“So you want me to embrace the name and ideas of the other Twilight?”

“Yes. It would allow you to move much faster. The name Twilight holds a lot of ground with the survivors of the Empire. You are a sign of hope to so many. If we can convince them you're alive, then they would join the cause,” said ‘F’.

“Which is?” again she questioned. Understandably, this was a lot to take in. Everything was moving really fast. ‘F’ gestured for her to follow with the katana though he never answered her question. She did, and soon she found a small training arena.

“Now that we are here, we need to know what you know about that katana in your hand.”

Twilight looked at the blood red katana, then she looked at ‘F’. “Well in my timeline it was wielded by a batpony general named Nightflare Redstar. He was my brother’s mentor and when I was younger he was like a second father to me. He even taught Spike a few things about being a gentlepony, well gentledragon. In my timeline that is.” Twilight took a deep breath and then continued. “Cadence told me he had died in a battle a month before my brother's wedding. Something about Chrysalis’s forces possibly being responsible. Princess Luna has kept the katana in a safe place since then.”

“Well, sorry. The other you never told us who had it before her. Just that someone close to her gave it to her to protect her. And she always kept it close to her. She became very good with it too. And we need to see what you can do with it.”

“Okay, no promises. This is my first time, though I do remember when I was young I would watch Nightflare train while Princess Celestia was busy. So I at least know the stance and how to hold it, and simple swings. But that's about it.”

“Well let’s see then. Hmmm, how about you choose who you're going to fight.”

“Okay.” Twilight looked between Flash and Big Macintosh. Big Macintosh had strength on his side. This timeline version of him was hugely stronger than he was in then her timeline. So he was out. There was Flash maybe. He seemed to be thinner than in her timeline. Though he was still just as tall. Could he be weaker? ‘No, ‘F’ said Flash could use light magic. I know little to nothing of light magic aside from what they told me. Can he really move as fast as lightning?’ her mind was filled with questions and choices. Finally, she settled on one. “I choose Flash.”

“Alright then,” said Flash. ‘F’ and Big Macintosh left the small arena. While Flash and Twilight took their positions, ‘F’ walked over to one of the many small thrones that could be found throughout the cathedral. Once they were ready, Big Macintosh walked over to a huge gong and rang it to start the battle.

“Okay, just know I may look like your Twilight, but I’m not going to hold back,” she said as she charged forward. But faster than a blink of an eye, she missed. “What?” she turned to see he had not moved at all. So she swung backward and impossibly, it looked like it went through him. Her jaw dropped.

“Let me put it to you simply; this is not even my fastest speed,” he said. That's she when realized he was using light magic to move fast enough to dodge her. She now knew what he was doing. So she swung again. To her, it was the fastest swing she used. But to Flash, it looked like it was moving at the speed of a tortoise. He easily dodged it, but Twilight thought ahead of him as she had sent a kick the same time as the swing. This one made contact hitting directly, but not fast enough as he caught her foot and spun her around. Twilight quickly realized that kick made contact and used her wings to push her body forward, tackling him to the ground.

It had worked. She had pinned him to the ground. However, she didn’t plan for everything and found that she had pinned his shoulders under her dress. His face was now directly under her dress. “Oh no, Flash, that was not really planned,” she said with brightest red in her face. But before she could react, he was instantly out from under her. “What? How did you get out? I had your shoulder--”

Next thing she knew she was pinned. “‘F’ ten count,” said Flash as he held Twilight’s arms back as he had her pinned from behind. As ‘F’ began his ten count Flash continued. “You surprised me Twilight. Not bad for a first attempt. Oh, and if you wondering, I closed my eyes.”

“10, 9.”

“What?” she questioned. “You knew ahead what was going to happen?"

“8, 7.”

“Well, you said it was your first time wielding it. So I assumed you would mess up, so I closed my eyes at random points to try and make it easier on you.”

“6, 5.”

“Easy? That was easy?” she huffed. “So how is it I saw you under me?”

“4, 3.”

“That was my after image. I can sometimes move so fast I can create my own after images.”

“2, 1.”

