//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Ponyville, Part 2 // Story: Starlight Glimmer's Plan // by garatheauthor //------------------------------// Another day, another breakfast. Today’s muffin was blueberry and it to was absolutely delectable. Even better than the meal was the sleep Starlight got. For what seemed like the first time in ages, she had not been awoken in the middle of the night by nightmares. With food in her stomach, she gathered up her equipment and took the trek out to Twilight’s castle. It was pretty early in the morning and she hoped to get there before the mare left. It was only a short walk away and upon approaching she noticed that the royal decree remained on the door. This was hopefully an indicator that Twilight was still within. Starlight decided to pop herself into yet another bush, using her binoculars to examine the entrance. The minutes dragged on but eventually the heavy golden door parted and Spike exited. He looked left, then right before shrugging and stepping farther outside. He plucked the decree off of the door and retreated back into the castle. More time passed and the first hour of her observation went by without any more sightings from the pony or the dragon who lived within. Maybe she had already missed Twilight? It was possible that the mare may have left without Spike or maybe even teleported away. However, before she could ponder on it too much, her patience was rewarded. The doors once again opened and out stepped Twilight and Spike. They walked down the castle’s steps and began the trek towards Ponyville. The two of them were having a conversation, though Starlight couldn’t hear a word of it from her current position. Thankfully she didn’t have to move as the duo’s path took them right past her cover. “-It’s not like we missed anything,” Twilight stated. Suddenly a loud whoosh filled the air and Starlight looked up. She saw two trails of colour streaking swiftly through the air. One was a rainbow while the other was plaid. They zoomed towards Twilight before colliding with the ground behind her, sending up a massive cloud of dust. When it settled two creatures stood there, big grins plastered onto their perspective faces. One was Rainbow Dash, the other Discord. The two of them waved before greeting Twilight in unison. “Hello, Twilight. Hi, Spike.” Starlight really had to ask herself what the heck Rainbow Dash was doing with Discord. From what she had read, the elements of harmony and Discord had a very uneasy history. Though from what she saw now the two parties had clearly adopted a, let bygones be bygones sort of relationship. Twilight approached the two. “Hi, Rainbow Dash. Good to see you, Discord.” “Did you rehearse before you found us?” Spike asked, sticking close to the princesses’ side. “What makes you think we practiced?” Rainbow Dash and Discord chanted in unity. Even their hoof gestures were aligned and well coordinated. “Come on Rainbow Dash, what’s going on here?” Twilight asked with a hint of worry in her voice. Rainbow Dash snickered before breaking out into full blown laughter. She then bolted into the air before apologizing. “Sorry, me and Discord are just messing around,” she laughed, “like we do.” “Since when?” Twilight interjected, looking quite confused. Discord spoke and a chill went down Starlight’s spine as she heard his voice. “Oh, Twilight. We simply had a momentous time together these past three days. You could say it was HISSSSterical.” Starlight watched in utter horror as the hiss in hysterical triggered a transformation in Discord. First his pupils turned to red slits and a long snake-like tongue shot forth from his mouth. Then his fur was replaced with scales. His limbs retracted effectively placing his head upon the body of a large brown cobra. Dash’s laughter became rowdier. “Sneaky snake,” she snorted in between laughs. “Just snaking around,” Discord declared. In an absolutely revolting act he shed and discarded his skin, returning to his usual abnormal form. The dried husk bounced across the landscape before getting itself stuck in the bush next to Starlight. She gagged silently, trying her best to ignore it. Dash tapped her hoof against Discord’s extended paw. “Good one, Discord.” “It is?” Twilight asked. Dash bolted over, fluttering in front of her friend’s face. “It’s kind of an inside joke from this weekend. You wouldn’t really get it, unless you were there.” Twilight looked skeptical. “Oh, ok.” “Cool, well catch you later, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said. She then flew away, going at such speeds that her colour pallet morphed into a chromatic blur. Discord waved goodbye. “Catch you later,” his tone suddenly turned sinister, “Twilight.” With that he frantically ran on the spot, kicking up a mountain of dirt onto Spike. At the last moment of building up momentum he instead teleported, leaving Twilight alone with the now buried dragon. Spike broke forth from the dirt, exchanging a look with Twilight. “Can I get a little help here?” he asked. Twilight’s magic embraced Spike and pulled him free. She looked incredibly worried. “Something is going on here Spike and I’m going to getting to the bottom of it.” “Well maybe Rarity knows what’s going on? We could stop by and ask her.” “Not a bad idea Spike. If Discord’s here, he’s probably up to no good.” With that, the two of them headed towards town, leaving Starlight behind. With no prying eyes around she gripped the “snake” skin and attempted to toss it aside. However, as soon as her magic touched the husk, it crumbled into a fine grey powder. She shuddered and climbed out of the bush. Her mane and coat were loaded with random debris, which she quickly brushed off. It was incredibly lucky that Discord was in town. He may have been a complete nutjob, but he was a nutjob who was going to keep Twilight busy. This meant that the castle before her was