1 - The Princess Twilight Cometh
Star Catcher peered through the telescope, admiring the intricate beauties of the night sky. There was hardly any point in coming to the observatory these days; the stars had changed by perhaps the smallest fraction in Star Catcher's lifetime, and the scholar's scientific measurements had long ago concluded they were at least a thousand years away from any celestial game-changers. Astronomy almost seemed pointless, but it was that word, 'almost', that kept Star Catcher asleep all day and at the telescope until dawn. There was always the possibility that something would change, something that no measurements of science or magic could possibly have predicted. So she watched the sky, and waited to see if something would happen.
Star Catcher fanned herself with her wings, trying to blow off the last of the summer day's lingering heat. She flapped her wings a little harder, and in a different direction, and giggled to herself as the faintest of breezes was wafted over her neck. There wouldn't be much cause for her to stretch as the evening wore on, but it was a silly pegasus who did not at least keep her wings limber. Star Catcher looked back over her shoulder to admire her own wings for a moment, getting lost in the way that the pure white feathers reflected the all-consuming purple light...
"Wait, what?" She turned and stared at the sky, or what little of it she could see around the telescope. The dark blues and blacks of the night sky were missing, replaced with rays of purple that dominated every inch of the sky. Star Catcher peered through the telescope, and was nearly blinded at first glance.
There was a new star in the sky. Unlike other stars, which were enormous balls of flaming gas far away in the depths of space, this star was the sort of star one would find in storybooks; abstract, a simple six points of light like the markers on a compass. And where other stars all held the same color of fiery orange, this one spewed forth an abundance of purple light that outshone every other star in the sky. Perhaps the most striking difference, though, was that this star was getting closer by the second.
"The sky is falling!" Star Catcher shouted as loud as she could, turning and flying away from the telescope. "The sky is falling!"
On any other day, her sudden panic would have been treated as paranoid delusions, and Star Catcher would have been quietly escorted into a padded room for the rest of her life. But with the purple light washing over everything that was close to a window, her panic was taken up by the other ponies, and as Star Catcher flew through the observatory and out onto the front lawn, her terrified screams were echoed by everypony around her.
The screams of the panicked pegasus rose by a whole octave as she saw the star, now so close that she did not need her telescope to see her world's approaching doom. It was falling fast, and Star Catcher could see that the star would fall right into the middle of the town square.
"Get them out of there!" she heard someone shout, and the pegasus didn't have to be told twice. A few hurried flaps of her wings, and Star Catcher was flying as fast as she could towards the town square. There were crowds of ponies surging up the hill towards her, no thoughts in their mind beside trying not to die. But from the top of the hill, Star Catcher could see that not everypony had the presence of mind to flee. There were so many just standing in the town square, frozen to the spot with fear as the star's light washed over them.
Star Catcher couldn't fly fast enough. In those few moments before the star struck ground, she pushed herself to fly faster than she had ever thought possible. Her wings screamed at her to stop, her every muscle stretched like a taut rope and threatened to snap with every desperate wingbeat. But it didn't matter. Being pushed to the limit didn't let Star Catcher reach any of the ponies before the star hit, it didn't let her get any of them out of there, and it most definitely didn't let her save anyone. The only thing she accomplished was planting herself five feet to the left of Ground Zero.
Twilight Sparkle had no idea what was going on. One second, she was sketching the final sigil of the great mage Moondancer's immortality spell, and the next, she was floating in the sky as her entire life flashed before her eyes. There had been a calming presence, one that her mind could not help but fight against in all the confusion.
At last, there had been the familiar sensation of magic playing over and through her body, but there was something different here. Twilight had never felt such powerful magic in her life, and as it threaded through her bones and muscles she felt something change. There was a new weight pressing down on her back, one that felt as foreign as the Veiled Isles and yet somehow an integral part of her very being. A light the color of her cutie mark radiated out from her body like a glorious sun, and even looking at her own hoof threatened to blind Twilight for life. She shut her eyes to the glare, and for the first time became aware of falling.
