My Little Mages: The Remarking of Time

by Foxhelm

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spike, Science Fiction, Starlight Glimmer, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Doctor Whooves, Drama
Length: 21331

Starlight has made her move and has set to enact her revenge, but Time is something not even beings like Discord messes with. It's up to Twilight to set everything right. But can she? A My Little Mages retelling of The Cutie Remarking

It has been the better part of a year since Twilight et al faced Starlight, and while much has happened, it has been for the most part a peaceful year. However, after believing she sighted Starlight at a guest lecture she was presenting, Twilight is unsure if everything is as peaceful as she thought. Her fears are revealed to be well founded as she and Spike return to the Castle of Friendship to find Starlight at the Aura Map table. After casting a spell and discarding the scroll it was written on, Starlight vanishes in portal she evoked. And after Spike touched the scroll, Twilight and Spike are sent to day that Rainbow Dash preformed her first Sonic Rainboom, only to witness it being stopped.

Now flung into a preset drastically different from their time, Twilight and Spike must find away to set the time stream on it's proper course. But Starlight has not made it easy to counter this.

Can Twilight correct the course of history?
Can she save Mystica and the rest of the world from ruin?
Or will Starlight have her complete revenge on Twilight, no matter the cost?

A My Little Mages retelling of The Cutie Remarking
Cover art by Didj (go support his work)

Published 2017-11-16 19:30:11 UTC
Last updated 2017-12-25 06:47:29 UTC

Revenge of GlimGlam

Prologue: Prepare For The Lecture

Inside a college lecture hall, at a podium to the left of where a large screen would be, stood a twenty-something woman, she had dark sapphire hair with two streaks, one was rose and the other was violet, with violet eyes, and metallic wings purple and gold in color which seemed to float behind her and yet also come from her back with two amethyst six-pointed stars functioning for the wings like her arm's shoulder balls. She wore a headband with a horn-like amethyst focusing gem on her forehead, with a dull blue robe with large golden cuffs, pink pants and brown boots that went up above her ankle. Around her neck was a triangle-like amulet that was colored like a rainbow of orange, yellow, cyan, alabaster, pink and purple. This was Princess Twilight Sparkle, Twilight for short, and she was preparing to give what seemed to be a lecture, “In closing, if somebody had told me when I was a little girl, that I would give a lecture at Princess Celestia's School For The Gifted, I wouldn't have believed it, but…” Twilight stopped as she looked at her note cards and shuffled them to get to the next point thing she was talking about. Once she found it she did a quick read of it before she went back to speaking, “here we are today. I hope I have been up to the task because I know that all of you are and because of that the future of magic in all forms in Mystica is in good hands.” Twilight paused as she waited for a second or two as if she expected applause. After a second, “Thank you, now for the Q&A.”

The lecture hall then echoed the sound of one set of hands clapped. Twilight looked up to the seats of the lecture hall and saw only one person there. A purple-scaled bipedal reptile with green spines along its back, about the size of a twelve-thirteen-year-old boy, continued to clap a few more time, “Wow, hehe.” the reptile cheered very half-heartedly. As he looked around a little nervous, “That was even better than the first eleven times,” it said as it rubbed the back of its head and neck with its left hand. The reptile then cleared his throat, “Although you might want to drop the whole ‘up to the task, future of magic’ bits.” It then gave a weak apologetic laugh.

“Eh,” Twilight groaned as she walked from the podium looking to the ground,“I don't know, Spike.” she addressed the reptile while she levitated the note cards and looked through them. “I'd like to be able to get through the whole speech once without looking at any of my note cards.”

The recently identified Spike face-clawed himself with a groan before he spoke, “You do know that reason you have them is to not write the whole thing done on all of them, but jot down a few clues to help you remember in case you forget a part of the lecture right?” Twilight dipped her head with a cross between a sad frown and pout on her face. Spike sighed, “You got this Twilight, Celestia knows you can do this, if not she wouldn’t have asked you to. Beside these are students that have been taught with some of your own research, there’s no need to be nervous.”

Twilight giggled a little, “Oh, my little dragon. I'm not nervous,” she declared as she walked to end of the stage, “but as Princess Celestia’s most recent apprentice and a demigod, I do have to set a good example, especially for all the first year magic students in the audience. Also, the entire school will be either be here in the hall or watching projections of this lecture in their classrooms. And I am the first guest lecture under 25, former student or not. This is a really big deal. That's why this speech has to be…” Twilight stopped as she held out her right hand in Spike’s direction.

Spike rolled his eyes as he gave a tired sigh, “Perfect?” he stated in a rhetorical question. He had seen this dog and pony show enough times to pretty much have ‘Twilight Sparkle’ as a synonym for ‘perfectionist’ in his cognitive thesaurus. Spike froze in abject horror and terror. The very fact that the concept of a ‘cognitive thesaurus’ seemed to be a natural thing to him sent a shiver down his spines, he has spent too much time with Twilight. He decided then and there that he needed to spend more time with Big Mac and the other guys. ‘I need to invite Discord to the next Guys’ Night, and humor his wants for the first two hours.’ He thought as regained himself.

“Exactly, I cannot afford a single error.” Twilight turned her attention from the dragon and went back to the podium she used as her zone of control for the lecture. Once there and after she shuffled her note cards to be in the proper order, “Let's go through it one more time, the thirteenth time’s the charm.” Twilight then cleared her throat and after she drank some water from the glass she started her lecture from the top, “When Princess Celestia asked me to speak to you today, I was honored to have the opportunity to talk about my favorite subject: magic.” Spike groaned as started to bash his head against the wall as Twilight continued, seemingly oblivious to her familiar's plight.

Chapter 1: Revenge of Glimglam

The next day, in the same lecture hall, Twilight stood at the podium, to her right was a large screen pull down to show to the audience in attendance visual references to her lecture, much like a slide show. The current slide showed a Venn diagram of three circles made up of red on the top, pink on the bottom right and purple on the bottom left. In the red circle that didn’t intersect with the other two had the picture of the face of a girl somewhere between twelve and fourteen, she had mulberry hair with grayish rose streaks and light green eyes, she also wore a tiara with a light green focus gem cut in a pentagon. This was Sweetie Belle or rather a picture of her. In the area where the red circle overlapped the purple circle was a pink musical note on a purple star where it inspected just the purple circle. In the purple circle itself, where it didn’t overlap with either of the circles was the picture of a girl the same age as Sweetie Belle, with bright amaranth red hair with a bright crimson bow in her hair, and gamboge orange eyes, this was Apple Bloom. In the part of the purple circle that intersected with the pink circle was a pink heart on a purple apple. In the pink circle where it did not intersect with the other two circles was the picture of the face of a third girl. She was the same age as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and had cerise hair that was cut short with grayish purple eyes, this was Scootaloo, and with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, she made the Cutie Mage Crusaders, often called the CMC for short. In the area of the pink circle and red circle intersected was a lightning bolt on a purple wing. The last part of the image was where all three circles intersected each other, in that part was a heater shield colored from left to right, red, pink and purple.

All the while, Twilight spoke and had just finished the part of her lecture that addressed the unique event of three people, each of a different race, Apple Bloom was an Earthborn, Scootaloo a Skyborn and Sweetie Belle a Magicborn not only discovered their aura marks together but have very similar ones, “Obviously, the long term effects of the simultaneous acquisition of aura marks have yet to be determined, let alone the fact that members of the three major races of Mystica with extremely similar aura marks,” Twilight picked up a glass of water and took a few sips. “However this is not unprecedented.” She took from the top of the podium a small remote that made a click as the slide changed to a copy of a photo of her when she didn’t have wings and five other women about her age. One of them had rainbow colored hair done in a high ponytail and was dressed in a dull purple skirt and light a dull blue shirt with white and gold wing styled sleeves. one had blonde hair done in a low ponytail and was dressed in red leather and bronze armor. Another woman had long gorgeous purple locks and wore a long alabaster dress. The fourth woman had bright pink hair and wore a green, yellow and light blue dress with a stylized pink butterfly as a brooch for her hood. The last member was a woman with cotton candy pink hair and wore bear legged leotard with blue cruelly toed shoes a pink jester coat and a dark pink jester’s hat with three balloons, one was yellow and two were blue. These were in order, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

Twilight continued her lecture, “You can’t tell from this, but my closest friends and I, much like Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo can trace the discovery of our own Aura Marks to a single event! The first sonic rainboom!” Twilight then had the slide change to have a rendering of a nine-year-old Rainbow Dash in flight in the top center of with a rainbow trail behind her and her aura mark, a tri-colored lightning bolt of red, yellow and blue that come from a white cloud. “Without Rainbow Dash's race to defend Fluttershy's honor, the first sonic rainboom wouldn't have happened.” Twilight then clicked the next remote and the slide changed to add a picture of Fluttershy about the same age to the left of the picture of Rainbow Dash, granted Fluttershy looked to be two years older (as Fluttershy was two years older than Rainbow Dash), with several small animals with her aura mark in the corner, a collection of three pink butterflies, “Fluttershy might never have discovered her love of animals.” Twilight then click the remote again and a picture of Applejack as she was at the time when Rainbow Dash performed her first Sonic Rainboom, while she looked out of the window at her uncle and aunt’s home towards Sweet Apple Temple with three apples in the corner of the picture. The picture of Applejack was to the right of the picture of Rainbow Dash, “Applejack might never have realized that she belonged on her farm.” There was another click of Twilight’s remote that changed the picture to one of the same with Pinkie Pie as she looked up with rainbows in the pupils of her eyes with her hair puffy for the first time as she was the same age as Applejack, with her aura mark of two blue balloons with a yellow one in the corner, directly under the picture of Rainbow Dash, “And Pinkie Pie might never have decided to leave hers.” Twilight clicked the remote to change the slide again to another copy of the picture but with Rarity, as she was at the time next to a large boulder cracked open and revealed a wide array of gems of various colors, with here aura mark, a collection of three sapphires located under the image of Applejack. “It must be hard to imagine Rarity without her sense of fabulousness and with her recent opening of two new boutiques both here in Chantalot and in Manahatten, with plans to branch out farther.” Twilight then clicked the remote one more time and the slide was replaced with the next one in the series which was like the previous one but had in the left corner, under the picture of Fluttershy was an image of Twilight as she was at the time, her aura mark, purple six-pointed star that seemed to rest on an inverted white six-pointed star surrounded by five smaller white stars, and a recently hatched Spike. “But it's even harder to fathom what my life would be like.” Twilight the placed the remote down and walked from the podium to be in the center of the stage before she spoke again, “Without the very first sonic rainboom, I might not have gotten into magic school. Celestia mightn't have taken me on as her apprentice or sent me to Magiville to meet my friends. And the most powerful thing about aura mark magic that I found is the connection I share with them.”

While Twilight spoke she looked at the audience stand in the lecture hall. As her eyes pasted she could have sworn she spotted a woman with familiar purple hair that was done in a slight ponytail with streaks of light purple and pale grayish aquamarine. Twilight continued to scan the room she stopped for a second and looked back to where she thought she saw the woman and she was not there. “But, um…” Twilight froze and tried to collect herself. After she put the thought in the back of her mind she turned to the podium and levitated to herself her note cards and started to shuffle through them to find when she currently was in the lecture, which was actually quite far in the lecture. After she found the note she searched for. She skimmed it and returned to the lecture, “The real question about aura mark magic is who it seems to affect.” Twilight continued her lecture.

The next day, Twilight and Spike had left the Magiville train station and started their walk to their home, the Castle of Friendship, “Starlight Glimmer?” Spike asked after Twilight had finished the story about what she saw or thought she saw in the audience part of the lecture hall during the last part of the train ride home.

“I was sure I saw her, Spike.” Twilight continued as the two arrived at the Magivillie post office to pick up their mail, before they headed home properly, “But when I looked back, she was gone! I'm just worried what she could be up to.” Twilight handed the mail to Spike to go through as she could not seem to focus.

Spike went through the mail with a shrug off his shoulders and a comment, “Nothing good, I bet. I heard she wasn't very happy the last time you saw her.” Spike sorted the mail halfway through his comment, most of it was ads that neither Twilight nor Spike cared for, a few requests for Twilight to endorse a company’s product or service which Twilight would not due on principle, some fan mail, his recent order of comics, a check of her share of the revenue from Rarity’s ‘princess dress’.

