//------------------------------// // The Best Decision // Story: Starlight Glimmer Makes Many Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// The pounding of her head told Starlight it was not going to be a pleasant morning. The shaking of her body and the voice of Spike trying to wake her up along with the unfamiliar rough feeling against her back that most certainly was not her comfortable castle bed also told her that it was going to be a confusing morning. With a groan and a wince she shut her eyes even tighter and blindly tried to push Spike away despite her mind telling her that something was off. “Come on Spike, let me rest a little. My head is killing me. Can’t it wait?” “Starlight, get up! This is serious! This is really bad!” The loud voice of Spike pounded in her ears, reverberating in her head like an unwelcome orchestra. “Ughhh, fine.” Starlight groggily stopped trying to ignore the waking world and lifted her head up, blearily blinking a few times to adjust to the light. The light and actions just made her head feel even worse but Spike definitely wasn’t going to let her just go back to resting if things were really as serious as he thought they were. While the world slowly came back into focus Starlight began to register all the things that were off about this morning. First of all, they were definitely not in her room nor in the castle at all. Secondly they weren’t even indoors at all. Third, Starlight was lying down in the middle of a bush with a scared and exceedingly nervous looking Spike standing in front of her. “Okay, I’ll admit that it seems like something bad is probably happening.” Spike groaned and buried his face in his claws as he shook his head. “Starlight. Do you remember anything about what happened last night?” He asked the unicorn in exasperation. Her pain momentarily forgotten Starlight racked her brain to try and remember the previous evening. “Uhh… we had that welcome back party for Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres since she just got back from her friendship mission. And then you, me, and Twilight came back to the castle and uh, I don’t think I was quite done celebrating yet…” A nervous sweat broke across her brow as she gave an uneasy chuckle. “Ehehe, that’s all I remember...” Spike pulled down his eyelids and did his very best not to scream in frustration. “Starlight! I found you in the Cutie Map room using some kind of crazy magic on it!” “What!?” Starlight cried out in shock. “There’s no way! I would never do something like that, I know I wouldn’t.” The dragon gave his friend a defiant and unamused look. “Really? You can say that after saying you can’t even remember what happened last night?” Starlight sputtered and blew on her mane in indignation. “Well I’d never do it in the right state of mind! So what happened?” “I don’t know! I don’t know how to tell unicorn spells apart.” But Spike got a far off look in his eyes and started pressing his fingers together. “Er, well, except for the fact that I recognized something about this spell. You remember when you went back in time to stop the sonic rainboom? Well that same portal that sucked you and us up came back. I jumped in after you and now we’re here.” Starlight Glimmer’s mouth hung open. “I didn’t. Spike, where are we?” “Well it’s not where we are...” Spike nervously rubbed the spikes on the back of his head and pointed up, gesturing for Starlight to stick her head out of the bush they were hidden in. Upon going up through the bush like a periscope and seeing what awaited her, Starlight’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. “Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.” Starlight muttered over and over to herself. It was Ponyville on a day like any other. Beautiful outside, ponies minding their own business and walking down the streets, some selling their food in the middle of town’s square and others taking a leisurely stroll through the park. Starlight and Spike were in one such park, in the middle of a large bush that surrounded one of Ponyville’s many trees. But while it was a completely normal day in Ponyville for the citizens amicably enjoying their day it was anything but normal for Spike and Starlight. The large school of friendship that should be easily visible was gone, and the even larger castle that towered over the rest of the buildings in Ponyville was similarly missing. Instead Starlight could see the old Golden Oak Library that Twilight had often told her about, looking pristine and unblemished. The pain in her head was replaced with a powerful twitch of her eye as Starlight shot back down into the bush. “I time-traveled?! Again?!” She shook Spike by the shoulders as if screaming at him would supply her with all the answers she needed. “Starlight, cut it out!” Spike shrugged her off of him. “Freaking out isn’t going to help.” “Says you! I’m going to be in so much trouble for this.” Starlight sunk to the ground and buried her face into the dirt. “Twilight is going to be so mad at me! Why would I even time-travel anyways?!” Her face shot up and she looked at Spike, pointing at his chest. “Why didn’t you stop me?” Spike scoffed at the unicorn in the process of undergoing a Twilight-style breakdown. “Stop you? How am I supposed to stop you from doing anything?” “Okay fair point.” Starlight allowed before collapsing backwards and grumbling in frustration. “This is just great! Don’t worry Starlight, I’m sure Twilight will forgive you again, it’s only your third or fourth time doing something absolutely horrible!” “Starlight just calm down a little.” Spike tried to assuage her. “I know it looks bad but I’m sure if we just get back to when we’re supposed to be she’ll understand.” The unicorn closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to take Spike’s advice to heart. “Okay, okay, I know. We’ll just get back to our time and it’ll be no harm no foul.” “Great!” Spike said. “So what’s the plan?” At that Starlight sat up, raising an eyebrow at Spike. “Plan? What plan?” Spike’s nervousness started to return. “Er, the plan for returning