And By Ponies Who Think Brainwashing Bad Guys Counts As Making Friends
It was a sunny day in Bridlewood as Sunny and Izzy hid inside a big, but not exactly big enough to fit two grown mares inside, cardboard box that was conveniently placed outside of a hut they hoped housed the legendary Princess of Friendship and leader of the Guardians of Harmony herself, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Through a pair of binoculars poking out of a binocular-shaped hole in the cardboard box, Izzy stared at a mysterious and unbelievably tall unicorn wearing a long tattered cloak trotting towards the hut. Or at least that was what Sunny kept telling her. That she was just an average, if really tall, unicorn that just so happened to look like Twilight. But Izzy knew better. While the hood of the cloak obscured the pony’s face, Izzy could see her long flowing mane was the same colours as the former ruler of Equestria. And she knew for a fact that there weren’t many unicorns in Bridlewood, let alone really tall ones, that had a mane exactly like that.
“You do know Twilight isn’t tall, right?” Sunny whispered to Izzy, “We saw her in that hologram and she was of average height. Like me.”
“We don’t know if that’s still true,” Izzy replied excitedly, “She was tall and had a long flowing mane in the last episode of PoF.”
“I’m pretty sure her appearance in that episode was for metaphorical purposes and in no way reflects what she actually looked like at the end of her life,” Sunny said as she tried to find a more comfortable position inside the box.
“What do you mean ‘at the end of her life’?” Izzy asked, “You make it sound like she died.”
“It was said by one of the showrunners of PoF that Twilight wouldn’t have outlived her friends,” Sunny replied before pulling out an article she printed off the Internet, “And according to this article I found,she disappeared around the same time the other Guardians of Harmony died of old age.”
Izzy turned around and grabbed the article from Sunny to get a better look at it. Confusion ran through her face as she read the part concerning Twilight’s presumed demise.
“That’s weird,” Izzy said “I thought alicorns can live forever. And that they are the most powerful ponies in the universe.”
“I thought so too,” Sunny said as she scooched over towards the unused binoculars, “But when we first met, I thought you were reading my mind and you thought Earth ponies smelled weird so…”
Izzy shrugged, “Fair enough.”
As Sunny peaked through the binoculars, she noticed the tall unicorn was standing right in front of her. She slowly and cautiously looked up to see the face of the unicorn before her and, to her immediate awe, she realized Izzy was right. That this was no ordinary unicorn. Hay, it wasn’t even a unicorn at all, although she was one at birth. This was the Twilight Sparkle. And she looked exactly the way she did in the finale of PoF. She let go of the binoculars and gasped in awe at the revelation that she was standing face to face with her idol. In fact, she was in so much awe, she failed to notice the box was being lifted up, which gave her a much clearer view of Twilight.
Twilight tilted her head, “Are you okay?”
Sunny’s jaw was still hanging wide open. She was still paralyzed with awe.
“Hello?” Twilight said as she crouched down and waved her hoof in front of Sunny’s face.
Izzy trotted right next to her awe-stricken friend, “Don’t worry, she’s fine. She just thought you were dead.”
Twilight got up, “Yeah, it’s probably for the best that everypony keeps thinking that. My rule was…uh…”
“A total mess?” Izzy cheerfully, and rather tactlessly, replied.
Twilight frowned, “Complicated. I was gonna say it was complicated.”
Both Twilight and Izzy looked at Sunny, who was still paralyzed with awe.
“Are you sure your friend’s alright?” Twilight asked, “She looks like a little-”
Before Twilight could finish her sentence, Sunny suddenly shot up and grabbed Twilight.
“I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!” Sunny shouted excitedly as she shook Twilight at a rapid pace.
As Sunny, Izzy and Twilight entered the hut, Sunny gasped in awe at how the hut was much roomier than it looked. It almost defied logic as to how big it is on the inside when compared to the outside. Even if most of the hut was filled with towers upon towers of books.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” Twilight said as she trotted towards a chair in what one would assume to be the living room, “What’s mine is yours. Well, actually it isn’t but I got more platinum Rarity dolls that I know what to do with so you can have one of them if you want.”
