“From all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!” Twilight Sparkle stood tall in the small circle of her friends cramped in one of the library's smaller rooms.
As far as last words go, those weren't very good. They rated somewhere between 'Don't forget to buy milk at the grocery store' and 'Arrgh, arrgh, I'm dying, you idiot!' Perhaps she could have done better if she knew what was coming, but no pony could have expected what happened next.
The Elements of Harmony around her friends' necks flared into action, blasting the shocked unicorn with five brightly colored beams of light. A white sphere of pure energy enveloped her. Twilight was shocked at first, but lowered her head, resigned to her fate. The sphere grew larger and ever more unstable. Her friends tried to look away, but the Elements of Harmony refused to budge and kept their necks locked in place. They could only squint as the magic pulsed one final time.
The resulting implosion shook the whole building and shot beams of white light out every single window—even those not directly connected to the room they were in.
“What happened?” Fluttershy was the first get back up and gasped at the scene before her.
Where Twilight once stood, a star-shaped scorch mark marred the wooden floor. All that was left of Twilight was a thin wisp of black smoke.
“What the heck was that?” Rainbow Dash looked around, confused.
“Where's Twilight?” Rarity asked.
Applejack stood rigid. Her face was pale. Slowly, she walked to the center of the room and stared with wide eyes at the smoke. “Uh, I hate to break it to y'all but Twilight, she-she...”
Fluttershy looked over with concern. “What? What happened to her?”
Everypony else held their breaths in anticipation; they all expected Applejack's next words, but none of them wanted to hear it.
“She—” Applejack sniffled and wiped some tears from her eyes. She pulled her hat down and held it over her heart. “—she's dead.”
“No! Not Twilight!” Pinkie Pie jumped on the scorch mark and frantically scratched at the ground, as if expecting to find Twilight hidden under the floorboards. She flopped down on her hind legs and threw her hooves into the air. “Nooooo!”
“What's going on!?” Spike burst into the room panting. “There was this explosion and the whole house shook and—”
Rarity scooped Spike up and held him close while sobbing on his face. He was too shocked to complain.
“A-are you sure?” Fluttershy asked. She made a wan giggle, as if the whole thing might be a joke. “She might just be, um, somewhere else?”
“Somewhere else? Where else would she go?” Rainbow Dash asked. She had a blank expression on her face. An eye twitched and started to fill with tears. She looked away.
Spike struggled in Rarity's grasp. He was tired of being used as a tissue. “Would you please stop marehandling me? I'm not your squeaky toy!” Rarity gripped him tighter and sobbed harder. “Wait, where did Twilight go? Why are you all upset?”
“Uh, Spike—” Applejack stood between him and the center of the room “—she, uh, left to join the rest of the stars in the sky.”
“What? Why would she do that?” Spike finally popped out of Rarity's grasp and wiped his face clean.
“Oh, Spike...” Rarity scooped him up again. “Please don't ever leave me. I don't think I could bear to lose you too.”
“What?” Spike winced as Rarity smothered him in a bear hug. “You're worrying me. Where's Twilight?”
“She's dead!” Pinkie Pie threw up her hooves and wailed again, this time accompanied by a fountain of tears. “Nooooo!”
“What!?” Spike popped free again and ran over to Pinkie Pie. “Are you sure? How did it happen?”
“Yeah—” Rainbow Dash hung her head with tears streaking down her cheeks “—we're sure.”
“The Elements of Harmony...” Applejack tore her necklace off and cast it aside. Everypony else did the same. “They vaporized her.”
“No!”
“Sorry, Spike.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “But there's nothing left of her.”
“Nooo!”
Rarity scooped him up again and they cried together.
The shock had been so sudden that it wasn't until now that the full weight of the loss was beginning to sink in.
“I'll-I'll never get to tell her how much I loved her,” Rainbow Dash sniffled.
“I think she knew, Rainbow.” Applejack threw her forelegs around the sobbing pegasus. “I think she knew.”
Fluttershy stepped forward and scooped up a pinch of ash. It sifted through her hooves. She struggled to maintain her composure. “It can't end this way. It just can't.”
“I wish we could do something, but we c-can't,” Rarity wailed.
“Yeah, it's not like we can raise the dead!” Pinkie added. “We, uh, can't actually raise the dead, can we? Hmm...”
“I don't think even Celestia can raise the dead.” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Or can she?”
Rarity set Spike down. She had a wild look on her face. “She can raise the sun and the moon. I don't see why not. Spike, can you take a letter?”
