Dross in his hypnotized state was fearsome to be sure. He growled and snarled at Twilight like a rabid mongrel as he swung at her with crab and tiger claws, and he sprouted hawk wings and a scorpion's tail to dive bomb Twilight. Luckily for her, Dross' agility and coordination were severely hampered by his zombified state and she was consistently able to avoid his attacks, though only barely. Twilight's mind was flooded with thoughts, visions of what she might have to do to Dross to subdue him. She feared to act on those visions, though following them meant her survival. Twilight charged forward, slamming a magic shield into Dross' face as he dove at her. Dross tumbled back onto the ground, to which Twilight immediately followed up her attack. She tried to shield bash Dross in the temple to knock him out, but he was quick enough to evade her. As he strafed to the right, his scorpion tail lashed at Twilight's leg, puncturing a large hole in her thigh. Lamia chuckled in delight as Twilight stood still and began to grimace in shock as the venom began to stun her leg and climb up to her stomach.

"You're mine now, Princess Twilight . There's nothing you can do," Lamia sneered as she stepped down into the pit full of pillows. "Accept your fate... and his fate as well. He shall become my slave forever— my personal trophy."

"Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain from helping Alptraum?" Twilight asked as she fell to her knees.

"Alptraum promised me a world without judgment of my kind, a world where I may enslave stallions to my heart's content," Lamia gave Twilight a wicked grin as she clenched her fist tightly. "I want justice."

*

"Mommy, why can't I go outside by myself?" A young filly with red horns sprouting from her forehead asked her mother, peering through the curtains of their living room window, watching as a few fillies and colts played catch with a softball back and forth.

"Because you're just, well, you're different is all..." Her mother consoled the poor filly as she stroked her long white hair.

Posy had told Lamia time and time again why she couldn't be with the other foals; her kind was only met with judgment, distrust, and aggression. Posy found Lamia on her doorstep when she was just an infant, crying and wailing for her real mother and father. Most would've scrapped the child, screamed and tossed it in a faraway forest as soon as they laid witness to the horns and red eyes of the foal. Posy insisted that she deserved just as much as the others. Demon or not, Lamia deserved some kind of life; she often liked to think her parents wanted that for her, but she had little faith that a couple of demons would ever care about something like an infant.

A knock the door alerted them both, and Posy quickly hurried Lamia into the closet. She hastily smoothed out her red face to make it a little fresher, and she brushed her blue hair vigorously to give it a wavier appearance. "I've got a customer, Lamia. Please plug your ears and close your eyes until I tap you on the shoulder, okay?"

"Okay..." Lamia squeaked as Posy closed the closet on her. "Mommy...?"

"Yes, sweetie?" Posy replied.

"Why do you let those bad stallions beat you up in here...?" Lamia said, Posy feeling the scars on her head and chest ache as memories surfaced within her mind; the last customer was violent, and it had almost cost Posy her life.

"I just need money, sweetheart. Otherwise, I can't buy us a house like I said I would..." Posy answered her as she fully shut the door. She sighed, then opened the door slowly. "Hi, there..." Posy put on a more seductive voice as she sat down on the bed. "Care to join me?"

"What are your rates?" The figure in the doorway said in a low tone that carried throughout the room.

"A hundred an hour," Posy answered bluntly as she sat at the edge of the bed. "So... you interested?"

"Yeah," The stallion moved toward the bed and took his clothes off, preparing himself as Posy took her robe off, revealing her lingerie underneath. "Three hours."

After they had done their deed, Posy walked over to the bathroom, fixed her hair and makeup, then grabbed her purse off the toilet seat and approached the stallion. She sighed to herself as she looked at the meagre funds in her wallet, and she held it out to the stallion. "Three hundred bits."

"I ain't payin' for three hundred, skank. You only gave me two hours and fifty minutes." The stallion snickered as he stood up, putting his shirt back on.

"C'mon, you're really gonna be that picky?" Posy scoffed as she rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of exasperation. "I need three hundred, pal."

"You ain't gettin' fuckin' shit, bitch," The stallion laughed as he pulled out a flintlock from his pocket and revealed a tattoo on his neck— the mark of a Goldblood Pirate. "In fact, you've got to pay up... my higher-ups want their cash..."

"I-I... I don't have anything!" Posy began to panic; she knew what would come next.

"Then you'll just have to pay in blood then..." The stallion grinned as he squeezed the trigger on his flintlock, firing a shot into Posy's chest. As she fell back into a wall whimpering, he took her purse and marched out the door without a word.

