> The Forgotten Prophecy > by flutterderp sparkle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Hidden Room > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a dark and stormy day in Ponyville.The clouds were blocking most of the sky, leaving little light shining through. The storm was causing so much gloom that even Pinkie Pie was depressed and in Sugar Cube Corner stuffing her face with cupcakes to make herself feel better. Rainbow Dash was up above the clouds in Cloudsdale, not even affected by the storm. Fluttershy was in her cottage having some form of indoor picnic with all her forest critters. Rarity was over dramatizing how she got a little wet from her way back from Sugar Cube Corner to Sweetie Belle. Applejack was in Sweet Apple Acres' barn, trying to judge how much damage this storm will do, if any, to the farm. Twilight Sparkle was busying herself by sorting the books in the library, since they were knocked onto the floor so many times. "All right Spike, time to sort the "j"s now," said Twilight, finishing putting the last "i" on the correct shelf. "Okay, Twilight. Here are the "j"s, said Spike, wheeling out the cart with all the books whose author's name started with a "j". He was having a little trouble wheeling out the cart since it had hundreds of books on it. He never realized, before today, how many authors had a name starting with "j". "Here, let me help you with those," said Twilight, helping Spike wheel the cart out with her magic. "There, now you can take a break for a while. After the I'm done with the "j"s, it'll be lunchtime." But then, a loud crack of a lightning bolt boomed right outside the library. Twilight and Spike were thrown from where they were standing, books that Twilight was holding with her magic were flying everywhere, after being released from her spell. They both landed with a thud, Twilight landing on her side and Spike landing on his face. The books had landed randomly on the floor creating a bunch of noise. After Twilight landed on the floor, the books coming after her, she heard that her and the books' thud had echoed down under the floorboards. At first, she thought this was just a natural wood echo, but when it lasted longer than ten seconds, she started to wonder whether it was natural or not. Curious, she had Spike help her break and lift the floorboards up off the spot. This revealed a deep, dark hole that was only as wide as her and ended farther than she could see. "Come on, Spike, let's go down and explore," said Twilight, eager to see what was at the bottom of this hole and to enhance her knowledge about the library. "Okay, whatever you say. But it doesn't seem very safe down there." "What, is the baby dragon too afraid to climb down the hole and have an adventure?" asked Twilight. "Or is he just using this as a ploy to get out of going on an adventure and to take a nap instead of having fun in exploring this hole?" "No, but we've never seen this part of the library before. Who knows what could be down there." "Just stay close to me and I'll make sure nothing bad will happen to you. I guarantee it." "Okay, fine, I'll go with you," said Spike, reluctantly getting on Twilight's back as she started to go down the hole. A few minutes later, the smell of water that had been sitting around in the same place for thousands of years, tainted from years of rodents and other pests living and dying in it. It seemed like the hole would go on forever when Twilight put her hoof down on a mossy rock, wet from the tainted water. Once she got her footing, Twilight used her magic to illuminate the hole. She found herself standing in a non-moving stream of greenish-brown water. Then she looked up and saw a path ending in a turn. With Spike clutching onto her back harder than normal since he didn't want to fall off in the hole, Twilight started to venture down the hallway. At the end, she went with the turn and saw a rectangular room with six doors at the opposite side of the entrance. Each door had a symbol on it that Twilight couldn't out what each one represented. Then she saw a message inscribed on the wall to the right of her. "Do you know what it says, Twilight? I can't make out any of the letters of it," asked Spike. "That's no surprise. This was inscribed in an ancient pony writing. Nopony's used it for around one thousand years. Luckily, I studied it early on in my training, when you were only a few weeks old. It says, 'Go through your destiny's door. Now.' There are a few words scratched off so badly that I can't read them. I wonder what this means. Do you have any clue?" asked Twilight. "I don't know," said Spike, then he started to look for clues with Twilight. After a minute or two, he thought he found something. "Hey, Twi. Look at the symbols on the doors. The one on the far left looks like your Cutie Mark. Maybe that's what it means by 