Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Tuesday, 10/26/2077 AE (Age of Equestria)
(End of “The Cutie Re-mark” Season 5 Episode 26)
POV: Twilight Sparkle

Twilight knew Starlight was misguided, but she wasn’t outright evil, right? Surely, she just acted this way because she didn’t understand what she had caused. Therein lay the problem, though: She’d never believe Twilight.

No. Starlight had to see it for herself.

"I don’t know how important other ponies’ friendships are to the future, but I can show you what the world is like without mine!" As Twilight floated upwards into the vortex, she grabbed Starlight, pulling her close to take her along for the ride. Twilight stared into Starlight’s hate-filled glare as it sucked them and Spike through the time portal.

For once, Twilight entered the vortex, hoping it would be something terrible to convince Starlight to cease this madness. This would be an awkward trip if they arrived at a utopia.

They slammed into the Cutie Map as they arrived. Twilight’s whole body clenched in pain as she bounced and rolled into the dirt next to it, with Starlight and Spike landing nearby. All took a moment to pull themselves off the ground.

It was no utopia, though it was peaceful in the creepiest of ways. Twilight stood in a desolate expanse. Gray wind-swept soil covered the land as far as she could see. The only things that broke the monotony were rocks and dead trees. Even the distant hills looked dead, and for all she knew, everything in Equestria met the same fate.

Okay, she’d rather it not be this bad.

Twilight’s first impression upon landing was how wrong the ground felt. It gave to her weight like fragile glass just beneath the topsoil, crackling with every movement as she staggered to her hooves. It was like something crushed and melted everything into a layer of crystallized rubble, then caked with ash deep enough to cover her hooves.

The dead trees that poked through nearby looked as if they grew afterward, then burned in a second event. Considering how quickly some types of Everfree plant life could grow after a burst of magical energy, the two events could have been only days apart.

Twilight couldn’t imagine what magic could do this or why anyone would use such magic, but had a sick feeling someone did this on purpose.

Clouds blanketed the sky for miles, but a faint glow from the Sun made it through. The wind chilled Twilight to her core, but there was more danger here than catching cold; something was wrong with this place.

There was a strange energy prickling at her magical senses. It emanated from the surroundings, originating from both the ground and the stiff breeze. The only thing that didn’t emit the energy was the Cutie Map. It must have arrived afterward, or perhaps it was immune to the dark energy. Who knew with an anomaly like this?

This wasn’t the place to have a conversation; this was a place to flee. Still, before they left, she had to make Starlight understand. She hoped Starlight detected it too, despite her irrationality.

"Where are we?!" Starlight demanded as she looked over the Ashlands.

"The future," Twilight said dejectedly, barely audible over the rushing wind, "Or rather, the present."

Twilight placed a hoof on the map table, looking across the dead world it depicted. The wind storm shimmered through the projection, but most cities were in ruins. A mist glowed over the epicenters of destruction, green for some cities and red for others. The only major cities it depicted intact were Canterlot, covered in a shimmering shield, and Cloudsdale, moving towards Canterlot. She assumed they were coming together in a last ditch effort to survive.

"But there’s nothing here!" Starlight waved a hoof around, expression clenched with frustration and confusion.

"I wish I could say I was surprised," Twilight said, voice subdued with emotional exhaustion, "But every world I come back to is worse than the last." That was arguable, but true enough on average. "I don’t know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are."

"I don’t believe you!" Starlight accused Twilight, irrational hatred etched in her eyes.

Twilight hoped that Starlight would come around in the face of the obvious, but it was more difficult than that. Twilight had to overcome Starlight’s corrupted sense of morality.

"Come on, Starlight, look around!" Spike said, standing atop the map.

Starlight didn’t answer; instead, she silently turned away.

"Like I said, everything in the past affects the future, even the tiniest act," Twilight explained. "And what you’re doing leads here. I know I can’t stop you, but I thought showing you this might change your mind."

"Change my mind?" Starlight spat the words out like a 200-year-old hayburger. She stepped towards Twilight aggressively and raised her voice. "You don’t know anything about me! I was perfectly happy before you and your friends ruined what I built!"

"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." Twilight was sincere because she wasn’t sure how to deal with a villain like Starlight. Starlight honestly believed this delusion that she was right; how did she reform somepony when they thought like that?

