Starlight's World IX
“Woah! Look at this, I got Shining Armor’s Cutie Mark!” Rainbow Dash said as she flew above the heads of the other ponies, pointing at her flank and the newly acquired Cutie Mark. “Can I like make huge shields or something now even though I’m a pegasus? Oh! What if I could like, make them around me and fly into stuff all super fast? I’d be invincible!” She tightly squeezed her eyes shut and grunted while straining hard trying to imagine and create a big bubble shield around her. “Come on, come on!”
She opened her eyes to see nothing.
“Lame!” She folded her forelegs in disappointment and floated down to the ground with a big frown on her face. “Twilight, tell me how to do magic and stuff!”
Rarity meanwhile was having a different problem...
“This is just horrible! My beautiful Cutie Mark gone and replaced with, with… apples!” Rarity screeched as she looked at Applejack’s Cutie Mark on her flank. “This is unbearable! I don’t want to be an apple farmer the rest of my life, why couldn’t I get Princess Cadance’s Cutie Mark?” She asked, looking over at her apple farming friend.
“I’d gladly give it to you.” Applejack looked in dismay at the Princess’s Cutie Mark that now adorned her. “Does this mean I can make ponies fall in love or something? How does this work again?”
Alternate Twilight meanwhile was staring in annoyance at the three balloons on her flank. “Well that’s great, now I get to be a party pony.”
“Hey! What’s wrong with being a party pony?!” Pinkie Pie said as she pouted, exaggeratedly puffing up her cheeks. Incidentally one of the Twilight’s Cutie Marks was on her flank. For all the good it could do there.
“Nothing.” Alternate Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s just not very useful in this situation, Pinkie.”
“Tell me about it.” Twilight Sparkle not from the current dimension said. She was looking in consternation at the three little butterflies on her flank. “Er, sorry Fluttershy. No offense.”
“Oh, none taken.” The yellow pegasus shook her head, telling Twilight not to worry. “I know this is a pretty trying time for us all and, well… this isn’t very helpful to anypony is it?” She looked down and pointed at her flank which had one of the Starlight’s Cutie Marks on it.
Both Twilight’s then looked across the room at Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Taking in with no small amount of amusement the realization that Shining had received Rarity’s Cutie Mark. And with far less amusement they saw the other Starlight Glimmer Cutie Mark had made its home on the flank of the Princess, that meant she could probably fight even better than before if the Empress told them to attack.
Spike in the meantime pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off after being unceremoniously dropped on the floor when Starlight’s spell went off. Looking back at Captain Gleam he could see her clearly trying to focus some power into her horn but it wasn’t working. Thanks to her armor he couldn’t tell what new Cutie Mark she had but it definitely didn’t help with magic.
“Well this was not one of my better thought out ideas.” The good Starlight said as she looked around at everypony before glancing down at her own flank and seeing the cloud and lightning bolt Cutie Mark of Rainbow Dash. “Hm, that could actually be useful here though. And since I used the spell while impaired on a bunch of ponies instead of just a couple I doubt the swap will even last an hour...” She then looked at her evil self, who was intently staring at her own new Cutie Mark. “What did she—oh. Crud.”
Both Twilight’s trotted over to stand by Starlight’s side even though they couldn’t offer much help.
“What Cutie Mark did the Empress-” They both said before stopping. “Uh oh.”
Empress Starlight grinned as she looked at the six-pointed star Cutie Mark on her flank that previously belonged to one of the Twilight’s. She slowly turned to face her now very worried opponents, looking just as smug as before. “Well, I can work with this.”
She menacingly stepped forward, her horn lighting up with magic just as powerful as she could normally summon. The two Twilight’s took a step back in concern.
“Sadly for you it seems things haven’t really changed. That swap may have disoriented me enough for you to slip out to safety but now I think I’ll just take care of all three of you right now.” She smiled evilly.
