//------------------------------// // Destined Rivals // Story: When the Stars Align // by Borsuq //------------------------------// She  could hear Starfall turning around behind her, but she did not care. There was one more thing her eyes could “see”, as he had put it. Other than him in chains, her eyes could also see through his illusions. Spreading her wings, Starburst completely ignored the opponent behind her. Trusting her gut, she lunged at the twin thrones Starfall had made a mockery of. In the next second, the unicorn appeared there out of thin air, just as she expected. There was no reason for him to send that water duplicate to greet us. Well, other than him trying to be funny. But he used the fact that everypony would assume that that was all there was to it to mask his true intention - make us breathe in the humidity created by the burst of the water duplicate to control our senses. She knew that even before she hit it at the entrance to the castle. And she decided to use that to her advantage. It seemed as if her bet paid off. Instead of escaping with the Polestar Spell, Starfall jumped out off the throne. He can’t use the Polestar Spell while concentrating on the bits of his magic inside of us, he needs to cancel it… she thought, her eyes trailing the unicorn who evaded her by springing right from the throne. She was about to turn in mid-flight and leap after him when something hit her. And to top it all, Starfall was smirking. With a growl, she turned around and pounced at the spot on the left side of the throne instead. Her battle instinct hadn’t failed her. The moment she was facing the left side of the throne, the same strange feeling washed over her as when two days ago Starfall had cancelled the spell. The real throne with the real Starfall sitting in it appeared, just a meter away from her. The unicorn’s eyes were staring at her, wide with surprise. His shock didn’t last long, though, because even as Starburst took in his sudden appearance within the split second, he was already reaching up with his hooves to the top of the throne’s backrest. As Starburst inched closer, he lifted himself up and jumped into the air. Years spend on honing every skill possible made the quick turn to intercept him easy. Starburst’s armored hoof shot up, aiming at his horn. Her eyes locked with his. For the first time, as her hoof was inches away from hitting its mark, Starburst saw panic in those red orbs… And then he disappeared Two seconds, Starburst concluded, whirling around and scanning the Throne Room. It takes two seconds for him to switch… she mused, taking in the changed interior of the space. It seemed that Starfall spruced it up in his illusion - there were no banners with his likeness anymore, nor were the strange lights up on the ceiling. Instead, though, there were many… tightropes, spread from a few meters hight across where the Throne Room’s ceiling was over a thousand years ago. Now only the blue sheathing shielded Starfall’s “battlefield” from the outside’s elements. He must plan to take advantage of his acrobatic skills, Starburst realized, remembering the agility and sense of balance he had displayed so far. He also must be hoping that, with so many ropes, our flight skills will be impaired. Indeed, the tightropes formed a strange pattern atop the ceiling, resembling a spider web to some degree. This “ropes web” had several layers, and a few ropes were even going vertically, being tied to the highest and the lowest layer.  Starburst wondered briefly just where did he find enough material to make so many ropes… but then she noticed that while the banners with Starfall’s likeness were gone, the ones that were supposed to be there, the banners of Celestia and Luna, were still missing. He destroyed priceless artifacts to make himself a battlefield, Starburst sighed mentally, slightly irritated. And of course, the “throne” was still as it was in the illusion. I’m going to guess that he had probably done that one to annoy me in case we would free ourselves from his illusions, she thought, dismayed over the harm of the history’s relics. Oh well, at least I learned how long the interval lasts- wait a moment, Starburst paused. Two seconds? But… was it that long yesterday? T’s and Uncle’s flames had reached Starfall almost as soon as he had stopped using the dark magic… or did they? she pondered. It happened so fast… could it be that two seconds had passed? Then again, he hadn’t reappeared right at that moment- “W-what happened?” she heard Prism ask. Turning to her friends and abandoning her musing for now, Starburst saw that while some were looking around for the unicorn colt, others were rubbing their eyes and staring at the moved throne or at the change in the decour. “Starfall had caught us into his illusion spell right at the entrance,” she explained as she too had renewed her search. As her eyes darted from one corner to another, she added: “I forced him to cancel it and run away with the Polestar Spell.” Their original idea for taking care of illusions, if they would get caught into his spell, was to have Anthea cancel it (when they would notice, of course). As Starburst’s mom had said, the spell, while it was complicated to perform, had a simple design. A unicorn with