Twilight felt the gentle warmth of sunlight on her face as she slowly regained her senses. She found herself on top of a small wooden bed, covered by a thin blanket. Morning light filtered through a window above her, gently lighting up the cozy bedroom. Several other beds lined the walls, with their covers strewn about indicating they had been slept in.
The events of the previous day flashed through Twilight's mind, as she began to recollect what happened. Experimentally, she lit her horn and levitated her blanket. Rest seemed to have renewed her dampened magic back to its full strength. Twilight slowly began to realize the full weight of her predicament as her brain woke up.
She was in a completely different universe to her own. Calculations and theories began to float through her mind, putting themselves together to reach a shocking conclusion. According to Starswirl's research, she was physically millions of light years from her actual home. She had blindly put her faith in the cutie map, trusting it to know what was best. Every friendship mission the map had sent them on had its own difficulties, but this was another level entirely.
Her train of thought was interrupted by two short knocks at the door. Twilight tensed up, her magic at the ready. The door creaked open and Zecora trotted in, smiling at her. "Ah I see you are awake, I trust some sleep has alleviated your ache?"
Twilight nodded and asked, "Where are we? We... escaped the Crystal Empire and..." she put a hoof to her mouth as she remembered the actions of her alternate sister-in-law and brother. "Shining Armor and Cadence are..." Twilight couldn't even stand to say it.
Zecora looked away sadly. "I am truly sorry Twilight, but we do have a plan to make things right. Now come the others are waiting. Perhaps you can provide some insight into the plan we are making?" Twilight followed the zebra out of the small bedroom, wondering what kind of plan her friends had come up with. Was this even their friendship mission? Whether it was or not, Twilight knew she and her friends couldn't just leave without doing something.
As they trotted through a circular room filled with bubbling potions, strange ingredients and glowing talismans, Twilight realized she was in an enlarged version of Zecora's cabin. Maybe the rebels had built the cabin into a base of sorts? The Everfree forest would certainly be a good hiding place. A memory from long ago flashed through Twilight's mind. 'This part of the forest is dark and damp, but it's done well to hide our camp.'
It felt like ages since Twilight had fought Starlight as she used Starswirl's time spell to change the past over and over again. Each world Twilight had come back to was worse than the last. A world where King Sombra waged a brutal war against Equestria. A world where Chrysalis took over and ponies were exiled to the forest. A world of eternal night. So many ways that Equestria had fallen into darkness, because of a tiny change to the past. Could this world be the same? Maybe there was one thing, one bad day in the past that sent this Equestria into darkness. That had made her own counterpart evil. Maybe one bad day was all it took...
"Twilight you're okay!" a blur of pink jumped on top of Twilight, hugging her tightly.
Twilight grinned at her friend. "Uh Pinkie I can't breathe."
Pinkie Pie let go of Twilight and backed up slightly, allowing Twilight to see the rest of the room. Her other friends were sitting at a table, looking over at her with grins of their own. Trixie sat across from Applejack, a deck of cards strewn between them indicating they had been in the middle of a game.
"Good to see ya well Twilight!" Applejack said joyfully.
A light brown pegasus with a green shirt, black greyish mane and compass cutie mark trotted into the room. "Iron Will says breakfast is almost ready."
"Daring Do?" Twilight asked in surprise.
Daring Do froze and looked at Twilight for a moment, as if determining whether to fight or run. Then her face visibly relaxed. "Sorry," she sighed, "it's just a bit surreal seeing all of you here."
Trixie smiled at her hand of cards and confidently thrust them onto the table, causing Applejack to grumble something about cheating. "Your friends explained everything about your alternate world and how you ended up here. I for one don't buy it. You're too... nice."
Daring looked at Trixie crossly. "Zecora believes them and so do I."
"What if they're spies or... robots or something?" Trixie argued.
"Twilight saved us from Cadence. Though she wouldn't have had to if you had some patience." Zecora sighed. Twilight remembered how Trixie had blown the prison wall to bits, alerting every guard in the Empire.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't need to be sneaky! Besides I could have easily taken on that prissy Princess. She just... took me by surprise is all."
"Right." Daring rolled her eyes and took a seat at the table. Zecora and Twilight sat down as well, stifling a small chuckle.
A few minutes later, Iron Will walked in, carrying platters of gourmet cooking that made Twilight's mouth water. "So what's this plan you were talking about Zecora?" she asked, wolfing down some pancakes.
"A plan to set Equestria free, to which you and your friends are the key." Zecora said cryptically.
"If I may ask, what happened to this world? You said that everything went wrong when Equestria lost its leader?" Rarity asked. "Does that mean... Princess Celestia is... gone?" she asked worriedly. Twilight felt a pang of pain in her heart as she remembered the painting in Cadence's castle.
"Afraid so." Daring tipped her hat down, sighing sadly. "Two years ago Queen Chrysalis and the changelings infiltrated the royal wedding of Shining Armor and Cadence. Chrysalis captured Celestia and drained her of her love. Must've somehow killed her in the process."
"But... but we stopped Chrysalis! Didn't Shining Armor and Cadence repel the changelings with their love shield thing?" Rainbow asked, her voice quivering.
Zecora shook her head. "Perhaps in your world this is so, but in out world sadly no. After her mentor was no more, our Twilight lost control. She slew Chrysalis with dark power, the magic of friendship turned sour."
