Chapter 1- The Beginning of Twilight
Have you ever heard the saying, 'the ends justify the means'? I'm ashamed to admit I let that guide me.
"Wait, please!" Celestia ran after me, voice pleading.
I risked halting for a moment to listen to my ex-mentor.
"I'll make sure you get a fair trial," she begged. "At least let me do that. Please. Don't run."
I considered it. Really, I did. But I don't think I could live with myself if I stopped - I couldn't pretend this didn't happen. I had too much blood on my hooves. Too many lives ended with my horn.
I fled.
Twilight’s Eclipse
Written by iAmSiNnEr
Edited by Stinium_Ruide
Helped by TCC56
Chapter 1- The Beginning of Twilight
The door slammed open, and a royal guard skidded in, his eyes full of panic. “Your majesty! News from the North! And...it's not good."
Celestia looked up from her papers. “What do you mean, Timber? My student and her friends are there, helping the Crystal Empire. I have faith in their abilities. In fact, they should be done by now…” she caught the somber look on the guard’s face. She blinked. "You're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?"
The guard gulped. “I think...it’s best if you hear it from them yourself, your majesty.”
The door opened again, and five ponies trotted in, supporting each other from various injuries. Fluttershy was limping from a sprain, one of Rainbow Dash's wings was bent in the wrong way, and the rest had cuts and scrapes all over their hooves.
“What happened?” Celestia asked the five Elements of Harmony. “And where’s Twilight and Spike?”
“Yer Majesty...” Applejack began in a sorrowful tone. “Twahlight and Spike…”
“No.” Shadows began to condense into the shape of an alicorn, and before long Princess Luna stood there. “That’s not possible. Twilight is the most powerful unicorn of this age. Nothing could have bested her. Nothing could have bested our friend.”
“But that’s just it, Princess Luna,” Rarity took it upon herself to say it. “Twilight…” she sniffled. “She-she...she sacrificed herself for us to get away. Sombra got to the Crystal Heart first...and Spike didn’t manage to bring it to us in time.”
“What?” Celestia breathed. “That’s...not possible-”
“We saw it,” Rainbow Dash suddenly spoke. “Twilight burst out of the top of that crystal castle, and fired some spell at that monster. She was already tired out from something, her magic was almost depleted. She-she then-” Rainbow’s voice failed.
“She then told us to run away,” Pinkie Pie’s voice was unusually morose and dull, her pink hair losing its vibrant colour. “She held off the monster long enough for us to make it to the train with a few of the citizens. We looked for Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, but we couldn’t find them.”
Princess Luna stomped a hoof on the ground. “We must advance immediately!” she declared. “We will fight King Sombra and return our friends to us- sister?”
Celestia was looking out of the window. “Too late,” she whispered. “He has already begun his conquest.”
Where an aurora would have been seen, shadows danced across the sky, with a red tinge over it. “He’s coming,” Celestia whispered. “The Crystal Empire are our enemies once again.”
Twilight blearily opened her eyes to see only darkness. She groped around with her hooves, trying to find some form of light, before pausing. Oh, right, I can use my horn…
Gathering her mana, she pushed it to the top of her head, intending to cast a glow onto the area around her so that she could see better. Instead, a sharp spike of pain assaulted her, forcing her to cancel the spell with a cry of pain.
Wha...my magic’s never done that before! She reached up for her horn to see what was wrong, but her hooves were yanked back as chains that she didn’t notice before prevented her from reaching her horn. What? Chains?
She shook her hooves, and the clinking noises confirmed that she wasn’t crazy. Why am I chained up- her eyes widened as the memories of the day’s events finally came to her.
She was jumping down from the top floor of the crystal palace, having exhausted most of her magic in an explosive blast to free herself the moment she saw Spike being thrown aside by Sombra.
“Run, girls!” she had yelled, intending to fight Sombra. Casting a slow fall spell, she had winced, even that simple spell had taken a lot from her. Firing a bolt of magic at the shadowy unicorn with most of the remaining mana she had, she caught Sombra by surprise, sending the shadows tumbling back.
Twilight glanced down. Her friends were still there, looking at her. “Come on, Twi’!” Rainbow shouted. “We can still make it!”
“No!” Twilight exclaimed. “Run! I’ll hold him off for as long as I can!”
A bolt of dark magic was fired at her. Twilight’s eyes widened and she grunted as she pulled from her last bits of mana to conjure a shield. “Run!” she yelled. “GO!”
Rainbow started to protest, but Rarity dragged her away, and the group started moving away from the castle. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she saw them move away from the danger.
A dark force slammed into her side, and Twilight tumbled onto one of the balconies, her spell wearing off. As she struggled onto her hooves, the shadows condensed into a pony in front of her.
