A pause.
Starlight’s horn glowed as she explored her options. Her magic grasped at Twilight’s saddlebags, but couldn’t find purchase. Her attention flicked over the different sorts of spells she knew, the things she could use to lay the princess low; no answer was apparent. Her teeth grit, anger taking over where denial had left off. Her eyes darted about as she sought options; nothing new presented itself. All the while Twilight stood there watching her. Resolute. Imperious. Implacable.
Permanent.
“…No.”
“No?”
A sigh. “No. Fine. You win.”
Twilight nodded, the start of a smile forming. If asked, she would have told you it was a hopeful smile. Starlight would have called it smug. Spike’s smile was unquestionably so.
“Alright. Good. I’m going to have to take you into custody, you know.”
“I know.”
Another nod, and Twilight began casting the typical sort of binding and restraining spells. Starlight was tempted to resist, but she recognized how pointless it would be; whatever she was going to do next wouldn’t be helped by continuing to loop back here. The princess was saying something, but Starlight wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were on the rainbow-maned filly accelerating past the pair, bringing with her Starlight’s impending failure.
Whatever Twilight was going on about - something about rights? - was cut off by an explosion of light and sound. It reminded Starlight of the day she lost her village, the sudden arrival of color and cutie marks. She frowned deeply as she watched the face of the young filly, so excited to get a brand that would divide her from other ponies. Her teeth grit as she watched the rainboom drift off into the distance, bringing more marks and assuring the end of her commune back in the future. Present. Whatever.
The three of them waited until the color had faded out of sight. An uneasy quiet fell, each of them left to their own thoughts until Twilight got back to her spellwork and her rights-reading. Spike watched Starlight carefully, but she was resigned to her fate. One last time, the portal through time opened, and the three of them were returned to their restored present.
Starlight briefly looked up at the sound of creaking hinges, before letting her chin sink back onto her cot. The dreary stone around her was cast in its true grey for the moments the door to the brighter castle beyond was open, before fading back into the orange-brown of torchlight after. She watched as her visitor – her purple, tall-ish, alicorn visitor – approached the bars of her cell and sat down. A little dragon stood beside her, quill in claw.
“So, do you want to talk yet?”
A snort of derision answered the question. Princess of Friendship indeed; how such an awkward pony won such a title was beyond Starlight. No, she didn’t want to talk, nor did she the last dozen times. She wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.
“It’s for your own sake, you know. Having your statement on-record before the trial can only help your case.
Silence. Starlight made to glower at her, but it was a weak effort. She was content to simply lie flat on the cot and let Twilight burn herself out.
“You know, the princesses have a lot of influence with the courts. This could be your chance to get one on your side.”
“Spike, that’s not helping.”
Starlight silently agreed.
“Starlight...I know you blame me for a lot of things, but I really am here to help. I want to hear your story.
Starlight bristled. Of course Twilight was to blame, but this? This was rubbing salt in the wound.
“Why?” Twilight perked up as Starlight spoke. “Why do you care?”
“Because you have to have had a reason for it all. The village, the cutie-marks, the revenge - nopony would do all that without one.”
Starlight’s eyes narrowed as she lifted herself to a seated position, fixing Twilight firmly in her glare. “You want to know? You really want to know? Why? It’s not going to change anything.”
“It could change what I think of you.”
Starlight grit and bared her teeth, practically shouting. “What do I care what you think of me? You ruined everything, took everything I had, everything I made! I was trying to do something for the good of all ponies, but you had to come and mess it up! I’m your enemy! I know what you think of me!”
“You don’t have to be.”
Starlight paused, taken aback. “What?”
“Our enemy. You don’t have to be.”
Starlight laughed, though there was no humor in it. “After everything you did? After I tried to get revenge? What other option is there?”
“You could be our friend.”
Starlight blinked. Then blinked again, caught between words. Her mouth hung open for another moment before she sank back onto her cot with a groan. “Of course. ‘Princess of Friendship’. Of course you’d think so.”
“We redeemed Discord.”
Starlight didn’t have a good reply, so she simply snorted. “Why do you care, anyway?”
Twilight smiled, and for once it didn’t seem that smug to Starlight. Almost soft, even...regretful? Why? “Because I think you can be a good pony. Even if you were misguided, when we first met you seemed to think what you were doing was right.”
“Yeah, just because you were a hypocrite doesn’t mean you didn’t have good intentions.”
“A little too on-the-nose, Spike.”
Starlight turned her glower on the dragon, looking more tired than angry now that her fury left her. Spike smiled sheepishly, scooting back behind Twilight. Twilight soon returned her attention to their prisoner.
“Anyway, I think there’s good in you. And….and I know what it’s like to be alone.”
Starlight looked at her, really looked. She wasn’t sure what to say to that. With a huff she gathered her hooves under her, lifting her head.
