Back at the Everfree Forest, outside the cave, the nine ponies left behind are scanning the skies, searching for Twilight or Midnight.

“What’s going on up there?” Rainbow Dash exclaims impatiently, “First there was a hurricane, then a bunch of bright lights, now the entire sky clears with a Sonic Rainboom!”

“Be patient my little pony,” Celestia replies as her eyes remained locked on the clear night sky, “Victories come in time.”

“What if she fails?” The other white alicorn worryingly asks, “What if Midnight wins?”

“Don’t doubt yourself, you and I know that the true Twilight shall be victorious.”

“It must be easy for you to say such. You have your Raindrop right next to you, who knows what mine is going through, I haven’t seen her since the rise of Empress Midnight...”

“She’s completely fine.” A young mare’s voice surprises the group, who all gasp upon seeing the pony who spoke,

“Twilight!”

“I did it, Empress Midnight is down and out, this time for good. Raindrop’s chamber wasn’t uncovered and I’m pretty sure she has not the slightest idea of what happened.”

“I knew it!” Raindrop cheers before ramming into the purple alicorn’s chest in a fit of joy and hugging her. Twilight returns the hug before being tapped from behind the shoulder by Fluttershy,

“I’m sorry to interrupt but, what do we do now?”

Pinkie Pie then pokes her head between Fluttershy and Twilight and pulls them close to her cheeks with her hooves before asking, “Now, if I was trapped in an alternate world by an evil version of Twilight who is now defeated what would I do?”

“Uh, think of a way out?”

“Close, but I was thinking along the lines of throwing a party! We just beat an evil version of Twilight!”

“Wait,” Gruncle Boris hollers, “Pinkie, say that again?”

“Close, but I was thinking along the lines of throwing a party!”

“Not that, before, with the question!”

“What? Now, if I was trapped in an alternate world by an evil version of Twilight who is now defeated what would I do?”

“That! If Midnight can manipulate the connection between this world and our world… and if Midnight is an evil version of Twilight…”

“Then she could manipulate the connection as well!” Applejack cheers, lunging into the old stallion and hugging his back, “You’re a genius!”

“I know.”

“Wait,” Twilight nervously replies, “I don’t know how.”

“You just took on a double-Alicorn Amulet version of you with six super claws and only got a couple of bruises, how hard can opening a portal to another world be?”

“I guess, I can give it a try, stay out here. I’ll need to concentrate.”

“Roger that.” As Twilight proceeds to go down into the cave holding the Tree of Harmony, the nine other ponies cheer and celebrate over the victory. The two Celestias sit at the edge of the woods and watch as the dancing and singing commences, soon followed by Raindrop squeezing between them.

“I told you so.” The first Celestia brags.

“You were right; you’re Twilight saved the day.” The other Celestia replies, “if only it was the same for mine… What did I do wrong to cause this?”

“Don’t blame this on yourself, you had no control of it. If anything, I was the worse pony. I foalishly let Raindrop out, only for her to get in the crossfire of this war. The amount of fear I felt, nearly destroyed me.”

“You had no control of it either.” Raindrop speaks, “Everypony makes mistakes, me, you two, Twilight, but at least we’re all safe.” Chanting breaks out amongst the six partiers, taunting they’re defeated rival,

“Twilight’s a hero, Midnight’s a zero!”

“Hopefully they don’t get too carried away with it,” Celestia mutters.

“Let them enjoy the moment,” the other Celestia replies, “this land has been tortured by her for months, they’ve seen what she’s done.”

A mysterious, scratchy voice speaks from behind the three ponies, it’s cold breathe tickling the back of their necks as it talks, “But not what she will do…” Raindrop and the two Celestias’ scream in terror as they run from the voice behind them and into the group of unaware ponies. The party comes to a shrieking halt as everypony looks back into the foggy woods, only to see the all too familiar figure villain. “Aw, why stop the party? The lyrics were so fascinating.”

“M-M-Midnight?!”

“Hahahahaha! How did you know?”

“Okay ponies,” Twilight’s voice echoes from the cave, “I got the portal open, I think this lead back to our world!”

“Oh, how interesting, got it done in relatively the same time…” The ponies gathered at the edge of the opening of the cave said nothing. Their eyes were frozen stuck on the purple and red beaten shape of flesh that held its uncanny resemblance to Twilight. The red eyes and six heaving arms of the empress seemed to grow the long they glared at her.

“Girls? Boris?” The black bits of her armour still clung to her body as Midnight’s smile grew ever so wider at the distressed ponies.