"You want to know what happened to me?!" screamed Starlight, horn glowing as she floated upward and landed at the center of the map once again. "I’LL SHOW YOU!" She zapped the center of the map beneath her.

Twilight expected to be pulled through time again now with Starlight, and actually looked forward to seeing what had happened. Maybe now she could talk some sense into her! But things went from bad to worse. There was a flash of light around Starlight, not unlike a teleport, and an instant later, a blast of glowing green energy streaked into her from above and cut her spell short.

Starlight clenched her teeth even before the unexpected energy hit her, but that didn’t stop her shriek as the small mass of energy shot through one of her legs, leaving her fur smoking with a nasty burn. Starlight waved the leg around frantically as the incomplete magic delivery caused the portal beneath her to collapse immediately. Several more bursts of green energy shot past in quick succession, and the pain-shocked Starlight barely had time to look before one struck her side.

Starlight screeched again as her side glowed green and slowly disintegrated into glowing green goop streaming away in the wind. Twilight tried to focus through the abject horror of what she saw, horn glowing to cast a healing spell. As she did, another shot buzzed close to Spike's head as he shrieked and threw the backpack he held in panic. When the healing spell didn't affect Starlight’s grotesque condition, Twilight opted to tackle Spike off the table instead to save him.

Though she didn't regret prioritizing Spike's life as she covered him under the edge of the table, Twilight felt horrible as Starlight shrieked atop it. She was hearing a pony die in a way too cruel to exist.

Twilight heard wings flapping above the table while Starlight was still screaming. An odd mechanical whirring mixed with the sound of feathers as the pegasus landed on the opposite side. The ground crackled beneath them, more than with Twilight, implying extra weight, an oddity since pegasi were usually the lightest race.

"Shrieking like a filly!" the pegasus laughed as if Starlight's death was the most hilarious thing ever. "Don't give me that stunned look; it's just a little disintegration!"

The voice had a slightly artificial tone, but sounded familiar. Twilight was too distracted to figure out why, however, as Starlight's head dropped upside-down off the edge of the table in front of her, rolling smoothly as the horn had apparently been blasted off. It had an odd look of contentment, almost seeming to smile at Twilight before it too turned into glowing goop. She couldn’t speculate on the reason for that either, as she was too stunned to even vomit. Spike however fell to his claws and knees and lost his rocky lunch on the ground.

Eager to look away from the grotesque sights before her, Twilight moved around the edge to glance at the intruder’s hooves, though only the hind right was intact. The others were artificial replacements made from a strange flexible metal, like something from a science fiction novel. The limbs whirred with that same mechanical grinding as the wings when the pony stepped closer.

"Did ya hear her rip one when she collapsed, Midnight?" the assailant asked as she came closer. "Guess we can call her Fartlight now." She paused when Twilight didn't emerge. "Come on boss, it's just me, and I know you love playing with the goop. Get it before it all blows away!"

It couldn’t be, yet it was... Rainbow Dash? It was disturbing to find another of her turned ‘evil’ after the Nightmare Moon timeline, and this one seemed worse, but how did a pegasus even use magic like that?

"Twilight, she’s dead!" Spike whispered, freaking out behind her. "Don't go out there!"

Twilight put a hoof over his maw to keep him quiet. By Celestia’s eldritch mane, they would need so much therapy if they survived. Twilight kept Spike beneath the table while she crawled out. Her first instinct was to check what was left of Starlight, seeing only bubbling green slime strewn out, causing shimmers of static through the map. She knew she shouldn't look too aggressive when dealing with a pony that might end her life on a whim, but seeing that set her off. There wasn’t even anything left to bury!

"Y-you murdered her just like that?!" Twilight shrieked, aghast at the flagrant disregard for life. "And you're focused on her... and joking about... farts?! I know you love joking around but... you’re like a psychopath! What happened to you?"

Rainbow snorted, almost laughing again before she realized Twilight was being serious.

"What?" Rainbow took a step back, confused at Twilight's reaction. "You’re welcome for saving your hot plot, by the way. Again. For about the eighth time, no charge. Shouldn't you be telling me how awesome I am right now?"