going to be unguarded, unpatrolled, and unoccupied for at least the next couple of hours. Just like yesterday Starlight hopped up the crystal steps to the tower’s golden doors. She brought her hoof down to see if they were locked and thankfully, they were not. The two doors swung open, inviting her to enter. She grinned and did just that, closing the doors carefully behind her once inside. Starlight began to walk through the entryway when a hoot pierced the air. She gasped sharply and leapt on the spot. Upon landing, she frantically looked around trying to find the creature that would dare alarm her. There it was, a little barn owl, roasting in a nest on one of the castle’s many door frames. He stared at her and hooted again. She chuckled nervously, walking past it. Though, she never dared to look away. The bird’s body remained stationary with its head pivoting to follow her around the room. It hooted repeated, as if inquiring who exactly she was. “Yeah, yeah, stay right there. You creepy little owl,” she muttered under her breath. The castle’s interior was amazing. Dark purple walls flanked Starlight on either side with softer lavender pillars acting as supports. There were dozens of doors, each of them constructed of a golden frame filled with soft yellow and green stained glass panes. All of this was illuminated by the light of a hundred glowing gemstones, which hung delicately from the roof. A closer look at the walls revealed another little detail. They were painted. No, not painted, they were augmented by veins of discoloured purple which formed epic mosaics. There were romantic landscapes, stoic scenes of nature, and imagery of long dead architecture. Just to name a few. It was all very breathtaking. The doors separated the mosaics, acting as a border between each work of art. Starlight was so caught up in the beauty of it all that she completely forgot the mission at hoof. So, she picked a door at random and walked through. She entered a kitchen, which was well stocked but held no interest to her. The castle must have had a hundred rooms, if not more, and it turned out the vast majority of those were void for anything interesting. There were broom closets, bedrooms, reading rooms, bathrooms, and many more. The one room she failed to find was that containing Twilight’s artifacts and treasures She had no interest in bits or gold. What she was looking for was the alicorn amulet. Oh sure, Moondancer had said it was banished to the moon but Starlight had a feeling that Twilight would never let that happen. The princess was a known researcher and would hopefully keep such a powerful artifact nearby to study. The alicorn amulet was going to be an accessory to Starlight’s plan. If the legends were true, then it would amplify her powers a hundred fold. This meant that the two minute trip a week back in time would become three hours long and take her nearly two years into the past. Three hours wasn’t a whole lot of time, but at least it’d give her a shot at making a real difference. To rob Twilight of her alicornhood would make the events at Starlight’s village a non-reality. She’d have her town and purpose back while leaving Twilight’s self-worth and esteem in tatters. She ventured deeper into the castle and discovered how suddenly mundane it became. There was no difference in any of the hallways with even the artistic mosaics being replicated every dozen metres or so. Until finally, the pattern was broken. There was a pair of doors which stood out. This was due to the fact that they stood nearly five ponies tall, dwarfing all of their counterparts. Starlight opened the left door a crack and peered on through. Inside was a room unlike any other in the castle. It was a large chamber with six marble thrones surrounding a heavily textured granite table As she entered the room, every little detail became more apparent. The first thing she noticed was the massive set of wooden roots which hung from the roof. Their organic and gnarled shape supported an intricate network of gems. There was something, special about them. Starlight reached out and snapped one off, bringing it over for closer examination Each of the gems, or at least this one, contained an image imprinted within. It was a moment from Twilight’s life, with the mare hanging out inside of a coffee shop with her friend. They were all dressed in fine looking gowns and looked incredibly happy. Starlight made a disgusted noise and tossed the gem aside before moving over to the thrones. She had miscounted initially. There were six regular sized thrones with a single tiny one resting at the side of another. With the exception of the miniature throne all of them were labelled with a cutie mark. They were the marks of the elements. On a second glance, the table wasn’t actually a table at all, but rather a very detailed three-dimensional map of Equestria. She knew a lot of the places. Manehatten, a metropolis by the sea. Ponyville being a little blip south of Canterlot. She even noticed her own town hugging a mountain range on the northern edge of the map. She placed her hoof on Canterlot and yelped in surprise as it went through the city. The whole map waivered and flicked before stabilizing around her obstruction. The details were a projection like that of a film upon a screen. As she withdrew her hoof, Canterlot returned, popping back into existence. The table was magic and since Starlight had never seen anything like it before, she labelled it an oddity. Sure it wasn’t the alicorn amulet but it was worth investigating. Her horn glowed and a link was established between herself and the table. To study an object’s background magic was like taking apart a machine, with each segment removed revealing a whole new level of complexity. Only she had no idea what she was really getting into. The table’s magic was ancient and overwhelming. It surged across the link and