Chapter 44 - Final Confrontation
The days that followed were filled with frustration and near misses. The times when I was close enough to be within earshot but too far way still to catch Starlight, I heard her laughing after disabling Rainbow in some way. This obviously had begun to be a game to Starlight Glimmer, taunting Twilight with her inability to catch her. By now, we were sure that the rogue unicorn was totally convinced of my death, so at least that improved the odds slightly in our favor. I looked forward to wiping that smirk off her face, preferably with my hooves.
Most often, Starlight fired a telekinesis spell to stop Rainbow Dash in her tracks from the vast airspace beneath the clouds. There was simply too much volume to cover; I was never less than a couple hundred yards away. I decided to try a new strategy. There were two clouds fairly close to the starting line that Starlight Glimmer had never used. Above them was a nearby cloud with a good view of them, in fact, it was the one Starlight hid behind when her sleep blast narrowly missed me. Twilight would abandon the clouds thirty seconds before the race started, supposedly to get a good position below them. I would still search other areas before and after the race started, but that was my go-to spot for the couple of minutes Rainbow Dash was at the starting line. Now Twilight and I had to hope Starlight would take the bait.
In the meanwhile, Twilight and I endured world after alternate world. Some were benign, some dangerous, and a few nearly fatal. If it wasn’t for Twilight having a strong shield in place the moment we got spat out of the portal, we would have suffocated the one time we arrived in the airlessness of a barren world that had never known life. We also saw many endless nights, some buried in snowdrifts over our heads. There were deserts and verdant fields, and once we found the table jammed between towering trees resembling sequoias. One world had an intact Ponyville but it was patrolled by huge, hulking grey creatures with a white ruff that reached down their backs. Each carried a diamond-shaped shield and a forked spear. Twilight and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and hid behind the map table for the twenty minutes we were there. After getting the invisibility spell put on me and given the camera, Twilight activated the portal. I yelled to get the beasts’ attention as we floated upwards and snapped off a photo. I felt proud of myself until Twilight pointed out I had left the lens cap on.
Crap.
The next world had a feature that would gravely upset my friend and fellow traveler.
Twilight and I alighted on the map table. Thankfully, we had not been spit out upside down and there was plenty of time to prepare for a gentle landing.
As I furled my wings, I saw Twilight staring upwards, her eyes wide and mouth agape. Following her gaze, I was equally confused.
I heard her say, “What in Celestia’s name is a root system doing on the ceiling of my map room?! Did they not even try to regrow the library tree?!”
I tried hard to find an upside. “Well, it’s kind of... pretty?”
She shook her head. “More like wasteful. I just hope we don’t see this again.”
We did. Several times. It never got easier for Twilight, either.
Then there was the world where every pony was a unicorn. However, there was a considerable variation in physiques. Unicorn Applejack was more conspicuously muscled, but her spells were mostly related to growing things so there really wasn’t much net difference. Unicorn Rainbow Dash was small, sleek, and a skilled levitator – probably better than Starlight Glimmer. Her winged self was still the better flyer though. Naturally, Twilight’s wings in addition to a horn was a source of great interest, but the fact that I had just wings and no horn at all in my normal form was frankly incredible to them. And when I pulled down a piece of cloud and laid myself down on it, I blew their minds!
As for the civilizations we encountered, many were minor variations of our home universe, while others varied wildly. One was foundering under the rule of Princess Trixie who was a true alicorn this time, but an incompetent ruler. There was no evidence of there being a local version of me to help guide her, and I wondered if my role back home was really that vital to Equestria’s welfare.
Then there was the world where changelings lived alongside ponies and apparently always had done so as far back as history went. That was a social dynamic that I would have liked to have explored more if we didn’t have an important mission that took priority. Of course, there was the reverse situation where Chrysalis had not lost back when she had invaded Canterlot. Unfortunately, as any sane person could have told her, you can’t sustain an emotivore race on the positive emotions of an enslaved race, especially when the population of the predatory species exploded after their victory. Starvation was rampant.
Then there was the world where griffons and ponies had made an alliance way back in history that had changed both considerably. They were literally wedded together. Pony mares married griffon males, and pony stallions married griffon hens. While it was acceptable for each species to have some form of relationship with their own kind, it was so deeply ingrained into their social psyche that they always had to find a life-partner in the other species. How this came about, Twilight would have loved to research, but we couldn’t hang around. Basically, the griffon partner was the primary protector while the pony spouse was the primary breadwinner. “Protector” meant a lot more than physically defending their partner and children though; it involved ensuring that they were well cared for, and children nurtured and educated. The roles were independent of the gender of the spouse, and male griffons were equally doting parents as females. And yes, ponies and griffons could interbreed because of the magic of love, I suppose. Their offspring were either griffon cubs or pony foals of the same sub-species as the parent, but hippogriffs did happen occasionally. Considering that our Equestria had hippogriffs too, I’d say that history had only varied slightly back in the past. Oh, and I found out that the local Mark Wells was not immune to the customs of this world. I met my “wife” – a wonderfully snarky griffoness named Gilda. Twilight nearly choked when she found that out. I made it a point to look into that later when I had the chance.
We got to meet Celestia and Luna again several times, but unfortunately, none of them were able to enlighten us about the motivations for leaving by our universe’s versions. I did find out though that the local Mark was married to Celestia in one world, and to Luna in another (I’m so fickle!). But the best one was when the local Twilight was married to Celestia. My friend’s blush was so great, her whole face glowed. Yes, I took pictures. No, Sparkles – I’m not going to burn them.
One of the most intriguing worlds featured a new alliance between changelings, ponies, and griffons that was led by a progressive civilian group named House Path. It was backed by the rulers of Equestria, Griffonia, and all the hives. As we were due to have dinner and get some sleep anyway, Twilight convinced me to stop in this world overnight so that she could cram in some studies with an earth pony named Long Path, a changeling griffon called Free Agent, and her local counterpart. I had to practically drag her back to the map table the next day! On another occasion, we spent an evening with a griffon priest. In this world, griffons apparently colonized a pony-less Equestria peacefully. In some ways, their philosophy resembled that of the Shaolin monks that I knew back on my Earth. I don’t know how that notoriously hotheaded species managed to achieve that state, but I wished them the best.
