Back in the main world's Canterlot Castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle was rubbing her head in exasperation. She was currently sitting in Celestia's workroom, looking over the damage reports from the battle earlier that day. Fortunately, they weren't as bad as she expected, but that didn't do much to improve her mood. With Celestia and Cadence still missing and Luna still recovering, she was the only princess to handle these kind of things until the others were found. And in order to keep up an image of normality throughout Equestria, she had to, and that meant working like never before. Not to mention she also had to send Spike and the other half of the Mane 6 to the Crystal Empire to keep them from panicking about the disappearance of their ruler. That, combined with her concern of her disappeared friends' whereabouts caused her the biggest headache she had in quite some time.
"Celestia, how much I wish this was just another test of yours." she sighed, raising another paper in front of her after finishing with the previous one. Her work was interrupted, when the door was slammed open and Starlight and Trixie rushed in. Twilight was so surprised and overwhelmed with work that she didn't even notice the bright grins on their faces.
"Girls, unless it's good news, I don't want to hear it." she groaned.
"Very good news!" Starlight beamed. "We found them!" Twilight's eyes widened.
"Y-You have?! Well, where are they?!"
"In a mirror universe." Starlight answered. "We don't know how they got there yet, but we have an idea how to bring them back." Twilight grinned so wide that it would have put Pinkie Pie to shame. This was the first good news she's heard all they.
"I'll call the girls back from the Empire and once they are back we can leave right away!" she was about to spring out of her chair, but Starlight stopped her.
"No need. We're not going after them." Twilight was dumbstruck by this.
"What? Well, how are we bringing them back then?" Starlight looked like she was struggling with her next sentence.
"As much as I hate to admit it, the credit goes to Trixie for the solution." Trixie smiled proudly before she began to explain.
"We'll use the crystal mirror and pull them back into our world. It's not gonna be easy, but the three of us can get it done." Trixie explained. Twilight thought about this for a few seconds.
"No risk to an away team." she concluded with a small smile. "Good thinking, Trixie. I'll get the crystal mirror ready. Meanwhile, you try to locate their position as specifically as possible. That's gonna make this much easier." Trixie and Starlight nodded and left to finish their work.
In the Unfriendship world, Insurgency Celestia and the main world's ponies were making their way through the Eveefree Forest. If it was possible, it looked even more unwelcoming than it did in their world. Through they probably shouldn't have been that surprised about this, it fit in well with the rest of this world.
"And I thought our Eveefree Forest was creepy." Rainbow Dash complained. Applejack who was walking next to her turned to her with a teasing smile.
"What's wrong, Dashie? Ah didn' reckon you as the type who gets scared so easily." Rainbow Dash shot her a light glare.
"Me? Scared? In your dreams, AJ. I just..." she was interrupted by a wolfish howl in the distance, which made her jump and embrace the farm pony next to her, until she realized what she was doing and quickly jumped away from her. Applejack chuckled
"It's okay, sugarcube. Ya can hold mah hoof if you wanna." she said with a wink. Rainbow just groaned.
"Couldn't your agents just deliver this thing directly to you?" she asked Insurgency Celestia.
"No. There was too much of a risk that Twilight's agents might have been following them and that would have given away the location of our headquarters." she explained. "Sadly, it ended up being the right call. After they hid it in the ruins of the old castle they were ambushed by Regime forces that were tailing them. The device was hidden by a very special magical seal only I know how to unlock. But even so, they refused to tell them why they were out here. They were all executed and..." she then stopped.
"And what?" Applejack asked, but when she looked at the spot where Insurgency Celestia was looking, she got her answer. Right in front of them, were a bunch of pony corpses impaled on spikes standing out from the ground.
"...and left here as deterrence." Insurgency Celestia finished. The four other ponies stared at the sight in horror. But Applejack's horror was perhaps the biggest as she recognized the clothing of one of the bodies.
"Is... Is that Braeburn?" she stuttered. Celestia grimly nodded.
"Yes. He and a group of other Apples were tasked with hiding my anti-alicorn device out here. They remained defiant to the end." the next pony to get over his horror was Shining Armor.
"Twi... Twilight did this?" he asked. Insurgency Celestia could barely bring herself to answer.