“...You’re not going to drop this, are you? Even if you don’t get your statement for the trial?”
“Nope.”
“It’s a waste of time, you know.”
A hopeful little smile curled the edges of Twilight’s face. “Starlight, I told you before; we can do this forever.”
Starlight laughed again while shaking her head, though this time it sounded a little more genuine. She was silent for several moments after, lost in her thoughts. Eventually, her eyes found Twilight’s again.
“You really want to know?”
A nod, and that hopeful little smile grew.
“Alright. It all started with a friend I had when I was a foal. His name was Sunburst…”
A more realistic take on the canon ending...
As mentioned in the author's note, here is the first of two possible endings I'm presently planning on posting; the second is well on its way, so hopefully it won't take three more months for me to get it published. There will be one further chapter after that: a chapter of omake, so that I can share the things too short or too silly for me to publish them as a chapter in earnest. Including one very silly crossover that I owe to a trio of commenters.
Once those are finished, it's on to the next project.
What would happen if Starlight Glimmer killed Rainbow Dash?
7098777
With regards to Twilight and Starlight, very little; as soon as Twilight (and therefore Starlight) returned to the past again, things would be as they were, just like every time she's returned so far. Of course, the experience may change the two of them.
With regards to that particular timeline? Nothing good I expect. Given huge divergences in the futures caused by rather minor changes in the past, it's hard say where things would end up. At the very least, Fluttershy would be distraught at losing her friend - though how that changes her, and how the absence of Rainbow Dash beyond that changes the future, is uncertain.
7098777 a doomed timeline with a grieving family and starlight a foal killer then who shall go on a darker path.
7098777
Twilight would kill Starlight, then reset everything and try again
7098806
I keep thinking and there's nothing Starlight can do that would end well for her. Either she surrenders or is broken by Twilight, by an angry alicorn or by one of Equestria's enemies. Killing would just escalate the response.
Interesting that the first word spoken here in reply by Starlight, is the one I thought she might say. Check comment No 3 on the first chapter for those unbelievers out there.
I now end with another piece of wisdom for the ages:
"You can stop right now, and try another start..."
7098973
In fact, I'm unashamed to say that your comment inspired that particular phrasing. I do read these things, you know.
While Starlight's surrender was one of the ways I considered going prior even to the first chapter being finished, your succinct comment captured that particular route and the emotion of the situation quite well indeed. Best of all, it's a versatile little phrase...
Hmmm...maybe for the big musical number omake.
7099044 Hey you could have at least credited me!!
Kidding. Thank you for acknowledging my contribution, as unintentional and minor as it was. This story has been on my favourites list for a good while, and I'm just glad to see it continued in any capacity. It's a darn site more realistic than the canon ending, that's for sure.
Because of the easy conclusion in the show to her world-ending plan and the fact everypony seems to have forgiven Starlight rather too easy, I'm finding it difficult to really warm to her at the moment, even with her new manestyle. That might change in the future, but for now I'm hoping that she'll have a recurring role a la Discord, and NOT be a regular.
And that particular song is my favourite one in MLP ever. The lyrics even helped me make a very important decision in my life, when I was veering in the other direction. Sounds corny, but hey. Facts are facts
Eh. Just eh. If they didn't arrest her in the show, I can't see them doing it here.
666 likes people, this means something.
7100118 Yeah, that you are paranoid.
7100157 you know it!
7098777
Twilight immediately kills Starlight, resets the timeline, and then proceeds to whip out a killing curse five seconds into the next timeline.
7099934
To be fair, they didn't arrest her in the show because... I'm trying and i can't really come up with a good reason beyond "Because Twilight is an idiot and hopelessly naive."
Here at least, Celestia and Luna are not going to be terribly impressed with the laundry list of crimes that Starlight managed to rack up.
7100558 Because after fighting Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Discord, and Tirek, Twilight no longer believes in the wisdom of locking up powerful enemies and trying to forget about them?
7100796
And guess what? You'll notice that each and every one of those monsters (Except possibly Chrysalis) was safely contained till some outside force intervened, leading to a thousand years of peace for Equestria. That seems like a pretty good track record to me, as long as you aren't an immortal alicorn. As Starlights expiration date is unknown but almost assuredly less then a thousand years...
Also I guess we should just forgive her with absolutely no reservations whatever despite the many, many horrible crimes she gleefully committed. After all, she apologized and repented in the course of two minutes and everyone knows Lies don't exist! In fact, let's ditch the prison system entirely, and just house the dangerous members of society with the common, law abiding citizens! Not like any of them could ever suffer a relapse and go right back to their evil ways!
7100865 Sombra wasn't immortal when they locked him up, and he still came back, angrier than ever.
From the season opener, they're treating it more like a supervised parole, although they aren't mentioning that to Starlight obviously, and I'm not sure what her official status is.
