In prayer her hands were clasped. On the ruin her knees were bent. Before a town her head was bowed. Except it was not a town anymore. After all, where were the faces whom she had grown to know and love? Still and unmoving. Where were the happy, simple cottages that she had always passed by without a second care or thought? Smoldering ash where once a humble foundation lay; torn to splinters and slabs that barely looked like they were once part of something greater than their sum. Two such slabs slanted against one another to form a steeple, atop which she still knelt, her head still bowed, and her hands still clasped.
The winds blew.
They were cold.
Dead.
Hollow.
Like every part of her.
Her wings twitched, sensing a breeze on which to ride, the freedom of flight just waiting to be seized. In days much younger, that freedom was scary and only clumsily fumbled for; she had been so naive then. It had been here where her wings were earned, her ascension realized; now, that place was lost.
The back of a purple mane was nudged, over and over again. But it refused to sway, ever so resolute to stay still, stuck in that moment.
Looking up, she opened her eyes.
A single ray of light was shining upon her. In its light, in its warmth, she found comfort. Her eyes fixated upon it, hungry, eager, and beseeching, like for its steward so long ago.
Where was She now? Why had She forsaken her in her hour most dire?
Her heart, rather than her head for once, seemed to be doing the asking.
Slowly, she felt her heart sink, as the sunlight dimmed and faded, ever so slowly; it was torture for her.
Once the last sparkle faded, her eyes transpired to have been dull and unseeing.
She was deserted before she even noticed.
Gone.
Everything was gone.
Nothing mattered anymore.
"Aww, feeling sentimental?" a voice said over the winds.
Their hollow hum was forboding.
She did not care.
The voice had come from behind her.
She did not care.
She did not turn, she did not budge, nor did she acknowledge that anypony at all had spoken. It was no act of defiance nor of spite. She was simply too tired.
No matter how she tried, she could not blink it away — any of it.
Footsteps were crunching upon detritus, and they were getting louder. "It's just you and me now, Twilight. Now you know exactly how I feel. Now, we're exactly the same, equal! Ponies who've lost those closest to us because of their Cutie Marks!"
If Twilight imagined hard enough, she could pretend Starlight wasn't there. She had to pretend, to hold in the storm of emotions brewing within her heart, for if left unchecked, she could — and would — do terrible things. In her stunned state, her lips could barely be willed to move, her lungs barely moving in-sync enough to call out for them one last time:
"Pinkie Pie… Applejack… Rainbow Dash… Rarity… Fluttershy…"
If she listened hard enough, she could almost hear their voices calling out to answer her.
A mouth descended to her ear, almost disembodied. "They're gone, Twilight," a whisper said softly. "Gone."
The moistness of her breath, the heat of it, the exultation trembling beneath it — it remained with Twilight, haunted her, loomed over her shoulder, long after Starlight Glimmer had left her, walked so casually away.
A bundle of straw, the remains of a forgotten rooftop, was meanwhile being strangled in Twilight's trembling hand.
The straw was left there, back on the ruin.
Fists clenched, Twilight Sparkle stood; and there on the summit of the steeple of broken roofs did she stare silently. No warmth remained in her indigo eyes, and yet with determination they burnt all the same. Across them her bangs did sway, but only out of obligation to the natural laws of the world, which would soon no longer matter.
The winds wailed like a tortured beast, like the ghosts of the grassy breezes that roamed the once-vibrant land that she had loved.
Her skirt was a darker shade of purple than she was, and it was fluttering without feeling, frayed and frightening. She was wearing the same white collared long-sleeved shirt that was the proper dress code for any girl attending Celestia's School for Magic.
Things had been so simple that morning. "Oh, and you shall want to forego the tie, you see," Rarity had said, loosening it free of the shirt, despite Twilight's protests, "since you are no longer a student. And thus you shall distinguish yourself from them all, as you should, especially given your title, hm? Hm…" Rarity had put a finger below her pursed lips; the magisterial gaze behind her studded cat-eye glasses were in a deadlock with Twilight's as-of-yet incomplete ensemble, while Twilight had dithered about, unsure and awkward. "Aha!" she had said with a snap. "I know just the thing!"
Whereupon she had produced for Twilight a black tweed jacket; it was just an especially dark shade of purple in sunlight, Rarity had told her. Thus informed, Twilight had pulled the jacket over her torso, and found it to extend no farther than the hems of her skirt.
"And voila!" Rarity had said with her characteristic flourish. "I now pronounce you fabulous!"
That was just a memory now — no, worse: It had not even happened. Starlight Glimmer had seen to that.
Scorch marks dabbed the tweed jacket like bruises upon skin, reminders of a battle in a bright blue city among the clouds, to vie for a momentous thing that would determine the very fate of Equestria; it should have been, but now, it was not.
All her friends were now gone; it was as though they had never existed to begin with.
That fact seemed to echo inside her head, repeating itself, hollowing her out; it was a torturous cacophony of what she had tried so hard to deny.
