"Bond Racer, can you hear me?" I heard a voice all me, waking me up.

"Hmm...what is it darling?" I heard Rarity ask as she woke up.

"Oh...I think I heard a voice or something." I replied as I had a feeling about it. "I have no idea why but I have to go to the castle."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure you can handle it." She then kissed me. "Just be back here soon, I am due to give birth in a week or two from now."

"I know, love. I'll try to make this as fast as possible so I can be back for you." I kissed her once more before leaving our home and to the castle.

As I landed outside, I walked on in, greeting Twilight's personal guard and walking into the throne room where Twilight and Spike seemed to be looking over something.

"If somepony had told me when I was a blank flank that one day I'd give a speech to a class at Celestia's School of Magic, I wouldn't have believed it, but..." Twilight said as she took a deep breath. "...I hope that I've been up to the task, because I can tell that all of you are, and that the future of Equestrian magic is in good hooves."

Spike applauded. "Wow, hehe. That was even better than the...first eleven times."

"Mmh, I don't know, Spike. I'd like to be able to get through the whole speech without looking at the cards!"

"Morning Twilight and Spike." I greeted.

"Oh...morning Bond." Twilight replied. "Good timing, do you think you could help me?"

"Uhh sure thing. What is it?"

"Oh Twilight needs a bit of help with her speech." Spike answered. "She's just a little nervous."

"Nervous, eh?" I looked at the cards, it was a speech to the magic students "Twilight, you can't be nervous about giving a speech to a bunch of magic students, right?"

"Oh I'm not nervous, Bond but I do hope to set a good example, especially for magic students!" Twilight replied. "That's why this speech has to be..."

"...perfect?" I finished.

"Exactly. Let's go through it together." she gave a few of the cards to me to read. "When Princess Celestia asked me to speak to you today, I was honoured, to have the opportunity to talk about my favorite subject: magic."

I then read out what was on my cards.

"Obviously the long term effects of the simultaneous acquisition of cutie marks has yet to be determined, but!" I said and noticing Spike was on a projector. "Ahem, next slide, please."

It was a very good speech Twilight had prepared, I was sure she would nail it if I help do my part and Spike was more than impressed. We then left the castle on our way to the train station.

"I can speak from my own experience that the power of cutie mark magic is very real, and in the instance of my friends and I, it can be traced to a single event!" Twilight said. "Without Rainbow Dash's race to defend Fluttershy's honour, the rainboom wouldn't have happened. Fluttershy might never have discovered her love of animals. Applejack might never have realized that she belonged on her farm."

"Pinkie Pie might never have decided to leave her rock farm, Rarity may never have discovered her sense of fabulousness and I wouldn't have been able to fill in for Vinyl Scratch back at the DJ gig several years back." I added.

"But it's even harder to fathom what my life would be like. Without this rainboom, I might not have gotten into magic school. Celestia wouldn't have taken me on as her pupil or sent me to Ponyville to meet my friends. And the most powerful thing about Cutie Mark Magic that I found is the connection I share with them. But, um... Real question about...Cutie Mark Magic is...who it seems to affect."

Suddenly, I spotted a blur of a mare galloping across the town, I caught sight of her and she looked familiar.

"Did you see that Twilight? I thought I saw somepony familiar galloping, hiding from us."

"I noticed it too." Spike replied. "It's Starlight Glimmer!"

"Starlight, that unicorn mare who tried to use lies and propaganda to steal everypony's cutie marks?"

"Then it must be here." Twilight said. "I'm worried on what she could be up to."

"Nothing good, I bet. I heard she wasn't very happy the last time you saw her." Spike replied.

"Forcing everypony in her village to have the same cutie mark wasn't right. We had to do something!" I said.

"And now she's coming back for revenge. Uh, or she was just really interested in your speech!"

"Honestly, Spike. I'm not really sure what I saw." Twilight said. "But as long as I have my friends, I know everything will be all right."

"Maybe you were just more stressed about that speech than I thought." Spike thought. "That sounds better than Starlight Glimmer coming back with an evil plot for revenge."

"Well, when you say it like that, it does sound kinda silly."

"Or it's totally true!" I replied before noticing a mare in the distance galloping to Twilight's castle. "There she is again! She's going in your castle."

"What?!" Twilight exclaimed. "Come on, we gotta find out what she wants here."

Spike jumped on Twilight's back and we both flew back to the castle, we landed and dashed on in and to the throne to find my suspicions confirmed. Looks like Luna was trying to wake me up in my sleep to help with something and it was here.

"Welcome home, Twilight and Bond!" Starlight greeted rudely before zapping some magic at us, causing me to duck.

"What are you doing, Starlight?" Twilight asked.