And speaking of alternative civilizations, there was this one time when deer replaced ponies, and I don’t mean that they displaced them. No, here elk were the equivalent of earth ponies, reindeer flew like pegasi, and roe deer were this world’s unicorns, only with two antlers to cast their magic. I never got to see what the local alicorns were like though; I just hope they weren’t moose!
Then there were the Elements of Harmony and their Bearers. On one world, none of the six that I knew held that office. Instead, a gangly stallion named Cheese Sandwich was the Bearer of the Element of Laughter, a self-effacing fashion designer named Coco Pommel was Generosity, a grey spectacle-wearing stallion was Honesty, a tiny breezie (first time I’d seen one of those!) was Kindness, and a Wonderbolt named Spitfire was Loyalty. As for the Element of Magic – I swear I don’t understand how I ended up as a Bearer here. I scarcely believed it when I worked as a stand-in for Twilight due to the “Magic of Friendship” back when we summoned Discord during the plunder-seeds crisis. It just seemed too farfetched, but there it was. Perhaps my counterpart could have explained it better to me but, once again, he had been whisked away by the portal before we arrived. I wondered who else could have gotten that office. Discord? That would have been wild!
One thing that struck me eventually was although we met several versions of Twilight, not once did I encounter my own equivalent. My counterpart was dead, unknown, just missed him, or taken away by the portal. Was it because I had arrived in Equestria from another universe? Was the multiverse playing games with me? Or was it all just a massive coincidence? That was a question that would never be resolved but would forever bug me.
The trips through the space between worlds were taking longer and longer, which Twilight interpreted as the spell beginning to break down. We were approaching the limit that Twilight had predicted. It didn’t seem like two weeks lived across different dimensions, but my sense of time had been thrown completely out of whack. If we reached the threshold of no return, we would simply never re-emerge into another reality.
Fortunately, our journey through the alternative worlds had not ended when luck finally ran out for Starlight Glimmer. The mare dropped her invisibility spell directly behind one of the two clouds next to the starting line that I had been keeping under surveillance. I held a nullstone ring in each hoof as I poured on as much speed as I could squeeze out of my pegacorn form. However, Starlight fired off her spell at Rainbow Dash a moment before I reached her. It didn’t stop me from slamming into her frangible shield a half-second later, shattering it and disorienting her long enough for me to wrap my hind legs around her barrel. Twilight’s invisibility spell broke the moment I hit the shield. I channeled a temporal static spell that Twilight had taught me; as long as I kept it up, nopony could teleport to or away from the area directly around me. It turned out that wasn’t Starlight’s first instinct.
As we plummeted through the cloud, I struggled to keep her horn pointed away from me as I attempted to slip one of the nullstone rings onto her horn. Instead of trying to teleport away, Starlight sent a searing beam of magic whizzing by my ear. Finally, I managed to get her head partially immobilized by putting her in a choke hold and with my other hoof pressing a ring against the base of her horn. I heard a terrified scream come from somewhere nearby as Starlight recovered quickly and tried to zap me again, but all that happened was a fizzle and a wisp of smoke. Vaguely, I realized that the scream had come from above us and not from Starlight. I heard the familiar sound as the portal reopened and started drawing me and Twilight into its maw. This time, Starlight was not going to get away!
Although Starlight struggled mightily in my grasp, she wasn’t able to wriggle free. Unicorns were the physically weakest of the three main pony races, and my months of self-defense training let me control the situation easily, even if I couldn’t free up a second hoof to slip a ring around her horn. With her horn out of action, she had no hope of escape as we plunged into the vortex and emerged into the latest alternative world. I flared my wings and landed with the unicorn mare underneath me, her face pressed into the table and my hoof still holding a nullstone ring against her horn. I grunted with effort and gritted my teeth as I continued to hold the mare with as much strength as I could muster. Starlight yelled and cursed even as Twilight took over control of the recalcitrant unicorn, locking a nullstone band on her horn and wrapping her in a restraining field. Belatedly, I realized I had performed the choke hold incorrectly as Starlight’s airflow had not been shut off. Instead, I had applied a safer technique that was used in practice. Ah, well. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. With our objective taken care of, Twilight and I took stock of our situation.
The sky was overcast and gloomy, and the stench of death and other things permeated the air within our shield. Ponyville was dilapidated and obviously abandoned long ago. The local vegetation looked unhealthy too. I saw no sign of any ponies at all, or any animal life for that matter. I heard Twilight gasp and I followed her gaze to where Canterlot could just be seen in the distance. A pink fog seemed to be slowly spilling out of the city into the valley below. I speculated that the Equestrian capital had suffered some form of attack that still endured. The devastated countryside showed the effects of war, but who the enemy was, I could not tell. I wasn’t about to leave the safety of Twilight’s shield to find out.
“What have you done?! Where is this?!” demanded Starlight angrily.
I turned to her with a sneer. “Don’t you recognize your utopian future, Starlight Glimmer?” I had no intention of telling her that this was likely an alternative world and not ours with history changed.
Thankfully, Twilight had the same idea. “Every time we failed to stop you from preventing Rainbow Dash from doing her sonic rainboom, we got sent back to a different horrible future. For starters, because my friends and I never met, Nightmare Moon was able to make night last forever and the world was dying. In others, some quirk prevented that fate but allowed other disasters to happen. The Element Bearers have been responsible for averting some terrible outcomes, not the least of which was your cult of equality.”
“My town was perfect, and my goals were for the benefit of all ponies!” Starlight snarled. “This is just a trick.”
I concentrated on a specific set of photos and pulled them out of my bag. “No, it’s not a trick. I have photographic proof of what the consequences of your cult’s success are. I warned you, Starlight – you were dooming the ones whom you professed to be helping.”
“HA! You expect me to believe your lies? Do I look like a fool to you?”
“Yes, you do. You look like the blindest fanatic I have ever met. What do you see around you? Does this look like something we could possibly set up merely to convince you that you’re wrong? You are going to face justice no matter what you believe. You are going to face charges of mass murder and intent to commit regicide at the very least. If you are unrepentant, I will have no hesitation in recommending life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. You are a threat to the entire world and far too dangerous to bargain with.”
