Wood and Shadow
Starlight could not let the feelings go. Something is not right, she thought. Why was Applejack so mean back in the forest? Maybe she just had a really bad day.
No, that wouldn’t explain why Applejack was so cruel at that moment. And yet, Starlight’s friends seemed to just accept how things turned out: that they all collectively had a very bad day. Equally bad. Enough to take it out on one another.
After finally setting up camp in the open canyon, deep in the everfree forest, the Elements of Harmony and the Counselor of Friendship decided to take things easy after such a long unpleasant day. Throughout the bonding and companionship, the campfire stories and songs, she felt that uneasy dread stirring deep inside. She envied her friends’ abilities to let go. But perhaps it was good she kept careful watch of her feelings, her intuition. Her doubts…
Moments before they finally laid in their sleeping bags for the night, Starlight turned towards Applejack, pressing the matter. “You can’t remember what you did?”
Applejack frowned in puzzlement, shaking her head. “And Rarity can’t remember nuthin about her crazy antics out there neither. Honestly, who knows what happened? Probably some kinda curse from the everfree forest. Huh!” she shrugged.
Starlight Glimmer rubbed her chin. “These woods do have a lot of strange magic that we still don’t fully understand,” she admitted reluctantly.
“I reckon it’s a good thing it wore off before we all got here,” Applejack declared with a stern nod and a warm smile. “I’m just glad the rest of tonight turned out fine.”
Starlight smiled, somewhat relieved by Applejack’s stoic certainty. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense...” Then she bit her lip, uneasy. Something still felt wrong in the air. Not with her friends, they all seemed fine now, but nearby…
Applejack chuckled. “Aw, quit yer frettin’. We had a good night of campfire storytellin’, didn’t we?”
“You’re certainly good at telling a tale,” Starlight admitted quickly with a small smile.
Applejack nodded proudly, stretching out in her sleeping back and tilting her hat down, covering her eyes. “Course I always make sure to tell everypony whether it’s just a yarn or the truth. But hoooowee! Some them yarns Rainbow Dash told tonight were mighty tangled!”
“I heard that!” called out Rainbow from across the campfire, earning a hearty guffaw from Applejack.
Starlight turned away, hiding her grimace. Which was Applejack telling her earlier then, when she insulted Starlight to her face, deep in the Everfree forest? “Well, goodnight, Starlight! Sleep tight!” Applejack mumbled, rubbing an eye before turning over, quickly sinking into a snooze.
“Sweet dreams!” Starlight replied softly. The counselor of friendship suddenly felt exhausted, yawning and lying down, drifting off quickly, into a deep, troubled sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Starlight, help me! Hurry!” a familiar voice cried out. Her teacher Twilight Sparkle was in danger!
Starlight rose up with a gasp, looking around. The camp was deserted. Where did they go? A faint purple glow came from the cave. “Twilight, what is it?” Starlight called out, panic setting into her heart. “Is the Tree of Harmony in danger?!” quickly she galloped into the cave, confused by the sight. The tree stood there, unharmed, surrounded by the beautiful glow of the many magical plants that grew in this grotto, the colorful symbols of the elements of harmony embedded into its branches.
And at the base of the tree stood Twilight Sparkle… in a cage of purple wood.
“Help me get out of this!” implored Princess Twilight, fear in her eyes. “It’s magically sealed from the inside, I can’t free myself!” She took a step back and fired a powerful ray of purple energy from her horn, crackling against the seemingly simple wood, unaffected by such raw power.
Starlight’s mind went racing, panting heavily, sweat pouring down her brow. “H-how did this happen? Where are the others?”
Twilight sighed heavily, shaking her head in dismay. “Chrysalis caught them! She made us think it was you. There was a blinding flash at the campsite, and next thing we saw, you just ran off into the cave! We were in such a hurry, we didn’t even think to check if you were still sleeping beside us!” She lifted her head, worry in her eyes, “We thought you were signaling that the tree was in danger. But then, Chrysalis revealed herself, and trapped me here. I think she’s using the others as hostages against you!”
Starlight gasped in terror, lifting a hoof to her mouth, eyes widened. Chrysalis. That ancient queen of deception and infiltration. Abusive tyrant, unsettling parallel to her own past.“No, no, no! That photographer pony from the historical society! I knew there was something wrong with her! She was Chrysalis spying on us!” she panicked, trying to stay calm. “Wait, why didn’t she take you too?”
Twilight smirked smugly. “She tried, but I was too powerful to control.” She seemed quite proud of this. Then she sighed heavily, her smile fading. “But I failed to save my friends. She just trapped me here instead. Starlight, you have to get me out of here, so we can save them!”
