Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of her alarm going off at a healthy 5:00 a.m. She pushed the snooze button wanting just a few more minutes of sleep before her big day in Canterlot. She knew there was no avoiding the inevitable and it seemed as soon as she closed her eyes the alarm went off again. This time she got up and actually turned off her alarm. She saw spike sleeping on the floor beside her bed and thought about how he was lucky to be sleeping. She had duties in Canterlot
though, and you can't just shrug off responsibilities.
She went to her bathroom to get ready for the day. As she was taking a shower she couldn't help but feel different. She thought it was because of her big appointment in Canterlot and decided to go with that. The main reason being so she could get ready without being sidetracked with the possibilities of what those feelings actually meant. She got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around herself and was about to leave when she stopped. She turned around and remembered what Colgate had said on t.v. about brushing twice a day to keep healthy teeth. Twilight did so and even flossed for assurance. With that she turned the bathroom light off and shut the door on her way out.
She walked into her kitchen and it seemed her stomach knew, because it growled like an enraged dog. She poured herself two bowls of cereal and a glass of orange juice for balance. After breakfast was finished she got a paper and pen out of her writing drawer. She wrote a note for spike telling him all he could eat and not to leave the house unless he was with another pony he knew well. She wasn't used to writing notes and her writing was sloppy, but eligible nonetheless. She left her house with the only thing the princess told her to bring: confidence.
Twilight checked her watch as she was walking to the train station. It read 5:53 a.m. and her eyes widened at the digits on the watch. The early train for Canterlot left at 6:00 a.m. and another one didn't arrive until 8:00 a.am. She was worried because the the princess would be upset if she was late, so she took flight. She got at the train station at 5:56 a.m. and spent four minutes "resting her eyes" while sitting on the bench. The train snapped her out of the light sleep and she boarded it. There was almost no one on the train, but this didn't surprise Twilight in the least considering it was the break of dawn. She sat down and fought to stay awake, but sleep got the better of her.
"Wake up miss Twilight. We are in Canterlot now," the conductor gently shook Twilight awake.
"Huuuh, what, oh thank you so much. Sorry for falling asleep," Twilight said in a lethargic manner.
"It's nothing miss Twilight. Now go, you don't want to be late for whatever it is you're here for," the conductor said
politely, "May I ask what that may be?"
"I wish I knew. Celestia just told me to meet her in Canterlot by 9:30 a.m. on this date," Twilight replied and all the while feeling confused.
The conductor smiled and said, "well whatever it is, I am sure it is going to be BIG."
Twilight smiled back as she left the train. That was weird. He put a lot of emphasis on the word big,Twilight thought. She shrugged it off as she entered Canterlot. She received smiles from a handful of the royal guards, but most others just looked at her with a suspicion. It put Twilight's hair on end looking into their eyes, so for the most part she kept her head pointed to the ground.I wonder why everypony is so quiet today. They all usually are so social and friendly. What is going on. I should probably ask, but I don't want embarrass myself by asking a weird question like that. Everything is fine. I am just worried. Yeah, that's it.
Worried, Twilight thought hastily. She went inside the royal castle to be greeted by two royal guards.
"Come Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia wishes to speak with you immediately," one of them spoke up.
"Well do you know why at all?" Twilight snapped back. She was getting tired of being in the dark on the whole situation.
"No we were only told to bring you to Celestia once you arrived," the other royal guard spoke up this time.
"Okay, fine, lead me to Celestia," Twilight sighed in defeat.
They turned around and walked away. Twilight followed but was still upset as to why no one was telling her what was going on. They arrived at the doors that held the throne room and opened them for Twilight. She entered and didn't even bother to question if they were going inside. She got inside the throne room and heard the doors close behind her. Twilight saw Celestia up ahead and waved.
Celestia waved back and spoke up,"Hello, how are you holding up Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
"Good but I am still wondering why you brought me here Princess Celestia," Twilight said, hoping for an answer. She had advanced to the steps leading up to the two thrones and Celestia made eye contact with twilight before answering.
"I wanted to see how you have been doing with your magic. Did you learn a new spell or possibly a..." Celestia kept talking.
Twilight had zoned out and focused on Celestia's eyes. Something about her eyes seem different today. Actually in general, Princess Celestia seems off. I just can't place my hooves on it. Whoa, did her eyes just flash green? No, that was just my imagination. I am so tired, so I just imagined it. Wait no there it is again! It was there longer this time. I couldn't have imagined it. No, I did. Why would her eyes flash green like that. Twilight looked at the ground momentarily before looking up to see Celestia's eyes were green. They stayed like that.
Twilight confronted her about it,"Why are your eyes green Princess Celestia? They are normally a magenta color."
Celestia immediately stopped talking and stared at Twilight with anger flashing through her green eyes. Twilight put her head down in fear. She had not meant to upset the princess.
"I wasn't expecting the spell to wear off for another few hours. That's not good at all. Right Twilight?" Celestia questioned rhetorically.
"What do you mean Princess Celestia?" Twilight was confused and frightened.
"Enough of that Princess Celestia stuff. There never even was a princess Celestia. I am Queen Chrysalis. You remember me right Twilight?" she said while revealing her true form.
Twilight gasped and yelled,"yeah of course I remember you, and what do you mean there is no Princess Celestia?
"I mean there never was a Celestia. There never was a Luna either. There was never Princess Cadence or Discord or shining armor. They are all Changelings. Your friends were never real either. They were all created by Changelings so we could feed off of your love for us. It was a giant elaborate plan to take over the universes with our power from your love," Queen Chrysalis explained with an evil grin.
"What about the royal wedding? We defeated you and your changelings," Twilight retaliated.
