History Lesson

by Pun System

Beginning of the End

The next morning, Twilight, Starlight, and spike watched as the six friends gathered in the town hall. Rainbow Dash was aerially pacing in font of them, pitching her plan to them. “So yesterday, the changelings mentioned that Canterlot’s trains left the station before they could capture them. I was thinking we could do the same thing here in Ponyville.”

“They’ve probably learned from their mistake. I expect the train yard will be guarded,” said Cheerilee.

“There’s about twenty-five changelings here in Ponyville. I counted them yesterday after the march. Assuming that’s all the changelings in Ponyville at the moment, and considering that they have to spread out through the whole town, their numbers are going to be spread pretty thin in any one location.”

“But where would we go?” asked Rarity.

“It doesn’t matter. Appleoosa, Manehattan, Las Pegasus—as long as it’s not Canterlot. The first ones on the train should be the colts and fillies. That includes your class and your orphanage.” She pointed at Cheerilee and Rarity respectively. “If this turns into a long, drawn-out fight, Zecora becomes a high-priority target. And with Ponyville occupied, it’s not like we’ll be able to come back and get her.”

“C’mon now, Rainbow Dash. There ain’t no way we’re gonna win against both the changelings and the King!”

“We don’t have to, Applejack. The goal is more important than winning; it’s evacuating our friends.”

“You know what’s going to happen to Spike the moment the Queen finds out we’ve turned on her,” reminded Sunburst.

“It’s the same thing that will happen to a whole lot of our other friends if we help the changelings take over, let Sombra invade, or allow Ponyville to be caught in the crossfire between the two of them. Would you want that? Would Spike want that? Think in terms of numbers here. Just one or a whole town?”

“Rainbow Dash, please don’t put me up to a hard choice like this. I gave Spike a promise. He’s not just another number. He’s my friend. He’s like the little brother I never had.”

Rainbow landed in front of Sunburst and lowered her tone. “I’m sorry, Sunburst. That’s the way the circumstances already are. Look, I know firsthoof what it’s like to lose a friend. A close friend. A friend who didn’t deserve to die. That’s why I can’t let that happen again, not to Ponyville. Besides, Spike’s a dragon. They won’t even be able to hurt him,” she said, draping a wing over Sunburst’s withers.

Sunburst bowed his head in thought. Spike was counting on him, but so was Ponyville. Which was worth more, one life or a whole town? What if that one life was someone he really loved? What if he made a promise? Then would one life be worth all the others? Or would saving all those lives be worth breaking the promise? Would it be better to bear the pain of grief and loss himself, or to force it upon an entire town? Sunburst felt somepony hug his neck from the other side, and looked up to see Rarity looking at him comfortingly. “Sunburst, dear, I know this is a difficult choice for you. I’m here for you, whatever your choice.”

Sunburst lowered his head again, weighing more questions with no right answers, and judging the possible outcomes. When at last he raised his head, his eyes were full of tears. “We will evacuate Ponyville.”

---

Rarity soothingly stroked the back of Sunburst’s neck, his face buried in his hooves as he sat with the others around a table. Pinkie Pie lamented, “I really, really don’t like seeing him like this, girls. I hate it when I can’t cheer ponies up.”

“Spike is like a brother to him, Pinkie Pie,” said Rarity. “I’d say I can’t imagine what he’s going through, but I can. I would never forgive myself for doing the same thing to poor Sweetie Belle.”

“I know what you mean. I’d feel the same way about Apple Bloom,” added Applejack.

“I have a whole class of colts and fillies who look up to me,” said Cheerilee. “Besides that, Sweetie Belle looked up to me almost like I was her second big sister before I was ever her teacher. It was through foal-sitting her that I found I was good with kids.”

“And you’re somewhat of a big sister to me, Cheerilee, even if you are only my elder by a year,” said Rarity.

Rainbow Dash returned to the table with the Mayor at her side. Mayor Mare was carrying a map of Ponyville, which she spread out on the table. “I still can’t believe there are changelings here! Right under my very muzzle!” said the Mayor.

