The courtyard was silent as the two stood, waiting for each other to make the first move. Finally, one spoke.

"You are unwelcome here, imposter," She snarled, standing her ground.

Twilight looked at her evil counterpart. She could escape if she really wanted to, even without the aid of magic. But she did not want to. She remembered Fluttershy, the gallows in Ponyville, the terrified fillies, and the amputated pegasi. She thought about all the ponies who had died at Twilight Sparkle's command, all the fear and suffering her reign had no doubt brought upon the world. She thought about how close her own friend had come to being executed at this monsters command. As she pondered the actions of her evil doppelganger, the more anger fueled her magic. She wasn't about to run away. This worlds Twilight Sparkle would pay for what she had done to Ponyville.

If the world lives in hatred, my death will be meaningless. Celestia's voice echoed in Twilight's mind.

"The only one who is unwelcome in this world is you. And I know you can see that on the faces of every pony who you think you're above. For more than three days, I've lived as you. I've been spit on by everyone in Equestria. How does it feel for that to be your reality?"

"I feel no sympathy for these meaningless peasants."

"Get out of my way now. I don't want to fight you," Twilight Sparkle lied, her voice quavering. The other Twilight noticed this and laughed maliciously.

"You don't want to fight me? Your morality will prove to be your downfall. Like the pathetic Princess Celestia."

Twilight had heard enough. It was time she put the teachings of Nightmare Moon to test. Her horn began glowing with pink light, and the Twilight standing in the gate followed suit, her horn glowing an icy blue. The two mares stared at each other as the magic grew, splashing light on the courtyard walls, illuminating the darkness around them. Twilight Sparkle wore an expression of utter hatred as she prepared her magic. Nothing the Princess had said could stop her now. No mercy existed in her heart to prevent her from discharging justice in the form of a spectacle of magical destruction.

When Twilight Sparkle was performing research on the Mirror Pool for Nightmare Moon, she overlooked one specific theory that would perhaps have prevented her from confronting Celestia's prodigy, and ultimately prevented her own downfall.

The culmination of brilliant light finally exploded in a pink and blue vista of blazing magic. Twilight was thrown backwards from her guard at the gate, sailing through the air before hitting the ground behind her some twenty feet away, the last flicker of blue light fading from the tip of her horn.

Twilight walked slowly to her fallen foe. Nightmare Moon's prodigy was breathing heavily, trying desperately to regain enough magic power to defend herself. Twilight calmly looked down upon her evil self, her horn resuming its display of pink light.

"You...you won't..." Twilight Sparkle struggled, trying to determine how she had been bested by an imposter. "You will show me mercy...as Celestia would."

"You may have heard..." Twilight responded coldly, still looking down at her foe. "Princess Celestia isn't around."

"Please...you will show me mercy..."

"Did you show any of the 'meaningless peasants' mercy?" Twilight muttered, and her doppelganger's eyes grew wide with fear. "I'm sorry, I truly am, but you don't deserve any mercy from me, so don't think you'll be getting any," Twilight looked into her foes eyes one last time as her magic splashed the forest with pink fire.

Twilight Sparkle looked across at the river, at Canterlot Mountain jutting into the sky, before teleporting across in two swift jumps. She looked up at the cliff  above her, teleporting onto that, too. It had taken her at least a day to return to Canterlot. She wondered what her friends had been thinking, after they found her abandoned room. She looked at the camouflaged magic barrier, breaking its magic easily, and called out when she was on the other side.

"Good evening, citizens of Canterlot. What have I missed?"

A hush fell over the main hall, followed by running hoofbeats, and a pair of strong wingbeats.

"Where have YOU been?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Twilight Sparkle is dead," She said simply, walking past Rainbow Dash.

"You...you can't be..." Rainbow stuttered.

"I had a nice conversation with Nightmare Moon, too. I was invited, of course."

Rainbow Dash's expression changed from confusion to anger. "YOU! How did you find us?"

"Relax, Rainbow Dash. I'm the other Twilight Sparkle."

Just then, the remaining four ponies caught up to Rainbow Dash, and stood gaping at Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle explained everything she had seen and heard over the past day.

"Wow..." Rainbow Dash voiced, when Twilight had finished her story. "I didn't think you had it in you..."

"Neither did I," Twilight replied. "And the worst part is...I know I should feel guilty about what I did...but I just don't."

Nopony said anything for a long time.

"Regardless, dear, it had to be done. We are just a tad shocked that you of all ponies would be the one to do it," Rarity began.

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie continued. "It must have been a totally-awesome-magical-showdown-spectacular!"

"So..umm...what now?" Fluttershy interrupted nervously, seeing the discomfort in Twilight's expression. "Do we face Nightmare Moon?"

Twilight wasn't sure. Should they? Were they ready? Her friends weren't exactly the Element-representing ponies she remembered them as. She remembered what Nightmare Moon had said about her student. How she couldn't wield the Elements of Harmony because of the evil in her heart. Were her friends the same?

"I...I don't know..." Twilight stuttered. "I mean, where I come from, each of you represent one of the elements...I'm not sure if it'll work the same here."

Twilight recounted the time they had ventured through the Everfree Forest and defeated Nightmare Moon, and the time they had used the Elements to defeat Discord. She explained who represented each element, and how drastically different they're lives had been.

"So...in other words..." Applejack retorted. "We 'ave no chance of defeatin' Nightmare Moon."

"I never said that!" Twilight countered. "I'm just not sure it'll work the same way. We're never going to know until we try."

