Princess

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 4

Chapter 1

“They betrayed me…” Twilight whispered, a single tear falling from the cheek of the tiny pony who had, until yesterday, been a unicorn. The tear froze solid before it hit the ground, shattering when it did so. “…They betrayed all of us.”

Twilight could still hear the screams of her friends as the royal guards restrained her while Celestia, the kind and benevolent ruler who had been like a second mother to Twilight, ripped the wings off of Rainbow Dash. Stabbed her glimmering horn through Fluttershy’s heart. Kicked Pinkie Pie and Applejack hard enough to snap their necks with a sickening CRUNCH. And then, worst of all, she had sucked the magic, the very life-sustaining force of all unicorns, out through Rarity’s horn. Twilight could do nothing but scream and plead for her mentor to stop, the cold inhibitor ring a royal guard had roughly shoved onto her horn preventing Twilight from doing anything to intervene as her friends, one by one, were brutally murdered in front of her eyes.

Even without the ring, it had taken a squadron of the Royal Guard’s strongest soldiers to restrain Twilight, their teeth tugging and pulling to hold her back from the decoration of Ponyville Town Square with her friend’s internal organs as Celestia stamped on the bodies for good measure.

“Are you watching me Twilight?” Celestia had called out through it all. “This is what will happen to any of my subjects you try to rally to your cause. Without the other Elements of Harmony, you are weak, powerless to dethrone me.

“What are you talking about?!” Twilight had shrieked between racking sobs. “I don’t WANT to dethrone you! I didn’t ask for these! I never wanted WINGS!”

The guards had almost lost hold of Twilight then as she surged forward, empowered by the inner rage that had coursed through her on the enunciation of the word that had changed her life—and ended that of her friends—forever. But there were too many of the soldiers, and Twilight still had little if any cognitive control over the feathery wings that she had found sprouted from her back that morning. They hung limp and almost lame, twitching with the new alicorn’s fury, little more than deadweight to a pony who had lived her entire life until now without them.

Perhaps one day Twilight could have soared with her mentor and Luna over Equestria, the two royal sisters teaching the newest member of their race how to fly—but now Twilight knew that that would never happen, and even if it would have, for now the alicorn’s lavender wings were as useless as that of a newborn pegasus.

“You may not have wanted to, but you would have had little choice in the matter,” Celestia had spoken gravely, walking over to Twilight with the blood of the other Elements still dripping from her horn and coating her hooves. Twilight had raged and struggled all the more, finally throwing the guards off her with a tremendous strength that Twilight would never have had in her old life as a unicorn, no matter how magically gifted she may have been. The soldiers soared through the air, some smashing into the buildings surrounding Ponyville Town Square, some barreling into the terrified citizens who had curiously come out of their shops and homes at the arrival of the princess only to be caught up in the middle of a bloodbath. Others landed on the unforgiving pavement, snapping their bones and their necks, their blood adding to that which had already been shed.

But before Twilight could ram her own considerably longer and sharper horn into Celestia’s chest, the princess of the sun did what Twilight herself still could not with the inhibitor ring still firmly on her horn. Telekinetically lifting Twilight into the air and halting the new alicorn’s bloodthirsty advance towards her, Celestia raised the still shorter-by-comparison Twilight to her eye level. Celestia was protected from Twilight’s violent thrashings to get free by the grip of Celestia’s own golden magic, which she rarely had to use, but today was making an exception.

“The Elements have spoken, but that doesn’t mean their old bearers have to head them,” Celestia spat in Twilight’s face. “I can no longer kill you as I have the others and so prevented them from joining your ranks, but there are ways of putting even the immortal out of commission.”

“What can you possibly do to me that is worse than what you’ve already done?” Twilight whispered, tears streaming from her eyes even though she had given up trying to escape Celestia’s magical iron grip.

“Nothing,” Celestia smiled. “The Elements are no longer connected to Luna and myself, so we cannot banish you to the Moon or the Sun. We cannot petrify you as we had done to Discord. But I CAN lock you in the deepest dungeon of the Canterlot palace forever. I can tie you to down in the Everfree Forest to be attacked endlessly throughout your immortal life by monsters, always tortured but never able to die. Or I could chain you up for all to see right here in your beloved home.”

“But why?” Twilight was barely able to speak now, as everything she had ever known was crashing down around her. “Why are you doing this?”

“You mean you haven’t figured it out on your own?” Celestia laughed. A cold, cruel laugh that chilled Twilight’s heart. “I guess it doesn’t matter whether you know the truth or not, though. For that future will never happen. It died with your friends. And you know what?”

Celestia leaned in closer, her eyes centimeters away from Twilight’s. One pair full of gloating and dark mirth, the other full of sorrow and hate.

Then, the princess whispered “If you HAD figured it out, then you could have saved them. Despite all your learning, Twilight Sparkle, your friends are dead because you were too DUMB.”

“No,” Twilight whispered. “No. NO! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Twilight’s horn, with a willpower and magical force that Celestia hadn’t thought possible, sparked and obliterated the inhibitor ring into a thousand shards that flew out and dug themselves into the sun princess’ eyes. Celestia cried out in pain, her hooves flying to her eyes as, her concentration broken, Twilight was dropped to the ground.

Instantly, with a flash of light, Twilight was gone, and so too were the bodies of the young mares who had been, in life, the Elements of Harmony…

…and Twilight’s best and only friends.

A thousand miles away, on a forgotten mountain range on the edge of Equestria, the new alicorn wept for her friends, for the betrayal of her mentor, and for the unwanted transformation that had brought this upon all of them. Twilight’s tears shattered at her feet, adding to the snow and ice already suffocating these monstrous rocks jutting up to scrape the sky.

When Twilight could cry no more, she looked up at last, her bloodshot eyes turned towards Canterlot and the princesses who had turned against her and turned her world upside-down. No doubt, Celestia was now sitting on her throne alongside princess Luna, outraged that Twilight had escaped them, as teleportation, at least to Twilight’s knowledge, was untraceable. But it was a victory nevertheless for the two original alicorns, Twilight’s friends dead and gone, forever prevented from doing whatever it was the two princesses so feared they would attempt.

Twilight supposed that she should bury the bodies, which she had at least thought to bring with her to this frozen wasteland. It wasn’t where Twilight thought any of them would’ve wanted to be buried if they had had a choice in the matter, but it was better than anywhere Celestia might find them and burn them while Twilight was forced to watch.

The new alicorn turned to face the first of the bodies, Fluttershy’s, the one that had been nearest her when she teleported away from the town that had once been her home but that she would now remember only as the site where her friends—because of her—had been killed.

But much to the surprise of Twilight’s already overloaded brain, Fluttershy’s corpse was nowhere to be seen—and neither were any of the others. In their places, scattered in the positions the bodies had been when Celestia tossed their lifeless husks aside like discarded garbage, were the gem-studded necklaces of the Elements of Harmony. Although she hadn’t noticed it before, Twilight realized that she also felt the familiar weight of the Element of Magic resting on her head. A raised hoof confirmed that it was there.

But why? Why were the Elements of Harmony here in place of Twilight’s friends’ last remains? The switch—or had it been conversion?—must have happened during Twilight’s teleport, but there was also no spell that Twilight knew of that Celestia could’ve used to make such a change. And even if she could, why would she? Celestia had been out to get them, after all—not provide them with what made them powerful, even if the bearers themselves were no longer around to use them.

But Twilight WAS still around—even if the Element of Magic was useless without the others, which she of course couldn’t operate on her own. Had Celestia somehow sent them with Twilight in place of her friend’s bodies just to torment her further, giving her the now useless Elements as insult to injury? Were they simply yet another reminder that Twilight, even as an alicorn, could do nothing against the princesses?

That didn’t make any sense either—even though the princesses were also unable to make direct use of the Elements, being their former bearers, they still needed the precious magical gems to stop any potential threats to Equestria. Twilight now assumed that the princesses counted her as one such threat, even if the new alicorn didn’t understand why, so they would have surely wanted to keep the Elements close for some other ponies to use, wouldn’t they?

And what had happened to her friends bodies? Had they somehow BECOME the Elements?

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Twilight, finally unable to contain it any longer, screamed to the sky only to have her breath stolen by the raging winter winds roaring through the mountains.

“You mean you haven’t figured it out on your own?” chuckled the last voice that Twilight had ever expected to hear. Not even if Celestia had somehow figured out how to track Twilight’s teleportation and was standing right behind her would Twilight have been more surprised. After all, she had imprisoned the voice’s owner in stone herself.

“Discord?” Twilight quavered.

“The one and only!” the draconequus laughed, causing Twilight to spin around, only to see that the spirit of chaos and disharmony wasn’t there…or anywhere else she could see in the immediate vicinity of the mountain. “Oh, I’m quite far away, Ms. Sparkle, so no need to worry about that. In fact, no need to worry at all—I’m not out to hurt you, not this time. THIS time, I’m out to HELP you.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight sneered, her wings flaring in fury as she snorted with disgust.

“Oh really, Twilight?” Discord laughed again. “You’re still angry with ME, even after what CELESTIA did to you and your friends? After all, all I ever did was break your friendship, and even then only temporarily. Celestia, however, broke their faces.”

“How dare you talk about my friends like that!” Twilight roared, but then stopped. Though she hated to admit it, the draconequus had a point. Celestia had betrayed Twilight far more than Discord had ever hurt her, as well as turning everything Twilight knew about the world into disarrayed haywire to make even Discord’s chaotic Equestria seem orderly and understandable by comparison. No at all certain who her enemies even were anymore, Twilight asked “What do you want? And where are you, anyway?”

“Like I said,” Discord explained. “I want to help you. We share a common enemy, you and I—Celesta hates us both, and has done everything she can to put us out of her way. As for where I am, I am sadly still in my stony prison, being used as a public toilet for the pigeons at the Canterlot Royal Sculpture Gardens. You only hear me in your head, telepathically.”

“You never contacted anypony before,” Twilight pointed out, still slightly suspicious, though she had to admit she really didn’t know what to believe anymore.

“Doing so would never have benefitted me before,” Discord countered. “What pony can you think of that in all my years of imprisonment would’ve willfully worked with the spirit of disharmony and chaos?”

“Good point,” Twilight conceded. “But even if Celestia has turned against me…and…my friends… what makes you think I’ll trust you? Even if your crimes weren’t as great as Celestia’s, you still almost tore apart our friendship!”

“Because,” Discord went on. “Back when I did that, I thought you were a pawn of Celestia’s, something she was using to try and stop me—which, of course, you were. But that is no longer the case, and anyway, I never intended to hurt anypony. My nature is chaos, not murder. I merely sought to spread what I consider to be the natural order of the universe, which from my perspective, is performing a public good. Celestia seeks to serve only herself, as does Luna, and they just happen to be on the same team at the moment, though you and I both know this was not always the case.

“And I can also tell you WHY they did the things they did to your friends. But only if you agree to help me—and then I shall help you.”

Twilight hesitated, and then thought for a moment.

At last, she said “Tell me what’s going on and MAYBE I’ll help you.”

“Very well,” Discord sighed. “Though I must say, I really am surprised that you, with all your knowledge, haven’t figured out why you got your wings, or why Celestia and Luna are so afraid of that.”

“They’re afraid?” Twilight echoed. Twilight had surmised as much from how vehemently Celestia had sought to terminate the new bearers of the Elements, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. “Of me?”

“Terrified,” Discord agreed. “Because the Elements of Harmony have chosen you to replace them. You and all your friends were to become alicorns and rule Equestria as the new princesses. You transformed first because you were the leader, but the others would’ve followed shortly after. Every powerful magical being in Equestria felt your transformation, namely Celestia, Luna, and myself—and when Celestia realized what was happening and, more importantly, about to happen, she raced to Ponyville to kill your friends before they too could become alicorns and become an unstoppable force should you six contest the current princesses’ position for the throne.”

“But I don’t want the throne!” Twilight protested. “And I’m sure none of my friends would have wanted it either!”

“You don’t have much of a choice,” Discord said. “The Elements have spoken. They are woven into the very fabric of this reality, and they cannot be ignored. All of us, even I, as well you know, am powerless against them, whether you or I or Celestia and Luna like it or not. The Elements have decided that the time has come for Celestia and Luna’s rule to end, and for yours and what would have been the other five bearer’s to begin. That is why Celestia killed the others before they too became immortal—to try and stop this from happening and keep her and Luna’s position on the throne.”

“But I refuse it!” Twilight demanded. “I don’t want to be princess of Equestria, and even if I did, there’s nothing I could do against those tyrants now! Not without my friends…”

“That is true,” Discord agreed. “Without the others, you have nothing but your new abilities as an alicorn, which is nothing compared to the power Celestia and Luna wield together. But you aren’t without the others, now are you?”

“What?” Twilight gasped. “What are you talking about! I saw Celestia murder them with my own eyes! I saw her ENJOY it!”

“Think about it, Twilight,” Discord encouraged her. “If your friends are really gone, then why did their bodies become the Elements of Harmony during your teleport?”

