For Spike, it was a lazy day, and that was how he liked it. Having just returned from the Crystal Empire, where he had gotten caught up in a high-stakes scavenger hunt while fending off an ancient tyrant, lazy was safe. Spike was, in fact, in such good spirits that he was already dusting off the shelves of the library tree-home he lived in.
He paused halfway through one low-use section of the library. Usually, Twilight Sparkle, the mare Spike lived with and who was the assigned librarian to Ponyville, would have given him a list of chores to do by now. Instead, he had not seen her yet today.
Spike frowned. That was unusual. Twilight had never been what one would call a morning pony, especially by virtue of how she would stay up through the wee hours of the night when a book or experiment had captured her interest, but this was ridiculous. She had only made appearances in the library proper a clawful of times over the last week. Spike had had to take it upon himself to check out the books for those few patrons who stopped by, perform all the administrative tasks to keep the library humming along, and even pick up the food. The food had disappeared every time Spike cooked, but Twilight herself was rarely seen.
One more day, Spike decided. One more day of this and then I’ll confront her and drag her out of whatever silly little spell she’s gotten herself into now.
Crash!
Spike made a good impression of a pegasi as he jumped, nearly clearing the entire bookshelf, and grabbing a wall hook. The sudden unmistakable noise of things falling down had come from the basement. Spike frowned. Did Twilight just wake up, or had she never gone to sleep? She had never come up to bed, but it wouldn’t have been the first time she slept down in the basement, typically from overworking herself until her body shut down.
He let out a sigh of relief as he heard more noise through the floor, mentally making a note to visit the shop and get an estimate for soundproofing the basement. As Spike listened to the steady thumping of hooves going up stairs, he set down his duster, figuring he would have to harangue Twilight to do something, be it eat, bathe or sleep.
The basement door opened, and it was all Spike could do not to let out a gasp. “Twilight, you look awful!” He said, giving her an honest appraisal.
‘Vrrgrrwhu?” Twilight mumbled. Her mane and coat were unkempt, with hairs sticking out every which way. Spike could smell her breath even from several steps away, and her four hooves were out of sync as she trotted. The most telling sign of all were her eyes. Though they were bloodshot, they were also filled with a nervous, manic energy.
Spike gulped. He had already had to send a letter to Princess Celestia once this year for an intervention. It had been fortuitous timing on his part, coming as it did right before Twilight cast a spell on her old Smarty-Pants doll. The baby dragon hoped not to have to send another letter today.
“Spaaaaak,” Twilight said, slurring her words as she saw him. “Do yoooou knoooow if we have any potassium chloride in stock?” Her speech cleared up towards the end of her sentence, but she was still obviously in a less-than-optimal state of mind.
Spike decided to put his foot down. “No, we don’t. I think you have more important things to worry about.”
“M-more important?” Twilight asked, sounding outraged. “What could be more important than my latest spell?!”
“Tell you what,” Spike said, deciding to wheel-and-deal instead of putting up with an obnoxious tantrum, “How about if you tell me what day of the week today is, I’ll put in an expedited order for salt right now.”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Twilight said, though she still sounded mostly incomprehensible to Spike. “Sunday, right?!”
Spike shook his head.
“Monday?”
Another shake.
“Tuesday?!”
He shook his head again.
“Wednesday, it has to be Wednesday.”
Spike stopped shaking his head. “It’s Friday, Twilight. What are you doing that’s so important you’ve lost track of time to such an extent?”
“What? It’s really Friday?!” Twilight was stunned, and she sat down on her haunches, jaw wide open. “That can’t be, Friday was only yesterday.”
“If by yesterday you mean a week ago, sure. Now answer my question, Twi. What are you doing that’s so important?” Spike asked, repeating his question.
Twilight’s eyes refocused, taking in the impeccable state of the library and the baby dragon standing in front of her. She fidgeted, but knew there was no weaseling out of this one. “I’ve been attempting to design an anti-dark magic spell,” said Twilight, no longer slurring her words. “You remember that crystal trap once I grabbed the Heart?”
“How could I not?” Spike grumbled. Time has passed, but he still flinched whenever he thought about his big sister figures trapped in between all those black crystals.
“Yes, and what I’ve been working on is something I could cast at a moment’s notice in the field to drain the magic out of spells like that,” Twilight explained. “It’ll take more magic on my part than what was used to create the dark magic spell, but it’ll be worth it if we ever run across somepony like Sombra again.”
