The Life of Princess Twilight Sparkle

by MegaPonymon

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Gore, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Main 6, Nightmare Moon, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, King Sombra
Length: 29614

Princess Twilight Sparkle is the daughter of King Sombra and- wait, that's not right.

After being revived by Twilight attempting to use dark magic, King Sombra goes to war with Celestia. His army is losing due to the Elements of Harmony, and he knows he must dispose of them if he wishes to win. Taking a shine to the princess of the night, King Sombra constructs a plan. His first action is to lure the powerful Princess of Friendship into his domain...

AU Notes: There is an uneasy alliance between ponies and griffons; Ember is the Dragon Lord, but Spike never made his second trip to the Dragon Lands; changelings do not change form when showing friendship and Chrysalis is slightly less bloodthirsty.
Diverges from canon story between '28 Pranks Later' and 'The Times They Are A Changeling'.

Published 2016-06-26 19:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-03-11 15:01:14 UTC

Chapter 3

Twilight cut easily through the ranks of white ponies – none of them seemed willing to harm her for some reason. The alicorn was aiming towards where she’d last seen the blue pegasus. Her striking appearance and the glowing pendant seemed to single her out as one of the most important ponies on the field.

It didn’t take long to reach the clearing the pegasus had cleared for herself. Twilight leapt at the pegasus without warning, a slash of her sword sending them crashing to the ground.

“Ugh. Bucking batponies!” the pegasus growled, forcing herself to her hooves. She froze when she saw Twilight. “T-Twilight?”

Twilight growled angrily, brandishing her sword. “How do you know my name, Celestia-worshipper?”

“What are you talking about? Twilight… I c-can’t believe you’re alive.” The pegasus had dropped her sword and began walking slowly towards the princess. "Of course I’m alive. And I sure as buck know that we’ve never met, so how do you know me?” Twilight snarled, flashing her fangs. The princess was slightly conscious about her language, but what were the chances of her mother hearing?

The pegasus froze in her tracks. “Holy buck when did Sombra recruit changelings?!”

“Changelings?” Twilight cocked her head slightly, although she kept her sword defensively in front of her.

“Don’t act dumb!” the pegasus snapped, backing towards her sword. “Heh. You must be pretty powerful to impersonate an alicorn. Queen Chrysalis?”

Twilight groaned. “You must be dumber than the castle guards if you think I’m a bug! I am Twilight Sparkle, daughter of King Sombra and Queen Nightmare Moon; and the Princess of Darkness! And you and Celestia will all be crushed beneath my hooves!” she finished her speech with a flap of her wings, taunting the pegasus to follow her. It worked, and soon the two flyers were locked in a close-combat flying battle.

Twilight instantly knew that this pegasus was a better flyer than her. Every now and then she would see the blue flash of a Wonderbolts uniform beneath the pegasus’ armour, as if it had been thrown on without time to change. The pegasus was constantly trying to aim non-lethal attacks at Twilight’s wings or legs, using her greater manoeuvrability to avoid Twilight’s deadly attacks. The purple-studded sword was flying madly, trying to angle around the back of the pegasus, the speed of their flight making it impossible.

“Twilight, snap out of it!” the pegasus grunted as she ducked under a slash aimed at her throat. “It’s me, Rainbow!”

Twilight snorted angrily. “I know nopony by that name!”

“Twi, I don’t know what Sombra did to you, but please, just snap out of it!” Rainbow pleaded, abandoning her attempts to fight back. The two winged ponies were climbing steadily higher in the sky. Twilight suddenly swerved sideways, aiming a slash of her sword at Rainbow’s neck. The pegasus dodged at the last second, finally mustering the courage to attack her friend. Twilight winced as the blade sliced her foreleg, a powerful flap of her wings pushing the two ponies apart.

Twilight growled, flashing her fangs as blood trickled down her hoof. Her sword sailed through the air, making a deep cut in Rainbow’s wing and sending the pegasus spiralling towards the ground. The alicorn watched regretfully as the blue pony crashed into the ground, making a small crater. Rainbow very slowly dragged herself from the crater, standing shakily and flicking her rainbow-coloured tail.

“Armies of Celestia, retreat!” she yelled over the cacophony of the battle. Immediately the white ponies broke away from their battles and backed towards the pegasus. One of the white unicorns, which Twilight suddenly realised was a mare with a curled purple mane, surrounded the group with light blue magic. There was a flash and they were gone.

Twilight smirked, gliding down towards her father, who looked up as she approached.

“Well, Twilight, I’m impressed. Taking on one of the Elements of Harmony – and winning – in your first battle is no easy feat.” He purred.

“That was one of the famous Elements of Harmony? I expected them to be much stronger.” Twilight huffed. “Yet she refused to attack me properly. The only wound I sustained from any of Celestia’s worshippers was this small cut above my hoof. Nopony seemed willing to harm me.”

Sombra paused before sighing. “I have an explanation for that. You see, you bear a striking resemblance to one of Equestria’s former princesses, who died just a few years ago.”

“If the death was confirmed, then why did they believe that their princess was alive?” the alicorn questioned.

“Because they believe that I’m the one who killed her.”

“Did you?”

“No. Although part of me wishes that I did.”

“Then how did she die?”

Silence.

“Father?”

“I don’t know, Twilight.”

“Oh, Twilight, thank goodness you’re okay!” Nightmare sighed in relief, trotting up to meet her husband and daughter. “I heard about the attack and I was so worried!”

“Were you not worried about me?” Sombra snorted.

“Of course I was. I just had no doubts that you would survive. Twilight is still inexperienced.” Nightmare explained.

“Inexperienced?” Twilight exclaimed, her voice cracking. “I was able to down everypony in my way! None of Celestia’s idiot guards were able to harm me! The only wound I gained was this scratch, and the pony who gave it to me was an Element of Harmony!”

“Element of…” Nightmare’s eyes narrowed. “Sombra we need to talk.”

Her father growled but followed anyway, leaving a confused Twilight behind. “What was that about?”

The alicorn waited a moment before silently following her parents. The two trotted into their room and closed the door, shutting out their daughter, who came by a minute into their conversation.

“Of course I knew one of them would be there!” Sombra growled.

Twilight pressed her ear to the door, using her magic to stop the door muffling her parents’ voices.

“Then why would you send her there?”

“To test her!”

“If it’d gone wrong, she would’ve gotten her memories back! Now all she needs is a picture of herself and Rainbow Dash and her memories will flood back! Celestia will have the most powerful pony in Equestria on her side and we’ll be doomed to banishment.”

“Then it’s a good thing you brought almost every picture of her in Equestria over so that we can hide them where she can’t find them!”

“Fine. But at least wait before sending her to fight another Element.”

Twilight heard hooves coming towards the door and shot upwards, using her magic to cling to the ceiling. Her parents trotted out of the room and down the hall, muttering to themselves darkly. The alicorn snickered softly and ducked into their room.

“Now where are those pictures?” she murmured, trotting to the bedside table. She filed through each drawer, grumbling when she found nothing, and then crouched on the floor. The space under the bed was empty. She pouted and walked over to the dresser, pausing to straighten her mane in the mirror. The top two drawers gave her nothing, but the bottom one contained a large folder labelled ‘Past Twi’’.

She took the folder in her magic and opened it. There was a giant stack of papers inside. She checked the first – a picture of her as a unicorn wearing a golden crown with a large purple star on it – before freezing. Her parents’ voices were attacking her ears from outside the room. With only a few seconds to think, she cast an invisibility spell on herself and the folder, kicking the drawer closed with one of her hindlegs.

“I still don’t appreciate you sending her against one of her friends in her first fight.” Nightmare frowned. Twilight held her breath and began sneaking towards the door.

“I’ll wait a few more battles before pitting her against another Element, if that makes you happy.” Sombra huffed. Twilight used her magic to keep the door from closing behind her parents. She backed towards it nervously.

“It would. I’m sorry for getting mad, but you know how hard it’ll be to keep her on our side if she sees another one of them.” Nightmare sighed.

Twilight fled from the room, closing the door quietly behind her. She dropped her invisibility spell and grinned widely. The folder was going to tell her why Celestia’s army had refused to hurt her, why the name ‘Rainbow Dash’ was familiar, and why her mother was so mad about her meeting them.

The alicorn trotted happily back to her room, to find Comet Trail standing guard beside her door. The dark purple batpony nodded as she passed, his green eyes glancing away as she smiled at him. She closed the room to her door behind her and leapt onto her giant bed. The purple star at the head of it shone from the light of her horn as she straightened the sheets beneath her. She took a glance in her wall mirror before opening the folder.

Twilight took out the first picture and stared at it. She was standing proudly, looking at the camera with a childish gleam in her eyes. Her horn was glowing, the crown resting against it, levitating a scroll with illegible writing beside her. The alicorn scowled at the picture’s resolution preventing her reading the scroll. The pony in the picture was her in every way, except that they were a unicorn.

“I was never a unicorn…” Twilight muttered. She dropped the picture beside her and pulled out the next.

In this picture she was being forcefully hugged by an unbearably pink earth pony. She was once again a unicorn. The earth pony had bright blue eyes and a cotton candy mane and three balloons for her cutie mark.

“I’ve never known a pony like that.” Twilight snorted. The picture was tossed aside and replaced with one of unicorn Twilight laughing with the same pink pony. They were both wearing rainbow umbrella hats.

“I’ve never worn anything like that!” the alicorn groaned. “This folder is complete trash! None of this helps me.” She stuffed the three pictures back into the folder and tossed it under her bed. She fell back onto the bed, sighing. The alicorn knew she couldn’t ask her parents about this – they would just get mad at her for taking it from their room.

The door opening jolted her into a sitting position. Her father trotted across and gave her a quick hug. “Goodnight, Twilight.” The unicorn quickly left, replaced by her mother.

Twilight leapt from her bed as her mother approached, gleefully anticipating what came next. Her mother smiled warmly and crouched down, followed by her daughter.

“Moonlight, moonlight, fireflies awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Twilight giggled happily, leaping at her mother and giving the taller alicorn a big hug. She climbed back onto her bed and pulled the covers over herself.

“Sleep well, my precious light.” Nightmare murmured to her daughter, trotting back out the door and switching the lights off behind her and closing the door.

Twilight buried her head in her pillow and closed her eyes. She’d find out more about those pictures tomorrow.

Chapter 4

Twilight woke early and threw the covers off of her. She climbed out of her bed and stretched all six limbs, yawning. She twitched a hindleg and reached under the bed. The folder was drawn into her embrace. The alicorn opened the folder and moved past the first three pictures and moved onto the next.

The fourth picture was of her as a unicorn, sipping from a bottle marked with an apple. An orange earth pony with a yellow mane and a cowboy hat was next to her, also drinking. The alicorn growled and dropped the picture, angrily grabbing the next one.

It was of her as a unicorn, hoofbumping the prismatic pegasus from the battle. Twilight frowned. Her parents had said that seeing a picture of this pony would bring back memories. She focused on the pegasus, Rainbow Dash. A light blue, thin structured pegasus with rainbow-coloured hair and magenta eyes. Now that her armour was gone, Twilight could see her cutie mark: a cloud with a red, yellow and blue lightning bolt beneath it. Twilight’s eyes grew wide and her world went black.

Twilight opened her eyes, surprised to find herself sitting atop a cloud. Three ponies were sitting on the cloud beside her. The two earth ponies from the pictures and a yellow pegasus. The thought of earth ponies on clouds confused her, but she finally passed it off as a cloudwalking spell. The more important thing was where she was. A city of clouds, specifically in a colosseum. The alicorn shifted slightly, only to find that she wasn’t an alicorn.

She tried to freak out and reach to her back, but she couldn’t move. She was forced to stare as pegasus after pegasus performed before her. Finally, Rainbow Dash appeared in the arena. Next to her was the white unicorn from the battle. Only… she had butterfly wings. Twilight watched in shock as the pegasus and alicorn(?) performed. The alicorn(?) focused on visuals, whilst Rainbow tried to look as cool as possible. However she was constantly distracted, failing her stunts. Finally the white pony flew as high as possible, her butterfly wings catching the sun and creating disco lights.

The alicorn turned unicorn watched in shock as the butterfly wings suddenly burnt up. The white unicorn screamed and began to plummet. Three ponies shot out from the cloud above Twilight as the body she was trapped in screamed and covered her eyes. The purple unicorn grumbled internally until the body lowered her hooves. She looked over the edge of the cloud to see the white unicorn, along with the three ponies from above falling towards the ground. She had the urge to leap after them, but her new body/prison prevented her from moving any further.

Twilight recoiled as a rainbow-coloured blur shot past her. Rainbow Dash was flying at insane speeds towards the four falling ponies. The alicorn turned unicorn watched as the prismatic pegasus dove towards them. The purple pony gasped as Rainbow’s colourful trail suddenly fanned out at the back, forming a cone around her. Just seconds later, the entire sky shook as the air exploded around Rainbow Dash, who was now flying at sonic speeds. The sound barrier had been broken.

The alicorn turned unicorn watched in surprise as a rainbow explosion lit up the sky. A moment later, the clouds shook as the sound of the explosion caught up with Rainbow’s speed. Twilight felt her hair get blown back, and was happy when she felt her wings flutter from the blast. She blinked and frowned when she realised she was back on her bed. Only it wasn’t her bed.

She had her wings again, and she was in a bedroom. But it wasn’t hers. It was a white-walled room with beautiful architecture. Gold lined the room and she was laying atop a golden bed with a plush mattress. There was a large purple star at the head of it. Whoever’s bedroom this was had the same tastes as her.

The alicorn tried to move, only to find that she was once again trapped in a body. She was forced to sit through a slow waking process, a short shower and hair session and a full hour of checking checklists.

A knock on the door made her prison jump. The door opened to reveal a young purple dragon, standing heavily on four limbs. Two undersized wings shifted uncomfortably on his back. Twilight wanted to scream and freak out, but her prison just trotted happily up to the drake.

“Hello, Spike.” her prison smiled, before stopping. “You’re here to tell me not to go, aren’t you?”

“No!” Spike insisted. “Sh-she is.”

Suddenly a blue pegasus flew into the room, eyes narrowed. “You are not going, Twilight!”

Her prison groaned. “Rainbow, I know you’re worried about me leading the charge, but I have to!”

“Twilight, you’re the most powerful pony in Equestria! Celestia said so herself. If something happened to you we’d be doomed! That’s why-”

“-I should be fighting instead of letting ponies die for me!”

“Twilight, please! I’m not letting you go!” the pegasus hesitated. “I-I’ll fight you!”

“Rainbow!” Spike hissed.

“You know you can’t fight me, Rainbow.”

“Oh yeah?”

Twilight intercepted the pegasus with a simple levitation spell. The blue pony flailed in the air as Twilight trotted around her and out the door.

“Twilight, please! If something happens to you, I’ll kill you, y’hear?” the pegasus cried angrily as Twilight walked down the hall. The alicorn flinched and shook her head as her friend’s voice grew quieter behind her. Only after she’d rounded a corner did she drop her spell.

Her host/prison sighed sadly as she rounded another corner. Twilight struggled internally as she was forced down hallways and corners to a large balcony. Her prison’s horn began to glow and her vision went black

Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She was back on her bed. Her bed! The alicorn smiled and laughed a little before sitting up. She stuffed the pictures into the folder and quickly hid them under the bed before raising a hoof to her head. What had just happened?

“Princess Twilight?”

The alicorn flinched and turned to see Comet Trail in the doorway. She hadn’t even heard the door open. “Wh-what is it, Comet Trail?”

“Your parents would like to see you in the dining hall, ma’am.” The batpony told her.

Twilight nodded gratefully, slipping on her regalia before teleporting to the great hall doors. She took a deep breath before stepping inside. She recoiled at the sight of dinner plates flying towards her. She quickly ducked, only for a few shards of glass to scratch her back as the plates shattered.

The alicorn glanced back at her wounds – nothing too serious. She turned back, only to catch a fork in her magic as it threatened to poke out her eye. Another plate flew at her, but was quickly shattered by a dark horseshoe-clad hoof. Twilight growled and expanded her magic field to freeze everything in the room. She dropped the plates and cutlery to save her magic, although she knew she could keep the field going for hours without rest. With the distractions gone, the scene before her consisted of her parents glaring at each other across the table, whilst a pair of batpony guards cowered under the table.

“What in Tartarus is going on here?” Twilight snarled, her royal front breaking.

“I told you not to call her here yet!” Sombra hissed.

“It was the only way to convince you!” Nightmare replied.

“Convince him of what?” Twilight growled.

The dark alicorn sighed, her black wings drooping. “You found the pictures, didn’t you?”

Twilight hesitated. “Wh-what pictures?”

“The pictures that-”

“No.” Sombra cut in.

“Look, I d-don’t know what you’re talking about, mother.” Twilight restored her royal front in hopes of throwing her mother off.

“I told you!” Sombra frowned.

Nightmare’s eye twitched. “Look, Twilight, just… get some breakfast and head out to the west division soldier’s quarters. We’ve spotted Celestrians exploring our boundaries near there.”

Twilight sighed before dropping her parents and leaving, taking a pancake from a stack on the table. The pancake was split in her magic and neatly eaten as the alicorn teleported to her room.

“I need to hide the folder.” Twilight worried, grabbing the folder and looking around the room desperately. Without any other ideas, she opened a magical pocket and hid the folder inside. Breathing heavily from the magical strain, she lit a teleportation spell and fled the castle.

The alicorn appeared outside the west guard house. She took a deep breath before tapping the door.

“For buck’s sake, if this is another recruit I swear-” the grey batpony in the doorway froze as he saw Twilight. “Oh, p-princess! I’m s-sorry about that, we just had a l-lot of trouble lately and-”

Twilight pressed a hoof to the batpony’s muzzle. “It’s fine. I’ve come to inspect the boundaries of this section of our land due to sightings of Equestrian soldiers.”

“Oh, of c-course!” the soldier stumbled slightly. “I’ll organize a transport party right away!” With that the batpony ducked back into the building, returning moments later with two more batponies. All three of them were wearing armour.

Twilight herself had grabbed her helmet and chest guard before leaving the castle, so she quickly slipped them on when the batponies emerged.

“The nearest boundary between Equestria and the Badlands is just a few miles south, ma’am.” A black batpony mare informed her.

Twilight nodded and the group began trotting towards the boundary.