"I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise!" she then showed some kind of time device. "Won't be needing that any more." she laughed before using some magic on it and than vanished.

"Oh no..." I muttered. "...don't tell she's discovered the magic of time."

"Wait, you mean she found some kind of magic that lets her go back to the past?" Spike asked. "Well where'd she go?"

"I don't know, but I think we better find out!" I picked up the device. "I guess we could start with this!"

"Bond, no! Don't touch that!" Twilight exclaimed.

But it was too late, I pushed a button and a huge circle aura appeared around us as we were sucked in before it vanished and we found ourselves at...Cloudsdale.

"Where's Spike, what happened to him?" Twilight asked.

"My guess is that he ran somewhere to hide so he didn't get caught in the arua." I replied, looking around us. "Anyways, Starlight doesn't even have wings! Why would she come here?" I asked.

"I don't know, Bond, but it looked like she could fly with just magic! Let's keep our eyes open, we don't know what she has planned!"

As we looked around, we felt a whoosh zooming past us with rainbow trails and I gasped. "Isn't that Rainbow Dash?"

"Did Rainbow Dash look really young to you? And I didn't see a cutie mark...you don't think..."

"We've travelled back in time to when Rainbow Dash raced the bullies who made fun of Fluttershy and performed her first sonic rainboom?"

"Bond, only Star Swirl the Bearded could do something like that, and even his spell just went back a week! How could Starlight do more than the greatest wizard in Equestria?"

I then saw a paper that was rustled up, looked like a page out of a book that Starlight must've taken. "With this."

"Star Swirl's spell! Oh no!"

"Come on, let's go!"

"Go where?"

"To watch the race. I don't wanna miss the rainboom!"

"You're right Bond."

We galloped towards the stadium and as soon as we got there, Rainbow was knocked off by Starlight. "Aww, sorry about this!" she said with huge sarcasm. She then suddenly zapped her and then zapped Fluttershy, before she ended doing the same to Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity as we followed her through the same timeline.

"What did you do?!" Twilight asked.

"You are about to find out." Starlight replied, zapping her magic at me which I tried to prevent form happening with my shield "Give it up, Prince Bond or should I say, never will be prince?!"

My magic was draining fast and then it hit me, without the rainboom happening, my cutie mark would never have happened, I looked at my flank and it was vanishing away, weakening my powers until I began to strain.

"Hah!" Starlight said. "I win and now to finish this!"

She zapped more of her magic and we then got caught in an aura circle before we found ourselves back on ground and exhausted.

"Ugh... I don't know what Starlight's up to yet... but we'd better figure it out before it's too late!" Twilight said.

I was fully awake first though and I looked around, gasping. "Um, Twilight? I think it already is."

Twilight gasped to see the whole area completely different to what it normally was. "Your castle's gone."

"The map pulled us back... but whatever Starlight did in the past, changed things here!"

I was a little confused. "Then how did she do it?"

"Starlight altered Star Swirl's spell, then somehow used it on the map to travel into the past and change something! Once she did, the map pulled us back to the present!"

"So we're back when we started?"

"Not exactly. Everything's different, look! The map doesn't even make sense anymore! The Crystal Empire takes up half of Equestria!"

"Plus there's the whole missing castle thing..."

"Right! This is too big to handle on our own."

"You think?"

"We need to find our friends and get help!"

As soon as she mentioned our friends, I thought of Rarity...I had a very bad feeling about this. We walked around Ponyville, noticing a lot was different. Even the big house Rarity and I lived in wasn't there anymore, her boutique however was still intact and so was Sugarcube Corner, but there was nopony in either of them.

"Rarity....Pinkie?" I called.

"I don't think either of them are here!" Twilight replied. "I'm not sure anything we know is the same! But I know one place that could never change!"

"The apple farm."

She nodded and we flew over to the farm to see that it was still the same, but I remained wary of what had changed.

"Applejack?" Twilight said as I noticed her too.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"It's so good to see you! We couldn't find Pinkie or Rarity or Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, but I just knew you'd still be here!"

"Of course I am. This is my home. But who in tarnation is Pinkie Bow and Flutterdash? Or you two for that matter?"

"You...don't know who we are?" I asked.

"Nope. Honestly, the only name I recognize is Rarity, but she left for Manehattan years ago."

"Probably to become a world-famous fashion designer?"

"Not that I know of. Last I heard she went to help with the cause like everypony else."

"The cause?" Twilight asked.

"The war against King Sombra and the Crystal Empire?"

"What!?" Twilight and I said in shock.

"Where have you two been?"

"Actually, it's when." I corrected.

"Did you bump your head on a crate of cider or somethin'?"

"I'm telling you the truth! And if you come with me, I'll prove it." Twilight said.