Before the two left, “Forcing everybody in her village to have the same aura mark wasn't right. We had to do something!” Twilight pointed out as they turned to the door.

“Wait, you got a message from your friends!” one of the postal employees said, a female Skyborn with blonde hair and golden atypically oriented eyes, said as she hovered to the two and game the note in question.

Spike took a sniff of it, “It’s from Rarity. " He was about to open it but stopped as he saw looks from Twilight and the employee. "Perhaps we’ll open it back at the castle.” Spike said as he mixed with the rest of the mail that he did not place in the post office's recycle bin or in the basket for ‘Return to sender’.

“Good call, Spike,” Twilight said as they exited. In the background the postal employee headed to the back to clock out, her shift complete, “but there’s still the matter with Starlight.” Twilight was heard as the same postal employee left the post office.

Once they were outside and back to their track home, “Well if it were me and I had enslaved a village and was driven back, I’d plan and come back for revenge.” As they walked and were almost to the Castle. Spike noticed that Twilight had stopped with a slight panic on her face. The dragon knew what he had to do, “However, Starlight is not me, maybe she was just really interested in your lecture, you did say it has been a while and maybe she thought long and hard about what she did and is almost ready to make amends.” Spike knew he fooled no-one, but he had to state that possibility.

As they finally got to the door, Twilight gave a sigh, "Honestly, Spike. I'm not really sure what I saw." Twilight knew that this was not a denial, at least not one that either she or Spike would believe which the dragon's slightly closed eyes and crossed arms indicated. However, Twilight was able to gain some comfort from this all as she remembered one key thing, her friends. "But as long as I have my friends, I know everything will be all right. So what does the letter say?" She asked as she opened the door for her and Spike.

Spike opened the letter as he walked in and cleared his throat, " It says, ‘Dear Twilight, The map called Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Dashie and I on a mission at Midnight Castle after you left to the station for the guest lecture Princess Celestia asked you to do. We would have sent this to you through Spike, but we are needed to leave as soon as possible and don’t know where you keep your dragon fire candle. We'll have to address that when we get back. We used the mirror portal to get there. Can't argue with the efficiency of it, especially since that's what we used the last time. We should be back in a day or two at most. We’ll share stories when we all get back. We wish you the best of luck with your lecture, Rarity'. Well, that was nice of them. Maybe if we gave each of them a dragon fire candle we wouldn't have missed it. But a kind gestures all the same." Just then Spike burped up a stream of green fire and another piece of paper. He then picked it up and read it, "It's the result of Moondancer's audit of the lecture." Before Twilight could ask, "Other than when you thought you saw Starlight, which Moondance deemed a natural break in the lecture, you did extremely well, maybe you should consider becoming a professor yourself, 'Professor Sparkle' has a nice ring to it."

Twilight had a short laugh at the idea as she and Spike put everything down at not far from the door as one of her bewitched blooms came to put the stuff where it belongs. Her a professor at Princess Celestia's School for the Gifted. Yet, it was a much need release of all the tension she has been feeling following the lecture. Once she took a breath to finish the laugh, "Maybe I was just more stressed about that speech than I thought." Twilight then started to the throne room, which had the circular table that the map that has been sent her and her friends on several missions thus far and thrones for her friends, which counted Spike.

As Spike caught up with her, "Yeah. That sounds better than Starlight Glimmer coming back with an evil plot for revenge."

Twilight laughed as she opened the door, a small smile on her face, all the while she looked at Spike. "Well, when you say it like that, it does sound kinda silly." Twilight

Once the doors where opened, Spike's eyes narrowed in horror as he saw that the two were not the only people in the castle, there was an intruder, who sat at the table in the throne room in Fluttershy's throne, which was denoted by a depiction of three pink butterflies, “Or totally true!” This caused Twilight to turn and see the unwelcomed and uninvited guest.

Twilight did not mistake the female intruder who sat in Fluttershy’s throne, with her feet in brown boots that went just short of the knee on the table and a smug grin on her face as she leaned back with her head against her arms. She had purple hair was done in a slight ponytail with streaks of light purple and pale grayish aquamarine, her eyes were Persian blue, Starlight Glimmer. However, she was not dressed liked she when Twilight met her in the village, which was a gray long sleeve shirt, pink vest, purple long skirt dress and black stone focus gem shaped like a bar. Instead she wore a shorter dress that went past the knee, near the bottom of her left side were two streams of two different tones of light blue that taper to a four-pointed star a lighter shade of purple than the dress with a long sleeved magenta shirt with a pink jacket that sleeves covered over most of shirt with golden trim. On her left shoulder was a metal guard with a purple four-pointed star on an inverted white four-pointed star, with a sash that was made of two sashes of two different tones of light blue. On her forehead was a focus gem, unlike the black bar-shaped one she wore before, it was purple gem cut to look like a four-pointed star, “Welcome home, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Starlight said as she sat up and levitated a scroll and sent a blast of turquoise magic to it. The scroll then floated to just under the chandelier of memory gems made from the roots of the Golden Oak. The scroll then sent another blast of turquoise magic at the table. This cause the table to project the map.

“What are you doing, Starlight Glimmer?” Twilight asked as she stepped forward to the table, her hands glowed ready to cast a combat spell. Spike close to her heels.

Starlight laughed as the scroll fell to the ground, “I'd tell you, but why ruin the surprise!". She then levitated the scroll back up and after she wadded it into a ball, threw it at Spike and Twilight, "Won't be needing that anymore." The crumbled scroll missed the two and rolled to the floor. The two then prepared to fight, Spike gave a few huffs, ready to give Starlight a taste of dragon fire. However, before they could act the map started to send rings of white towards the empty space under the roots. All the while a large sphere formed. As the sphere formed several circles with stars within them appeared on it and once the sphere fully formed, the circle started to spine until the stars were aligned, all the while, the sound of an army of grandfather clocks tick-tock was heard. Once the circles were aligned the sphere's bottom opened and began to form a vacuum. While nothing was initially pulled into the suction, Starlight cast a spell that allowed her to levitate and float into the suction. "See you around!" Starlight proceeded to laugh as she was pulled into the opening. Once she was out of sight, the sphere closed and then clasped upon itself imploded silently into nothing, and left Spike and Twilight confused at what happened and what to do.

"Where'd she go?" Spike asked while he looked that where the magical sphere was before he looked at the map.

Twilight's eyes were intentionally on the map after the sphere imploded. She had scanned for anything, maybe her own Aura Mark would pop-up somewhere, maybe where Starlight would be, Twilight had refined her teleportation spell over the years. "I don't know, Spike, But we have to find out!" As she continued to search the map, the fact that it was still there was not lost on her, something was off, something that the Tree of Harmony sensed was wrong.

However, she was so engrossed with the map and looked for the smallest clue about Starlight and her current location, that she did not notice that Spike went to see if the scroll could provide clues until she heard the dragon's voice, "I guess we could start with this."

Twilight's eyes opened wide in terror as she turned to see Spike bend down to pick up the scroll. "Don't touch IT!!!" Twilight's order came too late as Spike had the scroll in his left front claw. Then from the scroll came a blast of turquoise magic that hit the map and caused it to repeat the same process that led to Starlight's disappearance into the previous sphere, all the while all that could hear was the tick-tock of an army of grandfather clocks. As Twilight and Spike were pulled into the vortex they screamed, frightened about what could happen and the unknown they were about to face, only to fall silent when the sphere collapsed upon itself and imploded into nothingness silently.

Elsewhere in the castle, a tome with a cross of Twilight’s aura mark and sun that looked like a yin-yang of red and yellow on the cover gave a very dull glow.

Author's Note

I know that I started 'My Little Mages: The Siren's Song' less than two weeks ago, but I had a little more of this flushed out while I was working on the prologue.

Now let me be clear, there will be some noticeable changes with regards to the futures. I am not a big fan of all the alternate timelines, I believe that there is only one logical ending.

Don't expect much if anything in either this or 'My Little Mages: The Siren's Song' until mid-Dec. I have class projects and a couple of exams. Granted I only have one class and it's the last one I need. So yeah RLS will be a big thing. But I do believe I am on my way to complete the My Little Mages Season 8 opener for the Season 8 finale.

Stay awesome!

Foxhelm out!

Sonic Rain...Bust?

Author's Note

Hey Everypony, I am back and it's not December 15th yet. :yay:

Well here is the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy the changes, feel free to ask why and what the exact changes were in the comments.

I've wasted enough time with this Author's Note, ALLONYZ! (I regret NOTHING!!!)

Sonic Rain...Bust?

Twilight and Spike screamed as the scrolled pulled them the tunnel that the sphere seemed to be the end of. All the while they heard the tick-tock of clocks as the passed white circles with hourglasses in the center. This lasted a few seconds until the tunnel open. The two continued to scream as they found themselves in the sky. After a second Twilight remembered her wings and started to flap them which ended her fall as she took to flight. It, however, took her another second to recall that Spike lacked wings as he continued to fall. Before he could meet his end on what looked like a runway on clouds, Twilight was able to cast a spell that allowed him to levitated and slowly drift to the runway safely. Twilight then flew down and landed next to Spike. The two started to look around and saw many Skyborns, structures made out of clouds and saw none of the other main races. “Cumula?” Spike asked as the two began to connect the dots of where they are. “Why are we here? Starlight doesn't have wings!”

“I don't know, Spike,” Twilight answered as she thought back to what happened before Spike touched the scroll and attempt to understand why Starlight would come one of the few Skyborn dominated cities. She gasped with as her eyes widened. “She was able to levitate just by her magic! She just learned some advance spell to do that.” Twilight then held her chin and tried to think what spell would allow a person to levitate to the point of something comparable to Skyborn flight. Spike gave a groan and caused Twilight to break her focus from that particular observation. “Oops, sorry about that tangent. But, keep your eyes open. We don't know what Starlight has plan....” Twilight was cut off when a nine-year-old Skyborn girl with rainbow colored hair flew between Spike and Twilight at a rapid speed, especially for a nine-year-old girl. She, the little girl, was flying at about the speed to be expected from a twelve-year-old boy. But since neither Spike nor Twilight were expecting the flyby the wake caused them to spin around like tops for a second.

Spike was both the first to recover and recognize the girl that flew past them, as he spotted her fly ahead. “Was that Rainbow Dash?” he asked.

Twilight took a little longer, but she saw the similarities, it looked like Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow Dash was a year younger than Twilight and her hair was done in a high ponytail, this girl had the red, orange and yellow of her hair facing forward in a very boyish way much like Rainbow did in the photos that showed her first sonic rainboom and what lead to the six discovering their aura marks, "I think that was Rainbow Dash, she seemed really young. And I don’t see her hairpin, the one that shows her Aura Mark.” Twilight then gasped as she turned to back to Spike, “You don't think…”

The two then turned to see where Rainbow Dash flew towards and saw two boys about ten-years-old one with had sea green eyes, almost invisible under his brown bangs, on his shirt sleeve was a collection of three basketballs on his orange shirt, the other had azure blue eyes, also almost invisible under his bangs of gray hair with a set of hand-held weights on his dark brown shirt, these were two of the three bullies that have plagued most of Rainbow Dash’s, Fluttershy’s childhood and even Gilda’s childhood during her time in the exchange program (which led to Rainbow’s and Gilda’s friendship), Hoops and Dumb-Bell. The two were picking on a taller thinner girl about eleven years old with light pink hair and teal eyes who wore a yellow and green dress. Spike connected the dots, “We traveled back in time to when Rainbow Dash raced the bullies who made fun of Fluttershy and performed the first sonic rainboom?”

Twilight gasped in terror at the implications she made at that observation. She then grabbed Spike by his shoulders and pulled him up to look him in the eye, surprising the dragon before he recalled that demigods are not just people with metallic wings, but have a paragon-level power of all three of the main races, Earthborn, Skyborn and Magicborn, and had other abilities that made them a league of their own. “Spike,” Twilight addressed the dragon as he recovered from her grip. “only Star Swirl the Great could do something like that, and even his spell just went back a week! And you couldn’t alter anything!” Twilight then let go of Spike as she hyperventilated “How could Starlight do more than the greatest wizard in Mystican history?”