Twilight did think about it, and came to the conclusion that, even though she still didn’t trust Discord fully, everything he said so far was making more sense than she would like it to.

“You mean…” Twilight ventured, hoping desperately. “Their spirits are still connected to the Elements, even in death?”

“Bingo!” Discord exclaimed happily. “The Elements aren’t done with your friends yet, Twilight Sparkle. Even death can’t stop that. And though only the bearer of each Element can use that Element, I have no doubt that the spirits of your friends still lingering within those Elements would be more than happy to lend you their power to take down Celestia and Luna.”

“My friends,” Twilight whispered to herself, telekinetically gathering up all the Elements from where they were scattered about in the snow. She touched each gem-studded necklace in turn. The minute her hoof touched the balloon-shaped jewel of Pinkie Pie’s collar, the taste of sugar pleasantly assaulted her tongue, bringing with it a wave of memories. Pinkie’s parties, her weird, funny ways, and how she was always there to brighten up the mood. Applejack’s gem had a similar effect—the sweet taste of crisp, fresh apples and the conviction that despite what anypony else told her, Twilight could always count on AJ for the truth. Rainbow Dash’s Element of Loyalty showed Twilight bright flashes of color and had the reassurance that no matter the situation, Twilight had somepony she knew who would never abandon her. Rarity’s jewel (she would’ve probably preferred to call it a diamond) gave Twilight strength, even though the new alicorn somehow knew that such a gift took away from the giver just as much as it gave to the receiver, though the giver couldn’t care less as long as her friend received that gift. And finally, Fluttershy’s Element filled Twilight’s nose with the fresh scents of the forest, teeming with life, beings who would always be cared for by the selfless kindness of one particular pony who would never see them again, though she would never be forgotten. None of them ever would. “They ARE here! I can feel them!”

“Told you so,” Discord said gently, as if even he was respecting the tenderness of the moment, of how even though Twilight had to say goodbye, she didn’t have to be alone. “They’re all there, all for you. And for all of Equestria.”

“For all of Equestria,” Twilight agreed, her brow furrowing as the temporarily lifted rage and sorrow filled her heart once more. This time, though, it was controlled, calculated, like a feral monster waiting for the one pony it would obey to give it the command to attack. And attack it would. Twilight had already decided that. One way or another, the monster of hate inside her would feast upon Celestia and Luna’s flesh. They would pay for what they did to Twilight’s friends.

Equestria would no longer be under the hoof of a ruler so bloodthirsty and heartless yet so good at concealing it from the general public that even Twilight’s quizzical, analytical, brilliant mind had looked it over.

“Discord,” Twilight called, softly but firmly.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“I see now your truthfulness,” Twilight spoke calmly. “Thank you. I shall heed your advice and complete my destiny.”

“Then let me offer you one final tip,” Discord cautioned. “It is true that you wield all the powers of an alicorn, especially those powers that are just as unique to you as moving the sun is for Celestia. But those powers have yet to be discovered, and you are inexperienced with alicorn abilities in general. Even with the power of the Elements, you will be powerless against Celestia and Luna simply due to your lack of experience being an alicorn and wielding those Elements that you have never before used, especially all at once.”

“What are you saying?” Twilight queried, a smirk coming to her lips. “I thought you just said that even Celestia and Luna can’t stand up to the Elements.”

“I did, and they can’t,” Discord answered. “And given a thousand years of practice, you could bring the sun and moon crashing down on their heads. But you don’t have a thousand years. Even now, I can sense that Celestia and Luna are searching for you both personally and with the entire Royal Guard. All of Equestria has been put on high alert, with you marked as Public Enemy #1. They will find you, Twilight, no matter where you run or where you hide, even if they have to tear Equestria apart to do so. And you and I both know that that is neither beneath them nor impossible for them.”

“Then I’ll do what I do best,” Twilight declared. “I’ll study. I’ll learn enough about the Elements to utilize them against those monstrous monarchs before they find me.”

“I’m afraid that even with all your none-too-inconsiderable talents, even before becoming an alicorn, you will not be able to learn enough to defeat Celestia and Luna before they find you, lock the Elements away, and torture you for the rest of your immortal life,” Discord said, sounding almost…sorry. “There isn’t enough time in all this universe to learn everything there is to know about the Elements of Harmony. But there is one thing you CAN do with them to stop Celestia and Luna.”

“And what’s that?” Twilight asked even though she already knew the answer, suspicion creeping back into her voice.

“First, you’ll have to get to the Canterlot Royal Sculpture Gardens, and you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. Celestia and Luna have realized their mistake with your escape and set up a barrier around Equestria that prevents any long-distance teleportation. But if you do reach me and use the Elements to free me, then I will help you defeat those orderly wretches,” Discord told her. “They won’t have a chance against the Elements of Harmony AND the spirit of chaos and disharmony. You know personally that I’m stronger than both of the princesses combined.”

Twilight thought again. Surely Discord, even if he wasn’t a killer like Celestia, couldn’t be trusted by his own admitted chaotic nature. Then again, there was still truth to what the draconequus spoke—Twilight could never take on Celestia and Luna by herself, even with the Elements of Harmony, without having any experience as an alicorn or with the use of all of the Elements at once. The new alicorn didn’t trust Discord, but even a world of chaos wasn’t as bad as letting those two tyrants remain on the throne, killing innocent ponies just to keep themselves in power.

“What if I do release you and we defeat Celestia and Luna?” Twilight inquired. “What will you do then?”

“I won’t try to turn Equestria into my own personal madhouse again, if that’s what you’re asking,” Discord chuckled. “The only reason I did that in the first place was because, though you wouldn’t know this, Celestia and Luna destroyed my own kingdom long ago—as well as my entire race. They hated our disorderly ways, even though we did nothing against Equestria, and so they killed us all—all but me, that is, who, being the ruler, was just as immortal as they. I only ever tried to turn Equestria into a spitting image of my home kingdom as revenge against those tyrants, but once I help you dethrone them, I’ll have all the revenge I’ll need. I’ll leave Equestria and never return, leaving it in your capable hooves. Who knows? Maybe I’ll finally find some place in this world that actually appreciates the culture of the long-dead draconequus kingdom.”

Twilight was aghast. The new alicorn had indeed wondered why she’d never heard of another draconequus, and Twilight had even witnessed Celestia’s brutal heartlessness firsthoof. But to think that the princesses had destroyed an entire race simply because it suited them to do so? Twilight’s rage now burned all the more.

Making up her mind, Twilight spoke, again softly, but in that whisper Discord could feel even a thousand miles away all the power and rage the little alicorn contained. It made him mentally shudder in his stony prison.

“I’ll free you Discord,” Twilight said. “And together we’ll avenge both my friends and your people. But I’ve also decided another thing. The Elements may have chosen me to lead Equestria, and Celestia and Luna may have chosen to try and defy them. But in that I suppose there is a similarity between us after all—I too will defy the Elements. After all this is over, and Celestia and Luna are defeated, and you have gone your own way, I still will not lead Equestria. I’m not letting my destiny be decided for me, for look at all the pain and grief such a destiny has already caused my friends. I have already decided that I will not be the one to lead Equestria.

“But neither will they. ”

. . .

Chapter 2

“So what do you propose to do now?”

“I’ll head to Appleoosa,” Twilight responded, the Elements hovering beside her in the alicorn’s telekinetic grip. “It’s closest to these mountains, and I’ll regroup from there. Surely there’ll be some ponies sympathetic to my cause—Braeburn’s part of the Apple family, perhaps—and if not, I can nevertheless disguise myself and ride the rails to the more central settlements of Equestria.”

“Sounds feasible,” Discord mused. “But what I was actually referring to were the Elements. How do you plan to make use of them should…trouble arise…before you can free me?”

Twilight turned to face the floating gemstones, each flickering with light of their own and reflecting the new alicorn’s puzzled face with five different distortions. In fact, the reflections looked a lot more like the ponies who had once borne each stone than Twilight herself, a fact that both panged at her heart and gave her small comfort all at the same time.

“I was hoping that the Elements would kind of show me what to do on their own,” Twilight said. “In the meantime I suppose I can just wear them all around my neck as I don’t exactly have any spare saddlebags with me, even though five golden necklaces studded with rather large gemstones will be awkward. I can conceal them and my wings with an invisibility spell. Or better yet, I can just cast an illusion over my entire body to make me look like some other pony.”

“Not what I was hoping for,” Discord sighed. “But I suppose we’ll have to make do with that arrangement in the meantime. I may know more about the Elements’ history than you do, but I haven’t the slightest idea how they work or how to use them as you ponies do. Should trouble arise and you don’t know how to use the Elements all at once, you’ll be on your own.”

“It feels like I already am,” Twilight sighed herself.

“And what am I, chop liver?” Discord inquired indignantly. “You’ll have me to guide you every step of the way, even if I won’t be able to do anything but offer advice until you free me. At least nopony else can listen in on our telepathic conversation—even Celestia and Luna are oblivious to my monitoring of the outside world.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized. “I guess… I guess I just don’t really know how to trust anypony anymore. Not after what happened…”

“I understand,” Discord soothed. “But you CAN trust me—remember, you already knew what I wanted, even before all this. The princesses fall and we’re both happy.”

Twilight grunted in what might have been agreement and levitated the Elements closer to her, lowering them over her head and over the tiara holding the Element of Magic. It was indeed awkward being weighed down so much in the front with all this gold, even with Twilight’s new alicorn strength.

But then, just as suddenly as Twilight had almost fallen forward from the tug of the Elements, the weight melted away as if it was redistributing itself equally throughout the new alicorn’s body.

“Huh?” Twilight wondered, glancing down, and then gasped.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Discord commented. “But it’s a welcome surprise all the same. It seems the Elements are even more connected to you than I thought.”

The Elements had changed shape, had shifted. Instead of five golden collars on Twilight’s neck, the gemstones now sparkled in five different sections of interlocking golden armor. The suit, unlike anything Twilight had ever seen, was comfortable, light, and sturdy all at once. The segments even interlocked in such a loose way as to allow for easier movement, though they could just as easily cover every inch of Twilight in protective casing. The only Element that hadn’t changed was her own, the gemstone of Magic still glimmering in its tiara on Twilight’s head, giving her the appearance of a warrior princess.

Which, Twilight angrily realized, was probably exactly what the Elements now wanted Twilight to be.

“No!” the armored alicorn snorted, stamping her hoof. The mountain seemed to quake ever so slightly as Twilight did so.

“Am I missing something here?” Discord wondered. “‘No’ what?”

“I will NOT be the next princess!” Twilight instructed the Elements as if they were a biological being that she could reason with rather than a crux of this reality. “This is only so we can take down Celestia and Luna, and that’s all! After all this is over, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t be a ruler! I won’t be your pawn any more than I’ll be Celestia’s! Look what your attempts to make me so have done already!”

“Oh, having a discussion with the Elements, I see,” Discord almost laughed. “A word of advice: they’re not the most negotiable of…entities. They want you to take down Celestia and Luna, and so they’ll help you to do that. But they also want you to replace the princesses afterwards, so they’ll never leave you alone until you accept your destiny. And believe me, you don’t want to get on the bad side of the Elements. I mean, just look at MY predicament, not to mention what they’re planning for Celestia and Luna…”

“Whatever,” Twilight huffed. “If they want to try and make me their next princess, then let them try. But I’ll never go willingly and I’ll never stop resisting a destiny that cost me my friend’s lives.”

“Arguing with you against the futility of such a course of action, would, I see, be futile in itself,” Discord assumed. “So I’ll leave that to you and the Elements. For now, let’s just concentrate on liberating a certain draconequus, shall we?”

“Right,” Twilight affirmed, focusing her energy. Her horn began to glow, began to spark, and with a flash of light, Twilight was gone…

…only to reappear a few feet away, melting the snow and scorching the rock beneath.

“What?!” Twilight gaped.

“I told you the princesses set up an anti-long-distance-teleportation barrier around Equestria,” Discord reminded her. “It’s taking almost all of their strength to maintain it too, which means that it's more than a match for you.”

“I know that,” Twilight exasperated. “I just didn’t think that ‘long-distance’ meant anything more than a meter! How else am I supposed to get down from these mountains?”

“Like I said, the old-fashioned way,” Discord told her. “I think your friend Rainbow Dash would’ve called such an action ‘flying.’”

“The snarky attitude isn’t exactly helping,” Twilight spat. “And besides, I don’t know how to use these!”

The new alicorn attempted to lift her wings, which were far larger proportionally than that of a pegasus, only to have them twitch in the snow.

“YOU might not know,” Discord explained. “But your body does. It comes with the territory of being a magical avian. I would suggest jumping off that cliff there—”

“Are you crazy?!”

“—and instinct should take over,” Discord finished. “Besides, if instinct fails you, it’s not like you’ll die when you hit the bottom, no matter how sharp those rocks are.”

Again, Discord had a good point, and Twilight almost hated him for it. Was there going to be anything easy and not-terrifying about this ordeal? But then Twilight remembered her friends’ faces, the looks in their eyes as the glimmers within them died. Twilight remembered seeing more terror and pain in those eyes than anypony should ever have to see, much less experience as her friends had as their lives had been snuffed out one by one.

