Prologue

It starts way in the past – before Celestia and Luna’s rule, Equestria, the Windigos.

A young Black-furred unicorn with a Blue mane and tail with a Cutie Mark depicting a constellation is mixing some potions in a rather poorly-lit laboratory. She hears a bang and sighs heavily in response, to go help the ‘professors’. She is the only apprentice left to keep up with their bad attitude they would show their apprentices, as one of the 40 professors had adopted her and took her in when she was completely alone and helpless – now, she helps them in any way she can.

When she makes it to the source of the explosion – perplexed by the amount of flashing lights outside the open door, she finds their bodies being absorbed into a white sphere in a storm of light and wind. Shouting, she tries to help the only family she knows out of its pull but fails. Her grip fails her and the last one of them is pulled into the black-hole – like sphere. When all the professor’s minds and bodies are absorbed, she lays down and sobs, thinking that she failed them and believing that they are lost forever – then hears an obscure voice out of nothing, "We... are... Citadel.” The sphere flashes a bright white light engulfing her and everything in the room.

When it recedes, she is gone as well.

Author's Notes:

Here we go! The phrase 'We are Citadel' was supposed to be in old english font, but thats not possible... so we're gonna have to stick with bold Italix. *sigh* that feature was important.

Awakening

Back to the present. It has been a few years since the defeat of Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. Our story begins with Daring Do and Dr. Caballeron exploring an ancient temple-like place in the frozen north. In this time, with Princess Twilight’s help, they put aside their differences and work together, while Daring Do keeps Dr. Caballeron in check so he doesn’t steal anything.

The place that they are exploring is older than Equestria itself, and interestingly, it is simply a network of plain metal hallways – some ending at dead ends while others simply lead to repeated junctions. Strange how everything in the area was made with bare and smooth metal. Hooves clanging against the metal flooring, they come across a different area – this one is large circular room with two giant metal Alicorn statues on either side of what appeared to be a massive metal egg.

“Large enough to fit a pony inside.” Daring Do thought to herself. She approached the egg, her interest in it suddenly spiking upon hearing a familiar sound emerge from it. Upon more focused listening, Daring Do finds out that this ‘egg’ has a heartbeat. With the help of Caballeron and his goons they crack it open. Weird yellow goo bursts out along with a familiar looking unconscious cyan rainbow-haired pony.

Panicking, Daring Do hastily dries the pony and puts her in an earlier discovered south-Equestrian sarcophagus that, Dr. Caballeron had with him for some reason, to take her to Princess Twilight without raising suspicion. At this time Twilight is about as tall as Luna with a flowing and sparkling mane.
Daring do interrupts her meeting in the throne room of Canterlot Castle and gets her attention by whispering something in her ear. Upon hearing this she appears shocked and excuses herself from the now unimportant meeting – she immediately calls the rest of her friends who are all equally surprised by the sudden urgency of the situation.

While Dr. Caballeron stays behind, Daring Do unveils her find to Twilight in the additional company of Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. They have not changed by much. She shows the group a pony mare who looks exactly like Rainbow Dash, except without wings and a cutie mark while being noticeably younger than her – but still fully grown. Rainbow Dash has no remote idea who she is. Twilight then calls Zecora to confirm the why the pony is unconscious, as her own magic was ineffective in waking her up.
Zecora arrives promptly, and confirms that the pony in question is indeed in a drug-induced coma. She then tells Twilight that she knows how to make the required potion to wake her up. “Although the cure is easy to prepare, I must confess, the key ingredient is quite rare.” She goes on telling them that a rare type of lichen that can only be found in the frozen north is needed for the potion. However, if she is not woken up in three days’ time she will have permanent brain damage and may never wake up. Upon hearing the chilling news, Rainbow Dash immediately volunteers herself and the Wonderbolts to go find it, as she needs to know who this pony is. She sets off with Soarin, Fleetfoot and Spitfire, who trust her judgment and follow her willingly despite her short notice.

The Wonderbolts fly above and over the Pie family rock farm, where Marble is sulking around some rocks. She is still bitter about Big Mac marrying sugar belle. To calm herself, she retires to her own quite place, a small cave lined with gemstones, and begins hammering a wall with her hooves in hopeless frustration. Suddenly, it collapses and she squeals as she falls into a strange undiscovered area. It has remarkable similarity to the area previously discovered by daring do and Dr. Caballeron. Except this room has four imposing metal Alicorn statues rather than two. Scared, she tries to make her way out, only to find that her exit has been sealed by falling rocks. Her panic attack is interrupted by a soothing voice that appears to be coming from nowhere. It tells her that it can help her get over her fears and weaknesses by giving her a power that will destroy her needs for companionship. It convinces her to break the giant egg in the center of the room and to tell the pony who comes out of it that her name is Black Nebula and she must remember Citadel – this pony will give her a set of tasks to strengthen her and help her get over her ‘pathetic’ crush. Marble complies – not knowing what else to do.

A Black Furred pony with Blue hair tumbles out of the egg in a heap of yellow goo, immediately regains her consciousness as Marble approached her slowly. She leaps up and tries to choke Marble against a wall, who quickly tells her what the voice had told her earlier through gasps – almost blacking out in the process. Black Nebula’s eyes widened and she drops Marble, and tells her that she is impressed. She somehow forms a metal horn on her head out of with red lightning – and then strikes the four statues with four bolts of it, turning them into ponies – Silver Void, Solar Flare, Stellar Phantom and Dark Abyss. She then looks at marble and tells her, “Here’s what you have to do.”

Author's Notes:

XD
Should I paragraph it more or is it fine?

Sapphire Prism

Meanwhile Twilight has moved the mysterious cyan pony into a room in her palace as discreetly as possible, with only a trusted few who know she is there. She prays that the Wonderbolts arrive with the lichen on time.

Unfortunately the four Pegasus find themselves in a very powerful icy storm. After receiving directions form the crystal empire and news that it will not die out in a week, they headed straight into it. The lichen would only be found there and they were running out of time. They quickly got separated and are forced to land. Not long after landing Spitfire comes across the lichen latching itself onto an exposed rock. She signals the team to bail with a red flare she had on her, then flew up and out of the storm, after which she passed the lichen to Rainbow Dash, since she is the fastest of the lot. Rainbow takes it and reaches Canterlot in a hurry.

One day early, Zecora had quickly prepared the cure and given it to the mare, who will awaken in about a days’ time. Satisfied, Twilight leaves the pony in the room to welcome the rest of the Wonderbolts back while Rainbow goes to rest. When the rest of the team arrives, completely out of breath, she finds out that Fleetfoot isn’t with them. Worried, twilight sends 5 royal guards after her as the remaining Wonderbolts rest.

