Nopony moved a muscle, not even the other Twilight. Twitwo, Starlight decided, or else things would get confusing in a hurry. The longer they all sat there, the more the tension seemed to mellow into a sort of awkwardness. Twitwo had been told to ‘get them,’ but it seemed as long as they weren't running, they were good as gotten.

It wasn't quite silence between them, with the background thrum of the hive and the echoing, incoherent shrieks of the angered and injured Queen, but Spike was still the first to break it. “So, Twilight, got a plan for this? In the comics, they always have a plan for situations like this.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

Twilight glanced his way, trying to keep one eye on him and one eye on her double, “A couple, maybe, but they don't usually involve me being here to help. Or being in another timeline. Or a lot of other factors I can't even begin to list right now.”

“Do they involve the magic of friendship?” Starlight asked.

Her answer was a nervous nod from Twilight.

“Don't think that's gonna work here.”

Twitwo made for a grim and disconcerting sight. It was the princess they all knew, yet everything was horribly wrong. She was emaciated, starved, her ribs poking out like a ladder along her barrel. Her fur was dirty and unkempt, her mane ragged and chopped short. Above all, of course, her eyes glowed the sickly green of changeling magic. Starlight was shocked she could even stand upright, she must be running purely on the queen's magic. She certainly hadn't been cared for with anywhere approaching the standard of the other princesses. Acting on a grudge, perhaps?

“Could Fluttershy just, you know, bonk her the way she got you in the woods?” Starlight wondered aloud. Fluttershy immediately shook her head. Starlight was disappointed, but she understood. This was Fluttershy’s Twilight after all, not some potential changeling intruder. Spell or no spell, that was a bridge too far for the Element of Kindness. With friendship looking unlikely, and violence right out, there weren't a lot of great options.

The growing buzzing drone of noise from the tunnel behind them meant they were out of time, too.

Starlight dragged herself forward to Fluttershy’s ear, her broken leg held daintily aloft. “Can you bluff it?” She whispered quickly, “You won't hit her anyways, she'll teleport, just bluff it then jump.”

Fluttershy’s head tilted in consideration, then gave a short nod. Her paw wound back dramatically, and shot forward, slowing to a stop just next to Twitwo. The alicorn blinked into existence above and behind them, and Fluttershy leapt out into open air. The unfolding of her great wings sounded like a tarp, and they all jolted as she caught the wind and began to glide. Starlight clenched her teeth, feeling the jostle in her bone.

Twitwo was out and flying moments later, the distraction only enough to get them out of the hive. Starlight wondered if it was actually an awful plan as a bolt of green and pink magic flashed past Fluttershy, narrowly missing her wing. She'd turned their stand-off into target practice.

The changeling magic infused into the alicorn provided too much of an edge. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were practically worthless out here in middle of the sky, and Rarity wasn't much better off without magic. At least Rainbow Dash could fly. As for Starlight herself, well she wouldn't be able to run if she had to, so it was just nice that that didn't matter right now.

Twilight was calling directions in a flurry, doing everything she could to guide Fluttershy back to ground without taking any hits from her other self. Starlight couldn't be sure what sorts of spells she was lobbing at them, but none of them would be fun. Occasionally, Twilight’s horn would light, nudging the projectiles astray with the slightest bit of magic. Starlight worried over the way she slumped more each time she did it.

How could she help? She wasn't an Element of Harmony, and without her magic she was a rather vestigial part of the group. The only thing that mattered was getting Twilight and her friends to the map to cast the spell. She wasn't a necessary part of that, but she couldn't do a thing to help without magic. That's what it kept coming back to as her head started to wrap into panicked loops, magic magic magic, where could she get some magic?

A rumble passed through the body beneath their hooves as Fluttershy cried out in pain. There was a smoking hole in the thing membrane of one wing, not big, but present and painful. Twitwo had scored a hit, and more would surely follow, but it had jolted Starlight into the answer she needed.

“Twilight, I need you to hit me with the Elements of Harmony.”

Twilight could barely spare a glance back, but she certainly managed the incredulous shout, “What!? Starlight, this isn't the time for jokes!”

