“You know that’s funny, because I distinctly remember telling you to be more gentle when waking me up next time,” Discord said as he glared at Starlight.
“Sorry Discord, I was a little frantic back there,” Starlight shrugged.
“At least we fixed things again,” Spike added. “I mean I’m pretty sure we did.”
Currently the three of them were still careening through the colorful space between worlds, no next destination decided upon yet thanks to the abrupt departure from the last world. The three of them tumbled about in this void devoid of gravity with only flashing colors and starbursts of rainbow patterns for a background. There was a growing feeling of disorientation as they flew through this space and they were all starting to feel it.
“Well I suppose then that I should make our exit portal already,” Discord said and prepared to snap his fingers.
“Wait! Not yet! We’ve been doing this wrong,” Starlight stopped him.
Discord raised an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”
“It’s too random, there was no order to the two worlds we traveled to. If we want to get rid of chaos we shouldn’t be choosing worlds at random, we need to come up with a real order that makes sense,” Starlight said.
“What do you think then?” Spike asked.
“We go backwards,” Starlight said. “From the very last altered timeline we need to visit to the first. We tie up any loose ends before they can unfurl further. Do you think you can manage that, Discord?”
“I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to,” Discord said.
“Good—then let’s get things started for real! Let’s go and fix up these worlds!” Starlight cheered.
Discord smirked. “Well it seems the mood is still positive.” He snapped his fingers and a bright beacon of light appeared in front of them. “There we go, now I’m going back to sleep. Do not shake me awake next time.” The Discord flute stiffened back up and flew into Spike’s bag, their Draconequus ally leaving the two of them alone once more.
Spike seemed to be in a positive mood though after Starlight’s words, he gave her a smirk and a thumbs up. “We’ve got this, two wins down already, just a few more to go.”
“That’s right. I’m not going to pretend that things were perfect last time, but we’ll get better and better as we go on. Just gotta remember what’s at stake,” Starlight said.
Spike nodded and together the two of them flew toward the bright light that led to the next world.
“You know I really have to thank you for all of this.”
Starlight blinked. That wasn’t Spike or Discord who had spoken. In fact, Spike didn’t seem to hear it at all. Starlight turned her head and saw another pony flying through the space between worlds, flying while behind him an impossibly changing array of colors and patterns continued to expand for infinity. But although her mind did immediately go to “pony” there were a few things off. He was tie-dye. No normal pony, not even Rainbow Dash or Celestia, had the mix of colors that made up his body, mane, and tail. It was a constantly swirling and changing mess of tie-dye, in fact, she couldn’t even see where his body ended and the mane and tail began. It was more like he was a pony-shaped blob of colors. There was no Cutie Mark on his flank and no visible eyes or mouth.
But even though there weren’t eyes she knew he was looking at her. And even though he had no mouth she could tell he was smiling at her.
“Who are you?” Starlight asked, perplexed. Spike right beside her gave no indication he heard her or realized what was going on.
“Harlequin Rainbow, pleased to meet you,” somehow the tie-dye skin around where his “mouth” was supposed to be stretched even further. “Very pleased. For I sincerely owe everything—almost everything at least—to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m just happy about what you’ve done and what you’re doing now. Keep fixing things up please, everyone is counting on you after all and you simply can’t leave the world like this. Bye bye for now but I’ll see you later,” he said and his body twisted and stretched like bubblegum, spiraling around before disappearing like a black hole had sucked him up.
Starlight shook her head as if snapping out of a trance and looked over at Spike. “Spike, did you see that?”
“Huh?” Spike looked up at her dumbly—oblivious. “See what?”
“I-” Starlight started but stopped, not really sure what to say. “Never mind, I’ll talk about it with Discord later...”
“Okaaay?” Spike shrugged, confused.
A moment later they made it to the next portal and they were swallowed up by the light-
This time the both of them landed easily on the ground, no problems whatsoever coming out of the portal. Starlight took a look around, realizing they were in a grassy field somewhere during the middle of the day, she wasn’t entirely sure where, and that nobody else was around. Spike also took a quick look for a second before his eyes settled on Starlight—something about her really catching his attention.
“Uh, Starlight?”
“We’re obviously in Equestria but I’m not sure where… it looks kind of familiar though,” Starlight said as she rubbed her chin.
“Starlight?”
“I guess the problem has to be around here in some way? What was it that I even did here again?”
“Starlight...”