Sunny looked to her side and saw ten platinum Rarities standing on a wooden shelf. It was rare to see one but to see ten all standing serenely on a shelf felt surreal.
“I keep getting them from the Power of Friendship crew every Hearth’s Warming,” Twilight said as she sat down, “Or is it called Winter Wishday now? Or are Hearth’s Warming and Winter Wishday different holidays but Winter Wishday is piggybacking off of Hearth’s Warming? These Winter holidays can be so confusing”
“I think Wishday is piggybacking off of Hearth’s Warming,” Izzy replied.
“Either way, I get these platinum Rarities every Winter,” Twilight continued, “So, what were the questions you wanted to ask me?”
“Uh…” Sunny stammered.
“Our butts did this glowy thing and there was a hologram of you saying an evil pony tried to take all the magic in Equestria and now that the magic’s back, she’s probably gonna take all the magic again,” Izzy quickly replied before catching her breath, “So we wanted to know where she is, who she is and why she is. Oh, and how to stop her.”
Twilight chuckled, “I like you. You remind me of an old friend, Celestia rest her. To answer your questions, she is probably in a dark castle somewhere, her name is Opaline and I’m pretty sure the reason why she wants all the magic in Equestria is the same reason why Tirek wanted it. Power, plain and simple.”
“Yeah, but doesn’t locking away all the magic seem like overkill?” Sunny asked nervously, “Not that I’m judging your choices, your Friendship-ness.”
“Opaline is one reason why I put all the magic into the crystals,” Twilight replied, “The other reason was the pony tribes were at each other’s throats again and, because it was only a few decades at the time since the last Windigo attack, I had to stop the Windigoes from returning. And if Windigoes are made of magic and Opaline wanted the magic, I can kill two birds with one stone. So I did.”
“But couldn’t you have talked to Opaline?” Sunny asked, “You convinced Sunset Shimmer to be a good pony again and she used to be power-hungry. Why not do the same for Opaline?”
Twilight nervously looked away and rubbed the back of her head, “Hehe, right…the thing with Sunset Shimmer was uh…hehe…”
The wind of the dark night blew in Twilight’s hair as she valiantly stood against Sunset Shimmer, who had been corrupted into a nightmarish form by the power of the crown.
“Spoiler alert,” the demonic Sunset gloated evilly, “I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don’t want to rule this pathetic little high school, I want Equestria. And with my own little teenage army behind me, I’m going to get it!”
Amongst the teenagers turned into Sunset’s mind-controlled minions, Twilight saw Flash Sentry among their ranks. It hurt her to see someone she had gotten close to during her time in Canterlot High be reduced to Sunset’s puppet. And it gave her greater resolve to stop her. Equestria depended on it. This world depended on it.
“No,” Twilight said defiantly, “You’re not.”
“Oh, please,” Sunset confidently spoke as she floated towards Twilight, “What exactly do you think you’re going to do to stop me? I have magic and you have nothing!”
“She has us,” the human world’s version of Rainbow Dash retorted as she and the other human Guardians came to Twilight’s defence.
Sunset laughed, “Gee, the gang really is all back together again. Now step aside. Twilight has already tried to interfere with my plans one too many times already.”
Sunset charged up a ball of fiery magic ready to incinerate Twilight where she stood. But luckily for her, the human counterparts of her friends were ready to give their lives to protect her. And that was enough to activate the Elements within them.
“The magic contained in my Element was united with those who helped create it,” Twilight confidently explained to Sunset as her magic connected with the crown.
There were two ways Twilight could have used the power of Elements for. She and her human friends could have turned Sunset into stone like what happened with Discord or they could remove Sunset’s power from her like what happened with Nightmare Moon. But she knew from Celestia tasking Fluttershy with reforming Discord that Sunset could be a very powerful ally if allowed a second chance. She knew how happy Celestia was when she was reunited with Luna. Imagine how happy she would have been to see her former pupil again. However, much like Discord before his redemption, Sunset was evil of her volition. And Twilight sensed that Sunset wouldn't be as interested in friendship for its own sake the same way Discord was. As risky as it was since she didn’t know the redemption spells off by memory, she knew she had to make alterations to Sunset’s personality somehow. Why not create a new type of spell to do the trick? And if brain surgeons in Canterlot can do their job without worrying about accidentally damaging a pony’s mind, Twilight was confident that she can do the same.
