//------------------------------//
// Pilot Episode - Part 3 
// Story: Star Trek: Pegasus 
// by Kane Magus 
//------------------------------//

	Four year old Star Strider made her way home from school.  It had been a particularly interesting day, since today Miss Cheerilee had told them the story of Hearts and Hooves Day, which was a few days away.  Star had asked her teacher if she had a special somepony, and Miss Cheerilee had said that, yes, there was indeed a certain stallion that she’d had her eye on for a while, ever since another Hearts and Hooves Day from a few years back.  This made Star happy.  She hoped that she too would someday have a special somepony to share Hearts and Hooves Day with.  She kind of hoped that she would get a card from Pound Cake, in fact.  But then, she wasn’t the only filly in her class who had this hope.  Pound Cake was very popular, after all.
As Star approached the door to her home, she heard voices coming from inside, so she slowed her pace.  She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.  Her parents often talked about a lot of interesting stuff when they were alone which they never would have talked about if they knew she was in earshot.  She didn’t always understand all of it, of course, but it was still interesting stuff.
“…should be home soon,” her mother was saying.  “Thank you again for coming, Princess Twilight.”
“No problem at all, Cloud,” said a voice that Star recognized as that of Princess Twilight Sparkle.  Why would one of the princesses be visiting her parents?  “And please, just call me Twilight.  I’m sure we’ll get along quite well.”
“I hope so,” said Star’s father.  “That little outburst the other day had us pretty worried, especially since she hadn’t shown an inkling of magic at all before that.  Well, aside from a few bursts as a foal, but we were told to expect that.”  Star’s eyes widened as she realized that it was her they were talking about.  She edged up closer to the door and pressed her ear against it.
“That’s not unusual for unicorns her age,” said the princess.  “All she needs is some training and she’ll be fine.”
“I’m just worried about her, that’s all,” said her father.  “Maybe I’m being overprotective, but…”  His voice trailed off.
“It’s nothing to worry about, Storm,” said the princess.  “I know you guys have your hooves full, both of you being pegasi with a unicorn filly, after all.  It’s difficult enough for unicorn parents to deal with unicorn children sometimes.”
Star’s mother sounded a bit hesitant as she spoke.  “Do you think you might be able to teach her the… you know… the cloud walking spell?”
The princess didn’t answer immediately, but then after a bit she said, “Well, that’s a bit advanced, especially for one so young.  However, I can understand why you’d want her to know that spell.  I know you guys want to move back to Cloudsdale as soon as she’s old enough, so I’ll do what I can.  It would definitely be better if she’s able to cast it herself rather than you having to come down and find a unicorn mage every few days.  Still, it might take a few years before she’s ready to attempt it, even so.”
At this, Star’s eyes widened as she stepped back from the door.  She’d known that her parents used to live in Cloudsdale before she was born, as that was one of the things she’d overheard them talking about before, when they thought she wasn’t listening, but what was this about moving back to Cloudsdale?  Her home was Ponyville!  She didn’t want to move to Cloudsdale!  She’d have to leave school!  She’d never see Miss Cheerilee or the Cakes or any of her other friends ever again!
Suddenly, the door opened and her mother stood there in front of her.  Cloud Seed looked down at her, a mildly disapproving look in her eyes.  “I thought I heard a little filly stomping around out here, and it looks like I was right.  What have I told you about listening in on grown-up conversations, Star?”
Star’s eyes began to water.  “Mommy, I don’t wanna move to Cloudsdale!  I wanna stay right here in Ponyville!  All of my friends are here!”  She broke down and began to cry.
“Oh dear,” her father said.  Storm Strider stepped past his wife and wrapped the filly in his wing.  “Don’t worry, little bug.  We’re not moving back to Cloudsdale anytime soon.  All we want is for you to be ready for the day when we might do it.”
“Honest?” said Star, muffling her sobs into her father’s side.  “I don’t wanna leave Pound and Pumpkin behind.”
“Honest,” said her mother, opening a wing of her own to embrace both her husband and daughter.  “Besides, even if we do move to Cloudsdale someday, that doesn’t mean that we’ll never come back to Ponyville.  You’ll see your friends again, don’t worry.  Now come on inside, my little light in the night.  There’s somepony we’d like you to meet.”  Star walked between her parents as they led her over to the visitor, and then her mother said, “Star, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Star stepped out from between her parents and looked up at the purple alicorn in awe.  She knew that the princess was a powerful sorceress, or so the stories went.  She’d even been taught by Princess Celestia herself!  It was amazingly cool.  A sudden thought occurred to her, however, causing her brow to furrow.  Looking up at the alicorn with a nervous expression on her face, she said, “Y-you’re not here to take me away to magical prison are you?”
Twilight Sparkle’s mouth dropped open and she stared at the little unicorn filly in shock.  Then her face lit up and she laughed heartily.  Despite her serious concerns, Star couldn’t help but grin in response to this herself.  “Why in the world would you think I’d be taking you to magical prison?” asked Twilight, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
Star scrunched her face into a serious expression again and said, “Well, I blew up a vase the other day… and some of mommy’s favorite dishes… and a window… and daddy’s coffee mug… I’m really sorry!  I didn’t mean to!  I won’t ever do it again, I promise!  Please don’t take me to magical prison, Princess Twilight!”
Twilight tried to stifle her giggles and her face softened as she looked at the filly.  “Star, there’s no such thing as magical prison, at least not for little fillies like you.  Besides, what happened to you wasn’t your fault at all.  Many little unicorns lose control of their powers when they first get old enough to use them.  The same thing happened to me when I was your age, in fact.  That’s why I’m here.  I’m going to tutor you in the ways of magic.  And, please, just call me Twilight, or maybe Miss Twilight, if you want.”
Star’s eyes lit up.  She spun around and faced her parents.  “Really?!  I’m going to learn magic?!  That’s so awesome!  I can’t wait to tell Pound and Pumpkin!”  Another thought occurred to her and she turned back to face Twilight again.  “Are you gonna teach Pumpkin how to use magic someday, too, Miss Twilight?  She hasn’t broken anything yet, but I’ve seen her shoot some sparks out of her horn sometimes.  I tried to do that too, and I couldn’t do it.  I tried again really, really hard when I go home, but… that’s when I blew up everything.”
Twilight shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, that’s up to her and her parents, but if they’d like me to teach her as well, I would be glad to do so.  But, right now, you’re the one I’m going to be teaching.  If you want me too, that is.”
Star grinned and hopped in a circle around the alicorn.  “Of course I want you to, Miss Twilight!  This is the best day ever!”  Neither Twilight nor Star’s parents could help but break out into grins of their own at the little filly’s excitement.



Nineteen year old Star Strider shrank back in terror as she stared up at the enraged visage of Twilight Sparkle.  The alicorn was entirely covered in black ash and soot, such that very little of her normally purple coat was visible.  Her horn was flaring with an ethereal purple light, which lit up her face ominously, and her extended, blackened wings looked almost demonic in the otherwise darkened library.  Swirls of dust and ash flowed around the alicorn, remnants of an explosion that was the result of a failed spell, the blame for which the alicorn was laying at Star’s own hooves.  Twilight was glaring down at Star, her eyes filled with purest rage.  Out of the corner of her eye, Star saw Spike quickly rise to his feet, as though about to interpose himself between her and the livid alicorn.  Star appreciated the gesture but knew that even fully adult dragons would have been wise not to face an infuriated Twilight Sparkle.  The adolescent dragon wouldn’t have stood a chance in Tartaros.  Star knew she’d stand even less of one herself, especially in her burned out state, but even if she’d been at full power, the alicorn would still make short work of her, if it came to that.  Star really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
But then, something changed in Twilight’s expression.  It was first a look of recognition, and then one of deep shame.  Her narrowed eyes widened and she staggered backward a step.
“S-Star?  Is that… is that really you?”




Star Trek: Pegasus


“Pilot Episode – Part 3”


By Kane Magus




“I’m really sorry you had to see that,” muttered Spike apologetically.
He and Star sat as they had been before, but now, at least, there was light enough to see.  Without another word, Twilight Sparkle had turned and fled toward the back of the library and then, just before disappearing into a door that Star knew led to a washroom, she had used her magic to ignite every light in the library.  In addition to that, there was now also a roaring fire in the fireplace, which took the bite out of the chilly winter air that had been breezing into the library up until Spike had closed the outside door.  Just before Spike had shut it, Owloysius had flown through and was now napping on his perch just next to the fire.
Star kept her voice low as she asked, “Is that… normal for her?”
Spike sighed.  “Well, no… not really.  Kind of.  I mean, I’ve rarely seen her quite that angry, but… well, she has been getting moodier lately.  Honestly, she spends practically every waking hour down in that lab.  She only sleeps when she simply can’t physically remain upright at all.  More times than I care to count I’ve carried her up two flights of stairs to her bed, only to see her leap up just an hour or two later and rush back down to the lab.  I don’t even think she would eat if I didn’t insist that she take a break every once in a while.”
Their conversation halted as the door to the washroom creaked open and Twilight stepped out into the library itself.  She looked like her proper self now that all the ash and grime were washed away.  The alicorn slowly walked toward the two of them and then stopped a few feet away.  She stared at Star for several moments, with Star silently returning her gaze, before finally sighing and lowering her head.  She walked over and sat in the chair across from Star and looked up at her once more.
“I’d almost convinced myself that I had just imagined you,” said the purple alicorn, “but you’re here.  It’s really you.”
Star smiled hesitantly and said, “Yep, I’m right here.  It’s really me.”
Twilight didn’t return the smile.  “It’s been four years, Star.”
Star’s smile faded away.  “Yes, it has.”
“Why are you here?” said Twilight simply.
The navy blue unicorn blinked.  Just like that, huh?  It stung a bit, it did, but Star supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by this reaction.  “Well…” she said, “I wanted to see you, for starters.”
“‘For starters,’” repeated Twilight, narrowing her eyes.  “Um hmm.  Of course you have an ulterior motive.  You don’t care about me, or else you would have visited before now or called or written or something.  Tell me why you are really here.”
“Twilight, for Celestia’s sake, that’s enough,” Spike said, his deep voice rumbling in his chest as his anger flared.  “This is Star you’re talking to.  Remember?  The unicorn you started tutoring as a filly of four years old?  The unicorn you gave your blessing to when she told you, first I might add, before anypony else, that she wanted to attend Starfleet Academy when she grew up?”
