Twilight wandered through the creaky old ruins, her horn being the only source of light. She couldn't deny that this place was creepy, something you would expect to hear about in one of Rainbow Dash's camping stories, or an old horror novel. She wished her friends were able to come with her, but they were too busy helping Pinkie set up a 'Congrats Derpy for finding an old ruin by literally falling into it' party, classic Pinkie Pie stuff. They had offered to postpone the party to come with Twilight but she had insisted they get the party organized and that she would be fine, what could possibly go wrong exploring an abandoned ancient ruin by yourself?

"Everything" Twilight muttered to herself.

However so far the ruin seemed empty, hallways with plain rock walls and long dead lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Finally Twilight came to a large door, she pushed on it with her hoof and it slid open with an almighty creek, beyond was a large ancient library. Twilight shrieked in delight at the sight,

"So... many... books, all the lost knowledge that could exist in this place, I can't wait!".

Then something caught Twilight's eye, at the centre of the room was a pedestal with a dusty old box. Twilight approached the old box wondering what was inside, there wasn't any visible way to open it, she thought perhaps it would respond to magic. Her horn gave a majestic purple glow as Twilight enveloped the box in a magical aura, and it worked, the box opened.

---

Three days had passed since Twilight had entered the ruin and Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were all starting to worry, they had initially assumed she stayed longer to study something of interest, but to give no word for three whole days? That was unlike her. They stood in the castles throne room, sitting in their respective seats around the central map.

"Maybe we should contact Princess Celestia, she would want to know that Twi's gone missing" suggested Applejack,

Fluttershy seemed unsure and responded, in her usual quiet tone "What if Twilight hasn't actually gone missing, and is just really, really busy with some amazing new discovery and then we go and waste Celestia's time".

Rainbow cut in "Oh come on, one, she would never go silent for over three days as she always feels like she has to give updates on her progress, two, she missed the party! She would never deliberately disappoint Pinkie like that!".

"She Pinkie Pie promised!" shouted Pinkie, slamming her hooves onto the map table.

"I agree with Applejack, this undignified silence is simply not like her" stated Rarity.

"Its settled then" said Applejack, "Spike take a letter...".

But there was no need to send a letter, for right on que Celestia, Luna and Cadance all entered the throne room looking very sombre, with concern etched across their faces. Celestia addressed the ponies

"You are right to be worried for Twlight, she has indeed vanished, and that is not all sadly", the princesses looked at each other before turning back to the mane 5, "we received a threat from a new, unknown villain, who only introduced herself as the future queen of Equestria, and she claimed that she had Twlight, and if we ever want to see her again we would all have to travel to a newly constructed 'dark crystal castle' just south of the Crystal Empire".

The mane 5 (and spike) gasped collectively.

"Dark crystal? Like the kind ol' Sombra tried to invade the Crystal Empire with" enquired Applejack".

Luna responded "The exact same, this mysterious pony is using dark magic to further her cause. The ruins Twilight was exploring was also filled with dark artefacts, including a now empty box, I know I've seen something like that before but I can't put my hoof on it".

Rainbow flew up into the air with a sense of determination and proclaimed "well what are we waiting for? Lets break into this castle, rescue Twilight and kick this 'queens' flank back a century!"

"Pony road trip!" shouted Pinkie excitedly, setting off one of her hidden confetti cannons.

Elsewhere, in a throne room made of dark crystal, a hidden figure was using dark magic to conjure up pony minions made of shadow, she knew they would be coming for her, and she would be waiting.

The train screeched to a halt as it pulled into the station, they had arrived at the Crystal Empire. The palace gleamed in the distance like a burning candle in the darkness. The princesses and the mane 5 exited the train (spike was left to look after the castle), where they were met by Shining Armour and Flash Sentry, along with a small compliment of royal guards.

Cadance spoke first "Shining, Flash, I thought we told you no royal guards would be accompanying us to the castle".

