When Twilight went to sleep, she was still bound within the gates of Paradise, but when she woke up she was neither of those things. She looked around at a vast starry sky that shifted under her hooves like water she could stand on, and she moved her limbs freely.

Twilight’s ears perked up as they detected a faint sound, almost as if someone far away was whispering directly into her ears. As she followed the sound, the environment warped and melted away around her until it had fully transformed into a pitch black forest, the only light coming from the millions of stars above.

Through the trees, Twilight eventually found a clearing smothered in mist, with a tall shadowy figure standing silhouetted by the cloud, whispering her name and enticing her to come forward. Twilight couldn’t make out any concrete details, but the figure appeared to be a tall, voluptuous woman with a hypnotic, seductive voice.

“Twilight,” the woman said, “come to me.”

“Uhhh, no I don’t think I will,” Twilight said politely. “There’s really nothing but red flags about this situation, so I think I’ll just turn around and go back the way I came, goodbye!”

Twilight indeed turned to leave, but the woman’s slow chuckle stopped her in her tracks.

“You would really turn your back on the Empress?”

Twilight turned her head to look at the shadowy figure.

“Nightmare Moon?” she whispered with awe. It was no secret that the Underworld’s Empress could enter the realm of dreams, but one never fully expects her to enter your dreams, and Twilight certainly didn’t. “Honestly that’s even more reason to not stick around, so goodbye!”

Twilight turned again to leave and started walking without a second thought, only pausing after she heard the Empress’ indignant scoff. It caught Twilight off-guard just how normal and mundane it sounded, like the Empress of the entire Underworld had just been stood up by a date.

As Twilight exited the thicket of black trees, she found herself walking onto a cliffside overlooking an ocean just as dark as the night sky. Obviously she couldn’t proceed that way, so she turned back around and—

—there she was.

The Empress of the Underworld; a mare whose coat was as black as shadows, whose mane shimmered in the air like a starry night sky, said to be taller than a mountain and twice as tough. A literal goddess in pony’s skin.

And all Twilight could focus on was the fact that she chose to appear in booty shorts and a crop top. Of all things, why did the evil Empress have to be hot?!

“Usually the shadowy figure whispering your name routine works,” the Empress said casually, rubbing the back of her neck. It was disarming just how normal she seemed. “Usually piques one’s curiosity at least, but I suppose I underestimated just how much the surface ponies hate and fear me.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Twilight said resolutely, even as her legs were shaking.

“Then you’re quivering out of lust?” the Empress flashed a gleaming fanged smile, and Twilight cursed the fact that her accusation wasn’t entirely without merit. “Twilight Sparkle, you naughty little thing.”

“You know my name,” Twilight said coldly; she refused to drop her guard around the woman who was the source of all of Equestria’s conflict, even if the surreality of the situation was still catching up to her. “How? Why are you here in my dreams of all creatures?”

“I know your name because I make it my business to know everything that goes on in my domain,” the Empress said, taking slow confident steps toward Twilight, who had nowhere to go with her back against a cliff. “And I’m here because I’m intrigued. We don’t get many ponies down here, least of all ones as interesting as you.”

“Why me?” Twilight asked, but then a far more important question entered her mind. “And what about the rest of my expedition? There were nine of us, so why are you visiting me?”

“If you must know,” the Empress said drolly, clearly not interested in answering Twilight’s question but doing so anyway perhaps out of some sense of obligation, “you’re the only one of your little band whose soul I haven’t already collected.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and her ears flattened against her head.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, sweet thing,” the Empress said soothingly, appearing behind Twilight and putting her hands on the pony’s shoulders. The Empress was almost two heads taller than Twilight, and she felt massive standing behind her. “Your little friends are all still kicking around, but their souls belong to me.

“But yours?”

“Mine is with Sunset,” Twilight said instinctively, and while for a second she cursed herself for revealing that information, she quickly realized there was no way the Empress didn’t already know that.

“Ah yes, my dearest Sunset Shimmer,” the Empress sighed and walked away from Twilight, her illuminous tail brushing against Twilight on her way. “It’s been too long. Anyway, this isn’t about her.”

Easy for the Empress to say that since she wasn’t the one with a million questions on her mind, but whatever.

“What do you remember?” the Empress asked. “About your disastrous little expedition?”

Truthfully, not much. But she didn’t need to reveal that to—

“Not much, I’m guessing?”

“Eh?” Twilight gasped in shock, and the Empress laughed.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” she said with a soft grin. “It’s no matter, you’ll remember everything in time, and perhaps it’s better now to focus on what’s in front of you. Which reminds me, how are things going with your current expedition?”

Before Twilight could think to come up with an answer, she found herself bound and gagged back in the gates of Paradise, the Empress humming and nodding, and then just as quickly she was back standing in front of the cliff over the black ocean.

“I see.”