Spike sniffled and frowned. He didn't share her optimism but he nodded.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
We kind-of-sort-of accidentally vaporized Twilight with the Elements of Harmony (our bad) and were wondering if perhaps, maybe you could do us an itsy-bitsy favor and bring her back from the dead?
Signed,
Your very, very, very loving subjects.”
Spike rolled up the letter and incinerated it with his dragon flame. The smoke sparkled with magic but hung in the air and went nowhere. After a while, the magic faded and the ash fell to the floor.
“It didn't work?” Spike stared at the ground with wide eyes. “But it always works! There's no way it wouldn't work unless—”
“Something's happened to Celestia too!?” Pinkie jumped in shock.
“Um...” Fluttershy's ear perked up when she heard flapping outside. She walked over and opened a window to let Owlowiscious fly in. He landed on Spike's head. “It's dark out. When did it get dark out?”
“Wasn't it sunny just five minutes ago?” Rarity asked.
Pinkie Pie gasped and took in a deep breath simultaneously. “Nightmare Moon!”
“What!?” The others looked at her in shock.
“It has to be her! She must have sabotaged the Elements of Harmony to go haywire and kill Twilight and with Twilight gone there was nothing stopping her from coming back and kidnapping Celestia and plunging the world into darkness and the night is going to last for-ever!”
“No!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Is there anything we can do?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You bet!” Pinkie Pie jumped on Rainbow Dash's head and looked down in her face. “If Celestia can't bring Twilight back from the dead, we'll just have to do it ourselves!”
Everypony stood in stunned silence. Crickets chirped outside.
“Who?” Owlowiscous asked.
“Us, of course!” Pinkie giggled with a forced smile. “We just have to—” Pinkie pointed at a bookshelf, but faltered and pointed at a different bookshelf “—er—” she pointed to a third, then a fourth. Her foreleg drooped and landed on the floor. “Does anypony know where Twilight keeps her books on necromancy?”
“Ah'm not sure a book like that even exists.” Applejack frowned.
“Nonsense.” Pinkie's eyes darted around and she started pulling books off the shelves. “It has to.”
“Wait, Pinkie. I think I know where we can find a book like that.” Spike tugged on her tail to keep her from tearing apart the library.
“You do?” Everypony looked at him.
“Sure. I might not have a cutie mark, but I seem to have a special talent for finding secret hidden books whenever it's most convenient.” Spike reached up over his head and pulled a leather-backed book out from under one of Owlowliscous's wings. “See?”
“Who?” Startled, Owlowliscous flew off and perched elsewhere in the room. He scratched his head with a wing.
“Huh? What's that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Rarity levitated the book out of Spike's grasp and read the blood red text on the cover that was printed over a black pentagram. “The Owlnomicron?” She opened it to a random page. “ 'Raising the dead for bird brains.' This is just what we need!”
Pinkie Pie hopped up and down. “This is like, the best thing ever!”
“Quiet, Pinkie. Let me read this.” Rarity's eyes scanned the pages. “Uh, it says here that we'll need to make a sacrifice.”
“Oooh! Oooh!” Pinkie Pie pulled another Pinkie Pie out of her mane. “I always keep a spare mirror pool clone around in case of ritualistic blood sacrifice emergencies!”
Pinkie-clone's eyes rolled around in her head. “Fun?” she asked.
Rarity scowled. “Not that kind of sacrifice. All we need to do is offer up a small portion of our bodies to transfer part of our life force to the deceased. Even a hair clipping will work, as long as it's fresh.”
“Aw.” Pinkie-clone looked dejected.
“Don't be sad.” Pinkie grinned and tried to put a smile on her clone's face. “Do you think we could ritualistically sacrifice her anyway?”
“I don't see why not.” Applejack shrugged.
“Yay, fun!” Pinkie-clone smiled.
“Not now.” Rarity frowned, but relented when Pinkie-clone made puppy-dog eyes. “Let's wait until after we've brought Twilight back, at least.”
“Alright.” Pinkie Pie stuffed her clone back in her mane.
“Okay, so in addition to our token sacrifices, we also lots of candles—”
“On it!” Spike pulled open a drawer and scooped out an armful of wax sticks. Rarity levitated them and arranged them in a circle around the scorch mark in the floor.
“—some chalk—”
Spike had that too, since Twilight kept a chalkboard around in case anypony wound up trapped in the same room with her when she wanted to give a lecture. Rarity drew a pentagram and multiple circles on the floor.
“—and the deceased.”
Everypony stood there blinking.
“Uh, does that small pile of ash count?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I'm not sure.” Pinkie scrunched up her face looking at it. “It might actually be part of the floor.”
“Does it have to be all of her, or just part of her?” Spike asked.
