Sunburst

A few weeks after the royal crystalling

I got off the train. As per his letter, Sunburst was waiting for me.

"Sunburst!" I cheered, rushing over and embracing him.

"Nice to see you again, Starlight." Sunburst replied.

"Same here. How's being royal crystaller working for you."

"It's been fine, so far. Flurry Heart hasn't been as troublesome since her crystalling." Sunburst replied, leading me to the castle.

"Good to here." It was silent for a moment. I struggled to think of something to say. "Your letter said you wanted to discuss the time travel spell."

"When we get to my quarters." Sunburst replied. "However, there is the matter of starting a cult and using time travel to mess with history."

"It's not pretty."

"I expected that." Despite this, he showed me some notable sights as we made our way to the castle. Eventually, we made it to the castle. "I just need to check on Flurry Heart." Sunburst lead me to her room. Inside, the little foal was sleeping soundly.

"I still can't believe she's an alicorn." I said in disbelief.

"Neither can the princesses." Sunburst added. "I've been trying to figure out how it's possible. My current hypothesis is that Cadance's accession to alicornhood altered her DNA."

"Sounds interesting."

"I'll let you where that investigation leads." Sunburst lead me out of the room and into a nearby study with a bed. "Welcome to my new home."

"It's not to different from you old place."

"What can I say. Now, shall we get the unpleasantness out of the way?" I explained everything to him. By the time I finished, he had an ashamed look on his face. "All that, just because I left town."

"I never made another friend because I was so afraid of of losing them to a cutie mark. I didn't want anypony else to go through that. But over time, I lost sight of that and let the power that came with my "work" corrupt me. But, I know better now."

"Indeed. Now, about the time travel spell."

"Star Swirl's time travel spell was the basis for it. However, his spell only let the traveler stay for a few minutes at most. I discovered that this was because the spell needed a source of information of where and when they were going. This is because the spell utilizes the use of a space/time continuum stream. Using this knowledge, the spell opens a hole in said stream, and allows the traveler to travel along the stream to where and when they desire. The spell used the travelers mind for this function. However, the equine mind isn't very suited for the job due to limited knowledge of the world at the time, so the spell burns out quickly trying to keep them there. The magic map in Princess Twilight's castle proved to be powerful enough for the job since it had a more detailed description of the location and the history behind it, as well as the world at large." I paused for a moment. "Don't tell Twilight I told you that. I want to see the look on her face when she finds that feature for herself."

Sunburst nodded. "I won't tell. All the same, that's ingenues. You probably would have gotten in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns with a mind like that, Starlight."

I pondered. "Me? In Celestia's school for gifted unicorns? No way. Everything I knew about magic came from you at the time. You always had to simplify it for me when you showed me a new spell, remember? I highly doubt I'd know enough to get in."

"Perhaps." Sunburst mussed to himself.

Just then, Princess Cadance walked in. "Sunburst, you're relieved of duty..." She noticed me. "Starlight Glimmer, correct?"

"Yes."

"Sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances, and that you where nearly blasted."

"That's okay."

"If you're sure." She turned to Sunburst. "As I was saying, You are relieved of duty for today. I have the rest of the day free."

"Thank you, princess." Cadance nodded and left. "I don't suppose you could show me that map."

"Sure." I replied.

Sunburst led me to the train station. He was actually surprised when he found out we would be going to Ponyville. But once he saw the castle, he understood.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Is her highness home?"

"No. She and her closest friends are having a spa day."

When we reached the main room, saw that the table was bear.

"What the?" I asked surprised.

Sunburst walked over to it and looked it over. He even scanned it.

"You were right." He said after a moment, "This map is a database and is indeed powerful. However, it's not working now because of your tampering with it for the time travel spell. You used it in a way it wasn't meant for, so it made itself inaccessible to prevent further abuse of it's power."

"Oh."

"It can be fixed, but your magic has be used if you want it to work again."

"I'll tell Twilight. I'm sure we'll come up with something." I paused. "What was the map meant for?"

"From what I can gather, it's magically linked to the whole planet, similar to how an earth pony has a connection to nature. The map uses this link to detect a certain kind of problem somewhere on the planet, determines who is best suited to deal with it, and calls those individuals to alert them via cutie mark, somehow." I stared. If that's how the girls found me, the irony was not lost. "We can start fixing the map now, if you like. I'm sure whatever we come with can help Princess Twilight."

I smirked. "Okay, come with me." I responded, leading him out the throne room.

"Where are we going?" He asked. I replied by opening the door, revealing a huge library. His mouth hung open. "OMC, is this Princess Twilight's personal collection?"

"Indeed it is. I just hope she hasn't reorganized without telling me."

"Cut her some slack. When your close to your books, how they are organized can get boring. Think of it like redecorating your room when your tired of how it currently looks."

