An Unlikely Love: The Tale of Two Friendship Students

While the rest of the day went by normally, the same could not be said for that night. For the first time in weeks, Trixie decided to sleep in her bedroom while Starlight was pacing back and forth in her room. She headed to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She glared at herself, she scowled at her mane style. She hated that mane style because it made her look weak. The only reason she wore it like that is so that Twilight would think that she had indeed changed. She decided the time for change had come, a change back to a more powerful, confident Starlight. She used her magic to restore her old mane style. She smiled at her reflection and snickered, "Just like old times! Watch out Twibitch, here comes Starlight Glimmer!"

Once Starlight was sure that Trixie and Twilight had both fallen asleep, she self-levitated and began to fly towards the library. While she had thought of various ways to make Twilight pay, she knew of one that would work, time travel. She vowed to herself that once she did this, that nopony would talk her out of preventing Twilight and her friends from meeting.

When she arrived in the library she lit up her horn and headed to a corner that Twilight had locked off from everypony but herself, Starswirl's works. She easily unlocked the door and began to go through the scrolls. Much to Starlight's delight, it didn't take her long to find the scroll that she originally stole and altered from Canterlot. She was reading over it and realized that for it to truly work in her advantage, that everything would have to change, everything from the moment that Twilight failed to hatch that egg, even her own future. She said to herself, "This time, there will be no second chances. Once I stop that rainboom, that map will not exist, she will have an absolutely different future, I will have an absolutely different future and nopony but me will have any memory of anything that happened after her failed attempt to hatch that egg!"

Once Starlight finished altering the spell to how it would work the way she wanted, she decided that rather than going back up to bed that she would wait in the throne room for Twilight. She knew that Twilight got up early and usually headed in there before starting her day and wanted to do this prior to Trixie waking up.

While it seemed like it was forever, morning finally arrived and the light woke Starlight up. She realized that she couldn't be seen at first so she flew up to the ceiling and waited for Twilight to arrive. Right on schedule, around seven, Twilight headed into the throne room. She heard a voice sneer, "Good Morning Twilight!"

Twilight looked around and said, "Wait a minute, who is that?" She began to giggle, "I could have sworn that was Starlight but she doesn't sneer like that anymore."

Starlight levitated down onto the table and fired her energy into it causing the map to appear. Starlight sneered, "Is that so princess?"

Twilight saw what she did and noticed she had saddlebags on and was wearing her old mane style. She said, "Starlight, this isn't funny. This isn't April Fools' Day."

Starlight sneered, "Of course it isn't! Today's no joke, it's the day I punish you for trying to turn Trixie against me." She began to levitate herself and fired a beam first to the scroll and then on the map where Canterlot is. The time portal opened and she began to get sucked in. She decided she wanted to see Twilight's reaction when she altered everything before they would be returned to that exact point, the moment of the failed attempt so she grabbed Twilight and took her with her.

Just like before, they traveled back in time but this time, they did not land in Cloudsdale, they landed in Canterlot Castle, right outside of the exam room on the day of Twilight's entrance exam. Twilight saw this and said, "Wait a minute, this is the day I hatched Spi..."

Starlight put a force-field on the filly Twilight's horn and interrupted, "No, it's the day you FAILED to hatch Spike!"

Twilight's eyes shrank. "Wait, you can't do this! Don't you remember what happened last time you tried doing this? Don't you remember that horrible desolation we returned to?"

Starlight laughed, "That was with the first alteration. This time, we will return to where we were when you failed! You will vanish and all that will be is the sad little filly in there that will have to go to PUBLIC SCHOOL!"

Twilight replied, "But I'll remember. The map will still be there and once I do get into Celestia's school I'll meet my friends and we will stop this. I won't let you into my school."

Starlight knocked her over and planted her hoof on her, pressing down hard. "Wrong Miss Sparkle, without you, there will be no map, there will be no castle and you won't even have a school. You'll simply become Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn with average power who will likely wind up only being special because your brother will marry Cadence....oops, I mean Chrysalis!"

Twilight yelled, "But without me and my friends, who will stop Nightmare Moon, who will stop Chrysalis, who will stop Discord and who will stop Tirek?"

Starlight laughed, "Oh don't worry about that. When I return to my hometown as a filly, the scroll will come with me as will ALL of the knowledge and powers I have.....AND my cutie mark." She got down in Twilight's face and laughed, "Who knows, when my parents see my abilities, I could very well be the one that gets sent to Canterlot, becomes Celestia's protege and be the one to go with your friends to stop all of Equestria's enemies and become a princess!" She nudged her and continued, "Wouldn't that be ironic? Who knows, maybe you could become MY friendship student!"

Both ponies looked into the exam room as a pony wheeled in a dragon's egg on a cart. They heard an older voice ask, "Well Miss Sparkle?"

Starlight intensified the force field on the filly's horn as Twilight asked, "Starlight, why are you doing this?"