“I think just part of her would work.” Rarity flipped the page back and forth. “It doesn't actually say.”
Spike pulled out a hair brush. “Twilight came back home this morning with a wet mane and used this to fix her hair after drying it. Hmm...” He plucked a single stand of dark blue hair off the bristles. “Ah! This should do the trick.” He carefully placed it in the center of the pentagram.
Rarity looked up at him. “Spike, if that works, I will love you forever.”
Spike beamed.
“Okay. Places everypony.” Rarity cut off a piece of her mane and placed the small purple curl in a smaller circle adjoining the central one. “Uh, this will take years off our life if it works.”
“Aw shucks, Rares, you don't have to worry about that.” Applejack sliced the bun off her mane and dropped it in her circle. “I'd cut off all four of my legs if it'd help bring her back.”
“Yeah. I'd cut off all four of your legs too.” Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash, who wiped the tears from her eyes. “Seriously, though. This is Twilight we're talking about here. I'd do anything for her.” The light blue pegasus plucked a feather off her left wing and dropped it in her circle. The others said nothing but offered up their sacrifices as well. Even Spike pried off one of his scales.
Rarity took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She grit her teeth and groaned as she tried to summon forth the magic they needed. “Ah!” Her eyes popped open; glowing green light replaced her pupils and her irises smoked with a purple haze. Her horn bubbled with black magic. “...” She stared at the book. Her mouth hung open, but no words came out.
“What? What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It's the incantation.” Rarity frowned. “I can't read Owlish.”
“What? Let me see that.” Fluttershy reached out a hoof and Rarity passed the book to her. “Oh. Hmm... Yes, I can read this. Um... do you think it will work if you channel the magic while I read?”
“It's worth a shot.” Rarity turned her attention back to the pentagram and empowered it with a black, bubbling aura.
“Right, okay, here goes:
“Hoo, who ho-ho.
Who?
Hoo. Ho-ho. Hoo-hoo.”
Owlowiscous's eyes popped open and he flew out the window. The pentagram started smoking with a purple haze.
“Hooty who? Who-hoo.
Ooh.
Hoo. Who. Who. Hoo-hoo.”
The objects being sacrificed sank into the floor. The light dimmed until only the candles were visible. The pentagram's purple brightened to red. The book glowed with an eerie green light and Fluttershy kept reading.
“Ooh-hoo ho. Whoo.
Hoo.
Hoo. Who. Who. Hoo-hoo.”
It felt as if an icy claw grasped her heart, but Fluttershy pressed on despite the chill running along her spine. She felt weaker as life drained from her body. The pentagram was bursting with black light and difficult to look at.
“Who? Who? Who! Hoo-hoo!
Hooty!
Ho-ho who. Who! Ooh-Hoo!”
The resulting implosion shook the whole building and shot beams of black light out every single window—even those not directly connected to the room they were in.
Fluttershy groaned and twitched on the floor. Rarity rolled over on her back. Her horn was still smoldering with inky blackness.
“Did it work?” Applejack blinked and rubbed her eyes. The blackness had been blinding and she couldn't see past the spots in her eyes.
“Twilight? Is that you?” Pinkie Pie poked a familiar-looking lavender unicorn lying limp in the center of the floor. “Twilight?”
“It sure looks like her.” Rainbow Dash joined in the poking. “But why isn't she moving?”
“What? Let me see.” Fluttershy ran over and pushed the others aside to give herself some room. She placed an ear on the unicorn's chest and cradled a lavender hoof between her own. “She's breathing... She has a heartbeat.”
“She's alive!?” Rarity got up and shook her head. She tapped on her horn and the remaining traces of dark magic fizzled out. “We did it!”
“But why isn't she waking up?” Spike asked.
“Did we forget a step?” Rarity asked.
“Yer the one who read the instructions,” Applejack said.
“You read the whole incantation, right?” Pinkie asked. “And you pronounced every word exactly as it was written?”
Fluttershy nodded.
Twilight remained stationary.
“Is something... missing?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“What else is left?” Rarity asked.
Fluttershy picked the book back up and was flipping through the pages when they heard a loud knocking on the door downstairs.
“Who could that be?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy set down the book and ran downstairs. “Coming!” The yellow pegasus pulled open the door and gasped. Standing there before her was the unmistakable form of her friend. “It's Twilight!”
“WHAT!?” Loud thumping noises could be heard as four ponies and one dragon attempted to come down the stairs simultaneously.
Twilight winced and frowned. “You guys, what are you still doing in here? You missed my grand entrance!”
“Grand entrance?” Pinkie asked. “But—”
Twilight snorted and spread her brand new pair of wings wide open. She seemed to glow with a white light when she did so. The Element of Magic tiara on her head made her look regal.