Twilight looked over at Spike, as though seeing him for the first time.  Then she gradually turned back to Star, a look of shame on her face once more.  “I… I’m sorry.  I’m just… I’ve been really stressed out lately and I…”
“I-it’s all right, really,” said Star both reassuringly and a bit guiltily.  “It is true, after all.  I do have another, slightly more selfish reason to be here.  I… I need you to cast a cloud walking spell on me.”
Twilight tilted her head.  “Why?  Can’t you do it yourself?”  Before letting the young unicorn even try to answer, however, she ignited her magic again and enveloped Star in a field of purple.  After less than two seconds, she let the field drop, her eyes wide with horror.  “Star!  What happened to you?!”  She jumped out of the chair and rushed over to the young pony, studying her face and horn closely with almost motherly concern. 
“I b-burned out my magic,” said Star, a little bit freaked out by Twilight’s unexpectedly rapid mood swings.
“How?!  What happened?” said Twilight anxiously.  “Are you hurt?”
Star deliberated for a bit and then decided to tell Twilight the whole story.  She talked about the trip to the listening post, about the encounter with the hostile aliens, and about how she’d used her shield spell to save the lives of her crewmates.  Both Twilight and Spike listened to this story with grave concern.  During the tale, Twilight returned to her seat across from Star and sank heavily into it.
Finally, when Star finished giving her account, Twilight angrily said, “Discord lied to us.  He told us there were no hostile aliens native to this region of space.  And here I was thinking that he’d really reformed.”
Star shook her head and said, “Maybe he didn’t lie.  I don’t think these aliens are native to this universe, let alone this region of space.”  She repeated what she heard from Dr. M’rrre about how the aliens had vanished into a dimensional rift of some sort.
“That’s even more alarming,” said Twilight.  She sighed and rested her head against the back of her chair.  “But… that’s not what’s important right now.  What’s important is that you’re injured.  Spike, would you go and get my copy of Magical Maladies and Injuries, please?”
“Sure thing,” said the dragon, getting up from the floor and heading off in the direction of the bookshelves.
“So… you had to use your shield spell,” said Twilight, eyeing Star carefully.  “Does it still cause you as much pain as it used to?”
Star considered her reply.  “Not quite as much.  I’d been practicing with it when I had a spare moment between classes at the Academy.  It does still hurt, but I’ve been able to hold it for longer and longer periods of time.  It’s a good thing, too, or I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now at all.”
“Indeed,” said the alicorn.  She watched Star for a bit more and then said, “Look, Star… I just want to say again that I’m really, really sorry for how I behaved earlier.  I’ve been under a whole lot of strain these past few years.  It’s so good to finally see you again after all this time.  But… really, though, why haven’t you visited or written?”
Star tilted her head.  “Oh… so they didn’t even tell you?”
“Who didn’t tell me what?” asked Twilight, matching Star’s head tilt with one of her own.
“My parents,” said Star, closing her eyes and shaking her head.  “They didn’t tell you about… about the last time I saw them?”
“No,” said Twilight.  “Last I talked to your parents they just said that they hadn’t heard from you in a while, same as me.  They said that they hoped you were doing okay, but that it hurt that you hadn’t contacted them at all.  Star, why?  What happened?”
Star felt the tears welling up in her eyes once again.  She didn’t even try to quell them this time, and just let them fall freely.  “I’m horrible.  That’s why.  The last time I saw my parents was four years ago, just before I left for the Academy, and we got into a terrible argument.  They didn’t want me to go to the Academy.  They were afraid that they’d never see me again.  They were… dad was afraid that I would get hurt.  You know how he’s always been so overprotective of me.  He didn’t want me to ‘die in space on some cold gray starship,’ he said.  I was insulted that he had so little faith in me, but… well… he was very nearly right on the money.  It was only by Celestia’s grace that I didn’t end up dead three days ago.  I know now that they just wanted what was best for me, but… at the time, I was so very angry and I said some incredibly hurtful things to both of them.  They tried to call me at the Academy later, but I just ignored them.  I finally realized how foolish I was being, but by that point I felt that it was too late… that too much time had passed, so I never tried to call them back... or anypony else… which was itself really foolish, but… well… the foolishness just kept feeding on itself, I guess.  I… I want to see them… need to see them, Twilight, but I’m afraid to.  I… I just don’t know what to do…”
The alicorn stood up and walked over to Star again, nuzzling her gently, any previous anger of her own completely forgotten.  “Star, your parents miss you terribly.  That’s all that matters.  You do need to go see them, and I’ll do everything I can to see that you can get there.  Family is the most important thing, no matter what.”  She backed away and fell into her chair again.  “Family… and friends.”  The young unicorn noted that Twilight’s eyes had gotten misty as well.
Star was unsure how to broach the topic delicately and finally decided to just be direct about it.  “So… I hear that you’ve been trying to find Pinkie Pie…”
A pained look crossed Twilight’s face.  “Yes,” she said.  “It’s not going well at all.  Again, I’m sorry about how I blew up at you before, especially since it wasn’t really your fault at all.  That spell wouldn’t have worked anyway, even if I had been able to somehow manage to convince the entire town to go visit Canterlot for a few days beforehand.  I was stupid to convince myself that it would.  You being here in the library when I tried to cast it didn’t make the slightest difference, to be honest.  I… I just used you as a scapegoat for the inevitable failure.  At this point, I just don’t know what else to do, Star.  I’ve tried every location spell known to ponykind and several that I made up myself, and nothing has worked.  Not a single thing.  Something is… blocking me.  I don’t know if it’s Pinkie Pie herself or if it’s something else.  I’m not sure which possibility horrifies me more.  You know how powerful Pinkie was.  She was nearly on par with Discord himself.  But if there’s something even stronger out there that’s keeping her from returning and blocking my magic from finding her… You can’t imagine how many sleepless nights I’ve had thinking about this.”
“Is it possible that she has… …passed on?” said Star, feeling terrible at even considering it, but not wanting to overlook any possibilities, no matter how dreadful they might be to think about.
“No,” said Twilight, shaking her head.  But then she lowered her head and considered the matter more carefully.  “Or… well… if she has, I’m being blocked from detecting that as well.  Several of the spells I tried should have found her even if she was… no longer with us in that sense, but even those failed.  The main thing that still gives me some measure of hope is that the Element of Laughter hasn’t yet picked a new Bearer.  If it ever does, then that… means…”  The alicorn’s eyes suddenly widened into saucers and she slapped herself in the forehead with both front hooves, causing Star to flinch back in surprise at the abrupt change in Twilight’s mood once more.  “Six years!  Six years and I never even once considered trying…  ARGH!  I am such a colossal idiot!  I’ve been going about this entirely backward for six bucking years!  Spike!  SPIKE!”
The dragon, who was just returning with the Magical Maladies and Injuries tome, yelped and dropped the book, nearly smashing his own toes with it.  “What?!  What is it?!  I got the book, just like you asked!  What are you screaming about now?”
Twilight jumped up and said, “Give it to Star so she can look through it, and then come help me bring out every book on the Elements of Harmony that we have!”



Seven year old Star Strider ground her teeth in frustration.  A short distance away, Twilight Sparkle watched patiently as the filly climbed the ladder for… well, by this point, both of them had long since lost count.  Star reached the top of the ladder and looked down at the cloud that Rainbow Dash had acquired for them.  The pegasus herself was lounging on a nearby tree branch, lazily watching the lesson as it unfolded.
“You can do it, Star,” said Twilight encouragingly.  “You almost had it the last few times.”
“Yeah,” quipped Rainbow, “she only sank through the cloud after a second or two, rather than instantly falling through like all those times before.  It’s definitely an improvement.  Of course, if this were Cloudsdale and not just a tiny cloud hovering a couple feet off the ground, she’d still be in real trouble, any way you look at it.”
“You’re not really helping, Rainbow,” said Twilight a bit crossly.
“I’m just telling it like it is,” said Dash, with a shrug.  “If she wants to be able to walk around in the clouds, she’s going to have to do a whole lot better than what’s she’s been doing.  That’s all I’m saying.”
Star glared at the sky blue pegasus.  She really didn’t like Rainbow Dash very much, and she wondered how in the world Twilight was able to put up with her.  Since the alicorn had finally begun her training on the cloud walking spell a few months ago, Rainbow Dash had been supplying the practice clouds.  The clouds tended to last a couple of days before finally dissipating, and whenever they did, Rainbow would arrive with another one, like today.  Star dreaded those days.  As before, the pegasus had stuck around today to watch, always ready with a snide quip or three to needle the navy blue unicorn.  Star really didn’t understand why Dash disliked her so much, and it kind of hurt her feelings, but at the same time, she wasn’t about to let the pegasus know just how much she was getting under her skin.  Well, this time, Star would show her.  Today was going to be the day she finally got the cloud walking spell right!  She could feel it.
“Boy, doesn’t she look pissed?” Dash noted.  She raised her voice and said, “Hey, kiddo, don’t get mad at me.  You’re the one who’s falling through the clouds over and over, you know?  If there’s anypony you should be getting mad at, it’s yourself.”
“Rainbow Dash, seriously,” said Twilight, glaring up at the pegasus.  “We don’t come and mock you while you’re training for the Wonderbolts trials, do we?”
“’Course not,” said Dash confidently.  “That’s because I don’t screw up.”
Star flared her nostrils and looked back down at the cloud again.  She ignited her magic, wrapped herself in a bright blue glow, and then leapt off of the platform onto the cloud.  For the briefest of moments, she felt elated.  She was doing it!  She was walking on the cloud.  And then she began to sink yet again, just like every time before.
“NO!” she yelled, and suddenly her horn flared a second time.  That… was certainly new.  In her surprise, she almost lost her concentration completely.  In her peripheral vision, she saw Twilight’s eyes grow wide.  Even Rainbow Dash had stopped fidgeting and was watching her fully now.  Something felt different this time.
Star reared back on her hind legs and then brought her fore legs down hard onto the cloud.  It was almost like striking stone.  Well, okay, maybe not quite that hard, but it definitely seemed solid enough to her.  A grin spread across her face as she raised her hind legs into the air and let out a triumphant buck, before letting them drop onto the cloud surface.  She let her magic die as she stood victorious on top of the cloud.  Finally, after months of trying, she’d mastered the cloud walking spell.  It felt good to finally get something right for a change, after all the abysmal failures with every other spell Twilight had tried to teach her up to now.
Twilight’s face melted into a wide smile as she galloped toward the cloud.  Before the alicorn could reach her, however, Rainbow Dash dropped out of the tree and glided over to land on the cloud next to her.  Star instinctively flinched away from the pegasus, but Rainbow didn’t seem to notice.  Instead, she extended a wing and wrapped the small unicorn with it.
