By Starlight, Fight Starlight

Twilight flew out the portal this time, instead of just tumbling down. At this point, she was so used to it that she managed to cast her shield and prepare offensive spells before she even fully emerged in the past, ready to… she wasn’t sure what could she do. Attack? Try to once again convince Starlight she was telling the truth? She was lost.

Not that it mattered, as this time the time-destroying unicorn had a new plan.

“Halt right there!” One of the security pegasi shouted at her, with more approaching. “Lower your shield! You are under arrest.”

“Arrest? What?” Twilight looked at the approaching pony, confused, only to notice triumphant Starlight behind her. The alicorn groaned. “Let me guess, she told you to arrest me?”

The pegasi said something in return, but Twilight just ignored her, instead looking at Starlight. The unicorn was standing on a cloud nearby, smiling smugly as the entire area was being evacuated, surely reducing any chance of Sonic Rainboom to zero.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” The pegasi shouted, but Twilight just didn’t care. No matter what she did, there was no way for her to make Rainboom happen this time. Starlight won, again.

Twilight was so tired. Of fighting, of death, of these horrible futures. She missed her friends. She missed the Princess.

She could only look at Starlight with resignation as a time portal swallowed her again, taking the approaching pegasus by surprise. In moments, there was no sign of Twilight or Spike.

“How can I stop this, Spike?” Twilight asked her friend as they landed in surprisingly normal-looking future. No obvious dangers around, meaning they had a moment to themselves, before whatever nightmarish danger lurks would react. “Even if I defeat her with magic, there is no way everypony around won’t notice it. Perhaps an invisibility spell… but there is no way I can cast it and still fight her, and she can easily dispel it…” Twilight wondered aloud. There had to be a way to defeat Starlight and make sure Rainboom still happens. She just needed to figure it out. After all, she is the element of Magic, isn’t she? There had to be a magical answer to this problem!

“Maybe magic isn’t a solution here?” Spike proposed, looking around. Still no danger; in fact, everything looked surprisingly normal, save for the lack of a certain crystal castle.

“That’s an idea. I’m sure she doesn’t expect me to attack her physically! I can just jump on her and overwhelm her physically!” After all, Twilight was an alicorn; she was much stronger physically then any unicorn. “Thank you, Spike!”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” The dragon protested. “Maybe you just need to find a way to convince her she’s wrong?”

“I tried already, remember? She just didn’t believe me! How am I supposed to convince someone who just won’t listen to what I say?” Twilight shook her head. "She's just so... so stubborn!"

Spike was really tempted to remind her of many, many times when she ignored everyone’s good advice and did something stupid or harmful – and even more situations where her obsessions got the better of her – but Twilight was already trotting away, towards Ponyville. “No time to waste, Spike! We need to find Starlight and get back to the past!”

Spike just sighed and followed her. “I still think talking is the best solution.” He said to himself.

They reached Ponyville soon enough. It looked very similar to the one they knew, no signs of war factories, eternal night, aggressive flora… but it also looked abandoned. Almost nopony was walking the streets, and those that were seemed different. Less colorful, and less lively, and he realized quickly what happened here.

“Twilight.”

“I know.” The alicorn looked sadly at Ponyville. Even if the place seemed untouched, the same couldn’t be said of the ponies. Tirek drained them of all magic, leaving them weak and powerless. Judging by how thin and unhealthy everypony looked, she wouldn’t be surprised if even proper farming was too much for them.

They slowly trotted through Ponyville, other ponies giving them wide berth. Every pony seemed so resigned and lost, even the sight of an alicorn wasn’t enough to rouse them. They just tried to survive, only leaving their homes to scavenge for the meager remains of food.

“Oh my, you aren’t drained?” Somepony said, and Twilight turned around to see Fluttershy emerge from one of the houses. “And you’re an alicorn?”

“Fluttershy!” Twilight said, smiling as she saw one of her friends. The shy pony made a ‘meep’ sound and took a step back, almost hiding back in the house she just emerged from. “No, please, wait. I’m not here to hurt anypony.” Twilight tried to calm her friend down. She took a step back to give Fluttershy more space, and waited patiently with a small smile.

It worked. The yellow Pegasus slowly walked closer, visibly hesitating. Only when she noticed Spike, she actually smiled and relaxed a bit, looking at him with curiosity. “And you’re a dragon! How amazing.” Her voice, while still a whisper, sounded at least a tiny bit more like the Fluttershy they knew. “I haven’t seen any dragons for so long. What’s your name?”

