End of Time: The Blame
One Day Later...
“Ugh, what is taking them so long?” Rainbow Dash groaned impatiently in the air, her wings beating in a steady rhythm and keeping her aloft over the map in Twilight’s throne room. She had a scowl etched onto her face, and her entire body was stiff and twitchy, making it clear just how anxious she was.
Applejack, who had joined the rest of Twilight’s friends around the map, heaved a weary sigh and gave Rainbow Dash a disapproving frown. “Flyin’ in circles and moanin’ about it won’t make ‘em come any faster, ya know,” she scolded sharply.
Rainbow spun around to face Applejack with an annoyed huff, her nostrils flaring. “I know that! But it helps me think, okay?!” she shot back before resuming her flight.
Starlight stood next to Twilight’s throne, the only seat in the room that was empty, and watched the two mares bicker with one another. She couldn’t say she blamed anypony for how they felt right now. The tension was almost palpable, and she was contributing plenty to the mix. It had been a pretty chaotic day, and the rip in the sky had gotten noticeably larger since she had first caught sight of it the previous night.
A few seats over, Rarity echoed Applejack’s previous sigh before leveling a stern look at both of them. “Whatever the reason for the delay is, is simply must be a good one. We all know that Twilight is a very thorough researcher, so she must be making sure she has something meaningful to tell us.”
“I hope it’s good news,” Pinkie pie added in, shifting uncomfortably in her throne and fidgeting with her hooves in front of her chest. “Today’s been nothing but one long super depressing bummer. And my Pinkie Sense is giving me this weird tingle in my chest. I dunno what it means, but I really don’t like it.”
Fluttershy nodded shakily from her own seat, her hooves nervously running through her long pink mane and her wings ruffling uneasily at her sides. “I hope so. I can’t go back to all of my animal friends without knowing what to tell them,” she said to Rarity before her face fell, and her expression became a little more solemn. “They were all so scared...:”
“Well, whenever Twilight and the Princesses come back, we’ll hear what they have to say,” Rarity said in a far gentler and soothing voice before leaning back in her seat. Her eyes drifted up to the roof, idly tracing the various formations of crystal that could be seen up there. “Although even I must admit, this wait is becoming positively draining.”
“See? See?!” Rainbow exclaimed in vindication, gesturing in the fashion designer’s general direction. “It’s not just me!”
Rarity didn’t even miss a beat, and a small smirk spread on her face. “Perhaps not, but I’m not the one complaining about it every five minutes,” she shot back in a teasing and predatory tone.
Rainbow Dash became visibly flustered at this. “But I- you- GUH!” She finally gave up and threw her forelegs into the air in exasperation. She then turned and continued her aerial pacing. Although, Starlight noticed, she was making an active effort to keep the volume of her protests to little more than an irate grumbling this time.
As that train of discussion came to a close, the silence returned, and it was even more oppressive than it had been before Rainbow’s little outburst. Starlight glanced over her shoulder at one of the many doors that led out of the throne room. She subconsciously chewed on her lower lip, and her ears flicked at even the tiniest of noises. “Come on, Twilight,” she all but begged within the privacy of her thoughts. “Get out here. We need to know what’s going on…”
As if on cue, the doors she was looking at finally opened up. Twilight trotted in first, her pace slow, her head hanging low, and her mane looking messy and unkempt. Her hooves dragged beneath her, giving off the impression of a mare carrying an unspeakable level of exhaustion on her shoulders. As she passed, Starlight got a brief glimpse of her eyes and saw puffy bags hanging around underneath them.
Following close behind her were princesses Celestia and Luna. The two of them looked to be in marginally better condition than Twilight did, but were still looking tired and… sad. A lump formed in Starlight’s throat, one she couldn’t quite seem to swallow right now, and she knew right then that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
The alicorns all looked resigned… like they had just been given a piece of news that made them give up on their biggest hopes and dreams.
All eyes became glued onto the entering trio, and all movements from the assembled mares came to a halt. Celestia and Luna took up a position on either side of Twilight’s throne while she hauled herself into her seat. Her eyes remained fixed on the cushion beneath her hooves for a long while, her ears flat against her head. Starlight’s face fell a little when she heard Twilight take in a shuddering breath to calm herself.