Twilight thought of what the brave Rainbow Dash would’ve done in her situation, or determined Applejack, or even the relentless will of Fluttershy. They wouldn’t have complained about how saving Equestria wasn’t easy, so neither would she. Twilight didn’t need easy. She needed resolution. She needed vengeance. She needed justice.

And even if it was the hardest, least easy, most terrifying thing she had ever done (and in all likelihood it would be), Twilight would see to it that justice was served. For her friends’ sake as well as Equestria’s.

Not thinking of how terrified she was of the drop below and the razor rocks that waited at the bottom or, even worse, of Celestia and Luna waiting in the Palace at Canterlot a thousand miles away, Twilight thought only of her friends, how they had always been there for her—and how she would always be there for them, even now. Twilight took a tentative step forward, and then broke into a trot that turned into a canter. Almost just as instantaneously Twilight quickened to a full-out gallop…

…and leapt over the side of the mountain.

Twilight fell at first, trying desperately to force her wings to extend and flap furiously. Twilight focused all her strength on the feathery new appendages, but they flared up uselessly against the shrill shriek of the icy wind rushing past her as the stony fangs below rushed up to meet her.

“No, no, NO!” Twilight roared, looking around desperately. She was too far from the side of the cliff wall, and she doubted that chomping onto to an outcropping of rock (if there had been any to chomp onto in the first place, that is) would slow her fall in the slightest anyway. The rocks were rising fast, too fast, but Twilight’s wings, now flapping frantically, were doing nothing to slow her descent. “Come on, fly, Twilight! FLY!”

“You can do it!” Discord called. “Just trust your instincts!”

“What instincts?!” Twilight demanded.

“Maybe I should help out a bit.”

Twilight’s head jerked up at this last voice, for it surprised her even more than Discord’s had. Far more.

Suddenly the lightning bolt-shaped Element of Loyalty began to glow, a steady, warm hum that launched into a crescendo and suddenly became a blazing beacon.

And memories that weren’t Twilight’s flooded her mind.

She remembered walking excitedly out onto the clouds, marveling in wide-eyed awe at the sheer bigness and blueness of the sky. It never ceased to amaze her no matter how many times she had seen it, and being a newborn filly, that number wasn’t actually all that high.

Then there were others, older ponies, a strong yet kind-looking stallion and a fierce yet loving-looking mare, both sporting wings like her own, smiling at her, pushing her forward towards the edge of the cloud and egging her on with the encouraging assertions that she could do it.

And though she did fall at first, and terror seized her heart when she saw just how very far she could fall, adrenaline began to pump through her veins as the wind rushed past her. The sheer speed of it all was exhilarating. It was like she had been born to do this, but not in this direction, not zooming towards the not-so-far-away-anymore ground and away from her parents and her friends and everything she had ever known in her cottony, cloudy home. She was supposed to be going up. Skyward.

Her wings launched out, and with a few strokes, her falling slowed. With a few more, she began to change direction. With a furious and joyous barrage of wing beats, she stopped falling altogether, and did the exact opposite—she rose. She skyrocketed.

Into the welcoming arms of the air, the sheer endless playground that awaited her.

The smiles of her parents filled her with even more pride, knowing that she had pleased them—but more importantly, knowing she had pleased herself. She had found out where she belonged. Up here, soaring through the sky, where the air was the same color as her coat, and all the colors imaginable danced across the atmosphere in bands of light, just like her mane flowing in the wind.

And all at once the memories faded into reality. Twilight still felt the real wind as the sensation of the foreign memory left her, but it was flowing past her in a different direction this time, moving caressingly across her coat as if welcoming her rather than trying to throw an outsider from its domain. The wind, in its wordless whisper that was no longer a raging shout, seemed to say that she belonged here, in the sky.

Twilight looked below her to see that the sky was indeed exactly where she was—the mountains were far below, and receding fast. The snow-filled clouds rushed past her next, and when Twilight breached the ocean of white into the bright blue of the unhidden sun, she saw that her wings were flowing in time with the dance of the wind, with the general secret music that pervaded this atmospheric kingdom. The dance was known to none but its subjects, of which Twilight had just become, welcomed with open arms.

Twilight was flying. She was soaring. She was accelerating, and all at her own subconscious will, not even putting forth any effort in the matter. When Twilight cautiously probed the part of her brain making this happen with her conscious mind, it stepped silently aside to let her take over from autopilot. Twilight found that she knew the steps just as well when she tried the dance of the air intentionally as she did by the bare essence of her nature, by her instinct.

And when Twilight was engaging in the dance of flight of her own fully conscious mind, she could do more than simply follow along to the tune. She could experiment; she could branch off into new directions, adding her own notes to the music and her own steps to the motions. She could rise or fall, speed up or slow down.

Then, for the first time in her life, Twilight felt what it truly meant to be free.

Sure, she had known what the word meant—she could recite dozens of different dictionaries’ unique definitions of the term, could even tell you what it had evolved from in pre-Equestrian languages dating back to the dawn of recorded history. Twilight knew all of the ways in which the word ‘free’ could be incorporated into spells, in the act of anything from breaking out of a confinement to unlocking a door.

But before, she had only know the shadow of the word. Now she knew the real thing, and she lived it. And she loved it.

For just a moment, Twilight was lost in the ecstasy of her first flight, and the dire situation at hand slipped to the back of her mind.

“There’s nothing quite like it, is there?” whispered the voice that wasn’t Discord’s, breaking Twilight out of her memory. The new flier almost lost tempo with the beat of the aerial dance, faltering and nearly falling. But Twilight righted herself again, and continued on, as the echoes of the whisper were lost to the wind and the glow of the Element of Loyalty began to subside. Its work was done, and for now, its spirit could rest until it was needed again.

“No, there isn’t,” Twilight whispered in reply, smiling despite the tear that fled down her cheek. “Thank you for showing that to me, Rainbow Dash.”

There was no answer, and the lightning bolt-shaped Elemental gem didn’t so much as flicker.

“And I thought I had seen everything the Elements could dish up,” Discord laughed wryly. “Obviously I was sorely mistaken.”

“You’re the one who told me the bearer’s spirits are still connected to the Elements, even in death,” Twilight reminded him with a wry smile of her own.

“Indeed,” Discord responded. “But I had never seen just how connected. Even death is nothing to the Elements. I fear them, and am glad they are, for once, on my side.”

“Me too,” Twilight agreed, though she knew this wasn’t entirely true. She wasn’t entirely on the Elements’ side. She wouldn’t be their pawn. But, nevertheless, she did have to silently thank them—Twilight had never thought she would hear the cyan pegasus’ voice again. But, despite even death itself, it was there when she needed it, and even if the voice's owner couldn’t be seen or even felt, so too was she.

“Appleoosa should be coming up below,” Discord told her, breaking Twilight out of another reverie. “Thankfully the cloud cover has shielded showing which direction you came from, but be careful. The Royal Guards are everywhere down there.”

“Duly noted,” affirmed Twilight. Casting an illusion over herself, Twilight descended through the clouds, seeing the familiar frontier settlement of Appleoosa from an unfamiliar angle. Twilight had never expected to see the fledgling town from above, nor had she ever expected to see it swarmed with guards.

The armor-clad strong-looking stallions and mean-looking mares were everywhere, and as Twilight touched down onto the soft dust of the Appleoosa Town Square she witnessed just what they were doing here. Several of the guards were simply pulling wagons, but each wagon was loaded with precisely the same thing. Towers of paper, barely restrained by thin string, weighed down each wagon, some stray leaflets floating away on the breeze as others were unpacked and presented to the local shopkeepers and other denizens of Appleoosa.

When confronted with one of the papers being shoved into their noses by a guard, the residents would nervously shake their heads in the universal negative, and the guards would either move on to the next townsfolk unfortunate enough to get caught up in the ordeal or stamp the papers to whatever surfaces they could find. The storefronts were already covered with the things, each bearing the same message a hundred times over.

One of the stray papers blew towards Twilight, who snatched it up in her mouth and laid it flat on the ground to read. Twilight couldn’t levitate the thing with her invisible horn, as the illusion she had cast on herslef showed anypony who looked her way a perfectly innocent pegasus of nondescript height, build, or really just about anything that would make other ponies stand out at least in some way. Twilight had taken the guise of a winged pony—and nothing more—to belay any suspicion of how the newcomer had gotten to the settlement with neither carriage nor train or any other registered and tracked mode of transportation. Flying was now the only unsuspicious mode of travel over long distances.

But before Twilight could study the paper, a guard caught sight of her and rushed over.

“Hey, you!” the guard, a bulky earth pony, called. “The pegasus! Stay where you are!”

Twilight did as she was told, as anything else was likely to warrant arrest on the spot in this high-alert state Celestia and Luna had thrust Appleoosa, and presumably all of Equestria, into. The phony pegasus’ heart beat fearfully in her chest as the guard screeched to a halt in front of Twilight. The secret alicorn had no doubt that he would pose any threat to her on his own, but the slightest hint of suspicious behavior was likely to be the match to the kindling. The guards would all swarm her like flies to a corpse, and Celestia and Luna would finally know where she had escaped to. Twilight also knew that without teleportation, she was unlikely to escape them again.

“Ah, I see you’ve already got a flier,” the earth pony gruffly noticed. “Have you seen the pony depicted there? She’s an enemy of the state, a high-class anarchist who must be stopped. The very well-being of all Equestria could hinge on any information you give us about this highly dangerous individual.”

Twilight, still unnerved by the guard’s seemingly disinterested—surely he already had done this countless times today—yet still unwavering and attentive gaze, finally allowed herself a glance down at the paper. Her suspicions were confirmed.

Emblazoned across the front of the page was the image of Twilight Sparkle, or at least an artist’s best interpretation of how she would look as an alicorn. ‘WANTED’ headed the picture in red, and beneath the hasty sketch was a written profile of the culprit.

“This pony wanted for treasonous plotting against the crown,” Twilight read. “Formerly known as ‘Twilight Sparkle,’ this unusually magically gifted unicorn has disguised herself as an alicorn with forbidden spells and is seeking to corrupt other Equestrians against the princesses. Any and all information about Twilight or her whereabouts or those in any way affiliated with her is to be reported to the Royal Guard at once. Until this vile threat to our land is vanquished, martial law shall be in effect, and all objectors shall be apprehended and severely punished on sight.

“In Twilight’s mad attempts to seize the crown for herself, the rogue unicorn has brutally killed the other Elements of Harmony in Ponyville. Our beloved princess Celestia was regrettably too late to save them…”

Twilight’s voice trailed off, her eyes not able to believe what she had just read. Celestia was blaming HER for the deaths of her friends, when hundreds of ponies, least of all Twilight herself, had seen the princess massacre them in broad daylight?

“Yes, horrible tragedy, that was,” the guard snorted in disgust, seeming to completely believe it without question. And why wouldn’t he? Celestia had probably made the announcement to the Royal Guard herself. “The whole town’s been quarantined as a crime scene, nopony allowed in or out. That daft traitor even used some confounded spell to make half the town think that it was Celestia who had murdered the Element bearers. Can you believe that?”

“…No, I can’t…” Twilight whispered.

“Something…wrong, miss?” the guard said uncertainly. “Did you know any of the Element bearers personally?”

“You could say that,” Twilight snorted, hardly caring anymore whether the guard thought that she was acting suspiciously or not. But no, she had to remain composed—she couldn’t blow her cover, for the sake of her friends and all of Equestria. If Celestia and Luna had already turned it into a police state in less than a day, what else were they willing to do to find her?

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the guard apologized. “I heard that they were great young mares, had so much potential left in them, even if they did make the mistake of hanging around that traitorous loony.”

“Yeah,” Twilight sniffed, unable to help it. “I guess it is all her fault.”

“You alright, miss?” the guard asked, just the slightest bit of suspicion—or perhaps it was only Twilight’s own paranoia—creeping into his voice. “Do you know anything about this whole mess?”

“I’m…fine,” Twilight struggled to remain calm. “It’s just… all this is a little overwhelming… And no, I don’t know anything.”

“It sure is,” the guard agreed. “But if you ever do receive information, the Royal Guard asks that you report it immediately.”

“Duly noted,” Twilight smiled, every fiber in her being threatening to break out through the cracked, forced expression in a mix of fire and tears.

“Good day, ma’am,” the guard dismissed her, trotting off to ask the same questions to an elderly couple crossing the street, despite the fact that they’d probably already been interrogated dozens of times.

“No,” Twilight said to nopony. “It isn’t.”

“Whew, good going there, Twilight,” Discord breathed a sigh of relief in her mind. “But you might want to take a look at the rest of your mug shot.”

“Why?” Twilight inquired. “What else could I possibly learn from this? Celestia’s made things as bad as they can be.”

“Not by half,” Discord warned her sadly.

Twilight looked down at the ‘wanted’ poster again to see what the draconequus was talking about. And, once again, to Twilight’s utter horrified dismay, Discord was right.

