Twilight woke early and threw the covers off of her. She climbed out of her bed and stretched all six limbs, yawning. She twitched a hindleg and reached under the bed. The folder was drawn into her embrace. The alicorn opened the folder and moved past the first three pictures and moved onto the next.

The fourth picture was of her as a unicorn, sipping from a bottle marked with an apple. An orange earth pony with a yellow mane and a cowboy hat was next to her, also drinking. The alicorn growled and dropped the picture, angrily grabbing the next one.

It was of her as a unicorn, hoofbumping the prismatic pegasus from the battle. Twilight frowned. Her parents had said that seeing a picture of this pony would bring back memories. She focused on the pegasus, Rainbow Dash. A light blue, thin structured pegasus with rainbow-coloured hair and magenta eyes. Now that her armour was gone, Twilight could see her cutie mark: a cloud with a red, yellow and blue lightning bolt beneath it. Twilight’s eyes grew wide and her world went black.

Twilight opened her eyes, surprised to find herself sitting atop a cloud. Three ponies were sitting on the cloud beside her. The two earth ponies from the pictures and a yellow pegasus. The thought of earth ponies on clouds confused her, but she finally passed it off as a cloudwalking spell. The more important thing was where she was. A city of clouds, specifically in a colosseum. The alicorn shifted slightly, only to find that she wasn’t an alicorn.

She tried to freak out and reach to her back, but she couldn’t move. She was forced to stare as pegasus after pegasus performed before her. Finally, Rainbow Dash appeared in the arena. Next to her was the white unicorn from the battle. Only… she had butterfly wings. Twilight watched in shock as the pegasus and alicorn(?) performed. The alicorn(?) focused on visuals, whilst Rainbow tried to look as cool as possible. However she was constantly distracted, failing her stunts. Finally the white pony flew as high as possible, her butterfly wings catching the sun and creating disco lights.

The alicorn turned unicorn watched in shock as the butterfly wings suddenly burnt up. The white unicorn screamed and began to plummet. Three ponies shot out from the cloud above Twilight as the body she was trapped in screamed and covered her eyes. The purple unicorn grumbled internally until the body lowered her hooves. She looked over the edge of the cloud to see the white unicorn, along with the three ponies from above falling towards the ground. She had the urge to leap after them, but her new body/prison prevented her from moving any further.

Twilight recoiled as a rainbow-coloured blur shot past her. Rainbow Dash was flying at insane speeds towards the four falling ponies. The alicorn turned unicorn watched as the prismatic pegasus dove towards them. The purple pony gasped as Rainbow’s colourful trail suddenly fanned out at the back, forming a cone around her. Just seconds later, the entire sky shook as the air exploded around Rainbow Dash, who was now flying at sonic speeds. The sound barrier had been broken.

The alicorn turned unicorn watched in surprise as a rainbow explosion lit up the sky. A moment later, the clouds shook as the sound of the explosion caught up with Rainbow’s speed. Twilight felt her hair get blown back, and was happy when she felt her wings flutter from the blast. She blinked and frowned when she realised she was back on her bed. Only it wasn’t her bed.

She had her wings again, and she was in a bedroom. But it wasn’t hers. It was a white-walled room with beautiful architecture. Gold lined the room and she was laying atop a golden bed with a plush mattress. There was a large purple star at the head of it. Whoever’s bedroom this was had the same tastes as her.

The alicorn tried to move, only to find that she was once again trapped in a body. She was forced to sit through a slow waking process, a short shower and hair session and a full hour of checking checklists.

A knock on the door made her prison jump. The door opened to reveal a young purple dragon, standing heavily on four limbs. Two undersized wings shifted uncomfortably on his back. Twilight wanted to scream and freak out, but her prison just trotted happily up to the drake.

“Hello, Spike.” her prison smiled, before stopping. “You’re here to tell me not to go, aren’t you?”

“No!” Spike insisted. “Sh-she is.”

Suddenly a blue pegasus flew into the room, eyes narrowed. “You are not going, Twilight!”

Her prison groaned. “Rainbow, I know you’re worried about me leading the charge, but I have to!”

“Twilight, you’re the most powerful pony in Equestria! Celestia said so herself. If something happened to you we’d be doomed! That’s why-”

“-I should be fighting instead of letting ponies die for me!”

“Twilight, please! I’m not letting you go!” the pegasus hesitated. “I-I’ll fight you!”

“Rainbow!” Spike hissed.

“You know you can’t fight me, Rainbow.”

“Oh yeah?”

Twilight intercepted the pegasus with a simple levitation spell. The blue pony flailed in the air as Twilight trotted around her and out the door.

“Twilight, please! If something happens to you, I’ll kill you, y’hear?” the pegasus cried angrily as Twilight walked down the hall. The alicorn flinched and shook her head as her friend’s voice grew quieter behind her. Only after she’d rounded a corner did she drop her spell.