“I’m Spike! Nice to meet you.” He answered, smiling as well.

“You should both hide, though. The Lord will not be happy if he sees you. Oh no, he will be furious.” Fluttershy shook in fear. “He will hurt you, both of you. Hurt you very bad.”

“You mean Tirek?” Fluttershy twitched, nervously looking around as if she expected the new ruler of Equestria to suddenly appear next to her. “Easy, Fluttershy. He’s not here. Please, can you tell us where Starlight Glimmer is?” Twilight asked.

“Oh my, her?” Fluttershy hesitated.

“Please, tell us. We need her to fix all of this.” Spike added.

Fluttershy slowly pointed at Canterlot. “She’s there, but I don’t think she will be able to help you.”

“She will, don’t worry. Thanks, Fluttershy.” The alicorn and the dragon immediately left towards their new destination, Spike waving to Fluttersh while Twilight was already lost in her new idea of fixing the problem of Starlight through physical assault. The yellow pony looked at them until they disappeared behind a small hill, wondering what this was all about. Surely they must have heard about Starlight, everypony around did, so why were they looking for her?

But for now, she had more duties to fulfill. Ponies needed her, and with even Pinkie too depressed to do anything she was the only one left. The only one who knew death so well; her animal friends lives were so short, compared to hers. She buried so many of them in her life, which was why she was the only pony who could do what she was doing right now.

She moved from house to house, doing her best to make sure that the last moments of dying ponies would not be spent alone. Just talking was enough for many. Holding hoofs. Some needed a little bit of herbal potions, thanks to Zecora who managed to stay hidden in Everfree and supplied Fluttershy with everything she needed.

“Don’t worry, Rarity. I will make sure that once somepony defeats Tirek, your dresses will not be forgotten.” She told the crying unicorn, keeping her company in her last moments. “I am sure somepony will take care of Boutique, and Sweetie, once that happens.”

She lied, but that was alright. That was all she could do to help.

They reached Canterlot without any problems, but what awaited them was just another horror. Up close, they could see the signs of battle. Unicorn bodies were scattered around, many with buildings crumbled on top of them. The ground was burned, frozen and disintegrated in many places, the last signs of any resistance against Tirek.

It was so similar to the last time they were here, but somehow, the depressing atmosphere wasn’t getting easier to bare. They walked slowly through the ruined city, Twilight doing her best to ignore the bodies. She knew so many of them, from the School for Gifted Unicorns and just from the fact she lived in Canterlot for years. She tried not to think about it.

Twilight knew where to go, somehow. It was just fitting that the last place to fall would be the throne room. She could only wonder what happened here, in the last moments, as they both walked towards their goal. What was the plan, if there was any? Was that a valiant last stand just to resist, to fight back? Or did they have a plan, a plan that failed? And why was Starlight here?

Not a problem, she just needed to find her and… get out of…

Twilight suddenly stopped, and Spike, who was just behind her, walked into her. “Ouch!” He landed on the floor, with unmoving Twilight blocking his view of the throne room. “What’s wrong?” He asked, walking around her, only to notice what made her freeze.

Starlight was here. Or rather, her dead, lifeless body, left where she fell trying whatever scheme of hers was left in these desperate times before a blast of freezing magic killed her. For whatever reason, Tirek left her in a block of magical ice, perfectly visible and preserved for all to see, her face forever showing the shock and terror of her last moments. Twilight didn’t know if she tried to defend the Princess, take her magic for herself, or perhaps even join Tirek to avoid her fate; what mattered was that Starlight was gone.

They were trapped here. They could not go back to the past.

Twilight cried and sniffled, all hope lost. Spike tried to help, but in the end he joined her. There was nothing they could do now. They had to live the rest of their lives in the doomed world Starlight has created.

“Twilight Sparkle?” A weak voice asked. “Is that really you? How are you here?”

She knew this voice. It couldn’t be! Twilight looked back, and it really was her. Drained and weak, but alive, the one and only Alicorn of the Sun stood in the corridor, confused. “Princess Celestia?” Twilight croaked out, her voice shaking from all the emotions and crying. “Is this really you?”

“It’s me, but how are you here? I’ve seen you disintegrated by Triek?” The former ruler of Equestria asked, her voice betraying the pain she felt at that memory.