There, at the bottom of the paper, was a list of those already captured and on trial for suspected association with the ‘villain formerly known as Twilight Sparkle.’ Every name of every family member of the Element bearers was listed, from the Apples to the Pies to Rarity’s family. Even Braeburn and Appleoosa’s herd of the Apple family was listed as in custody at the local jail.

But no matter how horrifying those names in red were to Twilight, her heart stopped dead cold when she read the final listings.

“In the Canterlot dungeon,” Twilight read. “Are held those believed to have been most involved with the conspirator, including Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle (parents) and Spike (draconic familiar). Their execution is scheduled tomorrow at dawn.”

“She’s gone too far,” Twilight stated flatly.

“Now, Twilight—” Discord tried to interject.

“She’s gone too far,” Twilight repeated.

“This wasn’t unexpected,” Discord pleaded, seeing he was losing Twilight just as quickly as the disguised alicorn was losing her own grip on reason. “And they’ll be freed as soon as we dethrone the princesses. Please, you have to keep a low profile for now—”

“No,” Twilight said simply. There was no room in her tone for negotiation. “I will free these innocents, and I’m going to free them now—”

“Twilight!” Discord shouted. Instantly, a replay of Celestia’s bloodthirsty rampage filled Twilight’s mind, only this time, in place of her friends, Twilight watched helplessly as the solar princess tore apart Spike, her parents, the other’s parents and families, and everypony else she had ever known. “Look, Twilight! THAT is what they will do to the other ponies and Spike if you give yourself away and try to free them! There are hundreds of innocents unjustly imprisoned, yes, and trust me, I of all beings know how it feels to be unjustly imprisoned. But giving in to your anger here and now is what Celestia and Luna want! They want to use the others as bait, and if you try to free them you’ll be walking right into their trap!”

“But I can’t just let them lock away my friends’ families!” Twilight yelled in her mind, stamping her hoof for emphasis. The residents of Appleoosa as well as the guards currently stationed there shook unsteadily on their hooves as the ground quaked beneath them as a result. Thankfully the source of the tremor couldn’t be traced back to Twilight, but the disguised alicorn couldn’t have cared less right now if it could. “I can’t let them kill my parents and Spike!”

“Then you’ll just have to get to Canterlot by tomorrow morning before the execution, and you’ll have to do so discreetly,” Discord told her. “If you storm around Equestria freeing everypony you’ve ever been in contact with then the princesses will catch you and your family and Spike will be murdered anyway!”

Twilight quivered with rage, but kept the anger inside herself, knowing Discord was right.

“There’s a train leaving for Canterlot in half an hour,” Discord informed Twilight. “You should be there by nightfall, and you can be in the city by dawn. But remember, this will ONLY work if you keep cool!”

Twilight looked like she was about to explode for a moment, and then cooled off, hanging her head.

“Thank you, Discord,” Twilight said meaningfully. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” the draconequus warned. “Now, hurry! Blood will be spilled tomorrow, one way or another. Let’s just make sure it’s Celestia and Luna’s.”

. . .

Chapter 3

“Hey!”

“Quit shoving!”

“Watch it, will you?”

Twilight ignored the ponies’ cries of protests as she butted her way through the crowd, finally emerging from the equine sea at the front of the throng. The raised platform where the Princesses usually addressed Canterlot had already been set up with three guillotines, three black-clad, hooded stallions standing at the ready beside them.

Twilight gulped.

It hadn’t been easy getting into Canterlot. The train had arrived late last night, and every single pony exiting had been thoroughly spell-examined and questioned about their intentions for arriving at the capital. Like most ponies, Twilight had said she was here for the execution—she didn’t need to elaborate any further. The spell-examination had been the most nerve-wracking part of the ordeal, though. Twilight had had to convince not only the eyes but also the magically tuned senses of five master-level unicorns that she was indeed nothing more than a nondescript pegasus. Thankfully her newly empowered alicorn horn was just as good at conveying illusions to the other senses as it was with fooling the eyes.

Beyond the examination station had been the Royal Gate, where fully-armored guards looked down on Twilight and all others entering the capital with suspicious, hooded eyes. Inside Canterlot was no better—guards in full war gear flanked every corner, as did the WANTED posters bearing Twilight’s crudely malignant image and the penalty for not turning her in.

Everywhere were hung banners of bright red, each bearing a black ‘X’ over a the symbol that had become the most feared image in Equestria other than Celestia’s willingness to eradicate anypony who had anything to do with the emblem: Twilight’s cutie mark.

At least it hadn’t been hard to figure out where the execution was to take place. Twilight just had to follow the flow of the crowd, as everypony in Canterlot was headed towards the Royal Square, where the Princesses usually addressed the crowds with messages of successful crops and peace throughout the land. Today, though, was going to be quite different. For the first time in Equestrian history, an execution was to take place.

And that execution was to take place any minute now.

Already Luna’s Moon was setting, though the lunar Princess herself was nowhere in sight, and the bright red at the edge of the sky heralding Celestia’s dawn was quickly bleeding over the horizon. When the Sun had finally peaked over the horizon, the prisoners were scheduled to be brought out. When Celestia had chosen to rise the sun so that it sat on the edge of the world like a silent spectator of the events about to take place, the guillotine’s blades would drop.

Twilight gulped again.

“Feeling nervous?” Discord asked her.

“What do you think?” Twilight retorted.

“I don’t blame you,” the draconequus added hastily. “I’d be worried if you weren’t. But just stick to the plan, and everything will be settled before Celestia has time to set the sun for the night. Because, as well you know, if we succeed, she’ll never be able to set the sun again.”

“I suppose all the unicorns in the land will have to go back to performing that duty then, huh?” Twilight wondered.

“Actually, I was kind of thinking that you—”

“No, Discord,” Twilight said sternly, resisting the urge to stamp her hoof for emphasis. The outer settlements of Equestria might not be able to recognize a magically-induced tremor when they felt one, but Celestia and Luna would sure feel the telltale magic in Canterlot. “I free you, we free my family, and then we take down the Princesses. No part of the plan includes instating a new one.”

“If you say so,” Discord said uncertainly. Then, his voice suddenly urgent, the draconequus announced “Look, here they come!”

The sun had just barely tickled the sky with its flames when Celestia and Luna stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the Royal Square. All the ponies, including the executioners, bowed. Twilight had to force herself to do the same, and so was just a fraction slower than the rest. She hoped the Princesses wouldn’t notice.

“Arise, my loyal subjects,” Celestia announced. The ponies did so, and the solar Princes continued. “I wish that we were meeting here today under circumstances less grim—”

Twilight had to stop herself from snorting.

“—but a grievous error has thrust its ugly head into our utopic society. The unicorn formerly known as Twilight Sparkle has turned her back on me, on you, and on all ponydom. She has committed crimes against the state that cannot go unpunished, crimes that, if left unchecked, would lead to the ruination of all Equestria. It is for this reason that we have enacted the severest of punishments on all those connected to the conspirator in order to quell her plans against the peace we have worked so hard to maintain,” Celestia continued. “It is for this reason that the traitor’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, as well as the draconic familiar known as ‘Spike’ are hereby sentenced to death.”

Celestia nodded to her sister, and the dark alicorn shouted “BRING OUT THE PRISONERS!”

The executioners stood at attention as two more black-clad guards marched out, tugging a trio of two chained ponies and one caged baby dragon between them. The two ponies, one male and one female, each had a black hood over their heads as well as the chains linking their feet. Twilight had no doubt that inhibitor rings were also shackled to their horns beneath the veils. Spike was gagged in a metal mask that Twilight could see was ripe with enchantment to prevent any fiery means of escape through melting the confinements.

“Discord?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, Twilight?” Discord asked calmly, knowing what was coming.

“Don’t try to hold me back this time,” Twilight commanded. The new alicorn’s statement held no room for negotiation.

“I doubt I shall ever have to hold you back again,” Discord replied. “Have at them.”

“Know this, my subjects,” Celestia called out once more as the prisoners were marched to their respective guillotines. “I do this with a heavy heart, and a sorrow that you all should have to live through times so dark that such resorts as these are necessary. But know this also—no pony shall ever come between your Princesses and her subjects. We shall stand united against this menace. We shall stand strong, ready, and ever-striving towards a brighter and more peaceful future, free of tyranny, free of treachery, and free of the bloodshed of any pony!”

The crowd burst into cheers, any fears they may have had about their Princesses going over the edge with this new militant brand of ‘protection’ vanishing to the back of their minds at the warmth of their ruler’s comforting—or perhaps that doubt of these new actions was simply swallowed by the fear of speaking out against them.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Celestia.”

Abruptly the crowd fell silent, and every pair of eyes in the Square darted to the speaker. Twilight had not spoken above a normal speaking tone, and yet everypony at the event had heard her. Her voice, magically amplified, echoed off walls and rang through ears, causing the blood-red banners to waver.

Twilight stepped forward, and her illusion fell away, revealing her in all her alicorn splendor. She was still but a young mare, no differently proportioned than she had been as a unicorn—but her larger wings flared out, sparkling with the intensity of a magic far beyond that of any unicorn, and her horn, sharp as a sword and nearly as long, glowed with the spark of fire hot enough to put Celestia’s Sun to shame.

“There WILL be bloodshed in the future, Celestia,” Twilight went on. “Yours.”

“SEIZE HER!” Luna roared, and the guards flocked to Twilight like a mob of angry crows, covering her in a dog-pile of violent, trampling bodies. Twilight burst from the throng like a flaming arrow shot through paper dolls, and the burning figures of the guard were flung aside to crunch sickeningly on the cobblestones as their skin melted and their eyes burst.

Twilight, her horn still burning bright, skyrocketed into the air, the flap of her wings blowing the blood-red banners askew as the ponies below screamed in terror and tried to flee the Square. But with a flash, a magical barrier stopped them, trapping the ponies inside.

“No, my subjects,” Celestia ordered, a sly smile playing about her lips. “I want you to see the execution of the real criminal here.”

“So do I,” Twilight smiled darkly.

“Your insolence has brought you thus far,” Celestia called to Twilight from the balcony, stepping off it and rising into the air with a mighty flap of her own wings. In fact, it was the first time Twilight could remember seeing the solar Princess use them. Luna joined her, and the two Princesses watched Twilight with a mix of hatred and grim satisfaction.

“Your magic is strong, my ‘faithful student,’” Celestia mocked. “But you are still inexperienced as an alicorn. And, even if you were, there are two of us and one of you—you have neither the time to learn to use your newfound skills nor the skills in the first place needed to defeat the two most powerful beings in the history of Equestria.”

“But you’re NOT the two most powerful beings in the history of Equestria,” Twilight retorted coolly. With a spark of her horn, Twilight’s last illusion fell away, and the armor studded with the Elements of Harmony was revealed. All six gems were glowing brightly, and the air around Twilight glimmered as they sparked and burst into brilliance.

“IMPOSSIBLE!” Luna cried.

“How can you have the Elements of Harmony?!” Celestia shrieked, but just as quickly regained her composure. “No matter—you may have the most powerful magic in universe on your side, but you don’t know how to use them all at once, and the Elements are useless without all six powers combined. We know how they work, and each Element only works for the bearer chosen. We can feel that they have not all chosen you.”

“They don’t need to,” Twilight called. “My friends are more than happy to help me.”

“Your friends are dead,” Celestia sneered. “Haven’t you seen the posters? You killed them all.”

“No, Celestia,” Twilight spoke calmly, though her body shuddered with rage. “It was you who killed them all.”

A gasp rose from the quivering ponies below.

“So what if I did?” Celestia snapped. “So what if I murdered all of Ponyville, or even all of Equestria? You are all ants compared to the combined power of my sister and I—we can rearrange information as we see fit, can bend you to our will like puppets on a string. After this is over, all the sniveling ponies below will go home and tell their descendants for generations to come how their beloved Princesses saved them from the evil that was Twilight Sparkle. All they will remember is our victory, and your death!”

“Death is nothing to the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight repeated what she had learned, so much in such a short time. “You may have killed the bearers—but they are far from gone. I am not alone. My friends are all here with me, and they shall help me free a new friend I have made, another innocent victim of your tyrannical self-centered obsession with your own power.”

“No—” Celestia tried to say, her eyes lighting up with fright as she realized the full implications of who Twilight was referring to.

“Discord!” Twilight shouted, turning to face in the direction of the Royal Canterlot Sculpture Gardens. “The Elements of Harmony have imprisoned you, but on this day, they set you free!”

The Elemental gems, which had been casting lights like a star at the heart of a prism, now exploded into a rainbow of pure color and shot in an arc past the royal sisters, over the heads of the terrified ponies below, through the roofs and shops and walls of Canterlot, and into the stone heart of a statue frozen in a position of fear.

The statue glowed for a moment, and then it cracked. The cracks spread, and the crumbling of stone fell away to reveal the living, breathing, immortal hide of a chimaera at once overflowing with the elation of freedom of the burning fury that cried out for justice.

