Essays Index
Remarked Timelines series: Part 1 - Overview | Part 2 - Sombra | Part 3 - Chrysalis | Part 4 - Nightmare | Part 5 - Tirek | Part 6 - Discord | Part 7 - Flim & Flam |Part 8 - Wasteland

The Wasteland timeline:
In the final remarked timeline, Starlight changes events by shooting Dash with a magical beam in the middle of the race, knocking her into the air. Although the beam is only intended to throw Dash off course, it disorients her enough that she hits her head on a hard cloud when coming back down, knocking her unconscious. Just like in the Discord timeline, Dash falls from Cloudsdale, and is killed when she hits the ground.

As before, the tragic death of a filly makes national news, and is the subject of an extensive police investigation. Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles again leave Cloudsdale and move to Canterlot, and Windy again gets a job as a maid at the palace. The major difference in this timeline is that the witnesses all identify Starlight as the one responsible, rather than Twilight, and it is her seen on wanted posters all over Equestria. This makes a big difference, as unlike Twilight, Starlight's past self is old enough at the time of these events to be mistaken for her future self, and with her face on wanted posters all over Equestria, she is eventually found and arrested.

Witness testimony and magical DNA testing confirm the past Starlight's alleged guilt, but Starlight protests the evidence, and swears repeatedly to her innocence, even under the influence of truth spells. Accusations and suppositions about memory erasure, illusion magic, or elaborate identity theft and impersonation are thrown around in court, and the trial of Starlight Glimmer becomes a national spectacle that lasts for several years.

Celestia follows the trial closely as it occurs, and personally wonders if the Starlight who killed Rainbow Dash may have been a changeling. To confirm her suspicions, she visits the volcano where she imprisoned Chrysalis centuries ago, and finds it unoccupied. Now knowing that the changelings are free again, she discreetly performs tests to identify potential infiltrators in the Royal Guard and other military branches, and uncovers several sleeper agents. She tightens up security, and then sends the Equestrian Intelligence Service to track down the changelings' base.

Upon discovering the Changeling Kingdom's location, Celestia leads an invasion to pre-emptively neutralise the threat of Chrysalis. The anti-magical properties of the Darkstone Throne are initially a great hindrance to the Equestrians, who are unable to use unicorn magic in the battle, but Celestia soon works out that the Throne's effect does not nullify dark magic. Celestia, as an alicorn, has an affinity for dark magic just like the changelings do, and though she is reluctant to use it, she does so to great effect.

The Changeling Kingdom falls to the Equestrian forces soon after the discovery. Celestia defeats Chrysalis in single combat, capturing her and all of her top generals. A number of changelings, most notably a young Thorax, defect to the Equestrians after the battle, and assist them in bringing the rest of the hive to heel. The Darkstone Throne is shifted into a pocket dimension, where its anti-magic field cannot affect normal space. And Celestia questions and interrogates several changelings to find out if any were involved in the Starlight Glimmer case. To her great confusion, she finds no evidence to suggest so.

As the volcano was an ineffective prison, and there are no Elements of Harmony to safeguard the kingdom in case of a future breakout, Celestia takes the safer option and has Chrysalis and her followers imprisoned in Tartarus this time. While transporting them to their new prison, Celestia checks in on Cerberus, cleaning his coat and making sure he is in good health. In doing so, she removes several minor irritants in his fur, which in all other timelines built up over the next several years until Cerberus became agitated enough by them to abandon his post. Because of Celestia's visit to Tartarus, this never happens, preventing Tirek's escape from occurring.

With the changeling lead going nowhere, Starlight's trial continues for a long time, but eventually concludes with her being acquitted of all charges, to great national controversy. Although she still goes on to found Ourtown and create her cult of Equalism, far fewer ponies join her than in the prime timeline. Starlight grows into an even more bitter and cynical individual, with Ourtown being the only good thing left in her life.

Despite all these massive changes to the timeline, however, Windy Whistles still later has an encounter with Twilight Sparkle, and still recognises her from witness descriptions. Though she only believes her to be a person of interest this time, not her daughter's killer, Celestia still hears about the encounter, and events again play out very similarly to the Discord timeline. Celestia makes the connection between Rainbow Dash's death and the timeline distortion, attempts in vain to correct it by training Twilight as her student, and falls into despair and desperation when she realises that it's too late. Just like last time, Windy's advice pushes Celestia over the edge, and she makes the ill-fated decision to release Discord rather than rely on her Royal Guard plan.

Upon being freed, Discord agrees to help Celestia. The Tree of Harmony is killed, Discord purges Luna of her corruption, and a new age of chaos begins.

Discord again happens upon Ourtown, and spends a day ruining Starlight Glimmer's life all over again, exposing her lies to the villagers and restoring all their cutie marks. Starlight again tries to fight back with Pieces, but is still unable to affect him with it. In this timeline, Discord's visit is even more devastating to Starlight, as he destroys the only thing she has left, leaving her an empty shell of despair and hatred. Without Tirek around, Discord also does not have her magic drained this time, and instead leaves her to wander Equestria alone, seeking her revenge on him.