"She interrogated them personally and killed them when they refused to talk. They were left here like this on her order." Shining couldn't fathom what he was hearing. Cadence noticed the distress of her husband and put a hoof on his shoulder.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"I'm fine. It's just..." he was struggling to find the right words. "I... I still can't believe that Twily could possibly lose it this bad. Even with what Chrysalis did. I just can't see my little sister becoming this... this monster!" no one understood his disbelief better than Insurgency Celestia. But they didn't know the full story yet, so they couldn't possibly understand it yet.
"I share your sentiments Shining Armor, but I'm afraid there's more to it than what you know." they all looked up at her.
"What do you mean?" Shining asked. Celestia sighed.
"The way Twilight sees it, it was her who destroyed Canterlot all those years ago." the other ponies had a hard time wrapping their minds around this.
"How is that?" asked Shining.
"The librarian in the Crystal Empire told me that Chrysalis tricked Twilight into killing her parents and that Canterlot was destroyed in the process, but I still don't really see the connection." Cadence said.
"Chrysalis foalnapped Night Light and Twilight Velvet and somehow used her shape-shifting magic to give them the looks of changelings. Twilight believed she was fighting changelings, but they were her parents." insurgency Celestia allowed the information to sink in for the other four ponies before she continued. "She connected the crystal bomb she set up beneath Canterlot to their life forces. When they died, Canterlot died with them." out of everything the main world ponies learned about this world in the past few hours, this had to be by far the most horrific.
"This... this is monstrous. Even by Chrysalis' standards." Cadence said. The others couldn't help but agree. Especially Applejack. Her whole life was all about her family. For somepony to do this to another pony's family... she couldn't imagine anything more evil.
"I think I can see why Twilight cracked now." Rainbow Dash added. "This can't be easy to deal with." though maybe "can't be possible" would have been a better way to put it. Insurgency Celestia decided it was time to move on.
"Let us move. We're almost there." she said, walking past the spikes. The others - after a brief moment of disgust upon passing the spikes that held the bodies - followed. "I'm sorry you had to see this, Applejack." Insurgency Celestia told the cowpony.
"Ya have nothin' to apologize for, sugarcube. Those Apples died on their hooves fightin' the good fight. Which is more that can be said about mah counterpart." she said bitterly. If anything, this made her even angrier with her actions. And determined to put an end to Twilight's rule in this world.
After walking for a couple of more minutes, they finally reached the ruined castle, but to their dismay, they saw that it was surrounded by a magical barrier.
"Please tell me you put this up to keep Twilight's forces away." Rainbow Dash said to Insurgency Celestia.
"I wish I could, but this was actually put up by Twilight herself to keep me away from what we're here for." she replied. Even now, she had to give her former student credit for ingenuity. She couldn't possibly obtain what she had hidden inside, so she tried to keep her from getting it. Not that she wasn't prepared for it.
"So how are we getting past that?" Shining Armor asked.
"I may have been severely depowered, but with Cadence's help, I could still create a hole in the barrier that you three could get through." she told him, before pulling out a crystal and giving it to the unicorn stallion. "Once you're inside, use your magic on this crystal. It contains a spell that will neutralize the barrier." Shining nodded and took the crystal. The group walked up to the barrier and Insurgency Celestia signaled to Cadence to get into position and the two alicorns blasted the barrier, which resisted for a while, but eventually, a hole was opened in it and the three other ponies walked through it. After they were inside, Insurgency Celestia stopped the spell and the hole was closed.
"Stay on your guard!" she warned from outside. "I would be surprised if this was the only obstacle Twilight set up." the three ponies inside nodded and headed towards the ruined castle.
They were cautiously making their way towards the entrance, but they couldn't see anything they should look out for.
"Ahm tellin' ya, it's clear!" Applejack told them. "We should just go in an' use that crystal alre..." she was interrupted by a large treetrunk that crashed into her and knocked her out.
"AJ!" Rainbow screamed.
"What in Faust's name was..." Shining looked into the direction where the trunk came from just in time to avoid another one that was headed his way. He and Rainbow quickly ran up to see what was happening and were greeted by a surprising sight. At the entrance of the castle was none other than Regime Big Macintosh, kicking torn out tree trunks into their direction.
"Big Mac?" Rainbow asked in shock. "I thought the Apples were on Celestia's side!"