“I’M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Discord cried, this time not in Twilight’s head, but in clear, old-fashioned sound that radiated over the rooftops and burrowed into the frightened brains of two suddenly terrified Princesses. Instantly the sky grew filled with pink clouds rushing in from all horizons, Luna’s Moon was ripped free of her grasp and flung in front of Celestia’s Sun to create the blinding darkness of an eclipse, and torrents of chocolate milk poured down onto the crowds of Canterlot. Everypony in the city knew it could only mean one thing. “Did you miss me?”

Celestia jerked around at this last utterance to find herself face-to-face with Discord the draconequus, spirit of chaos and disharmony. And, for the first time in her existence since she destroyed his people and his land, the solar Princess saw something other than mad melancholic anger in his eyes. She saw clear, focused rage.

“I’ve missed you, Celestia,” Discord smirked, relishing the fear he saw in the Princess’ eyes. “Did you miss me?”

“GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!” Luna bellowed, darting forward to jab her horn into Discord’s side. The draconequus’ skin didn’t so much as flinch, much less give under the pressure of what was the entire force of the Moon smashing into his hide in the form of one concentrated point.

Twilight was glad, just as with the Elements, that Discord was on her side rather than the other way around.

Discord’s claw whipped out without looking and grabbed Luna’s horn, causing the Princess of the night to cry out in pain as he wrenched it off her scalp with a bone-splattering CRACK. Holding it up to the chocolate rain, the horn was filled from the top-down with a scoop of ice-cream, which the spirit proceeded to lick absentmindedly as he watched Celestia try to back up against the wall of the palace. Luna, meanwhile, had her eyes rolling back in her head as she watched Discord continue to use her horn as an ice-cream cone.

“What’s the matter, Celestia?” Discord chuckled. “Don’t have your precious Elements to help you anymore? Oh, that’s right, they’re on MY side now, along with the student you so lovingly betrayed. What was that you said to her back in Ponyville? I was listening the whole time, you know. I think it was something along the lines of ‘You couldn’t save your friends because you were too DUMB.’ Well, Celestia, you made a mistake twice as big. You not only decimated my entire kingdom, my entire people, just because it didn’t suit your orderliness, and earned my desire for revenge. Oh, no. You had to top even that, didn’t you? You had to go against the very Elements themselves, the very things that put you in power in the first place—and you had to kill the closest friends of the one they wanted to lead the entire nation after you. You had to earn the opposition of a force more powerful than I could ever hope to be. You had to earn the rage of the next chosen Princess, and all the Elemental power that entails.”

“But she doesn’t know how to use the Elements all at once yet!” Celestia protested as Luna fainted to the balcony below. “She is not the chosen bearer of them all! I can sense that she is still only the bearer of the Element of Magic! The others are still connected to something else—”

Celestia’s face went cold.

“Now you get it, don’t you, Celestia?” Discord smiled, showing the mismatched teeth of a thousand different predators. “You may have killed the other bearers, but you didn’t get rid of them. And now they all want to ‘dethrone’ you, so to speak. And by ‘dethrone,’ I of course mean erase from the very fabric of this reality. Between you and me, I’ll let you in on a little secret—you are most royally bucked. NOW, TWILIGHT!”

Discord darted forward and grabbed Celestia by the neck, his other arm reaching down and snatching up Luna’s unconscious form. The draconequus thrust both Princesses out in front of him, holding them steady despite Celestia’s panicked thrashing to get away, and Twilight flew higher into the sky, the Elements blaring with multicolored light.

“Princesses Celestia and Luna,” Twilight spoke, though all present could hear that she was not the only one speaking. Five other voices wove their way in and out of Twilight’s speech. One was scratchy, one was quiet, one spoke with an accent, one spoke with poise, and one spoke with almost a giggle. “You have violated the harmony of this universe. For this, you shall be immortal no longer. You shall be erased from the pages of history. In generations to come, nopony shall ever remember the fact that you ever even existed.”

“NO!” Celestia shouted.

And then, in a burst of light, the Elements of Harmony unleashed a beam of intertwining rainbows that shot through the air and struck through Celestia and Luna, leaving Discord unscathed, and blasted into the castle behind. As the palace crumbled in on itself behind Discord, everypony in the square could see that Celestia and Luna had disappeared.

A peal of laughter rang out though the crowd. A cackling cacophony of cold, cruel jubilation.

“It worked! I can’t believe it worked!”

“WE TOO ARE MOST PLEASED TO SEE OUR PLAN COME TO FRUITION!”

Twilight looked up, and Discord swirled around in the air.

“No, it can’t be—” Twilight whispered.

“Nice of you to dispose of those illusions for us, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia laughed, safely encased in a bubble of protective magical energy floating where the palace had once stood, never having been outside the palace for the entire ordeal. Luna stood beside her, and between the two Princesses, the real Princesses rather than the illusory ones Twilight and Discord had just destroyed, stood the shackled forms of Twilight’s parents and Spike.

Twilight glanced down to see that the two ponies and a baby dragon she had thought were her parents and Spike were also dissipating, their illusions fading as they were no longer needed.

“Also so nice of you to waste the power of the Elements doing so,” Celestia continued. “As you know, they’ll take a good while to charge once more after a blast meant to destroy two immortals, with or without your precious friend’s life-forces tied to them. And, although we must admit we didn’t expect you to use the Elements to free Discord as well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? Because if either of you make one move, we slice off the heads of your family here.”

Celestia gestured to Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle and Spike, who quivered back at her movement. Twilight saw the fear rampant in their eyes, as well as the confusion she herself had felt when Celestia turned on her just the same as she had turned on three innocent and once loyal subjects.

But Twilight also saw the awe and wonder in their eyes as they looked up at Twilight, the pleading hope that she would save them. But there was another emotion present, something that made Twilight quiver with a fear she had never known, for she saw herself in those eyes, her own reflection—and it scared her just as much if not more than Twilight could see she was scaring her own family.

Even with Celestia and Luna’s horns at their throats, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle and Spike, bound and gagged, were looking up in awe, hope, and fear at their daughter and closest friend.

Instead of a lavender alicorn, Twilight saw reflected in their eyes a white-coated semblance of rage that had little resemblance to the self-image Twilight had of herself. Instead of a purple mane and tail streaked with pink, Twilight now sported burning columns of flame erupting from her scalp and rear. Instead of deep violet, Twilight’s eyes were as blood-red as the flaming wings flapping at either side.

What had she become? Was this the being Twilight wanted to exist as, be remembered for? A burning personification of fiery loathing and hate?

No. Twilight did feel all those things, deep in her heart, for all Celestia and Luna had done—for all they were even now threatening to do.

But Twilight was not a mare of malignance who simply acted on nothing but her flaming, angered impulses.

Twilight was a calm, organized, planning, studious, determined, magically gifted young mare who loved books and reading and, more than anything, her friends and family. She would let neither herself nor Celestia and Luna turn her into anything but who she really was.

And, if she was all that, then she wasn’t about to blindly rush in to whatever trap Celestia and Luna had planned for her next. Like she had wanted to do since the moment the solar Princess betrayed her, and like she had just done in a void attempt to save the very people she loved.

This time, she would think.

Twilight would defeat Celestia and Luna her way—the only way she knew how.

She would outsmart them.

“Renounce your ties to the Elements and we let your family and your pet live,” Celestia demanded, her horn still poised at Mr. Sparkle’s neck. “Then come quietly into custody and everypony can forget this whole ordeal ever happened.”

“You and I both know that whether or not I renounced the Elements, it wouldn’t make any difference in the end,” Twilight called back. “They’ll never leave me alone until I’ve done what they want me to do, just as they’ll never leave you alone until you’ve done what they want you to do. Which, in this instance, is die.”

“THEN WE SHALL KILL YOUR FAMILY!” Luna roared, and made to plunge her horn into Spike’s throat.

“Wait!” Twilight screamed. Luna halted, but just barely, drawing the tiniest smidgen of draconic blood from a whimpering Spike. “I also know that you’ll kill my family anyway, whether I submit to whatever prison you have planned for me or not. You cannot threaten me with the deaths of your only bargaining chips. Once you kill them, you know I’ll have nothing left to lose, and Discord and I will escape you to return once the Elements are fully charged. THEN we’ll end you.”

“So it appears we’re at a stalemate then,” Celestia stated. “We can neither kill your family nor let them live. Even without the Elements, you are still magically stronger than both of us with Discord on your side, but even he wouldn’t dare attack us when the slightest move would result in the death of your family. But don’t think that he restrains himself out of any compassion for you, Twilight Sparkle. The spirit of disharmony and chaos seeks to serve only himself, and wishes only to avoid your vengeance should his action result in your family’s deaths.”

“Discord and I both want the same thing,” Twilight spat. “Justice. He would no more allow for the deaths of my family with me as a threat as he would if I had already been captured.”

Discord nodded firmly.

“Are you really so blind, Twilight?” Celestia laughed. “How many more lives will you allow your stupidity to end? The draconequus is using you the same way he always used anything and anypony he could to get what he wants. He wants us out of the way, and nothing more—he couldn’t care less about helping you, and the moment this is over, however it ends, Discord will turn on you in an instant.”

“Don’t listen to her Twilight,” Discord cautioned. “She’s just trying to get to you. I should know, she’s using one of my own tricks.”

“She won’t fool me,” Twilight smiled. “Not ever again. Because although I don’t have the raw power to destroy you two Princesses and save my family, even as an alicorn with the Elements of Harmony and Discord as my ally, I do have something you will never have.”

“And what’s that?” Celestia sneered, not a trace of fear in her eyes despite what was about to happen to her.

Twilight almost smiled at her old mentor’s flagrant exemplification of the very things Celestia accused Twilight of being—stupid and dumb. But the alicorn saved that for later. It would spoil the surprise if pulled out to soon, after all.

“The opposite of what you’ve accused me of being, Celestia,” Twilight almost laughed. “You thought that with all your power and my stupidity, you could get away with whatever you wanted. You thought you could kill my friends, turn Equestria into a fear-ridden police state, and threaten my family. But you’re not even close to being right. You have more power than I ever will—you have my family as hostages and you have the united power of day and night, a magic strong enough to even prevent me from teleporting. I couldn’t hold a candle to all your power even if I tried.”

“WE ARE GLAD YOU FINALLY REALIZE THE FUTILITY OF YOUR RESISTANCE,” Luna roared. “NOW, SURRENDER AND—”

“Wait, Luna,” Celestia cut her sister off. “If we’re so powerful and our victory is so certain, then why are you smiling?”

Oops, it had slipped out. Oh, well. Twilight assumed that it would still be quite a surprise.

“Because,” Twilight sneered herself, relishing the uncertainty she saw in Celestia and Luna’s faces. “Even power has to bow to knowledge sometime. And not only was I one of the most gifted unicorns in the history of Equestria in terms of magic—I was also one of the smartest.”

“So?” Celestia spat.

“So I figured out how to undo you entire anti-long-range-teleportation barrier with a single, simple spell,” Twilight smiled all the more broadly, unable to help herself anymore.

“WHAT?!” Luna gasped.

“No,” Celestia tried to convince herself. “You’re bluffing—”

Twilight’s horn sparked, and in that instant, the very air seemed to shatter. All throughout Equestria, windows shuttered, some broke, the bells in towers rang untended, and the magical reverberations of the massive broken spell fell down across the land like transparent snow.

“Quick, Luna, kill them before—” Celestia tried to get out, only to turn and see that Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, as well as Spike, were gone. All that remained of their ever having been there were empty locks and chains. “NO!”

“Yes,” Twilight smiled. “I’ve hidden them in a place you’ll never find. And now, for a teleportation a little more long-range…”

. . .

Chapter 5

Everything was on fire, pulsating and glowing with an inner light of its own. If Twilight had thought that seeing the luminescent dance of this universe’s magical matrix was beautiful enough to bring a tear to the eye, then she wept at the splendor of seeing the magical matrix flowing through every living thing in the universe. In that moment, Twilight saw, felt, and lived alongside every being alive throughout all the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Twilight saw strange beings she’d never even imagined possible using magic to build their cities in the skies, saw a white-bearded hairless ape-thing wearing a blue robe adorned with stars and moons casting spells against a dragon, saw the magic that flowed through all ponies down on the Equestria that was even now slipping away from her and into Aeterna Nocte’s icy embrace.

No. That would not happen.

With a spark of Twilight’s horn, Equestria stopped moving. With another spark, a lash of pure magic shot out across the void of space separating her from the icy dark nothingness of Aeterna Nocte. Forming a spear-point, Twilight’s needle and string thrust themselves through the very fabric of space and time and wove the torn tatters surrounding the hole in on one another, bridging the divide and closing it off from the rest of known existence as if it had never been.

Aeterna Nocte’s silent scream of death was lost to the void beyond this universe.

But there was still no Sun—and though Equestria could feed off the residual light from the old Sun for another few minutes, after that the world would come to a quick and cold death. Not even the Windigos would survive the freeze.

