//------------------------------// // Again, This is Still Better // Story: Starlight Glimmer Regrets Her Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Is this going to end in a fight like with Tempest?” Spike asked Starlight as they walked towards the castle. “We’re going to try talking again. That’s worked out for most of these worlds,” Starlight said. “Yeah but… this really doesn’t seem like one of those times where talking things over peacefully is going to work,” Spike said. “We’re still going to do our best.” “Um, I trust you,” Glimmer said. “You did make things better for my world. Twice.” “I don’t trust you. But I also don’t have any better ideas,” Moonlight shrugged. “You just need some firsthoof experience,” Starlight smiled at her. Sunset meanwhile was the only quiet one of their group. A lot on her mind as they traveled to the castle. Frankly, after spending a bit of time in the human world, going to school like a normal girl, making actual friends, she was able to look back on her time in Equestria and realize how bad she was. How unfriendly, mean, haughty, and ambitious she was as a young pony, and that she was wrong to think everything she did was right or okay because it was her doing it. But never in a million years did she think she was this bad or had the capability for it. Did she? If Starlight hadn’t come and changed things could she have actually turned out so rotten and… evil? Actually evil? Sunset didn’t like that thought. Didn’t like thinking she could be so wrong if no one had gotten her to change. That also meant she might have to be slightly grateful to Starlight. An equally horrifying thought. The good news was that when it came to this world there was clearly no such thing as a curfew and no real guard presence. Only those few lazy guards back in the plaza had been seen and that didn’t change as they approached the castle. Queen Sunset obviously didn’t care about stuff like that, or seemed to be worried about getting overthrown. If she was the only one who could move the sun and moon now though that might be the reason why. “There’s the castle. It uh, doesn’t look so good right now,” Moonlight said as the landmark fully came into view. Starlight took a look at it and grimaced. Moonlight was very right. Far from the pristine white castle they all knew, this one was dirty and falling apart. Graffiti and carelessly tossed paint covered its walls and towers, windows were smashed, flags had been taken down or shredded, and a haze of smog had settled around it. “I don’t think this world’s version of you cares too much about appearances,” Moonlight said to Sunset. Sunset herself only frowned in displeasure at the state of the castle. She had let it come to this? “We’ve seen worse than this, don’t worry about it,” Spike patted Sunset on the side. Glimmer nodded. “Yeah, I hardly have the right to criticize anyone either. I can already say for a fact that what I did in my world is a lot worse than this.” “Thanks for the encouragement but it still isn’t exactly helpful right now...” Sunset said. “Gates are open, we can just walk on in,” Starlight said and pointed ahead. Indeed another aspect of how broken and trashy the castle looked was the gates leading onto its grounds were gone. Not just open, the usually closed metal gate was missing entirely. “No need for any slick teleporting or breaking in?” Spike jokingly asked her. “Doesn’t look like it. That’s a relief,” Starlight shook her head. “I can’t believe any so-called Queen is this lazy and careless to her own castle’s upkeep,” Moonlight said as they walked in. “Princess Celestia would never let this happen.” “Yes, Moonlight, thank you. Please keep rubbing it in,” Sunset grit her teeth and glared at the other mare. “I’m just saying,” Moonlight shrugged. The further they walked towards the main building of the castle the more they noticed around them. The formerly lush and beautiful gardens had been left to rot and even the marble paths beneath their hooves were chipped and covered in garbage. From the windows came the sounds of raucous laughter, yelling and music, it seemed a lot of partying was going on inside the castle. “Do you think she’s going to be in the throne room right now?” Spike asked Starlight, trying to ignore the noise around them. Starlight shrugged. “Not sure. It’s actually kind of late at night so she might be asleep. Although maybe she enjoys the nightlife like the rest of Canterlot seems to now.” It didn’t take them long to reach the doors leading inside Canterlot Castle, Starlight casually pushing them open and striding on in. Some loud music came pouring down the hall from ahead—in the throne room’s direction—and around them the tapestries and statues that normally beautified the castle were torn up or had fallen over. When