“Great, that means I lose don’t I?”

“0, Flash wins.”

“Yep seem so.”

Once the battle was over, Flash let Twilight up. Big Macintosh walked over. “Well it seems you got your work cut out for you, Big Mac,” Flash said as he walked away.

“Hmm, now that that is over with, the work can begin,” ‘F’ said as he stood up from his throne.

******

So Twilight began training to become the new alternate Twilight. First was getting to know everypony properly. She spent that month getting to know everypony in the team, starting with Doctor Whooves and Derpy. She quickly found out that they were indeed married in this timeline as well, but that Dinky and her sisters went missing in the second Dark War.

And any questions about Big Macintosh’s past were ignored, but she knew something was wrong as he clutched something he had concealed. Twilight noticed the gesture, asked what he was carrying, but he would never answer her directly.

She was finally able to get some information when she found that Cheerilee was part of the Dark Rebels as well. She heard from Cheerilee that Big Macintosh joined because his parents were part of the first rebellion led by Fancy Pants against the Empire. And that they as well as Granny Smith had died saving him and Applejack. She said that they had lost track of Applebloom as a baby during the attack on Ponyville, but then years later found out that she had been found and somewhat raised by Fluttershy and the Forest Rebels.

Twilight wasn’t able to get too much information out of Flash since their battle. She got even less ever about his metal right hand. It seemed he wasn’t too talkative during the first month. However, as time went on, she found him occasionally watching her closely as she trained.

Twilight soon found out some information about the other members, like Lyra and Bon Bon who were stealth agents that gathered Intel for the Dark Rebels. There were also some papers on two ponies named Savage Raza and Robert Minder, that who were also once members.

******

Once she had gotten to know everypony, that’s when the training truly began. Month two was rough. Getting use to wielding a weapon was hard enough, but to wield it to near perfection, like their Twilight was even harder. She would train with Big Macintosh often to try and hone her skill to perfection.

Learning to use her weapons wasn’t the only training. Twilight had to also get use to using dark magic without letting it corrupt her. This type of training would have been harder since none of the others used dark magic, so she had to learn through books and not examples, but this actually made it easier for her. And finally, there was also the fact she had to know this timeline’s Twilight’s history inside and out, which proved more of a problem than any other since their Twilight had been so secretive about her past.

Months three and four went by fast as she started to get better. There was even a point where she actually knocked Big Macintosh down. That was a good day.

Month five and six were mostly spent checking out the Sky Sanctuary‘s massive library. The ancient books were written in so many different languages - Some she could read and some she requested ‘F’ to translate. She didn’t want to push him too much considering his still unknown age. He had said that light magic in its strongest form could bend time. So why couldn't he bend time for himself? Or maybe he was. It would explain why he had been around for so long, yet he still aged. It was surprising that he hadn’t turned to dust already.

She would have asked that Flash translate, but his mind always seemed to wander when around her, his eyes never directly on her. In a way, she wasn’t surprised. He was close to the original Twilight and it must have been hard to see her being quickly replaced.

******

Months Six and Seven were spent getting use to the technology. For that, she sought help from Doctor Whooves and Derpy who quickly showed her the ropes. The tech took a while to get used to, but she soon got the hang of it. She even got to fly the titan airship, though it seemed very disobedient towards her. She, in fact, heard the Doctor say that the ship simply didn’t like her.

******

The next three months were spent training in a place called the ‘Danger Room’, which seemed to be a form of training arena, covered in magical projections. ‘F’ said they were called ‘solidified holograms’, or solid illusions. Though they were illusions, they certainly hit like the real thing.

Things seemed to be going right for Twilight as time soon would arrive to leave. However, on the final month, something changed all that. One final challenge laid ahead of her as a mysterious figure enter the Sky Sanctuary.

******

Twilight got up from the bed, brushed out her mane and put on the armor the original Twilight wore. ‘F’ had told her plenty of times that she also had to get used to the look the other ‘her’ had. It took her a few times to get use to wearing it, especially in battle. Once the armor was on, she went to the Danger Room. Once there, she walked into the arena. “Okay, ‘F’ I’m ready for the next test.”

