pink one asked
Twilight sighed. “No, they did not party all Night. Next?”
The white unicorn frowned. “Correct me if I’m wrong, darling, but one thousand years ago was relatively close to the Dark Ages, wasn’t it?”
Twilight snapped her fingers, pointing at her. She also noticed the yellow Pegasus flinching at the sound. “Bingo! Back then, thanks to the Dark Ages, Darkness was synonymous for evil and anything associated with it was also considered evil. And Princess Luna was and is the Alicorn of Darkness and the Night, just as Princess Celestia is the Alicorn of Light and the Day.”
The image changed, showing Princess Celestia standing on a raised platform with the Sun shining down on her. Ponies of all races were bowing to her. However, if one looked closely, they would notice that the Princess gave off a shadow from the light of the Sun, which fell directly on a sad looking Princess Luna.
“One thing Ponies don’t remember about this tale is that the Princesses were new to ruling at this point, and still learning how to do it efficiently. Princess Celestia got lucky in that she managed not to make too many mistakes before figuring it out, but Luna wasn’t as lucky as her. She made a lot of mistakes, usually because she allowed her emotions to cloud her judgment. She got better, but by then it was too late. Ponies had begun whispering about her incompetence behind her back, insulting her Night, and claiming she was evil because she was the Alicorn of Darkness.” Twilight shook her head at the stupidity of sapient life. And yeah, she lumped herself in that category as well.
“So, naturally, Luna sought to fix this view of her, but no matter what she tried the Ponies refused to believe her. She then tried to get help from her sister, the one person… sorry… the one pony in the world that was closest to her. Only for Celestia, who was at the time slightly drunk on her own power and the adoration of the ponies, to brush her concerns aside. Princess Luna was shattered… and that in turn left her heart wide open for the Darkness she was born in to corrupt her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. By the time Princess Celestia realized what was going on it was too late. She has, to this day, blamed herself for her sister’s fall from grace.”
The image changed to show a very real, very jarring picture of Nightmare Moon. After a moment it changed again, this time showing the Shadows.
“Those creatures out there that appeared when the Sun last went down are called Shadows. I’ve heard a few ponies here call them demons. Well, they’re not demons. They are in fact Darkness Golems, creatures created and forged by the power of Darkness. They don’t have bodies and are composed of Darkness itself. If you attack them with anything other than strong light or Light Magic they’ll just burst apart and reform after a moment. When fighting one or two Shadows they aren’t that hard to deal with. It’s when they start swarming that you have a serious issue, as you all have realized by now.” she emphasized.
“Shadows were first seen when Nightmare Moon tried to usurp the Day and create an Eternal Night one thousand years ago. She created them to distract the Solar Guards, Princess Celestia’s personal Guard force, while she fought the Princess.”
“Yes, and if not for the Elements of Harmony, I would have won.”
Twilight’s eye, along with the eyes of every pony in the barn, snapped upwards. There, floating on a cloud of dark blue shadows, was a transparent image of Nightmare Moon.
“Greetings again, Twilight Sparkle. I wonder… do you have time for a little chat?”
Every pony, and one half-pony, stared at Nightmare Moon. Twilight herself couldn’t believe the arrogance of the corrupt Alicorn, revealing herself like that. But still, when opportunity comes knocking…
BANG!!!
Nightmare Moon looked amused while the rest of the ponies jumped at the sudden noise. Twilight grunted, lowering her gun.
“Hologram,” she stated, and then she smirked. “What, too scared I’ll beat you before you can run away again?”
Nightmare Moon’s amusement vanished in an instant, but she held her tongue. “In due time Twilight Sparkle. In due time,” she said, her voice slightly distorted by the hologram. “I had hoped you would be civil enough to indulge me with a conversation.”
Twilight brought a finger to her chin, tapping as she adopted a thoughtful look. “Hmmm… Pass,” she said. “I doubt you have anything worth saying to me, unless it’s an unconditional surrender?” she asked almost hopefully.
Nightmare Moon once more looked amused. “You amuse me with your jokes. Me, surrender?” She laughed. “No. However, I do believe I have just the thing that will catch your attention.”
The image of Nightmare Moon twisted, before becoming an image of…
“Spike!” Twilight shouted in alarm, instantly recognizing her purple and green dragon friend. He was bound by chains, but was, oddly, asleep. He looked to be in a great deal of discomfort. The image changed again and returned to a very smug Nightmare Moon. “I’ll kill you if you so much as harm a single scale on his body, orders from Celestia be damned!” she roared, her magic flaring wildly around her in response to her rage.
The unicorns in the group staggered at the pure power that radiated from her.
“Young Spike is an interesting dragon. He lacks the wrath and greed found in most dragons, and only holds a deep love for his closest friend. His constant nightmares of never finding you, Twilight Sparkle, is what drew me to him. How could I resist such an opportunity?” the Mare in the Moon asked with a chuckle.
“He’s just a child!” Twilight exclaimed. “Leave him out of this!”
Nightmare Moon smirked in triumph. “Here is the deal. Young Spike will remain a guest of mine, and that is non-negotiable, but he will remain in good health and want for little.”
Twilight growled lowly, her single eye glowing with purple light, but she knew she was trapped. “And in return?” she asked tightly.
“In return; you abandon any and all attempts to defy me and my rightful rule, and never leave the town of Ponyville ever again unless I specifically tell you too.”
Twilight growled even deeper, before slumping in on herself in defeat. “…fine,” she muttered, looking down at the hay strewn floor of the barn. Her one-eyed gaze shot up at Nightmare Moon after a moment however. “But if anything happens to him, the deal’s off… and I bring the entirety of everything I have down on your head!”
Nightmare Moon nodded. “Then we have an accord. And, as an act of good will, I’ll even call off the Shadows tormenting Ponyville. So long as the citizens do not rebel against me, the town will remain unmolested by my rule. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle. May we never meet again.”
With that final word, the image of Nightmare Moon fizzled out, leaving the seven gathered mares submerged in the sudden silence that followed.
The silence was interrupted by Twilight pushing off the wall and heading for the door.
“Darling, where are you going?” Rarity asked.
Twilight paused at the door, not looking back. “The Everfree Forest. Nightmare Moon will be there looking for the Elements of Harmony there.” After saying as much, Twilight walked out.
The ponies inside were stunned, but only for a moment. They soon followed after the half-pony, and caught up to her as she was striding steadily towards the side of the barrier that was closest to the Everfree Forest.
“Twilight! Wait! What about your friend, Spike?” Applejack asked as she and the others caught up to her.
Twilight stopped again, her head bowed. The others stopped as well. They noticed that she was shaking slightly.
“…Equestria is too important,” she mumbled loud enough to be heard. She clenched her fists. “I can’t sacrifice an entire world for just one person. I can’t.” She looked up, her eye glowing softly and her teeth clenched. “I will make her pay for putting me in this position… I’m going to kill her slowly and painfully.”
She resumed her gait towards the forest, most of the ponies unsure what to say to that. None of them were quiet sure they would have the strength to make that kind of choice.
“Wait.” It was almost an order, and the one who said it sounded slightly annoyed. Twilight stopped and turned to the source, finding the yellow unicorn approaching her, her eyes set in determination.
Sunset Shimmer wanted answers, and while she knew Twilight was probably not in much of a mood to answer them right now, she was determined to get them before the foal went off on her suicide mission. “You’re Twilight Sparkle, right?”
Twilight frowned, recalling that this mare had reacted to hearing her name. Well, this should be interesting. She nodded. “Why?” Unseen by anyone, her hand edged towards her pistol.
“Princess Celestia has been hunting you down for two years, almost obsessively, and I want to know why. Who are you? Why are you important to the Princess? And what are the Elements of Harmony?” Sunset demanded. “The Princess said to find them and to find you when she sent me away during Nightmare Moon’s assault on Canterlot, and then Nightmare moon mentioned them when she interrupted your story.”
Twilight relaxed slightly, but not completely. “I was the Princess’ personal student in magic before the accident that sent me to another dimension. We were very close, so I’m not surprised the Princess was searching for me. As for the Elements of Harmony, they’re the tools Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used together when they ruled a thousand years ago. Celestia was forced to use them on Luna to seal her in the Moon, and then hid them away in the Everfree Forest afterwards. Nightmare Moon is currently searching for the Elements of Harmony, likely to destroy them.” She grunted. “There, now excuse me while I introduce the Alicorn of Darkness to my fist,” she said, turning around and resuming her trek.
Sunset frowned. “I’m not done yet,” she said with narrowed eyes.
Twilight raised her middle finger in Sunset’s direction, despite knowing none of them likely knew what it meant. “I don’t care.”
“Get back here and answer my questions!” Sunset yelled, igniting her horn with turquoise colored magic. She intended to drag Twilight back forcefully.
Twilight blurred into motion at extreme speed, whirling around and dashing towards the unicorn, fist pulled back. Sunset didn’t even have time to register the threat before she was on her back, holding her broken nose. She glared at Twilight, but froze when the tip of Twilight’s glowing sword stopped an inch from the base of her horn.
Twilight glowered at her. “Now is not the time to test me,” she growled. “Every minute I spend here answering pointless questions is another minute Nightmare Moon has to find the Elements and destroy them. If you want your answers so badly, then come with me.” She pulled her sword back and propped it on her shoulder. “Just stay out of my way.”
The yellow pegasus helped Sunset to her hooves, while Applejack and the blue pegasus exchanged glances, before nodding. They moved to stand next to Twilight.
“Where are you two going?” the white unicorn asked.
Applejack answered. “If Twi here thinks she can take on Nightmare Moon, then she’ll probably need somepony to keep those Shadow things off her back while she fights.”
The unicorn considered that, before also following. The pink earth pony was close behind her, bouncing and smiling easily, though it seemed slightly dimmed after seeing a child in chains like that.
Sunset stared after them, before growling to herself. She followed as well.
The yellow pegasus seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, before talking a shaky step forward, choosing to follow.
Darkness. It was dark. It was so dark that nothing could be perceived with sight alone.
“Stand down.”
The voice was like gravel, but calm and to the point. It came from everywhere.
A set of glowing orange eyes flared to life, glaring into the darkness with both anger and betrayal.
“They need our help. I thought you of all beings would agree with me.”
“I do. I agree completely that Equestria needs help. But you do not see what the Council, and I, can see.”
A brief burst of flame heralded of snort of derision. “And what does the group of fossils see from their cushy chairs in the clouds?” the younger voice asked in sarcasm.
“Help has already arrived in Equestria. It seems young Celestia’s pupil has returned. The Aether trembles at her rage.”
The glow of the orange eyes dims, and they take on a look of surprise. “Little Twilight? I see… Her power has reached that point already?”
“… She will handle Equestria. Return.”
The eyes narrowed. “You know I hate when you’re being vague, right?”
“Return. Now.”
A sigh. “Fine. But if Equestria is destroyed because of our inaction, I will not be happy.”
“Noted.”
SBSBSB
Equestria The Everfree Forest
Twilight travelled with her new companions silently. It had been roughly an hour since the seven of them had entered the forest, and so far not much had happened. The six ponies had introduced themselves to Twilight, and her to them in turn, but silence had pervaded since.
Twilight didn’t mind though. She could feel Sunset’s annoyance, and was just waiting for the mare to snap and start demanding answers again. She was holding back a grin, especially since she could periodically hear Sunset’s teeth grinding. And after her minor blow up against the unicorn, Twilight knew she was angry enough to lash out physically. She enjoyed a good fight just as much as the next person, but Tartarus and Equestria had differing ideas of leniency in terms of violence.
Winding others up was fun though. It had benefits as well. For one, it made them sloppy in a fight.
She would have wound up the others, but not only was Sunset easier to annoy just by being silent, but something made her hesitate. The more time she spent with these mares, the more her instincts were telling her something odd was going on. Not wrong, just… odd.
The feeling was especially potent with Rainbow Dash. Something about the rainbow-maned pegasus just felt familiar to Twilight, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was.
“Gragh! Why won’t you say anything?!” Sunset suddenly yelled, startling the other five ponies, as well as a few birds in the trees.
Twilight glanced at her over her shoulder, eyebrow raised. “You realize yelling like that will just draw the attention from the predators in the forest, right?” she asked with a smirk.
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were the only ones that didn’t give Sunset a stern look. Sunset was decent enough to at least act sheepish.
“Now, what exactly do you want me to say? I need specifics if you want questions answered.”
Sunset gathered her thoughts. “What are the Elements of Harmony exactly, and what’s your connection to them?”
Twilight shrugged. “According to the Princess, I was apparently supposed to be the bearer of the Element of Magic before my little dimensional road trip. Now she says I can’t use it anymore because of how much said trip changed me.” She motioned to her body to emphasize her point. “As for what they are… that’s a little difficult to explain. The Princess said they were Conceptualized Artifacts, each Element embodying a different concept and drawing power from said concept. The more their bearer aligns with that concept, the stronger the Element is.”
Rarity frowned as Sunset mulled over that. “Wait. How can the concept of Magic itself be distilled into a Conceptualized Artifact? It’s too vague,” she asked.
Twilight shrugged again. “I don’t know. When I asked, she decided then was a good time to start being vague. If I had to guess I’d say it’s not actually magic that’s the concept, and that the name is a play on words. If that’s the case, it could be anything depending on when the Elements were created, as different types of magic were considered the strongest type at different times in history.”
“What are the other Elements?” Applejack asked.
Twilight started counting off her fingers. “Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Generosity,” she listed off.
Everyone hesitated for a moment, before, surprisingly, Fluttershy spoke up. Sort of.
“U-um… those sound… nice?” she mumbled, ducking her head within her long mane in response to everyone paying attention to her.
“I believe what Fluttershy is trying to say is that the Elements don’t sound like weapons at all,” Rarity pointed out.
“Yeah! Those don’t sound like things you’d take into a fight with you,” Rainbow Dash added, and then paused. “Well, aside from Loyalty. Gotta be loyal to something to fight for something.” She shot a smile at Fluttershy.
Twilight shook her head. “I thought they were weapons too, but the Princess says they’re not. They’re supposed to be some kind of “Equalizers that enforce balance”. Those were her words, not mine,” she added.
Everyone exchanged glances. “Well… they are called the Elements of Harmony, and harmony is a balance between two or more forces, so… maybe they would weaken Nightmare Moon if we used them on her, making her equal to us?” Sunset offered, now honestly considering how concepts such as those could be so powerful as to defeat a maddened Alicorn.
She had expected something like The Element of the Assassin, or the Element of the Guardian, or even the Element of the Berserker. Things that were useful in a fight, or at least useful in survival. Those sounded like, well, flowery little girl fantasy things.
Twilight came to a halt almost on a bit, bring the ponies following her to a stop as well. She held up her hand. “Hang on,” she said quietly. “I hear growling.” Her other hand reached for her sword.
At that moment, a large blur burst from the foliage to the group’s left, charging straight for Twilight. Twilight quickly reacted by batting the blur to the side with the flat of her blade. Small though the sword may be, combined with a solid grip, solid footing, and liberal amounts of reinforcement magic, it was almost child’s play to hit something like that as if it was a baseball.
The blur slid to a stop on clawed paws, revealing itself as very angry looking Manticore. The ponies gulped, realizing they were on the menu.
Twilight just grinned.
The Manticore roared, nearly creating a concussive wave from that act alone, and lunged for Twilight. The human/pony hybrid whirled around the paw swipe, her sword flashing out and neatly severing it.
Fluttershy wasn’t the only one to gasp as the Manticore’s severed paw hit the ground, twitching. The Manticore itself gave a roar, but its gaze oddly remained fixated on Twilight.
“Not ready to give up?” Twilight asked, still grinning. “Alright.” She lowered her stance, bracing herself. “Come on then,” she taunted.
