> The Stars Of Twilight > by MatCor1337 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > You Can Skip This Chapter! No Reading Necessary! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A/N] Hey everyone, it's MatCor1337 and I'd like to make a quick announcement. I'M NOT ENDING ANY STORIES!!! I'm just having some difficulties with writing up the next part of my stories. The one I'm currently working on is A Mother's Love and as i just said, putting the metephorical pen to paper is a little tricky, though I should be posting the next chapter either tomorrow or the day after. I know what's going to happen, it's wording it in a way you can understand it that's got me. So until then, here's a peak at one of some new stories that I've got in the works. Let me know what you think and I'll talk to you all later. P.S. I'm writing this here because a need over 1000 words to post =][= An instant. An instant is all it took for Twilight’s whole world to turn upside down. She and her friends were traveling to Appleloosa to celebrate the engagement of Braeburn and Little Strongheart, something that the Princess of Friendship fully supported. Applejack was ecstatic that her favorite cousin had found someone special to him, and wanted to give him her support, and that of her family in Ponyville. This was supposed to be a joyous moment, but it was destroyed with tragedy. Mere hours after their arrival, the small farming town was attacked by Traditionalists; radical ponies that despised Twilight for the change she sought to bring to Equestria, believing that it would condemn the nation. The nobles that made the bulwark of the Traditionalists spread lies about Twilight and slandered her name, claiming that she was manipulating the princesses to take the throne for herself. Many, ponies and buffalo alike, were killed by the deranged madponies, innocents that did nothing wrong, as most others were gravely wounded. When the young princess and those who survived the surprise attack were cornered, her magic shield the only barrier between life and death, the stars began to fall, impacting all around the town. And emerging from the craters came a force of bipedal, ironclad warriors as large as minotaurs that brought death to the Traditionalists with weapons that breathed fire, spat metal and roared like thunder. Their armor, which seemed to be of three different models, bore a purple color - like a darker shade of Twilight’s coat - with their shoulders, knees and elbows being the same blue as her mane, and a bright silver trim. Upon further inspection, Twilight was shocked to find her cutie-mark on their left shoulders. The simple spears, arrows and swords of the Traditionalists couldn’t even scratch the armor of the warriors, and even a single blow from their fists could cave chests and shatter skulls. The skirmish was over in moments, those that surrendered were brought to the main square, where a large vessel of purple and grey descended from the skies and landed several meters away. The traumatized survivors watched as the vessels front opened and formed a ramp, where more warriors walk out, some of them larger than the others. The injured ponies and buffalo were treated by medics as Twilight stared at who she presumed was the leader. Unlike the others, its armor was pitch black and adorned with bones, long parchment and talismans, its own head looking like a bare skull and and an actual equine skull attached to something above it. The only thing in it had in common with the other warriors was her cutie-mark on its shoulder. It stepped up to the arrested Traditionalists and spoke with a male voice that was grave, deep and aged, but still strong and commanding. “You stand accused of crimes against the goddess Eywa and her chosen acolytes. Crimes consisting of the murdering of innocents and the attempted murder of our Merciful Goddess and her faithful followers. How do you plead?” One of the Traditionalists spat at the figure’s feet. “We are guilty of no crimes. Our mission is just, and that is to protect the integrity and traditions that Equestria’s lived by for thousands of years from those that seek to destroy our perfect society.” “An empire that refuses change and progress in an evolving world will trap itself in a cycle of decay and renewal, held back by ignorance and falling behind more developed nations, making it vulnerable to outside enemies.” He shot back. Another Traditionalist spoke up. “This mare besides you wishes to bring ruin to our nation and overthrow the princesses. She wants to bring other filthy creatures to our land and taint its purity. These vermin are proof of her corrupting the minds of our people by allowing them to breed with non-ponies. Equestria belongs to ponies and ponies alone. No, our princesses control the sun and moon, and for that, the whole world should belong to us!” Twilight was sickened by the mad ravings of these ponies, and the figure seemed to have had enough himself. “If this is your case, then my decision is