"No.”
Starlight looked up at Twilight through her tears. She began to pull her hoof back as her face tensed in anger once again. "It wasn't my fault!” she snarled, “I was ready to keep our friendship alive! Sunburst was the one who let things fall apart!" She gripped the time-scroll tighter in her telekinetic aura, and firmly stood her ground upon a cloud.
"But were you just waiting for Sunburst to reach out, or did you try to stay friends with Sunburst?" Twilight asked, standing a few feet in front of Starlight, Spike sitting tightly on her back.
"How was I supposed to know how to contact him!?" Starlight snapped. "He left without a goodbye! How's an 11-year-old filly supposed to find where in Canterlot her friend moved to!? If Sunburst wanted to keep in touch, he should've called or wrote to me!"
Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed in worry. "So maybe that friendship didn't work out, but that doesn't mean that all friendships will end like that! Starlight, please, you're just trapping yourself in fear!"
Starlight gritted her teeth "What I'm 'trapping' myself in, is reality, Twilight! And the reality is, not every pony is important enough for her friends to stick by! Not every ending is a happy ending! But you wouldn't know that, would you? Your life is perfect! You're an Alicorn Princess, you're surrounded by friends, and you've never had your greatest source of happiness ripped away from you!" The mare's eyes bore daggers into Twilight's. "For just once in your life, maybe you ought to know what it feels like to lose something you cherish!"
"Starlight I–"
Twilight gasped, as she witnessed her fear come to fruition.
With a face tensed with hatred, Starlight looked to the time-scroll and tore two ends apart as hard as she could, splitting it and destroying the spell.
Twilight's heart nearly stopped. Spike gripped her mane all the more. There was no more reset button, no longer a way to erase their mistakes; this chance was now their only one to fix things. Worse still, Twilight and Spike wouldn't have a way home even if they did fix things. Eyes wide and mouth agape, Twilight stared in catatonic horror at the point where the time scroll was last whole.
Watching her, Starlight released the halves into the windy Cloudsdale air. "And that’s what it feels like to lose your friends.”
Twilight continued to stare as a tear ran down her face.
Starlight then levitated herself up, turned, and blasted a turquoise beam toward a speeding Rainbow Dash. The beam hit the filly, stopping her momentum, and entrapping her in a bulky crystal structure. Immediately, Rainbow began plummeting towards the ground below.
Twilight felt a yank on her mane from a more alert Spike. “Huh?” she exclaimed, looking around to try and figure out what had occurred in the past few seconds.
Spike pointed down towards the large crystal boulder falling through the sky. Twilight gasped before swooping down to race toward the entrapped filly as fast as she possibly could.
Upon getting close, Twilight powered up her horn and fired ultrasonic vibration spell. A continuous stream of sound-waves, vibrating at the resonant frequency of the crystal structure, hit the young Rainbow Dash’s prison, and in a few seconds, caused the crystal to burst into thousands of small shards.
Twilight dove under Rainbow, catching her in her forelegs, and immediately began flying back up towards Cloudsdale.
Once she had landed, the filly was gently set upon the clouds.
The young Rainbow Dash turned her wide-eyed gaze up towards her rescuer.
“Y-You saved me! Oh my gosh, I-I thought I was just gonna be Rainbow Jam, but you just swooped right in and-” Rainbow gasped. “–Wait, you’re an alicorn!? My life just got saved by an alicorn!?” she shouted, loud enough to echo in spite of all the clouds.
Every foal in the vicinity whipped their heads around. Immediately, they began flooding over to Twilight, asking her who she was, where she came from, and what she was doing at a Cloudsdale summer flight camp.
Unable to see past the sea of young ponies climbing over each-other to see her, Twilight teleported herself and Spike above them, and shot off into the sky.
As she zipped away though, Rainbow's voice shouted from the crowd: "Hey wait! I never got your name, or why you saved me!"
Spike turned around and cupped his claws around his mouth. "Mauve Matter-Horn and Hum-Dr–MM!" A magic aura clamped his mouth shut.
"Focus, Spike! And keep the fake names a little less unique! I don't think Hum-Drum is even a character yet!"
"Oops."
Looking around the general area, Twilight's eyebrows sunk in worry as she failed to catch any glimpse of the delinquent unicorn.
Taking off into the main city, she began to ask nearly everypony on the street if they had seen a light pink self-levitating unicorn, with a purple, aquamarine-streaked mane.
“Nope, sorry.”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Only seen a unicorn do that at a circus when I was young!”
Flying up higher to take another look around, Twilight let out a stressed sigh. “Where is she!?” she whined, nervously darting her eyes all over.
“Maybe she went to start her village early!” Spike exclaimed, gripping her mane. "O-or maybe she's trying to teach spells to her past self, or take her past self to see Sunburst in Canterlot, or–" he gasped. "What if she's trying to steal Celestia's cutie mark and overthrow the country!"
“Spike, stay calm! She's not going to overthrow the country; she wants revenge on us specifically, remember?”
“Well what if she makes Celestia think we're scheming traitors who need to be caged up in Tartarus forever! I can't be neighbors with a starving chimera, Twi!”
“Spike!“ Twilight snapped, glancing back at him. “That's ridiculous!" She paused. "...Although not entirely out of the question,” she sighed. “If we don't find Starlight and stop her – quietly – then all these changes could create an Equestria far worse than what we've already seen!”