“Oh but the holograms will not be what you will be fighting today,” he said as he walked in and sat down in his throne. “Today you will be fighting Flash.”

Twilight turned as she saw Flash walk into the arena. “You know, you been ignoring me since our last fight,” she said to him.

“What can I say? You have been spending too much time with Big Macintosh.”

“Only because you won’t make a move,” she joked.

He smirked at her words as he got ready. “Well, I’m ready when you are.”

She smirked too. “Hmmm, let’s make this interesting." She was feeling confident. "If I win, then you have to go on a date with me,” she said as she took her stance. ‘Wow, where did that come from Twilight?’ her mind questioned.

“Alright, I’m fine with that.”

“What?” she caught her breath. ‘He actually agreed?’ She thought he would back out.

“That’s if you win.”

“Fine then.”

Big Macintosh rang the gong and the rematch began. This battle would show whether all the hard work and training Twilight did was worth it. The original Twilight could fight Flash to a standstill, even at his top speed.

Twilight charged forward, Flash saw it and got ready. Twilight swung her katana, Flash quickly dodged, but not before getting tripped by her foot as she swung it. Flash quickly turned his fall to the ground into a flip, followed by a spin kick. Twilight ducked and use the hilt of her katana to punch him in the gut. He jumped as her katana swung once, just barely missing his mane. He backflipped and sent his kicks forward. She jumped back and summoned dark magic to pull him back the ground. He tried to dodge it, but couldn’t as she quickly jumped up into the air, tackling him to the ground knocking up dust in the process.

She pinned him. She actually pinned him! As the dust slowly cleared, Twilight declared, “‘F’ ten count.”

“10, 9.”

“Not bad Twilight, I was actually using my lightning speed to dodge some of those moves.”

“8, 7.”

“Thanks,” she blushed. “I learned a lot in this year. Stuff from Big Macintosh, and from Cheerilee. And the books on dark magic really helped out too.”

“6, 5, 4,”

“Well I must say I am quite impressed,” he said as the dust finally cleared completely. However, as it did, Twilight’s face went bright red as she realized ‘how well’ she had pinned him. Their faces were just centimeters apart. ‘F’ stopped his ten count as everypony’s eyes widened.

Twilight looked at Flash as thoughts swirled through her head. ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ Flash’s own mind was on a similar track until, without warning, he started to lean towards her. Twilight saw this and followed suit. Her eyes quickly closed, a few final thoughts going through her head. ‘Is he about to? Oh please, let it be good.’

Flash continued to lean forward and indeed was about to kiss her however something stopped him. ‘I’m sorry, Flash.’ A single memory. A moment that he would never forget.

Twilight waited patiently for the kiss. Truth be told, she had daydreamed about it a few times. She waited longer, but something was wrong. She still didn’t feel it. The warmth inside, the ‘butterflies in the tummy’ - they weren’t there at all. She wondered why, but then her thoughts were brought to screeching halt as she felt metal instead of lips.

She opened her eyes and saw that Flash had stopped her movement with his metal hand. He meanwhile had a face of anger. But it was clearly not at her, he was angry at himself. Before she could ask, or even apologize, he broke free of her tackle, stood up and ran off.

******

Flash ran, angry and annoyed at himself. He ran to his room, going to a punching bag. He decided to release his anger toward himself on it. He punched it at growing speed, faster and faster his movements went. His speed kept increasing until all that could be seen of his fist were blurs of light.

As he continued to punch, ‘F’ walked up behind him. “Flash, we thought you got past this.” Flash kept punching, clearly ignoring his mentor. “I seen the way you look at her. You need to tell her the truth. That was the whole reason I set that up.”

“What truth?” Flash said as he turned around. “That in all this time seeing this Twilight has brought up memories that show I still care greatly for Twilight, the real Twilight? She may look like Twilight, but she is not her, no matter how hard we want her to be.” Flash continued as he stepped closer. “The Twilight I knew was strong, fierce, brilliant, and most of all, just a friend.” He continued to step closer as his anger grew. “That’s all she ever was, a friend. Friends. That’s all we ever were. I protected her, I was there for her always. I cared for her, I loved her.” Flash was now standing right front of ‘F’. “And… I was too slow to save her,” he finished by holding up his metal hand. As he held up his metal hand, memories of that terrible moment pooled to the surface.

