It was a dark night the moon was full and Twilight couldn't sleep, she decided to go venturing around the royal library, since she was the prodigy of the princess herself Twilight was let passed the guards very easily. Once she got to the ancient unicorn magic section she decided to do some late-night reading, she loved to read at night, it gave the experience a sense of mystery. She picked out a bunch of books from the shelf, six of them to be exact, exactness was another thing Twilight loved. She was reading for about an hour when she had heard something behind her.
"Is. . . Is anypony there?" she called. Nothing answered, when I say nothing answered I don't mean she didn't hear anything, I mean the darkness of the library answered her! From nowhere a small voice called out to the far corners of her mind "Twilight, come here young Twilight.""Who's there? This isn't funny!"No answer. She stopped holding the books with her magic and was concentrating on a light spell. She was walking towards where she thought she heard the sound. She came upon a shelf she had never really noticed it had obviously been there everytime she had been here but it was always in the corner of her eye as if something was stopping her from seeing it, but there and then it was completely noticeable. The shelf was dusty, the books on the shelf were dusty. They hadn't been read in ages. "Why would an entire shelf be unused?" Twilight said aloud, not expecting a real answer. One of the books, the least dusty of them all, was the first and only one she took off the shelf. She took the book back to her reading area, once she dusted it off and started to read it, she felt strange like she was being watched. The language was obscure, writing and diagrams she had never seen, names of unicorn wizards she had never heard of, spells, the spells, the spells were simple! They were easy to concentrate on doing, but what the spells actually did was what made Twilight a bit concerned. The spells were spells teaching how to warp ponies' minds to do what the caster wanted, spells to change shape, to deconstruct things to a molecular level. So many different spells, all if them made Twilight want to practice them. She decided to cast a spell that was close to the beginning of the book, it was a basic summoning spell, it was going to summon a shadow puppet, a small little shadow that would do whatever She wanted it to do. Once she summoned it the little shadow did nothing but sit there as if awaiting orders, the first thing that came to Twilight's mind was a dance, and so the shade started dancing. She was watching the adorable creature dance for a few minutes before an unusually scornful voice beckoned behind her
"Twilight Sparkle! What do you think you are doing?" it was Princess Celestia.
"Princess! Hi, I was just. I couldn't sleep and."
"You shouldn't be reading those books, they aren't good." the princess explained as she put the book back on the shelf. "These books are filled with dark magic, magic that hasn't been used in thousands of years and I have sworn to keep it from being used for thousands more."
"Then, why are they here in the library?" Twilight asked.
"There's just nowhere else to put them," Princess Celestia said as she reached her wing down to comfort the young filly "Now, come on and let's get you back to your room, tomorrow I think you and I will take a nice day off from ALL the magic."
Once the Princess escorted Twilight back to her room, Twilight was filled with more questions than before. Why was the princess so avoidant of that shelf? Why was the magic BAD? She naturally wanted to know more, so for the next few weeks she had begun working on things, observing the night time, finding out what hours the princess joined with the night guards, anything and everything she would need for a second trip to the "Shelf of Darkness" as she had affectionally nicknamed it. Since her pet baby dragon, Spike, was still just a hatchling and hadn't even learned to speak yet she only did what was necessary to keep him happy. The companion she did keep using to her advantage was the shadow puppet she had learned to summon during her first and so far only trip to the shelf. She used him to help her keep tabs on the princess's activities during the night.
One night she and her puppet were finally ready to go back to the shelf. She wouldn't be there for long, all she was doing was taking the book she had first read and replacing it with a false book she had made to look similar to the outside of the book she was going to take. Once she got there it wasn't hard to find her book she quickly switched the books out and cast a small dusting spell on the book she had placed making it look like nothing had been moved. She hurried back to her room. Once she got there she opened and started reading her new book from the beginning.
Opening the book was a thrill, Twilight never liked to break the rules but this time was different somehow it was as if something had been telling her to open it and read. As she read she learned about new historical figures, unicorns and alicorns she had never heard of. The first few chapters of the book were all history like that, she loved history she soaked in all that she could of it.