"All due respect Cadance that's my sister being held captive, and I'm sure not letting you go in there without an escort!", objected Shining Armour.

Flash Sentry added "Besides your highness, what sort of royal guards would we be if we let you go into an obvious trap alone".

"No" calmly stated Celestia, "Whoever this pony is clearly stated that if you wanted Twilight back only we and Princess Twilights friends were to come to the castle, doing otherwise puts her at risk before we even enter the gates".

"But I highly doubt she will give back Twiley willingly, she will instead likely try to capture you to!" Shining stated on the edge of panic.

"I am aware of this" said Celestia, "And we don't intend to stay long enough for that to happen, we encounter her for just long enough to find out who she is, and then strike first, she likely won't be expecting that due to her holding Twilight captive, with the element of surprise we rescue Twilight and get out of there, we will work out our next move afterwards".

Shining Armor sighed "Very well, I just hope you are right about this your highness"

"As do I" Celestia responded.

"Ohh we're like super spies!" Stated Pinkie, Pinkie rushed back onto the train and remerged wearing a tux and holding a glass of cider, "Special agent Pink reporting, I have my cider shaken, not stirred" Pinkie says, with a little squee.

Applejack face-palmed "Oh for the love of, Pinkie we don't have time for this, we gotta move faster than a stampeding herd of buffalo if we are going to rescue Twi in time!".

"Fine" sighs Pinkie, "But I am totally holding a 'most awesome spy team ever' party after!" she states excitedly, with yet another squee.

---

As they approached the castle the air seemed to get colder. "Um, does anyone else feel that?" asked Rainbow Dash nervously.

Luna looked around, seemingly scanning the surroundings, "This whole area reeks of dark magic, we must trot carefully everypony".

The castle looked similar to Twilights castle back in Ponyville, but the crystals were black as night, with the odd splash of grey or a very dark purple, in the windows shadowy figures could be glimpsed.

"We must be careful, those ponies in the window aren't actually living ponies, they are just lifeless creatures made of dark magic and shadow, controlled by the so called 'queen' presumably" observed Luna.

Fluttershy cowered behind Cadance "I don't want to be here anymore".

Cadance reassured Fluttershy "You have to be brave for Twilight, besides as long as you have your friends nothing will happen to you", Cadance smiled at Fluttershy and Fluttershy smiled shyly back.

They reached the castle doors, and they opened with a slow creek revealing a main hall that looked eerily like the one, again, from the castle in Ponyville. "This place could use a tad more cheery décor, what a drab it looks right now, honestly how hard is it to put effort in decorating you home" said a bemused Rarity.

A distorted, but obviously female voice sounds throughout the castle, "Ah Rarity, thinking only about the aesthetics as always, how shallow of you".

Rarity, annoyed, responded "Ah, the nerve, I'm not the one kidnapping princesses and placing them in dingy castles".

Dash mimicked the voice "Sorry, your princess is in another castle"

"Don't jinx it Rainbow" said Rarity.

Celestia addressed the voice demandingly "Where is Princess Twilight? We came, now you return her and we can settle this like reasonable ponies"

The voice responded "Oh, straight to the point, i was wondering if you were going to keep me delayed while agents snuck round back, but my minions report no such deception, good girls" the voice chuckled, "I am in the throne room, don't keep me waiting".

---

Celestia turned to the others as the they reached the throne room door, "Remember the plan, when i stamp my hoof Luna, Cadance and myself will distract the 'queen', you all will grab Twilight and get her out of the castle, once you're clear we will make a tactical retreat and join you, understood?".