“I knew you had it in you, kid,” said Rainbow cheerfully.  “Nice job.”  She raised one of her fore hooves and gave Star a light noogie.
Star was confused.  “But… what about all those mean things you said before?  You did nothing but taunt me until now!”
Rainbow Dash looked down at the filly with a somewhat confused look of her own, but then broke out into a grin.  “What?  Nah, I was only teasing you.  I was just trying to get you riled up, that’s all.  And it looks like it worked, if I do say so myself.”  She raised her voice to the purple alicorn below and said, “See, Twilight!  I told you.  You coddle her way too much.”
Star struggled her way out from underneath Dash’s wing, and looked at the pegasus carefully.  “You mean you don’t… hate me?”
Rainbow’s grin died and she turned to face the unicorn fully.  “Of course I don’t hate you, Star.  W-where’d you get a crazy idea like that?  Your father and I are very close friends, after all, since we’re both training for the Wonderbolts together, so why in the world would I hate his only daughter?”
“I… I just didn’t think you liked me very much at all,” said Star.  “All those nasty things you said every time you’d watch me trying to do the cloud walking spell.  I tried not to let it show, but it really hurt.”
Rainbow Dash watched the filly for a long moment, and then sighed and dropped her head.  “Star… I didn’t realize… look, I… I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, okay?  Like I said, I was just trying to goad you on.  I want you to succeed just as much as Twilight does.  I just went about it a different way, that’s all.”  She raised her head again and looked the filly in the eyes.  “I’m sorry.”
“Really?” said Star, trying to gauge whether the pegasus was being serious with her or not.
“Really,” said Rainbow.  “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”  She even went through all the motions, ending up with her front hoof in her eye. Star’s own eyes widened.  Rainbow Dash had just invoked a Pinkie Promise, so she must be telling the truth.  Rainbow grinned again and said, “So, we cool now, or what?”  She lowered the hoof that had been on her eye and held it out toward the unicorn.
Star grinned and raised her own hoof and bumped it against Rainbow’s.
“Hey!  What’s going on, you guys?  Did I hear somepony making a Pinkie Promise?” said a voice that seemed like it was right on top of them.  Indeed, almost as if summoned, Pinkie Pie abruptly appeared in their midst in a burst of pink light and a sound familiar to everypony in Ponyville, causing both Star and Rainbow to yelp in shock and nearly topple off of the cloud.  “Ooh, it looks like you finally mastered your cloud walk spell, Star!  You go, girl!”  She held up a hoof in the same manner that Rainbow had earlier.  Her grin reappearing, Star gave Pinkie a hoof bump as well.  Only belatedly did Star realize that Pinkie Pie herself was also standing on the cloud, but she’d long ago stopped being surprised by the things Pinkie was able to do.
“Geez, Pinkie,” said Rainbow Dash.  “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
Twilight’s voice called from down below, “Are you guys coming down or are you planning to stay up there all day?  Should I fly up there and join you?  And do I hear Pinkie Pie up there now as well?  It sounds like it’s getting pretty crowded.”
“Yep, it’s me!” said Pinkie Pie, with a giggle.  “Come on, girls, let’s go see Twilight.”  Before either Star or Rainbow could respond, all three of them disappeared in a pink burst of light and the sound of Pinkie’s party cannon, only to reappear a split instant later on the ground next to Twilight.
“Gah!” cried out both Rainbow and Twilight.  Star, however, was long since used to Pinkie’s antics, given that ever since Star was a foal the pink earth pony liked to play with her and the Cake twins whenever they had a spare moment not at school or doing homework or doing chores or studying with Twilight or whatever else.
“You guys ready for the big party this evening?” asked Pinkie excitedly.
“Party?” said Twilight.
“What party?” asked Rainbow.  “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
Pinkie grinned and said, “Rarity’s in town from Canterlot!  So, of course, that means we have to have a party.  It’ll be the first time in a while that we’ve all gotten together like this.”  Pinkie’s grin faded a bit and she added, “We don’t really hang out as much as we used to, you know?”
Twilight shrugged and said, “Well, everypony is busy with their own things, Pinkie.  I wouldn’t worry about it.  Still, it’ll be nice to see Rarity and catch up.”
Rainbow nodded and said, “I was going to go get in a bit more training with Star’s dad this evening for the upcoming Wonderbolts tryouts, but I guess I can spare a few hours for a party.”
“That’s wonderful!” said Pinkie.  “And speaking of Star’s dad…” She turned to Star and said, “…of course you and your parents are invited as well.  The more the merrier!  Now, I have to go get things ready, but come on by Sugarcube Corner in an hour or so and we’ll party like there’s no tomorrow!”  With that, she gave them a wink and then disappeared in a burst of pink light, the sound of her party cannon, and a blast of confetti.
“I will never in a million years get used to that,” said Rainbow, as the confetti rained down over the three remaining ponies.
“You and me both,” said Twilight.



Nineteen year old Star Strider walked alongside Twilight Sparkle as they both made their way toward Sweet Apple Acres, leaving hoof prints behind them on the snow-covered path.  Spike had been sent off on a new errand by Twilight and thus wasn’t with them at the moment.  Most of the rest of Ponyville’s citizens were inside their homes where it was warm, so the two of them didn’t see anypony else out and about.
“Not that I mind the company, but you didn’t have to come along with me for this, you know,” said the alicorn.  “I would have been glad to have cast the cloud walking spell on you so that you could go see your parents as soon as possible.”
Star shrugged and said, “Well, the way I see it, you’re going to be heading to Cloudsdale for your own reasons soon enough, right?  So I’ll just wait and tag along with you when you go, if you don’t mind.”
“Did you find anything in my Magical Maladies and Injuries book that might help you with getting your magic back?” asked Twilight, looking at the younger unicorn with concern in her eyes.  She didn’t seem too hopeful.
“Not really,” said Star, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.  “For the most part, the book just said that it takes time and rest to regain one’s magic after a burnout like mine, which I already knew.  There were a few folk remedies that claimed to help, but I’m dubious.  It might not hurt to ask Zecora later, at any rate.  Anyway, to get back to what you said before… as much as I do want to see my parents, I… I think I need a bit more time to mentally prepare myself to see them again.  And besides, I think what you’re doing here is just as important as that.  If it means that we really can finally find Pinkie Pie and bring her home, I want to be a part of that.  Do you think it will really work, though?”
Twilight shook her head and shrugged.  “I don’t know.  If I’m right, it has a better chance of success than most of those worthless spells I’d been wasting my time on for the past several years, at least.  I still can’t believe that in all this time, it never once occurred to me to try this.  In any case, though, we won’t know for sure until we try it out.  With that said, I do have a potential trump card to play that will hopefully push the odds even more in our favor.  That’s why I sent Spike off to make arrangements with Ditzy Doo Deliveries.”
Star had something else she was about to ask, but the mention of Ditzy Doo completely derailed her train of thought.  “So, uh, what’s up with that, anyway?  Do you happen to know why Derpy changed her name?”
Twilight nodded.  “Yeah, I do.  She finally found out what ‘derpy’ means in Federation Standard,” said the purple alicorn with a slight frown.  “It’s not very flattering at all, if you don’t know what it means.  So she decided to stop using that nickname and start going by her original name.  I… I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that ‘ditzy’ isn’t all that much better than ‘derpy,’ to be honest.  It’s strange how words that are completely innocuous in one language can be somewhat insulting in others.”
Star twisted her mouth to the side, and clicked her tongue slightly.  “Poor Derpy… or I guess I should say Ditzy now.  Still, I guess I shouldn’t feel too sorry for her, since she’s apparently flying around in a Ferengi shuttlecraft, or so I hear anyway.”
“Ferengi?” asked Twilight, making a mental note of the name.  “So that’s what that large eared humanoid is called?  All I knew was that his name was Brunt.  He came by the library a few years ago, looking to sell some old, tattered books he’d gotten only Celestia knows where.  They were still salvageable, though, and came from many different worlds in the Alpha Quadrant, so I still wanted to buy them from him even so, but he didn’t seem interested in my bits at all.  Gold was pretty worthless to him, apparently, so I traded him a few beginner magic books that he seemed awfully interested in.  I tried to tell him that they were pretty much completely worthless to him, since he had no potential for magic at all, but he didn’t want to listen.  In any case, he seemed happy with the exchange, but I thought I got the better deal, despite the horrid condition the books were in.  As for that ugly spaceship of his, I never found out what Ditzy Doo traded to him in exchange for that, and I’m not sure I want to know, but they both seemed pretty pleased by the deal in the end.  After that, I heard that Brunt went off to Manehattan for some other business, but I don’t really know anything about that, since it didn’t concern me at all.”
“That must be when he went to make his… ‘deal’ with Octavia and Vinyl Scratch,” said Star, nodding.
“Oh?” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow.  “First I’ve heard of this.  Sorry, but I don’t really keep up with the whole music scene, for the most part.”
Star let out a sigh in absent commiseration with the new friends she’d met earlier in the day and said, “This Ferengi owns a bar up on Deep Space Twenty.  A couple years back, he suckered those two into working for him as a musical act for the bar.  It won’t be long before their contract is up and they’ll be free of him, though, so they have that to look forward to, at least.  Suffice it to say, Ferengi are notorious for being swindlers in the Alpha Quadrant, and he definitely swindled them.  You’re very lucky that your own transaction with him went as well for you as it did.”
“Eh, not so well, really,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes.  “After I translated them, it turned out that the books were nothing more than a bunch of tawdry romance novels.  Some of them were rather… um…”  The alicorn’s cheeks started glowing red in embarrassment.  “Well… let’s just say I don’t keep them out on the shelves where any little fillies or colts could get their hooves on them and leave it at that, shall we?”  She glanced ahead and, with more than a little relief, said, “Oh, look, here’s Sweet Apple Acres.  Let’s go find Applejack, shall we?”
The unicorn and alicorn started toward the house, but as they approached, they heard familiar voices faintly coming from the barn in the distance, carrying quite far in the crisp winter air, so they turned and headed in that direction instead.
“…tellin’ ya, Big Mac,” said a female voice.  “I can’t keep this up for much longer.  I ain’t sure what else to do.  I… I just don’t think I can do this by myself anymore.  Ever since Granny Smith passed on… it just ain’t been the same, ya know?  And it’s just been gettin’ worse every year.  I know ya still come back to help as much as ya can, but that ain’t no real solution either.  Ya got yer own family to look after now.  And with Apple Bloom moved out to Appleloosa…”  The voice trailed off.
