There, standing five meters in front of Midnight, beholds a super powered Twilight Sparkle. Her mane and tail, flowing more fluidly than the celestial sisters, waves all of the colours of the rainbow throughout her long majestic hair. Her body, grown to be the size of Midnight, is now a heavenly white coat with her cutie mark changed to a set of golden colors. Her horn, now twice as long than before, almost as sharp as the empress’ armour. Her wings, now four massive wings with a smaller wing sprouting from each humongous wing, all gleam and shimmer brightly, illuminating the dark cavern. Her eyes, are now pulsating with the rainbow with a golden tint surrounding every single colour within her irises.

The two Twilights, now at the strongest point they have even been, slowly march up to each other, eyes locked onto each other. Each step building more and more tension as the battle is about to unfold. Whatever light was glowing from Twilight’s white body was seemingly being absorbed by Midnight’s darkened body at this point. The darker alicorn speaks first, her red eyes glowing as she speaks,

“I see you have had a new upgrade. Looks impressive, for a meager pony at least.”

“Your words do not threaten me,” Twilight responds, her voice now sounding like ten choir mares chanting at once, “I can sense the fear in you.”

“Fear? Ha, a god does not fear.”

“We don’t have to fight,” she replies sternly, “give up this act now and there doesn’t have to be any more bloodshed.”

“There’s a tiny voice in my head that’s saying that I should give up,” Her front two arms lung forward at Twilight, only to be held back by the white alicorn’s front wings. “But I can barely hear it over this other voice screaming, ‘LET’S FIGHT ALREADY!!!’”

In an instant, the two rivals burst through the ceiling of the cave and above into the sky. The nine other ponies group around the newly formed and witness as the battle unfolds. Twilight and Midnight separate right before Midnight makes her first move. Another red beam of magic fires from her horn and straight for Twilight. Twilight reacts quickly by projecting a rainbow crystal shield in front of her, absorbing the ray. The beam is fully absorbed into the shield as Twilight then flings it at Midnight like a disc. Midnight punches the crystal with one fist, shattering it into a million red fragments. Twilight then materializes a magic purple sword, thrice the size of Midnight, and swings it in front of her, ready to strike. She attempts to jab Midnight, but Midnight grabs the blade between her two front claws as the tip barely touches her nose. The empress then yanks the projected blade from Twilight and snaps it in two, spraying the sky in purple flakes of magic.

Midnight then forms her front four limbs into fist and bolts straight towards Twilight. A fist drops, only to be knocked back by a feathery wing. Midnight then launches a second fist at Twilight. It is countered again. Midnight then unleashes a full barrage of rapid punches, each one barely deflected by Twilight’s wings as they get closer and closer to her face. In a split second, Midnight prepares all four claws for a combined punch. Twilight ducks under just in time, her horn nearly being hit with a lower arm. Twilight then fires a bolt of magic at Midnight’s underside. Just before the bolt strikes though, Midnight teleports away in a flash of black light and hides in an unknown location in the clouds. The princess looks around, trying to locate the empress. The clouds surrounding her begin to spiral rapidly, with her in the center. A flicker a solid black is caught in the corner of Twilight’s eye. She quickly turns around and fires another bolt in that direction, only to be sucked up in the current swirling clouds. The bolt is flung back at her seconds later. Twilight barrel rolls and the magic bolt zips right past her and back into the current. It is fired again, this time, striking Twilight in the side. A high pitch squeal of pain echoes in the sky, followed by an ominous laugh. Twilight immediately tracks the voice and charges right at it, landing a hoof into Midnight’s jaw. A broken grunt exit’s Midnight’s throat as Twilight exits the hurricane and faces towards Midnight, ready for another round. Midnight rubs her jaw with a hoof before taunting,

“You think a simple kick of the jaw can stop me?”

“That was for Spike.” Twilight then disappears in a bright light, only to reappear right in front of Midnight and deliver another punch to the face. “That was for Borris.”

“Which?” Twilight disappears and reappears behind Midnight’s floating hind and proceeds to buck it, thrusting her still rival forward.

“That was for Gruncle Boris.” Twilight then turns to face Midnight, only to not find a scowl of pain, but a smile of enjoyment. The empress then releases a short maniacal laugh before responding,

“At least the first punch was considerable damage. The other two felt like snowballs being thrown by school fillies, maybe even enjoyable.”

