//------------------------------// // Starlight's World V // Story: Starlight Glimmer Makes Many Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// The two Cutie Marks were held above Empress Starlight’s horn, lacking a containment device at the moment she couldn’t let them go just yet. But she hardly needed to use her magic for anything else thanks to her guards and how helpless Twilight and Starlight would be without their Marks. The Empress chuckled and looked up in satisfaction at the two Marks. How much joy it filled her to be victorious like this yet again, to remove a dreadful Cutie Mark and make an enemy harmless at the same time. What a wonderful feeling. “Stand them up, Captain.” She said to Captain Gleam. The Guard Captain and a few of the others grabbed Twilight and Starlight and restrained them. Magic was out of the question without their Cutie Marks and now even just running away the old-fashioned way wasn’t going to work. Twilight didn’t struggle against the guards but she did fiercely glare at the Empress. “You won’t get away with this.” She said to her. “Oh please.” Empress Starlight rolled her eyes. “How original. And just what are the two of you going to do? Hm?” She mocked. But as she looked at her two captives a thoughtful look came to her face, she furrowed her brow in concentration as she gazed back and forth between them. “Just two? Why just two of you? How do I know you didn’t actually come here with the rest of your friends and you were lying earlier?” Twilight gulped and couldn’t help but shoot a brief, worried glance at Starlight. “Seems I’m right.” Empress Starlight narrowed her eyes at them before looking to Captain Gleam. “Captain?” “They were seen with a small purple dragon before coming to the castle.” Captain Gleam responded. “A dragon?” She rubbed her chin. “If I recall, Twilight Sparkle had a dragon. Your “Number one assistant”, correct? I’ll have the guards be on the lookout for him too. If you’re lucky he’ll get caught before tomorrow morning and then you can say goodbye to him before the brainwashing takes the three of you.” “Don’t hurt Spike!” Twilight yelled, now trying to elbow her way out of the guards hold. “Oh relax.” Empress Starlight walked forward and patronizingly patted Twilight on the head. “Tomorrow you won’t even care anymore.” “Gah!” Twilight tried lunging at her but was held back. “Hahaha, take them away.” The Empress laughed as she ordered them to the dungeon. A cruel smirk on her face and even more mirthful laughter dancing in her eyes. “This isn’t going to make you happy either. Not really.” Starlight told her as the guards started dragging them away. The Empress snorted. “Pff. That’s where you’re wrong, cause right now? I’m incredibly happy.” Starlight and Twilight were both carried by the guards on their way out of the throne room, Twilight struggling a bit but Starlight just staring ahead with a frown on her face. This definitely didn’t go how either of them planned. Twilight was worried about Spike more than anything right now but Starlight was trying to think about their next move, and as much as her evil self rubbed her the wrong way and didn’t exactly seem deserving Starlight wasn’t entirely willing to give up on her despite her cynical words to Twilight before about them not being able to get through to her. Knowing that she had been able to give up on evil and make up for the bad things she had done really made Starlight wish she could do the same for the Empress, to give her that opportunity. It’s just she didn’t think it could be done just through words. “Hold on one second.” The voice of the Empress came from behind them. The guards stopped and all of them turned their heads to see why Empress Starlight asked them to stop. “I remember how much you like to read, Twilight. So I’ll give you some light reading while you sit in the dungeon. You wouldn’t want to get bored now would you?” She smirked and her horn flashed, a book with an equal sign emblazoned on its cover appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the Empress and she tossed it to Captain Gleam. “Enjoy.” Twilight and Starlight were unceremoniously tossed into a cell together, the walls and floor of it still made out of a polished crystal but the bars making up its front were a cold steel. Getting out of here by force and without any magic might prove to be impossible, especially with how the equal sign Cutie Marks brought them down to the lowest common denominator for everything. Before she turned to leave; Captain Gleam tossed Empress Starlight’s new manifesto between the two of them and shut the door to the cell. Her and the rest of the guards then quietly left as if this was just a normal turn of events for them. “With how this has gone you might have been right about not doing this.” Twilight said to her friend as she rubbed her head in annoyance. “Well if we’re going down that road how about letting me destroy the Crystal Heart when we get the chance?” Starlight asked with a teasing smirk. “No.” Twilight frowned at her. “And stop joking around. At a time like this we need to be taking this as seriously as possible and find a way out of here. We don’t have much time before she reactivates the brainwashing spell.” “I get that but believe me we’re not in as bad of a situation as you think.” Starlight said. “Excuse me?!” Twilight stood up and grabbed Starlight by the shoulders, pressing her face right up against Starlight’s so her eyes were boring into the other unicorn’s. “How are we not in as bad of a situation as I think?!” “Because, Twilight.” Starlight pushed her away, eager for some space. “You’re forgetting something. We know something Evil me doesn’t.” Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow at her friend. “And that is?” Starlight Glimmer grinned. “Evil me may know a lot. Maybe even a good deal about you and your friends. But what she most definitely doesn’t know is that our Spike can fly.” Twilight sucked in a breath in realization. “She has no idea that he’ll be able to get to the Heart. Or that he can get anywhere into the castle from the balconies and windows.” “Bingo.” Starlight smiled, thinking about their scaly friend. “We just have to trust in Spike. I’m sure he’ll pull through for us.” “I...” Twilight chewed on her lip. She wasn’t quite sure, buuut… “I believe in him too. You’re right, I know Spike will be able to do it.” “This was a bad idea. This was such a bad idea, why did I agree to do this?” Spike meanwhile was muttering to himself while his wings beat against the heavy winds that billowed around the higher parts of the Crystal Castle. He had made a lot of headway but the climb to the top of the spire was a long and exhausting one and honestly he just wasn’t used to using his wings for so long. Not to mention the fact that they were still pretty stubby. He’d have to do some more flying practice with either Smolder or Rainbow Dash when he got back so he wouldn’t have another poor repeat showing like this. It was also a pain to avoid the windows and try to hug the wall of the castle so ponies couldn’t see him from below. More than once Spike had to take a break and rest on some of the pieces of the castle that he could actually stand on, and even then he had to hunker down to make sure it was a spot he couldn’t be seen. Why did there have to be so many windows and balconies? Why couldn’t he be a pegasus so he could just take a nap on a cloud? Life just wasn’t fair. “You’re gonna get an earful about this and so much more when I get back, Starlight...” Spike said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “I can’t wait for the lecture Twilight is gonna give you once we’re back home.” His wings were tired but he fought through the pain and kept going, he could see the top of the spire now and it wouldn’t be long before he made it up there and could take a rest. Spike remembered well how the top of the castle looked, there was plenty of room to sit. Even if the Crystal Heart wasn’t up there he’d take the time to catch a breather. Or sleep. But now more than ever the closer Spike got to the top the more he was sure the Crystal Heart was up there. The increasing intensity of the lights, the strange feeling of power, and the simple fact that, well, where else would it be? All of those things told him that the Crystal Heart was at the top of the spire where King Sombra also used to keep it years ago. “I’m coming for you.” Spike said to himself as he flapped his wings harder, breaking past another strong gust of wind. It had been a long time since he had been up here, he could still picture it that first time he and Twilight found the Heart and reclaimed it from King Sombra. It may have been his finest moment as he carried that Heart down the side of the castle, bringing it to Cadance and the crystal ponies and allowing them to save the day. Hay, they even made a big statue of him because of it. Oh right… the statue. Spike frowned thinking about it, if Empress Starlight hadn’t outright demolished it none of the brainwashed ponies would even care about it right now. What a waste. “Such an awesome tribute to my greatness and nopony around to appreciate it, geez.” Spike was close to the top now, thankfully despite the lights from the tower being almost blinding they didn’t make him any more nauseous or uncomfortable staring at them than they did from on the ground. But he could practically feel the magic rolling off in waves from it all, he had almost reached the ledge and he was sure that the moment he peeked over it he’d spy the Crystal Heart floating there and emitting the powerful magic that allowed Empress Starlight to control all of the poor ponies of Equestria. “Here I come!” Spike said as he exerted more energy from his wings, they were tired and would be far sorer than usual once he was done flying today but it would all be worth it. With his wings nearly giving out on him, Spike grasped the edge of the floor at the top of the spire as he reached it. The small dragon used it to help pull himself up and rolled onto his back, panting in exhaustion from the climb. He tiredly turned his head to see if the Crystal Heart was really up here. “There we go.” The Crystal Heart floated in the center of the top of the Crystal Castle just as it used to. Spike had never been so happy to see it. “You have caused me so much trouble...” Spike said as he stood up on shaky legs, still catching his breath. “But thank Celestia you’re up here.” He started to take a few steps towards the Heart—and almost fell down the recess that hid the stairs that led up here from the castle—before catching himself and hopping over them. “Woah, gotta watch out for those.” As he walked past the stairs it would’ve taken him one more step to reach the central area where the Heart floated in the middle of it. But Spike caught himself at the last moment again, holding his claw right above the floor and making sure he didn’t bring it down inside that circle. “Wait a second. What are the chances that an evil Starlight is going to have some kind of security on this thing?” Spike frowned, taking a step back and staring at the Heart. “And maybe even the same kind of security Sombra had that even a unicorn couldn’t do anything about?” Spike sighed. “Sounds like the kind of measures Starlight would take.” He held a claw under his chin, thinking. “I don’t have any way to check for magic or be sure it’s safe to just take this thing. Even if a bunch of crystals don’t shoot up and imprison me it may still notify the evil Starlight that it’s been