Hail to the Queen

Chapters

Chapter 1-Status Quo
Chapter 2-The Cruelest Monster
Chapter 3-Dining with the Queen
Chapter 4-Intended or Accident
Chapter 5-From Death to Life
Chapter 6-The Reply to the Plea
Chapter 7-Aftermath

Chapter 1-Status Quo

Author's Note

The phrases that are in the center and are in italics are the lyrics to the song that inspired this. Listen to 'Hail to the Queen' by navybrony here.

Chapter 1-Status Quo

Here comes our queen, so beautiful and divine.

The turquoise unicorn shook her sister frantically. What if she doesn’t get up in time? What if we’re late? That invoked a series of terrible images, and the unicorn mare with the golden mane began to shout.

“Bee Bop! Bee Bop, get up! She’s coming! She’s coming!” All this yelling finally aroused the unicorn’s identical twin. They were only separated by their different mane styles and that fact that one was a unicorn and one was a pegasus. Bee Bop cracked her green eyes and glanced up at her sister.

“It’s not today. She’s coming tomorrow,” The pegasus mare mumbled and rolled over, swatting her sibling’s hoof away.

“Yes! Yes it is! It’s today!” Sun Glimmer shrieked. “Bee Bop, please! She’s coming in ten minutes on the other side of town!”

Suddenly Bee Bop shot into the air, throwing her covers off of her. She flapped her wings at a faster rate than normal, a sign that she was alarmed. “Ten minutes!” She dashed over to the other side of the room and landed, allowing her to slam open the door to their tiny restroom and comb her scraggly golden mane with her hooves. Sun Glimmer followed her as Bee Bop snatched up the brush and jerked it through her mane, a cry of pain unconsciously escaping her lips as she took no caution. Sun Glimmer took a hold of the section of her mane that wasn’t being worked on currently and quickly untangled it with her levitation, using her hooves too. When her twin’s mane looked presentable they dashed out the door, sprinting to make it to the town hall.

It’s time to grab the young ones and leave your homes behind.

The day was bright and sunny, courtesy of the pegasi of Ponyville. The birds chirped, oblivious of the danger that awaited the ponies below them. Sun Glimmer looked up at the ominous, looming capital of Equestria, Canterlot. She swore she saw a golden speck that was her chariot, but it could be her eyes playing tricks on her. The unicorn squinted at it while galloping down the streets of Ponyville.

She felt something hit her hoof and down she went, banging her jaw. The mare darted to her hooves, terrified at arriving there late. However, it was only her bad luck that she happened to crash into a yellow earth pony mare just exiting from her own house. The two mares scrambled to their hooves.

“I’m sorry,” Sun Glimmer said to her former classmate, Lemon Scratch. Before the earth pony could respond, a white unicorn with an electric blue mane tapped her on the shoulder. Sun Glimmer recognized her as the famous DJ P0N3, but there was no time to shake hooves or sign autographs. Vinyl and her sister, Lemon, were already consumed in the bright light of a teleportation spell. Sun Glimmer galloped forward to catch up with her sister flying above her. She spotted the two reappear some ways down the street. Suddenly, the unicorn mare shouted as she was scooped up from behind. She looked up to see her sister grasping her by the forelegs.

“You’re too slow! Come on!” Bee Bop yelled and sped up. Even with the additional weight, the pegasus was still one of the fastest flyers in Ponyville. Sun Glimmer wished she could’ve learned a teleportation spell, but unfortunately, her cutie mark, a speech bubble with a musical note inside it, meant she only had to hold a pencil with her magic to write the lyrics and sing for her sister’s songs. Vinyl, on the other hoof, had to basically have a magical grip on almost every button in the massive machine she had in her bedroom.

This would be good exercise for Bee Bop. She should write this down in her log.

Wait, the logs?! “Bee Bop, did you bring the logs?!” Sun Glimmer shouted, partly to let her sister hear her over the roaring wind and also out of alarm.

Bee Bop stopped flapping as her eyes grew wide open and they began to plummet from the sky. Their freefalling only lasted a few seconds until she got a hold of herself and fought to gain altitude and velocity. “No, no I didn’t!”

“You forgot the logs?!”

“Maybe they won’t notice, but anyways, leaving our logs at home won’t be as bad as getting there late!” Bee Bop shouted over the wind. Sun Glimmer’s forelegs were beginning to hurt as she dangled from her sister’s hooves. However, they were almost there and the unicorn could see the town square and the multicolored shapes below that were ponies. Bee Bop came in for a steep descent, and a shout escaped Sun Glimmer’s mouth as the ground seemed to rush up to meet them. Bee Bop dove away from her sister and the two ponies tumbled and turned with their momentum until they came to a stop, both mares on their backs. Bee Bop reached out, and Sun Glimmer hoofbumped her sister, grinning as she realized they had made it in time. The unicorn and pegasus froze as they heard ominous hoofsteps approaching them. Their momentary joy was forgotten as they stared up into the stern face of Rainbow Dash.

Sun Glimmer began to hyperventilate. The turquoise mare leaped to her hooves and bowed.

“Get up,” Rainbow Dash said. The two sisters rose to their hooves and subconsciously stepped closer to each other. Bee Bop unfolded her wing and draped it over the unicorn’s back as a way of saying we’ll do this together. Sun Glimmer felt slightly assured, but her heart was still hammering away in her chest. She gulped.

“Can I see your logs?” Rainbow Dash said. The unicorn mare shied away, letting her much braver sister handle this one. She averted her eyes to a nearby sign next to a desk that looked like it was formerly occupied by the blue pegasus. The sign read, TURN IN YOUR LOGS* and featured three pictures of happy ponies. One was two pegasi flying through the air and grinning at each other, depicting the exercise logs that the ruler of Equestria required. Another was a photo of an earth pony playing fetch with a dog and the last one was of a unicorn turning out the lights in her room while a nearby clock read eight p.m. These were for the pet logs and the sleeping logs, respectively. The bottom had lines of small font that Sun Glimmer couldn’t read from this distance.

“Um, they’re at our house…but they’re complete!” Bee Bop blurted out, nervous. “We’ll get them right now if you want!” She shouted, out of tension rather than excitement.

Rainbow Dash’s magenta eye narrowed. “Really?” She said, sounding doubtful.

Sun Glimmer’s heart was pumping like she had just been chased by an army of angry changelings. She looked uneasily at the pegasus’s club hung on her neck. The unicorn didn’t want to feel what would happen if that hit her. Rainbow Dash was one of the strongest of the ruler’s circle of friends, or ‘The Clique’ as the townsfolk shortened it when the guards weren’t around.

Sun Glimmer continued to stare at Rainbow Dash’s club. She began to tremble as fear raced through her.

“I guess you’ll have to have an appointment with Rarity,” Rainbow said coolly, like it was nothing.

Rarity? Sun Glimmer’s mind froze as her panicked mind processed this new information. Suddenly, her instincts took control and decided on a course of action.

The unicorn screamed at the top of her lungs and began to sprint away, dragging Bee Bop with her. Bee Bop flapped her wings as she tried to get her hooves under her. The two mares ran away, holding hooves. They sprinted across somepony’s lawn and Bee Bop dragged her twin over a fence. Sun Glimmer cried, as she came to the realization that, because of this single, stupid action, she was going to die today. She galloped, holding onto the thin thread of hope that she might escape.

Go far from here and don’t you dare look back.

The identical twins sprinted as they heard Rainbow Dash yell something unintelligible. Sun Glimmer had broken down, and Bee Bop was doing her best to keep her sister running. They crossed a deserted intersection, and the pegasus cast a glance behind her to see if the guards were following. Her heart sank as she saw they were hot on the trail of the sisters.

“They’re on us!” The pegasus screamed to her sibling. Sun Glimmer glanced behind her, and a new wave of tears fell down her cheeks. Suddenly, when the guards’ shouts reached their ears, Bee Bop’s vision was obscured by a bright flash of light. When her vision cleared she looked down at her hooves to see she was about ten paces ahead of where she was before the spell.

“How did you do that?” Bee Bop asked her sister.

Sun Glimmer laughed as the tears streaked her face. “I don’t know! I guess I got so nervous I just--” Bee Bop watched as her twin broke out into giggles and they moved again. “—teleported!” The unicorn laughed, but it wasn’t one of joy. It was one of those insane giggles.

She’s losing it. She knows we’re going to die today. Sun Glimmer had broken down before, resulting in brief, minor bouts of insanity, but this was the worst of them all. However, Bee Bop had to abandon her train of thought as she ducked under a low tree branch.

Bee Bop screamed as they skidded out onto an intersection and two guards waited for them. The pegasus dragged her sister to the left and they began to sprint down that road, only to skid to a halt as they saw another guard. She whipped her head to the left only to see another closing in. They backed up against a house as the circle tightened. Sun Glimmer collapsed onto her sister’s lap, giggling and crying at the same time.

“They’re closing in, just like the noose!” The unicorn clapped her hooves at the analogy while Bee Bop, her strong resolve breaking, covered her face with her wings and began to bawl like a filly.

The princess she’s no longer, compassion she will lack.

The two mares were dragged back to the town square and thrust into the back of the crowd. Some ponies turned around and stared at the new arrivals, but their attention was quickly diverted as the chariot landed. The ponies in the chariot filed out and four ponies were revealed. The first was an orange earth pony with a country hat; Applejack. There was a yellow pegasus with a long, pink mane; Fluttershy. The next was a white unicorn with a purple mane. Bee Bop stared at her. This would be the pony that would end her life.

And finally, a pony with a purple coat and a blue mane ascended the stairs to her elevated podium where she could address the citizens of the town in which she had met her friends. Her unemotional, glowing, eerie, white eyes, the result of a spell gone wrong, gazed out at the crowd. Her horn glinted in the sunlight as she spread her large, feathery wings.

Queen Twilight Sparkle had arrived.

She began to speak about what this town meant to her and how it had united her with her friends, but Bee Bop tuned it out and listened to her own thoughts.

What if…what if I asked her for forgiveness? We had completed our logs; it was just Sun Glimmer having a freak out. Maybe we could do that.

But how would I explain why I kept running?

I was caught up in the moment, and mainly, it was Sun Glimmer dragging me along.

I’d be blaming her when really it was my own fault!

She’s was the one who screamed in the first place.

I was strong enough to resist! Why did I keep running?

Because, I was scared too.

Consumed by power, her feelings of worth.

Bee Bop’s thoughts shifted and she tried to remember Queen Twilight before…it happened.

