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                        Amaranthus                         
                     -by Lucky Seven-                      
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                   Crawling in the Dark                    
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Crawling in the Dark
Disharmony.
Madness.
Chaos.
Any one of those words would have sufficed in describing the situation Starlight found herself in. But how? How had things gone so awry? Her expertly crafted machinations had gone exactly according to plan.
… Well, right up until the end.
“Oh, next I suppose you’ll tell me that ‘the fate of all of Equestria hangs in the balance’!”
“It does!”
“Spare me your overblown ego! No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight’s, is that important!”
Starlight’s body glowed turquoise as she fired up the spell once more. Only this time, Twilight lunged at her. The alicorn crashed into her with her full weight, but Starlight remained undeterred. With a burst of magical energy, the same portal she’d been tormenting Twilight with time and again formed above the pair.
Starlight was starkly aware of the fact that Twilight Sparkle would never give up. After all, her modus operandi was to find a solution even when none appeared possible. What she didn’t expect, though, was the feeling of Twilight wresting control of the scroll away from her. The Princess’s hooves wrapped around it tightly, yanking and pulling as roughly as she could on the ancient parchment.
The gravity of the situation was becoming more apparent as Starlight felt herself being sucked towards the portal. Like a black hole, its influence was inescapable. The last thing she saw before her body was consumed by the portal was Star Swirl’s time travel scroll rending and tearing down the middle, her own grasp on it unrelenting. The swirling, rushing sound of the portal grew to a deafening roar like a waterfall in a flood, her ears overwhelmed by the cacophony.
And then, silence. All was still. A lush expanse of trees and flora surrounded Starlight, stretching out in what looked like infinitude in all directions. This was unlike any forest she was aware of. Sure, the Everfree Forest was rather dank and daunting in its own regard, but something felt different about this. She directed her gaze upwards, trying her hardest to spy even a single speck of the sky through the expansive treetops. No dice.
As her head fell back down level with the plant life around her, Starlight shuddered. This entire ordeal had taken the bulk of her magical energy. Still, it was too dark to see properly. Using what little reserves she had left, her horn shimmered to life, illuminating her surroundings in a dim turquoise glow. Exhausted and aching, she sighed and took a step forward.
Crunch.
A chill ran down her spine. Starlight closed her eyes and bit her lip. The crunch of leaves underhoof was to be expected in a forest, but not parchment. Starlight gulped and her eyes slowly opened once more, her gaze now focused on her forehooves.
Oh no…
Lifting up her right hoof, Starlight eyed the scroll she’d been idly grasping. A perforation ran from top to bottom, leaving a narrow strip of ancient paper without a complete sentence anywhere along its length.
“Th-the s-s-scroll…” Starlight stammered out. Pushing it closer to her face, she prayed that somehow the other half would magically be there the next time she looked. With a blink of her eyes, that pipe dream was quickly extinguished. She had half of Star Swirl’s time travel scroll. That meant…
“Oh no. No no no no…”
Starlight frantically scanned her surroundings, hoping and wishing against all odds that the other half had simply come through the portal and flittered harmlessly to the ground nearby. Rifling through bushes, shaking the limbs of the trees around her, and even sifting through the overgrown weeds turned up nothing. As reality set in, she began to hyperventilate.
This was bad. Sure, she’d had no problem forcing Twilight to live out a future where she’d never met her friends, but Starlight had never had to see that future herself. What was she going to do now? She only had a moment to dwell before a low rumble from behind some nearby shrubbery practically shook her from her thoughts.
Something big, probably with razor-sharp teeth, was lurking in the bushes. Thinking could wait. For now, getting out of this forest as quickly as possible was priority number one. She snapped up the scroll in her teeth and started in the direction opposite the rumbling creature. Even if it was only half of the scroll, that was certainly better than being stuck in the future without a lead.
Slowly, Starlight trudged forward through the thicket, disappearing into an endless void of green wildlife. Where she was going, she hadn’t a clue, but the unknown was desirable to standing still and getting gobbled up. Using her hooves to push aside the many branches and vines extending down around her, she managed to break through to the other side of the shrubbery. Before her lay a clearing.
Compared to where she had just been, this was paradise in Equestria. The grass, appearing to be more well-maintained, was littered with beautifully vivid flowers of a variety of colors. The sound of water gently flowing in a nearby stream helped to soothe her sense just a bit, and she watched idly as the moonlight reflected off of its surface in ripples.
“Wait… moonlight?”
Starlight’s head shot upwards. The never-ending tree tops were no longer clouding the sky above. Tracing their outline around the clearing, she was stunned to see a perfect circle of night sky poking through, as if the branches and leaves had been sheared down by the world’s largest cookie cutter to make way for this one plot of land.
It offered her a small respite from the creepy forest, so she could question it later. For now, she could let her guard down just a little.
With a sigh of relief, Starlight peered towards the center of the clearing. There lay a familiar sight, one that quickly sent her spiraling back towards those dangerously grim thoughts. Six chairs organized symmetrically around a large circular table. The surface, a topographical map of Equestria, appeared battered and scratched by the sands of time. Those chairs, once adorned with the six elements of harmony, had long since cracked and crumbled, leaving only a husk of their original glory.