But she could deny it no longer. It kept building up inside of her, more and more, as reality seeped into her veins, blew its dry dusty kiss across her cheeks, and stared at her like a mirror from across the surface and fading glow of the Cutie Map.
The orphaned remains of her throne room were a relic of a present that no longer was, the same as her, unceremoniously displaced from a world that was lost, and then forgotten by time itself.
The reality of it overwhelmed her. "Why!? Why have you done this, Starlight!?"
As the words came out, something cracked.
Starlight was dressed in a magenta suit-jacket, which had done all it could to conceal the white of her blouse; sadly, the rips, which were new from the bout in Cloudsdale, betrayed the austere, orderly facade she had tried so hard to maintain. Her skirt was as frayed and as purple as Twilight's; unlike Twilight's, hers covered her knees and the top of her boots. For some reason, Twilight simply felt it to be a reflection of a future that would now never come to pass.
Across the Cutie Map that was the beginning and end of all this she stood and smirked: Starlight, whose teeth were shamelessly bared. "Haven't I told you already? Cutie Marks for Cutie Marks!"
"But my friends…! My family…!" Twilight shouted, half-pleading, half-accusing. "They're all — "
A fissure was splitting the crystalline surface until it was pointing at Starlight, like the accusatory needle of a compass. More cracks webbed, spreading throughout the lands of which the Map was cognizant: Appleloosa was struck; Canterlot was cleaved, its castle in two; and it even looked like the Crystal Empire was fading, a simulation of what might have happened more than a millennium ago.
Starlight was chortling to herself, a private joke to which she alone would be privy, a joke she kept more private still by turning her face away, a hand covering her mouth. But all in vain, for soon she could contain it no longer: Her mouth opened, and she chuckled, slowly and tentatively. With more gusto she ushered her breath forth; and then abandoning all restraint, she barked her satisfaction for all the heavens, black and bleak as they may be, to hear.
Pupils shrinking, Twilight started back. "What are you — "
Shards of light were splintering apart from the whole that was the Cutie Map, fading, floating sadly away, like ethereal fireflies that couldn't quite stay.
The darkness in Starlight's eyes was more plain than ever. "I didn't tell you yet what happened to Sunburst after he got his damned Mark, Twilight," she said, hovering her right hand over her left shoulder for reasons Twilight was too afraid to know.
Closing her eyes, suddenly solemn, Starlight pressed the bicep of her jacket, which resonated at her touch.
Twilight gasped.
A glowing insignia was idly twirling above Starlight's palm. "That's… that's…!" Twilight said, pointing with a shaking finger.
"It was nine days after he left," Starlight began, eyes still closed. "He was too damn curious for his own good. He was too smart, too eager to prove himself; Canterlot Labs couldn't be bothered to turn away his help. He promised to me, his best friend, in his letter that he would write about his 'big' breakthrough in the Department of Teleportation and Interdimensional Transport once he was done."
"I… I heard about that. I was even there for it," Twilight said, pupils aquiver; she seemed to be reciting, entranced by shock and pity. "I was in class. Princess Celestia had said there was a gas leak, that it was just an accident. Starlight…"
A dullness had seized Starlight's eyes, and thus for the first time Twilight felt what she felt. "Then all those experiments…" Twilight said breathlessly, eyeing the Cutie Mark still floating in Starlight's grasp.
"Were failures," came the bitter growl of the other, "pale imitations! My volunteers were all too eager to surrender themselves unto Their Righteous Leader, and yet none were equal to the task. At some point, I had given up; maybe I continued out of a need to 'preserve tradition', to perpetuate my own lies. Or maybe that sadistic glee was just a poor consolation prize for something I had already known to be long gone."
Starlight's hand squeezed hard, the veins on her wrist popping out, her fist shaking with anger, bitterness, and sorrow. Yet the unicorn's face was also showing strength, resolve, and closure. Loosening her fingers, Starlight let go, watching wistfully the scattered petals of a fiery rose, cinders from a flame that she alone had the right to remember.
So too did Twilight watch the relic of her Harmony-given birthright banish itself from the mortal realm. The ruined thrones, where once her friends sat, evaporated, seemingly so that they would not haunt her, and she would finally be at peace.
They were never coming back.
He was never coming back.
High winds were issuing forth from the Cutie Map, as though it were sending off the fallen.
The last ethereal fragments of Twilight Sparkle's destiny spiraled high into the sky above, becoming a veritable cyclone of light and wonder whose force that the last of Sunburst could not resist.
Thus the Mark shards intertwined with the Map shards, the orange luster of the former becoming lost, at peace, and one with the Powers of Harmony, which the world would never again see.
Beneath her feet, the steepled slabs of rooftop disintegrated; it was as though they were never there.
She didn't need the power of her fellow Princesses this time, nor did she want it. This was her fight, after all.