they walked further they started to see drunken ponies collapsed in a stupor along the walls, in the alcoves, and stumbling out of doors. It gave them all a queasy feeling at how shockingly awful the castle had become. When they passed by a set of large doors on the wall to their right, they happened to get a little too curious. Each of them knew that a small, more casual, ballroom existed behind these doors. They kind of wanted to see what all the noise was. What kind of partying was going on in Canterlot Castle if what they saw back in the streets of Canterlot was bad enough already? Things were really loud even with the doors closed right now. Starlight glanced down at Spike, who merely shrugged back at her. “She might even be in there for all we know,” he said. Starlight lit up her horn and pulled the doors open—immediately all five of them were hit by a wave of perfume, cologne, body odor, and alcohol as the wild party had clearly been in swing for far too long. The smells were also accompanied by the banging of loud music on their eardrums from a band playing an array of drums, trumpets, saxophones, and sousaphones. Quite a few ponies the five of them actually recognized were here inside the ballroom. Prince Blueblood, Flim and Flam, a few Wonderbolts, Sapphire Shores, Svengallop, and many other celebrities or ponies that made up the uppercrust of Canterlot and Equestria. They were gambling, drinking, laughing. roughhousing, dancing, and some were doing a little bit more than that even. “Well this is certainly rich and tasteful,” Moonlight snorted. Starlight was looking around. “I don’t see Sunset—a Sunset—here though. It’s just a party.” “Do we keep moving? I kind of don’t like it here...” Glimmer said. Spike was holding his hands to his nose as he nodded in agreement. “Seriously, not only is it louder than Twilight when she tears a page, it smells awful.” “Maybe one of them knows where Queen Sunset is though?” Starlight said. “But if we went around asking when there’s already a Sunset with us, wouldn’t they know something strange is up?” Moonlight raised an eyebrow. Starlight didn’t have to answer that, because Moonlight was almost immediately proven right. Prince Blueblood looked up from the craps table he was currently enjoying and noticed their group standing at the entrance to the ballroom/gambling den. His mane was messy and his clothes dirty, but his teeth were still as white and flashy as ever as he smiled at Queen Sunset. He pushed away from the others at the table and strode over to greet his Queen, the uneven gait he walked at betraying the amount of alcohol in his system at the moment. “Careful everyone,” Starlight whispered to her group. “Sunset!” Blueblood pleasantly shouted as he ignored the others and walked right up to her. “I thought you would still be in the throne room right now! Came out for some fun?” “Uhhh...” Sunset stumbled for a moment but saw Starlight gesturing to her to keep the conversation going. “Y-Yeah, just got a little bored sitting around. I guess I usually spend too much time in there?” “Tell me about it!” Blueblood merrily laughed. “As if you need to bother with running things anymore or planning to take over more, you can already do anything you wish with Equestria. Who cares about anything else! Boy, I sure was worried at first when you took over, but all the fun we’ve had since has been the best! All those ponies whining about the garbage piling up, the food shortages, blah, blah, blah, can’t the silly commoners handle it themselves?” Starlight, Glimmer, Moonlight, and Spike glared at him but he didn’t even seem to notice. “Yeah... right,” Sunset grimaced. “Well uh, I think this place is already a little too loud for my tastes. Maybe I’ll come back for a different party.” Blueblood shrugged. “Suit yourself, we’ve got plenty of parties to go around. Come back again sometime soon!” He waved to her and turned around to go back to his craps table but not before finding a glass of some kind of cocktail to drown. Moonlight rolled her eyes in annoyance. “This Blueblood is even worse than the one I know.” “Yeah,” Spike nodded. “Are we getting out of here now that we’re pretty sure we know where Sunset is?” Glimmer asked. “I hope so, I can’t take this gross place much longer,” Spike said. “We are, just a second though,” Starlight said and grabbed a half-empty bottle of wine off a nearby table with her magic. Spike frowned at her. “Hey, you’re not-” “No, Spike, I’m not,” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Just preparing for something...” She pulled the cork from the wine bottle and dumped its remaining contents into an already dead potted plant, leaving herself with just an empty bottle. “Um, why did you do that?” Moonlight asked her. “I just have a hunch that it