“This is where we’ve received reports from, ma’am.” The grey batpony announced. The group had reached a large river, gushing with clear water.

Twilight glanced around uncertainly before lighting her horn with a tracking spell. Sure enough, she quickly came across the remains of Equestrian visitors. She frowned and extended her magic. They had crossed the river with weapons… explored about half a mile away from the river… seen a patrol and left.

The alicorn mused for a moment before casting a barrier spell across the river. If anypony tried to cross, they’d be sent flying back. Good thing she’d read about shielding spells. The purple pony was about to speak when two dark figures appeared on the other side of the river. Out of curiosity, she dropped the barrier, grabbed her escorts and cast an invisibility spell.

“Are you sure it was Twilight?” one of the figures asked.

“One hundred percent. But something was wrong. She didn’t know who I was, and she said that Sombra and Princess Luna are her parents!” the other exclaimed.

“You can understand why I’m hesitant to believe this, right?” the first figure snorted. Twilight could see them now – it was the dragon from her dream, but a little older. His wings were now the right size for his body, and his spines were sharper. “Twilight’s been like a mother to me ever since she hatched me.”

Twilight froze. She hatched a dragon? Nope, nope, nope she was not doing this nope. The barrier was put back up as Twilight gripped her escorts tighter before teleporting away.

Chapter 5

Twilight stared intently at the picture in front of her. It was the one of her and Rainbow. The one that was obviously enchanted! She took a deep breath and lit her horn. Her magic washed over the photo and searched thoroughly for enchantments. She dropped the picture and recoiled. The only remaining magic on the photo was her own. But how was that possible? She couldn’t have set those enchantments – those memories weren’t hers!

The alicorn growled in frustration and gripped the picture in her magic, tossing it angrily across the room. She sighed and lay down again, folding her ears back. She gazed mournfully at the folder. The purple mare gently knocked it off the bed, letting it drop quietly to the floor.

Twilight jolted to attention as the door opened. She used a little magic to quickly straighten her mane, which had a few hairs sprung out of place from stress. Comet Trail poked his head through the door. The batpony gave a short bow before opening the door fully.

“Night Watch would like to speak with you, ma’am.” The guard told her before retreating.

Next through the door was a black unicorn mare with a white mane hidden by her armour. Night Watch was one of the few unicorns in the guard, as Nightmare’s blessing didn’t have as much effect. It usually gave a pony dagger-like pupils, bat wings and enhanced strength during the night. Of course, without pegasus wings to change the shape of, the unicorns just got the eyes and extra strength in the moonlight.

“P-princess.” Night Watch stammered, bowing low.

Twilight couldn’t suppress a smile. “As you and Comet Trail both know, there is no need for formalities. You’re my personal guards and I’ve known you since I was an itty bitty filly!”

“R-right prin- Twilight.” Night Watch corrected herself, but she sounded rather hesitant. “It’s about the ch- I mean, um, it’s about Shadow Sound.”

The alicorn tensed, her wings flaring a little. “What about her?”

“She’s become… despondent.” The unicorn shuffled her hooves nervously.

Twilight snorted. “I knew I should’ve made a checklist for taking care of changelings! Without a steady supply of love she’ll die! Sure, changeling princesses and queens can survive on magic for a long time, but they need love to stay strong. I still can’t believe I let my father capture her.”

“It was f-for the good of the country.” Night Watch gulped. She’d seen the princess angry before, and it wasn’t pretty. She’d barely escaped with all four limbs.

Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. She pressed a hoof to her chest before pushing it out again, an action she found comforting and oddly familiar. Straightening her expression, she leapt from the bed and turned to her guard. “Take me to her.”

“Just through here, ma’am.” Comet Trail instructed, gesturing to the staircase.

Twilight nodded gratefully and descended. The castle’s dungeon was surprisingly empty, with only three ponies held within its walls. Well, two ponies and a changeling. The alicorn had visited the dungeon once before, when the first pony was captured, but she had stayed away since. The look of betrayal and grief in the pony’s eyes had been too much.

The purple mare stopped in front of one of the cells. Each cell contained a thin mattress and two bowls. There was a small bathroom at the end of the corridor, which the prisoners were allowed to visit twice a day.

This cell had an almost black pony with hole-ridden hooves lying limply on the bed. She had a long, crooked horn and a pair of insect-like wings. Her mane was teal and scruffy, her eyes green with dagger-shaped pupils. Her eyes were cloudy and unfocused, and the changeling would occasionally give a small whimper.

“Shadow Sound?” Twilight called calmly.

The changeling shifted a little so that she faced Twilight, but did little else.

The alicorn sighed before opening the cell door. She kicked it shut behind her and walked up to the limp form. Twilight had practised this spell many times since the changeling had been captured. Her horn lit with magic and reached out through the entire castle.

Throughout the majority of the structure there was only boredom, with sprinkles of happiness of sadness here and there. Every now and then she would come across small pockets of love – sometimes from guard to guard, sometimes directed towards her. The strongest patch of emotion was in the dining hall. Anger fought furiously to keep out the princess, but she fought on and broke into the room. Beneath the anger was a layer of depression, which oddly belonged to her mother. Beneath that was a large pocket of love. Twilight collected as much of it as she could in her magic, dragging it through floors and walls to solidify in a large pink aura.

It took all of her magic to keep the aura in the room, and even more to begin to move it. As the pink aura drew close to the changeling, she perked up. Her eyes cleared, and her ears stood straight. She tilted her head so that her horn faced the aura. The aura was pressed against the changeling’s horn, and she drank it up greedily. Her green magic enveloped the aura and allowed Twilight some rest.

When the changeling was done, she sat up. Her formerly dull chitin now shone. Her mane was now neatly trimmed, the holes in it looking more like streaks. Her wings buzzed happily and her eyes shone with gratitude. “Thank you, princesss.”

“I am simply trying to keep you alive. The guards do not truly understand your requirements, Shadow Sound.” Twilight replied, regaining her composure.

The changeling hissed with annoyance. “I wish you poniesss would ussse my real name!”

“You never gave it to us.” Twilight frowned.

“Yesss I did! You poniesss sssimply didn’t care to lisssten, and inssstead gave me a sssilly pony name!” the changeling turned her nose up in disdain.

“Well then what is your real name?” the alicorn attempted to keep her voice level, despite knowing the changeling could sense her emotion.

“My name is Princesss Nightlock.” The changeling informed her.

Twilight hesitated. “Princess Nightlock, I mean no offense, but I wish to ask why you talk like that. I’ve memories of your mother, and she didn’t speak as such.”

Nightlock hissed in annoyance. “All changelingsss ssspeak like thisss. My mother sssimply learnt to ssspeak like poniesss to ensssure her disssguisesss work asss well as posssible.”

“I meant no offense.” Twilight gave a curt bow before stepping towards the changeling. “Now, my father has been mentioning that he wishes to ‘interrogate’ you. I personally do not believe in harsh methods, and believe I should warn you ahead of time.”

“Harsh methodsss? Harsh methodsss?” Nightlock seethed. “Do you have any idea what your sssstupid guardsss did to me when they firssst found me? They asssaulted me! They physssically attacked me!” The changeling’s voice was rising steadily. “When I woke up I wasss ssstrapped to a chair! They ssstarted cutting me and hurting me, borderline torture!” She was screaming by this point. “They threatened to ssstrip me of my wingsss! To crack my horn! Whenever I tried to ussse my magic to essscape, they would buck me in the face! I want nothing but to leave thisss place to go back to the hive!”

“P-princess Nightlock, I-I had no-”

Nightlock had stopped shouting, and was instead whispering angrily, tears streaming from her eyes. “Every night I hear the hivemind crying out to me, desssperate to find me! The firssst few daysss my mother’sss voice wasss the ssstrongessst, dissstraught and enraged. When she didn’t find me, I lossst hope. She sssensssed it, asss did the ressst of the hivemind. They all think I’m dead!”

“Nightlock…”

“If it weren’t for you ssstupid poniesss, I would be sssitting happily at home, relaxing with my mother and dissscusssing waysss to gain love without ssstealing it from you. You can thank Celessstia for that. Since you and your ssstupid father sssprung up, she sssigned peace treatiesss with changelingsss and griffonsss to ensssure she couldn’t lossse!” Nightlock laughed, tears still dripping from her face.

“Nightlock!”

“Celessstia will win thisss war, and then you and your ssstupid father will be thrown into pony prissson! I’ll be ressscued and I will have the pleasssure of watching you publicly humiliated!” the changeling grinned maniacally. “All because ssstupid you and your ssstupid father and your ssstupid mother-”

“Princess Nightlock!” Twilight bellowed, spreading her wings out fully and narrowing her eyes. Her dagger-shaped pupils were contracted, her pretty purple eyes burning with rage. “I will not tolerate you insulting my family!”

Nightlock simply snickered. “Oh, did I ssstrike a nerve? Sssorry, pretty princesss, I didn’t mean any offenssse to you or your ssstupid family!”

“I. Will not. Take this!” Twilight screeched. The alicorn’s wings were flared, her purple eyes burning with a harsh flame. Her horn was glowing and her mane was flowing from the pure amount of magic flowing from the purple mare.

Nightlock squeaked as purple magic tightened around her throat and dragged her harshly towards the raging alicorn. Twilight glared down at the smaller quadruped in anger, before throwing the changeling across the room. The near black creature smacked into the wall and fell limply to the ground and lay still.

Twilight snorted in anger before storming out of the cell, slamming the door shut behind her. The alicorn stomped up the staircase and back into the hall. Comet Trail and Night Watch, who had been standing guard outside, recoiled in fright as their princess raged past them. Twilight was halfway down the hall by time they recovered and ran after their charge.

Only when Twilight had reached her room did she realise what she had done. It had taken all of her willpower to not rage-shift in front of the changeling, as she knew how destructive she could be. Her magic was already incredibly powerful; if she rage-shifted, she would’ve taken down the entire cell, instead of just cracking the wall. Cracking the wall. With a pony. Um, changeling.

She had abused an innocent, intelligent creature. Ponies could argue that she did that during training and battles, but in training the victims had volunteered, and the ponies she’d killed in battle had been given painless deaths – a quick snap of the neck, or a swift slash of her sword.

But she had physically assaulted an innocent, purely because she had grown angry. It had happened before too. The alicorn leapt onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow. She had accidentally hurt ponies before when her rage had gotten the best of her. Once she had rage-shifted and taken down one whole wing of the castle. She gave a muffled scream into her bed and smacked her head against the pillow.

Twilight sat up slowly, wiping away the tears that had been building in her eyes. She sniffled and turned to the folder, which was still lying on the floor. She shifted through the pictures she’d already seen and found herself staring at an odd one. It was of her unicorn self standing in a forest with... a zebra?

An odd feeling spread through her when she saw the zebra. A feeling of knowledge and reliability. She could trust this zebra. They… they could help her… Her mind made up, Twilight lit her horn and teleported from the castle.

Chapter 6

Twilight knocked gently on the wooden door. The hut before her was small and cosy, although the placement wasn’t the best. In the middle of a forest full of manticores and timberwolves is not a good place to live. The alicorn had to commend the zebra’s courage.

The door opened and a striped head poked out. Blue eyes grew wide in surprise.

“Twilight Sparkle, what a surprise! Or is this a changeling I see before my eyes?” the zebra gasped.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, although I fear I am not the Twilight you seem to know.” The alicorn sighed.

“I can see you have much to share, but can you give me a reason I should care?” the zebra asked distrustfully.

“I’m having problems.” Twilight hesitated. “I’ve been having anger issues and I think I’m under some sort of enchantment.”

The zebra gave her a scrutinizing gaze been stepping back and opening the door. Twilight trotted inside and settled, unsure, by the wall. A cauldron sat in the middle of the room, bubbling with… something.

“So can you help me? Do you know why this is happening?” the alicorn asked hopefully.

The zebra continued to stare into Twilight’s eyes, causing the purple mare to shift uncomfortably.

“Well, I can see that you do not lie. As for your question, no, I don’t know why.” The zebra frowned, trotted over to the cauldron.

“Do you always speak like this?” Twilight smiled nervously.

“Zecora is my name, and rhyming is my game.”

“…”

“Pinkie Pie, while good at heart, is not one by whom I should’ve been taught.”

“Pinkie Pie… they sound familiar.” Twilight mused.

Zecora tensed. “They shouldn’t. I can sense dark magic here; the very same our armies fear.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Twilight stammered.

“I wish I could’ve helped you more, but for now we must adjourn. For a few days you must wait, by then you’ll have met your fate.” Zecora paused and looked away with grief in her eyes. “Only then can I truly help you.”

“Zecora, what are you-” before Twilight could finish she had been forced through the door and back into the forest.

Twilight stood there for a moment before she could fully comprehend what had happened. In a few days she’d meet her fate? What the buck was that supposed to mean? With her thoughts still scrambled, there wasn’t much chance of her teleporting home. Instead she settled for taking a walk to clear her thoughts.

It wasn’t long before she heard a roar. The alicorn gulped and dropped to a defensive stance. She had managed to avoid monsters so far, which was good as she didn’t have her sword on her; she had meant to put it into her magical pocket but hadn’t had the time thanks to her argument with Nightlock.

The purple mare glanced around rapidly, trying to look everywhere at once. The swipe came from behind her, the tip of a claw scratching her flank. Twilight whirled round to see a manticore looming over her. She charged her horn, only for her concentration to be broken as blood began to trickle across one of her cutie marks. The feeling was… familiar?

Twilight recognised the way her world suddenly darkened. She tried to stay awake but she soon fell victim to her enchantment.

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself once again in a new body/prison. At least she was an alicorn. She was lying in a large room, decorated with bookshelves and desks. The room was empty of life, however.

Despite her urge to look around and read all day, Twilight was stuck reading a book on dark magic. The alicorn tried to walk away and find something more interesting – she’d learnt all sorts of dark magic as a filly – but her host found the book rather intriguing.

“Wow, I never even knew the Royal Archives had books on dark magic!” Twilight’s host cried excitedly, briefly looking up from the book so that they could grab another in their magic. “I wonder if Celestia would be okay with me reading these… Though she did say she wanted me to research all the types of magic I could find… It should be fine!”

Twilight couldn’t help but pay more attention after this. Her host worked for Celestia? That meant that it must be the same pony who’d known Rainbow and the dragon, judging by what she knew of alicorns. Speaking of which, hadn’t her mother said there was only five alicorns? That meant… this must be Equestria’s fallen princess!

Twilight could only watch in shock as her host stopped on one of the pages. She rested a lavender hoof on the paper, just below the instructions for a spell. She felt her horn lighting up, and heard her host whisper the instructions to herself.

A quick burst of pain lanced through her horn and a black crystal shot up from the ground. Twilight’s host stared at it in shock before grinning widely.

Twilight blinked and had an urge to throw up as the ground shifted behind her. She blinked a few more times and found herself in the same pony’s body, just a few years older. She was looking down from a cliff at a large valley. There were a few plants and a river running through the middle. Batponies were sparring at the bottom of the valley, blissfully unaware of what was about to befall them.

“Remember everypony, we are not going to kill anyone.” Twilight’s host commanded. “We are only trying to drive them back – to stop Sombra’s army spreading.”

The armoured white ponies around her nodded and murmured their agreement. Twilight’s host reached into their magic pocket and drew a long, gem-studded sword. Twilight watched in surprise – that was her sword!

“Charge!”

Twilight’s host’s first victim was a blue batpony with a black mane hidden beneath the traditional night guard armour. A slash to his side sent the batpony running, which Twilight watched in disgust. Her guards were supposed to be tougher than that!

Twilight’s host continued around the valley, sending batponies running wherever she appeared. Whenever one of her guards cried out she would rush to their aid. As she had ordered, no batponies fell, and neither did any Celestrians thanks to her help.

Somepony cried out behind them, and Twilight’s host whirled round to see a white pegasus with a batpony’s fangs buried in his neck. As he struggled, his helmet fell off, breaking the enchantment and revealing a purple pegasus stallion. Twilight watched in shock – she knew that pony!

“Comet Trail!” Twilight’s host gasped, lunging forward. Twilight watched, dumbfounded as her host chased after the batpony, who dragged the purple pegasus with them through a dark tunnel in the side of the valley. As Twilight chased them down the tunnel closed. The alicorn stomped their hoof in frustration before freezing.

“I hope this works!”

Pain shot through her horn, making the alicorn stumble. Her horn glowed brighter and the pain grew until she collapsed on the floor.
She looked up slowly and the tunnel had reopened, surrounded by black crystals. Twilight’s host stood and plunged into the darkness.

She soon arrived in a dark room. She flinched as the light above her died, leaving her in complete darkness.

The tip of a blade sliced her flank, and she redrew her own sword and spun around to see a dark unicorn smiling at her.

Twilight woke with a start, sitting up on the low wooden bed she was on. She looked around and realised she was back in Zecora’s hut. The zebra herself was back at the cauldron, but glanced over when she heard Twilight get up.

“It would seem I was a little too hasty. I should’ve known a manticore would find you tasty.” The zebra sighed guiltily.

“Oh, uh, i-it’s fine.” Twilight frowned. “I only realised it after clearing my head a little, but I really needed to get home anyway.”

“I believe I have something to prevent your doom, if you’ll accept the odd fume. Look at something and drink this potion. If it works, it’ll understand your notion.” The zebra offered, dipping a bottle into the cauldron before handing it to the alicorn. Twilight reeled at the smell, but was able to focus enough to grab the bottle in her magic and create a pinkish-purple bubble around it, blocking out the stench.

“Thanks.”

“Think of it as an apology for… sending you towards that manticore.” Zecora sighed.

“There’s nothing to apologise for, Zecora. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.” Twilight insisted.

The zebra looked briefly sad before giving the alicorn a knowing glance. “I can tell that our time grows short; may I suggest that you teleport?”

Twilight smiled sheepishly, pulling the bubble containing the potion towards her and lighting her horn. “Thanks for this, Zecora.”

“Think nothing of it, dear friend. I simply wish for your life to not end.”

“Wait, what?”

“Not important.”

“If you say so…” Twilight cast her teleportation spell and, with a flash, was gone.

Twilight trotted slowly through the halls of the castle, potion and folder in her magical grasp. The folder opened and a bunch of photos flew out. They were all of her as a unicorn with various ponies. Except for one. The last one was her. The real her! She was an alicorn, with her hair styled and wings fully spread. She wore a beautiful pink dress decorated with yellows and golds. Her hooves were clad in small golden horseshoes, and a crown rested atop her head. Both were embedded with small star-shaped gems.

