I awoke still hanging from the ceiling, feeling better rested than I had in years... maybe a few more minutes...? Dozing off, I smiled at relieving some of my fonder childhood memories...

I wake a second time, feeling the pod shifting, before being set down, and a horn punctures it, before tearing it open like a boxing knife, hitting me with a rush of cold air... I crawl out, landing on the floor with a splat. Sleeping in those things is therapeutic... I can't help but gaze at the ceiling and floor as I smile dopily.

"How did you sleep?"

Focusing on Ribbon, I smile. "Better than I have in a long, long, time."

"I'll bet, pods are meant to help grow eggs, and with shedding. Stand up if you can, you'll want the slime off before it hardens."

Getting up, I shake myself off like a dog, splattering slime everywhere. Ribbon gets some in her face, which she wipes off. "Really?"

"Yeah really... I have soooo got to learn how to do that when I shift into a changeling, its freaking cozy..." I smile dreamily.

Ribbon just laughs. "It takes more than one changeling to make those pods, I mean look how big it is." True, but...

"Remember, I duplicated myself during that fight with the griffons? Speaking of which..." I smile, about to fulfill one of my childhood fantasies, up there with the Kamehameha, and Falcon Punch. Crossing my forehooves, I say it. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" I feel myself dissolve into miasma, before splitting in two and forming into two separate entities.

Ribbon looks back and forth between the two me, unsure of who to focus on. "Ummm..." I try to walk both bodies around, but only succeed in stumbling around the room, not used to managing eight limbs or two separate sets of input. Ribbon just laughs at how I'm making an idiot of myselves. Slowly managing to differentiate between the two bodies, I focus on getting one to speak.

"Is this wor- yup it is, I'm not finishing my own sentences." Thinking, I realize something. -hey Ribbon, got any tips on how to multitask between two bodies?-

She shakes her head. "Nope. Just get used to it, you'll figure it out." Still walking, I finally manage to get my bodies organized, and was no longer stumbling. I start going through all my sense, and after moving each muscle, mentally label them with a one or two, trying to keep them separate from each other so I could control the bodies properly.

Getting frustrated, I form back into a single body, before turning to Ribbon. "Ponyville?"

She nods. "Sure, I want a shower anyway." Firing up my magic, I teleport us there. When we arrive at the town square, we were surprised to see Celestia.

She notices us, and after approaching, catches a whiff of something. "I see you two have been having fun..." Ribbon immediately blushes a deep emerald, and whimpers.

"Yeah, we were just heading to our place to shower..." I couldn't help but make an embarrassed grin. Quickly shepherding Ribbon back to our house, we showered, and I was rather surprised Scootaloo slept through that.

Suddenly, I feel something ominous pulse from the direction of Twilight's library... Ribbon looks at me, worried.

"All I know, is it came from Twi's..." I teleport us to the library, where to our horror, a dark orange cloud, interlaced with streaks of red and pink, leaked out of the entryway, Spike standing beside it, coughing violently.

"What in the name of pringles happened here!?"

"Twilight Invited *cough* Princess Celestia over to show her how to *cough cough* use dark magic safely, but it's not safe at all. She made some crystals pop up just fine, but then she started coughing up this smokey stuff!"

I charge in, ignoring Spikes warnings, and pick up the sound of Twilight coughing. Following the sound into the basement, I found Twilight spewing smoke from her mouth, and convulsing on the floor. Her coat had become much darker, and her hair wilder as well. Her eyes suddenly flew open, revealing silver draconic slits, and she began screaming, her fangs clearly visible now. I watched in horror as something in her back begun moving...

'Chi, what's happening to her?' the panic was evident.

-Tell Celestia I have a theory, Twilight has developed her own dark magic core, and is... 'adapting' to it... which somehow involves growing wings if the bulges in her back are any indication.-

'Celestia just ran inside' I hear her come running down the stairs before she arrives at my side and stares at Twilight, despite the smoke making her wheeze...

"Dear Faust..."

With the sound of tearing flesh, a batlike wing erupted from Twilights back, covered in blood, before her convulsions intensifie, and I bolted over and pin her down, trying to keep her from hurting herself.

'Isn't there something you can do to help her?!

-already doing it.-

With a ripping sound, the other wing burst free, and the screaming subsided, before Twilight went limp, the only indication she was still alive being the slow rise and fall of her chest. The wounds from the wings emerging were already beginning to seal...

"You should get out, I'll carry her up myself." I levitate Twilight onto my back, and use my wings to try and hold her in place.

"Alright." She quickly trots up the stairs, before looking back down to see me steadily climbing the stairs, trying not to drop Twilight. Following her back to the door, she exited first, followed by me.

I heard everypony whispering, and noticed that Rarity had fainted, before Rainbow zips up to my face. "You have something to do with this! don't you?!"

I glare at her, pissed that she would accuse me like that. "look, I had no goddamn clue this was going to happen either! Now, is anyone else going to start throwing accusations, or are we going to try and figure out what the hell happened!?" Rainbow slowly backs away, but doesn't break eye contact.

Thats when a sharp hiss is heard from my back... "Owwww... what happened...?" Bloody hell, she's up already!? Waiting a few moments to let Twilight regain her bearings, I let her get off of me. "Why is it so bright?" and watched as she took in the fact that everyone was staring at her. "And why is everypony staring at me?"