might come in handy in a minute,” Starlight said. The others had no idea what she was talking about, but since she was essentially the “leader” they didn’t give her any issue. Sunset anyways wasn’t paying attention, her mind on a million other things. First and foremost she was worried about meeting herself. Blueblood’s words had made her mental image of her alternate even worse. And this whole Equestria seemed to have gone crazy! How could those ponies in there be happy about any of this? Or accept Celestia being gone or imprisoned or whatever really happened with her? It was all such a mess. Together though they left the ballroom, closing the doors behind them. If Sunset wanted answers it was looking like the best pony to ask was going to be herself. And besides, if her home world, timeline, whatever, was any indication it’s not like they needed to fix everything here and get it all sorted out. They just needed to do something big and get harmony and friendship back on track. Starlight led the way, empty wine bottle carried in her magic behind her, as the group of five once more made its way to the throne room. Spike walked alongside her, with Glimmer and Moonlight behind them, and Sunset pulling up the rear. There was more graffiti all along the walls, broken statues and art, paintings thrown down, potted plants with their vases shattered, leaving dirt and ceramic on the floors. Not a guard in sight either, which was a positive for them. They wondered if most guards had abandoned Sunset or been imprisoned too, maybe the few they had seen in the city were actually new recruits? However, unlike the rest of the castle and the hall leading up to it, the doors to the throne room were pristinely clean. Queen Sunset seemed to at least want her throne room looking good. “I’m a little worried about this if I’m being honest,” Glimmer said. “Yeah, what if by taking Celestia’s power it means she’s as strong as an Alicorn or something?” Moonlight asked. Glimmer frowned. “I didn’t mean worried in that way... I don’t want us to even fight at all.” "It’s fine. Regardless of what happens, I’ve faced off with real Alicorns and worse before this anyways,” Starlight said. “You can be a little scary sometimes. And the fact you’re me makes that even weirder,” Moonlight said. “It’s not about fighting her,” Sunset said, all the others briefly stopping and looking back at her. “It’s just... coming face to face with a me that really might be evil. Not just bad or misguided. But being confronted with the fact that I might really have the capacity for something like that.” She looked at Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight. “You three all have personal experience with that.” “Oh yeah,” Starlight nodded. “But we’ll work through it,” Spike grinned. “Sunset, the fact that you’re even voicing those feelings right now is a good thing.” “Mm...” Sunset grunted, still uncertain but willing to continue on. "Well alright then, do you want to open up the doors, Starlight? I feel like if Sunset leads us in it’s going to be a little too weird for the Queen right off the bat,” Moonlight said. “Was planning to,” Starlight smirked and glanced at Sunset. “I think you should stay behind us for the moment. Let me introduce you to her after I explain what’s going on.” Sunset nodded. “Alright.” Starlight focused on the doors to the throne room and pulled them open with her magic, this time all others but Sunset walking beside her so Sunset could “hide” for the moment behind them. When they all stepped inside they saw that the throne room was a little different both from what they knew and what the rest of the castle was like. Statues, of gold and marble and everything in-between, filled it up. These were not broken statues either and they were all of one pony—Sunset Shimmer. They lined the carpet and were placed all around by the stained glass windows and up around the throne itself. The designs of the stained glass windows had also been changed, showing only large recreations of Sunset in them. The throne itself also wasn’t occupied at the moment though. The only pony who had been in the room was currently hunched over a large map table that showed off Equestria and the lands beyond its borders. “Not now, I told you I’m not interested in any of your parties,” Queen Sunset said without looking up—Celestia’s little crown on her head. But her body still just that of a unicorn’s. “Ahem,” Starlight cleared her throat. Queen Sunset looked up from her table with a frown on her face, her expression morphed into one of brief confusion before recognition lit up her features. “You. Starlight Glimmer. What are you doing here? You vanished long ago and... why are there three of you?” “So you remember me? You really are a version of Sunset I met in the past