“A more appropriate term would be 'cult leader'.”

Twilight didn't move. She wanted to. She was screaming at herself to get out of there. Her breathing was shallow and rapid. She didn't want to look at him. She didn't want to see the face of a traitor.

“Though the other members of the council would prefer that I call myself a 'director'. They don't want to admit my superiority. You may call me whatever you like, but I would like to know who you really are.”

She turned around. He was standing there in front of the door. She hadn't heard it open or close, as if he wasn't there one moment and then he was. There was a smirk on his muzzle, as though he had just gotten the punchline to a really elaborate joke.

“Not that exposing me would do any good,” he went on, “I am just one of twelve on the council, after all. We have high-ranking positions across Equestria. In fact, you met a few of them at our little dinner party. Taking me out would undo very little, not that I plan to give you that chance.”

She was rooted to the spot. Why couldn't she move? She had to run away and find help, or beat him unconscious and tie him up, or…

“But, of course,” he added, levitating a stool from its spot to in front of his desk, “I shouldn't be surprised that you ignored the rule about not going through my stuff. After all…” suddenly his smirk vanished and his eyes narrowed. His next words were slathered in loathing.

“You're not my Twilight!”

Twilight snapped out of her trance and rushed forward. She had gotten about half a meter, not far enough to even charge up her concussion blast, before she was wrapped in Watcher's own magic and dragged into the air, landing hard on the stool in front of his desk.

She was bound in place by magic, once more unable to move. She couldn't even open her mouth to curse at the unicorn as he passed by the desk and towards a small safe. Twilight managed a growl, but it was a pitiful sound. From the safe Watcher procured a large glass bottle of some strange black liquid, levitating it with him over to the desk, where he sat it down.

To be able to carry both the massive and probably very heavy bottle and still bind Twilight in place, he must have indeed been a powerful spellcaster indeed.

Once the bottle was safely on his desk, Watcher turned and headed through a door into his back room, breaking his line of sight with her; rookie mistake. Twilight smirked inwardly and began flexing all of her muscles at once in order to break free, just like Shining Armor had taught her to do in one of their unofficial “defense against the dark arts” lessons she would often convince him to give her. A filly had to be prepared for anything, after all.

After a moment, her imaginary smirk faded.

That's impossible! she thought. She strained her muscles even harder, but did not budge.

He was out of the room! There was a wall separating them. Maybe somepony like Celestia could pull off that kind of trick, but for any normal unicorn there must be a line of sight to use this level of magic on something!

Twilight's heart sank as Watcher reentered the room, levitating a platter carrying a teapot and two teacups. Pulling up his chair, he laid the platter down and took his seat.

“Now,” he said, pouring himself a cup of tea from the teapot, “You are going to tell me where you are from and where my Twilight is.”

Twilight felt the muscles in her jaw relax. She now had control over her mouth.

“I'm not telling you anything!” she shouted, praying that a guard would hear her through the door.

And just like that, any control she had was gone.

“Tsk, tsk,” Watcher said, setting his tea aside, “Now, I'm only going to warn you once. I do not like being denied what I want.”

He took the other teacup and levitated the glass jar, carefully pouring the black liquid into the cup. He explained, “This is called the Vile. I imagine you read about it?”

Twilight's jaw relaxed again, but she kept her mouth clammed shut. Watcher waited a moment for her answer, and when it didn't come he just shook his head sadly and pushed the teacup of Vile to the side.

“What else do you know?” he asked. She didn't answer. He continued, “Fine. You're not going anywhere anyway. I'll explain.

“My order is over a thousand years old. We first learned about the Dark One through old cave paintings depicting the battle it had with a legendary pair of alicorn twins, where it was left in a weakened state and imprisoned beyond the stars. We work towards preparing the world for its return.

“My job is acting as Princess Celestia's advisor. It's a role we've managed to keep secure for over six hundred years, slowly poisoning her to ensure that she will be too weak when the Dark One-”

“Does it have an actual name?” Twilight asked acidly.

Watcher glared at her. “It does,” he told her, “But we prefer not to use it. You may call it Todote the Samoyed, conqueror of... stop laughing!”

Twilight's mouth was jammed shut on her tongue, causing her to whimper.

You shouldn't be laughing anyway, she told herself, This is serious… no matter how silly that name is.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle was brought on as Celestia's student. She never said it, but we knew that she was training a replacement in case the worst happened. We were terrified. I took advantage of my role as her personal advisor to put myself in charge of overseeing her upbringing. That way I could ensure that she would never unlock the true potential that Celestia saw in her and bring us down.

“Then I had an idea. I could use the new princess against Celestia herself. By feeding her the Vile over the years, I could slowly temper her into a suitable host body for the Dark One, giving it a mortal form with immense magical potential. Otherwise, after such a long imprisonment, it would have been too weak to put up too much resistance. With this plan, we would not need to wait as long for Celestia to be weak enough to be overthrown. Fortunately, she was already too weak to sense the Vile growing inside her student, and none of her precious mages would begin to know what to look for. But I could sense it, and I could see it growing.

“And then you appeared, pure of heart and rebellious. For a while I was so worried, but now I know better.” He took a sip of tea before asking, “So, how does the mirror work?”

Twilight's breath caught in her throat.

“That's right, I know about the mirror. And somehow I'm going to get my Twilight back. Fortunately, with you around, I don't have to keep feeding her this… sickening goo. Speaking of which…”

Twilight's arms extended to take the cup that was levitated to her.

“Drink up,” Watcher said, smirking again, “It's just about all you're going to get from now on. And maybe it will loosen your tongue a bit.”

The tea cup was raised to Twilight's mouth, which opened to accept it.