“I haven’t even started on the real punishment, Midnight.”

“Oh, I think you need a lesson on how REAL punishment is dealt!” In one swift motion, the empress teleports in front of Twilight and delivers a strong metal punch into her side, launching her all the way to Canterlot. Midnight teleports once more, away from the ponies still at the Tree of Harmony.

“She’s strong, really strong,” Twilight talks to herself, panting inside a decrepit house she crashed into. “I need to get my head in the game, I have to stop her or everything is doomed…” Suddenly, six sets of claws shred through the wall Twilight was leaning on her, each barely scraping her sides. They clasp together and grab the alicorn, pulling her out of the wall and towards Midnight.

“Surprise Twi-” Midnight opens her clasps fingers and is immediately shot in between the eyes by a bolt, launching her onto the ground several meters away from the blast. A white sliver of light catches Midnight attention and sees that it is Twilight soaring high into the stormy skies. “Trying to run huh?” The empress then presses her arms into the stone road and launches herself into the sky. She then begins to pursue the princess all over Canterlot. Under a collapsing bridge, around several watch towers, barely above the barren stone streets, before finally reaching Midnight’s palace. The rain then began to grow heavy as it pelts Midnight’s exposed and irritated flesh. “I’ve had about enough of this cat and mouse game!”

Midnight’s horn then begins to glow dark as she and her target spiral around the tallest tower of the castle. She carefully aims her horn at the white blur and a black, long, thin cone is fired from it. The cone speeds up to the princess in a mere matter of seconds, homing in on her. The magic missile hits the white pony in the back left wing, sending her spiraling out of her circular path and down towards the throne room, now completely missing its walls and roof.  As the target slows down to land on the burst carpet, a black mass of metal and flesh grabs her and pins her against the wall behind where the royal chair once was. Rainwater and sweat pour down the empress’ face as she stares at Twilight’s face, her mouth cringing in pain and her eyes sealed tight in agony. However, the white alicorn in Midnight’s grasp turns to dust out of nowhere, with each silvery particle seeping through her fingers and blowing away in the stormy sky. Shocked, Midnight examines her claws and sputters, wondering what just happened.

“This just turned into a wild goose chase!” Midnight tries to look behind her to see what that voice was, but her head only makes it halfway before being slammed into the wall by a large rainbow beam of magic. Midnight lifts one of her wings towards the beam, deflecting it into the sky with the wing’s green shield. This continues for a minute before Midnight looks to and notices white cracks forming on the plasmoid shield, much to her surprise and fear. The empress then quickly disappears in a black flash, causing the beam to lunge forward into the wall behind and blast a large crater into it. The black, red, and purple alicorn reappears at the massive doors out of the throne room. She looks to see Twilight halting her magic attack before whipping her head back and glancing back at Midnight. The hyper rainbow princess’ eyes were filled with determination and rage. Midnight continued to gawk at her rival’s intimidating face.

“Illusions, how did I not see that coming?” The two ponies then begin to circle each other at the center of the destroyed throne room. “I must say, you had me tricked for a second, like how I tricked your ‘friend’ Rarity into joining my side. Great minds think alike.”

“Great minds think alike, but you have no wisdom to guide it. You’re just a puppet to those amulets.”

“Me, a puppet?  Who does whatever ninny princess tells her to do? Who is the one having their strings pulled, unable to make their own decision? You, you are a puppet, and I am the puppet master, and the Alicorn Amulets are my tools of controlling my army.”

“Well your army is all gone; they will no longer be under your control.”

“For now, as soon as I defeat you, I’ll regain control of my minions and expand my empire.”

“I will never let that happen.” Midnight then proceeds to materialize six gigantic, serrated black cutlasses, one in each claw. Twilight responds to this action by materializing a pair of purple swords, larger than the one she had before to equal the size of Midnight’s.