Everyone collectively said "Right". Celestia's horn glowed a bright yellow as she opened the door with her magic, they all walked into the throne room in silence and in formation, up front was Celestia in the centre, Cadance flanked her left while Luna flanked her right, the mane 5 walked behind them in a line from left to right. This room, unlike the rest of the castle, had a vastly different layout compared to Twilights castle, it was triangular in shape, the room thinning out leading up to a throne. The throne was not large or flamboyant and surprisingly not designed to show off any sort of power, it was just a pony sized practical chair with dark purple padding and a black frame with dark crystals poking out here and there, at least that's what they could make out anyway, the throne was covered in shadow as black as the heart of a corrupted king, a pony, of slightly above average height was clearly sitting there but the darkness made identification impossible. The group stopped shortly before the small staircase that led up to the throne, Celestia looked around, but there was no sign of Princess Twilight.

"Where is Twilight Sparkle, if she isn't here where are you keeping her?" Stated Celestia while staying calm.

The figure let out a small sinister giggle, two purple wings shot out from the figure and leaned either side of the throne, she opened her eyes, which glowed a bright green similar to that of King Sombra, a horn glowed with an also green magical aura, dark magic. An all too familiar voice chillingly spoke out "I said I'd be here didn't I?".

With that the darkness lifted and the both the princesses and mane 5 gasped in horror as the so called 'queen' was finally revealed. Dressed in several black armour pieces and with an even blacker crown all made from the same dark crystal, there sat...

Twilight Sparkle

stayed tuned for chapter three!

"Twilight no..." Muttered Cadance sadly.

A stunned silence filled the room, only to be broken by Twilight, "What? Not happy to see me? You disappoint me Celestia, was I not your star student? And you Pinkemena Diane Pie, I thought you liked surprises?".

"Only fun ones..." muttered Pinkie, her mane deflating at the use of her full name.

Celestia shook off the sense of shock and addressed Twilight once more, "Princess Twilight, why are you doing this? Practicing dark magic and then luring us out here? This is unlike you."

Twilight grimaced with annoyance, "Shows how much you knew princess", she got up off her throne and took a step towards the group, "Long story short, in that ruin I found many great things, but among all of them there was one in particular that interested me, a box, that box showed me Equestria's future if it were to remain under your, heh, 'enlightened' rule".

Luna's eyes widened as realisation came to her, "Twilight, listen to me! That box..."

"QUIET!" shouted Twilight with a stamp of her hoof. "Destruction is what the box showed, a power will come to threaten us, and only a single ruler with the willingness to build a new Equestria over the ruins of the old, to do whatever it takes to protect the things they, I love...", Twilight glanced away from the group for a moment unable to make eye contact, but quickly regained her composure, "Only a ruler like that can save Equestria, and that ruler will be, and must be, ME!". Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, tears began to swell up in the eyes of the mane 5 and princess Cadance, only Luna and Celestia were able to stay seemingly calm. They all began to notice shadowy figures entering through the side doors, several shadow ponies began to pour into the room. Twilight herself began to glow as a bright ball of energy coloured both black and a dark purple began to form around her, completely enveloping her, suddenly the energy exploded outwards as Luna noted the similarities to her own transformation into Nightmare Moon, Twilight was using the same, or at least a similar spell to change herself also. The energy dispersed and Twilight came back into view.

Twilight was visibly taller, about the size of Celestia, her mane and tail were beautifully flowing, a mix of dark purple and a darker pink, with what seemed to be stars twinkling here and there. Her fur had also darkened significantly, almost black but a purple tinge was still noticeable, her eyes had stopped glowing green, but a green aura did still emanate for the sides of her eyes, her pupils were now black slits and her iris was a shade of red. Her horn had also elongated and her cutie mark, while the design remained the same, the inner star had turned from a bright purple to a dull grey while the outer stars had turned to the inner stars original purple. Her armour and crown remained largely the same, but had adjusted to fit her new form. Nightmare Twilight outstretched her almost black wings and took off into the air, blasting a hole into the roof with a magical blast from her horn, she began to hover just beyond the hole and turned to look at the group once more, awaiting her first challenger.

The shadows began to close in on the group, Celestia turned to them. "Ok, new plan. Luna, Cadance stay with the others and help fend off these creatures, I will attempt to subdue Twilight, I just hope she can see what she is doing is wrong before we are forced to banish her, or... worse".

