One month earlier…
Twilight woke up, groaning loudly as she rubbed a hoof over her head and looked around what appeared to be a forest that she assumed was the Everfree Forest. However, the more she looked around, the more perplexing things seemed to be.
Rather than the dark, ominous woods with a growl or threatening sound from every shadow, the woods were cheerful and lively. In every direction she looked, birds were chirping in the air while bunnies bounced around where she stood.
If Fluttershy had been there, she’d likely have been bouncing right along with them.
Shaking that thought off for the moment, Twilight finally took note that the Cutie Map, the reason she was even here, was nowhere to be found.
“The hay?” Twilight practically screamed as her eyes immediately scanned every blade of grass, branch and stump for the map. “Where in the world are we right now? Logically we should’ve appeared in the same spot the map would be in this world, but clearly that’s not the case.”
“I’m just as confused as you Twilight, every other time the map’s always been right in the same spot,” Spike replied as he helped Twilight onto her hooves.
The duo quickly resumed their search for the map pedestal but seemingly only could find a relatively idyllic looking forest. The image only became more serene when numerous animals appeared out of the foliage, including bunnies, deer, and squirrels.
The seemingly adorable scene quickly took on a darker edge as, heading the party of animals, was a skunk, armed with a tiny makeshift spear, pointing it at them and snapped, "Capture Twilight now! Before she escapes somehow!"
Before anypony could say or do anything, two deer strung Twilight up in vines. In contrast, a few rabbits who Spike and Starlight Glimmer at spearpoint.
Twilight kicked and cried as she struggled to break through the, "Can someone explain what's going on? We are not Changelings, I swear!"
"Don't play dumb! The Changelings are long gone. Keep her lock and key. This is a great victory!" Zecora cheered as she threw her spear in the air, with a cry from the forest critters. The sound of their zebra friend’s voice coming from the skunk quickly drew looks of shock and surprise from the captured trio.
Their questions would be left unanswered for the moment, as once Twilight was properly bound, she,along with Spike and Starlight, were led through the forest by spearpoint giving the three a sense of deja vu.
Though unlike before, they were led to a valley instead of a clearing and the differences only continued from there.
It looked similar to the village in the timeline where Chrysalis had conquered Equestria. However, the most significant difference was that the place was inhabited by forest critters instead of ponies.
The creatures gave the group suspicious and scared looks, some jumping into bushes. The group eventually came to make a shift cage made of ruined stones and a few thick pieces of wood, and they were thrust inside with Twilight still tied up. Once they were locked inside, the critters left with Zecora.
As soon as they were alone, The violet alicorn glared angrily at Starlight. "See what you’ve done!? I was trying to show you the consequences of your actions, and you still wouldn’t listen to me!”
Starlight rolled her eyes at the princess’s anger. "What I’ve done, and what exactly is that? Ended your precious friendship!? Remember, you're the one who brought me here, so this is all your fault, not mine."
"Seriously!?” Twilight practically slammed her forehead against the manic mare. “You don't think that anything you did was wrong? You don't think we just saw a talking skunk, and somehow she thinks keeping me as a captive is a good thing?"
"Maybe everypony realized I'm right and you're wrong!? Maybe the Everfree Forest is beautiful and has talking animals!? I don't get why you're so surprised. I mean, you have a talking dragon."
Spike looked at her almost like she’d grown a second head. "Yeah, because most dragons can talk, not skunks. Also, was it just me, or did that skunk sound a lot like Zecora?"
"Zecora, who's that?" Starlight, being the only one not familiar with the zebra shaman, looked utterly confused.
Twilight ignored her, paused to think. "You're right, Spike. That skunk does sound a lot like Zecora. Maybe in this reality she’s always been a skunk, maybe they just have similar voices or maybe something happened that made her that way. Either way, there’s a lot more going on here than we realized.”
The sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation and found the aforementioned skunk, followed by a few armed bunnies, approaching them.
"Curious you know my name, and you even look the same. Yet even now it is clear, you are not the Twilight I fear," The skunk explained as she slowly approached the cage with a suspicious look. "Before I set you free, I need your identity."
Twilight sighed and put a hoof on her chest "My name is Twilight Sparkle. I was a student of Princess Celestia. I've been the Wielder of the Element of Magic for over two years and have been living in Ponyville that long."
