CHAPTER EIGHT

Overhead, the shadow of an alicorn darted from the other side of the thin clouds, not bothering to look down at the destruction she had just caused. A few stray rocks splashed into the water but for the most part the devastation was complete.

"The Amulet..." Fluttershy whispered, and sure enough the Alicorn Amulet had begun blinking madly inside Twilight's saddle-pack as Nightmare Twilight disappeared into the distance. "We should smash it...right now!"

"No!" Twilight replied, and the Amulet was lifted by invisible hooves. "Then she'll know! She'll know we're hunting the artifacts and she'll keep the other two safe!"

For a brief moment, Fluttershy could have sworn she saw a quick flash of Twilight...but it lasted less than a second. Nevertheless, she jumped back in fright, the subliminal image of her friend instantly burned in her mind.

Twilight Sparkle had been huddling on the ground, cradling the Alicorn Amulet as if it were a newborn child. She had been staring directly at Fluttershy, but that should have been impossible, due to the invisibility spell. Nevertheless, it was quite clear that she could see her.

Most alarming, however, were her eyes. Twilight's eyes had been completely void of anything, empty like glass marbles. Except instead of the milky white one would expect, they were glowing a supernatural green, the light billowing around like smoke...or, more accurately, magic.  They were much wider than what they should have been, and Fluttershy felt as if they were staring into her soul.

"F...Fluttershy?" Twilight's voice rung out, not the voice of a possessed beast but of a concerned friend.

"Get away from me!" Fluttershy screamed frantically, turning to run and immediately crashing back onto the ground as she tripped over her own invisible hooves.

"What's wrong?" Twilight begged. "Fluttershy, don't run away! I can't even see you!"  

"Don't hurt me, please!" From the sound of Fluttershy's voice, Twilight knew she was very close by, frozen in fright.

"Fluttershy, what is the matter with you? Why would I hurt you?"

Deciding it was once again safe, Twilight deactivated the invisibility spell, revealing Fluttershy cowering on the grass with her wings spread over her defensively. When her extra appendages materialized in front of her, blocking her line of sight, she reluctantly lowered them and looked at Twilight in complete terror.  What she saw was not the terrifying, demon version of her friend but a pony as equally scared as she was, who evidently wanted to do no more than help her.

"Oh, Twilight..." She gasped, flinging herself upwards and embracing the confused unicorn. "I'm sorry I freaked out like that..."

"What happened? What did I do?"

"We all know quite well what you've done. And I shall make sure you pay for it!" A mare's malicious voice replied behind her. "So...we meet again, Twilight Sparkle."

Standing proud and tall, wearing a tattered wizard hat and a purple cape which fluttered majestically in the wind behind her, was the Great and Powerful...

"TRIXIE?" Twilight exclaimed. Fluttershy, on the other hand, looked utterly overjoyed. Trixie was dripping wet and staring at Twilight with a contempt and confident expression.

"Indeed. I suppose you thought you bested me at our last encounter."

"Uhh..." Twilight turned to Fluttershy for help, but she simply shrugged. "Listen, Trixie...I'm not who you think I am..."

"She's from another Equestria!" Fluttershy piped up. "Don't worry, Trixie, she's with me!"

Trixie scoffed in annoyance and removed her hat, holding it at her side and pointing at the few jagged rocks where Canterlot once stood.

"Then you have nothing to do with this bloodshed?" Trixie's laughs echoed loudly across the empty lake. "Trixie finds that quite difficult to believe!"

"Yeah, I can understand why." Twilight acknowledged. "The truth is going to sound ridiculous, but I assure you me and Fluttershy mean no harm...."

"Fluttershy and I." Trixie corrected smugly. "And by all means, Trixie will hear you out. She will then promptly slay you for your years of murder and betrayal."

Surprisingly, it was not Twilight who offered the explanation but Fluttershy, who had other wise remained impartial and secluded from the majority of the conversation.

"Me and...I mean, Twilight and I, are time travelers from the future, and we're here to save Equestria from being destroyed 5 months from today by an evil version of the Twilight Sparkle here, who is an omnipotent, unstoppable alicorn princess, also from the future."

"My, my..." Trixie chuckled. "That is certainly the tall tale, Miss Fluttershy...."

"It's the truth!" Fluttershy snapped indignantly.

"Did Trixie once say it was not?"

"R...really?" Twilight stammered, while clipping on her saddle-pack and placing the Element of Magic atop her head again.

"Sure! After all, it would explain the conversations of you two....of course, Trixie believes you!" Suddenly, Twilight found herself blasted backwards by a powerful burst of magic, before being pinned to the ground by Trixie's magic. "Yes! Simply give to me the Alicorn Amulet and you and our little pegasus traitor can be on your way!"