We left the farm with Applejack in toe and she seemed to noticed a few things. "Well, I'll admit I've lived in these parts my whole life and I've never seen this before."

"There's also supposed to be a castle that goes with it." I added.

"I still don't see what this has to do with you and I bein' friends."

"Another pony named Starlight Glimmer used this map to travel through time and change things in the past!" Twilight said. "For some reason the map's here but everything else is different!"

"Different how?

"Well for one thing, where we come from there's no war with King Sombra. Maybe you could tell us how the war started, then we can figure out when everything changed!"

"That's easy enough. When the Crystal Empire returned, it brought King Sombra back with it, and it didn't take long for him to force every one of his subjects to fight for him against Equestria. And even with Princess Celestia leadin' the charge, it still takes every last pony in Equestria doin' their part, workin' day and night, to keep up the fight."

"I just can't believe it! We stopped King Sombra! You and me and all of our friends!"

"But we aren't friends. At least not here."

Twilight felt glum, hearing that. "Right."

"Look. I hope all this helped, but I really need to get back to cannin' those apples."

"Thank you. We're going to set things right." I said.

"I hope you do." Applejack then left us and walked back to the farm.

I felt a little lost, thinking back to my words. "So...how are we gonna set things right?"

"I don't know!" Twilight replied. "The only thing we know for sure is that Starlight stopped the rainboom!"

"And that the map's still here."

Twilight gasped. "That's it! The map is connected to the Tree of Harmony! It must sense that something isn't right! That's why it's still here! I'll just use Starlight's version of the spell and go back a little earlier and stop her before she even knows we're there!"

"You mean we're going back to the future?" I asked randomly.

Twilight shook her head, I then realized that this wasn't the time for references, we used her magic and soon enough, we found ourselves back at Cloudsdale.

"All we have to do now is find Starlight and-"

Suddenly, there was magic that was zapped at us. Damn, it was Starlight again...how powerful is that unicorn exactly?

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I created that spell to send myself back in time, so even when you cast it, I still get sent back here. It wasn't difficult to change Star Swirl's spell. He'd already done the hard part. But figuring out I could use the map to go to any time or place, and pull you along with me?" she then laughed. "I even impressed myself with that. I knew you'd try to stop me. You're so predictable. Why else would I leave the scroll behind? Touching it triggered the map to whisk you here, and watch me erase the one thing that links you with your friends!" she then looked at us with a mad expression. "My village was a sanctuary of equality, where nopony's cutie mark allowed them to feel superior! It was a special place and you and your friends took it away! Now it's my turn to take something special from you! Without the rainboom, you and your friends will never form your special cutie mark bonds! Cutie marks for cutie marks! Sounds like a fair trade to me!"

She then disappeared again, Starlight was going to be a much more troublesome and powerful foe than we thought.

"At least now we know exactly what we have to do!" I said.

"We have to stop Starlight as soon as Rainbow Dash and those bullies race by!" Twilight replied.

We flew around, looking for the race. "Be ready, cause she could pop up anywhere."

"Over there!" she said as we flew to Starlight and the fillies were.

"Just remember how you'd feel if someone said those things to you." Starlight said to a colt.

"What's going on here?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, I was just reminding these two colts how hurtful teasing can be."

"Well, don't...I mean...you were?"

"Of course! In a world where everypony is unique, some are bound to feel more special than others. But that isn't a license to be cruel, is it?"

"No, of course not..."

"Oh, isn't it a shame we don't live in a world where everypony is equal? No one would ever tease anyone there! Wouldn't that be nice?"

"No, it wouldn't! I mean, it'd be nice not to be teased, of course, but that's not the same thing!" I exclaimed.

"We know you only convinced those bullies to not tease Fluttershy to stop the rainboom!" Twilight added.

"Oh, that's not true! I convinced them not to be bullies because everypony should be equal!" Starlight replied. "Stopping the rainboom is just a bonus."

"This isn't over yet!"

"If you say so!"

Out thoughts were interrupted by a young Rainbow Dash. I stood back and allowed Twilight to try to think of getting her to do the sonic rainboom, but alas it didn't seem to work and the young Rainbow left.

"Gee, Twilight, what's the matter? Couldn't convince her to do the impossible? That's too bad." Starlight remarked.

Twilight used her magic, but it was countered by Starlight and now we ended up inside the Everfree Forest.

"Ugh, well, that didn't work." I said.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought! We'll have to try again!" Twilight replied.

Agreed, I don't want to live in that awful future we saw!"

Suddenly, we heard spears being hoisted at us, along with two ponies. "Pinkie? Fluttershy?"

"Silence, changeling!" Pinkie ordered.

"All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be destroyed!" Fluttershy added.

Twilight and I gulped...this was gonna be a struggle and a half! Next Chapter: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 2 Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes