Starlight Glimmer Regrets Her Mistakes

by MagicS

Harmonization to Discordization

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but thank Celestia things are finally over. I was really tired of being stuck like this you know,” Discord said as their whole group once more flew through the insane world of colors and patterns between worlds.

“Right there with you. Aside from the being in a different body part,” Starlight said. “But I’m just as happy things are over. How do you think things are going to be back in our world?”

“Miss Bookworm and Starswirl should already have noticed that the space-time continuum is more or less fixed. I bet she already came up with some kind of way to detect the ambient chaos in other worlds and can tell that we’ve done our job,” Discord said.

“Which means that Pinkie Pie probably already has a big party waiting for us the moment we arrive back home,” Spike said.

“Probably,” Starlight agreed.

“Are we really going to be welcome there? Your Twilight isn’t going to be bothered that you came back with us?” Sunset asked.

Starlight shook her head. “Definitely not—especially when she hears the full story. She’ll be totally fine with you staying for a party and getting the sort of goodbye you all deserve.”

“It’ll also be nice seeing what a good Equestria is supposed to look like,” Moonlight smirked.

“Our Equestrias should be getting close to that by the time we return,” Glimmer smiled.

“I suppose I might as well be optimistic. Sounds like we’re in for some fun,” Sunset smiled.

“Do not ask anyone for cigarettes at the party,” Starlight frowned.

“I won’t,” Sunset rolled her eyes.

“It’s also going to be really nice not having to travel through this anymore,” Moonlight said as she gestured around them. “I’ve gotten really tired of the rainbow vomit tunnel. This is like what a total nutjob sees when he looks into a kaleidoscope, I feel like I’m gonna go crazy each time we fly through here.”

“Yeah I won’t miss this either. And Spike and I have experienced it more than any of you,” Starlight said, glancing around at the starbursts and patterns of random colors. She really wasn’t going to miss it either.

“At least when we came out last time we didn’t fall on top of each other or anything,” Sunset said.

“Took you long enough to get the hang of it,” Starlight smirked at her.

Sunset snorted. “Pff, you and Spike can literally fly, it’s probably easier for you to come out safely.”

“She has a point,” Spike admitted.

“Hey wait—when we get out of here and come to your world, can we get our regular names back?” Moonlight asked Discord.

“No, there will still be three of you, it’s too confusing. Just wait until I send the two of you back home,” Discord scoffed and waved her off.

“I really don’t like you,” Moonlight glared at him.

“He’s an acquired taste,” Starlight said.

“How absolutely rude! I am beyond charming, you’re just a grump,” Discord turned his nose up at Moonlight.

A vein popped on her forehead while Glimmer giggled and patted her back.

“I don’t even mind going by Glimmer. It makes me feel kind of like a new me, sort of what I’ve been looking for. Maybe I’ll still go by Glimmer when I get back home,” Glimmer thought.

“Whatever floats your boat,” Moonlight shrugged. “I’m going to like having my actual name back, not a silly facsimile.”

“I’m amazed you know such a big word,” Discord grinned.

Moonlight’s eye twitched.

“There, there, we’ve got a party coming up, remember,” Glimmer said while trying to stifle more giggles.

“We do,” Starlight said and glanced over at Discord. “And you stop being rude to my friends, okay? They don’t know you like I do.”

“Alright, alright, fair enough,” Discord held up his hands—and frowned as he realized he still didn’t have full articulation of his body. “Good thing we’re almost back, I’m changing from this little wooden flute back into my normal body the second we’re out of that portal.”

“Gonna be glad I don’t have to carry you around anymore either,” Spike said.

“I know—I’m going to have quite the time with Fluttershy going over how miserable an experience it was riding in your bag for so long,” Discord sighed.

“You were asleep for most of it… and it’s not like I left old food in there or something,” Spike frowned.

“Being asleep doesn’t mean being totally unaware when you’re the Lord of Chaos,” Discord wagged a finger.

“Well then isn’t it your own fault for volunteering yourself for the job and putting yourself in my bag in the first place?” Spike said.

Discord opened his mouth to speak but then closed it after a moment of thought. “Point taken.”

Starlight smiled to herself as they talked, her eyes staying forward and looking towards the glowing bright spot ahead. They’d be out of here real soon. How many other worlds had they traveled to? How many problems had they solved? At least Starlight knew for absolute certainty now that she had done good. It wasn’t just good intentions, she really had left the places she visited far better off than before. Not only that, but she did something completely unexpected at the same time and made three new friends. Ones she never expected she’d ever make. She also had plenty to look forward to when she returned, lessons she could teach at the school, other friends to make, relationships and bonds to strengthen. This wasn’t just a lackadaisical vacation like last time where she was just blowing off steam and dealing with stress. She had really gotten something out of this trip.

The five others around her—even Discord—had gotten something out of it too. It really was just like what Twilight had taught her all that time ago, the smallest changes, the smallest actions, can have a huge impact on the future and individual ponies too. Glimmer, Moonlight, and Sunset were all on a great path towards the future now. And she and Spike were going to have a lot of great stories to tell all about this latest adventure.

The brightness ahead started to drown out all other colors and before Starlight knew it…

---

She fell out of the air onto the crystal floor of the map room of Twilight’s castle and right behind her came Spike holding onto Discord, Sunset, Moonlight, and lastly Glimmer.

Confetti blasted in their faces before they could even get their bearings.

“WELCOME BACK!” Pinkie Pie shouted loudly, blowing a party whistle in Starlight’s face.

“I should’ve bet money on this...” Spike said as he wringed out his ears.

“Thank you Pinkie… is everyone here?” Starlight slowly asked as she looked around. The map room was covered in streamers and balloons and the table itself had a big cake and numerous cupcakes on it. She saw the rest of her friends standing in the now pretty cramped space, the Elements, Trixie and Sunburst, along with Starswirl too.

“We are,” the voice of Twilight Sparkle said as she stepped in front of Pinkie Pie with a big smile on her face. “Welcome back, Starlight, Spike, Discord. It looks like everything went well.” She then looked behind Starlight at her two doubles and Sunset Shimmer. “Uhhh… I do think there’s something that needs to be explained though.”

“Why are there three Starlights?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew over to look at them closer. “Changelings? They haven’t done a very good job.”

Moonlight and Glimmer both frowned at her but held their tongues.

“And why are you here, Sunset? You didn’t come through the portal...” Twilight tilted her head.

“Uh, well...” Sunset rubbed the back of her head.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “You guys, just let me explain for a moment...”

“First thing’s first,” Discord said and flew out of Spike’s hand. He snapped his fingers and turned back to his normal size and body, taking an exaggerated stretch he grinned. “Ahhh, feels good to be back. I can’t wait to go home and really relax too, all that time I spent not being chaotic. How horrible.”

“Anyways-” Starlight said again and stepped aside, gesturing to her new friends. “Let me introduce you to Glimmer, Moonlight, and a Sunset Shimmer who you aren’t familiar with. After that we can get to the party and finally put this to rest.”

“Am I invited too?”

Starlight’s head turned to her right, and the other ponies and creatures in the room looked as well at the source of the voice, to see a tie-dye pony standing and smiling right next to her.

“Because I think things are a little too harmonic right now. Why not throw some chaos into the mix?” Harlequin Rainbow said.

Discord’s eyes narrowed and he prepared to snap his fingers. “You’re the Harlequin Starlight mentioned.”

“The Harlequin?” Twilight asked in confusion, while quite a few others in the room bristled at the word, as she looked between Starlight and the decidedly weird pony that had shown up out of nowhere. “Who are you?”

“Forget about it Twilight, I’ll take care of this,” Discord said and snapped his fingers.

Or he would have if a tie-dye hand hadn’t come out of Harlequin Rainbow’s back and grabbed his own—stopping him.

“No, no, I don’t think that’s happening,” Harlequin Rainbow’s stretched skin smile grew even wider as his head turned to look directly at Discord. “Because my soon to be former Lord of Chaos. You’ve made quite the big mistake.”

Starlight’s horn lit up but before she or anyone else could react, one of Harlequin Rainbow’s hooves morphed into a second hand and he snapped his fingers. The world spun around Starlight’s eyes, everything vanishing into a blur, before she ended up in total darkness with only the Harlequin and Discord standing before her. The map room, Twilight, Spike, everyone and everything else was gone.

Discord meanwhile was frozen, unable to remove his hand from Harlequin Rainbow’s grip or seemingly use his magic at all.

“What’s going on? What did you do?” Starlight said and grit her teeth in anger, leveling her horn at Harlequin Rainbow. “And let Discord go!”

“I can’t… my magic...” Discord said as sweat began to drip down his face.

“Hehehehe,” Harlequin Rainbow chuckled. “Sorry, but no can do.”

Starlight didn’t ask twice. She blasted him in the face with all the magic she could muster. The huge beam of magic completely enveloped his entire body and would’ve reduced most anything to dust. But once it was gone he was still standing there as if nothing had happened.

“Sorry, but you’re not facing someone that can be dealt with by normal magic anymore,” Harlequin Rainbow grinned and snapped his fingers once more.

A spotlight high above turned on and shone down on them, causing Starlight to wince and squeeze her eyes shut briefly.