“What about the help?” asked Big Macintosh.  “That’s why ya hired those guys in the first place, ain’t it?”
Applejack snorted and said, “Those hired hooves?  They’re part of the problem.  They’re lazy good-for-nothin’s.  When they ain’t comin’ in late or leavin’ early, they’re lazin’ out in the fields.  They think they’re pullin’ the wool over my eyes, but I see ‘em.  Why just today I caught a couple of ‘em out having a snowball fight when they shoulda been mendin’ the fences.  I ain’t one to deny a pony a bit of fun now and again, but this is a regular thing with those colts, goofin’ off when they should be workin’.  If most of ‘em weren’t away for the winter season, I’d have half a mind to round ‘em all up and fire the whole danged lot of ‘em right here today.”
“I don’t know, sis,” said Big Mac.  “They seem like hard enough workers to me.  Sure, they can’t buck a tree half as well as we can, but that’s only to be expected.”
“You don’t see ‘em on a day-to-day basis like I do, big bro.  I’d be happy if they were as much as half as good as us.  Big Mac, even ten of those colts ain’t yer equal.”  Applejack sighed.  “Look, I’m sorry for grousin’ to ya like this.  I just needed to blow off some steam, that’s all.  It ain’t anything ya need to worry yerself about.  I’ll think of somethin’ so don’t ya fret none.  Even if I do have to end up firin’ this bunch, there’re plenty of others out there who’re willin’ to work.  And if it comes right down to it, I might even reconsider Flim and Flam’s offer to sell me some of their crazy machines.”
“Wait, have those two frauds been botherin’ ya again?” said Big Mac, narrowing his eyes.  It was clear this was not something that pleased him to hear in the slightest.  “I knew they were nothin’ but trouble, especially when I heard they were pokin’ their noses around here again.  They ain’t after the farm again, are they?”
“Aw, they ain’t so bad,” said Applejack, shrugging dismissively.  “Once ya get to know ‘em better, at least.  I just had lunch with ‘em the other day, in fact.  Sure, we all got off on the wrong hoof years ago when they first showed up in Ponyville, but really, they seem like they’re on the straight and narrow now.  And their machines are a right marvel, at least when they ain’t turnin’ off the safeties to win a bet, of course.  They’ve branched out beyond just cider makin’ too.  They’ve got a whole line of farmin’ machinery now.  Ya have to see some of those things, Big Mac.  They’re downright amazin’.  I’d have to hire a few unicorns to run ‘em, of course, but that’s not a big deal.”
“AJ, I don’t know,” said Big Mac hesitantly.  “Those guys tried to steal our farm, in case ya forgot.”
“Well,” said Applejack, a bit testily, “in case you forgot, it’s my farm now, and I gotta do what’s best for it.  And, to be honest, I’m almost to the point where it’s either get a little help from the Flim Flam Brothers or just throw in the towel altogether.  I don’t really want to do the latter at all, and I’m more than willin’ to swallow my pride and do the former, if need be.”  Applejack sighed again, more heavily this time, and said, “Look, I’m sorry again for gettin’ all riled up at ya about this, Big Mac… but somethin’ is just gonna have to give.  Remember that time I tried to harvest the whole orchard by myself like a dang fool?  Remember how tired and worn down that made me?  Well… it feels kinda like that pretty much all the time for me these days.  And it’s not like I can ask my friends to help out this time either.  They got their own busy lives to lead after all.”
It was at this point that Twilight and Star finally reached the door to the barn.  Twilight raised a hoof and knocked politely, but quickly, on the door.  She felt more than a little guilty that she’d overheard as much of that conversation as she had, and wanted to let them know they had guests as soon as she could do so.
“Now who could that be?” asked Applejack, her voice growing louder as she approached the door.  “I swear, if it’s one of those farm colts tryin’ to get one over on me, I’ll-”  She opened the door and stopped in mid-sentence when she saw who it was.
“Hi, Applejack,” said Twilight.  She smiled in embarrassment and raised a hoof in an awkward wave.  When Applejack just stood there with her mouth hanging open, Twilight tilted her head and said, “What is it?  You look like you’re seeing a ghost.”
“For a minute there, I almost thought I was,” said the orange earth pony.  “It’s… it’s just that I didn’t expect to see ya outta yer lab.”  Applejack noticed Star and said, “Well, I’ll be… if it ain’t little Star Strider!  It’s been a while since I last saw ya ‘round these parts.  And would you look at that fancy pants uniform too!  Looks good on ya, kid.”  Star grinned and nodded in acknowledgement.  Twilight, on the other hand, just sighed and looked even more embarrassed.
“Yeah,” said the alicorn.  “I know it’s been a while since I last came up for air, but… well… I finally found out what I’ve been doing wrong all this time.”
“And what’s that?” asked Big Macintosh, as he came up behind his sister.
Twilight looked back and forth between the two Apple siblings and said, “I’ve been trying to do everything all by myself, that’s what.  You know… the very thing I tried to warn Applejack against doing, all those years ago?  Anyway, you might have already heard the rumors… I’ve been looking for Pinkie Pie.  I thought that if I found her, maybe she could help me stop the deterioration of all of the rest of our friendships that’s been happening over the past several years now.  But what I didn’t realize was that shutting myself away from everypony was the exact wrong thing to do.  However, I now think I’ve found a different way to find Pinkie, but it’s going to require more than just me.  Applejack, I’ll need your help and the help of all of our other friends to do this.”
Applejack smiled and said, “Well, it’s certainly good to see ya out and about, Twi.  But… I’m not sure what ya need me for.  I don’t know the first thing about magic, after all.”
“Simple,” said the alicorn.  “I plan to make use of the Elements of Harmony.  It shouldn’t take more than a day or two to gather up everypony and give it a shot.”
The orange earth pony nodded and said, “Sure, I’ll be glad to help.”  Then she got a distressed look on her face.  “Wait… no, I… I can’t just leave the farm… I… things are already fallin’ apart as it is.  If I leave even for just a single day-”  She stopped when Big Macintosh put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry about a thing, little sis,” said Big Mac.  “I ain’t so rusty that I can’t run this ol’ farm for a couple of days.  Go on and take care of this business.”
“But what about yer-” started Applejack, but Big Mac shook his head to silence her again.
“Don’t ya worry none about my family,” said the red earth pony.  “In fact, I’ll send ‘em a message to meet me here.  Cheerilee’s out of school for winter break and, to be honest, little Apple Lily has been buggin’ us to visit the farm for longer than just a day for a while now, anyway.  Apparently, Hearth’s Warmin’ wasn’t enough for her.  Ya know how much fun she has when I bring her out here with me sometimes.  We’ll make a little vacation of it.  Heck, I might even decide to stay a few extra days after ya get back as well, assumin’ ya ain’t too bothered havin’ us all up in yer mane like that.”
Applejack’s eyes started to water and she gave her brother a big hug.  “Thank ya, Big Macintosh.  Ya can’t know how much this means to me.  And, sure, I definitely want ya to stick around for a while if ya can.  As long as ya want.”
Big Mac smiled and said, “Besides, this won’t be the first time I’ve had to keep an eye on things while my little sis went off on an adventure with her friends.”  Applejack took a step back from him and looked him in the eye, a sad look on her face.  Big Mac just snorted and rolled his eyes.  “I didn’t mean it like that, AJ, and ya know it, so don’t give me that look.  Anyway, if yer worried about those farm hooves lazin’ about, I’ll put the fear of Celestia in ‘em.  By the time ya get back, they’ll be buckin’ trees at least half as good as we can, even if there ain’t nothin’ but snow to buck off ‘em this time of year.  And while yer gone, I’ll even see about gettin’ Apple Bloom to come back for a visit as well and make this a proper family get-together.  I know this won’t solve all yer problems, but I figure ya probably need somethin’ like this all the same.”
At the last bit about Apple Bloom, Applejack all but completely lost it.  Tears streamed down her face as she once again enveloped her brother in a hug.  “That would be real nice, big bro.  Real nice.  She wasn’t able to make it here for Hearth’s Warmin’, after all.”  She backed away from him again, lowering her head to regain control of herself once more.  Then she turned to Twilight and Star.  “Welp, it looks like my schedule just got cleared for a couple days at least, so I’m yer pony.  Where to now?”



“Doctors Ogawa and Redheart, please report to the maternity ward, stat!” a voice called out over the public address system of the Federation medical facility.  All around Twilight, Applejack, and Star was the hustle and bustle of activity.  Most of the staff was made up of ponies, but they still caught glimpses of bipedal humanoids here and there as well.  All of the latter were wearing blue Starfleet uniforms.
“Can ya believe Fluttershy actually works in a place like this?” Applejack marveled as they made their way toward the veterinary ward.  “Even just a few years ago, she’d have still been far too timid to be around this many others at once.”
“She’s come a long way,” said Twilight, but then she lowered her head in shame.  “Or… so I’ve heard anyway.  I… haven’t really been keeping up with how she’s been doing as much as I should have.”
“Don’t beat yerself up so much, sugar cube,” said the earth pony.  “What matters is that ya finally saw the light and are tryin’ to make things right again.”  As Star listened to this, she thought of her parents once more.  Hopefully they’d be as understanding as Applejack was with Twilight.  But then, Twilight had never been as horrible to Applejack as she had been to her parents.  Star shook her head and tried to banish these thoughts.
As the trio approached the veterinary ward, even if the signs hadn’t been a clear indicator that they were in the right place, they still would have known it because as they passed through one of the doorways, the sounds of animals could suddenly be heard all around them.  Dogs, cats, chickens, squirrels, and various other species of critter were making their presence known to all.  The three ponies entered one of the patient rooms and stopped short at what confronted them.  A timberwolf, of all things, was lying on its side on a large biobed, its glowing eyes flicking in their direction as they entered.
“There you go, sir.”  A soft voice could be heard coming from a source not currently visible from the other side of the massive creature.  “I’ve treated the burns, so you should be ready to go home now.  Just be careful and remember to take shelter next time there’s a thunderstorm.  You don’t want to get caught in another forest fire, after all.  Now, if you’ll just accompany Nurse Lopler to the transporter station, you’ll be returned right to your den in no time.”
The timberwolf rolled up onto its legs and then hopped down off of the biobed.  Star, Twilight, and Applejack pressed themselves tightly against the wall as the hulking beast placidly padded its way toward them and the exit of the room, being led by a human Starfleet ensign.  The human nodded to them as she passed, while the timberwolf merely sniffed in their direction once and then ignored them completely.  The three ponies watched as the creature finally disappeared through the doors, and then they turned back toward the interior of the room.
