Starlight Glimmer Makes Many Mistakes

Chapters

Round Ponyville
Golden Years
More Good Decisions
Fun in the Forest
Apple Farmers
Meeting Celestia
Actually Meeting Celestia
Making New Friends
An Awkward Dinner
Those Canterlot Days
What A Show
Self Help
How To Avoid Problems
At the Gala
Very Important Pony
School
Library Lurking I
Library Lurking II
Fond Farewell
Starlight's World I
Starlight's World II
Starlight's World III
Starlight's World IV
Starlight's World V
Starlight's World VI
Starlight's World VII
Starlight's World VIII
Starlight's World IX
Starlight's World X
The Slightest of Detours
Lifetime Ban
The Best Decision
Completely Unavoidable
It's About Time

Round Ponyville

“I think it’s kind of interesting that we get to see how Ponyville was in the past, don’t you?” Starlight asked Spike as the two of them walked down the streets of their home.

“Considering the circumstances? No. I don’t.” Spike responded to her.

Starlight rolled her eyes at his attitude and the two of them kept on walking. As was somewhat expected they were given a wide berth by most of the common ponies of Ponyville, they just weren’t used to seeing a dragon walking down the street. It amused Spike a little bit considering how in the future Ponyville would essentially become the central hub for all sorts of creatures visiting Equestria. And that wasn’t even to mention all the random monster attacks and other crazy events that would take place once Twilight arrived.

“Do they have to all stare at you so much?” Starlight said.

It was true, Starlight just looked like a normal unicorn so Spike was getting most of the eyes of the confused citizens drawn towards him. At least they weren’t running in terror and locking their doors and windows or anything like that.

“Eh, no big deal. I just like to think about how they’re looking at a future hero of Equestria.” Spike replied nonchalantly, not sweating the small stuff as always.

Starlight again was forced to roll her eyes at him. “Right.”

It was strange to see how similar Ponyville still was to how they knew it but with all the little differences that stuck out. Looking through the window of Quills and Sofas the two of them didn’t see Davenport but instead an older pony that must’ve been his father. Similarly while the marketplace was still full of the same kind of food and vendors they would see if they were in the present quite a few of the ponies working those stalls were obviously parents of the ones they knew. The most obvious being Applejack’s two parents selling apples, Starlight had never seen a picture of them but there was nopony else they could be with little filly Applejack standing there learning the trade from them.

“Wow. It all feels kind of surreal.” Starlight said.

“I know right? And you never even knew the old library like I did, man that place brings back memories.” Spike said as he fondly looked in the direction of Golden Oak Library.

“We’ll definitely go check it out. I’d like to see it too you know?” Starlight playfully rubbed her friend’s head. “For now though I wanted to hang around somewhere where there will be more ponies. Also I’m kind of hungry, what about you?”

“Always.” Spike rubbed his belly, frowning. “But I don’t know how easy I’ll be able to get my claws on some delicious gems around here now.”

Starlight hummed to herself, thinking. “Hm, well if worst comes to worst we could always go digging in one of those caves Maud likes to hang out in. I know em pretty well by now.”

Spike licked his lips. “I go down in there with Rarity sometimes too. They’re full of tasty gems.”

“Alright, that can be plan B then.” Starlight giggled at his anticipation. “But right now I’m thinking Sugarcube Corner is the perfect place to satisfy both of my desires. What do you think?”

“Sounds perfect.” Spike said and the two of them walked through Ponyville to their well-known destination.

It looked pretty much the same as ever, although without Pinkie Pie the both of them were wondering just how good it could be. Starlight opened up the door and the bell gave a ring, notifying Mrs. Cake that new customers had just arrived. When she came out to the front counter her eyes opened wide in surprise at seeing a dragon in her shop accompanied by a nervously grinning unicorn. Starlight meanwhile was thinking about how much younger she looked.

“Oh, why hello.” Mrs. Cake said, getting herself back into gear. “Sorry for the surprise, we just don’t get many dragons in here. Or any, really.”

“No need to apologize.” Spike said and walked up to the counter with Starlight in tow. “We’re just here cause we, uh… heard about how delicious the food at Sugarcube Corner is!”

“Yep, that’s exactly it.” Starlight nodded along with a grin plastered on her face.

Their behavior seemed a little odd to Mrs. Cake but they seemed nice enough so she cheerily returned their friendliness with the smile that only a seasoned proprietor of Ponyville could have.

“Well alright then, so what would the two of you like?” She asked.

“Just two cupcakes would be great.” Starlight said.

Mrs. Cake smiled and pressed a button on her cash register. “Perfect, that’ll be four bits!”

Both Starlight and Spike suddenly gave a sharp gasp and looked at each other. Realization now finally dawning on both of the accidental time-travelers. With a nervous chuckle Starlight started rubbing the back of her head and gave Mrs. Cake a pained smile.

“Haha… funny story about that. We kind of don’t have any bits on us right now.”

Spike sighed deeply and buried his face in his claws. “This just gets better and better...”

“Oh, I see.” Mrs. Cake replied, returning Starlight’s pained smile with one of her own. She didn’t want to be rude or anything to them but this whole situation was just getting weirder and weirder. Why didn’t they have any bits on them? And how or why would they come in here before making sure they could actually buy something? The two ponies continued to silently smile at each other in a disturbingly awkward moment while Spike just grumbled on and on.

Starlight was about to apologetically excuse themselves from Sugarcube Corner when a new customer came in through the door, the ringing of the bell alerting the three already inside and making them turn to see who just came in.

The new pony stopped for a second, her eyes darting between the three others and taking in the awkward atmosphere before she decided to break the ice.

“Am I interrupting something?” Pear Butter asked them while her young daughter Applejack came up beside her, also quizzically looking at the scene unfolding in Sugarcube Corner.

“No, no, not at all, Butter.” Mrs. Cake said to her good friend while happily beckoning her to come further inside.

So that’s what her name is. Both Starlight and Spike thought at once.

Pear Butter walked in with Applejack tight on her heels, the filly unknowingly walking right up to two of her closest friends in the future. The Pear turned Apple smiled at her friend before glancing at Starlight and Spike.

“Sorry, it just seemed like you were in the middle of something. Have you already ordered?” She asked them.

“Not quite.” Starlight said while looking away with a light blush on her face.

“To be honest-” Spike said, craning his neck up to look Pear Butter in the eye. “We wanted to come here to grab something to eat but we don’t have any bits on us. We’ve kind of gotten stuck in a bit of trouble and we didn’t really have the chance to bring any of our stuff along.”

Mrs. Cake and Applejack were giving the both of them a somewhat incredulous look, clearly wondering just what the hay was going on with them.

Pear Butter on the other hand smiled sympathetically at them. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She turned to Mrs. Cake. “What was it they wanted to order?”

“Two cupcakes.” Mrs. Cake replied.

“Well if that’s all then I’ll be more than happy to cover for them.” Pear Butter said.

“Wait, hold on!” Starlight said, holding Pear Butter by the shoulder. “We can’t accept that. It just wouldn’t be right when we can’t repay you.”

“Oh think nothing of it!” Pear Butter playfully waved Starlight off. “Just consider it some Ponyville hospitality. Knowing that you two aren’t from around here after all makes me wanna give you the best first impression possible of our lovely little town.” Her eyes drifted upwards for a second as a thought occurred to her. “You should come on down to Sweet Apple Acres in the future some time too. Now there I could give you a really warm Apple family welcome. And if you still find yourselves needing some bits, well we could always use some help around the farm that we’d be willing to pay for.”

A warm but embarrassed smile spread along Starlight’s face.

“You’re too kind.” Starlight said. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

Pear Butter happily paid for their cupcakes and then finished her own transaction with Mrs Cake, heading out of Sugarcube Corner with Applejack. Spike gave a friendly smile and wave goodbye to the future Element of Honesty and Applejack returned it. Big Mac would be jealous to hear that she got to meet a real live dragon. If he believed her.

“I suppose it’s good that the citizens of Ponyville are so nice.” Starlight said to Mrs. Cake as she held the two cupcakes with her magic.

“The Apples have always been the pride of Ponyville.” Mrs. Cake happily said, glad that two new strangers got to learn how nice of a pony her friend was.

Starlight and Spike then sat down at one of the tables inside Sugarcube Corner to eat their cupcakes and talk about their next move.

“Alright, I’m still a little worried that we’re going to accidentally mess things up. I mean, what if Applejack recognizes me in the future now? Or the present… uh, I’m not sure how it works?” Spike said, a tad confused over the time-travel.

“Oh I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Starlight was not half as concerned. “Besides for all we know any changes will just create some alternate timeline or whatever and where we come from will be fine. Maybe we’re not even really in our past in the first place but some kind of crazy alternate world, Discord told me about those.”

Spike frowned at Starlight. “I hope you’re not trying to use that as some sort of excuse to mess around with things, I’m not falling for it.”

Starlight groaned in annoyance. “Are you just dedicated to not having any fun right now, Spike?”

“Are you dedicated to doing something irresponsible?” Spike shot back at her.

“Being the guidance counselor for every creature at the school is stressful, I have to try and be perfect for them, but now I have the opportunity to have some fun and maybe do a lot of good in the process. It’s a win win.” She said. “I really don’t see how anything I want to do back here would make things worse.”

Spike just sighed and shook his head before perking up again, thinking about something. “Hey wait, Discord. Maybe he’ll be able to find us? This kind of thing seems right up his alley.”

“Ugh, no!” Starlight said. “Discord’s my friend but he’d never let me live it down if he learns about this and has to be the one that rescues us. I’ll take waiting over that.”

“Well, yeah, good point.” Spike couldn’t deny that Discord would endlessly tease Starlight about this little misadventure.

“At least we have something to fall back on now if we need it.” Starlight said as she chomped down on her cupcake, thinking about Pear Butter’s offer.

“Yeah.” Spike said, slowly eating his own cupcake as he thought about something else. “Hey Starlight, you keep talking about wanting to change things for the better and all that here. I figured if there was anything you’d want to change it would be keeping your past self in touch with Sunburst?”

Starlight just shook her hoof at that. “Nah, no chance of that anyways. Judging by how old Applejack is that already happened years ago.”

“Oh, okay.” Spike returned to eating before snapping back to look at Starlight, an eyebrow raised in confusion. “Wait, what? You’re saying that happened years ago? How old are you?”

Starlight frowned at him. “You don’t ask a lady her age, Spike.”

“Pff.” Spike rolled his eyes. “You a lady? Rarity’s a lady.”

Starlight’s frown turned into a glare at the young dragon. “Oh and I’m sure you see yourself as the perfect gentleman for her?”

“Exactly.” Spike said proudly with not a hint of irony.

The lilac unicorn snorted. “You’d probably have better luck with her back here now that she’s closer to your age.”

Spike pouted, folding his arms over his chest. “Barely.”

The two of them continued on in their combative mood like that for a while longer, Spike still annoyed at Starlight for getting them into this mess and Starlight tired that she was being held on a leash. It occurred to Starlight that she didn’t actually know that much about how Ponyville was in the past and just getting to see how things were now might actually be pretty fun even if she couldn’t mess around with anything. Even Spike probably didn’t know that much more than her.

“Well I think ducking out in Ponyville until Twilight finds us is going okay so far.” Starlight said, starting up the conversation again. “A little boring though.”

“I don’t think they had as many monster attacks back then- er, now, as they do in the future. Or present?” Spike said.

Starlight gazed out the window of Sugarcube Corner. “I was hoping we could just pony watch and spot the differences from here but now that we’ve gotten something to eat I’m kind of getting bored of sitting here, I’m curious to see the rest of the town.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” Spike said and smiled at Starlight. “How about we finally head on over to the Golden Oak Library? I’m sure you’ll love to see that. And me too honestly.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Starlight and Spike both got out of their seats and headed for the door. Starlight turned around and waved goodbye to Mrs. Cake. “Thank you for the cupcakes, they were great.”

“You’re welcome.” The kind Mrs. Cake waved back at them.

Even without Pinkie Pie the cupcakes had proven to be delicious, the Cake’s really knew their stuff. Satisfied for the moment and hoping that if they ever needed something or got hungry again there would be another friendly pony to help, Starlight and Spike walked through the streets of Ponyville again to see what Twilight’s one-time home was like right now. Starlight secretly hoping that with each turn of the street she’d get the chance to do something fun and Spike not so secretly hoping that absolutely nothing bad would happen.

Golden Years

“This place has seen better days.”

“And worse.”

Starlight and Spike said as they looked around the nearly run-down insides of the Golden Oak Library. It practically looked abandoned when they first walked in and a thin layer of dust coated all the bookshelves. Did nopony take care of it at the moment? If Starlight was being honest the ponies of Ponyville never came across to her as being big on reading in the first place but this was a little extreme. Maybe Mayor Mare would know why it’s like this? Assuming she even was the mayor at the moment.

“Twilight would throw a fit if she saw the library like this, any library.” Starlight said as she walked along one of the rows of books, gently dragging a hoof along and leaving a broken trail in the dust.

It had still looked so pretty from the outside. Just as Spike remembered it as he said. Aside from a couple small differences like the branches not reaching quite as high and the lack of a beehive hanging from it. But Starlight had to admit it was a real cozy looking place to live, it had that nice Ponyville charm to it and that quaint simplistic feeling that just suited Twilight so well. Starlight could see herself enjoying it too, spending day after day reading books in here and studying magic with her teacher. Although the lack of space and flammability of the library may have made that a bad idea.

Unfortunately the charm was only on the outside as the library was still clearly neglected and in need of some serious care and cleaning. Spike shook his head as he thought about how long it would’ve taken him to clean this whole place up as Twilight’s assistant. He’d never let it get this bad in the first place if he was on the job.

“We could probably just crash in here until Twilight finds us, I somehow doubt anypony would even realize it.” Starlight mused.

“Maybe, but knowing that would probably just bother Twilight too anyways.” Spike said as he surveyed the library. Sighing, he placed his hands on his hips in annoyance. “Where’s my apron when I need it?”

Starlight chuckled. “Thinking of cleaning?”

“Yep.” Spike replied simply.

Starlight tilted her head to the side as she looked down at him, slightly worried. “Wait, really?”

“Yes, Starlight. And you’re going to help me. It may be a little early but this was still my home, I can’t stand to see it like this. Twilight would feel the same way.”

As much as Starlight really didn’t want to clean up the whole library Spike had a point there. Besides it would just be a nice thing to do for the citizens of Ponyville in general, even though its current sad state implied they wouldn’t really care in the first place. And if one of the first things Starlight said to Twilight when they got back to their own time was how they helped clean up her beloved library that might go a long way to appeasing her too.

“Alright.” Starlight finally acquiesced. “I’ll be able to take care of most of this pretty quickly with my magic anyways.”

“Come on, you should do things the old-fashioned way.” Spike said as he wandered off into the library’s kitchen, looking for anything that might help with cleaning up.

“If the books weren’t already all on their shelves I would’ve used my sorting spell on them.” Starlight replied, not a big fan of cleaning.

“You know speaking of that we should make sure they’re sorted correctly too.” Spike said,

“Ughhh.”

“Oh come on Starlight.” Spike snapped at her. “You wanted to do something nice didn’t you?”

Starlight rolled her eyes, she couldn’t really disagree with him though. “Fine, fine. Did you find anything in the kitchen? And why does a library have a kitchen?”

“Because the librarian would live here.” Spike said, walking back out of the kitchen with a pair of brooms and some rags.

So much to Starlight’s dismay she got to work, trying to keep positive and thinking about how proud Twilight would be to hear that she cleaned up the library. Well Twilight would probably be proud to hear that she had cleaned up any library. She used her magic to levitate a rag all over the various books, fully ridding them of their coat of dust this time. Luckily for her there weren’t nearly as many books in the Golden Oak Library right now as there were in Twilight’s personal library back in her castle. Go figure.

“Alright, once we’re done down here we can go upstairs and clean up the bedrooms and then check out the basement too. Hopefully there’s not too much stuff down there.” Spike said while he swept from one side of the floor to another.

“Sounds like a blast, it’s just like how I wanted to spend my time in the past.” Starlight sarcastically replied but Spike just ignored her.

The cleaning continued on in quiet, Starlight mostly paying attention to the books and shelves while Spike took care of the rest. The dragon was far more diligent and invested in doing a good job and a part of him wanted to see the library look like how it was when he was living here. It would bring back more than a few good memories.

While he scrubbed down the windows Starlight decided to take the time to check and make sure that all the books actually were in their right place.

They weren’t.

With a sigh, Starlight’s horn lit up and she quickly organized the shelves, giving it all a once over to make sure things were clean and in order.

“Mind if I head upstairs now?” She asked Spike.

“Go for it, I’ll be up in a jiffy and then we can tackle the basement together.”

Starlight hopped up the stairs and checked out the former living quarters of Spike and Twilight. Nice and cozy like the rest of the library but dirty as well. There weren’t any personal affects dotting the bedrooms like there should be and it just gave Starlight an empty feeling to look at it like this. Even though she had never been here before her heart was just telling her that this place should be full of so much more life than it was. To think of what went on here, the Golden Oak Library deserved better.

Straightening up a bit she decided to put a bit more effort into cleaning and had already done quite a good job of the upstairs before Spike made his way up.

“Hey, good to see you’re taking this a little more seriously.”

Starlight shrugged. “Eh. I guess I was just thinking about how much it meant to you. And since you’ll never see the library like this again once we go back...” She trailed off.

“Thanks, Starlight.” Spike said, giving her a hug that she was more than happy to return.

“So what was it like, living in a tree?” She asked him.

“Well I had to be careful about breathing fire but aside from that not much different than living in a huge crystal castle.” He winked at her, nudging her in the side.

“You’ve certainly lived in a lot more interesting places than most creatures have.” She giggled.

“Hero of Equestria after all. Gotta have a cooler life story than most.” Spike puffed out his chest as he said this.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, let’s just get back to cleaning. I want to be done before night falls at least.”

“Same here, I really wanna spruce up the place. Get it?” Spike said, wiggling his eyebrows.

A loud groan was the answer he got as Starlight shook her head. “Spike, that joke was terrible. And we’re inside an oak tree.”

“It’s still a tree, it works.” Spike defended himself.

After a few more barbs they finished with cleaning the upstairs of the library and moved down to the basement. Spike had no idea what might’ve been down here before Twilight turned it into a miniature laboratory but if he had to venture a guess it would be dust, dust, and more dust. Was Mayor Mare really okay with the library being in this condition? A better question might be if she was okay with letting complete strangers scurry about it like they owned the place.

“Wow, it’s pitch black down there.” Starlight said from on top of the stairs leading down to the basement.

And right she was as there wasn’t a single light or anywhere to place lanterns that either she or Spike could tell from where they stood. Likely nopony had been down here in some time.

“Hang on, I know there are some candles in here for late-night reading.” Spike said and went into another room, rummaging through some cabinets to find the candles he spoke of.

“You sure they’re gonna be there? I mean this is a long time ago after all.”

“Why wouldn’t they be? They’re something that should always be in the library.”

Spike was proven correct as Starlight shortly heard an “Aha!” and the dragon came waddling back over with an unlit candle on a holder. With a smug look on his face he held it out to Starlight.

“I was going to give you the honor.” He said.

Starlight smirked and took the candle holder in her magic, a minuscule beam of magic then shot from the tip of her horn to the candle, cleanly lighting it. “I suppose I have the right tool for the job.”

With how proud Spike was Starlight decided not to mention that she could probably have just illuminated the basement with her magic.

Now with the candle being levitated by Starlight the two of them made their way down into the dark basement, being careful to watch their step in case anything was piled up on the stairs or there was an unstable step. The air was stale and murky the further down they went and Starlight was starting to wonder why a library had such a big basement in the first place. Slowly the two finished their descent and came to rest at the floor of the basement, the candle not providing much for illumination but still enough to show them the few boxes stacked up on the floor. Covered in dust and cobwebs they made everything else in the library look clean. Starlight sighed and put the candle down on a side table that was in the basement and made her way over to the boxes with Spike to check them out.

“You think they’re just old books or something?” Spike asked as he started to pull open one of the boxes.

“Probably. Either that or whatever other old kind of stuff you keep in a library.” Starlight grabbed and sorted the boxes in her magic, pulling off the cobwebs and placing them all evenly on the floor.

Opening up the one nearest to her she saw that it was full of old records keeping track of who had borrowed a book and when it was taken/returned. Might as well just keep that down here. Spike too only found a box full of stamps and dried out ink pads.

“You know I’m thinking we can just leave this stuff here for now.” Starlight said. “We can still clean up down here but it’s probably best to just keep it as storage space anyways, right?”

“Yeah.” Spike replied, nodding along.

“I guess that’s it for the cleaning today? Did we need to do anything else here?”

Spike rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking. “No, but spending all this time in here and seeing how yucky it is gave me an idea. Come on.” Spike hopped back up the stairs, waving for Starlight to follow him.

It was almost evening now, the meager orange sunlight pouring through the windows of the library at a slant.

“So what is it?” Starlight asked Spike as they made it back up to the main room of the library.

Spike turned to her and smirked, the expression on his face saying he had just gotten a great idea. Pointing a claw at Starlight he opened his mouth. “You’re going to become Ponyville’s new librarian.”

“Excuse me?!” Starlight backpedaled from the dragon.

“Think about it Starlight, it’s perfect!” Spike said, running out into the middle of the library and gesturing around it with wide-open arms. “First off it’s clear that no one uses it so we don’t have a problem there, it can be our source of income when you officially get the job, it’s something to do to keep us from getting bored without making any massive changes to the past, and whenever Twilight does find us back here I bet it’ll be one of the first places she checks cause I’m here. Not to mention that I don’t like how neglected this place is in the first place.”

“Well… yeah.” Starlight was vaguely considering it. The idea did make some sense and it would give them a place to live while they were stuck here. “How am I going to become the librarian though? I can’t just start staying here and say, “Hey Ponyville! I’m your new librarian!” you know?”

“And that’s why we’re going to go talk to Mayor Mare about it right now. I’m sure she’ll be glad that somepony is offering to take care of and mind the library.” Spike said.

“I guess so...” Starlight rubbed her chin while mulling it over.

“Come on, Starlight! You wanted to do something fun and new while we were stuck in the past, didn’t you? Well this is also something that won’t cause any big problems and will make Twilight happy to hear.” Spike pleaded with her.

Starlight finally sighed in acceptance. “Well you’re definitely right about that. I guess we can go to town hall now?”

“I suppose I don’t really see a problem with it.” A much younger Mayor Mare said to the two strangers who had walked through the doors to town hall late in the day. It was certainly an odd occurrence to see a dragon in the first place and this one supposedly wanted to become a library assistant to the smiling unicorn with him. Really she should’ve found somepony to take care of that library a while ago anyways.

“Great!” Spike said, he and Starlight high-fiving.

“Do you have any credentials as a librarian?” The mayor asked Starlight. Even though it was hardly something like being a nurse and the library had been unattended for too long she didn’t want to hoof it off to just anypony.

Starlight winced and she and Spike shared a look. “Uhh… not exactly.” Starlight said as she nervously rubbed the back of her head. “But I’ve got a lot of experience with books and sorting and taking care of them, I used to live somewhere with a big library.”

The mayor raised an eyebrow and for a moment Spike and Starlight weren’t sure if she was going to be okay with them.

But at last she just shrugged. “Well it’s better than nothing.”

“Yes!” Spike pumped his fist and even Starlight looked pleased.

“You don’t need a key from me or anything to get in, the library is unlocked.” Mayor Mare told them.

“Oh, we already know.” Starlight replied nonchalantly as she and Spike walked back outside. Completely unaware that Mayor Mare might wonder why they already knew that.

After their talk inside it was late in the day now, practically night time. Starlight and Spike were feeling pretty good about things now. For the first time all day Spike wasn’t feeling annoyed at being stuck in the past thanks to some poor decisions by Starlight and Starlight was feeling pretty happy with her “vacation”. Helped that Ponyville was such a nice place and the library held so many great memories for Spike, and it was really the perfect place for Starlight to relax too and not have to worry about things. Even if she wasn’t getting to do anything major like she initially wanted.

“Maybe we should have asked for some pay upfront. Then we could’ve grabbed a bite to eat before we head back to the library.” Spike said.

“Eh, I’m fine either way.” Starlight said. “Gonna be happy to just get back and rest after today.”

“I hear that.”

Immediately after Spike had said that and before either one of them could take another step Starlight’s vision went white and a strange shaking sensation overtook her body. Her hooves felt like they had left the ground and a brief bout of vertigo passed through her.

And in another second it was over, her vision blurred back into focus and she found herself standing right where she had been. Her body seemed perfectly fine and the only thing that was off was that she could hear what sounded like yelling and the sounds of lots of ponies running off in the distance.

“Spike, did you just-” She began, looking over at him to see the dragon confusedly patting down his whole body, as if to check that he was really still there.

“Yeah, yeah I did. What was that?” Spike asked her, done making sure he was okay.

Starlight grimaced. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.”

“Uh, Starlight.” Spike said, looking past Starlight and pointing a claw down the street. “Please tell me our luck can’t possibly be this bad?”

Unsure if she wanted to look at whatever he saw Starlight turned her head to see a billowing plume of smoke rising into the sky from the direction that the Golden Oak Library was in.

In short. Their luck was that bad.

Starlight and Spike raced through the streets of Ponyville back to the library to find it engulfed in an inferno, the firefighters of Ponyville futilely trying their hardest to put it out. They stared at it in shock, mouths agape as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Numerous other ponies stood around the library wondering how this could have happened, a few even crying at the soon to be burnt to a crisp tree.

Starlight and Spike nervously glanced at each other and with a quick teleport Starlight took the both of them into an alleyway away from the commotion.

“How did this happen?!” Spike blurted out immediately.

Starlight wailed and collapsed to the ground, holding her head in her hooves. “Ohhh! I’m so stupid! The candle, Spike! I forgot to blow out the candle I left in the basement!”

Spike held his head in horror. “We burned down Twilight’s home!”

With a gasp, Starlight shot right back up. “That’s what that was! That shaking and everything going white must’ve been because of the library! We just changed the past!”

“But then why didn’t we go back to our own time?!” Spike asked in fear at what had happened.

“I don’t know! Maybe because it’s not the same spell?” Starlight almost started hyperventilating but luckily she wasn’t that similar to Twilight. “I can’t believe I decide to not mess around with the past and then I accidentally do this! I wanted to mess around in good ways!” Starlight reached forward and shook Spike by the shoulders. “This is bad! Forget Twilight being angry at me, I just burned down a library. I just burnt books! She’s going to kill me!”

“Uh, yeah. That’s pretty bad.” Spike said, basically in shock at this point. “You know something else just occurred to me but we should probably skip town for a while before Mayor Mare puts two and two together and realizes it was us who did this.”

“Aghhhhh!”

And after that yell of frustration Starlight teleported them both to the edge of town. Neither of them were entirely sure of what to do now but it would probably be a good idea to steer clear of Ponyville for the foreseeable future. Lest another terrible mishap take place.

More Good Decisions

“Alright Spike I have two theories. One is that that little accident changed our timeline. Two is that because of that change a new timeline was created that we’ve hopped into and I’m certain that it’s just as good and happy as the original while at the same time we totally haven’t messed up our world and timeline at all and everything is just peachy. Sounds like a good theory, right?”

“Could you slow down for a second? I’m not sure I caught all of that. And in the future I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t use “we”, okay?”

“That’s fair.”

The two of them walked through the Everfree Forest the next morning, they had nothing else to do anymore and no place to go so they might as well go somewhere they probably couldn’t cause as much chaos. Probably.

Starlight was leading them on and still trying to justify and rationalize things while Spike plodded along in annoyance. The two friends had seen better days. Spike knew that none of what had happened was on purpose of course, and he didn’t really want to stay mad at her or anything like that.

It’s just that she was kind of making things difficult.

At least none of the creatures in the Everfree would really be a problem for her, and both of them could fly if it came down to it. But it still wasn’t exactly making Spike happy that they had to retreat here for now. Zecora seemed to like it just fine but he liked his home to be a bit more comfortable than this. And where would they even actually sleep in here? They didn’t have a tent. Or sleeping bags. Or food. And neither Spike nor Starlight had paid attention to Twilight’s lectures on “Edible flora of the Everfree”.

“Starlight, where are we even going right now?” Spike asked her. Finally curious enough at where she might be headed.

“Just a little someplace special, I already told you I knew about the caves around here thanks to Maud. Now we’re gonna go see her future home too.” Starlight replied.

“I hope it’s a little more fireproof than Twilight’s.” Spike snarked at her.

Starlight shot him back a glare. “It is.”

Their so far short journey into the Everfree eventually took them to an entrance to one of its many caves. It was funny for Spike to think that when he first moved here something like this might worry him or seem a little daunting. Now it was so far from scary it was almost laughable. After everything else he’d seen and been through the terrors of the Everfree Forest were like nothing.

“Now it might take a little while to find it. I can’t remember exactly which way we went when I was down here with Maud but I’m pretty sure I’ll recognize the right spot and then it’s just the small matter of knocking down a wall and viola! Home sweet home for the near future.” Starlight said enthusiastically.

Spike however was still a little concerned. “Knocking down a wall? In a cave? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I did it just fine before.” She shot back at him.

“Yeah but Maud was there to make sure nothing bad would happen. She probably would’ve stopped you if you were about to do something dumb. What if you accidentally cause a cave-in or destroy the place you’re trying to get into this time?” Spike reasoned.

“It’ll be fine, Spike. Trust me. Even if I can’t excavate as precisely as she can my magic is strong enough to hold things up.” Starlight was unwilling to budge on this issue. “Besides you’re gonna love it down here, it’s really pretty and there are tons of crystals and gems for you to eat.”

Spike rolled his eyes but went along with her. “Alright, against my better judgment I’ll trust you. Going with my gut has gotten me in a lot of trouble before so maybe going against it will actually work out well?”

“I’m glad you have so much confidence in me.” Starlight’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she led the two of them deeper into the caves.

The cave was quiet and devoid of any monsters or other creatures that might call the rest of the Everfree Forest home. Starlight lit up her horn to give them some light to see with, not as much as a candle but Spike decided not to bring that up. Normally she would need a hardhat to see better just like Rarity did when she was digging for gems. Speaking of gems, Spike’s mouth began watering as he looked around the cave, the walls embedded with and practically overflowing with all sorts of delicious looking specimens. If they weren’t trying to find something he’d have taken the time to devour a few bucketfuls already.

“It should be close by. I’m pretty sure she said it was hollow granite but I’ll be honest, I can’t really tell granite apart from any other rock.” Starlight said. “It’s just gonna be a big wall.”

“Great, you be on the lookout for that and I’ll be on the lookout for which gems look the best to eat.” Spike said.

Starlight briefly turned to look back at him, an annoyed frown on her face. “Very helpful.” And right as she turned to face forward again her face smacked right into a very hard and very painful wall of granite. “Oof!”

The unique and highly recognizable resonating sound that echoed through the cave as Starlight’s head collided with the granite told them the very important fact that it was hollow.

“Hah! Knew I could find it again!” Starlight said, rubbing her red muzzle and trying to salvage as much pride as possible.

But Spike wasn’t letting her get away with it that easily. “You know it would’ve been more impressive if you intentionally found it.”

Starlight rolled her eyes, not deigning to respond and instead getting ready to blast through the wall. With a somewhat strong blast of magic it was a simple matter to smash the granite and Starlight and Spike walked into the hidden sanctuary that rested in the caves. It was just as amazing as Starlight remembered, with the waterfall coming from an underground river and the glowing gems on the ceiling that gave the illusion of sunlight, illuminating the entirety of the cavern. Spike as well was amazed, walking slack-jawed out into the large room and looking around in awe. Starlight grinned, she was going to enjoy rubbing it in his face about her being right.

“Woah.” Spike said. “I can’t believe there’s something like this down here.”

“Yep.” Starlight said as she walked beside him. “Maud and I were pretty surprised to see it too. Cool place to live, right?”

“Well I already live in a magical crystal castle but yeah, this is pretty cool too.” Spike said and Starlight couldn’t really deny that he had a point.

Starlight hopped down to where the calm waterfall pooled into a pond, taking in the scent of the cold water while Spike glided down to her. This whole place had a nice and relaxing atmosphere to it, she always liked hanging out with Maud here, just quietly spending time together. As she craned her neck to look up at the ceiling of the cavern she had to think that Twilight would be interested in whatever magical property it was these gems had that made them glow like this. Maybe when they returned to their own time she could bring Twilight here.

“So now what?” Spike’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

Starlight looked down at him, a confused look on her face. “What do you mean?”

“We can’t just stay here all the time. Twilight doesn’t know about this place, how would she ever find us?”

“I figured she has a spell to track us down with once she finds where we traveled back to.” Starlight shrugged.

“No, that’s the kind of spell you would make.” Spike accused.

“Well fine, in a couple days maybe we could start going back to Ponyville. Or maybe head to Sweet Apple Acres and take Butter up on her offer.”

“I don’t know if I feel good about potentially horrifically altering Applejack’s life.” Spike said with a grimace on his face.

“Oh come on!” Starlight stamped a hoof. “I wouldn’t do anything like that. And we have no idea if the library burning down was even a bad thing, for all we know the change could be a good one.”

“Okay, you can keep telling yourself that and I’ll keep telling myself that Twilight has nothing to be angry at me for and we can both sleep easy tonight.” Spike folded his arms over his chest and looked away.

“Grr.” Starlight grumbled but didn’t want to get into a bigger argument. “Whatever, let’s just enjoy the scenery for now. You can go eat whatever you want, I’m gonna go lie down.” Starlight did as she said and took up a spot right at the water’s edge.

Spike in turn shook his head and decided that now might as well be the best time to figure out which gems in here tasted the best.

Starlight just stayed like she was for a while. Her mind going over the events of yesterday and trying to figure out how they even got into this situation in the first place. And then there was the fact that while it was bad enough that she had time-traveled like this again she even made another, likely bad despite what she was saying earlier, change to the past that she had no idea how they would revert or fix now. Starlight was going to be placing her bets on Twilight to just magically appear and fix everything, in all honesty it seemed like a pretty safe bet considering who it was she was talking about. Maybe a little irresponsible of Starlight to just let it all ride on that right now but her students didn’t need to know about any of this. She was still a good role model. Right?

“Mmm, this is delicious.”

Starlight shifted to see Spike walking towards her with some random orange gemstone in his claws, happily chowing down on it.

Upon the two of them meeting eyes Spike frowned and started looking around ashamedly. “Uh, you know sorry for giving you such a hard time about all this.”

Starlight just grunted. “Meh, kind of have it coming.”

“Admitting it is the first step.” Spike smiled.

Starlight couldn’t help but giggle and Spike was happy to join her. Still friends even if they got on each others nerves a few times. Spike after all had to deal with all of Twilight’s neuroses all his life and Starlight had Trixie. So they were used to it. Even in a stressful situation like this one or two arguments weren’t going to come between them.

“You know I’ll understand if you aren’t too thrilled by my suggestion but we might… want to go see Princess Celestia?” Spike suddenly decided to broach to her.

Starlight winced. “Yeah, let that be the last resort. I don’t want to bother her with this.” She raised an eyebrow at Spike. “And wouldn’t that probably mess up the timeline again.”

Spike shrugged. “It might still be our best bet.”

There was a retort on the tip of Starlight’s tongue about how if he had a problem with her intentionally trying to change things in the past for the better it seemed a bit hypocritical that he also wanted to go to Princess Celestia with this. But she never got to say it as a sudden shaking took hold of the cavern.

“Uh, Starlight...” Spike worriedly said as his head whipped back and forth while the walls of Maud’s future home shook.

Starlight desperately looked over at the entrance she had made in the chamber only to see to her despair a series of cracks spider-webbing from around the edges and quickly going up the walls. The glowing crystals and gems in the ceiling were similarly cracking and the light emanating from them was blinking weaker and weaker. All around the two of them bits of rock and dust started falling and the formerly calm waterfall began spilling out like a raging torrent.

With a nervous grin Starlight looked back at Spike. “I think I screwed up this time.”

“So now that you’ve destroyed two future homes what’s the new plan?”

Starlight and Spike stood panting on the forest floor, covered in dirt and debris after vacating the collapsing underground chamber. Starlight decided some more rest was in order and lied down on her back, looking up at the minor amount of sky she could see through the thick trees. The day had not gone as planned.

“Well Spike, I was thinking of starting a war or two next. Sound good?”

“At this point anything with prior notice is fine by me.” Spike sat down and rubbed his eyes. “Ugh, sorry Starlight.”

Starlight rolled over and got back up. “Did you notice something back there? No vision going white or anything like that even though I obviously just changed something again. So either my theory was incorrect or the change was so minor that it didn’t matter.”

Spike raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, and?”

The unicorn had a determined and somewhat annoyed look on her face. “Spike, in the short time we’ve been back here I’ve burnt down a library and possibly just destroyed a beautiful underground cavern, both of which two of my closest friends called homes at one point. I still have no idea how we traveled back in time or how any of this works and I’m sorry to say but at this point I am officially beyond caring.”

“Starlight… you’re worrying me again.”

She turned to him with a smile that just made him even more uneasy. “No need to worry at all Spike. Reality and space-time haven’t collapsed and I doubt whatever small changes I make for the good of my friends and Equestria will cause them to either.”

“Starlight...”

“But first I need to prove my theory about creating new timelines that don’t harm our original one at all. And once I do it’s a free ride to fun for us until Twilight finds us and fixes everything.” She leaned down so her nose was even with Spike’s. “And as I’m sure Twilight has told you many times, the way you prove a theory is by testing it.”

“I really don’t think we should do anything like that.” Spike sweated nervously and shook his head at her.

“Sorry Spike but I tried doing things the safe and sensible way and look how that’s gone?” Starlight spread her arms wide. “If I’m going to be stuck in the past I’m gonna make the most of it. Come on, I have the perfect testing idea.”

Spike begrudgingly followed again as Starlight led them to another part of the Everfree Forest. Maybe it was just Spike’s imagination but the forest seemed unusually calm and eerie for the Everfree, as if it itself wanted to give Starlight a wide berth. Well, Spike had dealt with Twilight in worse moods… and Starlight in worse situations. Even if she was frustrated and didn’t care about not accidentally changing the past anymore he knew she wasn’t going to intentionally make things worse. He believed in her to not do anything too drastic. Maybe.

“Here we are.” Starlight suddenly said after a few minutes of walking through the forest.

After looking around for a second, Spike shot Starlight a questioning look. “It’s just a hole and some thorn bushes.”

“Exactly.” Starlight responded. “And this hole leads to the magical mirror pool.”

“Oh… right.” Spike flashed back to the day where dozens of Pinkie Pie’s terrorized Ponyville. It was something he tried to forget.

“I’m going to permanently block off the mirror pool, not only do I know that that will cause a change in history but I also know that it will only be a minor change that can only possibly bring good.” Starlight said. “Once I block it off we should experience another “whiteout”. It’s a foolproof plan.”

“Except you have no idea if it will actually work.” Spike flatly said.

“That’s why it’s called testing a theory, Spike. We both know how much Twilight has drilled this kind of stuff into you.” Starlight said with a little annoyance.

“So if nothing happens?”

“Then I’m completely wrong about everything and we’re back to knowing nothing.”

Simple enough.

Starlight’s horn lit up and she furrowed her brow in concentration as she focused on the hole leading into the underground domain of the mirror pool. Her immense power flashed at its apex and a blast of magic tore into the ground, twisting and shifting the earth around to completely collapse the tunnel and make sure that Pinkie Pie could never find it this way. She and Spike both wobbled on top of the shaking ground as the dirt settled beneath them but otherwise there was no problem.

“Okay, so that should-” Before Starlight could finish her vision began to blur and a white blanket started to close around her eyes, her hooves trembled but overall the feeling was much less powerful than when the library had burnt down.

In a second it was gone and her vision returned to normal, this time not even fully disappearing in the first place and with no sense of vertigo to accompany it. Looking beside her, Starlight saw Spike reacting in much the same way. Blinking to check to see if his vision was okay.

“Well then. Obviously this wasn’t as important of a change as burning down Golden Oak Library.” Starlight said. “I suppose the bigger the event the more powerful the shift. Guess it proves my theory right at least, I hope,”

Spike just glared at her. “I don’t think we should make a habit out of this either way, Starlight.”

Starlight got a devilishly mischievous smile on her face as she looked at him. “But then how will we ever have fun back here?”

Fun in the Forest

“I still really don’t like how you’re using this as an excuse to do whatever you want.”

“It’s fine Spike. Nothing bad will happen. And besides, we’ve got Twilight, Starswirl, Discord, the Elements of Harmony, and a whole bunch of other stuff to fix any problems. I think we’re stacked.”

“Twilight still wouldn’t be happy to hear about this.”

“Well then Spike,” Starlight put a hoof around his shoulders. “I’m just going to tell you what Trixie has told me many times: What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.”

Spike was unamused. He brushed off her hoof before retorting. “Starlight, you don’t need to tell me that. I’ve told myself that many times in the past. It still doesn’t make it good or something you should be proud of.”

“Meh.” The pony shrugged.

The two continued on in the Everfree with Starlight having officially given up on responsibility. It was now her time to do what she thought were good things and to fix mistakes or problems in the past. Or just do anything she thought was a good deed. So her heart was at least in the right place, if not her head. Oh and have fun while doing it. So maybe the heart wasn’t entirely in the right place either.

“So what now?” Spike asked her.

“Now we are going to make the Everfree a safer place for the ponies of Ponyville. How many times has some monster caused problems for that town anyways?” Starlight said. “We’re also going to make it safer to travel through in general.”

“Uh-huh.” Spike said, unconvinced. “And how are you going to do that? This place is magic and the Tree of Harmony is the only thing that really keeps it at bay.”

Starlight rubbed her chin, thinking for a bit. “Hm, that’s a good point Spike. Well for now we’ll focus on the monsters and dangerous creatures in here. I know a lot of ponies who’d be happy if we just got rid of the Timberwolves.”

“I’m glad that you’re at least not going to try messing with the Tree of Harmony.” Spike sighed in relief.

Starlight smirked as she looked back at him over her shoulder. “Not yet at least. Besides, from what Twilight told me about it it sounds like the Tree was mostly dormant until the girls all put their Elements back inside it. And even I don’t want to mess with something that important right now.”

“Good to hear.” Spike sarcastically quipped.

Starlight ignored him though and kept walking through the forest. “I’m kind of surprised we haven’t come across any horrible beasts yet though. Do they only show up when you don’t want them to?”

“Maybe they can just sense the crazy unicorn and are smart enough to stay away from her.”

“I’ll keep that theory open.”

Without Zecora around yet the two of them were the only ones in the Everfree Forest at this time, making it even more desolate than the forest they knew. Starlight was getting bored of being unable to find any Timberwolves to get rid of or even anything like an ursa minor or manticore to relocate somewhere farther away from civilization. Maybe she should’ve just gone to clear the eels out of Ghastly Gorge. Perhaps all the two of them needed though was a little more time, night was almost upon them and then the monsters in the Everfree should grow more bold. At least that’s what Starlight and Spike both naturally figured, Fluttershy would know for sure but she wasn’t here right now.

“Spike can you think of anything else to take care of here?” Starlight asked the dragon.

“No, so we should just go somewhere else and not screw around with anything.” He said.

“Not an option, Spike.” Starlight snappily replied.

The two fought their way through a thicket of vines while Starlight continued to look for… anything. Still dead set on improving the Everfree Forest. The muddy ground, twisted trees and roots, plants that crowded out their vision and space for moving all made this an annoying effort.

It was actually pretty welcome when they stepped out into a clearing and found themselves surrounded by Timberwolves.

The growling and rattling of the twigs, branches and logs that made up their bodies grew more intense as the beasts practically salivated (as impossible as that was) at the two intruders into their domain.

Starlight however was unafraid.

“Perfect! Just what I was looking for.” She said as her horn lit up.

A tremendous blast of magic later and the poor Timberwolves were obliterated. They never stood a chance.

“Uh, Starlight? Was that really okay?” Spike asked, a little dismayed at what had just happened despite his previous encounters with Timberwolves.

“They’re magical monsters Spike, not animals. I wouldn’t do something like that to a manticore or vampire fruit bats.” She replied simply.

“I still get the feeling Fluttershy would cry if she just saw that.” Spike said.

“Well… maybe. But what else can you do with them?” Starlight said.

“Leave them alone?” Spike’s answer was logical.

“Oh please, you yourself have told me about the danger they can pose to ponies from Ponyville. I just did everypony a great service here.” Starlight refused to be dissuaded.

Spike looked past the clearing to the huge hole in the foliage Starlight’s blast of magic made.

“Well could you at least keep it to below Discord levels when you do that again? I don’t think it’s good to blow up large parts of the forest like that.”

Starlight chuckled and blushed in embarrassment. “Ehehe, I guess I did get a little carried away.”

Now that at least some Timberwolves were taken care of Starlight was feeling pretty good. Maybe eventually if she really wanted to do some good she could figure out why the Everfree was the way it was in the first place and stop it from being such a danger at all. That kind of research may have been more of a Twilight thing but if Starlight was stuck back here long enough it might be something worth considering. For now it was time to go searching for more monsters, she had no idea how many Timberwolves lived here but at least she knew she could take care of them. Things like the Cockatrice if she stumbled across it or any Pukwudgies she’d just have to relocate to a more remote part of the forest instead of vaporizing them like the wolves.

“Maybe if you feel like traveling later you can go up north and deal with the Bug Bears.” Spike “suggested”.

Starlight snorted. “If I end up having the time maybe I will. Come on, let’s keep going and see if we can find more Timberwolves.”

It was the dead of night now and the familiar Mare in the Moon shined down on the two of them, ominous and nostalgic at the same time. If Starlight bothered to think about it it would’ve been a strong reminder to not mess with the past too much, lest something like the wasteland she saw with Twilight come about. However Starlight didn’t bother to think about it and kept up her carefree attitude. Spike on the other hoof couldn’t help but think of how Luna was up there and what Twilight would think in this situation.

Sighing deeply Spike was surprised to suddenly shiver, only then realizing how cold it had gotten in the forest.

“Are we gonna be out here much longer? Can we find somewhere to stay for the night?” Spike asked Starlight.

“There are probably still more Timberwolves to deal with, Spike. I’ve barely gotten anything done.” She replied.

“Well yeah, you’ve only been at this for a few hours, can’t you just vaporize more helpless Timberwolves tomorrow?” Spike snidely remarked.

Before Starlight could continue on with their banter a massive roar tore through the forest around them. Spike looked around in alarm while Starlight just raised an eyebrow, waiting for whatever made that noise to come leaping out and attack them.

She didn’t have to wait long. As expected it was a manticore, the strong beast flying out from the brush and roaring once again in Starlight’s face.

Starlight, to her credit, was being considerate of Fluttershy’s feelings and decided to attempt a more diplomatic approach at first.

“Hello there.” She waved at the manticore. “Would you mind going somewhere further away from Ponyville?”

Unfortunately Starlight was not the Element of Kindness and most certainly did not have her way with animals.

The manticore raised its paw and prepared to swipe at Starlight. Spike covered his eyes and turned away while Starlight just shrugged resignedly and lit up her horn. The brief blast of magic that came from her this time was hardly devastating like what she used to deal with the Timberwolves. Just a simple beam of kinetic energy that knocked back and dropped the manticore, making it whine in pain and surprise. Once it got its bearings back and returned to its feet it started to limp off, grumbling the whole way, not wanting to continue on with this strange pony that so easily thumped it.

“Just don’t cause any trouble for other ponies!” Starlight called after it as it disappeared into the dark forest. She then turned to Spike and shrugged again with a nonchalant look on her face. “Hey, I tried at least.”

“I guess.” Spike said. Better than nothing, he thought.

Briefly satisfied, Starlight again looked up at the night sky. “Hm. I guess you’re right that it is pretty late. There’s nowhere for us to stay out here though and I don’t think going back to Ponyville would be a good idea right now.”

“As long as we can find a spot where we don’t wake up to find ourselves being eaten by Timberwolves I’ll call that a win.” Spike said.

“Well if that’s your concern then I should take more time to make sure there aren’t any more Timberwolves.” Starlight grinned at him.

“No! No please.” Spike shook his claws.

“That’s what I thought.”

The two went through the forest for a bit longer looking for anything that would make good shelter or perhaps another cave. Zecora’s future hut was placed in a nice clearing but who knows what that looked like now. Starlight and Spike just unfortunately didn’t have a great enough knowledge of the Everfree Forest and they ended up walking around aimlessly for a time, both of them getting tired and annoyed that after such a stressful two days they now couldn’t even find a nice place to rest.

That was until Spike suddenly stopped, jaw-dropping.

“Starlight, hold on.” Spike smacked himself in the face and looked up at the moon. “Ugh, I feel so stupid.”

“What is it?” Starlight asked him.

“I know the perfect place for us to stay in here.”

Apple Farmers

“You’re doing it wrong, you can’t just pluck all the apples off the tree with magic! That aint the Apple family way, you hear?”

Starlight groaned and rolled her eyes as she was once more reprimanded by the precocious filly Applejack while Spike chuckled and smugly grinned at her. The three of them were before one of the many, many, apple trees on the farm in the early morning, Applejack attempting to teach them how to do the work properly but Starlight staying stubbornly annoyed at how Applejack stubbornly forced her to do everything without the help of her magic. With another frustrated grunt the light from Starlight’s horn disappeared and the magic she was about to use to pull off all the apples vanished as well.

“But my way’s faster!” Starlight said as she glared at the filly.

“That don’t matter one bit! It’s not the right way and that’s what’s important!” Little Applejack stomped a hoof on the ground to punctuate her words.

Starlight ground her teeth together but finally relented. “Fine.” She started to walk up to the tree before a mischievous idea snuck itself into her head. “Say, Applejack, since you know this work so well would you mind giving me a demonstration or two on how to properly buck apples?”

Applejack’s face lit up in delight that Starlight was seemingly taking this seriously and even wanted her help. Spike however was onto Starlight’s game and frowned at the scheming unicorn, tapping his clawed toe on the ground.

“Starlight...” He warned.

She shushed him and turned her attention back to Applejack. “Okay, so how do you do it?”

“I’ll show ya!” Applejack confidently walked up to the tree before turning her back to it. “It’s just like this!” She said and bucked back hard against a specific spot on the tree.

The apples shook slightly but none fell from their branches. Applejack was smiling proudly as Starlight innocently tilted her head at the young filly.

“But none of the apples came down?” She said to Applejack.

Applejack’s smile fell and she rubbed her head in embarrassment and obvious confusion as Starlight brought this up. “Uh, well, yeah? I ain’t strong enough yet to get the apples to actually fall off their branches yet.”

A devious glint appeared in Starlight’s eye as she grinned at her future friend. “Really? I think you can definitely do it, I mean just look at how you were able to make them shake right now. You clearly know what you’re doing, with a little more practice and a few more kicks you’ll be bucking down apples in no time!”

The little apple farmer’s face lit up in delight at Starlight’s praise. “You really think so?”

“Absolutely!” Starlight said. “Why don’t you get right to it?”

Applejack was more than happy to oblige as she continued to buck the apple tree, getting in as much practice as possible while Starlight stood to the side, grinning the whole time. At least until Spike came up and elbowed her in the ribs.

“Don’t you feel a little bad about tricking her into doing your work?’ Spike whispered into her ear.

“Not one bit!” Starlight instantly answered while giving an annoying smile to Spike. “Besides, we both know how Applejack is. She loves it.” Starlight pointed to the happily bucking filly.

Spike just sighed and shook his head. “You should apologize...”

“Oh come on, we both know the only thing that would happen if I tried bucking trees would be getting a broken hoof or two.” Starlight said, wagging a hoof around for emphasis. “I’m not made for this kind of stuff. And there’s still plenty of other work around here I can help with.”

“Can? Or will?” Spike narrowed his eyes at her.

“Will.” Starlight quickly shot back. “The Apple family is really helping us out, I’m not just gonna ignore that hospitality, Spike. Give me some credit.”

Spike just plainly looked at her again. “If you would for once give me reason to have some faith in you then I would.”

“How’s it looking? The apples are about ready to fall, right?” Applejack’s voice cut between them, the two time-travelers looking to see a sweating Applejack continuing to buck the tree, each hit making the apples shake but not look any closer to actually falling.

“Uh, yeah!” Starlight called out. “I think just one more kick oughta do it!” Her horn glew almost imperceptibly.

Spike’s eyes narrowed. “What are you-”

With an eager smile Applejack gave the tree one final buck, at the same moment her back hooves connected Starlight plucked the apples with her magic and they all perfectly fell into the waiting buckets. The little filly hooted and cheered at her success while Spike just glanced up at Starlight again.

“I don’t know if what you just did was bad or good but it annoys me either way.”

“Just consider it a good thing so we’ll all feel better?”

The dragon groaned and once more buried his face in his claws.

Applejack finished up her celebrating and trotted over to the two of them. “There, you see that? I really did it! And everything fell right into the buckets too.” Applejack grinned as she looked over her work. Satisfied and oblivious to Starlight’s machinations.

“Yep, good job!” Starlight said to the filly.

Spike was unable to tell if she was being genuine or condescending.

Applejack blushed in happy embarrassment, rubbing the back of her head before speaking up to Starlight. “Well it’s your turn now, Ms. Starlight. We’ve still got a lot of trees to go, I’m sure you can do it too.” Applejack looked down the long row of trees in the orchard.

The air deflated out of Starlight like a dying balloon as Spike snickered. No more talking her way out of work. “Y-Yeah...”

“I really wanted to thank you again for helping out around the farm and taking care of Applejack too. I know she can be a hoofful at times.” Pear Butter said to Starlight and Spike as they all loaded up buckets of apples onto a large wagon.

It had taken quite a few hours for them to finish up all their work. Not just bucking apples but feeding the farm animals, plowing the fields, mending fences that were falling apart and so much more. There was a lot to do on the farm. Luckily for Spike at least Applejack had allowed him to simply fly up and pull off apples by himself. Spike had managed to convince her that it was okay that way since he wasn’t using magic, much to Starlight’s annoyance. And he wasn’t exactly built for bucking either.

“You don’t need to thank us for anything, besides, we had a lot of fun.” Starlight said through a strained smile, her mane and tail matted with sweat. “And you’re the ones who are really helping us out here.”

“Apple family hospitality just like I told you.” Pear Butter smiled at Starlight as she loaded up the last bucket of apples onto the wagon. “All done back here, Mac!” She called out to her husband .

Bright Mac, who was tied to the front of the wagon, winked back at her. “Okay!” He started pulling the wagon along to the barn.

It was easy for Starlight to see where Big Mac got his size and strength from. Big Mac at the moment wasn’t even as big as Starlight right now but he was still more than strong for his age. The big red colt currently was off on the other side of the farm using a heavy plow to cut furrows into the ground. Earlier Starlight had to use her magic to even get the thing to move (another thing Applejack had acquiesced to upon realizing the difficulty of the task) but Big Mac could already pull it all by himself.

“So what are we doing with the apples now?” Starlight asked as she walked alongside Bright Mac and Pear Butter, Spike picking up the rear.

“These ones here are going straight to stomping!” Pear Butter said. “We’ll take em to the big vat in the barn and turn em into juice and applesauce. You and Spike can help out with that real easy.”

Starlight wasn’t thrilled to hear that she’d be standing knee-high in a huge tub of apples and smashing them down with her bare hooves but she owed the Apple’s far too much to complain. Bright Mac brought the wagon into the barn and they all started unloading the apples that they had just earlier put on there in the first place. Dozens, hundreds, of apples poured into the large circular wooden vat, the pipes and nozzle on the bottom ready to pour the soon to be created juice into multiple glass jars. Granny Smith sat beside it, ready to collect the juice while the others did the dirty work. Granny Smith was still rather old looking to Starlight but she had more of a shine to her and a few less wrinkles, her tongue and wits were never dull but she had more energy about her back here than either Starlight or Spike could say she did in the present.

After all the apples were in Starlight stepped up a step-ladder leading to the vat while Spike just flapped his wings a few times and the two of them hopped on top of the many apples.

“Alright, get er’ started!” Granny Smith said from below them.

Spike enjoyed himself a lot more than Starlight did, grinning and laughing while he eagerly jumped up and down on the apples. Starlight on the other hoof just winced any time a spray of juice or piece of apple got higher than her knees and was stepping much more daintily on the apples.

“Come on, put your backs into it! It aint getting enough out!” Granny Smith called out from below them.

“Yes Granny Smith.” Starlight reluctantly replied and started smashing harder. Leaning down she whispered into Spike’s ear. “Could you ever see Rarity doing this?”

“Heh.” Spike gave a short laugh. “It’d be a lot of fun to stomp these apples with her.”

The work continued for a while longer until all the jars that had been set up were filled. Starlight and Spike had both stomped themselves to exhaustion, Starlight throwing herself over the side of the vat to hold herself up while her legs wobbled beneath her. It was a lot more physical activity than she was used to and it showed.

“I don’t think I’m cut out for farm work.” Spike tiredly said as he lied down in the pulpy remains of the apples at the bottom of the vat.

“Nonsense! The two of you did a great job.” Pear Butter said from below them, Granny Smith and Bright Mac boxing up the jars.

Starlight smiled while her frayed mane fell over her face. “Well it was a nice change of pace at least.”

“You can come on down from there and get cleaned up, then we’ll head inside for dinner.” Bright Mac told them.

Now that was something both Starlight and Spike were very happy to hear.

Being a guest of the Apple family was nice and eating dinner with them at their big dining room table was even nicer. Starlight and Spike sat with each other at one of the ends while Granny Smith sat at the head of the table and the others down the sides. Applejack and Big Macintosh were both arguing about something while Pear Butter tried to break them up, Starlight and Spike quietly chewing their food through the whole affair. It was quite interesting to see the normally reticent Big Mac so talkative and Applejack being such a… kid.

“I did so buck down some apples all on my own!” Applejack said to her brother.

“Yer just lying again just like you always do.” Big Mac dismissively snorted away her claims.

“I am not! I did it for reals!” Applejack angrily fought back against her brother.

“Blah, blah, blah. Hearing nothing but hot air from you.” He said.

Spike leaned in and whispered to Starlight while the siblings argument went on. “This is kind of your fault you know.”