The strongest memory was Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceanera. She remembered it clearly: Apple Bloom tripping over her own dress, revealing she didn’t really have a cutie mark, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo coming out to yell at Diamond Tiara, she remembering crowding in to look at the trio of blank flank fillies. After the crowd dissolved, she watched as a purple unicorn glanced fondly at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The pegasus filly had thought nothing of it.

Earlier, Bee Bop faintly remembered Twilight worried about her own abilities to organize. She was working herself up into a frenzy until her friends consoled her. They told her she could do it, that she could it if she just tried.

That year’s Winter Wrap Up, the unicorn stepped up for the challenge, and when she was appointed the Organizer of Winter Wrap Up, her pride grew and grew until the day—

We owe it all to her,

Bee Bop was jerked out of her thoughts when the crowd suddenly roared in applause. The ground shook with the masses of ponies pounding their hooves. However, the pegasus slunk lower, hiding herself behind the pony in front of her. She had no wish to cheer for the pony she hated.

The mare began to see the crowd felt that way too. Some of the cheers were flat-out sarcastic, and the brave ones didn’t stomp their hooves at all. Only one pony had the nerve to glare up at the queen, and Bee Bop spotted guards approaching that earth pony from behind. She shielded her face with her wing as a piercing shriek sounded from the rebellious earth pony. The mare then realized everyone’s cheers were fake when they continued to stomp their hooves, terrified of looking away to investigate the scream. The crowd kept shouting and stomping and smiling. They yelled words of praise, talking about how they owed it all to the queen. Bee Bop looked up to see a faint smile creeping up the Queen’s face. She enjoyed this fake praise. The pegasus wondered if she knew the truth.

The turquoise mare glanced over at her sister. Sun Glimmer was mumbling something under her breath. Curled up on the floor, the unicorn rocked herself back and forth, her green eyes shut tight in fear. Bee Bop scooted over to her sister, feeling sorry for her. She held her twin in her wing and Sun Glimmer nuzzled Bee Bop, leaning on her. The pegasus poked her head under the feathers of her wing and began to quietly hum a lullaby their mother used to sing to them as the crowd cheered. The song was barely noticeable, but Sun Glimmer heard the fragments and softly sang along.

Our lives held ransom from our birth.

They had been through so much together, and now it was all concluding today. All of it. Bee Bop giggled a little, now a bit hysterical about their fast approaching death. The end! The end! It was just like the fairytale stories that her mother would read to her and her sister when they were little. The brave hero facing their imminent death. And ironic, given her life was far from a fairytale.

She began to remember little things her sister used to do with her, like braiding each other's manes and playing catch. When they were fillies, their parents had died and they were sent to the Ponyville Orphanage together. They hid their secret from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon together, and stood up against their bullying when it came out together.

Her memories turned sour as she began to hear praises to the Queen. She started to remember the tyranny, the horror, of this one being she oh-so hated. Loathed.

When they turned fourteen, Equestria’s government fell apart and they survived together. When Queen Twilight took the throne they lived under her rule together. And now, all of their life’s accomplishments would be ruined, for a simple mistake. Bee Bop would never achieve her dream of being a famous lyre player, and Sun Glimmer wouldn’t join her in her fame by writing the lyrics for the songs.

However, the pegasus felt like her life was always on the line. More than once a guard had yelled at her with thinly veiled death threats, and she had gotten in fights with them late at night often. She had never told Sun Glimmer any of this, for the unicorn would freak out if she discovered the mare was staying out past curfew. Sun Glimmer would be shocked if she found out her twin was regularly breaking the law.

But all those nights, she had felt truly free, yet Bee Bop was only getting herself more trapped. Every time she went out there, it got more addicting, the sheer joy of not following the rules. Every time she went back to bed, she wanted more. True freedom.

The townsfolk have gathered, begging to be seen.

The pegasus was jerked out of her thoughts when a pony shouted a question to the queen. The lavender alicorn turned her head to face the speaker, her face an emotionless mask. Sun Glimmer by now had her head out from under her wing and was looking up at the alicorn. The crowd fell silent as Queen Twilight Sparkle stared at the pony with her glowing white eyes.

Those eyes unnerved Bee Bop. Those deep white pits. Bee Bop used to think perfection was white. Pure white. Now, after Twilight rose to power, white became menacing. Harsh, bright, white.

Another pony so brave it was verging on idiocy spoke up. “Um, Your Highness, there has been a water problem in Ponyville. You don’t suppose you could maybe fix it?” Slowly, gradually, more ponies began to speak up, pleading with the Queen to fix their problems.

The crowd’s volume began to rise, escalating as Bee Bop held her sister in her wings. She was still singing the lullaby, but the noise drowned it out, and Sun Glimmer opened her eyes. Bee Bop raised her head out of the artificial cave she had made with her wings and noticed the ponies were shouting out more and more questions. Bee Bop stood up, trying to protect her twin sister. The unicorn below her covered her ears with her hooves.

The ponies were deafening now. Ponyville was beginning to decline as a town in general, and that arose many problems that hadn’t been addressed for months now by anypony.

An unusually loud shout rang out across the crowd, but Bee Bop didn’t take any notice of it. It was however, what followed that made it distinct.

The crowd fell silent. Deathly silent. And the only one still shouting was the one-eyed Rainbow Dash.

Bee Bop looked at the stage where the five ponies of The Clique were assembled. The Queen’s horn was still glowing. Rainbow Dash hovered above the platform.

“Hey!” She shouted. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just ‘yell out’ requests! You have to submit them through the Ponyville Improvement Committee!”

Bee Bop tried to murmur something to her sister, but no sound came out. It must be a silencing spell.

The Queen resumed her speech, and she kept the silencing spell on the whole time. Bee Bop listened with only a little interest. She continued to watch and guard her twin sister. The speech only lasted a few more minutes; the Queen was almost done.

The alicorn concluded, and Bee Bop felt the hardly noticeable magic on her throat fade away. However, no pony dared to be the first one to speak. The Clique looked at the crowd, as if expecting something.

A silver mare with a braid spoke up. “Hail to the Queen!” She shouted, bowing.

Another pony repeated the same phrase and bowed. More and more joined in, the unsynchronized phrase growing in volume.

Eventually, hundreds had bent their knee, shouting “Hail to the Queen!”

As she glances the crowd, your presence is amiss.

Bee Bop had crouched, but she wasn’t bowing. The pegasus didn’t have the guts to stand up straight, but as a last sign of rebellion she didn’t bow or didn’t say the phrase. All her hatred for the Queen surged through her at that moment, and she looked up, staring defiantly at the Queen. The alicorn was roaming the crowd with her eyes, but even though her pupils were no longer visible Bee Bop knew the ruler of the land was looking right at her.

Those bright white eyes just never fail; your death she will insist.

The Queen narrowed her eyes. She turned her head and whispered something to Rainbow Dash, who nodded and gestured toward them and then Rarity. The Queen smiled.

She turned her head back to Bee Bop. The pegasus, unable to hold out for any longer, averted her gaze and sank slowly into a bow.
“Hail to the Queen,” she whispered.

You find yourself in trouble so just try and stay low.

After the ceremony had finished, the ponies began to dissipate. Bee Bop roused her sister from her mental exile and the two of them, together, slowly walked back to their house. A few ponies stared at them because of Sun Glimmer’s tear-streaked face, but the pegasus just glared back at them. Bee Bop walked slowly with her sister down the walk back to their house, enjoying life for the little they had left of it.

Once the twins reached their house, Bee Bop removed her wing from her sister’s back and folded it.

“Can you stay here by yourself for just a little bit? I have something I need to do,” The pegasus said.

Sun Glimmer looked up at her with frightened eyes. “How…how long?”

“Only a few minutes.” The unicorn mumbled an okay. The sisters hugged each other before Bee Bop took to the air.

The pegasus flew back to the town square. She knew there wasn’t hardly any chance of this working, but she needed to at least try. Landing in the deserted grass trampled by hundreds of hooves a lot more gracefully then her earlier arrival, Bee Bop nervously approached Applejack.

The orange earth pony was talking to Fluttershy. Bee Bop, the butterflies in her stomach about to make a hurricane, tapped the pony’s shoulder. The pegasus cringed as Applejack whirled around, obviously startled.

“Um…could I um…talk to you privately?” Bee Bop stammered. Applejack looked back at Fluttershy. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at the fellow pegasus, then walked off.

“What do ya want?” Applejack asked, slightly annoyed.

“I-I wanted to ask you if um…” Bee Bop paused, considering just walking away right now.

“What is it? Ah don’t have all day!” Applejack burst out. Bee Bop made up her mind and decided to go through with her plan.

“I wanted to ask you if maybe the Queen could spare us. I mean, we promise to never, ever do it again. We’ve learned our lesson, and maybe the Queen could have some forgiveness. It was just my sister freaking out, that’s all. All it was.” Bee Bop blurted out, desperately hoping it would work.

She’ll come for you eventually, ensnare you with her glow.

Applejack studied the pegasus. “Listen, sugar cube,” The earth pony said, looking Bee Bop in the eyes. The turquoise mare felt her heart sink.

“When somepony defies the Queen, she’ll get ‘im. Eventually. She’ll come ‘n get ya sooner or later.” The earth pony said. The pegasus’s hopes plummeted.

You’re not the first I’ve warned before; most will take that chance.

“Sorry, but ya can’t just defy her and expect to get away with it.” Applejack finished like she had said that countless times before.

Apparently, Applejack was either a mind reader or Bee Bop’s face betrayed her, because the earth pony seemed to guess what she was thinking.

“You’re not the first I’ve warned, ya know. I’ve told many pleadin’ ponies that. They all took a brave chance in asking me.”

But why’d you place your trust in me? I orchestrate this dance.

“But I always wonder somethin’. Why do y’all come to me? I’m the one who mainly decides who should be punished by death or not.” Applejack looked at the pegasus.

Bee Bop realized she was expecting a response. “Um…you…uh…used to be the Element of Honesty, so you’d probably be the most trustworthy to ask…” The mare’s voice gradually decreased in volume the farther on she went in her sentence. The pegasus didn’t really know why.

You see I’m not a fool here; her highness, she must gleam.

“Really? You remember I’ve been with the Queen since the beginning of her reign, and I knew her even before then. I’m not that mare Derpy; I know what’s going on. I’ll say it again: ya can’t just defy the Queen and get away with it.”

Bee Bop stared at her hooves. It was her sister who had bolted, but saying that out loud would be throwing Sun Glimmer under the wagon and look like a cheap excuse. The turquoise mare stayed silent.