Deep down, she knew exactly what she was looking at. But how? How did it still exist in a present in which Twilight meeting her friends had never come to pass?
Resolving to find the answer to that question, Starlight trotted up to the Cutie Map, settling her vision upon the table-top. It almost seemed as if the map was staring intently back at her. As she studied it, she began to notice small… discrepancies. Small things that appeared to be out of place, or even gone entirely. Cities in different locations, or not even on the map. Lakes and oceans were jumbled, with rivers seeming to flow uphill in some places. Was that a floating island over Baltimare Harbor? And since when had Canterlot been attached to a volcano?
As her mind pored over these minute differences, Starlight couldn't help but finally ask herself a question that had long been plaguing her. All the way back to when she and Twilight had first met, and her plans for a village centered around equality had been foiled.
What if Twilight Sparkle hadn’t been lying?
How long had it been since Starlight had left the Cutie Map behind? Minutes? Hours? It was hard to say.
Starlight had been wandering through the unknown forest for what felt like hours. Despite it all, it was as if she'd made no headway toward any sort of edge or clearing no matter how far she was sure she traveled. She’d been careful to examine her own location at the center of the Cutie Map and head in the general direction Ponyville was marked.
If she had found herself near the Cutie Map to begin with, why had she seemingly not even begun to make a dent in her progress? The castle it called home was right on the edge of Ponyville. Had the endless expanse of trees caused her to go off track at some point?
That was just one question among many. Perhaps she would find answers for all of them once she figured out just where in Tartarus she was going. Questions such as how in the name of Celestia was she going to get home? Why in the hay was this forest so darn big? Was it the result of some spell gone wrong? Maybe the forest was just that big already.
Still, she wouldn’t get out of this forest standing still. As she trudged through yet another thick bramble of twigs and leaves, she became faintly aware of a sensation tugging at the back of her mind. It was a feeling that everypony was vaguely familiar with and would experience at some point in their lives.
She was being watched.
Right now was not the ideal time to experience that.
“Come on, Starlight, focus,” she muttered, picking up her pace. Her hooves, muddied and sore from hours of walking, only endured more punishment as she pressed onward. Doing her best to ignore the aches and pains, she returned her gaze skyward for a brief moment. Much to her delight, shimmering rays of moonlight passed through small gaps in the treetops above.
If the trees were growing more sparse, that meant she was nearing either another clearing or, better yet, the edge of the woods. With a new resolve, Starlight sped up once more, her hooves now slamming into the ground with every step as she galloped through the treeline, tearing her way through bushes and branches. She didn’t even care about the scratches and scrapes they inflicted to her legs, painful as they were.
She so desperately wanted to leave this Celestia-forsaken place behind her.
Her speed never once faltered as she dashed towards what she hoped was freedom, taking momentary glances towards the sky to confirm that the treeline was indeed growing less oppressive as she feverishly made a break for the end of the expansive forest and whatever lurked within it.
Or whoever. This wasn’t some sort of creature. No, that feeling had become all too familiar to her after spending several hours in this place. Somepony was watching her. Had they been following her the entire time?
Clenching her jaws tighter around her half of the scroll, Starlight dug deeper, ignoring the strain she was putting on her legs. She had to stay one step ahead. Crashing through yet another large set of shrubs, a new sensation sent a lance of fear through her guts.
Weightlessness.
The ground had dropped away down a steep hill, her momentum carrying her airborne above the slope. She might as well have run off a cliff. She clenched her teeth, bracing for impact as the ground rushed back toward her.
Thud!
Her right shoulder hit first with a sickening crunch, knocking a cry from her chest. She tumbled end over end, fighting to right herself but unable to overcome inertia.
Whack!
Her back slammed into the slope next, the air bursting from her mouth in an ugly gasp.
Slam!
Then her rump. Then her side. She would have screamed, had the breath not been stolen from her lungs by the impacts.
This was a battle against gravity, one that Starlight knew she couldn’t win. Her horn sparked reflexively, searching for any spell that might save her, but it extinguished with the next blow. She caught a glimpse of a boulder ahead in her path, and she was on a collision course. Battered, beaten, and too tired to do anything about it, Starlight did something she’d never dreamed of doing in her life.
She surrendered. Bracing herself for one final impact that would no doubt put an early end to her story, she winced, slamming her eyes shut. And then… nothing.
Against all odds, she wasn’t falling anymore.
Starlight groaned, her body wracked with pain. Her eyes shot back open, scanning her surroundings. The boulder she had spotted was still just downhill from her, but she had just… stopped. However that happened, she was too dazed to think about it. She had to keep moving. In desperation, she attempted to push herself upright, but the pain was overwhelming. Unable to bear her weight, her hind hooves gave out from beneath her. She collapsed into a heap, gasping for breath. Walking simply wasn’t on the table just yet. Had she broken anything in the fall? She wasn’t sure.
But she couldn’t just give up. Bracing herself with her knee, she used her bruised and scraped foreleg to push herself sideways. Relief washed over her as she managed to turn her body over. Coming to rest on her back, she stared upwards at the many stars above.
The sight of Luna’s beautiful tapestry brought back memories of stargazing as a young filly in her backyard. She’d spend hours doing nothing but looking up, wondering what life was like beyond her own world. Milky dollops of stars formed imaginary connections in her mind, webs of lines building wondrous constellations.
