Return to the Mirror Universe

Twilight Sparkle was exhausted. Ever since she had confronted those meddlers from the other universe, she'd been working in her lab almost nonstop for the past 24 hours. Her encounter with them had shaken her to the core. She'd barely managed to beat them and counted herself lucky that they didn't have Elements of their own. To add to the insult, they had escaped into the forest, and turned Shining armor against her. Not that she cared much about the latter, he was more useful as a decorative statue anyway. No what really got her peeved was the insult thrown at her before the fight.

"Not a real princess. Fools. I'm the Element of POWER! I am far more deserving of the title of princess than some weakling stage magician." She shot the Trixie statue in the corner a dirty look. The statues of Celestia and Luna stood beside it, hooked up to several wires and measuring devices.

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted as the lab door swung open. Her five fellow elements trotted in arguing heatedly. For some reason Twilight couldn't place, tensions had risen between the members of her little gang at an alarming rate the past few days. Rarity accusing Applejack of stealing her bits, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy arguing about 'who started it'. Pinkamena looked as solemn as ever, simply staring off to the side of the room. Twilight stomped her hoof three times to get their attention. When that didn't work, she zapped the pony who was speaking loudest, which happened to be Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, what'd you do that for?!" Rainbow complained, rubbing her singed wing.

"Why'd ya call us here... Princess?" Applejack asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'll have you know that I was putting the finishing touches on my tower of bits. The capstone won't build itself you know!" Rarity said looking annoyed.

"This will be well worth our time I assure you. Thanks to my research and brilliance, we are one step closer to achieving ultimate power!" Twilight raised her hooves dramatically. Nopony even blinked.

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof, "Uh Twilight, we already rule all of Equestria, and we have the most powerful weapon in world. Even King Tirek the Kind has surrendered, proving nopony can stand against us. I'd pretty much say we already have ultimate power."

"For once you've actually made an intelligent point Rainbow Dash." Twilight patronized. "You're right, we have all the power and wealth anypony could want. But how long will it last? I hate to play Pinkamena's role here, but the truth is eventually we'll grow old and pass on to the great starry void. And I have no intention of letting any successor take my place, even those darling Cutie Mark Impeders."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other uneasily. "Uh, what exactly are you suggesting Twilight?" Applejack questioned.

"Immortality. Invulnerability. Eternal power. We are going to become alicorns." Twilight relished in the collective gasp that followed. So far things were going as she wanted. Twilight had briefly considered keeping alicornhood for herself, however she realized that she needed the other ponies for the Elements of Disharmony to be effective. She would still have her mastery of magic and her intellect to reign in her fellow elements if needed later. Greedy smiles lit up everpony's face. It seemed they were warming to her plan after all.

Rarity cleared her throat. "How precisely are we going to do that?"

Shifting into her voice into lecture mode, Twilight trotted over to the statues of princesses. "Of late, I've been studying our former princesses here. I've been trying to examine the magic contained within their bodies, specifically how they are able to contain three times as much magic as a normal pony, in a physical form. Simply absorbing their power won't work, as once it leaves their body, it simply becomes raw magic, which depletes over time and doesn't make one an alicorn."

"Where are ya going with this?" Applejack asked.

Twilight shot her a look of annoyance. "As I was saying, simply absorbing the power of an alicorn doesn't make you an alicorn. However, I came across an interesting discovery. You see, the reason they can contain so much power, is because it isn't really within them at all. It flows into them from somewhere. They then use this massive amount of power in conjunction with their special talent, like controlling the sun and moon."

Fluttershy thought for a moment, "Flows from somewhere... so you're saying-"

"Their power flows into them from another dimension, exactly. Unfortunately we can't use an alicorn to access the power, because as soon as you tamper with their magic, the connection immediately closes off. However, I've input a searcher spell into the mirror. It should only be a day or so until it finally locates the dimension we're looking for."

"Even if we find this so called 'power dimension', how do we use it to become alicorns?" Rarity asked.

"That's where this comes in." Twilight trotted over to a machine on the other side of the room. It was twice her height, with a tall metal point swirling outwards at a right angle.

"Eh, what the hay is that?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. The level of intelligence she had to deal with sometimes... "This is called a cosmic drill. I siphoned some of Sir Discord's reality warping powers, and used them to create this. It can rip the very fabric of reality apart, and once we find our mystery dimension, we can use this to access the power there directly. This, Applejack, is our key to becoming alicorns." Twilight paused and gave a look of pure malice. "And once we find those miserable counterparts of ours, they won't stand a chance against us."