“So when you wave goodbye, I’ll say: Hail to the Queen!”

It didn’t use to be this way; our princess, her esteem.

Twinkleshine glanced over at the newspaper. “TWINS PUT TO DEATH IN PONYVILLE,” it read. She yawned, closing window blinds with her magic, and stood up from the couch. She remembered when the death penalty used to be a big thing.

She remembered back when Equestria was normal, when the Mare in the Moon watched over the ponies, when the Queen was just another student at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

Well, not just another student. She was, after all, Princess Celestia’s prized pupil. But Twilight wasn’t the ruler of anyone. The unicorn was just Twilight.

The white unicorn trotted out of her apartment’s living room.

Twinkleshine remembered the queen used to be terribly shy when she was younger. Twilight didn’t care about anything other than her studies.

When Twilight moved to Ponyville, a show mare had come to town, performing her tricks. She challenged the purple pony’s friends, and used her magic to ensure their defeat. The unicorn had been too scared to defend her friends, afraid that everyone might think she was showing off.

Twinkleshine almost laughed aloud at the thought. That Twilight was the complete opposite of the Queen.

That was the Queen’s problem. She thought she was the only one who could rule Equestria, that she was somehow better equipped for the job.

Someone needed to come and show her that she wasn’t the greatest pony in the world, but unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone who could do that.

Now without the sun and moon a nightmare is our dream.

Twinkleshine sighed as she swung open the door to her room. Hopefully this time she wouldn’t have a nightmare. The pearl white unicorn had been waking up from increasingly scarier dreams.

When Princess Luna drowned (everypony knew that was a lie told by Twilight’s supporters. It was obvious: Twilight must have killed her), there wasn’t anyone to protect the ponies’ dreams anymore. Twinkleshine’s dreams had considerably worsened since her death.

Wait, but if Princess Luna isn’t around to guard dreams anymore, what about when I was a filly?

The mare looked for a possible explanation, but she couldn’t find one. It didn’t make sense. Maybe Princess Celestia did it?

She shrugged. It didn’t really matter.

The pony approached her bed in the dark and climbed under her sheets.

We clutch our pillows at night, children tucked in tight

Twinkleshine lay in bed waiting for herself to fall asleep.

If I’m having so much trouble with these nightmares, I can’t image how my little sister is faring!

Her eyes flew open at the thought. She was filled with concern for her sibling.

I really need to see her sometime soon. The trip from Ponyville to Canterlot isn’t long. Twinkleshine turned over to face the wall.

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. After all, she’d have a lot more trouble sleeping now, wouldn’t she?

The unicorn shoved the thought into the pits of her mind, disgusted by it.

Living each day in hope we don’t awaken to their screams.

Twinkleshine felt a small surge of hatred for her ruler and her friends.

They should have filled in Princess Luna’s spot with at least someone! But no, they decided it didn’t matter.

A young filly shouldn’t have to go through this!

She used to be a friendly face in sight but all that is done and gone, the shadow is her might.

Twinkleshine wished Twilight could have just stayed the way she was when she first moved to Ponyville. That would be nice, if the Queen never changed. None of this would have ever happened. Her little sister would be fine, ponies wouldn’t live in fear, and Twinkleshine could get a good night’s sleep for once.

But no, it didn’t seem like Twilight had any of that shy, smart and studious young mare left in her. Now she just told everypony to do what she said because it was for their health.

And if you resisted, it seemed like you just disappeared into the shadows, never seen again.

But don’t lose hope yet, the end is still unseen.

A flicker of hope emerged in Twinkleshine. She had heard rumors of “Rebellion,” a group that dedicated their lives to overthrowing the Queen. Maybe they would strike sometime soon.

Anyways, this can’t last forever, right? Twilight’s not immortal.

Well, at least I hope she’s not.

But we’ve still got years to come. Maybe Twilight will die in a one-in-a-millionth-chance accident.

She sighed. No one knows what’s going to happen.

Until then, just remember, it’s Hail to the Queen.

Chapter 2-The Cruelest Monster

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Chapter 3-Dining with the Queen

The alicorn adjusted the silverware’s alignment with the plates. They are never straight for some reason. Twilight finished the adjustments and took a seat at the head of the table, pleased at her work. She turned her thoughts toward Equestria, but the door opened and the mare was forced to leave her thoughts.

Applejack and Rarity entered the room. They greeted their friend and took a seat at the table. It was smaller than last time because of the absences of the pegasi.

“Hello Rarity, Applejack,” Twilight said.

“Is Pinkie coming this time?” Rarity asked, looking around as if she might enter at any moment.

Twilight glanced at the door. “She should, but I’m not entirely sure she will. I talked to her a week ago, and she didn’t seem too satisfied with my reasons for coming.”

“We might as well begin, seein’ as she might not come at all,” Applejack advised. Twilight nodded and began the meeting.

“Not much has changed from two weeks ago, when we last met. I’m glad we all have are schedules free enough so that we can meet this often. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are out at the Everfree; they will return on Wednesday. Pinkie is…absent.”

“No, no I’m not.” Twilight turned around to look upon Pinkie Pie, standing in the doorway.

“Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed. “I’m so glad you are joining us.”

“I’m not staying for the entire time though,” The earth pony replied to Rarity but spoke to Twilight. “I’ve gotta do dinner with…some other friends.”

“I just wanna tell you something, Twilight. I know you might take away my two parties this month, but you mean more to me than the two parties. I mean, you used to be my bestest friend.”

“I wanna tell you that…one party a month? That’s no fun. I know you have good intentions, Twilight, but I don’t think this is the right idea. I mean, parties can be good. They can be a lot of fun. I know you mean well, but this is a little extreme. And I talked to Dashie before she left, and she was upset. She told you were kinda… controlling.”

“Pinkie,” Twilight said coldly, but mentally she was panicking, trying frantically to get her to stop talking.

“You’re still my friend; it’s just you’re not the friend I met back in Ponyville. Do you understand?”

Pinkie looked at Twilight with a desperate, sad look in her eyes. The Queen just looked back at her. For once she was grateful for the spell gone wrong that hid her iris and pupil. She could appear emotionless.

“No, I guess you don’t,” Pinkie decided sadly. “I think what I’m trying to say is, you’ve changed, not for the better, but for the worse.”

“Well, I hope you all have a nice dinner. Bye!” Pinkie chirped and walked out before Twilight could do anything.

The room fell into silence as Applejack and Rarity waited for the Queen to do something.

Twilight sighed sadly.

Applejack rose from her seat and walked over to her friend. She swung her hoof over her shoulder and hugged her. Twilight leaned into the embrace, closing her eyes. They stayed like that for a while. Rarity joined the hug from the opposite side.

Finally, Twilight leaned forward, breaking free. She stared down at her empty plate, thinking. Rarity attempted to console her but Applejack silently quieted her. The two mares waited for the alicorn to say something.

When she never did, Applejack spoke up. “Do ya want to talk about it?” she said quietly.

Twilight gave no indication that she heard the question.

She wanted to tell them all her fears and worries, to cry on their shoulders, to let it all out. It would be so easy.

But she couldn’t. It would get out to the public, and then they would see her crying and laugh, and then they wouldn’t have any faith in her anymore and then there would be a rebellion and they’d make her watch her friends die and then slowly torture her until she died because that’s what she deserved because she was a cruel, heartless dictator.

However, there was another reason, she realized.

Princess Celestia never cried.

Princess Celestia.

The queen inhaled rapidly. She stood up quickly from her chair, Applejack and Rarity scrambling out of the way.

“No! No, I don’t!” Twilight shouted.

In a flash she had disappeared, traces of magic still in the air.

That night, Twilight lay in her bed, staring out at the window. She could see the dying light seeping around the blinds. She picked up the quiet sounds of her guards outside her door, but the alicorn ignored that. Twilight was focused on Pinkie’s criticisms.

Pinkie had made a point, except she hadn’t backed it up with many warrants. ‘Parties are good,’ was all she said.

Well, maybe she didn’t want to repeat what she had said earlier to Twilight. But she’d want to state them again to try and convince Applejack and Rarity.

Unless she had already won them over.

Rarity had mentioned meeting with Pinkie. How many times did Rarity see Pinkie? Pinkie’s critique was aimed at Twilight and no one else. She didn’t attack Applejack or Rarity.

Was it possible the five were closer than she thought? Were they planning something against her? Were they going to overthrow and torture her because she was a cruel—

No, no, it couldn’t be true. Twilight needed to stop being paranoid. It wasn’t true.

After closing that discussion in her mind, she turned her thoughts toward another topic.

The one question she had been subconsciously asking herself almost constantly.

What would she do?

She always had the right answers.

She would have discussed her issues politely with Applejack and Rarity and then listened to their advice.

She wouldn’t have gotten so upset.

She would have called Pinkie back into the room.

She would have talked to Pinkie Pie and helped fix her complaint.

She wouldn’t have passed the one party a month rule.

She wouldn’t have gotten herself into this mess with Pinkie.

She would have been disappointed in Twilight for not succeeding.

She would have done better.

Twilight felt defeat wash over her. She had failed her again, as she had and always will until time stops and she wouldn’t ever shape up and Twilight would fail at ruling Equestria and then she’d be so focused on fixing Equestria that her friendships would fall apart and all of the girls would hate her and then they’d join the Rebellion and betray her and then they’d overthrow her and she’d be tortured so horribly and painfully because she was a mean, heartless, cruel dictator who didn’t care for her subjects, but the most important reason was she had failed her.

Suddenly Twilight had the urge to get away, to go somewhere else.

Her horn lit up and she began to prepare a long distance teleportation spell. Getting out of bed, she recited the incantation mentally.

Now the only thing left was to decide where to go.

Anywhere away from my mind.

She let her magic pick. As the bright light blinded her for an instant, she wondered if she should have let somepony know she was leaving and where she was going.

Oh well, too late now.

As the light faded, Twilight looked around to see she was in a neighborhood in Ponyville. She had just taken her first glances around but before she could decide what to do, a mare called out to her.

That was eerily convenient.

“Hello! How are you?” A cross-eyed mare trotted up to the Queen from behind. Derpy seemed to either be unaware or not caring that Twilight was the ruler of Equestria.

Eh, it won’t hurt to answer truthfully.

“Sad,” Twilight said quietly.

Derpy frowned. “Do you want a muffin?”

Twilight paused to think. If it got out she was telling her friends what was on her mind, they might betray her or let it slip and reveal it to the public. They were national figures, and ponies would believe them.