Twilight reached out with her magical senses once again, sending reverberating waves out through the cosmos. She touched every star in existence all at once—but this one was too old, this one too young, this one too big, or too hot, or too cold. Then, at long last after what seemed an infinite amount of time that took less than a nanosecond, Twilight found a star just about the right size, age, and composition as their old Sun had been. This one didn’t even have any planets, or at least none with life. So Twilight took it—sifting the star through the fabric of reality and teleporting it to the exact spot the old Sun once was. The new star’s lifeless planets could even replace those already lost to Red Giant and Aeterna Nocte.

No longer needing Twilight’s protection, or at least safe for the moment, Twilight released Equestria and it resumed its orbit around the new Sun as if nothing had ever upset its routine. Twilight smiled. Her work was done.

But then again…why did it matter?

Twilight stopped for a moment, startled. Where had that thought come from? Of course it mattered! Twilight had just risked her immortal life trying to stop Celestia in all her forms and free Equestria from the tyrant’s grip. How could all that not matter?

But, the more Twilight thought about it, the less it really did seem to matter. Sure, Equestria was safe for now—but wasn’t some new danger always popping up? Even if Twilight protected it till the tiny planet died at the end of its life-span (which even for a planet was short in the grand scheme of things), it would still be nothing compared to the nearly endless stretches of time that would exist after Equestria had passed and was forgotten from this universe.

Twilight realized that, deep down, she didn’t really care. How could she? Did a pony care about the amoebas, so small they couldn’t even be seen, that they trod on every day? Did even the smallest ant care about all the paramecia it would outlive by several thousands of their life-times? No, they didn’t—and most of the time they didn’t even think about it. In fact, Twilight was increasingly starting to wonder why she herself was thinking about Equestria at all. After all, she was as far advanced beyond them now as they were beyond the unicellular life whose existence they didn’t even consider.

Twilight was in the Magic now, and if she stayed here she would outlive Equestria by several billion years. In the blink of an eye, their entire history could fade from the universe. There would be nothing Twilight could do to stop it in the long run, even having become more of an immortal than Luna or Celestia or even her last incarnations had ever been. So why even try?

“Because they need you,” Rarity said softly.

Twilight stopped, whirled around, and saw her there. The white unicorn with the curling purple mane and tail, standing in the void of space as if on solid ground. She glowed faintly, and Twilight could even see through her to the stars beyond.

Twilight glanced down to her armor and saw the Element of Generosity glowing, casting Rarity’s form like a magical projection. But Twilight could sense that this was no projection—a newborn foal could see that this was real. Rarity was really here.

“We’re all here, Twilight,” said Applejack, and Twilight turned to see that indeed they were—all six Elements of Harmony, having finally charged up again, were glowing brightly. Each of Twilight’s friends was projected from the Elemental gem they once bore just as Rarity was, all glowing, all transparent. “In fact, we always have been here. We helped you out every step of the way.”

“I know you did,” Twilight whispered, tears coming to her eyes. “Thank you. Thank you all.”

“It’s the least we could do for a friend who did everything she could to stop that big meanie Celestia and save Equestria!” Pinkie Pie piped up. “Hey, that rhymed!”

“No, Twilight,” Fluttershy said gently, yet firmly all at the same time. “Thank you. You saved Equestria, and you have laid us to rest.”

“What—wait, no!” Twilight called out desperately, realizing what her friends were really saying. “You can’t leave me! I can’t have come this far just to see you go—I can’t lose you, not again!”

“You never lost us,” Rainbow Dash smiled warmly. “We were always there with you—and we always will be. Right, girls?”

The rest firmly nodded.

“So will you go back to Equestria?” Rarity asked. “Will you complete your destiny like the Elements of Harmony want?”

“My destiny?” Twilight started, her tears quickly dissolving into rage. “My DESTINY?! My destiny got you all killed! It almost killed all of Equestria!”

“Celestia would’ve become Aeterna Nocte eventually had the Elements intervened or not,” Fluttershy explained. “We saw that on the other side—many things have been made known to us here. But when the Elements chose you to be the next Princess, they also knew you would stop her.”

“Without all this, as downright horrible as it all was, Equestria would’ve been devoured by that black hole,” Applejack added. “Celestia would’ve just grown worse and worse until all Equestria got eaten. But because of the Element’s intervention you stopped that.”

“Yeah, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said enthusiastically. “You were awesome!”

“So I really don’t have a choice?” Twilight asked. “If the Elements want me to be Princess, I have to?”

“You don’t ‘have’ to, Twilight,” Pinkie informed. “But there’s lots of other rough things coming, stuff that Celestia and Luna wouldn’t have been able to save Equestria from, but that you can! And don’t worry, you’ll have lots of help!”

“Help?” Twilight echoed. “Who could help me more than you, my friends, could?”

“Nopony,” Rarity admitted. “But don’t worry—there’s a pleasant surprise coming. The Elements reward those who do what is right.”

“But why should I care at all?” Twilight wondered, going back to her original argument. “In here, in the Magic, I can see things so much more clearly. I can see that no matter what I do, Equestria will just die eventually anyway.”

“True,” Fluttershy smiled. “But without your help, it’ll never live the long, full life the Elements have planned for it.”

“Plus,” Applejack jumped in. “It doesn’t matter that everypony dies eventually, or even when they die. What matters is what they do with their life before then, and that they do what’s right—what counts the most.”

Twilight looked down at Equestria again, doomed to die, then back to the wonderful flow of Magic destined to exist as long as the universe itself did. But, Twilight realized, even that would come to an end, eventually. In the Magic, Twilight might be able to share in the lives of every living being in this universe, but she couldn’t interact with them all, couldn’t save them all from harm, and couldn’t ensure that they lived as long and full lives as possible—even if she lived throughout the history of the universe a billion times over.

But with Equestria, Twilight could count. There her presence could make a difference—Equestria was really the only place in all the universe that Twilight could do as much good as possible.

Besides, Twilight’s friends wanted her to, and she trusted them more than she trusted herself.

“I’ll do it,” Twilight announced. “I’ll go back.”

“We knew you’d make the right choice,” Rarity smiled. “And be on the lookout for a tall, handsome stallion, would you?”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed, taken aback—of all the things she thought to hear, that had literally been the least of them.

Before Twilight could ask her friends what they meant, they began to glow brighter, their features becoming blurred as each transformed into a flash of light. Each light took on the color and shape of the Elemental gem they had born in life, and circled Twilight before soaring up above her. Twilight watched them go…

…and come right back down again, zooming towards her. Twilight didn’t know whether to be afraid or jubilant, that this might mean her friends were coming back after all—until they slammed into Twilight, disappearing inside her with all the feeling of the impact of a freight train on an all-too-mortal pony, sending her careening back down to Equestria.

. . .

“…”

“...Twilight…”

“Twilight!”

“TWILIGHT!”

“What?!” Twilight jumped up, looking around her wildly, but somepony placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Twilight looked up to see Discord, looking worriedly down at her, but brightening up when he saw that she was aware of her surroundings—which appeared to be a large, smoldering crater in the ground. “Discord, where am I, what happened?”

“You’re home,” the draconequus replied happily. “You defeated Aeterna Nocte and crash-landed right outside Canterlot, in a certain town I believe you’re well familiar with. Thankfully immortality kept you from being blown into bits and pieces on impact, but Sweet Apple Acres’ south field is going to have a hard time replanting in this area with a big hole in it.”

“Sweet Apple Acres?!” Twilight echoed. “I’m in Ponyville?!”

“The one and only,” Discord smiled. “And there are a few ponies I brought along who want to see you.”

Twilight looked up at the rim of the crater again. There, tentative eyes and ears were poking their heads over the side, wondering if it was safe or not to get any closer. Then two ponies and a baby dragon burst through the crowd, slid down the slope and tackled Twilight in an all-out hug.

“Oh, Twilight—”

“—we didn’t know what was going on—”

“—they told us you murdered your friends, but we knew it couldn’t be true—”

“—and then they locked us up and were about to kill us—”

“—but you saved us—”

“—and all of Equestria! All of the world!”

Twilight hugged her parents and Spike back with almost all her might (any more would’ve crushed them) and held them close, laughing and crying alongside them all at the same time.

They were safe, and so was all Equestria, and all the friends and families within it who could now remain together. That WAS something worth caring about.

. . .

“Ready?” Discord asked.

“No,” Twilight admitted. “But if my friends—and all Equestria—want me to do this, then I guess I have to.”

“You know that I of all creatures favor free will,” Discord told her. “So I wouldn’t blame you one bit for refusing. And I hardly doubt anypony else would think less of you for refusing either. Everypony did see you save all Equestria, after all—even from so far out in space such a big battle was clearly visible.”

“You’re right,” Twilight realized. “Even if the Elements want me to do this and will never leave me alone unless I do, I can still resist. It wouldn’t make life easy, but I’d still be free. But my friends were right—without a leader, Equestria will suffer, and they warned me that there were dangers ahead the ponies would need a leader to guide them through.

“And so even if I don’t want to be the next Princess, I do want to do the right thing—and the best thing I can do right now is becoming the Princess.”

“Spoken like a true leader,” Discord smiled. “The Elements chose well.”

“Let’s hope so,” Twilight gulped. “If Aeterna Nocte was just one danger, I’d hate to see what’s coming up after her. But no—even then, even though they’re gone, I won’t be alone. I’ll still have my friends. Always.”

“Always,” Discord agreed as Twilight put her hoof to her heart. “Shall we?”

“Let’s,” Twilight agreed, smiling back. Discord snapped his fingers and the royal red curtains of the newly rebuilt Canterlot palace opened. Twilight stepped out onto the balcony beyond, and the crowd below—thousands of ponies—roared with cheers. Twilight could even see the entire Apple family as well as the families of all her friends in the refurbished Royal Square, alongside Spike and the two proudest-looking parents Twilight had ever seen—hers.

Twilight, feeling more sheepish and embarrassed than she’d ever felt in her life, blushed furiously. The alicorn held up her hoof, and the crowd silenced immediately.

“Thank you, thank you all,” Twilight spoke, her voice magically amplified so that everypony in Canterlot heard it as if she was speaking in a normal tone right beside them. “I don’t really know what to say—I haven’t exactly done this before—but I do know this: I have experienced firsthoof alongside you all the tyrannical atrocities the previous rulers of Equestria enacted to suit their will and whimsy. I can promise you now that I shall never do the same—I shall stand by you through thick and thin, not just as your leader, but as a pony I hope you can all come to call your friend. After all, it is the bonds between us—it is love itself—that is the strongest thing in all the universe. It is strong enough to defeat tyranny, strong enough to defeat even death itself. After all, friendship is magic.”

The crowd erupted into cheers at the conclusion of Twilight’s short speech, and two royal pegasi guards (whom Twilight felt no ill-will towards, though she did relieve those who had held her back at Ponyville from duty) floated down to place a newly-made crown on Twilight’s head. This proved to be somewhat awkward at first, as Twilight realized with much embarrassment that she had forgotten to take off the Element of Magic’s tiara and the rest of the Elemental armor. But, when Twilight attempted to do just that, she found that she couldn’t. The armor and tiara seemed determined to stay on, despite Twilight’s attempts at even using magic to remove them.

Finally, both the pegasi guards and Twilight settled for simply placing the much larger crown over top of the Element of Magic, which in a flash of light that startled all present, fused with the first tiara to become a fully-fledged Elemental crown. That wasn’t all—the gem of the Element of Magic continued to glow brightly as everypony looked on, and the other gems on Twilight’s armor began to glow as well. The brightness grew to a blinding brilliance, and all present had to shield their eyes before the luminescence burst throughout Canterlot in all colors of the rainbow.

Twilight blinked her eyes uncertainly as the dancing lights slowly faded from her vision, only to see all of the ponies below staring open-mouthed up at her. And they seemed to be even farther below Twilight than they had been before.

Twilight looked down to see if she had started to float, but even if she had been, it wouldn’t be as big a shock as the one she received when she realized what had really happened. Twilight’s legs stretched down farther away from her than they ever had, making her taller, and a quick look behind her at her tight, thinner waist confirmed her fears and suspicions. A curtain of some shimmering, reflective smoke-like substance wafted in front of one of Twilight’s eyes, and she threw her head back in surprise to see it rise and fall right back down again, blowing as if in a wind that only affected her—it was here mane. Twilight saw the same phenomenon curling around her hind legs, and turned to see that her tail was now also made of the shimmering smoke.

“I knew it,” Discord smiled approvingly from the room behind the balcony. “You are now officially the Princess.”

And so she was. Twilight could feel it inside her, as if the title was now some integral part of her being just as much as her name was. She had accepted her destiny, and so she had become the Princess—there was no going back now.

But, Twilight knew, she didn’t want to. This was the right thing to do, and she wanted to do the right thing. Doing the right thing was the only thing worth doing at all.

“Ladies and gentlecolts,” announced the pegasi guards in unison. “We present to you Princess Twilight Sparkle!”

The crowd erupted into yet more cheers. Twilight could see even a few of them weeping joyfully—namely her parents and, trying unsuccessfully to hide his tears, Spike. And yet one particular pony caught her attention. Out of all present, this one simply stood and smiled, silently proud.

