9-4-6-1-2-4-2

by BaroqueNexus

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, Dark, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Other, Adventure
Length: 5209

What do the numbers mean?

Twilight has had the same dream every night for three weeks. Seven numbers float among blackness: 9461242.

What do these numbers mean? Why do they haunt Twilight so? And why is Princess Celestia so reluctant to help?

The answer is out there somewhere, but Twilight may not be ready for the truth...

A big shout out to all those who preread and helped me edit this story! Thanks, guys!

Published 2012-09-19 05:34:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-19 05:34:01 UTC

9461242

9461242
By BaroqueNexus

The numbers.

They leapt across her dream spectrum yet again.

9.

4.

6.

1.

2.

4.

2.

They never varied. They were shapeless, colorless, and yet she saw them perfectly in her mind as she slept. It was quite odd, being able to see something clearly when it had no definite shape. They were not like the wooden numbers nailed to Ponyville’s clock tower in the main square. They seemed…mechanical. Robotic, even.

9 4 6 1 2 4 2.

9 4 6 1 2 4 2.

Again and again, they crossed her eyes, penetrated her mind. Flashes of evanescent thought winked out of existence as the numbers grew larger and larger until she could no longer see the dark void of sleep, but only the harsh glow of the colorless, shapeless numbers.

And then they disappeared.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a start, gasping for air as if she had been suffocating throughout the night. Her bed was drenched with sweat and her pillows were scattered hither and fro.

The dream had come again.

She panted like a dog, trying to make sense of the latest vision that sleep had brought her.

The numbers…

Always the same. Seven numbers with two pairs of repeating digits, all of which added up to 28. Odd, even, even, odd, even, even, even.

What did it mean?

She rose from her sweat-soaked bed and straightened her mane in the mirror, rubbing her horn anxiously.

This was the third week in a row that the numbers had visited her as she slept, and three weeks and endless mathematical computations later, she was no closer to figuring out what the numbers meant. Maybe they were just random numbers. The thought had crossed her mind, but numbers weren’t random if the same set of numbers appeared over and over. It also had too many digits to be a date. So what was it?

She reasoned that she wasn’t going to find the answer having just woken up, so she bathed and, once she had dried off, woke Spike, who had been resting comfortably in his little cot.

“Spike?”

“Yeah, Twilight,” the little dragon yawned. “What’s up?”

“I had the dream again.”

“The one with the numbers?” he asked.

Twilight nodded. Spike got out of bed and yawned again.

“I dunno, Twilight. I looked through every book in this library for the past three weeks, and I haven’t been able to find any mention of the number 9461242.”

“Me neither,” the unicorn said despondently.

Spike looked thoughtful. “Do you think we should ask around? Maybe it’s not important to you, Twilight. Maybe it’s important to Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy or anypony around here!”

Twilight looked at her dragon aide glumly. “I suppose, but nopony here is really interested in numbers."

They both descended the stairs and walked across the wooden floor of the library.

“Hmmm. Maybe you should see Zecora! She's always got an answer for weird stuff!” suggested Spike.

Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Zecora! Of course! If anypony could help me with these numbers, it would be hear! Thank you, Spike!”

She gave her assistant a hug and dashed out the door, bolting for the Everfree Forest.

* * *

“These strange visions of which you speak, they have been happening all week?”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s been happening for three weeks, Zecora, and it’s driving me nuts. I can’t figure out what the numbers mean!”

The zebra began to pace across the floor of her tree-hut. “These numbers make no sense to me, I can say with certainty.”

“Great,” Twilight huffed. “Not even a zebra can tell me what these numbers mean! I mean, what in Equestria requires seven numbers?”

Shrugging, Zecora said, “I do not know, Twilight dear. Perhaps the answer isn’t here.”

“What do you mean?” questioned the pony.

“I may not be the one to seek about these dreams you’ve had all week.”

“Three weeks, Zecora,” the unicorn sighed. “Well, thank you for trying to help anyway.”