When the dust cleared, Twilight Sparkle was already charging her mana. Haunting purple energy emanated in a circle around her simple platform shoes, and it spread even wider once she flared her wings out. Drooped near the swaying hems of her skirt, her fists were aglow (for she was versed enough in magicks to will them so). Her horn was alight, her head was down, her bangs shadowed her eyes whence fell a single droplet.
Her foe, meanwhile, was a near-perfect reflection of her. The stance she had assumed necessitated her legs to be spread wide. She had her palms held out to her sides, ready to unleash decades of fury upon the only other living thing left in this world. Jagged skeins were surging from her hands, her horn, and the bright blue mana circle beneath her; electricity danced frenetically over her stalwart, imposing figure. Her neatly combed bangs were billowing, parting up and down over again to yield to the hatred in her eyes, which she was reserving exclusively for Twilight.
"So," said Starlight.
"So," said Twilight, her demeanor calm and composed.
"It's just you and me now, Twilight!"
"So it is," she curtly replied.
Something about Twilight wasn't right.
That angered Starlight. Despite her so-called victory, she had still lost. "So tell me, Princess," she said, throwing the words at her, teeth vengefully clenched, "what is the Princess of Friendship without her friends?"
Starlight was panting, not out of fatigue, but out of fury. She knew herself to be a terrible pony. She had done terrible things. She had terrorized, she had brainwashed, she had enslaved, she had stolen lives — out of love, to be sure — but innocent lives all the same. In truth, she felt hollow. Now, she had taken away Twilight's friends, she had taken away her last hope at redemption, and worst of all, she had taken away Equestria's last hope for survival, the ground cratering too easily beneath her boots attesting to that fact.
Her only solace was that Twilight had managed to thrust Spike into the arms of a group of confused pegasi before Starlight had torn the fateful scroll in two. It still baffled Starlight how the portal not only pulled her in first, but also took her to the reality Twilight had just shown her; how could she have known that Starswirl's spell would have backfired so well on her?
Twilight's lips moved: "You might find out soon, Starlight Glimmer."
Before Starlight's outstretched palms appeared a magical barrier.
And then a magical laser pushed against the other side of it; it pushed and it pushed, backfired magic sparking from the point of impact. The laser increased in strength and eagerness; so too did the barrier increase in fortitude. But the latter gave an ominous shudder; the crater beneath Starlight's feet depressed her deeper into the ground. Or the grave, she thought. Hissing, Starlight strengthened her mana, realizing in the back of her mind that this was the same exact attack that had started her rivalry, on a snowy mountain pass, one lifetime ago.
Unlike Twilight's barrier that day, Starlight's broke, the missile of energy piercing right through. Swatting it high into the sky with her magically augmented hands, Starlight regained her composure. She had no time to hiss and snarl at the sting, since magical bullets started to rain all around her. Reconjuring the thin film of magic, she held it against the torrent of emotions falling for her.
With each crash against her barrier, Starlight felt her wrists going more numb. She couldn't keep this up for long; she had to go on the offensive soon. Meanwhile, each bullet that didn't crash into her barrier ended up lodged into the ground, seemingly innocuously, like a field of eerie cabbages. Except the cabbages were pulsating, between bright and dark purple, between bright and dark, bright dark, bright-dark — at which point Starlight realized that it was time for her to go.
A radiant dome of purple expanded and expanded, and then it exploded, the resulting waves of energy grinding fast across the parched ground. Earth and the last shriveled remains of Ponyville were tossed up to be devoured by the all-consuming heat, which was travelling, surfing in search of matter that would slake its thirst. But in this world, no such matter remained anymore, and thus it ceased its conquest somewhere below Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle's midair confrontation.
Enveloped within the teal of her magic once more, Starlight readied her next attack.
The sky flashed teal and magenta, magenta followed by teal, and by the clash of magenta and teal.
Alicorn and unicorn fought.
Princess and underdog vied for dominance.
It was a dance that they both were familiar with.
Lasers were fired, magenta and teal, and bullets were shot, magenta and teal.
What couldn't be dodged was deflected.
This time, Starlight did not have the upper ground; it was her fault that Twilight had nothing more to lose, after all.
The last clash sent Twilight reeling into a midair somersault.
Recovering, Starlight shot herself at Twilight, lighting her fists as she closed in.
Sensing her, Twilight righted herself.
A film of magic appeared over Twilight's crossed forearms, a round sparkling shield, and Starlight's fist was still connected to it.
Starlight snarled, still seeing the dullness in Twilight's eyes, and responded with a barrage of punches.
"Why," she said, over the bellow of her blows, "won't you wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
This time, a shockwave exploded from the collision of punch and shield.
But to no avail.
Growling, Starlight speared high into the air, a foot ready to fall; she stared down at Twilight, whose shield was still up.
Roaring, Starlight used Accelero to launch herself at Twilight.
Twilight did not scream as her body whistled through the air.
A crater appeared, marking where the alicorn had landed; Starlight wasted no time to plummet instantly to the crumbling earth.