She looked so sad. Somewhere, deep in her heart, Starlight felt a stirring, a compulsion to reach over and give her a reassuring pat. However, her hoof only drifted over the crystal floor for a moment before setting back down. “No,” she thought. “That’s not my place. It’s theirs…”
At long last, Twilight lifted her head. Her tired eyes slowly swept across the table, landing on one pony, and then moving on to the next. For each one, she locked gazes with them, drawing their full and undivided attention. Even Rainbow Dash had settled into her seat, her ears at attention and eagerly waiting to hear what Twilight had to say.
She swallowed heavily and took one more deep breath. “Before I talk about what the Princesses and I have uncovered,” she began, her voice slow and tired. “I want to take a minute to just… recap everything that’s happened so far.”
Starlight frowned at that, a little confused. They all knew what had happened up to this point, so what need was there for a recap? Maybe it was just something these ponies did? She’d been spying on them for months, yes, but she never really bothered to absorb their social cues or priorities. She’d been more focused on finding a way to get revenge, after all.
The other mares looked far more attentive and unphased by this, which only helped to confirm Starlight’s theory. She didn’t miss Applejack and Rainbow sharing an impatient look before returning their attention to Twilight.
After a few seconds of silence, Twilight continued, satisfied that she would not be interrupted. “As you all know, last night, at some point after midnight, Starlight here looked up into the night sky and saw some kind of giant crack opening up in the night sky. Through this crack is nothing but white light and a current of multi-colored magic.”
Starlight winced and shrank down a little as several pairs of eyes all zeroed in on her, making her feel uncomfortable from all of the sudden attention. Thankfully, Twilight drew the gazes away when she continued.
“The crack has been growing at a steady rate ever since, and Princess Celestia has taken to calling it the Chasm. At the same time, many ponies in the dream realm were discovered by Luna to have multiple sets of memories, each set depicting a different life.”
Luna stepped forward slightly and nodded as if that was her cue. “Quite. The first example was a member of my lunar guard, a thestral known as Squall Dreamer. In his mind, there now exists several years worth of memories revolving around a filly named Wind Whisper. In these memories, she is a little sister of his that lives with him in Canterlot. However, he has no such sibling in the waking world, and none of his siblings live with him in the city.
“However, his is not the only case. I saw hundreds of dreams affected by this phenomena over the course of the night, and personally visited dozens of them,” Luna paused, her brow furrowing in thought. “As alarming as it already is that ponies are acquiring new memories, it grows even more perplexing. I noticed while jumping from dream to dream that many of them shared numerous... characteristics. One recurring theme was a war with the Changelings, in which Canterlot fell, and Princess Twilight fled to the Crystal Empire with her friends to try and coordinate a counter-attack.”
Twilight nodded and picked up from there, her voice getting a small amount of its strength back, seemingly due to scholarly fascination more than anything else. “Princess Celestia and I discussed a lot of reasons why something like this might be happening, and a few ideas were thrown around,” she said before nodding at the tallest alicorn in the room.
Celestia stepped forward and cleared her throat. “Indeed. Considering the common themes in the various sets of memories, it seemed safe to assume, at least at first, that somehow, a parallel world is colliding with our own, causing some anomalies in our memories. Other versions of ourselves intersecting with us at points, to put it simply.”
Rainbow glanced up at the ceiling, no doubt picturing the rift in the sky. “So, what you’re saying, is that our world is bumping into another one? That’s wild,” she asked slowly, awed at the concept.
Luna’s face darkened somewhat, and her gaze lowered. “No, not quite,” she rebuffed, drawing Rainbow’s attention. “There is another quality to these memories that I discovered while searching the dream realm before this meeting...”
Luna’s expression had turned grim and distant, and Pinkie Pie took notice. “Oh no, I don’t like that look,” she called over from her seat, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at Luna’s face. “That’s not a happy look.”
Luna sighed and lifted her face again. “The sets of memories all share common threads, yes, the changeling invasion being the most prominent one. However, at the same time, many of them outright clash with one another.”
Twilight took that as her cue and continued. “Luna gave me a few examples. There was one where things were more or less the same as they are here, but for whatever reason, Rainbow Dash grew up in Canterlot with me. There was another one where Nightmare Moon won during the thousandth summer sun celebration, and I served at her side, along with Rainbow Dash. There was one where the Changeling invasion of Canterlot went off without a hitch, but we all got away to the Crystal Empire to eventually win, and one where… well…” she looked down, clearly shaken at the prospect.
“One where the empire fell, and you all went with it,” Luna finished, sweeping her gaze across the room.
