Midnight emerges from behind a wall of darkness and reveals herself to the onlookers Her black armour had been torn from her body, revealing the purple and bright red flesh of the empress. The only armour that still remained on her was her chestplate with the Alicorn Amulets still in them, dangling on a thin piece of scrap metal around the mare’s neck. The tip of the razor horn piece was still attached to the horn and chestplate with a long, skinny, stretch of metal. Midnight’s eyes were scorched bright red in fury and the effects of her pendants. The face of Twilight, glaring at them with the intent to destroy them, is sending shivers bashing down their spines.

“It’s Midnight,” the alternate Rarity hollers, “she’s coming right at us!”

“Wait what?!” Major Jack exclaims, before the metal dragon suddenly jerks forward, sending everypony onto their sides. Midnight had punched the airship in the rear, and prepares to do it again.

“Twilight help!” Twilight quickly got up onto her hooves and begins running to the back, only to be flung by another jolt. The bottom of her chin struck the cold metal with a loud clang, causing a ringing in her ears. However, she tries to shake it off as fast as she could and continues her way towards the tail. Her vision becomes cloudy, but is able to make out the figure of her enemy creating another clawed fist and raising it. Her horn glows purple and she flings the fist back, followed by the empress. Midnight soon breaks from Twilight’s control and makes her way back to the tail, only for the same thing to happen again. The larger Twilight’s horn glows a bright red like before and aims it at the ship. A massive beam fires, traveling thirty meters to the vessel in the matter of a second. Twilight reacts quickly by bending the beam of destruction midflight, causing the ray to barely clip a spine of the silver dragon. Midnight then makes her move by positioning her two front wings, with one almost touching the top of the continues beam, and the other below. Her top green wing pierces the top half of the top half on the red magic, causing it to reflect onto the lower wing, launching the new the beam underneath the airship. “Look out!” A large eruption bursts between Twilight and the other ponies. The second beam forms a bright red pillar of magic following the explosion, followed by a loud creaking.

“What’s going on up there?” Twilight shouts, too distracted by the empress’ first beam to look behind. Midnight then rotates her lower wing, causing the second beam to cut off a side of the tail’s connection to the body of the aircraft. The long, spiny tail swings away from the slice and collides into the right wing on the dragon, soon followed by the entire ship turning to its side and angling itself towards the ground.

“Here we go again!” Midnight stops projecting the beam to see the ship rolling around violently, plummeting into the unseen ground below. She smirks at the panicked screams of mares and stallions licking her ears.

“NOOO!” The scream of Twilight stands out the most in the empress’ mind, as visions of her and Twilight together dance in her head.

“Where ever you crash and burn, my pathetic duplicate,” Midnight murmurs, “just remember this, you had the chance.” She then turns around towards her castle and makes her way back there, thinking what she’s going to do to the four stallions that sabotaged her suit.

“We’re losing altitude!”

“I know!” A wailing Atlas replies. The mass of metal and ponies continue to spiral towards the ground far below, everypony screaming and crying, waiting for it all to end. Minutes of unrest and torture pass, and soon, the falling ponies on deck noticed they have not crashed nor lose their grip yet after all this time. Their screams of agony eventually die down, now waiting for something to happen. “We’re still falling…” Atlas begins a short conversation with himself with the others silently listening, “Yep… I was pretty sure we were going to hit it anytime now… Anypony else want to add some, input, this is, awkward.”

“Sheesh,” Jack moans, “how long does it take for a thousand ton aircraft to crash?”

“Maybe we can think of ways to stop it.”

“I guess so.”

“Hey green guy,”

“What?”

“Has it ever occurred you us that we are having a casual conversation while falling to our deaths.”

“Yep…” Shining Armour breaks the uncomfortable conversation and speaks,

“Midni-I mean Twily! Grab this aircraft with your magic, you can do that!” Her alternate brother’s commands enter Twilight’s ears while her body is being swung back and forth by the broken tail. She tries to focus, but the concussion to her head has grown so violent due to the rapid whipping of the metal tail. Twilight begins to lose consciousness, her sight now becoming a collection of random shapes, swirling their colours together to create black. “Twilight!” A blue aura surrounds the alicorn and pulls her next to her friends and their alternates.

“Twilight, are you still there?” Rarity, clinging to a button hole, shouts as she carries her friend by her side.

“Rari-” Twilight gasps with her escaping breathe, but is cut off by Raindrop, grabbing a back spine close to her student,

“Twilight,” she says frantically, “don’t die on us now; there’s still a chance we can get out of this.”

“I’m sorry, for, being so mean to you, Raindrop.”

