//------------------------------// // Trio // Story: Starlight Glimmer Regrets Her Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// A superbly radiant light flashed from where Glimmer stood, growing in intensity and power until Harlequin Rainbow had to squeeze his eyes shut and look away—lest he be blinded by its magnificence. The entire floating island she and the other two Starlights were standing on became bathed in light and was totally obscured from view. Even when he managed to open his eyes just a slit, all he saw was a dazzling array of rainbow beams and a great white sun in the center of it all. A growl of frustration escaped his Draconequus throat as he felt his chaos magic evaporating from the light’s glow. “W-What’s going ooon?!” Warm light cascaded over Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight as they held each other hoof in hoof. Despite the intense brilliance of the light it didn’t hurt their eyes at all as they faced each other, only a great feeling of love of friendship was welling up from their chests. They almost didn’t know what was happening themselves—possessed almost by an indescribable harmony they found themselves together like this shortly after Glimmer returned her Cutie Mark to herself. Their exhaustion was gone. Their hesitation was gone. Their doubts were gone. They floated in the light, just the three of them together, with only one thing left to do. “Everything we’ve been through...” Starlight slowly said. “Everything I’ve seen since changing...” Glimmer said. “Everything I’ve learned about myself and others...” Moonlight said. “All of it is what’s lead us here.” “All of it is what makes life beautiful.” “All of it is why we need to come through.” Starlight smiled and tightly gripped the hooves of Glimmer and Moonlight. The two of them smiled and sagely nodded back to her. “Out of infinite possibilities the three of us were still able to meet each other and become friends. So now...” “With these hooves-” “And with our hearts-” “We’ll save everyone!” Their horns lit up in unison and a grand magical power burst out from the trio. “Ngh—now what?!” Harlequin Rainbow said as the light show disappeared, replaced by the turquoise burst of magic that washed over the chaotic realm for a moment before subsiding. It didn’t harm him or bother his eyes like the dazzling lights just before it though. After all, it was just unicorn magic from a few Starlight Glimmers. How could that harm the Lord of Chaos? And now that it was over he stared back down at the floating island where the three of them were to see them standing together and defiantly staring up at him. Harlequin Rainbow folded his arms over his chest and stared back, unimpressed. “Oh? Is that all? The light show was a bit excessive but all you did was give yourself back your Cutie Mark.” He smirked at Glimmer. “I thought something important was happening.” A mocking chuckle came up from his throat before he burst out into extravagant laughter, slapping his knees and guffawing until exaggerated waterfalls of tears came from his eyes. He snapped his fingers and a spigot appeared out of thin air that he twisted until the tears stopped, then straightened back up and smugly continued to glare at the three of them. While his tie-dye colors shifted and merged back and forth he clicked his tongue and shook his head. “So disappointing. You’re still just three pathetic ponies—more pathetic than average even,” he widely threw out his arms. “What do you even think you can do? I am the Lord of Chaos now! You aren’t the Elements of Harmony, you can’t stop me, there’s absolutely nothing-” A huge beam of turquoise magic blasted through the air towards him and vaporized his left arm. Harlequin Rainbow blinked, first looking down at Starlight’s smoking horn and then glancing over at his arm. It had been blown away at the elbow and the stump left over was bubbling and oozing in a thick oil of tie-dye colors. What? Harlequin Rainbow thought, stunned. “Let’s go!” Starlight shouted. “Right!” Glimmer and Moonlight shouted in unison. Together the three of them hopped from jagged island to island, or even jumping on some of the random objects floating through the world of chaos. All towards their opponent. Starlight landed on an island to his left and fired another beam of magic at him but this time Harlequin Rainbow split his head down the middle and let it harmlessly pass between the two halves. Glimmer then landed beneath him and created a rope of turquoise magic that went shooting up towards his legs. Harlequin Rainbow scoffed and moved away from it—right towards a bunch of clocks, bowling balls, wardrobes, and bicycles that were being thrown at him by Moonlight. “Oh please,” Harlequin Rainbow snapped his fingers and all the objects disappeared through a series of portals he created. A mallet of magic then came at him from below, created and swung by Starlight. But with a smirk, Harlequin Rainbow grabbed Glimmer’s rope with his tail as it passed by and tangled it up with the mallet. The two of them got their magic all twisted up and were yanked towards each other. While they were flying through the chaotic air, Harlequin Grew snapped his fingers and created a flaming trashcan that he prepared to throw at the two of them. However, a net of magic wrapped itself around the trashcan and pulled it away. Harlequin Rainbow scowled, looking over his shoulder at the culprit, Moonlight. Starlight and Glimmer both canceled their magic as they got closer and instead of smacking into each other—they reached their hooves out and swung around each others legs, Starlight now flying towards the island Glimmer was on and vice versa. As soon as they landed, Starlight shot up another beam of magic at Harlequin Rainbow and so did Glimmer. He didn’t dodge this time, instead creating two portals and letting