Darkness and Flame

The eyes of the seven beings before her widened, and as one they took a step back. “Twilight,” Applejack haltingly began, but scarcely had she spoken when Twilight swung a wing out and sent a curtain of fire along the ground. The leading edge raced faster than thought and its height grew, until it met its own ends and formed a dome around the alacorn and her friends, who looked around in shock and fear at their new predicament.

Even as they looked for an escape, though, Twilight stalked forward. “Whom shall I sample first?” she asked, which garnered the attention of all those before her. “Perhaps the earth pony... I wonder what flavor you will be?” came a more pointed question, directed to Applejack. Even as she spoke, the inferno began to overtake her form once again, and Twilight's grin began to grow.

Until, that is, someone broke out from amongst her friends and ran forward. Reacting on instinct, Twilight snapped her head to face the incoming being, and with a mere thought hurled a gout of flame to intercept it. A round of gasps was heard, and Rarity shouted out: “Spike!”

Spike? Twilight thought, confused. The word seemed to bore into her mind, and it elicited a sudden feeling of conflict within her. Briefly, she closed her eyes and shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the sensation, but to no avail.

Spike, meanwhile, opened his eyes just as Twilight closed hers. He looked over his skin, surprised to see the living flames battering at his scales, but unable to penetrate or burn them. Well, glad I guessed right, he thought, and then turned his gaze up to his adoptive sister as she shook her head in confusion. “Twilight,” he said, pleadingly.

Her eyes snapped open at that, and for a moment the red orbs seemed to bypass his fire immunity to burn his very soul. The moment passed quickly, however, as he saw the signs of consternation on the alacorn's face, and his heart wrenched in sympathy. “Twilight, it's me, Spike,” he said, as he took another step forward. A shield of flame erupted between them at that, as Twilight instinctively sought to protect herself, but the dragon merely pushed through it as if it weren't there. The confusion in her expression only grew, and Spike took this as a good sign. I'm getting to her. “You remember me, don't you, Twilight?”

“Ssssspike,” she hissed, and then shook her head again. What is this? I feel as if something was lost, she thought. Within her she could sense the war in her mind between two factions, neither of which she understood nor recognized, and this vexed her. “What are you, to deny my hunger?”

Briefly, Spike thought to give a straight answer, but an even more poignant response entered his mind and slipped from his lips. “I'm your brother, Twi,” he said, and then stepped forward again. The transformed alacorn simply stood, ironically frozen in place as he advanced. “I'm your friend.”

“We all are,” another voice chimed in, and Twilight snapped her gaze up to see that the other ponies and Discord had all tentatively crept forward, moving as close as they could before the heat became unbearable. It had been Rarity who had spoken up this time, but the others nodded at her words. “We care about you, Twilight.”

“Ya gone to a dark place, Twi,” Applejack added. “Please, come back to us, back to your friends.”

“Friends?” Twilight asked, as the dire resonance in her voice started to fade. The fiery dome above the group faded from existence, and even her shield dissipated as her mind was increasingly distracted by an upwelling of some great epiphany. The sheer immensity of it overwhelmed the pony, and she shut her eyes in pain and concentration as she sought to sort it all out.

And then, in an instant, it all snapped into place. All of her thoughts, emotions, and most importantly, her memories flowed back into her mind, and Twilight gasped as the enormity of her life suddenly crashed back into her unnaturally narrowed paradigm. My friends, they're here, they're safe from Tirek, and...and... She shuddered, as her actions mere moments ago now filled her mind. I wanted—I nearly—no! Horror filled her, and her eyes snapped open as Twilight desperately sought confirmation that she hadn't fulfilled her new hunger.

The others all shared another, brief gasp as her eyes opened, for while the rest of her remained transformed, Twilight's eyes had shifted back to normal. The violet irises contracted tightly around her pupils, and tears began to flow from them, only to burst into puffs of steam the instant they left the safety of her eye sockets. “I'm sorry,” Twilight said, even as her breathing became ragged and shallow. Her voice trembled, and and she began to shudder uncontrollably as a full-scale panic attack started to set in. “I'm so, so sorry.”

“It's—it's alright, Twilight,” Fluttershy, surprisingly, spoke up. Although the fear of her friend still filled her mind, her heart drove her to speak out and offer the alacorn a faint smile. “We forgive you. Don't we, girls?” she asked, with a glance to the ponies at her sides, and the others quickly chimed in their agreement.

Rainbow Dash went a step further. “We'd never be mad at you for freaking out a bit, Twilight,” she said. “Now c'mon and lose the flames so we can go home.”