moved… and she’d definitely notice that the lights have been disrupted wouldn’t she?” Spike sat down and folded his arms over his chest in frustration. “Ugh! I can’t believe this! I get up here and the Heart is here but now I can’t even do anything about it!” Spike grumbled in annoyance. “Well Twilight did say that I should just stay up here and wait for them anyways. So she probably didn’t want me to do anything with the Heart on my own anyways...” He let himself collapse backwards to lie on his back and stare up at the canopy of the spire. “Well I made it here, guess I’ll just wait for them now.” And so Spike waited. And waited. It was actually getting closer to evening by the time he started to get worried. He knew that stealthily searching a castle might take a while but this long? For the two of them? No way, something had to have gone wrong. Empress Starlight or some guards must have found them out. He stared at the floating Heart trying to decide if he should do anything about it or just leave it there for now. “This is so lame!” He exclaimed as he walked to the edge of the spire and peered down at the city below. Things looked normal, he didn’t see any chaos or anything strange going on that might give him a clue as to what Twilight and Starlight were doing. “They told me to wait but… ugh!” Spike threw up his arms in exasperation. “You stay right there!” He pointed at the Heart. “I’ll be back soon.” And then Spike leapt from the top of the castle. I’ll find you two, just need to find an open window first… “Twilight you should really read this. Evil me is a complete nutjob.” Starlight said as she leafed through the new manifesto of Empress Starlight. “She has plans written in here about how she wants everypony to dye their mane the same color one day. I’m totally taking this back home with us, it’s too funny.” “I’m not sure I approve of that.” “But it could be useful! We could show it to the students at the school as the perfect example of how not to be. It’s a great cautionary tale!” Twilight frowned. “I really don’t think I want to expose my students to that. But if you want to submit a change in the lesson plan you can do it in writing when we return.” “Yeah I’ll be sure to do that.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Great, I look forward to reading your submission.” Twilight responded with a smile, the sarcasm from Starlight completely flying over her head. “Right...” Starlight went back to reading the crazy manifesto of her evil counterpart. “Wow, she even wants all new cities and towns to be planned in a grid fashion.” As Starlight continued to read Twilight had started pacing around in the cell like a caged tiger. Earlier when they were first brought in she had spent the first couple of hours inspecting every inch of the cell to see if there was a weak spot or something that could be exploited to help them escape. Unfortunately the bars were strong and unworn and she couldn’t figure out any other possible way to get them out. They didn’t have anything to break or bend the bars with, no tools to pick the lock, no way to dig out of the hard crystal. Without magic or super strength like Applejack’s this simple cell was all but impossible to get out of. “Ugh, I’m going crazy just stuck in here!” Twilight said and sat down in front of the door to the cell. “Will Spike even be able to find us?” “If we’re lucky he’ll just destroy the Heart on his own or something.” Starlight replied as she flipped to another page of the book. “That wouldn’t be lucky! Stop bringing it up!” Twilight yelled at her. “Look, I’m telling you that doing something like that would solve all our problems. Not just with stopping Evil me but I also have a theory that it would send us out of this timeline.” Starlight shut the book and turned her focus to Twilight. “What are you talking about?” Twilight asked in confusion. Starlight sighed and stood up. “Okay. The thing is whenever there’s an important enough change to the timeline somewhere the whole world shifts and changes and a new timeline is created, I think. And since we were brought here, to this world that is clearly not the natural past or future of our world, I think that if we cause a big enough change here that we’ll find ourselves thrown into another rift in time and hopefully end up where we belong. And that big enough change would be toppling Empress Starlight. So regardless of the possible consequences to destroying the Crystal Heart I think it wouldn’t matter as long as it made an irreversible change here.” Twilight studied her for a few seconds, going over what she had just heard in her mind before her eyes narrowed in suspicion at Starlight. “And just why do you know what happens whenever the timeline changes?” “Uhh...” Starlight rubbed the back of her head. “Because to be honest I’ve kind of been messing around with the past since the day I first traveled back on accident.” “Starlight!” “Calm down!” She tried to placate her teacher. “It was all for good reasons at least, I tried doing good! Oh and don’t get mad at Spike either, he tried his best to stop me from doing anything irresponsible. And he was just looking out for me when you asked us about this too.” “I can’t believe you!” Twilight grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. “Are you responsible for us ending up here too?! Maybe your tampering is what caused all of this!” “No, no, definitely not.” Starlight grabbed Twilight’s forelegs to stop being shaken back and forth so she could shake her head in the negative. “I really don’t want to get into detail on how I know, and suffice to say it would all be a long story anyways, but I can guarantee you that this world has nothing to do with any changes I made in the past. I have no idea why this place exists or