"Mommy...?" Lamia began to tear up as the shot echoed in her head a thousand times; she felt a wave of loneliness wash over her as she heard no verbal reply, only a wheeze, and a cough. She opened the closet door and ran out into the bedroom, kneeling before her dying mother. "Mommy..."

"Sweetie... I'm sorry..." Posy groaned as her eyes fluttered. "I love you..."

"Mommy, don't go, mommy!" Lamia shrieked in horror as Posy's eyes shut and her head slumped forward. "Mommy!"

*

"Stallions are nothing but selfish animals who take and take— never give," Lamia stated coldly as her eyes locked on Twilight. "My mother was killed by a stallion, every stallion I've ever known simply used me like a tool, tortured me. I will never feel helpless before any stallion ever again!"

"You can't just write off every stallion just because of your bad luck!" Twilight winced as the venom began working its way up her spine. "What you're saying is insanity!"

"Silence! I'm growing tired of your nonsensical babbling!" Lamia said with a disgusted expression as she grabbed a knife from her pocket. "I'm going to cut your tongue out, then I'm going to cut the rest of you up agonizingly slow to savour your suffering..."

Twilight thought back to magic lessons with Celestia and Luna— her training in the Royal Garden. She remembered something Celestia had said after showcasing her true form to Twilight.

"Twilight... an alicorn is a pony who is the most in touch with the currents of the Arcane Realm— the place that all beings draw their energy from. Within these currents lurk the energy of the universe; both positive and negative. For a time, we alicorns can transcend mortal bodies in combat and attain a higher state of being. This is our Astral Form."

Her Astral Form— a state that only an alicorn can achieve with enough willpower. She thought of Celestia in her form, the form of the Sun Goddess. She shimmered like gold, stood as high as a church tower, and rained down heavenly ruin upon her foes; or that's just what the legends had claimed. She recalled tales of Luna as the Moon Goddess, the Savoir of Ccrondil who slew vampires and demons. These were the forms of gods, and they were the stories she grew up with. If she had any hope of winning, she had to embrace her inner spirits, both good and evil.

"I've got to muster up what magic I have left! I'm an alicorn! I must be able to achieve an Astral Form like Celestia and Luna! I just need to focus!" Twilight closed her eyes as she fought through the venom, trying to burn it out using the magic coursing through her veins.

"Are you trying to fight through the venom...? That's cute. It will only make it more pleasurable for me to watch you squirm and writhe as you die on the floor," Lamia snickered. "You will know true pain soon enough..."

"True pain...?" Twilight seemed to stop struggling as what Lamia said began to sink in, causing Twilight's head to violently convulse and twitch like a lunatic. The energy that she began to build up started to swell and build upon itself on its own, feeding off her stored agony. "You think you know what pain is...?"

"W-what is-...?" Lamia's heart began to pump faster in her chest as she watched Twilight stumble forward towards her like some deranged mental patient. "What is this sudden spike in magical power...?"

Negative energies began to manifest around Twilight; all the hatred, the rage, the sorrow that she felt— it was gathering in a dark cloud around her, a purple mist that enveloped her body. She breathed heavily as the darkness wrapped her in its odd shroud, gifting to her sensations of rage and sorrow, laughter and tears. Her soul was cleft in two by this darkness, and she felt her body tear itself apart as the darkness continued to caress her very soul. The mist began to swirl faster and faster, emitting a wailing cry as it sped up continuously. Gek's power had become one with Twilight's. With one last shriek, the mist exploded outwards, clouding Lamia's vision for a brief moment.

"What did she do...?" Lamia gasped as she heard both laughter and sobbing coming from the mist— an indication that there was now a new combatant in this fight. "Show yourself!"

"Aren't you a funny little thing!" An overly-cheery, almost maniacal voice echoed throughout the chamber. It was Twilight's voice to be sure, but it was beyond malicious.

"You thought you could torture us... we don't like being tortured..." A Twilight with a solemn, mournful voice mumbled.

"Who are you?!" Lamia panicked as she ordered Dross to inspect the odd cloud that surrounded them.

"We are not one..." The melancholic voice croaked as the singular figure stepped out of the mist.

"We are two!" The wicked mare cackled. "We are Maniae Gemini!"