She shook her head furiously, “Not joking! Chrysalis did something to her, charged her with her magic. If she can do that, why can't the Elements?”

“We can't just do it on a whim! It took us minutes to get it going,” Twilight did manage to spare the time to look at Starlight's leg, “We barely got to you in time.”

“It doesn't matter, you need to try. I can buy you time!”

“Your leg! You're in no condition to–”

“Twilight!” Applejack cut in, “Whatever you're doin’ now ain't gonna work for long!” She gave Starlight a long look up and down, her mouth opening into a weary smile, “She wants to help, let's make that happen!”

“Yeah, come on, Sparkles!” Pinkie Pie joined in, giggling in fierce defiance of the mood.

“Let her do this for us,” Rarity placed a reassuring hoof to Twilight’s back, the alicorn nearly collapsing from staving off another attack.

Even Rainbow Dash added, “Fine, let the newbie have some of the glory, we've got a job to do,” as Fluttershy rumbled her own assent.

Starlight wanted to cry at the show of support, but there was no time for feelings. It was time for action. She reared to her hind legs, offered a silent salute with her unbroken foreleg, and with faith in her friends, she dropped backwards into the sky.

She watched the sparks and flashes and the shrinking form of Fluttershy, and she wanted to laugh as she fell. They'd pull it off, she knew they would, she just had to force their hooves.

The sky flashed a brilliant rainbow as a magical corona formed around each of the six Elements. The other Twilight’s attacks fizzled harmlessly in the field of raw magical potential that surrounded them, and the corrupted alicorn was quick to change tack. She dove, coming straight towards Starlight.

But a radiant beam of light raced her, and got to Starlight first. Half of her expected to be blown away the moment it connected, the way Chrysalis had, but it halted her descent instead. She was wreathed in the magic of friendship, and it was warm and pure. It was a feeling beyond description, as if before today she had never tasted water, and now freely slaked her thirst.

She wreathed herself in her own aura, bearing her aloft as her friends fell back atop Fluttershy and made for ground once more. This time, she could help. Shielding herself with every spell she could balance at once, she zoomed towards the oncoming alicorn, and plowed straight through her, the force of the unexpected hit sending Twitwo spinning through the air.

“Come on, gimme your best shot, Twilight! I'm finishing what I started at the race!” Starlight didn't know if the goading would even matter to the corrupted alicorn’s dulled mind, it wasn't even a taunt that would make sense to the mare from this reality. The wave of adrenaline was cresting, however, and Starlight had her own feelings to get out. She loosed a lazy blast of energy at Twitwo, “You're second rate! Element of Magic and you can't touch me!”

Her bait worked. The alicorn blinked above her in an instant, and Starlight shot another bolt of magic straight out of the top of her horn. It caught Twitwo in the leg, a massive cube of crystal forming around it. The effect was immediate, Twitwo dropped a dozen feet in the air before her wings could catch her and stabilize. The crystal was wrapped in that pink and green aura, vibrated, and it exploded in a shower of glinting specks of dust.

Twitwo looked up at Starlight. Her expression was still vacant and green, which made the eye contact all the more foreboding. She was unreadable, but at least she was focused on Starlight now.

The pair began to trade off, striking and parrying in turns as they tested each other’s defenses. They danced through the sky with ease, Starlight’s skilled levitation versus Twilight's natural alicorn flight. The teleportation made things difficult, each pony taking turns repositioning with magic until one of them felt they had just enough advantage to fire a shot that was always summarily blocked by the other. Twitwo's teleportation was predictable in that she tried to be unpredictable, always choosing the same oblique angles to try and catch Starlight out, Starlight always predicting those angles with moves of her own.

Thus, Starlight was off-guard when Twitwo blinked and appeared right in front of her, instead. The alicorn dove forward and actually tried to gore Starlight with her horn, cutting through multiple layers of spell protection like butter. They weren't worth much against what amounted to a sharp stick.

Starlight barely caught it in time, her horn hooking against Twitwo’s and their heads mashing awkwardly together as the alicorn looked for an angle to dig the point in. Their horns spat and sparked, magic mixing with magic as ivory clashed with ivory. Starlight squeezed her eyes shut and let out an incoherent shout, bursting with magical energy that broke their grapple and sent them both spinning away from each other.