how. That’s why I mentioned this timeline not being naturally connected to ours.” Twilight calmed down slightly, releasing Starlight from her grip. “So… what then? What do we do? I’m still not sure I want to destroy the Crystal Heart and doom this world on a theory.” “We really wouldn’t be dooming this world even if we did that, it just might cause some problems for the Crystal Empire here for a bit you know?” Starlight said. “I’m pretty sure your double and the others could figure out how to put it back together. It’s just that Empress Starlight wouldn’t and that would cause the change, since her brainwashing would be undone and all the ponies would slowly go back to normal.” Starlight stood up and started pacing around a little bit herself. “Spike and I, every time there was a change we stayed in the same timeline and nopony else knew something different had happened. It wasn’t that we went into a new world but it felt like the world around us was slightly changed from how it should be… barring one instance, but now when you came to rescue us we’ve suddenly ended up in a world totally separate from our main timeline. I’m sure if we can cause a shift again that instead of the world changing around us and a new timeline being born that we’ll fall back into the rift between worlds and then we can make our way back home.” The Princess of Friendship stared blankly at Starlight. Not entirely impressed with her logic and reasoning. “I’m not sure how I feel about potentially breaking reality and throwing ourselves into the vortex of time based on such a poorly thought out theory. In fact you don’t even have enough evidence to call that a theory! It’s a lazy hypothesis!” “Thanks for showing me some faith.” Starlight frowned at her. “How can I?! It’s absurd! Even if what you’re saying about this timeline being separate from ours is true you’re essentially asking me to give everything up to chance!” Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. She raised a hoof to her chest and closed her eyes, sitting back on the cool crystal floor. “I’m sorry for yelling.” She said, opening up her eyes to look at Starlight again. “It’s just all a little much to take in right now.” She furrowed her brow. “You said barring one instance? What did you mean by that?” Starlight grimaced awkwardly, thinking it would be best to not go too far into detail about what she did with Sunset. “Well with the most recent change things were kind of different, normally the world just goes white and I feel vertigo and some shaking before things go back to normal, Spike can tell you the same thing, but that last time it’s like the whole world was falling apart around us and being remade. Or like the two of us were falling and almost being dragged somewhere else. It was weird.” “Maybe...” Twilight stared hard at the floor in concentration, a hoof cradling her chin. “Maybe that time you and Spike almost came here? Maybe there was something trying to bring you here? Otherwise I can’t understand why there would be such a different sensation in changing timelines. And perhaps when I came back and tried bringing us back to our time the same thing that tried to bring you and Spike instead got all three of us when we were between worlds?” “But who, or what? And why?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow at Twilight. There were so few creatures or things she could think of that would even be capable of such a thing. “Discord would be my first guess.” Twilight shrugged. “But I can’t see our Discord doing this, even just for a laugh, and the Discord here is out of commission. Same with the Tree of Harmony. I’m just not sure.” Starlight sat down and rubbed her forehead. “If it makes you feel any better Twilight, now I’m starting to get a headache cause of all this craziness.” “Well if I’m being blunt, no, it doesn’t. And all of this theorizing is still a moot point right now. Tomorrow morning the Empress is going to recharge her spell and that’s going to be it for us.” Twilight walked to the bars of the cell and pressed her face up against them. “We need to find a way out of here.” Starlight sighed and walked up to the bars, looking past them at the room beyond their cell. There wasn’t much to look at, just more crystal and a door leading to the outside hallway. The wooden door did have a barred window on it as well but that was its only distinguishing feature. However it did give Starlight an idea. “Hey Twilight, do you think there are guards posted outside that door?” She asked. “Um, I dunno? Maybe? Why?” Twilight gave her a questioning look. “Well if there are I have a really dumb idea for how we might get out of here.” Spike carefully peeked into the open window on one of the high levels of the castle, making sure there were no guards or other ponies inside the room before he made his entrance. Seeing that the coast was clear the dragon squeezed his way in through the window and plopped down into the room. “Geez, I need to lose some weight.” Spike said as he looked around the room he had come into. It looked like an ordinary bedroom. It was currently empty, most likely because it was meant for any guests to the castle. And guests were one thing there were likely to be none of here. Spike walked across the floor and scanned the room again just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything before he made his way over to the door and opened it as slightly as possible so he could peek out again and make sure nopony else was around. The door opened up into a pristine crystal hallway that curved inwards towards the heart of the castle, and luckily for Spike there were no guards around that he could see. Sighing in relief, Spike stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. “Alright you two, I’m coming.”