No, not falling; falling would mean she was careening out of control, head over hooves, tumbling down to the ground. But she was hanging in the air, and being lowered to the ground as though on a string. Despite how strange and unknown her situation was, Twilight felt serene, at peace, protected.
She should have known it was too good a feeling to last.
At last, Twilight's hooves touched the earth again. She gave a little gasp, as the earth seemed to stir beneath her, and an invisible magic spread up through her hooves and told her the land was healthy. She opened her eyes, and her heart soared to see she was safe in the familiar town square. There were ponies there, as there always were, but something seemed different. The spots left by the purple light began to clear from Twilight's vision, and she once again felt the weight on her back.
"What am I carrying?" she muttered aloud, turning her neck and adjusting the muscles of her back to better bear the weight. As she did so, she felt the twitch and response of unfamiliar muscles, and her vision was filled with purple yet again. But rather than another surge of that pervasive light, this time Twilight saw wings.
Purple wings.
Her purple wings.
It took a moment for it to sink in, but when it did, Twilight Sparkle overflowed with wonder. She had wings! And that weird feeling when she touched the ground, that was earth pony magic! Speaking of magic...
The familiar crackle of magic across her skull confirmed it. She still had her horn! Twilight was an alicorn! Wait, did this make her a princess? Or was she something more? Was there something more powerful than a princess? What was that purple light? And where was...
"T-Twilight? Is that you?"
The familiar voice shook Twilight out of her geeky reverie, and the twinge of fear in it made her concerned. She tried to put her wings away as she turned, but only found them spreading wider.
"Um, hi, Rainbow Dash." A blush crept across the unic- across the alicorn's face, and her wings fluttered subconsciously as she took a few uncertain steps forward. "Yeah, it's me."
The fashionista's face was a mask of horror, staring with incomprehension at the combination of wings and horn. Twilight frowned. "Look, I don't know what's going on any more than you do. I was just working on perfecting an ancient immortality spell, and..."
"Immortality?" This voice came from above, and Twilight looked up to see the pegasus Surprise. "Isn't that the spell for never ever dying, like, to anything?" Surprise seemed more curious than afraid, something Twilight took as a good sign.
"Yes. It's one of Moondancer's unfinished spells, and I made a breakthrough with the seventh-"
"And you cast it on yourself?" Again, nothing but curiosity, though the pearly white pegasus was raising her eyebrow so much it threatened to fly off her head.
"I didn't know completing the spell would activate it! For Megan's sake, the scroll didn't even mention a trigger!"
"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight." Surprise plopped down right in front of Twilight, and as if unaware of the massive crowd gathering around them, leaned in close and whispered as loudly as she could.
"So, how long until the world ends?"
And it was all downhill from there.
In the Age of Destruction, there were two sisters, one light and one dark but both alike in cruelty. There was great hatred between them, and their battles raged across the entire planet. One day, the light alicorn cast the dark one down to earth, into the hole they called Rainbow Cave. The attack was made with such force and speed that the dark one was buried and gone from the sight of ponies. Or so it was believed.
For burial does not touch alicorns in the same way it might touch an earth pony or a pegasus. The earth is no prison to them, and the dark alicorn proved it that day. The ground cracked and shattered, and magic as dark as midnight carved something into the ground. The earth itself rose up to reveal the dark alicorn, no more damaged than a tree after a summer breeze, standing amid a forest of floating rocks.
Night began to fall, and the dark alicorn began to rise. Her magic enveloped the stones, and a wave of earth massive enough to block out the sun surged up at the light alicorn. The rocks assaulted her form, trapped her in the same earth she had sought to entrap her sister in, and turned it to unbreakable alabaster. More and more of the rocks closed around the light alicorn and became unbreakable, until a glimmering white sphere was formed from the earth. The prison of the light alicorn was hurled into the darkness of space, and that is how the moon was made. And when the moon shines bright in the darkness, it is said that the dark alicorn still roams the earth, searching for any who would dare defy her power. We sleep at night because it gives praise to the dark alicorn, so that she will spare our lives yet another night.