In due time, the mare wakes up, and has a panic attack upon seeing Twilight – who had been waiting for her to awaken. Twilight tells her to calm down and reassures her that she is safe in her castle, then asks for her name. The mare confesses with a shocked expression that she doesn’t remember – in fact, she doesn’t remember anything about how she got in the metal ‘egg’ and why she was there. The rest of Twilight’s friends arrive later and express their disappointment at the news, especially Rainbow Dash. They decide to let her out of the castle and monitor her using a buddy system. Rarity gives her the name Sapphire Prism, as she currently doesn’t have one, which she gladly accepts.

Arctic Snow

Fleetfoot woke up in a dark room, slightly bruised from a rough landing but otherwise unharmed – except she is in a cage chained to a wall. Feeling more cold then confused, she wraps her wings around herself for warmth. She then noticed a large white unicorn in silver armor outside her cell, who she asks of her location to. The unicorn jumped upon hearing the tired Pegasus speak, then glared at her before leaving and quickly returning with another strange guard to drag her out of the cell. They bring her to a great white hall with many such guards and other ponies, except they are all white or have very pale shades of color.

The watching crowd gasped and murmured as the two guards forced her down and announced, “The prisoner is conscious.” Fleetfoot looked up wearily to see a white alicorn with a flowing white mane, who her who she is in a commanding and echoing voice. She answered, terrified. The alicorn scowls in response and asks her if she is a spy. Confused, Fleetfoot answers no, only to hear a disbelieving snort. Except this did not come from the alicorn, but from a shadowy area behind her throne. “She lies.” A threatening metallic voice from the shadows announced. Fleetfoot can only make out two red eyes in the darkness as she pleaded otherwise.

The shadow tells the alicorn that Equestria now knows of their presence and that they have sent this spy to prepare an army to destroy something called the Arctic Kingdom. The alicorn looks towards the figure in the shadows, then back at Fleetfoot. Frowning towards Fleetfoot he says, “Tell your princess that I, Arctic Snow, prince and ruler of the artic ponies, am coming for her and her traitorous Equestrians. No Stallion, mare or foal will escape the war you foolishly wanted to start. A war that we will end” His horn then started to glow with a white aura that quickly surrounded Fleetfoot just before she lost consciousness.

Preparation

Back in ponyville, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and a teenage spike are showing Sapphire the town – Spike being absolutely thrilled about the possibility of a new friend despite the mystery behind her. Twilight decided that it was best if she stayed in ponyville with Fluttershy rather than in Canterlot. Soon after arriving in the quaint little town, Rarity dyed Sapphire’s mane a solid marine-blue to make her look less like Rainbow, who was still napping from her hardcore flight earlier. While merrily trotting away from the spa, Sapphire bumps into a galloping, nearly-breathless Marble in between a lively discussion with Applejack. Pinkie yelped in excitement and bear hugged her sister, causing her to drop her saddlebag, and then hastily introduced her to sapphire, who quickly greets her. Marble squeals, breaking off pinkie’s stranglehold, scooping up her saddlebag and running off towards the train station. “BYE MARBLE!” Pinkie yells after her, telling a confused Sapphire that she is usually like that.

At the end a day filled with activities all the four friends appreciated, Sapphire slumped into Fluttershy’s sofa in her cottage and fell asleep. Twilight visited Fluttershy that night to ask of the progress. Fluttershy sadly responds that although they had fun doing things like throwing mini-parties, baking cakes, sowing dresses, bucking apples and taking care of animals, nothing seemed to jog her memory. And since they had their duties at the school of friendship the next day, they may not have enough time to do so until the end of the week! Twilight sighs thoughtfully and says that this calls for more drastic measures, and they both watched Sapphire sleep soundly on the couch, concerned over who she really is.

The next day Twilight excuses all her friends and Spike from their morning duties in the school of friendship to call them over ‘the Sapphire issue’. She tells Sapphire that only the pony who put the memory suppressing spell on her could remove it, or somepony stronger. Sapphire gives Twilight permission to try, after Twilight warns her that it could be slightly painful. Twilight’s horn begins to glow and a beam of purple light shoots towards sapphire. After a short pause, Sapphire screams in pain and Twilight stops abruptly with a look of terror on her face. Everypony looks towards sapphire to see if she was alright, except Rainbow Dash, who furiously asks Twilight what the hay that was. Twilight tells her that the spell would only be that painful if it was completely unsuccessful – which would only be possible if the caster of the spell was magically much, much stronger than Twilight. Worrisome silence filled the room

Suddenly an out of breath Ocellus bursts tore through the silence as she burst into the room, shouting for Princess Twilight. Not allowing Twilight to ask why and how she was there, she burst into an explanation, saying that she was scared and was told to find Twilight here, and the tree of harmony had gone bonkers. The last line having a profound effect on everypony in the room, except Sapphire of course. “The tree of what now?

After hastily teleporting to the tree of harmony, they all find the magical crystal treehouse pulsing with red light and developing cracks as the rest of Ocellus’s friends desperately and hopelessly tried to stop it from collapsing. Twilight pulls them all back in a nick of time as large chunks of it finally fell. The thing was, when giant chunks of now-black crystal hit the ground, they would shatter with a bang and simultaneously turn to dust – disappearing completely and without a trace. Just like that, the entire tree was gone in minutes, Twilight stood there, dumbfounded, with everycreature else as Starlight Glimmer teleported to the scene with an out of breath Sandbar – too late to provide help.

Not knowing what else to do, Twilight returns to canterlot with her friends, more determined than ever to recover sapphire’s memory. She feels that her memories hold the key to whatever just happened. But she would have to delay that endeavor, as a travel-weary Fleetfoot crash-landed at the gates of canterlot castle, surprising everypony as her search party had not yet returned – everypony had thought something terrible had happened to her. Considering what did, they were not far from the truth. Everypony just stood there, shocked, as Rainbow Dash and Twilight ran to her. She looked like she had been whipped and scarred by somepony very cruel. She looked at Twilight in the eyes and wheezed, “Invasion… Canterlot… Army… Three days…” before passing out. Many ponies had heard her in the eerie silence and their gossip quickly started a canterlot-wide panic. Twilight assured the ponies that everything was fine and ordered them to remain calm, but the destruction of the tree of harmony left her just as uneasy as the population – the timing of it was too perfect to be coincidental. Invasion? Army? Three days was too little to prepare! In her own little panic attack she called both Fizzlepop Berrytwist back to canterlot for military consulting and Shining Armor to create a shield in case of a worst-case scenario to Canterlot from the Crystal Empire.