Twilight couldn’t stop herself. She flew at the her mentor, hugging her, crying, trying to say everything at once and failing to say anything but incoherent mumbling. Spike joined her, with less talking and even more hugging.

It took them a long time to calm down enough to tell Princess the entire story; and even deprived of her magic Celestia proved to be the same pony they knew, compassionate and wise, despite the desperation and sadness she lived through. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, knowing that at least they still had each other in this horrible future.

It took a while for them to tell their tale, and in return Princess shared with them the story of Tirek’s return. How everypony missed the first cases of disappearing ponies; how, when finally whole villages were suddenly found empty, Royal Guard was dispatched, only to fall to the same enemy. By the time Celestia realized that her old nemesis has somehow returned, it was too late, and even all her might was not enough to stop the rampaging monster.

“And what was Starlight doing here?” Twilight inquired. “Did she help Tirek?”

“No, she did not.” Celestia sighed, looking with visible sadness at the frozen pony. “When Tirek drained magic from most of Equestria and moved north, Starlight arrived to Canterlot. Apparently he destroyed her village in the North when he invaded Stalliongrad, and she was furious. She came to me with a plan to save my little ponies and defeat Tirek.”

“What was her plan?” It was Spike who asked this, the young dragon munching on some gems their host brought to them; in her words, they served no purpose just sitting in the royal coffers.

“She created a spell, one I have never seen before, very similar to what Tirek was doing; she proposed to take my Cutie Mark, and with it, all my power. She would do the same to all ponies she could, and then escape east, to Girffonia. Without my power, Tirek would be significantly weaker, and she hoped to find help in some faraway land.” Celestia answered. “I couldn’t hide from Tirek at this point, he could sense my presence as an alicorn, but we hoped that Starlight could slip unnoticed.”

“Then what happened? Why is she… here?” Twilight looked at the block of magical ice with mixed feelings as she beheld the frozen figure of her nemesis, sometimes the greatest villain in history of Equestria, but sometimes freedom fighter or great hero instead. “And why did he freeze her? He never did anything like that when I fought him.”

“It was his idea of punishing me for resisting him.” Celestia said, bitterness taking over sadness in her voice. “When he arrived in Canterlot only to find us all without our Cutie Marks and our magic, he was furious. He took his anger on the city, and then promised me a terrible vengeance, before leaving.
It took him well over a year, but he managed to learn how to fully use the power inside him. He forced some poor unicorns to teach him, and then drained them as well before leaving for Gryphus. I don’t know what exactly happened here, but we heard of his rampage through every army and every city, following Starlight. In the end, he cornered her in the far east of the continent, captured her and drained all her power. He then teleported back here, and killed her right in front of me. After that, he cursed me, making it so that I can never leave the palace or remove her body from my throne room.” Celestia closed her eyes, hiding the years of pain and sadness inside them. “Then he left for Zebrica, destroying the last creatures left to resist him. Last I heard, he defeated somecreature called the Storm King and drained all hippogriff magic before moving south.”

“What about Discord?” Twilight asked with some hope. After all, the Lord of Chaos helped her already, more then once.

“He’s gone.” Celestia shattered her hope. “Tirek figured out how to take his power even when he was a statue. Then, he destroyed him, nothing remains but a crater in my garden. I’m sorry, Twilight. All his power is now inside Tirek, and he is using it to subjugate the last remaining free creatures in the world.”

The younger alicorn slowly nodded, lost in thought. Something Celestia just said was important, she could feel it, but what? It took her a moment to realize it.

“Princess.” She asked, her eyes regaining some hope. “I think I have a plan.”

When Tirek arrived to Canterlot, teleporting from somewhere far away, he was impossible to miss. His voice boomed as he roared, half-laughing and half-angry, as his massive figured dwarfed almost all buildings in Canterlot. “I see one more of you have managed to hide from me! Come out, little alicorn, and face me! I will learn how you managed that, and then all your magic will be mine!”

Twilight gulped, but moved forwards, leaving the palace and standing in front of the powerful monster. He was so much bigger and stronger then the last time she faced him, and she was so tired of it all. But she wouldn’t fail this time. She had to go back to the past, she had to save the world. For everycreature’s sake.

“So, little alicorn. Tell me, how did you manage to hide from me? Speak, and I promise your death will be painless.” The monster before her bellowed, his voice empowered and defeaning, his power eclipsing the entire world. He was immortal and invincible; he was Tirek, and he ruled the world.