Spike thought that over for a few seconds, stroking his chin with a claw. “OK,” he said. “But that’s enough for today, Twilight. You’re going to eat whatever I make for you, and then straight to bed. Unless you think you can do a bath without drowning. And when I say to bed, I mean to bed. No jumping up at a moment’s inspiration for another few hours of work.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but conceded the point. She was tired. “Fine.”
Twilight hated lying to Spike. He was close to her, perhaps closer than Princess Celestia or her brother Shining Armor even were. It was clear he only had her best interests at heart, and that was why she was eating this omelette the dragon had cooked up, even if the cheese and the daisies and the green peppers felt like ashes in her mouth.
As she trudged up to her bed following the late breakfast, skipping the idea of a bath, it was difficult for her to turn off her thoughts. Her mind was just too stormy to be calmed down, and it needed an outlet. Research and experimentation over the last few days, with multiple borrowed books from Canterlot, had helped to satiate that need, but it still was not enough.
Twilight gulped. For only the second time in her life she had broken into the Canterlot archives. Unlike the last time, when Celestia seemed to know what Twilight was doing in the Star Swirl wing, Twilight hoped the Princess was not so aware this time. There would have been some uncomfortable questions had Celestia found out about the more forbidden tomes Twilight had snatched. All Twilight could hope for was that the list of regular books she had checked out would act as a decoy to throw Celestia off.
No, that’s not quite right, I didn’t really lie to Spike, Twilight told herself. She was researching dark magic from the Crystal Empire, after all. Just not the spell that had trapped her on the tower where the Crystal Heart was located.
That door. If only Spike had managed to break her out of the door’s spell just a few seconds earlier. Twilight shuddered. It had started out terribly to start, as Celestia disowned Twilight as her student, only for Twilight to soon discover there were worse things than not being the Princess’ student anymore. In the space of a few seconds in the real world, the door had shown her a vision of a world rent asunder, as the bright blue skies and dark nights were traded for an endless blood-red.
Twilight didn’t remember much of it, thankfully, but she did recall the planet roiled under violence everywhere she looked. That door terrified her, and it was all Twilight could do not to fidget every time she opened a door. She knew it was silly of her, but working up the nerve to come out of the basement, crossing the threshold of another door, had spent much of her courage. She was thankful much of the treehouse had an open concept, with only a couple of doors.
“I’ll have to see if I can’t get back to the Crystal Empire soon,” Twilight mumbled as she climbed into bed, rolling down her curtains to block out the morning sun. “Maybe I’ll find something about that door there, given that’s where the door was located in the first place.” It was a lot more likely, to be honest, than perusing whatever she could find on dark magical artifacts in Canterlot. Additionally, in the Crystal Empire she would no longer be under the watchful eye of Princess Celestia or Luna.
Instead, she could have a brief meet-and-greet with her brother Shining Armor and his wife Princess Cadance. Those two would be bogged down in paperwork related to bringing the Crystal Empire into the modern age, and besides that, they were each barely older than Twilight herself was. Borrowing prohibited material from out under their muzzles would be like stealing candy from a foal. Not that I would ever do that, Twilight scolded herself for using that analogy.
But Twilight had to make certain. She needed to confirm that it was simply something done by the door to trap her, and not a vision of the future.
Not for the first time she thought about talking to her friends, to her mentor, to her family, to Spike, or even a third party. Spike had been down to Canterlot twice to see a psychiatrist, as Celestia had judged his close brush with death in the Empire was something that he needed to talk with a qualified pony for. Twilight should have gone as well, but she couldn’t. She had already had an oopsie earlier this year with a doll. What would Celestia think of her if she knew Twilight had been deeply affected by dark magic, especially so soon after warning her about the perils of dark magic?
Twilight didn’t want to disappoint the Princess again.
It was to these troubled thoughts that she attempted to get some sleep.
“Well, it’s good to see you again, Twilight,” Rarity said with just the slightest hint of a drawl. “I’m glad you managed to join Fluttershy and me for our weekly spa get-together.”
“Thanks again, Rarity,” Twilight said. She tried to blink away the dryness in her eyes before settling for closing her eyes and laying down in the water. A spa had sounded like the perfect idea when it was suggested to her, but now she was beginning to regret it. The heat and steam were doing terrible things to her coat, and Twilight felt like she would break out into a bad sweat any moment.
“Oh, I don’t mind, darling,” Rarity said with a wave of her hoof. “Fluttershy and I always enjoy our time here, but we certainly would love to have another pony along. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are either too busy or think it too uncool to join us, and Pinkie Pie is, ah, how to put it?”
“Hyper?” Twilight asked, as her fear came true and her forehead sprouted with sweat.
