Starlight Glimmer Regrets Her Mistakes

by MagicS

Try Not to Make Things Worse

“Now hold on just a minute, how can this be my fault? I-I know I did a lot of time-traveling and world-hopping on my, erm, vacation a little while ago but how could it lead to this? It wasn’t like when I traveled back in time the other time,” Starlight nervously smiled at her friends. “It was different. The future—the present—the world shouldn’t be affected by any of that stuff.” She glared up at Discord. “And how did I spread chaos around? I was making things better! Or trying to… my intentions were always good whenever I was messing around at least!”

Spike groaned and buried his face in his hands, shaking his head back and forth. “I knew I should’ve fought more to stop her from doing all that dumb stuff back then...”

Starlight bit her lip and looked over to Twilight. “T-Twilight! You know I was helping out and doing good things when Spike and I were stuck in time. You were there with us when we took down evil me and saved that entire world! There’s no way I can be responsible for breaking the space-time continuum!”

“Ooooohhhhhh,” Twilight merely groaned and held a hoof to her head, the pain of a migraine coming on.

“Regardless of your good intentions or not I’m not wrong. Whatever you got up to on that vacation of yours ended up spewing a bunch of chaos all across reality. I’m actually impressed,” Discord said to her.

“I’m not!” Starlight shouted and fell to the floor. “I know I was being silly and maybe a little careless but I didn’t want anything like this to happen!”

“Hold on y’all, Discord said he knew how to stop this,” Applejack said and raised an eyebrow at the Draconequus. “Didn’t you?”

“Applejack speaks the truth,” Discord nodded. “Although it’s quite the pickle and will certainly take some work I do believe we can fix all this and stop all of existence from coming to a screeching halt. Unless you’re okay with that happening?”

“No,” Twilight said and frowned up at the trickster. “What do you think we need to do?”

“Well thanks to me being quite special and amazing myself—I’m able to sense the various worlds and timelines that Starlight mucked around in. I can easily create a portal to them while zeroing in on the general source of chaos or change that’s messing the rest of the space-time continuum up,” Discord explained.

“So you can go and fix all this?” Rarity asked,

“Not exactly. This is what I mean by it being a little troublesome. I myself am quite the chaotic being, so if I try and solve any problem like this or use my magic in these worlds… well it’s more than likely just going to make things worse. All I can afford to do is help a certain someone travel to each little world to fix things up,” Discord smiled and his eyes turned to Starlight.

“Wait a second-” Twilight started.

Discord immediately put a finger to her lips to silence her. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Starlight stood up, a look of dismay etched on her face. “I don’t think any of this sounds like a good idea.”

“Me neither,” Spike muttered.

“Good you think that, my little dragon friend, because you’re going with her too,” Discord patted him on the head with his tail.

“I am?” Spike grimaced.

“He is?” Both Twilight and Starlight said together.

“He has to,” Discord shrugged. “Just like Starlight needs to go too. Because they were the ones who already went to these other worlds and timelines it’ll cause the least amount of excess chaos if they’re the ones who go back. Which is why-” he pointed at Twilight. “I’m afraid I have to shoot down your offer to accompany them. The more unwelcome visitors to a world the more likely things go sour. It’s just going to be Starlight, Spike, and my lovely self.”

“Celestia forbid!” Rarity said and ran up to hug Spike. “You can’t expect us to accept this, can you? We should all be going to help fix this!”

“That’s right!” Pinkie Pie agreed.

Fluttershy, much more demurely, looked up at her close friend. “Is there really no way for us all to go with you?”

Discord sighed. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but this is the best way to fix things without letting it get worse in the attempt.” He looked over at Twilight. “I’m sure you can appreciate that idea?”

Twilight looked between her friends, at Discord, at her (still) trusted student Starlight, at her beloved assistant Spike. She didn’t like this. She wanted to go with them for multiple reasons. It sounded dangerous first and foremost—and it also sounded like the situation could get out of hoof very easily. Considering the last time Starlight did some inter-dimensional traveling… and now Discord was going with her? But no, Twilight did still trust her. They were still the closest of friends and if this is what had to be done then Twilight would believe in her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Opening them up she looked at Spike with a serious expression on her face. “Spike? You’ll keep an eye on them, won’t you?”

Spike—always eager to prove himself to Twilight—stood up straight and nodded. “You can count on me, Twilight!”