“Any other bright ideas?” One of the Twilight’s asked good Starlight. She wasn’t exactly sure which at this point.
Starlight frowned and instead of backpedaling to get away from her evil twin she stepped forward. “You can’t threaten me, me. And you don’t seem to realize that this situation has actually changed quite a bit. Not just because I’m free either but because you never learned how my friends all got their Cutie Marks did you?”
The Empress scowled at her, aiming her horn and finally preparing to just blast the annoyance that was her double away. “And what does that have to do with anything?”
“You’re right to think you can beat us in a fight now. Without my normal Cutie Mark I can’t fight you at all. But I never intended to fight after seeing that I had Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark. Rainbow Dash got this in racing. See ya.” Starlight grinned and with an unnatural and completely un-unicorn speed, ran off past the Empress before she could react, racing to the stairs on the side of the hall that would take her up a level and eventually back to the long winding stairs that led to the Crystal Heart. “Everypony, stall for me!”
The pair of purple Alicorns looked at her blurry form in shock for a second before sharing a glance and nodding at each other. “Good luck, Starlight!” They said in unison and turned to face the Empress.
“Out of my way!” She yelled at them and effortlessly pushed them aside with her magic, levitating herself she sped after Starlight, intending to catch her before she could reach the Crystal Heart again.
“Oof, that didn’t go well.” Alternate Twilight said as she shook her head and watched both Starlight’s rush out of the main hall.
“Let’s go and make sure Starlight’s okay!” Rainbow Dash said and prepared to fly off herself… before she was smashed to the ground with a hammer of magic courtesy of Princess Cadance. “Ow. Forgot they were here.”
“Cadance!” Not-Alternate Twilight said as she turned to her foalsitter.
Shining Armor, Princess Cadance and the guards were arrayed to attack them, Empress Starlight must’ve sent a signal to them to keep her other enemies occupied while she chased down her good self.
“So it comes down to this, huh?” Applejack said as she walked forward to stand beside the Twilight’s. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we can deal with them without getting too rough.”
“Quite right.” Rarity said, joining them.
“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie bounced into place.
“Um, y-yeah.” Fluttershy demurely pumped a hoof.
Spike however was torn, he wasn’t sure if he should stay here and help them or go help Starlight. The dragon fidgeted and his hands shook. Starlight was all alone now and facing down a complete nutjob with powerful magic. She probably needed his help more than the Twilight’s and the others did, right?
“Ugh, you guys!” Spike yelled, catching the attention of his friends. “I… I… I’m going to go help Starlight! Sorry!” Spike flapped his wings and flew into the air. But he didn’t follow the two Starlight’s. He gathered up enough momentum and flew straight to one of the windows leading outside the castle.
This is gonna hurt. Spike closed his eyes and covered his head as he smashed into and through the window. “Owww, that’s gonna leave a mark...” He sorely flapped his wings to stay in the air, looking up at the brightly lit spire on top of the Crystal Castle. Now he had a straight path.
“Good luck, Spike!” Both Twilight’s called out to him after wincing at his window demolition.
“Can somepony help me here?!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“Get back here you twit!” Empress Starlight yelled at the running form of her other self. She was wreathed in an aura of magic as she flew through the castle, it was the closest way she could come to matching her opponent’s newfound speed.
“Nope!” Starlight yelled back at her. Her body felt so much lighter and agile than it really was, it may not have been made for this but with the power of Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark she felt like she could outrun anypony right now. She was so fast and could effortlessly gallop up the stairs and take corners without losing any speed it was like she had wings of her own. She felt like a professional racer who had been doing this all her life.
A blast of magenta magic went right past her head and blew a hole in the wall. Starlight shrieked and looked over her shoulder to see the angry Empress getting ready to fire again.
“Uh oh.”
“That was your last warning!” The Empress yelled and shot another beam of magic directly at Starlight.
