MLP: The Second Chapter

The train ride back to Ponyville was one of the most torturous experiences of Starlight Glimmer's life. She tried to forget the frightening fate that awaited Equestria. She tried to put all of the events of the previous day and a half out of her mind. But the thoughts wouldn't cooperate, and so they stayed, stuck like glue, to her psyche.

She laid down on the bench she was on and tried to sleep the trip away. As soon as she fell into a peaceful slumber, the visions began. She saw foals being swept away from their parents by a heavy rushing stream, screaming as their small heads dipped beneath the surface forever. She saw friends being torn apart by sickness and death.

The hellish experience continued as she was transported back to her old village. Oh, Celestia no! She screamed internally, not here! Not this place! NOT MY FATHER! But, as much as she resisted, the vision led her directly to her old house. It was shattered and burned to the ground. She saw her father lying half-dead underneath the crushed roof. It seemed that the house's destruction had come as a total surprise to him and he had no chance to move.

"DAD!" She screamed. Her father didn't respond. She wanted to rush forward and help him, but some invisible lock kept her fixed to that spot. She watched as her father bled out in front of her. Tears poured down her cheeks as the powerless feeling from earlier returned. She was unable to help even her own father. "Why?" She cried out loud, "why is this being shown to me?! WHY?! PRINCESS LUNA, SAVE ME!"

But no sign of the beautiful princess was given. She didn't come flying out of the blood red moon to set things right. She didn't come skidding around the corner, flashing magic hither and thither. All Starlight saw was the barren shambles that her beloved home town had become. Her father lay dead at her hooves, and there was nothing she could do about it.

From there, she began to be transported somewhere else. "NO! NO MORE!" She screamed to whatever force was controlling the dream, "SHOW ME NO MORE! PLEASE! PLEASE!" But the force wasn't obedient to her commands and dropped her off back in Ponyville. Her mouth fell open as she saw ponies that she knew extremely well running for their lives. She saw Applejack, Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, and Big Mac fleeing their farm as fire rained down from the heavens and destroyed it. Their apple trees were all burned to a crisp, never to bear fruit ever again.

She turned and was transported to Rarity's boutique. She saw her fashionista friend and her sister, Sweetie Belle, running and screaming as an army of killer flash bees swarmed the store, stinging and biting them as they went. Rarity tried to save her latest collection of clothes, but another swarm of bugs raided the store and ate them all up. "NO!" Rarity screamed, "NOT MY SUMMER LINE!" Sweetie Belle grabbed her sister's tail in her teeth, "RARITY! FORGET THE DARN CLOTHES, WILL YOU?! WE'VE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!" Rarity, accepting this fate, left with her sister.

"Please…" Starlight said as tears continued cascading down her cheeks, "…show me no more." Her plea was very weak and it betrayed the sheer amount of exhaustion she was feeling. The vision was so realistic that it was draining her of all her energy. She could hardly move. But the force had no mercy and transported her to yet another spot.

She recognized Fluttershy's cottage. "Oh, Celestia, no! Please, no! Not Fluttershy!" She yelled, "please, take me! Take me! Don't hurt Fluttershy!" She gritted her teeth together in complete agony as she watched Fluttershy and her animal friends get picked off by timber wolves one by one. She saw the yellow Pegasus try and fly away, but the wolves were too many and too large. They imposed upon her and soon swallowed her up as she went screaming into death. Starlight's mouth hung open in shock and sadness, but she was too tired to move. She was too tired to even beg the force not to show her any more death and destruction. The unmerciful dream continued raining its hell down upon Starlight's eyes.

Next, she was taken to Sugarcube Corner, or what was left of it. She noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Cake were packing up their equipment. But they did it with such a dull and dead look in their eyes, she wondered whether or not they had been turned into zombies. With everything else that's happened in this messed up vision, she said to herself, I wouldn't put it past them.

