Moonlight Mirror

It was an especially dark night. Princess Luna had been doing her duties, protecting ponies in their sleep and Princess Celestia had been sleeping. The princess of the sun had been woken up, though, as a young filly, who had introduced herself as a villain, had trotted into the castle.

The young unicorn stepped into the throne room. She looked really calm, although she had a sinister look on her face. She was surrounded by royal guards. She had no intention of fighting them, she knew she could never beat them in battle. She walked slowly in front of the thrones of the 2 princesses, taking her time and enjoying the suspense in the air.

She was of a dark blue color, her mane was dark red and black, tied up neatly to the side by a small black bow. Her tail, which shared the colors of her mane, was flapping around freely behind her. She wasn't wearing anything but humble black shoes. She would have even looked intimidating if she hadn't been so young. Her body had developed so much that she could almost be called a mare, but she still remained a filly in the eyes of other full-grown ponies.

She stepped quite close to the thrones and raised her head, indicating that she looks down on the princesses where any other pony would bow down before them.

Princess Luna finally broke the suspense by asking: "Who are you and why have you summoned us?"

"Who am I? Well, i have no problem telling you about myself," The filly explained with a wide grin, "My name is Moonlight Mirror. And as for why i am here," she paused for dramatic effect... "i have managed to kidnap Twilight Sparke and her friends"

"Guards! Seize her!" Luna commanded in her Canterlot voice.

Spears were suddenly pointed at Moonlight Mirror from all directions, but she didn't even flinch, it only made her arrogant grin even wider.

"I wouldn't hurt me if i were you. That is, if you ever want to see the elements of harmony again."

"How do we know that what you are speaking is true?" Asked Celestia, who was finally awake enough to start being a part of the conversation.

"Just take a look." Said the filly and projected an image of Twilight, chained up in some dungeon, all of her hooves were chained together and her body was in some big cuff to prevent her from moving her wings. She had some golden ring on her horn, decorated with runes of some sort. She was fiercely trying to escape, using brute force.

"What have you done to her?" Shouted Celestia, who even swooped in front of the condescending unicorn, almost attacking her in her enraged state. The princess managed to stop herself from doing anything reckless, although her rage grew with each passing moment.

Moonlight Mirror gave the ruler a confused look and said arrogantly: "How stupid are you? I just told you and showed you. I kidnapped her."

At this point, Luna had to hold her sister back from annihilating the annoying little criminal.

Moonlight continued: "I want no power, I don't want to be the ruler of Equestria. I know I could never beat anyone in a fight, but right now, i can get anything i want from you two."

Luna quickly asked: "What do you want then?"

"I want a million bits, a forest with my nee house in the middle of it and I want to be left alone for the rest of my life. Never to be punished for the actions of today... Oh, and before you give your answer, give serious thought to the fact that it is the price you are paying for the elements of harmony."

"Why do you think Twilight Sparke won't free herself and her friends?" Asked Celestia "She is more than capable enough"

"Not without her magic. You saw the ring around her horn. I have spent many moons trying to figure out how to make these and I can finally do it. These absorb her magic, leaving her as helpless as an earth pony."

"What about the magic of friendship?"

"That's not a real thing. And even if it were, i have thrown the 6 troublemakers into separate dungeons. Anyways, i am losing patience, my dears, do you accept my demands?"

Luna pulled Celestia back to discuss these newly laid demands.

Moonlight pushed up one of the spears with her hoof, saying: "You can stop pointing these things at me, you know i'm not going anywhere."

As the guards lowered the spears, the two princesses turned back to Moonlight.

Celestia hesitated, but finally managed to say "We accept the conditions."

The filly laughed as she knew how hard it must have been for the princesses to accept that even if they could solve this, they would have to give their word that the criminal would never be punished. But that wasn't enough. She was like a child with a new toy. She could make the most powerful alicorns in the world do whatever she wanted. She had to see how far she could push them.

"Sorry, but the conditions have changed while you were discussing," she explained as she started to walk around the princesses, heading for the throne, "You see, I really like having an empowered feeling. And what better way to get that than having you two bow before me." She sat down on Luna's throne.

The 2 sisters were trying to stay calm, although their faces revealed that they were taken to their last limit. They slowly took postions to bow down before the little unicorn

A FEW HOURS EARLIER

It was an especially dark night. Twilight was sleeping in her castle. Sleeping so peacefully and unwittingly.
A quick moment later, Moonlight Mirror teleported to her room. It seems that she had been practicing silent teleportation for a long time as her entrance was completely silent and unnoticable. She hovered a golden ring onto Twilight's horn and then teleported them both out of there. She knew that this last move was going to wake the princess, but she was prepared.

