The combusted screams and cries of young foals roar from all corners in a large, but very cramped room. Amidst the chaos, the two Pinkie Pies and Daniel are trying to sort out the riot with Dan shouting, “Don’t panic, please don’t panic, there’s nothing that can hurt you.”

“He’s right,” the lieutenant adds, “how about we all take a moment and smile? C’mon everypony, let’s scare away the worry.” Despite the two’s effort’s however, the yelling only grows louder and louder, terror ricocheting from one ear to the next. Three of the panicking ponies, each with no cutie marks, slowly approach Pinkie from behind.

“Is my big sis okay?” A yellow pony with a large red bow asks.

“Why did Rarity betray us?” A white unicorn asks the older pink mare.

“Rainbow Dash is dead?!” An orange pegasus also asks. Sweat pours off of Pinkie’s face as six large eyes are staring deeply into hers, looking for a sign of comfort or if what they heard was wrong.

“Well, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo,” Pinkie begins to speak very slowly, “things do happen, but there is a silver lining to every problem.”

“What silver lining can come from RB being dead? She was many ponies’ role model, now what?”

“I-I-I-uh…”

“What did Midnight do to my sister?” Sweetie asks impatiently and worried at the same time.

“I don’t know, some evil trance, a hex, avarikinesis maybe.”

“Avar-what now?”

“Want some balloons?”

“Ms. Other Pinkie Pie,” Applebloom interrupts, “there is no silver lining, is there?” Defeated, the Earth-Pony slumps her body to the ground, contemplating what to say next. “Pinkie?”

“This is so weird, I’ve always found a silver lining to any problem, but now… Should I be the element of laughter if I can’t find something good out of every single bad situation?”

“Has there been a moment where you yourself were in a tough spot where you didn’t see any silver lining?”

“No, things always turned out right for me,”

“Then maybe this is your silver lining,” Sweetie adds into the conversation, “the fact that you know that there will be situations that will not have a happy side to them.”

“Wait, wouldn’t that be contradictory?”

“The point I’m trying to get across is that when those moments come back later in the future, you shouldn’t linger on them, but instead move forward and prevent those terrible moments from coming back.”

“Were you the one that stole my fortune cookie?” Daniel shouts from behind a motley wall of bouncing young ponies. Pinkie begins to giggle as she picks herself up off of the floor.

“That was a very smart and thoughtful speech,” Pinkie replies, “thanks. Even though a lot of bad things have happened, we can always put our best hoof forward and prevent it from ever happening to our friends.” Spike then runs into the room and up to Pinkie Pie’s side before yelling,

“You won’t believe what I just heard, Borris-”

“Which?”

“Major Borris was a Mork!”

“What?”

“He said so himself, follow me.” The two then run out into a corridor and make their way to the hospital, seeing Rainbow Dash, the Fluttershies, Rarity, and Gruncle Borris looking over a mattress upon entering. Pinkie and the purple dragon make their way to an opening between the four ponies to see Borris lying on the bed with a blindfold with ice on it over his eyes. Deep raspy breathes rumble from the armoured chest to the mouth of the resting stallion.

“What happened?”

“His eye irritation reached a lethal spike and nearly caused the poor boy to go into a full spasm.” The medic answers. “He should recover to his normal mental state in an hour or two.”

“What about the Mork bit?”

“The what?”

“Spike said he heard that Borris was a meanie by Midnight.”

“Oh, that bit…”

“You know about it?”

“Yes, everypony at the RAEM know what happened to him.”

“What happened then?” Rainbow asks, only to suddenly receive a cough at the leg and Borris replying,

“I shall explain, you deserve the truth, even if I don’t.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well-”

“Ooh!” Pinkie interrupts, “Another exposition sequence, I better take a seat.”