“And Starlight-” Twilight looked over at her student and sighed, she walked over to the mare and hugged. “I trust you, Starlight. I know you may have… done some things you shouldn’t have last time, but I know in the end you’ll do the right thing too. Just please maybe take things a little more seriously?”

Starlight hugged her back. “I promise I won’t treat this like another vacation. If this is all really my fault then I’ll fix it.”

“It’s definitely your fault,” Discord said.

“So are we just leaving right now then?” Spike shrugged.

“Hold on,” Twilight said. “There are some others I want to contact about this first—and I’m sure you and Starlight will want to rest and prepare a little first. Judging by the cracks I’ve analyzed I don’t think the space-time continuum is going to collapse in the next day or two, we should have time.” She looked at Discord. “Right?”

He nodded. “Honestly we’d probably have a solid month or so before it all went kaput even if we didn’t do anything about it.”

“Is there anything we can do on our end to help delay things while the three of you are on your mission?” Twilight asked.

“Well we’re going to be strengthening the bonds of friendship and harmony wherever we go… so if you can do something similar here it might stall things out? Tell everyone to group hug with their friends and family once a day?” Discord shrugged. “Truthfully—each little fix we make should buy us more time, and the quakes and cracks in reality here should lessen.”

“I’ll try and figure out a more real way to help,” Twilight rubbed her forehead.

“What if ponies here start panicking though because the earthquakes and everything else keep happening?” Rarity asked.

“Maybe we can just blame it on Rainbow Dash?” Applejack suggested.

“Hey!”

“I’m going to be busy keeping my animals calm… I can’t imagine what all these sudden events are going to do to them,” Fluttershy said.

“If ponies start to get worried I’ll hold a bake off to take their mind of things!” Pinkie Pie said. She got a contemplative look on her face. “Actually, I should just do that anyways. It sounds fun!”

“It’s probably for the best that ponies don’t learn the world is on the verge of ending. Again,” Twilight frowned. “Ponies trust me enough to believe in me when I’ll tell them that we’re working on it and they shouldn’t be worried.”

“Which is kind of true… in fact the more they do worry the more chaos it could cause. If that means anything,” Applejack shrugged.

“It certainly wouldn’t hurt if you kept things calm here,” Discord said.

“The more time goes by the less this stuff keeps happening too, right?” Spike asked him.

“That’s correct—as long as we’re doing our job right. So it’ll at least look like you’re solving the problem,” Discord said.

“I’m still not exactly thrilled at the idea of this...” Rarity said.

“And I’m not thrilled that I have to stay here while you guys get to go and have a bunch of fun saving the world!” Rainbow Dash pouted.

“It’s not going to be fun,” Twilight frowned at her.

“They’re going to be going between a bunch of other dimension things and fighting chaos! How is that not fun?” Rainbow honestly asked.

Twilight just groaned and rolled her eyes before looking at Starlight. “Don’t treat it like fun.”

“I already promised!” Starlight defended.

“Who knows, Dash? Maybe some evildoer will take the opportunity to attack Equestria while this is going on?” Applejack said.

“That’d be cool,” Rainbow nodded her head up and down.

“No it wouldn’t be!” Twilight shouted.

“I agree with Twilight… I really hope all of this goes well,” Fluttershy said. The thought of everything going on already had her looking a little woozy.

Discord smiled at her and gave her a reassuring pat on the head. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. I promise for your sake that we’ll handle everything.”

“Thank you,” she smiled up at him.

“Well then, we meet up in the oh-so-convenient map room same time tomorrow? And then we leave for our little journey across time and space?” Discord asked with a raised eyebrow, gazing over Starlight and Spike.

“I’ll be ready… there are some ponies I want to tell that I’ll be gone for a while too,” Starlight sighed.

“And I’m ready to go to save the day already!” Spike said, puffing out his chest and trying to look his best for both Twilight and Rarity.

Twilight, despite herself, smiled. “Alright, that’s what we’ll do. I have a few messages to send and a particular pony to get in touch with again...”

Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared and the other Elements of Harmony left Twilight’s castle after a brief goodbye, leaving only Twilight, Spike, and a fairly guilty Starlight behind. She had been doing so good hadn’t she? How could things have gotten this bad? There was no way she was going to let the fun she had (and oh yeah all those good deeds) lead to this. She’d fix it.

She was already ignoring all the mistakes she had made last time.