It was then that Spike saw a scroll after the two finally heard it rustle in the wind. Spike picked it up and looked at it. At its core, it was Star Swirl’s spell, but there were a lot more markings on it. He couldn’t read it but it was clear that this was the handwriting of some sort, most likely Starlight’s. He turned it to show Twilight, “With this, Starlight seemed to have altered Star Swirl’s spell, not sure how.”

Twilight did a quick read of the scroll, she gasped, “Oh, no!” as she turned away and searched for Starlight.

Spike happen to still have his backpack on and put the scroll in it before he started to walk in the direction the young Rainbow Dash flew, “Come on, let's go!”

“Go where?” Twilight asked confused, as she failed to follow her familiar’s thought process.

“Um, the race.” Spike asked as he turned back to face Twilight with his eyebrow raised as if to say ‘what else’. He then turned back the way he was going, “I don't wanna miss the rainboom!” Twilight sighed as she flew over and grabbed Spike, holding him from under his arm. “You know, you demigods are surprisingly strong.”

“You really need to cut back on the rubies, you weigh a ton,” Twilight said as she strained to fly with Spike.

“Wow, only that. I am not getting enough diamonds.” Spike joked was smacked on the back of his head.

A couple minutes later, as Twilight was able to find a cloud she and Spike could hide in and watch the race. Also among the witnesses were many young Skyborn, all between Rainbow Dash’s and Fluttershy’s age. At the starting line were Rainbow, Hoops, and Dumb-bell. Slightly in front of them, on a cloud near the center was Fluttershy with the black and white checkered flag used to start a race by waving it. The timid girl waved it and the three racers were off. As they flew by her, Rainbow Dash was a little too close and caused Fluttershy to spin around on the cloud she was on like a top, as she spun she fell off the cloud as she yelped. Twilight was about to fly and catch her when Spike tapped her on the shoulder and waved his right index finger like a parent or teacher saying ‘no, no, no,’. Twilight rolled her eyes as she wanted to help Fluttershy, but they were at the day and the event that led to the six discovering their aura marks. Even if she could change things, she had to let things be.

Along the race Rainbow Dash was barely able to keep pace with Hoops and Dumb-Bell, they were just that much faster than her. But she had an advantage, she was driven, focused, she cared if she won or lost, neither Hoops nor Dumb-Bell seemed to take the race seriously. So lacking in seriousness, Dumb-Bell went too fast and missed a turn, and flew off course and crashed into one of the cloud-made barriers.

The nine-year-old Rainbow Dash could not help but chuckle when she looked back over her right shoulder at what happened. However, this blinded her to Hoops’ attempt to knock her also off course. She narrowly recovered as he got in front of her with a “Whoa!”

Hoops could help but give a chuckle as he took the lead, “Heh.” and with a mock salute, “ Later, Rainbow Crash!” he flew ahead, no longer fooling around.

“Hey!” Rainbow exclaimed as she picked up her pace.

Unbeknownst to Rainbow or anyone for that matter, Starlight Glimmer, surround by her turquoise magic hovered out of cloud she used to hide as Rainbow and Hoops flew past. Once she saw Rainbow Dash start to take the lead, "Aw, sorry about this.” Starlight lied, not that Rainbow could hear her as before she sent a bolt of magic at Rainbow Dash.

As the nine-year-old Rainbow Dash built speed, the Mach cone around her shrank almost to the point when she would puncture the sound barrier, all the while her hair was blown back and what seemed to be a rainbow formed behind her, at the last second before she would finally break the sound barrier she was struck by the turquoise magic Starlight cast at her. The spell caused her to stop mid-air and held her in place. “Hey! What gives?” She asked as she tried to break free, but it was no use. Near the end of the race track, Hoops completed the race, and won by default and was greeted by the cheers of the other children.

On the ground about where the eleven-year-old Fluttershy fell, she was surrounded by the various animals that have been part of breaking her fall and that have comforted her. She giggled happily as the various animals; squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc, critter. However, without the boom from the sonic rainboom, the animals were not frightened and thus only left Fluttershy when it looked like she was alright. She sighed as she looked at the ground slightly depressed.

At that same moment, a ten-year-old Applejack looked out one of the windows of her uncle and aunt family, the Oranges. Without the sonic rainboom, there was no rainbow for her to see that appeared to end back in Magiville, back at Sweet Apple Temple. Applejack sighed, as she almost resided herself to the unhappy life that the Oranges had planned, and to take on the name, Applejewel.

At that moment a ten-year-old Pinkie Pie took a second break from moving small rocks around so that they would be properly eroded in the upcoming storm, one of the many things done as part of her family’s rock farm. She exhaled as she wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at the cloudy and gray sky, and saw nothing. The sonic rainboom which would have cleared the sky and exposed her to an explosion of color as well as cause the practical permanent puffing of her hair didn’t happen. She sighed and went back to her chores.

At the moment a ten-year-old Rarity was on a ledge next to a giant boulder, the boulder that housed the gems that would be the key to her inspiration and nothing happened, without the shockwave of the sonic rainboom the bolder didn’t break in front of her, providing her with the first gemstones she worked with. She gave a humph and pushed the boulder off the ledge, it fell and landed with a loud thud. Rarity, however, elected to go back home to Magiville.

And at the same time, a ten-year-old Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of her entrance exam, mainly the magic demonstration. She strained to impose her magic onto Spike’s egg and cause it to hatch, but without the audible boom of the sonic rainboom she didn’t turn to the window and without the wake of the actual boom hitting her, her magic was not unleashed, thus she didn’t hatch Spike’s egg. Her magic fizzled and nothing happened, save for the proctors of the exam to scribble down the results, it was clear to her she was not likely to be admitted. She hung her head in shame and started to walk to her parents in tears, deaf to words of encouragement to make another attempt next year and other such parental words with the intent to comfort and help heal.

Back in Cumula, while Rainbow Dash while was held in place in the air surrounded by the turquoise magic. Twilight, while Spike clung to her back, flew up to the high levitating Starlight, as the latter smirked in her victory, “What did you do?!”

Starlight gave a sinister smirk as the bubble that brought Twilight and Spike opened up above the two, “You’re about to find out.” The bubble then sucked Twilight and Spike as the two screamed.

The bubble that took Twilight and Spike opened as the two fell and landed on the table. Twilight was the first to recover, “Ugh…” She and Spike got off the table, Twilight’s attention was on the map and the scroll. After she took her seat on her throne, “I don't know what Starlight's up to yet, but we'd better figure it out before it's too late.”

Spike, however, looked around and was horrified to see that the castle was gone and that he could see was ice for miles, even with his dragon eyes there was nothing but a layer of ice over the ground, no grass, no trees, no buildings, no signs of life. The only things were the moon and stars of the bluish night’s sky, devoid of the light pollution that Spike grew up with, and while a clear night sky was something to behold, the absence of everything else and fear that it installed made the dragon tap Twilight’s shoulder, “Um, Twilight? I think it already is.” Twilight turned from the map to what was around the two and gasped in horror.

“What do we do, Twilight? Where's your castle?” Spike asked as he ran around the table. He started out at his normal running pace, but if one was to look closely, with each second passed, he grew slower and slower.

This reduction in speed was not noticed by Twilight as she looked at the map. “I don’t know, Spike,” She answered as she stopped Spike and had him take his seat on his throne. As she focused his attention on the table-map, “but for whatever reason, we were pulled back here. Other than that, all I know is that whatever Starlight did in the past changed things here!”

“But why?” Spike asked. “And how did we get here?” He then looked around for some reason he was not able to process the information around him with his movements became slower and slower, “Where's here?

“Not where, Spike, when.” Twilight answered before Spike could ask her to clarify, Twilight took the scroll out of Spike’s bag and placed it on the table for the two to see. Twilight knew Star Swirl’s mannerisms, even with the spell not written in Bullion, the old language of Mystica, named after the Magicborn king Bullion himself when he unified the three founding tribes of Mystica in the hostile but interdependent peace before the Kindling and the actual founding of Mystica, but she also knew Starlight’s writing, there were a couple copies of her manifesto for her ‘equalization’ cult, “Starlight altered Star Swirl's spell, then somehow used it on the map to travel not only into the past but anywhere in it and change something!” Twilight then began to read the spell, it wasn’t just one powerful, it was actually multiple low-level spells. It took her a second but she was able to piece some of the spells used. “Once she did, this hybrid spell made the map pull us back to the present.” Before Spike could question her assessment, given the vast difference between the present they were from and this one. “I know we’re not exactly when we started, but that’s a result of something that has happened between Starlight’s arrival to the past and this very second.” She didn’t hear a response as Spike slowly opened his mouth and tried to exhale fire, but he was not fast enough. The cold had caused his exothermic body to start to shut down. “SPIKE!!!” Twilight shouted as she cast a ring of white fire around Spike. In a matter of seconds Spike was back his normal self, indicated with a blissful sigh of relief. “Sorry, I forgot you’re exothermic, even with your fire-breath, you don’t like the cold.”

“We’re not fans of excessive heat either.” Spike countered as he huffed onto the fire to cool it. “I know as a demigod, you don’t need heat, air, water, an atmosphere, food, etc, to survive, but we need to find shelter before we can come up with a plan to…” Spike started, only to stop when the two heard what sounded like some sort of engine attempt to start and rev-up. They turned to see not far from the castle, about where Dr. Time Turner Who’s house would be a large blue phone-booth-like box appear phase in and out until it became solid. All the while, Twilight flew over to it, as she carried Spike. When the arrived at the box, just as it finally became solid, they both noted that it was not unlike the phone-booth style police boxes that the young lad Pipsqueak, described from his birth city.

The box opened and the postal clerk that gave them the message from Rarity, known for blonde hair and golden atypically oriented eyes, stepped out, however she was not in the blue postal uniform, but wore brown boots, light pink shorts with a brown belt with a golden belt buckle, a magenta long sleeve shirt that with the pants exposed her midriff and a bluish-gray cloak with a dark brown strap that had a series of bubbles of various sizes over her left shoulder. “Um, Doctor, are you sure we’re one second after we left where we left and where we actually left because this doesn’t look right.”

“Why wouldn’t we be, Brighteyes? It’s not like…” came a male voice as a man stepped out. He had brown hair down in a slight spike with blue eyes and wore tan brown pants, light brown shoes, a dark brown trench coat with what looks like an hourglass if it was buttoned, over a greenish-blue vest over a white shirt with a green necktie. On his left arm was a series of three watches with a pocket watch in a pocket in his vest as hinted to by the watch chain that went from his trench coat into his vest. As he looked around the wasteland where his house was supposed to be, as he failed to notice the presence of Twilight and Spike “Well, um, this is very odd. I could have sworn….” He turned to the mail woman, “Brighteyes, did you touch any of the controls.”

“No. They are exactly as you set them, Doc.” the recently identified Brighteyes countered. After a second of thought, “I think,” She flew back to the panel, “the green light next to the purple switch in the center-left square is supposed to be flashing?”

“Yes, Brighteyes.” the identified ‘Doc’ replied calmly as what Brighteyes just said dawned on him. This made him step out of the box and actually look around him very much terrified at the site of his hometown.

“Dr. Time Turner Who!” Twilight shouted as she got his attention as she and Spike were about to enter the area of where the house was. “What happened here?” She asked as she placed Spike down on his feet. The dragon’s claws were sharp and he curled his toes slightly and used them not unlike the spike on shoes designed to walk over ice as the two closed, the distance.

“I don’t kno…” the recently clarified Dr. Time Turner Who, Time Turner for short, started but when he saw the vacant moon, “oh no!” He then grabbed Twilight and Spike and rushed them inside of the blue box, “Get inside, quickly now. Now. NOW!”

“What are you…” Twilight started until she was actually inside the box. From the outside, the box had to an area of 1.4 meters square for its base and was 2.75 meters tall, suggesting a maximum volume of 3.85 cubic meters. But the inside was about the size of one of the halls in her castle. In particular, it was somewhere between an average room and the throne room. In the center was a large control circular console that went from the floor to the roof, that had all the controls above hip-level. Also in the room were various contraptions in various states of completion, tesla coils, plasma balls, blueprints, tools, random parts, etc. In one corner was a table with several chairs, in one was Brighteyes.