“…stop…”
The Manticore made another lunge at her, and Twilight once more seemed to dance out of the way, her sword flashing into motion. The Manticore proved capable of learning however, ducking to avoid the swing. Its eyes glinted, and Twilight found herself frantically pulling her sword back in front of her to block another swipe.
Then its scorpion-like tail lanced in from over its shoulder, aiming for Twilight’s head. She jerked her head to the side, barely avoiding it, and pushed away before it could try again. She slid to a stop, but didn’t immediately charge back in, the Manticore doing the same.
“…Stop…”
Twilight frowned, eyeing her foe critically. She had assumed it was just an instinct driven predator looking for a quick meal, but it proved to be intelligent… and intelligent predators don’t focus on other predators. They go after the sick and feeble.
Something wasn’t right here.
“STOP!!!”
The shout from Fluttershy was so unexpected that even the Manticore seemed startled… but unfortunately it recovered quicker than anyone else, turning its gaze on her. With a roar, it darted for her and closed in, sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight and aimed straight for her neck.
Fluttershy only had a moment to realize she was in danger. Everything around her slowed to crawl, and she saw the most important moments of her life flash through her mind.
With a clarity that only came with the knowledge that you were about to die, she realize she regretted a lot. She had spent her entire life hiding from the world, terrified of what it would bring to bear against her. Her family had always been there for her, and always encouraged her to face the world bravely... but she never could. She could barely even fly five feet off the ground, she was so scared something would go wrong, let alone around a city in the sky. It was a wonder she survived.
In the end, she just could never find a reason to be brave. Oh, plenty of reasons came her way, but they were the reasons of other ponies. They wanted her to be brave for their own reasons, selfish or not. She tried using those reasons, but it never stuck. Her father wanted her to be brave because he wanted to see his baby girl succeed. Her mother wanted her to be brave because she wanted her daughter to not fear opportunity. There were more, but they all ended the same.
They never fit.
In time, ponies began to think she was some kind of defect, a failure of a pegasus. This, of course, led to the bullying. Flight School for Fluttershy was an exercise in determination more than anything... and she often found herself lacking even in that. Most days she stayed away from ponies, and on some days she didn't even go to school, too scared of the bullies to try.
And then Rainbow Dash came along. Without any hesitation, the polychromatic mare just started defending her. She didn't ask for anything in return, other than friendship, and she never told Fluttershy to be brave. She just accepted her for who she was, fear and all. Fluttershy became her friend with an ease that still surprised her sometimes, and she knew she would never deny the rainbow maned pegasus anything. She owed her all the kindness in the world for just being there for her in ways even her family couldn't. She had actually once asked her how she could pay her back, and Rainbow Dash had only said she just wanted her to "stay you, Fluttershy".
But then the Cloudsdale Incident happened, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had to drop out of Flight School and leave Cloudsdale altogether. Rainbow Dash had been on the fast track to success, being the star athlete. And just like that, it was gone. Her one shot at her dream of being a Wonderbolt went up in ashes in the span of one hour.
And Fluttershy never forgave herself.
As those incredibly sharp teeth drew closer, Fluttershy closed her eyes.
Rainbow Dash didn't need a scaredy-pony holding her down. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe... this was the best kindness Fluttershy could give her friend.
"I beg to differ."
Fluttershy's eyes snapped open, and time reasserted its hold on reality.
Time had indeed resumed normally for Fluttershy, but at the same time she was hyper-aware of everyone around her. She could see Twilight dropping her sword and reaching into her bag with a look of alarm. Rarity and Sunset were only just turning towards her, their horns lighting up. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who the Manticore had run between to get to Fluttershy, were both diving towards the beast with looks of determination.
And Rainbow Dash, the one who had shrieked her name, had a familiar look in her eyes, a look that had haunted Fluttershy’s nightmares for years. It was a look that spoke volumes of her character. Her eyes were narrowing in righteous rage, the pupils narrowed, and a snarl was stretching across her face as she tensed, her wings flaring out.
It declared her intention to protect her friends… even if it meant sacrificing herself in the process.
‘No…’ she thought, feeling her heart fall into her stomach. ‘Not again… Not again…’ Fluttershy could see the Pegasus magic, a hazy muted blue, as it flooded the rainbow maned Pegasus’ wings.
Very few ponies knew that Rainbow Dash didn’t use her magic when flying. It was a self-imposed limitation, at first done as a means to train herself. After all, Pegasus magic aided in flight… but what if you were already a really fast Pegasus without the magic? What would happen if you flew with it? Well, one thing Rainbow hadn't taken into account was inflation. Without anywhere for her already rather potent magic to go, it just kept building in her, stretching her reserves bigger and bigger, getting stronger and stronger.
And then she used it.
That was what started the Cloudsdale incident, and Rainbow Dash decided that using her magic like that was a last resort, if that. It was dangerous. It was lethal. Her body could barely handle the strain of that much power running through it.
And she was about to use it.
‘No…’ Fluttershy didn’t want this. ‘No…’ She didn’t want her best friend to take that risk, not for her. ‘No.’
Twilight was now pulling a much longer device than her gun from her pack. Like the gun she tried to shoot Nightmare Moon with, it had a barrel, though this one was longer and thicker. She was speedily… bending it in half? Oh, it was meant to open that way. She stuck something in it and closed it with a snap.
Whatever this thing was, it was likely just as lethal as the gun. If Twilight was fast enough and accurate enough, she would likely kill the Manticore before it could kill Fluttershy, and hopefully before Rainbow Dash could act.
While that should have reassured Fluttershy… it didn’t.
Why did it seem that violence was suddenly the answer to everything? Fluttershy hated violence. Violence led to hate. Hate led to anger, and anger led to violence. This was a cycle she knew all too well, and refused to be a part of.
But if she didn’t do something, someone was going to get badly hurt. Her, Rainbow Dash, and/or the Manticore.
“Well, if it’s power you need, I have it.”
If she had power she could stop them, stop the Manticore herself. Then there would be no need to kill it, and no need for Rainbow Dash to risk herself.
“It’s all or nothing though. If you use my power against the Manticore, you’ll kill it.”
But… she didn’t want to kill the Manticore. Chances were they had just encroached in its territory. It was acting odd, yes, but the world was currently in a permanent Night with living shadows attacking anyone and anything. Odd stopped applying days ago.
“Make your choice, little Sapling. Power, or no power?”
She didn’t like these choices.
“Kill, or be killed?”
She didn't want either one.
“Death… or Life?”
And with a suddenness that would have given a cheetah whiplash, Fluttershy understood.
“Life,” she whispered, her eyes glinting with resolve and her heart beating with the surety of her decision.
“Good! Very good! I look forward to meeting you, little Sapling. Until then…”
“Stop.”
Everything came to a dead, screeching halt, including the Manticore. Everyone was slightly confused, not sure why they had stopped. They all looked at Fluttershy, who was the one that spoke, and gasped.
Her eyes were shining with green light.
She stared up at the Manticore, not with determination, not with anger, and not even with pity. She smiled and raised a hoof, petting its red mane. Some of the green energy flowed gently, like smoke on a breeze, down her leg and into its head. To the shock of everyone, it started to relax, and then purr, of all things.
“Come on, what’s wrong? What scared you so badly into lashing out at everything?” she asked in an almost cooing voice, her eyes still shining.
The Manticore gave what sounded like a half whimper, half growl.
Fluttershy nodded, glancing at the stump that used to have a paw attached to it. “I know she did, but she was protecting us.” She looked around at the unicorns of the group. “Do any of you know anything that could reattach his leg?”
Sunset, Rarity, and Twilight blinked. “Ah…” Twilight hesitated, before raising a hand. “I can’t reattach it, but I can close the wound.”
The Manticore growled at her, hiding its injured leg away from her. Fluttershy tapped its nose, getting its attention. “She won’t hurt you anymore, I promise.” She looked at Twilight. “Right?”
Twilight barely restrained herself from shuddering. Those eyes shone with kindness, love, and the desire to help everyone around her… but there was also a glint in them.
There was steel in this Pegasus.
“Sure. I won’t hurt him.” She said. She was very proud of herself for not stuttering.
Fluttershy looked at the Manticore with a smile. “See? Let her heal you.”
The Manticore still growled, but presented its paw. Twilight slowly walked up, trying to be as non-threatening as she could. Whether she was trying to not aggravate the Manticore, or Fluttershy, she wasn’t entirely sure. Her hand lit up with purple magic and she started to direct it into the limb.
“Now, why were you acting out? What happened?” Fluttershy asked the Manticore, drawing its attention off of Twilight so she could work.
It growled and gave a weird half-snort and half-whimper.
Fluttershy gasped. “What? Oh no!”
“What? What happened?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy turned to them, looking badly rattled. “It’s the Shadows. They’re attacking everything in the forest,” she whispered. “His family was caught in it, and he lost his mate. He was hiding with his daughter, and we were approaching the hiding spot.”
Applejack’s eyes widened, and she felt her heart clench. Her eyes narrowed and she snarled. “She’s tearing families apart?!” she growled in rage. “I’m beginning to think Twi’s got the right idea here!”
A hoof on her back made her flinch, but she calmed when she realized it was Pinkie Pie, giving her a sad smile. After a moment, she responded with one of her own.
“We need to hurry.” Sunset said into the sudden silence. “Our absolute goal is to find the Elements before Nightmare Moon and get back to Canterlot with them. The Princess will know what to do then.” Her eyes roamed the faces of everyone gathered, and she sighed. “I know you want revenge,” she said, more to Twilight than anyone. “I understand. Believe me, I do… but this is more important. Nightmare Moon is causing death and destruction on a level not seen in hundreds of years. The Elements of Harmony are the only thing that we know can stop her. Recovering them intact is our primary goal.”
Twilight frowned, but kept her focus on the leg, carefully pulling the Manticore’s hide over the stump and quickening his healing factor.
Everyone agreed with her, some a bit hesitantly, and when Twilight was done and the Manticore was on its way, they resumed their trek deeper into the woods. Some a bit more determined to have a go at the Nightmare.
“So… you were Princess Celestia’s student?” Rarity asked after some time, not liking the quiet that settled over the group. They were currently walking along the only path that they had so far been able to find.
Twilight nodded. “I was taken in by the Princess and made her personal student in magic when she saw how powerful I was, and my inability to control that power.”
“Is that why your horn is shattered? She broke it to try and prevent you from casting magic?” Sunset asked, suddenly interested in the conversation.
“No. This,” She touched the stub of her horn. “... happened after I hopped dimensions. Thankfully, I was unconscious when it did happen.”
“Isn’t there a way to restore it?” Applejack asked, curious. “I think I heard about that in the news one day, some mare discovering the means to restore a broken horn through technology.”
Twilight shrugged. “If it’s possible, I didn’t know about it. I vanished two years ago and only returned a few days ago. Besides, that world I was in did this to me. It’s some kind of natural defensive mechanism that limits the ability to use energy, like magic. If my horn was restored there, it would have just been shattered again.” She paused, and then held up a hand and let her magic visibly swirl around it. “Besides, that’s what this body is for. It allows me to channel my magic through my limbs just as well as if I did it with my horn.
“You guys have been asking me questions about myself, but what about you?” she suddenly asked. “I know your names, and that Applejack owns that farm, but that’s it.” ‘And that Fluttershy can be very scary.’ She kept that last part to herself.
The group of ponies looked at each other, trying to decide who should go first. Rarity finally spoke up. “I suppose that’s fair, dear.” She swept her mane back. “My name is Rarity Belle, as you know, and I am the owner and sole employee of the Carousal Boutique. I design clothes for a living.”
“Any goals for you future?” Twilight asked curiously.
Rarity’s eyes sparkled and she grinned. “I want to be known world-wide as a pony that anyone who is anyone simply must know.”
“So… a Noble?” Applejack asked.
“Yes! Quite so.” Rarity nodded at Applejack.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “And suddenly, my respect for you has vanished.”
Rarity blinked. “What? Whatever do you mean?”
Applejack opened her mouth, but Twilight interrupted her. “I think Applejack is a bit jaded in terms of Nobles. If she owns that farm, then I think it’s safe to say she has likely dealt with the, to be blunt, pure idiocy some Nobles can display when it comes time for taxes.”
“Some?!” Applejack spat to the side. “I ain’t met a Noble yet that ain’t some moneygrubbing politician who thinks anyone who does an honest day’s work is too filthy and “low-born” to deserve respect!” she exclaimed with some rather impressive venom.
“Really?” Rarity asked, looking a bit confused. “I’ve never had any issues with Nobles come time for tax season…”
Twilight groaned, already seeing where this conversation was going. She decided to head it off. “Fluttershy! How about you? What do you do for a living?”
Fluttershy squeaked, actually squeaked, at the sudden attention, and tried to hide in her mane. Rainbow Dash spoke up for her.
“Fluttershy takes care of the town’s animals for free, as well as the animals that live around her home. She’s pretty much our local veterinarian, just… not officially,” she said.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Free? Not officially?” she asked.
Rainbow Dash cringed. “She’s… well, I can’t get her to actually enter the Mayor’s office. The entire building is usually so full of ponies that she’ll start having a panic attack. I usually handle delivering her tax work for her. Unfortunately, Mayor Mare won’t let Fluttershy be registered for a Veterinarian license unless she personally shows up to fill out the paperwork.”
“Hence the free service. She can’t be paid for it unless she has a license,” Twilight concluded, remembering that lesson from her time as Celestia’s student. She looked at Rainbow Dash. “What about you?”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “I’m Rainbow Dash, and I manage Ponyville’s weather team. It’s my job to make sure the Pegasi in Ponyville keep the weather on schedule, and to clean up any wild weather living so close to the Everfree causes.”
“Impressive,” Twilight nodded. “Any dreams?”
Rainbow Dash’s grin shrank for just a very brief moment, but Twilight caught it just before the grin became almost blinding. “Yeah! I’m going to join the Wonderbolts one day!” she exclaimed.
Twilight noticed Fluttershy wilting in on herself momentarily, and wondered if perhaps there was a story there. “I see.” She decided to leave it alone. It wasn’t really her business to pry in something that wasn’t offered. She looked at Applejack. “You?”
Applejack smiled and tipped her hat slightly. “Ahm Applejack, and I manage the workers of Sweet Apple Acres, the best darned Apple Farm you’ll ever find. Granny Smith owns the property itself while my brother, Macintosh Apple, manages most of the paperwork.”
Twilight nodded. “No plans for the future?” she asked.
Applejack shrugged. “Not really, no. The farm is my life, and the entire reason I got my Cutie Mark. I’m likely gonna do the same thing Granny did and grow old on that farm,” she said with a wistful smile.
"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, looking at the eternally smiling mare.
"I'm Pinkie Pie, the partienest party pony you'll ever meet! I help the Cakes run Sugarcube Corner, and one day I want to hold a party for aaaaaaall of Equestria!" she declared with a wide grin.
Twilight leaned towards Applejack. "I'm fairly certain that's not possible... She's going to try anyways, isn't she?" she asked.
"Welcome to Ponyville," was all the farm mare said in return.
Twilight looked at Sunset. “And then there was one. How about you?”
Sunset grunted. “Sunset Shimmer,” she said.
Twilight waited, and then frowned. “What do you do?” she asked.
“None of your business.”
Everyone blinked at the rather harsh response.
Twilight sighed. “Okay." 'Not like I’m a paragon of openness myself,' she thought to herself.
“Speaking of…” Rainbow Dash started. “What about you? We know your name and that you were the Princess’ student, but what else is there?”
Twilight paused to consider that.
She hadn’t actually meant to turn this into a second round of introductions, just learn a bit more about the ponies travelling with her. She had no intention of telling them about herself and leave her open to manipulation.
