Contingency Plans Original

"Drone 18 and 19, are you inside?" the harsh, ethereal sounding voice of Chrysalis whispered. Two changeling drones looked up at a small green portal, lighting up the darkness of Twilight's castle. No other sounds could be heard as the residents of the large crystalline castle were all fast asleep.

"Yes, the dragon was easily fooled by our disguises, and the others were distracted by some magic show on the other side of town." drone 18 replied.

"Exactly as I planned!" Chrysalis hissed.

"Why don't we just attack them now while they're assleep?" drone 19 asked hungrily.

"No!" Chrysalis said in firm tone. "They are too powerful. Continue with operation friendship falls as I instructed. We must find out everything about them, their strengths, their weaknesses, their secrets. Twilight Sparkle is the princess most likely to keep a written record of anything useful to us. That foolish child has been writing reports since the day she was born."

The two drones bowed and continued walking along the dark hallway as the portal disappeared behind them.

"Which way is her file room again? This castle is so big you could get lost in it for days!" drone 19 complained.

"You idiot you were supposed to memorize the layout!" 18 scolded. He pulled a piece of paper out of his saddlebag. "Fortunately I thought ahead. This Princess is so bent up on organization that she made maps of her castle for visitors."

"Ha how stupid is she?" 19 chuckled.

18 facehoofed. "You're the stupid one. Turn right here."

The two drones turned into a new hallway. "I'm not stupid!" 19 argued stomping a hoof. At the end of the hallway a small door creaked open.

"Hide!" 18 hissed. 19 dove around a corner and listened nervously.

"Hey Starlight I heard some noise so I got curious. Is everything alright?" Twilight Sparkle asked with a yawn.

"Oh yeah I'm fine... just wanted to get a glass of water!" Starlight Glimmer replied.

Twilight raised her eyebrows. "But the kitchen's that way." She pointed a hoof in the opposite direction.

"The kitchen... oh oops silly me, I'm still getting used to this huge castle, so easy to get lost here you know?" Starlight shrugged sheepishly.

"I used to feel the same way when I first got this place." Twilight smiled. "You get used to it. Think I'm gonna *yawn* go back to bed. See you in the morning."

Starlight nodded her thanks and trotted a few steps in the direction Twilight pointed. Twilight waved and walked back to her room, closing the door with a small thud. There was a flash as Starlight changed back into drone 18, who grabbed 19 threateningly. "You almost got us exposed!"

19 rubbed his neck with a hoof. "Um sorry?"

"You will be if we go back to the queen with nothing!" 18 dropped his fellow drone and began trotting on their original path again, tiptoeing (hooftoeing?) this time. They both remained silent, following the map's directions until they finally reached a wooden door simply marked, 'File Room'.

18 swung the door open, careful not to let it creak. The room was filled with reading material, with shelves and shelves of albums, books and folders lining the walls. Several filing cabinets were half open, exposing even more papers. "There's so much in here!" drone 19 whined. "How are we supposed to read through all of these?!"

"They're arranged alphabetically you imbecile." 18 sighed. "I'll look under 'W' for weaknesses, you look under 'S' for strengths and secrets." The changelings searched and searched, poring over Twilight Sparkle's collection with little success. After an hour of searching they were about ready to give up.

"We don't have much time... they're going to wake up in another hour or so. Did you find anything?" 18 asked hopefully.

"Well I found this." 19 held up a black book titled, 'Secrets of Dark Magic'.

18 facehoofed again. "The queen is an expert at dark magic! She'd be insulted if we gave her that!"

Drone 19 slumped his shoulders and put back the book. "We can't go back empty hoofed! Do you know what the queen would do to us if-" 18 began to fret.

"What about that?" 19 pointed at small black filing cabinet tucked away in a corner of the room. A white label on it read, 'CLASSIFIED'. "It looks kinda important..." the drone suggested.

His companion cautiously approached the cabinet and put a hoof toward it. 18's black hoof barely got within three inches before he was thrown back with a loud ZAP noise. "It's protected by some kind of magic ward. No doubt one only Sparkle can undo. Well we'll see about that princess cleverpants!" drone 18 reached into his saddlebag again and retrieved a small black chunk of rock.

"How's a rock going to help us?" 19 asked craning his head to see what his fellow drone was doing.

18 brought the rock close to the cabinet, and a blue mist began to flow into the black stone. "This is part of the queen's throne." he explained. "A special stone that absorbs magic, including pesky ward spells." The mist stopped seeping into the rock, and the changeling put the rock back in his bag. "Now lets see what's so 'classified'." He opened the little cabinet, and found only one folder resting inside with an index card taped to the front. Written in red marker, the folder was titled, "Contingency Plans".

19 put a hoof to his chin. "What's a 'contingency'?"

"Something unforseen, usually bad." 18 answered as he turned over the index card to read it. It was written in Twilight Sparkle's neat handwriting, but was marred by the stains of several tears, as if Twilight was crying when she wrote it.

My friends, if you are reading this that means the worst has happened. Either I have gone evil, or I have passed away and one or more of Equestria's former protectors has turned to darkness. Once you read these plans, your opinion of me may be forever changed, and I accept that. This is the ultimate act of betrayal... the sacrifice I am making to keep Equestria safe. Please understand, I couldn't bear the thought that our magic might be turned against Equestria, with no way to stop us. Even if your memory of me is sullied, I hope you at least understand my intentions.

Twilight Sparkle

"Looks like somepony has a little secret!" 18 grinned wickedly. He flipped open the folder and read a few of the pages. "Oh I think the queen will definitely want to see this."

"One file?! You only brought back one file!!" Chrysalis yelled.

18 and 19 looked at each other confidently. "One file is we'll need." 18 handed the manila folder to Chrysalis.

Chrysalis looked at the file with curiosity and flipped it open to the first page.

My name is Twilight Sparkle. A few months ago, I was sent to live here in Ponyville to study the magic of friendship by my mentor, Princess Celestia. Though I was initially reluctant, I met five wonderful ponies who I hope will be my lifelong friends. Together we defeated Nightmare Moon and saved Equestria, by uncovering the six long lost Elements of Harmony. Afterwards we won countless battles, defeating foes like Discord, Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, by staying true to our elements and using the magic of love and friendship. Though we eventually had to give up the physical elements to restore Harmony, each of us still has the spirit and power of our element inside us.  Most recently, my five friends and I united against Tirek and imprisoned him in Tartarus once again.

However during that battle, I said something that I didn't realize the gravity of until later. "I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!" Sure enough, that rang true and even with all the magic in Equestria at his disposal, Tirek was not able to defeat us. After the initial celebration at my newly granted castle, I was left alone with some time to reflect. During that time, a dark thought crossed my mind. We had "the most powerful magic of all" at our disposal, so powerful that nothing could defeat it. My friends and I used that magic for good, to restore order and bring peace. But the future is uncertain. What if, one day, we used that power for evil?

There are many ways this could happen. Discord was able to hypnotize my friends during out first encounter to behave the opposite of their true selves. The elements didn't work with their new personalities of course, but in the future a cleverer or more sinister opponent may not hesitate to simply make us his or her servants, and force us to use our magic against innocents. Alternatively, an enemy might threaten to hurt someone we love, and force us to use the magic of the elements for malevolent purposes. But the third possibility scares me most of all. What if one or all of us willingly turned to evil, and abused our power? The words of Princess Luna after the dark water incident come to mind: If we were evil and worked together... there was no doubt we'd be unstoppable.

I cannot bear the possibility that Equestria could be left defenseless if it's protectors turned on it. Therefore, with painstaking study and effort, I have compiled a series of secret contingency plans to neutralize each of the most powerful ponies in Equestria, should any of them turn evil, by choice or through mind control. This was not an easy decision to come to, as it violates the trust of many I love and care about. However it must be done, if the good of Equestria is to be insured.

In the event of myself becoming a threat, I have left a series of coded instructions with my friends so that they may find these plans if the need arises. If you are reading this now, and it is our darkest hour... I hope you understand why this had to be done.

Twilight Sparkle

Chrysalis laughed gleefully. "Oh Twilight Sparkle, your darkest hour has just begun!"