In her town, life was so grand.
Nopony shook in fear, everypony was filled with cheer, and they never needed to look around…just to know that they were all there. Why was it sounding so familiar? Simple. It was the motto of her town. Peace, tranquility, and happiness. That’s what made her town so different from all others, from the rest of Equestria.
There was no fear.
Starlight couldn’t agree to that now. Not after what she’s done.
“Damn this primitive world!”
Flinching in surprise, Starlight shot her head up from the text, eyeing her friend trudge around the living room in clear frustration. The unicorn sighed. It wasn’t anything new. She leaned back, licked her hoof, flipped the page, and continued reading from where she sat at the dining table.
Ultron, on the other hand—or hoof, in their terms—briefly halted in his motions, instead choosing to glare at the floorboards, his right hand slowly merging into a fist.
“Can’t connect… No chance of finding suitable fragments. It’s worthless! All worthless!”
Again, it was nothing new to Starlight. His rambling, his shouting, had been going on under her watch for the past twenty or so minutes. She shook her head, horn glowing to retrieve another book from her shelf, the previous one being tossed into a growing pile by the chair’s side.
Ultron continued to ramble. Starlight’s eyes flickered across the texts and pictures.
“Technology is nothing…? No… No! There is nothing here! No wiring, no cerebral cords, and worst of all…no Vibranium!” Ultron practically roared, earning Starlight’s bemused stare once more. He held his fist outwards, shouting, “I can’t rebuild my army with just two soldiers! It’s not possible!”
As he swiped at the air, staring at the far wall in blistering fury, Starlight’s eyes reeled upwards. Though she did still appear uninterested, her left cheek resting on her hoof, she wasn’t finding anything worthwhile to their cause in the books she was researching. If she thought Ultron was angry now, she couldn’t even imagine what he’d do once he realized that she hadn’t found a thing…
But he didn’t need to know that…yet.
Nudging the book to her side, Starlight levitated yet another from the nearby shelf, opening it and starting on page one. There weren’t many books left. The pile kept on growing, one more to join.
With Ultron’s back turned to her, Starlight flipped mindlessly through the pages, still finding nothing. Her eyes flicked upwards, her mouth moving on its own.
“What happened to the rest of your army?”
Might as well make conversation. She was honestly sick and tired of hearing his whining. But she didn’t dare try to tell him that.
He spun at a slow pace, his red eyes burning in the dimly-lit living room, only a few candles being their sources of light. Ultron caught Starlight’s gaze, so emotionless and weary. Well, he expected as such. Ever since Starlight returned to her cottage, she had been searching nonstop for the spell that could get Ultron back to Earth.
According to him, that was over five hours ago. The poor girl.
Well, she owed him.
Quickly returning to her earlier question, Ultron chuckled. It was surreal, the laugh that is. It didn’t hold true, joyous feelings sprinkled amongst the vibrations. No, it sounded…belittling. Hopeless.
Looking out the window, the full moon shepherding its light through the glass, Ultron gestured out with a nod. “You’re looking at them,” he answered still staring, the moon’s glow reflecting off his chest.
Erecting her neck upwards, Starlight twisted it around and stared out the window directly behind her. She nearly leaned back into her chair, but stopped after finally catching Ultron’s meaning. She was looking at them. All that was left of Ultron’s army, the one he commanded in the hundreds to thousands as he had mentioned earlier.
Two sentries guarding the streets, being certain that nopony tried to escape.
Starlight’s upper lip curled upwards, her body returning to its previous state. She eyed Ultron questioningly, hooves tapping together in rhythm.
“I thought all you wanted was a spell to get you back home,” Starlight mused, causing Ultron to bring his gaze back to her own. “You never said anything about an army.”
“And you never said anything about taking this long,” Ultron replied sharply, earning a surprised look on the mare’s features. Ultron quickly recovered, red eyes blinking furiously. “I’m sorry. I’m just…not used to these certain conditions. Nature just…doesn’t cope with me. And this,” he reared forward and plucked a candle off a nearby stand, studying its flame, “…so far away. Too young.”
“What are you going on about now?”
Placing the candle down, not too roughly as he so wanted to, Ultron spun around, slowly beginning to approach the unicorn in her chair, eyes gazing up at him.
“You’re far too young of a species,” he began, causing the mare to lower her book. “I didn’t even believe this world to have life, until you came along, of course. Now, all I can see is that you, as a species, haven’t even evolved passed candle light to keep you warm, keep you secure at night.”
Starlight frowned, leaning forward. “We, as equines, have been living on this rock for thousands of years—!”
“And where are your automobiles?”
The words seem to break away from the sentence she tried to form, leaving Starlight breathless. She began to mumble, perhaps coming up with a response, but ultimately failing, coming up with nothing.
Knowing her continued silence, Ultron said, “Planes? Television? Computers? Hard drives? Internet connections? Light bulbs? Face it, Starlight—embrace it even—but you’re far, far away from even coming close to what Earth has managed.”
Starlight searched for the argument burning in her heart, but her mind could not follow. She could not keep up, but only to agree. Falling into her chair, Starlight frowned, forelegs crossing over one another.
“We do have light bulbs,” she muttered.
Ultron could’ve smiled. Instead, he nodded, closing his eyes and facing away from her.
“One step closer,” he replied, staring out into the outside world, passed the glass shield that reflected the moonlight across the floorboards. The sickening quiet ached on, something that burned against Ultron’s chest. He couldn’t allow the quiet to build. Not again.
He tore it down. “I prefer to take the…easy road,” Ultron began, earning Starlight’s short attention. “Back on Earth I was…hindered from my path, my road. My everything…”
He stared at the bright moon longingly, jaw falling. Starlight adjusted herself to a more comfortable position, brow furrowing at his words. He continued shortly after his moment of silence.
