Years Thereafter

"I'd say bleeding heart as always, but we both know that's a lie." a voice says as its owner walks around the corner. Wallflower stands to the side, leaning on the rock Spike dropped from earlier. "I did expect you and Starlight to fight it out, though. Tsk tsk~, ruining my plans already? What happened to the impulsive and legendary Queen I was taught about?"

"You read my book already, Wallflower. Don't act coy and sit down. You aren't going to goad me into fighting you or your family." Twilight says as she clears a spot in the snow, watching her friends from afar. Already, the town has splashes of color, with painter ponies throwing paint everywhere and giving it life. Albeit chaotic life, but life nonetheless.

"Pfth. You're no fun." The green pony says as she sits down. "Eugh. Look at them, reveling in pure and utter chaos. There's no rhyme, reason, or effort. Paint is going everywhere, ponies are getting filthy, yet they're celebrating it." Wallflower shakes her head.

"Because it's fun," Twilight says to Wallflower, sighing a little as she finally relaxes a small amount, her cosmetic glamour falling off her body. She isn't relaxed enough to drop her guard; after all, she is sitting with a self-proclaimed enemy. But enemies have become friends before. "Order is just as necessary as chaos and bla bla." Twilight leans forward. "Not that you care. You're just doing what your predecessor did centuries ago. You aren't an immortal spirit; you're a young pony... comparatively, anyway. Don't throw your life away like this Wallflower. With your blessings and whatever else you're hiding, you could do much good for Equestria."

Wallflower sighs in exasperation. She really hates hearing these lectures. "I am doing good for Equestria, even if you don't see it that way." With that, she sits back, snow crunching beneath her haunches as she adjusts herself to get comfortable. "You made the equality spell yourself, so you know how it is. To be so close to a perfect utopia of order and peace that you can taste it on your tongue."

Twilight shakes her head. "Utopias don't exist for a reason. That was a big mistake that I still think about. Granted, I guess it wasn't very long ago for me. In the end, though, even she learned that lesson."

That elicited a response almost instantly. Twilight caught Wallflower's hoof with her own, only an inch away from her cheek. "You're still too young for this Wallflower. Points for keeping your temper in check that long, though. Now sit down or leave."

Wallflower pulls her hoof back, her gaze piercing into Twilight's head. If she could shoot lasers from her eyes, she would be doing so! "You don't get to speak for her," Wallflower says with a venomous, slithering tone. "No one does except for me! I am her successor! Me!" With that, she turns away. "Enjoy your win, for now, Twilight. I hope you like the gift I left you! It's eye-opening."

Twilight tilts her head in confusion, watching Wallflower walk towards a corner. "Gift? You didn't leave me a gift." Standing up, Twilight watches Wallflower carefully. Even though she's worried about this 'gift' that Wallflower left her, she has something more important to watch.

She needs to figure out how Wallflower's bloodline magic works. Until she can figure out how to see past the perception blocking and strange, almost Pinkie Pie ability to teleport when out of sight, she knows she can't simply just arrest the pony.

Wallflower smiles a little. "My bloodline magic isn't weak like Spectator's, Your Majesty. I can make it affect others I'm close to." She then smirks. "And even invert it to make it hard for someone to tell that a certain group is right behind them~. Ciao~" She says as she turns the corner and vanishes from sight. Relishing in the sight of Twilight's confusion, then surprise as her friends stand behind her. Both were gawking and wide-eyed at her appearance.

'Oh, it's so good to be bad.' Wallflower thinks to herself as she seemingly vanishes from the area.

"Buck!" Twilight says as she quickly glares towards where Wallflower trotted off to, attempting to swoop around the corner and catch the pony. She refuses to let this slide! But of course, as she does so, there is nothing there but snow and a stone path leading around the mountain. She can still see Starlight in the distance, but Wallflower is nowhere to be seen. Twilight lands on the craggy path, glaring in the distance before huffing angrily.

"Twilight?" A soft-spoken voice says from behind her, snapping her out of her rage.

Twilight closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Hey, everypony." She smiles as she turns to look towards them, her voice cracking mid-way through her sentence.

As soon as she turns to face them, the group staggers backward in recoil. "Twilight! You're uh... tall. Like really tall." Rarity tries to say, although her eyes are constantly moving, focusing on all the scars, from the one on Twilight's cheek to the one on her side to the most exposed one over her eye.

Rainbow Dash is less discreet, flying around her towering friend. "Woah. Twilight, you're in shape! Not just in shape, but like, you're on the level of the captain!" Rainbow rubs her head as she floats nearby. "No wonder your wings looked so much... more! What the heck were you doing that you need to have muscles like that?!"

Twilight sighs as she rubs her forehead a little bit. "Hey, it's not like I'm a bodybuilder. I'm toned, thank you very much! Don't go comparing me to Bulk or his family." She giggles a little. She figured Rainbow would focus on something other than her scars, which she greatly appreciates.

