• Published 3rd Jun 2016
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Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky - PortalJumper



The land of Equestria is a dismal place, forgotten as it is by its five Princesses. Now, a chosen unicorn has been tasked with returning the Princesses to their thrones, lest the world rend itself asunder.

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Part V - Chapter 13: Twilight Of The Gods

Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky

Part V - Chapter 13: Twilight Of The Gods

* * *

Pain wracked Starlit's face and chest and she couldn't feel anything below her torso. Her pulse beat dully in her ears and when she dared to crack her eyes open everything was tinged with crimson. She was delirious, on her side, and laying not fifteen feet away from her was Twilight Sparkle, who looked just about as bad as Starlit felt.

Starlit tried to croak out a few words to her adversary, but the only thing that fell from her mouth was a hoarse groan. Slowly, gingerly, she tried to crawl towards Twilight, but every movement of her legs was agony. She flopped back to the marble floor, now strewn with debris and cracked asunder, letting her gaze shift towards the dais.

Where once there were five thrones and three statues there was now simply a crater, and where the Crystal Heart had once been there was only her shard, floating in a nimbus of silver light and with the remains of her spear melted against it to make a crude bezel for the stone.

Again Starlit tried to crawl, making precious inches towards the stone. If she could draw the power from it again she could heal, but the excruciating inches she was making towards it were taking up any focus she might have been able to put towards conjuring her magic.

A slight shuffling to her right drew Starlit's attention, where she could see Twilight starting to stir. Slowly, but with a measure of power behind her, the Princess got up to her hooves. Her armor had been blown off of her body and she was covered in burns and lacerations, her horn was visibly cracked and leaking magenta magic, but the most horrifying injuries came from the rivulets of molten gold that were dripping down Twilight's formerly beatific face. Her fur crinkled and curled back from her melted crown, her mane was smoking and burning away, and one of her eyes was fully coated in gold that was slowly pooling into the socket.

Starlit started crawling faster, hoping that she hadn't drawn Twilight's notice given she was on the Princess's blind side, until a clatter of metal made Twilight whip her head to the side and directly at Starlit.

"You!" Twilight growled, her one good eye a pinprick of fury.

Starlit looked down to see what had made the noise as she kept crawling, and saw her husband's badge laying on the ground. It's silver surface was marred, blackened, and pitted, but she could still see the combination of their cutie marks on its rough surface.

Starlit's body screamed at her to stop moving, but its wish was granted not by Starlit succumbing, but by a halo of magenta magic holding her down. All Starlit could do was move her eyes, and she could just see Twilight trudging towards her prone before before she was lifted bodily to face the Princess's ruined visage.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?!" Twilight screamed, every bit of her feigned decorum blown away with her armor.

"I… I really don't…" Starlit croaked. Her words scraped against her throat like sand.

A flare of the magic encasing Starlit's body wrenched her head backward, pointing her eyes to the ceiling, or lack thereof. The sky, which had moments ago been blue, was now a multi-colored haze of reds, greens, blues, and every other color Starlit could think of. They swirled and danced across the endless expanse of the sky, merrily swirling this way and that without a care.

"You've destroyed millennia of effort!" Twilight replied, wrenching Starlit's head back down. "There will never be order, never be peace again, all because of you! How can you not understand the enormity of what you have robbed us all of!?"

"Can't… steal something… you never had…" Starlit croaked.

Starlit's head cracked against the ruined masonry as she was hurled bodily towards the hole that had once been the dais, her vision sparking as she collided with the floor. A high whining sound was all she could hear as she stared up at her shard, solidified silver metal dripping off of it like wax, and in the silence she tried to focus what little energy she had left into her horn and the shard hanging precipitously over her.

The flickering, dull teal bead of light at the tip of her horn was quickly snuffed out by an iron grip of magenta, followed by the blinding pain of a bone breaking under tremendous force.

"Can't have that, now can we?" Twilight asked facetiously as Starlit let a ragged howl escape her lips.

Blood ran down Starlit's face as Twilight lifted her up again, facing the shard of the Heart of Fate. Starlit could see herself reflected in its rough, faceted surface, a vision of misery and pain.

"I may not be able to salvage my work without the Crystal Heart, but I can certainly make you suffer for ruining it!" Twilight mocked as she turned Starlit around to face her.

Another hoarse cry flew from Starlit's mouth as she felt Twilight's magic burn into the stump where her horn had been. She felt as though her face was being pressed into a fire, and slow creeping burn radiated and pulsed through her neck and chest as more and more of the magic invaded her body.

