What she wanted

by The Infinity Doctor

Center of Attention

She ducked beneath the showerhead after activating it. Sighing in sudden relief, the water trickling down through her mane, and over her muzzle. She moved on to the rest of her body, washing the grunge and dirt out of her coat. Finally, she moved on to her tail- scrubbing the leaves and dirt particles out of it. She flinched as some strands came loose, thin lines of purple and teal mixed with the clean water, slowly inching towards the drain. Taking the time to glance around the shower, she suddenly realized that the room was much larger than she'd first realized. Larger showerheads were installed higher than the one she was currently using, she assumed that these showers were also meant for the Quake Shakers. The giants were a curious thing...she wondered what else had changed...

She turned the faucet the other way, stopping the flow of water. She sighed as she turned, and exited the shower, taking a towel off of the towel rack bolted next to the exit. She dried herself, running the towel through her mane and coat. Hanging the towel back on the rack, she exited the bathroom, where she was met with Fluttershy still waiting, just as she said.

"If you'd be so kind as to escort me back to my room?" Starlight asked.

"Erm, actually...Queen Tanta requested to see you..."

Starlight screamed mentally, not particularly wanting to meet the space-queen.

"Very well, lead the way." Starlight stated begrudgingly, gritting her teeth.

Fluttershy nodded, and led the purple mare down the hall, trotting further away from her room.

The corridors and passages didn't seem all that off from the rest of the castle's, but...she couldn't help but feel that something was off. They were just constructs of brick and mortar, what could possibly be wrong with them?

She continued to follow Fluttershy, her anxiety steadily growing, as well as her dread. What did this Tanta have to say to her? Nightmare Moon had already congratulated her on interfering with the timeline, so what did that mean that Tanta wanted to meet her?

"H-Here we are..." Fluttershy said, stopping at a rather normal door, not ornately decorated as she expected a queen's to be.

'This is it?' Starlight thought, not daring to say such a thing out loud.

The yellow one could still be a spy for the Nightmare, after all.

"Just knock twice." Fluttershy stated, then turned and trotted away.

Starlight stared at the door for a moment, before slowly knocking.

The door opened slowly, the doorknob encased in a neon purple glow.

"Come in."

She obeyed, trotting inside. The door closed, and she immediately noticed that the room was bathed in a low, blue-ish glow.

"Welcome, Starlight Glimmer."

She felt herself bow, despite her mind shouting at her not to.

"M-My pleasure, your highness."

The space-queen was rather informally stretched out on a large bed, and her expression was virtually impossible to make out, given she had no specific facial features.

"Rise."

She did, and stood rooted to her spot on the floor.

She patted the soft sheets of the bed, offering her an invitation to sit next to her. Starlight trotted across the room, and settled on the bed. The Queen reclined, apparently unfazed by her presence on the bed. If they were any closer, anyone that would've walked in could've mistaken them for mates.

"What did you...need to talk to be about?" she asked carefully.

"Our situation."

"Our...situation?"

"Yes."

"What...is our situation?"

"The simple fact that the timeline is not as it should be. "

"H-How did you know that?"

"Calm yourself," she stated "Only I and one other know of what you've done."

That did, in fact, calm her nerves just a bit. No need to worry about getting chased by an angry mob, just a space-goddess-queen that could probably snap her in half.

"St-Still...how did you know?"

"The air is littered with Trotchyon particles, if this were in fact the unaltered timeline, the air would not be so saturated with them- not to mention that your entire body is coated with them."

"I...um..."

"Didn't quite take that into account when you concocted this plan of yours, did you?" she asked knowingly.

"N-No..." she stated begrudgingly, honestly thinking she wouldn't have been caught.

"Well, in any case, we must set about a way to reverse this foolishness."

"R-Reverse it?"

She nodded.

"Wh-Why would you want to reverse...this?!" she shouted, motioning to the room "You've got everything! A castle! A country to rule over! Anything you want at your beck and call! Why would you want to give all of this up?!"

Tanta was silent for a moment, appearing as if she was deep in thought.

"I suppose you could say...that I miss my other half."

"You had a special someone?" Starlight asked, confused.

Though, she was very beautiful- anypony with half a brain could tell that she was a knockout.

The queen chuckled lightly, not harshly, but rather in genuine mirth.

"No, my literal other half- Luna."

"Luna...you mean...her? Out there?" Starlight asked, gesturing with a hoof to the door, vaguely referring to Nightmare Moon.

"Not quite, the being that possesses her body is not Luna, as much as she will claim to be."

"How can you tell?" Starlight asked in genuine curiosity.

"Luna and I are connected, for better or worse, her presence in Nightmare is very small. There must be at least a small part of Luna there for Nightmare to exist-"

"And it's as little as possible." Starlight finished.

Tanta nodded, and took a bottle of wine and glass in her magic, from a bucket sitting in the far corner of the room.

"A glass of wine?" Tanta offered.

Starlight politely declined.

Tanta then poured herself a small amount, and set the bottle on the bedstand.

"So...are there any ah, 'co-conspirators'?"

"A few- Discord, among them."

"D-Discord? Th-The chaos god?"

"Hardly a god, simply a spirit."

Starlight shuddered- she'd hate to think then, what a god could truly do if someone like Discord was just a spirit.

"You have a spirit of chaos on your side, what more do you need to fix everything?"

"You, for one thing."

"Why do you need me?"

"The universe works rather primitively- compared to what some may think. Your magic is intertwined with this catastrophe, and only your magic will undo it."

"B-But how?! I've already changed the timeline at a critical juncture! H-How could I possibly fix it now?!"

"That, Miss Starlight, is what we must figure out."

"A-And what if I don't want to change the timeline?"

"Then your magic, permeating the timeline of this timeline, will backlash- and the magical overload would be enough to kill you."

Starlight gulped hard, and began to sweat bullets.

Author's Note:

Here's the latest, hot off the presses.

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[LeoneHaxor]