At the end of the very same day, as these two ponies boarded the train for Canterlot from the Crystal Empire, Marble got off and made her way to the crystal palace. Security was slightly tighter than usual, but not as tight as Canterlot’s was going to be due to the recent threat. Marble took a deep breath and told herself to do what Nebula told her to do and she would be fine. Better than fine really – the plan was pretty much flawless. Despite being responsible for the destruction of the tree of harmony she felt a strange calm over herself as she made her way to the crystal heart. Not wasting any time, she opened her saddlebag and took out the silvery metal feather whose strange magic had destroyed the tree of harmony. Then she threw it at the heart and shattered it completely. The noise got the attention of the guards, who ran over and captured her, but not before she was able to scoop up some of the crystal shards that had fallen from the central area of the heart. They presented her to Princess Cadence, who immediately recognized her and demanded an explanation. Normally, Marble would cower in fear and quietly sob, but something had changed in her. “You will find out soon enough Princess.” She said with a sly and foreboding smile that was completely foreign to her face.

“You will find out very soon…”

The Forerunners

The next day everypony in both canterlot and ponyville was busy prepping for the invasion. Nearly half of the armed forces of the Crystal Empire had come to help. Civilians moved into various safe houses in the countryside that would be away from the fighting as canterlot’s army mobilized in the city and the town. All of Twilights friends, including Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie and Sapphire Prism insisted that they stay with her in canterlot.

Outside the castle on the very mountain Canterlot was mounted upon, a shadowy hooded pony-figure with a dark black-and-red cloak silently made its way to the castle. It crept up a side of the castle walls and flicked out the retractable claws on one of its hoofs to silently attack an unsuspecting guard under the radar. It had been doing that for a while now and had made its way deep inside of the castle, silently using a crossbow to stun guards with darts and a complex grappling hook to attach them in between the roof supports of the high-roofed corridors to get them out of the way.

Using its Pegasus wings it made its way into the attic of the castle – reaching the part above the royal chamber where Twilight was discussing strategies with her elder brother and the newly reinstated commander Tempest Storm. It quietly removed a tile from the roof-drop to get a proper view and watched silently.

After listening and memorizing the most likely strategies, it pulled out its crossbow and fired a silent arrow in an arc-like manner towards the area directly behind Twilight’s vacant throne. The thing is, this arrow was tipped with a metal feather similar to the one Marble had used earlier. Except this one was a homing beacon to give somepony very dangerous a location to teleport to.

The masked Pegasus mercenary once again sat still and watched. The chaos that was about to unfold was not to be missed.

The three ponies were later joined by the rest of Twilight’s friends and received news that old Princesses themselves were en route. Celestia and Luna. They may be retired but they would not turn a blind eye toward the threat of a war. Tempest departed to give her instructions to the royal guard to safeguard the vulnerable parts of the castle – and to brief the soldiers as the temporary commander for the situation. Somehow nopony had noticed the foreign arrow behind twilight’s throne – and that it was flashing and buzzing with red lightning.

With an explosion of red lightning Twilight’s throne burst off its pedestal and flew across the hall over the heads of the surprised ponies, barricading the door with scary precision. They did not even have time to look towards the direction it flew from before they were forced on their knees and stunned with more red lightning – all except Twilight and Shining Armor, who gasped in shock at the two massive shadowy Alicorns who stood where her throne had once been.

“Who are you?” Twilight shouted instinctively, “What do you want?”

One of the Alicorns spread out its wings and floated towards her, landing with a metallic clang – at this point Twilight realized these were not regular Alicorns. Their entire bodies were made of what appeared to be strips of metal folded in a mosaic-like way to from alicorn-like figures. Their eyes glowed red and sparked red lightning, like the lightning that was crackling around their horns. They had no mouths yet appeared to be grinning evilly. The closer one bent its head down to twilight’s eye-level and snarled in a deep metallic voice as if it was wearing a mask.

“To end you.”

Twilight shot a powerful purple beam of magic from her horn in retaliation, but the metal alicorn simply took a step back absorbed it and responded as if it had been breathed on by a fly. It then gripped her in its red lightning and held her up to its own eye-level in a choke-hold. “If this is the best Equestria has to offer, you’re in trouble.” Then it used magic on her to shrink her back into how big she was back when she was just a normal pony’s height.

“Twily!” Shining armor shouted, only to be blasted with lightning from the other metal Alicorn and flung across the room. Somehow he retained his consciousness and muttered to himself that they were early and that they still had two days to prepare.

The second metal figure glared at him and said in a similar tone as its ally, “They have two more days, you do not.” Shining frowned in confusion, then his eyes widened in shock. “How could you be so stupid as to abandon your family and kingdom by taking half of your own army to aid in another’s war?”

Not giving Shining time to respond the door burst open as Twilight’s throne failed to do its current job and Tempest Shadow burst through, accompanied by the lord of chaos himself and a troop of royal guards. “Now.” Discord started, “I love a good and chaotic scuffle and all, but I’m going to have to ask you metal ponies to…” he paused when he saw Fluttershy’s slightly burnt and unconscious body on the ground. The room suddenly darkened as he gritted his teeth. “Now you’ve done it. NO ONE HURTS FLUTTERSHY!”

He charged at the metal Alicorn who was closest, who simply narrowed its eyes and flung a now unconscious twilight out of one of the large stained glass windows. Everypony gasped in shock, but Discord didn’t seem to care as he charged at the Alicorn with murderous intent. It reared itself up on its hind legs and struck discord down with a blinding blast of lightning so powerful that it flattened Discord onto the ground. “A lone Draconequus alpha. How useless. And siding with ponies! This is not why we spared you Discord.” Discord looked up at it with fury in his eyes.

“Then again, you don’t remember who you really are and what you really did to them… Let me change that.”

With a small spark of lightning it stunned Discord – then looked up at Tempest and her company of shocked royal guards. “Your reckoning is coming soon Equestrians, Citadel does not forget. We - The Iron Guard - will end you all!” And with a blast of lightning the second blew a hole in the roof and they both flew out of it. Tempest looked up to the hole and saw the smaller one near it from which the mercenary had been watching and eating popcorn the entire time. It stopped abruptly as it met her gaze and quickly replaced the panel in the roof. Tempest shouted to the shaken guard to wake up Rainbow Dash and give chase to the two metal Alicorns. She herself blasted past those standing behind her to pursue the mysterious masked Pegasus from the ground.

She did not stay hidden for long.