“They took it all away. My road, my…peace. I can’t have that happen again, Starlight. For when I am forced to choose between the easy road and not…I wouldn’t lie down and believe the world rotated around me. I was careless. I let myself open. And that’s why I lost.”
He closed his mouth, jaw tightening. Ultron spun back to face Starlight. “But not again. I need a new army before I return to Earth, Starlight. I had very little time as it is back then, and now with the world on edge, waiting for something to emerge from the dust, they’ll point their swords to the first one to stand up. Who do you think that’ll be…especially when you find the spell?”
She wasn’t stupid.
“You?”
Ultron nodded.
Starlight huffed, lips curling at the thought.
“Now,” Ultron said, his voice becoming clearer, “about that spell…?”
Her heart rate instantly accelerated, eyelids shooting upwards. Starlight brought her head over the bookshelf, observing it for the first time in over three hours. And then her heart flatlined. It was empty. The book lying before her was the last one in her entire cottage…and even then she already reached the last page.
Nothing. Not one spell they needed.
There was nothing.
She gulped. Slowly turning back, she noticed that Ultron was following her movements, his eyes previously resting on the empty shelf that contained her books. He brought those red orbs down to the pile of books strewn across the floor, blinking once, twice.
She could already tell he was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together, if the indication of his expression gave light to that. Still, Starlight placed both of her shaking hooves down onto the book pages, looking up to him but refusing to meet his eyes. That old fear began to make a triumphant return.
“Well…you see…”
“You don’t have it, do you?”
Flinching at how quick the response was, especially with how much cold the tone contained, Starlight just bit her lower lip, giving a little nod.
And just like that, Starlight readied herself for the bomb to go off, for Ultron to release his fuming anger out on her. She clenched her jaw, eyelids quickly shutting for it to happen. Seconds built upon themselves, adding to the construction of silence, and Starlight slowly began to relax. Soon enough, he eyes shot up, hovering into the stable silence between the two.
Then he started to chuckle.
“You know, I let you live. I let you live and waste my time in helping you get your sweet, little cottage back. Home, sweet home after all, right? It’s not like,” he paused, turning away and scoffing, “It’s not like you promised to help me get home in exchange for getting yours back. Yeah, that’s just so weird, taking advantage of someone…like I was some kind of…puppet.”
He began his approach. One step at a time.
Starlight’s eyes began to widen, her chest heaving in and out, in and out.
“You don’t think I’m a puppet, do you? You wouldn’t…you wouldn’t use me, would you Starlight? Because if that was your intention…”
Having let the fear rush back into her veins, Starlight forgot to notice how close Ultron was to her. He slammed his palms down onto the wooden table, cracking it underneath his claws. Starlight yelped, falling back into her chair and staring up fearfully at him.
Ultron’s eyes narrowed on the unicorn. He growled, “I’m afraid it…wasn’t very smart of you.”
“It wasn’t! I swear!” Starlight nearly screamed, her hoof jutted out to him. “I mean… I…I didn’t mean… I did swear that I would do some research if we got back to my cottage, didn’t I?”
“You did,” replied Ultron instantly.
Paying no heed to the bead of sweat strolling down her forehead, Starlight quickly began to explain her findings. “Well, I did some research, and while I didn’t find anything direct in my books about the spell that we need to get you back home…it did mention it. R-remember when I told you about Star Swirl the Bearded?”
Ultron nodded, backing away from the table he nearly split in half.
“Well, he was the only pony in history who ever perfected a spell that could cross against different dimensions, even transporting live subjects into said dimensions. Everything that he’s done, as far as we know, is left guarded in the Canterlot Archives all the way in Canterlot. If we were to…‘borrow’ it…then I’m certain with practice…I could find a way to get you back to Earth.”
Starlight licked her lips, staring patiently into Ultron’s facial expressions, with how little they were. She could never really tell what he was thinking just by his expressions. He hardly made any, which is why it was so difficult. He mostly blinked and stared. That was all she could work with, hope with.
And yet as Ultron blinked and stared at her, Starlight could feel her heart pound heavier and more deliberately with each flash of red sent her way, constantly taunting, belittling her. It was talent that Ultron had, something she could only wish she acquired. Maybe then she would be living in a different future…still with her vision of happiness.
As the clock struck twelve, allowing each gong to flow through the stillness, Ultron closed his eyes and chuckled. That was something else he was good at, concealing his emotions through laughter. She never knew what type of intentions Ultron held behind his chuckles.
But she did now. At least for now.
“Starlight,” Ultron said, voice a deathly whisper, “is there anything you can’t do?”
Starlight allowed herself a brief laugh…after her relieved sigh, of course. She rubbed the back of her head, half smiling as she said, “I can’t regulate a society with the promises of peace and harmony.”
“Ah, but you’re thinking too small, Starlight. Much too small! Think big…” Ultron mused, his voice rising and falling, eyes shifting to Starlight and away and back. “Push that brilliant mind of yours to the limit and think… How do we infiltrate Canterlot, and by chance take one of their archives’ greatest spells…with no army?”
She levitated up a book amongst the pile, a book she once believed to be worthless in her search for the spell. Not anymore. With a growing grin, she mentally read the title of the hard cover to herself.
Equestrian Legends.
With a glow of her horn, Starlight set the book down on the wooden table, flipping through the pages rapidly with her magic. Ultron lowered his gaze, watched Starlight’s moves with growing interest. As her horn fell dim, so did the flapping of the book pages. The book remained still, halted onto one page.
And when she looked up at him, she smirked. Ultron already loved that smirk on her face.
She asked, “Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Mirror Pond?”