“Sombra,” Twilight muttered to herself weakly.
“Who dares challenge me?” he boomed. “I am King Sombra, the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire! Now that I have the Crystal Heart, nothing can stop me!”
“Friendship can!” Twilight shouted, although her voice was a little softer than she had intended. “Friendship can stop you!”
Sombra laughed. “Friendship? I don’t see any friends. Do you?”
Twilight grimaced. Deep down, she knew. She couldn’t win this.
Sombra’s horn began to light up in a crescendo. “A pity,” he said. “I could have used you in my new army. Unfortunately, I need to send a message. And you’re too dangerous to keep alive.”
“Celestia will defeat you!” Twilight cried out.
Sombra paused. “Celestia? What does this have to do with her?”
“She’s my teacher!” Twilight retorted. “She’ll come looking for me! And when she does, you’ll be defeated.”
Sombra blinked. “So you’re her student… I could use that.” The spell on his horn changed colours, from a black to a light grey. “But, still, I have to do this.” He fired his spell, and Twilight saw nothing as it slammed into her face.
Twilight shook her head. No! It can’t be! Sombra couldn’t have-
Light flooded into the room as a door on the opposite side of her opened, and Twilight blinked hard, trying to get the spots out of her eyes. Once her eyes had adjusted, she saw an armored unicorn there, looking at her impassively with a bucket of water in her magic aura.
Seeing Twilight’s look, the unicorn rolled her eyes and placed the bucket where Twilight could reach it. Twilight lapped greedily at the water, not knowing how thirsty she was until now. “Thank you...for the water,” she rasped.
“It wasn’t for you to drink,” the unicorn shrugged. “It was supposed to be for waking you up. But since you’re awake, might as well.”
“Where...am I?” Twilight asked. “And why am I chained to a wall?”
“King Sombra’s orders,” the unicorn said. “To keep you from escaping. Also, now that you mention him, he wants to see you.”
“King...Sombra,” Twilight said. “Why are you serving him?”
“He can get me what I want,” the unicorn said grimly. “Now, get up.” The unicorn’s horn lit, and the chains fell away from Twilight. “Don’t you dare try anything, else I’ll hit you with a stun if you do.”
Twilight rubbed gingerly at her hooves. “Do you know what’s wrong with my horn? I tried to cast a spell earlier, and all I got was pain.”
The unicorn looked at her pitifully. “You should find out for yourself. It’s not my place to tell you. Now, follow me.”
Twilight pushed herself up, her legs wobbling as she did so. Stumbling out of the dark room unsteadily, she followed after the unicorn trotting in front of her. Ever so often, the unicorn would glance back, making sure she was following.
Eventually, they arrived at a staircase, which they ascended into familiar surroundings. “This...is the Crystal Palace!” Twilight realized.
The unicorn rolled her eyes. “Where do you think we are? King Sombra’s now the ruler of the Crystal Empire. Once we are ready, we will march on Equestria, and conquer her.”
“Conquer...Equestria?” Twilight blinked.
“Yes,” the unicorn said impatiently. “It has always been King Sombra’s goal. It’s also why the princesses wanted to kill him. Keep up, will you?”
“I…” was all Twilight managed before she stopped in her tracks. “I don’t want anything to do with this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the unicorn sighed. “Just… come with me. You can ask King Sombra whatever you want to know. Just don’t get me in trouble, please? It’d be troublesome for me to stun you and drag you to the throne room. His exact words were, ‘get her here, do whatever you have to do.’ As you can see…”
“Okay,” Twilight said hesitantly. The unicorn nodded and started moving off again.
Twilight followed right behind her, her mind thinking of ways to escape. There’s that window over there, I could use a slow-fall spell, but my magic is down. Hmm…
The unicorn glanced back. “In case if you’re thinking of escape, don’t. If you even try, he will punish both of us severely.”
Twilight blinked. How did she know?
Eventually, they arrived at the throne room door, which was completely shrouded by dark-colored crystals. “Here we are,” the unicorn said.
“I just realized... I never asked your name,” Twilight mumbled.
“It’s Terra,” the unicorn said. “But there’s no need to know it. You won’t be seeing me after this, I’m just the foal sitter for now.”
“Foalsitter?” Twilight questioned.
“You’re too young for these kinds of things,” Terra muttered. “Try to keep him happy, will you?” Without waiting for an answer, Terra lit her horn to push the door open.
Once the door opened, Twilight let out a gasp. “What…”
Two guards were there, but they had some kind of helmet over their heads, their eyes glowing a sickly dark green.
“They are my slaves,” A voice from the other end of the room said. Twilight looked over, and saw Sombra lounging on the throne.
“No pony is your slave, Sombra!” Twilight shouted.
