In a Dark Equestria, Once upon a time

Starlight stared at her double in shock. She had never believed herself capable of such things, she had only ever wanted equality and companionship. The cloaked Starlight stared her down with a fierce look in her eyes. Starlight wasn't sure how but she could tell her double was about to attack. With a preemptive move, Starlight charged a defensive spell and created a bubble of energy around herself.

Queen Starlight charged an energy beam spell and shot it at her otherworldly double. Her intention was only to wear down and wound, not to kill. She had too much to learn from her copy, and much power to gain from her capture. To her surprise, her double seemingly instinctively defended herself from the attack. Queen Starlight immediately followed her energy beam assault with a high-speed tackle, propelling herself with a magical burst of energy. This her double was not prepared for.

Starlight dropped her barrier hoping to have words with her double in this world but was instantly met with a hard tackle. The attack sent her flying several feet across the courtyard. Starlight rubbed her head and then quickly jumped to her hooves trying to find her double.

Queen Starlight charged in an arc to flank her downed double following the tackle. The move worked, and she had the advantage again in her next assault. She charged an impact spell and struck her double hard.

Starlight felt the energy of a spell on the back of her neck but had no time to react to it.

"Gahhh!" Starlight cried out as the energy exploded on her back and sent her sliding through the rubble of the lobby room.

'Wherever she is from it is clear they don't do much fighting,' thought Queen Starlight as she stepped up to the rubble.

Suddenly a bright light began to shine from under the rubble. Queen Starlight threw up an energy shield to protect herself but the following burst of energy tore straight through it and sent her flying back against one of her machines. When she looked up she saw her double standing atop the rubble with a stressed-out expression on her face.

"Listen! We don't have to fight, none of us do," Starlight pleaded to the Queen.

"Grrraah!" roared Queen Starlight furiously.

Queen Starlight's horn began to glow again and she let forth a powerful energy beam spell. Starlight responded in kind this time and their energy clashed together with enough force to cause blots of energy to fly out in random directions. The bolts of energy tore through the ground and rubble as it traveled around the courtyard.

"Please listen to me!" cried Starlight.

Queen Starlight gave no response. She was in shock that she was in a stalemate with her double. She had thought from the start of their fight that she was more powerful, but this Starlight was matching her, and as far as she could tell, without any enhancements as she had. It infuriated her.

Starlight knew they couldn't hold their spell-like that much longer. She let loose and allowed her full power to come forth. The resulting beam of energy doubled the size of the Queens and forced her double to begin moving backward. Starlight expected a massively charged response but was surprised to not receive any. The Queen seemed to be losing the power struggle, which confused Starlight. She hadn't expected that she was stronger than her evil double in this world.

Just as Starlight had the advantage and the Queen's spell was about to break, Queen Starlight suddenly shifted her magic to one of the tanks. Starlights energy beam struck her double and sent her crashing through what was left of the front lobby wall. Nearly simultaneously the tank the Queen had activated shook and then shot forth an extremely strong beam of energy. The beam struck Starlight and sent her crashing deeper into the rubble she had landed in before.

Spike stood in the doorway watching the fight in awe. He had never expected to see a Pony fighting herself. Spike wanted to help but as he looked around the fort turned battlefield he didn't see any way for him to do so. The soldiers of the fort were having it out with the Queen's troops, and the Starlight's were firing off energy beams that could kill him in one stroke.

Spike desperately looked for Scootaloo. It was still strange to think of her as she was on this world but he knew that she was a rough and tumble filly in this world. He hoped she would have a plan. Finally, he saw her. Scootaloo was in the courtyard pulling up in a metal machine similar to the ones Queen Starlight had shouting orders. Scootaloo was in the top hatch with a mounted gun in her hooves.

Scootaloo wasted no time in firing at her foes. Spike watched dumbfounded as the filly mowed down a squadron of the Queen's troops and then rolled over their bodies in the machine to get to the next group. Instead of a beam of energy, a huge object shot from the cannon and exploded on impact; launching the bodes of both the Queen's troops as well as the bodies of already dead Ponies from both sides into the air. Uniforms, rubble, and body parts rained down from the sky. The sight made Spike fall to his knees with tears in his eyes. He had never seen such violence.

"No! Brick! Brick!" a voice familiar to Spike's ears could be heard nearby.