Tempest blasted the portion of roof directly in front of her. The surprised mercenary fell through, and quickly turned around, widened its gaze in surprise and continued to flee with renewed energy. It ran into two royal guards, who were coming from the opposite direction. The figure flipped out its claws and slashed their spears in two, then kicked both of them aside. This attack gave Tempest the opportunity to reach and tackle her, but the Pegasus used her hooves to send Tempest reeling over her just as she did. It got up and shot at Tempest with its crossbow, but Tempest darted her head aside and caught the arrow in her mouth, then crunched it with her eyes full of venom and her broken horn fuming with raw magic. The Pegasus immediately realized that it was lucky to still be conscious and quickly smashed through a nearby window to her right, descending to the rooftops of canterlot city and disappearing behind them.

Tempest hit the wall in anger as she had sprinted towards the broken window to watch her foe escape. Then she looked up to see a streak of rainbow zoom past her overhead followed by five clumsy and slow royal guard ponies pursue the already far-away so-called Iron Guards.

The two metal ponies ahead stopped and looked at their pursuers. “Can you handle them?” One asked the other.

“Oh please, I was always stronger than you Solar Flare.”

The other snorted and formed a white cauldron shaped portal lined with red lightning then disappeared through it, leaving the iron guard who had beaten Discord himself behind. He charged at the incoming rainbow streak with the intention to slice it in half, but rainbow dash was too quick for him. She darted aside and pounced on his head, leaving him startled for a second. The royal guards quickly caught up and pounded his head with their spears one at a time. “Ha!” rainbow shouted, “gonna have to do better than that clumsy!”

“My name.” the Metal Alicorn hissed, “is Black Abyss.”

He blasted one of the royal guards with red lightning, shot two other with a metal feather flung from either wing and punched the remaining two out of the sky with his metal hooves. They were too slow for him - Rainbow dash wasn’t. She continued to pounce and pummel his head, maddening him to a point of no return. No matter what tactic he used she always avoided it with her superior aerobatic skill, all while shouting belittling taunts to him. She stopped her assault, flying away from him and faced him directly as he shook his head for rebalance.

“Time to end this.” She said as she charged at him with a sonic rainboom. The metal Alicorn narrowed his eyes and hissed, “My thoughts exactly.”

This time he darted aside and bolted one of his blade-like wings upwards to slice Rainbow in half. She gasped as she tried to steer clear of it, but she was going too fast to do so on time. The bladed metal wing cut her left wing clean off, and she plummeted to the ground.

Twilight gasped in horror as she saw rainbow fall – having just recovered herself. “No!”

The iron guard’s eyes were bursting with glee and he made another cauldron-like portal and teleported away with a burst of red lightning.

Discord's Truth

Rainbow dash opened her eyes in the castle’s medical ward that was attending all the injured royal guards - the ponies the black-clad assassin injured, the ones attacked by ‘Black Abyss’ , including Discord himself, who was awake at Fluttershy’s bed with a defeated expression on his face. Rainbow met Twilight’s worried gaze, who asked if she was alright. Rainbow answered that she was fine and tried to get up, despite her aching body and Twilight trying to stop her. Her enthusiasm to kick some flank disappeared immediately when she looked behind herself and noticed the prosthetic wing on her back. Her face suddenly darkened as she muttered, “My wing, my wing.” Through gasps. She teared up and hugged Twilight, sobbing.

Meanwhile the rest of the Mane Six had woken up and Fluttershy assured discord that she was okay – so he excused himself and dragged himself out to be alone with his thoughts. Ignoring all the fuss, Fluttershy got up and sprinted after him, to find him outside in the gardens under a tree. She gingerly trotted up to him and laid a hoof on his shoulder that only made him sigh louder. She asked if he was alright, to which he responded no. He then proceeded to tell her why, he was a monster, a liability and had no power against the Iron Guard. Fluttershy frowned upon hearing that name, and replied by saying that he was not any of those things because he had tried to save her and the iron guard had caught him by surprise.

He looked her in the eye and said that she didn’t understand. He was a draconequus alpha in something called the draconequus army long before the formation of equestria. He had done terrible things to ponies and the iron guard had banished the entire army as a result – they were the protectors of ponies at the time – something they had sacrificed many of their own for, reducing their numbers from fifty to eight. They left him behind to punish the ponies of equestria for betraying them until they finally returned – that is why he is the only draconequus left.

Upon hearing this she lights up and says that they can use this information to stop them. She grabs his paw and tries to move him but he remains still, saying that he did horrible things to ponies when he was in the army that he could never be excused for, despite Fluttershy saying otherwise. He then said that he couldn’t bear to be around her for fear of harming her due to that past nature of his – his addiction to consuming the magic of equestrian ponies like it was a harmful drug. Fluttershy begged him to stop but he refused, hugged her quietly and said goodbye, apologized for all this being his fault and then turned himself into stone under the tree with a snap and a sad smile. Fluttershy panicked and shouted his name, but he was already solid rock. She panicked more and flew back to Twilight to tell her what happened, who arrived at the scene with the rest of her friends to stare helplessly at the gloomy statue of discord – hopelessly failing to understand why he did so.

Twilight had nearly run out of ideas when she saw two Alicorns descend into the garden from the sun with angelic grace and posture. The two retired princesses landed regally as the jaws of everypony dropped in awe. Celestia smiled at twilight warmly, while Luna snorted and muttered, “We leave for a few moons and it all falls to pieces…”

Twilight gasped as she saw Luna and made her signature ‘Idea’ face. She hastily explained what happened to Discord and told Luna that, with her help, she could enter Discords mind and find out why he did what he did. Luna agreed to do so, just as soon as Twilight explained why she was little again. Ignoring the question, Twilight’s horn glowed purple and its magic wrapped itself around Luna’s own horn. Sighing, she cast her dream walking spell on the statue of Discord and connected Twilight’s mind to his.

Twilight awoke in a grassy field, confused due to the lack of chaos around. She called for Discord, but received no answer. She made her way to what appeared to be Fluttershy’s – now abandoned – cottage, trotting past it, she found a rather sulky looking discord drooping under what appeared to be the same tree she had found his statue under. Without turning to face her, he asked her why she was there with a low groan and defeated voice. She answered - to bring him back from stone. Discord simply shook his head without making eye contact and told her to leave before he unknowingly hurt her. She asked him why he would do such a thing. He turned around slowly to face her for the first time and said, “Because I’m a Monster.”

Twilight tried to reason that that was a long time ago, and that he changed – he shook his head, and said that he meant something else entirely. Twilight tilted her head with curiosity and discord told her the part of his story that he himself had been denied from knowing.

He told her to forget everything she thought she knew of the history of equestria, and told her that in the very beginning – before the time of Star Swirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever – even before Grogar, there were many, many draconequus like himself in the land that would be known as Equestria. Daily they would tease and annoy the ponies of the three tribes, but their most wicked act was consuming the magic of the ponies. To them it was like a drug, and they could not resist the sensation. Occasionally a pony would not survive the process. The tribes were on friendly terms with one another as they had all arrived in Equestria as one and therefor decided to deal with the problem collectively. With their magical knowledge and willpower they tried all they could, but were no match for the drunken chaos magic that they were up against. Some ponies migrated away and started their own colonies, others stayed and prayed it would end.