They both teleported into a dungeon. The princess of friendship DID wake up, but before she could do anything, she found herself chained up. She tried to use her magic, but she just couldn't.

"Where am i? Who are you?"

"You are in a dungeon and I am your kidnapper. You are my way of blackmailing Luna and Celestia. I don't have much time to talk. I've gotta go and kidnap the other elements."

Twilight could only shout: "WAIT!" But the mysterious filly was already gone, silently teleported away.

Moonlight visited Pinkie Pie next as she would be the eastiest to kidnap. After all, she didn't even require a ring or a full body cuff to hold any wings. All she had to do was teleport in and out. And with a few quick skilled movements, the energetic pink pony was chained and helpless.

The evildoer visited Fluttershy and Rarity next, they also didn't pose a challenge and before long, they were also helplessly locked up.

The hardest one of all was Rainbow Dash. She never really slept well because she took naps all day. Also she was swift to escape or attack.

Moonlight transported herself to Dash's home, along with the full body cuff already with her. She hovered it onto Rainbow Dash, but right before she could lock it, the swift pony swooshed upwards and with a confused face, she asked: "who are you?"

Instead of an answer, Moonlight teleported them both to the dungeon she had planned for Applejack. She had made sure that Applejack's dungeon was the strongest and that the strongest of ponies couldn't break out of there. She had to use it for Rainbow Dash, because Rainbow's dungeon had an open ceiling that was made to aggravate her if her wings had been locked up.

She tried to lock Rainbow in some chains, at least lock up her hooves, but she was quickly pinned down by the colorful blue blur.

"Time to start explaining! Who are you and why are you trying to imprison me?" She asked fiercely

Moonlight didn't give a straight answer and promised: "Alright, I promise to tell you everything, just let go of me and let me stand up."

Rainbow hesitated, but her curiosity beat her sense of judgment. She let go of the dark colored filly and just like that, Moonlight teleported away like she hadn't promised anything.

The last one was Applejack. But that was going to be tricky. She wanted to keep all of the elements in different dungeons, but Rainbow had taken up Applejack's respective holding room. She just hoped that the strong apple pony wouldn't be strong enough to break that stone wall in Rainbow's dungeon.

She teleported to Sweet Apple Acres and just like the rest of the ponies, she took Applejack to her dungeon with a simple teleportation spell.

Just like the rest of the ponies, Applejack woke up when she was teleported out, but Moonlight was quick enough to cuff the earth pony's hooves before she could react.

And with the blink of an eye, Moonlight was gone, leaving Applejack alone in the dungeon. She looked around, trying to figure out how to escape. She could probably break the wall in a weak spot, but her hooves were cuffed.

"Can anypony hear me?" She heard a faint noise. It sounded like Twilight.

She loudly replied with a simple "YEAH!"

"Applejack?"

"Twilight?"

"How do we get out of here?"

"You mean you don't have a plan?"

"Not this time! I can't use my magic!"

"Darned! Is anyone else here?"

"Rarity on my other side! The dark pony said she was going to take all of us!"

Applejack checked the rest of the walls. She heard crying on one side, it must have been fluttershy. The walls and the floor was all made of rock, but there were probably quite thin walls between them. She started hitting one of her rear hoofcuffs on a rock, hoping to break the lock and bust herself out.

It took about a half an hour of constant kicking, but she managed to free her rear right leg. She used it to bust the wall between herself and Twilight.

She saw that the princess of friendship was bound and she had some ring on her horn. She rushed over to her as fast as she could and used her mouth to take off the ring.

Twilight, ecstatic with joy, used her regained magic to lose the chains on both her and Applejack. Then they went their separate ways, Twilight busting walls with her magic and Applejack with her strength.

Soon enough, they had busted out every single one of their friends, excluding Rainbow Dash. Her wall was very strong and unbreakable by any pony.

Twilight soon came up with a plan. She and Rarity teamed up with magic beams to break down the wall while Applejack bucked the wall and Pinkie Pie used her hair as a drill. Fluttershy was at the other wall of Rainbow's dungeon, telling Rainbow to stay back.

The plan commenced and it seemed pretty useless, but over the span of a minute, they were able to fracture the wall and after another minute, make a hole big enough for Rainbow to fit through.

The spectral pony came through the hole to meet her friends. They all hugged eachother, joyous to see eachother again.