But then… she wasn’t in Tartarus anymore, was she? Paranoia was all well and good, but she had to draw a line somewhere, or risk killing someone who didn’t deserve it. ‘I guess I could tell them a bit about myself,’ she relented.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, likely former student of Princess Celestia. I was a Unicorn that loved to study magic before the accident that sent me to another dimension. Magic back then was everything to me,” she said. ‘That should be enough, and it’s nothing that a look through the Archives won’t reveal anyways.’
“Any dreams or goals?” Applejack asked.
Twilight chuckled. “Heh, until recently my only dream and goal was getting back home to Equestria. No dreams, not yet anyways.”
Applejack nodded after a moment. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“Hey, can I ask what those things are you keep using? I think you called one a gun at one point. What’s a gun?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight smiled a little more. Now this was a subject she was happy to talk about. “Right, so magic was a little hard to use in the dimension I landed in, and my horn was shattered anyways, so I had to learn how to defend myself another way. That was when I was introduced to the wonderful world of firearms, a technology that makes use of controlled explosions to propel a small object, the bullet, at such a high speed that it blows through most materials with ease. Very dangerous, very lethal, and very much needed for survival back there.”
Everyone listened as Twilight began regaling them with her first training session in using pistols, and the many, many nights she spent nursing an injury or two because of improper handling. She even pulled out the pistol that they had seen her use, a modified revolver that substitutes the standard ammo with her own solidified magic, and displayed how it worked and the shells that contained her solidified magic.
“There are three rules you should always remember when handling a gun,” Twilight said, almost lecturing. “Rule one; always handle a gun as if it was loaded. This means don’t treat it like a toy. Don’t point it anywhere but where you intend to shoot and don’t assume it’s empty. The last thing you want is to shoot yourself in the foot… er… hoof on accident because you thought it wasn’t loaded.
“Rule two; always be aware of what’s behind your target. Because of how fast a bullet is moving it more than likely is going to pierce whatever you hit. That means the one behind your target will get hit as well.
“And finally, rule three.” She glared at a rather sheepish looking Pinkie Pie. “Never handle a gun you have no training in using.”
“…sorry,” Pinkie said, rubbing the back of her head.
“Honestly, Pinkie! You saw me put a hole through a tree trunk with that thing not five minutes before you somehow stole the gun from me. What possessed you to look into the barrel?” Twilight asked in exasperation.
“I was curious!”
“That’s no excuse!” Twilight blew up. “You knew it was a lethal weapon! How does “Let’s point the end the bullet comes from at my face,” sound like a good idea?!”
“…It doesn’t,” the party mare admitted after a moment.
Twilight breathed in slowly, and then let it out. “No, it doesn’t.” She looked around at the group. “Let that be a lesson to you five as well. All weapons are dangerous, and should never be handled unless you either have the training to do so or no choice in the matter.”
Everyone nodded carefully, not quite willing to have her ire focused on them
Twilight sighed again, seeing the discomfort her rant had caused. She supposed she should at least say sorry. “Look, I jus-”
“Look!” Rarity exclaimed, pointing ahead.
Everyone turned to see what had the fashionista in tizzy, and found a cliff. Specifically, there was a boulder rolling towards them from down the cliff.
‘How did we miss that?!’ Twilight asked herself in surprise. “Scatter!” she ordered out loud, grabbing the suddenly terrified Fluttershy and diving to the right.
Everyone dove either left or right, with Rainbow Dash taking to the air, and the boulder rolled past them harmlessly.
Hesitantly, they stepped back on the path, looking both at the boulder as it rolled away, and the cliff that they all had missed. Twilight voiced their confusion first.
“I’m… not the only who didn’t notice the cliff… right?” she asked slowly.
“No, sugarcube. I don’t think any of us even realized it was there,” Applejack said.
“Incoming!” Rainbow Dash called, pointing behind them. They all spun around… and stared. The boulder was rolling towards them now.
Uphill.
“It’s magic!” Twilight realized, almost face-palming at the obvious nature of the phenomenon. Raising her hands, they lit with violet magic as she exerted her power and will.
The boulder hit a wall of shimmering purple force, creating a crashing sound. The wall, and Twilight, slid back from the force of the hit. Unfortunately, instead of stopping the boulder, it just started spinning faster, putting more force against Twilight.
Twilight grunted, but didn’t budge. Her eye flared with purple light, and a somewhat visible hand made of magic grasped the boulder. She growled and clenched her fists.
With an otherworldly shriek, Twilight noticed a dark mist exit the boulder just before it was crushed into gravel.
Twilight slumped, her hands going to her knees as she panted. “Hoooo,” she exhaled. “I keep forgetting Alicorn magic is a step above what I’m used to dealing with.”
“Then that was…?” Sunset began.
Twilight nodded, standing up straight. “Yeah. I saw a mist similar to Nightmare Moon’s mane leave the boulder just before I crushed it. If she didn’t already know we were here, she does now.”
---
Nightmare Moon was pulled from her meditation by a piece of her power returning to her possession, bringing with it memories of its time separated from her. She had created it, and many more like it, as a scout to search the forest for the Elements of Harmony. She could feel their Harmony magic, but the Chaos Magic of the forest diluted the signal too much to pinpoint a location. Hence, searching the old-fashioned way. Well, old fashioned for a unicorn at any rate.
Her eyes narrowed and she called up a divination spell, searching for the potent power of the hybrid that had fought her to a stand-still in Canterlot. A circular screen of magic appeared in front of her, and she saw her suspicions confirmed. There was the hybrid, walking along the path to the ruins in the forest with five other ponies.
She cancelled the divination spell with a grunt. “Hmph. It seems Harmony doesn’t have its claws wrapped as tightly around her heart as I had assumed. Curious.” She turned around and grinned at the only other occupant of the room. “Wouldn’t you say, my dear?”
Spike, his body bulging with muscle, but ultimately unable to move due to the mystical chains binding him spread eagle against the wall, growled at her.
Nightmare Moon stood and walked towards the dragon. “Now, now. None of that. As you just saw, your guardian is not the caring mother figure you always saw her as anymore. She has chosen to forsake you in return for a race she does not even belong to anymore. Wherever she was before she shattered space and time to return, it has made her as ruthless as any dragon lost within their avarice.”
Spike spat in her face. “Even if that was true, I still refuse to believe she doesn’t love me.”
Nightmare Moon frowned, using her magic to burn the saliva away in an instant, but then sighed. “Oh, very well. I suppose it was too much to ask for a willing minion.” Her horn ignited with powerful magic, and she began sending it into Spike’s body. Her grin became sadistic as he roared in outrage and agony. “This should break whatever will she has to fight me,” she mused, reaching deep within Spike’s very soul. After finding what she was looking for…
She twisted.
Spike’s eyes snapped open, glowing with crimson light. A roar that shook the very ground ripped its way from his throat.
Twilight frowned as she and her friends came upon what looked like a swamp. “I don’t like this,” she said, bringing the group to a halt.
“What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying up next to her.
“Look at where the forest ends and the swamp begins,” Twilight said, point at said area.
Rainbow Dash looked, but didn’t see anything wrong. She looked back at the others to ask if they saw anything weird, and saw Applejack looking at that spot with a strange look. “AJ?” she asked.
“Twi’s right,” Applejack said after a moment. “Look. There’s a clear line between the forest and the swamp. That’s not supposed to happen. It’s supposed to be gradual change.”
Twilight nodded. “Meaning we’re dealing with one of two things; the chaos magic in the Everfree Forest causing random and abrupt environment changes… or a trap.” She looked around. I don’t know about all of you, but I’m assuming trap. This happens right after Nightmare Moon figures out we’re here? Definite trap.”
“But… what do we do then?” Fluttershy asked.
“Leave it to me! I’ll fly over and scout out a safe route!” Rainbow Dash saluted, flying off. Or she would have, if Twilight hadn’t snagged her tail on the way by. “Hey! What gives!?” she complained.
Twilight just raised an eyebrow at her, then looked at the sky over the swamp. Rainbow Dash followed her gaze, and her expression drooped when she saw the furious looking thunderclouds that were almost pitch black. “Oh…” she mumbled weakly.
“So… ideas?” Applejack asked around.
Twilight grinned. “Well, she went to the trouble to make us feel welcome. I say we accept the invitation,” she said, beginning to walk towards the swamp.
Everyone stared at her like she was crazy. “Um… why?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight stopped and turned to the group. “We know it’s a trap now. The trap won’t be nearly as effective when it springs, as we’ll be ready to counter it.” Her eye took on a predatory gleam. “Besides, I’m not about to let some smoke and mirrors get between me and my prey,” she said cheerfully.
Then she spun around and resumed her march into the swamp.
After a moment, Sunset made to follow. “She’s right. Any trap that’s magical in nature will lose a lot of its power due to the fact that we are expecting it.”
That said, everyone also followed.
The moment they all stepped over the line separating forest from swamp, they were consumed by darkness. Everyone but Twilight froze. Twilight bent over and picked up a moderately sized rock, roughly the size of her fist, and touched a glowing finger to it the rock started glowing like a miniature sun. Using telekinesis, she directed it above the group, but frowned when she noted that the magical light was unable to pierce the darkness beyond roughly five feet.
She looked at her friends and shrugged. “If a darkness spell is the best she can do, I’m going forward.” She turned around and put action to her words. The others followed closely, remaining within the border of the light.
“What is this? Shouldn’t there be some light from at least the Moon?” Applejack asked.
Twilight nodded. “Yeah, but Princess Luna, and in turn Nightmare Moon, gains her power from the aspect of Darkness, so she may be trying to set the stage for a confrontation.”
Rarity wrinkled her nose. “Aspect of Darkness? No wonder she’s evil. She must have been born that way.”
Twilight came to a sudden stop and turned to Rarity, her eye stern. She opened her mouth to speak, but paused. Then she sighed. “No, it’s not that important. Too much is happening right now to get into something like that.” She narrowed her eye at Rarity, making her flinch. “We will be having a discussion about this afterwards however.” That said, she turned and continued marching.
Rarity blinked. “Um… okay?” she half asked, half confirmed.
Sunset glared at Rarity, before walking away in a huff. Even Rainbow and Applejack looked upset with her, walking past with a frown.
Confused, Rarity followed.
---
After some more walking, something interesting finally happened. That something interesting was, perhaps predictably, Rarity screaming.
It was the third time since entering the dark swamp, so everyone was more exasperated than anything when they turned to her.
“What now, Rarity?” Applejack grunted.
Rarity, looking far more fearful than disgusted, pointed a shaking hoof ahead. “L-l-look!” she managed in a stuttering voice.
Everyone turned, and froze solid. Then they all collapsed into a heap, their eyes open wide in terror. The stone that was emitting light fell to the ground with a thud, flickering out.
Nightmare Moon materialized from the darkness, smirking in triumph. “That should distract them for now,” she muttered, before she collapsed into a mist of dark blue magic, shooting off to return to her primary body.
---
Rarity whimpered as a variety of nobles critiqued her spring line of clothing. Words such as “disgusting,” “abomination,” and “terrible,” were only some of the many that were being passed around like chips.
This was a terrible idea. Why had she thought a lowborn such as herself could ever be on their level?
She started shaking, fighting valiantly to not break down, when she spotted Princess Celestia scowling off to the side at a rack of dresses.
Her hope lifted somewhat when her mother stepped through the door. That hope died a horrible death, alongside her control, when she instantly became disgusted with what she was seeing.
She felt her legs give out, and didn’t even bother to stop the tears.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
Applejack lay on the ground, motionless save for her rhythmic breathing. The rain didn’t even make her twitch. The thunder didn’t even make her glance away. The ponies trying to comfort her couldn’t even get her attention.
Eventually, they all gave up on her and left her there. Applejack didn’t care. She continued to stare at the headstones.
Orange Jack Proudest Father of Them All
Sweet Apple Mother Before All Else
Applejack sobbed, but forced herself to continue.
Apple “Granny” Smith Immortal in Wisdom
Princess Celestia had personally added that line, revealing that her and Granny Smith had been friends, and had even surprised Celestia a few times with her wisdom. The world was a darker place without her.
Macintosh “Big Mac” Apple The Trunk of the Tree
Applejack gave a wet smile, knowing just how true that was. Quiet as he was, he was the backbone of the family, the one that was always holding it all together. She didn’t know what to do without his support.
Applebloom The Benevolent Huntress
In a way, it was true. Applebloom was almost single-minded in her determination to hunt down her destiny. But even then she never passed by a pony in need of help. She was just that sweet.
Applejack sobbed again, once again cursing the inferno that had taken them all. The farm was gone, nothing but ash now. Not even their bones had been spared, so the graves had been planted on the ruins of the house.
Applejack had nothing left. No home. No work.
No Family.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
Fluttershy stood at the entrance to her new home, tears leaking from her eyes. It still hurt, even days after everything had happened.
Why had she tried? She knew she was too terrified, but… well, the drive to make someone proud of you could be a powerful motivator. So she had tried, despite knowing was likely going to mess up badly.
If only she had known how badly.
The Weather Factory was in ruins, Cloudsdale was lucky to still be in the air, and Rainbow Dash…
Rainbow Dash was devastated. In the process of saving her, Rainbow Dash had lost control of her magic, and the resulting explosion of weather magic had nearly destroyed Cloudsdale’s ability to remain cohesive.
Worse, the blame fell squarely on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders. Reckless, careless, and unable to see the consequences of her actions. Those were the claims of the ponies in charge when they discovered Rainbow Dash’s attempt to bind her own weather magic for training. It was what led to the explosion, yes, but only because of her distress loosening the binds.
Fluttershy knew that if she had just not tried to impress her friend, leading to the failure that had caused Rainbow Dash to save her in the first place, her friend wouldn’t have been forbidden from ever taking up residence in a Cloud Settlement again. That ban also meant she couldn’t become a Wonderbolt, as they were required to live on site in Cloudsdale.
The worst part wasn’t any of that, though Fluttershy felt horrible about it al. No, the worst part was when Rainbow Dash blamed her for everything, and told her she never wanted to see her again.
That was the last that Fluttershy had heard from her. That was two years ago. She had decided to move to Ponyville to escape the pain and the memories.
But they persisted, even here. She had no one. She could barely leave her home without having a panic attack. She feared the world, and the world cared nothing for her.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
Rainbow Dash hit the ground again, and slowly stood up. She growled and flared her wings out. She leapt, flapped her wings… and fell.
She groaned and let her head drop.
Spitfire, off to the side, frowned. “Any time you’re ready, Cadet,” she urged.
“I’m… trying!” Rainbow growled, once more standing up and leaping upwards, flapping her wings. She ended up eating cloud again. “Grrrr! Why isn’t this working?!”
Spitfire finally shook her head. “Look, this is obviously just a waste of not only your time, but mine. I only take the best, and a defective Pegasus who wasn’t supposed to even be able to fly in the first place isn’t the best.” She turned around. “Go home, kid, and rethink your dreams. The Wonderbolts don’t want you.”
Rainbow Dash had frozen when Spitfire mentioned how she wasn’t supposed to be able to fly. No… There’s no way… It was supposed to have been healed!
She looked over her shoulder, and what she saw confirmed it. Her wings were thin, frail, and the feathers particularly unhealthy looking.
Rainbow Dash felt her heart hit somewhere around her stomach. Then she stood and tried again to fly, as if to deny what she was seeing. She took a running leap, right over the edge of the cloud, and flapped as hard as she could. She threw everything into it.
She dropped like a rock.
As she fell through the sky, she couldn’t stop herself from sobbing. “Noooo…” she moaned.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
Sunset panted as she slumped to the grass in the clearing. This sucked.
It was child’s play for a unicorn of her level to realize she was under the effect of a Nightmare Enchantment, but that, unfortunately, did little to help her.
