Times Of Their Lives

by Emotional Flight

Rating: teen
Tags: Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Random, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 6415

Starlight has destroyed the world. Time travel isn't as easy as it sounds.

Spoilers for the S5 finale!

Time travel is complicated, requires a lot of power, and has horrible, horrible side effects.

Unfortunately for Starlight, researching said problems beforehoof is next to impossible.

It really is too bad that she's destroyed the world.

~{^}~

A series of unconnected one-shots that diverge during the Season 5 finale. Since time travel is so arbitrary in canon, I'm coming up with the rules myself and offering what would have happened if it worked that way.

Published 2015-12-01 14:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-18 21:00:38 UTC

Dust in the Wind

Dust In The Wind

(Dark, Drama)

“Where are we?” Starlight Glimmer’s voice cut through the air like a knife, her accusatory tone leveled at a lavender alicorn across from her. Around them, the wind whipped across an empty plane, the dust curling up from the ground and speeding around the dead trees and rocks. Her voice, carried in the wrong direction by the wind, still made its way to the alicorn, who looked down at the ground.

“The future.” She looked up. “Or, rather, the present.”

“But…” Starlight wasn’t quite sure what had gone so very wrong. “There’s nothing here.”

“I wish I could say I was surprised.” She rubbed her hoof on the map, which was a grey and barren wasteland. “But every world I come back to is worse than the last.” Her hoof hit the ground, and she strode towards Starlight, her ears pressed back against her forehead. “I don’t know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are.”

“But… but…” Starlight’s hoof waved outwards. “What’s even happened?” The wind whistled louder through some of the stones of the ring that the map made as if to accentuate the statement.

“You want me to give my best guess?” Starlight nodded. Twilight gave a cynical laugh. “Celestia and Luna vanished.”

“They… vanished?” Starlight was dumbfounded. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Well, they certainly aren’t doing their duty any more. They’re gone, one way or the other.” Twilight waved a hoof at the sky. “No Celestial Cycle, no life. Even having the Moon up permanently was better than this.”

“Having the Moon up permanently?”

“What were you expecting would happen when you erased the Elements of Harmony from existence?” Twilight looked over at Starlight. “The very first thing we did with them was defeat Nightmare Moon.”

“But this wasn’t supposed to happen at all!” Starlight stamped a hoof on the ground. “I was just trying to teach you a lesson!”

“A lesson in what? Humility?” Twilight seemed to glower at Starlight.

Spike sat down on the table behind them. “The map’s gone, Twilight.” Twilight turned to look with him. “There’s no forests, no houses, no ponies…”

“Time isn’t supposed to work this way!” Starlight screamed, slamming a hoof into the ground. “It’s supposed to be immutable!”

“And how exactly could time be immutable if you can change the past?” questioned Twilight.

“It’s supposed to correct itself! Star Swirl theorized that, since destiny was such a driving force in Equestria, any one individual would tend upon the same path after a change in time.” Starlight stamped her hoof into the ground to accentuate the point.

“Well, it’s not. Instead, we’ve got this,” Twilight said softly, waving her hoof at the mountains in the distance. “The real question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“I…” Starlight looked out over the barren wasteland. As the dust blew by her face, she thought for a moment before replying. “Nothing.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Nothing? All of Equestria is utterly annihilated, and you are going to do nothing?”

“I can’t.” Starlight looked back at the duo at the table. “Time travel is complicated. That table was a shortcut around millennia of problems with changing the past - it’s so ingrained with the background magic of Equestria that, if you go back, it goes back with you, and thus allows the change.” The wind whipped through her hair for a moment, and she paused before continuing. “But, in case you haven’t noticed… there is no background magic to pull from.”

Starlight could practically sense the pulse of pink from behind her as her nemesis checked her findings. “But that can’t be right!”

“Well, Princess, you were the one that wanted to show me what the world would be like without your group of friends,” replied Starlight, spitting out the moniker.

Spike sat down on the flat, useless, piece of stone. “You mean… we can’t go home?”

“Home?” Starlight gave a laugh, long and drawn out. It was deafened by the wind, which rustled through her hair as she threw her head back. As the reality of the situation came down on her, the laugh dissolved into hiccups and the occasional giggle before touching upon a sob. “This… this is our new home little dragon.” She gave a slightly maniacal grin. “You’d best get used to it.”

