Runaway

Starlight was almost ready. She had a modified, more powerful spell. She had a source of magic to cast her spell on. All she needed now was the last bit of information. She needed to know where to go in the past.

She trotted around the small - big in comparison to her village which Twilight had stolen - city of Ponyville, without her spell this time. Instead, she did her hair in a bun and combed her bangs together. She also covered her cutie mark with powder, and drew over it. She made sure she had a backup name, too; pretending to be someone, anyone else without a plan was dangerous sometimes. She knew she could be exposed if she made one wrong move.

But the disguise was of no use. There was something off about today: Princess Twilight was nowhere to be found! On any other day, Starlight, err... Aurora, would celebrate and use a chance like this to mess around with Princess Twilight's things, and maybe even her friends. But today wasn't just any day. It was the day she was going to finally get her revenge on Twilight Sparkle. How was she going to do that if she couldn't even find Twilight? Well, with no one to recognize her, she figured she could put her hair back to normal, dusting off the fake cutie mark.

She also needed to find the perfect place in time to jump into to destroy Twilight's friendships. Then, maybe her utopia would be restored, and Princess Twilight would feel the way Starlight did when Sunburst left her all those years ago. And especially when her village's cutie marks were restored. She felt special until Twilight and her friends took it all away. She'd feel better with them seperated, even if it did mean Sunburst and her village were gone.

Starlight walked around town, looking for any way to seperate the girls. Obviously, it was hard without a direct source of information. But then, two ponies rushed past her, making her fall down. "What's the big deal?" she retorted.

"I'm so sorry," the first one apologized, blushing and helping her up.

"Yeah, sorry about that," the other one said, clearly distracted. "It's just that Princess Twilight is giving a speech about magic today! And it's free! We just couldn't wait to see the princess!" she squealed.

This caught Starlight's attention. "Oh? Where is it?" she asked, as friendly as possible, trying to make herself sound interested in meeting Twilight and seeing her do a speech. Not that she was interested. She wasn't. She just wanted as much knowledge as possible. Any little piece of information would help to track Twilight down. Especially since it would be stated by Twilight herself.

The first pony pointed in the direction they were headed. "Canterlot. Would you like to join us?"

Starlight shook her head and pretended to be on her way in the other direction. She hid behind a building, and after a few seconds, she turned back to make sure the mares were on their way. They were, so Starlight did one more scan to make sure she was being very secretive with everypony else. She was.

Starlight grinned and teleported herself into Canterlot.

Starlight smiled, arriving the big city. It wasn't somewhere she would normally go, but Twilight was here, and she had information. Very, very useful information. Starlight looked around, and saw a building which multiple ponies were heading into. Surely that was the building Princess Twilight was giving her speech in. Everyone just loved to see princesses, even if it was for boring things like speeches.

She rolled her eyes and teleported herself into the building. Upon arrival, she took a seat, acting engrossed in the speech that Twilight was giving.

"...it can be traced to a single event! Without Rainbow Dash's race to defend Fluttershy's honor, this rainboom wouldn't have happened. Fluttershy might never have discovered her love of animals. Applejack might never have realized that she belonged on her farm. And Pinkie Pie might never have decided to leave hers. It might be hard to imagine Rarity without her sense of fabulousness. But it's even harder to fathom what my life would be like."

Starlight smiled. She could just go back in time to the race, maybe mess up the rainboom, and then Twilight, not to mention all her annoying friends, would never learn about their special talents and loves. There was no guarantee they wouldn't meet and still stop her, but it would be better if they never learned to love what they did. They needed to feel the despair she did when Sunburst left, and when Twilight restored her village's cutie marks.

"Without this rainboom, I might not have gotten into magic school. Celestia wouldn't have taken me on as her pupil! Or sent me to Ponyville to meet my friends," Twilight continued. Starlight smirked. Twilight had just confirmed it. Now, if she could time travel and stop the rainboom, she would never meet her friends, maybe even meaning she would still have her village. All she needed to do was stop this one event in time. It would all work out perfectly.

As Starlight continued to work out a few details, Twilight continued to ramble on and on about magic and cutie marks. "And the most powerful thing about cutie mark magic that I found..." by the time Twilight had reached this part, Starlight had already teleported out of the room, landing in Twilight's throne room.

She landed on a crystal throne, which on the back of it, had a picture of three pink butterflies. They looked kind of familiar to Starlight, but she just couldn't put her hoof on it. Eventually, she decided to lay back, putting her hind legs on the tablish-map thing. She teleported the scroll of her altered spell and put it down on the armrest of the throne. She could make the big reveal when Twilight arrived. If she arrived.

After a few minutes of waiting, she heard voices outside the room, and not long after, a magenta-colored magic aura enveloped the door's handle. The door was pushed open, revealing Twilight and Spike, discussing something, most likely about her. Maybe she should've tried to hide her identity. "Well when you say it like that, it does sound kind of silly."

Starlight saw as Spike caught her eye, her evil grin widening. "Or, it's totally true!" Spike said with a scared and cowardly voice.

"Welcome home, Twilight!" Starlight greeted, adjusting herself so that her front hooves were on the table now. She lifted the spell, revealing it to Twilight and Spike. She shot her magic beam at it, and the scroll floated into the air on its own. It proceeded to power the map, and Twilight ran closer to it, looking back and forth between the sections of Equestria, concerned.

"What are you doing, Starlight?" she asked, putting on an angrily brave face.

Starlight cackled in response. "I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise," she seethed, bringing down the scroll and crumpling it up into a ball and tossing it aside. "Won't be needing that anymore." She started to chuckle again as she cast the final part of her spell, which created a powerful magic barrier that not even the Princess of Friendship could break through.

Near the roots of the Golden Oak Library, a time vortex opened up. Starlight was glad her spell worked, and she didn't even test it out. She kept watching to see what would happen, leaning forward. She threw one last smirk at Twilight and Spike, keeping it on, and levitating herself through the portal.

She could see it so clearly in her mind. Cloudsdale, in the past, when Rainbow Dash was standing up for Fluttershy. She found the perfect spot to land, and disappeared to the perfect location, where she could disrupt the fate of Equestria. Twilight's friends would now never meet. She would get to keep her village. It would all work out perfectly.

At least, that's how she saw it.