//------------------------------// // 19. The End of Friendship - Part 1 // Story: The Legend of Friendship - Harmony // by Danieru //------------------------------// It was early in the morning... The sun was already up and threw its light on Equestria, including the little town of Ponyville. Some ponies were already walking around in town, going to work, school, or setting up merchant stands to sell something in the market. But there were also some ponies who still were asleep. One of them was Star Twinkle, who had a rough night. One would expect that it would be because of the day before. He and his friends had to deal with Ashgray, who tried to steal the Elements of Harmony, and eventually tried to destroy them. It was a hard-fought battle but they managed to win this battle. And even though Star Twinkle was hurt in this battle, he recovered really quickly and didn't sustain any serious damage. But that was not the reason why he had such a rough night. The reason for him to not sleep very well was that he was haunted by nightmares. Star Twinkle was rolling around in his bed, sweating and panting. He was having a nightmare at this very moment. ... In his dream, the stallion was walking around in a more empty version of Ponyville, something that he didn't notice while walking through the town. He was probably not even aware that he was dreaming at all now. He saw his friends in the distance and slowly walked up to them. Summershine, Happytrade, Brilliance, Crash, Nightsky, and Lightbeam were all walking away from the stallion, but as soon as they noticed him, they turned around, each one with a smile on their face, waiting for Star Twinkle to catch up to them. Expecting nothing wrong, the stallion walked up to the ponies to spend the day with them. But as soon as Star Twinkle got closer to them, another pony was further in the back, looking at him with a malicious grin on his face. It was a pony that he once called a friend as well. Ashgray... Once he spotted the stallion behind his friends, things got a lot more chaotic. His friends were vanishing, and so did Ashgray. Ponyville was slowly fading away as well, leaving Star Twinkle in complete darkness. The stallion was looking around to figure out what was going on but things were way too bizarre for him. Suddenly, he found himself in the Castle of the Two Sisters, the room where he last saw Ashgray before he turned to stone. Of course, he was wondering why he found himself inside the castle all of the sudden but he got distracted by things happening in front of him. His friends were standing in the middle of the room and Ashgray was right behind him. It was the scene right before they defeated Ashgray with the Elements of Harmony. Star Twinkle found himself laying on the ground. He remembered that Ashgray was holding the Earth Pony in front of himself so that Summershine and the others would not attack. It was right after Ashgray dropped him to the ground after Princess Celestia shot him and his friends took the chance to attack at this very moment. The Elements of Harmony were activated and a huge rainbow-colored beam was heading right towards Ashray and Star Twinkle, the later one ducking to try avoiding this attack. Before the beam reached them, however, Ashgray put on a shield spell in front of himself in an attempt to protect himself from this blast. Star Twinkle remembered how this shield was not helping the stallion to protect himself from the attack, so he knew that it wouldn't last for long. But he forgot completely what happened right before that... Ashgray lowered his head towards Star Twinkle, who was cowering on the ground to duck under the beam, even though, right now, he was also protected by the shield that Ashgray put up. Despite how loud the attack from the Elements of Harmony was, Ashgray slowly and calmly said some words to him, as if he had all the time in the world. It was almost as if time came to hold at the very moment. The words that Ashgray said to him both confused and scared him. "You are me, and I am you...by giving up my body...I shall continue to live inside yours!" Ashgray said before his red eyes and his horn glowed for a moment before eventually, the shield spell got destroyed and everything disappeared in a bright light in front of Star Twinkle. Those were the last things that Star Twinkle saw before his eyes popped open and he finally woke up in his bed... ... Star Twinkle felt weird, to put it simply. He looked around in his room rather calmly and took a moment to catch his breath. He also wanted to make sure that he was awake now. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, which was good. He grabbed his head with his hoof. "I...didn't sleep too well..." he said as if he needed to explain himself at this very moment. He could not remember his dream but he knew that he had a nightmare judging from how stressed he was at this very moment. But Star Twinkle couldn't just sit in his bed and try thinking about it so he decided to get out of his bed. "Morning, Comet," he greeted as usual towards his pet Gold Fish. Comet didn't respond and looked blankly into the distance. There was still some time left until he had to go to work and Star Twinkle planned to use every spare minute of it to slowly get ready. For a moment, he considered to call in sick for work but he figured that he wasn't feeling weak or unable to work but rather confused and...not really there. He couldn't exactly remember his dream but he knew that it scared him. As much as he tried to recall it, he just couldn't remember so he decided to just forget about it. Trying to think about it the whole day would definitely not do him any favor. The best thing he could do was to ignore it and focus on something else. The stallion walked out of his house and closed the door behind him before taking a look in front of him to see some ponies already walking on the roads of Ponyville. For some reason, he had a hard time focusing his eyes in front of himself. Not because he felt weak or anything, it was rather like as if he was wearing glasses, it was just...harder as usual. He held his head for a moment. "Come on...put yourself together," he said before he shook his head, which only caused him to get dizzier and lose his balance a little. "Maybe I really need some more rest?" He said after figuring that he might not be in top condition. The stallion tried to turn around and open the door to his house again but for some reason, he wouldn't do that no matter how much he wanted to. Before he knew it, his legs carried him forward to his way on work. "Let's just do everything slowly," he said to himself as he walked through town. As he walked through the road of Ponyville, he looked with his eyes around to see some ponies already getting ready for their daily routines. Knowing that he was not exactly fully rested made him almost jealous to see everypony around him being in high spirits. His attention then drifted towards a voice that screamed his name from behind. He knew exactly who this voice belonged to. "Staaaaaar!" The voice shouted in excitement. It was Lightbeam, who ran towards the stallion, ready to hug him from behind. It was her usual way of greeting him and Star Twinkle, most of the time, was not fast enough to react to this so he instead prepared himself for impact and hoped that he wouldn't get hurt in the process. Then again, it was just a hug so there was no reason for him to stop her so he just stood still. At least that is what he planned... Star Twinkle sidestepped out of the way, causing Lightbeam to fall to the ground head first as she tried to jump hug the stallion, and making her face drop into the dirt. The stallion didn't plan on doing that at all and was surprised to see how the mare laid in front of him now. After an awkward silence, Lightbeam spoke up. "Hey!" She said, with her head face buried into the ground still. "You are not supposed to dodge that!" She said with a pouting tone in her voice. "Sorry!" Star Twinkle apologized before he helped the mare to get back up on her hooves again. Lightbeam was glaring a little bit at the stallion for this action, causing Star Twinkle to apologize once more. Of course, Lightbeam was forgiving him, she just was a little bit confused. But this confusion vanished once she realized something. "Wait! Could it be that you are still hurt? Is that why you moved out of the way? So that I wouldn't accidentally hurt you?" She figured with wide-open eyes. That was not true. In fact, Star Twinkle had no idea why he dodged out of the way. It just seemed to have happened on instinct or reflex. But since Star Twinkle didn't know how exactly explain that to her, he just decided to go with Lightbeam's theory. "Yes! I mean, you could never know," he said briefly while he rubbed his neck. Now Lightbeam was feeling bad. "In that case, I should be the one apologizing! I didn't mean to hurt you!" She said in regret, even though there was no reason for that since Star Twinkle just made that up. "Hey, don't worry about it!" Star Twinkle replied nervously. Now it was his turn to feel bad. With those words, the two decided to ignore what happened and they continued to be on their way. It didn't take long until Nightsky spotted the two from one of his clouds and joined them as well. "Morning," he greeted Star Twinkle. "Hey, Nightsky," Star Twinkle replied. "Seeing how you are awake now, I assume that you had to work last night?" He asked, referring to Nightsky's job as a weather pony. "Yeah," Nightsky replied bothered. "You would think that they get somepony else to do the night