@Background Pony #BD5E  
Not a whole lot of room for speculation since it seemed rather straightforward, but something like a Changeling wanting to kill Twilight might be, but if they could take Twilight’s place then they probably could’ve killed Twlight, but that’s a big if.
 
Also, we don’t necessarily know the mecha wolf is there to kill them. It may be growling… But it’s actually facing Twilight.
 
Note where Twilight is sitting, at the end of the table:
 

 
Her original spot is on Rarity’s left, and Fluttershy is on Rarity’s right. Nopony has moved from their spot except Twilight, who went to stand behind Fluttershy:
 

 
Now it’s turning to the right to face Twilight and/or Fluttershy - depending on if Twilight has moved again.
 
I was going to say it must be facing Twilight, despite the growling, awaiting orders from her. But I suppose with the current positioning, that’s ambiguous. Still interesting to note that ambiguity, though.
 

 
But, like I said earlier, let’s recap the four possibilities:
 
“Twilight will not outlive her friends.” == “Twilight will die before her friends.”
 
Twilight says the resistance aims to kill her by killing them. Whether or not it’s true, it’s a very real possibility that the resistance will go after them first.
 
This creates three booleans: 1/0 = Prophesy is true/false  
L/K = Resistance lets friends live (going straight for Twilight) / Resistance Kills friends to assure Twi’s death  
-/TK = Twilight lets them live / Twilight Twi-Kills or Team-Kills them.
 

L 0L- 1L-  
K 0K- 1K-
 
and a version of each of these possibilities with an -RK tag at the end. That’s eight possibilities.
 
0L-  
Prophesy false, both parties let them live: The situation doesn’t really change at all, except that she has some friends around who may try to protect her or kill her. Pretty neutral.
 
1L-  
Prophesy true, both parties let them live: Once again, neutral. Twi won’t outlive her friends is true, but once again, since her friends are still alive, nothing really changes. The possibility of her death is just the same as if the prophesy weren’t true, since her friends are still alive. Until her friends die, she’s not at any greater chance of dying, but her lifetime is restricted to her friends’ lifetimes.
 
0K-  
Prophesy is false, but the resistance believes it’s true and will try to kill her friends to assure her death. She helps her friends live. Her friends become her meat-shield. Whether or not she still loves them, the resistance will go for them first, instead of her, making her safer.
 
1L-  
Same exact situation, except in this case, Her life actually does depend on keeping her friends safe.
 

 
Now let’s look at the TK possibilities, assuming she succeeds in killing them:
 
0L-TK:  
Prophesy False, Resistance will go for Twi, first, and Twi executes her friends. Neutral. Though it makes things a bit simpler to keep track of, since she no longer has to worry if her friends will backstab her. But this is also smear material for the resistance to use to recruit more members/hurt her image.
 
1L-TK:  
Prophesy True, Resistance will go for Twi, first, and Twi executes her friends. Twi instantly invokes the prophesy and kills herself.
 
0K-TK:  
Prophesy False, Resistance will go for Twi’s friends, but not before she has them killed. Neutral: same outcome as 0L-TK, except she’s helped the resistance a little, as well.
 
1K-TK:  
Prophesy True, Resistance will go for Twi’s friends, but she has them put to death first. Same as 1L-TK, She instantly invokes the prophesy and kills herself.
 

 
= = =
 
Reviewing all of these cases, it appears to be dratically in Twi’s favor - if that really is Twilight - to keep her friends alive.
 
Even if Twilight doesn’t believe in the prophesy (as interpreted here), then we only look at the cases that start with a 0, and see that letting her friends live is still in her favor.
 
Point is, she is massively advantaged to let her friends live, even completely ignoring any possible love she may still have for them.
 

 
So, assuming she and the author are both smart, then she’s either
 
A) Calling in the wolf to do something other than kill them, like kill The Doctor and Rose, but keep her friends alive in some secure prison (having failed to gain their trust and convince them to stay), or  
B) A Changeling, thus the 1N-TK disadvantages don’t apply, and may even help her, though not necessarily so.
 
Or she cwazy and she’s going to kill them because she can’t apply this logic correctly and has some power-control fetish of watching them die, has no good reason for doing it other than being crazy, or was really deeply hurt when Rarity discredited the dress she originally wanted to wear to the gala, striking her soul-crippling “I’m an awkward nerd” insecurities and hurting her far more than she ever let on. XD lol
 

 
 
It was fun applying logic here - I think that’s Game Theory. Maybe I can show Twilight this and I’ll become her adviser or something :P

@Cirrus Light
 
Remember: The source for, “If you die, then I die, too,” is her. It could easily have been a lie and that’s not at all how the prophecy is to be interpreted.
 
Of course, she could be a Crimson Changeling seeking to kill Twilight, who’s locked up somewhere. Or… whatever. But the point is that that interpretation of the prophecy is not necessarily valid.

@Background Pony #BD5E  
I still don’t quite get it, though. She would just be forcing her own death then, by the prophesy. Unless she thinks that she can undo it by killing them without dying, herself. But then that’s circular logic (they die, I don’t, so prophesy is false. But I can only do that if it is false.)
 
But if that were the case, then she would’ve been fine with them leaving, and that’s still a far more dangerous prospect than letting them live safely, under royal guard. They’re going to die eventually, no matter what, so why would she be any more likely to live if they die later as opposed to now?
 
If the prophesy is false, then it actually doesn’t matter, and both events are equal in risk - except fighting them is a bit more dangerous, and since she seems to believe the resistance will try to kill them first, they’re her meat-shield no matter what.
 
Meanwhile, if it’s true, then she’s only expediting her own death.
 