---

Ponyville the next day was already a little better than yesterday thanks to Twilight and the others doing their best to spread the word that they knew what was going on and were working on a solution. The rest of Equestria was having word sent out to them as well from Celestia and Luna. Do your best to mind the quakes and don’t touch the random glowing cracks that appeared if you could avoid them. Good advice. Of course Rainbow Dash had also been speeding around Ponyville reassuring ponies that what was happening wasn’t the result of a weather phenomena she had screwed up managing. Even though no one had suggested that yet in the first place.

Of course there were still a few quakes that happened—a few more than yesterday even—and some more and larger cracks had shown up in the sky around Ponyville and elsewhere. That was something that just couldn’t be avoided yet. But it at least certainly wasn’t the scariest or weirdest thing the ponies here had been through. And with Twilight reassuring them it was a lot easier for the average pony and creature to deal with what was going on. It would disrupt things a little bit, and lessons at the school were being put on hold, but largely this wasn’t as bad as say—when Discord was first unleashed or Tirek stole their magic or even as annoying as those vines from the Everfree. Everyone could still more or less go on with their lives.

If they knew the possible outcome of this though… things might have been different.

But that’s exactly what everyone now gathered back in Twilight’s castle was trying to prevent. As Starlight, Spike, and Discord got ready to depart they were joined by their friends to give them a few last wishes of good luck. It wasn’t just the Elements of Harmony, but Starlight had also of course told Trixie and Sunburst what was happening, and Twilight had also contacted Starswirl and made sure he was here as well. He certainly had a particular expertise on matters like this and he had originally been the one who helped Twilight find and rescue Starlight and Spike last time.

Things were a little crowded and loud in the map room as everyone got ready, but all Twilight had to do was loudly clear her throat to get everyone’s attention.

“I know no one wanted something like this to happen, and I’m sorry that it seems like the fate of the world is at stake again, but I’m still happy to see all of you here,” she smiled at the assembled group. “I know everyone here is going to do their best to save the day. Like always. And to Starlight, Spike, and Discord, thank you so much for putting yourselves in danger to help us.”

“Really getting the speeches down before you take over from Celestia, huh?” Rainbow Dash playfully ribbed her.

Twilight blushed. “Yes, well, I just thought we could all use some words of encouragement. D-Discord? Are you ready to go?”

“More or less for the past six hours,” he shrugged. “If anyone wants to say goodbye or wish us well, now’s your chance.”

Fluttershy immediately flew over and hugged him. “Thank you, Discord. I don’t care if the others think you’re being unhelpful sometimes—I know how much you care.”

“Well just try not to say it out loud so much,” Discord rolled his eyes but still happily smiled at her and hugged the pegasus back.

“Good luck, Spikey-Wikey,” Rarity said to her young dragon friend.

“Don’t worry about me, Rarity! I’m the most responsible one going on this trip,” Spike said with a sparkling grin.

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about...” Rarity mumbled under her breath.

Meanwhile a certain Great and Powerful magician ran up to Starlight and also pulled her into a big hug.

“Starlight! The Great and Powerful Trixie believes in you so don’t let me down!” Trixie said as she practically buried her face in Starlight’s neck. “You are the second most amazing mare I’ve ever met, besides myself obviously, so I know you can do it. I’m sure you won’t totally screw things up like I would if I was in your situation… any more than you already have.”

Starlight grumbled in annoyance. “Thanks, Trixie, that’s very kind of you.”

“I also have a gift before you leave. It’s just something I thought might be useful, you never know what you might get into on an adventure like this after all,” Trixie said and levitated up a bag she had been keeping under her cape. “Ta-da!” She said as she gave it to Starlight.

Starlight took the bag and opened it up, finding it filled with faintly green crystals. “Your Suggestion Crystals? But why? And don’t you need them for your next few shows?”

“Because I just have a feeling that you might need them more than me. I’m sure you’ll find a good use for them—you can do practically anything with them after all,” Trixie shrugged. “And the Great and Powerful Trixie’s performances are always amazing anyways.”

“True,” Starlight smiled and put the bag of crystals into her own. “Thank you, Trixie.”

Trixie hugged her again. “I’d wish you good luck but I know you don’t need it.”

“I’ll wish you good luck then since I know this is a really big deal and you’re probably going to have to go through a whole lot of problems,” Sunburst said as he walked up. He adjusted his glasses and tried to smooth his frazzled mane to no avail. “I don’t blame you at all for this, Starlight, I know you had only good intentions, but still—this sounds like it might be dangerous. I believe in you but be careful.”

