Forty Six & Two

by Elite Minor

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 5543

In order for young Twilight Sparkle to become the pony that she always wanted to be, she must first discover her shadow.

In order for young Twilight Sparkle to become the pony that she always wanted to be, she must first discover her shadow.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-15 19:10:03 UTC

Forty Six & Two

It was an early morning in Ponyville, and Twilight had already brought down her latest book and had been reading for a few hours. The library was rolling through the monotony of another uneventful day as the birds chirped outside, signifying that morning had come. Spike lowered his duster and turned to Twilight, trying to keep his balance on the ladder.

"Are you going to be at this all day?" Spike asked.

"Yes, Spike. Princess Celestia needs me to study this book."

Spike scratched his head.

"Well, what does this one do?" he asked apprehensively.

Twilight pursed her lips as she thought about it.

"I don't really know myself but I'm guessing it has some to do with helping me improve my grasp of alicorn magic."

Spike gazed down at the book and cringed when he noticed the ominous design on the cover. Just seeing the face and those glowing eyes on the cover brought back his memory of that one time in the Crystal Empire. Whoever had done the designs for this book certainly did an excellent job, he could give the artist that.

The image sent chills down his spine, causing him to twitch momentarily.

So lifelike...

"Is that...King Sombra on the cover?"

Twilight nodded in response as she brought the book up to his level with levitation.

"Why yes it is. This is in fact one of the evil king's personal books. Celestia told me that this is one of the best guides for mastering alicorn magic."

Spike shivered again.

"Sombra's book? Why does Celestia have this?"

Twilight chuckled and patted Spike on the head.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Now, I'll let you have the day off if you leave me to study," she offered.

Spike rolled his eyes.

"Fine."

****

As Twilight continued on through the tome, she stopped to make notes whenever a method or strategy was mentioned. Alicorn magic was a larger subject than she had anticipated. They were so many steps for many different spells that she needed to remember for later, and branching paths of a plethora of varying techniques, styles, and quirks for most subjects. Her giddiness bubbled from within her as she was pleasantly surprised at the treasure trove she had uncovered. Defensive spells, enchantments, offensive spells, unlocking spells, and even a spell that allowed the user to 'mind trick' a victim.

She assumed that Sombra used an advanced form of that spell on the Crystal Ponies. Twilight shuddered at the image that her imagination had given and ran her mind through her studies once more, not daring to dwell on those thoughts.

She read on, periodically stopping to try some of the spells. After a few duds, Twilight realized that she was going about it all wrong. This was alicorn magic, so her normal powers would have little to no bearing here.

"Drat! How could I have let something so simple go over my head like that?!" she scolded herself.

There had to be something that she was missing. Something she had overlooked.

She scanned through the earlier chapters once more, hoping to discover why she wasn't able to tap into alicorn magic.

In the second chapter, she found a message that she had not seen before.

Twilight blinked in confusion, she must have missed it on her first pass.

"If a victor's path you wish to take,

Commitment to one you must forsake.

If enlightenment is what's at stake,

Then marry both you must make."

"What?" she thought, tilting her head.

"What context is this in?"

She continued to flip through the second chapter, hoping to get a bearing on the meaning of that message, if there was a meaning at all.

She shook her head in denial.

"No, there had to be a reason for it, no matter how cryptic it was. There was no reason to add filler into a spell book like this," she pursed her lips and stared down at the book, deep in thought.

As she had almost reached the third chapter, she ran across a second message.

"In order for reason to find the rhyme,

Darkness and light must combine.

Oneself's Shadow must entwine,

To be the savior of Ponykind."

Twilight rolled her eyes over the words again and again, making sure that she wasn't misinterpreting anything.

"Okay, well that was a *little** less obscure."*

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"My Shadow? What could that mean? And combining dark and light? Can...can I even do that?"

Twilight threw her brain into a frenzy.

She tried to analyze every possible solution, path, or method that she could derive from the book's words. Her thoughts turned over like a generator in her mind, attempting to connect the dots of this mystery.

"Assuming that I can, how would I pull it off?"

The nervousness welled up inside of her as started to realize what the book was asking her to do.

"This...I...if this is what the book wants me to do, then I'll have to step out of my comfort zone," she groaned in dread as she readied her magic for her next move.

