Taint In The Sky
(Dark, Tragedy)
Starlight watched as an alicorn flapped her way up to where she was floating, keeping her sneer trained at her. Her green aura gleamed around her body, her hair floating away from her head.
“What did you do?” Twilight seethed, flapping her wings to stay level, Spike balancing on her back.
“You are about to find out.” Starlight watched as a dome covered in magical runes and markings appeared above them in the sky. As it began to suck Twilight up into its grasp, she grinned, applying a little more magic to stay level in the air. Twilight, with her dragon friend on her back, disappeared into the green light.
As Starlight turned to leave, she felt the fierce suction pulling at her as well. She applied more force to her telekinesis, but it bottomed out and simply held her there.
She grunted. “No, no! That’s not how this spell is supposed to work -”
Her telekinesis failed, the light around her flickering, then dying. She saw the green bowl approaching. Her eyes scrunched shut as she was sucked into the vortex. A rushing surrounded her, and she was no more.
~{^}~
It was slightly warmer than Starlight expected. A slight breeze blew over her muzzle, and her eyes blinked open.
The world was… red. Much redder than she thought it should be. As she blinked her eyes to get rid of the fuzziness, they locked on a chair that was practically in front of her face. She pushed herself to her hooves, looking around her. It was red. Even her hoof had a slight tinge. As she placed it back on the table, she looked at her surroundings.
Well… there was no castle anymore. Her attempt to change the past must have worked! She’d wanted to put Twilight through a bit more suffering, but this was perfect!
A purple alicorn slammed her in the side.
As Starlight rolled, she shoved her hooves at Twilight in a vain attempt to push her off. Twilight grabbed her hooves in her magic, pulling them together. The alicorn leaned down.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” Starlight could smell Twilight’s breath. “Do you have any idea?”
Starlight charged up her horn and teleported with a flash onto the nearby table, regaining the high ground. “I know that you never got your connection.”
Twilight laughed. “‘I never got my connection.’ I never could have guessed. Well, I suppose you wanted the world to plunge into war!”
“War?” Starlight glanced around for a moment. “I don’t see a war.”
“Look at the map, Starlight,” said Twilight, pointing at the table beneath her. Starlight backed up slightly so that she could see a majority of it.
It was… was…
“Strange, isn’t it. I’m sure that you’re thinking that I’m making it up.” Twilight waved her hoof at the table. “I’m not.”
It was black. Covering almost half of Equestria was a gigantic black cloud, almost as if the map couldn’t see into those places any more. It seemed to roll slowly over the land. Everything else was tainted a blood red, complementing the red hues that this world appeared to offer upon everything.
“We met with somepony. Applejack, in fact. She told us what happened.” Twilight’s head was drooped. “Sombra came back.”
“Sombra?” Starlight whispered to herself. “But I…”
“You didn’t even think, did you?” Twilight thrust her hoof outwards. “We were the bearers of the Elements. You… you destroyed Equestria!”
“I did not!” Starlight slammed her hoof against the table, causing a small crack. She hardly noticed. “You just… you… the spell wasn’t even supposed to do this!”
“Do what? Kill hundreds? Destroy everything harmony stood for?” Twilight growled. “Because it succeeded in that. Spectacularly.”
“No! I mean, no it wasn’t.” Starlight shook her head. “I wasn’t even supposed to come back!”
“You… I…” Twilight seemed to be boiling over. “You planned to screw all of Equestria over, then not deal with the problem? What is wrong with you?”
“No! I was going to try and fix it!” Starlight curled inwards from the glare trained at her by the angry alicorn before reasserting herself and stepping forwards. “I could have guided others with my knowledge of the future!”
“Heh - yeah, right,” said a voice, and Starlight turned and saw Spike, standing on one of the chairs. “Do you honestly think that would have helped?”
Starlight found her voice cracking. “Of course it would have!”
“Look, no one would have listened to you,” said the young dragon. “Are you really that naive?”
“I am not naive!” Starlight growled. “I’ve run an entire community by myself before, thank you.”
“Yeah - one community.” Spike shook his head. “Even if you went straight up to Princess Celestia and told her directly what was going to happen, she both wouldn’t have the means to defeat a majority of the villains we’ve faced over the years and she wouldn’t believe you. There’s no way you could have stopped them on your own.”
“Well… I-” Starlight was cut off by Twilight.
“Look around you, Starlight.” Her voice was softer now. “Look around, and tell me that this is what you wanted.”
Starlight looked away from Twilight’s face. The wind rustled her hair before letting it settle as she gazed around. Behind the reddish tint, everything had a faded quality about it, as if it was drooping. Far away, she saw a small settlement, most likely Ponyville, that seemed like the owners had simply up and moved away. Beneath her, the map crumbled a little more.
“I…” she gulped. “I didn’t want it like this.”
“I don’t want it like this either,” replied Twilight, “but here we are.”
Starlight grimaced, looking away from the alicorn. “You, of all ponies, know that I can’t fix this.”
Twilight sighed. “One time tampering spell per pony, I know.” Her hoof scuffed on the ground. “Look… Starlight…”
“Yes?” Starlight looked back at Twilight.
“I don’t know anything about you. And I can’t say that I particularly like you, either.” Twilight glanced up at her. “But we might be able to fix this. And if we can’t, I’d like it if you helped me.”
“What, are you asking me to be your friend?” Starlight glared down at her. “No!”
Twilight nodded almost to herself. “I… I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to say yes.”
“You- I can’t believe you! Why would I want to be your friend?”
Twilight looked up at her. “Maybe because I’m the only one who would want to be.” Starlight’s mouth dropped open.
As Twilight wrapped Spike in her magic, she turned. “You are all about equality, about ridding the world of the menace of difference. I don’t know what made you this way, but I hope that, someday, you realize what difference actually means.”
Starlight simply watched as Twilight began to charge up her horn, wrapping both herself and Spike in her pink aura.
A moment before they vanished, Spike spoke. “Hey Starlight?”
“Yes?”
“If you want equality?” He stuck out his thumb to the north. “Join the army.”
Then, they were gone.