Equestrian Dystopia

by Vinyltrance

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Sad, Spike, Discord, Princess Celestia
Length: 2258

What if Twilight wasn't able to save the Mane 6

What if Twilight wasn't able to save her friends from Discord's power. This is an alternate universe sad story about the Twilight's interaction with the Mane 6 after they have been influenced by Discord. I wrote this after listening to Aviator's song One Last Letter. The story starts just after the events in the garden maze and the Mane 6 have been Discorded and now exhibit the polar opposite of their element. It follows Twilight as she tries to figure out what she can do to save her friends and then save Equestria. Twilight soon realizes that her last resort to save her friends, the memory spell, doesn't work and that she is now alone in the fight against Discord.

Published 2013-01-31 13:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-31 13:00:02 UTC

The Story

Discord has returned due to the quarrel between Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom. He has already stolen and hidden the Elements of Harmony and has corrupted all but Twilight Sparkle. She is the only pony left in Ponyville that has not been corrupted and the only one that understands what is happening and who is responsible.

Discord is skating about on the roads of soapy water, making circles around Twilight Sparkle as she tries to walk back to the library to plan her next move.

“Aww…why so glum Twilight Sparkle,” asks Discord performing a triple spin in the air before landing and skating off backwards.

“…you know what’s wrong Discord,” Twilight Sparkle says in a huff, “you corrupted my friends so that we could never use the Elements of Harmony on you as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had!”

“Oh, now you’re being unfair. I simply showed them the truth about their environment” laughs Discord. “They are the ones who saw reality and came to their senses.”

Twilight stared at him in disbelief. “You knew that it needed all 6 of us to make the elements work…and now that my friends can’t use their elements…” Twilight sighed as she looked down and kept walking to the library.

Discord watches her for a minute but then smiles like he just had an idea. He prances off and disappears into the distance. Twilight looks back at him and feels unsure as she walks into the library.

“SPIKE!!!! Spike, where are you? I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia IMMEDIATELY!!” Twilight says in a huff, looking around for the little dragon.

Spike walks downstairs, rubbing his eyes like he had just woken up. “…what is it Twilight? What’s with the sense of urgency?”

Twilight runs over to him. “Just hurry Spike, Discord is loose and I need to ask Princess Celestia how to get my friends back so we can use the Elements of Harmony!”

“Alright, alright…hold your horses,” Spike giggles as he grabs the quill and a piece of parchment.

Twilight clears her throat as she walks around the library nervously. “’Dearest Princess Celestia, as you are more than aware, Discord is loose and creating all sorts of chaos all over Ponyville. He did something to my friends and now none of them will listen to me or help me. Please help me understand what I need to do to get my friends back so that we can defeat Discord. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.’ Ok, send it Spike!”

Spike finishes writing and sends the letter off and looks at Twilight. “Do you think you can stop him?”

Twilight looks out of the window letting out a sigh. “I sure hope so…I don’t think Ponyville, much less Equestria, can cope with Discord’s chaos.”

As Twilight stares out of the window, she notices something on the horizon and squints to try to see what it is. She can tell there is some sort of movement, but it appears as shadows as day turns to night. With that, Twilight goes up to her observation deck and aims one of her telescopes at the shadows that she could see earlier and can see Discord skating across the soapy roads.

“…this can’t be good,” Twilight murmurs to herself, under her breath.

Discord looks at the telescope and waves at Twilight making her blink and step back shaking her head. She looks again, but Discord is no longer in view, so she turns her attention back to the shadows after a moment long of searching for the Lord of Chaos. The shadows are no longer shadows, however, as they appear now to be ponies from outside Ponyville charging toward the town. Twilight blinks, confused by what she's seeing, and the charging ponies are now giant seagulls. Bewildered, the unicorn looks again, only to this time not see anything at all. She takes a step back to see what is wrong with her telescope, but sees Discord standing at the opposite end.

“Ahhh…” Twilight shouts as she falls back surprised.