A bright light flashed from her horn as it was engulfed in a mixed blanket of black and purple as she let this new sensation consume her. A purple mist drifted out of her eyes, as the colors of her irises darkened.

She felt something...foreign.

In all of her years of magical study, after all of the complex and risky spells and skills that she had mastered, she had never felt anything like this before.

Something lingered from within her.

It felt so...cold.

So dreary.

But, at the same time...sweet.

It enticed her, drew her in.

Was it an entity? Or merely an abstract feeling from within her?

"What is this? Do I really want to go through with this? Is-is this my Shadow?"

She couldn't explain it, but she felt the need to carry through with it, as if it was an obligation. In a way, she figured that it was an obligation to Princess Celestia. At least, that was what she told herself. Perhaps it was curiosity that drove her forward, perhaps it was not.

"Why do I feel so compelled to do this?"

The coloration and intensity of her horn intensified as Twilight could hear the crackling and feel the transformation within herself.

A burning sensation welled up inside of her as she began to lose control of her experimental spell. She could sense the heat consume her and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her body was beginning to numb as her horn grew brighter, the swirling blacks, purples, and whites strangling her horn and flowing themselves into each other.

As her emotions and her spell intensified, she knew that tears were falling out of her eyes, but she could not feel them. At one point, she thought that she was screaming in agony but she could not hear it.

She lost all sense of reality as a shroud of Shadowy black consumed her sight.

****

The light burned Twilight's eyes as the bright sun in the sky beckoned her awake. She blinked repeatedly, painfully waiting as her eyes adjusted and her sight returned to her.

From what she could see, it was in fact, daytime. Just as she had presumed.

"Wait...what happened with the spell? Did I sleep through the entire night?!" her mind was frantically looking for answers as she fought the grogginess that coursed throughout her body.

She struggled to stand up on all of her four hooves but the fatigue made it difficult. Trying to get a bearing on her location, she rubbed her eyes, in hopes of helping them recover.

After a few seconds, they did.

She swayed back and forth as she tried to gain her balance, groaning from her grogginess. As she took in her surroundings, everything started to make less and less sense to her.

"Why did I wake up in Ponyville Square?"

From what she could see, she was in fact, in the middle of town. She tapped her hoof against her horn as she tried to recall how she had gotten out in the middle of the street, to no avail.

"What did that spell do? I don't remember how I got here."

She huffed in annoyance as she tried to look around but her view was being blocked by the ponies that were all around her. She assumed that it must have been a busy today for this many ponies to be out here. She could have sworn that the entire town was out here, all bunched up in the town square, surrounding her at every side and angle.

She could recognize many faces in the crowd easily, most she had seen on a daily basis. After a little more scanning, she picked out her friends in the crowd, all of them together. She could see the blank expressions on all of their faces. As she continued to search through the crowd, she found herself quite surprised.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadance, my brother...why are all of them here? Why are they all giving me that look? Did I do something wrong? This makes no sense. I-...wait."

There was no wind or even a gentle breeze blowing through the town, no birds chirping either. The usual banter of the townsponies was nonexistent, as was the constant clopping of pony hooves on the roads of Ponyville. Never before had Ponyville Square been this peaceful and quiet. To her, it was relaxing, if a little eerie.

"Come to think of it, I haven't heard a single noise since I woke up."

Twilight's eyes shot open wide as the realization clicked into her brain. She slowly craned her neck around to see the entire crowd of ponies once more.

What she noticed sent chills down her spine.

Everypony in town had formed a circle around her and were all staring at her with blank expressions on their faces.

Everypony.

She mentally swatted herself for not recognizing it before.

Twilight walked in a circle, to confirm that she was in fact surrounded by Ponyville ponies. When she was finally positive of it, the creeping chill in her spine rang out once more. Unnerved by all the blank, emotionless eyes glued on her, she felt the urge to call out to all them and ask them what was going on.

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her lips made the proper movements, she could even feel the syllables of her question vibrate in her throat, yet she heard no sound.

Twilight tried again and again, failing to even produce any sound out of her mouth. To test this, she resorted to screaming at the staring ponies, but it came apparent to her that volume did not matter. In spite of her screaming, there was only silence.

"Why can't I talk!?" she fumed.

All of the ponies that surrounded, many of whom close friends and family to Twilight, began nodding their heads vigorously at her.

Twilight's face scrunched up in bewilderment.

"Are they...headbanging? What the..."