-Tales to Terrify Your Toddlers, Chapter Four: Ancient History
"Why did you have to go and say that? Of all the things in the world, that's what you say in front of everypony in town?"
Twilight Sparkle stood in the door, fuming and dripping vegetable juice. It had been a long walk to Brights Brightly's cottage, and even at a gallop Twilight couldn't dodge every rotten fruit or vegetable. The hardest thing to dodge had been the insults; indeed, most of the fury on the newly minted alicorn's face came from the words hurled at her, not the produce.
"What? I just said what I was thinking." Surprise looked positively crestfallen, her blond mane and her wings both hanging as limp as wet noodles. "Is it really my fault if they take something different away from it?"
"Yes," Firefly chirped. Twilight looked up to the top of the stairs and glared at the pink pegasus, who glared right back with equal defiance. "All I did was answer her question."
"I believe it was meant as a rhetorical question, darling." Rainbow Dash was sitting on the couch, sipping tea through a straw and trying not to be too obvious about her staring. "Surprise can hardly be blamed if the townsfolk are a little..."
"Paranoid?" Applejack gave a little smirk, which widened into a reassuring smile when she met Twilight's gaze.
Rainbow Dash coughed, and pushed up the brim of her hat so that she could more easily glare at Applejack. "I was going to say excitable, darling, but if you insist on being rude about it."
"Don't mind if I do, missy." Applejack tossed her mane to and fro in mockery of the stylish earth pony. Twilight just sighed, and made her way further inside the cottage.
"I was having such a good day," she grumbled, more to herself than to anyone else. "I found an ancient spell that needed only the expert touch of a unicorn to complete it. I got to spend the whole day figuring it out, I almost missed lunch I was so in the zone. And then, when I finally find out what's missing, the spell decides to go off without so much as a how-do-you-do, and the next thing you know, the entire town thinks I'm preparing for an apocalypse!"
"Well, why else would you be trying to finish an immortality spell?" Firefly asked.
"Sweet bucking Tambelon, can't a girl tamper with magic beyond her understanding just for the fun of it anymore?" Twilight's horn glowed with a menacing purple aura, and her wings flared out behind her as she gritted her teeth. A sudden and unnatural wind swept up around her, tossing Rainbow's hat from her head and causing everypony's manes to blow in the breeze. Her friends shrank back in fear, as though facing down a terrifying chimera.
"Um, excuse me?"
It was a small voice, as small as a pigeon's feather caught in the scales of a thousand-year dragon. Even in a room all by itself, that voice sometimes went unheard. But for all its frailty, the voice of Brights Brightly cut through the alicorn's rage and brought her mind back to where it belonged.
"I... I was wondering if you might like some... tea?" The teacup trembled in the yellow unicorn's magic aura, and she did her best to hide behind her pink highlights.
"Thank you, Brights. I'd love some tea." Twilight took the cup in her own magic, and gave her most reassuring smile as she pulled it closer. There were a few seconds where Brightly's magic clung to the cup awkwardly, and a few strands of hair moved aside to reveal eyes filled with fear. "Please let go of the cup, Brights."
The unicorn trembled, and her magic stopped. "Sorry, your majesty. I didn't realize I was still..."
Twilight held up a hoof to stop Brightly. "What was that?"
Brightly's trembling grew worse, and a beetroot blush spread across her muzzle. "I-I said I didn't know I was holding onto..."
"No, that part where you called me 'your majesty'. Why did you say that?" The alicorn's eyes narrowed, and without really being aware of it, magic crackled like deathly lightning on her horn.
Brights Brightly took a few steps back, trying to hide her entire body behind her mane and tail. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know! Should I call you something else? Mistress? Your Ladyship? Your Omnipotence? Goddess my goddess?"
"What's wrong with you, Brights? I'm the same old Twilight Sparkle I've always been!"
