Chapter 19:
The Final Preparations
Now that Starlight has the idea to use time travel to go back in time to end the friendship between Twilight and her friends before it even started, now she needs to figure out how she is going to time travel so she can do that.
As Starlight watches over Twilight’s castle from her balcony, she thinks she now she needs to start digging up more information on how to do that and that means she’s going to have to find the answers herself since her constant monitoring of Twilight is getting her nowhere at this point.
Since Twilight is a very skilled alicorn capable of great magic and is a very skilled fighter considering her past as Midnight being able to go toe to toe with Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, King Sombra and drop them down no problem, easily take down the Mane Five, as well as cragadile’s, bandits, pony-eating plants, and even take down Lord Tirek with all of the power and magic she can muster, Starlight herself is smart enough not to challenge her without a plan or magic skills of her own to put up a fight against her.
If she was prepared to deal with Twilight, she wouldn’t have any problem getting into her castle to face her or least try to snoop around for the information she needs on how to time travel without the worry of getting caught since Twilight eyes around the castle can sense her presence inside.
The morning following her latest castle observations from her balcony she heard Twilight sounding very excited about something as she trots off ahead to their nearby hot air balloon with Fluttershy following slowly behind her.
Starlight acting quick ran up to her balcony so she can see Twilight and Fluttershy trotting off somewhere.
“What do ya think our friendship problem's gonna be?” Twilight asked Fluttershy as they exited the castle.
“I don't know.” Fluttershy replied as she struggled to carry her saddle bag “But I'm sure we'll figure it out.” She assured her as she slowly made her way to the hot air balloon she and Twilight are taking over there.
“And I’m sure by then you’ll have gained enough muscle to lift up a mouse.” Starlight commented to herself as she watched Fluttershy struggle to carry her heavy saddle bag.
“Do you think it'll be a problem about lying?” Twilight asked Fluttershy as she caught up to her while she was getting their ride ready.
“I'm sure we'll find out when we get there.” Fluttershy replied as she finally placed her heavy saddle bag in the hot air balloon.
“You're right.” Twilight agreed as she untied the final rope holding down the hot air balloon allowing the two ponies to fly off to their destination.
“Ooh! Could it be about when two friends just randomly decide to do something together, but they forget to invite the third friend, and the third friend feels left out?” Twilight asked one of the many guesses she thinks their friendship is going to be on the way.
“Interesting…” Starlight thought to herself seeing that Twilight and her friend Fluttershy are off and away on a friendship mission. “Great to see you finally called for a friendship mission, congrats, Twilight.” She smiled deviously seeing this an opportunity. “And great see you have opened the door for me so I can the research I need for my revenge against you.” She said as she watched Twilight and Fluttershy fly off in their ride.
As soon as Twilight and Fluttershy are out of sight, Starlight makes her to the castle by using her magic to slowly open the window and carefully snuck inside and then closed the window to avoid making a sound in case somepony was inside. She tip toes her way through the castle while constantly keeping her guard up until she heard footsteps. Hearing them she ducks to a nearby room and peers her eyes from the doorway.
Coming through the hallways is a young purple dragon with green scales carrying a towel, a bottle of soap, while wearing a bathrobe.
“Oh, yeah.” Spike said to himself as he is ready for long relaxation in the castle by having himself an all-day bubble bath. “A seven hour bubble bath followed by a guy’s night with Big Macintosh. This is going to be great having the castle all too myself. Just as long as Twilight my mother doesn’t find out about the apple cider and apple cinnamon flavored doughnuts were going to have together.”
Now that he has everything he needs to enjoy his bubble bath he makes his way up to the stairs and off to the upstairs bathroom.
Once Spike was inside the bathroom and settling himself in his bubble bath, Starlight quickly emerges from her hiding spot as she tiptoed her way around the castle.
She spent a good hour or two searching the first floor but is so far having trouble navigating the place until she finally found the library. But to her surprise there are a ton of books in the library.
“Seriously?!” Starlight exclaimed at the mass amount of books standing before her. “Twilight has this many books?!”
But she is not about to give up on her once in a life time opportunity to exact her revenge when the possibility that the answer she needs is in one these books as she starts pulling out a book one at a time, skimmed through it while looking for time travel spells, and then put it back to avoid alerting Twilight that somepony was here while she was away.
It took a few more hours of Starlight reading each and every book and using her levitation spell to float herself to the hard to reach shelfs until Starlight finally skimmed through the final book but did not find what she was looking for.
“Ugh. Seriously?!” Starlight exclaimed in frustration. “How could she not have a time travel spell book on hoof if she has this many books.” She said as she raised a hoof to the library.
By the time she finished read through each and every book Twilight had at home, she heard Spike walking around upstairs meaning that he had just finished his bubble bath.
Starlight hearing this quickly runs out of the castle and jumps through a window after opening it with her magic but not before quietly and quickly shutting it as she quickly retreated to her apartment.
She peered from her balcony to make sure nopony spotted her as she sees Big Macintosh walk up to the castle with the wagon full of apple cider and apple- cinnamon favored doughnuts. Once he arrives at the door step he knocks on the door to where he is greeted by Spike.
“Big Mac! You made it.” Spike exclaimed in excitement.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac simply answered.
“And you brought the goods.” Spike said as he pointed to the cider and the doughnuts.”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac answered again with a simple reply.
“You ready for our guy’s night together!” Spike eagerly asked the stallion
“Eeyup.” Big Mac answered the same word for the third time in a row.