Her fist slammed into the earth with the force of a meteor. Red cracks were glowing ominously below her electrically twitching knuckles; a thick copse of incinerated earth and detritus had puffed up into the air, and there it remained. Starlight sensed something was wrong. Cursing, she cracked her neck, left to right, then focussed her magic.
The bothersome specks fled from the light and force of the lilac horn, and past the dome of twinkling specks that were mysteriously brave enough to stay. It was as though the night sky had returned above her, if it weren't for the alicorn mare just outside the would-be firmaments; her hand was sparkling in-sync with her deadly stars, and it was raised, as though to foalishly reach out for them; her eyes were still dull, dead, and uncaring.
Frantic, Starlight mustered energy into a spherical barrier this time; but two uses of Accelero, not to mention a teleportation spell, had already drained so much of her mana. "No, no, no, no!" she said to her magicless hands, shaking her head frantically at them, then at Twilight. "No, no, no, no!"
But Twilight was beyond reason, beyond any sense; she needed to be reminded of who she really was.
The hand fell.
The magical stars jerked tentatively, then spun as they launched themselves at Starlight.
So mustering magic into her horn, then into her palms, Starlight manifested two magical shields: each held in her grip in the usual way.
Shots exploded, she recoiled, and she wheeled around to fend off a dozen more. Her hands moved in rhythm with the clash of magic and magic, of magic and ground. It was a new dance, and her life counted on learning it on the first try.
Turn. Twist. Crash, sting, and hiss. Turn, twist, scratch, and scream. Sidestep, turn, backstep, duck, jump, clap, combine, spread, land, leap, dodge and roll into safety under the copse of a looming shadow, the point of its sword glinting at her.
Snarling, Starlight pushed herself off the ground, and swept her legs around to unbalance Twilight just before the sword fell.
And when it did, it exploded, sending both Starlight and Twilight rolling across opposite sides of the battlefield. Smoke was billowing across it, being chased by formidable but invisible waves of heat.
Thunder rolled ahead, restive and anxious, the stormclouds an audience waiting for it to end; and Starlight would not disappoint.
No moment to rest.
Starlight had already gotten up, and so had Twilight, sword already renewed and in hand.
Pushing herself off the ground, the alicorn mare sprinted; then she leapt into the air, ready to make her mark this time.
The twin shields morphed into two teal neon sabers, which Starlight crossed above her —
Clash!
Three choruses of that clash came, travelling seemingly along the disks of energy that burst from the collision of magic upon magic. The air shook, it was twisting and billowing, it continued to rumble visibly around the mares, who had eyes only for one another. Starlight's ears were vibrating, but her teeth were still clenched tight, for the twin blades of teal were still crossed over each other, a bulwark against a single blade of purple. The energies were grinding against each other, teal and purple; sparks were spluttering forth from the struggle of magical steel.
Twilight was numb, yet unrelenting; Starlight had to get through to her.
"Twilight! Twilight! Wake up! Wake up!"
Still, Twilight did not respond; the dullness in her eyes — Starlight had recognized it instantly.
For years, she had longed for healing, for respite ever since Sunburst had passed. Ever since then, she had been searching for somepony to light her way, as he once had.
Or maybe, deep down, she had already accepted his fate and had longed for somepony to share her pain with. And here that somepony was, and made by her hand no less. She didn't deserve her. She didn't deserve the monster she had created — she was no different from it, and she knew it. Still, it wasn't enough; Twilight still was a neophyte to the grief, and Starlight resented that. And still, she understood.
Her heart was beating, and only then could Starlight hear it in-sync with the dirge to which she had been marching all her life.
Nothing she could do with her life now would ever make up for her failings. All she could do was release the broken mare from her sorrow.
Loneliness.
Friendship.
Abandonment.
Reaching out.
That had been her contrast, her rivalry with the Princess ever since she dared step foot into her town. But now, what was it? Just loneliness and abandonment, thanks to her, Starlight. Twilight had lost it all, and it was because of her; so Starlight wasn't going to just abandon her.
Finally, Starlight prised off Twilight, who backflipped, landed, and dug her fingers into the ashen soil.
Sword tips were tugging lazily at the ground.
Getting up, Twilight raised her sword —
But it was too late; she clutched at her stomach, finally wincing, showing any semblance of emotion, as she fell to her knees.
Sliding to a halt, Starlight looked over her shoulder. "Twilight?"
"Starlight…" groaned the other; she winced over her shoulder at her. "Starlight. … Starlight!!!"
Pop.
The force of the teleportation spell blasted Starlight into midair, and Twilight was waiting, a shadow above her, sword ready to fall once more.
Once more the magicks collided, spitting Starlight into the now-cratered, now-smoldering ground.
Ears perked to Twilight's growing warcry, Starlight backstepped out of harm's way. As the purple saber plunged deep into the earth, Starlight dug her boot's toe into the ground, then lunged back into the fray.
But her swords bounced off a half-barrier; Twilight banished it so that she could mirror her opponent's lunge.
