1 Fracture
“I was perfectly happy before you and your FRIENDS ruined what I built!” Starlight glared while leaning towards Twilight, her mane and tail blowing in the dusty wind. Her voice was full of malice, hatred even, and there was still that calculating intelligence behind her eyes. Even with her head mere inches from Twilight’s she had her gaze shifting to the dragon every so often, despite him being seemingly frozen in fear.
Twilight leaned back, raising up her right foreleg in an instinctively defensive reaction to a threat that close, though her voice was far more measured and calm as she responded. “I don’t know what happened that led you to make your village without cutie marks, and I’m sorry my friends and I had to take it away.”
Starlight reared up on her hind legs, her voice raising as her horn lit up. Her pupils shrunk down to pinpricks while she materialized a quill and some ink. “You want to know what happened to me? Give me the scroll so I can show you!”
“Don’t do it, Twilight!” Spike shouted, shaking his head. “That’s the only way we can travel after her! She might shred it or something worse!”
“I just need to alter the place we’re transported to. I can’t do that without reworking the spell since it only goes to one specific location. I need to change the scroll or else I could end up erasing time itself with a spell this complex.” Starlight’s voice is far calmer now, her breathing slowing down as she looks around the barren wasteland. “I think nothing existing at all is just a bit worse than this, even.”
“I don’t know, Spike, there’s really nothing else we can do.” Nodding at Starlight, she floated the spell over. “Besides, maybe we can talk some sense into her if we know why she’s like this. Do what you have to, Starlight.”
Starlight grasped the scroll carefully in her magic, pulling on it only after her own telekinetic hold had completely taken over as a tear could be disastrous at this point. She quickly found the targeting portion of the spell and began to trace sigils in the dirt around her hooves as she began to recalculate things. Each and every one had to deal with locating something in one way or another, and they were quickly rubbed away and redone as method after method and location after location were discarded. “The world isn’t going to just snuff itself out or anything, is it? This may take longer than I thought with how complex I initially made this.”
“You shouldn’t have made it in the first place!” Spike growled, his spines standing on end. “I just want to go home you insane, cutie mark stealing cultist!” A puff of smoke escaped his nostrils, showing his anger.
“That’s hardly the way to talk to the pony who currently holds the ONLY way for you to get back home, lizard.” Starlight nearly growled under her breath while saying this, outright kicking at the dirt to erase the latest rune before she shifted her position to a new, clean patch. This time the quill began tracing shapes in midair as some of the runes and sigils were not kicked away immediately. Progress was being made, though a frown creased her features quickly. “We have to get back to the normal present first. If I alter the spell now, this becomes the new normal.” Her horn began to glow, readying itself to cast her original spell once more.
“Stay close to me, Spike.” Twilight grabbed him in her magic, nodding at Starlight. When the portal opened, she zipped in, going as fast as her wings could take her. Starlight followed close behind, and they waited for the rainboom to happen unimpeded.
Starlight held the scroll close to her side, her expression turning worried as one foreleg continued to nervously poke at the cloud beneath Twilight...and pass through . “I honestly don’t think I could ever trust myself on a cloud. Holding yourself up with magic just seems much safer.”
“Cloud walking is really fascinating, in all honesty,” Twilight replied, more than a little awkwardly. A small sigh of relief passed over her as the familiar sight of the rainboom filled her vision. “Looks like we’re going home after all, Spike.”
Another portal, another awkward grappling session to ensure they both went through to the same location, and they ended up back in the restored map room of the crystal palace. This time the air seemed to hum with life and power after the barren wasteland. Starlight quickly began making her edits to the scroll. “Okay. Alter the location, and add an intangibility effect so that this is only for observation since I don’t want to screw up my own past…”
“Take all the time you need,” Twilight spoke with a kind smile, placing a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “Spike, why don’t you go get the girls? We need to discuss all of this.”
Spike frowned, looking between the two. “I dunno, Twi. I don’t feel right just leaving you here with her. What if she steals your cutie mark while I’m gone or something.” He shot Starlight a glare, baring his fangs.
“Oh, yes, because that would be just SO intelligent to do with you bringing her friends right back here where they could tackle me and make me give it back immediately.” Sarcasm would have dripped from Starlight’s mouth like drool if it had a physical form, and her expression was more insulted than angry. “I’m not stupid.”
“Forgive me if I wish you were.” Spike growled at her, quickly waddling out of the throne room. He paused at the door to give Starlight the ‘I’m watching you’ motion before walking out of sight.
Starlight breathed a sigh of relief, actually smiling once Spike was out of sight. “Good, he’s out of range. With all the changes I’ve made, this new version would have been unstable with more than two travelers, and I doubt he’d have agreed to stay behind otherwise. Are you ready, Princess?” Her tone became almost happy, welcoming even, and a far cry from her earlier frenzied temper.
