Starlight's Shifting Sands

Chapters

1 Fracture
2 The Witching Hour
3 Shattered Bottles, Shattered Rainbow
4 Shifting Stars - Interlude the First

1 Fracture

“I was perfectly happy before you and your FRIENDS ruined what I built!” Starlight glared while leaning towards Twilight, her mane and tail blowing in the dusty wind. Her voice was full of malice, hatred even, and there was still that calculating intelligence behind her eyes. Even with her head mere inches from Twilight’s she had her gaze shifting to the dragon every so often, despite him being seemingly frozen in fear.

Twilight leaned back, raising up her right foreleg in an instinctively defensive reaction to a threat that close, though her voice was far more measured and calm as she responded. “I don’t know what happened that led you to make your village without cutie marks, and I’m sorry my friends and I had to take it away.”

Starlight reared up on her hind legs, her voice raising as her horn lit up. Her pupils shrunk down to pinpricks while she materialized a quill and some ink. “You want to know what happened to me? Give me the scroll so I can show you!”

“Don’t do it, Twilight!” Spike shouted, shaking his head. “That’s the only way we can travel after her! She might shred it or something worse!”

“I just need to alter the place we’re transported to. I can’t do that without reworking the spell since it only goes to one specific location. I need to change the scroll or else I could end up erasing time itself with a spell this complex.” Starlight’s voice is far calmer now, her breathing slowing down as she looks around the barren wasteland. “I think nothing existing at all is just a bit worse than this, even.”

“I don’t know, Spike, there’s really nothing else we can do.” Nodding at Starlight, she floated the spell over. “Besides, maybe we can talk some sense into her if we know why she’s like this. Do what you have to, Starlight.”

Starlight grasped the scroll carefully in her magic, pulling on it only after her own telekinetic hold had completely taken over as a tear could be disastrous at this point. She quickly found the targeting portion of the spell and began to trace sigils in the dirt around her hooves as she began to recalculate things. Each and every one had to deal with locating something in one way or another, and they were quickly rubbed away and redone as method after method and location after location were discarded. “The world isn’t going to just snuff itself out or anything, is it? This may take longer than I thought with how complex I initially made this.”

“You shouldn’t have made it in the first place!” Spike growled, his spines standing on end. “I just want to go home you insane, cutie mark stealing cultist!” A puff of smoke escaped his nostrils, showing his anger.

“That’s hardly the way to talk to the pony who currently holds the ONLY way for you to get back home, lizard.” Starlight nearly growled under her breath while saying this, outright kicking at the dirt to erase the latest rune before she shifted her position to a new, clean patch. This time the quill began tracing shapes in midair as some of the runes and sigils were not kicked away immediately. Progress was being made, though a frown creased her features quickly. “We have to get back to the normal present first. If I alter the spell now, this becomes the new normal.” Her horn began to glow, readying itself to cast her original spell once more.

“Stay close to me, Spike.” Twilight grabbed him in her magic, nodding at Starlight. When the portal opened, she zipped in, going as fast as her wings could take her. Starlight followed close behind, and they waited for the rainboom to happen unimpeded.

Starlight held the scroll close to her side, her expression turning worried as one foreleg continued to nervously poke at the cloud beneath Twilight...and pass through . “I honestly don’t think I could ever trust myself on a cloud. Holding yourself up with magic just seems much safer.”

“Cloud walking is really fascinating, in all honesty,” Twilight replied, more than a little awkwardly. A small sigh of relief passed over her as the familiar sight of the rainboom filled her vision. “Looks like we’re going home after all, Spike.”

Another portal, another awkward grappling session to ensure they both went through to the same location, and they ended up back in the restored map room of the crystal palace. This time the air seemed to hum with life and power after the barren wasteland. Starlight quickly began making her edits to the scroll. “Okay. Alter the location, and add an intangibility effect so that this is only for observation since I don’t want to screw up my own past…”

“Take all the time you need,” Twilight spoke with a kind smile, placing a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “Spike, why don’t you go get the girls? We need to discuss all of this.”

Spike frowned, looking between the two. “I dunno, Twi. I don’t feel right just leaving you here with her. What if she steals your cutie mark while I’m gone or something.” He shot Starlight a glare, baring his fangs.

“Oh, yes, because that would be just SO intelligent to do with you bringing her friends right back here where they could tackle me and make me give it back immediately.” Sarcasm would have dripped from Starlight’s mouth like drool if it had a physical form, and her expression was more insulted than angry. “I’m not stupid.”

“Forgive me if I wish you were.” Spike growled at her, quickly waddling out of the throne room. He paused at the door to give Starlight the ‘I’m watching you’ motion before walking out of sight.

Starlight breathed a sigh of relief, actually smiling once Spike was out of sight. “Good, he’s out of range. With all the changes I’ve made, this new version would have been unstable with more than two travelers, and I doubt he’d have agreed to stay behind otherwise. Are you ready, Princess?” Her tone became almost happy, welcoming even, and a far cry from her earlier frenzied temper.

Twilight eyed her for a moment before nodding. “As ready as I’ll ever be, Starlight. I just want this whole thing to be over and done with.”

“Me too.” Starlight began laughing after that, her horn lighting up once more as her body quickly floated out of immediate reach to cast the spell. “You want to know what happened to me? YOU CAN HAVE IT!” Her spell blasted from her horn to the scroll, to the table, and from the table back to Twilight and herself. The very air growled for a moment, with Twilight’s vision doubling as a result of the insane magnitude of the spell and the power of the map behind it.

“W-what did you do!?” Twilight hissed through her teeth, feeling like her very essence was being torn about. “Starlight! Answer me!”

“Cutie marks for cutie marks, friends for friends. If I can’t destroy your friendship without destroying the world, I’ll just TAKE it! Your friendships, your family, your entire history! You can have mine if you want to know what I went through so bad, I won’t need it anymore!” The manic tone is back in her voice, this time backed with more power than anypony has a right to direct. Sound stops as another bright flash of magic emits from both the scroll and the map; with the former slowly beginning to crumble to pieces and drift to the surface of the latter.

Twilight looked at the map in utter panic, lighting her horn up to start a counter spell. Her hope died as her magic died, fizzling out with a sputter. Horror sank in, she had let Starlight trick her and she was going to lose it all. Everything she and her friends had done was going to be wiped away and replaced.

A black stain began to spread out from the map, turning the whole thing into something akin to an ink spill. The entire world froze, the only motion coming from Twilight. Before her eyes a thing rose from the blackness. If Twilight hadn’t known any better she’d have thought it was a minotaur, but her instincts told her this was something else.

Dark as the void between stars and covered in silver markings, the creature stared down at her with two white orbs. Just looking at it told Twilight this was wrong, not the creature itself, but the fact that she was meeting it was wrong.

She felt her leg twitch as if to take a step back as the entity moved, but her own body failed to respond. It somehow stood even taller as it took a step out of the map, reaching a height that should have left its head halfway through the ceiling before it finally knelt down and reached for her head with one hand. “Uoy pleh nac I. Emit morf desare gnieb era, won era uoy sa, uoy. Mrah on uoy naem I.” The other hand is help up in a gesture similar to one she’s seen through the mirror for ‘stop’ or ‘halt.’

Twilight took a moment to stare at it, trying to process its speech. “I-I don’t understand.” She glanced at Starlight Glimmer, who was frozen mid-laugh. “A-are you doing this? How? How do you have so much power over time?”

“Tluciffid si knil a tuohtiw gnikaeps. Tnemom a tub ni raelc edam eb lliw lla dna mlac niamer. Wonk I.” The hand near her head made contact, one finger seemingly phasing through her horn until it wrapped around her skull while the others followed suit, resulting in her her eyes encased in its palm. The hand squeezes for a moment, causing a short flash of pain and then clarity as the two times it had spoken rewrite themselves in her memory into clear speech from the previous reversal. “I am Dahaka.”

“Dahaka?” Twilight spoke, letting the name roll along her tongue. “I’ve never seen anything like you,” she admitted, staring at the creature in both awe and more than a little fear as its hand moved to the side of her neck. “How are you doing this? This is far more than anything a pony can do.”

The head of the entity moves, nodding for a moment before turning to stare at Starlight once more. “Dahaka are summoned when time is broken. Dahaka repair time. Often this means death for those who break time. This however, is far more than that. She is taking your destiny, piece by piece, and when she is done, you will be forced into the role she left. History itself, if not her spell, would force that. You would be judged insane, claiming to be Celestia’s former student and a princess while not being an alicorn and unknown to Celestia. Better to take this you and leave the one this change creates.”

“H-how?” she asked, her eyes tearing up. “W-what would my life be like in her world?”

“A markless mare,” Dahaka responded as its gaze returned to her. “You grow to adulthood without your mark, a bitter shut-in with a grudge against the world. Your friends fare no better: Kindness becomes a poacher, Generosity a mere worker in a garment factory, Honesty a miserly noble, Laughter a joyless farmer, and Loyalty... a broken drunkard who believes she killed her childhood friend.”

Twilight stumbled back, barely containing her sobs. “N-no. She can’t! She can’t do this! You said you could help me! How!? How do I stop this!?”

“A pact. You and I merge. Your alicorn magic with my time essence will make us powerful enough to exact retribution upon the timebreaker.” The hand moves in a way that is almost soothing against her neck and shoulder. “It is the only way to overcome the harmony she is twisting to enable her spell. It is the only way you will continue to exist with your memories and soul more or less intact. She cannot overwrite me.”

“A p-pact? Like a contract? What do you get from this? You wouldn’t be offering me help if it wouldn’t help you too. If you can do all this, there’s no reason you would need me.”

“That is correct, I don’t need you.” Dahaka spoke plainly, gazing into her eyes. “But, you are a light of hope to the world, and you do not deserve this. I offer you the chance to bring divine justice yourself. Once our goal is achieved this pact will have never happened, and you will be as you are now once more.” It almost seems to smile. “There will be mutual benefits while we are merged. I have weaknesses that your essence will alleviate, though not fully eliminate.”

