[right][I] Through a mirror, brightly
I saw a pone prance proudly
and though we both thought darkly
her intentions, unlike mine, shone knightly[/i][/right]
[hr]
"No.  No, no, [i]no!"[/i]

A frazzled Twilight said, "Starlight, you're the most reformed pony I know, even compared to Luna, and you're also available!  [i]Give her a friendship lesson[/i]."

"Which?"

"Any!"

"Any?"

She teleported outside with a double pop.  Running after, Spike yelled,  "You forgot me!"

I turned.  Framed in the door to the dining room stood a red-maned purple pony in a black leotard. Mint-green eyes blinked at me, then looked at the floor.  "Yes, I heard that."

Tempest Shadow—no, [i]Fizzlepop Berrytwist—[/i]had returned with Twilight after repatriating the yeti and recommissioning the Stormking's fleet.  Twilight saw a reformed new friend of Equestria.  Her invasion of Canterlot left me seeing her more darkly.  As I pictured Trixie's unhappy face and remembered Sunset's words, an idea condensed.

Trying my mane into the bouffant I used to wear, I whispered, "Any lesson?"

Fizzlepop asked, "So what makes you Equestria's [i]most[/i] reformed?"

I pointed a hoof.  She followed.  "Consider yourself privileged.  Only Twilight and Spike know I destroyed Equestria six times before Twilight deconstructed my evil personality."

"Only six times?"

As we entered the auxiliary library, a ray of afternoon sun glinted off the portal.  I shot a pulse of green magic into the mirror surface, making the framework pulse and the surface hypnotically swirl.

"Time spells."

Her broken horn fizzed.  Her scar darkened as she studied me.  "What do you wish to teach me?"

"A [i]lesson[/i].  Follow me."

I jumped into the quicksilver pane, felt myself spaghettified and spun through the trans-dimensional plane, to step out two-legged and upright in front of Canterlot High, lit by an orange westering sun.  Friday evening.  Students had dispersed; moderate traffic and a bus rumbled by.  I bounced away on the balls of my feet, flexing my versatile human fists, air boxing.  In this world, I was a gangly wisp, but had reach.  And I couldn't use magic, so I could argue I was being fair.

The portal fountained silver horizontally as Fizzlepop slipped through, immediately planting herself on one knee with one hand flat on the pavement to steady herself and another on her upright knee.  Her eyes widened.  She tracked a pedestrian reading a phone as she walked by, then took in the buildings and cars before narrowing her eyes upon me.

Bouncing, jabbing the air, I said, "Twilight and I used to start our days with a magic duel; you and I can't do that.  Sunset, another of our reformed evildoers club, once confided that it's sometimes easier to make a friend after you've beaten the crap out of one another.  I want to find out."

"I sense you're angry."  Fizzlepop levered herself up, took a step, another, and didn't wobble.  She slowly windmilled her arms, then bounced in-place.  "I get that a lot."  

Her crooked smile belied her words.

"[i]Angry?[/i]  When I defended us against your [i]soldiers[/i], my magic splashed off those cursed shields and knocked me senseless.  My friend Trixie hauled me around Canterlot, dodging capture, sneaking bandages and food, hiding us in a coal-chute.  She's become sober-thinking and less spontaneous since.  I can't forgive that."

Fizzlepop's neck and back popped as she stretched.  I looked up at the inexplicably-adult her compared to the teen-sized me, taking in grey-streaked red hair cut into a buzz-sided Mohawk.  Black chamois leather sheathed her muscular body.  The red scar that slit through her eye completed her ominous grizzled-biker look.  

"I didn't [i]forgive[/i] [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/1/16/Fizzlepop_Berrytwist's_friends_running_away_MLPTM.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20180117221246][u]my foal friends Lime or Montage[/u][/url] after the Ursa attacked me. I excused myself to become Tempest Shadow.  When I told Princess Twilight she'd failed at friendship, I'd described myself.  

"I can only apologize for the guilt I carry for my choices.  I've apologized to Lime and Montage, but beating you bloody, which I'd do even here, won't fix a thing."

I stopped bouncing and glanced away.

Her words drained the fire from my blood.  

"After Sunburst got his cutie mark—"  My voice caught.  "I ran away.  I'd thought he'd abandoned me, but I was wrong.  I'd never checked!  I'd excused myself to steal cutie marks and ravage time itself—"

"How many ponies have you yet to apologize to?"

Someone shouted, "Starlight!"  I saw Sunset running up with Twilight who carried her magic detector.  "Why are you here, and... who's this?"

"A new inductee to our reformed evildoers club... with a lesson to teach."