Twilight's Inverted Elements Work (Idea Fragments) · 9:46pm Jul 15th, 2017
Premise: Inverted elements still work.
We are back to the beginning of season 2. Discord has inverted the Main 6. The reason the Main 6 with Spike as loyalty didn't manage to turn Discord into stone in canon is because Spike was bearing loyalty, not betrayal. However, in this AU Discord discovers Spike receiving the friendship letters and inverts him too and burns the letters. Now that all the elements are working with inverted bearers, they activate and the harmony shockwave reverts all of Discord's actions, including the bearers. However in this version of events Rainbow Dash actually went to Cloudsdale, and Discord's chaos never reached that far, so the harmony shockwave died down before reaching her. Her friends won't try to fix her by freeing Discord, because they're not stupid.There's no accounting for all the variables involved in chaos magic.
This then has several possible outcomes.
1. Rainbow Dash eventually returns or is returned to her friends—through some idea of her own or because her friends initiated a search, informing the population that she would need to be returned unwillingly so they could fix her.
1a. She could fight and the story could wind up being a marehunt with her eventually finding her true self, or going down a darker path.
1b. She could be returned and Twilight's fixing spell could fail, leaving the Main 6 to try fixing her the non-magical way. She could then escape, leading to another primary outcome, eventually slowly get fixed, though not unscarred, or break down, leaving the story with a darker outcome.
2. Rainbow Dash flies east. Yes, that is a reference. I've only read a few chapters and have no idea what is going on there though so I swear I'm not stealing ideas. Now this path could go anywhere. It's just Rainbow Dash going on an adventure. She could return home at the end because she's fixed or for a different reason or make new friends or be a warlord or anything.
3. Rainbow Dash wants revenge. She goes back and either convinces or forces her friends to free Discord (or maybe she could do it herself or hire a sufficiently skilled unicorn—it's not entirely clear what's required to free him in canon). However, she's shattered, not stupid. She gets someone to put up wards that might actually work against Discord.
3a. The wards don't work. Discord goes free and everyone has to deal with the fallout from that. The Main 6 with Spike instead of Rainbow Dash could stone him again, and Rainbow Dash can either be extremely mad at Spike because he stole her position (and she's inverted, so normal ethics might not come into play for her) or extremely dejected. This plot thread has merit.
3b. The wards work. This could get very dark indeed. An inverted Rainbow Dash might do anything, even torture, for revenge against Discord. She could steal his powers. Her former friends might find out what she's doing and hostilities or otherwise might commence.