The history of dark unicorns and other magical figures even some creature called Discord, riddled the pages with words, it took Twilight years to figure out all of it. It was the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Twilight was being sent to a town called Ponyville to make sure everything was going to be perfect for the princess. Over the years since she had started studying and practicing her dark arts, her physical appearance had changed in slight ways the light shade of purple her coat used to be was a darker color close to the dark purple color of her mane, her mane had also changed into new colors the purple in her mane had churned into a black that was hypnotic to stare at and the pink in her mane had changed into a deep red color resembling cherries or blood. She had mastered all of the spells in her first book and had already finished most of the forbidden shelf. The princess had been completely in the dark from Twilight's terrible study. Twilight's pet dragon Spike had been cared for by her but an accident left Spike with most of his personality and intelligence gone, he was basically another puppet for Twilight to play with like her shadowy companion she had come to call Dusk. Dusk had also grown over the years into a shadow creature that lost its adorability and became terrifying when in its true form, most of the time Twilight made Dusk replace her own shadow so that she didn't have to disspell him. Twilight had also been studying more of the myths of Equestria, this was the thousandth year since the evil Nightmare Moon had been defeated by the princess and Moon would be returning to engulf the world in eternal darkness. Twilight not only planned to stop her but planned to take her power and use it to her own will. She didn't know what she would do after that.
When she arrived at Ponyville the first thing to happen was a pink earth pony came bouncing up to her stopped right in front of her and started to gasp out of excitement, Twilight knew it was excitement because her studies had given her the ability to read the minds of other ponies, and this one was easy to read too. She cast a spell to shut the pink one up before she could say anything. after the pink one was silenced, Twilight walked a little closer and whispered an incantation into the pony's ear, now of course words had nothing to do with the spell she cast but she liked adding the dramatic effect of fear into her new puppet, after the words were whispered, Twilight had learned everything about her new toy, Pinkie Pie. Everything that Pinkie was or had been was learned by Twilight in a fraction of a second. Twilight dissmissed Pinkie to continue doing whatever it is that she was doing, and the gasp of excitement returned and Pinkie ran off without a word.
Twilight's next stop was to go check out the food for the event, this meant she would be going to Sweet Apple Acres. Once she arrived there, she introduced herself to a pony that was kicking trees and making apples fall out of them, such strength could be useful, Twilight thought.
"Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle."
The earth pony approached Twilight with the offer of a hoof shake, Spike jumped in between the earth pony and Twilight and started growling, small green wafts of flame leaking out of his mouth.
"Oh, please excuse Spike he's a bit touchy about strangers approaching me," Twilight falsely appologized "What's your name?"
"I'm Applejack! Pleased to meet ya miss Twilight!"
"I'm sure you are," Twilight cast the same mind spell on Applejack as she had on Pinkie "So, where is the banquet food?"
"It's over this way." Applejack said in a voice that sounded almost robotic. Twilight refused the offer of food and an offer to meet the rest of the Apple family. She didn't have a lot of time to waste and certainly didn't want to waste it on meeting useless earth ponies, she had already met two too many of them for one day.
The next stop on Twilight's list was the mare in charge of weather, Rainbow Dash. This trip to Ponyville had been turning from a check up to a recruiting, so far. She was hoping that a pegasus would be as warpable as an earth pony. She didn't know of an official place for a weather mare to be so she just walked back to the town bridge from Sweet Apple Acres. She saw something flying at her and had barely enough time to put up a forcefield to keep whatever it was from crashing into her. She disspelled her shield and saw the waether mare she had been looking for on the ground her wing was broken, a childish sense of sorriness came over Twilight and she asked "Oh, are you okay? I'm sorry."
"It's okay," the pegasus lied "Aww man, my wing is broken! How am I supposed to clear the sky now?"
"I have a spell that can fix your wing," Twilight said as a great plan formed in her mind, gaining the trust of this pony before she warped her would make the spell just as easy to cast as it was on the absent minded Pinkie "Hold still this might hurt a little."
The spell to heal Dash's wing was cast and all Dash did in reaction was a small grimace.
"Gee, thanks, my names Rainbow Dash, what's yours?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, I'm here to make sure the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration are coming along nicely. Aren't you supposed to be clearing the sky?"
"Oh yeah! I forgot about that, thanks again, I'll be right back!" With that Dash was off with lightning speed soaring across the sky demolishing the clouds as she flew by them, she must have done the intire sky in ten seconds, flat! Twilight was semi-awestruck when Rainbow landed next to her. "There you go, Twilight. All clear! My wing feels better than ever thanks to you and your magic, how can I repay you?"