The thought soothed her, just enough for her breathing to slow. For a moment, she could forget herself. The burning in her lungs subsided. The sharp pain in her muscles eased to a dull ache. She sighed.
Crunch.
“No…” she muttered weakly, using what little strength she had left to sit up. Ignoring the pain as best she could, Starlight braced a forehoof against the ground and hoisted herself up. Shakily, she managed to find her footing, rickety as it was.
She turned her head slowly to face whatever was behind her, but nothing was there. Even with her lying in a vulnerable heap, her pursuer had stayed hidden. That was even more terrifying than if they took the opportunity to pounce.
“Hello?” Starlight called out. There was no answer, save for the buzzing and chattering of nearby bugs. That didn’t make sense, though. She could feel a pair of eyes upon her. The sensation was so intense it made her skin crawl. “Is anypony there?”
She waited a moment. Yet again, there was no response. Could it be that she had simply imagined everything up until now? That that lingering feeling was only in her head?
With a sigh, Starlight turned her head back forward, only to find her vision entirely overtaken by the muzzle of another pony. With a shriek, she fell back on her haunches and shut her eyes tight. This was it. This was how it ended. This was where the murder was to take place.
A few moments passed without a knife plunging into her neck, and Starlight peeked one eye open. The other pony was just sitting there, watching her. The moonlight did a decent enough job illuminating them, and Starlight used what little time she assumed she had left to take in their appearance fully.
Their coat was a lightish cream, but most of it was covered with a dark green cloak, contrasting with a warmly multi-colored red and pink mane that drooped over their face and covered a portion of their left eye. Her gaze moved downwards to meet their own. Shimmering green eyes stared back at her. She had never met this pony before, but one thing was certain. Their stare was anything but malicious. There was a sort of pleading in the way their eyes shone.
“Um… hello,” Starlight finally managed to speak.
The other pony didn’t respond right away. Starlight watched with curiosity as their eyes began to scan over her body. Raspily, they spoke up. “You’re hurt.”
Starlight looked back down at her own body. It was covered in deep purple bruises and scrapes seeping blood. “Y-yeah.”
“Come with me,” the pony said, turning heel and beginning a slow trot down the ridge.
Starlight teetered back onto her hooves, but pain shot through her legs as soon as she tried to take a step. Panting, she called out to the mystery mare, “I… I can’t. I’m in too much pain to move.”
The unknown pony stopped in her tracks, her head turning slightly to the left. Starlight could barely see her muzzle poke out from her cloak as she called back. “Then I will return. Wait here.”
Starlight could do nothing but watch as the pony returned to their trot, heading down the ridge until they were out of sight. Starlight collapsed all the way backwards. As her head struck the firm dirt, she let out possibly the biggest sigh of her life.
Well, at least she seemed friendly.
If time had passed slowly when she was walking through the woods, now it was as if time was a stream of molasses running down pavement. The minutes turned into hours as she resigned herself to lying splayed out on the ground. In a way, she was grateful for those long minutes. Not having to move right then was blissful compared to the alternative.
Would that pony even return? And if she did, would she even be able to help? The fall had done quite a bit of damage, and although none of it seemed to be internal, Starlight knew that it was going to hamper her ability to do much of anything aside from just lie in the same spot. Maybe she could lie there long enough that she could recover. Maybe she would die of exposure before then. Who could truly say?
Crunch. Crunch.
Starlight craned her neck toward the sound. Another pony in a hood stood over her, not the one who had gone to get her help. Most of their features were obscured—from what she could tell, they were a very light green in color, almost mint, with a matching mane with a white stripe.
“You came back,” Starlight said, relief washing over her. “And you brought a friend.”
“I said I would,” the cream-colored mare responded.
“You’re lucky you ran into Roseluck,” the minty one added. “She doesn’t come this way often.”
Roseluck, huh? That name felt vaguely familiar. Perhaps she was someone Twilight interacted with when she was spying on her?
“Well, I’m glad she did,” Starlight said, a small smile crossing her muzzle.
“You got a name?” Roseluck’s friend asked.
“My name is Starlight Glimmer.”
“Lyra,” the mare said. “Lyra Heartstrings.”
Starlight watched curiously as Roseluck eased back carefully onto her haunches, so as not to topple over on the steep terrain. Reaching a forehoof to her side, she retrieved a small saddlebag from beneath her cloak. Setting it down on the dirt, she fished around in it for a few moments and retrieved a small… pill?
“Um…” Starlight eyed the object closely. It was ovular, a lightish brown hue, and no bigger than a jelly bean. “What is it?”
Roseluck insistently shook her hoof. “Eat it.”
“Uh, do I swallow it whole? Let it dissolve, maybe chew it?”
“Chew.”
Though still unsure, Starlight took the weird bean-pill thing. It wasn’t like she had any other options. She didn’t sense any malice in Roseluck's or Lyra’s expressions, at least. With a shrug of her shoulders, she opened her mouth wide and tossed the bean inside. It made a satisfying crunch as she bit down, but the taste was like sucking on a coin. Her muzzle scrunched up at the metallic flavor, but she did her best to ignore it. After a few moments, she swallowed it.
“So… now what?”