“If you tell me what I want, I will even give you a blanket and pillow for your cell,” he taunted.

This was wrong. She had to get out of here. She couldn't let this traitor win. She could feel the cup against her lips. The smell of the vile hit her nose and she wanted to retch. Her head was pounding. Watcher frowned. Twilight was shaking. She was shaking despite his magical hold. For some reason she would not take a drink.

The cup fell and shattered against the ground. Twilight let out a feral roar and twisted her entire body, trying to jerk free. She felt like she was on fire. There was a bright glow in the room, and it took her a moment to realize that it was coming from her.

She was having a magical surge. This had happened once before, she remembered, when she had her audition for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the day she became Celestia's apprentice. And the look of terror on Watcher's face meant that it gave her the upper hoof.

Twilight gave off a small burst of magic, directing it at the open jar of Vile. The jar flew back, spraying Watcher with the black substance. He screamed and let go of Twilight, and she dashed towards the door as he tried to furiously wipe it from his coat.

The door must have been locked, but it yielded to Twilight's magic with no resistance. She took off immediately in the direction of the throne room. Two unicorn guards were after her. She could hear them calling at her to stop. Without even turning around to establish a line of sight, Twilight cast a quick charm that caused them to trip over their own feet.

Thank you, Moondancer, Twilight prayed silently. She was still riding the high from her magical surge, but she could already feel it fading. But she was almost there. She just had to hold out a little longer.

The two guards outside the throne room moved to stop her, but Twilight didn't even slow. She barreled past them, throwing open the large double doors with her magic. These doors were harder to handle due to their sheer size, and as she passed through them Twilight began to stumble.

“Princess… Princess Celestia!” she gasped, looking up at the throne and freezing in place.

She had been expecting Princess Celestia; she hadn't expected what she found.

The mare sitting on the throne was old and haggard. Her mane was faded and greying in places, and hanging straight instead of flowing freely. Her coat was lackluster too, missing that sparkling radiance that Twilight adored. She was slouched and fatigued, though clearly startled by Twilight's sudden entrance.

“Twilight?” she asked hoarsely, struggling to stand up, “What's wrong?”

Twilight snapped out of it and ran up to the princess, burying her face in the princess's chest like a frightened child.

“Oh Princess I'm so sorry!” she sobbed, “My name is Twilight Sparkle. I came from another world where I'm Princess Celestia's apprentice, and I was wandering the halls one day when I came across a mirror that showed me this world, and I discovered this world's version of me and we agreed to change places for a few days but it turns out that Watcher is a cult leader trying to poison you so that he can raise some dark god and let it take your place and I'm so sorry I didn't mean for any of this to happen I swear!”

Twilight paused to take a breath, and Princess Celestia placed a hoof on her shoulder. Looking up, Twilight saw that the princess wasn't confused, just worried. Twilight's heart sank. The princess didn't believe her.

And then, to her surprise, Princess Celestia nodded and looked up towards the door. Twilight followed her gaze and her blood turned to ice. Watcher was standing in the room with four guards. He slammed the doors shut with his magic.

“Princess Celestia,” he said, “I apologize for this. Young Princess Twilight hasn't been feeling well lately, and I'm afraid that she's been letting her imagination run wild. I assure you this won't happen again.”

“No,” Twilight murmured, hugging the princess even tighter.

But Princess Celestia simply pushed her to the side and stepped between her and Watcher.

“Guards,” she said, strength returning to her voice, “take this stallion to the dungeon to await further questioning.”

Watcher couldn't believe his ears. He asked, “Celestia, what are you doing? You can't truly believe her! By Sleipnir, I'm your adviser!"

“Guards, you have my orders.”

The guards moved towards Watcher. One of them was levitating a magic-suppressing collar in his direction.

The astonishment Watcher's his face melted into rage.

“NO!” he cried. And to Twilight's horror the shadows on the floor leapt up and grabbed onto the guards. They struggled, but the shadows slid into their mouths and noses, and after a moment they simply stopped struggling and turned to face Celestia.

“That kind of dark magic is low even for your traitorous flank,” Celestia jeered. Twilight had to wince at the sound of her idol swearing.

Watcher simply snorted and began walking forward. His gaze went past Celestia directly to Twilight.

“You're going to pay for fucking with us, girl,” he promised.

Celestia took an offensive stance, but Twilight knew that she stood no chance against four trained guards and Watcher himself.

Then the double doors burst open and for a moment Twilight was blinded. She had to quickly turn away, and when she peaked again she saw that the possessed guards had collapsed. Hovering in the air above a scared-witless Watcher was Princess Celestia – her Princess Celestia – glowing with a blinding white light that almost made her impossible to look at. Her pupils were gone, replaced by the even brighter light that emanated from her eyes, and her expression was one of pure hate.

The native princess seemed to perk up at the sight of the newcomer, who grabbed the mortified Watcher in her magic and pulled him up off the ground, where he began to shriek in agony.

“No,” Twilight murmured, realizing what she was doing, “No!”

She ran forward, past the native Princess Celestia who was still looking on with awe, and stopped before her mentor.

“You can't do this!” she cried. Princess Celestia glanced away from her prey and down at her. “It's not right. You can't kill him!” She made no response, nor did she let him go. “Please,” Twilight whimpered.

The princess's face softened, and the light emanating from her began to fade. She floated down, letting go of Watcher and letting him hit the ground hard, where he stopped moving. As the last remnants of her magical surge died, Princess Celestia looked down at Twilight with sorry eyes.

Author's Note

Todote is the Samoyed god of death. I couldn't find anything more about it than that, but I couldn't think up a name any sillier or any more unique than "Todote the Samoyed", so I went with it.