“Can everypony see the map ok?” Rainbow Dash asked. There were nods all around. “Great. Rarity, Cheerilee, you two will evacuate the colts and fillies from the orphanage and the school. Pinkie Pie, evacuate everypony else in our area of town. Sunburst, your task will be to go find Zecora. Applejack, you’ll have Sweet Apple Acres and the houses on that side of town. I’ll take this last section,” she said as she pointed to an area on the map. “Be quick, everypony, but try not to make it obvious what we’re doing. Remember, there’s about twenty-five changelings around town, and once they find out what we’re doing, they probably won’t be too happy and will likely try to stop us. Now let’s get moving!” The group dispersed, and the Mayor approached Rainbow Dash.

“How do you want me to help, Rainbow Dash?”

“You represent the government here, Mayor. We need you to get to the train station without getting caught. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some friends to evacuate. I’ll see you at the train!" And with that, Rainbow dashed off.

---

Applejack galloped through town towards her family’s farm. She raced around a corner, but had to lock her knees and skid to a stop in order to prevent a collision with a pair of changeling drones. “What’s the hurry?” asked the first changeling.

“Oh, uh, we—we need my brother to—uh, to help put up a barricade on the west side of town! You know, to keep the King out,” she said. The two changelings glanced at each other briefly, then back at Applejack.

“That’s the direction Queen Chrysalis is coming from,” said the first changeling.

“Whoops! Heh heh. I—uh, I meant the north side,” she said, pointing a hoof to the north.

The second changeling glanced up at the sun. “Aren’t you pointing southeast?”

“Aw, shoot. I guess I am, ain’t I? Well, what can I say? I never was too good at geometry. Er, geography.” Applejack smiled nervously. She could hear her heart racing. She could feel the sweat dripping down her face. Why did she have to be so bad at lying?

The changelings shot each other another glance. “Typical blonde,” said the first with a shrug. He turned into a replica of Applejack. “Howdy! Y’all!” he said with an exaggerated accent. “Look et me! Ah cain’t tell mah raht hooves frum mah left! Huh huh huh!”

Applejack laughed nervously while the changelings cackled hysterically. As she began again, she was careful to mind her i’s and ah’s. “So, I guess I can be on my way then?” she asked. Overstressing her pronunciation only made the two changelings laugh harder. Since the two were apparently going to be laughing for some time before they would be able to answer, Applejack decided to just go around them. “We’ll see who’s laughin’ at who come the end of the day,” she muttered under her breath.

---

Rarity looked across the back side of the train station towards Cheerilee. The mulberry earth pony peeked around a corner and signaled back “all-clear.”

“Quickly, now, let’s move,” Rarity whispered to the herd of colts and fillies behind her. The young herd moved as silently as one could expect a group of frightened school-aged ponies to be when walking across a wooden platform. Cheerilee darted around the corner and Rarity moved to where Cheerilee had been standing. A moment later, Rarity peeked around the side of the building, and Cheerilee made three tally marks in the air with a hoof. “Three changelings on the platform. Sidi, watch the colts and fillies. Shard, come with me.” The pair quietly approached Cheerilee.

“On three,” whispered Cheerilee. “One, two, three!” Rarity leapt around the corner and found a target for her horn blast. She fired, scoring a direct hit. Cheerilee charged forward and bucked the second changeling. His head clanged against the train, and he slid down between the train and the platform. A moment later, Cheerilee was hit in the leg and held fast by a sticky green goo. Shard blasted ice at the third changeling, encasing his front half. She then breathed on the goo holding Cheerilee's hoof, making it solid and brittle enough to break with a flick from her claw.

“Sidi, now!” Rarity called. The young ponies galloped forward and boarded the train.

“What do we do next, Rarity?” asked Shard.

“Now, we just hold here while the others evacuate the city ahead of Sombra and Chrysalis.”

“Awww. I was hoping we’d get to fight!” said Sidi. “All we ever do is run away! First you told me, Shard, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders to get to the train at Canterlot, now we’re catching a train out of Ponyville!”

“There’s just too many of them,” stated Cheerilee. “We have to pick our battles. Right now Ponyville is about to be the site of a battle between King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis. It’s not safe for us to stay. I’m sorry. This is the way it has to be.” Sidi sighed and reluctantly boarded the train behind her sister.

