Locked Supermarket

"It's gone!" Trixie gasped in horror.

"What's gone?" Starlight turned to Trixie's direction and noticed that the damaged body had vanished without a trace.

"How did it disappear? We heard no noise from it whatsoever." Starlight said in deep thought.

"Who cares? We need to go find it now." Trixie grabbed the same baseball bat and made her way to the entrance.

"We're not beating anything." Starlight said as she used her aura to take the bat away from her. "Besides, lets focus more on what this note says instead of my evil me."

"You're no fun." Trixie muttered.

"Well, in case you didn't notice, its almost 3 o'clock, and this is the fourth note, and we only have three hours left until sunrise." Starlight pointed out. "So can you please stop goofing around so we can get on with this already?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Thanks for reminding Trixie of our awaiting doom."

Before they read the note, they heard the speakers turn on.

“Oh no.” Starlight whispered.

“Oh yes.” The shadowy voice replied. “Miss me?”

“Barely.” Trixie spat.

“Hah, good.” The voice said in amusement.

“What do you want?” Starlight glared at the speakers.

“Entertainment, and I have to say, seeing your faces has brought me great joy. Did you enjoy my new toy?”

“The Starlight one...?” Trixie looked at her friend with a puzzled look. “He made the Starlight clone?”

“Even with your voices lowered I can still hear you loud and clear.” The voice interrupted. “And yes, the fake was made by me, although I was disappointed that all of you broke through. But seeing the blue pony’s face is... priceless.”

“You know what else would be priceless?” Trixie’s horn glowed and sent out a fiery beam at the speaker, causing it to burst into flames. “Now you can’t hear us now!”

“Trixie, calm down!” Starlight pulled her away.

Then she heard the fire alarms go off.

“Seriously.” The voice groaned in another speaker.

The alarms suddenly turned off.

"Idiots." The voice said, unamused. “Oh, and in case you were wondering, the fire ponies won’t be alerted by the alarms, so don’t even think that anyone will come to save you now thanks to that blue pony’s attempt. Which, by the way, I will be looking forward to playing with her”

Starlight whisked her head to look at the speaker. "Don't you dare. I'll make sure you never see the light of day if you do." She opened her mouth to continue, but the pain in her leg cut her off. “And you’ll pay for what you did to me.” She finished with gritted teeth.

“Aw, I’m so scared of an injured pony.” The voice mocked. Then he cleared his throat. “Anyway, since I want heads rolling as fast as possible, I decided to speed up the process. You guys just need two notes left.”

“Two?” Trixie almost laughed. “Why did you change it-” Trixie suddenly stopped when Starlight glared at her.

“I mean- yay!” Trixie stammered.

“Oh yes, it may seem like good news right now, but trust me, it’ll be the gravest news you would ever hear.” The voice said with an eerie deeper pitch.

The speakers were turned off.

“For once he did us a favor.” Trixie muttered under her breath.

“But why?” Starlight asked in suspicion. “Why would he decrease the number of notes that we need to get? He’s doing something suspicious.”

“What else is new?” Trixie rolled her eyes.

“We just need to keep our guard up, that's all.” Starlight pushed on.

“Well, I have no idea why we’re standing around doing nothing when we could easily open up this note and try our best to follow its directions.” Trixie then grabbed the note from Starlight’s aura and opened it.

“You didn’t need to do that, you know.”

“Shush!” Trixie continued reading it.

...

Moments later, Trixie gave the note to Trixie with a freaked-out expression.

“What now?” Starlight groaned, and then she read the note.

The past is the past, or so they say.

But that will be different according to my way.

“With every note we get, the confusion rises.” Trixie said afterwards.

Starlight still kept reading, trying to decipher the clue.

“Ok, I think all of this would be ok if we just stick together-”

Just then a bright white light flashed in between the mares, causing them to have temporarily blindness.

“Starlight? Are you there?!” Trixie wailed.

No answer.

The darkness seemed to finally die away in Starlight’s vision. Starlight got up in a sitting position and rubbed her eyes, and after a few moments, her vision was clear again.

When her vision cleared, she noticed that she was surrounded by sand and dead trees everywhere.

Although it looked too familiar...

Well, deserts always look the same. Starlight thought, but not that kind of familiar.

Then she realized something.

“Trixie!” Starlight called out. “Where are you?”

No answer, with only the gust of wind being the only reply.

Why do we always get separated? She thought with sorrow.

Just then, she heard distant greetings behind her.

Is someone here with me? Starlight thought, confused. She got up and turned around, and her heart almost stopped at what she saw: her old village.

She peered her eyes to see that the ponies that resided in the village had the same wide fake expressions she made them do when she was a dictator. But what was interesting was that among the group, was the Mane 6, and they were about to be greeted by Double Diamond and Party Favor.

I traveled back in time? Starlight thought, although her confusion turned into annoyance. Great, more reminders about my past. She was getting tired of being reminded of her past every few minutes. But something told her that despite her displeasure, she had to know why she was stuck in the past.

Trying her best to be sneaky, she hid behind a house near the entrance to the village, somehow not being noticed by the ponies. She then perked one of her ears up, and she could faintly hear Double Diamond, Party Favor, and the rest of the Mane 6, but they were still audible for Starlight to tell what's going on.

“Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place for friendship.” Party Favor said to the group, most likely a reply to a sentence or question that she didn’t hear.

“What brings you to town?” Double Diamond butted in.