“I know.” Starlight whispered back, still chewing on her food and finding it difficult to care that much.

“Sorry about the kids.” Bright Mac suddenly said to the two guests, offering up an embarrassed smile.

“It’s no problem, kids’ll be kids after all.” Starlight said while Spike glared at her out of the corner of his eye.

Eventually Pear Butter got her two kids to stop arguing with each other and the dinner returned to normal. Aside from Applejack and Big Mac silently giving each other the stink eye through the rest of it. But the Apple family wasn’t known for their hospitality for nothing and Pear Butter quickly tried to strike up a new conversation with her two guests.

“So I never got the chance to ask this before but where are the two of you from originally?”

Starlight almost choked on her food as she and Spike shared a brief look. Coughing and clearing her throat Starlight decided that the “truth” was the best way to go. “Well I’m from Sire’s Hollow originally and Spike is from Canterlot. I’ve kind of been all over Equestria though, called more than one place my home.”

“Yeah we’ve both been around.” Spike said as he leaned back in his chair and rudely and obliviously kicked his feet up on the table.

To neither of their notices, Applejack was staring at them in wide-eyed wonder.

“It’s always interesting to meet ponies who have traveled so much.” Pear Butter said. “There’s no place like home but having the farm does make us miss out on the rest of Equestria.”

“Aw, you ain’t missing much.” Granny Smith grumbled. “Ponyville’s just about the best place in the world.”

Pear Butter chuckled. “I wouldn’t trade Sweet Apple Acre’s for the world of course but sometimes I still think I’d like to visit somewhere else, even for just a short vacation.”

“Actually we have relatives in Manehatten.” Bright Mac suddenly cut in. “So we were considering going there on a trip at some point in the future and see the big city but that wouldn’t be for a long ways off still.”

“I was also thinking Las Pegasus might be nice, I’ve heard so many amazing things about it.” Pear Butter said.

Starlight perked up. “Las Pegasus huh? I’ve never been there myself but some of my friends really loved it. Sounds like a fun place perfect for little vacations.”

After Starlight said that Pear Butter smiled and looked at Bright Mac, who have her a happy nod. “Well maybe we’ll go there, and if we see you again we can tell you all about it! It’d be funny to have the simple apple farmers telling you all about someplace wouldn’t it?”

Starlight and Spike couldn’t answer. For the moment those words left Pear Butter’s mouth the world went white. Another fierce trembling crawling down to their bones overtook their bodies, the chairs disappeared out from beneath them as they floated into a white void. Feelings of vertigo somehow tore through them even though they couldn’t actually feel their bodies at all. With a ringing like an alarm clock buzzing through their ears the white started to fade back into reality.

“Starlight? Spike?”

A few blinks made the last bits of reality blur together and both of the time-travelers saw that they were still sitting at the Apple family dining table, it looked as if nothing had changed aside from all of the farmers staring at them, wondering why they had suddenly gone silent.

“Uh, sorry, but can you excuse the two of us for a second?” Starlight said and without waiting for a reply levitated Spike out of his chair and zoomed into the next room with him.

“What was that?! Why did that happen just now?” Starlight asked him.

“How should I know? We were just talking.” Spike shrugged, at a loss just as much as Starlight was.

Starlight sighed. “Well I hope that whatever just changed it was something for the better.”

Spike shifted about nervously, something clearly on his mind after the latest incident.

“What is it?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uhh… I know you didn’t want to do this and all but if we’re changing the past just by having innocent conversations… maybe we should just go see Celestia already? I think it might be for the best.”

She really didn’t want to, considering the huge can of worms that could open, but it might be their best bet to keep things safe. And in Canterlot with Celestia there were certainly going to be mountains of opportunities for Starlight to make the good and intentional changes that she’d always wanted to. But Spike didn’t need to know that part. And more altruistically the Canterlot Archives with their collection of Starswirl’s works and writings might just be the key they need to figure out this time travel farce all together.

“Alright, guess we can take the earliest train tomorrow.”

Meeting Celestia

“So how are we going to get an audience with Celestia in the first place? She’s super busy and I bet there are a ton of ponies who have been waiting to see her for months already.”

Starlight and Spike sat across from each other on the train’s benches as it quickly chugged along, leaving Ponyville behind and making its way to Canterlot. The two of them had made a quick, if not somewhat awkward, goodbye to the Apple family this morning after the event last night. They were both a little upset that they had to leave so abruptly but it was probably for the best. The farmers would just have to accept that their recent guests were a little weird. Starlight was now disinterestedly looking out one of the train’s windows, half taking in what Spike was saying.

“I dunno, I could just teleport inside the throne room when we get there if nopony lets us in first.”

A low hum of annoyance from Spike caused Starlight to turn and look at him, the dragon frowning at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

With an exasperated sigh Starlight rolled her eyes. “But I won’t. Fine.”

“Good. You’ve done enough impulsive things here without having to get the royal guards to dogpile you on sight.”

Starlight snorted. “Oh come on, they wouldn’t be a problem for me.”

“And what happens when Celestia just blasts the crazy unicorn that suddenly appeared and started attacking her guards?” Spike sarcastically asked.

“I could totally take Celestia in a fight!” Starlight answered without any sarcasm. “And if it comes down to it I could just remove her Cutie Mark too.”

“Starlight!” Spike stood up on his seat and glared at her.

“Hey just cause I’m considering the possibility doesn’t mean I’ll actually do it.” Her defense was weak but Spike was tired of dealing with her and just shook his head as he sat back down.

Starlight as well frowned and went back to looking out the window. Her idea of a fun vacation and a good time in Canterlot seemed to be slipping away with every second. Again she and Spike were annoyed at each other for childish reasons, behaving no better than two siblings arguing at the dinner table. Starlight’s continual impulsiveness and apathy towards respecting the past and playing things safe drained Spike, even though the two knew they only had each other and had to stick together. And when it came to Princess Celestia Spike was determined to be even more of a stick in the mud, not wanting to deal with those potential consequences of Starlight’s behavior with her.

Gazing out the window, Starlight began thinking about someone. “I wonder what Trixie is up to right now?”

Spike scratched his cheek and thought for a second. “Considering how she was when I first met her I’d say she’s probably being a really annoying kid right now?”

Starlight frowned and turned to say something to him but quickly shut her mouth. On contemplation he was probably 100% correct. Leaning back on her seat she hummed, thinking to herself about her other friends. And with a gasp she realized something, her pupils narrowing to pinpricks.

“Maud is still on her farm, Trixie is who knows where, but Sunburst is in Canterlot at Celestia’s school right now.”

The way she was saying that made Spike concerned, he recognized that tone.

“Uh, Starlight? What are you thinking right now?”

The unicorn got a devilish grin on her face as she rubbed under her chin with her hoof. “Hmm, there’s so much I can fix there.”

“Starlight...”

“Spike there is literally nothing but good that can come of me helping Sunburst.” She said, eyes glinting in anticipation. “And it’ll help past me a lot too, even better!”

“I feel like I should try convincing you not to do something like that, but experience is telling me there’s no point in trying.”

He was right.

So instead Spike decided to look forward to seeing Canterlot again. For what was his birthplace and home for quite a while he probably didn’t visit it as much as he should. Being the number one assistant to Twilight is probably a good reason for why he didn’t find the time though. Spike was a little worried how Celestia would react to all of this but she’s always been good at making decisions and dealing with this kind of stuff so hopefully it wouldn’t go too bad.

For him at least, he thought as he stole a glance at Starlight.

Starlight was just absentmindedly watching the scenery roll on by while she waited for the train to finally reach their destination. There were so many things to cover, so many things she wanted to do in Canterlot she didn’t even know where to start aside from the obvious of first meeting with Celestia. And who knew just how that would go?

“Canterlot probably isn’t too different from how we know it.” Spike suddenly spoke up. “Not like there’s going to be any absent castles or schools.”

“Yeah.” Starlight nodded. Thinking about the Friendship School was a bit of a downer to her, she may have wanted a vacation but she still missed her students. And the thought of how they’d react to seeing her and what she’s been doing and plans to do in the past was a bit of a sobering thought.

Not enough of one to actually convince her to stop though.

It didn’t take much longer after that for the train to finally arrive at Canterlot station. Spike and Starlight getting off and beginning their walk into the city. Immediately they drew the attention of many other ponies. Or more accurately just like in Ponyville it was Spike that was drawing the attention. Dragons still not a common sight anywhere in Equestria back now. But the two were used to this after Ponyville and thought nothing of it anymore. The station may have been bustling and the streets already full of far more ponies than lived in Ponyville but that was no issue to Spike and Starlight. They strode briskly through the crowds and didn’t give any of them a second thought or look as they bee-lined to the castle.

“Just as posh and pristine as I remember.” Starlight said. “Don’t take this the wrong way but I never liked Canterlot that much.”

Spike shrugged. “Eh, it’s not for everypony. Say that to Rarity though and you’re in for a big lecture.”

Starlight giggled. “I can imagine.”

She continued on walking with Spike at her heels, looking up and down the streets and checking to see if there was anything she recognized. Her familiarity with the city was lacking though, even if she saw some buildings she knew, such as where Rarity would eventually open up her boutique, it was likely she wouldn’t recognize them. Something she did notice (and Spike too) was that the local ponies seemed even stuffier and stiffer than how they knew them from the present. Starlight couldn’t help but think that Twilight really loosened up all of Equestria with her friendship.

“Hey, that’s where Donut Joe’s is. Or will be.” Spike said, tugging on Starlight’s leg to get her attention. “Remind me to take you there when we get back, you’ll love it.”

“Thanks.” Starlight smiled.

The way to the castle was much as Starlight remembered although it seemed even busier than how she knew it. That made sense, without any other princesses to delegate Celestia handled pretty much everything on her own. It must’ve created quite a backlog of ponies that wanted to see her and petition her for things. Which didn’t exactly bode well for the two of them.

“Maybe when she hears a dragon wants to see her it’ll convince her we’re different from the usual visitors?” Starlight wondered as they turned down another street, the large castle finally coming into view in front of them.

“Who knows?” Spike answered.

“Do you think we’re even going to be able to get inside the castle in the first place or are guards just going to turn us away? How do we even set up an appointment, you should know right?” Starlight continued to ask.

“Uhh, well I don’t see why the guards wouldn’t let us in? Celestia’s always been really open. And I don’t know who it is but there should be someone taking appointments for her?” Spike said.

“So really you have no idea for sure?” Starlight raised an eyebrow at the dragon.

“Nope. Not really.”

Starlight sighed, the contingency plan of teleporting inside and doing things the reckless way was becoming more and more likely every second. Not like she minded but she didn’t want to get nagged by Spike some more.

The beautiful castle got larger and larger in their view. Oh how easy it would be to teleport inside the throne room, Starlight thought.

“I know that look on your face. I can tell what you’re thinking.” Spike said from next to her.

Starlight quickly shook her head. “What look on my face? I don’t let my thoughts play out on my face so easily, Spike.”

“I’ll give you that you’re not as bad as Twilight when it comes to that but you’re not good either.”

The crowds of ponies around the castle area, those leaving it and those entering it, were quite large. Starlight and Spike had to fight their way through, they were thankful at least that there wasn’t some event or party being held. They got more than a few rude looks along the way, Starlight wondered if it was more because of how they weren’t dressed in fancy clothes than anything else.

Finally they made it to the actual doors of the castle. Two guards flanked it, stoically watching Starlight and Spike approach.

“So now what? Doesn’t look like they’re letting any ponies in right now.” Spike asked Starlight.

“Well I’m gonna attempt the direct approach first.”

At that Starlight walked directly up the steps to the two guards with a bright smile and waved hello at them.

“Hi! Can we enter the castle?”

She could hear Spike’s palm smack his face from behind her.

The two guards looked at each other before the one on the right responded. “Do you have an appointment with the Princess?”

“Yep!” Starlight’s answer was instant.

The guards looked back at her unflinchingly. After a few moments the same one spoke up again. “Do you really have an appointment with the Princess?”

Starlight’s smile fell and she rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t really have an appointment.”

“If you’d like to make one you can still go in and see Sharp Schedule.” The guard on the left told her, giving both Starlight and Spike a pitying but also annoyed look. It was clear he didn’t want to deal with two clearly troublesome individuals so the guards were pawning them off on another official.

The doors were opened for them and Starlight and Spike stepped inside the pristine entrance. The moment the doors were closed Spike turned to Starlight.

“Could you at least try to be a better example for your students?”

“I’m on vacation!”

The insides of the castle were still relatively busy and filled with a good number of guards, they both knew their way around well enough though and made their way to Celestia’s throne room despite not having an appointment. Attempting to circumvent the whole issue.

That didn’t work however.

“No going further without the Princess’s express permission.” A large guard told the two of them. Their direct path having met a blockade.

“Ugh, fine.” Starlight groaned. “Can you tell us where Sharp Schedule is at least?”

“Should’ve just gone to see him… or her, in the first place.” Spike grumbled.

“You know it’s kind of funny.” Starlight said as the two made their way to Sharp Schedule after being directed their way by the guard. “I never really gave the guards much credit but they’re actually doing their jobs. I mean, just after all the times Canterlot has been in trouble and all that you kind of start to lose your faith.”

“Don’t let Shining Armor here you say that when we’re back.” Spike said.

“No doubt.”

The two made their way to one of the many offices in Canterlot Castle, the placard out front identifying this specific one as belong to Sharp Schedule. Starlight gently opened the door and the two of them walked in to find an unassuming room with a sparse look to it, not exactly fitting the grandeur of most of Canterlot. Behind the lone desk sat a single middle-aged pony. Brown of coat with a gray mane and tail, the stallion could only be Sharp Schedule. He was hunched over the desk with a quill in hand, writing something or other on a piece of parchment.

Upon hearing the intrusion he looked up at the two and raised a single bored eyebrow. “Yes?”

Starlight, as upfront and direct as ever, walked forward. “Hi, we want to see the Princess.”

Sharp Schedule’s expression didn’t change. “I see. You can fill out a form and return it to me then. The Princess will have an opening for you to speak with her in about three months, depending on if your petition is approved and nothing more important comes up.” And he returned to his writing without a second thought.

Well that wasn’t good enough for Starlight.

“Sorry, but this is important. When I said we wanted to see the Princess I meant now.” Starlight said as she walked up and put her front hooves on his desk while Spike watched with dismay.

Sharp Schedule looked up at her in annoyance. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Allow me to notify her right away.” He said and then returned to writing. Again.

“Grr.” Starlight grumbled. “Look, this is really important, could you at least tell her that? Just send a message along to her and let her decide if she wants to see us or not.”

“I’ll get right on that.” He said without bothering to look at her this time.

Her eye twitched and a vein popped out in her forehead, Starlight’s anger rose to a peak as she stared down the desk jockey.

“Oh boy...” Spike said as he slowly backed away.

“If you’re going to cause a ruckus can you at least do it outside?” Sharp Schedule said.

“Oh for the love of-” Starlight’s horn glowed. “I’m done with this.”

Sharp Schedule glanced up at seeing the glow. “What are-”

And before he could finish, Starlight’s spell hit him in the face. His eyes spun around in his head and he momentarily fell back into his chair like a doll.

“Starlight! Are you crazy?!” Spike yelled at her.

“Well we weren’t getting anywhere!” Starlight said angrily as she gestured at the now temporarily vegetablized Sharp Schedule. “Besides, he’ll be fine. It’s just a little brainwashing spell. I’m good at them. No lasting consequences at all.”

Spike kneeled down on the floor of the office and held his head, shaking it back and forth. “Oh this is gonna be so bad...”

Actually Meeting Celestia

A number of guards gave them suspicious looks but none stopped Starlight and Spike as they were led through the castle by a blank-faced and near unresponsive Sharp Schedule. The formerly dismissive staff member now taking them directly to the Princess and giving any guard they passed an emotionless “Important visitors for the Princess”. Spike felt kind of bad. Starlight… not so much.

“I think this is one of the best ideas I’ve had since coming back here.” She proudly beamed while the two of them followed Sharp Schedule.

“You shouldn’t do things like this...” Spike’s exasperation was at its peak.

“It’s not a big deal Spike. And it’s for a good cause.” Starlight tried to reason.

Spike was having none of that though. “I’m telling Twilight about this.”

Starlight frowned and snorted in annoyance. “Well, fine, tell her. I’m not scared.” She figured she’d just have to deal with that little problem later.

Finally the party made it to right outside Celestia’s throne room, there were a number of noble looking ponies standing outside it (including a younger Fancy Pants) already waiting for their turn to meet with Celestia. Unfortunately for them they were about to have to wait even longer.

“Make way, the Princess must see these two immediately.” Sharp Schedule said in perfect monotone to the two guards in front of the door. Immediately drawing surprised and confused looks and mumbles from the ponies that had been waiting.

The guards for their part did at least look a little perturbed at Sharp Schedule’s sudden appearance and the way he was acting. But in the end they just shrugged and one started to talk to Sharp Schedule.

“She’s meeting with another pony right now, can it wait?”

Sharp Schedule fervently shook his head, his bugged-out eyes never once blinking. “No, this takes precedence. These two must be let in immediately.”

“Well… okay.” The guards looked weirded out but opened up the door to tell Celestia and retrieve the whoever it was that was currently meeting with her.

It took absolutely everything Starlight had inside her to keep from laughing. And even then a wide smile was covering her face. Spike on the other hand returned a nervous smile to the annoyed looks from the noble ponies who had been patiently waiting their turns, only for this to happen.

Quickly the guards came back out with a very upset looking mare who grumbled the whole time about how unfair this all was.

“You may enter now.” The same guard said to Starlight and Spike.

“Thank you.” Starlight said as she smugly strode into the throne room. Spike following closely at her heels and Sharp Schedule stood around stock still like a ponyquin.

The doors shut closed behind Starlight and Spike and Princess Celestia awaited them at the back of the room. She was the same as ever, sitting on her throne with her multicolored mane swaying in a phantom breeze. A few more guards flanked the carpet that led to her, Starlight frowned at that. She wanted to be able to talk privately with the Princess. Spike gulped in nervousness as the two of them walked closer, they could see the expression on Celestia’s face now. A neutral one just slightly leaning towards curiosity. She really did look regal and every bit the important ruler that she was. If Starlight didn’t know her better or had seen her in so many other situations she would say she even looked imposing.

She and Spike made it to the foot of Celestia’s throne, the Alicorn looking down at them in patience for a second before speaking.

“I was told you have very important business to discuss? Enough that one of my staffers says my prior arrangements can be delayed?” Her even-tempered voice easily broadcasted across the whole chamber even without her having to raise it at all.

Starlight coughed. Only slightly nervous. “Yes, that’s true. My name is Starlight Glimmer and this is Spike and… uhm, actually… I was kind of hoping the three of us could speak in private?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, a bemused expression on her face. “You can forgive me if I decline that request? I’m certain that whatever reason you have for-”

“Princess Luna.”

If Celestia had been drinking tea she would’ve spit it all out. The shocked and so outrageously uncommon look on her face made all of the guards in the room wish they had a camera to take a picture of it.

But she was still Princess Celestia and she quickly regained her composure. Clearing her throat her eyes roamed over the guards.

“Guards? Could you please excuse us for a moment?”

The guards were surprised and looked at Starlight and Spike with suspicion but still did as they were told, filing out of the throne room and leaving the three alone.

Celestia’s gaze took on a darker tone as she frowned down her nose at the two interlopers. “So, what do you know about my sister?”

“Well actually-” Starlight started. “This isn’t really about your sister. I just said that to get your attention.” Before Celestia could angrily interrupt Starlight continued on. “The thing is, the two of us are from the future. We accidentally traveled back in time.”

Celestia kept a measured reaction, her eyes widening just a bit. “That is an interesting claim to be sure. However just because you know the name of my sister I can not fully believe you just like that. Do you have any proof?”

Starlight smirked. She had been prepared for this. “That weird statue you keep in your garden is actually Discord and you’re currently looking for the next bearers of the Elements of Harmony to deal with your sister when she returns as Nightmare Moon a few years down the road. And the sixth element is magic. Also you secretly eat enough cake to put a bakery under.”

To both Starlight and Spike’s amusement the ruler of Equestria actually pouted at that last part.

“I do not eat that much cake.” She said before briefly shaking her head. Mulling things over. “Very well though, those are things that nopony right now should know so I will hesitantly say I believe you for now. So who exactly are you and how did you travel back in time?”

Spike, being quite happy that this conversation so far was not turning out nearly as horribly as he expected, decided to answer before Starlight could.

“In the future we’re friends with the Elements of Harmony, and more specifically the Element of Magic. In fact Starlight was the personal student of the Element of Magic. And I was actually hatched by her as part of her test to get into your School For Gifted Unicorns and we’ve been together ever since. I’m her number one assistant.” Spike finished proudly, puffing out his chest. “Also I’ve known you for pretty much just as long too.”

Celestia smiled sincerely at the young dragon. “Well it seems my future self is blessed to have such a good friend.” Spike blushed at her compliment as Celestia turned to Starlight. “And you? Being the student of the Element of Magic sounds like quite the accomplishment.”

“Uhh...” Starlight nervously scratched the back of her head. “Well I was an enemy to the Element of Magic at first but then we became friends. Let’s keep it at that. Long story.”

Celestia didn’t seem entirely satisfied by her answer but decided not to force it at this point. “Very well. So on the issue of time travel?”

“Ehhh...” Starlight started to sweat a bit. “Well funny story on that. We’re not actually sure how we traveled back in time?”

“Not sure? How can you not know?” Celestia was taken aback, questioning Starlight in disbelievement.

“We’re both pretty sure it involved Starswirl the Bearded’s old spell and magic from the Tree of Harmony. But uh… I wasn’t exactly in the most cognizant state of mind when I casted whatever spell I did.” Starlight grinned awkwardly while Spike rolled his eyes.

“I see.” Princess Celestia practically slouched in her chair as she rubbed her forehead. Starlight obviously not being too good for her health right now. “So why did you come here then?”

“We didn’t want to cause any problems in the past-” Spike cut ahead of Starlight.

He carefully left out the “more” part of that sentence as well.

“So we came here. We figured it would be a good place to just kind of hole up until things are taken care of. Twi- er, sorry, I don’t think we should say her name. The Element of Magic is definitely looking for a way to find us and she’s probably even gotten the help of Starswirl himself by now.”

“Starswirl’s help?! But he’s been dead for years.” Celestia asked in surprise.

“Actually he’s not, he’s a friend of ours too now. But we probably shouldn’t go too far into detail on any of this.” Starlight said. For once minding her position.

“This is a little much to take in...” Celestia said.

“Yeah, sorry about all this.” Spike said. It was easy for him to empathize with her after being continually dragged around by Starlight.

“And I’m just putting this out there but if we could have access to the archives and the forbidden section of the library that might really help us out. We could find a way to fix this all on our own.” Starlight broached.

However, Celestia frowned at her. Not exactly having the warmest of looks in her eyes. “I’m sorry but I can’t exactly entrust you with that so easily. Not only is there the possibility that this is all some elaborate scheme but the simple fact that you said you were once an enemy of the Element of Magic and the reckless way in which you time-traveled in the first place makes me a bit apprehensive to give you access to such important things.”

“Ehehe, fair enough.” Starlight nervously laughed, there wasn’t really an argument to be had and Spike was right in that she really probably shouldn’t remove Celestia’s Cutie Mark. Even if just for how Twilight would react when he inevitably told her about it.

Celestia paused for a second and tilted her head at the unicorn and dragon, eyes narrowing just a bit. “You’re the ones who destroyed my old castle a few days ago, aren’t you?”

Spike began to experience a flop sweat and started sputtering weakly while Starlight just awkwardly chuckled some more.

“Haha, so you heard about that? That was a really big accident, and destroyed is kind of extreme. It’s just a little more demolished than it already was.” Starlight was very good at talking her way out of a problem.

Celestia held her dissatisfied gaze on them for a bit longer, Spike on the verge of fainting and Starlight still smiling like an idiot. Eventually the Princess just sighed and shook her head, “Very well, I don’t think you’re lying about it being accidental at least. I’m aware that it was already in quite a decrepit state.” Celestia paused and allowed Spike to breath deeply in relief before continuing. “And I am sympathetic to your predicament, if it is true.”

“It is. It really is.” Starlight said.

“Hm.” Celestia thought to herself before smiling. “I am willing to let you stay as guests in the castle, if anything it seems like you might be fun to have around. And possibly after getting to know you for sure the library may become open to you. May.” She winked at them.

“Thank you, Princess.” Spike said, wiping away the sweat on his brow.

Starlight almost said “You won’t regret this” but figured it wasn’t the best idea.

“Hopefully your friends in the future can find and rescue you soon, in the meantime just ask and I’ll provide you with whatever you need.” Celestia smiled pleasantly at them before a sudden thought seemed to strike her. “I’ll have a guard show you to your new room but after that would you like to meet somepony important? My current student, Sunset Shimmer, hasn’t been getting along very well with other ponies. And if you’re going to be staying here I feel like it’s a great opportunity for her to actually make some friends. You two seem perfect for drawing a pony out of their shell. It would go a long way towards gaining my trust as well.”

Starlight and Spike glanced at each other in slight nervousness at the mention of Sunset’s name.

“Sounds great.” Starlight said in a slightly uneasy tone that went unnoticed by Celestia.

“Wonderful! She’s probably in the library studying right now, I’ll have a guard show you the way.”

Making New Friends

After first showing them their new room (one of the many spare suites in the castle) Celestia’s chosen guard now led them to the public section of the library where Celestia assured them they would find Sunset Shimmer (after Celestia also asked them to please not tell anypony else they were from the future). As the Princess said she was quite the dutiful student who was always hungry to learn more. Starlight had to think that at this point in their relationship Celestia didn’t realize the potential problem that would become. Sunset probably came off as an especially eager and intelligent protege brimming with curiosity.

“Er, Starlight?” Spike whispered to her as they walked behind the guard.

“Yeah?”

“I can’t help but think that meeting Sunset isn’t gonna go well.”

Starlight actually just giggled a bit and smiled at Spike. “Oh come on Spike, I know what she was like before Twilight met her too but this is still long before that. She’s gonna be a lot younger now and probably perfectly innocent. In fact this is just like Celestia said, we could really be helping out by becoming friends with Sunset. Changing her path before she even starts to get too bad.”

Spike frowned. “That’s another thing, wouldn’t this be changing the past pretty severely? Are we sure Celestia knows that a whole new timeline could be created or overwritten or whatever happens?”

“Meh.” Starlight shrugged. “Any change from making Sunset a better pony is gonna be a good one. And that’s exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to do now in the first place.”

Spike had to groan and shake his head again. “This is a bad idea.”

“Please. Everything’s turned out alright so far hasn’t it?” Starlight reasoned.

Upon which Spike just flatly stared at her.

“Well nopony’s been hurt at least.” She quickly backpedaled. “And Sunset’s just gonna be a kid now, she can’t be too bad yet.”

“Cozy Glow.”

Starlight’s expression didn’t change but she had to pause for a second. “She can’t be… that bad yet. And let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, Spike. Celestia could’ve just locked us in our new suite to make sure we didn’t cause any changes but she wanted us to help her precious student, what’s wrong with that?”

Spike didn’t answer but he couldn’t shake the look of dismay on his face.

“Here we are.” The guard in front of them suddenly said, opening the door to the library. “She’ll be somewhere inside.” He held it open for them but made no move to enter himself.

“Thank you.” Starlight said and walked on in, Spike close behind her.

The library was busy but still quiet as any good library should be. Starlight and Spike had no idea where Sunset would actually be but they figured she must be reading up on some kind of magic or spellcraft. After a few twists and turns through the various sections of the library and walks down gigantic rows of bookshelves they ended up in a reading area. Where a certain fire-maned pony was sitting down and reading at a table.

All alone with every other pony giving her plenty of space.

Starlight had a sympathetic smile on her face as she and Spike walked towards Sunset, the student of Celestia being no older than a young teenager at this point. She didn’t notice their approach until the both of them had walked up right next to her. Upon which Starlight could tell Sunset now knew they were there but was just ignoring them and continuing to read.

Getting tired of being ignored, Starlight cleared her throat. “Ehem.”

And Sunset continued to ignore her.

“Ehem!” Starlight did it again, louder.

Finally that got a reaction. Sunset exaggeratedly sighed and rolled her eyes, shutting the book she was reading and glaring up at Starlight. “What?”

Starlight did her best to stay patient with the young unicorn. Spike though was already getting a bad feeling at how this meeting would go.

“Sunset Shimmer, correct?” Starlight said. “I’m Starlight Glimmer and this is Spike, we’re guests of Celestia’s and she wanted us to meet you.”

Sunset’s eyes glanced between the both of them, if she was surprised to see a dragon she didn’t show it. Finally she sighed again and turned back to the table, opening her book back up. “Okay, that’s nice. You can tell Celestia we met.”

There was the slightest twitch in Starlight’s eye as Spike slowly backed away. With a glow of her horn she shut Sunset’s book. “She was hoping we could get to know each other.”

Sunset shot Starlight an angry glare and forcefully reopened the book with her own magic. “No. Thank you. Now could you please leave? I’m busy.”

“Sorry, but no can do.” All pretense of politeness had dropped from Starlight as she frowned down at the impertinent unicorn. Her horn glowed again and the aura around Sunset’s book switched from red to teal and the book was yanked off the table.

“Excuse me, but I was reading that!” Sunset stood up out of her chair and stared down Starlight, faces just inches apart. “Do you have any idea who I am?”

Starlight sarcastically hm’d to herself, tilting her head from side to side with a hoof under her chin before smiling at Sunset. “A disrespectful brat?”

“Oh boy...” Spike muttered.

“How dare you!” Sunset’s face reddened. “I am Princess Celestia’s student, she personally chose me because of my ability and you think you can speak to me that way?!”

“Do you think you can just be a rude brat to everypony else and not get called out on it? I’m your elder you know, maybe you should treat me with more respect.” Starlight admonished her.

The irony of Starlight telling anypony else to be more respectful was not lost on Spike. He couldn’t tell if Starlight was aware of that though.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you’re just like all the rest. Jealous because I’m better than them.”

“Oh please.” Starlight said, this time rolling her eyes.

“Don’t try and deny it. I can’t help it that I’m better than others, I’m simply more powerful and gifted than any other unicorn when it comes to magic. You say I should be showing respect? Please. You and everypony else should be giving me respect.” Sunset said, smugly grinning to herself as she floofed her mane.

“What about Princess Celestia?” Starlight asked.

Sunset just dismissively waved her hoof. “She’s an Alicorn, she doesn’t count obviously.”

Starlight hm’d to herself again, blankly staring at Sunset through half-lidded eyes. “Well then what if you met a unicorn who was better than you at magic?"

The egotistical teenager scoffed. “Hah! There’s no unicorn better than me at magic.”

Starlight Glimmer smiled.

“Say it.”

“No!”

“Say it~”

“No!”

“Say it!

“NO!”

“Uh, Starlight? This seems kind of mean.”

The three of them were in the courtyard outside of the library. Spike watching uncomfortably as Sunset was suspended in the air, trapped inside a ball of Starlight’s magic and trying her hardest to break out of it while Starlight bobbed it up and down. Meanwhile other ponies walked by or stayed to watch Sunset in this embarrassing moment, making the bratty unicorn even angrier.

“Spike, I’m just teaching her a lesson in humility.” Starlight replied to him while she continued to smile up at the trapped Sunset. “Come on Sunset! All you have to do is say I’m better at magic than you and you’re free!”

“No!” Her horn glowed red with all the power she could muster and Sunset fired a concentrated beam at the ball of magic.

To no effect.

“Good try!” Starlight said before shaking the ball harder, tossing and turning Sunset inside it like clothes in a washing machine.

“Aghhhh!” Sunset screamed in frustration, nearly crying.

The ponies who frequented the library and castle seemed to be well aware of Sunset’s identity and knew her reputation and were thus giving this whole scene a wide berth. Two guards were even watching it all unfold.

“Should we be stopping this?” One asked his partner.

“Probably, but I really don’t want to deal with that.” The other said and they both went back to just watching.

Sunset was starting to get a little green inside the bouncing ball. “I think I’m gonna be sick...” She muttered.

“Well if you want out you know what you need to say~” Starlight mocked in a singsong voice.

“Starlight...” Spike said. Despite Sunset being a jerk he was far more sympathetic to her right now. The fire-maned pony hadn’t really done anything bad yet and she didn’t deserve this kind of humiliation. Not this badly at least. Also this would look bad if it got back to Celestia.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Fine, I know that tone.” She undid her spell and let the bubble of magic pop, unceremoniously dropping Sunset to the ground.

“Oof!” Sunset groaned as she plopped onto the grass, continuing to moan in discomfort.

“You could’ve done that gentler.” Spike frowned at Starlight.

“Yes. I could have.” She smiled at him.

“Ohhh, I don’t feel so good.” Sunset clutched her stomach as she stood up on shaky legs.

Starlight glanced over at her. “Hm? Did you say something?”

Sunset glared at her in anger, face red and tears welling up in her eyes. “You’re a jerk! You think you can treat the student of Princess Celestia like this?!”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Starlight feigned concern, holding a hoof in front of her chest. “But why should I care about or respect a pony weaker than me? In fact now that we know my magic is stronger than yours shouldn’t you be giving me your respect?” Starlight grinned.

Sunset looked like she was about to start bawling. “I’m telling Princess Celestia about this!” She yelled and turn to run away.

“Nope!” Starlight said and caught her in a beam of magic. Sunset roared in anger and struggled fruitlessly as Starlight levitated her back, turning her around so they were eye to eye again. “The Princess wants you to make some friends and I want you to be more humble. So, Sunset, it’s time for some friendship lessons.”

“Twilight would not approve of this.” Spike said as Starlight teleported them back into their new room at the castle.

Author's Note

I find it fun to make characters I like suffer in funny ways.

An Awkward Dinner

“Starlight, this is kidnapping.”

“No it’s not. It’s “making friends’”, Spike.”

The two of them sat on one side of the only table inside the room given to them by Princess Celestia while across from them sat an angrily pouting Sunset Shimmer. Who was giving Starlight as evil of a look as possible. Starlight had set up tea for all of them but Sunset adamantly refused to engage in any such pleasantries.

“This seems like kind of the wrong way to start being friends with somepony.” Spike said.

“So? Twilight and I started on an even worse hoof. So did Twilight and Sunset for that matter.” Starlight replied.

“What?” Sunset finally spoke up, not understanding what Starlight just said.

“It’s not important.” Starlight brushed her off. “What is important is now you know how others feel when you’re mean to them, right?”

Sunset somehow glared even harder at Starlight. “I know that you’re a mean nutjob. What do you think Princess Celestia is going to say when I tell her about this?”

Starlight grinned. “Oh? You’re going to admit to the Princess that another unicorn totally had you at her mercy and there was nothing you could do? I thought you were the best at magic, you’re saying you don’t mind if every single pony in the castle hears about this?”

The haughty young student looked on in horror before she slammed her hooves down on the table. “You’re evil!”

“Now, now. Is that any way to speak to your elders? Especially since by your own words you should be showing me respect.” Starlight took a sip of tea.

“Grr!” Sunset growled and grew red in the face before sitting back in her chair and crossing her hooves over her chest. “Well it’s not fair! You’re an adult after all.”

Starlight snorted. “Please, you’re going to try and use that weak excuse? You said there was no unicorn stronger than you when it came to magic. Now you’re eating those words. Admit it.”

As Spike watched on pityingly, Sunset sniffled slightly and looked like she was about to cry again.

“Oh don’t go on crying again.” Starlight said. “I’m here to help you, you know? This’ll be good for you down the road and you’ll thank me one day for teaching you some humility before you make too many wrong decisions.”

“Speaking from experience?” Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow at the odd unicorn.

Starlight narrowed her eyes at the impertinent student. “Yes. And before you get smart with me you should take that as a sign that I know what I’m talking about. You should listen to ponies more experienced and worldly than you.”

“Should I also listen to bullies who publicly humiliate kids?”

“That’s your first lesson! Don’t do what I just did!” Starlight leaned back and put her hooves behind her head while Spike groaned and put his head down on the table.

“You’re awful.” Sunset said simply.

Starlight dismissively waved her hoof. “Whatever. The point is that you know you shouldn’t be so rude and disrespectful to others. And don’t you want friends?”

“Why?” Sunset was incredulous. “What do I need friends for? It’s a waste of time and it has nothing to do with getting better at magic.”

Spike lazily turned his head to peek out at Sunset. “Something about this conversation is getting very familiar.”

Starlight and Sunset both ignored him however and Starlight continued to lecture Sunset. “First off it’s just nice to have friends. Secondly friends can do things you can’t, they can also draw out more from you. You can become so much more than what you are now with the help of your friends. You’ll learn things about yourself you never knew. And I know it might sound a little cheesy or silly to you right now but there’s no magic more powerful than friendship. Don’t deny what can be accomplished with the bonds of friendship between ponies.”

Spike had to admit that Starlight actually sounded pretty good there, it was definitely a speech Twilight would approve of at least. Unfortunately Sunset’s snide levels and annoyance at Starlight were still pretty high.

“You’re kidding right?”

“No, I’m not kidding.” Starlight said far less amicably.

Sunset began to-

“And don’t roll your eyes at me anymore!” Starlight stopped her.

“Ugh, whatever. This is stupid.” Sunset pouted like the bratty teenager she was.

Spike and Starlight both shared a look, now neither of them were liking how this conversation was going. Sunset was proving to be far more stubborn than Starlight had expected her to be at this point in her life. She must show only the best part of herself to Celestia for the Princess to not realize how bad Sunset’s attitude already was. And through Starlight’s own… extreme handling of the situation she was adamantly refusing to get along with her.

But if they couldn’t be friends just yet maybe there was at least one other way Starlight could get Sunset to spend more time with her and at least begrudgingly get along.

“Alright. The friendship lessons can wait, I know you can’t exactly force somepony to be your friend so we’ll let that naturally develop.” Starlight said.

Sunset raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering where Starlight was going now.

“For now how would you like it if I taught you magic?” Starlight asked.

Sunset’s eyebrows shot up past her forehead. “You?” She quickly shook her head as if she didn’t just hear right, her expression turning skeptical and frowning at Starlight. “And what could you even teach me? I’m already Celestia’s private student.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Starlight allowed. “But we both know how busy Celestia is. Are you saying you don’t wish she had more time to personally tutor you?”

“Well… no.” Sunset couldn’t really deny it. “But still, do you even know how to teach magic?”

Starlight and Spike smiled at each other. “I learned from the best.” She returned to looking at Sunset, extending a hoof across the table. “I’m sure you’d at least like to learn how to make a bubble shield as powerful as I can, right?”

Sunset unsurprisingly glared at her.

“Oh relax.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Listen, I know how to fly, teleport, transform objects and a whole bunch of other even more complicated things. So what do you say?”

Sunset stared down Starlight’s hoof for a moment. Finally she groaned in defeat and shook it in resignation. “I hope I don’t regret this.”

“You won’t, and I’m sure Celestia will be thrilled to hear that you’re at least spending time with others.” Starlight said.

She was.

Almost immediately after Starlight and Sunset shook hooves an attendant of Celestia’s knocked on the door and poked their head in. They were quite surprised to see Sunset there as well but it turned out to be a good thing since the attendant was sent to Starlight and Spike to invite the both of them to dinner with Celestia and Sunset, now they didn’t even need to go looking for Sunset. So the three of them made their way to one of the castle’s dining rooms (Starlight wryly noted it was the same one where she ate breakfast with Celestia before switching her and Luna’s Cutie Marks, hopefully she wouldn’t do something so impulsive this time in here) and sat down with the awaiting Princess.

Celestia had quite the meal prepared for them, and to Starlight and Spike’s amusement she also had a freshly baked cake that was the centerpiece of the entire meal.

“It’s great to see you getting along with others Sunset, you’ve always done such a good job in your studies but I was concerned that you never made time for friends.” Celestia said, affectionately smiling at her student.

“Y-Yeah, Princess.” Sunset ground out, an awkward forced smile on her face while she glared at Starlight out of the corner of her eye.

Princess Celestia didn’t need to know how strained and coercive the relationship was at the moment. The other three wanted her to relax. She deserved it.

“It’s not only that, I’ve decided to teach Sunset magic when we both have the time.” Starlight said happily.

Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise. “I see. Well considering what you’ve told me and who you’re friends with I’m sure you’re well qualified. I just hope you won’t be teaching her certain things. If you know what I mean?” Celestia inquisitively gazed at Starlight.

“Oh no, no, nothing of the sort. Just normal magic lessons.” Starlight quickly reassured the Princess. Sunset would most definitely not be learning any crazy time-travel spells, among the other things Starlight knew.

“Um, what?” Sunset asked, confused.

“It’s nothing.” Starlight told her. “Let’s just eat.”

And eat they did. Celestia had even been thoughtful enough to bring in whole plates of gemstones for Spike to eat, something he was immensely grateful for as he chowed down on them with a complete lack of table manners. As Starlight daintily ate her salad she wondered if Twilight was responsible for the sloppy way Spike ate. Sunset played around with her food, grumbling to herself and shooting a dirty look at Starlight every now and then. Not having much of an appetite after the annoying day she’d been through.

“How is it? I made it myself you know.” Celestia asked eagerly.

Sunset took a big forkful of salad and stuffed it in her mouth, swallowing it down like a pig. “Great as always, Princess.”

While Starlight chewed her food a thought came to her, swallowing she looked to Sunset. “Sunset? You were in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, right?”

Both Sunset and Celestia turned to look at her, wondering what she was getting at.

“Yes? Why?” Sunset answered.

“Did you know another student named Sunburst? He should be studying there still if I’m right.”

Celestia got a thoughtful look on her face, stroking her chin as if she was trying to remember if she knew any students at the school by that name. Sunset just scoffed though.

“I don’t know. I never really paid any attention to the other students. I was always at the top of my class anyways.” Sunset said. Her haughty attitude out in full force again.

“Sunset, you shouldn’t be so dismissive of your fellow students. They’re all trying their best.” Celestia admonished.

“Yes, Princess.” Sunset grumpily replied.

“He should be fairly easy to remember.” Starlight continued on. “Wears glasses? Yellow-orange coat similar to yours, white fetlocks, orange mane. Probably reads even more than you do?”

Sunset paused for a second, actually thinking about it before realization suddenly struck her and a barking laugh emerged from her. “Hahaha! I know who you’re talking about! I can’t believe he even got into the school in the first place, for all the reading he does he can barely work any spells at all! He doesn’t have any talent for magic!” Sunset then yelped as Starlight stealthily kicked her shin under the table. “Ow!”

“Sunset!” Celestia’s tone was warning as she frowned down at her student. “You shouldn’t speak of other ponies in such a manner, not all of them can be as blessed as you.”

The teenager recoiled at Celestia’s disapproval but quickly went to pouting, folding her forelegs over her chest and staring down at her plate. “Hmph!” After a second she reached a hoof down to rub the spot Starlight kicked.

Celestia sighed but turned her gaze to Starlight. “Why did you want to know about him?”

“I… know him.” Starlight said, wiggling her eyebrows at Celestia to get the message across.

“Oh. I see.” The Princess nodded in understanding.

“Yeah. I may want to go see him at some point. Not totally sure.” Starlight rubbed the back of her head.

Spike noticed that for some reason she didn’t seem as enthusiastic about that anymore.

The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence, Spike still gorging himself while Sunset was too embarrassed by Celestia’s earlier rebuke to say anything. When it was finally time for the cake Starlight and Spike did note with some more amusement that Celestia’s slice was slightly larger than theirs.

“Did you make the cake yourself too?” Starlight asked.

Celestia shook her head. “No, I prefer others to make my cake. If you’d like to join me for breakfast tomorrow you can have my pancakes though.” She smiled, clearly hoping Starlight would say yes.

“That sounds great, thanks for the invitation.” Starlight answered.

Next to her, Sunset snorted. Obviously she’d be at that breakfast too and wasn’t happy to hear that Starlight was coming now.

“Urp!” The sudden sound of Spike belching drew all eyes at the table to him. The dragon blushed in embarrassment and sunk down in his seat. “Um, excuse me...”

Starlight took that as a sign. “Well that was a great meal but it’s getting late and the two of us have had a long day.” She stood out of her chair and pushed it back in, walking around the table to gather Spike.

Celestia smiled. “Of course. I hope you enjoy your lodgings for your stay here. Have a nice evening.”

“Yeah. Bye.” Sunset said far less amicably.

With an exhausted groan Starlight threw herself face first onto the luxurious four-poster bed of her and Spike’s room. Spike flying over her onto a smaller bed nestled into the side of the room that had been specially brought there on Celestia’s orders for him. It really had been a long day for the two and they were happy to finally be able to get some sleep.

“You know-” Spike said as he made himself comfortable. “I’m kind of surprised we haven’t had another huge shift in the timeline lately.”

Starlight tiredly looked up at him from her position on top of her bed, mane raggedly hanging over her face now. “Maybe it’s waiting for something big. Or the past has settled down and now we’re stuck in one world forever.”

“I… hope not.” Spike said worriedly.

“It doesn’t matter.” Starlight turned over, shirking her responsibility at the same time. “Let’s just relax in Canterlot until Twilight fixes everything like always.”

Those Canterlot Days

If there was any place to be stuck while you waited for some other pony to fix your problems and save the world you could do a whole lot worse than Canterlot. And as guests of the Princess where everything they did was on her payroll? Starlight and Spike could indeed have done much, much worse.

Not that they would ever take advantage of Princess Celestia’s kindness and generosity like that. Not at all. Or at least Spike wouldn’t. Starlight on the other hand was determined to have some fun and really make this a vacation.

“How do I look, Spike?” Starlight asked him as she stepped out of the dressing room she had just been using to put on a new dress. She had dragged him to a high-end boutique known as L’Suave’s and for the past two hours had been running the poor manager of the store ragged as she tried to find something that she thought was “just perfect”.

“You look great, Starlight.” Spike said in a bored tone, not being able to care anymore.

Starlight frowned. It was true she never had an interest in fashion anyways but the whole point of a vacation was letting loose and doing things you didn’t always do. And if Starlight was gonna get herself a fancy dress she wanted to do things right. Since Spike was clearly not going to be any help Starlight just examined herself in the mirror. The two-toned short blue dress, a lighter color on top and darker on bottom, flowed nicely off her backside and stopped just before her ankles. Sequins adorned the collar and a golden broach tied it all together.

“Well you were right anyways. I do look great.” Starlight said as she twirled around in her dress. “Now all I need is a hat and I’ll really look like a lady of Canterlot.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “At least you’re finally done.”

Starlight blew a raspberry at him, something completely unbecoming of a lady. “If I was Rarity you’d be loving this.”

“Yeah, well…. uh...” Spike blushed slightly and was unable to deny the truth of what Starlight was saying.

“I do believe this hat will go perfectly with the dress you’ve selected.” The sweaty manager suddenly appeared by Starlight’s side, holding up a white hat. He’d likely been eavesdropping on their whole conversation and was happy to speed them along.

Starlight grabbed the hat in her magic and put it on her head. Alabaster white with a wide brim and a band of blue silk. A single blue rose had been put on the left side as well. Starlight tilted her head side to side, inspecting it from every angle. Finally, to the delight of the manager, she smiled.

“I like it.”

“Wonderful, I’ll ring you up right away.” He said in happy contentment.

“Hm? We’re not done yet.” Starlight said as she turned to look at him.

“You’re not?” His face fell.

“We’re not?” Spike also said, an eyebrow raised at Starlight.

Starlight grinned and looked at Spike. “Well of course not. We still need a suit for you, Spike.”

The dragon’s eyes widened in surprise before he chuckled and snapped his fingers. “Heh. Now you’re talking.”

Well, Spike wasn’t perfect either.

So much later that it isn’t even worth mentioning Spike and Starlight both walked out of L’Suave’s bedecked in their brand new clothes. The lovely dress for Starlight and a newly made custom black tuxedo for Spike complete with a sparkling red ruby on his lapel and a glossy black bow-tie.

“I gotta admit, Starlight. When you’ve got a good idea you’ve got a good idea.” Spike said, admiring his new look.

“And like I said this is just a drop in a bucket for Celestia. I’m sure she’d be happy to know we were enjoying ourselves anyways and would’ve been glad to buy this for us. She loves to please after all.” Starlight said.

“Well I’m not totally convinced you aren’t just being selfish but I’ll let it slide this time.” Spike playfully digged her in the side with an elbow and straightened out his bow-tie.

“Back at you.” Starlight grinned and gave it right back to him. The two of them now in good spirits once more.

As they walked down the streets of Canterlot it was amusing to them to see the typical city-dwellers heads turning this time not because of how out of place they looked but because of how good they looked. Without the clothes a unicorn walking around with a little dragon would just seem kind of weird, as it was when they first arrived. Now they looked important and high-class. And you can bet Starlight and Spike were flaunting it for all it was worth.

Her nose upturned and eyes disdainfully ignoring the other ponies in the city, Starlight couldn’t help but grin on the inside as she played her character to its fullest. Spike as well was basking in the attention he was getting. Starlight knew Spike enjoyed this kind of thing quite a bit, he was like a sponge for it.

“You know normally I wouldn’t be the type to show off like this but around snooty ponies like this it feels pretty good.” Starlight whispered to Spike.

“Hey, most ponies of Canterlot are still perfectly good. It’s just some of the upper crust can be kind of snobs.” Spike said.

“We’re definitely in one of the richer parts of the city too, huh?” Starlight said as she looked around. Only the best of the best of Canterlot shops and restaurants surrounded them, down the street a ways Starlight could see huge manors and gated estates start to rise up.

They walked quietly together for a little longer, neither exactly sure just what they were going to do today now after getting their clothes. Their stomachs were still full from the massive stacks of pancakes Celestia had cooked for them and Sunset was surprisingly nowhere to be found.

“What do you wanna do now, Spike? I don’t really know what kinds of stuff I should be messing around with back here to improve things.” Starlight asked him.

“First off you shouldn’t be messing with anything. Secondly… Twilight lives here you know?” Spike nervously looked up at Starlight, wondering if she had thought about that at all.

Starlight grimaced. “Yeahhhh, even I’m not gonna try messing around in Twilight’s life. That could really cause big problems.”

Spike breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. And if you want something to do Celestia said there was going to be a big Wonderbolts show today, remember? Were you paying attention at breakfast?”

“Guess not.” Starlight said. “Huh. A Wonderbolts show could be fun. I bet we can get the best seats in the stadium too.” She smiled. “Alright, let’s do it. I don’t think I’ve been to a Wonderbolts show before, being friends with Rainbow Dash you kind of get enough of that kind of stuff up close and personally.”

“Heh, tell me about it.”

Spike then directed them to where the stadium was, even from far away they both could tell there was a large crowd already trying to get inside. And because neither of them were paying attention to their hooves Starlight didn’t notice the little filly walking in front of her until it was too late.

“Wagh!”

“Oof!”

A yelp came out from the young filly as Starlight tripped over her, the two of them falling to the ground. Starlight was thankfully able to move to the side so she didn’t fall on top of the filly but they still both landed in uncomfortable heaps.

“Ugh, sorry! Are you alright?” Starlight asked the filly as she got up, both her and Spike leaning over her in concern.

“I’m fine.” The filly said as she stood up, wiping some dirt off her legs. She was a pegasus with a teal coat and a yellow and gold mane and tail with strong, bright eyes.

Starlight wiped her brow in relief. “Good, I was worried that I hurt you.”

“Nothing to worry about, I’m tough.” She said proudly, sticking out her chest.

Starlight chuckled at her precociousness. “Apparently so. Are your parents around?” She asked, looking around the street to see if any obvious ponies were looking for this little filly.

“Nope! I came here all on my own to see the Wonderbolts show.” The filly said, frowning.

“All on your own?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow. A young pegasus going to see the show by herself gave off a few warning signs. “Do your parents know you’re here at all?”

“I left a note. It’s their fault they didn’t want to bring me.” The filly stamped her hoof in frustration.

Starlight and Spike shared a worried glance.

“So you basically ran away from home for a day?” Spike said.

The filly rolled her eyes. “Psh. So what?”

“I think I should bring you to the police and have them contact your parents.” Starlight said, being a responsible adult for once as she looked down with an admonishing gaze at the young filly.

At that the filly’s eyes widened and she ran up to Starlight, grabbing and hugging her foreleg in desperation. “No, please! At least wait until I’ve seen the show! It’s my dream! I’ve always, always, always wanted to be a Wonderbolt! And Wind Rider is in the show today, he’s my hero! I’ve never actually been to a live Wonderbolt show before, you have to let me see it!”

Starlight looked down at the pleading filly, her face scrunching up in dismay. She looked over at Spike who merely gave her a shrug, an equally distressed grimace on his face. It was pretty clear to Starlight what she should do but was there really any harm in letting her see the show when things had gotten to this point?

And there was another thing that was tugging at Starlight’s heart as she looked at the young filly.

“What’s your name?” She asked the teal pegasus.

“It’s Lightning Dust.” She stated, her eyes confidently looking up at Starlight.

There it was. Starlight may not have been a Wonderbolt expert but even she knew there wasn’t any pony named Lightning Dust on the team in the present. Whoever this pony was she wouldn’t achieve her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. It instantly made Starlight sympathize with the little filly.

“So why didn’t your parents want to take you to see the show themselves?” Starlight asked Lightning Dust.

Lightning Dust snorted. “They think I’m too obsessed with becoming a Wonderbolt. Like I’m pushing myself too hard or something.”

That must be it. Starlight thought. Her parents probably get her to calm down and she loses the drive she has.

“Yeah but you have a dream right? You can’t let anything like that stop you. Sometimes you have to try your hardest and then some if you want that dream to come true.” Starlight said to reassure the filly. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to your parents but you probably know your limits better than anypony.”

“I know right?!” Lightning Dust beamed up at her with sparkling eyes, jumping back and flying up with her small wings buzzing so she was face to face with Starlight. “They don’t get it but I’m not letting anything or anypony get in my way of becoming a Wonderbolt!”

Starlight grinned. “Just keep up that attitude and I’m sure you’ll make it one day.”

Lightning Dust grinned right back at her. “Thanks, miss!” She then got a slightly more bashful expression on her face and floated down to the ground, starting to paw at it. “Er, so what about the show?”

“Hmm...” Starlight made an exaggerated show of thinking it over before winking at the filly. “You can watch it. But! Immediately after that we’re going to take you somewhere where your parents can be contacted, you’ll probably have to wait around with the police. And for the show you’ll be sticking with the two of us so we can keep an eye on you.” Starlight said and patted Spike on the shoulder.

“Awesome!” Lightning Dust threw her hooves wide open. “I don’t even care! I get to see Wind Rider, this is amazing!”

And just like that she started flying ahead of them on the way to the stadium, Starlight and Spike following close behind her.

“You know now that I think about it there’s something about that pony that’s familiar.” Spike said from beside Starlight, tapping his chin in thought.

“Maybe you’ve seen her older self in the present.” Starlight suggested. “For now that’s not important though, I’m gonna make sure this is the best Wonderbolt’s show ever!” Starlight smirked, a familiar glint appearing her eyes.

“Starlight… what are you planning?” Spike’s worry was evident.

But the unicorn didn’t answer as their party of three made its way into the stadium.

What A Show

It was a totally packed stadium, the stands nearly overflowing with ponies not just from Canterlot but all over Equestria. Flags and banners with the names of ponies favorite Wonderbolts were being waved all over and the cheering was nearly deafening even though the show hadn’t even begun yet. Starlight, however, led her group to the luxury box where a number of other VIP’s were already gathered. She was lucky that the pony working the entrance to the box recognized her and Spike as guests of Celestia’s cause otherwise this would have been a little embarrassing. So Starlight, Spike, and Lightning Dust made their way into the box and sat themselves at a table, more than one head from the others in there turned to watch them but nopony actually confronted them on who they were and how they got in here. A mere curiosity to the elite ponies for the moment it seemed.

“This is awesome! You must be really important if you got us in here.” Lightning said as she excitedly looked all over the stadium. The filly was a massive bundle of energy.

“Oh, maybe just a little bit.” Starlight said, enjoying the admiration.

Spike noticed that the three of them were quickly becoming the topic of several whispered conversations between the other ponies here but still none of them decided to come up and talk to Starlight or ask who they were. Spike was grateful for that, he couldn’t imagine how poorly Starlight would handle any conversation with these ponies.

Although it was probably only a matter of time before word got out that they were special guests in the castle…

Spike hoped that either Twilight found them before that or that Discord would suddenly appear out of nowhere and fix everything. He still half-expected his Draconequus friend to randomly appear and drag him off to a game of Ogres & Oubliettes.

“So you really like this Wind Rider huh?” Starlight’s sudden question to Lightning Dust brought Spike back to reality.

Wind Rider? Spike was sure he had heard one of his friends mention that name before too but he couldn’t remember who or why. Since the guy was apparently a famous Wonderbolt it was probably that Spike had heard Rainbow Dash gushing over him at some point.

“Yeah! He’s the best Wonderbolt ever!” Lightning Dust answered. “Everypony thinks he’s gonna break a big record today too.”

“Hm.” Starlight hummed, sitting back in her chair and smirking.

It was not something that filled Spike with ease.

“What are you thinking about, Starlight?” Spike asked her.

“Just thinking that this certainly would be a memorable Wonderbolt’s show if Wind Rider set a record or two.” Starlight replied innocently.

“Right? I hope it happens.” Lightning Dust said, oblivious to Spike’s worries about Starlight,

Suddenly a blast of music was played over the speakers and the crowd erupted into even more cheering. Lightning Dust going crazy at their table as Starlight and Spike watched in amusement. The Wonderbolts were coming from their tent and out onto the “field”, a cloudy track had been arranged for them along with all kinds of hoops and other obstacles. Cannons for fireworks had been placed at the bottom as well for when the show ended.

Starlight and Spike didn’t recognize a single Wonderbolt but they still clapped along as they came out flying and waving to the crowd. Lightning Dust was buzzing above her seat as she cheered for them. The little pegasus seemed more excited than any other pony in the stadium.

Starlight smiled. “Looks like it’s my time then.” She got up out of her seat.

Spike noticed this and gave her a questioning look. “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about it, Spike.” She said as she walked to the back of the luxury box, where no other ponies could see her, and vanished.