“Yes, hyper,” Rarity agreed, though her tone made it obvious she would have come up with a more ‘elegant’ term. “But enough of that, how have you been? That trip to the Crystal Empire was such an ordeal, wasn’t it?”
“It was...not the most pleasant,” Twilight agreed. She sank down to her neck in the hot water, deciding to go for broke and embrace the heat.
“And what about you, Fluttershy?” Rarity asked, turning her attention to the lone pegasus. “That ruffian Rainbow didn’t hurt you too much in the jousting competition, did she?”
“Oh, no! Rainbow Dash was very gentle with me. She held back. Besides, we needed to do something to keep the Crystal ponies from asking about the Crystal Heart,” said Fluttershy.
“Ah, yes. Oh, speaking of the Crystal Heart, that reminds me. How is poor Spikey-wikey doing, Twilight?” Rarity asked. “He had some issues after his dragon greed incident with heights and falling to the earth, if I recall. I was terrified for him when I saw him falling with the Crystal Heart. I certainly hope the poor dear isn’t traumatised over a second near-miss!”
Twilight blinked. Oh, right, she thought. She had been so focused on her own brushes with terror from that door that she had just about forgotten what had happened to Spike. “He’s doing fine. I think the hero worship the Crystal Ponies are giving him helped. He’s too busy revelling in their praise to really have the time to be distraught.”
She winced at how callous that sounded of hers, saying that Spike wasn’t having any issues because ponies were showering him with glory. Twilight knew all too well that couldn’t be less true. Hadn’t she herself had a breakdown and used a Want-It-Need-It spell shortly after a whole ceremony where all of Canterlot had exalted her for stopping Discord?
“Oh. Well, that’s good to hear. Nevertheless, do give my gratitude to the poor dear. He did save us after all with his derring-do. I shudder to think of what it would have been like if that tyrant had won the day!”
Twilight shuddered. The brief glimpse she had seen of bloodshed and carnage in the door, when it had decided to change scenes from Celestia disowning her as her student to something more horrifying, had been enough. If that had come to be reality…
Right then and there, Twilight made up her mind. “I think I’ll head back up to the Crystal Empire shortly,” she said. “I want to visit my brother and sister-in-law a bit now that they’re more settled in.”
“Really? That’s nice of you, but don’t you think they’d be awfully busy?” Fluttershy asked, breaking her normal silence.
Twilight shrugged. “Well, I am a good organiser after all, so if nothing else, I can help take some of the workload off their withers for a day or two.” And go through the Crystal Library to see what I can find about dark magic, Twilight added in her thoughts.
Twilight nearly stormed into the Royal Library of the Crystal Palace. Twilight reminded herself she was in the public eye currently, and slowed down, making herself appear calm and rational to the other ponies.
She still wanted to tear her mane out. Her brother and his wife, Shining Armor and Cadance, weren’t nearly as busy as she thought they would be. They had welcomed her and then kept her in a conversation for hours, then invited her for dinner!
Under other circumstances, Twilight would have been ecstatic at the amount of free time they had. But not now. In the past month, there had been a debacle where Pinkie Pie found a magical pool that Pinkie had used to create several clones of herself, and then Trixie had returned to town with a dark magical artifact in tow.
Why is there so much dangerous magic just lying around?! Twilight thought. It was aggravating. Shining and Cadance had been stopping her from getting some very important research done! Twilight needed to be able to do something to prevent more dangerous magic from reappearing in Equestria.
Twilight skimmed through the shelf, and grabbed a random book on old magic. She flipped the tome open to a middle page, and scrunched her muzzle in annoyance. Another gosh-darned reformation spell?! The twenty books with reformation spells in my library weren’t enough?!
She sat down on her haunches, idly levitating the book onto the table. Twilight bit her lip, pressing so hard that she only stopped when she tasted the copper texture of blood. She scowled. “And now I’m getting so worked up I’m making my lip bleed. Great, just great.” She licked her lip and held her tongue in place over the bleeding spot to keep any more from coming out before the wound had a chance to coagulate.
Twilight took a few minutes to read the titles on the shelf. Her mood darkened as she understood just how much danger some of the magical spellbooks tucked away could present if an unscrupulous pony were to gain access to the Crystal Library. “It would be so much easier if I had Spike along to help me document this,” Twilight thought. No, it wouldn’t be, the unicorn contradicted herself internally. He wouldn’t know the locations and contents of books of a library that isn’t the Golden Oaks Library, and I don’t want him to know what I’m researching anyways.
A headache was coming on. Twilight groaned as she cast a spell on herself to stave off its effects. The headache would bide its time and find a way to eventually extract its penance from her, but by then Twilight hoped she would be on the train ride home, instead of during her research session.
