Chapter 17:
Formulating a New Angle
Outside in an open area in the fields outside of Ponyville early in the afternoon, Starlight Glimmer is out practicing her magic. She is currently blasting multiple beams of magic right at a dozen wooden targets. All of them have images of her arch-enemy Twilight Sparkle to which she manages to nail each and every one of them right on Twilight’s face.
All twelve shots all shot perfectly and right what she aimed for. Starlight smiles in satisfaction at the sight of seeing her archenemy’s face being blown off even if it was a drawn image on wood. She would then blow the magic and smoke of her horn as she uses her magic to make twelve more wooden targets of Twilight appear in front of her so she can repeat the process again for the rest of the afternoon but mixing it up with various teleportation so she can catch her targets off-guard in a flash.
By the time it was nearly sunset, Starlight was ready to repeat the process again one more time before dark. Only time she is using her levitation spell to float around to nail each target in an attempt to make it harder since unlike Twilight she doesn’t have wings. She levitated herself high and low at great speeds moving around left and right as she quickly uses her magic to nail every one of her twelve targets. By the time she nailed the twelfth target she levitated back over to the middle of the field her horn was steaming with fresh magic as she once again blows the smoke from her horn again as she turns back to see her targets. Each and every one them the wooden picture of Twilight’s head were all blow off again each the entire top of the wooden targets were all burnt off and reduced to ashes.
“Perfect!” Starlight said to herself with a satisfied smile as she uses her magic to send a powerful burst of magic to burn the remains of the wooden targets to the ground leaving a huge burnt scorch mark with an image of her face evilly smirking on the ground.
She would quickly teleport away to avoid being spotting by anypony destroying and burning up part of the forest.
Unbeknownst to her, just behind the trees where she left her scorch mark on the ground in a slightly deeper part of the forest is the burnt trees and scorch mark Twilight left behind when she was Midnight with her evil smirk still remaining. The images of Midnight and Starlight’s faces evilly smirking are both just an acre of unburnt trees separate from each other as the mist of dark magic looms over the image before flying away.
Later that night, she is currently reading books on learning new magic with the purpose of being able to go toe to toe with Twilight for the next time they see each other again. Ever since she lost her village to her, Starlight has been dreaming and thriving to improve herself for the better by greatly focusing on her personal studies.
“I now know that if I can break apart Twilight’s friendship with her friends I can take away her greatest source of power and with that the Power of Friendship is no more.” Starlight said to herself as she read more on teleportation and levitation spells. “But the question is how?”
“Maybe if I observed Twilight a little more closely with her friends around this time I might have better answers on how to do that.” She thought to herself as she rubs a hoof on her chin with a devious smirk as she plans on spying on Twilight once again as she goes outside to her balcony to see Twilight’s castle from a distance where she is able to spot Twilight and her friends from Canterlot laughing as they make their way down the hallway celebrating Hearth’s Warming Eve.
“Ugh.” Starlight groaned in disgust as she hears somepony singing Heart Warming Carols and singing from outside of the castle.
Down below are the apartment residents gathered outside exchanging gifts and sipping hot cocoa as they all dance and sing around the Heart’s Warming Tree they decorated just outside.
As if seeing the entire building except for hers is decorated in Heart’s Warming decorations wasn’t bad enough to the point she even crumbled every single decoration placed on and in front of her doorstep up into small balls before shattering it with her magic.
She herself is not a pony who enjoys the holidays because now since has moved on from her hometown and she is no longer welcome at the town she enslaved an entire group of ponies and stripped them of their cutie marks now that ponies know the truth about her.
“Hearth’s Warming Eve. A time for ponies to be all happy with their friends and families.” Starlight bitterly groaned. “Well not for me since I’m the only pony around here who isn’t happy about the holidays and I don’t have any friends or family anymore to celebrate with. Not since the day my only friend left me.” She said as she closed the curtains.
She then make her way back to her desk where should continue reading her book at her desk as she put on earmuffs to mute out the singing and music from outside. Her expression of disgust for the holidays turns into a content smile as she learns more about teleportation and levitation skills to which she can use to practice her fighting skills on.
Following the holidays, Starlight with her saddle bag in tow secretly and stealthily makes her way through town while secretly spying on Twilight and Spike from leaving the caste to the park where Twilight has gathered her friends and Discord who Starlight silently thinks of him as a creepy silly creature who has a weird taste in humor.