Twitwo was the first to recover, and the bolt she fired sank right through Starlight’s weakened magical guard. It hit her broken leg and everything went blank in a tide of pain. She came to only seconds later, but seconds were enough to find herself falling fast, her levitation spell momentarily released. She caught herself as gently as she could, which was still a shock, and the ice-cold jolt through her body almost kept her from deflecting the next shot in time. Almost.

Glancing around wildly, she saw a dark dot of movement in the distance, near the smudge that was Twilight's school. The others had made it to the map, she only needed to give them a little more time. Huffing and panting, she felt for her magical reserves. It wasn't pretty. With a few more desperate deflections, Starlight realized the other Twilight was outplaying her. The alicorn wasn't trying to take her out, she was playing for time, and Starlight’s dwindling magic meant she would win it.

Taking quick stock, self-levitation was the obvious drain on her energy, so that was the problem to solve first. She barely thought about it, the longer she thought, the more time that gave Twitwo.

She blinked out of existence, teleporting– a massive expenditure of energy, a necessary one– she fell from above and on top of Twitwo. Three hooves hooked around her barrel, pinning her wings, the fourth bouncing uselessly as it sent sharp pains up her leg. Her head angled and bit down hard on Twitwo’s horn, wrenching it to the side and threatening a break. It was a cheap and dirty move, the type you only saw in the messiest of street scuffles. As she pressed and pressed on the horn, she cast an aura around the alicorn’s pinned wings, heating them, heating them until the scent of smoke reached her nostrils and her legs burned where they met feather.

Together, they plummeted.

Twitwo wrenched her wings free enough to glide, nearly knocking Starlight off as they rapidly lost altitude in the direction of the school. They couldn't be allowed to make it there, Starlight wouldn't have the magic to fend her off at this point. She pulled her last dregs of magic into her horn and let out another explosion of force.

It wasn't enough. The angle was just right that they smashed through the ceiling of the school and straight into the central lecture hall.

Twitwo hit first, breaking the fall enough that it didn't kill Starlight on impact, but it definitely hurt. Starlight was sent rolling away, each rotation showing her that pain had not yet reached a limit. She was all but certain her poor foreleg bone had been reduced to dust, and her mind struggled to think about anything else.

It struggled to assemble the logic of the scene as the six Elements fell apart mid-spell with a chorus of shouts. It could not process the words of their cries as they took notice of the second Twilight in the room, and Starlight's own sprawled and broken form. It could not bear to watch as the corrupted alicorn stood and stalked towards her, first and foremost.

Twitwo’s horn lit pink and green, an orb of energy collecting at the tip. Her head lowered, taking aim, face expressionless without remorse. For all the noise, everything seemed silent, there was nothing else but this. At least she had done her best.

“No!”

The word cut through everything, striking Starlight's core, a roar of defiance. Suddenly, she was seeing double, two Twilights squared off. A blaze of magic flared from the haggard twin, twining pink and green through the air.

Starlight didn't even have time to doubt her own Twilight's abilities, the alicorn deflected the blast with an easy twitch of her head. Her aura… Sparkled, still charged with the last remnants of the Elements’ power. It was all they had left.

Another bolt of light met another deflection, this time a small hex of shielding light blinking into existence just long enough to protect them. They continued to trade off from there, each deadly flare of sickly green light tossed away with precise, economical defenses.

Hope began to wither in Starlight's chest. Even with this last reserve, there was no way for her Twilight to turn the tables and gain the upper hoof. It was all defense, it wouldn't last, and there was nothing anypony could do in the meantime.

To her credit, Applejack tried to intervene, kicked her legs out in a buck aimed straight for Twitwo’s head, but the corrupted alicorn flashed away in a blink. Pure single-minded instinct and raw changeling magic were the only things left operating the husk of a pony.

She wasn't sure how she knew to shout a warning. Twitwo was as blank faced as ever, every single muscle in her body perfectly controlled, and that's why something deep in Starlight’s subconscious noticed. It noticed the way the muscles in her face shifted just a fraction, the way the cords in her body tensed for an instant.