"Um, no you're not." Surprise fluttered over to the space between Twilight and Brightly. "You're an alicorn."
"And we know all about alicorns." Firefly was walking down the stairs now, her every step a defiant crack of thunder. "We've all heard the legends. The Sparkling Mountains are their tombstones, the craters of Noctia their hoofpaths. They still tell the story of Rainbow Cave at little fillies' slumber parties."
With each name uttered, the cottage slipped further into a deep, contemplative silence. Twilight looked at her wings, and for the first time shivered at the thought of wearing them for the rest of her life. She remembered the stories as well as any of her friends; worse, she had seen the damage done. She had been to the crater they called Rainbow Cave, seen the Sparkling Mountains and the fossils beneath them.
"You think I'm just like them," Twilight hissed as she emerged from her memory. "You think I'm just like the sisters. You think I'm going to tear this world apart, just because I feel like it?"
The cottage was silent. None of Twilight Sparkle's so-called friends spoke a word. Firefly and Applejack were the only ones brave enough to even look the alicorn in the eye, and what she saw there was hardly comforting. There was hatred and disgust in Firefly's eyes, while Applejack bore a grimace of pity. Twilight could not tell which one was worse.
"I thought you were my friends," she whispered, and she started to cry. Her wings fell limp at her sides, and her hind legs threatened to give out.
"Oh, but- but we are your friends!" Brights Brightly spoke up from behind Surprise. Twilight's head snapped up, and she glared around the pegasus to stare at Brights.
"Look at me," she said, though it came out more like a growl. Brights gave a yelp, and scooted around Surprise until she was hidden yet again. Twilight sighed, and hung her head. "What sort of friend can't look a friend in the eye?"
"Hey, you shut your trap!" Firefly flared her wings and pawed at the floor. "This is Brights we're talking about! Frankly, you should be thankful she's not stuck in Whispersville."
"Don't you start defending her! You're the one who's just about ready to go out there and stir up an angry mob!" Tears streamed down the alicorn's face, and her horn began to glow.
"Whoa there, everypony." Applejack stepped into the middle of the kerfuffle, turning this way and that to prevent any sudden moves. "Now, Twilight, Firefly didn't say anything about torches and pitchforks or nothin'."
"She thinks I'm a monster." The glow faded from Twilight's horn. "You're all thinking it. You all think that just because I've got wings, I'm going to go out there and burn Ponyville to the ground."
"You talkin' smack 'bout pegasus influence, Twily?" Surprise's entire body rotated ninety degrees without getting up from the floor, and a ridiculously fake frown was plastered on her face. Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the ridiculous display.
"Whoever said we hated you, darling?" Rainbow Dash got up from the couch and came over to join the rest of the group. "I most certainly don't."
"That goes double for me," Applejack concurred. "Sure, it'll take some getting used to, but you're still Twilight Sparkle."
"You're sure there's no massive, end of the world disaster happening next Tuesday morning?" Surprise leaned further forward with every word, and Twilight chuckled.
"Well, I can't see the future, but I'm pretty sure nothing is going to happen that soon."
"Good enough for me!" Surprise all but exploded into the air, grabbing Twilight and pulling her up. "Don't worry, Twilight, I'll teach you everything there is to know about flying! I'll teach you how to take off, how to land, how to crash... No, wait, you probably won't need lessons on that, but I'll show you all my favorite wind currents, and we'll make sweet hurricanes together, and when it's all over we can roll out the sandwiches and have a big old-"
"Um, excuse me?"
It was only a few short feet, but Twilight hadn't been expecting Surprise to let go, and her wings didn't start flapping until she hit the floor. "What is it, Brights?" she mumbled through the floorboards.
"I, I don't think I hate you. I mean, you scare me, but everypony's scary, at least for a little. I, um, I don't really know what to think, but, um, sorry about calling you all those things..."
Twilight put a hoof on Brights' shoulder. "It's alright, Brights. I forgive you." The yellow unicorn beamed at the news, and embraced Twilight with only the slightest hint of hesitation. The alicorn squirmed a little in the surprisingly tight grip, and looked over Brights's shoulder at Firefly. "What about you? Do you hate me, Firefly?"