'destiny's door'," said Spike, pointing at the door on the far left with a symbol on it that looked like Twilight's Cutie Mark. "Spike, you're a genius!" exclaimed Twilight with enough enthusiasm to rival Pinkie Pie's. Twilight galloped to the door with Spike still on her back. She opened the door with her magic once she got near it. What came out was a shock to her. Blazing candles illuminated this room, blinding her momentarily. She didn't expect this after the previous rooms were pitch black. This room was a hexagonal shape with a ceiling that Twilight guessed was about the same height as the hole she entered in. The length of the room was impressive, Twilight judging that it would take Rainbow Dash around five seconds to cover the distance, however it wasn't as impressive as the height of the room. In the very center of the room, she saw a wooden podium about the same size as her. "Let's go check out that podium, Spike," said Twilight, wanting to find out what was so special about this room. "Okay, but let's be careful, Twilight. Remember, there were a few etched out words in the note. They could've made the note a warning" "Yes, I remember. I'll be careful," said Twilight as she started to gallop to the podium. > The Forgotten Prophecy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Spike urging her to be careful, Twilight stepped up to the podium, seeing hinges and a magical lock on it. Both of these items were very rusty, looking like they had been left out in the rain for years with no one bothering to protect them from the weather. She tried to open the lock with a simple lock picking spell, but that spell didn't work. She was thinking on what to do next when Spike got another brilliant idea. "Twilight, if you can't open it with a lock picking spell, then do you think you could transform the lock into a fruit or something soft and just rip it off?" "Spike, I think that might work. Also, this will give me a chance to test out a new spell I've been working on," said Twilight, prepping her magic to transform the lock into an orange. Once the lock was transformed, she used her magic to create a long, purple aura around and branching off of her horn. She molded that aura into a blade sharper than any metal. She used her aura blade to slice the orange in half, which both halves dropped to the floor with a thunk that reverberated throughout the giant room. "When did you learn that spell, Twilight?" asked Spike speculatively. He didn't like the fact that Twilight knew such a dangerous spell, even though he knew the day would never come when she would use it on him. "I learned that spell about a week ago. You were sleeping while I was working on it. Owlowiscious helped me a little by letting me use her feathers to test the sharpness of the blade. I just was never able to use it in the field yet. This is the first real test of it, which is also why you haven't seen it before." "Oh. That explains a lot," said Spike with none of his concern going away. "Don't worry, I'll never use it on a sentient. That's a promise," said Twilight in a little too upbeat voice for what they were talking about. "How did you know..." Spike then trailed off. "Know? That's easy. Your speculative facial expression told me that you were thinking about something, most likely worrying, and there was really only one thing to worry about at the time, so it was quite easy after that." "Am I really that easy to read?" "Well, we've been together a while, so we should know each other very well, including what the other might be thinking when wearing certain facial expressions." "Oh. Can we get back to what we were doing now?" "Sure, Spike. Time to lift up this podium's hatch." Twilight lifted up the hatch, and inside was a scroll that looked to be thousands of years old. She picked it up and started reading it to herself. "What's it say, Twilight?" "It has a prophecy on it, written in the same language as the note outside was written in. It says, 'When Magic feels the pain and sadness of loss, the darkness will be resurrected. It will take Magic and all those who strive to get away from its path into its clutches.' And that's all it says." "Wait, I think I see something on the back," said Spike, then Twilight flipped the paper over. "On the back, it says, 'The call has now been sent to the Minion of Darkness. Keep an eye out for yourself, Magic," said Twilight, wondering what the meaning of this was when she heard a faint sound start to reverberate, starting from the top of the room. Moments afterward, a powerful gust of wind hit Twilight, Spike, and the rest of the room, forcing them to get on the ground from the pressure. The candles were blown out from this gust, leaving the room pitch black, while the door slammed shut, the sound echoing above. Twilight tried to use her magic to illuminate the room, but it failed. Then she