"Twilight widened his perspective." came another voice from behind the massive stallion. A much smaller and younger female Pegasus jumped on Regime Big Mac's back. Shining and Rainbow narrowed their eyes upon recognizing her.
"Cozy Glow." Shining Armor growled. The grey pegasus smiled viciously.
"Crush, Big Mac!" she yelled and the stallion rushed towards the two main world ponies. Rainbow flew up and quickly flew at Regime Cozy Glow, grabbing her and carrying her off into the air.
Meanwhile, Shining was busy with the brainwashed Stallion. Needles to say, he was much stronger than him, so he had to keep his distance and fire blasts at Regime Big Mac. Naturally, due to the Earth Pony's massive strength, most of his spells just bounced off of him, so Shining was forced to change tactics. As he backed away, he stepped on something and upon turning around, he saw it was one of the tree trunks Regime Mac thrown at him. He picked it up with his magic.
"Alright, big guy, let's how you can handle this!" He then swung the trunk at his opponent and it did manage to hit him with such an impact that it broke. Shining Armor put on a triumphant smirk as he heard the crash, but his sense of triumph was short loved as he looked and saw that Regime Big Mac merely stumbled back without even collapsing. And now he looked really pissed off.
"Oh, horseapples."
Regime Big Mac quickly ran up to Shining and pulled him into wrapped his forehooves around him with crushing strength. Shining struggled to get free but Regime Big Mac was just too strong. Shining started looking around for anything that might help and saw the tree trunks Regime Mac has been bucking towards them lying on the top of the hill put on each other.
He fired a blast at them and they started rolling down the hill. Regime Big Mac didn't notice any of it until they were rolling under his hooves and made him lose his balance as well as his grip on Shining Armor. The unicorn teleported out of the way and Regime Big Mac rolled down the hill in the tree trunks until they crashed into one of still standing trees at the bottom.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Shining said before running off to help Rainbow Dash. Said Pegasus was busy chasing Regime Cozy Glow who managed to break free of her grip. Of course, being the fastest flyer in Equestria, she would have easily caught her, but everytime she tried to grab her, she did a turn so suddenly that it threw Rainbow off course and she needed a few moments to gather herself and locate the younger Pegasus again.
"Over here, Rainbow Crash!" Regime Cozy called, waving at her from afar. Rainbow glared.
"You did not just call me that!" she snarled, flying at her at full speed, but right before she caught her, Regime Cozy flew up and Rainbow ended up crashing into a tree she did not see was there in the darkness. She slowly slid down to the ground on the tree trunk. Regime Cozy laughed.
"If your brain worked as fast as your wings, you would be smarter than Twilight!" she mocked, flying back to the ground. "By now, Big Mac is no doubt finished with that moronic unicorn." she said as she turned away, but was shocked when she walked starlight into Shining Armor himself.
"Think again, you brat." he said, grabbing Regime Cozy Glow with a telekinetic grasp. "If you are anything like my world's Cozy Glow, then you have long since been needing an overdue spanking!" Regime Cozy's eyes widened as Shining turned her around in the air and raised his forehoof before it made a sharp connection with her backside. That continued for a minute, accompanied by the pained cries of the young Pegasus, then Shining lowered her to the ground and casted a knockout spell on her.
After he was done, he noticed Rainbow Dash has recovered and come to. "Go and help Applejack, I'll disperse the barrier." Rainbow nodded and walked off. Shining took out the crystal Celestia gave her and activated it with her magic. The crystal started vibrating and a white beam shot out of it towards the sky, wiping away the barrier as it made contact with it.
Once the task was done, Shining went to join the others. Rainbow Dash pulled Applejack out from the tree trunk that hit her and managed to shake her awake by the time the alicorns and Shining arrived.
"Anypony got the number o' that cart?" Applejack asked, still groggy.
"That was a tree trunk, AJ." Rainbow Dash told her. "I think it's safe to say you're only alive thanks to the alicorn pill."
"A tree trunk?" Insurgency Celestia asked. "What exactly happened here?"
"We had a run in with Cozy Glow and Big Macintosh." Shining answered.
"Big Mac is here?!" Applejack asked in shock, turning to the alicorn. "Ah thought you said the Apples were with you! Besides mah counterpart."
