It was another sunny day in Ponyville as the flood of young ponies escaped the confinments of the schoolhouse. Ever since the small town became known in Equestria as the home of the Elements of Harmony (even if for a few years half of them had left it), and especially of Princess Twilight Sparkle, it sparked the interest of many ponies.
The Ponyville of today, while still retaining the calm and happy atmosphere it had over two decades ago, now had twice the population as then. As the majority of those ponies lived here in families, a need had come for the small town to develop a more advanced educational system.
Not so long ago, all fillies and colts would attend Ponyville Elementary. After that, however, if their parents wished for them to continue their studies, they would have to look for schools in some other, bigger towns; Canterlot being the most popular due to its close proximity.
Not anymore; about ten or so years back, Ponyville Schoolhouse had been remade and enlarged to host the Ponyville High School as well. It allowed a lot of fillies and colts to continue on with their studies in the small town… even if they lived in it only half the time, or if they were not even that interested in studying.
Starburst happened to be such a pony. The only daughter - and oldest foal - of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her husband, Prince Flash Sentry, the young yellow pegasus happened to have a much different relationship with studies from her mother.
While Princess Twilight’s thirst for knowledge, magical or otherwise, was well known, Starburst had little interest for it. In fact, if it would have been possible, she would have dropped school altogether so that she could pursue her dream: to become the Captain of the Royal Guard as the first mare ever.
However, to apply to the Royal Guard Academy, one had to first complete secondary education. So Starburst, having come to the decision what future she would pursue when she was still a young filly, understood that she had to patiently endure.
That being said, she had found the first few years of education to be laughably easy. The teachers at her first school in Canterlot had never asked her about anything, and on the tests she would always score a good grade, even if she knew that her answers weren’t always complete.
The reason behind that was simple; being a princess, all the teachers had either feared possible repercussions that might come to them if they were to give her bad grades or they hoped to earn royalty’s favor.
Most ponies - and one of her friends in particular - would be quite happy with such a state of matters. Starburst, however, wasn’t. She had always despised when ponies treated her any different than others, possibly even more than her mother, who had actually earned her title, and wasn’t just born with it.
Due to that, the young filly was quite pleased when her parents - who had came to realize after a while that their daughter was learning little-to-nothing - had quickly pulled her out of there. After realizing that probably no school in Canterlot would be any better, they enrolled her in Ponyville, a town fairly close when one had a chariot strapped to pegasi royal guards at their beck and call.
Of course, Starburst tried to argue back then that she could fly the distance by herself - and, to be honest, she still thought she could have - but her parents were having none of it until she moved on to High School from Elementary.
The plan had worked. Ponyville’s teachers - well, most of them, anyways - paid little attention to her title and treated her like another foal. Considering that one of them was a friend and family of her friends and family, it came to little of Starburst’s surprise that they neither feared her or tried to suck up to her. She was given the same boring education as everypony else, just like her mom and dad wanted.
However, the teen pegasus knew that it wasn’t her mother’s only agenda. If it was the case, Princess Twilight could have easily tutored her herself, or could have hired a private teacher.
No, now that Starburst was older, she knew that her mom’s true plan was far more sinister. Nothing could have proven it better than the company she found herself in today, amongst the herd of school ponies.
“Ugh, I hate weather like this,” the dark blue pegasus that flew nearby complained, his green eyes observing the sky above from under a rainbow-colored mane. “No clouds to nap on…”
“Prism, you slept through half of today’s lessons,” the purple pegasus mare scowled at him from the ground.
“Only?” Starburst asked half-heartedly. “What happened?”
Her comment caused a snicker of laughter from the small group of friends.
Yes, that was the “sinister” plan of Starburst’s mom: for her to befriend other ponies.
Prior to coming to Ponyville, Starburst had little to none friends. The young filly was never interested in having fun with others and hanging out, as she thought such things were a waste of time. That had somewhat changed after she started studying in the small town and had gotten to know the foals of her parents’ friends better.
The group of ponies leaving school with her right now had all put up with her ‘a little too serious to life’ approach - as even Starburst had come to realize so - for whatever reasons and became her closest friends.
Turquoise Blitz, the quiet gentlecolt who was a dragon-pony hybrid and her “cousin”; Anthea, a kind unicorn filly with a great sense of humor, the only pony that was the same age as Star in the group. Cotton Candy, an over-enthusiastic earth pony, who spent the first year of their acquaintanceship dragging Starburst around with everypony to make her loosen up. Prism Bolt, the laziest pony in Equestria, unless prank-making was involved. And Whirlwind, a foalhood friend of Prism since they both lived in Cloudsdale and about the only pony other than his parents that could keep him in line.
