Life sucks. Or at least, that's how Star Gaze saw hers. Ever since she was born her life had been nothing but downhill from there. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father was gone the moment he found out her mother was pregnant. Any family members connected to her mother or father refused to take her in, so she became an orphan. She was never adopted, and when she grew old enough, she was kicked out of the orphanage and left to fend for herself. She barely scraped by, living off odd jobs that paid minimum wage and slept in a old and broken house that looked as though it would turn into splinters with one gust of wind.

But then, it happened, her salvation came. The School fir gifted Unicorns was hosting auditions and Star Gaze decided to try out. She spent months preparing her magic until she had perfected it and it would no doubt impress the judges. On the last day of the auditions, only two contestants showed up to attend. Her, and a filly named Twilight Sparkle. Twilight went first and tried to use her magic but couldn't. It wasn't until a sonic rainboom occurred that it had sent a surge of magic through Twilight that allowed her to not only impress the judges, but even Celestia herself.

But when Star Gaze tried to use her magic, she couldn't. Not even a flicker of it. She failed.

Her one good thing that could've happened to her, and it was lost forever.

After Star Gaze left, she had put the pieces together. The filly, Twilight Sparkle, had stolen her magic during the auditions. That's why she was able to impress Celestia, because she had taken her magic. It was then that a burning hatred had formed inside Star Gaze. She swore to herself that she would make Twilight pay, no matter the cost.

Star Gaze never smiled, because there was nothing to ever smile about. Her life had been one bad turn after the other. There had been some good moments, like when she got the job of cleaning the books in the Canterlot library. It was the first job she ever had that paid enough money for her to eat. Everyday, from 6:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m she would clean and dust the books. The library was open to everypony in Canterlot, so she did her best to avoid those who entered.

"Star Gaze."

While dusting a book her ear perked up. She stopped and looked around her.

"Star Gaze."

There it was again, something was calling out her name. It sounded raspy and ghost like, and it echoed all around her.

"Star Gaze."

The voice called out, but this time she could pin point where it was coming from. She walked past the rows of books which had been neatly and orderly placed thanks to Star Gaze.

"Star Gaze."

Star Gaze stopped, the voice sounded as though it was right in front of her. She looked around but saw nothing but the books she had already cleaned. "Where are you?" She asked, keeping her voice low.

"Down here." The voice answered. "Beneath the tile."

Star Gaze looked down at the tile floor and noticed the tile her foreleg was on seemed loose. She used her magic to pull the tile up and sat it to the side. Beneath the tile was a somewhat deep hole and in that hole was a black hard cover book with glowing red chains all around it. Despite its evil and ominous appearance, Star Gaze picked up the book and slid the tile back into place and made it look as though it had never been moved. She looked at the book curiously, examining it from all sides.

"It's about time." The voice huffed. "Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to reach you?"

Star Gaze's eyes went wide, the pieces falling into place. "You're talking." She said in disbelief. "You're a book, and you're talking."

"Technically I'm the spirit trapped in the book." The voice stated. "But yeah, I can talk."

"How?" Star Gaze demanded, "and why are you talking to me?"

"Well to answer that, I'm going to have to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Amontious, apprentice to Starswirl the Bearded. The Wizard taught me everything I know, but my thirst for knowledge led me to learn about the Dark Arts. Starswirl feared that I would use my magic to hurt ponies, so he imprisoned me in my book of spells and hid me where no one would ever find." The voice explained. "As for the reason as to how I can talk to you is because you and I have something in common. Can you guess what it is?"

"No." Star Gaze admitted. "What is it?"

Star Gaze didn't need to see who Amontious was to know that he was smiling when he said, "The thing you and I have in common, is envy."

"Envy?" Star Gaze asked in confusion.

"Yes, envy. You're practically radiating with it, I'm surprised you don't know."

"I know I envy someone." Star Gaze hissed, her mind flashed to the one she hated.

"As do I. You see, while I never admitted it back then, I envied my teacher. I hated how everyone praised the old fart and I was forgotten. But you don't have to suffer the same fate I did Star Gaze. Release me from this prison, and I promise you that whomever it is you envy. They will wish they had never been born."

Star Gaze hesitated lifting the seal, "I...I don't know."

Amontious paused. "You don't know? What's there to know? I told you that you can get revenge on whomever this pony is if you release me."

"But I...I don't want to kill her." Star Gaze said, before her tone turned venomous. "I want her to suffer. I want her to know the pain she caused me, I want her to know that she ruined my life, I want her to know that she should've never crossed me."

Amontious laughed giggly. "Such a poetic speech! Never before have I heard such delightful words, and as it turns out, there's a spell in here that matches the exact description of what you're looking for."

"Go on." Star Gaze said, sounding intrigued.

"Before Starswirl sealed me away, I was creating a spell similar to his time travel spell. But unlike Starswirl's spell, mine could actually change time. You see, if you travel to a specific moment in time and change something in that time then the timeline continuing from that point will not exist and a new timeline will be created."