But this mare, this silly mare, no pony would believe her if she said the ruler of all of Equestria was standing in an intersection and sat down to enjoy a muffin with her while she told the mare what was on her mind. They’d think she was crazy.

And besides, she wanted to talk about this with someone.

“Sure,” Twilight said. She followed the pegasus back to her house farther up the street. It was a small, cozy house with a few old children’s toys scattered here and there in the front yard.

Derpy opened the door and stepped inside to an entryway that led into a living room. At the far end of the room was a dining table, and there sat a mare, young enough to be Derpy’s daughter.

“Dinky, I’m home,” Derpy announced.

“Hi mom!” Dinky replied cheerily, yet didn’t look up from the table.

“Little muffin, we have a guest,” Derpy said. Dinky, confused, turned around.

Her ears folded back until they seemed to merge with her head, and the mare’s eyes opened wide. “Oh. Hi,” she blurted out. After hastily gathering up her papers, she dashed off.

Derpy said nothing as she led Twilight to the kitchen. “What’s making you sad?”

She paused, reconsidering whether this was a good idea to share a muffin with Derpy.

What would she do?

She would share a muffin with Derpy. Twilight, for once, felt pleased.

The Queen related each situation with each of her friends as Derpy baked muffins. Derpy listened. They sat down at the table as Twilight finished her tale.

Derpy smiled and pushed a muffin toward her. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll have something to tell me. Something that would help.

Before eating, Twilight cast a spell to detect poison. The results came up negative and she took a bite.

It, surprisingly, tasted really good. “Mmm, chocolate chip is my favorite.”

Derpy beamed. “I love to use chocolate chips for situations like this!”

As the Queen ate, Derpy gazed at the table, deep in thought.

Twilight mentally sighed. I was wrong; she’s got nothing to tell me. I bet she didn’t even understand.

Well, it was nice at least talking to someone, even if—

“Will you listen to me and wait until I’m finished before saying anything?” Derpy asked.

Twilight nodded, trying to get an idea of where she was going with this.

“I think your friends are right,” Twilight attempted to say something. The pegasus paused while Twilight remembered her end of the deal. “but you don’t have to make any drastic changes. Just start small, with some baby steps.”

“Maybe, say, at one of your meetings let some other pony go first. How about that?”

“Okay,” Twilight agreed.

“Did that help?” Derpy looked down uncertainly. “I hope it did.”

“Yes, it did help.” Twilight rose from her chair. “Thank you for the muffin and the chat.”

Derpy smiled in response, picked up Twilight’s plate and carried it to the kitchen.

“Goodbye,” Twilight said before the light flashed.

“Bye!” The mare called out. When the spots disappeared from Derpy’s eyes, the Queen was gone.

When the pegasus was nearly done cleaning up, she heard her daughter from behind her. “Can I have some help with my homework now?”

“Of course,” her mother said. She finished cleaning up and trotted off to assist her daughter.

Two weeks had passed since Twilight had talked to Derpy. She had thought it over and was ready. The first baby step: letting some other pony go first.

It wasn’t daunting, wasn’t impossible, and didn’t require drastic changes. She could do this. She could do this.

All five ponies looked to Twilight to begin the meeting.

She could do this.

“Applejack, why don’t you begin?” Twilight asked. Applejack looked at Twilight, surprised. Twilight nodded for her to begin.

“Twilight, you need to be less controlling. You don’t have to micromanage everything!”

The Queen looked at her in horror. This was the absolute worst thing that could happen.

“Equestria can manage itself. These logs, I think they’re stupid.”

If Twilight acted out her plan of gradually becoming less controlling, she’d look like she was giving into Applejack.

“Why do we require ponies to be in bed at a certain time, to exercise, to have pets? Yes, there are good things that come out of it, but what are mainly resulting are just bad things.”

It would look like Applejack went off free but Dash got punished.

“And you know who didn’t have logs? And ran her kingdom just fine? Princess Celestia.”

The room fell silent.

Applejack was right. She didn’t have the logs. Twilight had failed her. Twilight had failed Princess Celestia. She felt defeat wash over her again.

Applejack was right, but she couldn’t let Dash get punished but Applejack go free.

“Who all…agrees with Applejack?” Twilight asked. Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all looked at each other.

Then Fluttershy raised her hoof. “I don’t think we should have the logs.”

Guess I’ll have to punish Fluttershy along with Applejack. “Guards, throw them in the dungeon. Dinner is cancelled.”

Outside the dining room, Rarity brushed by Rainbow Dash. “Let’s move the meeting to tonight, same location,” Rarity whispered in her ear. “I’ll tell Pinkie.”

Dash nodded and trotted away.

The bells rang twelve times before Rarity crossed the dark street and knocked on the door of the dilapidated old house. The door swung open, and Rarity stepped inside, the house groaning as if it had been stabbed. Closing the door, Rarity walked into the main room to see Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie talking.

However, Rarity noticed something was missing. “Pinkie, where are your other friends?"

“Oh, they’re off by themselves. They don’t really know Twilight that well. Did you want to say hello?” Pinkie asked.

“No, I don’t want to interrupt their conversation,” Rarity politely declined.

“I understand,” Pinkie said. Rarity took a seat next to Rainbow Dash.

“I’ve already told her the story of what happened at the last meeting,” Dash explained.

“Why didn’t you come to the last dinner?” Rarity asked, genuinely curious.

“Before Twilight could take away my extra party, I squeezed them in before she could ban the second party. I don’t think Twilight was too happy when she realized I had already had two parties before she could punish me.”

“Oh, okay,” Rarity said. “I think our last plan with Applejack was a bust.”

“She threw Applejack and Fluttershy in the dungeon, so that went exactly the wrong way we’d thought it’d go,” Rainbow said.

“Twilight let Applejack go first that time.” Rarity had caught on to something. “Maybe, just maybe, she was trying to be less controlling.”

“And we ruined it!” Pinkie whined. “Twilight couldn’t give in because then she’d appear weak! It’s all our fault!”

“Yes,” Rarity agreed sadly. “The poor mare, she’s still hurting.”

Before it could get too sad, Rainbow spoke up. “What should we do next? We have to get through to her.”

The three mares thought until Pinkie spoke up. “I know how, but it won’t be easy.”

Chapter 4-Intended or Accident

There were some things ponies just had to do. They knew it wasn’t going to be easy, it wasn’t going to be fun, but you just had to buck up and do it. This was one of those times.

The guard knocked on the door. He waited anxiously until the Queen responded.

“Come in,” He heard through the wood. The guard gulped and opened the door.

The Queen looked up from the papers on the desk. “What is it?”

“I have an update on the escaped prisoners Applejack and Fluttershy,” he stated. The Queen nodded, indicating he should continue. “They were spotted today boarding a chariot on the outskirts of Ponyville along with three other ponies: Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.”

“The chariot took off, being flown by two unidentified but young pegasi. We do not know exactly what happened next, but we have inferred a strong wind blew, throwing the drivers off. They could not recover, and the chariot crashed in the Everfree.”

“The ponies Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are confirmed to be dead.”

“I knew it! I knew it!” The pegasus cried out, rushing into the small room. She glanced at the two ponies before her. “Did you hear—”

The unicorn nodded.

“Twilight’s insane to think we wouldn’t see through it! I knew it!” The pegasus cried.

“What? Ya know what, Scoots?” The earth pony demanded.

Scootaloo looked the two mares in the eyes. “It’s all her evil plan. You heard those rumors about trouble in the Clique?” Her friends nodded. “She had to get them out of the way. Twilight killed them! She purposely killed our sisters!”

“We don’t know that!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

Scootaloo turned on her. “Are you defending them? Are you a traitor?”

“No!” The unicorn defended. “I meant don’t jump to conclusions.”

“Sweetie, it makes sense,” Apple Bloom reasoned. “Her friends were fightin’ with her and demanding changes, she didn’t like it and shut them up by fakin’ this story they died in the Everfree! They haven’t found the bodies at the sight of the chariot crash—”

“Because there was an explosion!”

“Hot enough to incinerate bone? No, their bodies are at Canterlot!” Apple Bloom concluded. “I’m just glad Applejack went down fightin’ and didn’t give in,” Apple Bloom said, lowering her head in respect.

After a moment of silence, Scootaloo spoke. “Which means now is the time to strike!”

“Now?” Sweetie questioned. “We aren’t even ready!”

“Yes, now! We’ll get ready!” Scootaloo announced. “Since Twilight’s so focused on her whole ‘grieving’ façade, she won’t notice us because she’ll be so focused on pretending to be sad.”

“What if we…,” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“What?” Apple Bloom asked.

“What if we tried to reason with her?” The unicorn burst out.

“Sweetie Belle, that’s what our sisters tried! That’s what all of her friends tried!” Scootaloo said angrily. “And look where that got them! We need to strike now.”

“Scootaloo, I’m not ready! I can’t do it! I can’t cast the sleeping spell!” Sweetie began to panic, tears coming to her eyes. She blinked them away as soon as they came up.

“Well, you did learn the disintegration spell, didn’t you?” Apple Bloom asked. Sweetie mumbled a yes while Scootaloo just glanced at Sweetie Belle, annoyed.

“How much time do you need?” Scootaloo asked. “We need to do it soon!”

Apple Bloom ignored the pegasus. “Could you ask Dinky to help you? Maybe you two could do it together.”

“If we did it together, I think we could do it.” Sweetie said quietly after a few seconds of evaluation.

Scootaloo thought for a moment. “We could add her to the first team. Yeah, we could do that. Tell me when you two are ready, and then we’ll strike.”

The three mares moved to leave from the abandoned shed to notify important members of the Rebellion.

The pegasus glanced upwards at the groaning tree. Shuddering from the creepiness and the cold, she hurried on.

Scootaloo finally reached the clearing in the Everfree. She was early, and had expected to be the first pony here, but that wasn’t true.
The cloaked pony watched her approach.

Scootaloo wasn’t scared; she knew who she was. Just a day after forming the Rebellion, two ponies had shown up. The first was a frightened Tornado Bolt, who had stuck close to the second pony ever since they had joined. Tornado Bolt was a mare who used to go to school with Scootaloo, but after Equestria’s previous government had fallen apart, she had disappeared.

The second was a unicorn. She had introduced herself as Glitch, claiming she could help them win. They quickly figured out she was an extremely powerful unicorn. She had been an irreplaceable member of the Rebellion. However, when they had asked her if she would cast the disintegration and sleeping spells on Twilight, she had firmly denied, refusing to cast any spells directly on the alicorn. When Scootaloo asked her why, Glitch said Twilight would recognize her magic. The pegasus had shrugged it off, having almost no knowledge of how unicorn magic worked.