"No way." Beads of sweat were starting to form on the pink pegasus's brow. "I mean, maybe I'm a little on edge, but can you blame me? We don't exactly have any real frame of reference for alicorns besides the legends."
"Well, you've got one now." Twilight pushed away from Brights as politely as she could, then stood tall and spread her wings. "We're going to go out there, and remind them who I am! I'm not the alicorn sisters, I am Twilight Sparkle. I got turned into an alicorn by accident, and it's changed nothing about my personality. Am I correct in saying that?"
"Sure does look that way. I just hope we can make the townsfolk see reason."
"Oh, that shouldn't be too hard, Applejack." Rainbow Dash picked up her hat and settled it back on her head. "For better or ill, these small-town ponies are terribly impressionable."
Twilight Sparkle beamed at her friends, then turned and opened the door. She felt reinvigorated, ready to face the challenges with her friends by her side.
About five minutes later, Twilight Sparkle had had enough. The first tomato had blindsided her, but she had managed to catch most of the following onslaught. Applejack and Firefly had managed to pick up the few outliers that got past her guard, and Surprise was just happily eating away at all the hurled produce she could reach. Now, though, the alicorn's fragile patience had reached its end, and she tried to remember a spell for atomizing fruits and vegetables.
Then she realized there was no such spell, and set about creating one in the privacy of her mind. To her utter surprise and delight, what would have taken her hours to derive was now coming together in seconds. Twilight made a mental note to try creating some really difficult spells later. For now, she unleashed her latest enchantment.
The raised missiles of the mob crumbled to dust in their hooves, and Surprise was suddenly spitting up dust as she pawed at her tongue. Twilight beamed, feeling quite proud of herself until a shrill voice rose up from the townsfolk.
"The alicorn has made us defenseless! See the monster's cowardice revealed! She dares not strike against armed ponies, but now that we have nothing, she shall take everything we have!"
"Rationally minded as always, Rabble Rouser." Rainbow Dash took her place in between Twilight and the mob. "Are you going to try and get elected as king again?" There were a few scattered chuckles, but it takes more than mockery to disperse a mob.
"Spare us your treacherous words, thrall! We all know the truth of what's going on!" The voice called Rabble Rouser seemed to be moving through the mob, unseen behind the defensive line of fruit-hurlers.
Applejack rounded on where she thought Rabble Rouser was. "The truth is, y'all have got our friend Twilight reckoned all wrong! She's the same pony she's always been, she just got wings by accident."
"Only mindless puppets like you would believe a story like that! Step away from the alicorn, and let's see if you still spout those lies!"
"T-Twilight?" Brights Brightly was hiding behind the alicorn, all but curled up into a ball as she tried to hold her defensive bubble spell. "What is he talking about?"
Twilight Sparkle said nothing. She knew exactly what Rabble Rouser was trying to do, and she was desperately trying to think of a way to disprove him. So far, she had nothing.
"Behold, the silence of the guilty! The alicorn knows full well what she has done! To speak is to condemn herself! In your silence, there is confession!"
"Would you quit talking in circles already?" Firefly suddenly darted into the crowd, pulling out a small earth pony with a megaphone and soap box for a cutie mark. "Just be straight with us. What the hay are you saying?"
"You really don't know?" Rabble Rouser's voice grew soft for a moment. "Is her control so complete that you are not even aware of the spell's presence?" His voice rose again, and he addressed all of Twilight's friends. "You are under her control! Your minds are the playthings of this alicorn scum! Why do you think you ignore your own fears, your own hatred, to protect her? Your minds are not free, they are hers!"
There it was. There was the kicker. Twilight felt something small die inside as her five friends turned and stared at her in disbelief. She could see it in their eyes; they all believed him. Now it was only a question of how long before they cracked.