Twilight's felt small tears wet her eyes. Not just out of sadness, but out of guilt and shame too. Sometimes her magic even frightened herself at times. She remembered the anger that twisted within her as she hurled bolt after bolt of power at Tirek. At that moment, she wanted to hurt him, smash him into a million pieces for destroying her home and hurting her friends. Twilight hadn't told anypony, even her friends, but that battle had a deep impact on her. She mentally resolved never to use her full power ever again, and always kept her emotions in check. Even when Starlight threatened to destroy Equestria in the name of revenge, Twilight held back, using a fraction of her magic. In her moment of rage against Tirek, Twilight had seen her dark side. She never wanted to see it again.
"Twilight... are you okay?" Fluttershy put a comforting hoof on her back. "It's not you Twilight. You're a better pony than that."
Twilight blinked away her tears. She had to be strong, for her friends if not herself. "I'm fine." she said in a mechanical voice.
Daring continued, "Everything went wrong after that. Twilight and the others started taking a harsher approach to crime and villains. Said that ponies needed a guiding hoof to keep Harmony. Princess Luna went along with it at first... or maybe she just was just too busy grieving. But soon it started to get out of control, and Luna began to denounce the stuff they were doing. I guess Twilight saw the signs, and decided that it was time to take over herself. It wasn't really too hard to demonize Luna, after all the history with Nightmare Moon. They declared her a traitor and imprisoned her in stone. After that things started getting worse. Somehow, Twilight and the others made themselves Alicorns and declared themselves Princesses."
One bad day... all it took was one bad day for the world to unravel. It would've been laughably ironic if it weren't horrible.
"I- I can't believe we- they did all that. It's just... too evil!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Loss does strange things to ponies." Daring said, in a tone that hinted she was speaking from experience. "It can warp the way you perceive things."
"But they're still tyrants." Twilight said firmly. "What's your plan to beat them?"
"We're gonna steal the Elements of Harmony." Trixie said as she pulled a card from the deck and smiled at it. She revealed another winning hand to Applejack, who sighed and tossed her cards away in defeat. The magician adjusted her hat, and Twilight thought she saw a few cards under it.
"Wait, they still have their Elements?" Rainbow asked.
"Well duh. What did you lose yours or something?" Trixie asked mockingly.
"We had to give the Elements up to save Equestria." Twilight said. She wondered why their counterparts hadn't given up their elements. Maybe they had found some other way to save the Tree of Harmony?
Trixie rolled her eyes. "Without the Elements, they'll be much easier to defeat. Our theory is that they somehow used the Elements to become Alicorns."
"But if the Elements are the source of their power, then they'll be heavily protected." Rarity pointed out.
"You're right. Our spies in the castle told us that the Elements are under some heavy enchantments, that only Twilight and the others can get through." Daring replied.
"Which is why you need us." Twilight realized.
"So we sneak into Canterlot castle, grab the Elements, and use them to beat the Princesses!" Rainbow said, smacking her forehooves together. "Sounds like a plan!"
"It's not that simple." Daring said. "We don't know where the Elements are being kept, or how to find them. We can't just wander around Canterlot castle looking in every room."
"I could use my gem spell." Rarity suggested.
Trixie smirked. "Oh yes a gem spell will definitely narrow it down. In Canterlot of all places, where every noble worth their bits owns a collection of dresses with dozens of gems embedded into it."
"There used to be a spell for the bearers to locate their Elements in that Elements of Harmony guidebook Princess Celestia gave me. The one Discord hid the Elements in the first time we fought him." Twilight reminisced.
Zecora raised her eyebrows. "Can you perform this spell? If so, do tell."
Twilight shook her head. "The magic is in the book, so I'd need to read the spell out of it. It doesn't matter anyway, the book was destroyed when Tirek blew up the Ponyville library." She looked down sadly, once again painfully reminded of her battle with Tirek.
"Your sense of loss I understand, but we are in luck, as our library still stands."
"Wait a sec. The Ponyville library is still around?" Rainbow asked.
"Alternate universe Dash." Applejack reminded her.
Daring raised a hoof. "Even if the book was still around, wouldn't er- evil Twilight have destroyed it a long time ago? You don't just leave a book with the details on your greatest weapon just lying around."
"Uh, it's Twilight." Rainbow said as if that was an answer.
"Okay... and?" Daring asked.
"Twilight... well how to put this... she's rather fond of books." Rarity said.
"She's obsessed with them!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"No I'm not!" Twilight shot back. "Just because I enjoy reading doesn't mean-"
"You read every single book in that library. Twice." Fluttershy said quietly.
"Point is, she wouldn't destroy it." Applejack summed up.
"She could've just taken it with her to Canterlot." Daring pointed out.
"Maybe. But we should still check. If we're lucky, it could still be there." Twilight said.
Zecora nodded. "I nor my friends can go into town. Our crimes against the Princesses are well known."
"I'll go. I'll use a glamour to disguise myself." Twilight said.
"We're goin with you Twi. Ya ain't goin in there without backup." Applejack said firmly. Twilight acquiesced.
"We'll get to see the library again Twilight!" Pinkie giggled, probably remembering all the good memories they'd made there.
Twilight wasn't as optimistic. If Ponyville was anything like the Crystal Empire, she had a feeling this wouldn't be a pleasant stroll through town.