None of the draconequus believed they would ever have a reason to stop – that is, until the Iron guard showed up. They came out of seemingly nowhere, and had the ability to dispel and suppress chaos magic. In a week they purged the land of draconequus, by banishing any they came across to spend an eternity in something called the void – a dimension of nothingness that would keep its prisoners alive by magic to torture them with boredom and the inability to do anything. Many draconequus fled in fear from the unstoppable Iron guard. Not long after, the Iron guard erected a massive metal wall to channel their magic and form a dome over the land – a land now shielded from all evil that the Iron Guard called Sanctum.

To counter the Iron Guard, the draconequus united and formed an army that would regularly lay siege on Sanctum. They would fail miserably every time. The fifty members of the guard were too powerful, even for an army. Discord was one of the more powerful draconequus, so he was a commander, an ‘alpha’ in this failure of an army - under the King of the Draconequus, Lord Anarchy. Nearly a thousand years later they would use hundreds of creatures from another realm, Windigos, as hunting dogs – a strategy that would lead to their supposed victory. The Windigos could bring winter to Sanctum by passing through the shield of the guard, distracting them by forcing them to aid the ponies of Sanctum in almighty snowstorms.

One day Discord managed to break a tiny hole in the Magical barrier and teleport into a large group of ponies. At the time the Windigos had caused an almighty snowstorm and all the tribe leaders gathered under one roof to discuss what to do in the freezing drought. Their fear upon seeing a draconequus for the first time allowed Discord to manipulate and force them into a deal. Reveal the source of the power of the Iron Guard and they would be left alone. Whatever this was, it would definitely have enough magic for the army to be content.

The ponies foolishly agreed and secretly lead him to the nexus of the power of their protectors. A glowing sphere with a conscious they called Citadel. Discord took them by surprise and lowering the dome by weakening the entire guard from their source by destroying Citadel – despite the larger and more powerful 51^st member of the Guard being present solely to protect it. The draconequus broke in and ransacked the fort, tearing it down. Some flew ahead and attacked the ponies, indifferent to the deal that was made by Discord. The king did not care either. In their desperation the iron guard performed a failsafe spell that could immediately banish nearly the entire army, but would trap a large number of themselves in the void along with them. Only Eight iron guards remained, but they were enough to put down any surviving draconequus.

They were furious with the betrayal of the ponies, and threatened to punish them severely. The ponies once again let fear control them and banished the rest of the guard from the land that they had created – for fear that they would become a nuisance bent on revenge. Not all ponies agreed to this decision, those that didn’t were banished as well – they journeyed north as were not heard from again. As for Discord? He was the only draconequus left, solely because the Iron guard had captured rather than banished him. They discussed and realized that he could help them. So they erased his memory entirely, the only thing he could remember was his name and magic. They figured that he could give the traitorous ponies a hard time before the guard returned for their revenge – so they left him there.

The ponies in what was once Sanctum felt guilty after banishing their protectors and their friends, and so they decided to erase every record of the iron guard and the draconequus army so their descendants would not feel that guilt, knowing that their homeland was ultimately built and saved by betrayal. They fabricated a fake history, one in which only the Windigos and the ponies existed. The Windigos supposedly were attracted by negative emotion, and since the tribes were supposedly enemies, they would come. Not in a pack of a hundred like they used to, but just as a trio. This would lead to the fake story of the survival of the pony race and the formation of a land with a different name - Equestria - that everypony knew today. To aid the lie, they declared the day of the exodus of the Iron guard and the ponies who still believed in them a national holiday, Hearth’s Warming. A lie that was protected by ponies like Starswirl the bearded when he was young and later his student Clover the Clever herself.

They ‘created’ Both Grogar and Gusty the great to erase any doubt that there may be of the legitimacy of the past – forging evidence to prove the existence of the fictional characters. And Discord was released onto them after a time-bomb spell placed on him by the Iron Guard had ran its course and they had something for him to ruin.

Twilight blinked twice in disbelief. It all made sense now. Not really. Her entire life, childhood and perception of history had been a lie. The story behind her favorite holiday was a lie. At least now she knew why the iron guard were attacking. Discord sighed and said that everything that was happening now was all his fault – it was his idea to convince the ponies to betray their protectors. Twilight objected, but Discord didn’t allow her to state her claims. He went on to say that now that Black Abyss had restored his memory, he could have a re-lapse of his ‘magic addiction’. Twilight continued to shake her head in disagreement but Discord simply went on and said, “So now you know why I must stay here.” He held Twilight’s shaking hoof gently, patted it and told her that he was lucky to have her as a friend. With a sad smile he told her to give Fluttershy and the rest of her friends his regards, finishing with a goodbye and a snap of his fingers.

Luna’s magic failed abruptly as twilight regained consciousness while screaming “NO!” All the ponies shared worried glances as Fluttershy hurried over to twilight to ask what happened to Discord. Twilight brought back her posture and told everypony present to sit down – what comes next is shocking.

Magma

Even Luna and Celestia were completely unaware of the Iron Guard and the truth of Equestria, proving how determined Starswirl was to maintain the lie. They immediately suggested confronting him and the rest of the now so-called pillars of equestria – believing that now even their title was a lie to help erase the guard from history. They both departed temporarily to do just that, and Twilight returned inside with all her friends to check up on Shining Armor and Tempest Shadow. Fluttershy remained to collect her thoughts around Discord’s statue. Rainbow dash then suggested scouting crystal empire to see if the implication of the ‘butt-head’ that sliced of her wing was true or not. Twilight disagreed, telling her to rest. Rainbow blows a raspberry in frustration and lopsidedly flew off. According to her she doesn’t have time to rest and needs to do all she can, handicapped or not.

For the rest of the day Twilight prepares Canterlot and equestria for the worst, sending messages to the hippogriffs, Griffins, Yaks, Dragons, Kirin and Changelings of the impending threat. Shining armor was worried sick over the fate of his family and the crystal empire, but Twilight assured him that both are completely alright. However she sends scouts to the crystal empire to be sure – hoping that she is right.

Everything appeared to be going smoothly, until Pinkie Pie rushed into a meeting, shouting that Marble is missing. Twilight assures her it is nothing but then she gets other reports from both ponyville and Canterlot. Abductions. Disappearances of around 50 regularly prompt ponies whose location should be very well known. Marble was only one of them. Fleetfoot, Sugar belle (Much to Big Mac’s horror), Bulk Biceps, Aloe, Coco Pommel (Who picked a terrible time to visit Ponyville), Braeburn (Who also has spectacular timing) Fleur di Lis, MoonDancer, Trixie, Clear skies and Zephyr Breeze to name a few. A few royal guards had also disappeared.

