After the dust has settled, the ponies gathered around the table in the war room and listened as Regime Fluttershy turned Insurgency Fluttershy filled them in on what Regime Twilight was planning. They could hardly believe their ears.
"Rarity... She... She killed her?" Applejack asked in horror. She knew this was not the Rarity she knew and loved from her world, but it was still almost a soul-crushing revelation. Shining Armor was even more reviled.
"This... This is insane! I... I can't believe she would do this. Not Twily." he wondered if he would ever be able to look at his Twilight in the same way ever again after what he's seen in this world. Insurgency Fluttershy could only look at her in compassion and sorrow.
"Believe it. By morning, Ponyville and Canterlot will be wiped off of the face of the planet. And then she is going after your world." The other ponies could only stare in stunned silence. Insurgency Celestia was the first one who found her voice.
"I knew she went off the deep end but even I wouldn't have expected this." she lamented. Regime Twilight has become a bigger threat than Nightmare Moon, Discord and Chrysalis combined. No matter how many times she witnessed just how much her former student had fallen, it never started hurting any less.
"This has gone on long enough!" Rainbow Dash yelled, slamming her hooves on the table. "We have to stop her!" All the ponies around the table shared her opinion. They looked at each other with determined looks on their faces. They all knew that this was going to be Insurgency's last stand against the Regime. Everything will be decided at dawn.
Insurgency Celestia was deeply touched by their devotion. She saw that they were all ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for a world that wasn't even their own. But she knew that this was something she couldn't possibly ask of them. With a heavy heart, she knew she had to turn them away.
"No." she said bluntly, making everypony in the room turn to her. "I have to stop her or die trying. I cannot possibly ask you to throw your lives away for a world that's not even your own."
"Don't ya give us that!" Applejack snapped. "Ah did not become an element of harmony by walking away from world threatening disasters!"
"Neither did I!" Rainbow Dash added. "We're in this together! Until the end!"
"I made an oath to keep Equestria and all of it's ponies safe and I'm sure my counterpart did too." Shining Armor joined in. "The fact that this is another Equestria and not mine makes no difference! He can't be here to fight this battle, I will have to do it in his name."
"Sombra sacrificed himself to free Equestria from Twilight's oppression!" Cadance joined in with the same level of determination as her husband. "We're not going to dishonor that by leaving!"
"I told you already! I'll help anyway I can!" Starlight exclaimed. "The fact that this is not our Equestria won't stop me from doing what's right!" But Insurgency Celestia just shook her head.
"I appreciate your devotion, but my answer is still no. I brought you here to get my anti-alicorn device and that plan failed. I'm sending you home and then I'll destroy every document of my interuniversal traveling spell. Also, our crystal mirror was destroyed along with Canterlot five years ago so you won't have to worry about her following her through that either." the other ponies didn't look convinced.
"Do you think that's going to stop her from coming over?" Shining Armor asked. "You of all ponies should know that once Twilight sets her mind on something, no force in Heaven or Equus will be able to stop her. She will find another way!"
"Of course it won't stop her." Insurgency Celestia shook her head sadly. "But it will buy you time to prepare." the main world ponies weren't having any of it.
"And what about you?!" Rainbow Dash asked. "You cannot face the entire Regime alone. Especially in your depowered state. You'll need us." Insurgency Celestia remained silent for a few seconds before answering.
"Contrary to popular belief, even Princess Celestia isn't invincible. I cannot win every battle. I have been fighting for years. Perhaps my time has come to finally make my final stand and give my life for Equestria." she replied on a hopeless tone. Nopony around her could say anything. This was not the Celestia they knew. Clearly her years of fighting the Regime have finally gotten to her. But nopony was more stunned by her words than her counterpart from the main world. Princess Celestia was silent until now, but she decided that this was the part where she could no longer hold her voice.
"Princess Celestia does not speak like that." she admonished her counterpart sternly. Insurgency Celestia just looked at her dryly.
"I'm not exactly a princess anymore in case you didn't get the memo."
"That doesn't matter!" Princess Celestia replied firmly. "I may still not fully understand this world, but there are still millions of ponies out there who are counting on you and the Insurgency to fight for them! You cannot let them down! Princess or not, Celestia does not succumb even to death as long as there are ponies in Equestria to protect!" Insurgency Celestia's mood didn't change.
"And how would you have me do that?" she asked dully. "Like Rainbow Dash said, I cannot fight the Regime by myself. Even with all of you and the Insurgency, we're still badly outnumbered. And with Twilight's depowering spell, we can't fight her on equal grounds." But Princess Celestia had a solution to that.
"We may not. But I know somepony who can." this got everypony's attention in the room. "I have come to realize that the magical effects of this world are affecting us in correspondence with our counterparts. Twilight's depowering spell has taken it's hold on both me and Cadence, but there is somepony Twilight can't use it on without a drawback: herself. More specifically, her counterpart from our world. If we bring her over, the Empress Twilight can't use that spell without also significantly weakening herself. She is the key of finishing this fight." the ponies around her seemed to like that idea, except for Insurgency Celestia, who quite understandably had strong reservations about it.
"One Twilight Sparkle in this world is enough." she told her counterpart sharply.
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash snapped. "Our Twilight is nothing like your Empress!" she knew Insurgency Celestia didn't mean to offend her Twilight, but it was in her nature to defend any of her friends.
"She's right, Celestia." Cadence added on a more reassuring tone. "You shouldn't let your emotions cloud your judgement. Especially not when so much is at stake."
Before Insurgency Celestia could reply, the room was shook by a deafening explosion as the walls crumbled. The room was soon filled with ponies wearing dark blue military suits and black ski masks with a white skull painted over them and they were also carrying strange looking weapons in their forehooves. Insurgency Celestia widened her eyes and took a step back when she recognized them. An action that didn't go unnoticed by her allies.
"I take it you know these guys." Rainbow Dash said nervously as the ponies in front of them pointed their weapons at them.
"Exterminators. The Regime's elite death squads." Insurgency Celestia explained. "Armed with Twilight's revolutionary new weapons called firearms. They kill instantly."
"So why aren't they killing us?" asked Shining Armor.
"They're like dogs. Only attacking on order." Insurgency Celestia sneered with disgust.
"Don't worry, Celestia. I don't keep my clients waiting for long." said a female voice. The Exterminators stepped aside and a pegasus pony stepped forward, removing her mask to reveal Regime Lightning Dust.
"You!" sneered Rainbow Dash. Regime Lightning Dust smirked triumphantly.
"I still hate my Rainbow Dash just as much as always, but since she's my superior now, I can't take a shot at her. So I will have to settle for you, but if it's any consolation, I will enjoy killing you just as much as if you were my Dash." she then aimed her rifle at the blue pegasus. "FIRE!"
The Exterminators all started shooting, but Insurgency Celestia raised a magical barrier around her allies that protected them from the bullets.
"Shockwave! Now!" she yelled behind her. Princess Celestia and Cadence followed her instructions and prepared a magical shockwave that sent their enemies flying all across the room. With the Exterminators down, the insurgents ran to gather and destroy their weapons. The odds have been evened.
Rainbow Dash was about to grab a rifle, but Regime Lightning Dust was quicker and snatched it from the ground before she could. Regime Lightning turned around in the air and tried to shoot Rainbow, but the blue pegasus wasn't considered the fastest flier in Equestria for nothing. She kept dodging the bullets in the air and Regime Lightning was so preoccupied with trying to take aim at her that she couldn't keep her distance. Rainbow managed to catch up with her and grab her weapon. She tore it out of Regime Lightning's grasp and bashed her in the face with it. Regime Lightning crashed into the floor and when she got up, she saw Rainbow Dash aiming her own rifle at her.
"How's it feel to be on the other side of the instant death weapon?" she asked mockingly. But Regime Lightning just chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"Don't make me laugh. Do you even know how to use that?" Rainbow growled. Regime Lightning just called her bluff. In the end, she decided to just break the rifle and throw it away.
"I don't need to. There are still some ponies who have the guts to face their enemies head on. What do you say Lightning? Wanna go a round in classic Wonderbolt style? For old times' sake?" Regime Lightning cracked her neck and banged her forehooves together.
"Bring it!"
The two pegasi flew at each other at full speed, resulting in a head on collision that sent a sonic blast through the room. It sent both of them into a spin in the air, but just like at the academy, Regime Lightning was faster to recover from it. She flew at Rainbow from above and slammed her into the ground. She then punched Rainbow across the face several times, before picking her up and throwing her across the room.
She then flew at Rainbow again, but the blue pegasus managed to recover enough to get out of the way. Regime Lightning's hoof hit only the floor and it got stuck. Rainbow then began to fly in circles around her, creating a mini tornado that raised Regime Lignting into the air. It was so strong that she couldn't escape it. Dash than flew up to her, grabbed her by the shoulders and spun around at an incredibly high speed before throwing Regime Lightning into the ground.
"And now, for the finishing blow..." Rainbow said, preparing for the final attack. She pulled back one of her hooves and flew down towards Regime Lightning at full speed to deliver the final hit, but when she brought her hoof forward, she was baffled to find that instead of Regime Lightning, all it hit was a cloud.
"Huh?" Rainbow stared at the cloud in confusion before turning away to look around and her eyes widened in shock. She didn't know how it was possible, but she was no longer at the Insurgency's HQ.
"I'm... I'm in Cloudsdale?!" she exclaimed in surprise. "How... how did I get here?!"
"Please don't tell me you actually believe you're fast enough to fly all the way over here from Celestia's place under a millisecond." spoke a familiar voice. Rainbow spun around, only to see Insurgency Discord chilling on a cloud. Her eyes narrowed when she saw him.
"You! I don't know what stupid game you're playing again, Discord, but I'm having none of it! Send me back to my friends right now!" Rainbow demanded. Insurgency Discord threw his hands up in an attempt to calm her.
"Whoa, whoa! Hold your horses, Dashie." he said, giggling at his own joke. "Your friends will be..." before he could finish, Rainbow flew up to him and punched him across the face, much to his surprise.
"Only my friends can call me that!" she roared in his face. "Now send me back to them!" Insurgency Discord grasped his chest with a hurt expression.
"You wound me, Dash. After everything we've been through..." Rainbow just punched him in the face again.
"We?! The last time I met my Discord he was helping my world's Sombra attacking Canterlot! So forgive me if I'm..."
"WILL YOU CALM DOWN AND JUST LISTEN TO ME?!" the draconequus roared at the top of his lungs, making Rainbow back away in shock. If Discord of all creatures lost his cool, then things really were serious. Insurgency Discord rubbed his temples and did a few calming breaths before turning back to Rainbow.
"Listen, I want the same thing you and my Celestia do! To get rid of Twilight! Not only did she make my lovely chaos pretty much impossible to exist with her rule, but she's been hunting me nonstop ever since she took over. I want to help you!" he explained to Dash. Rainbow took a few moments to process everything he said before answering.
"Then why did you take me away from that fight? My friends need..."
"Your friends will be fine." Insurgency Discord interrupted. "Celestia may not be as powerful as she used to be, but she's still more than a match for Lightning Dust's little cleaner crew. Especially with another Celestia backing her up. Now, if you really want to help them win this war you'll hear me out." Rainbow still didn't like it, but she thought that if Insurgency Discord really wanted to help, she could only benefit from that.
"Fine." Rainbow gave in with a sigh. "What could be so important that you yanked me away from my friends?"
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, the skirmish between the insurgents and the exterminators were going in the favor of the former. After the beating Rainbow Dash gave her, Regime Lightning Dust couldn't keep fighting at full strength so she was forced to retreat. Without their leader, the Exterminators were easily overwhelmed and forced out of the base. But the insurgents knew that they could no longer stay hidden. The Regime knew they were hiding here and they were also attacking two cities full of innocent civilians.
"We forced them out of the base." Cadence announced. "It's over."
"No, it's not." Princess Celestia replied. "Canterlot and Ponyville are under attack. We have to take the fight to them." she then turned to her counterpart. "Don't we?" Insurgency Celestia didn't reply. She walked over to a desk and pulled a scroll.
"Ah, good." Shining Armor said with a smile. "That must be her interuniversal spell. It's time to bring over Twilight and finish this!"
"Not exactly." Insurgency Celestia responded sadly, causing everypony to look at her in surprise.
In Cloudsdale, Insurgency Discord filled Rainbow Dash in on everything he knew about Twilight's plan, but the blue pegasus wasn't impressed with the information.