"Big Macintosh has been captured a few months ago during an operation to steal a supply of alicorn pills from the Regime." Insurgency Celestia answered. "If he was coerced, that means Twilight has perfected her mind control spell. We have to hurry and take her down as quickly as possible. If she manage to brainwash all of her political prisoners into supporting her, the Insurgency is truly done for!" she concluded.
"Couldn't ya undo the spell and free him?" Applejack pleaded. But Insurgency Celestia's sad expression answered her.
"If I was at full strength, I could do it without a problem, but in my depowered state, it is beyond my power at the moment. I'm sorry." Applejack hung her head in disappointment. "But now we must move and get the device. It won't be long before Twilight knows we're here." Insurgency Celestia made her way inside the ruins, but the four main world ponies shared another concerned look before following her. None of them wanted to admit it, but they were all scared of what else this world could throw at them.
Back in Canterlot, Insurgency Sombra was in his kitchen making a drink for himself after his exhausting conversation with Insurgency Sunset Shimmer. The yellow unicorn finally agreed to help the insurgents, but she made it clear that alignment will only last until she has gotten revenge on the Regime. And Insurgency Sombra really could have used a drink after the discussion with the troublesome mare.
Speaking of troublesome mares...
"Your Highness!" Insurgency Sombra jumped in surprise when he saw Regime Twilight standing in front of him. "I beg your pardon, I did not hear you enter." Regime Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Why so jumpy, Sombra? Do you have a bad conscience?" she asked in suspicion? Insurgency Sombra tried to keep his cool as much as he could.
"Of course not, your highness! I merely did not expect you to honor me with a visit. I was just making a drink for myself. Would you fancy one as well? I could even make one of those Daisy Sandwiches you love so much." he offered. Regime Twilight's cold expression didn't soften. She wasn't buying it for a second.
"Thank you, but I won't be staying for long. This is not a friendly visit. I'm here on business."
"Of course you are." Regime Twilight ignored that remark. She summoned a bunch of vials and gave them to Insurgency Sombra.
"These are samples of blood, tissue and other kinds from the alternate Celestia I'm holding in Ponyville. I would like you to use them to find a way to locate where our Celestia is hiding. I would do it myself, but my duties with leading the Regime barely leave me any time for scientific research. But I believe you are more than capable to handle this task."
Insurgency Sombra immediately realized what Regime Twilight was up to. Of course she could do it herself. Hay, she probably already did. But Insurgency Sombra knew Regime Twilight didn't trust him. This wasnt about finding their Celestia. It was about rooting out a traitor. Regime Twilight was expecting him to deliver fake results. That would be more enough reason to execute him. She knew Insurgency Sombra was going to make a mistake sooner or later. And even he was starting to realize this. He had no idea how much longer he can keep up this charade.
"I will see what I can do. But it will probably take some time before I have anything conclusive." he responded finally. Regime Twilight didn't seem particularly disappointed.
"You will figure something out, Sombra." she replied before turning away to leave. "After all, you always find your way out of everything." she added ominously. She was halfway to the door, before she suddenly stopped.
"Is something wrong, Your Highness?" Regime Twilight stood there for a moment before answering.
"These... doppelgängers... I heard there was a Shining Armor among them." she started softly. "Do you think there's a Twilight where they came from? One who... never lost her family?" Insurgency Sombra quickly realized what twisted thing just emerged in the Empress' mind and he could only hope he would be able to talk her out of it. Regardless, what he said next was the most sincere thing he said to Regime Twilight in the past five years.
"There is only one Twilight. And she only had one family." he said. Regime Twilight thought about this for a few moments before she finally left. Insurgency Sombra stared at the closed door she walked out on, deep in thoughts. He felt like he was going to have to make that mistake sooner rather than later.
'My love, please forgive me for what I'm about to do.'
Insurgency Celestia and the main world ponies entered the throne room of the ruined castle. As they looked around, they felt more and more doubtful about their mission.
"Ah remember that me an' the girls explored these ruins quite thoroughly in our world." Applejack stated. "Ya sure Twilight didn' find this device o' yours?"
"I developed a spell that requires five very specific ponies to unlock the vault that contains it." Insurgency Celestia answered. "She couldn't have possibly found what we're here for."