Twilight spoke up. “Mark, I cannot agree with you there. I don’t believe that Starlight can’t see the error of her ways and learn the meaning of true friendship.”
I sighed. “You’re the Princess of Friendship, Sparkles, but I think you’re biting off more than you can chew here.”
“Nopony is a hopeless case, Mark.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, but a trial of such a serious nature will require the Supreme Court, which means Princess Cadance will join you and Trixie in judgement. I am going to pass my recommendation to Trixie at Starlight’s trial, and unless you can come up with some extremely convincing arguments, I’m betting that Starlight Glimmer is going to live out the remainder of her life in a jail cell.”
Twilight played up her ‘good cop’ role, as we had strategized on more than one occasion. “You’re such a pessimist—”
And that was the cue for my ‘bad cop’. “No, I’m a realist. She’s already rejected us once and she went to an extraordinary amount of effort to get revenge on us for ruining her plans. Those aren’t the actions of a sane mare, Twi.”
Twilight looked at the unicorn and frowned. “No, but there’s always hope. I don’t know how yet, but I will do my best for her.”
Starlight sneered. “I don’t want or need your ‘help’, Princess. You think you’re scaring me with all this talk? You don’t fool me. This is all just an elaborate ruse to make me—”
Twilight interrupted her. “It’s not. When I was flying up to get to you, I saw your beam shoot out from the cloud. It passed through the starting line area and I saw a lot of blood shoot in the air.” That explained the anguished shriek I heard. “I don’t know who, but I’m fairly sure somepony was killed. This reality you see around us is the result.”
Starlight’s haughty expression fell. Apparently, she had heard the blood-curdling scream as well. “But…”
I didn’t let her get any further with her excuses. “Let her look at the photos of ‘Ponyville Our Town’, Twilight.”
After some hesitation, my friend complied and the field holding Starlight immobile winked out. I had gotten these printed in a friendly dimension and sorted them just for this occasion. I levitated the stack of images to a scowling Starlight. She clearly realized if she didn’t cooperate, she would be shown the photos anyway. The mare took them in a hoof and began looking through them. Her face became pale as she got deeper in the stack. I gave her a running commentary.
“You actually did win in one and only one of these futures, Starlight. No matter what future we ended up in, we never saw you again. Doubtless, you had been killed or enslaved by the different races we encountered.” I waited until she got to the last photo, the one of her memorial statue. Her self-confident expression was gone, replaced with a look of horror.
I said, “And the one time your cult of equality succeeded, you weren’t around to see it. Twilight thought you had been killed by an underling desperate for power, but I don’t believe it. I think you succeeded in permanently equalizing all of Equestria, then realized too late what you had done. All the suffering and destruction you see here rested on your shoulders alone. I think you couldn’t live with yourself and took the coward’s way out and killed yourself.” That tore the mare’s gaze away from the photo and she stared at me. Her ears were pinned back and her teeth chattered while tears flowed down her cheeks. Ponies were so resilient and mentally tough that suicide was nearly unheard of. Yet I had just shown her that her life’s work was garbage and she couldn’t even argue that I was mistaken.
Shakily, the mare said, “I didn’t… I don’t…” Slowly, Starlight sank down on the table and curled up around herself, her body shaking.
Twilight looked at me with a furrowed brow but didn’t say anything. She knew that Starlight had to see the error of her ways and that it would not be pretty. Maybe reality was finally sinking into that thick skull of hers.
I sighed and looked out over the depressing environment. “Well, what should we do with the rest of our time here?”
Twilight said, “Might as well take some photos. That flower looks interesting.”
I hadn’t been looking the direction she had been pointing. I did see a group of yellowish flowers… that were pointed away from us, or were they? They kept moving in an unnatural manner, given that there was no wind. I looked away, just seeing them out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, as a group, they slowly turned to face the table. I snapped my head back to look at them directly and they were all pointed away again. OK, that was just creepy.
“You mean the disturbing yellow ones?” I asked Twilight while reaching into my saddlebag while envisioning the camera in my mind.
“No, the pink one,” was Twilight’s reply. Now, why did that sound oddly familiar?
The back of my foreleg bumped up against something in the multi-dimensional space in the saddlebag just as the frog of my hoof made contact with the familiar camera. I blinked. That had never happened before. Leaving the camera behind, I spun my hoof around to grab the object that had a wide and flat surface. With growing curiosity, I pulled out my foreleg to find it holding a white box made out of thin cardboard. It looked like a clothing box… no… a pastry carry-out box. But it was what was drawn on the top that made me freeze up in shock. Twilight came over to take a look and gasped. In messy but still recognizable crayon, there was a depiction of Starlight Glimmer’s cutie mark.
Twilight and I glanced at each other and the silence stretched out. Eventually, I took the only course of action that seemed reasonable. I placed the box in front of the cowering mare and said, “These are for you.”
On a hunch, I pictured an identical cardboard box and, sure enough, pulled out a box similarly designated for Twilight Sparkle then one for myself.
Starlight had recovered from her sniffling enough to say, “What…”
“No idea,” I replied while opening my box. Inside were a half-dozen cupcakes topped with bright pink frosting and hundreds of multi-colored flakes of sugar. Twilight’s box contained dark chocolate cupcakes with two-tone swirled chocolate topping, no sprinkles. Starlight’s had the same as Twilight’s but decorated with peppermint candy shavings.
“I don’t understand,” said Starlight Glimmer from her spot sprawled on the map table.
“What’s to understand,” replied Twilight. “Chocolate.” Apparently, that was all the reason required, because she impulsively took a bite of one. I didn’t even have time to warn her not to, remembering the stupefying effects of Pinkie’s ‘Death by Chocolate’ cupcakes. Instead, Twilight’s shield actually grew brighter for a moment as she hummed appreciatively. “Oh, these are soooooooo good.”
As much as I desperately wanted to point out this was not the place or time for snacks, we were essentially stuck here until the map table recharged. And my nose was telling me in no uncertain terms that I absolutely must try at least one of the treats in my box. I lifted one up in my magic, peeling off the liner as I popped it in my mouth. I quickly determined that the frosting was a lie – simply a colored buttercream that added sweetness but no flavor to the delicacy. Instead, the punch of the dessert was provided by the swirl of different fruit and berry flavors in the cake itself. Removing the wrapper of a second showed me the six colors in a marbled pattern that I had only tasted for a few seconds back in the Golden Oak Library. I also noticed my power reserves felt like they were fully charged, which was certainly odd.