Sparks flew. It was a dance lesser known to those versed in magicks. But Starlight knew it well, and so did Twilight. They matched each other's strides, their strikes, their evades and their thrusts. Hot shockwaves shrieked from where their blows met. Sabers buzzed; they flashed and they clashed.
One clash sent the two sliding far apart from one another.
Trails of dust were clearing.
Twilight was pouting, giving a pointed leer.
Starlight happily returned it; she absently brushed her mouth with the back of her hand.
Twilight's move: She sprinted towards Starlight, sword poised once more to pierce.
Starlight rearranged her stance, ready to counter.
Her twin scimitars sliced clean through in a horizontal motion, and there, the stroke of their combined strike lingered in midair for seconds, a ghostly equals sign.
Then it poofed into nothing.
It wasn't long before Starlight realized what she had cut: a black tweed jacket, and just that. "What!?"
And then she was launched into the air, a sharp seering sensation ripping her back in two. Every part of her was getting number; she was screaming, screaming like she had never screamed before, lost in an ecstasy of pain.
Starlight felt herself leave her body, even if for a short while, to find her succor.
She did not. But she had to return anyway; she had to finish what she had started.
She recovered, panting, and backflipped onto the ground. She scanned her surroundings, swords at the ready. Starlight used to be left-handed, but had some years ago become ambidextrous. Twilight appeared on what used to be her good side, cool and determined, her sparkling blade reared back to slash again; Starlight widened her eyes in warning.
"You destroyed everything!" Twilight shouted, voice torn by emotion.
And just like that, Starlight could no longer feel her right arm. As a bonus, her right sleeve was shorn out, vestigial remnants of her blouse and suit-jacket. Tearing the sticky sleeves off, she vanished her last scimitar and held her working hand out towards Twilight, who readied her sword, ready to parry anything Starlight would throw at her.
Twilight gasped.
The vanished scimitars regenerated into the air around her, hovering without a master to hold them, and without ado they slashed and they struck, and their lacerations met no disagreement. Twilight screamed, but hissed in imitation of Starlight, a habit to regain composure. But it was two disembodied swords against her one; to defend against one invited the other's sting.
Starlight did not laugh at Twilight's struggle; she only watched and maintained her telekinetic flow of magic, knowing that what needed to be done was being done.
Dodge, clash, dodge. Dodge, dodge, clash. Dodge, feint, clash, shear, scream.
Twilight cried out, but had no time to nurse a bleeding shoulder. As much as Starlight tried not to, she smirked, sensing her own futility in the dome of falling stars as Twilight was feeling in the fray of swords. Still, the cries of the alicorn made her wince, enough to make her bleeding arm, whose pain she had been trying to ignore, finally sympathize.
Finally, Starlight clutched at it.
The scimitars poofed into teal embers, giving Twilight leeway to move her sword-free hand about in nondescript motions.
Something was rumbling from below: a spire of rock. Activating her levitation, Starlight soared high into the air as it shot out of the ground; she could outspeed it, outfly the danger — only another spire struck her, having shot out of the one that Starlight had been avoiding. Speared through the air, she activated her horn to reorient herself; now, she was a missile that wandered about for a target to home on.
Finding one, she shot for the path straight ahead.
But a pillar of crystal, not unlike that of a certain Castle of Friendship which was now but a lost memory, shot up from the ground to interdict the motion.
Starlight narrowed her eyes — she would not so easily be deterred — she barrel-rolled to the side.
She didn't have wings; she wasn't as agile as either an alicorn or a pegasus. Nor did she have nearly enough mana to teleport straight to Twilight for a sneak attack. Still, she made the most use of the abilities that her race had afforded her.
Twist. Turn. Twist. Toss. Turn, then accelerate.
Two pillars shot out ahead, imposing and expectant.
Then they slammed together; but a second too late.
Another pillar was already rising up from the ground, for Twilight would already suspect her opponent to be tenacious and cunning enough to not succumb so easily.
Twist into a torpedo to latch on.
Thus Starlight clung to cold rock, which reflected a lightning flash. Seemingly stopping to catch her breath, she felt a hot trickle run down a painfully shut eye. She gasped; she couldn't even look behind her before something hard and pointy was pushing on her back, so much like a horizontal spire of crystal that was eagerly trying to pin her towards the surface of a spire that shot up, just on cue.
It would only be a matter of seconds.
Ceasing her feint a second sooner, Starlight swung herself on, landed, held on tight, and rode. Rock slamming against rock rung in her ears, not to mention unsteadied her feet as she ran up the spire's height; but she recovered, and then continued her vertical sprint, the element of surprise lending her hope in this hopeless land.
"What!?" said Twilight; she lowered her horn at the unicorn hurling at her from atop her last line of defense.
Too late.