Starlight deftly side-stepped out of the way of it, the beam blasting the floor in front of her and leaving a smoking crater for her to jump over. More and more energy blasts came at her from behind and Starlight had to juke, duck and dodge all of them. Sometimes kicking off the wall, sometimes just barely twisting her body out of the way. The agility granted to her may have been even more useful than the raw speed when it came to avoiding the dangerous magical beams in a small hallway.
“Are you even trying to hit me?” Starlight taunted her evil self.
“The more you run the worse you’re gonna get!” The Empress angrily yelled at her, vein popping out of her neck.
“You’ll have to catch me first, slowpoke!” Starlight snickered and kept running full speed ahead. “I feel like this Cutie Mark is even making me act like Rainbow Dash.” She said to herself.
“Grah!” Empress Starlight telekinetically tore pieces of crystal out of the walls around her and flung them at Starlight too. Instead of a more precise beam she spun around the pieces she was throwing and created a whirlwind of debris that would swallow up Starlight.
No dodging that… Starlight knew it was impossible to avoid something like that in a hallway but she didn’t need to fret. Speed was still by far in her favor.
With a steady breath and long exhale Starlight pushed herself even harder, the second wind boosting her already great speed and sending her galloping down the hallway and putting more than enough space between her and the spiraling whirlwind. A turn in the hallway was coming up and if she could just keep up this speed the whirlwind would crash into the wall while she safely made her way even closer to the Heart.
With a look over her shoulder Starlight could see the Empress frightfully flying forward as fast as she could with the jagged crystal debris tornado in front of her tearing apart the walls and floor of the hallway along the way.
“Yeesh.” Starlight grimaced. “That’d hurt.” But her grimace quickly turned to a grin as she saw that she would easily beat the whirlwind to the turn. Right as it came up Starlight skidded and drifted into the turn in the hallway, hardly losing any momentum at all before bolting off again.
The whirlwind crashed into the wall behind her with an ear-splitting shriek. Parts of the wall were blown apart and large cracks spider-webbed out in every direction. The entire hallway shook around Starlight from the force of the blow and she breathed a sigh of relief that she had avoided being hit by that. It would just take one more flight of stairs and she’d be on the level where the special staircase leading up to the spire would be. Starlight smiled in eagerness as her goal approached.
And as Empress Starlight rounded the corner herself she could see she was losing her opponent and grit her teeth in anger.
“You think you can get away from me?!” The Empress’s horn lit up and she used a spell that Starlight was familiar with, one to lower friction and wind-resistance. It wasn’t by much but it did allow her to fly faster down the tight hallways.
“Well if you think that’s all it’s gonna take then you’ve got another thing coming!” Starlight continued to taunt her.
“That’s not all!” Empress Starlight strained and fired a powerful beam of magic… backwards. Propelling herself forward with incredible speed that even Starlight couldn’t outdo.
“Oh.” Starlight gulped as she watched the Empress shoot towards her.
The weakness of what the Empress was doing though was that she didn’t have any control, it worked for a straightaway like this but once they came to the stairs or any turns she’d have to turn off the beam of magic and slow herself down well in advance. Starlight just had to pull out every bit of strength inside of her and make it to the stairs first.
Meanwhile on the outside of the castle Spike flew as fast as he could back to the top. Fatigue? What fatigue? His wings could bother him later. That was future Spike’s problem. Right now he had a mission.
Because what Spike realized was that even if Starlight beat her evil clone to the Crystal Heart she still wouldn’t be able to touch or move it without getting immediately trapped afterwards. So Spike was racing towards the top of the spire to make sure he could get to the Heart before either of them.
“I saved the Crystal Empire once and I can do it again!” Spike psyched himself up as the top of the castle steadily approached.
Even without his magic Shining Armor was a big and very physically fit pony. Despite Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s best efforts to subdue him he continuously bucked them off of his back and was proving to be an unstoppable force without the aid of any magic on their side to take care of him. And thanks to having one of the Starlight’s Cutie Marks Princess Cadance was able to keep the others at bay and support the guards with powerful beams and shields.
