Perception

"Maybe I was more stressed over the speech than I thought!" Twilight said, her voice echoing down the hallway of her castle.

Starlight Glimmer ripped open her travel pack to grab the scrolls containing the crucial time travel spells. She placed them on the crystal table in the central meeting room of Twilight's majestic castle, her hooves shaking in the process. She then made herself comfortable on Fluttershy's crystal chair, as she eyed the crumpled scrolls that stood in front of her in contemplation. She breathed in, and held the dry air within her for a few momentous seconds.

"Yeah, that sounds better than Starlight Glimmer coming back for an evil plot for revenge," that distinctive, rough voice that Starlight recognised from her previous infiltration mission into the castle responded.

The door to the meeting room swung open, wide and brave.

"What?" Twilight gasped, her pupils dilating. Her teeth snapped together as she was trying to bring herself together.

"Welcome home...Twilight," Starlight greeted, with a sneer.

Without waiting for a response, Starlight summoned her energies into her horn and cast the two salient spells. The scrolls shot up in the air, midway up the tall ceiling. Waves of magical energy emanated radially throughout the room, binding to the crystal furniture. Magical constructs appeared directly above the crystal table which emitted a loud gear clicking sound.

Twilight felt a sudden surge throughout her body. All of a sudden, a bright light shone from the top of the room, forcing Twilight to shield her eyes with her wings for a short period of time. Opening her eyes slowly, she galloped forward to the table in a daze, looking at the scroll levitating above impossibly and back down into Starlight's sly face. She then gazed left and right hurriedly at the table, before she turned to frown at Starlight.

"What are you doing, Starlight?" Twilight interrogated, although the strength in her voice seemed to waver.

Starlight let loose an evil, maniacal laughter that shook the room. Her machinations had finally let her to this moment. Enjoying the look of unmistakable fear displayed in Twilight's facial expressions, she wanted to savour this moment to the fullest. The sweet taste of revenge that lingered at the tip of Starlight's tongue was delicious.

"I would tell you," Starlight responded slowly, tilting her body forward towards Twilight. "But I don't want to ruin the surprise!"

Starlight threw her body forward, her front hooves contacting the surface of the delicate crystal table. An incredible wave of magical energy emanated from the ceiling of the castle, forming some kind of vortex.

Twilight cowered at the sight of the unknown, her face turning white with horror. She dragged her hooves back to the entrance of the room with her baby dragon following closely in her hoofsteps.

Starlight glared at Twilight, before leaping into the portal above with an almighty jump.

"NO!" Twilight exclaimed with horror. Channelling the magical energy within her, she summoned a lavender beam from the tip of her horn, pointing towards the mysterious portal ahead of her. The lavender beam struck the portal dead centre, just above Starlight's mane. Upon contact with the portal, the beam weakly scattered randomly in all directions, as if it was being distorted by the portal.

"Catch you later...Twilight Sparkle," Starlight remarked casually, grinning, as she entered the portal head first. Her eyes witnessed the strange interior of the portal, a mix of white and black sliding past each other around the sides. A weird, whirling sound accompanied the bizarre experience. A pulsating light shone directly in front of her that became brighter and brighter, as a strange force dragged her in.

She clamped her eyes shut nervously, keeping her hooves close to her body at all times during her travel between the realities as a precautionary measure. Despite this, the blinding light was increasingly able to seep into the corners of her eye, forcing her to quickly cover her eyes with her front hooves.

Suddenly, the intense light disappeared, but Starlight could still feel that there was a force pulling her down, with a whooshing sound that deafened her eardrums. Opening her left eye slowly, she found herself accelerating through the atmosphere towards a greyish blob that was floating in the sky.

Panicking, her body jumped into action at the perilous sight, with her hooves waving frantically in the sky. Drawing from her magical power, her horn glowed, surrounding her with a veil of magical aura. Starlight decelerated slowly to a comfortable speed using her perfected levitation spell and dived down to her destination.

Not before too long, she arrived at her destination, the Cloudsdale Race Circuit. As Starlight levitated overhead, she saw a birds-eye view of the landscape below, seeing ash-white clouds supporting a light grey road that looked like a runway. Sculpted clouds acting as obstacles were everywhere along the circuit, with many in the shape of distorted rings. Moving closer, Starlight's eyes can distinguish small dots that were directly on top of the clouds. On closer inspection, she found that these dots were in fact Pegasi fillies relaxing by the side of the circuit.

Starlight landed gently onto the side of the runway, with almost the lightness of a feather. She trotted down the runway casually, until her legs suddenly became numb with pain.

Frowning in disbelief, she glanced down at her legs, noticing a lilac, crystalline substance encasing her four legs together in a tight bind, making her to writhe with agony.