“I’m sorry too,”

“We tried, that’s all that matters,” Light soon begins to vacate from the purple mare’s eyes, but right before she loses consciousness, a voice of Rarity, but not her Rarity, speaks from behind,

“I’m sorry as well, Midnight tricked me into believing that she could offer me something more valuable than friendship. But that was all lies, there is nothing worth more than friendship. I see that now. She lied when he said that this stupid golden medallion was given as a sign of gratitude and loyalty. But when I say that it is a sign of our true friendship, I am telling the truth.” Twilight then feels the cold necklace of the pendant slide around her head and down her neck. In a split second, a glorious realization erupted in Twilight’s mind,

Is this the pendant to open the chest in this world?! Yes it is! The small pony’s eyes spring wide open as the colours of the rainbow flood her irises. “This is it!”

“I see the ground!” Atlas shrieks, “We’re about to crash!” Everypony once again begins screaming as before, hugging each other and saying their final words.

“Not today!” With a swift flick of her horn, she levels the dragon horizontally to the ground, hitting the top of the dead trees with the belly of the airship. The sudden change of angle flings everypony back.

“Are we dead yet?”

“Hold on everypony, we’re going to the Tree of Harmony. Twilight then teleports to the bow and begins to sail the airship rapidly over the sea of wood and fog. “Now where is it…” She suddenly makes a left turn, piling the ponies on deck against each other on the right edge. “No, wait, that was to Ponyville, it was a right I think,” The dragon then swerves right, sliding the mass of ponies to the left. “Wait, wasn’t that the way to Zecora’s?”

“Can you give some respect to the passengers back here?!” Twilight twists her head back at Atlas under a pile of ponies.

“I’m driving, keep it-” Her statement is cut short by the dragon piercing his neck into the ground. It skids against the forest floor and a slowly declining speed, all the while blasting the back of Twilight’s head with small rocks and dirt. After a minute of skidding, the airship comes to a complete stop, it’s backside and tail drop to the floor as well. Twilight looks over the bow to see a large slope of dirt from the neck to the earth below. “This seems close enough to the Tree of Harmony, follow me.” A vast collection of groans replies back. Twilight looks behind her to seeing everypony in a huge pile right behind her. “Too harsh of a landing?” A guilty smile forms on her face, followed by a nervous laugh.

After a long time of taking down the pony pile and a session of grooming from all the dust and wood, everypony is now ready for their next course of action.

“So,” Daniel asks Twilight from behind, nearly startling her, “what now?”

“We have to find the Tree of Harmony so we can use this medallion to open the magical chest and use its power to defeat Midnight.”

“Uh… Sounds confusing enough to work, I guess,”

“The only problem now being, where is it?”

“Get back you demon!” A distant voice hollers out far ahead of the dragon, deep within the fog.

“Who’s there?”

“You it is you, Empress Midnight! Go away, and goodnight!”

“Zecora?”

“Don’t play the innocent game with me! You destroyed my house in my tree!” Midnight’s Luna walks beside Twilight and replies back to the voice,

“It is I, Princess Luna, and this Twilight here is not Midnight. Tis a long story, and we don’t have much time.”

“Luna?” A zebra shadow soon forms in the fog, heading slowly towards the crowd of ponies. “Where’s Midnight’s wings? And what about my home?”

“Apologies to your residence, I shall see to it that your house is replaced, and this Twilight is one before she became Midnight.”

“…”

“It’s confusing,” Twilight remarks, “Zecora, I’m a good pony, and we need your directions to the Tree of Harmony.”

“I guess I shall take you, all at hoof, but tread slowly, for there is-oof!” The zebra in the fog falls face first into the ground. “Loose stumps…”

“Everypony! Follow the zebra.” The hundreds of ponies follow her orders and the entire team slowly tread behind this other Zecora, keeping an eye out for stumps hidden in smog. Twilight coasts away from the front and monitors the migration from the side. She then notices Rainbow Dash in the far back, her head hanging low with tears silently running down her face. Twilight teleports right of the pegasus and before she can say anything, Dash speaks,

“I know what you’re going to say, and you’re wrong. Borris is gone for good, I saw his wing plates fall after the explosion.”

“Oh…”

“I just can’t believe, that after all we went through, I never would’ve thought, it would end like this.”

“How so?”

“Him turning to a Mork, only to betray Midnight and save me.”

“Sometimes the best in something can come from the worst of intentions.” The Rarity of Midnight’s world replies, the other two look to Dash’s other side and see the white mare.  “I learned that, who my real friends are. At least know that he’s now with his love, Captain Dash.”

“Thanks for the support you two, I’m starting to feel better.”

“And look on the bright side,” Twilight adds, “if Borris is safe in our world, you two can reconnect.”

“But will he be the same as the Borris I know now, in this world?”

“I’m not sure, but if he’s anything similar to what he is here, you’ll know he’s a good pony.”

