//------------------------------// // Dust in the Wind // Story: Times Of Their Lives // by Emotional Flight //------------------------------// Dust In The Wind (Dark, Drama) “Where are we?” Starlight Glimmer’s voice cut through the air like a knife, her accusatory tone leveled at a lavender alicorn across from her. Around them, the wind whipped across an empty plane, the dust curling up from the ground and speeding around the dead trees and rocks. Her voice, carried in the wrong direction by the wind, still made its way to the alicorn, who looked down at the ground. “The future.” She looked up. “Or, rather, the present.” “But…” Starlight wasn’t quite sure what had gone so very wrong. “There’s nothing here.” “I wish I could say I was surprised.” She rubbed her hoof on the map, which was a grey and barren wasteland. “But every world I come back to is worse than the last.” Her hoof hit the ground, and she strode towards Starlight, her ears pressed back against her forehead. “I don’t know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are.” “But… but…” Starlight’s hoof waved outwards. “What’s even happened?” The wind whistled louder through some of the stones of the ring that the map made as if to accentuate the statement. “You want me to give my best guess?” Starlight nodded. Twilight gave a cynical laugh. “Celestia and Luna vanished.” “They… vanished?” Starlight was dumbfounded. “I didn’t know that was possible.” “Well, they certainly aren’t doing their duty any more. They’re gone, one way or the other.” Twilight waved a hoof at the sky. “No Celestial Cycle, no life. Even having the Moon up permanently was better than this.” “Having the Moon up permanently?” “What were you expecting would happen when you erased the Elements of Harmony from existence?” Twilight looked over at Starlight. “The very first thing we did with them was defeat Nightmare Moon.” “But this wasn’t supposed to happen at all!” Starlight stamped a hoof on the ground. “I was just trying to teach you a lesson!” “A lesson in what? Humility?” Twilight seemed to glower at Starlight. Spike sat down on the table behind them. “The map’s gone, Twilight.” Twilight turned to look with him. “There’s no forests, no houses, no ponies…” “Time isn’t supposed to work this way!” Starlight screamed, slamming a hoof into the ground. “It’s supposed to be immutable!” “And how exactly could time be immutable if you can change the past?” questioned Twilight. “It’s supposed to correct itself! Star Swirl theorized that, since destiny was such a driving force in Equestria, any one individual would tend upon the same path after a change in time.” Starlight stamped her hoof into the ground to accentuate the point. “Well, it’s not. Instead, we’ve got this,” Twilight said softly, waving her hoof at the mountains in the distance. “The real question is, what are you going to do about it?” “I…” Starlight looked out over the barren wasteland. As the dust blew by her face, she thought for a moment before replying. “Nothing.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Nothing? All of Equestria is utterly annihilated, and you are going to do nothing?” “I can’t.” Starlight looked back at the duo at the table. “Time travel is complicated. That table was a shortcut around millennia of problems with changing the past - it’s so ingrained with the background magic of Equestria that, if you go back, it goes back with you, and thus allows the change.” The wind whipped through her hair for a moment, and she paused before continuing. “But, in case you haven’t noticed… there is no background magic to pull from.” Starlight could practically sense the pulse of pink from behind her as her nemesis checked her findings. “But that can’t be right!” “Well, Princess, you were the one that wanted to show me what the world would be like without your group of friends,” replied Starlight, spitting out the moniker. Spike sat down on the flat, useless, piece of stone. “You mean… we can’t go home?” “Home?” Starlight gave a laugh, long and drawn out. It was deafened by the wind, which rustled through her hair as she threw her head back. As the reality of the situation came down on her, the laugh dissolved into hiccups and the occasional giggle before touching upon a sob. “This… this is our new home little dragon.” She gave a slightly maniacal grin. “You’d best get used to it.” Twilight had simply watched as the pony in front over her collapsed onto the ground, but bit back at the retort. “We aren’t living here.” “Oh yeah? Well what are you going to do about it?” Starlight shot back, rolling over the dusty stones back onto her forehooves. Twilight snatched up Spike in her magic and placed him on her back, even as he started to droop. “I’m going to leave.” Starlight watched as she leaned closer to her. “There might be no magic, I might have no friends, but unlike you, I will not give up hope.” “Hope?” Starlight cackled. “You think this is about hope?” “No.” Twilight pulled her chin upwards, and Starlight listened. “I think this is about life.” She turned. The wind whistled through the crags as she set her back to the table and slowly walked towards the peaks on the edge of the horizon. Starlight put her head on the ground and keened. ~{^}~ Spike leaned closer to Twilight’s back in a vain attempt to shut out the roaring of the wind. The dust flowed around his body, getting into the cracks between his scale plates and his ears. He watched as the motes of dust flowed around his caretaker’s head, curling around her horn like a wisp, lit up by the light spell on the tip of her horn. Spike spoke out into the wind. “Twilight?” “Yes, Spike?” She turned her head back to look at him. He paused for a moment before continuing. “Are we really stuck here?” … The lack of response troubled him. He prompted again, in a small voice. “Twilight?” Twilight turned her head away. “...I don’t know.”