My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Starlight Sparkle
Reign of Fire
An uncommonly satisfying mix of medieval fantasy, high-tech military action and 'Mad Max'-style misadventure, 'Reign of Fire' imagines an Earth 20 years hence where the human race has been.
Everypony rushed to the crash site, desperate to see if Twilight had somehow survived. It was difficult to see how. The star had slammed into the field at an alarming rate, and then exploded into a brilliant ball of fire that very nearly lit up the night sky. Her friends were either on the verge of panic or tears. In some cases both.
The first thing they noticed as they drew near was that a crop circle had formed, in the exact same pattern as the one in which they discovered Pinkie Pie. But where Pinkie's crop circle had been flattened out, Twilight's circle was the result of scorched wheat. The circles were each outlined by lingering flames, creating five rings of fire.
And in the centre of it all was Twilight.
The good news was that she was certainly alive, and did not appear confused or dazed as Pinkie had been. The bad news was that she didn't look remotely like the Twilight they all knew.
'T-Twilight?' Spike murmured hesitantly, eyes wide with fear at what stood in the middle of the largest circle. Everypony stopped short of actually approaching her, too alarmed by her radically changed appearance to know what to do. Even Celestia was at a loss for words.
For one thing she was taller and sleeker, her build now making her resemble Princess Celestia and Luna. She was also shockingly white, save for a faint golden outline. Her eyes were now completely red, like two fiercely glowing embers, and were devoid of pupils. The most startling feature was her tail and mane, which more resembled actual flames than they did hair. Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike had seen her briefly transform into something similar once before, when she had been enraged beyond words, but that had lasted mere seconds.
Twilight regarded herself, glancing this way and that, admiring her new form with an expression of arrogance that was completely out of character for her. Finally she snorted and strolled out of the burned crop circle, approaching the group of astonished ponies.
'Twilight Sparkle ... what has happened to you?' Celestia asked her, the only one present able to find the will to speak at that moment. Twilight stopped and narrowed her all-red eyes at the Princess.
'You ought to know, Princess,' she said, her voice dripping with menace, 'You're the one with a pet phoenix. I've been reborn from fire and ash as a brand new pony. And I must say, it's about time.'
'Twilight, cut it out!' Rainbow Dash shouted, sounding no more confident than she felt, 'You're scaring us!'
Pinkie Pie shrank back from Twilight, trembling at the sight of her. 'I'll say; my knees are pinchy!'
'Oh shut up,' Twilight snapped, scowling at them as if they were a nuisance, 'I'm through listening to your whining little insignificant voices.'
'Twilight Sparkle, you are clearly not yourself,' Celestia said, winning first prize for most obvious statement of the evening. Behind her Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders cowered in fear in the face of this new Twilight, who sneered at the Princess.
'Clearly. Not a bad thing, if you ask me. I've spent far too long being a hard-working goody four-hooves.' She smirked in a worrying fashion and paced up and down in front of the assembled ponies, her snout in the air in a haughty fashion and her fiery mane crackling. 'Well not anymore. I'm through being the pony people come to for help. Living in a tree in this backwater no-name town of country hicks. With all the talent and power I have at my disposal I should be running Equestria, not babysitting an annoying lovesick dragon or mentoring a socially inept bookworm ...'
At this Spike cringed and stared at the ground, whilst Astra winced and looked away. Narrowing her eyes, Rarity strode forwards intent on confronting her transformed friend.
'Twilight Sparkle! That is not you saying these awful things! You have been corrupted by Nightmare Moon's magic; you have to fight it!' She stamped a hoof to punctuate her point. Twilight stopped pacing and regarded Rarity as Applejack might regard an especially bad apple.
'Oh be quiet Rarity, the last thing I need is a lecture from a gaudy talentless hack like you.'
Rarity's eyes bulged. 'Gaudy? Talentless? Why I ... you ... how dare you!' She took a deep breath as she prepared to launch into a rebuttal, but Twilight's horn glowed and Rarity's mouth quite literally zipped shut with a zipper, muffling her words.
'Much better. I should have done that the first moment we met.'
'That is enough!' Celestia said, her voice so commanding and powerful that everypony present save for Twilight wilted in fear. Twilight merely smiled.
'You're right Celestia, that is enough, which is to say I've had quite enough of you. I'm through living under your shadow.' Twilight drew herself up to her full and now much more impressive height, pawing at the scorched ground with a hoof. 'The student has finally surpassed the teacher, Celestia. Your reign is over from this day forth. There's a new princess in town, and her name is Twilight Sparkle!'
As she said this her horn released a blinding flash of light. When it cleared, Twilight extended her new pegasus wings proudly, to the frank astonishment of the other ponies. She took to the air and hovered above the group, leering at them all as if they were as figuratively beneath her as they were literally.
'I'll be waiting for you in Canterlot, Celestia. Come and give me your best shot. I'll show you just how much I've learned over the years.'
With that her horn flared with a fiery aura and she was gone, teleporting away from the burned field and the gaping, frightened ponies. In the deafening silence that followed, Astra let out a plaintiff wail of despair and slumped to the ground.
'This is all my fault!'
'Your fault?' Rainbow Dash and Spike said in unison, staring at her. Before anypony could ask her what she meant by that, it began to rain, despite it being a cloudless night. This was because it wasn't raining water. Quite the contrary.
It was raining fire.
All across Equestria fireballs rained down from the sky as if the stars themselves were falling. The damage they caused was relatively minor, but panic swept across the land. Nothing so strange had been witnessed since Discord's return.
