Starlight Glimmer asks a question of Twilight: If Rainbow Dash had never done the sonic rainboom, would Equestria be better or worse than it is now, on the whole? Twilight, always interested in the hypothetical, agrees to find out.
This is essentially a write-up of the Season 5 finale, inspired by its animatic, as I was deeply inspired by it. Given that the season is on hiatus, I decided to do the unthinkable and actually write a serious pony fic. There will be spoilers from the animatic.
I hope you enjoy this fanfic! Rated T for caution, would rate E10+ if I could. I doubt anything T will happen, but it might get a bit bleak in some later chapters.
Pre-reading by someone who asked me to refer to them as TidepoolSW, as well as the excellent DragonDance, which I am very grateful for. Edited by a wonderful user who wishes to remain anonymous. Thank you very much!
You should remove the note about the season 5 finale animatic from the shortened description, and either remove or spoiler it from the longer description too. Many people avoid things such as the pre-episode animatics due to spoilers, and the description spoils a significant part of it.
6245744
Ah, thanks. I will.
This line cracked me up so much
Also its not letting me give you a like
6245892
i tried writing one where Starlight goes back and time and revives all of Twilight's enemies but unfortunately the story didnt go so well 
I like how your doing your story are you sure you didn't hack Hasbro?
6246208
You are upvoting it, but it doesn't display the likes/dislikes until I've gotten 15 combined.
6246247
I'm glad you like my story, and I hope you can get your story working the way you want it!
6247736
HopefuIlly thanks im working on a EQG and eqruestria /human world one right now
6248807
Ah, wonderful! Best of luck!
Will you be giving Starlight her own backstory? Because, it looks like they might be in the past for a while.
6256627
They've returned to the present, but they're now in the alternate universe where the rainboom didn't happen.
I hadn't thought of giving Starlight her own backstory, but now that you suggest it, I think I will!
6256828 I'm curious about what you will end up putting as her back story.
P.S. PM me if you want to hear my personal opinion on Starlight's backstory.
I must say I'm intrigued. By all means, please continue.
6278028
I've been working on chapter 2. Sorry for the delay, but stuff's been getting in the way.
I hope to have it up soon!
Nicely done. Keep up the good work. I'm curious to know what will happen next
I hope we get a good explanation for why Twilight took Starlight up on her offer. As it stands, it comes across as rather foolish of her because she has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Kinda like the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy episode.
6297853
Personally, I'd say it's because she's a scientist at heart. An experiment involving actual, history-altering time travel? When all she could manage were a couple seconds of self-fulfilling prophecy? She'd love the chance to do it, if only to see how the world would have been.
She was in a "FOR SCIENCE" mood.
Also there may or may not have been magic involved.
6297518
Yay, thanks!
Huh. I wasn't expecting Twilight to go on a time traveling adventure with Starlight. And that's in a good sense of wasn't expecting. I will be very amazed if this is sort of what happens in the finale instead of the expected "MUWAHAHAHA! I MESSED UP TIME! NOW WITNESS AS I SOMEHOW MAKE THIS ENTIRE WORLD MINE BY CHANGING A SMALL THING THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!"
Ooh...
This won't end well.
I'm honestly expecting shout-outs to the short story "A Pail of Air".
(For those who have never read it: the world in a Pail of Air has no atmosphere, and is bitterly cold. The only way you can breathe is to dig up a pail of liquid oxygen and heat it.
I thought that Nightmare Moon could inadvertently cause something like that.)
This story is great so far, I hope you continue it some day