Adding Starburst herself into the equation and saying that they were an odd group of ponies would be an understatement, especially since they had also a few older friends that they also hung out with; some more often, some less. Crystal Clarity, T’s older sister; Golden Delicious, who was by now probably either working on his family’s farm or selling apples in the town’s square; his cousin, Red June, an Elementary School teacher. Illusion, son of Princess Celestia and Discord, the epiphany of oddness that had a soft spot for Claire with mutuality; and Nidra, daughter of Princess Luna, a mischievous princess, whose only reason for not getting into trouble as often as Prism or Illusion was simply because unlike the former, she was cunning and much subtler than the latter. And finally, Starburst’ cousin, Valiant Heart, who was pretty much everything she aspired to become: a captain in the guard, and an excellent fighter.
What an odd group, indeed. And yet, they all felt like family to Starburst, which also extended to their younger siblings as well. Like in all families, there were relatives that were more annoying that others, as Prism was proving just now. As the laugher from her earlier comment began to wane, Starburst had found the pegasus hovering right in front of her face.
“Starburst making a joke?” he retorted, smirking. “What is it, the opposite day?”
Starburst ignored the ripple of amusement that spread through the group. Not interested in continuing the banter, she extended one of her wings and pushed him out of her way.
Prism tried to make a few more jokes at her expense as they made their way to the town’s center. However he refrained from making any pranks, knowing too well that despite being two years younger and much smaller, Starburst could kick his tail as easily as Claire did not so long ago if he’d push her too hard.
“So anyway,” he said once he gave up, stifling a yawn, “what are we gonna do?”
“We could go study,” Whirlwind offered, half-joking. His grades could use an improvement...
“Yeah, I will get right on that with you,” Prism replied, rolling his eyes. “Anypony else?”
“Why not see if Claire, Del and June are free, and go to Sugarcube Corner together?” Candy asked, the gray-blue mare bouncing up happily.
“So, a typical day as usual?” Starburst summed up.
Candy cased her bouncing to frown at her. “Star, are you complaining again?” she asked, puffing out her cheeks.
Starburst sighed. “No, I’m not.” She knew better than to try that.
The last time she did, she ended up tagging along with Candy and Prism when they went pranking... although, considering how that episode had ended - with Prism getting burned - Starburst had enjoyed that day.
Her reply had calmed Candy down, who returned to her happy attitude from earlier. “See? That’s the approach! I’ll make a fun-loving pony out of you yet!”
Starburst took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head, trying to ignore the urge to remind her friend just how she had gotten her cutie mark.
A cough interrupted her count. “You know,” T, the perpetrator, spoke up, “seeing that none of us has any tests tomorrow, why not go hang out by the swimming hole?”
That suggestion was met with everypony’s approval. Starburst shot the green half-dragon a thankful smile. T knew her well enough to know when she was becoming too bored with their company, and was on a verge of going off to train. However, with them all hanging out over the swimming hole, the two of them could get away with a little bit of sparring practice. A friendly brawl with a dragon-pony hybrid was easily worth a few hundred push ups, both regular and winged. Because of that, T had managed to connect with her more easily than others during those first few months when Starburst began attending Ponyville’s school.
“Oh, I just remembered that Mom told me that there’s a blackbird's nest near the swimming hole! I wonder if they hatched?!” Annie exclaimed enthusiastically.
The pinkish unicorn smiled at T, her milky eyes sparkling from underneath her green mane. “Aw, and to think I would have forgotten about it if it weren’t for your suggestion...”
Starburst tried not to gag once she saw T blush. Turning her attention away from the pair, she noticed impassively that the other three were too busy discussing what to take with them to see the half-dragon getting embarrassed.
However, in the middle of considering whether or not bring beach umbrellas with them, Prism straightened up unexpectedly and looked at the fountain ahead.
“Hey, Star? Isn’t that your brother over there with the rest of the squirts?” he asked.
Indeed, when Starburst looked over where he was pointing, she saw her brother Night Light over by the town’s fountain. The purple unicorn was talking with a group of foals.
The “squirts”, as Prism had called them, consisted of his own brother Icy Storm, Candy’s sisters Cloudy Skies and Sugar Rush, T’s and Claire’s cousin Pixel Bit. There was also Api Apple, Gold’s and June’s cousin; and finally Echo, Whirlwind’s cousin, as well as Prism’s and Storm’s in the same way that T and Claire were related to Starburst.