The words soothed part of Twilight's soul as she heard them, and their presence and sincerity gave her a modicum of control over her emotions. Yet they were not enough, and the alacorn sobbed as she shook her head. “No, no I can't,” she said, as she took a step back. “I almost—I have to—I'm sorry.” Another sob, and she started to blubber. “I'm so sorry,” Twilight added, and then lit up her horn.

“Twilight, wait!” Spike said, as he realized what she was going to do. He lunged forward as well in an attempt to close the last few paces with his adoptive sister, but her spell completed before he could reach her, and the burning alacorn disappeared in a flash of purple flames as she teleported away. This left Spike with nowhere to go but down, and he dropped to the dirt. “Oof!”

“Spike!” Rarity shouted, and she led the charge as the others moved forward to check on the dragon. “Are you alright?”

The little dragon grunted as he got back to his feet. “Yeah, nothing hurt but my pride,” he said, as he turned to face the others and dusted himself off. He then took on a pensive expression and looked to his friends. “But now what are we going to do?”

A profound silence met this question, as nopony nor draconequis had any ready reply. Then, much to the surprise of the group, Discord suddenly seemed to throw off his moping stupor, and then reached down to grab some dirt in his hands. “Seems to me we need to talk to some ponies who might have an idea of what just happened,” he said, as he started to mold the dirt into a mound.

“Even you don't know?” Fluttershy asked, as she turned to her erstwhile, and hopefully now again friend.

“Did my expression of pure terror not convey my utter bafflement at the situation?” he asked, surprisingly gentle with his tone. “No, dear Fluttershy, for all that I have seen, this takes the cake.” He paused then, and glanced to the side to mutter. “To think, frightened by a pony.”

Applejack coughed to get his attention, and spoke up a soon as she had it. “Ah'm not sure we feel up ta trustin' ya enough to go anywhere with ya, Discord,” she said, harshly. “Not after what you pulled.”

Discord winced, but nodded. “True, and you're right to feel that way,” he said, surprisingly contrite. He then turned to his task as he continued. “But that's why I'm bringing those ponies here,” he added, and then reached down to grab the top of his dirt pile, and then slapped its side with the other hand. To the amazement of the others, the top layer of dirt flew off like dust to reveal a green, pony-sized bag with a zipper on top. A bit of mirth entered Discord's expression and tone, then, as he lifted the bag from the ground. “Now, prepare to be amazed,” he said, as he unzipped the bag, turned it upside down, and then shook it.

A second and three shakes later, Celestia dropped out of the bag with an undignified yelp to land on the ground in a heap. Scarcely had the group time to absorb this before Luna fell out next and slammed into her older sister, eliciting another pair of yelps from both alacorns. One more shake of the bag, and Cadance slipped out to land atop Luna, which once again set off a train of wordless exclamations.

Groans of pain emanated from the three princesses, though they were short. “Luna,” Celestia began, her voice surprisingly terse for those who had seldom heard anything but her usual, warm tones. “You have two seconds to get off of me before I buck you to the moon.”

“I don't see why thou would complain,” Luna retorted, even as she and Cadance began the task of extricating themselves from the pony pile. “Thine rear end can absorb the strain, given it's fluffier than Cloudsdale and twice as wide.”

“I don't think this is the time, aunties,” Cadance interjected, before the two siblings could get into their argument. At her words the royal sisters looked over the area, and quickly came to the same conclusions she had.

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed, as her voice dropped back into a more neutral tone. A smile graced her lips, though, as she saw the ponies in the immediate area bowing to her, or rather, she smiled at the fact that their cutie marks were in place. “It appears Tirek has been defeated,” she observed, and then sighed. “Please rise, my ponies, now is not the time for formalities.”

“Sooth,” Luna added, as their subjects stood up. “Pray tell, where is the scoundrel, so that we may hurl him back to Tartarus?” She directed this question to Applejack, who was the nearest to the royal ponies.

“Uh,” Applejack uttered, as she glanced to each of her friends in a vain hope that one of them would step up and offer an explanation. All of them, however, were just as clueless and shellshocked as she was, and so the farmer turned back to give the princesses a confounded look. “He's... uh...”

“Wait,” Cadance interrupted, as she swiveled her head about. “Where's Twilight?”

Luna frowned in concentration, and then blinked as she realized she couldn't access her magic. She then glanced to her flank, as well as those of her fellow royals. “And why hath our magic not been returned?”

Celestia, meanwhile, had taken the time to study to faces of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, and even Discord. She saw the looks of fear, worry, and confusion, and when she added that up in her mind with the lack of both Twilight Sparkle and Tirek, she felt her stomach turn into a pit of ice. “My little ponies,” she began, somberly. “What happened here?”