******

<Flashback>

It was the final moments of the Third Dark War. Flash was running as fast as he could through the warzone, as well as past the many bodies on both sides. Flash saw Twilight in the distance fighting with Nightmare Moon. The two were clashing in the sky, sending massive shockwaves with each hit.

Twilight appeared to be losing, but she never gave up. Flash ran as fast as he could to get to her, but then he found himself being grabbed by an all too familiar enemy. In a teleporting light, Flash found himself several hundred miles away. Somepony had grabbed him and he knew just who. It was a purple batpony with a green mane. It was Prince Nexus Star, a.k.a. Jack Nox.

“Flash, where do you think you’re going?” said the prince as he smirked.

“Past you,” Flash tried to run past him. But then Nexus Star grabbed him by the arm and threw him down.

“You know, we never did get to finish our rematch,” The prince charged forward. He wielded tech gauntlets that amplified his strength tenfold. Flash met those gauntlets with his own fists. Their fists clashed head on. Flash quickly sidestepped and tripped him over, then slid under him, pulling his fist with him as he continued to fall. Then as fast as lightning, Flash pinned him.

“Too easy, rematch done,” he held Nexus Star’s fist in a twist behind his back. Flash looked up to see that Twilight was gaining the upper hand in her battle as well. “Looks like we may just win this one.”

“Too easy, huh,” said Nexus Star as Flash looked at him. “It was meant to be easy. I was the diversion,” he pressed a device on one of his gauntlets. Way up in the skies above dropped the weapon they were told the Empire had been developing. “Don’t you get it? That’s why I teleported you this far. From here there is no way you will get there in time.”

Flash didn’t even waste time with words. He ran as fast as he could. Faster, faster. Soon a trail of rainbow was being left behind is his wake. Each second he got closer and each second so did the weapon. The prince at the same time teleported over and grabbed Nightmare Moon, getting her out of there.

Twilight saw this and looked up. She saw the weapon slowly heading towards them. “Everypony fall back,” she ordered. The forces quickly obeyed. Rarity and Spike used the sky to quickly get out of range. Twilight would have too, but she had to make sure that as many got away as possible.

Time almost seemed to move too slow as several creatures tried their best to run. Flash kept running as he got closer and closer. He was only a mile away when the weapon finally went off. Flash reached for Twilight with his right hand. She reached for him too. Flash soon grabbed Twilight’s hand and then proceeded to outrun the ever-growing explosion. “Don’t worry Twilight I’ve got you,” he said as he ran. But the added weight was too much and they weren’t moving fast enough as explosion got closer. “Twilight hold on. I won’t lose you.”

Twilight knew if this kept up neither would escape. “Flash let go, you can’t escape with me,” she pleaded as the explosion moved even closer.

“No, not ever. If that is how it is, then I’ll die with you,” he argued.

She looked as time slowed to near a complete standstill. She knew she couldn’t get him to let go, so she would make him let go. “I’m sorry, Flash,” she said as she lifted her katana.

“Wait, what are you talking abou--Ahhh!!”

<Flashback Over>

******

‘F’ tried reasoning with Flash, but to no avail. So ‘F’ spoke the truth, the truth that Flash needed to accept. “Twilight is dead. She did that to you so you would live. Now it’s time to move on. It’s time to accept her death.” Flash squeezed his metal hand in anger. It very well looked like he was about to strike ‘F’, but then he roared in anger and a flash faster than lightning he was back at the punching bag with his metal hand stabbing right through it. ‘F’ waited a moment as his own breath started to slow. “You have to accept that she is gone.”

After finishing, Flash seemed to have calmed down, so ‘F’ turned to take his leave. However Flash was not calm at all. His anger boiling, even more, Flash turned and yelled the unthinkable. “WELL THEN DID YOU ACCEPT CELESTIA’S DEATH?!?!”

