Twilight Sparkle and her friends were now in the Canterlot of the alternate Equestria. It looked the same as the one back in their Equestria but the atmosphere felt gloomy. The sky was gray and cloudy, not a single ray of sunlight anywhere. The state of this kingdom made Twilight and her friends nervous and uncomfortable.
“What happened here?” Fluttershy nervously asked.
“Everything looks so bleak,” Rarity added.
“There haven’t been many sunny days since the war started,” Other Shining Armor sadly informed them.
“What of Princess Celestia?” a concerned Twilight asked.
“I’m afraid she hasn’t been fairing well either,” a familiar female voice suddenly answered.
They all turned to see… Princess Luna. No, this was the Other Princess Luna from this world. The Princess of the Night had a serious and slightly sad expression on her face when she appeared, but managed to give a little smile when she saw that Other Shining managed to return with some help. The fact that the help all looked very familiar made it even better.
“It is good to see you back safe and sound, Captain Armor,” Other Luna greeted the loyal captain. “And it pleases me to see you’ve found help.”
“He filled us in on everything that has happened,” Twilight informed her. “Where is Princess Celestia, the one in your world I mean.”
That question brought a frown to the moon princess’s face. Apparently, her sister wasn’t doing too well.
“You’d better come with me,” she replied and began leading the group into the castle.
While guiding Twilight and her friends through the castle to Other Celestia’s royal chambers, Other Luna told them the terrible state of depression and despair her sister had been in lately.
“Ever since our Twilight became Midnight Sparkle, my sister hasn’t been herself at all,” she sadly explained. “Nopony sees her anymore because she’s confined herself to her chambers. Most of the time she wallows in despair and sometimes cries for long hours. Occasionally, I’m barely able to calm her down enough so she can help with battle strategies but other than that I’m the one who’s been running the kingdom most of the time.”
“That’s terrible,” Twilight exclaimed. The idea that her beloved mentor could fall into such a state of depression was both alien and horrifying to her.
“I was hoping that introducing you all will help snap her out of her depression and renew her hope,” Other Luna explained. “Equestria really needs her wisdom and leadership.”
“What do you say, girls?” Twilight asked her friends.
“We’re with ya’!” Applejack replied.
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash answered eagerly.
“You can count us in,” Rarity proudly declared.
“I thought you’d never ask me,” Pinkie Pie said excitedly.
“Mm-hmm,” Fluttershy agreed.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Twilight said.
They eventually arrived at the doors to Other Celestia’s personal chambers. Other Luna opened the doors and led the group in. Once they entered, they were presented with a very sad and disturbing sight. Sitting on her bed was the Princess Celestia of this world, she looked vastly different than the one back in their world. Her mane was limp and colorless, her eyes had a little redness in them indicating she had been crying a lot, and her expression looked full of despair and almost completely devoid of hope. For a moment, Twilight and her friends almost didn’t recognize her.
“Sister,” Other Luna spoke to her elder sibling. “I’m here to inform you that Shining Armor has succeeded in his mission and he has brought with him ponies that could help us.”
“Thank you, Luna,” Other Celestia said managing a warm smile. Then she turned to look at the ponies her sister had brought.
Twilight and her friends bowed their heads respectfully to the princess.
“Your Highness,” Twilight addressed their host. “It is with great honor that—” But before she could finish her sentence, Other Celestia suddenly enveloped the young alicorn in a warm hug, much to her surprise.
“I know you are not my pupil, but it fills me with joy to see a version of you that has not fallen to darkness,” Other Celestia said with tears dripping from her eyes.
“We heard about what happened to your Twilight,” the Princess of Friendship informed her mentor’s doppelganger with sympathy in her voice. “I’m so sorry. Even I’m having a difficult time trying to imagine myself ever turning against you and going down a dark path.”
“Terrible mistakes were made on both sides,” Other Celestia said sadly. “But much of the blame falls to me. As ruler of Equestria, aunt to Cadance, and mentor to… Twilight, I had responsibility. To guide them, to look after them, and to care for them. But now I’ve lost them all because of one foolish mistake. If I had been more observant and listened to my student, Cadance would still be here and I wouldn’t be fighting this terrible war with my former student.”
“A few of the same mistakes were made in my world, but everything turned out fine,” Twilight said. “Cadance and Shining Armor are married with a baby on the way. But despite what happened in this world, it’s still not right what the other me is doing and she needs to be stopped.”