A surge of energy suddenly rushed through her stomach like a river of hot bubbly water. A gentle numbness spread from her core down each of her limbs; the throbbing pains eased, then vanished. Inspecting her forelegs, the scratches and bruises were still there, but somehow she just… couldn’t feel the pain.
This didn’t make any sense, how could a bean have this kind of effect?
“It’s a special bean, I cultivated it myself,” Roseluck explained. “It won’t heal your injuries, but it numbs you so you can ignore them.”
Starlight raised her hooves up and flexed them back and forth, amazed at how easy the action was. Her mind was expecting the need for more exertion, but her forelegs were practically flying at the smallest flick of her knee. “How long does it last?”
“We’re… not really sure,” Lyra answered, pawing idly at the ground. “You’re honestly the first pony who’s had the chance to try it.”
Starlight frowned. “Wait, so you didn’t even know it would work? What if it had turned my stomach inside out!?”
“Oh, don’t worry!” Lyra exclaimed, suddenly beaming. Starlight was taken aback at the immediate change in tone.
“How can I not worry!? You two come out of nowhere like weirdo forest-dwellers, force feed me some weirdo bean, and now you have a weirdo smile!”
“Oh, silly filly,” Lyra giggled, waving a hoof, “calm down. Roseluck is the best gardener in all of Equestria, even without her cutie mark.”
Huh, well that was at least a little reassuring. … Wait, did she just say—
“‘Without her cutie mark’?” Starlight lifted herself off the ground and stood upright. Slowly wiggling towards the pair, careful not to fall over the edge of the ridge again. “That’s impossible. I didn’t take everypony’s cutie marks away. Did I?”
Lyra cocked her head at the question. “Um… no? How would a pony even take another pony’s cutie mark away?”
“O-oh, right,” Starlight said. Why did she even say that? Stupid, stupid Starlight.
“Heh, for a pony who called us weirdos, you sure are an odd one,” Lyra chuckled. “You must’ve hit your head pretty hard in that fall.”
“Y-yeah, guess I must’ve. So… is that why you girls wear these cloaks?” Starlight asked, reaching out towards Roseluck’s. A smack of her hoof from the gardener’s own stopped her in her tracks. “Ow! S-sorry.”
“What Lyra says is true,” Roseluck stated. “Neither of us have our cutie marks. Why is that shocking? Nopony has a cutie mark.”
“Well, you’re both full-grown mares,” Starlight chuckled. “I’ve heard of late bloomers, but mares don’t just not get cutie marks.”
“Then… where’s yours?” Lyra asked Starlight, pointing a hoof at her flank.
Starlight’s eyes slowly, agonizingly, traced a path back towards her hind-quarters. Where she expected to see her cutie mark, she instead saw… nothing. Just more of the same lilac fur. Her cutie mark was gone, as if it had never existed.
She launched several feet in the air, shrieking so loudly that it echoed off the trees and startled birds into flight. As she landed back on her hooves, she shoved her face up against Lyra’s muzzle. “W-w-where is it!? What do you mean nopony has a cutie mark!?”
“Okay, first of all, personal space much?” Lyra said, pushing Starlight back. “Second, why are you so surprised? Nopony has had a cutie mark in… two? Three years?”
“But how is that possible?”
Lyra opened her mouth, but she was interrupted by a deafening roar from behind Starlight. Heavy thuds rang out from just out of view, followed by a sickening snarl. Another roar, then a tiny screech of pain.
“It’s time to go,” Roseluck said. Turning around, she motioned for the other two to come with her, and began a slow descent down the mountain. “Come on.”
Quickly settling into line behind Roseluck, Starlight peered back over her shoulder just in time to see the bushes above them rustle. Much to her surprise, and delight, it wasn’t a fearsome creature that poked its way through the foliage. “O-oh, it’s just a bunny.”
She paused her descent, sighing. “Whew, and for a second I though th—”
Starlight lost her voice as the mother of all bears lumbered into view at the top of the hill. It had followed the bunny. Panic set in, but the sensation of Lyra grabbing her hind leg kept her from jumping into a full gallop downhill. “L-let go! That thing is going to eat us!”
“No it’s not,” Lyra said.
Starlight shook her leg wildly, trying to break free of her fellow unicorn’s grasp. Tugging and pulling got her nowhere. “And just how do you know that!?”
“Because it’s not going to risk running down this ridge the same way you did,” Lyra assured her. Turning back to look at the absolutely massive bear again, she noticed the limp white body of a rabbit hanging from its mouth. Instead of pursuing them, the bear settled onto its haunches. “Plus, it looks like it already found its dinner.”
The sickening crunch of teeth rending through meat and bones was a sound Starlight was certain she’d never forget. Unable to take any more, she turned away in abject horror.
“Come on,” Lyra advised her. “We don’t want to be here when it gets done eating.”
Starlight wanted to argue. She wanted to tell them that none of this was right. That she wasn’t supposed to be here. That she was supposed to have her cutie mark. But she didn’t have the energy, or the spirit, to do any of those things. Instead, she just did as she was told and arranged back into formation.
As they made their way down the narrow slope, carefully navigating around perilous drops and craggy outcrops of jagged rocks, the forest Starlight had spent the last few hours in grew more distant.