The ill news is released to the ready worried public Pinkie shouts “WE’RE BEING FILLY-NAPPED!” and starts a panic in canterlot. Twilight manages to contain the situation and moves all the ponyville ponies to bunkers in canterlot, giving commander tempest and her troop’s control of ponyville, as it is on the way to canterlot – that is the military base of operations for now.

Night falls and a new day begins. However this day is not without surprises. Luna and Celestia are en route back to canterlot after having met up with Star Swirl and the Pillars of Equestria, who were scared out of their minds upon hearing the news. After telling the two former Princesses that the situation was hopeless, they went into hiding. The Princesses are beyond disappointed with a cowardice of the Pillars – and began their return to Canterlot to inform Twilight of the disappointing news.

On the way, they see a mysterious clocked pony going to ponyville. They decide to hang back and stalk them to see who they are is. The pony approaches ponyville and is faced by Tempest, who asks who she is. She removes her hood to reveal that she is Marble Pie - one of the missing ponies – and requests and audience with Princess Twilight. As much as Tempest doesn’t enjoy doing what other ponies tell her to do, she complies, and tells Twilight that Marble has returned.

Surprised and full of questions Twilight tells the rest of her friends, Maud and Shining Armor and goes to meet her with them – Fluttershy elected to stay behind with Discord’s statue. Twilight insisted that the rest of Pinkie’s family stay back in the safe house in canterlot. Upon seeing her little/twin sister Pinkie yelped with delight and bear hugged her. Marble returned the hug, but something was off, and Pinkie felt it.

She broke away, looked at Marble with concerned eyes and asked if she was okay. Marble smiled confidently and said that she had never felt better – her hair was tied back in a long braid leaving her face and weirdly confident eyes completely visible. That was not like her at all, and everypony present realized. Maud broke the silence by asking her why she is here – this is rather surprising to the other’s, they would rather ask how. But Marble preferred to bluntly answer her elder sister with a sinister smile, “I am here on behalf of the Iron Guard and Arctic ponies to accept your surrender.”

Pause. Arctic ponies? Surrender?

Wait what?

Tempest snorted in disbelief and Shining’s jaw dropped. The others eyes widened and Maud’s gaze remained unchanged. Pinkie simply smiled softly and asked, “Marble, what are you talking about?”

Marble looked pinkie dead in the eye with a rock solid gaze she never had. “I am no longer just the pathetic afraid little Marble you all once knew. Now I am so much more. Citadel enlightened me and made me one of the guards to serve justice to them and to the Arctic ponies that our ancestors betrayed all those years ago.”

“You’re with them?” Pinkie asked softly in shock.

“Nay,” Luna’s voice sounded from behind marble. She and Celestia landed behind Marble, “She is not with them, she’s one of them.”

“Very good Luna.” Marble responded with a sly smile without turning to face her.

Pinkie took a few steps back with a tear in her eye. Why? What had they promised her? Twilight put her hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder and returned Marble’s Iron gaze. “Marble it’s not too late to change. You can still help your family and friends.” Marble snorted, and told Twilight that her pep-talks had gotten rusty. Tempest stepped forwards and said that they would surrender if certain conditions were met. Both Shining and Rainbow opened their mouths to protest but Twilight silenced them.

“Name them, Commander.”

“Firstly, you will leave the crystal Empire and every other neighboring kingdom out of this, and-”

Marble shook her head, saying it was too late for this, the empire had already been overrun by the arctic pony’s army. Rainbow interrupted by asking “am I the only one who as no idea who these guys are?” Marble grinned, saying that she will soon. That they all will soon.

“I tire of this.” Celestia piped up. “We know what you are, so why do you hide?”

Marble turned and looked towards her for a brief second, smiling maliciously, then turned back to the rest of the ponies. With that her eyes glowed red and metal strips began to whirl tightly on her body, emerging from under her like a second skin, making metallic clangs as it folded and produced wings and a horn as she grew. And suddenly before them stood the exact same figure as the ones who had invaded the castle the day before. Pinkie whimpered.

“Scared, little ponies?” Marble snarled in a familiar voice that nopony wanted to hear again.

Tempest’s poker face remained unfazed as she continued, “Then you will return Princess Cadence and Flurry Heart to us completely unharmed.”

Marble tilted her head and appeared to chuckle, “as you wish.” She responded, opened a familiar white cauldron-shaped portal above a vacant spot on the ground. The beaten and defeated figure of Princess Cadence fell through, landing with a thump. “Cadence!” Shining shouted, running to his crying spouse while the other’s eyes widened in shock. Tempest’s gaze narrowed. “Both of them unharmed.”

Marble said that the little foal was a rather annoying problem, perhaps an even bigger one who was harder to deal with than her mother, so she was dealt with… accordingly.

“Deal’s off.” Tempest spat. “What kind of deluded ponies hurt a foal?” Marble shrugged, and said that if only ‘hurt’ could be used to describe the foal’s current state. Marble looked towards the rest of the shocked ponies and said that the guard will destroy equestria beyond recognition – and that if any of them want to join the truly righteous side they will not get another chance. Nopony budged. Pinkie’s hair drooped and fell straight as she looked at marble and begged softly, “Marble, please don’t do this.”

“My name is no longer Marble. I am beyond my quivering past self – I am Magma!” She opened her metal wings, flew up and disappeared with a burst of red lightning.

All the ponies stood there in shock for a second, then Twilight said, “Get Cadence to the castle and call Zecora. NOW.”

She left with cadence, shining and tempest, as the rest of the ponies tried to comfort pinkie. Maud had walked away after having shed a silent tear on her emotionless face.

The Assassin

Thankfully Cadance’s injuries were not serious – according to Zecora and Nurse Redheart she just needed to rest as they monitored her condition. Shining sat down with his wife and grieved with her over the apparent loss of their daughter – they were barely clinging on to their sanity, and Shining had become a loose cannon. All that was needed was a little spark and he would be consumed by anger and vengeance. A spark that was about to be lighted.

The Pegasus mercenary, who had first enabled the Iron Guard to enter Canterlot, stood menacingly on a neighboring hill that overlooked the mountain-side city once again. She was joined by an Iron guard. “Midnight Star.” The mercenary said as the Iron Guard landed. “Blood Moon.” The guard responded. “Do you know what you must do?” Blood Moon sighed and replied that she had been the one waiting for her, and with that she leaped off the cliff and silently glided off toward canterlot castle like an angel of death – taking advantage of the darkness provided by the setting Sun.