heard a loud, ear-piercing laugh that seemed so vile in nature that it rattled Twilight to her bones and echoed up to the ceiling and back down again. "Hello, Twilight. Glad to see you," said a voice that sounded like it belonged to the same horrid creature that the bone-chilling laugh came from. "Who are you? How do you know my name?" asked Twilight, still trying to calm her surprise from the thing's laugh. "I am the Minion of Darkness, but you might know me better as a Changeling. I was sent to help fulfill that prophecy. Also, your magic is voided in this room, after a certain spell was cast," said the being, apparently a Changeling. "When Celestia finds out about this, you'll regret it!" "And how do you propose she'll find out when you're locked down here. You can't write or talk to her." "I'll get out -" "When and if you get out, the world will be different than when you last saw it," intervened the Changeling. "You remind me too much of the first and third fools who came here. Always hoping your little Princess will come and save you. Well, she'll never come!" "Wait, I'm not the first one whose been here? "No. This room has been around since before Celestia was born, before Ponyville even existed. It was found by workers who were making the library. They came in, never came out, and yet they still built a library over it. In fact, your dearly beloved Princess' sister is the third honorable mention that came in here. She came after Discord who came after Sombra. All of them were cast into eternal darkness, but two were able to escape its grasp." "Luna and Discord." "Yes, those two infernal beings escaped the path of darkness. But soon they will be back on it, thanks to you.. Anyway, I've wasted enough time here. It's time to go fulfill the prophecy," said the Changeling, and Twilight could hear the sound of a door opening, closing, locking, and being protected with a magic shield. Twilight then rushed to the door, tried to open the door, not expecting it would, and failed. She was locked in the darkness with no magic. "No! How do I get out of here? There must be a way out!" said Twilight, frantically trying to find a way out. "There's no way. I was checking while you were talking with the Changeling. We're stuck in here until it decides to release us. We might as well think of something to do to pass the time," said Spike. "Okay, what do you propose we do?" > The Path to Awaken the Prophecy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a bright and sunny day. Everypony was getting outside to enjoy a calm breeze, sunlight, and the few clouds in the sky that sometimes crossed the path of the sun, creating a shadow that allowed a few seconds of coolness on this hot, summer day. All clouds that blocked the sun would move out of the way after a second or two, and the sun would continue shining bright. It was the complete opposite of the day before, where everypony was cooped up inside while a harsh summer thunderstorm was raging. All in all, it felt like a normal day. Except for one thing. Twilight Sparkle was walking down Mane Street. This wasn't abnormal, she does this every day. What was abnormal was when Colgate greeted her. She didn't respond, so Colgate thought she was feeling down because naturally, when ponies don't respond to their friends, it generally means their feeling down. So, doing what any other pony would do when a friend is feeling down, Colgate tried to cheer her up. She went up to Twilight and asked what's wrong. "Is their anything wrong, Twilight?" "Get away from me, I don't need you." "Well, you don't need to be so rude'" said Colgate, starting to get a little annoyed. "Shut up and go away!" yelled Twilight "Well, I guess I will!" yelled Colgate back, and started to trot away. "Don't ever cross my path again! This goes for you and anypony else who dares to!" yelled Twilight after her, and to anypony who was in earshot. Twilight continued down Mane Street, this time nopony daring to cross her path, until she reached her first destination: Sugar Cube Corner. She slammed the door open and went inside. Once in, she was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Her single answer was a grunt, and she kept on walking. She went in the baking room and found Pinkie Pie asleep in cake batter. "Get up, you dirty slob!" Shouted Twilight, and Pinkie Pie started to rise from the batter sleepily. "Oh, it's you, Twilight," said Pinkie Pie, still half asleep, cake batter covering her face. "Wait, is this cake batter on my face? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" Pinkie Pie licked the batter off her face. "Ahhhhhhh. Unbaked cake batter is the best. Now, what do you want, Twilight?" "You're such a pig. How could anypony like you?" "How could anypony like ME? Did you really just ask that? Did you forget that I am friends with everypony in Ponyville? Even after all the time we've been together?" asked Pinkie Pie, just like if she had been smacked in the face. "Well then, let me share with you a secret. Nopony is actually a true friend of you. They all just fake it so you'll stay out of their mane. I am one of those, never truly having a friendship with you." "No, this can't be true! Everypony likes me." "Well, believe it!" yelled Twilight, and Pinkie Pie's mane deflated. Then, she stormed out the door. The rest of the day went on similar to this. Twilight stopped at each of her friends' houses. Once in, she made fun of all her friends and made everypony hate her. . . . . . It was pitch black. Twilight stood in the middle, or what she thought was the middle, of a large, dark room. Then, blaring lights turned on, illuminating the room and temporarily blinding Twilight. When she came to, she saw herself, sitting in a throne, surrounded by Discord and Nightmare Moon. But this wasn't her. The Twilight sitting on the throne's eyes were cold, blankly staring straight at the real Twilight. Seconds later, she learned why. The doors behind the real Twilight slammed open and out came one figure. She couldn't make out the figure, or any features of the figure, but the unknown figure galloped towards the fake Twilight.... Twilight woke up from a shove from Spike. Her eyes opened to reveal a candlelit room. "Twilight, wake up!" "Wha... what's going on? Why is the room lit up? I thought all the candles were blown out," said Twilight sleepily. She had sat up, starting to look at Spike and her surroundings. "You were asleep, and you started sweating vigorously. I was starting to worry and woke you up. I've only been awake for a few minutes, but apparently the lights were turned back on. Also, I checked the door. It's unlocked now." 'Well, we have to get out of hear as soon as possible. I had a dream that, if it's a vision of the future, I need to prevent from happening," said Twilight, already starting to go out the door. "If it's still preventable." "What was the dream about?" asked Spike, working to catch up to Twilight since she started leaving unexpectedly. "A copy of me was sitting in a throne, but her eyes were cold and unforgiving. Then, a door opened and a pony that I was unable to see any features ran in and towards the fake me. After that, I woke up, but I can assume what happened next." "That sounds terrible, but how do you propose we go around to prevent it?" "I don't know. Let's go outside and search for clues," said Twilight, already out the hole and rushing towards the door. She went up to it and opened it. She was greeted by a cool breeze and sunshine. It was warm and sunny out. Twilight did not expect this, she thought it would be late at night. But, by her best guess, it was only around noon. She decided to trot towards Mane Street and start asking ponies whether they have seen anything suspicious lately. > Broken Bonds > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey, Colgate!" said Twilight, running up to Colgate. "I need to talk to you!" "Oh, so now you want to talk to me? Well, too bad. I'm not talking to you and give you another chance to yell at me," Colgate said bitterly. "And besides, I thought you didn't want anypony crossing your path. I'll be on my way now," she said as she started trotting away. "No, wait! Colgate, let me talk to you for just a little!" "No! Now go away and stop talking to me!" Twilight sighed. "I wonder what was up with her? she said something about ma saying that I don't want anypony crossing my path, but I never said that." "Interesting... maybe we should go see your friends, ask them if they know what happened," said Spike. "We probably should. How about Pinkie? If anypony knows, she does. So, off to Sugar Cube Corner!" After a few minutes of trotting on Mane Street, Twilight and Spike got to Sugar Cube Corner. Once they were there, they went inside, and the first thing they saw was Mr. and Mrs. Cake blocking her path. "Get out of here!" yelled Mr. Cake. "We already have enough damage! We don't need you causing any more damage to our bakery." "What are you talking about?" asked Twilight, then she noticed the once neat cupcake display case destroyed with frosting and cake splattered everywhere. "I never did this! What would ever make you believe that I did this to your store? And where's Pinkie?" "Pinkie is in the back room, depressed because of what you said to her earlier. She won't tell us the specifics, but she's been bawling her eyes out ever since you left. All we know is you went into the kitchen and talked to her a little. Then you came out, destroyed our display case, and said our baking was terrible. When we went into the kitchen, we found Pinkie bawling and she wouldn't tell us anything. Now leave before we make you leave!" said Mr. Cake, while Mrs. Cake got a broom to back up her husband's