“Ugh, let’s see here,” Twilight said as she went through a book on alchemy. “A potion that lets you see the past? Yeah, I can’t possibly see how that would be abused. Brewing a weaponised poison joke concoction? They actually had poison joke in the Crystal Empire a thousand years ago? That sounds disgusting. Who could possible have thought this up and actually written it down?” Twilight grimaced as she flipped the book to the cover, and then to the front page, not finding a hint of the author.
It was like that in the next book, as there was a dark magic spell of such cruelty that Twilight had to turn her head away as it detailed the sick ways it could be used to remove a pony’s entrails for sacrificial purposes. Feeling green, she hopped up, and walked over to the library window.
Twilight’s mood improved and her gaze softened as she saw the pink dome outside that encased the Crystal Empire in a protective bubble. How the Crystal ponies must have felt a thousand years ago, the dome preventing them from suffering the worst of life’s ills. Twilight turned her nose up as she was also reminded of how easily the Empire had fallen to the evil Sombra, regardless of the Crystal Heart and its undeniable goodness as a magical artifact, on par with the Elements of Harmony.
“Evil never sleeps, does it?” She asked aloud, not expecting a response. “No, not just evil. Ponies simply can’t seem to wield things with sense and caution. If you give somepony a spell, she’ll use it to turn up everything around her.”
Grimly, Twilight realised the same was true of herself. She shook her head. Twilight Sparkle had grown past that, she was certain of it. She had mastered every lesson Zecora had thrown her way. Princess Celestia had trusted Twilight to head to the Crystal Empire and fight Sombra, even trusting Twilight enough to demonstrate she knew dark magic! Twilight alone had resisted Discord’s powers and turned things around when she was at her lowest, sealing the spirit of chaos away once more.
No. Twilight knew what she had to do. She had little doubts ponies simply couldn’t be trusted with the secrets buried deep within books like these. It was anathema to Twilight to even consider the destruction of knowledge, but surely she could remember everything beforehoof, prior to destroying the unpleasant pages in here? Yes, that might work best.
So she continued standing at the window, looking out towards the dome, plotting about how she might best go about doing so.
Then she turned back to the table, looking at the dark magic spells and memorising what was there.
“Yes. Yes, thank you, Pinkie. I hope you have a good evening, too.”
“How about a party tomorrow, Twi?”
“A party?” Twilight asked. She grit her teeth to keep her body from shaking. “Maybe. I think Applejack will be busy with her Apple Family Reunion over the next few days. I just want to take things a bit easy and be on standby in case she asks me to help organise.”
Pinkie nodded with a bright smile. “Okie doki loki!” she said, before turning around and hopping off at a bounce.
Twilight turned around. She opened the door to the Golden Oaks Library. Walking in, she slammed the door shut behind her. Twilight held her hooves up in front of her. They were trembling.
“Oh gosh, Twilight! I heard what happened! Are you OK?” Spike asked, rushing out from the kitchen to meet her.
Twilight forced herself to breath, steadying her lungs. Even her eyelids wanted to twitch on their own. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, letting out short, rapid breaths every few seconds. “It was scary, but the Wonderbolt trainees were quick to save us, and Spitfire threw Lightning Dust out of the Academy.”
“Are you sure?” Spike asked.
Twilight paused to consider his words. She knew Spike had had some therapy issues to go through after his dragon greed incident. It wasn’t the trauma that had haunted him so much, either. No, it was how he was plummeting to the earth below at fast speeds after he changed back. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had saved Spike and Rarity in the nick of time, but the rate at which the earth was approaching him from his perspective...she felt like she could understand Spike a little better now.
“I’m sure, I’m sure. I’m an adult,” said Twilight. “It was frightening, yes, but I’m safe now. Lightning Dust is banned from the Wonderbolts. That’s all I need to know.”
“Are you sure? How’s about some comfort food? I can make daisy sandwiches and nachos,” Spike said, cajoling Twilight with one of her few weaknesses.
Twilight was about to instinctively deny Spike, only to stop. She could indeed use some comfort food right about now. “Yes, that would be great, thank you Spike. Please, bring it up to my room when you’re finished.”
“Okay, Twi,” Spike said, heading back into the kitchen. “Just come down and talk to me if you need somedrake to chat with.”
“Okay, Spike. Thanks again,” said Twilight as she headed upstairs.