She paused, chuckled to herself, and continued, "In fact, we met under similar circumstances. I thought you were a witch cursing me and my friends, and it turns out we trotted into a field of Poison Joke, and you were just trying to warn us."
"As far as I remember, I have never met you personally, but I can see in your eyes that you have integrity," The skunk turned her attention to the pudgy purple drake."Now for the drake, please tell us who you are so we can determine your fate."
Spike, flinching a little at the potential outcome, quickly placed a claw over his chest, "I'm Spike, the brave savior of the Crystal Empire."
Twilight rolled her eyes at her assistant’s act of aggrandizement while Zecora could only shiver.
"Maybe in another life, here the Crystal Empire returned under strife, King Sombra brainwashed his citizens to conquer the land. However, It wasn't long until Discord revealed his hand. Sombra fell in his wake and is now a popsicle atop of a mountain of ice cream cake."
Starlight, Twilight, and Spike just blinked and stared at the story, stunned. Zecora eyed them. " Discord has conquered everything we see, this is the truth I tell to thee?"
Twilight's mouth went agape "...Discord won!?"
Zecora continued, "Not so soon, initially we were conquered by Nightmare Moon. However, she too fell and became his clown. Now she just juggles and uses a unicycle to roll around."
Funny image aside, Twilight felt herself going into panic mode, as this reality was getting worse by the second.
"How long exactly has it been since Discord returned!?" Twilight replied in a panicked tone.
"Almost a year, I fear."
Twilight started to sweat and stammered,"Where are the Elements of Harmony?"
"Why do you ask? They are useless and not up to the task." Zecora spoke with a bleak tone, having long ruled out the jewels as useful.
"No, we can still use them, but even if time has changed, my friends and Imust still be around. If we can get them together, we can stop Discord and hopefully before Tirek arrives."
Starlight scratched her head and asked, "Um, whose Tirek?"
Twilight's eyes went wide, "Were you living under a rock!? You never heard of Tirek!?"
"Um…you forget Our Town was kind of off the grid; it's not like we got daily news about anything going on."
Twilight slammed her hoof into her face. "He's a Centaur with the power to consume magic. Just imagine Discord, but instead of wanting to cause chaos and mischief, he simply causes destruction and misery!”
While that got a look of surprise from Starlight, she still didn’t look too concerned. “So what? All Discord has to do is snap his fingers and he can turn Tirek into a balloon animal or something right?”
Twilight did pause on that note. True Tirek’s ability to eat magic was formidable, but she recalled he was only able to steal Discord’s magic after stealing the power from nearly everypony in Equestria, something Discord would surely notice and respond to quickly.
As it was, the centaur was little more than a minor nuisance. Still though.
“Tirek’s much more clever than he lets on. It’s possible he could trick Discord and regain enough power to challenge him and if he wins, all of Equestria is doomed.”
That at least seemed to get Starlight to sweat a little bit, and Zecora almost looked convinced, able to see the genuine fear in her eyes.
Yet…
"Perhaps there is truth to what you say. Though it hardly matters anyway."
"Why's that?"
The skunk pawed at her and continued, "Because you see, as of now, you're the enemy. For several months now, Discord has been getting bored. So he has been relying on his second in command, Twilight, who performs his every demand."
Twilight blinked and then pointed at herself, "Me… you mean in this world, I'm Discord's second in command?"
The skunk nodded somberly. "Despite his power, Discord is almost like a child, letting his games and pranks run wild. Twilight is cold, cruel and ruthless to a t. She is by far the greater enemy.”
There was a solemn pause despite the peaceful sound of the forest nearby. There was an air of dread surrounding the group.
The skunk Zecora offered a gesture, motioning the animals to open the cage. “If you are truly not of this place then return to your home with quickened pace. We have long since accepted that hoping for salvation is a thought best rejected.”
Twilight looked utterly shell shocked by the almost defeatist declaration and it seemed like even Starlight was starting to finally understand how badly she’d damaged things.
"Okay, maybe I messed things up a bit, still…maybe there’s something we can do. Maybe evacuate as many ponies as we can to another country perhaps or maybe.
