A World Forged at Midnight

Time.

Such a fleeting thing, no matter who or what you are. There's never really enough of it, it seems, and you always dread that fact.

I hadn't expected mine would run out that soon, though. Or, at least I had hoped I would have more time. Time to make everything truly right and perfect, and then things could proceed.

Time stops for nopony though. At least, not yet.

This would be it. The grand return of the holy diarchs of Equestria. The holy, royal two sisters returning to reclaim what was theirs.

I stood in front of their two thrones with a sense of pride and fulfillment, but equal amounts of dread. The thrones were theirs by right, and would surely bring about a great, new era for all of creaturekind now that the Princesses saw fit to grace us once more.

Yet... so much was still to be done. The changelings hadn't even been fully convinced about friendship yet, and there were still half a dozen griffon realms that I hadn't visited. Not to mention how we still relied on friendship camps all over Equestria because the ponies still resisted the message of friendship and harmony!

Now, despite it seeming like I had totally failed at doing all that I set out to do and coming short on all ends, I was not freaking out. To say that I was freaking out as I stood in front of the thrones of the two sisters, waiting for them to be ushered into the throne room, would be a total lie and my loud, heavy breathing was part of my regular breathing exercise regiment.

Still... a lot of fears and doubts crossed my mind just then. It had been years since the two sisters departed, leaving us - me - to fill in their hoofsteps and carry on an impossibly majestic legacy. It was their great test to us, their ponies and subjects, to see if we were worthy.

And... were we? I had certainly tried all that I could think of to accrue power and further friendship, had I not? Friendship was by far the most powerful thing in the world now, and that was all due to me, right? Still, though, things were moving along so sluggish, and I couldn't manage to make everycreature see things our way before their return.

My eyes widened as I eyed the two thrones from up close. A brand new thought crossed my mind:

Was I... going to be in trouble?

What if I really did come short? What if I had disappointed the two sisters and failed them? Would I be punished for my failures? Sent to the friendship camps myself? Would I be ripped of my alicornhood because I had claimed to act on their behalf but had failed so absurdly? Would I be...

*Sigh*

Deep breaths. Surely it wouldn't be that bad. I hadn't quite achieved everything I wanted, but that didn't mean I hadn't paved the way to achieve it. All we really needed was time now, essentially... and some magic, of course. Surely that wouldn't go unnoticed. Surely.

There was an ominous clack from across the room behind me, and I immediately turned to face it. The towering set of doors that separated the throne room from the hallway beyond sprung into motion as they slowly swiveled and opened. I immediately caught eye of the faint magical auras which had done so. Yes, it was certainly unmistakable.

I closed my eyes for just a moment and took a deep breath - again. I felt the corona around my eyes flicker and then wash away, just as my hawkish, black wings of magic folded up against my body. I had internally decided in favour of showing humility and subservience, as opposed to showing my own growth during their absence and showcasing the new power of friendship which I now embodied.

I opened my eyes again, and then it began.

Two sets of hooves, four each, clopped along and approached. The pace was extraordinarily slow, and every step muffled from the carpet laid out for them which led up towards their rightful thrones. Still... there they were. In the flesh, returned after all this time.

"Your majesties," I greeted simply, lowering my head in deep gratitude and appreciation for the two. "We have all been waiting eagerly for your fated return. Welcome home."

I heard them stop even as I bowed, but I dared not look up without some sort of prompt to do so.

It was my old mentor who spoke first, as she usually did.

"What is going on here!?"

The distressed tone of hers made me look up again, to see that both Celestia and Luna were hurriedly looking around the throne room, and the stained glass to their side as well. The room itself had been repainted a subtle purple during my regency, while the stained glass - previously telling partially a bunch of nonsense - now told of the glory of the princesses and my regency. A story of how equinity strived to achieve true friendship and-!

"T...Twilight!?" Luna remarked. I blinked back at her. "What... happened? To Canterlot? To Equestria?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but was again interrupted.

"And to... you?"

"Twilight?" asked Celestia, just passing her sister, with a hoof placed on her chest. "Are you... alright?"

I blinked again before cocking my head just barely. A cough cleared my throat before I finally had both the chance and words to answer.

"Of course! I've never been better!" I replied hurriedly, smiling, if not with a bit of faking, back at them from in front of their thrones. "I mean, you are back now, after all! How could I not be ecstatic!?"

