Applejack

These dragons were tough. I swung my hammer for what must have been the hundredth time at its head whenever it got close to the roof of the armory.

Nothing we're trying's working. We need the Princesses. We need-

Just then, the dragon that we'd knocked into Twilight's library shot a fireball at me and Rainbow Dash. I jumped out of the way, the fireball nearly hitting me as it whirled past. I heard it hit something behind me, but I was too busy dodging the thing's claws and swinging my hammer at it to see what'd been torched. Then I heard screaming coming from that direction, and risked a quick look back.

Oh, no.

Fluttershy's cottage was on fire. I could see animals running away from it, but there were still some trapped inside, burning alive.

The poor things...

Then, I heard another scream. Well, it was more like a roar or a growl than a scream. It was coming from the armory below me. It sounded like...

"Fluttershy?"

Then, the other dragon picked up a ruined house and threw it at the armory. A stone from the house hit me square in the chest, knocking the air out of my lungs and knocking me through the armory roof. I could hear Twilight hit the ground somewhere nearby, then the armory collapsed around us. Fortunately, Lyra had an open-air forge, so she wasn't hurt too badly, and neither were Twilight and I. I heard the sound of metal on stone, and opened my eyes to see Fluttershy standing there, staring at the dragons, wearing a suit of armor. There was something different about her, though. Something dark.

"Which one of you burned down my house?" she asked.

I saw the dragons point at each other, and saw Fluttershy start walking towards them. I looked into her eyes. She wasn't the Fluttershy we were used to. She looked a lot like she had when Discord had gotten a hold of her and turned her cruel, only this was worse. I thought of how angry I was when I thought I couldn't harvest the apples anymore.

That doesn't even come close to what she must be feeling. Maybe I'd be that angry if someone burned the orchard down...

"You've killed my animal friends. You've burned them alive. And it's a very good thing the Elements have changed, because kindness could not be further from what you are about to go through. Now, Which. One. Of. You. Burned. Down. My. House?"

She was almost at the dragon on the left now. They both breathed fire at her, green and blue flames swirling all around her. When the fires died down, she was still standing there, staring at the dragons. She turned to the left one.

"Congratulations. I'm killing you last." She said, bending down and picking something up. "As for you..."

She was holding a broadsword now, and started walking calmly towards the dragon on the right.
The other one, apparently free from her Stare, started flying away. Fluttershy, noticing this, picked up one of the ball and chains from the ground and used it like a lasso, pinning the dragon to the ground.

"Neither of you gets to leave until I'm done with you." She said, floating into the air. She landed on the dragon's head.

She's going to do it.

She walked up to the top of its head and turned her sword upside down.

She's going to kill something. Even if it is a dragon made out of darkness, Fluttershy's going to kill something!

Then, there was a huge flash of light, and Fluttershy fell off of the dragon and into the library.
I heard Twilight gasp.

"Princess Celestia!"

Sure enough, there she was, floating in the air just above where the pinned dragon lay, katana drawn.

"Twilight. I'm glad to see you in one piece."

"We can chat with your student later, sister." A voice said. Princess Luna was floating next to her sister, also holding a katana. "Right now, we have two dragons to take care of."

"Of course. Shall this be the finishing portion of our training exercise, then?"

"I suppose it shall."

Celestia flew towards the dragon Fluttershy had almost killed. It breathed a spout of blue fire at her. Surprisingly, it stopped halfway to her, and turned a bright golden red.

"I'm afraid that won't work."

The fire flew up into the air and made a ring, a burning halo of flames. Then, she pointed her katana at the thing.

"My turn." she said, sounding almost bored.

The flames flew down, making a streak of golden light as they struck the dragon. Celestia flew in as well, delivering a powerful strike to the thing's head. It staggered back, howling in pain and fury.
Further away, Luna flew around the other dragon, slashing at it several times as she passed. Whenever it struck at her, she disappeared and appeared somewhere else near the dragon.

This doesn't make sense. How did they get these powers? Are all alicorns like that now, or it is just because they're Princess Celestia and Luna?

After the third massive blow from Princess Celestia, the dragon fell to the ground and disappeared in a burst of shadowy smoke.
Luna was still working on her dragon, and she was making progress. The thing was on the ground now, unable to halt the stream of blows from her vicious, biting katana.
Soon, that dragon disappeared as well, and all was quiet and calm. The only sounds were the princesses' heavy breathing and the crackling of the fire that was still consuming Fluttershy's cottage.
I stood up shakily and tried to assess the damage. A few broken ribs, several scrapes and bruises, and I was bleeding from a cut on my right arm. Town square was a mess. Town Hall and the few houses near it had been completely destroyed, as well as the armory and Twilight's library, and the fire from Fluttershy's place, now a normal color, had spread to a nearby building. Other than that, though, Ponyville seemed okay.

