People say that our subconciousness can create heroes. These heroes represent our hopes, our dreams for the future and our courage to accomplish them. The lack of determination and laziness are factors that draw back this phenomenon into our deep psyché. But is that always true? Let's find out.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Ponyville. The sun was ablaze in a clear cloudless sky thanks to the Pegasi Patrol's job and Celestia's blessing. All of Ponyville seemed to be quiet; all of it except the basement of a certain basement under the tree-shaped library Golden Oak where the Element of Magic/Librarian Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike reside. Twilight was there, reading a new book in her laboratory. She spent all night trying to figure out the spell she discovered. The book was entiteled "Interdimentional Travels" and its writer prefered to stay secret. Bags were formed under Twilight's eyes as many concoctions were spent trying to solve this riddle of a spell. Nopony, not even Spike who was at Rarity's, tried to help her. But as stubborn as she is and as the thirsty bookworm she was, she wasn't ready to give up.
"Ok! Time to redo this again," she said, shaking her head as she took a sip of her breavage that Zecora made for her to stay awake. "I must have overlooked a step or something. Let me check..." she verified the book again and again until "Aha! There!" There it was indeed: She missed a part written in very thin letters so she brought her magnifying glasses to check it out. She read aloud.
"Once you have completed the magical circle and written every character correctly, chant the following incantation: Hear my plea, O Lords of these blessed lands! My thirst for knowledge cannot be quenched with these petty hands! Please grant me the power to overcome my desires, the swiftness to walk all paths, and the wisdom of ages past. Without these three I am neither a hero serving you, nor a creature around your embrace. Grant my wish and may your protection be enough for me to survive this ordeal," she finished the incantation "Hands? What are hands? Who wrote this book?" she started to question herself but something was happening: The circle she prepared behind her was glowing intensely as she was preoccupied about the origins of the book. The circle was at full intensety as it made a hint of a noise that Twilight barely heard. She turned around, eyes widened, realising what she has done. Suddenly, a beam of light surged out from the circle, knocking back Twilight into the nearest wall. Twilight was half-blinded by the light the beam was producing. The beam could be seen from outside as Rainbow Dash, who was napping on a cloud, awoke from the light's intensity.
The beam of light started to fade away. Twilight recovered her sight and went towards it but it was too late; the beam of light totally disappeared, incinerating the circle and the book in the process. Twilight was weeping at the loss of her book since she didn't memorize the steps of making the circle again, thus losing all chances of practicing interdimensional travels. She hunched her head as she went towards the stairs. Suddenly, she heard a loud groan.
"Uggghhhh..." a voice came from the circle. Twilight didn't lose hope as she went towards the small statured silouhette that came out of the circle. Her eyes widened at the sight: It was Spike but he looked a little different; he had a red and gold helmet on his head, a red cape on his back, a red shield with a symbol of a dragon in one hand and a scorching red sword in the other. Twilight sighed discovering it was only her assistant and giggled at the outfit:
"Oh Spike! This isn't Nightmare Night! You shouldn't be in disguise right now. Please stop fooling around and help me clean this mess." she ordered.
'Spike' wasn't sure if he heard that right or not. So he rose with his sword's help then pointed it at Twilight.
"You dare order the Dragon Knight around, little pony?" 'Spike' said with a gruff voice. "Don't you fear for your life?" then he noticed that the little pony was familiar to him but one thing was different: Her cutie mark.
"You!" he menaced "What have you done to Twilight? And how do you know my name?"
If Spike was acting, he sure was a good actor. Twilight was glaring at 'Spike' who glared back at her, still pointing his sword at her. She put a hoof on the blade's edge moving it back from her.
"What is wrong with you today, Spike? Did you have a bad dream or something?" she asked him but then heard the sound of dripping.
"You shouldn't have touched my sword, illusion of my nightmares." as soon as he said that, she noticed that her hoof is bleeding. She thought the sword was fake but it was the real deal. Twilight backed away from 'Spike', fearing for her life.
"S-stay back! I warn you! I know how to defend myself, you impostor!" Twilight menaced only to receive a roar in response.