Spike turned to look for the voice and found Sandy leaning over Bricks motionless body about fifty yards from him. Sandy was in a panic, crying for a medic with tears in her eyes. Spike recognized the Ponies that responded. Rose, Lily, and Daisy all appeared from the side of the fort and leaned over Brick too. All three were dressed in uniforms and had medical gear with them. Rose dug through her bags while the other two looked over Brick.

To Spike's horror, several of Starlights troops emerged from the woods behind them. He wanted to shout out a warning but as he tried to form words all that came froth was a pathetic whimper. Spike watched with wide eyes and cupped his hands over his mouth as one f the troops hurled a spear that struck Rose in the back of the head. As quickly as the spear had hit her Rose fell over Brick dead.

"Sweet Celestia No!" cried Lily.

Spikes view of it all was cut off when Scootaloo's tank rolled in front of him. Spike could see Scootaloo shaking violently as she fired the mounted gun in rapid bursts. When the tank moved again Spike could see only Rose and Brick's lifeless bodies on the ground, now surrounded by ten or so of the Queen's troops. Spike fell over to his hands and knees and began to throw up.

A series of explosions nearby made Spike return his attention to the Starlight battle. When he looked up the Queen was atop one of her machines. The side's of the machine opened up small vents and a barrier of energy formed from the machine around itself and the Queen.

"Damn it, how can I be so ruthless and stubborn!" yelled Starlight. "Don't you see this isn't right? What happened to equality and better lives for everypony?"

"I am bringing equality to the world! It's not my fault the fools resist," replied Queen Starlight.

"But why all this? What happened to befriending everypony?" asked Starlight.

"If your life ever mirrored mine then you know how that goes. The Pony's of Our Town turned on me!" sneered Queen Starlight.

"Your wrong! It took me a while to see it too, but things would never have worked that way. How can you expect everypony to accept you're being the only one with a cutiemark?" explained Starlight.

"How could I bring equality without it!" roared Queen Starlight.

"Don't you see that in the end it would not work? Ponies being born would still get their Cutiemarks, you could never use the spell on yourself, or you would have to give up the ability to use it on those Ponies, and your efforts would have only affect on a small period of time," explained Starlight.

"You don't know that," replied Queen Starlight.

"How would you know what I know. Our lives clearly wnet in different directions after Our Town. Trust me, there is a better way though," said Starlight.

Queen Starlight's eyes narrowed in an evil glare. "I know there is, now that I have you," she said as she charged the other machine to fire.

Before the Queen could fire her weapon the machine was struck by an explosion caused by Scootaloo's cannon. Spike turned to see the filly rolling up behind Queen Starlight's machines. Scootaloo fired a second shot, this time causing a small amount of visible damage. Starlight immediately shot a beam of energy at the Queen's forcefield to keep her distracted with holding it up.

Starlight could see the strain taking it's toll on her double as she tried to hold the force field up and figure out what to do. It was obvious she was using a relic or artifact of some sort but it was draining her quickly to do so. That was when Starlight finally saw her doubles famous amulet.

Queen Starlight reached back under her cloak and pulled out a strong steel chain with a glowing white orb hanging from it. The orb shined different colors periodically and its energy was visible in the form of a soft silver aura around the necklace. She pulled back her hood revealing a tangled, messy, braided mane and a half missing right ear. Queen Starlight quickly slipped on the amulet; and as soon as the amulet was around her neck the energy of her forcefield nearly tripled in strength.

The push back from the energy of the empowered forcefield canceled out Starlight's attack, knocking the Unicorn to the ground fatigued and dizzy. Before Scootaloo could move her machine out of the way Queen Starlight lifted her own and turned it in the air then fired a massively charged blast at her. The attack tore Scootaloo's tank to ribbons and launched it through several trees and down the hill into the forest.

In terror Spike ducked underneath a chunk of wall nearby, closed his eyes, and covered his head.

As Starlight climbed to her hooves and tried to get her barrings she saw the flaming trail that was once where Scootaloo was in her machine. She saw the machine controled by the Queen turning towards her again. Desperatly she tried to charge a defensive spell, but all she got was a small energy fizzle from the tip of her horn. The next thing she knew her whole body felt like it was on fire and all she could see was white. She could no longer feel the ground for several seconds until she came to a violent crash.

Starlight blinked through partially opened eyes a few times as the world around her came back and the pain set in. Soon the world began to fade away again; this time in darkness as her eyes closed. The last thing she saw before losing conciousness was her evil double approaching and standing over her with a look of satisfaction in her eyes.