"Are you all right, girls?" the princesses were floating down to us now, weapons sheathed.

"Yeah, we're okay." Rainbow Dash said, standing up and walking towards us.

"I wouldn't say that. Look at all this dust and dirt!" Rarity said.

"Well, Rarity's ok." Pinkie Pie said. "It looks like the only ones that got seriously hurt were the buildings around town square and Fluttershy's cottage."

"Speakin' of, where is Fluttershy?" I asked, looking around for her. I'd lost track of her when she fell off of the dragon.

"It's ok. I saw her fall into my library." Twilight said, stepping forward to meet the princesses as they landed in front of us. "Spike and the other girls are probably taking care of her. Boy, are we glad to see you two."

"Yes, it is good to see you too, Twilight Sparkle." Luna said. "As soon as your letter arrived, we paused our training and rushed over here as fast as we could."

"And not too soon, might I add." Celestia said. "I have something to discuss with you and the girls in the library, as well as a few other people. Ah! Speaking of, here one of them comes!"

Time Turner was walking into the square, eyes wide, looking around in shock.

"What happened here? I heard something about dragons, and came as quick as I could."

"It is okay, Time Turner. All is taken care of." Luna said, turning to greet him. "However, me and my sister wish to speak with you on a few matters. Firstly, do you know where your friends Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are?"

"No. They went back to Canterlot after Ponyville was resized and the armory was built. I haven't seen them since. Why?"

"We wish to speak with them." Luna replied.

"Twilight, get the girls from the library and meet me in Canterlot Castle in three days." Celestia said. "I really wish I could stay longer, but I must head back to my duties and my training. We have a lot to discuss, and we will discuss it later, I'm afraid."

"Wait." Twilight said. "Training? What kind of training? Why Vinyl and Octavia? Why the girls? What-"

"Like I said, we'll discuss it later."

Then, as soon as she had come, Celestia was gone. A faint whooshing noise was heard as air rushed into the spot where she'd stood seconds ago.
Luna turned to Time Turner.

"I shall take you to Canterlot. Gather your friends, and meet me and my sister in Canterlot Castle in three days' time."

"I don't-" he tried to say. Luna grabbed him, and they both disappeared. Again, there was a whoosh as air filled the space they'd occupied.

Twilight

Thoughts ran through my head as I gathered the reagents for the growing spell that would create mine and Fluttershy's new houses.

I don't understand. What do the princesses want with Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo?

One - no, two - seeds, one oak, one willow...

For that matter, why do they need Vinyl, Time Turner, and Octavia?

Spring water from the peak of a mountain - thanks, Rainbow Dash...

What did they mean by 'training?'

Copious amounts of leaves, fern fronds, and swamp muck from the Everfree Forest...

How did they get those powers?

Some dragon scales I'd gathered from Town Square...

Why do I need to meet them in three days and not right now?

At least none of the books were harmed. After the princesses left, I'd headed back to the library to assess the damage. The girls were unconscious on the floor. The dragon had hit them when we'd knocked it into the library. Spike was off in a corner, also unconscious. Poor guy. Fluttershy was lying in a pile of dented armor pieces in the middle of the room. She wasn't unconscious when I found her, but there were soft sobbing noises coming from the bottom of the pile, and I'd thought it best not to disturb her. When I'd returned from the upper levels - where I'd made a checklist of all the books in the library, a feat of two hours - the armor pile had been upturned, and she was gone.
The girls were awake, and were resting on the armchairs that were still in relatively good condition. I'd given then something to eat and some tea, and taken inventory. Miraculously, none of the books were harmed in the battle, and I'd moved them outside and stacked them neatly by genre.
As I magically dug the hole that would be my basement and laboratory once the spell was done, I thought about the weapons we'd chosen.

Pinkie Pie seems to like that weird sword...She acts almost as if it's got a mind of its own...

I planted the seed in the ground, making sure it was the oak one, and not the willow seed. That was for Fluttershy's house.

Ever since the armory was rebuilt and the weapons and armor replaced, Lyra's been working awfully hard making more needles for Rarity...

I covered the hole with fresh earth, and made a makeshift pyramid out of leaves over the patch of upturned soil.

I wonder if Applejack could use that hammer of hers to get more apples out of the apple trees. She's probably already thought of that, though...

I poured swamp muck all over the leaves, flattening the pyramid slightly, and conjured a slight breeze that dried the mud into a hard shell.

Rainbow Dash's been training even harder now, trying to get used to flying with boots on. She's a powerful kicker as a human, isn't she?..

This was the tricky part. I carefully lifted the shell of dried mud, trying my best not to break it, placed the fern fronds on top of the leaves, and carefully placed the shell back over the pyramid, taking extra special care not to damage it.

I wonder if there are any books on how to magically levitate metal balls more effectively. Maybe physics books...momentum spells...who knows?