The new form of Twilight emerged from the mist, revealing herself as a manifestation of Gek and Twilight's fractured spirits, merged into a single, yet separate entity. She was twice the size of her regular form, and she towered over Lamia. What was once Twilight was now a loose representation of the mare that once was. She was made out of what seemed to be the pieces of a grey Twilight statue, held together by the same purple mist that birthed her; they were like strange ligaments that filled the gaps where each joint was supposed to be. The statuesque mare had permanent, totally opposite expressions on either side of her face, split right down the middle; the one on the left was the sorrowful one, who had a frown that bent at an unnatural angle, and the other was the wild one with a wide grin that traveled all the way to her right ear. She hovered in the air with her head bowed. She had strange, heterochromatic eyes. The Sad Twilight on the left side had Twilight's normal eye, and the Malicious Twilight had a swirling, white and black vortex— the same as Gek's.

She still had a pair of alicorn wings. Though, like her eyes, they were mismatched. The wing on the side of Gek's eye was a black feathered alicorn wing, and the wing on the other side was composed of more purple mist. Her tail appeared normal as well, however, the mane of Sad Twilight had purple hair with black streaks that stretched down all the way to her hooves, covering most of her face on her side. Malicious Twilight's black hair on the right had purple streaks, and it was a spiked mess that jutted out in odd directions. The most disturbing trait out of all of this, however, was the fact that both seemed to breathe and blink at different times.

"This is the part of you that was resisting my power?" Lamia calmed down a bit as she assessed the situation.

The new form of Twilight said nothing more, and she immediately burst into action, charging forward at Lamia with terrifying speed. Lamia's hands extended into sharp claws, and she swung at Twilight, but it had no effect. Twilight's body evaporated into the purple haze as Lamia cleaved through her, and the mist quickly reassembled itself behind her, materializing into Twilight with her hand surrounded in a claw composed of dark purple energy.

"Cosmic Chaos: Screaming Nebula Claw!" Twilight's two halves said in unison as she slashed Lamia across the back with an attack made of dark cosmic energy, sending out ripples of arcane force that tore apart the roof of the building, letting the rain pour inside and dampen the room.

"Arrggh!" Lamia wailed in agony as she lost control of Dross; her dominance over him replied on intense focus. "You-!"

"Cosmic Chaos: Howling Comet!" Lamia was cut off as Twilight let loose a beam of energy from her stone horn, launching Lamia through the wall and onto the cobblestone street on the other side, knocking her unconscious.

"Wh-wha-..." Dross shook his head as he came back to his senses. "Twilight...?" Dross gasped as he turned to the massive hole in the roof and wall, and his eyes went wide in shock as he saw what his companion had become. "Twilight! Twilight, is that you?!"

"Don't interfere, Dross. I will kill her myself." Twilight grunted as a massive claymore composed of mist and crackling energy formed in her hand. She raised it high above Lamia, who laid flat on the ground in a heap. "Cosmic Chaos..."

"Wait! Twilight!" Dross shouted as he stood in front of Lamia with his arms outstretched, acting as a meat shield for the snake demon. "You've won! She's been subdued! There's no reason for you to kill her now!"

"I... must..." Twilight kept her blade high in the air as she listened to Dross, fighting against her urge to slice him along with Lamia. "She hurt you... she killed dozens! She deserves death..."

"I know what she did, Twilight, but that doesn't make it right..." Dross convinced her as he put his hands down. "This isn't you. You don't kill without thinking. This is not the Twilight I know. Put the sword down!"

"I..." Twilight grimaced as she fought against the darkness corrupting her sense of reason and logic, and she lowered the blade, causing it to disintegrate in her hand. "I..." Twilight's form began to melt away into a thick fog, and it blew away in the wind and rain. Tears streamed down her face as she stumbled forward into Dross' arms. "I'm sorry, Dross! I thought I could control myself... but I'm just not strong enough to overcome it! I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, Twilight... it's okay," Dross said as he stroked her hair. "We won..." Dross broke the embrace and turned to the gravely injured mare that lay on the ground behind him. "But we've got to get this mare back to the ship or she'll surely die from blood loss. Are you strong enough to run or fly?"

"No... I used up all my strength trying to sustain that form..." Twilight coughed as she felt her body go numb from the strain of releasing all that magic energy at once.

"Then I'll carry you both," Dross said as his legs morphed into the talons of an eagle and he sprouted wings from his back, grabbing both of them in his grasp and lifting them high into the air. "Hopefully we can make it in time..."

Author's Notes:

This was a quick peek into what lies ahead for Twilight's powers and abilities after the timeskip!

As always, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!