Twilight wiped at her eyes, her body shuddering with sobs. “R-right.” Glancing at Starlight, she hung her head. “There’s really no other choice is there?” Glancing back up at Dahaka, she held her hoof out. “Then, I accept. I won’t let her get away with this.”

“There is always a choice. You could have chosen oblivion. Just because you don’t like the option doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.” Dahaka started to melt, its body lurched forward as gravity asserted itself. It surrounded her almost like a cocoon, seeping into her body any way it could. She coughed and gagged as it flowed down her throat and into her lungs; though this somehow did not hurt, it was still uncomfortable. Less comfortable still was the sensation of her pores opening to absorb even more of it at once, and of her follicles being invaded and overtaken.

She reeled as it’s presence asserted itself into her mind, figuratively breaking her mind wide open. Knowledge- past, present and future -poured in, threatening to overwhelm her. She saw herself meeting Starswirl, heard the wail of a minotaur as it shriveled in her grasp before crumbling into bones and dust, and felt the bite of a griffin as he tried to stop her from nearing his mate. No. That wasn’t me. These aren’t my memories…

No, they are mine Dahaka whispered into her ear even as it settled within her body. All those who disturb time must be punished, even if their hearts are in the right place. Occasionally there are opportunities for leniency, but those are more rare than naquadah.

Looking down at her body, Twilight felt a shiver of power course through her. Her gaze shifted towards Starlight as she approached the map. “I’ll let you know if I think she deserves one of those or not.” She felt her form tremble, as if her flesh were less stable than a water balloon. “Right now I feel like we need a nap.”

Your body must acclimate itself to my power, and we must adapt. A short rest will suffice, and we will only sleep as long as we require. Dahaka cannot be late, it is a temporal impossibility. Rest and emerge refreshed, and we will begin driving her mad as we correct her blasphemy.

Twilight nodded, placing her hoof onto the still blackened cutie map. With a final glare at Starlight, she allowed herself to be pulled into the blackness, the bliss of sleep took her not long after.

Time resumed, with the world none the wiser of the events that had occured between the fall of one grain in an hourglass and the next. Starlight’s laugh continued for another minute as her spell completed itself, though it trailed off into a groan as she was hit with a sudden headache from a new set of memories coming out of nowhere. “That just means it worked...” she muttered to herself, glancing over her shoulder.

Twilight Sparkle pulled herself up off the floor, a groan of pain as her horn let out a pitiful spark from its blackened tip. “You...you still haven’t won. I’ll have my revenge on you and your friends if it’s the last thing I ever do!” despite her unsteady hooves, she set herself up to charge at Starlight while the other mare floated down from above the map.

“Twilight, please,” Starlight pleaded, hiding her amusement behind a kind smile. “You don’t have to do this. I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but you don’t have to let that define you.” Taking a step forward, she held her hoof out. “I promise, I’ll help you find your mark.”

“I don’t need to find mine when I can steal yours. I finally figured out how to tap the power of marks I steal. I should have done that at the start to stop you from foiling me, but I won’t make that mistake again!” Her horn lit with a decidedly unsteady glow, the aura of magic flickering more than once before a magenta beam speared out to stab at Starlight’s flank and begin pulling. Her reserves drained, the spell lingered with Starlight’s mark half-removed before snapping back and knocking Twilight off her hooves.

Starlight staggered back, ignoring the pain in her flank. “Please, Twilight. Give me a chance, I know you’re scared and you’re right, I don’t know what it’s like to grow up without a cutie mark. I want to help you.” Stepping forward again, she offered a hoof to help Twilight up.

Twilight simply groaned and struggled to stand once more. Her next attempt to call on her magic only resulted in a pounding headache and a bloody nose. With her vision blurry, she glared daggers at Starlight Glimmer before extending her hoof. “I surrender. I don’t have enough magic left to lift a tissue. You win.”

“I don’t want to win, Twilight, I just want to help you.” Starlight hauled the unicorn to her feet, still smiling. “You just need a guiding hoof, Twilight. I know there’s a great mare in you.” Stepping back, she looked over her shoulder as her friends burst into the room. “It’s alright now girls, I have everything under control.”

Moondancer was the first to speak out of them all, her eyes flicking from Twilight’s horn to her flank, then to the blood dripping on the floor from her nose. “Considering she’s suffering from a blown horn and complete thaumic burnout I certainly hope you have her under control.” She approaches and gently taps her horn against Twilight’s to transfer a hint of energy over and ease the headache at least.

Twilight looked away, bringing her hoof up to her nose. “Just punish me already. I don’t feel like hearing any more friendship speeches today.”

“Yeah well, if you listened to reason earlier, Starlight wouldn't have had to knock you around so much,” Spike retorted from his position astride Lyra’s back. “You brought this on yourself, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Nobody asked you, you wingless runt,” Twilight spat out in response to Spike, her eyes narrowing as she moved her head and horn away from Moondancer. “And I don’t want your pity. I’m drained, not an invalid!”

“Hey, don’t take your angst out on Spike!” Twinkle Shine huffed, putting herself in between them. “He never did anything to you that you didn’t deserve.”

“Now, now.” Starlight held her hoof up, trying to smooth out the situation. “Twilight just needs to clear her head. Spike, would you mind keeping an eye on her while the girls and I discuss a few things?”

“Can we get a magic blocker ring on her horn first? I don’t want to risk her trying to tamper with the map again. Whatever she tried to do earlier left it all blackened, Starlight.” Spike points towards the map, his voice conveying actual concern.

“Wait, blackened?” Starlight frowned, glancing towards the map. Indeed, gone was its shimmering map of Equestria; replaced with what looked like oil. “I don’t remember that happening.”

“Well, it was normal before and now it’s all...that. I know you wouldn’t have done anything to break it like that, so it must have been her, right?”

“Spike, relax. Her aetheric channels are too damaged to properly weave even a simple telekinesis spell at this point. It’ll be at least two days before Twilight is able to do anything more complex than brush her teeth, and a few hours before she’ll even manage that. All I did was stop her body from trying to eat itself to generate more energy.”

“My spell utilized your fancy map, but it shouldn’t have done that,” Twilight explained, locking everyone’s gaze. “You must just be too stupid to do proper maintenance.”

“Can I slap her if she keeps being an insufferable wretch while I watch her?”

“Spike, hitting ponies doesn’t help you make friends with them,” Starlight scolded, tearing her eyes away from the defiled map. “But, I will ask that you stop with the insults, Twilight. Friend making is a two way street.”

Twilight rolled her eyes in disgust, muttering under her breath for a moment. “Ugh, fine. Go talk and whatever. I’ll stay here and stare at the massive ink blot that’s consumed your map while you six go gossip and pretend to care about me or whatever it is you’re going to do.”

Lemon Hearts frowned, giving Starlight an unsure look. “You really think somepony as unpleasant as that can make friends? I don’t even think I could put a smile on her face.”

“Call it a hunch, but I’m pretty sure she has it in her to be a great friend to all of us as long as we can crack open that shell of bitterness she’s built up over the years. I can just sense it in her somehow.” Starlight walked away from the map slowly, moving towards one of the other doors to find a different room that would provide some privacy for the discussion.

Twilight turned away from the door, not saying a word to Spike. Minutes passed before she finally spoke up. “What do you think they’ll decide to do with me? Toss me into a null-magic cell? Encase my horn in antimagic rings? Banish me? Banish me and lock me in a null-magic cell?”

Spike sighed and, despite his better judgement, walked over to her. “Look, I can’t claim to see it, but Starlight thinks she can show you friendship. I mean, she is the Princess of Friendship, can you really argue with her?”

Twilight levelled one last glare towards Starlight’s back before the lighter purple mare closed the door behind her friends, her face twisted in jealousy for a moment as she examined the Princess’ wings. “Well, I did assault royalty, so what happens to me is entirely up to her in the end. That...that was rather stupid of me, I will admit.”

Spike gingerly reached out, placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “We all make mistakes, ya know. It’ll take effort on your part but, if you want it, it’s never too late to be a better pony.”

Author's Note

Shagohad ambushed me with a concept: Okay so, it's a take on cutie Remark: Starlight alters time to the point where she's taken Twilight's place as Celestia's student. When they return to the present and time starts to get overwritten, Twilight makes a deal with the Dahaka to become it's avatar, to both preserve herself from being overwritten and to return time to it's proper shape

Idea after idea came to me, feeding them over to him gave him more ideas, and less than twelve hours after he brought the concept up we'd finished writing the first chapter.

Enjoy, share your thoughts, and check out his stories if you don't already!

2 The Witching Hour

Starlight found herself wandering the halls of the castle late at night. Her eyes ached with exhaustion, but she felt the need to familiarize herself with the layout beyond what one set of memories was telling her. “Oh come on! This is the fifth hallway that led me back to the map room! What is going on in this place?”

Her exasperated shout echoed in the building, still coming back a full second later. She walked closer to the map to examine it in more detail, or at least to see if the top remained a mass of magical ink, oil, or clay. Her left forehoof prodded at the surface, prompting a swift retreat as it almost seemed to suck at her frog. “You probably should leave the map alone. It’s clearly broken, and you’re just going to make it worse if you keep fiddling with it.” The voice of her new student chimes in from right behind her, for once not containing a trace of anger or resentment.

“You’re probably right, Twilight.” Starlight pulled away from the map, turning with a smile. She almost felt bad for Twilight’s new disposition, almost. It wasn’t like the mare hadn’t brought it on herself. “How was your day with Rarity?”