“Very nicely done, Fluttershy,” said another voice near to the first one they’d heard.  Standing near the end of the biobed was another human doctor, an elderly male wearing a Starfleet uniform underneath a long blue lab coat.  He patted the yellow pegasus with the pink mane on her shoulder and said, “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a denizen of the Everfree Forest handled more effectively than that.  They’re usually most troublesome patients.  Often, the attending physicians end up as patients themselves.”
“I-I was afraid that we were going to lose him, Dr. Bohman,” said Fluttershy, bowing her head and looking down at the floor.
“Yes, it was touch and go there for a while,” said the Starfleet doctor, “but you pulled through most admirably.  I couldn’t have done a better job myself, in fact.  Are you sure you don’t want to go ahead and move on to pony patients sooner?  I think you’re more than ready.”
“Oh no,” replied the pegasus.  “I’m really not ready yet.  I-I haven’t completed my studies.  I still have a long way to go, so I don’t think I-”
The doctor harrumphed and said, “Fluttershy, your studies are one thing, but I’m offering you a little head start on getting some valuable hands-on experience... or, heh, I suppose I should say ‘hooves-on’ in your case, right?  Think of it as an internship, if you want.  Nothing too stressful, if you don’t think you’re ready for that.  And you’ll definitely still have time to work with the animal patients as well.  That said, however, I definitely think that you’re… oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t notice we had guests.”  Both of them looked up at the three newcomers.
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide.  “Applejack?  And T-Twilight?  And… Star?  Oh my.  I wasn’t expecting any visitors at all.”
“Are these friends of yours, Fluttershy?” asked the human.  He and the pegasus stepped out from behind the biobed to stand in front of the other three ponies.
“Yes,” said Fluttershy with a nod.  “Oh, I’m sorry.  I should make introductions.  Dr. Bohman, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Star Strider.  Guys, this is my mentor, Dr. Julius Bohman.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” said the elderly doctor, holding out his hand and stooping a bit as he shook each of their hooves.  When he got to Star, his eyes lit up and he said, “Ah, you must be the young pony who everyone’s been talking about.  Am I correct in assuming that you’ve graduated from the Academy by now?”
Star nodded.  “That’s right, sir.  I’ve been assigned to the Pegasus.”
“Aha,” said Bohman, his face seeming to shed ten years as it split into a grin.  “That’s one of those new-fangled Continuum-class vessels if I’m not mistaken.  Captain Sovaal, right?”
Star was a bit surprised.  “Yes, sir.  Do you know him, sir?”
“Indeed I do,” said the doctor.  “I used to be his chief medical officer back on the Huntington and before that we both served as junior officers on the Venture.  Oh, by the way, is Marie on the Pegasus by chance?  Black furred Caitian girl with silver hair?”
Star’s surprise grew by the second the more she talked with this old man.  “She is, sir.  In fact, she’s the chief medical officer.”
“Well, I’ll be damned!” said Bohman, a look of pride washing over his features.  “Oh, pardon my language.  It’s just that, you know, I taught that girl everything she knows.  Sure, she’ll claim she got most of it from her book learning at the Academy, but we both know better.”  The old man winked as he said this.  “I took her under my wing, so to speak, when I first met her on the Huntington, same as I have with young Fluttershy here.”  He turned to the yellow pegasus and said, “One thing the two of you have in common is an uncommon talent for the medical arts.  Maybe I’ll introduce the two of you to one another some day.”  The elderly doctor turned and noticed all eyes were on him and held up his hands.  “Oh, I’m sorry.  I’ve been monopolizing the conversation, haven’t I?  I’ll make myself scarce so you can catch up with your friends, Fluttershy.  If you need me, I’ll be in the lounge.  It was nice to meet you all.  Ensign Strider, please tell Marie and Sovaal that I said hello, if you would.”
“I will, sir,” said Star, watching as the old doctor made his exit from the room.
Twilight and Fluttershy faced one another and then, simultaneously, both of them said, “I’m sorry.”
Twilight blinked and said, “Wait… what?”
Fluttershy recovered first and said, “I haven’t been to visit you in so long, Twilight.  I’m so sorry.  It’s just… I’ve been so very busy and I just haven’t…”  She trailed off as she noticed the look of surprised amusement on the alicorn’s face.  “Did I say something funny?”
Twilight shook her head, though still smiling, and said, “Well, it’s just that you pretty much stole my lines.  I was about to say almost those exact words to you.”
“But… I don’t understand, Twilight,” said the pegasus.
“I’ve been so buried in my magical research and experiments,” explained the alicorn, “that I haven’t been a very good friend to you or Applejack or anypony else.  And that was wrong of me.  Especially since I only just now realized that if I had simply involved you guys from the start, we might have solved this issue years ago.”
“What issue?” asked Fluttershy quizzically.  “Is there something wrong?”
“She’s talkin’ about Pinkie Pie,” said Applejack.  “We think we might have a way to find her, but we’re gonna need yer help for it, along with Rarity and Rainbow Dash.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened in surprise.  “Oh… oh my…”  Then she lowered her head in shame.  “I… I’ve been so very busy lately that I… I almost completely forgot about Pinkie Pie being… gone.  I… I’m such a terrible friend.”
Applejack sighed and said, “Don’t feel too bad, sugar cube.  You ain’t the only one who’s had other things on her plate lately.  Twilight here seems to have been the only one of us who has been tryin’ to do anything about it all this time.”
“Maybe so, but…” said Twilight, not at all comfortable with the direction the conversation was taking.  In this case, she didn’t want to be made out to be the only one in the right while her friends were ignoring a problem, because she certainly didn’t feel like she was in the right.  “…that doesn’t excuse me neglecting all of my other friends in the pursuit of finding her, though.  And like I said, if I’d asked for your help sooner…”
Star looked back and forth between the three older ponies and cleared her throat.  When they turned to face her, she said, “I don’t mean to butt in here, but… well… the past is the past, isn’t it?  What really matters is that you’re here now and that you have a chance to make things right again.”  As an outsider, for the most part, when it came to Twilight’s circle of friends, Star was somewhat afraid that she might be overstepping her bounds here.
The other three ponies stared at her for a bit, and then Applejack nodded once and said, “Yer absolutely right, sugar cube.”
Twilight nodded as well, and then turned back to Fluttershy.  “Okay, so here is my plan.  Once we’ve reunited with Rarity and Rainbow Dash, we use the Elements of Harmony to try to find Pinkie Pie, via the Element of Laughter.”
Fluttershy nodded and said, “Okay.  You can count on me.  I’m sure I can get some time away from my practice and my studies for this.  So… when do we leave?”



Nine year old Star Strider hesitated before entering the Ponyville library.  It had been almost half a year since she’d last visited Ponyville with her parents.  Her dad’s job as one of the Wonderbolts had kept them from getting much time away from Cloudsdale, to which Star and her family had moved not more than three months after Star had finally mastered the cloud walking spell.  Since the Summer Sun Celebration was in Ponyville this year, however, it had given her a reason to come back, since the Wonderbolts would be performing here.  She’d been looking forward to it at first, but now, she wondered if it might not have been better if she’d just stayed at home in Cloudsdale after all.  Taking a deep breath, Star pushed open the door and walked through.
Twilight Sparkle looked up from the book she was reading.  When she saw who had come through the door, she set aside the book entirely and got up from the sofa, a smile on her face.  “Star!  It’s been a while.  How are things in Cloudsdale?” she asked.
“They’re… okay, I guess,” said the young blue unicorn, not meeting her eyes.
Twilight waited for a bit, then said, “Oh… kay… so… are you looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration?”
Star shrugged and said, “Yeah.  I guess so.”  She slowly ambled into the room and plopped down in a chair opposite of the one in which Twilight had been sitting before, keeping her head bowed low.
Twilight’s smiled faded and was replaced by a frown.  “Star, is there something wrong?” she asked, her voice tinged with concern.  She sat back down across from Star.
Star finally looked up at the alicorn.  “I just can’t do it, Twilight.  I’ve tried to keep up with my magical studies like you wanted, but I just can’t do it.  For the past six months, I’ve gotten up in the morning, fortified my cloud walking spell, and gone to school.  Then, in the evening, when all of the pegasi went off to the afternoon flight training classes, I’d find a quiet spot and practice my magic.  I practiced until Celestia lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon, and sometimes even later.  I’ve tried every spell that you ever attempted to teach me, but, except for the cloud walking spell, I’m not able to do any of them.  Not a single one.  I was hoping that between the last time I saw you and now, I would master at least one or two of them and surprise you… but, I just can’t do it.  I’m not cut out for magic.  All I have are my basic telekinesis and the cloud walk spell, and I’m lucky to have that much.  I’m sorry for being such a disappointment.  I know you tried for four years to teach me, but I’m such a lousy student.”
Twilight remained silent for a moment, but then she smiled again.  “Well, that’s okay, Star.  It’s no big deal.  Not every unicorn is able to do a bunch of spells.  I’m not disappointed in you in the slightest.”
Star blinked.  “Really?  You’re not?”
“Of course not,” said the purple alicorn.  “Your destiny simply lies elsewhere, that’s all.”
“Some destiny,” muttered Star.  “I don’t even have my cutie mark yet.  Have you ever even heard of such a thing as a nine year old filly without a cutie mark?”
Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “I might have heard of three or four of them in my time.  One of them has just made it into the Wonderbolts, in fact.  You might have heard of her?”
Star’s eyes widened.  “You mean… Scootaloo?  She… she didn’t get her cutie mark until she was…?”
“Older than you are now, actually,” said Twilight, lowering her voice conspiratorially.  “But don’t you dare tell her I told you about this.”
“I won’t,” said Star, still in awe that one of her idols had been in the same boat as she was.  Maybe… maybe it wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.
“Anyway,” said Twilight, “I guess it’s established now that your future doesn’t lie in magical study.  So tell me… what do you want to do when you get older?”
“I… I hadn’t really thought about it much,” said Star, evasively.  She shifted her eyes away from the alicorn conspicuously.
Twilight arched an eyebrow.  “Is that so?  No thought at all?  None whatsoever?”
Star looked back up at her former magical mentor and said, “Well… I have been considering something… but… no, there’s no way I’d ever be able to…”
“Go on,” said Twilight, definitely intrigued now.  “Tell me.”
Star looked at the alicorn for a long while, and then took a deep breath and said, all in a rush, “I want to go to Starfleet Academy.”
Twilight blinked.  “Wow.  That’s a pretty lofty goal.”