duty from time to time," he added as he rubbed his shoulders with his hooves, showing that he was still a little bit exhausted. Lightbeam had a guess for that. "Well, your name has the word "night" in it," she pointed out. "Maybe that's why," she said with a smile on her face. Nitghtsky smiled. "I'm really starting to think that this is the case," he figured before he looked over to Star Twinkle. He quickly noticed how something was a little bit off. He could tell that Star Twinkle was having trouble focusing his eyes for some reason. "Are you feeling well?" He then asked in concern. It caught Star Twinkle by surprise that he apparently was looking like as if he was not feeling well. But before the stallion could explain, Lightbeam was the one to reply. "He is still a little bit hurt from yesterday!" She said, continuing to roll with the made-up excuse from before. Hearing that didn't really surprise Nightsky. "Maybe you need a little bit more than one day of rest?" He guessed. "I'm fine," Star Twinkle replied. "Really," he added on top. The two could not look directly into Star Twinkle's head so they just had to take this answer and believe him. Still, they were a little worried and wished they could do something for him. "At least let us accompany you on your way to work," Nightsky offered in his concern. "Yeah!" Lightbeam said happily, her ears perked up in excitement. "We will come with you, okay?" She asked. Star Twinkle was touched by how concerned his friends were about him and smiled. However, he didn't want to make them worry anymore. If he was really looking a little bit under the weather then the worst thing would be for them to see him like this any longer so the stallion gratefully declined this offer. "No-" "Yes..." Star Twinkle's eyes widened in surprise. He could swear he was saying "Yes" just now even though he was planning to say "No". In fact, judging from Lightbeam's relieved reaction, he seemed to have said "Yes". "Then that's settled!" Lightbeam said cheerfully before she led the way to the Iron Hammer, Star Twinkle's workplace, with Nightsky walking beside her closely. But Star Twinkle was still confused right now and didn't know how to even say anything about this. "Um...yes..." he said before he followed his friends even though he was planning to go to work alone. Every second that passed, Star Twinkle felt a little bit more...weird. He couldn't even explain what was happening. He must have been still hurt from the battle against Ashgray. Maybe he wasn't aware of the damage he took from this battle, he was using some strange kind of magic after all. He figured that it must have had some kind of lasting effect on him that he couldn't really see just now. His two friends were engaged in a lively conversation while Star Twinkle walked right behind them. He listened closely to distract himself. "Hey, today is a special bake sale at the market! Should we all meet later and get us some?" She suggested in high spirits. Nightsky shook his head. "You are just looking for a reason to eat some sweets, are you?" He boldly pointed out with a smile on his face. Lightbeam looked away embarrassed. "No! I just thought it would be fun!" She threw back. Star Twinkle chuckled. "I would like to," ... "Right, Star Twinkle?" Lightbeam asked as she turned her head around to the stallion. The green pony was surprised once more. He thought Lightbeam didn't hear him the first time so he repeated himself. "I would like to," he said again. "See? Now it's decided!" Lightbeam said happily before she turned around again. Things got weird again. Star Twinkle could swear that he spoke loud and clear and when he repeated himself, he was speaking at the same volume. The stallion was stopping for a moment to collect his thoughts. He needed to do that. Things happened that just confused the stallion too much. "I really feel under the weather..." Star Twinkle thought. "I should go home and sleep over it to avoid getting my friends concerned," he figured. The stallion decided to share his thoughts. "I think...I actually really need some more rest," Star Twinkle said, lowering his head. But his friends didn't seem to hear him...again...they didn't turn around at least. The stallion started to get a little bothered by it and decided to speak up on it. But as soon as he looked towards them again, he got shocked by what he saw. He saw himself... Another Star Twinkle was walking behind both Lightbeam and Nightsky while he was standing there in shock watching this unfold in front of him. Soon, this Star Twinkle stopped and turned his head, revealing his red-colored eyes which were supposed to be light green. There was also a confident smile on this Star Twinkle's face. Star Twinkle widened his eyes in shock and wanted to know what happened right now