If she weren’t surprised by the sight of her brother, the pegasus princess might have wondered if at this rate they couldn’t build a town just for themselves. As it was, however, she didn’t have the time.
Unlike her, Nighty still attended his school in Canterlot - the Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, to be precise. And while he quite often came to Ponyville during weekends to play with his friends, for him to drop by practically during the middle of the week was rather unusual.
For a second, uncertainty filled Starburst. Why was he here? Did she forget about some appointment? Was she late for something?
As soon as those questions appeared, though, Starburst had almost immediately calmed herself; firstly, if Mom or anypony else would want something from her, they would send a messenger, not Nighty. Secondly, she was certain that there was nothing in her schedule today; the closest appointment, dinner with the griffon ambassador and his family that they had to go to, was planned for tomorrow. And thirdly, if he did have something important to tell her, Night Light of all ponies would have done so already, instead of wasting time with talking to friends.
Beginning to suspect what exactly he might be doing in Ponyville, Starburst swiftly closed the distance between them in a few beats of her powerful wings.
“Hello, everypony,” she called as she landed beside him and his friends.
She waited until the other colts told their greetings before she shifted her attention to Nighty. As the others caught up with her and mingled with their kin and friends, she raised an eyebrow questioningly.
The purple colt, who smiled at the sight of his sister, rolled his eyes nervously. “The dinner with Mister Marbod’s family was moved for the next week, his daughter’s sick. Because of that, and since there is nothing important that Mom needs to take care of in Canterlot, she and Dad thought that it might be nice to come here for a couple of days.”
Being royalty, Starburst’s family had their own wing in the Canterlot Castle where they lived. However, as Mom considered her true home to be Ponyville, she had a mansion built by the outskirts of the small town a couple years back. Since it was finished, they practically spent half the year here, half in Canterlot. However, usually their parents would tell them a few days prior that they were moving. What could have-
“What did Discord do this time?” Starburst asked, frowning.
Despite being reformed long before she was born, Discord was still pulling some unpleasant pranks on ponies, even if he stopped his tries to take over the world. And by ponies, one usually meant entire cities when it came to the Master of Chaos. Even getting married with Princess Celestia hadn’t helped much with that.
Of course, now Discord only did his pranks every few weeks instead of every waking second, as he apparently used to, and now he had a wife that would get pissed on him. Oddly, though, it was of little consolation to his victims that he would sleep on the couch for a few days.
On his own, however, Discord was bearable. When his son joined him, however… Illusion was by far more responsible than his father. While he still liked to mess with ponies from time to time, Illusion usually would apologize right afterwards.
Strangely, Discord had been acting rather differently during the past month. For example, Starburst had heard strange noises coming from the other part of the castle one day.
The castle’s stuff told her that Discord had been running around the halls on some strange metal machine on two wheels while wearing a leather jacket. When she tried asking Illusion what was that about, he said that his mother thinks her husband is going through a belated mid-life crisis.
Talking about Illusion’s father made Nighty a bit more nervous. “I dunno, but… um,” he lowered his voice, “there was this odd burned smell coming from Mom’s mane when I got back from school.”
Thankful that she was spending most of her time in Ponyville, Starburst asked: “How long have you been here?”
“Only an hour or so. As soon as I was free I went to look for everypony,” he said, glancing at the other youngsters. “I had to go to Claire first, though. Illusion asked me to give her a letter from him.”
“A letter? Can’t he cross the distance from Canterlot to here in a second or so?”
“Yeah, but… I think it might have something to do with him telling me to get out of her shop as soon as I delivered it, heh…” Nighty replied, chuckling uncomfortably, probably having already realized that he had aided the prince with a prank he pulled on his clawed sweetheart.
Guess that means we will be seeing some purple flames next time Illusion drops by.
“We were going to play at Sweet Apple Acres… you know, away from Claire,” Nighty added, as he noticed that his group was reading to set off. “You’re still going to show me how to fly a kite later, right?”
Smiling warmly as she recalled her promise from yesterday, Starburst nodded. “Of course. Have fun everypony.”
“Holy smokes,” Prism said as the foals left, “Starburst is smiling!”
Her good humor quickly evaporated. Turning away from the stallion - who was now “convinced that Starburst was a changeling in disguise” - she paused a moment to regard her reflection in the fountain. From the water’s surface her violet eyes looked back at the yellow pegasus, with a short mane in colors of blue and purple.
“We should probably split up to get the others,” she said absentmindedly. “And seeing how my little brother just informed me that Claire might be in bad humor, I vote for Prism to go get her.”
“Second it!” Whirlwind quickly added.
“Me too!” Candy added, grinning.
“Sure,” T said, shrugging.
Annie was too busy giggling to voice her support.
Prism’s jaw was hanging low as he slowly comprehended what just happened.
He turned to Starburst, intending to say something that he probably considered witty, but a shout from the other side of the town’s square took the attention of everypony.
“Ya dang lil’thief!” a raspy voice called out, still strong despite the age of the pony that used it, resonated across the market. “Give ‘at back!”
The group shared surprised glances before they rushed towards it.
The town square was filled with small stands, where ponies sold their wares to others. The commotion caused by the accusation everypony heard was gathering by one of the biggest stand, the one displaying the Apple family wares. As they had expected, the group saw Gold behind the counter, along with his mother Applejack. However, they weren’t the ones that yelled a moment ago.
The one that did was sitting nearby in a wheelchair, propelled by Gold’s father Caramel. Granny Smith, the oldest resident of Ponyville (and quite likely the oldest pony right before Princesses Celestia and Luna) must have decided to ‘go on a stroll’ through the town, as she liked to do from time to time, despite not longer being able to walk by herself for such distances. Age did not soften her spirit, however, and now the wrinkled mare was pointing a slightly shaking hoof at one of the ponies near the apple stand.
“Ah saw you steal an apple, ya no-good whipper-snapper!” she accused.
Everypony’s attention - Starburst’s and her friends’ included - followed hers. The pony that she was pointing at was covered from head to hooves by a rugged, dirty black cloak, full of sawed cuts and holes. As the apparent thief turned to Granny Smith, a right light blue fronthoof - bearing a strange beading - emerged, reached to the hood and took it off.
The pony was a colt, somewhere around Starburst’s age probably, although slightly female looking. He had a long, reaching his shoulders white-and-blue mane, which wasn’t exactly presentable, as it was unevenly cut.
The colt was a unicorn, with a horn sprouting proudly above the shades he wore that covered his eyes. He also wore a rugged, purple bandana around his neck, which also had a golden star on it and a few silvery-blue ones.
“How could you see that?” he asked Granny Smith, in a quite melodic voice.
“Now, hold on there for a second!” Mrs. Applejack spoke up, going around her stand to stop by the strange colt. “Ar’ya callin’ mah granny a liar?”
The unicorn turned to her and spoke as if he was surprised: “Oh, no no no, you must have mistaken me, ma’am. I was actually sorta complimenting her for her eyesight.” Reaching for something within his cape he pulled out- “I did steal an apple,” he admitted, making everypony around him to gape at him in shock as he held the red round fruit in his hoof. “But I was certain that nopony was going to see me! Truly, I am impressed.” the colt added, glancing at Granny Smith and smiling.
It came to no surprise that his reply had put Mrs. Applejack off her stroke. Everypony was shocked that the young colt had just admitted so carefree to stealing. The middle-aged orange mare stared at him for a few seconds before she shook her head and spoke again.
“Well, at least ya’re not denyin’ it. If ya now just pay for it, Ah’ll let it go.”
The colt once again turned his attention to her. It was hard for Starburst to see the expression on his face from where she stood; given the shades she would probably still couldn’t read it. But the unicorn made a great show of cropping his lips as if contemplating Mrs. Applejack’s words.
“Nah,” he finally said, shrugging, “I don’t think I’ll do that.”
And with those words, before anypony could react, he threw the apple high into the air. Applejack eyes automatically followed the object that moved up right in front of her face, letting go of the colt for a couple of seconds. Starburst, however, (even if she was like everypony else too stunned by the colt’s impudence to do anything) didn’t stop observing him. She recognized one of a few fight tricks her cousin thaugh her: to make the opponent focus at something else for precious seconds so that you can strike.
Contrary to Starburst's fear, the colt did not attack her mom’s friends, but instead made a long jump above her, bounced off the apple stand’s awning, and landed on the roof of the nearby house.
He then extended his foreleg and waited a second for the apple he threw to land right into his hoof. The colt, even further shocking the crowd, sat down and took a bite out of the apple.
Mrs. Applejack, like everypony else at this point, was staring at him with jaw dropped, but was first to recover. “Gold?” she called out quietly to the huge orange pony standing behind the stand. “Get Mama’s rope.”
Starburst shook herself out of the daze. Nopony disrespects a friend of her family and gets away with it!