"You are untainted by Chrysalis's curse, and so you are going to be the one that starts this process going all over again!" Twilight said with a sadistic smile. "If I can't have the Crystal Heart's power, then I will at least have one of the last true unicorns in Equestria! You will be mine, and when Chrysalis burns this world down we will be the only ones who last beyond it!"

Starlit's crimson vision started to fade as she felt the power of Twilight working and digging through her body and with nervous tingling the feeling began to return to her hind legs, leaving only the searing blinding pain in her head as the sole focus of her agony.

When Starlit's vision completely cleared she could see Twilight more clearly, her mangled face contorted into manic rage. Her teeth were gritted into a snarl, her horn flaked and cracked under the strain of her own power, and a stream of tears drained out of her sole remaining eye.

Starlit's heart broke for Twilight, and despite herself she slowly raised a hoof to Twilight's face. The maddened Princess's gaze flicked to the hoof, as though she were expecting an attack, but didn't recoil when Starlit ran it gently down her cheek to wipe away her tears.

"Why?" Starlit asked softly, the best she could do given the circumstances. "Why do you hate us so much?"

Twilight didn't back up, letting Starlit continue to gently rub her cheek. Her snarl fell slightly, her furrowed eyebrow raising.

"What?" Twilight snapped back, hardening her expression.

"You have so much hate in you," Starlit answered. "Hate for the other Princesses, hate for Equestria, and hate for me."

"Why shouldn't I?! After all that everypony has ever taken from me, aren't I entitled to my anger?! My kingdom is dead, my subjects are cursed, and all of this because I tried to help you, to save you from yourselves!"

Twilight's tears fell harder and faster, pooling underneath Starlit's hoof, and in her anger Starlit could feel the catch in the Princess's voice through her hoof.

"I tried it your way once!" Twilight continued, her voice thick. "I tried to convince ponies to be better than they were! I tried to be an exemplar! I tried for so long to be a good ruler!"

"Then try again," Starlit said, raising her other hoof and placing it against Twilight's other cheek. She could feel the hot gold singe into her fur and flesh, but she endured the pain. "Nopony was ever perfect the first time they tried something."

"But I was supposed to be perfect!" Twilight cried out, weakening the flow of magic into Starlit's burning stump. "Equestria's magic was my burden, and I failed to bear it. Celestia and Luna spent more time jockeying for favor than they did ruling, Cadance couldn't have cared less about anything outside of the Empire, and Chrysalis tried to subvert our rule at every opportunity. I was the only one that ever tried to rule this kingdom, and I failed!"

The magenta field holding Starlit failed as Twilight broke down, and Starlit landed at the edge of the open hole as Twilight started to sob in earnest. They were still connected through Twilight's magic, but the thread of magenta was wavering and weak compared to the agonizing beam that it had been.

"I was given this gift to make Equestria a better place, and I failed," Twilight weeped, her eyes cast to the ruined floor. "I tried to do so much good, and then threw it all away for nothing."

"I don't think it was for nothing," Starlit replied, scooting away from the edge of the hole and closer to Twilight. Her joints creaked, her muscles were sore, and her throat burned, but she felt far better than she had been just a few minutes before.

"What?"

"It was terrible what happened, don't misunderstand me, but it wasn't for nothing," Starlit repeated. "Everything you've done, everything you've been through, everything you've put everypony through for all this time, has been to place you and I at this exact moment."

"You can't possibly believe that this moment has been worth all of this pain and sacrifice," Twilight countered.

"I suppose that depends on how this moment plays out, but I believe that all it takes is one moment that can make all the difference. If you hadn't talked to me on that night last month we wouldn't be here now, and if my husband had been the one on watch that night he might be here instead of me."

Twilight looked at Starlit with her one good eye, the gold encasing her face having cooled and the magic no longer pouring out of her horn.

"A life is is just a series of moments," Starlit continued, "and while some of those moments have more weight than others I think that all of them matter because they all go towards making you who you are."

"You... say this as if I don't already know this," Twilight replied with a hiccup.

"I'm telling you this because I think that you've forgotten," Starlit countered. "You've lived so much longer than anypony else, and maybe you've started to miss the little moments in exchange for the big picture you've been working towards that just fell apart."

Starlit reflexively backed up as she saw Twilight's horn illuminate again, only for the Princess to wince in pain as another piece of her cracked horn fell off and clattered to the floor.

