1: The Path of Friendship

Princess Celestia had been standing on the balcony of the great Canterlot Castle. It was really late at night. She looked at the sky, today was the night of the crimson red moon.

"Tsk!" Princess Celestia tsked in disapproval. On nights like this, she especially hated the moon. On a contrary she didn't hate her sister, that would be completely absurd. She hated that dusty old lifeless rock that's been hanging in the sky right now.

One thousand years ago exactly on this day, thanks to the accidental impulse of magic she was forced to send her own sister directly to the moon. Not that she was refusing to listen to her.

There was also another thing that she never liked. Every time there was some kind of major disaster Princess Celestia could always rely on the blood moon to serve her as a warning, sometimes several weeks in advance.

The blood moon had been there on the day two weeks before Nightmare Moon rebellion. What a small little book doesn't actually say is that in addition to their family drama there was also the entire forgotten history of city-states failing to recognize the legitimacy of Princess Celestia actions.

Despite what Princess Luna herself thought about herself she was a very respectful member of society back in the day, and her sudden disappearance presented extreme difficulties to Princess Celestia back in the day.

The small little book also forgets to mention vast socio-economic issues of that era. Talking about politics in the book designed for little foals isn't that exciting as talking about the epic battle between two Alicorns.

The same exact blood moon pooped several weeks before Sunset Shimmer's corruption. Princess Celestia should have known better.

The next time blood moon has appeared was the day when the Sun failed to rise for a thousand's time. Celestia cringed at that one, throwing her only student at her mentally unstable sister didn't feel like it was a good idea at the time, but she needed to do something about it before Equestria once again could have been split in half by the warring factions. There were plenty of families left who were still loyal to her sister.

Right now all of that remained in the past. Right now she was just standing there on the balcony slowly hating the moon in the skies above.

"Boring!" Discord just didn't give a buck to the proper narration. "You do realize that hating something is extremely unhealthy."

"What do you want," Celestia sighed "Are you really going to lecture me about hatred?"

"I don't see why not? We are currently on the same team!"

"I wish I could have gotten that memo from you when you decided to throw it all away when you started running all over the country with Tirek!"

Discord just made a face, "Details, details. Twilight Sparkle and her friendship squad still managed to beat him, didn't she? All of that was part of the plan anyway. I mean really, you gave her all of that firepower and told her to run. Do you really expected her to just run away?"

A whole bunch of Discords in cheerleading outfits started jumping around, "Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Who is going to save the day? Twilight!"

Celestia snorted in annoyance "We are all went into panic mode! Honestly, all of us was expecting that she would actually find this solution much sooner!"

Fortunately for Celestia Discord dismissed the cheer squad with a flick of his claw, it was only a one time use gag after all. "So?"

"Don't fail me again Discord!" Celestia was about to say something else but Discord vanished into the thin air. "Tsk!" once again she snorted in annoyance.

Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle spend her first evening in her brand new castle. She didn't really have another choice. Her tree library had been destroyed by Tirek. Right now she is sleeping happily in her own bed. She was happy because during the nights she could finally relax from the stress of being a hero of Equestria.

The table in the main hall flashed with bright violet light. A small string of light as thin as the laser connected the table and the bedroom where Twilight had been sleeping.

Twilight Sparkle was in the castle of two sisters. She looked around, I guess I am still sleeping, but why am I here? She thought to herself. She then tried to fly, but then soon discovered that she can't, not yet at least. Must be the memory of some sort, or is it just how my subconscious sees myself.

Suddenly a slightly hysterical laughter could be heard from somewhere. That only made Twilight even more curious so she went to the source of the sound.

What he saw next surprised her a bit, in the same exact room where she first saw the elements she saw an afterimage of herself and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon. Once the rainbow beam smashed into Nightmare Moon the reality shuttered and then everything went white.

Twilight Sparkle stood up she is an Alicorn, she relaxed a bit, she was slightly happier to have her own wings back. It was strange actually how much alien her old body felt like.

She looked around, this time she was in a completely new place. Sand, lot's of and lot's of red sand, that's how would she have described it to somepony if they had never been there. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. Twilight thought she could hear the cries of an animal somewhere.

Twilight thought that maybe it's not really a good idea to stick around to find out what that animal was. By instinct, ponies were evolved from the herbivore species, and dragons weren't always eating gems. All of the evidence of a hostile behavior points out that dragons consider ponies as weaker inferior species. It always puzzled Twilight how they just openly mocking Princess Celestia, who by their standards should be a symbol of strength and power.

She saw a cave entrance hidden in the sand maybe she should go inside, at least she felt like something has been calling her. Once again she thought of why she was even here of all places. Where exactly here?