The group nodded, Cadance and the mane 5 wiped away their tears and with Luna turned to face their adversaries. Celestia turned to face Nightmare Twilight and took to the air, exiting through the hole and coming face to face with her.

"Twilight, please stop this, think about you friends, everything you have been through with them, is this how you want all that to end?" pleaded Celestia.

"I'm doing this FOR THEM, they are more likely to survive in the new Equestria than under the weak minded rule of you three! If a 'few' freedoms are abolished in the process then so be it. Once day you will understand...". Nightmare Twilights horn glowed a bright green as she charged a strong spell, which she unleashed with great force towards Celestia, who dodged it with ease and grace. Nightmare Twilight unleashed several more and Celestia dodged them all, but with each attack getting closer and closer to their target.

---

In the throne room the whole castle shook as several spells hit it. Fluttershy was staying back as Rarity, Cadance and Luna were using their spells to cover Applejack, Pinkie (who's mane had re-inflated, and she had also conjured a party cannon from seemingly nowhere) and Rainbow Dash who were laying into the shadow ponies who, while they hit quite hard, being made of shadow were quite fragile themselves and dissipated easily. The problem was there was seemingly no end to them and they couldn't keep fighting forever.

Rarity addressed Luna, "I simply don't understand why Twilight didn't come to us about this future, why do all this to prevent something we ourselves perhaps could have prevented together?".

"Fear" replied Luna, "Fear has corrupted Twilights mind and led her to dark magic, fear can be even more corrupting than the jealousy I once harboured, but this isn't entirely Twilights fault, the box is not what it seemed to be, I'll explain when we aren't being attacked, but suffice to say don't lose faith in Princess Twilight just yet".

"I haven't" said Cadance with determination.

---

A green flash of light flashed across Celestia's face as she narrowly dodged the latest attack. Celestia was slowing and knew she would soon have to retaliate. So with a heavy heart and with a tear sliding down here face Celestia charged her horn and let off a dazzlingly powerful yellow coloured spell towards Nightmare Twilight. The sudden attack caught Twilight off guard and she was flung far backwards as the spell made contact with her chest. Nightmare Twilight fell out of control through the air, but with effort she managed to steady herself. Celestia charged a second attack and sent it barrelling towards the corrupted pony, but she was just able to counter with a spell of her own, their spells connected and clashed violently, with Celestia's immediately gaining ground on Nightmare Twilights.

On the ground a large portion of the shadow ponies stopped and deformed into a shadowy mist, they then flew into the air towards Nightmare Twilight, who began to absorb them, adding their strength to hers. With this new found power Nightmare Twilight began to push back against Celestia's spell with more force, her horn began to pulsate and spark as her spells intensity increased. Celestia's eyes widened in panic as her spell lost ground, she realised she would lose the duel and attempted to pull out, with nothing to stop it Nightmare Twilights spell jolted towards Celestia with renewed force, Celestia went to dodge but the wicked green spell just skimmed her, sending Celestia into a plummet, crash landing onto the crystal roof of the castle. On the ground Luna and Cadance saw Celestia's injury and, with the mane 5 saying they will be fine with the now greatly thinned number of shadow ponies, took to the skies and both began to fire at Nightmare Twilight to distract her from the injured Celestia. Celestia looked up at the battle, and began to sob, not because of the pain she was in, but for how far her star student, her friend had fallen.

---

Rainbow Dash looked up at the fight in the sky, and saw the two sides currently equally matched, Nightmare Twilight had the most individual power but Luna and Cadance's combined power and teamwork was giving Nightmare Twilight a run for her money. Dash turned to the others, "Everypony! I'm going up there to help the princesses!".

Applejack stopped and turned to look at Rainbow Dash, "Shoot Rainbow this ain't the time for heroics, now come on we almost got em' beat".