"I already know what Twilight is planning!" she said to Insurgency Discord in frustration. "Your Fluttershy told us everything."
"Oh. And did she also tell you just how Twilight wants to carry out her plan?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" Insurgency Discord snapped his fingers and a magical screen appeared in front of the pegasus, which showed her something that made her gasp in horror. She saw her counterpart rallying this universe's Wonderbolts to join Twilight's attack on the cities. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"Faust almighty." she whispered in disbelief.
"Shocking, isn't it?" Insurgency Discord asked. "The greatest fliers in Equestria are about to fly off into a battle waged by a crazy tyrant to destroy two major equestrian cities." Rainbow needed a moment to take this in.
"I... I have seen how low our counterparts fallen in this world, but this? How could I... I mean she do this?" Insurgency Discord leaned next to her ear from behind.
"If only there was a heroic, uncorrupted version of her around to stop her and guide those poor Wonderbolts back to the right path." Rainbow Dash turned to look the draconequus in the eye.
"Why would you help us? I'm sure you would enjoy the chaos the battle would bring!" Insurgency Discord's donned an expression that Rainbow Dash never thought she would see on the his face. In her universe or any other. He almost looked... serious.
"There may chaos for a short while, but if Twilight crushes the Insurgency, nopony or any other creature will ever be able to challenge her again. Under her rule, chaos would pretty much die forever. And besides, I may enjoy some chaotic mayhem once in a while, but a war in which millions die? Slaughtering defenseless, innocent ponies? Even I draw the line there. I like to mess with ponies and at worst I may rearrange their bodyparts, but I bring chaos, not death." Rainbow Dash looked at him for a few moments. He seemed so sincere, but it was hard to tell with Discord. She never saw him like this. She didn't know how, but she just knew he was genuine.
"Thanks, Discord." she said after a while. "I... I didn't know you had it in you." Insurgency Discord chuckled.
"I do have my moments." he admitted sheepishly. This touching moment was interrupted by a flash of blue light from a few meters next to them and the two turned to see Regime Trixie appearing once the light faded. Insurgency Discord groaned.
"Oh, boy. By bringing you over here, I must have used enough magic for Twilight to be able to locate me." his expression suddenly changed to cheerful as he turned back to Dash. "Good thing I have a new, tough Pegasus buddy to take care of it! Good luck!" he then snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Regime Trixie walked towards Rainbow Dash. "Twilight sent Trixie to bring in Discord, but I'm sure she'll settle for you." she said smugly. Rainbow glared at Trixie.
"I never thought I'd see the the day when the 'Great and Powerful Trixie' is humbled into serving Twilight." Rainbow Dash mocked. Regime Trixie glared back.
"Trixie doesn't serve. Trixie observes and learns. She studies Twilight's magical powers and then replicates them. Prefects them. Until one day, she will be even greater and more powerful than Twilight herself! And then she will serve Trixie!" Rainbow Dash broke out laughing.
"You want to overpower and overthrow the most powerful alicorn in this world? I thought my Trixie was delusional, but this is a whole new level of blindness to reality!" Regime Trixie glared at her.
"Let's see you say the same after this!" Regime Trixie summoned a bunch of clouds around herself and turned them into storm clouds. Rainbow Dash realized what she was about to do and just smirked. There was no way those clouds will be able to catch up with her. She was about to take off, but instead of the clouds following her, they immediately struck her with lightning. The lightning stung her flank and she jumped up with a startled yelp. Regime Trixie smirked and continued to summon more lightning towards Rainbow.
'Me and my big mouth.' she thought as she struggled desperately to avoid the lightning bolts. 'Think, think, think, Rainbow! What to do?' She looked back at Trixie and got a sudden idea.
"Is that the best you got, Trixie? I expected more!" Regime Trixie glared and increased the number of lightning bolts attacking Rainbow. The pegasus was trying to live up to her reputation as the fastest flyer in Equestria, but she was getting tired. Her only hope was tiring out Regime Trixie before herself, but for that, she needed her to throw as many spells at her as possible.
It looked like her plan was working. It was becoming harder and harder to escape the lightning bolts. Now was the time to deliver the finishing blow.