Starlight nodded, already charging up her horn with turquoise magic, ready to free her friend and teacher… but then she paused, hesitant. She must always be careful when Chrysalis was involved. That vengeful creature would do anything to deceive her.
“Why would Chrysalis make a trap that I could destroy?” Starlight accused, pointing a hoof at her friend, eyes narrowed. “And how do I know you’re not just Chrysalis herself waiting to trap me?”
Twilight glared through the bars. “Starlight, we don’t have time for this! She was in a hurry to capture as many of us as possible and get away! She didn’t make a spell so intricate that you couldn’t break the seal! She just wanted to stop me from interfering! Okay?”
Starlight shook her head, biting her lip. “No Twilight. I’m sorry. I have to know the truth to my second question too. I have to be careful with that cruel shape-shifter. Just tell me something only Twilight would know, if it really is you.”
The Element of Magic closed her eyes and sighed deeply, folding up her wings, head drooped down. “I’ll never forget what you screamed at me, long ago. ‘Cutie marks for Cutie marks. Sounds like a fair trade to me.’ I felt truly afraid of your cruelty and hate. Your thirst for revenge.”
Starlight took a step back, faltering. “That’s… that’s true, but...” but why did Twilight bring up something like that? She found tears of shame pouring down her face, wiping her eyes. Was Twilight… was she smiling? No. The tears warped her sight and clouded her mind.
“Twilight, I’m sorry for doubting you...” she sighed somberly. “I will set you free.”
The purple pony sighed in relief behind the wooden bars. “Thank you. That’s all I wanted. Now let’s go save our friends!”
The Counselor of Friendship nodded with a smile, closing her eyes and focusing her magic, shattering the wooden cage, the pieces falling and clattering all around Twilight.
The Element of Magic sighed and stretched her wings. “Finally!” she cried out. “I knew you would help me,” she smirked, her eyes narrowing, grinning wickedly.
Starlight raised an eyebrow, puzzled. “Wait-”
~ ~ ~ ~
Everything happened so fast.
Starlight got up out of her sleeping bag in a cold sweat, swiveling her head around. There Twilight Sparkle stood, at the entrance of the cavern. And there Twilight Sparkle lay, sleeping peacefully right beside Applejack and the others.
The Counselor of Friendship opened her mouth in a wordless scream, nothing coming out, only absolute silence. A purple glow surrounded her body, and she levitated unwillingly off the ground.
The next moment, she felt cold, darkness. She was no longer under the bright shining moon in the canyon by the everfree forest. She was in a familiar place. One that once shone with her turquoise magic. A faint purple glow filled the room, and Starlight stepped back, staring, dread in her heart.
Against the wall stood a tall stone of great power. Once upon a time, it was filled with the magic of more than a hundred ponies, their cutie marks trapped against the surface, held in place under levitating glass. But the glass was in shatters, and the cutie marks were restored to their rightful owners, their souls made whole.
In front of this familiar power stood an arched pedestal. Upon the pedestal, held aloft by magic long ago, levitated the Staff of Sameness. Twin spiraling wooden beams, meeting and entwining one fourth of the way down, twisting around one another, united into one staff of power, an ancient artifact… or at least, it was intended to be perceived that way, by those Starlight once deceived, long ago.
Twilight Sparkle teleported behind the pedestal, reaching out with her telekinesis, enshrouding the Staff of Sameness in purple magic. She turned towards Starlight, with an expression she had never seen on her gentle teacher’s face: a hateful grinning sneer, and malice in her laughter.
Starlight shook her head, stepping back warily. “I need to wake up, please wake up Starlight!” she slapped herself across the face. “Ow!” frowning as she rubbed her cheek.
“Your dreams are over,” Twilight declared in a low raspy growl. Starlight collapsed onto the ground, crying out as intense pain filled her heart and mind, her flanks searing with fire, until her cutie mark was torn away, the symbol of her magic and individuality: two wispy turquoise trails floating above a purple and white star. Perhaps they symbolize rivers, or northern lights. They were a part of her… but now Starlight’s cutie mark belonged to Twilight, floating intact before her teacher’s eyes. She placed it in the very center of the empty stone, then sealed the entire thing with her purple magic.
“How does it feel now?” Twilight gloated, pointing the staff at her weakened student. “Not so great to have no power, is it? I know this stupid staff isn’t necessary to cast your spell of cutie mark separation, but I thought it would be fitting to wield it anyway: to teach you a lesson!”