Dash shook her head in refusal "They're in a stalemate up there, but all they need is one more pony to lend a hoof and we get the advantage!". Dash zoomed up towards the fight before Applejack could stop her. She sped straight towards Nightmare Twilight.

Cadance saw her and screamed "Rainbow, don't!"

True to form Rainbow Dash ignored her and kept going, intending to tackle Nightmare Twilight, who saw Dash coming, and tackled her first, both plummeting straight into the castle roof nearby to Celestia. Dash lay on her back, pinned by Nightmare Twilight who had one hoof on Dash's chest. Dash squirmed to try and free herself, to no avail as Nightmare Twilight just pinned her down with increased force when Dash tried. Nightmare Twilights horn began to charge as Celestia looked on in horror, unable to help. Nightmare Twilight and Rainbow Dash's eyes met, Dash's began to fill with tears as she realised she was staring up into her own friends face, a friend who was about to end her.

"Twilight..." Dash choked out between sobs, their eye contact not breaking.

Twilights eyes widened and her horn stopped charging as her grip on Dash lessened. Celestia looked on, thinking that, maybe, just maybe the friendship between Dash and Twilight still existed somewhere in Nightmare Twilights heart. Twilight stepped backwards off of Rainbow Dash, they sat there just staring for a good moment before the peace was shattered by Luna tackling Nightmare Twilight, who promptly blasted Luna off. Nightmare Twilight got back on to her hooves and stood up, Cadance and Luna stood metres away, Celestia mustered enough strength to also get back up and stood in formation with the other princesses. Nightmare Twilight was now heavily outnumbered but the three princesses were all either exhausted by this point or injured, the outcome of the following fight was uncertain to all. Nightmare Twilight began to charge for another attack, but then quickly de-charged and began to chuckle sinisterly.

She addressed the princesses, "This is a nice show your putting on, but what's the fun in ending you three here and now? I want you to see what will happen to your precious inferior Equestria for the new one to be built, but where should the demonstration be? Oh, I know the perfect place, see you at Ponyville!" Nightmare Twilight laughed evilly as she teleported away before anypony could stop her.

Applejack and the others had finished off the last of the shadow ponies as Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Rainbow Dash flew down to re-join them. Applejack examined the group, "Where is Twilight?" she asked.

Celestia looked at Applejack and said, "Gone, to Ponyville, and I fear what her intentions may be for the town. We are going to have to hurry back there before it is too late to save it, I fear Twilight may be lost to us now".

Luna piped up at that last part, "No, she isn't lost, if I could be redeemed then so can she".

"But we used the elements of harmony to defeat you, and we don't exactly have those anymore" said Rainbow Dash.

Luna scanned the group, "No, but we have something better, her friends", Luna sighed, "Besides, that box that showed Twilight that dark future, I now know where I had seen it before, when I was Nightmare Moon I researched many dark artefacts, one was simply called 'the box of fiendish lies', it was designed by King Sombra to show you something horrible, something to shatter the foundations of your core beliefs, in Twilights case the belief that the power of friendship could protect Equestria, the future Twilight saw was a fabrication of the box, nothing more".

Celestia considered this, would Twilight believe them if they told her the truth? And then there was that whole thing with Rainbow Dash on the roof, yes, Twilight does still exist under all that dark magic, "We will save princess Twilight, from herself" proclaimed Celestia to the group.

---

In Ponyville daily life was continuing as normal, as Applebloom stood in front if the town hall with the Sweetiebell and Scootaloo concocting their next scheme to get their cutie marks, she noticed a shadowy figure in the sky flying fast towards them. The figure looked familiar somehow.

"What are you looking at?" asked Scootaloo.

Applebloom stepped forwards and squinted her eyes, "Twilight?".

Say tuned for the conclusion...

Applebloom stepped forwards and squinted her eyes, "Twilight?". Both Sweetiebell and Scootaloo were now both squinting trying to make out the distant, but rapidly approaching figure.

