My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 38

A Rough Night

Ever since that odd episode last night, Starlight kept quiet all night. She was trying to figure out what had happened; what could’ve caused all that. Except for Requiem and her friends, they didn’t recognize any of them, these… odd people; Molin, Glade, Skeith, and Jade. Who were they? This was a odd day.

Starlight looked up at the ceiling of her room, wondering what could’ve happened to do that. “Molin… Skeith… Glade… Jade… who are they?” she muttered.

Bass’s snoring interrupted her train of thought. She looked to her left to see her coltfriend sleeping soundly, a little bit of drool dripping out. She lightly chuckled and brushed hair out of his face. He’s so cute when he’s sleeping.

Seems like just yesterday that they were friends. Now, they’re coltfriend and marefriend. It was the best choice she ever made. Ever. But tomorrow, when they leave, she’s gonna be faced with another…

She yawned loudly Thinking about that incident with the ’visions’ and her choice won’t do anything so she went to sleep. She needed it. That episode left her tired and she had butterflies in her stomach all day.

Must’ve been a side-effect she didn‘t get until now. After all, this was the first time it happened.

Chaos Gun grunted in pain as he held his head. Every since he arrived at this castle, he had had these horrible headaches. And Sweet Song can’t do anything to remedy it.

“here. Try this herbal tea.” she suggested, placing a tea cup on the nightstand in their room. Chaos inadvertadly used his magic to send it flying across the room, causing it to shatter.

“s-sorry. This damn headache…”

Sweet Song got up on bed beside him and moved his hair out of his face, wondering if this headache was the result of a fever brought on by a bug-bite. There were no bites.

“mmm… is there anything I can do, Chaos?”

Despite the pain, the dark Alicorn looked at up her and smiled. “just being here is enough, Sweet.”

“Aw.” even with his amnesia, he’s such a charmer. She looked away then chuckled. “I wonder how Mom and Mommy will react with my boyfriend being someone who tried to kill us.”

Chaos still had trouble believing that. Maybe it’s the amnesia but he doesn’t believe he could cause a lot of pain. Least he thinks so; his friends expressions toward him seem to lean towards the more violent part. “Sorry about that, by the way. Even if I can’t remember.”

“it’s okay.” Sweet Song said with a smile. “Maybe a good night’s sleep can help you with that headache.”

“yeah. Maybe. Just need to get some aspirin.” he got up and headed out the door. Sombra has to have some pain pills, right?

From his throne room, Sombra watched as Starlight got comfy with Bass and fell asleep. Love… it’s such a stupid feeling. He sent the screen away and sighed. This plan just got a lot more complicated. A LOT more.

Resting his head on a hoof, he looked at the rest of the screens, each playing events happening all over the world.

Without even thinking, he dismissed all of them and brought up a image he had never done in years; a image of a yellow Pegasus with a egg white mane tending a garden. That odd pony with the armor from Starlight’s…. well, he called it a vision, the pony from Starlight’s vision reminded him of her.

He used his magic to summon up a picture. It hovered in front of him, reminding him of what he lost. It showed himself as a colt, hanging out with that same Pegasus filly. If things had been different, maybe…

Leopold suddenly appeared. “Master, th-- are you okay?”

Sombra angrily looked up at him. “It’s nothing.” he coldly said, sending the picture away. He pressed a button and sent the screen away. “what do you want, Leopold?”

He was looking at ‘Her’ again, wasn’t he? Leopold didn’t address the issue. “the machine is fully powered up and the shadows have arrived. We just need you-know-what taken care of.”

“And it will be done.” he got up from his throne. “soon.” he walked off, leaving the living shadow. Leopold disappeared not long after.

From a dark corner, Chaos Gun saw what had transpired. Something was off here, he’s sure of it.

Chaos reentered his and Sweet Song’s room and closed the door, distracting the mare from her reading. “you find any aspirin?”

“no… I saw something odd…”

“Odd?” she put the book she was reading down. “odd how?”

“I saw Sombra, in the throne room, looking at a picture of a odd Pegasus. It was like he knew her.”

“Probably a old friend from his childhood, before he found his talent over shadows.”

“Maybe… but I don’t… AGH!!!” another headache hit him, this one more fierce then the last. “ugh! Damn headache!”

Sweet Song sighed, feeling bad for not being of any help. She then got an idea. She got up, walked over to him, and kissed him on the forehead. “that help?”

A kiss on the forehead? How could that he-- OH! Oh, that’s her game. “un… a little. May need a extra dose.”

Sweet Song warmly chuckled and got him up. “I think I have a vaccine for this headache.” she pulled him to the bed. “let’s see if it works.”

Chaos didn’t fight.

They couldn’t sleep. They were too excited and wound-up. So what do 3 children do? Go exploring.

Fire Ruby, Goldie, and the Draconequus Eris walked though the corridors of the castle, to see if there are any secrets for them to find.

“Wonder what Sombra has hidden.” Goldie muttered. “almost every ruler of a castle has secrets.”

“one has to wonder what someone like him has hiding in these walls.” Eris said. “I mean, he’s scary looking so he must have a few skeletons in his closet.”