clear. By the power invested in me by the God-Emperor and with Eywa herself as my witness, I sentence you and your ilk to death. May your souls burn in the fires of Eywa’s stars for all eternity.” He gestured to the warriors that came with him. “Brothers, cleanse this soil of their filth with holy fire!” With that command, the gestured warriors stepped towards the Traditionalists and unleashed jets of fire from their weapons, the defenceless ponies screaming in agony as their flesh burnt off their bones from the searing flames. Twilight and all onlookers stared in shock and horror at the scene before them. Moments later, when the last Traditionalist fell silent, Twilight asked the question that all in Appleloosa sought to know the answer to. “Who… who are you? What are you?” The leading figure and all the other warriors turned to Twilight… and knelt before her. “My apologies, o’ Merciful Goddess. We are the Stars of Twilight, the XIth Legion of the Adeptus Astartes, created by the God-Emperor of Mankind. We live to serve you. We are yours to command as you see fit.” With such a shocking revelation, the Princess of Friendship could not think of a logical or even intelligent response, only the one that anypony would come to. “...Wha…?” > TRUE PROLOGUE > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today was the big day. Today, Twilight Sparkle was going to take the entrance exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. The little filly was beside herself with excitement, barely keeping still in her seat as she waited for her turn.   She was so ecstatic when her parents came home one day and showed her the form that would register her for the exam that, if she passed, would have her enrolled into the prestigious academy by the next school year.   She made sure to study all the books and scrolls on magic that her family owned, which was a lot, given how she seemed to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and high intelligence for her age, so she was confident that she was prepared for anything in the exam. After some more waiting Twilight was finally called in, her parents following her into the examination room.   When she saw the gruff and stoic faces of the examiners, she started growing nervous, but a quick glance to her parents who gave her reassuring smiles calmed her nerves.   There was a minute’s pause before one of the examiners made a gesture, and a stallion came in with a wooden cart that held a spotted purple egg as large as her torso As the stallion set the stroller a few paces from Twilight and left, one of the examiners spoke. “To complete the exam, you are to hatch the egg.” He said.   “You may begin when ready.” Twilight gulped before taking a deep breath and concentrated her magic.   When she felt that she had enough, Twilight shot her magic towards the egg, enveloping it in a lavender glow.   She kept it up for a few seconds before stopping, only to gape at the unchanged egg. It didn’t even move. The examiners started to mumble among themselves as they wrote something into their notebooks.   Growing nervous now, Twilight quickly assures them that she wasn’t done and tries again, using more power this time. Almost two full minutes pass with no change to the egg.   Sweat pours down Twilight’s face and neck, exhausted from using so much magic in such a small time frame.   After one final attempt, Twilight doubled over, panting heavily. She looked up to see the egg unchanged still, then towards the examiners who gave the impression that they’d seen enough, and finally to her parent who seemed anxious.   Bowing her head as she stood upright, Twilight was about to apologise for wasting the examiners’ time when the sound of an explosion was heard. Twilight looked out the large window in the room and saw an expanding ring of colors coming from the general area where Cloudsdale usually resides.   For a moment she thought nothing of it other than that it was pretty, but when it passed over Canterlot, Twilight practically exploded with magic. Her eyes became completely white and her body was enveloped in a magical aura as she was held above the floor by an unknown force. Naturally Twilight panicked, flailing her limbs about as bolts of magic were fired from her horn and hands, one actually managing to not only hatch the egg, but turned the infant dragon inside fully-grown, whilst others turned the examiners and her parents into animals and potted plants.   Twilight screamed as a jolt of pain coursed through her before another sudden pulse caused her to black out. When the little filly regained her senses, she gasped in shock when she found herself in an unfamiliar place.   Everything was in disarray, lighting flashing in every direction, clouds and stars shifting colours, shape and position every few seconds.   Twilight could barely keep out the endless voices whispering, shouting, screaming conflicting ideas, thoughts and feelings from filling her head.   