Twilight eyed her for a moment before nodding. “As ready as I’ll ever be, Starlight. I just want this whole thing to be over and done with.”
“Me too.” Starlight began laughing after that, her horn lighting up once more as her body quickly floated out of immediate reach to cast the spell. “You want to know what happened to me? YOU CAN HAVE IT!” Her spell blasted from her horn to the scroll, to the table, and from the table back to Twilight and herself. The very air growled for a moment, with Twilight’s vision doubling as a result of the insane magnitude of the spell and the power of the map behind it.
“W-what did you do!?” Twilight hissed through her teeth, feeling like her very essence was being torn about. “Starlight! Answer me!”
“Cutie marks for cutie marks, friends for friends. If I can’t destroy your friendship without destroying the world, I’ll just TAKE it! Your friendships, your family, your entire history! You can have mine if you want to know what I went through so bad, I won’t need it anymore!” The manic tone is back in her voice, this time backed with more power than anypony has a right to direct. Sound stops as another bright flash of magic emits from both the scroll and the map; with the former slowly beginning to crumble to pieces and drift to the surface of the latter.
Twilight looked at the map in utter panic, lighting her horn up to start a counter spell. Her hope died as her magic died, fizzling out with a sputter. Horror sank in, she had let Starlight trick her and she was going to lose it all. Everything she and her friends had done was going to be wiped away and replaced.
A black stain began to spread out from the map, turning the whole thing into something akin to an ink spill. The entire world froze, the only motion coming from Twilight. Before her eyes a thing rose from the blackness. If Twilight hadn’t known any better she’d have thought it was a minotaur, but her instincts told her this was something else.
Dark as the void between stars and covered in silver markings, the creature stared down at her with two white orbs. Just looking at it told Twilight this was wrong, not the creature itself, but the fact that she was meeting it was wrong.
She felt her leg twitch as if to take a step back as the entity moved, but her own body failed to respond. It somehow stood even taller as it took a step out of the map, reaching a height that should have left its head halfway through the ceiling before it finally knelt down and reached for her head with one hand. “Uoy pleh nac I. Emit morf desare gnieb era, won era uoy sa, uoy. Mrah on uoy naem I.” The other hand is help up in a gesture similar to one she’s seen through the mirror for ‘stop’ or ‘halt.’
Twilight took a moment to stare at it, trying to process its speech. “I-I don’t understand.” She glanced at Starlight Glimmer, who was frozen mid-laugh. “A-are you doing this? How? How do you have so much power over time?”
“Tluciffid si knil a tuohtiw gnikaeps. Tnemom a tub ni raelc edam eb lliw lla dna mlac niamer. Wonk I.” The hand near her head made contact, one finger seemingly phasing through her horn until it wrapped around her skull while the others followed suit, resulting in her her eyes encased in its palm. The hand squeezes for a moment, causing a short flash of pain and then clarity as the two times it had spoken rewrite themselves in her memory into clear speech from the previous reversal. “I am Dahaka.”
“Dahaka?” Twilight spoke, letting the name roll along her tongue. “I’ve never seen anything like you,” she admitted, staring at the creature in both awe and more than a little fear as its hand moved to the side of her neck. “How are you doing this? This is far more than anything a pony can do.”
The head of the entity moves, nodding for a moment before turning to stare at Starlight once more. “Dahaka are summoned when time is broken. Dahaka repair time. Often this means death for those who break time. This however, is far more than that. She is taking your destiny, piece by piece, and when she is done, you will be forced into the role she left. History itself, if not her spell, would force that. You would be judged insane, claiming to be Celestia’s former student and a princess while not being an alicorn and unknown to Celestia. Better to take this you and leave the one this change creates.”
“H-how?” she asked, her eyes tearing up. “W-what would my life be like in her world?”
“A markless mare,” Dahaka responded as its gaze returned to her. “You grow to adulthood without your mark, a bitter shut-in with a grudge against the world. Your friends fare no better: Kindness becomes a poacher, Generosity a mere worker in a garment factory, Honesty a miserly noble, Laughter a joyless farmer, and Loyalty... a broken drunkard who believes she killed her childhood friend.”
Twilight stumbled back, barely containing her sobs. “N-no. She can’t! She can’t do this! You said you could help me! How!? How do I stop this!?”
“A pact. You and I merge. Your alicorn magic with my time essence will make us powerful enough to exact retribution upon the timebreaker.” The hand moves in a way that is almost soothing against her neck and shoulder. “It is the only way to overcome the harmony she is twisting to enable her spell. It is the only way you will continue to exist with your memories and soul more or less intact. She cannot overwrite me.”
“A p-pact? Like a contract? What do you get from this? You wouldn’t be offering me help if it wouldn’t help you too. If you can do all this, there’s no reason you would need me.”