“That can’t be good...” Spike said aloud to himself as he watched her disappear into thin air before returning his gaze to the Wonderbolts. “What are you planning, Starlight?”

Starlight was happy to be as talented as she was. Which was funny considering how much of her life was spent stamping out such thought. But if she wasn’t so great at magic she’d never be able to turn invisible and fly at the same time. Now she floated in the middle of the sky at the stadium, watching the Wonderbolts get ready to performs their show. The fancy dress she was wearing was a little cumbersome for this but she couldn’t just take it off and leave it lying on the ground either.

Now it’s time to make this a Wonderbolts show for the ages. Starlight thought. Which one of them is Wind Rider?

The announcer for the show was more than happy to help out Starlight as each Wonderbolts name was called up over the loudspeakers when they lined up to begin their show. As Starlight had expected, this Wind Rider was out in front. A suitable place if he really was the best like Lightning Dust said he was.

Best until Rainbow Dash comes along at least. Starlight thought with no small measure of pride for her close friend.

She wasn’t really sure how the show would go but she figured there was plenty of racing, stunts and aerial acrobatics. And what Starlight planned to do to make sure this show was extra amazing was “beef up” Wind Rider in a way. Helping him along with her magic, lessening wind resistance, giving him helpful updrafts, and all of it while staying totally invisible so nopony was any wiser. He’d be faster and more agile with her spells and the wind would even be on his side with Starlight’s help.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” She said as music began to play over the loudspeakers and the announcer yelled that the show had begun.

Instantly the Wonderbolts that were performing zoomed off into the sky, performing a myriad of tricks and flight patterns to dazzle the crowd. It seemed to mostly be just some opening exercises to get the crowd warmed up so Starlight wasn’t doing anything just yet.

Instead she just floated there and enjoyed the show for the moment. That’s why she and Spike were originally coming here after all. And being where she was she had a better view than any pony in the stadium. All that was missing was some popcorn. Looking down at the luxury box she saw Spike and Lightning Dust cheering, she was happy that Spike was able to relax and enjoy himself instead of worrying about what she was doing.

A few minutes in to the show and the Wonderbolts began to break off from each other, preparing for individual maneuvers.

“Now we’re talking.” Starlight grinned in anticipation and focused on the flying form of Wind Rider.

There wasn’t anypony down below that would be able to tell what she was doing as her spells worked their magic on Wind Rider. It was an almost imperceptible change at first, so small that likely even he didn’t notice his slight increase in speed and maneuverability.

But as he moved faster and faster along, darting between rings and taking turns like he never could before, the crowd’s cheering became louder and louder. Wind Rider probably thought he was in the zone as the air itself seemed to push him along and didn’t create near as much drag on his body as usual as he flew through every routine and pattern for the show. He zipped around like a missile, stunning the crowd and his fellow Wonderbolts.

At this point he must have realized too how special this was and Starlight could tell he began to push his body even harder. She could imagine little Lightning Dust going crazy as she watched this.

Starlight’s invisible magic was doing good work, she didn’t know what the records were like but she couldn’t believe that Wind Rider wouldn’t be breaking them today with his natural speed and her power backing him up.

By now a lot of the crowd had changed from cheering their lungs out to watching in awed silence. Wind Rider being so much of a blur that even Starlight thought his uniform might suddenly catch fire from it all.

The other Wonderbolts formed up alongside him, or tried to but couldn’t match his speed. It became a show of Wind Rider leading the others at the head of a chevron formation, him quickly performing any tricks and maneuvers and the rest copying them. The Wonderbolts had become a single unit now as they looped, turned, and sped as fast as they could across the sky, much to the delight of the crowd below. Starlight had to figure this was improvised by the others as they saw how amazing Wind Rider was being today.

“Good, just keep going all out.” Starlight said as she pumped more power into her spell.

It finally all ended with the Wonderbolts performing a great climb high up into the sky before immediately taking a hairpin nosedive, all of them rocketing straight down to the ground below. Starlight had to move out of the way to avoid getting hit. Even then the shockwave from them all flying past her threatened to blow her away and cancel her spells, but luckily she had enough control to avoid that.

Finally when they were just barely above the ground the Wonderbolts sharply pulled upwards, gliding along the bottom of the arena and landing perfectly safely in formation.

The crowd went wild.

Starlight also couldn’t help but clap along. The other Wonderbolts gathered around Wind Rider, patting him on the back and congratulating him on an amazing job. Another pegasus with a microphone flew down to where they were gathered, he must’ve been the announcer.

“That was absolutely amazing!” The announcer yelled into his microphone. “I don’t think anypony has seen a pegasus fly like that before! Wind Rider, how did you do it?” He held the microphone out to Wind Rider.

The Wonderbolt had a million-bit grin on his face as he took off his goggles, grabbing the microphone out of the announcer’s hoof. “Well to be honest it felt almost magical. I came out here flying my hardest and trying my best and I guess even the wind decided to be on my side today, I managed to hit that perfect zone and I stuck with it the whole show.” The crowd cheered loudly for him. “Hehe, thank you, thank you. Now I don’t know what made today so special but I can guarantee that no pony is ever gonna break the records I just set.”

He handed the announcer his microphone back and stood there grinning, basking in the glory.

“And there you have it, folks!” The announcer said to the cheering crowd. “And now to finish off this amazing show we have the celebratory fireworks, coming right now!”

Oh yeah. Starlight thought. Hm, maybe I can make those a bit more extravagant too?

A minute later the fireworks began, the crowd cheering and watching along for those as well but not to nearly as high a degree as they had cheered for Wind Rider. Starlight decided to spice things up a bit and enhanced a lot of the explosions with her magic or fired off beams of light on her own that turned into emblems of hearts, stars, diamonds, etc. in the sky. The fireworks crew were somewhat flabbergasted and confused but the crowd loved it even more.

All in all thanks to Starlight this was a Wonderbolts show that nopony would be forgetting anytime soon.

As Spike and Lightning Dust watched the fireworks with glee Starlight suddenly reappeared in her seat right next to Spike.

“Gah!” Spike yelled in shock, falling over backwards.

Starlight caught him and his chair before they could hit the ground and righted them both. “Miss me?”

Spike frowned at her. “I take it you had something to do with Wind Rider’s unusually amazing performance?”

“Maybe~” She winked at him. “It was all for our little friend here anyways.”

Lightning Dust hadn’t been paying attention to Starlight’s return, she was still buzzing above her chair, hooting and hollering at the fireworks.

“Enjoy the show?” Starlight said to her.

The pegasus filly turned around with a huge grin and flew up right into Starlight’s face. “You bet! That was the most incredible thing ever! I’m definitely becoming a Wonderbolt now and nothing’s gonna stop me, I don’t care who or what it is, nothing’s getting in my way!”

Starlight grinned. “Heh, good on you. But now that the show is over I think it’s about time for us to be heading out. And for the three of us to pay a visit to the police.”

Lightning Dust deflated, her little wings stopping as she fell to the table. “Oh.” She chuckled, a blush and a small nervous smile replacing her huge grin. “Eheh, can you trust me to go turn myself in?”

“Not a chance.”

Self Help

“It’s good to see you can still act like a responsible adult.” Spike said to Starlight as the two of them walked back to the castle.

“Hey, Twilight made me her guidance counselor for a reason. I can do a good job when I’m serious.” She snapped back at him.

Lightning Dust hadn’t been the happiest when Starlight and Spike dropped her off with the police and told them the story but she didn’t make a big fuss about it. Starlight hoped that her little intervention in the show and her encouragement was enough to help the pegasus achieve her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt in the future. The two of them said their farewells to the impertinent filly after that and had started on their way back to the castle.

“Well I don’t know about you but I’m taking a nice long bubble bath once we get back.” Spike said.

“Sounds nice. Just make sure to properly hang up your tuxedo first. It cost a lot of money.”

Spike frowned and glanced up at her. “Yeah, it cost a lot of Celestia’s money.”

“Hey, you’re still wearing it aren’t you?” Starlight mocked.

“It looks too good on me, I can’t pass something like this up!” Spike weakly argued as he held onto his lapel, grinning and showing off the tux to Starlight.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “How very principled of you.”

“I think Rarity would understand where I was coming from.”

“Well, yeah.” Starlight did have to allow that.

Celestia was lowering the sun by the time the two actually got back to the castle. The guards and everypony else knew them well enough by now that they could easily walk in without a problem. Starlight and Spike waved to some of them and even got a few waves back. They hadn’t seen that one pony, Sharp Schedule, since their first day here though. Starlight wondered if he was avoiding them for some reason.

They were walking through one of the outer gardens of the castle when a voice rang out.

“Aha! There you are!”

Starlight sighed and turned around. “What is it, Sunset?”

Sunset Shimmer stood at the entrance to one of the stone covered pathways that bordered the garden. She had a fierce and determined look in her eyes as she stared down her nemesis.

“Oh boy...” Spike muttered as he saw the expression on her face.

“I’ve come to challenge you!” Sunset yelled at Starlight.

Starlight just flatly stared at her for a moment before responding. “Why? I told you I’d gladly teach you if you wanted and we had the spare time.”

“That’s not good enough!” Sunset barked out again. “I couldn’t stomach not being able to defeat your bubble shield, no unicorn has ever been able to get the better of me at magic before! And I’m Celestia’s prized student, this isn’t something I can let stand! So I’ve spent the past three days studying and practicing an attack powerful enough to break through any barrier you can make. Just try and stop this!”

Sunset’s horn began glowing a powerful red, sparks shooting off of it.

Now Spike was thinking that firing a powerful spell at another pony fully aware of the possibility and with the intention of hurting them was probably not something Celestia would approve of.

Meanwhile Starlight was just kind of annoyed that she had to bother with something like this again.

“Take this!” Sunset said as she fired a blast of concentrated magic directly at Starlight.

Who promptly put up a powerful shield of her own magic upon which Sunset’s beam bounced off of and shot directly back at her.

“Gahhhh!” The yellow unicorn yelled as he own spell blasted her, sending her comically smacking into the wall behind her. She slid to the ground in a pile of blackened fur with a singed mane and tail, pitifully coughing up a puff of smoke.

“You didn’t need to do that.” Spike admonished Starlight.

“On the contrary Spike, if she still attempted to do something this dumb after what I did to her last time, I think if anything this was me holding back.” Starlight responded as she walked up to the prone form of Sunset.

“Now Sunset,” Starlight said to her. “Are you going to keep doing things like this or are you going to be good and get along with me so I can teach you some magic?”

“Good...” Sunset weakly groaned as she couldn’t even look up at Starlight.

Starlight smiled. “That’s what I wanted to hear! Alright, see you tomorrow.” And she quickly turned around, leaving the teenager there and walking back with Spike to their room.

Spike for his part did send Sunset a pitying glance, but Starlight was partially right that she kind of brought all of this on herself.

The next day Starlight was out alone on the town. Spike decided to take a vacation from her (much to her chagrin that he decided to frame it as such) and was currently enjoying being midway through a six hour bubble bath. So it was Starlight out wandering the streets of Canterlot on her own, she didn’t have any plans and couldn’t think of anything she wanted to change or bother with at the moment so the unicorn was merely seeing the sights, window shopping, and pony watching.

That is until she got to one of the many plazas of Canterlot and heard a booming voice speaking out over a large crowd.

“Welcome ponies of Canterlot to Iron Will’s improvement seminar!” The loud voice caught the attention of every pony in the area, even those that weren’t already gathered in the plaza.

“Iron Will?” Starlight said aloud to herself, remembering the minotaur from his brief… work… as a teacher when Discord was messing with her at the school. She couldn’t help but be curious and her hooves brought her over to the crowd to see what he was doing.

It really was a large crowd and Starlight had to fight her way halfway through it before she could even see Iron Will. He was noticeably younger but still as big and strong looking as she remembered. How long did minotaurs live anyways? It was kind of funny to see he’d been doing stuff like this for as long as he had. Iron Will stood on a premade stage with his hands clasped behind his back and eyes gazing out over the huge crowd of ponies, confidently grinning at them.

“You ponies are here because you are wimps and you want to stop being wimps! Is that correct?!” He suddenly boomed out.

Before the crowd could even really respond in the negative or affirmative, Iron Will continued.

“Iron Will is indeed correct. You heard about me and my seminars and you came here because you wanted to change from a weak pushover into something great!” The mintoaur yelled.

Starlight frowned. She didn’t like how he was just generally browbeating and denigrating a whole crowd of ponies like this. That should only be done on a personal level. And only to ponies that really deserved it! From what she saw of his teaching Iron Will seemed crass and a bit too extreme and self-centered for friendship school but he didn’t exactly come off as a bad guy either. And Yona liked him after all.

“Hm, maybe I can make him better at helping ponies?” Starlight said while Iron Will continued to heat up the crowd. “Being less of a pushover is great but not if you just become a jerk instead.” And there was no reason to use so much negative reinforcement either.

Starlight waited out the rest of the seminar as Iron Will verbally whipped and whipped up the crowd. She had to admit he had a way with rhymes and catchy phrases.

“So if anypony ever again tries to make you their doormat?” He asked the crowd.

“You go on the attack!” The crowd of ponies yelled back at him.

“Excellent! Now Iron Will must inform you that he is absolutely, positively, completely assured that you will be satisfied with this seminar and the lessons learned in it. If you feel you haven’t shed your pushover self then you get your money back. But! Iron Will can already tell that there isn’t a single solitary pony out there that isn’t one-hundred percent satisfied already, is there?!” He shouted.

“No!” The crowd again yelled back at him.

Although Starlight noticed there were a good few who didn’t seem totally happy but were clearly too nervous to speak up. She’d do something about that.

Iron Will finished up his performance and told all the ponies that now they had the tools to become strong and assertive, just like him. It amazed Starlight that something as loud and obnoxious as this was allowed in Canterlot. The minotaur said he would always be around for more seminars in the future and he also said that he’d be signing autographs for anypony that wanted one backstage.

“The perfect opportunity.” Starlight said as she started forming up with the eager ponies to get Iron Will’s autograph.

Thankfully the line wasn’t as big as the crowd but Starlight still had to wait a bit before her turn to meet the minotaur came up. Behind his stage he sat at a desk with a huge stack of photographs that he was signing, Starlight didn’t exactly understand the taste of the ponies who wanted one but who was she to judge.

“Thank you for attending Iron Will’s seminar.” He said to Starlight as she stood in front of his desk. “Have this complimentary autograph.” He quickly signed his name on one of his photos and slid it to her in a way that said “I really should have thought to make ponies pay for these” to Starlight.

“Thanks, but that’s not why I’m here.” She slid his autograph right back to him. “Would you be interested in a business venture with me?”

The minotaur raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Starlight. “Iron Will is always interested in an excellent business venture.”

He still made her wait for him to finish signing the rest of his autographs before he spoke with her again. Most of his stuff was being packed away into a large trailer by a group of goats who worked as his assistants.

“So. What do you have to offer to Iron Will?” The burly orator asked of Starlight.

“Advice first of all.” Starlight said. “On how to improve your seminars.”

Iron Will started laughing. “Gehahaha, improve? Iron Will’s seminars are perfect! There is nothing to improve. No ponies have ever said they were dissatisfied!”

Starlight frowned up at the laughing minotaur. “Only because they were too scared or intimidated to tell you about it. I saw ponies in the crowd just now who weren’t happy but were still too much of wimps as you would call them to speak up about it.”

“That’s crazy talk.” Iron Will dismissively waved his hand. “Why would anypony feel they couldn’t be open with me? I am a very approachable and reasonable person.” As if to “emphasize” this he flexed his muscles, veins popping out of his neck and biceps.

“Right...” Starlight just cast a disbelieving look at him.

He frowned back at her. “Okay, so what if you’re maybe correct? What would you do and why should Iron Will even listen to you in the first place?”

“Well I’m a guidance counselor at a school for friendship that’s all about reasonably solving problems, and I’m currently a special guest of the Princess at the castle right now. So my seal of approval would carry a lot of weight I think.” Starlight told him.

Iron Will looked at her with a bit of a confused expression. “What does reasonably solving problems have anything to do with my seminars?”

Starlight groaned. “Ugh, look, I’m saying that you should be nicer and more positive instead of just telling ponies they’re wimpy and that they should just be ultra-aggressive and rude. You should be convincing ponies that they can better themselves through positive reinforcement and reaching understandings with others, not just being selfish and resorting to violence or yelling.”

“Iron Will is still skeptical. But he does wish to help ponies stop being pushovers and become winners, just like him.” Iron Will thumbed his chin.

“Well that’s a start.” Starlight resisted rolling her eyes. “Another thing I think would be really helpful for you is instead of just doing these shows why not write a book?”

“A book?”

“Yeah. If you write a book, or a magazine or catalog or something you can easily distribute it all over Equestria. You’ll reach way more ponies and become more well-known than if you only did seminars like these. And for the shyer ponies who aren’t totally satisfied it’ll be easier for them to return your book and get their money back than if they had to meet you in person.” Starlight said.

“Hm.” Iron Will looked deep in thought. “Iron Will is not excited about how easily it would be for a pony to say they want their money back, but it would allow me to reach so many more ponies that it likely wouldn’t matter. And I do want to help.”

“Excellent. I know all about the benefits of using books to get your message across.” Starlight proudly stated before grimacing as the realization of what she just said sunk in.

“Well I’ll be certain to at least try this venture out. Iron Will is excited to see how far and wide his message of self-help will reach!” The minotaur exclaimed and stuck his hand out for Starlight to shake.

Starlight smiled and shook his hand with her much smaller hoof. “Good luck!”

And then a white haze overtook her eyes and the world shifted back and forth like an earthquake had suddenly sprung up right beneath her hooves. A vibrating sensation going from the bottom of her hooves all the way to the tip of her horn finished up as the whiteness completely overtook her vision, and then just as quickly it all vanished.

“Something wrong?”

Starlight blearily looked up at the concerned Iron Will. Blinking a few times to catch her bearings she hesitantly responded. “Nope, no, nothing’s wrong! Good luck again.” And with a quick wave she turned around and trotted away before he could say anything.

Why did that of all things make the timeline shift again? This doesn’t make any sense! Starlight was quite put out.

And about a month later Iron Will’s very popular book came out: “How to Positively Crush Your Pushover Self”.

Starlight was angrily stomping her way back to the castle, so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the poor colt walking out of a store and onto the sidewalk she was on until it was too late. Once more Starlight tripped over a young pony, growling in annoyance as the two of them fell to the ground in a tangled mess.

“I’m sorry, I really should’ve been looking where I was going.” The pony--a colt--said to Starlight.

“No, no, it was my mistake for not paying attention to what was in front of me.” Starlight said as she stood up, the young pony following her.

Now looking at him she saw that he was yet another pegasus like Lightning Dust but he had a yellow coat and a blue mane and tail. He appeared to be just about as old as Twilight or any of her friends would be right now. The pegasus shook his head a few times to get his vision back to normal.

“You okay?” Starlight asked. A little worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He answered. “Sorry for bothering you, I’ve just had my head in the clouds since yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“Yeah! I saw the Wonderbolts show. It was amazing, I never really had much interest in the Wonderbolts before that but it was just so cool! I didn’t know pegasus could fly like that at all.” The pony said in pure wonder.

Starlight smiled, looking past him she noticed that the store he had just walked out of was a Wonderbolts memorabilia store. Looks like she might have turned another pony onto the dream of becoming a Wonderbolt.

“What’s your name?” She asked him.

“Flash Sentry! I’ve always wanted to be a royal guard but after seeing that I think I may really want to be a Wonderbolt instead.” Flash exclaimed with gusto.

Starlight playfully tussled his mane. “Well, good luck with that. You’ve got your whole future ahead of you and the possibilities are endless. I’m sure you can do whatever you set your mind to.”

“Thanks, miss!” Flash Sentry said and began walking away, waving behind his back as he went.

“It always feels good knowing I’ve helped shaped the future of a bright young pony. Twilight was right about me becoming a guidance counselor, I’m guiding even without intending it.” Starlight proudly said to herself, beginning the rest of the walk back to the castle in a much better mood.

How To Avoid Problems

Queen Chrysalis stalked the streets of Canterlot. In plain view of any and all ponies on the crowded streets, but, thanks to her powerful changeling magic she was just as good as invisible. At the moment she was taking the form of an innocent looking earth pony, sickly green eyes, mint-green coat, jet-black mane and tail and a Cutie Mark of a mint chip ice-cream cone.

It was the perfect disguise. None were the wiser.

Chrysalis cackled under her breath, doing everything in her power to stop the spread of an evil smile on her face as she walked among all the dumb ponies of Canterlot.

Yes, walk along on your stupid errands. Oblivious to my presence and the terror right next to you! It wont be today, it wont be tomorrow, but one day I shall conquer not just Canterlot but all of Equestria!

“Mwahahaha!” She laughed evilly at the thought of taking all the pony’s love for her and her swarm.

Upon which dozens of confused eyes turned to look at her, the ponies on the street surrounding her wondering just what was up with this weirdo suddenly laughing out of nowhere and in such a strange way.

She didn’t blush. Queen Chrysalis does not blush in embarrassment. But she did get a somewhat bashful look on her face as she coughed into her hoof and excused herself into a nearby alley.

“I need to work on that a little bit. My disguise may be perfect but if I can’t help laughing and gloating it wont matter.” The Queen said to herself in the dark alley. “I’m doing this scouting mission myself because I couldn’t trust something so very important with any of my children… and why am I talking out loud to myself? That’s another thing I need to fix.” Queen Chrysalis straightened herself up and went back into the street.

Truthfully this mission isn’t proving very fruitful yet. She thought to herself. The city is just like any other and any one of us could’ve just gotten a map for it. The real meat will be if I can get inside the castle and scout out its layout.

Chrysalis grinned to herself as she thought about the look Celestia would have on her face the moment she realized not just her city but her own castle had been completely infiltrated by the changeling swarm.

One day, one day.

Chrysalis spent the next hour wandering the streets of Canterlot. Searching every alley, every street, every nook and cranny to get a perfect layout of the city. What houses and buildings were secluded and private enough from others that her swarm could use as hideouts? Who were the lovey-dovey couples out walking about that would provide for excellent snacks? What were the paths and schedules of the police and guards? Every little tidbit of useful information was being filed in her head for when the inevitable attack came. No matter how many years it might take before she was ready she wouldn’t give up on her dream.

Finally Chrysalis came to a stop in front of Canterlot Castle. The last conquest. How she wished she could get inside and see the interior, what she wouldn’t give to be able to map out the castle, find all the entrances and exits and any secret passages that might exist.

“If only I could get into the castle...” She muttered to herself as she gazed up with big bright eyes to her largest goal.

“You want to get into the castle?”

Chrysalis’s eyes bugged out even further than they already were and she turned around to see who had just spoken to her. An enemy? Had a pony discovered what she was? Did they know what she was thinking somehow?”

What she saw was somewhat confusing. A smiling lilac unicorn with a dragon beside her, the unicorn had a saddlebag on her side with some scroll sticking out of it and the both of them looked fairly dirty and scuffed up as if they had just been crawling around in some dirty basement or cave.

A dragon? That’s a peculiar sight for Canterlot. Who are these two?

But first there was another question to answer. Queen Chrysalis quickly composed herself and cleared her throat. “I’ve never seen the castle before, it’s quite majestic isn’t it?” She didn’t want to seem too eager, especially in case this pony was testing her.

“Oh, are you a tourist?” The unicorn asked her. “I know getting into the castle and seeing everything can be kind of a bother, they really run a tight ship in there. If you really wanna see it though I can totally get you inside?”

Am I dreaming?! This must be a trap, I could not possibly be so fortunate.

The dragon frowned up at his companion. “Should you really just invite anypony into the castle like that? It’s not your castle, Starlight.”

Yes! Yes she should invite just anypony in!

The unicorn, Starlight apparently, rolled her eyes. “Spike, you know Celestia wouldn’t mind this at all. In fact she’d probably be happy that I’m making this pony’s day. She’s nice like that.”

She knows the Princess? What a miraculous turn of events, if I stay by her side I’m certain to be able to see everything I want in the castle!

“Well, yeah, I guess so.” The dragon, “Spike”, said, shrugging.

“Great.” Starlight said, smiling at Spike before turning back to Chrysalis. “So I’m Starlight Glimmer and this is Spike, what’s your name?”

Oh crud. I never thought of a name. Think quickly, Chrysalis!

“My name is… it’s, uh...” She glanced down at her Cutie Mark. “Mint Chip… yes, Mint Chip! That’s my name!”

The pony and dragon looked at her a bit strangely but Chrysalis paid it no mind.

“Well, nice to meet you Mint Chip.” Starlight stuck out her hoof.

Ugh, ponies and their silly courtesy…

Queen Chrysalis still had to keep up her disguise and so she reluctantly shook hooves with Starlight. “A pleasure to meet you as well.” Her lips screamed in protest as the words slipped past them.

“It’s your lucky day now so let’s head on into the castle.” Starlight said as she walked past Chrysalis and began leading the three of them to the castle’s main entrance. “If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see just ask. You know depending on her schedule maybe you’d even like to meet Princess Celestia herself? Or her, uh, star student. She loves to make new friends.”

Queen Chrysalis’s brow furrowed in thought. It might be good to actually see Princess Celestia and this supposed “star pupil” up front so she knew just what she was contending with. But it was also dangerous at this point, she didn’t have nearly enough power right now to take on the Princess if she was found out. She might not even be able to flee and even if she did the ponies would now know of her threat.

“We’ll see.” Chrysalis said cautiously. “I wouldn’t want to be a bother for ponies that clearly have such busy schedules and work so hard for the rest of us.”

“Celestia can be pretty tired at the end of some days.” Spike said, nodding. And then he worriedly glanced up at the bag Starlight was carrying with the scroll sticking out of it. “Er, Starlight? Since we’re back at the castle should you really be carrying that out in the open?”

“Psh.” The unicorn snorted. “It’s fine Spike, Celestia and maybe Sunset are the only ones who might recognize it at a glance. I’m just going to put it in our room real quick and we can work at it later.”

Oh? What’s this? This scroll she’s carrying sounds like it might be something dangerous. A powerful spell? Something about the Princess or Equestria? If I get the chance to find out I’ll take a peek.

Starlight took them into the castle, right past the guards with no problem, they didn’t even ask about her bringing some random guest in. Definitely something Queen Chrysalis took note of. She continued to look around at anything and everything, taking it all in while the pony and dragon in front of her droned on about whatever. Who cared about their irrelevant conversation? Eventually they would be nothing more than food for-

“Mint Chip?”

“Yes?!” Queen Chrysalis yelped as Starlight suddenly stopped right in front of her face.

“I was just saying that you should stick close with me, don’t want you getting lost or getting bothered by any ponies that don’t know you’re here with me.” She gave “Mint Chip” a friendly smile.

“Of course, yes, that makes sense.” Queen Chrysalis nodded along.

Spike raised an eyebrow at her weird behavior but just shrugged, walking back along Starlight’s side.

Hah, the fools don’t suspect me at all! But I should still be careful.

They climbed a spiral staircase up one of the castle’s tall towers, Chrysalis glancing out the window at the top to get a bird’s eye view of the castle’s grounds. They then exited the stairs into a hallway that must have rested in one of the upper levels of the castle. Perhaps the Princess’s personal room was nearby too? What a treasure that would be if that was the case. This pony and dragon must’ve been very special guests indeed if they were boarded so high up.

“Our room is just up ahead, Mint Chip.” Starlight said. “I’m going to drop my things off and then we can take a real tour of the castle, okay?”

“Sounds perfect.” Queen Chrysalis worked hard to keep the eager malevolence from dripping out of her voice.

Starlight went to open up the door to her and Spike’s room-

And the moment before her hoof touched it it was yanked opened and Starlight came face to face with an angry yellow unicorn.

“Where did you get off to?” This new unicorn yelled at Starlight.

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Sunset. Is that any way to greet a guest of the Princess?”

So this was the “Sunset” who they mentioned earlier? Was she also the pupil of Celestia’s they mentioned?

“Don’t give me any of that. I came here because you said that you would teach me when I wanted. But then you aren’t even around! I asked the guards and they said the last place you were spotted was in the library but then when I go down there it’s totally empty! Where have you been?” Sunset’s eyes narrowed angrily at Starlight before the scroll Starlight was carrying caught her attention. “And what’s that scroll? Did you take it from the library?”

“What, this?” Starlight grabbed the scroll in her magic, waving it around while Spike started sweating behind her. The little dragon standing stock still like a statue. “This is nothing, just a little something I drew up, it’s for your magic training. Let me just throw this in here.” She said and tossed the scroll over Sunset’s head where it landed on the bed in the room.

These two have a strained relationship. This better not get in the way of my spying.

“And sorry Sunset but something came up, so I can’t help you out just yet.” Starlight gestured to Mint Chip. “I’m giving a new friend I just met a tour of the castle.”

Sunset briefly glanced at Mint Chip before turning her angry eyes back to Starlight. “Yeah, hi, whatever. Can you at least hurry up then? It’s annoying enough that I’ve had to wait this long.”

Insolent foal! How dare you so blatantly disregard the Queen of the changelings! Queen Chrysalis silently fumed, unable to express her true feelings. Starlight calling her a friend a moment before almost made her gag too.

Starlight frowned at Sunset. “Actually I was thinking maybe you’d like to join us? It doesn’t hurt to make new friends you know?”

Queen Chrysalis really hoped Sunset refused.

“No.” Sunset quickly replied and shut the door (to Starlight’s own room) in her face.

At least that’s some good luck.

Starlight sighed while Spike gave her a resigned look and shrugged.

“At least she didn’t ask any other questions about the scroll.” He said.

“Yeah… oh well.” Starlight brightened up as she turned back to Mint Chip. “Enough of that then, let’s go see the castle for real!”

In truth Chrysalis wished these two would’ve just let her go off on her own. She could’ve secretly taken the form of a guard and gone wherever she pleased in the castle, although that carried its own risks. But like this she wouldn’t be finding any hidden passages or other secrets about the castle, this was the kind of “tour” she likely could have gotten if she had waited a few months. She was still learning some important things and all the guards they passed was giving her a good idea of their routines at least. But what would have been really nice is if she had learned where Celestia’s room was and how to get there.

“So there’s the throne room.” Starlight said, gesturing down the hallway to a large doorway where a number of guards and civilian ponies were standing around. “Looks like Celestia is still pretty busy today, sorry but I don’t think you’ll get to meet her.

Mint Chip attempted to look a little dejected. “That’s okay, I understand. I wasn’t holding out hope for it.”

But one day I shall feast on your love, Celestia, and take all of your power. Mwahahahaha!

“Maybe we can show her the library next. Or the courtyard? It’s not like we can take her into any of the really fun parts of the library.” Starlight said to Spike.

“Maybe she’d like to see the ballroom where they hold the Grand Galloping Gala?” Spike responded.

“Ooh, good idea Spike!” Starlight looked over her shoulder at Mint Chip. “Would you like to see that? Most ponies would never be able to actually go to the Gala but you can at least see where it’s held.”

Queen Chrysalis figured the gala was likely held in the largest and grandest ballroom of the castle, it may be useful to see it. “Of course, the Gala is quite the popular subject for ponies all over. We simple civilians are always wondering how luxurious and amazing of a party it is.”

Hah! I am a great actress.

Starlight and Spike led her through yet more hallways (it didn’t hold a candle to her own labyrinthine lair though, hah!) until they reached a large ballroom. Classy enough, that alicorn statue was a bit gaudy though. Chrysalis noticed how easily assailable the room was thanks to how it opened right out into the gardens, truly this castle was designed more for looks rather than defense she realized after seeing enough of it on the inside.

Yes but Princess Celestia alone is more than enough defense. I must get stronger somehow. She mulled that over in her head while Starlight and Spike blathered on about something.

“Would you like to get some food?” The sudden question interrupted her thoughts.

“Huh?! Oh! Yes, of course.” Chrysalis responded frantically, only half understanding what she was being asked.

Spike again looked at her weirdly but figured she was probably just nervous or in awe of the castle.

“Great, follow us to the kitchens and we can have something quick prepared for you.” Starlight said.

Ugh, pony food. Gross.

When they finally got their snacks it was difficult for her to keep the cupcake down but she managed. She did her best to hide the discomfort on her face and her gagging. Unfortunately the watering of her eyes was a bit more difficult to hide.

“Uh, is something wrong?” Spike asked her as they all sat eating around a kitchen table.

“N-No, it just… tastes so good.” Chrysalis weakly choked out.

“Thank you!” The chef that had just made the cupcakes said from behind the stove.

Imbeciles.

Starlight leaned in to whisper into Chrysalis’s ear. “Between you and me the best cupcakes in Equestria come from a place in Ponyville called Sugarcube Corner.”

The Queen’s lower lip trembled as her stomach threatened to up-chuck the cupcake she had just eaten, but she held on. “I’ll be sure to remember it...”

The others continued to eat while Chrysalis politely refused any more food. She had to sit there as they once again prattled on about some nonsense. Why did ponies talk so much? And dragons too apparently. How absurd, what should be an excellent spying mission has now been reduced to a luncheon! It would probably be best to excuse herself from them soon, make up some excuse about having seen enough of the castle or not wanting to bother them anymore. Every moment longer now was another moment she might get found out. She had seen enough for today, it would have been good to learn more about Princess Celestia but that would have to wait until later.

Before she could speak up though both of her guides suddenly stiffened up, a glazed look came over both of their eyes and just as quickly left. The two looked at each other in surprise while Chrysalis just sat back with confusion written on her face.

“It has to be...” Spike started.

“Sunset must’ve read the scroll instead of waiting for me to get back.” Starlight finished and then her horn lit up and all three of them were teleported back to Starlight’s room.

“Oof!” Chrysalis ended up falling flat on her stomach thanks to the unexpected teleport. She was about to pick herself off the floor and lay into Starlight for her insolence but when she looked up all words died in her throat.

“Sunset, what did you do!” Starlight yelled.

“You said it was for my magic training! All I did was cast the spell on it!” Sunset screamed as she was being held in the air by a crab like claw that was coming out of some glowing portal in the ceiling.

There were five other portals with claws coming out of them, they all had a sickly brown colored carapace with innumerable spines and spikes covering them. The six portals were arranged in a circular pattern surrounding a much larger seventh portal that so far appeared to be empty. Chrysalis had to quickly get to her feet to avoid a set of snapping claws that went right for her.

What is going on here?!

“I knew taking that scroll from the Starswirl wing was a bad idea!” Spike groaned as Starlight put a protective shield around the two of them and fired another beam of magic at the claw that held Sunset, causing it to release her.

Sunset ran over to Starlight and was let into the shield, Chrysalis was considering running off when Starlight’s magic tugged on her body and pulled her into the shield as well.

This is bad… whatever this creature they’ve summoned is I can’t fight it like this. I may have to transform and just flee.

“What do we do? My spells can’t penetrate its shell.” Sunset said to Starlight.

Starlight sighed. “Just let me take care of things.”

Stupid pony! Chrysalis screamed inside her head. If the prized student of Princess Celestia can’t do anything to this monster what can you do? Let me out of this stupid shield so I can get out of here.

Starlight repeatedly fired beams of magic at any claws that came close while her shield proved to be completely impenetrable, the sharp claws of the crab-monster-thing doing nothing more than bouncing off each time they struck it.

“It’s not working, it’s still attacking us!” Sunset yelled in worry.

“That’s fine, I’m just trying to make it mad right now.” Starlight said, concentrating on her magic.

“You’re trying to make it mad?!” Queen Chrysalis shouted in disbelief at Staright. “Are you crazy?!”

“Trust me.” Starlight winked at her.

The Queen was about to just undo her transformation then and there and break her way out of here when a low grumbling sound started coming from the large central portal. Chryalis looked up to see the… face? Of the monster partially descend through the portal. A huge gaping maw opened up, showing row upon row of sharp teeth and dozens of feeders along the rim to help push in food. Multiple compound eyes of all sizes sat at the end of flexible stalks, searching around the room for what’s been giving it so much trouble.

“What is that thing?!” Sunset gasped, going pale.

“I dunno, but it’s just what I’ve been waiting for. No more playing around.” Starlight said and dropped her shield.

“What are you doing?!” Chrysalis yelled at her.

“Relax.” Starlight said without even turning to her.

And as Chrysalis watched Starlight’s horn glowed bright with a phenomenal amount of power. With a single grunt of exertion Starlight let loose her magic right at the monster’s face, a massive beam of energy easily taller and wider than Chrysalis even in her true form shot out from her horn. The beam crashed into the monster, eliciting a pained cry of fury as its claws quickly retreated through the small portals, the massive head of the beast on the other end knocked backwards and away from the central portal as easily as if it was a fly.

That would’ve vaporized me… Chrysalis thought in stunned shock as she sat on the floor of the bedroom.

Shortly after Starlight had gotten the monster to retreat the portals began closing on their own until finally the large central one disappeared with a small pop.

“Whew, that was something huh?” Starlight asked the others.

Spike was sitting on the floor, claws covering his eyes and shaking his head. Sunset was gaping up at the ceiling, completely speechless. And Chrysalis was sweating a waterfall.

Maybe Equestria is the wrong place to invade. I’ll try Yakyakistan instead.

Author's Note

Personal favorite chapter so far.

I think recently in Frenemies Chrysalis was shown enjoying a cupcake so I guess I'm going off of season 2 when she couldn't stand Applejack's food.

At the Gala

Thanks to Spike and Starlight being stuck in Canterlot far longer than they expected or wanted they ended up being around for the annual Grand Galloping Gala. It was only a few days away now and the castle was constantly busy with top-level planners and decorators going in and out. The catering was decided on, the wait staff was busy preparing, the musicians were rehearsing, and Starlight and Spike were bored. Sunset was busy finding the best dress and dance instructor possible, not wanting anypony to show her up at anything, and thus wasn’t bothering Starlight about teaching her at the moment. Both a blessing and a curse as Starlight and Spike had grown tired of sitting around in the castle with nothing to do. Celestia thankfully had not found out about the incident with the stolen Starswirl spell but after that mishap Starlight wasn’t taking any more risks for a while. She had quietly returned the spell with nopony noticing it was ever absent in the first place.

“If we asked do you think Celestia would let us come to the Gala?” Spike suddenly asked Starlight from his position lying spread eagle on the carpet.

Starlight raised an eyebrow, lifting up her head from her bed’s pillow. “Would you want to go? Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and everypony else told me that the Grand Galloping Gala was boring and stuffy unless something crazy happened.”

Spike shrugged. “It would just be something to do.”

“Hm. Well Celestia would probably be more than happy to have us.” Starlight said.

“You know she’s probably bored at that party more than anypony else. She spends almost the entire time greeting guests.”

“Yeah...” Starlight frowned as she thought about that. Celestia deserved a party to let loose at more than anypony but she had to spend it doing that? It didn’t seem fair.

“Are you thinking about something?” Spike asked, not fully confident in her tone.

“No, nothing right now.” Starlight sat up. “But we know Celestia, right?”

“Uh, yeah?” Spike also sat up, giving her a quizzical look.

“And she doesn’t like how the Grand Galloping Gala normally is?”

Spike shook his head. “Nope, I remember she said they were always awful and she started inviting Twilight and Discord cause she knew they would make them more fun.”

Starlight smirked. “Well then, what do you say we make this Gala a bit more fun for the Princess?”

The dragon chewed on his lip, mulling it over for a second before sighing. “You know, we probably shouldn’t, and you’ll probably end up messing something up, but on the other claw Celestia really does deserve to have a good time. And she’ll probably be all over any pranks or craziness you have in mind. She loves a good prank too.”

“Yes she does.” Starlight sinisterly rubbed her hooves together.

“Well of course, Starlight. If you and Spike wish to come to the Grand Galloping Gala I’d love to invite you.” Celestia said while she chowed down on her morning stack of pancakes, Starlight having directly teleported into her dining room while she ate.

“Thank you, I’ve heard such great things about the Gala. You really love it, right?” Starlight asked her.

With zero change to her smiling, polite expression, Celestia answered her. “Of course. The Gala is the most important party of the year, I love putting it on.” She carefully forked a large bite of pancake into her mouth.

“Okay, you don’t have to do that, I know you hate the Gala.” Starlight said.

“Yes! I do!” Celestia suddenly exclaimed, dropping her fork to the table with a clatter and burying her head in her hooves so only her long horn stuck out. “It’s so boring and not a single, solitary one of those stuffy rich ponies knows how to have a good time!”

Starlight had to hold back from laughing after seeing Celestia get like this. It was pretty funny seeing the noble ruler admit to such things and behaving in such a childlike way.

“Well you’re in luck, cause I was planning on making sure this is a very fun party.” Starlight grinned at Celestia.

The Princess peeked an eye out at Starlight. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I’m just saying it would be a pretty fun and surprising party if say… somepony put hot sauce on some of the hors d’oeuvre’s? And maybe set up a bunch of confetti bombs along the ceiling? And switched the musicians sheet music so they were all playing something different?”

Celestia had a twinkle in her eye as Starlight went on but she quickly composed herself. Sitting up and coughing into her hoof her face returned to its normal impassive look. “While all that sounds… interesting, I do not know if it would be appropriate to subject my guests to such things.”

“Oh but you didn’t let me finish.” Starlight sweetly continued. “And what if somepony perhaps had a spell that could change another pony’s perfume or cologne into, well, any smell they wished.” Starlight smiled innocently at Celestia. “Speaking of which, doesn’t our favorite stick in the mud Sunset love to put on the most expensive perfumes for parties like this?”

Princess Celestia’s eyes widened. “I’m in.”

Starlight couldn’t help but giggle. “The thought of playing a prank on your student to good to pass up?”

“Sunset could simply learn to loosen up a bit. This will be helpful.” Celestia’s eyes noticeably avoided Starlight’s as she said that.

“Well I’ll let you finish your breakfast then.” Starlight chuckled. “And I’ll start preparing things for the big night.”

"It’s a shame I’ll have to spend most of the night greeting guests.” Celestia sighed as she shoved another bite of pancake in her mouth. “Do promise you’ll keep things going a long enough time for me to see?”

“Of course.” Starlight saluted before teleporting away.

Princess Celestia continued eating her pancakes for a short while longer, a contemplative frown appearing on her face. “Maybe I should have shot down her suggestions. Most, or even all, of the guests certainly aren’t going to find much humor in these pranks.” Her frown quickly turned into a smile. “Well, that’s their fault.”

The night of the Gala had swiftly arrived. Starlight had spent the previous couple of days preparing her surprises with Spike and going through every little piece of food in the kitchens and randomly putting hot sauce or chili powder on some of it. They had fake musical sheets written up that they’d switch out with the real ones once the Gala started and Starlight would briefly sidetrack Sunset before she arrived and use her spell to turn whatever perfume she was wearing into a pungent garlic odor. With another spell put over Sunset to keep her from smelling the change.

Now she and Spike had on their fancy outfits and were preparing to head out. Starlight wondered if she would catch anypony’s eye, she knew there was already a lot of talk about her going around the circles of the upper crust here in Canterlot. But so far none had really come to try and make her acquaintance or learn just why she was such an important guest of The Princess’s.

“Time to have some fun, Spike.” Starlight said to her friend.

“Oh yeah.” Spike snapped his fingers.

Starlight smirked at him. “Glad to see you’ve loosened up too.”

“Hey, this is for Celestia. I’m making an exception.”

“Right. Well we can go down to the party now, it would be best to get there before anypony else so we can watch the chaos unfold from the start. And I just need to stop Sunset outside the ballroom for a moment when I see her.” Starlight said.

“Sounds good to me.” Spike agreed and the two made their way down to the ground floor of the castle.

Taking a peak out at the main entrance to this part of the castle Starlight could see Princess Celestia standing at the top of a stairway, waiting for the nearly endless line of ponies to come in. Starlight couldn’t help but grimace in sympathy for her. To shake hooves and politely greet every single one while they went on to enjoy the Gala and you had to just stay there? Yeah, Celestia needed Starlight tonight.

Starlight and Spike left the poor Princess on her own for now and went into the main ballroom. The caterers were set up, the musicians were ready to start at any moment, and Starlight’s surprises were all set up and undisturbed so far. Confetti bombs hidden under tables that would activate when a chair was pulled out, silly animal balloons that would drop from the ceiling when certain strings around the walls and support pillars were pulled, and a last minute addition in slime bombs that were strategically hidden in every table’s centerpiece that exploded if there was a loud enough sound nearby.

“Okay Spike, everything looks perfect in here.” Starlight reached into her dress and pulled out pages of sheet music. “I want you to take this and replace the real music with it while I cutoff Sunset.” She hoofed it over to him.

“Well okay but how am I supposed to do that exactly?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know, make a distraction. You’re good at stuff like that.” Starlight said.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll think of something.”

“Good. I’m off to get Sunset.” Starlight finished as she snuck right out the door.

While Spike was left to his own devices Starlight made sure to go right in the direction that Sunset would come from. She hid in an alcove and waited for her target to come into view. It was difficult to hold back from snickering when she thought of everything that awaited the ponies attending the Grand Galloping Gala. While Starlight did primarily do this as a nicety for Celestia she couldn’t and wouldn’t deny the immense amount of pleasure she was going to be getting from the pranking that was about to happen. If only Trixie were here to see this.

Finally her target arrived. Sunset looked exceptionally done up in a sleek purple dress. It was a very deep purple bordering on black and it sparkled with the brilliance of inlaid amethysts. Around her neck was a black choker and a heart-shaped red diamond at her throat. Simple and classy black slippers covered her hooves and her mane was styled to be far smoother with a nice wave to it.

And as she walked by, Starlight could smell the rosy perfume coming from her.

“Sunset! There you are!” Starlight said as she walked out of her alcove, coming up behind the teenager.

Sunset’s head perked up and she looked over her shoulder at Starlight with an angry frown on her face. “What do you want?”

“Is that any way to say hi to me?” Starlight said as she threw a foreleg over Sunset’s shoulders. “I just wanted to see what you were wearing to the Gala. We can both make our debut together now.”

“I’ve already been to previous Galas.” Sunset said as she gingerly removed Starlight’s leg from her with her magic.

“This is actually my first, and I plan to make it a very memorable one.” Starlight grinned.

Sunset didn’t notice though thanks to her trying to ignore Starlight.

Which was just fine for Starlight.

Since Sunset was looking straight ahead now she didn’t notice the pair of spells Starlight fired onto her. One for her perfume and one for her nose. Starlight had to cover her mouth with her hoof to keep from laughing as the garlic odor already completely replaced the normal scent of the perfume. Sunset had no idea what just happened and she’d probably be quite confused the rest of the night about why other ponies were giving her such odd looks and staying away. Starlight might have felt a little bit bad for doing this but at least she wasn’t ruining Sunset’s very first Gala or anything.

As the two of them now made their way into the ballroom the festivities were just beginning as other guests entered as well. It was only a matter of time now.

Spike watched as the musicians argued for the umpteenth time about what happened to the real music sheets before trying their best to improvise. Starlight’s eyes were glued on Sunset who was glaring at any pony who met her gaze, the poor girl not understanding for the life of her why everypony else walked away and crinkled their noses when she got near.

More than one guest was covered in confetti but so far there was nothing loud enough to trigger any slime bombs and all the balloons were currently unnoticed on the ceiling.

“Nopony has been unlucky enough to eat any of the spiked food yet.” Starlight said to herself. After which her stomach growled.

Spike heard it and looked up at her. “I don’t think we thought that part out very well.”

“Hrm. Maybe.” Starlight hoped Celestia would be done greeting guests soon. If the Gala kept on being this boring Starlight was just gonna start activating all the traps herself.

And while she was thinking that…

“I say, Diamond Ring, what’s that string behind your head?” Silk Sheet asked her good friend, having just noticed the thread hanging there right by the wall.

Diamond Ring turned around to look at the string in question, tilting her head. “It looks like a mini rope lever. I wonder what servants it summons?”

Without a second thought Diamond Ring tugged on the thread, the net on the ceiling unfurling and allowing dozens of balloon animals to slowly fall to the floor. It wasn’t very impactful, more confusing than anything as the guests watched them float down.

However that doesn’t mean they couldn’t lead to so much more.

A balloon dog had fallen right behind a young Fancy Pants. Fancy Pants at the moment had been talking to some friends at a table and was completely unaware of the sinister balloon behind him. Taking a step backwards to excuse himself his hoof came right down on the balloon and popped it, creating a loud, well, “pop”.

“What the-” Was all Fancy Pants could mutter before the slime bomb in the table exploded. Showering him and all the seated ponies in a disgustingly thick and chunky green slime.

“My dress is ruined!” One of the ponies yelled. The poor mare started crying and running from the table… whereupon she ran right into a waiter, causing him and the tray of drinks he was carrying with him to come crashing to the ground, the loud sound of that causing another two slime bombs to explode and cover all the nearby ponies in the gross slime.

Like a twisted set of dominos one piece of chaos led to another, more balloons fell from the ceiling as other strings were found, adding to the chaos and the confusion, a slime covered pony ran right into another table and caused all of the confetti bombs in it to shoot off as well. Sunset was downing an entire pitcher of water after having some unfortunate luck with a plate of plantains, unknowingly causing all the ponies in the vicinity to run from her awful garlic smell.

The musicians had completely given up on performing a normal piece and were instead competing to see which one of them could play the loudest while a choir of screams from the party guests went off in the background.

And lastly, Princess Celestia opened up the large doors leading into the ballroom and stood in the doorway. Happily taking it all in.

“Do you think we went to far?” Spike asked Starlight as they hid under a table that had had its traps carefully removed.

“Nothing’s on fire, so no.” Starlight answered.

“I guess that’s fair.”

Sunset would be very angry at breakfast the next day but Celestia had nothing but laughs to give and funny stories to share with Starlight about what she’d seen. Mission accomplished.

Very Important Pony

Some time after the Gala Starlight and Spike were flipping through a biography of Clover the Clever together in their room, neither of them having anything better to do. Sunset had gone from angrily asking for magic lessons to completely ignoring them while Celestia was just as busy as ever. Nothing more interesting had come up but after the chaos at the Gala Starlight was temporarily satisfied when it came to having fun anyways. It was good to have quiet, relaxing days like this too. Spike knew even while reading though that soon Starlight would eventually get bored and want to do something crazy again.

“You know Twilight played Clover the Clever in our Hearth’s Warming play once.” Spike told Starlight while they leafed through the book.

“I think she mentioned that to me once. I can picture it.” Starlight said, not taking her eyes off the book.

“And Rarity played Princess Platinum.”

“Heh, I can certainly see that too.”

Smirking after hearing that, a thought came to Starlight and she momentarily stopped reading, staring off into space as her smirk disappeared. A single deep sigh came from her body as she used her magic to close the book and set it away from the two of them.

“Er, something wrong, Starlight?” Spike asked her.

“Just thinking. Do you think we might be here long enough for Hearth’s Warming to roll around?” She asked him back.

“Kind of hope not. That would make me just as worried about Twilight as I am about us.” Spike scratched the back of his head.

Starlight nodded, staring up at the ceiling. “You know I know it might be breaking some rules and Celestia’s trust but I’m thinking we might want to break into the restricted section of the Canterlot library soon. That might be our best bet to find a spell or something that at least might help us get home.”

Spike frowned. “We could just ask Celestia first to see if she’ll let us go in...”

“Yes, but if she says no she’s going to know what we’re up to.” Starlight sighed.

Their argument would’ve continued in full force if it wasn’t for the interruption of a heavy knock on the door.

Starlight and Spike both perked up, trading a glance between them. Sunset would’ve just barged in and it couldn’t be Celestia so just who was knocking on their door?

“Come in?” Starlight said.

Immediately the door swung open and in walked a large white unicorn stallion in a very pristine tuxedo. He was a bit past middle age and his blonde mane and tail were slightly beginning to gray but it didn’t change their well kept appearance in the slightest. The stallion held up his head and nose in a dignified manner that made it all the easier for him to look down on any ponies as he walked towards Starlight.

“Aha, so this was the correct room.” The stallion stated. “You are Miss Starlight Glimmer are you not? And the dragon, Spike?” He asked as his eyes shifted between the two of them.

“Er, yes, we are. Who’s asking?” Starlight asked in return.

“I have the honor of being Lord Maximillion. And I would like to invite the two of you to a personal get together at my estate.” He told them.

“Oh!” Starlight stepped back in surprise. “Well not that I’m not flattered but why? Nopony else has come to invite us to anything.”

Spike nodded along to Starlight’s words.

Lord Maximillion smirked.

“Well that’s because none knew what to make of you. Take it from somepony who has a hoof on all the gossip of Canterlot. You’ve certainly been quite the talking point but nopony has had the courage to attempt to get in your good graces, especially if they might alienate another high-flier in the attempt.” Maximillion said. “We knew you were important guests of the Princess but nothing else, the usual gossiping hens simply couldn’t learn anything about you.”

“But you ran out of patience and wanted to beat the others to the punch now?” Spike asked him, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Indeed. I would love to be the one to introduce you to the rest of the important and elite ponies of Canterlot. Truthfully the Grand Galloping Gala should’ve been the occasion for that, I had planned to introduce myself to you there, but some hooligans decided to ruin the night. I certainly hope the Princess catches whoever was responsible for that.”

Spike averted his eyes while Starlight laughed on the inside.

“Anyways the function is tonight and I’d love to have your attendance.” His horn lit up and an invitation was drawn from one of his tuxedo’s pockets. “Directions and the time are on there.”

“Well thank you.” Starlight said, grabbing the invitation. “We’ll be sure to be there.”

“I certainly hope so!” Maximillion beamed and tipped his head in farewell, heading back out the door.

As it shut, Spike turned to Starlight. “We really going?”

“Why wouldn’t we?” Starlight tilted her head at him in confusion. “It’s a party and he was kind enough to invite us after all.”

“I dunno, I’ve just heard stories from Rarity about how some of these Canterlot elites can be. And if the Gala is his idea of a fun party I can’t imagine we’ll find it very enjoyable.”

Starlight shrugged. “Maybe, but we weren’t doing anything else.”

“True.” Spike scratched his cheek. “I guess we should get our fancy clothes ready?”

“Way ahead of you Spike.” Starlight said as she pulled open the room’s wardrobe with her magic, levitating her dress and Spike’s tuxedo over to them with a big grin on her face. “We’re going to hit this party in style.”

The mansion that Lord Maximillion called home was truly immense, as far as living quarters go it was probably second only to the castle itself. Neither Spike nor Starlight could recall seeing a larger house anywhere in Canterlot. As expected it was nestled in the heart of the richest and most affluent section of the city, but even surrounded by similarly luxurious and outlandish mansions the one owned by Lord Maximillion stood out.

“This place would’ve really enraged me back when I was still evil.” Starlight casually said as she and Spike walked down the street right onward to their destination.

Maximillion’s estate was enclosed by a large stone wall with a golden gate front and center that appeared to be the only way to get inside. Currently that gate was wide open as a number of guests were pouring into it. The mansion itself was a good four-stories high and was even partially made with stone and had large round towers at every corner, giving it an almost castle like appearance.

“Do you think any of them are going to recognize us as Celestia’s guests?” Spike asked Starlight.

“Considering you’re the only dragon here I’d be shocked if they didn’t.”

There was an immaculate looking butler at the gate checking for each guest’s invitation, a simple flash of it from Starlight and he allowed them through.

Starlight and Spike were already the focus of a lot of unwanted attention even before they actually entered the mansion. Starlight had to wonder how many “gossiping hens” were among those whispering in hushed tones as they all went from the gate to the open door of the mansion. There were a number of ponies she recognized from the Gala among other places she had seen in her and Spike’s stay at Canterlot but she couldn’t name any due to her lack of familiarity.

The unicorn and dragon stepped through Maximillion’s front door and entered a large foyer, a beautiful white double staircase with golden banisters leading up to the next floor sat on the far wall, and an even more impressive chandelier hung from the ceiling. It was clear that Maximillion wanted to have the most exuberant home in Canterlot after Celestia’s own castle.

Maximillion himself stood on the landing at the top of the staircase, greeting the arriving guests, Starlight and Spike could see that behind him the house opened up into a much larger room. A second floor ballroom maybe? With a shrug the both of them walked up the stairs along with some other ponies, all waiting their turn to say hello to the host.

When Maximillion saw Starlight and Spike his eyes lit up and he pushed aside the pony he was talking to and stepped halfway down the stairs to meet Starlight and Spike, thoroughly ignoring all the other ponies who were ahead of them.

“Miss Starlight! Spike! A pleasure you could come!” He smiled a full mouth of impossibly pearly white teeth.

“The, uh, pleasure is all ours!” Starlight said uneasily, an awkward smile on her face as she peeked back and forth at the other ponies on the staircase to see if any of them were mad.

Spike as well just gave an embarrassed wave to Lord Maximillion and tried to ignore any other ponies looking their way.

“Splendid, splendid. Well come along then, I must introduce you to all of my guests.” Maximillion would likely have ran back up the stairs if it weren’t uncouth. As it was he still practically dragged Starlight and Spike back up with him. The other ponies that had come in and were waiting to greet the Lord shot some disgruntled looks at Starlight and Spike and she could already hear some unpleasant conversations developing.

And truthfully Starlight herself was annoyed at his rude and dismissive behavior to the other guests at his party, that wasn’t very polite of him.

“I have an announcement to make!” Maximillion yelled as he barged into the ballroom with Starlight and Spike right behind him. “Introducing the two esteemed guests of our very own Princess Celestia, Miss Starlight Glimmer and Spike the dragon!”

Instantly the crowd of ponies in the ballroom (and the ones left behind on the stairs and first floor) began to encroach on Starlight and Spike. Who could only put on their best fake smiles and say hello in response.

“How do you do, it’s charming to finally meet you.”

“Do you dine with the Princess every evening?”

“Are you a pair of dignitaries we don’t know about? Is that why you’re her guest?”

The various ponies asked both Starlight and Spike, the dizzying amount of questions overwhelming them as Maximillion was content to sit back and relax knowing that he had the most valuable guests anypony could have at their party today in Canterlot.

“They don’t look very special.”

The strong words cut through the murmuring crowd like a knife and silence reigned in the ballroom. Lord Maximillion groaned as the crowd parted and a young colt stalked forward. Unimpressed, his appraising eyes stared down Starlight and Spike.

“Excuse my young relative.” Maximillion apologized to Starlight and Spike. “Blueblood, you should be politer to your guests.”