Twilight shifted her posture into one that was practically prancing on the tips of her hooves while mocking Rarity’s speech pattern. “Well I’d say it was absolutely delightful, darling. The trip to the spa was simply smashing, and I haven’t felt this relaxed since before I started obsessing over books. My back has never felt so good in the entirety of my life.” She theatrically threw a hoof over her eyes while leaning against Spike’s smaller throne and eased back on the mocking after clearing her throat. “She’s a nice mare, but what a drama queen.”

From across the room another Twilight walked into view. “Did you say something to me, Starlight? Who’s Rarity?”

Starlight froze, glancing between the two Twilights. “What? I-I don’t..” She lit her horn up, getting into a stance. “Twilight, this isn’t funny. I don’t care what spell this is, knock it off.”

“Funny?” The Twilight leaning against the thrones stood up straight, her eyes narrowing as she began to walk around the map table. “Is that what you thought your actions would lead to? A few laughs on your end and everything turns out fine with rainbows and smiles?” Her hoof came down on the table with a solid thunk, as if the surface were still crystal, while she came to a stop in front of Moondancer’s throne. “Because I’m not laughing, Starlight Glimmer.”

The other Twilight began to circle the map from the opposite direction, looking from it to the princess. “Starlight, I think you’re just stressed out and you need some sleep. Moondancer even said I wouldn’t be able to do anything more complex than brush my teeth for a couple days, remember?” She slowed to a halt in front of Lemon Hearts’ throne, her hoof also coming down to rest on the table’s edge in a more reserved manner. “How could I possibly be casting any spells that would make you hallucinate?”

“Or is one of us a changeling?” The first Twilight asked, gesturing to her doppleganger. “But then, how would I know who Rarity is? What do you think, Twilight?”

“Well, I have a hunch that one of us in the room is certainly a liar, and a mare who shouldn’t be here. The question thus becomes, who is that mare, and how would I know about what Moondancer said if I wasn’t the real Twilight?”

Starlight tried to put herself an equal distance from the other two mares without leaving the circle of thrones, edging left from her own throne to stand in front of Minuette’s while carefully not touching the map again. “I-I don’t understand…”

“Well, see there's a very simple solution here, Starlight Glimmer,” the first Twilight spoke, giving Starlight a smile. “Which one of us actually got into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? I know my answer, how about you ask her for hers?”

Starlight swallowed nervously, her ears laying back flat against her skull as she looked to the second Twilight. “W-well, fine then. Which of us managed to pass the entrance exam and hatch Spike?”

The second Twilight answered almost immediately, and it took a moment for Starlight to register that the two unicorns spoke in perfect unison this time. “I did, you cheating little liar. Better not touch that throne you’re standing in front of right now, you might implode from the depth of the lies you’re telling.”

“No! You can’t remember!” Starlight shouted, stamping her hooves on the ground. “This is my world now! You were stupid enough to let me alter the spell! You never deserved your wings, and now they’re mine!”

Both Twilights began to grin at this, their smiles broadening to a degree that was completely unnatural. Again, they spoke in perfect synchrony, “And so the truth shall set you free…” Thunder boomed through the castle, or something else much like it since it had been heralded by no lightning strike.

“Why can’t you just be a good filly and lose!?” Starlight hissed, her horn shining brightly. “Do I have to erase you entirely?! Make your mother miscarry?! Get it through your thick head that I won!!”

A tendril of blackness shot out from the surface of the table and wrapped around Starlight’s horn, followed by the deepest growl the poor mare had ever heard in her life as something began to pull on her magic. Three voices rang in her head now, both Twilights and something else, some other indescribable thing. “Selfish mare, that power is revoked by divine right of the Timekeepers.” The two Twilights began to dissolve into the blackness covering the table, their coat and skin sloughing off and leaving bare skeletons behind, which continued to talk. “You shall wreak no further changes for us to correct in the past. Your victories will be hollow. Your future is grim. You have as long as it takes us to clean up your mess to contemplate how wrong you were, and you will then be judged accordingly.”

Starlight jolted awake with a scream of terror, her eyes wide and furtively darting around the room. “I-It was just a nightmare, Starlight,” she assured herself, clutching her blankets close. “There’s no way she remembers. This is reality now, and no one can change it back.”

A knock sounded from her door before Spike cracked it open. “You okay, Starlight? Sounds like you didn’t sleep very well either.”

Getting out of bed, Starlight shook her head. “It was just a nightmare, Spike.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “We were stuck in the Nightmare Moon world, it was pretty awful.”

Spike blinked before shrugging as he opened the door completely. “I thought the one with all the changelings was scarier, myself, but it’s your dream, not mine. I made waffles with raspberry whipped cream for you, and Twilight is in the map room with a sack full of crystal tools looking at the table.”

“Thanks buddy.” Trotting over, she wrapped him in a hug. “You know how to treat a mare.” Pulling away, she poked his pudgy belly. “Moondancer’s gonna need someone to take care of her~ You know how she gets when she starts researching a project.”

“Oh, was she starting work on something new then? I don’t remember her mentioning anything like that to me, but you are a little closer to her on the day-to-day things. Maybe I can bring over a care package with some warm oatmeal and apple slices?” He was clearly trying not to blush, or look directly at Starlight, and his claws were poking against each other as he tapped his hands together. “You know, if that’s okay?”

“I know she’ll love it.” Ruffling his spines, she pulled him onto her back and trotted out of the room. “Twilight hasn’t started working on the map just yet, has she?”

“Not as far as I know. She said she was going to have to set up a set of octarine lenses and a bunch of other tools just to examine the part that holds all the spells together since she can’t really cast anything yet.”

“Did she give you any problems?” Starlight walked into the kitchen, letting him hop off. “Or is she still insulting you?”

“Eh, I can’t really say it was insulting, but she did tell me to keep my greasy claws to myself when I offered to help her carry the tools. Granted, they were actually greasy at the time since I had just started cleaning up the dishes from last night and someone had left a full plate of vegetable stir-fry underneath everything.”

“Well, that’s good I can’t have her giving you a hard time.” Patting his head, she took her seat and grasped her utensils in her magic. “Hmm..., think an insult jar would help curb her tongue?”

“You’ll have to start paying her before she can afford to put anything in it to begin with.” Spike shrugged in response. “Besides, she’s mellowing out a little bit already. I honestly think she was more worried about having to clean the tools than about me damaging them just by being close or something.”

“I’ll have a talk with her after breakfast.” Levitating over a small bag, she dropped it into his claws. “Here, a little reward for being such a good assistant.”

Spike tossed the pouch up once to catch it again, feeling the gems inside settle. “Seventeen, really? Did the stipend for my heroism from Cadance and Shining Armor up in the empire increase lately or something?” One hand reached in and pulled out three stones, with two being dropped back inside so he could pop the small emerald into his mouth to suck on. “Not that I’m complaining...”

“Think of it as compensation for having to put up with Twilight’s attitude,” Starlight explained, taking a bite out of her own breakfast. It amused her to no end to see the state Twilight was in. If she could, she’d rub it in Princess Twilight’s face. “I know she’s a bit rough around the edges, she just needs some guidance.”

“So rough around the edges that licking sandpaper sounds more appealing than being around her.” Spike began methodically opening cabinets in the kitchen and pulling out the pans and bowls he needed to mix up the perfect oatmeal for Moondancer.

Starlight had to stifle a laugh. Not that long ago, the little reptile was saying the same sorts of things about her. Now, he actively loathed his former big sister figure. Oh how loyalties sway when temporal mechanics come into play she thought to herself, hiding her smile behind her fork.

“AAAAAH! No, no that can’t be right.” Twilight’s shout carries far from the map room, followed by the clatter of crystal on crystal. “Oh buck me to the moon and back…”

Setting her fork down, Starlight arose with a sigh. “Spike, would you mind keeping my breakfast warm, I’m going to see what’s got Twilight so upset.” Not waiting for a response, she trotted out of the room and made her way to the throne room.

Starlight ended up walking in on Twilight hunched over a satchel about half her size with a helmet assembly of some kind sitting on the floor next to her flank. Not even a foot away lay a bunch of shards with a color beyond description to them. “Spare lenses...spare lenses. There HAS to be a case of spare lenses here!”
“Twilight, calm down.” Starlight stepped over, putting her hoof on Twilight’s back. “Here, I’ll fix it.” Lighting her horn up, she cast a renewal spell, mending the shards back into one whole lens. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

Twilight’s ears twitched at Starlight’s voice and her hurried moves slowed to a near halt as a sigh escaped her mouth. “Drat, and here I’d hoped I’d be able to finish triple-checking my findings and validate the fix I’d calculated after my second examination before you woke up.” the glance Twilight sent in Starlight’s direction over her shoulder was a few steps above the glares she’d been giving yesterday in terms of warmth, but it at least lacked the open malice.

“How are you feeling?” Starlight asked, taking a seat next to her. “Still have a headache? I don’t want to push you too hard on our first day together.”

“I’m fine, thank you for asking.” She took a deep breath and pulled six tools out of the bag one after the other, each one appearing nearly identical. “I still feel mostly drained, but it’ll take a few days for me to get my energy levels back up to normal after using as much magic as I did. I also learned that I was exceedingly lucky to have backlash as mild as this considering the layers of protection this map has based on the readings I was able to understand.”

“It certainly is something,” Starlight agreed, getting to her hooves. “So, trusty apprentice, shall we determine what exactly is wrong with the map?” Shooting Twilight an encouraging smile, she offered a hoof.

“Um, no offense, Princess, but do you know the difference between a resonance wrench and a corus tuner? I only scratched the surface of the enchantments in this map before I found a simple solution, but the wrong tool could embed my skull halfway through the base of Mount Canterhorn.”

“Celestia always did say teaching was a two way street.” She took a step back while gesturing to the map, “How about I let you take the lead and we go from there? That sound good?”

Twilight thought to herself for a moment, then carefully arranged the tools in a row. “I’ll just ask you to hand me one by position instead of expecting you to recognize the name and know the tool by sight. Not like you had to carve a set of magic receptacles into a wall with no help from your cutie mark to force you to learn the hard way of fixing spells.”