She spread her wings to their full span and took into the air, stopping beside the house on which the thief was sitting and eating the apple.
The colt’s head turned to her and Starburst noticed with satisfaction that his eyes grew wider behind those shades. Yes, that was the reaction she expected: fear. Intimidating others had always come easy to her; it was her special talent, after all, one that would prove very useful once she would become the Captain of the Royal Guard. It helped that her wings had decided to outgrow her at some point during her body’s development.
They were big for a mare her size, about twice as big as they should be, and having them spread to their fullest wingspan made even grown-ups back away in fear.
“I suggest you'd better start thinking about paying for this apple,” she told him calmly, folding her forelegs. “As well as how long will you be in Ponyville’s Detention once the guards will-”
“My, oh my, what do we have here?” the colt interrupted her, smiling cheerfully.
He made a motion with his hoof as if he was about to remove his shades, but he just pressed his hoof against them, further irritating Starburst. “A Knight in shining armor! Well, that makes me a Villain, I suppose?”
The pegasus raised an eyebrow in confusion, as the thief turned to address the crowd below them.
“Excuse me, does anypony in the audience has a fake mustache or a goatee I could borrow and/or steal?” he asked, pointing at the respective parts of his muzzle. “Every villain needs at least one of those, you know!”
Starburst felt her eyelid twitched as she regarded the cloaked colt that was utterly ignoring her now. A chuckle reached her ears from the opposite side of the building, and once she took her eyes away from the thief, she saw Prism hovering there.
“While I think I speak for all our friends when I say that it’s really fun to watch our serious friend deal with you, kid, I also don’t like you just stealing our friend’s merchandise like that,” he chuckled, his eyes traveling between Starburst and the thief. “Come on, pay for it before I-”
“And you must be a Damsel in distress!”
Starburst couldn’t remember when was the last time she had seen Prism to be in such a loss for words as he was now. “W-what?” he asked after a few seconds had passed as the colt, still smiling as if this was all a part of some game, had called him a ‘damsel’.
“‘A damsel in distress,’ the colt repeated, “an unmarried female who needs to be saved. I mean, since she’s the Knight, and I’m the Villain, you must be the Damsel! You know, with that mane and all… wait, why aren’t you tied up?” he asked, sounding confused. He then shrugged. “Oh, whatever.”
Even with all her discipline, and being mindful of the (supposed) seriousness of this situation, Starburst still have a hard time to stifle the snort of laughter she wanted to utter as she watched the pure shock and disgust on Prism’s face.
Some of the ponies below - which included their friends - had a harder time doing that, if the snickers she heard were of any indication.
“Now, we still need a few more characters for the play…” the colt muttered thoughtfully as he regarded the crowd. “A dragon, a minion for me…”
Beginning to think that maybe not all bulbs were light up in his head, Starburst spoke once again, while Prism was still trying to get out of the shock. “Look, why don’t we get down from here, you’ll pay Mrs. Applejack the bits for the apple, and we will look for somepony to help you with your… play?” she tried, wincing at the thought of speaking to the colt her age as if he was five.
The thief turned his head to look at her. In the corner of his eye, Starburst noticed Mrs. Applejack approaching with a rope. “Hmm… nah, I don’t like help with setting up the stage,” the colt told her a second later, jumping back a bit to stand by the house’s chimney, once again throwing the apple into the air, and… spitting apple seed at both her and Prism.
“Oh, that is it!” Starburst heard Prism growl as they both covered their faces from the small projectiles.
Making a mental note to stop Prism if the pegasus would go too hard on the colt, she lowered her hooves and looked around the roof to locate the other two ponies. At the same time when she spotted them, a lasso shot from the ground level, aiming at the thief.
He jumped into the air and whirled, passing the lasso and making it wrap itself around the chimney instead.
Starburst just had seen a pony escape the rope of a pony that, despite being past her prime, was still considered to be the rodeo champion of Ponyville. To Starburst’s knowledge, she had never missed her mark with a lasso before.
But that wasn’t all. As she paused in mid-air out of sheer surprise - while Prism was still going to bash into him - Starburst watched as the colt landed perfectly on the rope just on his hindhooves and began to slide down, evading Prism in the process… all while singing.
“♪Come at me♪” he sang as he slid down to the ground, “♪and you’ll see…♪” He was about to collide with Mrs. Applejack, who was still holding the other end of the rope in her mouth. He then jumped up into the air, flipped, and landed on a street lamp, once again just on his hindhooves. “♪I’m more than meets the eye♪”
How is he doing that? Starburst wondered, watching him standing on his hind legs without any problem, on top of the street lamp no less. To stand like this and all this jumping around… it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise for a pegasus or a zebra to be so agile and have such a good balance, but a unicorn?