Seizing Twilight with sparkling hands, Starlight awakened the magic within herself. Thousands of volts then surged from the lilac palms, piercing without reserve into Twilight. Each bolt forced into her unwilling, spasming body spiked up the beat of Starlight's heart. Infecting the alicorn's holy form with scorch and smoke, knowing that it was with her taint that she defiled her — it stirred the darkness Starlight had always done so very well to suppress.
But it wasn't enough.
With the beacon that was her horn, she willed the very heavens, as weak and disintegrating as they were, into her grasp. Thus lightning deigned: From the clouds they raced, no fewer than a dozen bright jagged snakes hungry for prey; all Starlight had to do was continue her outpour of energy to hold her in-place.
At last, the divine predators struck Twilight, making her flash and writhe; she became a spectacle, a live re-enactment of a star going out, that could be seen for miles and miles.
Meanwhile, Twilight's screams were dying in her throat, her very desperation determined to rend her voice apart until nothing remained.
As it transpired, it wasn't enough to drown out Starlight's cackles. "Scream all you want, Twilight! Nopony can save you now!" she said with sadistic glee. It reinvigorated her, it erupted without restraint as she hissed shamelessly, pumping more electrocutive energy into her foe. Twilight's screams cracked to higher octaves, exciting Starlight even more, and she advanced, the hunger in her eyes darkening. She was breathing hard, chest heaving her sheer exhilaration, that power, that sense of absolute control! But it also scared her; something new was trying to possess her, and it was all she could do to keep it down; she had to tame her own demons, too. But how could she? Many wounds she had carved unto her were oozing with new, fresh outpours of blood. It was being fried, mixed in with sulfur and the smoke. As she tugged on the back of the streaked purple mane — and she would never let go, ever, the veins on her vised, angrily shaking grip serving as testament — Starlight had to steady her own breathing. While she did, though, she noticed, for the first time, the litheness with which the body of her opponent writhed.
Weakness took Starlight Glimmer.
It also took Twilight Sparkle.
"What!?" Starlight said, her turn to squirm her way out of unknown binds, "I've never even heard of this spell!"
She wouldn't have, nor would her own spells have even helped her counteract it.
Crystals were sprouting from her person. It started from her feet, then vined up her legs; they spiraled over her torso, and she could do little else but watch. As the crystals snaked around her palms, power dissipated from them like a put-out fire; in its place sprouted dark crystals that continued to choke that power.
"Twilight! Twilight!" Starlight pleaded, inches from the alicorn's face. "You have to snap out of it!
"You took away… my friends," came an otherworldly voice from the mouth of Twilight Sparkle, "and you will pay…
"Now!"
Sickly energy flared behind her eyes, the tips of which seemed to be breathing ethereally bright smoke.
A dark aura was crackling around her horn, shadow made incarnate, and it intertwined with Starlight's residual lightning magic, blackening them, transforming them into frenetic skeins of energy that danced around the alicorn's hands, arms, her horn, and then her entire body, a perfect reflection of what Starlight saw within herself. Soon, it would be too late; Twilight would be lost. Without her friends, the Princess of Friendship was… this.
The scarlet of Twilight's pupils was fading, being consumed, and soon to be eclipsed.
With quivering pupils Starlight watched — that was all she could do. Panic seized her; her vision felt a trivial sting, which she had learnt to surrender to anger.
She blinked, hard. "I said," she said, her tone low, uncaring for the crystals cocooning their way around her, "snap out of it!"
And Starlight banged her horn against Twilight's.
Still nothing.
The dark magic was crawling up her neck; closing her eyes, Starlight focussed on targeting her foe's bicep: It was her only shot to make things right. Her horn, her last magical conduit, sparked; it kept spurting desperately for a hold on its target. She closed her eyes, hoping beyond hope that there was enough evil left inside her to do what had to be done.
Fresh tired tears flowed from her eyes; she was tired; she just wanted it to stop…
She waited; the crystals were starting to suffocate her.
And waited.
And waited; and she choked on a gasp.
She had sensed it: The alacrity of something trying to be free, the all-too familiar cry of the abused, a cry that she had too much experience quelling and taming. Thus quell and tame she did, the Mark trying to tear itself free of Twilight's bare arm, now ensconced within teal aura.
The crystals were sprouting over Starlight's cheek.
No time to waste.
Willing the Mark into her grasp, she placed it where Sunburst's once was.
The crystals shattered apart in an explosion of teal and purple.
It was blinding.
It was suffocating.
It was love.
Shadow-like shards were lingering about the two like an asteroid field, lost of their ominous spark.
In that moment, Starlight Glimmer realized that despair had connected her with Princess Twilight Sparkle in ways nopony ever had with her. She had caused Twilight's descent, this much was true, but the truth was also that they were all that they had left. Nopony else would be their enemies. Nopony else would be their friends. They were all that they wanted to destroy. They were all that they needed, and would ever need, forever after.
Seizing the alicorn's dress-shirt, Starlight peeled it off easily; the starburst on the alicorn's shoulder returned, and it blushed.