As the wind died slightly, Twilight got a better look at the magitech Dash. It was hard to tell if she was more machine or mare as armor covered most of her body, but she did have two real limbs left, the right hind leg and wing. Her left wing received the same replacement as her legs, with what looked like a razor edge along the front.

Rainbow's dark blue uniform covered everything else but the metal limbs, which Rainbow probably wanted to show off for awesome's sake. At first Twilight thought the uniform was cloth, but then realized it was a metallic polymer fashioned into a chain mail mesh. It looked thin and elastic but glowed as the dust particles deflected off, apparently installed with magical shielding.

The only way to know it was Rainbow aside from the voice were the frazzled rainbow mane protruding from the top of her helmet, the cropped rainbow tail, and her cutie mark emblazoned on her metal haunch and all over her uniform; Rainbow loved plastering everything with her mark. The other insignia on the uniform looked similar to the Wonderbolts, but darker, with the initials G.P.E. beneath. Beneath that was what she assumed to be Rainbow’s call sign, Kamikaze. That beat Rainbow Crash, even if it implied more purposeful crashing.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow snickered. “Great joke, but we got better things to do, and not just each other.”

She thought it was a joke? Twilight tried to form a response, but all she could do was stare in shock. Rainbow reacted by waving a hoof in front of her.

“Equestria to Midnight!” Rainbow snicked. “Come on, filly, we gotta go.”

Twilight's Rainbow was also often oblivious to the emotions of others, but this was off the charts. Could she really not tell how disgusted Twilight was?

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight screamed, forgetting in her rage that this one didn't know the same Twilight. "When have I EVER joked about something like that?"

"I go by Kamikaze" growled Rainbow as all hints of glee left her voice. "Why do you always get it wrong? And you joke about stuff like that every day. You're acting weird, Miss Midnight. What the buck was going on here when I arrived?"

“H-huh?” Twilight blinked. “Midnight?” She’d been so enraged that she hadn’t caught the alternate name.

"You’re even weirder than usual," Rainbow commented, moving one artificial hoof up as if to measure the height difference. "And taller... huh..."

“Rain... Kamikaze,” Twilight gauged her words carefully, voice quivering as she held most of her tears. “Why did you kill her?”

Rainbow stared like Twilight babbled gibberish, raising the visor on her helmet to get a better look. Twilight wished she hadn’t because now she saw almost half of Rainbow’s face was also replaced with the arcane steel. Her left eye was only a metal iris with a red light behind it, while a cable plugged into a port in the side of her head connected to something beneath her wings.

Twilight followed the wire to note the arcane gun barrels beneath the wings, metal coils wrapped around a metal barrel with no visible hole to shoot a projectile from. Twilight assumed that was the weapon that had destroyed Starlight so spectacularly. Creating a working wing to channel pegasi magic and allow flight was hard enough, but a pegasi having a built-in power supply to use such weapons was beyond difficult.

Twilight shivered as she tried to keep herself from freaking out completely; perhaps she shouldn’t judge a pony based on a handicap… or upgrade?

Rainbow's eye didn't help. It felt less like a friend and more like something analyzing the tastiness of her soul. She saw tiny text flashing across Rainbow’s artificial eye as the pegasus got text readout of scan results.

“Stop messing up my bucking name,” Rainbow said. “I dove head-first into a lot of horse apples to get an awesome name, so use it. Second, I saved your life.” She groaned and rolled her eyes, “You wanted to kill her instead? Well tough noodles, I got her first.”

“Saved my life?” Twilight asked, “She wasn’t attacking me!”

“Look, sweet stuff,” Rainbow shook her head and smirked. “I saw you at ground zero with the Princess’s number one nerd casting a megaspell. I don’t care how much you wanted to execute her yourself. For Break’s sake, you really peeve me sometimes.”

There were countless things wrong with Rainbow’s words and each added another ‘WHAT?’ to the conversation. Twilight stared at Rainbow, blank-faced and open-muzzle, brain shorting out.

“Whoa, language!” Spike piped up from beneath the table. “This is Twilight Sparkle, and she is Celestia’s number one nerd!... err student… was her student at least. I mean she kinda still is.”

Oh, for Celestia’s giant white plot, Twilight wished he’d let her handle this.