“Yeah, I know.  There’s no chance they’d ever accept me,” said Star, lowering her head again.
“I didn’t say that at all,” said Twilight.  “However, if that’s what you think, then you’re right, you won’t ever be accepted.”
Star’s head felt like a yo-yo as she snapped it back up to look at the purple alicorn again.  “W-what do you mean?”
“You’re defeating yourself before you even start,” Twilight explained.  “Saying things like ‘I’d never be able to’ or ‘they’d never accept me’ when you should be saying things like ‘I’ll definitely be able to’ or ‘they’re sure to accept me’ instead.”
Star’s eyes widened.  “You really think they would?  You… y-you really think that I have a shot at it?”
Twilight smiled.  “I think you can do anything you set your mind to.”
“I can’t do magic,” said Star, lowering her head again.
“Star,” said Twilight, with a sigh.  “You’re really not making it easy for me to encourage you, you know?  That was different.  With magic, you tried your best and… well… sometimes, even when we try our best, we just aren’t up to the task.  There are plenty of things I’ve tried that I can’t do, for instance.”
“Really?” said Star dubiously.  “Like what?”
“Well,” said Twilight, “for one thing, I can’t build a decent bird nest to save my life.”  She was looking off into the distance, not at anything in the room, but at something in her memories.  “I can’t ice skate without falling on my face.  I can’t push a snow plow without magic, and with magic… well, I almost ruined Ponyville’s Winter Wrap Up a couple of years before you were born.  And those are just the things I learned I can’t do over the course of a single day.  There are plenty of other things I’m not good at, too.  But the point is, at least I tried those things before finding out that I couldn’t do them.  If you resign yourself to thinking you’ll never be accepted into Starfleet Academy before you even try, then you won’t be.”
“I… I think I understand,” said Star.  “So… do you think I should apply to the Academy when the time comes?  I still have a few years to go before I’m ready to even try to apply, and there’s the minimum age requirement and all, but…”
“That just gives you more time to prepare, right?” said Twilight.  “So… if you do attend the Academy, what field would you go into?  Do you see yourself as the captain of a starship someday?”
Star blushed and said, “M-maybe.  But I actually think I’d rather go into engineering or maybe something related to science.”
“Really?” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow.  “Well… it is true that you always did seem a lot more interested in my astronomy lessons than the magic ones.”  As Star’s blush deepened, Twilight smiled and said, “Hey, in fact, you came here at just the right time, if your interest is in engineering.  I just got something in a couple of days ago that you might be pretty interested in.”
“What is it?” said Star, already feeling her excitement starting to bubble.
“Follow me,” said Twilight.  She got up and made for the door that led down to her lab.  About half a minute later found Star and Twilight standing at the bottom of the stairs leading back up to the library proper.  “There it is,” said the purple alicorn, indicating a strange device that was taking up the bulk of her work table and then some.
“W-what is it?” asked Star in quiet wonder.
“It’s a…” Twilight started to say, but then stopped and smiled enigmatically.  “Actually, let’s see if you can figure it out for yourself.  Try to probe it with your magic.”
Star looked at the alicorn uncertainly for a bit, but then turned back to the strange device.  She let her horn flare with bright blue magic and a similar colored field appeared around the thing on the table.  Star let the magic penetrate into the inner workings of the device.  At first, she didn’t have the slightest clue what she was sensing, but then as if by… well… by magic, she began to get an understanding of the machinery.
“It’s… it’s a… I think it’s an energy shield generator of some sort,” said Star, after a moment.
Twilight’s eyes widened.  “Wow.  Very impressive,” she said.  “That’s exactly what it is.  This is the main shield array for a Danube-class Starfleet runabout.”
“How did you get this?” asked Star, not taking her eyes off the machine for a second as she continued to probe its depths with her magic.
“I have a bit of influence with Starfleet,” said Twilight, “so I’ve been pulling some strings to get my hooves on some of their technology to study.  I got a taste of it back when we made first contact, when I was helping them to enhance their photon torpedoes and phasers, and I wanted to see what I could do with some of their other pieces of tech.  They agreed that this could have interesting results.  This shield array is one of the pieces that they’ve sent me.  Unfortunately, I’ve managed to break it somehow, and I haven’t yet quite been able to figure out what happened.”
“Yes,” said the navy blue unicorn, her voice distant as she was paying more attention to the device than she was to Twilight.  “I see.  I think I know what’s wrong.”
“You… you do?” said the alicorn in surprise.
“Ah, yes, that’s it,” said Star, her voice slightly slurred as if she was in a daze.  “I think I can fix it.  All you need to do is…”
Suddenly, the shield array activated, the console on the side of it lighting up.
Just as suddenly, nine year old Star Strider began to shriek in pure agony.
Twilight somehow found herself being propelled away from both Star and the shield array.  She spread her wings in an attempt to stop herself, but she lost her balance and fell into a stack of books that she had stored in the corner, which toppled down around her.  When she regained her hooves and turned back toward the center of the room, she could hardly comprehend what she saw.  The shield array was active, but the shield that was being produced wasn’t originating from the array itself.  It was coming from Star somehow.  The filly was still screaming incoherently.  Twilight quickly used her magic to manipulate the control console attached to the array to shut it down, but that didn’t make the shield go away.
“AAAAAHHHH!” Star cried, clearly in massive amounts of pain.  “Turn… it… off!  Please!!!”
“It is off, Star!” shouted Twilight.  “You are doing this, somehow!  Shut down your magic!  Stop whatever it is you’re doing!”
Just as suddenly as it began, the shield blinked out of existence and Star collapsed onto her side.  Twilight rushed over to her, fearing the worst, but the filly raised her head and looked up at her.  “What… happened, Twilight?”
Twilight didn’t answer at first, but instead enveloped the young unicorn in a field of her own magic, probing for injuries.  Breathing a sigh of relief that there was no obvious damage, Twilight continued her probing and said, “I… I honestly don’t know, Star.  I’ve never seen anything like that in all my years of studying magic.  It… it almost seems like you somehow incorporated the workings of the shield array into your magic.  I don’t know how that’s possible, but… well… you did it.  No, Star, lie still.  Don’t move.”
Star had been trying to get to her feet, but stopped at Twilight’s words.  “I don’t hurt anymore, if that’s what you’re worried about.  I just feel really tired, that’s all.  So… are you saying… that I have a shield spell now?  I… I do think that I could do it again, if I really wanted to.  But I’m afraid to try because it hurt so much.”
Twilight shook her head.  “Honestly, Star, I don’t know what to make of it.  Like I said, this is entirely new to me.”  She finally let her magic field die and said, “Well, I can’t find anything wrong with you myself, so I think you’ll be okay, but I’d still like to take you to the hospital to let the doctors check you out, just to be sure, and…” Suddenly, the alicorn’s eyes widened.  “Star!  Look!  Look at your flank!”
Star’s eyes darted to her posterior and then they grew into saucers.  “I have my cutie mark!”  Thoughts of the previous ordeal all but completely fled her mind as the excitement of suddenly and unexpectedly gaining her cutie mark nearly overwhelmed her.  “I have my cutie mark!  I… wait… what is it?”
Twilight studied the mark for a bit and said, “If I’m not mistaken, that’s what is called an isolinear chip.  That shield array there makes use of them, as does most Federation technology.  Some of the newer stuff uses something called bio-neural gel packs, but the bulk of it still mostly runs on isolinear technology.”
“W-what does it mean?” asked Star.  “Why is that my cutie mark?”
Twilight looked down at the filly and smiled.  “If you ask me, and you did, I think it means that maybe you have a much better chance of getting into Starfleet Academy than you were giving yourself credit for.  Now, come on, let’s get you to the hospital.”
Twilight helped Star to her feet and they slowly made their way up the stairs.  Star turned her head one last time at the top of the stairs and looked back down at the shield array, then looked back at her brand new cutie mark.  The grin on her face was as wide as the Milky Way itself.



Nineteen year old Star Strider sat back and watched as Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Fluttershy crowded around Rarity, trying to get her to spill the beans.
Given that it had been after nighttime when they’d left from Fluttershy’s medical facility, they’d taken the overnight train into Canterlot, with the train pulling into the Canterlot station just at the break of dawn.  They could have just used the transporters in the facility to get there immediately, but ultimately opted against it, since they didn’t want to get there in the middle of the night. 
Once they’d arrived in Canterlot, Rarity had taken absolutely no convincing at all before she decided to close up her shop for a few days and flee the city with her friends.  “Flee” seemed like the perfect word for it, in fact.  It was rather shocking to the others how eager she had been to leave, even before she’d known the reason they were there to begin with.  She hadn’t even bothered to call in one of her employees to take over the shop for her.  She had simply closed the blinds, extinguished the lights, locked the doors, and put up a “Closed Until Further Notice” sign.  They were all now on a pegasus-driven transport that was taking them on their way to Cloudsdale from Canterlot.  As the white unicorn sat daintily on one of the seats, the other ponies stared at her.  They all knew there was clearly something she wasn’t telling them.
“So…” said Applejack.  “Are ya finally gonna tell us what lit the fire under yer cutie mark or not?”
Rarity affected an air of absolute innocence and said, “Dear Applejack, I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about.  I am merely coming along to help Twilight in her plan to retrieve Pinkie Pie, that’s all.”
“Horse hockey,” said Applejack with a snort, eliciting a sharp indrawn breath of feigned discomposure from the elegant unicorn at the coarse language (and real ones from Twilight and Fluttershy), which the orange earth pony, of course, ignored completely.  “I mean, sure, that’s obviously part of it, but…”
Rarity sighed and said, “All right.  If you must know, I’ll tell you.”
The other four ponies watched for a bit longer.  After about fifteen more seconds had passed, Twilight said, “Okay… tell us what?”
Rarity sighed again, more dramatically this time, and said, “Do I really have to?”
“Is something wrong?” asked Fluttershy timidly.  “If there is, we’d like to help.”
“Well,” said the white unicorn, “when you put it that way… all right, I’ll really tell you this time, but trust me when I say there’s nothing you can do to help me.  I’ll have to handle this myself, eventually.  Somehow.”  Another twenty seconds passed.  Just as Applejack rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to speak again, Rarity silenced her with two words:  “Prince Blueblood.”  The other three ponies looked at one another in bewilderment before turning back to Rarity.
“Prince Blueblood?” asked Twilight.  “Princess Celestia’s nephew?”
“Your date at the Grand Galloping Gala all those years ago?” asked Fluttershy.
“Yes,” said Rarity, her voice beginning to harden with anger.  “Him.”