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. Twilight snorted with derision. She wasn't even sure if she deserved that title anymore. The bleak sky and the dusty streets of Mirror Ponyville did nothing to improve Twilight's mood. For the past few hours, she hadn't really much cared what they had been doing. Derpy had led them out of the forest, and snuck them aboard a train. Nopony had really spoken, except for a few half hearted jokes from Pinkie. Twilight had allowed herself some sleep, if only to escape the crushing reality of the situation.

Now she trotted along the sidewalk of an industrial looking Ponyville. Identical brick houses lined the street, showing no signs of individuality or creativity. As opposed to Twilight's own Ponyville, there was no vibe of cheerfulness or excitement. Ponies worked, went home and stayed there. Nopony seemed interested in the town or each other. In fact, Derpy hadn't even bothered asking Twilight to cast a stealth spell, saying nopony in town would care who they were or what they were doing, even if they looked very similar to the new rulers. When the occasional guard marched by, eyes green with mind control, Twilight and her friends ducked behind the nearest cart or fence. Once again this world had managed to twist something she loved into something heartbreaking.

Derpy stopped in front of a nondescript white painted house that looked slightly worn. Paint chipped away from the walls and vines grew unchecked over the windows. In the rather ill-maintained front yard was a chained up brown and white dog. It growled at them threateningly as they approached.

"Winona?" Applejack asked curiously. Upon seeing her more closely, the dog stopped growling and sat attentively, as if awaiting instruction. "Hmm, normally she'd just start lickin' me like crazy. Ah can't tell whether this is an improvement or not." Mirror Winona sniffed the air twice, and immediately began growling even more ferociously at Applejack, snapping at her. She quickly backed up, eyeing the dog sadly.

"Looks like she knows you aren't supposed to be here." Derpy remarked.

"Where is 'here' exactly?" Rarity asked as Twilight opened the door with magic. Inside the place had an air of neglect. Dust motes floated around, causing Fluttershy to have a sneezing fit, at the end of which she blushed deeply. They took a seat at a dusty round table on which the only thing was an old concert flyer (DAZZLINGS: a concert of love!... guest appearances by pianist Vinyl Scratch and electric guitarist Octavia!Cancelled by order of the Princess of Disharmony).

"This is the one place the Elements of Disharmony would never think to look... their old hideout." Derpy replied.

"They didn't protect it very well." Twilight observed.

"I think it was supposed to blend in, which was probably why we had such hard time finding it before." Suddenly, everpony froze as they heard hoofsteps from the back of the house. Thinking quickly, Applejack grabbed Derpy roughly and held her hooves behind her back.

"Oh you're back already princess?" a familiar voice called. Mirror Starlight trotted into the room bowing low. She looked almost exactly like Twilight's student, except that she wore a white hat bearing an equal sign with a slash through it. "And I see you have... company. Is that Derpy Hooves? And why do you have wings??"

"She's our er... captive. And um, the wings are because of um... an experiment I was doing. Yeah." Twilight answered. M-Starlight nodded but didn't say anything. She just stood there looking at them. "So... um... how are you then?" Twilight stammered awkwardly.

M-Starlight blinked as if that was an unexpected question. "Oh just fine your majesty, the inequality movement is going splendidly. Ponies are slowly accepting that friendship is truly an unequal relationship. My talk on dominant friends and submissive friends in Appleoosa was definitely well received. After all, friendship is so much simpler when one pony calls the shots. Owlowiscious had been so helpful distributing fliers-"

Twilight held up a hoof and M-Starlight immediately stopped talking. "So... Starlight... have you completed your task here then?"

"Yes your majesty, I've finished feeding all the animals and cleaning their feed bowls. Really though I can't thank you enough for taking me on to study magic your highness, its truly an honor. I've already completed my first lesson on dark magic-" Twilight held up her hoof again.

"If you're done here, we need some privacy to make our plans." Twilight said sternly.

"Oh- Oh of course princess no problem. I'll be on my way then! Love the new hairdo Pinkamena!" M-Starlight headed toward the door.

"Starlight?" Twilight called. She stopped mid step and turned around."How many friends have you made so far... in your inequality movement?"

Starlight placed a hoof on her chin pensively. "Only a few so far... but to be honest I think they only hang out with me because they want favor with you. They aren't very good at being submissive friends."