“Right.”

Twilight gave a nod in response before crawling under the table as much as she could and lighting her horn up with a dim, but steady, glow of power. “Okay. Third one from the right should be where we start, the eightfold stasis spanner.”

Starlight levitated over the tools as Twilight asked, making sure to memorize her work. “So, how was your night? I trust you slept well?”

“Like a rock, actually. Last night was the best sleep I’ve had since I was run out of town.” She groaned and a thud could be heard as she apparently dropped her head to the floor. “That’s unfair of me to keep bringing it up, I really should stop. I’m going to need you to touch the rim of the table and tell me if the next thing I do makes anything happen, okay Starlight?”

“Right.” Starlight nodded, putting her hoof on the table. “Ready whenever you are, Twilight. She watched as Twilight set a tool on the table, feeling the oil covering it ripple from the impact.

As Starlight focused on the surface of the map and her hoof stayed in contact with it she began to hear music. It started out faint before climbing in volume as a point began to rise out of the oily mass in the center of the map.

“Twilight, get away from the map.” Starlight backed away, her eyes wide. “Now,” she ordered, grabbing the unicorns tail in her magic and dragging her along. Before her eyes, the mass took shape, crafting itself into a solid being.

“Starlight, NO!” A screech came from the tool Twilight had been using under the map, and she immediately moves to dive back under. “I can’t stop just like that, I need to either reset it or continue calibrating unless you want to spend the bits to get a professional crystal empire technician down here to see if they can even begin to understand spell weaving this complex when 90% of them are earth ponies.” She acts like she can’t even see the rising mass.

One huge portion of the mass jerked up and to the left, oil oozing off of it before the shape resolved into a malformed feathered wing. An identical mass snapped back and to the right, flinging enough of the toxic-looking fluid around to completely cover Starlight’s throne. Then eyes opened up and flared with pure white light. Purple smoke began to leak from the sides and upper portion of those eyes as the black ooze covering the creature began to slide away.

“Twilight! There’s an ooze monster coming out of the map! Get away from it now!” she all but shouted, lighting her horn again. She fired a blast of magic at it, blanching when it didn’t even so much as flinch.

“An ooze monster? Resetting! Resetting with great haste!” the glow from Twilight’s horn intensified before the tools were seen on the other side of the table.

As the fluid flowed off of the creature emerging from the map, color began to become discernible. That top point that had first exposed itself above the surface went from black to a shade of purple slightly darker than Twilight’s coat, and what had looked like a huge head immediately underneath that point could be distinguished as two oddly-curved black horns originating from the sides of the creature’s head and intersecting to create a sideways figure-eight shape. The tip of the horn on the left side of the creature’s head crossed in front of the centered, more unicorn-like horn, at the base while pointing upwards. The horn on the other side came out lower and curved around upwards, ending with its point behind the central horn.

“You need to hurry up! Magic doesn’t seem to be doing anything!” Starlight shouted, zipping into the air and pelting it with another round of magic bolts.

“Em truh ton lliw cigam,” the creature spoke, its voice low and distorted. Her ears not quite picking up what it was saying. “Gnihtyna od t’now ti, ekil d’uoy sa hcum sa yrt.” A sound much like laughter erupted from the entity as one arm swept out to the left and the other went right, both of them dripping fluids as more dark purple flesh was revealed. Lines of silver became visible as well, runes writing themselves onto the flesh of the being as it was exposed to the open air.

Twilight’s head poked up from the other side of the map table, surrounded by a tiny cloud of sparkling particles of crystal. She looked left, then right, her eyes crossing right through the space occupied by the being without any sign of recognition. “A monster, hmmm? It’s a bit early in this...living arrangement to be pulling pranks, Princess.”

It gripped the sides of the map, pulling itself out. It’s lower half ended in a pair of hooves, like some kind of nightmarish minotaur. “Won rof su dna uoy tsuj s'ti .Tey ton tsael ta ,thgilratS ,em ees t'nac ehs.” Dropping to the floor, it rose up to its full height, towering over Starlight. “Eltsac ruo gnidliuber erofeb noitadnuof eht hctap tsum ew. Thgilrats, smaerd ruoy gnitisiv eb lliw ew. Su wollof ot yrt ton od, su rof kool ton od.” It then leaned down slightly, one finger quickly flicking out and barely brushing Starlight’s horn. Something was pulled out, something that...she could no longer remember.

“It’s right there, Twilight! How in Tartarus can you not see it?!” Starlight demanded, reeling back from the creatures touch. “Fix the map! Maybe we can send it back to where it came from!”

Twilight blinked for a few seconds, then looked down at the map to see if her work had made any discernible change to the surface. A small ring of color inside the edge showed that she had been on the right track, with some progress retained even after resetting the spell matrix back to how it had been. “I think I might have hit you a bit harder than I thought with one of my spells in our fight...there’s nothing there, Starlight. Maybe you should go see a doctor or to the hospital? Hallucinations are not a sign of a healthy mind.”

“I am not hallucinating!” Starlight screamed, flying close to the ceiling. “It stole one of my memories, who knows what else it could do!?” Her blood boiled as the being laughed at her, tilting its head mockingly. “Give it back!” she roared, diving at it.

“Sdneirf ruo ot enod evah segnahc ruoy tahw fo kcots ekat og ot deen ew. Kniht ew ,won rof lla s'taht.” The dark purple monstrosity laughed again before heading for the large doors out of the map room, leaving behind pools of the black substance as hoofprints. It turned around to give Starlight a mocking wave before stepping back through the solid door as if it weren’t even there to begin with, followed by the sound of the already-closed door...closing.

“What?” Starlight asked, pulling up before she collided with the floor. Staring after the creature, she dropped to her hooves, chest heaving. “What the buck was that thing? How did you not see it, Twilight?”

Twilight responded with a look of confusion. “How am I supposed to know what it was if I couldn’t perceive it? I mean...you’re obviously reacting to something, but I have no way of knowing if it was real or not with no frame of reference! For all I know you’re still pranking me.” She held her gaze on starlight for a few more seconds before sighing. “Can you put an image of it down on paper or something? I might be able to use that to look through some reference books on the various creatures of Equestria and other lands, see if I can find a match of some kind.”

Starlight took a breath, letting her anger bleed out of her. “Well, I can try anyway. Never been a very good artist, but, I know one or two spells that should work.” Nodding to the door, she took a seat on her throne. “Would you mind getting me some paper?”

Twilight placed the tools carefully on one of the thrones, holding one of them up to examine it for a few seconds first. “You’d have to tell me how to get to where you keep it. Paper isn’t something I was thinking about when I asked Spike to show me around earlier.”

“Well, just ask Spike where it is, then. I’m pretty sure we keep some nearby, but I’m busy trying to remember every detail possible so I can get the image right.” Waving Twilight off, she stared at the map, burning the image into her mind.

Twilight walked out of the room, nodding to herself as she thought of how best to not cause the young dragon to panic. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Try to relax?”

“I don’t understand, why is Sweet Apple Acres only half the size it should be? Even without Applejack being around to help, it couldn’t have been that big a difference...could it?” The altered princess stood tall at the edge of the property, looking at the dilapidated farmhouse and ramshackle barn with concern.

As I said before, Honesty is now a miser. Without a love of family, there was nothing to make her appreciate hard work. Why waste money on something that wasn’t worth it?

“Well, do you at least know where she is, then? I thought for sure she’d be here with her family at the very least, since living with others would be more cost-effective. And why did we only see Big Macintosh on the farm? I know Applebloom would be on her way to school…”

Honesty never left Manehattan. She refuses to pay for more than what she sees as necessary to get her more bits. Which, is none now as she sees it. Soon, the farm will leave the Apple Family.

“We can’t let her do that, though. Her family needs this farm, Ponyville needs this farm!” Twilight looked to the sun, and then spun to find the best landmarks and got herself pointed towards the far-off city. She felt her wings flex strangely as she gave then a tentative flap, but then most things about this new body were a little on the strange side.

You are thinking linearly, this present does not matter. Nothing that happens now matters. What matters is fixing the past. To do so, we must revert your companions to their original selves. Only then will time begin to correct itself.

“Well I’m going to start with her, then. This is the most hurtful thing she can do to her family, and I’m going to make it so that it can never have happened, that she could have never even thought to do such a thing!” One mighty leap and a hard flap of their wings propelled Twilight into flight, and three sets of ghostly trees collapsed on the other side of the fence as her haste sent ripples through a dozen other possible timelines.

Her body locked up, held in stasis by Dahaka. We cannot restore Honesty now, that version of her cannot exist yet. We must start with the foundation that bound you all together before. Without it, there can be no other fixes.

“The foundation? What in the world are…” she trailed off, then tried to shake her head at her own clouded thoughts. “Of course, the rainboom! You’re saying we need to fix Rainbow’s present self before we can even interact with any of the others?”

Yes. The rainboom is the event that linked all your destinies together. Reestablishing it will allow us to begin our work in full. Though, you should brace yourself, you will not like what you see.

“How much worse could it possibly be than the Apple farm being so...lifeless? I mean, even the trees didn’t look particularly healthy.” She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Right, so, Rainbow Dash should be in Cloudsdale, right? No rainboom means she probably never left the city with ambitions to become a racer, or a Wonderbolt.”

She is, indeed, in Cloudsdale.

Author's Note

For the sake of clarity and visualization, the merged Twilight-Dahaka entity has a skin tone roughly the same color as Fizzlepop Berrytwist's coat, and other than the horn and wings looks very much like the base entity otherwise.

See story image for reference.

3 Shattered Bottles, Shattered Rainbow

Author's Note

I just want to say that the response to this work of fiction so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and both Shagohad and I thank all of you for that.