Glitch always wore her cloak, which meant no pony knew her cutie mark. However, Scootaloo had seen she had a cream coat and a purple mane, which, surprisingly, looked like another filly who used to go to their school until Twilight became the queen: Alula. Glitch denied any relation to Alula, saying it must have been a coincidence that they appeared similar.

Scootaloo was a teeny bit annoyed Glitch had gotten there before her, but it didn’t really matter. The two mares stood in silence.
Eventually, all of the members going on the first mission had arrived. Scootaloo looked across at them: Sweetie Belle, Dinky, Glitch, and Rumble. They had tried to keep their numbers low to avoid detection.

“Okay, everypony. Do you all remember the plan?” Scootaloo called out as all the ponies turned to look at her.

“So, let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” Dinky said. “We’re teleporting in, casting the sleeping spell on Twilight, and then teleporting out?”

Scootaloo nodded, but Dinky stared into her eyes, clearly at indecision. The pegasus mare looked away, a bit unsettled. However, when she began to say something, Dinky interrupted her.

“Scootaloo,” Dinky said as Scootaloo turned around. “Twilight didn’t kill her friends.”

The unicorn paused. “Twilight…she came into our house a little more than two weeks ago. I don’t know why she was there, but Derpy invited her in, and they shared a muffin. Mom always uses her recipe of chocolate chip muffins whenever she’s comforting a pony that’s sad, and she used chocolate chips for Twilight. She told Mom all about her problems with her friends—”

“Which were?” Scootaloo interrupted.

“Her friends kept telling her to be less controlling and that the logs were stupid. Mom told Twilight her advice: to take small baby steps to become less controlling. Twilight agreed and was going to let some other pony speak first at her meetings. Then she left.”

“I just don’t think Twilight killed them. The way Mom told it, Twilight sounded as if she really cared about them—”

“Mom told it?” Scootaloo echoed. “Who did you hear this story from?”

“From my mother,” Dinky replied cautiously. “After Twilight left, I asked Mom what she had said and she told me.”

“How do we know she was telling the truth?” Scootaloo asked.

“What? Are you calling her a liar?” Dinky asked defensively.

“No, I just mean she might have misinterpreted it…” Scootaloo’s voice faded, knowing she was touching a sensitive subject.

Rumble, however, was oblivious. “You know, she isn’t really the sharpest knife in the drawer.”

Dinky whirled around, eyes alive with fire and mouth open to deliver a fiery retort until Sweetie Belle stopped her. “Whether or not she killed them doesn’t matter. We still were going to do this mission even if nothing had happened, right?” Everypony nodded in agreement.

“Right, so let’s get going,” Scootaloo said, nodding to Glitch to begin the teleportation spell.

The unicorn’s horn lit up with purple magic, and she indicated for all the ponies to come closer. The sphere around her grew larger to encompass all five ponies, and then the light from Glitch’s horn grew brighter. With a loud pop, the light began to fade. As each pony blinked the spots from their eyes, they glanced around to find themselves in a dark but elegant room. It was mainly bare, only containing a rug on the floor and a wardrobe in the corner.

Scootaloo put her ear to the door. Hearing nothing, she opened the door quietly and peeked around. Nothing in either direction. The five ponies slid out of the room, closing the door behind them.

The pegasus remembered studying the map of Canterlot Castle so she could find her way around it in this mission. Turn right, and then continue down the hallway until you come to the large doors, she remembered. Each pony followed Scootaloo, their hooves touching the floors soundlessly.

The hallway was quite fabulous, but no pony had the heart to admire it when their hearts were thumping so loud they swore everypony could hear it. The pegasus looked up at the bigger-than-normal doors at the end of the hallway. She motioned to her comrades that this was it. Queen Twilight was right behind it.

She opened the door slowly, fear racing though her. Scootaloo took her first steps inside the Queen’s bedroom. It would have been a marvelous room to behold; except it was dark and all anypony could see was the vague outline of an object.

But there, on the bed, was Twilight Sparkle, dead asleep. Scootaloo cautiously crept to the side of the bed, waving Sweetie Belle and Dinky forward. Glitch and Rumble stayed by the door, keeping watch.

Scootaloo heard a loud click. She whirled around to see Rumble with his hoof on the knob, looking embarrassed. Everypony glared at him.

Sweetie Belle and Dinky began to cast the sleeping spell, touching the tips of their horn together. When Twilight woke up, the spell would keep her awake for as long as Sweetie Belle and Dinky wanted. Only they could remove the spell, and when they did, the Twilight, if she had been kept awake long enough, would collapse on the ground, exhausted. All of her spells would shut down, too. Then Sweetie Belle could cast her disintegration spell.

It was the perfect plan. They had to get past her magical shields, and when she fell asleep, they’d turn off, leaving her exposed. Scootaloo looked on as magic swirled around the alicorn, infusing itself into her. Twilight was lifted a little bit from her bed from the spell. Everyone winced as a blanket slipped off of her, but she stayed asleep. The light from Sweetie Belle and Dinky’s horns began to fade, and the Queen was placed back on her bed.

Now for the second stage: leaving without getting caught.

Scootaloo walked past Glitch and Rumble, putting her hoof on the door. However, she had forgotten to confirm there was no pony out there.

She opened the door into the face of a guard.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” He shouted. Scootaloo flinched then rushed forward, pushing the stallion into the wall. He grunted as the five ponies passed him.

Scootaloo heard a rustle from Twilight’s room and she ran faster. She didn’t know what to do. Her mind was panicking as she dodged. A spell magically trapped the air where she had just been. Suddenly, a bubble exploded outwards, encasing the pegasus. Scootaloo screamed.

“Scootaloo! It’s me; stay still!” Glitch shouted. In a flash of light, they were down on the grounds of the castle.

“What?” Scootaloo shouted. A light flashed again.

“Trust me!” Glitch shouted back. Light flared up, then faded, and then flared faster than Scootaloo’s mind could register it. At some point in the interminable terrifying wait, Sweetie Belle fell against Scootaloo, screaming. Scootaloo fell to the ground, grunting as her shoulder crashed against concrete.

The light flared, and it changed to snow against her shoulder. Then it changed to mud, then metal, then stone. Finally, it changed to long grass, and Scootaloo winced, waiting for the next flare of light.

It never came. The pegasus looked around, dislodging Sweetie Belle. They were in the clearing in the Everfree forest.
Scootaloo blinked, attempting to get the spots out of her eyes. Rising to her hooves, she walked slowly over to Glitch, who was panting, her horn smoking.

“What…happened?” Scootaloo asked, confused.

“Long-range teleportation spells…We had to get away…so I teleported us…they can trace teleportation…so to be safe…I teleported us to about ten different places…so it would be hard to track…they’d have to journey all across Equestria to find us…we visited every faraway place I could think of,” Glitch said between breaths.

“Oh, thank you,” Scootaloo said. “If it hadn’t been for you—”

Glitch had composed herself by now. “No, don’t thank me. Am I free to go?”

Scootaloo shook her head. Glitch put her hood back over her mane, which had fallen off during the teleports.

The pegasus turned to the group of ponies. “Well, we cast the spell, but Twilight knows we were there. She may figure out we cast it on her and turn it off. We’ll have to confirm she didn’t before sneaking in the second time. But the most important part is: we did it! We cast the spell on her!”

Everypony lamely cheered, too tired to do anything more.

“The second group will leave from this clearing at two o’ clock in two days. Now go get some sleep!” Scootaloo announced. She turned and began to leave.

Chapter 5-From Death to Life

“Are you ready?” Apple Bloom asked Glitch.

The sun was beginning to make its descent down the sky as nine ponies met in a clearing in the Everfree. This was no ordinary meeting; it was the group who would, hopefully, vanquish the Queen.

Glitch nodded.

“Check to make sure Twilight has that spell on her, okay?” Scootaloo asked.

“Okay, I will,” Glitch said.

“Good luck!” Sweetie Belle said as light flared around the unicorn mare. In an instant she was gone.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned to the five ponies before them.

“Today is the day we take down Twilight,” Scootaloo said. She gave a few words about this mission and Twilight. The tiny crowd cheered when she finished.

Apple Bloom stepped forward to say something, but they were interrupted as a light shined brightly a ways from the group. The glow faded and Glitch galloped forward to the group.

“She still has it on!” Glitch called out.

“Okay, everypony, stand close to Glitch so she can teleport us to the castle,” Scootaloo called out while everypony shuffled closer.

In a flash of light, they were standing in an open doorway. On one side was the throne room; on another side was a hallway. Glitch, although she was looking tired, remembered what to do and cast an invisibility spell on all nine. Scootaloo took a second to memorize where everypony was before they vanished.

Scootaloo extended a hoof and tapped Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, pulling her to come forward. Sweetie squeaked, and Scootaloo realized she was touching Sweetie’s muzzle. Running her hoof lightly down her neck to her shoulder, she pulled the mare forward.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo crept into the throne room from behind. There was Twilight, talking to some stuffy looking dark blue pegasus with a yellow and blue mane. Sweetie Belle tensed next to Twilight, indicating she was undoing the sleeping spell. While Sweetie was casting the undo spell, Scootaloo gently lead her forward, until they were standing between the Queen and the pegasus.

The invisible pegasus squirmed as Twilight seemed to gaze into her, but she knew she was looking past her to the dark blue pegasus. As Scootaloo looked up at Twilight, the Queen’s eyelids drooped, and she collapsed, slumping over and eyes closing. Scootaloo could faintly hear a snore as she watched her defense spells turn off, one by one.

“Now!” Scootaloo said quietly. The seven ponies standing in the doorway rushed forward, the invisibility spell turning off. Sweetie Belle powered up her horn and shot a bolt of light green magic at the Queen. However, the alicorn was encased in her own purple magic. When the green hit the purple, Sweetie’s magic expanded, surrounding Twilight and pressing inwards. The green magic swiftly overtook the purple, and in an instant, the Queen was gone.

She’s dead. Twilight Sparkle is dead, Scootaloo thought. She whooped in joy as the ponies from the Rebellion joined her.

“What happened?” Someone cried out.

“The Queen is dead!” Scootaloo called out. “We are the Rebellion and this mare here,” Scootaloo pointed to Sweetie, “has killed her!”

By now a good amount of royal guards were milling about, staring at the empty throne uncertainly.

“She’s really gone?” One of them called out.

“Yes!” called back the Rebellion. Scootaloo felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter. If they decide to fight back for revenge, we’ll never get away in time.

