Starlight sat down on her dining table.
Where enjoyment and laughter reigned the night before, the funereal took over today.
Outside, she could see the morning sky.
The gray morning sky, overcast.
"Thirty minutes," she mumbled. "Thirty minutes then it's back to farm work, back to normal."
Considered the basket of apples, oranges, and pears before her. Beside it, another basket, this one of potatoes and cabbages.
"Another celebration, another festival," she murmured. "Another happy time gone. We enter it rich, we leave it poor—having accomplished nothing of note. But, it serves one purpose: it makes ponies...happy. The friendships that—"
Caught herself.
"Friendship. Friendship?"
Starlight stood up, placed the chair back in its proper place.
"Equestria's fate is at stake!" she whispered, anxious.
Felt her legs shake.
Trotted around the dining and living rooms, winding around furniture and on carpets.
"But...if it's friendship...friendship with who? I've got like a dozen close friends at least, and many more acquaintances and contacts. Was it someone from a bad future sending me this dream through time to make sure I stop whatever caused it? But, why me? Why not the Princesses? They have the power, they have the might—"
Knocks on the door.
Starlight halted, faced that way. "Who's that?"
"Uh, Starlight?"
She ran to the door and swung it open.
Heart beating fast.
Faster.
"S-S-Sunburst?!"
The robed wizard nodded, laughing awkwardly. "Y-Yes, Starlight...it's me...Sunburst!" He adjusted his round glasses. "Long time, no see, eh?"
Starlight gulped. "Why, y-yes, long time, no see!" She swayed a hoof across her, making a gesture of confidence—while smiling. "It hasn't been that long like...years long, am I right?"
Sunburst laughed again. "Yeah, years long."
He glanced behind him, then turned back.
A grave face.
"So...Dragon Pit with dragon costumes?"
Starlight quivered, almost jumped back. "You know?!"
Sunburst nodded. In a panicky voice: "Close the door and w-we'll see what our next step will be."
Starlight walked over to the door and closed it.
The two ponies trotted to the dining table and sat beside each other.
"It smells like cranberries here," Sunburst commented, taking a good look of the house—seeing its brick walls, its light fixtures, its shelves of many books. Then, he faced the mare on his left. "Well, this is going to get embarrassing...me, the Head Pony over the Mages' Research Division and the inventor of artillery, talking with the one and only Starlight Glimmer—" cleared his throat "—ambassador of the Town of Efficiency and the current face of the pacifist movement in Equestria—and we used to be the best of friends and..."
Drifted off, becoming forlorn.
Starlight levitated an apple and laughed. "Yeah! This is going to get really embarrassing..."
Munched on the apple with a funny face, exuding yet more awkwardness at it all.
Sunburst took an apple and munched on it, too.
The overcast sky prevailed.
Starlight's horn continued to glow; she remotely and magically closed the windows.
"Actually, I didn't think about that one," Sunburst said, peeking at the window.
Starlight gave him an inquiring look. "Tell me what happened to you last night. Did you dream a strange dream I did? Did Princess Luna get you up to speed about it? Sunburst, you're...you're smart! Can you share with me your insight on this?!"
Sunburst took off his glasses and placed it on the table. "I...I'm not sure what to make of it myself." Breathing slowly, combing his frizzy mane with a hoof's sweep. "If this is about a potential future that could happen if we don't act wisely, then...w-we must find out what the events are, who are the ones responsible for that bad future...but, as far as I can tell, it's not bad at all."
"I don't know," Starlight said, contrary. "When I saw this town in my dream, it was smaller and looked drab. The ponies there had weird cutie marks—equal signs for cutie marks. I mean, yeah, we all want equality, but I don't think I'll take it that far...right?"
"What if things get so desperate?" Sunburst suggested, tapping on his head. "The war might be the first domino in a line of bad dominoes. International incidents, big ponies getting assassinated, mass evacuations—they might come next, and you might find a good reason to paint their cutie marks over with equal signs!"
"Then, I'll make sure to never do that!" Starlight declared.
Trembled.
Saw Sunburst shook his head, closed eyes.
"But, why?"
