"If friendship is supposed to be magic, then why has ours become so tragic?"
Discord.
The name ran through Twilight Sparkle's mind a thousand times a day. A rather impressive feat, really, since due to his meddling, the days were rarely longer than a couple of minutes. By those calculations, he had been in control for nearly forty years. Twilight estimated it at more like a month. Maybe one and a half. She didn't care anymore. The only thing that mattered was stopping him.
"Discord! I've had enough of this! I don't know what you've done to my student and her friends, but I'm going to stop you now!"
"Oh, my dear, deluded Celestia. Is that what you really think?"
"Silence, fell beast! We have defeated you once, and We will do it again!"
Discord snapped his fingers. "Do it, then." Black spiked vines began sprouting from the ground, spiraling their way around Celestia and Luna, trapping them.
"What dark magics hast thou unleashed, Discord?" Luna yelled.
"They're just my plundervines. Really amazing things, all things considered. They just adore magic, especially an alicorn's. I think you'll get along wondrously."
Twilight awoke with a start. She sat up and looked around her small apartment, trying to shake off the memory of the nightmare. Spike was still asleep in his basket, one of the few things they had brought when they ran from Ponyville, after.... that. Discord hadn't specifically targeted her or any one of her so-called friends, but with the Princesses otherwise incapacitated, she hadn't wanted to take the chance. She'd heard rumors that they'd been released, and that they were just really weak and almost helpless, but she'd also heard that she and her "friends" were leading an underground resistance movement, so she didn't really trust rumors. Her "friends" were likely back in Ponyville, and she'd fled to Fillydelphia. It was one of the few places not touched by Discord's full grasp, though Twilight had a feeling that was mostly a matter of time.
'I hate leaving Ponyville to him.... But there was nothing I could do. Without the Princesses...' The scene in the nightmare that had tortured her since Discord's full takeover was her last real memory of her otherwise fondly looked on home. She had run the whole way from Ponyville, though it was a less impressive feat than before due to Discord's magic. She'd used the money she'd made working as Ponyville's librarian to get an apartment there, and she was content as she could be, even if her roommate was a little friendly.
'I don't need friends. They just turn on you when things really start to matter. She ran them through her head for the thousandth time.
Applejack the Liar.
Rarity the Greedy.
Fluttershy the Cruel.
Pinkie Pie the Angry.
Rainbow Dash the Traitor.
'Bearers of the Elements of Harmony my flank. It just must have been a fluke getting them to work on Nightmare Moon.
She heard a soft knock at her door. "Twilight, are you okay? I thought I heard you crying..."
Twilight moved her hoof to her face to see that she was. Glancing over to see if Spike was still asleep, she got up and walked to the door, opening the door and exiting her room quietly as possible. Her roommate, a brown unicorn ironically named Skylar was there with a concerned look on her face. "I'm fine, I just had a bad dream." When Skylar opened her mouth to ask another question, Twilight raised her hoof to silence her, "I didn't want to wake Spike up."
"Oh, okay... You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine, Skylar. I just.... need some time alone with my thoughts." Heading to the door, she added, "I think I'll take a walk. Tell Spike if he wakes up."
"Okay, Twilight... Just tell me if you need anything at all. If you need a friend, I'm willing to listen. Anytime."
"I will, Skylar. Thanks." 'Will never take you up on that offer.' she added mentally.
Twilight walked at a slow pace through the streets of Fillydelphia. She liked Skylar, but the mare didn't know when to back off. It was obvious she didn't want to be friends. Friends just turned on you, after all....
'Besides, it's not like I'm gonna be in Fillydelphia too long anyway. I'm leaving the instant Discord's magic reaches its full power here.'
But where will you go? A voice in her head asked. There's not much north of Fillydelphia.
'What about Vanhoover? It's a nice place... Was.
And after that? Discord's not going to stop, you know.
'I'll keep heading north.
The Frozen North? You'd never survive it, even with his meddling.
When he catches me, I'll... I'll give in. I'll succumb to his rule. I'll worship the Spirit of Chaos.
Wow. You've really given in, haven't you? You just haven't admitted it to yourself. What about your friends?
"Friends?" She spat with a venom so potent it would likely poison anypony near her, were anypony outside. "What do my 'friends' have to do with it? All they did was turn on me when it mattered the most!" she yelled.
What about all those times you spent with them? The good ones? The ones you wrote to Princess Celestia about?
'Apparently my "friends" didn't think too highly of them!
Make new ones, then. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you're Equestria's last hope, Twilight Sparkle. Don't do it for yourself, or your friends, or the Princesses. Do it for the country you love.
'Why am I even listening to this? You're not real, you're just a voice in my head! LEAVE. ME.' "ALONE!!!!!!!!"
Everything was quiet.
She looked up and realized she was back in front of her house. Somehow she'd wandered back here.
'Must be instinct.' She mused, and headed inside.
"Hey, you're back." Skylar said as Twilight walked through the door, looking up from a book she was reading. "Get your thoughts sorted out?"
"Yes... No... Maybe, hay, I don't know anymore! I spent most of my walk arguing with a voice in my head!" Skylar looked concerned, but let Twilight keep talking. "And now I'm even more confused than before." She said, flopping onto the couch. "I feel like I should do something, but then I feel like I can't without my 'friends,' and it's just really confusing, all around! I'm the Princess's personal student! I'm one peg down from an Archmage! An Advisor! And I feel like that obligates me to do something, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do! Without the Elements of Harmony, Discord's just going to laugh off anything I try to do to him! And I can't use them without my 'friends!' AUGH!" She cried, burying her face in a sofa pillow.
"Maybe... Maybe you should try to reconcile with your friends, Twilight. It sounds like you really do miss them, under the hurt from your..." Skylar paused, searching for the right word, ".. falling-out. I know you've had good times with them, Twilight. You even made it into the Equestria Daily a couple of times." She got up. "In fact, I think I still have one of the older issues hanging around here, let me check." She walked over to the closet and opened it, rummaging around a bit before finally yelling out, "Here it is!" She floated the paper over to Twilight. "It's on Page 3."
"Ponyville elects new Winter Wrap-Up Captain, experiences first On-time Wrap-up in Years" The title proclaimed.
"Winter Wrap-Up..." Twilight whispered. She read the article, remembering how she had felt when she didn't have a place in it, but after trying everything, she found that she was able to put her organizational skills to use. Kind of like I do right now... Then she read the quotes from the various ponies the paper had interviewed.
"I was skeptical at first, but she really came through in the end!" ~ Lyra Heartstrings
"Twilight was great, I'm already looking forward to next year's Wrap-Up" ~ Thunderlane
"Twi's a good friend of mine, I'm glad she finally found a place" ~ Applejack
"I'm so happy our darling Twilight found her place. Her bird nests were rather dreadful, but they did have a certain charm to them." ~ Rarity
As she read more and more, Skylar could have sworn she saw Twilight's coat brighten and shimmer. One she at last reached the end, she jumped up and locked Skylar in a big hug.
"Thank you so much, Skylar! I just needed to be reminded of all the good times we had! That was it! I'm so lucky to have a friend like you!"
"Like I said, Twilight, anytime you need to talk, I'm here."
"Now, I'm sorry to leave you, but I'm in a hurry. I've got something that needs to be done!" She said, rushing into her room. "Spike, wake up, we're headed to Ponyville!" She levitated a box out from under her bed and opened it, revealing its contents. The objects that would save Equestria:
The Elements of Harmony.
Author's Note
So, I'm back in the world of fanfiction!!!!! Yaaay!!!!
