//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3, in which revelations lead to more chaos. 
// Story: Dancing with Herself 
// by Punished Bean 
//------------------------------//

The stranger came back again. She stood by the table until Starlight registered her.
“It’s time,” she said softly. “Thorax will dispel the illusion after the next piece is done.”
She offered her hoof and smiled.
“Would you like to be my last dance for the evening?”
Starlight looked up into her eyes. Calm, collected, friendly. Whatever would happen tonight would happen. She reached up.
“Yes.”


“You should lead,” the stranger said. “It helps to see both sides of the coin.”
Starlight was taken aback at first but nodded.
The music began. For the third time this evening, Starlight would dance in a triple meter.
“Another waltz? Must be all the rage,” Starlight noted as she shifted around to a leading position.
“At least you get more practice,” her other self noted. “Most ponies would dance a one-step waltz to this, but hey –”
She chuckled.
“A meter is a meter.”
Starlight gulped and grabbed her opposite by the waist. A deep breath later, she moved her hoof up and pushed the stranger half a step away.
“Let’s do it right,” she decided. “One-step waltz?”
“Let’s,” her partner agreed and put her hoof over the one Starlight put against her upper back.
“One two three – one two three –” Starlight counted quietly before making the first step.
Leading was quite a different experience from being led. The steps were mirrored, for starters. She struggled to hold the initiative as the music’s unrelenting rhythm ticked in her head. Even so, her opposite wasn’t a mere thing to lead. Her gentle pulls and pushes helped Starlight stay her course and maneuver through the crowd. In a couple of bars, she began to gain confidence.
“You’re doing well,” her partner commented. “One-step waltz can be a challenge for quadrupeds.”
“I noticed,” Starlight huffed, then quickly paused to regain balance from a missed step.
“It’s not easy if you can’t lean against the other dancer,” she noted, trying to make sense of the jumble of hooves on the ground.
“But you can look them in the face,” the stranger said. “In fact, you should.”
Starlight looked up. Her own face smiled back at her.
“But what if I don’t dance right?” she asked.
“Don’t worry – you will.”
They swayed with the music. The swinging tempo carried them through steps that would be precarious at best for a single pony. But just like during the waltz, the partner was always there to hold her steady – and would herself need help once every so often.
“I should dance more,” Starlight decided. “But I’m not sure I have anypony to dance with.”
“I think you have at least one option,” her mirror replied with a soft laugh.
“She doesn’t like dances,” Starlight replied with a sigh.
“Does she not like dances – or dancing?”
“She doesn’t like…” Starlight thought, “...high society. She says they are no fun.”
“Are you having fun?”
Starlight thought.
“I guess I am.”
“I have no doubt she would enjoy dancing with you,” the stranger said.
“You don’t even know her,” Starlight rolled her eyes.
“Maybe I don’t, maybe I do,” the stranger replied mysteriously.
“Do you think your love would like to dance?” Starlight asked.
“Oh, I know she would.”
Starlight felt herself blush again.
“I have something else to tell you before we part,” the stranger said. “Do you know what the real Trixie would enjoy even more than a night of dancing without you? Here and now, I mean?”
Once again, Starlight really thought about Trixie. She was out there somewhere, in a crowd of ponies she thought were too stuck-up to give a second glance to.
She should have been looking at her this whole time. If she had found her, together they could have made the evening even more fun – for both of them. Maybe show the nobles a thing or two.
Starlight smiled.
“She would enjoy a bit of,” she licked her lip, “mischief.”
Her opposite laughed.
“That is a good way to put it.”
The dance slowly wound down. They parted and stood up normally. It was a strange feeling. Suddenly, Starlight felt very small and very much alone.


