Sunset Reset

by LordBrony2040


Epilogue 3

The purple dragon known simply as Spike watched as the ponies carried the amber colt named Sunburst off in celebration of him earning his cutie mark.

“And just like that, Sunburst was gone!” Starlight said. “Our friendship was over, all because he got his cutie mark, and I didn’t! HIS CUTIE MARK TOOK HIM AWAY FROM ME!”

Spike frowned at the explanation. “So...wait, you never saw him again?” he asked with a frown. “Never even sent a letter, or visited him or anything?” It sounded...stupid. “Even if he moved away, you could have at least done something like that.”

As the light purple pony brought her angry glare down on Spike, the dragon was starting to have second thoughts about poking holes in a crazy and violent pony’s messed up logic that made her into a victim to justify her insane revenge plot. “Of course I followed him to the school you idiot!” she exclaimed. “I earned my cutie mark two weeks later, just in time to enroll in Celestia’s special school for elitist jerks!”

A disgusted sneer appeared on Starlight’s face. “But by then, it was too late,” she said. “In the time we were apart, he met this other mare who thought she was so great and powerful, and whose cutie mark let her do so many tricks. So, I had to get rid of him!”

Twilight drew herself back a bit from the ferocity of Starlight’s anger. “Wait...what? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“OF COURSE IT DOES!” Starlight yelled. “LOOK!” The unicorn’s horn lit up before a bright light flashed across Spike’s field of vision, making him close his eyes.

When he opened them, Spike found himself and Twilight standing in the upper hallways of Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. Although, he could still smell and feel the grass beneath his feet, telling him that what he was seeing was merely an illusion.

“You’re coming with me, and we’re going to spend the rest of the day playing board games!”

Spike turned around and saw the two little ponies standing in a hallway he had seen plenty of during his time at CSGU. Starlight was giving Sunburst her patented glare of insane rage, but the colt didn’t seem to be cowering properly. “No Starlight! Ever since we we met, I’ve always had to do what you tell me to. Well now it’s time for me to do what I want, and if you don’t want me to do that, then I don’t want to hang out with you anymore Starlight!”

Being told no had apparently been a new experience for the little light purple filly at the time, because her mouth dropped before Sunburst moved to walk away. “But-but...you have to do what I say!”

“Would you leave me alone already?” Sunburst asked in a demanding tone as he looked back to Starlight with a frown. “I told you, I don’t want to hang out with you anymore, Starlight.”

The little Starlight Glimmer looked hurt. “But Sunburst! The only reason I even came to this school was to find you!”

Sunburst spun around to glare at Starlight. “Yeah, well the only reason I came here was to get away from you!” he said before he turned back around and quickly began trotting away.

“Uh…” Spike said. “His cutie mark isn’t making him walk away, it’s how big of a jerk you were be-”

“H-Hey! You can’t just trot away from me!” the pink filly went on before she began to build up power in her horn at a surprising speed. “You’re my friend! I OWN YOU!”

“Oh no,” Spike mumbled as the little filly unleashed her magic in a wild blast towards the colt.

Twilight let out a startled cry and leaped forward, trying to protect the colt from the oncoming blast of magic. But, it was all just an illusion. The scene played out as if Twilight didn’t exist. The first time everything occurred, there had been no alicorn to save Sunburst from being hit by Starlight’s attack, which struck him full force and sent the little colt flying through the window.

And to his eventual death.

Both Twilight and Spike stood in mute shock as they watched the scene end, returning them to reality of Starlight’s old village. The dragon could barely believe what he had just seen. When she was just a foal of eight, Starlight had...murdered her onetime best friend.

“That was...wait, I remember hearing something about that when I was at Celestia’s School,” the purple princess said, her voice still full of shock. “That was why all the hallways on the higher floors had shatterproof glass. But...I thought it was just because of an accident. You...killed your best friend?”