"Can...can I maybe stay here...while you five..." Fluttershy quavered.

"No!" The five mares shouted in unison.

Rainbow Dash turned, her eyes dubiously scanning Twilight Sparkle. "I'm about to risk my life based on your hunch...if I die...I'm totally killing you in the afterlife. What proof do we have that there even is two Twilight Sparkles, anyway?"

Twilight reached into her saddle-pack without a word, grabbing something and placing it in Rainbow Dash's hoof.

"Proof enough for you?" Twilight asked as her friends examined the severed unicorn horn, an exact duplicate of Twilight's. Fluttershy looked like she was about to faint. Even Rainbow Dash's typically stoic expression was replaced by one of surprise.

"OK, I'll bite. Do you know where we can find Nightmare Moon? Preferably in the morning?"

Twilight nodded.

"Although, I don't exactly feel comfortable attending my own funeral..."

The six mares sat at the stone table, as Twilight Sparkle told stories of her life in Equestria. She focused on the happy stuff exclusively, watching with pleasure as her friends laughed. It was in that moment that she knew that everything would be alright...it had to be. She saw the smiling faces of her friends, forgetting altogether that she had only known most of them for two days. Twilight Sparkle was back home, with all her friends. There was no eternal night, there was no Nightmare Moon, there were no executions...there was only six friends, laughing.

They continued on all through the night, long after the last torches of the hundreds of Canterlot residents were extinguished. Twilight was in the middle of telling about when Fluttershy had saved her from a cockatrice, when she stopped dead in the middle of her sentence. Some dark demon had come calling, bringing with him something Twilight knew she deserved, but would have given anything to not have. Guilt.

Only a morning prior, Twilight had become a murderer. She had the choice of sparing a life, and she chose not to.

"Uhh...Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked cautiously. "Something about a chicken?"

Twilight heard Pinkie's voice as if it were coming through a tunnel. A tunnel that was caving in around her.

Why had she done it? Where did the hatred come from? Twilight Sparkle had spent her whole life trying to rationalize, make logic out of things that seemed illogical, trying to discover every secret the beautiful land of Equestria had to offer. And yet she couldn't answer a simple question about herself. She looked into the concerned and confused faces of her friends across the table, as a few stray tears hit the stone.

"I...Celestia..." She started, trying desperately to get the words out. This was a nightmare...one she wanted desperately to wake up from. Twilight knew she was wide awake, the events in the castle courtyard had happened, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

Twilight ran from the dining hall to her sleeping quarters, crying silently as she ran through the caves, her magic lighting the walls blue. She stopped running, looking at the changed color of her magic, somehow not surprised.

"Twilight...?" A soft voice called from behind her. "Are you okay?"

"Fluttershy...I'm fine, thank you."

"You thought about her, didn't you," Fluttershy whispered. "About...the other Twilight. About what happened."

"How can I ever live with myself, Fluttershy? How can anypony live with themselves after doing something like that?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "A pony like you shouldn't worry about that...you aren't a bad pony, Twilight."

Twilight laughed. "Yeah, right. I'm a real role-model," She said, staring at her hooves.

"You are, Twilight. You are to me..." Fluttershy continued to whisper, apparently afraid the other four would overhear hear from down the corridor. "When I was in that cell, nothing mattered anymore. I didn't care. I gave up on Equestria because I thought it had given up on me. I was terrified of dying...but everyday I live, I'm terrified anyway."

Twilight looked up at Fluttershy, who was staring at her own hooves.

"When you rescued me, I thought maybe there was still hope for Equestria...I thought maybe Rainbow was actually right about Princess Celestia. I started caring, for the first time in my life, about my future. I never thanked you for rescuing me back in Ponyville...I'm so sorry..."

"You don't have to thank me for that, Fluttershy," Twilight gave her friend a comforting hug. "I still don't understand where the anger came from, back in the Everfree yesterday. I don't understand why I did what I did."

"Twilight Sparkle was a bad pony...you...you shouldn't feel sympathy for her the way you do..."

"Fluttershy, you're the Element of Kindness. I know you don't believe that. I don't believe it either. It doesn't matter how good or bad she was...what I did can't be justified."

"Maybe not..." Fluttershy speculated. "But it can be forgiven...your Princess Celestia will forgive you, I'm sure..."

"I don't think I can ever go back now, Fluttershy. I should stay here with you guys..."

"No. You need to go back, Twilight. The stories you told us about your friends back home... they need you more than we do," Fluttershy replied. Twilight saw the kindness in her friend, the selflessness that was so familiar to her back home, yet so alien here. "I'm scared about tomorrow, Twilight...I'm terrified."

"You aren't alone," Twilight conceded. "We're all terrified. Anypony who denies it is a liar. Now, we should get some sleep. Go tell the others... and Fluttershy...Thank you."

The six mares stared at the open, unguarded gate to Ponyville from their hiding spot behind the fallen stump of an immense tree.

"Something's wrong..." Rainbow muttered.

"Yeah! Maybe Nightmare Moon decided not to be a big meanie today, since there's a big party!"

"Funeral, Pinkie...not a party..." Applejack sighed.

Rarity turned around, glancing back in the direction of Canterlot. "I think, perhaps, we should abort this plan, girls. It was a good idea, Twilight, but I think I would prefer not dying, if that is alright with you."

"Sure!" Twilight countered. "Let's wait until she's back at her castle, surrounded by royal pony guards in the middle of the Everfree Forest!"

Reluctantly, the six ponies left their hiding spot and strode into the desolate town.