“Her horn! Watch her horn!”

Another flash of pink and green magic, and Starlight knew the trick Twitwo would try to pull. She was inches from her double in an instant, horn lowered, already spearing forward into a charge. Twilight yelped, twisting her body away, wrenching her head down. The tip of the horn gouged a cut into her flank before catching it with her own and dragging it free.

Twilight dragged the horn up, up, leveraging the strength of her healthy body, until the pair were face to face, eye to eye, horns crossed in a perfect X above them.

And they froze there. Stock still, statuesque.

The silence was immediate, heavy, everypony in the room trying not to breathe while they studied the sight. Looking at the alicorns gave Starlight the strange feeling of unreality, like neither pony she clearly saw actually existed in the room with them. It was as if they had been removed from time altogether, leaving behind only an image.

“Oh no,” Spike was the first to speak, first to let his fears overcome his shock, “No no no.” He scrambled over to the alicorns and nervously reached a claw out towards Twilight, out through Twilight.

“I told you, Twilight!” The little dragon’s voice cracked terribly, “Paradoxes! You touched your double! That's timeline ruining stuff!”

Starlight dragged herself forward with one hoof, gritting her teeth to keep from gasping in pain. She didn't want Spike to notice that. She wanted to help him. Do anything for him.

He heard her approach. His eyes bounced between her and Twilight, silent and pleading. The other ponies in the room were coming nearer now too, offering their own empty comforts. They were all far beyond their depth. What could they say?

Starlight counted the seconds, the minutes spent waiting for reality to shatter, but it didn't. Everything simply remained.

“So, uh,” Applejack spoke, “What now?”

“Now every bug in that hive comes crashing down on our heads.” Not very encouraging coming from Rainbow Dash.

“I meant something positive. Useful.” The farmpony cocked a brow at Rainbow Dash.

“Well I'm positive that your rescue plan was absolutely–”

Starlight didn't hear the argument that kicked off. A strange feeling settled over her. She could swear she felt something, a presence, like she was in a fishbowl and there was something outside looking in. Enormous and unfathomable. The feeling was so clear, so certain, so disarming that she couldn't help but cringe away from it.

One eye half-open scanned across the room. The Elements were now deep into a squabble between all five of them. It seemed impossible that they couldn't have noticed, but the feeling that Starlight felt would have cut the argument off at the head.

But there was always Spike. Once again their eyes locked, communicating more than Starlight had ever thought possible with one expression. Whatever it was, they had both felt it, and the others hadn't. That felt significant, somehow.

She didn't have time to ruminate on the thought. The feeling faded away, and the moment it was gone, the room lit up, blinding light emanating from the horns of both alicorns. It filled their surroundings, washing the world away in white, but not blinding her with it.

Suddenly the other ponies were gone, it was her, Spike, the alicorn and her twin. They stood alone in an endless white expanse.

Twilight moved. Her Twilight. She stepped forward, forehead bumping gently against her other self. She lifted her hooves and dragged the other into a tight hug. Starlight couldn't hear the words that were whispered from one to the other, there wasn't any sound at all.

The other Twilight reciprocated the hug. The glow of their twined horns redoubled, and this time it was blinding, Starlight had to shut her eyes to keep from losing her vision entirely.

Her eyes were still clenched tight when the world snapped back from unreality to a chorus of alarmed shouts and the feeling of pebbles or dirt or hail skidding across her back.

She wrenched them back open and blinked away the spots of temporary blindness, forcing the image of Twilight in front of her to clarify.

Just one Twilight, that much was obvious, her Twilight and not the ragged twin. But there was something off about her figure, prone and almost serene. It took too long for Starlight to place it, it was right in front of her and her mind refused the basic fact.

Atop Twilight’s head was a jagged mess where her horn used to be.

Sparkling purple ivory lay scattered around them, the debris that had struck Starlight. Her throat closed tight and panic set in, her brain finally trying to grapple with the fact that the very worst possible thing had just happened.

Starlight had failed to protect them.

Twilight had lost her horn for it.

Their Element of Magic was without her magic.

What could they possibly do now?

Author's Note

Last chapter on Friday. Thank you all for sticking around, it means a lot.