From the Shadows

"A thousand years. Hard to believe it's been so long. I guess the first century went by slowly, but the next nine hundred years...I've grown used to the cold. The wind no longer bites, the frost no longer stings, the storms and blizzards seem a bit less hostile, and more and more like home...but they never have compared to the home I once had."

"That home was taken from me. My throne was snatched from beneath me before I had the chance to inherit it, stolen from me...my rightful possession, my birthright, my purpose, robbed from me without any hint of justice or honor."

"I was a princess once, a queen in the making a long time ago. I once had a place I called home, and knew it to be true. I once had friends, and a family, and a life I was proud to lead. But then, he came. And Hell came with him."

"He came underneath a mask of powerlessness, and fooled me into thinking he wouldn't be a problem. It was my task to learn from him, for his knowledge was what we sought, not him in himself. And teach me he did...only not what I wanted to know."

"He taught me the meaning of true power...he unlocked everything within me, but not before he unleashed everything else. He taught me how to hurt, and he taught me how to hate. But then, he taught me what I could do, just before he taught me the meaning of shame."

"He has sat on my throne for generations, those reared in his shadow thinking him a hero, when they weren't fearing him, that is. They all think I was the villain. After all, I was the enemy of the victor. I wasn't a villain then, but now..."

"So, for ten centuries, I have festered here in the ice and frozen tundra. All that time gives one plenty of time to think, to remember. And thought I have."

"I had everything I could want once, but the present king took it all away. He stabbed me in the back, using treachery and deceit to strike me at my center, and then stole everything from me...my friends, my family, my home, even my body, and replaced it with this simple, solitary, miserable existence."

"His lessons have been taken to heart. A thousand years to practice hating and hurting has left me quite good at both. Plenty of time to prepare."

"I've had enough time to think, to plan... to rot, if I had a body, that is. Now is a time for action."

"I've thought plenty of the day...the day when my home was taken from me wrongly by a foreigner. The day when everything I once held dear was stolen away from the world with hate filled prejudice. The day I forgot the taste of love."

"All I taste now is hate. All I remember now is the pain I was caused...they have both made for an effective grudge. And soon, vengeance will be mine."

"I will reclaim what is mine from the one that took it from me. I've planned everything, thought of everything, seen everything. He has grown weak in his confidence and his bliss. He achieved more than anypony thought possible. His victories came quick, and the few that rose against him in his seeming immortality were quickly defeated. He thinks himself indestructible, yet his lust never dies...I know this to be his hubris. I will exploit it to the full, and the king will fall, as my home's rulers did to him so long ago. For in his comfortable bliss, I have slaved away, growing stronger, smarter, wiser, as the bite of time seemed to grow dull in the curse of immortality."

"I will manipulate the one that manipulated me. I will kill the one that killed my friends, my family...me. I will reclaim what is mine. I'm coming home."

"For I am a story told to foals at night, warning them not to betray the king, lest their fate become mine. I am a monster to be feared, rather than prey that knows the cold burn of fear. I am a ghost in the cold. I am the wrath of the scorned, and the pain of the wronged."

"I am Pain. I am Hate. I am Rage. I am Darkness. I am a shadow, a fragment...but not for long."

"I am back from the shadows."

"I am Twilight Sparkle..."

"And I'm coming back for my crown."