The zebra nodded and went over to her cauldron, dipping amethyst and Everfree sage into the green solution that she was preparing. Twilight sighed again and walked out the door, trudging through the forest back to Ponyville.

* * *

“You din’t tell us y’all was havin’ bad dreams, Twilight!” exclaimed Applejack.

It was later, and the sun was low in the sky. Twilight and all her friends had gathered at a table outside Sugarcube Corner, where the purple unicorn had just finished explaining her nightly visions.

“You called us over here just to tell us that you’ve been having nightmares?” Rainbow Dash said, flapping her wings incredulously.

“Not nightmares, Rainbow,” Twilight responded. “Visions. It’s always the same. The numbers are always the same.”

“Numbers? I love numbers!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, shaking in her seat. “Okay, okay, I’m thinking of a number between one and one billion!”

“Is it one billion?” Applejack asked sarcastically. Pinkie gasped.

“How did you know?”

“Listen!” Twilight snapped, getting everypony’s attention. “The numbers have to mean something. Otherwise I wouldn’t be having dreams about them every night!”

“But darling, they’re just numbers!” Rarity reassured her. “Numbers can’t hurt you!”

“Rarity’s got a point, sugarcube,” Applejack chimed in. “A buncha numbers ain’t gonna do you harm.”

“Um…if I may…” Fluttershy said quietly, and Twilight looked at her. The pegasus cleared her throat.

“Maybe it’s some kind of message. You know, like code.”

“Code?” Rainbow Dash said. “Cool! Coded messages! Twilight, you’re like a spy!”

“I am not a spy!” Twilight shot back. “But Fluttershy may be on to something. Why do you think it could be code?”

Fluttershy shrugged. “It was the first thing I thought of.”

“Hm. The first thing I thought of was cupcakes, but now I’m thinking of a number between five and—”

“Pinkie, could you zip it for now?” Dashie growled. “Now, what kind of code could this be?”

“We ain’t even sure if it’s a code, Rainbow. Maybe it’s a date.”

“No, it’s not a date. Too many numbers.” Twilight closed her eyes tightly. “I just don’t get it. I don’t know what they mean.”

“Is it a math problem?” Rainbow Dash said disgustedly. “I hate math.”

“Rainbow, there aren’t any mathematical signs in the vision, just the numbers.” The unicorn sighed helplessly. Suddenly Pinkie Pie’s eyes lit up and she began to jump up and down in her seat with her hoof in the air.

“Ooh! I know! I know!”

“Pinkie Pie, you ain’t exactly been very helpful throughout this,” Applejack said with a hint of annoyance. “What is it now?”

“Maybe Twilight should write to Princess Celestia!”

“Just as I—wait, huh?!”

“Hey, Pinkie’s right!” Twilight exclaimed. “If anypony can help me, it’d be the Princess! I’m going to write to her right now!”

And before anypony could stop her, Twilight dashed off, leaving her marefriends in confusion and bewilderment.

* * *

“Dear Princess Celestia…”

Twilight paced back and forth as Spike wrote every word she said.

“For the past three weeks I have been having strange dreams. I suppose you could call them nightmares, because they do frighten me. The dreams are always the same. In them, I see a string of numbers. The numbers are 9, 4, 6, 1, 2, 4, and 2, in that order. They have never appeared in any other combination, and they seem to…ugh, how to I describe it?”

“You want me to write that?” the little dragon asked.

Twilight shook her head and cleared her throat. “They seem to pulsate in my mind, as if they tried to impress themselves upon me, as if the numbers themselves are trying to tell me something. I have spoken with a friend who deals with these kinds of things, and she has no answers to what I am going through. As your faithful student, I implore your help in solving the mystery of these dreams. Surely you should be able to help, considering your magical abilities and access to the Canterlot Archives. That is all. Signed, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike finished the letter and sent it off via dragon’s fire, and Twilight anxiously awaited a response from her princess and mentor.