the level of skill of Annie could easily remove this illusion by a Purging Spell. But why have Annie waste her energy when Starburst could do it quicker? Before Starburst could grin at the thought, she located her target. Starfall was up on the tightropes, standing on his hindlegs. With his right forehoof he held one of the few ropes that went vertically. He had his back turned to her, but he was looking right at her over his shoulder. His red eye held no more panic, only curiosity. “How did you know?” he asked her. Starburst flew a bit closer to him, but she didn’t enter this crazy battlefield of his. Nor did Prism and Wind, who, likewise, had taken air. For now, they could stall with words. The action could wait. “I knew we were under your illusion since I destroyed your water duplicate,” she told him, then, seeing his eyes slightly grew wider, added with a smirk. “Yeah, my Mother had figured out how it works. I decided to play along with your plan, to try and catch you off-guard.” “And I took such care to not mess with visuals on the Kind One,” Starburst heard Starfall murmur to himself, most likely referring to Anthea. “As for how I knew you hadn’t canceled it… I suppose you wouldn’t know it, but when you cancel your… Mirage Field,” she rolled her eyes at the name, “the pony feels it across their bodies, kinda like an electric surge, so I knew you hadn’t canceled it. And as for how I know you were on the left side of the throne - the illusion you jumped to the right. It was a no brainer.” While she spoke, Starfall continued to stare at her. She responded in kind, observing him carefully. Because of that, she noticed something rather unsettling. As Starburst neared the end of her short explanation, the end of Starfall mouth began curve upward, slowly transforming into a smile. And while she had seen Starfall smiling a lot (disturbingly even), this time it gave him the look of a madpony. This smile stayed on Starfall’s muzzle when she stopped talking, but only for a few seconds. It disappeared as the unicorn began to… laugh. At first it was a quiet chuckle, but it had quickly grew into a chortle, and soon Starfall had thrown his head back as he laughed wholeheartedly. Starburst, no less surprised than anypony else, exchanged confused glances with her friends. It was a given that Starfall was most likely at least slightly crazy, but for the life of her Starburst had no idea just why he began laughing this time. It seemed that they might get their answer soon, though, as the laughter suddenly faded away. Starburst quickly turned back to Starfall, just before he started to speak. “Now I understand,” he muttered, “what that feeling was. I suppose it’s not that much of a surprise that I hadn’t recognized it earlier. After all, it’s been a while…” Starfall turned to look at her. On his face was probably the creepiest grin Starburst had ever seen, and there was a strange gleam in his eye. “... since I’ve been so excited,” he finished as his horn lit up. With a flash, he teleported. There was another flash in the corner of Starburst’s eye. She quickly turned to see Starfall balancing on one hoof atop of one of his throne’s spears’ blade. Once again, Starburst found herself amazed at his sense of balance - he was standing on it by the tip of the hoof, so he hadn’t hurt himself. “What do you mean?” she asked, lowering herself to land on the floor. “You seem to be excited all the time.” Taking advantage of the fact that Starfall was clearly distracted, she slammed her metal-clad hooves against the stone floor as she landed. The loud clang that was caused by the impact was the signal for Annie to prepare her spell. If Starfall noticed anything suspicious, he did not show it. He simply crossed his forelegs on his chest and smiled down on her. “There’s a difference between laughing, making jokes, and so on, and being excited,” he explained. “Then why are you now ‘excited’?” Instead of replying, Starfall asked her :“Answer me this, Princess: why did I come to Ponyville?” Starburst opened her mouth… and then closed it. She had no idea why he came here. It hadn’t even occurred to her to ask herself that question. Ever since he appeared, her mind was occupied with thoughts how to capture him. “I don’t know,” she admitted, feeling a bit curious. “Why did you?” Starfall smiled. “As I might have mentioned, I consider my shows to be an art, and myself to be an artist. And as every artist, I try to perfect my art.” His grin deepen, flashing his fangs out. “Over the last five years, my shows have grown more spectacular the more I had run-ins with the royal guards.” He snickered. “I suppose they were too embarrassed to report to Canterlot that they were bested by a teen colt, otherwise you might have already heard of me. Anyway, I soon had realized: since facing opponents allows my art to reach new heights, I would practically skyrocket if I were to find… a rival.” “A… rival?” Starburst asked, confused. It didn’t took much of an effort to realize that he mean her, but just how did she meet his criteria for a ‘rival’? “Oh, yes,” he replied, still grinning. “I have faced many before. I’ve beaten guards since I was ten; I’ve blasted thugs and gangsters in the slums of Manehattan left and right; I took a short