Before Twilight could finish her question Time Turner had sat her and Spike in one of the chairs each before he took the seat opposite of Twilight, “Did someone do unsupervised time travel to a past event?” his voice was stern, not unlike a father that had caught his child not in the act but so soon after the act that it was clear he already knew the answer and at the same time was not happy about the situation in any manner.

Twilight had never dealt with a father in such a state, she was … well, a good little girl, daddy’s little princess, etc. However, she has been in a similar situation with Spike more times than she wanted to count. “A woman by the name of Starlight Glimmer broke into the Castle of Friendship and using a modified version of Star Swirl’s time travel spell and the Aura Map,” before Spike or Brighteyes could ask. “It’s a working title for the map of the world that is projected on the big circular table in the throne room used by my friends and me.” Time Turner gave a nod for her to go on. “Using the two she was able to go back almost thirteen years to when Rainbow Dash performed the first sonic rainboom and she stopped it. Somehow the spell took Spike and me back as well and after the Rainboom was stopped we were pulled here. And everything is…”

“Different,” Timer Turner finished. He gave a sigh as he turned to Brighteyes, “This is why you should always use a chronomancer to deal with time.”

“Wait, how did stopping one event in the past change the present? I thought the past was immutable. Star Swirl’s own spell could only send you back a week and be the reason why you went back in time, it can’t change anything.” Twilight didn’t seem able to follow Time Turner and his comment, aside from the fact that it didn’t address the situation at least to her satisfaction.

Time Turner leaned back into his chair and thought for second as he took out a pair of glasses, he then picked up a string and laid it on the table, “You see most people, even Star Swirl the Great, assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,” As he spoke he moved his right index finger to his left with periodic stops to emphasize his point. As he finished with the string, he picked up a sphere the size of a basketball, “but actually” he paused for a second as he tried to articulate the next part, “but from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint,”

“So from at least a fifth-dimensional point of view.” Spike answered which surprised Brighteyes, Twilight, and Time Turner, “You know the zeroth dimension is a single point, you connect all points in a row to form a line, the first dimension, length, you connect all parallel lines together to get a plane, thus the second dimension of width, you connect all planes in the same space, thus forming volum, the third dimension, you connect all spaces with time, thus the fourth dimension of space-time, you then can, at least in theory connect all space-times into the fifth dimension of multiverses.” Spike explained as he took on his own Twilight-voice, which got a laugh from Brighteyes. “I’ve lived with Twilight for over a decade, those kinds of things tend to rub off.” He concluded with a slight sigh.

Time turned paused for second before he continued, “Well, yes. Now where was I… oh yes, time is more like a,” he took the sphere with both hands on opposite sides and as he spoke he rocked it back and forth, “... big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey… stuff between any two given points.” Time Turner then placed the sphere on the table.

“That didn’t answer the question.” Twilight pointed out.

“Well, if I were to hazard a guess, and since you said this Starlight Glimmer… hum… that name sounds familiar…” Time Turner paused as he tried to remember who that name belonged to, however when he couldn’t recall as quickly as he wanted he elected to press one, “never mind, well she stopped Rainbow Dash from completing the sonic rainboom. Now because of that, Rainbow Dash didn’t reach the speed necessary to puncture the sound barrier and activate her magic or discover her love of racing, Applejack didn’t see the rainbow that pointed her to Sweet Apple Temple, Pinkie Pie didn’t see the rainbow in the sky, the animals that comforted Fluttershy didn’t need her to comfort them after they were frightened by the boom, the boulder Rarity found didn’t crack showing her the gems that lead to her first costume design, and you didn’t get to tap into your hidden power to hatch Spike. Thus the timeline you know doesn’t exist. Instead, we are currently in a different timeline. One in which you and your friends didn’t become friends.”

“Wait, there can be more than one timeline?” Twilight questioned as she didn’t seem to follow Time Turner and the point he made.

“He just went over the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ball, Twilight. Think fifth dimensionally,” Spike commented.

Twilight wanted to give Spike a deadpan glare, but she didn’t have time, she had to get back to the past and stop Starlight. She got up from the table, “We need to go back,” and headed towards the door and out of the blue box, “We need to set everything right. Come on Spike!” The dragon nodded and ran to catch up with his master as he pulled out the scroll.

Time Turner barely got a glimpse of the scroll but he was able to see enough. He saw his notes he dictated to… He froze as he remembered to whom the name ‘Starlight Glimmer’ belonged to, “no, she actually…” he whispered. He got up from the table and followed after the demigod and the dragon. “WAIT!!!” He ran out of the box, in attempt to catch up with Twilight. “STOP!!!” Twilight and Spike arrived at the table and Twilight’s focus gem started to glow, “DON’T USE THAT…” too late. Twilight had cast the spell and she and Spike were sent back to the past. “Quick Brighteyes, start the old girl up.” Time Turner ran back in, passed Brighteyes and went to the control panel in the center of the box.

“But I thought Nightmare Moon was destined to be defeated, wasn’t it all a fixed point in time?” Brighteyes asked as she hovered over to the controls.

“Well, yes and no. You see, Brighteyes, Nightmare Moon’s escape was foreseen by all prophets, soothsayers, etc, hence why it is a fixed point in time, but only Pythia predicted her defeat. Also, only Pythia foresaw the sonic rainboom.” Time Turner then went over to the panel of the switches, buttons, knobs, etc and started to flip, push, press and turn some. “We need to travel to one second after we they left.”

“Why?” Brighteyes asked as Time Turner ran around as he pressed various buttons, pulled various levers, switched various switches, turned various knobs and wheels.

“You’ll see,” He answered when it looked like everything was as he wanted. He took out what looked like a weird screwdriver, and used it to turn a particular screw. “ALLONS-Y!” he shouted as the blue box seemed to hum to life.

Second Verse...

The bubble that took Twilight and Spike from the present they were back to the before Rainbow Dash performed the sonic rainboom when she was nine opened. Before they fell Twilight took to flight as Spike took hold of her back to so that he wouldn’t fall. Twilight began to search for Starlight, “All we have to do now is find Starlight and—” Twilight was stopped as she and Spike were struck with turquoise magic and were encased in a large purple ice-like substance. The two could move their eyes but little else.

“Well, finding her will be easy!” came Starlight’s voice as she emerged from a cloud surrounded by turquoise magic. She floated over to the two as the purple ice thing that held Spike and Twilight dropped to a cloud, “But stopping her's gonna be harder than you think.” She floated around her trapped foes, stopped her high sky levitation and landed on the block. “Sorry to disappoint you,” She continued, she tapped on the block and caused what she wrote, beyond the translation into modern Mystican of Star Swirl’s time travel spell, “ but I bound those spells together to send myself back in time.” She noticed Twilight’s eyes widened and her pupils constrict at that reveal. “So even when you cast it, I still get sent back here.” She leaned down, sitting on the block, “It wasn't all that difficult to change Star Swirl's spell. He'd already done the hard part.” This statement caused Twilight to almost faint as if the idea that anyone could approve upon Star Swirl’s work was an abomination. But Starlight knew better, Star Swirl’s understanding of magic was two thousand years out of date, yet now wasn’t the time to give Twilight a crash course in the changes in magic, well beyond what already in play. However, Starlight had to acknowledge a few thing, “But figuring out I could use the map to go to any time or place and pull you along with me?” Starlight paused as she gave a short laugh in triumphant, “I even impressed myself with that one.” She even went so far to literally pat herself on the back. “Of course, those notes from that chronomancer really did help,” She paused as she tried to remember the name of the chronomancer, “What was his name? He wore that stupid long green necktie and his trenchcoat front looked an hourglass when buttoned. And there was the ridiculous looking screwdriver...”

‘’Who.” Twilight was able to mouth.

“What?” Starlight asked as she allowed enough of the trap to give so that Twilight could speak and she (Starlight) could understand.

“Who,” Twilight repeated after a breath.

Starlight raised an eyebrow not able to follow, “Who what?”

“The chronomancer,” Twilight answered after a sign.

“You know what his name is?” Starlight asked she did not fully believe Twilight.

“Who,” Twilight answered.

“The chronomancer.” Starlight stated as she thought Twilight was asking her.

“Who,” Twilight answered.

“I am asking you, YOU!” She shouted the ‘you’ before she gave a sigh of frustration. “Now what’s the chronomancer’s name?”

“WHO!” Twilight shouted back.

“I DON’T KNOW!!!” Starlight shouted very much like she did when she shouted for Twilight to be quite as she assumed Twilight was asking her.

“Third base.” Spike quipped under his breath as he rolled his eyes.

With her question not answered or she assumed it wasn’t, Starlight growled before she resealed Twilight and Spike, She took a breath to calm down, once she collected herself, “Anyway, while I don’t know who the chronomancer was, I knew you'd try to stop me. You're so predictable. Why else would I leave the scroll behind?” She asked rhetorically, “Touching it triggered the map to whisk you here and watch me erase the one thing that linked you to your friends!” She then leaned down on the block with her trapped opponents, “My village was a sanctuary of equality, where no one's aura mark allowed them to feel superior!” She then looked at the sky as she reminisced about her romanticized view of her village, “It was a special place, and you and your friends took it away!” Starlight paused as she noticed that the top of the block had shank down into the cloud. She gave a deadpan scowl as she cast her high flying levitation spell and floated around the cloud to its bottom and was once again face to face with Twilight. “Now it's my turn to take something special from you!” Starlight could not help but grin, but while it was off in a sinister way, it seemed to unhinge. “Without the rainboom, you and your friends will never form your special aura mark bonds!” Starlight then brought her hands and rubbed them together while her grin grew, “To paraphrase the Teachings, ‘Aura marks for aura marks!’ Sounds like a fair trade to me!” She then punched the encased Twilight and Spike and hovered away as she left it to fall.

After about thirty seconds Twilight was able to focus her magic and chatter the trap. Once free she grabbed Spike. “Come on, Spike. I know what we have to do!” Then cast a teleportation spell to reappear in one of the clouds. She then started to look around, searching for Starlight to stop her from interfering with the race. “Keep your eyes peeled.” She ordered Spike. Spike nodded in silent as he began to scan his draconic eyes not needing anything to assist his search. As Spike searched, Twilight continued to speak, “We have to stop Starlight as soon as Rainbow Dash and those bullies race by!” all the while she was not actually looking. Spike then spotted something, tapped Twilight on the shoulder as the demigoddess continued to talk, “So we must be ready.”

Twilight didn’t seem to get the message as she continued to look for Starlight in a different direction, “I know, but—”

Twilight, however, interrupted Spike as she continued to search in the sky, “Because she could pop up anywhere!”

Spike then grabbed Twilight's face via her chin with his left claw and pointed her to what he saw, “Like over there?” As Twilight registered what Spike showed her, her eyes shot open in a very cartoonish style that would normally fit Pinkie. Twilight then gasped as she grabbed Spike and bolted to what she saw.

On one of the paved areas, Starlight was sitting down with the eleven-year-old Fluttershy and the ten-year-old Hoops and Dumb-Bell. As she to be in the middle of a lecture she was giving to the two boys, “Just remember how you'd feel if someone said those things to you.”

“What's going on here?” Twilight asked as she flew up to the small group, Spike doing his best to hide behind Twilight. She knew she had to stop whatever Starlight was doing.

Starlight smiled as she got up and stood behind Hoops and Dumb-Bell, very much like a school-teacher conveying a message to a parent, “Oh, I was just reminding these two boys how hurtful teasing can be.”

Twilight scolded as she knew the motives, behind Starlight’s action, this wasn’t for Fluttershy’s benefit, this was to stop the Rainboom. “Well, don't!” Twilight shouted not fully thinking through what she said, namely concerning the others present.

Dumb-Bell, Hoops, and Fluttershy went “Huh?” confused about what the much older Twilight said and how vastly different it was from what Starlight had told them.

Too late recognized that she and Starlight were not alone, and that fact that the three younger humans didn’t have the life experience to appreciate the nuance of the matter, “I mean... you were?” she stumbled back on her words.