One guard let out a cheer. More began to join in.

Soon the entire throne room was cheering, crying out for the same reason. “The Queen is dead!”

As the ponies cheered, Tornado Bolt pulled Glitch aside.

“Don’t do it.” Tornado Bolt looked at Glitch desperately. “We can’t betray them so soon after succeeding.”

“There’s no other time!” Glitch said back. “Sooner or later somepony is going to call out somepony and tell him he’s or she’s their new king or queen. We have to make the deal before they have a leader.”

“What if the deal doesn’t work?” Tornado Bolt said. “What if they go back on their word?”

“I have the capabilities to conquer them. Now that there isn’t an alicorn on the throne, it’ll be easy. With Celestia and Luna, and especially with their recent additions of Cadence and Twilight, it would have been impossible. I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life. My entire life I’ve been in hiding, and now is the time to break free.”

“And I’ll stay with you?” Tornado asked.

“Of course. I promised your parents I’d keep you safe throughout all of this. I’m not about to go back on that.”

“Okay,” Tornado Bolt sighed, “lead the way.”

Scootaloo let out a shout as the lights flickered and died in the room. She could still see the sun through the windows, it was just none of the light seemed to get through the stained glass. All the light was concentrated on one spot: the throne.

The pegasus looked up to see Glitch, standing there with Tornado Bolt off to the side. The lights were then restored to what they should be, but everypony had their eyes on the unicorn mare standing in front of the throne.

Her horn lit up, and she was lifted into the air. As magic swirled around her, she appeared to grow from a normal mare’s height to Princess Celestia’s height. Glitch descended slowly, her cloak waving wildly.

When her hooves touched the ground she was much taller than Tornado Bolt. Everypony stared at her in confusion.

“Glitch?” Apple Bloom called out. “What are—”

The unicorn ignored her. “I have an agreement to make with you all. You can choose between two options: either let me be your new queen or you have to promise to give me a small bit of land on the edge of Equestria and leave me and Tornado Bolt alone. Let us do what we want and leave us alone.”

“But let me tell you,” Glitch said, “I advise you to choose the latter. I will not be as nice as Twilight.”

“What about the third option?” A stallion from the Rebellion called out angrily. “We kill you!”

“No, that’s not an option,” Glitch said, beginning to remove her cloak with telekinesis.

However, before she could finish a scream was heard. It didn’t come from the throne room but somewhere in the vast hallways of Canterlot Castle. Because of the echoing effect, nopony could tell exactly where the scream originated but they could all confirm one thing: it was a scream of shock and surprise.

The hushed chatter in the throne room fell silent as each pony listened. Glitch kept her cloak on and powered up her horn, ready to cast a spell if anything happened.

The door opened with a slam, and everypony turned around to see Twilight Sparkle, alive and well. She looked a little tired, but other than that she looked completely healthy.

Twilight’s horn lit up, and before anypony could start dashing away, each pony was frozen in place. The members of the Rebellion stared at the Queen with their jaws practically touching the floor, while the ponies that had been in here before the Rebellion arrived were looking at the Queen in terror of her finding out they had been excited she had died.

Scootaloo waited for Twilight to notice Glitch—wait, where was Glitch? The mysterious unicorn and her companion Tornado Bolt had disappeared from the throne room.

“You’re dead,” Apple Bloom stated in denial. “Sweetie disintegrated you. You’re dead.”

“Whenever I fall asleep outside of my sleeping chambers I get teleported there automatically. It teleported me there before the disintegration spell hit me,” the Queen explained.

“But…why didn’t your spell turn off?” Sweetie Belle said.

“It wasn’t on to begin with,” the Queen answered.

Guards that were still loyal to the Queen began to enter the room to arrest everypony there that was frozen.

“You killed Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo screamed suddenly. “You killed all of them!”

As the tears came running down Scootaloo’s face, she felt a sudden pain around her wings. Crying out, she looked up to see the Queen’s horn glowing. Twilight approached her.

“I did not kill them,” the Queen said darkly. The pain in Scootaloo’s wings increased dramatically, and she whimpered. As a guard approached them, Twilight released her spell and the pain went away. Scootaloo’s wings hung limp at her sides, burning as she was led away.

As the Queen finished her speech on how they had defeated the Rebellion and on how Twilight wasn’t dead, she looked on as Ponyville’s citizens cheered. Twilight stepped back to let the next pony speak to the crowd.

Twilight stood off to the side of the stage set up in front of the town hall. She wasn’t really listening to speech, already having known what he was saying, and gazed absentmindedly into the crowd. Everypony’s eyes were fixed on the speaker, except one pair of eyes that were cross-eyed. Those were looking at her. Twilight’s heart leapt with joy.

Twilight’s horn glowed, and Derpy felt herself in her magic embrace. In a flash of light both ponies were gone.

They reappeared on an intersection not far from the town square.

“Derpy, I wanted to talk to you because you gave me such good advice last time.” Twilight said quietly. “I did what you told me to do, but it backfired and Applejack told me to be less controlling and now they’re all gone.” Twilight sniffled, willing herself not to cry. “I don’t know what they were up to. They wouldn’t just free Applejack and Fluttershy just to free them; there had to be some point to it.”

“And now everypony doubts me because they think I killed them!” Twilight exclaimed. “They say that the explosion of the chariot crash couldn’t be enough to vaporize their bones, and I agree, it doesn’t make any sense, but it has to be true and it doesn’t mean I did it!” The alicorn paused, waiting for Derpy to say something.

“If it doesn’t make any sense then why do you believe it?” Derpy asked. Twilight just looked at her, confused.

“How do you know they’re dead?” the pegasus restated.

Twilight gasped in realization. “You’re right, this would be the perfect cover up for someone trying to fake their deaths! They may be still alive!”

The Queen turned, setting her focus on the forest on the outskirts of Ponyville. “I’ll go check the site of the explosion to confirm it.”

“I have to get back to Dinky,” Derpy said sadly. “She’s still at the town square and I don’t want to leave her alone after they finish. I’m sorry I can’t help you with your mission.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said. “You’ve already helped me so much. Thank you.”

Derpy smiled, her sadness forgotten. “You’re welcome!”

The Queen flew over the Everfree, looking for the site of the crash. She knew what it looked like, having seen pictures of the hole in the trees. After spotted it, Twilight gradually descended.

The grass was scarred and scorched. Bits and pieces of the wagon were strewn everywhere, but there was no sign of any ponies.

Twilight attempted to put herself in her friend’s horseshoes. My two friends have just been put in the dungeon by Twilight, who is a horrible, evil pony—

No, they couldn’t have been thinking of me that way. Try again.

My two friends have been put in the dungeon by Twilight, who we want to…help, I hope.

So we’re going to help her by faking our deaths? Why would my friends want to fake their deaths? Maybe there’s some crazy psychological thing that comes with believing someone is dead and they are really not—

I don’t know. But if I was alone in the Everfree and needing shelter, where would I go?

I’d go to…Twilight began searching her mental map of the Everfree. Zecora!

They’re at Zecora’s house. They have to be.

Twilight continued through the Everfree on foot, unable to fly due to the fact she wouldn’t be able to spot Zecora’s house from the air because it was covered by trees.

The Queen approached the hut. It reminded her of Golden Oaks Library, considering both were in a tree. The lights were on inside. Well, that’s a good sign.

Twilight peeked in the window to the house. She was afraid of what she would find. Slowly, slowly, she cracked open her eyes to see the bottom of Applejack’s tail. Eyes flying open, she saw her friends gathered around a table, talking. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were alive. They looked perfectly healthy, ruling out the possibility that they had somehow survived the explosion and Zecora found them. Two young pegasi that Twilight didn’t know also sat off by themselves. The alicorn couldn’t spot Zecora herself, however.

Fluttershy, the one facing the window, roamed with her eyes around the far wall. Twilight ducked down, but it seemed to be too late. The Queen heard a ruckus inside, and then it quieted down.

Twilight considered casting an invisibility spell, but she didn’t really want to. She wanted to know why her friends had faked their deaths. The door opened. Looking up, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway. Twilight rose to her full height again.

“Oh, hi Twilight,” Rainbow said awkwardly. “Wanna…um…come inside?”

“Absolutely,” Twilight agreed, following the pegasus into the hut.

Her friends looked at her with expressions that contained so many emotions it was muddled and hard to make sense. They looked at her with sadness, anger, kindness, fear, friendship and so many others. Twilight remained near the door in case she had to flee.

“Why did you all fake your death?” the Queen blurted out.

Twilight watched them closely as they all glanced at each other. Fluttershy opened her mouth once or twice, but closed it, looking at Twilight sadly.

However, Twilight was able to make out a barely discernible shake of Rainbow’s head. Whatever their reason was, they weren’t going to tell her.

“It was for the best, Twilight,” Rarity said vaguely.

“Ah’m no historian,” Applejack began suddenly, “but Ah think that the best ruler of Equestria so far has been Princess Celestia.” She paused, waiting for Twilight’s reaction. Twilight stiffened and gave Applejack a warning glare. “So why don’t you try and rule like her? Give it a shot, Twilight. The first thing is, the princesses didn’t have the logs.”

“I know she didn’t,” Twilight interrupted. “But the logs were an improvement.”

Rainbow Dash flew into the air, hovering. “The logs are stupid. It’s for the worse; the bad stuff outweighs the good stuff, making it an overall bad thing! You can’t make ponies do what’s required or even like doing it. They’re starting to figure out how to cheat the system.”

“Well, I disagree, Rainbow,” Twilight stated, ready to defend the logs as she had defended so many times before when somepony knocked on the door. The Queen was pretty sure it was Zecora. Her second question was going to ask where she was, but then Applejack had begun to verbally attack her.

Twilight, having been standing the closest to the door, was expected to open it. She peeked through the peephole to see a royal guard standing there with some other ponies behind him. The Queen opened the door, certain he was on her side.

“My queen,” he said respectfully, bowing after the door was opened. “We have been searching for you.” As he rose, he glanced at the five ponies crowded around the far end of the table and the ponies in the back.

“Those are the escaped prisoners and those who helped free them!” He said, pointing. Knowing they were Twilight’s friends, he waited for her to tell him what to do.

Those are my friends, Twilight thought, that have stuck with me since the very beginning. I could tell the guard to let them by and wave their charges. They want me to remove the logs; I could do that. I could very easily do that and everypony would be happy. They could return to their life in Canterlot and things would go on as normal, as usual. It would be a nice outcome.