“Is he causin’ ya problems again?” asked Applejack.
“You could say that,” said Rarity.  “He.  Won’t.  Leave.  Me.  Alone!”
“What…?” said Twilight in confusion.  “Why?”
Rarity sighed yet again and leaned back on the seat.  “Well, I’ve been running my shop in Canterlot for several years now, as you all know, just minding my business and trying to make a bit.  But then, just a year or so ago, who decides to grace my shop with his royal presence but Prince Blueblood himself?  I was shocked, let me tell you.  He was right there.  In my shop.  Asking me to make him an article of clothing.  I was so angry I could spit tacks, but I didn’t let it show.  No, I was a perfect lady about the whole thing.  Purely professional.  I got his specifications written down and told him I would have the cloak for him in a few days, and then I waited for him to leave.  And that’s when he… he… oh, I can hardly bear to say it, it was so horrifying.”
“What happened?” asked Star.  Until this point, she’d been sitting somewhat apart from the others, because she didn’t want to intrude upon their reconnecting, but Rarity’s story had drawn her in just as it had the other three.
“Oh it was so dreadful,” said Rarity, holding a hoof to her forehead.  “He… he…”
“What?!” said Applejack, irritably.  “Spit it out already, would ya?”
Rarity flashed the earth pony a cross look and said, “He… he… asked me out.”
“He… asked you out?” said Fluttershy.
“What, you mean like… on a date?” said Twilight.
“That is exactly what I mean,” said the white unicorn.  She bared her teeth as though this had been the equivalent of him threatening to pour living earthworms onto her mane.  “Though ‘date’ isn’t the word I would have used.  The cloak he’d ordered was merely a pretense for him to have a reason to come into the shop in the first place, though it wasn’t like he needed an excuse, being a prince and all.”
“Even after all the stuff that happened between the two of ya at the Gala?” asked Applejack.  “After that business with the cake, I thought he’d never wanna see ya again.”
“That’s just it!” said Rarity indignantly.  “He didn’t even remember the Gala at first!  All I was to him was just another pretty new face that had arrived in Canterlot and started to make a name for herself.  Never mind the fact that I’d already been there for years by that point, he’d apparently only just become aware of me.  I don’t know if any of you have heard the rumors about dear Prince Blueblood, but… well… let’s just say that he… er… really gets around, if you take my meaning.  I was simply to be another of his… dalliances.”
“I… don’t understand,” said Fluttershy, as she glanced at Twilight, who was blushing furiously.  She turned to Applejack, who was rolling her eyes.  “I haven’t heard anything about this at all.”
“Hooboy,” said the earth pony.  “Yeah, I’ve heard a bit about that myself, and I can see why that’d eat ya up, Rarity.”  Turning to Fluttershy, she explained, “What she means, Fluttershy, is that Blueblood… well… he really likes the mares.  I mean… really likes them.  A lot.  Enough so that it’s rumored that he has a different marefriend, if ya can even call those hussies that, at his side every other week or so.  He’s built up quite a reputation for himself over just the past few years.”
Fluttershy’s face went even deeper red than Twilight’s as she processed this.
“And I was to be one of those… hussies,” said Rarity, the rage boiling off of her.  “I wanted no part of it, so I asked him if he still liked cake.  At first, the idiot didn’t understand, but then he finally recalled who I was.  I thought that would be the end of it, and he’d just turn his nose up and storm right out of the shop.  That would have been the best possible thing.  But, no… that just made it worse.  He said that was all water under the bridge, and that he completely forgave me for my transgressions at the time.  Can you honestly believe that?  He forgave me for my so-called ‘transgressions.’  Then he said that, in retrospect, it had actually been kind of fun, and that if I wanted to splatter him with more cake, I was more than welcome to do so.  If you’d heard the tone of voice he was using when he said that, and the wiggling of his eyebrows… Ugh, I wanted to buck him right where Celestia’s glory does not reach, and I would have done it too if the horrifying thought that he might have actually enjoyed it hadn’t crossed my mind.  Well, that and the fact that if I had, my shop would have been flooded with royal guards before he even hit the ground.  He is still royalty, after all, hard as this is to believe.
“Ever since then, he’s been coming by my shop at least once per week, sometimes every other day… or even more frequently.  Often, he brings whatever mare-of-the-week who happens to be hanging off of him in with him as well.  I don’t know what he hopes that will accomplish.  Maybe he thinks it will make me jealous or envious or something.  No, if anything, it just makes me feel pity for the poor, deluded mare, thinking that she’s going to be The One.  Still, I prefer those days to the days when he comes in alone, because at least when he has another mare with him, he’s not shamelessly flirting with me the whole time.  And it’s just been getting worse and worse.  The more I snub him, the more he seems determined to win my affections, and I cannot stand it!  If he had a single chivalrous bone in his body, I might actually consider it, but no.  I’ve even spoken to Fancypants about the matter, but he doesn’t want to get involved, given that it’s Blueblood, though I do have his ‘sympathies,’ for what that’s worth.  I haven’t had the courage to mention it to Princess Celestia or Luna yet, but if it keeps up I might just have to.  So, yes, Applejack, that is what has ‘lit the fire under my cutie mark,’ as you so eloquently put it.  A little time away from Canterlot and the shop will do me good.”
“Want me to take care of it for ya?” asked Applejack, a wicked gleam in her eye as she spoke.  She faked a yawn and stretched both of her hind legs conspicuously.
Rarity smirked, but shook her head.  “I appreciate the gesture, Applejack, I really do, but I don’t want to see you end up in prison for assaulting him any more than I want to go there myself for the same, tempting though it may be.  Besides, this little problem isn’t something any of you can help me with, aside from lending me an ear as I rant about it.  I will need to take care of this myself, eventually, even if ‘taking care of it’ simply means running to Princess Celestia and begging her to do something about him.  But enough about my little problem for now.  We’re almost to Cloudsdale.”
The other four ponies turned and looked out of the windows.  The magnificent cloud city was growing ever larger as they got closer.  As Star watched, she began to let her thoughts wander again.  Cloudsdale held a lot of good memories for her, but it also held more than a few terrible ones as well.



Eleven year old Star Strider sat in the stands at the Cloudosseum, waiting for the big race to start.  This one was special because it involved her two favorite Wonderbolts in a one-on-one race.  To her right sat her mother, Cloud Seed.  Her mom was almost as excited about this race as Star was.  The seat to her left was surprisingly empty, however, given how big this race was going to be.  That didn’t last for long, though.
“That seat taken?” said a voice from the aisle.
Star idly looked up to respond in the negative, but her mouth dropped open in shock.  Standing there was her third favorite Wonderbolt.  She quickly shook her head and the pegasus pony made her way to the empty seat.
“Heya, squirt, I haven’t seen you in a while,” said Scootaloo as she sat down next to Star.  “So, who do you think is going to win the big race?”  She was wearing her own Wonderbolt costume, but with the head part of it undone and hanging loosely down her back.  The fact that one of the Wonderbolts was sitting out in the regular seats rather than up in the boxes with the rest of the group was drawing stares from some members of the audience, but Scootaloo paid it no mind at all.
“Well, duh,” said Star, blowing a raspberry.  “Dad, of course.”
“You think so, huh?” said Scootaloo, sticking her tongue out as well.  “You really think he’ll be able to take Rainbow Dash this time?”
“It’ll be pretty close,” Star admitted.  She looked up at the orange pegasus with the short purple mane and smiled.  Back when they were all a lot younger (and when Star had still lived in Ponyville), Scootaloo had often babysat for her and the Cake twins, along with her two friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.  Star had always felt a bit of hero worship toward them, especially Scootaloo and especially especially after Scootaloo had made it into the Wonderbolts a couple of years ago.  Someday, Star was certain, Scootaloo would be the captain.
“Yep, should be a very good race,” said Scootaloo.  “But it ultimately doesn’t matter who wins.  This is a race for charity, after all, and it’s all in good fun.”
“FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!” said the announcer over the loudspeakers.  “DIRECT YOUR EYES TO THE STARTING LINE FOR TODAY’S MAIN EVENT!  IN POSITION #1 IS THE CURRENT REIGNING CHAMPION AND CAPTAIN OF THE WONDERBOLTS, RAINBOW DASH!”
From somewhere above the arena, a blue blur with a rainbow trailing behind it streaked in and did a quick loop-de-loop before landing at the starting line.  Rainbow Dash bowed and began to wave to the crowd that was chanting her name.
“AND IN POSITION #2 THE CHALLENGER!  LET’S HEAR IT FOR STORM STRIDER!” called out the announcer.
From the same place Rainbow Dash had appeared, so too entered another blue blur, this one trailing a stream of pure, multi-forked lightning behind it.  The blur flew a quick, tight horizontal circle around Rainbow, causing her to flinch a bit in surprise, and then landed next to her.  Storm Strider grinned at her and stuck out a hoof.  Rainbow returned the grin and bumped his hoof with her own, before each of them took their places at the starting line, crouching down and preparing to launch at top speed.
“ON YOUR MARKS… GET SET… GO!!!” yelled the announcer.
And they were off.  Rainbow Dash took the early lead, but Storm Strider was close behind her.
“Pretty smart,” noted Scootaloo.  “Your dad’s drafting behind Dash on purpose, letting her break the air for him.  This isn’t going to be a very long race though, as fast as they’re moving, so he’d better be ready to pull off a miracle if he hopes to pass her at all.  It’s going to take more than a little bit of wind resistance to slow her down, after all.”
“Look, he’s making his move!” said Star.
As fast as the two pegasi were moving, it was hard to follow the exact course of events as it happened, but everything was being recorded from multiple angles for posterity so they would all be able to witness and review in excruciating detail the beginning of the exact moment when Storm Strider almost died.
Next to her, Star heard her mother muttering to herself.  “Be careful, Storm.  I’ve warned you about this.  You’re getting way too close to her.  You’re going to clip her as you pass her.  Pull away, Storm.  Please pull away.  This race isn’t that important.”
And that’s when it happened.  That’s when Star’s world was turned upside down.  In the blink of an eye, one of Storm Strider’s wings made the slightest of contact with Rainbow Dash’s flank as Storm tried to make his move to pass her, but that’s all it took.  He instantly fell out of sight below the view of the audience, and Rainbow Dash was halfway around the track again before she even realized anything was amiss.  As soon as she did, she stopped in her tracks and looked down.  A flash of terror lit her features and then she too was gone from sight.  Less than two seconds later, the clouds of the stadium lit up from the explosion of the sonic rainboom from underneath.  And then… nothing.