As she walked into her room, Twilight cast a spell to immediately soundproof the room, then hollered. “Celestia damnit! That stupid, stupid cunt! Who even let her into the Academy in the first place? It was the least Spitfire could do to give Lightning Dust the boot! Oooh, I hope ponies find out wherever she returns to about what she did. Maybe they can shun her like ponies did to Trixie!”
Her hoof flew up to her mouth. Did I really just say that? Twilight thought. “No, no, I’m not a nasty pony, I’m not like one of them,” she said, shaking the tears out of her eyes. She let out a snort. “No, I’m better than them. I know how dangerous all this magic is. I’m working proactively to keep yet another pony from tampering with something she shouldn’t. I should ask the guards to watch Lightning Dust. I bet if they don’t, she’ll end up finding something like the Alicorn Amulet or the Mirror Pool, and that’ll just be another mess.”
Twilight’s mind was made up. Turning around, she summoned a quill and a scroll, and started to write out a missive. While she lacked an official position, as the student of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle was well-regarded. Lightning Dust wouldn’t be getting anywhere close to any dangerous magic like Trixie or Pinkie Pie had.
With the scroll finished, Twilight walked out the door and downstairs, her nose following the smell of nachos and salsa. She halted as Twilight saw the floor of the ground level and spotted a scorch mark. The scorch mark had been impossible to clean out, but it was what had created it that gave Twilight pause.
That’s right, it was Future Twilight, and then me, that created it, wasn’t it? She thought.
A thought struck her as she walked over and put a hoof down on the scorch mark. I was always destined to travel back in time a week, wasn’t I? Twilight from the future was always going to come back in time to warn me, and I would always stop her from warning me, only to go back in time myself a week later.
Twilight had realised as much at the time, and laughed it off after a week of her getting slightly manic. Now, however, it took on a whole meaning. That time travel spell was dangerous. There was no such thing as a ‘beginning’ to a time loop. The spell was somehow initiated on its own, and Twilight couldn’t figure out the mechanics. It was like the phoenix and the egg paradox, except more nefarious.
Ponies might not use it to do harm, but that didn’t matter. The mere existence of the spell meant that further causally-closed loops might exist. Twilight shuddered as she considered the ramifications. The worse would be if a pony caused harm or damage while in the loop. How could one assign guilt to a pony who was predestined to do something, such as would be the case with that spell?
No. Twilight knew what she would have to do. She would have to travel to the Star Swirl the Bearded wing and start there with destroying any dangerous and-or dark magic.
Under the cover of night, Twilight snuck back into Canterlot.
She had an inkling that the last time she was here, Princess Celestia knew she had returned home. After all, many of the guards had spotted Twilight, only to ignore her, and the one stallion had even let her into the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. Perks of being the Princess’ student, but it was vital this time that Twilight maintain real secrecy. She didn’t want her mentor to know what she was doing.
Instead, Twilight had rifled through the pages of her spellbooks and discovered an invisibility spell. Combined with one to mute her scent and prevent her hooves from making sounds or indents in the soft ground, she was decently certain she had all her bases covered. From the Canterlot train station, Twilight had careful made her way to the palace grounds.
The unicorn swallowed back a lump as she strolled through the castle door. She watched the eyes of both guards closely, and softly sighed in relief as she made it past them. Teleportation on the castle grounds was possible, and Twilight was keyed in, but she didn’t want to use it except as a last resort.
It was easy to locate the Star Swirl wing again, having been here once before. Twilight licked her lips as she activated her magic, unlocking the iron-hinged door, and using another spell to prevent it from squealing as she walked in. Remembering to lock the door behind her, Twilight dropped most of the spells she had cloaked herself in. Finally, she looked around the library room.
Fortunately, even if I get caught now, it’s still not a point of no return for me, Twilight thought. After all, Celestia had caught her in the wing not even a year ago, and had merely greeted her before walking on.
Using her magic, Twilight lifted a select cross-section of books and scrolls off the shelf. Quickly opening the very first book, she blanched. When she had been here prior, Twilight had skimmed through all the material available in trying to find the time travel spell Future Twilight had mentioned to her. As a result, she had never really absorbed much of what else was in this wing.
“And I thought the Cutie Mark Crusaders with the love poison was bad enough,” Twilight said as she tossed the book aside, feeling ill at having read the recipe for an even more potent concoction. The unicorn grabbed the next scroll, unfurled it, then immediately rolled it back up and threw it off to the side. “The prototype for a spell that can remove a Cutie Mark? Nononono, not even touching that one.”
The more Twilight Sparkle thought about it, the more she felt in her guts that even the mere existence of these spells, even if she just held them in her head and burned all the paper records, was dangerous.