Hypocrite. Starlight thought after having seen his earlier behavior. You only care because we’re your special guests.

“Wait, Prince Blueblood?” Spike asked.

“It’s good to see that even up-jumped commoners know of me.” Prince Blueblood stated arrogantly as he came to stand before Starlight and Spike, almost reaching Starlight’s height even though he looked no older than Sunset. He was handsome and elegant even at a young age, lacking a tuxedo he just wore a simple black bow-tie.

Speaking of Sunset Starlight thought that comparison fit him pretty well, he seemed just as arrogant as she did.

“I can’t imagine what reason Auntie has to keep you as guests. Pray tell what do you even do for her?” Blueblood asked, raising a single disapproving eyebrow.

Starlight was tempted to answer “Nothing” just to annoy him nut instead…

“We tutor her student, Sunset Shimmer.”

There were many shocked gasps through the crowd of ponies and even Blueblood and Maximillion were clearly surprised. It seems Sunset’s reputation was well known at least.

“You tutor Princess Celestia’s personal student?” Maximillion asked. “My, you must be quite skilled and knowledgeable in magic.”

Starlight grinned. “The Princess would only allow the best of course for her student.”

Immediately the other guests closed in around Starlight and Spike, Prince Blueblood practically getting crushed between the aggressive opportunists, and started bombarding them with questions and requests just like they had been doing before Blueblood interrupted their introduction.

“What’s it like teaching Sunset Shimmer?”

“Were you a student of the Princess once too?”

“Would you be willing to take any other jobs? I can pay handsomely.”

Starlight and Spike were getting swept over by the tidal wave of ponies interested in them. Starlight tried her best to answer them while Spike was simply squished up against her, the dragon not faring well inside the crowd. The urge to simply teleport them both out of there was rising in Starlight but luckily Maximillion finally came to their rescue.

“Now, now, stop that, stop all of that!” He said as he pushed his own way through the crowd, creating some space between them and the others. “You can all have your chances to speak with them in a more civil manner later, for now they are still my guests and shall be treated as such.”

The crowd reluctantly dissipated around them and the party began returning to normal, although Starlight and Spike were certain that most of the conversations going on were going to be about them now.

Lord Maximillion and Prince Blueblood were the only ones to remain around them for the moment. Blueblood now looking less disinterested but more annoyed than before.

“Sorry about all that.” Maximillion said to them. “But Miss Starlight, I had no idea you taught Sunset Shimmer.”

“Well the Princess is so busy with her normal work that she can’t always be there for her.” Starlight told them.

Spike shot her a dirty look. She was not telling them the whole story.

Maximillion and Blueblood looked between each other for a moment. “Would you like to come someplace more private so we can talk for a second? Blueblood would be interested in acquiring your services, it would be most prestigious for others to know he was learning from a teacher so esteemed as to be covering for the Princess.”

Starlight shrugged. “Sure, why not?” She didn’t really like either of them and had no intention of actually tutoring Blueblood but she couldn’t imagine she was missing anything with the rest of the party.

“Yeah and I’ll just stay out here and dance since I’m not a unicorn or anything.” Spike said. Starlight couldn’t tell if he was complaining or happy that he didn’t have to go off with the other two.

It ended up with Maximillion leading Starlight and Blueblood into a small parlor on the second floor. A servant followed them in and quickly left after Maximillion whispered something in their ear, whatever that was about. There was a single large velvet chair in the room and two white suede couches on the side. Blueblood of course took the chair, leaving Starlight and Maximillion to choose their own couch.

“So to put it simply I’d be willing to pay you whatever Celestia is for your services.” Maximillion started up immediately. “I’m looking over my young relative and I’d like the best for him.” He nodded at Blueblood.

Blueblood was just indifferently holding his nose in the air, acting like he wasn’t even following the conversation.

Starlight should probably be polite and come straight with them and tell them she wasn’t actually a teacher at all, despite her magical prowess.

She didn’t.

“Well I dunno, I’m used to teaching students at Sunset’s high level. Does Prince Blueblood intend to take this seriously and become as great a magician as she is?”

He didn’t.

“That’s not important to me. It’s just another thing to add to my long list of prestigious accomplishments.” Blueblood scoffed. “It would be quite the talking point for others to know I studied magic under the same unicorn Princess Celestia selected to teach her star student.”

Starlight cleared her throat and attempted to speak in as dignified a manner as possible. “Well then I’m just not sure if it’s appropriate for me to work with you. I take my job very seriously.”

“Please, surely we can come to some sort of an agreement.” Lord Maximillion attempted to broach pleasantly. By now Starlight could see the falseness in his politeness though.

“Obviously it just comes down to money doesn’t it? We’ll pay you more than what The Princess is.” Blueblood offered.

“I dunno...” Starlight struggled to keep from laughing.

Before anypony else could continue the conversation the door to the parlor opened and the same servant who was previously sent away reentered, carrying a tray with a large bottle and three glasses on it. Starlight’s eyes were immediately glued to the bottle.

“Ah, good. I sent for some refreshments while we talked. And hopefully something to soon toast our coming to an agreement.” Maximillion stood up and grabbed the bottle from the tray, holding it so Starlight could see. “Wine?”

Starlight gulped. She really shouldn’t, buuuut…

“Wine?”

The fire raged on uncontrollably as Lord Maximillion’s gargantuan mansion was consumed. Canterlot firefighters tried their best to dampen the blaze but at most they might have been able to save the frame of Maximillion’s home. His guests stood on the grounds of his estate, some screaming, some crying, most confused and disturbed at how this could have possibly happened.

Lord Maximillion himself was crying in the middle of the road, Prince Blueblood actually affectionately patting him on the shoulder.

Meanwhile Starlight stared at the fire with a horrified look of befuddlement, her mouth open wide enough to allow an entire cake inside. Spike was far less shocked. More resigned than anything. The dragon just sighed and calmly turned to his good friend.

“Starlight, how did this happen?”

“I don’t know!”

School

The sky was an unclouded bright blue and the weather was pleasant this day with just a light enough wind to make it perfect for flying kites. So Starlight had taken Spike into the gardens of Canterlot castle and the two of them were now calmly flying their own newly made kites. Starlight had just put them together this morning but she was such an expert at kites that it didn’t take her long at all. It was nice to just relax and enjoy the day like this instead of worrying over something else.

“You’re doing good, Spike.” Starlight told him as their two kites floated side by side. Both were just the simplest of diamond designs, Spike’s purple and Starlight’s blue, if she had more time next time Starlight might put a more complicated one together for the both of them.

“Well I’ve got a good teacher.” Spike winked at her. “Can’t remember if I’ve really ever just gone kite-flying before. Next time though I want a big dragon shaped kite.”

Starlight giggled. “Maybe. Kites like that can be hard to fly.

“You can just use your magic can’t you?” Spike looked up at her.

“Spike, that defeats the whole point if you aren’t flying it just using the wind and your own skill.” She frowned down at him.

“Fine, fine, you don’t need to look at me like that.” He shrugged.

They continued to stay like that for a while longer, just flying their kites while the nice breeze washed over them. The animals that called the gardens their home never came out to say hi and all the guards and other ponies going about the castle had their own business. This was just Starlight and Spike’s time to have fun.

“It’s nice to be out like this. Just the two of us.” Starlight said, smiling happily.

“Yep.” Spike agreed.

But it wasn’t to last.

“Starlight, Spike, having a nice day?” The voice of Princess Celestia came from behind them.

The two friends turned to see the Princess walking through the gardens with Sunset Shimmer at her side, the teenager looking as grumpy as ever. Celestia on the other hand was pristine and pleasantly smiling at her two time-traveling guests.

Which actually just made both Starlight and Spike a little uneasy.

Starlight used her magic to reel in the kites, setting them on the ground. “I’m surprised you’re out here. And yes, we are.”

“Well I specifically came out here looking for the two of you.” Princess Celestia said.

Starlight and Spike glanced between each other. “What is it?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow.

Celestia looked down at Sunset. “I’m having Sunset here work as something of a student teacher at my School for Gifted Unicorns tomorrow. She’s going to be a special guest, giving a demonstration in magic and answering any questions afterwards. Also she’ll help teach the special lesson that’s been prepared.”

Sunset hardly looked happy with this situation. Probably she saw it as a waste of time. Spike also had to think that she wasn’t exactly a good choice to be around fellow students and especially not ones younger than her.

“How’s that involve us?” Starlight tilted her head.

“I was thinking it would be perfect for you to join her.” Celestia said simply.

“Really?” Starlight was a bit surprised Celestia would want her around the students too. Even though she was a guidance counselor now everything else Celestia knew about her didn’t paint her in the best of lights.

Celestia giggled. “Yes, really. I’m well aware of your talent for magic and I think you’ll do an excellent job of keeping my student in line too.” She shot a playful glance at Sunset, who pouted.

“Starlight’s good with kids, sounds like a good idea to me as long as she doesn’t decide to do anything silly.” Spike said, shrugging. “If it’s not a bother I’ll go with em both too. The students will probably think it’s cool to see a real live dragon anyways.” Spike grinned, proudly puffing out his chest.

“Of course, I see no issue with that.” Celestia granted.

Starlight however felt that something else was up. Chewing on her lip she walked up to Princess Celestia to confront her. “There’s another reason you came to ask me to do this, isn’t there?”

The Princess gave her a knowing smile. “You’re very perceptive. The real reason I wanted to ask you specifically to take part in this is because your old friend Sunburst will be there.”

“Uh, I dunno if that’s a good idea.” Starlight grimaced.

“I know you’ve been avoiding it but I think it would do a lot of good for the both of you.” Celestia said.

“Wait, old friend? How is he-” Sunset started before Celestia silenced her with a hoof.

“I’m sorry Sunset, it’s a personal matter between Starlight and Sunburst.” She said but then still smiled in reassurance to her student.

“You know Starlight I’m kind of with the Princess on this.” Spike said too. “Why are you so worried about seeing Sunburst anyways?” Spike glanced at Sunset for a second before leaning forward and whispering in Starlight’s ear. “And I know it can’t be because you’re worried about changing the past.”

Starlight sighed and closed her eyes, hanging her head low.

“I really, really wanted to help him at first, I wanted to change things for the better when it came to the two of us when I first realized Sunburst would be here. But the more I thought about it… it’s just… awkward. For the longest time I thought he had probably been some great student who became a really successful magician, somepony who was so engrossed in magic that he forgot about his friend.” She said, sadly looking at the ground. “Yeah I learned the truth later and we reconciled but I feel like if I went and saw him now it would just be… disrespectful? I don’t want to see him struggling and upset.”

Celestia stuck a hoof under her chin, raising it up so they could see eye to eye. “I can understand that it might be a bit uncomfortable for you but I think you’d both benefit from it. Sunburst especially, from what I’ve learned of him he could use some reassurance.”

Starlight frowned but nodded in acquiescence.

“Uh, Princess?” Spike looked up at her with a confused and somewhat worried expression. “Should you really be wanting Starlight to do something that might cause some changes, if you know what I mean?” Despite Spike being fine with Starlight visiting Sunburst (since she had done so much already) he still didn’t want her to make any intentional changes and it was even more dismaying to him to hear Celestia so carefree about something like that.

“Oh I’m sure that in the grand scheme of things it will all turn out fine.” She giggled slightly and winked at him.

Spike frowned but didn’t press the issue. Celestia worked in mysterious ways after all.

“What are you all talking about?” Sunset was completely lost, looking back and forth between all three of them with a confused expression on her face.

“I’ll be needing a disguise.” Starlight said as she stood in front of her mirror.

“Really?” Spike asked.

“Yes, Spike. I still can’t have him recognize me, he’ll be confused why I’m older and it’ll just be a mess. I can watch over him in secret.” Starlight turned her head from side to side, thinking what look would be the best. “Alright, I think I’ve got it.

With a soft glow of her horn Starlight began to change. Her lilac coat grew darker and darker and shifted to a midnight blue while the purple in her mane and tail instead got brighter and more vibrant. The teal streak going through her mane and tail turned into a simple sparkling white. Starlight turned around a few times to take her new appearance in.

“This should work pretty well. Cutie Mark, different mane style, there’s no way anypony from back in Sire’s Hollow would recognize me. Even my dad.” Starlight grinned. “Just need a new name now too… hm, how about Moonlight Flicker?” She looked to Spike.

“Not very creative but it works.” Spike was blunt.

“Well I’m not trying to win a contest. Just make sure you call me Moonlight the whole time we’re there.”

“What are you going to tell Sunset?”

“The truth. That I don’ want Sunburst to recognize me and she needs to play along.” Starlight said simply.

Spike shrugged. “Alright I guess. Are you done now then? The classes should be starting soon.”

“Nothing a quick teleport can’t fix.” Starlight smiled and quickly grabbed Spike with her magic, taking them to the front of the castle in an instant. “And now that we’re out here lead the way, Spike! Since I don’t know where the school actually is.”

“Come on then...” Spike sighed and rolled his eyes.

He led them to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns where they spied Sunset Shimmer waiting for the two of them right outside. She took one glance at Starlight and shook her head, making the decision to not even ask why she looked like that. Sunset ignored whatever greeting they might’ve given her and turned around and started to walk into the school.

“Chipper as ever.” Spike quipped to Starlight.

“Still need to fix that too.” Starlight said as they followed Sunset.

Inside the school looked to be like any other, the three walked down a long central hallway with classrooms on each side of it that Starlight kept glancing into. This first floor seemed to be for the youngest of students judging by what she saw. It kind of made her wonder about what it would’ve been like if she got her Cutie Mark at the same time as Sunburst and came here. Maybe she’d have stayed friends with him or maybe she would’ve become like Sunset. Well, either way that was one change to the past she certainly had no desire to look into.

“It’s two floors up.” Sunset said from in front of them. She still didn’t look back though, fully attempting to minimize her contact with Starlight.

There were fewer classrooms on the next floor and then even fewer on the third. In fact it looked like there was only one actual classroom and the other rooms up here were some kind of library and a practice room. Sunset walked with purpose to the far end of the hallway where the classroom’s door was, not even bothering to knock she walked right in, Starlight and Spike following her.

“Ah, Sunset, you’re here.” An older unicorn mare with thick rectangular glasses standing in front of a chalkboard said. Her mane and tail white as snow and the slightest of shake in her knees.

She looked past Sunset to see Starlight and Spike. “And you must be-”

“Moonlight.” Starlight cut her off. “Moonlight Flicker, and this is Spike.”

The teacher seemed confused for a second but wrote it off. “Alright. Say hello to the class.” She waved her hoof out to the assembled ponies.

Starlight looked out at the students. They sat in escalating rows of long desks bisected down the middle that extended the rest of the classroom. It gave them all a perfect view of the teacher and chalkboard but Starlight was hardly paying any attention to that. Her eyes searched up and down each row until she finally found her target.

And there he was.

A sad smile threatened to stretch its way across Starlight’s face as she saw Sunburst reading a book with a worried look on his face and a stress creaked brow while not paying attention to the front of the classroom despite the special occasion. Instead for the moment Starlight just tried to look like an impartial teacher, acclimating herself with the rest of the faces in the classroom.

“You all know Sunset.” Starlight said. “But I’m Moonlight, I’m a guest of the Princess and currently I’m helping Sunset out with her own magic studies.”

Sunset scowled at her when she said that. It also got the attention of a lot of the young students, they must have been amazed that there was another pony teaching Princess Celestia’s personal student. They probably even thought that there wasn’t another unicorn who could teach Sunset anything too. A few whispered conversations broke out as Starlight became the center of attention, something Sunset didn’t care for.

“And I’m Spike.” Spike happily hooked a thumb at himself, grinning at the students. “You probably haven’t seen many dragons before. I’m here because I’m Moonlight’s friend.”

There were a few more captivated unicorns looking at Spike, he was clearly the first dragon likely any of them had ever seen.

“The two of us are just here to help out, Sunset will still be the one doing the real teaching and demonstration.” Starlight said, smiling to the class.

“So let’s get on with it then.” Sunset said in an annoyed fashion. She clearly didn’t care about this at all.

Starlight narrowed her eyes at Sunset but the teenager couldn’t see, having already moved to front and center on the classroom floor before the desks. All eyes were on her, even Sunburst’s now. The students knew to pay close attention to her, Sunset demanded it. Anything less than their full and undivided attention she’d surely take as an insult and these students were well acquainted with her and her foul attitude from her past at the school. They didn’t want her to hold any grudges.

“What I’ll be showing you first is...”

Sunset started her presentation and lesson, showing off through it as much as she was “teaching”. Starlight could tell that the one joy she was getting from having to do this was getting to prove how much better at magic she was than the students here. It made Starlight have half a mind to show her up but she decided to not be that petty in front of a whole class of impressionable young unicorns.

So Sunset did her thing, going over spell after spell as the teacher fielded most of the questions students asked. Throughout it Starlight watched Sunburst.

She could see him get sadder and more discouraged as time went on. It was obvious to Starlight why he wasn’t enjoying the lesson, who wouldn’t get upset at seeing somepony else so easily do something that you couldn’t no matter how much you studied and practiced? She knew what sort of negative thoughts were going through his head, she had plenty of experience with those.

Sunburst, Sunburst, Sunburst. Did you ever ask for help? Were you too ashamed to? Did you ever try making a friend? Guess that’s hypocritical of me to ask…

There wasn’t much else for either Starlight or Spike to do and it gave them both the sinking suspicion that Celestia had only asked them to do this to watch over Sunset and meet Sunburst instead of contributing to the lesson in any way. Sunset wasn’t exactly the best teacher or good at explaining things after she did them but the class’s normal teacher always covered for her.

It was a good nother hour before Sunset finished with her stuff. Proudly showing off her skills and standing there in front of the students looking as smug as possible.

“And that’s all there is too it.” She said as if anypony could do what she did just as easily.

“Good, good, excellent work, Sunset.” The teacher said. She was also probably well used to Sunset and didn’t bother trying to admonish her behavior. “Now that that portion is over with I’ve been told that Princess Celestia wanted Moonlight here to give some personal instructions and counseling to the students.”

Starlight’s eyes shot wide open, as did Spike’s and Sunset’s, her head sharply turned to look at the teacher. “She said what?”

“Hmm...” The teacher went on as if she didn’t hear Starlight’s question at all. “I know! Sunburst, why don’t you be the first to have your private lesson with Miss Moonlight here, you can use the training room.” She smiled happily at the orange unicorn and then stealthily winked at Starlight.

I’ll get you back for this Celestia…

The very nervous Sunburst unsteadily climbed out of his seat and walked down the steps in-between the rows of desks. He’d be unsure about this anyways but Starlight’s awkward smile that was plastered on her face probably wasn’t very inviting either.

Just don’t be so negative Starlight, this is a great opportunity. You always wanted to help Sunburst, didn’t you?

Sunburst didn’t have his snazzy robe yet, did she ever ask him where he got that? But whatever, she needed to say hi to him.

“So, you’re Sunburst?” She said as he made it down to her. Sunset and Spike watching the two of them.

“Um, yes. Sunburst, that’s right.” He nervously said, eyes having trouble meeting hers. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Moonlight. And to get a lesson from one as, uh, skilled as you obviously must be.”

Starlight’s awkward smile this time did morph into a sad and sympathetic one as she stared down at her childhood friend. “Thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well you know. So let’s say we take this into the practice room and when we finish up I can help the next student.”

“R-Right.” Sunburst shakily walked from the classroom with Starlight.

As they made their way out and into the empty practice room a short walk down the hallway Starlight closed the door behind them and turned an inquisitive eye towards the embarrassed looking Sunburst.

“Is something wrong?” She asked, even though she was sure she knew why he was so nervous.

Sunburst grumbled, shyly looking away. “This is a waste of time. I don’t deserve to have a private lesson with somepony like you.”

“And why do you say that?”

“Because I’m no good at magic!” Sunburst suddenly yelled out, finally looking directly at Starlight. “I got into this school but that doesn’t mean anything! No matter how much I study or practice I can’t do what others can do.” He whined, going down to the floor and holding his head in his hooves.

“So what?”

Sunburst looked up, confusion evident on his face. “Excuse me?”

“I said so what if you aren’t as good at magic as Sunset or some of the other unicorns.” Starlight repeated. “Big deal. Not everypony is a magical prodigy.”

“Easy for you to say. I thought this was my calling.” Sunburst murmured.

“And who’s to say it’s not? I saw you in class, reading intently. I bet you read and study more about magic than any of your peers don’t you?”

“Yeah, so what if I do? Like I said it doesn’t make me any better.” Sunburst stood up, looking away from Starlight so she couldn’t see the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.

“Magic can still be your calling. Maybe you can’t use it like Sunset but you can still be a teacher or a scholar or anything with the knowledge you have. You just have to put your mind to it and not give up, and it helps to have good friends by your side too.” Starlight patted him on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “And hey, if you want to be able to brag about being better at Sunset than something, getting a few friends is a great place to start.”

Sunburst laughed, wiping away his tears with a hoof. “Yeah, that’d be cool I guess.”

Starlight smiled at him. “There’s so much you can accomplish and do even if you’re only average at actually using magic. Doesn’t being a professor sound pretty cool, like what about your teacher? What if because of all your studying you end up knowing more about magic and spells than either Sunset or Princess Celestia?”

“Well yeah, I guess that sounds pretty cool too.” Sunburst said.

“And useful too.” She winked at him. “Don’t let yourself think you’re a failure or useless. Ever.”

“And another thing.” Starlight continued, smiling at him. “I was pretty troubled at one point in my life too. I was worried about being left behind and thought that others being more “special” than me only led to problems and sadness. But I changed too and became so much happier for it and now I’m even teaching the student of Princess Celestia.”

That wasn’t completely true but the spirit behind it was genuine.

“You’re not the only one who’s struggled in their life.” Starlight persisted. “It may sound cliché but I just want to tell you to stay positive and try your best, don’t give up.”

Sunburst sniffled a but but still looked up at Starlight and smiled brightly at her. “Thank you.”

And then the world went white. The familiar feelings of shaking and vertigo overcame Starlight once more. It wasn’t the most intense it had been but was still enough for her vision to cloud completely and for her to feel like she had been spun upside down a few times before the sensation passed and she regained her senses.

“Goodbye, Miss Moonlight. I hope you come back to do another lesson in the future. Maybe we can practice some magic for real.” Sunburst said from the doorway to the practice room, waving goodbye to her.

“Yeah. That sounds fun.” Starlight smiled weakly and waved goodbye to her young childhood friend as he stepped out of the room and made his way back to the classroom. She was happy how things had gone in the end even if it was slightly awkward at first.

“Whew.” The relieved Starlight wiped away the sweat that had accumulated from her brow.

And then froze. Realizing something.

“Oh great.” She held a hoof to her head as if preparing for a massive headache. “I still have to give “lessons” to all the other unicorns...”

Library Lurking I

The clock struck midnight in Canterlot and the moon hung high in the sky. Most souls were in bed and even Princess Celestia had turned in for the night several hours ago. While a city was never truly asleep, Canterlot would almost seem like a different world to anypony wandering the streets right now. The lights covering for the minuscule amount of illumination the moon brought, the few graveyard shift workers going about their business, night-owls, hoodlums, and insomniacs also out roaming. So much quieter than the hustle and bustle of the day. There were many ponies who preferred it like this, though not many that actually stayed up and enjoyed it.

It was in the darkness under the cover of night that Starlight and Spike stealthily moved from shadow to shadow, evading every sliver of light, as they made their way to the library and the restricted section deep inside it. The two of them wore tight black catsuits that Starlight had procured from who knows where. Spike certainly had no idea, the feeling of deja vu was already enough for him to mentally give up and not bother questioning things.

“Alright, Spike-” Starlight started as she stood flush against the outer wall of the library, the door right next to them. “What sort of security does the library have? Will there be an alarm?”

“Nopony has really broken into the library before. I don’t think it even has security. Only the castle’s archives have security.” Spike answered.

“Good for us then, that makes this job much easier.” Starlight slinked close to the ground like a snake, crawling on her belly till she was right under the library door. Her horn lit up softly as she stared at the door in concentration. “Hm. I don’t sense any defensive spells or anything. So I guess you’re right, Spike. The door is still locked though but I can take care of that.”

And sure enough a little strand of magic went from Starlight’s horn into the keyhole of the door. With a soft click the lock was undone and the door opened up by a hair.

“Why do you have a lock-picking spell?” Spike asked as he walked up behind her.

“I don’t, it’s simple telekinesis.”

“Uh-huh.”

Starlight ignored him and pulled the door open just slightly enough for them to squeeze inside, quietly closing and locking it again afterwards. The unicorn looked around the big circular room of the library they entered into, as expected it was empty with only the light from the moon coming in the windows allowing Starlight any vision. Good enough to see where they were going but not so great if they wanted to read any books.

“Can’t turn on the lights so this will have to do for now.” She said as her horn lit up, giving them about a candlelight’s worth of illumination.

“Okay so what are we looking for that we couldn’t just ask Celestia about?” Spike asked again.

“Anything relating to time-travel. So probably nothing in the public section, we’ll have to go down to the restricted section later.” Starlight answered.

“You know I’m pretty sure Celestia likes you now, we could’ve just talked to her.” Spike said.

“I didn’t want to take the risk of her saying no. Besides, we’ve been stuck here forever now and I want to see if I can find a way back to the present. The lack of Twilight coming to rescue us has me concerned and I’ve burnt down enough buildings and caused enough problems to not want to stay back here anymore.”

“At least we agree on that.” Spike sighed. “No more vacation?”

Starlight groaned and shook her head. “No more vacation. Results from my tampering have been mixed.”

“That’s certainly one way of putting it. Happy to hear though.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t fought harder about us breaking and entering the library.”

Spike could only answer with the truth. “I guess I’ve kind of gotten swept up in your pace.”

Starlight looked around the library, first attempting to see if there was maybe anything worth checking out here before they headed over to the restricted section. But all the sections of History, Science, Poetry and more held no interest to her. In the Hobby section there may have been a book about kites that she might want to read later but for now that would have to wait. She knew by now that the Starswirl the Bearded wing in the castle wouldn’t help since his only time-travel spell was most assuredly not what had gotten her and Spike in this problem either.

“Okay.” Starlight said as she walked over to the librarian’s desk. “I don’t think there’s really any reason for us to stay up and look around here. We should just head into the restricted section.”

“Sounds good to me.” Spike nodded along.

“Yep.” Starlight said, smiling

And then stood there.

“Er, am I missing something?” Spike asked.

Starlight’s smile fell. “I was waiting for you to lead the way to the restricted section.”

“Me?” Spike said, a single eyebrow raised at Starlight. “I don’t know how to get in there. I didn’t even know it existed until Twilight told me about it a little while ago.”

“Well same here.” Starlight frowned.

She started to pace around in a circle before her eyes settled on the floor of the library, thinking deeply as she rubbed her chin with a hoof.

“I can tell what you’re thinking, do not try and blast through the floor.” Spike accusingly pointed a finger at her.

“I wouldn’t!” Starlight said defensively, peeling her eyes away from the floor. “Besides, Twilight said it was hidden behind some secret pathway that you reach after pulling on a specific book. I thought she would’ve told you in more detail while entering it in her journal or whatever.”

“Well she didn’t. And I’m somewhat concerned she told you about the restricted section at all.” Spike said.

“I’m her student! She probably wanted to take me someday.” Starlight sat on the floor, folding her forelegs over her chest and grunting in annoyance.

Spike sighed and went to sit down beside her. “We probably should’ve planned this out just a little better.”

“It’s only a minor setback.” Starlight quickly got back up, causing Spike to fall over backwards, and began pacing around the floor of the library again. “I don’t know the exact spell but I know there’s a way I can search for hollow spaces and hidden passages. And the passage to the restricted section has to be against a wall so that narrows things down for us already.” Starlight grinned in the darkness and turned to her dragon friend. “Alright, Spike. No lollygagging, let’s get to finding this secret passage!”

An hour or two more was spent with them searching in the dead of night through every inch of the library where a secret passage could actually be. No stone was left unturned as Starlight and Spike poked and prodded along every wall and shelf.

Every now and then Starlight’s horn would emit faint pulses like echolocation that searched for hollow spots when they bounced off the walls, the sound made when striking something solid being different than when striking something hollow.

“Find anything yet?” Spike asked her.

“Not yet but my spell is still working, I think it’s only a matter of time.” Starlight answered as she continued to send out pulses of magic. “There can only be so many places something like this can hide.”

“Yeah. And no offense to the Princess but I doubt it’s actually that secure.” Spike said. “Just based off some prior experiences.”

“Don’t let Twilight hear you criticize Celestia.” Starlight chuckled.

Spike laughed back too. “Oh yeah, no way.”

Starlight was wandering down one of the bookshelves, absentmindedly probing it and looking for anything special, when her magic noticed something odd. The bookshelf here was not fixed to the floor in the same way the others were. Grinning to herself, Starlight grasped the whole shelf in her magic and inspected the entire thing. Looking for any way that it could open up or move.

“Spike! I think I’ve found it!” Starlight called out to him.

Spike ran over to her side, looking from her to the bookshelf. “This the door?”

“For a given meaning of door, yes. There’s definitely something behind here.” Starlight smiled as she used her magic to check that there was indeed empty space behind this particular shelf.

“Can’t find out how to open it? I’m surprised you haven’t just blasted a hole through the whole thing.” Spike crossed his arms.

“I’ve gotten enough of destroying books back at the Golden Oak Library, if I do it anymore I feel like some kind of evil phantom of Twilight will haunt me for the rest of my life. Now help me try to find a switch or lever or something.” She said to Spike.

“If I know cliches it’ll probably open up by pulling a certain book.” Spike said as he began doing just that. Yanking on every book one by one and tossing out the duds. “Help me out, Starlight.”

Starlight joined him, moving from trying to yank the whole shelf over to finding the hidden trigger. There were a lot of books and Starlight wanted to be careful to pull them one by one to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Up and down each row they worked their way through the bookshelf until Spike saw something that caught his eye.

“Hey, Starlight, look at those books.” He said, pointing to two books that sat side by side. One with a sun emblazoned on its spine and the other a moon. “They look out of place don’t they?”

Starlight looked at the books he was talking about and smiled. “Good catch Spike, you’re right. And more than that they look like just the kind of thing Celestia would use.” Starlight grabbed both of the books in her magic and gently pulled on them.

With a heavy clunking noise the wall moved and the shelf slid away to reveal a stone hallway and stairs leading down into the restricted section. Immediately stale air hit both Spike and Starlight in the face and they could see the whole passage was covered in dust and cobwebs hanging in the corners that had been undisturbed for who knows how many years. Obviously neither Princess Celestia nor anypony else had been in here in a while.

But it was their destination.

“Well, ladies first.” Spike gestured, gentlemanly stepping to the side.

Starlight snorted and grinned at him. “Thanks.”

Together the two took their first steps into the restricted section and with any luck would find what they needed inside.

Library Lurking II

Thankfully there were torches lining the walls of the corridor and Starlight easily zapped them all alight as she and Spike walked to the restricted section of the library. The only sounds they heard being the clacking of Starlight’s hooves and Spike’s claws on the floor while the flames of the torches softly fluttered. Outside it would have still been the dead of night but in only a few more hours ponies would start waking up and getting ready for work. Before that the two of them would need to search through and read as much as they could.

“How much further do you think this hidden passage goes?” Spike asked Starlight.

“I dunno, how big is the restricted section?”

Spike shrugged.

Starlight sighed. “Yeah, we probably should have prepared better.”

Their journey to the restricted section lasted a bit longer before they finally made it to a large set of impressive looking double doors. Starlight grasped the golden rings with her magic and pushed the door open.

What they ended up walking into looked like less of a library and more like some old warlock or ruler’s personal treasure vault. The walls were nothing more than the natural rock of the ground, covered in moss in some places and holes in others that made recesses for bookshelves to be put up in. Stalactites hung from the ceiling over the cold stone floor and a single fireplace, that for some reason was already lit, stood at the back of the room. There were other things like boxes, chests, and glass containers full of who knows what all over the walls too.

“You know I expected more books.” Spike said as he walked into the restricted section, hands on his hips.

There was only one table in the whole place for them to sit at too but that wasn’t so bad since it was only the two of them down here anyways. Spike walked into the center of the chamber while Starlight walked up along the raised balcony that ringed the whole restricted section, giving it something of a second floor.

“It really seems like there’s all kinds of stuff in here.” Starlight absently said as she looked from shelf to shelf, box to box.

It also wasn’t very well organized, there were no signs or dividers to tell her what books were where. Considering what this place was though she had to imagine that most everything in here dealt with powerful magic or important historical memoirs like the one Twilight had told her about concerning Clover the Clever.

“Guess we just have to get started?” Spike asked up at her.

“Yeah. You look through everything on the first level and I’ll handle the stuff up here.” Starlight told him. “This is probably gonna take a while.”

“If we find anything at all.” Spike cynically remarked.

“Now, now, Spike. No need to get like that. We can both complain later today after we don’t find anything.”

“But then I’ll be passed out in my chair.”

Starlight and Spike both started to search seriously now. The both of them ignoring the artifacts and everything that wasn’t a book as they looked for anything that might mention time-travel. Whether it was something written by Starswirl, a contemporary, or somepony else, their goal now was to figure out if there was anything in the restricted section that could help them. If Starlight was being honest with herself she had cynical thoughts about their chances of success even more than Spike probably did. But that kind of negative thinking wouldn’t lead anywhere, you might as well try first.

As Starlight grabbed her first book she immediately frowned at the cover. “I can’t even read this.” She sighed. “Where’s Sunburst or Twilight when I need them?”

“Same problem down here!” Spike called our right from right below her. “What language is this anyways?” He said as he held open a book whose pages looked like they were covered in squiggly lines.

“Ughhh!” Starlight complained. “As if there weren’t enough problems and setbacks to begin with we aren’t even going to be able to read all of these?”

“Guess not.” Spike shrugged.

Starlight chewed on her lip as she stared at the book she was holding. “Well maybe I can take these back with us...”

“This is already a bad enough idea and I don’t think having stolen property in our room, stolen forbidden property for that matter, is a good idea.” Spike shot her down before she could even finish.

“Okay, fair point.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “It’s probably just junk to us anyways.”

Several hours were spent with them pouring over old tomes, ending up with them finding out more about ancient Equestria than they ever cared to know, but not coming up with anything relating to their time-travel mishap. It really seemed to be the rarest of subjects.

“Will Twilight be happy I just read up on how Equestria’s first tax code was made or jealous?” Starlight asked Spike.

“Jealous.” Spike put a book he was holding back in its place. “Somehow I think you’re still luckier than me, that was a book full of poetry written by Luna.”

Starlight shuddered. “I can only imagine.”

The unicorn perused the books in front of her once more before pulling one out at random and reading the cover. “Canterlot Cantabiles. Whatever that means.” She tossed it over her shoulder.

If it was a different situation they probably would’ve found plenty of interesting things to read. As it was they just grew more and more frustrated. Starlight increasingly just dropped books on the floor after glancing over them instead of bothering to put them back where they belonged, leaving a trail of old one-of-a-kind books along the second floor. Spike was equally as frustrated but was still much more careful with the books, just sighing dejectedly as he kept finding more and more that he couldn’t even read.

“I made a spell for copying books so maybe I can make a spell for instantly reading them?” Starlight wondered out loud to herself.

“You know I think Twilight once thought of doing something like that but reconsidered, said it took all the fun out of reading.” Spike said.

“Sounds like her.” Starlight couldn’t help but giggle at thinking of Twilight going through that whole thought process.

With another hour passing by Starlight had made a full rotation around the second floor of the restricted section and Spike had just about finished up down below too. They had not been particularly fortunate. But on the bright side of things if Twilight ever asked Starlight to recite Equestrian tax history she’d be prepared. Sighing as she got to a bookcase holding a bunch of flasks fulls of some viscous liquid Starlight was about at her wit’s end.

“Well Spike, I don’t know about you but I’m ready to give up here.” She called out. “If the restricted section was bigger maybe I’d have some hope that we’re just looking in the wrong place but there’s nothing else here.”

She was going to jokingly mention that she felt like torching the place but considering certain past events figured Spike probably wouldn’t find the humor in such a joke.

Spike also sighed, putting a book titled “How to Deal With Harlequins” back onto its shelf he sat down on the ground. “I get what you mean. And after looking through here I’m beginning to think that there just isn’t going to be an answer to how you made us travel through time like this.”

Starlight turned around and looked over the railing, raising an eyebrow at her dragon friend. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you probably did that all on your own. You already were able to use Starswirl’s spell for something it was never intended for back when you tried to stop the Sonic Rainboom. Whatever time magic you used on the Cutie Map this time was probably you just doing something like that again. I doubt anypony in history has traveled through time like this or even come up with time magic remotely close.” Spike finished, spreading out his arms in emphasis. “I think even Twilight would say this but you’re just too good when it comes to time-travel magic, Starlight.”

The lilac unicorn frowned and stepped down from the second floor to join Spike.

“You know you’re probably right. After seeing that there wasn’t anything in the Starswirl the Bearded wing that was any use I should’ve known that even the restricted section here wouldn’t have anything for us.” She sat down next to him. “Guess I just wanted to try.”

“And have fun?”

“And have fun.”

They looked at each for a second before breaking out in laughter. The both of them falling onto their backs and letting the moment of levity overtake them.

While still laughing Spike saw out of the corner of his eye the messy trail Starlight had left all over the second floor. Slowing down his chuckling he got enough sense in him to ask Starlight a question.

“Hey Starlight? What time is it?” Spike sat himself back up, scratching his head.

“Hm? I dunno, why?” Starlight stopped laughing to also prop herself up.

“Well I’m just thinking. We broke in like right around midnight, right?”

“Yeah, just about.” Starlight nodded.

“Okay so considering all the time we spent in here how are we going to clean up the restricted section and the rest of the library and make it look like nopony broke in all before anypony else arrives here this morning?” Spike asked.

Starlight stared at him for a long few seconds.

“That’s an excellent question, Spike.”

Now leaving the rest of the library in the state it was may not have been so bad but if the restricted section was a complete mess that had obviously been entered without permission Starlight and Spike had to figure that Celestia would know it was them who did it. So after a frantic bit of cleaning up the restricted section and Starlight trying to remember where every book she lazily threw around needed to go the two of them ran back up the stone hallway to close off the entrance again and make it look like nopony had ever touched it.

“Are you tired, Spike? Cause I’m a little tired.” Starlight whispered to Spike as they hid under a desk while the librarian walked past them, none the wiser to the two hiding ponies.

“Well we’ve been up all night so that’s only a little natural.” Spike replied.

“That’s true. And considering we just spent another stressful day not accomplishing anything I think the whole rest of this day should be spent resting and lazing around our room doing nothing. What do you say?”

“Starlight, that is literally the best idea you’ve had in weeks.”

She playfully elbowed him, the two trading smiles.

“Alright, since that’s the plan how about we stop by a hobby shop on the way back to the castle and I can pick up what we need to make that dragon kite you wanted too? We can go fly it tomorrow.”

“Awesome!” Spike almost forgot to whisper. “Let’s make you an Alicorn kite too or something.”

Starlight giggled. “Sure. Normally I prefer classic kite designs but I’ll make an exception for now.”

The hoofsteps of the librarian got quieter and quieter until they could no longer be heard, luckily it seemed that Starlight and Spike had done a good enough job of making things seem normal in the library so far. But they didn’t want to take the risk and stick around in case things weren’t perfect.

“Guess we can head out now?” Starlight said.

“We’re gonna look a little weird in these outfits you know.” Spike pointedly tugged on the black suit.

“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve dealt with strange looks.” Starlight looked over the suit she was wearing and then thought for a second. “But I suppose if I can first teleport us into an empty alley that’d probably be for the best.”

Peeking out from under the desk to make sure neither the librarian nor anypony else was there Starlight made as quiet of a teleport as possible, taking her and Spike out of the fortune-less library.

Fond Farewell

In an empty room of the castle that had been cleared of all furniture Starlight and Sunset practiced magic together while Spike watched. Sunset may have had a poor attitude when it came to making friends or the other more social aspects of life but she was Princess Celestia’s student for a reason and she took to Starlight’s lessons like a fish to water. Even now after only a short time Sunset was able to make a powerful circular shield like Starlight could. Shining Armor would’ve been the best teacher she could think of when it came to shields but she and Twilight were good at them too.

Smiling as Sunset held the shield perfectly, no longer straining to keep it maintained, Starlight fired a mild beam of magic at it and grinned in delight as it was effortlessly deflected by the shield.

She had to admit, it was at least better than teaching Trixie.

“Great job, Sunset!” Starlight said as Sunset lowered the shield. “I think someday you’ll be able to make a shield just as strong as I can.”

“Well of course.” Sunset smugly grinned. “I’m a prodigy after all. I’ll admit you had a bit of an advantage over me when we first met but I’ll be able to outdo you soon enough.”

Starlight frowned and she could see Spike roll his eyes from beside them. “Sunset. You don’t need to make this about being better than me. Learning magic can just be for fun or bettering yourself you know?”

The lilac unicorn put a hoof on Sunset’s shoulder. “Don’t you want to make some friends and practice magic with them? Or show off to them in a fun way instead of bragging and making them feel bad for not being as good as you?”

“Uh, no?” Sunset shrugged off Starlight’s hoof. “I could care less about that.”

Starlight sighed. “I was hoping that this would teach you the value of working with others too.”

“Pff.” Sunset snorted. “I already know the value others can give me. I am studying under Princess Celestia too you know?”

“Would the Princess be happy to hear that?” Starlight asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Sunset snapped. “She picked me to be her student because I’m the best, and I’m going to keep proving that to everypony. And one day I’ll get everything I deserve for how great I am.” Sunset turned up her nose and walked past Starlight to the door. “Are we done with today’s lesson?”

“Yes.” Starlight didn’t try to stop her but she did look over her shoulder at the retreating teenager. “Since we’re finished I was going to ask you if you’d like to get a snack with me and Spike?”

Sunset stopped in the middle of holding the door open. She turned around to stare at Starlight with a blank expression on her face.

“I’d rather be sent to Tartarus.”

And then she left. Starlight and Spike left with nothing to do but sadly stare at the door as it shut behind her.

“She’s… not getting better is she?” Spike said.

“No. I keep trying to get her interested in making friends and trying to slip friendship lessons into the magic lessons but nothing is getting through to her.” Starlight sat down, her head hung low. “Am I just not good at this kind of thing? I’m a school counselor so I should be able to do this, right?”

“Sunset’s just an extreme case, you do a great job at the school.” Spike came up next to her and put a comforting claw on her shoulder. “You do know what it took for Twilight to get through to her after all, right?”

At the mention of that, Starlight’s eyes opened wide and her head snapped up. It was like a lightbulb went off in her brain.

“Of course!”

“Uh, what?” Spike asked, taking a step back in surprise at Starlight’s sudden action.

“Ohhhh, I’m so dumb!” Starlight exclaimed as she stood back up. “I should have realized this sooner! Of course just talking is never going to change her. Even Twilight didn’t just talk to her, she had to hit her with a huge rainbow laser thing and make her see the power of true friendship. It was the same with me, too. You were even there Spike! I didn’t care about what Twilight was saying at first, she had to show me how important even just one friendship was before I was willing to open up.” Starlight giddily hopped around, grinning hugely at her dragon friend. “I’ve finally got it, these lessons aren’t going to help Sunset. She needs to really experience what friendship can do! She needs to see how powerful the magic of friendship is!”

“Okay, and how are we going to do that?” Spike scratched his head.

“We can’t!” Starlight excitedly yelled.

Spike paused and tilted his head. “You lost me. Isn’t that a bad thing?”

“Well think about it. We don’t have the Elements, we don’t have any of our friends around, we don’t have any sort of huge threat to overcome or anything major to accomplish, so there’s no way for us to show Sunset the true magic of friendship.” Starlight exclaimed.

“Then why are you still so happy?”

“Because I’ve realized what needs to be done! It might not change her now but I at least know the answer to our little Sunset’s problems.” Starlight happily giggled before bringing a hoof under her chin, thinking deeply. “In fact, it’s probably actually just going to make her really mad for a while. But in the end it’ll be good.”

Spike was getting a bit concerned. “Okay, okay, can you slow down a bit? Just what exactly are you going to do with her?”

Starlight turned to him with her mischievous smile. “We’re going to send her home a little early.”

“No. No, no, no, no.”

“Come on Spike, it’s a good idea and we wouldn’t even really be changing anything.”

The two of them stood in front of a large mirror that had been stuck in a locked room deep within Canterlot castle. In the present they were more familiar with it being in Twilight’s castle but it’s not something they could ever misremember with its distinctive horseshoe frame and its high importance. Starlight walked towards it and lightly touched her hoof to the reflective glass surface and was rewarded with a shimmering reaction as ripples spread out across the mirror.

“Seems my luck is pretty good today.” Starlight grinned, pulling her hoof away from the mirror.

“And what is Celestia going to think when Sunset suddenly goes missing?” Spike asked from behind her.

“Well I’d say probably the same thing when Sunset naturally abandons her.” Starlight shot back. “We don’t know when exactly Sunset left but she did leave. It’s going to happen anyways and Celestia will be just as upset either way.”

“If the same thing is just going to happen then why even bother doing this now?”

“Because I want to give Sunset a head start. And maybe the shock of it and her being unprepared will contribute to changing her for the better too. Without needing to get hit with a giant rainbow.” Starlight thought. “Now that I think about it maybe this will actually help her instead of just getting her on the right path early.”

“What do you mean?” Spike raised an eyebrow at her.

“Think about it. When she first went into that other world she was fully aware of it, it was her choice, she knew what would happen, etc.” Starlight explained. “But now? How would she deal with suddenly losing her magic? She doesn’t have anything else, her strength in magic is who she is. She’d be stuck in some foreign world all alone and she couldn’t rely on the only thing that makes her special here!”

“Uh, now you’re making this sound kind of dangerous.” Spike said.

“Oh she’ll still be fine. I’m just saying that she’ll have to learn how to live another way, she’ll have to start forming friendships and bonds with others. This’ll be the big climactic event that shocks her into changing!” Starlight pumped her hoof in the air. “It’s time to help Sunset!”

Spike sighed, looking between Starlight and the mirror. She was right that eventually Sunset would ditch out on Celestia anyways, and come back to cause some big problems herself, so it probably wasn’t the worst thing to send her on her way already where there was the possibility she might actually change for the better.

Finally, he shrugged. “Fine. As far as bad ideas go it’s at least one of your better thought out ones.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” She dragged him over with her magic and hugged him.

“It would probably be best if we avoided Celestia for a while afterwards. Or came up with some kind of cover story, you know?” Spike suggested.

“Hm, maybe I can forge a letter.” Starlight considered.

“Also you’re not just going to throw her in the mirror are you? You’re gonna give her some warning at least?” Spike asked. “She still hasn’t really done anything bad bad yet, you can at least tell her it’s something that will make her happy in the future, right?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not like I was just gonna blindfold her and kick her in or anything. I’ll tell her about the great friends on the other side waiting for her.” Starlight smiled. “And that’s the truth after all.”

“If it doesn’t have to do with my magic lessons why are you bothering me again? I figured after earlier today you’d take the hint.” Sunset said as Starlight and Spike walked with her down one of the hallways of Canterlot castle.

They had gone searching for her immediately after their decision was made since neither of them knew just how long the mirror portal would be open. Sunset at this point seemed to be unaware of its existence and had no idea where they were going. Maybe she had never bothered to really explore the castle, she probably only stuck around Celestia or the library or stayed in her room practicing magic on her own.

“It may not have to do with teaching you magic but it’s still a lesson. You wanted to learn from me didn’t you? And no, I didn’t take the hint.” Starlight replied.

Sunset scoffed. “I wanted to learn magic from you. That’s it. Are you trying to teach me another one of your dumb friendship lessons?”

“Sort of. But it’s more like a… life lesson.” Starlight said to her.

The annoyed unicorn raised an eyebrow at Starlight but didn’t feel like asking her what that meant. It was already enough trouble for her to be in Starlight’s presence.

While Starlight and Spike led her to the room with the mirror portal Sunset couldn’t help but notice that the lighting in the castle was getting lower and lower, the hallways were darker and they seemed to be getting far away from any of the usual places in the castle ponies would go. She was actually getting a little worried but she was far too proud to show it or ask where they were taking her. There was no way Sunset was gonna let them think she was afraid.

At last they reached a large door, Starlight pulled it open with her magic and stood to the side, letting Spike and Sunset walk in first. Sunset looked around, it was a fairly unassuming and nearly empty room. The ceiling was high up and there was only a single window facing the sun that let in just enough light to keep things from being in total darkness.

As her eyes searched for any reason that Starlight and Spike would’ve brought her here she saw the large mirror propped up against the back wall.

“So… what?” Sunset asked as she turned around to look at Starlight.

Starlight closed the door and walked up to Sunset with a big happy smile, Spike following alongside her and looking a bit more unsure.

“Sunset.” Starlight started. “You are a very special pony. And before you say “Tell me something I don’t know” I need to follow that up with how you’re also very self-absorbed and mean. But I know from experience that simply talking to you isn’t going to work, you need to really experience something before you can believe in it. I know you have it in you to become a really great pony who’s kind and caring and treasures her friends. You just need to be set on the right path first.”

“What the hay are you talking about?” Sunset’s face was screwed up in confusion, Starlight’s words actually making her really uneasy. She unconsciously backpedaled a few steps, stopping right in front of the mirror.

“Trust me. This is going to get you everything you want, even if you don’t know it or believe it yet.” Starlight pointed behind Sunset at the mirror.

Sunset looked over her shoulder at it, her reflection staring back at her.

“That mirror leads to a whole new world. You like being a special pony right? Well you’ll be even more special since you can become the first pony from Equestria to make that world your home.”

“Excuse me?!” Sunset gawked at her. “Just what are you getting at here? Are you trying to get rid of me or something?!”

“No, I’m trying to help you. That’s what I’ve always been trying to do. Like I said, everything you want is on the other side of that mirror. You’d eventually have gone looking for it anyways even without me.” Starlight calmly explained.

Sunset looked back at the mirror again. The concern was evident on her face as she furrowed her brow in thought. But as much as she didn’t like Starlight and didn’t agree with her on that silly friendship stuff Starlight had never really lied to her about anything either.

“Really?” Sunset asked.

“Yep, that’s your future.” Starlight smiled.

Sunset frowned at her, narrowing her eyes at Starlight. “This isn’t actually a portal to Tartarus or anything is it?”

“It’s really not, if you can’t trust Starlight then can you trust me?” Spike said, trying to reason with her.

Sunset’s gaze flickered to him before her face finally relaxed. “Fine, you’re not annoying like she is at least.” She turned around to face the portal again, tilting her head. “So how does this thing work? And I’ll get the respect and power I deserve over in this other world?”

“Everything your heart desires.” Starlight said as she walked up beside her and draped a hoof over her shoulders. Even if you don’t know what’s in your heart yet. She left out. “And all you have to do is walk through it.”

The soon to be former student of Princess Celestia hesitantly place a hoof on the mirror and watched in awe as it sunk through the surface, she could already feel the magic racing into her body.

“Wow...”

Starlight nodded. “And a last word of advice from me. But be on the look out for some… creatures… named Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle. I know you won’t believe me or care right now but they’re the best friends you could ever have.”

“Well you’re right, I don’t care. And how do you even know all this stuff?” She glared at Starlight, temporarily pulling her hoof back from the mirror. “And Princess Celestia isn’t going to be happy to hear I’m missing or that I’ve suddenly gone to wherever this other world is. I’m still her chosen personal student after all.” Sunset seemed to be reconsidering.

So Starlight decided to sever the only important connection she had here.

“Yeahhh, about that. You see there’s a young filly in Canterlot right now who’s actually better than you at magic and she’s going to be Celestia’s personal student in the near future.”

“WHAT?!”

“Bye-bye, now!” Starlight said with a friendly smile as she pushed Sunset into the mirror portal. Waving goodbye to her while Spike smacked his face and shook his head.

“I HAAAATE YOOOOU!” Sunset cried out as she disappeared through the portal.

The mirror quickly settled down and as soon as Sunset was fully through it it went back to looking like a normal mirror. Starlight and Spike now being the only ones left in the room.

“That went pretty well, don’t you think?” Starlight asked Spike.

“You didn’t need to say something like that to her. You were just being spiteful.” Spike disapprovingly glared at her.

“Was not! And besides, I think Applejack would appreciate me being honest with Sunset. It was the truth about Twilight after all.”

“Yeah? Well would Fluttershy appreciate your kindness?”

“Nopony’s perfect, Spike.”

A small cracking noise like ice breaking suddenly reached the both of their ears and the two of them looked around to see where the noise was coming from. But they couldn’t see anything despite more and more sounds of cracking coming from every direction as if they were on a frozen lake whose icy cover was about to split open.

“Where’s that coming from?” Starlight asked as she looked around, horn lighting up just in case.

“I dunno, what is it?” Spike gulped as the sound got louder and louder.

“Look!” Starlight said as cracks started appearing around them.

But not in the ground or on the walls, in the air… no, not simply just the air either. Glowing white cracks started to form everywhere and space itself seemed to be falling apart. Like shattered glass, pieces of reality fell and disappeared into nothingness when the cracks connected. Starlight and Spike huddled together in the middle of the room trying to avoid it but all that did was delay the inevitable as the cracks, the fissures, in reality tore around them.

“Starlight, what’s going on...” Spike held close to her.

“I don’t know, this is different from any time before.” Any magic she tried using didn’t do anything, the fissures seeming to turn it into nothingness the same as everything else.

Finally the inexorable progress of the fissures erased everything around them and the two fell into a white void, it felt like they were in free fall, neither of them could even scream or see themselves anymore. They were thrown about in a rushing river of nothingness.

Before they finally returned right back to where they were.

Starlight and Spike stood alone in the room, shaking thanks to their limbs feeling more like jelly than flesh and bone. The mirror portal was there, Sunset was still gone, everything was the same as before.

“I guess that was an, uh, especially big shift in the timeline. Or something.” Starlight said, looking around to make sure things were back to “normal”.

“Or something is right.” Spike unsteadily sat down. “I don’t know about you, but how about we take a break from, well, everything for a while?”

“Good call.”

Starlight's World I

The doors to Twilight’s castle were yanked open by the frazzled Alicorn and Twilight flew inside with Starlight and Spike right on her heels. They really had no idea what to make of all of the strange things going on. According to Twilight the spell should’ve linked them with Starswirl and brought them right on top of the Cutie Map. But obviously that didn’t happen. And then the school being completely missing for some unknown reason and the strangely foreboding lights of the Crystal Empire being in the sky made all three of them worried about what was taking place here.

“Are you sure we’re back at the right point in time?” Starlight yelled to Twilight as the three raced through the castle. “Maybe the school just hasn’t been built yet.”

“I… I don’t know. Mine and Starswirl’s spell was anchored to one specific point in time with the help of the Cutie Map. We should definitely be at the correct day but with the other inconsistencies with the spell I really don’t know.” Twilight replied, frowning. “And for some reason the world is different and I don’t even understand how it could be like this. Something is wrong with the Crystal Empire but it’s not Sombra. My castle is here so Tirek was still defeated but there’s no school. Nothing looked wrong with Ponyville either. Ugh! This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Been telling myself that a lot recently...” Starlight said under her breath.

While the three continued on to the Cutie Map room Spike flew up besides Starlight and whispered in her ear.

“Do you think this could be a result of… well, everything?”

Starlight shook her head. “No. And I’m not even trying to shift blame, think about it. None of the changes I made had anything to do with this kind of stuff, it’s too inconsistent, I think somehow we’ve just been deposited in an alternate timeline or reality.”

“Then maybe you should tell Twilight that.” Spike nudged her.

The lilac unicorn grimaced. “Uh, she’ll probably be a little upset if I explain things to her. Let’s see how things go first?” She flashed him an uneasy smile.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Oh you so owe me for all of this.”

“Hello? Is there anypony in here?” Twilight started calling out ahead of them into the seemingly empty castle. “Is there another me in here?”

Starlight and Spike were happy that she wasn’t quite freaking out like she occasionally did but Twilight was still starting to make them worried.

None of Twilight’s yells got any response back, the Alicorn frowned with a nervous sweat running down her forehead as she continued to fly through the castle to the Cutie Map room. Finally seeing her destination dead ahead she bolted down the hallway at full speed and practically crashed right through the doors. Starlight and Spike carried up the rear and came in after her, the two of them panting in exhaustion.

“The map! What’s wrong with the map?!” Twilight screamed.

Starlight and Spike looked into the room to see that while the Cutie Map was still there it looked… off.

Instead of its usual coloration it looked gray and lifeless, there were almost no defining features on the map as if it was completely dormant and even Twilight’s appearance stirred no activity out of it. The chairs for the Elements of Harmony were all still around it too but the map for all intents and purposes was blank, no magic seemed to pass through it at all.

The huge base of Twilight’s old home still hung above the map as well, but all of the lights on it were off. Twilight’s castle seemed like it had been vacant for quite a while.

“How could this happen?” Twilight wondered as she looked at the map. “Without the map I can’t even reactivate the spell to try and get us back to the right place...”

“Is there something wrong with the Tree of Harmony?” Spike suggested as he came up beside her, looking over the dormant map.

“Maybe. But the Everfree Forest seemed normal… we should probably investigate it and all of Ponyville.” Twilight said. She shook her head. “This is no time for a freakout, I have to make sure everypony is okay.”

“That’s my Twilight.” Starlight said and threw a supportive hoof over her shoulders. “We’ve dealt with worse problems than this before haven’t we?”

Twilight giggled. “Yep, and I still have two of my best friends here to help me. We’ll get through this.”

The three of them reluctantly headed away from the map, preparing to head back outside and see what they could dig up. But as Starlight looked over her shoulder at the recovered base of Golden Oak Library she realized for sure something that Spike didn’t. Whatever world or time this was it was most definitely not the result of her time-traveling shenanigans.

Then what was it?

The three came walking out the front of Twilight’s castle at a brisk pace, Twilight’s mind racing with every little thing they should do or check. Ponyville looked alright at a glance so it was probably more pressing to head to the Everfree Forest and check on the Tree of Harmony. That would probably give them an explanation for why the map was the way it was too.

