As Twilight entered the portal another time, Spike fell off her, leaving the pony all by her own. Everything flashed lightly upon her eyes before she could take a look at where she truly was. It was the Wonderbolt Academy, it looked odd, clouds seemed bigger and fluffier and she could recognise some of the monitors as famous ponies she had seen in her childhood. It became even more odd when she saw a young blue pegasus, with the mane of a rainbow color and the height of barely more than what Applebloom used to height in the cloud steps in the side of the training track. Twilight seemed confused, disoriented , but that wouldn't last long as a fast lighting strike crossed her sight, almost burning the point of her mane. She looked back and saw Starlight, who immediately casted both a tp to get away and another beam at Twilight . She blocked it with an energy shield from her horn and started following Starlight throughout the clouds, who was keeping up with Twilight's alicorn wings thanks to a precise levitation spell.

They both flew swiftly through the training course, passing through every obstacle and cloud possible. The young pony spectators of the training camp were shouting, ignoring what instructors told them. They remained there watching, excited for the tremendous spectacle that was going on for as long as both the princess Twilight and unicorn Starlight kept chasing each other. Not long after, they would both stop on their hooves in different clouds to take a look at their situation.

“ Why can't we talk this one out Starlight ? ” said Twilight, exhausted from the previous chase. “ I still don't understand why you want to take care of me and the others. “

“ Grrrrr… Why won´t you get it ? “ an angry expression crossed Starligth´s face, as she stomped onto the cloud surface with her hoove “ You came down to MY town to tell MY people that I was the wrong leader for them, and why? Because some crappy magic map of yours told you to do so. You ruined everything I had ever built in less than a pair of days “

“ Starlight, I´m sorry that you think that we ruined everything you had worked on, but you have to understand that what you had going on in your village was not healthy for anyone, not even you… Heck, u didn't even tell us why you began to do it in the first place “ said Twilight .

“ Why ? WHY!? … Because everything I once had was ruined by a mere cutie mark and the admiration of others to it “ replied Starlight as she teleported to a higher cloud and began to cast a big number of portals around Twilight.

“ You wouldn't even understand if I told you, so in any case, there is no reason to keep talking. “ continued Starlight

“ But Starlight I can hel…”

A blast of energy passed near Twilight, she opened her wings, and started flying as fast as she could towards Starlight with the fear that she would tp away. Soon she found herself all surrounded by dark purple portals. Starlight fires a very powerful beam that goes through one of the portals, and soon, it reappears through one of the other portals. It starts jumping between them, going from one to another and changing directions abruptly. Soon, both the beam and the portals start getting close to Twilight . The beam goes right and left, left and right and Twilight's eyes can't seem to catch it, she can't block it so she tries to fly away, just to be pierced from one of her wings by the beam which then fails to go through another portal, disappearing in between the clouds. During all of this, Starlight has started casting another time portal.

Twilight falls down, being unable to fly, and soon crashes in the middle of the Wonderbolt training track. She can't fly with her wings in that condition, she remembers something. One time, during one of her first ever adventures with the ponies she exploded in anger, that one time in the Everfree forest she turned on fire, literally, it was only for some seconds but she still remembered the feeling of being transformed in that twisted way very closely, it was something vibrant, powerful and it had a pleasant feeling of power, something as if the same power of the sun had invaded her. Thinking about it, she jumps into the conclusion that maybe she can anger herself so she can provoke the transformation and catch Starlight (Who by the way had the portal almost finished). Time started running low as Starlight was just finishing the conjure, her eyes were shining in a imponent blank light and from her horn a dazzling and twisted beam began to appear, soon the beam started to accumulate in a oval-like shape, forming what seemed like a light green portal. Twilight couldn't lift from the ground. She couldn´t turn into flames like she did that one time. Flashes of flames and terror blinked in Twilight's head, her friends and most importantly, all Equestria would be doomed if she didn't lift up to confront Starlight.

“ I… have to... go…up… “ whispered Twilight softly as she lifted in a very poor way from the ground even with her pierced wing.

She went up and up, with every second of her flying feeling like a shot to the heart, she wouldn't endure this stinging pain if it wasn't because if she didn't, everything she knew would fall apart. Luckily for Twilight, Starlight had entered a kind of trance thanks to the concentration needed for her spell, and even if the flying was being painful, at least she knew that she wouldn't be shot down by Starlight anytime soon. Just like that, she finally touched the surface of Starlight´s cloud, she grew closer to her and suddenly Starlight turned towards Twilight and fired a burst of corrosive and short spiky beams. Twilight could barely react, but she was still able to pull up a magic shield of hers, blocking fairly well all of the projectiles. Then she rapidly bumped towards Starlight, catching her by her chest , causing both ponies to fall onto the unstable portal.