"Here, let me show you something," Starlit said as she stood up and shakily walked to where her husband's badge had dropped, limping to keep her weight off of her burned hoof. She carefully picked the badge up in her teeth and held it up to Twilight's good eye.

"What is this?" Twilight asked as she carefully picked the badge up in her magic.

"It belongs to my husband, the one you trapped for a month," Starlit answered. "It was his badge when he served with our town's watch, but he lost his post after he went missing for a month."

"Oh," Twilight sheepishly responded. "I'm sorry."

"It's no matter, really. He's strong and he's honest, so he'll be able to get another job."

"Then why show this meaningless trinket to me?"

"Because it does have meaning," Starlit answered, lifting a shaking hoof to the insignia on the badge. "See that circle of runes around the mace?"

"Yes," Twilight answered. "They are old Equestrian letters, by the looks of them."

"That's the ring of runes from my cutie mark," Starlit replied, lifting the tasset of her armor to show her mark. "He had them carved in and gave that to me when I left to come here, as a good luck charm."

"I… I don't think I understand," Twilight said. It was the first time Starlit had ever heard something approaching confusion in Twilight's voice.

"Maybe I'm not explaining it well enough," Starlit admitted. "After all, we both just took some fairly serious blows to the head."

"Then, could I take a guess?" Twilight asked, catching Starlit off guard.

"I don't see why not. It's not like I'm in any position to stop you."

"The way I see it," Twilight said, the hesitancy in her voice so much like Eclipse's, "it's to show that just because something has lost its original purpose, doesn't mean it can't have a new one if it's given the chance."

"For all the lies you've told me over this month, you really are as smart as the stories said you are," Starlit replied, placing a hoof against Twilight's.

"My intelligence is why I was chosen for all of this, you know," Twilight said, lowering the badge back down to Starlit. "I excelled in my studies as a youth, and when the time came to select a new Princess I was considered the natural choice."

"Because magic is such an easily studied thing," Starlit replied ruefully, remembering all of the times when magic had done something completely unexpected to her over the last month.

"It was in the Empire, and I was one of the best at studying, applying, and modifying it. Magic is my life, my purpose."

"And now that you've lost control of it, you're wondering what you can do with yourself without it?" Starlit asked.

A few more tears fell out of Twilight's one good eye as they stared at the floating black crystal in front of them, glowing with silver light and encased in melted and solidified steel.

"What can my purpose be if not to try and bring Equestria back to its apex?" Twilight asked softly, eyes still fixed on the stone. "If the magic of this world refuses to be controlled, then why should there be a Princess of Magic?"

"Maybe there shouldn't be," Starlit answered. "Maybe the alicorns were wrong. Maybe magic can't be controlled, and now that we've set it free again you can find a new way to make Equestria better."

Twilight slowly turned to look down at Starlit, the gold encasing her face glittering in the multi-colored light of Equestria's magic dancing across the sky. Tear-stains darkened what little fur remained on her face that was unmarred, but for the first time since they'd started their fight Twilight was smiling. Through the burns, blood, and gold, she was smiling that same sweet smile Starlit remembered seeing on that lonely night all those weeks ago.

"Do you think I can do it? Make up for all of the things I've done, just like that?" Twilight replied as she began to glow a warm, peaceful magenta.

"We won't know unless you try, now will we?" Starlit answered.

Slowly Twilight's figure was obscured in the field of magic she was generating around herself, before it all began to shrink down to the stature that Starlit remembered. As Twilight shrank, her magic began to float away in loose threads of light, rising up through the destroyed ceiling to join the madcap dance of Equestria's magic in the sky.

When the last of the magic finally dissipated from Twilight's body she was back to the same size that she had assumed all the time that Starlit had known her, with the only major change being Twilight's now solid grey left eye surrounded by long-healed scar tissue.

"Nice to see the real Twilight Sparkle again," Starlit said with a smile as she wearily stood to her hooves. "Sorry about your eye."

"It will be a reminder of the price of my ambitions," Twilight replied. "Does it… look too bad?"

"It isn't the worst I've seen by a long shot," Starlit answered. "Humility suits you."

"I'm sorry about your horn," Twilight said softly, taking Starlit's words to heart.

"It isn't—ah—isn't like I got much use out of it before all of this nonsense anyway," Starlit replied, a twinge of pain going through her head as she remembered her missing appendage. "If that's the price I pay to end this without any more bloodshed, then I'll pay it."