She shook her head just in time to see Prism recover from the momentary confusion, caused by the sheer ludicracy of this scene, and preparing to lounge at the colt again. The thieving colt, in turn, pointed his hoof at the two of them.
“♪You think that, you’ll break me♪” he continued his song, “♪You’re gonna find in time...♪”
As he came to the end of the last line, he fell off the lamp, but not because he lost his balance, but to dodge Prism. The dark blue pegasus fly over him, while the colt arched his back in the air and grabbed the stem of the lamp and pulled himself, shooting forward.
“♪You're standing too close to a flame that's burning...♪”
Just who exactly is he? Starburst continued to examine the situation, just like Valiant Heart told her to do if she ever found herself in a fight. The colt in the meantime once again evaded Prism by jumping for another of street lamps. And what is he doing in Pony-
Her musing was interrupted by something hard hitting her in the head and falling down on the roof of the house. Partially stunned, Starburst looked at what that was.
It was an apple.
Okay, that’s it! Starburst had no idea if even Prism had managed to push her patience’s limits to such extent as the colt just did in the past five minutes.
She was about to show him what somepony that was going to become the Captain of the Royal Guard one day could do.
Prism was also highly motivated to get to the unknown colt. While he was one of the fastest fliers around, his true strength was not in his speed, but in his agility. Thanks to that Prism was able to quickly recover after missing the unicorn again and was already on a collision course with him.
“♪Hotter than the sun in the middle of July♪” the colt carried on singing as he once again narrowly avoided Prism by jumping down to the ground… right where Starburst waited for him.
She spun around to deliver a kick that would knock him out, but much to her displeasure he once again dodged and moved back.
“♪Sending out your knights but you still can’t win♪” the colt song as she advanced, all of her kicks and punches missing him.
Starburst wished she had some sort of weapons in her hooves, during her training with Amor she was much better when it came to fighting with a spear than in hoof-to-hoof combat. The colt jumped up and flipped back in the air, his front hoof come to rest for a split second on a pole of one of the market’s stands, before he lowered himself to avoid Prism.
He slid down the pole as if this was a nightclub and landing on the ground.
Not giving him a chance to recover, Starburst once again attacked him, but the colt continued to prove to be swifter. “♪Listen up, silly filly, cause I’m gonna tell you why...♪”
The colt sat down on his haunches and grinned at her. The pegasus ignored it and attempted to roundhouse kick him in the head. When she completed the half-spun, however, she saw something that she in the short brawl she completely forgot could happen.
His horn shone with blue light.
“♪I burn♪”
And he did. About a second before her hoof was about to collide with his face, his body was replaced by an explosion of colourful lights and sounds. Starburst helped herself with her wings to move back while covering her eyes and ears.
One of the colourful lights - which she managed to notice it was shaped like a star - touched her hoof and she realized that it wasn’t hurtful; it was a slightly modified firework spell. Mom used to entertain her with similar ones when she was a foal.
“♪Can’t hold me now, you got nothing that can stop me now♪”
The very pissed princess glared at where the last line of the song came from. As her eyes recovered from the explosion - which, judging by the few gasps, including Annie’s, must have been quite spectacular - Starburst spotted the unicorn sitting on top of the house he was when they started this short fight, smirking at her.
Prism descended to hover beside her. “If I ever was so annoying, then I’m sorry,” he muttered to her, also glaring angrily at the thieving colt.
Starburst decided to not tell him that in her opinion he didn’t even come close to him. She was about to suggest that one of them would go fetch the royal guards while the other would keep the colt from escaping - which, seeing that he could apparently teleport, was probably not going to be easy - but at that moment the unicorn spoke up.
“We’re still missing a few characters, but I think this show can work,” he said, making Starburst further convinced that he was insane.
“The stage is set. Come one, come all!” he raised his voice as he lifted both of his forelegs into the air. “The show of the Great and Powerful Me has begun!”
As he said that, he finally removed his shades. Starburst, being taught to always look ponies in the eyes, did so without much thought.
What she saw had almost made her gasp.
The eyes that looked back at her were of a unique brilliant scarlet color, like Illusion’s or Discord’s, but unlike the two of them, this pony also had narrow, unequine pupils.
“This is going to be fun!” the strange pony exclaimed cheerfully. “Wheeeeeee!”