Just a one-shot that I came up with while watching Samurai Jack. I just had to think. What if the magic that Twilight's machine had taken had a different effect on Twilight? And what if she was a swordswoman in addition to being a scholar? Now, watch as the ending of the Friendship Games takes a whole new turn in both events, AND emotional bonds.
*I don't own MLP Equestria Girls or Samurai Jack!*
"The sword!" = Regular Speech
"The sword!" = Evil Clone Speech
Twilight Sparkle vs. Midnight Soulshard
"HELP… ME…!"
As Twilight begged for help as the corrupted magic engulfed her, her fellow Shadowbolts and the principal of Crystal Prep Academy, Abacus Cinch, merely stood there and watched as their fellow student became practically a silhouette of her former self within the multicolored dome of magic. But what they saw was something entirely different from what they were expecting.
The energy began to move away from Twilight before taking the shape of a human form. The feet materialized first, showing that this new human was wearing black geta sandals with white straps and had dark purple skin. Twilight, who had fallen to the ground while somehow being changed into a white gi with gray trim and sash, brown geta sandals with black straps and a Japanese Katana strapped to her hip, looked up in shock to see what was happening.
The magic seemed to be taking on a living will of its own! Something that should've been impossible, and yet, here it is! As more and more of the magic took on a solid form, it revealed a figure very similar to Twilight. In fact, if not for the darker skin and hair, along with the glowing teal rings around her eyes, she'd look exactly like Twilight! She's dressed in an outfit similar to Twilight, but the colors are black and red instead of white and gray. And like Twilight, she has a Japanese Katana strapped to her hip.
The Twilight look-alike grinned maliciously while narrowing her eyes at Twilight. It seems this new girl has a beef with our resident scientist.
"What sorcery is this?! Who are you?!" Twilight asked.
"Don't be such a fool! I'm you!" replied the Twilight clone.
"If you are me, then who am I?" Twilight asked, more confused than ever.
The evil version of Twilight groaned and slapped herself at the original's apparent stupidity, while it drew giggles from some of the Canterlot High students. Particularly, the poofy haired pink girl. She may be a genius, but she can be so dumb at times.
"You're so stupid! You are you also."
"Enough! You are my mirror image, yet your speech is fouled with lies and disrespect! Who are you, and how have you come to be me?!" Twilight demanded.
"I am the daughter of Abacus Cinch, her greedy desire to win and the magic that you absorbed. The combination of the three has spawned me from your own burning hatred! I am your dark side, Midnight Soulshard, and I exist for only one purpose… to destroy you!"
Having said her piece, Midnight drew her sword from its scabbard and leapt up into the air. She let out a deafening war cry as she fell into a downward slash with her sword. However, Twilight proved to be JUST fast enough as she drew her own sword and blocked the attack. She jumped back to gain some distance, drawing an annoyed growl from Midnight.
The darker version of Twilight pressed on with her attack, repeatedly trying to bisect her good half, who dodged ever downward strike of hers easily. The crowd of students and faculty could only watch in morbid fascination as the fight went on, and soon Midnight was putting far more speed and power into her sword strikes. So much, in fact, Twilight had to put in more and more effort to dodge.
Until Midnight finally got in a slash on Twilight's arm, tearing the girl's GI, drawing a pained cry from her, leaving a shallow cut and drawing blood.
Twilight jumped back again and narrowed her eyes and she looked pissed off. But Midnight merely smirked and narrowed her own eyes in return. She charged again and attacked, cutting Twilight again, this time across the back and pissing the girl off even more.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" taunted Midnight.
"Not as much as THIS is going to hurt YOU!" exclaimed Twilight.
She let out her own war cry and charged at Midnight, letting loose with a flurry of sword slashes. Her attacks were less basic than Midnight's own, but the dark being was still able to easily block them.
However, on the last horizontal slash, Midnight ducked a little too late and got most of her hair cut off. She scowled at Twilight as her now shoulder length hair became more messy and demented looking. Kind of like when a Saiyan gets angry enough to go Super Saiyan, but can't transform.
Both swordswomen let out loud war cries as they charged at each other again and began to fight much more relentlessly. The crowd of students and faculty, both CHS and CPA alike, watched as the blades of the two girls collide more and more while leaving both girls open to get slashed, cut or stabbed. Midnight Soulshard even bisected a tree when Twilight dodged, showing just how strong and fast both samurai are.
But as the crowd watched, they began to think that Midnight might be even more so.