Twilight had simply watched as the pony in front over her collapsed onto the ground, but bit back at the retort. “We aren’t living here.”

“Oh yeah? Well what are you going to do about it?” Starlight shot back, rolling over the dusty stones back onto her forehooves.

Twilight snatched up Spike in her magic and placed him on her back, even as he started to droop. “I’m going to leave.” Starlight watched as she leaned closer to her. “There might be no magic, I might have no friends, but unlike you, I will not give up hope.”

“Hope?” Starlight cackled. “You think this is about hope?”

“No.” Twilight pulled her chin upwards, and Starlight listened. “I think this is about life.”

She turned.

The wind whistled through the crags as she set her back to the table and slowly walked towards the peaks on the edge of the horizon.

Starlight put her head on the ground and keened.

~{^}~

Spike leaned closer to Twilight’s back in a vain attempt to shut out the roaring of the wind. The dust flowed around his body, getting into the cracks between his scale plates and his ears. He watched as the motes of dust flowed around his caretaker’s head, curling around her horn like a wisp, lit up by the light spell on the tip of her horn.

Spike spoke out into the wind. “Twilight?”

“Yes, Spike?” She turned her head back to look at him.

He paused for a moment before continuing. “Are we really stuck here?”

…

The lack of response troubled him. He prompted again, in a small voice. “Twilight?”

Twilight turned her head away. “...I don’t know.”

Author's Note

Well. That happened.

The S5 finale really bothered me. I liked the story, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't find any concrete rules on how time travel worked. Thus, this is a bunch on unconnected one-shots in which Starlight accidentally causes a future Equestria to be the real Equestria (or their real Equestria, depending on the theory) by accident, when one of the rules of time travel that I've come up with for that one-shot gets in the way.

Taint in the Sky

Taint In The Sky

(Dark, Tragedy)

Starlight watched as an alicorn flapped her way up to where she was floating, keeping her sneer trained at her. Her green aura gleamed around her body, her hair floating away from her head.

“What did you do?” Twilight seethed, flapping her wings to stay level, Spike balancing on her back.

“You are about to find out.” Starlight watched as a dome covered in magical runes and markings appeared above them in the sky. As it began to suck Twilight up into its grasp, she grinned, applying a little more magic to stay level in the air. Twilight, with her dragon friend on her back, disappeared into the green light.

As Starlight turned to leave, she felt the fierce suction pulling at her as well. She applied more force to her telekinesis, but it bottomed out and simply held her there.

She grunted. “No, no! That’s not how this spell is supposed to work -”

Her telekinesis failed, the light around her flickering, then dying. She saw the green bowl approaching. Her eyes scrunched shut as she was sucked into the vortex. A rushing surrounded her, and she was no more.

~{^}~

It was slightly warmer than Starlight expected. A slight breeze blew over her muzzle, and her eyes blinked open.

The world was… red. Much redder than she thought it should be. As she blinked her eyes to get rid of the fuzziness, they locked on a chair that was practically in front of her face. She pushed herself to her hooves, looking around her. It was red. Even her hoof had a slight tinge. As she placed it back on the table, she looked at her surroundings.

Well… there was no castle anymore. Her attempt to change the past must have worked! She’d wanted to put Twilight through a bit more suffering, but this was perfect!

A purple alicorn slammed her in the side.

As Starlight rolled, she shoved her hooves at Twilight in a vain attempt to push her off. Twilight grabbed her hooves in her magic, pulling them together. The alicorn leaned down.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Starlight could smell Twilight’s breath. “Do you have any idea?”

Starlight charged up her horn and teleported with a flash onto the nearby table, regaining the high ground. “I know that you never got your connection.”

Twilight laughed. “‘I never got my connection.’ I never could have guessed. Well, I suppose you wanted the world to plunge into war!”

“War?” Starlight glanced around for a moment. “I don’t see a war.”

“Look at the map, Starlight,” said Twilight, pointing at the table beneath her. Starlight backed up slightly so that she could see a majority of it.

It was… was…

“Strange, isn’t it. I’m sure that you’re thinking that I’m making it up.” Twilight waved her hoof at the table. “I’m not.”

