//------------------------------//
// Return to an Altered Equestria 
// Story: One Last Timeline 
// by StormLuna 
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One Final Time Alteration

After having visited many alternate timelines, including one that resulted in a dead and desolate Equestria and then visiting Starlight's home town when she was a filly, Starlight, Twilight and Spike had returned to Cloudsdale, again.  

Starlight was looking around and noticed that Rainbow's race had begun, again.  She first glared at Rainbow and then gave Twilight a sadistic grin, "So Twilight, ready to see another race ended?" 

Twilight reminded, "Starlight, you've seen where this leads, you can't keep doing this!"  

Starlight grabbed a hold of the backpack Spike was holding, removed the scroll and levitated it to herself.  She gave Twilight a smirk and laughed, "Oh really?"  She intensified her hold on the scroll and continued, "Who is going to stop me?  You, your little pet over there, Princess Celestia?"  Her laughter became more manic as she continued, "Nopony's going to stop me and this time, the changes will be permanent!"

Twilight knew that she had to do something or the future of Equestria could be doomed to something worse than the dead, desolate land they saw and that even worse, there would be no going back.  "Starlight, think about this.  If you do this not only will you doom Equestria to a horrible fate but you'll doom yourself too."  She raised her voice and continued, "For all you know, in whatever future you create, you could wind up being a slave!" 

"Yeah right Twilight.  You're only saying that so that I will let the rainboom happen and you'll meet your friends."  Starlight began to tear the scroll and continued, "For all we know we could return to an Equestria where you are a slave" she began to laugh and finished, "and I'd be the pony in charge!" 

Twilight was watching in horror as Starlight continued to slowly tear the scroll, readying herself to alter the future forever and realized that perhaps there was one way to stop her, to admit defeat,  "Starlight, I know I can't defeat you but I thought that by showing you that horrible future we saw, that I could get you to change your mind...."

Starlight's ears shot up when she heard those six words come out of her foe's mouth, "I know I can't defeat you."  She began to laugh, "So the Princess of Friendship admits that she can't defeat me."  Her laughter became louder as she continued, "Quite funny, an Alicorn princess admitting defeat to a unicorn with humble origins!" 

Twilight replied, "Starlight, I know you're getting a great amount of joy out of my admission but the way you're acting is counter to everything you've always emphasized.  You always wanted everypony to be equal but here you are acting like you're superior to everypony else!" 

Starlight tore the scroll a bit further and snapped, "At this point it doesn't matter.  Like I've been saying all day it doesn't matter what happens as long as you don't meet your friends." 

Starlight turned her attention to the race and realized that she had better stop it or the rainboom would happen, Twilight would meet her friends and her plans would fail.  She quickly finished tearing up the scroll and then turned her attention to the race.  She grabbed Rainbow in her aura just before she wound up breaking the sound barrier and held her in place until Hoops crossed the finish line, winning the race.  She couldn't help but chuckle, "Aw sorry about that!"

Starlight turned her attention to Twilight and stood there on her cloud triumphantly.  She gave Twilight a huge grin and laughed, "Well now, let's see where this takes us, shall we?"





Return to a Different Equestria

A portal opened up and sucked the three into it.  On the other end the portal opened and they fell on the map.  When they saw that not only was the map back to normal but that there was a castle present, both were shocked.  Twilight was ecstatic, "Wait a minute, we didn't need the rainboom after all?"  She turned to Starlight and continued, "You see, even though you thought you succeeded....."

At first Starlight was not thrilled until she looked around and noticed that things had changed, they had changed in a way that even she never dreamed of.  As Twilight was talking she felt a claw on her soldier and a voice say, "Uh Twilight, you may not want to celebrate yet."

Twilight began to check out her surroundings and was horrified by what she saw.  While the castle was still there, the map was still there and six large thrones along with a small one still existed, there was one thing that terrified her, the cutie marks on the thrones.  They were not the same marks as what should be there but they were all incredibly familiar, five of them were the cutie marks of her old Canterlot friends and on the primary throne was Starlight's cutie mark.  

