"So try again! Make new friends—"

Make new friends?

Starlight Glimmer could hardly believe she'd just heard those words.

"Are you serious?" she snarled out.

Starlight wanted to feel proud as she glared at her opponent. Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn "Princess of Friendship", had been cut short mid-speech by her yet again. Her eyes were wide, her mouth gaping at the very idea that she'd been interrupted. Even the dopey-looking baby dragon by her side seemed stunned into silence.

All around them, the foals of Cloudsdale were cheering. They were all too absorbed in the spectacle of the blue filly chasing two colts around the track to even notice the two dueling ponies nearby. None of them even suspected that the race would be cut short for an eighth time.

Eighth and final time, Starlight reminded herself, feeling the flimsy paper of the time travel spell tear just a bit more. Just one twitch and her rival, the pretty, perfect, purple princess was going to lose. Everything she cared about, her friends, her title, all the way down to her cutie mark, would vanish in an instant. This time for good.

And yet, the pink unicorn couldn't find any joy in the scene.

Because perfect Princess Twilight had opened her perfect mouth and managed to spit out the perfect words that were like a branding iron to her.

"So that's your big solution, huh? 'Make new friends!?'" Starlight didn't even care as strands of her purple mane frayed out of place. All she could focus on was the red swimming across her vision. "Just what the hay did it LOOK like I was doing in my town?"

Twilight stumbled away, Spike clinging desperately to her back. The alicorn looked as though she'd just been slapped in the face. Starlight simply scowled as she advanced on the other mare, her hooves leaving visible dents in the clouds as she stomped forward.

"I was making friends! But noooooo, I had to stop because 'The Princess of Friendship' decided I was doing it wrong!" Starlight's hoof jabbed forward, shoving Twilight back another step. "What gave you the right?! Why do only you get to decide what friendship is or isn't?"

"Starlight, please!" Twilight's eyes were wide, desperate. There were tears forming in the corners as she shook her head. "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I only wanted to show you—"

"More of the same pain I'd already been through?!" Starlight interrupted with another shove. "Seeing all my friends leave because their stupid talents and cutie marks tell them they need to be somewhere else?! Well guess what, Twilight?"

The horror on the alicorn and the dragon's face. Starlight smiled and drank it in as she looked back to the scroll again. It still hung together by a few fibers, gripped tight in the teal glow of her magic.

"Starlight, don't—"

RIIIP

"Now it's your turn," Starlight said, releasing the two halves of the scroll.

Twilight didn't react at first. The despair, however, was clear. Tears were already streaming down her cheeks. Spike had grabbed the two fragments of parchment and was pressing them together. As though the spell scroll would magically fix itself.

Starlight just smiled as she turned back around. Her victory was complete. All she needed to do now was—

KRACK-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Starlight completely forgot for a moment what she was supposed to do as a massive blast of wind suddenly tore past her. Her magic barely flared to life in time, catching her with a levitation spell before she was flung from her cloudy perch. Her head was spinning from the sudden shockwave, her vision blurring as she struggled to refocus.

What in Equestria was—

"Twilight! Look!"

That had been Spike's voice. Starlight looked back to the dragon with a scowl, unable to fathom just why he sounded so excited. He didn't even look her way though. His claw was pointing in the completely opposite direction, just a bit below where they'd been arguing. Starlight's pink eyes followed the small purple claw...

"No..."

She rubbed her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing.

But there it was.

A massive ring of light shining with every color of the rainbow spread below them. And from the center of it all, racing straight up, was a sky-blue pegasus filly leaving a rainbow contrail.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Starlight shouted, shoving Twilight as she raced for a better look.

There was no denying the evidence before her though. The Sonic Rainboom, the very thing she'd come back to prevent, was unfolding before her. Already, the young Rainbow Dash racing past had a cloud with a tri-colored lightning bolt forming on her flank. No doubt five other, very particular fillies, were experiencing similar events across Equestria.

"This can't... how..." Starlight's mouth froze. Suddenly, the answer occurred to her and she spun in place. "YOU!"

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, was still standing there. One hoof was covering her mouth, a few last tears reflecting the Rainboom as it faded.

"You did this!" Starlight shouted, startling the alicorn away from her awed stare. "You distracted me! You... you..."

The spell. The time travel spell. She only had to cast it again. Spike still held one half of the scroll in each clawed hand. Though now they hung limp at his sides as he watched the filly Rainbow Dash streak across the finish line.

He nearly toppled from Twilight's back as Starlight's magic yanked the papers from him. Her breathing came in short, shallow gulps as the teal light trembled, straining to realign the torn edges. Starlight's eyes narrowed as she tried to push the parchment back together, desperate to stop the magic she could feel leaking from it like water through a sieve...

