Welcome to Discordtopia

After the battle with Twilight’s army, as things had settled down, the collective forces returned to Ponyville.

To the shock of all those present, the small idyllic town had been returned to its original, rustic state before Discord’s magic corrupted it. The tiny thatched houses, the fields of grass, Sugarcube Corner, and even Sweet Apple Acres with its apple groves had returned. Even Trixie’s once enormous and luxurious castle was gone, replaced by a familiar massive oak tree in the center of town.

This change in scenery left Twilight somewhat surprised as she looked around, feeling a wave of nostalgia hit her with each look she took. It felt like she was back in her original timeline, and seeing her old library before Tirek destroyed it was…almost overwhelming. It pained her to know that this was something she could not change in her timeline.

“I never thought I would see my old library again.” Twilight slowly approached the old tree and gently placed her hoof on its trunk, subconsciously confirming it wasn’t an illusion or dream.

Spike looked up and nodded in agreement, “I can’t believe that it’s here.” The little drake looked in through one of the windows and was greeted by the many shelves, halls, and nicknacks that had been his home for some time. “Been so long, I forgot how much I really missed this place."

Starlight Glimmer, lacking the same connection to the tree, was more focused on the town itself yet was equally nostalgic. “I never thought I’d see Ponvyille this way with my own eyes. Honestly, it's just great to see this place looking normal.”

Sunburst walked up alongside his old friend, smiling at the sight as well. “It’s certainly a welcome change, though it will take time for ponies to readjust.”

All around, many other ponies who’d been living in the town were somewhat unsure of how to react. Looking at the simple and normal homes, buildings, calm fields, and trees, many could not believe it, while others simply didn’t know what to do.

“But we should have everypony stay here and try to give them some kind of home. So many have been displaced.”

“I am sure we can figure that out in time, but Twilight and I need to find the Cutie Map and reset things to how they were before all of this happened,” Starlight explained, mind already focused on some clue or possibly location of the map.

Twilight, meanwhile, looked around at the dozens of ponies all huddled together, with most just seeming to be happy this was over, and let out a sigh, then added. “It’s true; even though we saved the ponies here, the memories and the scars of what Discord, my counterpart, and Trixie have done will remain.”

Seeing a few ponies, she recognized looking at her with a mixture of fear, confusion, and anger left the alicorn feeling the need for a change of scenery. “How about we go into my old library and discuss our next course of action.”

With a few nods all around, the others followed her inside, and it was like how she left it all those years ago.

Bookshelves stretching up into the ceiling, with comfy chairs placed around the room. The stairway that leads to the upper floors. Twilight took a moment to reminisce as she led her friends into the room. Spike took the opportunity to observe the kitchen and tea, quickly bringing out a tray with tea and some light snacks he found.

Once everypony was inside and settled, they all sat around in the living room and started talking about their next action plan.

Twilight cleared her throat and said, “We need to focus on finding the Cutie Map and where Discord currently is, which means I’ll be confronting myself.”

It took everyone a second to understand the somewhat confusing word choice but everyone’s expression shift to worry.

“Twilight, are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, based on what we’ve seen, she’s kind of a jerk.” Spike tried to be as nice as possible with his word choice.

“My alternate self is the one standing between us and defeating Discord. She may be the only pony in Equestria who knows his whereabouts. Without her, my other friends can’t use the Elements of Harmony, and we won’t be able to turn him into stone.”

Twilight spoke matter of factly, knowing full well what she was suggesting was far from ideal. “She already doesn’t have any loyalty to him. That much is clear. If we can convince her to join us, we can finally set this world right again.”

“That doesn’t mean she’ll just agree to help. You saw how cruel she was,” Starlight replied, mentally flinching at her own memories of the tyrannical mare. Really made her realize how lucky she was; the Twilight she knew was so nice.