Just as Starlit turned to start walking to the entry hall there was a thunderous sound, like the Crystal Heart's destruction but much further away.

"What was that?" Starlit asked, looking up to the sky.

Silhouetted against the multicolored sky was a figure, pony shaped but much smaller. It was only after staring at it for a moment that she realized the figure was getting larger, much larger and much more metallic than any living pony.

"Run!" Starlit screamed as she darted forward as fast as her aching legs would take her.

There wasn't enough time, and between her sluggish muscles and trying to protect Twilight, Starlit couldn't get out of the way fast enough. There was a booming crash, the screech of metal on stone, and then silence as Starlit awaited the inevitable.

* * *

The Heart stood in front of the gates into Canterlot Castle proper, smirking at the decrepit state of its defenders with their champion's lips. Twilight's experiments with their shards had yielded these constructs, so it only seemed right that they would set out to destroy the titanic one guarding the gate.

"More's the pity that I couldn't free that poor soul from its prison," the Heart murmured to themself. "Another sin Twilight Sparkle will be made to atone for in due time.

With a stiff elegance the Heart directed Sun's magic to levitate them, gliding off of the ground and ascending towards the tallest spire where, surely, Twilight Sparkle and Starlit Sky would be waiting, provided neither had been crushed under the titan. Either outcome would satisfy their desire, but fewer unnecessary deaths were preferable.

The Heart took note of the dancing hues of magic spread out through the sky, all originating from the central spire, and they smiled. Starlit Sky had played her role out expertly, clearing the way for them to see this grand debacle finished appropriately.

When the Heart crested the top of the spire they could see the roof, already blown wide open from the Crystal Heart's destruction, now had the hind legs of the titan construct sticking out from the remnants. Dust still clogged the air, obscuring their vision and necessitating that they approach for a closer look.

The dust began to settle as the Heart glided down into the wreckage, and they cocked their head curiously when they saw a faint glimmer of light twinkling from behind the cloud of dust and debris. Sinking into the cloud they followed the light, descending through a few floors as the floor of the throne room had given way.

It was only when the Heart descended down to the foyer level that they could discern the color of the light; a brilliant teal, streaked with magenta that flickered and danced throughout it.

With a soft click of hooves the Heart alighted onto the ruined marble floor, letting the dust settle until they could get a good look at Starlit Sky and Twilight Sparkle, hunkered beneath their thin veil of magic that rightfully belonged to them.

* * *

Starlit was dumbfounded at how she was still alive, much less able to manifest a ward without her own horn. Her legs were shaky and her forehead felt like somepony was taking a hammer to it, but she was still casting the spell all the same.

"H… how?" Twilight choked out.

"I think the more pertinent question right now is 'what?'," Starlit retorted. "What happened?"

"Your horn," Twilight said, awestruck. "It's made… it's made out of magic! How is that even possible?"

"Focus, Twilight," Starlit reprimanded. "We can sort me out later. Right now I need you to tell me what just fell on top of us."

"I… I don't kn—"

Twilight stopped her sentence short as the dust began to settle, and Starlit's gaze shifted from her charge out to what Twilight was staring at. Starlit's heart leapt into her throat when she saw what Twilight had.

At the foot of the grand staircase in the castle foyer, now covered in dust and stone, stood Setting Sun, but not as Starlit remembered him. His fur was a paler red and streaked with veins of silver all originating from his horn, which was now a large shard of the Heart of Fate. His eyes were still green, but where his pupils should be were instead two bright spots of silver light that burned with an intensity brighter than the shard that Starlit had carried with her.

"Sun!" Starlit called out, dropping the ward as she raced towards him. "Sun, what happened to you?!"

"We are not Setting Sun, Starlit Sky," Sun answered, stopping Starlit dead in her tracks halfway down the stairs.

"What?"

"We took this vessel to suit our purposes, and that purpose is to rebalance this ruined and failed experiment of a world," Sun continued. "You have performed your role admirably and will be given a place in the world that is to come, but your duty is finished. Go home, and leave us to our work."

Starlit couldn't find the words to describe what she was seeing. All she could feel was the rapid beat of her heart in her chest and the souring of her stomach as she stared at the entity that was puppeteering her friend.

"Starlit, don't leave me here!" Twilight called from the top of the stairs. Starlit flicked her head back towards Twilight, who was battered and bruised from the fall. She looked terrified, and Starlit slowly turned her head back to face the being before her.