The halves of Starlight's suit-jacket were pulled out, sleeve by sleeve; her bra came off, and then it was ash that fluttered out of Twilight's hand.
Smiling, Starlight smartly did Twilight the same favor, while Twilight's eyes were too busy being overwhelmed by the sheer size, the enormity of Starlight's breasts making her mouth water and her pleasure wet.
Pulling off her own skirt and tossing it aside, Twilight sunk her mouth into the pertness that was Starlight's nipple while desperately clawing at the other.
When Twilight looked — and it was by sheer instinct that she did so, after spending so much time enamored with Starlight's body — she saw the hunger in Starlight's eyes; she pirouetted away to let her bite off her socks then suckle on her bare toes. Now fully nude, Twilight shuddered her pleasure; it was more than she had expected, and way more than she could handle; the heat boiling within her was greater than the heat outside her. Finally, Starlight stopped, gaining altitude to drink in the sight of the goddess before her, blushing.
Twilight was pure. She shrugged her shoulders as though that were the thing to do, though still did not quite know for sure. Under her gaze, she blushed; then she noticed Starlight, who was yet to be fully undressed. A mischievous grin crossed Twilight's face.
Starlight gasped, watching her dark purple skirt flutter away towards the earth, wondering when it had come off.
Smiling at the boldness of the move, she decided it was her turn.
By her hand she took Twilight, then teleported the duo.
After they reappeared, Starlight was divested of her boots and socks.
They were both completely naked, as pure as when they had been born. And up until then, they had been ignorant to the fact that their history, their circumstances were what had kept them apart from each other. They were embracing, breast to breast, chin over shoulder, cherishing each other, neither able to sate her thirst.
Their lips interlocked in passion, out of desperation, love, and a simple need to be complete.
Twilight could never be Sunburst.
Starlight had a great bust, and Twilight wasted nary a second in kneading them, pinching on one, while sucking shamelessly, desperately on the other, while Starlight cried out: in agony beyond words, finally realized grief, and then bliss.
Certainly, Starlight could never, in a million years, fill the gaping hole where all of Twilight's friends used to be.
Twilight was meaner in that department, but Starlight caressed her all the same, and as she did, Twilight folded her wings, the better to sink into the feeling. Her legs squirmed, rubbed over each other. Starlight eyed a nipple lovingly, then sunk her mouth onto the entire breast, while clutching into the mare's drooling depths with longing, desperation, and bitter envy.
Without each other, they were fragmented; with each other, no more so. With that knowledge in mind they embraced still, tears streaming from their cheeks.
The earth was crumbling into depths unknown. Very soon, they could both feel the glow of hot magma beneath their writhing feet, the ever-twisting vine of their weightlessly drifting forms.
They looked into their loving eyes, indigo into fuchsia.
Winds were whirling into tornados, and they were raging like wild pillars that echoed the love inside of them, standing as the last of nature's tribute to them.
They mirrored their movements; they were aggressive, they were bitter, and they were pained. Their hands had descended to dig vigorously. So determined one was to make the other writhe in pain and pleasure, that all else was eclipsed by primal heat. Starlight felt her leg twitch, a weakness that was capitalized upon on when Twilight still had a hand free to squeeze all the milk she wanted — no, needed — from her. Her face relaxed, and now properly watered, she licked it off her lips.
Lightning bolts were raging uncontrollably around them; still, it was nothing but interesting background noise. Roars of thunder threatened to tear the two apart, just as it soon would the sky; still, they took no heed.
Seething, Starlight clenched herself hard on Twilight's fingers and tilted Twilight's head up, the better to take her mouth in hers. It wasn't enough! Starlight wanted to make her feel better than this! Driven mad, she channeled her magic to create an ethereal copy of Twilight's fingers to join her own, in-sync with what Twilight was doing to Starlight.
Twilight winced, feeling her face twist, her breath hitch, her eyes water in grateful bliss at the fullness sprouting within her; Starlight loved it. But the feel of Twilight's panting in her ear, the warmth and the heavy moistness of it tilted the odds back too quickly and too unfairly.
They were tender, longing for those whom they had lost, and their hearts went out to them, even — no, especially — during their passion.
Clouds were evaporating, the very sky being peeled, layer by layer, from the firmaments like layers of clothing. The void was revealing itself, as oxymoronically present as it had been ever since the very beginning; and now, it could be seen, just like when Equus was new and naked. In the void that remained, nothing remained but them two.
Their newfound friendship, their newfound loneliness — they coalesced into one wonderful whole.
Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed in celebration.
Twin screeches rent the hollow sky in twain.
They held on tight to each other as Starlight's electricity — which originated from a magic she had never been lucky enough to know — exploded within her, surging through her body, sending her into a realm of sheer numbness and airy bliss, where she remained for what felt like an eternity; and yet, it was too short. Moaning softly, she clenched herself gratefully onto Twilight's bundle of fingers. Her innards were moving, gyrating over and over, kissing Twilight, unable to get enough of her.