Opened his eyes. "Well, in my dream—"
Starlight sat up, leaning in to listen closely
"—I h-had a similar experience. I found myself in the Crystal Empire—but, it wasn't all dark and evil. It w-was the Empire before Sombra took it over...I saw Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance with a baby—"
"But, they don't have a baby," Starlight mentioned.
"Exactly!" Sunburst exclaimed. "That was the first sign...the first sign that maybe the future you and I both saw...we shouldn't prevent it. I thought of actually encouraging it—"
"I don't want to enslave ponies!" Starlight yelled, inclining her head back.
"I-I was getting there!" A pause to catch his breath. "What I meant was...making sure the good parts h-happen and the bad parts don't!" Sunburst completed the sentence by moving around his hooves.
"Argh! Which ones are the good and the bad?!"
Sunburst, agitated and scratching his head, sighed. "Maybe...maybe both our dreams are like puzzle pieces. If I tell you the rest of what I saw, then maybe we could figure it out!"
Starlight slammed a hoof on the table. "Then, tell it!"
It was Sunburst's turn to gulp. "Wow...I didn't know you grew grumpy during the years."
Starlight rolled her eyes, making a little smile at that.
"So...after the baby...I saw you...I r-recognize the town that we were in...we were hanging out in Ponyville, playing Dragon Pit but we were like the pieces. I saw three other ponies...there's a pony who looked like a wizard, too, then there was another alicorn, and there was Maud—"
"You know Maud?" Starlight interrupted, sounding surprised.
"Well, several Rock Troopers came over o-one of our labs and asked us to make a new kind of rock which can explode with ten times more force but is also very safe to carry in your pockets until you want to use it." He laughed yet again, avoiding Starlight's look of curiosity. "Let's just say that it didn't turn out well and Maud's usually funny sister gave me the cold shoulder..."
"Ooh." Starlight showed her teeth, sympathetic. "That's not good, coming from her."
Then, gasped.
"I almost forgot! Your dream! How did it go on?"
Sunburst put on a serious face. "That's the funny thing. It ended rather quickly after the Dragon Pit thing...but, it's how it ended..."
Starlight leaned her head closer.
"I saw that Twilight Sparkle alicorn standing on the cloud with you, talking to you. You looked...a-angry at her. You were holding a scroll and you were threatening Twilight to...do something—I couldn't get the rest of the words...you t-told her something and you began to rip the scroll apart."
"That's something we should avoid, right?" Starlight asked, troubled, holding another apple with her hoof. "That's part of the bad future we should thwart, totally not a part of the good future we want...right?"
"I think it's part of the good future."
"What?!"
Starlight slapped Sunburst on the face.
Retracted her hoof, gasped, looked away.
"I-I'm sorry, Sunburst," she began, voice unsteady, "but it's getting hard to wrap my head around it. Are we the ponies destined to save Equestria by...trying to solve a chronological puzzle somepony sent from one of two possible futures?!"
Sunburst nodded, rubbing his reddened cheeks. "I'm not a hundred percent certain...but, it m-might be..."
Starlight slumped on her chair, groaning. "OK, I'll take it...it might as well be the adventure that will get the two of us back together as best friends."
"I sure hope so," Sunburst said, not smiling at that idea.
Starlight munched on the other apple and swallowed the bite down. "But, again...why do you think me arguing with a fake Princess is part of the good future?"
"Because...because Twilight forgave you and you stopped being...uh, evil."
"So, for Equestria to be saved, I have to be the villain?" Starlight said, pointing to herself and pouting. "Thanks for the help, Sunburst!"
"B-But, maybe it was corrupted on the way to our time?" Sunburst suggested further, frantic. "Twilight's a unicorn, remember? So, maybe it's somepony else but that somepony's close to you!"
"Well, there's you..."
"But, I don't have any evil plans!" Sunburst said, grabbing his glasses.
They slipped.
Hastily putting them back on his face.
"I asked all the librarians back in Canterlot before I got here and what Princess Luna said was true—nopony wanted to divulge any information about Twilight Sparkle at all."
Starlight blinked, repeating, "By royal decree..."
"Yes...by royal decree. But, if it's not you and it's not me, then who's going to go against Twilight? And, why does he or she want to fight her anyway? Is this Twilight Sparkle the biggest reason why the good future turned out...good?"
"Maybe?" Starlight quipped.