"What did you do to Setting Sun, Chrysalis?" Starlit asked, failing to keep her malice in check as she began to trudge down the rest of the steps.

"We are not Chrysalis, though she is a part of us," the being replied. "We are the Heart of Fate, and we have a duty to fulfill. Give us Twilight Sparkle, and be spared the pain of our wrath."

Starlit felt the hammering in her head come back as magic flared from her horn, solidifying into a ward around her body, ethereal wings sprouting from her back, and a lance of pure teal and magenta magic at her side.

"Oh, you'll have to kill me for that to happen," Starlit snarled.

"We would like to avoid any more needless deaths," the Heart replied, "though we will defend ourselves if you threaten us any further."

"Then let me lay this out on the table for you," Starlit growled as she got to the foot of the stairs. "You are going to leave my friend's body, you are going to let Twilight live with the weight of what she has done, and you will let Equestria recover from these centuries of neglect. No rebalancing, no more death. These are my terms, take them or leave them."

"Setting Sun would not survive were we to leave his body," the Heart replied, "and Twilight Sparkle's sins against the natural order of this world are far too great to let her go free with no more penance than guilt. She has cursed this world to a slow and painful end, and so we must correct her mistake with a swift, painless one."

Starlit didn't even wait for the last word to leave the Heart's lips before she launched her lance forward, it's glimmering form flying faster than she'd ever made anything go before. Starlit flew alongside it, rocketing forward at such speed that she could scarcely control it.

The Heart nimbly dodged to the side, avoiding the lance before ducking beneath Starlit's speeding body. With a quick upward jut of Sun's head Starlit was thrown off course, going flank over end as she fell against the marble floor and slid to a stop. Her ward had taken most of the hit, but she still had had the wind knocked out of her.

"Stay down, Starlit Sky," the Heart said as it began to ascend the stairs towards Twilight.

Starlit slowly started to reorient her aching body when she felt a hoof clink against something. Turning towards it, she saw the statue of Celestia from the throne room, with the statues of Luna and Cadance laying a few feet behind it. Despite the explosion and falling all the way down from the throne room, none of the statues looked any worse for wear. The translucent orange crystal glimmered merrily, and through her hoof Starlit could feel a pulse of energy from it. The sensation was warm and familiar, like laying in the grass on a sunny day.

An idea sparked into her head, one that she prayed she could make work in time to save Twilight and Sun.

* * *

Twilight panicked as the grim visage of Setting Sun, now mangled and indwelt by whatever Chrysalis had done to him, marched up the staircase towards her. His face held no malice; in fact, he appeared to be entirely calm, further accentuating just how little of himself must still remain. The Heart of Fate had total control of his body, and Twilight silently thanked Starlit Sky for preventing her from doing the same thing.

"Twilight Sparkle, this doesn't need to be hard," the Heart said, their voice even and calm. "Your punishment for the sins you have committed against our world need not be drawn out and painful. Accept the end, and it will come swiftly."

"What about Celestia, or Luna and Cadance?" Twilight asked, nearly begging, as she backed away from the approaching figure. "All of them were just as complicit in the state of the world as I am, and I only used their fragments of the Crystal Heart to imprison them, not kill them."

"Their punishment will be meted out in due course, but yours is the most egregious crime and thus the most deserving of punishment. Again, this does not need to be a hard process, but choose to fight and we will ensure that your end is slow and painful."

A jolt went down Twilight's spine as she hit the wall at the top of the staircase. There was nowhere else to run, she couldn't outfly the creature in front of her, and her magic was nearly spent from trying to dominate Starlit's mind.

Slowly Twilight sank down against the wall, tears flowing from her eyes as the enormity of her fate fully gripped her mind. Thousands of years of life, only for it to be snuffed out in so undignified a fashion.

"Do not weep, Twilight Sparkle, for with your death the new world begins," the Heart said as it stood over her, the shard in its forehead radiating silver light that cast stark shadows along its face. Its eyes were fully obscured in shadow save for the glowing dots of silver in their centers.

Never had Twilight felt so powerless.

* * *

The pain in Starlit's horn stump throbbed throughout her head as she started to focus her magic into the statue of Celestia. The mingled teal and magenta magic bled and spread into the orange crystal, and slowly Starlit could feel the power, Celestia's power, bleeding into herself. Her mixed-color magic soon gained streaks of orange as she drew Celestia's radiant power into herself, and as Starlit felt her body invigorate she could see the crystal slowly break and fall away, leaving Celestia's prone form on the rough marble floor.