Even though she knew it was a spell, there was a reason this spell was so hideous. It didn’t use illusions. It used very real fear that was buried deep within the victim’s psyche, fear that most ponies didn’t even realize they had. Worse, it messed with your perception, making you believe it was all real, and kept doing it even after you realize the lie.
So Sunset was having trouble remaining lucid, and had in fact fallen beneath the surface of her subconscious more than a few times, and every time she did, her will to resist was battered just a little more by the words.
Words had great power, and when spoken by ponies you respected greatly, those words could be the best or worst thing you ever hear.
Hearing Princess Celestia ruthlessly command your execution for treason hurt. Hearing her parents tell her to never darken their doorstep felt like a sword to the heart.
Hearing Sunburst disown her as his sister damn near shattered her.
As the spell once more dunked her under the miasma of fear, she knew this was likely the one that would break her. And she was right. Because there, standing tall and proud was the one being she respected above all others.
“You deserve nothing!”
And she knew.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
Twilight sat crosslegged with her hand in her lap, eye closed and magic shimmering on her hands. A barrier of rose light surrounded her, keeping the murky miasma away from her.
Most of her mind had already been affected, but she had just managed to lock down her core personality and emotions within her soul, then throw up every mental defense Tirek has taught her. It was holding.
Barely.
While the emotions that the enchantment created couldn’t reach her, that didn’t stop her from seeing the images and hearing the sounds. And hearing Celestia, her parents, and her brother calling her the worst kind of monster was… painful. Yes, that was one of her worst fears. She would come back to Equestria, only for Princess Celestia to declare her a monster and either have her killed, or returned to Tartarus.
Cracks formed in the shield, and Twilight grimaced. If she didn’t think of a way out of this, and soon…
This was going to be her worst nightmare.
---
“Demon!”
“Monster!”
“Find her!”
“Burn her!”
Pinkie… was not happy. She shook her head, trying to ignore the sounds of the mob outside of Sugarcube Corner. It wasn’t easy, but she managed.
It helped that she had experience.
“I guess I should have known better than to let them seem me do that, huh?” she murmured to herself.
Pinkie knew she wasn’t normal, had known since the day she got her Cutie-Mark. She snorted at that. Yeah, when a rainbow explosion in the sky grants you instant insight into your destiny, you really should have realized something was wrong. She always knew she was different. But she chose to not let it bother her. She chose to believe in the good of ponies.
Her parents had been rattled by the revelation of her abilities, but in the end they had accepted her and loved her. That alone was Pinkie’s most treasured memory, and the reason she knew this wasn’t real. She had seen her parents out there in the mob, a mob they wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Unfortunately, the acceptance ended there. Five towns, two cities, and a nomadic tribe. Those were the places she had been run out of because of her abilities. She had been a jittery mess when she arrived in Ponyville, but had found it her to hope one last time. She was thrilled when they had, albeit hesitantly, let her in after the revelation that she wasn’t normal.
Sure, there were uncomfortable looks at first, but this town was amazing when it came to accepting the unusual. In time, Pinkie and her strange reality bending abilities were just another aspect of the town.
And woe to any who would try and run her out of town. Ponyville was created on the foundation of family and friends, and they protected their own.
But sometimes there would be nightmares. Sometimes Pinkie relapsed. Sometimes… sometimes the past was too much.
She knew this wasn’t real, but terror gripped her heart nonetheless. She was trapped, she was hated, and she was fighting desperately not to give in. Giving up was not how to change how ponies viewed you.
“And yet, here you are, cowering away like some little filly.”
Pinkie frowned. That voice was… different from the other voices.
“Where is she?”
She who? Pinkie stood up, her mane straight as a nail. Who was this voice looking for?
“She really is a lovely mare. Brave, bright, brilliant, and never lets a friend suffer. Unlike you.”
“My friends are important to me,” Pinkie muttered in disagreement.
"Then why are you cowering here, knowing they need you?
"I'm not a coward..."
“Oh? But you already know how to stop this, so why haven’t you?”
Pinkie shuffled her hooves nervously.
“You’re scared. You think you know what will happen.”
“It’s happened every other time. Why would now be different?” she asked reasonably.
“You admitted it yourself. Ponyville has an amazing ability to adapt.”
Pinkie didn’t have an argument to that.
She felt a hoof on her back, pushing her forward. “Fear has no real hold over you, and you know it. Face it.” Pinkie let herself be led to the door. “Stare it in the face. Remember every single face that needs a smile, every friends that needs a light.”
The door opened, revealing the angry mob outside. There were even pitch forks and torches. Been a while since Pinkie saw that. She felt herself smiling, her mane and tail curling.
Okay, so she was a little scared… but when has that ever stopped her from doing what she loved?
“And then you say...”
“Who wants a PARTY!?” Pinkie cried with an ecstatic grin, twisting space and making her party cannons appear and belch confetti and candy.
The anger and fear was gone, and in its place was the entire town partying like no tomorrow, just being happy.
“Ah, there she is. Like I said; brave, bright, brilliant... and willing to do anything to make a friend smile.”
This was her worst nightmare…. But Pinkie decided nightmares could politely go and buck themselves.
---
In the real world, one pink mare’s eyes snapped open, glowing with brilliant blue light.
Applejack looked up, having to wipe the rain, which was falling in a torrential downpour, from her eyes, and found Pinkie Pie standing there. She was holding out a hoof, smiling sadly. “Pinkie?” she asked, voice raw.
“You can’t stay out here forever, you know.” Pinkie said.
Applejack looked back at the headstones, and felt her spirit get crushed all over again. She laid her head down. “I got nowhere to go. Leave me alone Pinkie,” she muttered.
Pinkie reached for Applejack, but was intercepted by a hoof, which she could see through.
“My granddaughter said to buzz off!”
Granny Smith stood… er… floated in front of Pinkie, looking stern.
“Leave me sister alone!”
Applebloom appeared next to Granny Smith, glaring.
“…”
Silent as a breeze, Big Mac appeared next to Applebloom, gaze determined.
And behind them, standing watch over Applejack’s prone form, was her parents. They watched the encounter with impassive eyes.
Pinkie blinked. “Why are you getting in my way?” she asked.
“Applejack said she doesn’t want to be bothered. So scram!” Granny Smith declared, waving her cane threateningly.
“But she needs my help!” Pinkie tried to reason.
“We don’t care! Leave!” Applebloom said forcefully.
Pinkie frowned. ‘This… isn’t like the Apple family,’ she thought. Said thoughts were put on hold when she had to frantically avoid Granny’s projectile cane. It flew by her harmlessly.
“Hey! I didn’t even do anything!”
“Leave.”
Pinkie froze as the large shadow of a stallion far bigger than he had any right to be fell over her. She gulped. “Bic Mac?”
“Yep.”
“I can’t leave. I have to help Applejack,” Pinkie said, not turning to face the stallion. She wouldn’t put her back to Applejack.
Big Mac frowned.
“And why do you think you can help our daughter?” Sweet Apple, Applejack’s mother, spoke up.
Pinkie felt a twinge in her heart. It had been a long time since she had heard the voices of Sweet Apple and Orange Jack. “I… She’s my friend. I have to be there for her.”
Orange Jack, Applejack’s father, quirked an eyebrow. “It doesn’t seem like she wants your help. The friendly thing to do would be to let her grieve in peace.”
Pinkie paused at that. He wasn’t wrong, but at the same time…
“I don’t care,” she said, frowning at the ghosts of Applejack’s family. Ghosts that shouldn’t even exist, since most of them were still alive. “If Applejack wants to grieve for your deaths, that’s fine, but letting her do it alone is wrong. She should be surrounded by her friends and family when she does.” She glared at the spirits. “None of which you are!”
Rearing up, she stomped her hooves, eyes glowing with blue light. A shockwave of powerful magic billowed outwards, shredding the illusions standing in her way into wisps of dark blue mist.
Only Orange Jack and Sweet Apple remained, the wave of blue magic having passed through them harmlessly. Pinkie glared at them in defiance as she approached. Applejack yelped when the pink mare forwent permission and just grabbed her, throwing her over her back.
“Hey! What in tarnation are you doing!?” she yelled, struggling.
“Helping my sister,” Pinkie said, marching away. The rain started to let up.
Applejack froze, and slumped. “We’re cousins at best, Pinkie,” she sighed. It was an old argument, since it was never determined whether or not the Pie family were a branch of the Apple family or not.
“Don’t care. I say you’re my sister, so you’re my sister.” She paused, and then continued. “You’re family, and family doesn’t abandon family.”
The rain became a drizzle.
Applejack felt herself tense, and then she laughed. She was also crying, but she didn’t care. “Oh man, I’m really out of it, ain’t I? Can’t believe I forgot.”
Pinkie shrugged. “Pain does that,” she said.
They looked at each other.
“Blood is thicker than water…” Pinkie started.
“Family is thicker than blood,” Applejack finished.
They vanished in a flare of blue light, leaving behind not an ashy rain soaked field with five graves, but rather a sun drenched hill, on top of which only two headstones sat. Both were well cared for.
---
Applejack’s eyes opened, and she rolled over, getting her hooves under her. She brought a hoof to her head. “Ow…” she muttered. “Somepony better stop ringing that bell…”
Pinkie smiled at her cousin, and then moved over to Rarity. She placed her hooves, glowing with a blue aura, on her friend’s side.
Applejack approached, watching.
---
Rarity felt a hoof on her back and looked up. She grimaced, imagining that her make-up must have been an absolute mess.
But seeing Applejack standing there smiling at her made her forget about makeup. “Applejack?” she asked curiously, rubbing at her eyes and standing up. “Are… are you here for the spring reveal as well?”
“Nah, not really my thing. Though Pinkie seems to be having a good time.” She pointed a hoof.
Rarity turned, and her eyes widened at the sight of Pinkie modelling one of her light blue jean jackets. Celestia and a few other faceless nobles were oooohing and aaaahing at the design.
Rarity watched as Pinkie went from dress to dress, and every noble she passed had a blue light wash over them, before suddenly they couldn’t get enough of the various pieces on display. They loved the clothes. They loved the designs.
They loved her work.
Pinkie passed Rarity’s mother, and had to dodge the hoof that made a grab for the outfit she was wearing. Rarity’s mother looked livid. “No! I refuse to allow you to plant ideas beyond her station in my daughter’s head!” she growled.
Rarity’s grimaced at the rebuttal, but before she could fall apart Applejack enveloped her in a hug.
Pinkie looked at the pink Unicorn, squinting. “You’re… Rarity’s mom?” she asked curiously.
The mare straightened. “Yes. I am Fashion Wishes, and I work in Manehatten as a store clerk.”
Pinkie nodded. “Right, right. So… why aren’t you supporting her?” She pointed at Rarity, who looked surprised at the sudden attention.
The pink mare sniffed. “My daughter fails to understand that nobility is a class that will never give her the time of day, no matter how great she thinks she can become. She was lowborn, just like all of her family, and that will always dominate her life.”
Pinkie scoffed, and that really surprised Rarity. She didn’t think the eternally grinning mare had it in her to scoff. “Maybe you’re right,” she consented, which twisted Rarity’s heart. “Maybe she never will accomplish her dream.” Rarity bravely held back a sob, looking down. “But I don’t care.”
Pinkie stomped a hoof. The world seemed to shudder, and Rarity looked up in confusion. Fashion Wishes looked surprised.
“She could want to be a singer in a seedy bar for all I care. That’s her choice.” Pinkie leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “What I care about is that she’s my friend.” Her hoof lashed out, grasping Fasion Wish’s shoulder like a vice. “I’ll always be there for her. She wants to sing? I’ll be cheering at the front of the crowd. She wants to farm? I’ll help her plow the fields with a grin.” Her hoof erupted in an inferno of blue light, and Fashion shrieked in pain, leaping away. “She wants to design clothes and try to be an elite? I’m going to stand next to her and make sure she knows she always has somepony rooting for her every step of the way.”
Fashion hissed, and Rarity felt herself beginning to smile. She returned Applejack’s hug.
Pinkie grinned at the nightmare creation. “And no illusion is going to stop me from helping my friends enjoy their passion,” she declared, her eyes glowing.
Fashion Wish shrieked in sudden pain again, and then exploded in a burst of dark mist. Pinkie blasted it with blue light, making the remnants vanish completely.
The world shattered.
---
Rarity awoke with a gasp, and found Pinkie and Applejack standing over her. She looked back and forth between them, eyes almost wild. “Did that… What…?” she muttered, confused.
Her confusion increased when both mares hugged her. “I don’t know if any of that was real,” Applejack started. “But I’m with Pinkie. We’re your friends, Rarity, and you can always count on us to support you.”
Rarity smiled and returned the hug. Pinkie pulled back after a moment and moved to Rainbow Dash. They both followed, laying their hooves on her shoulder as Pinkie put her own glowing hoof on Rainbow Dash’s chest.
Rainbow Dash continued her numb tumble through the endless sky. Every so often she would look over her shoulder, see the crippled wings of her nightmares, and fall deeper into depression.
“Wheeeeeee!”
Said depression was shattered by the ecstatic cry of a ballistic party pony. She only had a moment to look up in confusion before she was bodily tackled. “Pinkie?” she asked, confused, as they tumbled in the air momentarily. Yep, Pinkie was holding onto her in a hug, yelling in glee. “What… how are you up here?” she asked.
Pinkie Pie, predictably, grinned at her. “This is fun!” she exclaimed, before letting go of Rainbow Dash. Then she started posing next to the rainbow maned Pegasus as they fell.
“…I’ll be the first to admit that I’m uncomfortable…”
Rainbow looked over and found a rather nervous Rarity falling next to her as well. “Rarity?”
“Well, the ground ain’t actually getting closer,” came a familiar southern twang.
Rainbow somehow turned in midair to see Applejack looking down at the distant ground, more curious than anything. “AJ?”
“Hiya Dashie!” Pinkie said, entering her field of vision. “C’mon, you try!” she said, doing a triple summersault that ended, somehow, with her tied in a knot. “Heh, whoops.”
“But… my wings…” Rainbow tried to say.
“They look fine to me, sugarcube.” Applejack shrugged.
Rainbow looked back at her wings in hope, but sighed when they still looked crippled. “I can’t…”
Applejack looked at her. “Now that don’t sound like RD at all. Can’t? My friend didn’t know the meaning of the word,” she scoffed. “Sounds to me like yer scared.”
Rainbow felt a twinge in her heart, and for a moment she wanted to deck Applejack for saying that, but then she sighed.
Applejack frowned at her. “You really did become a scaredy cat, didn’t ya?” she asked.
Rainbow glowered at Applejack, but Rarity grinned in mischief before she could say anything. “Oh my, the big bad Greatest Flyer in Equestria… and she can’t even flap her wings,” she mocked.
“Stop it…” Rainbow grumbled.
“Why? Ain’t like you can reach us to do anything about it,” Applejack pointed out. “Cowards can’t fly, after all.”
“I’m not a coward…”
Applejack and Rarity grinned at each other, then leaned in towards Rainbow Dash. “Then do something about it,” they said in unison.
Rainbow Dash swung at them with her hoof, missing completely as they were too far away. “C’mere and I will!” she growled.
“Eee’nope,” Applejack said, mimicking her brother. “Gonna have to come to us, Miss Chicken.”
Rarity blew a raspberry at her, shocking Rainbow Dash for a moment. Then she screamed and tried to lunge for the white unicorn. It would have worked if she had any kind of traction to lunge at her with. “Shut up!”
Applejack spun around and slapped her flank. “Come and make me!” she called.
Something in Rainbow Dash snapped. With a cry of anger and a flare of weather magic, the Pegasus flapped her wings and hit Applejack like a bullet.
The world lurched, and suddenly they were tumbling along the ground. They came to a stop with Rainbow Dash pinning Applejack to the ground. The Pegasus grinned. “Got’cha!” she crowed.
Applejack also grinned. “Yep. Welcome back, RD,” she said warmly.