"Oh, I can think of something." Twilight said as she started casting the mind warping spell on the pegasus. After the spell was cast, Twilight was feeling tired, and had a headache, she was casting the spell too many times in a row. Ignoring it moved on to the next stop on her list, the town hall, where another unicorn named Rarity was in charge of decorating the building.
She had no idea how she was going to take control of a unicorn in her condition. Her head was pounding, the mind warping spells had been taking their toll on Twilight. She arrived at the town hall, inside was the unicorn she had assumed was Rarity, Twilight noticed that Spike was drooling with hunger in his eyes, he was making a growling noise that if Twilight didn't know any better she could have sworn he said "beautiful". She sent Dusk to distract Spike and keep him outside. Twilight walked up to the new unicorn.
"Hi there, I'm Twilight Sparkle, I am here to check on the decorations," Twilight said, trying to mask the obvious headache "How is it coming?"
"It's going marvelously, darling. Are you feeling all right?"
"Yes I'm fine. Please show me what you've done."
"Don't be rediculous, dear, you have a dreadful headache, I know just the thing. A spa treatment will relax you and everything will be all better!"
"I don't need a spa treatment. Really."
"Oh, but I insist, it's my treat, and pleasure to treat a representative of the princess to a spa treatment."
"Fine, if you insist, I guess I have no choice," Twilight didn't know what was coming out of her mouth, it was almost as if Rarity was making Twilight want to be pampered. "Spike stay here and wait for me."
On the way to the spa Twilight and Rarity didn't say a thing to each other. Once they arrived at the spa they were immediately greeted by one of the earth ponies that ran it, she was pink with really pretty blue hair, her name was Aloe, she ran up to Rarity seeming to wait instruction, "The usual for my new friend and me, please." Rarity requested. As soon as Rarity asked for "the usual" whatever that was, she and Twilight were rushed into the treatment stations, they both received hooficures, seaweed wraps, massages, horn filings, the entire works. While all of this was happening Rarity insisted upon talking and making friends with Twilight. After Aloe and her sister were done with the two unicorns Twilight felt as good as new, just perfect for Twilight, with her headache gone and her feeling rejuvinated from the pampering, she could finally cast the spell on Rarity, she had no idea why she was casting this spell on these specific ponies, she just felt the need to do this, it felt like it would help her in the near future. While she was deep in thought Rarity was trying to get her attention, almost to the point where she was shouting to Twilight. She came to and asked Rarity more about the decorations as they walked back to the town hall. They arrived. Twilight turned to Rarity and started casting her dark spell, "I'm sorry." she whispered to herself. The strange thing was, that she was actually sorry for taking Rarity away from herself.
The way her mind spell works is, she basically takes away the least bit of free will from a pony so that it doesn't seem like they've been taken control over, but nonetheless they are bound to Twilight's will and will do anything necessary to keep Twilight content, sometimes this can even lead to self harm. In essence the pony that used to be, no longer is, and a kind of shadow of themself takes their mental place, and like a shadow they remain basically the same but with missing elements.
Twilight had only felt guilt the very first time she was caught reading from her black magic book. Finally, she decided not to worry about it and she sent Rarity on her way back to decorating. The next pony on the list of preparations was another pegasus, this one named Fluttershy, she was in charge of the musical preparations, she was practicing with her bird choir in the park. Twilight knew that this pony had a history of being frightened easily so she left Spike tied to a bench close to the entrance of the park. She heard birds singing joyous songs from a few yards away, she trotted quickly towards where she knew Fluttershy would be, she got a little ahead of herself and came onto the scen too quickly and startled everything in the area including the shy pegasus. She rolled her eyes in disgust, 'how could anypony be so cowardly?' she thought as she rolled her eyes. "Please come out of the bush, I'm here to check up on the musical preparations."
Fluttershy gingerly tiptoed out of the bush she was hiding in and stood a few feet away from Twilight. Twilight didn't feel like fooling around with pleasantries this time so she just cast her spell and told Fluttershy to continue with her work. As Twilight walked away something strange was happening, instead of the happy tune the birds were singing when she first showed up, the birds were singing a dirge sounding song, she liked it a lot better than the earlier tune. She untied Spike and headed toward the town library where the princess had arranged for her to stay.