“Of course!” Starlight answered as she stepped to be behind Fluttershy, “In a world where everybody is unique, some are bound to feel more special than others.” She then started to affectionately rub Fluttershy’s head as a means to comfort her, “But that isn't a license to be cruel, is it?”

“No, of course not…” Twilight replied as she tried to find a means to counter Starlight’s argument which it was a gross simplification, almost a dumbing down of the situation, but Twilight couldn’t form a counterpoint which didn’t make it sound like she didn’t care in front of the three children.

“Oh, isn't it a shame we don't live in a world where everybody is equal?” Starlight asked rhetorically as she looked to the sky as if to plead to some divine force located in the sky. She then turned back to Twilight with an evil smirk, before she looked down at the three, “No one would ever tease anyone there! Wouldn't that be nice?” She asked them. As the three agreed with a ‘Mm-hmm’ Starlight looked back up to Twilight, her smirk was small but it was clearly sinister and smug as if she knew she won.

“No, it wouldn't!” Twilight started but she pulled back as she saw the confused faces of the three children, “I mean, it'd be nice not to be teased, of course, but that's not the same thing!” Twilight tried to explain, but she wasn’t skilled enough with children to convey what she wanted to children in a way that they would understand and not lose anything.

“Come on, Fluttershy.” Hoops said as he held out his right hand offering it to Fluttershy, “Maybe I can help you get through the course this time.”

“Well, I-I” Fluttershy stuttered as she began to reach out to Hoops accepting his offer, “sure could use the practice…” She took Hoops hand and the three flew off.

As soon as the three were gone, Twilight got extremely close to Starlight, scowling as she laid her accusation to bear, “I know you only convinced those bullies to not tease Fluttershy to stop the rainboom!”

“Oh, that's not true.” Starlight dismissed right off the bat, “I convinced them not to be bullies, because everybody should be equal.” She then slightly closed her eyes as she smiled evilly, “Stopping the rainboom is just a bonus.” The triumphant smirk was unmistakable.

“You and I both know those are both lies. You want equality of outcome, which cannot be done. What is needed is equality of opurt…” Twilight started but was cut short as Rainbow Dash whooshed past them. Twilight got to the air and grabbed Spike with her magic, “This isn't over yet!” Twilight shouted and flew to catch up with the nine-year-old Rainbow Dash.

As Twilight flew off, Starlight smiled as she felt secure in her victory, “If you say so!” she called back.

A couple of seconds later as Rainbow Dash was flying around minding her own business when someone much older than her said “Hi!”. Rainbow turned to see a woman about twenty years old with metallic wings flying next to her.

“Um... hi?” Rainbow asked confused about what she was to do. She knew her dad told her to say ‘hello’ to people who say ‘hi’ to her, but to be cautious around those she doesn’t know.

“You think you can stop for a minute?” The woman asked.

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders as she stopped on a dime, “Sure.” The woman didn’t stop as quickly and collided with a cloud with a thump.

After a second the woman flew back and was hovering like Rainbow Dash, “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I am Twilight Sparkle and I hear you're pretty fast!” Twilight introduced herself to Rainbow.

“Pretty fast?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hump as if the term subpar to describe her. “Please! I'm even faster than that!” Rainbow boasted it was clear that she has high on her own ego, even then. Spike mentally noted that Rainbow didn’t question how Twilight knew the girl’s name or the fact that Spike was there, yeah Rainbow was clearly not the most intelligent of the group.

“Okay, so, um, hey, you want to race?” Twilight asked very flimsily, it was clear she had not thought this far ahead of her plan.

Rainbow hovered back a little as the idea of racing an adult didn’t seem to be a good one, “Um, that wouldn't really be fair. I mean, you're a grown-up, and…” Rainbow stopped as she began to register the wings that Twilight had, “Wait.” She then flew around Twilight and connected the dotes as she returned to be in front of Twilight, again she failed to notice Spike (even though he was three feet in front of her!) “Are you a Demigod?” Rainbow asked as she was frightened that a demigod would want to race her.

Twilight flew next to her in attempt to edge the young elementalist-to-be to race her, “Come on, I thought you were fast!”

“Ummm” Rainbow tried to slowly back away.

Twilight turned to show Rainbow Dash her back with Spike holding on for his very life, “Look, I have a dragon my back to slow me down as a handicap.” She then turned to face Rainbow Dash and tried to pitch the race, “Come on, it will be fun.

“Uh, actually, I just remembered I have somewhere I need to be.” Rainbow lied as she turned to fly away. She knew she had to get away, as far away as soon as possible, from this crazy demigod.

Before Rainbow could get too far, Twilight was again by her side, “Okay, listen.” Twilight started as she tried to find a way to convey what she actually wanted, “ You don’t have to race me..” Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief as she knew she could not outrun an adult demigod, sure she was the fastest of her age, and faster than several a year or two older, but as proud as she there were things that she knew she cannot do at this point. Then Twilight continued, “I just need you to fly fast enough for a sonic rainboom!”

“What?!” Rainbow questioned, she wasn’t sure if she heard that correctly, ‘a sonic rainboom’, no one she heard of has ever performed the sonic boom required for it, not the founders of the Wonderbolts, not Wind Ryder, and not even Nightshade, “I can't do that! Nobody can! It's not even a real thing! It's just an old wives tale!” Rainbow countered as she tried to fathom what was asked of her.

“But it's not! I know it's not! I've seen you do it!” Twilight countered, she knew that Rainbow could do and that she had to, all she needed to do was be willing to. To that end, Twilight didn’t let up, so much depended on Rainbow Dash’s first sonic rainboom, not so much the rainboom per se, but everything built from and on it, but like any structure, all the cornerstones need to be in place for it stand, Rainbow Dash’s first sonic rainboom, just happens to be the best known. “In the future!” Twilight pressed. This caused Rainbow to look at her and saw Twilight bat, of all things, bedroom eyes in an attempt to convince Rainbow to try.

Rainbow was shocked at this and realized she had to get out of there, “Ooookay…” She said as turned away, this was getting to close to one of the warning stories her father told her, “I'm gonna go now.” And with that Rainbow was out of sight in a matter of seconds.

“No! Wait!” Twilight shouted in a desperate attempt to call Rainbow Dash back.

“Gee, Twilight,” came Starlight’s voice as she hovered to Twilight and Spike, using her high sky levitation spell, a mocking grin on her face, “what's the matter? Couldn't convince her to do the impossible?” She asked with clearly fake pain. “That's too bad.” She finished as she patted Twilight on the head as one would comfort a child, rubbing in the patronizing.

Twilight forced Starlight back and inhaled as she was about to speak. However, she was denied the chance as the bubble that opened to bring her to the past once again opened to pull her back to the present, along with Spike and the scroll.

The bubble open and the two for the second time, fell upon the table with a thud. As they began to recover, they noticed that they were right where/when they were when Twilight willingly used the spell. Spike was the first to get onto his feet and spoke his piece, “You tried to use bedroom eyes on a nine-year-old girl! The kind of eyes Rarity used to use on me! The kind of eyes that Cadance uses on Shining! Need I go on? Bedroom eyes, on a nine-year-old girl! What is wrong with you! I am thirteen and even I know that’s messed up!” Before Twilight could comment, “It’s no wonder she bolted like that. Who told you it was a good idea to try that on a child?” Twilight started to answer by was cut off when Spike faceclawed himself, “That was rhetorical!”

“Well, shouting at me is not going to help matters!” Twilight countered as the two stared at each other, not unlike squabbling siblings.

“Like not shouting at you got us a good plan.” Spike countered as he stood his ground. He might be younger than her and she did hatch his egg, but Twilight was not his mother, he was not her son and she had to stop treating him like that, and if she wasn’t going to do so of her own accord, he was going to stand his ground.

Twilight, however, didn’t need this, if Spike was not going to be part of the solution, then she was going to make sure he couldn’t be part of the problem, “That’s it young drake! Go to…” Twilight stopped as recalled the surroundings. “Well buck.”

Before the two could continue to bicker, they were stopped when they heard what sounded like some sort of engine attempt to start and rev-up. They turned to see the large blue phone-booth-like box that belongs to Dr. Time Turner Who appeared to phase in and out until it became solid right next to the table. The box then opened from the inside by Time Turner. “Great Whimpering Stallions, We made it just in time, Quickly, Twilight, Spike, step inside.” Silently the two complied. Once they were inside, they were rushed to the table. “May I see the scroll?” he asked. Spike got the scroll out and handed it to Time Turner. After a second or two of looking it over. “It’s what I feared.”

“Care to bring us into the loop,” Spike asked after he rolled his eyes.

Time Turner placed the scroll on the table, “As you can see, well Princess Twilight can at least,” this resulted in Spike groaning, but the chronomancer carried one, “the base spell is Star Swirl’s time travel spell, but there is a fair amount added to it, most of which are empowerment spells, that allows for one to travel to any point in the past. It’s really fairly straightforward.” As Time Turner spoke he used his bizarre screwdriver to point out some of the spells that were bound to the main spell, Twilight couldn’t make most of it out, the handwriting was deplorable, but she did make out the Mystican character for ‘enpower’ or ‘aid’ in the text of magic. Time Turner then pointed to a cluster of other spells bound to the main spell, most of them were empowerment spells, but there was one that stood out, “And if she was able to go to Cumula, she needed to use a teleportation spell. That being said, not even a demigod has the power to cast a spell like this, she needed something that was linked to not only great power but to every location and every time.”

“THE AURA MAP!” Twilight shouted, “It depicts the entirety of Mystica and is connected to both the Tree of Harmony and the Rainbow of Light.”

“Well given that the Tree of Harmony bore the Elements of Harmony, the only things that can override Discord’s reality wrapping power and such, along with restore Princess Luna’s internal harmony, and in the case of The Rainbow of Light, it can pull from Tirek all the inhernet magic he stole and return it to their rightful owners, while empowering you and your friends to overpower him when he had the combined power of all of Mystica’s human population, Discord and the four demigods, even if the, um, Aura Map has a near inconquestial fraction of the combined power, then it certainly be able to send anyone to anytime anywhere in Mystica and it’s history.”

“Kind of like this,” Brighteyes said as she called attention to the box they were in.

“Well, yes and no. Star Swirl’s spell only goes backward in time and the Aura Map only renders Mystica, and maybe a few of the neighboring nations. In this old girl, I can go forward in time and to solar systems and other places most haven't even imagine and is powered by the flow of time." Time Turner elected to clarify the distinctions. He pointed back to the scroll, "This spell needs the Aura Map to work, but even then it still takes magic from the caster and, given the sheer number of spells bound together, the binder that made this.”

“Hold on a minute, what’s a binder?” Brighteyes asked, not familiar with the term.

Twilight elected to answer that question, “They are magic users not unlike sorcerers, wizards, etc,” that was an oversimplification, even Brighteyes could tell, but it was accurate enough to help convey the point Twilight needed, “but the main thing about Binders is that they cannot cast the more powerful, longer and complex spells, you known like meteor shower, but they are able to combine multiple simple and small spells, like acid orbs, together to make their own powerful spells, through a process known as binding.”

“Oh, like a fasces,” Brighteyes replied innocently with a closed eyes smile, initially Twilight and Spike were shocked by the fact that Brighteyes knew what that symbol was, but they instantly recalled that Brighteyes was a Skyborn, and despite the number of Earthborn and Magicborn sisters she had, she did, in fact, grew up in Cumula and as such she would know about the pre-founding of Mystica Skyborn tribe’s symbols.

“But how do you know what Starlight wrote?” Spike asked as he noted Time Turner was so quick to understand what was on the scroll.

Time Turner gave a nervous laugh as he rubbed the back of his head and neck, with his left hand, “Well, um, you see, I was in Chantalot not long after the Grand Gala and the Grand Sumit, I think it was after the near disaster that was the hosting of Yakyakistan's Prince Rutherford." He stopped as he saw Twilight scowl at the reminder of her first real attempt at international diplomacy. "Sorry, too soon." He apologized with a weak laugh. "Well, I was supposed to compare some chronomancy notes about target use of it in a health-related field of some kind…”

“You were going to meet with Twilight’s and Lyra’s friend Minuette about the potential abuse of chronomancy if one was to use it to continuously revert something like teeth and gums to a state they wouldn’t need beyond basic brushing and flossing,” Brighteyes informed as she reading from what looked like an appointment book.