“Skeletons!?” Ruby and Goldie explained. Nobody mentioned anything about skeletons.

“It’s a figure of speech. Means he probably has a dark secret.”

Ruby scoffed at the idea. “doubt it.” she inadvertadly stepped on a stuck-out cobblestone. “I don’t think he--”

A part of the wall next to them shone from behind. A large black line raced up from the bottom to the top of where a full-grown Alicorn would be then parted open.

The 3 kids poked their heads in. “Then again…” Ruby said.

Glade muttered to himself, looking at a map of the arctic given to him by Sombra. He was mapping the route they came and the route they’re gonna use to get home. With the Wyrm Pass the crumbled mess it is, they’re gonna have to find another route.

A knock came from his door, temporarily interrupting him. “it’s open.”

The door opened and Screw Loose came in. “Got a minute?”

“yeah. Just going over the return route.” Screw closed the door and went to his bed. “with the Wyrm Pass destroyed, we’re gonna have to find another route. And this map isn’t exactly helping.”

“Well, we could just fly over. We have more then enough fliers in our group.” Glade stood still for a moment, not even blinking. She saw this before, back in the leopard village. “didn’t think of that?”

“Nope.”

“Well…” she hopped up onto the bed. “even a captain can have a bad day.”

“True enough.” Glade lightly chuckled. “I remember one time, I made the choice to go though a swamp rather then a clear forest grove because the swamp was a shorter route. Ended up getting me and my entire squad covered in mud. Faust, that was hard to explain to Dad.”

Screw chuckled. “I can imagine.” she tapped her hooves on her legs nervously. “speaking about your dad… how do you think he’ll react when he finds out that you are going out with me, a former psychiatric patient?”

Glade hadn’t considered that. “mmm… he’ll take it well. It’s Mom you should be worried about.”

“Princess Cadence?”

“Hehehe. Yeah. She doesn’t take to kindly of me dating. At least, she never like the mares I went out with. She always found some way to scare them off.”

“PFFT! She can’t be that bad.”

She shouldn’t have said that. “you ever see that episode of Equestrian Dad where the mom was jealous of her son going out with the goth girl?”

Screw squeaked in fear. She saw it and she remembered it. She hated that show. It went away when she shook her head. “Uh… right.”

Glade put down the map, rolled back into his bed, and pinched his eyes. “this is giving me such a headache.”

A sudden poke in his shoulder got him out of the rut. He looked to see Screw Loose poking him with a pen. Once he looked, she tossed it. “come off it, Glade. You can only do so much without getting tired. Heck, I think even the Princess’ get tired of ruling the country.”

he’s not going to argue with that. He caught Aunt Luna saying more then once that she hates being a princess. “You’re right. We’ll get there when we get there.” he sighed and got comfy. “You know… a lot of romances have been started on this trip; Sweet Song’s and Chaos Gun’s, Sym and Golden Day, Marian and Windancer… you and me. Makes me wonder if anyone else in the group have feelings for anyone else.”

“I’m sure they do.” Sweet Song said as she got comfy. “you can’t live next to someone for a long time without developing a crush. Those old Sitcoms are proof of that.” Glade nodded in agreement.

The 2 fillies and 1 Draconequus baby descended down a long flight of stairs which they found behind a hidden door in a wall.

“exactly how far down is this?” Fire Ruby asked.

“who knows?” Goldie sighed with a groan. “I just hope we get their soon. My hooves are killing me.”

“weakling.” Eris snidely commented.

“HEY!”

“SHH!” Fire Ruby went. “You guys hear that?”

The arguing Pony and Draconequus went silent. 20 seconds into that moment, sounds of machinery powering up reached their ears. “what’s that?” all 3 of them muttered.

Starlight slept soundly into the night, glad to have Bass right next to her- in her life. It felt complete, felt whole for the first time in a long while.

A breeze blew in from outside, gently swathing her cheek. The breeze suddenly gained strength, turning into a full-blown gust. That’s what woke her up. She sleepily blinked then yawned. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dark but, when it did, Star’s daddy came into focus.

“Dad.” she whispered in surprise, careful not to wake Bass up. “what are you doing here?”

Sombra used his magic to open the door. While doing so, he gestured her to come. “we have some things to talk about.”

Talk about? What is there to talk about? Careful not to wake Bass up, she got out of bed and headed out with him.

“What is there to talk about?” she asked as she closed the door.

“A number of things.” Sombra said. “Most notably, you.”

“me?”

Sombra walked down the corridor without a word. Starlight followed not far behind. “more specifically, your powers over time.”

Of course he’d bring that up. Thanks to what happened back there, she’s surprised he didn’t come to talk sooner. “what about it?”

“you’ve been told that no being in the history of Equestria has ever held mastery over time. Star Swirl the Bearded could manipulate it but not master it. Not like you.” the two entered the audience hall, which Sombra lit with his magic. The Hearth’s Warming Eve decorations were still up, which was no surprise there. “but… there’s something you should know.”

Sombra walked in front of a case, holding a floating pocket watch. Starlight saw it when she first entered the place but could never figure out what it was. “what is this?”