"Hmm interesting. How about we do an experiment then, for your next assignment? Try ditching the whole 'inequality' idea for a day, and just attempt to connect with ponies on a personal level. You know, likes, dislikes and all that. If you find one friend who genuinely wants to hang out with you, then continue the experiment the next day, and so on. Just to prove once and for all that inequality is the best method. And I'll know if you really tried or not, so give it your best. Oh and lay off the dark magic for a while. Stuffs not good for you." M-Starlight looked at Twilight, stunned. "Go on you have your assignment, now shoo." Twilight waved a hoof dismissively.  M-Starlight gave a quick bow and hurriedly left.

Applejack released Derpy, who let out a huge sigh of relief. "Was that really necessary?" AJ grinned sheepishly.

"So I'm gonna ask the obvious question here. Why the hay didn't it work?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"Why didn't what work? Our plan? Because that basically got scrapped from the second we arrived." Derpy said sullenly crossing her hooves.

Twilight couldn't bear it anymore. She had to know. "Every enemy we've faced in the past was defeated by the magic of friendship. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis... all of them. How? How could we fail?" She looked dejectedly at Derpy. "Maybe...maybe we just aren't strong enough this time. This is too big, even for us. Maybe I should've let them turn me to stone... then at least she'd turn to stone too and the rest of you might have a chance."

"Noble Twilight, very noble. However it wouldn't work. The equalization magic won't take effect if you're in the same world. But you already know that. Why are you so ready to give up?" Derpy asked.

"Ever since I moved to Ponyville to study friendship, the lessons I've learned always showed me that true friendship triumphed over any obstacle, any villain. But now I'm questioning if that's really true after all? This... world... has twisted everything we loved into something awful. Maybe here, friendship isn't magic after all..."

Rainbow grabbed Twilight and spun her around until she faced her. "Look we know you're upset about Shining Armor, we all are. But this is crazy talk. Remember what you said when we first battled Discord? Friendship isn't always easy..."

"...but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for." Twilight completed.

"That's right. Shining Armor sacrificed himself to give us another chance, a chance to make things right again. And that's what we're gonna do." Applejack affirmed.

"You put Starlight on the right path just now darling. That proves you still do care about friendship, even if you think you don't." Rarity added.

"Besides, don't tell me I planned the after-party for nothing!" Pinkie yelled, bouncing around the table. Fluttershy didn't say anything, but simply gave Twilight a pat on the back and a warm smile.

Even in their darkest hour, her friends showed loyalty, honesty, generosity, optimism and kindness. Twilight felt her sadness lift like a stage curtain. She couldn't give up. She never did give up in the first place. Her heart already knew what her mind had needed to be taught. "Friendship IS worth fighting for! And as long as one pony is willing to fight for it, the magic of friendship will always survive!" Everypony cheered loudly.

"Um that's wonderful and all girls, but maybe we ought to keep the noise to a minimum? You know in case any guards get curious." Derpy said nervously.

"Oh right." Twilight grinned sheepishly.

"Um so why did they beat us?" Fluttershy repeated Rainbow's question hesitantly.

Derpy adjusted her glasses. "Ah, I believe I have an explanation. You see, despite you not having your physical elements, I thought that you exemplified the spirit of your elements so well, that you didn't need them. You should've been able to triumph over your opposites with ease. However here's where I went wrong. I believed the Elements of Disharmony acted similar to your Elements of Harmony, simply converting a certain emotion or trait into raw magic. Since pony nature tends toward good, I believed that your elements would be stronger plain and simple. But now I believe we are dealing with something very different. The Elements of Disharmony must be parasitic, feeding off the negative emotions and traits in a pony, and over time, increasing their influence and control over the host. They grant great power, but only so that the host can protect the elements and they can keep feeding."

"So because they keep increasing the negative emotions in whoever is using them, the elements have more and more power to draw on?" Twilight asked.

Derpy nodded. "Yes. That's why they were able to overpower you. But in turn, the elements are slowly taking control of them. Twilight will become more and more power hungry. Fluttershy's cruelty will descend to outright barbarism... and so on. It seems odd to me that Twilight would so foolishly steal such powerful artifacts without proper research. Unless someone manipulated her... played to her ego."

"Hey Twi, these elements sound alot like the Alicorn Amulet Trixie used." Applejack observed.

"You're right they do AJ! How'd we stop her again?" Rainbow asked, reminiscing to the past.

"We tricked her. The amulet gave her power, but it also made her easier to fool." Rarity remembered.

"You said the Elements of Disharmony will defend the host against attack, to keep feeding at any cost?" Twilight asked.

"Yes that's right. What-" Derpy began, but Twilight cut her off.

"I have a plan. A really stupid, dangerous crazy plan. Derpy, get us on the next train back to Canterlot."