“Right, well, Minuette didn't show up at the restaurant for our meeting, it was only after I called her up on the matter that I learned it was because she was with you and the rest of your formerly closest Magicborn classmates from your time in Celestia’s School for the Gifted, in your attempt to reach out to Moondancer. Well, after thinking I was stood up and went over to the bar to get a drink. After one cider I was joined by this Starlight. She was studying Star Swirl’s time travel spell and chronomancy overall, but she seemed to be stuck on Star Swirl’s limited and antiquated understanding of traveling through time.” Twilight was slightly taken back at the thought that Star Swirl knowledge’s on any topic of magic was limited in any way, (to be just Star Swirl was one of the if not the most powerful beings who was not a demigod and he was ahead of his time). Time Turner continued either not seeing Twilight’s shock or caring, “So we chatted and it seemed that I dictated suggestions on how to involve this spell, at least given what Star Swirl wrote down and Starlight used these notes to bind together this spell.”

“I have to go back in time and stop Starlight. No matter the cost, even if I have to keep trying until the end of time.” Twilight declared as she reached for the scroll.

Time Turner pulled the scroll back, “I wouldn’t use this spell. As you can see here, “ Time Turner pointed to a few sentences on the scroll near the bottom of the scroll, past what enabled Starlight to travel anywhere that the Aura Map showed and any time after both the Tree of Harmony and the Rainbow of Light first came into being. Twilight began to read the words, “She’s bound the spells to enables her to be sent back an equivalent amount of time ahead of you as she was when you first used the spell.” Twilight then recalled what Starlight said, that the spell was designed to also send Starlight back to watch as she failed to make sure the rainboom happened. “You’ll need to employ another means,” Time said almost grimly before he got up and walked over to the control panels as a big smile formed on his face and started to, “Fortunately for you. I have just the thing.” Twilight and Spike could only reply with a ‘Huh’ as they didn’t follow, “I am a chronomancer!” Time Turner answered as he continued to press buttons, flip switches, turn knobs, etc. “WELL COME ON, ALLONS-Y!!!” he shouted.

Same As The First

The blue box that Time Turner owned appeared in a fairly vacant grassy area under Cumula, The box’ door open and Twilight and Spike stepped out, as they looked around, Time Turner stood in the doorway, “Sorry, but I don’t have a permanent cloud walk spell installed on this, yet, so you’re going to have to fly or teleport up.”

“Well thanks for the help, Doc.” Spike comment as he took the scroll and put it into his backpack, “So what are you going to do?”

“There are currently too many people from the future from this point in time for things to go as they should.” Time informed. “So Brighteyes and I are going back to the Future, well, Present. Also in case you get sent back there because you failed to stop Starlight, we can try again.” Time Turner said as he shut the door and the blue box began to fade out of exitance or so it appeared.

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Doc.” Spike deadpanned before Twilight rolled her eyes and teleported the two into the sky.

As the nine-year-old Rainbow and the ten-year-old Hoops and Dumb-Bell were about started with their race, Starlight was laying low, searching for her spot to be used for her trap only to be blasted with purple magic, and incased. “I know what you’re doing, and I am not going to let you do it.” came Twilight's voice.

After Twilight finished, Starlight’s eyes and her focus gem glowed turquoise as she was muttering various spells together and shattered the trap after a few seconds, “Not bad, but it's gonna take a lot more than that!” Starlight declared as if she was unaffected, but Twilight heard a faint pant.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as her eyes focus gem and hands started to glow, a smile on her face as she could tell that what happened took more out of Starlight than she what the binder would ever willingly admit. “Lucky for you, there's more where that came from!” Twilight then started to cast various attack spells, such as magical missiles, beams, fireballs, acid orbs, etc.

Twilight was clearly powerful, but her aim was… far from true as Starlight was able to dodge most of the spells, “You've really gotta work on your aim.” She countered as she went on the attack in turn. However, Twilight was able to bat each spell that Starlight sent her way much like when the two squared off. Twilight, while still doing it almost effortlessly, had to note that Starlight was more powerful, in truth it really wasn’t by much, but there was something about each spell that Twilight deflected gave her something to think about, should she have a chance to actually think. Twilight also did not let up with her spells, which forced Starlight to use shielding spells. Many of Twilight’s spells didn’t make their mark, but those that hit clearly were more powerful than what Starlight could throw at her.

There were only two times in Spike’s life that he wished he was still the size and structure of a small iguana-like dragon when Twilight and he first moved to Magiville. The first was after he became his current state following the whole gem mine incident on his birth or hatching day, simply because it was the form that he knew. This was the second time and it was fairly obvious why, as he desperately clung to Twilight’s clothes, had he been his original size and shape, he could hide in Twilight’s clothes and might actually be a shield of shorts covering her heart… After another second or two of thought, he concluded that would have been a bad idea, but he would at least have a much better grip.

Back and forth Starlight and Twilight sent their spells at each other and protected themselves from their opponent's spells. This went on for almost two minutes as Starlight started to pant. Twilight was unphased and continued, as she was not about to let up. She had to stop Starlight here and now, by any means necessary. As Twilight elected to absorb the last spell Starlight sent and prepared to cast another spell to finish Starlight off when she heard “WHOA!”. She, Starlight and Spike turned to see Rainbow Dash, Hoops, Dumb-Bell and other children watching the fight. Rainbow Dash had a box of popcorn and was munching it.

Twilight was taken aback at all the young Skyborn that were watching her and Starlight fight, namely Rainbow Dash. She flew to be much closer to children with her focus on the three that should be racing. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked in a panic, “You have to finish your race!” she ordered like a worried elementary school teacher.

Rainbow waved the comment away, “No way!” she then returned to her popcorn, “This is way more exciting than any lameo race!”

“And she gave Gilda a hard time from that dated slang.” Spike quipped only for Twilight to hear.

“See?” Starlight asked as she walked a few steps closed to Twilight. Twilight turned and stepped towards her as well. “You can't stop me no matter what you do. Even using that chronomancer’s big blue time machine to circumvent the spell. You think I wouldn’t have planned for that. I spent the better part of a year planning this, but I had pretty much everything I needed while you were so focused on that lost cause Moondancer. ” Starlight mocked.

Before Twilight could counter, a copy of the bubble that had taken Twilight and Spike into the past and present appeared and pulled them in like a vacuum. Starlight then teleported away.

“Aw, man,” Rainbow complained as the show was over. Disgruntled she threw the popcorn box on the ground as everyone else gave a disappointed ‘aw’ and started to fly away.

As the bubble that pulled Twilight and Spike into itself opened and they two fell onto the table that projected the Aura Map. As they recovered, it was the same icy wasteland it was when they when back in time both via the spell and with Time Turner’s help. “Buck!” Twilight all but cursed. “What do I do now?” She asked.

Just then the blue box that Time Turner used reappeared right next to the table. The door open and it was Brighteyes, “Um, Doc. The plan didn’t work.” Brighteyes said over her shoulder. After she turned back to the other two. “You two look like you could use a little more help.” Twilight and Spike sighed and walked into the box. The headed to the table as Spike placed the scroll on it. After a minute Brighteyes hovered over and, “Muffins. This one is Emerald with Lime,” she said as she placed a muffin with the muffin with emeralds sticking out of it in front of Spike. Spike licked the muffin and then started to devour the muffin rapidly. “I’ll get you more. But this is for you Twilight, Chantalot Strawberry.” Twilight accepted it and started to eat it quietly.

“So what happened this time around?” Time asked as he sat down at the table.

Twilight sighed, “She expected me to get help from you.” Twilight stated. After a second she grabbed the scroll and threw it with an angry scream. “How could I be so stupid?! She had the better part of a year to plan all this! And I am making things up on the fly!” She wanted to blast something but she knew it was not going to do anything, but she grabbed the chair she sat in and threw it across the room, thankfully not hitting anyone or anything. She roared but after a second she dropped to her knees and started to cry, “I can’t outfight her fast enough to not be noticed by Rainbow. I can’t challenge Rainbow to a race. I can’t kill her because that would be much more noticeable than fighting her.” Twilight listed off. “And just casting this spell time and time again, she’ll eventually catch on and will try to get the scroll away to destroy it. And having Spike send it to himself on a loop again will only last so long until she catches on. I lost... I can’t win...”

Before Twilight realized it, she was in a hug from Brighteyes, “Everyone in my family says that my hugs are as good as my muffins.” Twilight didn’t respond but whimper a little. “Let it all out.” Twilight then cried into Brighteyes' shoulders for almost a minute. Once done Brighteyes ended the hug and looked Twilight in the eyes. “You are Princess Twilight Sparkle. You are the smartest person of our age. You did what Celestia could not, you did what Star Swirl did not. You will find a way. Now, who are you?” Brighteyes asked as her voice started to sound like a drill sergeant.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight answered weakly.

“I can’t hear you,” Brighteyes stated.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight repeated a little more confidently.

“I can’t hear you!” Brighteyes repeated with more force.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight answered with more confidence and matched Brighteyes' force in her statement.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!” Brighteyes shouted at Twilight once more.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!” Twilight shouted back, with the force to send Brighteyes to the ground and slide three free away. Twilight then got to her feet and stood tall. From Brighteyes' vantage point, it looked like Twilight had finally climbed the peck and fully ascended to her position of demigod. Twilight turned to face Time Turner and Spike, “And I will solve this problem.” Her confidence returned and she went to get the scroll.

“How do you plan to do that?” Spike asked.

“I have no idea.” Twilight declared unashamed before she started to look over the scroll in depth. After a second. “I got it. This spell sends Starlight to a week before my friends and I arrived at the village she set up after I am sent back to the present. Is there a way to find out if she's still alive?”

“Why do you want to know?” Time Turner asked as he and Brighteyes started to look for what Twilight asked for.

“Because I have a plan. If she wants me to see a world without my friendships. Well, I think she deserves a chance to view her handiwork.” Twilight couldn't help but grin slightly.

“Found it!” Brighteyes said as found something that looked like some sort of portable barcode reader. She pressed a button on it and after a few seconds, “Um, Doc, you had this calibrated to detected carbon-based lifeforms right?”

“Yes,” Time asked nervously as he didn't like where Brighteyes would be going.

“Well, there are only four living carbon-based lifeforms on this planet and they are all here,” Brighteyes said as she tried to hold back the horror and terror she felt.

“Perfect!” Twilight exclaimed. “Take us back, Time Turner, back to the past.”

It took everyone a second to register what Twilight was thinking. “Once more into the breach.” Tim Turner said as he started to prepare to travel back in time, “ALLONS-Y!”

After leaving Time Turner and Brighteyes for the two to travel back to the present, Twilight teleported herself and Spike to where they found Starlight, the last time. Once there, “Starlight, don’t do this!” She shouted and caused her foe to turn to face her.

“So managed to get here when I did. How did…” Starlight paused as she tried to figure out how Twilight got there without the spell. “Oh, the chronomancer with the screwdriver, clever.”

“His name is Doctor Time Turner Who, often he goes by Time Turner. Yet sadly, I have to admit, this was not clever enough. I know you planned this out and many of the possible ways I can try to stop you.” Twilight had to admit. She then took a breath as she collected herself and narrowed her eyes as she prepared to confront Starlight, “But I cannot let you do this.”

Starlight’s focus gem and hands started to glow, “So do you plan to fight, Twilight?” she asked as she prepared to fight Twilight.

Twilight shook her head and then dipped it, “No. I know I can't stop you like that.” She then rose her head with her eyes narrow and her conviction resolved. “But I will never stop trying to stop you. I am a demigod, I will outlast you.”

“I don’t care!” Starlight shouted back, “I don’t care! I will make you watch this as many times as I can. For as long as I can I will keep you and your friends from getting your aura mark connection.” Starlight then prepared to cast a spell, an acid orb, “So bring it, because I'm game!” She then sent the spell and Twilight batted it away like it was a fly.