“This should do it.” The alicorn smiled, bringing the potion to her lips. She tipped it up and took a few sips before lowering it again. “So how does this…”

Twilight paused. Her vision was blurring. Her magic cut off and the pictures fell to the ground. The potion hit the ground and smashed, spilling the liquid across the hallway.

“C-crap…” the alicorn stammered as her legs buckled. “Bucking z-zebra…” Twilight fell, her head hitting the floor and sending waves of pain through her body. The last thing she saw was an ebony hoof, clad in a light blue horseshoe, stepping in front of her.

Then there was only black.

Chapter 7

Twilight opened her eyes slowly. Her head was pounding. She wanted to scream when she realised her wings were missing. What had happened? She… she was in another memory. Probably.

She was floating in a void. The entire world around her seemed to glow, and was filled with stars.

“Hello? Where am I? What is this place?” her host called out.

“Congratulations, Twilight. I knew you could do it.” A kind voice answered.

Twilight’s host turned to see a large white alicorn towering over her. Twilight stopped paying attention and went into overdrive, trying to force her magic to work. Anger rose within her as the royal figure stood beside her. She didn’t care when her host hugged her. She didn’t care when she started to sing. All she cared about was breaking free of this body/prison. Lost ruler or not, this pony was a bucking idiot! If she was so smart, how could she not see how tyrannical Celestia was?

Twilight began to channel her magic in hopes of separating from her host. It was a long shot, but- of course! Dark magic seemed to hurt this pony when she used it. The alicorn turned unicorn focused harder, switching her spell. Pain lanced through her horn and she was thrown backwards.

She groaned and slowly pushed herself to her hooves. As she stood, she realised her wings had returned to her back. Twilight sighed in relief and looked up. Her host and Celestia had disappeared, but she was still in the glowing void.

“So… He really did it.”

The alicorn whirled round to see… herself? A lavender alicorn with purple eyes and a streaked mane was looking at her with disdain.

“Wha… Wh-who are you?” Twilight exclaimed, horn lighting up.

“Most simply put, I am Magic.” The other alicorn explained.

“What do you mean? You can’t just be magic!”

“I am the Element of Magic. You embody me, and so I look like you.”

“But why do I embody you?”

“My previous owner was stripped of her magic, and so I was ‘transferred’ to her… ‘new form’.”

“What do you mean by ‘new form’?” Twilight growled. “You’re not making any sense!”

“Oh, but I am.” Magic smiled. “Just not to you. You see, my old owner was Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. When she lost her magic, it was given to you. So now my owner is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Darkness.”

Twilight blinked. “B-but… how would I have her magic? Equestria’s lost ruler died years ago!”

“That’s what you were told.” Magic snorted. “But the original Twilight Sparkle is far from dead. She has simply lost her magic. Even now, her memories are fading, and being forced onto you.”

“That would explain why I’ve been having those weird visions.” Twilight mused. “But why are you here, anyway?”

Magic looked suddenly sad. “Because I wish to be whole again.”

“Whole?”

“You are not whole, Twilight. You cannot be whole until you find your original.”

Twilight sighed and fell to her haunches. “First off, how do you even know what I’m supposed to do? I thought the ‘old’ Twilight was your first owner.”

“She was far from my first.” Magic cocked an eyebrow. “And I know what to do because this has happened before. When Twilight was separated from my… physical form – the gem she once wore in her crown, I was split between her and the gem. When she visited the gem, I was made whole again.”

“So I have to find Twilight to make you whole.” Twilight paused to take a deep breath. “Remind me why I should do this?”

“Because if I am made whole you will regain all of your original’s memories.” Magic explained.

Twilight had to admit, it was tempting. To finally figure out why she was getting these ‘visions’. To understand why the Celestrians had refused to hurt her. To find out what had happened to the first Twilight.

“Okay, I’m in.” she decided. Then she froze, looking up at Magic accusingly. “But why do you keep calling her my original?”

Magic’s eyes clouded a little, filling with grief. The translucent alicorn quickly shook it off and turned back to Twilight. “I’m afraid I cannot tell you that.”

“And why not?”

“Because if I did it would crush you.”

“As if!” Twilight snorted, rolling her eyes. “There is nothing in this world that could break me.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Magic frowned.

“Whatever.” There was a moment of silence, before Twilight spoke up again. “How are you talking to me, anyway?”

"The potion, of course.”

“The… potion? Oh, crap, the potion! B-but how? And wh-what’s going to happen to me now?” Twilight worried. “I saw s-somepony, right before I passed out! What if it was m-mother? Or worse, father? Oh, I’m going to be in s-so much trouble!”

“Your mother did find you.” Magic confirmed. “But she is not mad. In fact, quite the opposite.”

“M-mother found me?” Twilight gulped. “Wake me up now! Please!”

“I’m not sure that would be wise. It would be best to let you wake up naturally. To wake you up now would result in you being very tired for a long while after.” Magic warned.

“I don’t care! Wake me up!” Twilight demanded, stomping her hoof for emphasis.

“Very well…” Magic sighed, lighting their horn. “Just, please, remember to try and find the original Twilight.”

“Will do.” Twilight agreed.

The light on Magic’s horn flared, filling Twilight’s vision. The alicorn felt her legs buckle and then her vision went dark.

Twilight blinked her eyes open. Her vision was blurry, but she could just about make out a pair of worried teal eyes staring down at her.

“Don’t worry, Twilight.”

The voice sounded as if it were coming through water. Twilight groaned softly and attempted to move, but her limbs felt like they were made of lead.

“Sombra will never know of this.”

The eyes seemed to lose their coloured sclera, returning it to white. The dagger-shaped pupils rounded out, forming kind black orbs in a pool of teal.

“It’s time for us to go home.”

Twilight felt herself being lifted off of the ground. She began to float through the air behind the black alicorn as she trotted down the hall. The purple alicorn could do nothing but go limp; her limbs wouldn’t work, her vision was fading and her ears felt as if they were stuffed with cotton.

“To our real home.”

Twilight felt the weight in her head grow heavier.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen it.”

Twilight’s limbs went completely numb.

“It’ll be so nice to see everyone again.”

Twilight’s vision went dark.

“So nice to see… her.”

Twilight’s ears stopped working. She was stuck floating in the air, not seeing or hearing. She could only wait and hope that her senses returned soon.

Twilight felt herself stop suddenly. Her hearing had returned slightly, but everything was still foggy.

“S…ra…” a voice gasped.

“N…ht…e…wha…ng…on…” asked another.

“I…g…ng…h…e…” the first huffed.

“You…re…om…”

“My r…ho…e…”

“You pr…mi…d…”

“I mis…y…frien…s…”

“You don…ne…nds…”

“Frien…s…mag…c…”

“Exc…e…me…”

“Friendship is magic!”

Twilight’s senses returned suddenly. Her ears cleared, granting her the sounds of magic and heavy breathing. Her limbs woke up, allowing her to spin in the air and face the noise. Her eyes began to work, giving her a clear image. Her father stood at one end of the hallway, magic flaring. Her mother was levitating her above her head as she stared down her husband.

But there was something different about the black alicorn. Her eyes looked like a regular pony’s. Her black coat was lighter than usual. Her mane, once made of untamed mist, now flowed with stars in an almost orderly way.

“Nightmare, we made a deal!” Sombra growled.

“Forget the deal! It has brought me nothing but pain!” Nightmare hissed.

Twilight froze. She knew her parents had only been together for a very short time before she was born. Which meant that the deal had been made whilst she was still growing.

“I thought you loved her.”

Twilight could feel her heart break. She only brought her mother pain?

“Of course I do. But I cannot look at her without being filled with either rage or grief!”

The purple alicorn went limp. Her thoughts clouded and her eyes filled with moisture.

“This is your last chance to turn back. If you leave here, you’re never coming back!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’m taking the Twilights with me!” This time Sombra didn’t answer. The two dark-furred ponies continued to stare at each other, hatred and sadness in their eyes.

Twilight sniffed, blinked, and let the first tear fall. Everything seemed to slow down. The tear hit the ground with a small splash. The field of magic around Twilight cut out as a beam of dark magic shot towards Nightmare. The purple alicorn hit the ground with a thud.

Twilight heard her heart beating in her ears. She could feel pressure bearing down on her head. Her regalia felt oddly tight, as if not made for her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see flashes of blue, purple, black magic. More than once she smelt burning skin. More than once she swore she could feel blood falling around her.

But there was one thing that cut through the haze. One thing that cleared her mind and brought fresh tears to her eyes. The sound of her mother screaming.

Twilight jumped to her hooves as the dark alicorn fell before her. The taller alicorn hit the ground. She was burnt in multiple places. Her horn was blackened. Her eyes were dull and her mane stopped flowing, instead hanging limp. There was a large, black patch at her throat. She was breathing heavily, eyes wide.

“T-twilight…” Nightmare gasped. “R-run…”

Twilight froze. Her mother’s breath slowed and her eyes closed. Twilight looked up. Her father was glaring at her, magic flaring.

“I should’ve known.” He grunted.

“Y-you… you k-killed her…” Twilight panted.

“Not really, but in some way, yes.” Sombra confirmed calmly.

“You k-killed her…”

“Mostly.”

“You killed her.”

“Would you please stop stating the obvious?”

Twilight began to shake. Her magic flared and her dagger-shaped pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Her mane began to flow, and her entire body began to glow. “You. Killed. Her.”

Sombra suddenly looked unsure. The dark stallion took a single step backwards.

“You killed her!” Twilight shrieked. The alicorn mare’s coat turned pure white. Her eyes glowed red. Her mane turned to fire, which roared with anger. Her magic turned from its usual calm magenta to an angry red. Magic began to leak from her horn, swirling around her and lifting her into the air.

Sombra’s eyes widened in surprise as Twilight flew at him. The alicorn’s thoughts clouded, allowing her only one thought: destroy the dark unicorn.

Sombra leapt to the side as Twilight crashed into the ground. The white mare turned, magic flaring even more. Spell after spell was fired at the dark unicorn, some lethal. But without proper aim or purpose, the spells all missed. Sombra felt himself slowing, however. He knew it wouldn’t be long until he was hit.

Twilight screeched as she completely lost control of her magic. Red aura flooded from her horn, filling the hall with eerie light. Twilight felt the pain running through her horn, her head, into her entire body. Her fiery mane burned hotter, singing the mare who wore it. Tears filled her eyes, but didn’t get the chance to leave them as her magic tried to return to her. The red aura surrounded Twilight, forcing pressure on her body and eliciting a scream from her lips. Sombra was smart enough to teleport away as the side of the castle collapsed.

Chapter 8

Twilight could feel nothing but pain. The pain filled her entire body, originating from her horn. It felt as if she was being crushed and stretched; burned and frozen; carved and sewn all at once. Every now and then, she would hear screaming. It would confuse her for a moment before she realised it was her own.

The purple mare felt as if she were going mad. The endless pain, the way she refused to feel anything else. Refused… No… She didn’t want to feel like this anymore… She just wanted it to stop!

It took what felt like years, but she did it. She forced away the pain. Finally, she just ached. Her horn still burnt, but it was nothing compared to her previous agony. Twilight continued to simply float in the void, mind blank.

“My… My name is Twilight Sparkle…” she whimpered. “I am the P-princess of Frien- Darkness… My parents are Twil- Queen N-nightmare Moon and Nigh- King Sombra…” She could feel tears filling her eyes. “I am just… just a copy… I’m not a r-real pony…” She had been considering it ever since her talk with Magic. When Princess Luna, disguised as Nightmare Moon, confessed, she knew it was true. “I’m j-just a copy of the original T-twilight…”

The alicorn shook her head furiously, scattering tears into the darkness. She gasped for breath as tears began to flow down her cheeks.

“F-fate… Magic… D-destiny? S-something is giving me a ch-chance to… to become the r-real Twilight…” she sobbed. “B-but I don’t want to replace her! I w-want to help Magic! I w-want to m-make her whole again! I… I… I w-want to… to…”

Twilight’s eyes opened wider as the realisation hit her. The void seemed to brighten, glowing a light blue and sparkling with stars. Her horn began to glow brightly.

“I want to be my own pony.” She murmured. “I don’t want to be a replacement, or a weapon, or a copy. I just want to be somepony who can make their own decisions, instead of being guided through every stage of my life! Especially if I’m being guided to kill ponies that are simply being guided as I am!”

The alicorn’s horn began to glow brighter. She cried out as her pain returned. It flowed from her head, down her back, into every limb. She heard a scream and then her vision went black.

When Twilight opened her eyes the first thing she saw was dark crystals. Hundreds of the things had fallen around her. A few smaller ones lay on top of her. She shrugged them off and rose to her hooves. One of her horseshoes had been knocked clean off, and her crown lay on the ground in front of her. A quick burst of magic returned both items to her.

The alicorn looked around for a moment before her gaze rested on an unmoving, dark blue shape.

“M-mother!” Twilight gasped. She began to run forward, only to stop as waves of pain rolled up her wing. She screeched in shock and pain as blood began to drip from her wing.

The alicorn hesitantly looked back at her wing. The feathered limb was trapped between some fallen crystals. It was pinned to the point where she could stand comfortably, but by jumping forward she had ripped part of her wing.

Twilight began to hyperventilate. Her wing was laying, mangled in front of her. She tried to focus her magic, but whenever she tried to shift the rock her wing screamed in protest. The alicorn finally gave up and simply collapsed. She continued to stare at her ruined wing as blood dripped to the ground. Tears filled her eyes and small sobs escaped her.

After what seemed like an eternity, Twilight’s ears perked. She could hear hoofsteps. She whimpered and lowered her head even more.

The alicorn was surprised when a blue aura surrounded the crystal trapping her wing. She was equally surprised when a purple wing gently turned her head away from the sight. She understood why a second later as pain filled the right side of her body, accompanied by a sickening crunch.

Twilight screamed in pain. Her horn sputtered, sending sparks of magic flying. The purple wing flinched as magic struck its owner. The alicorn panted heavily as her wing fell limply to her side. A small pool of blood had gathered under the feathered limb, resulting in a red-stained wing.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” asked the purple pegasus beside her.

“C-comet Trail?” Twilight whimpered as blue magic surrounded her injured wing.

“Right here.” He assured her.

Twilight screamed again as her wing was folded to her side. Some of her feathers were trapped in a bandage that wrapped around the frame of her wing.

“Not my best work but we don’t have much time.” Night Watch mused as she used another bandage to pin the wing to Twilight’s side.

“Wh-why… wh-what about f-father?” Twilight panted.

The two guards exchanged a quick glance.

“Well…” Comet frowned. “The king came back to the throne room looking a little worse for wear. He explained that the queen had betrayed him, and that if anypony were to find her-”

“Or you.” Night added.

“-They should attack, and kill if need be.” Comet finished.

Twilight squeaked in fear, burying her head in her hooves.

“It’s okay ma’am. We’re going to help you out of this.” Night assured her.

“B-but why?” Twilight whimpered.

“It’s like you said, ma’am.” Comet smiled. “We’ve been with you since you were a foal!”

Twilight looked up at the pegasus accusingly. “But you’ve been here even longer, haven’t you? And possibly Night Watch too, considering she’s your sister. I bet you joined the royal guard together, didn’t you? And then when Comet went missing, Night came after him and got captured too!”

The guards recoiled, visibly terrified.

“H-how did you know about that?” Night gasped.

“The old Twilight’s Element is now mine… But I don’t want it or the memories that come with it but that’s not important right now because we need to get mother and get out of here before the guards start searching the rubble!” Twilight insisted.

“Good idea.” Comet agreed. The two guards leant down and got their shoulders beneath the alicorn. Once Twilight was standing, Night broke away and trotted over to Nightmare.

Soon the group was traveling away from the wreckage, out into the Badlands.

“Are you sure you don’t want any help, Night? I know for a fact that when levitating something you feel part of the weight of it. For a pony of your size, carrying an alicorn must be hard.” Twilight worried.

“I-it’s fine, ma’am.” Night winced as she trudged onwards.

“Um, no offense, ma’am, but do we have a goal?” Comet asked.

“Yes, actually.” Twilight sighed. “We’re heading towards the edge of our territory. Once there we will search for Celestrians and have them take us straight to Celestia.”

“Wh-what? But why?” Comet gasped.

“I thought that news would make you happy.” Twilight frowned. “We’re going home, after all.”

The pegasus looked away guiltily. His wings drooped a little. Twilight sighed sadly. It was going to be a long trip.

After what seemed like hours, Twilight felt the magic in the air change. Instead of the heavy pressure of dark magic, there was the light breeze of Celestrian magic. Despite her doubts, Twilight felt a small smile playing at the edges of her muzzle. She had no idea how Celestia, or any of the other ponies there would react. Maybe they would welcome her and celebrate the return of their princess. Or maybe they would recognise her as an imposter and have her banished. Or thrown in a dungeon. Or banished and then thrown into a dungeon in the place she was banished to.

Twilight shook her head to clear it as they neared a stream. She glanced back at her companions with uncertainty.

“I’ll take mother.” The alicorn decided, stealing the dark alicorn from Night’s magical grasp.

The unicorn attempted to take her back, but she stood no chance against alicorn magic. Hesitantly, she allowed Comet to lift her up and over the water. Twilight was about to follow when she remembered her wing. In the end she settled on self-levitation, lifting herself across the water and touching down gently on the other side.

“Now what do we do?” Night frowned.

“We wait.” Twilight stated calmly. She lay Nightmare down beside the stream and sat next to her.

The first thing they expected to see was some of the royal guards. What they didn’t expect was a green explosion a few miles away.

“Should we check that out, or…” Comet trailed off uncertainly.

“We probably should.” Twilight decided.

The group found themselves looking down into a valley, which Twilight recognised as the one from her vision. Batponies were fighting furiously against a small army of changelings. Leading them was none other than Queen Chrysalis herself.

“What’s going on down there?” Night asked. “Why would the changelings just suddenly attack?”

“Well, for one, they’re on Celestia’s side.” Twilight mused. “And two, they probably sensed the love I gave to Nightlock and came looking for her.”

“Why would you give Sha- um, Nightlock love?” Comet frowned.

“She would’ve died otherwise.” Twilight sighed.