‘F’ was instantly stopped by those words. Flash tried immediately to take back what he said. “I’m sorry ‘F’ that was--”

“Flash,” ‘F’ interrupted his attempt at an apology. “You and I share similar problems.” ‘F’ kept facing away from Flash as his breathing began to slow even more. “We served our princesses faithfully, we guarded our princesses, we protected our princesses.” He grabbed his left shoulder, as he began to cough hard before continuing, “We cared for our princesses and we loved our princesses.” He coughed even harder. His breathing was getting worse. Soon he was coughing profusely. “But most of all we would die for our princesses,” he said no more as he collapsed onto the floor.

Flash, seeing this, instantly reacted, running to get the breathing apparatus, but it was still on the titan airship. Flash ran outside the Sky Sanctuary. Luckily the time bubble the cathedral created had been expanded a few months ago to include the airship. He got on the ship, however too fast to notice that the ship’s doors were wide open or that the Doctor and Derpy had been knocked out. He went to grab the breathing apparatus when the unexpected happen. The unknown guest that was clearly aboard the ship decided to make himself known.

“Well that was fast,” said an all too familiar demonic voice from behind him. Flash instantly reacted upon hearing that voice with a back kick. But his lightning fast kick was caught. “Is that any way to greet a friend?”

“I’m not your friend Cult Race,” said Flash as the two disappeared from the room in a flash of light. Meanwhile back in the hallway ‘F’ lost consciousness.

******

Twilight walked down the hallway that led to Flash’s room. She wanted to say sorry for what happen. She didn’t mean for that to happen it just happened. Twilight was worried, however, things were about to get worse as she came up to the turn that led to the room.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she saw ‘F’ lying unconscious. She ran as quick as she could. “‘F’ oh no, no, no.” She quickly got to him. “What do I do? What do I do?” she tried lifting him up. She sat him up against the wall and the most unusual thing happen. He started to cough up red dust. She quickly called for help. “Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, Flash anyone!! ‘F’ has fallen. He's coughing up some sort of red dust,” she yelled, but there was no answer. Soon she began to hear the clash outside. She wanted to check what it was, but she didn’t want to leave ‘F’ in his condition.

Meanwhile, outside, two powerful light magic wielders clashed. Their movements were so fast that it look like two lightning bolts crashing in the sky. It was impossible to tell who was even fighting, let alone tell which was winning.

Soon ‘F’ woke up long enough to say, “Celestia?” before falling back unconscious.

“No it’s me Twilight,” she said to him. 'Why would he ask for Princess Celestia?' her thoughts questioned. But before she could get an answer, Big Macintosh and Cheerilee arrived with the breathing apparatus. As they took care of ‘F’, Twilight walked over to the window looking out it. “What is that?” she questioned.

“It has to be Cult Race. Flash must be fighting him. But when did he get in?” questioned Cheerilee.

“I don’t know, but he must have been the one who knocked out Doctor Whooves and Derpy on the ship.” answered Big Mac.

“Will somepony please tell me what is going on? Who is Cult Race and what does he want with Flash?” Twilight questioned.

“That doesn’t matter right now. We just know that he is an assassin who has been nicknamed the ‘Killer of Millions’ and that he has a great hatred for Flash.”

“What can we do to stop him?” Twilight asked.

“There is nothing we can do,” said Big Mac. “The two are fighting in the sky and none of us are pegasi.”

“Even if we were, none of us could fly without pegasi magic,” said Cheerilee.

“Wait I remember reading one of those books that dark magic can come in different forms, like light magic.”

“Yeah that’s right the original Twilight used dark magic to fly,” agreed Cheerilee.

Twilight took a stance and began concentrating. “Alright then you two get ‘F’ somewhere safe, meanwhile I need to concentrate on flying.” Hearing her words, they quickly got ‘F’ out of there.