Rarity politely cleared her throat, and all eyes were on her. Her eyes flicked back and forth from the sudden rush of attention, and she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Oh! Pardon me. I’m terribly sorry for interrupting, and I don’t mean to sound impatient, but…”
“Could you maybe skip to the point?” Rainbow finished bluntly with a roll of her hoof, having had a similar train of thought. “All of this weird other world mumbo jumbo is flying over my head, anyway. Just tell me whose flank I need to kick to close up that rip in the sky and let’s hop to it.”
A heavy silence fell over the three princesses, who all looked between one another anxiously. Starlight watched them for a moment, and when Twilight looked at her directly, she felt her heart skip a beat. The look on Twilight’s face…
Starlight had seen a lot of hopeless ponies in her time running her village. She had gotten good at seeing the signs, to figure out which ponies would be easy targets to recruit. All of those looks, every last one, paled in comparison to the face before her. The look of sheer, utter despair and resignation on Twilight’s face was more intense than any Starlight had seen before.
“Starlight… I am so sorry,” Twilight suddenly said in a quiet whisper, her eyes glistening.
Starlight blinked and leaned her head back. “Huh?”
Twilight didn’t answer her directly. Instead, she looked back at everypony else. “Okay, just follow me for a minute. What we are seeing in the sky and with the memories is similar to another world bumping into ours, but the memories ponies are having seem to clash with one another. This implies that the other ‘world’ is unstable and that things keep changing. From that, we can infer…”
Twilight trailed off when she saw Rainbow just nodding along in a steady rhythm, almost as if she were following a catchy beat. “Yeah, no, go on Twi. I totally understand everything you’re saying right now.”
Twilight frowned and closed her eyes. “Fine… I wanted you to understand why this is happening in detail, but… I guess it doesn’t matter anymore… none of it does…”
That got Rainbow to stop her nodding, her ears folding back while everypony else looked at Twilight with expressions of shock and confusion. Pinkie Pie stood up and trotted a few paces around the map to be closer to Twilight. “Twilight? What’s wrong? Why are you so sad?”
“And what do you mean ‘none of it matters?’” Fluttershy followed up, moving to join Pinkie in comforting their forlorn friend.
Twilight didn’t say anything for a moment, her head bowing down even further. Starlight watched with bated breath and a chill in her veins as Twilight remained perfectly still. Then Twilight lifted her head, and Starlight stifled a gasp when she saw tears rolling down her cheeks. “Girls, I… w-we… I just…” she tried to say, but her voice was shaking too much.
A collection of gasps echoed through the room at the sight, and Pinkie and Fluttershy quickly responded, both of them moving to Twilight’s sides and wrapping her up in a hug. Her words were cut off, and she just stared at something a thousand yards away for a moment. Then, it occurred to her that her friends were holding her, and she quickly pulled them closer with her hooves and wings. If one listened, they could just make out her quiet, muffled sobs from under the veil of feathers.
Celestia sighed at the display, her posture finally losing some of its practiced regality and elegance. She sadly shook her head and then stepped forward a little more. She gave each of the mares still seated an unreadable look and then spoke at a deliberate, even pace. “In short, when Twilight and Starlight came back from the past, something changed… and those changes are catching up with us.”
Everypony looked confused at that, glancing between one another in confusion. Applejack adjusted her hat on her head and leaned forward somewhat. “Beggin’ yer pardon, princess, but what does that mean?” she asked, sounding like she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
But Starlight knew. And for Starlight, the world seemed to stop all at once. Her blood began to run cold in her veins, and a horrible knot formed in the pit of her stomach. Her heart twisted in her chest, and her eyes went wide open and unfocused.
Twilight gently nudged Pinkie and Fluttershy back so she could look up, though she remained tightly clinging to her. She lifted her gaze to Applejack. “It means that the world is changing again… b-but this time, we won’t be protected from it…” she choked out, finally able to find her voice through the tears.
Starlight shuddered, and a shallow gasp slithered its way out of her. Her legs shook beneath her, feeling like they had suddenly turned into jelly. She fell to her haunches as the full weight of what Twilight had just told her began to set in.
“So… what does that mean for us?” Rarity asked carefully.
“It means that our lives are going to be undone,” Luna stated regretfully. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “In approximately three days, if Twilight’s calculations are correct, the Chasm will grow to the point that it will consume our world. And when it does… everything will disappear. Our lives will cease to exist as they are.”