A clink of cutlery on glass.
Starlight perked up and peered over the crowd. On the podium stood princess Celestia – young and beautiful like she was in the old books. Only her mane color was in the wrong order.
Didn’t Thorax joke about that once?
The princess tapped her glass again before speaking.
“I am most pleased to see you, dear guests, enjoying this special evening,” she said. “In a few moments, I will dispel the illusion. If you wish to make final guesses or comments, you should do so now. And should you wish to keep your anonymity or prefer your current partner to remain unknown to you, this is a perfect opportunity to bid them good night.”
Starlight looked at the stranger and found her looking back at her.
“I’m not going anywhere yet,” the stranger assured her, before glancing behind her for a brief moment.
Starlight followed her eyes. Behind them was a crowd, of course, ponies and the like. She recognized one of them – the black-maned cellist she collided with at the beginning of the evening. For some reason, the mare stared at her with venom in her eyes.
Is she still mad about me bumping into her?
Other than the seemingly hostile pony, the only thing of note was the bathroom sign in the distance.
Perhaps the stranger has had one too many sodas.
“Any guesses who I am?” the stranger asked.
“None at all,” Starlight said. “The only pony who knows me this well is Trixie. I wish you were her – but you don’t act like her at all.”
“And you don’t act like Trixie anymore, either,” the stranger replied and chuckled. “You tried for a bit though. You obviously know her well. I hope it works out for you. And for me.”
“But I –”
“I know who you are,” the stranger interrupted her. “Starlight Glimmer. You’re not a good liar.”
“Does that mean…” Starlight swallowed. “Does that mean you love me?”
How would the stranger deal with unrequited love in practice?
To her surprise, the answer was a pleasant giggle.
“Oh Starlight…” the stranger said. “You really shouldn’t make assumptions, you know? But I’m sure next time, you’ll have the whole context.”
“Wait, what?” Starlight frowned. “I heard you in the bathroom lamenting how you turned into the pony you love!”
The stranger chuckled again. It started to get on Starlight's nerves.
“Now, dear guests,” Celestia spoke again. “It is time for… revelations!”
With that, Starlight’s world filled with cold green fire. As before, each bit of her burned and burned, burning away until all that was left was herself, panting. She raised a hoof to her face.
It was a reassuring shade of purple. As was her hair – colored stripes and everything.
She looked up at the stranger.
In front of her stood –


Herself.


Another Starlight Glimmer, grinning like an idiot.
“And now you know,” the other Starlight said. “Good luck!”
“Wait, what –” Panic was quickly mounting in Starlight’s chest.
The other Starlight reared back on her hooves and shouted to the entire crowd.
“You call that an illusion? Behold! The Amazing Doubled Mare Trick!”
She pointed at Starlight as the crowd stepped back from them. Starlight looked around, flustered. Where the cellist had been moments ago now stood no other than The Great and Powerful Trixie.
Of course! No wonder Starlight bumped into her in the beginning – she was right next to her when they drank the potion! And who else would be so cross with some other pony stealing their visage!
“And now,” the other Starlight declared once she had the room’s attention, “I will make the two mares one again!”
She whipped her hoof down in a swift motion.
Something cracked and the area drowned in gray smoke.
Was that Trixie’s smoke bomb? Starlight thought in panic as she coughed.
Something jumped past her. She spun around. The smoke quickly dissipated and she found herself standing in the circle of shocked ponies – alone. Only a small gap remained where somepony no doubt pushed their way through the crowd a second ago.
Without another word, Starlight jumped forward in pursuit. Behind her, the crowd burst out into wild commotion, but she didn’t care.
The absolute idiot! She cursed as she raced towards the bathrooms. What did she do?!
Starlight almost kicked in the doors and used her magic to slam open all of the stalls at once.
Empty. All of them.
Suddenly, she felt something. The same strange magical impression she’d noticed here before. Only now did she finally realize what it was.
The telltale signature of time magic.
Panic rose in her chest.
“Twilight will kill me!” Starlight screamed. “Using forbidden time magic for something this stupid – argh! She has to be out of her mind!”
Her horn was flaring red with anger now.
“No, no, no no no no!” she rambled. “No – I have to fix this!”
She looked left and right.
“Okay, plan C!” she decided as she jumped inside one of the toilet stalls and closed the doors behind her.
Outside, she heard the firm and commanding tone of her old teacher demanding answers.
“I’ll go to the past and stop her,” Starlight rambled to herself. “Yeah. Yeah!”
The memory of the last time she used temporal transference unfolded before her. It has been years, but she would not forget such pivotal moments of her life; Twilight coming to her castle, finding Starlight ready to take her revenge.
The unicorn focused on her memories of the magic she used that day. The memories were hazy at first, but as she focused, they sharpened.
Life slowed, matter froze, time stood still.
She saw it with her inner eye.
A gash in the fabric of reality. Beyond it, a trace to the past, weak and unstable. So that’s what it was! That strange magic she had felt the first time she came here! She felt it stretch backwards and forwards. That’s where the other Starlight came through – and that was where Starlight would follow.
The exit point lured her like a shining beacon, cold as the depths of space.
Through a mounting layer of fear, her mind reached out to it. Like every other time she’d used time magic, the contact reeked of pure wrongness. The coordinates were set. The spell was ready, already crumbling away in her head as her mind refused to truly comprehend its totality.
Now or never.
Starlight took one final deep breath before forcing all of her magic through her horn at once. The spell burned away like an effigy and reality shattered around her.
There was never a way to really prepare for time travel. Starlight tried to scrape together navigational constructs, but they were torn apart before she could stabilize them properly. Sensations came to her before their cause; thoughts became jumbled in her head and the magical energy flowed in and out of her chaotically. She felt her entire being unravel and reform again and again.
But she persisted, forcing her way through the wound she tore through spacetime.