Chapter 3: The Map
Everypony had gathered in the room with the thrones. Starlight had insisted keeping the circle, and not putting any chairs in the middle, to keep it well organized. Twilight was the last to enter. "Good, everypony has arrived," she said.
"Yes, good," Starlight said.
Twilight walked over to beside her chair. "So, Starlight, would you like to explain, or shall I?" she asked.
"I will, if everypony will take their seats," she said.
So, the six mares who represented the Elements of Harmony sat down. As they each sat down, the cutie mark symbols on their chairs glowed. Twilight was the last to sit down. When she did so, the lights shone on the floor in the center of the chairs, causing a shift in the ground, causing a map to spring up. All of the mares eyes widened. "Woah," Spike said.
"I never thought I'd actually see it formed," Starlight muttered.
Twilight looked at Starlight. "How did you? Oh right, time travel," she said.
Starlight smiled. "Good, you're catching on," she smirked, before walking up beside Spike, as Sunset was on the other side of Twilight. "Hello everypony. I am Starlight Glimmer, and I am from the future. I have studied time magic, and swore only to use it in time of great need. Unfortunately, as you can tell, that time came. So, me and my friends, Trixie, Flurry, and Sunburst, travelled back in time to prevent a great catastrophe. The four Princesses were captured, and rendered useless to do anything by the darkness that took them. The only clue we have is one from my Mum," she instinctively glanced over at Sunset. "She told me, with her last breaths, that she believed that the only way to prevent this catastrophe was to go back to the time of the last temporal fluctuation, which we know was before I was able to modify Starswirl's original spell. So, we have come back her to prevent this catastrophe, which means stopping this unknown darkness, which will prevent the four Princesses from being captured, and my Mum from going to fight this evil and dying because of this. I know that it is hard to believe, but it is true. I cannot give any proof of what I am saying, because revealing too much will be dangerous. But, I do know some things that few ponies know. In fact, as of this moment, I believe that almost everypony who knows about Sunset Shimmer's adventures across the mirror is in this room, save the other Princesses."
"So you gathered us because we're awesome," Rainbow Dash said.
"Because I know that you can help," Starlight said. "And you already have. We needed a current map of Equestria, and now we have one."
"So basically..." Pinkie started.
"Pinkie, no. Don't say anything. You always know too much," Starlight quickly said.
"Huh, I guess you really do know me," Pinkie said. "My lips are sealed. I won't cause any para-who-whats-its."
"Paradoxes. And good. We're already dealing with those ourselves," Starlight replied.
"So how are we supposed to help you, darling?" Rarity asked.
"First, we are going to research. Then, we are going to decide what needs to be done next. Maybe the Cutie Map will tell us where to go," Starlight explained.
"As much as I'd like to help, I do have some work on the farm that needs to get done. Let me know if y'all need me, though," Applejack said in her country accent.
"I can stay and help, if you want," Fluttershy whispered.
"That's all I ask, to help when you can," Starlight said. "Some of the research will be double checking history to make sure we don't mess up the timeline too much. But you can help in trying to find out what this darkness is."
"And, I'm assuming you knew about the map, what was it you called it? The Cutie Map? Also because of future reasons you cannot reveal to us," Sunset said.
"Also correct. It's honestly a surprise that you've had the castle for a couple weeks and all haven't sat in your chairs at the same time yet. Probably because my, I mean, Princess Twilight, likes pacing around a lot," Starlight said.
Twilight, however, noticed the slip. "I'm your what, Starlight?"
"Um, one, it was a slip of tongue, two, I shouldn't really be telling you about the future," Starlight responded.
"Still, it makes it sound like I'm your Mum or something," Twilight said.
Starlight just laughed. "Well, I can't tell you that even if it were true. You're actually my teacher," Starlight responded. She wasn't wrong, just not telling the whole truth. Twilight, first off, was her Mom, not her Mum, and second, Twilight was definitely a teacher to her.
Twilight's eyes lit up. "So I get a pupil? How well do I teach? Do I assign enough reading? What would you like me to improve? Hopefully I have enough lists," Twilight began to ramble.
"Twilight, you're rambling," Sunset pointed out.
"Oh, right, sorry," Twilight said.
"I'm used to it," Starlight said. "As for improvements, maybe less lists, they can be a bit excessive. And maybe don't assign me that one about studying Pinkie Pie, knowing I would fail. Nopony can truly understand her."
Twilight had already gotten out parchment and a quill and was taking notes. "Less lists," she started saying, before looking up, bewildered. "What do you mean less lists? Lists are what help keep Harmony in Equestria!"
Sunset put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure you didn't have a list when defeating me, and against the Sirens, I do believe that was all impromptu," Sunset said, before facehoofing. She then turned to Trixie. "That's where I recognize you from, Canterlot High. It is strange that you're from the future, but exist now in that world. But then again, since Princess Celestia and Luna were born long ago, and since there are no immortals in the other world, it is also strange that they were there. If I recall-"
"Please do not theorize about us," Starlight interrupted. "Our identities are to remain as much of a secret as possible. If you do know about the other Trixie, Sunset, then please keep it to yourself. I don't like having to deal with paradoxes."
"Ain't ya dealing with paradoxes now?" AJ asked.
"Yes, and I'd prefer if there were no more to deal with. The less we change the timeline, the easier it will be for it to remain mostly on track. Except, of course, for the evil we are trying to stop," Starlight said.
"How do you know this?" Rainbow asked.
"I may not have used it, but I did run a simulation once, using technologies from the other world, on what the possible effects of the spell were. In that simulation, unfortunately, I had to paint myself as the villain, so I could truly see the negative side effects. In it, I stopped your Sonic Rainboom as a filly, thus preventing you all from getting your cutie marks. I did very little programming, instead connecting it to the Cutie Map, such as to have it build the world. Twilight did it with me, so she could see, and she was they good guy in it. I prevented the Sonic Rainboom seven times, each leading to a catastrophic future. We know what caused six of those futures. The seventh is still unknown to us. After we ended the simulation, we could only replay it, not go back in. But, the Cutie Map was a tether for the spell, and it even sensed something was wrong, and stayed, even though the timeline was different. Events stayed the same for the most part in those timelines, but, due to the fact that the Element bearers were not there to rise up and defeat the evils as they came along, the effects were negative. That was an exploration into one of the methods we thought that time travel would affect ponies. Twilight was always returned to the same point in time as she left, keeping herself complete, including her wings. Unfortunately, the simulation we ran was a dire circumstances one, meaning that she didn't have time to explore the timelines. I'm sure that there would be another, different Twilight there. No matter what, time tries to correct itself. We merely just cause ripples in the timeline. But, the Sonic Rainboom was such a big event, it was not ripples, but tidal waves to the time stream. We're hoping here to just cause ripples, just enough to keep the timeline intact, but still defeat the evil," Starlight explained.
"So a full VR experience, huh?" Sunset said.
"Exactly. Designed by, well, who it was designed by isn't important," Starlight said.
"And I'm just that awesome," Rainbow said.
"The six of you are just that important," Starlight corrected.
Flurry stepped up. "Now that we've established that, we really should get to work. We don't know how long until that pony, or whatever it is, uses Starswirl's spell, so we must act fast."
"I agree, though I did make sure to give us some buffer time to do the research as well," Starlight said.
"Then let's get to work," Trixie said.
The ponies then parted ways. The four time travelers, with Sunset, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy went to the library, while the rest of them went back to their jobs.