It all started like an average day in Ponyville. The shops were open, ponies were out and about, nothing out of the ordinary. But, on this particular day, the lives of all of Equestria almost changed forever. All because of one struggling pony who didn't feel like she had a friend.
That pony was Skylight Gleam. As the daughter of Starlight Glimmer, Sky had spent most of her life in her mother's shadow. Aside from being a splitting image of her mother, ponies also expected her to be just as, if not more talented than both of her parents. If that wasn't enough pressure, the successes of her elder siblings added to the expectations.
Like everypony else, Sky was in the town square attempting to complete her routine shopping. Just as she passed by Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie darted up, starting a series of events not unlike the typical day in her life, but a routine that never seems to become any less irritating.
"Starlight? Oh Starlight, there you are!" Pinkie yells, quickly approaching Sky, who immediately turned around. "Oh, sorry Sky I didn't realize it was you. I totally thought it was your mom there for a second!" Pinkie added, giggling as she corrected herself.
"No biggie Pinkie. It happens all the time." Sky groaned, walking away.
"Jeez, who drooled on her cupcakes?" Pinkie said, wearily walking away.
Things continued to get worse as her day downtown progressed.
"Did you see Skylight's performance at the magic school exams last weekend?"
"Yeah. She really needs to step it up if she ever wants to come close to matching her mother's skills." The second pony replied. It felt like a bullet to her heart. Why did everypony expect her to be an exact copy of her mom?
"Totally! You figure she'd be a lot more like her mother, I mean, for Celestia's sake, she looks just like her!" That was the final catalyst for her. It was time to put her life's work, her perfect plan into action. She returned to the Friendship Castle in tears.
"Hey Sky, how was your..." Starlight began, curious about her daughter's day, cut off by the tears in her daughter's eyes. "Skylight, what's wrong?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Come on Sky, you can talk to me. After all, you are my mini me!" Starlight didn't realize her mistake until Sky's yelling began. She used to love being her mom's mini-me, what happened?
"No mom! I don't want to be like you! I don't want everyone calling me your clone or mistaking me for you all the time!"
"Skylight...I..." Starlight began to tear up, her heart full of guilt.
"No! I don't wanna be called by my clone name either! Skylight Gleam isn't my name anymore!" Her horn ignited with the bright blue aura of her magic.
"Sky...what are you doing?" After everything her and Sunburst had done to raise their children with the principles of friendship and kindness, was her daughter really going to walk the same path that she did?
"Changing the future." Sky's magic had created a portal, a portal that would change absolutely everything.
Directly after the spell had been cast, Starlight began darting around the castle in search of Nightingale. She knew it was time for the younger generation to take over the job they had previously been destined to fulfill, and what better time than know than to ask the assistance of the future Princess of Friendship?
"Princess...Nighting...gale." Starlight panted. Catching her breath, she continued. "It's Skylight! She's disappeared into a time portal and I'm afraid she's going to try and change the future of Equestria in order to change her own destiny, and I need your help to stop her!"
"She...she what?" At the moment, she knew that she was going to need some help. "Sterre, Nebula, can you come here please?"
"Yes sis?" The duo said in unison.
"We have a situation."
After explaining what had happened a second time, they knew they had to do something that was forbidden under any other circumstance. They would have to time travel. They decided that the best option would be to get as many talented magic wielders in one place as possible. So they called upon their brother, Dark Knights, as well as their magicless second brother, Levitation, who ironically, knew much more about magic than the majority of them.
After gathering the Sparkle family, letters are distributed to their cousins in the Crystal Empire and get into contact with Starlight's three sons, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. Once the royal family and Royal Council of Magic were contacted, the present members began to devise a plan to stop Skylight from destroying the past, present, and future of Equestria.
"Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, since Skylight is your younger sister, I figured you would be of great assistance in this operation. What point in time do you think she would've traveled to?" Nightingale asked.
"My best guess would be right after Princess Flurry's birth. After all, that's when my parents first became serious about their relationship." Neptune added. "After all, I'm only a year younger than her."
"That does make a lot of sense, since we're pretty sure she's time traveled in order to split your parents up and change their destinies, and for her, I don't see that task being too difficult." Sterre added.
"Especially since she looks so much like Starlight. She'd just have to break up with Sunburst while Starlight was somewhere else." Nebula said, helping to continue the theory.
"We need to act fast, we don't know how much damage she's already done." Levitation added.
"Um sis, I think that the damage has already begun." Harvest Moon said, lifting up her wing to reveal that her once orange feathers were now beginning to sport a green hue.
"We need to get some serious magical power in here, and fast." Sterre said.
Not long after Sterre had expressed her concern, the Crystal Empire royal family was in Ponyville.
"Alright Rae, what do you need us to do?" Beckoning Light says, her younger siblings behind her.
"Well, we need all the magical power we can get to help save Equestria from another time travel fiasco." Sterre paused, realizing that she only saw five of her six cousins standing before her. "Where's Flurry Heart?"
"About that..." Beckoning says, pointing her hoof to a corner by the front door. There the group finds Flurry doing her best not to hyperventilate. "Just between you and me, I don't think she'll last a week as queen." She whispers to Sterre, who giggles as Nebula goes to Flurry in an attempt to calm her down.
"Flurry, you need to calm down. We're not going to solve anything this way. I need you to be level headed right now, we don't have much time!" Nebula says, trying her best to get Flurry to a normal mental state in as little time as possible.
"Nebs, hurry!" Sterre yells, looking back at her younger brothers. "DK and Levi are starting to be affected! We're going to lose all our help if we don't start figuring out how to stop her!"
"Come on Flurry, we need you right now!"
Taking a deep breath, Flurry finally calms herself down. "Ok, tell me what I need to do."
As the trio begins dashing down the hall to the meeting room, where Nebula explains the situation further.
"You see, what Sky did was reuse the spell her mother had created to change the relationships between my mother and her friends. The only problem is, the scroll was destroyed last time and Sky produced it with her own magic. Recreating the same conditions in order to catch her and fix everything will be very difficult without alicorn magic, which is where you come in. It's going to take all of our strength to set things right."
Once they arrive in the meeting room, Nebula uses her magic to summon the cutie map.
"If we use the map to help open the portal, it should help us find Sky because of the friendship disturbance that caused this all to happen in the first place!"
"Ok everypony, we cast the spell on 3." Sterre says, as everyone prepares to use every ounce of their magical strength.
"1..." Nebula calls out.
"2..." Dark Knights continues.
"3!" Sterre yells. At the moment, a rainbow of magicals auras combine, sucking the group into a portal that would lead them through an adventure of a lifetime, or at least, the adventure of an average Tuesday.