road-trip a few years back and stumbled across a draconequus - even she was no match for me.” Starburst gasped, and she heard several of her friends do the same. Other than Discord, there weren’t many known dragonequui - as none of them were even nearly as powerful as the Lord of Chaos, they tried to stay out of the spotlight and played mostly innocent pranks. Granted, they were “innocent” only when compared to those of Discord. To hear that this colt managed to beat one... “And here in Ponyville?” he continued. “In the town were Equestria’s greatest heroes live? The town where I hoped to meet my match? On my very first day I outsmarted Princess Twilight; incapacitated Prince Flash Sentry and the whole squad of elite royal guards the day later, and while being unable to teleport at that. Pity I didn’t get to fight that scaled oaf properly-” A loud roar interrupted him. Starburst glanced behind her, not really surprised by T’s outburst. Claire, who stood next to him, looked as if she was also about to voice her outrage in this normally barbarous to her manner. “HEY!” T bellowed, furious. “Don’t-” A much, much louder and more vicious roar cut him off. Hardly believing her ears (which she had to cover due to noise), Starburst turned back to the unicorn colt. His mouth was opened wider than it should be possible for a pony, and the terrifying roar was coming right out of it. That’s right, Starburst remembered, he’s part dragon… Starfall stopped his surprising howl and looked straight at T - who, as Starburst had noticed, was staring at the unicorn with jaw dropped… as did everypony else, come to think of it… Crap, I didn’t mention about that! Starburst realized with a start - and snarled. “Your father called my mother a whore! I’ll call him whatever the hell I want!” Before anypony could recover from the shock, they heard another outburst: “Wait, Dad said what?!” Claire exclaimed, shocked, looking at T. Starburst couldn’t blame her for being surprised. Had she not been there to hear Uncle Spike say those words, she too would have a problem believing this. “Forget about that,” Prism cut in before T got a chance to reply. “How the heck did that little prick do that?” As Starfall’s glare traveled from T to rest on Prism, Starburst explained: “That’s probably because of... something I, um, forgot to mention,” she said, self-loathing. It wasn’t an important detail, it had no impact on her plan whatsoever, but she still felt that she should have brought that up. “My mom said that he is part dragon.” “He’s part what?!” six shocked ponies and two dragon-pony hybrids exclaimed in a shocked unison. Starburst mouth opened to repeat herself… “I’m part what?!” … and closed it so that she could stare in surprise at Starfall. “You… don’t know you’re part dragon?” she asked him, not believing he could not know it. Starfall, who was looking at her with confusion, contrasting with his earlier, furious expression, now snorted. “I have no idea who my father was, other than assuming he was a unicorn tyrant from a thousand years ago that somehow came back a few decades ago as a giant smoke monster to be annihilated by an ancient crystal artifact. Why would you think I would know something about any further ancestry from that line?” … Okay, I will give him a point there… “You never wondered how you got those eyes and fangs?” “I assumed it’s a side effect of using dark magic,” he replied, shrugging. “I was actually quite proud of the fact that I hadn’t gotten my horn twisted as King Sombra had.” “You were born with your eyes and fangs, genius,” Starburst deadpanned. “Yeah, but I…” Starfall started, only to trail off. “Wait a moment… how do you know that?” Her eyes grew wide as she had realize just what she had almost led slit out. Quickly recovering, she replied: “My mom saw you when she bumped into yours in Canterlot.” Starburst thanked her lucky star - and then mentally facehoofed for actually thinking that - when Starfall immediately dropped the issue. “Huh, so the Princess of Equestria saw me in diapers…” she heard him murmur, and it looked as if he himself wasn’t sure how to react to the news. He shook his head. “We seem to be getting off topic… Right!” he clasped his forehooves. “As I was saying, here in Ponyville I faced a few ponies. However, none of them had qualified to be my rival: Princess Twilight is just too powerful, if she wanted to she could wipe me off the face of Equestria; Prince Flash Sentry had too much of an advantage during our fight - in other words, he was cheating - and was a bit too patronizing for my comfort; I won’t even mention the guards. None of them could be my rival… but you, Princess Starburst,” Starfall amended, his red eyes flashing. “Why?” Starburst asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because… you are both my equal, and at the same time, my complete opposite,” Starfall retorted. Before Starburst could react - though she was not sure if she wanted to deny, take an offence, ask for explanation, or just tell Annie to start the next phase of the plan - he began to count: “You’re a princess; I’m an outlaw. You, I assume, have ambitions connected with the Royal Guard; I’m a thief with no real ambition whatsoever. You have everything; I have nothing. You’re a pegasus; I’m