but it felt as if he had no control over anything just now. Before he knew it, he found himself right behind his friends again, at the very position where this other Star Twinkle stood just now. Star Twinkle looked around and found out that he could not control his actions at all. His legs moved on their own no matter how much he wanted to stop. "What is going on!?" Star Twinkle said, only to find out that he could not speak out loud, as if his voice couldn't come out of his mouth for anypony to hear. Then, another voice spoke up loud and clearly... "Don't take all of this personally..." a voice then said inside of his head. He knew exactly who this voice belonged to and instantly got really concerned. "You just happened to be my short term solution in the very last moment," the voice explained calmly. Somepony appeared in front of him...somepony he knew all too well. "What!? Where did you come from!?" Star Twinkle said confused. This was bad. Star Twinkle had no idea what exactly was happening right now but he knew that it was really really bad. He needed to do something and fast. Star Twinkle found himself in control of his body again and looked around, his mind stressed out beyond belief. But this "control" quickly left again and he found himself in pain, mostly in his head He was holding his head with his hooves in pain and dropped to his knees. Of course, Lightbeam and Nightsky quickly noticed the condition of their friend and turned around. "Star Twinkle!" Lightbeam said in shock before she rushed towards the Earth Pony with Nightsky being there as well shortly after. "What's wrong!?" She said with a helpless tone in her voice. "Are you still hurt!?" Nightsky asked in concern about his friend, which was a pretty stupid question considering that Star Twinkle was shaking and holding his head due to the pain. Star Twinkle didn't exactly know what was going to happen from now on but he knew one thing for sure...his friends are in danger and he needed to warn them. "Run!" Star Twinkle mumbled with his head on the ground. His friends wondered what this was all about as much as he did and wanted to help but they didn't know how. Things only got more serious once Star Twinkle spoke again. "Run! ...Stay away from me!" Star Twinkle shouted towards two Pegasus ponies in front of him, in the middle of the road of Ponyville, causing some ponies too look at the three ponies in confusion. The two ponies didn't know how to react and were just confused by the stallion's behavior. Before they knew it, Star Twinkle grabbed his head and dropped to his knees again, causing the two to get worried. Eventually, Star Twinkle raised his head again and looked at them, his eyes turning from a light green color to a red color. "What's wrong with you, Star Twinkle!?" Lightbeam mare asked in worry, her eyes starting to water a little bit. She tried to reach out to her friend but she was afraid that she would hurt him while he was in this condition. What followed was Star Twinkle screaming in pain before magic engulfed his entire body. Lightbeam was still confused and too shocked about all this to notice it but Nightsky recognized something like this happening before. He pulled his sister away from Star Twinkle, much to her confusion, and tried to think what to do at this moment if his guess was right. But just when he was about to put his thoughts into place everything seemed already too late. Wings appeared on Star Twinkle's back and a horn on his head. It was the Terra Unisus Transformation, something that the two of them already saw in action before. Things happened too quickly from this point on. Star Twinkle looked at the two of them with his red-colored eyes and aimed his head towards Lightbeam who was paralyzed by all of this. A beam of magic was shot at her. She couldn't dodge in time. Nightsky however, managed to move her out of the way...but at the cost of getting hit himself. "Night!" Lightbeam said in shock once she saw her brother getting hit by the attack and dropping to the ground unconsciously. The mare approached her brother, shaking his body nervously but she couldn't wake him up at all, he was knocked out by this attack. She looked over to Star Twinkle who had a serious expression on his face and was slowly walking up to her, his hoof still grabbing his head. "Run..." The stallion said with pain colored on his face. His voice was filled with regret even and his face was frowning for a moment before returning to a serious look again. "What?" Lightbeam replied confused and still in shock of her brother being attacked by her own friend just now. Seeing the mare in front of him frustrated Star Twinkle. He clenched his teeth. "Run!" He said once more but this time more aggressive and frustrated, almost begging for the mare to go. Lightbeam had no