In which case she would have to burn it all. Some part of her revolted at the mere idea of destroying knowledge, but all that knowledge had resulted in so many incidents of late that it sickened Twilight.
Sighing, she went to work, making her way through paper text, sorting them out into piles of ‘keep’ and ‘don’t keep’. Twilight hesitated at all the documents about magical artifacts, but decided to keep them out of prudence. It would be necessary to hunt down these relics and destroy them before somepony else discovered it and caused a hay-day with one, such as a mysterious book with an ‘Inspiration Manifestation’ spell that could easily allow the user to re-shape the world around her.
“Twilight Sparkle, what are you doing?”
Twilight froze. Then she spun around. Nononono!
Princess Celestia strode into the room, looking around. She didn’t look angry, instead seeming more curious than anything else. “You should be requesting access first before coming into here, Twilight. I know I let it slide the last time, especially since the guard on shift that night let you in. But this wing is full of dangerous spells.”
Twilight felt her hackles rise. “I know it’s full of dangerous spells. That’s why I’m here. No, not to learn how to use them,” she quickly added. “But there’s been so many ponies showing up with some magical spell or artifact in tow lately, it makes me quite sick.”
“Oh? So you’re proactively looking things up so you know what you’re dealing with if it does show up again?” Celestia walked over and looked over Twilight’s shoulder. “Ah yes, the Inspiration Manifestation spell. If I recall, we have that locked up in the Castle in the Everfree Forest.”
Suddenly, Twilight felt something break. She looked up at the Princess. “Wait a moment, you mean you know where the book with that spell is?!”
“Well, yes, yes I do,” said Celestia, taken aback at the sharp tone in Twilight’s voice.
“Why didn’t you destroy it, then?” Twilight asked.
Celestia blinked. “Why would I? It’s powerful magic, to be certain, which is why we hid it away, but to destroy it?”
Twilight felt it unnatural to yell at Celestia, but she continued. “All those ponies can’t be trusted! Pinkie found the Mirror Pool and unleashed a horde of Pinkies on us! Trixie found the Alicorn Amulet and went lunatic on us, sealing Ponyville off from the rest of the world for several days and exiling me from Ponyville!”
“Yes, and those were ponies who tampered with powerful magic, lacking the control and understanding to use them properly. I am still annoyed at the archivist who let the Amulet out of his sights, but thankfully we have it back in royal hooves once more.”
Twilight felt herself seething as her mentor just didn’t get it. “No, Princess. I’m saying that you should have destroyed it all. Ponies can’t be trusted with this stuff.”
The Princess frowned. “I—excuse me, Twilight, but are we even talking about the same things?”
“Yes!” Twilight yelled, about ready to pull her mane out. “If any of this gets into somepony else’s hooves, who knows what they’ll do with it? Maybe they’ll use it to take over their hometown again, or they’ll raise the dead, or they’ll try to usurp you!”
Celestia was taken aback. “Twilight, I have lived several thousand years. Every time a pony wanders across something they were not meant to wield, a little bit of damage is done, but it has always been negligible. Things simply don’t get that bad in Equestria.”
“Oh, yeah? Then what about Sombra?” Twilight asked. “What about him? What if he had access to all this knowledge in here? I’m certain he would have found a way to use these love poisons and this Cutie Mark removal spell, and it wouldn’t be because he wanted to help other ponies.”
“Sombra was the rarest of ponies, one whose heart fell to dark magic.”
“And what of your sister? I bet her fall into darkness was another fluke,” Twilight sneered.
Celestia recoiled. She narrowed her eyes. “That was too far, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Too far? Too far?! I’ll show you too far!” Twilight hissed. Before Celestia had a chance to react, Twilight cast a spell from her horn.
The Princess quickly dodged to the side, only to be forced to throw up a shield to block another spell. “What has gotten into you, Twilight Sparkle?”
“What has gotten into me? What has gotten into you!” Twilight yelled angrily, trying to batter down Celestia’s defenses with several more spells, the two ponies moving around the Star Swirl the Bearded wing as Twilight attempted to attack Celestia at her unprotected flanks. “All this dark magic that even your sister fell to, all these dangerous artifacts, and you let them continue to exist!”
“I put many safe protections on them. That’s why this library exists, so ponies aren’t able to access them so easily,” Celestia retorted, her heart beginning to fracture.
“I had twenty books with reformation spells in my library! Twenty! Everything needs to be destroyed, because too many ponies are getting their hooves on them!”
“Then why are you using dark magic now yourself?” Celestia asked.
Twilight snarled. “Because the only way to fight dark magic is to know how it works in the first place!”