So caught up in these thoughts she was, Twilight didn’t notice that a pony was walking down the dirt road towards them until Starlight shook her by the shoulder.

“Twilight, look.” She said, pointing at the approaching pony.

Twilight looked forward, at first on guard but as she saw who it was she sighed in relief and stopped.

“Mr. Cake! It’s great to see you.”

Starlight and Spike stopped by her sides as well, smiling at one of the friendly proprietors of everypony’s favorite bakery.

That is until they all noticed a few things that were rather off.

For one he was staring blankly at Twilight with no recognition of who she was, his eyes were glassy and expressionless as they stared through her, like the eyes of a doll or someone looking at something but not really seeing it. Secondly instead of his normal outfit and apron he was wearing a blue police officer’s uniform.

Twilight bit her lip as he continued to stare at her. “Er, is something wrong?”

“Who are you two?” He suddenly said, looking between Twilight and Spike. “You aren’t supposed to deviate from your schedules and duties so why are you here? I have no record of any ponies or dragons that should be here at this moment. Why are you not following your daily routine?”

Twilight’s mouth nearly dropped in shock as somepony accused her of not following a schedule but she managed to shake enough sense back into her head to respond to him. “I’m sorry but what do you mean by daily routine? And why are you a police officer? What happened to Sugarcube Corner?”

Mr. Cake’s face betrayed no emotion as he answered Twilight’s questions. “Everypony has their job and daily routine that is not to be deviated from. I am the police officer of Ponyville, my wife makes bread at Sugarcube Corner.” Mr. Cake actually seemed to think for a second, tilting his head. “Since I don’t recognize you are you new to Ponyville? Is that why you’re here when nopony should be?”

Before Twilight could respond Spike took the opportunity to answer, quickly sensing it would be a good idea. “Yes! That’s exactly it, we’re new to Ponyville so that’s why things seem off. We’re not breaking the law or ignoring our schedules or anything.”

“I see.” Mr. Cake nodded. “I was not informed that we had new ponies moving in. I’ll have to talk to Mayor Mare.”

“Yeah, you do that.” Spike said, wiping the sweat from his brow and winking at Twilight.

Mr. Cake turned and began walking away from them towards the center of town. “Be sure to keep to your schedules.” He said back to them. “And I hope you enjoy your visit to Ponyville, Empress Starlight.”

Twilight’s and Spike’s heads both swung at terminal velocity in Starlight’s direction. Their faces screaming “WHAT?!” at her.

Starlight for her part stood there, grinning nervously as her head slowly turned to meet the stares of Twilight and Spike. “Ehehe… that... that can’t possibly be good, can it?”

“Excuse me!” Twilight bolted forward and cut off Mr. Cake. “But what did you just say?”

“I told Empress Starlight that I hope she enjoys her visit to Ponyville.” Mr. Cake responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His face and voice made it sound so natural and normal.

“Right, that’s what I thought you said.” Twilight held a hoof to her head as if soon expecting a massive headache while Mr. Cake walked on by her.

Starlight and Spike ran up to her, Spike supporting her in case she fainted.

“This is definitely not how I expected this day to go.” Twilight said through closed eyes.

“Well if it makes you feel any better I’m just as surprised as you.” Starlight tried cheering her up.

Twilight’s eyes slowly opened and she flatly stared at Starlight. “It does not.” She took a deep breath to calm herself again. “Okay. But enough of that for now, we clearly have bigger things to worry about. It wasn’t just the whole “Empress Starlight” thing, Mr. Cake didn’t recognize me or Spike and he looked like he was under hypnosis or something. He was too stiff and robotic, too different from his normal self for this to be simple memory-tampering.”

“Should we see if the rest of the town is like that?” Spike asked, nervously looking at the buildings of Ponyville in the distance.

But Twilight shook her head. “Not right now. After that little conversation I think it’s pertinent that we immediately check out the Tree of Harmony.”

With practiced ease Twilight teleported all three of them to the entrance to the cave of the Tree of Harmony.

Spike flew up at seeing the familiar cave and started his way inside with Twilight and Starlight walking after him. Hopefully everything was okay inside but the two ponies really weren’t holding out hope for that. The dragon meanwhile was idly talking as he fluttered deeper into the cave.

“You know is it even going to be here? I mean depending on the time-” He stopped in midair. “Oh. Oh no...”

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight trotted up to him and looked towards where the Tree should be.

She gasped and froze in shock.

With a grimace on her face, Starlight stepped out from behind both of them to also see what was wrong with the Tree of Harmony.

“Oh.” Starlight gulped. “Well, um. That’s bad.”

The petrified body of Discord was wrapped around the Tree of Harmony, a sad and exhausted expression frozen on his face. The Tree itself had the same lifeless look to it that the map did and there was no reaction to Twilight’s presence at all. Twilight quietly flew over to the tree and Discord, inspecting and prodding them both with her magic but getting no response from either of them. The physical Elements were still inside the tree but even her own Element of Magic was gray and lifeless and refused to budge.

Twilight floated back down to the ground, Starlight and Spike coming up behind her, and shook her head. “This is horrible.”

Starlight stepped forward and ran a hoof along the Tree’s cool trunk, looking up at her friend in his sad state.

“But… I don’t understand.” Spike said. “How? Why?”

Twilight frowned at the Tree, holding a hoof up to her mouth and biting it as she steadily paced around. The worry was evident on her face, for the Tree, for Discord, and for everypony else. With a last glance at the Tree and Discord she stopped and sat down.

“I think, and this is just a theory, but I think that Discord and the Tree are neutralizing each other.” She stood back up and stared at the petrified face of Discord while Starlight and Spike listened to her. “The powers of chaos and harmony are canceling each other out. Whoever did this… this world’s Starlight Glimmer most likely, probably did it to make sure neither Discord or the Tree of Harmony could act against her. I’m not sure how she would’ve gotten Discord to do this though.”

“My guess is it begins with Flutter and ends with Shy.” Starlight spoke up and then sighed. “So it looks like there really is some evil me here, huh?”

Twilight pinched her nose in frustration. “Ugh, so instead of going back home we somehow get transported into an alternate… past? Future? Present? Or entire world maybe, who knows! Where Discord and the Tree of Harmony are both out of commission and an evil Starlight apparently rules over Equestria. That’s just wonderful.”

Starlight coughed into her hoof. “Ehem. Yes, that’s bad, but in my defense I think an evil me ruling Equestria is at least preferable to any of your other past opponents being in charge. Right?”

Twilight and Spike both glared at her.

She coughed again. “I’ll just keep those thoughts to myself from now on.”

Spike rolled his eyes and looked to Twilight. “So what now?”

“Now we find our friends.” And again Twilight teleported them away.

And although they couldn’t see it, but right after they left the expression on Discord’s petrified face changed to the slightest of smiles.

Sweet Apple Acres was much the same as always. Much to Twilight’s relief it hadn’t been refitted into some sort of soulless assembly line shipping off cans of applesauce across Equestria. The trees and barn they all knew and loved were still there, the only big noticeable difference so far was that the fence around the farm had been removed for whatever reason. Like Ponyville itself things seemed normal at a glance but they were worried that the same fate might have befallen the Apple’s as Mr. Cake. Twilight was at once hopeful, doubtful and worried for what state Applejack might be in right now.

“I have ways to fix a pony’s memories, especially those of my friends, but without knowing what exact spell has been used or how their memories have been altered it can be difficult to proceed. The power behind the spell and the one casting it could also prove problematic.” Twilight explained to Starlight and Spike. “It’s possible I could go through Ponyville and fix everypony one by one but it would take a while at least and somepony else might notice that something’s going on.”

“I may be able to help you speed up the process if it comes down to that.” Starlight put forth.

“Thanks Starlight, but hopefully all I’ll need to do is return Applejack and the others to normal.” Twilight said as they walked down the dirt path towards the farmhouse that the Apple family called home.

“Don’t see any of em out in the orchards.” Spike said as he surveyed the rows upon rows of trees. “Must all be inside.”

“Are they gonna be confused as to why we’re coming to talk to them? Mr. Cake said everypony keeps to specific routines.” Starlight asked.

“Maybe.” Twilight nodded. “But we can just use Spike’s explanation again.” She got a thoughtful expression on her face. “And the fact that you’re apparently the Empress of Equestria might also come in handy around here.”

Starlight winced. It was not a pleasant reminder.

The party of three walked up the porch to the Apple family home, the old boards of wood creaking with each hoof landing on them. Twilight had to take a deep breath before she had the nerve to knock on the door.

“Hello? Anypony home?” She called out as her hoof rapped on the door a few times.

It was silent for a moment but soon Twilight heard soft hoofsteps from inside the house coming to the door.

And surely enough the front door was opened by Apple Bloom. But unfortunately she stared up at them with the same blank, unrecognizing, eyes as Mr. Cake. “Yes?”

“Apple Bloom.” Twilight sighed in delight and smiled at the young filly despite the obvious lack of recognition. “It’s good to see you. Tell me, is your sister home?”

Apple Bloom didn’t react to the purple Alicorn somehow knowing her name but her head tilted in response to the strange question. “Sister? I don’t have a sister. Just my brother and my grandma.”

Twilight’s expression cracked as Starlight and Spike both shot worried glances at each other.

“I’m sorry.” Apple Bloom continued. “But you must have the wrong place, we haven’t been alerted to any scheduled visits or pickups for today.” And she closed the door before any of them could say anything else.

The three stood silently on that porch for a moment longer. Twilight stared at the door while Starlight and Spike shuffled about awkwardly behind her. What could they really say in this situation? A cool breeze waved across them as they reflected on their feelings, Starlight really didn’t want to bother Twilight in what was obviously a very trying moment for her but they needed to get moving again. But it must have hurt her so much to hear that one of her closest friends was just… gone. And from her own little sister too who loved and looked up to her so much. Hopefully Applejack and everypony else was okay somewhere and just removed from the collective memory of Equestria. Hopefully.

While Starlight and Spike silently conversed with each other on what they should do about Twilight the Alicorn answered the debate for them.

“I should’ve expected that if I was erased from memory then Applejack and the others most likely would be as well.” She said and then looked over her shoulder at Starlight and Spike, taking a pause before continuing. “I’m not going to cry or anything. We don’t have time for that and I believe in them.”

Twilight turned from the door and walked off the porch, Starlight and Spike following her.

“It will probably be the same for all of them but I want to at least make sure. Let’s head over to Carousel Boutique first.” Twilight said.

“I think we should teleport there, if Mr. Cake sees us again it could cause some problems. Better to not chance it.” Starlight suggested.

“Good idea.” Twilight nodded and brought them to their destination instantly.

The home and workplace of Rarity was clearly abandoned and unoccupied but it wasn’t boarded up like it had been when Twilight and Spike came here in their previous time-traveling adventure. It looked like whoever had been living there had just left it one day and nopony else in Ponyville cared to do anything about it. The door wasn’t even locked.

“Sorry for entering. Is there anypony in here?” Twilight called out as she opened the door and gingerly stepped inside.

“Rarity? Sweetie Belle?” Spike walked right on by her and cupped his claws around his mouth, projecting his voice through the building.

Nothing.

“Why isn’t Sweetie Belle at least here?” Spike asked.

“She’s probably living with her parents. I’m sure she’s fine, there’s no reason why she wouldn’t be.” Twilight laid a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

The three left Carousel Boutique shortly after and searched the other homes of their friends, this time taking to the sky so they could overlook the whole town but not be accosted by anypony.

Unfortunately they had no more luck with the others. Fluttershy’s cottage was the same as Carousel Boutique, abandoned. And a quick dip into Sugarcube Corner proved that Pinkie Pie certainly did not live there. Rainbow Dash was harder to find out about and they had no idea where to start with her so Twilight just had to assume the worst and that she was gone too. The ponies of Ponyville mechanically moved about their day as if all of this was normal while three friends agonized above them in the clouds.

“There isn’t really anything we can do here, is there?” Starlight asked.

“No. Not right now. Not without more information.” Twilight sighed. She was struck by this the most but she was still a Princess and was doing her best to remain calm and keep her head in the game. She never gave up before even when things got dark and she wouldn’t give up now.

“So where do we go now?” Spike shrugged, at a loss.

Twilight looked up into the sky, it was quickly approaching evening.

“Regardless of what’s going on with everypony else the day and night cycle still seems to be in order so Princess Celestia must still be here. And probably Princess Luna as well. I don’t know what condition they might be in but Canterlot is our best bet for now. We’re going to head back there tomorrow morning.”

There was no argument from Starlight and Spike, the three of them flew down to Twilight’s castle to turn in for the night. They needed the rest after this day and nopony would bother them in there.

Starlight's World II

If you just looked out right ahead of yourself everything in Equestria would seem perfectly fine. But the lights from the Crystal Empire hung overhead in the sky like a reminder of how wrong things really were in this world right now. The grass below was healthy and waved gently in the breeze like it would on any other day. The lights in the sky above gave off an unnatural feeling of uneasiness that brought forth enough nausea and discomfort that you couldn’t tear your eyes away fast enough. This strange duality plagued Equestria.

That’s what Starlight thought as she headed to Canterlot for the second time in recent memory.

Instead of using the train the three of them were flying towards their destination, the city of Canterlot and the large landmark castle dead ahead. For more than once in her life Starlight was grateful that she had learned such a powerful spell.

It really was such a nice day out, it looked just like things had when she and Spike went to Canterlot earlier in this fiasco. You just wouldn’t expect anything to be wrong.

“So what are the chances that “Empress Starlight” lives at Canterlot castle?” Spike asked as they flew along.

“It’s definitely a high possibility.” Twilight said. “We should be careful.”

“You know normally I would’ve said that evil me wouldn’t want to live inside such an opulent castle and would prefer to live somewhere that’s just like the home of everypony else. But if the me from here is calling herself “Empress” I assume something’s at least a little bit different with her.” Starlight chimed in.

“That’s a good point. We shouldn’t assume we know everything about her or this world.” Twilight said. “There are clearly going to be differences.”

“I’m just thinking about why if I’m still evil here then how come everypony still has their Cutie Marks? And really how could I become so egotistical that I would take such a crazy title? I tried to be humble and act like I wasn’t better than anypony else, that was a huge part of my philosophy!” Starlight angrily wondered.

“Well you were kind of always a little hypocritical about that.” Twilight said.

Starlight frowned and glared at her. She really didn’t need to be reminded of her flaws back before her reformation.

“Eheh, just saying.” Twilight awkwardly smiled back at her student.

“Thanks.” Starlight sarcastically rolled her eyes.

“Uh, maybe we should focus a bit more? We’re getting closer to Canterlot.” Spike told the two.

“Sorry, sorry!” Twilight apologetically smiled at Spike. “You’re right, we should be on the lookout for any guards that might be watching over the castle. There are a lot of pegasus guards that could be flying around it depending on how much Starlight thinks she needs it.”

“Just a query but can we refer to her as Empress or Evil Starlight? Cause if you just say my name every time it’s gonna make me confused. And annoyed.” Starlight suggested.

The previous night Starlight had so much to think about that it was almost impossible for her to sleep. Being in this world was like a reminder of how she was and what the horrible possibilities were if she actually succeeded in her goals and never renounced her beliefs and became friends with Twilight. Although things were clearly a little different than how she envisioned things. What had happened here?

Twilight and Spike had similar nights, kept up wondering about what was going on. Twilight’s mind in particular was going a million miles a minute as she went over every possible way they could’ve ended up here and what all the differences meant. Her studious and curious mind was almost a bane to her at this point as it just wouldn’t let her calm down. There were so many pieces of this new puzzle to examine it was almost enough to drive her crazy.

In the morning at the first sign of light they had left the castle and began their flight to Canterlot.

Now the large castle on the mountainside nearly dominated their entire view.

Twilight held up a hoof to signal for Starlight and Spike to stop, the three pausing in midair as they looked down at the big castle. Twilight scanned over it to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary before turning her attention to her two friends.

“Okay, so the plan is we’ll sneak in through the courtyard and make our way to the throne room. If ponies all have their own fixed schedule I think it’s a surefire bet that Princess Celestia will still be there. The only problem is that Empress Starlight might be there too.”

“Any guards in the castle are definitely going to know we shouldn’t be in there either.” Spike said.

Twilight nodded. “We’ll have to be extra careful. We’re going to have to scout out the rooms and parts of the castle instead of just teleporting in without any heads up. And even when we get to the Princess she may… not react well. But if she’s alone I may try and undo this brainwashing on her.”

“Good idea, if there was any one pony to get to help us it would be her.” Spike smiled at Twilight.

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves though, first we need to get inside.” Twilight said as she returned her focus to the castle.

“Er, got a suggestion on that.” Starlight raised her hoof like a student in class. “Since I’m—the other me—is the Empress, can’t we just walk in through the front door? I can say you’re my guests. That will probably work for the guards too won’t it?”

Twilight and Spike looked at her.

“Huh.” Twilight said. “You know that’s actually probably the best idea.”

“So long as the real Empress Starlight isn’t there.” Spike countered.

“No, actually that might be good for us if she was.” Twilight argued. “Starlight and I could most certainly deal with her on her own, it might be for the best if she was down in that castle as long as she doesn’t have many guards or other ponies with her.”

“Alright.” Spike shrugged. “I guess you two would know best.”

Twilight affectionately rubbed his head. “I know you’re just looking out for us.”

“Should we head down?” Starlight asked.

“Yeah.” Twilight nodded. “Let’s go.”

For a while it had been home but now the castle was nothing more than uninviting to the three of them. Like Ponyville and everything else it was strange how normal it looked at a glance. Pretty as ever, guards posted outside the doors, the Princesses likely inside. But the simple fact that there were no ponies going in and out of the castle like normal was the only sign the three friends needed to know how off things were. Things were quiet at Canterlot castle and decidedly not busy.

“So you think we should just walk in?” Twilight said as the three stood in the middle of the walkway leading to the castle’s front doors.

“I think so. Doesn’t look like the guards are even paying attention to us.” Starlight said, squinting her eyes at the guards flanking the doors.

“They look like they’re staring off into space, they’ve got the same vacant expression as Mr. Cake and Apple Bloom.” Spike distressingly noted.

“Well that might be good for us, they probably wouldn’t do anything unless we try going inside and Starlight here can help us with that.” Twilight said.

“Then it’s time to see how useful being Empress is.” Starlight grinned at Twilight and Spike and started walking towards the doors, the two of them following right on her heels.

As they walked up the steps to the door the eyes of the two guards actually started to follow the three of them but the guards still made no indication that they would actually move from their spots.

“Hello there!” Starlight called out to the two guards with a big smile on her face. “Just your Empress here with two of her friends, we’re going inside the castle together so there’s nothing to worry about!”

She knew without turning around that Twilight and Spike were shaking their heads at her.

But Starlight’s actions weren’t for nothing. Without a change in expression the guards both monotonously responded to her. “Yes, Empress Starlight.” And went back to looking straight down the walkway as if the three infiltrators didn’t even exist anymore.

“Hah, knew it!” She smugly looked over her shoulder at Twilight and Spike.

“Could you possibly take this a little more seriously?” Twilight said to her.

“Barking up the wrong tree there, Twilight.” Spike sighed.

“Yeah, yeah.” Starlight grumbled as she pulled open the doors to the castle.

Similar to how quiet and unbusy the outside of the castle was the inside was bare of almost anypony besides the guards themselves. The usual hustle and bustle of ponies wanting to meet and petition Celestia for something was gone and in its place were only guards and servants. Starlight couldn’t imagine they had much to clean anymore though. Twilight and Spike were immediately put off by the sheer difference between this and how Canterlot castle normally was. Probably because they had so much more experience with the castle than Starlight did, and it was their actual home at one point, unlike Starlight who had just ended up here temporarily a time or two before this time-traveling.

The guards acted like wind-up dolls walking down set paths, if they weren’t right next to the three intruders they wouldn’t say anything or react at all. And even the ones that the three did get close enough to left them alone after a quick word from Starlight.

“Being friends with me really has its perks, huh?” Starlight joked to Twilight and Spike.

They were not particularly amused.

“Oh come on you two, lighten up a bit! Things are gonna be okay.” Starlight rolled her eyes at her friends.

“I’ll lighten up when the situation calls for it.” Twilight said.

Any small talk evaporated between them after that and the three quietly made their way to Celestia’s throne room. Strangely this part of the castle was even more barren than the rest and there weren’t even any guards in front of the colossal doors. The party of three silently stood outside of it for a bit, debating on whether to just head inside or if they should try to maybe spy from the outside to see who was actually inside. It was possible that Empress Starlight was inside this room right now.

“You know if there aren’t guards out here there probably aren’t any inside either.” Starlight said. “I think we’re either looking at just Princess Celestia or evil me in there.”

“Probably...” Twilight swallowed. “I guess there’s no sense in worrying about it.”

Twilight’s horn lit up and she pulled open the doors with her magic.

The carpet was the same. The stained glass windows were the same. The thrones was the same. The light from outside brightly lit up the whole chamber, allowing the three to easily see everything inside. No guards and no noise, the only sign of movement was the fluttering of a multi-colored mane at the back end of the room. Because Princess Celestia was also the same.

She didn’t move from her throne or seemingly take notice of the three at all and Twilight had to restrain herself from flying forward and tackling her in a big hug.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, still galloping right towards her as Starlight and Spike tried to keep up.

Twilight skidded to a halt before the throne, looking up with big hopeful eyes at her beloved teacher.

Glassy, doll-like eyes shifted down to meet hers. A small smile was frozen on Princess Celestia’s face but it offered none of the warmth that it usually did. And this close up Twilight and the others noted that there was actually another difference with her, she wore no crown or her other ornaments. “Were you speaking to me?”

“Princess Celestia...” Twilight’s eyes nearly watered seeing her mentor in this state. The fact that she didn’t even recognize her was almost too much.

“Princess?” Celestia’s head tilted in confusion. “Celestia is my name but I’m no princess. That wouldn’t be fair to every other pony now would it? All I do is raise the sun, that doesn’t make me better than anypony else.” She recited as if from a script.

Starlight and Spike both cringed while Twilight listened in shock.

The eyes of “Princess” Celestia finally seemed to recognize Starlight. “Oh, hello Empress. I was unaware you would be coming to visit today.” Celestia’s contradictory use of “Empress” seeming to fly over her head.

“Uh, yeah. Hi.” Starlight awkwardly waved a hoof at her.

“Well I guess that at least solves the question of if Evil Starlight is here or not.” Spike cynically noted as he frowned up at Celestia.

“I can’t believe that even the Princess is like this. Is Luna the same?” Twilight said.

“My dear sister Luna is sleeping right now. If you would like to speak with her you’d have to come back at night.” Celestia answered.

“She’s just like Mr. Cake and Apple Bloom.” Spike said in dismay.

Twilight sat back on her haunches, studying the near emotionless automaton that was Princess Celestia. “I still want to try helping her. It would be good if we could break this brainwashing and return her memories to normal but I’m still not sure just what kind of spell I need to break.”

“I might have an idea on that.” Starlight said, getting Twilight and Spike’s attention. “I was pretty sure after seeing the others but now with Celestia I’m certain. You remember when I kind of sort of brainwashed all of our friends?”

Twilight glared at her. “Yes. And how my castle got flooded.”

“Better than being burnt down...” Spike mumbled.

“What was that?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at him.

“Nothing, nothing!” Starlight stepped on his toes, earning herself a mean look. “Anyways the point is if it’s me then why wouldn’t I use the exact same spells that I did for that?”

A light-bulb must have gone off above Twilight’s head because she quickly stood back up. “Of course! Great thinking, Starlight!” She giddily turned back to the Princess (who was still obliviously staring away into nothing) and fired up her horn. “Okay, Princess Celestia! I really hope this works.”

“Why do you keep calling me-”

The Princess couldn’t finish as a concentrated beam of magic hit her in the head right at the base of her very long horn. She wobbled on her throne and her eyes went all googly-woogly, Twilight concentrated hard on not just shattering the mind-control but also trying to reclaim Celestia’s lost memories and ram them back into her head. Sweat dripped from Twilight’s brow as the beam of magic did its work, the job was complicated but she could feel foreign magic being peeled away from Celestia’s mind.

“I think I’ve got it...” Twilight grunted out.

And with a final tug Twilight’s beam of magic broke off, the young Alicorn falling backwards while Celestia collapsed in her throne.

“Twilight!” Spike and Starlight both yelled, grabbing her before her head could hit the floor.

“Ohhh, thanks… what about the Princess?” Twilight asked while she rubbed her head.

The three of them looked at Celestia to see her crumpled over her throne and rubbing her head. Her eyes were halfway open and unfocused but they had more of a light to them than previously.

Immediately Twilight leapt back into action. “Princess Celestia! Are you alright?!”

“Who… what?” The Princess weakly responded. Her eyes shifted to Twilight and for a moment, just the smallest of moments, it looked like recognition dawned on her face.

But then it disappeared, her eyes returned to that dull blank state and she obliviously stared ahead at the three in her throne room once again.

“I’m sorry, but who might you be? I wasn’t told to expect any visitors.” She sat upright in her chair and her emotionless eyes found Starlight once again. “Ah, Empress Starlight, a pleasure for you to drop by.”

“No...” Twilight weakly let out, collapsing to her knees and holding her head in her hooves. “How can this be?!”

Starlight was also quite surprised and confused. “I can’t believe that whatever spell Evil Me is using can resist you, Twilight. You’re an Alicorn! How am I doing this?” Starlight frowned in thought as she looked between the depressed Twilight and the unaware Princess.

Twilight’s head snapped up, her pupils contracting down to pinpricks as another realization hit her. “You’re right.”

Starlight and Spike both raised an eyebrow at her. “Something wrong, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“No! The opposite of wrong! I get it now!” She jumped up again and ran towards one of the windows of the throne room. “It’s something I should’ve realized a long time ago.” She stared out at the lights in the sky. “You’re right Starlight, there’s no way that any simple spell you, evil you or otherwise, could cast should be able to overcome my attempts to remove it. Which means that that spell isn’t only powered by you.”

Realization dawned on Starlight and Spike and they ran to join Twilight at the window, looking at the strange lights generated from the Crystal Empire.

“That strange feeling we get looking at these lights is the ambient magic of the spell that’s brainwashing all of Equestria. Empress Starlight used the Crystal Heart and the power of the crystal ponies to cast her magic over everypony at once. I don’t know how she managed to do that in the first place but it’s the only thing I can think of. And now those lights stay in the sky to constantly reinforce the spell.”

Spike gulped. “And that means another thing, doesn’t it?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, something else we should’ve realized earlier. Empress Starlight is in the Crystal Empire.”

“But why doesn’t the brainwashing affect us?” Starlight asked.

“I can’t say for certain.” Twilight shook her head. “Perhaps it has to do with us not being around for the actual activation of the spell and that’s why it only makes us uncomfortable to look at the lights? It might even have to do with us not being from this world, or the Cutie Map protecting us somehow. I wouldn’t be able to know without more tests.”

“Well I’m sorry to say but you’re gonna have to hold off on sating your curiosity.” Starlight bit her lip. “We better head to the Crystal Empire right away.”

Starlight's World III

Twilight was loathe to leave Princess Celestia behind the way she was but there was nothing more they could do for her at the moment. Their only option now was going to the Crystal Empire and stopping things at the source. Twilight bid farewell to the Princess and promised to save her and every other pony from this fate, the Princess was sadly unable to react to or thank Twilight for this declaration but Twilight knew how much she would appreciate it if she could.

Starlight, Spike, and Twilight now found themselves on the train north to the Crystal Empire, making no delay in going there. They weren’t sure what entirely they were getting into and what Empress Starlight was capable of but truly that didn’t matter. Because they had to stop her.

“So do we have an actual plan?” Spike asked as the three sat in their seats, Twilight and Starlight both absentmindedly staring out the window.

Twilight peeled her eyes away from the window. “We’re going to do the same thing Empress Starlight is, I’ll use the Crystal Heart to broadcast my anti-brainwashing spell across all of Equestria. The only problem with that is that without the crystal ponies powering up the heart there won’t be enough magical energy for it to work.”

“So somehow we need to have the brainwashed crystal ponies power up the Heart in order to unbrainwash them? How are we going to do that?” Spike scratched his head.

“I have no idea!” Twilight yelled in frustration, cradling her head between her hooves.

“We could always just destroy the Crystal Heart.” Starlight suggested.

“No! Absolutely not!” Twilight frowned at her. “That could have catastrophic repercussions, the least of which being that the frozen north would start to reclaim the Empire.”

“It would also undo the magic of Evil me’s spell and have everypony in Equestria slowly return to normal.” Starlight argued.

Twilight furrowed her brow, thinking for a second. “You… may be correct but I still don’t want to take the risk of destroying the Crystal Heart. That’s an absolute last resort.”

“Fine.” Starlight decided to accept that compromise and returned to staring out the window.

Spike was decidedly worried that Starlight would just destroy the Crystal Heart anyways but he didn’t voice that thought. And Starlight probably wouldn’t betray Twilight’s trust like that. Probably.

The scenery outside the window started to get more and more wintry as the train made its way further north, just now hitting the outside borders of the frozen north and crystal mountains. Snowflakes started dropping outside the train and frost began to gather on the windows. It wouldn’t take them much longer before they reached their destination and it wasn’t even noon yet, they were making good progress today to finish this little misadventure up as soon as possible.

“There’s the edge of the mountains.” Spike said as he peeked around Twilight’s body to get a view of the outside as well.

“Yep.” Twilight nodded. “An hour more maybe and we’ll get to the Crystal Empire train station.”

“Somehow I doubt we’ll have to fight any crowds when we arrive either.” Starlight muttered.

As the train chugged along through the snowy mountains to its destination the cold from outside began to slightly penetrate into the train, lowering the temperature inside and providing a slight coolness for the three passengers. Starlight closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat to relax. There was nothing more to see outside the windows at this point anyways. Twilight during this silence still couldn’t help but think and worry about things, things she wasn’t entirely sure she even wanted to mention at the moment.

However Spike could easily tell what she was worried about and had no problem with bringing up a potentially uncomfortable subject.

“Are you worried about Shining Armor and Cadance?” He asked her.

Starlight’s eyes opened back up as she heard that and she turned to look at Twilight. She hadn’t even thought about Twilight’s brother and sister-in-law.

Twilight grimaced, instead of meeting either Starlight’s or Spike’s eyes she turned to stare out the window some more.

“I guess.” She said, finally. “I’m just wondering if they’re going to be gone like our friends or brainwashed like Princess Celestia.” The alicorn sighed. “I’m honestly not sure which one would make me feel worse.”

“It’s not just seeing them that might be a problem either.” Starlight started. “But if Evil me is controlling them she could have them fight us if it comes down to that. She’s already going to have a whole empire of ponies to throw at us and Shining Armor and Princess Cadance would be hard enough to deal with on their own.”

With that reminder from Starlight, Twilight blanched. “I wasn’t even thinking about that possibility. Even if they’re being manipulated I don’t know if I can fight my BBBFF and my old foal-sitter!”

“Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.” Spike pleadingly held up both of his hands to try to calm Twilight down. “I’m sure it’ll be fine and if push comes to shove Starlight and I can handle that part.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, Twilight.” Starlight reassured her, smiling at her teacher.

Twilight wasn’t entirely placated but she nodded at her friends. “Okay. I also really hope that it doesn’t come down to a fight at all though. I’d really like to just be able to talk to this Starlight and convince her that way.”

“Uh, yeahhh...” Starlight rubbed the back of her head. “I wouldn’t put much faith in that working. I know me, even a different me like this, and if I “won” already and can look outside my window every morning when I wake up and be validated then just talking to me probably isn’t going to cut it. Evil me is definitely going to not only think she’s right but that what she’s done has obviously worked. Especially since for all intents and purposes it looks like it really has.

At seeing Spike and Twilight’s unamused frowns Starlight quickly backpedaled.

“I mean it’s still bad, really bad, but she’s not going to think or believe that at all.” Starlight shrugged. “And even for me you had to really show me the terrible consequences of my actions to get me to change. This Starlight can clearly see the consequences of her actions and obviously thinks they’re a good thing. So I don’t really think the usual talk about friendship and all that jazz is going to cut it here.” She finished.

Twilight had to admit that Starlight had a few points there. It usually did take a little more than just a talk to solve things when it came to stuff like this.

“Be that as it may.” Twilight said. “I’m still going to at least attempt to reason with her if we have to confront her at all. Which hopefully we don’t.”

“Yeah I’m sure it’s gonna be that easy.” Starlight rolled her eyes.

“Haha, very funny.” Twilight scowled at her.

“Eh, she’s got a bit of a point, Twilight. When have things ever been that easy?” Spike put in a word in Starlight’s defense.

“Ughhh.” Twilight groaned in annoyance before throwing up her hooves. “Fine! You’re right! It probably won’t be easy at all! It’ll probably be annoying and troublesome because that’s just how unlucky I am!”

Spike supportively patted her on the back while Starlight held back a giggle. Despite the situation she couldn’t help but find a little humor in Twilight’s typical attitude. It was a welcome moment of levity and even Twilight probably realized that herself.

With another sigh of exasperation Twilight sunk back into her seat. “Okay, enough of that for now. Let’s at least try to rest a little bit before we arrive at the Empire. We’ve already had a long day and it won’t be much longer now that we have to get there.”

Like Twilight had said a few minutes before it only took about another hour before the train finally pulled into Crystal Empire Station. The doll-eyed conductor came into their cabin to announce the arrival and the three passengers stepped off onto the empty platform. There was but a single pony occupying the ticket booth and nopony else that any of them could see working at the moment. It was such an eerie and unusual quiet for the station but unfortunately that was now becoming the norm to the three of them for this world. The ponies and dragon walked down through the entrance to the station so they could take their first steps into the Empire proper and hopefully soon solve this mess.

“It’s actually kind of weird how nice it looks here you know?” Spike said as he walked and looked around the streets and the rest of the Crystal Empire beyond.

“Well even when King Sombra controlled it the Empire was still protected from the weather thanks to the Crystal Heart. So it’s not really surprising that it still looks normal now.” Twilight explained.

“Lots of crystal ponies out too.” Starlight mentioned, pointing at plenty that were walking down the streets doing their day to day business.

“They have their normal luster, interesting.” Twilight noted, rubbing her chin. “So that hasn’t been affected?”

“Study later, Twilight.” Spike reminded her.

“Right, right, sorry.”

Vacant non-looks from the crystal ponies greeted them as they walked further down the streets. The massive Crystal Castle dominated the view in front of them even from this distance, with it as a landmark getting lost in the Empire would be just about impossible. And the lights being emitted from its spire made it even more of an eye-catcher. The city under it must have been awash in a strange rainbow illumination even in the middle of the night thanks to the constant spread of the lights.

“How does anypony sleep around here with that going on?” Spike muttered.

They quickly made their way deeper into the heart of the city, familiar buildings and houses springing up all around them. Even here none of the ponies seemed to really notice the fact that “Empress” Starlight was walking around unless she was right next to them. It just went to show how much this brainwashing magic had set them all to auto-pilot.

“I wonder if Sunburst still lives here?” Starlight wondered out loud. “Bleh. Bad either way honestly.”

“Speaking of that though should we like, look around first or anything?” Spike asked.

“Everything we’re looking for should be in the castle. I’m not sure we need to go looking anywhere else.” Twilight said.

"Guess I was thinking just in case or anything.” Spike shrugged.

“Well it’s true that I’m not sure what we may find in the Crystal Empire but I think we should stick to our primary destination.” Twilight said.

And then a powerful rumbling noise came from Twilight’s stomach. The alicorn paused in midstep as the growling of her empty stomach continued, her face turning redder and redder every second. Spike and Starlight stared at her in surprise before grins broke out across their faces and they struggled to hold in their laughter… until equally powerful roars of hunger came from their own stomachs, causing the two to look away in embarrassment.

“Uh… none of us has had anything to eat since yesterday, have we?” Spike asked.

“I’m not sure how much I approve of this.” Twilight said as she slowly munched on some hay fries, an untouched hayburger sitting on the plate in front of her.

“Can’t save the world on an empty stomach, Twilight.” Starlight said to her while eating her salad.

“Agree with Starlight here.” Spike belched through a mouthful of food.

The three of them sat in a small cafe a short walk away from the castle and plaza, Twilight had only half-eaten her meal so far, too distracted by their current mission. She kept glancing out the window at the castle and watching the crystal ponies walk down the street. Now that they were just sitting around again her mind kept threatening to drift back to the issue of her brother and Cadance.

“Come on Twilight, it’s obvious you’re letting yourself stress out. Eat up already.” Starlight said to her as if she could read her mind.

“Yeah, normally you’d have already stuffed your face with that hayburger.” Spike pointed out.

Twilight blushed and angrily turned to the two of them. “I do not stuff my face!”

Spike and Starlight both shared a glance before flatly looking at Twilight.

“Twilight-” Spike started. “You inhale your hayburgers. Everypony who’s seen you eat knows that.”

“Honestly the fact that you don’t have ketchup all over your cheeks right now is all the sign we need that you’ve got something else on your mind.” Starlight shrugged.

“Grr...” Steam practically started to come out of Twilight’s ears as she grumbled at the two of them before grabbing her hayburger with her magic and taking a huge bite out of it. “Happy now?!”

“Yep, that’s the Twilight we know.” Spike winked at her and high-fived Starlight.

“Argh!” Twilight collapsed forward onto the table. “So now the both of you are working together?”

Spike sighed. “Twilight we’re just trying to help you out a little. Nothing good is gonna come from you not eating enough and stressing like this. And as for working together you can believe I’m definitely not on Starlight’s side when it comes to goofing off. I’m taking this just as seriously as you.” He said while hooking a thumb at the lilac unicorn.

Starlight frowned at him. “I’m taking this seriously too. Mostly.”

“No you’re not.” Spike scoffed at her. “You haven’t been taking anything seriously.”

“This is different from the rest!” Starlight defended herself.

Twilight’s eyes darted back and forth between the two as they argued. “Am I missing something here?” She asked with a raised eyebrow directed at them.

“No!” They both hastily answered.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed but she decided now wasn’t the time. “Alright...”

“Let’s just finish our meals and get back on our way to the castle.” Starlight coughed and attempted to nonchalantly eat her salad again.

“The two of you are lucky there are bigger things for me to worry about right now… and that I’m hungry.” Twilight said as she took another bite out of her hayburger.

Shortly after that the three finished up their meals and left the cafe (Twilight had taken a little while longer than usual to finish since she didn’t want to seem like she was ever a pig when it came to hayburgers). Now there was only a short walk to the central plaza and the castle, as the three walked down the street towards it they kept a vigilant eye out for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

“Nopony has reacted to us yet or anything.” Twilight whispered to Starlight and Spike. “Do you think that Empress Starlight might have some sort of surveillance system in place or a way to check if everypony is actually brainwashed and doing what they’re supposed to? I was thinking it seems like the kind of thing an evil you might come up with but if we haven’t been confronted yet I guess not.”

“Well thank you for that ringing endorsement.” Starlight sarcastically replied. “But if I’m being honest for a second I think I’d be too overconfident and self-assured right now to bother with something like that, it was kind of a flaw of mine in the past and I think any version of me calling themselves “Empress” is gonna have it even worse.”

“A massively smug Starlight? It scares me just thinking about it.” Spike ribbed her.

“Haha. Let’s just check out the castle already.” Starlight said, scowling.

“Starlight’s right, but before we just walk up to the castle let’s hold on for a moment.” Twilight said and motioned the two to walk up onto the sidewalk of the street and slowly make their way down it until they came to the last building on the lane.

Now the only thing before them was the towering castle itself, separated by only a small bit of open plaza. Starlight craned her neck to look up at it, seeing the uncomfortable lights dancing from the top of the spire. She, Twilight and Spike stood at the edge of the sidewalk, their goal finally in front of them.

“So why’d you want us to stop?” Spike asked Twilight.

“Look.” Twilight pointed between the legs of the castle to the central open space right below its great belly.

Spike and Starlight both did, seeing nothing of interest.

“Yeah? And?” Spike asked again.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “No Crystal Heart, Spike. It’s not down there.”

“Oh.” Spike realized. “Oh, that would’ve made things a lot easier.”

Twilight groaned in annoyance. “Yes, it would have. And if it’s not down there there’s only one other place I can think it would be.” She said as she looked up to the top of the castle.

“Probably right about that.” Starlight agreed.

“That’s why I wanted to stop for a second. I wanted to see if the Heart was going to be down here or not. Since it isn’t I have a plan for us.” Twilight explained to them.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” Spike asked.

The alicorn smiled at her number one assistant. “Spike, I want you to fly up to the top of the tower and see if the Crystal Heart is there. Meanwhile Starlight and I are going to, well, walk in through the front door.”

“My kind of plan.” Starlight grinned.

“If the Heart’s up there then that’s good,” Twilight continued. “But be extra careful to make sure you aren’t seen flying up the castle, we don’t know what kind of security measures Empress Starlight might have, overconfident or not. Starlight and I will come find you when we’re done searching the castle on our own, so just stay up there regardless.”

“You got it.” Spike flapped his wings a few times and flew up over their heads. “Good luck.” He called back to the two of them before flying off.

“Good luck, Spike.” Twilight waved him off. She then turned her attention to Starlight. “And now it’s time for the “Empress” to get us into her castle.”

Starlight giggled. “Leave it to me.”

The two walked straight towards the doors that opened up at the bottom of one the castle’s supporting “legs”. Getting closer they noticed that there were in fact guards stationed around it, five armored crystal ponies standing at attention and staring forward unblinkingly.

“I guess even Evil me wants guards.” Starlight said.

“Maybe she just wants to keep things normal. Every castle has guards.” Twilight reasoned.

As the two made their way directly to the guards they noticed that the central guard was actually paying attention to them. Surprisingly she wasn’t a crystal pony but a regular white unicorn mare with a blonde mane and tail that had a single orange streak running through it, however she had the same vacant brainwashed eyes as the other guards. Seeing that she wasn’t going to just move aside even for the “Empress”. Starlight and Twilight stopped in front of her.

“Hello there!” Starlight cheerily waved to the guards. “It’s me, Empress Starlight, and this is my friend.” She gestured to Twilight. “We’d like to go inside my castle now, thank you.”

The unicorn guard shook her head. “No.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise while Starlight frowned, her brow furrowing in annoyance.

“What do you mean no? This is my castle.”

“No it’s not, you’re not Empress Starlight.” The guard replied in a simple monotone.

“Yes I am! I am one hundred percent Starlight Glimmer!” Starlight yelled at the guard, completely unaware of Twilight poking her trying to get her attention.

The guard didn’t even blink but simply raised her hoof and pointed at Starlight’s head. “Your mane is wrong. And the Empress is currently inside in the throne room.” She turned to the guards next to her. “Sound the alarm and alert the Empress, we have changeling intruders.”

Starlight's World IV

Starlight Glimmer (the good one) and Twilight Sparkle were now being led through the hallways of the Crystal Castle by the captain of Evil Starlight’s guards. They were flanked on both sides by several spear carrying guards but were otherwise unharmed. Now considering what both Starlight and Twilight were capable of they weren’t really in any danger from these guards to begin with and the only reason they hadn’t teleported away at the start was because Twilight saw this as as good of an opportunity as any to meet Empress Starlight and attempt to fix things. If she was going to know that intruders were here anyways and stealthily searching the castle was now out of the question they might as well go directly to the source of the matter.

“You really think this is okay?” Starlight whispered to Twilight. “I told you just trying to reason with me probably won’t go too well.”

“It’s fine.” Twilight reassured her. “This still gives us a good chance to see a lot of the castle, and the Crystal Heart might be in her throne room too if it’s not at the top of the castle.”

Starlight wasn’t so excited about meeting her other self but if anything she did have a lot of questions she wanted to ask her. She looked at the guards next to her and how they moved in lockstep without paying attention to her and Twilight.

“Twilight do you think we even need to whisper?” She said. “How much are these guards even able to think right now?”

The Alicorn frowned and waved a purple hoof in front of one of the guard’s faces. Who didn’t react at all.

“Good question.”

“Well if things go south in here I guess we can just teleport away.” Starlight mused. “Somehow I doubt these are going to be the most effective guards for stopping us.”

For a while longer they walked to the throne room in silence, the castle was well known to the both of them and there wasn’t really anything for them to look out for. It all seemed normal enough. Twilight’s eyes continued to dart back and forth and look through every open door and room they traveled by though, in case she spotted Shining Armor or Cadance. Starlight for the most part just stared absently ahead, occasionally looking between the guards to see if there was any change in their behaviors as they got closer to the throne room.

“You know I really am Starlight Glimmer.” She suddenly spoke up just to see what the reaction would be.

Nothing.

“It’s true, I’m Starlight Glimmer!” She said a bit more forcefully.

But the guards continued to ignore her.

“Could you stop that?” Twilight frowned at her. “They clearly don’t believe you. They know that you aren’t the “real” Starlight.”

“It’s annoying! I mean this whole time we’ve been stuck in this world every other pony has believed me and we’ve been able to do whatever we want but now these guards won’t even acknowledge me.” Starlight frustratingly replied. “Like is my mane really that big of a deal? They’re stuck on auto-pilot for everything else but apparently my mane being in a different style is just too big a change.”

“These guards probably see her everyday, that’s why.” Twilight tersely reasoned, getting irritated with the silly complaints from her student.

“I think I’m partially just upset about how Evil me probably has the same old manestyle I had when I first met you.” Starlight pulled on the curl of her mane. “That look was so old-fashioned.”

“Is that seriously what you’re annoyed about? Cause I have so many other things that actually matter that I could be complaining about right now!” Twilight said to her through a twitching eye.

“Eheh, no, no. I’m just complaining for the sake of complaining.” Starlight shook her hooves in front of her body. “Don’t mind me, Twilight.”

“Grrr!”

Twilight looked about ready to explode again so Starlight felt it was best to shut up for now.

Instead they climbed higher into the heart of the Crystal Castle, each step taking them closer and closer to their meeting with Empress Starlight. If she hadn’t been annoyed by her Starlight earlier Twilight would probably be stressing out a little bit more, but instead of being anxious about meeting the evil ruler of this Equestria and seeing if she could be reasoned with or not her mind was taken off thinking about that too hard. For better and for worse. Spike and Starlight… and many others... might say that Twilight stresses out about stuff too easily. But Twilight would say she has very appropriate reactions to most situations. And being very concerned and laser-focused about Empress Starlight would come off as appropriate to her.

“The throne room is just ahead, the Empress will you see you in there.” The lead guard’s voice rang out from in front of them.

“Oh thanks, it’s not like I don’t already know where the throne room is or anything.” Starlight sarcastically replied, although again the guard showed no sign she even heard.

Twilight meanwhile was peering ahead at the large familiar doors that she had gone through many times in the past. No longer would they open up to the smiling faces of her relatives. Not yet at least.

She took a deep breath before looking to Starlight. “Okay, we can do this. She’s just a pony, she’s you, I know we can make her see the error of her ways and set her on the right path.”

“Twilight, the first time you tried talking me down I yelled in your face.”

“Well then now we’ll just have to hope that she’s in the mood for an actual conversation. And you can even be really useful here, Starlight!” Twilight grinned at her student.

“Er, how?” Starlight raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s statement.

“You’re proof that you can become happy the right way! You’re proof that you can be convinced to see things from my perspective too, it’s great!” Twilight cheerfully said.

“I… don’t know if I share that sentiment.” Starlight grimaced. “I just have a feeling that Evil me really isn’t going to like me, she’s gonna think I’m weak, or dumb, or lacking determination. Old Starlight had kind of a glass half-empty worldview. She’ll just see me as a quitter.” Starlight then frowned. “Of course I kind of see her as a betrayal of everything we used to stand for, so if she starts to criticize us for stuff like that she really doesn’t have a leg to stand on.” She shrugged. “Eh, alright. I guess me being here can’t hurt us any worse.”

“You’re brimming with confidence about this...” Twilight rolled her eyes.

Starlight would’ve responded with an annoying quip if they hadn’t finally made it to the throne room.

The unicorn guard pulled the door open and all of them entered. Twilight and Starlight noted that, like everything else in this world, it all appeared so normal at a glance. It wasn’t shrouded in darkness, or overly luxurious, it looked like it did in their present. Even the one very notable difference looked normal in its own way. Nostalgic even. Because Empress Starlight Glimmer was sitting on the throne and just like she always had she looked like an ordinary and unassuming pony.

Wide eyes and a fake pleasant smile gazed at them from under that old ponytail and bangs manestyle that brought back so many bad memories for both Twilight and the good Starlight. Upon them walking forward so the Empress could see who exactly these “changeling” intruders were her eyes widened in surprise a bit before returning to normal, but otherwise she made no indication she was surprised or confused. Still her piercing eyes followed the two of them intently.

The guards led them to the middle of the room before the captain stopped and saluted.

“The intruders, Empress.”

Empress Starlight’s eyes briefly glanced at her before returning to Twilight and Starlight. “Thank you, Captain Gleam. You can take your position at the door now.”

Captain Gleam nodded and made an about face, she and her guards filed away from Twilight and Starlight and formed a line in front of the door leading back out of the throne room.

For a moment silence reigned. Twilight wasn’t sure if she wanted to begin or wait for whatever Empress Starlight might have to say.

She didn’t have to make a decision as soon the Empress spoke up again. “Changelings huh?” She said, holding a hoof under her chin as she looked between the two of them. “That’s not true is it? A changeling turning into me isn’t a bad idea, even with the wrong mane, but no changeling would ever turn into Twilight Sparkle if they were trying to infiltrate my castle. So that begs the question of just who or what are you?”

Good Starlight stepped forward before Twilight could answer that. “Well you’re right, we’re not changelings. In fact this may come as a bit of a shock to you but I actually am you, or at least another version of you. And this is really Twilight Sparkle too. We’re both from an alternate timeline or dimension or however you want to call it.” She said, smiling at her evil self.

The smile on Empress Starlight’s face faltered for a split second but she quickly fixed it. “Really now? That’s rather interesting. And how did you end up here?”

“We uh, we don’t really know.” Starlight shrugged. The truth wasn’t always convincing.

“Hmm, and why are you here, specifically?” Empress Starlight politely asked, pointing at the floor.

Twilight and Starlight shared a glance before Twilight sighed and decided to walk up and speak to the Empress.

“I want to be honest with you from the start. We came here to try and convince you to stop the brainwashing and turn everything back to normal.”

“Ahahahaha!” Empress Starlight immediately started to break out into laughter. “You really can’t be serious? I mean I figured that’s why but I didn’t think you’d just come out and say it like that. Well, you were always delusional, Twilight.” She sneered at the Alicorn.

“Hey! Twilight is not delusional!” Starlight stepped up to defend her friend. “Just look at me! I’m her friend now, she was able to get through to me, I’m proof that friendship is magic!”

For a second nopony said anything as all eyes were on her. Empress Starlight scrunching her nose at what Good Starlight just said.

And soon blood began rushing to Starlight’s face as she started to heavily blush in embarrassment. “Can’t believe I said that...”

Twilight rolled her eyes but turned back to look at the Empress. “Okay, but what my Starlight said is right though! You don’t need to do something evil like this!”

“Hah!” Empress Starlight snorted. “I’m not evil I’m right! I’ve created a world of true harmony. A world without sadness, loss, betrayal, separation, or strife. A calm world of equality. Before me there were just too many differences that led to disarray, but now that everypony has lost their minds it’s always a happy day!” She raised her arms in cheer.

Good Starlight facehoofed and started shaking her head. “I told you, Twilight, she’s a nutjob. Talking isn’t gonna work.”

Evil Starlight glared at her. “I heard that. I’m not crazy either.”

Twilight just sat back on her haunches, sadly staring at the evil mirror of her friend and student. “How did you even do this? How did it get so far?”

A smirk found its way onto the face of the Empress. “Curious as ever I see. Oh it’s not like it’s the greatest story or anything. But fine, I’ll tell you.” She sat up straight and stared down at her two guests through piercing, half-lidded eyes. “After you-” She glared at Twilight. “Ruined my village and destroyed my life I researched you and eventually came here. The power of the Crystal Heart held endless possibilities to me, and I could get a little personal payback knowing your brother and his wife were here too.”

Twilgiht’s jaw clenched at the mention of Shining and Cadance but she didn’t interrupt.

Empress Starlight continued. “It was simple. Nopony really knew who I was or what I planned, it’s not like I’m Tirek or anything, and with my power and inconspicuousness infiltrating the castle was a breeze. And taking Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s Cutie Marks was even easier.” She sadistically grinned at Twilight.

“Ghh!” Twilight flinched, a tear threatening to drip from her eye.

“Stop that.” Starlight said, putting a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Just… tell the story.”

“Fine, I won’t color it so much.” Empress Starlight chuckled to herself. “Anyways with their beloved rulers held captive by me the crystal ponies were more than happy to listen to my orders. And those entailed powering up the Crystal Heart for me. I think you can put two and two together from there, you’re smart enough for that aren’t you?”

“And when the normal magic of the Crystal Heart was sent out over the skies of Equestria you sent your brainwashing spell with it.” Twilight finished.

“Bingo! Now I have the Heart constantly drawing on the passive power of the crystal ponies to a low degree and refreshing the spell day and night. Although as you can obviously tell that isn’t enough to brainwash anypony who didn’t get a direct blast of the first brainwashing wave.” She told them.

Twilight was horribly depressed to hear this but her sharp mind was still filing away everything she heard as possibly useful information in the future. And her curiosity was still nagging at her, making her ask the evil Starlight more questions.

“But what about Discord and the Tree of Harmony?”

“You saw that?” The Empress asked, frowning at Twilight. It was obvious that she wasn’t happy to hear that they had been other places before she caught them.

Starlight was thinking it would be a good idea to keep their prior movements a secret. The Empress might get angry if she learned about their visit to Canterlot among other things.

“Yes...” Twilight hesitantly answered. “How did you manage that? And why would you do something so cruel?”

“They were obstacles.” She responded as simply as possible. “Discord should be obvious enough but I didn’t want the Tree or Elements of Harmony potentially undoing what I did. And with Fluttershy under my control thanks to the first brainwashing spell it was easy to manipulate Discord into doing what I wanted.”

“Ugh, knew it.” Starlight rolled her eyes. She could picture that so easily.

“And after that-” Empress Starlight continued. “Things have proceeded pretty normally until now.”

“This is just… this is all just so awful.” Twilight said, despondently looking down at the sleek crystal floor.

“Says you.” The Empress laughed.

“And me too.” Starlight said, frowning at the caustic evil version of herself. “How can you even live with yourself after this? And don’t you even care that you’ve turned your back on everything we stood for in the first place? Calling yourself Empress, ignoring Cutie Marks, this is the opposite of our old dream!”

Empress Starlight narrowed her eyes at her double. “Equestria is currently in a transitional phase and-”

“You’re just a hypocrite!” Starlight cut her off.

“We were always hypocrites!” The Empress snapped. “Sure it might have been necessary back then in Our Town but it was still true. I’ve just embraced that part of me, the reality that I need to be on top to make sure it’s all working, to guide the others in the right direction. I’d never be able to spread the truth if I wasn’t a little unequal, that’s the sad realization. But it sounds to me like you just ended up shying away from it all and tried to deny that part of yourself. Saying you were wrong entirely. You didn’t have it in you to make the decisions I did!” She pointed her hoof angrily at Starlight.

Before Starlight could respond Twilight put a hoof in front of her chest, picking her head up again to look back at the Empress.

“You said this is a transitional phase?”

Empress Starlight coughed, regaining her composure she turned her attention back to Twilight. “Yes. I don’t intend to keep things like this. I still aim to create that perfect world without Cutie Marks.” She spat the word out like it was venom. “But currently I don’t have a way to contain the marks of everypony in Equestria. Once I do I’ll broadcast my removal spell with the power of the Crystal Heart and take them all at once. Admittedly I also need to find a way to keep the sun and moon cycle going after taking Celestia and Luna’s marks. I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself after the first brainwashing and attempted to… knock the two of them down a peg, but I couldn’t find a way to keep day and night in order. Which is why I left them back in Canterlot as is.” Empress Starlight paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. She fondly gazed off into the distance like she was imagining something. “After that’s all taken care of the brainwashing can be… slowly undone with only some minor alterations for most over the course of a generation or two as I spread my teachings far and wide in a more natural way. I already have an updated manifesto ready for every bookcase in Equestria. Every stallion, mare and foal will learn the Starlight Glimmer way from the beginning.”

Starlight shook her head in disbelief. “Oh boy, you’re nuts. You’re just nuts.” She said to her.

“I don’t expect a quitter like yourself to be able to see the beauty of it.” The Empress contemptuously sneered at her.

Starlight opened her mouth to yell some more but Twilight clamped her jaw shut with magic.

“Enough! We don’t need to get like that. I wanted us to be able to understand and get to know one another.” She looked up at Empress Starlight. “You may laugh at me again for saying this but I still would like to become friends with you. Because I know you can become my friend and make up for all of this.”

“And why would I ever want to?” She asked as she slouched down in her throne.

“Because.” Twilight hit her with as focused and intense of a stare as the purple Alicorn could muster. “Are you even actually happy like this?”

“Hah! Why wouldn’t I be?” Evil Starlight responded instantly like Twilight had just asked her the stupidest thing in the world. Her jeering face mocking both Twilight and the good Starlight.

“You still don’t have any real friends. Just ponies you’ve forced to be around you.”

The Empress frowned. “And what’s wrong with that? You can’t trust “real” friends to not abandon you.”

“Like how Sunburst did?”

Empress Starlight didn’t flinch but she did narrow her eyes in cold anger at Twilight. Good Starlight gulped as she looked between the two of them, worried that things might suddenly escalate.

“I’m not surprised you’d bring him up.” The Empress started again. “I assume you learned about him when dealing with the other me over here. But even now the Sunburst in this world is happily living here in the Crystal Empire and I can see him whenever I want.”

“But it’s not real!” Twilight stomped her hooves on the floor. “How can you be happy with knowing Sunburst like… that! None of that, none of anything you have with these ponies, is real happiness or love or friendship!”

“Spare me! It’s real enough for me and that’s what matters!” She yelled, a throbbing vein popping out of her neck.

Starlight sighed and shook her head before talking to Twilight. “Twilight I told you this wouldn’t work. She’s not going to listen to reason.”