Rarity trotted up with Pinkie Pie. “Good to see you back to yourself, darling. I apologize for egging you on.” She shook her head. “Not the most becoming way for a lady to act.”
Rainbow Dash looked at them in confusion, but then she realized something. She had used her wings to get to Applejack. She looked over her shoulder, and was ecstatic to see her wings were exactly as they should be. Strong, healthy, and completely unequaled.
She grinned at her friends. “Thanks guys,” she almost whispered.
Pinkie nodded, smiling. Then her eyes flashed blue, and they disappeared.
---
The four awakened friends gathered around Fluttershy. Joining hooves, they let Pinkie guide them into their friend’s nightmare.
---
Fluttershy started at the feeling of a hoof on her back. She looked up. But found no one there. “H-hello?” she asked timidly, looking around.
Another feeling of a hoof on her back had her spin around, but, once again, no one was there.
Cruel, horrible laughter rang in her ears. She found herself standing on cloudstuff, surrounded by dozens of faceless green Pegasi. They were all pointing and laughing at her.
She instantly sank down into the cloud, trying to hide herself from them… but she couldn’t block out the laughing. The mocking. The jeers. The insults.
The blame.
She wasn’t like normal Pegasi. The skies were as uncomfortable for her as the ground was for young fliers. The ground was the only place she could truly relax, whereas other Pegasi were antsy unless resting on a cloud or a mountaintop.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered, not for the first time.
“I hate you.”
Fluttershy gasped, her eyes snapping up to that horribly familiar voice. She found Rainbow Dash standing not five feet from her, glaring hatefully at her. “Rainbow…” she whispered.
“Shut up! You don’t get to say my name!” the polychromatic mare yelled, getting in Fluttershy’s face. Fluttershy yelped, trying to backpedal. “It’s your fault! If it wasn’t for you I might have had a chance!”
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whimpered, feeling herself back into a wall that wasn’t there before.
Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof into the wall next to Fluttershy’s head, making her squeak in fear. “No you’re not! If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have made me save you in the first place!” the mare roared.
Fluttershy only whimpered. But then she gasped, feeling something on her back again. Blue limbs wrapped around her, holding her warmly.
Fluttershy looked over her shoulder, and realized that the wall she had backed into was not a wall, or that it was no longer a wall. Rainbow Dash smiled down at her. The rainbow colored Pegasus, the real Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy realized, was crying. “I’m so sorry, Shy. If I had just known… I’m sorry. I never should have said those things.”
A pained yelp drew their attention back to the other Rainbow Dash. She was now sprawled on the cloudstuff, holding a hoof to her bleeding nose as Applejack and Rarity, both looking angry, approached her. Applejack had blood on her hoof.
“You…!” Fake Rainbow Dash snarled. “How can you protect her?! She nearly caused Cloudsdale to be destroyed!”
Rarity and Applejack paused, glancing at Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“A lot happened that day,” she whispered, though her friends could hear her easily. She hugged Fluttershy tighter. “I said some things I didn’t mean. I was angry, and hurt, and… and terrified.” Her head bowed, and shadows covered her eyes. “I betrayed my best friend in the worst way possible… and had the audacity to pretend none of it happened the next day.”
“It was her fault! If she was just a normal Pegasus, none of it would have happened at all!” Fake Rainbow Dash said, surging to her hooves and diving for Fluttershy.
Rarity and Applejack caught her between them bringing her to a stop.
“The only thing Fluttershy is guilty of is being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Rainbow Dash said, moving so that she was between Fluttershy and her double. “It’s our fault. All of it was our fault. We were warned that tampering with our magic like that could be dangerous.”
“Nothing would have gone wrong if she wasn’t there!”
Rainbow nodded. “Perhaps,” she admitted, drawing a strangled gasp from Fluttershy and stern looks from Rarity and Applejack. “But then again… do you blame a child for their mother dying in foal birth? Do you blame the Sun for burning the desert? Do you blame the Moon for making a cold night?” Her eyes became flinty. “No. Fluttershy can’t be blamed for not knowing she was in danger.”
Fake Rainbow Dash struggled to find words, to think of another thing to blame Fluttershy for. She was, however, unable to. She eventually went limp, seemingly giving up.
Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy and smiled at her. “Can you forgive me, Shy? I should have apologized, but I didn’t, and this happened because of it. I’m sorry for hurting you like that, and for thinking ignoring the fact that I hurt you would make things better.”
Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to do. Rainbow Dash had said some very harsh words to her that day, and then had pretended like nothing had happened the next day. On one hoof, Fluttershy had been relieved that it was apparently the end of that incident. But… on the other hoof, she had been terrified that Rainbow Dash would leave her if she set one hoof out of line.
But this…
Her eyes teared up and, choking back a sob, she dived into Rainbow Dash’s arms. Her words were unintelligible, but Rainbow Dash understood. She wrapped her wings and legs around Fluttershy and closed her eyes, resting her chin on her friend’s head. “Thanks, Shy. Just… thanks.”
“No!” came Rarity and Applejack’s startled voices, and Rainbow Dash’s head snapped around.
Fake Rainbow Dash was flying towards her with a snarl of absolute hate… and pitch black eyes with red irises. Her wings were crackling with uninhibited weather magic. Rainbow Dash reacted on instinct.
She covered Fluttershy protectively and braced.
“Nope.”
Pinkie Pie appeared between the two Rainbow Dash’s. Eyes and hooves both glowing with blue light, she grabbed Fake Rainbow Dash by the hooves.
“Argh!” the illusion shrieked in pain, the blue light licking at her hooves like fire. Suddenly, she exploded in a burst of dark mist.
The world broke.
---
Fluttershy awoke slowly, and was startled when she was yanked into a hug.
“I’m never going to abandon you, Shy. Never. I hope I can prove that to you one day,” Rainbow Dash said, holding her friend close.
Fluttershy just grabbed her oldest friend and squeezed in response. The world still terrified her… but it wasn’t so dark anymore.
Twilight was on her hands and knees at this point, dripping with sweat, and flexing and un-flexing her hands as she tried to both maintain the rapidly wavering barrier around her, and ignore the sounds of coming from everywhere.
“Twilight Sparkle, you are found guilty. Guards, take this monster away.”
She knew her fear well. It was one of the many tests Tirek had given her. Discover your deepest, darkest fear… and conquer it. It was meant to shatter one more chain of weakness on her, to make her into a better tool for the Centaur Lord.
“Stay away! Get away! Guards! GUARDS!!!”
Tirek had submitted her to this very spell to test her, and if there was only one good thing that came from it, Twilight knew her own fears like the back of her hand. She had conquered it with time and training.
“You’re no daughter of mine. You’re just a demon.”
So why was she struggling now? Well, that answer was actually simple.
For as powerful and well-read as the Centaur Lord was, he would never, ever be on the level of the master of the mind arts. When it came to magic that dealt with the mind, Nightmare Moon was the undisputed best in nearly all aspects of it. Tirek’s best attempt at the Nightmare Enchantment would be akin to Nightmare Moon twitching an ear.
“I’m not a monster…” she muttered to herself, clenching her hands again.
She shivered. “I’m not…”
Crash!
With a suddenness that completely caught Twilight off guard, her shield shattered. In a matter of moments, she was swallowed by the darkness.
And then she was standing in front of Celestia, in the throne room of her castle in Canterlot. She felt her heart drop into her stomach when she realized Celestia’s eyes were wide in horror… and she was holding the sword that had pierced the Princess’ heart.
She quickly let go and backed away, her own eyes wide in horror. She looked at her hands.
They were red, soaked with blood.
“Princess! No! Get that thing!”
Twilight whirled around and started at the sight of at least twenty royal guards flooding the throne room, all of them enraged. She didn’t blame them.
She spun around and dashed in the opposite direction… only to find herself now standing in the center of an unfamiliar room, surrounded by dozens of featureless bodies. Once more she was holding her light sword, but upon closer examination, it was different. Blood dripped from it, and the blade was a pitch black that seemed to absorb light. An aura of purple and green darkness flickered around it like a flame.
Looking up, she found a full body mirror before her, and staggered backwards at the sight of her reflection.
Her body was covered in dark violet fur, her mane a waving nebula of purple so dark that it was almost black, and her eye was shining with red light. Behind her, a set of leathery demonic wings twitched. She was grinning sadistically, showing an unhealthy amount of bloody fangs.
Pure unadulterated rage raced through Twilight’s veins, and she lashed out, striking the mirror with an enraged cry. The mirror shattered, sending shards of glass everywhere. The sharp pain of glass piercing her flesh snapped Twilight from her sudden rage, and she took a moment to calm down.
Said calm failed when she was suddenly standing in a bedroom. A very familiar bedroom. Her eye widened as her blood ran cold. “No…” she whispered.
She was back in Tartarus.
Twilight started hyperventilating as she examined her room. Her room in Tirek’s castle. Her room in Tirek’s castle that was in Tartarus. Doubt surfaced in her mind, seeing the runic formula scrawled on the floor that was supposed to have sent her home. It was smoking, denoting recent use.
It hadn’t worked, Twilight realize with cold dread. Her only way home hadn’t worked. Five years of research, of careful alchemical manipulation, and frustrating artifact retrieval.
Wasted.
“It seems like you failed.”
Twilight turned and came face to face with Tirek. He was grinning. “Oh well,” he said with a shrug, before his hand lanced towards her neck. Twilight only had a moment to numbly notice a metallic glint before something cold and hard clicked closed around her neck.
Then magic rushed from her new collar and forced her to her knees.
“I have allowed you to play your games for long enough. Tartarus is impossible to leave once you enter. From now on, you are my slave. Let this be a lesson,” Tirek grinned. “No one escapes my grasp.”
She felt the fight that had fueled her for twenty years drain from her body. Her drive, her desire, her motivation… it all vanished in the face of crushing realization. She would never get home. She would never escape.
She was, forevermore, a denizen of Tartarus.
This was her worst nightmare.
---
“Ready?” Pinkie Pie asked her friends as they crowded around Twilight.
She was getting tired, fast, and wasn’t sure if she’d have the energy to save both Twilight and Sunset. Considering how dangerous this forest was without living shadows terrorizing it, she decided Twilight was the one they had to save next.
Everyone nodded, and Pinkie smiled at them. Then, with her friends all holding hooves to her back and shoulders, she placed her glowing hoof on Twilight’s chest.
---
Twilight numbly walked through the castle corridors, making her way to the front gate so as to complete her new assignment. It was rather standard, some demons trying to put together a resistance against Tirek’s rule. Her job was to locate the leaders, kill them, and then locate the ones funding the leaders and kill them too.
She brought a hand to her neck. The cruel, cold metal of her new collar forced her to remember that she was now a slave. Not only that, but a magically bound slave. She could only escape if Tirek intentionally removed the collar.
Not happening.
Sighing, she continued her walk.
“Wha’cha doing?”
“Not now Pinkie, I’m busy,” Twilight mumbled, walking past the pink pony.
She froze, her eye steadily widening. Then, slowly, she turned around. Yes. Pinkie Pie, alongside most of the rest of the group she thought she had dreamt up, was standing there. Pinkie was grinning like a loon, her eyes glowing blue.
And then she remembered, and her eye narrowed. The Nightmare Enchantment. Fear, fueled by emotions drawn from the victim. She snarled and grasped the collar, pulsing her magic. With a shriek of metal, she tore it from her neck and hurled it down the corridor.
“I’m starting to hate her,” she growled, facing the group.
Pinkie just walked up to her and grabbed her hand with her glowing hoof. Twilight managed a small, relieved smile as she watched the world begin to twist and contort. She looked at Pinkie. “Thanks,” she whispered.
The world faded away.
---
Twilight opened her eye, starring up at the night sky. It narrowed and, silently, she promised to make Nightmare Moon suffer when she got a hold of her.
Alarmed, Twilight and Rarity had both begun running magical scans. It did not take long to determine the problem.
“Her body is dangerously low on magic. She’s running on fumes, really,” Twilight said.
Everyone blinked. “Er… how would one run on gas, Twilight?” Rarity asked, her concentration dropping momentarily in light of the confusing statement.
Twilight frowned. “I’ll explain later,” she said. “I’m more interested in why her magic’s not recharging.”
Rarity frowned, seeing that Pinkie’s magic was, in fact, not restoring itself. “How peculiar…” she mused. She examined Pinkie with her eye, hoping it would give her a clue.
Then she noticed it. “Correct me if I’m wrong… but does Pinkie seem smaller to you?” she asked.
Twilight blinked. “Smaller? How so?”
Rarity pointed a hoof. “Look, you can see her ribs. And her legs are almost rail-thin!” She seemed to shiver. “Why, she’d look ridiculous in any kind of dress! It would look like the dress was supported by four twigs!”
Twilight ignored Rarity’s lapse in priorities and focused her magic on something other than Pinkie’s magical reserves. She started to examine the mare’s various systems. Specifically, the metabolic system. She had a hunch, and what she found confirmed it.
She leaned back with a sigh. “Pinkie Pie, you complete and utter fool!” she growled after a moment.
Everyone looked at her in confusion, and she noticed. “Pinkie Pie used up all of her magic long before she got to me. I’m not sure when exactly, but I know she had run out at least once before she saved me.” she explained.
Rarity, being educated in the particulars of Unicorn physiology, even if not to a masters level, instantly connected the dots. “Oh my!” she gasped, her hooved flying to her mouth in shock. “She didn’t… did she?”
“What? What happened?” Applejack and Rainbow Dash asked in unison.
“This is a problem that normally only crops up in Unicorns," Twilight explained. "It's because they have a better ability to consciously control their magic… well, for the most part,” she added on, remembering her own unique circumstances way back when. “Though I have heard of cases where it cropped up in Pegasi who push themselves too hard fighting weather..." She shook her head to refocus. "Anyways! Sometimes a unicorn will expend all of their magic, but be desperate to accomplish something, so they’ll keep trying. Their body will subconsciously trigger a metabolic process that greatly speeds up its ability to metabolize nutrients, turning them into more magical energy. Afterwards, the user is obviously very hungry, almost starving.”
“But conscious,” Applejack noticed the discrepancy.
Twilight nodded. “Yes. That’s because the body will automatically stop this process when it runs out of safely usable nutrients to metabolize. However, this can be overridden if the Unicorn in question is both desperate enough and doesn’t care about how it will affect their health. That means the body will start cannibalizing itself, turning whatever material it can into magic, starting with the least necessary things for survival, such as fats, and working its way up.
“If this process is kept going long enough, the body will eventually have nothing left to give, and usually it will enter a coma to try and preserve itself. The problem is that by this point the user has no magic left, and no nutrients to make magic with. The body is constantly trying to produce magic through normal means so it can begin to heal, but can’t produce any.”
She looked at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “The body needs magic to heal, but there’s no magic to be had. Until this gets resolved, the Unicorn remains comatose. This is called Metabolic-Thaumaturgic Lock.” She looked at Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie sacrificed a great deal of her own body mass to power whatever magic she used to save us, and now she’s stuck in a coma until she gets some magic running through her again. Once she’s awake, she’ll need to eat immediately to begin the recovery cycle.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
“Is… is there anything we can do for her?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight sighed. “What Pinkie needs is a magic transfusion… but not only do none of us have a magical signature similar to hers, we don’t have the necessary equipment to do it.”
Everyone drooped, feeling hopelessness settle in. Twilight gave a derisive chuckle. “Heh, magical signatures. You know, all of this,” she motioned to her body. “Happened because of an experiment I was doing… on… signature corruption.” Her eye widened as, slowly, and idea formed in her mind. She spun to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow!” she barked, startling the Pegasus into attention. “Go find me a stone, something relatively flat and smooth. It needs to be about a foot and a half in diameter.” Rainbow Dash hesitated. “Go!”
