When Twilight woke up, she still felt the night before and didn't get much sleep ether. She moaned quietly and sneaked out of the rooms to not wake up Spike.
Apparently she was already expected in the throne room.
"Twilight, there you are! I just wanted to send somebody for you."
Nightmare Moon looked fine after the long night yesterday, which made Twilight a little jealous, and next to her she noticed another pony.
"What is it, Master?" Twilight asked sleepily.
"I want to introduce you to Lily Orchid. An art critic from Canterlot."
"Princess Twilight Moon, pleased to meet you." She hoped it did not sound rude, sleepy as she was.
"You may now also tell what you have told me, Mrs. Orchid," Nightmare Moon told the Critic.
The mouse-gray Pegasi cleared his throat.
"Six years ago, I saw the pony that matches the description of Starlight Glimmer!"
Twilight was instantly awake.
"She called for help as she ran across Canterlot, screaming “someone has to do something about it and someone has to stop it” just after the eternal night came and since almost everyone was frightened, she did not have a lot of attention and if so, then they just laughed at her. Then she ran away and was never seen again, not in Canterlot and as far as i know nowhere else either, but I can be mistaken!"
Twilight's head was working at full speed. Why should Starlight do that?!? Yelling for help in Canterlot? That makes no sense ... unless ...
Insight struck like a hammer.
"She is still there!” Twilight whispered. but she did not have time to explain.
She jumped out of the nearest window and flew out in the night.
She still had a long flight ahead to Starlight's village. Why didn't she thought to look there?!? She is guaranteed to be there in that cursed village! She did this all for that!
As Twilight approaches the village, she saw a single light burning. It came out of the house at the end.
She landed at the other end of the tiny village as a precaution. Nightmare Moon was a good master. Twilight's senses were sharp and she was now prepared for anything that might lurk here.
But she did not see ponies anywhere and after looking at the other houses it was obvious that no one lived here anymore. Except for the house at the end. Like someone trying to keep a broken dream alive. Twilight walked cautiously through the village. Watching out for every little noise that the abandoned buildings made with the wind until she reached the last house. She saw something moving and got ready to fight. The door opened. And then she actually stood in front of her! That one pony responsible for this whole disaster!
"Are you the time-traveling princess?" She asked.
"She told me you would come one day!"
"WHO SAID THAT, STARLIGHT!?!" screamed Twilight angry.
"The other Starlight!" said Starlight blankly, Twilight frowned. Other Starlight?!?
"Come in, princess! We have a lot to talk about!"
Starlight waved you into her house. Twilight hesitated at first but then followed Starlight into her house. She was not the same pony as she was three weeks ago. She could not harm her. So let's see what she's up to!
In her living room a small fire burned in the fireplace and that was probably the most comfortable in the room. Simplest homemade furniture adorned the room. Many apparently makeshift repaired. She sat in one of the two patched chairs and offered Twilight the second one, which she sat tensely on.
"I'm glad you finally arrived. I am tired of living alone and isolated on this land. Nice armor you have there. Is it from Nightmare Moon's army?"
Twilight did not answer.
"Well, not important anyway. You're here for your revenge, right? But I'm not the Starlight who did this to you ..." Twilight jumped up!
"PROVE IT!" She screamed.
She could see Starlights heart stopping for a second. But she gathered herself and replied calmly,
"I can’t. But I ask you to listen to what I have to say and if you still want to take your revenge, I will not stop you."
Twilight eyed her counterpart suspiciously but slowly sat down again.
Starlight continued with her story.
"I founded this village, took the ponies cutie marks and everything else you probably already know. We did not get much news from the outside world but suddenly the sun didn't rise. Then we heard about Nightmare Moon's return and her bat ponies. Because the plants all died without sunlight, we lost our harvest. But even with these new moon plants, the others began to leave the village. I was also about to leave when I suddenly stood before myself. Can you imagine what it was like to meet myself?"
Twilight nodded but did not say anything.
"After the first shock, the other Starlight told me what happened and that I was to blame for it in the future.You and your friends took away my village and as revenge I destroyed your friendship through this time travel and was even so obsessed with it to not return myself. But when Nightmare Moon came down from the moon, everything got out of hand and now I'm living here alone because of what I've done for almost six years and I've been waiting for you to give you this."
She used her magic to grab a small box that was above the fireplace and handed it to Twilight.
"All alone for those six years? What about the other Starlight? "Asked Twilight.
"Shortly after her sudden arrival, she left the village in the middle of a sandstorm and I've never seen her since."
Twilight opened the box.
There were three papers in it. The first was a letter for her.
To Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I'm so sorry for what happened. I do not even remember what madness drove me to travel through time just to destroy your friendship. But I was wrong in more ways than that. Since your friendship was the only one that was changed, I'm sure that was the reason why Nightmare Moon could even return. So much was destroyed by the eternal night, and Nightmare Moon's reign brought such grief over all the ponies.
I had a very long time to think and I had to admit that I alone was to blame. I never thought your friendship was so important to our world but it is and I destroyed it. The only thing I can do is tell you how to change the spell to undo everything. If you still have the spell but in case I have also left instructions for a new one. I can only hope that you can undo my missteps because i could never ask for forgiveness.
Do not waste your thoughts on me. I'll go where I can’t hurt anyone anymore.
Starlight Glimmer
Twilight looked at the other papers. On the one were vague descriptions of the time spell and how it was set up. But on the last one, she could not suppress her joy. She had the solution. An exact description of how Starlight changed the spell.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Starlight asked
"Yes, I did!" Twilight replied joyfully, "I'm finally able to return home!"
"I am glad that I was able to do something good after all," murmured Starlight,
"But when I travel back, everything will repeat itself!" Twilight thought aloud. But Starlight's answer was just a tired laugh.
"Princess, I had a lot of time and little distraction to think about all this. The village should not have happened at all. I realize now that all ponies are the same in the end, even though they are so different. I do not even understand why I even took ponies cutie marks."
Starlight stood up and looked Twilight straight in the eye.
"Thank you for listening to me. If you still want to take your revenge, go ahead! I stand for the deeds of my other self!"
Twilight didn't answer. But Starlight stood still and probably expected the death blow.
"No! You're not the Starlight that did this to me!"
"Up for definition." came back from Starlight.
To Starlight's surprise, Twilight laughed.
"By definition, I'm sitting as a unicorn in Nightmare Moon's dungeon!"
Starlight laughed carefully and began to relax again.
"Well, I have to go now, I have a spell to complete!" Twilight picked up the letters and headed for the door.
"Good luck, princess," she heard behind her as she left Starlight's house and immediately headed back to the palace, where Twilight had work to do.