“That doesn’t even—” Celestia was cut off as another spell cut a shelf in half, and she had to make a quick teleport-hop to avoid the falling books. “—make any sense! You can understand how it works without actually using it in a fight!”
“Don’t mock me, Princess!” Twilight said. She wished she could have put a hoof on why the purple mist leaking from her eyes was bad, but her mind was caught up in the adrenaline of the battle, and her spirit and soul were singing and sailing on the throes of the dark magic. The euphoria of the magic was a rush, and she was bent on a single-minded goal. Nopony would stop her, not even her mentor.
“Twilight, please stop,” Celestia said, tears in her eyes. “Please, stop what you’re doing. We can talk this out. I don’t like keeping this around as much as you do, but—”
“But nothing, Celestia! Words are for the weak. If you felt that way, you should have destroyed all of this long ago!” Twilight said, sending multiple beams Celestia’s way, certain this time the sheer power would overcome the alicorn’s barrier.
She was proven right as the shield suddenly fell, and Celestia screamed, falling back onto the floor. The smell of scorched flesh quickly filled the room. Twilight thought it was a satisfying smell.
Celestia slowly opened her eyes, weakly climbing to her hooves, and watched as Twilight came close to her. The unicorn had a gloating expression on her face, like a predator chasing after prey. The princess knew she had to try anyways. “Twilight, please! Stop what you are doing, before you fall too deeply. It’s not too late. I forgive you, Twilight, just like I forgave my sister.”
Twilight just threw her head up and laughed manically.
“Twilight, please. You’re better than this,” Celestia pleaded. “You saved us from Nightmare Moon, from Discord, and you saw through the changeling queen’s schemes. You are a treasure of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. Everypony loves you, so please, stop this madness.”
“Princess! What’s going on?” Several guards suddenly came rushing into the room.
“Stand back!” Celestia barked at them.
The guards looked at the scene, seeing their Princess on her knees, looking up at a unicorn who practically screamed evil with the purple mist leaking from her eyes. It was clear they would like nothing more than to disobey that order.
“I said, stand down,” Celestia ordered, always keeping one eye on her student. Red eyes with green irises. Just like him. “I don’t want any of you coming to harm. This is something I’ll deal with, without anypony getting hurt by the crossfire.”
Slowly, and obviously reluctantly, the guards filed out of the room, but stayed out in the corridor, watching the scene.
“So, Celestia, at least you know to keep your guards out of the way of something beyond their pay-level,” Twilight said, stroking Celestia’s chin with her hoof.
The Princess shuddered at that action. She could still recognise her student’s mannerisms in that action. Only ten minutes ago, her student had seemed so normal, yet in that timespan Twilight had quickly descended into lunacy. Twilight stood in front of her, just twisted, all wrong. Celestia stood up. “Twilight, please. Stop this. I don’t know what happened to you, but we can help you through this. Your friends, your family, I love you,” she said, again attempting to implore the other pony to stand down.
Twilight snarled. “NO! I will not let you keep all this magic around! I will take over and I will destroy everything that could cause the slightest harm!”
Her eyes, Celestia thought. Twilight’s pupils, normally round in equines, had just become slit.
Then Twilight Sparkle threw another spell at Celestia, and Celestia knew what had to be done.
She quickly teleported behind Twilight, and in a split-second, she froze Twilight in place, stopping the unicorn from any external motion.
Then Celestia’s heart broke as she cast the spell that she had had to use too many times in her life.”
“Wha-what’s happening, to me—”
“I don’t know what caused this change in you Twilight Sparkle, but I promise you, as your mentor, I will find a way to fix it. It may take six months, but I hold no hopes for that. It may take five years, ten years, twenty years, or even centuries,” Celestia said, walking around to Twilight’s front side. Her vision was blurred by the tears falling from her eyes. “Even before, you could have turned back on your own. But dark magic is intoxicating, and the more you use it, the more you fall under its sway. A spell that could incinerate flesh is one thing, but a spell meant to make the victim’s organs boil from the inside out in the most painful way possible? No, after you cast that, I doubt there was any way you could return on your own from that.”
“Wha-you knew-no,” Twilight said, as she finally felt what was being done to her hooves and legs.
Celestia nodded. “I told you Twilight, I know much dark magic and its spells, the better to counteract its spells. My sister and I are the only ones who could have counterspelled the organ-boiling magic. If you had used it on any other pony, you would have effectively signed her death warrant. I cannot allow you to leave and become another Sombra, or yes, another Nightmare Moon.” No matter how much it pained Celestia to do this to her student.