"...Twilight, did... you get our note?"

Luna's voice made me blink into what seemed like empty space.

"Your... note?"

"We sent it to Ponyville before we left," Celestia clarified further. "Did you not receive it?"

I remained silent for a moment, raised a hoof to speak but didn't quite find the right words at first. I gulped, and finally managed to wiggle words out of my throat.

"Not to disagree with our holy majesties, but-"

"Holy majesties...?" Luna repeated with a furrowed brow.

"-but nopony in Equestria knew just why you had left. In fact, it was the majority belief you had left us to test us."

"Test you? Test you for what purpose?" Celestia asked. Both she and her sister seemed to have question marks plastering their faces already. I wasn't sure if that was necessarily a good or... bad thing, really.

"Why, our loyalty, faith and friendships, of course! To see how Equestria would do without your divine, wise leadership!"

I smiled proudly... but it was not met with the same thrill, quite on the contrary. The two alicorns seemed... concerned, or perhaps just confused?

"Twilight, we didn't 'test' anypony," Celestia explained slowly.

"We were on vacation, Twilight. We were in Zebrica this whole time." Luna spoke a little faster than her sister, but was clear as day - or night - in her speech.

"Just... what happened while we were gone?" Celestia finally added.

My heart must have skipped a beat or two as my head tilted itself sideways to such a degree that it must have seemed like my neck had snapped.

I shook my head and raised my head up once again and returned with newfound vigour:

"Ahaha~! I get it! You're still testing my resolve!" I chuckled, a lavender hoof covering my snout briefly. "Nice try, but I know for absolute certain that there is one and only one way forward for ponykind, which is through you and the ideals you've developed for millenia! No 'joke' could ever make me budge on that, haha!"

There was an eerie silence hanging throughout the throne room's tall halls, only occasionally broken by my half-hearted chuckles.

"I guess she really didn't get the note, then," Luna quietly said, though I heard her still.

"It appears so," Celestia answered, before stepping forward and looking up to me again. "Twilight?"

I calmed my nerves and straightened myself out. "Technically it's not... nevermind. Semantics." I sighed, deciding that talking about my name change was not worth the time just then. "Yes?"

"I need you to stay calm for us and answer our questions. Is that alright?"

I leaned forward to answer almost in an instant.

"O-Of course! Of course I'll answer you straight! I mean, how could anypony not be honest and upfront with their two goddesses, right? Right??"

The solar princess took a step back, her head slightly recoiling as I spoke. Was she perhaps... scared? Of me? But, I was her regent and student, was I not?

"Right. First and foremost, what happened while we were gone?" Celestia questioned. "Luna and I think we have seen certain... unsavoury things on our way here, but I like to think that was just migraine or something of that sort. So what is going on here?"

I nodded, then sighed.

"Well, after you left nopony knew where exactly you had gone, so there was a little bit of a panic going on in Canterlot. I was rushed in to fill your horseshoes without any real time or context to prepare, and so I suddenly dealt with an Equestria without its most beloved and eternal rulers in history."

I scratched my head with one of my blue-glowing hooves.

"Really, it took me months to put down all the petty revolts and-"

"Revolts, Twilight?" Luna interrupted.

"Ah. Yes, well, it quickly appeared that without you two, the concepts of harmony and friendship were threatening to break. The nobles in Canterlot, or the mayors and governors of cities and regions, they all thought I had 'usurped' your role and thrones and so plenty of them inspired ponies everywhere to rise in revolt."

The two alicorns still looked rather... unconvinced as they exchanged frowns.

"I'm not so sure if that's what-"

"But it gets worse!" I interrupted, this time. "Not only did they revolt against me - against your will and ideals - but they did so claiming to abide by friendship and harmony and peace! I mean, how dare they!? They can't possibly mean to defy their Regent and then claim to be pro-friendship! I am friendship!"

"Aha... and, I... assume that is why we saw the... um, a certain-"

"Oh, I assume you mean the friendship camps?" I returned to Luna, whose eyes widened in response.

"Come again?"

"The friendship camps! I institutionalised them as a means to try and redeem evildoers all over Equestria. It came to me after the first few revolutions and revolts, when I realised that the true way to unify society was to uphold friendship in the hearts of every pony, no matter how young or old or able."

The two sisters were left staring blankly at me for just a moment.

"But... Twilight, we saw ponies in chains. Ponies... bleeding and crying, being..."