Placing the dragon scales on top of the shell in a star pattern, I stepped back and poured all the magic I had into the spell, the crystal on my necklace glowing a bright magenta and shooting off sparks, just like my horn did.

Before the change, I wouldn't have even attempted a spell like this, but unicorn magic seems to be a lot more powerful now...not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

After a solid two minutes of pouring magical energy into a seed, a bright flash emanated from the mound of dried mud, leaves, and fronds, and when I could see again, a tree stood before my eyes, even bigger and older than my old one.

Wow. The change must have enhanced my magic tenfold.

I stepped inside my new house.

Ok, make that a hundredfold.

The tree house was already furnished, and there were books on the shelves that weren't in my old library. There was still space for my old books, though, and they were placed in the new shelves in alphabetical order just like the new books.

All right, time to see my new lab.

I stepped down the stairs.

Okay, maybe more like a thousandfold!

The lab was beautiful, with instruments and beakers and tubes and chemicals and things that even I, with all my reading, couldn't recognize.

This is gonna be a fun three days.

Vinyl

Allow me to bore you severely by talking about our house. Like our weapons, it was unique; split in half architecturally, with the two sides being as different as night and day, with a strip of normal house bridging them together.
One side - the left side, when looking at the front door - was mine. It was sleek, rounded, and space-age themed, and housed a recording studio and several electronic instruments and programs; a synthesizer, a voice-alteration program, and several others, all of which I could play and use perfectly. It also housed two bedrooms, each with a bed fitted with large speakers, a dresser with CDs and other music storing and playing implements, and a small kitchen fitted with a fridge, an oven, a few cupboards, and a dishwasher. All of the walls were completely soundproof; you could play the most insane beats in one room, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything even if you were standing in the doorway. Of course, the door had to be closed; otherwise the sound played loud and clear, but if you closed the door, you could play your music as loud as you wanted without disturbing the other guests.
The other side was Octavia's. It was kinda boring, if you ask me. It was wooden, rather bulky, and housed a large concert hall with "sublime acoustics," as Octavia put it. There were all kinds of musical instruments there; cellos, trumpets, a few pianos, even a fully stocked percussion section. It had two bedrooms, too; both with a hearth near the bed, a big, poofy armchair, and a bookshelf with big, thick books. It had a kitchen, too, one quite like mine; oven, fridge, dishwasher, cupboards. It was soundproof too.
After the change, I'd rung up my friend - a manager of a team of builders and construction workers - and called in quite a few favors; he and his crew added a training room to mine and Octavia's sections of the house. Mine was made of metal and rubber, and featured hidden and shielded speakers that could blast motivational music loud enough to knock a few fillings loose and training dummies and blades that slid out of openings in the walls; it was awesome. Octavia's was a wooden box containing an archery range, complete with targets that could move at speeds approaching 450 wingpower, several targets that flew in the air, and quivers full of arrows that could be deployed from a wall at the press of a button.
There was also a training room in the shared section, where we were right now, and it was nothing special; just a clean, white room with some practice dummies along one wall and some targets along the other.
Now that I'm done boring you half to death, back to the actual story.

"Good evening, Vinyl."

Octavia walked through the front door, taking off her jacket and hanging it on a nearby coat rack. She slumped on one of the couches by the front door, visibly tired.

I finished making my sandwich, and put the various meats and cheeses back in the fridge.

"Yo, Tavi. How're things in the city?"

"Same as yesterday. There is some news, though; Ponyville was attacked yesterday."

"Ponyville was attacked?" My interest was instantly aroused. "Are they alright? Have you talked to Time Turner? Are the girls ok? What happened?"

"Apparently, the princesses had to step in and take care of it."

"Whoa. Must've been intense. Wish I could've been there."

"What exactly would you have done, Vinyl?"

"I dunno. Helped, I guess. I'm getting better with The Needle ever since I decided to train with music playing in the background." I said, my mouth full of sandwich. "Can't believe I hadn't thought of it before."

"I still think naming your weapon is ridiculous."

"Hey. Naming a weapon shows that you value it, and it marks it as your own."

"As if you need anything more on that front."

It was true. My katana was so tricked out that it was hard not to know that it was mine. I'd had it custom made here in Canterlot for me; white metal with blue sound bars along the edge as if they were blood; it was hard to mistake it for another weapon. I'd named it The Needle. It was a cool name.

"And your cello doesn't count?"

"Hey. That's for convenience and stealth; not for flair like your custom weapon."

Octavia had decided to take up archery. She'd got a cello custom made so that you could open the neck and store arrows in it, and had a custom cello bow that extended and bent into a real bow. I had to admit; it was pretty boss.
She got up from the couch and headed into our shared kitchen, opening the fridge and looking for something to eat.