Starlight Glimmer looked between us with an expression on her face that I can only describe as ‘don’t tell me I’m the only sane one here’.
Looking over at Twilight, I saw there were only three cupcakes left in her box. “Whoa! Slow down there, Twi! Save some for later.” I closed the lid on her box with my magic at the same time I put my second cupcake back in my box.
Around chocolate crumbs, the smiling alicorn said, “I can’t help it! They’re perfect!”
I waved a forehoof down at Starlight. “Stop thinking so much. Eat one of yours or the purple vacuum cleaner will snarf down all of yours as well.”
That got me a glare from my friend, followed by a covetous gaze downwards at Starlight’s box. Tentatively, Starlight took a sniff, followed by a lick, followed by a bite of the cupcake. One bite later and it was gone. She looked up. “OK, that was the best cupcake I ever had. It’s like this flavor was made with just me in mind. I still don’t understand why you had that box in your saddlebags.”
“Neither do I,” I said. “I can’t even imagine what kind of powerful entity could put those in my saddlebags from a universe away.” That’s when my mind finished connecting the dots. “Oh.” I turned to Twilight. “I guess you did kind of call out… her name.”
After a moment, Twilight’s eyes went wide, remembering the remark from the world where Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Sombra warred for control of Equestria.
She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as the table shuddered and our protective shield flared. I looked around and almost gagged. While we had been focused on our argument with Starlight, some… things… had approached us unnoticed and had attacked without warning. Only Twilight’s protective field had saved us from the vile creatures that were starting to besiege us. Their bodies were gaunt and unwholesome, open sores and rotting flesh all over, their manes and tails were but stringy remnants, and those that used to be pegasi had a few wretched feathers left on their wings. Their eyes were bloodshot and their gaze insane.
“Zombie ponies! What the buck happened here for these to exist?!” I yelped.
Twilight tilted her head but didn’t express disgust at these vile monsters. “Hmm. I’ve been sensing some old dark magic lingering around here. Some dangerous spells must have been used in whatever conflict they had.”
“Are they even alive?” I asked.
“I don’t think there’s any necromancy involved. They’re just horribly mutated.”
“And mindlessly violent. How’s your shield holding up?”
“As long as they just bump into it—” Twilight was interrupted by a much brighter flare of her shield. I noticed what must have been an earth pony once rear back for another buck. The horns of the unicorns around us started to spark to life. A beam lanced out from one and struck the shield, causing a spot to glow brightly. Each unicorn soon followed with a beam to the same location. Looking up, I saw more ponies shambling in from where Ponyville had once been. Twilight frowned. “Hmmm. Maybe I spoke too soon. We still have several minutes before the table recharges.”
I looked around for any safe place around us. The zombie ponies were giving the patch of yellow flowers a wide berth as they approached the table. Levitating above the center of them would protect us from all but the unicorn blasts, but I figured there was a good reason why even these monstrosities stayed away from the flora, and I didn’t want to find out what it was. “Twilight, can you teleport us away from here? All of these ponies are pretty slow.”
“Not while Starlight is wearing the nullstone band.”
Amazing how a threat to one’s life can break through any funk. Starlight was on her hooves now, her pupils were shrunk to pinpricks. “You can’t leave me here! Please!”
Twilight pointedly said, “We are not going to.” She accompanied this with a sharp stare at me. “Plus, I don’t want to come back to a map table crawling with these things for fear of drawing one or more in after us.”
Starlight said, “Let me help you! I can help hold off these… these abominations that I created.”
I snarled. “So you can finally knock us out and leave us to die while you go back to Equestria and make the same mistakes all over again.”
“No, I won’t! Look, I’m stubborn, but I’m not stupid.” She pointed at the photos now scattered on the table. “I can see with my own eyes that my dream didn’t work. And I know I caused this timeline by k-killing a foal.” She swallowed. “Please let me help. I give you my word I won’t try to escape or stop you in the past.” Twilight and I shared a skeptical look. Starlight continued. “I won’t try to stop you from taking me into custody. I swear it!”
Twilight’s shield was starting to glow white in the spot where the unicorns were firing. I used my levitation to pick up one of the earth ponies and slam him down hard on one of the unicorns. I grunted with effort as I picked up the next earth pony bucking the barrier, ignoring the pegasi for now. They were also bucking the shield but not as hard as the earth ponies could. “I’ll leave the decision to you, Twilight.”
I almost didn’t notice when a light blue dome formed outside the lavender one. I was too distracted by the sight of dozens of more ponies slowly trotting towards us. That’s when I detected something even more disturbing. Several small creatures were emerging from the mouths of the ponies I had slammed into one another. One flew close and I saw a dark, spherical body the size of a ping pong ball and four rapidly beating wings. A dark red streak ran along its middle. “Twilight, is that a parasprite? It just came out of one of the ponies.”
She squinted. “Mutated, but yes it is. They appear to be parasitic now. Well, that explains the zombie-like behavior. I bet they take over neural control of the host creature.”
Before I had the chance to be horrified or wonder why Twilight was not, a cracking sound from overhead drew my attention. Several pegasi were still capable of flight and they dropped onto the top of the shield to strike it with their hooves. I reached out with my magic and snapped the wing bones on all that I could see. They limply slid off of the shield and the assault on the barrier lessened for several seconds. I just about lost my lunch when I saw why.
“Oh, that is sooooo gross!” said Twilight.
“Are they… eating the wounded?” gagged Starlight. Then she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the map table. Points for keeping her shield up, though.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Lightweight.” Apparently, visiting all these nightmare dimensions had toughened her up more than a bit. Either that or she really, really didn’t want to upchuck her cupcakes.
…. cupcakes…
I turned to the pink unicorn. “Starlight! Teleport one of your cupcakes outside the shield and smear it on the coats of as many zombie ponies as you can.” She looked up with disbelieving eyes while she wiped her mouth with a forehoof. I said, “These ponies are starving. If we get them fighting each other, that will give us more time.”