Once Celestia had been brought up to speed with regards the Starlight Sapphire and Nightmare Moon, she wasted no time in returning to Canterlot. She brought Twilight's friends with her, informing them that they would need to wield the Elements of Harmony in order to purge Twilight of the dark magic that now corrupted her.
By the time they arrived at Canterlot Tower where the Elements were stored, the fire rain had ceased. None of them were in any doubt that Twilight was still out there however, just waiting for Celestia to make her move. As they made their way up the tower to the chamber where the Elements of Harmony lay, Astra walked alongside Celestia and shot the Princess a look of immense guilt.
'I'm so sorry,' she said, her voice pained, 'None of this would have happened if it wasn't for me. I've really made a mess of things haven't I?'
'Astra,' Celestia began soothingly, 'You mustn't blame yourself for this. There was no way you could possibly have foreseen that this would happen.'
As earnest as Celestia sounded, Astra couldn't quite bring herself to believe her words. How could she not blame herself? She had not only freed Nightmare Moon, she'd also created the Starlight Sapphire that now possessed Twilight Sparkle, turning her evil. If anyone was to blame for this sorry state of affairs, it was surely her. She tried so hard to learn and become a useful, capable unicorn, and yet she couldn't even study without putting all of Equestria in danger.
'I have what might seem like a silly question,' said Applejack as Celestia approached the sealed chamber containing the Elements, 'Jus how exactly are we supposed to stop Twilight when we be needin her to make the Elements work in the first place?'
The five ponies all exchanged worried looks at that, perhaps recalling the time when they had failed to stop Discord using the Elements due to Rainbow Dash not being with them. There were six Elements altogether, and six ponies required to wield them in unison. What were they supposed to do when one of those ponies was the target?
'Well I'm sure Celestia will think of something ...' Rarity offered, though she didn't sound very convinced. Either way they needed to get the Elements first, and the last time they had been in such a dire situation to warrant using them they had been stolen before Celestia could even retrieve them. Hopefully Twilight had not already done so.
The assembled ponies let out a sigh of relief as Celestia opened the jewelled container she had removed from the vault. Sure enough the Elements of Harmony lay snugly within, untouched. They had not been stolen.
'Why thank you my little ponies!' said Twilight Sparkle. They all turned and saw her standing a short distance away with a wicked smile upon her ghostly face. Her horn flashed, teleporting the box with the Elements to her side. It hovered next to her for a moment as she regarded it, only to vanish an instant later. Twilight turned her attention back to them and grinned. 'That saved me a lot of trouble.'
Celestia strode past the other ponies and glared at her. 'Twilight! Stop this!'
'You're so very predictable, Celestia. Discord was right, you're such a bore. Whatever shall I do with you?'
'What did you do with the Elements?'
Twilight smirked knowingly. 'I've sent them somewhere for safekeeping. Someplace nopony would ever think to look. I knew you'd come here to get them, so rather than waste time and energy trying to break your spell, I decided to just wait for you to show up and do it for me.'
'Twi, it doesn't have to be this way,' Applejack implored her, desperate to avoid a fight, 'We're your friends!'
'She's right Twilight!' Rainbow chimed in, 'We just want to help you!'
'Help me?' Twilight scoffed at them disdainfully, 'I don't need your help, nor do I want it. I am the Great and Powerful Twilight, ruler of Equestria!' She reared back and extended her wings, her fiery mane erupting like an explosion. 'Bow before me my little ponies, or I shall have no choice but to punish you!'
'Enough!' Celestia lowered her head and narrowed her eyes in an extremely rare display of anger. 'I had hoped it would not come to this. Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student, I offer you this final chance. Return the Elements of Harmony and stop this madness, I beg of you.'
'Oh you'll beg alright,' Twilight lowered her own head, 'Beg for mercy. Too bad for you; I'm not feeling especially merciful today.'
Her former friends backed away from Celestia as the two winged unicorns faced off. None of them had ever seen Celestia fight before, and they could scarcely believe that the first battle they would witness their Princess fight would be against their own dear friend Twilight Sparkle. It was unbearable.
A stream of raw magical power arced from Celestia's horn and collided with an identical bolt unleashed by Twilight. The stained glass windows that commemorated their victory against Nightmare Moon and Discord shattered from the shockwave released. Both combatants visibly strained themselves, fighting to overwhelm the other's magical assault as the bolts of pure energy crackled and sparked in the air. The other ponies shielded themselves against the hot whipping winds and blinding light.
For a moment it seemed as if Celestia was winning, until Twilight smiled. Her eyes turned from flame red to pure white. The magic coursing forth from her horn surged unstoppably towards Celestia, who grimaced in pain. Then just as suddenly as it had begun, the battle ended. The ponies all stared. Twilight remained standing, her eyes red once more, her breathing as fast as if she'd just taken first place at the Running of the Leaves contest. As for Celestia ...
They all gasped. That was an understatement, really, because Celestia was gone. Where she had been now stood a large potted sunflower.
Twilight Sparkle threw back her head and laughed. Her friends shrank back from her, more afraid of her than they'd ever been before as she strutted towards them.
'Now that she's out of the picture,' said Twilight, 'there's just one thing left to take care of.'
She stopped and struck a regal pose before them. When next she spoke, it was in the booming tones of the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, and it struck terror into the hearts of those she had once held nearest and dearest to her own heart.
'BOW BEFORE YOUR QUEEN!'