Starlight Glimmer's excellent plan

The town of Poniville as a whole had nothing to complain about. The sun was shining, and the ponies were happy. But for two certain ponies everything was about to change.

Starlight was waltzing through the streets, and nopony was paying her any heed. Not everyone was like Pinkie, although Starlight had received a few greetings from a couple of ponies. Speaking of Pinkie: Starlight casually approached a barrel and sat behind it, just as the pink pony appeared. She hopped along, greeting everypony, and then stopped, twitching. Starlight didn't react. She was waiting.

Pinkie stood for a little while, as if sensing something. She looked at the barrel Starlight was hiding behind. It looked regular. Nothing suspicious. Pinkie squinted. Then...

Then her face lit up: "Oh, has to be a false alarm. Tee-hee!.. For a second there I thought there was a new pony in town!" She trotted happily on her way, unperturbed. Starlight came out of her hiding spot and continued her journey, as though she'd known Pinkie wouldn't look back. A couple of steps -- and she was hiding again, this time letting a certain blue pegasus fly by. Once she was gone, Starlight continued, again, unperturbed.

She knew, exactly how things would play out, for she had seen it time and time again.

The walk to the Castle Of Friendship was a cake-walk.

Starlight entered the Castle -- it was daytime, and the doors were unlocked. She marched in confidence through the antechamber toward another door-frame and stood by it, hiding. Not a moment later Fluttershy flew in.

"Hello? Anypony?"

Starlight walked behind her and into the next chamber. She didn't stay there and proceeded to navigating the Castle, as though she'd been born in it. Right, left, left, right, down the hallway, past the broom closet... After multiple repeats she had memorised the road to the cutie map down to a step.

Finally she reached the chamber with the table and seven thrones. She ducked under the table right before Rarity passed by.

"Hello?.."

Starlight didn't answer.

"Hm!" -- and Rarity proceeded to whatever it was she was busy with.

Perfect. Starlight got out from-under the cutie map, smiling. Everything was going according to the plan!

Twilight Sparkle alighted, Spike on her back.

"Starlight Glimmer?" -- he wondered.

"I was sure I saw her, Spike, -- Twilight continued. -- But when I looked again, she was gone! I'm just worried what she could be up to".

"Nothing good, I bet!"

They continued to discuss Starlight, not knowing she was already awaiting them in the Castle they were approaching. They recalled the events of their trip to Starlight's village and agreed it wasn't very good of her to enforce the same cutie mark on everypony.

Oh, if Starlight could have heard them! How she would have disagreed! Different cutie marks signified different talents, and different talents made for different ponies! And different ponies were not the same -- that much was obvious! And only in sameness could true equality be achieved. Equality without exceptions. No "yeah, but"-s. True equality. No differences and no disagreements. True friendship without end! The princess of it should have understood! And for that she didn't she would have to pay tremendously!..

Starlight only had to await...

And she didn't have to wait for too long. Finally after much worrying Twilight and Spike arrived at the Castle.

"Maybe, I was just more stressed about that speech, than I thought".

"Yeah, -- Spike answered. -- That sounds better, than Starlight Glimmer coming back with an evil plot for revenge".

Their voices were heard from behind the doors. Starlight assumed a smug pose, her back hooves upon the cutie map, and prepared. There it came...

The doors were opened.

"Well, -- Twilight said, -- when you say it like that, it does sound kinda silly".

She hadn't noticed it yet -- but her little dragon companion did:

"Or it's totally true!"

Starlight grinned. Perfect!

Well... Almost: the dragon was extraneous, but what could a dragon do to stop her now? No, he wouldn't be a bother at all. He was just a little sidekick. So Starlight didn't worry.

She greeted Twilight with a rehearsed line:

"Welcome home, Twilight!"

Oh, the times she had rewound, all because the greeting hadn't sounded perfect! But now she settled for that. Simple and elegant. The thing was to put a little snide into it.

Hm, now, that she thought about it, it sounded... Eh, it was OK. Never mind that. It was then or never.

Starlight unfurled the scroll and activated the spell. It floated above the cutie map, and then a beam shot out of it downwards. The map was activated too, and now time and relative dimensions in space were connected. So far so good. Now came the tricky part.

"What are you doing, Starlight?" -- Twilight demanded.

Not good. Twilight Sparkle, don't do anything unpredictable, please!

Externally, however, Starlight appeared very malicious. Very villainous.

"Ha-ha! I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise!" At least that was honest. She then crumpled the spell: "Won't be needing that any more", -- and threw it away. Neither Twilight, nor Spike paid attention to that, watching in awe at what was going on with the cutie map.

Yes! Perfect! So far so good!

Starlight laughed at that, almost maniacally, as rings of magic shot from the cutie map upwards: the spell was working, creating an instance of a time machine.

Exactly as planned!

And what a time machine it had created! It looked like a dome with spinning cogs and emanating tick-tocking sounds. Underneath it seemed to be a portal surface.

Hm. Why a portal, though? Starlight had not predicted that, but, if it worked as the spell required of it, she didn't complain.

She glanced at Twilight and her dragon, grinned evilly, and then levitated herself closer to the newly opened time portal. She felt it pull her in. Then the booby trap would work, no doubt!

She cast one last glance at the duo before entering the portal. From then on it was up to Twilight Sparkle. Would she end up touching the booby-trapped scroll? Or would the portal have to spit her somewhere far away? In either case Starlight was prepared. Even if the booby trap didn't work, the spell was safely obfuscated. Twilight would have to cast it out of sheer curiosity, and then... Well, then the spell would be useless. Without Twilight revenge would be pointless, so...