Suddenly a small whisper whispered softly inside of her head. "Why it's the place where I was born on. It would be only natural if I invited the pony who defeated me here of all places." In the blink of the moment the whisper grew into the same sickening laughter she heard before.

"Nightmare!" Twilight gasped "I defeated you!"

"Yes, you did! How did it feel child? Did you feel joy? Excitement! The Thrills!" After a moment or so Twilight heard mocking laughter

"You are delusional, I only reunited you with your sister! Also, why am I arguing with a ghost?"

"You are the one who is delusional! " Nightmare Moon screamed in anger, and then everything went silent.

"I am not a killer! I never killed anypony!" Twilight slowly whispered to herself.

"Liar!" One simple word infuriated Twilight and then the sparks of a bright purple lightning run all over the Twilight's horn. One of the bolts collided with the wall with a loud cracking noise, more laughter followed.

Twilight heard a loud banging noise which caused her to jump in fright. She turned around she saw how in the place where a there once stood a wall there was now an entrance to the small cavern which by the looks of it looked like a burial chamber. She stepped in inside and then pushed one of the tombs. She didn't know exactly why she just heard a whisper telling her to do it. It was equally annoying to hear her whisper and so far she didn't see any harm in any of it.

Twilight saw a small metal cylinder that was mixed in with a bunch of very old armor and very old bones. That cylinder was very old too but somehow it shined as brand new.

Twilight grabbed it with her magic, on a side, there was a button which she then pressed. Almost immediately the thin beam of red light materialized on the one edge of the cylinder like if it was a blade. In fact, it reminded her of swords that many members of the Royal Guard carried as part of their training.

Curiously Twilight swung it side to side of the stone floor, which resulted in the weapon to spark and hiss.Twilight switched it off and then she went outside of the tomb. "I wonder whats going to happen next?" With a cracking noise, the reality snapped again in a burst of glass and then reconstructed herself back up. She looked to see her surroundings. She saw herself only in the human form in a human world. She saw everything, she saw Sunsets transforming into the monster. She saw beams of light fusing into a rainbow and then striking Sunset Shimmer in a brilliant explosion.

Once again Twilight heard a whisper "You protected them even though you could have just let them be!"

"And then what, let her lead an invasion army to Equestria?"

"What. did you really think that idiot actually has any chance of succeeding in leading her little invasion army? More importantly, you could just have grabbed the crown and run."

"Well I didn't, are you going to fight me on this?"

"No I wouldn't, but look what your negligence and interference in this world changed their lives." The world reconstructed itself again and this time she saw sirens get hit by a rainbow alicorn

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything I was extremely useless!"

The voice started to whisper again "You gave those three the power to do whatever they wanted, and then you just ruthlessly have taken it all away from them. How cunning of you, I am almost so proud of you!"

"..."

"Who knows you probably left those three for death, but anyway I never cared for the weak, I just thought you might!"

"Is that it? Are We done here?"

"For now!" The voice whispered mysteriously. This time Twilight slept without any interruptions. When she woke up she found out that there was an overly familiar metal cylinder that's been laying beside her table.

"For a moment I was hoping it would be just a dream!"

"In a manner of speaking!"

Twilight eyes widened, almost immediately she called the sword to her side and then after activating it she aimed the crimson red beam towards the intruder. Hower after she saw who he was she then relaxed a bit.

"Oh so hostile!" Discord mocked her "And you can use it too, how Mary Suish of you! But no matter!" he then casually walked to her and then grabbed the beam with his paw. slowly inch by inch he pushed it into submission until the blade disappeared completely. "You know I have one of those toys as well, I never understood why everyone wants them."

"Toys? Mary Sue? What the hay are you talking about Discord?"

"Its nothing for you to worry about my dear! Let's just say I am willing to teach you! Are you willing to learn from me?"

"Why the hey would I do that?" Twilight blurted it out, she then noticed that she is still holding a cylinder. She quickly put it back on the ground she thought she would probably lose if she would ever try to fight with Discord.

"Well I could just let you be and let her slowly corrupt you, or I could give you a chance to choose your own path! So what is it going to be?"

Twilight thought about it, "I... I already have a teacher, and she told me about friendship! There is nothing, not even that old hug from Tartarus is going to change that!"

"Your confidence, that what I like it about you. Bye bye!" he waved her a paw and then disappeared. "I will see you later, and I am oh so eager to see what will you do."

Twilight sighed, she picked up the cylinder "I better find something to attach it too. Maybe I should ask Rarity or something? But for now, this will do just fine!" She focused a bit and then she just shoved the cylinder into the pocket dimension "There all save and sound, and it wouldn't bother anypony else. I should go and wake Spike!"

Author's Note

So why I've made Twilight into a Sith instead of Jedi? I kind of always thought that Sith are a bit more interesting then Jedi are. Even Sith can be a good guy sometimes if they want too.