Rising to her hooves, body coursing with newfound power, Starlit stepped towards the statues of Luna and Cadance, and in a similar manner drained their statues away until all that was left were two prone figures on the ground, asleep but relatively unharmed.

The pain in Starlit's horn had vanished entirely, as did the aches and pains in her body from the fight with Twilight and the destruction of the Crystal Heart. The beat of her heart was strong, and her hooves fell with surety of purpose as she ascended the stairs.

A scream echoed out from the landing at the top of the staircase, and with a swift beat of her spectral wings Starlit rose high up to see Twilight hanging in a nimbus of silver light, held aloft by the monster that had possessed Setting Sun.

The sight made her stomach twist, and as it turned to face her she couldn't contain her contempt.

* * *

"Let. Her. Go," Starlit demanded, her voice echoing with power as she held herself aloft on glimmering wings of energy.

The Heart stared up at Starlit Sky curiously, momentarily halting their execution of Twilight Sparkle and letting her fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.

The being floating above their head was recognizably Starlit Sky, that much was certain, but with the proportions of a true alicorn. Her dusky blue mane and tail floated with ethereal energy, and her rough leather armor was now immaculate, hardened leather plate dyed a deep, midnight blue. The beam of energy replacing her horn shimmered and glowed with the colors of the Princesses she had stolen it from, complimenting the spectral wings protruding from her back. They both made for an eerie companion to the sky above that swirled and danced with all of Equestria's magic.

"We tried to ask, tried to reason with you, but now you have forced our hoof," the Heart replied, floating up into the air to meet Starlit. "You cannot stop what must be done, even with all of this stolen magic. Go home, Starlit Sky."

"You know, Twilight told me the exact same thing before we fought," Starlit said, "and I have to say I have gotten sick and tired of being told to go home, or stay down, or to just stop."

"Why do you persist, Starlit Sky?" the Heart demanded. "This fight is not yours and this alicorn does not deserve your sympathy or your pity. You and everyone you care for will have a new place in the world we will craft for them, so why do you insist on halting what we are trying to set into motion?"

A ringing, echoing peal of laughter escaped Starlit Sky's lungs, a reaction that caught the Heart off guard.

"Do you think I'll trust the creation of a new world to a being that would lie to my friend and override his body?" Starlit asked, incredulity heavy in her echoing voice. "You're just as bad as the alicorns! It doesn't matter to me what you say; all of your good intentions and safeguards for me and mine aren't going to convince me to rear my daughter in a world crafted by a thing like you!"

"Then what would you suggest is the alternative?" The Heart asked back. "Fate must run its course. Order must be maintained if this world is to survive."

"Then I'll just have to take fate into my own hooves."

With Starlit's declaration she manifested a ward around her body, one that shimmered and glowed with the power of all the alicorn Princesses of Equestria, followed by an array of eight spears. Some burned with spectral fire, others crackled with electricity and power, and some still were coated in arcane rime and frost.

"If you want to kill Setting Sun by your own hoof, the allow us to oblige you," the Heart countered as it manifested a field of crystalline daggers, each glowing with a silver nimbus of light.

* * *

Twilight's vision swam as she came back to consciousness, both surprised and horrified at the fact that she was still alive. Pain wracked her body as she struggled to get up, and the all too familiar hum of magic and clashing of weapons filled her ears.

A small shard of crystal flew just past Twilight's head, embedding itself in the stone wall behind her. She yelped in surprise as she skittered away from the noise, looking to the source and seeing a black crystal dagger buried in stone up to the hilt and glowing with silver light.

Twilight whipped her head around to where she had last seen Starlit, only for her vision to be drawn upward as she saw the Heart in Setting Sun's body locked in combat with Starlit Sky. Bolts of magic flew and whizzed through the air, blowing holes into the walls and floor with each dodged assault. Starlit launched volleys of summoned spears as she weaved and flew around the black daggers the Heart was launching at her. Her form was resplendent with power, a being of raw magical might that Twilight could scarcely comprehend. There were so many things she couldn't comprehend anymore.

Another dagger flew wide, again just barely missing Twilight before digging into the floor, and Twilight knew she needed a place to hide from the storm of weaponry and magic. Looking frantically for anywhere to hide in such a cavernous room, Twilight's eyes happened across three prone figures that she hadn't expected to see intact, much less in flesh.