Spike felt something press down on him in the back of his mind, a harsh realization as he looked at the anger in Starlight’s eyes. Anger, not remorse for her actions. Even watching what she did for...Celestia only knew how many times, the light purple unicorn didn’t seem to care at all.

Instead of using her spell to go back in time and fix her own mistake, Starlight cast it to ruin six other lives.

“So what?” Starlight spat. “Sunburst may have been the first, but I’ve gotten rid of plenty of ponies since then!”

Twilight's mouth dropped at the declaration. “What?”

A frown appeared on Starlight’s face. “Did you even count how many cutie marks I had in my vault?” she asked. “You don’t really think I could have fit that many Equestrians into eight stupid little houses, did you? I had to have the town loop around during the advertisement parade just to make the march last long enough to do the song for pony’s sake!”

“I...I think I’m going to be sick,” Twilight mumbled as she put a hoof to her barrel.

As Twilight fought not to lose her lunch, Starlight’s eyes widened with an idea. “Wait...that’s it!”

Spike also developed a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“The time between the two of us arriving in Cloudsdale is a good five minutes, and I know where everypony’s starting point is now. All I have to do is go back, or forward at this point, to the rainboom, and I can get rid of that stupid little jock of a horse before you even arrive!” Starlight exclaimed before she gave Twilight one last evil grin. “Goodbye Twilight, the next time we see each other, it’ll be accompanied by the sound of me snapping your little friend’s neck like a twig!”

With Twilight frozen in shock, or maybe fighting the urge to lose her lunch, Starlight galloped past her to jump onto the table before casting her spell. She gave out one last manically evil laugh before the magic involved swallowed her up into the time bubble...thingy.

Right as Starlight disappeared, Twilight pulled herself together. “Oh no! Spike, we have to go after her!”

As Twilight started to gallop off, Spike scratched his head. “Uh...do we?”

WHAT?” Twilight scratched in surprise as she spun around to look at her number one assistant.

Spike scratched his head and broke eye contact with the nervous alicorn. “You heard Starlight, right?” he asked. “If we travel through time to try and stop her, we’ll just end up arriving five minutes after she does. But she left us behind in this time, Twilight, before the rainboom. If we follow Starlight with the table, she’ll arrive five minutes before we do. But if we just wait for her to show up in Cloudsdale now, the normal way, we have years to prepare.”

“And we’ll inflict untold amounts of damage to the timeline in the meantime!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic. “We were both there for each  time we went back Spike. It was different every time! Wildly different! That must be because Starlight isn’t sucked back up into the future like we are every time. The one time I pulled her along was it!  She stays and keeps changing things! And we’ll do the same thing if we stay here! Now come on!”

Unable to continue the argument, or stop Twilight physically, Spike sighed at the futility of it all as the purple alicorn dragged the dragon along in her magic so that he could get a grip on her coat and ready himself for another bumpy ride. When they reached the table, Twilight cast the spell on the scroll again, and they were sucked up in the temporal bubble.

For the...well, Spike wasn’t sure how many times he had been going back and forth through time, but it felt like forever. The world around them was replaced by a swirling vortex of blue and white.

Years of experience as a magical practitioner’s right and left claws told Spike what was going on. The spell had taken them out of the normal timeframe that Equestria existed in. Although he still didn’t understand how they were moving through time faster than Equestria, or backwards for that matter, Spike did at least grasp that they were no longer in the normal flow of time.

As time passed by, or he passed by time, the dragon looked around to see if he could see any significant events play out when a red and gold streak of color suddenly zoomed past them towards the point in time they had just left. “Whaaa!”

“What?” Twilight asked as she looked around wildly at Spike’s startled cry. “What is it Spike?”

Spike pointed at the edge of the temporal sphere that had gone back to blue and white. “I thought I saw...something?”

“Don’t be silly Spike,” Twilight told him as she looked at where he had pointed. “Nothing could exist in chronospace outside of a protective field.”

A few seconds later, the point became moot as the time travel trip ended and deposited Twilight and Spike in the familiar skies of Cloudsdale. Although after taking a look around, Spike downgraded that assessment to somewhat familiar.