“Right, you do that.” The major releases a deep cough and a pant before beginning, “I was working with the AWE, doing routine training and storm fighting until a royal emergency letter came to us. Apparently some villains by the name of Tiretracks and Discord were stealing the magic of ponies and we were one of Celestia’s final resorts. We took the job and flown to Canterlot as fast as we could, only to find that the entire city was barren. There were signs of very minimal destruction, only a few holes in walls and busted doors. In the throne room however, we didn’t find the centaur and the whatever-it-was-called, but that’s when we found her…”

“Who was it?”

“You seriously don’t know?”

“I was never really good at the Pronoun Game.”

“That was when we found Empress Midnight, turning the royal guard into her slaves by swapping their helmets with hers. This was a threat, so we sprang into action and attacked the monster. Many of us were captured by her and the Morks and turned into them right on the spot. I saved a young recruit of the AWE by distracting them for long enough for the colt to escape, but I wasn’t able to retreat. Midnight grabbed me, but before she could make me a Mork, I fought will all of my might. She bashed me into walls, the floors, the stained glass, she hit me with her magic and metallic blades, and I put up one heck of a brawl. Inevitably however, I gave up consciousness and during my faint; I was turned into a Mork, armour and everything.”

“What was it like,” Fluttershy asks, “as a Mork?”

“Tartarus would be a decent word to describe it. I was under the control of the empress for loosely a month, my body, my mind, my emotions, everything was no longer mine.”

“How did it feel?”

“Very out of body, yet inside of the body, it’s extremely weird.”

“What did she make you do?”

“Primarily, I was like every other nincompoop, trying to break into the RAEM and stealing the Alicorn Amulet inside, but after she saw my advanced skills, Midnight made me do more… special operations. I entered the RAEM and gathered as many members with my high-speed winds as I can and take them to the surface, leaving them to the Morks in the back of an attack. Many of these missions ended up with me having to fight several of the more powerful resistance members, with some fights resulting in fatal results. And that was only the RAEM, at an earlier rebellion in Ponyville, I lead the Mork attack with a powerful storm, tearing away many homes of unexpected families still inside. I was the one whom spilt the blood of stallions, mares, pegasi, unicorns, Earth Ponies, adults, and foals that bathed the streets.” Gasps emerge from the ponies who have not known of this story.

“You didn’t, did you?”

“Even I’m disgusted at my own words, but I couldn’t do anything about it at the time. I was one of the deadliest Morks, being a complete force of unstoppable power.”

“Wait, does that mean that the you from my world could also become this?” Rainbow nervously asks.

“Yes, maybe even worse.”

“What caused you to snap out of Midnight’s control?”

“One day, roughly a few months ago, on another attack against the RAEM, I was caught in an aerial battle with Captain Dash. I chased her throughout all of the clouds, inching closer and closer to her. She was becoming desperate, so she dove down with me trailing behind. Our speeds increased exponentially as we came closer and closer to the ground. The incredible speed caused cracks to form on my visor and slowly break my control under the empress. Suddenly, everything went white, the only sense my body had in that moment was the sound of glass shattering amongst a deafening explosion. Then everything became black, with pain crawling across every inch of my body and a loud screaming sound ringing in my ears before passing out. I later learned that the captain and I both pulled off Sonic Rainbooms, with Dash pulling up and me crashing viciously into the ground.”

“Wait, YOU pulled off a Sonic Rainboom?”

“I know, I didn’t believe it either, even now I question if they who told me what happened mistaken something.”

“So what happened next?”

“When I woke up, I couldn’t see, my ears still rung, pain was still pumping through my body, punch after punch, all I could smell and taste was metal. However, the one thing I could see was the memories I had as a Mork, all the violence, the thoughts in my heads, the absolute nightmares I have created. I was devastated, for what felt like weeks, I was all alone with the memories haunting me. Finally, I was able to see, but only the left and right sides of my normal vision. I found myself in the hospital of the RAEM, being taken care of by various nurses, including Fluttershy. After seeing what I did to them however, I wanted to redeem myself and avenge the lives of all the poor souls that suffered from Midnight. So after the marshal repainted my Mork armour purple and gold, I trained and worked with Captain Dash as a powerful member of the RAEM.”

