They say only a pony who’s had their heart shattered will ever be able to hear the Voice of Celestia.

Blood. It was everywhere. It coated everything. It oozed down the ramshackle plywood walls, dripped steadily from the thatched roof. There was so much of it the vital liquid had completely soaked the straw and still managed to freefall to the pitiful dirt floor below. Dotted here and there throughout the sparse room were great big muddy puddles, the once red substance turned black as it sat. Yet even more disturbing than the blood were the body parts. Bits and pieces of foals were scattered about the area, almost as though a giant unseen hand had casually tossed them there after playing with them. Identifying the individual parts were impossible; most had been so badly mangled it would take a full team of mages to determine what had been a foreleg and what had been a hind leg.

Even worse was the stench. The coppery tang of blood mixed with the overpowering smell of burnt ozone. To a lesser degree the scent of blasted wood and melted plastic also hung in the air, mixing with everything else to create a nauseating cocktail of poison. For once, even the smell of the smog that normally covered the Canterlot slums appeared to be wholly absent in the wake of this disaster.

And in the epicenter of what had once been some of her friends sat a shell shocked Twilight Sparkle. The foal’s violet eyes were wide and vacant, staring deep into nothingness. She had been spared from the savage carnage that had ripped apart others, though the blood matting her lavender fur called that into question. Her little horn was blackened and cracked, with smoke still wisping from its tip. Her mane, once so meticulously cared for, was badly singed around the broken appendage. Across from the little filly the entire back of her family’s little shack had been blown out, the result of a panicked magic flare. Of the oily light sucking shadows that had ripped apart the other occupants of the room, there were no sign.

The day had started out as a relatively normal day. Twilight had earned her cutie mark just the day before, after practicing magic for years on end. Ordinarily such an event was a relatively normal occurrence; but in the slums of Canterlot where sickness and other accidents ran rampant, a foal living long enough to earn a cutie mark was cause for hearty celebration. And so, Twilight’s parents and brother had saved what coin they could for a cute-ceañera for their little special filly. Unfortunately their jobs prevented the rest of her family from being there to enjoy the party, which left Twilight Sparkle and her three friends-- Buttercream, Star Singer, and Ravenhide-- at home alone. While such an arrangement might have caused alarm for other parents, Twilight had always been extremely mature for her age; Twilight Velvet and Night Light had no issues with leaving their only daughter unattended for a little while.

But then disaster had struck. They came with no warning, phasing in through the solid plywood of the shack. Intangible shadow creatures that seemed to suck in what little light came in from the grimy windows. Before any of the young foals could react they had struck, literally ripping apart three of the four occupying Twilight’s little corner of her home. And as they approached the purple unicorn she had screamed, high and shrill. Her magic responded. The entire world went bang as she sent her fear and anguish ripping towards those she had perceived as a threat, blowing out the back of the little shack she called home and dispelling the creatures of darkness and shadow. It was at that point Twilight Sparkle promptly shut down, staring at nothing. She didn’t even register the whispers that she was only vaguely aware of.

“What just happened?”

“Don’t get too close, the last thing we need is a target on our own backs.”

“Don’t look at her! She’ll kill you next!”

“Is that… blood? Sweet Celestia, it is!”

After an indefinite amount of time, a pony did approach the ruined building. Several ponies, in fact, garbed in concealing black robes. On their heads they wore twisted little masks with a pointed horn spouting from the forehead. And on the back of these robes sat what appeared to be a cutie mark, a nebulous cloud and crescent moon motif. One of them reached down and roughly gathered the still comatose unicorn filly into their forehooves. “We lay claim to this filly,” one of them announced in a feminine voice, and then they were gone.

Twilight Sparkle finally came to days later. She appeared to be in a cell of some sort, surrounded by four stone walls and a wooden reinforced door. There was a guttering candle providing barely adequate illumination. She was chained to the far wall, next to a table with a moldy piece of bread and a saucer of stale water. She nibbled on a corner of the bread absently. She didn’t even seem to realize her predicament or her surroundings, as her eyes still held the glassy look of one who wasn’t quite all there. The rattle of a key in a lock did cause one of her ears to twitch against her will, but that was all of the response she managed, even as the door to her prison was thrown violently open. Her eyes did light up a bit in recognition as a cadre of the cloaked ponies marched right in. The leader halted inches from the foal and spat to the side in obvious disgust.

