As usual, yet another white portal flashed out above the crystal table, lighting the room a brilliant white, shocking the eight into silence with awe and fear.

"STARLIGHT!" Twilight shouted instantly, her voice raging with fury. "Are you crazy?"

"Twilight, relax!" Starlight shot back, jerking her head to face away from the fabricating portal. "Please, I have to show it to you! It's the easiest way to explain myself!"

"It...it is not dragging us all in, right?" Rarity stammered at the sight of the warping portal above her head. Clicking sounds reverberated through the walls of the conference room, as gears turned in their appropriate places. As the ritual continued, the rest witnessed the scene with fear gripping onto their nerves, their jaws collapsing right to the floor. Even Starlight seemed to regret her rash actions, since she could not bring her eyes to meet the gaze of Twilight's.

Before too long, a whirling, attracting force was emitted from the interior of the portal, pulling the eight of them into the depths of time. As they were ascending up into the unknown, deafening screams could be heard from the far reaches of Ponyville, before they were instantaneously cut off as yet another adventure began.

The eight reappeared surprisingly uneventfully on a gravel path in a quaint town. Houses were scattered far apart from each other in a disorderly manner, with lush greenery dotting the view. The buildings had been painted in a similar colour scheme, and were built in solid stone masonry. The place spoke of modernity, but it also conveyed a calming feeling that can only be felt at the rural countryside.

"Where...where are we?" a timid Fluttershy softly asked, her wings tucked in close to her body at the unrecognisable landscape around her.

"This place...was my home," Starlight responded with a sigh, her sensitive ears catching the barely inaudible words that left Fluttershy's mouth, her magic controlling the motion of the ever-important time travel scroll. Despite being at the front of the eight, as the de-facto leader of this expedition, Starlight did not move an inch further after replying to Fluttershy. Her mind was shrouded in memories of the place she would have otherwise called home if that incident she was about to witness again never happened. As emotions flowed into her senses, her neck suddenly lost its strength to support her heavy head, bringing her head down to face the rough gravel path she stood on.

Twilight trotted ahead towards Starlight, placing her forehoof over her back in consolation. The warmth from Twilight's forehoof brought Starlight to glance up towards her, her eyes vibrating.

"I'm okay...Twilight," Starlight assured, even though she was trying to reassure herself, rather than Twilight. Breathing in the fresh atmospheric air, she tried to bring herself together and walked forward towards an inviting house, prompting the rest to follow her cautiously.

Starlight peeked through the open window of the house, the rest squeezing in to try and fit their heads to look into the building's interior. A young Starlight, accompanied by an orange colt, were horsing around with a huge tower of thick books, stacked precariously on top of each other in a unorderly fashion. Everyone but Twilight and Starlight were evidently shocked at this unbelievable sight; they could not comprehend how they could have travel through time this easily. And this affirmed the view that this was all real.

"Sunburst...and I did everything together," Starlight stated to the group, her head turning away from the window to face the grass below. "In fact, I could not remember us being apart...until today."

Tilting their heads back into the interior of the house, the eight could see the young Starlight pouring in effort into her magic to remove a book from the tower without toppling it. As she managed to yank the book out of the tower despite the huge amount of friction between their surfaces, the tower started to lose its foundational support, causing it to topple towards the young Starlight.

As the menacing shadow of the literature tower enveloped the young Starlight's vision, she closed her eyes in anticipation of the inevitable, her forehoof shielding her own head to bring about a feeble attempt to defend herself.

However, the massive number of books would have crushed the hapless, young Starlight were it not for the quick intervention of her only friend, Sunburst. A sound of magical shimmering seeped into their ears, as a veil of magical aura caught the books and stopped them in their tracks, averting the impending disaster.

The young Starlight dragged her eyes open slowly, as she wondered why she did not feel the books coming down onto her body. What she observed not only caused her mouth to open wide and gape at the situation, but it also shocked the eight watching calmly outside.

Clasping his eyes shut in concentration, his horn flaring with magical energy, Sunburst seized control over the huge, collective mess of books, arranging them in a circular orbit. Yellow energy emanated radially out in all directions, blinding all who were watching the proceedings. After a beat, the hurried sound of rearranging books on the surrounding wooden bookshelves rang into their ears, as they all soon realised that the books were neatly organised on the oak bookcases around.