Sunburst nodded, “Starlight's right; your alternate doesn’t care about anypony but herself. She didn’t even hesitate to attack her own brother. Unless she gets something out of it, she wouldn’t help us no matter what we say.”

Everypony was left pondering a potential solution as Alt Twilight’s compliance was non-optional. Something had to be done to win her over.

After a few moments, Starlight perked up and raised her hoof.

“Maybe this might be forthcoming, but what if you use the Element of Magic instead? I mean, you’re both Twilight Sparkle, and you can already use the Element of Magic anyway, right?”

That seemed to perk up some of the others, only for Twilight to shake her head in the negative.

“I thought about that, but the problem is this isn’t my timeline. I’m not sure if these Elements will let me use them.”

Sunburst paused and admitted, “Well, that is just a theory; you might be right, but I don’t think we have a choice. I’ve been around this evil Twilight longer than any of you, and rest assured, I don’t think she cares about turning things back to normal. She craves power and obedience. I don't think she’s going to turn.”

“We have to try Sunburst; I know it seems impossible, but we have to try.” Twilight insisted but Sunburst refused to accept this.

“I understand, but please forgive me for saying this. But I don’t believe she will ever change. Her mindset stems from when she was just a foal; it’s not something we can change with a speech or a few kind words. And honestly, I don’t think she deserves a second chance.”

Those last words made Twilight pause, a little surprised the normally reserved researcher believed such a thing, though perhaps she agreed with him on some level. She’d seen what her counterpart was like, and it was asking a lot to believe there was any good left in her.

But, then again, if she had given up on someone this easily, she’d never have redeemed Princess Luna, Discord, or even Starlight.

Twilight got up, “When Princess Celestia and Luna return from Manehattan, we will inform them of our decision to stay here as they still need to find Pinkie Pie. Even if we somehow turn Twilight to help us and learn where Discord is, without Pinkie Pie, all our efforts will be in vain.”

“Guess once again you and your friends have to save the day,” Starlight mumbled irritably.

Sunburst eyed her with concern, while Twilight looked at her with sympathy but also hesitation. Though Starlight seemingly no longer had any interest in reverting to her original plan to ruin the lives of Twilight and her friends, the princess was still weary of her now that things were turning back to normal and they were on the cusp of returning to their original timeline.

Even though she’d made good progress, the temptation to change things could still be there, and Twilight needed to ensure such a thing wouldn’t happen.

“Listen, Starlight, I need to ask this plainly.” Twilight’s voice hardened somewhat, making her authority clear. “Are you going to try to sabotage our plans?”

Starlight seemingly snapped out of her momentary anger, and looked positively horrified at the accusation. “What, of course not! I realized I was wrong, ok! But… I still find it absurd that Equestria's fate just seems to always be dependent on you and your friends. Even now, as broken and dysfunctional as they are, can you honestly say they still can defeat Discord?”

Twilight, silent for a moment, rose up and spoke as confidently as she could. “I trusted them to come together despite not knowing each other, and we defeated Nightmare Moon in a few hours. I have faith we can take down Discord as well.”

As Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst discussed what they were doing next, back in Manehattan, Applejack was enduring being Trixie’s servant, unable to do anything but continue serving her every whim, mostly feeding and cleaning after her.

That part alone was irritating but still somewhat manageable, thanks to her prior time on the farm. However, what was truly exhausting was the arrogant mare’s absolute refusal to stop talking!

Without fail, she continued to prattle on and on about how amazing she would be as princess of Equestria without end. It’d gotten to the point where Applejack was honestly deciding between clubbing her over the head with something or jumping out a nearby window.

Thankfully, that was when the magical rains started to fall. Hearing them pit pat against the window pane and seeing Trixie wasn’t paying attention to her, she peered out the window and watched as the rains fell onto Manehattan. She saw the entire city change before her very eyes.