"I should say the same thing to you, heathen! You shall tell me where Twilight the Grand Magus is because she wouldn't fall to the likes of you. If you don't tell me, you shall feel the wrath of Slyrak."
"But I am Twilight, the Element of Magic, at least I know myself-" she was interrupted by a raging little dragon who burst into flames. As soon as he did that, the whole library was torn into half as the Dragon Knight turned into a massive purple dragon with gigantic red scales and eyes (The scales and eyes will determine what type of dragon Spike will transform into). Twilight was on the ground from the shock as her eyes turned into saucers.
"This is not Spike! This is a monster! Put yourself together Twilight!" she thought.
"What's the matter, fake one? Afraid from my true form! Come on! I'll give you the first shot! Try your best against me and let's see if you can do what a Grand Magus is capable of." the gigantic dragon boomed, awakening the whole city, who as soon as they saw him, ran into fear and panic.
"Hey! Ugly mug!" A voice called the dragon: It was Rainbow Dash. "Try this for your size!" she challenged him with her best charge. She was fast but the dragon anticipated the move by roaring at her, paralysing her on the spot, then he set her mane on fire which made her wake up from being stunned and rushed back to the nearest puddle of water to extinguish herself.
"Rainbow! No!" Twilight exclaimed.
"What's the matter? Trying to get help from your friends? Are you as coward as to not face me alone? My colleague Twilight never backed out from a duel." The dragon blamed Twilight who was still under the shock of how easily he brushed off Rainbow like a ragdoll. She concentrated her magic on her horn, maximizing its potency then firing it at the dragon's face. The blast occured and Twilight smirked victory but her smirk faded off as the dragon was scratching his cheek and yawning from boredom.
"Was that all you could do? You are really an impostor? You have shunned the name of my good friend! Prepare to die!"" he roared as a gigantic fireball was formed in his mouth and was thrown at Twilight's direction. It impacted with the purple unicorn leaving a smoke trail. The dragon laughed at the poor unicorn but then noticed a familiar spell: It was a pinkish shield circling around her. She was covering her head with her hooves, fearing the worst but she found out that she was spared from harm. But who did that? It was a silouhette of a pony coming out of the smoke trail. The pony was a purple unicorn just like her but had a green magician hat, a long neckband with golden paldurons, a black and green dress covering all long her body and a long black and green staff that she was holding in the air with magic. Twilight was struck in awe as the pony was approaching her.
"Do not worry, little one." she said with a mystical voice "I'll handle my friend. He's confused of what happened when we were dueling. He's still... heating for action." and with a smirk on her face she looked at her dragon friend. "Don't you think you've done enough, Spike? You don't understand what's going on and you acted rashly! Now please, return to your knight form and let bygones be bygones so that I can explain to these ponies what happened." she ordered in a commanding tone.
"Aha! Now this is the Twilight I know and love! Make me stop like you always do and I'll admit defeat!" the dragon charged at Magus Twilight who countered by levitating him in the air. What's more shocking is that she didn't use her horn for that; of course a detail like that didn't escape Twilight's eyes who were still flabbergasted at her alterego: Not only she was able to stop the dragon but she did it with the most minimum effort. Then she felt a glow of green light sucking a bit of her memory from her. Magus Twilight, still levitating the dragon, was in a pondering position.
"Hmmm, I shall study this for later but it's time to end this." She raised her hoof, a big purple energy came out and directly hit the dragon's stomach who fell right into the library's debris, getting his old form back.
"M-my spell! That was my spell! But how? It did nothing to him when I used it!" Twilight said, amazed by her counterpart.
"Let's say I added... slight modifications to it!" Magus Twilight winked at her doppleganger. Both Twilights looked at the mess they did.
"I think it's time to clean up..." Magus Twilight said "And it seems that I owe you some explainations, dear Twilight!" she went to pick up her fallen comrade.
"But, how do you know my name?" Twilight asked, still overcoming the shock of the fast-paced events that happened to her.
"Because my name is Twilight Sparkle, the Grand Magus!" she answered smuggly "I am whatever you have dreamt for in your life, little one."