Maybe I could get out of them why they faked their deaths. So far it seems like they won’t tell me. Why won’t they tell me? If it had been that weird psychological effect I was thinking, I would be feeling it and it wouldn’t have hurt for them to reveal it to me. It had to have been something else. Why do normal ponies fake their deaths? To hide, to live on in secret, to begin a new life, to do something illegal, to run away…none of those seem like my friends. Were they delivering a message? But who would it be to?

They don’t trust me. They don’t trust me enough to take the news of why they faked their deaths. They might doubt me again, which might lead to them trying to overthrow me again. What if they succeed, and then they torture me and tell me exactly why each of them hates me and it’s all because I’m a—

It doesn’t matter why! What this means is if they don’t trust me, I can’t trust them. They’re too risky, too dangerous. I can talk with them later.

“Guards,” Twilight said, “arrest them. Arrest all of them.”

Author's Note

Does anyone know what Glitch's real name is?

Chapter 6-The Reply to the Plea

The Queen descended the stairs with her guards. Entering the dungeons, she made her way to her friends—no, the girls—cell. Before turning the corner, she heard them talking.

“Why isn’t she here?” Pinkie asked, sounding worried.

“Yeah, we’ve been in here for, like, years!” Rainbow complained. “She should be here already!”

Before Twilight could mentally process what she had heard, it was too late and she had turned the corner. The five quieted down. The Queen wished she had waited to hear who she was, but she had already walked into their line of sight.

“Oh, hello Twilight,” Rarity said, trying to sound as nice as possible. Twilight knew she was upset; Rarity hadn’t gotten to brush her hair for a day now.

“Hello,” Twilight replied. She gazed around at each of the five ponies as she spoke. “I just wanted to ask you for the third time. Why did you fake your—Dash, what happened to your eye patch?” Rainbow’s damaged eye looked completely fine.

Rainbow blushed nervously. “Well, I, uh…that wasn’t really real.”

“What?” Twilight asked, confused. “Your eye was fine the whole time?”

“Uh…no,” Rainbow said sheepishly, “It was hurt, but when it healed I didn’t take the eye patch off.”

The rainbow pegasus hovered in the air. “It was just so cool looking, you know?”

“Oookay. Well, thank you for telling me,” Twilight said. “Now, back to what I was asking. For the fourth time now: why did you fake your deaths?”

“Twilight, all we want to do is help you. We did it because we wanted to help you,” Pinkie said desperately, finishing with a glance upwards as if her savior might come from above.

“How was that supposed to help?” Twilight demanded. “I thought you were dead! From what I can tell, that hurt more than it helped!”

“Just trust us,” Applejack said. “Eventually you’ll understand.”

“‘Eventually you’ll understand?’” Twilight echoed. “I’m not a little foal! Why did you fake your deaths?”

The Queen exhaled, taking a few steps back. She had let herself get a little too worked up
.

“My Queen,” A guard said. Twilight turned around. “A pony by the name of Princess Cadence is asking to see you.”

“What?” Twilight said, stunned.

“Princess Cadence wants to see you.”

“Why? We had a deal, an agreement; she’s not going back on it now!”

“She didn’t say,” The guard replied. Twilight glanced back at her friends, who all looked at her with strange expressions that were a mix of fear and hope.

In a flash of light the queen was gone.

Twilight reappeared standing before her throne. The Queen looked down to see Princess Cadence. Cadence stared right back up at Twilight.

“What do you want?” Twilight asked coldly, wings flared.

“I’m here to help you rule,” Cadence replied as if Twilight had asked her nicely what she was doing here.

The Queen paused before responding. “No, Cadence, I’m fine. Why would you help me rule? I’m doing okay by myself, thank you. I don’t need your help.” Twilight glanced down at her former foalsitter with contempt in her eyes.

“If you don’t accept my help, I’m afraid I’ll have to take you down,” Cadence threatened. Twilight heard hoof steps and hushed whispers as the ponies in the throne room began to sneak away to the outside. Not many ponies want to be in a room with two battling alicorns.

The crowd evacuated outside. However, they lingered in front of the stained glass windows that decorated the room, wishing to watch the battle. The ponies talked amongst themselves, whispering about who would win and if the Queen’s rule was finally over. A few ponies noticed the oddly high number of crystal ponies that guarded the castle today.

The doors opened and the Queen and the Princess exited.

“Did you come to an agreement?” Somepony called out, hoping that they had decided to rule together or that Twilight was going to step down.

Princess Cadence shook her head. “No, we just didn’t want to fight in there because of the stained glass. It’s too pretty to be broken.”

Everypony began to inch back inside the throne room again.

When everypony had left, the foalsitter and the foal began to circle each other, looking at the other. The air was thick with tension as they waited for the other to strike.

Twilight waited for Cadence to make the first move. Cadence waited for Twilight to cast the first spell. The ponies inside the throne room waited for some action.

The Queen was the first one to break the silence. “Do you want me to strike first so I’ll be labeled as the aggressor in history books?”

Cadence smiled. “Why don’t you cast the first spell, Twilight?”

“Why don’t you cast the first spell?” Twilight said, flapping her wings anxiously.

“You cast the first spell,” Cadence insisted.

“No, you cast the first spell.”

“You cast it.”

“You cast it!”

The alicorns continued to circle, and kept on insisting that the other one strike first. Neither one wanted to give in.

Finally Cadence broke the pattern. “Why don’t we do it at the same time? How about on the count of three?”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “What if you don’t cast your spell?”

“You just have to trust me,” Cadence said.

“Trust the pony I’m about to fight?” Twilight said, incredulous.

“Three…” Cadence said.

Both powered up their horns and stretched out their wings.

“Two.”

Magic exploded from Cadence. In an instant she had disappeared and then reappeared again.

“One!”

Twilight was about to release her spell to put Cadence to sleep, but her legs flew out from under her. The alicorn fell to the ground as a pony smacked her horn. The magic, having been disrupted, flowed back into Twilight.

Cadence appeared behind Twilight as she convulsed on the grass, the powerful magic entering her faster than she could take. The Cadence standing in front of Twilight disappeared with a poof from a nudge of Cadence-who-was-behind-Twilight’s hoof. The illusion floated away on the slight breeze.

Twilight looked up at Cadence, feeling awful. Being hit on the horn, especially right before releasing a powerful spell was not a nice thing to go through.

“Twilight, you know all about the formal way to magic duel, I’ll give you that,” Cadence said as Twilight rose to her hooves shakily. “But you know nothing about the street way to duel.”

The Queen sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Cadence, you’re right.”

“But I’ve read all about the street way,” Twilight said. With a flick of her levitation, she threw dirt into Cadence’s eyes. Cadence stumbled back, frantically trying to get the dirt out. Twilight began to power up her horn, preparing a spell.

When Cadence had all the dirt out of her eyes, Twilight released her spell. The queen turned her head, shielding her eyes with her hoof.

Right above the battle, a light flared so brightly it could have been the sun. Cadence accidentally looked straight into it. She glanced away quickly, blinded.

The sun-like object disappeared. Twilight dared to glance around. Cadence was stumbling about blindly.

“You can’t see, can you?” Twilight called out, grinning.

Cadence turned toward the voice. “Neither can you!” The whole area was plunged into darkness.

The Queen couldn’t see a thing. Not even the moon was there to guide her. Twilight began to throw spells into Cadence’s general direction. She couldn’t hear any response, and deduced Cadence must have moved somewhere else. Twilight cautiously walked around, trying not to stumble into anything.

“Aha, I’ve got you—,” Cadence’s voice said from Twilight’s left. “Oh wait, that’s a statue.”

Twilight threw a flurry of magic where she heard Cadence’s voice. She waited and listened. Nothing. The Queen was beginning to tire magically, having cast powerful spells only to have them crash into fountains and bushes.

“This is useless,” The Queen shouted. “We’re wasting a lot of magic throwing spells around in the dark.”

“Marco,” Twilight called out, hoping Cadence would respond. She waited.

“Polo,” Cadence said back.

Twilight cast a sound illusion spell. It would generate a sound of her saying ‘Marco’ even though she wasn’t actually there. The alicorn began to follow the sound of Cadence’s voice. It was kind of disorienting, hearing yourself say something from behind you.

The alicorn made her way until she was almost on top of Cadence. Casting a light spell, she peeked around a bush to see nothing. Nothing was there, and yet the sound of her saying ‘Polo’ could be heard.

She cast a sound illusion spell too! Twilight, annoyed, began to try to get out of the globe of darkness. The Queen struck out in a random direction.

After about thirty seconds of walking, Twilight took another step and her whole world became light. She cried out, scrunching her eyes closed.

As her eyes adjusted to the light, she cracked open an eye and spotted Cadence standing outside the globe of darkness. Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t facing Twilight.

Twilight spotted her opportunity. She began to sneak up behind Cadence. Her horn powered up, getting ready to cast the banishment spell. It would banish Cadence from Equestria until she died.

The Queen crept closer. Cadence’s horn lit up, but Twilight thought nothing of it. She was so close to Cadence she could hear her breathing. This was it. She could cast it now, and it would be over.

A rock hit Twilight in the base of her horn, hard. She screamed as vines grew rapidly over her and around her, imprisoning the alicorn. Cadence whirled around, dropping the rock with her magic. She gasped as purple and green spheres reentered Twilight. Her eyes, instead of glowing white, glowed green, and purple tendrils of smoke flowed out from her eyes.

Twilight was about to cast a dark magic spell on her.

Cadence cast her teleportation spell, grabbed the anti-magic ring from one of her crystal ponies, and teleported back. Twilight writhed as the dark magic forced itself into her as the vines tried to keep her still. Cadence forcefully grabbed Twilight’s head and slid the anti-magic ring down her horn.

Twilight was still. Cadence dismissed the vines with her magic. The vines evaporated as several crystal pony guards galloped up to her.

The Queen—well, the former queen, made no attempt to get up. Cadence waited.

Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. She looked up and her horn and winced.

“Ow,” she moaned. “Ow-ow-ow! That really hurts.” Twilight pointed up at the ring around her horn. “Cadence, could you please remove it and put it back on again?” Cadence made no response. “Pleeaaaase, it hurts so bad!” Twilight looked up at Cadence. Her eyes seemed to be so full of genuine pain.

“Alright Twilight, as long as you promise not to try anything,” Cadence gave in.

“I won’t…I won’t…please, it hurts so bad,” Twilight muttered as the two guards moved to hold her still. Cadence reached over and slid the ring up and off Twilight’s horn.