“So what?”

Twilight really had no idea. “So… nothing. It just didn’t seem right to leave her.”

“Fair enough.” Comet snorted.

The battle seemed to be fairly well matched. Batponies and changelings fell on both sides, and neither seemed to be winning.

“We should probably head back to the river.” Twilight decided, backing away from the edge.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Claimed a voice behind her.

Twilight began to turn around, only to fall as a blast of magic hit her square in the side. She shrieked in pain as she fell on her wing, crushing the twisted limb beneath her weight.

Night and Comet quickly fell beside her, blue magic striking them.

“So sorry darling.” The voice sighed.

“Don’t feel sorry, Sugarcube. They probably deserve it.” Another reassured them.

Best idea ever, Twilight. Check out an active battlefield, of course there’s going to be guards! Twilight scolded herself.

The alicorn could only watch as she was lifted into the air and carried away. It didn’t take long for her vision to start blurring.

I r-really need to stop passing out so much… Twilight thought as her world slipped away.

Chapter 9

Twilight groaned her pain as she awoke to the void. The alicorn felt the urge to scream her frustration and anger, but there was nopony around to hear it. So instead she just let herself go limp and float through the darkness. At least, until the blackness turned to the bright blue from before. The purple mare turned just in time to land on her hooves, despite the lack of visible ground beneath her.

“I told you it was a bad idea to wake you up.”

The alicorn blinked and suddenly a translucent version of herself appeared before her.

“Magic, I-I’m sorry.” Twilight sighed, looking away from her double.

“Sorry? What for?” the Element frowned. “You got pretty far, all things considered.”

“There was n-no time for me to look for the other Twilight!” the alicorn explained.

“I expected as much.” Magic admitted.

“Well, of course you were. You warned me but I woke up anyway! If I had just waited like you told me to than I could have looked for her properly instead of just those few moments when I was actually thinking.” Twilight growled, looking back at the other alicorn. As she flashed her fangs, she realised that Magic did not have them. Nor did she have dagger-like pupils. Was she still based off of the original Twilight?

Magic’s eyes seemed to sadden. “Don’t act as if this is your fault. This is nobody’s fault but your father’s. If you… wish to call him that anymore, of course.”

“Yeah… he’s my father. But he’s not Twilight’s father. He’s the father of a copy without the true power of the Princess of Friendship and the Element of Magic. He’s the father of a fake. A clone. A… a-” her voice was cut off when Magic pressed a translucent hoof gently to her muzzle. She hadn’t even realised that she was crying until the Element brushed the tears away.

“Twilight, finding your original doesn’t matter right now. What matters is you convincing them that you have good intentions.” Magic told her calmly.

“Who?”

“Your… her friends.”

That was the last thing Twilight heard before her vision went black again. She felt like she was falling. But there was ground beneath her too. Her wing hurt. Why did her wing hurt? Why were there… voices?

Twilight was vaguely aware of being dumped unceremoniously onto a plank of wood. She could feel something wrap around her hooves. She had no idea how long she stayed in this state of half-consciousness.

At one point she felt her left wing spread out and examined. Her injured one stayed pinned to her side, but it throbbed with pain anyway. Sometime later something made of cool metal slid over her horn, crackling with magic. Her ear twitched and she realised she was coming to.

“Ugh… wh-who… wh-what happened?” she groaned.

Twilight opened her eyes a little to see… nothing. The room she was in was small, although she couldn’t really tell because it was so dark. She turned her head to her limbs, to find her legs tied to the wood she lay on. Her uninjured left wing was spread and pinned down, whilst her right stayed bandaged to her side.

“Oh my gosh! Dashie, she’s awake!” a high-pitched voice gasped.

“About time!” another grumbled.

Twilight’s ear twitched again; she’d heard that voice before. Recently, too.

“You have any idea how long we’ve been waiting for you to wake up, you faker?” The words were emphasised by a magenta-eyed blue face appearing in front of her. The face was bruised and cut. The rainbow mane atop it was messed and dirtied. A scar ran across one of her eyes. Little things that you wouldn’t normally notice, thanks to her helmet.

Twilight flinched as Rainbow snorted in her face. It was at this point she realised that the plank she lay on was actually vertical.

“It was hard enough getting you down here.” She growled. “But keeping you down here for this long without the princess knowing was near impossible!” The pegasus turned and stalked away, smacking Twilight in the face with her tail as she disappeared into darkness. “It better be worth it.”

“Sorry about Dashie being so grumpy.” The high-pitched voice sighed as its owner emerged. The pink earth pony’s mane was limp, but still possessed a few curls. For some reason Twilight found this fact relieving. “She’s just mad because you look like our super duper best friend Twilight!”

“But she isn’t Twilight!” Rainbow huffed. “She’s got fangs and dragon eyes and she reeks of dark magic.”

The pink pony glared into the darkness behind her before trotting closer to Twilight. Her voice grew more serious, losing the former childishness. “I know she isn’t the same Twilight, Dash, but she’s the closest we could get!”

“Whatever, Pinkie. I’m gonna go get Rares and AJ. Flutters’ still assisting the changelings, so I’ll just send a guard for her.” Rainbow’s words were accompanied by the flapping of wings and the slamming of a door.

“Well she’s a grumpy grump.” Pinkie sighed. “Sorry about that. Usually she’s really nice and wouldn’t tie you up but since you look like Twilight she was suspicious.”

Twilight just stared down at the earth pony as she fiddled with the bonds on her wing. The alicorn suddenly began to cough violently, her horn sputtering magic through the restrictor.

Pinkie looked up in surprise as a few sparks landed in her mane. “Um… I’m guessing you’d like some water?”

The purple mare paused for a deep breath before nodding. She flinched backwards as Pinkie produced a glass of water from nowhere and held it to her lips. The earth pony tipped the glass up slightly, allowing Twilight to drink.

The two ponies jumped as the door flew open again. Pinkie trotted back into the darkness, while Twilight was shaking her head, scattering droplets of water everywhere.

“-still can’t believe I was actually able to cast a stun spell!” claimed a regal voice. “Three at once, no less.”

“Well, you have been practising magic for three… four years now.” Rainbow huffed. “Ever since Twi went missing.”

The first Twilight went missing four years ago? Something about that… it didn’t add up.

“Well, no matter how she did it, she got us two guards and the imposter!” Another voice claimed with a country accent.

Twilight was getting sick of that. “I’m not an imposter!” she growled, actually able to talk now that she’d had a drink.

“Then why do you look like Twilight?” Rainbow hissed as she trotted back into view.

“I don’t-” the alicorn bit her tongue to stop herself. She did know. Kind of. And wasn’t Honesty one of the Elements? Whoever represented it would be able to see through her lie.

“Rainbow Dash, darling, calm down.” The regal voice sighed.

Twilight flinched as an orange earth pony appeared before her. Green eyes stared deeply into her own, searching for something.

“She ain’t lyin’. She ain’t an imposter.” The country pony decided, looking back at her friends.

“How is that possible?” asked a white unicorn as she trotted forwards. It took only seconds to recognise her. She had teleported Celestia’s army away. She had allowed them to escape before she could finish that stupid rainbow pegasus off.

The two ponies before her looked up suddenly and backed away as her horn sparked. Twilight could feel the restrictor fighting back. She could feel the pain shooting through her skull as it fought too hard.

“What the buck?!” Rainbow shouted.

“Rainbow, watch your language!” the white unicorn gasped.

“How strong is this faker?” the pegasus hissed.

“Don’t matter. Just go get another restrictor.” The cowpony told her calmly.

Twilight could feel her magic beginning to slip through the restrictor. She could feel it starting chip away at the defences. She could feel the restrictor breaking! She could feel pain. So much pain as a second, stronger restrictor covered her horn. The pain shot through her head, the shock disabling her.

“That should do it.” Rainbow sighed. Twilight forced her eyes open in time to see the pegasus dropping to the ground again. The blue mare glared up at the alicorn before walking out of view.

“If she isn’t an imposter, then what are we supposed to do with her?” Pinkie mused, trotting forwards with bright eyes.

All ponies in the room jumped as the door slammed open again.

“I’ll tell you what you can do.” A calm voice announced.

Pinkie’s eyes filled with fear, although everypony else just looked relieved.

“You can untie the ‘imposter’.” Ordered a pale yellow pegasus as she walked up to Twilight. Her pink mane was cut short and styled to cover her right eye. Scars covered the bridge of her muzzle. Her dulled cyan eyes were cold and calculating, taking in every detail of Twilight’s face in seconds.

“B-but Fluttershy-”

“No buts, Rainbow. She has two restrictors and cannot fly. She is no threat to us.” Fluttershy stated in that same calm tone that now sent shivers down Twilight’s spine.

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie. The earth pony’s eyes seemed to say sorry, as if she didn’t want Twilight to have to endure… whatever this pegasus was going to do. There was also thinly veiled fear. Pinkie was actually afraid of her friend.

Rainbow returned and began fiddling with Twilight’s bonds. Despite Fluttershy’s reasoning, she still made it as awkward for Twilight as she could. She undid her forelegs and wing first, and then her hindlegs, leading to her smacking her face into the stone floor and laying there until she was freed.

“Stand up.” Fluttershy commanded.

Twilight wanted to jump up and yell at the pegasus for daring to speak to royalty like that. She wanted to break out of her restrictors and flee the scene. She wanted to retrieve her sword and slaughter every last pony in the castle to rescue her mother. But the yellow pegasus’ voice trampled all over those thoughts. It made her want to curl up in a corner and cry about everything that went wrong in her life.

The alicorn forced herself to gather her thoughts. She forced strength into her legs and forced herself to stand. She looked down into Fluttershy’s eyes, fearful of looking away. Despite her being taller than the pegasus, the yellow mare’s gaze made her feel like she was a filly, staring up into her mother’s eyes the first time she angered the black alicorn.

The purple mare expected to be slapped or kicked or harmed in any way, really. Instead, Fluttershy reached up, slung her foreleg about Twilight’s neck and pulled her into a hug. What she expected even less, however, was for herself to start crying. She couldn’t help it.

Twilight couldn’t stop the tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t even know why they were there. She didn’t even know this pony. Did she? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was crying away all of her problems into this mare’s shoulder.

Chapter 10

Twilight did eventually calm herself, and when she pulled away Fluttershy’s eyes had changed. When she first saw the pegasus they had been hard and cruel. Now they had warmed, showing compassion and care. Twilight felt like shedding more tears at this fact alone. The alicorn would’ve been content to just stay there and take in this mare’s warmth and kindness forever. And she would have done so, if it wasn’t for-

“Fluttershy! What are you doing?” Rainbow yelled, voice cracking in her anger.

And just like that the kindness in Fluttershy’s eyes disappeared. That little shine in the corner of her eyes dulled. Her slight smile fell, restoring her cold; cruel look. The pegasus shook her head a little as she took a few steps backward. Away from Twilight.

The alicorn wanted to follow her, to beg to have… whatever that was again. That sense of security. That feeling that she could trust the pegasus with her life. It felt… nice to have somepony caring for you. Somepony who didn’t really have to, but did anyway just because they want to. Twilight had done something and now she would never feel that again.

“What are we supposed to do with her now, anyway?” Pinkie asked nervously. The pink mare looked visibly shaken, for some reason.

Fluttershy glanced at the earth pony with mild surprise. The pegasus seemed a little unsure herself, but she sounded confident when she ordered, “We take her to the princess.”

“What? But she’ll be mad at us for lying to her!” Rainbow argued, wings flaring.

“Not if we tell her the truth.” Fluttershy growled, spooking everypony in the room. “That our ‘imposter’ turned herself in.”

“H-how do you know that?” Twilight asked, immediately regretting it. Everypony except for Fluttershy herself turned to her with harsh glares. Twilight suddenly felt like she was a little filly again – had she spoken when she wasn’t supposed to? Why did she even care? She hated these ponies! Right?

“That’s not important.” Fluttershy insisted, turning her back to Twilight and trotting away. “Rarity, knock her out again.”

The white unicorn looked a little surprised, but nodded anyway.

Twilight didn’t understand. A moment ago Fluttershy had been comforting her and looking at her with kindness and a smile. Now the pegasus had ordered for her to be knocked out and thrown at a tyrant’s hooves.

This pegasus had betrayed her.

“N-no!” Twilight pleaded, stumbling towards the pegasus.

The yellow mare hesitated, but didn’t look back.

“F-fluttershy, right?” Twilight gasped, struggling to stay standing. “Y-you believe me, right? You have to believe me!”

Fluttershy stopped walking away. A quick flick of her tail summoned Rainbow to her side.

“I-I can tell you about Twilight!” she begged.

The pegasus froze. The orange earth pony crept over to her and whispered something into the yellow mare’s ear.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat as Fluttershy turned back to her. The pegasus walked slowly to the alicorn and stopped before her. Twilight collapsed, legs giving out beneath the mare’s harsh stare.

Fluttershy held out a hoof, and Twilight braced herself for the strike. Instead, the hoof very gently lifted her head so that her gaze met the pegasus’. The yellow mare was smiling warmly with kind eyes. When she smiled like that, the cluster of scars on her muzzle seemed to disappear, blending into her fur thanks to the crease of her muzzle. Her eyes would sparkle a little and she would offer kind words and feelings. It was… familiar.

Despite her unease, Twilight melted into the other mare’s touch. It was comforting to have somepony who cared about you. It was… nice. She stared up into Fluttershy’s eyes in relief, a small smile slipping onto her own face.

The sudden change in Fluttershy’s eyes was the only warning Twilight received before pain exploded through her cheek. The alicorn’s head smacked into the ground, where she lay, trying to comprehend what just happened.

The side of her face stung. Already she could feel a bruise forming beneath her fur. Wh-what?

“Don’t. Lie to me.” Fluttershy growled before turning and storming away.

Twilight choked back a sob. She’d screwed up. The one pony who’d been kind to her… now hated her. She felt like curling into a ball and crying for hours. She felt like screaming and smashing everything around her.

The alicorn had felt like this a few times before. She always had two specific reactions. She would either break down crying in her grief, or let loose with magic and destroy everything around her in her rage.

She had no tears left.

She could feel her magic screaming at her. This was not a rage-shift. It was much, much worse. This was her emotions, taking over her magic and striking out at everything that caused her harm. It wasn’t a good thing, but she felt like she was one with her anger and sorrow.

She was one with her magic.

Magic looked around calmly. The five ponies before her were staring at her in shock and fear. Didn’t anypony tell them it was rude to stare? A quick slash of raspberry sent two of them flying. The white one smacked harshly into a wall. The orange one skidded along the floor before coming to rest in a corner.

The blue one reacted first, taking to the air and flying straight towards Magic. A quick burst of the alicorn’s namesake froze their wings and sent them crashing into the floor. Magic smiled slightly as they attempted to stand back up. Another flash slammed the blue one back into the ground with a crack.

Magic turned back to the other two ponies. The pink one had stopped staring and was now cowering, hiding her face beneath her hooves. The yellow one was still staring, but she had shifted to a more defensive stance.

The alicorn readied a spell, but a small voice in her head began to object.

Please, stop this!

Magic cancelled the spell and listened closer.

They haven’t done anything! Yet… a-and the pink one was nice to us!

Who was this little voice? They sounded familiar. Like an old friend you hadn’t seen in years.

Magic shook her head. This little voice had no say over what she did. The yellow one had hurt them and now she had to pay.

You didn’t do this when Sombra hurt mother!

Magic didn’t care… She didn’t care! Her horn flared, and the pink one flew across the room. The alicorn strode forward until she towered over the yellow one. The second their eyes locked she felt like an ant.

Magic was terrified to look away from this pegasus. She was terrified of this pony, who was only up to her neck. She was terrified to focus on anything else.

Fluttershy noticed this and began to slowly back away. Magic wanted to run after her and strike her down, but the yellow mare kept their eyes locked. The alicorn couldn’t help but wonder where the mare had gotten this power. Actually, wait… it wasn’t any sort of magic. When Fluttershy had locked eyes with her friends, they froze in fear. When she locked eyes with Magic… Twilight… ugh… her head was starting her hurt…

You can still stop this…

No!

It doesn’t have to be like this…

Are you stuck in there?

I don’t like it either.

Then let’s work together.

…

I’ll take that as a yes.

Fluttershy forced herself to break eye contact with the alicorn. Wh-why did looking at her make her feel like that? It made her feel weak, and protected, and strong all at the same time. It made her feel like the war had only just started, like she had only just c-

NO! This wasn’t Twilight! That was some creature of dark magic and evil and hatred and… and… hope. Hope that she had just murdered. Hope that, when broken, would unleash its anger on the world.

The pegasus turned and ran with tears in her eyes. Her numb hooves carried her through the door, which had flown open in the magic storm, and up the stairs behind it. From what she could tell, her gaze had frozen the imposter, the same way the imposter’s did to her. She hadn’t even been using The Stare!

Sure enough, a beam of magic shot towards her just moments later. Her instincts and training kicked in, allowing her to duck and roll underneath the raspberry laser. The pegasus turned her head to see the imposter standing in the stairway, horn ablaze and eyes flaming.

Fluttershy brushed a bit of short pink hair behind her ear and smirked. She stood her tallest and tensed her wings. “Come at me.”

The next blast of magic soared over her head as she ducked under it. It smashed into the wall behind her and exploded. The pegasus easily leapt over another laser that ripped up the tiled floor beneath her. As she landed, she tore her gaze away from her assailant and focused on a door at the end of the hall. Her sword lay within it, along with her armour and Element of Harmony.

The pegasus turned back to the imposter, taking a deep breath. She shifted her stance to something more suited for speed. A beam of raspberry magic threatened to take her head off of her shoulders. Fluttershy jumped up, turning in the air and flapping her wings. She shot down the hallway like a bullet, dodging magical attacks from behind that dared to believe they could kill her.

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and tucked in her wings. She lowered her head and curled up. She bowled through the door to her room and landed harshly next to her bed. The pegasus recovered in seconds and dodged to the side as a laser shot through the door and destroyed her bed. She cursed and flattened herself to the floor as another beam took out the walls.

“Where are the guards?” she hissed angrily, standing and running for her amour. Unlike the other Elements, she’d ‘customised’ her armour stand. Most of the supports had been ripped out, leaving only a few beams of wood holding up the amour. She’d done it for exactly this reason.