They were definitely on the outskirts of Cloudsdale, but things just seemed a bit...off. Having had to look for Rainbow Dash several times before, Spike had gotten a basic idea of what the flight camp’s layout and… “Twilight, did this place always have cloud statues?” he asked as he looked at the sparsely placed decor.

“I don't have time to think about that Spike. We need to find Rainbow before Starlight...we need to find Rainbow Dash!” Twilight told him before diving into a bunch of clouds for cover.

The twisted feeling in Spike’s returned at hearing the athletic pony’s name. “But, Twilight, remember that one time when we came back and Starlight was already talking to Fluttershy? She gets here before we do and-”

“There she is!” Twilight shouted as she pointed a hoof.

“Huh?” Spike asked before he looked in the direction Twilight indicated. Sure enough, a little Rainbow Dash was flying through the air, but…. “Did she always fly in from that direction?” Dash always came in from behind them, now she was coming in from more of a left angle.

Twilight’s horn lit up. “That’s because we moved, Spike!” she said before Rainbow Dash was surrounded by a purple glow and yanked out of the sky.

As the filly let out a startled cry while she careened towards the temporally displaced pair, Spike looked over to the purple pony. “Twilight! What’re you doing?! I thought we aren’t supposed to interfere!” he said after the filly collided with her chest and Twilight wrapped her forehooves around Dash.

“Twihpghlght?” the obviously confused little pony said as Twilight held her in a crushing grip.

“We can worry about that after we stop Starlight Glimmer from killing Rainbow Dash, Spike!” Twilight exclaimed before she pushed her forelegs away but kept Dash in her fetlocks. “Listen Rainbow, I don’t have time to explain, but your in danger and I’m a princess so-”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Well of course you're a princess-wait!" she said before her eyes widened. “Are you an alicorn?”

An annoyed sigh came from Twilight’s mouth at the repeated response. “Yes, I’m an alicorn. Now, listen-”

“How good a flier are you?” Rainbow immediately asked.

Twilight blinked before she looked away in embarrassment. “Um...not...very.”

“Huh, must run in the family.” Apparently, Twilight had loosened her grip during the conversation, because Rainbow flew free of her a moment later to get a close few of her flank. “And you got your cutie mark!”

With the conversation going into uncharted territory, Twilight hesitated. “Uh...yeah,” she said uneasily. “Listen-”

Then Rainbow flew up to look at Spike. “And you’ve got a dragon!” she said before giving the purple lizard a scrutinizing once-over and she looking back to Twilight with a frown whence she was done. “Is she like, Ember’s little sister, or something?”

“Ember?” Twilight said as she frowned at the unfamiliar name.

Spike raised his hand to get Rainbow’s attention. “Actually, I’m a boy. Name's Spike.”

Rainbow grinned. “Hey Spike, I’m Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow! Would you just stand still for five seconds, I have something important to tell you!” Twilight yelled.

The little pegasus slowed down and lowered herself onto the cloud to sit down. “Okay, okay Twilight, geeze,” Rainbow said with a frown. “Excuse me for getting excited about something.”

Spike tightened his grip on Twilight as the purple alicorn suddenly went rigid. “W-What did you just say?” she asked in a shocked tone.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked as her angry little frown softened to one of concern. “Hey, sparkle-butt, are you okay? I mean, besides the age spell thing. You know your moms are gonna ground you for that, right?”

Twilight continued to stand mute. Her mouth opened, but she just dropped it instead of saying anything.

“Uh,” Rainbow said as she looked up to Spike, who was in a similar state, then back to Twilight, and finally to the open sky. “Hey! What’re you two idiots doing to Fluttershy?!”

As Rainbow found something new to occupy her attention, Twilight finally broke out of the surprised daze that had left her stunned. “Wait a second. You know who I am?!”

Right then, the time travel spell reactivated, pulling Twilight and Spike into the sphere while Dash’s attention was on something else.