threat. "Fine, I'll leave!" said Twilight as she started to get out of the bakery. The Cakes slammed the door behind her. "Well, that was strange. Just like with Colgate. I'm going to need to see all my friends now. Where's Rainbow Dash?" "That sounds like a good idea. And I have no idea where Rainbow Dash is." said Spike as they started trotting to one of the two obvious places that Rainbow Dash would be at, which was the lake. When they got there, they noticed Rainbow Dash sitting on a lounge chair. She had fallen asleep with a copy of Daring Do and the Last Crusaddle on her face and a pair of sunglasses on the top of her head. Twilight trotted up to her and woke her up. "Hey, Rainbow Dash! Wake up!" "Who is it?" asked Rainbow Dash sleepily as she started to yawn. She removed the book and focused on her visitor. "Oh. It's you. Don't you think you've caused enough humiliation to me for one day? "I've done something to you, too? It seems I've done something to everypony today," said Twilight with a hint of pain in her voice and a pained facial expression. "You'd also be correct if you said it would be hard for anypony to forget that she added in a last-minute article to the newspaper earlier this morning," said Rainbow Dash, holding up a copy of the local newspaper. The article about Rainbow Dash said, "Twenty percent cooler pony is really twenty percent lazier than the rest of us: Ponyville's weather mare Rainbow Dash has been caught sleeping on the job..." and after that, Twilight stopped reading. While reading, Rainbow Dash had gone and got the nastiest looking raincloud she could find. "Now get out of hear before I have to make this cloud downpour on you!" "You don't need to do that, I'll leave," Twilight said as she started to gallop away. "This is annoying! Everypony hates me and won't let me talk to them for one second." "It look like it. Let's try Sweet Apple Acres next," said Spike. "Okay. To Sweet Apple Acres, I guess." They trotted off to Sweet Apple Acres. When they got to their destination, they could barely tell it was the same apple orchard that thrived and prospered just the day before. Immediately they saw branches and trees cut off their bases and thrown in random places. It looked like a tornado had just hit it and would take years to fully repair. "What happened here? Although I think I know what happened. Probably something that I did," Twilight said cynically. "Twilight! What the hey are you doing here? Go away! Can't you see you've already done enough damage?" yelled Applejack. "So I did do this, even though I've been stuck underground for the past day. I've done a lot of things like that lately." "Twilight, I don't want to have to say this again. Get the hey out of here before I buck you out, you vermin!" Applejack started going closer to Twilight with a look that said, "Don't mess with me right now." "All right! I'm leaving!" Twilight and Spike started to trot away. "And don't ever come back! Ya hear?!" yelled Applejack after them. "Let's go to Fluttershy's cottage. Maybe she'll give me a chance to talk." After a few minutes of trotting, they got to Fluttershy's cottage. Twilight went up to the door and knocked on it. A few minutes later, when nopony had come to open it, Twilight leaned close to the door to try and hear what was going on inside. She heard a lot of sobbing, then she furiously knocked on the door. Angel came to the door and opened it. The first thing Twilight saw was Fluttershy crying in the corner. "So, I'm assuming your going to say that I did whatever made her cry like this?" Angel responded with a nod of his head, then he slammed the door shut. "Well, that's four out of five friends that I did something to. I guess we need to go see Rarity now." Twilight and Spike started to trot to the boutique, with about an hour left until sunset. Once there, she knocked on the door, and Sweetie Belle answered immediately. "Oh, it's you. You want to see Rarity in hopes that you can make right for what you did to her earlier. She's in her room, but l doubt she'll listen to you," said Sweetie Belle "Thank you for at least giving me a chance," said Twilight as she trotted up to Rarity's room. Once there, she didn't bother knocking. She knew what would happen if she did, and she wanted a better chance of talking to her. So, instead, she opened the door and barged in. She saw Rarity on her bed crying and keeping Opal next to her against the cat's will. She saw Twilight instantly. "Leave! I never want to see you ever again!" shouted Rarity as she used her magic to boot Twilight out the window. "Wait! Don't do it!" yelled Twilight, but it was too late. She flew out the window and landed in view of Spike. "So, l guess it didn't go well?" asked Spike. "You'd be correct with that guess. Now let's go home. It's getting late," said Twilight, not even trying to the depression out of her