"Her name is Midnight now, moron," Rainbow said to Spike. "Wait. You didn’t run? Good, I get to see if you’ll make the same sound your master made!" She laughed again. "That's what I love about these guns, they turn annoyances into piles of glowing poop, but way less gross."

The barrels on Rainbow's sides glowed as they charged up.

"Twilight?" Spike squeaked as he froze.

“NO, NO, NO!” Twilight couldn’t say it enough. “You will not harm a single scale on his head!”

Twilight rushed between Rainbow and Spike. When she found her guns pointed at Twilight, Rainbow clenched her teeth in brief panic as she quickly killed the charge on her guns. She grabbed her metal wing with her real wing to stop it from pulling the trigger, as if not quite in control of the metal one. She played off the panic soon after.

"Fine, don’t bite my head off either," huffed Rainbow. "I didn’t expect him to defect. Why were you at the paradox table though? Haven't you geeked out about it enough?" She rolled her eyes again. "You got another crazy theory about it, don't ya?"

Twilight’s eye twitched so hard that it was a wonder it didn’t pop out and roll away on its own epic adventure. Spike started to speak again, so she lifted a back hoof and diplomatically silenced him via plugging his muzzle. He growled but got the picture.

Twilight tried to get a hold of herself. She reminded herself that they could fix this... or most of this at least. She couldn't risk making things worse by trying to save Starlight's life, but she could still go back to the rainboom with Spike. As long as Twilight and Spike stayed safe, everything else would correct when she fixed the timeline.

"Spike?" Twilight sighed. "Please give me the scroll."

"Oh uh," Spike whispered fiddled his claws nervously. "About that... I sorta... accidentally threw my backpack in a panic when I got shot at by psycho-Dash. I think it burned up with Starlight..."

It hit Twilight like a ton of badly sorted books: they were trapped here.

No, but she couldn't panic. Twilight logic’d it out. This Dash seemed to respect her, called her 'boss' even, so she could use that. While she'd lost Starlight’s spell, this world might have its own scroll in the Canterlot archives. It was just a matter of figuring how Starlight altered it. With time travel involved, it didn’t matter how long it took to figure out how, especially since dragons and alicorns didn’t age past adulthood.

“Kamikaze,” Twilight said. It was better to think of her as somepony else, anyway. “You will escort me to the Canterlot Archives. There is something in the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing that is vital to the war effort.”

She tried again to adopt a commanding visage. The wind drying her eyes helped, but Kamikaze still peered at her suspiciously. The pegasus arched her flesh eyebrow and at first Twilight thought Canterlot had been destroyed despite what the map showed.

“What’s with you?” Kamikaze asked. “Ordering me around like this? I know you think you're in charge, but I'm still your bucking wife, so if you want me to keep putting out you better put down the attitude and lighten. the. buck. up.”

Darn it all to Tartarus, would she stop doing that? Every time Twilight got her head around new information, Kamikaze blurted something even less sensible!

Twilight took another deep breath before one of her front legs gave out, and toppled forward onto the ground. Too dizzy to catch herself with magic, she face-planted on the strangely warm dirt. Her face landed so she could see behind her, realizing Spike looked dizzy too. He moved to help Twilight, but just tumbled against her flank and clung there.

“I’m not feeling well,” Twilight stammered, “Um, dear.”

“What in the mile-high buck club?” Kamikaze asked, her good eye widening. “This isn’t the time for kinky stuff, Your Divine Masochist-ness. Cast a radiation shield before I end up having to buck a zombie!”

“A what shield?” Twilight asked weakly. She rolled those words around her head.

Her mind was numb, but the gears in her head turned rustily. That was what the strange energy was? Twilight knew that radiation was harmful in large amounts but had never encountered such quantities. In the confusion, she hadn’t connected two and pi together.

Kamikaze’s comment about a zombie wasn’t figurative though. There was a distinct necrotic tint to this magical energy that Twilight hadn’t noticed at first because of lack of experience with dark magic. Dying from an overdose of this might really…

She felt stupid for not recognizing the threat earlier. She tried to cast a force field around her and Spike, but her brain felt like someone had stuffed it with gauze. When the spell failed, she tried to cast a smaller one around just Spike, but it fizzled out too. She just couldn't hold her concentration.

