"And I will do everything in my power to bring that world back!" Those were the last words Princess Twilight remembered hearing herself say before she tried to teleport away from Nightmare Moon and her guards and use Starswirl's time spell. She was so sure that her plan had worked. She should have been in Cloudsdale, back when Rainbow Dash was about to perform her first sonic rainboom.
But the dark and worn out stone around her all but confirmed that she hadn't made it out of this world quite yet. Her head hurt and there was a tightness around her horn and back leg. Trying to shake the stars out of her vision, the young alicorn opened up her eyes fully, only to be met with more darkness. There was no window in the cell that she was in, but even if there was, she doubted much light would peek through, since no sun was there to light up the world below it.
Trying to stand up was useless as well, the chain on her leg restricting her as to only allow a little movement to either end of the small room. Her magic was being cut off by the inhibitor on her horn as well. She had to think. How was she supposed to get out of this? No way would Nightmare Moon trust her again after she had tried to escape and deceive her once before. Even when she had been threatening Spike, she had dared to—
Wait. Where was Spike? Snapping out of her dizziness, Twilight frantically looked around the cell again. There was a shabby looking, makeshift bed on one wall, and bars in the front. And other than Twilight herself being chained to the back wall, there were no other signs of life within the walls. Even the corridors beyond the door were devoid of anything other than the occasional sound of dripping water.
She wanted to call out to him, to see if he was near. But something in her was saying that it was not a good idea to do so. She already knew that no pony here had any problems being a little rough with her. That, and her throat was incredibly dry. How long had she been out for? Even if she could see it, without the moon changing its position in the sky, she had no way of telling.
A faint clicking of metal caught the princess' attention. It was subtle, far away from where she was, but it was definitely there. A guard, most likely. And it sounded like it was coming in her direction.
The lighting of the sconces on the walls with their blue flame hurt her eyes as the guard approached, their own blue fur almost blending into the surrounding color.
"Good, you're awake." Her voice was raspy, yet familiar. "These are regards from Her Majesty." A small metal box was unceremoniously thrown into her cell, clattering loudly against the stone. "Much as she was displeased by your actions, she doesn't want you dead. Eat up. Appointment is in one hour." And with that, she had started to walk off, sparing her no additional glance. It was quick and to the point. Most likely to confuse her more of the time and get her to break down easier.
"Wait!" Twilight felt herself call out to the guard mare despite her best interests. It wasn't... was it?
The guard made no indication that she had heard her call out, making her way back down the hallway she had entered from.
"Rainbow Dash!" That's what did it. The guard stopped in her tracks, and was almost fighting herself to stop from turning to face the alicorn.
"I told you that you'd end up in the dungeon if you didn't tell the Empress what she wanted to know. How you know my name, I won't ask, Time Traveler. Whatever you're playing at, I'm not going to help you out of this." The pegasus continued her walk.
First it was Applejack in the war against Sombra, then Pinkie and Fluttershy in the resistance against Chrysalis, and now Rarity and Rainbow Dash serving Nightmare Moon. Twilight couldn't stand seeing her friend being taken away from her like this. If only she hadn't used up so much of her magic fighting Starlight, she would have been able to take care of those Timberwolves on her own and avoided this whole mess.
But when she tried to call back to Rainbow to get her to talk, despite how unlikely that was, her voice did not carry outside of the four walls that she was confined in. Why not? Upon further inspection, she could see a very thin sheen of magic over the bars that served as the fourth wall of her cell. A sound barrier. Great. Even if she wanted to, calling out was useless, as only she could hear her own voice. It was almost creepy. This could drive somepony crazy after a while.
But could she find a way to talk to someone without talking? She only knew a little bit of sign language, not enough to do much more than spell her own name, so that wouldn't do her any good. That was, if the other even knew how to understand sign and communicate back. That was also if there was anypony else around... She couldn't be completely alone, right?
Shuffling her way across the small room, she strained as far forward as she could get, extending her back leg as far back as she could to look out of the bars. Aha! There were some more cells on either side of her own, and even some across the hall, though too dark to see if there was anyone inside. Even if she called out, it was unlikely that they could hear her, as she was unable to hear any of them.
"Psst."
It was so quiet that the princess almost couldn't hear it, but her head whipped around regardless. It was the only other sound other than her own breathing and thoughts, so it was not hard to miss.
"Psst! Hey! Over here!" The voice said more clearly this time, a small pebble shooting out of the wall that was near the makeshift bed.
"Um... hello?" She was cautious with it, slowly walking over in the direction it came from. It felt good to not have that chain pulling on her leg anymore. Inspecting the wall closer, there was a hole large enough in the stone she could almost fit her hoof through it, leading all the way into the cell next to hers. She didn't want to get too close to it, suspicious that this could be a trick.