the beams of magic go through them—and exit out towards themselves. However before the beams could hit their very creators—shields popped up in front of them—courtesy of Moonlight. “You’re getting very annoying!” Harlequin Rainbow’s head twisted around like an owl’s so he could glare at her. But in his moment of distraction another rope of magic wrapped itself around his body. Harlequin Rainbow’s eyes opened in surprise before he was thrown up through the air by Glimmer’s rope. Right into the path of an even more gigantic mallet of magic created by Starlight. It was bigger than his entire body and it smashed right into him and knocked him down to a lower floating island. He impacted it with enough force to send cracks through the entire island. And it hurt. It actually hurt him as the Lord of Chaos. Meanwhile Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight landed together on another island and stared down at him this time. “Are you having trouble keeping up with all three of us at once? I thought we were just pathetic ponies?” Starlight mockingly grinned at him. I am having trouble with them. Harlequin Rainbow begrudgingly admitted before sitting up and floating off the island as it broke apart beneath him. Keeping track of three Starlight Glimmers at once was proving to be a lot of trouble—way more trouble than when it was just two of them. And the way they were working together so flawlessly, it was almost unnatural. “You still can’t do anything to me. Not anything permanent,” he said and the bubbling of his arm stopped as a fresh new tie-dye appendage appeared in his place. He smirked as he floated up to their level. “Good as new. And now I’m going to show you exactly why things are utterly hopeless for you.” He snapped his fingers and a hurricane of wind started up in the chaos realm, centered around him and the three Starlight Glimmers. That was hardly all either. Flying pies with bat wings, laughing fish, self-playing instruments with eyeballs, and steam-powered tractors and washing machines flew through the air. The strange and downright silly objects were flying along with the wind, all spiraling towards the three Starlight Glimmers. Harlequin Rainbow knew they could teleport, knew they could do any number of things, and he was keeping his fingers ready to snap in case of any of it. Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight looked to each other as the hurricane of objects got ready to crash in on them and nodded. They closed their eyes and leaned their horns together so the three tips touched. A powerful glow came from their horns and a turquoise wave of magic shot forth from the unicorns. There was no direction, no real spell, the three of them let their hearts guide the magic within them. A huge wall, a sphere of magic from Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight expanded across the chaos realm. It blew away the floating island they had been standing on along with the wind and all the crazy objects created by Harlequin Rainbow. It kept expanding out further and further too, the powerful, fast, wall of turquoise magic was going right towards the tie-dye Draconequus. Harlequin Rainbow snapped his fingers and summoned a vacuum cleaner to suck it all up, but even when he turned it on the vacuum was merely turned to dust once the turquoise magic hit it. His eyes didn’t even have the chance to widen before the magic hit him too and Harlequin Rainbow was knocked backwards by it, carried off further into the insane chaos realm before he hit the back of a flying upside-down house while the magic from the unicorns finally died down. He peeled himself off the wall and angrily glared in the direction of the three. “This shouldn’t be happening… I am the Lord of Chaos, only the Elements should be able to do something like this to me. So how? How are they doing this!” A snap of his fingers and he teleported in front of and above them while they floated in an aura of turquoise magic. “You think any of that means anything? I’m still basically a god right now, you can’t win. It’s inevitable that you’ll fall before me,” he said. Glimmer and Moonlight responded with twin laser blasts of magic at him. He bent his body at impossible angles to let them harmlessly pass him by—right up until they bounced off a mirror of magic created by Starlight behind him. The lasers hit him and caused a painful electrical surge across his entire body. While he was shaking and convulsing from that, another hammer made from Starlight hit him in the stomach and knocked him up into the air. Spinning end over end, he came to a stop just in time to see Glimmer and Moonlight levitating in front of him and charging up two explosive blasts of magic on their horns. They fired their magic at him and Harlequin Rainbow was caught in a huge and painful explosion, blasted down across the chaotic realm once more, floating through the air while leaving a smoky trail behind. I get it now… he narrowed his eyes. Three souls as one… three mares so different but the same as well… from so far away, from different lives, but joined together now… working together to accomplish something. It’s Harmony! A few dazzling beams of turquoise light arcing through the chaos realm caught his attention and he stopped himself, snapping his fingers and removing all the soot and smoke from around him—just as good again. But the source of the light was still a bit concerning. The three Starlight Glimmer’s were floating together once more, magic gathered at their horns as they pointed them at him. Harlequin Rainbow scoffed. “Fine. If that’s how you want to do things. There’s still only three of you—you’re just frauds! You’re nothing I really have to be afraid of, you can’t do the real thing, you can’t stand in their place.” He held out his left arm and extended his pinky finger at them. “Give