“Did Twilight say that she beat me? She did, but never actually killed me,”

“What’s going on?” Twilight teleports in front of the frozen mass, her back turned towards the slowly approaching villain. “You’re acting like you just say Midnight, but rest assure you, I pumped her stone dead with magic, there was no way she came back from that.” Pinkie Pie, right in front of Twilight, shakily points her hoof forward, over Twilight’s should and right at Midnight’s grinning face. Twilight follows the pink hoof and turns her head back, only to regret ever doing so.

“You really need some self-respect.” The loudest gasp escapes Twilight through as she stumbles into her friends, shaking twice as much as they were.

“Impossible! Why didn’t that kill you!”

“There’s a funny thing about the Alicorn Amulets, they feed off of magic and power. Yet we are one in the same, so you as well as I would also absorb our own magic as well. It wasn’t about beating the other dead with magic; it was a matter of overfilling their bodies with magic, then killing them. I must say, you were impressive, being able to overload me and the amulets with this magic of friendship. But with time, my Alicorn Amulets feed off the excess magic quickly and I was able to regain myself. Now, let’s see if this ‘friendship magic’ can turn your pony buddies into dust!” Midnight then digs her metal claws into the ground and aims her horn at the crowd of ten ponies. Her horn begins to glow a fusion of multiple colors and black, creating an ominous, mystical glow. Twilight reacts by teleporting her friends into the cavern and prepares to deflect the incoming attack. A tiny laser projects from the tip of the sharp horn fragment and passes through Twilight’s body.

“Is that it?” Twilight doesn’t feel anything, but projects a shield around her just in case. Midnight’s body then twitches, soon followed by a massive slash of powerful magic to travel down the tiny beam and pierce through the shield and Twilight, shattering the shield and launching Twilight high into the sky. Midnight then aims the tiny laser at Twilight and fires another slash, launching her higher and farther into the sky.

“Near invisible and powerful, oh friendship, what a powerful weapon.” Midnight then dislodges herself from the floor and teleports into the sky, following the failing body of Twilight. Midnight fires again, and again, and once more, launching her rival all over the sky before grabbing her in her two front claws. “Give up! You can’t beat me. Fight me with magic? I grow more powerful. Try to physically injure me? Ha, you can’t touch me! No force on any world, magical or physical, can weaken me, only make me stronger!” The evil Twilight then proceeds to squeeze the weaken pony body before boasting, “Go on, run!” Midnight’s voice booms in the night sky, “Entertain me! I will find you eventually, any world, any time! Tell everypony of their inevitable doom brought to them by Empress Midnight!” In one swift motion, Empress Midnight chucks Twilight down, sending her rapidly falling down to the ground. In a matter of only ten seconds, Twilight finds herself only a couple meters above the floor of the cave opening. Her body, too weak to make any scream, flails even more drastically, completely lost after Midnight’s barrage.

“NO!” However, just before hitting the rocky ground, Twilight finds herself hovering in air, with her body enwrapped in a dark blue aura. Gruncle Boris’ voice then speaks far to her left,

“I got you!” The stallion gently, sets Twilight onto the ground on her hooves, only for her body o slam its side onto the ground upon being let go. “Are you okay?”

“Midnight,” Twilight gasps, her eyes now shut and her heart now pumping violently, “she attacked me, I wasn’t prepared, it all happened so fast.”

“Twilight!” Rarity’s voice echoes through Twilight’s seemingly empty head, “Stay here, we’ll take care of Midnight, she has to be weak by now!”

“Don’t, she’ll only grow stronger from magic and no physical attack’s going to hit her, it’s impossible.”

“What?” Pinkie Pie exclaims, hovering her head over Twilight’s face, “Nothing’s impossible, right?” Twilight tries to open her mouth, but Boris’ hoof covers it, motioning her to rest.

“Twilight has a point,” Boris replies, “any action we take upon her will only cause her to grow stronger and deadlier. There’s no way we can do something about it.”

“Well we can’t just run,” Rainbow Dash argues, “Midnight will rebuild her armies and sooner or later, will get us, it’s up to us.”

“But what can we do?” Applejack asks.

“There must be a way,” Raindrop adds, “somehow, someway, but what? What can overpower her without her absorbing it and actually damage her?”

“It can’t be an attack based off of magic,” Boris debates, “yet something that’ll produced a larger enough blast range to be unavoidable.”

“Like a bomb of sorts?”

“Maybe, but where can we create such an explosion at least parallel to the magical power Midnight has?”

“At least parallel?” Celestia barks, her concern for Twilight and her ponies has caused the once calm princess to transform into a raving madpony, “There’s nothing in this world that could create an explosion at such power!”

“Nor our world for that matter…”

“Unless,” Twilight mumbles back, still lying on the floor.

“Unless what? If you have an idea, it’s our last resort before running away.” Slowly, the purple alicorn gets up on all fours, partially opening her left eye to get a look at her great uncle.