idea what was going on. Her brother just was attacked by one of her friends and the same friend asked her to run away, something that she couldn't do because of her brother laying next to her. But the mare took too long and Star Twinkle was acting again. This time he raised his head into the air, and shortly after, a fire started to appear around the two in a ring of flames, trapping Lightbeam into it. "Fire?" Lightbeam said confused and in shock. Slowly, she managed to recognize what that meant, even though she had no idea how exactly it was possible. "Just like..." she started before she noticed how Star Twinkle was walking up to her with a menacing look on his face. Lightbeam didn't know what she should do at this moment. She was paralyzed by fear and confusion about this whole situation. She just wished that this was all a bad dream and that she would wake up any moment now. But that didn't happen...this was reality... In the meantime... Steel Hammer was already starting work in the Iron Hammer. He was carrying some wood inside the workshop while also checking the time and wondering why a certain pony is at this very moment. He began scratching his head. "It's really not like Star Twinkle to be late," he said. But a few moments later, he could hear some steps drawing closer so he turned around to check, expecting Star Twinkle. "Oh, it's you," he then said once he realized that it wasn't him. "Hey, Steel Hammer," Summershine greeted with a smile. By now Steel Hammer was getting a little bothered. "I thought you would be Star Twinkle. The guy is pretty late already," he said. Summershine lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "He is not here yet?" He asked in confusion while he looked around the workshop. "I was actually coming here to check if he is alright," he mentioned. This choice words certainly confused Steel Hammer. "Why wouldn't he be alright?" The Earth Pony asked. Of course, Steel Hammer had no idea about the events that unfolded the day before so Summershine explained. But only a few things since he didn't want to worry Steel Hammer. "Well, he got hurt yesterday. He probably still is and needs some rest so I am not surprised that he hasn't shown up here," "Is that so?" Steel Hammer said concerned. "I had no idea," he added, now feeling a little bad to even consider that he was just slacking off or something. "Since he is not here, I guess he is home. I'm gonna check up on him," Summershine said before he was about to be on his way again. "Yes!" Steel Hammer said. "And tell him that he doesn't have to worry about work!" The stallion threw at the Unicorn. Summershine nodded and assured that he would do that and was on his way to Star Twinkle's house. The reason why he visited the Iron Hammer was to see if Star Twinkle wasn't pushing himself after the events from yesterday. It was not like Star Twinkle however, to not even let Steel Hammer know, which caused Summershine to get a little worried. He feared the worst and thought that Star Twinkle was to hurt to even leave the house. If that was really the case then Summershine knew exactly what to do. "Okay! It's decided!" He then said determined, out of nowhere. "Time to make sure that my best friend has everything he needs to get well again!" He vowed as he stopped for a moment to make it look as if he was proving it to someone. But this moment was interrupted as soon as someone's voice could be heard screaming in the distance. "Aaaah!" Summershine flinched after hearing this scream. He turned towards from where he heard the scream and was surprised to see a bunch of ponies running towards him or rather running away from something. As they ran past him he could make only out a few words. "Fire!" One pony screamed in horror. "The horror! The horror!" He could hear some ponies saying in the midst of all of this. The stallion looked up at the sky. He could see smoke clouds rising up in the sky. There was definitely something burning in this town. Needless to say, Summershine ran towards the smoke to find out what happened and to offer his help in any way possible. The more he got closer, the more ponies came running towards him. He still wondered what caused all of this but if he just went to where all those ponies came from he would surely find out the source for all of this. As he got closer to the source, he could notice how the fire was spreading through the town. He actually stood still due to the shock of seeing that his hometown was burning right now. He didn't know where the rest of his friends were and he hoped that they were safe. Some ponies actually tried to put this fire out, which made Summershine feel a little better about ignoring it all to investigate the cause. Summershine was running towards the direction from where the ponies came from. He