A triumphant 'yes!' could be heard from the other side. Perhaps the pony was thinking the same thing about the mute spell on the bars.
"I've been trying to get your attention for a while, y'know. They brought you in a while ago, making a whole fuss about it. What'd you do to make them so mad, huh?" The voice was almost playful, amused at the situation that she was in. Despite how much she wanted to talk to somepony else, Twilight hadn't even considered that some of the ponies in here might actually be criminals... then again, with Nightmare Moon ruling, anypony could have been thrown in here for any reason.
"I sorta tried to trick Nightmare Moon so I could escape. She wanted something of mine." It wasn't entirely a lie, but she wasn't about to go around telling strangers 'yeah, I'm from another timeline, and Nightmare Moon wanted the power to change the timeline so she could rule forever, and I tried to trick her and get back to my world but she ended up overpowering me and taking away everything that I had.' Best not to trauma dump on random ponies.
"Really? Thought you would've done something much worse, considering how you looked. Good thing they were nice enough to patch you up."
Twilight opened her mouth to question the other before she felt a sharp pain in her wing. She had probably been too focused on what was going on around her to focus on what she looked like, adrenaline too high to feel the pain. But a pain was very much there, a sharp sting and humid feeling. That must have been how she had been captured. In asserting her anger against Nightmare Moon, she had raised her wings after teleporting to the map. Way to make yourself a bigger target. "What about you? What did you do?"
"Other than my name? Broke the most sacred law Her Majesty laid in place for us." An annoyed huff came along with the sound of them falling to the floor. "Can't talk about the sun. Can't do a lot of things. Most are used to it, though. It's better to keep quiet than fight against it. She's too strong to fight physically, anyway. I've tried." The voice paused as if contemplating if they should tell Twilight what they were thinking. "I was a student of Princess Celestia's before Nightmare Moon returned. No one even knew of the prophecy, and we were all unprepared... I tried to fight back, protect my teacher. But, well, here we are. Name's Sunset."
"Twilight." She mumbled out her name. That was Sunset? She sounded so... different. But if she had been here since Nightmare's return, the years must be weighing down on her. But the story was different from her own world. Sunset had betrayed Celestia and gone into the mirror world years before Twilight entered into the school of magic as the Princess' student. But here... Nightmare moon came too early. Unless the prophecy was different here, she had broken out of her prison before her thousand year sentence was complete. Sunset must have still been a dedicated student at that point. But that meant that Nightmare Moon had been ruling for much longer than she had thought. In her world, she and her friends had found the elements only a few years prior. But if what Sunset had said was correct, Nightmare Moon had been ruling for at least the past decade.
A whole ten years without seeing the sun. It seemed almost impossible to think about. How had the lands not died without the light of the sun to feed them? Nightmare had claimed that she banished Celestia to the moon upon her return, similar enough to her own world. But then again, moonlight was just reflected sunlight... perhaps Nightmare had found a way to focus that light in such a way that the plant life wouldn't die. If she wasn't currently in her dungeons, and probably on a list, she would have to ask her about it. Maybe she could ask Luna when she made it back to her own timeline.
Luna. If the circumstances were what she was familiar with, then that meant that Luna was somewhere within Nightmare Moon's mind. Somewhere deep down. Had Luna been conscious during her banishment and possession? Did she know what was going on right now? This wasn't right. Luna had suffered enough those past thousand years in exile, and she had felt awful about what had happened after her reformation, even going as far to punish herself during her own dreams. She couldn't just let this world's Luna suffer even more than she currently was.
But that would mean gathering up her friends, and finding the Elements of Harmony. Nightmare herself said they had never been found. In her world, Twilight had found the elements in their stone forms in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. That castle here was inhabited by Nightmare Moon. She hadn't hidden them herself, and, assuming she had Luna's knowledge, no way she would have hidden them in the Tree of Harmony. Then again, that was probably the best place to look for them since, while the Everfree forest was much larger, it was not overgrown and out of control from those seeds that Discord had planted.
That was also if she could convince her friends to go up against her, anyway. So far, Twilight had only come across Rarity and Rainbow Dash, neither of which seemed to be willing to stand up against their leader. That left Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy. She had seen them in the other timelines, yes, but not in this one. She'd been too busy laying in a dungeon. Where would they be? Sweet Apple Acres would most likely be most overgrown by the Everfree, but she was likely still doing something in her area of farming. But Pinkie and Fluttershy? Their skills did not suit this new world too well, and were probably in a similar situation when living in fear of the Changelings. A resistance against the evil of the world.
Was there a resistance against Nightmare Moon in this world? Unlikely, but still possible. Once she got out of here, she would have to do a lot of research.