This entire situation frustrated her. She had no clue where she was, in a future that was all but unknown. She had beaten Twilight, and what did she have to show for it? A battered body and nearly broken spirit. Now here she was, having to rely on strangers in a forest with killer animals that would probably love a pony-sized gourmet dinner.
Well, it was certainly better than being bear food…
It had been several hours since the trio set out. Exactly zero seconds of that time had been spent chatting. Just walking, trotting, and sometimes galloping.
If she didn’t know better, she’d have assumed she was still alone. How in the hay could two mares spend so much time together and not even utter a single word?
Starlight glanced up at the mares in question, ducking her head below a particularly low-hanging branch. The fact that they were able to navigate the mountainous forest so effortlessly, without a word, was frighteningly impressive. And also a little annoying.
At this point, she almost starting to miss Tw—No, no, nope. She don’t care how lonely she felt, an eternity by herself would still be better than having to spend one more second around that arrogant, self-righteous b—
A stiff hoof to the chest roused Starlight from her thoughts, stopping her dead in her tracks.
“Did you hear that?” Lyra asked. Roseluck nodded, but Starlight just felt confused. She hadn’t heard a thing. What in the hay were they talking about?
“Stay away from me! Somepony, he—Aaaaaghhh!”
Starlight’s eyes went wide. Before she could process what was happening, Roseluck and Lyra bolted past her through the thick overbrush, and out of Starlight’s sight. Realizing she had no other choice, she set off behind them, following the trail of hoofprints on the ground. It led her on a winding path through thickets and low-hanging branches; after a few minutes, it ended in a small clearing.
She spied her partners crouching behind some shrubbery, peering over it. Roseluck waved a hoof, motioning for Starlight to join the pair. Starlight crept up between them, following their gaze towards…
“Who would build a statue in the middle of nowhere like that?” she asked, walking further into the clearing.
A golden glow filled the edges of Starlight’s vision as she felt her body warm up, and suddenly she could no longer feel the ground beneath her.
“You need to stop,” Lyra warned, her horn glowing with the same gold as she levitated Starlight in place.
“What? Why?”
“There’s danger ahead,” Roseluck hissed.
Starlight struggled against the magical grip. “Aren’t we trying to find the pony who screamed?”
“That’s them.”
Starlight took another long look at the statue and a realization began to dawn. It was extremely realistic. Too realistic. The moonlight above painted it a sickly white. The subject was posed at an awkward, unnatural angle—standing on a single hoof, but leaned back at a steep enough angle that even a gymnast would struggle to maintain that stance. “I-is that…”
“Shh!!” Lyra admonished her, eliciting a yelp from Starlight. Shoving both hooves over her mouth and dropping to the ground, Starlight did as she was told this time. Lyra and Roseluck began whispering to each other, mostly inaudible to Starlight except for one word that found its way through.
Cockatrice.
It didn’t matter how physically powerful or magically gifted a pony was, if a cockatrice matched your gaze, you were entirely at its mercy. The cockatrice the poor pony-turned-statue encountered had evidently not been feeling merciful.
The rustling of leaves nearby drew everypony’s attention, and Starlight watched in abject horror as the creature responsible slithered into view just to the left of the petrified pony. Its tail, covered in shimmering greenish-blue scales, wound across the ground much like a snake. It moved in near silence, save for its natural armor dragging against moist soil.
Just as Starlight was about to turn heel and run for the hills, the cockatrice looked directly at the trio. For a moment, all remained still. Its eyes blinked every now and again, but its stare remained unwavering.
“Don’t. Move. As long as we do nothing to startle or threaten it, we will be alright,” Roseluck whispered. “Cockatrices are not to be trifled with.”
“Yeah, trust me, I’m aware,” Starlight hissed through gritted teeth.
“Quiet,” Roseluck warned.
Starlight gulped, sweat running down her forehead as the cockatrice approached. Its movements were slow and deliberate, pausing every few steps to regard the ponies in front of it curiously. Its eyes were red as a raging inferno.
Stay away stay away stay away aaand it’s touching me. The feeling of its scales rubbing against her foreleg sent chills down her spine. It paused for a moment, and Starlight gulped. Every instinct in her body was screaming to make a break for it, but she stayed rooted in place.
Starlight shot a pleading glance over to Roseluck, trying to ask ‘What do I do?’ without moving a muscle. Roseluck didn’t budge, or say a word back. Time seemed to stand still. Every breath felt like a dare. How deep could she inhale before the creature decided she was a threat? Could she stomp it into submission before it could turn her to stone?
After a small eternity, the cockatrice squawked and darted out from under her. Its tail brushed against her hind legs, and then it was gone. Looking ever so slowly to her left, she could see that the cockatrice seemed to be content with the fact that these three ponies were not a concern. As it hopped and slithered away into some nearby bushes, relief flooded through Starlight’s chest. The trio remained still a few moments longer until they were sure it was out of earshot.
Still taking care to be stealthy, Starlight slunk over to the frozen pony. It was a pegasus, though their gender was unclear. Their body was contorted in a tight bend, wings extended, trying to take flight the moment they were frozen in time.
Roseluck appeared at her side, staring at the petrified pony. A scowl deepened across her muzzle with every passing moment. “They tried to get away…” she growled through gritted teeth, stamping a hoof hard into the ground.