“Wait, you mean we’re gonna die?!” Applejack asked in a raised voice, moving to stand up. “Isn’t there somethin’ y’all can do to stop it?!”
“Not possible,” Luna said in resignation with a sad shake of her head. “The only copy of the spell we would need for such action is gone. Besides, even if it were still within reach, there is no telling what changed, or how to put it back. For all we know, Twilight and Starlight’s mere presence in the past, even if they went unnoticed by all, caused something to change.”
“Even something as small as a cloud being an inch out of place…” Celestia added in quietly. She paused for a moment to let that sink in before she spoke up again. “Any efforts to undo the changes made would, invariably, create more changes.”
“But wait, wait!” Rainbow shouted, rising into the air with a flap of her wings. “Twilight and Starlight! They were flying all over the past and a bunch of other presents before weren’t they?! They were fine, then! What’s different?”
“The Tree,” Twilight suddenly said, lifting her eyes to meet the pegasus’. When she was met with a perplexed look, she sighed and elaborated. “The Tree of Harmony must be able to see time in a different way than us. Somehow, it knew that something was wrong whenever Spike and I went into an altered world, and the friendship map was waiting for us to send us back. Somehow, the tree knew that we were needed to put things right, and so it… protected us, I guess. We weren’t bound by time the same way everypony else was. We could move through time but still stay ourselves, no matter what changed. We broke time, it was our job to fix it.”
“You mean I broke it!” Starlight wanted to scream. “I went back first! This is my responsibility!” But no matter how hard she tried to form the words, her voice just would not come. All that left her lips was a quiet, strangled whimper of guilt and horror.
“Okay, so…” Rainbow started, fidgeting with her hooves. “What if we made up another copy of the spell, went back and broke something again?” she suggested hopefully, though it was obvious that even she knew how stupid of a plan that was. Nevertheless, desperation drove her to keep talking. “Then we could be ‘protected’ and find a way to fix things-”
“Are you even listening to yourself?!’ Twilight suddenly snapped, rising up to a standing position and causing Pinkie and Fluttershy to back away. She leveled a hard and disapproving glare at Rainbow. “We can’t remake the spell! We don’t have enough time, and without a copy for reference, there’s no way anypony here could recreate it properly! And traveling back to break something?! Deliberately?! How many more timelines have to go through an end like this, Rainbow Dash?! HOW MANY?!”
It was like a bit dropped.
Rainbow slowly dropped out of the air, falling to her haunches on the map with a distant look in her eyes. “Wait… you mean…” she choked out, her voice only audible because of the profound silence.
“Did all of the other worlds go through this…?” Rarity asked in shock, her eyes wide and a hoof covering her mouth. “With the chasm, the memories, and… knowing that it was all over?”
Twilight sighed and slumped back into her seat. “...It seems likely, yes.”
Everypony fell completely silent. Starlight looked back and forth between them all, her mind racing. She took a step back, the gentle clop sounding deafening in the throne room.
Finally, Rainbow lifted her eyes from her hooves to look into Twilight’s again. “Okay, so… give it to us straight… is there something we can do to fix this?”
Twilight paused, hesitated, and then shook her head.
For a moment, Rainbow Dash mouthed like a fish, trying to find something to say. Nothing came, however. So instead, she let her head fall, her posture sagging with defeat. All around her, in their seats, the other ponies in the room showed similar signs of defeat.
Pinkie looked between them all for a moment, then looked up at Princess Celestia. “How… how long do we have?” she asked, her voice quiet and resigned. Her mane visibly deflated somewhat, and her usually bright colors appeared to dull considerably.
Celestia gestured with her head towards Luna. “As my sister said - around three days,” she said softly.
“And that’ll be it, then?” Applejack pressed, her voice equally solemn. “We’ll be dead, and that’ll be that?”
Twilight spoke up again, a small flicker of hope in her eyes. “No, we won't die. Our lives are being rewritten, not cut off or undone. We’ll still be here, we’ll just be… different. Although…” the hope in her face was replaced by fear, and she wilted into her seat. “In the moment… it might feel like we’re dying…”
The silence returned, more oppressive and suffocating than ever. The assembled wielders of the Elements of Harmony looked between one another, no words being spoken. Applejack pulled her hat off of her head and held it over her heart, her eyes closed. Rarity just looked down at her hooves, a distant look in her eyes. Fluttershy sat next to Twilight on her haunches, her head bowed and her mane hiding her face from view.