"No, you didn't, we just didn't cast an illusion spell on you in time, so you were able to identify the eyes of a Changeling. We acted as if we were defeated so you would let your guard down, then we cast the spell again. The spell is designed to hide our existence by hiding our eyes. Equestria isn't even a real place. It is a small chunk of our universe designed to make you feel more at home, so you would bond more with the fake ponies, ultimately giving us the power to take over the other universes. We stole you as a little filly and took you to our universe to let you grow up and spread your love. Once again, giving us even more power," Queen Chrysalis explained in greater detail.
Twilight just stood there as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"I knew my plan was amazing but to leave the great Twilight Sparkle speechless it must be just foolproof. Of course, since I am ready to invade other universes you are going to have to be put down, but that won't be much of a problem," Queen Chrysalis said sarcastically.
Twilight looked up, eyes wide, "no please anything else! Please!"
"I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle. If it makes you feel better we will take over the universe you came from last. We will even deliver your Cadaver to your parents in person, because that is just the type of race we
are, " Queen Chrysalis said with a hint of insanity boiling in her voice.
Twilight Sparkle turned around and ran for the door. She had heard enough, and she couldn't think straight.There is no way my life is a lie. I have lived here my whole life. How is that even possible? Her thinking was interrupted by the doors slamming open and the population of Canterlot was standing there. They were made up of Changelings. Twilight spread her wings and took flight;her destination being her house in Ponyville. As she flew Changelings took off after her, hundreds of them. She flew faster than ever before and reached ponville within 15 minutes. She took a glance behind her to see the Changelings hadn't given up.
She landed next to her house and opened the door to see a Changeling ripping up her books. She let out a few more tears because she knew it was Spike. The Changeling looked at Twilight and hissed her name. This made her shed a few more tears in memory of Spike, the best assistant she could ever have. The Changeling walked slowly towards her and she had to think quick, so she ran to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She cast a barrier spell on it and sat in silence for a few minutes until she heard the front door crash down. They were inside now and she could do nothing. She wasn't even weeping because of the shock of all this.
The next thing she heard was the voice of Pinkie Pie, "hey Twilight where are you? I am having a party and you're invited!
It was followed by Rarity's," hey, Twilight, I got a dress for you. Come out and try it on darling"
Then Rainbow Dash, "Twilight get out here! Applejack and I are having a contest for strongest pony and I need you to be the judge."
Applejack spoke up,"sugarcube we need you to come out out the bathroom please. I got an apple pie I want you to try. It is a new recipe too."
Finally Fluttershy spoke,"hey, Twilight, if it isn't to much to ask I need you to watch Angel for me. You just have to step out of the bathroom."
They all spoke in unison next,"Please, Twilight, come out of the bathroom! We need you."
Twilight Cried. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She had just learned that this wasn't real, yet her friends just spoke to her. She was torn between staying in here or just letting it all go and opening the door. She knew her defeat was inevitable. What made it worse was she would die and she wouldn't know these events would have ever taken place. As she was thinking about what to do a very familiar laugh rang throughout the house. Twilight stopped thinking about what to do and froze up. However tears still ran down her face, matting the fur up around her eyes.
Queen Chrysalis spoke loud and clear,"Twilight, you better listen to your friends. They need you, and you aren't even responding. Some friend you are. Hahahaha. Just come out of the bathroom and I will make sure it is quick and painless. Then I can go back to the master plan at hand;taking over the universes that lie outside of this one and being the ruler of them all."
Twilight sobbed as she asked a question she so desperately needed the answer to,"why would you tell me this. Why didn't you just kill me and get it over with?"
Queen Chrysalis answered with a hint of pity for the purple Alicorn," a pony should know." A few minutes went by before Queen Chrysalis spoke up again,"well, Twilight Sparkle, have you accepted fate yet?
Twilight cried some more as the memories she had made with her friends flooded back to her. She remembered the first day in Ponyville when they became friends and defeated Nightmare Moon. She remembered back to when they defeated Tirek and put an end to his rampage. She remembered when she became an Alicorn and her friends called her princess, but she insisted to just be called Twilight. She laughed at the Flim Flam brothers and their comical attempts to make money, and she got angry when she remembered Discord and the grief he caused them. She cherished that anger though, because it made her feel emotion. Every memory made her feel emotions, different emotions that she needed to feel. Not because they reminded her of her accomplishments in this universe, but because they made her realize that she was alive. She was alive and had gone through her whole life with the greatest of friends. Even though none of it was real, she was going to pretend it was for the sake of her last few moments in this universe or any universe for that matter.
She spoke one final time,"can I see my friends again?"
"Yes of course. How rude would I be if I didn't let you?...There you go Twilight Sparkle. Whenever you are ready open the door."
Twilight took a few more deep breaths before she reversed the spell and opened the door. She saw the faces of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. They were all smiling brightly. They smiled as Twilight was injected with a needle by Queen Chrysalis, who remained silent. They were smiling as Twilight's world slowly went white.This is it. My last few moment alive. I am so glad I get to see their faces. They have made me truly happy in this universe, despite their true intentions. I want them to know how much I love them, but I can barely breathe, let alone talk. No, I have to do this for my friends,Twilight thought as she inhaled for the last time.
"You were the greatest friends I could ask for. Honesty, loyalty, generosity, laughter, kindness. You each represented something great, but to me you meant more than than the Element's of Harmony. You meant a friendship that couldn't ever be replaced or matched. Even though it was all fake, I will believe it was real, for you ponies. I love you all, so very much."
They were smiling brightly as Twilight ran out of breath, and they continued smiling as her world...slowly...faded to black.
