Seventeen Tables
The room flashed bright from magical lightning coming off Starlight Glimmer's time travel spell. She dropped from the bottom of the translucent sphere catching herself with levitation magic just before crashing into the Cutie Map. Enveloped in a light turquoise glow, she floated away from the table and surrounding chairs settling gently to the floor. She whispered to herself, "Thanks for the heads up; that could have been a rough landing." A faint gasp caught her attention and she spun toward the door to see Twilight Sparkle, hoof covering her open mouth.
Twilight's wide eyes shifted back and forth between Starlight and the now empty space above the table. "Starlight, that was your time spell. What have you done? Where did you go?"
"’When.’"
"What!?"
"’When’ did I go."
...
Starlight sighed. "I was hoping for a few minutes to collect my thoughts before coming to see you, Twilight." She started to walk slowly towards her mentor, tossing her head back towards the table. "That wasn't my fault… exactly. I was, I guess ‘abducted’ is the best word, and taken a thousand years into the future.”
Twilight's voice pitched up. "Abducted? The future? Who would do that? What did they want?"
Starlight nonchalantly waved her hoof. "As to who, well, it was..." She brought her hoof to her chest. "Me? That is, a future me."
Twilight's breathing became shallow and fast. "Wait... How could you still be alive... unless... are you an alicorn?"
Starlight's deep belly laugh filled the room. Wiping away tears she continued. "No, I'm no alicorn. In the future, I'm... well, how I’m alive is probably best saved for another time. Right now, Twilight, you need to calm yourself. There’s a lot more to talk about and I need your help." Starlight sat down.
Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Bringing a hoof to her chest, she extended her leg as she exhaled. She looked at Starlight, nodded, and said, "Okay, Starlight, I'm ready."
"Good." Starlight smiled encouragingly. "Future me gave me a warning… well… several."
Twilight vigorously shook her head. "No. I was wrong. I'm not ready. My future self visited me once. Her message was garbled and it ended up causing the very problem she had tried to warn me about."
"You're hyperventilating again, Twilight. Deep breaths. Good... good." Starlight nodded. "I remember that story. This is different, and the message was not garbled. Twilight, an apocalypse is coming. No creature survives. And not just one. It happens again and again, each one different.”
Twilight repeated her breathing exercise without success, her eyes wide with fear. "I… I don't understand."
"It's okay, Twilight, I know how to fix each one. My future self shared all her memories with me. How isn’t important, but I remember everything that’s coming."
Eyes wide, Twilight whispered "What’s going to happen?"
Starlight scanned the room thinking back to when Pinkie Pie had loaned her tables for her research project, exactly seventeen. Her scan stopped. "Table four, the asteroid. It obliterates the northern lands. The Crystal Empire is just... gone. And the resulting dust cloud... But it's easy to fix. We use your telescope to 'discover' the asteroid. Then Celestia uses her power that moves the sun to reach out and give the asteroid a tiny nudge." Starlight gently poked at the air. "At that distance, a hoof-tap is all it takes to miss us."
Starlight looked behind her. "Table eleven, the volcano in the Dragon Lands. It's a massive explosive eruption. The pyroclastic flow incinerates half of Equestria, with an ash cloud this time. But we warn Dragon Lord Ember, and the dragons burn a tunnel into the side of the volcano. It still erupts, but with the pressure relieved there's no explosion."
She turned her head. "And table seventeen, the current problem. The Pony Pox that all foals get has a side effect that turns deadly hundreds of years from now. l’ll publish a small paper on genetics in about a decade. This hint guarantees the research team’s success at creating a vaccine."
"Every empty table is a problem. They just need one little change to prevent disaster.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed in concentration. "But, Starlight, how could your future self survive these disasters to give you all the solutions?"
"Because these didn't all happen in the same timeline. This isn't the first time I brought myself forward. I've been around this loop before."
“So we’ve already had this conversation?”
“Sometimes. If I return a moment sooner or later, you don’t hear anything and keep walking down the hallway.”
Twilight looked around the room at the empty tables. "Seventeen tables. This is your seventeenth time around the loop?" Starlight slowly nodded. "Oh, no, you can't. Don't you remember what happened the last time you repeatedly tried to stop Rainbow Dash’s first Sonic Rainboom? Each time the future got worse. That final wasteland…"
"Twilight, I have her actual memories. I remember the volcano eruption." Starlight's eyes glazed over. "A sky filled with angry orange clouds bringing dusk at midday." Her unseeing gaze drifted up. "An army of pegasi led by Dash fought in vain trying to clear the ash and allow the sun through. They'd been at it for days. Exhausted ponies would occasionally spiral down like leaves in the fall." Her eyes cleared and snapped back to Twilight. Her voice determined, she half yelled, "I will not allow that to happen!" She stomped a hoof, paused, and with a touch of sadness she added, "Not... again."
Twilight, close to tears, asked, “What if there's another problem after solving all these?”
“Then there will be eighteen tables and I'll see you again about ten minutes ago.” Starlight stood and grabbed her saddlebags. “Now if you'll excuse me, I need to visit Quills and Sofas for seventeen notebooks and more ink. I have a lot in my mind to write down.”
Twilight held up a hoof. “But it’s Sunday. They’re closed.”
Starlight abruptly stopped. “Buck. I forget that every time.”