---

Rainbow Dash exited another house near the edge of town and would have casually strolled into another, but a growing cloud outside of town caught her eye. It wasn’t a cloud that a pegasus might move, but rather a cloud of dust kicked up by the hooves of a large number of ponies. Or changelings. She couldn’t tell. She took to the skies to get a better vantage point. She saw no wings characteristic of changelings, and figured it was King Sombra. Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise on either side of her. She cast a glance in each direction to see two changelings on either side of her. Her initial instinct was to fight them, but they seemed to have their eyes fixed on Sombra’s army. Well, as long as they weren't fighting her, she might have a use for them. “So what do you say we give them a warm welcome?” Rainbow asked.

“But there’s only five of us,” came the reply.

“Exactly my kind of a fight!” She rose in altitude and flew over top of the enemy column, diving directly down onto it and creating a large, rainbow-colored explosion. A few moments later, the four changelings put up green shields and dive-bombed the crystal ponies, leaving four changeling-sized craters in the ground. The five fought ferociously; bucking, kicking, punching, and magically blasting one crystal pony after another.

Without warning, a black crystal emerged from the ground, encased the neck of one changeling and choked him out. From this crystal grew a black unicorn wearing red robes. His eyes were the darkest, most menacing, most frightening things Rainbow Dash had ever seen. When their gaze fell on her, she became paralyzed with fear and lost all will to fight.

“The whites of her eyes, they’ve turned green! And they’re venting purple smoke!” shouted Starlight.

“King Sombra’s power with Dark Magic is unrivaled, and he commands an iron rule through hate and fear,” Twilight explained. As the two had spoken, Sombra had grown the crystal underneath him until he towered over Rainbow and two of the changelings, all three petrified with fear of his hateful gaze. The lone free changeling blasted the King from behind, briefly drawing away his attention. Sombra then entered his shadow form and engulfed the attacking changeling, leaving small black crystals on his horn.

Rainbow Dash finally broke free from her trance and flew towards town as fast as she could. The time for subtlety was over; now was the time for action. “King Sombra is here!” she shouted. “Get to the train station! Everypony, get to the train station!”

---

“Alright, y’all. Follow me!” The ever-growing herd behind Applejack galloped onward toward the train station. The group skidded to a halt when four ponies blocking their path reverted to their changeling forms.

“ ‘Putting up a barricade’?” asked the lead changeling, making air quotes with his hooves.

“Nnope.” said Big Mac.

“Listen. These here are my friends and family. I ain’t lettin’ them get taken over by a bunch of bugs.”

“What are we supposed to eat if our source of love gets away?”

“You had orders from the Queen herself!” said the second changeling.

“Well you can tell your high’n’mighty Queen to take that pretty little crown of hers and stick it where the sun don’t shine! And you can tell her I said so!”

Big Mac seconded his sister’s motion. “Eeyup!”

“We may eat love, but you’re going to eat those words,” said the first changeling.

“I don't know about that!” Applejack had hog-tied the first changeling before he even knew what hit him. She bucked a second, and Big Macintosh got a third. The last jumped on Applejack’s back, only to be bucked off a moment later, then kicked against a lamp post. “C’mon! Y’all!” Applejack waved the group on. She spotted two more changelings coming from a street over through an alley.

Big Mac paused before joining the rest. “Applejack?”

“Go on ahead, Big Mac. I’ll be right behind you!”

“Eeyup!” He galloped off while Applejack started spinning another lasso.

“This’ll only be a minute.”

Immediately after Applejack had neutralized those two in the alley, she returned to the main street. She glanced the opposite direction of the train station just to be safe, and froze in her tracks. She instantly darted behind a building partially out of instinct and partially out of adrenaline. Only then did she have a moment to register what she had just seen: a column of changelings marching towards the train station. “Sweet Celestia! That must mean Queen Chrysalis is on her way!” She bolted back into the alley she had just come from and made her way towards the train station via the less direct, but more covert, back streets.

---

“Hurry!” Sunburst called from the train station platform. A flood of ponies galloped toward the train, save one pink mare, who pronked instead. Rainbow Dash landed in front of Sunburst.

“Did you find Zecora?”

“She’s already aboard. The only one we’re waiting for now is Applejack.”

“We can’t wait long. King Sombra is headed for the station!”

“We’re not leaving without Applejack!”

Big Macintosh galloped past Sunburst just then. “Big Mac! Have you seen Applejack?”

“Eeyup.”