"Come on, Trixie! Newbie weather ponies can make stronger lightning than that!" Regime Trixie gritted her teeth and used all of her remaining strength to summon as much lightning as she could. She then unleashed them all at once on Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus took full advantage of her speed. She flew at Regime Trixie just as the lightning bolts were about to fire and got out of their way in a millisecond, causing them to hit the unicorn.
Regime Trixie screamed in pain as she was electrocuted and Rainbow Dash delivered the final blow with a healthy punch to the back of the head. Regime Trixie was out before she hit the ground. Rainbow Dash dusted off her hooves in victory.
"And now that I've dealt with this arrogant, obnoxious flank, it's time to deal with an even more arrogant and obnoxious flank, me!"
Regime Rainbow Dash watched in satisfaction as the Wonderbolts lined up in front of her, ready to fly out and carry out her orders to level Canterlot. She never thought such a thing would be among their duties, but the ponies of that city brought it upon themselves.
"Are the bombs ready?" she asked an officer, a yellow pegasus mare with light blue mane.
"Yes, ma'am. Packages are wrapped and ready for delivery." she reported.
"Good. Assemble your unit, you'll lead the first attack."
But before the officer could respond, the cloud was shaken by a huge explosion, coming from the spot where the Wonderbolts gathering the bombs. They looked over to see a huge fiery inferno before a rainbow colored lightning bolted out from between the flames and landed right in front of Regime Rainbow Dash. She narrowed her eyes in a fiery glare. It was her doppelgänger.
"Sorry to break your toys, but fiery entrance from Rainbow Dash is mandatory!" she yelled.
"Get her!" Regime Rainbow snarled through gritted teeth. Rainbow Dash marched up to her with a equally fierce glare.
"Forget them, Rainbow! Come and get me yourself if you're mare enough! But considering you were about to lead the Wonderbolts to attack a city full of innocent civilians, I doubt that!"
"You don't think I'm mare enough to face you? Would you be mare enough to do what I'm about to?"
"Do you think turning on your own kind and slaughtering civilians make you a mare?!" Rainbow shrieked in disgust.
"It takes a mare to do what's necessary!" Regime Rainbow retorted. "After Canterlot, Twilight showed me the truth! True strength lies in the will to go any length to ensure peace and security to Equestria. And lasting peace can only be enforced!"
"I always hated ponies like you. Ranting and screaming about how unfair and cruel the world is and thinking that this makes them the victim and grants them the excuse to do anything! To think that me - any version of me could become such a pony makes me wanna vomit!" Main Rainbow shouted.
"You want to lecture me about my world?!"
"Oh, I'm not here to lecture you." Rainbow whispered dangerously, pounding her hooves together. "I'm just here to kick. your. flank!" she then launched herself at Regime Rainbow and uppercuted her in the chin.
Regime Rainbow flew back, but recovered in a second and flew back at Rainbow to punch her, but she caught her hoof and held it in place. She then twisted her hoof back and threw her away, before flying at her and delivering several rapid punches to Regime Rainbow's face. Regime Rainbow managed to slip away and flew off towards a cloud above Rainbow, rubbing it until it was filled with electricity and it fired at the main world pegasus. Rainbow managed to get out of the way, but Regime Rainbow used her evasive maneuver as an opening and flew straight into her, knocking her down.
Rainbow tried to get up, but her Regime counterpart landed in her stomach with both hindlegs, then kicked her away. Rainbow groaned in pain, but she couldn't let it overwhelm her. She decided to take a page out of Regime Rainbow's playbook and used the elements to her advantage. She flew up and collected a bunch of clouds together, before turning them into rainclouds and rained a huge amount of water at her opponent. While it didn't damage her, her armor was getting more and more difficult to move around in and she quickly realized what that meant. She tried to take it off but it was already too late. The rust made the pieces of her suit stick together. She was trapped in her own armor.
"You dishonor my name, you dishonor Commander Hurricane by wearing that armor, but most of all you dishonor the Wonderbolts by forcing them to go to war against their own and turning them into the tools of oppression." Rainbow told her counterpart as she slowly approached her. "And I won't allow this anymore!"