Lyra was the next up to it. She extended a hoof, gently running it over the pony’s body. “Nopony deserves this. Once the petrification process begins, there’s no stopping it. Their hoof was probably stuck to the ground so they couldn’t fly away.”
Starlight was surprised. These two had seemed like grizzled veterans of the Everfree Forest, immune to all of the peril and worry that befell so many ponies before them. But here they were, crying over some random pony they’d never met. Sure, what happened to this pony was tragic, but it wasn’t their tragedy. The very idea of it was foreign to her. In a place like the Everfree, compassion and care were nothing more than weakness. Weaknessthat would lead ponies to their eventual downfall.
“Alright,” she said,” let’s go.”
Roseluck’s head whirled around, and she glared at Starlight. “‘Let’s go’? Really?”
“Yeah,” Starlight replied, “like you said, there’s nothing we can do now.”
“A pony just got frozen, Starlight,” said Lyra. “We should pay them our respects.”
“Right now? That cockatrice could still be around. They’ll be a bird toilet forever. Sucks for them, but we’re still breathing. How about we get out of here while that’s still true?”
“A bird toilet?!” Roseluck shouted. “That’s a pony you’re talking about. One we could have helped if we were here just a few minutes earlier.”
“Well we weren’t. Besides, weren’t you the two to say we could end up like them if we stayed here?”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t mourn their loss,” Lyra said, putting herself between Starlight and Roseluck. “Show a little compassion, Starlight.”
“And why should I?” Starlight scoffed. “I’ve never met this pony. Better yet, there’s nothing we can do to help them anyway. They’re a lost cause.”
“A lost cause!?” Roseluck erupted, pushing past Lyra and getting up in Starlight’s face. “That was a pony. One who had a family, friends, and a life they can’t go back to now!”
She continued, “You know, you’d think you of all ponies would appreciate what it means to have a helping hoof.”
“Some helping hooves you two are,” Starlight mocked her. “Go on, tell me. What’s your plan? That pony is still a statue and I don’t see either of you going off to try and help them. Just hurry up and cry your crocodile tears so we can get away from that cockatrice.”
Roseluck scowled. “Don’t presume to know how we feel, Starlight Glimmer. You know nothing about us.”
“Well, what I do know doesn’t paint a very pretty picture,” Starlight said. “You stood by while the cockatrice walked right on past us. Why didn’t the two of you go after it if you care so much about this pony, huh?”
Roseluck stamped a hoof to the ground, her scowl deepening. Clearly, she’d hit a nerve. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. If we could help this pony, we would. That would mean having to kill the cockatrice. Do you want to go hunt it down? Do you want to risk being petrified as well?”
Starlight’s ears splayed back, and she looked back to the petrified pegasus.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Roseluck spat. “Not to mention the fact that we helped you—and still are, by the way—after you fell down a ravine. It’s real easy to preach to others about what the ‘right thing to do’ is, but actually doing it yourself is a lot harder when you’re not sitting up on your high horse. Maybe we would have been here if we hadn’t stopped to help your callous flank.”
Starlight frowned. Did she have the guts to go after that cockatrice? Probably not. She wanted to argue back, but the longer she stared at the statue, the harder it became to find the words to do so. The unknown pony’s eyes stared perpetually back at her own, and for the briefest of moments, she swore she could see a glimpse of herself in them. If it were her encased in stone, would she want ponies to just pass her by without a second thought?
She felt a pressure on her shoulder, and turned round to see Lyra smiling warmly at her. “Starlight, I understand how you feel. We both do. This place has a way of making ponies act differently. But it’s okay to say you’re scared. We won’t judge you.”
“I’m not scared,” Starlight said a little too quickly. “I’m just… concerned for my—our safety.”
“Same thing,” Roseluck sniped.
Lyra swatted Roseluck’s snout with her tail. “Enough. Starlight, you owe Roseluck an apology. All she’s trying to do is help you, and your words were entirely cruel and unnecessary.”
Starlight scoffed. “What, apologize for being practical?”
“It’s that or we leave you to find your own way out,” said Lyra.
Starlight groaned, turning towards the mare in question, who was now staring back at the statue. “Look, I’m sorry, alright? This place gives me the creeps and I just wanna leave.”
Silence loomed as Starlight stared at the back of Roseluck’s hood. The seconds passed by agonizingly slowly, and Starlight was just about ready to berate her again when Roseluck slowly turned around.
The tension in the air was palpable. Roseluck’s green eyes shimmered as she locked her piercing glare on Starlight. She held that stare for several seconds, like she was waiting for Starlight to wither under it. She was about ready to squirm when finally, Roseluck moved again.
Reaching a hoof up, Roseluck grabbed hold of her cloak and pulled the hood back. Starlight winced, suddenly feeling a phantom sting along her head. A grisly scar, pinkish in color, ran from her forehead up through the top of her scalp, slicing through her mane like a river forging a valley through mountains.
“Oh… um, yeah, that’s,” Starlight stammered. The dual urges to avert her eyes and gawk like a fool were both equally compelling. “What happened?”
“Manticore,” Roseluck answered. “A couple of years ago.”
Starlight was overcome by a sudden sense of immense respect, even though she couldn’t just let that out. Roseluck may have been grating and confusing, but she was also tough. “Why did you get attacked by a manticore?”