Not long after Twilight realized that Starlight had won and that she was in charge, a powerful wave of energy shot out from the map and spread all across Equestria.  With this would bring out the final changes, their change of forms.  As they stepped off the map, Starlight looked at herself and then at Twilight and was thrilled by what she saw, she was now an Alicorn princess and Twilight was a regular unicorn.

Spike kissed the floor and said, "One castle of friendship, check!" 

Starlight was getting ready to celebrate when the throne room door opened.  The first to say anything was Moondancer, "Starlight, what was that?"

Starlight knew exactly what it was but there was no way that she could simply go telling her friends about how she had altered the past to bring about this present.  She replied, "You know, I'm honestly not sure." 

Minuette laughed, "Whatever it was, can we do it again?  It was fun!" 

Spike saw their friends and added, "One set of amazing friends, check!"

When Starlight saw him do this, she knew that everything had changed.  She knew that with that shock wave, that she was likely the only one who had any memory of the prior timeline.  She also realized that this was something she could never reveal to anypony, not even Spike.  Deep down though, she was beyond ecstatic that not only did she prevent Twilight from meeting her friends, but switched their roles entirely. 

As the five headed into the throne room they saw that Twilight was there.  Lemon Hearts pointed her hoof at Twilight and asked, "What is she doing here?"

Starlight replied, "It's a long story."  Starlight pointed towards the door and ordered, "Spike, could you take our guest out into the hall while we have a meeting?"

Spike nodded and led Twilight out into the hall.  Starlight proceeded to tell her friends about the time travel incident but altered things a bit from what really happened.  She lied and told them what would fit into the new timeline, she told them that it was Twilight who altered the scroll, stopped her from completing a complex spell and caused all the problems and about all the timelines that existed without their friendship. 

All of her friends gasped in shock before Moondancer said, "Wow, I never knew that our friendship was that important.  I never knew that all of Equestria depended on us!" 

Twinkleshine gave her a wide eyed look and added, "I can't believe you traveled through time like that!"

Lyra continued, "That Twilight must have powerful magic."

Again Starlight had to bend the truth, "She is one of the most powerful unicorns I have ever seen.  I couldn't get her to stop trying to alter things on my own, I had to persuade her to stop.  Once she finally saw that what she was doing would destroy Equestria, everything fell into place and here we are." 

Lemon Hearts asked, "If she's really that powerful, we can't just let her go, can we?"

Starlight replied, "No, I am planning on taking her in, assuming she wants to learn, and teaching her all about friendship.  I think that with our guidance, she will become a much happier mare." 

Her friends nodded in agreement as Starlight headed to get Twilight.  Once she got out in the hall she motioned for Spike to lead Twilight into the throne room.  Once Twilight arrived and Starlight had sat down she said, "I know there is no excuse for everything I did and I'm ready to accept whatever punishment you hand down to me." 

Starlight replied, "I've been thinking and we've seen what can happen when even one group of friends never comes to be.  We've seen that it can lead to disaster." 

Twilight sighed, "I know that all too well." 

Starlight continued, "That is why I brought you here.  If you are willing to learn, I'm ready to teach you everything I know and you'll have the power to make Equestria an even better place."

Twilight gasped, "How can I do that?  I haven't made a single friend!"

Starlight put her hoof around her and replied, "No you haven't made a single friend, you've made seven right here!"  She got up and everypony began to leave the throne room.  Starlight gave Twilight a smile and continued, "Since you're going to be moving in and be my friendship student, let's get you settled in!"

As Starlight led Twilight upstairs towards her bedroom, she couldn't help but smile.  Her goal had been to prevent Twilight and her friends from meeting and she succeeded.  What she did not expect though was that everything would turn out even better than she imagined, she never once imagined that she would wind up being a princess.  She then remembered how Twilight was always talking about every future she returned to being worse than that last.  She thought to herself, "For every future being worse than the last, this one sure turned out fine!"