Scootaloo asked sceptically "Twilight? Are you sure that's her Applebloom, whoever it is they sure don't seem to look like the princess".

Applebloom went to respond, but before she did the figure's speed picked up and was now hurtling towards them like a raging meteorite. The fillies shrieked as they jumped out of the way, the figure landing right where they had been seconds earlier. They got back up onto their hooves and turned to look at the figure, which just stood there as a crowd began to from around it. Applebloom examined the figure, it had incredibly dark purple fur and wings, a flowing mane that was a mix of dark purple and pink with stars twinkling and red tinted eyes with dark slits for pupils, between which stood a vicious looking horn with a sickening green magical aura. Applebloom then tilted her head to get a look at this alicorns cutie mark, and despite the switched colour pallet the mark made it clear who this alicorn was.

Applebloom stepped forward towards Nightmare Twilight, catching her attention. "Twilight?" Applebloom asked cautiously.

Nightmare Twilight stared down at the tiny form in front of her "So I am recognised in this new glorious form, how lovely" said Nightmare Twilight with a hint of sarcasm. She then turned away from Applebloom towards mayor Mare who then addressed Nightmare Twilight.

"Princess Twilight, your highness, er... what has happened to you? I mean you look a little... different? And sinister if you don't mind me saying", the mayor laughed nervously.

Nightmare Twilight looked away from the mayor and directed her answer to the mayors question towards the entirety of Ponyville, "Change good people of Ponyville, just as change must come to all of Equestria if we are to survive. But to enact this change we have to make way for the new foundations of our great country by disposing of the old, one day... one day you will THANK ME!". With that last declaration Nightmare Twilight's eyes began to glow a bright green around her iris as the aura around her horn intensified, she turned towards the town hall, reared back and then let of a viciously powerful spell towards the structure, the town hall didn't stand a chance, it burst into flames upon contact with the spell and a small explosion sent debris flying. The crowd of ponies began to scream and scatter, trying to get away from the chaos. The cutie mark crusaders ducked underneath a fruit stand and hid as Nightmare Twilight continued to destroy the buildings around what once was the town hall.

---

As the princesses and mane 5 finally arrived in Ponyville the first thing they noticed was the smell of fire and ash, a orange glow tinted the sky as flames licked the air. A panicked Spike came running from the direction of the currently intact castle and hurriedly greeted the group, "Oh am i glad to see you ponies, I don't know what to do! Twilights lost it! She's burning Ponyville, what did that evil queen do to her?".

Applejack responded anxiously "Spike, Twilight was the 'queen' the whole time, look we'll explain later sugarcube, where is Twilight now?".

Spike pointed towards the thickest area of flames, "She was still in there last i saw, but she is making her way through town, she'll soon reach the boutique!".

Rarity stamped her hoof "My boutique! Well, we'll see about that!", with that Rarity ran towards town with purpose.

Celestia turned to the others "We have to stop Twilight, but our current priority has to be Ponyville's citizens, we need to get them out of harms way!", the group nodded and then all ran towards the burning town.

As Celestia, Luna and Applejack entered what was the town square they found mayor Mare standing in a daze looking at the surrounding chaos. Applejack spotted the cutie mark crusaders under a nearby fruit stand and ran towards them, Celestia and Luna approached the mayor.

"Mayor, are you okay?" asked Celestia

The mayor responded "Not really, i didn't sign up for this, i mean, look at this place! At least there hasn't been any fatalities as of yet, as far as I know at least".

Celestia and Luna looked at each other, and then back to the mayor "None at all?" asked Luna.

The mayor finally turned to look at the princesses, "No, it appears Twilight is taking time to force ponies away from the targeted area's before burning them, almost as if she is trying to avoid any harm from coming to any pony and taking great care in doing so, its just the infrastructure she's interested in destroying it would seem".