Fluttershy easily stole her helmet from the stand and dropped it onto her head, not even bothering to tuck in her mane. With practised ease her hind hooves landed in their boots as her forelegs took her breastplate from the stand. She slipped it around her front and dropped her front hooves into their guards. With her armour donned, the pegasus darted away from the stand and to the chest beside the window.

Armoured hooves opened the lid to reveal a weapon and a necklace. Fluttershy barely had time to take them before she was blown out of the window.

Magic smirked as her hit landed. The voice in her head whimpered a little, but continued to feed her their magic anyway. The alicorn strode forward confidently, kicking aside the melted door and stopping beside the window. The bedroom had been quite lovely before she’d attacked it. A real shame, honestly. But there were more important matters to take care of.

The purple mare glanced through the window to the gardens below. Fluttershy’s limp form was surrounded by a group of Celestia’s guards. Magic groaned inwardly and cleared the broken glass in the windowsill. She then climbed onto the sill and leapt into the gardens below.

Magic landed directly on the first guard’s back, snapping his spine. He died within seconds. The other guards continued to stare at her for a moment before lunging forward with their spears. Magic rolled her eyes. The guards were lifted in her magic and thrown away like dolls.
The alicorn strode up to the pegasus’ limp form and lifted it in her magic.

As she floated upwards, Fluttershy’s eyes fluttered open. The formerly calm cyan orbs were now panicked and fearful. Magic wanted to stop and slap herself for making the pegasus feel like that, but she forced herself to stay put.

“Y-you’re not going to get away with this!” Fluttershy breathed, defiant till the end.

Now that was odd. Some part of Magic felt like the pegasus wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be kind and quiet and caring. Not… cold and cruel.

Magic felt her grip loosen slightly as her thoughts scrambled. The pegasus took the opportunity and kicked away from the alicorn, flipping and landing firmly a few feet away.

The alicorn cursed her foolishness as she charged another spell. Fluttershy lowered her body. The beam fired and the pegasus easily cleared it, galloping away as soon as she landed. Magic growled before giving chase.

Twilight screamed and pounded on the invisible walls of her colourless prison. The darkness of the void was suffocating. Why couldn’t Magic have left her in the blue void? At least that place had light. She had tried endlessly to stop feeding the Element her magic, but after she had started it was impossible to stop.

The purple mare sobbed as her protests began to die out. Her throat was sore and her magic reserves were running low. Eventually she let herself just sink to the floor. She sniffed and cried into her forelegs as she lay there, oblivious to how much time was passing. She couldn’t even see what was happening around her. She could just tell what her magic was being used for.

Looking up into the blackness, Twilight couldn’t help thinking about what had really happen to the first Twilight. It was why Magic was so mad, and she didn’t have much else to do in here, so it kept coming to mind.

Twilight already knew she was somehow copied from the original Twilight. She had already come to terms with it. The questions now were: how was it done, and when?

The original Twilight had gone missing four years ago, but the new one was a fully-grown adult. Unless… she had heard of age spells before. Accelerating or reversing a pony’s growth. And she had heard of memory spells. Giving somepony fake memories or taking them away. If somepony combined the two… they could turn a foal into an adult without them ever knowing.

Twilight had been expecting something bad, but it still hurt. She wasn’t just a copy. She was a fake pony. She didn’t have a childhood, or a past, or real memories.

Despite the depression it forced on her, it also gave Twilight purpose. She had no backstory. She would find the original Twilight and learn hers. She would give her life back. She would give the original her life back.

But first she had to escape her own mind.

Fluttershy panted as she galloped down the hallway. The throne room was just a few turns away. A bang sounded behind her and she leapt into the air. The beam of magic passed beneath her and tore up some of the floor.

The pegasus landed and took off again, cursing as she dodged more blasts of magic. She was starting to tire.

There! The door to the throne room! Just a little further…

A silenced blast of magic struck her from behind, sending her flying and smacking into the door. The pegasus forced herself up on her forelegs, spitting a little blood. A tug on her tail stole her legs from under her and slammed her chin against the ground.

Fluttershy turned her head and glared up at her assailant. The alicorn was staring down at her with cold, hard eyes. A single purple hoof rested against the pegasus’ back, forcing her into the ground. The yellow mare grunted from the pain of the pressure. The alicorn smiled.

“No!”

Fluttershy blinked. The word had come from the alicorn’s own mouth. The hoof lifted from the pegasus’ back as the purple mare stumbled backwards.

“What are you doing?”

The pegasus continued to stare in confusion as the door opened behind her.

“I won’t let you do this anymore! I know you’re desperate, but this isn’t the way!”

Fluttershy didn’t even react as she was lifted by a golden aura.

“What do you know? I’ve been around for millennium!”

The pegasus didn’t even struggle as she was hidden beneath a soft white wing. All of her attention was on the inwardly conflicting alicorn.

“I know that I am not your bearer.”

Fluttershy didn’t care when her vision was blocked and the ground fell out from beneath her.

Chapter 12

Twilight didn’t remember much. She remembered… losing control of her magic, and feeling insanely powerful. She remembered intense pain as her mind fought itself. She remembered… Fluttershy. There was so much to remember about that mare. Merging with Magic had given her an avalanche of the original Twilight’s memories, most of them very recent and including the yellow pegasus. Twilight-

Ugh, it was going to get confusing, referring to both herself and the original as Twilight. She’d have to think of a name for herself later. Right now, her thoughts were too muddled.

Anyway, Twilight had to wonder why Fluttershy had that effect on her. She had just looked into her eyes and suddenly ceased to function, even as Magic. And yet, the more she thought about it, the greater the pain in her head.

Midnight.

Where did that come from? Was that her? Magic? Fluttershy? No… why would Fluttershy be talking to her? Actually… she remembered being thrown around. And then the yellow pegasus appeared. And then the black crystals- no! That was one of the old Twilight’s memories.

No. Fluttershy had come to her… her cell. And she had been scared. But why? And then she’d left. Ugh, this was so confusing! Was the memory of rage-shifting from her or the original?

Midnight.

Okay who said that?

Twilight tried to scream as a pony popped into existence beside her. She stared at the pony fearfully, recognising the translucent alicorn.

“Midnight.” Magic sighed mournfully. “That’s what Luna wanted to call you. But Sombra was determined.”

Twilight gulped and stood up again, unable to recall sitting down. “Why are you telling me this? Wait, why are you here?”

“I’m telling you because you deserve to know before you die. And I’m here because I’m stuck here.” Magic explained. “You weren’t able to find Twilight, so now I’m trapped in your head.”

“Great.” Twilight groaned. “I should’ve just listened to you the first time. I should’ve found the original. Ugh, I don’t deserve her name. She was way more organised… How do I know this?”

“You should never listen to me.” Magic frowned guiltily. “And if you feel you don’t want her name, then stop using it. As for why you suddenly know things about her…” the Element looked uncertain, as if not sure where to start. “I’m linked to Twilight and her magic. I have most of her memories, at least from after she found me. So when we… fused? When we fused, you saw a lot of those memories.”

“Well I don’t want them! I don’t want you! I don’t want anything to do with Twilight!” Twilight exclaimed suddenly. “I want to be my own pony! And if that means turning back into a foal just so that I can grow up for real, then so be it!”

“Don’t say that. It would take at least two alicorns worth of magic to undo the spells Luna and Sombra cast!” Magic warned her.

“Well then I just need to find one more alicorn willing to help me!” Twi… Midnight yelled, eyes wide and pleading. “There has to be somepony willing!”

Magic stared at her, eyes brimming with emotion. The Element sighed and looked away before muttering, “There is one pony who might be willing. They’re not an alicorn, but they once held their own against Twilight.”

“Where can I find her?” Midnight asked desperately.

Magic hesitated before giving in. “You will find her in Twilight’s old castle in Ponyville. Granted, you’ll have to escape the dungeon first.”

“Done.” Midnight smirked.

Fluttershy didn’t remember much. She just been in the dungeons, about to open the door to Luna’s cell, when something crashed into her back and sent her sprawling on the ground. The pegasus assumed it was magic, but who could use it? The imposter had a magic restrictor, the other prisoners were much further down the hallway and she had been watching Luna, so it couldn’t have been her.

Right now she was laying spread-eagle on the ground while her assailant trotted calmly away. Part of her short pink mane covered her right eye and one of her wings was trapped beneath her. She tried to move and stand up, only to find her legs and wings unresponsive. Bucking stun spells!

Midnight waited patiently in the dark corner of the dungeons while her magic recharged. She may have been powerful, but destroying a magic restrictor was taxing. The tip of her horn was charred slightly, betraying her burnout to anypony lucky enough to spot her. Which was nopony. For some reason her coat blended well with the shadows.

So how do I teleport to the castle if I’ve never been there? Midnight asked Magic, concerned as to whether the spell would work.

Hold on… here. This memory is from when Twilight first saw the castle. Magic explained, bringing an image of a tall, tree-like crystal castle to the front of her bearer’s mind.

Midnight was still unsure it would work, but obliged anyway. The second she could channel magic again, she was gone.

Starlight stared sadly down at the picture between her hooves. It was an image of her with her closest friends. She had gone with them when they moved to Canterlot to help with the war. When Twilight disappeared, she moved back to take care of the castle. But then Spike grew wings and went to help with the war, leaving her alone.

She had continued to practice magic even after that, just in case the need for her to use it would eventually arrive. But for four years, it didn’t. And it probably wouldn’t. I mean, what were the chances that Twilight would teleport to the castle and ask her to cast some crazy alicorn spell? Pretty high apparently.

Starlight stared through the window of her room down to the ground outside. Standing just outside the door was a tall purple alicorn was a dark blue streaked mane. From this height she could only just see the alicorn’s narrowed pupils and fangs.

“T-Twilight?” Starlight murmured, eyes brimming with emotion.

As if she had heard the unicorn, Twilight’s head turned to the window, which Starlight quickly ducked below. The unicorn let out a squeak as the room filled with a burst of stars, fading to reveal the purple alicorn.

“Starlight, right?” Twilight asked, reaching out a hoof to the fallen unicorn.

“R-right.” Starlight smiled a little and took the hoof in hers, ready to pull the alicorn into a giant hug. Until she fully took in the dragon eyes and gleaming fangs. “W-wait. Why don’t you know my name? And what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Twilight sighed and pulled the unicorn firmly to her hooves. “My eyes have been like this since I was born. And I don’t know your name because I’ve never met.”

“Twilight, what are you talking about?” Starlight questioned, lighting her horn in case she needed to defend herself.

“I’m not Twilight!” the alicorn growled with a sudden anger, wings flaring. After a moment of silence she took a deep breath, stepped back and folded her wings. “My name is Midnight Sparkle. I am the daughter of Sombra and Nightmare Moon. I am not Twilight Sparkle, although I bear her image.”

“What are you doing here?” Starlight narrowed her eyes warily, pointing her horn at the alicorn. “And if you’re not Twilight, then why do you look like her?”

“So many questions.” Midnight muttered before raising her voice again. “I look like her because of some spells my parents cast on me when I was born, which leads into my next point: I want you to help me undo them.”

“Wh-what? What would you get out of it?” Starlight asked, voice cracking in her fear. “Wouldn’t killing us all be more effective like this?”

“You make too many assumptions.” Midnight hissed. “I’m not like my parents. I just wish to be a normal pony, not a copy of another.”

“A-and why should I help you? You could be lying!” Starlight argued, desperate for some way to get out of this.

“I can help you find Twilight. And I will. You just have to promise that, afterwards, you’ll help undo the spells around me.” Midnight explained, a tiny smile gracing her lips and revealing her fangs.

Starlight froze. This ‘copy’ could help her find the real Twilight? After everything she’d been through the unicorn didn’t want to get her hopes up prematurely, but…

“I’ll do it.” Starlight answered before she even knew what she was saying. Inside her mind, her left brain gave her right brain a big slap for ignoring the ‘stranger danger’ rule.

“Thank you.” Midnight sighed in what appeared to be relief, her smile growing and her eyes lighting up a little; her wings fluttered slightly.

Starlight returned the smile nervously, stopping the flow of magic in her horn. If Midnight saw her as a threat… Starlight may have been powerful, but she doubted she could outdo an alicorn.

“So, how exactly can you help me find Twilight?” the unicorn asked, wanting to make sure she was making a good deal.

“I don’t know her exact location, but I know for a fact that she is somewhere within my c- my parents’ castle.” Midnight told her, frowning as she paused.

“Oh. So, do we teleport, or-” before Starlight could finish, Midnight’s horn lit up and her world disappeared.

“Sorry about that.” Midnight apologised, lifting Starlight to her hooves once again. The unicorn grumbled and nodded in acknowledgement, eyes wary.

The two horned ponies were standing before a large castle of dark crystal, with jagged windows and blood red spires rising from each corner of the cracked roofs. Nearly half of the castle was actually buried beneath rubble, crushed beneath its own weight.

“Did you get attacked by a dragon?” Starlight exclaimed, staring at the collapsed portion of the gloomy castle.

“Actually, that was me.” Midnight admitted coolly. “I get really strong when I rage-shift.”

“Rage-shift?” Starlight repeated, cocking her head to the side.

“Haven’t you ever rage-shifted before?” Midnight questioned, surprised.

I’m not sure that’s even possible. From what Twilight knew of her, she had a bad past. Magic informed her.

“Well, once when I was a filly… I never caused anything like this, though!” Starlight cried, her pupils shrinking.

“Calm down.” Midnight sighed, horn lighting with magic.

“What are you doing?” the unicorn asked worriedly, turning her gaze to the raspberry aura around Midnight’s horn.

“Just grabbing a few things.” Midnight explained vaguely as a hole appeared in space beside her. From within it she took the folder of Twilight’s pictures and Twilight’s sword.

Once both items were in her magic, she began to trot towards the castle, forcing a confused Starlight to follow after her. The alicorn sifted through the images, pausing every now and then to examine one more thoroughly. None truly caught her interest, even those containing Starlight or the ‘new’ version of Fluttershy. Magic instantly answered any question she had, so she felt no need to mention them.

After inspecting each image, she came across a large bunch of texts. She skimmed through each of them, turning to Magic if she had questions, before taking a drawing from the very back and tossing the folder to Starlight. The unicorn squeaked in surprise, catching the folder in her magic just in time.

“How do you have all these?” Starlight asked, eyes wide as she checked the contents. “Especially Twilight’s letters to Celestia!”

“My mother collected them before she fled to the Badlands.” Midnight explained, stopping and looking up at the half-broken doors of the castle. She couldn’t help but feel a little remorseful at the damage she’d caused to her childhood home. She’d spent those three precious, real, years of fillyhood at this place.

“Wow.” Starlight breathed, staring up at the doors and standing on the tips of her hooves as if to see the tops. Then she turned her attention to the side of one of the doors, which was bent and seemingly collapsing. “Are you sure you weren’t attacked by something?”

“Hundred percent.” Midnight assured her, glancing down at the final sheet. It was a detailed sketch of the castle’s blueprints, which she had seen multiple times before in both her real and fake memories. However, this version had an extra scribble leading from the dungeon further down into the ground. All Midnight could really make out was a hidden tunnel, but she was pretty sure she knew where Twilight was. Of course, having never seen it before, she couldn’t actually teleport there. In fact, she’d never even been to that part of the dungeon before. Which meant that they’d have to wade through an ocean of guards armed to the teeth with magic, weapons and fangs. And she wasn’t going to kill a single one of them.

“I’m pretty sure this is a bad idea.” Starlight voiced her concern, turning her gaze back to Midnight.

“That’s because it is. But it’s the only one we’ve got.” Midnight reminded her, to which the unicorn groaned audibly. The folder disappeared in a flash of turquoise magic as Starlight summoned a solid magic shield.

“I’m assuming we’re not killing anypony?” The unicorn asked, genuinely worried.

“Of course not!” Midnight asserted, running her magic along the blade of her sword. The spell would block the sharp edge without actually dulling it, protecting whoever she hit without damaging the sword.

“So we’re just going in alone?”

So many questions! I swear she wasn’t like this with Twilight. Magic sighed. Midnight nodded her agreement, although the Element probably couldn’t see it.

“Yes we are. But when we come back, no.”

“Come back?” Starlight gasped. “No, no, no! I’m just here to get Twilight, get rid of the spells on you and then leave!”

“Fine.” Midnight shrugged, wrapping the damaged door in a raspberry aura. "Four alicorns should be enough.”

“Wait, what?”

“Do you want Twilight back or not?” Midnight snapped, tired of the unicorn’s constant interrogation. Starlight froze before giving a small nod. “Then stop asking me questions and get a weapon!”

The unicorn rushed to obey, drawing a sword from her own magical pocket. The blade was longer than the average sword, betraying Starlight’s preference for long range weapons. The grip was customised, patterned with swirls similar to those on her cutie mark.

Midnight felt an odd wave of sorrow. The only customised blades she’d seen were her father’s, which was tinted like his horn; Rainbow’s, who she had been battling too hard against to pay attention to; and hers, with its star-shaped gems, which was actually Twilight’s. She suddenly wished that those fake memories of her creating her own sword were real. When she was turned back into a blank flank, she was fairly sure she knew what she was going to look into.

“You ready?” she asked Starlight, tightening her grip on the door.

“Not really…” the unicorn laughed nervously, holding her sword close to her chest and covering her front with the shield.

Midnight smiled. The door exploded. Blood covered the ground below.

Chapter 13

Pain. Blinding, unyielding pain. Pure agony that blocked out all of my thoughts, obliterating my sense of identity and leaving me with nothing but pain where my leg should be. Instead of feeling the constant presence of my right foreleg, there was nothing but agony. Full-on torture.

I began to think about why I was hurting. It would help if I could remember anything but pain. I remembered… magic… maybe? And a door. And an explosion. And then a stabbing sensation in my leg and then nothing.

I dared to open one eye, fearful that it might hurt like my leg. It didn’t. Thank… uh… who do I thank? My thought was interrupted by somepony talking.

“No, no, no… where are the healing supplies?” the pony groaned. “If I don’t do this fast then there’s no hope.”

“Hello?” I called out, wincing at the sudden pain in my throat. I decided to keep my mouth shut from now on.

“What? Oh, thank Celestia, you’re awake.” A light purple-ish mare stuck her head into view, eyes fearful. A horn protruded from their forehead. I tried to turn my head and look at the rest of them, but they placed a hoof below my chin to keep me looking at their face. “Don’t- Don’t look down.”