"At any rate, are you up for some training tonight?" I asked, leaning against one wall and munching on my sandwich.

"Maybe in a minute. I've been walking all over town from appointment to appointment, and I'm exhausted."

She'd been looking for another cellist to back her up for a duet. With my permission, they were going to use my recording studio to record a few songs and put them on a CD, "purely for recreation, of course," as she'd said. She finally settled on some left over pasta from the night before. She put it in the microwave and grabbed some orange juice and a cup while it was cooking, sitting down at the table and pouring herself a glass.

"Ooh. Let me snag some of that." I said, reaching for the microwave door as the timer beeped.

"No. You have food. Besides-"

Whatever she was going to say, she never said it; right then, the doorbell rang.

"Who could that be?" she asked.

"Dunno. Could be anyone."

I walked to the door, leaving my sandwich on the counter, and opened the door to see Time Turner standing on the doorstep.

"Time Turner! It's good to see ya, man!" I waved him inside. "Come in! Have a seat; can I get you anything?"

"No thanks, I'm not too hungry. Besides; I'm to deliver a message to you two ASAP."

"A message? Octavia asked, putting down her orange juice and standing up. "From whom?"

"Princess Luna."

Here eyes got real wide. Mine probably did too. My jaw dropped, and I turned to stare at him.

"Princess Luna?" Why in Equestria would she want to send us a message?" I asked in shock.

"Do I look like I know? Anyway, she wants us to meet her in Canterlot Castle in two days. Well, three, but it took me a day to find you. Canterlot's pretty big, you know."

"Canterlot Castle? How unusual. I'll get ready at once." Octavia walked through the door into her section of the house, taking her pasta with her.

"Well, thanks for letting us know. Are you sure you don't want anything? We've got a lot of food." I said, turning back to Time Turner.

"Maybe. If it's okay with you, I was planning to stay here until it's time to go."

"Nah, man. It's fine. What's ours is yours. Well, what's mine, at least."

"Thanks."

I finished my sandwich, and invited Time Turner into my section of the house.
He set up in the guest room, and when he'd gotten settled, I asked him if he'd like to join Octavia and I in our nightly training session.

"No thanks." he replied. "I don't like fighting. Besides, I've no weapon, and I'm not good with any of the ones you have. Though, if you don't mind, I'd like to watch."

We trained, and went to bed exhausted, like every night. The day after tomorrow promised to be interesting indeed.

The Next Morning

Luna

"Good day, sister."

"Good day, Luna."

I walked to my chambers of the castle, exhausted. Fighting those dragons had been tough, and moving the moon across the sky, even as easy as it was now that my magic had been amplified by the change, had exhausted what little energy I had left. But it was day now. The morning had ended, and the moon was gone for the moment. I needed to regain my strength.
I reached my room, and opened the door. I almost fell into bed, and was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

It is night.

I am in the training room where me and my sister spar every morning and evening, when both the sun and moon are in the sky. There are five people standing in front of me. It is starting to rain, the drops splashing on the balcony that overlooked the courtyard below.

Gauntlets, Daggers, Mace, Bow, and Nothing...It's them! But what are they doing here? And where is the sixth?

To my surprise, my body moves seemingly of its own accord, drawing the katana I keep at my hip.
A voice rings out cold in the night air.

"So, you've managed to find me. Congratulations. You've earned a painful, yet quick, death. But first, a chance to join me. I cannot do this on my own; at least, not without considerable effort. You can join me, and we shall bring into being a new kingdom. One where there is peace. One where there is happiness. One in which the sun does not show its face. Help me bring about eternal night. Help me kill my sister."

Wait. Was that my voice? I would never kill Celestia. She's my sister. She's-

"We're not going to kill Princess Celestia." one of them says. He is the one who bears no weapon. "But we don't need to fight. Come back, Luna. We can work this out together. Please just come back and you and Celestia-"

"Oh, so you would have me attempt to reason with her? don't make me laugh. She is not my sister. She is a tyrant, ruling over this land with an iron fist; I simply mean to free it from her cruelty. I have no sister."

"But, Luna, remember-"

"I have no sister!"

I watch, but I cannot stop. I cannot look away. I cannot control myself. I watch my arm raise, katana at the ready.
And watch it come down on the person who'd tried - and failed - to reason with me.

I am going to kill him.
I am going to kill them all.

I am going to kill my sister.

I woke up, my head pounding, a scream choked in my throat as sweat poured down my face.

Just-Just a dream. It was all just a dream. Nothing to be afraid of. Just a-

I looked to my left at the mirror on the dresser next to my bed, and saw my reflection.

"SISTER!"

Author's Notes:

Even though stuff like microwaves and fridges aren't exactly canon, they're not non-canon either. This is a fanfic, after all; there's bound to be some fiction involved.

EDIT: Welp, that's one of the long chapters done.