Regime Rainbow tried to escape the onslaught of attacks, but five years of going unchallenged made her soft. She didn't have any higher goal to reach for in years, since Regime Twilight made her the leader of the Wonderbolts. Main Rainbow in the other hoof, stayed sharp. Her wonderbolts superiors never would have allowed her to go soft. They never gave her a break and always demanded that she pushed herself beyond her limits. Regime Rainbow didn't have a chance. In a few minutes, she was lying unconscious by her main universe counterpart's hooves.
"Who would have guessed that beating up myself would be so satisfying?"
Dash then looked up and saw the Wonderbolts of this world standing around them. Looking uncertain of what to do. This was something Rainbow shared. She wasn't sure what she should do now. As far as she knew, these pegasi were also her enemies, but then she remembered Insurgency Discord's words.
'If only there was a heroic, uncorrupted version of her around to stop her and guide those poor Wonderbolts back to the right path.'
She now knew what she had to do. But knowing and doing were two different things.
"Uhm... look! I'm not really good at these kind of things. I'm a mare of action, not words and I don't really know how to give a rousing speech. But one thing I do know, is what it means to be a Wonderbolt" She flew to the edge of the cloud and pointed down towards the earth. "When the ponies of Equestria look up at the sky and see us soar through the air, they're supposed to feel safe and protected! They're supposed to know that these awesome, kickflank pegasi are looking out for them and always step in when trouble arises! We're not just the fastest flyers in Equestria! We're it's first and last line of defense! And now, a crazy empress is out there, trying to wreck two of Equestra's greatest cities! The way I see it, you have two choices: you can either throw away and spit on everything it means to be a Wonderbolt and join her as her lackeys in this attack like she..." she shot a dirty look at her fallen counterpart. "...wants you to, or you can come with me and show her what it means to be a true, 20% cooler Wonderbolt! So what's it gonna be?"
The pegasi around her looked at each other with conflicted faces, before the very same mare whom Regime Dash wanted to lead the attack stepped forward. "You're wrong." she told Rainbow, who stepped back, expecting them all to jump at her. But then, her expression turned into a smile. "You're quite good at giving a rousing speech."
Back at the Insurgency's HQ, Insurgency Celestia was about to cast her interuniversal transport spell on the main world ponies, much to their disbelief.
"You can't be serious! You still want to send us back?!" Shining Armor snapped.
"I am serious. Once I've managed to locate where your Rainbow Dash had disappeared to, you're all going home." she replied, her voice leaving no room for contradiction. But the main world ponies were not about to just accept that. Especially Insurgency Celestia's counterpart. She stepped forward and placed a supportive hoof on her shoulder.
"I cannot pretend to understand what you are going through. I never dared to even entertain the thought of my student ever going down such a path as yours did. I was hoping my Twilight could take over from me once she had a few more years of experience, but NOT LIKE THIS. Nor can I understand the grief of loosing your husband, having never been married myself. But one thing I do understand is that without our help, you will die. And Insurgency will die with you."
"Then maybe that's my fate." Insurgency Celestia replied after a brief pause.
"You can defy fate."
"You have no idea what you ask of me. It's madness!"
"Is it any more madness then when you brought us over?" the princess asked, gesturing to herself and the other main world ponies.
"In my defense, I never intended to pull you over."
"You may not have, but you brought them over because you had faith. The faith you seem to have lost by now. You trusted them that they would help you uphold the values you gave everything to defend. So trust them again. Trust yourself. And let us end this." Princess Celestia's words seemed to have finally break through her counterpart's thick skull. But she still didn't look totally convinced.
"Even if I would agree, I'm not sure I could bring her over. I don't think I have enough magic left." Princess Celestia gave her an encouraging smile and picked up the scroll containing the spell.
"Then we'll do it together." she replied warmly. Insurgency Celestia looked down at the scroll uncertainly, before letting out a sigh. What she was about to do will either save her world or doom it for good.
"You have no idea how this spell works, do you?" Princess Celestia chuckled.
"I was hoping you wouldn't figure that out." The two alicorns walked to the middle of the room and interlocked their hooves before Insurgency Celestia's horn lit up with familiar blue light and she unleashed her spell towards the middle of the room. The other ponies watched in awe as the blue magical energy in front of them began to take shape. The very familiar shape of their world's Twilight Sparkle.
It was time to finish this.