"That isn't happening..." Twilight spat in reply, grasping her saddle-pack in a tight bear-hug. Fluttershy, who had also been pinned beside her, cried out in protest at being called a traitor.

"Shut up, Fluttershy!" Trixie screamed, more magic lighting the area as the opposing unicorn charged another attack. "Trixie could kill you both right now if she wanted! How fortunate for you that she does NOT! Assuming, of course, that you give me what I want!"

"Look, Trixie..." Twilight reasoned, surprisingly cool and collected, making Trixie all the more furious. "I know you have good intentions with the Alicorn Amulet, but I really don't think it's a good idea for you to try to take it."

"Why? You think you can best the great and powerful Trixie?"

"Most certainly. Which is why I don't want to get into a fight with you." Without warning, Twilight countered Trixie's imprisonment spell with a sudden defensive burst of magic. In mere seconds, Twilight and Fluttershy stood divided from their foe by a dome shaped magical shield.

"How dare you!" Trixie shrilled, her offensive blasts continuously blasting off Twilight's much stronger barrier.

"Just relax, alright? No one is on the attack but you." Twilight affirmed calmly. "I realize our story is quite far-fetched sounding, but in my opinion, you aren't in any position to doubt it. All you have to do is walk away, Trixie."

"Yes! Walk away and pass up a chance to finally rid Equestria of your tyranny! You would like that!"

"That isn't going to work, Twi." Fluttershy whispered. "I think you're going to have to fight her."

Twilight sighed and walked to the edge of her defensive dome, staring daggers at the blue unicorn.

"Alright, Trixie. I gave you a chance to run and you didn't."

With that, Twilight teleported through the barrier, her horn alive with magic as soon as she appeared in front of Trixie. Without missing a beat, she blasted Trixie back with a powerful offensive blow. The unicorn magician landed hard onto the ground, her hat falling some ways away from her. Twilight Sparkle was beside her in a second, another blast of offensive magic already being unleashed. Trixie could do nothing more than struggle as her body was continuously assaulted by Twilight's relentless magic attacks.

"Twilight!" Fluttershy shrieked, running beside her. "Stop! You'll kill her!"  

"So?" Twilight whipped around, her eyes glowing green, her face contorted in a menacing scowl. "So what?"

"She's with us here! She's one of my friends!"

Trixie lay broken on the ground, her sides rising and falling rapidly as she attempted to force as much air into her failing lungs as possible.

"Get away from her, Fluttershy!" Twilight hissed in a tone Fluttershy had only heard from her own Equestria's native Twilight.

"What's the matter with you?" Fluttershy screamed, diving in between the two unicorns. "It's that amulet, isn't it? We need to destroy it, now!"

"Are you crazy?" Twilight's voice was much louder than an ordinary scream now...either she was using her magic to amplify it or whatever force currently possessed her was speaking in her voice. "We need it to defeat Nightmare Twilight! Don't be so selfish!"  

"I...I'm sorry..."

"Good. Then let's go. We'll spare this worthless unicorn if that's what you want." Twilight said, turning away and leaving Trixie behind her. Fluttershy could easily see that Trixie would not be alright if she wasn't helped immediately, but Twilight did not seem to care. Against every instinct of kindness, Fluttershy left Trixie and trotted after Twilight.  

The two mares walked in deathly silence, Twilight leading them to their destination without telling her companion where that destination was. To the best of Fluttershy's limited knowledge of Equestria's geography, they were heading North, presumably to the Ruins of the Crystal Empire. Twilight refused to speak to Fluttershy, instead choosing to ignore her presence entirely. When she felt Fluttershy was looking at her, she would look up at the sky or stomp the ground with her hooves, disguising the frustration as simple steps.

Through the silence, Fluttershy pondered what she had done to annoy Twilight so much...no, annoy was an understatement. If she had not intervened, Twilight Sparkle would most certainly have murdered Trixie in cold blood. With a chill, she recalled her cold, almost avian like eyes, glowing green. She had not seen Twilight's face since then, so she had no way of knowing whether or not Twilight still had them.

"Twilight..." Fluttershy whispered, drawing the one word out over the course of a few seconds. Twilight turned her head slightly at the mention of her name, but still Fluttershy could not see her eyes.

"Yeah?" Twilight asked, her voice quavering significantly.

"B...back there....with Trixie..."

"I know." Twilight murmured, staring at her hooves as she walked. "I don't know what came over me there...It was like...somepony else was telling me what to do and I was just...doing it. Without asking any questions or thinking about what was right. I think you're right about the Amulet. I can't believe what I did...Fluttershy, I'm a monster, aren't I? Just say it. I know you're thinking it."

"I'm not." Fluttershy assured. "I'm thinking we should destroy that Amulet before we go any further. Its...possessing you."

"Yeah, I know. But we can't destroy it yet. Believe me, I would have if I could have."

"Why can't we?"