The ponies being forced into rows of toy soldiers started to move, and the ponies began laughing and dancing in the streets as their previously plastic bodies were turned back into flesh and blood. The buildings and roads reverted to how they were before Discord’s magic altered them. The massive river surrounding the city became crystal blue waters once more, and the Statue of Harmony reverted to its former self.

Completely gobsmacked, Applejack slowly opened the windows one by one, and Trixie finally saw her and shouted, “What are you doing!?”

Instead of answering, Applejack simply let the enchanted waters gradually wash over the room, carried inwards by the wind.

Very quickly, the room morphed and shifted, eventually revealing itself as a simple apartment. Applejack then watched as the water’s influence spread further, even to Trixie. Her wings slowly fading away along with her larger body, leaving her to plop down on her flank back to a simple unicorn.

However, most interestingly, the farm mare’s maid uniform started disappearing, and she cried," Thank Faust! I’m never wearing another dress for as long as I live!”

Her moment of jubilation was interrupted by another loud screech from her former monarch.

“What is going on?” Trixie tried lighting her horn, but it could only send off some sparks and fizzles out. That was all. “My power, all my power is gone!”

“Yer darn right it’s gone, Trixie; your reign is at an end, too!” Applejack shouted, feeling an immense level of satisfaction in saying it.

The sound of cheering quickly caught Applejack’s attention as she looked outside to see the princesses flying over the city.

In mere seconds, they flew right through the window and found a giddy applejack and a terrified Trixie crawling away from them. Fear was on her face as she stammered. “Pr…princess Celestia, Luna I…I didn’t mean to do anything.”

“To do what!? Use the citizens of Manehattan as cannon fodder to maintain your power and control,” Luna addressed her angrily. “You should be in prison or in exile for your crimes.”

Trixie quickly slammed her head on the floor, groveling and bowing as much as she could. “ PLEASE NO! Discord’s magic warped my mind! I swear I wasn’t trying to take over Equestria! I just wanted ponies to love me!”

Luna looked livid at the showmare, only to feel her sister’s hoof stopped her from advancing.

Celestia looked at Trixie with anger and pity. Though she agreed with her sister, seeing Trixie in such a pitiful state made her feel a sharp pang in her chest.

Trixie clearly was over her head and may have been corrupted by chaos magic. At the end of the day, she was little more than an amateur magician given far too much power. Many in her position would’ve acted in a similar manner. That didn’t entirely excuse her actions, however.

“My sister is right; if we were any other tyrant, we would have you thrown in a cell for the rest of your life. However, we can’t ignore the likely influence Discord’s magic had on you, and there has been enough suffering. Removing your status as an alicorn is punishment enough in my eyes. But you will find a fitting way for you to repay the citizens of Ponyville for your crimes. At a minimum, we’ll have Mayor Mare commit you to doing community service.”

Trixie was in tears. She bowed and cried, “Thank you. I’ll never do anything like this again, I swear. I’ll be a model mare for everypony.”

The two alicorns scoffed. Seeing this once-powerful alicorn, who had tried humiliating them a week prior, now helpless and cowering, was undoubtedly eye-opening and a tad satisfying as well.

Shifting their attention to Applejack, she was similarly in tears, but her’s were tears of joy as she flung herself into their embrace, shouting, “Thank you!”

Their rage quelled, and both alicorns wrapped their wings around the grateful mare.

“No, thank you for helping us and buying us time,” Luna spoke in gratitude. “If it weren’t for you and the ponies in the Everfree Forest, things could have turned out a lot worse.”

“Though now, we should check on the state of the city. I imagine the ponies here will still need help adjusting to things.” Celestia spoke, ear twitching at the much louder city compared to when they left it.

Letting go of Applejack, the pair of princesses flew out of the apartment building and into the city sky ponies chanting their names once more after a year of being prisoners.

While neither princess normally cared that much for being cheered on by their subjects after everything they’d gone through up to this point, neither was opposed to preening a little at the admiration.