But against him stood Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic; and even in this forsaken future, she would not give up so easily. And after all the horrible futures she saw, after all the enemies she faced, she found her opponent much less imposing. She took a deep breath. “I thought you’d be scarier. And taller, too.”

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. And then, Tirek answered, his voice slowly gaining in anger and fury. “What did you just say, you tiny creature?”

“I thought you’d be more powerful.” Twilight gulped, but continued as the centaur’s wrath grew. “Where is all that power? Did you waste it already?”

The monster roared in absolute fury. “You want to see my power, little pony?” Tirek said, his voice rough and loud, shaking the remaining buildings and echoing from the mountain, causing the remaining ponies around Canterlot to scatter in panic, at least those who still has strength to run. “Then you shall see it.”

“Whatever you can do, I can do better.” Twilight challenge him, and focused. Few days of rest she got before he arrived helped her regain as much power as she could, even as her nights were plagued by darkness and horrors. Above her horn, a ball of pure power appeared.

Tirek, seeing this, laughed. “What a pathetic power! Behold, the might of Lord Tirek!” And with these words, a huge ball of multi-colored power appeared above him, dwarfing in size not only Twilight, but even most of the buildings in Canterlot. He effortlessly enlarged it even more, until it was painful to even look at it; the hum of magical energy became so loud, it was hard to hear anything else, and still Tirek wasn’t even trying.

Twilight grit her teeth and, just as she did during her magical duel with Trixie, answered not with pure strength, but a trick. Her ball of magic was empty inside; just a thin bubble, created to lur Tirek into using as much of his power as possible. She was keeping a separate detection spell up, as well, waiting. It was still not enough, so she pushed her magic further.

To Tirek’s surprise, the tiny alicorn managed to draw even more power, and her magic grew in size fast. If he had any kind of detection spell ready, he could easily see through the trick, but he grew too used to being able to just power through everything; besides, he wasn’t even tapping into his real power. He laughed and, as effortlessly as before, summoned even greater power within himself.

The power Tirek was using right now was enough to level not just the city or palace; it would shatter the entire mountain, as well, and it was only getting more and more powerful. But Twilight, despite all of this, forced herself to calm down and focus. Spike, hiding behind her, was shaking in fear, but remained by her side, trusting her. Behind her, from the palace, the Princess observed them as well, a slight smile on her face.

Twilight would never know how proud this Celestia was of her; for the drained alicorn, getting to know her alternate-self's student was one of the greatest moments in her life. Twilight was tired and traumatized in many ways, but she was also still passionate and willing to fight, to come back to the past and fix all of this. She was also was from a social outcast, and the way she spoke of her friends was truly the sign of magic of friendship deep inside her. Even her relationship with pike was proving it.

The 'duel', or rather Tire showing off, continued for a while longer, Twilihgt stating to sweat from the effort even with the ball of magical power being empty inside; in contrast, Tirek was still relaxed, at at most mildly interested in her power. And then, finally, it happened. The detection spell triggered, and Twilight instantly let go of her illusionary bubble of magic, casting a different spell instead. A tiniest bit of magic slipped away from Tirek’s grasp, flowing through Twilight and touching a certain scroll, held in her assistant’s shaking claw.

Tirek was confused for a moment; the fact that this pony managed to wrestle control over even a tiniest bit of his magic from him was surprising, but why would she do that? At first, he just shrugged and got ready to just suck the magic from her, until suddenly, a portal appeared above her, and began floating towards it.

“You will not get away!” Tirek shouted as he sucked all the magic… or tried. Somehow, to his shock, he could not suck the magic out of whatever magic was happening right in front of him. He fired a blast of pure power, strong enough to crush even Celestia at the height of her power, but it couldn’t pierce the weird magic protecting the alicorn.

As Twilight flew into the portal and back to the past, Tirek roared and fired all of his power, not wanting to take any risks; this magic was different, and he actually felt a tiny pang of worry even through the thick layer of his ego around it. And so he blasted it all away.

But even his power was powerless against time itself, and Twilight was gone, all his power wasted. The gargantuan explosion his attack caused obliterated Canterlot, Ponyville, and made a crater so large it reached molten lava below and destroyed entire Everfree Forest and wide area around Canterlot, but it was all for nothing; Tirek lost.

And Celestia, swallowed by the blast, closed her eyes and accepted oblivion with a sad smile. Her last thoughts focused on her student from a different time, and her brave dragon assistant.