Perception

Twilight fell out of the portal to land calmly onto the circuit runway.

"Finally, I am back here!" Twilight exclaimed to herself, before giving out a sigh of relief. Shaking her head furiously, her eyes were still trying to readjust to change in the landscape surrounding her. She was so relieved to return back to her own timeline; at least she could stop Starlight from stopping the Rainboom so that she could return to the present with all of her friends. She did not want to go back to those ridiculous alternate realities again.

Placing the scroll back into the safety of her travel pack, Twilight took off from the runway, darting to a nearby cloud adjacent to the midway point of the circuit. She concealed herself by hiding in the fluffy cloud, to employ Starlight's strategy against her. She peeked out of the side of the cloud, her eyes carefully watching the sky for a glimpse of Starlight Glimmer. Instead, a glaring light greeted Twilight's vision.

Tensing her muscles, Twilight spontaneously summoned the magical aura within her to raise a protective force field to defend herself, with her horn glowing at the effort.

Seconds after the shield was raised, the beam struck mercilessly onto its surface. Twilight could hear the audible sound of her shield cracking at the point of impact. She could even feel the heat radiating from the blast from under her shield. Reacting swiftly, she squeezed her eyes shut in deep concentration to continue transmitting the magical aura to her horn to strengthen the shield, desperately hoping that it would be able to withstand the blast.

Fortunately for Twilight, the beam weakened and subsided into nothingness. As she carefully pried her eyes open again, with her shield still up, a familiar face appeared, levitating just outside the confines of her shield.

"Welcome back!" Starlight called out, her voice muffled due to the effects of the force field. Twilight could see that her horn was still visibly red hot, with white smoke rising up into the air from its surface.

"Starlight?" Twilight responded, frowning. "How did you-"

"How did I manage to follow you here?" Starlight interjected rudely, as a mischievous grin emerged from her face. "Well, the spell is bound to me. So even when you cast it, it sends me back here from that other time as well!"

"Starlight, do you know what you have done to the future?" Twilight asked quickly, genuinely concerned whether Starlight was aware of the huge ramifications she would have in the present. She was certain that both of them did not want to return to a world that at the present, would be under the reign of an evil king. It would be a lose-lose situation for both of them.

Starlight laughed. She did not care how the future would turn out to be. She wanted Twilight to witness how she could erase the very connections that held the six of them together. Now, Twilight was alone, helpless and cowering before her under a shield. Finally, Twilight would experience how it was like when her closest friends were stripped away from her life.

"Do I look like I care about the future?" Starlight shot back without any hint of worry.

Starlight landed onto the surface of Twilight's shield with a thud. She then brought her neck down to face Twilight, staring deeply into her lifeless eyes.

"I knew you will come back here to try and stop me. And in doing so, you will witness your bond between your friends destroyed again!" Starlight continued, the fire inside her raging once again. "My village was a special place...and YOU and your FRIENDS must be the ones to TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME! Now it is my turn to take something valuable away from you!"

"Fine then!" Twilight shouted, before dismantling her protective shield and firing up her horn with magical aura. "But I will stop you first!"

With her horn charged up, she fired a sharp beam at Starlight in close range.

Starlight, with her levitation spell, deftly shifted her body to the left, with the beam just a hair's breath away from the surface of Starlight's skin. However, the beam managed to strike her mane that was flowing with the breeze, incinerating it at the point of contact.

"You will pay for that!" Starlight yelled angrily, frowning at the sight of her disfigured mane. Starlight inhaled deeply, charging up all the magical aura she had in her into her horn. The horn flared up, forming a thick layer of magical energy surrounding its surface. With all the strength that Starlight still possessed, she pushed her head forward, discharging a powerful ray targeted at Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle shuddered at the sight in fear. She hastily took off to evade the beam, fleeing from Starlight's high intensity ray, barely avoiding it as the beam obliterated the cloud that Twilight was hiding in.

But Starlight was not done. She shifted her head around and angled her horn, hoping that the beam would intersect Twilight's flight path.