Meanwhile in the sky, Flash was starting to lose. For a while, the battles were ending in stalemates. That couldn't last forever, though. As the battle continued, Flash began to slow and Cult Race was getting the upper hand. Flash was covered in wounds and getting weaker by the second. Cult Race grabbed Flash, tossing him towards the highest pillar on the top of the Sky Sanctuary. He crashed right into it. Cult Race flew over to him, grabbing him by his left arm as he started to fall. “Now, now, Flash. Have you been getting soft on me?”

Flash quickly tried to kick him but missed as Cult Race flipped in the air. In the process, he twisted Flash’s arm. He then flew down and crashed Flash into the roof. He lifted Flash’s twisted arm and then proceeded to snap it. “Oh did I do that?” he spoke so calmly.

Flash quaked in agony at his broken arm. Twilight heard his scream and hurried her concentration. Suddenly she felt a surge through her wings. The ground began to shake and Twilight shot out the window and into the sky, breaking the window in the process.

However, she left too quickly, as 'F' barely woke long enough to say, "Twi.... don't look.... at his eye....."

Twilight quickly flew into the skies. There she caught sight of Cult Race and Flash, as well as what he looked like. Cult Race wore a dark gray, tall collared, thin steampunk trench coat and a bright, neon yellow suit, tie, and pants that were clearly meant to be a bullseye for his enemies. The strangest of all was his choice in gloves. The left one was red, and the right one was blue. It was uncertain what kind of pony he was due to the fact he wore a tall, gray top hat, but she could at least tell he had a dark green mane and his coat color look somewhat like a rotting white.

“Flash!” She yelled as she charged forward. Flash tried to yell for her to not interfere, but it was too late.

Twilight caught direct sight of Cult Race’s cold reptilian-like eyes. He simply said one word. “STOP.”

Instantly she froze. But it wasn’t out of fear or even choice for that matter. Time itself stopped around her. She couldn’t move at all. She was frozen in time. Cult Race stood on the air like it was the ground.

“Well, that was easy."

“Cult Race, leave her out of this!” Flash pleaded, but Cult Race ignored him.

“Hmm, you do look like Twilight,” he said as he placed his hand on her chest. “It is very strange.” He leaned into her. He looked directly into her eyes. It was like he was staring right into her soul. “But you are not her. No matter how hard you want to be.” Flash looked in horror at what happened next. Cult Race stabbed his hand right through her chest.

“Slow.”

Time around her began to move forward, but slowly. Twilight felt every twist of pain as he reached through her chest, carefully grabbing her heart. He began to squeeze it slowly. “You see, Twilight, I saw your battle earlier with Flash. It was quite palpable the tension between you two. How did it feel to have him that close? How did it feel when he nearly kissed you?” He began to squeeze his hand tighter around her heart. “Tell me. Did you feel warm inside? Did you feel so good at the idea of kissing him? Tell me how did it feel? Did it feel like you're heart couldn’t stop beating?” He squeezed even tighter and tighter as the blood from the wound slowly spilled onto his arm. “You should know that you could never be her. That you could never replace her spot in his heart.”

Twilight was in agony. A wound like this should have killed her, but time itself was moving so slow. He squeezed one final time. She could feel the pressure on her heart. Life was slowly slipping from her. Her mind was blurring. Everything was fading. The final thing she heard was him saying “Reverse.”

******

Twilight found herself floating in space once more. It was like the time when Rarity nearly killed her. Only this time it was different. She felt warm like a blanket was wrapped around her. She began to hear a voice, a male’s voice.

“Twilight. Twilight.”

“What? Who’s out there?” She questioned as she looked to see where the voice was coming from. She tried her best, but all she could see was darkness. She had no idea who was talking to her.

“Do you have the blood red katana?” the voice asked.

“Yes, why?” she asked.

“Good, keep it close to you. It will protect you from her power. It will keep you alive. It will keep you safe. Now I have to go, Twilight,” the male voice answered back. She slowly began to notice it sounded somewhat familiar like she had heard it once before, but only once before.

“Wait, who are you?” she tried asking, but there was no answer at all. Soon she started to wake up.

******

Twilight found herself back in the hallway where she left. Instantly she fell to the ground, puking up blood. She looked to see the window was no longer broken and that the wound was gone, almost like it was never there, however, the memory was fresh in her head.