Starlight sneered, "Because I heard what you were saying to Trixie. I heard you planting the seeds of doubt in her mind." She got down in Twilight's face and continued, "Remember last time when I said a cutie mark for a cutie mark? This time it is either I have a future with Trixie or your future is ruined!"

Twilight snapped, "Starlight, this isn't right. Are you really going to just throw away ever meeting Trixie over me trying to get her to see that you two shouldn't cling together? You said you'll remember everything, just think of how not having her in your life will consume you, no matter how powerful and important you become."

Starlight pressed down on her harder and sneered, "At this point it doesn't matter. Knowing you will never become anypony important will more than offset any heartache I could ever have by not having Trixie in my life."

Twilight began to cry, "What do I have to do to make you stop this? What do I have to do to get you to release my filly self and hatch Spike?"

Starlight growled, "You know what Twilight Sparkle, there is nothing you can do. You defeated me twice in my life, twice! Well guess what? The third time will be a charm and it will be the victory that prevents me from ever being defeated." She began to laugh manically, "Karma's a bitch, isn't it Twilight?"

This drove Twilight into a fury. She yelled, "Buck you Starlight!" She got out of Starlight's hold and tried to break Starlight's hold on her filly self but it was too late. *BOOM!* The sonic rainboom rocked Canterlot but absolutely no energy shot out of Twilight's horn. Her filly self said to the judges, "I'm so sorry for wasting your time."

As Twilight headed towards her parents the portal opened again, except this time Princess Twilight vanished, leaving only her filly self with an uncertain future. Twilight looked up to her parents and said, "I'm sorry mommy, I'm sorry daddy. I hope you're not mad at me."

Twilight Velvet nuzzled her and replied, "It's ok Twilight, hatching a dragon's egg is not easy and I don't think they should be expecting that out of such a young filly."

Night Light added, "Don't worry Twilight. With as smart as you are I'm sure you'll outshine all your classmates when you start school."

In a different corner of Equestria a devastated filly sat in front of her house. Her only friend had acquired his cutie mark just a couple of days ago and had already been taken to Canterlot. Suddenly a bright light appeared in the sky and a portal opened up, releasing a powerful beam of energy, containing all of the filly's adult self's knowledge and power from where the portal originated. With that energy came the time spell that she, as an adult, had altered.

The scroll landed in front of the filly. She picked it up and began to read it. As she finished reading it she realized she understood it. Suddenly something magical happened, a four pointed star with a white star tilted behind it along with two swirling blue columns appeared on her flank. She got her cutie mark!

Using her magic, the filly flew into her house pointing at her flank yelling, "Mommy, daddy, look!"

Her mother, Primrose and her father, Stone Cutter were stunned when they saw her flying using magic. Primrose gasped, "Starlight honey, are you flying?"

Starlight excitedly replied, "Yes and look, look!"

Stone Cutter saw her flank and said, "It looks like somepony got her cutie mark!"

Starlight squealed, "I did, isn't it awesome? Isn't it amazing?"

Primrose replied, "It is." She then saw that her daughter had a scroll with her. She took it and began to read it. She called to Stone Cutter, "Honey, could you come over and look at this scroll Starlight had with her? I don't know what it is."

He began to read it and knew immediately that it was a time spell. He looked at Starlight and asked, "Starlight sweetie, did you write this?"

Because of the knowledge and power she received when the portal opened, in her mind she did write the spell. She replied, "Yes daddy, I wrote that spell, well parts of it were written by Starswirl the Bearded but I altered it to make it work better!"

While they found her claim kind of far fetched, they realized that cutie marks don't just show up for no reason. They realized that their daughter DID alter the spell. Primrose grabbed Starlight and asked, "Starlight honey, with you rewriting a time spell and being able to fly with only magic, what would you think about going to Canterlot and seeing if you can get into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns?"

Starlight giggled, "Really, you really think I could get into the ruler of all of Equestria's special school?"

Her parents both nodded in unison. Starlight began jumping up and down like the filly she was cheering, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I would love to see if I can get in!"

Primrose replied, "Alright, I'll get in touch with the school, tell them about your abilities and see if you can go there for an entrance exam."

Starlight grabbed her mom and said, "Thank you mommy!" She then giggled, "I wonder if I'll ever meet Trixie!"

Primrose asked, "Starlight honey, who is Trixie?"

Starlight knew she slipped up and had to lie her way out of this. "Oh, she is just a pony that appeared to me in a dream once."

While she couldn't just show an excessive amount of confidence, she knew she'd be able to get in. Given the powers she had, she knew that hatching a dragon's egg would be nothing. She knew that becoming Celestia's protege would be beyond easy. She was certain that she would be the one to gain the friendship of the other Elements of Harmony and could feel it that she would be the one to save Equestria on multiple occasions and become the Princess of Friendship.