Starlight Glimmer's excellent plan

by Andy Ray

Step 7: raise valid concerns

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[Excerpted from Starlight's personal diary]

This spell is finally ready! Oh yeah!

I will invoke the time machine and the map table, then I will connect them. Together they will carry me through time and relative dimensions in space to Cloudsdale 16 years ago, where and when Rainbow Dash performed a sonic rainboom.

I need to visit Cloudsdale and to see, where it was, so that I knew where to stop her.

Also: how do I stop her? Needs thought...

Question: how do I cloud-walk? Is there a spell for that?

Yep, there is! Cloudsdale, here I come!..

The trip to Cloudsdale has been absolutely fantastic! It's an amazing city! The things I have seen!..

...Rainbow Dash was in a summer flight camp. It takes place every year at the same spot. So that's easy. Now to the question of how to stop her...

If her story is anything to go by, she can fly really fast. I doubt I could shoot her... She said it was a race... How does one prevent races?..

Well, there are several ways...

Alright, the question of the day... How do I drag Twilight Sparkle along? It needs to be done, otherwise she can't see the changes.

I doubt she'll treat me well after our... confrontation... So I can't walk up and befriend her, and then invite her to test out a new spell. Imagine that! No, she won't trust me. So a ruse is needed.

Do I simply ambush her and incapacitate her? She isn't very weak. Or is she? Wasn't very strong back in my village, huh! So I guess I could incapacitate her.

However she'll be on her grounds, not mine. Very risky. And in the middle of Poniville... Nope.

So the only way is... Hm...

After much thought here is the plan: I'll have to rewire the spell so it reacted to a trigger. It would be a perfect booby trap!

What am I saying? No, it won't! I HAVE to possess the spell to be in control! But... Urgh!..

U-u-urgh! My entire plan RELIES upon it, and it cannot happen!

Even if I get the princess to time-travel, what do I do once we arrive?

Wait, once we arrive, I can incapacitate her!

But it all comes down to that single bottleneck of getting her to time-travel!

Oh, how close I am to exacting my revenge! I will not be stopped by some sort of impossibility, for I am Starlight Glimmer! I have got magic on my side! With it I can do anything! Time itself obeys me! Twilight Sparkle will come with me!..

Yeah, but HOW??!..

Starlight Glimmer's excellent plan was falling apart. Indeed. What was she to do, if she wanted to hold on to the time spell? She could not booby-trap the "map table", as she called the cutie map, without giving up the spell, and she could not think of a safe, failure-proof way of dragging Twilight into the changed present without booby-trapping the map. It seemed impossible. She'd have to sacrifice the spell -- but where was the guarantee Twilight would not attempt to time-travel on her own?

Somehow Starlight needed Twilight to use the spell blindly, without trying to understand it, even if she would have a way to undo everything Starlight had worked so hard to build.

But how was she to achieve that?

Obfuscation. That is the answer to my questions! If she has to spend an eternity untangling my mess of magic instructions, I don't have to worry about anything! Oh!.. So then I can leave it for her to touch, and the spell will be triggered, and she will have to come along!

So it has to work like that: I cast it first and leave it behind, then she touches it...

Hm. But what, if she... doesn't?.. How would I even know? How can I influence her choices, if I be in the past?

I need the time machine to wait for her to "hop in", so to speak, and if she don't...

Well, that's the worst case, in which I'll have to be leagues away from her.

Yes! I'll have to have the map table transport me far away. Of course, the spell will stay back there, but let's hope she actually falls into my trap.

And if she does...

Then... Hm...

We still will end up together in the past. In which case I think I can incapacitate her.

No, this is stupid! Fighting an alicorn in the past can have consequences, and unless one of us rewind (which can happen, by the way, if she get a hold of the spell! Needs further planning!), time may break.

So I need to be very discreet.

Hm... How do I do it?..

I think, if I can make the time machine wait for her to hop on, then I can do even more. But this needs testing. Be right back!

This time machine interface is amazing! Anything is possible with time travel! I've studied it further and discovered it can do unimaginable things!

It can work wonders! Change of plan:

  • Initialise the framework (prepare TM and table);
  • Create a new instance of TimeMachine;
  • Hop into it, discarding the booby-trapped spell;
  • Wait for her to fall for it; on timeout teleport me to a safe place (worst-case scenario);
  • Time-travel to the past and deposit me;
  • Yes, deposit only me, leave her inside for some time!
  • After I am done (needs exact time constraint), deposit... Actually no, don't;
  • Take me (and her) back to the future;
  • Deposit me;
  • Deposit her;
  • Anything else?..

Seems like a plan. However, if she has the spell... she can always... roll back...

Needs thinking...

Alright, so the spell will have to be rewired. Guess why?!

There is another constraint, which I cannot simply remove! It prevents me from cramming too many instructions into the spell without reconnecting to the interface! Urgh! This time machine is not so programmable, as I thought!

Oh my gosh! It means I can't simply leave the spell in Twilight Sparkle's hooves! At one point the spell WILL deposit her, and at that time everything HAS to be under my control!