Both began to fight faster and faster until they both passed each other in a leaping slash and landed on the ground. At first, it looked like nothing happened… until Twilight turned around with a murderous look and her hair was cut and flared up like Midnight's.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Both screamed at the top of their lungs as they began to fight with far more bloodlust than before. They rushed at each other and began trading blows once again, sparks flying as their blades clashed. Unlike before, however, the sparks were now landing in the grass and on the trees, setting everything ablaze in a roaring inferno.
But while everyone else huddled together to try and avoid the flames, Twilight and Midnight seemed ignorant to the fire their attacks were causing. Fluttershy yelped and ran away as a larger tree fell and nearly crushed her. But Twilight and Midnight were now using it as a sort of bridge or walkway as they pressed on their attacks.
Twilight got in her fair share of shallow cuts on Midnight, but they weren't deep enough to draw blood. However, Midnight was landing more and more slashes and lacerations on Twilight. And the damage from these was greater, as more and more blood was spilled from the girl. Because these slashes were far deeper than Twilight's own. And this could mean only one thing.
Midnight was steadily growing stronger as the battle wore on!
"I can't watch this anymore!" Rarity cried.
"Come on, it's not over yet, Twi!" Applejack shouted, cheering for her world's Twilight.
But it would seem neither sword wielder could hear her. Soon enough, Twilight and Midnight were standing apart from each other, glaring and being pressed on by the adrenaline rush of battle. Twilight's GI was covered in rips and tears from the slashes she endured and she was covered in blood. But Midnight looked like she's taken the least amount of damage from the fight thus far.
The two stared each other down for what felt like an eternity to everyone else, but was in reality only ten seconds.
Until finally… they charged!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
They rushed at each other once again, yelling out war cries and bringing their swords down in downward slashes. The screen turned black as the blades made sounds and flashes of slashing and clashing… until a bright light illuminated everything. Twilight and Midnight's blades clashed for what might have been the epic climax of this fight.
The power from the two attacks caused a great shockwave that tore apart the burning trees, uprooted grass and cracked the stone walls of the school building. The students and faculty of both schools were forced to brace themselves to prevent being blown away by the sheer might of the two warriors. Twilight and Midnight were now locked in a blade clash and struggling to get the upper hand over each other.
But it looks like Midnight is slowly gaining ground. Twilight opened her eyes and caught sight of her own reflection in the reflective surface of her sword's blade…
And grew saddened.
'What am I doing?' Twilight mentally asked herself. 'This isn't what Jack would want me to do.'
Twilight remembered what Jack had told her once when she had first begun to give into her own anger. Back when she was booted from her brother's wedding over an honest misunderstanding. She had been devastated and was taking her anger out on several training dummies that were more like battle drones.
She remembered that day quite well.
*Flashback…*
Twilight grunted as she had just destroyed the final training drone using an old Katana blade that had been meant for training with a real sword. Her sensei, Jack, had told her before that she wasn't ready to use something like that, but at this point, she was so mad, she didn't care.
She needed to vent, and this was the only way she could do so.
"WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!"
Twilight panted and tried to catch her breath after that fight, and quickly managed to calm down enough to think straight. She sighed and sheathed the sword she was using before walking to put the sword away and clean up her mess.
...Only for the straps of her sandals to snap before she even took a single step.
Twilight snapped to attention and looked down, once again feeling pissed off. Her footwear was ruined. She groaned and growled in frustration as she picked up her sandals and began to look even more murderous than she ever has before.
"Great! As if it weren't enough to be booted from my brother's wedding over a misunderstanding, now my sandals are broken! This day just gets worse and worse!" yelled Twilight.
She threw her sandals into the pile of robot parts and made her way over to the broom closet to just pick up her mess. She didn't even care if she got in trouble for going against Jack's orders anymore. She just needed to take her mind off of this whole rotten month!
A man's chuckle made Twilight look up from her sweeping to see her sensei, a man with black hair done up in a topknot wearing samurai robes walking into the dojo. This is her teacher, Jack. And although he can see that she's gone against his wishes, he doesn't seem angry with her.
But last she saw him, he was rocking quite a beard, and his hair was longer.
"Jack Sensei. I didn't expect to see you today. I see that you got a shave and a haircut." Twilight greeted with a small bow.
"Hm. Yes." Jack replied. "And you, my student. You have been very busy."
Twilight looked to the mountain of destroyed robots that she has already swept up and sighed in exasperation. She just knew that despite the smile, Jack was very cross with her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and soon found herself being guided by Jack to the living room of his dojo.