"Darling, I don't mean to be crass, but-"

"What in the sweet apples happened to you?!" Applejack says, overtaking Rarity for a moment. "Ah mean, tallness aside, those ain't just cooking injuries."

Spike chimes in, although he's fully used to Twilight's undisguised form. "I mean, it is Twilight. It could be cooking injuries." There is a moment of murmuring between the group. Twilight is deadpanning as she stares at her assistant. Who is absolutely not going to get any snacks tonight for that comment.

"Maybe we should let Twilight talk?" Fluttershy whispers out. Unable to be heard above the general murmuring and deliberation before she clears her throat. Taking a deep breath before shouting. "MAYBE WE SHOULD LET TWILIGHT TALK!... Please?" Every pony's ears perked up, the rest of the girls looking frazzled. Even Twilight was caught off guard by Fluttershy's sudden outburst.

"That is a good idea! Why just be confused when we can have some snacks and talk about it!" Pinkie says as she suddenly produces a picnic basket and coats from her mane. "I even prepared my super deluxe emergency 'on top of a cold, snowy mountain' picnic basket!"

Pinkie leaned in suddenly, whispering into Twilight's ear, "I packed extra sandwiches just in case!"

Twilight stands there, confused for a moment. Twilight's brain still hasn't fully adjusted to a fully realized Pie family member, and by the time her thoughts are sorted out, the others already laid out the blanket, and the group is simply waiting for her to sit. "Before we start, though, where is Sunset?"

"Over here," Sunset says, having teleported to the other side of the bridge. The others said they would look for you but never returned. Guess the beans are spilled, eh?" Sunset then sits on the blanket, and the group settles in before they all look at Twilight.

"So uh, there's no easy or nice way to say this, but uh-" Applejack begins before Rainbow takes over.

"What happened to you?! Why are you super tall? And uh, can I get your training regimen?" Rainbow says, stumbling over her words as she speaks rapidly, almost choking on her sandwich. However, after a moment (and a few glares from the others), Rainbow caves and mumbles. "Oh, and also yeah. Scars. Explain."

Twilight giggles lightly at Rainbow's genuine concern about asking about the scars. "Don't worry, I get it. I uh. Honestly, I didn't want you all to see me like this, but since it's out, I'm sorta resigned to the fact that it happened."

With a deep breath, Twilight sits back. "I would prefer not to talk about everything, but as for the scars." Twilight raises a hooft, pointing at each of the scars: "Assassination attempt, assassination attempt, and, who guessed it, assassination attempt. You'd be surprised what a pony with a knife can do when you're exhausted and too tired to fight back. Although one was a griffon. I think. They all sorta started to blur together after the tenth one." Twilight scratches her mane as she thinks back. Considering how many creatures, in general, wanted her dead over her time in the past, it was hard to remember which ones damaged her enough to leave a scar rather than just a gash.

Twilight then continues. "By the time the griffon war happened, I was already a bit too strong to take any real damage from anyone, so most of these I got when I was around, eh? Let's say like a thousand years old or so. Alicorn years make the math impossible."

By the time Twilight finishes mumbling and reminiscing, the rest of the group cannot hold back their exclamations. Words such as "Wha?!" and "Why?!" are thrown left and right as each pony and dragon speak over each other. Even Sunset and Pinkie, who know more than the others, are involved in the chaotic flood of words targeted at her.

"Girls, I can't-" Twilight gets cut off by more of their speaking and clamoring, a familiar feeling creeping into her mind, which she quickly suppresses.

"Spike can yo-" Yet again, she's cut off, the feeling returns, nagging at her, her eyes sharpening reflexively.

"Sunset, you already kn-" again, they cut her off. Twilight knows that they're not doing it on purpose; after all, they just found out their friend, by all intents and purposes, survived through at least three attempts on her life. However, along with all the mental issues that Twilight brought back with her from the past, there was one that she never was quite able to snuff out.

She has a short temper when someone is rude, even incidentally. This problem was never really an issue, primarily due to her rank, but now she's in a situation she was mentally unprepared for. Twilight does try to hold herself back, pushing the irritation down.

She's failing, though. Even with Fluttershy trying to help her get a word out, her breathing sharpens, and her thoughts become more cluttered with every passing word. The chaotic cacophony of voices begins to both feel and sound like daggers piercing into her skull.

Twilight snaps moments afterwards "EVERYPONY STOP TALKING OVER EACH OTHER!" Twilight yells out, using the voice of the Queen on her friends.

The voice of the Queen is the variant of the Royal Canterlot voice that Twilight and only Twilight could use. She would commonly use it on unruly groups, mostly to get them to quiet down or take a step back so she could answer their questions or adequately interact with them. Ponies of her time as Queen were resilient enough that the voice would often break their panic or mob mentality. The effects are instant, and the group quiets down as the ancient alicorn technique exposes much of Twilight's magical pressure upon her unprepared friends.

