The fic will later take place in Twilight's mind.
If—for some reason—they were able to knock Twilight out, they would go into her mind and find two versions of her Filly version being ridiculed by a shadow version of herself. They try to protect Filly-Twilight, which in turn gives her enough confidence to face the Shadow-Twilight by merging with it. This could explain why Twilight was being cynical to her friends, brother, and mentor; the shadow version was a very dominant personality.