Standing up again on wavering hooves, Starlight Glimmer lifted up a cupcake from her box. Once again, I saw a yearning look on Twilight’s face. Boy, that chocolate must have done something to her brain because she was not acting like her normal, squeamish self.
With a pop, the baked treat appeared outside the double shield and bounced off of the back of several unicorns. Immediately, they abandoned their attack on the shield and fell over each other with teeth bared. They were all soon buried in a pile of other ponies converging on them. I turned back to see Starlight retching again and Twilight quietly munching on a cupcake stolen from Starlight’s box.
“Twilight!” I admonished. “We need those to help defend ourselves!”
She waved the hoof holding the rest of the cupcake breezily. “Relaaaaax, Mark. These cupcakes help recharge my magic reserve. Don’t know how. Don’t really care.” With that, she popped the rest of the treat in her mouth and closed her eyes in contentment, letting out a happy hum.
Her bizarre behavior finally made sense. “Twilight, you are drunk on chocolate right now—or whatever is in those cupcakes. Don’t eat any more of them.”
“What in Equestria is wrong with you two?!” yelled Starlight after recovering from her second round of stomach emptying. “We’re fighting for our lives here and you two are bickering like an old married couple!”
Twilight let out a delighted laugh. Yeah, definitely a suit short in her mental deck of cards. “Oh, that’s funny! But let’s stay serious. Starlight, drop your shield. I will let you know if and when it is needed. Instead, target the earth ponies with your blasts and the unicorns with the cupcakes. Send out one every minute. Mark, along with dealing with pegasi, keep an eye out for anything new approaching the table. Call me if you need help.” Twilight then levitated a scroll and a ballpoint pen out of her saddlebags and started taking notes.
Starlight and I shared a concerned look before getting to our appointed tasks. Perhaps five minutes later, I noticed that something was different. There were no more attacks on one quadrant of the table. No ponies were standing in that area at all, which was strange because they were definitely there a minute ago. A little further away in that direction was the clump of yellow flowers, pointing towards… no, pointing away from us. Was it closer now? I looked away and in my peripheral vision saw the entire patch definitely pointing directly at us, and it had moved just outside of the shield. Well, that was still fine as long as…
“Twilight! Does your shield reach underground?”
“No, why?”
Looking over the edge of the table, I saw nothing. Glancing to my right, I immediately jerked my head back and tried to keep the panic out of my voice. “Twilight! The flowers are starting to grow inside the shield!” A few seconds later, she came up next to me with a bemused smile on her face. I said, “You can only see them in your peripheral vision.”
She followed my instructions and gave a happy gasp. “Oh, wow! Biologically-induced psychosomatic camouflage! I wonder if this is achieved across all herbivorous species?”
From the glimpse I had seen, the plants were rapidly reaching maturity. I really didn’t want to find out what fascinating mechanism they had to ensnare or kill their prey. “Less geeking! More burning!”
“Fine, fine,” Twilight groused as she stepped back and her horn glowed brighter. Flames danced up from beneath the table for about ten seconds. The alicorn then marched back to her scroll and pen, doubtless to write down more fascinating observations. “Starlight! Mark’s pyromancy is awful. Burn the entire area where there are no ponies. Super-heat the ground to a depth of a few feet if you can.”
I had to take a couple of steps back because Starlight Glimmer was following Twilight’s orders with extreme prejudice and the shield was not preventing much of the heat from coming through.
I was not immune to the irony of Starlight and I making such a highly effective team fighting off the zombie ponies’ attacks from that point forward. Some interminable length of time later, Twilight tucked her pen and scroll back in her saddlebags as she stood up. “Starlight, there are too many of those parasprites flying around.”
The unicorn closed her eyes and shimmering waves of heat burst out from the dome. The zombie ponies staggered, all plants within fifty feet caught fire, and dozens of flaming balls fell out of the sky. Silently, I confirmed my early impression that Starlight’s unicorn magic was incredibly strong.
As soon as the heat blast was over, Twilight locked the nullstone band back around Starlight’s horn and held her in an immobilization field. The unicorn looked at Twilight with wide eyes, as that was the only part of her body that could move. The alicorn smiled as she levitated a scroll from her saddlebags and activated the portal. “Time to go.”
All three of us were drawn up into the portal for what I hoped would be our final trip to the past.
Twilight threw an invisibility spell over us just before we entered the portal. We settled down on a cloud near to where the foals would soon be racing. This time, there would be no distractions or interference with the events that needed to play out for us to consider this mission to be a success. It didn’t take long before the critical moment came.
It was fascinating to watch Rainbow Dash power dive. We could see the energy build-up as the young filly neared the speed of sound. And then – BOOM! A rainbow ring of light exploded from the pegasus as she cracked the sound barrier and performed her first sonic rainboom. It was awesome! I’d seen adult Dash perform it several times, but to think she had managed it at this age was incredible. She truly lived up to her boast of being the best flyer in Equestria.
Suddenly, I realized that nothing was happening. The portal didn’t materialize to take us back to our proper time. “What’s gone wrong, Twi? Why are we still here?”
Twilight replied, “Stop worrying, Mark. The return spell was only triggered by Starlight’s attempts to change history. This time, there was no attempt, so no trigger. I just have to do it manually.”
I heaved a sigh of relief and switched to my pegasus form. While Equestria was in safe hooves now, I didn’t want to wait years to see my fiancée again. Then I suddenly realized that this was a golden opportunity to go to Canterlot to get some answers from the Celestia of our world. “Wait, Twi—”
Too late. Twilight had already triggered the spell and I felt the familiar sensation of being sucked into the time portal.
We landed gracefully on the map table – or at least Twilight and I did. Starlight not so much due to being bound still. The first thing that I noticed was that we were back inside Twilight’s castle. So far, so good. Before I could further verify that we were back in our correct world, a scream came from behind me.
“Dowser! You’re back!” *SPLAT*
I turned to see Trixie plastered against Twilight’s shield. While we believed we were headed home, it hadn’t hurt to play it safe. Then I saw Penumbra and Crimson approaching with expressions of happiness and relief. “Sparkles, I think we’re home.”