“Wings!?” Rainbow Dash flew over and grabbed one. “What?”
“What the hay?” Applejack raised an eyebrow.
“Well this is really random.” Pinkie scratched her head.
“Wow.” Fluttershy looked up in awe. “You look just like an angel.”
“An angel!?” Rarity's eyes sparkled. “That's it!”
“What's it?” Spike asked.
“Huh?” Twilight also raised an eyebrow, but both eyes flew wide open when Rarity grabbed her and dragged her inside. “Hey!”
“We didn't have her spirit!” Rarity dragged Twilight towards the stairs.
“Didn't have my what?” Twilight asked as she was being marehandled towards the upper room.
“Don't worry. It'll all make sense when we reunite you with your body.”
“Reunite me with my what?” Twilight was too shocked to struggle, and her eyes opened even wider, if that was possible, when she saw the other Twilight lying on the floor. “Who is that!?”
Unicorn Twilight was groaning and rubbing her head, but Rarity ignored that. Giggling maniacally, she grabbed the lavender unicorn's horn and brought the heads of the two Twilights together.
Clonk.
“Ow!” the Twilights complained as their heads rang together like coconuts.
“Um.” Rarity frowned. She brought their heads together again—
Clonk.
—and again.
Clonk. Clonk.
“Stop it!” The Twilights vanished from her grasp in flashes of magenta light. Each of them reappeared on opposite sides of the room. They stared dumbfounded at each other while everypony else filed into the room.
There was much awkward silence.
“Two Twilights?” Spike asked.
“Which one's the real Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Well, obviously I'm the—” both Twilights said together. They looked at each other and blinked simultaneously. “—what the?”
“Is it the same Twilight in two bodies?” Fluttershy asked.
Alicorn Twilight spread her wings.
Unicorn Twilight's jaw dropped. “Wings!? Why does the other me have wings?”
“Perhaps not,” Rainbow Dash said.
Both Twilights blinked simultaneously again. “Why does this other me even exist? Where did she come from?” they asked together. “This is really going to get annoying, isn't it?” They nodded.
“Okay, new rule.” Applejack walked between them. “When y'all want to speak, raise your hooves and I'll call on ya.”
Both of them raised their hooves.
“Yes, uh, winged Twilight?”
“Could you answer the question that I just asked?”
“And, uh, you, normal Twilight?”
“Answer the question!”
“Well...” Rarity shuffled her hooves. “You see...”
“I'm sorry, Twilight.” Fluttershy stepped forward. “But when the Elements of Harmony blasted you with those beams of light, we thought you'd been killed.”
“Elements of—wait, when did this happen?” unicorn Twilight asked.
Twilights' friends looked at each other. “What's the last thing you remember?” Rarity asked.
“Uh, well... now that you mention it...” Unicorn Twilight scrunched up her face in thought. “I'd just finished learning that everypony had the wrong cutie marks, though I guess that's fixed now, and walked home dejected. I dried myself off and was straightening up my mane, and then I woke up here.”
“That makes sense,” Pinkie said. “That's when Spike collected the hair sample we used to raise you from the dead.”
“What!?”
“Well, yeah, duh. We thought you died, so we brought you back to life! Easy-peasy!”
“You brought me back from the dead!?” alicorn Twilight yelled. Strands of hair started to curl away independently from the rest.
“I... died?” unicorn Twilight stared blankly at her hooves.
“Now now, Twilight. Don't freak out.” Rarity put on a warm smile.
“Freak out! Why would I freak out!? I was only gone for like five minutes and you guys brought me back from the dead!”
“I... died?” unicorn Twilight repeated.
“Is everything okay up there, Twilight?” a regal voice asked.
“Princess Celestia!” the Twilights exclaimed.
“She's okay? But what about Nightmare Moon?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Everything's fine!” alicorn Twilight yelled, ignoring Pinkie.
“Not it's not!” unicorn Twilight yelled.
“Are you arguing with yourself?” Celestia asked.
“No!”
“Yes!”
The clank of metal hoof plates on the wooden floor grew louder as a large pony ascended the stairs.
“Now you've done it,” alicorn Twilight hissed.
“Celestia will know what to do,” unicorn Twilight said and nodded to herself.
“Even if it means getting rid of the extra Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“What!?” unicorn Twilight jumped. “Hide me!”
“Who's hiding?” Celestia asked as she walked into the room. There was a shuffle and she smiled when she saw Twilight huddled together with all of her friends.
“Princess Celestia.” They bowed their heads in her presence. She giggled.