-Should I tell her, or do you want to?-

Ribbon whispers to AJ. "What? I ain't gonna say nothin'!" Twilight begins panicking upon hearing that.

"What? say wha-!" She then notices her new wings, and screams.

Celestia tries to calm her... "Twilight, please, calm down. We'll find out what happened." But suddenly, Discord! He had appeared in front of Twilight, holding a mirror. Twilight took one look at her reflection, and screamed loud enough for the mirror to crack.

Fluttershy immediately scolds him. "That wasn't very nice..."

Discord chuckles. "But Fluttershy, I can't just ignore my instincts. At least I'm not making it rain Pinkies."

Fluttershy gives him a look. "You should still apologize."

"CHEESE FOR EVERYPONY!" He snaps his talons, and vanishes, before I realize everyone here now has a party hat on their head, a party hat made of cheese... except me and Twi, we had helmets made of cheese. Did we just get Sheogorath'ed?

Everypony had already taken the hats off, and begun munching on them. Removing the helmet, Pinkie grabbed it and ate it in a single bite, before, grabbing and eating the one on Twilights head.

Twilight suddenly bolted into the library, the smoke having cleared when she stopped exhaling it, and ran up the stairs, before locking herself in her room. Spike cut off any attempts to follow. "Don't even bother trying to follow her, she has that room warded against everything imaginable, teleportation included. Even Discord couldn't get in there, and he tried."

Ribbon points out an obvious solution. "So we just wait for her to get hungry?"

Spike raises a claw. "She stocked food in there... as well as water, medical supplies, and other things, something about 'being ready for the end of Equestria as we know it.'"

Rainbow grumbles. "Then what do we do?"

The room can't be air tight... and a filtration system would probably not affect miasma... heh. Letting my form dissolve into miasma, I float into the library, and up the stairs, before seeing the door. Pushing myself against it, I felt myself slowly slipping through. When all of me had gotten to the other side, I reformed, and saw Twilight hooked up to one of those things she had used to analyze my magic.

"Hey Twi." She started screaming, before I walked over and put my hoof over her muzzle. "Please stop." She nods, and I remove my hoof from her face.

"How did you get in here!?"

I had to say it. "Magic..."

"But I protected this room so well, where did you get in?"

"I can turn into a cloud of miasma, and your air filter doesn't work on it."

She blinks. "Not gonna question that, you can be almost as bad as Pinkie at times... but what, in the name of Faust, happened to me?!"

"You're a Night Terror now, Twilight." Her eyes widen at that. Yes, I've decided to call what I am a Night Terror, as I can be more scary then the Nightmare at times.

"I'm like... you...?" I nod.

"At least you didn't have to go through a demonic possession and get tossed across dimensions to become one." Despite being so high strung, she burst out laughing.

Disconnecting herself from the device, she smiled at me. "True, and I really needed that, thank you."

I put a hoof to my chin. "So, where do we start... Aha! You have a second magical core now, Twilight, one composed of dark magic."

Twilight takes a quick look at the readout from the machine. "It would appear so."

"Remember how you had to run the dark magic though a second source to filter the corruption out? You can use your normal magic as that filter now. As for what is filtered, why don't you try and find it in you, and draw it out?" She closed her eyes, and focused. After several minutes, she began exhaling the same dark orange cloud, interlaced with streaks of red and pink, that had been filling the library, except without the violent coughing fits this time. So it IS her miasma... Upon opening her eyes, she sees the miasma, takes a deep breath, and exhales more. "Congratulations, you've discovered your miasma." Twilight tilts her head in confusion.

"How do I use it now?"

"Well first, you should feel for the very core of it, it should feel like... you, but malleable." When she opens her eyes again, they were glowing blue.

"Chi? This is not what you described... I can see you, but also this red and blue orb..." wait a minute...

"Describe it."

"Its huge, exerting a massive pressure, a sphere if calming blue, surrounding a core of fiery red. Wisps of it keep getting blow away, all in the same direction..." the glow fades, and she points. I realize thats the same direction as the hive. Could it be being blown towards Ribbon?

Twilight yawns, before pushing the door to her 'bunker' open, and leading me out. "This is really tiring, you should go so I can catch some sleep." Leaving, I became curious.

-Hey Ribbon, where are you right now?-

'On my way back to the hive. why?'

-This may sound insane, but I think Twilight can see ponies souls, and mine was gravitating towards the hive, or I think more specifically, you...-

'Souls? are you sure?'

-It was a pretty basic description of who I am, so yeah.-

'Take you time'

'Freaky. What did she describe you as?'

-A huge sphere of calm blue, with a fiery red core, that exerts pressure on its surroundings. And wisps of it are constantly blown off it... in your direction.-

'Sounds about right. Anyway, I'll have a surprise for you at the hive.'

-ohhh, surprises, I like surprises, I'll be there momentarily.-

'Take you time.' Taking to the air, I fly in the direction of the hive, a dopey grin on my face. I have a wonderful feeling about this. Then a thought hit me... Twilight now looks like a vampire... and not the Cullen verity... She might just redeem the name Twilight... When I did reach the hive, I headed for our room, and found Ribon had installed a door, albit a crappy one. Opening it, I was greeted to the warm glow of candlelight, and the smell and sight of flower petals, which had been scattered around the room. Looking towards the bed, I noticed Ribbon, spread out and giving me bedroom eyes...