voice. The walk to their home took a while. Not because the library was so far away, but because Twilight was walking sluggishly. She was too sad to want to walk fast. Spike could hear her crying all the way. At one point, Spike tried to soothe her. After he tried to, Twilight galloped the rest of the way to her house. He broke into a jog, but since he is a baby dragon, he quickly got tired and walked the rest of the way. Once at the library, Spike noticed that the door was slightly ajar. This meant that either Twilight was in too much of a hurry, or she left it open specifically for him. Either way, Spike entered and started to climb up the stairs to Twilight's bed. Half way up, he rammed into a force field. He tried calling to her, but she wouldn't budge. He looked carefully at her, and noticed there were streams of tears rolling down her eyes, but he couldn't hear any sobbing at all. He concluded that she must have also put up a sound barrier. Figuring that he would not be able to get her attention, he just went to bed. > Chapter V > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spike woke to the sound of hooves contacting the hard wood floor of the library, coming from the direction of the stairs. Spike sat up and looked in that direction, seeing Twilight walking down the stairs. "Oh, Twilight. What are you doing awake at this hour?" asked Spike Silence answered him. "I know you're still feeling down, but that doesn't mean you can ignore my question." Silence again. "I'm going back to sleep. see you in the morning." Spike closed his eyes. Seconds later, he opened them again to a low hum and a black-purple glow. He then noticed what was making the glow, a magic blade above Twilight's horn that was lightly illuminating the room. He started sweating from fear, realizing that Twilight was coming towards him. "Twilight, what are you doing?" He was answered with Twilight slashing at him, but he ducked. Spike got up out of bed and ran out of the library. He ran down Mane Street, with Twilight close behind him. But, since she was faster than him, she eventually caught up and forced him into a dead end, cornering him. "What are you going to do to me?" asked Spike, vigorously sweating in fear. "At first, I was just going to make you hate me. But now, I've decided to take you out instead," said Twilight. "And, by the way, I never loved you." "But that's not..." Spike ended screaming in pain when Twilight slashed him from his right shoulder to his left hip bone. His world then turned black. . . . . . She was sitting on a throne. Twilight could feel this even before she opened her eyes. But, once she did, the first things she saw were what stood at her two sides. Once her vision adjusted to the light and she was seeing more clearly, she noticed that they were not things, but they were Discord on her left and Nightmare Moon on her right. But, before she was able to question anything, the door on the opposite side of the room slammed open, and out galloped an emerald green unicorn with a green magic blade emanating from its horn. When the pony, a stallion, came galloping straight at her, she realized where she was. She was in the same place as her dream from the previous night, except, this time, she was sitting on the throne. When the emerald pony had covered about half the room, Twilight, against her will, stepped off the throne and ignited her blade, which glowed with a black aura. She was not in control of her body. As soon as Twilight and the emerald pony met, they clashed blades. They started fighting each other, and after around a minute after the start, Twilight overpowered the emerald pony and got him on the floor. She slashed him from his right shoulder to his left hip bone, and was surprised to see a blueish colored blood splatter on her face and the walls. When she brought her head up from the downward slash, she noticed that Spike was on the ground. Twilight would have gasped in surprise, if she wasn't being controlled by a mysterious force. She turned her head around to face Night mare Moon and Discord. Discord had his hand stretched out, palm facing downward, and Nightmare Moon had her front leg out with the hoof facing down. Twilight turned her head around, and she noticed that the blood on the wall was now red, and the emerald pony was on the floor where Spike was a moment earlier. She ignited her magic blade again and drove straight through the pony's heart... Twilight woke with a startled shriek, half from her dream and half from a knock at the door. She sat up, finding out she was drenched in sweat and with what she thought was dried sweat on her face. as she was walking down the stairs and towards the door, she heard another knock, this one more stern and preceding the shout, "Open the door before we force it open!" "Coming!" shouted Twilight as she galloped down the rest of the