Her host/prison sighed sadly as she rounded another corner. Twilight struggled internally as she was forced down hallways and corners to a large balcony. Her prison’s horn began to glow and her vision went black

Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She was back on her bed. Her bed! The alicorn smiled and laughed a little before sitting up. She stuffed the pictures into the folder and quickly hid them under the bed before raising a hoof to her head. What had just happened?

“Princess Twilight?”

The alicorn flinched and turned to see Comet Trail in the doorway. She hadn’t even heard the door open. “Wh-what is it, Comet Trail?”

“Your parents would like to see you in the dining hall, ma’am.” The batpony told her.

Twilight nodded gratefully, slipping on her regalia before teleporting to the great hall doors. She took a deep breath before stepping inside. She recoiled at the sight of dinner plates flying towards her. She quickly ducked, only for a few shards of glass to scratch her back as the plates shattered.

The alicorn glanced back at her wounds – nothing too serious. She turned back, only to catch a fork in her magic as it threatened to poke out her eye. Another plate flew at her, but was quickly shattered by a dark horseshoe-clad hoof. Twilight growled and expanded her magic field to freeze everything in the room. She dropped the plates and cutlery to save her magic, although she knew she could keep the field going for hours without rest. With the distractions gone, the scene before her consisted of her parents glaring at each other across the table, whilst a pair of batpony guards cowered under the table.

“What in Tartarus is going on here?” Twilight snarled, her royal front breaking.

“I told you not to call her here yet!” Sombra hissed.

“It was the only way to convince you!” Nightmare replied.

“Convince him of what?” Twilight growled.

The dark alicorn sighed, her black wings drooping. “You found the pictures, didn’t you?”

Twilight hesitated. “Wh-what pictures?”

“The pictures that-”

“No.” Sombra cut in.

“Look, I d-don’t know what you’re talking about, mother.” Twilight restored her royal front in hopes of throwing her mother off.

“I told you!” Sombra frowned.

Nightmare’s eye twitched. “Look, Twilight, just… get some breakfast and head out to the west division soldier’s quarters. We’ve spotted Celestrians exploring our boundaries near there.”

Twilight sighed before dropping her parents and leaving, taking a pancake from a stack on the table. The pancake was split in her magic and neatly eaten as the alicorn teleported to her room.

“I need to hide the folder.” Twilight worried, grabbing the folder and looking around the room desperately. Without any other ideas, she opened a magical pocket and hid the folder inside. Breathing heavily from the magical strain, she lit a teleportation spell and fled the castle.

The alicorn appeared outside the west guard house. She took a deep breath before tapping the door.

“For buck’s sake, if this is another recruit I swear-” the grey batpony in the doorway froze as he saw Twilight. “Oh, p-princess! I’m s-sorry about that, we just had a l-lot of trouble lately and-”

Twilight pressed a hoof to the batpony’s muzzle. “It’s fine. I’ve come to inspect the boundaries of this section of our land due to sightings of Equestrian soldiers.”

“Oh, of c-course!” the soldier stumbled slightly. “I’ll organize a transport party right away!” With that the batpony ducked back into the building, returning moments later with two more batponies. All three of them were wearing armour.

Twilight herself had grabbed her helmet and chest guard before leaving the castle, so she quickly slipped them on when the batponies emerged.

“The nearest boundary between Equestria and the Badlands is just a few miles south, ma’am.” A black batpony mare informed her.

Twilight nodded and the group began trotting towards the boundary.

“This is where we’ve received reports from, ma’am.” The grey batpony announced. The group had reached a large river, gushing with clear water.

Twilight glanced around uncertainly before lighting her horn with a tracking spell. Sure enough, she quickly came across the remains of Equestrian visitors. She frowned and extended her magic. They had crossed the river with weapons… explored about half a mile away from the river… seen a patrol and left.

The alicorn mused for a moment before casting a barrier spell across the river. If anypony tried to cross, they’d be sent flying back. Good thing she’d read about shielding spells. The purple pony was about to speak when two dark figures appeared on the other side of the river. Out of curiosity, she dropped the barrier, grabbed her escorts and cast an invisibility spell.

“Are you sure it was Twilight?” one of the figures asked.

“One hundred percent. But something was wrong. She didn’t know who I was, and she said that Sombra and Princess Luna are her parents!” the other exclaimed.

“You can understand why I’m hesitant to believe this, right?” the first figure snorted. Twilight could see them now – it was the dragon from her dream, but a little older. His wings were now the right size for his body, and his spines were sharper. “Twilight’s been like a mother to me ever since she hatched me.”

Twilight froze. She hatched a dragon? Nope, nope, nope she was not doing this nope. The barrier was put back up as Twilight gripped her escorts tighter before teleporting away.