Down at the bottom of the stairs, thrown to the side of the stairs so they were hidden away from the worst of the battle, were her fellow Princesses, formerly her captives.

Twilight's heart fell into her hooves when she saw them, asleep and oblivious to the terror surrounding them. She had betrayed them, used their own powers against them, and she knew that she had no right to ask for any of their assistance if they even still lived.

Looking up to Starlit battling in the sky, fighting to save a world that the Princesses had ruined, Twilight Sparkle stood up and started running for the stairs. She had a plan; she just needed a bit of magic and all the faith in the world to make it work.

Spears and daggers flew past Twilight as she ran as fast as her aching body would carry her, a thin sheet of magic from her breaking horn doing just enough to deflect the closest blows. She tumbled down the last few steps as a spear landed directly in front of her, throwing her gait off. Her blind eye certainly wasn't helping with matters of depth perception, and when she landed on the marble floor she felt the wind leave her lungs.

Just barely maintaining the shield above her head Twilight crawled to the other Princesses, working her over-taxed magic to the breaking point to cover the other alicorns in front of her. Twilight huffed and puffed from exertion, her teeth grinding with every flex of her muscles. When she finally got to Celestia Twilight slapped her cheek with her hoof, hoping that she could rouse her with physical force where her magic could not.

Celestia's eyes shot open on contact, and she quickly flipped her head up to see Twilight struggling to keep her head up.

"You! What have you done?!" Celestia demanded.

"I've made a horrible mistake," Twilight grunted out as she held her shield above the both of them, "and it's only the latest in a very long series of mistakes. Starlit Sky is trying to save us all, and she needs our help."

"You think I'm going to help you after everything you've done to me!?" Celestia countered, a thin sheen of gold wrapping around her horn.

"I don't need you to help me, I need you to help her." Twilight answered pointing up to where Starlit and the Heart were still engaged.

Celestia's lavender eyes followed Twilight's hoof, her grimace softening into open-mouthed shock.

"As best as I can surmise, Starlit freed you, Luna, and Cadance from the prisons I trapped you in," Twilight continued, fighting the urge to cry out as a dagger glanced off of her shield, "and in doing so absorbed the powers that were granted by your pieces of the Crystal Heart that I used to seal you."

"Then why would she need us?" Celestia asked back. "She's far more powerful than any of us are now."

"Because right now she's fighting for Equestria, and we were its Princesses once. She could have killed me and she didn't. She could've abandoned her duty, and she didn't. She is better than all of us are, and I guess deep down I always knew that. We need to help her because we need to live up to her example."

Celestia's eyes flicked between the ongoing battle and Twilight laying in front of her, the glow from her horn slowly diminishing as she stood up. With a quick flick of the horn Celestia stood Twilight up, gently cradling her torso before letting her hooves get back under her.

"What happened to the arrogant, scheming, conniving alicorn that you were?" Celestia asked.

"I… I think I made a friend," Twilight answered with a short chuckle.

"Starlit is good at that, to give credit where it's due," Celestia replied with a rueful smile. "Help me get my sister and Cadance awake, because there's a fight to be had."

* * *

Starlit could feel her pulse through every inch of her body as salvo after salvo of spears flew from her horn. Her shoulders ached with the effort of flight, and the few nicks and scratches she'd gotten from the Heart's crystal daggers burned like fire. All in all, the fight was going more or less how she had planned it to go, if only because the Heart was looking equally as worn out.

Feinting right, Starlit dodged another three daggers with a quick barrel roll, feeling the wind brush past her cheek as they flew past. Another spurt of magic from her horn threw a flaming spear directly towards the shard of black crystal embedded into Sun's head, the concentrated target of her attacks. She'd managed to get a few hits onto the shard, but they were barely glancing blows. The force controlling Sun's body had a masterful control over itself and him, and the shard was a small target to boot.

"Getting tired yet?" Starlit taunted, the echo in her voice adding some unneeded gravitas.

"Your puerile attempts to rouse our anger fall on deaf ears, Starlit Sky," the Heart replied through panting breaths.

“Then just let my friend go, and this all ends," Starlit countered, launching a lightning spear that exploded when it impacted against the far wall.

"Setting Sun is ours now, and he is integral to what needs to be done! Even if you were to remove us from him he would perish! Let these base emotional predations go and submit to the will of fate!"