The portal spawned both ponies in the middle of the air, not even being able to see the ground they merely had a glance at the view of the desolated gray sky before Starlight and Twilight began to fall down at immeasurable speeds. Both ponies ( still grabbing and pushing each other ) couldn't even see where they were teleported to, as they kept falling and began to pierce cloud after cloud of dark color.

“ Quit it princess. “ said Starlight while she put Twilight's body in front of her and near the direction that would soon crash into the ground first

“ Soon, when I get you to the present you'll see how everypony you have ever known will not recognise you anymore, they will turn their backs on you and abandon all you have made with them, all because of some cutie marks being in the way. Then and only then maybe you´ll understand why all of this is so essential for Equestria “

“ Even if that's true…” whispers Twilights as she turns her head as much as she cans towards Starlight while still being grabbed by her

“ I'll at least have good memories with them, everything that we´ve lived and experienced together will still be kept in the deepest part of my heart… “ Starlight anger starts to change, into a more sad and reflexive mood as Twilight continuous to talk

“ … And you will never understand what it is like to care and love others, at least if you move on with your plan “

A moment of brief silence could be heard between both ponies as they continue their fall

“ Look, I know that this is not what you want to do, so just stop, and only maybe we´ll be able to fix this mess. “

“ You don't even know me !! So stop pretending like you do and just get out of the way.” says Starlight, as a combination of anger and sadness crossed her mind.

Twilight uses the distraction present in Starlight to tp on top of her, just in time, as they both swiftly crash onto the hard ground. The body of the two ponies bump violently, with Starlight taking the majority of the impact damage. They both take a hard breath and cease the attacks between each other as they are too exhausted to do otherwise. Twilight has a mere glance at the land around her, when suddenly a gruesome moment of impact invades her, when she finally realizes where they truly are. She looks around to be met by the horrifying image of a dusty land, with remains of what she used to remember as her castle, she looks down, into the platform she and Starlight crashed into, it is the cutie map, it has a devastated and abandoned look to it.After seeing all of this, Twilight falls into the only conclusion possible. They are back in the present. Twilight gets up barely holding his stand as Starlight regains consciousness after falling off the cutie map by its side. The princess starts talking as she keeps looking at the horizon.

“ Is this what you want?, can't you see ? “ says Twilight, as Starlight gets up and has a view at the image of the wasteland “ This is the world, the new nowaday to have if me and my friends never got to meet.”

“ What's soooo important about your friends and you ? , how can a group of ponies so different and with nothing in common be so important to the fate of Equestria “ replied an annoyed Starlight, who saw nothing but what looked like a deep ego from Twilight

“ If I'm being honest with you… not even I know why, but that's how it is and neither you nor I can do anything about it. My friends and I cover each other's backs as much as we can, and the differences between us are the things that make our friendship so special. Look I don't know what made you be like this but I know that we can work this one out.”

“ Are you even listening to yourself at this point ? You should have really stopped sounding like a broken record a while ago “ said Starlight “ You want to help me, but you don't even understand what my problem is…”

“ So then let me understand, let me see, and I'll do my best to help you and never leave you aside “

Starlight freezed in place as she heard those kind words from Twilight, she wouldn't normally fall for that, but this whole thing was turning out a lot more sentimental and personal to him than she initially thought. After thinking for some mere seconds that felt like ages for her, she responded.

“ You really wanna know…” said Starlight in a somewhat angry tone while on the other hand, Twilight glanced a warm look at Starlight “ …so I´ll show you “ continued Starlight in a much softer voice than the last time.

She got herself up on the cutie map and charged a brief beam which hitted the center of the platform.

Lights went flashing, Twilight and Starlight were both standing on the cutie map as a tornado surrounded both ponies. Soon they would both lose sight of the wasteland as a mass of green bright clocks and purple / pink ink revolved around them. It was like being in the eye of a strong and violent tornado.

“ I had a friend “ began Starlight

“ A beloved of mine called Sunburst, we were close friends and did everything together. We were like lost brothers “ a wretched small laugh could be heard from Starlight

“ Until one day… “ One of the clocks gets closer and soon reveals an image of two young ponies in a room full of books.

“ …he got his cutie mark, while we were playing together. “

“ He saved me, got it from lifting some books that fell onto me. His parents soon found out and given his “talent” , he was sent to Celestia´s academy.

“ He was excited about this, so much that he would eventually forget to even remember me. I never got to see him again and as time passed i understood whose fault was all of this mess. The cutie mark… all the admiration, the distance and everything because of a special talent hidden in a pony.