“Twilight, what happen?” Big Macintosh questioned.

“I left and then I was back here,” she said in a confused tone.

“But we didn’t see you even leave,” said Cheerilee.

“She did..... his eyes.... Time manipulation,” ‘F’ answered them slowly before losing consciousness.again. Twilight nodded a yes as she cleaned the blood off her mouth.

“What did he do Twilight?” Cheerilee asked.

“He stabbed his hand through my chest and grabbed my heart, but before he killed me, I found myself back here,” she said. She grabbed her chest tightly, tears forming in her eyes.

******

Back on the roof, Cult Race walked up to Flash. He grabbed Flash's broken arm, pulling it up. “Now where were we? Oh yes, I remember.” He then snapped Flash’s broken arm back into place. He opened up Flash’s hand and placed something in it. “Now don’t drop this. You are going to need it to find her. It took me forever to find it. Get inside and place it on the map.”

“Why are…..you doing this…... Cult Race?” Flash questioned.

“Because quite frankly, you’ve been getting slow. I wasn’t even fighting at full speed. So hopefully, this will bring you back to your top speed,” he said as he let go of Flash’s arm. “Another reason is once you are done training Twilight, Realta wants to have a talk with you.”

“About what?”

Cult Race walked away a few feet and spoke. “Oh I don’t know, the demigod said that he will show up when you're ready to hear it.”

"Damn you, you demon!"

"Oh come on, you know I am much worse than any demon." Cult Race took his leave. He started to run across the sky. He ran faster and faster until all could be seen was a blur of light.

******

After Cult Race left, Twilight flew up and brought Flash back down. She brought him down gently so as to not hurt his arm even more. As soon as he touched the ground, he ran to the map room. “Wait, where are you going? You're still covered in wounds!” she called to him, but he ignored her and his pain. Twilight looked at Big Macintosh and Cheerilee and they gestured for her to go after him.

Twilight followed Flash to the map room. Once there, he climbed on top the table map. He opened up his hand and held out a strange looking crystal. “What is that?” Twilight questioned.

“I don’t know… but Cult Race said…. it’s something important,” he answered as he looked over the map, while the pain in his arm started to numb. He found something. It was a small hole in the map over where the Sky Sanctuary should have been.

“How can you even believe in that monster?” she questioned him.

“I don’t, however,” he leaned down and place the crystal inside the hole. “He has no real reason to lie to me right now.”

As soon as it was in, the map began to glow. Suddenly a hologram of the map rose up. Twilight and Flash looked on as it showed all of Sky Sanctuary. In the map of the cathedral, they could see a few orbs.

“What are those orbs?”

“I think they’re us,” Flash answered. “Look, those two large ones in the map area. Those have to be you and me. And over there is ‘F’, Big Mac and Cheerilee.”

“That’s ‘F’?” she questioned as she looked at the map. ‘His orb looks so twisted,’ she thought. “Hey wait, why would Cult Race give you something like this?”

“He said ‘find her’,” he said as he took a moment to think. “Hold on, I going to try something. Let’s see if I can make this bigger,” he twisted the crystal. Suddenly it zoomed out, showing the lands beyond Equestria. He walked away from the crystal and over to the map where a giant crystal spire could be seen. “This thing seems to measure magic levels.” Suddenly his eyes widened as he saw three massive orbs there.

“Where is this?” she questioned.

“This is Nightmare Spire, the home of Mother and Father. It lies just on top of Griffinstone. But that’s not the point. There are three massive levels of magic there.”

“Wait, I’m assuming two of them are Nightmare Moon and this Father guy, but who is the third one?”

Flash’s eyes widened more and smile crept onto his face. “There is only one it could be. It’s Twilight. She’s alive.”

******

Author's Notes:

So this was incredibly fun to write. Cult Race has been a character I've want to do for so long. Now for the fans of the canceled Flash Saga, this was going to be the main villain of that series. It really don't matter which timeline you follow when to Cult Race. He is the same in both timelines.