Chapter 1: Corruption
Twilight looked up at the cave roof, inspecting it for bats and spiders. She shuddered at the thought of those creepy crawlies. Yes this alicorn who had defeated nightmare moon and faced down the lord of chaos, was afraid of a few spiders. She thought about how she had gotten into this mess. If you could call it a mess. About 2 hours before she entered the cave she was sitting comfortably in her warm safe library reading a book on physics. Her baby dragon Spike had ambled into the room muttering something about rarity when he stiffened and bent over. A stream of bright green flame issued out of his mouth and a letter popped into existence. She picked up the letter off the floor and opened it. It read,
Dear Twilight,
Archeologist have discovered a cave in the same mountain that the dragon took a nap in. I inspected it and found that the cave radiates dark magic. I would like you to scout out the cave. Don’t bring your friends, I don’t want to endanger anypony else.
Sincerely, princess Celestia.
Twilight looked up and sighed, another quest from the princess. Sometimes she wished she could have just out day without a potentially life threatening situation. She got up from her couch and went to her room to start packing her things.
A loud thump and a sharp pain in her hoof brought Twilight back to reality. She had tripped on a rock. As she picked herself up off the ground she noticed a subdued purple light coming from up ahead. She rounded the corner and saw a black and silver chest sitting in the middle of a small room. A magenta crystal in the center of the chest was the source of the light. She walked into the room looking around with a wary eye. She lit her horn, which was the first mistake she made. When she opened the lid a tendril of dark magic reached out and grabbed her horn. It spiraled down the horn and sank into her head. She felt it trying to overcome her mind. It amplified the dark thoughts she was already thinking, like, why does Celestia always sent me to do her dirty work, and, why can’t she get her fat royal plot off her throne and do something herself for a change. Starting from her horn her lavender coat turned pitch black. The darker purple part of her mane and tail turned into the image of the night sky as seen from space. The stripes of color turned black and white. Her royal regalia appeared on her body. The gold turned dark red and the gems turned black. She grew about 5 inches taller, and her pupils became slits. She wasn’t the same mare for, she was no longer Twilight Sparkle. She was now Nebula Star. The evil princess of equestria. Nebula flared her wings, opened her mouth and let out a maniacal laugh. She turned away from the chest and flew out of the cave and away from the mountain.
She landed on the balcony of the library and walked inside. Spike was on the ground floor sweeping. He looked up and saw her. He spun his broom around his hand with expert movements and struck a Kung Fu pose. “Who are you?” he yelled at her. “Why are you wearing Twilight’s crown?”
Nebula laughed mirthlessly and looked at him “oh Spike, it’s me, the one you call Twilight.” She smirked at the bewildered dragon.
“But, what happened to you?”
“I saw the light Spike, I realized that whatever Celestia does it’s not what I would call ruling.” She walked down the stairs getting ever closer to Spike. “She sits on her throne all day and whenever a problem arises she tells someone else to do it, she’s nothing but a figure head of a crumbling government.”
“But Twilight, she’s your teacher.” “Why would you say all this?” asked Spike beginning to feel a seed of fear blossoming in his chest.
“Oh you poor stupid foal, you will see why.” said Nebula with no compassion in her eyes. Spike definitely scared now, was wounded by her words and tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. He decided to run and tell twilight’s friends about her strange behavior. As he turned he felt something latch on to his feet. He looked back and saw nebula’s magic binding his feet to the ground.
“Oh no you don’t, you’re going to see the truth whether you want to or not.” Nebula pointed her horn at Spikes head and a black tendril of magic much like the one in the cave coiled from her horn touched his temples. Just as with Twilight the magic changed him. He turned black. His spines turned the same color as Nebula’s crown.
The little dragon fell to the floor shaking. His mind was undergoing the same war as Twilight’s had in the cave.
“Spike, yu=kyk. Sorry brain fail. Now what was I saying, oh yeah. You know what she says is true.”
“But…”
“No you must give in, it is the truth.”
“No it’s not true!”
“Sure it is stupid.”
“NO!” he yelled out loud. He looked up and saw Nebula staring at him in confusion.
“What?” Spike realized what he must do. He put on what he thought was a sinister face. But the most sinister look he had ever produced was the look he had when Twilight caught him stealing cookies. NOT very sinister.
“Uh Spike? You look constipated.”
“What? Oh um… sorry I guess having the truth revealed acts kind of like a laxative.”
“It does? Hmmm that didn’t happen to me.”
“Maybe it’s a dragon thing.” He chuckled nervously. Nebula just shrugged and turned to her map of equestria. That’s when Spike made a break for it. He ran through town dodging in-between pony’s legs. When he reached sugar cube corner he was wheezing. He walked into the bakery and found Twilight's friends having lunch. He ran up to their table talking at Pinkie Pie speed. “Twilight, cough, evil, dark magic, cough, help, blargh.” He threw up on the bakery’s floor took a deep breath and passed out.
“Did ya’ll get anything outta that?” asked Applejack.
“Well duh! It’s simple, he said twilight was turned evil by dark magic in a mysterious chest and tried to turn spike evil but he beat the magic and ran, oh and by the way did I ever tell you about Mmmm Hmmmhmmm.”said Pinkie, That last part was muffled due to the fact that she had rainbow’s hoof shoved in her mouth.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. Did you say that Twi’s evil?” asked Dash
“And that she tried to turn spike evil?” asked Fluttershy from her place on the floor next to the poor baby dragon.
“Oh that color really does not match his personality, it’s just hideous!” said Rarity in her manner of caring about fashion first, danger later. It was hard for the 5 of them to process. Twilight was evil and the rest of Equestria could be in danger.