Luna turned to Celestia, "See sister, if Twilight was truly lost why would she care what happens to other ponies, she believes she's doing this to protect them, despite her obvious flaws she is doing this with the best of intentions, she can be saved yet."

Just then Cadance came flying backwards down one of the streets, having been blasted down it by Nightmare Twilight who calmly followed, Cadance got up and sent a blast of magical energy towards Nightmare Twilight, who just shrugged it off before saying, "Cadance, give up, you can not stop me from saving Equestria, and you should not want to, stop this now!".

Cadance looked up at the approaching alicorn, "Twilight please... you obviously don't want to harm anyone, but keep this up and you will, you know deep down this is wrong!".

Nightmare Twilight shook her head, "I thought you of all people would understand.".

Tears swelled up in Cadance's eyes, "Then we have no choice but to stop you, I'm so sorry, just now that I still love you sister, and always will", with that Cadance charged another spell, this time the spell seemed, despite having no effect on Nightmare Twilight the previous attack, to greatly effect the dark alicorn who was almost knocked off her feet.

As the rest of the mane 5 rushed into the town square Celestia, who had been intrigued at how Cadance's attack suddenly affected Nightmare Twilight despite not doing much before, reflected back on all the facts. It seemed Luna was right that the Twilight they all knew still existed somewhere within her, as evidenced by Nightmare Twilights inability to harm Rainbow Dash or the citizens of Ponyville, and when Cadance expressed that her love and friendship for Twilight was intact despite all this her spell suddenly effected Twilight more, as if it reached further in to her very being.

"That's it!" proclaimed Celestia.

Applejack, who had just evacuated the mayor and cutie mark crusaders looked up at the princess in confusion, "That's what?" she asked.

Celestia addressed the princesses and mane 5, "Everypony, get into formation behind me!"

Despite being slightly confused they did as the princess asked, Luna standing slightly behind Celestia to her right, with Cadance doing the same but to Celestia's left, with the mane 5 standing in a line behind them, creating a triangular formation. Nightmare Twilight stood opposite, curious to see what Celestia was up to. Celestia addressed the group, "I want you to focus on Twilight, specifically your friendship with her, every moment, good and bad, happy and sad, focus on those special moments", the mane 5 were still confused while Luna and Cadance realised Celestia's plan and obliged, the mane 5 quickly followed.

Nightmare Twilight laughed, "That's your plan? Reminiscence? You're kidding, you're kidding right?".

Celestia looked at the dark alicorn, "Friendship is Magic, as you well know".

The mane 5 thought about their meeting with Twilight, their many adventures, from Trixie to Lord Tirek, from having their first slumber party in the Golden Oak to making the castle a home. Luna and Cadance began to harness the magic emerging within the mane 5, a magical aura began to surround them which fed straight into the two princesses. Those two princesses also thought of their own experiences with Twilight, Luna thought of how Twilight helped her fit in after 1000 years of exile, and Cadance thought of the time they had spent as sisters, as well as the chant they often did on reuniting. They began to give off their own magical aura, bolstered by the aura they were absorbing from the mane 5. Celestia in turn began to harness the aura from Luna and Cadance, combined with her own memories, from discovering Twilight when she lost control of her hidden magical talent, to Twilights coronation, she though about how proud she was of her number one student, and how she forgave Twilight for everything that had happened recently. The combined aura from all the ponies became a beautiful and magical rainbow colour, Celestia's horn began to charge up, being that rainbow colour instead of it's usual yellow.

Nightmare Twilight growled, but somewhere deep within her she was touched by how it was their love for her that was giving them this power, she ignored that part of herself and began to charge her own horn with everything she had, it sizzled a black and green aura as she tried to focus on the most negative feeling and memories she could, but it was difficult as that deep part of herself became louder and louder, harder and harder to ignore.