Please, feel free to pop this into any groups where you, as a reader, feel it belongs. the more people we get reading this, the better our chances of getting more feedback so we know what works and what doesn't from your perspective.

There is a point in this chapter wherein a potentially unsettling event is described in broad strokes. If any of you feel that this is deserving of a more specific trigger warning in this author's note, please say so in a comment.

3 Shattered Bottles, Shattered Rainbow

“Okay, I was wrong. This is much worse than I was expecting. Thank you for showing me how to fully phase myself out of the physical world.” Twilight felt nauseous as she looked around the room. Bottles of all kinds were strewn across the floor in piles that defied all logic, and spread among them were packages and containers of snack foods and take-out. Two pizza boxes were on top of piles next to the bed, one empty and one with half of a large pizza still inside of it. Three more could be seen in various places, with the open one on her desk holding a few moldy slices. Rainbow herself was taking up a good two feet of space above the mattress, and the room positively reeked of old beer, whiskey, and various moonshine grain variants. The only clean spot was an arc at the door for it to open, and the bottles and other garbage around it looked as if they were regularly compacted into higher piles.

Rainbow was in no better shape than her room. Her mane was long, dirty and faded out. Gone was her athletic build; replaced by soft pudge and a not small beer belly. Dark bags hung under her eyes, which were themselves lifeless and bloodshot. She stared at the wall, a large, half-empty glass of straight absinthe resting in her hooves, the variety of liquor betrayed by the pungent anise smell and the distinct green color. She had just finished taking a large gulp from it.

“Oh, Rainbow, I’m so sorry.” Twilight trembled, turning her gaze from her fallen friend. “I-I can’t believe this happened. I just... Why? Why did Starlight have to do this?” Turning her head towards the door, she heard the sound of two raised voices going back and forth.

“I don’t care if it’s the fifth time, Windy, our daughter needs to go back into rehab before she gets back into the harder drugs. You know we won’t be able to help her up the next time she has a seizure from snorting lunar lightning! We can’t risk it.” The masculine voice was thick with emotions, sounding as if the speaker had just finished sobbing. “Maybe this time we’ll be able to keep her hopes up, but we’re not going to bother with yet another ‘Best Patient’ trophy.”

“Bow, just accept it, please!” a female shouted back, just as emotional. “We both know she’s not going to get better. We failed her, and you have to accept that.” That was a pause as Windy choked back a sob. “I think it’s a-about time we start thinking about giving her a ‘most wasted potential’ trophy.”

“We can’t afford that. We can’t afford any more trophies. I’m working myself to the bone, Windy, and she couldn’t even hold herself together to get through a cakewalk interview at the weather factory that I set up for her. We need to cut her off.”

Twilight shook her head, blocking out the argument. “I can’t. I can’t listen to this anymore. Dahaka, please, what do we have to do to fix her? Even a second more of this is unimaginable.” Her eyes lingered on Rainbow Dash, sadness erupting into anger. How dare Starlight Glimmer do this to her friends! Over what!? Petty revenge?! Her focus lost, she slowly faded back into reality, her canons displacing a few bottles to tumble down the nearest pile.

Even for one such as I, this is not a simple thing to fix. We will have to be careful in moving history back into the proper place. Too much power could break the tenuous thread of her timeline.

“Tartaros you supposed to be?” Rainbow Dash asked with a heavy slur in her voice, looking over her shoulder. “You death or somethin?” Throwing her head back, she slammed what was left of her drink down her throat before chucking the glass at Twilight’s head. “Took your sweet ass time, I’ve been ready for decades.” Sitting on her haunches, she closed her eyes and spread her wings. “Just take me already.”

Twilight blinked, flinching instinctively at the thrown glass before realizing what Rainbow had said. “This is wrong in so many ways I don’t think I could even begin to count them.” Twilight stepped closer, kneeling down in front of the fallen pegasus. “I realize you can’t understand me but, I’m not death. It’s me, Twilight, and I’m going to make this better.”

The words had at least caused Rainbow Dash to open her eyes once more, and the kneeling caused her to tilt her head in confusion as she looked up into the blank purple face and white eyes of the mystery being. “Well, what are you waiting for? Do it already!”

Raising her hand, Twilight hoped that whatever harmonic magic that had connected them still held, even if by a thread. “I dunno if this will hurt but, it has to be done.” Drawing on the Dahaka’s instincts, she placed her hand on Dash’s head, letting her fingers phase into Dash ever so slightly.

We must make the first adjustment here. Expand your senses slightly and feel for the part of the mind that trembles the most as that will be where the easiest alteration is housed.

For Rainbow Dash’s part, for the first time in her life, she knew where she had gone wrong. In a brief moment of existential realization, it became clear that she was in the wrong shape. Whatever the creature was, it knew she was wrong and she hoped it would fix her.

“What made you start drinking, Rainbow. What sent you staggering down this self-destructive trail of horrors? Four previous drug rehab stays? A mountain of junk food garbage in your room?” Twilight couldn’t stop herself from asking even as she tried to focus on the instruction the Dahaka gave her and feel for a part of her friend’s mind that trembled.

Then she found it. Deep in the back of Dash’s mind was a funeral. A foal’s funeral. Fluttershy’s funeral. Before Twilight’s eyes, Rainbow’s life played out: Fluttershy going missing, the yellow casket, Rainbow blaming herself, the downward spiral into delinquency, the stints in jail, the drugs, until finally the guilt became too much and Rainbow drowned herself in booze and junk food.

A vision of some kind came from this, the Rainbow dash in her hands on the far left, followed by a series of progressively more fit and less ragged-looking ones, and all the way on the right was one wearing a Wonderbolts Reservist flight suit in reversed colors, yellow being the dominant color and blue saved for the accents. This is the spectrum of potential presents for Rainbow Dash. I have omitted the ones that are worse except for a few that come between where she stands now and where we need to get her.

“And how do we get her there?” Twilight pressed, looking at the Dash on the right. “How do we make her a wonderbolt?”

By walking backwards along the thread of her fate and correcting where it sits in the tapestry. Each wrong decision she made skewed its course, and we must erase those mistakes. We don’t have to correct every single individual one, but if we go back and correct too many at once it could result in an unexpected deviation, and we would be pulled back to start over with a new baseline. Going back to the funeral from here and having her demand to see her friend in the casket without changing anything else could even result in her thread snapping under the strain, and all would be lost. From the possibilities I can see, that funeral seems to be an immutable event as things stand now. Maybe later we could come back and correct it, after working with Kindness.

“Okay, so slow and steady then? All things considered...” Twilight took a breath, slowing moving her arm, and by extension Rainbow Dash, to the right. Each time a pair of Dashes met, the one in her hand altered, taking on the appearance of it along the spectrum.

The room altered around them as well. The first few changes merely resulting in smaller and smaller piles of garbage until one of the rooms blurred into red and dissolved. Twilight felt her arm lurch to the next point immediately as the Dash in her hands began screaming.

“Oh, Faust! Dahaka! What did I do!?!?!” Nothing wrong. My mistake. I failed to read that potential properly and had to pull her for you to avoid a collapse. “Was she... dead?!” Twilight panicked, serious doubt starting to fill her mind.

Mortals are so frail, their minds fragile, and their emotions volatile. That possibility looked like a happier present until we got there. She was prescribed a medication that had an opposed reaction from normal. You moved her from her room to impacting a cliff at near-rainboom velocity, and I moved her back to her room. We should have stopped time at the beginning, That would have spared her the flash of pain. I have stopped it for us now.

This room was far cleaner, though the odd bottle of booze here and there still dotted the floor. Rainbow remained somewhat on the pudgy side in her hands, but the distended beer gut was gone. Instead of a pizza box, there was a pile of Hayburger uniforms on her desk. “Well... almost there at least...” Twilight chuckled, more than relieved that Dash wasn’t begging to die anymore.

Would you like to take a break, relax your arm a bit? The spectrum shrank, cutting off the poor presents they had just dragged Rainbow through and expanding those that remained slightly as a result. Moving into and through a bad choice is never without impact. If we keep moving her now before unfreezing, she will scream in a less plausible situation.

“You say that like there’s ever a good time to be screaming in pain.” Twilight lowered Rainbow to the ground, slowly removing her fingers from the still mare. “I’ll take that break though.”

Twilight felt their body phase back out of the physical world, though her form was still reflected in Rainbow’s cornea, meaning the blue mare would be able to see her at least. The flow of time resumed, and Rainbow continued to scream for a few seconds before falling over face-first on the floor as the aborted sensations faded

Two sets of hooves came running from far closer than her parents voices had sounded like they were coming from a minute ago, and the two of them burst into the room with looks of concern on their faces and a pair of small trophies on Bow’s back. “Rainbow, what happened? You didn’t-you didn’t take something again, did you? Not after six months clean…”

“No!” Dash jolted to her hooves, shaking her head frantically. “I haven’t touched the stuff, I swear! I just had a weird dream and rolled off my bed.” Looking away, she rubbed her neck. “I was going to crash head first into a cliff...”

Windy put her hoof to her mouth with a gasp before rushing over to wrap her wings around as much of her daughter as she could reach with her hug. “Don’t you ever think of doing that. We’re here for you, and you know we love you. We...we even thought it would be a good idea to maybe celebrate, for old-time’s sake.”

“Yeah, six months with nothing stronger than whiskey, and just last night you got promoted to assistant manager after working at that Hayburger for a year. That’s the longest you’ve ever managed to stay clean, and the longest you’ve ever managed to hold a job. I really feel like we should have three here, but overnight is short notice to get a trophy made so we had to combine the two job ones.”

Dash returned her mother’s hug, nuzzling into her side. “Thanks... Both of you. I don’t know where I’d be now, if I didn’t have you guys helping me up.” She giggled a bit at the trophies. “You guys sure know how to make a mare feel good about herself.”