me your best shot. I’ll stop you without any effort at all.” Three beams of magic shot forth from the Starlight Glimmer’s towards him—spiraling around each other but never meeting. He focused all the chaotic power he had in his new body into his pinky finger right as the trio of beams hit, a flashing burst of magic shooting all around him now as he held the turquoise blasts back. The trio of beams still fought against him, Starlight, Glimmer and Moonlight throwing everything they had into them. Their magic wasn’t letting up for an instant. He still just kept his pinky extended—blocking it all with a smirk on his face. “Is that it?” He mocked. Meanwhile, Starlight, Glimmer and Moonlight were all sweating and gritting their teeth intensely as they kept pushing all the magic they had into their beams. They reached for each others hooves and gripped each other tightly—the magic glowing brighter and stronger along with them. Harlequin Rainbow’s face dropped as he both felt and saw the much more powerful magic pushing against him. His entire left hand now extended to block it, then his right hand now along with it while beams of light shot past and around him, nearly blinding him with their power. It was so much more powerful than before, his chaos magic was being overwhelmed. “T-This is still… this is still nothing!” He shouted. A tie-dye aura came from around him as he tried to pull up as much power as the incarnation of chaos as he could. For a moment they were evenly matched. The magic from the three Starlights and the chaos magic from Harlequin Rainbow failed to move. “I am the Lord of Chaos! No matter what I will—I will-!” Harlequin Rainbow shouted. “And no matter what-” Starlight yelled. “We’re going to stop you and save the world!” Starlight, Glimmer, and Moonlight yelled together. Their individual beams of turquoise magic, spiraling around one another, then combined into one pure beam of rainbow magic. Shining so much brighter than before—brighter than the sun—it lit up the entire chaos realm. Like a lance of pure harmony it pierced through everything Harlequin Rainbow had summoned up to block it and overwhelmed him completely. The rainbow laser washed over him and blew his body to pieces while he yelled in frustration, his voice echoing for far longer than any shout should. The three Starlight Glimmers horns’ powered down and they collapsed against each other in a heap. Sweating, panting with exhaustion. But they still managed to smile to each other. “This doesn’t matter...” The three of them perked up, shocked, and looked ahead to where Harlequin Rainbow used to be. What was there, floating in that empty space now, was a cloud of tie-dye blobs and remnants of chaos magic, all darkening and swirling around towards a black center. A horribly cold sensation overcame the mares and the previously lit up chaos realm began to shake and crack. Starlight held the others close and narrowed her eyes at the phenomenon, refusing to back down or be frightened. Even as a wind picked up, ruffling her mane and tail, pulling dust and going towards the strangely changing remains of Harlequin Rainbow. Starlight stood courageously for the sake of Glimmer and Moonlight. They saw her and both of them glanced at one another—with a curt nod they then stood tall with her. “When one door closes… another one opens...” the disembodied voice of Harlequin Rainbow said as his remains and the chaos magic continued to spiral together into a black and quickly expanding sphere. “An ending is a new beginning, death is merely a transformation, and with my body’s death—I become chaos itself.” All of the remains and magic were completely swallowed up by the black sphere as it now started to suck in everything else around it in the chaos realm. It grew and grew outwards towards them, so dark light could not escape, pulling them and the wind around them. The size of a house, city hall, a mansion, and growing bigger and bigger and bigger with each passing second. “I will expand endlessly… and consume everything… all existence will swirl around endlessly and chaotically… never knowing rest.” The three Starlight Glimmers clung to one another in the face of the all-consuming darkness. “What do we do?” Glimmer asked. “Is there anything we can do to stop that thing?” Moonlight asked. “Yes,” Starlight nodded. “If we could make it this far in the first place, then we can make it to the finish line. As long as the three of us work together—we can do anything!” Glimmer looked at her for a moment and smiled. “Alright. I suppose I just need to believe in us.” “In the past I would’ve found it difficult to believe in myself… or any supposed alternate versions,” Moonlight said. “But now?” She smiled and held the hooves of Starlight and Glimmer. “Now that’s easy. So together?” “Together,” Glimmer nodded. “Together!” Starlight smirked and lit up her horn. Just as before the three of them were united as one. Each horn lit up and they held each other, their magical auras washing over their bodies and creating a dazzling turquoise sphere in opposition to the darkness expanding towards them. So far their light and magic did nothing to stop it. But the three Starlight Glimmers ignored its approach, letting their happy feelings well up in them, the memories of what they had recently been through together, the bonds of friendship they had now built between them. Bonds of friendship that transcended space and time—that couldn’t be seen or felt like anything physical, couldn’t be quantified. Once more they leaned their heads in and their horns touched—the turquoise magic turning into a shining rainbow that wrapped around them before bursting forth to meet the darkness. Three ponies in the middle of it all, doing everything they could to save the world. A bright flash silhouetted them against the darkness as the rainbow met it.