Twilight smiled and nodded. She dropped the shield and floated our prisoner towards the guardsponies. My attention was grabbed by Trixie stumbling to the edge of the table. I moved over and bent down to gaze into my love’s eyes. “Hi, beautiful. Miss me?”
Trixie didn’t bother answering. She just threw a foreleg around my neck and pulled me close to kiss me. We didn’t rush it because we had a few days to make up for. When she finally came up for breath (pegasi have much more lung power), I said, “Wedding. Two weeks from now. No arguments.”
“Anything you say. Just don’t leave Trixie like that again.”
“Won’t be by my choice or desire, my princess.”
She smiled gloriously before kissing me again.
I barely noticed Thorax turning up, but I heard Twilight’s cry of delight upon seeing him. She jumped down and flew into his embrace. They kissed and crooned happily, and then Twilight started nuzzling and stroking him with her head much like a cat would. Thorax squatted there, his eyes closed and a goofy grin on his face as he lapped up her affection. That was by far the oddest thing I’d seen Twilight do, but what did I know about changeling/pony relationships? They looked happy, and that’s what really counted.
I turned to Trixie and said, “There’s one more thing I have to do, dear. Oh, how long were we gone, by the way?” I hopped off the table and trotted over towards the other couple.
Trixie blinked and cocked her head as she stayed by my side. “Exactly one week. Oh, and Polished Barding is expected to make a full recovery. He’s been transferred back to Canterlot General Hospital.”
“That’s good news.” I turned to face the changeling drone. “Thorax, if you feel something off about Twilight, it’s because she’s on a massive chocolate high right now.”
He blinked and smacked his lips. “I don’t feel anything odd-d-d-d-d-d!” Thorax shivered and his eyes went wide. Apparently, Twilight nibbling on his neck added to whatever emotions she was giving off right then. The result was extremely distracting.
He panted and pulled away. “OK. I’m starting to see what you mean. What are the symptoms?”
I thought back. “She’s incapable of feeling fear or disgust right now.”
Thorax shrugged. “I don’t see that as a bad thing.”
I stared at him levelly. “On its own, it’s not. Unfortunately, she’s going to crash back down at some point. That’s when you’ll need to be there for her.”
“Oh,” he said, looking a bit glum. “Thank you, Mark. I will do that.” Twilight cured his sad expression with a nip to his withers, which caused his wings to shoot out to his sides. Trixie and I watched them briefly before her horn lit up and I felt myself being carried away. It seemed my presence was urgently required elsewhere. I called back over my shoulder, “I guess I’ll leave it to you to make explanations, Twi.”
I’m not sure if she heard me, but at least I got some laughs from Penny and Crimson who had taken charge of Starlight Glimmer. I soon stopped caring once Trixie and I reached my room and the door closed behind us.
It was a couple of hours before Trixie let me go. Not that I was in any hurry to leave, but there were still loose ends to tie up. We’d spent little time actually talking about my adventures with Twilight beyond a bare outline. We were much more interested in making love, talking about wedding plans, making love, deciding on who to head up the ceremony (Cadance, of course. Other universe versions of her made me promise to ask mine!), making love, speculating on what Twilight and Thorax were going to do, making… well… you get the idea.
When we finally made our way downstairs, we found everyone starting to gather around the dinner table. Cadance and Shining Armor had arrived during our absence, plus all of the Element Bearers. Even Discord came at Fluttershy’s invitation. He gave me a painfully hard slap on the back and congratulated me on my safe return.
Spike walked in with a huge platter of food and put it on the table. He grinned at us and said, “Great timing! We were just about to send someone up to see if you were hungry.”
After all I’d been through lately, I was starving! But I had to wait just a little bit longer while Twilight levitated over to herself the saddlebags that we’d been carrying for days.
“My friends, I would like to introduce to you someone who is very special in my heart – my new daughter, Nyx Sparkle!”
She reached into the saddlebag as she spoke and drew out the little alicorn filly.
Nyx blinked in the bright light, then grinned. “Are we home yet, mom?”
“Yes, Nyx. We’re home at last.”
“Awesome!” She looked around at the surprised faces. “I know you and you and you, but I’ve never seen you before. Hi! I’m Nyx.”
Penumbra stared at the beaming filly for a moment before saying, “Sweet Celestia! You’re adorable! Can I hug you?”
“Sure!” Nyx trotted over to get a wing hug from the bat pony.
“I’m your Auntie Penumbra. You can call me Penny if you like.”
I had to chuckle. My bodyguard had not only promoted herself to family, but she actually wanted Nyx to use the nickname I’d given her that she always said annoyed her. I noticed, though, that Discord had a thoughtful frown as he looked at the alicorn filly. I’d have to ask him what that was about later.
Applejack spoke up. “Twilight, sugarcube, Ah can tell yer tellin’ the truth when ya say she’s yer daughter, but… how?”
“It’s a long story, AJ, but now that everypony’s here, Mark and I can tell you it all. But, can it wait until we eat? I’m starving!”
“I’m not,” I heard Thorax murmur smugly from where he sat beside me.
I leaned over and said in a quiet voice, “When are you going to ask Twilight to marry you?”
He looked at me askance and licked his fangs nervously. “I can’t do that. She deserves better than a changeling.”
“She deserves someone whom she loves dearly and who loves her unconditionally back. Take it from someone who put it off for too long – now’s the time to ask.”
“Do you really think so?”
“She’s one of my best friends, so would you think I would suggest it if I didn’t think you were good for each other?”
“I… suppose not.”
“Then propose.”
“Can it wait until after dinner?”
“Okay, but if you chicken out, I’ll tell Twi.”
He waved his forehooves in denial. “No! No! I’ll do it.”
“Good bug. Now, let’s see what Spike has cooked up for us.”
It was a big meal and we were well into dessert before we got to the part where we met the threesome of Shining Armor and his mares, Cadance and Chrysalis. Shiny nearly choked on his apple pie (freshly baked at Sweet Apple Acres) and Cadance looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck barreling at her. Discord pounded the table as he roared with laughter.
After Shining got over his coughing fit, he glared at me and said, “You made that up!”
I smiled smugly. “Nope! I have photographs.” I pulled the photos out of the pouch I had hanging around my neck and Cadance snatched them up in her magic. The couple stared at them, their mouths agape while I passed around some copies to the others. I noted with amazement that Shining could actually turn whiter than he already was, while Cadance was blushing furiously.