The polychromatic mare scrambled off, and Twilight turned on Rarity. “Can you etch runes?” she asked pointedly.
Rarity blinked. “Well… a little, yes.”
“Do you have an etching quill on you?”
Rarity frowned. “I… Yes, I believe so.” She pulled off her saddlebags, rummaging through them.
“What can ah do?” Applejack asked, assuming Twilight had thought of an idea to save Pinkie.
Twilight looked at the flora around them. “How good are you at foraging?”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Ah’m a farmer, Twi. An apple farmer, granted, but one of the first things we learn is how to survive wild for those poor seasons.”
Twilight nodded. “Go dig up some food for Pinkie. If this works, she’s going to wake up voraciously hungry, and we need to feed her a lot to kick-start her magic.”
“Found it!” Rarity crowed, pulling a blue colored quill from her saddlebag as Applejack wandered off. “Will this do, darling?” she asked, presenting it to Twilight.
Twilight took the quill and inspected it carefully. It was fairly old, but well-kept at the same time. Twilight wondered if it had any sentimental value to Rarity. The important thing, however, was that it would work. “This’ll work,” she nodded at Rarity, smiling in thanks.
After a moment of waiting, Rainbow returned with a disc-like stone. “This good, Twi?” she asked.
Twilight grabbed it. “Perfect.” She looked at Rarity. “Can you give me some light while I work? I need to focus on this, and can’t spare any concentration on an illumination spell,” she requested.
Rarity nodded, and touched her horn to a loose nearby rock, and then making it float over Twilight’s head, glowing with a good amount of white light.
Twilight put quill to stone, took a deep breath, and let it out. “Here we go,” she breathed. Then she started etching the one rune formula she would never be able to forget in her life.
The magic-neutralizing formula that, when overloaded by her Surge, had sent her to Tartarus.
After half an hour, Twilight finally leaned back and stretched. She looked down at her work. The entire surface of the stone was covered in what looked like random lines and circles and symbols to the others.
“So… what is it?” Rainbow Dash asked, curious how a stone with a bunch of nonsense on it would save Pinkie.
Twilight handed the quill to Rarity as she answered. “It’s a rune array, one I designed and developed with the help of an old friend of mine,” she said, picking the stone up carefully. “What it does is take magic pumped into it and strip that magic of any and all signature, making it neutral magic. It was meant as an aid for high-tier spells requiring both a lot of power and perfect precision.” She gave the stone a somewhat mild look. “It’s also what sent me on my cross-dimensional trip.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. “Then… why are you using it on Pinkie?”
Rarity added her two bits. “And how would that help Pinkie? You can’t absorb magic that’s not the same as, or close to, your signature. It would be like drinking acid.”
Twilight nodded. “True, but Pinkie’s soul will influence the neutralized magic, giving it her signature and making it perfectly usable.” She placed the stone on Pinkie’s chest. “And don’t worry, the rune won’t do to Pinkie what it did to me. Not nearly enough magic will be going in to it.” She paused at that. “On an unrelated note, has Pinkie ever displayed symptoms of her magic acting independent of her wants?”
“Nope,” Applejack said, stepping into the clearing with a bunch of vegetables on her. “In fact, Pinkie’s the only Earth-Pony I know that has a secondary affinity in Space-Time. It's what lets her warp around the town so often. Pisses the Unicorns off something fierce, since it’s an incredibly rare affinity that’s only ever been in Unicorns.”
Twilight glanced at her, before resuming her examination of the stone. She was making sure everything was right. “I’m surprised you shared that with me. I could use that against her, you know.”
Applejack dropped the vegetables on the ground, making sure it wasn’t a muddy spot first, and shrugged. “Ah’ve been watching you since we met. Call me paranoid, but survival brings out the worst in Ponies. I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t backstab us.”
Twilight nodded. “Understandable,” she agreed.
“While ah doubt you’re the altruistic type, I think I have a good enough read on you to confidently say yer not gonna just betray Ponies for your own benefit either.” The farm mare concluded.
“My benefit? No, I wouldn’t,” Twilight admitted. “But then… I already proved I’m willing to sacrifice children, haven’t I?”
Applejack scowled. “I hate that. There’s so much wrong with that situation it’s not funny… but in the end, ya made a choice. I don’t think I’ll ever like you because of it… but I understand why you made the choice.”
“Good,” Twilight said firmly, making Applejack and the others look at her in surprise. “I’m not a good Pony. I’m not even a good person. I have had to learn to rely solely on myself while I was gone. I’ve done a lot in the name of survival… and some of it I enjoyed.” She looked at Applejack, her eyes flat. “Never trust me completely… because I can’t say for certain whether or not you’ll regret it.”
Silence remained afterwards. Everyone considered what Twilight said, and wondered what kind of experience would make a person believe they weren’t trustworthy, despite the fact that they were risking life and limb to stop a threat like Nightmare Moon.
“I… don’t believe that.”
Every eye in the clearing, barring Sunset’s for obvious reasons, snapped to Pinkie Pie, who was staring up at Twilight firmly from her position on the ground.
“Pinkie! You’re… awake?” Rainbow Dash half-asked, remembering that she shouldn’t be awake.
Twilight just sighed. “I’m beginning to suspect you like breaking all the rules,” she grumbled.
Pinkie managed a strained grin. “Rules are… no fun when all they do… is cause pain.” It was clear she was struggling to talk, let alone remain awake. She looked at Twilight in the eye. Slowly, her hoof came up and touched Twilight’s arm. “You’re… not a bad Pony… It’s all a choice… Just… choose good.”
Her eyes flickered blue momentarily, and Twilight felt a sense of peace wash over her. For a moment, she was in Pinkie’s own mind, and feeling the happiness the mare felt at meeting her. It shocked her that anyone would be happy to meet her.
And then it was gone, Pinkie’s hoof falling to the ground. She swore, feeling Pinkie’s already dangerously low magic reserves vanish completely. “Dammit! You stupid idiot!” she exclaimed, alarming the others.
“Pinkie? Pinkie!” Applejack shouted, rushing to the mare’s side. “Twi, what happened?! What’s happening to her?!”
Twilight’s hand ignited with magic, and started sending a large flow of magical energy into the stone on Pinkie’s chest, making the runes light up with white light. “This stupid mare just used the last of her magic to try and convince me she was right! Ugh! If you weren’t near-dead, I’d brain you with my shotgun!” she threatened, glaring at the pink Pony.
“Um… what’s a shotgun?” Fluttershy asked, and went unheard.
“Hang on, things are about to get uncertain.” Twilight whispered, rushing to push magic into Pinkie through the stone. She couldn’t afford to take her time now, not with how fast a Pony dies when their magical core is completely emptied.
She just hoped the stone could handle the stress.
---
Celestia sighed as she stared at the armor on the stand in front of her. She ran a hoof along the ancient metal. It shined as if it was still brand new. Such was the nature of armor bonded to the soul of an immortal.
“How long has it been?” she wondered to herself. “So much has changed. The world is different now… but…” She sighed again. “So much has changed, but war? War never changes. Right, sister?”
Celestia turned towards Nightmare Moon, who looked nonplussed at being discovered. It was a hologram, but still.
Nightmare Moon eventually chuckled. “I keep forgetting that, while I have always had the better control at magic, you were no slouch either.” She frowned. “No, war doesn’t change. It never will. The nature of war is progression. It exists for the sole purpose of reminding mortals why their peace is so great.”
“And yet, here you are waging war. I’ve seen the Shadows, sister. I’m not naïve enough to believe you would only antagonize Canterlot with them. I’m sure the death toll has already reached the hundreds. But you talk as if you still despise war, so… why? Why go through all this?” Celestia asked, gently rousing her magic and making it connect to the armor behind her.
Nightmare Moon scoffed. “This was never about war, sister. This has been, and always will be, about achieving my rightful place as the ruler of the Night.”
“That’s what you were before all of this madness!” Celestia argued. “You were the Princess of Dreams! The Guardian of the Shifting Sands!”
“I was unwanted!” Nightmare moon roared, startling Celestia. “I was a Princess her subjects only wished to see dethroned,” she continued more calmly. “I represented the unknown to them, and instead of trying to learn about me, they declared me a monster and abomination.” Nightmare Moon’s eyes glowed red. “Fine. They want a monster, then I decide they shall have one!”
Celestia looked away, guilt rushing through her veins. “… I’m sorry,” she almost whispered.
Nightmare Moon’s gaze softened briefly. “…I wish I could believe that, sister. I truly do… but I can’t.”
With that, Nightmare Moon’s projection vanished. Celestia slowly dropped to her knees, her head falling. Tears fell to the cold stone floor. “…I’m so sorry…”
Celestia stared at the armor, not moving from her place on the floor. The encounter with her sister played through her head.
There was a time when Luna was the wise one between them. Though… perhaps she still was. This all wouldn’t have happened, after all, if Celestia just hadn’t been so… so… Well, she wanted to say arrogant, but the fact was that it was important.
“Celestia... Sister… Can we speak?”
“Not now, Luna. I need to get this sorted before we wind up with a Civil War right on our doorstep.”
There was a sigh. “I understand.”
That was, Celestia was sure, where it started. She had turned her sister away. It was for an important reason, yes, but said reason could have waited to hear out Luna’s woes. It wasn't arrogance, no. It was neglect.
Technically, Celestia was just doing her job, but that didn't help either. She also had a job to look out for her younger sister.
Her gaze wandered to the armor again. The Aegis of Rulers. A cursed armor, both terrible and necessary. Only three times in her incredibly long life had Celestia ever wore the black and gold armor. Only once did she wear it in Equus.
“Your Highness! Please! You know what it will do to you!”
“…I’d rather lose everything I am, than watch that monster torture my sister any longer. Wouldn't you do the same for your family, Chancellor?”
"Well... yes. But... Your Highness...
She remembered the warnings all too well. She hadn't cared.
"Celestia, Celestia, Celestia. When will you learn? I would think you of all beings would know a change in armor won't stop me."
"..."
"Wait... No! How is this possible!? Get back! Get away! Stop! Please!"
She still remembered his face, and her imprisoned yells, as her magic crushed him alive.
‘How far has this gone, that I’m even considering it?’ Celestia thought to herself, standing and approaching the armor. ‘…I don’t know how long I can hold off, Twilight. If this isn’t resolved soon, I don’t think I’ll have any other choice.’
---
A good distance away, Twilight was oblivious to the Princess’ prayers. With Pinkie depleting her magic to nothing as she had, Twilight had no choice but to play hard ball with Chance, and pray she didn’t end up dooming them all.
She lucked out in Tartarus, relatively. If the rune failed and sent her flying across dimensions again, she may end up anywhere. A world that was worse. A planet that was barren. Outer space… Even the surface, or the inside, of a star. And she may end up dragging the others with her this time.
So she prayed, and opened the floodgates.
A shockwave rippled outwards, causing the gathered ponies to flinch. Then they watched in amazement as Twilight, Pinkie, and the rune-inscribed stone between them lifted off the ground. Magic was pouring from Twilight almost explosively, and it was all being directed into the stone.
A thick purple stream of magic began flowing into the rune array, which was glowing solid white, and then send an equally thick stream of grey magic into Pinkie’s chest. Already, Pinkie seemed to be doing better. Her coat was regaining color, and her mane was becoming poofier.
But she didn’t wake up. On top of that, the stone was beginning to shake from the strain of having so much magic pushed through it. Twilight clenched her muscles, despite knowing it wouldn’t have an effect on her magical output. ‘C’mon…’ she urged inside her head.
Nothing. She wouldn’t wake up. Despite her magical levels rising, despite her body physically beginning to recover… Pinkie Pie wouldn’t wake up. Twilight’s heart began to drop into her stomach, an terrible numbness overtaking her body. The flow of magic into the stone thinned.
Unbidden, a memory flowed through her mind.
“Your job, Twilight Sparkle, is to kill. When I say, you will slit throats. When I command, you will smash skulls. When I demand, you will decapitate bodies. When I’m done with you… you will be nothing more than my personal killer. My Dog. And killing will be the only thing you can do.”
‘He was right,’ Twilight realized, her flow of magic almost completely petering out. She closed her eye. “Tirek was right,” she whispered.
Twilight glanced at her. She noticed the wariness. At this point, she was beginning to fall into her own dark thoughts. ‘She’s wary of me. She’s scared of me.’
No one noticed the shifting of shadows near a tree.
“Twi? Is Pinkie okay?”
Twilight looked at Pinkie, who, oddly, was still floating, surrounded by an aura of grey magic. She noticed her own magic still flowing to the stone, albeit slowly. It was darkening. ‘Is that… Dark Magic?’ Cold realization mixed with the numbness in her limbs. ‘Is that why she won’t wake up? I killed her?’
She looked at her hands. In her eye, they were no longer purple, but a dark, bloody crimson. ‘I killed her. He was right. I can only kill.’
Applejack stopped, noticing the aura of magic around Pinkie shift. It flared, squirmed, and then it changed color, becoming blue. Pinkie’s eyes, despite being closed, began emanating a blue glow.
Another memory flashed through the haze building in Twilight’s mind, slicing through the dark thoughts like the Light Sword through the Shadows.
“Rules are… no fun when all they do… is cause pain.”
“You’re… not a bad Pony… It’s all a choice… Just… choose good.”
She remembered the joy. Pinkie felt joy. And it came from meeting her.
Twilight eye turned to Pinkie. “Rules…” Her gaze slowly hardened with determination. “That’s right. You break the rules. You’re doing it now, for crying out loud!” She swore she could hear Pinkie giggling at that. “You know what? Screw the rules!” She stood up and pointed her hands at Pinkie, palms out. “I’m done playing to the tune of others! The rules…” She called on her magic. It came easily… easier than it ever had. “Can go…” Her eye and hands began glowing with magic. White magic. “To Tartarus!”
The shockwave of magic came again, but this time it was gentle, like a midsummer breeze. An extremely thick stream of radiant magic lanced outwards and completely overwhelmed the stone. It shattered in a blast of stone shards. This would have been worrying, if the stream of white magic hadn’t connected with Pinkie’s blue aura instantly and without any problems. The aura flared… and started grow.
Sunset’s eyes fluttered open after the wave of white magic passed over her. She sat up with a groan, just in time to witness what happened next.
“Get back here right now, Pinkie! I’m not letting you kill yourself just to snap me out of it!” Twilight yelled, the magic roaring from her hands and eye intensifying .
“Hmm… No, not yet. This isn’t what I need, but… there is potential,” a strange, deep voice filled Twilight’s mind, before vanishing. She ignored it.
A second shockwave lashed out, this one a little rougher, and Twilight was lifted from the ground. Her eye and hands blazed with brilliant white flames of magic, and her teeth were bared in bloody determination, unwilling to let a soul like Pinkie’s pass on now. The world would be a much darker place without a light like that.
“I said…” she started. The magic flared one more time, brighter, bigger, and all-encompassing. “WAKE UP!!!” Twilight roared.
Everything went white. Everyone yelled in shock and tried to scramble away, but they were engulfed.
---
Nightmare Moon shrieked as the partition she had observing the group was violently returned to her body. “How!?” She cried in outrage. “How is she using… no,” she stopped herself, thinking. “It’s not the Elements of Harmony. But it’s close." She growled. "I think it’s time to take the kids gloves off.”
She turned to where her latest project was growling and grumbling. She grinned. “Time for a little family reunion.”
Twilight’s return to consciousness was not an easy journey. She was in a good deal of a pain, and it was a familiar kind of pain. The kind of pain one can only get from magical burnout. Her body had recently channeled so much power through it that it had been stressed to the point of nearly falling apart.
Why had she done that?
Oh, that’s right. Pinkie Pie was dying...
Twilight jumped to her feet, her body instantly awake from the fear for a friend that had run through it. “Pinkie Pie!” she exclaimed.