Twilight seemed to explode with dark magic. Black tendrils lashed out at Cadence and her guards. She began rapidly casting dark spells at Cadence, backing away as quickly as possible.

Cadence quickly threw up a shield. The dark magic battered it; she could see cracks forming all over it.

She remembered what she had been taught about battling a dark magic user. Cadence poured out the purest magic she had. When she had surrounded herself in a mass of white magic, Cadence approached Twilight.

Twilight cried out in shock as the spells were dissolved as soon as they encountered the white magic. The alicorn threw dark magic out in more frequency than before, rapidly taking steps back.

Cadence struggled as she felt her magic weaken. Strengthening her magic, she walked through the blackness. Twilight began to panic, eyes wide with fear as Cadence lunged forward. She slid the ring, this time making sure it wouldn’t hurt Twilight, down her horn.

And then all the magic stopped.

The intense darkness around them turned back into normal daylight. The green glow in Twilight’s eyes and the purple smoke disappeared, leaving Twilight with her normal white eyes. Cadence’s white magic dispelled itself. Both ponies fell to the ground, exhausted.
When the crystal guards came, Cadence stood up. They bound Twilight’s wings to her sides using rope and began to lead her back into the castle. Twilight remained silent, refusing to look at anypony directly in the eye.

Princess Cadence was quite alarmed even after having won. If Twilight knew that much dark magic, how bad was it here in Equestria?

The doors opened from the outside, and the ponies in the throne room turned around. The darkness had disoriented everypony and had only gone away just a few minutes ago.

Everypony gasped as Twilight was led in, obviously defeated.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow had been already freed from the dungeon. They had been blindly ascending the stairs in the dark when the lights turned back on. Everypony galloped to the throne room. Applejack reached out to open the doors, but instead the doors opened in her face.

Standing between two guards was Twilight Sparkle, an anti-magic ring around her horn and her wings bound to her side. She looked absolutely awful.

Fluttershy moved in to give Twilight a reassuring side hug, but she blocked Fluttershy’s hoof, backing away. Twilight stared at Fluttershy.

“I know why you faked your death,” Twilight began softly. “You faked your deaths so you could warn Cadence. You knew I wasn’t going to let you get to her alive, so you faked your deaths so no pony would be searching for you.”

“You betrayed me,” Twilight said, her voice filled with rage as the guards began to lead her away. Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight with watery eyes.

When Twilight was out of earshot, Pinkie burst into tears. “I just wanted to help her!” She cried out as her friends gathered around her, attempting to comfort her.

Chapter 7-Aftermath

Twilight sat with her back turned to the door. The alicorn stared out a window.

Her friends entered along with Cadence. Twilight made no intention she heard them. The ponies filed in the sunroom and sat down in the sofas and chairs around Twilight. She glanced away from the window to briefly figure out who had just come in, and then looked down at the floor.

Applejack cut straight to the point. “Twilight, why were ya using dark magic? How do you even know what it is?”

Twilight refused to acknowledge her.

The earth pony began to repeat her question until Twilight interrupted her. “A Princess of Magic has to know all types, doesn’t she?”

“She can know what it is but she doesn’t have to know how to cast it!” Applejack retorted.

“You shouldn’t be casting dark magic spells,” Fluttershy said softly. “It’s corrupting.”

“I know it is.” Twilight looked out the window again. “But I’m fine. It’s not working on me.”

“Darling,” Rarity began, “that’s because you haven’t performed enough dark magic for it to corrupt your appearances. But it starts with the heart.”

“Yeah, it must, because you weren’t reasonable at all, Twilight!” Rainbow said angrily. “You didn’t care at all about us and you had all these stupid, stupid rules and no pony could persuade you otherwise! All you wanted was control!”

“I didn’t care about you?” Twilight looked Rainbow in the eye. “Do you even know how distraught I was when I thought you died?! You are the one who doesn’t care, just tearing me apart by pretending you’re dead and then betraying me by bringing her here!” Twilight pointed a hoof at Cadence.

“Twilight, Rainbow!” Fluttershy said firmly. “Let’s discuss this without yelling and getting riled up.”

“All we want to know is why you learned dark magic,” Applejack said.

“Fine, fine, I’ll tell you!” Twilight snapped. “It was the night after it happened. I wandered into the forbidden section of the Canterlot Library and I read about dark magic because—I was still hurting and my entire world had just been shattered! Blame her, not me!”

Cadence rose from her seat, angry. “We all know Princess Celestia killed herself because she was so tired of living and ruling and that nice pony we all knew was just a fake! We know she didn’t want to go on anymore and was depressed! We all were there!”

“But Twilight,” Cadence continued, “you weren’t the only one hurting.”

“I was her protégé!” Twilight shouted. “I was closer to her than any other pony who still is around today!”

“And I was her niece! She raised me since I ascended to an alicorn and treated me like a daughter. You can’t use Princess Celestia’s death as an excuse for the way you acted.” Cadence said.

“But there’s one thing you are forgetting,” Twilight said in an eerie quiet voice. “You weren’t there in the room when she killed herself. You didn’t have to watch her as she told you the pony you knew and admired and looked up to was a fake! I had to listen to her final words, every single reason why she was going to do it!”

“And I—,” Twilight gasped shakily as tears ran down her cheeks. “did absolutely nothing to stop her. NOTHING!”

With that, the alicorn galloped out of the room.

The ponies left behind sat in a stunned silence.

A couple days later, Rainbow Dash opened the door to one of the identical guest bedrooms in Canterlot Castle. Twilight sat inside her temporary room, lying on the bed and staring off into space. She was clearly in deep thought. When she heard the door, Twilight turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash.

“Hey Twilight,” Rainbow said. Twilight, as had been the usual for her now, didn’t respond.

“Uh…Twilight…can you tell me the real reason Princess Luna died?” Rainbow asked awkwardly. “You’re not a queen anymore, so you don’t really have to keep secrets about why she died.”

“I’ve told you this before and I’ll tell you it again,” Twilight said. “Princess Luna was ruling Equestria by herself when she got stressed and decided to take a vacation to the beach. She then drowned in a rip tide. They told the ponies to get out of the water, but Princess Luna didn’t think she had anything to fear and died.”

“Come on, Twilight,” Rainbow pleaded. “I won’t tell anyone if you…like…purposely killed her…”

“No!” Twilight responded with surprising ferocity. “I would never do anything like that! I didn’t want to rule!”

“And yet you told Princess Cadence to scram to the Crystal Empire when she propose you rule together,” Rainbow murmured just loud enough so Twilight could hear her.

“The Crystal Empire is not like the rest of Equestria. She would have failed,” Twilight responded.

“Princess Luna failed and yet you never told her to leave,” Rainbow pointed out.

“What does this have to do with her death?” Twilight redirected.

“How’d she die?” Rainbow asked yet again.

“I told you: she drowned,” Twilight answered yet again.

Rainbow sighed, seeing she wasn’t going to get an answer out of Twilight. Maybe Twilight was telling the truth and Princess Luna did drown?

A small group of ponies were assembled in the throne room. The chatter fell silent as Twilight entered, being escorted by a guard. Her regal demeanor was gone, replaced by something entirely different. She was much more angry and sad than she was before.

Her five friends followed her, casting glances around the room nervously. Today, Princess Cadence would decide their punishment.

“First of all,” Cadence began, “before I tell you what I have decided, we have to do a quick little something. Twilight Sparkle, step forward.” Twilight did so.

Princess Cadence powered up her horn. She levitated a crystal over to her. “As the first part of your punishment your magical abilities will be reduced to that of an average unicorn.” Cadence released her spell. She had been researching how Tirek had been able to steal magic before Twilight had taken over. Removing some magic, but not all, would be an effective way to constrain dangerous ponies. But instead of consuming the magic herself, it would be redirected into a gem that could store magic.

Twilight’s magic flowed out of her after her anti-magic ring had been removed. It bounced off of Cadence’s horn and was soaked up by the crystal. Every once in a while, a black streak could be seen amongst the purple.

It took a while for her magic to reach a normal level. Cadence ended the spell when her magic finally reached the average. A guard removed the rope around her wings. Cadence didn’t need to remove her pegasus magic. Having not been born a pegasus, Twilight was average at flying.

Twilight, experimentally, lifted up a pen that Cadence wasn’t using with her levitation. The shock was clear on the alicorn’s face. It took up a lot more of her magical abilities than Twilight expected.

“Second, we have decided on your punishment,” Cadence said. Twilight felt nervousness flutter through her. “Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity will resume their jobs in Ponyville before Twilight became a princess. Twilight will be Ponyville’s librarian, Fluttershy will take care of the animals, Applejack will rejoin her family, Pinkie Pie will work at Sugar Cube Corner, and Rarity will move back into Carousel Boutique.”

The train station in Canterlot was busy, but there was a big open area where no pony was standing. A very annoyed Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of that area. Out of Twilight’s vision, Princess Cadence met to talk with Twilight’s friends.

They stood a ways back from the platform. Princess Cadence was in disguise to prevent paparazzi, but the five she was talking to knew her true identity.

“Do you all remember your mission?” Cadence asked. “It will be harder this time around. You can’t use the Elements of Harmony.”

The five nodded. “Reform Twilight,” Rainbow said. “I bet we can do that.”

“We need the Elements up and running, and we want to help Twilight,” Cadence explained. “She’s hurting badly, and you need to be there for her.”

A pony shouted something from the train platform.

“Looks like our train is here,” Rarity said, walking away. The five called out their goodbyes to Princess Cadence and boarded a train to take them back to their old lives.

Twilight entered the building. It smelled like fresh paint and most of the shelves were empty. The library had been constructed just recently. It was vastly different from the Golden Oaks Library. This time around, it actually looked more like a legitimate library.

However, Twilight could tell the architect had in mind her old home when designing this. After climbing some stairs, Twilight could overlook the entire library from the second floor. In the room she had just entered was a bed and some dressers and a nightstand. Twilight had just set down her things when she heard the door open from below.

She looked out of the glass panes to peer down on a colt below. He crept into the library, but after determining he was alone, began to investigate the books.

Twilight descended the stairs to the first floor. “Can I help you?” She asked only for the sake of being polite.

The colt turned around. His face was one of utter shock and fear. With his eyes open wide he stared at the former ruler of Equestria for a full second before screaming and galloping out of the building.

Twilight groaned. This was not going to be easy. She walked to the window and looked out over Ponyville, thinking. Twilight turned around and headed back up to her room.

What she didn't see was a cloaked pony in the bushes staring back at her. Glitch sighed as her plan had been foiled yet again.