a unicorn. I like to laugh, you don’t. BUT!” he paused, “We are both more or less the same age. We are both extremely skillful. And, judging by your well-toned muscles, we both like to ‘work out’. Of course, in my case it’s not about muscles,” he shrugged. “I figure that if we knew each other better, I might name more differences and similarities. But my point still stand out, doesn’t it?” he asked, smiling. “You see it, don’t you, Princess? We were destined to be rivals… as we were destined to have this fight. It’s almost poetic when you think about it...” He was right. Starburst could see it. All those… similarities… she never stopped to ponder how he could be so skilled with magic and agile at such young age, and even if she did, Starburst doubted she would have figured out that he simply must have practiced a lot. Because of his obnoxious personality Starburst had thought him to be more like Prism than like her; that he was a slacker and jokester, that was just extremely talented, not a pony that would work their flank out until they would pass out. Their differences were much more jarring, but even knowing all that she knew, she never really thought about his background. I have nothing, ringed in her ears, as well as what he had said earlier: That a bunch of sheltered little foals could possibly understand me. A pony like you will never understand a pony like me. He was right. Each one of them was sheltered. The closest one to knowing what Starfall had been through was Anthea, and even she hadn’t witnessed her parent being murdered, nor was she alone. How could she, Starburst, who had close to everything, judge him? Before her mind could travel any further down that line, a voice grasped her attention. “So,” Candy began slowly, frowning in concentration, “what you’re saying is… that you’ve been totally checking out Star!” Everybody’s looked at her as if she went crazy. Starburst herself was too shocked to even be angry, instead she was just wondering how did her blue-gray friend got that out of everything Starfall had said “I mean,” she explained, grinning and winking, “you said ‘well-toned muscles’...” Starburst and Starfall both facehoofed at the same time, and while in the case of the former it only caused a minor pain, in the case of the latter the rapid movement had caused him to lose his balance. Wobbling, he fell backwards, disappearing behind the throne. “Candy…” Starburst began then trailed off, not sure just what she wanted to say. “Aw, come on, Star!” Candy pouted. “You two would make such a cute couple!” “Candy!” Starburst snapped, although this time she managed to keep her temper. “I want to fight him to put him in prison, and he wants to fight me to ‘improve his art’ or whatever! In what way does any of this indicate that we would make ‘a cute couple’?!” The moment she said that, Starburst had realized something; she wanted to fight him. It wasn’t just because she felt it was her duty to bring him into custody, even if that was still a major factor. Starburst wanted to fight him, because… because… He was her rival. Just like Starfall had said, only when facing a proper rival, a pony who was of an equal might, a pony could test their limits and improve beyond them. And both of them wanted to improve. The dilemma Starburst almost had vanished. Whether she had the right to judge him didn’t matter; that would be up to the court to decide. What mattered was this fight… the fight between two rivals. Outside of her mind, in the real world, Candy seemed to be pondering her question. “Hmm…” she hummed, clearly having some difficulty. Unfortunately for Starburst, Annie came to her aid. “A promise of an aggressive sex life?” For all the years Starburst had known both Cotton Candy and Anthea, never before had anything that one of them had said had left her in such state as it did now. She was staring at the smirking unicorn, trying to say something, but her mind was empty. She couldn’t even properly think over what she had said; it was like her brain was just replaying that sentence over and over again, trying to find what was wrong with it. Not that she thought that maybe it wasn’t, but that she couldn’t find was exactly bummed her the wrong way about it… “Can we… please, get back to the fighting?” Strangely, those words weren’t uttered by her, but by Starfall. The colt walked from behind the throne and sat down in it, massaging his temples. For those words alone, Starburst made a mental note to make sure to tell the prison guards to treat him well. “I’m all for jokes, but now that I had found my destined rival, I would like to uphold some level of seriousness,” he added, shaking off whatever effect Annie’s words had on him. “And I would like to have a dead-serious level of seriousness,” Starburst said, her eyes going over her friends. She was relieved to see that only Candy and Wind were amused by Annie’s comment. The guys were all avoiding her gaze, and Starburst had an unpleasant feeling that they were trying to picture the two of them (which was something she was forbidding her brain to do). However, they at least had the decency to not laugh or say anything. June was looking dismayed at Annie, most likely due to her part-time job as a teacher thinking that young ponies shouldn’t just bring such matters into the conversations. Claire, however, was glancing at her and Starfall thoughtfully. Starburst, seeing that, opened her mouth, then closed it as no words of ridicule came to her mind. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, ignore it… Her mantra somewhat helping with the eerie feeling that this matter wasn’t over, Starburst steeled herself. “You’re right,” she told Starfall, making him raise an eyebrow. “We are rivals. Whether by destiny or pure coincidence, it doesn’t really matter.” Starfall smiled. “I would like to say a few more words… but I feel it would be better to not give your perverted friends more material,” he scowled at the direction of Annie and Candy. “Hey! I’m not perverted!” Candy objected. It didn’t escape anypony’s notice that Annie did not repeat after her… “I try to hook him up a date with a princess, and he says something like that…” Candy muttered, her face red from the embarrassment. Gold moved to her side to comfort her, while from above Prism said: “Oh, cheer up, CeeCee. He’s probably gay anyway.” Starburst was no expert - and, quite frankly, she would have very much preferred for this discussion to never had happen - but guessing by the dismayed look the unicorn shot Prism her friend was wrong. “Of course, you do know that I don’t intend to fight you alone, right?” she asked, deciding to return this conversation to the right track. “Of course,” Starfall replied, grinning. “Like I said, we’re opposites - I’m a loner, while you work in a group. It doesn’t belittle you in my eyes. Plus, I admit I might have a tad of an unfair advantage with my… how did your mother call it? The ‘Polestar Spell’?” Starburst nodded. “Speaking of…” she added and grinned, then turned her head. “Now, Annie!” Annie, who’s been concentrating for a while, lit up her horn. From beside her, another source of green light appeared, coming from a small… “Crystal…” Starfall said, narrowing his eyes. “Could it be a shard of the crystal I destroyed the other day? The one who was enchanted to prevent me from teleporting in any fashion?” “Take a guess,” Starburst replied, extending her wing to invite him to look around the Throne Room. She also quickly scanned the room. It didn’t take her long to notice the multi-colored stars, the Polestar marks revealed by the Anti-Teleportation Field in various places: a few among the tightropes, two on the walls across the room, one on a stone bust of a pony… Eight, she finished counting. Perfect… “I had no idea that the crystal could be still activated after it was shattered,” Starfall, whose eyes were still on the channeling Annie, said. “But it looks like a unicorn has to keep on channeling the spell… I wonder, how long can your friend keep it up?” “Long enough for us to capture you,” Starburst replied, confident in Annie’s skills. “Now, I wonder… what do you plan to do now?” She knew he had something up his non-existant sleeve. Whatever it was, though, she was certain they could deal with it. Right now Starburst needed him to focus on the fight, so she goaded him, knowing she couldn’t let him figure out what was their real plan. “Hmm…” Starfall pondered… or rather, pretended to ponder, because he almost immediately grinned. “How about this?” Before Starburst could react, his horn began to glow, and eight small multi--colored orbs appeared around his head. The orbs then shoot in the direction of her friends. Starburst was just about to shout a warning, but then she noticed what was Starfall's plan. As the orbs flew, water began to gather around them. It formed around them quickly, so by the time they reached everypony, the blobs of water in which they were trapped were the size of a pony… and in the next second, each one of them was a pony. A very specific pony. Inside the Throne Room of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters stood eight Starfalls… and one sat. Six on the ground, two on the tightropes, one on the throne, and each bore the same smug expression. “I…” Starfall - all of them - spoke, the sound of nine ponies echoing through the room, “am Legion. For we are-” “-a pain in my flank!” Prism, having enough of the colt, lunged at the one on the tightropes that was closest to him. Maneuvering through the maze with ease, he run into the water duplicate at his top speed. Or rather, he would have, if the fake Starfall’s horn hadn’t began to glow. A big bubble appeared in between the two of them, absorbing Prism… and bounced him back through the air at the opposite end of the room… right where another duplicate waited. As Prism neared him, he turned around… Starburst averted her eyes just before his hind legs shot upward, both hooves landing true on a very sensitive spot for a stallion. T and Gold both winced as Prism uttered a short, un-stallion cry, and fell down. Both Starburst and Wind lunged to try to catch him, but while Wind managed to reach him without a problem, Starburst found herself stopped by a firework that exploded right in front of her face, luckily not doing her much harm. Turning around, she saw Starfall jumping down from his throne. “I’ll be your opponent, Princess,” he declared, smiling. Starburst, trusting her friends to deal with the water duplicates, nodded to her rival.