But then she realized that Mrs. Cake was sobbing. Zombies don't sob, she told herself as she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she wondered just why Mrs. Cake was sobbing so much. Mr. Cake pulled his bride into a grieving, yet loving embrace and whispered something in her ear. Starlight looked around the shop, wondering where the source of the Cakes' grief was coming from. Then she saw it and with a gasp of shock, began to cry as well. Lying dead on the floor behind the counter was Pinkie Pie.

Since she was invisible to the Cakes, Starlight stepped over and looked down at her friend's body. Dried blood pooled around a wound on her flank. The familiar cutie mark of balloons, which had once spoke of nothing but fun, happiness, and laughter, was ripped to shreds. Small bits of coat and muscle lay scattered around her. Then Starlight saw the lethal wound to Pinkie's neck. Dried blood also lay around it. What happened here? She asked herself in shock, who could be so heartless and so cruel as to hurt Pinkie?

The answer to these questions never found her as the force quickly transported her to Rainbow Dash's condominium in the sky. Only it wasn't in the sky anymore. The clouds that Dash had once called home were no longer there, and gravity had forced all of the solid things that she owned back down to Earth. Dash was nowhere in sight, and Starlight assumed she had either been killed in a horrible way or had been run off by some marauding enemy.

Once again, she was unable to investigate as the force transported her to Twilight's castle. "Oh, Celestia…not Twilight," she said out loud as horrific thoughts raced through her mind. Her best friend, and the pony who had taught her what being a friend really meant, might be lying hurt or dead somewhere. Starlight tried to break free and run inside, but the invisible force held her back.

Suddenly, the castle doors opened. "…and out you go!" A voice announced loudly. Suddenly, she saw Flash, Twilight, and herself thrown out of the castle. A small foal came to the door. Midnight Sun, Starlight said internally.

"I don't need you anymore, Mother!" She announced with great arrogance and gusto, "You were always worthless to me! Now, I have everything I need! I SHALL RULE EQUESTRIA!" She squealed in evil laughter before shooting a magic beam to the sky. The beam parted the clouds and brought some of the sun's great fire down on Ponyville. It ravaged the land and burned cottage after cottage to the ground, the residents fleeing for their lives.

"Midnight, why are you doing this?" Twilight asked her daughter distraughtly. A river of tears washed down the purple princess's visage. Flash put a hoof around her and she sobbed into his shoulder. "We always tried to love you and teach you the right thing," he told his daughter, "but I guess we just couldn't."

"You can't teach friendship to pure evil!" The filly squeaked hotly, "I was born with the powers of Tartarus in hoof! You know that! Starlight told you about the visions of Zecora, but you refused to believe her! Now you're all paying the price, and you shall continue to pay the price until this land is nothing more than fodder for the cows! You'll all be in pieces by next month! I SWEAR IT!"

The filly stomped back in the castle and slammed the door. Starlight looked on as herself, Twilight, and Flash turned and moved away. She opened her mouth in disbelief. Aren't you gonna resist? Put up a fight? DO SOMETHING! She wanted to scream at them, but the force kept her mouth shut.

It transported her high up in the air so she could see the entire country. Just as predicted, the four great volcanoes were upchucking their contents. Billowing clouds of ash and smoke covered the land. The rivers were all overflowing their banks and great floods descended upon the unsuspecting towns. Up north, The Crystal Empire was blanketed with foot after foot of thick snow, never to melt again. She wondered with a start whether or not Cadance and Shining Armor and Flurry Heart had gotten out.

Town after town and city after city faced the same doom. If they weren't destroyed with fire, they were destroyed with water. She recalled the earlier portion of the vision, with little foals being swept away from their parents. She cringed in horror at the realization that, if Twilight didn't believe her message, then that would be their fate. All of Equestria rested on her shoulders.

As she was going through this realization, the force suddenly let go of her and she found herself plummeting to the ground, thousands of feet below. She screamed as she fell, "NO! NO! PLEASE! SOMEPONY, SAVE ME!" She continued falling, as nopony seemed to hear her cries. She closed her eyes and prepared to hit the ground. But she never did. She began floating in mid-air and she looked up to see a very welcome sight: Princess Luna.