"No!"
Everypony tried to tell Twilight as she hardened her expression, "We aren't giving up. If I’m as evil as you say I am, then I know that Twilight is just hurt and in pain. There’s no chance I’d just fly off the handle like that without reason. If we want to do anything else, we’ll need her on our side and to do that we’ll need help. We need to find Princess Celestia and Luna.”
Zecora merely shook her head somberly at the idea. "Twilight, you don't see? Princess Celestia and Luna are under lock and key. We have no idea where they can be, and what's worse, everypony in Canterlot is now insane. Any attempt at rescue would be in vain.”
‘
This roadblock did little to stop Twilight, already mulling over her remaining options before a thought suddenly struck.
"It'll be impossible for me, but not her." she pointed at Starlight Glimmer, whose eyes went wide,
"Me!? Why me!?"
Not bothering to answer, Twilight dragged her down into the tent away from Zecora and pulled her up until they were face to face. “Listen, I know you don’t care for me or what I stand for, but I’m sure you at least care about Equestria and don’t want to leave it like this right?”
Starlight paused and glared. She seemed reluctant but eventually relented "No, I don’t. Making ponies suffer, contrary to what you might think, has never been my goal.”
"Then you need to infiltrate Discord's city and make him trust you, and you have to do it fast. By my calculations, we have four months until Tirek returns; he'll be weak at first, but it won’t take him long to start accumulating power. We need to move fast and stop him before he attempts to usurp Discord."
True it certainly sounded crazy, and one would assume Starlight would just use her spell to flee this dimension, but Twilight made it clear she’d just chase after her no matter how many timelines she fled to.
Besides…now that she’d been forced to remain in this world longer than a few moments and get a scope of the damage her decision had caused…it gave her a bit more perspective on the impact her desire could bring.
"I…I understand,” Starlight nodded, fully committing to helping out. “So we don't have any time to waste, huh?"
"No, we don't. I'll hunt down the locations of my friends and hopefully manage to gather them together so we can use the Elements of Harmony. Meet me back here, and we can discuss our next steps."
Starlight eyed her, then continued, "Ok, Twilight, but we're only working together because I don't want Equestria to be destroyed either. When we fix this and return to our original timelines, we will remain enemies; this changes nothing."
Twilight didn’t hesitate to nod, placing that particular issue under matters to address later.
"Agreed. Honestly, I'm not sure if I can ever forgive you for this, even if we fix everything. However, avoid mentioning our situation as much as possible, I doubt many of the ponies from this timeline would be happy to find out you technically caused this to happen.”
Starlight turned a few shades paler at the idea, recalling her own town’s uprising only much larger and likely much more violent.
"Yeah, I wanna avoid that.”
The plan set, they trotted back to the front of the cage, and Twilight turned to Zecora.“Alright, we have a plan."
Present Day
As soon as the ponies left Trixieville, they took a moment to finally catch their breaths, enjoying the brief respite.
Sadly the moment was ruined for the twin princesses, whose bodies quickly began to sprout the same clown attire they thought they’d disposed of back in Canterlot.
Luna groaned in anger as she touched her afro. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with this outfit any longer."
Celestia sighed with equal annoyance at the rubber nose on her face. "Discord is as petty as always. Trixie’s magic might have overridden his while we were inside her town, but now that we’ve left, we’re back to being clowns again.”
Lun almost looked tempted to tear the afro off, but knew it was fruitless and simply huffed angrily to divert her focus elsewhere.
The group then turned their attention back to the Everfree Forest, and everypony was amazed at what used to be a dark, gloomy forest filled with Timberwolves. Now it looked like something out of a fairy tale with lush foliage and birds chirping filling the air. Despite the Chaos Magic wafting from the forest, unlike the chaotic nature of Canterlot, or the ego that served Trixieville, this magic was serene and relaxing, like a gust of spring air filled with the smell of spring flowers filling the air.
Yet, despite the welcoming atmosphere, Zecora remained vigilant. "Now, before we enter this ghastly hollow, there are some rules you need to follow. Don’t consume anything without my say, lest they transform you in some way. The same goes for the streams and brooks, unless you want to receive strange looks. Most of all, stay close to the group, many a beast will attack you in one fell swoop.” "
Everypony nodded, and began trotting at a steady pace through the woods, while admiring the surprisingly beautiful scenery . Things became even more inviting when they spotted a field of lush wild carrots spotted about the ground.
They then heard a munching sound, and they turned to see a guard blushing as he had a carrot in his mouth. Still, he slowly shrank before their eyes as his ear grew out and loppy, with two black beady eyes and a cute pink underbelly.
"Oh, dear."
Zecora sighed, "I told you not to eat anything."
She waved a paw, and they continued. It was only a short time until they came across a stream with a cute little bridge arching over. As they crossed, they watched another bunny stumble right into the waters. Before anypony could do anything, they watched a transformed wild unicorn neighing and snorting as it ran into the forest.
That earned looks of surprise from those still present, while Zecora simply brushed it off with casual ease.
“Discord’s magic has had many an odd effect. Best not to question and simply accept.”
The group continued their trot, all more cautious across the water, before they soon came upon a field of mushrooms with fairies flying about, little ponies with butterfly wings fluttering by giggling and waving their wands, shooting glitter at them.
Zecora quickened her pace and gestured to the group to follow suit."Ignore them, please; they won't do a thing; they are trying to blind you so that you step in a mushroom ring."
Sadly, the warning came too late as another poor pegasus guard had a blast of glitter hit him in his face, sending him stumbling into a mushroom ring. His wings turned into butterfly wings, and his uniform was now a tutu with his sword and a glittery wand.
Shining Armor slammed a hoof into his face and ordered, "Please watch your step! We need as many bodies as possible if Princess Trixie comes after us."
The former captain didn’t like leaving one of his men in such a state, but as it was there was little they could do.
The ponies tightened their formation and became more alert on where they stepped despite the pesky fairies fluttering about.
Eventually, they were taken to a meadow, and the beauty just tranquil beauty practically erupted with deer, bunnies, squirrels, raccoons, turtles, ducks, and geese all walking about talking and seeming to be just going about their business, but the mass of ponies showed up.
Zecora came off and held her paws, "Everyone, please be calm! The princesses have returned!"
The many creatures immediately began clapping excitedly, earning awkward glances and waves from the Princessesses, having not received such a warm welcome in quite a while.
The sound of hoofbeats quickly broke through the applause as Twilight burst from the crowd, sending the entire atmosphere and leaving Luna to immediately aim her glowing horn at the Princess of Friendship.
Twilight immediately unfurled her own wings only to immediately bow her head to try and show no hostility. "Wait, it's not Evil Twilight; I'm the Good Twilight!"
Luna didn’t look even slightly convinced, while Celestia was more unsure, though their concerns shifted when Starlight finally arrived. “She’s telling the truth, everypony just calm down and we can sort this out.”
Seeing Starlight vouch for her, Luna let the glow from her horn fade and gestured the still kneeling Twilight to rise. In turn now getting a good look at the pony in front of her, Twilight almost had to do a double take.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, is that really you?"
Opting to lighten the mood a little, the former Princess of the Sun hooked the red nose on her face. “Indeed it is, though I suppose our current attire makes that hard to believe.”
It certainly was jarring to see the formerly most powerful pony in Equestria in a rainbow afro and bright red nose, but that was par for the course in Discord’s mad world. "I heard what happened to you and Princess Luna, but seeing you two like this is another thing entirely."
Circumstances aside, the sight of her mentor brought a smile and sense of relief back to the young alicorn. "Princess Celestia, I still can't believe you're here."
The alicorn's steady trot broke into a run. She ran into Celestia's chest, who reflexively wrapped her wing around her as Twilight began to weep. The princess was stunned as, for years, a version of this same mare had been tormenting her and her sister, and now the former princess was embracing her as if she was her child.
Yet, for whatever reason that she couldn’t hope to explain, it felt right, as though it was always meant to be.
Celestia cradled the still weeping mare, still reeling from all that had happened. "It's all right Twilight. You're safe."
"Y…you have no idea how long I’ve needed to hear that," Twilight whispered as she got ahold of herself and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Listen, we have a lot to discuss. But we should go to my hut and talk things over there."
The interaction was interrupted by Shining Armor, who’d approached them and found himself staring in surprise at the Element of Magic. "You really are Twilight?"