I heeded their warning, giving the tiniest of nods. They sighed and smiled before trotting out of view again. I waited for a while before they came back into my line of sight, face grim.

“Okay, I have no idea where my medical supplies went, so we’ll just have to make this mission quick.” She told me, levitating something next to her in her magic. She placed next to my agonised right foreleg and I heard some sort of click. “That should keep the blood flowing, without killing you, for maybe just about long enough to finish this. Now, are you coming with me or waiting here?”

Curious as to what was happening, I nodded again. I flinched as she lifted me in her magic and dropped me on my hooves. I wobbled a little, my right foreleg unresponsive, before gaining my balance and trotting after the mare. She wore saddlebags, hiding her back. Two silver blades poked out of one bag, whilst the other was held closed with a star-shaped clip.

“You really had me worried.” The mare admitted as she walked down the hall. It was carved completely of stone with lanterns hung periodically along the walls. “I had to fight through the guards alone whilst you slowly bled to death. Then I had to stop the bleeding, only to start it again so that I could save your leg.”

Confused, I tried to look at my leg, only for a magical aura to surround my head. The mare glared at me over her shoulder and mouthed the words ‘don’t look down’. I nodded a little and she released me.

“Now, it should be just around here…” the mare muttered, holding some piece of paper in her magic and slowing her trot. I came up beside her and stared up at a solid wall.

I stared at her, more confused than ever. I woke up from some torturous nightmare only to be greeted by a stranger who wouldn’t let me look at my foreleg, which felt as if it were on fire. I wanted to ask so many questions, but my throat still hurt too much.

“Oh.” The mare paused next to a jutting piece of rock. She ran a hoof over it, stopping at a small indent. “That was easy.”

I watched in shock as the entire wall opened up, cracking through the middle and crumbling into nothing. The rocks slowly turned to dust, revealing a tunnel that seemed to have been abandoned for years. I did a quick observation and… yep, this part of the tunnel at least hadn’t been used for around three years. Which meant that whatever was further down the tunnel hadn’t been used, either. Unless something was down there.

“I would’ve figured that a castle would have better security measures than some badly-hidden button.” The mare laughed a little as she began to trot into the darkness. I silently cursed her for jinxing us before following her. It’s a little awkward to go down stairs with only three working legs, but I managed.

I walked slowly down the steps after the mare, who paused near the bottom, ears perked. I halted a few stairs above her, wary. A second later her eyes widened and her pupils shrank to pinpricks. She turned to me and yelled, “Run!”

Confused and scared, I listened to her. I turned on the step and fled back up the stairs. Below me I heard rock scraping against rock and a scream. I looked back over my shoulder to see a wall where the mare had once been. Distracted, I forgot to watch my step and ended up falling and smacking my chin against the edge of a step. My ears rang and my head began to ache, but the worst pain was in my unresponsive right foreleg, which had scraped against the rock as I fell.

I panted heavily, vision fading, as blood began to trickle down the steps. I tried to stay conscious, but it was ultimately for naught as I slipped into darkness.

Fluttershy sighed, bored, as she leaned against the stone wall of the Canterlot dungeons. Rarity and one of Celestia’s personal magicians were standing silently beside her, unmoving. Their horns were lit with magic as they scanned the area, but Fluttershy was left with nothing to do but lament over how dumb she’d been to let herself be caught unawares.

Unbeknownst to the yellow pegasus, the imposter had escaped her cell and teleported away without even announcing herself. The only mark she left behind was a half-conscious Fluttershy and some ‘magical signature’ that the two unicorns were now working to find. Fluttershy had eventually recovered from the stun spell and, abandoning her plans of freeing Luna, ran to tell Celestia what had happened. Luckily enough, her friends were already looking for her. Once the princess found out, she had sent one of her personal magicians, a stallion by the name of Skylark, to help Rarity find the magical signature the imposter should’ve left behind.

Should’ve. But they didn’t. Which Fluttershy knew from the fact that she had been standing in the same spot, bored out of her mind, for an hour. She wasn’t an expert on magic, but she knew that no spell should take an hour to find. Even so, the pegasus was prepared to wait.

At least until she remembered that she was technically still supposed to be in the medical wing recovering. Fluttershy groaned and facehoofed before trotting away from the unicorns, towards the stairs leading out of the dungeon. She left hastily and began the walk back to her room.

As she trotted through the halls, she couldn’t help but think about the imposter. She had acted so much like Twilight at first that Fluttershy had actually been convinced it was her, just… corrupted. But then she was attacked, twice, and realised that it couldn’t be Twilight. Corrupted or not, Twilight would never hurt her friends. Although they had seemed hesitant to attack her, and even outright refused to kill Fluttershy after the first attack.

Before she could think more on it, she had reached her room. The pegasus trotted in and stared, surprised, at the restored bed. Fluttershy distinctly remembered her bed being torn apart by a laser. Although, the large butterfly gem at the head of the bed had remained undamaged, and overall the bed had actually just been sliced in half. Somepony must’ve glued it back together. With magic.

Too tired to care about the structural integrity of her bed, Fluttershy flopped onto the sheets and groaned loudly into feather-stuffed blankets. The pegasus sighed and rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. She busied herself with trying to find where the swirling pattern on the tiles ended, and within moments she was asleep.

When she opened her eyes, she was floating in some dark space. Small dots of light, almost like stars, were strewn across the black world. Fluttershy frowned as her hooves touched against solid ground with a soft clopping sound similar to that of hoof against stone. She began to trot forwards, looking from side to side and searching for any sort of irregularity in the pattern of the stars. They were about as patterned as the night sky, so it was pretty easy.

Fluttershy paused at one point and tried to turn and step in a different direction. To her surprise, the invisible path continued in that direction, as it did with all others. After fixing the ‘ground’ below her with a scrutinising gaze, she sighed and tried to fly instead. She met no resistance and was able to fly up for a few minutes before becoming bored. At this point she folded her wings and dipped into a dive, only for her hooves to collide with the invisible platform seconds later, as if it had followed her upwards.

Thoroughly confused and bored, the pegasus groaned and simply lay down upon the see-through floor. She fixed her teal eyes on a single speck of light and watched to see if it would move. It didn’t. Fluttershy sighed and buried her face in her hooves. Her ear twitched as a soft sound echoed through the dark space, causing her to jump to her hooves and reach for her- The pegasus blinked in surprise when her hoof landed upon her flank instead of the sheath of her sword. A moment later she facehoofed. She had not gone to bed with her armour on.

Shaking her head to clear it, Fluttershy turned to where the sound had emanated from, squinting to see anything but black and white. Due to them being translucent, the pegasus didn’t see the approaching pony at first. But when they drew close enough to stand out, Fluttershy couldn’t help but gawk. Trotting towards her was a light yellow pegasus with a long, flowing pink mane, similar to that of Fluttershy’s before it was cut. Their teal eyes shone with empathy and three pink butterflies gleamed upon their flank.

“Hello there.” The mirror smiled pleasantly as they slowed to a halt.

“Wh-wha… who?” Fluttershy stuttered, looking at the four-years-younger version of herself.

“Oh, sorry.” The mirror giggled behind one hoof. “I must’ve scared you a little. My name is Kindness.”

Fluttershy blinked in confusion. “You mean… kindness, as in, my Element, kindness?”

“Got it in one!” Kindness congratulated, clapping their front hooves together. “Speaking of Elements, I need to talk to you about something.”

“First, why do you look like a younger me?” Fluttershy asked, more than a little suspicious.

“Because this is what you looked like when you first claimed me.” Kindness explained.

“So… Rainbow’s Element-”

“Loyalty.”

“Uh… So, Loyalty wouldn’t have Rainbow’s scar?”

“That’s right.”

“So Twi- I mean, Magic, would be a unicorn?”

“Actually, no.” Kindness paused for a moment, musing. “You see, when you returned us to the Tree of Harmony, we were split between bearers: the pony and the tree. Twilight reconnected the two halves of her Element, so hers would appear to her as an alicorn.”

“So how do I… update you?”

“You would simply have to visit the Tree of Harmony and allow me, the spirit of Kindness, to reconnect with the Element of Kindness.” The Element explained, before frowning. “Now, I really do have to talk to you.”

“Okay…”

“Good.” Kindness smiled before becoming deadly serious. “Magic is in deep trouble. Not only are they split between Twilight and Midnight-”

“Who now?”

“The imposter! Anyway, not only are they split between the two, something has greatly harmed Midnight. The Elements and I are unsure as to what it as, as we cannot properly connect with Magic right now. All we know is that Midnight is currently suffering intense mental and physical damage.” Kindness proclaimed, setting an unblinking gaze directly upon Fluttershy, who shivered and hopped backwards.

“Well, what does this have to do with me?” the pegasus asked, eager to wake up.

“Before we lost contact, Magic told us of Midnight’s plan.” Kindness told her, seeming almost hesitant to share the information.

“Which is…”

Instead of answering, Kindness fixed Fluttershy with a gaze reminiscent of The Stare, causing the pegasus to freeze as information flooded her mind. She saw visions of blood and battle, gore and glory, death and destruction. Mixed within these images were snippets of somepony’s speech, the voice unrecognisable through the distortion. Fluttershy groaned in pain as the information was forced into her head, allowing her to see naught but what she was shown. Even once the visions faded, the images continued to flash in her mind. The pegasus remained hunched over for a moment more before she struggled to her hooves. By time she could stand, Kindness had vanished.

Fluttershy woke with a gasp, sweat beading on her fur and running through her coat. Her teal eyes were wide and panicked, the images of what she had just witnessed still present in her mind. She gulped and took a deep breath before slipping from her bed and trotting into her en suite.

Making sure the door was locked, the pegasus climbed into the cubicle and started a cool, yet not too cold, shower. For a few minutes she just leaned against the wall, letting the cold, refreshing water cascade across her form, washing away the perspiration. Once she had finally gained her bearings, she washed away the dirt she had allowed to accumulate in her fur, as well as the small scorch mark the stun spell had left upon her flank.

After cleaning thoroughly, she left the shower and patted herself dry with one of the plush towels the maids left on the rack, despite them rarely being used. Thinking about it, this was the first time Fluttershy had allowed herself luxuries in much too long. She had forgotten what it felt like to be a mare allowed her vanity. A tiny smile gracing her lips, she towelled herself completely dry, but left her mane a little damp. She donned the fluffy white bathrobe left for her to avoid her mane wetting her coat and allowed her hair to air dry for a moment. She then used the hairdryer hung on the wall to gently blow her short mane and tail dry, before brushing them through to remove the tangles. She kept the bathrobe on as she trotted back into her room, and slid onto the bed, content for the first time in years.

Deep in her satisfaction, it was hard for Fluttershy to remember why she had been upset in the first place. It was much easier to just curl up on her bed and slip into darkness.

Darkness was nice. It was calm, often warm, compressing, claustrophobic, restricting and made it impossible to see if anypony was trying to kill you!

Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open. Images of Celestia entered her mind, horn alight with powerful golden energy. Standing beside her was Luna, Cadence, Flurry Heart and the impo- Midnight. They were all following the sun princess’ example, lighting their horns for some sort of powerful spell. She saw the five alicorns began to run forward, drawing swords as they charged something Fluttershy could not see. In the distance, ponies, griffons and changelings ran forwards, armed to the teeth with weapons. Standing amid the large army was Spike, rearing onto his hind legs and loosing a stream of fire over their heads.

Just as quickly as the image appeared, it vanished, leaving Fluttershy gasping for breath and panicking. Throwing her bathrobe carelessly to the floor, the pegasus leapt from her bed and fled her room. Pausing only to close the door behind her, she began to gallop down the hallways towards the throne room, images of sorrow and victory flashing behind her eyes as she ran.

I was starting to remember something. It wasn’t clear, but it was there. It involved my unresponsive right foreleg and why it didn’t work. There was a lot of blood and fear and pain and loss of limbs that amounted to a door cleaving my leg from my body.

It explained a lot but also caused me to ask many more questions. Why did the door explode? Where did the door lead to? What was I doing there in the first place? Before I could think of it more, a stabbing pain entered the hole of my right foreleg.

I think I screamed, but I can’t really remember much of that time. It was dark and scary and painful, one of those things you forget to protect yourself. However, I do remember waking up to see the purple-ish mare standing over me, fear and determination in her eyes as she drove something into my torso. I’m almost certain I yelled at her to stop, but my complaints fell upon deaf ears.

Before long, the pain dulled to an ache, but the mare was far from done. Bandages, thread, needles and a whole host of other medical supplies flew about the space as she worked to do something with my missing leg. And after an unknown amount of time that felt like an eternity, the pain stopped, only reappearing if I tried to move my leg. Which made sense, because it was missing.

I was now aware of why the mare hadn’t wanted me to look. But now, I wanted to see the mess that was left of my precious limb. I wanted to see it more than anything. And so I looked. The mare didn’t stop me.

I had expected to see a mangled mess of blood and flesh. Instead, my gaze fell upon a foreleg connected by bandages and, beneath those, a whole lot of stitches. I stared at it in surprise. When the bandages and stitches were removed, the wound healed, there would be nothing but a jagged scar left behind. Nothing but a scar to separate the two lengths of purple fur that belonged to a purple pony with messy dark blue hair and a pair of large, powerful wings upon her back.

Somepony sighed with relief. About time you remembered yourself.

Chapter 14

“Fluttershy, we are not doing that.” Rainbow snorted defiantly.

“Wh-what? But we have to! Twilight could be in danger!” Fluttershy argued urgently, trying to ignore the images flashing in her mind.

“Twilight is dead!” Rainbow yelled suddenly, surprising the other ponies in the room.

“Dashie, we-” Pinkie began, only to be interrupted by an angered Rainbow.

“No, Pinkie! We’ve known nothing else for four years, and you expect me to believe that not only is she alive, but that we could save her? All because of some dream Fluttershy had?”

“Well, no, b-”

“No buts! Twilight is dead, well and truly dead, and no stupid figment of Fluttershy’s imagination is going to change that!” Rainbow shouted before turning tail and fleeing the room, wings fluttering angrily.

“What in tarnation’s gotten into her?” Applejack asked, concern in her voice. “I thought she would’ve been happy to hear Twilight was alive.”

“Well, it is a rather tall tale.” Rarity pointed out. “Although, if Applejack believes it, I suppose I do as well. Element of Honesty and all.”

Fluttershy stared at the open door of the throne room, for some reason unable to comprehend why Rainbow didn’t believe her. The images behind her eyes were so real. Why wouldn’t the blue pegasus believe them?

“Fluttershy, you okay?” Pinkie asked, noticing the yellow mare’s faraway look. The pegasus snapped out of her stupor and gave a slight nod to her friend.

“I’m fine. I just… why didn’t Rainbow believe me?” Fluttershy asked quietly, suddenly wishing for her mane to grow again so that she could hide behind it. She hadn’t felt that urge since Twilight di- went missing.

“Oh, you know Rainbow Dash.” Rarity sighed. “She’s… stubborn. Even more so since the war started.”

“I know.” Fluttershy bit her lip nervously, ears flattened to her head. “It just seems so… real to me. I saw Kindness in front of me, felt the emotions they gave me. Even now I’m revisiting memories that aren’t even mine.”

“Then whose are they?” Applejack asked softly.

“Midnight’s. The imposter’s. Magic’s.” Fluttershy turned her forlorn gaze to the floor. “It’s nothing but pain and anguish and blood.”

“Well, what about the plan they had?” Pinkie questioned. “What did they say to do again?”

“Nothing. They just gave me an image of what we need, not how to get it. And even if they had, Rainbow won’t help us.” Fluttershy sighed, closing her eyes and racking her brain for any kind of solution.

“Well, maybe if we completed the plan, she would listen.” Rarity suggested.

“Fine. So, how are we going to get the entire changeling race out here, and the griffons, and Cadence and Flurry Heart? They’re all off in their own kingdoms!” Fluttershy asked sharply, already regretting sharing her experience with her friends.

“Fluttershy, we’ll figure something out.” Pinkie smiled a little. “We always do.”

Fluttershy’s friends don’t believe her.

Really?

Well, Applejack and Rarity do. Pinkie’s uncertain.

And Rainbow Dash?

Stormed out of the room.

Great.

“I ended up stuck behind the trap wall, but I was able to teleport out of there because I remembered what the entrance to the staircase looked like.” Starlight explained hurriedly, magical aura surrounding Midnight’s leg. “I found you passed out and realised that if I didn’t fix your leg then and there, I’d never be able to. As it is I had to use one of my strongest healing spells. A leg is useless without any feeling.”

Midnight hissed in pain as Starlight continued to press against her leg. “Is this really necessary?”

“Do you want your leg to randomly fall off?” Starlight snapped.

Midnight snorted her disapproval but didn’t argue any further.

She’s not wrong. Magic pointed out.

I did not ask for your input. Midnight thought.

Just saying.

Midnight rolled her eyes, only to yelp as Starlight released her leg.

“There.” The unicorn huffed. “That should support you for now. You should probably use your wings for balance, though.”

Midnight bit her lip and nervously placed her hoof down. A jolt of pain lanced through the injured limb, but she forced herself to keep going, pressing down until the leg was supporting her just as much as her other limbs. It continued to ache and hurt, but it became easier to ignore after a while.

“Okay. Now, I’m going to teleport us back to the room behind the trap wall. It could very possibly go horribly wrong, so be prepared.” Starlight warned before lighting her horn.

Midnight closed her eyes tightly and waited. After a moment she heard a flash of magic and light burned behind her eyes. Once it had faded, the alicorn opened her eyes again to find herself in a pitch black room. On instinct, she lit her horn with magic, illuminating the room.

The walls were bare stone, lacking any decoration spare for some cracks and dark stains. Midnight frowned and little and turned around, immediately regretting it.

Next to the fourth wall was a vertical plank of wood with a pony strapped to it. Two wings hung limply from their back and a long horn sprouted from their head, parting a messy, uncleaned mane. Their coat was grey, their mane and tail dark with streaks of a lighter grey. Starlight made a noise of pain and anguish before running towards the pony.

“Twilight!” Starlight whimpered, rearing up and leaning against the plank, one hoof on the wood and the other atop the unconscious pony’s chest. Midnight watched as the unicorn slowly became more and more panicked, frowning slightly. Starlight bit her lip and shifted, resting her head against the grey alicorn’s chest. After a moment she relaxed a little, giving a tiny smile as tears built up in her eyes.