“Well, you know how to use your father’s tools if you ever want to make a ‘Best Parents’ award or something in your spare time. Maybe even find a special somepony yourself so we can start spoiling a grandfoal instead of you?”

“Oh come on, mom. I’ve gotta lose, like, thirty pounds before any guy would even look at me.” Dash punctuated her point by poking her belly.

“More like ten.”

“DAD!”

“What? I happen to know a few stallions who like the chubby look.”

“No, no I’m drawing the line there. We are not talking about setting me up with anypony you know, we are not talking about my sex life, and we are certainly not talking about falling off the wagon ever again. I need to have some boundaries, and you absolutely will not be making a ‘best orgasm’ trophy for me.” She shot both her parents a look. “I mean that. If I see one, I’m chucking it out the window.”

Twilight giggled softly at the exchange, shaking her head. “She’s getting there. I had no idea her parents gave her trophies for everything. That explains her inflated ego, honestly.”

She earned that ego in your native timeline, Twilight Sparkle, or do you deny that she earned a number of actual accolades? Young Flyer’s champion, fastest promotion from cadet to active Wonderbolt, Element of Loyalty, hero of Equestria three times over.

Sighing, Twilight shock her head. “I was just trying to cheer myself up, Dahaka, not deny anything.” Shifting her stance, she made herself known to Dash once more. “Think we’ll need to take another break, or will we be able to get her back to normal in one more go?” she blinked. “Wait, what? Active Wonderbolt?”

Dash gave a slight nod before pushing her mother away at last. “Alright, you cheered me up. I have to get ready for work now, so...” Using her wings, she shooed them to the door. “Go on, get outta here.”

It happens maybe a month into your future. You won’t remember much of these events anyways, so it will most likely still be a joyous surprise for all of you. As for being able to get her as close to normal as possible, we’ll have to wait and see.

“Alright, champ. We’ll let you get washed up and ready. Think you can smuggle home a pickle triple combo for me, compliments of management?” Bow winks as he backs out of the room and starts pulling the door closed.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Dash looked back at Twilight. “I don’t know what you are but... I feel like I know you.” Sitting down, she hung her head. “I really hope I didn’t take anything, my folks are so happy that I got my act together, and I don’t want to be that kind of pony again.”

Twilight steps forward, her center horn lighting up as she creates the illusion of a smiling mare’s face in front of her head. One smooth motion has her hand on Rainbow’s head and her voice echoes understandably in the cyan flyer’s ears. “You never were that kind of pony in my memories, Dash, and once I’m done, you will never have been that kind of pony. I swear by Celestia, Luna, and Cadance that I am real, and you are not high....on drugs. Because you are high, in the air. I mean, this is Cloudsdale after all.”

“Okay, yeah, I definitely know you, but trying to remember is like flying straight into a fifty wingpower headwind. I’m not getting anywhere.” She smiled, and appeared even more relaxed than when she was drunk and begging for death. “Will I remember you doing this once we’re done?”

“No, you won't, just like you don’t remember how I found you.” Twilight's smile turned sad. “Your memories of me, as things should be, won't come back until I fix all of us.” Arching her fingers, she began to reinsert them. “Just know, I won't stop until you get your dreams back.”

“All of us? How many ponies are messed up like me? Do I know any of them?”

“You know all of them, Rainbow Dash, they’re our best friends, ponies we couldn't live without if we tried. I'm going to start again, Rainbow, as I said, you won't remember this. This is goodbye for now.”

“I hate goodbyes. Ever since Fluttershy when I never got to say mine to her face, but if I won’t remember you anyways, it’s not really a goodbye. It just means that I’ll have a new friend again the next time we meet.”

“That's... Really nice, Rainbow,” Twilight replied, asserting her power once more. “I promise, you won't have to wait long.” Lifting Dash back into the air, the rainbow of other possibilities reappeared.

Breathe, relax, and this time remember to freeze time before we begin to ease her to the next stopping point. If fate is kind, we will not have to deal with another backlash.

“Right, freeze time, I forget I can do that...” She gave Rainbow one last smile before bringing time to a halt. “Let's do this.” Moving her arm once again, she moved Dash through the remaining possibilities. The room changed once more, old racing medals and trophies appearing on the walls. After one or two moves, the hay burger uniforms vanished and a flight school coach outfit replaced it. “How close do you think we can get? If my understanding of this is correct, we won't be able to get her perfect until we fix Fluttershy.”

We can ease her to the point where she’s in the reserves now. Slow down a bit, her thread is straining slightly. That's it, just like that. When we finish, she will be Loyalty again, and put the first crack in Starlight’s plagiarism. The main difference between the Dash you know and the Dash she will be for now, is that this one will be flying and racing in honor of the memory of her friend rather than giving up because of it.

“Good to hear,” Twilight replied, anticipation growing in her chest. “And like dominos, Dash’s influence will reassert itself, right?”

If only things would be so simple as to all fall in line once the foundation is set in place. Your analogy is apt, Twilight, but you misjudge where we are in the process by a fair margin. Right now we’re still setting up the first of five pieces that will radiate major changes outward. Look at the coach uniform. You’ve gotten her to the point where she’s certified to teach advanced stunt flight to students. A few more steps and you erase an old injury that kept her from recent competitions.

“Right,” Twilight responded, more than a little embarrassed. “I suppose this is why I'm the Princess of Friendship and not the Princess of Time.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “There isn't one of those, is there?”

Not yet, no. Keep picking up on how this body works and the powers it holds so easily, and I may petition to have you ascended in the event of your untimely demise.

“I’m already ascended,” Twilight responded, continuing to move Dash along her path. “But uh, I'll keep that in mind for now.”

Not above the fourth dimension, you aren’t. Your mortal existence is still tightly bound to the dimension of time. Your life expectancy has extended greatly as a result of your evolution beyond being a mere unicorn, but you and the other four princesses are still mortal and able to be killed. Celestia and Luna would take far more effort than it’s worth, but they could still die.

“Right, let's just focus on getting Rainbow fixed, and not send me into an existential crisis more than I already am.”

Existential crisis? I am unfamiliar with that phrase.

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight grumbled, shaking her head. “It’s only something us mortals have to worry about.”

I believe I have offended you. That was not my intention. We do not often have opportunities to conduct a civil discussion about such matters. Perhaps it is time to send an envoy to Luna once more, to see if we can obtain a clearer picture of society as we used to.

“Wait, Luna knows about you?” Twilight asked, moving Dash through another series of points. “Shouldn’t we go to her then? Maybe she can help us?”

The Luna of this world knows of you as a wanted criminal who was responsible for stealing pieces of ponies’ souls in a mad effort to force her own cutie mark to emerge. Assuming Starlight did not send a missive to the sisters about capturing and deciding to rehabilitate you, that is. She has been hostile to us in the past because we torment our targets through dreams, and she would likely think we were hunting the wrong mare, as she sees Starlight as the hero that you were.

The room changes drastically as they move closer to the desired point, with much of the clutter of a lived-in room being replaced with even more awards, trophies, and parental mementos that a child would not keep on their own, such as a framed diaper, for some reason.

Twilight could feel timelines starting to grind together, Moondancers and Rainbow Dash’s. Her arm slowed at a few spots from the goal, pushing against what was. The two series of events clashed, each threatening to overwrite the other. “Come on!” she hissed forcing her arm to move. “I’m sorry, Moondancer, but this is Dash’s life, and she’s getting it back!”

Push no harder, Twilight. Look down at Loyalty. She is becoming harder to move because time is being strained to keep her in this location. Keep hold of her and start walking about, following the pull that time exerts to find where she should be right now. You have done well so far, and she feels none of the strain that I can see.

“Right... walk around... I can do that...” Twilight nodded, standing back up, making sure not to put too much pressure on Dash’s neck. She began to walk, prodding around for the flow of time.

Two things happened as she approached the door out of Dash’s room. A slight tug was felt running from Dash’s body up through her shoulders, and Dash also began to feel more solid, more real, slightly heavier despite the vast decrease in bulk from earlier.

Heavier means down as well, Twilight. Next time we will hope we don’t have to move too much physically, though Honesty will present a unique challenge...and Laughter. The pull is gentle, so we shouldn’t need to move her too far.

“Okay, looks like we’re going down.” Spreading her wings, Twilight let herself fall through the clouds. Catching herself, she was very happy that her wings didn’t need air to fly at the moment. “Okay, find the flow again and follow it along...”

Finding the flow and following it along leads to the kitchen of the house, where two distinct versions of each of Rainbow’s parents stand in different places. Each one is slightly transparent, looking more like illusions than living ponies.

“Okay, uh... which one do I go with?” Twilight asked, looking between them. She took a moment to study both, looking for any clue that would help her decide.

Don’t use your eyes. Use your friend. The pull will be quite subtle, but she will want to move to one place in particular if you use the smallest amount of pressure possible to finish moving her to the right on our spectrum.

Twilight closed her eyes, stepping between the pair of parents. Focusing solely on Dash, she felt for the tells, her arm almost moving on it’s own. In the end, she allowed Dash to guide her to the pair on the right. Releasing Dash from her hold, she stumbled backwards. A great snap rang out through time as Moondancer’s connection to the Element of Loyalty was severed and Dash’s renewed itself. The world wobbled and reordered itself and Twilight knew if she was not one with Dahaka, her mind would have been torn asunder at the sight.

Relax, breathe. This is normal. We just succeeded in completely undoing Starlight’s erasure of the rainboom itself, but not the other alterations. You noticed the resistance as two equally powerful Loyalty elements were forced against time and history, correct?

“Yeah, I did.” Twilight stepped back, letting time resume. Reality shuddered again, taking a few moments to readjust. The still transparent copy of Rainbow’s parents faded away, leaving Dash and the other pair to solidify.

“Cursed Crash to Wreck Wonderbolts. Filly never formally accused of killing her best friend 'saves' entire class at academy from rogue tornado.” Bow Hothoof read from the headline of the paper in front of him before tossing it aside. “Honestly, Rainbow, you can’t pay any attention to this kind of propaganda. Whoever wrote that was out to make you look like the villain, but we know better.”