"Twilight prides herself in being the master of spells." Shining Armor replied. "What kind of spell we're talking about exactly?" Insurgency Celestia sighed. This was a story she never told anypony, but since she finally was about to put this plan in motion, she might as well tell them.
"After Sunset Shimmer's fall from grace, I had to be prepared if another of my students would go astray. When Twilight became a princess, I knew there was a possibility that power might corrupt her one day. So I designed this spell to remove Twilight's alicorn powers in case we ever needed it."
"Why did you wait until Twilight depowered you before using using the spell?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I intended this spell to be an absolute last resort. And then Twilight depowered me, so now I need this device as well. Not to mention that robbing Twilight, the biggest defender of Equestria of her alicorn abilities was not a call I could make alone. So I protected this vault with a safety barrier that can only be shut down by the essence of Twilight's closest allies. Her mentor, her brother, her sister-in-law, and her two closest friends."
"Our counterparts from this world." Cadence realized. "So that's why you needed to bring us over." Insurgency Celestia nodded.
"But with my Shining Armor dead and the others backing up Twilight's insanity, I needed you four. Your matching essences to be precise."
"But wait!" Shining Armor interrupted. "You said the insurgents hid this device inside the vault after my counterpart died five years ago. So how could they open it?"
"I need your essence to shut down the barrier and remove what's inside the vault." Insurgency Celestia explained. "I provided them with enough magical energy to open the vault and place the device inside, but they still would have needed you to get it out." Shining nodded. That actually made sense.
They all understood now. And they all knew what they had to do. They turned to the white alicorn with determined looks on their faces.
"We're ready." Shining Armor declared. Insurgency Celestia turned away from them and used her magic to summon five small stone formations out of the floor. They were only as tall as her legs. All of them were in different colors.
"Put your hooves on them." Insurgency Celestia instructed, while placing her hoof on the top of the white stone. The main world ponies did as they were told. Applejack took the orange, Rainbow Dash took the blue, Cadence took the pink and Shining took the...
"Yellow?" he asked in confusion. Insurgency Celestia shrugged.
"White was already taken, so I went with the color of the armor of my royal guard for yours."
"Wouldn't yellow make more sense to you? I mean... You're the alicorn of the sun?" Shining pointed out. The others were growing annoyed by this.
"Shiny, just roll with it." Cadence admonished. Shining sighed and placed his hoof on the stone. After a few seconds the center of the room in the middle of the circle of stones began glowing with bright white light and the floor opened. Insurgency Celestia went and took out a large saddlebag from the hole. She opened it to see the scroll that contained the spell, the crystal that contained the necessary magical energy and the device they needed to bult into Sombra's armor that will channel it into her body inside it. They had what they came for.
"This is it." she told the others as she placed the saddlebag on her back. "Let's go."
"You're not going anywhere, except for the nearest Regime prison." the five ponies jumped in surprise to see that the exit was blocked by Regime Rainbow Dash and Regime Blueblood. They also managed to wake up Regime Cozy Glow and Regime Big Mac. "Calling over your doppelgänger was a mistake, Celestia. Twilight managed to track you down to the Everfree Forest by studying her. And when we heard about the barrier over these ruins going down, it didn't take long to connect the dots. Now, what do you say we skip the part where we beat the tar out of you and you just surrender?" Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes.
"Really, Rainbow Dash, I've been fighting against your Regime for five years and sacrificed too much. Do you honestly think I will stop now?" Regime Dash grinned.
"I was hoping you'd say that." she then turned to the other Regime ponies. "I'll take the Shining Armor lookalike, the rest are yours. For some reason, Twilight wants him alive. Try to take the others alive too, but if you can't, it doesn't matter." and with that, she flew at the unicorn stallion and tackled him to the ground. He teleported out from under her and reappeared above her, dropping down at her, but she noticed him and time and flew out from under him. Shining tried to blast her with a spell, but she was too fast. She got behind him and grabbed him from behind, but after some struggling, he managed to buck her away. He then turned to her as she tried to recover from the kick.
"Why does your Twilight want me?" Regime Rainbow shrugged.