“I assume you have a plan since you sent your Shining Armor to our world to ask for our assistance,” Rarity guessed.
“Indeed,” Other Celestia replied. “I believe the best way to stop her is extinguish the darkness from her heart. But to do that, we need the Elements of Harmony.”
“Well that’s a BIG problem, because in our world we gave up the Elements to save Equestria from some nasty thorns Discord planted a long time ago,” Pinkie said discouraged.
“What about the Elements of this world, do they still exist?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, they do,” Other Celestia answered. “However, you may find that they may not be very useful.”
Sometime later, Other Celestia and Luna led the Mane Six to the Element chamber in the castle. When they presented the Elements to the six heroes, they were shocked and surprised to see that the Elements had taken on an unusual and disturbingly grayish color.
“What happened to the Elements?” a shocked Twilight asked.
“Why are they such a grayish color?” Rarity also asked.
“It is because they’ve lost their power,” Other Celestia explained.
“They are now as useless as a fireplace during a hot summer day,” Other Luna added.
“How could this have happened?” Applejack asked.
“According to rumors from Ponyville,” Other Celestia explained some more. “Some time after the failed mission to the Crystal Empire, things weren’t well with our Twilight’s former friends. We heard that they started frequently getting into arguments and blaming one another for the recent events. Eventually things got so bad between them that they all left Ponyville and went their separate ways.”
“That’s awful,” Fluttershy said.
“And without their friendship, the Elements lost all their power,” Other Celestia added. “They were our last hope of putting an end to this, but now they’re just relics. Only somepony as smart as Twilight could be able to remedy this.”
“But because your Twilight has turned on you, you needed to find another Twilight to do this task,” Twilight deduced. “You discovered the possibility of alternate worlds, with alternate Equestrias, and possibly alternate Twilights. So you sent your Shining Armor to find one that had not been corrupted.”
“I’m glad to see your knack for figuring things out is something you share with our Twilight,” Other Celestia warmly congratulated.
“So what you’re saying is that there are many different versions of me in the multiverse?” Pinkie asked.
“It’s a possibility, Pinkie,” Twilight answered.
“YAY! I can throw a huge party with many different Pinkies!”
“After that Mirror Pool incident, ah’m in no hurry to deal with multiple Pinkies again anytime soon,” Applejack said.
“Well, no matter how many versions of me there are, I doubt any of them will be faster than me,” Rainbow Dash boasted.
“If I could meet other versions of myself, we could create the most stylish outfits have seen in this or any other world,” Rarity fantasized.
“There is only one Rarity for me,” Spike said blushing and earning a look of gratitude from the mare he loved.
“Focus girls,” Twilight snapped her friends back to the task at hoof. “We need to restore the Elements of Harmony.” Then each of them put on their respective Element. “Ready girls?”
“Ready!” they all confirmed.
“Friendship is Magic!” they all chanted in unison. Nothing happened.
“Wow! The Elements really are out of juice if that doesn’t make them light up,” a disappointed Pinkie said.
“I don’t understand,” a confused Rarity said. “We’re all here and we’re all friends, so why aren’t the Elements working?”
“I think I might have a theory,” Twilight replied. “Different universe, different Elements.”
“What does that mean?” Rainbow asked.
“It means that the Elements of another universe probably work differently than the ones from ours. Like they might only work with the ponies from their respective universe,” Twilight explained. Then she turned to Other Celestia. “What happened to the friends of the other me?”
“Sometime after the failed mission to the Crystal Empire, they suddenly split up and left Ponyville going their separate ways,” Other Celestia sadly explained.
“We don’t know why they left or where they have gone to,” Other Luna added.
“Perhaps some residents of Ponyville might know where they went,” AJ suggested.
“Then it’s settled,” Twilight confirmed. “Girls, we must go to Ponyville and ask the ponies there if they know where our counterparts are. If we’re going to have any chance of fixing the Elements and saving this world, we’ll need their help.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?!” an excited Rainbow said. “Let’s go!” All the other members of the Main 6 agreed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back with help,” Twilight promised the princesses.
“Please stay safe,” a concerned Other Celestia said. “My heart can’t bear to lose my faithful student again.” Then both she and Twilight exchanged warm hugs.
“Alright, off to Ponyville,” Twilight announced to her friends to which they all cheered with determination and excitement. Then they all set to head for the Ponyville of this dark version of the world. What surprises awaited them? What challenges? What dangers?
“I wonder how much the town has changed in this world,” a curious Fluttershy wondered.