Covering her ears in a futile attempt to block the voices and unnatural sounds, Twilight tried to examine her environment and find a way out, but stopped short before she even turned fully around. There, “standing” before her, were four incredibly large and powerful “bodies” of light, energy and emotion.   They were red, blue, green and pink. She was getting a strange feeling from them as she stared, and she didn’t like it.   When Twilight felt that the attention of the “bodies” had turned to her, she suddenly realised why they scared her so. The red one was like the personification of rage, hate and anger, thoughts of violence and bloodlust coming off of it in waves.   It took the shape of a bipedal warrior of some kind, wearing terrifying armour of brass and blackened iron, parts resembling a skull, demonic face or baring teeth along the edges. The blue one “looked” at her like she was some sort of toy to play with at its leisure, to do with the little whatever it pleased just to see what would happen like some sick experiment.   It was thin and lanky, its legs folded in a meditative stance, hands resting lazily on its knees. Its head was a mass of shifting tentacles above a large grin, a “collar” of teeth around its neck, two larger tentacles sprouted from its back and wrapped around each other above its head. A vile stench came from the green one that made Twilight want to vomit her guts out and wash her body so roughly that her fur starts shedding - though she also sensed that it would treat her much kinder than the red or blue ones.   It was fat and bloated, grime and puss coated every inch of its leathery skin, had horns that somewhat resemble antelope antlers and six eyes. Its head appeared to be inside an incredibly large mouth, the teeth making a collar and hood. The pink one was the strangest of the four as it seemed to have a perverted interest in the filly and wanted to have her experience a world of lust, pleasure, pain and suffering all at once.   This one Twilight could clearly tell was female, or took the form of one, due to the fact that “she” was completely nude. A crown of horns stood upon her head, pale/white hair falling beyond her waist and eyes aglow with a bright pink light.   Her shoulders, sides and thighs were covered in scales of some sort while the… “important parts” were smooth and unblemished. There was also a pale-yellow vertical eye where Twilight knew the belly button should be. Twilight didn’t know where she was, how she got there, why she was there or what these things that looked down on her were.   What she did know was that she wanted to go home. Without warning the four masses of energy reached for the filly, each with their own dark intentions, and all Twilight could do was close her eyes and hope that someone would save her. As luck or fate would have it, someone did. There was a flash of bright, golden light and the four energy beings retracted from the filly before they could get to her.   Twilight turned her head to see her savior, and found them to be a being of pure golden light that was almost blinding to the filly.   She couldn’t clearly see its features, but Twilight could tell that it was looking straight at her before it raised one of its arms and she blacked out again. Twilight groaned as she slowly regained consciousness.   She opened her eyes and immediately noticed that she was no longer wherever she just was.   In fact, she was back in the examination room where she was taking her entrance exam. However, her magic was still out of control and she was struggling to reclaim it.   So focused on trying to get her magic back under control, she didn’t notice someone coming towards her until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, Twilight was surprised to see none other than Princess Celestia, giving her a calm, reassuring smile as the alicorn used some of her own magic to calm the storm that was the filly’s.   When the magic lessened to a more manageable level, Twilight was able to steady her breathing and with some concentration, regain full control of her magic. When Twilight finally got all of her magic under control, she looked around the room to see what damage she caused.   Thankfully it was only the hole in the roof and a few upturned pieces of furniture, the ponies turned into animals and plants turning back to normal. Twilight rushed to her parents and embraced them, glad that they were alright. The hug continued until a voice spoke up.   “That was a very impressive level of magic for such a young filly, if I must say.”   Turning, Twilight looked up to the still smiling face of Princess Celestia. “With that kind of potential, standard teaching methods taught by the school might not be enough.   So, my little pony, how would you like to be my personal student?” the ruler of Equestria asked politely. The filly gasped, speechless at the Princess’ proposal.   So ecstatic was the unicorn filly that she started to hop around her parents and the princess while repeatedly chanting “yes”, causing most to chuckle at the display.