Celestia closed her eyes for a second, muttering "Friendship Prevails". She then opened her eyes, reared back and unleashed a magnificent rainbow coloured blast from her horn which steamrolled towards Nightmare Twilight, who also released her own spell, a sinister green and black blast of energy that would have been more than enough to end any pony, but the spell dissipated on contact with Celestia's spell. Nightmare Twilight screamed as the rainbow swallowed her up, the impact caused a shockwave that knocked everyone of their hooves and also put out most of the larger fires in the vicinity (it may have also knocked down the barely standing remains of the town hall), then... silence.

As the disorientation past the princesses and mane 5 got up back onto their hooves. The orange tinted sky had given way back to the natural bright blue everyone knew and loved. The group looked around at the damage, it was bad, but fixable. They all then looked over to where the spell had hit Nightmare Twilight, there, in the mildly burnt grass lay Nightmare Twilight, alive and with no physical injuries (as that wasn't the purpose of the spell), but she was severely weakened, not having even enough energy left to stand up. Celestia approached the broken figure who was trying, and failing to get up. Nightmare Twilight didn't notice Celestia standing over her until she said softly "Twilight".

Nightmare Twilight looked up, meeting Celestia's gaze. Nightmare Twilight said, weakly "Friendship is magic... I can't believe I had forgotten that, I'm a failure, I couldn't save you, any of you".

Celestia kneeled down to speak with Nightmare Twilight at equal level, "Twilight, that box you saw, it was created by Sombra to show you something that would break your core beliefs, turn you into a monster".

Nightmare Twilight let this news wash over her, "You mean, the future I saw was a lie" her face fell as further realisation ran over her, "You mean everything i did was over nothing, and for nothing!". The green aura of dark magic that had surrounded her eyes disappeared, for good. Twilight Sparkles eyes began to swell with tears, "What have I done? The destruction caused, I AM a monster...". Everypony else also began to lightly sob at the scene in front of them, even Luna.

Twilight looked away from Celestia, unable to look at her mentor and friend in the face, but Celestia brought her hoof to Twilight face and moved her head gently so they made eye contact again, "You are no monster Twilight Sparkle, you are as much a victim in my eyes as anyone else, everything you did, while it was wrong, it was with the best of intentions, and despite what you did, know we all forgive you". Behind Celestia the others all nodded in agreement and confirmation.

Applejack said, "We're all here for you Twi, now an' always".

Next to Applejack PinkiePie gave her signature squee. Twilight looked at her friends and thought about how lucky she was to have them, "I'm so sorry, and thank you, I love you all". Twilight began sobbing even more, and Celestia embraced her former student in a hug, and Twilight hugged back. Twilight began to glow a bright purple as she returned to her natural form and the dark magic within her left her body. Twilight then went slightly limp as she fell unconscious from exhaustion.

Three weeks later Princess Twilight Sparkle was looking over Ponyville from her bedroom balcony. She had completely rid herself of dark magic and had been spending much of her time helping rebuild the town, the town hall was coming along nicely. After her recovery she had decided to spend a few days at Canterlot High in the other world, she felt as though she needed to talk to someone who had been through similar experiences. Sunset Shimmer had been quite surprised to find out that Twilight had pretty much turned into a raging she-demon herself but was very undertanding about it all, she along with Twilights human friends helped Twilight greatly recover emotionaly after what she had done. It would take a while for the citizens of Equestria to forgive her in such a manor however, but with her friends vote of confidence it should happen steadily.

"Spike could you bring the diary, I think its time to add recent events to the collection"

Spike nodded and went to fetch the mane 6's diary. He came back quickly, diary in hand, "Here you go your dark queenliness!" he said as he handed over the diary.

"Very funny Spike, as were the other million times you said that".

Twilight went over to her desk, her horn glowed a wonderfull purple as she used her magic to open the book and begin to write. She wrote about what she did, the events leading up to this and the events following not leaving out a single detail, and as always she ended with a moral.

Even if a friend is going through a difficult time and it seems as if you will inevitably lose them, do not lose hope, for if your friendship is true enough it will always prevail.

Fin