“That is correct, I don’t need you.” Dahaka spoke plainly, gazing into her eyes. “But, you are a light of hope to the world, and you do not deserve this. I offer you the chance to bring divine justice yourself. Once our goal is achieved this pact will have never happened, and you will be as you are now once more.” It almost seems to smile. “There will be mutual benefits while we are merged. I have weaknesses that your essence will alleviate, though not fully eliminate.”
Twilight wiped at her eyes, her body shuddering with sobs. “R-right.” Glancing at Starlight, she hung her head. “There’s really no other choice is there?” Glancing back up at Dahaka, she held her hoof out. “Then, I accept. I won’t let her get away with this.”
“There is always a choice. You could have chosen oblivion. Just because you don’t like the option doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.” Dahaka started to melt, its body lurched forward as gravity asserted itself. It surrounded her almost like a cocoon, seeping into her body any way it could. She coughed and gagged as it flowed down her throat and into her lungs; though this somehow did not hurt, it was still uncomfortable. Less comfortable still was the sensation of her pores opening to absorb even more of it at once, and of her follicles being invaded and overtaken.
She reeled as it’s presence asserted itself into her mind, figuratively breaking her mind wide open. Knowledge- past, present and future -poured in, threatening to overwhelm her. She saw herself meeting Starswirl, heard the wail of a minotaur as it shriveled in her grasp before crumbling into bones and dust, and felt the bite of a griffin as he tried to stop her from nearing his mate. No. That wasn’t me. These aren’t my memories…
No, they are mine Dahaka whispered into her ear even as it settled within her body. All those who disturb time must be punished, even if their hearts are in the right place. Occasionally there are opportunities for leniency, but those are more rare than naquadah.
Looking down at her body, Twilight felt a shiver of power course through her. Her gaze shifted towards Starlight as she approached the map. “I’ll let you know if I think she deserves one of those or not.” She felt her form tremble, as if her flesh were less stable than a water balloon. “Right now I feel like we need a nap.”
Your body must acclimate itself to my power, and we must adapt. A short rest will suffice, and we will only sleep as long as we require. Dahaka cannot be late, it is a temporal impossibility. Rest and emerge refreshed, and we will begin driving her mad as we correct her blasphemy.
Twilight nodded, placing her hoof onto the still blackened cutie map. With a final glare at Starlight, she allowed herself to be pulled into the blackness, the bliss of sleep took her not long after.
Time resumed, with the world none the wiser of the events that had occured between the fall of one grain in an hourglass and the next. Starlight’s laugh continued for another minute as her spell completed itself, though it trailed off into a groan as she was hit with a sudden headache from a new set of memories coming out of nowhere. “That just means it worked...” she muttered to herself, glancing over her shoulder.
Twilight Sparkle pulled herself up off the floor, a groan of pain as her horn let out a pitiful spark from its blackened tip. “You...you still haven’t won. I’ll have my revenge on you and your friends if it’s the last thing I ever do!” despite her unsteady hooves, she set herself up to charge at Starlight while the other mare floated down from above the map.
“Twilight, please,” Starlight pleaded, hiding her amusement behind a kind smile. “You don’t have to do this. I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but you don’t have to let that define you.” Taking a step forward, she held her hoof out. “I promise, I’ll help you find your mark.”
“I don’t need to find mine when I can steal yours. I finally figured out how to tap the power of marks I steal. I should have done that at the start to stop you from foiling me, but I won’t make that mistake again!” Her horn lit with a decidedly unsteady glow, the aura of magic flickering more than once before a magenta beam speared out to stab at Starlight’s flank and begin pulling. Her reserves drained, the spell lingered with Starlight’s mark half-removed before snapping back and knocking Twilight off her hooves.
Starlight staggered back, ignoring the pain in her flank. “Please, Twilight. Give me a chance, I know you’re scared and you’re right, I don’t know what it’s like to grow up without a cutie mark. I want to help you.” Stepping forward again, she offered a hoof to help Twilight up.
Twilight simply groaned and struggled to stand once more. Her next attempt to call on her magic only resulted in a pounding headache and a bloody nose. With her vision blurry, she glared daggers at Starlight Glimmer before extending her hoof. “I surrender. I don’t have enough magic left to lift a tissue. You win.”
“I don’t want to win, Twilight, I just want to help you.” Starlight hauled the unicorn to her feet, still smiling. “You just need a guiding hoof, Twilight. I know there’s a great mare in you.” Stepping back, she looked over her shoulder as her friends burst into the room. “It’s alright now girls, I have everything under control.”
Moondancer was the first to speak out of them all, her eyes flicking from Twilight’s horn to her flank, then to the blood dripping on the floor from her nose. “Considering she’s suffering from a blown horn and complete thaumic burnout I certainly hope you have her under control.” She approaches and gently taps her horn against Twilight’s to transfer a hint of energy over and ease the headache at least.