Regardless of what she thinks of Discord she focuses solely on her task as she hides behind the tree behind Twilight to avoid being spotted by her while she spies on her.
"Thank you for coming. I wouldn't have asked you here if it wasn't important." Twilight told everyone in attendance.
"I love important!" Pinkie Pie happily replied.
"I just want to know how these funny moments you shared came to pass. I can use this data to help advance friendships all over Equestria." Twilight explained to them.
"Well, I like the sound of that!" Applejack said sounding eager as the others voice their immediate agreement to the idea.
"Perfect. Let's start with the snake." Twilight began her project as she turned to Rainbow Dash and Discord who both try and fail not to burst out laughing to no avail.
"I don't know if I can get it out! It's too funny!" Rainbow Dash said in-between laughs.
"Oh, but we must! It's for the greater good!" Discord told Rainbow before calming down so he can narrate the events. "It started when we were helping Granny Smith with her garden..."
“Uh, I reckon you mean my sister Apple Bloom.” Applejack corrected him.
Eh... All you Apples look the same.” Discord just shrugged off the correction seeing no different from any pony in the Apple Family before continuing. “And then Rainbow Dash saw a snake!”
“I think it was a garden hose.” Fluttershy giggled as she recalled the memory.
“It was a hose snake. Super deadly.” Rainbow Dash explained.
"I recall it being a large stick that looked like a hose that, in turn, did in fact resemble a snake." Applejack voiced her thoughts as she recalled the memory.
“What?” Starlight quietly wondered to herself as she tries to understand the joke they were trying to explain to Twilight.
"Point is, we galloped away." Pinkie said as she got close to the bench Twilight and Spike were standing on.
"And it chased after us!" Rainbow said as she flew downwards bumping into Pinkie causing her to fall onto the ground from the impact.
“So let me get this straight.” Twilight politely interrupted as she tries to piece together what they are saying. “You were all helping out at Sweet Apple Acres…” She said as Applejack nodded yes to confirm it. “…Then Rainbow Dash saw what she thought was a snake but was really a large stick that looked like a snake and a hose.” She said as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash nod to confirm it.
"We literally trotted for our lives. Isn't that hilarious?" Discord explained to her seeing that Twilight seems to have now gotten it.
“Well maybe for you.” Starlight silently answered just as deadpan as Twilight. “For comedic clowns from the past. I’d literally hose that joke to the ground if I were you.”
“Oooh!” Twilight said in realization. “I think I get it now.”
"I guess you had to be there." Fluttershy admittedly told her as she walked up to her as Twilight got an idea in her head.
"It’s all right, Fluttershy I think I get it now.” Twilight explained as she thinks over another idea of how it makes more sense. But I think it would help if I was there so I can understand more about what happened over the weekend."
"But you weren't." Rarity told her confused of what she meant by that. "And it's already happened." Rarity’s eyes widen at what she thinks Twilight’s is suggesting. "Ooh, are you suggesting…"
"Time travel?!" Pinkie smiled with glee while wearing an orange jacket, sunglasses and a watch around her wrist.
"Absolutely not!" Twilight firmly shot down the idea to confirm that’s not what she had in mind. "Time travel is not something to be messed with. We simply need to recreate everything that led to these jokes."
“Time travel? Hello?” Starlight’s deadpan look turns into an eager smile when she gets an idea planted into her head just like that.
"Oh, what a brilliant idea!" Discord immediately supported the idea. "Shall we begin with the lunch date that kicked off the glorious weekend you missed out on?"
“Yes, let’s.” Twilight said with a smile thinking she is now going to get more of the answers she seeks.
As the Mane Six and Discord all walk off to the café, Starlight emerges from her hiding spot as she watches them head over to the café.
“Yes, let’s.” Starlight repeated as she deviously smirked. “And what a brilliant idea for me and thank you, Princess Twilight for planting the perfect idea for me.” Starlight said as she then chuckled evilly to herself as she made her way to practice her magic some more in secret.
“Now I just have to figure a way of how to go back in time so I can stop their friendship before it even started.” Starlight said to herself as she walked over to the woods again. “Pretty soon you will pay for what you did to me, Twilight. Because I now am holding the cards I have needed to defeat you for good.”