When she went inside the library, all of the lights were off. She heard breathing in the dark, she wasn't expecting what happened next, the lights came on and Twilight was surprised to see that a party welcoming her to Ponyville had been prepared by Pinkie Pie, the entire town was there, she wondered how they all fit in one building like this. Twilight hated having attention brought to her, and this party was meant for that reason alone, she had to stop it, she released Spike and stood back to watch the chaos. Spike was roaring all over the place and chasing everypony out of the library, once everypony was gone Twilight was left alone with only the five ponies she had cast her spell on since she had arrived, she dismissed them, they of course thought leaving was their own idea. They all expressed happiness with Twilight's party despite the dragon attack. Twilight went to bed thinking about this situation, tomorrow was the longest day of the thousandth year since Celestia banished her sister to the moon, and it was the day legend foretold that Nightmare Moon would be returning to Equestria to plunge it into an eternal night, Twilight wasn't discouraged about that idea, her powers were stronger under the light of darkness any way, but Twilight did not like the idea of having another pompous princess to be underneath, she fell asleep with the decision that she would stop Nightmare Moon and become the ruler of Equestria herself. In the early morning, before the sun was even up, Twilight was awoken by a knocking on her door, it was Pinkie, of couse, Pinkie even under Twilight's spell was a very free spirited pony. She answered the door and went with Pinkie to the town hall where Celestia would be raising the sun, or so everypony thought.
When Pinkie and Twilight arrived, Pinkie started talking "Isn't this exciting? Are you excited, 'cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited, well, except for the time that I saw you walking into town and I went-"
"Pinkie! Please, be quiet." Twilight demanded.
"Oh! Sorry. I'll be quiet now, right now,"
"Pinkie."
"Sorry."
Fluttershy's birds started to sing the same dirge song they were singing in the park the day before, the mayor was looking at Fluttershy as if she were doing something wrong but Fluttershy didn't know what. The mayor brushed off the song and started to speak "Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration! In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria, Princess Celestia!" The mayor finished as the curtains above her opened to reveal that the princess was gone. Everypony in the room gasped except Twilight, she rolled her eyes at the so called surprise. After everypony calmed down a cloud of sparkling dark smoke began to cover the balcony where the princess was supposed to be and from the smoke a tall dark mare materialized, it was Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon was every bit as intimidating as Twilight had hoped. She was just as tall as her sister, with a jet black coat and wings, her mane was the same smoke that she had materialized from, it was a brilliant blue with small star like objects shining through it, it almost seemed as if it were a mighty dark fire flowing from her head and down her neck. On her head rested a terrifying helmet that glowed with darkness just like her hoof rings and chest plate. her eyes were a light blue that looked as though they were piercing through everypony in the room, but her gaze was set upon Twilight, and Twilight knew why, she was the only pony in the entire room that knew who Nightmare Moon was, and Nightmare knew that.
Nightmare stopped staring at Twilight and started addressing the entire room "Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious, little sun-loving faces."
Whispers, shouts, and words of fear were coming from most of the ponies in the room. "Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"
"You're Nightmare Moon," Twilight shouted, "And I'm going to stop you!"
"Oh, simple Twilight Sparkle, that is your name, isn't it? My sister is quite fond of you, but she doesn't see what's in you like I do. You have great potential in all areas of magic, but your aura is the darkest I've ever seen, there is but a glimmer of light left in your heart. Join me."
Twilight liked hearing the praises from Nightmare, but she didn't want to share the throne with anypony "No! I would never join you, I am going to stop you!"
"Twilight how in Equestria are you planning on doing that?" Nightmare taunted as she dissipated into the blue smoke and wafted out the windows towards the Everfree Forest. By then all of the ponies but Twilight and her five minions and Spike had left, saddened that they would have no more sun to look forward to.
Twilight and company stood in the town hall. Twilight excused herself and ran back to her library as fast as she could with Spike following close behind, he could easily outrun her but he was very submissive to her and knew his place. Once she arrived at her new home she sent Spike to his bed for the night, which wouldn't be lasting forever if Twilight had anything to say about it. She rummaged through her shelves looking for a book on the ancient items known as the Elements of Harmony that were used by Celestia the last time Nightmare Moon was around. When she found the book she heard a knocking at her door, she went to answer it and all five of the ponies she had cast her spell on were outside, she brought them in and the first to speak was Applejack. "Twilight, I know you said you were gonna stop Nightmare, but we all thought that you shouldn't have to do it by yourself, so we're gonna help ya."