“Unless there’s something of both worlds that can unite and create it. Princess Celestia, what did Midnight mean by the explosion trick from ‘Star Swirl’s Nano-Molecular Studies’?”

“It’s an ancient theory,” the princess replies, “It states that if two of the exact same particles were to touch, it would cause a paradoxical cataclysm so violent, it would wipe out a good chunk of space and time. I see where you’re going with this; you have learned well, this could be our best option,”

“No,” the other Celestia replies, “Midnight has taken extreme precautions for that to never happen when she started experimenting with cloning a while ago. It would take years to find anything in this world that was still the exact same in yours big enough to create a large enough cataclysm.”

“Then our only option now is to run, Midnight will catch up to us sooner or later, but we have no other choice at this point, we’ve stretched our options as far as possible.”

“Wrong…” Raindrop sternly replies, prompting everypony to turn at her with a gaze of confusion.

“What?”

“There’s one thing in both worlds that still remain the same, no matter what happened to their outside worlds. Both have been preserved beneath stone and magic for years.”

“What is it?”

“Me.” A collective gasp roars across the nine ponies, all now thinking she was crazy.

“You’re actually thinking about killing yourself? No! I will not let you!”

“Princess Celestia, both versions of you, you have taught me well. You’ve taught me about honesty, kindness, magic, generosity, laughter, and loyalty. You have and will risk your life trying to save me, and now I shall return the favour, by protecting you. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” A quiet moment unfolds, as both Celestias stare longingly into the glazed over eyes of the determined filly, contemplating whether to let her do this or not. Twilight, Gruncle Boris, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, silently watch, not knowing of their decision. The two Celestias give a deep sigh at once, each ending with a small sniffle being held back.

“If you must, I trust you.”

“Thank you. We must get to Canterlot as fast as possible.”

“Let’s go!” The others cheer, only to be cut off by Raindrop’s hoof pointing towards the cave.

“Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Boris, this will be extremely dangerous. I can’t risk your lives being with me when the time comes. Go home, please.”

“…Okay…” Without another word, the groups of seven ponies turn around towards the mouth of the cave and slowly descend into it. Twilight looks back once more at the three, now ready to take off, only to notice a nearly invisible rainbow beam pointing right into the back of Raindrop’s head.

She screams, “Duck!” Raindrop immediately hears the command and gets down without hesitation. A charged slash of raw magic then travels along the beam and barely slashing Raindrop’s ivory mane, hitting the dirt ground with an explosion. “Run, run, run!” The two princesses pick up Raindrop and the tracing saddle still on her and they all disappear in a ball of bright light. Twilight then turns back around to her friends looking back in fright. “Get going, I’ll stall the empress!”

“Good luck!” Gruncle Boris shouts as he and the other five resume their journey to the portal.

“To you to!”

“You’ll need it more than me!”

“Whatever, just go!” The single alicorn then looks up at the menacing black figure slowly descending from the skies.

“You,” Midnight speaks, “you just make the dumbest choices don’t you? I give you the option to join me, I give you the option the run, I give you the option to not annoy me anymore. But no, you just have to make these choices.” Midnight then teleports to Twilight and grabs her in her claws, squeezing Twilight’s face so that her eyes would be stuck onto her. Both of their bodies begin to rattle, with one from physical suffering, and the other from mental suffering. “Why, Twilight? Why, why? Why do you do it? Why, why stay here? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting... for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love?”

“…” Midnight’s face begins to grow bright red with rage as the Alicorn Amulets infecting her mind is unable to understand Twilight’s actions.

“You must be able to see it, Twilight Sparkle. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Twilight? Why? Why do you persist? What makes ponies so ignorant to logic? Why?”

“Because they, we, and I chose to do what is right, because there is always hope of victory, somewhere out there in this collection of worlds, is a victory for every failure.”

“…I see,” Slowly, Midnight lets Twilight down, causing the weakened pony to gag harshly. The empress then looks over towards Canterlot with a slight smile growing on her face. “Then I better make sure this world holds my victory.” In the heavy blink of Twilight’s eyes, Midnight disappears without a trace, presumably after Raindrop.

The unrelenting force of the Alicorn Amulets, are truly powerful, corrupted tools of destruction. It’s like their some demonic sentience, using vessels to carry out their plans. But it’s truly more horrifying than that. I know that they are only tapping into  the darkest and deepest sectors of a pony’s soul, feeding from its magic and power to grow and feed more at the users will. I know that I am willingly letting this happen, I too once had thoughts of overthrowing Equestria in the deepest parts of my mind. I know what must be done, for I am not fighting a pony corrupted by the amulets, I am fighting the deepest parts of my mind and soul manifested into what I could be.

Upon finishing her thinking, her blinks out of the area with a purple flash of light, teleporting to Celestia’s castle.