“Wish I knew,” Roseluck said, her shoulders sagging a little. “It was a night like any other. We made the trip to Canterlot every other weekend to restock on supplies. Before sunset each evening, we’d pack our things and set up camp. It was the third night of our journey, and we were actually making pretty good time so we decided to establish our camp early.”
“... Then what happened?”
“We spent dusk like we always did. Sat around a campfire, cooking some hayfries and marshmallows, and telling stories. Myself, Lyra, and a couple other ponies were the ones on the trip. Eventually, we decided to wind down for the night, so I headed into my tent. Sleeping was easy after climbing up a mountain, so I was out by the time my head hit the pillow.”
“Did it break into your tent?” Starlight asked, leaning closer as Roseluck told her story.
“No. It ambushed us. I woke up to a bloodcurdling scream. I bolted out of my sleeping bag and through the flaps of my tent. It was dragging one of the others, a mare named Sunshower Raindrops, out of her tent by the hind legs.”
Starlight fell to her haunches. “Did you save her?”
Roseluck sighed. “I gave chase. You’d be shocked how fast a manticore can move when it’s dragging off its prey. I thought I’d never catch up, but it got into some thicker brush that let me close the gap. I kicked it with everything I had, yelled until my voice gave out. At one point I think I even tried to reason with it. And what did I get for all that trouble?” She clacked her hooves together for effect. “It smacked me with its paw to ward me off. Claws out. It went all the way down to the skull.”
Roseluck’s breath hitched, tears flowing down her cheeks as she did her best to continue. “She tried so hard to fly away… But she didn’t get to. It had already ripped her wing clean off.”
Starlight gasped involuntarily, pulling a hoof up to her mouth.
“That was it. I don’t even know how I was still conscious. The last thing I saw through the blood in my eyes was its tail stabbing into her back. She went still as it carried her away into the forest.”
Starlight didn’t know what to say. This was one of most harrowing stories she’d ever heard, and the fact it came with certifiable proof like that scar was just… awful. Much to her surprise, Roseluck wasn’t done.
“The look on her face as it stung her… I’ll never forget it,” Roseluck continued, her voice cracking ever so slightly. “Looking into another pony’s eyes, knowing that they’re going to die and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to help them…”
Roseluck trailed off. “... When I look at this pony, I see Sunshower. I think about what I could have done differently. I never want this to happen to anypony ever.” Her eyes flared with a hint of fire aimed at Starlight. “So forgive me if I’m a little upset to see it happen again.”
“Rose…” Lyra muttered, setting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
“I can’t imagine what it’s been like,” Starlight said, her head drooping low. All of the fight had left her, replaced now with teary eyes. “You’re an amazingly strong pony to go through something like that. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time.” This time, she actually meant it.
The corners of Roseluck’s mouth turned up ever so slightly. “Thank you, Starlight Glimmer. But… I fear that no matter how much I help my fellow ponies, it won’t be enough. The forest and its creatures are one thing, but he is another.”
Starlight cocked her head to the side. “‘He’?”
“How do you not know?”
Starlight shrugged. “It’s a long story. I promise I’m not crazy, but I’m actually here from another timeline where everything is different and to be honest I have no clue what’s going on or why everything is so different here.”
Lyra and Roseluck exchanged a glance. “Oh yeah, that makes sense,” said Lyra. “Trust me, that’s one of the most normal things I’ve heard in a long time.”
“So… who is he?”
“He is the reason Equestria is so different than it once was,” Roseluck said. “He’s a puppeteer, pulling at the strings of fate and toying with us.”
“He wreaks anarchy, havoc, and destruction everywhere he goes. He’s a god, by all accounts,” Lyra added.
“And not a benevolent one,” Roseluck finished. The two had painted a rather vivid description. A familiar one. Starlight had an inkling of who it was. Roseluck frowned, her brows furrowed.
“Discord.”
Several hours had passed since the revelation that Starlight had forged herself a future where Discord was in control. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense.
All she had done was take away Twilight Sparkle’s friends. There was no chance in Tartarus that her not meeting her friends would result in Discord ruling over Equestria. They were not that important.
Besides, even if they did embody the Elements of Harmony, why would another group not be chosen to take up the mantle of responsibility? Yeah, right. It was a load of nonsense spun by the same ponies who took the one brief moment of happiness in her life and squashed it.
No, Starlight was certain there had to be another reason Discord is in power, and she was going to figure it out.
“We’re almost there,” Roseluck called over her shoulder, rousing Starlight from her thoughts. “Remember, if somepony approaches you, ignore them. Do not wander off for even a moment. If you do and something goes wrong, we may not be able to help you.”
Starlight nodded, speeding up to a quick trot to keep pace with Lyra and Roseluck. They were now moving back uphill. “Is Ponyville really that bad now?”
The weeks she’d spent spying on Twilight and her friends had helped her become quite familiar with the layout of the small town. If anything was off, she would know.
“It’s the Chaos Capital of the World,” Lyra said. “Just wait until you see it.”
As the three scaled the slope, images ran through Starlight’s mind. She had never seen Discord’s terrifying force first-hoof, but it wasn’t hard to picture the kinds of things a god of chaos would revel in. Topsy-turvy roads, houses with stairways moving in all sorts of directions, cats and dogs raining from the sky on a clear day.