“Is it me or is that the only thing this pony says?” Starlight wondered as she watches their conversation.
“Then come on in and let’s get this party started.” Spike said in excitement as he gestured Big Mac to come inside. “Just between you and me.” Spike quickly told Big Mac. “Not a single word about this party comes out of our mouths.”
“Nope.” Big Mac replied in agreement.
“I won’t tell Applejack as long as you don’t tell Twilight.” Spike told the earth pony as they made their way inside.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac simply agreed as the doors to the castle close.
“They are sure going to be feeling that in the morning.” Starlight observed and knew what a night filled with cider and doughnuts are going to do to them.
“Okay.” Starlight said to herself as she immediately refocuses on her agenda. “Reading through Twilight’s library turned out to be a waste of time other than seeing that she is a huge Star Swirl the Bearded fan. I mean almost every shelf at least has a book containing something about that amazing magical wizard from the past and yet not one has the information I need.” She added in frustration as she places her thinking hoof on her chin. “Looks like I need to go to Plan B, sneaking and breaking into the castle in Canterlot.” She concluded on what her next move is as she dons herself a black ninja costume that covers her entire body leaving only her face and tail visible and sets off in Canterlot’s direction as she prepares to make one of the biggest risks of her life and she is praying that Princess Celestia nor Princess Luna catch her for this or it’s game over for her.
Once she is all dressed and geared up she sets out for the royal castle in Canterlot. Through quick teleportation’s through town to get the train station she boards the caboose for the train heading for Canterlot and casts an invisibility spell so she can secretly ride to Canterlot with anypony discovering her.
Once her train ride arrived at the Canterlot train station she trotted off towards the direction of the castle where she is she is still invisible as she sneaks her way inside castle grounds before ducking under a nearby bush. Once she was in and hiding under cover she dropped her invisibility spell as she looked around her surroundings. She is now on castle grounds as she pokes her head out.
She looks around before she sees an open window where she smirks an open opportunity to get inside as she does a front flip from out of the bush and slowly sneaks her way towards it before seeing an guard coming her way. She quickly uses her magic to turn herself into stone as she poses like a statue. The royal guard walks by doesn’t suspect anything but eyes around the ground before continuing his patrol.
Once the guard was gone Starlight dropped her spell and briefly blew a raspberry at the “fool” for buying it before making her way inside by some cartwheels to the window. She tries to climb herself up the wall up into the window but found herself struggling before losing her grip and falling back onto the ground. She would then resort to levitating herself inside to which she would hoof-slap herself for not having as quite as much strength and power as Twilight before deviously smiling now that she is inside.
She quickly and stealthily makes her way through the halls from hiding by a statue with a vase on it, to a table with another vase on it, until she is immediately alarmed by another guard.
Thinking quick she casts her own invisibility spell on herself before the guard can spot her with his flashlight.
“I could have sworn I thought I saw something here.” The guard said to himself as he continues forward. “Last thing any pony needs is some villainous pony gaining ahold of Starswirl the Bearded time travel spell that could alter the faith of all of Equestria. Or at least the pony I really like to nearly doom all of Equestria all over again. Good thing the most dangerous spells are all locked up in the Canterlot Archives.”
As the guard makes his way through the hallway, Starlight sneaks away in the opposite direction before setting off in the opposite direction. Once the coast was clear she immediately dropped her invisibility spell.
“Boy, somepony got’s a crush on the bad girl.” Starlight amusingly and mockingly commented on the guard’s crush on Twilight. “But very useful on giving her enemies valuable information.” She added with a smirk as she makes her way to the Canterlot Archives. “I just hope I don’t have top waste anymore energy performing these spells.” She said with a groan hoping she can go through with her own stealth plan a lot more smoother without any more problems that could have her arrested.
To her luck, she was able to find the Canterlot Archives no problem aside from peeking through a few empty rooms during her search. Once inside she removes the part of her costume covering her mane so she can neatly it up a little.
“Now where oh where…” Starlight said to herself as she looked around the room until she gasps when she sees a statue in front of her with a scroll containing Star-Swirl the Bearded’s time travel spell. She quickly rushed over to it and grabbed it with her hooves. “Just the information I was looking for.” Starlight said to herself feeling pleased now that she has what she needs to execute her revenge on Twilight.
But just grabbed the scroll probably wasn’t her best move since she ended up triggering the alarm which will definitely mean trouble for Starlight if she is caught. Thinking quickly she teleports herself out of the room and into the hallway just outside of the guard’s eyesight as they bust into the library. Starlight acting a little frantic quickly rushes over to the window she entered from and does another teleport outside of castle grounds before running off back to the train station where she would hitch a ride on the train that was just leaving to Ponyville.
“Phew.” Starlight said in relief as she wiped away the sweat from her forehead. “Close call.”
Starlight felt relieved that she completed her stealth mission aside from some difficulties as she managed to obtain the time-travel spell she needed in order to go back and time so she can set out and ruin the Mane Six’s friendship.
“Finally, the key to for victory is now in my hooves.” She said as she chuckled evilly and held up the scroll she obtained as the train makes its way back into Ponyville.
By the time she made it back to her apartment and got back into her room and balcony it was well late into the night. She quickly secures the scroll in one of her drawers and puts a magical lock on with and then places a “Do Not Disturb.” Sign on the front of her apartment door as she take of her ninja costume before going to sleep after tucking herself into bed for much-deserved rest.
She has definitely earned this now that she is ready to go after Twilight Sparkle as she gets herself to sleep while smiling to herself evilly.