Author's Note
I regret nothing.
The Only Chapter
Twilight Sparkle continued to make her way down the corridor of Canterlot High School. Just a few hours ago, she had been asleep in the Crystal Empire, preparing for her first Princess Summit since becoming a princess herself, and as she slept, a mysterious individual had broken into her room and stolen her crown and Element of Harmony. She had followed the culprit through a magic mirror to a completely new world, and become a completely new species in the process. She now had only two days to get her crown back or else Equestria would be left without its greatest means of defence.
However, Twilight remained steadfast in herself. She has always progressed over every other threat she had faced in the past, and while her pony friends were not here with her this time, she still had Spike – who was currently a dog – by her side. Together, she knew they would be able to figure this out.
Suddenly, as she was making her way down the corridor, she heard a voice that stood out from the rest.
“Oh, I’m really sorry. I-I just found it, and-and I thought I should give it to her.” The person who spoke was a girl, with pink hair, wearing a white tank top and green skirt, with a suspiciously familiar butterfly symbol on it. She also spoke very timidly. “I didn’t know you had dropped it.”
“You should have thought of that earlier,” the other person responded. He was a boy, possibly the same age as the girl. He had black, slicked-down hair, wore primarily black clothes, and spoke in a quiet calmness.
While the boy spoke very calmly, the girl still couldn’t help but shrink back slightly. “It... doesn’t really belong to you, either,” she spoke in a hushed tone.
Suddenly, the boy slammed his hand into the lockers next to her, making her jump. “I need that!”
“N-n-nothing...” the girl stammered out in fear, as she immediately shrunk back down even further to the ground.
“You want forgiveness? Get religion,” the boy responded in an equally aggressive tone. Seeing the girl shrink back even further, he simply shook his head at her in quiet contempt. “You’re trash.”
Seeing this boy bully this girl, Twilight couldn’t hold herself back anymore. “How dare you speak to her that way!”
The boy, hearing her outburst, immediately turned around to face her. “What do you want?”
“I said, ‘How dare you speak to her that way!’” Twilight repeated, getting up close and personal to him as she did so.
The boy didn’t seem fazed at all and didn’t even blink at her tone, simply responding coldly, “She doesn’t know what you are.”
After holding their aggressive gaze on each other for several seconds, the boy simply flipped his bangs at her indignantly. He then pushed passed her and continued walking down the corridor, with a spring in his step.
“I can’t believe you did that!” The pink haired girl said as she picked herself back up.
“I couldn’t just stand there,” Twilight reasoned.
“Well, it’s just that nobody ever stands up to Bully,” she responded, the tone of her voice changing suddenly as she said the last word.
Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise after hearing that name. “Sunset Shimmer!?”
“No,” the girl responded in a flat tone of voice that didn’t quite match how she had been talking previously.
“Well, it sure was nice meeting you both. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around,” Twilight said to her two new friends, Pinkie Pie and Applejack. She had just signed up to run for Princess of the Fall Formal in order to get her crown back and was now hastily moving to leave the gymnasium in order to avoid any more awkward conversations with these alternate versions of her friends.
“That one’s tryin’ to hide a secret, but I’m totally on to her,” Pinkie Pie spoke to Applejack as she watched Twilight leave. She then suddenly leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “She’s psychic!”
“Uh-huh. If you say so,” Applejack responded.
Suddenly, the main doors of the gymnasium were thrown open wide and Bully appeared, with music suddenly starting playing as he danced his way inside. He shot finger guns at everybody else in the gym as he walked. Reaching the centre of the gym, he stopped, clapped his hands up in the air while pelvic thrusting, followed by rolling his fists in front of himself, and then holding his hands above his head whilst pelvic thrusting in time with the music.
Everyone in the gymnasium was transfixed by his dance and could only stare silently at him. Finishing his dance moves, he then struck a pose just as the music stopped playing.
“Hey, everyone. What’s the occasion?” He finally spoke up, in a casual and inquiring manner.
Applejack couldn’t help but turn up her nose at his usual haughty attitude. “Well, now, it ain’t necessarily gonna be your coronation this time around.”
While Applejack was talking, Bully picked up a cookie from a nearby snack tray and took a bite of it. “Hey, you got any with nuts?” He asked in a condescending tone.
“Grrr...” Applejack growled at him.
“Go make me some,” Bully responded with a simple wave of his hand.
“Not this time,” Pinkie Pie chimed in, appearing next to Bully. “The new girl just signed up!” she said, showing him the sign-up sheet.