There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about the tall, handsome stallion other than his unusual response—his coat was brown, his mane and tail the same color yet of a decidedly darker shade. His eyes were blue, and his cutie mark was an hourglass.

Twilight snapped herself out of staring and tried to review the crowd in turn, but her gaze kept drifting back to the peculiar pony. After the seventh time, she gave up and deliberately turned her gaze towards him only to find that he had vanished.

Who WAS that pony, and why couldn’t Twilight have kept her gaze off of him?

Wait, what was it that Rarity had said?

“Be on the lookout for a tall, handsome stallion, would you?” Rarity reminded Twilight.

Twilight jerked her head in the direction the sound had come from, but again saw nopony there. How could Rarity have even contacted Twilight at all anymore anyway? Hadn’t she been laid to rest?

“You okay?” inquired Discord, seeing Twilight’s confused look.

“Fine—I just, I think I’ll call it a day,” Twilight said, waving a final time before retreating from the balcony and closing the curtains behind her with her magic. “After all, I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours.”

“Sleep is irrelevant for immortals,” Discord told her. “But we can sleep if we want to. I’ll see to your family and friends for you—I’m sure you’ll be wanting them to stay at the palace now if they don’t have other obligations, as I’m sure the Apples will insist they do. Nevertheless, I’ll tell them you want them to visit as often as possible, and that you’ll do the same to them.”

“Thanks, Discord,” Twilight smiled meaningfully, though she did indeed look tired.

“After that, I’ll be off,” Discord said almost sadly as Twilight made to go to her royal chambers.

“What?” Twilight asked, turning back around sharply.

“I’ve still got my own new kingdom to look for and start up,” Discord reminded her. “Celestia and Luna are gone. My time here in Equestria is over, thanks to you. I can never thank you enough for that, Twilight.”

Twilight walked towards Discord and wrapped her front legs around him, hugging him tightly.

“No, Discord,” Twilight thanked, a tear coming to her eye. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you. I am truly happy to say we’re friends.”

“As am I,” Discord replied. “I’ll come back to visit someday. Who knows? If I am able to found my own new kingdom, perhaps it and Equestria can even become allies.”

“I’d like that very much,” Twilight agreed.

They hugged once more, and then the draconequus vanished.

Twilight sighed, though with a mixture of contentment as well as sadness. The new Princess trotted to her chambers, which had thankfully been closed off to the rest of the palace for now, and entered her bedroom.

“Hello, your majesty!”

Twilight jumped back at the sound, her horn glaring instinctively, only to be extinguished when she saw who had spoken.

“You’re that stallion from the crowd,” Twilight breathed, her heart racing, though she didn’t know why. “What are you doing here? How did you even get in here?”

“You’re not the only one who can teleport,” the earth pony smiled, and nodded his head to a large blue box Twilight hadn’t noticed before standing in the middle of her bedchamber. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Whooves, at your service.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Twilight said uncertainly. Truth be told, she actually had wanted to meet the strange pony from the crowd—but now that he had shown up, and in such a way as she had never even imagined possible, the new Princess wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Is this box magic?”

Twilight strode over to the blue box, her longer legs bringing her there more quickly than Doctor Whooves could follow, though he arrived right alongside her all the same. Twilight poked her head in and gasped.

“It’s bigger on the inside!” Twilight breathed, her natural love of magic bursting into full effect. “I didn’t even know a spell for that existed! You must tell me how you devised it!”

“Oh, I didn’t build it,” Doctor Whooves admitted a little shakily. “In fact, it’s not technically mine. But I can show you how it works—how about a little test run?”

“Right now?” Twilight’s face lit up, but then fell just as quickly. “I’m afraid I have to decline, Doctor Whooves. I still need a bit of a rest before I meet my family and friends for dinner later on. Would you care to come?”

“I’d love to,” Doctor Whooves said eagerly. “But this box doesn’t just teleport—it travels through time as well as space. I can get you back here five minutes ago! There’ll be plenty of time to rest before dinner.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, eager herself to see such magic in action. “Wait—I want to know I’ll get back in time. Can you bring us back right…now?”

“Certainly,” said Doctor Whooves’ voice, though the brown earth pony Twilight was facing hadn’t spoken. Twilight and Doctor Whooves turned to see another Doctor Whooves, looking like an exact replica of the first. There was even an identical blue box behind the Doctor. “Come on out, everypony, and say hello to the past!”

When everypony did, Twilight gasped. Striding out of the second blue box was none other than herself.

“You’re in for the adventure of a lifetime,” said the other Twilight, smiling. “And the Doctor keeps telling us that it’s only the first of many. Don’t worry—these little adventures take no time at all. You’ll have plenty of time for all your Princess duties, and besides, it’s a great way to get the family to bond.”

“‘Family?’” the first Twilight, who correctly assumed that she was the Twilight of the past while she was speaking to the Twilight of the future, echoed. “What do you mean, ‘family?’”

“Oh boy, we’re home!” exclaimed a voice that Twilight truly hadn’t expected to ever hear again—though with the way her life was going, she supposed she shouldn’t really be surprised with the impossible anymore. Only the voice was different somehow, as if it was younger.

A rainbow blur dashed out of the other blue box, smacking right into the other Twilight.

Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“It’s…it’s…” past-Twilight tried to say, but was unable to make the words come.

“Oh, they’re all here,” smiled future-Twilight warmly. “Come on out, kids!”

And so they did. Four others, all alicorns, all fillies. In addition to the cyan child with the rainbow mane and tail, out trotted a poised-looking white filly with a curling purple mane and tail, a shy-looking creamy yellow young mare with pink hair decorated with flowers, a freckled orange alicorn wearing a Stetson hat over her flaming mane and tail, and finally a vivacious pink mare with curling cotton-candy hair.

“I don’t think we need to tell you what we named them,” the other Doctor said. “After all, why not just give them the names they enjoyed in their first lives?”

“You mean…they didn’t leave?” past-Twilight whispered, tears of joy welling up in her eyes. “They came back?”

“The Elements did want your friends to rule alongside you as fellow alicorn Princesses,” the other Twilight explained. “And now they can. And let me tell you—quintuplets aren’t easy to raise, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the universe.”

“Neither would I,” the first Twilight smiled through her tears.

“Is this the time when Daddy asked Mommy out on their first date?” inquired the pink alicorn. “Or the time he took her to save all Equestria from an unspeakable evil that made Aeterna Nocte look like a pushover?”

“Probably both,” both Doctors said at once, and then laughed in perfect unison.

Twilight blushed, but her heart raced with excitement all the same.

“Wait—if you’re the ponies we’re going to become, and you have my reincarnated friends as children in the future…” past-Twilight realized. “Then we have to get started right away!”

It was the first Doctor’s turn to blush this time.

“I meant with the adventures!” Twilight snapped, but was smiling at the same time. “Come on!”

The first Twilight rushed into the first blue box, the first Doctor Whooves close behind her. The doors closed, and the box vanished.

The future Princess Twilight Sparkle and her husband, the future Doctor Whooves, gathered up their family into a group hug. They smiled.

. . .

Chapter 4

“You can’t possibly be serious?” Celestia quavered as uncertainty and fear tainted her voice. “You’d have to use the Elements to banish us, and we can sense that they’re nowhere near charged!”

“True, under normal circumstances,” Twilight smirked. Then, as Celestia and Luna bolted in a vain attempt to flee her, Twilight flicked her still-fiery tail (she would need to remain fiery until her little plan was over, even if the visage didn’t suit her—though she still needed the power of her rage, she wouldn’t let it control her. Twilight would remain cool and tactical throughout). In response, the magical barrier the Princesses had used to keep the ponies in the Royal Square extended to rise up and smack them. Effectively trapping them inside with their subjects, the barrier glimmered almost mockingly as Celestia and Luna tried to pierce it with their horns and batter it with their powerful—but not powerful enough—kicks. “But these aren’t normal circumstances, are they, Celestia and Luna? Normally teleportation involves slipping a pony through the threads that make up the fabric of the universe, regardless of whether the spell used to do so comes from a pony’s horn or the Elements. As you know, weaving a pony through the fabric of reality takes a lot of magical energy, and the farther one is teleported the more energy is needed to get her there.”

“Quick, Luna—the subjects!” Celestia called desperately to her sister, and the two alicorns rushed down to the crowd. “Make one move, Sparkle, and we’ll kill every last one of these ponies—wait!”

But in a flash, all of the subjects were gone as well. When Twilight saw the alicorn sisters’ horns glow, her own horn sparked twice as fast.

“Can’t have you using my own trick to escape me, now can I?” Twilight chuckled. “Though I suppose that is a bit hypocritical of me; after all, I just had to set up an anti-teleportation-barrier—and thanks for showing me how it’s done, by the way—inside the first barrier you enacted to prevent you from trying to run away.”

“What do you want, Sparkle?” Celestia hissed, turning on her former student but not daring to go any closer. Even when not fully charged, the Elements of Harmony were unpredictable, and the solar Princess didn’t want to risk any surprises in a full-out assault. “Vengeance? To kill us?”

“Yes and no,” Twilight said calmly. “First, I want justice served—but I don’t wish to repeat the vile acts you committed against my friends, even if those acts would be against you. That would make me just as much of a monster as you two are.”

“BUT THOUGH CANNOT BANISH US WITHOUT THE ELEMENTS,” Luna bellowed. Twilight saw that even if the Elements did give her the advantage here, Celestia and Luna’s body language told her that they’d be willing to risk facing the Elements’ lessened power if doing so before they were fully charged gave them a chance to incapacitate Twilight. Thankfully, though, that didn’t matter.

“But back to my favorite topic—lecturing on magic,” Twilight continued as the Princesses helplessly watched, unsure of what to do. “Even with my boosted alicorn magic, I couldn’t possibly hope to banish you two to a heavenly body without the Elements’ help, and as you’re so fond of repeating, Celestia, they won’t be charged again for quite some time. Even Discord here knows he doesn’t have enough magic to send a pony out of the atmosphere, though I know he’d be more than willing to if he could.”

Again, Discord nodded, grinning his toothy grin at the Princesses.

“So you can’t teleport us, we get that,” Celestia spat. “What ARE you going to do to us, then? Imprison us in the dungeon until the Elements are charged again? You know we’d find some way to escape.”

“True,” Twilight admitted. “Which is why I’m going to go ahead and banish you now.”

“But you just said you couldn’t—” Celestia tried to say.

“I just said I couldn’t teleport you,” Twilight cut her off. “But there’s an easier way of going about this. Teleportation requires shoving a pony through the fabric of the universe—portals require the mere folding of this fabric.”

“But portals are just magical theory!” Celestia protested, a panicked look in her eyes.

“Not anymore,” Twilight smiled.

There was a glimmer at first, a shimmer in the air between Celestia and Luna, almost like the nearly-invisible barriers that kept them from fleeing the Square. Then it grew into a haze, like the heat on a summer’s day. Then a watery transparency, then a subtle brilliance, then a glowing ring, and then a shining disk of light.

Celestia and Luna desperately tried to get away, flapping their wings hard enough to send up gale-force winds that whisked debris around the Square. But Twilight caught them in her telekinetic grip, forcing them to wait by the portal as it opened.

And when it did open, the world seemed to shift. It was as if the ground instantly lost its gravity, and a gravity far more powerful than anything ever felt by ponydom gulped down the air inside the barrier in great heaping breaths. Debris swirled and were pulled into the blinding light, which melted the stones in the Square and set fire to the woodwork just by its presence.

“No!” Celestia pleaded. “I only sent Luna to the Moon when she disagreed with me! Why are you sending us to the SUN?!”

“I figured the farther you were, the less the temptation would be to come up there and kill you,” Twilight said simply. “Goodbye.”

The portal opened wider, and despite all the thrashing Celestia and Luna did in the confines of Twilight’s magic, their vain attempts to flee were nothing compared to the gravitational pull of the Sun when Twilight flung them through the portal.

Though there was no longer any air—or really much of anything in the magically barricaded Square—as the Sun had sucked it all away, Discord and Twilight both heard it loud and clear when Celestia called out “I’ll get you for this, Sparkle! I’ll make you pay!”

And then, with a wink, the portal was closed.

Or…was it?

“Well done, Twilight,” Discord smiled approvingly. “Never again shall any being, be they draconequus or pony or otherwise, suffer because of Celestia and Luna.”

Twilight smiled back, allowed her fiery mane and tail to cool off and return to their normal dark purple striped with pink as her coat also reverted from white to lavender and her eyes did likewise from their blood-red—and then cried out in pain. Twisting around, Twilight saw a cord of pure fire lashing out of the pinprick the portal had become when she attempted to close it, but it seemed as if something was forcing it back open before it had been able to close completely.

Twilight was able to glance only once at Discord before the fiery snare yanked her backwards through the portal, which closed after her, leaving a very distraught draconequus to stare fearfully at the sky.