Twilight looked away, bringing her hoof up to her nose. “Just punish me already. I don’t feel like hearing any more friendship speeches today.”
“Yeah well, if you listened to reason earlier, Starlight wouldn't have had to knock you around so much,” Spike retorted from his position astride Lyra’s back. “You brought this on yourself, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Nobody asked you, you wingless runt,” Twilight spat out in response to Spike, her eyes narrowing as she moved her head and horn away from Moondancer. “And I don’t want your pity. I’m drained, not an invalid!”
“Hey, don’t take your angst out on Spike!” Twinkle Shine huffed, putting herself in between them. “He never did anything to you that you didn’t deserve.”
“Now, now.” Starlight held her hoof up, trying to smooth out the situation. “Twilight just needs to clear her head. Spike, would you mind keeping an eye on her while the girls and I discuss a few things?”
“Can we get a magic blocker ring on her horn first? I don’t want to risk her trying to tamper with the map again. Whatever she tried to do earlier left it all blackened, Starlight.” Spike points towards the map, his voice conveying actual concern.
“Wait, blackened?” Starlight frowned, glancing towards the map. Indeed, gone was its shimmering map of Equestria; replaced with what looked like oil. “I don’t remember that happening.”
“Well, it was normal before and now it’s all...that. I know you wouldn’t have done anything to break it like that, so it must have been her, right?”
“Spike, relax. Her aetheric channels are too damaged to properly weave even a simple telekinesis spell at this point. It’ll be at least two days before Twilight is able to do anything more complex than brush her teeth, and a few hours before she’ll even manage that. All I did was stop her body from trying to eat itself to generate more energy.”
“My spell utilized your fancy map, but it shouldn’t have done that,” Twilight explained, locking everyone’s gaze. “You must just be too stupid to do proper maintenance.”
“Can I slap her if she keeps being an insufferable wretch while I watch her?”
“Spike, hitting ponies doesn’t help you make friends with them,” Starlight scolded, tearing her eyes away from the defiled map. “But, I will ask that you stop with the insults, Twilight. Friend making is a two way street.”
Twilight rolled her eyes in disgust, muttering under her breath for a moment. “Ugh, fine. Go talk and whatever. I’ll stay here and stare at the massive ink blot that’s consumed your map while you six go gossip and pretend to care about me or whatever it is you’re going to do.”
Lemon Hearts frowned, giving Starlight an unsure look. “You really think somepony as unpleasant as that can make friends? I don’t even think I could put a smile on her face.”
“Call it a hunch, but I’m pretty sure she has it in her to be a great friend to all of us as long as we can crack open that shell of bitterness she’s built up over the years. I can just sense it in her somehow.” Starlight walked away from the map slowly, moving towards one of the other doors to find a different room that would provide some privacy for the discussion.
Twilight turned away from the door, not saying a word to Spike. Minutes passed before she finally spoke up. “What do you think they’ll decide to do with me? Toss me into a null-magic cell? Encase my horn in antimagic rings? Banish me? Banish me and lock me in a null-magic cell?”
Spike sighed and, despite his better judgement, walked over to her. “Look, I can’t claim to see it, but Starlight thinks she can show you friendship. I mean, she is the Princess of Friendship, can you really argue with her?”
Twilight levelled one last glare towards Starlight’s back before the lighter purple mare closed the door behind her friends, her face twisted in jealousy for a moment as she examined the Princess’ wings. “Well, I did assault royalty, so what happens to me is entirely up to her in the end. That...that was rather stupid of me, I will admit.”
Spike gingerly reached out, placing a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “We all make mistakes, ya know. It’ll take effort on your part but, if you want it, it’s never too late to be a better pony.”
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The amount of YES cannot be contained
I like this.
Now this is interesting. I want more!
starlight is gonna have a "BAD TIME"
Let's go. The Time Breaker shall be BROKEN!! LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND, AND RETURN HER SOUL TO THE OBLIVION FROM WHENCE IT WAS BORN!
*ahem* Sorry. My inner bloodlust came out for a bit. In all honesty, Starlight deserves whatever happens to her.
8761352
nnaaaa more like this
8761370
True.
8761390
eeeeyyuuuppp
8761390 8761396 You're both wrong...
8761390
this is Dahaka:
this is starlight after dahaka is finished with her: memecrunch.com/meme/8G2YK/i-m-dead/image.png
Oh yeah, Warrior Within was my favourite of the Sand of Time trilogy.
Mostly for its soundtrack and those two song from Godsmack.
Actually, Starlight doesn't need the scroll to travel through time.
8762196 Right, but she probably would need the scroll to completely change what she wants her version of the spell to do, going from travel to something else. Villains lie, especially to heroes, when it suits their desires.
Very interesting concept...