But hours passed, and Spike did not belch up a new letter. Day turned to night and eventually the cock crowed twice at the dawn of a new morning, and Twilight was having trouble staying awake. The little dragon lay snoring on the library floor.

Just as sleep was about to overtake her, the mare heard a loud burp and smelled smoke. Sure enough, a letter had burst from Spike’s mouth, bearing the royal emblem. She quickly opened it and began to read.

My faithful student Twilight,

I am afraid I do not know what these numbers mean. It is quite unfortunate that you have been experiencing nightmares. Perhaps I will send over my sister; she may be of some assistance. In the meantime, do not let these numbers trouble you. I doubt they have any significance whatsoever.

I would also not let news of this spread, as you are my favorite student and I would hate to see anypony bother you just because of your strange dreams. I shall send somepony to take care of you and find out about these dreams.

Regards,

Princess Celestia

A chill ran up Twilight’s spine. She dropped the letter, breathing heavily.

Something didn’t feel right. Princess Celestia was the most intelligent pony in Equestria, and not even she knew what the numbers meant?

Those last lines…

I would not let news of this spread. I shall send somepony to take care of you.

Something was wrong.

Something was wrong?

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Why was she so upset? Celestia hadn't written anything upsetting, but something in the back of Twilight’s mind said otherwise. Somewhere in her head, an alarm bell was going off.

These numbers were significant. The princess was wrong.

Twilight gasped. She would have never forgiven herself if she had let that thought become spoken word. How could she have thought such a thing? This was the pony that had taught her nearly everything there was to teach about magic, the one who had blessed the marriage between her brother and the beautiful Mi Amore Cadenza.

But another terrible thought surfaced in her mind: the princess was not perfect. She had nearly been defeated by Chrysalis. She had failed to foresee the Changeling queen’s plan. She had failed as a princess.

She had failed.

Twilight reeled, gasping for air, leaning on a table for support. How could she think these things about her beloved princess? She conked the side of her head with her hoof, trying to knock the bad thoughts out of her skull.

But instead, the numbers surfaced.

9 4 6 1 2 4 2.

9 4 6 1 2 4 2.

“GAAH!” she screamed, waking Spike and half of Ponyville.

“Twilight?!” the dragon cried. “What’s wrong?”

“These numbers! I can’t get them out of my head! Read Princess Celestia’s letter, read it!”

He read it, and when he put the letter down his face was somber. “Not even she knows anything about them.”

Twilight nodded frantically. “She doesn’t know what they are, nopony knows what they are, this is driving me NUTS!” She bucked and kicked a vase off of a stool, shattering it. Seeing what she had done, she slid down the wall and sat on her rump, breathing heavily.

“These numbers are going to make me insane,” she mumbled. “I have to do something about them.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight. You always come up with a way to solve your problems.” And with that, Spike went over to the unicorn and laid his scaly hand on her shoulder.

“AIIIEEE!”

Twilight jumped about a foot off the ground, landing in a heap next to the little dragon, who was stunned.

“Twilight?!”

“C-cold…” she shivered. “Your hand…so cold…”

Spike looked at his hand in horror, feeling it with his other hand. “I don’t feel anything, Twilight! What’s the matter?”

“Your hand was icy cold!” Twilight shouted. “No, colder than ice!”

Now she shivered from cold and from fear, backing away from the dragon.

“Twilight…”

“NO! Don’t touch me, Spike! Please!”

Spike backed off, terrified. Suddenly, there came a knock at the door, and a voice.

“Twi? It’s Applejack. You there?”

Twilight took a breath. “Coming, Applejack!” She then glanced at Spike with confusion and fear, slowly making her way to the door.

“Go,” she growled through her teeth. “Go warm your hands. Make a fire. They’re freezing.”

Spike obliged, running upstairs, and Twilight opened the door.

“Hey, AJ!”