“What?” Bully inquired, taking a hold of the sign-up sheet to see for himself.
“I know. Her hand writing is really bad.”
Seeing Twilight’s name, Bully just shook his head in confusion. “Where do all these guys come from?”
Twilight and Spike continued down the corridors until they reached a dark area where the lights were out.
Suddenly, they both heard someone whistle from behind them, and when they turned around, they saw Bully approaching them. “Thanks hot legs,” he began. “It’s a jungle out there; I had to beat an old lady with a stick to get this.”
Figuring that he was referring to the crown, Twilight scrunched up her face in anger. “It’s my crown!”
Bully, meanwhile, was completely stone-faced. “I missed the part where that’s my problem.”
“If that’s so, why do you even need my crown? You went to an awful lot of trouble to switch it with the one that belongs here.”
“No, not exactly,” Bully responded.
Twilight didn’t know how to respond and simply stood there in silence.
Spike, who had climbed up on to her shoulder, noticed her distress, so he growled in defiance at the source of it.
Bully, however, was completely unfazed and simply threw his hands up in faux-fear. “Ooooooohhhhhh.”
“Is that a threat?” Spike asked.
“Yeah,” Bully responded casually.
Twilight simply held her gaze on Bully, who, after several seconds, simply flipped his bangs at her dismissively again before pushing passed her. “See ya, chump.”
Twilight ran as fast as she could after Bully. She had successfully gotten everyone in the school to vote her Princess of the Fall Formal, with the help of her new friends, who were all somehow alternate counterparts of her pony friends, and Principal Celestia had given her the crown. No sooner than she had, however, Bully had dognapped Spike and ran out of the gymnasium, where the dance was taking place. She was now in hot pursuit, with all of her new friends following close behind her.
After a long chase, they made it to the front of the school. Throwing the doors open, they saw Bully standing in front of the horse statue containing the portal to Equestria, with Spike beside him.
“That’s a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?” Bully spoke as soon as he saw her, referring to the dress that her new friends had made for her for the dance.
“Twilight!” Spike called out to her.
“Don’t hurt him!” She pleaded; Spike’s safety being her number one concern right now.
“I’m sorry, I won’t take up much of your time,” Bully began, in a calm manner. “I need that!” He suddenly raised his voice, pointing at her crown.
Twilight gasped in shock. She didn’t know what to do; she needed to save Spike, but if she gave up her crown, then all of Equestria would be in danger.
After thinking over everything to herself, she finally had her answer. Putting on a strong look of determination, she looked up, looking Bully square in the eye, with all of her friends behind her, and resolutely said, “No.”
Bully couldn’t believe what he just heard and his expression changed immediately. “I don’t believe this. I-I don’t... I don’t believe you,” he stuttered.
“Yes, but I’ve also seen what you’ve been able to do here without magic,” Twilight continued. “Equestria will find a way to survive without my Element of Harmony. This place might not, if I allow it to fall into your hands. So go ahead. Destroy the portal. You are not getting this crown!” Twilight declared triumphantly, with all of her friends rallying behind her.
Bully, meanwhile, was annoyed by her defiance. A moment later, he let out an exasperated sigh, knowing what he had to do. “I am really gonna enjoy this.” He then extended his arm and shot web at Twilight, hitting her right in the face, causing her crown to fall off her head. “Stings, doesn’t it?” He taunted. He then crept low to the ground and launched himself forward, closing the distance between them in a single bound and landing directly in front of them.
With Bully now in close range and recognising the danger that he posed, Applejack moved to grab him.
“Take your hand off me,” Bully said in an eerily quiet tone, not even bothering to turn to face her. When Applejack refused to comply, Bully quickly rounded on her, knocking her to the ground.
Rainbow Dash moved next to tackle him; however, before she could reach him, he anticipated her movement with his Spider Sense and dodged out of the way by back-flipping over her. Landing back on his feet, Bully crouched down, staying low to the ground, ready for any of them to make another move. “That all you got?” He said, egging them on.
The girls all ran towards him at once, knocking against the crown and sending it sliding across the courtyard in the process. Bully, whose focus shifted to the crown, was caught off guard and knocked down by the other girls, landing on his back.
“My back,” Bully cried out in pain. He tried to stand back up, however, the pain was too much. “Ow, my back.”
With Bully indisposed for the moment, the rest of the girls now focused on retrieving Twilight’s crown for her. “Spike! Spike! Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called out, signalling to the rest of them, pointing towards where the crown now lay on the ground. The whole group then shifted their attention to the crown and made a beeline for it.