home?” “Exactly. Isn’t the map here with us? I don’t know how I even did this without Starswirls’s spell this time around! I don’t know how to get us back to the present time. Didn’t the map come with us and we can just activate it or whatever?” Starlight asked Spike with an increasing franticness in her voice. “No! The map didn’t come back with us, it never did, the portal just dropped us off in the middle of Ponyville this time and I dragged you into this bush! I have no idea what kind of spell you need to do to travel back to the present!” Spike shook his head in the negative to all of Starlight’s inquiries. “Oh well this is just great! Now how are we going to fix this mess?” Starlight exasperatedly rubbed her muzzle. “I don’t even know how far back we are, is it the day of the sonic rainboom again?” “Nuh-uh, it’s definitely at least a little further back than that.” Spike said. Starlight shot him an inquisitive look. “And how do you know that?” “Because while you were out like a light-” Spike gave her a flat glare. “I flew over Ponyville for a bit. Just a little bit cause I’m not sure how everypony would react to a dragon flying overhead back now. And well, speaking of Applejack I saw her. She was with her parents selling apples in town. She looked even younger than Apple Bloom does now and she didn’t have her Cutie Mark yet so it has to be at least a little while before she goes to Manehattan and sees the sonic rainboom.” “So we’re just at some random point in time? Why?” Starlight asked, befuddled. “Beats me.” Spike just shrugged. “Ughhh!” Starlight fell over backwards again and cried out to the sky, or the top of the bush in this case. “Why did I have to do something so stupid again?!” “Hey, if we’re being honest I’ve done more than my fair share of stupid deeds too.” Spike grinned and laid a reassuring claw on Starlight’s shoulder. “And besides, Twilight definitely knows something is up by now. I’m sure she’s working hard coming up with some way to save us and fix everything right as we speak!” Starlight’s face scrunched up in thought as she raised an eyebrow at Spike. “Is that how time-travel works?” “I dunno.” Again, Spike shrugged. Starlight sighed but picked herself up off the ground and stood up, taking care to not accidentally push her way out of the bush just yet. “Well either way we can’t just spend our whole time back here just sitting in a bush. Let’s go take a walk around Ponyville.” Spike however was less than enthusiastic about that idea. “Uh, not that I don’t agree about the bush thing but shouldn’t we not be interacting with anypony or doing anything that could mess up the past? We should just stay out of sight for now, right? Maybe we could hang out in the Everfree Forest until Twilight finds us?” A sudden thought occurred to Starlight as Spike mentioned messing up the past. “Messing up the past?” She said aloud to herself. “Hm, Spike, I think you just gave me a great idea.” It may have just been the way she said it but Spike wasn’t happy to hear that Starlight supposedly just got a great idea. “Starlight, I really don’t like the sound of that.” Spike said with his voice full of trepidation. “Nothing to worry about Spike.” Starlight looked down at him with that self-assured grin that made him extremely worried. “I just got the perfect idea about how to appease Twilight and do some selfless good in the meantime!” “Starlight...” She put her hoof to his lips, silencing him. “None of that, but think about it? We have an unparalleled and infallible knowledge of the future! Think of all the problems we could fix before they even happen! I’m sure Twilight would appreciate us making Equestria an even happier place wouldn’t she? It’ll be my “I’m sorry for going back in time again” present!” Spike swiped her hoof away from his mouth. “Starlight. No.” “Oh come on, there have to be some things you want to fix? You just talked about all the bad decisions you’ve made in the past.” “Yeah and I know that messing with the past and time-travel is a bad decision.” Spike put his hands on his hips and stared defiantly at her. “I think we both know just how worse things can get from even the slightest change. If Twilight was here she’d definitely say not to change anything, even if your intentions are in the right spot this time around.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Fine. For now. But there’s still no way I’m just going to sit in the Everfree Forest waiting for Twilight the entire time. I think it’ll be okay to interact with Ponyville at least a little bit, I mean just us coming back already has to have had at least some effect on things. So what more harm could it be to just act like normal creatures visiting Ponyville?” “I guess...” Spike said. “I suppose no matter where we went we’d be changing something or doing something that should never have happened in the first place.” “Speaking of, did anypony see you drag me into this bush? I feel like that would be pretty conspicuous.” Starlight asked the dragon. “Nope, nopony saw nothing cause it happened before dawn.” Spike told her. Starlight frowned and shot her head up through the bush again to look at the clear blue sky with the sun hanging right up above them before quickly ducking back down. “I was out for a while, huh?” “Twilight’s gonna forbid you to have any of that stuff in the castle again you know?” Starlight glared at her scaled friend. “Let’s tackle one issue at a time, shall we? For now I think I’ve spent enough time sitting in this bush. Let’s see what Ponyville is up to today.” “I think what they’re “up” to is about to be weirded out by a dragon and a strange unicorn who nopony knows coming out of nowhere.” “Hey, I’m not… any stranger than any of Twilight’s friends.” Starlight said defensively. “And besides I’ve put my lessons and experiences to good use, it doesn’t matter if none of the ponies here know me anymore, I’m sure I can make friends and get along with any of them while we stay.” Spike gave an unenthusiastic sigh. “And I sure hope that Twilight finds us soon enough that we don’t have to test that.”