“Whoa nelly! Easy, Twilight, you’re hurt!” a familiar southern twang interrupted her worry, and a hoof landed on her shoulder. It said a lot that she was familiar enough with the owner of the hoof to not immediately try and bisect her on instinct.
“Applejack?” she asked, looking at the farm pony. At that moment she fell to her knees, her body spasming from pain. “Ngk!” she grunted, using her hands to prop herself up.
“See, ah told you!” Applejack admonished. “Lay down before you make it worse!”
Twilight waved off the hoof trying to gently push her down as she panted. “But… but Pinkie Pie… She was…”
“She’s fine.”
Twilight heard those words and felt a knot in her chest unravel. She relaxed… and fell on her face. She groaned.
“Rarity says you burned out your body channeling as much magic as you did,” Applejack explained, carefully turning her over. “If you haven’t destroyed your ability to use magic, she says you’ll be fine with a couple days of rest.”
Twilight breathed a little heavily as she tried to ride out the pain in her body. After a moment, she asked a question. “Pinkie Pie’s okay?”
She saw Applejack nod. “Yep. Pretty well done in and not feelin’ too hot, but she’s certainly in better shape than you.”
Twilight sighed in relief. “Thank the Stars…” she breathed.
Applejack walked towards a campfire, which Twilight noted had a pot suspended over it by some branches. Applejack began stirring the contents, and Twilight belatedly realized something smelled delicious. Her mouth actually started watering.
‘When was the last time I had something to eat other than that nutrient crap Tirek forced on me?’ Twilight wondered.
Applejack noticed the look and grinned. “Ah’ll admit, I’m pressed for ingredients… but if this don’t light yer fire ah’ll eat my hat,”
Twilight flushed at being caught staring and looked away. To distract herself she examined the area. Pinkie Pie, covered in a blanket and apparently napping, was curled up near the fire. Twilight smiled at the gentle rising and falling of her chest. Near her was an empty bedroll with Applejack’s supply pack laying on it.
Rainbow Dash was also napping on her own bedroll, though it was fitful. Applejack saw where she was looking. “RD was born for the sky, and has issues sleeping on something solid like the ground.” Applejack waved a hoof skyward. “She tried to use a cloud, but she just kept falling through them the moment she fell asleep.” She smirked. “We all got a good a chuckle at her swearing at the forest. Apparently the chaotic magic of the Everfree was pranking her.”
Twilight chuckled at the imagery that conjured. She continued her examination, and found Fluttershy sleeping… in the branches of a tree. She blinked. Once again, Applejack explained. “Shy’s a mare that’s right at home in nature. In fact, some folks in town like to joke that she would have been happier being born a tree than a pony.” Applejack shrugged. “I don’t rightly know how a pony can sleep in a tree inside the Everfree myself, but more power to her.”
Twilight shrugged as well after a moment, and continued scanning the area. After a moment she realized a couple of ponies were missing. “Where’s Rarity and Sunset?” she asked.
Applejack nodded towards the forest. “Rarity’s scouting ahead to find another place to make camp. It’s usually either her or RD. We can’t stay in one spot too long or we’ll attract predators… or worse.”
“And Sunset?”
Applejack scowled, surprising Twilight. “Hay if ah know,” she huffed
Twilight blinked. “Well, I guess she is a bit of a bitch, but I didn’t think she was that bad. What did she do?”
Applejack’s scowl softened. “...It’s hard to say what’s wrong. She just been… off. Like something about her just ain’t right anymore. What’s worse is that ah seem to be the only one that feels that way.” She worried her lip. “...Do you… think I’m crazy, sugarcube?” she asked.
Twilight blinked again, before she frowned. “Have you ever been in a situation where the only choices you had were bad ones?”
Applejack frowned in confusion. “Er… pardon?”
“You know, an impossible choice. You have to pick one, but they’re all bad choices, paths that equally make your heart wrench at the very idea of doing them. Actions that you would label another as a monster for doing.” Twilight’s eyes went a bit distant. “There’s nothing else. You have to choose between the bad choices.”
“... Ah can’t say I’ve ever had that kind of choice placed on me. Why?”
Twilight stared at her hand, her other hand reaching up to her eyepatch. “... Life is hard. It’s not fair, and more often than not you get the raw end of a deal. I’ve made so many choices, Applejack, that I’m constantly scared that I’ve twisted and warped my soul into something unrecognizable… something horrid. The fact that I’ve become desensitized to it all says I’ve gotten used to a lot of those things.”
Twilight suddenly clenched her fist, her eye sharpening and burning with determination. “You’re scared you’re insane? I’ve been insane. I’ve been physically and mentally tortured for the better part of twenty years, and I know for a fact it’s warped me. But I learned something during that torture.”
She looked Applejack in the eye, and the farm pony felt… something transfer between their eyes. Understanding? Pain? Iron will? She didn’t know. But it made her sit straighter, and made her doubts seem less prominent.
“I realized I was insane, that the pain and agony had made me snap… but nothing was really different.”
“Eh?” Applejack asked in confusion.
Twilight smiled. “I was insane… but my convictions were still the same. The way I viewed the world had been twisted into a sound that tasted like color, but the core of me didn’t operate on sanity or insanity, only conviction, determination, and the will to not be broken.”
She sighed, relaxing. “So what do you think? Are you going to let a doubt about your sanity stop you from doing what you think is right? After all, at the end of the day all we have is our convictions.”
After a moment, Applejack felt her doubts vanish and resolve steel itself. She nodded. “Ah’ll do what I’ve always done. I’ll believe in myself.”
Later, everyone was standing and stretching after the meal Applejack has made for them. In Twilight’s opinion, she had found heaven. Food that didn’t taste like crap! Definitely one of those things the Unicorn turned hybrid would have to get used to.
Twilight also noticed as they ate how Sunset seemed to be unusually focused on the campfire, almost glaring into it. Sunset had been almost antagonistic since Twilight had met the mare, but now she seemed to just be brooding. Something was definitely bothering her.
One surprise had been Pinkie being up and about shortly after the others had returned to the camp. Twilight shook her head. The mare was likely going to be breaking the rules regularly. May as well at least try and get used to it.
“So what’s the plan now? Has anyone found a way to the castle while I was out?” she asked everyone as they sat around the fire.
“We haven’t exactly been looking,” Rainbow Dash said. “Ever since you did whatever it is you did to save Pinkie, the Shadows have been hunting us relentlessly. Thankfully, they don’t seem to like light, so we’ve just been going camp to camp until you guys finally woke up.”
Fluttershy hesitantly jumped in. “We were hoping you would know what to look for,” she mumbled.
Twilight nodded. “The Castle of the Two Sisters is our destination, and is at the center of the forest. Celestia told me that anyone trying to find the Elements will be tested. She said the way to castle would only open up to those who pass the tests, and that said tests were powered by what remains of the Elements of Harmony. Nightmare Moon can get into the castle, but while she’s within she won’t be able to remember that it’s also the home of the Elements. Celestia was thorough with their protections.” She sighed. “I don’t get why she didn’t just lay a trap in the castle that would kill Nightmare Moon. Sister or not, Eternal Night is a slow and painful death for anyone not immortal.”
Applejack frowned. “I don’t like how your first instinct is to kill her. Surely she can be rehabilitated, right?”
Twilight frowned into the fire, and tossed a stick in to make it flare when she noticed the shadows at the edge of the clearing shifting. They retreated from the light. “The only good enemy is a dead enemy,” she started, drawing some gasps. “Dead enemies can’t come back smarter and more knowledgeable on how to beat you. Dead enemies can’t pretend to be good and then stab you in the back when you least expect it. Dead enemies,” she stopped, realizing she was beginning to raise her voice. She calmed, before continuing. “Dead enemies can’t play with your emotions.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “You were betrayed,” she said with certainty. She also looked into the fire, missing Twilight’s raised eyebrow. “I know that feeling,” she mused. “Just when you think you can trust someone, just when you’re sure they would never do anything to hurt you… they show you just how wrong it was to trust them.” she shook her head after a moment and looked at Twilight. “But that doesn’t mean no one is trustworthy. Maybe Nightmare Moon can change. After seeing the crap she’s pulled, I doubt it, but if we don’t try… well, how does that make us different than her? We’d just be killers of a different kind.”
“Besides, maybe the Elements will make her good again!” Pinkie declared optimistically.
Twilight and Sunset both shook their head. “That’s not possible,” they both said in stereo. After staring at each other for a moment, Twilight motioned for her to continue.
“Magic can’t change the core of a person like that,” Sunset began. “At least, not in a single instance. Magic can control the body, can force you to do things, but if you ever experience something like that you’ll find yourself as a prisoner in your own body, mentally screaming at yourself to stop what you’re doing. Magic can’t just change you on a moral and personal level.”
“Even Harmony magic can’t do that,” Twilight picked up. “There is nothing harmonious about doing what amounts to mental and emotional murder. I’m willing to kill… but not like that.”
“So all of this… is what Princess Luna wanted?” Rarity asked. “All this chaos and pain?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, Luna’s situation is a bit more complicated than that. She…” she stopped, her eye narrowing. Her ears twitched as she focused on her hearing. Everyone tensed as Twilight slowly reached for her sword at her side. “... They’re gone,” she whispered, her eye scanning the edge of the clearing she was facing.
“Eh…?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy eeped, curling in herself. “The Shadows… they’re not around us anymore!” she whispered, terrified of what could scare the constructs of darkness away.
Sunset’s eyes snapped skyward. “SCATTER!!!” she roared, diving away from the fire. Everyone followed a heartbeat later.
Something huge crashed into the fire, destroying it and sending burning wood everywhere, also kicking up a large amounts dirt and dust, effectively hiding what had landed there. Twilight shivered at the rage she could feel coming from whatever was in there. She drew her sword, but realized her hand was shaking. She frowned. ‘Am I… hesitating?’ she wondered.
A murderous red glow lit up within the dust cloud, and with a thudding whoosh, something blew away the makeshift smokescreen.
Everyone froze at the sight of dark violet dragon the size of a horse floating there, its great leathery wings flapping to keep it a few feet off the ground. Its eyes were pitch-black, except the red irises that were glowing with power and rage.
“Raaaaaaaah,” it hissed, steam escaping its mouth.
“Dragon!” Rarity finally managed to scream. “Run!”
Everyone but Twilight scattered in all directions. Twilight didn’t notice. She was staring into those red eyes. Something was… wrong.
‘Well,’ she thought. ‘Of course something’s wrong. The thing’s obviously consumed by wrath.’
The dragon roared again, and an aura of darkness flared to life around it. Twilight’s eye widened, and then with a burst of speed a creature that size shouldn’t have, the dragon was in front of Twilight and punching her in the face. The air reverberated from the impact, and she went flipping end over end.
Twilight’s arms lashed out at the ground, using magic to make her hands stick enough for a grip. Her feet also hit the ground and she started sliding. She winced, feeling her hand spasm from the use of magic. “Right, not recovered yet,” she mumbled to herself.
Hearing the whoosh of air being disturbed by something large moving fast, Twilight’s gaze snapped up and she jumped, legs raised as high as she could get them. The dragon just barely missed her. Grabbing her sword, Twilight flipped it and took aim, twisting in the air.
Then she paused, hand gripping the sword like a spear. Twilight stared up at the dragon with her one eye. ‘Why am I hesitating?’ she wondered.
She landed on her feet and stared at the dragon as it turned to her. They locked gazes, and it also hesitated. The red glow flickered, and Twilight saw a different color for a moment. Green. His eyes were green. She glanced down. His body was purple. A dark purple, but purple nonetheless. His underbelly was almost brown, the green coloring was so dark.
Purple and green scales, green eyes…
She paled. “No…”
The darkness flared, and the dragon roared. It unleashed a ball of black fire at her… and Twilight did nothing but stare emptily at the dragon.
A shimmering shield of blue and teal colored magic appeared between Twilight and the attack, tanking it valiantly. The shield shattered, but the attack was gone.
Twilight looked over and saw Rarity and Sunset, their horns glowing in unison. She looked the other way and watched the dragon. It glared at the two intruders.
The two unicorns ran in opposite directions, directing magic projectiles at the dragon as they went. They kept its attention divided. Twilight stared at the dragon as it batted the attacks aside with its arms. “She… wouldn’t. Not this much… right?” she mumbled to herself.
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said, flying over. “Come on, we need to go! We can’t fight a dragon!”
“But…” Twilight started, and then hesitated.
“They can’t distract it for long! Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight’s arm and pulled, trying to get her to move.
Twilight looked back at the dragon, just as it roared again, releasing a shockwave of darkness. The attack hit both Rarity and Sunset, knocking them off their hooves and sending them sprawling. Rarity, of course, shrieked like a banshee.
Instincts flared, snapping her from her daze. Twilight erected a shield and the shockwave splashed off of it harmlessly. She ignored the pain the action caused. Her gaze hardened and her lips pulled back into a snarl. Her magic began to waft from her body in a haze as her own rage began to affect her. “This…”
She extended her magical senses beyond her body, and found what she was hoping for. She turned to look at a seemingly random spot, above a nearby tree branch, and her eye began to glow with purple light. Her hair also beginning to wave in her magic, like static was lifting it from her body. All in all, she looked quite demonic.
“Run,” she said with a voice laced with rage and venom to the divination spell watching her and her friends.“Because when I find you…” She finished her threat by gripping the divination spell in her magic and crushing it ruthlessly. The backlash would leave the Alicorn with a migraine, which suited Twilight just fine. Then she turned her attention to the dragon.
To Spike.
‘Wrath magic is a subtype of magic produced by a dragon when experiencing the emotions of anger, rage, or hatred in sufficient quantities. Causes body growth, enhanced strength, and diminished ability to tell friend from foe,’ she recited in her mind. She examined the aura of darkness around Spike. ‘But that’s not what happened here. This isn’t Spike’s wrath. This is the influence of Dark Magic, and he’s generating it.’ Her eye narrowed.
She knew Spike would likely be killed by Nightmare Moon when she realized Twilight had broken the deal, and though it had hurt considerably to choose Equestria over his life, she knew that Spike, as an innocent child, would be welcomed within one of the various Pure Worlds with open arms. He would be cared for.
But this… this was too much, and right now Twilight wasn’t sure what to do.
Spike lunged for her. She reacted by reaching a hand out, and making a fist. Spike was halted immediately, a massive and nearly transparent hand of pure solidified magic grasping him. She grunted as he struggled to break free. She wouldn’t be able to hold him for long, especially not with the burning pain that was building in her body.
‘What can I do? If it was just wrath magic, I could fight him until he exhausted himself, but Dark Magic will keep him going, making him stronger as he loses himself to it more and more.’ Her mind raced, struggling to come up with a plan.
“Twi?”
Twilight looked over and down, spotting her friends standing there, Applejack having been the one to speak. Twilight paused. ‘Friends? When did I start considering them my friends?’ she mused.
“Twi, you’re crying,” the farm mare pointed out, looking plainly worried about that concept.
Twilight unclenched a hand, wincing as she felt her fingernails leave the cuts they dug into her palms, and brought her thumb to her face. Pulling back, she sure enough found wetness there. She had to give a chuckle at that, now realizing she was actually shaking.
“Ask me to let a child die for the sake of the rest of the world, and I agree to it. Painfully, but I agree to it.” She shook her head. “But ask me to strike him down myself?” She laughed again, though it was a bit more hysterical this time.
The ponies felt their eyes widen at what she insinuated. “Wait, that brute is that dragon friend of yours?” Rarity asked, her head whipping around to stare at the thrashing dragon. “…I suppose I can see the similarities…”
“What happened to him?” Sunset asked, also staring at the dragon that was so much bigger and meaner than the image Nightmare Moon had shown them was.
