If anypony had asked Starlight, how she'd got to the first step of her plan, she'd have answered simply: she was pretty dang smart. Of course she knew it had to be time travel. To anyone with an ounce of intellect as much was clear, and if somepony didn't understand that... Well, Starlight pitied that pony. Very and very much...

Of course, that would have only been what Starlight would have said, if she'd been asked that question. To be perfectly candid, it had all been by accident. In all actuality it all had happened like this.

Starlight Glimmer used to live happily, till her friend... But that's beside the point of the story. What happened in her past will not be relevant till much, much later. Of note is only one thing: the idea, which formed Starlight after that.

The idea was simple: differences between ponies led to separation and unhappiness. When Starlight matured, she decided she would eradicate all the differences and bring about equality. She would create a perfect world, in which nopony would have to suffer like she had.

And she...

She would become the god of this new world!

Time passed, and Starlight established a small village, where ponies had no differences whatsoever. They had no special talents, and thus their destinies were the same.

All of them.

It was a small, yet perfect world, and Starlight was happy. The village's inhabitants, however, felt they were missing something very... important. Something their lives felt incomplete without.

Their differences. Despite what Starlight had thought, differences made... all the difference.

And that was when Twilight Sparkle came in. She noticed, how incomplete the village's inhabitants were, and defied Starlight Glimmer. She successfully returned what made the ponies different, to them and restored harmony. Starlight had to leave. But if ponies thought she would let it go so easily, they were wrong...

Starlight would return. And she would avenge Twilight Sparkle and her insolent friends for what they had done!

But how?.. How would Starlight defeat her enemies? What kind of evil scheme did she have to pull off? She didn't know -- and then she discovered something.

She had spied on Twilight Sparkle and her friends for quite some time and learnt: a sonic rainboom was to be blamed for Twilight Sparkle meeting her friends. For everything that had happened! If Twilight had never met her friends, the Elements Of Harmony would never have been discovered. Twilight would not have ascended -- and basically none of her adventures would have happened.

It meant the Castle Of Friendship would never have been erected, and the cutie map would never have led them to Starlight's little village.

It meant she would have prevailed.

It came down to the only solution: Starlight needed to figure out time travel.

[Excerpted from Starlight's personal diary]

• Step one: learn time travel.
• Step two: go change the past.
• Step three: return thence to the brighter future!

Notice that step three? Starlight was a smart mare and knew she had to think her plan through. It wouldn't benefit her to change the past, and then to get stuck in it. What kind of a stupid move would that be?

Of course, being smart, Starlight knew she had to expect failure. What, if she failed to learn time travel? She had to learn everything there was on the subject.

That meant she had to get to a library.

There. She'd picked up the trail, which would lead her to the source of knowledge. She'd heard, that time magic existed. The records containing the information were a mere foreleg's reach away!

The only problem was... Canterlot archives were heavily guarded.

Oops...

But that would not deter Starlight. If it took infiltration into a heavily guarded place, she would attempt it. She only needed...

• A spy mare catsuit;
• Suction cups to climb walls;
• Glass cutter;
• Rope, most definitely;
• Map of archives...
• ...Anything else?..

The catsuit had been easy. It had only taken a trip to a superhero outfit store for Starlight to get a perfect catsuit. She felt like a real spy mare! If she had been but a filly, she would have squeed of joy! Alas, she had no time for childhood fantasies. Revenge would be had.

The rest of the items had been relatively easy to retrieve, but the map of the archives had proven to be the most difficult one to get. Sure, visitors were allowed, but only if they had some business to do. For example, if they were historians. And even then the most forbidden section was only to be accessed by the elite.

What was Starlight to attempt?

She'd have to think...

This is hopeless!

After that entry Starlight growled in frustration. She got up and paced furiously this way and that.

After she was calmed down, she sat and stared at the page. After time she tentatively wrote:

I need an insider.

She paused after that, thinking.

She kept doing that for a long time.

That was a problem...

Starlight felt anger. Screw it, she thought. The greatest robbery would take place regardless! She didn't need any kinds of preparation! She would storm inside, cause a ruckus and snatch everything there was! Sorting things out was for later!..

So Starlight did. And try to imagine that!

I've done it! Victory is Starlight's, that is to say, mine! Everything has gone as planned!

At first I thought it hopeless, but then!.. A genius combination!.. Best infiltration ever!

O ye fools! How amazing!

I can't believe it! Literally checking every scroll! Of course, I was listening in! Every scroll had passed before my eyes!

And now the spell is located!

And now -- to celebrate!

She had succeeded!

Her plan had had several steps.

First she'd stolen the entire archive, using her vast magical abilities. She'd been surprised (quite!), that she had succeeded, but she couldn't have complained less.

Naturally, alarm had been raised. Everypony had come. The entirety of the archives had been found with Starlight nowhere nearby. That had been surprising, but the least concerning.

Second, the contents had been taken back and carefully checked. Everything had appeared to be there... Everyone had been content.

However nopony had noticed there'd actually been a new addition to the archives -- a new scroll. It had been placed in a fairy-tale section alongside with every other tale.

And nopony had seen the new scroll come to life...

After the incident had resolved itself, the mysterious additional scroll disappeared, never to be seen again.

Nopony had cared to check, but a time-travelling scroll had disappeared as well.

Step one completed! What's next?..

Well, as it turned out...

Author's Note

Next chapter coming out really soon!