Starlight's hooves tapped against the ground, the sound echoing through the cave. A second pair of hooves resonated from behind her, going faster. Starlight increased her pace, but stumbled over something in the darkness. She hadn't had her horn lit so whoever was chasing her couldn't see her. A bright red light suddenly pierced the area, and Rainbow Dash ran up to Starlight, her horn glowing.
"Starlight!" she cried.
"You get away from me!" yelled Starlight, her horn lighting up threateningly. "You destroyed my entire village and ruined everything!"
"And I'm sorry about that."
"Oh, be quiet! You don't care one bit!"
Rainbow stomped her hoof against the ground. "I do care! Starlight, do you think I wanted everypony in your town to gang up on you? Do you still think I was trying to trick you when I went to defend you?"
"Shut up!" Starlight blasted a beam of magic towards Rainbow, who dove out of the way just in time.
"I'm not going to fight you." said Rainbow, the glow of her horn diminishing. "I just want to talk."
"I don't care!" Starlight's horn flared up.
"Why did you take away cutie marks to compensate for Sunburst leaving?"
"How do you know that?!?"
"I asked you before if you believed in the multiverse for a reason! Starlight, I've met you before, but it was a different version of you! She made the same mistakes you're making, and she asked me to prevent you from making them!" some tears trickled down Rainbow's cheeks. "But you've made all the same ones because I messed up! I thought I had a plan and everything, but you've made almost every mistake except for the biggest one!"
"Well, I..." Starlight trailed off as Rainbow collapsed onto the ground in tears. "... What's... What's the last mistake she... I made?"
"I-in the other universe," said Rainbow sadly, "Basically the same events happened up to the point when you ran into these caves. But nopony followed you. No one knew where you had gone. And several months later, you showed up in Twilight's cas- house after hearing about a 'cutie mark bond' she and the rest of us shared. So you went back in time to prevent my Sonic Rainboom that caused that 'cutie bond'. And that created alternate timelines."
"Alternate timelines?" asked Starlight, in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.
"Alternate universes that ended up with alternate outcomes. A lot were created. None of them had good outcomes. But then Twilight got you too see the light of friendship after you told her about Sunburst and why you hated cutie marks. That caused the alternate timelines to have alternate timeline, except these ones were resolved. Our universe is one of the resolved timelines.
"To make an long story short, I managed to go back to the original timeline, and met the other version of you. And I told her that I wasn't going to let you make the same mistakes as her, no matter what. So I want to ask you, Starlight: are you going to say that all of the stuff I just said was a lie and then run off to get revenge? Or are you going to believe me?"
Starlight stared wordlessly at Rainbow, unable to find what to say.
"Well, what are the odds?" suddenly hissed a voice in the darkness.
Rainbow instantly got to her hooves, and her horn flared up. Starlight looked at Rainbow in confusion, who was looking around in the cave.
"Sweet Luna, do you ever go away?!?" yelled Rainbow angrily. "You were blasted by the Crystal Heart, how are you still here?!?"
"Rainbow Dash, I'll never leave!" sang the voice tauntingly. "I'll be here forever and ever and ever!"
"Rainbow, what's going on?" whispered Starlight.
Starlight's horn suddenly flickered out, and Rainbow's significantly dimmed. Rainbow gritted her teeth, and a small shield formed around her and Starlight. Her eyes continued to look around through the darkness, but saw nothing.
"Shadow..." hissed Rainbow. "They're an entity of pure evil and cruelness... Don't talk to them-"
"Oh, now who is this unicorn?" Starlight saw two eyes appear in the darkness, and they were staring right at her. "You poor little thing. You think that Rainbow Dash is telling you the truth. Can't you see that she's lying?"
"Starlight, don't listen!" whispered Rainbow.
"She just doesn't want you to know the truth: that I can give you power beyond your wildest dreams!"
"They're lying!"
"Just come over to me and I can make you strong, unicorn!"
Starlight's eyes flicked between Shadow and Rainbow, unsure of what to do. Rainbow had been saying completely crazy things about alternate timelines and universes, but Shadow could just as easily be lying. She could easily tell that there was a poor history between the two of them, when she realized something: Rainbow Dash was an alicorn Princess. That didn't exactly scream "liar".
"Rainbow," whispered Starlight so Shadow couldn't hear, "Let's leave. I... I don't want to make the same mistakes as, well, myself."
Rainbow's eyes widened. "Just like that? You're convinced?"
"Yeah. I am." she eyed Shadow warily. "They made it a bit easier..."
Rainbow smiled, but then flinched as her horn suddenly flickered out. Starlight whipped around to look at Shadow, but only felt a swirling wind spin around her.
"Why did you take my offer, unicorn?" hissed Shadow angrily. "Friendship is only ever a lie and doesn't help you!"
Starlight nervously took a step back in the darkness, and bumped into Rainbow.
"Starlight," whispered Rainbow quickly, "Can you teleport?"
"I've never tried." whispered Starlight.
"Do you think you can?"
"Erm... Maybe?"
"Teleport us out of here."
"What?!?"
"I'm no good at magic! Just teleport us out of here! Shadow is going to try something, and I don't want to stick around to see it!"
"O-okay!"
Starlight felt her horn flare up, but no light was added to the darkness. She gritted her teeth, and closed her eyes. She just needed to teleport both herself and Rainbow Dash out of the cave. And she had only seconds to do it.
"You're really good at magic!" whispered Rainbow. "If anypony can do it, it's you, Starlight!"
Starlight took in a deep breath, and then tried to teleport. She kept her eyes shut tight, and felt her surroundings change. She nervously opened her eyes, and realized that the opening of the cave was just metres away. She and Rainbow both dashed out of the cave into the snowy area, where nine ponies and one dragon stood waiting.