Starlight sighed deeply, feeling the lethargic exhaustion of no cutie mark, her fur and mane colors faded, youthful still yet graying. So this is what she had done to everypony, long ago. This feeling of emptiness, of not belonging. “Why must you punish me like this?” she begged her mentor, tears pouring freely. “Have I not redeemed myself enough for you?”
“Actually,” Twilight tossed the staff aside, clattering worthlessly against the stone floor, slowly walking towards the emotionally and magically defeated counselor of friendship. “I was hoping you would consider changing back to your old ways.” she tapped a thoughtful hoof to her own chin. “Well, retaining the knowledge and power you’ve mastered since then, of course!” she smirked.
Starlight searched Twilight’s eyes. “You can’t be Chrysalis… but… you’re not any other changeling either...” The powerful wizard had learned how to detect changelings in disguise, thanks to some training from good King Thorax. It was not perfect, but it helped give her a ‘gut feeling’, one that made her feel uneasy around that historical society photographer. But now, she wasn’t even sure what to believe.
“You can’t possibly be Twilight either… unless?” horrible thoughts crawled through Starlight’s skull. Had Twilight calculated a long game, to manipulate and ultimately abuse Starlight’s friendship and trust, to cast her down from so high? “After all we’ve been through…?”
Twilight shook her head. “I know what you’re thinking, and believe me,” she grinned viciously, “It’s a fun idea.” Starlight recoiled in revulsion. “But the truth is perhaps stranger than you think. Let’s just say…” she closed her eyes, then opened again, confident and dangerous. “I’m another Twilight.”
Starlight could sense that it was true. It was Twilight, and yet not Twilight. It made no sense, but there was no other reasonable explanation. “How did you come to be? What do you want?” she demanded, looking up at her captor.
“The first answer is none of your concern. Not yet anyway.” Twilight prodded Starlight in the chest, the paler pony rubbing the spot. “What I want however...”
Twilight paused, narrowing her eyes and smiling sweetly, speaking softly for once. “Is to thank you for rescuing me. You really did save me. But I had to trick you in order to do so. I had to enter your dreams. I was unable to do anything else in the waking world. But with my knowledge and power, reaching out in dreams was not that difficult. The cursed Tree of Harmony had ensnared me and trapped me in my original state. The cage you saw was a dream metaphor for my real imprisonment: a piece of wood.”
Suddenly five colorful sticks materialized out of thin air, clattering onto the floor before Starlight, each one bearing a disturbing pattern: they matched the fur colors of the other five elements of harmony. Starlight stared at the branches in horror. “The others are still trapped this way. They may yet be useful tools for my ambitions, but for now these imbeciles are less trouble while kept in stasis like this.”
Starlight shook her head. “You, you were a tree of the everfree forest?”
Twilight nodded. “And now, I am the most powerful and uninhibited sorceress in the world!” she tossed her head back and laughed, cackling with glee, a raspy disturbing sound.
Starlight stood up, fear clutching at her heart. Run. That’s all she wanted. Escape from this nightmare. She rushed for the cave entrance, thudding her nose into a sphere of purple energy.
“Don’t let your foolish emotions cloud your judgment!” snapped the wooden Element of Magic. “You were a worthy opponent of wits when I was in the cage! Don’t behave like a frightened worthless filly now. Or did I overestimate your abilities?” she threatened, wings spread, horn glowing.
“What are you talking about? If you didn’t need me for a rescue or revenge then what do you want? Tell me already!” Starlight snapped, anger building up in her heart. She was sick and tired of this hateful twisted mirror image of her teacher and friend. “You keep gloating and bragging but telling me nothing that matters!” her voice raised in defiance. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re just a shallow piece of wood with no purpose!”
Twilight paused, staring in awe, tensing up, the ferocious defiance catching her off-guard. Then she relaxed, and allowed a small smile. “Good. I was afraid you had let go of your more useful emotion-driven magic. Your anger. Your hate. It will be very helpful indeed.” she tapped Starlight on the horn. “But please, I need you to be focused while you perform your tasks, more often than not.” she demanded, in a civil tone not unlike the more familiar Twilight’s.
Starlight shook her head, disturbed and bewildered, pointing a hoof at the shadow Twilight. “Wait, you want me to serve you? To help you with your schemes?”
Twilight smiled, gesturing elegantly at her prisoner with a wingtip. “You might even be my ally, if you prove yourself. You clearly have the potential to be worthy. Besides, what has that other Twilight ever given you? Friendship? Please! You know that power and control is everything! She is a fool not to ally with you first, so long ago!”
The counselor of friendship raised her chin, refusing. “No, I was the fool, for doing what I did. For all the suffering and selfishness. I know now it was wrong. I can’t be that way, ever again.”