With a sigh, the princess slumped against the cold stone floor of her cell, eyeing the box that Rainbow had dropped off to her. She didn't necessarily want to eat food given to her by someone who very clearly hated her, but she didn't have much of a choice. She was starving, after all. Without her horn, it was a bit of a struggle. Hooves and teeth were not dexterous enough to help her in the task without managing to spill some of it on the floor around herself. But she supposed the situation could have been worse.
She would wait for that appointment with Nightmare Moon and look for another way to get out of this mess. She only hoped that whatever forces in her head that were still good granted her mercy.
The next hour that Princess Twilight had spent in that dark cell was the longest hour of her life. She had been through longer and more grueling experiences in her life than sitting in the dark; studying for a particularly important test for Celestia, for example, but none of them had ever been like this. The darkness, after even a few minutes, was all-consuming. But her eyes had adjusted well to seeing what was in her cell moderately enough to know generally what was where.
She had exchanged more of a conversation with Sunset, but she had fallen asleep not long after their initial meeting. If she had spent the past few years in these dungeons, it was likely that was how she spent most of her time. The food they were given wouldn't provide too much energy than just that of keeping them alive.
Unfortunately, that meant the alicorn was not able to gain any more insight into the world that she was in. With her friends under the leadership of Nightmare Moon, Spike in her clutches, and Celestia on the moon, it was likely that she was to deal with what was to come on her own.
The next pony that she talked to was another guard, one that she did not recognize. Even if she could, the helmet they wore covered most of their face, and their armor covered their cutie mark. The only distinguishing factor about them was their coat color, but even that was drowned out by the lack of light. They had hardly even spoken, only grunting when opening her cell and motioning for her to follow their lead down the hall. She couldn't even tell if they were male or female. But the lack of distinction was likely intentional. She was from another timeline, she knew things that she shouldn't in this world.
Coming out of the dungeons, the halls around them slowly got brighter, lit up by the enchanted blue fire on the walls. For once, she was glad not to be met with the light of the sun upon going outside. Twilight was sure she would have gone blind.
Glancing up at the picture of her former teacher on the moon, the lavender mare made a silent promise to her. Meddling in the affairs of another timeline was never the best thing to do, but she had no choice. It was likely that she would not be able to return to her own time until this was fixed. Nightmare Moon was stronger than she was, and no way would she let her guard down again after what she had pulled.
Then again, that all depended on what exactly this meeting would consist of. Would she strip her of her magic? Keep her in the dungeons indefinitely, like Sunset? Or would she try to get her to use the spell and take over her world as well? Who knew, at this point. Twilight was only hoping that she could keep her head.
The first time she had fought Nightmare, she had been terrified, inexperienced in the ways of battle, and tried to face her off alone. But she hadn't been, not in the end.
The princess was brought into a dark chamber, the insignia of the Empress proudly displayed throughout various depictions on the walls. She mentally scolded herself for not noticing them when she and Spike had first walked into the castle after running from those Timberwolves. The guard never left her, standing stiffly three paces behind her. She noticed similarities at all of the entrances into the room as well.
"Tell me, young one, how you feel after putting yourself in such a losing situation?" The low voice of Nightmare Moon cut her out of her thoughts, sending a shiver down her spine. She'd never seen her upset like this. But she was right; it was her own fault that she got captured in the first place. "It would have been so much easier if only you had given me what I asked. Though luckily, your little dragon friend proved more useful than yourself." The smirk was evident in her voice.
It was almost annoying, how easily she was getting under her skin. As much as the princess wanted to yell at her, to fight, she firmly planted her hooves into the ground, raising her chest, eyes focused on the slitted pupils of the Empress in front of her. "What did you do to him?"
All that she got in return was a toothy chuckle. "You'll know in time, I assure you. Now..." From her position on her throne, Nightmare Moon stood up, stepping out of the shadows and into the main lighting. "As I've asked, tell me more about this alternate world of yours. From my understanding, it's quite different from the paradise I've created here."
Twilight did her best to keep in what she wanted to say. This wasn't paradise. She was a dictator. If not for the magic inhibitor ring still around her horn, she would have been miles away by now. Or perhaps away from the empress and with Spike. Oh, how she hoped that he wasn't hurt.
"I already told you. In my world, you were defeated, and the land has been in Harmony ever since."
"Oh please, with my sister in charge?" She nearly spat out the word. "I highly doubt that. I've seen what she did ruling on her own those past thousand years after she banished me. Her superiority complex only proved to spill out of her head."
The princess was now keeping herself from physically fighting the words coming out of Nightmare's mouth. How dare she talk about Princess Celestia like that? Even if she was her sister, technically... She was nothing like that! She was good and kind. She had seen the living conditions of those who disagreed with what the Empress was preaching. Celestia was never that cruel.
