Chapter Text
Starlight Glimmer had won.
More or less. I’m not sure.
I mean, Twilight gave up fighting her, that counts as a win, right?
Not because she was more clever this try or because she used some kind of different spell. Why would she? She was winning every round against Twilight after all, there was no need to change her strategy. But because Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t be able to return so easily this time.
Starlight had managed to beat Twilight every. single. round. She tried to stop her from changing the future just because “Twilight ruined her life” and “Cutie marks also ruined her life by the way”. It’s a bit ironic when you think about it actually, a simple unicorn winning against a full on alicorn but, in the end, it seems that being alone makes you a better magic user than just friendship after all. And Twilight has been learning that the hard way for the past few hours (days? years? who knows at this point).
Each time Twilight tried to stop Starlight from changing her future and stopping Rainbow Dash from obtaining her Cutie mark, she failed, and each time she failed, she got sent back to her time. But it never was like she remembered, of course it wasn’t, none of her friends fulfilled their destinies, none of them earned their cutie mark as they should’ve, hell they didn’t even meet in most cases! How could the elements of harmony even work if they weren’t friends in said present in the first place? And how could Equestria be free of villains without the elements of harmony?
She had seen it all: A universe where Nightmare Moon wins and it’s eternal night, one where Discord took control of everything, another where Tirek consumes all the magic in equestria, in one there was a war against King Sombra, somehow Flim and Flam were the main villains in one of them! The thing was that, each time, she managed to fight Starlight again by using the Cutie map and Starswirl’s spell to go back in time. Spell Spike carried with him the whole time.
- Well look who’s back! … Again. Aren’t you getting tired of this Twilight? - Said Starlight. She was making herself float above the clouds using her own magic to avoid falling, something only the most talented unicorns could do.
- I will fight until I get back my friends, I won’t let you win. - Twilight was mad, that’s for sure, a part of her wanted to help Starlight, to make her understand why what she was doing was wrong, like she had been doing this whole time. But she was tired, she was tired of trying to be reasonable with Starlight. She wasn’t listening to her, she would never listen to her. - I can fight her, - she thought - I just need to get my thoughts straight and everything will go back to the way it was before.
- Try me. - Starlight was grinning from ear to ear, sure that she was going to win, and that Twilight was going to get tired of battling at some point.
And Twilight tried.
The battle didn’t last long, it was just two really powerful magic users throwing spells at each other back and forth, like the last 10+ times. But as always, the mixture of Spike slowing down Twilight a bit, Starlight's wide knowledge of offense and defense spells, and the fact that she had been preparing this revenge for a long time, made Twilight lose.
- See you next time, princess. - It was a mocking tone, the one she used fully knowing that she was ruining Twilight’s life, enjoying it and seeing her suffer like Starlight did first when she was kicked out of her own village. Her own village! Twilight deserved this, she deserved to lose everything she had like Starlight did back then, not just once by the way, but twice. Friendship was the cause of all her problems, so who had to pay? The princess of friendship of course, who else? It was only fair after all. Don’t represent such a big title if you won’t fight for it.
Starswirl’s spell appeared right above Twilight and Spike’s heads threatening to take them away again as an idea popped right into the princess’ head.
Then she jumped right on time.
Well, if you can call that a jump that is, it was more of a tackle towards Starlight. Her plan was simple, if fighting didn’t work, and she wouldn't understand reason, then she would show her the consequences of her actions. She would take a look at one of those worlds she created just because of spite. It wasn’t right to give up nor keep trying the same things over and over to no avail. This was her last chance.
The three of them, Spike, Twilight and Starlight all went into the manifestation of Starswirl's spell, which was some odd magical translucent dome, and for a second, everything turned black.
And for another second.
And another.
Thinking about it, this wasn’t normal.
Twilight lit up her horn and looked to the sky.
- So it’s eternal night again, huh? - Spike wasn’t even that scared of it at this point. Twilight knew what was going on in this timeline specifically, surely she wouldn’t stay again and wait for the Timberwolves or Nightmare Moon to chase them for the second time.
- It seems like it.
- Again? What do you mean again? Where did you take me? What did you do to me!? Give me back the spell! - Starlight was quick to lose her marbles every time something was out of her control. She had planned this for way too long for her to be defeated by some desperate maneuver made by some princess who didn’t even deserve the title according to the unicorn.
- You will come back, I promise. But you need to see something first. - The alicorn was… Oddly tense when saying that. Not the kind of tense Starlight had seen on Twilight during this, meeting, they've been having, it was something different, like she wasn’t quite sure of what to expect different from every time she fought Starlight, but at the same time, Spike and her talked like they went through this before? How did any of this make any sense to them?
- I need to- I need to see something!? I will not fall into your trap princess. I don’t know what your plan is but it won’t work! Eternal night? Very clever! “Oh but Equestria cannot exist without my friends!”, “We are oh, so important!”. Well boo-hoo! You didn’t need to use a fillies’ tale to try to scare me, I’m not five in case you forgot.
Spike perked up at her last sentence.
- Fillies’ tale? Nightmare Moon IS real though.
- What? No she’s not.
- Yes she is
- Liar
- Cheater
- You wouldn’t know because you didn’t have any kind of contact with Equestria back then, - Twilight stepped between Spike and Starlight’s bickering, trying to remain as calm as she could in this situation. - but Nightmare Moon is real and me and my friends fought against her, we won with the elements of harmony of course.
- The elements of harmony? What are you even talking about? - Starlight was clearly confused.
Then it hit Twilight.
Starlight didn’t know what was actually at stake regarding her friends. The elements of harmony, Nightmare Moon, the most recent threats that happened in Equestria… She never knew they happened because she was ruling a village Celestia knows where away from any kind of civilization.
- You don’t know what you’re actually doing, don’t you? - Twilight didn’t know whether to be mad or to feel pity for Starlight.
- What are you implying? I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own plans, which I took a long time to think through and prepare by the way! Of course I know what I’m doing! Now give me the spell!
Twilight looked at her in silence for a moment. Unsure of what to do.
- Not yet. - The princess of friendship had decided, if Starlight wouldn’t listen to reason, then the reason would come to her one way or another. She started walking.
It was the middle of the Everfree forest, in a night as cold and dark as the depths of the ocean. Starlight may not know exactly what was going on but she wasn’t stupid enough to let Spike and Twilight leave without her. It’s a dark, gloomy, creepy forest. Nightmare Moon might not be there, but other creatures probably will and the last thing she wanted was to meet them face to face.
So, reluctantly, she followed them in silence. Maybe if she played along for a bit she would get the spell back and carry on with her original plan.