"Beats me. Our Shining Armor was always a useless moron. But it doesn't really matter. Twilight wants you alive. And what she wants, she gets." she darted at Shining again and tried to strike him with her hooves, but he countered with her hooves, pushing back. They were locked in this struggle for a few moments, then Shining started charging up his horn. Regime Rainbow was still trying to push him away and she didn't notice what he was about to do. Shining then released a powerful blast that knocked Regime Rainbow back against a wall, knocking her out.
"And our Rainbow Dash is faster. She would have seen this coming from a mile away." he then ran off to join the others. The battle was going in the favor of the insurgents. Regime Big Mac and Regime Cozy were already knocked out again, they couldn't last long with their injuries from the previous fight. The only one left standing was Regime Blueblood who now found himself surrounded by five ponies.
"Yer outnumbered 5 to 1, Blueblood." Applejack said. "It's over." Regime Blueblood just scoffed.
"Oh, please. Do you think two depowered alicorns, a tomboy Pegasus, a farmer and a guard is enough to stand against somepony of my status?" the other ponies didn't take his threat seriously at all, but Shining Armor suddenly noticed that the prince was channeling a huge amount of magic into his horn.
"Everypony look out! He's..." but his warning came late. Regime Blueblood released a huge blast that spread over across the whole throne room and incapacitated the insurgents, with the exception of Shining, who managed to summon a shield spell just in time. This was not good. Apparently, this Blueblood could actually back up his boasting.
"1 on 1 is much better odds, wouldn't you agree?" Regime Blueblood asked mockingly. Shining Armor glared at him.
"Maybe, if that 1 against you wasn't me. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Quality over quantity'? When I was still living in Canterlot, I always wanted to break in your smug face. I can't believe I finally get the chance."
The duel of the two unicorn stallions was short, but fierce. This Blueblood was much stronger than the one from Shining's world. And he didn't mind getting his hooves dirty either. He actually managed to surprise Shining at one point by throwing a punch at him when he got close enough. And no matter how hard he was trying, he couldn't overpower his magic. Shining was quickly forced into defense.
'Just when I thought this world is out of surprises, it pulls something else out of it's sleeves. Now we have Blueblood who actually practices magic that's befitting his Prince status and far above mine.' Shining panicked, but only in his thoughts. There was no way he'll give the stick up prince the satisfaction of seeing it on his face.
"Why don't you save yourself from further embarrassment and just give up? I already got your friends. What hope have you on your own?" Regime Blueblood mocked while advancing on Shining . Shining gritted his teeth. He waited until Regime Blueblood reached him.
"I told you..." he started just as Regime Blueblood was face to face with him. "...quality over quantity!" Shining yelled as he spun around and bucked Regime Blueblood in the face with all his might. This time, it was the prince who was caught off guard by the physical attack and after Shining's backhooves made contact with his head, he was out cold.
"Good night, sweet prick." Shining sneered before he went to check on the others. All of them came to by the time their fight was over. Shining helped up Cadence while Insurgency Celestia took off her saddlebag and checked on the device. Her fears have been confirmed. It took heavy damage from Blueblood's spell. Her hooves started shaking in anger and in a rather unprincesslike moment, she punched the floor in anger.
"FAUST DAMN IT TO TARTARUS!" she hollered. The main world ponies jumped in fright and ran to see what was the problem. When they saw the damaged thing, they all knew what riled up Insurgency Celestia so much.
"Can it be fixed?" Applejack asked.
"Thankfully, the scroll describing my spell and the crystal containing the magical energy are intact, but the device that was supposed to channel the energy it needs to be unleashed into me is beyond repair." Insurgency Celestia stated sadly. "Even with Sombra's connections within the Regime, we don't have time to get new parts to repair it now that Twilight has means of tracking us down." the main world ponies looked at each other. They couldn't accept that all their work was for nothing.
"We should get some more help then." Shining suggested. Cadence nodded.
"If we do not have the power to fix the device and unleash this spell. Then we need to get somepony who has the knowledge how to." she added. Insurgency Celestia narrowed her eyes in contemplation. She wasn't fond of the idea of pulling another pony over from their world. She had already put them in enough danger as it is. But if she didn't do this, then they have already lost and the past five years of fighting and sacrifices have been for nothing.
Eventually, she begrudgingly realized that they were right. They're going to need somepony with enough knowledge about alicorn magic to help with fixing the device. And she already knew just who that pony could be.