“Fine. I just...” Twilight sighed in defeat. “I’m not giving up yet but fine.” She took another step towards the throne that the angry Empress was occupying. “There was one last thing I wanted to ask. What happened to me? Your world’s me. What did you do to her and all of her friends?”

The Empress calmed herself down and smirked at Twilight. “Heh. Thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot to mention that to you. It always raises my spirits when I think about Twilight and her friends. Well you already know I used Fluttershy to deal with Discord so you can probably guess that they were all hit with the brainwashing too. After that I had them all come here and imprisoned them in crystal stasis deep in the bowels of this castle.”

Twilight and Starlight’s eyes opened wide in shock. “But why?!” Twilight yelled. “Why would you do that?!”

“Because they didn’t deserve to live in my perfect world!” Empress Starlight screamed back at her. “They were the ones who ruined everything in the first place. So you know what I did? I sent another spell using the power of the Crystal Heart across Equestria to erase them from everypony’s memories. And then before I put them into stasis? I undid the brainwashing on them so I could let them know just what was happening! Hahahaha!” She started laughing madly while Twilight stared on in horror.

Twilight couldn’t believe she would do something so… so… depraved.

Good Starlight meanwhile scoffed at her evil self. “Okay, yeah, you do that and then laugh about it and still say you aren’t evil?"

“That was justice!” Empress Starlight cried.

“No it wasn’t. You’re evil.” She scowled at her.

“I’m not evil!”

“You’re totally evil, compare yourself to me. I gave up on all of this craziness because Twilight was right about friendship and the beauty of Cutie Marks and because of that I reconnected with Sunburst and became real friends with him again. I became real friends with so many other ponies too and we’ve accomplished so much good together. Do you have any idea how even brighter and happier Equestria could be if you were willing to do some good for it instead of just being selfish and trying to force your way onto everypony? I’ve helped save Equestria from evil monsters more than once now. Meanwhile, you are an evil monster threatening Equestria. How much pain and suffering do you think these ponies would be feeling if they could actually think right now? You’re not doing a good thing. At best you’ve created a lie. An illusion no better than that old town. You’re evil. And you know what? You’re not happy like I am either. You may have that kind of smug, self-satisfied happiness that comes with victory but you don’t have true happiness that can only come from real friendship and love.” Starlight took a big breath as she finished her monologue and wiped a bit of sweat from her brow. “Sorry for going off on a while there.”

“No need to apologize, I think you did pretty well.” Twilight smiled and gave her a little wing hug.

“QUIET!”

The two looked in shock at the angry Empress Starlight, standing on her throne and glaring at them.

“No more talking! We’re done here.” She snarled. “I’m not evil and I’m not listening to you anymore, the both of you can forget about me stopping. This is my world and I’m going to make it perfect.” Her horn lit up. “And the two of you aren’t getting in my way.”

Twilight stepped in front of Starlight to protectively shield her. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I didn’t want it to come down to this but I’ll fight you if I have to.” Her horn lit up as well. “However.” She smirked. “That’s not to say we have to fight right now!”

She put more magic into her horn and activated her teleportation spell… and it fizzled out.

“Huh?” Twilight looked up in surprise at her horn, she pumped more magic into it and tried doing it again but once more the magic fizzled out in a shower of sparks. “What’s going on?”

“What are you trying to do, Twilight?” Starlight asked her in confusion.

“Oh I’m sorry.” Empress Starlight said with faux-politeness, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. She got out of the seat of her throne and started walking down the steps towards Twilight and Starlight. “But did I forget to mention that there’s no teleporting in or out of this castle? Guards!”

At the Empress’s word the guards snapped into action behind Twilight and Starlight, forming a semi-circle around them and boxing them in. Lit horns and crystal tipped spears aimed at the two intruders.

“Uh oh.” Twilight muttered as she bit her lip.

“Uh oh indeed.” Empress Starlight smirked and fired her Cutie Mark removal spell at the two enemies.

The horrible familiar feeling of the magic wove its way over Twilight’s body, tearing her precious Cutie Mark from her flank. That terrible, loathsome, feeling of losing what made her special, what connected her to her friends, all over again was almost enough to make Twilight sick. The shimmering star danced away from her and she could do nothing about it, only reach out helplessly as her colors muted and that deafening equal sign appeared on her flank.

“Ohh...” Twilight slumped to the ground, weakened. She looked forward to see Starlight, her Starlight, absentmindedly poking at the equal sign that now adorned her flank as well.

“Huh, so that’s what karma feels like.”

“Ugh.” Twilight snorted in annoyance and rolled her eyes.

“I’m going to let the two of you enjoy a night in the dungeon.” Empress Starlight suddenly said as she leaned her head down to look straight into Twilight’s eyes. “And I do suggest you try to enjoy it, since it will be your last. Because tomorrow morning I’m going to have the crystal ponies gather together and put all their energy into the Crystal Heart again so I can reapply the brainwashing spell and put the two of you under its control as well.”

Starlight's World V

The two Cutie Marks were held above Empress Starlight’s horn, lacking a containment device at the moment she couldn’t let them go just yet. But she hardly needed to use her magic for anything else thanks to her guards and how helpless Twilight and Starlight would be without their Marks. The Empress chuckled and looked up in satisfaction at the two Marks. How much joy it filled her to be victorious like this yet again, to remove a dreadful Cutie Mark and make an enemy harmless at the same time. What a wonderful feeling.

“Stand them up, Captain.” She said to Captain Gleam.

The Guard Captain and a few of the others grabbed Twilight and Starlight and restrained them. Magic was out of the question without their Cutie Marks and now even just running away the old-fashioned way wasn’t going to work. Twilight didn’t struggle against the guards but she did fiercely glare at the Empress.

“You won’t get away with this.” She said to her.

“Oh please.” Empress Starlight rolled her eyes. “How original. And just what are the two of you going to do? Hm?” She mocked. But as she looked at her two captives a thoughtful look came to her face, she furrowed her brow in concentration as she gazed back and forth between them. “Just two? Why just two of you? How do I know you didn’t actually come here with the rest of your friends and you were lying earlier?”

Twilight gulped and couldn’t help but shoot a brief, worried glance at Starlight.

“Seems I’m right.” Empress Starlight narrowed her eyes at them before looking to Captain Gleam. “Captain?”

“They were seen with a small purple dragon before coming to the castle.” Captain Gleam responded.

“A dragon?” She rubbed her chin. “If I recall, Twilight Sparkle had a dragon. Your “Number one assistant”, correct? I’ll have the guards be on the lookout for him too. If you’re lucky he’ll get caught before tomorrow morning and then you can say goodbye to him before the brainwashing takes the three of you.”

“Don’t hurt Spike!” Twilight yelled, now trying to elbow her way out of the guards hold.

“Oh relax.” Empress Starlight walked forward and patronizingly patted Twilight on the head. “Tomorrow you won’t even care anymore.”

“Gah!” Twilight tried lunging at her but was held back.

“Hahaha, take them away.” The Empress laughed as she ordered them to the dungeon. A cruel smirk on her face and even more mirthful laughter dancing in her eyes.

“This isn’t going to make you happy either. Not really.” Starlight told her as the guards started dragging them away.

The Empress snorted. “Pff. That’s where you’re wrong, cause right now? I’m incredibly happy.”

Starlight and Twilight were both carried by the guards on their way out of the throne room, Twilight struggling a bit but Starlight just staring ahead with a frown on her face. This definitely didn’t go how either of them planned. Twilight was worried about Spike more than anything right now but Starlight was trying to think about their next move, and as much as her evil self rubbed her the wrong way and didn’t exactly seem deserving Starlight wasn’t entirely willing to give up on her despite her cynical words to Twilight before about them not being able to get through to her. Knowing that she had been able to give up on evil and make up for the bad things she had done really made Starlight wish she could do the same for the Empress, to give her that opportunity. It’s just she didn’t think it could be done just through words.

“Hold on one second.” The voice of the Empress came from behind them.

The guards stopped and all of them turned their heads to see why Empress Starlight asked them to stop.

“I remember how much you like to read, Twilight. So I’ll give you some light reading while you sit in the dungeon. You wouldn’t want to get bored now would you?” She smirked and her horn flashed, a book with an equal sign emblazoned on its cover appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the Empress and she tossed it to Captain Gleam. “Enjoy.”

Twilight and Starlight were unceremoniously tossed into a cell together, the walls and floor of it still made out of a polished crystal but the bars making up its front were a cold steel. Getting out of here by force and without any magic might prove to be impossible, especially with how the equal sign Cutie Marks brought them down to the lowest common denominator for everything. Before she turned to leave; Captain Gleam tossed Empress Starlight’s new manifesto between the two of them and shut the door to the cell. Her and the rest of the guards then quietly left as if this was just a normal turn of events for them.

“With how this has gone you might have been right about not doing this.” Twilight said to her friend as she rubbed her head in annoyance.

“Well if we’re going down that road how about letting me destroy the Crystal Heart when we get the chance?” Starlight asked with a teasing smirk.

“No.” Twilight frowned at her. “And stop joking around. At a time like this we need to be taking this as seriously as possible and find a way out of here. We don’t have much time before she reactivates the brainwashing spell.”

“I get that but believe me we’re not in as bad of a situation as you think.” Starlight said.

“Excuse me?!” Twilight stood up and grabbed Starlight by the shoulders, pressing her face right up against Starlight’s so her eyes were boring into the other unicorn’s. “How are we not in as bad of a situation as I think?!”

“Because, Twilight.” Starlight pushed her away, eager for some space. “You’re forgetting something. We know something Evil me doesn’t.”

Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow at her friend. “And that is?”

Starlight Glimmer grinned. “Evil me may know a lot. Maybe even a good deal about you and your friends. But what she most definitely doesn’t know is that our Spike can fly.”

Twilight sucked in a breath in realization. “She has no idea that he’ll be able to get to the Heart. Or that he can get anywhere into the castle from the balconies and windows.”

“Bingo.” Starlight smiled, thinking about their scaly friend. “We just have to trust in Spike. I’m sure he’ll pull through for us.”

“I...” Twilight chewed on her lip. She wasn’t quite sure, buuut… “I believe in him too. You’re right, I know Spike will be able to do it.”

“This was a bad idea. This was such a bad idea, why did I agree to do this?”

Spike meanwhile was muttering to himself while his wings beat against the heavy winds that billowed around the higher parts of the Crystal Castle. He had made a lot of headway but the climb to the top of the spire was a long and exhausting one and honestly he just wasn’t used to using his wings for so long. Not to mention the fact that they were still pretty stubby. He’d have to do some more flying practice with either Smolder or Rainbow Dash when he got back so he wouldn’t have another poor repeat showing like this.

It was also a pain to avoid the windows and try to hug the wall of the castle so ponies couldn’t see him from below. More than once Spike had to take a break and rest on some of the pieces of the castle that he could actually stand on, and even then he had to hunker down to make sure it was a spot he couldn’t be seen. Why did there have to be so many windows and balconies? Why couldn’t he be a pegasus so he could just take a nap on a cloud? Life just wasn’t fair.

“You’re gonna get an earful about this and so much more when I get back, Starlight...” Spike said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “I can’t wait for the lecture Twilight is gonna give you once we’re back home.”

His wings were tired but he fought through the pain and kept going, he could see the top of the spire now and it wouldn’t be long before he made it up there and could take a rest. Spike remembered well how the top of the castle looked, there was plenty of room to sit. Even if the Crystal Heart wasn’t up there he’d take the time to catch a breather. Or sleep.

But now more than ever the closer Spike got to the top the more he was sure the Crystal Heart was up there. The increasing intensity of the lights, the strange feeling of power, and the simple fact that, well, where else would it be? All of those things told him that the Crystal Heart was at the top of the spire where King Sombra also used to keep it years ago.

“I’m coming for you.” Spike said to himself as he flapped his wings harder, breaking past another strong gust of wind.

It had been a long time since he had been up here, he could still picture it that first time he and Twilight found the Heart and reclaimed it from King Sombra. It may have been his finest moment as he carried that Heart down the side of the castle, bringing it to Cadance and the crystal ponies and allowing them to save the day. Hay, they even made a big statue of him because of it. Oh right… the statue. Spike frowned thinking about it, if Empress Starlight hadn’t outright demolished it none of the brainwashed ponies would even care about it right now. What a waste.

“Such an awesome tribute to my greatness and nopony around to appreciate it, geez.”

Spike was close to the top now, thankfully despite the lights from the tower being almost blinding they didn’t make him any more nauseous or uncomfortable staring at them than they did from on the ground. But he could practically feel the magic rolling off in waves from it all, he had almost reached the ledge and he was sure that the moment he peeked over it he’d spy the Crystal Heart floating there and emitting the powerful magic that allowed Empress Starlight to control all of the poor ponies of Equestria.

“Here I come!” Spike said as he exerted more energy from his wings, they were tired and would be far sorer than usual once he was done flying today but it would all be worth it.

With his wings nearly giving out on him, Spike grasped the edge of the floor at the top of the spire as he reached it. The small dragon used it to help pull himself up and rolled onto his back, panting in exhaustion from the climb. He tiredly turned his head to see if the Crystal Heart was really up here.

“There we go.”

The Crystal Heart floated in the center of the top of the Crystal Castle just as it used to. Spike had never been so happy to see it.

“You have caused me so much trouble...” Spike said as he stood up on shaky legs, still catching his breath. “But thank Celestia you’re up here.”

He started to take a few steps towards the Heart—and almost fell down the recess that hid the stairs that led up here from the castle—before catching himself and hopping over them. “Woah, gotta watch out for those.”

As he walked past the stairs it would’ve taken him one more step to reach the central area where the Heart floated in the middle of it. But Spike caught himself at the last moment again, holding his claw right above the floor and making sure he didn’t bring it down inside that circle.

“Wait a second. What are the chances that an evil Starlight is going to have some kind of security on this thing?” Spike frowned, taking a step back and staring at the Heart. “And maybe even the same kind of security Sombra had that even a unicorn couldn’t do anything about?” Spike sighed. “Sounds like the kind of measures Starlight would take.”

He held a claw under his chin, thinking. “I don’t have any way to check for magic or be sure it’s safe to just take this thing. Even if a bunch of crystals don’t shoot up and imprison me it may still notify the evil Starlight that it’s been moved… and she’d definitely notice that the lights have been disrupted wouldn’t she?” Spike sat down and folded his arms over his chest in frustration. “Ugh! I can’t believe this! I get up here and the Heart is here but now I can’t even do anything about it!”

Spike grumbled in annoyance. “Well Twilight did say that I should just stay up here and wait for them anyways. So she probably didn’t want me to do anything with the Heart on my own anyways...” He let himself collapse backwards to lie on his back and stare up at the canopy of the spire. “Well I made it here, guess I’ll just wait for them now.”

And so Spike waited.

And waited.

It was actually getting closer to evening by the time he started to get worried. He knew that stealthily searching a castle might take a while but this long? For the two of them? No way, something had to have gone wrong. Empress Starlight or some guards must have found them out. He stared at the floating Heart trying to decide if he should do anything about it or just leave it there for now.

“This is so lame!” He exclaimed as he walked to the edge of the spire and peered down at the city below. Things looked normal, he didn’t see any chaos or anything strange going on that might give him a clue as to what Twilight and Starlight were doing. “They told me to wait but… ugh!” Spike threw up his arms in exasperation. “You stay right there!” He pointed at the Heart. “I’ll be back soon.” And then Spike leapt from the top of the castle.

I’ll find you two, just need to find an open window first…

“Twilight you should really read this. Evil me is a complete nutjob.” Starlight said as she leafed through the new manifesto of Empress Starlight. “She has plans written in here about how she wants everypony to dye their mane the same color one day. I’m totally taking this back home with us, it’s too funny.”

“I’m not sure I approve of that.”

“But it could be useful! We could show it to the students at the school as the perfect example of how not to be. It’s a great cautionary tale!”

Twilight frowned. “I really don’t think I want to expose my students to that. But if you want to submit a change in the lesson plan you can do it in writing when we return.”

“Yeah I’ll be sure to do that.” Starlight rolled her eyes.

“Great, I look forward to reading your submission.” Twilight responded with a smile, the sarcasm from Starlight completely flying over her head.

“Right...” Starlight went back to reading the crazy manifesto of her evil counterpart. “Wow, she even wants all new cities and towns to be planned in a grid fashion.”

As Starlight continued to read Twilight had started pacing around in the cell like a caged tiger. Earlier when they were first brought in she had spent the first couple of hours inspecting every inch of the cell to see if there was a weak spot or something that could be exploited to help them escape. Unfortunately the bars were strong and unworn and she couldn’t figure out any other possible way to get them out. They didn’t have anything to break or bend the bars with, no tools to pick the lock, no way to dig out of the hard crystal. Without magic or super strength like Applejack’s this simple cell was all but impossible to get out of.

“Ugh, I’m going crazy just stuck in here!” Twilight said and sat down in front of the door to the cell. “Will Spike even be able to find us?”

“If we’re lucky he’ll just destroy the Heart on his own or something.” Starlight replied as she flipped to another page of the book.

“That wouldn’t be lucky! Stop bringing it up!” Twilight yelled at her.

“Look, I’m telling you that doing something like that would solve all our problems. Not just with stopping Evil me but I also have a theory that it would send us out of this timeline.” Starlight shut the book and turned her focus to Twilight.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked in confusion.

Starlight sighed and stood up. “Okay. The thing is whenever there’s an important enough change to the timeline somewhere the whole world shifts and changes and a new timeline is created, I think. And since we were brought here, to this world that is clearly not the natural past or future of our world, I think that if we cause a big enough change here that we’ll find ourselves thrown into another rift in time and hopefully end up where we belong. And that big enough change would be toppling Empress Starlight. So regardless of the possible consequences to destroying the Crystal Heart I think it wouldn’t matter as long as it made an irreversible change here.”

Twilight studied her for a few seconds, going over what she had just heard in her mind before her eyes narrowed in suspicion at Starlight. “And just why do you know what happens whenever the timeline changes?”

“Uhh...” Starlight rubbed the back of her head. “Because to be honest I’ve kind of been messing around with the past since the day I first traveled back on accident.”

“Starlight!”

“Calm down!” She tried to placate her teacher. “It was all for good reasons at least, I tried doing good! Oh and don’t get mad at Spike either, he tried his best to stop me from doing anything irresponsible. And he was just looking out for me when you asked us about this too.”

“I can’t believe you!” Twilight grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. “Are you responsible for us ending up here too?! Maybe your tampering is what caused all of this!”

“No, no, definitely not.” Starlight grabbed Twilight’s forelegs to stop being shaken back and forth so she could shake her head in the negative. “I really don’t want to get into detail on how I know, and suffice to say it would all be a long story anyways, but I can guarantee you that this world has nothing to do with any changes I made in the past. I have no idea why this place exists or how. That’s why I mentioned this timeline not being naturally connected to ours.”

Twilight calmed down slightly, releasing Starlight from her grip. “So… what then? What do we do? I’m still not sure I want to destroy the Crystal Heart and doom this world on a theory.”

“We really wouldn’t be dooming this world even if we did that, it just might cause some problems for the Crystal Empire here for a bit you know?” Starlight said. “I’m pretty sure your double and the others could figure out how to put it back together. It’s just that Empress Starlight wouldn’t and that would cause the change, since her brainwashing would be undone and all the ponies would slowly go back to normal.”

Starlight stood up and started pacing around a little bit herself. “Spike and I, every time there was a change we stayed in the same timeline and nopony else knew something different had happened. It wasn’t that we went into a new world but it felt like the world around us was slightly changed from how it should be… barring one instance, but now when you came to rescue us we’ve suddenly ended up in a world totally separate from our main timeline. I’m sure if we can cause a shift again that instead of the world changing around us and a new timeline being born that we’ll fall back into the rift between worlds and then we can make our way back home.”

The Princess of Friendship stared blankly at Starlight. Not entirely impressed with her logic and reasoning. “I’m not sure how I feel about potentially breaking reality and throwing ourselves into the vortex of time based on such a poorly thought out theory. In fact you don’t even have enough evidence to call that a theory! It’s a lazy hypothesis!”

“Thanks for showing me some faith.” Starlight frowned at her.

“How can I?! It’s absurd! Even if what you’re saying about this timeline being separate from ours is true you’re essentially asking me to give everything up to chance!”

Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. She raised a hoof to her chest and closed her eyes, sitting back on the cool crystal floor. “I’m sorry for yelling.” She said, opening up her eyes to look at Starlight again. “It’s just all a little much to take in right now.” She furrowed her brow. “You said barring one instance? What did you mean by that?”

Starlight grimaced awkwardly, thinking it would be best to not go too far into detail about what she did with Sunset. “Well with the most recent change things were kind of different, normally the world just goes white and I feel vertigo and some shaking before things go back to normal, Spike can tell you the same thing, but that last time it’s like the whole world was falling apart around us and being remade. Or like the two of us were falling and almost being dragged somewhere else. It was weird.”

“Maybe...” Twilight stared hard at the floor in concentration, a hoof cradling her chin. “Maybe that time you and Spike almost came here? Maybe there was something trying to bring you here? Otherwise I can’t understand why there would be such a different sensation in changing timelines. And perhaps when I came back and tried bringing us back to our time the same thing that tried to bring you and Spike instead got all three of us when we were between worlds?”

“But who, or what? And why?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow at Twilight. There were so few creatures or things she could think of that would even be capable of such a thing.

“Discord would be my first guess.” Twilight shrugged. “But I can’t see our Discord doing this, even just for a laugh, and the Discord here is out of commission. Same with the Tree of Harmony. I’m just not sure.”

Starlight sat down and rubbed her forehead. “If it makes you feel any better Twilight, now I’m starting to get a headache cause of all this craziness.”

“Well if I’m being blunt, no, it doesn’t. And all of this theorizing is still a moot point right now. Tomorrow morning the Empress is going to recharge her spell and that’s going to be it for us.” Twilight walked to the bars of the cell and pressed her face up against them. “We need to find a way out of here.”

Starlight sighed and walked up to the bars, looking past them at the room beyond their cell. There wasn’t much to look at, just more crystal and a door leading to the outside hallway. The wooden door did have a barred window on it as well but that was its only distinguishing feature. However it did give Starlight an idea.

“Hey Twilight, do you think there are guards posted outside that door?” She asked.

“Um, I dunno? Maybe? Why?” Twilight gave her a questioning look.

“Well if there are I have a really dumb idea for how we might get out of here.”

Spike carefully peeked into the open window on one of the high levels of the castle, making sure there were no guards or other ponies inside the room before he made his entrance. Seeing that the coast was clear the dragon squeezed his way in through the window and plopped down into the room.

“Geez, I need to lose some weight.” Spike said as he looked around the room he had come into.

It looked like an ordinary bedroom. It was currently empty, most likely because it was meant for any guests to the castle. And guests were one thing there were likely to be none of here.

Spike walked across the floor and scanned the room again just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything before he made his way over to the door and opened it as slightly as possible so he could peek out again and make sure nopony else was around. The door opened up into a pristine crystal hallway that curved inwards towards the heart of the castle, and luckily for Spike there were no guards around that he could see.

Sighing in relief, Spike stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. “Alright you two, I’m coming.”

Starlight's World VI

“That’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard in my life. If not the dumbest. It’s at least top three.”

“Do you have a better plan?”

“No...”

“Then I’m doing it. We’ve been stuck in here too long anyways, it might already be evening by now.”

Twilight and Starlight argued back and forth over Starlight’s idea. And Starlight did have to admit that this was a particularly silly idea but they didn’t really have anything else to do so they might as well give it a shot. She reached back to her tail and yanked out a few hairs, giving a little yelp of pain as she did, then used those hairs to make a hair tie and pull her hair back a little trying to recreate her old look that Empress Starlight still currently wore.

“Bangs are going to be a little longer looking.” Starlight muttered to herself as she fixed the front curl of her mane and tried to pull it apart down her horn to make two bangs again.

“Okay, how do I look?” She asked Twilight as she finished.

Twilight scanned her up and down with her eyes, seeing if there was anything major out of order before nodding in affirmation. “Well you do look almost exactly like her. Right now it’s just that your color is a little muted and your Cutie Mark is wrong. But we can’t really do anything about that. I think at a glance you’d definitely pass for her.”

“Great! Time to see if this works then.” Starlight said and walked up to the bars of the cell, pressing against them as far as she could go. “Guards! Hey guards, you out there?!” She shouted.

“I can’t believe we’re trying this...” Twilight shook her head.

Starlight ignored her and kept up her yelling. “Guards, it’s your Empress in here! Empress Starlight is right inside this room and I command you to come inside!”

There didn’t seem to be any reaction from outside yet. It was possible that there wasn’t anypony out there to begin with and all of this was for naught. Would Empress Starlight bother with putting guards in the dungeon to begin with? The brainwashing seemed to make the existence of a dungeon… or even guards for that matter, almost completely pointless to begin with. Although obviously not entirely considering the present situation.

“Hellooooo? Anypony out there? Empress Starlight here! You better listen to me!” Starlight kept yelling as Twilight just sighed and sat down.

“Starlight this isn’t working, let’s calm down and-”

An unlatching noise came from the door to their room and it was pushed inwards, two armor-clad guards walking inside and staring with their big vacant doe-eyes at the “Empress” pressed right up against the bars to her cell.

Starlight couldn’t help but shoot a smug grin back at Twilight.

“Oh for the love of… we’re still not out of here yet!” Twilight pouted, huffing defiantly as she sat back with her hooves crossed.

One of the guards tilted his head at the strange sight of Starlight Glimmer behind bars. “Empress?” He questioned. He knew that Empress Starlight was still in her throne room or retired for the night right? Wasn’t she the one who ordered these two in here? This pony in front of him couldn’t be the Empress. Could she?

“Yes, that’s right. Just look at me, who else could I be?” Starlight smiled at them, carefully angling herself so they couldn’t see her Cutie Mark.

The guards looked at each other, their fried brains attempting to come up with an explanation.

“But how?” The other guard asked. “How is it you in there? Aren’t you in the throne room or gone to bed? Are you a changeling? You warned us about changelings before.”

“I can not believe this is working.” Twilight hissed out from behind Starlight.

“Quiet!” Starlight whispered back to her before addressing the guards again. “That certainly makes sense but it obviously can’t be since I’m right here. And I can’t be a changeling either because then I could just change into something that could get out of this cell. Now if you could please unlock the door to the cell I’d really appreciate that.” She gave them a big wide smile.

The guards stood there staring vacantly at her as if they couldn’t process what was going on. The brainwashing had taken away so much of their higher-thinking capacity and logical reasoning that being confronted with something like this it was like somepony had flipped a coin in their brains and the thing had somehow landed on its edge. If they kept staring at Starlight for too much longer she was worried that they would start drooling.

Starlight bit her lip, maybe this wasn’t working. She looked back at Twilight who could only give her a shrug. Returning her attention to the guards she could see their eyes losing focus on her, they were starting to just zone out completely and not see her anymore, like when they had been carried in to meet Empress Starlight and were ignored as if they were less than objects by the guards escorting them.

She scowled at them, her hooves squeezed the iron bars and she pressed her whole body shut against them. “Hey! This is your Empress you know?! Empress Starlight Glimmer is talking to you! I order the two of you to open this door right now!” She shouted at them.

“Oof. Warn me next time.” Twilight said as she squinted and rubbed an ear.

The two guards shook their heads like somepony had just dropped a bucket of water over them. Their eyes came back to focus on Starlight and even though they didn’t lose that empty doll-like quality they were clearly more alert now. Both guards suddenly snapped to attention and smiled at Starlight as if seeing her for the first time.

“Yes, your Empress? How can we help you?” Both said in unison.

Starlight grinned. “Good! Like I said, open up this cell door!”

“Right away, Empress.” The first one responded and pulled out a key from a chain around his neck that had been covered by the armor. He quickly inserted it into the lock of Starlight and Twilight’s cell and opened it up for them, even holding the door open with a smile on his face.

“Thank you.” Starlight told him and regally walked from the cell (but not before pulling a Pinkie Pie and stuffing her Evil self’s updated book into her mane), Twilight following her in slack-jawed disbelief.

“I can’t, I just can’t even...” The alicorn muttered to herself as they left the cell.

Starlight ignored her for now and turned to the two guards. “Excellent work, you have your Empress’s thanks. You may return to your duty of guarding this door now.” She flashed a smile at the two of them.

“Of course, Empress!” They both said and saluted in unison again.

And the two former prisoners walked out of the room and into the hallway of the dungeon, the guards closing the door behind them and obliviously returning to standing in front of it and vacantly staring forward as if the previous five minutes hadn’t happened. Twilight gave the two of them one last look before shaking her head and following Starlight as she made her way down the hallway that would lead them out of the dungeon.

Starlight looked over her shoulder at Twilight as she walked and grinned at her teacher. “Think I should keep my mane like this for now.”

“As much as I hate to say it it would probably be for the best if you did.” Twilight sighed.

With night having fallen just a short while ago no more sunlight poured in through the windows of the Crystal Castle. It made it a little harder for Spike to see but it also made it a lot easier for him to sneak around. The cover of darkness helped as did the fact that it seemed like most guards had gone to sleep. It’s not like the castle was well known for its extensive security in the first place and it didn’t seem like Empress Starlight had done much to change that.

So Spike tiptoed down the hallways of the castle, peeking around corners and into rooms as he searched for Twilight and Starlight. He was still up in a higher part of the castle closer to where Cadance and Shining Armor would sleep if things were normal so if Twilight and Starlight really had gotten caught like he worried they probably weren’t around here. But Spike wanted to be sure and to check everything just in case. He thought there might be something else useful he could find out if he kept looking.

He was lucky that he had a pretty decent knowledge of the castle too, no getting lost for this dragon he thought proudly to himself.

“Of course that’s all a moot point if all I’m doing is wandering around all night.” Spike grumbled to himself as he opened up the door to a closet. “Nothing.”

Shutting the door Spike sighed and resumed his slow and careful walk down the dark corridors of the castle. Every now and then he’d see a guard making their rounds but probably at least partially as a result of the brainwashing spell they weren’t very attentive and he was always able to dip into a side room or hide somewhere to avoid them.

“If Twilight and Starlight actually got caught by one of these guys I’d be amazed.” He said as he ducked out behind one and glided down the hallway. “And if I got caught by one I’d never let myself hear the end of it.”

Spike came to a large room with a high ceiling held up by two rows of crystal pillars that stretched its length, a single guard roamed down the middle but thanks to the height of the room Spike would have no difficulty flying over them without being seen or heard. As he hovered in place above them Spike had to thank whatever fortune he had that these guards didn’t like looking up. Empress Starlight probably treated them more like ornamentation than anything and wasn’t likely to fine tune her brainwashing on them to make them more inquisitive and perceptive.

The stillness of the night kept things quiet in the castle while Spike continued his so far uneventful and unproductive search. With the way the crystals warped the shadows and moonlight the eeriness of the castle was starting to get to him a bit, it just shouldn’t be this creepy in here but he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable with how off and wrong things were. Normally even at night this should be such an inviting and happy place, filled with helpful guards and the happy family of Cadance, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart. Instead it was a cold citadel that Spike had to sneak his way through.

“Where the hay are you two?” Spike wondered aloud for not the first time.

Spike entered another grand room from a side hallway and looked around for a second to see if there were any guards, finding none he started to fly down it towards where he knew the stairs were before stopping. He recognized well where he was.

Turning around he looked at the back end of the room where a great set of double doors were, shortly past there would be Cadance and Shining Armor’s old room. The royal suite so to speak.

“If I was Empress Starlight...” Spike gulped.

If it’s her room maybe she keeps something important in there. Spike thought as he slowly drifted his way down to the large doors.

He quietly pulled open one of the doors, making sure it wouldn’t so much as squeak and sell him out, and inched his way inside the interior chambers of the castle. Deftly as possible he shut the door again and looked around to make sure nopony had heard and no guards were around.

Clear.

“Whew.” Spike wiped a big dollop of sweat off his forehead. “Okay, time to head to Ca-er, Starlight’s room.”

The little dragon walked down the red carpet covered hall leading to where royalty would normally reside. The current Empress didn’t count. Regardless if she was there or not. Surprisingly there seemed to be even fewer guards in this area of the castle. Maybe Empress Starlight didn’t want any other ponies in her inner sanctum or she just didn’t see the point. Considering what else he had seen from the guards and the security here Spike was betting on the latter.

“Who here would be dumb enough to do this even if they weren’t brainwashed?” Spike asked nopony as he stealthily sneaked his way towards the royal bedrooms. And then stopped as his words caught up with him. “Oh. Right.”

There weren’t as many individual rooms to check in and stop along the way to the bedroom so Spike forgoed checking any of them in the first place. He wasn’t wandering aimlessly anymore hoping for a clue or sign as to where Twilight and Starlight were but was now intent on getting into that bedroom and seeing if this evil Empress Starlight had anything important in there. Even if she didn’t it might be good for the others to know where she slept depending on how things went.

Going down this hallway in the dark Spike could just picture Shining Armor kept up through the middle of the night in here by a mischief causing Flurry Heart while Cadance lied in bed with a pillow wrapped tightly around her head. It almost made him laugh. Maybe they should ask Twilight to repay all the foalsitting Cadance did when they were younger and have her take care of Flurry Heart some more.

...okay that was probably not a great idea but Spike was sure Twilight could at least manage better than the first time.

Spike’s thoughts naturally started to drift in his lonesome and as he silently flew down the hallway he began to wonder if this counted as rescuing the Crystal Empire twice? Maybe if he succeeded here he could have Twilight requisition another statue of himself to be put in their Empire back home.

“That would be awesome, Rainbow Dash would be so jealous.” He grinned and thumbed his chin, picturing the perfection of not one but two statues dedicated to him.

“Who’s Rainbow Dash?”

Spike held back a scream, managing only to slightly yelp in surprise as he covered his mouth and looked down to see a single empty-eyed guard looking up at him.

At Spike’s silence the guard tilted his head in confusion.

“Uh, she’s nopony.” Spike quickly said.

“Oh.” The guard blinked. He then pointed up at Spike. “You’re a small purple dragon, Empress Starlight told us to look for you.”

“That’s because I’m a friend! She wanted to say hi to me!” Spike immediately shot forth.

The guard smiled. “I see. In that case would you like me to bring you to her?”

“No, no! I know the way, but thanks.” Spike shook his hands.

“Okay, have a nice night.” The guard said and proceeded to walk down the hallway.

The moment he was out of sight Spike breathed a big sigh of relief. “These are the worst guards ever.” He shook his head. “No more messing around though, time to get to that room.”

Spike flew his way through the dark crystal hallway, keeping high up at the ceiling and not talking to himself anymore in case there were actually any more guards here. It didn’t take long from that point for him to finally reach the bedroom he had been looking for. Now Spike had to be extra careful. If Empress Starlight was using this as her personal room now and she was inside there it’s also possible that she wasn’t even asleep right now. Just because she retired for the night doesn’t mean she couldn’t be staying up reading or anything.

That was the risk Spike took as he decided to open up the door to “her” room. If she was still awake he’d be caught immediately. If she wasn’t she could still have some sort of alarm or spell that would be tripped. But he was willing to take that gamble.

The doors were the most ornate in the whole castle, beautiful white crystal with all sorts of inlaid gems in them. On an average day Spike’s mouth would water looking at them. Tonight he had to ignore it all and oh so quietly and softly pull the door open. Just an inch. Not even an inch as he opened it the slightest of cracks to peek through. Spike was lucky that the door didn’t squeak or make any other noise as he opened it, and he had the sense not to ruin his good fortune with a sigh or “Yes!”.

Let’s see what’s in here… Spike thought as he finally had enough space to squint an eye into the door’s crack and check out the room.

A large room that he had been in many times greeted his eye. However it looked surprisingly spartan, most of the personal affects had been removed to leave behind only the bare essentials. A cabinet, a dresser, a small table with two chairs and a large mirror. And the bed of course. Where a pony shaped bump in the covers was steadily rising and falling.

The Empress was peacefully asleep.

Spike gulped and was about to very steadily open the door some more when a shimmering light caught his eye. It was so out of place there was no way he could miss it. Right past the blanket covered bump of Empress Starlight two glass jars sat on her headboard. Their sparkling contents made Spike’s eyes widen in recognition and worry.

“Well that explains what happened at least.” He whispered to himself as he stared at Twilight and Starlight’s captive Cutie Marks.

He narrowed his eyes at them, it was a good thing he decided to come here but was he really about to go attempt to steal back those Cutie Marks?

Spike sighed. Yep, he was.

The dragon carefully opened up the door just slightly more and squeezed his way inside, cautiously holding the door to make sure it wouldn’t slam shut behind him. He finally had inched his way entirely into the room and slowly let the door fall shut without a sound. Before he made any more movement he checked to make sure that the Empress was still sound asleep. And since it didn’t look like she had moved from her spot Spike figured he was in the clear.

With a flap of his wings Spike hovered up in the air, making sure he had plenty of height so that she wouldn’t feel the breeze from his wing beats when he flew over her, and made his way to the headboard and the two jars on it.

This is such a bad idea, why am I doing this? How did I get into this?

Spike did his best not to sweat or make any noise as he flew over the sleeping form of Empress Starlight. He couldn’t help but steal a glimpse down though and spied her resting face, she really did look just like his friend. It was so weird. Not just for the similarity but for how innocent and peaceful she looked, like any other pony. Well, that was really no different from when he and Twilight dealt with his Starlight back then he figured.

He descended a little bit so he could grab the jars and bit his lip in concentration so as to not make them wobble or clink against the hard wood of the headboard.

Hard part’s over…

Spike flew up and back beyond the reaches of the bed and dropped to the ground. He gave one last look at the big lump that was Empress Starlight’s sleeping form to make sure she hadn’t been stirred before he turned and went back to the door. All in all he’d been pretty lucky tonight and Twilight and Starlight would be really happy to have their Cutie Mark’s back.

Wherever they were.

“Right, how am I going to find them?” Spike whispered to himself as he made it back to the door. He shook his head. “One problem at a time.”

Spike moved the jar he was holding in his right hand to the crook of his left elbow, balancing them and making sure he wouldn’t drop either right now he pushed open the door slowly again. Just barely making sure the opening was wide enough for him to slide back through without any problems Spike managed to safely exit the bedroom of Empress Starlight.

“”Awesome job, Spike.” He said to himself and let go of the door.

Which then swung back shut with just enough force to loudly reverberate throughout the whole room.

Spike winced. “Oh boy...”

“Huh? Whuzzat?” He heard from inside the room. “What th—The Cutie Marks?! GUARDS!”

“Welp.” Spike looked at the two glass jars, grabbing the other from his elbow and holding them both in front of him. “Good thing Starlight still likes to keep important stuff in glass jars. Time to speed things up.” And he raised the jars over his head and slammed them to the ground.

The glass shattered and the two Cutie Marks rose up, twirling around in the air before jetting off down the hallway, in pursuit of their missing flanks. Spike swiftly followed them, beating his wings as hard as he could to keep up with them. Wherever Twilight and Starlight were right now Spike was about find them.

Starlight's World VII

Starlight and Twilight easily walked through the nighttime corridors of the Crystal Castle. The few guards not being able to see through the “disguise” at all. The only problem was they weren’t entirely sure where they should go in the first place. Up to the Crystal Heart? Find where Empress Starlight put their Cutie Marks? Look for Spike? Lots of options but their current capabilities made most of that difficult.

“If I had my magic I’d like to go find wherever my alternate and her friends are being held in stasis. But right now I don’t think I’d be able to do anything.” Twilight said in frustration and looked back at her equal sign marked flank with a frown.

“She said it was right below the dungeon didn’t she? Maybe we should go look for the place anyways, not like we’re accomplishing much else right now.” Starlight said.

“And I suppose we could use all the help we can get, if there’s even a way to free them.” Twilight mused. “Okay, time to find some stairs.”

“Better prepare yourself to meet… yourself. She’s probably gonna be pretty surprised too. All of them will be.”

“Well they’ll just have to deal with it quickly, we don’t have much time before morning and Evil you casts her brainwashing spell again.” Twilight couldn’t help but worry about the impending doom.

“Yeah.” Starlight grimaced. “Speaking of Evil me and dealing with it I’m not sure if I should be there with you when you rescue, uh, yourself. She and the others might not take it too well.”

“I’d need to explain you to them sooner or later.”

“Well then make it later.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. You don’t have to be right there when we rescue them. If we rescue them. This is all a moot point at the moment since we don’t even know how exactly to get to them and it would probably be better if we had our Cutie Marks first.”

“The problem with that is I know me. And I probably put those Cutie Marks in jars and have them right next to me. So us being able to get them is currently out of the question.”

“Okay, so we somehow have to find her room, sneak into it, grab our Cutie Marks that are probably right next to her without her noticing and leave. Perfect. Oh, and we have to do all this while making sure that no guards find it strange that you’re attempting to sneak into your own room.” Twilight rubbed her forehead. “And how are we going to do that?”

“I have no idea.” Starlight sighed.

The two made their way further down the hallway towards one of the castle’s stairwells. Not totally set on a destination but this would have to be the starting point for wherever they decided to go anyways. Starlight peeked up and down the stairs but there weren’t any guards around or anything else noticeable. With a shrug she turned to Twilight.

“Well it’s either up or down. Where do you want to try?”

Twilight reluctantly stepped forward. She still wasn’t sure and the fact that they didn’t have much time and their whole struggle might be for nothing was weighing on her. No matter what they did they had the same problems. She felt like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. One choice may potentially lead them to some helpful allies. The other and they could potentially get their Cutie Marks back and just muscle their way out of things. But both outcomes were so uncertain and risky, Twilight didn’t like taking risks like that. She preferred calculated actions where she knew what the outcome would be. However that wasn’t to say she’d never made or been forced to make decisions like this. Far from it in fact. So Twilight steeled her resolve and focused on making a decision.

Luckily for her and Starlight both though that decision ended up not needing to be made and their situation was about to become much better.

“Twiiiiliiiiight! Starrrrliiiiight!”

They both heard the yells coming from above them and looked up. Spike was flying down the stairwell with two very bright and very familiar Cutie Marks right in front of him.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled back.

The rushing Cutie Marks then found their way back to the flanks they belonged, the both of them impacting and returning to the bodies they came from. Twilight could feel the magic cascade back into her, everything felt “brighter” for her and she watched as the color returned to her body. Starlight watched a bit more calmly, taking in how it felt when her Cutie Mark reappeared on her flank and how her colors changed back to normal. When everything looked okay she put a bit of magic into her horn to see if it all worked just like it should.

“Hm, looks like everything is in order. Feels pretty good to get your Cutie Mark back too, huh?” She smiled.

Twilight glared at her. “Yes. Yes it does.” She shook her head. “We don’t have time for that though. Spike, how did you get our Cutie Marks? No, wait. We don’t have time for that either.” She cut Spike off before he could answer and took a breath. “Okay, now maybe with our Cutie Marks back we can fix things.”

“To the Heart?” Starlight asked.

“I found it. It really is up there at the top of the spire.” Spike chimed in, he was still breathing a bit heavily from how fast he flew down here. “Also I’m like ninety percent sure there are gonna be guards coming really quickly, so we need to move soon.”

“That’s fine, good work Spike.” Twilight smiled at him. “But you’re right, we need to move quickly. So I want the two of you to go get the Crystal Heart. Don’t destroy it.” She narrowed her eyes at Starlight, who whistled innocently. “Just take it down and stop the brainwashing spell that’s being broadcast, that will slowly return all the ponies to normal anyways and we can use it as a bargaining chip against the Empress. When Cadance and Shining Armor took up residence here Cadance had an actual stairway built from inside the castle that anypony could use to reach the spire instead of having to go through what Sombra made. Spike, you know the way so you can lead Starlight there.”

“You got it.” Spike saluted her.

“And you? You’re not coming with us? Should we really split up?” Starlight asked.

“We’re not sure what the Empress is doing right now or what security measures she might have on the Heart. So I want insurance.” She smirked. “Like I said, I’m going to go rescue myself.”

“Good luck.” Starlight said. “Er, make sure you put in a good word for me. Oh and remind them in the first place that I’m the good one.” A sudden thought passed over her face. “And I guess I don’t need to do this anymore.” She untied her mane, letting it go back down a bit and licked her hoof to change her bangs back to its normal curl.

“I was wondering what was up with that.” Spike said.

Starlight and Spike went up a single flight of stairs, Spike actually riding on her back, and cut through another part of the castle to avoid having to go directly back up the path Spike and the Cutie Marks had taken from Empress Starlight’s bedroom. Already when they were going up the stairs they could hear guards funneling down from above, Starlight was more than confident she could deal with any guards but she knew they were on a timetable and didn’t want to be hampered. And if Empress Starlight was with them Starlight didn’t think she would be the type of pony to pull her punches in a situation like this.

“Wow, sounds like the evil version of you here is even crazier than you used to be.” Spike said to her as she related what happened to her and Twilight after they separated.

“Thanks Spike, that’s what I like to hear.” She frowned at him.

“It’s a compliment. Uh, mostly.”

“Sorry if I don’t really take it as one.”

“Is seeing her like seeing how bad you could’ve been?”

Starlight grimaced. In part it was that. She didn’t want to think that she could ever be as bad or as selfish as this version of her had become, but they were the same pony weren’t they? So was part of Empress Starlight in her as well? It was a discomforting thought. At least she could take solace in the fact that she had redeemed herself and renounced her past beliefs. But if she had gone as far as the Empress did or if Twilight and the others hadn’t disrupted her village would she have even done that in the first place? Or cared to? It took seeing the apocalypse for her to admit she might have been wrong. Did she even have the right to criticize her evil self, since she had never been given the chance Starlight had to change?

“It’s not that...” She argued, trying to push those thoughts out of her head. “I just don’t like being reminded of my past in general, okay?”

“Got it.”

“We have to stop her anyways. Forget about all that other stuff for now.”

It was really all she could say. Right now stopping the Empress was more important, they could talk and extend an olive branch later if it was possible. And if she would accept it. But the Crystal Heart came first.

“Take a turn up here so we can get to the other stairs.” Spike directed her. “Stop right above the throne room’s level and the stairs leading up the spire are there in the middle of the floor.”

“Right.” She nodded and galloped along.

As Starlight ran up the stairs and turned on the landing the two were confronted by a squad of four spear carrying guards at the top of the stairs. Their vacant eyes opened wide at what they were seeing and they lowered their spears at Starlight and Spike.

Starlight wasn’t sure if they were going to ask her to halt or if they were just going to attack, and she never would know because a second later she fired a blast of magic from her horn and encased all of them in crystal. The powerful unicorn then jumped over the imprisoned guards and ran down the hallway of the new floor.

“That’s a really useful spell honestly.” Spike said as he looked back at the guards while riding on Starlight.

“Disabling, but safe.” Starlight smirked.

Starlight sped down the hallway at top speed until Spike pointed out a door in the middle of the room to her. She skidded to a halt in front of it and pulled it open with her magic. The room inside was narrow but decorated prettily with numerous flowers in wall sconces and planters that went down from the door to the back of the room. At the back of the room a spiral staircase went up and up into the ceiling and beyond, definitely the way to the spire. The staircase was flanked by two large windows that if it was day would fill up the room with sunlight but for now only showed almost utter blackness through their glass with only the slightest tinge of light from the lights emanated by the Crystal Heart.

“If it wasn’t obvious, that’s the staircase we need to take.” Spike told her.

“I got that. You’re very helpful, Spike.” She ran to the stairs.

“You know I got your Cutie Mark back right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, thank you. Let’s get this over with now!”

The spiral staircase seemed to stretch on to infinity as Starlight ran herself ragged going up it, her hooves clopping and clacking on the polished crystal of the steps. The thought that everything was riding on the two of them is what spurred her on. And the thought that the Empress and her guards were likely well onto the fact that the Crystal Heart was their goal, likely not allowing them much time before Empress Starlight caught up to and found them. Unless she went to where Twilight was or stumbled across her first, but Starlight didn’t want to count on that.

“You think I should get some exercise with Rainbow Dash or Applejack? I’m starting to get a little tired.” Starlight asked Spike.

“I dunno, how often do you need to run up ten-thousand stairs?”

“Not sure. But I feel like I still lead a more active life than most unicorns what with all the adventures. Maybe I should get into a little better shape for it.”

The run up the staircase continued for quite a while longer, the height of the Crystal Castle dwarfing Twilight’s and pretty much any other building Starlight could think of. But the dark stairs started to get faintly brighter the further up they went, as if a light source from up top was slightly illuminating them and washing downwards.

“We must be getting closer now, I can see the lights from the Crystal Heart coming through.” Starlight said.

“Yeah it was pretty bright up there I guess.”

It took a minute longer of the stairs getting brighter and brighter before Starlight and Spike finally made another rotation and saw the light at the end, Starlight practically jumped out and onto the top level of the tower, Spike hanging on so he didn’t fall off of her, and the two of them stared out at the Crystal Heart floating in the center of the very top of the Crystal Castle. The Heart even more vibrant here in the dark and the grand rainbow of lights coming from above it also setting alight the night sky.

“Well there we go. Right where I left it.” Spike said as he jumped off of Starlight’s back.

“Great, let’s grab it.” Starlight started to walk forward.

“Hold on!” Spike walked in front of her and pushed her back. “We don’t know what kind of protection she has on this thing. Sombra had a spell that told him when somepony stepped close to the Heart and then he could like, create this wall of crystals around it that you can’t escape from. Evil you probably has some kind of protection on it too.”

Starlight bit her lip. “I get that but we don’t have the time to just sit here.” Her horn lit up and she attempted to use her magic to just yank the Crystal Heart from where it floated.

But nothing happened.

“Ugh! Of course she’d put some kind of spell on it like that.” Starlight grunted as she tried harder to grab the Crystal Heart but it was like her magic couldn’t grasp it at all.

“You can’t move it with your magic?” Spike asked her.

“No, there’s some kind of protective spell on it. You’re probably right, Spike. I bet there’s some other kind of spell that will trap whoever walks towards it too.” Starlight furrowed her brow at the Heart. “Maybe if I had some time I could undo the spell but not like this.”

“Sooo… what now?” Spike wondered, standing there with his hands on his hips.

“Grr, I don’t know!” Starlight fumed. They were low on time no matter what. Did she take the risk of going closer to the Heart? Did she try and find a way to undo the spell protecting it? Should the both of them maybe just wait for Twilight?

“Maybe if… uh, hm...” Spike also tried thinking but couldn’t come up with anything.

“What would Twilight do right now?” Starlight thought, scratching her head.

And then stopped.

“Actually, you know what? I’m not Twilight. Get ready to catch, Spike.” Starlight jumped forward.

As soon as her body passed over the circle that the Heart floated in the middle of a screeching noise went off and crystals began to claw up from the floor, almost lightning fast they started to form a dome around Starlight to completely cut her off from the outside.

Starlight grit her teeth and propelled herself forward, slapping a hoof upwards to knock the Crystal Heart out of position. It sailed in the air and over the encroaching crystals where Spike jumped to grab it and make sure the thing didn’t shatter on the ground or fall down the castle.

“I’ve got it!” Spike yelled to Starlight.

“Great work, Spike!” Starlight said just as the crystals finished forming the dome around her. “Now I just need to get out of here. Was there any change outside with the lights?”

Spike’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, right.” He turned around to look at the night sky, and just the night sky. No longer were the ambient brainwashing lights reaching out over Equestria from the top of the spire. He grinned and looked over his shoulder to yell at the captive Starlight. “That did it! The lights are gone, moving the Heart must’ve disrupted the spell!”

“Yes!” Starlight did a hoof pump from inside her prison. “Okay, not expecting this to work but let’s see anyways...” She lit up her horn and attempted a teleporting spell… only to smack into the wall of crystal. “Ow… okay, ow, that was a bad idea.” She said as she rubbed her snout. “Ugh, Spike? I’m gonna be stuck in here for a while at least. Take the Heart somewhere where Evil me can’t find it, okay?”

“I’m on it, Starlight. I’ll find Twilight too and she can rescue you.” He saluted and spread his wings, preparing to fly down from the top.

“I figured as much.”

The voice came from the stairwell and it made Spike freeze. It was the same voice as his dear friend but it felt like it had back when he first met her, a mocking insincerity coming from it that was so alien to the Starlight he knew now. Her mane first appeared as she walked up the stairs and the rest of her soon followed, her eyes catching Spike and a soft smile on her face. Spike gulped.

“Spike, right? Apparently you’re good friends with that other me.” She said, briefly glancing at the crystal dome that encased Starlight. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Spike backed up and held on tighter to the Crystal Heart.

Up the stairs Captain Gleam and three more guards came to join Empress Starlight. The brainwashing might no longer be continually refreshing but it would still take some time to wear off completely.

“I’d suggest not doing anything with that Heart.” Empress Starlight told Spike. “In fact if you’d just set it down carefully that would be great.”

“Ignore her, Spike! Just go!” Starlight called out to him.

“Oh I really suggest against doing that.” Empress Starlight narrowed her eyes at Spike. She took a step closer to him.

“You stop right there!” Spike said, holding the Heart above his head.

The Empress paused but quickly smirked at him. “Please. That’s a bad bluff. If you do anything to the Crystal Heart you can say goodbye to your friend in here.” Her horn glowed and she turned to face the crystal prison that held Starlight. The crystals shook and caved in a little bit, pressing closer to Starlight.

“Gah!” She yelped, jumping back from the tightening walls of crystal.

“Starlight!” Spike glared at the Empress. “Stop that!”

“Then give me the Heart!” She yelled at him, familiar vein appearing in her neck.

“Spike, listen to me!” Starlight said, pressing herself against the crystal walls. “Forget about me! Forget about what she’s saying and destroy the Heart! If you do I’m sure the timeline will shift again and we’ll go to a new world! I’m positive! If you just destroy the Heart now we can end all of this!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about but you should quiet down.” Empress Starlight glared at the spot where Starlight was before clamping down on the crystals with her magic some more. “And you!” She turned to Spike. “Like I said, don’t you dare break that Heart. Give it to me.”

Spike didn’t know what to do. Twilight didn’t want them to destroy the Heart either but in a situation like this he wasn’t sure what she’d say. Starlight… was she right? He didn’t honestly have much faith in her knowledge of all this time-traveling and world-hopping. But destroying the Heart would at least put an end to Empress Starlight’s reign. It’s just the cost would be…

“Stop stalling and give it over!” The Empress yelled. “Don’t think you can run away or hide from me either, I’ll catch you.”

The dragon looked from her to the small crystal dome holding Starlight. She was right, he wouldn’t be able to outrun her from here. His claws tightened around the Crystal Heart as he lowered it back to in front of his body. Spike squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth before looking at the evil Empress in front of him again.

“If I give you the Heart… will you promise not to hurt Starlight?”

“Spike, no! Destroy it!” Starlight wailed.

Empress Starlight’s face softened and a warm smile, as fake as that warmth was, spread across her face. “Of course. I promise I won’t even take her Cutie Mark. Not a hair in that mane of hers will be harmed. You two will be my prisoners but I have no desire to see either of you harmed. I’ve never liked hurting anypony.”

Spike sighed, he couldn’t believe what he was about to do. But he also couldn’t let his friend get hurt. He wouldn’t take that chance. “Alright. You win then.” He walked forward and presented the Crystal heart to Empress Starlight.

“Spike...” He heard Starlight mutter from inside the crystals.

“Thank you.” She grabbed the Heart in her magic and nodded at her guards.

Captain Gleam fired a beam of magic at Spike, he winced and grunted as she bound him with her magic. He tried fighting against it but the unicorn was too strong for him to break free.

“Enough of that, I said you would be my prisoners and I meant it.” The Empress glared at him before turning to another guard and hoofing him the Crystal Heart. “Hold this for a moment.”

Empress Starlight’s horn lit up once more and she enveloped the crystal dome with it, all at once the crystals shattered inwards and vanished, leaving nothing but Starlight behind. But she was now held in an aura of her evil counterpart’s own magic that proved to be quite unbreakable. Starlight was levitated stock still and unable to move even an inch or perform any magic of her own as the Empress brought her face to face with her.

“I can’t believe we’re the same pony.” Empress Starlight said in disgust as she looked in the face of her double.

“Back… at… you.” Starlight ground out through her clenched shut jaw.

The Empress rolled her eyes and moved Starlight out of the way, motioning for the guard holding the Crystal Heart to come forward and put it back into position.

“You’re both lucky this is an easy fix.” Empress Starlight said as the Heart easily floated back to where it was and a simple blast of magic from her activated the lights again. “I can’t perform the whole spell on my own, I need the power of all the crystal ponies running through the Heart for that, but putting the passive lights back on that simply refresh and reinforce the original spell? Easy enough.”

Captain Gleam levitated Spike next to Starlight but he was too ashamed to look at her right now.

“But I’m not wasting anymore time with you three.” The Empress continued, drawing the attention of Starlight and Spike. “I was perfectly willing to wait for morning and give you a final night to be yourselves. But if you’re going to attempt something like this you can forget it.” She smirked at Starlight and fired another beam of magic at the Crystal Heart.

The Heart grew brighter and emitted a pulse of magic that spread from the top of the tower to the far reaches of the Crystal Empire.

“What did you do?!” Starlight managed to speak.

Empress Starlight’s malicious smirk grew wider as she smugly stared at her captives. “Heh. Nothing important, that was just a… message, so to speak, sent to all the crystal ponies. Telling them to wake up and come to the castle. In an hour or two the Crystal Heart will be fully powered and the three of you can say goodbye to, well, yourselves.”

As she laughed she and Captain Gleam carried the two prisoners behind them from the top of the castle back down the spiral staircase.

Spike finally got the courage to speak to Starlight, although he still couldn’t look her in the eye with all the dismay and shame written on his face. “Starlight, I-I’m sorry. I just couldn’t-”

“Spike, look at me.” She cut him off.

He looked up to see her giving him a sad but friendly smile and he was certain that if she could right now she’d be giving him a warm hug full of genuine warmth and affection.

“How could I be angry at you for worrying about me?”