It was black. Covering almost half of Equestria was a gigantic black cloud, almost as if the map couldn’t see into those places any more. It seemed to roll slowly over the land. Everything else was tainted a blood red, complementing the red hues that this world appeared to offer upon everything.

“We met with somepony. Applejack, in fact. She told us what happened.” Twilight’s head was drooped. “Sombra came back.”

“Sombra?” Starlight whispered to herself. “But I…”

“You didn’t even think, did you?” Twilight thrust her hoof outwards. “We were the bearers of the Elements. You… you destroyed Equestria!”

“I did not!” Starlight slammed her hoof against the table, causing a small crack. She hardly noticed. “You just… you… the spell wasn’t even supposed to do this!”

“Do what? Kill hundreds? Destroy everything harmony stood for?” Twilight growled. “Because it succeeded in that. Spectacularly.”

“No! I mean, no it wasn’t.” Starlight shook her head. “I wasn’t even supposed to come back!”

“You… I…” Twilight seemed to be boiling over. “You planned to screw all of Equestria over, then not deal with the problem? What is wrong with you?”

“No! I was going to try and fix it!” Starlight curled inwards from the glare trained at her by the angry alicorn before reasserting herself and stepping forwards. “I could have guided others with my knowledge of the future!”

“Heh - yeah, right,” said a voice, and Starlight turned and saw Spike, standing on one of the chairs. “Do you honestly think that would have helped?”

Starlight found her voice cracking. “Of course it would have!”

“Look, no one would have listened to you,” said the young dragon. “Are you really that naive?”

“I am not naive!” Starlight growled. “I’ve run an entire community by myself before, thank you.”

“Yeah - one community.” Spike shook his head. “Even if you went straight up to Princess Celestia and told her directly what was going to happen, she both wouldn’t have the means to defeat a majority of the villains we’ve faced over the years and she wouldn’t believe you. There’s no way you could have stopped them on your own.”

“Well… I-” Starlight was cut off by Twilight.

“Look around you, Starlight.” Her voice was softer now. “Look around, and tell me that this is what you wanted.”

Starlight looked away from Twilight’s face. The wind rustled her hair before letting it settle as she gazed around. Behind the reddish tint, everything had a faded quality about it, as if it was drooping. Far away, she saw a small settlement, most likely Ponyville, that seemed like the owners had simply up and moved away. Beneath her, the map crumbled a little more.

“I…” she gulped. “I didn’t want it like this.”

“I don’t want it like this either,” replied Twilight, “but here we are.”

Starlight grimaced, looking away from the alicorn. “You, of all ponies, know that I can’t fix this.”

Twilight sighed. “One time tampering spell per pony, I know.” Her hoof scuffed on the ground. “Look… Starlight…”

“Yes?” Starlight looked back at Twilight.

“I don’t know anything about you. And I can’t say that I particularly like you, either.” Twilight glanced up at her. “But we might be able to fix this. And if we can’t, I’d like it if you helped me.”

“What, are you asking me to be your friend?” Starlight glared down at her. “No!”

Twilight nodded almost to herself. “I… I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to say yes.”

“You- I can’t believe you! Why would I want to be your friend?”

Twilight looked up at her. “Maybe because I’m the only one who would want to be.” Starlight’s mouth dropped open.

As Twilight wrapped Spike in her magic, she turned. “You are all about equality, about ridding the world of the menace of difference. I don’t know what made you this way, but I hope that, someday, you realize what difference actually means.”

Starlight simply watched as Twilight began to charge up her horn, wrapping both herself and Spike in her pink aura.

A moment before they vanished, Spike spoke. “Hey Starlight?”

“Yes?”

“If you want equality?” He stuck out his thumb to the north. “Join the army.”

Then, they were gone.

Author's Note

Welp, here’s take two.

In case you haven’t noticed, these are going to be very similar between oneshots. The premise is different, but the end result is practically the same, so a lot of the interactions will be colored differently, despite being so similar.

In case you’re wondering, this uses the ‘One time traveling spell per pony’ setup used in a lot of the fics on this site as its main premise and spiraled out from there. Also, it had a retake of Starlight’s main plan to fit with said change, and a built in time sync delay.