ran straight until he saw the ponies coming from around the corner that would lead towards the very center of the town. Something over there must be the reason for the quickly spreading panic in this town. Once Summershine walked around the buildings, he quickly stopped in his track once he saw what was happening. What the pony saw around the corner shocked him and left him speechless... Fire. There was fire everywhere...worse then what he saw before. Half of the town was on fire, the buildings, the trees, everything. And from the looks of it, it was still spreading really quickly. Yellow and orange colors were covering the usual very green town. Wondering why a fire like that broke out, Summershine moved his head forward and looked into the distance. He could see something or someone standing right in the middle of the fire, who was completely ignored by the flames or maybe even unaffected. This pony was turned around but he quickly recognized who it was and it started to worry him. "Star Twinkle!" Summershine shouted before he ran towards the pony in his worry. He probably was in no condition to save himself right now. Star Twinkle, however, did not hear him, he seemed to be busy with something that was apparently important enough to let him ignore all the chaos around him. Even the flames and the screaming ponies. The closer Summershine came to Star Twinkle, the more he got confused after getting a better look at him. Star Twinkle had a light green coat and a dark green star-shaped mane. This was normal. However, the Star Twinkle that he knew was an Earth Pony, which is why he was confused to see a pair of wings on his back, as well as a horn on his head. This would make Star Twinkle an Alicorn. As if that wasn't confusing enough, Summershine began to notice something else. He saw some more familiar ponies, two to be exact, who laid on the ground unconscious right in front of Star Twinkle. It was Lightbeam and Nightsky. There seemed to be something coming out of them that flowed right towards Star Twinkle's horn. It's as if he absorbed something from them. Whatever it was he did, it seemed to hurt his two friends on the ground. "Star Twinkle!" Summershine once more shouted, this time with a little anger in his voice to make sure that he was no longer ignored. Star Twinkle perked his ears as soon as his name was said. This time he clearly heard the Unicorn's voice. He stopped doing whatever he was doing to the two ponies, Star Twinkle slowly turned his head around to face the one who was calling his name. As soon as the Unicorn's eyes met with the eyes of Star Twinkle, there was yet another surprise. The usual light green colored eyes of Star Twinkle were now red and the expression on his face was something the Unicorn never saw before on his face. It was a malicious grin that sent shivers down on Summershine's back. Once Star Twinkle's eyes were locked into Summershine's, the grin became even wider and he fully turned around to face the Unicorn while also stopping to care about the two Pegasi in front of him. Summershine couldn't help but worry about the two but he also had a really bad feeling about what happened to Star Twinkle. It was like he was a completely different pony than before. It was to an extent, quite frightening. Then without a warning, Star Twinkle raised his horn. A trail of fire started to come from his left and right which was forming a ring of fire around the two. Surprised by that, Summershine didn't know how to react and found himself trapped now. "You're the one who started the fire!?" Summershine asked in his realization. But Star Twinkle completely ignored those words and slowly walked up to Summershine. "Only four left," he then said with a sinister tone in his voice. The fire, the fact that Star Twinkle was an Alicorn, this feeling of Star Twinkle not being himself... He slowly put one and one together but he couldn't quite complete the puzzle. But, as if Star Twinkle could read his mind now, Star Twinkle spoke to him. "You maybe don't recognize me like this, right?" Star Twinkle asked. Now, everything that happened yesterday flashed through Summershine's mind. He didn't know how he did it or when but he knew the answer. It just came to him and just looking at Star Twinkle right now made him actually believe his theory. But just in case, Summershine asked the question anyway... "Is that you? Ashgray?" Star Twinkle smiled back confidently, pretty much confirming that Summershine was right. Summershine's worried expression turned into a more determined and angry one now and he prepared himself for what would happen next. Ashgray didn't seem worried at all and kept on grinning before he stood ready as well. But not without saying some last words. "This will be the end...of your Equestria!" To be continued...