“We’re not entirely sure.” Twilight replied to the two stallions with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“I see.” Diamond said, without any change in his cheery attitude. “Well, all are welcome here in our little village. I’m Double Diamond.” he introduced himself as he put his white hoof on his chest; then he pointed at his friend. “And this is Party Favor.”

They both gave them weird smiles, which made the Mane Six look uncomfortable.

“And you all have your own unique cutie marks.” Double Diamond stared at their flanks creepily, with Pinkie being the only one covering it with her tail.

Starlight shuddered. She had forgotten how creepy Double Diamond was back then. She remembered that even back when she ruled this village, Diamond still creeped her out a little.

After a few moments, Double Diamond and Party Favor turned out and walked towards Starlight’s old house. “Perhaps you care to meet our founder: Starlight Glimmer.”

“Great, they’re here to see the menace now.” Starlight sighed. She despised being here. Especially on a timeline that she would rather not reminisce about.

Then she suddenly had the feeling like she was being watched. She looked around, wildly, praying to Celestia that the residents didn’t discover her. But she soon found out as she looked at her old house’s window, she saw that her past self was staring at her through the window, with her eyes a mixture of shock and anger. Then, as she saw Double Diamond and Party Favor getting close to her house, she quickly closed the curtains and seemingly trotted away.

“Wow, PERFECT. Now my evil self knows about my existence. Just peachy!” she said under her breath. Just so she didn’t get caught again, she turned herself invisible and spied through the windows of her old house.

By the time she got there, her past self had already greeted Twilight and the others with a facade, although she had to look outside the window a few times, and Starlight felt chilled to the bone. Even though she was invisible, it was almost like she could see her still.

Can she?

No, impossible.

Twilight seemed to notice this too. “Is everything ok?”

Starlight was startled by Twilight’s question. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” She laughed nervously.

“Is anyone outside? Applejack turned to the window that she was staring at.

Starlight ignored Applejack’s question and tried her best to put on a smile. “Well, I hope you enjoy your visit to our tiny town. We’re all quite fond of it.”

Then she exited out of the house, and she teleported away with her magic.

Am I messing up my past? Starlight was more confused about why this was happening. She assumed that past characters would not see their future selves, but it seems to be a different story. And I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.

Just then, she heard a magical blast behind her, and her horn and mouth were covered by hooves, and she was teleported away.

After she was teleported, the pony finally let go of Starlight. Starlight was breathing heavily.

“Mind telling me who you are?” Starlight looked up to see her past self, looking down at her with narrowed eyes, and her horn was glowing.

“I’m you. From the future.” Starlight said nervously.

“Do you really think I’ll believe in time travel?” Past Starlight scoffed. “And besides, that's impossible. You can’t possibly be the real me. You don’t even look like me.”

“Um, hello? Lilac coat? Purple mane with aqua streak in it? A cutie mark that resembles a glimmer? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m you.” Starlight couldn’t believe how stupid her past self sounded, although it could just be due to disbelief. And she couldn’t exactly blame her.

“Sure, you got my appearance right, except for my mane. Why isn’t it straight like mine?” she pointed at the top of her head. “And my cutie mark is an equal sign. Not that.” she said while she was looking at her cutie mark, with a tint of hatred in her voice.

“You’re not fooling anyone, especially me.” Starlight said, unamused. “That cutie mark is a fake and you know it."

"Prove it." Past Starlight said, while letting out a smirk smile.

"Fine." Starlight teleported to her old house, grabbed a bucket of water that was in her bedroom, then came back to the spot and dumped the bucket on top of her past self.

"Hey!" Past Starlight exclaimed.

"Told you." Starlight said as she pointed at her real cutie mark, while her black paint was washing away.

Past Starlight gave her a death glare. "So what if its fake?"

Starlight put a hoof on her shoulder. "Your life is not better like this. Get rid of your hatred of cutie marks, believe me. Your life will be so much better."

"Seriously?" Past Starlight had to hold in her laughter. "You cannot be serious. I'm not going to let an impersonator tell me what to do."

"Just, don't." Was this why Starlight was here? To persuade her past self to not continue her tyranny? And even if this was the case, why did the mysterious voice care so much about her and her past?

"You can't make me." Past Starlight snickered.

Starlight sighed. Seems like there was one way to do it.

"Fine, I won't persuade you by listening, but I'll try to persuade you by seeing."

"What are you talking about."

Just then Starlight's horn glowed and used her magic as a camera, and showed her footage of her defeat when her cutie mark was exposed to the citizens; and also showed her being defeated by snow because of said citizens. And she also showed her taking on Twilight and kept messing up young Rainbow Dash's efforts to win the race. Which led to disaster, and the barren wasteland that was once Equestria, all because of her doing.

"This is what you would do if you continued down this path." Starlight explained to her past self.

She was speechless.

"And this is what your life will be like if you take this advice." She then showed clips of her being reunited with Sunburst, and plus making new friends, like Trixie and Maud. And how she was happier around other ponies, and of course, Twilight and the Mane 6. "Your life could be so much happier."

Starlight looked to see that her past self was about to cry, but she held back the tears and still glared at her. "How do I know that you're not making this up?"

"Look at me. I'm a much happier mare now. I even have a new mane style for Celestia's sake."

Starlight looked relieved when her past self was finally starting to take her words seriously. "Even if I did change, how will I tell the rest of the village? And what if their cutie marks take them away from me? Just like Sunburst."

Starlight was in deep thought. "I can't say for sure as to how the townspeople will react. But as for that last part, trust me when I say, cutie marks will never take them away."

Past Starlight still looked skeptical.

Starlight put a hoof on Starlight's chest. "I promise."