“What you're doing goes way beyond aura marks!” Twilight then brought a cloud to be in front of her. She made a steep hill, a house and little ball that was placed at the top of it. “Everything we do here in the past” she then let the ball start to roll, “– even the smallest change –” as she spoke the ball grew as it rolled down to the steep hill and crushed the house. “can snowball into an avalanche of trouble for the future!” Then a blast of turquoise magic hit the crushed house and large cloud ball.

Starlight rolled her eyes as she Twilight looked up to Starlight from the visual aid, “Oh, and next I suppose you'll tell me that,” Starlight then used her hands to make air quotes as she spoke, “ ‘the fate of all of Mystica hangs in the balance’!” She then shook her head not believing that Twilight would result to make such a childlike appeal.

“It does!” Twilight shouted back.

Starlight rolled her eyes and shouted, “Spare me your overblown ego!” before Twilight could counter. “No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight's, is that important!” Starlight then look to see that Rainbow Dash was about to challenge the two bullies and then sent a blast of turquoise magic at the nine-year-old Rainbow Dash and encased her in the same trap Twilight and Spike were encased in when they first used to spell intentionally and Starlight was encased in when Twilight elected to fight her after she was assisted by Time Turner the first time.

Just then the bubble that has taken Twilight and Spike to the past and present appeared and opened to draw Twilight and Spike in. “I don't know how important other’s friendships are to the future,” Twilight teleported to be behind Starlight. “but I can show you what the world is like without mine!” Twilight then grabbed Starlight just as the power of the bubble grew to pull the three into it. She had to make sure that Starlight could not get away, she had to show Starlight the future she made. The bubble closed as the three were pulled into it.

The bubble opened and the three fell. Twilight, however, used her wings to catch herself and used her magic to catch Spike and let Starlight fall flat onto the table on her stomach. “Ow, should have told you, the first step’s a doozy.” Twilight mocked concern. She couldn’t help but smile as Starlight began to get back up from the table, clearly in pain, as impact bruised a rib or two.

After she steered at Twilight with and grumbled, Starlight started to look around as she saw the wasteland that her actions led to. Her mouth was slightly open in confusion, “Where are we?” she ordered Twilight to inform her.

Twilight land on the table and lowered Spike to it as well, “The present, should Rainbow Dash’s first sonic rainboom never happen.” Twilight could only look at the vacant land, not facing Starlight.

“But there's nothing here!” Starlight shouted not fully believing what she saw as the wind started to pick up and she started to shiver.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious, whatever could we do without you?” Spike quipped.

Twilight sighed as she looked at the sky dejected and forlorn before she turned to face Starlight, “I wish I could say I was surprised, but I have come this each time you stopped Rainbow Dash’s first sonic rainboom and if you keep at trying to stop it and if I keep at stopping you, this is the fate of all.”

“I don't believe you!” Starlight challenged as she refused to accept what was in front of her.

“Look around you, Starlight.” Spike almost barked before he huffed out a fire to warm the air around him. “You stopped the rainboom, and we were sent here after it when the bubble opened up.” He was not in the mode to deal with Starlight’s denial. “Cast a zone of truth and ask us. Cast a detect life or something.”

Twilight sighed again, “Like I said, everything in the past affects the future, even the tiniest act. And what you're doing leads here.” Twilight held her left hand out pointing to the wasteland that surrounded them. “I know I can't stop you, not by the means at my disposal, and trying to in infinitum will last in infinitum,” Starlight rolled her eyes in response, which Twilight noted. However, Twilight continued, “but I thought showing you this might change your mind.”

“Change my mind?” Starlight asked as she teleported to be much closer to Twilight her breath rapid as she tried to contain her anger, just so. “You don't know anything about me!” She shouted as she raised her right fist and clenched it. “I was perfectly happy before you and your friends ruined what I built!”

Twilight shook her head as she saw that Starlight was not going to change without Twilight making an attempt to know what Starlight holds as the root cause of this, but she also knew she couldn’t ask it directly, only she could do was address that she didn’t know, “I don't know what happened that led you to make your village without aura marks, and I'm sorry my friends and I had to take it away.”

“You want to know what happened to me?!” Starlight’s anger seemed to reach the boiling point. She took a few breathes and started to mutter as her eyes, hands and focus gem glowed as well as the scroll which was in Spike’s backpack. Once she finished what she was doing she placed her left hand on the map, “I'll show you!”. Another bubble like the ones that have taken them the three to Cumula on the day that Rainbow Dash performed her first sonic rainboom appeared and opened to take them to the time and place she wanted to show Twilight and Spike.

The Root of It All

Author's Note

:pinkiehappy:HAPPY HEARTH'S WARMING!!!:pinkiehappy:

Thank's Pinkie.

And Merry Christmas, Happy Hannacka, Io Saturnalia, Happy Kawanza, Happy Yule Time, and all other Holidays celebrated and Holy Days observed around the Winter Solstices

Song used: Put One Foot in Front of the Other from Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, it just seemed to be a better song than what we got from the show and ... It's Christmas/Hearth's Warming.

The Root of It All

The bubble opened and all three were on the ground, there were on the outskirts of a small city a little larger than Magiville and a little more advanced, but was for the most part full of Magicborn. Twilight and Spike looked around clearly at a loss of where they were, they figured that when they were was the past, maybe a year or two before Rainbow Dash’s first sonic rainboom at most. “Where are we?” Twilight asked as she elected to get to the heart of the matter.

Starlight began walking towards the village, “That map of yours is connected to every part of Mystica, remember!” Starlight pointed out annoyed as if she had to point out that water was wet. After she beckoned Twilight and Spike to follow her, “and this part was my home.” They soon arrived at what looked like a fairly large house in comparison to all the others, it wasn’t anywhere near the divergence of the Riches’ manor to the better part of Magiville, or Celestia’s castle compared to the upper crust that resided in Chantalot, no it was more like the house shared by Octavia Melody and her sister Vinyl Scratch and the rest of the houses on that street. However, even with the two very different sisters were not present that home gave off the vibes of life, this home, even if fully occupied seemed to more like a tomb. Starlight then pointed to a window, Twilight and Spike looked inside and saw a younger Starlight Glimmer, no more than eleven with clothes similar to what she had now and her hair was done with two pigtails. Also in the house was a boy about her age. His eyes were a gradient of various shades of blue dark cornflower blue to moderate cyan. His hair was two shades of vermilion, both vivid and brilliant. He wore a bright gamboge shirt and pants, on his hands were a set of white gloves. The two had finished playing a board game and Starlight was using her magic to reach for a book on a nearby bookshelf that was fairly high up, “His name is Sunburst.” Starlight informed before Twilight or Spike could ask. As the two continued to watch, Starlight continued to narrate as the younger Starlight seemed to struggle to get the book she wanted. “Sunburst and I did everything together. In fact, I don't remember us ever being apart. Until today.” Starlight stopped as the younger one was finally able to get the book but the bookcase started to lean forward and was about to bury her, under the books, likely killing her in the process. Or would have, however, Sunburst’s focus gem, which he wore between his throat and heart started to glow bright yellow as did his eyes. Just before the books could make contact with Starlight, Sunburst’s magic managed to grab and hold all the books in the air and they started to circle around him as his magic grew to a near explosion, a burst. Once the burst of was over, all of the books were back on the shelves and everything was back in order. Sunburst fell to the ground and after a second he saw that there was as an image of an orange sun bursting with four yellow rays of two different shades of yellow on the sun’s left side with six blue stars of two different shades of blues around the sun’s right side. Sunburst then gave a ‘whoopie’ before he ran out of the house to come across a man and woman that looked like they were his parents and they were heading to the house as if to pick him up. The two seemed to very happy and went about to show that their son had discovered his Aura Mark. One then ran off to their home.

“And just like that, my friend was gone.” Starlight said as she watched her younger-self step outside and tried to get to Sunburst. As the younger Starlight tried to reach her friend, she was pushed and shoved aside by the other children. While it was not actually addressed, it was mentally noted by Spike and Twilight. “His family recognized his magical talent and sent him off to Chantalot, to Celestia’s School for The Gifted. I never saw him again.”

“Well, why didn’t you try to enter the Celestia’s School for the Gifted yourself?” Spike asked as he could not help but notice that there was a way for Starlight to have still seen Sunburst.

“My parents were never around,” Starlight as she pointed back to the house a which was pretty much empty and devoid of signs of people living in it, not even family photos. “Their jobs always kept them away. And because of that I never had a chance to apply. And all of the other children thought I was a freak!” Twilight and Spike instantly recalled what they saw when the younger Starlight went to be with Sunburst, they could tell that it wasn’t playful, it was, in fact, cruel, albeit the cruelty children show due to ignorance. “Because my folks weren’t around they thought that there was something wrong with me! But not Sunburst, he was the only one that reached out to me. But then this day. I lost my only friend because of an Aura Mark! He got his Aura Mark, and I didn't! He moved on, and I didn't! I was left here and was never able to make another friend!” As she spoke, Starlight fell to her knees as she tried to hold back tears, as her past started to come back.

“That's ridiculous. An aura mark can't take your friends away.” Twilight pointed out, as she called out the fault in Starlight’s argument, more or less pointing out the ‘post hoc ergo proctor hoc’ logical fallacy that was at its core.

Starlight got back to her feet and scowled at Twilight as she wiped the tears that formed in her eyes, “Not everybody's lucky enough to get their aura mark at the same time as their friends!” Starlight then teleported the three to be on a cloud on the outskirts of Cumula and saw that Rainbow Dash was racing Hoops and Dumb-Bell. “You don't know what it's like to lose a friend because of an aura mark. But once I stop the rainboom, you will!” Starlight then teleported Spike’s backpack to her and reached into it. As she pulled out the scroll she threw it back to the dragon. “And when I destroy this scroll, there'll be no way for you to change it!” She then began to tear the scroll, but it was not as one might think as it was protected by a purple magical aura.

“You're right, Starlight,” Twilight said as her left hand also glowed, having quickly thought of a way to the situation she continued, “I don't know what you went through! But you were at my lecture, you know that Apple Bloom’s best friend before the start of the school year of the year I moved to Magiville was a girl named Twist, and she discovered her aura mark before Apple Bloom. And while the friendship took a back burner, she formed new friendships with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and they formed the Cutie Mage Crusaders, they made a destiny together.” This seemed to give Starlight some pause, but she continued to try to bind together a means to circumvent Twilight’s shield spell, “And YOU know I can't allow you do this! We’ve both seen where this leads!”

Starlight stopped and as she placed her hand on her heart and tried to dismiss what she saw, “I only saw what you showed me!” which was a true statement Twilight had to concede, “Who knows what'll really happen?” Starlight asked as she returned to her attempt to destroy the scroll, she managed to get a small tear, but little more.

Twilight had to think fast, “Have ever wondered why you keep coming back here and haven’t seen your village?” Twilight asked quickly as she recalled that during the last time she got help from Time Turner and Brighteyes. “Think about it. Your modifications would send you right to your village a week before my friends and I arrived. Not only that things don't turn out well in Mystica overall without my friends but your village doesn’t last long enough for my friends and me to challenge you!” Twilight attempted to appeal to Starlight’s want of the village in the first place pointing out that the village would share in the fate of the rest of Mystica.

“Ugh!” Starlight stopped her attempt and groaned as she rolled her eyes, “What's so special about your friends?! How can a group of people that are so different be so important?!” Starlight was done with this back and forth, but if she wanted to put an end to Twilight’s interference, she had to know why Twilight was so determined to stop her.

“What is special about us is that we are so different from each other and it is the differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong!” Twilight answered as she and Spike slowly walked to Starlight. “In truth in the grander scheme of things, we’re not special. But we’re important, and that is because all of us in this world are. From Sunburst to Spike to you, to Me, everyone, we are all important. Think about it, do you have any idea how much better this world would be if your friendship with Sunburst didn’t end.” Twilight pointed out as she called back to what she was shown.

“I thought Sunburst and I were the same.” Starlight closed her eyes as she tried to cry, “But we turned out different, and it tore our friendship apart!