Twilight's heart raced at the prospect of her demise as the beam barely glazed the tip of her own horn. She could feel the adrenaline rushing into her blood, as she switched directions randomly. She prayed that she could escape the effects of the formidable beam until Starlight ran out of magical aura to maintain it. Beads of perspiration from her forehead rained down onto the landscape below as she was slowly drained of her physical energy to continue flying.

Starlight was also at her limits of her mental and magical capabilities. Black spots began appearing in her vision as she continued to push every ounce of energy she had left into the beam. She clamped her eyes shut and clenched her teeth forcefully, in a seemingly last-ditch attempt to defeat her nemesis.

Starlight's beam began to weaken, as her horn crackled with the last bits of energy she could extract from her soul. As sparks flew off the surface of her horn, Starlight knew that she was done. The beam faded away as black, opaque smoke was emitted from her horn. She was exhausted, with the raging fire that burning in the depths of her spirit extinguished.

Starlight had nothing left. Fatigued, both mentally and physically, she lost control of the spell that enabled her to maintain her flight in the air, causing her to fall down onto the landscape below without warning.

Starlight's heart raced as she stared down into her undeniable doom. The air rushed past her at an unimaginable speed as she accelerated down onto the ground. Despite this, her legs made no attempt to slow her descent onto the hard ground below as she observed the ground racing towards her. She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at her downfall.

Suddenly, a pair of hooves grabbed her body, pulling her up to safety.

The drastic change in direction caused Starlight's blood to be suddenly pulled down into her legs, cutting off the circulation of much-needed blood into her brain, causing Starlight to black out before she could open her eyes to discover the identity of her saviour.

Seconds later, a disorientated Starlight managed to retake control of her senses as she collapsed comfortably onto the circuit runway. Opening her eyes cautiously, she could see the young Rainbow Dash and the bullies preparing themselves mentally for the race at the checkered starting line. Fluttershy stood at the same cloud that she recalled in the previous reality, carrying the race flag between her teeth.

"Starlight...are you okay?" Twilight's concerned voice rang into Starlight's ears.

"Twilight...why did you...?" Starlight said in disbelief, while she slowly regained her senses through rest. "Why give me a second chance? I destroyed your friends..."

"Starlight," Twilight replied calmly, turning to face the tired Starlight. "I know you can change for the better. With your talent, you surely can do good for the realm, and for all of us."

Starlight pushed herself up to face Twilight eye to eye, her legs struggling with the effort. Breathing in deeply, Starlight stepped forth towards Twilight. At the edge of her peripheral vision, Starlight noticed Fluttershy waving the race flag weakly, signalling the start of the race between Rainbow Dash and the bullies.

"How are you so kind to me?" Starlight uttered weakly, wishing that Twilight would give her an honest answer.

"Everypony makes mistakes, Starlight. Even me," Twilight responded, as she raised her front hoof and pointed to herself. "With a second chance, I know that you can learn from what you have done wrong."

"Thank you," Starlight said, as a thin, devious smile emerging from her face. "Thank you...for giving me a second chance...TO DESTROY YOUR FRIENDSHIPS AGAIN!"

Starlight's horn shimmered feebly to project a weak beam to strike at Rainbow Dash speeding past the obstacles of the course. Despite the low intensity beam, it was more than sufficient to knock Rainbow Dash off course, causing her to crash into the nearby pillar.

"Starlight! Why would you do this to me?" Twilight spoke frantically, in shock. Her heart sank down like a stone as her blood was beginning to boil at Starlight's betrayal of her good-heartedness. She thought that there was a genuine opportunity for her to help Starlight mend her ways. Instead, Starlight took advantage of her kindness to continue executing her revenge. It was all but a ruse to enable Starlight to regain her strength and her aura to defeat her once again.

Starlight did not utter a single word. Instead, she pounced onto Twilight's body, knocking her to the floor to unlatch her purple travel pack from her back.

Twilight, however, did not stay idle on the floor. She grappled with Starlight, pushing her to the side of the runway with her raw physical strength. Then, she started to charge up her magical aura into her horn to fire a retaliatory purple beam at Starlight's body metres away from her.

In an act of self-preservation, Starlight instinctively threw the travel pack into the path of the beam in an attempt to shield herself, causing the travel pack and its contents to be reduced to cinders.

Twilight gasped.