It does look like special treatment based on the fact that she's actually powerful and could cause problems if they kept her as an enemy and she got away to try again. Although less powerful adversaries (Trixie, the diamond dogs) have generally also been let go.
7100880 I wouldn't use the Sombrero example, since when he came back, they didn't so much befriend him, as much as murder him.
7100959 Hmm. They didn't befriend Chrysalis or Tirek either. So clearly they have *some* standards.
7100880
I guess the thing that really bites me is this: Twilight has already been through almost this EXACT same scenario once before, with Sunset Shimmer. And guess what? She had a box load of issues with that pony even after she'd turned a new leaf, and all Sunset ever really did was steal her crown and come up with a poorly thought-out idea to take over Equestria with human teenagers from a single school (and be a character with massively more depth then Starlight, but that's no fault of her own.) Starlight basically does stuff that's ten times worse no matter how you try to spin it, and she gets a pat on the back and free education. Sunset on the other hand is basically permanently exiled from Equestria. Bit of a disparity, no?
I would have loved to see at least some mention of punishment for her, even if it was just implied that if she fucked up again it was off to Pony Azkaban or the gallows. I mean she literally tried to flat out murder Royalty, that's treason with a capital T pretty much everywhere.
7101423 Starlight's *intentions* weren't as bad as what Sunset *intended* to do.
Both used mind games to brainwash a population to be their minions.
Starlight stole Twilight's cutie mark with the intention of convincing her to join her cause. Sunset tried to kill Twilight with fireballs.
Starlight meddled with time travel intending to make it so that Twilight never met her friends. Sunset planned to invade Equestria with an army of extradimensional creatures and overthrow the government.
Starlight agreed to stop after being shown what effect her actions were actually having. Sunset needed to be blasted by rainbows before she'd give up.
By every measure *except* actual results, Starlight's crimes are less severe.
7101534
I'd argue that Starlight is by far the more dangerous of the two, simply because she felt her actions were right. Sunset may have one day been satisfied with her conquests, but Starlight's own conscience would continually egg her further and further along, because she thinks it's for your own good. Sunset would have committed atrocities. Starlight would have made other ponies commit them for the 'cause'. Honestly, end game wise, I'd actually rate Starlight as worse than Sunset when it came to intentions.
All this is *before* you take into account meta knowledge of just how screwed Equestria was without the Elements.
This is entirely superior to the ridiculously forced, hackneyed "redemption" from the show. I know that's not exactly a high bar to surpass (sort of like calling a delicious meal "better than a turd sandwich"), but please take it for the compliment it is.
I had almost forgotten Starlight would be wanted for crimes from the season premier. It painted a funny picture in my mind of the upcoming trial.
Judge: "The defendant stands accused of... attempting to break up a friendship?"
Twilight: "I swear, it was more dire in context!"
I honestly prefer this to the canon endint.
Close to four moths without updates. What's up with that?
7341501
Close to three, actually, but it's still a fair question. The short version is I've been very busy with my work recently, and on the creative side I've been more focused on putting together characters and scenarios for a tabletop game I'll be running at this year's Bronycon, which is soon upon us.
I'm presently hoping to have the next chapter, and possibly the omake as well, released a little bit after the con. Possibly sooner, should my muse decide it is time.
this was well done man.
Fun Question...What if Twilight began to actually explore the alternate timelines when she realized she had all the time in the world? And used it to...pick up a few things.
Heh...imagine if she found Celestia in one timeline,explained things, and got combat training from an Alicorn.
7761241
Amusingly, that very idea is the centerpiece of one of the eventually-to-be-published omake; I'm sure you'll know which one when the time comes - though you must think bigger.
To mention, there is an interesting question about what can come back. In the episode proper, the zebra markings didn't return to the past with Twilight after the encounter with Chrysalis, and whether that can be written off as animator fiat or actually indicates something about the rules of the spell is open to interpretation. Of course, as experiences stick around, training should be fine.
7768604 oh man,if you want to get into animation errors...watch 'Everything Wrong With' episode on youtube for the nightmare night episode...They point out SO many issues with that one,including when Mayor Mare in the clown suit talks to the ponys...they literally copy pasted the rows multiple times. (i see multiple scootaloo,rainbow dash, and others PINKIE! WE SAID NO MORE MIRROR POOL! )
7098749
...they said, 47 weeks ago.
This was a neat concept, too bad its dead.
I'm sorry, I can't read part 3... part 2 is just too perfect here. My favourite part is this line...
I do not know why, but I always feel so happy reading that line...
Cute, uplifting ending. I feel like it's a bit hollow though... I wonder what the alternates have in store...
7100558
Because no corpus delicti.
Simply put -- there'd never been a crime. Duh!