She glided into an open corridor that a royal guard had happened to be patrolling, collided with him, threw him against the wall and knocked him unconscious with her hoofs. She then pulled off his helmet and flung it across the corridor. It landed with a loud clang as she fled in the opposite direction. This caught the attention of three other guards, two of which gave chase, and the third went to call the Princess.

Twilight was with Shining Armor and Cadence in her own private medical room. The startled royal guard burst into their touching re-union, saying that the cloaked pony who had broken into the castle had returned – she fit Tempests description in her briefing. Twilight’s gaze hardened as she told Shining to stay with Cadence and departed, saying, “Time to hunt.”

Blood moon had already torn through several guards and disappeared in the west wing of the castle. It had been locked down and almost all of the royal guards had been brought there, led by both Twilight and Tempest, the latter of whom was more than eager to face-off the pony again.

Shining sat by Cadance’s bed and laid his head down next to her as she gingerly stroked his mane - saying everything would be alright. Suddenly he heard Nurse Redheart screaming outside, and some (relatively) quite explosions. He got up and approached the door, and with a burst of red lightning it was thrown open and he was sent reeling into the wall next to Cadance’s bed. Midnight Star glared at cadence as her eyes widened in horror. Without a word an almighty bolt red lightning struck cadence.

Shining recovered to see his wife gasping and desperately breathing for air. Muttering, “Shiny, shiny…” He rushed towards her and told her to stay strong. She said told him through a gasp and a wheeze that she was sorry and that she loved him with all her heart. With that she took a gulp of air and her fur began to glow. It slowly flaked away, and turned into glowing dust as her eyes closed, and with that she disintegrated completely and her glowing dust ascended the room. Shining was left in shock as he clutched the empty blanket, his eyes wide in disbelief. “Interesting thing to witness isn’t it?” an uncaring metallic voice sounded from behind him.

He turned his head to face the Iron Guard, “The death of an alicorn.”

He screamed in anger as the Iron guard leapt pass him and smashed through a lonely wall on the right of the room. She had Candance’s crystal crown clutched in her lightning as she descended into the city like an angel of death – looming over the city with a terrifying presence. She began shouting, “THE CRYSTAL PRINCESS… IS DEAD! THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE HAS FALLEN! ALL OF YOU WILL PERISH AND JOIN THEM IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER YOUR PRINCESS TWILIGHT TO…” she was cut short as a bolt of light shot and destabilized her flight. She smiled wickedly and turned to her attackers, “to us.” With that she shot the few pursuing Pegasus down with a jolt of lightning and destroyed to tower from which the attacking unicorn fired.

She landed with a clang on the streets of canterlot, using her lightning to wreak havoc on the streets and make her location known. She was met by Twilight herself, next to tempest and a less than pleased Rainbow Dash. Tempest and Rainbow charged at her, but she simply sighed and used her lightning to throw them to either side of the street. Twilight shot a beam of purple light at her and she countered it, lightning versus light.

The duel was short lived as midnight squealed as she was impaled by a jagged speared-flagpole that had its flag removed. She gasped and groaned in pain as her legs wobbled to keep her upright. The pole had pierced between the chinks of the ‘armor’ and anchored itself into the ground. Twilight stood there, surprised as her brother leapt off a nearby short building with 6 more such poles to face the Iron Guard. “You,” he started between tears, “Killed… Cadance.” He raised five of the poles, inserting three more into her back like she was a needle cushion and two through her neck in an X shape. “Now I will kill you.” He said, as he raised to final one to impale the gasping, grounded Iron Guard through the face. She could barely breathe and was clearly struggling. Twilight pulled the pole out of his magic with her own, telling him to stop and not to lose himself and become like them. He turned to face his sister, shouting to her that it had killed Cadance. Twilight stood there in shock, and said that as much as she wanted to be the one to end her they needed her alive for interrogation.

The Guard wheezed with a snicker and muttered, “Listen… like a *gasp* good little… puppet.*gasp* you all… *gasp* were always…so soft.” Shining turned to her with venom in his eyes and slowly pulled the poles out of her. She cringed in pain as the sound of scarping metal echoed throughout the city and immediately transformed back into her normal pony form as the metal spun and receded around her. By this time many ponies had stuck their heads out of their windows as they fearfully watched the cloaked and hooded pony fall to the ground. She was unable to stand, but she snickered, saying in a familiar voice, “Then again… you could never hurt me… could you?” Shining Armor threw all the poles to the ground and held only one in his magic to beat her as he pulled off her hood. His jaw dropped, his eyes popped out of his skull and he dropped to pole upon seeing her face. Twilight’s reaction was similar and other spectators gasped and even let out little screams.

“Could you? …Brother?”

Shining Armor saw the face of his little sister stare back at him with an evil smile. “Twily…” he whispered under his breath. He stood up straight, picked up the pole in his magic and knocked her unconscious.

Author's Notes:

Well that escalated quickly...
I will be posting more next weekend, perhaps earlier! The story is 100% complete, so don't worry.

Cloned

News had spread in the city about Cadance’s death and the offer of the Iron guard. Blood Moon had hid and escaped in the commotion. But the news of the identity of the Iron Guard who committed the atrocious act spread even faster. A pony mare who looked just like Princess Twilight, down to the eye color, but was not an alicorn. She was locked up in the dungeons with magic suppressing relics from Queen Chrysalis’s throne so that she could not enter her Iron Guard form. Everypony had heard Shining blame Cadance’s death on Twilight, saying that it was her fault that he even left the crystal empire – but he was even angrier when he accused her of betraying everypony and being the one who killed her. His anger and grief overwhelmed him, and he was left alone in the east wing of the castle for everypony was too scared to be in the same room as the furious vortex of pain.

Twilight meanwhile, sat outside the cage of Midnight star with a disgusted face to interrogate her. “Who are you?” she asked as her mirror image stirred awake with an evil chuckle.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m you, or more correctly, you’re me.”

“I’m my own pony, and that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. You know, why don’t I tell you a story to cheer you up.”

As they spoke, Blood moon had infiltrated the room with the shards from Chrysalis’s throne, stunned all the guards, and was in the perfect position to deactivate them.

“The story of why you are doing this?”

”Oh you already know that.”

Blood moon broke one of the four shards, rendering it useless.

“Don’t test me, you’re lucky this isn’t Tartarus.”

She broke a second.

“Oooh Tartarus? I’m terrified, then again – could you really put yourself through that much pain?”

She smashed the third.

“I don’t care about you. Burn for all I care.”

Blood Moon stepped towards the fourth.