Sunburst stood up, pushing the chair and scratching the wooden floorboards, and glanced at the door. "So, I have to get to Twilight Sparkle despite it being illegal—"
"It's illegal?!" Starlight exclaimed, shoving her chair aside and bumping the basket off the table.
Fruits rolled around on the floor.
"Luna said information about her is illegal, but just meeting her?!" Starlight held on to her head. "Is she a criminal? And, how are you so sure Twilight's the answer to this future thing?!"
Sunburst opened the door and let in damp rays of sunlight, about to leave. "Twilight shows up way too much in our dreams for her to be a mistake! She may be an alicorn there, but...she's there too much! Now—" levitated a small clock out of his robe "—I have to go and you better do whatever it is you're doing in this town! Leave it up to me and I'll send a letter when I get a good thread in this mystery!"
"Sunburst, wait!"
But, he was galloping off.
Starlight ran to the door.
Sunburst already close to the town's borders.
Running under the cloudy sky.
On the dry, parched land.
A bright and sunny day.
Between a line of trees, a dirt road.
A long line of carriages slowly pulling its passengers away.
Its mourning passengers.
Some lamented in earnest, rocking their heads and blowing their noses on hankerchiefs.
Others limited themselves to a single stream, a single tear down the cheek.
All mourned.
Past the carriages, past the trees, past the path.
Past them, was a field of grass.
It seemed endless, this field. These blades of grass, ever shining, ever reflecting the gentle light of the sun, drinking in its tender warmth.
An ocean of green.
Broken by a stone of gray.
A long walk from the road, a five minute trot away, was a tombstone.
On it were these words:
Night Glider
Loved in both life and death,
You will be missed
Starlight heaved a weighty sigh.
Standing alone before that solitary memorial.
The wind jolted her mane about.
Starlight kept gazing upon it.
That tombstone.
That solitary memorial.
That memory.
Memory of her.
Misty-eyed.
Sniffed.
Tears flowing down.
Running down.
Made out the sound of wings flapping.
She turned her head a little to the side.
Noticed the intruder's scarred face, her injured ear, her unwieldy armor.
Her strange, mechanical wing.
"Rainbow Dash, isn't it?" Starlight croaked.
She nodded and walked to her side. "I came here to say...I'm sorry."
Starlight half-faced her, slightly turning the rest of her body. "Y-You don't need to do that. You may have killed over a thousand unwilling ponies, but I'm sure that this isn't one of them, especially not a pony who hated to even be in the same room a soldier is in if she knew it..."
Gazing upon the sky.
"That's the thing," Rainbow said.
Starlight took her gaze off the sky, looked straight at the pegasus. "And, what are you saying?"
"I killed her."
Starlight placed a hoof to her own chest.
Felt her heart pounding.
"You what?"
"You heard me right, Starlight," Rainbow said, nodding solemn. "I murdered her."
Starlight staggered, about to fall down.
Breathing faster.
"Rainbow...look...you kn-know better than to tell me that right after the funeral service..."
"I couldn't keep it from you any longer," Rainbow said, placing a hoof on her shoulder, trying to calm the mare down. "When you have the death of so many ponies under you, it takes a great effort to subdue your conscience, to silence it. I always told myself that the ponies I'm killing are bad and evil—that keeps me going. But, I couldn't do the same thing to Night Glider. I knew that she didn't want the riot to continue, she felt that it was wrong and she knew it, too."
Starlight grabbed her by the neck.
Choking her.
"Then, why did you kill her?!"
Let her go and pushed her away.
Rainbow reeled, recovered.
Stood still.
Sighed.
"I got used to killing...at the moment, it felt like it didn't matter if I killed her or not. I was angry...everyone knows how I'm all for this fighting so we can live in peace much sooner, and to hear that so-called 'pacifists' are trying to take down my friends and fellow soldiers..."
Rolled a hoof around, trying to convey something to Starlight.
"I didn't care, so I killed her, anyway."
Starlight breathed in, breathed out.
Fuming, baring her gnashing teeth.
"I know I can't bring her back to life," Rainbow continued, looking at her. "I know that, whatever I do, it won't be enough to replace her because nothing can replace a life. If you don't believe me, then ask my friends—or, whoever's left. The only friends I got now from the start are Pinkie and the Wonderbolts—and, I'm not sure if any of us will live until the end."