Seeing that they were losing ground the heroes switched strategy, the other fliers besides Rainbow Dash took to the air to draw Cadance’s attention while the others fought on the ground. The benefit to fighting in the main hall was how much space there was to fly around in it.
“This is crazy!” Twilight Sparkle (the one that came with Starlight and Spike) yelled as she dodged a laser-focused beam of magic from her former foalsitter.
“You don’t need to tell me twice!” Alternate Twilight said as she ducked out of the way of a spear thrown by Captain Gleam.
“Oh my...” Fluttershy looked on in horror as her friend was almost shishkabobed. “I really wish they would calm down and stop fighting us. I don’t want anypony to get hurt.”
Now without Cadance’s support and defense Rarity was putting her newly gained bucking powers to good use. Any guard that got too close to her was summarily knocked into next week. And while Pinkie Pie may have temporarily been a magic Earth pony and not the super party pony she normally was she was still as unpredictable and wild as ever, bouncing up and down and running the hopeless guards around in circles and knots trying to get them to trip over and run into each other.
Finally it ended up with Captain Gleam rushing the pink menace from the front while the only other guard still on his hooves came at her from behind. With the same big smile always on her face Pinkie Pie laughed and hopped slightly to the left and let the two headbutt each other. Knocking them both out cold.
“Oh dear.” Fluttershy winced. The whole former platoon of guards lay moaning or simply unconscious on the crystal floor around Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
“Good work, y’all!” Rarity said as she ran up to Pinkie Pie. And then froze, realizing what she just said. “Did I just say y’all?! Egads! This here Cutie Mark swap is getting plum crazy!” She gasped. “Ahhhh! Make it stop!”
“I don’t even talk like that...” Applejack muttered from the wildly bucking Shining Armor’s back as she held him in a chokehold.
Rainbow Dash was simultaneously biting his tail to keep him from running while still trying to see if she could magically make a shield appear around her.
From high up at the ceiling Fluttershy and the two Twilight’s continued to avoid Cadance’s attacks and draw her attention. If she started helping out Shining Armor things could turn bad but they didn’t seem to have any interest in each other… which was sad but fortunate.
“She’s the only real threat now.” Alternate Twilight said. “The only problem is I have no idea how to stop her.”
“We’ll think of something.” Twilight said.
A massive blast of magic shot past her and nearly tore a hole right through the castle.
“Soon hopefully.” Both said at once.
As Starlight hopped up the first flight of stairs the Empress careened into them like a missile right behind her, obliterating the steps and knocking Starlight to the ground on the next landing from the force of the shockwave.
“Ugh, forgot she was a wacko...” Starlight said as she got up and shook herself off.
The Empress had decided to forego slowing down at all and instead just formed a shield around herself at the last second. As the dust settled she calmly stood in the crater her impact had created in the stairs, staring down Starlight standing right above her.
“I’m not going to ask you to come quietly anymore.” The Empress said in a threatening whisper. “Because now? I’m going to relish in this.” Her horn lit up and a burst of several beams of magic shot from it at Starlight.
The running unicorn jetted up the stairs as fast as she could again before the first beam came down aimed right at the middle of her back. Starlight dodged the attack… only for it to instead of explode when hitting the floor to bounce off the polished crystal. All the following beams too now ricocheted off the floors and walls, creating an endless stream of danger that Starlight had to repeatedly dodge as she ran her way up the stairs. Luckily she only had to go up the single floor before she was at the hallway where the room leading up to the spire was. But even with the nearly supernatural speed and agility afforded her by the foreign Cutie Mark she still had trouble avoiding the dangerous and random magic from her evil counterpart.
“This is not good.” Starlight grunted as she jumped up the top of the stairs and sped down the hallway to the room she had just earlier been in this night.