Twilight moved the rest of her hand, cupping her palm over the gate, letting a certain bud grind against her fingers — and she loved every one of its licks — the better to be soaked in Starlight's outpour of last love, to prolong her need and last succor for as long as possible.
After Starlight was done, Twilight sunk her face into her bare breast, a cheek brushing lovingly against her broad motherly nipple; she found nothing but comfort in the soft, voluminous skin.
Idly, Starlight resumed working her magic.
Then Twilight pulled tight on Starlight's neck, to prevent her from escaping the love of her lips, to grasp for the love in the other's; her tail was swishing back and forth in excitement, in eager anticipation.
Love was always confusing for Starlight. But her confusion meant nothing in the embrace.
She followed in Twilight's example; she pressed her palm tight against her gate, her charred, unfeeling arm wrapped over her unexpectedly small form. And yet feeling into it she willed, for it was for one last time. Starlight found the ridge of Twilight's wing, then let her fingers roam and caress the purple feathers, learning to love the softness of each and every one. Pinching Twilight tight, painfully yet lovingly, Starlight felt the moan rumble in the luscious purple skin of Twilight's chest, whose tiny tips had long hardened. Then the sigh of relief signaled it: Her pleasure moving up and down, pumping her fingers, milking them for seed that she sorely wish she could provide, all the better to increase the sensations of that perfect, petite alicorn Princess body, which she lost herself in, so grateful and lucky to be a part of her, even if not for a lifetime.
They withdrew.
Each slipped her fingers into the other's mouth, and they relished the taste of one another, savored it with closed eyes, before smooshing their hot, sweating bodies closer together, moaning relief into each other's ears, the same whisper of contentment.
They felt each other's heartbeats calming, their panting serving as a testament to what they had both just felt with each other.
Their union was beyond anything in their old world; here, they were free at last.
They had wanted each other so badly, and neither had known; their hearts ached as one.
Although, Twilight's longing was a bit more apparent; she had her cheek pressed against the vast space that was Starlight's bosom, a finger idly flicking a love button. There in that moment, Twilight felt safe, comforted by the only one who could assuage her heart. But Twilight pinched Starlight hard — this, Starlight knew she deserved, because she and Twilight both knew it was not enough.
And yet, it was bliss.
Sometime later, Twilight was seized by an urge to motorboat Starlight, but giggled sadly; maybe she would have done it under less grim circumstances.
The cold of space was closing upon the two.
And so they held onto each other, their grips gentle, neither letting go; their eyes quavered, for neither could get quite enough.
Without knowing it, Starlight felt the Cutie Mark on her bicep — her own Cutie Mark — being caressed, her very self being loved. Also without her knowing, her hand had wandered over Twilight's bicep. The starburst she had momentarily stolen had been returned there without apology; there her hand hovered, tentative, unsure. But Twilight completed the motion for her.
And Starlight was complete.
But she looked away; she did not deserve Twilight, being here for her.
With a single finger, Twilight guided Starlight's chin back to her; her smile was reassuring, its message plain: There Twilight was, there for Starlight in spite of all she had done to her and everything around them.
Mouth aquiver, Starlight felt that familiar sting budding in her eyes.
They were both monsters, sad hurt monsters, robbed of all that they had held dear.
Friendship, Princesses, equality, and Cutie Marks — none of it mattered anymore. They were bare of clothing, bare of name, bare of identity, and thus bare of history. They were empty, loving, and pure. Liberated of all thus enumerated, they were free; if only they had realized this so much sooner! But had they, their love and enmity would shrivel and die in a world that made sense. Here, in the last throes of Equestria, theirs was a flower that had only begun to bud. For those trite affairs they longed, while knowing that that longing would tear them asunder. And sadly — thus it had begun, had it not? — nothing else existed but those two in their final moments.
And they would not die by either hand but each other's.
They had nopony else to love.
They had nopony else to hate.
They had nopony else to kill.
They were all they had left.
Their grief was twin, their longing excruciating, and their bond without seam.
Their hearts and bodies were one.
Their legs were intertwined, so tightly bound together as they drifted further into the encroaching darkness; their hues were getting fainter, blending in with each other in a motionless dance.
Neither could tell one apart from another — nor did they want to — for their senses were imprisoned within primal vices and the moments they were spending together, which they were cherishing all the more, for soon they would simply cease.
One pressed a hand against the other's chest, and the other her hand against one's chest. It was an act of mercy, of hate and love hardly different than the one in which they had been so enraptured with one another.
In grief and in strife,
Their hands glowed.
In friendship and strife,
They looked into each other's eyes for the last time.
In darkness and beyond,
They smiled.
Thus they remained,
Their hands glowed brighter still, this time with fatal energy.
And ne'er do they part,
Twin bangs echoed throughout the remains of sky.
Not even until eternity's end,
Their fallen forms floated in the void of space that followed, hands interlocked.
And everything beyond.
Never more had they been at peace.