“Is she in your group?”

“Nnope. But she’s right behind us.”

“See, Rainbow Dash? We just need to wait a little longer.”

“Well, we may not have ‘a little longer.’ Sombra is getting closer and closer to the train station as we speak.” Rainbow Dash darted skyward, and spotted a column of changelings marching down one street, and a column of armored crystal ponies marching down another. Applejack was nowhere in sight. Rainbow feared that it was already too late for Applejack. “Conductor! We have to leave now! Both Chrysalis and Sombra are closing in!” she called out.

The conductor nodded. “All aboard!”

“No!” Sunburst protested. He turned to look for Applejack, but didn’t see her. He reluctantly boarded the train behind Rainbow Dash. “What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, Sunburst. I wish we could wait, I really do. But it’s either her or all of us. And… I think she’s already gone. That formation of changelings is marching from the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, and that’s where Applejack was last seen. If she’s there, she’s either captured or cut off from us. I’m sorry.” Sunburst sorrowfully stared through the train’s door. Just as it closed, a familiar orange earth pony rounded the corner at full gallop.

“There she is!” He magically pried the door back open, and stuck a hoof out the door. “Come on, hurry!” He nearly lost his balance when the train jolted to a start. “You can make it!” As the train accelerated, so did Applejack. Sunburst leaned out the door, holding the side of door frame with one hoof, and reaching as far as he could with the other. The more the train accelerated, the less platform Applejack had left. “Jump! I’ve got you!” The platform fell away, and Applejack leapt into the air. Sunburst stretched his hoof as far as it would reach. He could tell by her trajectory that she was safe. Her hooves would grasp his and he would pull her inside the car.

Suddenly, Applejack froze in midair and fell forward, her entire body dangling from the green aura around her tail. “No! Applejack!”

“Sunburst!”

A second aura formed around her neck, and she strained to pull it off herself. Sunburst tried to jump off onto the ground, but Rainbow Dash bit his tail and pulled him back into the train car. He rose to his hooves and galloped through the emergency access doors to the back of the train. By the time he reached the platform on the back of the last car, the train was already too far away and the Changeling Queen herself was standing in front of Applejack, flanked by two armored changelings. He watched helplessly as Applejack floated there, continuing to strain against the choking green aura around her neck.

---

“And just what do you think you’re doing? Taking my source of food right out from under my muzzle?” asked Chrysalis.

Applejack replied through the choke, a few words at a time. “These ponies—ain’t never gonna—love the likes—of you!”

“No thanks to you, I guess we’ll never know, now will we? Put her in a cocoon! I’ll deal with her later.” The armored changelings on either side of Chrysalis used their magic to create a sticky goo and work it into a cocoon shape. “Stand guard over her while I lead the others. King Sombra draws near.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the changelings replied in unison.

---

Chrysalis pointed a hoof down the street at the crystal ponies. “Forward!” Half the changelings took to the air, while the rest put up magical green shields and marched together, forming a shield wall. Sombra’s forces charged, but were decimated by repeated changeling dive-bombs. However, the King’s ranks were deep, and it would take more than a few bugs to deter the tyrant. “Ground troops, halt!” ordered the Queen. The shield wall held their ground, adopting a defensive formation. The crystal ponies had almost reached them when black crystals from underground disrupted the changelings’ formation. With the changelings’ front ranks in shambles, the crystal ponies pushed them back. King Sombra himself now led the charge. “How are they beating us!?” shouted the Queen.

“It’s their King!” reported an officer holding a pair of binoculars. “He’s too powerful!”

“Then leave him to me!” She took off and performed a super-powered dive-bomb of her own. The impact and shockwave from which sent crystal ponies flying and flattened several buildings. Additionally, the shockwave sent out green fire which began consuming nearby buildings. Chrysalis then charged her horn and blasted a thick green beam of magic at the enemy’s ranks, setting crystal pony and building alike ablaze. Out of the flames rose a black shadow which turned and made a beeline for Chrysalis. Shadow Sombra went underground, then encased the Queen’s four hooves in black crystal. Another crystal appeared in front of Chrysalis, from which spawned Sombra’s pony form. “King Sombra, I presume?”

“And you are?”

“I am Queen Chrysalis, the Conqueror of Canterlot. Return to your empire at once, or your crown is forfeit.”