Dozens of lasers kept coming after her and right behind those rose Empress Starlight. Encasing herself in another orb of magic in case any of her lasers rebounded at her as she flew towards her prey.
Starlight ducked out of the way of a sizzling beam of magic that went right by her head. She skidded to a halt in front of the door and looked behind her. It was almost like her vision turned to slow motion as she saw the lasers of magic bearing down on her with a grinning Empress also coming right at her. Her hoof moved lightning fast to open up the door and Starlight jumped inside as the energy beams and Empress collided into the spot she was just standing in before. The door was blown apart and Starlight was again knocked forward by the shockwave.
This time however she took no time to rest, regain her bearings, or allow the Empress to ready an attack again. Instead Starlight just ran for the spiral staircase that stood at the back of the room.
She could hear a roar from behind her as she made it to the staircase and felt the heat from a powerful energy wave pour across her back. But no more than that as she made her way back up the stairs. For now she was in the clear and she was certain there was no way the Empress could overtake her. Starlight was the one who would reach the Crystal Heart first. Her goal was practically in sight already.
Starlight could still hear the raging Empress coming behind her up the stairs and every now and then another ricocheting beam of magic was fired up at her from around the corner, but despite her exhaustion and the sweat nearly running down her body in rivers by this point Starlight didn’t let a single attack hit her.
“Your aim is terrible!” Starlight couldn’t help but yell back at her.
“So are your taunts!” Came from below.
Starlight grinned as she realized how she was getting to the Empress. “Better than your comebacks!”
“Quiet!”
“Oh, that again? You must really be at your wit’s end.” She laughed as the race up the stairs continued. At the speed they were going they must almost be at the top.
Spike also was just about at the top of the tower. He put all his energy into a final spurt to close the gap and reach the Crystal Heart again. Doing this flight twice in a day certainly took its toll on him but until he got to the Heart he wouldn’t slow down one bit. With greater speed than the tiny purple dragon had ever flown in his life Spike shot above the edge of the top floor. The Crystal Heart still floating there like normal and emitting the brainwashing lights of Empress Starlight.
“Gotcha.”
Spike was about to grab it when he heard noise coming up from the stairs. He stopped and grimaced at the stairwell beneath him before returning his attention to the Heart.
“I really hope you kept up your lead, Starlight.” Spike said and flew towards the Heart.
Again, the moment he crossed into the center crystals shot up from the floor, seeking to cage him and the Heart in together. But just like Starlight before Spike was fast enough to knock the Heart down and send it clattering to the floor near the edge of the tower before the crystals completely walled him off.
Just then Starlight jumped from the stairs, as she looked around she was surprised to see what had happened, not knowing that Spike had flown up here.
“Starlight! If that’s you the Heart is right behind the crystal cage!” Spike yelled from inside his prison.
“Got it!” She yelled and began to move-
When a blast of magic hit the ground at her hooves and knocked her into one of the pillars at the top of the tower.
“Oof!” The wind was knocked out of her but she rose back up as quickly as she could.
“You were finally close enough.” Empress Starlight said as she floated to the top of the stairs and landed on the floor, momentarily lowering her magic.
The two Starlight’s stood there, face to face. Neither made a move yet. The Crystal Heart was on the ground on the other side of the spire, out of both of their view’s. Starlight had speed but at this range the Empress’s magic still gave her the advantage and they both knew it.
A single bead of sweat dripped down the side of Starlight’s head before falling to the ground with a plop.
And it was at that instant that a blinking glow overtook both their flanks and their Cutie Mark’s returned to normal.
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No comment (other than this one
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None of the music you’re linking to fits what’s happening in the story.
Oh, smash it already
9733322
Eh, blame it on pretentiousness then. I'd never insert music into the middle of a chapter even if it would fit better at certain spots. I usually listen to classical/orchestral music when writing and can't help but picture it with the chapters at times.
Exciting chapter.
Oh, Dashie, never change.