As they flew, Princess Luna nuzzled her sister, and they placed a wing over each other, then threw a wing upward and addressed the crowd, showing that despite everything that’s happened, they will not allow the pain of the past to deter them from creating a brighter future for Equestria.

A few more days passed as both Princess Celestia and Luna returned to Canterlot and saw it was back to its former glory.

The gaudy circus tents were gone, and the roads were cleared of shabby games and fast food. The city was returned to its beautiful, pristine self once more. And, of course, the citizens were also returned to their normal selves, no longer a gaggle of insane clowns.

As expected, upon their return, many of the citizens started bowing and apologizing, to which both monarchs quickly accepted that their madness was a side effect of the magic.

Once everything calmed down, the Princess spent some time restoring order as the rains poured and washed away the rest of the chaos magic. But there was still much to do. This was especially true when they learned that the southern regions of Equestria were still under the influence of Chaos Magic, and it would be weeks before the Rains of Harmony would reach them.

There was also still no sign of Discord. As such, the Princesses called a meeting with the rest of the “Element Bearers.” Applejack now had her cutie mark and was wearing a cowcolt hat; Rainbow Dash found her’s and beaming with pride. Rarity was looking more confident and wearing an elegant dress, and Fluttershy still looking a bit wild but far calmer compared to how they saw her before with a few bunnies surrounding her, along with Spitfire, Starlight Glimmer, Zecora, Sunburst, and Shining Armor all attending.

Once everypony was accounted for, Princess Celestia stood up and greeted them all, “Good evening. I know everypony currently has much to deal with as we attempt to rebuild and readjust after purging Discord’s magic from Equestria. However, we need to discuss the next steps to completely erase all the chaos magic infecting Equestria and finding Discord.”

Those in attendance all nodded, eager to get started.

Spitfire cleared her throat and said, “Right; as we discussed before, every city or town from north of Ponyville has returned to normal. However, the southern regions of Equestria are still under the influence of chaos magic as it will take time for the weather team to get the rains that far south.”

“How long?” Celestia asked, hoping for some good news.

“It could take a month, maybe even longer.”

A chorus of groans and frustration echoed through the chamber.

“We don’t have that much time!” Twilight exclaimed, “My evil version still resents us, and we don’t know where Pinkie Pie is. Without the Elements of Harmony, it’s only a matter of time before Tirek appears to destroy us. All we need to do is start developing a plan to save everypony!”

“But didn’t you say Tirek was significantly weakened when he initially attacked Equestria?” Shining Armor asked. “Can’t we just stop him now before he causes too much trouble?”

Twilight shook her head. “Tirek derives his power by consuming magic. Any pony that gets near him will just give him more power before they have a chance to do anything.”

A tense silence followed as the princesses turned to each other and nodded. Princess Celestia said, “Then it seems my sister and I will need to go on one last adventure…we need to go to the south and find Pinkie Pie.”

Luna nodded in agreement. “My sister is right; she and I started this, and we will finish it.”

“Sounds like a plan! Don’t worry, princess, we’ll handle things here while you’re away,” Sunburst exclaimed.

Shining Armor nodded and said, “Right, almost all of the royal guard has been accounted for. We will keep order and ensure everypony is safe. And if Tirek is spotted, we’ll make sure to alert everypony. Even if we can’t stop him we should be able to slow him down atleast.”

Zecora nodded and said, “Yes, things will be fine; please find Pinkie Pie!”

Luna smiled at the zebra and said, “Thank you, Zecora. We’re forever grateful for the aid you provided in keeping ponies safe in the Everfree Forest.”

“Yes, my sister and I are all in your debt. This final adventure shouldn’t take us too long.”

As the meeting ended with the ponies all chatting amongst each other, Princess Luna eyed Starlight as she lit her horn and pulled her sister and Twilight aside and down a hall. She looked around, making sure nopony could overhear before speaking, "Before we leave, I must confess something…when I was in Rainbow Dash’s memory, I saw Starlight Glimmer interfering with the timeline. She is why the timeline was distorted and Discord took over!”