“Together with the crown, they create a power beyond anything you can imagine,” Twilight continued as she focused her magic on Sunset’s head.
Judging by Sunset’s pained reactions, Twilight knew whatever magic she was using to rewrite Sunset’s thought process was working. Or at least she hoped it was working. She knew that if she botched this and Sunset lost her higher brain functions, there would be Tartarus to pay the moment Celestia found out.
"The crown may be on your head, Sunset Shimmer," Twilight continued to exposit, "But you cannot wield it because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all. The magic of friendship."
As she felt the power of the Elements within her, Twilight finished her work on Sunset's mind and joined hands with her friends. And with their combined power, they restored Sunset to her human form.
Sunny and Izzy stared at Twilight in shock. While Sunset had it coming since her plan involved using an army of mind-controlled slaves to take over Equestria much like what King Sombra did, they were both surprised and disturbed at how effective Twilight's magic was in altering Sunset's personality. At least if the pages in the Friendship Journals containing letters written by Sunset herself to Twilight were any indication. They thought she just simply turned over a new leaf. Simple as that.
"So you kinda messed with Sunset's head after she turned into a she-demon and mind-controlled your boyfriend," Sunny said nervously, "But it was a one-off thing. It's not like you did the same to Starlight Glimmer. According to both the Friendship Journals and the Power of Friendship, you stopped her from messing up the space-time continuum by telling her how important friendship is and how she should give it another chance."
Twilight looked away and bit down on her hoof.
"That is what happened, right?" Sunny asked.
Twilight put her hooves to her face and cringed with regret, "Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiah-I have a confession to make!"
Twilight watched in horror as Starlight slowly ripped the time spell right in front of her. Why Starlight was taking her time in destroying the spell was beyond Twilight but she was thankful since it gave her enough time to try and reason with Starlight.
"Starlight, you're right!" Twilight shouted as Starlight hesitated in the scroll's destruction, "I don't know what you went through but I do know you can't do this! I've seen where this leads and so have you!
"I only saw what you showed me!" Starlight retorted. "Who knows what'll really happen?"
"I've seen it a dozen times," Twilight replied, "Things don't turn out well in Equestria without my friends!"
"Ugh, what's so special about your friends?!" Starlight venomously asked, "How can a group of ponies that are so different be so important?!"
"The differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong," Twilight replied, hoping Starlight would agree with her.
"I thought Sunburst and I were the same," Starlight tearfully responded before ripping the time spell even more, "But we turned out different, and it tore our friendship apart!"
"So try again," Twilight calmly urged her foe, "Make new friends. And if something that you can't control happens that changes things, work through it together. That's what friendship is."
"BUT I DON'T WANT NEW FRIENDS!" Starlight shouted, "Didn't you hear me when I said I didn't move on?! That's because I don't want to move on! Can't you see that I wanted to spare the ponies in my town from feeling the same pain I did when I lost Sunburst? No! You and your friends just barged in and took everything fro...Frurrgh...Fuuh..."
A beam of magic connected Twilight's horn to Starlight's as her eyes glowed a bright white. She didn't want to do this but she was getting increasingly frustrated with Starlight's refusal to give friendship another chance. And if Starlight destroyed the time spell, who knows what could have happened? Starlight screamed in agony and clutched at her head as Twilight trotted closer towards her. Twilight placed her hoof on the side of Starlight's head and concentrated even more on the magic needed to change Starlight for the better.
"Edwenno o gwath!" Twilight shouted as she applied the finishing touches to Starlight's mind.
As the spell took effect, Twilight noticed Spike was still mounted on her back. She turned her head and saw the disturbed look on his face. Unlike the last time she made a friend out of an enemy, she had a witness. And also unlike the last time, she didn't have the magic of the Elements to cover up what she was doing.
"Twilight..." Spike asked with dread in his voice, "What did you do?"
"I made Starlight understand the importance of friendship," Twilight calmly replied.
Starlight started sobbing, "I'm sorry! I promise I will give friendship another chance and stop trying to erase your friendships!"
"That wasn't...the first time you've done that, was it?" Spike nervously asked.