Twilight saw this as a perfect chance to have some expendable assets on her journey to claim Moon's power and overthrow Celestia herself to become the ruler of Equestria. "Okay girls, I would decline your offer, but I can see that I won't be able to do this by myself," She lied "And if I am to defeat Nightmare Moon with the Elements I'm going to need more than just me using them."
"Well then I reckon it's settled. We'll go after Nightmare Moon and use the Elements of Harmony to beat 'er." Applejack said.
There was no argument from any of the other ponies, not even Fluttershy. With that they all headed to the Everfree Forest to the castle of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. The journey to the castle was perilous, Twilight almost fell off of a cliff, a manticore attacked them, a giant serpent was disturbing a river, and a chasm they had to cross had the bridge cut off of it. If it hadn't been for the others Twilight didn't think she would've made it. They arrived in the main hall of the ancient castle, the place was the perfect picture of ruin, vines and moss hanging from broken sections of long forgotten stone walls, the sounds and sights of small creatures that had made their homes in the halls of this once grand structure. In the center of the main hall stood a shrine with 5 spherical stones, Twilight took them from their resting place and laid them all in a circular formation on the floor, while she was thinking how to activate them, a dark cloud of starry smoke flew into the room and formed into Nightmare Moon. She landed in the middle of the stones almost as if mocking Twilight's attempts at knowing how to use them.
"It took you ponies long enough to get here, I was wondering how long I was going to have to wait for you." Nightmare said with mockery in her voice.
"Don't act so happy, Nightmare Moon," Twilight spoke up, "I just figured out what the riddles meant." With those words Twilight shot a bolt of extremely potent magic at the stones. The stones started sparking and making noise as if something powerful was happening within them! Twilight was smiling a wicked little smile as her minions were watching the display in total awe. Nightmare was standing in the midst of this newly formed maelstrom of darkness and magic, "How did you do this?!" She screeched as she was almost completely engulfed with a mystical whirlwind.
"Simple," Twilight Sparkle smirked "There are five elements of harmony known: Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, and Kindness. With those five present a 'spark' will ignite their power, after a great bit of thinking, I figured out that it meant a blast of raw magical power so powerful only two beings have ever been able to do it before and those beings were, Celestia and her sister, you. Since light magic is not my forte I figured using it's counterpart would suffice."
"B-b-but how? How were you able to conjure magic this powerful?" Nightmare violently inquired as her form started changing into a smaller more innocent version of herself.
"So this must be Luna, the true form of the so called malevolent Nightmare Moon." Twilight mocked as the now crying Princess Luna lay where Nightmare's threatening presence once was.
"Twilight Sparkle!" A gigantic voice boomed from almost everywhere, as a ball of pure light traveled through a window and formed into Twilight's teacher Celestia, Celestia stood over her sister with a defensive look on her face. She looked down to her little sister and whispered "I'm so sorry, for everything." Twilight scoffed, her minions standing behind her looking more controlled than ever.
"I sent you to Ponyville so that you could make friends and defeat Nightmare Moon, and learn new lessons but this is how you do it? By controlling your friends like puppets? You are not the same Twilight I used to teach."
"Oh, sweet blind Celestia. Don't you see? I haven't been the same Twilight since that night in the libraries when you caught me with that dark magic book." Twilight explained as she noticed Celestia preparing an attack, before the princess could attack, Twilight sent a mental signal to her now completely puppeted "friends" and all six of them overcame Celestia, the battle must have lasted hours, but in the end Twilight and her minions came out on top with many injuries. Twilight picked up Celestia's crown and placed it upon her own head. She and the others went back to Ponyville with Applejack and Rainbow Dash carrying the weak and unconscious princesses back with them. once they got back day time had finally re-arrived. As they walked through the town whispers of awestruck ponies riddled their path, some ponies were grimacing at the knocked out rulers they once had, some bowed respectfully to the crown as they knew they were supposed to. Twilight's first stop was her library, inside Spike had awoken and was waiting for Twilight to get home.
"All right girls, you don't have to carry those to anymore, let Spike take care of it." Twilight said almost joyfully to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, she was growing quite fond of these five ponies, she had decided that she would take them with her to Canterlot to rule by her side and be her personal counsel.