Princess Celestia was surprised by this news, only for Twilight to raise her hoof to get their attention.”

The young alicorn looked down with a guilty look on her face. “I…I know because I must confess that I was trying to stop her from altering with the timeline.”

Both Princesses looked utterly floored by the revelation, with Luna quickly shifting to livid, glaring angrily at the young mare, “Tell us everything, now Twilight, and don’t leave anything out.”

Twilight only bowed her head further in shame as she nodded rapidly.

“After my friends and I stopped her initial plan, she decided to destroy our friendship using a modified version of a Time Travel spell from Starswirl the Bearded. Spike and I tried to stop her as she kept attempting to change the past, and everytime she did, we ended up back at the Cutie Map.” Twilight’s mind played over the events bit by bit, making sure to not miss a single detail. “The only reason Starlight didn’t leave this time was us being captured by Discord’s minions and locking our magic away.”

Princess Celestia looked at her supposed student with disappointment and frustration. “Why didn’t you tell us this before? This is vital information.”

“Because, I…I know how crazy this sounds, but I think she’s changed. I know I can’t fully know for sure, but Starlight hasn’t tried to betray us this entire time, and so far, she seems different from before. After seeing the impact her actions had on Equestria, I believe she understands what she was doing was wrong.” Twilight felt genuinely hopeful about Starlight and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. “ Please, I’ll keep an eye on her, and if she does try to betray us….I’ll stop her.”

Luna wanted to say something in response, visibly angry at this development, but Celestia looked at her and shook her head. Then, turning back to the younger alicorn, she said, “Alright, Twilight. I…I trust you.”

The Princess of the Night annoyedly sighed. “Fine, but you better watch her and your evil counterpart.Speaking of which, that is another problem we neglected to discuss during our meeting. Do you have a plan to try changing her?”

Twilight actually perked up a little, yet to their displeasure, they also looked a little apprehensive or embarrassed for some reason. “Well, as weird as this sounds, I do; I believe my friends and I have a plan to try to make her see how wrong she was, and I’m sure we can find a way.”

Luna didn’t look particularly convinced. “That doesn’t seem like much of a plan, Twilight; at best, that’s the concept of a plan.”

Twilight blushed harder, ashamed of her response. “I mean, it’s worked before against other people we’ve faced, so….”

Celestial merely chuckled a little. “At this point, it seems we will have to play this by ear. For now, we just need to have faith that this will work out in the end.”

Luna almost groaned. “Just once, I’d like to have a clear plan.”

The three alicorns, with everything settled, separated. Twilight headed back inside to formulate a plan to deal with Tirek while Celestia and her sister stepped out of their palace and into the streets of the Canterlot.

The Princess of the Sun then looked up to the bright blue sky and typical fluffy white clouds. She then spread her wings as she turned to her sister. "This is it. Once we find Pinkie Pie, and if Twilight succeeds in changing our Twilight, we’ll be ready to turn Discord back into stone, and this will all just be some horrible nightmare.”

Princess Luna let out a sigh and said, “Hopefully, it still feels like the calm before the storm, but we should end this quickly.” Luna’s tone started to drop and worry and concern were evident. “I know you trust Twilight, but I have doubts; neither this Starlight nor our Evil Twilight can be trusted.”

“We need to have faith that she and the other element bearers can change this Evil Twilight and Starlight.”

Luna merely rolled her eyes at that. “Your faith in this mare and her friends is starting to concern me somewhat, sister.”

Celestia merely smiled. “Perhaps, but something about it just feels right for some reason.”
Neither mare questioned it further as they spread their wings and looked to the sky.

“Now, are you ready for one more mission?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Unquestionably! I want this to be over as much as you do, sister, ” Luna chimed.

The two princesses then took off, flapping their wings and sailing south into the sunrise.