then,” Starlight said to her. Queen Sunset’s brow furrowed for a moment before she grinned. “I see... that explains some things. You were always abnormal. So what? You just time-travel and go around places for fun? Decided to bring some other versions of yourself along?” She glanced down at Spike. “Ah, the dragon is here too.” “Spike,” Spike frowned. “Whatever,” Queen Sunset dismissively waved a hoof and frowned at Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight. “I don’t care if there are three of you here now either. I’m not a filly anymore. What do you want?” “You’re a really nice ruler,” Moonlight snorted and rolled her eyes. Glimmer sighed and brought a hoof to her face. “I don’t need to be nice. I’m the Queen,” Sunset grinned. “Soon of far more than just Equestria.” “Your Equestria is just a junk heap if Canterlot is anything to go by,” Moonlight said. “And I’m the one on top of that junk heap. I’ll take that any day of the week. Every pony has to look up at me and acknowledge me as their ruler. As their better. I finally got everything I wanted. Well, almost everything. Haven’t figured out how to become an Alicorn just yet, and there are some other places that don’t understand yet that because I control the sun and the moon that they need to bow down to me. But they will soon,” Queen Sunset said. Starlight groaned in distress and shook her head. “Is that really what you want and what you’ve done this for? At least Tempest was well meaning...” “I have no idea what you’re talking about and frankly I don’t care. I can do whatever I want so why not do it? That’s what was so great about being Celestia’s student and now being Queen,” Sunset shrugged. “So just spit it out—what are you here for?” “We’re here to bring friendship and harmony to this world that’s been led astray,” Starlight said. “Would you kindly free Celestia from wherever you’ve imprisoned her and help get things back to normal?” “AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Queen Sunset reared back her head and laughed. “You have to be joking! You’re kidding, right?! Celestia is in Tartarus where she belongs, along with everyone else who was too dumb to just go along with me. Friendship? Harmony? Who cares about any of that? This is my world now.” She lit up her horn and levitated up something from beside her. It looked like some kind of strange oversized stopwatch with half of the face being emblazoned with the sun and the other half emblazoned with the moon. “This is proof of that. Celestia’s magic in here gives me control of the heavens. No one but me can even use it.” “You used that strange forbidden tome to discover all this, didn’t you?” Starlight asked her. “The one that almost ended up with you getting eaten by an interdimensional monster?” “That’s right. I knew there had to be more useful magic in there,” Queen Sunset nodded. “And that led to you getting your little god-complex and thinking you could do all this?” Moonlight sarcastically asked. “I just took what I deserved,” Queen Sunset shrugged. “I’m starting to see a few more similarities between myself and her,” Glimmer muttered. “You don’t even care how awful everything is? Is being the Queen of the junk heap that great?” Spike asked her. “Yes,” Queen Sunset answered. “Being Queen is always great.” “Is it? Do you not feel bad about any of this at all?” Queen Sunset’s eyes widened at the new but familiar voice as Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight, moved aside and allowed Sunset to walk forward. Her jaw dropped open in surprise. “W-What the? What is this?” Sunset walked in front of the others with a sad frown on her face. “Are you really me? I never thought I could be so awful. I can understand what you’re saying... but unlike you there’s something inside me that would never let me act on it.” She looked over her shoulder at Starlight. “I think it’s probably what I found through the mirror.” “Oh...” Queen Sunset gathered her wits again and glared at her alternate. “So you’re another me she found? Why? To try and convince me to change or stop what I’m doing?” “Actually this is all pure happenstance,” Starlight shrugged while Spike rolled his eyes at her. “It’s just chance. Or fate maybe,” Sunset said as she continued to stare down her other self. “When we learned that it was me, you, who was in charge here and was responsible for Equestria being like this I knew I had to see you. I didn’t exactly want to the more we learned but... I still knew it needed to happen. How could you do this to Celestia? I don’t even like Celestia that much but I would still never do something like throwing her into Tartarus. And making Equestria so awful like this and not caring just because I’m in charge? What’s wrong with you?!” Queen Sunset snorted and curled her nose in