"Sure thing, Twi." Applejack said as she bucked Celestia off of her back and onto Spike's. Rainbow followed suit. They moved on from Ponyville to Canterlot. Once they arrived in the grand city from the train, the princess's royal guard halted Twilight and company with a ferocity obviously not seen in ages, the captain of the royal guard came up to them and bowed to Twilight. Twilight expected nothing less, not because of her new crown but because the captain was her big brother, Shining Armor, he had been underneath her control since they were young. All of the other guards seemed confused, but they emulated their commander and bowed to Twilight as well. Twilight and her friends were escorted to the castle where Twilight and Spike went to the dungeon and threw the princesses into the magic proof cells where Twilight planned to keep them for the remainder of their miserable lives. As Twilight was leaving she heard Celestia whisper again, "I'm so sorry, I've failed you."
"You already told your sister you were sorry, why say it in my presence? You have an eternity to say it alone to her." Twilight scoffed.
The weak princess barely looked up at Twilight with the most sorrowful look Twilight had ever seen "I wasn't talking to her this time." Celestia said as she laid her head down on her sister's still unconscious body. Silence pierced the room, Twilight was speechless. She left the room not believing what she had heard. "Why would she apologize to me? She did nothing, nothing but fail at protecting her throne." Twilight said aloud on the walk back to her new throne chamber where her friends would be waiting. When she got there her minions were there waiting just as expected, "Girls, as my first order of business, I am going to set you free of my mind spell, you won't remember anything about me casting or even mentioning the spell, and you will have your free will back and you will also be able to leave without consequence." Twilight told them as she started casting the spell to release the five ponies.
A great flash shone through the room as the five ponies regained full consciousness, they all bowed to Twilight much to her surprise. She allowed them to rise and told them they only have to bow for a second they did not have to be told to rise. Twilight assigned each of them with their own royal duties; Pinkie Pie was given the responsibility of being the royal court judge, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were given command over the entire royal army, Rarity was christened as the royal architect and adviser to, Fluttershy became the throne room courier. Each of them were Twilight's personal assistants and actual friends. With that Twilight's rule had finally started. She had what she always wanted; the throne of Equestria. She harbored no regrets. Or so she thought. . .
Twilight's reign was a great period of darkness for the hearts of Equestria. She called her kingdom, The Kingdom of Shade. Twilight abolished all in her opinion, unnecessary holidays like Hearts and Hooves Day. Nightmare Night was changed from offering candy to Nightmare Moon, to a day of celebration for Twilight's rise to power. During the first year of her reign, the Changeling empire tried a sneak attack by disguising their queen as a princess and attempting to marry Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, the elaborate plan was foiled by Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and was taken care of without trial for the queen, this irritated the always fair royal court judge, Pinkie Pie, she was one of the only voices of reason left in the new kingdom, the other voice was the quiet voice of Fluttershy. After the tragic defeat of their queen, the changeling empire had no resources for food and had to rely on the Kingdom of Shade for everything, from shelter to sustenance, every family of Changelings were required to enlist one member of their family into the Shade army. Twilight's rule also saw the resurrection of the ancient evil, Discord, he attempted to overthrow Twilight but was defeated by the raw power of Twilight's magic in a battle that was far more intense than the battle between Princess Celestia and Twilight. After Discord was defeated, Twilight rid him of his powers and banished him into the Everfree Forest, where he eventually grew more insane than he was before, and in a psychotic rage, attacked the throne once again, this time as a mindless beast. After his inevitable defeat at the hooves of Twilight's mighty magic and armies. He was thrown into the dungeon with Luna and Celestia, still guarded by Spike, now grown fully into a great and mighty monster. After many years of the same things happening over and over, Twilight's powers grew stronger and darker. One day she was in deep meditation when she was interrupted by the sound of thunder and screams in her castle courtyard, she went to the window to peer outside at what was going on, what she saw was a horrific sight of her armies fighting an army of Changelings led by none other than the defeated Discord and Luna, on the front lines of her side were her royal guard captains, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, barely able to hold back the attacking forces.
"Rarity!" Twilight shouted in utter disgust.
"Yes, mistress?" Rarity inquired.
"What in the world is going on down there?"
"It's a revolt my liege, someone let all three of our prisoners out of their cells and slew Spike. The only forces you have left are your armed forces and the shadow titan, Dusk. Would you like me to awaken him?"