"Killed? Yeah, sometimes the system has hiccups and ponies who are irredemable are sent to the camps. But our guards are stoic and do a good job at rooting out the ones that some lovely paperwork and scientific method can't catch on first try."

"T-Twilight, you're-!"

"Ponies are dying!"

This time it was I who furrowed a brow in return.

"So?"

"So!?" both blasted in direct response.

"They are traitors and unredeemable. Creatures who can't adapt and follow the guidelines of true friendship. And if they aren't able and willing to make friends... then they're villains. And since we've made enough mistakes in the past of letting irredemably evil creatures run wild to have a second chance at terrorising others, I figured the only and best course of action was to simply dispose of them. That way, only those who are proud, upright friends remain - I did the numbers, after all."

And again the two looked on in seeming horror. Luna seemed to want to step forward, but her sister extended a hoof to block her. The Princess of the Sun gulped, and spoke for herself.

"Twilight, I don't know what has gotten into you... but you have to snap out of this. Now!"

"Snap out of what?" I returned harmlessly and calmly. Celestia gasped quietly and took two steps backward as I unfolded my hawkish wings. "All I've done, and am doing, has been to advance your ideals, after all."

"By... murdering innocents!?" Luna blurted with wide eyes, her hooves stretching out a small bit as if entering a combat stance.

"You've caused all this... suffering, this destruction... in our name? How? Why?" Celestia wondered, her voice much quieter than her sisters. A fact that surprised even Luna herself who looked over to her with a raised brow.

"Why? Because everypony turned on you as soon as you were gone, obviously! Did you forget what I just told you?" I told the two eagerly. "The moment you left, everything you built fell apart! All the love and harmony, all the friends we'd made along the way... it all came crashing down! Was I meant to just sit there and let it happen!? Was I meant to let Equestria fracture and break apart!? And then what? Would the Windigoes come down from the frozen north to destroy us all?"

I didn't realise at the time just how loud I was barking back at the two divine rulers... or how the fiery, magical corona around my eyes had reformed, shimmering in a steady aquamarine glow.

"There was surely another way - assuming what you've said is even true!" Luna remarked.

My eyes widened, and I lifted a hoof as I tried to avert my eyes. No... surely she didn't mean to say...

"You think I'm lying!?"

I stomped the ground with force, sending ripples of light blue magical energy through the room like a shockwave. Both Luna and Celestia remained firm, though seemed only more concerned yet determined now.

"We know our little ponies, more so than anypony else," Luna insisted.

"They would never turn their backs on us like that. Not unless..."

Celestia paused, and drew breath. Luna whispered something to her in a hushed voice as she closed in next to her to comfort her.

"Not unless... you forced them to."

The world around me seemed to slow to a crawl as those words reverberated in my head. Luna's implication had stung, like a stab in the back, but Celestia's felt like somepony had banged a frying pan against my head at least twenty times over.

I took a step backwards - not that I meant to - and gasped, my mouth agape. The corona around my eyes flickered, fizzling in and out of existence in distress.

"Y-You... you think..."

My voice, for the first time in such a long time, was a hush. Meek and weak, little more than a whisper. But the two sisters heard it, of that I was immediately certain.

"I don't know what you did exactly, Twilight," Celestia stated. "But I- no, we," she corrected as her sister bunched up close to her side. "We know there is something very wrong. With Equestria, and with you."

The two sisters looked at me with a certain... fire in their eyes. A determination few had probably seen in history, and even fewer who had lived to tell the tale.

I was an enemy of theirs.

"Wrong... with me...?" I weakly repeated in my dazed, stunned state of mind.

"I can only suspect dark magic being at work by the looks of it," Luna said, her elder sister nodding as if they had just solved some sort of mysterious puzzle. "But how?"

They both straightened out again to look at me straight from where they stood. Like many times prior now, they looked ready to battle at a moment's notice, but still they did not fire the first shot.

Celestia's mouth moved. Slowly. There was... something about magic, and something about 'elements'. I didn't pay her much attention by that point... I couldn't. Her previous words still ping-ponged around my brain, and throughout my body as a whole. I briefly shivered as I struggled to keep myself standing upright.

You drove them to revolt.

I shook my head, and the thought and voice vanished with it. I looked back over to where the two sisters stood and saw Celestia speak again. And yet, as before, she appeared mute. Then Luna spoke, too... but again, the same thing. Had I gone deaf? What was-

You did all this. You were the enemy of harmony and friendship all along.