“Well, at least we know that everything turned out okay despite having to face many obstacles,”

“Okay? No matter what I do, I’ll never be able to bring back the lives I’ve taken away, I can’t see or move properly, everypony doesn’t trust me, Empress Midnight now has both Alicorn Amulets from this and your world, and I’ve just ruined my relationship with the pony I’ve had a crush on since flight school. You call that okay?”

“Things don’t always end up having a silver lining,” Pinkie replies, “but you have to move forward-”

“There is no forward…” Creampie croaks from the other side of the room, “Major Borris is right, Midnight now has the power to destroy us all.”

“That may be true,” Rarity argues, “but we can stop her.”

“How? Neither you nor anypony else in the RAEM has come up with a plan.”

“…”

“Face it, we’re doomed.”

“I refuse to believe such a ridiculous claim, for if I am to accept it or not, either way, I’m right.”

“Idiocy…”

“No, it’s called hope.” Borris then rises from his mattress and pulls the blindfold off. “See, even Borris is with us, right?” Slowly, the grey pegasus walks to the door, only to be cut off by Rainbow Dash.

“You’re leaving?” she asks.

“I’m sorry, but I’m all out of hope.” He calmly replies and leaps over the mare and makes his way to the surface, leaving Dash to stare out into the hallway.

“Please, don’t go,”

Outside the RAEM and inside the barn, the major exits the open trap door and closes it before noticing two figures looking through a window.

Is that the blind pony and the general? The stallion quietly tip-hooves past them and out the main door. He then runs to the back, and takes off towards the North, leaving everypony he knew from the past months. He looks back on the slowly fading building and notices Twilight outside the main entrance, but shrugs it off and continues.

What’s wrong with me? Twilight thinks to herself, unaware of Applejack and Raindrop spying on her. Me doubting my own great-uncle’s word, brutally talking down Celestia’s adopted daughter, and saying some of the stupidest things to the both of them. I should apologize to them. Would they forgive me? I’ve really messed up now. Why am I so stupid, jealous, and skeptical to the ponies I should be trusting and protecting? If this continues, I might as well question Celestia and join Midnight. I know what to do, I’m going back inside, I’m going to apologize to Raindrop, Boris, and everypony else for my dumb behavior, yeah, that’s what I’ll do! Twilight, now having her mind set straight, turns around towards the barn, only to be taken surprise by a large white unicorn Mork.

“Twilight!” Applejack screams as she runs out to try and help her friend. The orange mare leaps onto the Mork’s back and repeatedly punches at the back of the helmet. Twilight then notices the blue mane and tail of the minion and realizes it’s her big brother, Shining Armour.

“Big brother,” She exclaims, “it’s me, Twily!” The words bounce off the Mork’s head as another mind-controlled Shining leaps from the bushes and pushes Applejack to the ground, pinning her down. Raindrop blindly tries to find the trap door entrance quickly, but ends up bumping into walls and wood beams as the chaos ensues outside. The first Mork slowly approaches the purple alicorn, his red glass visor showing no signs of the pony she once knew. “Please, I know you’re in there!” Twilight’s horn and the Mork’s helmet glows as she tries to pull it off. To her surprise, a pop and a collection of panic grunts and pants can be heard as Twilight falls to the ground. She looks up to see the helmet on the dirt ground next to a confused Shining Armour with a noticeable red mark in-between his eyes.

“What happened?” The white stallion mutters, looking around frantically.

“It’s okay, help Applejack!”

“On it.” The two run to Applejack’s aid, but Shining then notices a large rock hovering right behind his sister’s head, glowing a dark purple aura. “Twilight!” A loud thud echoes throughout the field as Twilight’s vision becomes blurry before turning black, with the last thing she hears is her brother and Applejack yelling her name and the maniacal laugh of an unseen Mork.