Dark in Her Reign

Dark In Her Reign

(Dark, Adventure)

Twilight could feel the stare of Nightmare Moon against her back as they traveled through the Everfree Forest. The cold air and dark trees made an oppressive atmosphere as they cast their shadow over her back. The glow of her oppressor’s horn made a spike of light, her aura surrounding Spike, who was wrapped in metal chains.

She needed a plan.

Twilight was sure that she could overpower the elder alicorn’s levitation spell around Spike with a teleport if she put enough power into it. Her magical signature was strong on Spike, so she could bypass the normal restrictions more easily than normal.

Spike also had the page that let them travel back to the past. As long as she was fast enough, she could grab Spike and boot up the map before Nightmare Moon could do anything.

The alicorn ahead of her let off a blast of magic at a fleeing timberwolf, the pulse tearing the animated pieces of wood to pieces. As they continued walking, her voice rang out through the trees. “How does it work?”

Twilight’s eyes flickered back and forth for a moment before settling. “A pony from my time used a spell to travel back and change the past.”

Nightmare Moon turned towards the table, looking down at the map. As she began to speak, Twilight began to let her horn glow faintly, letting her magic flow under the Nightmare’s and around Spike. “And now you will give this spell to me.”

Twilight tightened her grip around Spike. “Not… happening!” she grunted, overloading Nightmare Moon’s spell with her own and teleporting Spike and herself forwards onto the map. Spike dug around in his backpack for the spell page, and grabbed it as quickly as he could, thrusting it forwards. Twilight’s magic wrapped around it.

Nightmare Moon slammed into them.

As the rings began to slide upwards around them, Twilight tried to push the elder alicorn out of the circle. Her back legs slammed against her opponent’s midriff, but she simply slammed into the force field on the outside of the map.

Gravity was reversed, and the three of them were sucked up into the green light.

~{^}~

Twilight was spat out of the portal, Spike on her back. Without any preperation her wings flailed, and she slammed into a nearby cloud. The fluffy substance molded around her, and she flapped her wings in an attempt to steady herself.

A bolt of green magic zipped past her, and she turned, slightly unsteadily, towards its source. It came from a floating unicorn across from her. Starlight grinned maliciously. “You ready to give up yet?”

Twilight’s eyes widened, then hardened, and she teleported with a flash of purple light. Starlight blinked.

“Or, you could just vanish, I guess.” She began to call out louder. “What are you, a chicken? Decided to run away once and for all?”

Contrary from what she was expecting, Starlight was hit with a bolt of blue magic.

The blast, which could normally take out a timberwolf, was softened slightly because of the buffer that her telekinesis provided. It still hit her like a speeding train, and her horn flickered out as she pinwheeled through the air. She landed on the tactile runway, her form grinding against the stones. She groaned, then looked up.

A black Nightmare was descending from on high.

~{^}~

Twilight was flapping her wings as hard as she could, occasionally building up enough thaumic power for a teleport. She used them to their fullest extent, ripping through space like a speeding bullet.

On her back, Spike gripped her fur with all he could, his backpack almost tearing off in the wind. Occasionally, he looked up at the sun, as if to remind himself that it was, in fact, still there.

The wind rushed by the duo as Cloudsdale shrunk behind them and the shining light of Canterlot grew ever closer as they sped through the air like a flashing comet.

~{^}~

A younger Twilight watched through a window as a pulsing meteor flew into Canterlot before turning back to her egg.

~{^}~

Starlight dodged another blast of highly concentrated, amazingly controlled thaumic energy as it tore through the clouds around her. She put up a shield, and moulded a cloudwalking spell over her hooves before she landed on the next fluffy platform.

Starlight wasn’t sure what had happened. Twilight wasn’t supposed to have brought back anyone else - the spell wasn’t designed to mesh the alternate universes, just create and destroy them as necessary. Why the spell could even bring back someone else was beyond her.

Starlight shuddered. She knew the price of mixing timelines.

She was going to fade.

Her thought process was shattered as a horn nearby sung, and she twirled, flipping onto the next cloud as the thaumic energy missed her by inches.

~{^}~

Twilight, with Spike on her back, warped into the throne room of the Royal Palace with a loud bang and a flash bright enough to cause flashes in her viewer’s eyes. The gold trim and filigree burned with lavender for several moments after she had landed. She shook her head to try and get rid of the headache that came with magical exhaustion, and looked up.

She picked up a hoof, and blackness curled around her vision. She looked around once, and seeing her mentor, at least in the past-future, gave a smile.

Her eyes rolled back in her head as she passed out.

~{^}~

Starlight puffed as she blasted the black alicorn with a burst of green magic. It was blocked by a blue shield that protected her opponent’s frame. She rolled as another beam of magic blasted past her fur, missing by barely an inch. Her hooves scrambled against the fluff, trying to get traction as she leaped over a mound. She ducked over the cloud layer, then under, upping her cloudwalking spell to allow her to walk upside down by causing her hooves to have a large opposing magnetic charge to the rain. She pressed herself against the cloud layer, trying to hide.

Above her, she heard the black terror begin to speak. “So, you must be the time traveling unicorn I’ve heard so much about.”

Starlight whimpered from her hiding spot, listening as the voice floated down from above her. The clouds around her began to darken.

“I mean, most unicorns wouldn’t be able to put up a decent fight for more than a minute at most. You have lasted almost five.”

Starlight pressed herself closer to the cold clouds, wetness seeping onto her fur. She could see her hoof beginning to disappear.

“Ah well,” said the malicious voice. “Time to show yourself.”

A wind began to rush by Starlight’s fur.

~{^}~

Princess Celestia blinked, trying to get the flash out of her eyes, as her horn began to hum. As the sparks abated, she looked down at the floor.

What she was not expecting was an unconscious alicorn and a dragon arrayed on her floor.

As the last petitioner for this session had just left the room, she glanced over at the other participants in court before starting to speak. “And what are you doing here?”

Spike gave a nervous smile. “Time travel accident, Nightmare Moon in Cloudsdale?”

Princess Celestia sat still for a moment. Then, with a charge of her horn, she disappeared in a flash of golden light.

~{^}~

The wind blew ferociously against the cloud city. Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally as the wind twirled around her, pushed together and apart using her wings, and augmented by her horn.

The tactile surfaces were the first to go, their magic bindings tearing in the extreme weather. The cyclone whipped around the city at a frantic pace. Random Pegasi were blown away by the mounting pressure. Above them, the sky began to grow dim.

A golden shine tore through the darkening night.

~{^}~

Princess Celestia slammed into Nightmare Moon with a vengeance, her horn glowing with a brilliant light as it released the thaumic buildup with a burning flame. The rudimentary shield her opponent had put up barely stopped the roaring beam as it flickered past it and into the other mare’s chest. The dark pony’s fur burned with white flame.

“No, Celestia!” The mare’s hind hooves slammed into Celestia’s horn, and the energy flickered out for just a moment. The Nightmare took that moment reply with a beam of her own. Celestia barely managed a shield.

“Luna! I know that you’re in there!” Celestia called out, desperate.

“That… name… means… nothing!” Nightmare Moon pushed through her past sister’s shield, and Celestia flew back against the clouds.

The moon began to rise into the sky, and the sun vanished into the aether.

~{^}~

Across the battlefield, an exhausted unicorn pulled herself to the top of a cloudy bluff, her hooves partially opaque. She looked down at the top.

A cyan coated, rainbow maned filly and a yellow coated, pink maned filly looked back.

Starlight blinked.

Rainbow Dash looked up at her with a frown. “What’s happening, lady?”

Starlight’s breath caught in her throat. “I… I don’t know.”

~{^}~

Fluttershy wasn’t quite sure what it was about the unicorn, but she seemed to be cracking at the seams. She had always been an observant filly, and what she observed now was that the unicorn across from her need her help.

“Um… excuse me?” The small voice managed to catch the attention of the unicorn, despite the roaring winds. “If you don’t know… will you help us?”

The unicorn looked down at her with a slightly crazed look in her eye. It began to gleam.

“Hey Dash?”

Rainbow blinked. “How do you-”

“Catch.”

She grabbed Fluttershy with her telekinesis, and she was tossed over the edge of the cloud.

~{^}~

Rainbow gasped. “What was-”

“Go get her! You’ll know how!” The crazy unicorn leaped away. “I have an alicorn to help defeat!”