Star Gaze understood what Amontious was talking about and asked, "so if I were to go back in time and go before Twilight then I'll get her life and she'll get mine?"

"Well yes, that's how the spell works. But to cast it you have to, one; free me from the book, and two; follow the spells exact instructions or else it won't work.

"Alright then, how do I free you?" Star Gaze asked.

"Starswirl enchanted these chains to make so anyone with evil in their heart could never release me. But there is a loophole, as long as you thing of a good and warm memory then the seal will be broken."

"Good memory...that might be a problem, cause I kinda don't have any of those." Star Gaze rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"That's where you're wrong Star. There is a good memory inside of you, and it's right... Here."

All Star Gaze did was blink and she was no longer in the library. She was now in a hospital room, with a bed in the middle of it. Lying on the bed was a unicorn mare, with pale yellow fur, green eyes, and an orange mane that had hairs sticking out. A lime blue blanket was draped over her arched and spread hindlegs.

"Congratulations Miss Orion, its a healthy baby girl."

Star Gaze turned her attention to the earth pony Stallion dressed in a lime blue hospital outfit and was carrying a newborn filly with pale yellow fur, blue mane and tail, violet eyes, and was wrapped in a white towel.

Star Gaze then understood what was happening. This was the day she had been born, the day when her mother died, the day she was fated to live her cursed life.

"Let me...see...her." Star Gaze's mother said, breathing heavily.

The doctor walked beside the bed and handed the baby to its mother. She held her very gently, as though she was the most precious thing in the world to her.

"What shall you name her?" The doctor asked.

The mare smiled weakly before giving her answer. "Star Gaze...her name...will...be...Star.....Gaze."

Tears. Uncontrollable tears streamed down Star Gaze's cheeks. But they weren't tears of sadness, in fact they were the exact opposite. Tears of joy. Joy that she could see her mother, joy of the name she had given her, joy that she had been there for her when others would not.

*CLANK!*

The hospital room faded away, and Star Gaze was back in the library where she had been. She looked to the book to see the chains had fallen off and no longer glowed red. A black mist fumed from the pages of the book, and balled up into a pony shaped mass. A unicorn Stallion stood before Star Gaze, with charcoal fur, silver mane, red eyes, and a upside down star symbol inside a circle for his cutie mark. He breathed in fresh air and exhaled it.

"Oh how I've missed this." The Stallion, Amontious, said.

"Which page?" Star Gaze asked, flipping through the pages in the black book.

"The second to last one." Amontious answered.

Star Gaze skipped all of the other pages and went to the second to last page of the book. On the page was a picture of a circle with multiple symbols drawn in it. On the page next to it was a list of instructions and what had to be done to preform the spell.

"This will I've me what I want?" Star Gaze asked, looking up from the book.

"Yes." Amontious answered. "All you have to do is this symbol. I'll go grab the ingredients required and do a little research."

"Why are so eager to help me?" Star Gaze asked.

"Because, you're not the only one who wants to change something." Amontious answered.

After Star Gaze had finished her shift she teleported home. Her house used to be a cabin in the woods until a fire broke out and torched the place. The fire had been put out but those who lived there just used the insurance money they got to build a new cabin by a beach. Star moved into the burnt house and lived their for three years. It wasn't much, but it was a roof over her head. When Star Gaze teleported to her house she instantly began working on drawing the circle.

She rested the opened book against a stump and studied the shape and symbols. The circle had to be a specific size for the spell to work, so Star used her magic to remove the dirt in the shape of the circle. She then began drawing an hourglass shape in the middle of the circle before working on the symbols inside of it. There were five symbols required, one on the bottom, one on the top, one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. The bottom, top, left, and right symbols were all the same, a circle with an X inside of it. The symbol in the middle was different, instead of a circle it was a square with a plus symbol inside of it.

"Fantastic job."

Star Gaze did the final touches on the circle before looking behind her to see Amontious, carrying a basket next to him with his magic.

"I couldn't have made it better myself." Amontious grinned admiring Star Gaze's work.

"Do you have the ingredients?" Star Gaze asked, sounding almost to excited.

"Calm yourself Star." Amontious said. "I have everything we need." He opened he basket. "For this spell to work it requires five things. Power, conduct, anchor, traveler, and source." He pulled out an amulet with the head of a black horse with a long horn, extended wings, and a red diamond shaped jewel in the center.

Star Gaze's eyes widened upon recognition of the amulet. "Is that-"

"The Alicorn amulet? Yes, yes it is." Amontious answered, admiring the amulet's look. "You wouldn't believe how easy it was to get this. It was just sitting in a box with a weak protection enchantment." He used his magic to hover the amulet over to the left symbol and placed it in the symbol, causing it to glow red. "The amulet will be our source of power."