Applejack looked concerned, and peeked over the unicorn’s shoulder. “You got company? Sounded like you were havin’ a shoutin’ match with somepony.”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Twilight said, giggling nervously. “Spike’s hands were really cold and he just kind of shocked me, I guess.”
Applejack looked at Twilight as if the unicorn had just said that she was a pegasus. “Ooh…kay. Whatever ya say, Twi. Anyhow, I got somethin’ for ya.”

Twilight’s eyebrows twisted in confusion, but she waited for AJ to go on.

“About the whole numbers doohickey. Big Macintosh reckons he can help.”

“What? Big Macintosh?”

“Uh huh,” the hat-wearing pony replied. “Y’see, he took an apple shipment up to Canterlot himself, as a favor to a customer that had done us good. He overheard somthin’ that he wanted t’tell you. Come with me, sugarcube!”

“Huh? Wait, what did he say?”

“I dunno, he just really wants t’talk to you. C’mon!”

Applejack started toward Sweet Apple Acres, and Twilight, after thinking for a moment, decided to follow.

* * *

“Alright, Big Macintosh. I brought Twi. Now go ahead ‘n tell her whatever the heck it is ya wanted t’say.”

They were just outside the barn, where the big red stallion was fixing a broken lock on the giant double doors. He fiddled with it for a few seconds more, then spat out the wrench he had been holding and turned to the two mares.

“Right. Twilight Sparkle. Well, I got the delivery up t’ Canterlot, to that fella Fancypants. Nice pony, that one. Anyhow, I overheard a coupla guards talkin’ about somethin’. Now, I ain’t usually one t’eavesdrop, but I heard them say that number you keep goin’ on about. 9461242.”

Twilight’s ears perked up, but not because of what Big Macintosh said, but rather how he said it. While most of his words had been spoken in a typical Apple family accent, he had recited the numbers so crisply, so eruditely, that at that moment he could have passed as a Canterlot dweller. His accent had vanished when he had said the numbers.

There was something else…

“How did you know about the numbers?" Twilight asked. "I don’t remember telling you.”

“AJ told me.”

“I did?”

“Think ya did. Either that or I heard ‘bout it from one o’ the other ponies ‘round here. Word gets around, y’know?”

Twilight looked at him incredulously. “Well, did you hear anything else?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied. “They kept their voices real low, like they was tryin’ to keepa secret or somthin’. I only overheard one otha word.”

“Which was?”

“Twilight.”

Her blood ran cold. Her eyes widened. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

“W-What?!”

“Just repeatin’ what they said,” Big Macintosh answered as he nonchalantly returned to his work. Applejack came up to Twilight.

“Easy there, pardner. Maybe they were talkin’ about twilight like the time.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she replied, unsure. “Shining Armor did say the guards usually change shifts around twilight. But still…the numbers and the word ‘Twilight’…my name…”

Applejack shrugged. “Don’ know what t’tell ya, sugarcube. I ain’t exactly a detective. It’s a bit creepy, though.”

Twilight was no longer listening. Her mind was in turmoil.

Now she knew the princess was lying. Either that or she had no idea what was going on with Twilight. The notion that the guards were merely discussing shifts was ridiculous. Now Twilight knew that there was a definite link between her and the string of numbers. But what was it?

“…Twi?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry, Applejack. I was thinking.”

“Well it’s about lunchtime, don’t ya reckon? You wanna come in fer somethin’ t’eat? Granny Smith’s cookin’ up some apple burgers.”

“No,” Twilight said starkly. “No, I won’t be having lunch with you. I’m going to Canterlot.”

AJ’s eyes went wide. “Canterlot?!”

“Yes, Applejack. These numbers aren’t random anymore. They have something to do with me.”

“But those guards—”

“They weren’t talking about shifts, AJ! They were talking about me! I have to go to Canterlot, I have to see my brother and Princess Celestia…”

She began to breathe heavily, and suddenly she was bolting, leaving Applejack in the dust.