“Didn’t expect me here?” a voice rang confidently from above, accompanied with the loud sound of wings fluttering. “Thought I was too scared to follow you?”

“I wanted...you here, Twilight...Sparkle,” Starlight spat with distaste, the pain from her immobile legs piercing sharply into her nerves. Squeezing her mind for all its worth, she gathered her magical aura into her glowing horn. Craning her head down painfully, her neck straining at the effort, she emitted a powerful beam that shattered the magical crystal, destroying it with a satisfying crunch. The pain from her legs disappeared at that very instant, enabling Starlight to retake control of her own hooves.

“Not bad,” Twilight remarked, flying overhead. “But know that I will stop whatever you are up to, here and now!”

Twilight clenched her teeth as her horn collected magical energy from within. Nodding her head forward, a blast of multicoloured energy came straight for Starlight's prone body.

Starlight could feel the strength of the beam, with the blazing heat emitted seeping into her skin. She closed her eyes, concentrating her efforts and mustered the magical energy required, before realising that she had no time to charge up her aura to counter that. Her horn then emitted a brilliant light to execute a teleportation spell, allowing her to vanish from the scene a few seconds before disaster struck.

Starlight reappeared conveniently in a random cloud at the side of the race circuit. She peeked her head out of the fluffy edge and saw the young Rainbow Dash at the far end of the runway with two other fillies, with their wings outstretched in anticipation. A nervous looking Fluttershy stood directly in front of the three, her mouth gripping onto a checkered black and white flag.

Moments later, Fluttershy weakly waved the flag, signalling the start of the race. With that, the competitors bolted ahead with gusto, unintentionally knocking Fluttershy off the cloud she was standing on to certain doom.

As the race continued, Starlight could see an aerial cone enveloping Rainbow Dash's body as she sped down the circuit. The ridiculous amount of air pressure Rainbow Dash was experiencing at that moment compressed her into an aerodynamic arrow, with her teeth gripping onto each other desperately for support. Rushing down the course at an unfathomable velocity, light seemed to spark off from the air surrounding her.

Starlight struck without hesitation. A beam of turquoise energy from Starlight's horn immobilised Rainbow Dash's blue wings without warning.

"Hey! What’s this?" Rainbow Dash complained bitterly, turning to stare at her handicapped wings.

In the safety of her hiding place, Starlight laughed at her handiwork, while trying to use her hooves to muffle the sound of her continuous giggles.

Suddenly, Starlight felt a pulse of magical energy flowing into her veins and a tinkling sensation at the back of her head. Reacting quickly, Starlight flew up straight to her left. With her horn still shimmering, she turned back to fire another blast of magical energy up into the sky.

Starlight's beam collided with a dark purple ray, causing a blast of radiant energy emitting in all directions. The explosion let loose a brilliance of red and orange, blinding her for a short moment.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Twilight demanded, as she slowly peeled her eyes open.

"You...are about to find out," Starlight responded, a crooked smile emerging from her face to greet Twilight, as a portal materialised above Twilight’s head that sucked her into it, leaving Starlight behind in history.

A confused Twilight fell onto a blue, cold surface.

"How...how did Starlight fly around like that?” Twilight thought to herself, shaking her head in apprehension. She was aware that Starlight must be preparing her revenge behind her back ever since she was exiled from her village, but she was still shocked at the exceptional proficiency of Starlight's magic.

Her curious mind questioned how the wingless Starlight was able to levitate in the sky effortlessly. Putting on her thinking cap, she reflected upon her encounter with Starlight that occurred just minutes ago, until she just noticed that Starlight's horn was constantly glowing throughout their confrontation. Starlight must be using her raw magical power to levitate in the sky.

"No," Twilight thought to herself, as she straightened her legs to pull herself up onto the crystal table, determined. "No matter how powerful she is, I must find a way to stop her."

Turning her head, her eyes glanced around her immediate surroundings, noticing that something was amiss. Tall, overgrown grass surrounded the vicinity of the crystal table, with a cascading waterfall coming off the side of the nearby mountains. Dense forests covered the land as far as the eye could see.

Inhaling a large lungful of air, Twilight gasped, with her ears drooping down in terror.

Her castle was gone.

Twilight could not hold it in for any longer. Tears trickled down the side of Twilight’s face, forming a reflective puddle on the smooth surface of the crystal table. Her eyes were closed shut, trying to cut off the tears that inevitably flowed downward. Her mouth could taste the salinity of the tears that slid into her dry tongue. Why did she not bring her trusted companion dragon along with her?

By the time Twilight’s eyes were dry, hours and hours had passed. She had no choice but to accept the alternate reality she was placed into, thanks to Starlight's evil plan. She inhaled, sucking in a huge lungful of air, trying to relieve her senses. She jumped off the safety of the table, setting off for the unknown ahead.