"It's awesome to see you all again, but does anypony know how to get out of here?"

"By tapping the walls on my part of the dungeon, I've made certain that there is an exit there, quite a thin wall." Said Pinkie

"You been spending a lot of time with Maude lately, haven't you?" Answered Rainbow jokingly, but then flew right at the wall that Pinkie pointed to, shattering it to little pebbles.

"Let's go, i wanna make that filly pay!" Said Rarity furiously as they all stepped out and saw that they had been in the side of a mountain, just outside of Canterlot.

"She said she was going to see the princesses. So that's where we're going as well!" Said Twilight before they all galloped off.

The Princesses of sun and moon were just about to bow before the condescending, young unicorn filly, when the front door of the throne room suddenly shot wide open, revealing the elements of harmony, all of them with enraged looks on their faces. They had the same goal. To make the criminal pay for her actions.

The two princesses both looked back and were very relieved to see that the ponies were okay. Their eyes narrowed and their faces formed grins while Moonlight Mirror's grin suddenly turned into trembling fearful face as she saw her worst fear come true.

She quickly bolted off the throne and was just ready to teleport herself away when Twilight used her horn to hover the magic absorbing ring that was just used against her, onto Moonlight's horn while she was still in the air.

The dethroned villain didn't see that coming and as she couldn't use her magic anymore to teleport herself away, she fell down onto the floor.

She would have galloped away, but she had nowhere to go. By the time she picked herself up from the fall, she was surrounded by the six ponies she had mistreated along with the 2 princesses.

The filly, who was so high and mighty just moments ago, layed down on the floor as a trembling mess. "please don't hurt me!" she whimpered as she knew that there was no escape from punishment.

"We aren't going to hurt you. But we need to have a serious talk," said Twilight Sparkle before reaching out her hoof to help the pathetic unicorn up.

As Moonlight stood up, Twilight indicated her to come along. The rest of the ponies stayed there in the throne room.

Once they were out in the hallway and there was nopony around, Twilight asked:
"I just want to know why you would do something like that, maybe we can help you."

"I did it so that I could get some things in exchange for giving you back to the princesses. A million bits and a forest with a house in the middle of it. So I could spend the rest of my life alone, without ever having to meet anypony else."

"Why wouldn't you want to meet anypony?"

"Because I don't want anypony to become my friend. And friendship is nothing but disappointment wrapped in loads of etiquette and rules. I don't need that"

"I think you have a very wrong understanding of what friendship is. It is the strongest force on this land, and it has saved Equestria many times. Like right now."

"I wasn't a threat to Equestria. I just wanted reward for my hard work."

Twilight gave Moonlight a bit of an annoyed look before opening the throne room doors again. "Guards, keep an eye on her in the hall, we need to think of how to reward her hard work"

Moonlight had never felt so ashamed or helpless in her life. 6 guards came to the hall to watch her evet though she couldn't do anything with that ring around her horn.

The doors closed and the 8 powerful ponies were left inside to discuss her punishment.

It felt like ages when the door opened again and she could go in to see the 2 sisters on their thrones and the others in front of them in a straight line.

Moonlight walked as slowly as before, but she clearly wasn't enjoying the suspense anymore. Her head hanged low to hide her defeated face.

"Moonlight Mirror," formally stated Twilight, "You have mistreated every single pony in this room. All because you couldn't understand friendship and because you were too invested in other types of magic."

"But..." Moonlight started to object, but she could read the room that she should stay silent.

"We have discussed it and we have come to an agreement. Your horn will stay locked in your own magic absorbing ring until you graduate the school of friendship."

"The school of friendship? Can't you just throw me into some dungeon?"

"Alright, let's throw you into a dungeon for the weekend if you insist" said Rainbow Dash

As the rest of the ponies laughed, Moonlight stared at them in horror. She was thinking of how she was going to have to go to the school of friendship. She had avoided and hated friendship for all of her life. And now she had to study it?

Twilight stepped forward and put some kind of a spell on the ringed horn of Moonlight. "There, now only the 8 of us can take it off"

Moonlight turned around and galloped out. She made it to the hall when she lied down on the floor and started crying. Her career as a villain had lasted so little, yet the punishment was so huge.

It seems like she was going to have to redeem her actions by listening to what they taught at the school. But she had no intention of learning. And definately no intention of letting this go. She had to play it subtle, but she longed for payback.

She wiped off her tears and walked back into the throne room. "When do I start?"

"In a couple of hours," answered Twilight, "First thing you need to know is sleeping at night"