A dark aura flashed around Twilight's body, covering her entire being in a thin layer of a dark purple magical glow. The mist formed around her, and floated a mere few inches off of her body, copying her form. The mist shimmered and churned as it orbited her body.

Twilight looked down at her hooves, at a loss for what was happening to her. She gazed up at the rest of the ponies and was attempting to cry out for help, but she saw that everypony else was still headbanging together in perfect synchronization.

"Okay, this is freaky! What is going on here!?"

The mist began to flow off of her, blowing into the empty air in front of her. Twilight watched as the swirling dark cloud began to move on its own, everypony still headbanging together in the background. The cloud began to dissipate as the contents manifested itself. The material of the mist rolled out into the form of a pony.

A pony that Twilight recognized immediately.

The dark purple coat of the apparition complemented the lighter shade of purple of its irises. The four hooves of the unicorn in front of her stood erect as its straight mane slumped slightly over its blank, expressionless eyes. There was a single streak of red going down the left side of its dark purple mane. The eerie, yet curious eyes of the mist pony were staring back at Twilight.

"W-what? But...how?"

Twilight gazed back at her twisted doppelganger as it stood there in front of her, making no movements at all.

Just standing there...and staring.

She could feel the unnerving creation's sight as it bore right into her, through those lifeless eyes.

Somehow Twilight could feel a subtle maliciousness behind the mask of neutrality that the Shadow Twilight wore. She wondered if that feeling was what it wanted her to feel or if she had created the illusion herself.

Without warning, the Shadow Twilight began to twitch its head from side to side, keeping its view on Twilight. Its head mechanically spasmed as it dropped to its left and then its right, repeating the motions over and over again. The way that the entity's head was twitching reminded Twilight of the movements of the second hand on a clock. Except that the clock was broken and moved back and forth between the same few spaces and was a tad bit faster.

"Creepy, she's keeping her eyes on me when she's doing that."

She felt like a rock had dropped into her gut as feelings of confusion and uncertainty fused inside of her.

"I don't understand what is going on here!" she thought as she frowned and rose an eyebrow at the head-twitching Shadow Twilight.

The rhythmic head-twitching of her darker clone gave Twilight the same uncomfortable emotions that her surrounding friends had given her. Friends that were still head-banging at a constant and repeating rhythm.

As uncomfortable as this was for the young pony, something else stirred within her.

Something...more subtle.

"But then...why does all of this feel right to me?"

Just as the thought crossed her mind, all of the townponies, including her friends and family, had all stopped moving. Twilight noticed that they were just staring at her again, their bodies completely still. As she gazed harder into the crowd, she noticed even more ponies that she had seen before, even ones that weren't from Ponyville. Ponies that she knew extensively but also ponies that she had only seen in passing, though able to remember their faces. It seemed to her as if every pony that she had ever known was present in the town square.

Together, all of the ponies around her blinked, and their eyes were consumed with a bright, white light. The lights, though warming, made Twilight shiver from their creepy undertones.

The townponies raised their heads up at the sky and opened their mouths.

To Twilight's horror, she found herself doing the same, her clone still content with staring at Twilight's own lit eyes and twitching her head from side to side.

"What am I doing? Why can't I control myself?!"

She stared at the empty blue sky, wondering what was going to happen next. Though frightened by the fact that she had lost control over her own body, Twilight did not feel the need to fight off whatever it was that was directing her. Instead, her gut told her that the best course of action was to let it happen.

A white beam of light shot from her mouth, soaring vertically into the sky. As she watched the beam ascend, it was joined by numerous other beams of light, that were shooting at a single point in the sky. She assumed immediately that the other lights were from the townponies without question. Twilight watched with awe as all of the beams of light had combined with her's and each others' and formed a glowing, white ball in the sky.

For as many beams that made up the ball of light, it wasn't a very large one, to Twilight's surprise. From her judgement, she concluded that the white ball was not much larger than her body. Once all of the beams had hit each other in perfect synchronization, they all dissipated, including hers, leaving the glowing ball to float in the sky.

Instantly, she recovered control of her body, yet felt no need to run or scream. On the contrary, she felt...peaceful.

Once the beams of light had dissipated, the other ponies had closed their mouths, dipped their heads back down to meet Twilight's gaze, and had continued with their vigorous nodding.

"Headbanging again, huh guys?" she thought.