Sombra used his magic to open the case and pull the watch out. “This, I believe, is yours.”

“Mine? Why do you say that?”

Sombra grabbed Starlight’s hoof and placed the watch on it. “it appeared in my castle the day you were born. And from what I noticed, whenever you used your powers over time, it glowed.”

“just like my Cutie Mark.” she flipped the watch around and saw that it was engraved, but it was written in a foreign language so she couldn’t read it. “you think… this had a reason for my power over time?”

“Possibly.” he walked off to the throne, leaving Starlight to look at the watch. She broke her look and went after him just as he sat on the chair. “also… there’s something else you should know.”

“what?”

“when the humans arrived, and when you were conceived, a number of ‘scripted’ events changed considerably.”

Scripted events? She guesses that without the humans, Discord would be running wild, Chrysalis would be in control of Canterlot, the ponies would still be human and enslaved by Nightmare Moon, and Oscurita and his handler Orochi would have destroyed the world. “so… what did I change?”

Sombra brought up a screen, detailing events of something that never happened. In this case, Magical Mystery Cure. “Originally, Twilight Sparkle was to alter her friends destinies by switching their Cutie Marks.”

the screen showed the events of what he said, Applejack being the fashionista, Pinkie in charge of Sweet Apple Acres, and Twilight in a depression. “it was after putting everything back to normal that her life was supposed to change forever.”

the screen played Twilight putting things back to normal, writing into the journal, being blasted by the Elements of Harmony, and appearing in Limbo with Celestia, going over the events of her life. “And just how was she supposed to change? Why…” the screen played Twilight descended back to the earth, revealing a pair of wings. “she was to become a Alicorn and a Princess of Equestria.”

Starlight hadn’t heard that. “a…. princess?”

“indeed.” the screen then played her coronation. “she was to become a Princess with Magic being her gift to the world, like Celestia’s Sun, Luna’s Moon, Cosmos’ Stars, and Cadence’s Love.”

How is she sure he wasn’t making this up? “how do you know this?”

“During your… episode earlier, I also noticed a few different events playing, each focused on Equestria. They had nothing to do with us but it showed events that never happened, because something in our universe changed.”

“so… what changed?”

The screen switched to Canterlot just moments after the Winter War. “the Changelings counter attack, for starters. In the other universe, they didn’t attack. And the humans didn’t appear. And…”

“And I was… never born?”

Sombra hesitated then nodded. The screen changed to Celestia’s and Twilight’s conversation after the war. They were in the heavily damaged throne room in Canterlot, though the murals were surprisingly unscathed. Celestia and a Pregnant Twilight talked near one of them. Star could tell this was the past cause mom said she was pregnant with her during the war. What Sombra found was actually a alternate universe during Star’s episode but she didn’t need to know that. The events leading up to it were the same, but the conversation was different.

“a… a princess? Me?” Twilight gasped. Her voice was distorted and echoy, which one can suspect for a event from years ago playing now.

“yes.” Celestia nodded. “I was grooming you to become a Princess, like me, Luna, and Cadence. But… things have changed.”

Twilight wondered what changes. then it hit her. There was only one thing big enough to change her becoming a princess. “my baby?”

“Yes. When you became pregnant with Starlight, it halted all of that. I could never bring it to force you to abandon your daughter just as she’s born. That would be inpony of me.”

“I…” Twilight couldn’t find the words. Her? A princess? But Starlight had changed all that. If she wasn’t pregnant, she wonders if she would’ve been a princess. “I understand, Celestia. It’s just…. I didn’t expect you to say that. But… is Starlight really the only thing holding me back?”

“I’m afraid so.”

The alternate scene stopped there but Starlight took it to be truth. She changed so much and she didn’t even know it. She didn’t know that Celestia was grooming her mother to become a princess. She never expected this.

“why… why are you showing me this?”

“because I wanted to show you what would’ve been. There are so many ways ones life can change, it’s mind-boggling. And so, to repeat my earlier question about you staying here, I have another proposal.”

“Proposal?”

“our lives can change in just a second, if something as simple as a rock hits us on the head, leaving a little welt. So… I’m proposing that we travel back in time and change our fates.”

Travel back in time?! “But… but I’ve never done that before.”

“you sent a Timberwolf back.”

“that was different. I was fighting to protect my friends.”

“And you will here. If we go back, we can prevent you from getting your powers over time and becoming a Alicorn. And we can prevent me from discovering my powers over shadow.”

In her shocked state, knowing she caused a number of things to change, she didn’t think it all the way though. “but… what about my friends?”

“this is a undertaking we must go on by ourselves. They would only get in the way.”

That part, she didn’t like. She would never see her friends again. Never see Marian… Goldie… Bass. Never see them again… it’s too much. “I… I… I need to think about this.”

“I understand.” Sombra said with a cold nod. “sleep on it and give me your answer before you leave. I’ll understand either way.”

She didn’t nod or say ‘okay.’ She just left. How is she going to sleep with all this going though her head? Knowing she changed her mom’s life more then she realized? How many things would’ve changed if she’d never been born?

If she had… never been conceived.

Author's Notes:

uh-oh. Sombra, you dick.