Almost done. Probably two more chapters, three at the most

Chapter Nineteen:
“The Past”

“Up for another race-ending fight, Twilight?” Starlight said through gritted teeth as she watched the princess appear. She didn’t even try to pretend she was happy this time. They’d gone through this several times. She wanted her to know just how much hate she had for what she did to her.

Rather unexpectedly, the princess sighed. “No,” she told Starlight. “I can’t stop you,”.

Starlight looked at her, completely confused. Despite her frustrations, she hadn’t expected the princess to give up so easily. “So what?” she asked her, putting a scowl back on her face. “I’m not worth your time now? You didn’t seem to think that before,”.

“I can’t stop you,” the princess told her again, “but you can’t stop me from trying. We could be doing this for all eternity,”.

“If that’s what it takes to make you suffer for what you did, then so be it,” Starlight spat.

That was a lie on her part. She didn’t want to do this for all eternity. She didn’t want to be stuck with the anger and loneliness she felt for all eternity, holding in her emotions, never able to be happy. But, seeing no better options, she shot a beam of magic at her, to which Twilight responded by deflecting it with her force field.

“Stop!” the princess told her. “What your doing here goes beyond just friendships. Every change you make here has a ripple effect that changes all of Equestria!”.

“Spare me your oversized ego,” Starlight told her angrily. “No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight’s, is that important!”.

With that, she shot at Rainbow Dash, once again knocking her off course and preventing the rainboom from happening. “Now go back to the present,” she told the princess as the portal once again opened up, “and leave me alone!”.

However, Twilight caught her off guard and grabbed onto her, bringing Starlight with her to the present. The next thing Starlight knew, her eyes were being blinded by sand blowing across some sort of desert. She took a few seconds to look around, seeing nothing else but empty barren wasteland. “Where are we?” she demanded.

It took everything in Starlight power to not turn away from the princess and break down. She knew where she was. She was in the present. Twilight had brought her here to prove without a shadow of a doubt that her way was wrong, to show her that she was more important than her, to humiliate her. She wanted her to know that her way was wrong and that she’d always be alone. She wanted her to know that the only thing left was for her to give up.

Starlight wanted to break down. Seeing the present made her want to give up. She didn’t want to keep going knowing that nothing was going to change. That she was always going to be alone. She just wanted to give up. The only thing stopping her was the princess. She was not going to break down in front of the princess. She was not going to give her that satisfaction. So instead, Starlight stood glaring at her angrily, waiting for Twilight to tell her what she already knew.

She watched as the princess paused for a moment, then began softly, “I don’t know why my friends and I are so important to Equestria, but we are. Everything you do in the past affects the future, even the tiniest act,”. She paused, then told her, “What you’re doing leads here,”.

Starlight ground her teeth in frustration, still resisting the urge to break down. She hated Twilight for what she’d done to her. The princess could have just let her be happy. But instead, she spat in her face and told her that she was better than her, showing her there was no hope for her.

“I know I can’t stop you,” the princess added, “but I thought showing you this might change your mind,”.

“Don’t act like you know me,” Starlight grumbled, turning to face her. “You don’t know anything about me. I was perfectly happy until you and your friends ruined my life!”. By the time she was finished, she was screaming.

“I don’t know what happened to cause you to steal other ponies cutie marks, and I’m sorry that that ruined your life, but we had no other choice,”.

The princess was so disingenuous in her apology, and it made Starlight’s teeth chatter. She might as well have said to her “I’m sorry that I’m better than you, but I don’t care”. She thought Starlight was just some jealous pony, not even knowing how much she was suffering.

Starlight was frustrated. She wanted somepony to know how much she was suffering. She wanted somepony to know. She hated keeping everything bottled up. But she didn’t want to tell the princess. And yet, she still wanted her to know. She wanted her to know just how wrong she was. Starlight was conflicted. She wanted the princess to know how much she suffered because of her, but hated the idea of telling her. She would rather tell any other pony in Equestria besides her. But still, she wanted her to know.

Angrily, Starlight cast her spell to a point in the past. Before she knew it, she and the princess were standing in the dark cave she went into to get away from her just a few months before.

“What are we doing here?” Twilight asked her, confused.

Starlight responded by looking at the princess with absolute hate, pointing to her past self. “That’s what you did to me,” she told her through clenched teeth.

She took her back to when she lay crying on the ground, when she felt like she was drowning. She wanted her to see what she’d done to her. She wanted her to see just how much she hurt her.

“I had a home. I had friends. I was happy,” she continued. “And then you and your friends came in and ripped it all away from me,”

“Starlight, I didn’t mean-”

“Stop it!” Starlight snapped. “I don’t want to hear you lie to me! You ruined my life, and then brought me to the present to rub it in my face!”

"I'm not trying to rub anything in your face," Twilight tried to tell her. "I didn't mean to make you feel this way. But I couldn't-"

"Yes you did!" she interrupted, her voice starting to raise. "You wanted to see me suffer because you think you're better than me!"

"I don't think I'm better than you! I'm not trying to make you jealous-"

There it was again. She hated that the princess didn't understand what she was trying to show her. "Don't act like you know me!" she screamed at her, getting choked up. "You don't know anything about me!"

"I would if you would tell me!" the princess tried to tell her.

Starlight screamed again. She couldn't understand why the princess didn't understand her. She didn't want to have to tell her what she was going through. But she wanted her to know.

In a fit, she opened up another portal to the past, taking them farther back in time.