Wiping away a few tears, Twilight opted to settle any remaining confusion. "Well, not your Twilight, but seeing my BBBF is still doing well is nice."
Shining almost felt his heart clench at the mention of the nickname his Twilight used to call him. "Yeah…it's nice to see you as well.”
There was an awkward pause for a moment as Shining wasn’t sure what to say, before shifting back to his more professional demeanor. “We'll get started setting up a perimeter. The last thing we need is Princess Trixie or Evil Twilight giving us a surprise.” With a quick salute, he led several of the guard ponies to get to work, while the rest headed further into the forest towards Zecora’s makeshift village.
Those ponies that didn’t follow Shining almost immediately collapsed once inside the village, the creatures quickly offering them fresh fruit and water, which they all happily took. Twilight herself took a moment to relax as well, looking upon the scene before her.
"Well, I'm glad everypony is here and…Rarity?"
The sight of the maid clad mare made Twilight do a double take, while Spike’s expression turned love struck.
"Yes, darling? May I help you," the mare asked as she curtseyed in her maid uniform.
Opting to ignore her attire, Twilight simply decided to get the obvious out of the way. “I’m guessing this is the first time we’ve met, or rather Evil Twilight and you?”
"You would be correct I’m afraid. Despite your other’s reputation, I wasn’t even aware of her until I heard Princess Trixie rant about you and wished you to be demoted to her court jester."
Huh, even in this alternate reality, Trixie still hated her. Guess some things just never changed.
"What about me!?" Spike asked rather desperately, still eyeing the rather fetching outfit the alabaster mare wore.
For whatever reason, Rarity found herself smiling fondly at the small dragon, "Oh, sorry darling, I don't know you either. In fact, I don't think I’ve ever met a dragon before."
Spike groaned, "Rats!"
"I see…" Twilight sighed, seeing things had gotten a bit more complicated. “ Alright, well, you may not know me, but in my world, you’re one of my closest friends and probably one of the best fashion ponies in Equestria.”
A hint of light appeared in Rarity’s eyes at the mention of fashion, but they quickly dulled back to their usual look. "I see. Starlight told me this, too. I’d like to believe it’s all true, but I’m still skeptical for the moment"
"Well, even that's a start, and yes, we are telling the truth. But we can discuss that later, right now I need everypony’s attention.”
"Of course, please continue," Rarity responded as she performed another cutesy before wandering off.
Moving to the front of the village, Twilight used her magic to pull out a chalkboard and a quick tap of it got everypony’s attention. "All right everypony. Now I know me being here must be confusing since most of you know me as an evil magician named Twilight. First, let me be clear that's not me..though to keep things simple I will refer to her as Evil Twilight or ET while I'm good Twilight or GT."
Everypony nodded their heads as Twilight continued, "Good! Now to clear up any further confusion, I’m a Twilight from an alternate timeline, one where things occurred very differently to here.”
A quick flick of the chalk, several lines were drawn across the board. "This is the timeline I came from where I met my friends here in Ponyville, then we went to the Grand Galloping Gala, defeated Discord, saved my brother's wedding from Queen Chrysalis, saved the Crystal Empire from Sombra, then followed by me becoming a princess. Now after an incident involving a Time Spell, history was altered that led to events occurring that allowed Discord to take over all of Equestria unopposed.
Twilight drew a line back to when they defeated Discord, "In my timeline my friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him. However, as Rarity just pointed out, my friends and I never met in this timeline, thus once Discord was free, nopony could stop him.”
“I thought the Elements were just a myth or just hunks of rock?” One of the guards commented, reflecting the mindset of many from Twilight’s time prior to the defeat of Nightmare Moon.
Rather than have Twilight explain it, Celestia opted to lend some credibility to the claim. “The Elements of Harmony are real and were how my sister and I defeated Discord before. However, they only work if the users possess the essential qualities found within said elements.”
“Wait, if the Elements are so powerful and you’ve used them before, why haven’t you tried using them now?”
”When I was forced to seal my sister away into the moon, we lost the ability to wield them and I was forced to hide them away. Since then, I’ve been searching for those who could use them before Nightmare Moon returned. Sadly, I failed" The former monarch felt her head slowly grow heavy under the gaze of her subjects. "I failed to save my sister and thus set the chain of events that led to Discord's return."
