Starlight looked at the town behind her. She could barely see any light, not even coming from behind Fluttershy's cottage, the shortest house in Ponyville. The sun had barely risen at all, so Starlight figured she had enough time. She ran towards the hillsides, to Canterlot. Once she got far enough away from anypony, or creatures that might tell Fluttershy, she used a teleportation spell and got herself into the big city.

Activating her spell, Starlight walked into the Canterlot Archives. Now all she had to do was find a spell that might help her go into the past. She teleported herself onto the top floor. Everything was always more interesting if it was hidden farther away from you. Turning her head back and forth, she finally found what she was looking for.

The Star Swirl The Bearded Wing! If Starlight wasn't mistaken, Star Swirl was one of the greatest wizards ever. Surely, in a room full of all his super complex spells, Starlight could find a basic time travel spell. Right?

Starlight noticed the lock on the gate to the wing and rolled her eyes. She did a simple lock unpicking spell and let herself into the room. She was amazed at all the scrolls there were. So much magic I need to learn. So much magic I could use if I just... Starlight thought. Then she shook her head, clearing her thoughts. No. She needed to focus on the time travel spell. Starlight walked around for a while, searching for a spell. When it was around noon, she facehoofed.

Why hadn't she thought of it before? A time travel spell would be under T! T is for Time. And T is also for Travel. Starlight rushed to the T section. Her eyes darted from scroll to scroll as she pulled each one off the shelf, reading it to make sure it was the right one. After what had felt like an eternity, she had finally found what she needed. But as she read the scroll, she couldn't help but make a conclusion: Star Swirl was nothing but a crumpled up ball of trash.

To go back once
To a time close by,
You won't last long,
But you'll have to try.

For a few moments
In the past you'll stay,
You can go back
To up to fourteen days.

Seriously? Only fourteen days? The "greatest wizard of all time" couldn't create a spell that actually let her do something? Starlight became more frustrated as she read the paper over and over again. Oh well. If you want something done, you'll have to do it yourself.

Rolling it up, Starlight took the scroll back with her to her lair. Arriving, she placed the scroll on the rock-desk alongside the notes on recreating the past. Laying down on the sandy ground, she closed her eyes and got ready for tomorrow. She could get some more information then.

Starlight sat down, scribbling things all over Star Swirl's scroll. If she wanted to go into the past, and big time, she would need a more complex spell. She smiled proudly at the paper below her. This was probably one of her best written spells ever. And, well, maybe it was originally Star Swirl's, but she had modified it so that it actually worked.

You, to go back,
To a time far away,
You will last until
The spell sends you away.

Moments you can change,
The past holds the key.
Might as well go back
To when you were three.

There were only two problems with her spell right now. For one, the fact that she had nothing, no source of magic, to amplify her power if it wasn't already enough. And, no, it probably wasn't enough.

Second, Starlight needed a specific time and place to go back to. If she didn't have that, then she would have nowhere to take herself. And then, the whole point of time traveling would be useless. Right now, all she knew was that she could ruin Twilight's filly life in Canterlot. But that was all.

Biting her lip, Starlight decided she would go to Ponyville to get more information. Hopefully, Twilight wouldn't be around to see her.

Starlight was incredibly lucky. It was hard to believe, but the day had definitely gotten even the slightest bit better. Princess Twilight didn't even keep a lock on her door or anything. No measures of security. Wasn't Twilight supposed to be the smart one?

Actually, yes. She was the smart one. Maybe she was trying to be secretively smart. She probably didn't put the lock there to fool ponies who attempted to break in. Maybe she had security cameras. Or motion sensors. Or motion-activated laser beams. That would be painful. Starlight winced at just the thought of it. She cast her invisibilty cloak just for extra measure. Then, she trotted in freely.

Starlight looked around, surprised. "This thing looked a lot smaller from the outside," she murmured. Though, it might have been a curse. Either way, she still had trouble finding her way around the place. She decided to walk straight until she found an interesting looking room. And boy, did she. Looking to her right, she bumped into the door that was in front of her. Starlight opened the door, partially expecting the door to lead to a hallway full of even more doors. But no, it was nothing like that.

It was a big table. No, it was a big map. A map-table thingy? Whatever it was, it was big. And surrounded by thrones with each of the girls' cutie marks. There was even a smaller one. That one was probably for the notes dragon.

Right then, she head hoofsteps coming into the room. Starlight's breathing sped up as she teleported into the room next door. There was a greenish window connecting them, so she could easily peer through and see what was happening.

And in that moment, the Princess of Frienship came bursting through the door. She was clearly full of glee. But why? That's when Starlight noticed the most suspicious thing ever. Twilight's cutie mark, the sparkly magic looking one, was pulsating, glowing, even. Starlight covered her mouth. The cutie mark came off of her flank, but still it hadn't. It was quicker than when Starlight had taken it off, and when the cutie mark came off, it started circling a dark area on the map.

Starlight squinted. She wasn't sure if she was right, but there seemed to be two cutie marks there. Twilight's dark pink one, and a lighter pink one. And she was right. About four minutes later, when Twilight had already laid out a million books and charts and binders everywhere, a yellow-cream coated pegasus came into the door, with Twilight leading her in. Her cutie mark was glowing, too.

Wait. Starlight's eyes widened. That pegasus was the one who had pretended to be kind just to sneak into the village. She was the one who had shown the whole village Starlight's cutie mark. It was still Twilight's fault for everything. Well, almost everything.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Twilight and the other one, Fluttershy as she guessed, left the room. And with that, Starlight teleported back in.

Starlight gaped at the sight, placing her hoof on the place that used to be her village. But her hoof sunk right through. And one word came to mind: magic. This map thingy was magic. At least it looked like it. And didn't the princess say they found her village on a map? Maybe their cutie marks were moved to her village the way the two mares' had gone to the Smoky Mountains. Maybe, just maybe, the map had the power to supply her with the magic she needed to cast the spell.

Starlight smiled as she looked up at the bright tree roots. She could just use the map to-

Starlight heard a rustling noise coming from one of the book piles. The dragon! She had completely forgotten about him, especially that he was under a bunch of books. Starlight clenched her teeth in frustration and teleported back to Rambling Rock Ridge before anyone could spot her.

Author's Note

It was under T! Although, probably not. I don't think it's alphabetically organized...
And, yes, I still suck at rhyming, so sorry about that.

Anyways, that was really fun to write. Maybe because I didn't have as many restraints of using the script anymore. Well, I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it!