The Power Ponies and the Mysterious Mare Do-Well stood in front of a house that was clearly a fixer-upper. It needed paint, the wood was loose, and the plants were in need of a LOT of trimming.
Filli-Second was a little creeped out. "I guess the cleaning lady took the... year off. What is this place anyway?"
"This..." the Masked Matterhorn said recognizing the house, "This is Moondancer's home. Mare Do-Well, why are we here? We're supposed to be looking for Moondancer."
Instead of answering, the masked pony opened the front door and the Power Ponies followed her inside. Radiance screamed when the looked in.
"THIS IS HORRIBLE! THIS IS DREADFUL! THIS... THIS... IS A COMPLETE MESS!" She tried to back away from all the books and wrinkled rugs all over the floor.
"Whoa." Zapp said. "Looks like Moondancer put up quite a struggle."
"No, this is how her house always looks." the Masked Matterhorn said. "She doesn't get visitors that much. Mare Do-Well, what's going on?"
The Mysterious Mare Do-Well walked to approach a wall. Even when she was 3 feet and closing in, she didn't slow down. Within a second, her body began to disappear as she sunk herself into the wall startling the Power Ponies. They approached the wall and Filli-Second touched it. Waves flowed across the wall from where she was touching.
"Suddenly, I feel like I'm in Grannie Pie's Jell-O mold."
Nervous, the Power Ponies walked into the wall and closed their eyes. A second later, they opened their eyes to a darkened hallway with a staircase. They continued down until they heard working power tools down in the room.
The Power Ponies peeked in and saw Moondancer constructing a large machine with two glass tubes the size of ponies. One of the tubes was empty, but the other had the Electro-Orb inside on top of a pedestal. The Masked Matterhorn jumped through the door and into the other room startling Moondancer.
"Moondancer! Are you all right?"
"The Masked Matterhorn?" Moondancer gasped. "What..."
"Great job, Matterhorn!" Zapp shouted showing herself with the rest of the team. "We lost the element of surprise on the Dark Alicorn."
"And the rest of the Power Ponies!" Moondancer panicked. "What are you doing here?! You shouldn't..."
"Moondancer, calm down." the Masked Matterhorn said. Without thinking, she dug her hooves under her mask and removed it from her face. "It's me, Twilight."
Moondancer's eyes widened over hearing the bombshell. The rest of the team groaned while Hum Drum smacked his forehead.
"Twilight..." Moondancer gasped. "You're... All along... You..."
"Hey, I'm not the only one with secrets." Twilight said. "Why didn't you tell me you had your own, hidden lab?"
"I don't." Moondancer said. "The Dark Alicorn made this corridor after she abducted me." Suddenly, she gasped. "The Dark Alicorn! Listen, you've got to get out of here."
"We will." Mistress Marevelous said. "That's why we're here, to get you out of here."
"No!" Moondancer shouted. "You don't get it! I have to finish this!"
Twilight looked at the machine behind Moondancer and took a second to examine it. Suddenly, she recognized it.
"Moondancer, is that a siphoning chamber?!"
"A what?" Radiance asked.
"A siphoning chamber!" Twilight explained. "It takes the energy from one thing and places it into the other."
"Wait." Hum Drum gasped. "So you're saying..."
"The Dark Alicorn's going to take the power of the Electro-Orb and use it to boost herself! We've got to destroy it!"
"Wait, you can't!" Moondancer shouted. "The Dark Alicorn..."
"Don't worry." Mistress Marevelous interrupted. "After we're done, we'll protect you."
"DON'T YOU DARE!" a new, booming voice shouted. Everyone looked at a door from a different side of the room and the Dark Alicorn stormed in. They all stared at each other before the Dark Alicorn spoke again. "You can't destroy the machine."
"Actually, we are." Zapp said. "You days of tyranny are over."
"You don't understand." the Dark Alicorn said. "If you'd just let me explain..." Suddenly, she roared loudly frightening everyone else. She opened her eyes, and her pupils turned a lot more feral.
"I don't like the looks of this." Hum Drum said.
"Neither do I." Twilight said pulling her mask over her face again. "Zapp, Radiance, Filli-Second, the three of you keep her busy. The rest of us will take the siphoning chamber apart piece by piece."
"NO, WAIT!" Moondancer shouted.
Suddenly, Filli-Second zipped in front of the Dark Alicorn and laughed.