"Well, we can, easily. But as soon as we do, Nightmare Twilight will know. She'll know the Alicorn Amulet was destroyed and she'll know we're hunting the artifacts, and we wouldn't stand a chance against her when she finds us."

Without warning, Fluttershy leaned over and plucked the glowing amulet from Twilight's saddle-pack, placing it in her own quickly. Twilight Sparkle looked at her, first in surprise, and then fury. Her eyes sparked with green magic and she bared sharp fangs that most certainly did not belong.

"I'll hold on to the Amulet..." Fluttershy stated, having not seen Twilight's twisted appearance as she continued walking. "I'm not a unicorn, so it won't be able to possess me like you...I'll just hold on to it until--"

Within seconds of the amulet being away from Twilight's neck, it was immediately pulled back on by some otherworldly force, as much a part of Twilight as her own horn.

"You little thief! I'll kill you!"

Within seconds of uttering her threat, Twilight broke into tears, catching Fluttershy in a tight hug.

"I...I didn't say that...that wasn't me!" To her shock, Fluttershy did not run away when she let her go. Instead, she continued staring ahead, not looking at the disturbed unicorn next to her.

"I know. Everything is going to be alright, Twilight."

Dark magic was a type of magic Twilight had did her best to avoid completely...and yet nonetheless it seemed to be creeping into her life more and more as of late. First in the Crystal Empire, followed by Trixie wielding the very same Amulet that was now affecting her. Except when Trixie was possessed, she was not nearly as malicious as what she had been. She had threatened her own friend with death...and if she wasn't Fluttershy's only companion in an otherwise unforgiving world, she could guarantee Fluttershy would have left her behind long ago.

The last time she had seen the Alicorn Amulet, she could not have imagined its impact would have been this powerful. Simply holding it had transformed her into a monster within hours. A monster that resembled Nightmare Twilight far too much for her to consider a coincidence. Was this how it happened? Twilight Sparkle had been malicious and evil in this Equestria, too, but that was a far cry from the alicorn she had watched destroy every living thing without the slightest bit of guilt. No regrets, no shame or pity or mercy, no other emotions other than pleasure... pleasure at seeing her last surviving foe perish with everything else. Most terrifying of all was that she felt exactly the same as she stood over Trixie, preparing to deliver the final blow. That magnitude of evil was almost impossible to come from a pony alone...

The only thing that could affect a pony that much was dark magic. It had happened with Sombra, Nightmare Moon, and now it was happening to her. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"I think I should go on alone, Fluttershy." Twilight bowed forwards, the Alicorn Amulet floating from her neck and landing into Fluttershy's saddlepack.

"W...what?"

"It's not your fault, I swear. You've been an amazing help to me and an even more valuable friend. But I can't keep doing this to you..."

"Doing what, Twilight?"

"Putting you in danger like this. And now, even I'm a danger to you. I don't want to hurt you, Fluttershy. You have a future here. You have a daughter. Don't risk losing her because I'm too weak to fight back dark magic." Twilight signaled to the glowing bulge of green light in Fluttershy's saddle-pack, even now tempted to snatch the amulet back and make the pony who tried to take it pay for separating her from it. Instead, she extended a hoof to Fluttershy, who stared at it blankly.

"You aren't dangerous...I know you wouldn't do those things you said you would..."

"Really?" Twilight scoffed. "What about Trixie? And that was just the beginning. The more time goes on, the more corrupted I'll become. Please, Fluttershy..."

Sniffling, Fluttershy extended her own hoof and shook Twilight's.

"This isn't goodbye." Twilight assured her, doing her best to keep her eyes fixated on the pegasus in front of her and not the saddle-pack at her side. "Go back to Canterlot Lake. Everything will be fine. Before you know it, this whole past will be nothing but a memory."

Nodding shakily, Fluttershy reached into her saddle-pack, withdrawing a glistening glass object, which she placed in Twilight's hoof.

"A Compass." She explained simply. "If you really are going in to the Equestrian Arctic, you'll need it."

Without another word, Fluttershy unfurled her wings and took off into the air, soaring forwards for some distance before making a long U-Turn, flying in the direction of the billowing cloud of dust still present after the fall of Canterlot.

Twilight watched as she rose into the clouds, disappearing from her sight completely. Even with the Alicorn Amulet disappearing with her, Twilight knew the corruption within her would still grow. There was only one way out of this now, only one way to save herself from the darkness possessing her. After all, she had no intention of becoming a murderous alicorn like the very foe she had set out to stop.

Ahead of her, the Crystal Empire was hiding far beyond the horizon line, although the hints of swirling snow storms were forming all around her. What remained of the Crystal Empire in this Equestria was a mystery that only time would solve; it could be anything from a thriving city separated from the dystopia surrounding it, to an empty wasteland of snow and ice.

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