~{^}~

Nightmare Moon glared down at her celestial counterpart. “You don’t even know, do you.”

Celestia looked up at her. “I don’t know what?”

“Why I’m here.”

Celestia coughed for a moment, held in place by her nemesis’s magic, her thaumic cords covered layered with her sister’s energy. “I know that… you won’t kill me.”

“So sure of yourself, are you?” Nightmare Moon stuffed a hoof under her opponent’s chin. “You might want to reconsider.”

Celestia grinned slightly. “I don’t think I’ll have to.”

A green glow slammed into Nightmare Moon like the fires of Tartarus.

~{^}~

Rainbow had to go fast.

She looked down at the form of her best friend, heading faster and faster towards the wind. Her yellow wings flailed helplessly as she pinwheeled through the air.

Rainbow had to go fast.

Her wings were a blur as she pushed one hoof forwards in the most streamlined position possible. Her face began to be pulled back in the oncoming wind.

Rainbow had to go fast.

A rainbow circle expanded outwards as she passed the speed of sound.

~{^}~

Nightmare Moon buckled under the pressure, her horn flickering. Celestia took advantage, and snapped out of the magical bindings.

The green monster slammed Nightmare Moon with a magical blast. She pinwheeled in the cyclone, and her wings flowed outwards. Stars began to peek out in the sky. “You are not taking My Night away!”

Her Night was lit up with the colors of the rainbow.

~{^}~

Starlight could feel the thaumic effects of the Rainboom on her horn, and she lashed out with the extra boost. Nightmare Moon screamed as their magics mingled. Their memories crossed-

~{^}~

Pain. Loneliness. In Memory. Past.

Reworked.

Equality.

~{^}~

Starlight moaned as her vision snapped back into focus. A small amount of blood trickled from her mouth as she glared down at the black alicorn, splayed on the ground. Starlight spat out a glob of blood onto her opponent’s coat, though it faded as soon as it came.

“I… am not… a coward.”

Her form faded away entirely into the wind, only the memory of her deed and the thaumic resonance on the cloud evidence that she had ever existed.

~{^}~

Spike looked down at Twilight. “Twilight?”

He had watched her for the past five minutes, and her hooves were entirely gone.

Spike’s own hands were gone as well.

“I’m scared.”

His torso began to disappear.

“I’m scared, I’m so scared.” He shuddered. “Why did we ever follow her?”

Twilight’s mane began to vanish.

“What did we do to deserve this?” he whimpered.

As he vanished into dust, the sparks of life of the two inhabitants of the empty throne room disappeared with a whispering light.

Author's Note

Starlight versus Nightmare Moon! Round One, Fight!

This one is a bit convoluted, but the idea is that you actually need the scroll in order to time travel. I know that, in theory, that is canon, but in this scene, Twilight didn’t use the scroll, just blasted the map with her magic. Also, it runs on the assumption that taking a separate timeline’s inhabitant twists it so that that timeline was base, so the original time travelers vanish.

This was really fun to write.

Surprises at the End

Surprises at the End

(Comedy)

“I guess it’s up to you to make sure they don’t.” Twilight smiled at Starlight, and held out her hoof. Starlight glanced at it, tears in her eyes, looking slightly unsure. She looked over as Rainbow Dash blasted past, the bullies close behind. She blinked, and turned back to Twilight…

...and put her hoof into her new friend’s extended counterpart.

Twilight gave her a smile as the sheet drifted away and Spike caught it. He wiped his brow.

The green portal above them opened and sucked them into its depths.

~{^}~

“-the surprise!”

Twilight slammed against the table with a great slam before blinking her eyes open, shaking off the soreness of the past couple of hours. Blinking, she opened her eyes - and saw Starlight looking back with confusion. She was gaping at her.

And, for some reason, was standing already.

Twilight stood up, flexing her wings. “You have to tell me how you recover so quickly.”

Starlight puffed herself up and looked past Twilight. “I don’t know who you are, imposter, but you’d better stop right there!”

Twilight tilted her head at her. “What?” That was when she was poked on the side with a claw.

“Uh… Twilight?”

She looked over at Spike. “Yeah?”