“We know it’s not your fault that Fluttershy died. You even told us that you’d been sticking up for her before the race. We were there for everything you went through after the funeral, when you started wearing that pink and yellow scarf everywhere…”

“Hey, I liked that scarf!” Dash snapped before flinching. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.” Fluffing her wings, she glanced at the paper. “I just... the only reason I fly like I do, is to make it up to her. Besides you guys, she was the only one who ever thought I could be the best...” Shaking her head, Dash puffed her chest out. “That’s why there’s no way in Tartarus I’m gonna let some guy like that scare me off!”

“You do realize, of course, that we’re still upset with you for trying to keep this a secret. Something as big as getting into the reserves, as one of the first members of the reserves even, that’s something that deserves some celebration, Dash. I know as you’ve gotten older you’ve enjoyed our...enthusiasm less and less.”

“We aren’t completely blind after all.” Windy chimed in as she placed one of three plates of waffles on the table, freeing her mouth. Two more were balanced on her wings until she made a graceful pirouette and slid one across the table in front of Bow and then reversed the spin to allow the other to slide itself off and stay almost perfectly in place in front of her.

“Right, and you’re not an active part of the shows either at this point, but you’re, what, third on the list for them to pick up in the event of an emergency?”

Twilight smiled beneath her distorted visage, watching the three chatting way about Dash’s future prospects. “Who do we fix now? Go right to Fluttershy, or do we have to go in a certain order?”

We may restore them in any order you like, however we will only be able to restore one roughly every twenty hours. Our duties are so much less taxing when we can simply drain the extra time from someone and go home. Even chasing them down across continents and through time is less taxing than slowly and carefully manipulating their history. Except for one griffon. That vulture managed to run a Dahaka so ragged that he forgot who he was supposed to be chasing, and then couldn't reconstitute himself after falling into the ocean. May his sands find freedom in the wastes at the End of Time.

Twilight reached up and brushed away something from the corner of their eyes as she felt some minor irritation. Small shards of glass fell through the floor of the cloud house to fall harmlessly in the wilderness below the floating city. “We cry... glass?”

Silicate crystals. Dahaka are spirits more than physical beings, and we animate sand to form bodies and interact with the physical world. Merging with an organic entity can provide extra benefits, such as reduced vulnerability to water. A dahaka that becomes injured or confused may end up trapped in the sand they have gathered, unable to free themselves to return home. They, effectively, die if they are unable to find some way of healing themselves. If you bring us to a desert, we can recharge a little faster and you could form a mirror to perhaps reshape our body slightly? We are aware that mortals sometimes experience problems if their body does not suit them.

“Right, okay, that’s a little odd, but I can live with it for now.” Twilight phased herself completely out of physical contact to drop through the clouds before spreading her wings to fly towards the Mild West. She didn’t even notice the small flash of light from her hips or chest.

Starlight gaped at Moondancer’s throne. She could see the violet moon and three lavender stars pulsing and fading away slowly. Her eyes widened, thoughts of the earlier creature filling her mind. Had it... killed Moondancer? The thought made bile rise in her throat, and already blame began to bubble forth in her mind.

“I should have stopped it, and now Moondancer...” she bit her lip, drawing a few drops of blood. Before she could finish voicing her thought, the cutie mark faded completely out of view and left the throne blank and dull. Taking a shaking step forward, her eyes watched as rainbow colored energy surged across the surface.

Color began to swirl and concentrate where the cutie mark had been, forming a blotch that slowly separated into smears of red, yellow, blue, and white. The blue began to spread and form an outline and series of highlights around and within the white before spearing down, snaking up and left, then shooting back down again.

“No...it can’t be.” Despite her protest, the yellow began to sweep up and mimic the contours of the lower blue section, only slightly wider and longer towards the top. The red smudge wasted no time before painting itself as the finishing stroke along the right, creating a curved lightning bolt design under a white cloud. “NO! NO! I stopped that! I ended her race with a faceplant into a pillar! NO!” She punctuated her denial by rearing up and bringing her forelegs down on the seat of the throne in a stomp.

Then the world exploded. Her eyes and ears were both assaulted; one by a riot of light and color, and the other by the sharp and extended crack of something breaching the sound barrier. A rainboom had just gone off right in front of her face, and she found herself to have been blown across the room once she had blinked away the temporary blindness and the world stopped spinning.

“Oh...buck my life, that hurt. Oh my head.” She groaned as another set of memories came flooding in, conflicting with, but not overwriting, the memories she had of the last year or so with Moondancer and the other girls with Rainbow Dash in her place as the Element of Loyalty in all official duties. ”Oh by Faust this is getting confusing.”

The main door of the throne room opened after another few seconds and Twilight Sparkle walked into the room with a stack of paper as well as a few art supplies suspended in her telekinesis. “Starlight, what was tha- oh, that's what that flash of color was, you fixed the map while I was getting the paper. You could have just told me you knew how to do it, you know."

Starlight turned to snap at Twilight about how she hadn’t done anything, only for her jaw to drop to the floor as her eyes registered an anomaly. There, on Twilight’s flank, was a pink star with a sideways figure-eight made of six thick white lines superimposed over it. Her headache seemed to intensify tenfold in an instant.

Today was going to be a VERY long day.

4 Shifting Stars - Interlude the First

Luna had woken up with a throbbing headache the night before, one which had refused to completely fade the entire night during her duties. Some of the soothing lavender arrangements she’d placed at the start of the evening were already losing pieces on the floor due to how distracted she’d been when placing them. “Why tonight? Why am I remembering that long night endlessly...and why am I unable to fully focus on the bearer of Loyalty, of all ponies, in these memories?”

Rising out of bed, Luna lit her horn and started a cup of tea. Unlike her sister, Luna preferred to keep her basic necessities in her room; tea included. Preparing such a beverage towards the end of the night, however, was something she rarely did. She felt that she would need the boost in alertness to properly phrase the growing questions when speaking with Celestia about her confusion, plus she didn’t feel like accidentally eating the peel of a banana today.

Glancing at her collection of tea bags, she grabbed an old favorite: zebrican red. The bitter taste always helped gather her wits when they were starting to fray. While not quite as adept at fire-based magic as her sister, bringing the water to the perfect brewing and steeping temperature was an effort she could sustain in her sleep.

A few minutes later, she was rewarded with a nice hot cup of tea. When the dark amber liquid touched her tongue, she cringed from both the heat and the bitter bite. Still, she downed it in record time, feeling the warmth settle in her belly. The magic of caffeine, something about the chemical that made it effective even before it could possibly be fully absorbed, eased both her headache and the bags under her eyes that resulted from the non-restful sleep of patrolling the dreams of their subjects.

The few minutes it took to walk to the breakfast dining room spoke volumes to Luna’s re-invigorated senses. Staff were rushing around; snippets of conversations reached her ears here and there, each one talking about rescheduling various things anywhere from two days up to two weeks from now. She even heard one mention of a yak having broken a door when he was told his diplomatic meeting was rescheduled for tomorrow. That showed how much the yaks had progressed and mellowed over the centuries; once they would have declared war over such a thing.

“What a world we live in...” she muttered to herself, taking her seat at the table. Celestia would still be a few more minutes, which meant she had that much time to gather her thoughts. She plucked a few grapes from the centerpiece fruit arrangement to dull the edge of her appetite, which had spiked as a result of drinking that tea so late in her normal routine. She found herself actually looking forward to the idea of eating the breakfast Celestia would offer her for once.

The time came and passed, and five minutes later Luna stood back up and exited the room with worry etched on her features as she sought out one of Celestia’s many staff members. “Where is my sister? Has she decided to fake being sick in order to take a day off like she used to do, or has she actually managed to become ill for once? My sister never skips breakfast.”

The staff member in question, a blue mare in a maid uniform, responded curtly. “Princess Celestia left for Ponyville. Something about a crazy former student returning, and some kind of monster Princess Starlight saw. After making sure everything’s okay there she’s heading straight to her school to fill in for a professor who died last night, so you’re more likely to run into her at the school at this point.”

Luna frowned, studying the mare closely. “And which student was this? Sunset Shimmer?”

“Oh, no, Princess, not a personal student. Twilight Sparkle was expelled from Princess Celestia’s school for illegal and unethical magical experimentation years ago. She was talented, but never seemed to care about how what she was doing might hurt other ponies in her pursuit of knowledge. It was in all the papers back when they kicked her out for blinding a pegasus making a delivery in an attempt to fix her lazy eye.”

“Thank you, you may go.” Luna watched as the mare bowed and trotted off to complete her work. Twilight Sparkle. She had no face to go with the name, and yet she felt as if she should. Just hearing it had resulted in a momentary blur of purple in her mind. “Yet another thing to discuss with Tia,” she grumped, sighing heavily.

A few minutes, two teleports, and three short conversations later, Luna was following a set of directions to Celestia’s office at the school while her magic also held a thermos full of tea and something called a ‘breakfast burrito’ that smelled delicious and she’d been assured had a decent amount of healthy protein from the various beans filling it. “Turn left after passing the Noble Dawn memorial auditorium... Ah, here we are.” Not bothering to knock, Luna walked in. “Sister? Are you here?”

Celestia looked up quickly from a thick tome with tiny print, her expression clearly somewhat strained as her own quill and notepad continue writing for a moment. “Oh, Luna. I didn’t think you’d still be awake. You’re so quick to retire for the day most of the time. Is something wrong at the castle now, too? With how many things have gone wrong today, being told that somepony showed up in an airship to try and take over wouldn’t really surprise me much.”