“Celestia-you, you would do this to your own student?” Twilight asked, her words slurred through the magical grip Celestia held her in.
“When did I stop being Princess Celestia? Oh, Twilight,” Celestia said, shaking her head.
She turned to the few guards who looked in on the room. “Go awaken my sister, please. Tell nopony, absolutely nopony else of what has happened here tonight.”
The guards fled. It seemed they did not want to ruin their image of their Princess by seeing her looking so forlorn.
Celestia looked back to Twilight Sparkle. The petrification spell that she had cast on her student had worked its way up past her limbs and barrel, and onto her flanks, slowly approaching her withers. “Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle. I will remember you as my faithful student, and do everything I can to save you.”
Twilight snarled back. She felt nothing but hatred for her mentor. “Curse you, Celest—” and then her tongue was cast in stone.
Unable to speak any further, Twilight’s mind went into overdrive. She remembered what it was like when she had been petrified by the cockatrice in the Everfree Forest. Once a pony was turned to stone, there was no awareness, none whatsoever, of the passage of the time. Twilight was certain this would be a blessing, but what she recalled most was the agonising few seconds after her eyes had been stoned.
And there went her sight. Her brain was the last refuge from the petrification spell. She had a few fleeting seconds before life in this era as she knew it ended for her, to be restored whenever Celestia felt like it in the future.
Then her mind tripped over a thought. Only a year ago, hadn’t there been somepony, not even a pony, who had accused Celestia of something just like this?
“Did you miss me, Celestia? I missed you. It's quite lonely being encased in stone, but you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into sto—”
Celestia regarded the statue of her faithful student solemnly. “Where did I go wrong with you, Twilight Sparkle? Where did I fail?” she asked softly. It wasn’t the student who fell: it was the teacher who was unable to keep her student from falling. “Sunset ran away, and now you, this—”
She looked at the statue again. Celestia forced herself to burn the memory of Twilight’s expression into her memory. Twilight’s face was twisted in its last moment. There was some hint of shock, but what struck Celestia was the hatred there. She could see the loathing in Twilight’s eyes, the way her hackles were raised in response to a perceived threat, how Twilight’s lip was curled up in a sneer.
It was awful. The worse was knowing that there was no good way to purify Twilight Sparkle of her dark magic-addled brain. Celestia regretted sending Twilight by herself to the Crystal Empire now, with no back-ups from the Canterlot Mage’s Guild. She was certain Sombra must have left a trap that had slowly infected Twilight. How could I have not noticed the signs?
It cut Celestia to the core. Reformation spells, purification spells, the Crystal Heart: there was no such thing as an easy magic or artifact that could bring a unicorn who had fallen into dark magic back to being a good pony. Either the pony had to reform on her own, something very unlikely, or one would have to use the Elements of Harmony on the pony.
Except Twilight Sparkle had been the Element of Magic, and who knew how long it could be before the Elements found another suitable bearer?
She looked at the statue again. Celestia wondered if she should put the statue out in the public garden along with the others, but decided against it. There would be questions asked soon about Twilight’s whereabouts, especially given the guards outside watching in, and putting her petrified form out in the open would do no good. Instead, casting her magic, Celestia teleported Twilight to the vault room, where nopony but for herself or her sister could get in.
With tears in her eyes, Celestia fled the room.
Somehow, her body found its way to her own private garden. Sniffing, Celestia looked around at the area. The moonlight of her sister’s pride and joy shone over the garden, bathing the lawn and trees in an ethereal glow.
The flora wasn’t what was important to Celestia, though. Instead, she walked over to the statue sitting in the middle of the garden. After how he was freed the last time, she felt it better it stayed away from the public. Celestia felt the tears running down her cheek as she looked up at the statue. Letting out a wail, she hugged it.
“Oh, Discord, why does everything I love always have to end in ruin?” Celestia asked, her body wracked with sobs that reached every inch of her, from hoof to withers. “First you, then my sister, then so many of my students. When will my suffering end?”
Author's Note
This story didn't come out anywhere near as well as I was hoping for it to. I feel like there should be an extra scene to more reasonably show Twilight's steady fall into darkness, and instead the effect at the end is that she sort of suddenly out of nowhere turns nuts, making the ending feel like it was shoehorned in. But it really reads like a lot of loosely related scenes that sort of ramble on to link into Twilight's fall.
I wanted a story where Twilight loses her sanity, resulting in Celestia having to turn her to stone, with a callback to Discord's line about Celestia turning ponies to stone, no matter how much I had to shoehorn the ending in. In the process, I made Celestia look too laid back about magical artifacts being misused, which wasn't my intended effect, either.