“Look behind you.”

She did, and stared at the other occupants of the room.

A Twilight that was most decidedly not her stared back.

On the ground next to her counterpart, a dragon that looked very much like Spike spoke. “So… this is the surprise?”

The Twilight’s both spoke at the same time. “I don’t think so. -- No.” Then, they blinked.

“Where did you come from?”

~{^}~

Starlight glared at the mare that had the audacity to come in during her important monologue speech - in her form, no less! She stomped a hoof forwards. “Who are you?”

The duplicate in front of her backed up a tad. “I’m you - from the future!”

Starlight snorted. “Really? That’s your excuse?”

“You were just about to cast a time travel spell. You seriously think it’s out of the realm of possibility?” Her duplicate rolled her eyes. “That’s stupid.”

“Well, time travel doesn’t work like that!” Starlight flung her hoof upwards.

“And you know that… because… why?” Her duplicate tilted her head. “I have the exact same experiences as you, and trust me, there was zero inclination on how the time travel spell worked.”

Starlight grimaced. “It’s a good idea!”

“No it wasn’t!” Her duplicate bore down on her from the top of the table. “It obliterated Equestria!”

Starlight blinked. “What?”

“Kaboom! All of it! Gone!” Her duplicated waved her hooves about before looking down at the ground. “Turned to ashes.”

Starlight froze. “But… you… did you come back with a plan, or something?”

Her duplicate laughed. “Yeah. I did. It’s called making friends.”

“Wha- No. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Her duplicate grinned. “Nope!”

Starlight facehoofed.

~{^}~

Twilight blinked. “So… what?”

“Er… we’re from the past… er, future?” Future-Twilight shifted her hooves about. “I’m not entirely sure why we’re both here at the same time, but there it is.”

“I thought I learned my lesson about time travel already!” Twilight groaned. “What could have possibly convinced me to try it again?”

“It was an accident!” Future-Twilight looked slightly flustered. “Starlight dragged us along! I’m still not sure how we ended up here.”

“Starlight? So that was her plan?” Twilight tilted her head. “She wanted to change history?”

“That’s about the gist of it, yes.” Future-Twilight looked around. “I mean… well, I guess that is her plan? Was she monologuing at you?”

Twilight nodded. “Basically.”

“Well, we have the two of us, two Spikes, and one converted Starlight against the one evil one. We should be fine.”

Twilight grinned. “You reformed her?”

Twilight nodded. “Yep!” She looked back and forth for a moment. “Is it weird that I have a strange urge to sing a pop song?”

~{^}~

Starlight looked at her evil counterpart. “Look, it’s really simple. Either you go make friends, or I show your Twilight the time you accidentally inverted your horn.”

Her duplicate’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.” Then, she tilted her head. “No, really, you wouldn’t. That’s your problem too.”

Starlight facehoofed. “If it’s enough to get it through your thick skull that you need a friend, then yes, I would.”

Starlight’s duplicate groaned and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll give this weird friendship thing a go.”

~{^}~

“-and then there was this awesome explosion - whoosh - and there were changelings everywhere!” Spike recounted his epic narrative to his counterpart. “And then - bam - we socked one changeling on the jaw!”

The Past-Spike’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Spike nodded. “Really.” He grinned. “But that wasn’t even close to when we stabbed Tirek in the heart with a sword!”

~{^}~

Five mares burst into the room.

“What in Equestria was… that… er… are the rest of you seeing this?”

“Which? The Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle chattin’ on the right? Or the Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle chattin’ on the left?”

“I was mostly talking about the duplicate Spikes, darling.”

…

“Maybe we should just come back later. Just saying.”

“I agree.”

“Mmmhmm.”

Five mares closed the door quietly behind them.

Author's Note

For my one commenter who dislikes disappearing Time Travelers.

Fate at the Wheel

Fate At The Wheel

(Random)

Starlight glared at Twilight. “Won’t be needing that anymore.” She tossed her sheet of paper, the spell written on it away. Her aura surrounded her, and she floated upwards. Above her, the green dome crackled.

Twilight looked at her, and Starlight gave a grin...

...and vanished.