Urgh, this is a tough one!..

Alright. Let's see, if I have this straight.

Incapacitating Twilight Sparkle on her grounds is risky. But, once she be transported to the past, everything is easier. How? In the past even one change can cause bigger ones in the future, so, once there, she is screwed. But, to get her to the past, I'll have to let her touch the spell to trigger the booby trap.

And the spell may deposit both of us due to the interface's limitations.

So that means, she gets to control the spell. I'll have to obfuscate it, so she can't understand a word. Yes, that's risky, because with time itself on her side she can crack the cryptic. So it'll have to take her forever. A bit problematic, since she is an alicorn, and they live a LONG time! But long time isn't an eternity. I'll obfuscate it to the point she'll despair! And then nothing can help her!

Unless, of course, she is very determined. So it's a risk, but it's a risk I'm willing to take!

But she still gets to control it. What says she doesn't time-travel right back?

Needs further investigation...

It's been a while. Hello!

So, work on the spell is continuing, and successfully so!

I've rewired it not to respond to activation for a while! The time machine is hard to control, but when ordered to await, it awaits. I need it to await me to be done in the past, so this is convenient! It can't be re-activated until the spell finishes! And I'll make sure it won't!

This means, Twilight Sparkle is stuck.

The plan:

  • Initialise framework;
  • Create a new instance of TimeMachine;
  • Hop into it, discarding the booby-trapped spell;
  • Wait for Twilight Sparkle to fall for it; on timeout teleport me to a safe place (worst-case scenario);
  • Time-travel to the past and deposit me;
  • Wait some time and deposit her;
  • Reclaim the interface due to stupid limitation;
  • Wait for me to be done;
  • Hop back into...

Hey, wait! If she has the spell, I can't hop in...

I'll just re-use the booby trap!..

  • After she is in, pick me up;
  • To the future!
  • Deposit us.

And if she doesn't like the result and decides to re-activate the spell... Hm...

Here is the plan.

In case she tries to get back, I have to stay in the past.

Let's see: she travels again, it takes her back. It has to take me as well, only I'm not really there with her.

A rewind to a choice point? Could work.

I don't know how.

Turns out a rewind is not compatible with a regular time travel! Yeah, I know! Unless they are somehow similar, I can't use one to achieve the other! The problem is, the nature of time travel is a bit unclear. Nopony knows, how it happens. These jumps between choice points... branching paths... I need to think about it.

And so Starlight thought. Nothing came to mind, however. Time was a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Nobody really knew, how time travel worked. But if Starlight had played games, she'd have known, that time-travelling...

...is like writing a history book!

Suppose I want to get to the past, only I am not and was not there. To change that, I'd have to write myself into the history.

So I read from the future and write that knowledge into the past! Pretty easy! My knowledge travels alongside me, and history is re-written by my simply existing there!

Oh... my gosh, this is HUGE!

To think about it, it doesn't matter, whether I write my knowledge or myself..

Ugh! But then!.. Oh-h-h!..

I see it.

Now I truly get it!..

If Twilight Sparkle ever re-activate the spell, it'll have to be written so as to transport both her knowledge and her -- her mind and body. However I only rewind -- only my mind is transported. That way, if she decides to return back, say, to fix everything, I will be there waiting for her! It's perfect! So the first time I end up time-travelling, and the choice point is marked. Then she arrives. I commit the act, the booby trap is triggered, and she is back in the future!

She tries to activate the spell once again, and everything repeats, only I get to jump from a point back. YES!!!

So... OK. The spell is almost ready. It'll take me (and her) back, deposit me, deposit her; I prevent the rainboom; she gets sucked; I hit a choice point to jump from; she arrives to the future, figures everything out and uses the spell again; I rewind -- and everything repeats.

We could do this... forever... Looping and looping...

Well, at least I won't get old. If only my mind is transported, my body should stay the same, right?

Right?..

Don't worry, Starlight! If your reasoning is correct and you understand time travel, you are fine. If anyone, Twilight Sparkle will get old. Of course, her being an alicorn, she won't even notice. So... same difference.

Same, but important.

Alright, good night!

Starlight, you are stupid...

So you've won. You've changed the past. Twilight Sparkle travels back to the future, you hit the choice point... She is deposited -- and simply... despairs after the umpteenth time rewinding.

What are you gonna do? Wait for sixteen years to pass by?

I think I can work this one out!

So I time-travel, mark the choice point; Twilight Sparkle arrives; I prevent the rainboom; she is whisked away -- and I... What about me? Can I jump along? I need to get back!.. Oh, but I also need to rewind! And I can't do both! It's either my mind, or...

Or... both my mind and my body!..

O-ho-ho-ho-ho!..

BUT OF COURSE!!!

And with that Starlight's excellent plan was about ready. She only needed a few touches here and there, and that was it. With that the time to execute the plan was finally approaching.

Author's Note

Yeah, but what did she discover at the end?.. I wonder... Why did she leave no explanation in her diary?

Guess we'll have to see what it was, for ourselves. In the next chapter!

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