Starlight's World VIII

Twilight found her way down below the dungeon and was attempting to find the room where Empress Starlight said she had put her alternate self and all her friends into stasis. Luckily Twilight was quite knowledgeable of the layout of the Crystal Castle and could easily find her way around while avoiding any guards. With her Cutie Mark back the only real problem would be if Empress Starlight came down here herself. Twilight wanted to rescue herself before that possibility occurred. She hoped Spike and Starlight were doing okay, she had faith in their abilities but worried that there would probably be more obstacles for them to go through to get the Heart. But the other option of Starlight being the one to rescue the alternates wasn’t really an option at all. The moment they woke up and saw her… that would end poorly. It needed to be Twilight to free them and explain things to them.

“I just hope nothing bad happens to you two.” She said, thinking about her friends.

And that I have enough time to rescue everypony.

The crystalline corridors were pitch black down here. Any windows that were supposed to let in light were boarded up and no torches had been lit to illuminate things come nightfall. Empress Starlight clearly didn’t want anypony down here. However none of this was a problem to Twilight. A simple light spell on the tip of her horn and she had all the light she needed to see.

“Okay, there are only a few rooms down on this level. I just need to find the one that evil Starlight used as storage for me and my friends.” Twilight was as methodical as ever. If the situation was slightly less dire she might have come up with a song in her head for checking everything.

The flashlight from her horn swept over the first door and Twilight opened it up. A quick scan revealed nothing inside out of the ordinary so the Alicorn frowned and closed it, moving on to the next door.

As she trotted along she heard movement from the floor above her and voices carrying down from the stairs behind her. It seems the guards were searching through the dungeon and might even be down here soon.

That’s not good, better hurry up.

Twilight galloped to the next door and then the next, the dark basement not having much more for her to check. Still nothing as she checked the next one. She was starting to get worried that maybe what Empress Starlight had said was a lie. Maybe they were held somewhere else or there was some secret room Twilight didn’t know about? Maybe the Empress had made an entirely knew room just for them in the first place.

She could hear hooves coming down the stairs now. Regardless of what she found she’d probably have to fight her way back out of here. There was only one door remaining at the far end of the floor away from the stairs. Wishing herself luck, Twilight skidded to a halt in front of it and yanked the door open.

“Of course.” She sighed in relief. “Naturally she’d pick the room furthest from the stairs.”

When Empress Starlight had used this room to hold her world’s Twilight and her friends she did some renovating. Everything nonessential had been cleared out, leaving only the stasis crystals that held the six friends along the back wall. The crystals glowed with a faint blue light, casting an eerie atmosphere across the entire room. But Twilight wasn’t put off by that at all. She was only happy to have found the ponies she was looking for.

Before she could do anything else though she heard a squad of guards come down the stairs onto this floor. Frowning, she stepped into the room and closed the door, placing a barrier of magic around it from the inside. None of those guards would be able to get through something like that.

Satisfied at her defense she turned back to the captive ponies. Twilight steadily walked forward to see how they were doing in there.

“I suppose “stasis” is accurate.” She said as she looked upon them. Herself, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy lied curled up inside crystal pillars as if they were asleep. Physically they seemed fine and uninjured. That was a relief. But they were still stuck.

There suddenly came loud banging on the door to the room but Twilight’s magic held strong, she didn’t even look back at it to make sure it was holding in place.

“So how to free you?” She wondered as she felt a hoof up and down the crystal that held her alternate. “You’re not still awake and just stuck so this isn’t like Starlight’s crystal spell. At least not entirely. Maybe more like a changeling pod?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash would just smash them open. Starlight too probably… I don’t know if I want to take that risk though.

Twilight lit up her horn and pressed it against the crystal, seeing if she could find out anything about it through a magical scan.

With a frown she pulled her horn away after a second. “Well it seems normal enough.” She didn’t like the idea that Starlight could perform a spell or do something she couldn’t figure out. Either version of her.

Twilight furrowed her brow trying to come to a decision. Finally she sighed and dragged a hoof down her face. “I guess I’m going with the Rainbow Dash method.”

She reached out with her magic to enclose the softly glowing crystal, making sure she had an airtight grasp on it before she soaked her magic through and deeper into the crystal. She formed an outline around her imprisoned self, hopefully protecting her from any adverse effects shattering the crystal prison might have. The alternate Twilight was like a glowing ball of magic now and Twilight was ready to free her.

Twilight now started to expand the magic that was inside the crystal. Instead of the magic passing into the crystal like water into a cloth that she had done previously her magic took on a solid state more akin to one of the powerful shields she could summon.

The crystal began to shake and crack as Twilight’s magic started to break it apart from the inside out. She grunted and sweat ran down her brow as she kept expanding the magic, the crystal was tough and shattering it wasn’t easy. But this was Twilight Sparkle we were talking about and she had enough power and skill with magic to beat a simple crystal prison. With a final grunt of exertion Twilight put as much of her strength as she could through her horn and blasted apart the crystal that held her other self.

The other Twilight came tumbling down to the ground, falling spread eagle and groaning weakly as if she had just woken up from being knocked out. Twilight was tired and panting but smiled down at seeing that her alternate was at least awake.

Twilight bent down and helped her other up, her double wobbling a bit as she looked around through bleary eyes. “Where… what happened?” She asked before her eyes finally settled on her rescuer.

“That’s a bit of a long story.” Twilight sheepishly said.

“Apparently so.” Her double looked her up and down. “Did I time travel? Again?”

“Well yes and no. Suffice to say I’m here to help you.”

She stared at her for a second, frowning. “I have… so many questions right now that I want to ask. But I’m assuming we have something bigger to worry about it?”

Twilight nodded. “We don’t have much time so let me give you the short version...”

“You said something back up there that I’m concerned about.” Empress Starlight asked Starlight as she carried her down the stairs in her magic with the others. “That if you destroy the Crystal Heart you’ll have changed things enough here that you’ll shift to a new world? Something like that? I’m curious about what you meant. You already told me that you were time-travelers or something but I’m surprised you’d be willing to take the risk of destroying the Crystal Heart when I had you at my mercy. Were you really sure that you’d just disappear from this world if you did?”

“Who knows.” Starlight snidely said, having a much easier time at talking since the Empress had decided to slightly loosen the magic restraining her. It’s not like Starlight could teleport away or anything anyways.

The Empress glared at her. “I wouldn’t be that way if I were you.” She gave a look to Captain Gleam and the unicorn guard started to squeeze Spike with her magic.

“Ow! Stop it!” Spike yelped.

Starlight choked. “Stop you psycho!” She yelled at her. “How can you do that to Spike?!”

“I meant it when I said I had no desire to hurt anypony.” Empress Starlight said, shrugging. “But this world I’m creating is more important than my desires. Or any one pony’s desires or feelings. I am not about to let a couple of outsiders ruin everything for me when I’m so close.” She stopped, glaring deeply into Starlight’s eyes. “So answer my question.”

Starlight only needed to look at the struggling Spike for a second to decide on what to do. “Okay, just stop hurting him!”

The Empress nodded at the Captain, who relaxed her hold on Spike.

“Now was that so hard?” She chided Starlight.

Starlight stared daggers at her. “How can you do something like that and say you aren’t evil?”

“Don’t call me evil.” The Empress returned her venomous stare with a frown. “Just answer the question already.”

There was a lot more Starlight really wanted to call her right now but with Spike at her mercy she grit her teeth and forced that down. “Fine. It’s like I said up there, I think if we cause a big enough change in this world, such as stopping you, that the timelines will shift again and we’ll be transported out of here.”

“I see. And why would that happen?”

“It’s just a guess.” Starlight continued. “Before we came to this world I had made other changes in the past, but when I did it never felt like we were actually transported or came to a new world. It felt more like a new world branched off or was created then. Spike and I still stayed in the same place.”

“But now you’re here and you figure if you cause a change then instead of things changing around you you’ll instead go back to the timeline you belong.” The Empress mused.

“Yes.” Starlight nodded. “Maybe.”

“Interesting. Well I’m certainly never letting you come close to the Crystal Heart again, if your goal is to make a big change and suddenly leave that makes things pretty easy for you.” She said. “However this still begs the question of how and why you all ended up here in the first place.”

Starlight briefly shared a glance with Spike. “We honestly have no idea. I think we were tossing around the theory of Discord or the Tree of Harmony but we really don’t have a clue either way.”

“I tried my best here to take those two things out of the picture.” Empress Starlight frowned.

“We noticed.” Spike said.

The Empress ignored him and her group of guards continued to carry the two of them down the stairs. Starlight wasn’t sure what she might be thinking about right now but she was fairly sure it wasn’t about how horrible she just behaved.

“I can’t believe you would do something like that to Spike. I can’t believe I would ever do something like that.” Starlight riskily said to her.

“Quiet.” She said without looking back at her.

“Oh? Do you actually feel guilty for that? Ashamed? For a while I thought feeling like that was beyond you.”

"Do you want me to tighten my grip on you so you can’t talk anymore again?” The Empress glared back at her before returning to marching down the stairs

Spike nervously looked back and forth between the two Starlight’s. Wondering if maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to antagonize the evil one. Good Starlight though was just staring at the back of her evil counterpart’s head. Pityingly staring at that old manestyle she used to have. Formal. Mature. But she liked her current mane so much more. The more casual and open look suited her changed self.

“It’s good if you feel bad about it you know.” Starlight whispered. “That means you’re not all the way gone.”

The Empress pretended as if she didn’t hear her.

“Don’t ignore me, look at me. I know you want to just push it out of your mind but do you have any idea how much happier I am than you? How much better things have been for me since I became friends with Twilight?” Starlight tried to plead with her. “Don’t you want friends too? You know when I was sent back in time I could have done anything, but all I wanted to do were things that would help my friends and Equestria. Maybe that was misguided but I didn’t think for a minute to do anything like try and start over with equality and taking away Cutie Marks and all of that. Even with the opportunity presented to me I only wanted to help others. And if I could change that much, if I could go from how I was back in my town to this then the possibility is inside you as well. I know it.”

Empress Starlight continued to walk down the stairs step by step. It looked like she wasn’t going to say anything. Starlight sighed and shut her eyes in dismay.

“You’re worse at this than Twilight.” The Empress finally said. “It’s gone too far anyways.”

“It’s never-urk!” Starlight couldn’t finish as the magical aura around her strengthened and she couldn’t move her mouth anymore.

“So you’re saying there’s a good version of Starlight Glimmer? That’s a little hard for me to believe right now.”

“Yeah I’m gonna have to agree with my Twilight there, sugarcube. That’s a bit of a tough apple to swallow.”

Twilight Sparkle’s explanation had so far gone decently and now she just had to convince them that yes, there was indeed a good Starlight Glimmer. But she couldn’t really blame her other self and the Applejack here for being just a tiny bit unbelieving.

All of the other alternates had been rescued and were readjusting to being outside the crystals. Applejack had recovered the fastest and was standing side by side with her Twilight now while Rainbow Dash was helping steady Fluttershy and Rarity. Pinkie Pie was being Pinkie Pie and poking at the magical barrier on the door that was still holding strong against the repeated poundings of evil Starlight’s guards.

“I know it may be difficult to believe but it’s true. I mean you never would have expected Discord to become good either would you?” Twilight argued. “But anyways that’s not even important right now, you just need to know that the Starlight with her mane done differently is on our side.”

“Well okay, I guess I’ll take your word for it. I mean it would be illogical for me to not believe myself wouldn’t it?” Other Twilight said, rubbing a hoof under her chin as she thought.

“My brain is gonna take a little getting used to there being two of ya.” Applejack shook her head.

"Tell me about it.” Rainbow Dash said over to them while she supported a wobbly-kneed Fluttershy.

“Girls, girls! Check this out, it’s like pink, magical jello!” Pinkie Pie said while poking Twilight’s magical barrier, causing it to ripple like, well, jello.

“Pinkie Pie, stop that!” Both Twilight’s said at once and then looked at each other.

“Oof, that’s not gonna be the only time that happens is it?” Applejack sighed. She looked up and tugged on the rim of her hat. “At least my hat was with me.”

Rarity then walked towards the three of them, she still wasn’t looking one hundred percent okay but she was doing her best to be presentable. “This little meeting is all rather nice darlings but what are we actually going to do now? Thank you for rescuing us and all Miss… other Twilight, but where do we go from here? It seems we’ve already been discovered and cornered.”

“Kind of wondering about that too.” Rainbow Dash said as she floated over to them with Fluttershy lightly walking along beneath her.

“Hi, um, Twilight.” Fluttershy greeted the other (according to her) Twilight with a friendly smile.

“Hi girls.” Twilight smiled and waved at the others despite the weight of the situation.

Pinkie Pie also bounced over to join them all after getting her fill of the barrier. Now all of the alternates, even her other self, were arrayed around Twilight, looking to her for an answer or at least some sort of plan.

“Right.” Twilight coughed into her hoof. “Well first off I’m glad you’re all taking this pretty easily. But I guess considering everything you’ve—we’ve—been through it’s not too much of a surprise.”

“You can say that again.” Rainbow Dash said with a grin. “I’m just mad that we’ve been kooked up in these dumb crystals for, like, how long now?”

“Uh, I’m not really sure.” Twilight shrugged.

“It’s not important. Not now anyways.” The other Twilight said to Rainbow Dash. “Let her finish.” She nodded to her double.

“Thank you. So secondly we don’t really need to worry about the guards out there, either me or… me, can take care of them easily and harmlessly. And there’s no way that the evil Starlight would be able to fight against us both either so I think we’re in a fairly good position there.” She said.

“Well that’s good and all but how do we actually stop her and reverse all this? You said she was gonna activate that brainwashing spell again in the morning and even without it everypony else would still stay brainwashed.” Applejack asked.

“Basically my plan when we first came here was to somehow get the crystal ponies to naturally power up the heart and then I could use my unbrainwashing spell on it and fix Equestria all at once. But I never really figured out how to get that to work in the first place.” Twilight sheepishly answered before furrowing her brow and focusing. “However that was before I learned all of you were here. Even with the Tree and the Elements in the state they’re in you’re still the Elements of Harmony in this world. And together you still have the most powerful magic of all.” She smiled at the six of them.

The other Twilight smiled right back at her. “You think together we can power up the Heart on our own with our own magic and special bond of friendship?”

“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “I truly think you can do it. And when that happens then me, or even my Starlight, can stop the brainwashing.”

“Sounds good to me!” Pinkie Pie said, cheerfully bouncing up and down. “If a random chest that sprouted out of the ground and only existed for one express purpose can make all our hair grow and give us these super cool highlights and enough power to defeat Super Duper Tirek I don’t see why this wouldn’t work!”

“The only problem now is that Empress Starlight isn’t here.” Twilight said, frowning.

Rarity raised an eyebrow at her. “Beg my pardon, darling, but isn’t that a good thing?”

“No.” The other Twilight answered. “Because that means she’s gone up to defend the Crystal Heart from Spike and the other Starlight.”

“Precisely. If the Empress isn’t here by now then that’s exactly what she’s done. If we’re lucky Spike and my Starlight will have succeeded and have control of the Heart, possibly even taking it down already. But if not...”

“Then poor Spikey-wikey might have been captured by that awful tyrant.” Rarity grimaced.

“Oh my, I hope the both of them are okay.” Fluttershy worried.

“Both? You don’t mean that other Starlight do you?” Rainbow questioned her.

“Well… why not? If what Twilight, um, the Twilight from the other world, is saying is true then she’s a perfectly good pony.” Fluttershy patted her hair, turning away from Rainbow’s sharp gaze.

“Ugh, fine.” Rainbow Dash threw up her arms in defeat. She just didn’t have it in her to argue with her oldest friend right now.

“Can we maybe get back on track here?” Applejack said over them.

A slew of apologies came from the others and the six quieted down as they returned to listening to whatever Twilight would tell them next. She waited for all of them to be paying attention (even Dash and Pinkie Pie) before she continued.

“So our next move is pretty simple. We get out of here and go up to the Crystal Heart as well. It’ll either end up with us joining our friends or confronting the Empress. But with all of us together I’m sure we’ll succeed no matter what.” She confidently grinned at them.

“Alright, that’s what I wanted to hear. No more talking, it’s time to kick butt!” Rainbow Dash exaggeratedly punched and kicked at the air.

“I hope it actually isn’t.” Fluttershy gulped.

“Whatever time it is we should probably get moving.” Rarity fluffed her mane. “I can’t abide thinking about Equestria being in this state any longer.”

“Rarity has the right of it.” Other Twilight said before turning to… the other Twilight. “We’ll follow your lead.”

“Thanks. We’ll incapacitate these guards and head up to the main room of the castle, and from there to the spire. Let’s go.” Twilight steeled herself and held her face in a tight frown. The time for talking was over. With a quick blink from her horn the barrier around the door disappeared and the squad of Starlight’s guards spilled into the room.

Empress Starlight, Captain Gleam, the other guards, Starlight, and Spike all stood within the main hall of the Crystal Castle. Well stood was a little inaccurate for Starlight and Spike. They floated beside the others, still caught in their captors magical hold. Empress Starlight looked out down the large room at the door at the far end with a pleased and patient smile on her face. The doors to the throne room were shut behind them and the stairs and other hallways to their right and left were currently quiet and devoid of guards. Outside the windows that lined this room there was still nothing but blackness and the faintest light generated from the Crystal Heart.

Starlight’s eyes shifted around in her binding, trying to figure out why they were here and if there was anything else in the room she was missing.

The Empress quickly noticed her confusion and rolled her eyes. “Fine, you can speak again if you want.”

Starlight felt the magic around her weaken slightly and she took a deep breath before voicing her thoughts. “Why are we here? What are you waiting for?”

“Please.” Empress Starlight scoffed. “As if it wasn’t obvious what your Twilight was doing while you went for the Heart? By now she’s had more than enough time to rescue the Elements of Harmony of this world. Through here is the only way from the bottom portion of the castle to get up to the top. She’ll be through in a moment and then we can finally put an end to this. I already have the crystal ponies moving to power the Heart again, by now there’s maybe an hour or an hour and a half at most before they get the Heart back to full power. But I’m not just going to sit idly by and wait for that, I’ll be stopping both Twilight’s from doing anything.” She glanced at Starlight and Spike. “It’s a good thing I have some excellent bargaining chips right now too.” Her eyes then briefly flickered to the door to the throne room. “And even a pair of aces up my sleeve.”

“Your talent for analogies puts mine to shame.” Starlight snarked at her.

“Go easy on her Starlight, without any friends what else does she have to do than come up with stuff like that in her spare time.” Spike mocked her.

The Empress glared at the both of them. “I’ve never seen two creatures who wanted to be punished so badly. And those were metaphors.”

“Psh, dork.” Spike said, getting Starlight to chuckle along with him at the Empress.

A vein pulsed on Empress Starlight’s forehead. With a twitching eye she went back to looking at the far door. “You both have a penchant for making me regret being even slightly lenient with you.”

“It’s good to lighten the mood in situations like this. It can help clear your mind.” Starlight said with a smirk on her face. But the smirk quickly vanished and she frowned, seriously staring down the side of Empress Starlight’s head, daring her double to meet her gaze. “Which is useful since we are definitely not going to let you succeed here. Count on it.”

The Empress was going to retort, was going to angrily shoot her another glare and tell her to shut her trap, but-

“Empress, look.” Captain Gleam said, pointing down the hall.

Out the doorway there walked Twilight Sparkle… and another Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. The Empress’s face softened and she returned to smiling, satisfied that her prediction was right. Meanwhile the seven slowly walked towards them, or lightly flew along in Rainbow Dash’s case, they had noticed The Empress’s party immediately but aside from a few frowns or nasty looks didn’t react. It was clear they were letting the Twilight not from this world take the lead. Empress Starlight watched as she marched forward with a determined look on her face, the Empress not letting any of this phase her at all.

Finally when they had covered half the distance Empress Starlight called out to them.

“I think that’s far enough.”

Twilight and the others stopped. Rainbow Dash’s face scrunched in annoyance but even she didn’t do anything.

“So here we all are.” The Empress said through her mocking smile.

Twilight ignored her, looking to her side to see if Starlight and Spike were okay. Although she didn’t show it on the outside she still winced, knowing that the Heart was still under their enemy’s control.

“Hello, Starlight.” The other Twilight said as she walked forward to stand side by side with Twilight. “I’m… disappointed that things have come down to this.”

Empress Starlight frowned. “I’m not.”

“Ugh, so what are we all just standing around for?!” Rainbow Dash finally impatiently let out.

“You’re standing around for me not hurting your friends.” The Empress nonchalantly said to her. “Well, not your friends. But you’re not the type of ponies who’d allow something like that anyways.” She smirked. “And now what’s going to happen is you’re all going to quietly give up and let me imprison you in crystal again until the brainwashing spell is activated.”

“That’s not going to happen!” Both Twilight’s said together.

“That’s right! Don’t let this nutjob get her way, Twilights!” The good Starlight said, giving a smug grin to her evil self.

The Empress huffed. “So you don’t care what happens to these two? Don’t even try to bluff that.”

“You can’t restrain Starlight and fight at the same time. And if it comes down to a fight it’s obvious who has the advantage here.” Twilight (the first one) said. “We can save her and Spike easily. Your guards are no threat and you know it too.”

It was silent in the hall for a moment. The Empress’s face was like a stone mask that didn’t give away anything… until an evil smile slowly worked its way across it.

“You want to see who really has the advantage here?” She tapped her hoof on the ground.

The doors to the throne room opened up. Both of the Twilight’s horns lit up, preparing for what might be coming. The others as well tensed up, getting ready to fight, and Starlight and Spike both fought against the magic holding them to turn their heads and see what was coming out of the throne room.

Two ponies. Just two ponies walked out.

But they still caused everypony else to gasp or recoil in shock and anger. Starlight and Spike both sadly looked at the new arrivals while the Twilight’s eyes widened in horror.

“Shining… Cadance...” They both muttered. Neither could help stop the tears starting to form in their eyes, even for the Twilight Sparkle who technically wasn’t related to them it was still gut-wrenching.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadance strode forth to stand slightly behind Empress Starlight. The poor ponies featured the same dull eyes as every other brainwashed pony and gave no indication that they knew the ones arrayed against them.

“As you can see.” Empress Starlight said. “I think that evens the playing field if it comes down to a fight. And with my hostages I think it’s plain for the seven of you to see who’s really in control here.”

“Twilight, forget us! You can still win, just fight her!” Spike yelled to them.

This time the Empress didn’t even bother telling him to be quiet, so assured she was of her position.

The Twilight’s looked between each other, unsure looks on their faces. With Shining Armor and Cadance there their enemy had more than enough power to stop them from rescuing either Starlight or Spike.

Applejack came up behind the two Twilight’s to whisper in their ears. “What do we do?”

Both of them looked around at their friends to see an array of worried and hesitant expressions on their faces. Really what did they do now? Empress Starlight had the Heart, she had hostages, she had backup, there didn’t look like there was a way out.

“I… I don’t know.” Alternate Twilight said while her double just nervously stared at the Empress.

Meanwhile unbeknownst to anypony else Starlight was taking the opportunity to practice if she could use her magic despite the vice grip of her evil double. It felt like trying to squeeze out the last drop from a seemingly barren tube of toothpaste. But if she could just do something it would mean a lot. Thankfully Empress Starlight was distracted and while Shining Armor and Cadance could see what she was doing they didn’t move or react to it at all.

“You can quit stalling and give up already.” The Empress called out to the two Twilight’s and the others. “It’s over. But if you’re so inclined to keep fighting and trying to stop me even now...” She trailed off and nodded to Captain Gleam.

The Captain’s horn glowed brighter and she started to squeeze Spike again.

“Grrr!” Spike grunted as he felt the magic closing around him, trying to out-muscle it but just not being strong enough.

“Ahhh!” Rarity screamed as she watched and Fluttershy’s breath hitched.

“Stop!” Both Twilight’s pleaded with her, almost attacking then and there.

With another nod from her leader Captain Gleam relented and Spike wheezed a sigh of relief. The atmosphere in the main hall had taking a decidedly cold turn.

“Have you made your decision now?” The Empress stoically asked.

Rainbow Dash was on the verge of exploding and Applejack would’ve been right behind her. Pinkie Pie gulped, ready to act at a moment’s notice, wishing she could help Spike. Rarity’s earlier horror was now replaced with a white hot anger at the despot in front of her and even Fluttershy couldn’t believe what she had just seen. But the two Twilight’s only shared a sad look with each other and nodded in affirmation.

“We’re willing to do what you say...” They started, drawing startled looks from their friends and a smirk from the Empress. “But only if you turn over Starlight and Spike and take us as hostages instead.”

“Hah!” The Empress barked out. “Fine! Good riddance to these two, you wouldn’t believe how annoying they are anyways.” She narrowed her eyes at the Twilight’s. “I want just the two of you to walk forward. The rest of you can stay back there.” She motioned to Captain Gleam and had her walk with her, carrying Spike behind her.

“No, Twilight! You can’t listen to her!” Spike yelled.

Starlight was pulled along too by the Empress, she watched as both of the Twilight’s dolefully walked forward, there wasn’t anything they could do now.

The five ponies and one dragon had almost met, each hoofstep bringing defeat closer and closer.

I have to think of something! Starlight thought, feeling the bit of magic she could summon in her horn. Anything, anything at all that can stop this… I can’t teleport, I can’t break free, what can I do?! Starlight wracked her brain trying to come up with something.

And finally she did.

I hope this works…

“Hey! Twilight and Twilight! Get ready!” Her horn lit up with a wild discharge of magic. Both Twilight’s stepping back in surprise.

The Empress’s face swung to look at her. “Stop! What are you-”

But before she could finish or clamp down on Starlight’s magic the spell erupted, a cascade of glowing teal magic exploded all throughout the main hall, blinding and washing over everypony irregardless of them being friend or foe. Empress Starlight, both Twilight’s, all their friends and Starlight herself felt a strange and foreign sensation overtake their bodies from the magic.

And everypony had their Cutie Mark swapped.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2ISRMSIyX8

Starlight's World IX

“Woah! Look at this, I got Shining Armor’s Cutie Mark!” Rainbow Dash said as she flew above the heads of the other ponies, pointing at her flank and the newly acquired Cutie Mark. “Can I like make huge shields or something now even though I’m a pegasus? Oh! What if I could like, make them around me and fly into stuff all super fast? I’d be invincible!” She tightly squeezed her eyes shut and grunted while straining hard trying to imagine and create a big bubble shield around her. “Come on, come on!”

She opened her eyes to see nothing.

“Lame!” She folded her forelegs in disappointment and floated down to the ground with a big frown on her face. “Twilight, tell me how to do magic and stuff!”

Rarity meanwhile was having a different problem...

“This is just horrible! My beautiful Cutie Mark gone and replaced with, with… apples!” Rarity screeched as she looked at Applejack’s Cutie Mark on her flank. “This is unbearable! I don’t want to be an apple farmer the rest of my life, why couldn’t I get Princess Cadance’s Cutie Mark?” She asked, looking over at her apple farming friend.

“I’d gladly give it to you.” Applejack looked in dismay at the Princess’s Cutie Mark that now adorned her. “Does this mean I can make ponies fall in love or something? How does this work again?”

Alternate Twilight meanwhile was staring in annoyance at the three balloons on her flank. “Well that’s great, now I get to be a party pony.”

“Hey! What’s wrong with being a party pony?!” Pinkie Pie said as she pouted, exaggeratedly puffing up her cheeks. Incidentally one of the Twilight’s Cutie Marks was on her flank. For all the good it could do there.

“Nothing.” Alternate Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s just not very useful in this situation, Pinkie.”

“Tell me about it.” Twilight Sparkle not from the current dimension said. She was looking in consternation at the three little butterflies on her flank. “Er, sorry Fluttershy. No offense.”

“Oh, none taken.” The yellow pegasus shook her head, telling Twilight not to worry. “I know this is a pretty trying time for us all and, well… this isn’t very helpful to anypony is it?” She looked down and pointed at her flank which had one of the Starlight’s Cutie Marks on it.

Both Twilight’s then looked across the room at Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Taking in with no small amount of amusement the realization that Shining had received Rarity’s Cutie Mark. And with far less amusement they saw the other Starlight Glimmer Cutie Mark had made its home on the flank of the Princess, that meant she could probably fight even better than before if the Empress told them to attack.

Spike in the meantime pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off after being unceremoniously dropped on the floor when Starlight’s spell went off. Looking back at Captain Gleam he could see her clearly trying to focus some power into her horn but it wasn’t working. Thanks to her armor he couldn’t tell what new Cutie Mark she had but it definitely didn’t help with magic.

“Well this was not one of my better thought out ideas.” The good Starlight said as she looked around at everypony before glancing down at her own flank and seeing the cloud and lightning bolt Cutie Mark of Rainbow Dash. “Hm, that could actually be useful here though. And since I used the spell while impaired on a bunch of ponies instead of just a couple I doubt the swap will even last an hour...” She then looked at her evil self, who was intently staring at her own new Cutie Mark. “What did she—oh. Crud.”

Both Twilight’s trotted over to stand by Starlight’s side even though they couldn’t offer much help.

“What Cutie Mark did the Empress-” They both said before stopping. “Uh oh.”

Empress Starlight grinned as she looked at the six-pointed star Cutie Mark on her flank that previously belonged to one of the Twilight’s. She slowly turned to face her now very worried opponents, looking just as smug as before. “Well, I can work with this.”

She menacingly stepped forward, her horn lighting up with magic just as powerful as she could normally summon. The two Twilight’s took a step back in concern.

“Sadly for you it seems things haven’t really changed. That swap may have disoriented me enough for you to slip out to safety but now I think I’ll just take care of all three of you right now.” She smiled evilly.

“Any other bright ideas?” One of the Twilight’s asked good Starlight. She wasn’t exactly sure which at this point.

Starlight frowned and instead of backpedaling to get away from her evil twin she stepped forward. “You can’t threaten me, me. And you don’t seem to realize that this situation has actually changed quite a bit. Not just because I’m free either but because you never learned how my friends all got their Cutie Marks did you?”

The Empress scowled at her, aiming her horn and finally preparing to just blast the annoyance that was her double away. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“You’re right to think you can beat us in a fight now. Without my normal Cutie Mark I can’t fight you at all. But I never intended to fight after seeing that I had Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark. Rainbow Dash got this in racing. See ya.” Starlight grinned and with an unnatural and completely un-unicorn speed, ran off past the Empress before she could react, racing to the stairs on the side of the hall that would take her up a level and eventually back to the long winding stairs that led to the Crystal Heart. “Everypony, stall for me!”

The pair of purple Alicorns looked at her blurry form in shock for a second before sharing a glance and nodding at each other. “Good luck, Starlight!” They said in unison and turned to face the Empress.

“Out of my way!” She yelled at them and effortlessly pushed them aside with her magic, levitating herself she sped after Starlight, intending to catch her before she could reach the Crystal Heart again.

“Oof, that didn’t go well.” Alternate Twilight said as she shook her head and watched both Starlight’s rush out of the main hall.

“Let’s go and make sure Starlight’s okay!” Rainbow Dash said and prepared to fly off herself… before she was smashed to the ground with a hammer of magic courtesy of Princess Cadance. “Ow. Forgot they were here.”

“Cadance!” Not-Alternate Twilight said as she turned to her foalsitter.

Shining Armor, Princess Cadance and the guards were arrayed to attack them, Empress Starlight must’ve sent a signal to them to keep her other enemies occupied while she chased down her good self.

“So it comes down to this, huh?” Applejack said as she walked forward to stand beside the Twilight’s. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we can deal with them without getting too rough.”

“Quite right.” Rarity said, joining them.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie bounced into place.

“Um, y-yeah.” Fluttershy demurely pumped a hoof.

Spike however was torn, he wasn’t sure if he should stay here and help them or go help Starlight. The dragon fidgeted and his hands shook. Starlight was all alone now and facing down a complete nutjob with powerful magic. She probably needed his help more than the Twilight’s and the others did, right?

“Ugh, you guys!” Spike yelled, catching the attention of his friends. “I… I… I’m going to go help Starlight! Sorry!” Spike flapped his wings and flew into the air. But he didn’t follow the two Starlight’s. He gathered up enough momentum and flew straight to one of the windows leading outside the castle.

This is gonna hurt. Spike closed his eyes and covered his head as he smashed into and through the window. “Owww, that’s gonna leave a mark...” He sorely flapped his wings to stay in the air, looking up at the brightly lit spire on top of the Crystal Castle. Now he had a straight path.

“Good luck, Spike!” Both Twilight’s called out to him after wincing at his window demolition.

“Can somepony help me here?!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Get back here you twit!” Empress Starlight yelled at the running form of her other self. She was wreathed in an aura of magic as she flew through the castle, it was the closest way she could come to matching her opponent’s newfound speed.

“Nope!” Starlight yelled back at her. Her body felt so much lighter and agile than it really was, it may not have been made for this but with the power of Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark she felt like she could outrun anypony right now. She was so fast and could effortlessly gallop up the stairs and take corners without losing any speed it was like she had wings of her own. She felt like a professional racer who had been doing this all her life.

A blast of magenta magic went right past her head and blew a hole in the wall. Starlight shrieked and looked over her shoulder to see the angry Empress getting ready to fire again.

“Uh oh.”

“That was your last warning!” The Empress yelled and shot another beam of magic directly at Starlight.

Starlight deftly side-stepped out of the way of it, the beam blasting the floor in front of her and leaving a smoking crater for her to jump over. More and more energy blasts came at her from behind and Starlight had to juke, duck and dodge all of them. Sometimes kicking off the wall, sometimes just barely twisting her body out of the way. The agility granted to her may have been even more useful than the raw speed when it came to avoiding the dangerous magical beams in a small hallway.

“Are you even trying to hit me?” Starlight taunted her evil self.

“The more you run the worse you’re gonna get!” The Empress angrily yelled at her, vein popping out of her neck.

“You’ll have to catch me first, slowpoke!” Starlight snickered and kept running full speed ahead. “I feel like this Cutie Mark is even making me act like Rainbow Dash.” She said to herself.

“Grah!” Empress Starlight telekinetically tore pieces of crystal out of the walls around her and flung them at Starlight too. Instead of a more precise beam she spun around the pieces she was throwing and created a whirlwind of debris that would swallow up Starlight.

No dodging that… Starlight knew it was impossible to avoid something like that in a hallway but she didn’t need to fret. Speed was still by far in her favor.

With a steady breath and long exhale Starlight pushed herself even harder, the second wind boosting her already great speed and sending her galloping down the hallway and putting more than enough space between her and the spiraling whirlwind. A turn in the hallway was coming up and if she could just keep up this speed the whirlwind would crash into the wall while she safely made her way even closer to the Heart.

With a look over her shoulder Starlight could see the Empress frightfully flying forward as fast as she could with the jagged crystal debris tornado in front of her tearing apart the walls and floor of the hallway along the way.

“Yeesh.” Starlight grimaced. “That’d hurt.” But her grimace quickly turned to a grin as she saw that she would easily beat the whirlwind to the turn. Right as it came up Starlight skidded and drifted into the turn in the hallway, hardly losing any momentum at all before bolting off again.

The whirlwind crashed into the wall behind her with an ear-splitting shriek. Parts of the wall were blown apart and large cracks spider-webbed out in every direction. The entire hallway shook around Starlight from the force of the blow and she breathed a sigh of relief that she had avoided being hit by that. It would just take one more flight of stairs and she’d be on the level where the special staircase leading up to the spire would be. Starlight smiled in eagerness as her goal approached.

And as Empress Starlight rounded the corner herself she could see she was losing her opponent and grit her teeth in anger.

“You think you can get away from me?!” The Empress’s horn lit up and she used a spell that Starlight was familiar with, one to lower friction and wind-resistance. It wasn’t by much but it did allow her to fly faster down the tight hallways.

“Well if you think that’s all it’s gonna take then you’ve got another thing coming!” Starlight continued to taunt her.

“That’s not all!” Empress Starlight strained and fired a powerful beam of magic… backwards. Propelling herself forward with incredible speed that even Starlight couldn’t outdo.

“Oh.” Starlight gulped as she watched the Empress shoot towards her.

The weakness of what the Empress was doing though was that she didn’t have any control, it worked for a straightaway like this but once they came to the stairs or any turns she’d have to turn off the beam of magic and slow herself down well in advance. Starlight just had to pull out every bit of strength inside of her and make it to the stairs first.

Meanwhile on the outside of the castle Spike flew as fast as he could back to the top. Fatigue? What fatigue? His wings could bother him later. That was future Spike’s problem. Right now he had a mission.

Because what Spike realized was that even if Starlight beat her evil clone to the Crystal Heart she still wouldn’t be able to touch or move it without getting immediately trapped afterwards. So Spike was racing towards the top of the spire to make sure he could get to the Heart before either of them.

“I saved the Crystal Empire once and I can do it again!” Spike psyched himself up as the top of the castle steadily approached.

Even without his magic Shining Armor was a big and very physically fit pony. Despite Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s best efforts to subdue him he continuously bucked them off of his back and was proving to be an unstoppable force without the aid of any magic on their side to take care of him. And thanks to having one of the Starlight’s Cutie Marks Princess Cadance was able to keep the others at bay and support the guards with powerful beams and shields.

Seeing that they were losing ground the heroes switched strategy, the other fliers besides Rainbow Dash took to the air to draw Cadance’s attention while the others fought on the ground. The benefit to fighting in the main hall was how much space there was to fly around in it.

“This is crazy!” Twilight Sparkle (the one that came with Starlight and Spike) yelled as she dodged a laser-focused beam of magic from her former foalsitter.

“You don’t need to tell me twice!” Alternate Twilight said as she ducked out of the way of a spear thrown by Captain Gleam.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy looked on in horror as her friend was almost shishkabobed. “I really wish they would calm down and stop fighting us. I don’t want anypony to get hurt.”

Now without Cadance’s support and defense Rarity was putting her newly gained bucking powers to good use. Any guard that got too close to her was summarily knocked into next week. And while Pinkie Pie may have temporarily been a magic Earth pony and not the super party pony she normally was she was still as unpredictable and wild as ever, bouncing up and down and running the hopeless guards around in circles and knots trying to get them to trip over and run into each other.

Finally it ended up with Captain Gleam rushing the pink menace from the front while the only other guard still on his hooves came at her from behind. With the same big smile always on her face Pinkie Pie laughed and hopped slightly to the left and let the two headbutt each other. Knocking them both out cold.

“Oh dear.” Fluttershy winced. The whole former platoon of guards lay moaning or simply unconscious on the crystal floor around Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

“Good work, y’all!” Rarity said as she ran up to Pinkie Pie. And then froze, realizing what she just said. “Did I just say y’all?! Egads! This here Cutie Mark swap is getting plum crazy!” She gasped. “Ahhhh! Make it stop!”

“I don’t even talk like that...” Applejack muttered from the wildly bucking Shining Armor’s back as she held him in a chokehold.

Rainbow Dash was simultaneously biting his tail to keep him from running while still trying to see if she could magically make a shield appear around her.

From high up at the ceiling Fluttershy and the two Twilight’s continued to avoid Cadance’s attacks and draw her attention. If she started helping out Shining Armor things could turn bad but they didn’t seem to have any interest in each other… which was sad but fortunate.

“She’s the only real threat now.” Alternate Twilight said. “The only problem is I have no idea how to stop her.”

“We’ll think of something.” Twilight said.

A massive blast of magic shot past her and nearly tore a hole right through the castle.

“Soon hopefully.” Both said at once.

As Starlight hopped up the first flight of stairs the Empress careened into them like a missile right behind her, obliterating the steps and knocking Starlight to the ground on the next landing from the force of the shockwave.

“Ugh, forgot she was a wacko...” Starlight said as she got up and shook herself off.

The Empress had decided to forego slowing down at all and instead just formed a shield around herself at the last second. As the dust settled she calmly stood in the crater her impact had created in the stairs, staring down Starlight standing right above her.

“I’m not going to ask you to come quietly anymore.” The Empress said in a threatening whisper. “Because now? I’m going to relish in this.” Her horn lit up and a burst of several beams of magic shot from it at Starlight.

The running unicorn jetted up the stairs as fast as she could again before the first beam came down aimed right at the middle of her back. Starlight dodged the attack… only for it to instead of explode when hitting the floor to bounce off the polished crystal. All the following beams too now ricocheted off the floors and walls, creating an endless stream of danger that Starlight had to repeatedly dodge as she ran her way up the stairs. Luckily she only had to go up the single floor before she was at the hallway where the room leading up to the spire was. But even with the nearly supernatural speed and agility afforded her by the foreign Cutie Mark she still had trouble avoiding the dangerous and random magic from her evil counterpart.

“This is not good.” Starlight grunted as she jumped up the top of the stairs and sped down the hallway to the room she had just earlier been in this night.

Dozens of lasers kept coming after her and right behind those rose Empress Starlight. Encasing herself in another orb of magic in case any of her lasers rebounded at her as she flew towards her prey.

Starlight ducked out of the way of a sizzling beam of magic that went right by her head. She skidded to a halt in front of the door and looked behind her. It was almost like her vision turned to slow motion as she saw the lasers of magic bearing down on her with a grinning Empress also coming right at her. Her hoof moved lightning fast to open up the door and Starlight jumped inside as the energy beams and Empress collided into the spot she was just standing in before. The door was blown apart and Starlight was again knocked forward by the shockwave.

This time however she took no time to rest, regain her bearings, or allow the Empress to ready an attack again. Instead Starlight just ran for the spiral staircase that stood at the back of the room.

She could hear a roar from behind her as she made it to the staircase and felt the heat from a powerful energy wave pour across her back. But no more than that as she made her way back up the stairs. For now she was in the clear and she was certain there was no way the Empress could overtake her. Starlight was the one who would reach the Crystal Heart first. Her goal was practically in sight already.

Starlight could still hear the raging Empress coming behind her up the stairs and every now and then another ricocheting beam of magic was fired up at her from around the corner, but despite her exhaustion and the sweat nearly running down her body in rivers by this point Starlight didn’t let a single attack hit her.

“Your aim is terrible!” Starlight couldn’t help but yell back at her.

“So are your taunts!” Came from below.

Starlight grinned as she realized how she was getting to the Empress. “Better than your comebacks!”

“Quiet!”

“Oh, that again? You must really be at your wit’s end.” She laughed as the race up the stairs continued. At the speed they were going they must almost be at the top.

Spike also was just about at the top of the tower. He put all his energy into a final spurt to close the gap and reach the Crystal Heart again. Doing this flight twice in a day certainly took its toll on him but until he got to the Heart he wouldn’t slow down one bit. With greater speed than the tiny purple dragon had ever flown in his life Spike shot above the edge of the top floor. The Crystal Heart still floating there like normal and emitting the brainwashing lights of Empress Starlight.

“Gotcha.”

Spike was about to grab it when he heard noise coming up from the stairs. He stopped and grimaced at the stairwell beneath him before returning his attention to the Heart.

“I really hope you kept up your lead, Starlight.” Spike said and flew towards the Heart.

Again, the moment he crossed into the center crystals shot up from the floor, seeking to cage him and the Heart in together. But just like Starlight before Spike was fast enough to knock the Heart down and send it clattering to the floor near the edge of the tower before the crystals completely walled him off.

Just then Starlight jumped from the stairs, as she looked around she was surprised to see what had happened, not knowing that Spike had flown up here.

“Starlight! If that’s you the Heart is right behind the crystal cage!” Spike yelled from inside his prison.

“Got it!” She yelled and began to move-

When a blast of magic hit the ground at her hooves and knocked her into one of the pillars at the top of the tower.

“Oof!” The wind was knocked out of her but she rose back up as quickly as she could.

“You were finally close enough.” Empress Starlight said as she floated to the top of the stairs and landed on the floor, momentarily lowering her magic.

The two Starlight’s stood there, face to face. Neither made a move yet. The Crystal Heart was on the ground on the other side of the spire, out of both of their view’s. Starlight had speed but at this range the Empress’s magic still gave her the advantage and they both knew it.

A single bead of sweat dripped down the side of Starlight’s head before falling to the ground with a plop.

And it was at that instant that a blinking glow overtook both their flanks and their Cutie Mark’s returned to normal.

Author's Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7O91GDWGPU

Three chapters remaining.

Starlight's World X

While the lights had disappeared thanks to Spike, and despite it being the dead of night and still hours before morning, the crystal ponies were gathering in the streets of the Crystal Empire. If one were to ask them why they wouldn’t respond. There was simply some unknown force telling them to wake up and gather outside the castle. Even the non-crystal ponies that lived in the Empire like Sunburst were woken up and took to the streets, preparing for… something. The brainwashing and control of Empress Starlight didn’t give them much room to think about why they did things and until she directed them again to power up the Crystal Heart they would just endlessly mill about below the castle. Or not really so endlessly. With Spike having disrupted the spell the ponies of the Empire and the rest of Equestria would return to normal in a few hours. But that was long enough.

Empress Starlight briefly looked down at her returned Cutie Mark before flickering her eyes back to Starlight. “Weren’t we just here?”

Starlight panted and sweated heavily, the exhaustion from the run now hitting her full force with the disappearance of Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark and reappearance of her own. “It’s the place to be...”

“You look tired.”

“Maybe a little.”

The advantage was still clearly with the Empress and neither one of them was closer to the Heart than the other. There were no tricks Starlight could pull, no shortcuts to take, she had nothing up her sleeve anymore. The two of them mostly knew each others full capabilities now but not only was the Empress far less worn out but Starlight was also sure she was far more willing to hurt her. There wouldn’t be any pulled punches coming from her enemy.

She wasn’t sure how long the Empress would allow her to catch her breath. Starlight wanted to buy some time so instead of initiating the fight again she decided to talk. And truth be told she did want to try and talk to the Empress first anyways. As well aware she was that most likely anything she said would fall on deaf ears.

“You don’t have to do any of this you know.” Starlight tried to reason with her.

The Empress giggled, holding a hoof in front of her mouth. “Of course I don’t have to.” Her expression turned dark and she growled at Starlight. “I just really want to.”

Starlight sighed. “Don’t you see there’s no point to all of this? You’ll never get what you want.”

“I have a plan, I’ve already told you.” She glared at her.

Starlight just stared at her double for a moment before responding. “I think I know what you really want a lot better than you do.”

“Again?” The Empress rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to try giving me another speech are you? I think I’ve had to listen to you and Twilight Sparkle, both of them, prattle on about friendship enough. You can stop trying to convince me.”

“No, no, I’m not going to do that.” Starlight shook her head. “I didn’t think I’d be able to change your mind with words or get you to stop. I just wanted to give you the chance. The same opportunity I had.” She briefly looked out at the dark sky. “You still have the choice. The spell is deactivated and if things stay like this the brainwashing will naturally go away in just a few hours. You can just stand down and let it happen. We don’t have to fight.”

Empress Starlight yawned and took a big stretch. She too looked out at the dark sky, and then the crystal prison that Spike was inside. Her patronizing smile returned to her face as she looked back to Starlight. “I’m sorry, but I think I’ll have to decline that offer.”

“Yeah. I figured you would.”

Inside his cage of crystals Spike could hear the return to silence. His body had no more sweat to give as he pressed himself against the wall of crystal to get as close to the two Starlight’s as possible. There wasn’t anything he could say, his heart pounded in his chest in anticipation, knowing that the next sound would indicate the start of the final fight between the two out there.

There was no signal. No sudden movement. Both of their horns merely lit up at the same time.

Starlight and the Empress fired twin beams of teal magic at each other that exploded in between them, their powers equal. With the smoke from the explosion blocking their view of each other Starlight took the opportunity to run around the crystal cage to where the Heart lied, if she could’ve just gotten in view of it she could grab it or blast it.

That was the plan at least. But Empress Starlight knew what she would do and also ran around the cage to protect the Heart. Both rounded the corner at the same time and Starlight shot an energy ball to shatter the Heart but the Empress fired her own blast that deflected the ball before it could hit.

Starlight tried to grab the Heart with her magic… and only too late remembered there was a spell on it protecting it from such things. This lapse in defense allowed Empress Starlight the opportunity to attack her freely. The Empress summoned a massive amount of magic power on her horn and fired a huge blast of magical energy at the wide-eyed Starlight. The energy completely swallowed the side of the spire they were on and careened off into the night sky. Bright and powerful enough to even draw the attention of some of the ponies down below, the light would’ve temporarily blinded anypony looking at it from close up in the middle of the night.

Even though the Empress had shut her eyes when she unleashed the blast she still had to blink her eyes once or twice for her vision to fully return thanks to the dazzling flash of her own power, but the lack of her double standing in front of her when it did brought a delighted smirk to her face.

“And goodbye, me.” The Empress said to herself.

“Not quite yet.” Came Starlight’s voice from the floor.

Empress Starlight looked down in anger to see Starlight spread flat like a pancake on the floor, the slightest depression in the crystal dug out by her magic at the last second.

“I knew you had to leave some space above the floor so you didn’t blow away the Heart with that attack too.” She grinned at the Empress and stood back up, briefly glancing down at the Crystal Heart still right in the middle of the two of them.

“Well good for you.” The Empress sarcastically remarked. “So what? Back to where we started and you’ll still tire far faster than I will. I’m getting that Heart back.”

“No.” Starlight shook her head. “I’m getting it.”

The two stared each other down for a second—and then both teleported directly in front of the Crystal Heart, Empress Starlight already in mid swing and punching Starlight square in the face. Starlight was knocked backwards, rolling end over end until she came to a stop right at the edge of the spire.

“You lose!” Empress Starlight jumped over the Heart and raced towards Starlight with her horn glowing, ready to finish things.

Whether it was the crystal-encasing spell, the Cutie Mark removal spell, a simple energy beam or something even more dangerous, Starlight didn’t know. And she didn’t care.

“I was counting on you being willing to hurt me like that.” Starlight grinned and her horn flashed.

But instead of attacking or making a shield like the Empress expected Starlight transformed into a filly and ran right between her legs. Now with no obstacle between her and the Heart.

“What the?!” Empress Starlight yelled in surprise.

“This is a spell I only made because I reconnected with Sunburst!” Starlight shouted back to her, grin on her face. Right as she reached the Crystal Heart she turned back into her adult self and grabbed the Heart up in her hooves, sliding around to look at the dumbstruck expression on Empress Starlight’s face. “Is it irony or poetic justice that I beat you because of how I changed?”

There was no more smugness or mocking cruelty on the face of the Empress. For the first time Starlight had seen her she saw fear in her expression. Her eyes even looked like they might start to tear up in despair at any second.

Empress Starlight raised a shaky hoof and extended it towards Starlight. Her whole world was crashing down around her. “Stop… give me the Heart.”

Starlight looked at her with pity. Sadly shaking her head she sighed before saying the only words of comfort she could think of.

“If one day you really want to change and make up for what you’ve done… they’ll forgive you.” Her horn lit up and she pointed it at the Heart.

“Don’t!”

The precise beam of magic shot from Starlight’s horn and shattered the Crystal Heart.

Starlight and Spike weren’t sure what happened next in this world or what the Empress might have said and done, because the very next instant the world went white and fell apart around them. The sudden feeling of free-fall enraptured the both of them as they found themselves tumbling down a kaleidoscope of colors. Starlight could see Spike right in front of her, whatever barrier that was previously between them now irrelevant, she tried swimming towards him so they wouldn’t be separated in the rift between worlds. Even now the both of them could see bright lights approaching from all sides, possibly already signaling the end of the tunnel.

Twilight and Twilight held Shining Armor and Cadance in their magic respectively. The guards were being tied up by Applejack and Pinkie Pie (who somehow had pulled a long string of handkerchiefs from her hair) while Rarity and Fluttershy rested, happy to have things back to normal. As for Rainbow Dash, right when their Cutie Mark’s returned to normal the Twilight’s told her to go fly to the Crystal Heart.

“I think we’ve got it won, we just need to secure the Crystal Heart now and keep her from getting the crystal ponies to power it up again.” Alternate Twilight said.

The first Twilight nodded. “Right. Once that’s taken care of we can work on fixing some other things here, like Discord and the Tree of Harmony.”

“Uh, hold on a second.” Applejack spoke up. “Not that I’m not grateful that you’re offering to help but don’t you want to return home? If anything shouldn’t we be the ones helping you get back to your world or whatever as quickly as possible?”

Alternate Twilight raised an eyebrow as she looked at her double. “She has a point. This is our world, you’ve already done so much for us, leave things to us here.”

“But...” Twilight started.

“Darling, please. We’re the ones who need to pay you back now.” Rarity said as she walked up to her, Fluttershy on her heels. “The first thing to take care of is helping you.”

“Ooh! As long as we have a goodbye party before they all leave!” Pinkie Pie ecstatically said.

Twilight looked around her at the smiling faces of her friends. Yes, they may not have been “her” friends exactly but they were the same ponies and the same warmth and powerful bond of friendship existed in all of them.

“I… thank you.” She finally said.

After the words left her mouth Twilight noticed several cracks appearing in thin air around her, looking at the ground it was the same, cracks spreading like wildfire everywhere and only she seemed to notice them. Piece by piece the world fell apart until the floor shattered and Twilight went falling with it.

“Starlight, did you?!-” She screamed as she entered the time rift.

Starlight and Spike were twisted and stretched like taffy as they continued to tumble through time. Both found they couldn’t speak here, or perhaps they just couldn’t hear their own words, but they were at least together right now and hopefully Twilight was right behind them too.

And finally, just like always, it ended as quickly as it had begun. The rainbow of lights around them vanished. The feeling of vertigo and weightlessness disappeared. And the two of them found themselves standing around outside in the grass.

Starlight looked around, wherever they were it wasn’t the Crystal Empire. It looked more like the countryside somewhere around Ponyville with hills and a forest around them. Why or how they ended up here she couldn’t tell. Squinting she looked up at the sky, it seemed to be the middle of the day too with the sun hanging directly overhead. And no lights from the Crystal Empire either.

She smiled down at Spike, who had a strangely shocked and disturbed look on his face for some reason as he looked at her. “Well I’m not sure where we’ve ended up now but at least that’s over with.”

“Starlight.”

“I just hope Twilight came with us. She’s probably okay though. It’s Twilight after all.”

“Starlight.”

“And I hope everypony and that world is okay now too… they’ve got a lot to take care of now.”

“Starlight...”

“There doesn’t seem to be anything going on here at any rate.” Starlight sneezed. “Oh right! My book. Well, not my book. But still...” She reached into her mane to see if the copy of Empress Starlight’s manifesto was still safely inside, but as her hoof searched through the hair she couldn’t find anything. “Ugh, great! It must have fallen out at some point. How does Pinkie Pie keep anything in here?”

“Starlight!”

“What is it, Spike?!” She finally rounded on him in annoyance.

The dragon pointed to her sides. “You have wings.”

Starlight’s eyebrows shot into her forehead and she looked to her sides. Just like he said, a pair of lilac pegasus wings rested there. Opening and stretching them they seemed to work like a perfectly normal pair of wings. Starlight grimaced and inspected the rest of her body, her fatigue had vanished entirely, she was slightly taller and her horn had even grown a bit too. There was no question about it. She was an Alicorn.

“Well that’s not good.”

“PRINCESS STARLIGHT!”

The thundering voice shook the both of them to their bones. Starlight and Spike looked behind them in surprise to see a massive red and black centaur with great horns and an impressive white beard standing at the edge of the forest, his arms outstretched in grand desire. The threatening and world-endingly evil looking beast waited for no response as his piercing eyes drilled right into their souls.

“You have something that belongs to me!”

Starlight gulped.

The Slightest of Detours

“So that’s Tirek?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, just wanted to be sure I wasn’t going totally crazy.”

Starlight and Spike were surprisingly calm about this sudden new hazard. Maybe the both of them were just tired of all the insanity they had been through and just didn’t have a care to give anymore. Maybe they were in shock at the radical turn of events, having just succeeded against Empress Starlight only to be thrown into a new frying pan. Maybe they didn’t even fully realize what was going on since by all accounts this didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Instead of running away or getting ready to fight Starlight just started to walk towards Tirek, Spike worriedly following at her heels.

“Er, Starlight? Do you have a plan?”

“Not really.” She shook her head.

“So what are you doing?” Spike gulped.

“I’m going to talk to him. See what he wants and then maybe we can leave.”

“Starlight...”

“Spike I’m well aware of how stupid that sounds but I’m really not in the mood for another fight. Despite getting an all new Alicorn body I don’t feel like I have a lot of extra power in me or anything.” She looked down at him. “And by the looks of it you’re on the verge of collapsing, after all we did we both need some rest, we’re not in any condition to fight him. In the end even if something bad happens here we’ll just have to do what we did in that other world. Cause a big enough change to get thrown out and hopefully end up where we belong.”

The two of them reached the ground below the ridge Tirek stood on. He had actually patiently waited for them to walk up, apparently pleasantly surprised that “Princess Starlight” wasn’t hiding or running away from him. He gazed down at the both of them with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Well now, so you aren’t going to run away? Have you come to fight me, Princess?” He asked, chuckling.

Starlight had to crane her neck to look him in the eyes. He was big. “Hello there. Lord Tirek, correct?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. That is correct.”

“You said I had something that belonged to you. What might that be?” Starlight cheerfully smiled at him.

Spike smacked his face and shook his head.

Tirek, to his credit, took all of this in stride. “Your Alicorn magic is what I desire. Give it to me. Clearly you aren’t interested in fighting, have you realized the futility of your actions? Or has your mind simply snapped under the pressure?”

“Her mind snapped a long time ago if you ask me...” Spike muttered under his breath.

“None of that. I was just hoping we could talk and come to an understanding instead.” Starlight said.

The great centaur stood silently for a second, regarding the Alicorn princess with a bemused expression. “You’re… serious? Do you not realize that I’ve already drained the magic of every other pony in Equestria? There is no understanding to reach. You can either willingly allow me to devour your magic or I can forcefully take it from you.”

“Oh I realize all that.” Starlight lied. “But I don’t see any reason why we still can’t put all that in the past and be friends. You can give the magic back can’t you?”

Tirek flatly looked at her before turning his attention to Spike. “Has she lost her mind?”

Spike looked at Tirek. Then at Starlight. He blinked and looked back at Tirek, shrugging.

“Enough of this trifle.” Lord Tirek scoffed and gathered powerful magic between his horns. “This is your last chance to give me your magic before I obliterate you.”

“If you obliterate me how are you going to take my magic?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Lord Tirek grumbled, facepalming just like Spike. “It’s just supposed to be threatening, okay? I wouldn’t completely obliterate you right from the start. That can come after.”

“Okay.” Starlight nodded. “But I’m still not giving you my magic. I think it would be better for all of us if you gave up on your ambition and turned over a new leaf. Think about it, you could do a lot of good and have some great friends. Sounds nice, right?”