Brights Brightly was the first to run. Tears erupted like a volcano, and amid screeching cries of "I'm so sorry!", she ran back into the safety of her cottage. The door slammed shut, and the entire mob could hear the bolts being slid into place.
The next was Firefly. The pegasus turned to Twilight with a mournful look in her eyes, but the sadness quickly changed to hatred.
"I was wrong about you," she whispered, beating her wings to rise up from the ground. "You're just like the legends said." Without another word, she accelerated up into the air.
"Firefly, wait!" Twilight went to give chase, but her wings were still a very new part of her body. She scarcely made it two feet off the ground before she faltered and fell. She started crying into the dirt, but somepony lifted her up and smiled at her.
"Surprise..." For a moment, it seemed the cloud might have a silver lining. Then Surprise's smile became a frown, and she stuck a hoof in Twilight's ear. "Ow! What are you doing?"
Rather than answer, Surprise simply withdrew her hoof. Twilight saw a spot of greenish-brown on her friend's white hoof, and raised an eyebrow. "What is that?"
For once in her life, Surprise looked completely, unironically serious. "It's the part of my brain you stole from me." She shoved the hoof into her own ear, and when she pulled it out it was spotless. "And now I've put it back." Her wings hummed too quickly to be seen for a split second, and then she disappeared, leaving a Surprise-shaped cloud of dust in her place.
Twilight Sparkle turned to look at her two remaining friends. Applejack was trying to look everywhere while not meeting anypony's eye, and Rainbow Dash was hiding her face with her impressive hat. It was a valiant effort, but Twilight could practically count the seconds until they too betrayed her.
"Applejack?" The farm pony looked up at her name, and offered Twilight a weak smile.
"Don't you worry none, Twi. I'm staying right with you. Ain't nopony gonna tell me different."
"Not even your little sister?" Twilight could hear Rabble Rouser's smirk as he said those words, ushering the Apple family to emerge from the mob. The alicorn could see Applejack's heart break as her gaze met that of Papa Orchard, who stared at his daughter with pleading and a little preemptive mourning.
"I'll be fine," Twilight whispered to Applejack, who suddenly seemed much too far away. "You go on."
The thing that hurt the most about seeing Applejack go was the look of utter gratitude on her face before she turned her back.
"And that leaves only one." Rabble Rouser stank of victory and self-confidence. "What of it, alicorn? Do you have enough pony mercy left in your heart to release your final thrall?" He gestured widely at the mob. "Or will the key to her chains be ripped out of you?"
Before Twilight could say a word, Rainbow Dash was in front of her. That ridiculous hat still hid her face, but there was a head somewhere in there, and it was drawing closer to Twilight's own. There was a breath on the alicorn's ear, and she heard a whisper.
"Whatever else happens, remember that I am your friend. I don't hate you, and I don't hate what you are. What I hate is what I have to do now."
Twilight had no time to ask the obvious question. Rainbow Dash drew away from her as quickly as she had approached, and a blue hoof shot into Twilight's field of view like a crack of lightning. It connected with her jaw and sent her flying.
"How dare you!" Rainbow sounded offended, horrified, disgusted to her very core. "Such language, such vulgarity, such impropriety! And to think, you made me think of you as a goddess! You disgust me, you cur! You vile animal!" The fashionista's hooves crashed down on Twilight yet again, and she thought she heard something crack. "Go back to the hell you were born in! We don't want you here! I don't want you here! Begone, hideous beast!"
Rainbow Dash went for another swing, but before it could connect, Twilight cast a teleportation spell. Just like that, she was safe in her treehouse, lying broken-hearted and bruised on the oaken floor.
The bruises didn't hurt all that much, to tell the truth. Twilight had scarcely felt Rainbow's hooves on her, and a tentative poke at her ribs confirmed that the breaking sound had not come from the alicorn. But that did little to dull the pain. She knew what the intent, what the message of those strikes was; a rejection of everything she was, everything their friendship had stood for, all in the name of those ignorant ponies.
Twilight Sparkle dragged herself into bed, and cried herself to sleep.