As the seconds stretched into minutes, Star watched, stone-faced, as the rest of the Wonderbolts took flight from their boxes above the crowd and they too disappeared beneath the stadium, along with a team of medical pegasi.
“Don’t worry, you guys, I’m going to find out what the hay happened,” said Scootaloo, her voice indicating a confidence she didn’t actually feel as she raised her hooves and affixed the head gear and goggles into place.  Then she, too, took to the air and dived below the clouds.
More minutes passed as the crowd sat there in relative silence.
“Star…” said Cloud Seed, trying to wrap a wing around her daughter.
Star angrily shook her mother off.  “No!  He’s going to be okay,” she said with determination.  Cloud watched her daughter with concern and a bit of surprise, but made no further attempts to embrace her.
Still more minutes passed.
Scootaloo finally returned around twenty minutes later and landed in the seat next to Star again.  She raised her goggles and her eyes were red as she regarded Star and her mother.  “They’re taking him to Canterlot General.  It… it doesn’t… it doesn’t look good.  RD is with him now, but you guys should try to get there as soon as you can.  I’ll… I’ll go make arrangements.”  With that, Scootaloo took to the sky and flew away again.
“Come along, Star,” said Cloud Seed, her voice hitching as she spoke.  “We have to hurry.”
Star felt completely hollow as she allowed herself to be led alongside her mother.  Still, she shed no tears.
About an hour later, they arrived at the Canterlot hospital.  Cloud Seed had been allowed to go back, but Star had been forced to remain outside in the waiting room for the time being.  As she sat there, she saw something that scared her more than anything else up to that point.
Rainbow Dash was sitting in a chair in the corner, her head bowed.  And, to Star’s utter shock, the normally dauntless pegasus was openly weeping.  Scootaloo stood next to her and was trying to calm her down, but wasn’t having much success.  Star mechanically turned her ears in their direction.
“…couldn’t get a hold of him, Scoots,” Rainbow was saying, though it was difficult to make out with the way her voice kept breaking.  “He was trying to get his spin under control but he couldn’t do it.  I don’t think I would have been able to do it either, if I’d been in his place.  I tried to get close to him, but… it was those lightning bolts of his, Scootaloo.  Normally, they’re harmless, but he was in a complete tumble and those things were flying out in every direction at random.  He had no control over it.  I tried to dodge, but one of them got me square in the chest.  Knocked the wind out of me.  Slowed me down too much.  I finally powered through it and just barely managed to grab one of his wings in my teeth, but I lost my grip on him again.  It slowed him down just enough that when he… when he hit the ground, he didn’t immediately… I had to pull up or I would have slammed into the ground with him… Scootaloo, I… I couldn’t save him.  I thought I could save him the same way I did with Rarity and Spitfire and the others all those years ago, but I… I…”  Words failed her as she melted into nothing but wracked sobs.
Star got up and walked over to Rainbow Dash and stood in front of her.  Rainbow looked up at her and was rather taken aback by the stony face that stared back at her.  “You tried your best,” said Star, her voice low and monotone.  “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Oh, Star,” cried Rainbow Dash, “I’m so sorry… dear Celestia I’m so sorry…” She leaned forward and grabbed Star in a tight hug, using her legs and wings for it.  Star didn’t try to avoid it, but she didn’t return it either.  “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry…”  As the blue pegasus repeated this into her ear over and over again, Star felt something inside her beginning to slip.  She still didn’t cry, but she felt her eyes starting to moisten, even so.  She locked eyes with Scootaloo, who was just standing there helplessly behind Rainbow Dash, her own eyes still red and puffy as well.
It was around this time that one of the nurses came into the waiting room and looked around for a moment before approaching Star.  “You can see him now, Star,” said the nurse.  “Please follow me.”  Rainbow Dash released her grip on the navy blue unicorn and nodded slightly, not trusting herself to speak again.  Star didn’t respond as she turned and robotically followed the nurse into the depths of the hospital.
When the door to the post-op room opened, Star saw her father lying on the bed.  Her mom was holding one of his hooves in both of her own.  Her dad wasn’t moving at all.  He was merely staring at the ceiling, a single tear trail trickling from both of his eyes, which shifted in her direction when she entered the room.
This is when Star finally felt her insides give way entirely.  As she walked toward her dad, she felt the first sting of the tears as they started to stream down her cheeks.  Her breath caught in her chest once, and then a second time, and then it was all over.
Cloud Seed got up and allowed Star to take her seat, before moving away to talk quietly with one of the doctors.  Star weakly fell into the chair and stared at her father, crying like she had never cried before in her life.  She took his fore leg in her own, the same as her mother had before.
“D-don’t cry, little bug,” said her dad, trying to be cheerful.  “It’ll be okay.”
“What’s wrong, daddy?” asked Star, trying to make herself understood around her sobs.  “Your fore leg feels so… so limp.”
“I…” said Storm Strider.  “I’m not going to lie to you, Star.  I’m in pretty rough shape right now.  My… my back is broken.  They were able to fix most of the rest of me, but they couldn’t fix that.  I can’t move or feel anything below my neck.  But… but don’t worry, little bug.  They’re going to bring in a couple of specialists from the Federation.  A Dr. Russell and a Dr. Crusher, I believe they said.  They should be here first thing in the morning.  The doctors here tell me that this sort of thing is right up their alley.  They’re going to make me all right again, just you wait.”
The next few hours passed by in something like a blurred haze for Star.  She didn’t remember falling asleep at her father’s bedside, but when she awoke, she found herself back in the waiting room again.  Her mother and Rainbow Dash were still there, though Rainbow was dozing in her chair.  Glancing at a clock on the wall, Star saw that it was almost noon.
“Where’s daddy?” she asked groggily.  “Is he okay?  Have the Federation doctors arrived yet?”
Cloud Seed looked down at her little filly and nodded.  “They got here several hours ago.  They’ve been in there ever since.”
“What are they going to do?” asked Star.
“I’m not sure exactly,” said Cloud.  “If I understood it correctly, they’re going to… grow your father an entirely new spinal column somehow, and use that to replace the one that was broken in the fall.  Apparently, the damage was too extensive to fix with traditional methods, or else the doctors here would have been able to do it.  There are risks to the procedure, but without it, your father would never be able to move again.”
“Risks?” asked Star, alarmed.  “What sort of risks?”
Cloud Seed’s face darkened a bit and she said, “Well… he… he might not survive the procedure.  I wouldn’t worry about it, though.  Dr. Russell assured me that it was only a very remote possibility.”
Star started to say something else, but the door to the waiting room opened.  At the unexpected activity, Rainbow Dash jolted awake.  She looked around blearily and then noticed the human female who had came through the door.  “Hey, Dr. Crusher,” said the blue pegasus.  “Long time no see.  How’s Storm?”
The red-haired human doctor smiled at Rainbow and said, “Hello, Rainbow Dash.”  Then her smile faded a bit as she turned to face Star and Cloud.  “Well, the good news is that the operation was a success.  Storm will survive and be mobile again.”
Cloud Seed sensed that there was something left unsaid.  “And… the bad news?”
Dr. Crusher took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.  “The bad news is that there were some complications.  Storm will be mobile again… but not at the level he was previously.  He will be able to walk around and even fly, but… I’m afraid that he almost assuredly won’t be able to perform as a Wonderbolt ever again.”
Star felt as though she’d been bucked right in the belly.  Being a Wonderbolt had been her father’s dream come true.  She glanced at Rainbow Dash and saw that this news seemed to have hit her rather hard as well.  Storm had been one of her close friends.  They’d both trained together and had both entered the Wonderbolts at the same time.  Star could only imagine what was going through the blue pegasus’s mind at that moment.
“Well, what matters most,” said Cloud Seed, keeping her own feelings on the Wonderbolts issue mostly hidden, “is that he is alive and mostly well.  Thank you for your efforts, doctor.  They are indeed most appreciated.”
“You’re welcome,” said Dr. Crusher.  “I just wish we could have done more.  Anyway, he’s awake now and has requested to see you.  You too, Rainbow Dash.”
Star, Cloud, and Rainbow got up and followed the red-haired doctor back into the depths of the hospital once more.



Nineteen year old Star Strider flinched as she felt a hoof touch her on the shoulder.  She turned her head to see Twilight Sparkle standing right next to her.
“You okay, Star?  You looked like you were a million miles away,” said the purple alicorn softly.
“I’m okay,” said Star, getting out of the seat.  “It was more like a million years.”
“Yeah, I could tell,” said Twilight.  “I called your name three times, but you didn’t respond at all until I touched you.  Well… anyway, we’ve arrived in Cloudsdale, so I’ll need to cast the cloud walking spell on you, Rarity, and Applejack, before we leave the transport.  Are you ready?”
Star looked around nervously, noting that the other three ponies were standing at the exit of the transport, waiting on her and Twilight.  “Ready for the cloud walk spell?  Sure.  Ready for what comes after?  Not so much.”
“You can’t avoid your parents forever, Star,” said Twilight, not unkindly.  “It’s the main reason you came here in the first place, isn’t it?”
“You’re right, of course,” said Star, as they walked slowly toward the others.  “Still, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to tag along with you for a while longer, at least until we meet up with Rainbow Dash.”
“Okay,” said Twilight, “but then I think you should go and visit them.  I can come with you, if you want.”
Star considered that for a bit, then said, “I… I do think I might like to have you along.  And the others as well, especially Rainbow Dash, if she’ll come.”
Twilight nodded.  As they reached the others, she turned to them and said, “All right ladies, let’s put on your cloud walking shoes.”
“Are you sure you can’t cast that delightful flutterpony spell on me again?” asked Rarity, batting her eyelashes at Twilight and smiling sweetly.
Twilight rolled her eyes.  “Sure, I could, but you know how draining that spell is.  You’ll just have to make do with walking on the clouds like the rest of us commoners.”  Coming from an alicorn princess, this was especially amusing to the other ponies.
“Oh phooey,” said Rarity, pouting.
Applejack tried to suppress a snicker as she said, “Beside, Rare… ya wouldn’t want Prince Blueblood catchin’ sight of ya with those oh so pretty wings when ya get back to Canterlot, would ya?”
Rarity’s eyes narrowed to slits and she growled, “I would fly into the sun first.”
“All the more reason not to cast the spell on you in the first place, wouldn’t you say?” said Twilight, rolling her eyes a second time.  “Now hold still, I only want to have to cast this once on each of you.”
Fluttershy was standing off to the side, next to Star, watching with fondness as her friends bantered.  “It’s almost like the old days, isn’t it?” she said happily.




To Be Continued…