"Princess, it's ok; you're not the one to blame," Twilight replied, saddened to see her mentor look so defeated "Besides, we still have a chance to make things right.”
Turning back to the board, she returned her chalk to another point on the line. “Moving back to my timeline, a few weeks after I became a princess, we lost the Elements of Harmony, returning them to the Tree of Harmony to save the princesses from some evil vines Discord sewed in the ground over a thousand years ago. Then about three months later, not long after we held the Equestria Games ...."
She then circled a big dot a week after that., "Tirek returns."
Like Starlight, the name earned looks of confusion, curiosity and disinterest from the crowd, though Celestia and Luna looked horrified at the idea.
“Tirek?”
“He escaped?”
"Yes, he managed to break free from Tartarus and almost destroyed Equestria. Ironically enough, our Discord helped us defeat him…though he did team up with him for a while."
“Hmph, seems your world’s Discord is about as trustworthy as ours.” Luna glowered, likely wishing she could take a shot at the other Spirit of Chaos.
"Now, from what I can calculate, it's been a year since Discord won. So I would say…" she then circled around the time she became a princess. "I would say we are around here, so we have time to defeat Discord and save Equestria and hopefully find a way to meld our timelines and make it as if none of this happened, but the only way we can do that is if we can unite ET with the other wielders of the Elements of Harmony."
Celestia gulped and asked, "Twilight can't you make friends with them? Wouldn't that still work?"
Twilight shook her head no "I don't believe so; it took a considerable amount of effort just to get him to behave and it was only after Tirek’s betrayal that he finally acknowledged us as true friends. Uniting the other Element Wielders is our only option.”
Starlight however didn’t look convinced, practically stomping up to the stage. “You do realize that all your so-called friends have never met you or simply recognize you as an evil dictator right? Plus we have no guarantee this universe's Elements would work with you in place of our world’s Twilight.”
"Well, we have to try, but we can save her for last now; we should focus on the others," Twilight explained. She flipped the board and there was a map of Equestria with Canterlot named "Capital of Chaos" then below that Trixievill, Cloudesdale with a ? the south with "beware fire breathing chickens" and the "Desert of Sadness" and near the east side of the map read "Enchanted Forest" and northeast near the ocean was "Toy City" each area had a circle with ET in Capitol of Chaos, R in Trixieville PP in the desert of sorrow FS in the enchanted forest RD in Cloudesdale and AJ in Toy Town.
Twilight came to the R in Trixieville and crossed a line through it. "While Starlight and Zecora hatched a plan to rescue Princess Celestia and Luna, I searched for my former friends. Now with Rarity, that leaves five others. But like we said, ET will be the last."
Celestia pointed at Cloudesdale, "Why is there a question mark there."
"Well, the truth is I can't get in. A giant golden fence surrounds the city, and the pegasi guarding it barred me from going inside. There's some powerful magic around it as the clouds are impenetrable; you can't fly through them or even blast through them. Besides that, I traveled around for a bit, looking for any sign of my friends.”
Her hoof quickly zeroed in on Toy Town
“From what I gathered my friend Applejack is in what is or was Manehattan and as of right now, she’s a literal porcelain doll. The only way I can even speak to her is by getting invited to some kind of tea party, which I’m still working on.” Her hoof quickly shifted places on the map. “In the south, everything has been converted to giant temples and pyramids. From what I can tell, the ponies there worship another of my friends, Pinkie Pie, as a goddess, and she has enslaved them to build these structures.
"Some friends, huh?" Starlight grumbled.
Twilight glared at her as if she wanted to say something but continued, "Well, for now, the closest one is nearby." She pointed at the Enchanted Forest not far from where they were. "I found that Fluttershy has been turned into a bear living in a cave not far from here. I tried to get her out, but she's rather aggressive." Twilight pointed to a leaf wrapped around her right foreleg while shuddering at the memory.
"So what's the plan?" Starlight asked scanning over the map, "Do we have any idea how to get these crazy friends of yours to actually become friends?”
