Twilight glared the human in front of her,

"Discord,"

"Twilight Sparkle, I presume, but not of this universe...correct," Discord lifted an eyebrow,

"How do y-"

"Well, for one, your face is one of annoyance, and two, the Twilight of this realm is well...dead," he answered her question before she could finish it. Her mouth dropped and her face turned pale,

"D...dead?" She stuttered. Discord nodded, his smile now a saddened frown,

"Yes she....she was beheaded in front of the whole kingdom, by Sombra himself, an example to those who opposed him. She is the reason we exist, the reason that everyone here is fighting to overthrow the Shadow King himself, well him and his traitor of a wife, 'Queen' Luna," Twilight gasped,

"Luna? No she wouldn't do that, Celestia is her sister and I...I was her friend, she must have been-"

"Forced? Well if she was its quite the show she's putting on for the kingdom, with her erotic screams erupting throughout the kingdom and not to mention killing innocent people that have helped us," Discord growled angrily, slamming his scaled fist down.

"But that is beside the point, right now I must know how you came here and if you are willing to help the Masks in our quest to annihilate the corrupt royalty in the Celestial Castle," he said, placing his elbows on the table and intertwining his fingers. Twilight looked at the other cloaked figures,

"How can I even answer that when I only know ONE of you, it's kind of hard trusting them even when the one in charge is a reformed bad guy in my universe," he smiled,

"Same old Twilight, always thinking about the negative consequences instead of the positive ones...girls, reveal yourselves for our friend here," the figures moved their gloved hands up to the hoods and slid them off, revealing themselves to the cautious and confused princess Twilight. She held her hands to her mouth and felt tears come to her eyes,

"Girls?"

...............................................

Crossblade sat in his parents' home, which lay outside the gates to the City of Shadows, the capital of the vast Kingdom of Equus and where the earlier events of today took place. His father was outside tending to the crops, while his mother was in the main hall, knitting a new dress for some girl that was the daughter of a royal advisor for the Queen. He sighed,

"Mother why do you stress yourself with such ignorant people, they are foolish to be apart of that royalty why help them become even more corrupt," he questioned, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.

"And why do you not have a wife and child by now my dear son, I had married your father and had you when I was but only nineteen, you are twenty-three now and still have yet to find a woman worth being with, I'm starting to wonder if you even have a heart at all," his mother said, pointing her needle at her son with a sly smile.

"I told you, I don't have time for romance," he reminded her.

"But dear, you must know that you have to continue our family name, we can't just have it die," his mother told him once again. He rolled his eyes, not impressed,

"Okay mother, I promise to find a girl to marry after all of my important issues have been solved," she smiled,

"Good, now you must go, the king will be arriving to check on your father's health, if he believes he is healthy he might let him be apart of his counsel, that or he may come out of retirement to fight in what could be the next big war, this time with those two rebellions...I have never liked them you know, they are causing unnecessary conflict with our king," she told her son. He sighed,

"Mother, if you could just see what he has done you'd understand why the Flames of Justice are fighting with him, he's a criminal, but of course you don't remember what he has done, your memory is fading," she glared at him,

"No need to rub it in, Crossblade," she scolded him.

"Now go, I'm sure that you have other events to attend," Crossblade nodded and kissed his mother on the cheek,

"Stay safe mother,"

"You too," he smiled and opened the door but found an obstacle in front of him,

"Your majesty! You're...you're early," Crossblade's mother said, standing and bowing to him. Crossblade stepped back and did the same,

"Your majesty, I apologize for my clumsiness," he lied.

"Your apology is accepted," a female voice said behind the king,

"Thank you my queen, please excuse me I am on my way to a gathering in the plaza," He said, still staring at the floor.

Sombra smiled,

"I see your mother has taught you some type of manners, I applaud you for using them, now both of you rise and I hope to see you again soon Crossblade, maybe in my army for the upcoming war," he hinted at Crossblade who bit his tongue.

"Maybe, but until then, I bid you well," Crossblade stood tall once more and looked at his 'king'.

Sombra stood tall, his body embroidered with black armor, the same color of his skin. A helmet sat comfortably on his head a bright red horn on the front of it. His jet black hair was long and ended past his shoulders. His body was muscular and a sword sat on his right hip while a dagger hung on his left calf. His eyes looked almost as if there was a continuous fire in them, a flame that could be stowed with rage and hatred. Sombra and Luna stepped to the side and let the man through, Luna watched him go,

"He is strange one isn't he love," she told her husband,

"Yes, but he would make a fine addition in my army," Sombra replied before turning and heading inside. Luna followed after him, closing the door behind them.

............................................

Twilight stared at her friends who had just recently revealed themselves. Rarity walked past her to join the other three girls there, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie pie. She took notice of Pinkie first, her hair was straightened down, and her eyes looked like they had seen some horrible things, she had a long scar that went across her mouth, making a smile. Rainbow Dash looked the worst, scars lined every part of her and hair only remained on the left side of her head, and on the right, a large scar. Applejack was missing an eye, only a scar and her eyelid remained, her hair was cut short and her nose was slightly crooked, recently broken. Rarity had her hair tied in a bun, a scar went diagonal across her face, starting on the right side of her forehead and ending at the bottom left of her chin. Her eyes were underlined with bags and the bottom of her left earlobe was sewn together. Twilight could only cry, the sight of her injured friends would forever haunt her, but one thing stood out, they were all smiling.