“You’re lucky I’m not one for silly musical numbers but I do still have a flair for the dramatic. So let me show you both how badly you’ve screwed up,” another snap of the fingers and multiple screens appeared in the darkness around them, showing scenes from their recent escapades. Starlight and Discord both watched as they along with Spike traveled the various worlds and dealt with problems like Tempest, Nightmare Moon, and just little issues like Maud’s absence. “Well now look at all these good deeds! Look at how much you’ve helped! Too bad for you it’s led to something even worse.”

“What are you talking about?” Starlight growled, her horn still lit up even though it didn’t seem like it would help.

Harlequin Rainbow laughed. “Poor, dumb, Starlight, can’t even figure it out! You’ve worked so hard to remove all that chaos, trying to make things more harmonic, now who—during this entire debacle—was acting completely against their nature?”

Starlight’s eyes widened and she looked up at Discord, who was glaring helplessly at the Harlequin.

“Bingo!” Harlequin Rainbow clapped with a sudden extra set of hooves. “Mr. Lord of Chaos! Discord himself! He helped you make so many worlds free of chaos, setting things right, making things balanced, happy, and harmonic. That doesn’t sound like the Lord of Chaos to me, does it? At least not how the Lord of Chaos should be acting.”

“I’ve-” Discord started.

“Gone against your very nature. You don’t deserve to hold that title anymore. You’ve done too much in too short a time with this recent adventure that it’s weakened you enough for me to do this. I’m a chaotic being just like you and I say it’s time for a new sheriff in town,” Harlequin Rainbow chuckled menacingly. “Thank you. You, Starlight, Spike, your friends, thank you all for doing all these good deeds. Without them, Discord never would’ve weakened his connection to chaos enough that a being like me could usurp him. But here you are—acting far more like an avatar of harmony than anything. And here I am, ready to be the you that you turned your back on.”

“Stop this! I don’t know what you think you can do, but the Elements of Harmony will still stop you!” Starlight threatened.

“I’ll deal with them and all of you once I’m done here,” Harlequin Rainbow smirked. “But first, it’s time to take my place.”

A unicorn horn grew from the top of Harlequin Rainbow’s head and a dark tie-dye aura covered Discord’s body. His mouth was wrenched open despite his best efforts to fight it and his insanely unpredictable and disruptive chaos magic was torn out from his body. Despite its very nature it all neatly flowed one place—right into the Harlequin’s horn. As Starlight watched, Discord’s body became dull, limp, and almost empty like a deflated balloon, while Harlequin Rainbow started laughing and growing, his features all changing completely. The last of the chaos magic was absorbed and Discord was let go—crumbling to the floor and Starlight ran over to grab him to see if he was okay.

“Starlight… make sure Twilight and the others… they need to stop him...” Discord groaned.

“I will, Discord! Don’t worry, I’ll fix all of this!” Starlight said.

“As if I’d let that happen,” a dark laugh followed that statement and the shadow of Harlequin Rainbow crossed Starlight’s face.

She looked up at him and her pupils shrank down to pinpricks. His body was no longer that of a pony’s at all. He stood tall over the two of them, his mismatched body, a horn and antler growing from his head, tiny wings on his snakelike torso, and tie-dye skin stretched all over it, constantly morphing and changing.

“Oh yes, I can see why you like this form,” Harlequin Rainbow—a new Draconequus—said as he looked himself over. “It’s absolutely perfect for all that chaos magic.” He started giggling. “Maybe I should turn you into a pony or something then, Discord, since it’s all gone from you. That form doesn’t suit you anymore. It hasn’t ever since you started this little adventure for the sake of harmony and friendship. I think I’ve added my own flair to this body too, look at how my colors are constantly changing? Far more chaotic than you ever were.”

“You aren’t getting away with this. I don’t know what your goal is, but I won’t let you hurt my friends or leave Discord like this. Return his magic right now and get out of here!” Starlight commanded.

It was ineffectual though as Harlequin Rainbow just scoffed. “Oh please, an empty threat. And goal? What goal? Who do you think I am? You? I just want to bring back chaos! I’m just following my nature here—the nature that you’re responsible for I might add. I’m going to be making this world just like the phony should have been making it. Time for things to turn upside-down, for chocolate rain, dancing buffalo, the grass turning into soap, flying pigs, pie hail, time for all of that and more. I’m the Lord of Chaos now! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Comments

[RoboRed]

Dude was playing the long game...and they all got played.

“The Harlequin?” Twilight asked in confusion, while quite a few others in the room bristled at the word,

Oh yeah, definitely a familiar term for some.

[redmar]

I guess that the ponies from the other timelines will be needed to fix this. Other than having enough patience for this the Harlequin isn't very original which will hinder him.

[Mini-Joe]

Ahh piss.