Another trio of dagger flew out as the Heart dodged another flaming spear, which Starlit deftly blocked with a wave of her spectral wings that sent them skittering off course.

The Heart took Starlit's momentary distraction to attempt to fly at her from below, with a veritable field of whirling blades at its vanguard. All that it hit was a wall of force so strong that the Heart nearly fell to the ground, only to be stopped and grabbed by Starlit's considerable magical grip.

Starlit floated the monster wearing her friend's skin in front of her, the rage burning behind its glowing eyes neatly mirroring what Starlit felt in her heart.

"That was a very poor decision," Starlit admonished before sending a beam of magic directly into the shard embedded into Sun's forehead.

While Starlit hadn't thought the process of trying to remove the shard from Sun's forehead would be an easy one, she found the amount of power she was funneling into it to be wildly disproportionate to how worn out both of them seemed to be. Starlit could see the fragment starting to wriggle against the remains of Sun's horn, but it wasn't moving nearly as much as she needed to.

Her efforts were quickly rebuffed as a wave of silver force blasted from the fragment, throwing Starlit backwards enough that she slammed into the frame of the palace doors and nearly fell to the ground before barely catching herself with her wings.

"Enough!" the Heart bellowed. "Your determination is admirable but entirely misplaced! You cannot subvert the will of fate! All of the stolen power in the world cannot counter what must be done to save this world! Submit and I will spare you! Persist and you will become bones in the foundations of the new world!"

Starlit glared up to the being above her, encased in silver light that was slowly starting to flag and fail. She could see it slowly hovering to the ground, and with all of the energy it had expended Starlit knew she had it on the ropes. The only problem was that she could feel her magic ebbing away as well, enough that she was forced to alight on the ground.

"Why can't any of you just let us decide our own fates?!" Starlit asked back. "Whether it's the alicorns or you, nopony has ever asked us what we wanted! Your way hasn't worked, the alicorn's way hasn't worked, why not let ponies decide?!"

"Because you all are ours! We made you, we gave your world life, and you have proven time and again that you are unfit to rule yourselves! Better that you be snuffed out swiftly than die in the fires of your own ambitions!"

A wave of anger swept through Starlit's body, enough that she felt herself rapidly rising back into the air, faster than she one she was able to. It was only when she felt the gentle, soothing pulse of magic flowing into her body that she knew something was different, and looking around for the source she saw a sight that made her heart soar.

Standing to her right, channeling magic out of themselves and into her, were Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight Sparkle. They were all straining themselves to keep the flow going, but none so much as Twilight, who kept her eyes locked to Starlit as she ascended.

"In a different time I might have agreed with you," Starlit said, turning her head back to face the Heart. "I used to be a selfish mare, only concerned with myself and my family. I couldn't have given a whit about the wider world outside of my backyard. I've learned a lot during this whole nonsensical journey I've been on, but if I could get those four to set aside their differences for even a moment, then I'd say there's still some hope for us yet."

"A sentiment you will take to the grave, Starlit Sky," the Heart replied, manifesting more of its daggers and flying towards Starlit, its calm facade breaking down into a wild scream of anger.

The Heart barely made it a few feet before being halted by a halo of magic, one that Starlit knew the being before it could not struggle against. The crystal daggers fell to the ground with a clink of stone on stone before dissipating into grey dust.

"Life isn't predictable," Starlit continued as she connected her magic to the shard once more, "and it isn't fair. There are so many innocent ponies who have lost their lives waiting for this moment to happen, ones that will never get to see the fruits of their efforts. We may not always make the right choices, but for once in this world they will be our choices to make, free from you, and them, and anything else that would try to dictate to us how we should spend the gift of life that was given to us."

A spurt of blood sprayed from the stump of Sun's horn as Starlit manifested a ring of teal magic at its base, followed by an orange one further up the shard. A ring of blue, magenta, and periwinkle followed in ascending the length of the Heart of Fate's last free fragment, and it pained Starlit to see fear in the eyes of her closest friend as the Heart knew what was about to transpire.

"There will be no more Princesses. There will be no enigmatic gods pulling the strings of fate. There will only be ponies who are willing and able to fight for goodness, truth, and safety for everything in this world. Your time is over, and you will know that a pony brought you to your knees. Not an alicorn. Not a dragon. Just a pony who was willing to do what is right."

With a last pull, the shard came free, the visage of fear on Sun's face falling still and slack as silver light and blood burst from his head, dispelling the malign influence over him once and for all.

* * *

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