Flames settle,
Time fades,
And what happens is left up to fate.
'Fluttershy' groaned, pushing herself off the ground. She held a misshapen claw to her head. "Wha... what happened?"
She opened her eyes and peered at the surrounding destruction. "Oh my. D-did I do this? I--" She turned, staring directly at Emily.
"Um... Hi?" Emily stepped a little closer. "Here, do you need some he--"
"No! No, get away from me!" Fluttershy squeaked, backing away from the mare. "Stay away, before I accidentally hurt you!"
Emily raised a brow. "No? I've been through plenty worse at this point. Trust me."
Fluttershy shook her head and snapped her fingers.
...
...
Wait, where the heck were they now? This wasn't the training ground place thing anymore!
"Pretty sure we got caught in Flutters' teleportation spell. Pretty rough execution of one too, I'll admit. I'm not entirely familiar with this place, but I believe we're in the Chaos realm at the moment, home dimension of Discord."
"Hmf. Fine then," Emily brushed herself off. "Oh hey, I'm human again. Nice."
"Chaos magic counteracts Harmony magic. But about what I said right before that. Did you listen to me, Emi?"
"Yeah, yeah, chaos world, some dude named Discord, I'm inherently chaotic or whatever, yadda yadda. I got it, okay?" She stood up. "I see Fluttershy over there. I'm gonna go talk to her."
She walked toward the cowering form huddled not too far away. "Hey--"
Fluttershy shrunk away with a gasp. "W-where did you come from? I thought... I thought--"
"That you got away? Nope. You kinda took me with you." She stopped in front of Fluttershy, staring over the draconequus' body. "So anyway, I've got some questions."
"I know well that she's not gonna answer, Emi. She's scared out of her mind right now."
Emily looked away from Fluttershy. Starlight did have a point. Not to mention the fact that "shy" was literally in the name.
"Leave her alone for now. I can try answering your questions instead."
A nod. Emily stepped aside, though she kept Fluttershy in her periphery.
"Actually, you know what? I can read your thoughts anyway. I'll just answer them right here, right now. First of all, Fluttershy's a draconequus now, apparently. Given how her disappearance coincided with the disappearance of Discord, the pretty much de-facto Lord of Chaos, I don't think it'd be unreasonable to believe that he transferred his form and powers to Fluttershy before quietly passing away. Secondly--"
Fluttershy approached Emily, her head still hanging low. "I'm ready. I... want to ask you some questions too, if that's okay with you. Do you mind if I ask first?"
Emily shook her head.
"What are you, and where did you come from? I only saw a pony before I teleported."
Man. Hitting with the blunt questions right off the bat, huh? Emily cleared her throat. "Well, to start, I'm a human. I was that pony that you saw, but that's only thanks to an accident I had with harmony magic. I... think being in this place must've reversed the effects temporarily. As for how I got here, I already told you--" She shrugged. "--You just kinda took me with you when you teleported."
"Oh."
Star piped up again. "Here, Emi, do you mind if I take over for a bit? I knew Fluttershy as a friend in life, so maybe things won't be quite as awkward if it's the two of us talking and you listening."
Well, if it meant less awkwardness, then she's all for it. Emily immediately felt herself go numb as Starlight took control over her body.
"Fluttershy?"
Another surprised squeak from the draconequus. "H-how do you know my name?"
"Fluttershy, it's me, Starlight. Do you remember?"
"No, you're..." Fluttershy shook her head. "You're not Starlight. Starlight wasn't a... what did you call yourself? A hoo-min."
"Yes, a human. Fluttershy, how long do you think you've been living here? Just wondering."
The draconequus brought a claw to her chin. She seemed to be a little more relaxed now, thankfully. "A decade, perhaps? Maybe a little more than that?"
"Flutters, it's been over a century. I died and was reincarnated into this body."
"...Excuse me?"
"I'm Starlight Glimmer. After you disappeared, only Rarity and Pinkie were left. Once they were gone, it was only me, Twi, and Spike. After Pinkie... well, passed away, Twilight made the decision to step down as Princess of Equestria. An entire war was fought in the months following over what direction Equestria would go in without a Princess in charge, and even now, years after anypony who could've possibly been alive during that war is long-gone, Equestria's still split in two. I myself died at the end of that same war, apparently, but thanks to sheer luck, I now share a body with a human girl from an entirely different plane of reality."
"What."
Emily mentally rolled her eyes. What was Starlight expecting when she said all that? You don't just tell someone that everything they know and love is dead and gone!
"Listen. Fluttershy--" Starlight stepped a little closer. "--you were confused over how you were summoned, right?"