Picking himself up slowly, Bully could only look on at all of his enemies making their way towards the crown, now with genuine worry on his face at the prospect of failing in his goal. “Strong focus on what I want,” he muttered quietly to try and steel himself. Putting on a strong look of determination, Bully picked himself up fully and began making a dash towards the crown. Time seemed to slow down for him as he shut out everything but the crown. Once he had built up enough momentum, he suddenly leapt into the air, easily overtaking the girls and dog that had begun before him.
As he landed back down on the ground once again, the group could only let out a gasp of shock as he landed right next to the crown. Picking it up in his fingers, Bully simply gazed triumphantly down at the object now in his grasp.
“Now dig on this,” Bully whispered quietly, and with a simple snap of his fingers, he began to channel the Element’s power. Magic energy erupted from the crown and began to flow through Bully, empowering him and lifting him up into the air, which brought a smile to his face. “This is something else.”
Twilight and her friends reflexively backed away in fear at the tremendous power that Bully was harnessing. Behind them, the front doors of the school opened up as the rest of the students came out to investigate what was happening. Seeing new people appear on the scene, Bully snapped his fingers again, sending a beam of magic towards the students, using the Element’s power to take control of their minds.
“They love me,” he said, with a beaming smile on his face. “I guess I’ve become something of an icon.”
“No, you’re not,” Twilight suddenly shouted out, grabbing Bully’s attention once more.
Bully, meanwhile, simply smirked sarcastically down at her. “Look at little Princess Junior; gonna cry?”
Twilight struggled a bit to maintain her composure under the strain of the unimaginable power emanating from Bully; however, she felt that composure return a moment later as all of her new friends gathered around her.
“She has us,” Rainbow Dash shouted out confidently as all of them gathered around Twilight, lending her their strength.
Bully, meanwhile wasn’t fazed by their words in the slightest. “I’m gonna put some dirt in your eye.” With another snap of his fingers, he once again began channelling power from the Element, and fired a beam of magical energy, mixed with some dirt that he created out of nothing, straight at the six girls below him.
The girls all huddled together and braced themselves for the impact, however, that moment never came, and when they opened their eyes once again, they found that they had all been surrounded by a bright, magical aura, which shielded them from Bully’s attack.
Bully’s smug demeanour now dropped for the first time since acquiring the Element. “What did you do?” He asked Twilight in genuine confusion.
Twilight, looking around at herself and her new friends instantly knew exactly what this meant, then turned to face Bully straight on, now with a confident expression on her face. “The magic contained in my Element was able to unite with those that helped create it!” She began. “Honesty! Kindness! Laughter! Generosity! Loyalty! Magic!” She listed off, with each word being punctuated by her and her new friends being empowered by their own Elements and being lifted even higher into the air than Bully was, allowing them to look down at him. “Together with a crown, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine, but it is a power you don’t have the ability to control! The crown may be upon your head, Bully, but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all: the magic of friendship! Here and in Equestria, it is the only magic that can truly unite us all!”
The six girls then all combined their new power and fired a massive beam of rainbow magic back at Bully, who could do nothing to resist its power.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Bully screamed in vain as the rainbow blast was fired at him, wresting his new power from him.
After the magic rainbow blast had been fired, the six girls were lowered back down to the ground. The students by the front entrance were now free of Bully’s mind control, and directly between the two groups there was now a giant crater where Bully himself had been standing. Walking over to the edge of the crater, in the centre they saw Bully, now de-powered, but otherwise completely fine... dancing to himself, pelvic thrusting with his arms over his head.
“Still got the moves.”
Looking down at her defeated foe, Twilight began her friendship speech. “You will never rule in Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you’ve shown everyone who you really are. You’ve shown them what is in your heart.”
“Are you afraid that I’m gonna turn into some kind of criminal?” Bully interrupted her. “Quit worrying about me, okay. Something’s different, I’ll figure it out. Stop lecturing me, please.”
Twilight, meanwhile, unflinching, simply took a step forward. “The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria. It’s everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone.” Then, with a friendly smile on her face, she offered Bully her hand in friendship. “The choice is yours.”
“I get it, thank you,” Bully responded instantly, albeit awkwardly. “But, uhhmm, I’m fine. I-I don’t need your help.”
With that, Bully then simply turned back around and walked away, slowly at first, but after a few steps, he began to walk with a sway in his step, as if to a tune that only he could hear, with the exaggerated swagger of a black teen.
