The portal opened and dropped Twilight and Starlight in a heap on the map table.
Twilight untangled herself from Starlight and jumped off the table. “How could you do that, Starlight? You don’t know what you’ve done to the future!”
Starlight stood shakily and stepped off the map table. “Twilight, I knew it was wrong, and I know you’re going to lecture me, but I had to go back. I had to make things right.” She looked around. “And besides, look around. Your castle is still here, so it can’t have changed much, right?”
Twilight looked around at the familiar castle. Starlight was right- everything was the same. Or, almost the same. “My memory chandelier is gone!” she said, pointing up at the empty space above their heads.
Starlight looked up and winced. “But, it can’t be that different, can it?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, we need to go back and let the past happen like it did.”
Starlight backed up to the map table protectively, lighting her horn with magic. “I- I can’t let that happen Twilight, all I did was stop myself from doing something horrible as a filly. How could that make the future bad?”
Twilight lit her own horn and put a hoof forward. “Starlight, step away from the table. I need to fix the past.”
Starlight shook her head. “No, I won’t let y-“ She broke off as the doors to the map room opened. “S-sunburst?” she asked hesitantly, her magic fading.
Twilight turned and saw Sunburst standing in the door, except something was different: he was an alicorn! “Who are you and how-“ He broke off and locked eyes with Starlight. “Starlight?”
Starlight pushed past Twilight and ran towards him. “Sunburst, I’ve missed you so much! I’m so sorry-“ Suddenly, gold magic flared around her, freezing her in place. “Sunburst?”
“I don’t know how you escaped, but this time I’m going to make sure you stay in prison for the rest of your life.” he said, stepping closer and casting a magic inhibiting spell on her.
Twilight froze as he turned on her. “And what are you doing here with an escaped felon?”
“She- a felon?” Twilight asked, taking a step back.
“Come quietly and I’ll just have the guard ask you a few questions. Resist and you’ll end up like poor Starlight here.” His magic grew slightly brighter around her as he spoke.
Twilight looked at Starlight and locked eyes with her. Starlight’s eyes were wide and terrified and clearly said ‘run’.
“Sorry about this,” muttered Twilight, casting a blinding spell at him and teleporting behind the table.
Sunburst dodged the spell and lashed out wildly with his magic, but it slashed through the space where Twilight had been standing. With the precious few seconds left to her, Twilight began casting the time spell, but she was thrown backwards by a wave of golden magic as Sunburst cried “ENOUGH!” and stamped his hooves down, extending his wings as he did so.
Twilight was powerless to stop him as he wrapped her in golden magic as well and cast a magic inhibitor spell. He lifted her and levitated her to him. “Guards!” he called, turning and trotting out of the map room, Twilight and Starlight in tow. “Prepare the dungeon!”
Twilight and Starlight were both fitted with magic inhibitor rings and thrown into a cell made of solid stone beneath the castle. Two royal guards stood at attention outside the cell door.
Twilight stood and walked over to where Starlight was lying on the ground. “See what you’ve done, Starlight? You’ve changed the future again! What were you hoping to accomplish?”
When Starlight didn’t respond, Twilight sat down in front of her and lifted Starlight’s head with a hoof. A few tears were leaking out of Starlight’s eyes. “Hey, we can still fix this, Starlight,” said Twilight, wiping the tears from her eyes.
“I fixed things, though,” Starlight mumbled, more to herself than Twilight. “I fixed things. Why are they worse?”
“What were you trying to do?” asked Twilight gently, trying to calm Starlight down.
“I was trying to stop myself from getting my cutie mark,” she replied plainly, wiping away a last tear. “And I succeeded,
“I was so angry with Sunburst,” she continued, lost in memories. “I spent so much time thinking about how awful him getting his cutie mark was, and how it was his cutie mark’s fault that he left me, that I created a spell to remove cutie marks. And I thought, maybe if I take it away from him, things could go back the way they were.
“And so I did. I came to Canterlot, got him alone, and took it away from him. Then mine appeared, and I realized I couldn’t stay with him. I turned and ran. I ran and ran until I reached the ends of Equestria.”
Starlight looked up at Twilight. “I only wanted to stop myself from doing it again. Stop myself from taking his cutie mark away. I thought maybe, if I could, we could be friends again.”
“Starlight, no matter what happens in the past, no matter how awful it is, the past has to stay there,” Twilight said gently. “You may have had good intentions, but look at how different the future is because of your one tiny change.”
“I know it was a silly dream, but I just hoped…” Starlight trailed off, looking at the ground.
“Starlight, even doing what you did, things turned out alright in the end, right? I mean, you have us now.” Twilight smiled at her. “And I wouldn’t want to trade that for anything.
“You’re right,” Starlight said, taking a shuddering breath. “How do we fix this, then?”
“We need to get to the map and go back in time to make sure the past happens like it’s supposed to.” Twilight said, standing and turning to look at the cell door. “First, we need to get out and to get these inhibitor rings off.”
Twilight looked around the bare cell and noticed a few small rocks in the corner of the cell. “Come here,” she said, trotting over and picking one up with her hooves.
Starlight walked over and sat down while Twilight lined up where she wanted to hit the ring. “If I can get the right angle, it’s possible to disable the latch on these rings.” she slammed the rock against the ring, causing Starlight to wince. “Sorry,” she said, lining it up again. “That’s probably why they didn’t bother getting rid of these,” she added, hitting the ring again. “Anypony trying to do this to themselves would probably brain themselves.”
A third hit caused the ring to split along the seam and clatter to the floor of the cell. Starlight quickly used her magic to take Twilight’s ring off. “Alright, grab onto me,” Twilight said, preparing a spell. “I’m going to try to teleport us as close to the map room as I can.”
Starlight put a hoof around Twilight and the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.
Moments later, they rematerialized standing on the map. “Now cast the spell quick-“
They froze, staring in shock at the five ponies and Sunburst, who were sitting around the table. The other six seemed just as surprised and were frozen as well.
“Get them!” shouted Starburst, recovering and firing a blast of magic at them.
“Cast the spell!” shouted Twilight, raising a shield to block the spell while simultaneously pushing the grey earth pony that leapt at them away. She raised a bubble shield around the table and expanded it outward, throwing all six of them away from the table.
“Got it!” called Starlight as the portal above them opened.
Twilight dropped the shield and grabbed Starlight, flying up with her into the portal as Sunburst cried “Stop them!”