"No need, I have already done so. Do you have any idea who planned this?"
"Yes ma'am, I do."
"Well, out with it!"
"Girls, won't you come in here and show 'Lord Twilight' who was behind this travesty?" Rarity snickered as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and the zebra Zecora from the Everfree forest came into the room and stood next to Rarity.
Awestruck, Twilight whispered "I should have known you three would have betrayed me."
"You see, your forces whether they are loyal or not, they stand no chance against the Changelings, Discord, and Luna." Rarity explained.
"Where's Celestia? Is she coming for me herself?"
"Yes I am." Celestia's voice still able to fill a room after years without saying a thing.
Twilight felt a rage and sorrow that she had never felt before, without even realizing what she did, she threw the four traitors out of the window behind her shattering the glass making the shards rain upon the battle below. Fluttershy opened her wings and with almost lightning speed caught her three partners and flew off somewhere. Nopony remained in the room except Twilight and Celestia, Still as young as ever, the only changes in her appearance was that her mane no longer glowed or waved as if it were in the wind, her armor had all but rusted away, the jewels in her armor were cracked and no longer shined.
"So what are you going to do, attack me? Fight me? I dare you, my power is limitless," Twilight boasted "You have no chance."
"You are right." Celestia said solemnly.
"What?"
"You are right, Twilight," Celestia repeated "There is no way I could ever hope to defeat you, there is no way that the battle going on down there will turn in the favor of those you have wronged, you will win like you always do."
"Why do you have such confidence in me? Are you mocking me?"
"Twilight, do you remember all those years ago, when you put me and my sister in that cell? And I apologized to you."
"Yes, why is that?"
"I apologized because I failed to do the right thing. I apologized because I let you fall down this path. This is my fault and I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry one last time." Celestia choked out the words, tears in her eyes.
Twilight Sparkle was speechless, she was feeling sorrow, regret. REGRET. That was it. this was regret, she hadn't thought it was possible but she had emotions back that she hadn't felt since she was a filly. She threw herself at the feet of her old teacher and wept. "What have I caused? Everything's gone, nothing I have done is right. I'm sorry, Celestia! Please forgive me! It was never meant to be this way. It was never meant to be this way!"
"It's all right Twilight, I'm here, we can fix this."
"No," Twilight got up "I am going to fix this, One of the spells in the archives allows time travel, I am going to use the spell to go back and destroy that shelf before me as a filly has the chance to read any of those blasted books!"
"Twilight, you can't do that, we will cease to exist if you change the timeline." Celestia warned.
"You think I care? Do you think I want this to continue, even if I do change? No, I am going back and I am stopping this from ever happening. Good bye Princess." Twilight said still with a crack in her voice and tears in her eyes, she stepped back from Celestia and cast the spell, she was enveloped in lightning for a split second before she disappeared into nowhere.
Once in the past Twilight ran to the archives, she made sure she landed weeks before her fillyhood self found the books. She ran to the section where the books would be, she found them, but before she started to set fire to them she heard a voice from behind her, she turned around, it was Celestia! Not the Celestia Twilight just arrived from, but the Celestia she used to know, Twilight almost cried at how magnificent the sight of her old teacher was.
"Excuse me, but may I ask who you are, and why you are wearing my crown?" Celestia calmly demanded.
"There's no time to explain, I'm Twilight Sparkle, I'm from the future, a future that needs to be destroyed before I can bring it back into fruition, you have to let me destroy these books!"
"I am afraid I cannot let you do that, I don't know who you are, or why you claim to be my student, but if destroying a part of the archives is your goal, you must be stopped." Celestia said as she took an offensive stance.
"I did not come all this way to argue or fight, but if that's what you want Celestia, then here you go," Twilight sneered as she cast a spell strong enough to send Celestia to the ground unconscious, "now that that is over, let's say goodbye to everything I know."
Twilight readied a fire spell and shot it at the shelf, instantly the shelf was engulfed and after a few minutes nothing was left of the shelf let alone the dark books.
Celestia regained consciousness "You burnt them, all of them. Why?"
"They were evil, just as evil as me. I just saved you a lot of pain princess. Now it's my turn to say I'm sorry."
Twilight said as she turned away from Celestia. Twilight's form was wiped away from Celestia's sight, and from existence entirely, now nothing remained of her time. All was as it should have been all along.
THE END