Starlight didn't get to finish that thought: the portal spat her out, and she fell right on a surface of... a road?

Ouch!..

Starlight lifted herself, then looked around. She was in Cloudsdale.

Yes!

Starlight did a little happy dance in place. Yes, yes, yes!!! It had worked! The spell had sent her to the past, which was only supposed to happen, if Twilight touched the scroll! So she had! It had worked, gosh darn Starlight, it'd worked!!!..

"A-ha-ha-ha-ha!" -- Starlight laughed maniacally, scaring everypony, who could hear her. She fell on her back and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, absolutely tickled pink!..

Heh, "pink"! Pinkie would have been proud.

"A-a-a!.."

Starlight shook herself. Get a grip of yourself, Starlight, -- she ordered herself. Twilight would soon arrive. And when she did, Starlight had to be ready.

She levitated herself -- who needed that cloud-walking spell, anyway? -- and floated toward the place the race was supposed to happen. And it was supposed to happen wherever Rainbow Dash was. So Starlight had to follow the little filly to figure that out. And once she did...

Once she did... she... Uh...

Shooting the filly should be easy, but... Just in case... She had to prevent the race some other way.

Fortunately, Starlight had a plan.

The time portal appeared again, and out of it came Twilight Sparkle... and her little dragon assistant.

Amazing... It had transported the two of them! That was one little wrench thrown into Starlight's excellent plan. The dragon was not a part of it. Fortunately, he could not fly and so was dependant on the alicorn. And that meant the time portal would whisk them together -- which was convenient. Plus the dragon couldn't do much on his own. Doubly convenient. So far so good...

Starlight watched from inside a fluffy cloud, as Rainbow Dash flew past Twilight and Spike. Alright, there it went! The race was about to begin.

Now, where would the rainboom happen?

...

Starlight didn't know. It could happen anywhere! And she couldn't predict where. If she failed, if the rainboom were successfully performed... there wouldn't be a second chance! Twilight and her dragon would be taken back, and soon it would be Starlight's turn! She would successfully be transported and re-appear in the future, first her body, then her mind. That was the only way for Starlight to keep the option to rewind, when Twilight decided to try again. With her body and mind separated she could either be re-assembled, when Twilight gave up, or rewind without her body, returning back to the marked choice point. That was how Starlight intended to keep rewinding, when needed, and at the same time not to wait for sixteen other years for Twilight to re-appear in the future. That was the culmination of Starlight's excellent plan, but without her actually preventing the rainboom it would be all in vain. That would mean failure, and this time she could not rewind, because the spell was now in Twilight's possession, and she controlled it.

That meant, Starlight only had one shot, both figuratively and literally. She had to shoot Rainbow Dash. Unless, of course, her plan to stop the race other way worked. But now she saw multiple critical flaws in her plan, and that left her only with one option.

She had to improvise.

The race was started, and the foals zipped from their places. Rainbow Dash was ahead, however the other ones -- Fluttershy's bullies -- were no worse for the wear. They flew fast! Probably too fast: one of the colts couldn't make a turn in time and crashed into a cloud pillar. The cloud being weird as it was, the colt got stuck in it, disoriented.

Now the two remaining foals were passing Starlight hidden inside another cloud. She could see them clear as day. And she clearly saw, that the rival colt had cheated, bumping Rainbow Dash and throwing her off course.

So... That meant the race was over? Unless she accelerated...

Oh Starlight's gosh! And by going fast!.. The rainboom!..

The filly bolted from her place as if there had been no tomorrow. Putting every ounce of her strength into her flight, she accelerated indeed, to the point a rainbow-coloured cone was forming around her.

That was it!

Starlight emerged from inside the cloud, grinning sinisterly:

"Aw, sorry about this", -- and shot a magic beam at the filly.

...

She was going fast, but not fast enough yet. Direct hit! Starlight tugged at the newly formed magical connection and slowed Rainbow down. The namesake cone around her disappeared. The filly hung in the air, unable to move.

"Hey! -- she protested. -- What gives?"

"Yes! -- Starlight thought. -- Success!"

She'd done it. She'd prevented the sonic rainboom from happening, and like never before she wanted to dance. And to laugh. Maniacally. Till she couldn't laugh any more...

The onlookers didn't pay much heed to Rainbow, since she'd stopped. They cheered for the winner. All, except for Twilight.

She approached Starlight, very cross with her:

"What did you do?!"

Starlight had succeeded, that was what. Without the rainboom friendships... were unlikely to happen, and Twilight...

"You are about to find out".

Yes, she was about to find out what the future held in store.

Like Starlight had predicted, the time portal appeared, ready to whisk Twilight... and her dragon away.

And so it happened. Starlight smiled. Then she did a little dance in the air. And then she laughed.

Oh, how she laughed and laughed! But Twilight wasn't laughing, and neither was her dragon. Grim, sad future awaited them, and Starlight was ready for it.

She waited...

There it came: dizziness. The world was blurred, and when Starlight's head stopped spinning...

...she was back in the past. Back at her choice point.

That meant, Twilight had successfully arrived to the future, not liked it and figured she should cast the spell again to go back.

And now Starlight only needed to prepare to prevent the race. Now she knew the exact location of the rainboom, so she could spend time more effectively. Time again was on her side, even if the scroll was away.

She only had to keep doing it, till Twilight despaired. And once she did...

Starlight would win.

Exactly as planned!