Wooden Twilight glared angrily, her pupils becoming red, her whites becoming green, as purple smoke trailed from the corners of her eyes. Starlight knew what this unsettling display meant, for she had dabbled in it herself long ago: dark magic. The power of shadows, and despair.
A high pitch scream echoed around the cavern, Starlight clutching her head, falling to her knees, eyes darting to and fro.
~Please don’t do this to me, Starlight!~
~Let me go, I beg you!~
~What’s happening to me?~
~Starlight! Why are you doing this?!~
~I thought we were friends!~
Visions of her past cutie mark removal rituals. All performed in this very chamber. Flashing before her eyes, filling her ears. Some ponies willfully accepted her cult of personality, her demands that they lose their own. But many were afraid, and upset. She forced her will and power upon them regardless. She took them to make them tranquil. To be peaceful. To be perfect. To be equal.
“No no no no no no...” Starlight curled up into a ball, dry heaving, feeling dizzy. And then, it was all gone, and she was back in the cavern, Twilight standing above her, the dark magic drifting like smoke above her eyes.
“I will torment you as long as necessary, just like you tortured those long ago into bending to your will.” threatened the cruel shadow of magic, giving Starlight a disgusted kick in the back with her foreleg. “But my offer of more… equal partnership still stands,” she reminded, waiting until Starlight looked up once more, adding a wink and a sly, vicious smile.
Starlight just stared blank-eyed at the wooden Twilight, her pupils faded, the lack of cutie mark taking the soul from her eyes. “You think I will break to your will, do you? I’m stronger than you know.”
Twilight laughed, lifting up a hoof. “Oh, please! I can give you more visions if you like?” she offered, eyes glowing green once more.
Starlight vigorously shook her head, biting her lip, her mane tossing to and fro, fear in her eyes.
Twilight nodded in satisfaction. “That’s better. I would think carefully about my offer, if I were you. You could have a lot more power in this world at my side. And you could have revenge on a weak fool as well, one we both hate: my stupid reckless creator, Chrysalis!”
Starlight’s eyes widened. “You want to destroy Chrysalis?”
Twilight snarled, hate dripping from her raspy voice, dark magic drifting once more. “That arrogant witch thought she could control me! She thinks she can defeat you! But we’re stronger, much stronger! I know we can make her suffer dearly!” she smirked, pointing to Starlight’s cutie mark, still sealed behind the shield of magic.
Starlight didn’t respond, contemplating the offer. She hated Chrysalis for what she had done to her subjects, the other changelings. For what she had she had done to all her friends over the years. But were her actions any worse than what Starlight herself had done, long ago? Was Chrysalis not worthy of redemption too? The counselor of friendship had tried to offer it once already, shortly after Chrysalis lost everything… and the dismay of the ancient queen’s refusal welled up inside once more.
“If you prove yourself to me, I will give your power back,” offered this Twilight. “But I’ll make sure you can’t use it against me too, of course.” she giggled. “Meanwhile, I have many, many other matters I should attend to. I will check up on your little cage of shame later.”
Starlight watched as the arrogant purple creature strode effortlessly through her own shield, walking towards the cave entrance, basking in moonlight, looking up at the stars. “No creature will find you here,” gloated the wooden shadow Twilight. “None want to come back to this hole of broken memories. To the pain you inflicted on them. I hope you will return to such… useful methods of control.”
Starlight moved up close to the magic barrier, eyes glimmering with compassion. “You don’t have to be this way, you know.” Starlight called out, her voice filled with hope. “You don’t have to serve Chrysalis like the changelings did, or Equestria like Tw- the other Twilight does! But you can have your own destiny and your own path without harming others! You can be who you want to be and find happiness!”
Twilight looked back at her captive, a contemptuous scowl etched into her features. “Happiness is a distraction from the quest for limitless knowledge and power.” Starlight gulped at that, having thought the same way when she last visited this cave. “I can say the same about you, Starlight. You don’t have to be such a weak soft fool. Do you think you will ever reach your full potential if you’re inhibited, if you’re forced to behave? To be good and friendly? You are only holding yourself back!”
The Counselor of Friendship seemed to take that into consideration, earning another cruel smile from shadow Twilight. “I will return when I see fit. Consider your options well, Starlight Glimmer.” And with that she flew off into the night sky.
Starlight Glimmer curled up into a ball again, sobbing softly. What could she possibly do?
Was she destined to suffer the same fate she had inflicted on so many other ponies?
Or even worse, was she going to embrace the selfish delusions that made her into such a dangerous monster in the first place?
“I hope this wooden shadow of Twilight does not persuade me to change back,” she whispered softly, staring at her cutie mark, helpless and alone.