entered her body. She screamed in surprise as the situation was reversed and the table began to study her, as if it were a sentient creature. She screamed again, this time in agonizing pain. The table bore into her mind and she could feel it burning a hole in the centre of her consciousness. It began to fill her with an untold level of magical strength, more than she could ever hope to handle. She attempted to sever the link with the table but it refused to relent, seemingly content to fill her until she burst. Her world began dim, becoming a numb haze for everything beyond her immediate reach. The energy inside of her was too much, it was going to burn through her like a cheap candle wick. The universe however, showed her mercy. The link between herself and the table ended, allowing Starlight to stumble back and fall to the floor. She breathed heavily unable to remove her eyes from the murderous map. Screw the alicorn amulet, what was an enhancement of a mere hundredfold when she had just experienced something infinitely stronger. It would take a bit of work, but if she could figure a way to link Starswirl’s spell with the raw undistilled magic that oozed from that table she’d be able to travel freely through time. No more limits on duration or distance. Though, she could hardly do that work within the fortress of her greatest foe. She’d have to return to Canterlot and do her research there. All the pieces were coming together. She had a plan, a spell to perform it, and a source of magic to power that spell. All that was left was to figuring out how they worked together Starlight stood up and swayed slightly from the lingering aftershock of the table’s trauma. She then gingerly made her way out of the room and into the endless hallways of Twilight’s castle. Her progress through the halls was aimless as she tried her best to make it back to the entrance. There must have been some damage to her memory as she soon found herself hopelessly lost in the maze of repeating purple walls. A hoot came from her left and she once more gasped in surprise. She looked up and noticed an owl staring at her. The owl was familiar and then it dawned on her. He had been present when she entered the castle. She searched the surrounding doors with the third one attempted leading outdoors. The sun’s position in the sky and the rumble in Starlight’s stomach told her that it was around lunch time. If she remembered correctly there was a nice little café in the town square. Hopefully she’d be able to get a quick meal and then slink back to her hotel room. The walk to town square was uneventful, though the citizens who had previously looked upbeat now seemed somewhat nervous. The reason for that became apparent as she approached the café. Twilight and her gang of goons stood near town hall and were accompanied by none other than Discord. Starlight swallowed hard and looked around for cover. She was exposed and if any of them bothered to look up they’d spot her in a second. A bush was nearby and she dove in. She then pulled out her binoculars and used them to observe the group. The group was in the middle of a conversation which Twilight seemed to lead from her position, standing a top a bench. They talked just loud enough that the wind carried a faint whisper to Starlight’s eager ears. “I reckon you mean my sister, Applebloom,” Applejack said. Discord waved a dismissive claw. “All you Apples look the same,” he paused before changing topics, “and then, Rainbow Dash saw a snake.” Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak though her voice was too faint for Starlight to hear. A fact she found incredibly aggravating. “It was a hose snake. Super deadly,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “I recall it being a large stick. That looked like a hose that in turn did in fact look like a snake,” Applejack corrected. Pinkie Pie in the meantime had approached Twilight’s bench, getting in nice and close to the princess. “Point is we galloped away.” Rainbow Dash came from the sky and pushed Pinkie to the ground. “And it chased after us.” Twilight looked confused as she asked, “the hose? A snake? A stick?” “A snake,” Rainbow Dash cried out. “A stick,” Applejack added on. “We literally trotted for our lives. Isn’t that hilarious,” Discord joked. Starlight didn’t find it overly funny, and judging by Twilight’s expression neither did she.” Fluttershy said something and Twilight beamed. “I do need to be there,” she declared. Rarity spoke up, “but you weren’t, and it’s already happened. Oh are you suggesting-“ She was cut off as Pinkie rushed forward. Starlight had to do a double take. Where in the name of Celestia had Pinkie acquired a puffy red coat, some sunglasses, and also had enough time to restyle her mane. “TIME TRAVEL,” Pinkie shouted in an excited tone. Twilight looked shocked at the idea. “Absolutely not. Time travel is not something to be messed with.” She continued to speak but Starlight phased out concentrating on that one little bit of dialog. What did Twilight mean with that warning? Had the mare meddled with time travel before? Twilight’s group chatted for a while longer before shambling off. From there, they went over to the little café that Starlight had planned to get lunch at. It looked like she’d need a plan B for her own meal now. Though in all honestly she didn’t think she’d be in town for much longer. In fact, she figured that she’d check out after lunch and head back to Canterlot. She had a lot of research to do and the fire of revenge was freshly rekindled, spurring her on. Your days were numbered, Twilight Sparkle. Starlight thought as she pulled herself out of the bush. A few townsfolk gave her fishy looks but she ignored them. It wasn’t like any of these moments would exist in a few days’ time. No, in a few days, everything would change. History was written by the victors and soon enough, that would be her.