“Thank Celestia you're okay,” Rarity said. “We were so certain that Nightmare—”
“Thank who?” Celestia asked.
“Uh, well.. er, that is...” Celestia kept smiling while Rarity figuratively stuffed her hoof in her mouth.
The regal princess more closely examined the pile of ponies. Twilight's head stuck out of the front while way in the back, more than a full pony's length away, was her tail sticking out the other side. “Twilight, have you, um... have you grown?”
“Um, no?” alicorn Twilight giggled weakly. “I mean, not aside from the wings, that is.”
“Twilight, it's nice that you want to play with your friends, but we do have to plan your coronation. We can't keep the others waiting. Come along now, please.”
“Cori—”
Applejack actually stuffed her hoof in Rarity's mouth.
“Um, okay.” Reluctantly, alicorn Twilight emerged from the pile. She was indeed the same size as before, but for some reason, another tail that looked exactly like hers still stuck out from the back of the pile.
“Who's that?” Celestia pointed at it.
“Eep!” The tail vanished.
“Nopony.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Nopony at all.” They were all grinning.
Celestia decided not to pursue the matter. She motioned for Twilight to follow. “Come along now, my little pony. Your friends can meet up with you in Canterlot after we've made proper the arrangements.” She turned to walk away, but Twilight's hoofsteps ceased. “Hrm?”
Alicorn Twilight froze mid-step. A realization of some kind passed over her face, which lit up with anger. “Celestia! What did you do to me!?”
“Whatever do you mean, Twilight?” The larger alicorn looked at her student with concern. The others in the room glanced nervously at each other.
“Well, when I was in that starry realm, I just learned that my friends tried to bring me back from the dead!”
Celestia giggled. “Some ponies have all kinds of imaginations.”
Alicorn Twilight blasted the pile of ponies with a mostly-harmless beam of magic. Her friends were scattered like bowling pins, leaving unicorn Twilight exposed. “They did bring me back from the dead!”
Unicorn Twilight trembled on the floor. “Please don't kill me.”
“What?” Celestia blinked. “Two Twilights? But—”
“Don't play dumb! That couldn't have worked unless you killed me!”
Celestia backed away. “Twilight, I did no such thing.”
“Oh, yeah!?” Alicorn Twilight tipped her Element of Magic forward and the other Elements of Harmony shot towards their respective bearers, who were forced to float in formation around her. “Well how about a taste of your own medicine!?”
“Twilight, wait!” Celestia raised a hoof to shield herself, but it offered no protection as the deranged alicorn activated the Elements of Harmony.
The other bearers struggled to stop the magic, but they were helpless against the flow. Colored beams joined together to form a rainbow, which shot out towards Celestia.
“No!” At the last second, unicorn Twilight teleported in front to absorb the impact. A white sphere formed around her which pulsated with sheer power. Unicorn Twilight looked frightened at first, but she lowered her head, resigned to her fate.
The resulting implosion shook the whole building and shot beams of white light out every single window—even those not directly connected to the room they were in. For the third time in the same night, ponies were left scattered about the room. Piles of books fell of the shelves and lay strewn across the floor.
“Twilight, what the hay was that for?” Applejack groaned as she peeled herself off the ground.
Alicorn Twilight looked up and saw Celestia lying prone. A look of panic shot across her face. “No! What have I done!?” She ran across the room. “Celestia! Are you okay?”
Celestia shook herself and got up. “Yes, I am, but other Twilight...”
Everypony looked around. There was no sign of unicorn Twilight, not even a scorch mark on the floor.
“I... The Elements of Harmony? What happened to her?” alicorn Twilight asked.
“You know, Ah feel a lot more alive than I did just a moment ago,” Applejack said. Her green eyes crossed when she saw a single dark blue hair alight on her nose. She sniffled. “Uh, I hate to break it to y'all, but I think the Elements of Harmony undid all of that dark magic we used to raise her from the dead.”
“No!” Fluttershy wailed. “Oh, poor second Twilight. She only existed for a few minutes, but already I feel like I've lost my best friend.”
“You guys, stop talking about me like I'm dead!” A pile of books shifted and a lavender hoof broke free, sending books tumbling. Grunting with effort, second Twilight forced her way out from under the weight of classical literature and rolled across the floor. She got up and started dusting herself off. Everypony stared at her. “What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”
Applejack waved her hooves in the air and pointed at second Twilight's flanks.
“Um...” Second Twilight unfolded not one, but two pairs of wings.
Pinkie Pie groaned and planted a hoof on her face. “Hasbro.”
Author's Note
Hasbro Adds ANOTHER Wing to Twilight Sparkle