The first thing to crest over the horizon appeared to be Rarity’s place of work. She was fairly certain it was called the Carousel Boutique. It was anything but beautiful now, flipped on its top with the rocky foundation it had been built on floating in the sky. The structure rotated swiftly, appearing to take the word ‘carousel’ literally. The thought of being inside that building made Starlight dizzy, but luckily it didn’t hold her attention for long.
As more of Ponyville came into view, several more buildings were floating in mid-air, their foundations pointing in seemingly random directions. No one building kept the same orientation as the last. The bottoms were illuminated by what looked to be rivers of lava flowing through the once-pristine streets. It bubbled and boiled incessantly, spitting little globs of molten rock onto the riverbanks.
The sky above, normally a crystal blue with some storm clouds scattered about by the pegasi, was now somehow a green and black checkerboard pattern. How that was happening above only Ponyville was something she couldn’t begin to understand. It was absolutely covered in a series of bright orange clouds with glowing red centers. She wasn’t sure just what those clouds would do, but she knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to wait and find out.
Feeling herself reach the summit of the hill finally, she let out a deep breath. Her eyes went wide as she took in the sight in its entirety. Nothing could have prepared her for what she was looking at. It was like an amalgamation of every psychopath’s dreams come true in the dementedly twisted form of a broken city.
“I think I need to sit down…”
“We don’t have time,” Lyra said, “we have to make it to the Ponyville library.”
“The library? Why?” Starlight asked.
“Before we stumbled upon you in the Everfree Forest, we were heading back from our own journey,” Roseluck explained. “We needed to gather some plants and herbs not native to this area. That, and the blood of a strix.”
“... Explain.”
“It's for a special brew,” Lyra said. “Look, we’ll explain more once we’re at the library. The longer we stand here, the more likely we’ll be spotted.”
“Alright, point taken,” Starlight agreed, slowly beginning the journey downhill. “But I don’t understand. Since when does Ponyville have a library?”
“Um… since forever?” Lyra answered. “It’s built into a tree.”
“I’ve… never seen that,” Starlight said. In her original timeline, she had never seen a hollowed-out tree of any sort while spying on Twilight and her friends. The only tree she knew of was the Castle of Friendship. If Twilight and her friends had never met, did that mean the castle didn’t exist in this timeline? The map had been ripped from it and placed directly in the Everfree Forest, somehow.
But that begged yet another question. Was this supposed library tree they were talking about something related to Twilight Sparkle? Wait, no, dumb question. It’s full of books, of course it’s related to Twilight.
As little sense as this version of Ponyville made, this was the only clear path forward. Starlight fell in behind Roseluck and Lyra. As the three set hoof in Ponyville, the first thing Starlight noticed was the heat. It was like a sauna, no doubt caused by the lava flowing through town. That, and the gravity felt… off. She was still on the ground, but it was as if her body was weightless—like the ground wasn’t pushing back against her hooves.
“I don’t like how this place feels,” she said. Every step she took towards their destination was punctuated by a growing sense of dread. As her eyes scanned the many boarded-up buildings they passed by, she was surprised to see a pretty sizable contingent of ponies hiding inside them. The moment she made eye contact with any of them, they’d either close their shutters or drop down to hide. The numerous holes in their homes, along with patchwork roofs and walls, were a reminder that this was anything but a pleasant place to live.
“Nopony does,” Roseluck agreed. “Which is why we need to get back to the library.”
A realization shot through Starlight’s mind like a bullet. “Wait, the scroll!”
As her head shot in multiple directions, seemingly searching her body for any trace of the time travel scroll she’d had, she heard Roseluck clear her throat.
Roseluck was holding the scroll. “It was on the ground nearby when I found you, so I figured it might be something important.”
Starlight exhaled a massively relieving breath. “Oh, thank Celestia. Without that scroll, I’d be a goner.”
“What’s it for?” Lyra asked, hastily grabbing it away from her friend. Her eyes pored over the parchment, and appeared to fill with more confusion as she read. “Doesn’t look very useful to me, half of it’s gone.”
“Just hoof it here,” Starlight said, her horn lighting up and magically taking hold of the scroll. Levitating it back over to herself, she continued. “As for what it does, I guess I have some secrets, too.”
“Ooh… mysterious,” Lyra chuckled. “Well, like it or not, we’re tied at the hip now, so we’re going to figure out what it does some day.”
“Yeah, sure,” Starlight said quickly as she tucked it away. Lifting her head back up, she offered a weak smile. “So, how far away are we from the li—”
Low, rumbling laughter from elsewhere cut her off. It echoed through the town, seemingly all around them. Deep down, Starlight knew what this meant. Her stomach twisted into a knot, a sinking feeling spreading through her core. Still, thinking quickly, she had the wherewithal to use her magic to shove the scroll into Roseluck’s saddlebag and latch it shut.
Her horn dimmed, the magic glow around it disappearing as that laughter only grew louder. Lightning struck the ground around the trio as the wind picked up, blowing their manes around in a blustery gale. Violent gusts whipped around them and blew leaves and grass through the air, and a voice called out over the howling winds.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Roseluck and Lyra. And you even brought a new friend. I can't wait to play with her…”