“No. It does not.” Tirek growled. The orb of fiery magic between his horns flashed and a great blast of magic erupted towards Starlight and Spike.

A massive explosion tore apart the ground they were standing on, reducing it to nothing more than a smoking crater. Tirek grinned evilly as he stepped down from his ridge to see how his Alicorn prey was doing. His attack was powerful but more for show than anything, certainly not enough to “obliterate” an Alicorn… oh, wait, that dragon was right next to her too.

Eh, whatever.

“Did that knock some sense into you, Princess?” Tirek laughed as he looked down into the smoking center of the crater.

“Hey, over here.”

Tirek glanced up to see Starlight and Spike standing behind the crater. Perfectly okay. The Alicorn was even waving at him.

The huge centaur scowled at them. “Teleported away at the last second? You can’t keep doing that forever, you’re merely delaying the inevitable.”

“Tirek, there’s no way we’re going to let you have Starlight’s magic. I can’t say I agree with everything Starlight is doing right now but that’s at least one thing that’s certain.” Spike said to him, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Right?” He looked to Starlight.

But Starlight actually now looked like she was deep in thought. Her brow was furrowed and she cradled her chin with a hoof. “My magic...”

“Uh, Starlight?” Spike asked.

“Hmph, very well.” Tirek said, catching both of theirs attention again. “I would be delighted to beat you into the ground and take your magic, but if you’re going to give me so much trouble over it I might as well just show you the other reason you can’t defy me.” Tirek snapped his fingers and five bubbles appeared in the air around him. “Take a look at your friends, Princess Starlight.”

Starlight and Spike looked on in shock to see several very familiar ponies being held captive by Tirek.

“Starlight!” Trixie screamed from inside her bubble. “He stole the Great and Powerful Trixie’s magic! Now I’m just the Still Great but Normal Trixie!”

“Whatever you do don’t give him your magic, Starlight!” Sunburst told her from the second bubble. “Forget about us, Equestria is more important!”

Starlight’s eyes then flickered over to the third bubble where a stoic as ever Maud sat.

The reticent earth pony tilted her head when their eyes met. She didn’t say anything but Starlight had the sneaking suspicion that Maud had realized something was off with her.

In the fourth bubble-

“Wait, who are you?” Starlight asked. Raising her eyebrow at the unicorn mare she didn’t recognize.

The unicorn in question’s jaw dropped. She was a taller than average mare with a long horn, light blue coat, and orange and yellow mane and tail. She wore a fancy black and gold outfit with a saddle on the back. “What are you talking about, Starlight?! It’s me, Sassy! We’ve been friends for years!”

Spike tugged on Starlight’s mane to get her attention. “That’s Sassy Saddles, the manager at Rarity’s Canterlot Boutique.”

“Oh.” Starlight scrunched her nose in confusion. “I think I’ve seen her? Once maybe. We’re friends in this world?”

“Guess so.” Spike shrugged.

“Well whatever…” Starlight gave up on that line of thought and looked at the fifth bubble.

And stopped. “Wait. What.”

In the fifth and largest bubble a different creature all together sat. While it had an Alicorn shape and size it was far more bug-like in appearance and its colors were, despite being mostly black, blue and purple hues, were brighter and more neon-like than a typical pony’s would be. Her wings and tail were insectoid and her eyes were a vivid green with big white pupils. The large bug timidly sat back, gazing out with hope at Starlight.

“Please tell me that is not Queen Chrysalis.”

“Well, I was the Queen...” The transformed Chrysalis shyly said, blushing. “But when you showed me the magic of friendship I-”

“Okay, stop, stop!” Starlight held up a hoof. “I can’t. I’m done here, I just can’t anymore.” She shook her head and looked down at Spike. “Spike, I don’t care if we have to go burn down the Castle of Friendship, we’re getting out of here.”

“I’m definitely not letting you do that.” Spike replied.

“Excuse me.” Tirek (very patiently) said. “But if you’re going to have a mental breakdown could you at least have the decency to do it after you’ve given me your magic?”

“My magic?” Starlight glared at him. “Look, now I’m annoyed. You want my magic so bad? Fine then.”

“What?!” Spike yelled.

“Starlight are you crazy?!” Sunburst shouted from his bubble.

But Starlight ignored the both of them. She merely walked towards Lord Tirek with a stony frown on her face. The centaur sorcerer greedily smiled as she approached.

“Good. Once I have your magic I’ll be truly unstoppable.” He laughed.

“Quiet, windbag.”

“Excuse me?” He said again, stunned at her sudden change in demeanor and attitude and the fact that she would insult him in this situation.

“I tried being nice but apparently that’s just not working for me.” She glanced at Chrysalis. “Not me at least. I wanted to solve this peacefully but if you’re just not going to listen and be a jerk then fine. If my magic is what you’re after then have a spell!” She fired up her horn and shot a powerful beam of magic at the centaur.

Tirek just laughed and effortlessly swallowed it up. “Hahaha… thank you for the snack, Princess. But what I really want is the full course.” He wrung his hands together. “If you’re prepared to give me the rest I’ll even… I’ll...” Tirek stopped as a strange sickly feeling overtook his body. His vision started to blur as it felt like he was weakening all at once. “W-What’s happening...”

“You like to absorb the magic of ponies and use their special properties, don’t you?” Starlight flicked her mane back. “Well that spell you just ate? It’s all about taking away what makes somepony special.”

Lord Tirek looked down in shock at the Alicorn, his body trembled and try as he might he couldn’t draw up any magic to his horns. Finally he felt a strange and alien sensation burn along his flank and he looked back to see a huge equal sign flash into existence on it while the colors of his fur dulled. At the same time the five bubbles carrying Starlight’s friends all popped and they safely fell to the ground.

“You little!” Lord Tirek screamed at Starlight and charged at her. His magic might have been gone but he was still huge and strong and she was definitely not ready for a fight like that.

But Starlight wasn’t worried, she could already see reality falling apart and turning white around her. She just smiled at the rampaging Tirek and saluted as the entire world shattered like a thousand glass mirrors. Every little piece of reality swirling away like dust in a tornado before a hundred-colored rainbow of lights swept down like a tidal wave. She and Spike had fallen back into the rift between time and dimensions, no control over where they might be going next but hopefully it would be home.

As they spiraled through that abyss Starlight idly wondered if she would stay an Alicorn when they got back.

Author's Note

I don't know either. It's the kitchen sink.

Lifetime Ban

By now traveling through here was pretty familiar to them both. Starlight held onto Spike as the two of them were put through the washing machine of time travel and dimension hopping, she felt her whole soul and body stretch and twist as they were transported somewhere new. Why couldn’t this be as quick and easy as simple teleportation? If she never had to do this again in her life she wouldn’t mind one bit. Spike probably felt the same.

If Starlight could speak right now she’d be asking Spike where they were even going? After their last stop it could be anywhere and they had no idea. If they turned up someplace odd did they just sit around and wait for Twilight again? And speaking of Twilight where was she back there? It’s possible she got dropped off somewhere else, maybe because she wasn’t close by when Starlight destroyed the Crystal Heart. Although it seems like physical proximity should be irrelevant for something like this. Suffice to say that Twilight still wasn’t with them but Starlight had faith that she was okay and probably already looking for a solution to their situation again. It was Twilight after all.

I’m going to be so annoyed if we get stuck in some world where Cozy Glow has erased all the magic… Starlight managed to think while they tumbled through the rift.

Before much longer—as far as time even really existed in this place—the kaleidoscope of colors and lights reappeared around Starlight and Spike and Starlight could see cracks and pieces of the rift around them falling apart. It seems they were about to reenter into a new world. The whole thing was going to shatter again like a stained glass window and Starlight could already predict that everything would end at once and the two of them would suddenly be standing in some random place again.

A whole new feeling of vertigo and weightlessness then overtook the unicorn and dragon, they didn’t know which way was up or down anymore or what their bodies were doing. Starlight started to feel like she was falling apart piece by piece too, like every inch of her was snapping off into thousands of puzzle pieces that she could only hope would be put back together the right way when this all stopped.

Keep it together, Starlight…

Suddenly it was like the situation changed completely and she and Spike both felt something pulling on them, like a vacuum or black hole sucking them down somewhere at the bottom of space.

Was it finally ending? Why was it taking so long? Why was it different? It was closer to how things went when Twilight rescued them and they were pulled into Empress Starlight’s world, was something now working to pull them somewhere else?

“Starlight!”

Starlight’s eyes widened as she could actually hear Spike’s voice. She had lost track of him in all the chaos but now it all seemed to be coming back together. Wherever they were being pulled towards there was a bright light at the end. Spike was there in front of her so she reached out a hoof to grab him.

“Spike! Gotcha!”

They weren’t sure where this tunnel would drop them off but at least they’d be together.

“I believe I’ve got them back, my apologies for the earlier mishap, I have no idea what happened.” Star Swirl the Bearded said to the other gathered ponies.

Princesses Celestia and Luna, the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony, Trixie, Ember, and Thorax all stood in the map room of Twilight’s Castle. Between the map and the large base of the Golden Oak library a blindingly white sphere of magic floated, Star Swirl squinting in exertion as his magic stabilized the space-time portal.

“All that matters is that they’re safe.” Princess Celestia said, hopeful eyes looking at the portal.

“I don’t think we have nothing to worry about there.” Applejack said. “Starlight and Twilight are probably the two most capable ponies I know, and neither of them would let anything happen to Spike either.”

Rarity gulped and nodded along, wishing the best for her friends.

“I hope you’re right.” Fluttershy worried.

When her friend spoke up Rainbow Dash frowned. “Fluttershy, what about Discord anyways? Why didn’t he help us out with any of this?” She asked her.

“I must admit I’d also like to hear his reasoning.” Celestia said although she didn’t take her eyes off the portal.

“I did ask for his help but, well, he told me that they were okay anyways… and then he said something about helping out a friend and I haven’t seen him since.” Fluttershy mused on Discord’s behavior, wondering if that meant Starlight and Spike were helping out a friend or if he was helping out a friend. He could’ve just been pulling her leg too, it was hard to tell with him sometimes.

“Trixie is fine with complaining to Discord later.” The blue unicorn stated. An annoyed frown on her face. “Right now she just wishes for her best friend to return. And Twilight. Oh and Spike too.” She added at seeing the glares from the others.

“Well as long as they’re back today all the food I made for the welcome back party will still be good.” Pinkie Pie said, looking behind her at a set of tables she had wheeled into the room that were overflowing with cakes, pies, cupcakes, and all sorts of other desserts. “Buuuut if Star Swirl is wrong about them coming back again we’ll have to eat it all and I can make new ones for tomorrow.”

Star Swirl frowned, trying not to take his attention away from the portal. “I was not wrong about them coming back when Miss Sparkle went to find them, something happened and I lost my connection with her. But like I told you all I’m certain I can feel them again. They’re almost here for sure this time.”

“That’s alright, I mean, I can’t speak for the rest of you but if I have to eat a table of cakes-” Pinkie Pie started but then suddenly quieted, her tail twitching. “Uh oh, twitchy tail, something’s about to fall!”

“Fall? What are you talking about?” Star Swirl asked her.

Meanwhile the other ponies from Ponyville had carefully all backed up.

A high-pitched scream came from the portal and a purple Alicorn careened out of it and smacked right into Star Swirl, knocking the both of them to the ground.

“Twilight!” Princess Celestia yelled.

“Huh, that’s weird.” Pinkie said, her tail still twitching. “My pinkie sense is saying there should’ve been a lot more coming...”

More screaming came from the portal and just as Twilight and Star Swirl were getting up Starlight (a thoroughly unicorn Starlight) and Spike shot out of it and collided right into them, the four tumbled across the floor before stopping in a great heap of tangled limbs with Star Swirl smushed beneath them all.

“Ohhh...” Starlight groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. She briefly looked around before a small smile broke out on her face. “Looks like we’re home, Spike.”

“I hope so.” Spike tried standing up but his knees buckled. “Ow. My whole body hurts, I think the soreness from everything is catching up to me. Have my wings fallen off? Cause I can’t even feel them.”

“If you would be so kind could you please get off of me before you continue your conversation.” Star Swirl grumbled.

“Oh, sorry!” Starlight said and quickly hopped off, only then noticing that Twilight was beneath her as well.

The purple Alicorn also rolled off of Star Swirl and picked herself up. Groggily shaking her head she attempted to look around but was quickly glomped by all of her friends. “Gah!” She yelped.

“Whew! Glad to have you back, Sugarcube!” Applejack said.

“Do we get hugs too?” Spike whispered to Starlight, slightly indignant.

Just then Trixie ran between them and hugged Starlight. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would like to have you know that you worried her immensely while you were gone! Do not ever do such a thing again! At least not without me, then it might be fun.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Spike said in exasperation, his arms held out in disbelief.

“I wouldn’t go that far. We’re both glad to see you’re okay.”

Spike looked behind him to see Ember smirking at him, Thorax also waving hello.

“Welcome back, Spike.” The changeling said.

Spike was about to proudly state to them how he had just overcome a fierce adventure when he was yanked by Rarity’s magic into the big group hug of his friends, Starlight being pulled along with him by Twilight’s magic.

“We were worried for quite a while you know?” Rarity smiled down at the young dragon.

“We were all worried.” Princess Celestia said as she walked up to them all, temporarily putting the various reunions on hold. “But it’s good to see the three of you are back safely, this has been… quite the event. I wasn’t sure what to do when Star Swirl said the tether with Twilight was broken.”

“Indeed.” Princess Luna said, standing by her sister’s side. “What pray tell happened?” She asked Twilight, her eyes then briefly shifted to Starlight. “And you, Starlight Glimmer, what exactly occurred in the first place that caused you and Spike to travel through time?”

“Uhhh...” Starlight nervously started to rub the back of her head.

“You know if you really want to start from the beginning you can just ask Starlight about how hard she likes to party.” Spike muttered under his breath.

Seeing that Starlight was a bit uncomfortable and remembering what she had been told earlier about messing around in the past Twilight unlatched herself from her friends and stepped forward, coughing into her hoof. She knew Starlight probably wouldn’t want to talk about what she did in front of the Princesses. “Mhm. Well I’m not sure of what happened with Starlight and Spike at first but as for me it’s actually a long story, and to be honest I’m not even sure how or why my connection with Star Swirl was broken when I went back to rescue them in the first place. But it was quite the adventure the three of us ended up on and I already plan to write an extensively detailed report on it. I’ll bring it by Canterlot tomorrow morning.” She smiled. The focus taken off of her student for now.

“It’s good to see you’re the same as ever.” Princess Celestia giggled at her student.

Twilight also giggled. “Well-”

She was cut off by a party canon exploding behind her and showering her in confetti.

“Less talking more partying!” Pinkie Pie said as she zoomed up right next to Twilight and shoved a cupcake in her mouth. She turned to Starlight and Spike and pulled two more cupcakes out of her mane, an absurdly wide grin on her face.

Starlight smiled and looked at Spike. “Well, can’t argue with that can you?”

Hours later the party had ended and all but the ponies (and dragon) who called the castle their home had left. Starlight sat down on a fluffy pillow, thoroughly exhausted after having to cap off this very hectic day with a Pinkie Pie party. Twilight was cleaning up any stray confetti and streamers even though the party pony had promised to come back in the morning to clean up. Spike was passed out on a couch in the library.

A pleasant smile broke out on Starlight’s face as she thought about him. He absolutely deserved the rest.

It was good that Twilight saved her back there from embarrassing herself too. Hopefully she could avoid the Princesses until they forgot to ask about what happened. During the party Twilight had promised to answer any questions they and Star Swirl had about the time-traveling so maybe Starlight was in the clear there. And if she ever felt the need to get some of that guilt off her chest she could just confide in Trixie.

With a yawn, Starlight relaxed into the pillow. “At least everything being safe and sound here proves I was right that I wasn’t really changing our timeline. Hope I made a difference for at least some alternate timelines out there.” She shrugged.

“Speaking of your adventures.”

Starlight yelped, jumping up in shock from her pillow and wheeling around to face Twilight.

“Ehehe, didn’t hear you there Twilight.” She nervously chuckled.

“Right.” Her teacher smiled but narrowed her eyes. “You know there are still quite a few questions I have for you and I expect you to answer them in excruciating detail later. But before that, Spike happened to tell me during the party of how and why this all started in the first place. Namely what occurred after the last party we had.”

Spike you traitor! Starlight silently yelled, sweat starting to fall like bullets down her face.

“Oh, he did, did he?” She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Yes. He did.” Twilight frowned. “And I think it’s only fair to tell you now that there is a lifetime ban now in effect on alcohol on these premises. And furthermore you are going to write a 100 page essay on what you did wrong and why you’re sorry. I think you know me well enough by now to know that I will read every last page of it so don’t think you can cut corners either.”

“O-One hundred pages?!” Starlight sputtered. Her pupils turned to pinpricks. “Lifetime ban?!”

Her many, many, poor decisions catching up to her, so it was that Starlight retired to her room to collapse onto the bed, not looking forward to tomorrow in the slightest. Spike on the other hand had an excellent night’s sleep. And just like that things returned to normal, merely one more adventure down in the long list of adventures for Starlight, Twilight, and Spike.

Author's Note

First of all I’d like to thank all of my readers for making this my most popular story so far. Thank you.

Now with that out of the way have you ever read a story or watched something that was plenty of fun but the drama and plot kept getting in the way? I’ve always aimed to do the opposite of that. I seek making entertaining chapters. A lot of the time I’m trying to capture the atmosphere and the joy of the show itself.

I’m sorry if anyone feels led on about there not being answers or a reason for why anything happened in this fic. But from the beginning it was meant to be random and meaningless fun. However something I will explain is how the three heroes were taken to Empress Starlight’s world. Since the characters had no way of figuring this out in the story I’ll explain it here. Discord and the Tree of Harmony in that world combined the last bits of their power to pull in the outsiders in the hopes they could stop Empress Starlight. Despite their opposite powers canceling each other out both the Tree and Discord were still alive and used the magic of friendship to come to an agreement with each other. They bided their time until they could find a way to get someone to help. And Starlight’s various changes to the space-time continuum alerted them to her presence. Every change, minor and major, Starlight made earlier in the story allowed them to zero in closer on her (and Spike) until they tried to pull the two of them into their world the next time they made a change. Which is what happened when Starlight pushed Sunset into the mirror. Twilight’s theory was completely correct. It’s just that at that time they weren’t quite able to actually bring Starlight and Spike to their world. But they watched them and waited until Twilight came and tried to take them all back home, and that’s how the Starlight’s World arc happened. In short it was magic.

I am somewhat disappointed about certain parts of this fic and it underwent a number of mutations from when I first came up with it to now. It essentially became me throwing in whatever I thought was fun and caring even less about things making sense than before, so of all my planned fics this one is probably going to be something of a black sheep. Even though I still personally like it and enjoyed writing it a lot.

Starlight’s World in particular I had to rewrite and rethink a lot of when I actually got to writing the arc and it ended up changed quite a bit from my first outline.

My next fic will still be plenty comedic but will also be a more stable and straightforward adventure than this one and with an actual story that has meaning. So I hope you look forward to it, especially if you were disappointed by the meaninglessness of this one.

My biggest regret for this story is not writing a filly Trixie chapter. And also still being unable to write action scenes.

The Best Decision

The pounding of her head told Starlight it was not going to be a pleasant morning. The shaking of her body and the voice of Spike trying to wake her up along with the unfamiliar rough feeling against her back that most certainly was not her comfortable castle bed also told her that it was going to be a confusing morning. With a groan and a wince she shut her eyes even tighter and blindly tried to push Spike away despite her mind telling her that something was off.

“Come on Spike, let me rest a little. My head is killing me. Can’t it wait?”

“Starlight, get up! This is serious! This is really bad!” The loud voice of Spike pounded in her ears, reverberating in her head like an unwelcome orchestra.

“Ughhh, fine.” Starlight groggily stopped trying to ignore the waking world and lifted her head up, blearily blinking a few times to adjust to the light.

The light and actions just made her head feel even worse but Spike definitely wasn’t going to let her just go back to resting if things were really as serious as he thought they were. While the world slowly came back into focus Starlight began to register all the things that were off about this morning.

First of all, they were definitely not in her room nor in the castle at all.

Secondly they weren’t even indoors at all.

Third, Starlight was lying down in the middle of a bush with a scared and exceedingly nervous looking Spike standing in front of her.

“Okay, I’ll admit that it seems like something bad is probably happening.”

Spike groaned and buried his face in his claws as he shook his head. “Starlight. Do you remember anything about what happened last night?” He asked the unicorn in exasperation.

Her pain momentarily forgotten Starlight racked her brain to try and remember the previous evening. “Uhh… we had that welcome back party for Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres since she just got back from her friendship mission. And then you, me, and Twilight came back to the castle and uh, I don’t think I was quite done celebrating yet…” A nervous sweat broke across her brow as she gave an uneasy chuckle. “Ehehe, that’s all I remember...”

Spike pulled down his eyelids and did his very best not to scream in frustration.

“Starlight! I found you in the Cutie Map room using some kind of crazy magic on it!”

“What!?” Starlight cried out in shock. “There’s no way! I would never do something like that, I know I wouldn’t.”

The dragon gave his friend a defiant and unamused look. “Really? You can say that after saying you can’t even remember what happened last night?”

Starlight sputtered and blew on her mane in indignation. “Well I’d never do it in the right state of mind! So what happened?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know how to tell unicorn spells apart.” But Spike got a far off look in his eyes and started pressing his fingers together. “Er, well, except for the fact that I recognized something about this spell. You remember when you went back in time to stop the sonic rainboom? Well that same portal that sucked you and us up came back. I jumped in after you and now we’re here.”

Starlight Glimmer’s mouth hung open. “I didn’t. Spike, where are we?”

“Well it’s not where we are...” Spike nervously rubbed the spikes on the back of his head and pointed up, gesturing for Starlight to stick her head out of the bush they were hidden in.

Upon going up through the bush like a periscope and seeing what awaited her, Starlight’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.

“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.” Starlight muttered over and over to herself.

It was Ponyville on a day like any other. Beautiful outside, ponies minding their own business and walking down the streets, some selling their food in the middle of town’s square and others taking a leisurely stroll through the park. Starlight and Spike were in one such park, in the middle of a large bush that surrounded one of Ponyville’s many trees.

But while it was a completely normal day in Ponyville for the citizens amicably enjoying their day it was anything but normal for Spike and Starlight. The large school of friendship that should be easily visible was gone, and the even larger castle that towered over the rest of the buildings in Ponyville was similarly missing. Instead Starlight could see the old Golden Oak Library that Twilight had often told her about, looking pristine and unblemished.

The pain in her head was replaced with a powerful twitch of her eye as Starlight shot back down into the bush.

“I time-traveled?! Again?!” She shook Spike by the shoulders as if screaming at him would supply her with all the answers she needed.

“Starlight, cut it out!” Spike shrugged her off of him. “Freaking out isn’t going to help.”

“Says you! I’m going to be in so much trouble for this.” Starlight sunk to the ground and buried her face into the dirt. “Twilight is going to be so mad at me! Why would I even time-travel anyways?!” Her face shot up and she looked at Spike, pointing at his chest. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

Spike scoffed at the unicorn in the process of undergoing a Twilight-style breakdown. “Stop you? How am I supposed to stop you from doing anything?”

“Okay fair point.” Starlight allowed before collapsing backwards and grumbling in frustration. “This is just great! Don’t worry Starlight, I’m sure Twilight will forgive you again, it’s only your third or fourth time doing something absolutely horrible!”

“Starlight just calm down a little.” Spike tried to assuage her. “I know it looks bad but I’m sure if we just get back to when we’re supposed to be she’ll understand.”

The unicorn closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to take Spike’s advice to heart. “Okay, okay, I know. We’ll just get back to our time and it’ll be no harm no foul.”

“Great!” Spike said. “So what’s the plan?”

At that Starlight sat up, raising an eyebrow at Spike. “Plan? What plan?”

Spike’s nervousness started to return. “Er, the plan for returning home?”

“Exactly. Isn’t the map here with us? I don’t know how I even did this without Starswirls’s spell this time around! I don’t know how to get us back to the present time. Didn’t the map come with us and we can just activate it or whatever?” Starlight asked Spike with an increasing franticness in her voice.

“No! The map didn’t come back with us, it never did, the portal just dropped us off in the middle of Ponyville this time and I dragged you into this bush! I have no idea what kind of spell you need to do to travel back to the present!” Spike shook his head in the negative to all of Starlight’s inquiries.

“Oh well this is just great! Now how are we going to fix this mess?” Starlight exasperatedly rubbed her muzzle. “I don’t even know how far back we are, is it the day of the sonic rainboom again?”

“Nuh-uh, it’s definitely at least a little further back than that.” Spike said.

Starlight shot him an inquisitive look. “And how do you know that?”

“Because while you were out like a light-” Spike gave her a flat glare. “I flew over Ponyville for a bit. Just a little bit cause I’m not sure how everypony would react to a dragon flying overhead back now. And well, speaking of Applejack I saw her. She was with her parents selling apples in town. She looked even younger than Apple Bloom does now and she didn’t have her Cutie Mark yet so it has to be at least a little while before she goes to Manehattan and sees the sonic rainboom.”

“So we’re just at some random point in time? Why?” Starlight asked, befuddled.

“Beats me.” Spike just shrugged.

“Ughhh!” Starlight fell over backwards again and cried out to the sky, or the top of the bush in this case. “Why did I have to do something so stupid again?!”

“Hey, if we’re being honest I’ve done more than my fair share of stupid deeds too.” Spike grinned and laid a reassuring claw on Starlight’s shoulder. “And besides, Twilight definitely knows something is up by now. I’m sure she’s working hard coming up with some way to save us and fix everything right as we speak!”

Starlight’s face scrunched up in thought as she raised an eyebrow at Spike. “Is that how time-travel works?”

“I dunno.” Again, Spike shrugged.

Starlight sighed but picked herself up off the ground and stood up, taking care to not accidentally push her way out of the bush just yet. “Well either way we can’t just spend our whole time back here just sitting in a bush. Let’s go take a walk around Ponyville.”

Spike however was less than enthusiastic about that idea. “Uh, not that I don’t agree about the bush thing but shouldn’t we not be interacting with anypony or doing anything that could mess up the past? We should just stay out of sight for now, right? Maybe we could hang out in the Everfree Forest until Twilight finds us?”

A sudden thought occurred to Starlight as Spike mentioned messing up the past. “Messing up the past?” She said aloud to herself. “Hm, Spike, I think you just gave me a great idea.”

It may have just been the way she said it but Spike wasn’t happy to hear that Starlight supposedly just got a great idea.

“Starlight, I really don’t like the sound of that.” Spike said with his voice full of trepidation.

“Nothing to worry about Spike.” Starlight looked down at him with that self-assured grin that made him extremely worried. “I just got the perfect idea about how to appease Twilight and do some selfless good in the meantime!”

“Starlight...”

She put her hoof to his lips, silencing him. “None of that, but think about it? We have an unparalleled and infallible knowledge of the future! Think of all the problems we could fix before they even happen! I’m sure Twilight would appreciate us making Equestria an even happier place wouldn’t she? It’ll be my “I’m sorry for going back in time again” present!”

Spike swiped her hoof away from his mouth. “Starlight. No.”

“Oh come on, there have to be some things you want to fix? You just talked about all the bad decisions you’ve made in the past.”

“Yeah and I know that messing with the past and time-travel is a bad decision.” Spike put his hands on his hips and stared defiantly at her. “I think we both know just how worse things can get from even the slightest change. If Twilight was here she’d definitely say not to change anything, even if your intentions are in the right spot this time around.”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Fine. For now. But there’s still no way I’m just going to sit in the Everfree Forest waiting for Twilight the entire time. I think it’ll be okay to interact with Ponyville at least a little bit, I mean just us coming back already has to have had at least some effect on things. So what more harm could it be to just act like normal creatures visiting Ponyville?”

“I guess...” Spike said. “I suppose no matter where we went we’d be changing something or doing something that should never have happened in the first place.”

“Speaking of, did anypony see you drag me into this bush? I feel like that would be pretty conspicuous.” Starlight asked the dragon.

“Nope, nopony saw nothing cause it happened before dawn.” Spike told her.

Starlight frowned and shot her head up through the bush again to look at the clear blue sky with the sun hanging right up above them before quickly ducking back down.

“I was out for a while, huh?”

“Twilight’s gonna forbid you to have any of that stuff in the castle again you know?”

Starlight glared at her scaled friend. “Let’s tackle one issue at a time, shall we? For now I think I’ve spent enough time sitting in this bush. Let’s see what Ponyville is up to today.”

“I think what they’re “up” to is about to be weirded out by a dragon and a strange unicorn who nopony knows coming out of nowhere.”

“Hey, I’m not… any stranger than any of Twilight’s friends.” Starlight said defensively. “And besides I’ve put my lessons and experiences to good use, it doesn’t matter if none of the ponies here know me anymore, I’m sure I can make friends and get along with any of them while we stay.”

Spike gave an unenthusiastic sigh. “And I sure hope that Twilight finds us soon enough that we don’t have to test that.”

Author's Note

My third story and I hope you enjoy it.

Completely Unavoidable

Dilapidated as it was, the Caste of the Two Sisters was still an impressive sight under the light of the moon. Standing proud in the middle of the Everfree; despite its ruined nature one could easily see how it was the seat of royalty in the past. It would most definitely make a good place to stay for the night and perhaps many more. Plenty of room, no one else there, Spike knew the layout fairly well and most importantly where the bedrooms were, and it was already essentially a ruin so there wasn’t much more Starlight could do to it if they had another accidental case of home destruction.

“Wow, good thing you remembered Spike. I wasn’t even thinking about coming here.” Starlight said to her dragon friend as the two of them stood on the grounds outside the castle, the cool night air making the castle even more desirable.

A brief gust of eerie wind sent waves through the grass. The castle may have been desirable but it was not exactly inviting. Spike gulped looking at it, knowing its history and some of the scary stuff inside, even if a lot of it was actually meant for entertainment.

Starlight meanwhile was completely unbothered by the intimidating aura that the castle currently gave off in the dead of night.

“Shall we?” She asked Spike as she began to saunter across the grass to the entrance of the castle.

“Uh, yeah. Right behind you.” Spike replied, pushing his claws together and waddling after her.

Pushing open the large double-doors Starlight led the two of them into the ruined hall. Rubble was strewn about the insides, pillars and walls were chipped and grass and mold grew uncontrollably. The castle was a shadow of its former self but still more than what Starlight and Spike needed at the moment. Looking up Starlght saw the two tapestries that hung from the back wall, those at least were still as impressive and pretty as ever.

As the moonlight still shined down on them from holes in the ceiling a sudden yawn escaped from Starlight. Holding a hoof to her open mouth she then turned to Spike. “Well I kind of want to explore a little but we should probably hit the hay first and leave that for tomorrow.”

“Fine by me.” Spike quickly said before frowning and giving Starlight a look. “And we don’t need to go exploring at all. And we probably shouldn’t go exploring at all.”

“Spike I’m just gonna tell you right now that we’re definitely going exploring tomorrow.” Starlight said with a carefree smile. “Besides, I think that’s preferable to running around the Everfree causing all kinds of chaos, wouldn’t you?”

Spike was unconvinced. “Maybe if it wasn’t for certain very important things that were in this castle, and the fact that I don’t know all of the crazy stuff that Celestia and Luna put in here. We could get lost or trapped by something.”

“You told me that all the stuff they had in here was for fun?” Starlight frowned. “I’m sure there’s nothing dangerous. And there’s no way I can do to this castle what I accidentally did to the library and the underground grotto.”

Spike sighed and once again smacked himself in the face. “Starlight, saying that is just inviting bad luck.”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “You’re being too pessimistic, Spike. Now come on, where’s a good room for us to stay in for the night?”

Spike realized he wasn’t getting any further with Starlight tonight and so the two of them started to look for a bedroom to conk out in. Spike’s memory of the castle wasn’t the best but he at least knew enough to not trigger any “traps” that Luna and Celestia had left behind. The last thing they needed now was falling down a trap door or getting separated by a revolving wall.

Before long he had led them to the old secret room he and Twilight had found once here where some of Celestia and Luna’s old books and journals were.

“Oooh, a secret hideaway huh?” Starlight said as she looked around, levitating a book off one of the shelves and flipping through its pages. “Do you think Twilight would be jealous to learn I technically got in here and read some of Celestia’s old stuff before her?” She asked, giggling a little at the thought.

“Maybe, but it’s not something you should bring up in the first place since she’s gonna have enough things to be stressed about when she sees us again.” Spike’s answer was bereft of any of the amusement that Starlight had in her.

“I suppose.” Starlight said as she hopped into a chair and started to curl up in it.

Spike followed along, getting into his own chair. They were comfortable enough, the cushioning surprisingly intact. He would never admit how much he acted like a dog as he spun around a couple of times before finding the perfect spot and lying down.

“Goodnight, Spike.”

“Goodnight, Starlight.”

“Fun morning ahead.”

“I hope not.”

“This is fuuuuun!” Spike yelled as he and Starlight slid down and down the spiral slide into the depths of the castle for the tenth time that morning. Starlight used her magic to decrease their friction to make for an even smoother and faster ride this time, the two of them now yelling in delight and holding their hooves or claws in the air as they finally reached the bottom and spilled out onto a bed of carefully placed pillows.

“That was even better than the last time!” Spike said as he got up, dusting himself off.

“Right? Next time I’ll use a propelling spell to make us go even faster!” Starlight was ecstatically tittering up and down on her hooves as she spoke. “Geez, this place is more like a funhouse than a castle, isn’t it?”

“I know right? I wish Twilight’s castle had stuff like this in it.” Spike said.

“We should totally install some stuff when we get back!”

“Yeah!” For once Spike was agreeing with Starlight. “Although I’m not sure if Twilight would really go for that.”

Starlight smirked and winked at him. “Who says she has to know?”

“Hehe. Good point.” Spike winked back at her.

The two of them were back to their usually friendly selves now that they were just able to kick back and have some fun without something bad coming up or Starlight going off on some dumb idea. The whole morning had been spent searching through the castle and finding all of the hidden toys, secret passages, and other fun stuff. Starlight and Spike had elected not to read Celestia’s journal and instead decided to find everything for themselves.

“Slide again or do you want to find something new now?” Starlight asked Spike,

“I think there’s a spring-loaded platform somewhere that can shoot you over the castle, let’s try and find that!” Spike exuberantly said, the small dragon totally caught up in Starlight’s pace ever since the morning began.

“Alright, let’s go find it!” Starlight said and the two of them ditched the basement and headed into another part of the castle.

Normally the stairs out of the basement would make for quite the climb but Starlight now also had a good enough grasp of the castle’s layout to safely teleport them out of it and back into the main hall. Any platform that would supposedly fling them over the castle was probably on an upper level or the castle wall itself. So much of that was gone though that it may not be there at all anymore.

No sense in not trying for it though!

“Was there an observatory in this castle or anything like that? I figure any fun stuff like the slides and rotating walls would be around old rooms or structures up here.” Starlight asked Spike as she walked along the destroyed roof, Spike flapping in the air next to her.

“Probably, but I dunno.” Spike answered.

Starlight took a breath of fresh air as she and Spike stood on top of one of the half-destroyed towers of the castle, it was such a nice day out that she was almost tempted to spend the rest of it outside instead of having fun inside the castle. But there was simply far too much exploring to do. Starlight and Spike hopped up and down on every single individual stone looking for the rumored platform but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Halfway through looking for it it turned into just trying to discover any old thing on the rooftop as Starlight levitated a pile of rubble off a parapet and dumped it over the side. Even Spike at this point had forgotten that maybe they shouldn’t be moving stuff around like that. Treating the castle like their own personal amusement park/archaeological dig site was making the morning a lot more enjoyable than thinking about any of that annoying “don’t mess around with the past” kind of stuff.

Still, eventually even they got bored of just rooting around the roof for what turned out to be nothing, and the sun was directly overhead now and things were starting to get a little hot.

“I’m surprised Princess Celestia just let this place all fall apart like this.” Starlight wondered aloud. “I would think she’d want to preserve it.”

“Too many bad memories?” Spike suggested. “I mean, you know what happened here and all.”

“True. But considering it’s right by the Tree of Harmony and the elements are technically still here too...” Starlight trailed off.

“Meh, Celestia works in mysterious ways you know? She planned for all sorts of things when it came to Twilight.”

“Guess so.” Starlight stopped for a second, just glancing around the rooftop before sighing. “I don’t see that platform or anything like it anywhere.”

“Maybe it got destroyed or fell apart a long time ago?” Spike suggested.

“Probably.” Starlight said with dismay. “Darn, I really wanted to find all the little secrets and gizmos in here.”

“Let’s go back down and get Celestia’s journal this time. I’m sure we can find everything out with it.” Spike said.

Starlight frowned but gave in, it was something of a bitter pill to swallow but not like it was really a big deal or anything. “Alright, guess we might as well now.”

The pony and dragon made their way back down through the castle proper, the two now walking through the hallways where rows of old plate armor lined the walls. At night it might be scary but in the middle of the day it just looked fancy. Starlight and Spike both had the suspicion that the armor was Luna’s idea. Getting out of that hallway and walking past the room with the large pipe organ, Starlight briefly thought it might be nice if she had any sort of musical talent. From what Spike had told her the organ still functioned perfectly well, it might’ve been fun to try out but with her lack of knowledge it would probably just end up sounding really bad.

“You left the journal right on the chair, right?” Starlight asked Spike as they once more stepped inside the old reading room.

“Yep.” Spike flew right over to the chair he had been sleeping on the night before and grabbed Celestia’s journal. “See? Right where I left it.”

Starlight took it with her magic and levitated it in front of her face. “You know it’s not just that I wanted a challenge I also didn’t really want to invade Celestia’s privacy.”

Spike looked at her like she grew a second head. “Really? You’re saying that? And you didn’t have a problem with invading her home.”

Starlight frowned at him but had no come back. “Fair point.” Taking a look at the journal she noticed there was still a thin layer of dust over it. “Yuck, it’s still so dirty.”

With a great intake of breath Starlight then exhaled and blew all of the dust off the journal.

This had a number of side-effects.

The first being that a cloud of dust had now entered the air. The second being that because Starlight was holding the book right up to her face the cloud of dust was now enveloping her head. And the third being that the dust tickled her sensitive nose and caused her to have a truly monumental sneeze all in the span of about two seconds.

And that sneeze had its own very unfortunate side-effect.

Starlight briefly lost control of her magic and spell, dropping the journal but firing a small concentrated blast of magic out the tip of her horn that bounced off the walls of the reading room. Books were knocked off their shelves, one of the chairs had a hole shot through it, and Spike was knocked upside the head by it causing him to accidentally breath fire onto the rug before the magic ricocheted out of the room and down the hallway they came from. The out of control magic continued to knock down any remaining torches or chandeliers on its rampage and just by happenstance ended up going into the organ room where it collided with the organ, not completely destroying it but getting inside its pipes to ricochet and resonate to an even more powerful degree (while at the same time creating some actually pretty nice music) upon which exiting the pipes it blasted straight through one of the castle’s walls into the hallway with the standing armors. The magic barely nudged the first suit of armor but it was enough to cause it to fall over sideways, knocking over the next one and then the next one like an incredibly loud and cantankerous row of dominoes. Now the ball of magic sped into the main hall of the castle, hitting and knocking over each and every pillar as it pinballed back and forth between the walls before finally sliding along the back wall at just the perfect angle to bifurcate the two formerly beautiful tapestries. But Starlight’s magic was hardly done yet. Bouncing off the corner of an entryway the magic was shot into the floor, breaking right through the stone and smashing into the slide that Starlight and Spike had used just earlier. The magic slid down the slick metal, gaining more and more speed before it finally hit the bottom of the slide, obliterating and setting fire to the pillows that were set there. The pillows however changed its trajectory just enough to make the magic careen into the central pillar that held up the basement, half destroying its base and causing a huge portion of the castle to suddenly shift and sink down with the floors directly above it splitting apart and the walls of the basement suddenly cracking to allow tons of dirt and rock to flood and bury it completely. At the same time Spike’s fire raged out of control, devouring the reading room and spreading out to the rest of the castle, smoke and fire burning out the windows and temporarily threatening even to consume more of the castle than Starlight’s magic had destroyed. Luckily (just for once) there wasn’t enough flammable material for the fire to spread to the other half of the castle from where the reading room was. So it only ended up mostly burnt instead of completely.

And all the while Starlight and Spike watched this chaos from the grounds outside the castle. A quick teleport from Starlight having taken them to safety at the beginning.

Spike’s face was surprisingly neutral considering what was happening, probably just too used to it by now to care. Getting enough of the destruction he turned to Starlight. “Well Starlight, what’s next? Blow up Cloudsdale? Start a war with the Yaks? Or are we just gonna go all out and free Discord?”

Starlight as well just looked at the burning castle apathetically. “Actually I was thinking we could just go to Sweet Apple Acres now?” She replied.

“Oh.” Spike said. “I guess that’s okay too, but if you accidentally burn down the orchards and make Applejack cry don’t blame me.”

Starlight was going to reply when her vision went white and a sudden shaking overtook her. Her hooves felt like the ground fell out beneath them and her body became jelly, the strong vibrations making everything a great white blur. And then just as before it was done as fast as it started, Starlight checking to make sure she was still okay and looking over at Spike to see that he had again felt the same thing and was blearily blinking his eyes. Sighing, Starlight turned from the burning castle and began to head in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres as the past once more changed in a negative way Starlight didn’t intend. Messing with the past? That was the plan. Causing problems and making things worse? Not so much.

It's About Time

Once more two kites flew over the gardens of Canterlot castle. But these weren’t just any kites, one was a huge purple dragon and the other an Alicorn in a bit of a lighter shade of purple, the two of them flew together side by side, sharing the sky. It was almost a miracle that they could stay up the way they did without the help of any magic, they looked far too cumbersome to fly but somehow their handlers made it work. They floated along with the breeze, dipping and diving down, the dragon and pony in control of them making sure they didn’t accidentally bump into each other or have the lines tangle up.

“If you want to use your magic we can make them fight in midair. Or I could fly up there and join them!”

“I think I’m fine just like this, Spike.”

Starlight tugged on her line, getting the unwieldy kite to glide back and forth with far more grace than one would expect. Spike frowned and tried to emulate her but only caused his big dragon to wobble back and forth.

The giggling voice of Starlight reached his ears and he glared up at her.

“Sorry, Spike. You need a bit more practice before you can handle a kite like I can.” She patted his head.

Spike grumbled for a bit before a more thoughtful expression appeared on his face and he looked down at the ground in dismay. “Uh, Starlight? Celestia still seemed pretty depressed at breakfast didn’t she?”

Starlight grimaced. She held on to her line to keep it steady before sighing and responding to Spike. “Well… yeah. She did. But this was going to happen anyways even if I didn’t do anything. I’m sure she got really depressed and upset when Sunset left back in our timeline too.”

“She literally made frowny face pancakes.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that was weird.” Starlight shuddered at the memory of Princess Celestia’s very sad looking pancakes.

“We should do something for her, like surprise her with a gift or join her for dinner so she can talk with us. It’ll probably be good for her.” Spike suggested.

Starlight watched as the dragon kite lost its equilibrium thanks to Spike taking his attention away from it for too long. She carefully maneuvered it in the sky with her magic to make sure it didn’t fall or crash into her kite until the wind caught under its wings again.

“Easy there for a second, Spike. You’re losing control of your kite.” She told him.

“Huh? Oh.” He quickly tried to get back in form with it. “Sorry, just got all that other stuff on my mind now.”

“I know. We can wrap up here in a minute if you want and then head inside. We’ll think of something nice to do for Celestia back in our room.” She smiled at him.

Kite flying was Starlight’s go to activity for relaxing and getting rid of stress. She was sad to say that she simply didn’t have enough time for it back in the present. Even before she took up her job as guidance counselor she was a little embarrassed about her hobby for a while and didn’t get to indulge in it that much. It was nice that even though this vacation had taken a few wrong turns and had been a bit hectic at times she still had a few moments like this.

Spike slowly started to reel his kite in, making sure it didn’t go off on its own or hit any trees as he brought it down and Starlight soon followed. Taking plenty of time to reel hers in.

“I wish we could take these with us whenever we return to the present… future? Whatever.” Spike said as he carried his dragon kite back into the castle.

“We can make new ones once we’re back. I love making kites.” Starlight grinned at the thought, her Alicorn kite on her back.

The two of them sat in their room trying to come up with some ideas to cheer Celestia up. Starlight sat with a worn piece of paper in front of her, all her attempts at writing a letter met with frustration as every start to a sentence was crossed out. Spike was doing no better, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling surrounded by wads of crumpled up paper.

Starlight tapped her pen against the paper and sighed. How do you say “Sorry your student just disappeared” in a way that wouldn’t make the recipient cry?

“Maybe flowers?” Spike suddenly suggested from his prone position.

“Eh, not thoughtful enough.” Starlight rejected the idea. “We don’t even know what her favorite kinds of flowers are.”

There had to be some sort of nice gift that Celestia would really like from the two of them. Something that she’d love, something that fit the occasion, something the both of them could make or get and would help cheer her up too. But what?

Starlight’s eyes snapped wide open.

“Of course!” She yelled, jumping up in excitement and causing Spike to yelp in surprise.

“Gah!” He shot up, tail and wings sticking out and frozen in fright. “Don’t do that!”

“Sorry Spike, but I figured out the perfect gift to get Celestia!” Starlight pranced up and down on her hooves.

“Uh, okay, so what is it?” Spike asked the incredibly over-excited unicorn.

She bowed her head down to look him right in the eye. “A cake!”

“A cake?” Spike tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her. “Really?”

Starlight rolled her eyes and started pacing around the room. “Think about it! Princess Celestia loves cake, cake is for special occasions both happy and sad, it’s the perfect pick-me-up food, it’s something we can personally make and more than that is something I know the both of us are good at making. It’s perfect!”

Spike tapped a claw under his chin, he had to admit that she had a point there.

Finally he shrugged. “Alright, I think you actually have a good idea there. Celestia would probably love a big cake right now.”

“Great, let’s get right to it!” Starlight grabbed Spike with her magic and set him on her back.

“What are you-”

“Fastest way to the kitchen.” She replied and with a pop teleported the both of them into the middle of Canterlot Castle’s currently vacant kitchen.

Spike was slightly disoriented but this was hardly his first abrupt teleport. He flapped his wings and jumped from off Starlight’s back. “Well I guess you were right about that. Should we even be in here though?”

Starlight shrugged. “It’s not like we’ve been expressly told not to come in here, and it’s for a good cause.”

“Yeah...” Spike shook his head but he had been through enough conversations like this to know that he wouldn’t get anywhere by arguing. He looked around the kitchen for a few seconds, everything had been put away by the cooks so they’d need to rummage through it for a while to find everything they needed. “So are you just going to magic it all together when we’ve got the ingredients?”

“Nope.” Starlight shook her head as she opened up a random cabinet. “This cake is gonna come from the heart. No shortcuts.”

“Alright, so what kind of cake?” Spike asked as he started pulling open drawers along the floor of the kitchen.

“It’ll be a chocolate base for sure, then we can decorate it with whatever frosting and put anything else that looks good on top.” Starlight walked over to a large pantry and opened it up to see a wide variety of ingredients and cooking instruments stacked up on its shelves. “Perfect! You keep looking over there, Spike. And tell me if you find the fridge.”

Starlight must’ve looked over a hundred boxes and packages before she found the cake mix nestled on one of the shelves.

“There you are.” She smiled and plucked it off the shelf and went back to looking for any other ingredients or utensils for cake baking that might be in here.

A minute later and Starlight and Spike had assembled an array of flour, sugar, eggs, milk, mixing bowls, whisks, pans, chocolate etc. etc. in preparation for making their big gift cake to Celestia. And this being one of Canterlot castle’s kitchens they had a truly monumental amount of ingredients that piled up on the marble counter like some sort of miniature mountain.

“How big of a cake are we making?” Spike had to ask.

“It’s Celestia.”

“Good point. Three levels at least?”

“It’s a start.”

Spike had made plenty of cakes on his own before and thanks to Pinkie Pie Starlight was more than capable of making one without the aid of her magic nowadays too. And the kitchen here was probably one of the best places for making a high-quality cake one could find in the first place. It took a lot of work but the cake design ended up coming together, three chocolate levels of diminishing size to make it look almost like a wedding cake with a more than generous amount of pink frosting coating the outsides. After that Starlight would draw on some flower designs and place plenty of strawberries and cherries along the edges. She and Spike were confident that even Pinkie Pie would be proud of the cake. And jealous. And upset that she didn’t get to eat it.

With just a little time they had already gotten the first and biggest layer of the cake mixed and put together.

“Careful now, Starlight.” Spike told her as she levitated the bottom layer of the cake into the oven.

“I think I can put a cake into an oven, Spike.” She grinned to herself and started wobbling the cake around. “Oh no, I’ve lost control of my magic!”

“Starlight!” Spike jumped forward to “save” the cake.

Upon which Starlight just pulled it up and let him fly right past it. “Hah, gotcha!”

Spike slid across the tile of the kitchen on his belly, glaring over his shoulder at her when he finally came to a stop. “Pff, yeah, yeah...”

After two more layers had been made and two more uses of the oven every layer had been baked to perfection and the construction of the cake began, Spike painting every inch of it with frosting while Starlight used a more delicate touch to smooth things out and work the designs in.

It took a really long time and a few messes but the cake was coming along nicely.

“Do we put any candles or anything special on top?” Spike asked as he floated above it, surveying the cake from every angle.

“I was thinking of edible flowers actually. But I didn’t see any of those in here.” Starlight squinted hard at the cake to make sure not a single inch was out of order.

“I think we could probably just make some big frosting flowers.” Spike descended and grabbed the piping bag full of frosting, tossing it to Starlight.

“Thanks, Spike. I guess that’ll have to do.”

With the frosting and some food coloring Starlight was able to make a bouquet of roses at the very top of the cake. Red, yellow, white, and pink roses covering every inch of it.

“Wow, this actually came out really nice.” Spike said, hands on his hips in satisfaction.

Starlight wiped the sweat from her brow as she pulled back from the cake, finally finished with it.

“Wooh. Yeah, I’m even surprised with myself.” She smiled.

Sitting on the counter-top, anypony would agree that it was a pretty magnificent cake. The three layers made it as tall as Starlight herself and the pink frosting was immaculately spread over every inch, as smooth as an ironed dress. White trim went around the edges of each layer with strawberries and cherries spread at equal intervals and some very pretty frosting flowers and swirling designs across the top layer of pink frosting. And underneath it all was the most delectable of chocolate cake fillings one could ever want.

“Great work, Spike.” Starlight put a hoof over his shoulders.

“You too, Starlight.” Spike responded in kind the best he could, reaching a claw up to put on her back.

And then a loud crackling noise erupted in the kitchen, arcs of lightning appearing in thin air and a white sphere suddenly phasing into existence over the cake. It was at first only the size of an apple but it kept growing larger and larger until it could easily fit a pony into it with no problem. The formerly white sphere also started alternating between every color of the rainbow, bathing the entire kitchen in a myriad of lights, before finally settling on translucent.

At which point a purple Alicorn fell out of the sphere and right onto the cake, smashing it into oblivion. Its remains splattered across the kitchen and all over Starlight and Spike’s stunned faces.

“Ugh, that was not a smooth ride. And did I fall into a cake?! Why did I fall into a cake?!” Twilight said as she stood up from the destroyed cake, her mane and coat absolutely soaked in bits of cake and frosting.

Starlight and Spike looked at each other, the shock of Twilight’s sudden appearance and the destruction of their cake making them both a little tongue-tied. The sphere she had come out of had also promptly disappeared.

Finally Starlight decided to end the silence. “Hey Twilight.”

Twilight’s eyes opened wide and her head snapped forward, looking down from on top of the kitchen counter at her number one assistant and her own faithful student.

She couldn’t help but tear up a bit as she lunged off the counter and crashed into them, crushing them in a big hug.

It’s a good thing there was already plenty of cake on all three of them.

“Starlight! Spike! I finally found you!” She yelled as she squished all of their faces together.

“T-Twilight… can’t… breathe!” Spike struggled to get out as the force of Twilight’s hug started to crush his ribs.

“Oh! Sorry.” She released them and jumped back, blushing. “I got a little bit over-excited.”

Twilight finally took the moment to look around, noticing that there was now splattered cake everywhere and that they were inside one of the kitchens at Canterlot castle.

“Umm… I feel like I’m missing something but why are you here? And were you making that cake? Did I destroy your cake?!” Twilight said with increasing franticness.

“It’s not a big deal, Twilight.” Starlight tried to reassure her. “The cake was just going to be a gift to Celestia but, well, obviously more important things have come up.”

“Right, right.” Twilight started to calm down, mostly. “Okay. I can assume that for whatever reason you thought it was a good idea to come to Canterlot and meet Princess Celestia. I’ll trust your judgment there.” She unconsciously started pacing back and forth, causing Starlight and Spike to worry that she was about to have another one of her Twilight breakdowns. “I’ll also trust that you haven’t done anything to mess up the past, right? You both have enough sense and responsibility to know not to do anything like that. I’m sure you’ve been doing your hardest not to change anything, sure there have probably been some accidents and things done out of necessity but that’s forgivable.”

After finishing that last sentence she swung her head to look at Starlight and Spike, only a slightly manic looking smile on her face.

“Right?” She asked.

This was a rather cathartic moment for Spike. He could very easily get back at Starlight for all the stuff she’s pulled and the crazy shenanigans she’s put him through. It would be so easy to just tell Twilight the truth and throw his good friend under the bus. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and could tell that she had fully realized this as well, a fake smile frozen on her face while her eyes begged for pity and mercy as they bored a hole in his head.

Spike could only sigh. “That’s right, we’ve done a good job of not changing anything. Starlight and I have been really responsible.”

Twilight let out a great sigh of relief. “Whew, glad to hear. We all know that the slightest change can have horrible, unforeseeable repercussions.”

“Yep. Wouldn’t want anything like that to happen.” Starlight chuckled nervously and mouthed “Thank you” to Spike.

The look he gave back to her was one that told her she now owed him for life.

“I’m really glad to hear things have been alright with you, and I’m sorry it took so long for me to find you.” Twilight interrupted their little moment as she explained what had been going on. “First off I tried figuring out how you even did this on my own but the spell wasn’t the same as the previous one and I couldn’t figure it out, then it took forever to contact Starswirl and Discord was being absolutely no help at all, and then Fluttershy also went missing for a few weeks and nopony had any idea what happened to her, we had another problem with Parasprites and this time they were at the school, and the Cutie Map called everypony but me off on a mission so I had to run the whole school alone for days in-between looking for a way to find and rescue you two so I’ve been getting almost no sleep whatsoever!” Twilight finally stopped so she could breathe, sitting down and taking deep breaths in and out. “Sorry. It’s been hectic.”

Starlight and Spike now both really didn’t want to tell her how much they had been messing around.

“Okay then.” Twilight said after finally regaining her bearings. “It’s time to go back now though. I’m sorry about the cake but it’s best to head back immediately. Starswirl is on the other end at the Cutie Map, we’ll all go through a new portal and get back to where we belong. And when.”

“One question, Twilight.” Starlight raised her hoof.

“Yes?” Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering what problem Starlight could possibly have.

“Can we get this cake off of us first?”

Twilight looked down at her body that was still covered in bits of cake and frosting, along with Starlight’s and Spike’s. “Oh. Right.”

A quick use of magic to clean them all up and the three were ready to go back to their own time and put this whole awkward mess behind them.

“Alright, just stick by me.” Twilight said as her horn lit up, Starlight and Spike standing on either side of her.

The glowing portal appeared again, much more controlled from this side, and started expanding over their heads until it could easily swallow all three of them up. Wind kicked around them and the three were slowly lifted off their hooves (and claws) before suddenly jetting into the portal sphere of energy.

Space and time twisted and shook all around them, Starlight could only vaguely see the purple outlines of Twilight and Spike as she was pulled along with them through a kaleidoscope of rainbow energy. It felt like her whole body was being stretched to its limits and turned into rubber. Her mind was sent spiraling and spiraling downwards and somehow she “saw” the light at the end of the tunnel approaching faster and faster, the brightness completely overtaking her until-

She, Spike and Twilight fell out of the portal onto the hard ground. All three of them letting out grunts of pain.

“Gotta work on the landing for this spell.” Twilight said as she got up, rubbing her head.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Spike said as he got up, dusting off his legs. The dragon looked around, noticing that the portal had dropped them off on the ground right in front of Twilight’s Castle. “Why are we here?”

“What do you-” Twilight didn’t finish as she finally noticed just where exactly they were as well. Her eyes widened in shock and she spun around in confusion. “What?! We shouldn’t be outside, we should’ve been taken right back to the Map with Starswirl!”

“Er, Twilight?” Starlight said to get her attention as she too noticed something that was off. “I think we have another problem besides just where we are.”

Twilight turned to Starlight to see her pointing in the direction of the Friendship School.

Or to be more accurate the direction the school should be in.

“The school!” Twilight yelled, wings flaring outwards and holding her head in horror. “What happened to the school?! This should be the present, there’s no question about it! What’s going on?!”

“Uh, Starlight? Twilight?” Spike spoke from behind them. “There’s something else too.”

The unicorn and Alicorn looked back at him to see Spike staring and pointing up at the sky. Wanting to see what he was looking at they followed his gaze and stared up as well.

If it was possible, Twilight’s eyes grew even wider.

“B-But why?! Why is that happening right now?” Twilight was nearly stupefied as she watched the beautiful lights from the Crystal Empire dance in the sky.

“I… I don’t know either, Twilight.” Spike tore his eyes away from the lights and rubbed them. “But I feel kind of weird looking at them, like it’s giving me a headache or something.”

Twilight and Starlight both felt the same way, for whatever reason instead of the normal brilliance generated from the Empire that would fill a pony’s heart with positive emotions the lights currently in the sky almost made them nauseous.

“Just what...” Twilight grimaced as she fought the unpleasantness of the lights. “Just what in all of Equestria is going on here?!”

Author's Note

One week break.