A splitting headache was found when the Masked Matterhorn woke up. When the aneurism was lost, the alicorn had finally a good view at the environment around her. The ground was rocky and lifeless, the sky was completely filled with black clouds with no sun or moon light, and the city in the horizon looked dark. In the middle of the city, there was a large tower erected towards the sky, and every few moments, a black-and-purple ball of light shot out and flew above the clouds.
"What is this place?" she asked thinking she was alone. She wasn't.
Around her, she found the Power Ponies and the Mighty Machines groaning and getting up the same way she did a minute earlier.
"Guys!" she called out. "You're alive!"
"Yeah, and confused too." Zapp said observing the area. "Where are we?"
"I don't know." the Masked Matterhorn said.
"I'm not sure how," Masque said, "But wherever this is, it reminds me of the Neatherealm."
"No kidding!" Timberwolf shouted. "And that's not even the worst part! Look!" He held up his arm, but there was one part missing. "My hand's gone!"
"That's not the hot issue right now." the Shadow Blot said.
"Speak for yourself!" Timberwolf returned.
"Ricky's right." the Masked Matterhorn said. "Listen up. Whatever that bomb it, it didn't destroy us. I don't know how it actually happened, but we won't have any answers just standing around here. The only place we can go is that city over there."
"You mean the scary one?" Saddle Rager asked. "I don't know. It looks kinda... scary."
"Don't worry, Fluttershy." Devastator said. "We can't possibly go at it alone."
"Right." the Masked Matterhorn said. "We go in teams of two; one pony and one wirewolf."
"What about me?" Hum Drum asked.
"Hum Drum, you, me, and Shadow Blot are in one team. The other teams are Zapp and Timberwolf, Saddle Rager and Devastator, Filli-Second and Masque, Radiance and Dusk, and Marevelous and Rodan. Everyone okay with that?"
"Uh, huh." Dusk said.
"You betcha." Mistress Marevelous replied.
"Thank you." Devastator said.
"Whatever keeps me from blowing up again." Timberwolf answered. Everyone else agreed.
"Good." the Masked Matterhorn said. "Once we get to the city, scatter. If anyone needs help, find a way to signal us."
"Right!" everyone agreed at once.
And with that, they started making their way to the city. Once they were gone, two more figures stood straight up.
"What was that?" Gryphon Galore asked.
"My life just flashed before my eyes." the Mane-iac stated. "I really should have asked out that guy I liked in high school."
"Can it, hairy!" Gryphon Galore commanded. "We need to know where we are."
"Well, maybe those guys know." the Mane-iac said pointing at a group of strangers behind them.
"What?" Gryphon Galore asked looking at who her partner was pointing at. She squinted at them. "Hang on. Isn't that..."
Traveling throughout the city, the Masked Matterhorn, Hum Drum, and the Shadow Blot carefully walked down the streets of the scary city observing the surroundings. There was garbage, broken buildings, and silence throughout the road. The sight of it gave the baby dragon a sinking feeling.
"Doesn't this place seem familiar?"
"What do you mean?" the Shadow Blot asked.
"I don't know." Hum Drum said touching his chin. "I... I think I know this place. It's on the tip of my tongue."
"Hum Drum's right." the Masked Matterhorn agreed. "I feel like I've been here before, but at the same time, I haven't."
Suddenly, a loud, fake bird noise echoed through the town startling the heroes.
"That sounds like Filli-Second!" Matterhorn said in worry. "Let's go!"
They ran throughout the street until they caught up with all their friends. They met up with Masque and Filli-Second, only to be confused when they found the latter rolling on the floor laughing out loud.
"What?" Radiance asked. "What's the emergency?"
"Sorry, guys!" Filli-Second laughed. "Masque just came up with the best joke ever! You just had to hear it!"
"That's your emergency?!" Mistress Marevelous shouted.
"Yeah!" Rodan shouted. "We were worried something bad happened!"
"Come on, guys!" Masque said. "I know this is a bad time, but this is a really great joke! You just have to hear it!"
Everyone either sighed or groaned. "All right." the Shadow Blot said. "Let us hear it. What is it?"
"Well..." Masque prepared. "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To get to the other side?" Dusk guessed. "We've all heard this joke before!"
"Nope." Masque said. "It's to..."
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot in between them and interrupted the joke. They looked up and saw a trio pf armored pegusi soaring above them. In their hooves, they carried storm clouds. They punched the cloud and more lightning bolts shot out and almost hit them.
"Who are these guys?!" Timberwolf asked loudly.
"I don't know!" Rodan shouted. He pulled out his claw and shot a fireball towards them. They dodged.
"Stop!" the Masked Matterhorn shouted. "We don't know who they are!"
"Well, we know what they're doing!" Dusk said. "If we don't do something about them, they'll vaporize us for real!"
"GET DOWN!" an unknown voice cried out. Suddenly, a green Pegasus with a dark-green gem Cutie Mark flew down and landed in front of the heroes. "TAKE COVER!" she shouted. Suddenly, she dropped a ball to the ground that exploded with blinding smoke. The Once it cleared, the pegusi lost sight of their targets.
"Call General Boom and tell her we lost some invaders." one Pegasus said as they flew off.
In the building beside where the smoke bomb went off, the unknown Pegasus peeked out and saw them leave. She then turned her head back to the heroes.
"You were lucky I came along. Otherwise, the Terrorbolts wouldn't have shown you any mercy. And if they brought you to their general... Well, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty."
"Hold on." the Masked Matterhorn interrupted. "We have some questions for you, Ms..."
"Oh, right." the Pegasus said. "My name's Bell Weather. I'm a scout for the resistance."
"Resistance?" Dusk asked. "Resistance against what?"
"Seriously?" Bell Weather asked. "Where have you been?"
"Look, Ms. Weather," the Shadow Blot said, "All we know is that one minute, we're fighting our enemies in Maretropolis, and the minute after that, we find ourselves in some messy, run-down, frightening city where the first ponies we meet tried to shoot at us."
"What?" Bell Weather asked. "You... really don't know where you are?"
"Of course not." Mistress Marevelous said. "Where are we?"
"This messy, run-down, frightening city you're talking about," Bell Weather said gesturing to the outside, "...This is Maretropolis."
"WHAT?!" everyone cried out in shock.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Zapp exclaimed.
"I don't believe it!" Rodan gasped.
"Believe it or not, this place is Maretropolis." Bell Weather repeated. "It's been like this for three years. You see, we were just enjoying our every day lives, but suddenly, the skies began to darken. There was no trace of sunlight or moonlight. And out of nowhere, a group of supervillains called the Peril Ponies rose up and declared their rule. Their leader, the Negahorn, said that the dark skies was a sign of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna not having any more right to Equestria. Ever since, they've been ruling our homes with iron hooves."
"What about the other heroes?" Devastator asked. "Couldn't they do something?"
"They all tried." Bell Weather said. "But none of them were ever seen again. In the end, some of us managed to create a resistance force to stand up against them, but we only have a handful of super-beings. We don't know how much longer we can endure their rule."
"Well, that's just perfect." Timberwolf said sarcastically. "We get sent to a place that's somehow Maretropolis only to find out that the world's been conquered by a supervillain. I lost one hand, there's no princess, and there are barely any heroes left."
"How is this Maretropolis?" Hum Drum asked. "It didn't look like this two hours ago. Did we time-travel to the future or something?"
"I don't think so." the Masked Matterhorn said. "We've time-traveled before, and whatever happened with the bomb, it didn't feel anything like that. Something else is going on."
"Well, whatever it is, it isn't worth staying put." Bell Weather said. "I gotta bring you to home base."
"Ooh, baseball!" Filli-Second shouted.
"No, Filli." the Shadow Blot said. "She means she's taking us to meet the resistance."
"And no!" Zapp said.
"What?" Bell Weather asked.
"You heard me." Zapp answered. "We can't just run away when's there's a supervillain to beat!"
"I agree with Zapp." Radiance said. "We can't just abandon Maretropolis if it's in trouble."
"You can't fight the forces over at Peril Spire." Bell Weather said. "You try to stand up to the Negahorn and you'll regret it. We need to fall back and try to think of a way to defeat them."
"Sorry, Freedom Cry, but we have to try." the Masked Matterhorn said. "If you're going to return to your resistance, the least you can do is send some reinforcements if these Peril Ponies are as dangerous as you say."
"But..." Bell Weather said.
"Peril Spire, huh?" Mistress Marevelous said. "I bet my bits on that big tower in the middle of town.'
"So we're off." the Masked Matterhorn called out.
"See ya in the funny papers, FC!" Masque cried out as he ran out with the others.
Bell Weather was left sighing on her own. "They're gonna get eaten alive."
The black-armored pegasi stood outside of a door bickering with each other.
"Who's gonna tell the Peril Ponies the bad news?" one asked.
"Don't look at me." another replied. "I'm not getting punished. You tell them."
"Me?" the first one asked. "I told them last time, and you'd only want to do that once." He then turned to the other one. "Looks like it's your time.'
Without any other argument, the two pegusi pushed the last one through the door. When he got back up, he was petrified in fear at the sight of the six thrones filled with the villains that rule Equestria. The middle one had a black-armored alicorn with red lines across and a white faceplate. He jumped down from his throne and approached the guard.
"Only one guard delivering news?" he said in a sinister, masked voice. "That never means good news." He held up a yellow apple and made it glow. Suddenly, the other guards were thrown through the door and before the Negahorn by a yellow glow. They got back up and pointed to the first guy.
"He has something to tell you, Negahorn!" they said simultaneously.
"Well, I'm waiting." the Negahorn said.
"You see..." the lone guard said nervously. "Well... On patrol, we found some trouble-makers outside during curfew. There were ponies and wirewolves. But some scout from the resistance rescued them before we could apprehend them."
"Wirewolves?" the Negahorn asked looking at her yellow apple. "I swear, if Alfreda's involved again, I'm gonna..."
Suddenly, an image appeared on the apple's surface. The Negahorn looked closely and widened his eyes at the sight of the Power Ponies and the Mighty Machines making their way to their headquarters. Underneath the mask, the Negahorn wore an insidious grin. He then turned to the other ponies on the throne.
"Well, this is interesting." the Negahorn laughed. "Boom, Ms. Fortune, Glamour, Wrath, Vile-osity, let's roll up the red carpet and 'welcome' the Power Ponies!"
"You know," Devastator said observing the incredibly tall tower, "I knew this place would be big, but up close, this seems like a little much."
Mistress Marevelous looked on top of the tower and saw the ball of light blasting into the clouds. "Um... what is that?" she asked pointing at it.
"I don't know," the Masked Matterhorn said, "But I bet it'll stop when we defeat the Peril Ponies. Here's the plan. First, Masque will change into one of those pegusi that attacked us and sneak into the tower."
"Um, Twilight..." Saddle Rager whispered.
"Hold on, Saddle." the Masked Matterhorn returned. "Now, once you're in, Masque, you need to get to the engineer's office. They usually have a map of the place and it's structure in case of a malfunction."
"Guys..." Saddle Rager whispered.
"Wait a second." Matterhorn repeated. "When you got it, come back out with it so we can know exactly where to find this Negahorn. Now, Saddle Rager, what do you have to say?"
"Uh, Twilight!" Saddle Rager replied. "I think I know where we can find the Negahorn."
"Really?" the Masked Matterhorn asked. "Where?"
"Behind you."
The others looked behind the Masked Matterhorn and jumped back when they saw the armored alicorn flapping his wings up and lowering himself before them.
"An alicorn?!" Timberwolf asked furiously. "Nobody told me we'd have to fight an alicorn!"
"Are you the Negahorn?" the Masked Matterhorn asked.
"Yes. And you must be the Masked Matterhorn, also known as Princess Twilight Sparkle. How nice to finally see another world's version of Twilight Sparkle."
"Another world?" the Shadow Blot asked. "Wait! We're in another universe?! You gotta be kidding me!"
"Sure would explain a whole lot." Dusk said.