“So why are you so interested in me?” Twilight asked, her irritation with the Empress starting to outweigh her fear of her. “You still haven’t answered that.”

“Simple,” the Empress said. “Your soul being in the Underworld, available for so many different ponies to use, that causes quite a shift in the dynamic of power down here. And nothing is more important in the Underworld than power.

“I won’t beat around the bush. I want that soul for myself. It’s frankly insulting that a soul would enter my domain and not immediately deposit itself into my collection.”

“Why can’t you just come down here and take it yourself?” Twilight asked flatly, trying to hide her genuine curiosity under a layer of irony.

“I could,” the Empress hummed. “But matters of the soul are always so complicated. If I took the soul as it is now, would it satisfy me? I don’t think it would. Even when it’s outside one’s body, the soul is still connected to the person it belongs to.

“And so, I’m here to offer you a gift.”

“A ‘gift’?” Twilight almost laughed. “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe your motives are entirely altruistic.”

“I never claimed altruistic motives,” the Empress grinned, baring her fangs. “Your soul is powerful, Twilight Sparkle, there’s no denying that. I want it on my side, so my gift is something of a peace offering, to help us come a little closer and understand each other better.”

“So a bribe.”

“Bribery is petty,” the Empress shook her head, and in one smooth motion the world blurred and changed around Twilight.

The forest and cliff and ocean were all gone, replaced instead with a cozy sitting area inside what felt like a comfortable log cabin, fire crackling in the fireplace as the Empress sat in front of it on a comfortable lounge chair, Twilight sitting on the Empress’ lap as the shadowy mare brushed Twilight’s long flowing mane.

Obviously, Twilight was more than a little suspicious of the sudden change in surroundings, and of the Empress touching her, but… well, Twilight was gay and she couldn’t deny the Empress was hot, so… this was fine.

“Here’s what I’m proposing,” the Empress said. “Your soul is your power, and I believe you should have a say in what happens to it. But without magic, you have no power. I am willing to grant you a small fragment of my power.”

“At what cost?” Twilight asked skeptically, trying to put aside how good the Empress’ fingers felt running through her mane.

“None,” the Empress smiled. “I’m confident you will see the wisdom of siding with me in time, so I have no need to extort you.”

“I uh, I guess I appreciate your generosity,” Twilight pushed up her glasses and affected a smile, “but I’m not interested in accepting ‘gifts’ from you. Besides, I have faith in Sunset.”

“And what if Sunset is the one who needs your help?” the Empress stood up, holding Twilight bridal style in her arms as the scenery around them transformed again into a blindingly white and red chapel. “You have no magic, your weapon was destroyed, you’ve been defeated once and captured and are now utterly helpless. If someone manages to snatch the soul away from you too, it’s all over for you. Don’t think the next creature who gets ahold of it will treat you as generously as Sunset Shimmer.

“And after all,” the Empress chuckled, gently swaying Twilight back and forth in her arms, “you need to be kept alive for the soul to function. That’s not a luxury afforded to Sunset.”

The Empress dropped Twilight onto her hooves, though she quickly faltered and fell on her hands and knees, the Empress towering over her.

“So what will it be?” the Empress asked coldly. “Risk Sunset’s life with your own weakness, or risk trusting me and accepting my offering? What would Sunset want you to do, do you think?”

“That’s a good question,” Twilight laughed. “I honestly don’t know. She might say ‘what were you thinking trusting someone other than me’, or she might say ‘what were you thinking turning your nose up at free power’. Either way, she’d think I’m an idiot.”

That was sort of the final straw for Twilight. The last thing she wanted was to lag behind Sunset, forced to be dragged behind her companion through their entire journey. Twilight held fast in her faith in her skills and her training, and it hadn't been enough.

She needed to be realistic. She was too weak. She needed more power.

“Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said, looking up into the gleaming fanged smile of the Empress and feeling her heart pounding in her chest, “I have to decline.”

Power or no power, Twilight had no reason to trust the Empress, and the last thing she wanted was to be in Nightmare Moon’s debt.

“Hm, fair enough, I suppose,” Nightmare Moon shrugged, and then flashed that wicked grin of hers once more. “But at the very least, once you wake up you will find your weapons repaired and sitting by your side. You can choose not to use them if you really want to, but I would prefer you to stay alive.”

“I—” Twilight’s eyes flashed before her, and the Empress was gone. The lights were back on over the Circle, Twilight could tell based on the light filtering in through the halls of the gates of Paradise prison. Sure enough, there were Twilight’s lance and shield, lying beside her.

It was a simple matter to teleport herself out of her bonds over to her weapons, and when she picked them up they felt entirely familiar, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had been duped somehow.

“Oh well,” Twilight sighed. “I guess I’d better go rescue Sunset Shimmer.”

twilight's biggest weakness in canon is that she can't stop falling for evil women. happens to her all the time

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