“I’m fine!” Twilight said instinctively as Kamikaze helped her up. She saw concern in the cyber-pony’s real eye, the kind Rainbow normally tried to play off. “It doesn’t matter, we need to get to Canterlot!”

Rainbow said something in return, sounding annoyed, but Twilight didn't catch it as her consciousness faded. Then there was darkness.

“Who are you?!”

For a moment, Twilight’s body was too numb to move or respond. Her mind buzzed with confusion as she struggled to identify the screaming voice.

She'd found herself in a large open chamber. Twilight recognized it immediately as Nightmare Moon's throne room from the timeline where she had encountered the mad Moon goddess. The throne room was empty at first, but a figure coalesced out of the moonlight streaming in through the large windows, forming Nightmare Moon's form sitting atop it.

Though it felt real, Nightmare's entrance was very much like Luna's entrance when she appeared within dreams. Was Twilight dreaming?

"I asked you a question!" Nightmare Moon’s voice boomed and her face twisted in rage as she glared down at Twilight. "I know my faithful student and you are not her! How did you intercept my attempts to contact her within the world of dreams?"

“I’m… you know who I am!” Twilight shivered as she stumbled towards the throne. “L-Luna? Please tell me that’s you and not… her.”

“But what are you, Paradox?” Nightmare Moon demanded, voice echoing through the chamber. “You are no mere changeling. Your dreams… your very existence… they are impossible!”

“I-I don’t even know!” Twilight cried. “Luna, I need your help! Nightmare Moon isn’t who you are, please come back to us! The whole universe needs you to be the hero I know you are! If you're in my dream, look into my memories at who you’re supposed to be!”

Nightmare answered, but the dream faded too quickly to understand her as Twilight's consciousness returned.

Twilight didn't know how long she was out, but when she returned to consciousness, she awoke to hearing a conversation. There wasn't any wind, so she must have been inside now.

"Yeah, she got the wings already," Kamikaze was laughing hard, and Twilight imagined her rolling on the floor. "My bitch doesn't waste time."

"Is she still going on about shadows?" another voice asked more seriously. It was barely audible through static, as if coming through a radio, but sounded like Spitfire. "I know you married her, Dash, but she freaks me the buck out. If Daybreaker wasn't burning down the world with coronal mass ejections, I'd have never agreed to an alliance with that crazy bitch."

As Twilight's sight slowly returned, she saw a shadow of Rainbow nearby, a glowing screen full of static in front of her. Or maybe she should think of her as Kamikaze only; it'd help her separate this one from her own.

"Eh, she hasn't mentioned the shadows for once," Kamikaze shrugged as her laughter snorted to a stop again. "Besides, you're just jealous I get that fine plot allll to myself."

"I'm not gay, Dash," Spitfire audibly rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think I was, either," Dash chuckled. "But dat flank was just too..."

"Getting you back on the subject, Kami," Spitfire thankfully interrupted. "This means I'm in charge of the assault?"

"Yeah, we can't hold off," Kamikaze nodded but sounded annoyed at not getting to finish. "Daybreaker and Glimglam may be dead, but those lunatic engineers of theirs aren't. We gotta bake Canterlot first or Cloudsdale is toast."

"The radbooms then?" sighed Spitfire. "I swear, who the buck designed a megaspell that requires a rainboom to activate?"

"Uh yeah, can't imagine who came up with that," Kamikaze chuckled awkwardly, but then sounded uncharacteristically grave. "Nopony likes this option, but with the NLR's balefire used or unavailable, it's our only shot." Just as suddenly, her tone switched back. "And what a way to go, right? I'd be first in line if I'd made it there in time."

"Yeah, you probably would be," Spitfire sighed. "So get your suicidal flank over here when you can. As much as I hate to say it, you have the best chance of pulling this off."

"Can't be that hard," shrugged Kamikaze. "I mean how many pegasi do they have with Cloudsdale turned on them? Those Talon Company mercenaries can't fly for horse apples compared to the real deal."

Spitfire might have disconnected, or maybe the connection sputtered out from interference, but either way the screen turned off. Twilight noted what they said, but couldn't ask too many questions, lest she give away who she was. Whoever this 'Daybreaker' was, they might be a villain that would appear in her own timeline, so she hoped to find out more.