* * *

Bursting through the door to her house, Twilight huffed and looked from left to right.

“Spike? Spike!”

No answer. She climbed the ladder to the upper floor, only to find the little dragon’s cot empty. She looked all over, but the dragon was nowhere to be found.

“Where the heck did he run off to now? SPIKE!”

Again, no answer. Nothing but the soothing sound of wind filled her ears.

“Mother of a parasprite,” Twilight cursed under her breath. “Maybe I should—no. Forget Spike. I need to get to the bottom of this.”

And so she turned on her hoof and ran back outside, heading for the train station.

* * *

The train ride from Ponyville to Canterlot was long and boring for Twilight, but she refused to let sleep overtake her. She would not be subject to the numbers again. But as the sun dipped lower and lower into the horizon, she felt her eyes closing by themselves, desperate for rest. Slowly but surely, she succumbed.

9461242. Getting nearer…

9461242. Break it…break it…

9461242.

She awoke suddenly to find that the train had pulled into the Canterlot station. A five-second dream had cost her five hours. She got off the train and walked among the crowd of affluent, well-dressed ponies, looking like a sore hoof with her ragged mane and unkempt tail.

There were words now. A voice, and a familiar one. She had heard it before, but where? Twilight wracked her mind to place a name and face to the voice, but came up with nothing.

Getting nearer. Break it.

What the heck did that mean?

Twilight was so lost in thought that she nearly ran into a pony in a top hat, who looked at her scathingly but said nothing as he continued on. She looked up and saw Canterlot Castle in the distance, where soon Celestia would sleep and Luna would watch over the night.

So she hurried through the crowds until she was at the main gate, and she passed through without the guards noticing, allowing herself to be swallowed up by the constant stream of visitors and officials going in and out of Canterlot Castle.

The inside of the castle was as glamorous as ever, but Twilight paid little attention to the architecture as she hurried through the castle, making her way toward the guard quarters, where she knew her brother would be. She found herself in empty hallways and long corridors, as if the castle had become a maze through which she could just barely proceed. Finally, after what seemed like hours, she came upon a door that read ‘Quarters of the Canterlot Royal Guard.’ She knocked on the door, and the pony who opened it was a gruff stallion with a shaggy black mane and a beard.

“Can I help you, girlie?”

“Um, yes, I’m Twilight Sparkle, I’m Shining Armor’s brother.”

The gruff pony suddenly looked very frightened. His eyes darted from left to right as if he longed to run away. He began to stutter.

“Um…uh, well…y’see…Shining Armor ain’t here no more.”

“Huh? Where’d he go?”

“Dunno. Just up an’ left one day. Now please, move along, girlie…please…”

“No!” Twilight yelled, stamping her hoof on the floor. “Tell me where my brother is!”

In response, the gruff pony slammed the door in her face.

“Hey! Come back here and tell me where my brother—”

In here.

The voice echoed in her head, the same voice she had heard in her dream on the train. This time it seemed to have direction. It came from below, and its echo would not fade.

So she followed it, ducking through doors and traversing corridors, avoiding guards and passersby along the way. The echo never wavered and never disappeared. It was as if the words were being said over and over again by the same speaker. Twilight ran all over the castle, searching room after room and using her magic to remain undetected. But she could not find the source of the voice.

She gasped and slid down a corridor wall, crying.

“When will it end? Why won’t it stop?”

She buried her face in her hooves, sobbing.

“Hey!”

Twilight looked up. It was a guard.

“You! You’re not supposed to be here!”

“But…but I’m…”

The guard made for her, and she galloped as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

* * *

Nine, ten, eleven guards were after her, but she did not let up. She failed to understand why she was being pursued in the first place. The last time she had broken into Canterlot Castle, they hadn’t even given her a scathing look. Now they were chasing after her as if she had just stolen the Elements of Harmony.