stairs and to the door. When she got there, she opened the door, and both her and the ponies outside gasped. "So it is true. Twilight Sparkle, we're going to have to take you back to the station," said one of the two ponies, which Twilight recognized both of them as policeponies. After they said that, they took out leg braces and a magic damper that they were going to put on Twilight. "What are you two saying? What did I do that would force you to come and take me back to the station?" "Don't play dumb with us. We are mostly sure that it was you that committed the crime." "What are you accusing me of doing? Mostly sure committed what crime?" One of the policeponies took out a plastic bag from his pocket that was labeled "Evidence" and handed it to the other policepony. "Didn't I tell you not to play dumb with us?" The pony that had the bag started scratching a dry substance off Twilight's face. "I'm not playing dumb! I truly don't know and didn't do whatever you're accusing me of. I was sleeping all night last night." After Twilight said this, she noticed what the policeponies were putting in the evidence bag. She gasped when she realized it was dried dragon blood. "What happened to Spike?" "You should already know what happened to him. Take her away to the station." The other policepony put the leg braces and magic damper on a flailing Twilight, then both of them took her to the police station. > Chapter VI > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sat in a room lit by a dim lamp and furnished with only a table, two empty chairs, and the chair Twilight was sitting on. She sat chained to it, waiting for the policeponies to come back in with their judgement. After what felt like a day, they finally came back. "Twilight Sparkle, you are under arrest for attempted murder and assault," said the first policepony while the other one came over to unchain her. "You will now be taken to your cell." "But I never attempted to murder anypony! What could I have possibly gained from that? The only reason I'm in Ponyville is to make friends and learn about friendship!" "We don't care about the means! That's just our problem when trying to find out who did it, not when we have clear evidence on who it was. Oh, and, just so you know, we don't know yet whether it was attempted or not. Spike's still in the intensive care unit, under critical condition. He could still die, in which you'll be charged for murder," said the policepony taking off her chains. "Wait, Spike's in the intensive care unit? When did this happen? Is he okay?" "Well, you seem to care a lot about the dragon you attempted to murder last night." "How could you think that I tried to murder Spike? I would never do that!" "That's not what the evidence points to. One: Spike, when he was found and taken to the hospital, was mumbling about you being the assaulter. Two: the most important of the two pieces of evidence, we found dried dragon blood on your face. We did some lab testing and found out that it was identical to Spike's blood. Now take her to her cell." The other policepony started putting leg braces on her. "Right away, sir," replied the other policepony, making the last preparations to take her away. "No! I've been falsely accused!" Twilight started to flail in the policepony's grasp. "You're looking for somepony else!" "I tire of this," the policepony not holding Twilight said as he took out a tranquilizer dart and shoved it in Twilight's leg. "Sleep tightly...," he mumbled as Twilight eased into the induced sleep. . . . . . It was around midnight when Twilight woke up from her dart-induced sleep. Or, she thought it was around midnight. There is no way to really tell in a cell that has no windows and no clock. After a few minutes of sleeplessness, Twilight attempted to look at what little surroundings she could see. There was a sink and the bed she was sleeping on. The whole place had a musky scent to it, like nopony had bothered to clean it in a long time. So, deciding that there was nothing else to see, she attempted to go back to sleep. However, moments after she actually got to sleep, she woke to the sound of the poof of somepony winking into existence from a teleportation spell. She slowly sat up and opened her eyes to find the room illuminated by Nightmare Moon's magic. She also noticed another presence, which she recognized as Discord. "What are you two doing here?" Twilight frantically pushed herself as far away from the newcomers as she could go, squeezing herself next to the wall. "And how did you get in here?" "Dark magic can be very powerful," said Discord. " And we're here with an offer to assist you." "How could you assist me? Both of you are evil!" "By helping you get your friends back," said Nightmare Moon. "How can you do that? I hurt all their feelings, and they all hate me." Twilight had a pained look on her