Fluttershy nodded.
"Right now, as I speak, Equestria is divided into two factions. Most of the nation falls within the territory of a faction that calls itself the Ashen Phoenix, and for the most part, I would say that it is the most similar of the two to what Equestria once was. The other--the Old Guard--has been actively working for generations to put an end to their rival. So far, I know of two different ways that they're trying to go about this. Are you ready to hear them?"
Another nod, albeit a little slower this time.
"The first tactic that they're trying to use is my old time-travel spell. I'd honestly thought that it'd been destroyed forever, but, as made apparent by the literal hundreds of copies that are likely scattered across the world now, I was wrong. The second, and at the moment more frightning tactic, is weaponized Harmony."
Fluttershy frowned. "But... wouldn't that be a good thing? I know we've beaten plenty of monsters using Harmony magic from the Elements in the past..."
"Well yes, but actually no. I'm pretty sure that when you and your friends used the Elements of Harmony, the magic was able to flow naturally. These weapons that the Old Guard have been making, on the other hoof..." she stared at her hand mid-gesture. "...hand, excuse me--seem to operate more on the ability to force Harmony magic out, in the same way that traditional magic tends to be performed."
Star, do you think that this might be going over Fluttershy's head just a little bit?
Starlight continued talking, ignoring Emily's quip. "In other words, weaponized Harmony magic has resulted in weaponry that looks to be equal to, if not more powerful than the collective Elements of Harmony, condensed into a single long-ranged weapon that draws its power from a shard of the former Tree of Harmony."
That caught Fluttershy's full attention for sure. "F-former? What do you mean?"
"At some point or another during the war, the Tree of Harmony was shattered. I still have no idea to this day who was responsible, but the resulting shards have begun seeing use as a basis for weaponry. I myself have experienced firsthand what it's like to use such a weapon, albeit in a much more crude fashion. Actually, hold on just a moment--" She took the saddlebags-turned-backpack off her back and began to rummage through it. She pulled out the remaining shard from the Tree of Harmony. "Here's a piece of the Tree if you'd like any proof. I doubt that it's going to be able to do anything here, but what matters is that it exists. The Tree of Harmony is no more, and the same goes for the Elements."
Fluttershy stared at the crystal.
"Can I..." she reached out with a paw. "Um... Starlight, would you mind if I touched it?"
Starlight shrugged, holding the shard closer to the draconequus. "I wouldn't know why I would mind. Why do you ask?"
A faint pulse of light shone from within the crystal as Fluttershy's paw made contact. For a brief moment, her draconequus form vanished, replaced by the all-too-familiar pony Starlight had known in life.
Fluttershy took her hoof off the crystal, prompting her transformation back into a draconequus. She let out a sigh. "Thanks. I think I really needed that after all this time. It isn't easy being what I am, you see--" she looked over her shoulder. "--though my animal friends are very different from the ones I used to have, they're still scared of me even now. Not even the fact that I made them myself seems to help."
Starlight felt something nudge itself against her feet. A cursory glance revealed some sort of puffball of sorts that seemed to be trying to climb her leg.
A tired smile formed on Fluttershy's face. "Well, at least they seem to like you, Starlight."
"Mmyeah, it sure looks like it... so... uh, Fluttershy?"
"Yes?"
"I was just wondering..." Starlight bent down and picked up the ball of fluff, cradling it in her arms. "Would you be willing to return to Equestria? Help put an end to all this nonsense?"
Fluttershy responded with a frantic shake of her head. Made sense, given her apparent fear of hurting others on accident.
"Please," Starlight pushed onward. "Fluttershy, the best chance we've got right now is only to get rid of the scrolls. We didn't even know about the weaponized Harmony stuff until earlier today! If there's anything that could stop harmony, it's disharmony. And even if that doesn't work, you're still one of the best negotiators I've ever known! Who else can stare down any creature on the face of this planet and win? Tell me."
"M-me..." Fluttershy hung her head. "I... I guess I could try coming along. I really don't want to have to use any of my magic, though. I didn't even know that Discord was planning on giving it all to me before he passed. It's why I banished myself here. I don't want to be a menace to society. I--"
"--And you aren't," Starlight cut in. "You're Fluttershy. If there's anypony that I would say is the opposite of what you just said, it'd be you, no matter what form you take. You don't have to use your magic if you don't want to. I just want you to try and talk, that's all I'm asking."
A pause. Fluttershy looked away, toward her little cottage by the chocolate milk river. She sucked in a deep breath and turned back to Starlight.
"Okay. Just this once."