“Wow – I didn’t think the peace-loving version of me was capable of saying something like that… But! Before somepony unrightfully changed the subject - I meant to tell you the story of a young foal…”

She broke the last shard.

“The story of Twilight Sparkle.”

With that her eyes flared red, she burst out of her chains and sent Twilight flying into the dream-world with a burst of red lightning.

She landed, finding herself in a small room. It was littered with things a small foal would play with. Her confused and furious train of thought was interrupted by the sound of crying. She approached the crib in the room, to find a small, very unhappy purple foal. “Oh little Twilight.” A soothing voice sounded behind her. Spinning around, she saw her mother, Twilight Velvet, trotting into the room to console the crying foal. “Mom?” Twilight whispered as Twilight Velvet walked towards and then through her. Twilight suddenly realized that she was in a memory. The door behind her gaped open into a void that sucked her just as she saw her mother pick up the foal in her forelegs and begin humming softly. She screamed in confusion, once again landing on her back. She got up to see her old house on fire. It was being raided by a rouge group of dragons, something very remotely possible as this home was before her father became a Royal Guard and before they lived in Canterlot – possible, but it never happened. “Twily!” the voice of a scared foal shouted, as she turned to face a partially burnt Shining Armor as a foal, being pulled back by her father and her weeping mother. She looked back toward the fire to see one of the dragons lift the figure of a crying foal and fly away with it. “No… that never happened...”

“Did it?”

She turned to face Midnight’s face. The scene had changed. They were in a Dragon’s den.

“Or were those memories never yours?”

She turned again and saw the dragon who had Foalnapped the baby Twilight prepare itself to eat his late night snack, when a burst of Blue Lightning flew from a dark area of the room - sending the dragon flying into a wall of jagged rock. She made out an Iron Guard, but its eyes and lightning were blue as it scooped up the foal and disappeared through a cauldron-shaped portal.

“I have come to terms with Citadel’s decision that day. I do not regret not being returned to my family. Mainly because of what they were going to do.” Twilight looked at Midnight. “As far as they were concerned, I was already dead – and they were too selfish to keep my memory alive the right way – so they willingly replaced me.”

The scene changed and Twilight saw her parents, grieving over a tiny headstone marked ‘Twilight Sparkle.” They clutched a burnt smarty pants in their hooves. They looked weary, it must have been a few months. The figures of Twilight and Midnight followed them back to their home where they had a heated discussion that left Twilight Velvet with tears in her eyes. Twilight Sparkle gasped. Her father had asked her permission and help to carry out a spell. Black Magic. One that could be used to create an identical clone of a dead pony using the memories of those who loved them and something they had once held dear. Her father looked at the smarty pants doll and swore that he would get his daughter back.

Twilight dropped to her knees as the scene swirled and changed once again. Both her parents were on board with the forbidden plan and were now performing the spell – creating a sphere of light above their heads with their magic. In a burst of light, a tiny foal slowly descended from that and into the waiting arms of Twilight Velvet. Both parents were overwhelmed with joy as they hugged each other and the clone of their thought-to-be lost foal.

The scene changed again, a few weeks into the future, they had somehow managed to convince everypony – including the young Shining Armor - that they had recovered their daughter from the dragons, and now aimed to do the same to themselves. They felt terrible guilt after creating the clone to replace their supposedly dead child, so aimed to force a memory spell on each other to convince them that their daughter had never died, and that their little clone was the real one – erasing every memory they had of the forbidden spell they so secretly cast.

“No, no, it’s not true…” Twilight gasped in shock.

The scene faded to white as Midnight Star stood in front of her. She was a regular pony. She stooped over Twilight as she laid down in shock. “Yes,” she said, “You are not a real pony. You are an abomination created by foolish mourning parents.”

Twilight looked up to her tormentor, with her eyes welling up with tears. “I am the TRUE Twilight Sparkle. You are nothing but a cheap imitation of me – you are not real, and nothing you have ever been through has been different from a destiny stolen from the original. You disgust me pathetic worm – you will disgust your friends, your family and all your subjects once they find out the truth of what you truly are.” She bent down lower toward the crying Twilight. “Live with that truth – abomination.”

Blinding light.

Twilight awoke back in the dungeons with Midnight, now in her Iron Guard form – looming over her. Tempest burst through the door – late again – with a group of Royal Guards. Midnight Star moved her head upwards and shot a bolt of lightning at the roof, splintering it and breaking a hole in it. She flew through, quickly made eye contact with a startled Blood Moon and said, “Time to go.” She teleported both of them out of the castle with a burst of red lightning and a white, cauldron-shaped portal.

Tempest and the rest of the Royal Guards rushed toward a crying Twilight to ask if she was okay. She replied that she was not, and asked who she was – Tempest, not questioning why she asked or why she was in that state, responded by putting a hoof on her shoulder, saying that she was her friend, Princess and role-model, and that she had a kingdom of ponies who loved her fiercely. Twilight said that Tempest did not understand, saying that she was not even a real pony, that she was an abomination of magic. Ignoring Tempest trying to help her up and argue otherwise, she teleported away to confront the parents that had lied to her about her life and existence.

They were surprised to see her, more so in that state. Her mother tried to console her, but Twilight backed away, asking her mother what she was. Velvet responded with a soothing, yet confused voice that she was her daughter, but Twilight cut her off. With a flash of light from her horn she performed a memory purifying spell, then repeated her question with tears in her eyes. The answer was delayed, but the same. Suddenly angering, she shouted at them, telling that she knew that they thought the real Twilight died and they created her as a clone. They both looked back at her in shock – they had just had their original memories restored. Her father nodded with tears in his eyes saying that he couldn’t bear the loss. They tried to embrace the clone, but she shook them off, saying that they lied to her and then teleported away, leaving them alone in tears.

Then she went to confront her teacher.

She looked Celestia in the eye without greeting her and ignored Luna’s confused remarks. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow dash and Fluttershy had just entered the room to seek help finding their friend, to find Twilight yelling at Celestia. “DID YOU KNOW?” Celestia sighed, looking down – ashamed – and muttered, “Yes.” She went on, saying that she thought it unwise, and once she gained a cutie mark and became as real as anypony, she thought it would be best to keep it from her. Twilight asked why she didn’t stop her parents, ignoring the more confused and worried remarks from her friends and everypony in the room. Celestia opened her mouth and then closed it. Twilight shook her head and said through gritted teeth, “Everypony… who I have ever… looked up to… have lied to me… my entire life…” Celestia looked at her former student for forgiveness, but Twilight shook her head as she lost her colors and become consumed by hopelessness magic, and teleported out of the room with a bang.

Everypony looked towards the now noticeably saddened Celestia for the lengthy explanation.