Tears going down Starlight's cheeks.
Her mouth open, but never saying a word.
"Could you...ever forgive me, Starlight?"
Looked at the warrior, staring at her.
With wild eyes.
The two of them alone before that gray tombstone.
In an ocean of green.
Eyes flooding with tears.
Down her cheeks.
"I...I..."
"I know it's hard for you to forgive me," Rainbow said, glancing at her mechanical wing. "I don't know how long you've been with friends with her but...it looks like you've been buddies for a very long time."
She opened her wings.
Hovering higher.
"I'll just...leave you alone."
Flying away.
Starlight saw her rainbow streak in the sky.
Closed her eyes.
Broke down.
Wept.
Nighttime.
Manehattan.
Trumpets and drums resounding through the streets.
Under the deluge of lights in the Bridleway Theater District, on that grand and famous intersection where those wide avenues coalesce into a great asphalt space, a parade was ongoing.
Strings of uniformed military musicians playing in tune, in tempo, a marching song—wearing their brightly colored suits and tall hats.
The sidewalks were fenced off, ponies barricaded from meeting their celebrated veterans, though they could shout from afar and wave flags in spite of the cramped conditions for the usual civilian trying to commend his heroic fighters.
Flags of cities, flags of regions, flags of the Equestrian Kingdom.
Rainbow Dash stood on one of the many floats in line, among the Wonderbolts honored and lauded by the populace around her. She could see the streamers, the balloons, even that flag of Cloudsdale with its simple blue background and its circular rainbow together with its two clouds.
Staying stoic like the rest of the Wonderbolts.
She took a short glimpse behind her.
The next float in the parade held a lot of Rock Troopers, Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie a part of them. Every one of them wore their signature gray uniforms, their pockets full of rock ammunition.
Pinkie kept up a stoic face, copying Maud's.
The float moved casually, following the speed of the musicians and the other soldiers on the road who closer to the ponies on the sidewalks.
Pinkie saw one of those soldiers give a longing look to one of the mares there. While she did not recognize the soldier himself, she raised an eyebrow at the mare. That bunned mane, those earrings, that yellow scarf, the cookies she was selling to those by the fences—
"You!"
Sweetie Belle knocked the fence down and ran to the road.
Screams around, soldiers and musicians being dispersed and giving way to the galloping filly.
She hopped on to the float, running up the steps to Pinkie's level.
Pinkie bit her lip, watching her run across the platform, approaching her.
Several Wonderbolts flew off their spots and hovered over the Rock Troopers' float, keeping an eye on the youthful troublemaker.
More ponies crowding near the scene.
Yet more ponies in blue uniforms gathering around the float.
It stopped.
"Young pony!" the police captain shouted through a megaphone. "Get down from there!"
Sweetie ran on.
She passed by Pinkie.
Who was shivering.
Then, she reached Maud who had been observing her.
"This is for hurting my sister!"
Punched her on the leg.
Maud remained still, looking at the filly.
"This is for bringing her to the factory!"
Punched her on another leg.
Maud kept still.
"And, this is for turning her into the polar opposite of a fashion designer, making her work hours of overtime and turning her miserable!"
About to swing one more punch.
Grabbed by Pinkie.
"Hey!"
Struggled, punched her on the face.
"Ow!" Pinkie rubbed her head. "That hurts, you know!"
"So, you're working together, huh?!" Sweetie accused, pointing at her and then at Maud. "You'll pay when I can actually hurt you! You'll pay!"
"What did Maud ever do to your sister?" Pinkie asked her, looking nervously at the police climbing up the float, holding the filly with her hoof.
"She slammed Rarity at a wall and forced her to work at a horrid uniform mill! They don't always feed her on time, they sometimes order her to sleep there so she can work more, and...Rarity never wanted it! She wanted to work on her clothes and sell them in her boutique!"
A police pony finally caught up to Sweetie. "Ma'am, it's best you go with us."
Pinkie gave the filly to her.
Whispering, "I'm sorry!"
So, Sweetie was carried down the float and to the sidewalk, amidst a group of ponies murmuring and talking.
Returned to her mother who had placed the box of cookies down and hugged her daughter.
Could hear the words of the ponies around them.
But, what they all heard:
Her crying.