"Nope," Twilight bluntly replied.
Spike gulped, "And the first time was..."
"Sunset," Twilight quickly replied, "But let's make that our little secret. I don't want Celestia to think I'm cheating when I'm trying to do what Fluttershy did with Discord."
"Well, that explains the favouritism Starlight got after her redemption," Sunny dryly stated.
"Yeah, contrary to popular belief, the reason why the Guardians of Harmony cartoon nearly became The Starlight Glimmer Show was not because one of the writers created an OC then got promoted then made their OC a major character but because it's one of the few times that show was historically accurate after my departure," Twilight explained, "Except for that whole thing with the Pony of Shadows. That was something the writers made up while butchering the original myth."
"Still, I get why you had to brainwash Starlight the same way you did with Sunset," Sunny said in an understanding tone, "Even if it wasn't as perfect as what you did to Sunset. But what about Tempest? She gave friendship another chance after you saved her life. That’s enough to make anypony turn over a new leaf."
"Yes but uh…" Twilight stammered.
Sunny groaned as she placed her head in her hoof, "You didn't."
"Guuuuuuuuyiiiiiiiiiiiiaaah!" Twilight cringed, "I had to! I can't let a war criminal on the loose without making sure she won't side with any more evil overlords!"
As the tornado of the Storm King's storm blew away everything within its grasp, Twilight watched as the Storm King and Tempest came into conflict. They eventually shot a blast of magic at each other which blew the both of them away. But where the Storm King had a wall to stop him from being sucked up by the storm of his own making, Tempest was not as lucky. Twilight saw two options presented to her. Grab the Staff of Sacanas and use it to undo what the Obsidian Orbs had done to the princesses or save Tempest from certain doom. And without hesitation, she galloped to Tempest's rescue, confident that she finally found an enemy that could be turned into a friend without magical persuasion. She wouldn't need to alter Tempest's mind if Tempest was grateful enough for being rescued. But as she grabbed onto Tempest's hoof, nagging questions popped into her head. How did she know Tempest would be thankful enough to turn over a new leaf? How did she know Tempest wouldn't run off to find another warlord who would turn her to their side with promises of horn restoration? How did she know Tempest wouldn't be like Starlight before she worked her magic on her and therefore be bitter beyond reason? How did she know the other Princesses would be as merciful to Tempest as she was? All these questions became too much to bare so, while she really didn't want to, she had to make alterations to Tempest and then show the other Princesses that Tempest's a good pony now. But only a few small and quick alterations, nothing as extreme as what she did to Sunset.
With a flash of her horn and a glow in her eyes, Twilight concentrated on Tempest's mind. Knowing how to make a pony less bitter and vengeful after the whole ordeal with Starlight Glimmer, Twilight focused on removing any negative feelings Tempest felt about the loss of her horn and the resulting alienation from her friends because of her inability to control her magic. Compared to the observable agony both Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer were in when Twilight made them into her friends, Tempest only let out a few grunts of discomfort. She wasn't even sure if Tempest knew what Twilight was doing to her. But to Twilight's misfortune, she noticed another witness to her friend-making process.
"Woah, that's kind of messed-up," the Storm King said in a surprisingly casual tone.
Twilight pulled Tempest towards her and scowled at the Storm King, "Messed-up? You want to destroy Equestria for the fun of it! Who are you to call my friendship magic 'messed-up'?!"
"Listen, I may be a big powerful bad guy who wants to rule the world and play around with this magic stick in my hands but I know enough about this whole friendship thing you're apparently the 'princess' of to know doing weird stuff to other people's brain meats doesn't count as friendship," the Storm King casually replied before putting his hand to his chin in thought, "Though now that I think about it, I can make a killin' off of Storm King-brand mind-control helmets."
Twilight suddenly hesitated in telling Izzy and Sunny about what happened with Tempest and, by extension, what happened to the Storm King after he found out Twilight's little secret.
"And then?" Sunny asked.
"If you've seen the Guardians of Harmony movie, you would know my friends flew into the Storm King then we did a group hug then the Storm King was gonna turn us into stone before Tempest came to our rescue and the Storm King fell to a clumsy, painful death," Twilight quickly replied.