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know, but he’s generating Dark Magic, something that can only happen in two ways, both of which involve twisting your soul in horrible ways.” She gave a shuddering sigh and looked at Spike, and saw that the magical hand holding him was cracking. Her eyes narrowed. “Soul magic is a forbidden subject, and for good reason. All it takes is one small miscalculation, and you effectively wipe yourself from existence, nevermind what happens when you inject something from the Impure World into something that was created from the Pure World.”
“Can we do anything for him? He’s in so much pain…” Fluttershy whimpered.
Twilight started to shake her head, but stopped. Talking about Soul magic had sparked a thought in her mind. But so much could go wrong that the result with any mistake would be worse than Nightmare Moon and Tirek combined.
Souls were Pure, and that meant they contained limitless power. Corrupt the soul… well… ‘Let’s avoid that,’ she thought firmly.
But it wouldn’t leave her mind.
Spike roared again, and the hand of magic shattered. Twilight was blasted off her feet by the backlash, screaming. She was caught in a teal aura and floated over to Sunset. “Everyone close your eyes!” she hollered, the glow of her horn brightening.
Everyone did so, just in time to avoid the blinding flash of light Sunset had unleashed. Spike roared in pain as he clawed at his eyes, effectively blinded. “Run!”
Twilight fought against the magic holding her. “No! I won’t leave him!” she hollered.
“Unless you know how to fix him, we’re running!” Sunset snapped back.
“I have an idea!” Twilight flared her magic, freeing her from Sunset’s grip and landing on her feet. She fell to a knee though, the ache in her body getting worse. “I… I can save him,” she panted.
“How?” Fluttershy asked, looking determined. “How can we stop his pain?”
Twilight looked at Spike, who was rolling around on the ground as he tried to get his eyes to work. “... I’m not sure, but I think Nightmare Moon did something to his soul. I have an idea, but I need to get close enough to be sure. We need to knock him out, or restrain him.”
Rainbow scoffed. “Have you seen the muscles on this guy? There’s no way in Equestria we’re restraining him!”
“Knock out it is,” Sunset nodded, before charging her magic in her horn. She leveled it at Spike, and grunted as even more magic flooded her horn. “Hold him still! I can only do this once!” she growled.
Twilight leapt to her feet and opened her bag. Reaching in, she removed a device that looked similar to her pistol, only less defined. She handed it to Rarity. “See this part with the black and yellow lines? Point that end at Spike and then pull this trigger here. It’ll hit him with enough electricity to make his muscles spasm out of his control.” Rarity took it in her magical grip. “It’s one shot only though, so aim well,” Twilight warned.
She then pulled out another gun, this one also similar to her pistol but colored a bright blue. She pulled out the magazine, checked it, then shoved it back into the hilt. “Rubber bullets,” she explained to the group. “Hurts like a bitch, but non-lethal.”
She demonstrated by pointing at Spike and pulling the trigger. There was a bang, and Spike roared and clutched at his shoulder, but there was no apparent damage. “As I thought. The dark magic is messing with his body’s durability. A dragon wouldn’t have even felt that normally. I’ll give you an opening, but wait for my signal,” she said to Rarity. She took off running then, occasionally popping off shots at Spike that only served to anger him. It also distracted him quite well once he regained his sight, giving chase to Twilight.
As Twilight ran Rarity aimed the gun at Spike and waited.
Twilight slid to stop and turned to Spike. She fired off a shot that bounced off his forehead, making him roar and grab at his head. Once he took his eyes off of her she leapt over him and drew her sword. ‘Sorry Spike,’ she thought to herself, before slashing at his back. She wasn’t aiming to cause permanent damage though, just open up his hide.
“Now Rarity! The cut!” she shouted, diving out of the way of a wild swing from Spike.
Rarity closed an eye to give her a better view and waited. She aimed. She waited. ‘... There!’ the pulled the trigger.
There was a thwip sound, and then Spike roared once more as electricity coursed through his body through the slash on his back. His body tensed up and he couldn’t move.
“Now would be a good time Sunset!” Twilight called, knowing the battery life in the Tazer wasn’t very good.
Sunset only grinned, before she unloaded. A blast of power erupted from her horn and slammed into Spike like a train, sending him crashing through a tree.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Spike didn’t get back up.
Sunset slowly sank to her knees, panting. “That… That was everything I had,” she managed to say. “I need a nap,”
Applejack approached her and helped her to her hooves, and they joined the others on checking on Spike.
“Is he okay?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.
Twilight hesitantly opened one of Spike’s eyes, and was relieved to find a normal green dragon eye. “He’s out cold. The dark magic can’t do anything until he’s awake.” She ran her hand, glowing with magic, over his body, eventually stopping at his chest. The magic went out after a moment, and her hand clenched in anger as she growled. “I was right. Nightmare Moon twisted his soul.”
“And for those of us not versed in advanced magic?” Applejack prodded.
“It means she tore a chunk of his soul out, warped it, and then shoved it back in,” Sunset panted. “His soul is literally fighting itself as it tries to regain balance, but can’t because of the warped piece.” She shook her head. “This is beyond horrendous.”
“Can you save him?” Fluttershy asked Twilight.
Twilight hesitated. “I…” She looked at her hands. “I want to… but…”
“You want to kill him, don’t you?” Applejack scowled.
Twilight’s gaze snapped to her, her eye wide. “What? NO!!! I just…”
“If you can save him, then why aren’t you?” Fluttershy asked.
“It’s not that simple! I don’t want-”
“You don’t want to save him?” Rainbow Dash asked in disgust.
“ENOUGH!!!” Twilight shouted, angry. Everyone stopped, and noticed she was crying. “Of course I want to save him! I helped raise him!” She sighed. “I know I haven’t really given you a reason to think I want to save him, but I do. The problem is that the only way to save him is the same way Nightmare Moon did this to him.” She looked at Spike’s chest. “I have to use soul magic.”
“So why are you hesitating, dear?” Rarity asked.
“There’s more,” Twilight said. “What his soul needs is a stabilizing influence. He needs something that will keep him grounded and help him know which part of him is twisted and which part he should nurture.” She looked around. “I need to bond his soul to someone else’s soul if I’m going to save him, and even then he’ll likely never be the same.”
Everyone digested that for a moment. “What’ll happen to the one he’s bonded to?” Applejack asked.
Twilight shrugged. “You won’t be in any danger, not physically, but you also risk being consumed by the darkness already festering in his soul. If I do this, it needs to be with someone who won’t give in easily to temptation.”
“Do it.”
Rarity blinked.
“Think of the power being tied to a dragon like him will bring. And the gems he could help you dig up! Dragons can sniff those things out easily.”
Rarity frowned. ‘There is certainly a benefit, but to use someone who is suffering like that? No.’
“No one else is doing it, gem. Look at them. They’re all hesitating. May as well get some use out of the dragon if you’re going to save him.”
Rarity looked at Spike. The poor dragon looked to be in pain, even unconscious. He was fidgeting slightly. She frowned. ‘He needs help,’ she admitted. She stood.
“I offer my soul,” she said, staring straight into Twilight’s eye.
“Ah, the greed of mortals. It never fails.”
As Twilight told Rarity where to lay, Rarity mentally smirked. ‘I may be ambitious, dear, but I am also proud. I reject your offer to use him, and will instead help him. My success will come from me, and me alone.’ She looked at Spike again. ‘Besides, how can one not want to help the poor dear?’
The voice was silent. Twilight hit Rarity with a sleep spell. Just before she went under, she heard the voice again.
“It seems my siblings are correct. The Bearers come. Retain that pride, Rarity Belle, and let it guide you towards success, but at the same time remember that it was your Generosity that saved this dragon… and so many more.”
Beneath her closed eyelids, Rarity’s eyes flared with purple light.
When Rarity woke up again, it was to find that her body felt off. She got to her hooves and examined herself. This in turn caught the attention of Twilight, who was sitting against a nearby tree half-asleep.
Twilight noticed her examinations. “Is something wrong?” she asked, getting to her own feet and approaching.
Rarity frowned. “I don’t know about ‘wrong’, per se. But… I feel decidedly odd,” she admitted, patting her chest experimentally.
“As in?” Twilight encouraged.
“I don’t know.” This was apparently frustrating to the Unicorn, as she shook her head with a scowl. “As far as I can tell, I am perfectly fine, but I feel off. Like… Like there’s something only very slightly off-center.”
Twilight made an “ah” of understanding. “I think I get it.” She motioned to the side, where Rarity could see a now greatly diminished, though still muscular, purplish dragon laying in the grass. “You’re probably subconsciously feeling the bond between you and Spike. You remember what happened, right?” she asked. Rarity nodded. “Soul magic is a forbidden school of magic, and for a good reason. It is incredibly easy to abuse that kind of power to control people. Due to this, there’s not much documentation in regards to how it’s used, and most who delve into Soul magic do so through trial and error. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred… that ends badly.”
She motioned to herself. “I myself used Soul magic as a component to the ritual that brought me back to Equus, using my soul as a wayfinder to guide me home. Still, I’m no expert in the field and, to be honest… there was a very good chance I could have permanently damaged your souls trying to make an artificial bond between them. As it stands, I have no doubts that it’s an imperfect bond, likely not all that stable either, and that’s probably why you can feel it.”
Rarity tilted her head in consideration. “So… are we in danger?”
Twilight shrugged. “Even natural, perfect bonds come with hazards. If the bond was perfect, you would find yourselves slowly adopting personality traits from each other. Spike, for instance, may find himself admiring fashion more than he normally would, while you may find yourself wondering at what gems taste like. That would be it though.”
“And imperfect bonds?” Rarity asked.
“Imperfect bonds let more than just character traits flow between the bonded. What exactly will get moved depends on the severity of the instability. Considering my inexperience… if you start hearing Spike’s voice in your mind one day, don’t label it as insanity too quickly,” she warned. “This also comes with a risk of the barriers in your mind separating reality and fantasy breaking down. But if you’re determined and stubborn enough…” She shrugged again. “The bond will eventually stabilize itself. Eventually. I have no idea when.”
“So keep a close eye on my own mental stability, and alert you if I feel that something is off?” Rarity asked after a moment.
Twilight nodded. “Either me or Celestia. In fact, you may be better off scheduling regular therapy sessions and explaining the situation to your therapist.” Twilight’s ear twitched and she looked over. “C’mon, Rainbow Dash just got back from scouting ahead. Spike has shrunk back down to his regular size, so we can carry him until he wakes up.”
Rarity nodded and followed Twilight.
---
“So, before we go anywhere, I have a question for everyone. Who here has been hearing voices?” Twilight asked as everyone gathered in a clearing and prepared to leave. Spike was tied securely to Rarity’s back to ensure he remained there in case they needed to run at some point. “Please be honest, it’s important.”
Everyone glanced at each other, before Pinkie raised a hoof. “I have,” she said. Her eyes flashed with blue light. “I heard someone speak to me during my nightmare. He helped me overcome it and gave me the ability to go into everyone else’s minds to save them.” She held up a hoof and looked at the ghostly blue flame she managed to call to it briefly. “Still not sure how to feel about that though,” she admitted.
“I… I have as well,” Fluttershy said, raising a hoof. “It asked me questions about what I valued most, and when it was happy with my answers, it gave me the power to calm the Manticore.”
“Same here, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “When you asked for a volunteer for young Spike’s soul bond, I heard a voice egging me on to do so because of how he could benefit me. It was pleased when I refused to do that to Spike, and instead chose to bond to him to help him.”
“Anyone else?” Twilight asked. When no one else said anything, she nodded. “Good. I’ve heard a voice as well, and I believe they are the tests of the Elements. They seem to be seeking something within us. What, I’m unsure, but I was found somewhat lacking.”
“Lacking?” Sunset asked.
“It said I wasn’t what it needed, but that there was potential.”
Applejack looked thoughtful, staring into the fire. Twilight noticed. “Applejack, is something wrong?” she asked.
Applejack looked up. She frowned. “Ah dunno.” she said slowly. “I’ve just been thinkin’ about these Elements. Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Honesty, and Magic. I jes’... I guess I’m having a hard time acceptin’ that they’ll save us from Nightmare Moon.” She shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, the Princess used them on Nightmare Moon once, so clearly they work… but I just don’t understand how,” she said.
“Yeah, you never really did explain how the Elements work,” Rainbow Dash noted. “How do mushy things like that beat an Alicorn?”
Twilight looked around and could tell all of them were paying attention, clearly curious. She sighed. “Well, I guess we have the time.” She closed her eyes and thought of the Elements, and everything she knew about them.
“The first thing you need to understand is that the Elements of Harmony are what are commonly referred to as Conceptualized Artifacts. They’re basically a concept distilled and refined into a physical form. Their concept is, clearly, Harmony,” she said, shrugging.
“Now, Conceptualized Artifacts are pretty powerful, but they have their drawbacks. Harmony is a force of balance, so how powerful do you think the Elements would be if their bearers were wholly unbalanced?”
“Ah’m guessing not much’ll happen,” Applejack said.
Twilight nodded towards Applejack. “Right. If the bearers aren’t at harmony with themselves and each other, at least, then the Elements will fail to activate. Now, you asked how those six concepts can be useful. I’ll warn you that this is pure conjecture at this point, but I think the six Elements are meant to represent something when wielded together. I’m not sure what, but considering they are the Elements of Harmony, I imagine it will be something altogether harmonious.”
She paused in thought here. “... Fluttershy said she was asked about her views towards life. What were the exact words you heard?” she asked.
Fluttershy squeaked at the sudden attention. “Uh… I… I had froze after yelling like I did.I was… I could see everything as if in slow motion. I saw the manticore nearing me. I… I saw you pull out that long weapon. I saw Applejack and Pinkie lunging for the manticore. I saw Sunset and Rarity trying to use magic, and Rainbow Dash…” She shuddered.
Rainbow Dash looked away, all too aware of how her friend felt about her using her weather magic.
“I knew that… I had to stop everyone. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t even have the strength to move. That was when the voice appeared.”
Fluttershy hesitated for a moment. “It… offered me power. The power to act, but it also said that power came at a cost. If I used its power against the manticore, it would kill it. But if I didn’t use the power somepony else would die, maybe me.”
Fluttershy lowered her head, hiding her face in her mane. “It told me I had to choose. Power, or no power. Kill, or be killed.” Here Fluttershy looked up, and Twilight noted that her eyes had a green glint in them. “Death… or Life. I chose life, and it congratulated me, giving me the power to stop the manticore through understanding it.”
Twilight frowned as the green glint vanished. “I see,” she murmured, more to herself. She looked at Pinkie Pie. “And you? You said the voice saved you from your nightmare. How?”
Pinkie grinned a little uneasily, rubbing at her neck. “Well, everypony knows I like to throw parties and make people smile. It’s my passion, making others happy.” She waved a hoof. “I know! I know. That’s… not the healthiest way to live your life. It’s why I focus on some ponies. They ground me, remind me that my happiness matters too, that I deserve to smile as well.” She smiled, and the blue light glinted in her eyes once again. “I’ve never found greater joy than when I successfully made someone’s day better.”
The group was silent for a bit, considering how that all tied together. Sunset eventually stood up. “Well, clearly the Elements have some level of power. We can confirm at least that much. Whether or not it’ll be enough is what I wonder. I don’t know about all of you, but these abilities were never mentioned in any book or story I read regarding them, so I’m suspicious.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, I’m on Sunset’s side, not gonna lie. The few stories I heard about them as a kid were pretty vague. They never went into the hows and whys of them,” she agreed. “Just… bam! They’re used, day is saved, world restored, and life moved on.”
Twilight also stood, the others following, and they began packing up what little bit remained of their camp. “I guess all that we can do for now is wait until we get more information.” She looked towards what her compass frequently (though not always) declared was north. “Let’s keep moving. I think we’re getting closer.”