He laughed, the sound echoing around the room. “Your words mean nothing, Sparkle.”
Twilight growled. “Princess Celestia will free them!”
Sombra laughed again. “Princess Celestia?” he chuckled. “It’s been almost five days since I took over the Crystal Empire. You’d think if she wanted to attack, she would have done so by now. No, Equestria is grieving.”
“Grieving,” Twilight repeated. “Grieving for who?”
“Grieving for the loss of their hero, of course,” Sombra said. “You.”
Twilight blinked. “But...I’m not dead.”
“Essentially, you are,” Sombra said. “Equestria has assumed the worst. In a way, it is for the best.”
“For the best-” Twilight shook her head. “How would believing me dead be for the best?”
“Equestria is built on lies and secrets, Sparkle,” Sombra said as he laid back into the comfort of his throne. “Courtesy of your precious mentor.”
“No,” Twilight said, her voice trembling. “Princess Celestia would never lie!”
“Really?” Sombra whispered. “I find it amusing that you have not figured out her true agenda after so long. She has been manipulating Equestria, Sparkle. I was one of the few who discovered this and wanted to change that. Instead, she cut me down, and forced me into a half-life for a thousand years until I was able to return.”
“No,” Twilight stammered. “She-she wouldn’t do that.”
“I can show you proof,” Sombra offered. “I can show you that I am not your enemy. I am simply just one of the few who wants freedom for the greater good.”
“Freedom?” Twilight countered. “What about your slaves?”
Sombra shrugged. “They were too devoted to Princess Amore, who in turn had an allegiance to Celestia. Once I am done, I will release them. They will eventually see what I do for them. The Sun Tyrant must be cast down, no matter the cost.”
“Show me, then,” Twilight challenged, distrust and disbelief evident in her eyes. “Show me proof.”
“Celestia was not always the benevolent ruler you see today,” Sombra began. “First, you have to understand that.”
“She wasn’t because she had to face ponies like you!” Twilight shouted. “That’s not proving anything!”
“Luna had the right idea,” Sombra hissed, after shaking his head subtly. “Of rebelling against her sister. Unfortunately, she was defeated. Have you never questioned why many events seem to be exactly a thousand years ago? That everything happened at almost the same time?”
“Luna didn’t rebel against her sister,” Twilight paused. “...Or maybe she did. But it was because she felt neglected!”
Sombra laughed. “That’s what Celestia wants you to think. If she really wanted to erase traces of this from the history books, why did she leave Longest Night in them? The Longest Night is a lie. Luna saw her sister for what she really was. A tyrant.”
“Then why is Luna fine now after the Nightmare was defeated?” Twilight countered.
“Memory spells do exist, Sparkle,” Sombra said, sighing. “Did you think Celestia could have been so easily defeated by the Nightmare? In fact, the Nightmare didn’t even exist in the first place. It was simply Luna’s battle form. Celestia would have sought her sister out when she returned from the moon, and fought her. In that time, she could have modified her sister’s memories to whatever she wanted.”
“She wouldn’t go through that much trouble to trick us,” Twilight insisted, though doubt was clearly creeping into her voice.
“Then I will show you,” Sombra decided. “Of that fateful day. Luna was on my side, she knew what her sister was doing. I can show you.”
Twilight considered it. “You’re just lying to get me on your side,” she rejected.
“On the contrary, I am telling the truth,” Sombra said. “I simply want the best for Equestria and its people. If you let me show you, you will understand.”
“First tell me something,” Twilight interjected. “Why can’t I use magic?”
At this, Sombra adopted a look Twilight didn’t understand, and he remained quiet.
“What?” Twilight asked. “Tell me,” she paused. “Please?”
“You expanded too much magic,” Sombra murmured, almost cautiously. “Your horn...is broken.”
Twilight blinked and backed up. “You’re lying,” she said nervously.
“I am not,” Sombra said, and conjured a mirror to show Twilight.
In it, Twilight saw herself, disheveled but still recognisable. However, the thing that caught her attention wasn’t her overall appearance, but her horn. It was broken off, a mere jagged half remaining.
“No,” Twilight said. “It...can’t...be…” she fainted, her eyes rolling up in her head.
Sombra smiled. “Part one of the plan is successful,” he murmured. “Planting the seeds of doubt. Terra!” he shouted the last word.
The unicorn showed herself, bowing her head low. “Make sure she gets a comfortable room,” he ordered. “We will need to get her on our side.”
Terra nodded before leaving the room. Sombra considered the limp form of Twilight. “You are a powerful unicorn…” he muttered. “Why did Celestia not teach you more? Perhaps I should take it upon myself to teach you. Only then, will you reach your full potential,” he grinned slyly. “And only then will you be able to defeat your ex-mentor.”