"Hello?" Twilight called out to no one in particular as she stepped into the settlement she should have called home.

The town was unrecognisable. Windows were boarded up with broken furniture with nails hammered randomly and hurriedly into the structure. The formerly vibrant architecture was tainted with some mysterious black aura. Vegetation had begun to take over the settlement, with thick vines creeping along the ends of the balconies. This could not be more different from the Ponyville that Twilight once knew and loved.

"Rarity? Pinkie Pie?" Twilight called out for her former friends, as she tried to open the doors of their homes. To her horror, the doors were bolted down with iron nails hammered into the woodwork, rusting with time. She pounded the wooden door with her front hooves desperately, to no response. Eventually, her hammering slowed to a stop, with her hooves sliding down the surface of the wooden door weakly. Her face followed suit, bending down to face the soil below.

Twilight turned round, with her head still bowed down to this unimaginable reality, and followed a gravel path that led to the nearby woodlands aimlessly. She found it incredibly difficult to accept that the friendship that she took years to cultivate and nurture could be ruthlessly undone by Starlight through a singular change in the past. She treasured her friends; they had taught her, changed her attitude to friendship and gave her so much happiness in her life. But now, she felt that they were so distant from her, in space and even in time. Twilight gave out a long sigh, as she wondered how she could go back to the joyful reality that she so deeply missed.

Suddenly, at the edge of Twilight’s vision, a shadow appeared.

Twilight almost choked on her own saliva sliding down into her throat when she looked up to see a heavily armoured pony marching ahead of her. Despite the unrecognisable, soldierly look of her familiar friend, she could feel the tears of happiness slipping down her eyes.

"Pinkie?" Twilight exclaimed in amazement. "Pinkie, I'm so glad to see you here!"

"What do you want?" a heavily equipped Pinkie responded irritably. Twilight’s wide smile met Pinkie’s decidedly dead face.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight hurriedly replied, rushing forward to embrace her. "Your friend!"

Pinkie awkwardly dragged Twilight away, struggling with the effort, as the kilograms of equipment in her many travel packs slung over her back took their toll. The pouches collided with her body and each other as Pinkie moved, shaking around like puppets attached to a string.

"I don't even know you," Pinkie Pie said flatly, who was seemingly devoid of emotion inside, as the only thing reacting to Twilight’s outburst was the movement of her dry lips. “I have no time for you; we need to fight for the cause.”

With that, Pinkie marched off abruptly without waiting for a response.

Twilight’s heart was shattered. The uncensored words that flew out of Pinkie’s mouth cut deep into Twilight’s very soul. She felt something was slipping away from her spirit, away from her heart. She felt empty inside. She desperately wanted to cry, but not a single tear left her dry eyes.

"NO! PINKIE!" Twilight shouted at the top of her voice, trying to seek Pinkie's attention yet again. "You must help me!"

Emerging from the dense forest, Twilight galloped down the gravel path to attempt to catch up with her until a shocking sight stopped her dead in her tracks.

Black smoke filled the air, obstructing the sun’s vibrant rays. Battlements were erected around the field ahead, with banners bearing the standard of Princess Celestia and Luna flying solemnly in the sky. Barricades of stone and wood were placed strategically at the potential axes of advance, with soldiers at the ready.

Far ahead, the black opaque crystals invaded the surroundings far beyond the familiar banners and flags. A thick black fog enveloped the battle scene that gave the impression of a tragic wasteland. A huge flag fluttered with the ominous wind with the insignia of King Sombra.

"How?" Twilight mumbled to herself, in disbelief. She stood still, gazing at the despondent Pinkie marching down to risk her life to fight for Equestria. It became all too obvious now; Starlight eliminated the bond between her friends, and without their combined effort and magic, no pony could stop the likes of King Sombra from retaking the Crystal Empire. Worse, now it seemed as though that King Sombra was on the verge of conquering what was left of Equestria, as even her former friends had to be called for service.

She collapsed onto the hardened ground, as though all hope was lost. Her travel pack fell off her back, causing a crumpled scroll to slide out of the opening of her travel pack.

Her lifeless eyes suddenly lit up, shimmering in the sunlight as she seized the scroll with her hooves hurriedly. As she found that she could just travel back into the past to undo Starlight's actions, a smile grew on her previously exhausted face. Clasping the scroll with her shaking hooves, she projected a magical beam from her horn that activated the sorcery kept within the contents of the scroll.

A white portal formed right above her head, with illusionary gears above clicking into place. The portal shot a beam of lilac light towards the direction of Ponyville from the scroll, before dragging a determined Twilight into its depths.