He levitated his book over to the right symbol, causing it to glow blue. "My book shall serve as the spell's anchor."

He reached into his basket and pulled out a curved black horn. "This shall serve as our conduct." He said, levitating the horn to the bottom symbol, causing it to glow yellow.

"Finally," he paused, a bubble of red magic began to form at his horn's tip, became solid, and dropped into his hoof. The same happened to Star Gaze, except her magic was yellow. "To serve as the traveler element, will be some of our magic." He said, levitating the two orbs to the top symbol, causing it to glow green.

"What about the source?" Star Gaze asked. "What did you bring for that?"

"The source, is the circle itself." Amontious answered. "All that's left is for us to step into the middle of the circle and think of the moment we want to go."

"You still haven't told me why you want to go back in time." Star said. "Or why you're helping me."

"I know I may not seem like it, but I keep good on my word. You freed me from my prison, therefore I am in your dept. so it only seems fair that I help you get what you want." Amontious said, walking into the center of the circle. "It won't work if one of us aren't in the circle. So please hurry up."

Star Gaze was hesitant at first, but she walked to the center and closed her eyes. Thinking of the moment she wanted to go to.

And in the blink of an eye, they, and the circle, vanished.

When Star Gaze opened her eyes she no longer found herself in the open space of her yard, but instead she was in a hallway. A hallway with white walls and glossy floor with square pattern. She observed her surroundings and when she looked to her left she knew where she was. To her left was a glass wall which showed rows of cradles which held newborn foals.

Star Gaze was in the hospital. The hospital that she was born in.

"Amontious." She called out his name in a whisper. But he was no where to be found. "Amontious!" She called out his name again, this time a little bit louder.

"Amontious." She called out his name in a normal voice.

"You rang?" Amontious asked, appearing behind Star Gaze.

Star Gaze jumped back in surprise, somehow keeping herself from making any loud noise. "Where were you?" She demanded.

"Not where, when." Amontious corrected, "and that's none of your business. So, why'd you summon me here?"

"Why am I here? I wanted to go to the time Twilight was auditioning for the School for gifted Unicorns. To make it so she would fail, then I would get everything she had and she would suffer the life I had. Alone, weak, starving, everything!"

Amontious raised an eyebrow. "If you had done that then wouldn't that mean Twilight would just live with her parents?"

Star Gaze froze before facehoofing. "How could I have been so stupid? She has parents, I don't. She wouldn't be able to suffer my life because she would have a shoulder to cry on."

"You said her name was Twilight right?" Amontious asked, looking into the room of cradles. "As in Twilight Sparkle?"

Star Gaze turned around to face Amontious. "Yes that's her name, why?"

A smile grew on Amontiouses face. "Fate seems to be on your side, take a look at the little foal beside your crib." He pointed. "Right there."

Star Gaze peered through the glass to get a better look at the crib. Or rather, the name tag assigned to it. When she could read the tag her eyes widened in shock. "Is that...it can't be...how is she..." an idea popped into Star Gaze's head, one that guaranteed her true goal.

The door to the newborn room opened and two nurses entered.

"Which one of these was it?" The nurse on the left asked the one on the right.

"This one." She pointed to the crib. "She's the one." She said, both nurses approached the crib.

"Are you sure this is the one?" The left nurse asked, looking at the sleeping foal.

The right nurse lifted up the tag attached to the crib. "Yep, she's the one." She dropped the tag and gently picked up the foal. "Poor thing, the world really is a cruel place."

The two walked out carrying the foal. After they had left, Amontious entered, wearing a doctor's outfit. He approached one of the cribs and lifted the foal out before leaving. Amontious walked down the hall with the illusion of him being a real doctor. He walked past multiple doors before stopping at the one labeled 2-B. Before entering he used his magic and casted a spell on the those inside the room.

Once done, Amontious knocked on the door, requesting entree.

"Come in."

Amontious entered the room and was greeted by the mare known as Twilight Velvet and the stallion Nightlight.

"Hello, did somepony order a brand new baby?" Amontious asked in a comical voice, showing off the sleeping baby to the two parents.

"She's beautiful." Velvet smiled.

"May we hold her?" Nightlight asked.

"Of course. Everything seems to be order," Amontious said as Twilight Velvet took the foal into her forelegs, "except for one thing. This little one here is missing a name."

Both Velvet and Nightlight exchanged glances before turning back to Amontious. "Actually Doctor, my wife and I are in a disagreement about what her name should be."

"I see." Amontious tapped his chin. "May I make a suggestion?" He asked getting the full undivided attention of the two parents. "How does the name Star Gaze sound to you?"

"Star Gaze." Nightlight thought about it. "That's actually a good name? What do you think honey? He asked his wife.

"I think Star Gaze is a wonderful name, thank you doctor." Twilight Velvet said, holding up the pale yellow fur unicorn foal with a blue mane and violet eyes.

Author's Note

Here's chapter one. I hope you enjoyed it.