Midnight trotted over to Starlight, glancing Twilight up and down. She’d heard so much about the alicorn, about her feats and her glory, about her strength and wit. And now, actually seeing her namesake… she just felt guilty. The mare before her was clearly broken, her colours and magic drained, to the point where she didn’t even need a magic restrictor. Midnight rested her gaze upon the mare’s flank, searching for the cutie mark that should match her own. It wasn’t there. Twilight’s flank was blank. Midnight choked back a gasp, pressing her uninjured hoof to her mouth. Her reconnected leg wobbled a little; she placed her steady leg back down.

Starlight glanced down at Midnight, confused. Her eyes widened as she noticed Twilight’s cutie mark. Or lack of one. She dropped to all four hooves and stared at her former mentor’s plain fur. “Wh-what? Where’s her cutie mark?”

“On my flank.” Midnight answered reflexively; she knew she’d have to come clean eventually. Starlight squinted at her uncertainly before glancing at the purple alicorn’s flank. A six-pointed star gleamed on Midnight’s flank, surrounded by small white stars.

Starlight’s face fell. Her eyes went from hopeful to depressed almost instantly. “S-so how do we get it back onto Twilight’s?”

“I…” Midnight paused. She would have to tell the mare everything, wouldn’t she? “It may take time we don’t have to explain, so please don’t interrupt me.”

Starlight seemed more than a little confused, but nodded.

“Four years ago, Twilight, along with one of her pegasus guards, disappeared during an attack. They were captured by Sombra, who, a few weeks later, stole Princess Luna away as well. Somehow, he was able to turn her back into Nightmare Moon, but she never fully agreed with it.

“Sombra began to experiment on Twilight with spells, eventually destroying her mind and stealing her personality. By this point, Nightmare was carrying a foal. Using dark magic, Sombra cursed the foal with Twilight’s mind and soul, as well as her magic and, with it, her Element.” Midnight stopped to recompose herself; she tucked her wings neatly into her sides and raised her head a little more. “That foal was me. I was born a perfect clone of Twilight, even being given her name and experimented on to make me grow faster than was natural. And it was just to damage Celestia’s army’s morale. Luckily they figured out that I wasn’t Twilight pretty quickly.

“I soon found out that I was just a copy of Twilight, even managing to communicate with the spirit of Magic. I let myself be captured by Celestia’s army, along with the missing guard, who had been forced to join Sombra. I escaped and realised that I would need the help of an alicorn to undo my curse and save Twilight, but none of them would be willing. So Magic told me about you, the unicorn with magic rivalling that of an alicorn. You, um, know the rest.”

Starlight looked a little as if Midnight had sprouted another head. Or perhaps multiple more. All across her body. After what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, she opened her mouth and said, “So, to get Twilight back, I need to undo the spells Sombra placed on you.”

“Yes.” Midnight couldn’t help but wonder if undoing them would hurt. She’d been hurt a lot already in her quest for independence. Being attacked by a manticore, rage-shifting, blowing up, having her wing nearly torn off, being possessed by an Element, shot by the Princess of the Sun and having her leg shorn off. What a story.

“But you don’t want me to do it yet.” Starlight spoke in a monotone, but you could tell she was asking for clarification.

“No. Magic and I have a plan. Once we carry it out, you can undo the spells and get Twilight back.” Midnight explained, unconsciously glancing towards her namesake, faded and weak against the wall.

Starlight seemed to halt for a moment, taking a deep breath, closing her eyes and tipping her head back as if remembering something. Finally she turned back to Midnight and asked, “What’s the plan?”

Starlight’s going along with the plan.

Finally, some good news.

Are we sure it’ll work?

It has to work.

And if it doesn’t?

It will.

This was, undeniably, the worst idea Fluttershy had ever had. Trying to tame a timberwolf? Bad idea. Allowing Twilight to experiment with dark magic? Worse idea. Storming into the throne room of the Princess of the Sun without warning? Definitely the worst. She could only hope she didn’t scare the alicorn into shooting her. With the sun. That would hurt.

Luckily, not much scared the immortal. Celestia looked up as Fluttershy came in, placing a scroll held in her golden magic on the arm of her throne before asking, “Is everything okay, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy was just starting to realise how bad of a plan this was. “Y-yes, Princess, everything- no. I-I need to talk to you.”

Celestia continued to watch expectantly. Fluttershy bit her lip, lost for words. What am I supposed to say? She thought desperately. It turns out your pupil is alive inside an evil mare who wants you to storm a castle?

That is exactly what you should say.

Bu- wait, who are you? Am I going crazy?

We last talked not even an hour ago, Fluttershy.

Kindness?

There you go.

Well, how would saying all of that convince Celestia?

Tell her that I told you all of it. She once bore three Elements; she’ll understand.

It made sense. Plus, knowing that Kindness was there, even if only spiritually, helped give Fluttershy the confidence to speak up, “I-I’ve started talking to my Element.”

If Celestia was surprised, she didn’t show it. Instead she simply said, “I was wondering when you ponies would figure out how.”

“Yes, well, they told me that Twilight might still be alive.” Fluttershy cringed a little as her voice cracked. Great way to show your surety.

The Princess’ eyes shone with some unrecognisable emotion as she replied, “And did they tell you where to find her? How to find her?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“And how would that be?”

Fluttershy has told Celestia of the plan.

And?

She’s agreed to it. Messengers have been sent to our allies; they should be here within the hour.

Perfect.

“It’s just ridiculous! I honestly never thought that Fluttershy of all ponies could be so cruel!”

“Rainbow…”

“She knows that I’m still the most torn up about Twilight! And yet, instead of comforting me, she decides to torture me instead!”

“Rainbow.”

“Why would she do this? She thinks that because of some crazy dream, everything’s going to be all sunshine and rainbows!”

“Rainbow.

“Well it’s not! Because Twilight is dead, buried and gone forever!”

“Rainbow!”

The blue pegasus ceased her ranting and pacing, standing still in the middle of the room. Tears trickled slowly down her cheeks.

“Dash, I thought you would’ve been happy to hear that Twilight might be alive.” Spike told her softly, not wanting to rile her up again.

“I-I know, and I should be, but…” Rainbow cut herself off, choking back a sob. “I j-just don’t want to get my hopes up, a-again, only for it to turn out that Twilight’s been d-dead this entire time.”

Spike frowned and walked over to the mare. The pegasus hesitated only a moment before lunging forwards, wrapping her forelegs around the drake and burying her face in his shoulder.

“I-I just d-don’t want to be h-hurt anymore…” She sobbed. Spike lifted a claw and placed it gently across the mare’s back. Spike was one of the only creatures who was allowed to see this side of Rainbow. Actually, he may have been the only one; he’d never asked. But when Rainbow did get upset like this, the dragon was left without much of a clue as to what to do. She seemed partial to hugs and ranting, but that was all he’d been able to work out thus far.

“I know, Dashie.” Spike murmured soothingly. “But don’t you trust Fluttershy?”

“Of course I do!” Rainbow answered, pulling her head back and sounding a little offended. “We’ve been friends since we were fillies!”

“Then why don’t you believe her?”

“Because… i-it’s like if somepony were to come up to me and say that I wasn’t a pegasus.” Rainbow tried to explain. “I’ve believed that Twilight was dead for so long, anything else just seems… impossible.”

“Well, don’t you want to believe that Twilight’s alive?”

“Yes…”

“Then do. Because I trust Fluttershy and I believe that Twilight is alive. I always have. So getting any evidence that it’s true is enough to raise my hopes. Sure, it means that it hurts more if it turns out to be untrue, but it also means that I actually have a chance to find her.” Spike’s eyes were filled with determination and fear as he looked down at the mare holding him. “And yes, I’m afraid that it’ll turn out false, but I’m willing to hope. Because hope is all we really have left.”

Spike has agreed, and Rainbow is slowly realising the truth.

Good. How do the others feel about it?

Fluttershy is a hundred percent convinced and Celestia has already alerted the army.

Applejack can tell that Fluttershy is telling the truth; she’s willing.

Rarity believes her friends, so she will go along with it.

I had to talk to Pinkie to convince her, but she’s also willing.

How is Midnight?

She’s… coping. Starlight has agreed, so that helps. But they are playing a waiting game at the moment.

Hold on… Okay, tell Midnight that the armies are on their way.

Of course.

Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle let out a yelp as the tip of a blade sliced her flank. Her magic flared to life, yanking her sword from its sheath and swiping at the air behind her. The alicorn spun on her hind hooves, forelegs raised for protection during the evasive manoeuvre.

The black-furred unicorn behind her was grinning, staring at her with green and red eyes that were trailing purple mist. The tip of his horn was tinted red, and the magical appendage was glowing with purple, green and black aura bubbles.

“Sombra.” Twilight spat, narrowing her eyes. She slammed her forelegs back into the ground, cracking the dirt and softer pieces of stone. She pointed her sword at the evil unicorn.

“Twilight Sparkle.” He laughed. “What a delight!”

“Cut the nice guy act! My friends and I locked you away once, and we’ll do it again!” The alicorn growled.

The unicorn seemed momentarily surprised, though whether it was real or not was hard to tell. Then he smiled again. “Whoever said it was act?” The unicorn’s horn stopped glowing, and his sword clattered to the ground. “I simply wish to make a… arrangement. To give you an offer.”

“What offer?” Twilight asked, suspicious. Even so, she let her muscles loosen slightly.

“You will come with me for now. We’ll discuss the rest later.”

“No way!” Twilight shouted, stamping her hoof.

“I’m sorry.” Sombra’s eyes suddenly began to glow, the mist thickening.

Twilight took a step back as the purple mist started spreading through the darkness. “What are you doing?” The mist was clouding around her hooves, freezing cold to the touch.

“But it’s not your choice.”

Suddenly, the mist rose above Twilight’s head before crashing down on her, turning her blood to ice.

“Nooo!” she yelled as the mist slid down her throat and choked her lungs. The last thing she saw was Sombra’s grinning face, the purple mist surrounding everything else in the dark cave.

Then there was only black.

Celestia glared at the dark unicorn, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Sombra!” she shouted. “It was one thing to enslave ponies, but killing an innocent young mare, not to mention a ruler of Equestria, and kidnapping another, is just too far!”

“Oh, Celestia.” Sombra grinned. “I didn’t kill your precious student. Although I suppose she’s not your student anymore. She’s your equal. And who says I kidnapped your sister?”

“What?” The alicorn raised her head, confused.

“Oh, no, no, no. Princess Luna came oh so willingly. Isn’t that so, dear?” the dark unicorn turned his head to the figure sitting in the corner of the small, dark room. At those words, the figure rose and trotted into the light.

The figure was tall, black-furred and female. Her mane was made of mist, and her eyes were blue and snakelike. Nightmare Moon.

“Hello, sister.” She hissed, a fake smile aimed at Celestia.

“L-luna?” Celestia’s eyes grew wide, and the first tears dared to form in the corners of them. “No!”

“I’m afraid so.” Nightmare Moon laughed. “You best leave now, dear sister. Our patience is running thin. We must return to building our castle. It must be finished before your expected attack arrives. That is, if you want your precious Twilight back.”

Celestia lowered her head, choking out, “You’ll regret this, Sombra!” before spreading her wings and disappearing into the darkness.

“No, Celestia, I don’t think I will.”

Twilight whimpered as her tormentor approached once more. For the umpteenth time, she tried to force her magic to work, but the magic restrictor held strong. The dark unicorn grinned.

“Don’t worry Twilight. This is the last time. After this, your life, minus all memories, will be given to my foal. Imagine how the Equestrian warriors will crumble when they see their precious princess fighting against them.”

The alicorn felt the tears run slowly down her cheeks. She only had a second to enjoy the fact that they were hers before the mist filled her vision, slipping into her mouth and nose, finally clouding her eyes until she could see nothing. For a few moments, she could feel pain behind her eyes, but then she could feel nothing.

Then there was only black.

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes nervously. She opened them slowly, curious yet scared of the feeling of being able to see. The light was scary! She was used to darkness. She blinked rapidly as the light attacked her eyes.

When she finally realised the bright light wasn’t trying to hurt her, she opened one eye fully. Being able to see was amazing! She was currently lying in a small blue crib, soft blankets folded under and around her. Beside the crib was a large bed, in which two ponies were sleeping. They must be her parents!

Her father was a dark-furred unicorn, her mother a black alicorn with a mane made of stars. Twilight’s eyes drifted to a picture frame beside the bed. The picture it contained was of the two ponies on the bed, both wearing a thin gold ring on their horn. She couldn’t help but note how both her parents had their ‘cutie marks’. Her mother’s was a crescent moon, her father’s a black crystal.

Twilight glanced down at her own flank. It was lavender, and lacked a cutie mark. The rest of her was lavender as well. She had a short, straight, dark blue mane and tail with purple and rose streaks. She could feel two more appendages just over her shoulder blades, covered in soft lavender feathers. She raised one tiny hoof to her head, and felt a small, hard horn sticking out from the top of her head.

Wriggling around in the blankets, she was able to stand up in the crib, and press against the cool bars. She made a squeak as one of the bars pushed into her muzzle. There was a rustling sound, and suddenly a tall black pony was standing beside the crib.

The lavender foal squeaked again as she was lifted from the crib, surrounded in a blue aura. She flailed her legs as she was dropped from the aura. The black pony held her against her chest with one hoof, looking down at her with love and care in her eyes.

“Oh, Twilight, you’ve opened your eyes!” she smiled.

The filly ceased her struggling, looking up at the tall pony. She gave an adorable squeak and pressed her forehooves to her mother’s chest and giggled. The alicorn smiled warmly, nuzzling the small filly.

“Sombra, honey, wake up!” she called to the unicorn.

He stretched a little before leaving the bed and trotting to his family.

“What is it, dear?” Sombra asked wearily.

“Twilight’s opened her eyes!”

The unicorn looked down at his child in surprise, breaking into a smile as he saw his daughter and her new purple eyes.

“Well done, Twilight.” He smiled.

The filly smiled back, taking one hoof off of her mother and reaching to her father. Her tiny wings fluttered slightly as the hoof rested against her father’s dark-furred chest. The family shared a quick hug before Sombra sighed and motioned to the door. Twilight was placed gently back in her cot and her parents left the room.

“Argh! This is ridiculous!” Sombra growled as the door closed behind them.

“Sombra, surely you expected this?” Nightmare Moon sighed.

“No!” the unicorn snapped. “I expected to wait until her third birthday, when it is physically safe to use magic on her, and then use a time spell on her to give her fake memories of growing up and leaving her in a grownup’s body!”

“But now that you’ve gone through the effort of creating our bundle of joy, you’ve come to love her.” Nightmare smiled softly.

Sombra sighed sadly. “Yes. I have.”

“We can still use the time spell on her.” His wife offered.

“But it just doesn’t feel right!”

“Well… we could use the time spell on ourselves, as well.”

Sombra paused. “All three of us would have memories of our little girl growing up.”

“Exactly.” Nightmare smiled. “And at least three years of her life will be real, even though the fake ones feel real too.”

“You always have the best ideas.” Sombra smiled.

“Indeed, what would you do without me?” Nightmare leaned over and nuzzled her husband lovingly.

“For now, we get to live through a few of the most important years of our filly’s life.” Sombra couldn’t suppress a smile – he felt genuinely excited to show this little piece of himself the ways of the world.

“We’ll have to teach her how to use magic as soon as we can if our plan is to work.” Nightmare sighed sadly, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “Teach her to fear the light.”

“Let’s give her at least one day to know the joys of it before we steal it from her.” Sombra motioned to the door, gripping the handle with his magic.

Twilight pouted as her parents left the room. The tiny alicorn leapt against the bars, squeaking as she fell backwards. She gave an oddly adorable ‘hmm’ before spreading her tiny wings. Somehow she already knew that she hadn’t grown her flight feathers yet; that she still had baby-down covering her wings. But somehow she also knew that baby pegasi had surprising bursts of pegasus magic, allowing them to fly incredibly well.

The tiny alicorn took a deep breath and jumped into the air. Her wings flailed wildly, lifting her a little higher. She reached out her forehooves with a gasp as her wings stopped. She grunted as the tips of her hooves caught the edge of the cot.

Usually only earth ponies had the hoof strength to grab things with so little of their hooves actually on the object. But as an alicorn, she had the pegasus magic burst that lifted her into the air, the earth pony magic burst that allowed her to grab the edge and the unicorn magic burst that allowed her to lift the rest of her body over the edge.

Twilight squealed as her body dropped towards the ground. She tried to reach into her magic reserves, any of them – pegasus would let her fly, earth pony would give her strength, unicorn would let her make a shield – only to find them all empty from the effort of climbing. The tiny alicorn gasped as her descent was halted by a bubbly green and black aura. She struggled feebly as she was lifted to the eye level of her parents. “Twilight, what were you thinking?” her mother gasped, snatching the filly from the air.

Twilight whimpered a little and pulled away from the black alicorn.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is she’s okay.” Her father sighed. “Everything would be ruined if she wasn’t.”

Chapter 2

Twilight slammed her hooves onto the table as the spoon was levitated to her mouth. “Nooo! Yuck.”

Sombra sighed. “Twilight, if you don’t eat this then you can’t have dessert.”

“Wha? Nooo!” Twilight wailed.

“Let me try, dear.” Nightmare smiled, taking the spoon in her magic. Suddenly the spoon decided to do a few flips before gliding towards Twilight’s muzzle. “Here comes the airplane…”

Twilight gasped, clapping her hooves. She giggled a little and leant into the ‘airplane’, swallowing its cargo happily.

Sombra sighed with relief as Nightmare levitated another spoon with a small bit of pudding on the end. Twilight reacted immediately, straining in her foal-chair to reach the spoon. Nightmare giggled as Twilight grasped the spoon in her tiny hooves and stuffed the end with pudding in her mouth.

Twilight panted as she reached out a hoof, pressing it down in front of her. Her next hoof landed next to it. Another followed quickly, then another and she was standing somewhere else. She had walked! She looked up at her parents, who looked back lovingly. She giggled and threw two hooves into the air, only to fall suddenly on her rump.

She pouted grumpily as she hit the ground. It took a surprising amount of effort to stand again, let alone take another step. But the tiny alicorn was determined. After a half hour of trying, she had walked from her cot – now without the barred walls – all the way to the door. When she reached the door, her parents scooped her up, nuzzling her lovingly. She giggled and tried to pull away, only to be enveloped in a big family hug.