Discord starts to laugh as he grabs his stomach. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle, you’re just too much fun!”

Twilight is breathing a little heavy, still surprised by what Discord had done.

“Did you like my little puppet show?” asks Discord as he shows her all the creatures she saw in her telescope on his fingers like marionettes.

Twilight blinks confused. “They…they were just puppets?”

Discord is trying not to laugh, “Indeed they were…but I have decided to expand beyond Ponyville. Ponyville will only be my capital of chaos…the chaos I will give to all of Equestria!”

Twilight’s jaw drops, “…all…of Equestria…will be in chaos?”

Discord nods, “Yes, and it will be so lovely to see all of that delicious chaos reigning!”

Twilight looks unsure as she goes running back into the library. “SPIKE!! I NEED TO SEND A LETTER TO THE PRINCESS IMMEDIATELY!!!”

Spike looks back from some books he’s shelving. “Ok Twilight, I’ll be there.” Spike immediately drops the books and runs over to Twilight holding his quill and some parchment.

Twilight clears her throat, “Dear Princess, I wanted to inform you that Discord intends on turning all of Equestria into a chaotic state, not just Ponyville. I will continue to try to bring my friends back so that we can use the Elements to put a stop to this. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”

Spike is furiously writing as he finally finishes and sends it off to Celestia. “He’s going to make all of Equestria chaotic?”

Twilight nods as she paces about the library like she’s thinking. Even after a few hours Twilight is still pacing but collapses from exhaustion.

Spike runs over to her, “You ok Twilight?”

Twilight nods as she tries to stand back up, “Yes…thank you Spike…but, I think I might have figured out something to get my friends back. But I need some sleep first…I’m too exhausted to do any magic right now.”

Twilight lies down and sleeps for a bit but can’t get much sleep from the constantly changing day and night. When she finally awakes she looks around to see that most of the contents of the library have all been changed. She looks around as she sees spike sitting on the floor belching out a letter from Celestia, only to inhale it back and keeps repeating this process.

“…no…Discord got to Spike now…,” Twilight says worried as she gets out of bed and runs over to Spike and tries to gently shake him to get him to stop.

Twilight starts to pace the library unsure and extremely nervous frantically trying to think of something she can do to stop Discord. Her pacing is interrupted as she hears a loud boom followed by the ground shaking. Alarmed, she runs outside and looks around trying to figure out what just happened. As she looks around her jaw drops as she’s looking out towards Canterlot and can see that it is looking much like Ponyville. There are spires floating around and you can even see that a lot of the Canterlot citizens are trying to flee the ensnaring chaos.

“…he…he’s doing it…he’s really turning all of Equestria into a chaotic state,” Twilight says sounding unsure now.

Twilight goes running back in and sees that Spike is still stuck sending and receiving Princess Celestia’s letter. She watches it for a bit before she finally lunges and grabs the letter before Spike tries to send it again, saving the letter as well as Spike.
“…wh…what happened?” questions Spike as he looks around a little confused.

Twilight is busy reading the letter and finishes but looks completely unsure now.

Spike runs over to her, “Twilight, what did the Princesses letter say?”

Twilight looks up at Spike unsure, “The Princess isn’t sure what she can do against Discord’s chaos…the best option she can suggest is the Elements of Harmony. She did mention something about trying to restore my friends to use the Elements…but she’s unsure of the effectiveness of the spell.”

Spike looks at her thinking, “Well, it’s still worth a shot…we can’t let Discord rule Equestria with chaos!”

Twilight nods as she goes looking through her books trying to find the spell. After a few hours of reading, she opens a book to find the Elements.

Twilight’s jaw drops again, “They were here the whole time?” she says sounding kind of annoyed but more angered now.

“Oh…you think I would put them some place impossible to find?” comes Discord’s disembodied voice.

“…show yourself Discord!” Twilight shouts into the room.

Discord comes in with a flash of light and smiles. “Hello Twilight Sparkle, did you miss me?”