Shortly afterwards, Sombra and the Crystal Empire return. Without Tirek's friendship, Discord goes to face Sombra alone, desiring to put an end to his tyranny as soon as possible, and just like in the Sombra timeline, his arrogance nearly gets him killed. However, this time, the Royal Sisters and Twilight arrive in time to rescue him. The Royal Sisters too are nearly defeated, but their arrival distracts Sombra long enough for Discord to steal the Crystal Heart and bring his chaos into the Crystal Empire. With the four of them working together, Sombra is defeated, and Discord again banishes him to the Great Abyss, before betraying the others.

Meanwhile, as the battle against Sombra in the Crystal Empire is going on, Starlight Glimmer ventures into what was once Canterlot, searching for an edge against Discord. After fighting her way through a labyrinth of chaos to reach the remains of the Royal Archives, she discovers several notes describing the Darkstone Throne and the pocket dimension Celestia sealed it in. Using the notes as a reference, Starlight works out how to open this pocket dimension, and gains access to the Throne. In doing so, she gains the attention of the Nightmare Forces.

Just like in the Discord timeline, the Nightmare Forces were already seeking out potential allies to help them take revenge on Discord, but without Chrysalis around, Starlight Glimmer is their best candidate. However, unlike the changelings, Starlight is not a dark magic user, and so cannot take full advantage of the Throne's anti-magic field without the nightmares' help. The partnership this time is thus a lot more one-sided in the nightmares' favour, but Starlight does not care, now desiring only her revenge. She agrees to a partnership with the nightmares, and bonds with their leader, becoming an entity known as Starless Night.

Starless Night hunts down Discord, luring him out by challenging him to single combat. Discord is more amused than anything that a single nightmare entity thinks it can challenge him, but he is caught off-guard when she rips open a portal to Celestia's pocket dimension and unleashes the Darkstone Throne's power. Discord panics, realising that he's caught in an anti-magic field, but there is little he can do about it.

With Discord at her mercy, Starless Night attacks him again with Pieces. Though he does not have a cutie mark or a talent spell like a unicorn, Pieces nonetheless removes the core of Discord's soul, the Fundament of Chaos from which his powers are derived. Separated from the source of his power, Discord is severely weakened, even more than he already was, and can only watch as Starless Night attempts to absorb the Fundament of Chaos into herself and steal its power, just as she would a unicorn's talent spell.

However, the raw power of Chaos proves to be overwhelming to her. Just like Tirek in the Sombra timeline, Starless Night begins to descend into madness, but at a far more rapid rate. The chaos magic is agonising to the nightmare, which is driven into total insanity by its burning pain, and the Fundament of Chaos itself also goes rampant, rebelling against the nightmare's attempt to control it by unleashing its full power, and attempting to assert Discord's personality over Starlight's.

The resulting hybrid of Discord, Starlight, and a mad nightmare is a horrific, mutated abomination, overflowing with such vast quantities of chaos magic that not even the Darkstone Throne can keep it contained. In its madness, the creature indiscriminately attacks everything and everyone around it, including the Nightmare Forces, and it even kills the original Discord. As its rampage begins, the chaotic landscape of Equestria changes from one of mostly harmless nonsensicality into an abyss of death and mayhem which destroys the psyches of all who even look upon it.

Realising that they've created a monster that will destroy everything they sought to conquer, the remaining Nightmare Forces make a last-ditch effort to bring it down. Several thousand nightmare spirits sacrifice themselves to power up the Darkstone Throne, giving up their very souls so that it will have enough dark magic to contain the abomination. Through their combined effort, the anti-magic field grows large and powerful enough to cover all of Equestria. Even this is not enough to fully stop the monster's magic, but it is weakened enough by the Throne that the few remaining nightmares are able to kill it, releasing the Fundament of Chaos and finally calming it down.

With Discord dead, all other possible challengers out of the way, and the land covered in an anti-magic field that affects everyone but them, the remaining Nightmare Forces attempt to conquer what is left of Equestria. But bit by bit, Equestria itself seems to die off around them. With so many sacrificed souls powering it, the Darkstone Throne now covers the entire continent, and just like it did in the Changeling Kingdom, it slowly saps the life out of everything. As the plants and animals begin dying and Discord's chaos abates, most ponies leave for other lands, and the Nightmare Forces are left to rule over a barren wasteland, until eventually even they tire of the darkness and desolation.

The nightmares move on, returning to the Dreamscape to plan further conquests of other lands, and Equestria is left to its fate. That is, until Celestia and Luna track down the Darkstone Throne again, and finally smash it into pieces as they wish they'd done the first time. With the Throne's destruction, the anti-magic field over Equestria is broken. Though it is too late for vast areas of the kingdom, which remain barren and lifeless, there is at least hope now that life will one day return. Equestria is broken, but may still rise again.