“You’re pretty damn weak, you know that?” No response from the filly. “Seriously, how are you going to avenge them in your pathetic state?”

These words did have an effect, and the filly weakly raised her head to stare up at the sickly thin mare. “Avenge…?” Twilight’s voice was almost non-existent, hoarse from disuse.

“Yes, avenge, you stupid foal. Do you not want to get payback upon those who did this to you? Not in your current self-pitying state you’re not!”

“...How?” More vitality seemed to seep back into Twilight as she spoke her single word question; for the first time she noticed that she was miraculously free of blood and her horn had been sloppily bandaged.

The unicorn filly never saw the twisted smile hidden behind the mask as her tormentor answered. “Let’s go do a revelation, then. Let’s see what the Goddess has in store for you.”

“You mean… Celestia?” The question caused a slight ripple of laughter out of the ponies now surrounding her.

“Sure. Her. Now let’s go.”

Twilight was lead to a huge circular chamber. There were only a handful of candles illuminating this room, and even they weren’t enough to banish the shadows that seemed to huddle along the outer circumference. Twilight stared at them fearfully, so fearfully she never even noticed the huge pentagram drawn with chalk under her hooves. She was deposited in the very center of this pentagram, next to a metal pole in the floor. There was a slight clink of metal as a collar was fastened around her neck, chaining her to the pole. It was only after the collar was in place that Twilight became aware of the chanting. The words were alien to her ears and didn’t sound like anything she had ever heard before in her short life. The leader of the cloaked ponies approached her slowly, making sure to stop just outside the outermost circle of the pentagram. In her hooves she held a metal bowl full of a deep purplish red liquid. Traces of something, some shadowy substance curled off the top of the mixture, almost like steam.

The chanting rose to a startling crescendo before there was complete silence. “Come, child. Drink deep from the chalice, finish it all, so we can see our revelation.” The bowl was gently placed before her with a delicate clink, well within the drawn symbol upon the floor. Twilight reached for it with shaking hooves, grasping it carefully and making sure not to spill a drop. She was hesitating greatly, but some unseen force had grabbed ahold of her hooves and was gently forcing it closer to her mouth. The filly with a shattered heart screwed shut her eyes and opened her mouth. The thick, cloying liquid oozed down her throat and it burned. She screamed in pain, trying to fling the bowl away but finding her hooves ignoring her commands. The traitorous things pressed the bowl closer, ensuring every last drop entered her mouth despite her frenzied bucking.

She wasn’t even aware of her own screaming any more. Visions filled her mind faster than she could hope to comprehend as an icy dread filled her thundering heart. The visions stopped and settled upon a terrifying visage, that of a fang-filled grin set under icy draconian eyes. The unicorn horn of the unknown entity was filed to a point, and a helm of a dark metal held an ethereal mane full of twinkling stars. Please, please, make it stop! she begged silently within the torment that was her own mind. Goddess Celestia, mom, anybody just make it STOP. Then, blessedly, it was over. She could still feel her body convulsing, feel her throat blistering where the cursed liquid had touched, but she could no longer feel the pain. Instead, a sense of warm calm surged through her, in addition to a general sense of acknowledgement.

Her eyes flew open as the door to the chamber was suddenly consumed in a fiery explosion. Shouts and screams echoed into her consciousness as her still ringing ears picked up the sounds. She watched as a newcomer cut through the cultists who had imprisoned her with a longsword sheathed in liquid flames. The pegasus was extremely agile, leaping about the air with outstretched yellow wings. The yellow and orange tinted armor they wore didn’t appear to even slow them down, nor did the tower shield still clamped to their side. The cultists never stood a chance. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the battle was over. The mystery pegasus rushed over to the fallen unicorn filly, and Twilight could just barely make out hurrid words. “Hang on, little one.” The voice was rough and gravelly, but Twilight found it the most comforting thing in the world. “I’ve gotta exorcise the shadows attempting to take root inside of you. You’ll be safe now, I promise.”

The last thing Twilight Sparkle saw was the large flask of gently glowing liquid strapped upon the pegasus’ foreleg. She knew what a bottle of Purity signified. A paladin had come to rescue her from her nightmare.