“Why are you doing this?” she yelled back at them. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

In response, one of them shot a bolt of deadly magic from his horn, and it barely missed hitting Twilight square in the back of the neck. Clearly these guards wanted her dead or captured, but for what? Was she that unwelcome here?

“Stop! Please!”

But they would not listen. They just kept chasing after her, and she was running out of hallways to run through. She found the main staircase and rushed down, knocking ponies out of her way as she ran for her life. An open door caught her eye, and she made for it, closing and sealing it behind her. She knew it would not hold for long against the unicorn guards, so she bolted down into the depths of the castle. The light grew weaker and the air became danker with ever galloping stride she took. Eventually she stopped, for blackness had consumed her, and she had lost all sense of direction.

Finally, there in the distance, a faint light. Twilight made for it, and when she came closer she realized it was a torch. She approached the torch, then gasped when she saw what the torch-room held.

A massive iron door dominated the farthest wall of the room. The other walls were stone and featureless, but the door was black and had seven golden slots in its front.

Seven slots.

Seven…

9461242.

In the room with the single torch and the giant door, Twilight gasped and smiled. This had to be it. For once, she threw logic to the wind and stepped forward. Sure enough, the slots were all labeled with numbers from 1 to 9, and every one was currently at 1.

She rotated the first one so it read 9. She did the same with the next, and so on and so on until she was at the last slot.

She rolled the number slot until the 2 fell into place.

There was a loud crack, and Twilight jumped. The door slowly swung open, revealing nothing but blackness inside. She felt a chilling breeze caress her face as it escaped the vault in which it had been imprisoned. Shivering, Twilight stepped forward into the darkness.

All she could hear was the sound of her own breathing, but that quickly changed.

“At last.”

It was the same voice that had guided her here, but corporeal and even more familiar-sounding than before. But there was something about it that made Twilight’s spine tingle.

“Who are you? Where are you?”

“You mean you don’t know? I thought you would have figured it out by now.”

“What?!”

“You didn’t see the signs, Twilight Sparkle. Shining Armor left. Spike disappeared. The numbers that I have been assailing your mind…”

“The numbers. They were numbers of a code, a code to—your jail cell? Who are you?!”

Twilight attempted to cast a light spell, but her horn fizzled. She suddenly felt nauseated. Somepony had placed an anti-magical barrier in this room. The speaker’s face remained clouded in shadow.

“No magic. Such has it been for half a century. Celestia herself cast the spell that has made my horn useless for all this time.”

“You’ve been imprisoned for fifty years?”

“Indeed I have, for the simple crime of want.”

“What? No, I’ve had enough of this! There has to be light in here somewhere…”

“No light. No hope. No faith. No worry.”

“Stop it! Why did you bring me here? WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

Suddenly, light filled the void, bright light that blinded Twilight. She turned around, and Princess Celestia was standing in the doorway, flanked on either side by guards holding torches. She looked furious, and when she gazed upon Twilight her face was curled in an expression of disgust, as if she hated the little pony.

“Princess…” Twilight began.

“Silence!”

The unicorn cowered at Celestia’s shout. The princess and two torch-bearing guards walked right past her, and their light just barely reached the end of the room, leaving the wall in darkness.

“So,” the princess began, staring at the shadowy wall. “So you have led one here again to free you. How did you do it this time?”

Something on the wall giggled, then cleared its throat.

“That oaf Big Macintosh stopped by. I could feel his presence, so I gave him a little present to accompany him back to Ponyville.”

“And what of this?!” Celestia yelled, pointing at Twilight, who cowered in confusion.

“Come now, Princess. Did you really think my powers could not penetrate the mind of a foul little creature like her?”

“Foul creature?” Twilight suddenly said. “I am no—”

“BE SILENT!” Celestia roared, and this time Twilight actually whimpered.

“Yes, that’s right. Treat it like you would treat an untrained dog.”

“You,” the princess growled. “You persist in these vexations. You fear no punishment, am I correct?”