Perhaps her seething was more obvious than she had meant for it to come off as, as the glint of amusement in the other alicorn's eyes only seemed to be gaining luminosity as the seconds ticked by.
"Hit a soft spot, did I? Tell me, time traveler, what is your name? What is your relation to the Fallen Sun?"
"...My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle. Cel— she was my mentor."
The words seemed to flow out of her mouth without even thinking, well against her better judgment. Why would she willingly tell her that? No, looking up at the Empress, the spell cooling down on her horn was obvious. Luna had a strong affinity for mental magic. (And water, she noted. That might be useful later; knowing her magic to get out of a situation.) Of course Nightmare would use that to her advantage to get her to speak.
"Princess? I had been wondering about those wings. Alicorns seem to be more common where you come from." Another glowering expression was aimed at the lavender princess. "How many others are there? What domains do they control?"
"There are four in total. One for the day, one for the night, one for love, and one for friendship." The words came from her own will this time. This was an easy question, something that did not seem like it would come back to bite her, so she answered. Who knows what she'd be threatened with if she simply refused.
And luckily for Twilight, the dark alicorn in front of her seemed to accept the answer. But why would she ask so much of her world? To simply know what her world was like, to get a better reading of her and how she would react? That seemed likely.
"And this time spell, where did it come from? You said a pony from your time used it to change the past. Did they create it?"
Nightmare had already been clear for what she wanted to use the spell for. That was one of the main reasons she had run from her in the first place. No way would she willingly give that information to her. But that spell of hers... she would have to come up with a convincing lie. Or only give half the truth.
"It was a modified spell of Starswirl the Bearded. I don't know how it was modified, but the pony who did it linked it to herself." It wasn't completely a lie. Starswirl had many time spells, though. She had even used one herself to send her back a week to warn herself of a nonexistent disaster. Starlight had modified one similar to send herself back to a specific place and time.
But wait— if Nightmare Moon had Spike, then she was already in possession of the spell she used to get here. Uh oh.
Twilight's ears folded back against her head, cringing from her own words. She had only heard of the spells that had been created under the influence of Nightmare Moon, but knew that she was capable enough to figure this out on her own if she studied it for long enough.
"You're proving more useful than earlier. You've learned your lesson, I suppose? Has sitting alone in the darkness cleared your mind of those thoughts of facing against me?" The Nightmare's voice was taunting, that cutting edge only proving to cut into her skin and the thick, tensioned air around them.
The eyes from the guards had also been piercing through her ever since she entered, though they were muted compared to their leader. The other timelines hadn't been this difficult to escape, had they? Then again, she hadn't been caught and detained in the other worlds, only thrown in the middle of a destroyed land. But she wouldn't stop standing up for herself now. She had faced Nightmare Moon before. Even without the Elements, she could do something. The spirits of the Elements were close by, anyway.
If she could somehow find a way to change their minds... That wouldn't be easy. This was their whole livelihood that she would be threatening to alter. But there was little else she could do to make her way back home.
Sure, she could have made her way out on her own, albeit with major difficulty, but she couldn't leave Spike here. Who knew what would happen to him if she left him here?
"I will never stop fighting against you. This is not the world that I love." The princess stood firmly despite the look of the Empress' face darkening. "I will do everything in my power to go back there. But if you let me leave now with my companion, then I will stop fighting you. You can continue your rule and you can forget any of this ever happened."
What was she even saying? She hadn't even planned any of this out fully. Why did her brain think that would even work?
"A curious offer." The dark alicorn shifted in her seat, as if considering what she had just pulled out of nowhere. "I'll consider it," Wait, what? "on some conditions." Of course.
"And what would those conditions be?" She tried to sound more sure of herself than she was. In truth, the princess was shaking almost enough to fall flat on her face. Was it fear? Adrenaline? Either way, maintaining contact with those slitted eyes was the only thing that kept her from falling over.
"Who was the one that modified this spell of Starswirl's? I'm sure you know who she is." She cast short glances at all those who occupied the room. "This world may not be the same as yours, but you know much of it. Anything will work. A name. A location."
This was going too well. It shouldn't be this easy, with how angry she had been. Telling her of Starlight would be easy enough. But Twilight knew there was more to her agreement than just giving her a hint to go off of. Who knew if the Starlight in this world had also studied magic like she had back in her own?
The Empress, however, did not wait for Twilight's internal struggle to resolve itself before lighting up her horn. She expected to feel herself speak against her will again, but was instead temporarily blinded by a flash of light in front of her.
An exact copy of the map that brought her to this timeline was not what she was expecting to stand before her.
"I hope this will jog your memory quicker?"