“Maybe we should just find the nearest ponies and feel them out… see what’s different about this world compared to ours.”
“STARLIGHT!”
“What is it, Spike?” Starlight shouted back.
Spike simply raised a claw and pointed at her sides. “You have wings again.”
Starlight blinked and looked back at herself, seeing the lilac wings resting comfortably on her sides. And feeling slightly taller. “Oh. I’m an Alicorn again. Well that’s not good.”
“I remember this world… it was the one with Tirek and you being a Princess… somehow,” Spike shrugged.
“Ugh! This is just crazy! How does my body change just from popping out into this world?! Shouldn’t I stay normal even if the me here is an Alicorn?” Starlight yelled in frustration. She sighed and looked over at Spike. “Oh forget it… let’s just figure out how-” she stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened. “Spike! Where’s your bag?!”
Spike now jolted, so caught up in seeing Starlight as an Alicorn that he hadn’t even noticed. His bag was missing. He no longer wore it on his side. “My bag! Discord! They’re gone!”
“Uh oh…” Starlight bit her lip. “Oh this really can’t be good.”
“What do we do?” Spike looked around in a panic, hoping the bag had just fallen somewhere nearby.
“I… I genuinely don’t know,” Starlight shook her head. “I remember this world… it was so different that what had happened here couldn’t have been from anything I did. The changes were too huge, things would’ve had to have happened way far back… my friends were the Elements, Chrysalis was somehow reformed… who knows what else is different here.”
“I see something that’s the same though,” Spike said and pointed into the distance.
Starlight followed him—and saw Canterlot looking the same as ever up on the side of the mountain.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “When in doubt, go to the Princesses.”
“If they’re even the Princesses we know,” Spike gulped.
“Yeah… but there’s no time to waste, come on Spike, I’m gonna put these wings to good use,” Starlight said and spread them open.
At first she was a little wobbly but Starlight being Starlight she was able to get the hang of flying with wings relatively easily. It was faster than using her magic to levitate herself and Spike followed along with her the whole way until she got herself in the groove.
While they flew over Equestria straight towards Canterlot Castle, they both started to notice a few odd things.
For one, there was absolutely no other pony in the sky. Not a single pegasus was visible. And even though this wasn’t a very populated area of Equestria (at least in their world) it was weird they didn’t see any ponies walking down below either. Despite it being the middle of the day things were very quiet and empty around here. The ground looked weird too. It was all yellow and dried out, rivers and streams clearly weren’t as filled as they should be either. It was almost like the heart of Equestria was in the middle of a drought—even though something like that should be impossible.
“Spike? Do things look a little unhealthy around here to you?” Starlight asked.
“Yeah,” Spike nodded. “It’s like the weather ponies aren’t doing their job.”
“Strange… maybe it has something to do with why we’re here,” Starlight said.
“At this point I think anything even slightly odd should be taken into consideration.”
“True.”
When the two of them finally made it to the airspace around Canterlot they saw that things weren’t really any different there either. They did see some ponies out but not nearly as many as they should—there weren’t any guards flying around—and the various beautiful trees, plants, and flowers that normally dotted the rich city were all drying out and dying. All the fountains had been turned off too for some reason. Even the rich gardens of the castle weren’t spared. Starlight and Spike could see how yellow the formally green grass of the grounds had become and how the numerous hedges had all started to die away.
However there was one thing that stuck out down there in the middle of the gardens. A pony quite recognizable in the bright sunlight shining down on Canterlot.
“It’s Luna!” Starlight shouted, pointing down at her.
Spike sighed in relief and wiped the sweat from his brow. “She’s a sight for sore eyes...”
“I hope we don’t scare or confuse her or anything but we need some answers… without Discord I don’t care what we have to do, we’re figuring out what’s going on in this world,” Starlight said.
“Right there with you. No time for sneaking about, if we have to reveal what’s going on then that’s what it takes. This is a special occasion,” Spike agreed.
The two of them took a steep dive towards Princess Luna, looking to meet the Alicorn Princess (the other Alicorn Princess besides Starlight herself right now) as soon as possible. Strangely they still didn’t see any guards out on patrol or watching the skies. Obviously there wasn’t usually any threat to the Princesses or Canterlot but the guards usually patrolled anyways. And with how off things looked here Starlight was surprised not to see any of them right now.
Either way the fast flapping of their wings grabbed Luna’s attention and her ears swiveled up, her head turning up with them just in time to see Starlight and Spike land on the dry grass in front of her.