If you tell someone they have to be kept safe for the good of the many, they’re far more likely to cooperate and fight you than if you tell them they have to die for the good of the many :p

My guess is this: She thinks that the kingdom needs her for the fight against the Crimson Changelings. Since her life is at risk with them alive, she made a calculated choice that they need to die for the good of the kingdom.
 
And that’s why she put the sleeping drug in the food. She could have killed them easily, but would prefer to do it painlessly because she still does care about her friends.

@PonyPon  
It’s a little sad that she didn’t even try an impassioned speech about how the loneliness of time has started to drive her mad. Or in the case of Fluttershy, actually say please XD.

@Cirrus Light  
Regardless, AN X-HUNTER HAS APPEARED!!!

@ShimmeringStallion  
Option one: it happens and they run away while it chokes on a pebble.
 
Option two: they throw it in and it does nothing and it kills them like the end of Zootopia.
 
Option three: Jack Black comes in and defeats them all with the power of music.

Making her move, genius.

@The Neutrino  
It’s hard to argue from a position of being dead.
 
 
@AstralFrankie  
“Is this because of that one time I told you the dress you were originally going to wear to The Gala would not do?”
 
“ARE MY FASHION SENSES STILL AWKWARD AND UGLY NOW, RARITY?!”
 
“Well, the Mecha wolves are kinda tacky - but I’m sure engineers designed those. These gowns are gorgeous, though.”
 
“I designed the mecha wolves. Professionals designed the dresses.”
 
“Oh, haha, well, you know, it’s now a thousand years later, tacky is probably the new cacky! The newest, fad, you know?… Round 2?”
 
“No. You’re dead.”

Well, they could always throw the food into its mouth or something…
 
… I hope that doesn’t happen… more specifically, I hope that doesn’t work…

Summons a killer mecha wolf.
 
Your argument is invalid.

Ooops. That was Roseluck. Sorry, Rarity. My Bad.

Why she going to kill you, Rarity, WHAT DO YOU THINK!!

Forgot to comment on this earlier - I’m impressed by the perspective. I think I see some signs of 3d being used (though having worked with 3d a good bit, that’s no offense, I have a very good eye for that, typically), but I’m still very impressed by the perspective on Rarity, in particular.
 
Just noticed the fore-arms… I guess it makes sense that they’re under the dress’s sleeves from this angle, but it’s the lower dress part that impresses me. It throws you off for only the briefest moment before you realize that it’s a very natural way for a loose material to flow/billow over her with her legs out in that “just knocked over” posture. It looks great. I feel the loose fwoof of the dress :p
 
@armadiloeater  
I do like their dresses… I hope they keep them despite the betrayal :p lol.
 
Holy guac - did I just become Rarity or something?
 
Lol, what’s funny is I actually thought that because I was looking at Rarity, in particular…

Awwww, going straight to betrayal?

@Background Pony #5914  
But executions are so much fun… All the powerplay should be right up a Dictator’s tastes. Especially know how much Twilight likes to be in control of everything :p
 
But no, really, this is the interesting thing, I really don’t think she’s aiming to kill them, because she’s completely in control here; if she wanted them dead she could easily just call the guards in and have them taken off to her method of choice in the courtyard - so why is she summoning giant demon thing? If she aimed to kill them, why sleeping pills instead of, say, lacing it with cyanide?
 
Though I suppose giant wolf thing is pretty much “the guards.” But again, why sleeping pills instead of cyanide?
 
Unless my first half-joking line was actually correct and she wanted them killed in some other fashion :q
 

 
Soooooo I guess a killing intent is still possible, but I don’t think it’s much more likely than something more interesting. Though I suppose that itself is somewhat interesting, since, why would she kill them and force the prophesy to kill her, unless she wants to die or something?
 
(Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that if you grow wings, suddenly tens of thousands of people that you thought adored you and were your fans will suddenly want you dead and hate you more than you can bear. P.S: I also learned that alicorns are immune to poison. And strangling. And gunshot wounds. And bleeding. And asphyxiation. And drowning. And neck-breaking. And even falls from enormous heights onto spikes. It has been a busy and painful two days.)

@TheAbridgenator  
“Why are you feeding them? Why don’t you just kill them?”  
“I have an even better idea: I’m going to place them in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.”

@Cirrus Light  
Pssh, character depth, nuance? Naaaaah, that would get in the way of glorifying His Holy Dragon Spike the Flawless, the Great Leader! Who cares about abandoning a potentially great tragic villain or assassinating a well established character? We have to make Spike look good by making literally everyone around him look bad!
 
I’d harp on Time Turner’s plot immunity too, but since he’s basically The Doctor in this and a great deal of The Doctor’s skill and talent is in an uncanny ability to cheat death and wring luck out of hopeless situations, he gets a pass.

Oh boy. Stuff’s really going down, now. I’d still like to see her justify the mass executions a bit more than “Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” What needs? Who’s needs? Afraid of making people scared of Crimson Changelings? I think mass executing thousands of innocent ponies (well, guilty of saying some obvious words that’s a completely reasonable fear) would instill a bit more fear in the populace than them wondering about changelings. Buuuuut I’ve already talked about that.
 
I don’t think anyone’s replied though. Are people reading my comments? O.o
 
Anyways,
 
Isn’t it obvious, Roseluck? She’s summoning giant mecha killer wolf thing. It’s like a giant killer wolf thing but mecha. Stronger, bigger and faster, too. And perfectly obedient to her will… I think?
 
@Exedrus  
I’m more for character depth :q

Dang, and here I was hoping Twi would try to defend her point and we’d get lots of character exploration.
 
Oh well, I guess we get a fight scene instead. :D

Again. Bond villain.

All this time, and Social is still Twilight’s dump stat

Badass Twilight = Total Domination