“Now Twilight, you have to promise to stay still, okay?” Sombra told her.

“Okay daddy!” Twilight smiled as her parents’ horns glowed. A beam of magic shot out from both of them, joining both horns with the smaller pony’s. Twilight gasped as a jolt of pain ran up her horn. She fought the urge to squeal and run away, determined to keep her promise. She whimpered as her horn unwillingly released its own magic.

The filly squealed as her world went black.

“There are currently four alicorns aside from you, Twily.” Nightmare explained. “I am one of them – I raise the moon each night and cover Equestria in the glorious, cool night.”

Twilight nodded, her magic absentmindedly scribbling down notes on the piece of paper before her.

“Two of the others are Princess Cadence, the alicorn of love, and her daughter Flurry Heart. They’re not too much to worry about now.” Nightmare paused, her eyes clouding with sadness. “And, finally, there is the evil Celestia. She raises the sun each day and gives Equestria horrid, burning sunlight. She sends other ponies to fight her battles and never tries to solve any problems. But as soon as your father and I tried to take Equestria from her tyrannical rule, she sends all of her army to try and stop us!”

“She’s a very bad pony!” Twilight huffed childishly.

“Yes, Twilight.” Nightmare sighed. “Yes she is.”

Twilight grunted as her horn flared with magic. She could feel the weight of the guard as if she was physically carrying him. She groaned with pain as magic streamed from her horn, pushing the young pony backwards. The pressure on her head was almost unbearable.

She screamed suddenly as her magic exploded, surrounding her entire body with her aura. She was lifted into the air as her magic flooded the room. The guard she was levitating flailed fearfully as the overpowered magic surrounded him. He gave a terrifying shriek as his body was crushed under the pressure of the young alicorn’s magic.

Twilight felt tears streaming from her eyes as the full power of an alicorn erupted from her horn, sending pain jolting through her entire body. She screamed pointlessly as her own body began to be crushed by the sheer pressure.

A blue aura suddenly surrounded Twilight, forcing away the magic attempting to forcefully return to its vessel. The aura grasped Twilight and with a bright flash, the young alicorn was gone, leaving only the crushed guard’s body behind.

Twilight groaned and opened her eyes slowly. Her parents were lying in front of her, seeming to only just have woken up. They were inside the room she’d passed out in when she was three. She looked around, confused, before turning to check her body.

She was still herself – a tall purple alicorn with long streaked hair, sparkling with magic. Her large wings flared as she stood, ruffling a few feathers. She ran a small bit of magic through her long horn to ensure its functionality before stepping forwards and helping her parents to their hooves.

“Heh…” Sombra smiled, looking Twilight up and down. “It worked.”

Nightmare nodded. “In which case…”

“So, Twilight. You ready for your first day of training?” Sombra asked.

Twilight grinned evilly. “You mean so that I can fight the war with that tyrant Celestia?”

“Indeed.”

Twilight jumped nimbly aside, easily chopping the spear in half with a slash of her sword. The alicorn turned on her forehooves as she landed, flicking her head and sending her sword flying straight into the guard’s side. The batpony shrieked in pain as blood gushed from his side, staining the blade.

Twilight winced and turned away, refusing to watch the last moments of one of her father’s personal guards. Ever since her magic surge had killed her own guard, she’d blocked out all other deaths. Even during her training.

“No, Twilight!” Sombra growled. “You mustn’t look away during a death!”

“B-but father!”

“If you look away from a death, you waste precious seconds and expose yourself to attacks!” the dark unicorn snarled.

The alicorn growled a little, running her tongue across her fangs. She turned to the next guard, wrenching her sword from his fallen comrade with a sickening squelch. The guard’s eyes widened with fear. This guard was one of her mother’s; a batpony and, according to records, had a large family at home. Perfect. Bucking perfect!

She flashed an evil grin, sure to show her fangs as much as she could. The sword floating beside her swivelled in the air before pointing directly at the batpony’s chest. The guard looked away sadly, yet Twilight didn’t hesitate. The sword plunged deep into the poor guard’s chest, forcing a scream of agony from his lips. Twilight panted heavily, but forced herself to keep watching as she snatched the blade from the guard’s chest. The batpony was still convulsing on the ground when his companion’s foreleg separated from his body.

The alicorn didn’t even watch as she flung the sword at the final guard. She heard his scream and knew she’d hit her mark. The four ponies on the ground were twitching weakly as the life left their bodies. She faced away from the bodies and her father, only then allowing herself to shed her tears.

“Much better, dear.” Sombra chuckled, his magic covering the corpses.

“Anything t-to stop that tyrant.” Twilight breathed, flicking her tail.

“Well, I’m sure your chance to fight will come very–”

Sombra was cut off by the door opening with a bang. A tired purple batpony guard – one of Twilight’s own – was panting heavily, his wings twitching.

“King Sombra!” he gasped. “Celestia’s army has begun an attack on our eastern territory!”

The dark unicorn hissed with anger. “Seems the chance will be now.” He shook his head angrily before teleporting from the room.

“Thank you, Comet Trail.” Twilight glanced at the guard gratefully before teleporting away herself, reaching out with her magic to follow her father.

The alicorn emerged atop a large cliff, taken by surprise as she was shoved roughly behind a rock.

“Stay down until I signal you, okay?” Sombra ordered.

Twilight nodded in surprise. Sombra flashed a small smile and dropped a set of armour beside his daughter before fleeing.

The alicorn made sure to stay concealed as she adorned the armour. It was relatively simple – gold plated back, head and flank guards with flexible metal kneepads and shiny golden horseshoes that came up at the front to protect her forelegs. Next to the armour was a sword. Not her tacky training sword, but a real weapon. Polished steel with a golden handle, adorned with purple star-shaped jewels that resembled her cutie mark.

The only bad thing about this day was that it was a day. When her parents won this war, Equestria would never have to suffer through another second of sunlight – except for the farms. They could only function with sunlight, sadly.

Twilight grinned, flashing her fangs as she peered from behind the rock. The field below the cliff was in chaos. Dark coloured batponies were fighting valiantly against an army of pure white stallions with blue manes. Twilight snorted angrily – Celestia even forced her army to look the exact same!

However, two ponies on the battlefield drew her attention.

The first was her father, now wearing his black armour, dotted with red gems. He was striking down Celestia’s army effortlessly, each slash of his sword taking out at least two ponies as once.

The other was a bright blue pegasus with beautiful prismatic hair. She was decorated with gold and silver armour that clung to her tightly, the only loose pieces being on her legs and wings, which had flexible plates across them, dotted with spikes. Hanging from her neck was a golden pendant with a shining red lightning bolt at her throat. The pegasus wielded a long, slim sword with a handle especially fashioned for use with the mouth. The blue pony used it expertly, felling batponies easily, although Twilight noticed that none of her attacks were fatal.

Perfect! Not only did Celestia force Equestria through long, harsh days; force her armies to be no longer unique and put herself above everypony else, but she also told her armies to spare ponies to make herself look better!

Twilight growled with anger, fixing her eyes on her father. The signal had to be soon. She froze as her father stumbled slightly. One of Celestia’s army had slashed a deep cut across the dark unicorn’s hindleg. Sombra’s horn began to glow, sending a single red spark flying at Twilight. The spark was the signal. She knew it.

With a war cry, the purple alicorn leapt from the cliff, dropping straight into the thick of the fight.

Chapter 11

Fluttershy groaned as her eyes blinked open. Her head ached. Her wings felt like she’d flown a marathon. Her legs felt overused and sore. She shifted her gaze and stared up at the roof above her. Clean white tiles. The pegasus turned her head and realised there was a pillow beneath it. Her hooves rested on a plush white blanket. Her breath caught in her throat and she sat up suddenly.

The yellow mare choked back a sob, burying her face in her hooves. She wanted to stop, to tell herself there was no reason to be sad. But they had looked so much like Twilight. When Fluttershy looked into the imposter’s eyes, she hadn’t seen the narrowed purple eyes with draconic slits for pupils. She had seen large violet orbs filled with compassion and friendship. It made no sense, but…

Fluttershy was distracted when the door to the room opened. It was only then that she realised she was in the hospital wing of Canterlot Castle. The door opened to reveal one of the many Royal Guards.

“Ah, Miss Fluttershy, you’re awake.” He smiled. “I was afraid I’d have to wake you.”

“What do you want?” Fluttershy growled, a little angrier than she’d meant to.

“Princess Celestia sent me to fetch you and the other Elements, ma’am.” He explained.

“The other Elements?” The pegasus gasped. “Where are they?”

“They’ve already awoken and are waiting for us in the throne r-”

The guard would never get to finish his sentence. Fluttershy leapt up, took off and flew out of the room in less than second. The pegasus sped down the hallways and reached the throne room in record time, knocking on the door and forcing the doors open.

“Fluttershy.” Celestia smiled. “It’s good to see you up and about.”

“Cut the pleasantries.” Fluttershy growled. “Where’s the imposter?”

“In the dungeon where she belongs.” Rainbow scoffed. “Why’re you worried, anyway?”

“Because she doesn’t belong in there!” the yellow mare shouted.

“And why not, Fluttershy?” Celestia frowned.

“Didn’t you hear her at the end? The real Twilight is in there somewhere!”

“Whatever are you talking about, darling?” Rarity worried.

“Celestia!” Fluttershy turned to the alicorn with pleading eyes. “You must’ve heard her! We were right next to her!”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to, Fluttershy.” Celestia tilted her head slightly.

“Wh-what?” the pegasus’ eyes widened. She took a few steps back before turning and fleeing from the room. Her friends called after her, but she ignored them. The guards in the hallway reached out to her and asked if she was okay. She wasn’t, but she didn’t tell them that.

After her countless… ‘visits’ to the dungeons, the route was burned into her mind. She saw it whenever she closed her eyes. Much like how she saw… no… she couldn’t think about that now! But… it was such a strong memory…

Fluttershy hummed quietly as she braided her mane, her bird friends sliding flowers into each knot. Her Element hung about her neck, just as it had each day since the war began. Her tail was wrapped protectively around her, leading to her friends commenting about how she was acting like a cat. She didn’t mind; she loved animals.

The pegasus looked up in surprise as the door opened. The dark, polished wood shifted to reveal an elegant lavender alicorn. The purple mare trotted into the room, tail twitching impatiently. The door slammed shut, causing Fluttershy to squeak in surprise and hide behind her tail.

“Sorry, Fluttershy.” Twilight sighed, collapsing on the bed and groaning loudly. “Discussing war tactics is hard.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Fluttershy smiled warmly.

“It wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the fact that five alicorns and five Elements of Harmony, one of which is actually both, all wanted to voice their opinion at once!” Twilight whined, burying her head in Fluttershy’s pillow.

The yellow mare stood and walked over to the bed, resting a hoof on Twilight’s back. “I’m sure you’ll all figure it out. Why don’t you tell me about it and see if we can think of something?”

Twilight brought her head back up and grinned. “You should be in there helping too. You’re the only pony in Equestria who could keep peace between the most powerful creatures on Equus.” Fluttershy blushed a little. “Seriously, we’ve got a teenage dragon in there! Ugh, this is why I came to you to relax with.”

“Oh, well, I-I don’t think I would be that good talking about war. I just want peace after all.” Fluttershy lowered her head and shifted from hoof to hoof.

“Exactly! You would bring a new perspective!” Twilight told her, sitting up and resting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. The alicorn smiled before lying down again and motioning for Fluttershy to join her. “When I first walked in, everything was fine. We started by discussing the progress both sides have made so far.”

Fluttershy nodded as she sat down beside her friend.

“But when we moved onto what we were going to do next, everything went to Tartarus!” Twilight growled, eyes flashing. Fluttershy decided not to mention that the alicorn’s pupils were narrowing. “First, Rainbow suggested that we launch an ambush on the nearest batpony camp. Pinkie relented and said that we should charge them head-on. Rarity thought we should make some super intricate battle plan, but Applejack insisted we keep it simple so that nopony would get left behind.”

Sensing her friend’s distress, Fluttershy spread one wing and covered Twilight’s back. Her birds finally settled down and rested in her half-braided mane. One dared to perch on Twilight’s crown, but was quickly shaken off.

“Cadence decided that we should go with Rarity’s idea, making a detailed plan. Flurry Heart wanted to follow Applejack and Rainbow’s plans, using an ambush to make sure none of our warriors were caught off guard. Then Celestia said she liked Pinkie’s idea of charging them, but Luna said it would risk too many lives.” Twilight explained. Fluttershy was starting to worry about the alicorn’s draconic eyes. And the fact that her horn was glowing bright green and purple. “They asked me what I thought, and I said that we needed to seriously think things out, but not make it too complicated. Then everypony started shouting at each other until the meeting ended!”

Fluttershy pulled her friend closer with her wing. The pegasus rested her chin atop Twilight’s head and muttered, “I’ll all work out, Twilight.”

“No it won’t!” Twilight yelled, rearing up and knocking Fluttershy off. Her magic flared and black crystals began to sprout from the walls. Fluttershy squeaked and shied away from the crystals until she was stranded in the middle of her bed. Her birds flew around madly before fleeing through the window.

The yellow mare turned to Twilight, who had curled up on the bed, hiding her face beneath her hooves. Fluttershy slowly crawled over to the alicorn, avoiding random blasts of magic. She spread her wings and wrapped them around her friend, burying her face in the purple mare’s shoulder.

“Twilight, please. I know it’ll work out.” Fluttershy winced and the crystals began to press against her back. “But if you don’t try to help, then nothing will ever get better! You need to put in effort to keep things under control, or else it’ll never stop being so stressful!”

Her words were having an effect on the alicorn, as the crystals slowed their progress. Fluttershy gasped as one pressed against her wing, but gritted her teeth and kept talking.

“You need to calm down, Twilight. Everything will turn out okay as long as you work with your friends.” The pegasus breathed, wing twitching painfully. “And why is that?”

A muffled noise came from the alicorn. Fluttershy held back a giggle and asked again.

“Because friendship’s magic…” Twilight muttered.

“I can’t hear you.” Fluttershy grimaced as the crystal began to poke through her feathers.

“Friendship is magic!” Twilight cried. The aura around her horn shifted from the black and purple to a bright raspberry. The crystals stopped entirely and began to retreat. The alicorn collapsed suddenly, drained by her sudden use of dark magic.

Fluttershy sighed in relief and lay the purple mare down on her bed. The pegasus hopped of the bed, manoeuvring around the remaining crystals to her bathroom. She took a cloth, soaked it and began dabbing at where the crystal had hit her wing. Sure enough, a small amount of blood stained the fabric. The yellow mare sighed and cleaned up the wound, “Twilight, you really need to stop using dark magic.”

She trotted back into her room and glanced at her friend. “You can’t control it.” Fluttershy shook her head and climbed onto her bed, lying down and facing Twilight. To her surprise, Twilight was smiling.

Twilight often came to Fluttershy after meetings, to rant and cry about everything that had happened. More than a few times, it had ended with Twilight using dark magic and sleeping in Fluttershy’s room for the night. Each time that happened, she would talk the alicorn down before Twilight passed out and spent the night with Fluttershy. But never had Twilight smiled.

Fluttershy smiled back and rested her head on her pillow.

Fluttershy gasped and opened her eyes, the image of Twilight smiling still imprinted on her vision. She panted heavily, begging for breath. Tears streamed down her cheeks and wet the floor beneath her. The pegasus looked around wildly, her short mane sticking to her face. She flicked her tail before spreading her wings and taking off again. This time she flew faster, reaching the dungeons in just a few seconds. Rainbow would be proud.

The pegasus trotted down the stairs, Element swinging slightly at her neck. She sniffed and stopped to wipe her face. The yellow mare caught her breath before continuing, wings flaring involuntarily. Fluttershy bit her lip and paused when she reached the bottom, as unprepared as ever to see the consequences of her actions. After a brief inward pep talk, she set off at full sprint, eyes wide and hopeful for any sign of Twilight. The imposter. Whatever.

As she ran, she could hear the screams echoing in her ears, the weight of her deeds pressing down her like a brick wall. She tried to block out the noise, but it kept coming back. Only when she saw the imposter did she stop. She took a deep breath, brushed away her mane and strode towards the cell with a cold gaze.

“What do you want?” The imposter growled, not even turning to look at her visitor. “To torment me some more? Don’t bother.”

“And why shouldn’t I?” Fluttershy knew immediately that it was the wrong question, but she didn’t really care at this point.

“Tell me.” The alicorn laughed. “What would break a pony the most? Losing a friend? A sibling? A parent?”

Fluttershy’s mouth opened to answer, but no words came out.

“I’ll tell you the right answer.” The imposter turned to look at Fluttershy, a wide grin on their face. Their fangs flashed evilly, their eyes narrowed to slits. “Finding out that they’re not even real. Realising that whenever their mother looks at them, it gives her great pain and shame.”

The pegasus didn’t know what to say. She had to use all of her will to not run away from the fanged, dragon-eyed monster in front of her that no longer looked like Twilight.

“Knowing that being born brought everypony around them pain,” The imposter hissed. “Is real humbling, you know that? But what if a pony is already humble? It forces their self-esteem through the ground!”

Fluttershy was starting to consider fleeing with her tail between her legs as a valid option.

“And I’ve been forced through that. So, Kindness, would you be cruel enough to hurt me even more?” The imposter asked quietly, closing their mouth and hiding their fangs. Their draconic eyes widened again, filling with grief.

Fluttershy already knew her answer. She turned away from the cell and walked off, distant hoofsteps alerting her that the imposter had done the same. The pegasus trotted up to a nearby cell, where a black alicorn lay.

Her coat was patchy, being black and some sort of dark blue. Her mane was a mess, partially made of the stars and partially made of limp blue hair. The stars flowed aimlessly around the cell, while the hair hung sadly by the mare’s head. Her cutie mark constantly switched from purple and white to black and white, changing whenever the stars passed by.

Fluttershy stared at the mare pitifully. She glanced up and down the hall before pressing against the bars and looking closer. Whenever her cutie mark changed, so did her half-lidded eyes. Eventually they stopped on teal orbs with rounded black pupils, staring confusedly at Fluttershy.

The pegasus smiled. “Don’t worry, Luna. It’s me, Fluttershy.”