A quiet sob could be heard from her, and in no time, Pinkie Pie was at her side, wrapping her up in a big hug and whispering to her that everything was going to be alright. Twilight glanced down at them, then closed her eyes and sighed. The remaining alicorns looked at one another helplessly, as if asking the other to say something, anything.
But there was nothing they could say. There was nothing any of them could say that would make this better.
Starlight watched them all for what felt like forever. She took in a nearly silent breath, her entire body shaking before she let it out. “I’m... so sorry…” she choked out.
That phrase, despite being nearly inaudible, was all but deafening in the throne room. All eyes turned to look at her, with a wide range of looks. The one that stood out the most being that of Rainbow Dash, who made eye contact with Starlight.
A chill ran down her spine as she stared into those deep, dark pink pools, and she instinctively took a step back.
The pegasus took in a deep, shaky breath, her pupils dilating and her nostrils flaring. “...Fix it,” she said, barely able to squeeze the words out.
Starlight stepped back again. “I can’t… I’m-”
Rainbow suddenly shot to her hooves, marching across the map towards Starlight. Her expression was twitching, and her lips peeled back into an ugly snarl. “Yes, you can. You find a way to fix this, and you do it RIGHT NOW!”
“Rainbow, please,” Twilight tried to calm her, but Rainbow was having none of it. The pegasus jumped down from the table, continuing to advance on Starlight with flared wings.
“You got us into this, you can get us out!” Rainbow snapped, picking up her pace as Starlight backed away. “I don’t care how you do it, just FIX IT!”
“I can’t!”
“YES, YOU CAN!” Rainbow all but shouted, her voice cracking. “You HAVE to! We have NOT come this far and done so much just to have it all ripped away by YOU!”
“Rainbow Dash, that’s enough!” Applejack called out, rising from her seat and putting her hat back on her head. “Leave the filly alone! What’s done is done!”
Rainbow spun around to glare angrily at Applejack. “What’s done is done, and I’m not done yet!” she countered, her eyes starting to glisten. She turned back on Starlight, her wings flexing in a barely restrained desire to launch her at the unicorn before her. “I have too much left to do! We ALL do! We can’t just let it all end like this!”
“I wish I could do something!” Starlight responded, her own voice quivering. “But the spell is gone, and I can’t do anything about this from here without it! I’m sorry, I really, really am, but there’s nothing I can do…”
Rainbow stood there for a moment, one of her eyes starting to twitch. She then growled deep in her throat, though she did not charge. Instead, her wings folded back up at her sides, and she slowly turned around. Without a word, she began to trot for one of the exits, not sparing a glance towards any of the other ponies in the room, who all watched her with a wide range of emotions.
As she went, she passed by Twilight, who hesitantly reached out to her. ‘Rainbow-”
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Rainbow suddenly snapped, violently jerking away from Twilight’s hoof. She then turned and pointed a trembling hoof at Starlight. “And get rid of her! This is all her fault anyway!”
Without another word, Rainbow turned and left the room. The door swung open and then slammed loudly shut behind her, plunging the room into another silence. Starlight’s eyes remained affixed on the door where the pegasus had left, her ears ringing with the echoes of Rainbow’s parting words.
“Ah’ll go after her,” Applejack suddenly said in a tender voice, heading for the same exit. She paused for a moment when she reached the doors and gave Starlight a sideways glance. “...The filly’s upset. But… Ah can’t say Ah blame her for what she said… but it doesn’t matter now.”
And with that, Applejack left as well, closing the door behind her much softer than Rainbow did. That left Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and the Sisters to all look between one another.
The silence was too much. Starlight couldn’t take it anymore. With a withering cry, her horn lit up, and she suddenly disappeared from the throne room in a flash of light. The last thing she saw before the light consumed her was the widening eyes of everypony present, no doubt surprised by her sudden departure. She couldn’t find it in herself to care what they thought just then, though.
Her teleport carried her to another point in the castle entirely and deposited her onto her bed with a soft thump. She lay there, face down in her pillow for what felt like forever. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps as the weight of it all became too much. She screwed her eyes tightly shut and let out a long, regretful scream as the reality of the situation dawned on her.
She was the one who went back in time with that stupid spell, she was the one who had to go looking for revenge, she was the one who dragged Twilight along to make her watch her destroy her friendships. Starlight had created several new worlds in her mad quest for revenge, and each one was then destroyed because of her… and now it was her turn to watch the world end. Now she got to pay for what she had done.
