((Prompt: “In another reality, I could have called you friend.”))
“Yer dying.”
Empress Twilight Sparkle's eyes flickered up to meet her enemy's. It wasn't a taunt. The earth pony hadn't spoken with any malice in her voice, nor even relief at securing victory. It was not a war-cry, nor a threat. It was simply the truth.
Twilight swallowed and nodded. “I am.” Her armor clinked and rattled as her legs gave out beneath her and she sank to her haunches in the mud. She glanced down at the ragged wound the last spear had left on her. Blood seeped from the space between the metal plates, propped open by a broken shard of the projectile. Her shield spell had been a moment too slow, her enemy's attack just a little too forceful. By the time reinforcements arrived with their medical spells, it would be too late.
The orange pony that had dealt the blow stumbled forward. “Y-ya got me, too.” Twilight saw the scorch-marks all along the side of the other mare's red and gold barding.
Both ponies slumped in the mud, nearly touching. All around them were the bodies of their comrades; unicorns of the upper hills, pegasi from the eastern sea, earth ponies of the plains. Some yet moaned in pain while others had long since fallen silent and still.
Twilight grunted as she tried to prop her head up, and get a clear look at the pony who had killed her. “What's your name, soldier?”
“Applejack.” The pony turned over so that a plate of her armor kept her head out of the mud. “They call me Applejack. I'm... I was the chieftain of a village by the forest.”
“The forest?” Twilight winced as the ache in her side threatened to overwhelm her. “Th-that was years ago. You're not even fighting for your own land anymore!”
“Neither are you, Empress,” said Applejack.
“I was trying to unite us,” Twilight protested. “Centuries ago, before the Sisters disappeared, this was all one land, peaceful and harmonious. It's... it's stubborn ponies like you that are the reason we can't be like that again.” She could feel numbness spreading through her hooves.
Applejack nodded slowly. “Maybe so. Might be I am part of the problem.” She grimaced in pain and held her leg close to her burned side. “But... but I know ya can't teach Harmony at the end of a sword.”
Twilight stared at her for a long while. She sighed and rolled over to face the gray sky. “It doesn't matter now, one way or the other. With me gone, Equestria will once again fracture into petty warring states. Congratulations, chieftain Applejack. You've won.”
Applejack was silent for several minutes. Twilight had just begun to wonder if she had succumbed to her wounds when she heard the pony whisper.
“You reckon... if things were different, somehow...” Applejack's armor clinked as she shifted position. “If there were some way we'd met without all this blood on our hooves, do you s'pose it might not have ended like this? You reckon we might've been friends?”
Dark clouds swirled in Twilight's vision. Blood loss had taken its toll on her, and it wouldn't be long now. “I...” She moved her hoof toward her fallen foe, and felt it grasped by another. “I would like to believe that, I think.”