There was a thud of sorts as I fell backwards onto my rear, my shaky legs finally giving way. I frowned - less at whatever it was the Princesses were doing or saying at that point, but more so at whatever was haunting me. Something inside my head that was-

You are a monster. A tyrant. A murderer.

I gasped again and shook my head.

You killed them. All of them. And for what?

"N-No... I... friendship is..!"

You killed friendship.

A terrifying sensation ran past my left ear. It was... cold, like a knife's blade being dragged along my fur. A shiver travelled from head to hooves in an instant.

You're a butcher. A monster.

"No... no! I'm not-!"

You're a failure!

"No!" I retaliated against the circling voices. They were growing louder and louder around me, sometimes next to me, sometimes above or even below me, and then another time just behind me.

You failed-

"No!" I shouted again.

You doomed all of-

"No! No, I didn't!"

Everyone who cared-

"Shut up!"

-about you-

"No!"

-is dead.

"I said shut up!"

Just as that scream left my mouth, my hearing returned, allowing me to take in my own bellow. I hadn't fully realised just how loud I had shouted when opening my mouth...

...neither had I noticed the tears, up until now.

I veered my head to look in the general direction of where the Princesses were - or had been, it was hard to tell. They were little more than vague specks of dark and white now that my eyes were watery to the brim.

Then I looked away again, my eyes trained purely on the ground before me. The carpet beneath my hooves - the previous red one swapped out for a purple one only recently - now turned a darker hue as it soaked up one tear after another. They came, on and on. There seemed no end to them.

I heard my sobs, then, too. Finally, I suppose, as I probably had muttered them far sooner than I had realised.

There was a certain quiet in the grand hall that was the throne room, though. Beyond my sobs which echoed off the ceiling and walls, it was all quiet and at rest. Not even the two sisters said anything now, perhaps stunned by any show of emotion from the one they had forsaken to be little more than a corrupted spawn of evil.

I raised my head a little, gasping for air as the tears still came on hard, before tilting to my left. Even through the wet filter over my eyes I could see the stained glass' outlines. I sniffed, and raised one of my glowing hooves to wipe away the tears.

Half of the imagery was the same as ever. The two sisters coming to power, ruling together, and the eventual banishment of Nightmare Moon. The return of the latter and return of Luna, and the new element bearers - me, as well as... others? Wait... there were ponies other than me holding the elements of harmony? But... I don't remem-

Irrelevant. Forget.

-ber... huh. Oh well. The elements are hardly relevant anyway, as one of the new glass imagery showed. It was my ascension, the merging of the elements of harmony and crystal heart, all flowing together into me, to become something new, something-

Powerful. Better.

Something... that could overcome everything and everyone. Indeed, it was the day that Twilight Sparkle was no more, and the one that Midnight Sparkle rose from her fragile shell. A better me. A me that could save Equestria from itself, and from those around it.

Save it from Evil. Save it from the ungrateful.

The next and last two windows portrayed me defeating evil in all its varying forms. The fall of Chrysalis as one monumental victory, and the burning of Griffonstone as another. Changelings had long been a thorn in ponykind's side, had threatened the capital itself and had almost gotten away with it if not for me! Not to mention the griffons, who are downright despicable in the way that they are raised! From birth, told that only money matters, and that bullying or ignoring others is fine to maximise that greed for profit.

It was disgusting. It was dangerous. It would sooner or later come to bite Equestria in its flank - big time - and that was just two examples from among many.

They are blind. They don't care.

My breathing slowed down over the course of a few seconds in an attempt to return to a normal rythm.

They never cared. They are old and blind. Theirs is a set of gilded thrones.

I bit my tongue and gulped. My eyes remained terribly fixated on the window iconography which depicted me. It was beautiful, indeed it was.

They want it all for themselves. They seek only greed and power for the sake of power. They don't want our new Equestria.

A new tear ran down my cheek, though my eyes had largely dried by now.

They don't want peace. Or friendship, or harmony. Their rule has always survived by allowing evil to plague Equestria.

I closed my eyes, then, and allowed my head to sink again.

It isn't us who has wronged Equestria. It is they.

Another tear. And another. My mouth was hanging agape as my breathing quickly increased again.

It isn't us who lied. It isn't us who are murderers. It isn't us who are the monster.