"Starlight... please, just stop." Twilight's voice was gentle, calm, but firm. So was the purple hoof laying itself on the unicorn's shoulder. "It's over now, don't you see that?"

"This isn't over!" Starlight shouted, shoving the hoof off. "I can still—"

A sudden wind cut her off. On instinct, Starlight looked straight up, and her heart leapt to her throat.

Hanging above the trio was a bowl of pure, white light. One which was emitting a powerful column of light that fell over Spike, Twilight, and Starlight and began drawing them into the air. Away from the past and all of the pink unicorn's plans. Back to the present...

The same present that she'd just escaped from.

"NO!" Starlight howled.

She pushed, she kicked, she strained every muscle in her body trying to free herself from the light.

Nothing worked.

In an instant, all three of them had been pulled through, and the gateway to the most important moment in Twilight Sparkle's life had disappeared.

Forever.

"Twilight!" Spike could barely shout and cling to his friend's back at the same time, but like so much else the young dragon did he somehow managed. "What are you doing?"

Twilight didn't answer. Not a wholly unexpected result. Spike could already tell that she was trying to move closer to Starlight, both hooves reaching out to the maniacal unicorn.

What made him nervous was the... time stream? Magic? Whatever it was that flowed around them, it felt chaotic. Like a river that had been trying to flow in so many different directions suddenly crashing back together and trying to go one way again.

Making it worse was the fact that he could see what could only be described as a split further downstream. Two shimmering currents of bluish green and those ticking white clocks, flowing in very different directions, with himself and Twilight positioned perfectly between them and approaching very quickly.

More than anything else, Spike did not want to know what getting caught in that split would be like. Unfortunately, Twilight had stopped moving. Her body was shuddering, and he could feel a familiar warmth of magic moving through her as she cast some kind of spell.

"Starlight!" Twilight shouted, through what sounded like a great deal of strain.

Starlight Glimmer was still there. Hovering just a few feet away, staring despondently at the pieces of her time travel spell that lay limp over her hooves. Twilight's magical aura was glowing over her, trying to pull the mare closer. For some reason, however, the unicorn didn't budge.

"Starlight, please! I'm truly, truly sorry that your life turned out the way it did!" Twilight pleaded, hardly seeming to notice as Spike tightened his grip on her mane. "You have to see we can still fix this!"

The other mare lifted her head, simply staring at Twilight. Spike glanced to the side and swallowed hard. The split was getting dangerously close.

"Together?" Starlight's weak voice somehow came through over the din of ticking clocks. "Me and you?"

"Yes!" Twilight had a smile on her face as she nodded vigorously. "Together we can make things better. That's what friendship is all about!"

The alicorn extended one hoof, reaching for Starlight. Spike looked frantically toward the split in the stream again. They'd be reaching it any second, and Twilight was reaching out for this mare that had tried time and again to destroy them.

And she deserves this?

Spike grit his teeth and drew in a deep breath.

Then leaned over Twilight's neck, reaching one claw down alongside her hoof.

Everyone deserves a chance...

If nothing else, he'd learned that much from his time around Twilight and the others.

Starlight, however, was just staring at the two of them. She looked to the side as well, staring for an instant at the fork in the stream.

The hollow smile on her face as she looked back at them sent a shudder down Spike's spine.

"You know what? Fine..." she said, reaching out with one hoof.

Twilight sighed with relief, ready to hook the unicorn's leg with her own and pull her close.

Starlight's hollow smile turned to a sick grin. Spike's eyes went wide as she pulled her leg back at the last moment, leaving nothing but half of the spell scroll hanging over Twilight's hoof.

"What are you—" Twilight shouted.

That was all she could get out before the scrap of parchment flared with purple light. Spike and Twilight both gasped as they were shoved away from Starlight.

What was worse though, and what would haunt the young dragon's nightmares for weeks to come, was the way she was laughing.

"You might have won, Princess," Starlight shouted to be heard over the clocks and her own echoing, deranged laughter. "But that doesn't mean I have to lose!"

That was the last Spike ever heard from her. In the next instant they passed by the split, flowing inexorably down one path and watching helplessly as Starlight Glimmer was whisked away through the other.

Author's Notes:

Alright! Fielding some incoming questions first:

No, I'm not quitting on any of my current stories or Flipverse. Also no, I'm not starting a whole new verse here.

After watching the Season 5 finale, this idea just wouldn't leave me so I figured I'd post the first half of what I thought up. It's probably not as polished as I'd like, but really this is one of those sorts of fics you write to get out of your system more than anything.

It's not that I hated the Season 5 finale or anything, I quite enjoyed it! I just thought that the "Redeemed Villain" thing was getting a bit played out.

So yeah, will probably come back to this eventually with the second half of the story. One of two possible ones, actually. After all, there's one that the show could have gone with...

Then there's another way it could end that's decidedly darker.

Might or might not post the latter.