However, Twilight's sudden shift in presence and apparent displeasure terrify the group of modern ponies to their core. Rather than shaking their minds free from their panic, the special magical voice makes Twilight the source of it. Even the bravest of the group, a tie between Sunset, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, nearly fall over from the instinctual fear they feel as their frantic, worried minds snap from 'worried about their friend' to 'worried about the upset monster in the metaphorical room.'

To them, there was simply one fact in their hearts. If they didn't quiet down, then they would get hurt. That's all they could think of, no matter how illogical. Even their years and deep relationship with Twilight were nothing compared to the force and pressure they felt upon themselves. It was as if Twilight's voice and presence suddenly shifted from her usual self to a persona demanding respect and fear.

There was instant regret on Twilight's face the moment the words left her mouth. "I uh. Are you?" As Twilight reaches toward the toppled-over ponies, Fluttershy and Rarity recoil away from her hoof. Twilight's ears flattened down a little.

"I didn't. I." Twilight's mind races, trying to find the right words to say. But the terrified looks on her friend's faces were all directed toward her.

It was soul-crushing. This reaction was why Twilight didn't want this to happen and kept everything a secret. With nothing left in her arsenal of excuses or a way to diffuse the situation, Twilight just quietly mumbles as she says, "I'll... I'll just go. Enjoy the picnic."

Before her friends could recover, Twilight left the group on the mountainside. She doesn't go very far, but she gets out of sight at the very least. It's easier to recover from terror when the object of it isn't in view after all. Twilight heads slightly down the mountain with a little trot, using her magic to make a nice patch of snow for her to sit in. Alone.

"At least I have a sandwich." She mumbles as she takes a bite out of the snack, the alicorn taking solace in that her friends are both the most forgiving and hopefully hardier than most.

"I mean, there's no way Spike will stay terrified of me, right? And Rainbow? Psh, she eats danger for breakfast! There's no way she'll stay that scared!" Twilight says to herself.

"Nah, they'll be fine; you just exposed them to an ancient technique made to suppress groups AND your immense magical power! Also, I think Fluttershy passed away from that. You're totalllllllyyyy mentally stable enough to be here!" Says a voice only Twilight can hear.

"If you're not going to be helpful, then Shut up. I don't need another voice stuck in my head telling me how much of a failure I am." Twilight grumbles out as she takes another bite out of her sandwich. The food tastes like sandpaper, not because of the quality but because of Twilight's racing mind.

"I'm not your silly scapegoat personality, Twilight. You have problems, a lot of them. Enough that you're projecting another you so that you don't have to face your issues. Which fair, you've got literal ghosts of your past up here, and frankly, if you have another panic attack, we're absolutely going to go off the mental deep end." The other Twilight says the shade 'sitting' next to Twilight, with no noise or physical imprint.

"Considering I'm having a stress hallucination right now, I figured as much. Tell me something I don't already know." Twilight says to herself. "Just go away. I don't wanna hear it."

With that, the shade sighs and shakes its head, vanishing into nothingness. With one last munch, Twilight finishes her sandwich.

Hours later, the group boards the train back to Ponyville, Sunset, and the girls wave to their new friends. Twilight can't help but smile at the six's interaction with the ponies of the strange town, watching from the window of the back train car. Having ditched the disguise, which no longer has a purpose, Twilight just quietly watches her friends, student, and assistant board the train. It's a lonely ride back, with only one visit from Spike near the end. But even then, such a small thing made her smile.

"You think they hate me, Spike?" Twilight quietly asks as she sits next to her assistant.

Spike scoffs a bit, having found his nerve relatively fast for somecreature his age. "Course, not Twilight. Just give them some time. I know it's been a while for you, but your friendship with them is stronger than a single slip-up. Besides, it's not like you all haven't felt true terror before, considering Tierk, Discord, and Nightmare Moon. They need time to find the bravery to talk with you again. You were pretty scary."

Twilight sighs a little bit as she leans on a hoof. "I need therapy." She mumbles out to herself.

"I'll make some time on your schedule," Spike says with an almost official-sounding tone as he pulls a parchment from nothingness and begins to write on it in big, bold letters, 'Therapy, say sorry to friends, and pancake breakfast.'

Twilight giggles lightly, sighing as she looks out the window. "Things... will be fine. Right?" She says to her reflection as the train passes the familiar mountains again. "Right, Moondancer?"

Spike tilts his head as he hears Twilight's mumbling, not taking his eyes away from a fresh paper that he is populating with a proper schedule for Twilight. "That's right. It is almost Moondancer's birthday again. I should get her a card." He mumbles to himself. "Thanks for reminding me."

Twilight, for all her wisdom, stares at Spike with confusion, utterly flabbergasted by the implications of his response. "Wat?"