My heart began to pound in my chest. I raised a hoof towards it, caressing my purple fur gently for a moment before raising it further up to wipe away one of my new tears - to no avail, as two more took its place in an instant.

They are the monsters. The liars and murderers of dozens throughout millenia. Their harmony; one great lie from which they rule.

Only then did I realise my tears were not ones of sadness or fear.

They are the evil that has plagued Equestria and the world all this time.

They were tears of vengeance.

I huffed out loud repeatedly, my heartbeat reaching a rate that might have seemed unhealthy at any other time - but not then. I raised myself back onto all fours, and as I gasped with anticipation, I looked down onto the two sisters. The two, dual rulers of Equestria.

The parasites of ponykind.

I felt a comforting warmth as the aquamarine corona around my eyes flared back to life, its magic burning with an intensity like never before which vaporised any old and new tears of mine in an instant.

Celestia extended a wing as Luna looked like she was about to go on the offensive. Had they been talking all this time? Scheming perhaps? Insulting and slandering me, maybe? I didn't know. And I didn't want to know.

I just needed them to die.

My hawkish, black wings unfolded from my body, spreading until their full glory and might could be seen. A heartless black, with a aqua leyline running across. The Princesses seemed to understand immediately, for all it was worth. They weren't just 'wings'... they were magic. Pure, unbridled magic, radiating a faint hum from them just as my neon-blue horn did. Power. Power that was needed to save ponykind, to rescue all creaturekind from barbarism, war... from all evil the world had to offer.

The world was not kind. The world needed convincing to see things our way.

But we are out of time. They will see it another way, just as well.

I took one step forward, wings unfolded fully. I hadn't even realised that a cackle of mine was filling the room like a crowd.

At last I can cut the cancer out at its root.

I paused, staring down at the two alicorns who now seemed to have forfeited 'diplomacy' entirely.

At last I can make the world new. Make it whole. Make it better.

There was no voice talking to me now. The thoughts I had were my own. Perhaps they had been all this time.

"All this time spent... all the effort and sacrifice..." I muttered, my voice almost a whisper.

The hum from my horn grew louder, and the ancients before me realised its aqua blue shining brighter than before.

"But now... now I know! I know I was always looking in the wrong place! Following the wrong thesis altogether!"

Friendship... Harmony... Peace? All of it... a lie, a pretext created to dismantle those same concepts from within.

"I was blinded... by my loyalty to you!" I barked, the echo pinging back and forth as the hum of my horn grew into an outright buzz. "All that I've done, I've done for you!"

I chuckled, but lacked the restraint to stop myself from turning into a depraved, unhinged cackle as I ran a hoof down the side of my face.

I grinned. Oh, how I grinned. Even in the heat of the moment, it reminded me a little of those faked smiles in Starlight's old village.

But what did it matter.

"Now I know... now I know that it was never friendship and harmony that needed to be saved! Now I know that those things - that everything I've been taught has just been a lie from you! That the world at large is a lie, a deception to feed your self-centered egos and depraved despotism!"

I faintly took in how pure blackness mixed with the radiant blue at the tip of my horn. A black sphere - like a black hole almost - had formed, and was growing in size rapidly.

"I never needed to teach ponykind anything, or the creatures of the world," I concluded. Tears escaped my eyes, noticeable from the outside only from the faint vapor that they immediately turned into. The eyes they hailed from were deadset on only one thing now - or, two rather.

"I need to rebuild the world - all of it - from the ground up! I need to start anew, start again and prevent the rot you have wrought!"

My wings fluttered as the sphere originating from atop the sharp tip of my horn grew larger and larger. An eye of mine twitched briefly, and I opened my mouth again.

"I will rebuild... I will rebuild!" I insisted. "I will make everything whole again... I'll turn back time, reset the clocks and I will rebuild!" I argued, again with nopony. "So begone!" I shouted.

Two magical auras lit the scene in front of me. Celestial yellow and lunar blue.

"So begone! Begone, begone, begone!" I shouted in the onslaught of a mad fit.

My eyes widened and my pupils dilated as a great force left my possession. There was no sound as the black sphere - now taller than even the alicorns themselves - flew towards them. There was the glimmer from their horns, and the quick, sudden flicker of spells being cast. All of this, in the span of two seconds. Maybe three.

And amidst that scene was one, deafening shout that dominated it all.

"BEGONE AND DIE!!!"