Thorax gave me a nudge and whispered, “You’re not going to believe this, but Princess Cadance is getting turned on.”
I looked at the love bug with a raised eyebrow. He just grinned and nodded. If you can’t trust an emotivore to read emotions correctly, who can you trust? I suppose if alternate world Cadance could like her Chrysalis, I was unable to see why mine couldn’t. She was the Alicorn of Love, after all. Shining, on the other hoof, looked like he swallowed rancid chili. I almost felt bad about pulling out the pics of his female counterpart. Almost.
Discord nearly twisted himself in knots from laughing so hard. I grinned. ‘Top that, buddy,” I thought.
Cadance ordered 8 x 10 glossy prints of the best glamor shot of female Shiny and another of the loving couple together.
Shining sulked until Cadance whispered something in his ear and he immediately brightened up. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the pink mare had said. Lucky stallion.
When we finally completed recounting our adventures, Trixie gave me a smile and asked, “Since you had the chance to talk to Celestia on more than one occasion, did you ask her how to open her spellbooks?”
I blinked and then facehoofed. “CRAP!”
Later that evening after Nyx had been put to bed, Discord took me and Twilight aside. The draconequus had an unusually serious look on his face.
“I am a little perturbed by the presence of that alicorn filly,” he started, confirming my earlier impression.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Adding another alicorn to this world by choice rather than through the machinations of Harmony could have some serious consequences. It is not outside the realm of possibility that Nyx could bring harm to Equestria.”
“Is that a threat?” Twilight snarled, her maternal instincts aroused.
Discord raised his hands defensively and shook his head. “Not at all. I will defend her with my life as much as all your friends would do, but you need to expect that trouble might come to this world as a consequence.”
I replied, “Is it possible that if I’m a replacement for Celestia, Nyx is Harmony’s way of compensating for the loss of Luna?”
Discord looked unconvinced. “We can only hope so.” He then snapped his fingers and disappeared, leaving us with troubled thoughts.
The next day after breakfast, it was time to deal with Starlight Glimmer. She had been housed overnight in the rarely utilized jail cell in the office of Ponyville’s sheriff. Like all such cells, it was fortified against the magic of all types of ponies, but she still had the horn ring locked on also. No chances were being taken with Starlight, although the forlorn mare was a far cry from the defiant cult leader that we had known before. We had really managed to rattle her world view. Now it only remained to see if Twilight could reform her as she claimed she would. Personally, I would have been satisfied to lock her in a dungeon and throw away the key, but the alicorn was a better pony than me and had a great track record of success. I wished her luck.
We arranged to take Starlight back to Canterlot with us. A formal trial would be held as soon as we could arrange it, but Cadance and Trixie agreed to give Twilight a chance to put together a plan to rehabilitate the unicorn. Equestria was all about redemption, not punishment. Even I had to admit that if Starlight put her skills towards the genuine betterment of the nation rather than her own twisted ideas, the benefits could be considerable. I’d be damned if I ever trusted her, though. Hopefully, the trial would bring out the reasons for creating her cult in the first place and give me a better understanding of the mare.
But in the meantime, Trixie and I had a lot of work to catch up on. It turned out that my fiancée let her duties slide while I was away due to worrying about me. I was touched. I was also blown out of the water by the reaction of the nobles when Trixie kept her promise and formally announced at the first session of Day Court that we were to be wed. Let me just say that Trixie had not exaggerated the ramifications of making that public. It was going to be a long two weeks.
Trixie merely turned to me with a smirk and said, “Trixie looks forward to your coronation, my prince.”
I groaned. I suppose you can’t win them all.
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oh, i should have seen THAT one coming!
OMG, it's Fallout Equestria!
So much to say, but not enough gumption to type it all out.
Discords spooky instincts about Nyx, Aunt Penny, Cadence getting her motor running on unleaded changeling thoughts, Starlight finally seeing sense, poor kinda-murdered Dash, and all hail the Pink One.
That's a general cliffnote of things I liked!
Though I gotta say I did like the other world excursions too! Also, Twilight on chocolate high is pretty funny too.
Oh oh oh oh! Idea. Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer, princess of Elkquestria
the return of bug queen and cadence just up and tackles her teleports, and a few WEEKS later Equestria has its first three-way royal marriage
Aww, the centaur world would've been fun!
FoE was a nice one to induce definitive trauma in Starlight, though.
What about Thorax proposal? Did he do it in secret or did Mark forget to do it for him?
9510718
Seconding this.
This was a good saga
FINALLY.
Damn I was hoping to see a world where Mark was married by Candance /or Twilight and/or Chrysalis would have been fun material to work with. I personally thing that intentionally altering the time in any degree alone is enough to warren life in prison, just for having the balls to do it in the first place shows a unparalleled ruthlessness and callousness. What Starlight did was apparently incalculably devastating and petty that it spiraled out control into a myriad of catastrophic alternate futures for Equestria, where it was laxes but still prospering where it seased to be. For a long while I was baffled by the show of having Starlight being mostly forgiven for her transgressions even if she did put an end to it herself and not Twilight. Still, it took me a really figure out the moral of the story, though it was a fun episode, where it started to make sense when Twilight stopped imply fighting/opposing Starlight where and did her best to reason with her, talk to her like an actually person and stop seeing her as just the enemy, and somehow got lucky to get through to her with appealing to her better nature not and move on from seeking revenge on old wrongs in her eyes. the final seen with Stalight doing stuff with the rest of the mane 6 and seeing all the ponies of ponyville in one final cut was certainly a big help in getting the message that we are all one in the same as people and that we can all one in the same and that we all have a part in how we deal with sociaty and each other. Which is why I think the Show pushed the idea that Starlight had to be forgiven, though voluntarily stopping the whole thing herself and not forced to do so, and getting a change to start over again with her life and not to be constantly reminded of her past transgression sense she finally saw that she was in the wrong and wanted to make amens with everyone.
Still, I wonder how Sunburst and Starlight are going to meet up in the coming chapter, and how could Thorax get enough love to reform the hive if he doesn't stay at the Crystal Empire while he stays with Twilight?