“You skipping breakfast counts as wrong in my eyes. Even when I am so tired I can barely walk you’re in that room with a smile on your face. Other than that I wanted to ask you a few things about the Elements, because I can’t seem to remember them clearly despite knowing exactly who they were just yesterday.” The burrito was carefully halved with magic, preventing any of the fillings from sliding out before it was offered to Celestia while speaking.

Celestia’s golden aura faded from the quill and notebook to encircle half of the portable meal, and she offered her sister a strained smile. “While I appreciate your concern and the time it took for you to bring this to me, I don't have time for questions right now. Go talk to the elements if you can’t remember them clearly. I have to both prepare a eulogy and fill in teaching for Stellar Hawkwing today because I’m the only pony in Canterlot with teaching credentials that fully understands the subject he teaches. I need to familiarize myself with his lesson plan so that I know what he already covered before his class period, and I have to somehow fit interviewing a replacement into my ongoing schedule so that it doesn’t inconvenience any other diplomats like the sudden change today will certainly have done."

“There is also this... Twilight Sparkle,” Luna spoke, glancing around the office. “I know I have never seen or even heard her name before but... I... I know I know her. I cannot say how but, I just do.”

Celestia’s expression became a frown quicker than Luna could blink, followed by a shake of her head. “I do not wish to speak of that mare. What she did, even as only a young adult, was completely inexcusable. I cannot understand why Starlight believes she deserves a third chance, but I will not interfere if there is a chance for her to become something more than a criminal. If Starlight can pull this off, we could even see about trying to reform Discord.”

“Sister, surely you jest. No pony could possibly do worse things than he did in his time.”

“I said I’m not going to speak about her, Luna. Go dig through the preserved archives of the Canterlot Press from three years ago if you want to know what she did. Go talk to the elements if you need a refresher on who they are. I have too many things to do today as it is without you…” Celestia stopped herself as the burrito half burst into flame, quickly solidifying her magic to push all the oxygen away from it in an attempt to salvage the meal. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry, that was unnecessary and I was letting my emotions run rampant. Nevertheless, I must insist that you leave so that I can do what I need to do.”

“Very well, sister.” Luna couldn’t quite keep the hurt tone out of her voice, but she made a valiant effort to stifle the yawn that wanted to accompany it. “I do have one last question, though; what class could possibly be so difficult for others to teach?”

“Applied theory of arcane astrophysics. How magic helps us learn about things we cannot see using special spell arrays that amplify the range and breadth of divination spells. He managed to prove the old hypothesis you wrote about dead stars under the name ‘Moonbeam’ before your exile by using one of these arrays to determine that some parts of the night sky where no stars are visible were, in fact, the homes of something invisible that emits a special magic resonance while other, similarly empty-looking, areas do not. Please, go. I have less than an hour to prepare now, Luna.”

“Then I shall see you at dinner.” Turning on her hooves, Luna left Celestia be. “That answered nothing...” she muttered, her expression falling. “I suppose the best place to start would indeed be the archives...” Another yawn interrupted her thought, and she quickly opened the thermos to take another drink of her tea. “I should ask somepony to gather them for me and stay at the palace, though. If something does go wrong it would be best to have at least one of us available to deal with it. One day without sleeping won’t kill me.”

Starlight woke up in an uncomfortable position, her legs and wings so tense and stiff that they refused to move. Her head pounded as she tried to focus past the lingering effects of her memories being rewritten yesterday, only to find that her horn wouldn’t even begin to channel enough energy to remove her sleeping mask. She opened her mouth to call for Spike, only for no sound to escape her throat either. Did I put myself under a sensory deprivation spell last night just to get to sleep? Why can I remember three different timelines, but not what I did just before bed?

“Oh, good, you’re awake. I was hoping you’d come around before I got started.” Twilight’s voice cut deep into her mind, making her ears twist to try and orient on the source of the only sounds she could hear. “I suppose it’s only fair that you get to see me before judgement is rendered, ‘face your accuser’ and all that legal garbage.” An irritating sound accompanied the intelligent mare’s voice, one that was both familiar and impossible for Starlight to name at the same time. The sound was not helping her lingering headache at all.

Soft clops heralded the approach of a pony, one that Starlight could only assume was Twilight, and that irritating sound stopped just before cold metal was pressed against her face and slid up between her skin and the sleeping mask. Her lungs and throat tensed in a scream of fear, one that left her panting for breath despite no sound whatsoever escaping from her mouth. She tried to kick and thrash once again, only for both sets of legs to utterly refuse to budge. Her wings flapped momentarily, but were soon caught in the grip of impossibly strong telekinesis and guided into a set of what felt like surgical restraints.

“There we go. Exactly what I wanted to happen. I didn’t want to risk damaging the bones or tendons in your wings by pulling them open myself, but holding them after they’ve opened and putting them where I need them is far less risky.” The knife was pulled away from Starlight’s head, cutting through the strap of her mask and flooding her eyes with blinding light after the utter darkness of a moment ago. She could feel it as her pupils contracted in a desperate effort to limit the amount of light coming in, and could only clench her teeth in pain as this caused her headache to surge in intensity again.

“You see, Starlight, there is no version of events where you earn those wings,” Twilight spoke, levitating the knife in her magic. “Honestly, I feel more sympathy for all the mares you gave my friends lives; they didn’t have any choice in all of this.”

The pony in front of her was Twilight, and yet not the Twilight that existed in any memories that Starlight had. This Twilight had unkempt hair, as if she’d never combed it in her life, and a horn that was curved slightly back rather than forming a normal cone. She was also wearing a labcoat covered in various stains, and with what looked like several minor self-inflicted wounds on her face and forelegs, as if she was rather careless with the knife she was currently levitating all-too-close to Starlight’s own eyes at the moment.

“Like Moondancer. Every time Dash got closer to where she should be, Moondancer got closer and closer to being that shut-in she was not so long ago. All because you decided to play plagiarist.”

Starlight shook her head, then let out another scream to be absorbed by whatever spell this Twilight had cast on her mouth as the point of that knife poked at the base of her horn, emitting the distinctly painful tone of an orichalcum blade connecting with a magic-suppression ring. The ring began to contract around the base of her horn in reaction. “Ah-ah, best if you don’t move. I wouldn’t want to accidentally poke an eye out, or sever your spine. I just want your horn for now.”

How? How does she know? How is she even holding that knife in her magic when that metal destroys spells and enchantments on contact? Starlight couldn’t help trying to figure it out, and she also couldn’t stop her body from trembling as the edge of the blade was brought in against her horn just under the band of that awful ring. Every nerve in her body erupted in pain on contact as the knife passed through her horn as if both were less substantial than fog. The clatter of bone bouncing on stone and the sensation of blood rolling into her eyes from her forehead were the only evidence that the deed had been done, followed closely by the laughter of the insane purple pony in front of her.

“If only I had done this sooner, we wouldn’t be in this situation now would we?” Twilight asked, patting Starlight’s head. “I’d be me, you’d be you, my friends wouldn’t be heartbreaking shadows of who they should be. Rainbow Dash especially wouldn’t have been so distraught over thinking she’d killed Fluttershy that she was three drinks and a slice of pizza, or two doses of lunar lightning, away from giving herself a heart attack because she lacked the energy to stand up, walk to the edge of Cloudsdale, and jump off.” Twilight’s voice rose from gentle scolding of a foal into full-on raging demon upon mentioning the cyan pegasus.

Twilight scoffed, stamping her hoof. “But what do you care? You’re Starlight Glimmer; buck the consequences, right? Just take what you want, because you’re a bucking sociopath!”

“ENOUGH!” A new voice boomed in the dimly-lit room, and Starlight saw the purple figure in front of her waver and dissolve into mist while the restraints preventing her from moving her body simply vanished. She ended up dropping to the floor, and landing in a painful heap as her instinctual effort to levitate herself failed utterly.

“If taking in that degenerate has upset you this much in only two days, Starlight, I am forced to wonder if the results will be worth the stress it places upon you.” Princess Luna separated herself from the shadows of the dream, then frowned as little else about it changed despite her presence. “Odd. I don’t recall your dreamscapes being quite so resilient to change the last time I was in them. Regardless, this was merely a nightmare, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Pah-” Starlight coughed, her voice sounding harsh to her own ears; as if she had actually been choked by some spell rather than silenced by a dark dream. “Princess Luna, it felt so real. I-I still can’t feel my horn…”

“Did Twilight truly scar you this badly?” Luna asked, her frown deepening. “What exactly happened between you two? I know she blinded a mare years ago, but to cause a nightmare like this? Whatever happened recently must have been terrifying.”

“Actually, she’s been shockingly calm the last couple days.” Starlight reached up with one hoof, sighing with relief as it contacted an intact horn on her forehead. “The worst thing she did was tell me off about wasting her time letting her try to fix the map before it seemingly repaired itself. I didn’t even know it could do that. Well, that and be an insulting jerk towards Spike the first day, but he gave as good as he got from her so…”

“I see. Tell your friends that I will be coming to Ponyville for an informal visit in a couple days. I want to meet with them and talk for a time. It’s been months since you girls helped me with my…” Luna trailed off, looking away for a moment. “Maybe a fragment of the tantabus caused this? I will have to scour the minds of all Ponyville tomorrow night to be sure, but it didn’t feel like it. Two days, I want to meet the real Twilight Sparkle as well.”

Starlight’s eyes opened, for real this time. She groaned softly as the dim lighting showed that dawn had not quite arrived, and yet here she was, as awake as if it were already past noon all of a sudden. Her horn flickered weakly for a moment before lifting the glass of water from her bedside table. The glass slipped through her grip, clattered off the edge, and shattered on the floor the second her attention shifted even slightly, despite the aura of her magic remaining in the air where the glass had been. “Oh buck, I hope I’m not coming down with something now too. Then again, being sick would help explain how different that dream Twilight was from how she’s been acting. My dreams have always gotten crazy when I’m not feeling well.”

Author's Note

In case it isn't blatantly obvious by the name involved: Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking...