//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Anniversary in an Alternate World 
// by EquineAvenger 
//------------------------------//

It had been a whole minute since the end of the other Shining Armor’s tragic tale. Everyone looked to Twilight Sparkle awaiting her answer. Twilight stood thinking to herself.
“What are we going to do, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked her friend.
“Twily?” The real Shining Armor approached his sister.
Then Twilight raised her head and everyone saw she had a serious and determined expression on her face. She walked by everyone as she approached the other Shining Armor. “How do we get to your world?” she asked.
“You’re going to help me?” the other Shining Armor asked feeling his spirits rising.
“My duties as the Princess of Friendship don’t stop at the borders of my world.” 
“Oh, thank you. Thank you so much, Twily,” other Shining Armor said with deep gratitude.
“So how do we perform this multiversal travel spell?”
“Let’s get started.”
After an hour of preparation, Twilight and other Shining Armor had drawn a huge circle with strange markings and symbols on the ballroom floor.
“What do we do next?” Twilight asked.
“Next we use the spell that activates this circle together,” other Shining told her. “That should transport us both to the world I came from.”
“Wait, shouldn’t we go with Twilight too?” Pinkie asked.
“We are her friends after all,” Rainbow added.
“And I’m her number one assistant, she’ll definitely need me at her side,” Spike pleaded to be taken along.
Other Shining thought for a moment, then spoke. “Well, I can see that the friendship between all of you is still intact, so I guess that could prove useful.”
“YAY! We all can go!” Pinkie squealed with excitement.
“Wait!” the real Shining Armor spoke to his counterpart. “From what you’ve told us, the world you say you come from is a lot more dangerous than ours. Twilight and her friends could get hurt or worse.”
“I’m not a little filly anymore, BBBFF,” Twilight assured her big brother. “You don’t have to always look out for me anymore. Besides, I’ve got some very good friends who will always have my back. You’ve got a wife and a future baby that need your attention more.”
Shining Armor was still pretty concerned for the safety of his little sister, he gave a warm and agreeing smile of love and pride because he knew she was right. “Promise me you’ll bring her back safely,” he told his counterpart.
“I give you my word I’ll protect her and her friends,” other Shining promised. “I can see that you really care a great deal for your sister. I just wish I’d done more.”
“I made the same mistakes you made,” real Shining told his counterpart in a comforting tone. “We may come from different worlds, but we are not so different.”
“Yes, but you all were lucky. You still have a wonderful sister with wonderful friends, a beautiful wife, and a filly on the way. I could have had all those too.” The look of sadness on other Shining’s face made everyone feel a great deal of sympathy for him. Twilight walked over and gently put her hoof on his shoulder in an attempt to give him a little comfort. “Well, we’d better get going. There’s no time to lose,” he said regaining his composure.
Other Shining led Twilight, her friends, and Spike into the center of the circle.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready!” Twilight confirmed.
Other Shining lit up his horn and the markings in the circle started glowing. Twilight’s friends and Spike watched nervously as the markings and other Shining’s horn glowed brighter by the second. Then the lights became so bright that those who were watching had to avert their eyes.
“Good luck, my faithful student!” Celestia wished her pupil good luck.
“All of you take care of each other!” Shining called to his sister and her friends.
“And please come back safely!” Cadance called to Twilight.
In a moment, the light died down. The symbols in the circle had stopped glowing and the group that once stood inside it were nowhere to be seen. Celestia and Luna stared down at the empty circle with looks of nervousness and hope.
“What now, Your Highnesses?” a guard asked the two alicorns.
“Keep watch and make sure nothing happens to this circle,” Celestia told him. “I have a feeling we may need this incase I fear the worse.”
“I just hope Twilight and her friends will be okay in this different Equestria?” Luna said suspiciously.


Other Shining, Twilight, her friends, and Spike suddenly found themselves standing in the castle yard of Canterlot. The weather seemed a little bleak, the sky was gray and cloudy. The grass wasn’t as green as it was back in their world. This version of Equestria didn’t look at all like the one they lived in. They were all speechless as they stared with disturbed expressions on their faces.
“I’m afraid things are much worse than they seem,” Other Shining regrettably told them.
“Where’s your world’s Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. She felt that if they were going to try and figure out a solution to this problem, they needed to talk with the pony in charge.
“I’ll lead you to her,” Other Shining complied and began leading the group out of the courtyard.
Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by a mysterious group of three cloaked individuals hiding behind some bushes.
“This is a strange turn of events,” one of the cloaked ponies said in a male voice.
“We’d better report this to the queen,” another cloaked pony said in a deeper male voice. 
Then the other cloaked male cast a spell from his hidden horn and opened a portal for him and his two comrades to enter. The portal closed as soon as they all had gone through.

The Crystal Empire was a dark, grim, and unpleasant place. There were no citizens, just slaves. When Sombra took over the empire many years ago, he enslaved its citizens and forced them to do horrible back-breaking labor. When he returned from his banishment, he was able to regain control of the empire with the help of a young and gifted rogue unicorn. Now once again the crystal ponies found themselves subjected to a life a slavery. However, this time some of them found it a lot less horrible than it was in the past. They had a new dark queen who wasn’t nearly as abusive as their king and often gave charismatic motivational speeches that encouraged the crystal ponies to do their best and made them feel like the work they were doing was for a good cause.
“FOOL!” King Sombra ruthlessly berated a slave who had accidently tipped over her mine cart and spilled all the materials in it on the ground.
“I… I’m sorry my king,” the slave mare timidly apologized. “It… it was an accident.”
“I can make accidents too!” the tyrant king said threateningly.
“Enough!” came a powerful female voice. Everypony turned to see a tall, dark, and imposing mare.
“The Queen!” the slaves exclaimed and bowed their heads respectfully. Some of them stared up at her from the ground. Their eyes weren’t filled with fear, but amazement. This was their new dark queen of the Crystal Empire, Midnight Sparkle. Even Sombra bowed his head to her.
“There are other alternatives, My King,” Midnight Sparkle said to her partner, then turned to the slave he had been scolding. “Don’t worry, this was a minor hiccup, easily fixed.” Then she used her magic and turned the mine cart back up and levitated all the spilled materials back into the cart. “See, no harm done. Remember, ponies like you are what helps the Crystal Empire with the war effort. It is all of you who help make this empire great. And it is you who will help make Equestria great.”
“Th… Thank you, Your Highness,” the slave mare expressed her gratitude.
“Tell you what, after you’re done here, why don’t you all take the rest of the day off,” the queen suggested. The crystal slaves all took a moment to rejoice before going back to their work, but with happy expressions on their faces. Midnight Sparkle and King Sombra then retreated back into the shining halls of their castle.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Sombra asked uncomfortable with his queen’s methods of motivating the slaves. To him, her tactics seemed a little too soft.
“While cruelty and fear are effective ways to motive servants,” the dark mare explained. “Compassion and understanding work much better. What good are servants if we ruthlessly force them to work themselves to the bone out of the threat of harsh punishments? Now if we tell them that their efforts will help a good cause and reward their hard work, then they will trust us and continue to do their duties willingly and with passion. The results will be very pleasing I assure you.”
“I guess you know what’s best,” the dark king agreed, but a little confused. Then he took a moment to look out one of the castle windows down at the progressing empire. “Almost all of Equestria has fallen,” he said with a malicious grin. “Once we defeat Celestia and take Canterlot, then all of Equestria will be mine!” He smiled with sinister excitement at the thought of finally winning the war. But his smile faded when he turned and saw his queen looking down at him with a displeased expression on her face. “Pardon me, I meant all of Equestria will be ours.”
“If you recall, when I joined the Crystal Empire, I agreed to work with you, not for you,” Midnight Sparkle said with a small threatening tone in her voice. “You would be wise to remember the difference.”
Sombra nervously nodded his head to show that he understood, then he and his queen continued walking down the crystal hall. Ever since Twilight Sparkle had turned into Midnight Sparkle, she had become much more powerful than even him. While he was the king of the empire, it was clear she was the one running the show.
The two monarchs soon entered the royal dining room where their allies and top subordinates were all seated at a long rectangular crystal dinner table enjoying the huge feast that was laid out. Midnight Sparkle took her seat, which was the tallest one at the end of the table, while Sombra took his, which was a tiny bit shorter than hers and seated to her right side.
“Well, it’s about time our glorious dark queen came to join us,” Discord teasingly said.
“Your presence is much appreciated, Your Highness,” Tirek said.
“We’re so glad you’re here, Your Majesty,” the three former bridesmaids (Lyra Heartstrings, Minuette, and Twinkleshine) said happily.
“Thank you, my loyal subjects,” Midnight Sparkle said to her followers. “A toast to Gilda and her griffons for her successful conquest of Manehattan.”
“Yeah, it was nothing,” Gilda boasted. “Those pathetic ponies were no match for us, griffons. No offense.”
“And here is your reward for a successful mission,” Midnight Sparkle levitated a big bag of bits over to Gilda’s place on the table. The griffon looked inside and counted the bits. She gave a dissatisfied look once she was done counting. “Is something wrong?”
“I thought since we did such a great job, we should get paid more than this.”
“This was the exact percentage we agreed upon, remember?” the dark mare politely reminded the dissatisfied griffon. “But if you must have more, then I will pay you double the amount for your next victory.” Then she levitated her teacup to her face and began drinking her tea as her other cohorts all chatted in agreement.
“Hm,” Gilda grunted dissatisfied. “First Rainbow, now this,” she said to herself. “Should’ve listened to Grampa Gruff about choosing my friends carefully.” Then she slapped her claws over her own mouth to prevent herself from saying something she might regret, but it was too late.
Upon hearing Gilda’s complaint, Midnight Sparkle spat out her tea and coughed a little. The others at the table gasped in shock and horror as if Gilda had said the nastiest swear word ever. King Sombra shot a glare mixed with both anger and fear at the griffon, his face practically said ‘Idiot! What have you done?!’
“WHAT WAS THAT?!” Midnight Sparkle bellowed in a room-shaking voice filled with immense anger. Many of the other subjects cowered in their chairs. Discord snapped his fingers and made a bed appear behind his seat. The draconequus immediately dove under the covers and trembled like a scared child hiding from a monster in a closet. Midnight Sparkle flew up from her seat and landed on the table facing Gilda with eyes filled with fury. “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”
“Uh… Nothing!” the intimidated griffon assured.
“You know the law: never ever mention that word in my presence,” the dark queen threateningly reminded her. Then she turned to the rest of her allies. “What have I taught you all?”
“There is no such thing as friendship,” the other guests timidly answered.
“Yes, that was a lesson taught to me by one of my greatest teachers,” Midnight Sparkle said. Then she motioned to a crystal guard carrying a small box to come near her. The guard did as he was told and presented the box to her. She used her magic to open the box, took out what was inside, and dropped it on Gilda’s plate. The object looked like a black crooked stick. “What is this?”
“The horn of the Changeling Queen Chrysalis,” Gilda nervously answered.
“That’s right, she both ruined my life and opened my eyes,” Midnight Sparkle explained. “I used to think friendship was magic. That was a mistake that has caused me a lot of pain. I soon realized that the true magic in this world isn’t friendship, it’s knowledge! That is why we plunder the libraries of conquered lands for their books because books carry knowledge. The more knowledge we have, the more advantage we have over our enemies. And while I admit that I mostly value your services to our cause rather than your company, unlike Celestia, I fully intend to see that you are all fully compensated for your troubles and devotion. But should any of you dare to cross me, I will see to it that you join Trixie and Starlight Glimmer in my chamber! Do I make myself clear?” The others all nodded nervously at the threat. When she’s in a good mood Midnight Sparkle was a much more affable leader than Sombra, but when she’s in a bad mood she had a rage that made the tyrant king look like a kitten. Getting on her bad side was the last thing you wanted to do. “Good! Now if you’ll excuse me, I must retreat to my chambers.” The dark mare got off the dining table and left the dining room leaving her guests to all stare angrily at Gilda for stupidly ruining a perfect evening.
Midnight Sparkle had entered her royal bedchambers and walked up to a huge frame on one of the walls that was covered by a pair of long curtains. Positioned on both sides of the frame were two ponies encased in crystal. These two crystalized prisoners were her two annoying rivals: Trixie and Starlight Glimmer. The dark mare used her magic to pull down on a rope hanging from the ceiling which opened up the curtains on the frame to reveal a huge beautiful portrait of her late former foalsitter, Cadance. The picture brought tears to the dark queen’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she tearfully said to the portrait. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. If only everypony had listened to me from the start! But now I’m going to make things right.” Then she heard a knocking on her chamber door and immediately closed the curtains covering the picture and wiped away her tears. “Who is it?” she asked in a more regal tone.
“It’s the spies here to report,” a guard said.
“Show them in.”
The chamber door opened and in walked the three cloaked ponies from the Canterlot castle yard. The three removed their hoods and revealed their faces to their queen and bowed their heads respectfully. One of them was a male earth pony with a white coat and a light cyanic gray and white mane. Another was a male unicorn with a light cyan coat and a light cobalt blue mane. The last one was a female pegasus with a moderate azure coat and a white and light bluish gray mane.
“Ah, Double Diamond, Party Favor, and Night Glider,” Midnight Sparkle greeted her spies warmly. “So nice to see you again.”
“It is an honor to be in your presence again, My Queen,” Double Diamond politely said.
“We bring some new information,” Party Favor announced.
“Information you might find very interesting,” Night Glider added.
Midnight Sparkle arched her right eyebrow to show that she was interested and listening intently.