Twilight looks at him unsure of that “No…I didn’t…but now that I’ve found the Elements, I’m going to rescue my friends to stop you!”

Discord looks both surprised and amused. “Oh? And just do tell how you plan to ‘save’ your friends?”

Twilight seems unsure and looks around a bit trying to figure out an answer. “Umm…I will, that’s all you should know!!!”

Discord starts to laugh as he disappears in a flash of light again.

Twilight gulps and seems more unsure than ever. “…how will I save them…?” Twilight says to herself.

Spike comes running over holding a book, “TWILIGHT!!! I found the book you were looking for!!!”

Twilight looks over at him and grabs it out of his hands with her magic and starts to read through it frantically. “Spike, you just found it, the answer to saving my friends and putting a stop to Discord!!” she says as she picks him up with her hooves hugging him tightly.

After she finishes reading the book, she runs from the library over to Sweet Apple Acres looking for Apple Jack. After some searching, she finds her sitting on some hay bales in the barn and goes over.

“Applejack! I've come to save you!” Twilight declares looking confident.

Applejack looks over at her unsure, “Save me? What in tarnation you tryin ta save me for? Where were you when I was tryin ta save Ponyville from Discord? I was the only pony there to stop him!”

Twilight ignores that and tackles Applejack and tries to perform the memory spell on her to bring her back to normal. Twilight performs the spell a few times before it finally works and Applejack is back to normal.

“wha…what happened?” Applejack asks looking around really confused.

Twilight immediately hugs her “I’m so glad you’re back, I thought the spell might not work.”

Applejack looks more confused as she looks at all the chaos filling Equestria. “Twilight…what’s going on around here?”

“I don’t have much time to explain, we need to find the others to use the Elements to stop Discord” Twilight quickly tells her.
They both nod and go running off, finding the others and performing the memory spell on all of them. After they finally get Rainbow Dash back they set out to find Discord after donning the Elements of Harmony.

Discord is sitting in his chair enjoying the massive amount of chaos that now envelops all of Ponyville as the mane 6 come running up. “Ah, back for more are we? Well, go ahead, fire away when ready.”

“We’re going to stop you once and for all discord!!” Twilight yells at Discord and immediately starts to try using the Elements.

As the mane 6 start to lift into the air, each of their respective elements starting to light up, Twilight looks at Discord with a slight grin. The elements get brighter until they all drop to the ground with nothing happening.

Twilight looks around confused, “but…we’re all back…how can the Elements not work?”

Discord starts to laugh as he looks at them “Ah, you little ponies and your elements…or rather your non-elements!”
Twilight keeps looking confused and tries again with similar results each and every time. “But…this shouldn’t happen…we…we can’t use our elements anymore...”

The others look unsure but sad that they weren't able to use the Elements to stop Discord.

Twilight walks back to the library distraught, as she enters, she sees Spike running over to her “Twilight!! Were you able to stop Discord?”

Twilight shakes her head and looks down. “I was able to save my friends…but the Elements wouldn't work…and now…we can’t save Equestria….please…take a letter for me Spike.”

Spike nods as he grabs some parchment and a quill. “Ready Twilight”

Twilight tries to stop her tears “Dear…Princess Celestia…I…I was able to find the Elements…but…I…I can’t save my friends.

I…I don’t know what to do…anymore. Please…save us Princess…tell me what I should do…this…this will be…my…one last…letter to you” Twilight trails off as she starts to cry.

Spike finishes writing and then sends off the letter and looks at Twilight unsure and goes in and hugs her as they both look out at their now forever chaotic world unsure of what will happen.

Author's Note

This fic was inspired by Aviators song One Last Letter (ft. Bronyfied) as can be seen here:

What would have happened had the mane 6 not defeated Discord? What if they found the Elements of Harmony but remained useless against Discord? This is a work of fiction that occurred to me listening to the song linked above. As you read this, I ask that you keep an open mind as this is an alternative universe setting and is in NO way canon. All rights to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic name go to Hasbro and Studio B. Thank you for reading.
-Sakura