King Sombra chuckled. “You are mistaken. It is your crown that will soon be mine.” Enraged, Chrysalis shattered the crystals holding her down and flew into the air. She blasted Sombra with green magic, only for him to switch to shadow form and fly away.

“Come back here!” She shouted. She gave chase and shoot bolt after bolt of magic at him, which dealt no damage to his shadow form but set large swaths of the town on fire. Sombra landed and returned fire, magically launching large black crystals at her. The Queen aerially evaded his projectiles, letting the falling crystals demolish buildings instead. Chrysalis dove sharply and caught the King with her hooves. She flew low, grinding him along the ground down the street. He’d soon had enough of this trick, and used his hind legs to kick her off. She lost control and rolled along the ground horn over hooves. Sombra had a good laugh at this, to which Chrysalis responded by standing back up and shooting magic down the street. Sombra countered with a blast of his own. The beams repulsed each other, seeming for a moment to be evenly matched.

“Oh, please, ‘King,’ I’m hardly trying. Wait until I call upon the love I stole from Celestia and Luna!”

“Celestia and Luna!? What!?” Sombra, the tyrannical ruler of fear, was not without fears of his own. Those two had undone his rule a millennium ago, and now there was another who claimed to have their power. Just before Chrysalis fired a supercharged beam of green magic, Sombra changed to crystal form and went subterranean. The wide, green beam travelled to the end of the street, demolishing both the above-ground crystal and Golden Oaks Library at the end of the street.

“Why does Equestria have a vendetta against my library!?” shouted Twilight.

“Except it's not your library. It's Sunburst’s,” Starlight unhelpfully reminded.

Sombra's shadow resurfaced in front of Chrysalis and encrusted her horn in a number of small black crystals. “What do you know of Celestia and Luna!?” he growled as his unicorn form took shape.

“I know their love was strong, but that they themselves were weak.”

“Love has a way of doing that, yes.”

“Not for a changeling.” Chrysalis charged her horn a few inches at a time, shattering the black crystals on it one by one. “We feed off love. We grow stronger in its presence! We consume it and become powerful!” In sync with that last word, Chrysalis cleared the last crystal from her horn, firing a beam of fiery green magic into the air. “And I have consumed the love of Celestia and Luna! I am unstoppable!” She shot magic at Sombra, only for him to retreat to his shadow stance again.

“But not invincible,” the Dark King retorted, as he outflanked the Queen. He ponified his head and shot two dark magic blasts rapid-fire, one at the Queen’s wings the other at one of her legs. She shouted in pain and dropped to her knees. “Yes! Kneel before your King!” he said with an evil laugh. Chrysalis groaned in pain as she used a shield flare to repulse the King several meters. She rose and turned to flee, but couldn’t fly, nor could she walk without a limp. Reluctantly, she turned so she was facing towards the foe who had evaded her attacks so many times already. She shielded herself, then created a ring of green flame around her. The King attacked the shield, but failed to breech it before the Queen completed her teleport.

In this moment, separated from his army, King Sombra noticed a complete lack of civilians anywhere. His plan had failed. There would be no slave labor from this town. Judging by the number of flames and the direction of the wind, there wouldn’t be much left of the town itself either, rendering it useless as a forward base and staging area. It was time to cut his losses and pick a new target. He switched to his shadow form and left to call off his army.

---

Applejack spent several uneventful minutes in her cocoon before Queen Chrysalis teleported onto the train station platform. She stumbled forward, but one of her changelings caught her. “My Queen, are you alright?”

“He’s right. You ain’t looking too hot,” added Applejack.

“Better than you!” the Queen retorted.

“I dunno if I’d go as far that.”

“Better than you’re going to be, regardless,” she said hatefully.

All at once, Applejack suddenly became aware of the severity of the situation. “What’s gonna happen to me now? I’ve got friends and family that—”

“You should have thought about that before you rebelled against me, not after.”

Applejack quickly realized that bargaining for her own life would be fruitless, but she did have one last request for Chrysalis. “Promise me you ain’t gonna hurt my folks? They didn’t want to leave the farm, honest. I put ‘em up to it. That land’s been in our family since the founding of Ponyville.”

“I can’t promise anything about the ones you love. But I can tell you this: I’m not going to kill you.”

“You—You won’t?” asked Applejack, confused but somewhat relieved.

Chrysalis limped over and extracted Applejack from her cocoon. “No. I have… other plans for you.” She hissed, bared her fangs, and drew Applejack uncomfortably close. She then lurched forward and bit Applejack on the neck, causing her to yelp and Twilight to look away. A moment later Chrysalis drew back, her fangs dripping with green venom. She dropped Applejack onto the platform and watched her as she began squirming and clutching first her neck, then her head. Applejack cried out as a curved black horn grew out of her forehead. Starting from this horn, her orange coat began to change into black chitin. She put her hooves over her eyes, and when she removed them a moment later, her eyes were like the eyes of a changeling. Her cries of agony mixed with shouts of horror when she saw with her own eyes that her coat was becoming chitin. Then, she resumed her painful howls when her wings began to appear. The screams intensified, presumably along with the pain, when holes began to form in her legs. Her tail was the last to go, changing to the characteristic black tail of a changeling. She ended up on her back, groaning in pain and panting for breath. Her transformation complete, her new Queen bid her rise. She did so reluctantly, clearly still in pain.

“From henceforth, you shall be my subject and you shall do my bidding.”

“My life is yours, my Queen,” said a familiar voice which retained its accent and gender.

“Prove it,” she said, pointing to Honesty, which remained around Applejack’s neck. The new changeling unclasped the necklace and hoofed it over to Chrysalis. At Applejack’s concession, Chrysalis cackled so loudly that she might as well have been declaring Applejack’s transformation to distant Canterlot.

---

With the boss battle over and both armies retreated, the three from the present took in their surroundings from a vantage point high above town. There was no clear winner, but there was definitely a loser: Ponyville. A number of houses were either on fire or already burned-out from Chrysalis’ fire, and heaps of rubble created by Sombra lined the streets. The roads were dotted with changeling-sized craters which one could stand knee-deep in. There wasn’t a pony in sight in this once-thriving town. A gusty wind blew in from the west, encouraging the green flames to jump from building to building. “This—this couldn’t have been because of me,” said Starlight. “It was just a couple of cutie marks. Nothing special.”

“Starlight, our cutie marks are exactly what make us special, every one of us. That includes you.”

“Cutie marks make us different, not special! You’re special because you’re a Princess! You’re different because of your cutie mark!”

“But Starlight, I’m also a Princess because of my cutie mark. You saw what happened to me when I didn’t get it. What happened to me isn't even relevant anymore. If I’m special because I’m a Princess, and I’m a Princess because of my cutie mark, then I’m special because of my cutie mark!”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” Starlight said with a roll of her eyes. “You just want to be important!”

“You know that’s not how I meant that, Starlight. Because you didn’t let Rainbow Dash, and by extension the rest of us, get our cutie marks, Fluttershy is dead, I’m out of the picture, Chrysalis killed off the other three Princesses, and Applejack is a changeling! And this is all just a month and a half after Queen Chrysalis took power! There’s still not quite a year's worth of history we have yet to cover to get back to the present. This three-faction war that’s brewing is threatening to tear Equestria apart and change everything forever!”

“That’s it, Twilight! I’ve heard enough! You’re not going to spoon-feed me these lies anymore!” Starlight teleported Spike’s bag in front of her and removed the scroll. “I warned you not to twist the truth! Now say goodbye to your friends, your cutie marks, your crown, and your version of the story forever!” She crumpled the scroll into a ball and landed next to a burning building. With a flick of her horn, she tossed the scroll into the green flames.

“Noooooo!" Twilight shouted as she landed in front of the building with a hoof outstretched. "Starlight, why would you do that when you’ve seen all the pain you’ve caused! Is this really what you want Equestria to look like? Think of the pain you’ve caused not just for me, but for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, the Princesses, Applejack—everypony! Even Sunburst. He had to watch as Applejack was torn from him even more dramatically than he was torn from you! And it’s not just a vision anymore! It’s all Equestria’s new history unless we find a way to recreate that scroll!”

Starlight’s face visibly reddened and she began shouting mere inches from Twilight’s face. “For the past hour now you’ve been force-feeding me this lie, telling me that affecting how you and your friends get your cutie marks changes the fate of Equestria, and now you have the gall to say that I’m the one putting Sunburst through all this!?” She backhooved Twilight so hard she knocked her off balance.