"Sit down, Twilight. I can tell that much has happened in your life since your last lesson. Please, sit down and have some tea and dumplings while we talk about this." Jack said.
Knowing that Jack probably wasn't going to let this go, Twilight obliged and sat down on one of the cushions as Jack poured them both some homebrewed green tea. A favorite of his from his old country.
"I've been having a very rough month, sensei. Things just haven't been going my way lately." Twilight admitted.
"Yes, so I have heard. Your brother forbade you from coming to his wedding, you used a training sword to destroy the drones and to top it all off, your sandals broke." Jack replied.
"You know all of what happened?" Twilight asked, genuinely surprised.
"Indeed. I was there watching you fight against the drones, and while I am not happy that you disobeyed me, I am quite impressed with how far you've come in your swordsmanship. The rest of which, I heard during your little explosion at the end." Jack replied.
Twilight felt her face heating up from embarrassment and guilt. How could she have been so careless as to not realize her sensei would still be here?
"Believe me, Twilight, when I say that I understand the anger and frustration that you must be feeling right now. For I too walked down this path once." Jack said.
Twilight looked at the elder man in surprise. Jack took a sip of his tea and began to tell her something that would help her down the road.
"Anger and frustration can be a warrior's greatest undoing, Twilight. They cloud your judgement and make it easier to destroy yourself if you let those feelings overwhelm you. To counter this, you must learn to temper your emotions. Let your feelings of anger simply flow over you like a river over stone."
Twilight held on to every word her sensei said. This wisdom really got to her, and she realized that he was right. She was letting her anger at her brother cloud her judgement and that caused her to do against Jack's orders.
"Now, let us not dwell on the past. You have proven yourself more than ready to weild a real sword, thus, we shall begin your training with real swords tomorrow morning. But for now, let us enjoy our snack and then make you some new sandals." Jack said.
Twilight smiled, happy that Jack wasn't really mad at her. And besides, those sweet rice dumplings do look good. Better than sugar cookies.
*Flashback Over…*
Twilight closed her eyes as Jack's words rang through her head.
'Like a river over stone…'
With a final push, Twilight managed to break the blade lock with Midnight and sent her back a ways. But the dark clone of Twilight seemed to notice that something was different.
"Huh? What the?"
Twilight kept her eyes closed as she sheathed her sword back into its scabbard and began to let go of her anger. Her cut her fell from its once flared state, allowing Twilight to tie up her hair into a topknot like Jack's. She put her hands together like she was praying and everyone was amazed and confused as the fires and damage to the environment just disappeared.
Was it all just an illusion?
"What the heck is going on?" Midnight demanded.
"You have lost. The battle is over." Twilight said simply.
"What?!"
"You are my inner demon, born of my frustration and anger. But now, that anger is no more. Thus… you do not exist." Twilight said.
But this didn't sit well with Midnight. Not at all.
"FOOLISH GIRL! I am real! Now, feel the reality of my cold, hard steel!" yelled Midnight.
She then unleashed a battle cry that was both deafening and animalistic while Twilight merely stood calm and composed. The scene alternated between the two at least four times before it looked like Midnight had closed the distance between the two.
Finally, Pinkie Pie could take it no more.
"TWILIGHT, DO SOMETHING! SHE'S GONNA MURDER YOU!"
But just as she screamed that, something began to happen to Midnight. She was now behind Twilight as the girl stood still, only now she was semi-transparent. Midnight screamed in agony as she could feel herself being destroyed or imprisoned deep within Twilight's subconscious. And with a flex of her muscles, Twilight made Midnight disappear, hopefully, for good.
She stood straight again as the sound of chirping birds and squirrels gathering food could be heard again. Twilight looked towards the shocked crowd and scowled at them. She knows what most of them think, and is in no mood to put up with any of it.
"I know what you all think of me." Twilight said. "And to be blunt, I don't care. Just know that these tricks of yours are beginning to annoy me."
And with that, Twilight began walking down the sidewalk to make her way out of town. She has much soul searching to do, and figures the life of a wandering samurai might do her some good.
But as she walked away, she didn't notice her sensei standing a little ways away from the crowd. He looked absolutely proud of his student. Not only did she indirectly save two entirely different worlds from total destruction…
She has conquered her inner demon.
(Watch out!)
Gotta get back!
(Jack, Jack, Jack!)
Back to the past!
Samurai Jack!
(Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack!)
WATCH OUT!