~{^}~

Starlight popped out of the green transportation construct with a pop, landing on the hard surface of concrete held up by pegasus magic. She shook her head, standing up on all four hooves. She glanced around. The sights and sounds of Cloudsdale assaulted her senses, and she smiled. “Okay, I got here. Now…” She looked around for a moment and saw a pair of colts who seemed slightly bored. She walked towards them.

“Hello!” She put on her smile she reserved for convincing someone of something. “Do you have a moment?”

The two colts looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure,” said the one on the left, a chocolate brown one with a barbell cutie mark. “What’s up?”

“I’m looking for a pegasus filly. Do you think you could help me locate her?”

“I guess, lady,” The beige one on the right shrugged. “Which one?”

“Have you heard of Rainbow Dash?” Starlight continued her cultured smile.

The colts snorted. “Uh… yeah. Why?”

“I just need to find her. Do you know where she is?”

“Sure, I guess. She should be coming out of school about now.” The colt rolled his eyes. “Not that I’m sure why you’d want her.”

Starlight shrugged. “It’s not really important.”

She turned, walking down the concrete pad.

The colts turned and looked at each other. “Why does Rainbow Dash get all the attention?” groused one.

“I don’t know.” The other colt gave a predatory grin. “But she’s gonna regret it.”

~{^}~

Starlight grinned, her hooves tapping on the concrete. As she approached the end, she formed a cloudwalking spell over her hooves and walked off the edge and onto the cloudy platform. She leaped towards the school with vigor.

She was halfway up when behind her, she felt a suction. Looking over her shoulder, she saw something she hadn’t expected to see - the time traveling construct. “What?”

It began to pull at her harder, and she gripped the cloud, but it simply tore off of its foundation. She screamed as she was sucked back into the green void.

~{^}~

Her head crashed into stone, and she groaned. “Urgh…” She forced her eyes open through the bright light.

On the other side sat Twilight Sparkle, looking very unamused. “What exactly were you expecting to accomplish?”

Starlight shook her head for a moment before her brain processed what she was seeing. Then, she flailed back. “Wha- what are you doing here?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Did you even bother trying to figure out how the spell worked?”

Starlight was still stuttering. “But- I- You- augh!” She stomped her hoof. “Why are you still here?”

Twilight applied her hoof to her face. “Starswirl’s spell doesn’t change the past, Starlight.”

There was a moment of pause during which Starlight’s mouth fell open. Then, she shut it. “What?”

“All Starswirl’s spell does is let the user create a stable time loop.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Did you even bother to read this?” She held up the sheet.

“But… I modified it! Your table allows the user to-” Starlight was halted as Twilight began to talk over her.

“I know what you tried to do, but all you really did was increase the time length you could go back.” Twilight pointed somewhere in the middle of the spell. “I know you tried to alter it so that it ran off the harmonic energy, but you can’t harness harmonic energy quite like that without the Elements of Harmony.”

“That’s what the table was for!” Starlight was fuming slightly.

“The table isn’t a harmonic resonator. The only thing you could possibly use for that would be the Tree of Harmony, and that doesn’t have the integral part of the table you needed - the connection.” Twilight put the piece of paper on the table again. “As much as I enjoy discussing spell theory, you need to come with me.”

“And why would I do that?” Starlight glared at the alicorn in front of her, charging up the energy for a spell.

“Well, it may have to do with the anti-teleport ward in the castle.” Twilight smiled. “So you don’t really have a choice.”

Starlight immediately cut off her spell, trying not to wince. Getting caught in an anti-teleport ward was nasty business. “I thought you were supposed to be the Princess of Friendship.”

Twilight smiled. “I am! What, did you think you were going to jail?”

~{^}~

“This was not what I signed up for.” Starlight glared at the three fillies in front of her. “Who are you?”

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” The orange pegasus tilted her head. “Hey Twilight? Why is she looking after us?”

Twilight gave a small smile. “Well, her community service has to start somewhere, right? Besides,” - she gave a conspiritorial wink at Starlight - “I think you can help each other.”

Starlight simply grumbled under her breath. "The things I have to put up with for revenge..."

Author's Note

Cutie Mark Crusader watching for community service. Somehow, I think Starlight is getting the short end of the stick...

Also, Starlight totally just caused the Main 6 to get their cutie marks. I hope she's happy.