"How do you know about the other worlds?" Zapp asked.
"Believe it or not, you're not the first world travelers I've had to deal with." the Negahorn replied.
"And what do you mean, another Twilight?" the Masked Matterhorn asked. "Have you met my counterpart here?"
"Not exactly." the Negahorn replied. "Here's how things work. Before, there used to be good and evil clashing for control. Every time we battled, good would prevail in the end, but evil never gives up. A long time ago, I learned of a way to break the never-ending cycle: we take control of evil and rule it, as wel as the world. And who better to rule..." Suddenly, the Negahorn's faceplate slid up revealing the Negahorn's face to the others. "...Than an actual princess!"
Everyone was surprised and shocked at the sight of the Negahorn's face. "He" was actually a she! The Negahorn's purple face matched her purple eyes. The Negahorn was Twilight Sparkle, and while the other heroes stood still in shock, the Masked Matterhorn was frightened with awe trying to deny what she was seeing.
"No. It... It can't be!"
"It can, and it is, Twilight." the evil Twilight replied. She took a step closer to her counterpart, but the Masked Matterhorn tried to step back away from hers. "But don't worry. I'm not alone! NOW!"
Suddenly, Zapp got tackled. When she escaped the grab she saw her assailant, who looked exactly like her, but with a more sinister costume.
"Whoa, what?!" Zapp gasped. "There's another Zapp."
"Nope!" the evil Rainbow Dash replied. "Call me Boom."
Saddle Rager turned to run, but she stopped when she saw her evil counterpart as well.
"Um, hey. My name's Saddle Rager, and I don't want any trouble."
"Well, guess what, sassinfrass!" the other Fluttershy growled loudly. "I'm Wrath, and I'm sick of being NICE and QUIET all the time!"
All of a sudden, both Mistress Marevelous and Rodan got tied up with a floating rope that moved to fast for them to see coming. They were pulled by (you guessed it) an evil version of Applejack.
"YEE-HAW!" she exclaimed. "Looks like fortune favors Ms. Fortune!"
"Well, well, well." Radiance heard an all too familiar voice. When she turned her evil counterpart was approaching her. "Pleasure to meet you... not! I am Glamour!"
"Oh." Radiance exclaimed shocked by her passive-aggressiveness. "Well, hello there. I'm..."
"Yes, yes." Glamour interrupted. "I know who you are." Suddenly, her bracelet formed a hook that quickly snatched Radiance's away.
"Hey!" Radiance exclaimed. "That's mine!"
"And now, it's mine!"
Soon enough, Filli-Second was confronted by her evil counterpart, who came at light speed, but she didn't show any negative emotion; neither of them did.
"Hi! I'm Filli-Second!"
"Hi! I'm Vile-osity!" She extended her hoof for a handshake. "Wanna be friends?"
"Absotividutely!" Filli-Second said taking the hoof. Suddenly, Vile-osity gripped tight at Filli-Second's hoof and threw her overhead. She laughed when the good one hit the floor.
"GOTCHA, SILLY!" Vile-osity shouted in a mocking tone.
"Holy evil mirror, Shadow Blot!" Masque exclaimed.
"What?" Shadow Blot asked. "Nevermind. Everyone, stick with the Power Ponies! Remember, they can't beat all of us!"
"No." Timberwolf said. "Just some of us."
"Don't move a lugnut!" the Negahorn said pulling out her yellow apple. As soon as the wirewolves saw her pointing it at them, they looked completely frightened.
"Oh, no!" Shadow Blot shouted. "The Golden Apple?! Here?! How?!"
"The Golden what?" Marevelous asked.
"It's a long story." Dusk said keeping his paw on his chest.
"Yeah, and it goes like this," Masque said in a scared tone, "Once upon a time, a wirewolf went 'OH, COME ON'!"
Suddenly, Glamour's bracelet glowed brightly and a hard-light cage formed around the heroes. Quickly after that, the Negahorn blasted the cage with the Golden Apple. The Masked Matterhorn tried to blast her own way out, but her horn didn't even glow.