Turning to view Sunburst, the eight gave out a collective gasp in unison with the young Starlight in the room. Sunburst was awarded an radiating orange orb with three emitting rays on his flank as his cutie mark for his fascinating display of his incredible magical abilities. He squealed out, joy bursting out of every corner of his heart, as he rushed out to the door.

The eight dashed to the side to observe the spectacle, to see Sunburst showing off his newly-earned cutie mark to the crowd to behold. The crowd tossed him into the air in celebratory jubilation, and paraded him for the amazing achievement down the main street of their hometown. At the same time, loud hoofsteps could be heard from the open door before the sound dissipated into the air, as the young Starlight rushed down to realise the impact this would have on her livelihood.

"His family...they recognised his talent and sent him off to Canterlot!" the narrating Starlight exclaimed, her forehoof rising up into the air. "As for mine...they didn't care about me. I was insignificant in their eyes."

"Why not?" Rainbow Dash questioned in a sudden outburst, her sensitivity to the situation giving way to her instinctive self-assertiveness.

"Because my accomplishments were always outclassed by others," Starlight sighed, hoping to force out the sorrow that lingered within the deep reaches of her heart. "Sunburst got his cutie mark and I didn't; he moved on and I didn't!"

"That's unthinkable; a cutie mark can't take your friends away!" Twilight replied without a moment of hestitation. "A cutie mark is just a sym-"

"You all have no idea how traumatic this experience could have on my younger days," Starlight interrupted, as she could feel the air trapped in her lungs being sucked out of her life. "Sunburst...he stood up for me, as my only friend. I was constantly being teased and bullied by everypony else in school at my lack of accomplishments and he was the only one willing to befriend and defend me."

"Well, surely there are others out there willing to be friends with you?" Spike asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "And Sunburst?"

"No," Starlight responded weakly, as she refused to meet the glance of the group. "I didn't want to lose another friend because of their cutie marks anyways, I just simply couldn't accept this reality. As for Sunburst, he just left me...thinking about him makes me feel so helpless. I never wanted to meet him again, should that bring back this horror of the past."

"Instead," Starlight continued, after inhaling a large breathe of cool air to calm herself. "I worked to hone my magic, alone, to convince my family that I was something to them. But even after I got my own cutie mark, they didn't see it in me..."

A moment of silence came as Starlight tried to piece herself back together, while hot tears were gushing out from the sides of her eyes. The remaining seven stared at her, aghast at the situation that Starlight was thrown into at such a critical juncture in life.

"So, I left this place," Starlight carried on, her expulsion of tears seemingly helping to console her unsteady state of mind. "I abandoned my home...for greener pastures...to seek out my own destiny and to create my abode of equality so that no pony would have any grievances on each other, like what happened to me..."

Without any time to lose, she fired another beam of magic at the scroll she levitated by her side, synthesising a white portal to bring them back into the present.

Collapsing from the flashing portal that stood above the crystal table, the eight wearily glanced up to rise to their hooves, except for Starlight. She quickly realised that the time travel scroll that she had used time and time again has vanished from her hooves. She glanced around the meeting room desperately, wishing to recover this crucial scroll. When she finally uncovered the location of the scroll, Starlight instinctively gasped out loud, startling the group to turn towards what she was gazing at.

The time travel scroll was floating mid-way between the crystal table and the white portal above, with white flashes of magic crackling around the sides of the scroll. Before Starlight and the rest could realise the gravity of the situation, the scroll was struck with an almighty magical force that evaporated it into nothingness, destroying it and preventing its usage forever.

Yet, despite this, Starlight was not perturbed as she gave off a sigh of much-needed relief. She wanted the scroll to be destroyed before another reckless pony took advantage of its capabilities to doom the world they live in into a disastrous wreck, like she almost did. Seeing the scroll erased from existence permanently actually eased the feelings within her heart, because she felt that nopony else could commit the same mistake as she did again.

As the rest made their way to their crystal chairs to rest, Twilight trotted forward towards Starlight, wanting to make amends by empathising with Starlight's horrific past and to explain herself and her actions. However, before she could open her mouth to speak, Starlight interjected.