“So try again! Make new friends! And if something that you can't control happens that changes things, work through it together!” Twilight was a few steps away from Starlight, all the while Rainbow Dash’s race continued. “That's what friendship is! An ever-changing ever-growing thing! And it's not just my friendships that are important to Mystica! Everybody's are! When yours ended, it led us here. But just imagine all the others that are out there waiting for you if you just give them a chance!” Twilight had seen what Starlight’s life has been and what could be if she kept on this path.

“How do I know they won't all end the same way?” At that moment Starlight’s grip on the scroll loosen and was capitalized on by Spike, and the scroll was in his talons.

Twilight just in arm's reach of Starlight and began to hold her hand out, “You don’t know, I don’t know, for even the wise can’t see all ends.” She confessed which gave Starlight pause, “But what I do know is that if you always do what you always did, you will get what you always got. And look at yourself, you’re bitter, miserable, hurt and alone.” Starlight turned her face away slightly, as she felt the weight of those words, “Your actions led you here, you can either continue doing this or you can try something else and maybe be happy.” Starlight hesitated for a second before she nervously reached out her hand to accept Twilight’s hand. As soon as the two hands touched they heard the explosion of a sonic boom. The trio turned to see Rainbow Dash’s first Sonic Rainboom.

“It’s beautiful…” Starlight said. Just then Twilight’s eyes became fields of white, much like when, in her life, she was first affected by the rainboom. The scroll glowed purple and in an instant, the three were at the table just as Twilight and Spike were pulled in to the past when Spike touched the scroll. Before any of the three could ask, a purple beam came from the bubble that sent Twilight and Spike into the past the first time and another from the map itself. The two beams hit the scroll and encased it in a purple magic and teleported the scroll away. After a second a piece of paper appeared in Twilight’s hands on it read, ‘Deposited, one heavily modified time travel spell scroll into Vault 13.’

While Twilight was processing what just happened, Spike elected to kiss the floor of the castle a couple of times, like a man that was lost at sea finding land, or a soldier arriving home and needing to be with his wife. “One Castle of Friendship – check!” Once he finished the last kiss the doors from the library to the throne room opened to show Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“Finally we’re here!” the fashion savvy enchantress shouted, “What in Mystica was all that?!” she asked as she elected to get to the brass tacks, “We couldn’t return from Midnight Castle, no matter what we tried!”

“Is everybody okay?” Fluttershy asked as she hoped to defuse a potentially explosive situation.

When Spike saw the others, he ran over to them and hugged each of them, kissing Rarity’s right hand, once he finished, “One group of amazing friends – check!” Twilight chuckled, glad to know she was home and that this was over, the other girls also had a short laugh, more so at Spike’s actions.

Applejack stopped first as she drew her sword and pointed it at Starlight, “What's she doin' here?” she asked ready to strike Starlight down there and then, with no regrets.

“Actually, it's kind of a long story,” Twilight answered as she walked over to Applejack and lowered the blade.

“Yeah, we have a story to tell you, too.” Rainbow commented, “You’re not going to believe it.”

Just then the blue box that Time Turner owned appeared out of nowhere right in the throne room, it’s door opened and Brighteyes looked out, “Um, Doc, we’re not in the wrong place. You meant your house, not the Castle of Friendship.”

“Well, this old girl likes to mess with me time to time. Alright once more. ALLONZY!”

After the blue box left, “What the actual…” Applejack started to ask.

A couple hours later, after Twilight had told Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie what transpired, as Starlight waited in the lobby just outside of the throne room, her feet and hands in magical shackles, Twilight, and her friends were in discussion about what to do concerning her. However, there was one in the group still stuck on the fact that the first sonic rainboom performed by Rainbow Dash seemed to be such a lynchpin to the present state of Mystica Three guesses who. “I mean, I knew my rainboom was awesome, but I never thought all of Mystica depended on it!” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered above her seat as everyone else was seated on their thrones, as Twilight was on her feet.

“Or on us!” Pinkie pointed out, in an attempt to both reel Rainbow in and to get in on the excitement. The two were Mystica’s number 1 and number 2 extraverts.

“I think it's more than that. Friendship connects all of Mystica, and undoing one group of friends made its magic less powerful. What I experience and can testify to is what would have happened if our friendship never took place, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Twilight pointed out as she recalled that this whole situation traced to the end of the friendship between Starlight and Sunburst.

“What Ah can't believe Y'all were able to travel through time like that.” Applejack pointed out, it was pretty obvious that the magic in Mystica was linked to and empowered by the bonds typically of Friendship between each other.

“That Starlight must be pretty magical!” Pinkie pointed out.

“Actually, Pinkie.” Twilight started, “she’s a binder, they are a fairly rare group of mages that able to bind together multiple small spells together into more complex and powerful ones, but they cannot cast the traditionally more powerful spells and they rarely are able to bind together more than ten spells on the best of days. She was able to bind over thirty.” This left her five main friends agape, “Because she was able to bind so many spells together and that she had planned this for over a year, I couldn’t use my powers alone to stop her. I had to convince her to stop on her own. Once I realized that everything fell into place.”

As this revelation sank in, Applejack voiced the concern about how powerful and skilled Starlight was, “But if she's as powerful as all that, we can't just send her on her way, can we?”

“Actually, I kind of have something else in mind,” Twilight then pulled out a waistband. “It’s harsh but it is something.” She then nobbed to Spike and the dragon went to the door to the lobby that Starlight was in. He opened them and beckoned Starlight in.

Starlight gulped and exhaled as she walked it, limited in her speed by the shackles that Twilight had placed on her, “I know there's no excuse for what I did, but I want you all to know that I'm ready for whatever punishment you think is fair.”

Twilight nobbed to Rarity, who enchanted a key to unlock the shackles. Twilight spoke as she walked towards Starlight, “Everyone here is in agreement, you can’t be allowed to move about as you wish until we are sure you’ll be more socially capable. So,” Twilight then placed a band on Starlight’s wrist. “This band is designed to prevent you from using your magic, beyond the most basic of spells and you can only bind together a maximum of two them together. You are still a powerful and potentially dangerous magic-user and what you did was heinous.” Starlight could not and would not argue that point, she almost doomed the world to an icy wasteland. “The band will, of its own accord, fall off when you have gone a time equal to the total of all time each person you removed an Aura Mark from was without their Aura Mark.” This shocked the other five, they knew that Starlight had done wrong, but that seemed a bit of an overreaction. Twilight was not phased as she continued, “However, should any person that you have wronged at any point, think, say or write that they forgive you what you did to them and the effects of what you did to others had on them, of their own accord either to the Divine or you, the time of your penance will be shortened by what remains of that person’s time you had wronged them, should the Divine deem that you merit that forgiveness.” This seemed to ease Applejack and Fluttershy, as their magic came from the Divine and one of the key lessons from the Divine is to overcome your want of vengeance and forgive those that wronged you. “Only beings more powerful than I can override this spell, be them demigods, avatars of certain forces, or the Divine, but that override will last only one hour unless it’s the Divine that overrides it for as long as the Divine deems it.”

“While it does sound just, that seems a little harsh.” Starlight pointed out.

“Well, I could ask Celestia or Luna to send you to the moon for a thousand years,” Twilight commented while looking back slightly.

“On second thought, maybe I can get used to this.” Starlight weakly commented.

“I knew you would.” Twilight couldn’t help but smirk at that. Being a demigod has its perks. But Twilight swiftly changed her focus back to Starlight, “Now I 've been thinking a lot about how badly Mystica fared without just one group of friends. Because even when one friendship dies, the results can be disastrous.”

Starlight looked at the floor ashamed of herself and her actions as she rubbed her left upper arm with her right hand, “I know first-hand how true that can be.”

Twilight placed her hand on Starlight’s shoulder, this got Starlight to look to Twilight, “And that's why I have one more thing to ask. If you're willing to learn, I'm willing to teach you what I know. You'll have the power to make Mystica an even better place. You just need a hand in finding the right direction to use your powers.”

“How do I start?” Starlight asked as she looked at the floor again, clearly at a loss for what to do.

Twilight smiled as turned to her friends, who were now standing not far from Starlight and Twilight, “Well it’s like learning how to walk. Hit it Pinkie.”

Pinkie gasped in joy as she pulled out of her hair all the instruments the others play, including her one-man-band set up, as Spike was given Pinkie’s drum set. After a few beats, Twilight started to sing, “Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door” as she sang she walked towards the door. As she sang the rest played their instruments as they seemed to be sliding on the ground, in including Spike and Starlight.
“You never will get
where you're going
If you never get up on your feet
Come on, there's a good tail wind blowing
A fast walking man is hard to beat”

“Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door” Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Spike all sang, while all but Pinkie seemed to be shocked at this initially, they elected to just let it go.

Twilight flew back to Starlight as they reached a part of the road that was an intersection, up ahead looked to be a dead end, but to the left and right were paths, “If you want to change your direction
If your time of life is at hand
Well don't be the rule, be the exception
A good way to start is to stand”

“Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door” Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy and Spike sang the refrain of the song as Twilight hovered to one of the two paths that Starlight could go.

Starlight looked to one of the windows of the closest houses and saw her reflection, which was how she was when she first met Twilight et al, “If I want to change the reflection
I see in the mirror each morn?” She sang.

“Oh, you do!” Twilight asked, trying to get Starlight to take the step.

“You mean that it's just my election?” Starlight asked as she started to see how she currently was dressed.

“Just that!” Twilight confirmed.

“To vote for a chance to be reborn.” Just as Starlight finished she undid the ponytail she had hair had a slight part in it while seeing herself as a little girl just before her friendship with Sunburst ended.

“You put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
You put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door” Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy and Spike sang the refrain of the song as Twilight hovered to one of the two paths that Starlight could go as Starlight slowly began to walk towards were Twilight hovered.

“Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door” Twilight and Starlight joined Applejack et al with this as they headed down the road. At the end of the path was the Castle of Friendship and the start of Starlight's new life.

Epilogue: The Letter to Celestia:

As night fell Twilight was in her room, having helped Starlight move in, as the latter had accepted the offer to be Twilight’s student in Friendship, she took out a quill, ink fountain and a piece of parchment. She took a breath. She knew she had to tell Celestia all that transpired, maybe Luna as well, but she did not to sound like she overstepped her authority. Reluctantly she dipped the quill into the ink fountain and began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia

“I miss writing that,” Twilight said to herself after she finished the start of her letter.

Today was a bizarre day.

“Understatement of the millennium.” Twilight had to confess before she continued.

A little backstory, last year after my friends and I helped Sunset and the Shadowbolts defeat the Sirens, we were sent on our first mission from the Aura Map. We went to a village, well more of a hamlet, in the middle of nowhere and came across a cult centered around the idea that if everyone had the same Aura Mark, then they would all be equal and happy. We exposed the leader, Starlight Glimmer, to the rest of the cult, the fraud that she was and we managed to get all the Aura Marks back. However, Starlight escaped into the mountain paths and cave network not far from the village. We would still be looking for her if we followed her then.

“I wonder how she’ll take this next bit, I went through it and I’m still coming to terms with the whole thing.” After a second she started to write.

Over the last year, Starlight planned to have revenge on me by making me see her stop Rainbow Dash’s first Sonic Rainboom. She managed to get a copy of Star Swirl’s time-traveling spell, you know the one that allowed me to go back in time one week, which cause Kerberos to leave his post. Well, she modified it, by binding to it various spells that allowed her, with the use of the Aura Map to travel to any time and any location in Mystica. As I said she elected to attempt to stop Rainbow’s first sonic rainboom. She nearly succeeded but I was able to convince her to stop. I would gladly tell you more about my experience, but I keep it simple. I have elected to take Starlight on as my student in regards to what I have learned in friendship. Now I already have something set up for her to atone for her actions, but I have a favor to ask of you. She said she had a friend that was accepted to Celestia’s School for The Gifted, by the name of Sunburst. I don’t recall a student by that name, but I know you would have a complete record of all students and where they currently are. With the Summer Sun Celebration coming up, and Cadance's is due, I think it would be great to have the two meet again, as was the formation of my friendship with my friends here.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight then pulled out a dragon-fire candle and lit it. She then sent the letter and then blew out the candle before she turned to her bed. It had been a long day and she needed a good night’s sleep.