Spike jumped between the two. “Leave her alone, Starlight!” The three stood there for a moment in silence and shock. The only noise was the crackling flames around them.

At first, Twilight’s actions seemed sluggish, as if she was still trying to process all that had just happened. With exaggerated lethargy, her hoof slowly migrated up to her face to collect some of the blood that was trickling out of the corner of her mouth. She analyzed the wound with her tongue before spitting out saliva mingled with blood.

“You hit—a Princess,” she said, still recovering from the shock. “I could have you brought up on charges of assault and battery, not to mention high treason!”

“Twilight, I’m sorry. I—I was just so mad at you—I guess I just lost control for a second.”

Twilight sighed. It seemed Starlight was either in denial that her actions led to the timeline they were watching unfold, or she was still hung up on how the potion worked. Twilight couldn’t do much for the first problem, but maybe if she explained how the potion worked, Starlight would be more understanding. “My potion, it casts a vision, a sort of augmented reality. That’s what makes it different from your spell, Starlight. It’s similar in that it uses some of Star Swirl’s spell dealing with time travel, but—ugh,” she spat again, “but whereas your spell causes the caster to physically travel to a specific place and time, my potion only shows what happened then and there. It’s based on the same magic used in that spell, and you know how that works. Its primary power source is a mixture of Alicorn and Zebra Magics, whereas your spell is powered by the castle’s map and by extension the Tree of Harmony, which uses the Magic of Friendship. That’s why the potion isn’t powerful enough to physically merge two parallel realities.”

Starlight looked around Ponyville again. “So, none of this is real?” Her tone had dramatically changed. She was now asking for information rather than for the sake of sarcasm.

Twilight finished wiping her mouth and answered. “It is now. As far as the vision goes, it’s real in the sense that it actually happened, yet it’s not real in the sense that we can’t interact with any of it. Which means…” She stuck a hoof into the fire and drew it back again unscathed. She walked into the flames and returned carrying the crumpled scroll in her magic.

“Listen, I’m sorry about the scroll, Twilight. I suppose I can bring myself to overlook our differences at least long enough to watch the vision get us caught up to the present.”

“I forgive you, Starlight. As for the scroll, I’m still not taking any chances.” She transfigured Spike’s backpack into a set of saddlebags, which she then placed on her back. Into the bag, she placed the scroll, which she had carefully unwadded and rolled up as thoroughly as the crinkled paper would allow. “You know, you really can’t follow through with this again. We have to go back and let the rainboom happen like it should. That’s the only way to make everything ok again.”

“Just because I decided not to destroy the scroll doesn’t mean I’m ready to accept your dogma, Twilight. I’ll give it some serious thought, but I won’t make any promises just yet.” When she finished speaking, the trio’s eyes glowed white once again, and they were transported someplace else.

Comments

[Pun System]

7384801 There was another Starlight fic that appeared around the same time as mine which basically said in the description "after 30 alternate worlds, Twilight finds one that isn't so bad." I tried to make it clear in the descriptions of History Lesson that my story would feature a "bad timeline."

As for Starlight, she still isn't accepting responsibility for the damage she's done to the timeline, claiming Twilight is trying to deceive her. If she doesn't believe she did it, she isn't going to feel the need to correct it. This theme is expanded upon in Chapter 3.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Uumm the fact that she attack and held twilight and the others against their will she is already charge with treason.

[Stainless Steel Fox]

This sudden change feels, I don't know, anti-climatic.

"Believe" "NO! I hate you!"
"Believe" "NO! I hate you!"
"Believe" "NO! It's fake!"
"Believe" "NO! I hit you."
"You hit me!" "Sorry."
"Believe!" "Maybe."

I haven't seen anything that would make Starlight shift her position even little bit.

[Emperor]

Oh, I guess my idea of dragons causing it wasn't correct. Starlight's still refusing to accept what she's seeing is real. Though to be fair, it's like Twilight in Feeling Pinkie Keen. If it's magic she's not familiar with, she doesn't believe in it

[Haremking001]

Pathetic why the heck would either of them care about each others feel or class after the scroll was thrown into the fire especially if one of them clearly was already ready to betray everyone one of them beforehand?!