While I'm glad this saga is over Goldie, I had to snerk and give a laugh when you put them into your version of the MLP universe. Some of the realities were meh, some I couldn't stop laughing from reading. Thanks for the interesting chapters my friend and never forget....
ALL HAIL THE PINK ONE!!!!!!!!!
.....or else......
FINALLY! I'm definitely curious to see how Nyx will affect things going forward. Also, that picture of the threesome is so adorable I squealed like an excited foal. Also also, Pinkie Pie, you scare me.
Personally, like Mark, I would love to see her rot in prison. But I'm a vindictive person and I fully realize that's simply not the pony way.
If she really does get given another chance, I think Mark might put that brilliant mind of hers to work on how to advance Equestria's tech level.
More like cult of mediocrity.
I probably mentioned this before, but whenever I see that name, it reminds me of
- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Drama
- Slice of Life
A human finds himself yanked out of his own life and plunged, with no field guide, into Equestria!I can't help it! It just does!
great chapter
Well, in 'canon' universe, reforming Starlight Glimmer was important. Otherwise, Chrysalis would have won that time, because it was Starlight who led the Secondary Characters for the win. Maybe in this one Glimmer can arrange a ménage à trois between Chrysalis, Cadence, and Shining and solve that problem.
Oh thank god, it's over. I don't wanna give you too much crap, because you get to write exactly what you want to write, but holy jumping Jesus that arc was terrible. It dragged on too long, it tried too hard to be meta, and then when you had a chance to have even a little progress on the overarching plot - the whereabouts of the princesses - you shot it down with a vague insinuation. (If something is so bad that it cannot even bear mentioning, and there are many such threats - why the heck were the mirrors left unsmashed and ready to be used in the first place?) Never mind the spellbooks.
I guess it's nice that Twilight got a kid out of the whole deal, (because who wants to deal with pregnancy?) but I really wish that instead of remixing a bunch of other stories into alternate histories you'd just dreamt up a new scheme for Starlight Glimmer to try.
I feel like this refers to another story I have seen on Fimfiction somewhere
Oh hey, I know this place
I am Discord in this scene
As long as it isn't the stupid reason of her and Sunburst forgetting that letters and trains are a thing
Yeah, forgot about that part didn't ya
9511188
this is the one you're talking about.
A Different Perspective
by Goldfur
This pay off chapter was totally worth it.
9510697
Indeed! I was worried Goldfur didn't give enough clues. Instead... BAM! First comment!
9510718
'Elkquestria'... I wish we had been clever enough to figure that one out!
a super duper awesome story ark just totally amassing.
this last chapter was right on Path for a grate ending.
and now we have everpony plus Nyx back in the House.
the art work is above board.
and the fact that you mentioned what i feel is one of the best story lines House Path just makes it grate.
9511690
The pink clouds coming off of Canterlot are a pretty overt reference.
Uh-huh. And we all know what happens in that universe, Twilight.
I was laughing. Perhaps not quite as hard as Discord, but I can't fall spontaneously to pieces and survive it, after all.
9510768
This. You set it up and did not deliver!
Everypony was there to witness it!!
I didn't recognize the plant things...I'm assuming they're in one of the later Fallout Equestria stories somewhere? Because I know I didn't see anything like that in Kkat's story...
9511749
Yeah, the Pink Cloud spewing out of Canterlot was all that was needed for me to recognize that setting.
There will be many facehooves when they find out Starlight’s backstory. Seriously, everyone loses friends, you’re not special, Star. Ever heard of ‘WRITING A LETTER?’
9511867
Ah! But this is an alternate world where Starlight's motives are different. (They had better be! The show's version was silly.)
9511871
...Well that throws my comment off balance, then. Let me guess, a very argumentative family? Perhaps friends and neighbors who wouldn’t stop fighting?
9511253
Okay thanks
Kinda disappointed they didn't mention the mirrorverse from the comic.
It was fun, fond memories of great fics recollected.
I would LOVE to see the chapter inserted into A Different Perspective to show just how much they got to interact in that timeline.
9511958
It wouldn't surprise me if that's the place this timeline's Celestia & Luna have been all this time.
SO MUCH MADNESS!! Though definitely has some great stuff. I am CERTAINLY looking forward to things going back to normal after some of those more vile worlds...like the one with the Parasitic Parasprites. *Shivers*
More please
That was great! Such a good way to end the arc. I think you should leave the picture of the happy threesome here as well as putting one in the chapter they're mentioned in. It just fits so well here.
O well... I guess this is acceptebel
I teared up a little at the first description of the pink cloud. Well played.
oh, i just remembered this crazy fan-comic:
I actually kind of want him to add Gilda to his little herd. It's rare she gets any romance.
It wasn't just boring, it was a slog. Almost 20% of the story up to this point is an essentially irrelevant road trip between the alternate destinations of Hell and Wackyland. To be fair, this story does have the random tag, but that card was overplayed hard in this arc.
I would at least make sure to place a mindspell on Starlight to force her following orders of the Equestria rulers... Genocide etc. Is a pretty serious shit she pullled after all...
Would've been interesting to the one with the centaurs.
Long Live House Path!
this was one if not the most satisfaing chapters ever !
Ayy, welcome to canon Equestria!
Ohh...Umm...Ugh...Yepp
All is well that ends well. Unless you are in one of the dead or dying universes...
Finally.
The multiverse was getting old.
Not that I didn't appreciate it.
I love fallout equestria.
Pics are great!
9511871
Yeah, I enjoyed Starlight Glimmer as a villainess and some of the post redemption episodes were fun, but the half-baked sob story was a bit of a let down.
They could have fleshed it out at least showing Starlight's descent into madness. But nope, we have to remember it's a little kids cartoon so every villain needs a mommy and daddy and all bad things can be fixed with a hug and "I'm sorry".
Damn. Thinking to ask Celestia how to unlock her spellbooks slipped my mind entirely too.
I'd really rather that Starlight Glimmer was subject to execution. Images 1106584, 1804713, 2063501 on derpibooru are some of the preferences I would have to her getting off with reformation. She doesn't deserve it.
That being said, now that this arc is FINALLY behind us, hopefully we don't have to see anymore of her worthless hide anymore.