Over ninety-two million miles away, Twilight watched Discord’s distraught face wink out of sight as the portal closed behind her and she was flung towards the fiery maelstrom that was the largest object in the Solar System, and the only reason there was a Solar System at all. Twilight spread her wings, beating furiously, barely catching herself before the molten solar surface roasted her alive.

Though there was no air in the space the terrified Twilight now found herself in, there were plenty of gases blasting off of the surface of the Sun for her wings to find purchase on, just barely carrying her to safety. It was a good thing Twilight was an alicorn who didn’t need to breathe, or the concentrated gases would’ve evaporated her lungs and melted her body into plasma.

“You made a mistake, Twilight Sparkle,” whispered a voice, and Twilight whisked around to face a thing that was not Celestia. Celestia was a beautiful creature—even if looks could be deceiving—and such was not the case with the thing that now spoke with Celestia’s voice. Then, the whisper rising to a roar that screamed across Twilight with all the force of the solar winds, it shouted “AND YOU SHALL PAY!”

The thing—with elongated limbs and a horn twice as sword-like as Celestia’s had been, bore a dark coat that contrasted heavily with the blinding brilliance of the Sun below. It’s wings were like miniature solar flares made of dark flames, while it wore armor that looked like molten gold constantly moving around its body. The monstrosity’s mane and tail burned with all the fierceness of the Sun’s fiery heart, but the worst part about it was the thing’s eyes—dark points that bore no light at all.

It was like Nightmare Moon all over again, only worse, because the Elements of Harmony were still weren’t fully charged, and Twilight was on this Nightmare’s home turf. Twilight could see it feeding off the power of the Sun, breathing it in like sweet air on a summer day. Whatever Celestia had become, it was either much more—or much less, depending on how one looked at—than an alicorn. Sure, it had all the powers of the Sun, something the old Celestia couldn’t have hoped to have, but it also had not the slightest trace of any emotion or understanding within it other than hate.

“I AM UMBRAE NOVA,” the thing screamed, and Twilight had to dodge to the side to avoid the breath of flame that came out as it did so. “I AM THE DARK SUN, AND YOU SHALL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME, FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY SISTER!”

Twilight realized that Luna’s powers must have been cancelled out by the Sun just as Celestia’s were only increased, and the Princess of the Night must have perished in the furnace below as a result. So Twilight was a killer after all.

But no! Twilight hadn’t meant to! Even if Twilight had been trying to be smart about this one, even the greatest geniuses in Equestrian history made mistakes. Even Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight’s hero, lost more than one assistant in his quest to cast the dangerously unstable amniomorphic spell, but he never gave up despite all his mistakes! Even if Twilight had been wrong about the banishment, it was only something to be learned from, not mourned over. No, she would never mourn for the death of a killer—perhaps this was the way justice was served, whether Twilight had a choice in the matter or not.

Another thing Twilight didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter of was her own survival.

Umbrae Nova rushed the lavender alicorn, screaming with all the fiery fury of the Sun, and Twilight fled. Twilight swooped low, hoping to lose the dark thing Celestia had become in the bubbling gases below, but had to roll to the side to just barely dodged what she realized those bubbling gases meant. The split second Twilight was free of the gases, they erupted in a blazing column of fire.

“That solar flare could’ve killed me,” Twilight thought. “Whether I’m an alicorn or not. Only Celestia could survive this place for long because it’s her element! But maybe that doesn’t mean she could survive ALL of it…”

Getting an idea, Twilight dashed back up and soared past Umbrae Nova, bucking her in the nose as she did so. It did little more than infuriate the thing, but the task did what it was meant to accomplish—the Dark Sun was now following Twilight. Was right on her tail, in fact…

Twilight did a short range teleportation just in time to avoid her tail being chomped on by the not-Celestia. The lavender alicorn knew she couldn’t teleport all the way back to Equestria, and another portal would take precious seconds to open that Umbrae Nova would surely use to tear her to flaming shreds, but a short hop, skip, and a jump was manageable.

Umbrae Nova roared with rage and turned to see Twilight beneath her before rocketing back down to continue the chase. Twilight led the Dark Sun in and out of solar flares, until she saw the beginnings of a new one. Darting down, Twilight paused above the bursting bubbles of the solar surface, teleporting away the instant Umbrae Nova caught up to her.

And then the solar flare erupted.

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed victoriously. Even if the Sun was Celestia’s—and Umbrae Nova’s—element, they couldn’t possibly have survived that. And, even though she had just killed another living being, no matter how wretched it had been, Twilight calmed herself again with the knowledge that it had been in self-defense—and if she hadn’t done so, then the Elements of Harmony would be stuck out here on the Sun forever, never able to protect Equestria should the need arise. Now all Twilight had to do was open a portal up to get back home and—

A dark silhouette flared its glowing eyes through the column of flame, and Twilight yelped and tried to back up in midflight. The thing that was not Celestia latched out a spiked hoof and caught Twilight on the collar of her Elemental armor, the molten metal charged with all the heat of the Sun causing Twilight to scream out in pain as it connected with her flesh.

“YOU WILL BOTHER US NO MORE, TWILIGHT SPARKLE,” Umbrae Nova roared. “NOW, DIE!”

Umbrae Nova’s horn, if it was possible, glowed even brighter than the rest of her, and swooped down to slice Twilight down the middle.

Twilight, driven by the panicked desire to live, by the desire to not be killed by this monstrosity Celestia had become, and by the simple refusal to let somepony else command her destiny—or the end of it—caused her own horn to glow, and the moment Twilight and Celestia’s horns connected the two sparked into an ignition that temporarily outshone even the Sun.

Back in Equestria, Discord and the rest of those watching the sky where the sun was acting strangely saw the spark and hoped it was a good sign.

Twilight tentatively opened her eyes, and, seeing nothing but the barren, blazing surface of the Sun, breathed a sigh of relief.

Umbrae Nova might not have succumbed to the heat of the solar flare, but even it couldn’t withstand the heat of the place Twilight had teleported her to—a place farther than Twilight thought she could even send something. Even the not-Celestia couldn’t survive the fiery heart of the Sun itself.

Now, about that portal…

A rush of heat emanated from throughout the Sun, and flares began popping up all across its surface.

Oh, no.

Twilight looked down, and saw that the Sun seemed to be expanding, rising up beneath her and growing redder even though Twilight made no movement herself. Flapping her wings furiously, Twilight rocketed away from the reaching, grasping solar flares that clawed like hands at Twilight’s hooves as the Sun grew beneath her.

How could Umbrae Nova have possibly survived THAT? Twilight’s mind raced, and then, just as suddenly, it stopped cold. Bringing Celestia to the Sun had indeed trapped her here, but it had also simply made her stronger. The solar flare had simply added kindling to that fire, and if that had been a mere spike of flame, then what had the heart of a star done to her…?

OH, NO.

Twilight teleported as far as she possibly could, and appeared winded and weary halfway out in space between Equestria and the still expanding Sun, which had already consumed some of the inner planets. Equestria wouldn’t be too far behind, and already the seas must be boiling down there as the temperature spiked forest fires and atmospheric super-storms. Whatever nature Celestia had lost when she became Umbrae Nova, whatever it was that made her, however atrocious, at least on some level still a pony, what more had she lost when she became whatever the heart of the Sun turned her into? What was left of Celestia now but a raw hate for all life?

“…”

“What?” Twilight asked, whirling around, though she could see nopony.

“…Twilight…”

“Discord?” Twilight called, recognizing the draconequus’ voice, however faint it may have been. “Is that you?”

“…Twilight…” Discord called from Equestria, still so very far away. “…I lost track of you for a moment there…but I can feel your presence again, though its faint…Equestria’s in turmoil down here! It’s like the world is catching fire!....what’s going on up there…?!”

“I made a mistake, Discord,” Twilight said in a near panic. All of Ponyville, all of Equestria, all of the world, was about to be burned alive by the expanding red giant the Sun was turning into—because of her. “I tried to kill Celestia using the Sun, but that only made her more powerful. Now she doesn’t just want to kill me, she wants to kill everything! I’ve never felt such hate…”

“…You pushed her into her element and she went mad, right…?” Discord asked. “…That’s exactly what happened to Luna when she became Nightmare Moon—she tried to increase her powers by merging with the Moon to overcome her sister, but she went mad at the revelation that lay behind the power…The same thing must have happened to Celestia, only much deeper this time…Twilight, you can still stop her, you have to use the powers of YOUR element…”

“But the Elements of Harmony still aren’t charged!” Twilight said, close to hopelessness. “And I can’t use the Element of Magic without using all of them at once!”

“…No, Twilight, not those Elements…YOUR element…” Discord called desperately. “…think, Twilight…where does magic come from…?”

“But…magic comes from the mystical energies interlocking throughout the fabric of this entire universe,” Twilight thought. “All magical beings us this force, but I can’t tap into it all at once!”

“…Yes, you can…!” called Discord. “…And hurry!”

Twilight tentatively stretched out her magical senses, felt around, and—there!

Twilight was almost knocked backwards, as if she had been hit in the face.

She had felt it! The entire magical matrix running throughout the course of this entire universe! It was amazing, it was more power than the Sun, more power than anything she’d ever felt.

But, that was just it.

The power, it was overwhelming! If Celestia had become Umbrae Nova just from touching the surface of the Sun, then what would Twilight become if she opened up the magical matrix? Wouldn’t she too go mad from the revelation that lay behind it all?

“I can’t do it!” Twilight called to Discord. “It’s too much! I won’t be able to control it! I’ll…I’ll just turn into another monster, something even worse than what Celestia has become!”

“…No, Twilight,” Discord said firmly. “…You won’t. I believe in you…And so would—no, and so DO—your friends…!”

Her friends. Yes, they would believe in her. They DID believe in her

And if Twilight’s friends believed in her, then so did she.

Twilight closed her eyes tightly, concentrated hard, her horn sparked, and she touched the Magic.

If the power Twilight had felt before was overwhelming, then the power she felt now squashed that into a billion pieces. It coursed through her with the pulsating beat of the rhythm of reality, like the heartbeat of the universe itself. Twilight saw the magic, once invisible, all around her, in luminescent strings, pulsing and dancing like the aurora borealis. It was beautiful, something so beautiful that no other living being had ever seen, or probably ever would see again. A tear came to Twilight’s eye.

And she had the power, now, to squeeze the Sun back into its proper shape. It was so simple, like biting down on a sweet, savory apple—just enough to make it give a little, but not enough to slice it in half. It took no more of Twilight’s new energy than it would to squeeze a sponge.

“…No…” came a voice that was not Discord’s. It was faint as his had been at such a distance, but it was unmistakably a different voice. It was Celestia, Umbrae Nova, Red Giant, or whatever the thing that used to be Equestria’s beloved ruler had become now. “…I will not let it end this way, not yet…”

“You have no choice,” Twilight called to it. “Your Sun is shrinking back to its original size. You cannot expand it any further to endanger Equestria.”

“…Then I shall shrink it further to endanger Equestria…” came the voice. “…And to endanger you…”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight wondered, not sure whether to be suspicious or disdainful towards what could either be the hollow threat of a pathetic dying creature or the most dangerous thing she had ever faced in her life.

It turned out to be the latter.

“I SHALL GIVE LIGHT NO MORE!” suddenly bellowed the voice with a shuddering intensity that seemed to almost make the universe itself crack. “INSTEAD, I SHALL TAKE IT! FEED ME, UNIVERSE! I SHALL CONSUME YOU! I SHALL CONSUME ALL!”

The Sun began to contract faster than Twilight was pushing it, and soon it zoomed in on itself and seemingly disappeared from sight.

The Sun had gone completely—imploded into the nothingness that lay beyond the universe. And, it seemed, the new horror Celestia had become—or rather, the new, hungry, gaping nothingness she had become—wanted to take the rest of the solar system with it.

“I AM AETERNA NOCTE,” the new not-Celestia bellowed. “I AM THE ETERNAL NIGHT!”

The Sun was now, Twilight realized, the opposite of what it was supposed to be.

It was a black hole.

“…Twilight!” Discord’s voice called out, though it was louder now that Twilight could see Equestria and the rest of the planets getting pulled into the hungry dark nothingness and thus closer to her, who was also caught in Aeterna Nocte’s grip. “Use the magic! You can still fix this! You can still close it…!”

“HOW?!” Twilight demanded. “All I’ve ever done is make things WORSE! It’s because of me my friends died, and it’s because of me that all of Equestria will do the same!”

“Use ALL the magic!” Discord ordered. “Go as far into your element as Celestia went into hers!”

“And go as mad as she has?” Twilight spat. “Make two monstrosities instead of one?!”

“YES!” Discord called. “But you’ll still be you! Never forget who you are, Twilight Sparkle—you, who stood up to Celestia! You, who stood up to Aeterna Nocte! You can do it, and you can still be you!”

“I don’t believe that!” Twilight roared. “I can’t believe it! ALL I’VE EVER DONE IS MAKE THINGS WORSE! I can’t make them better!”

“We believe you can,” whispered five voices all at once in Twilight’s ears. “We all do.”

Without a second thought, and with her heart about to burst with thanks, Twilight leapt into the Magic.

. . .