"You would know. Still, just like old times, right?"

"Right. Now, I think the best place to start would be magic interference."

Trixie

Right after Trixie preforms the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive

"Twilight, do you think we can still go that dinner?" I asked.

Twilight's eye widened. "Yes, we should!" she exclaimed.

We raced back to the castle as fast as we could. When we arrived at the castle, an annoyed Princess Celestia looked at us. I could see Twilight on the verge of a breakdown. Even now, she was struggling to say something.

"Don't apologize, just tell me what's going on." she grunted flatly. While Twilight explained the situation, the three other guest excused themselves. When she had finished, Celestia was still not impressed. "Twilight, I expected better off you."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"No, you don't understand. I'm not upset about the dinner. I'm upset about your motivations." Twilight looked at her confused, and Celestia continued. "I want to spend an evening with my former student and get to know her student. Instead, you turned this dinner into an excuse to impress me. I thought you would have figured out by now you don't have to do that."

Twilight looked stunned. "Prin...Celestia, I..."The purple alicorn hung her head. "Your right, I'm sorry. It's just that, after all you've done for me, how can I possibly see you as an equal?"

"If that's the case, what did I make you a princess for?" Celestia asked. Twilight looked thoughtful. "Ponies always treat me like a god all the time. Just once in while, I want to be treated like everypony else. Is that took much to ask, Twilight?"

"Celestia, I had no idea...actually, it does get annoying with ponies giving me special treatment all the time, I should have made the connection. You came to this dinner as a friend, not my teacher."

Celestia smiled. "Glad we can finally put that behind us. Now," she turned to me, "You are Starlight Glimmer, correct? The one that brought Sunburst and helped us put the crystal heart back together?"

"Yes." I replied.

"I've heard much about you. Most of it was bad, unfortunately. However, your assistance at the Crystal Empire has not gone unnoted."

"Good. At least I have that."

"That's not all you have. Remember back in the village when I said you might teach me something about friendship, Starlight? Well, you taught me that it does not good holding a grudge against somepony for something they are repentant for." She turned to Trixie. "I should have given a chance. It's just that, you left after you apologized. That left doubts in my mind."

"How so?" Trixie asked, intrigued.

"A few weeks after you left, my friend Fluttershy was tasked with reforming an old enemy of ours. The rest of us didn't help because we held a grudge for what he did. She managed it in the end. Months later, Discord was tasked with stopping a new threat, but he betrayed us. Only after the fact did I realize if we all had taken the time to teach him about friendship, he probably wouldn't have done it. So now, I was left to wonder if you had stuck to it. You'd be a bad influence on my student if you hadn't, and that'd be the last thing I need."

Trixie hummed thoughtfully to herself. "I see, still this Discord and I are different people. But, I guess you were in some regards, you were right to have...hesitations. I shouldn't have dwelled on the fact you were just better than me."

"I'm not better than anyone. Pony or otherwise." Twilight replied. "You should have seen the moral low I sunk to earlier today."

"You showed me up twice! Once at magic, and once at my own game. Could you blame me if I wanted to come out on top for once."

Twilight considered. "Yes. However, I can understand were you're coming from. It seems none of us had the moral high ground today."

Celesta chuckled. "The world is rarely as black and white as much as people would like it to be. Any position to take will have it's merits and shortcomings. Took me years to learn that." the white alicorn got up. "I should return to Canterlot now, it's late enough as it is."

"Celestia, we can arrange another dinner if you like." Twilight offered.

"I'd liked that." Celesia replied, and made her way to the door. "Good night, girls." She paused for a moment. "If you see Cranky again, tell him my hair does it naturally. He'll know what you're talking about."

Twilight looked confused, but promise to do so and the sun princess took her leave. Twilight turned to Trixie again.

"Would you like to stay the night? I have plenty of guest rooms."

Trixie smiled. "A kind offer, Princess. I would very much like that."

"For bragging reasons?" Twilight asked.

"You can't expect me to change completely."

Twilight chuckled. "I guess not. Starlight, show her to the one near yours. I'll teleport her things into the castle storage room."

"Thank you, Twilight." Trixie replied, and turned to me. "Let's go."

I nodded and led Trixie to the room. "You know, I'm not all that tired."

Trixie looked at me. "If you wanted to swap stories, you could have asked."

"I'm asking now."

Trixie looked thoughtful "Alright."

"Great," I said, opening the door to the room. "You can go first."

"It started when I first came to Ponyville..." Trixie began.

Author's Note

I'll be honest, this started as a fix fic. I really didn't feel Twilight's speech near the end of the cutie remark would work. Plus, I really think it would have helped to show Starlight why the mane 6's friendship is so important. Showing her the consequences alone wouldn't work if she didn't understand how they got there. As season six began, I decided to expand from that.