And the worst part? There was nothing she could do to stop it.
The world was going to end…
And it was all her fault.
I promise many of the arcs after this one will be happier. 
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... And there it is. All that's left is to wait.
Actually, Starlight can do the spell without the scroll. We saw it in the episodes. She even did it without the cutie map or the scroll.
And since then, more then once, she pretty much confirmed she is still able to do it.
So, yeah, your story really falls apart.
And because the multiverse is confirmed to exist in MLP, those universes existed before Starlight, and continue to exist after her.
9522468
I do not recall her stating this at any point. Mind providing some instances where she stated outright she can still do it?
If you are referring to the human world and the mirror portal, or the weird portals Discord can open that lead to other spaces, I think you're thinking of other planes of existence. They may be separate 'worlds,' but they are also still a part of the same timeline. If you are referring to other universes straight up, then the only instances I can think of where that actually matches current material is with the comics, and those have so many inconsistencies and clash so much with the animated content that it's not even worth debating their validity as canon. It's pretty clear they're not to anyone who gives it even a minute of critical thought.
Aside from that, though, I can't think of anything in the show where entire other universes have been explicitly confirmed to be a thing that exists. If something has happened that confirms this, do keep in mind, this series of stories was started well before any such plot points were openly revealed, making that 'Alternate Universe' tag increasingly important to remember.
Whoa. Again, really emotional stuff. Yeah, the reactions to the new set(s) of memories (including how things ended up going down in the "Glimpses"-verse thus far was great, particularly Rainbow's anger and Starlight's guilt. So, yeah, I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing the remaining final days.
It seems that what Discord did to Princess Dash's mind was just transfer this version of Rainbow Dash's hatred into Princess Dash. That could also explain why she could only see this alternate version of Starlight whenever she looked at her.
9522468
Except that she has never been demonstrated to use the spell without the scroll. And the reason Starlight was tearing the scroll was so that Twilight couldn't return to fix things again, suggesting that the spell is directly connected to the scroll and not the caster. I suppose there was an episode that mentioned her possibly using the time travel spell to fix something. But it was never said that she could do the spell without the scroll. At best, she could rewrite the original spell. But that's it. And she wouldn't have enough time to do so.
Different universes, and different timelines are two different things. Even if you make the argument that making a different choice splits a timeline into a different universe, the universes are still interconnected by the same timeline. And if you're making an argument for Equestria Girls, it's not canon to the show. And if it exists, the timeline split BEFORE the sonic rainboom, meaning that the destruction of this timeline wouldn't affect the EQG timeline. And technically, the main series timeline would be a different timeline than that of this story, since in the main timeline, Starlight didn't cause the end of time because Rainbow Dash wasn't distracted (at least not enough to result in her parents death).
9522519
Technically, Equestria Girls isn't canon to the show. For this reason, like the comics, you could make the argument that they are on a different timeline. But if you take alternate timelines as alternate universes as how I described, the EQG universe would have split from the main show universe even before the pillars defeated the sirens...because in EQG, the pillars didn't defeat the sirens, it was just Starswirl. So whether the mirror portal exists or not in the main timeline doesn't change the fact that it wouldn't be the same timeline in the human world as it is in EQG. As for as I know, Sunset shimmer doesn't even exist in the main timeline.
9523247
Actually, Discord just made Flashes RD hate Starlight by making it so that the sights and thoughts of her triggered an angry emotional response. The rest of that was just Rainbow's own lack of comprehension of who Starlight was and her fear of what could happen leading to a decidedly twisted envisioning of her.
9524901
I understand. It's just that this Rainbow Dash's reaction is very similar to Flashes RD's visceral reaction.
9524997
That's just RD being RD.
Not gonna lie, this interpretation of how timeline alterations work (the previous timeline is just outright destroyed) makes this the darkest story of the series, and it's not even done yet.
9525524
Well, that's how it is perceived by the ponies as the change is happening. It isn't really destruction, just, as you said, alteration. It just looks and feels like the end of the world while it's happening.
I mean, it could be inferred from the prologue of Glimpses that this was the case. If it were just an instant snap and switch, then future Twi would have never been able to contact her past self, or Celestia for that matter. They had some time, and they knew what was happening. So, in that sense, this darkness has been present since the very beginning. We're just seeing it for the first time with this arc.
9522519
Don't worry Skij, the only thing falling apart in this AU is the entire world. In this lil arc of it, anyway.
