Harmony, Chaos, and Shadows

Months had passed since Twilight became a princess and she did not like her situation at all. Between her royal duties and obligations she hardly had any time to study or spend time with hers friends. Not only that but the prospect of immortality weighed heavily on her mind. The mere thought of her outliving just about everypony she’s ever met was so dreadful that she didn’t want to believe it. Spike was spending the night at Rarity’s and after finishing up some paperwork Twilight decided to turn in for the night. She knew tomorrow was going to be another long dull day and was not looking forward to it. Before she crawled into bed she looked out her window for a moment to take in the night sky and saw a shooting star go by. She decided not to waste the opportunity and made a wish.

“I wish I could go back to being a unicorn again.”

“Is that so?”

Twilight quickly spun around and looked to see where the voice came from. “Who’s there? Show yourself.”

There was a soft chuckling echoing around the room. “Oh poor Twilight, is the life of royalty not to your liking?”

Twilight continued to look around and then heard a pop. She turned and saw some strange creature coiled up on her bed.

“W-Who are you? What are you?”

“What I am isn’t important at the moment. My name is Discord.”

“Discord? Wait I’ve heard of you, but I thought you were just a myth.”

“I’m sure most ponies think that. I haven’t made a public appearance in a thousand years.”

“I can imagine. The stories I’ve heard about you are not very…flattering.”

“Oh but that was a long time ago. Things are different now. I’ve started helping ponies with their problems, not causing them. That’s why I’m here actually, to help you.” Discord then got up and floated over to Twilight. “I’d like to make you an offer, a deal if you will.” He snapped his paw and an unraveled scroll appeared in front of her. “Just sign this contract and I’ll give you what you want most, the life of a unicorn.”

Twilight gave him a suspicious look. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch, but there will be a price to pay for my services.”

“Which is?”

“Hmmm I’m not going to tell you. Call it a blind agreement.”

“You expect me to agree to something when I have no idea what it is I’m agreeing to?”

“Oh Twilight you’ll just have to trust me on this. After all offers like this don’t come around every day, this will probably be your only opportunity to make this happen. But if you’d rather stay an alicorn and watch your friends and loved ones slowly age and die around you while you stay the same then by all means continue to do that and I’ll take my leave. So what will it be?”

Discord did have a point. This could be Twilight’s only chance. “I need a minute to think.”

“Sorry but I’ve got other places to be and other things to do. Offer going once.” Twilight started to panic. “Offer going twice.”

“Okay I’ll sign!”

Discord produced a quill and ink well. She grabbed the quill and singed. “Excellent!”

He snapped his paw and everything went black.

Twilight woke with a start and sat up in bed. At first she thought it was all just a dream but looked at her sides and noticed her wings were gone. It worked.

Twilight smiled and looked out her window and it was night out. But she noticed something else and her smile went away. Instead of Ponyville she saw Canterlot, and it looked like several buildings were in the process of being repaired from some kind of damage. She looked around the room she was in and noticed it was her old room at her parent’s house. Then Discord popped in front of her, startling her a little.

“Well Twilight here we are. I have fulfilled my end of the deal.”

“I don’t understand, why am I in Canterlot and why do so many buildings look damaged?”

“Because you live here, and that’s just the aftermath of the changeling invasion during your brother’s wedding. After all you can’t expect them to have all of Canterlot repaired in just two weeks.”

“Two…what?!”

“Shh Twilight try to keep it down, ponies are trying to sleep at this hour,” he said in a hushed tone.

“I wanted to be a unicorn again, not travel back in time. And what do you mean I live here? Shouldn’t I be in Ponyville?”

Discord gave a soft chuckle. “Oh Twilight you’ve never been to Ponyville.” Twilight gave him a very confused look. “Allow me to fill you in on a few things. You were never sent to Ponyville, you aren’t the bearer of the Element of Magic, and you never became Celestia’s pupil.”

Twilight just stared at him for a moment with a dropped jaw. “T-That’s not what I wanted.”

“Actually it is. You see Twilight alicorns are powerful beings. I can’t simply undo that kind of transformation. So I had to go back and alter a few events. If you had become Celestia’s student you would have become the Element of Magic and would have definitely become an alicorn. Now I will say you did in fact pass your entrance exam and got into Celestia’s school. But you didn’t do it in the same grand fashion as before so you didn’t hatch Spike’s egg or catch Celestia’s eye and even if you had it might not have gone anywhere considering she already had a promising pupil at the time.”

“Who?”

“A mare by the name of Sunset Shimmer.”

“But I thought she abandoned her studies and went to that other world.”

“Not in this timeline. In fact she is currently the Element of Magic.”

“But my friends…”

“Twilight they’re not your friends anymore. I mean you know each other. You obviously met them at the wedding but they’re more like acquaintances then friends. Some things may have changed but you still were that little bookworm who didn’t care about making friends.”

“So I don’t have any friends?” she said looking depressed.

“Now I didn’t say that. You’re pretty friendly with your co-works.”

“Co-works?”

“That’s right. You work at Canterlot University’s library, on the days you’re not attending class that is. So not everything changed, you’re still technically a librarian.”

“But I-” Discord put a talon to her mouth for a second.

“My dear try to look at the bright side. You’re still a talented and powerful unicorn, you have some friends, Cadence is still your sister in-law, and you have a comfortable living. So it isn’t all bad, you just need some time to adjust to your new life.” With a snap a book appeared in front of her and was titled The Life and Times of Twilight Sparkle. “Give this a read so you can get caught up on everything that’s happened in your new life up until now.”

“Okay, but you still haven’t told me why you sent me back here to this particular date.”

“Don’t you worry about that, it will make sense in time. Now you have nothing going on tomorrow so you have all day to read up on yourself. Well you should have everything you need so this is goodbye, but don’t worry I will return to collect my payment when the time comes. Oh and I wouldn’t mention me or our deal to anypony else, they might think you’re crazy or something, arrivederci.”

In a pop he was gone. I still don’t know what he wants from me but I don’t have a lot to offer at the moment so how bad could it be.