Return to the Mirror Universe

Starlight Glimmer:

As a foal, Starlight was bitter enemies with a fellow classmate named Sunburst. Sunburst had far superior magical talent, and used it to bully Starlight and make her look weak. This led to Starlight developing a warped perspective on friendship, seeing it as a dynamic of dominance and submission. In an effort never to feel weak again, Starlight started the "Inequality Movement" and preached a dogma of unequal friendship, where one pony's interests would be the focus, rather than a mutual benefit. Unsurprisingly, Starlight cast herself in the role of a dominant friend, and used her magic to reinforce it. She was able to attract several ponies to her cause, some looking for acceptance and others looking for power over others. Rather than starting a village like the Starlight from our world, the Inequality Movement was a mobile operation, giving speeches and recruiting across Equestria.

Though King Sombra refused to endorse the movement, the new Princess of Disharmony, Twilight Sparkle, was more than happy to support it. Most likely she saw this as an ideological victory, promoting the influence of the strong over the weak. Starlight also became Twilight's student, studying dark magic under her and taking care of her old hideout. I encountered her while we hid in the mane six's old lair, and fortunately was able to pass myself off as the currently ruling dark princess. After hearing about her movement, I tried to set her on the right path, encouraging her to try connecting with ponies as an equal rather than imposing herself on them. I only hope that she took my words to heart and has embraced true friendship into her life.

The Cutie Mark Impeders

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are notorious bullies in Ponyville's school. Most often they target Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, daughter of a poor local apple salesman, Filthy Rich (A sidenote here: I recently learned that many families in this universe have a tradition of giving their foals ironic names, contrary to their destinies. This may explain why despite their destinies being opposite, many ponies have the same name as their counterpart in our Equestria). Their teacher Cheerilee often turns a blind eye to their bullying, stating several times that she simply does not care what happens to those "miserable foals" (it is worth noting that she has been deemed one of the cruelest teachers in Equestria, and has narrowly avoided getting her teaching license taken away several times).

Impatient that their cutie marks were slow to come, these juvenile delinquents decided to form their own club based around cutie marks. But rather than trying to get their own marks, they took out their anger on others, doing everything in their power to make sure other foals didn't get their cutie marks. This includes wrecking talent shows, bullying other foals out of performing their talents and even tricking foals into fearing their cutie mark. They are consistently caught doing petty crimes such as theft and vandalism.

Eventually they earned their own cutie marks: black shields with red X's on them. They see it as their destiny to continue keeping foals from gaining their cutie marks, and have even begun to see cutie marks as an evil and unnecessary part of pony society.

Notes on the Opposite Human World:

After Mirror-Derpy's mention of an opposite to the human world, I began research into what this world may be like. Originally, I expected it to be similar to the human world I know, with a Canterlot High School and city. My hypothesis was that roles would be switched, and our human counterparts would be bullies, while others like Trixie would be more amiable.

The truth was far worse. This opposite human world is a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, dominated by hatred and anger instead of friendship. I barely escaped back through the mirror to my world. Despite my initial near-fatal encounter, I was able to magically project my spirit back through the portal, to observe the lives of our opposite human counterparts. The acts I saw were so depraved, that I have taken a memory potion to forget them, and I refuse to write them here.

If anything, this made me truly aware of the differences between ponies and humans. Humans have a high penchant for extremes. While they are capable of deep and powerful friendships they also are capable of immense destruction and violence. I cannot say that I will see my Canterlot High friends the same way ever again, as I now understand that despite our friendship, they are still a different species from a different world and I must remember that.

For now I am shutting down this research and I have decided to only use my portal to access the world of Canterlot High School. The multiverse is a place of wondrous opportunity and discovery, but is also a place of danger and depravity. Only now am I truly beginning to understand the implications of an existence where every timeline that can happen, will happen. They do not bear thinking about.

I guess the multiverse is sort of like the dynamic between Pinkie Pie and Pinkamena. You can choose to view it positively: as a place of infinite possibility, or negatively: as a place of horror and cruelty. In the end both views are two sides of the same coin, reflections on either side of a mirror.

Twilight Sparkle