As the glowing ball in the sky began to descend back down to the earth, Twilight stared at her darker counterpart and wondered why Shadow Twilight was twitching her head back and forth. Despite how much more comfortable she was now, Twilight knew that she would never be able to get over those unnerving blank stares.

"Okay Twilight, time to figure out what's going on here."

Twilight closely analyzed both the ponies surrounding her and her clone. She leaned in closer to her clone, crouching her body forward to get a better look at her Shadow self. After a minute of scanning all of the ponies, she had discovered a pattern in every ponys' movements.

"All of them are directing their heads in perfect synchronization, even my clone is able to keep the same rhythm with the others."

She felt a warming embrace cover the left side of her flank like a soothing blanket. Emotions surged through her, shocking her unprepared body. Twilight shivered as an initial reaction, not sure of what to make of this new presence.

A soft smile graced her face. Her eyes widened in a mix of surprise and jubilation.

She could sense the entire essence of the warming feeling spread across her back. It reminded her of how her parents or Shining Armor used to pick her up and cuddle her when she was a little foal. That feeling of security, of peace. It flowed through her entire body.

"I feel...I-feel."

When she turned to inspect her flank, she found that the glowing white ball had descended onto her body. She watched as her body absorbed the orb's essence. It concentrated on dispersing its energy in that part of her body. Twilight could both see and feel the magical bubble leak its white, silk-like contents onto her body. She monitored it as it spread, encasing her coat in a bright, shining white. The ball of light began to engulf Twilight, covering her body within its circumference as it continued to descend. The white glossed over her entire body, sticking to the contours of her form.

She witnessed the sensation of her heart jumping in her chest in delight. As the seconds rolled on, she become less and less restricted by the stress of her ordinary life. It felt as if joy, elation, and serenity had all hit her at once.

The soft blanket on her gave way to the crisp, cool air of a gentle breeze kissing the entire front side of her body. The breeze came from the direction of her erratic clone. Right as the warmth on her body was beginning to get too warm. Trusting her own observation, she could have sworn that the cooling breeze came from Shadow Twilight herself.

Twilight could feel that this new aura coming from the breeze was...different.

She looked down at her hooves, which were now completely covered in a sparkling white sheen. Twilight stared at her hooves for a second and then gazed up at Shadow Twilight.

"What does all this mean? Can you help me?" Twilight called out, forgetting that her voice made no sound.

The doppelganger waited a second, her head still twitching like a broken clock hand. Then, the dark purple copy rose a single hoof out to Twilight, its head still swinging back and forth.

Twilight blinked in bewilderment.

"W-what? What are you-"

She turned around behind her, seeing if the Shadow mare was pointing at anything specific. All she saw was more ponies, nothing noteworthy from what Twilight could see. She turned back, her twitching clone still holding its dark purple hoof out, staring at Twilight intently, or what Twilight assumed was intently.

"That expressionless face is not doing me any favors. Do you speak? Can anypony speak?"

A hint of embarrassment stung Twilight as she realized that nopony could hear her.

The Shadow mare's face seemed as if it didn't it pay her any heed whatsoever. Twilight gazed at all of the other ponies surrounding her, but to no avail.

Twilight gazed down at her hooves once more, sure enough, they were all pure white. She trotting around in circles and from as much of her body as she could make out, was also covered in the bright shine of the light. She stopped and stared at her hooves once more.

"I don't--"

Twilight interrupted herself as she gazed back up at her clone, who was holding her own hoof out in Twilight's direction. In stark contrast to Twilight's white hoof, Shadow Twilight's dark purple was still held out, as if she was trying to reach Twilight.

"Or...offer to me. Wait!"

She studied the outstretched purple hoof of Shadow Twilight, rubbing her chin in concentrated thought.

"...My Shadow. Is this-what you want from me?" Twilight asked.

The darker Twilight remained still.

Twilight looked at her hoof once more and then nodded to Shadow Twilight in confirmation. She slowly approached her double, meticulous step after meticulous step. She stopped right in front of Shadow Twilight, within hoof's reach of her.

"I do hope you know what you're doing."

Twilight rose her hoof to Shadow Twilight, both of them aligned perfectly. After a deep breath, Twilight pressed the bottom of her white hoof against flat surface of her clone's own purple hoof.