"I am here!" she said dodging the Dark Alicorn's strikes. "I am here!"
"All right, Power Ponies!" the Masked Matterhorn told the ponies sticking with her. "Let's take this apart!"
"NO, YOU CAN'T!" Moondancer shouted jumping in front of them. "YOU NEED TO LISTEN!"
"Moondancer, what is it?!" the Masked Matterhorn asked.
"You need to hear this!" Moondancer said. "The Dark Alicorn needs to be in there!"
"WHAT?!" Matterhorn gasped. "Moondancer, don't you know who that is? She kidnapped you! She stole from Maretropolis! She tried to bring eternal night to Equestria hundreds of years ago, for Celestia's sake!"
"Twilight, just listen to what I have to say!" Moondancer said. "The Dark Alicorn is really..." She was interrupted by a dark-blue magic blasting her from the back. Moondancer collapsed on the floor while the Dark Alicorn proudly stood in front of the machine.
The Masked Matterhorn caught Moondancer's unconscious body before she could hit the floor. Meanwhile, the Dark Alicorn faced the siphoning chamber and grinned. Her black horn started to glow as if preparing a spell.
Suddenly, out of the shadows, the Mysterious Mare Do-Well galloped toward the Dark Alicorn and shoved her forward into the open, empty chamber. Mare Do-Well stepped out and quickly sealed the capsule.
"Mare Do-Well, what are you doing?!" Zapp shouted. "You're giving her what she wants!"
The Dark Alicorn shook her head and stammered. "Wh-What happened?" She looked around her and gasped. "I'm in! Quick, some pony, turn it on! I can't do it myself in here!"
"WHAT?!" the Masked Matterhorn shouted. "You expect us to give you what you want after what you did to Moondancer?!"
"Listen to me." the Dark Alicorn said. "Do you remember when I saved your Pegasus friend back at the factory?"
"Yeah." Saddle Rager said. "Why did you save me?"
"All I can tell you is that I know I did some terrible things and said some horrible stuff in the past," the Dark Alicorn replied, "But trust me; everything I'm doing, everything I'm fighting, it's all for Equestria! There's nothing I want more than everyone's safety!"
"Saddle, what if she's lying?!" the Masked Matterhorn shouted. "Remember who she is! She's the Dark Alicorn!"
"LOOK INTO MY EYES, PONIES!" the Dark Alicorn begged desperately. "DO YOU REALLY THINK I'D WANT TO HURT YOU?!"
"WE CAN'T!" the Masked Matterhorn argued. "WE NEED TO..."
"Twilight." a new voice called out. The Power Ponies followed it and realized the speaker was the Mysterious Mare Do-Well. "Trust her."
Under the mask, the Masked Matterhorn wrestled with the decisions in front of her. Her head was telling her to keep the Dark Alicorn prisoner, but everyone else is telling her to let the Dark Alicorn through it. She struggled with the worry of a wrong decision. Suddenly, the Masked Matterhorn made her decision. She quickly grabbed a switch on the control panel and flipped it.
"MATTERHORN, WHAT ARE YOU..." Zapp shouted.
Suddenly, a bright light pulsed out of the machine pushed everyone to the wall. As soon as the light dimmed, everyone dropped to the ground and watched the machine.
Inside her capsule, the Dark Alicorn screamed while a black mist flowed out of her body and through the pipes. The pipes then led to the other capsule and the mist slammed onto the Electro-Orb. The mist shrunk on impact and the Electro-Orb became much darker. The Dark Alicorn's capsule opened up and the princess collapsed onto the floor, her helmet popping off of her head on impact.
"What... what... that?" Zapp asked.
"I think... that was the Asteroth." the Masked Matterhorn said.
"Correct." the Oracle walked through the hallway and into the room. "The machine was meant to take the Dark Alicorn's power and place it in the Electro-Orb, not the other way around. That was her plan all along."
"I don't..." Mistress Marevelous started to say before hearing a groan.
The Mysterious Mare Do-Well started to get up when her mask fell off of her face. In a panic, she tried to lower her hat over her face.
"It's all right, child." the Oracle said. "The time for those is over. It's time they know."
"Who... Who is that?" Hum Drum asked.
"The pony behind the Mysterious Mare Do-Well..."
Slowly, the Mysterious Mare Do-Well removed her hat revealing her golden face. Her slightly-curled mane had a mixture of red-and-yellow colors.
"...Sunset Shimmer."