“ After that I never got to talk to anypony ever again.. “ another clock closes in with the image of a pony surrounded by books and notes

“ I isolated myself in magical study with the hopes of at least learning how to cure the disease that the cutie marks were, so no other pony would have to suffer as I had.

“And that's it… you really should know the rest of the story. “

After hearing the whole story Twilight was surprised that a pony as powerful and smart as Starlight would do all of this just because of that small friendship issue. Still, none of this mattered because Twilight had to be very careful about what she said next to Starlight. This could be her only chance of getting to Starlight.

“ I'm sorry about everything that happened to you, Starlight…- began Twilight .- I can promise that we'll try to make you feel …

“ Save it ! . This doesn't change anything, you may have heard me but you certainly have not understood. You wanna be a frieeeend Miss Princes of Friendship ? “ said Starlight in a mix of desperate and satirical tone

“ Then let me continue, get out of my way and forget about me and your friends. Do like him and leave me… alone …” Starlight had a chill, and stopped there for a second, the spell broke, and the tornado disappeared as her recognizably spontaneous sadness appeared.

Starlight Glimmer had never intended to end Equestria, she just wanted to lay revenge on those strangers that came up to his town, just to defy everything she once had built. But even knowing all of this, she was still here trying to change something that maybe was just another big overreaction of her.

“ No Starlight, I won't, if that's what brought you here, I won't. You have been defying all laws of time, trying to get revenge on me and my friends and everything else just because we freed some ponies that lived in a bunch of houses you called “your village”. All of this is a nonsense , you don't need to be haunted by the bad memories from your childhood and act in consequence to them. And even if you do, you can always try another time , so you can create new memories and ideas that will be able to overcome all of those ghosts of your past. Come with me and we'll try to solve this one out, together…” finished saying Twilight as she extended her hoove to try and handshake Starlight.

The powerful unicorn Starlight Glimmer was maybe finally giving in, knowing that what she did and what she was currently willing to do was not right. She used to have everything under control in her village, but maybe that control was not something to be proud of, maybe it was her, the one causing ponies to feel desperate by not letting them explore themselves and their cutie marks.

A wave of shame and self reflexion flooded Starlight´s head as she doubtfully accepted the handshake from Twilight.

“ I´m … “ began Starlight

“ I know , you´re sorry, so do I after being so blind to not understand what you were going through. You don't have to feel ashamed for all of this “ responded Twilight

“ Thanks I, I don't know how to thank you, I would really be all in for the destruction of Equestria if it wasn't because of you “ said a somewhat submissive and regretful Starlight.

“ Ouchhh…” exclaimed Twilight as the pain from his performed wing returned“ I think that we should really get home “

“ Yeah , let me help you with that “ announced Starlight as she opened a time portal to the previous battle field between her and Twilight.

As Twilight peeked through it, Starlight suddenly said “ Don't ! You see, this is indeed where we have fought some moments ago, but the thing is that is quite literally that “

Twilight was confused but after having some more looks at the view that the portal offered, she noticed another her on the floor of a cloud, exactly as she was moments ago. Starlight gently pushed aside Twilight and charged a memory tweaker spell . She peeked through the portal and aimed at a concentrated Starlight on the higher clouds. She shot the spell, which perfectly reached the exposed past Starlight, erasing all of her knowledge about time travel and her spells about the matter. Also it gave her some of the thoughts of the more present Starlight making her stop on his hooves.

Like that, Starlight had prevented his past self from fighting Twilight, which also prevented Rainbow dash from stopping her race due to the spectacle the fight presented to young ponies in the Academy.

Starlight closed the portal and suddenly everything around her and Twilight began to deform, a strong flash made both ponies close their eyes for a second and when they both opened them again, they were back into the normal present day.

Suddenly the doors of the room violently opened as Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie pie, Rainbow Dash and Spike appeared.

“ What in Equestria was that ? “ said Rarity

“ Is everypony okay? “ mumbled Fluttershy

“ Yeeeah… can you do it again “ cheerfully said Pinkie Pie

The sound of all voices became blurry and were lost as Twilight began to explain everything that had happened. Equestria was save once again, at least for now, and the group of ponies couldn´t be happier about it as they prepared to meet their new friend Starlight Glimmer in a more deep way.

Author's Note

I wish you liked whatever this was. I´m pretty much entirely new to all of this writing thing and I would really appreciate some criticism.

Also, English isn´t my first language so sorry about any quirky writing you found. Feel free to also tell me about it.

Finally I just wanted to say that if you founded the battle a little to much one sided is because it is, I really wanted Starlight to look superior in magic to Twilight because if it wasnt I know that the most simple solution to all of this would be the "Im and Alicorn lol" option. I don´t hate that idea but since other people on this site have already writen about it I figured out that I might aswell just do my own take.