“Princess Luna!” Starlight said, putting on a friendly smile. “Now don’t be confused or anything but I-”
“STARLIGHT! YOU’VE RETURNED!” Luna yelled at the top of her lungs and lunged forward, wrapping Starlight in a warm but bone-crushing hug. “Oh Starlight, my wonderful, wonderful, Starlight, you’ve finally returned to us!”
“H-Huh?” Starlight wheezed, trying to get out of the Princess’s death grip.
Luna looked Starlight in the face, tears streaming from her eyes. “A-And you can still fly too! You still have your magic, don’t you? You can fix all of this terror!”
“What are you talking about?” Starlight coughed.
“Uh, Princesses? I think you’re both a little lost right now,” Spike said.
Starlight looked over at him and realized he was staring at Luna in dismay. Something about her had disturbed him. Starlight took a closer look at Princess Luna and noticed quite a few things for the first time that she hadn’t caught because of the sudden hug. Things that were difficult to see from far away. She was taller than the Luna they knew—the same height as Celestia—and her mane and tail had an array of silver highlights in them aside from just their various shades of blue and glittering stars. Her horn was longer as well and she wore a silver regalia to match the golden ones they knew Celestia to wear back in their world.
And there was no Cutie Mark on her flank.
Luna for her part looked over at Spike with plain confusion on her face. “Who are you?”
Starlight grimaced as well. “I think we might have a few things to work out...”
“What do you mean? Starlight—have you not been lost ever since you did that strange thing to Tirek? What happened to you after that? Your friends said that you simply vanished!” The tall Luna said. “Please, you must tell me what’s going on—it’s been absolute chaos in Equestria since!”
“What happened here?” Starlight frowned and briefly shared a look with Spike. “I saw Tirek become equalized, he shouldn’t have been a danger anymore. What happened right after that? Are you saying I, I mean me—I mean I have been missing?”
She was confused—and probably further confusing Luna here as well. But it was weird. What happened to the Starlight from this world? Where was she when Starlight and Spike got here the first time? Why has she seemingly been missing since? Why did Starlight become an Alicorn like the Starlight from here must have been when she never “matched” the Starlight’s from the other timelines? And if something crazy was going on then where. Was. Discord?!
Starlight stopped herself, gathered her thoughts, and took a deep breath. She had to start from somewhere.
“Princess Luna, I’m sorry for not having any answers for you right now, but can you tell me what happened here after I disappeared? And what do you mean by me still having my magic?” Starlight asked her.
“Whatever you did to Tirek locked away all the magic inside him. He has no ability to use or return it anymore. Every pony in Equestria, including myself and my sister, have been without magic since. That’s why the sun is still stuck in the sky despite it being nearly midnight right now!” Princess Luna said and pointed up at the glowing orb.
“Ohhhh… that explains some things,” Spike said.
“Unicorns can’t use magic, pegasi can’t fly, earth ponies can’t grow crops. Its only been a couple of weeks but Equestria is on the verge of collapse! With you gone the ponies have nearly been at each other’s throats… I was hoping that you would return one day to fix things. Celestia and I have been at our wit’s end. We’ve never faced such a situation before, and with you gone it’s been even harder to reassure ponies that things will be alright. The rest of the Elements have tried their best but things are nearly at a breaking point,” Princess Luna closed her eyes and held a hoof to her head for a moment before staring imploringly at Starlight. “Please, Starlight—my most precious student—please tell me you can reverse this.”
Spike bit his lip and looked up at Starlight.
Starlight herself was grinning awkwardly. “Ehehehe… heh...” she shrugged. “Well Princess, funny thing is… I’m not your Starlight.”
“I… I do not understand, Starlight,” Princess Luna shook her head.
“I’m from another world. A completely different Equestria. I… I think I can fix things with Tirek but… I have no idea where your Starlight is. Spike and I here are traveling through space and time to stop chaos from causing the destruction of everything. We um… the last time we were here I guess I caused things to go a little out of whack… so now I’m here to fix things but this world… it’s way different than any other world or timeline we’ve visited. I’m not sure if returning the magic is all that needs to be done and-” Starlight briefly glanced at Spike. “We ran into another problem of our own...”
Princess Luna took all this in with the grace and patience that could only be found with a thousand-year old ruler of Equestria. That said, her eyes were still nearly spinning around by the end of it.
“I believe I need to sit down for a moment… and there are a few others who must be contacted and notified about this as well.”