“At least I’m not doing it alone. And with you two saying you believe in me… that already makes it a lot easier. A lot,” Starlight smiled softly at the two of them.

“I also wish the three of you well,” Starswirl said to all three of them. “And Twilight and I will be doing our best to fix things here. If we can help you in any way, we will.”

“Thanks, Starswirl. With you and Twilight working side by side I wouldn’t be surprised if you fix the problem before the three of us have to do anything,” Starlight grinned.

“Let’s hope that’s true,” Twilight smiled.

Suddenly a bunch of trumpets and cymbals loudly started going off and most of the creatures in the room held their hooves to their ears to drown out the noise. A second later it stopped and all the instruments flashed out of existence, an impatient Discord tapping his foot on the floor.

“If we could perhaps get this started already? I’d like to be back without missing too many tea dates with Fluttershy,” Discord said.

Twilight frowned at him and twisted her hoof in her ear. “Fine, I think everyone has said what they needed to. Spike and Starlight have their bags, I don’t know where you’re going to go first or what you’ll need to do to make that timeline more “harmonic” but if you’re ready to go… well, create whatever portal you need to, Discord.”

“Thank you, first off all though, I need to slip into something a little more suitable for the occasion,” Discord said.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

Discord smirked and snapped his fingers, a bright flash coming from his body as it shrunk and twisted down until he was the size of a pencil. And he even looked more rigid—as if he had turned himself into some sort of wooden Discord doll or toy. If he had some holes he would’ve looked like a flute or recorder. “This is what I mean. We’re getting rid of chaos after all, and being chaos myself I can’t let my powers influence the worlds we’re visiting or it’ll just make things worse. So for the most part I’m “powering down” for the trip. I’ll open the portals to and from each place we need to go to and in the meantime I’ll be asleep.” He floated over to Spike and propped himself right into the dragon’s bag, looking up at him and Starlight. “More like stasis than sleep but you get the point. Only wake me up when you’re finished making things more harmonic and you need another portal.”

“Oh. Great. So Spike and I have to do the hard part all on our own?” Starlight flatly glared at him.

He couldn’t shrug with his wooden body but he would’ve. “They are your mistakes to fix after all.”

“I’m not exactly happy about this either...” Twilight frowned.

“I swear on Fluttershy that it needs to be done. I can’t go about snapping my fingers everywhere—just being in my normal form would be too much,” Discord said.

“Well it wouldn’t help to complain anymore at this point,” Starlight snorted and shook her head. “You ready to go, Spike?”

“Uh-huh,” Spike nodded.

“Then I guess we’re going,” Starlight said and looked over her friends. Twilight, Trixie, Sunburst, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Starswirl too even. A smile grew on her face as they all watched her. “I’ll be back soon.”

“I know you will,” Twilight nodded.

“Then it’s time for our first stop,” the Discord-Flute smirked and for a brief moment became animated—snapping his fingers and creating a glowing circular portal behind him, Spike, and Starlight.

Starlight looked at it and briefly glanced to Spike, he gulped but gave her a nod.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Starlight reached out her hoof to him and Spike took it in his hand. Together the two of them gave one last look to their friends, one last smile and wave, and hopped through the portal.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Starlight hugged her back. “I promise I won’t treat this like another vacation. If this is all really my fault then I’ll fix it.”

“It’s definitely your fault,” Discord said.

Pffft. Glowing words of support there.

“And I’m not thrilled that I have to stay here while you guys get to go and have a bunch of fun saving the world!” Rainbow Dash pouted.

You already had your big dang world saving adventure, rainbow horse.

Starlight took the bag and opened it up, finding it filled with faintly green crystals. “Your Suggestion Crystals? But why? And don’t you need them for your next few shows?”

Oooooh. I remember those. Now those are going to come in handy.

“Thank you, first off all though, I need to slip into something a little more suitable for the occasion,” Discord said.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

Discord smirked and snapped his fingers, a bright flash coming from his body as it shrunk and twisted down until he was the size of a pencil.

Not gonna lie, I half expected him to dress up like Doc Brown or something. Maybe The Doctor.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Starlight reached out her hoof to him and Spike took it in his hand. Together the two of them gave one last look to their friends, one last smile and wave, and hopped through the portal.

Time to go save spacetime!

[redmar]

I wonder if Twilight has already informed Sunset the glowing cracks must be appearing in her world too. Also touching those cracks is a bad idea since then you'll never have existed at all.