“Oh yes, Princess,” the voice said snidely. “What shall you do? Kill me? I doubt you’d have the heart.”

“Princess, what is going—”

But Twilight never got a chance to finish, because at that moment Celestia brought her hoof around and smacked her across the face, sending her flying. She crumpled on the floor and looked at her princess in horror.

“Speak again and I will have you killed.”

She turned back to the shadowy wall.

“Clearly no magic can hold you completely. You have cost me yet another.”

“And I shall cost you many more. Will I watch to see you kill it? Or are you going to let it know?”

Twilight got to her hooves, shaking.

“Why let it know? It is merely an actor in a play.”

At this, Celestia hung her head, and a single tear fell from her eye. Then she turned to Twilight.

“I apologize, creature. But I am afraid you can serve me no longer.”

And with that, the Princess of Equestria killed her favorite pupil, slamming her body with a bolt of magic that stopped her heart and threw her against the wall. She dropped to the cold floor, lifeless. The voice giggled.

“Oh, yes, how I always thought you were so kind, that you would never have the guts to kill a fellow pony. But that is no pony, is it?”

Celestia looked at Twilight’s body. “No. It’s not.”

Then the corpse of the unicorn began to morph. The fur turned black and necrotic, the eyes became green, and her mane changed to a pail teal color. Her hooves and tail rotted before their eyes, and before long it looked as if Twilight had been dried to a husk.

“A Changeling,” said the voice as Twilight’s body completed its transformation. “I knew it.”

Celestia turned back, not wanting to look at the body.

“After your downfall, after you killed so many, I had to find a way to make it all normal again. So I kidnapped one of Chrysalis’s Changelings and forced it to perma-form into the body of Twilight Sparkle. I modified its memory so nothing would appear out of the ordinary.”

“It didn’t know about Spike or Shining Armor.”

“Spike is dead by your hoof. Shining Armor is gone because you killed his wife. Do you honestly think we could have let Twilight know that?”

“Twilight? That is not Twilight!”

“I know!” the princess snapped. “I know it isn’t! You think I don’t know?! You think that after what happened, that I could simply gaze upon my star student, my favorite pupil, and not see a Changeling in disguise? It was never Twilight! You murdered Twilight Sparkle! You murdered her!”

“No, Princess. I’m afraid you just did.”

“That wasn’t Twilight! Twilight Sparkle is dead by your doing! And the others, the others you tricked! No cage can hold you! No spell can bind you! Why?! How?!”

At this, the voice let out a long giggle, as if she thoroughly enjoyed infuriating the princess. Celestia motioned to one of her guards, who threw his torch at the wall, finally lighting up the speaker.

It was a pony chained to the wall, thin and ragged as if she had been there a long time. It was a female unicorn with an unkempt mane of purple and pink. Her purple coat sparkling star cutie mark had faded and gone dull over the years.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia gasped, as if realizing for the first time. “My favorite pupil. Why did things have to be like this? After all these years, you still refuse to tell me why you killed your own people, your friends!”

“You just as well murdered them, Princess!” Twilight spat. “You modified their memories! You tried to pretend this whole thing didn’t happen! Well it did, and I promise you, I will break free of these chains and I will kill you! I will ursurp your throne! I WILL RULE EQUESTRIA!”

Silence, tense and sinister. Twilight’s eyes gleamed red in the torchlight. Her lips were chapped and her ribs poked against her gaunt skin. Celestia began to weep.

“Twilight…my pupil…”

“I am your pupil no longer, Celestia.”

The princess stopped crying and looked up with hateful eyes. “You are not Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle is dead.”

Twilight said nothing, but continued to smile. Celestia picked up the torch and gave it back to the soldier, saying, “Lock it up.”

And so he did, and the Princess glanced one last time back at the dark void that held the monster that had killed her favorite student, before the iron door shut and cast the room into blackness, and the code was reset.

9461242.

1111111.

Faint giggling came from the other side, then silence.