disgust. “Are you really me? How could I ever become such a loser?” “I made friends, that’s how! Something you clearly never did!” Sunset yelled at her. “Who needs friends?” Queen Sunset scoffed. “Everyone! Everyone needs friends!” Sunset yelled and then blinked in realization, dragging a hoof down her face. “Oh wow, I really have changed... that’s the lamest thing I’ve ever said... my friends back home would never let me live that down.” “I think you’ve got the right of it though,” Starlight smiled and winked at her. Sunset sighed and took a deep breath, glaring at her other once more. “Do you really just not have any empathy or sympathy? Are you this messed up and self-centered?” “How does having empathy or sympathy help me?” Queen Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Oh wow—I really am terrible,” Sunset blinked. “Meeting you was definitely a good thing. I’m never going to let myself become like you.” “That’s the spirit,” Starlight patted her on the shoulder and walked up next to her. “Now then—Queen Sunset—I’d really like to talk things out with you and solve this peacefully if we could. You’ve met Sunset here now, you’ve seen that there’s another way, are you really just going to disregard and ignore that? Please, this is a time for introspection.” “You’re all really nuts,” Queen Sunset said as she looked over the interlopers. “Why would I give up any of this? And do you really think you can threaten me? I have the power of an Alicorn in my hooves.” Starlight glanced at Spike. He shrugged back up at her. “Honestly, in this situation I wouldn’t blame you. And we’ve got who knows how many other problems to take care of after this.” “Okay then. Peaceful solution is no good. Plan B it is,” Starlight said as her horn lit up brighter. A powerful beam of magic shot out from it directly at Queen Sunset, who was overtaken from shock as the beam hit her in an instant and wrapped her in its powerful aura. The strange stopwatch device was dropped and Queen Sunset was levitated in the air, helpless no matter how she tried to do anything. As she raged and tried to fight her way out, horn and body failing to do anything, Starlight’s magic peeled the Cutie Mark off her flank and dropped her back to the ground. The queen was dazed and exhausted from the sudden lifting of her Cutie Mark, feeling strangely drained and weak, the color of her body dulling before her eyes, only barely able to watch as it was pulled through the air towards the empty wine bottle Starlight was carrying with her. Starlight popped the cork off and safely deposited the Cutie Mark inside the bottle, recorking it immediately. “There we go,” she smiled in success. “Huh. That was easy,” Moonlight said. “I like being direct,” Starlight said. “What did you do to her?” Sunset asked. “Something not very nice,” Glimmer frowned. “I-I understand she needed to be stopped and talking wasn’t going to work. But did you need to do that?” “It’s just temporary. It was the easiest way to stop her and start to fix this,” Starlight said. “What... how...” Queen Sunset stood up on wobbly legs, her crown falling off and rolling across the table. “What did you do to me?” She looked back at her flank and saw the equal sign Cutie Mark. “H-How can this be happening?” “Sunset, Sunset, Sunset...” Starlight said as she strode up to the table, coldly staring at the queen. “You can think about what you’ve done as you take Celestia’s place in Tartarus. But don’t worry about that too much, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t tell them to go easy on you and give you another chance. You may still be angry right now but there’s a better life out there for you if you’re willing to work for it. For the moment though...” Her horn sparked again and before Queen Sunset could yell at her once more she was blasted and banished into Tartarus. “You... you have some really crazy magic. Could I learn to do stuff like that? Can Glimmer do that stuff too?” Moonlight asked. “Now’s not the time,” Starlight said to her. “There’s actually still a lot we need to do here before we leave.” “Yeah, until we bring Celestia back and tell her everything, this place isn’t going to get any better,” Spike said. Sunset and Glimmer meanwhile were both looking at where Queen Sunset had just been. Sunset wasn’t sure how she felt about this. She wasn’t sure how she felt about herself. This was the exact opposite of what she originally wanted to see. Instead of her best life she had been confronted with her worst. It was a lot to think about. Glimmer understood that, and was going through her own feelings of empathy and pity for the queen. She put a hoof over Sunset’s back and the two of them stood there silently. “First though, before we bring Celestia back, there are some others who need to go