Before drawing attention to herself, Twilight got a look around the area. They were in a cave that looked as if they had once used it as a make-shift hospital, dimly lit by the light coming in the cave mouth thirty hoofsteps away. The communication board where Kamikaze sat was the only thing with power, hooked up to a large magical battery with the words 'Glimmer Cell 1000' on the side. The rest of the cave was empty hospital beds and cabinets.

The table next to Twilight's bed had several empty potion bottles. They had a symbol on them that looked like a three-bladed fan and read 'Radaway' at the base. Spike was in the bed next to her, still unconscious but breathing normally.

Kamikaze had restrained his wrists and feet, and it looked like it was cutting off circulation, so Twilight rolled over onto her stomach and began untying him with her magic. In the middle of doing so, Twilight felt Rainbow’s good wing smack her bottom and eeped, looking back at her and blushing.

"Up, hot stuff?" Kamikaze asked. She looked relieved briefly but played it off. "I wouldn't untie him if I were... fine, don't listen. I'm just your bucking wife."

"He's not dangerous," sighed Twilight as she climbed off the table. Whatever Kamikaze gave her did the trick; she rose to her hooves without feeling dizzy, placing Spike on her back and holding him there with her magic.

"Still won't tell me all you're planning, huh," smirked Rainbow as she moved closer. "I know it's something with how you're acting, but we gotta get to Cloudsdale for now."

Twilight opened her muzzle to reply only to have Rainbow take another step forward and steal a kiss. Going stiff, Twilight tried to fight the urge to back away lest it seem too suspicious, but she couldn’t help it when Rainbow’s tongue dove in. When she did back away, Rainbow must have taken it as a challenge because she stepped forward to try again.

"So you can kill yourself in some kind of suicide attack?" Twilight asked loudly, which thankfully ceased the amorous pegasus. "Is that really the way?"

"Ah, you overheard that huh," Kamikaze sat and scratched her head where metal met flesh, seeming nervous that Twilight knew. Apparently she hadn't told 'Midnight' all her plans either. "Look, you know me, so you know you won't stop me. Besides, maybe I'll survive with two fewer limbs and be symmetrically awesome." Her voice waxed flirtatious. "Later you can take off my limbs and use one to..."

“Not the time!” Twilight cut her off.

"Please tell me you have a memory wiping spell so I can forget that comment," muttered Spike, apparently having awoken. He shook his head as he sat up on her back. Twilight fluffed her wings to cuddle him and let him know she was happy he was okay.

"Fine!" Kamikaze groaned in annoyance. "Why don't you buck Spike instead since you seem so affectionate towards him!"

"Oh come on!" Spike covered his ears.

Kamikaze smirked and smacked Spike on the behind with her wing as well.

“Oh. COME! ON!” Spike said even louder, looking to Twilight for assistance.

“Kamikaze,” Twilight turned, moving Spike from Kamikaze’s reach again and looking into her eyes, or the one she could stand looking into at least, “I need you to take this seriously and trust me. The fate of Equestria depends on it.”

“Sheesh, not even trying to make you jealous works,” grumbled Kamikaze, seeming increasingly bitter, but then chuckled. “I’m pretty sure ‘the fate of Equestria’ is sealed, anyway.”

"We can unseal it!" Twilight raised her voice in frustration. "Kamikaze, there is a time spell at the Canterlot Archive. If we can get that spell, I can alter it and dial things back to before the destruction. We can prevent Daybreaker from assuming control to begin with!"

"Assuming control?" Kamikaze quirked her good eyebrow in confusion. Either Twilight had said the wrong thing without knowing, or all that metal in Rainbow’s head hadn’t done as much good as it could have.

"Think about it," Twilight tried to put it into terms that Rainbow would understand. "Why be a hero for destroying a city when you can be a hero for stopping Daybreaker before she starts this madness!"

"You're not making sense, but I guess that’s nothing new," chuckled Kamikaze, but the logic won her over, anyway. "But fine, may as well! We'll probably die trying to get it since I can't delay Cloudsdale's attack, but I didn’t expect to survive this, anyway."

Twilight felt bad for letting Kamikaze assume Twilight would take her with her with the time spell, but she needed all the help she could get. Now they just had to get there before Kamikaze's other brilliant plan succeeded.