Both Twilights threw their heads back in shock and were both screaming in agony once both hooves connected. Their simultaneous screams produced no sound as the waves of conflicting emotions flowed through both of their beings.

An icy chill shot through her hoof and spread into the rest of her body. It felt as if broken glass had been injected into her veins. The pain seeped through her, making her cry out once more. Her emotions simmered and her body began to shiver as she felt a presence within her.

She growled as her body began to twitch in reaction to the new disturbances within her. The peace that she had witnessed earlier had not disappeared from her being, even though she could feel some of it transfer over to Shadow Twilight, its presence inside her remained.

"So...cold."

Waves of melancholy and malice alike swept through her as one, as if they were fighting for control of Twilight Sparkle. These conflicting sentiments clashed in her soul, even her peaceful feelings getting mixed up into the chaos as well.  Her insides burned as anger and resentment dripped through her veins. The swirling emotion inside of her thrashed and raged like a hurricane in her soul. The chaos within her only added to her confusion.

"What do I do?! What do I do?!"

She panicked as she tried to think of a way to control the situation. She could feel the darker presence getting stronger with each passing second. Twilight knew she had to do something, but being forced to think on the fly wasn't making it any easier for her.

"The light!"

A syringe of warmth and happiness stuck into her chest as her thoughts turned to all of the ponies that were present with her. She remembered everything about as many of them as she could. Things that made her smile, that filled her heart with joy and belonging. The refreshing breeze of positive energy healed her as she felt the opposite emotions begin to level each other out.

The intensity of the earlier chaos was starting to simmer down as she cleared her head of her earlier confusion.

"I...I can do this."

Twilight smirked as she thrusted her other hoof into Shadow Twilight's body, phrasing right through her darker counterpart. She could see the brighter and darker colors mesh and churn together, gaining harmony between each other's forms. Despite everything she could see, she felt no pain or discomfort. The confidence proceeded to built inside her.

"This is becoming clear now. I can't stay the same. In order to improve I must..."

Lunging forward, she stabbed her horn into Shadow Twilight's chest, noticing the Shadow Twilight had done the same. It she wasn't mistaken, Twilight could have sworn that her counterpart was mirroring her movements. The darker and lighter shades continued to mesh into Twilight as Shadow Twilight began to dissipate. The mist of the doppelganger drove itself into Twilight's coat, while Twilight pushed on forward. By now, Twilight had almost passed completely through her Shadow partner's body, just as her clone was doing the same.

Twilight was absorbing her.

"Push through. Advance."

As Twilight completely passed through Shadow Twilight, the latter had disappeared into Twilight.

She looked down at her hooves one last time.

They were her normal shade of purple.

The ponies around her stopped banging their heads.

****

The white moon shined its eerie light across the night sky as the twinkling stars dotted the black abyss. A gentle breeze leisurely blew past the castle, over the resting city below. Most of the residents of Canterlot had closed up shop for the night, letting the remainder of their day fade away.

From this view, Princess Luna felt at peace.

She sighed as her gaze focused on one direction in particular, amazed that she could see the small town from this height and with the naked eye no less. She heard the soft clopping of her sister's hooves as she joined Luna at the edge of the balcony. They both stared out at the night sky, taking in the scenery and quiet calm that emanated throughout Equestria.

"Are you worried?"

The younger sister turned, slightly shocked at how crisply her sister's voice shattered the peaceful silence.

"She'll be fine, little sister," Celestia said.

Luna shook her head in disdain, averting her gaze from her night to face Celestia.

"That sounds similar to what you said to me when I tried doing the same-"

"That wasn't your fault," Celestia interrupted.

"My Shadow turned me against you!" Luna cried.

"I shouldn't have asked you to try something like that, I misjudged how dangerous it was. I'll take the blame for that, I should have known better than to use my baby sister as a test subject."

"And now you're asking her to do the same? What if she is consumed by evil and wicked thoughts like I was?" Luna inquired, frowning at her older sister.

"She is different than either of us, Luna. I strongly feel that she will have much better luck with this particular task than me or you trying the same."

"And what if she succumbs?"

Celestia shook her head and glanced back at Luna with sad frown.

"She won't...she can't."

Luna sighed and turned back towards her night, letting her hooves dangle over the marble pillars that acted as a railing.

"I can only desire that she will not be deceived by her Shadow like I was."

Celestia nuzzled her little sister as she felt a rock drop under her stomach. She always told herself that the guilt would pass with time, but even after Luna's return, she could still feel the residue of her shame.

But now, this time was different.

She was not experimenting, she knew for a fact that Twilight was the right candidate to carry out this unique form of alicorn magic. If anypony could tame their own Shadow, it would be Twilight Sparkle.

"Her name is Twilight, the time in between the day and night. She was born for this. She was destined to be the balance."

****

Twilight woke up and popped up off of the ground in surprise. She darted her eyes around, realizing that it was just a dream.

She groaned as she rubbed her horn.

A very strange dream.

But what did it mean?

Certainly it had some form of interpretation. The gears in her head turned as the clues and theory within her mind came together like the pieces of a puzzle. She cleared her mind and thought on it for a few seconds...

"Of course! How had I not seen it earlier!?" she shrieked in her head.

"Spike!"

"What is it? I'm about to go to sleep," the baby dragon yawned, walking toward the stairs.

"Oh, and I heard you scream again. Was worried at first but then I just saw that you were sleeping...spell too hard for you?"

"I've got it! I've figured it out! I knew I'd crack the code!" Twilight squealed with glee, too excited to acknowledge Spike's question.

"Well, what is it?" Spike asked.

Twilight took a deep breath, taking a second to calm herself.

"In order for my alicorn magic to be completely effective, I must master both my light and dark side. I must accept my dark side, while maintaining the light in me at the same time."

Twilight smirked as she hopped around in bliss. Her new knowledge of both powers made her see clearly. As the new knowledge spun through her brain, she could feel the elation welling up inside of her. She could feel the enlightenment glisten off of her coat. She soaked and bathed in the feeling, as if she absolutely needed to absorb as much of it as possible.

"I don't know about this, it seems a bit dangerous. Don't you think?" Spike said as he walked over to her.

She turned to him and smiled softly.

"I know."

Spike shrugged and began walking back up the stairs, in hopes of returning to his bed. Halfway up the stairs, he stopped and turned back to Twilight.

"Be careful. If anything happens, I'll be upstairs."

He sighed as he continued up to the second floor and closed the door behind him.

Back downstairs, Twilight began channeling her conflicting emotions in an attempt to activate her alicorn magic. She grunted and snarled as a wave of energy hit her. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. She felt the heat wave hit her as it charged her up. Any fatigue she might have had was definitely gone now.

This strange new wave energized her...a lot.

She shrieked in surprise as a jolt of pain shot through her body. The feeling simmered as her breathing became more difficult. The new sensation hit her swiftly and without mercy.

Her aggression and frustration flowed through her, burning behind her eyes. All of her rage and malice that she wasn't even aware that she had was trickling through her veins, boiling through her entire body. Every moment and time in her life when she felt sad or depressed flashed before her eyes, one by one.

She growled defensively as these troublesome memories came back to haunt her. Memories that she thought she had buried for good.

They infuriated her, she didn't deserve all of that hurt, all of those hardships. Every speed bump, everything that went wrong over all of those years and years and years.

The energy that coursed through her being channeled her pain, her anger...her hate.

Rather than rejecting and suppressing these emotions, she knew that she needed to embrace them.

To let them fuel her.

Her horn lit up.

It was working...maybe too well.

Fear punched a hole in her chest as she started to realize what was happening.

"Too much! Too much! Too much! Ahh!"

She stuck back immediately against her negative emotions with the thoughts of her friends. Every smiled she shared with them, every adventure they went on, and every bond that had been solidified between her and them. Time and time again, their friendship would be tested in the most vigorous ways, outside forces threatening to shatter it forever.

...But it prevailed.

Friendship always prevailed.

It was then when Twilight realized how she could effectively counter her dark thoughts. To give her enough light to counteract the negativity but fuel enough of her rage to prevent her dark side from being overwhelmed. It would be a while before she perfected it, but this first pass didn't seem so bad. She weaved and measured her concoction in her head, stabilizing her creation the best she could.

As she mixed her inner positive and her inner negative, she smiled in content.

Her eyes began to glow a mixture of black and white, the colors shining through both of them.

Through her Shadow, she channeled her power. Through her Shadow, she enlightened herself, and broke free of her mental bindings. Through her Shadow, she conquered herself.

Through her Shadow.

"I understand."

From outside of the Ponyville library, a bright flash of lights emanated from the windows.