“Yeah, when we get home, I’ll find him and see if we could be friends again.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“There it is!” Pinkie Pie screams, the three mares focus their attention off of each other and see the army of ponies standing still, looking at something.

“What? What is it?”

“The Tree of Harmony,” Lieutenant Pie shrills, “it’s right down here!”

“We made it!” Her celebration is cut short by a loud girlish collection of screams roaring far behind them.

“Help!” The ponies turn around to face the echoing screams, trying to figure out who it is.

“What’s going on?” Suddenly, a golden chariot, pulled by two Earth Ponies stallions, one brown and one green, burst from behind a set of bushes and is now rocketing towards the crowd. A blue unicorn stallion pops his head from behind the front of the seat, soon followed by a yellow unicorn’s head. The blue one shouts in a loud, girly voice,

“She’s going to kill us!” Just before the out of control vehicle collides with the group, the humongous team splits in two, creating a path for the four stallions into the cave holding the tree.

“Why did that brown one pulling the chariot look a lot like me?” Atlas proclaims.

“And that green one like me?” Jack adds.

“And the two unicorns driving the thing looked a lot like us.” Daniel exclaims.

“What did the one that looked like me mean by ‘who’?” Aaron asks. A nervous chuckle exits Twilight as she replies,

“They’re your alternate versions from our worlds.”

“Oh, cool.”

“But yeah, what did he mean by… Midnight…” A low rumble echoes throughout the forest, soon followed by a massive red beam piercing the grey sky above. “Everypony, enter the portal inside the cave, get out of here!”

“What she said! Get outta here!” Soon, the massive rush of ponies stampedes down the face of the ravine and into the cave, catching up to Twilight’s Atlas and friends in the wheel-less chariot. The sound of trees above snapping gave the ponies in the cave a clear signal that Midnight was right above them. Another solid red beam burst through the roof of the cavern and penetrates the rocky ground below, slightly burning the tail of Shining Armour. As the herd reaches the tree, the blue glow of the hovering portal illuminates their eyes.

“You ponies go ahead, I’ll hold of Midnight!” Three by three, the ponies leap into the portal to Twilight’s Equestria, safe from Midnight’s clutches. Twilight looks back to the opening of the cave and sees the purple and black body of Midnight land, kicking up a small whirlwind of dirt, sand, and pebbles. Her red eyes glow bright as she makes eye contact with her distant arch nemesis. Midnight’s horn glows red and the portal behind Twilight closes just after a grey pegasus, a brown Earth Pony, and an orange ginger unicorn have jumped in, leaving Twilight, Gruncle Boris, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Raindrop, and both Celestias alone with the empress. “We’re too late!”

“That’s right!” The evil version Twilight cackles, right before slowly walking towards the ten ponies, all of which now huddled together against the crystal chest with the five golden keys sticking out of them. “That’s it, keep huddled together, I’m gonna make your deaths as painless as possible. Or at least, that I will let possible, hahaha…”

“Help…”

“Twilight,” Rainbow shouts, “insert the last key, quickly!”

“I can’t, if she gets too close, she might absorb the power.”

“You heard the mare everypony, hold Midnight back!” In an instant, everypony except Twilight and Raindrop spring into action and charge at Midnight, shoving back her arms and bashing into her front.

“Wait, I can’t do this on my own, I need you five!”

“We can’t hold back this thing with just three ponies, you’ll have to do it yourself.”

“What?! I can’t handle that much power!”

“Twilight!” Raindrop chirps, “You can do it!”

“That much power, I might explode!” A roar blasts from Midnight as she shoves the eight ponies away from her and regaining her walk towards Twilight and Raindrop.

“You’re an alicorn princess, I know you can handle the full power of friendship!”

“But-”

“Twilight!” The eight defenders shout out in unison as Midnight’s pace increases to running speed.

“I’ll do it!” In one swift motion, the purple mare rips the triangular pendant off of her neck and slams it against the last keyhole. A thick blue aura grabs the medallion in the air and transforms it into a key. Twilight then shoves the key into the hole. The tree behind her then glows bright with hundreds of colours, blinding the empress and stopping her advantages towards the chest.

“No!” The empress roars. The six keys sticking out of the diamond box turn at once as the top of the chest opens to reveal a pool of rainbow coloured magic inside. A pillar of the magic then burst out of the chest and falls back down to Twilight, encasing her in a pillar of bright light. The ponies knocked down by Midnight looks and watch in awe as the full power of the chest is absorbed into Twilight, transforming her body. Even Raindrop, upon looking towards Twilight, can see the white shadow of her friend undergoing the transformation. The bright colourful light quickly dies down as Midnight regains her vision. However, what she sees makes her wish she was blind once more.

“You may have the power of two Alicorn Amulets, but I have the full power of the magic of friendship!”