face. "There's always a way. We'll give you a piece of paper, a quill, and some ink," said Discord. "At this time tomorrow, we'll put down the magic damper in your cell for one hour only. Give us your response in that time. Send it to where you first found the Elements of Harmony." Nightmare Moon placed the quill and the ink on Twilight's bed. "We'll be hearing from you in twenty four hours," she said, then both her and Discord teleported out. "They can get me my friends back? But I don't know whether I can trust them. They are Discord and Nightmare Moon," Twilight said to herself. "But, I guess it's probably worth the risk. I still have a full day to decide, so I should get some sleep now." She started to drift off into sleep. . . . . . Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep. "We're losing him, doctor!" Beep, beep. "Just a phew more seconds..." Beep, beep. "There! Now hand me the defibrillator!" Beep, beep. Zap! Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep. "His heart beat is returning back to normal, doctor." "Good. Now, let's finish patching him up and get him to his room." . . . . . Twilight woke to the sound of a policepony yelling at her from outside her cell. She guessed that, since there were only one or two ponies, including her, in this station, the policeponies were able to wake them up personally instead uf a trumpet or other loud item. "Well, Twilight, you're lucky," said the policepony, after Twilight was off her bed. "We just got word from the hospital saying that Spike survived and is now out of critical condition. Now, you'll only be charged with attempted murder and assault." "Well, that means less time until I get back to my life with the friends that now hate me," mumbled Twilight sarcastically. "I kind of wish I could be here longer. Maybe then they would listen to me." Although, if I accept Nightmare Moon and Discord's offer, then I'll be out of here tomorrow, with my friends back. But I still question if I can trust them. "Well, when you're done mumbling with yourself, get out of there. You have work to do." Twilight could hear the door to her cell open. The day seemed to go on forever, one laborious task after another. The only brakes Twilight ever got were lunch, dinner, and movement from one task to the next. And all that day, the only thing Twilight could think about was the offer made to her. She could risk everything on the gamble that Nightmare Moon and Discord would keep their word, or she would be betrayed and would be better off waiting to get out of here and hoping her friends would forgive her. After the long day, the time came for her to decide. With the magic dampers down for the hour, Twilight used her magic to lightly illuminate the room and wrote her response: Nightmare Moon and Discord, After the day you gave me to decide my decision on your offer, I have decided that I will be accepting the offer. Twilight Sparkle As soon as she finished writing her letter, she sent it to the ruins where she had found the Elements of Harmony, and stopped emitting light. It seemed like not too long ago, she had been in those ruins with five ponies that she had figured out were her friends, ridding Nightmare Moon of her evil. Now, she might be returning to that place to accept an offer from the same pony that she had used the Elements on. After a few moments of waiting and thinking, Twilight was suddenly teleported out of the station and into those ruins. Seeing them brought more nostalgia to her than when she was thinking about it moments ago. The nostalgia increased when she saw Nightmare Moon, but disappeared when she saw Discord. She suddenly got serious. "So, when are you going to get my friends back?" she asked. "Be patient. Just cast this spell and you will regain your friends and more," said Nightmare Moon while Discord pulled out a book from a secret compartment in the structure that had once held the Elements of Harmony. "Here is the spell," he said, opening the book to the page that contained the spell. "When one is desperate to gain one's friends back, new friends will form. One will be assimilated to the new friends' way, and the Elements of Chaos will be reunited," said Twilight as she cast the spell. When Twilight cast the spell, she saw five shadowy figures appear. But she didn't get enough time to see any features. Right after she caught glimpse of them, she fell to the ground. It felt as if an electrical shock was flowing through all her nerves, and a single drop of chaos was put in her blood stream. The drop cycled through her body, turning her heart to stone, and eliminating every emotion that stood in the way of becoming an agent of chaos. Seconds earlier, she had been the Twilight of light. The spell destroyed that Twilight, and had reborn her as the Twilight of darkness. To Be Continued... In the sequel, Twilight of Darkness