Different Events

"No."

Starlight looked up at Twilight through her tears. She began to pull her hoof back as her face tensed in anger once again. "I did try to save our friendship!” she yelled, “I tried to stay in touch with Sunburst, but he shut me out! He agreed with his mom when she insisted that his CUTIE MARK meant he was destined to be some kind of 'great wizard', and all I'd be is a 'pretty little distraction'!" Her telekinetic aura began to crumple the ends of the time-scroll as she gripped them tighter. "Our entire FRIENDSHIP was thrown away for a CUTIE MARK! There was NOTHING I could've done to save it!"

Twilight took a startled step backward, making Spike wobble and clutch her mane harder. She leaned her head forward, eyes pleading. "But this won't save it either, Starlight. Taking your anger out on me and my friends won't fix anything that's happened to you; you're just pushing away the chance to make your future better."

Starlight gritted her teeth as her hooves dug into the cloud. "You don't get it, do you!? I wanted friendship more than anything else in the world, and I tried everything to keep the one I had, but I just wasn't important enough for my friend to stick by me like your friends have stuck by you! Not everyone's ending is a happy ending, Twilight! But you wouldn't know that, would you? Your life is perfect! You're an Alicorn Princess, you're surrounded by friends, and you've never had your greatest source of happiness RIPPED away from you!" Her eyes bore daggers into Twilight's. "For just once in your life, maybe you ought to know what it feels like to lose everything you cherish!"

"Starlight I–" Twilight gasped, her heart nearly stopping.

Glaring at the time-scroll through her tears, Starlight yanked the two ends apart, destroying the spell.

Mouth agape, Twilight stared in catatonic horror as Starlight released the halves into the windy Cloudsdale air. Spike leaned over Twilight's side as far as he could, trying to grab one of the halves as it blew past, but his reach still proved too short.

"And that’s what it feels like to lose your friends!” Starlight snarled.

Twilight continued to stare as a tear ran down her face.

Meanwhile, Starlight levitated herself up, turned, and fired a turquoise beam toward a speeding Rainbow Dash.

The beam hit the filly, entrapping her in a bulky crystal structure, and stopping all her momentum. Immediately, she began plummeting towards the ground below.

Panicking, and seeing Twilight still in catatonic shock, Spike yanked down on her mane and rapidly poked her in the side of her ribs.

"TWI!" he shouted. "TWI QUICK!"

“AH! W-WHA?!” she yelped, blinking as she began looking around in confusion.

"R-Rainbow Dash! Down there!" he exclaimed frantically, pointing to the large crystal boulder falling beneath the clouds.

Twilight gasped, swooping down towards the entrapped filly as fast as she possibly could.

Upon getting close, Twilight powered up her horn and fired ultrasonic vibration spell. A continuous stream of sound-waves, vibrating at the resonant frequency of the crystal structure, hit the young Rainbow Dash’s prison, and in a few seconds, caused the crystal to burst into thousands of small shards.

Twilight dove under Rainbow, catching her in her forelegs, and immediately began flying back up towards Cloudsdale.

Once she had landed, the filly was gently set upon the clouds.

The young Rainbow Dash turned her wide-eyed gaze up towards her rescuer.

“Y-You saved me! Oh my gosh, I-I thought I was just gonna be Rainbow Jam, but you just swooped right in and-” Rainbow gasped. “–Wait, you’re an alicorn!? My life just got saved by an alicorn!?” she shouted, loud enough to echo in spite of all the clouds.

Every foal in the vicinity whipped their heads around. Immediately, they began flooding over to Twilight, asking her who she was, where she came from, and what she was doing at a Cloudsdale summer flight camp.

Unable to see past the sea of young ponies climbing over each-other to see her, Twilight teleported herself and Spike above them, and shot off into the sky.

As she zipped away though, Rainbow's voice shouted from the crowd: "Hey wait! I never got your name, or why you saved me!"

Spike turned around and cupped his claws around his mouth. "Mauve Matter-Horn and Hum-Dr–MM!" A magic aura clamped his mouth shut, jerking him forward. He dug his claws into Twilight's hips to try and stay balanced.

"OW! Careful Spike! And keep the fake names less unique! We don't wanna cause Hum-Drum to be introduced early!"

"S-sorry!" He cupped his hands to his mouth again. "RAINBOW DASH! NEVERM–MM!"

"SPIKE! Just...focus on finding Starlight, please!"

Looking around the general area, Twilight's eyebrows sunk in worry as she failed to catch any glimpse of the delinquent unicorn.

Taking off into the main city, she began to ask nearly everypony on the street if they had seen a light pink self-levitating unicorn, with a purple, aquamarine-streaked mane.

“Nope, sorry.”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Only seen a unicorn do that at a circus when I was young!”

Flying up higher to take another look around, Twilight let out a stressed sigh. “Where is she!?” she whined, nervously darting her eyes all over.

“Maybe she went to start her village early!” Spike exclaimed, gripping her mane. "O-or maybe she's trying to teach spells to her past self, or take her past self to see Sunburst in Canterlot, or–" he gasped. "What if she's trying to steal Celestia's cutie mark and overthrow the country!"

“Spike, stay calm! She's not going to overthrow the country; she wants revenge on us specifically, remember?”

“Well what if she makes Celestia think we're scheming traitors who need to be caged up in Tartarus forever! I can't be neighbors with a starving chimera, Twi!”

“Spike!“ Twilight snapped, glancing back at him. “That's ridiculous!" She paused. "...Although not entirely out of the question,” she sighed. “If we don't find Starlight and stop her – quietly – then all these changes could create an Equestria far worse than what we've already seen!”