down there to Tartarus with Sunset,” Starlight said with a grin forming on her face. “I think Canterlot is going to be grateful for this—time to take out the trash.” After Starlight got finished sending a few other “collaborators” down to Tartarus with Queen Sunset, the group had to spend another entire day in this world. There was simply too much that needed to be fixed—deposing the Queen wasn’t enough. Bringing back Princess Celestia and returning her magic to her was one of the first major things, but just like the Celestia in the last world this one had a lot of work to do. So much had fallen apart in such a short amount of time. And she had to be told who they were and why they were here. And of course that the Sunset Shimmer she was seeing now was not the student she knew. All in all it was a lot for the monarch to take in. It was a lot for them all to try and coordinate. After all in this world Twilight Sparkle never even became Celestia’s student. The Elements of Harmony hadn’t been found and brought together. Among other things. The general attitude across Equestria, the very bonds of harmony and friendship that empowered the country, were so weak. Anyone could see that. And yet the first few steps necessary to fix all that had been taken. Friendship and harmony were hard to get rid of, they had been weakened, but not destroyed. With time and the right ponies still working to make things better, Equestria would heal. Sunset didn’t really want to stay here any longer—she had gotten what she needed to out of it and everything else was just going to make her sick. Glimmer and Moonlight too had nothing else to say or do here, the problems facing this world hadn’t been as personal for them. Only Spike and Starlight—the ones who originally had been put on this mission in the first place—really had to make sure things were okay before they woke up Discord and left. It did of course leave Moonlight a little unsatisfied, since she had wanted to be able to do something herself but hadn’t gotten any such opportunity. She was hoping that would change at some point. She wanted to matter. Not be like the irrelevant mare she was back home. Glimmer was still internally a bit torn up, confronted once more with a megalomaniac who reminded her of how awful she had been. And she hadn’t helped much either, despite wanting to make up for things, it felt like she was still just being dragged along and not carrying her weight. She was still looking for herself. But despite some personal worries and reservations from some members of the group, after they had gotten a night’s rest and a good meal they were all prepared to go onto the next world. Spike woke Discord up and the portal was created. “How many more worlds do you think we need to travel to and fix?” Moonlight asked as their whole group once more flew through the colorful space between worlds. “I don’t know, but it can’t be that many more. I didn’t make that many changes when Spike and I traveled through time,” Starlight said. “Yeah... not that many,” Spike muttered. “It’s true though, there really can’t be many more left,” Starlight said. “I hope the remaining worlds aren’t as personal as the last one,” Sunset sighed. “I hope we never meet another me who’s somehow worse than me,” Glimmer said. “Pessimist,” Moonlight snorted. “Look—either way right now I’d say we’re kicking chaos’s butt. Let’s just focus on that, because that’s the biggest positive of all,” Starlight smiled at Spike and her now newfound friends. “We’ve got this. Also, the three of you aren’t spinning randomly through the air right now. Another plus.” “That’s true... although I am upside-down right now,” Moonlight said. Indeed upside-down. Starlight rolled her eyes, a sudden brightness ahead then catching her attention. “Look! The next exit is coming right up!” Spike grinned and patted Glimmer on her leg. “Here we go, let’s do this!” Glimmer managed a small smile. “Right.” She turned to Sunset and raised an eyebrow. “Right,” Sunset nodded back. “Still upside-down...” Moonlight said. The brightness ahead grew even stronger and soon they could see nothing but a blue light... They were watched. A formless bit of slime from all the colors in the space between space converged and turned into a tie-dye pony. “Well, well, well, things have been going far too smoothly, haven’t they?” Harlequin Rainbow said, his colors shifting and merging and changing constantly, eye-spots glowing and featureless mouth pulled up in a smile. “I do believe it’s time to change that. Just a little bit.” He lifted a hoof as it spasmed and bubbled, shifting into a hand. Harlequin Rainbow snapped his newly made fingers and created a crack in the light ahead. “Heeheehee, fun, fun, fun,” the Harlequin giggled as he splattered back into nothingness.