Sunny gave Twilight a bemused glare before raising an eyebrow, "Is that really what happened?"
Twilight painfully cringed again, "Ee-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiih-no! I actually set off one of his Obsidian Orbs and then pushed him to his death!"
Izzy tilted her head, "Even though you could have brainwashed him like you did with Tempest?"
"Yes but the Princesses would have turned him into stone or sent him into Tartarus anyway!" Twilight replied, "At least Celestia had a use for Discord! What are they gonna do with the Storm King? He doesn't even have the same magic as Discord! Any more questions that don't involve how I turned foes into friends?"
"Kinda," Sunny flatly replied, "You had the ability to rewrite the personality of your foes and turn them into your friends. How come you didn't do the same with Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and Tirek?"
"For Cozy Glow, there were too many witnesses," Twilight replied, "And she was just a filly! Pretty sure I'd need help if I brainwashed a child in public. As for Chrysalis and Tirek, I simply never got the chance. Besides, I've been trying to give up using mind-altering magic ever since the Accord incident anyway. If that didn't happen, I wouldn't have needed to seal away the magic. I could have done what Accord did."
"Accord?" Sunny asked with genuine confusion, "I thought that was made up."
Twilight made a balancing gesture with her hoof, "There's some truth to apocrypha. It's fifty-fifty. For instance, the Cosmos incident happened but she was never Discord's girlfriend nor did she have anything to do with Discord's first reign of terror. That was just something made up to make Discord before his redemption look good."
Sunny shrugged, "Well, you know what they say. History's written by the winners."
"And by ponies who think brainwashing bad guys counts as making friends," Izzy bluntly pointed out.
"But it does!" Twilight retorted, "They did become friends for life with me, didn't they? And they made friends of their own without my help. They just needed a little nudge, that's all. It's not like I totally removed their free will. Just the bits that made them evil!"
"Still kinda messed-up, though," Izzy pointed out.
Twilight nodded, "I would disagree with you on that but, after Accord put me on the receiving end of mind-control magic, I will admit it's kinda messed-up. But it was necessary. From my experience, the world only sees sense when you force it to."
As Twilight looked at Izzy and Sunny with an unnerving smile, Sunny just glared at Twilight with disappointment. The Princess of Friendship can't even bring one enemy to her side without messing with their mind, let alone be honest with both herself and everypony else about what she's doing. And if everypony being more forgiving of Starlight Glimmer was simply them secretly knowing she's one of Twilight's pet projects instead of Starlight being made up by a writer who wanted to make their own original character canon to the mythos, Twilight clearly didn't do that good of a job in making them good. Disillusioned with her former idol, she turned around and slowly made her way towards the door.
"Come on, Izzy," Sunny said with melancholy in her voice, "Clearly, friendship isn't magic if you have to mind-control everypony into being your friend. And if you have the be a phony pony full of baloney to teach fillies about friendship."
"Not everypony," Twilight corrected Sunny, "Just those that used to be bad. And by the way, I am not a phony. Most of the things me and my friends wrote in the Friendship Journals actually did happen. I just glossed over an addiction of mine, that's all."
As Sunny and Izzy left the hut, Twilight sat back in her chair and pondered to herself. As she was thinking, she levitated an old piece of parchment containing one half of the time spell used by Starlight Glimmer all those centuries ago. It did not take long for an old compulsion of hers to claw its way at her mind.
“I know I shouldn’t but…” Twilight said to herself as she stared at the withered scroll piece, “When I have the time to restore Star-Swirl’s spell and even make some improvements to it, what if I were to go back and convince myself to redeem Opaline. What’s one more foe-turned-friend?”
Author's Note
What are the odds that I would get back to fanfic writing at the start of this year? 
Anyway, this story came about from a theory of mine that I cooked up on my blog:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/945172/weird-theory-of-mine-regarding-twilight-and-reformed-villains
Despite being the one who wrote it, I don't consider that theory to be a headcanon of mine. But then I remembered I once read a comment somewhere positing a theory that FiM is an in-universe show in G5. And since history's written by the winners, as you can tell by the title of this fic, I thought "why not write a fic where all those times Twilight helped redeem a pony, she actually brainwashed them?".