Twilight almost looked ready to snap at the former cult leader, this whole debacle was her fault after all. “It’s a work in progress. Besides we managed to get Rarity here didn’t we?”
“Well…yeah…”
"See, that's a start. I heard she was Princess Trixie's most loyal servant, yet she's here and clearly is going against her. If we can get her to fight back, then getting her and the others to become friends and save Equestria should at least be doable."
"Well, yes, but how do we do that?"
Twilight turned her attention back to the board and continued her lecture "Well, first, we should get the Elements of Harmony at the Castle of The Two Sisters here," She pointed at a drawing of a fairy tale castle. "Thanks to Discord’s magic, these aren’t ruins any more, but This some kind of enchanted castle, and I'm going to need help navigating through it, then we can head over to Fluttershy."
She then pointed at a cave not far from the castle. "After we get Fluttershy to come with us, I say we go to Manehattan and go to this "tea party" and convince Applejack to come with us; then I suggest Princess Celestia and Luna fly to Cloudesdale and get Rainbow Dash."
Twilight then lowered her stick to the south and said, "However, the hardest will be Pinkie Pie. Everything south of Ponyville is a massive desert filled with crazy fire-breathing chickens that probably used to be dragons and giant statues of Pinkie Pie trotting about. But there are a few places we can take refuge if need be, one being Las Pegasus, which is now a giant walled play zone for kids Not sure what's going on there as you can’t enter unless you’re eight. However, in Appleloosa everypony has been turned into cows, luckily, they're all pretty nice there, and the milk is great. So if need be we can stop there for shelter."
Another tap on the map pointed directly to the former capital of Equestria. "Once we gather my former friends, we should all return to the Capital of Chaos, take on Evil Twilight, and convince her to change her ways. If we can do that, we can find Discord, seal him back in stone, and then I'm sure I'll be able to go back in time and ensure that this never happens!"
Everypony seemed unsure, but Princess Celestia got up and clapped her hooves together. "Quite impressive Twilight. Despite the circumstances, it seems you’ve managed to craft a fairly well put together plan in such a short space of time.”
Luna also seemed to be impressed, eyeing the rather organized map "I see why in your timeline, my sister praises you so well."
Twilight practically preened under the praise, only to be jolted when Zecora saw fit to use her head as a makeshift podium. "Well, it seems we have a plan before we take our leave. Does anyone have anything to add to this scheme?"
Everypony was quiet, none even attempting to offer a counterpoint or argument, something Twilight was more than happy with. "Excellent! I agree with Zecora; let's get some rest. I bet all of us are going to need it."
They all started to break off, with Twilight and Spike going to their makeshift bed of hay and leaves. Meanwhile, Sunburst and Starlight were escorted to a hut nearby.
As Princess Celestia and her sister trotted through the small village, she saw that Big Mac and Rarity were sharing a hut. It was an adorable scene with the maid brushing the stallion's mane as he snored.
Celestia and Luna trotted through the enchanted meadow with fireflies dancing in the night and the star above shining bright. This was the most peaceful night she had ever seen before Discord's reign.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Luna asked, eyes happily tracing across the midnight sky.
"Yes, it is; remember how the Everfree Forest was before Discord's magic corrupted it?"
"Yes, this is quite close to the forest we knew as foals. But despite its beauty, it's tainted with Chaos Magic."
Princess Celestia’s mind drifted back to the unfortunate ponies who’d been turned into a bunny and fairy just to get to this location. In someways the woods were even more dangerous than before. Even so…
"I don’t think this is Discord's Chaos Magic at work. He mainly focused his attention on Canterlot. Everything else in the world is altered due to the unpredictable state of his magic, which now permeates the essence of the world.Everything can be altered in ways we can't imagine."
They eventually reached a small brook that gushed water over sparkling rocks. It was quite pretty, even if it was infused with Chaos Magic. Luna then gently raised her head to Celestia's ear and whispered, "Want to sleep here under the stars?"
Celestia nuzzled her sister as she replied, "I wouldn't mind that at all."
The two lay together, their wings covering each other for warmth, the only sound being crickets chirping and the brook gushing water over rocks and stones. With the light of lightning bugs lighting the grass and the cool breeze wafting through them, the two princesses felt something they haven't felt in a long time, peace.