They all took a step towards her,

"Ah know you ain't our Twilight, but even so, you...are one of our friends," Applejack said, tears streaming down her face. The rest joined her, sobbing loudly. Twilight took a step forward,

"Where...where's Fluttershy?" She asked, a little worried.

"She betrayed us," Discord answered with a growl.

Twilight's eyes widened,

"She's with Sombra!" She said.

Rainbow Dash shook her head,

"No! She's with the other rebellion, the Flames of Justice," she said, almost hissing the name. Twilight crossed her arms,

"Who are they?"

"Another rebellion, but as their name states, they want to destroy Sombra and all of his followers and will kill anyone who gets in their way," Rarity explained,

"They're monsters, Twi," Applejack added.

"But that doesn't explain why Fluttershy would join them, she is kind," Twilight told them.

"We don't get it either, but they can't be trusted, we don't even know who most of them are, only her, and they only attack when there is a big event, we tried capturing one, but lost a member during the attempt, they are the reason a war has been considered, and we are caught in the middle of it," Discord explained further, rising from his chair and placing his hands behind his back.

Twilight looked at all of them,

"But if that's their cause, what is your reason to fight back?" She questioned.

Discord looked at her,

"We only have one thing in common with the Flames, we want Sombra destroyed, but instead of killing all of his followers and killing innocents we want to fix everything, give the counsel back to the remaining Elements of Harmony, and restore peace to Equus," he said humbly.

Twilight smiled,

"Well thank Celestia that you got to me first," everyone smiled,

"Good ta know you're joining us Twilight, 'cause we can use your help ta get ourselves out there to the public, and with you looking like our Twilight," Applejack said.

"you can play that role and bring hope back to Equus and when the war comes, we may have enough people and weapons to take on both the Flames and Sombra," Discord finished, an excited gleam in his eyes.

Twilight looked at the group of people who looked like her friends,

"Hold...hold on, you seem to forget that I don't belong in this universe, everyone in my universe will be worried sick about me...I...I can't stay here, I need to get home," she told them.

"But you are able to return here, correct?" Discord said.

"Yeah I...I think so,"

"Well then why not leave a note to your friends in your universe and let them know you are going to be gone for awhile," Applejack said.

"That depends on how long awhile is, if it's more than a few days then I can't stay," Twilight exclaimed.

Discord stroked his goatee, thinking of ways to keep Twilight here. Finally after a few minutes, he thought of something and snapped his fingers,

"I got it!" He snapped his scaled fingers this time and with a flash a hand mirror appeared into his hand.

Twilight jumped back,

"There's Equestrian magic here!" She cried out.

"There has always been magic here, but here we call Spirit, its like a fire inside us that if we use too much, it will extinguish and will weaken us. We won't be able to use it, everyone has it, but only a few have enough to use it as a lethal and non lethal form. Someone may not have alot of it though and can train it to become strong enough to use it, like Applejack here. Her Spirit was in the middle, only being truly awakened when Twilight would use hers, but after some training, she can now use it at will and control it. You have a lot of Spirit, Twilight, I can feel it, but this was the same as this realm's Twilight, but the question is, can you use it and maintain control of it?" He then looked at the mirrior and held it out to her,

"But first take this, you'll be able to communicate with your universe with it, just say a name and they will appear in the mirror, another form of the mirror will pop up and show itself to the person you called, at least this way you can check in with them, make sure they are ok and they can know the same about you," Twilight took the mirror and looked at it. It was oval shaped and had a brown frame, it fit perfectly in the palm of her hand,

"Can I use it now?" She asked, wanting to test it.

"Go ahead but make it quick, Pinkie wants to give you a tour of your new home," Discord said before turning and leaving the room the others followed. Pinkie stopped at the door,

"I'll be waiting on the other side of the door, just knock when you're ready for the tour," she started to close the door,

"Oh and Twilight, thank you, for staying I mean, and I don't think Fluttershy went to the Flames because she wanted to, I think she went because she needed to," she then closed the door and left Twilight alone in the room with the mirror.

She stared at the mirror, looking at her reflection, was she really about to do this for a universe that wasn't her own. She took a deep breath, she had to, it wasn't like her to leave a problem unsolved. Twilight put on her best smile,

"Applejack," the mirror flashed and swirled until an orange pony appeared on the glass, her hat sat proudly on her head. The mare turned to buck a tree but then stopped and looked at the mirror,

"Uhhhh Twilight, is that you 'n there?" She asked her accent strong.

"Yes Applejack, um can you pass this message on to the others for me please," the mare nodded.

"So I'm not gonna be back for awhile, could be a few months or even a few years, but I ended up in another world, one led by King Sombra...its bad and I can't just sit back and let him destroy this place, don't even try to follow me, you'd end up somewhere else, probably where Sunset is...plus I need you five there to know that you're safe, don't worry I will try to keep in contact with you all, but if I miss a day don't think the worst of things, if more than a year passes then worry, but until then make sure Equestria is safe, now I gotta go, I will talk to you again soon," she watched the mirror fade back to her reflection and felt tears run down her face. Twilight leaned forward in the chair and sobbed for a few minutes, knowing she wouldn't see her friends for a very long time, at least not the ones she knew. She finally stood and made her way to the door, knocked three times and stepped inside the door.

Author's Note

I know these two chapters are back to back, but I had these two planned out, now I will slow down. Anyways I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, it ended up being shorter after I did some editing but otherwise it went well. Cover art is in the works, see you guys and gals soon...PEACE OUT!