“Let’s do this!” The two ponies immediately lunge at each other, the eight blades clashing together between the two. Each Twilight’s two swords grinding violently against three curved swords as sparks of green and white flicker from the blade lock. Midnight teleports right behind Twilight and leaps into the air, spinning her body and arms into a rolling disc of blades. The sharp disc then rolls right at Twilight, regaining her balance after Midnight’s trick. The slashing of the stone floor behind her catches her attention and gasps upon seeing Midnight’s wheel. She reacts quickly by forming her swords into a ramp, launching Midnight over her head and into the wall. The empress stops her disc attack and prepares for Twilight to strike, only to find out her two middle blades and claws were lodged into the cracked wall. Twilight takes the opportunity and charges at Midnight, both of her weapons in a jabbing position. Midnight forms her free arms to create two pairs of cutlasses with the bottom of their pommels fused together. She then spins the dual-bladed swords rapidly, creating a pair of spinning blades. Twilight levitates one of her swords over the shields and aims it right above Midnight’s head. However, just as she strikes it down, one of Midnight’s spiraling swords catches it mid-fall and shatters it into pieces.

In a single heave, Midnight yanks her two trapped arms out of the rock wall and slowly makes her way towards Twilight. The white super alicorn backs away with her single sword awkwardly pointed in front of her as the pair of dual-cutlasses creates a pattern of burn grooves against the floor. Sparks erupt from the cold surface, with several of them landing on whatever remains of the red carpet and sets it ablaze. In a matter of moments, most of the entire chamber behind Midnight is glowing bright red with flames despite the rain pouring from above. Midnight swings her two single blades over the spinning swords and each barely clips the sides of Twilight’s cheeks. Twilight reacts by frantically walking back, only to travel a couple of feet and bump her rump against the throne room doors. The sickly black swords are then stabbed into the door along the sides of the princess, sealing her in as the spinning cutlasses draw closer to her face.

“Losing focus huh? Can’t think of a cheap way out of this one?” Midnight taunts before launching her blades towards Twilight, but Twilight reflexes kick in at the last second and she lodges her sword sideways in Midnight’s swords. It jams the attack immediately, creating a loud clang that rattles the floor around the collision. Twilight springs into action and blasts Midnight in the face with another small bolt of magic, flinging her into the center of the blaze. Midnight drops her cutlasses upon smashing face first into the melting rock. The evil Twilight tries to regain her standing by pressing her claws firmly upon the area around her, but this soon turns into a fatal mistake. Within mere seconds of this action, the flaming ground surrounding Midnight begins to crumble. The hallway from the doors to where the chair once was falls apart and plummets into the lower floors, causing them to sink into the abyss below. Twilight looks over the edge to conclude that Midnight has indeed fallen to her doom.

A heavy sigh exits the alicorn’s body as she takes a moment to remember what just happened. She looks to her left and finds a large broken shard of a mirror. She picks it up and takes a moment to examine herself in this new form.

“Is this,” Twilight talks to herself through a series of pants, “me?” She looks at the reflection thoroughly, trying to find a feature that still remained from her old self. “I guess, the front of my mane is similar, I think. I’m kinda surprised that I look so, different, but is still the same pony, yet, a monster can almost pull off tricking others that she’s me…”

A voice, a voice sounding exactly like Twilights speaks from under the floor at her hooves, “Uncanny, is it not?” The stone floor suddenly burst as Twilight is pushed up into the sky by an unknown figure. Twenty metallic fingers tightly cling onto Twilight as she struggles to break free. The back of Twilight’s head hits the back of what feels like a stone wall with a sharp jolt through her brain. Her eyes catch a quickly glimpse of Midnight being the one attacking her before two massive stone fists smash her in the face. Twilight is smashed through the cold wall behind her and hits the inside wall of the other side of the thin tower. Midnight then flies in and smashes Twilight through the other wall, sending the two of them back out into the rain. The empress then grabs her enemy by the throat as all her rival can do is look over Midnight should and witness the stone tower collapse down the face of the mountain and into the thick smog below. Twilight chokes as the squeeze of the claws grow more and more tight, forcing all of the air inside of Twilight out.

Midnight flips Twilight in front of her, causing her head to face forward and upside down and see the castle getting rapidly closer to her. Wall by wall, Twilight’s body is rammed through each and every wall as Midnight cruises at her high speed right behind her. Sharp rocks bash into her face and lower body and cut into her coat and flesh. Patches of white fur and red skin wash off of Twilight’s body as Midnight blasts her out of the final wall and into the rain.