<<((*))>>

Twilight awoke from her dream with a muted gasp. By reflex her magic reached out and grabbed up the glass of water that rested upon her nightstand, then promptly dumped it all over her head. The coolness helped further wake her up and clear out the remaining cobwebs from her dream; the same dream she’s had steadily ever since that fateful time. Constant vigilance had trained her to no longer cry out upon awakening, and as a result the other three cadets she shared the unicorn barracks with were still sound asleep. She let out a deep breath as her slightly elevated heart rate finally decided to slow. Checking the clock upon the wall, she noted that it was a full half an hour before muster. Knowing that attempting to go back to sleep was an exercise in fruitality, the unicorn instead decided to just get up and start getting ready for her day.

As she swung herself out of her stiff bed, she caught sight of glowing yellow from her nightstand. Her own bottle of Purity sat there where she had placed it next to her glass of water the night before. Just looking at it suffused the young mare with a surge of pride. It had been a gruelling process, a slums rat aiming to be accepted at Thors Military Academy; it had been almost impossible for a slums rat unicorn to earn a spot as a paladin-in-training. But all of that effort was going to be completely worth the payoff. Twilight had wanted to be a paladin ever since she had been saved from those cultists and returned to her family. That same paladin-- Lance Corporal Spitfire-- had went above and beyond to help. Not only had that amazing pegasus saved Twilight from being turned into a cultist or something even more sinister, she had also started a number of fundraisers to help Twilight’s family to start over. While they were still living in the slums, they were at least in the more well-to-do area. And then if that wasn’t enough, Spitfire had agreed to start putting Twilight through standard paladin entrance training.

The result had been that little bottle of Purity, sent to Twilight with a letter of acceptance from Thors. Not only had she passed the written exams with the highest marks possible, she had even scored well in the physical exams. Getting that letter and that flask had easily been the best day of Twilight’s young life. Even more so than the iconic longswords and tower shields, Purity was the symbol of a paladin; it was where they got their cleansing flames from, after all. She gave her Purity a little pat before turning to the huge chest at the foot of her bed. A quick flick of her magic deactivated the locking mechanism, and another toss of her horn erected a privacy barrier around her section of the rather spacious room; it wouldn’t due to wake up her roommates early if she didn’t have to.

Her training armor was her first order of business. Her linked undershirt went on first, to act as a final line of defense should her armor be breached and, incidentally, also helping insure the heavy plate didn’t chafe too badly. The rest of her armor followed in short order, magically tightening straps to ensure it fit snugly. It had taken every bit of coin saved over the years to be able to afford to get training armor designed with her size in mind. While she was rather bulky by mare standards after years of vigorous exercise, unicorns were also naturally more lanky than both their pegasus and earth pony counterparts. Still, though, at least she wouldn’t be forced to wear armor that was simply way too big for her. Thors Military Academy allowed students to wear the vestments of their chosen profession even in standard classes, so the opportunity to further get used to wearing heavy armor all the time was a simple decision with no drawbacks as far as Twilight was concerned.

The flask of Purity was the last part of Twilight’s ‘uniform’, which fit snugly into the holster fastened to her left foreleg. If she remembered correctly her first class of the day was aptly named Purity 101, where Twilight assumed she would learn how to make more of the magical liquid among other things. Dispelling the privacy barrier, the unicorn noted that she had fifteen minutes before her bunkmates needed to be up before muster. Straightening her back as much as possible, she left the barracks to head towards the mess hall. Unsurprisingly she wasn’t the only one out and about this early, and also unsurprisingly whispers followed her as she went about her way.

They didn’t really bother her as much as they did yesterday, although Twilight wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good thing or not. Thors didn’t discriminate between any race, but when the vast majority of paladins were either earth ponies or pegasi a unicorn dressed as a paladin was going to draw some ponyist remarks. Most unicorns went into schooling for the more magical and mental based occupations simply because their structure supported such endeavors easier. Still, Twilight made it to mess while managing to tune out most of the stage whispered remarks; this was made easier with the knowledge that she wasn’t the only unicorn aiming to become a paladin. She had three other ponies in the unicorn barracks who were in the same boat she was. She would do this. She would be completely fine. She was not about to let Spitfire’s faith in her be misplaced.

They say only a pony who’s had their heart shattered will ever be able to hear the Voice of Celestia.

Author's Note

So this one starts off a little more dark than most of my other works, but alas it is finally here! Really took me a looonngg time to decide how I wanted to start this one off. I really wanted to capture why Twilight is so determined to be a Paladin, and set up some nice bits of conflict for her in the future. Enjoy!