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.