"Don't bother." the Negahorn said. "My Golden Apple has made this cage filter out all powers and magic."
"What, you can't use your own magic?" Hum Drum asked. He was only given a blast from the Golden Apple as a response.
"Why'd you do that?" the Masked Matterhorn asked. "He's our friend!"
"Friend?" the Negahorn laughed. "My so-called 'friend' ran out on me. But there's nowhere to run to. This is my world, and you just stumbled into it.
"Equestria is an evil world
Call it cruel if you want, but it's your new home"
"Equestria is an evil world" Ms. Fortune sang,
"Where villains like us are free to roam"
"And all the peaceful, light heeeeaaaaarts..." Glamour sang,
"ARE GOING TO BREAK
Don't run! Don't hide
You'll never see friendship flowing through the realm"
"Don't run! Don't hide" the Negahorn sang
"You'll never feel the harmony oooooveeeerwheeeeeelm"
And with that, Radiance shook the cage the heroes were in. They rattled left and right until it stopped and the cage fell in front of Vile-osity, Wrath, and Boom.
"Equestria is an evil world" Vile-osity sang,
"All this torment is our idea of joy"
"Equestria is an evil world" Wrath sang,
"Now, I'm going to take this kid's toy"
"And all the calm, easy minds..." Boom sang,
"ARE GOING TO BREAK"
"Don't run! Don't hide" Vileosity sang,
"You'll never see friendship flowing through the realm"
"Don't run! Don't hide" Boom sang,
"You'll never feel the harmony oooooveeeerwheeeeeelm"
The rest of the Peril Ponies jumped beside the other three and they all sang at once.
"EQUESTRIA IS AN EVIL WORLD
AND OURS
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA
EQUESTRIA IS AN EVIL WORLD
AND OURS
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA
EQUESTRIA IS AN EVIL WORLD
AND OURS
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA
IT'S OOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURS"
"And now," the Negahorn said looking down at the frightened heroes, "You've earned yourselves a one-way ticket to the dungeon."
"Wait!" Radiance shouted. "I'm allergic to filthy cells!"
"Oh, trust me." the Negahorn said. "You'd want to be sent there. After all, I'm sure you miss..."
Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard. Everyone diverted their attention to the noise, but they didn't notice a green vine hitting Glamour over the side of her head. Once she fell on the floor, her cage surrounding the ponies and wirewolves fell apart, but that got the attention of the Peril Ponies.
"What?!" the Negahorn asked.
Suddenly, a large school bus hurled through the air and landed between the heroes and the villains. Boom tried to go above, but she was interrupted by a blue explosion of smoke hitting her face.
"What is going on?!" Rodan shouted.
"Just come on, already!" a woman shouted from the far end of the road. "We can't hold them off for long!"
Without any question, the heroes turned and followed the voice. From the side, Ms. Fortune galloped around the bus and chased after them with her rope. The Power Ponies saw a pair of blue hooves entering the sewers.
"We're going in!" the Masked Matterhorn shouted.
"In the sewer?!" Radiance asked. "I hardly think..."
"It's either the filthy underground or a filthy dungeon!" Devastator shouted.
Once they made it to the manhole, they jumped in one by one. However, Ms. Fortune tossed her rope and grabbed ahold of Radiance, Masque, and Timberwolf. With a hard tug, they were pulled away from the sewers.
"RADIANCE!" Hum Drum shouted.
"We'll save her later, kid." a gruff, female voice said. "We need to get out of here!" They all ran off and disappeared into the catacombs.
Meanwhile, back on the surface, Ms. Fortune presented her captives to her boss.
"I lost the others, but I did get these three, boss."
The Negahorn looked at the three and scowled.
"Look at the bright side, Radiance," Masque said, "At least you don't have to worry about the sewer."
"Yeah, but we're facing being sold for scrap!" Timberwolf shouted. "For the love of... Why is it that I'm always among the short end of all our adventures?!"
"My theory is..."
"That was rhetorical, Joe!"
"Negahorn," Boom said, "What do we do?"
"Take them to the dungeon, but far away from our 'special guest'. In the meantime... I've got to talk to the Benefactor."