“Now to finish you off!” Midnight tosses her arch nemesis high into the air and flies to about twenty meters away from her. Her horn glows black as she aims her horn towards the flailing body of the princess. The shadow of the charge intensifies to far beyond any that Midnight has casted, she wanted to make sure this was her greatest shot. “Goodnight, sweet princess…” A gigantic, pitch black, beam of magic blasts from her horn, beelining straight at Twilight. Time screeches to a halt in Twilight’s eyes. She stares at the mountain sized ray midway in flight as her body feels like its being sucked in towards the light absorbing beam.

I failed… This is the end, she’s too strong. All of my friends, family, and the ponies of the worlds will be tortured, killed, or worse, all because of me. I am the monster, and I cannot stop it, I’ve let every pony down, I deserve this… Slowly, Twilight closes her eyes and waits for the inevitable to strike. Not only was her sight gone, but her mind’s visions faded away as well as Twilight gives up. However, a spark of consciousness remained in her, and it noticed the emptiness around her. It’s so, empty, so, blank… Is this how Raindrop sees the world? Poor filly, I wish I can do something, but I can’t…

Twilight! You can do it! The No-Ponies’ soft voice echoes in her mind. All of a sudden, an explosion, a wave of hope and power washes over Twilight’s mind.

I can do it! I must do it! I will do it! Twilight’s eyes burst open and immediately, her mind creates a plan as time begins to slowly return to normal. She flips her body into the upright position, her wings stretch wide, her horn aims directly into the red eye of the incoming beam. The long, white horn starts to glow a massive rainbow hue, nearly blinding Twilight herself. “For Raindrop, for my friends, my family, my kingdom, my world, the other worlds, and!” A spark erupts at the tip of the horn, “FOR!” A shockwave pulses from her body, creating a rapidly expanding bubble of rain and clearing the entire sky to a clear black, “ME!!!” A solid, rainbow coloured, heavenly beam of the magic of friendship, fires from Twilight’s horn and charges straight into Midnight’s. The two beams collide violently, creating a large swirling sphere in-between the two beams. Light and darkness are both being pulled in as the two Twilights continue to fire with all of their might. Midnight’s beam however, slowly overpowers Twilights and the ball begins to approach Twilight. Midnight smirks with glee, watching as her enemy is slowly reaching her demise.  However, just before her beam is destroyed and the magic sphere disintegrates her, Twilight gives a howling roar and pumps out every ounce of energy within her. Her rainbow beam doubles in size and engulfs the sphere. It then shatters the entire twenty meters of the black beam into a trillion shards of red dust and charges straight towards the absolutely dumbfounded and shocked Midnight.

“HOLY-” In half a second, Midnight disappears within a giant beam of solid magic. Twilight continues to fire for a full minute before stopping. She looks up at where Midnight once was and sees her, wobbling in the air. “You cannot defeat me, I am immortal, I can dodge death as I will, I am a god!” Midnight prepares for another beam, her horn once again glows a large pitch black. But her charge is immediately cut off by Twilight lunging into her and grabbing her. Midnight’s six robotic arms flail and try to get a hold on Twilight, but Twilight was going too fast for them to bend low enough to reach her. A heavenly rainbow Sonic Rainboom burst from the plummeting two as Twilight exponentially gains speed towards the earth. Twilight then slams her rival onto the top of the center tower of the castle. Midnight screams in anger, but is suddenly cut off by Twilight’s horn pointed directly into her mouth.

“Dodge this,” Twilight then blasts another rainbow beam directly into the empress’ body, pumping her full of the rage and true power of friendship. Ten seconds pass and Midnight’s arms stop squirming, turning limp and lay upon the roof of the tower. Twilight stops firing and looks over what she has done. There before her, lay the lifeless body of her alternate self, an evil empress bend on conquering all, now defeated. The Alicorn Amulets were still attached to Midnight’s chest, but Twilight was sure that Midnight was down for good.

Twilight’s body soon reverts back to her normal form as a regular purple alicorn. A wave of pain and tiredness washes over her, but Twilight didn’t care, she had saved everypony. Quietly, Twilight walks away from her defeated rival and flies off towards the Tree of Harmony to open the portal to her world. However, as Twilight exits the view of the obliterated castle, one of Midnight’s closed eyelids makes a tiny twitch.

“Not yet…”