"I know that there is no excuse for what I did," Starlight declared courageously, as she reflected from her past mistakes. "But I must inform you all that I am ready for whatever punishment you think is fair."

"I've been thinking a lot about this," Twilight responded slowly, adding to the drawn-out suspense that Starlight certainly felt within every corner of her nerves. "But I don't have any excuses for what I did to you, either."

"Twilight, what in tarnations are you talking about?" Applejack exclaimed in disbelief, unsure of what Twilight did to Starlight to warrant such an apology. Surely, all this was all Starlight's fault!

"Applejack, did we explain to her why we ruthlessly kicked her out of her own village? Did we care about her own mental state of mind?"

The rest of the group froze, their conscience speaking thoughtfully to them as they considered Twilight's perspective.

"Starlight...we have been through so much, learnt so much and helped each other through this difficult time that we both faced together," Twilight stated, gesturing with her forehooves to accompany her exposition. "Remember the time when I said that I didn't change you, but you changed yourself?"

Starlight nodded her head subtly in reply to Twilight's inquiry.

"You independently took the first step to change your perception of our friendship, because you now know how important friendship means to you," Twilight elaborated, as she was trying to explain her insights to Starlight. "I may have given you the impetus, but you are the one who is in control of the pony you are."

At this, Starlight galloped towards Twilight's side to give her an unexpected, warm hug.

"Thank you, Twilight," Starlight spoke out. "It is you that made me see the errors of my ways, and it is you who gave me insights into my perception of friendship."

"No, thank you," Twilight responded swiftly. "You have taught me the importance of empathy in the forging of friendships in a new perspective; and not to mention you have been more than willing to change yourself to develop into a better pony." With that, Twilight returned the embrace with Starlight.

"Starlight, I'm willing to teach you all I know about friendship, and I hope that you are willing to teach me what I don't know about friendship yet," Twilight proposed, as she panned the smiling ponies of the crystal table. "We all can then have the power to make Equestria an even better place for everyone."

"And you are really willing to do all this for me?" Starlight asked, uncertainty in her voice, as she released Twilight from her embrace to look right into her very eyes.

"Of course!" Twilight replied enthusiastically as she nodded her head, beaming brightly at Starlight. "As a true friend."

"Well...I mean, how do I start?" Starlight whispered with her forehoof covering the motion of her lips.

"You really have!" Twilight laughed, to the utter surprise of Starlight, as the rest of the group came forth to cuddle together as one to welcome their new friend.

As Starlight turned to her left and right, tears blanketed her vision as she realised how far she had come, how much she had grown and how she was able to find a place in society to start anew.

Six hours later...

Trotting into Twilight's library, Starlight grabbed a blank piece of paper and an ink feather to begin writing hurriedly on the lectern in the centre of the library.

Dear Twilight,

Words cannot describe how grateful I am to you for all that you have done for me. You have helped me grow into the mare I am today, for which I am extremely appreciative of. Thank you for giving me so many chances to redeem myself and you!

What happened to me in the short span of a few moons was astounding, and the experience was certainly unforgettable. I have been reflecting hard about the turn of events that led to the change in me and I definitely want to share it with you. So, I have written a little something to show you my perspective of the circumstances we went through, together.

I was persuaded to give in to my perception;
So I perfected the scope of my reception;
Persisting, despite your rejection;
Yet your perifidious act struck me an exception;
Throwing me into peril with acceleration.

I persevered despite complications,
To obtain percipience in recollections,
gleaning ideas from many observations;
To bring you through the permutations;
Fighting around in vast mutations.

But alas, the permutations gave in to permanence;
We were persecuted without benevolence,
Yet perspicacity came with your intelligence,
Though it was gifted with perturbance;
Perchance to our disappearance?

My perception has changed periodically,
but my perspective has remained stoically;
honest and true to the soul I am, resolutely.

Thank you...Twilight.

Your friend,
Starlight Glimmer

Jotting down her salutations swiftly, she retracted her magical grip over the quilt and paper, allowing them to rest serenely on the mahogany lectern before leaving the room.

Author's Note

Thank you to all who have made it this far into my first story, Perception. I must thank all my proofreaders who have joined me on this epic journey.