Story Notes: 16 (Starbeam Twinkle) · 1:34am Dec 10th, 2021
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2020559
Starbeam has a very high opinion of herself. In her defense, she's highly intelligent, incredibly gifted magically, and she's won enough beauty pageants that 'cute' is pretty much a given too. It's sad that a pony who won the genetic lottery is so abrasive. She's the mare who has it all... with one glaring exception: personality. She's exceedingly arrogant, egotistical, abrasive, and vain. She's quick to anger and slow to forgive. She also has quite the foul mouth. Most of her problems stem from PTSD. The fact that she's willing to cast a forbidden mind-altering spell on herself to forget says a lot about her experience.
While other ponies (including Rainbow Dash) are quick to use 'horseapples', Starbeam has no qualms using words she shouldn't even know at her age.
Starbeam Twinkle raises some good points, but she's a well-intentioned extremist. Many extremists start with a good idea or a valid point, but warp it over time. She's a low functioning Enneagram type 8 personality. A low functioning 8 won't stop until they've completely destroyed the target of their ire, and they're not particularly concerned with consequences... or for that matter, collateral damage. As long as their target goes down too, that's all that matters. She wraps it up as 'protecting Equestria' but she's really out for revenge.
We have a diverse cast, and some of them are going to be well-liked, and some of them aren't. I knew when writing Diamond Rose's chapter that she was going to be unpopular with the readers, and I knew that going into Starbeam's chapter too. We'll see character growth from Diamond Rose as the story progresses. I know where I'm taking her character, and she's not a bad pony. Even at her worst, she was arrogant and clueless. Starbeam needs to find her 'off' switch before she can get a happy ending, unless she somehow succeeds in draining Discord of his powers. Spoiler alert: That probably won't happen. She caught Discord unprepared once; it won't happen again.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2090384
Sometimes inspiration comes from odd places. In this case, the pageant judges holding other tribes to the ideals of their own tribe comes from the far reaches of my memory.
Back when I was a tween/early teen I remember reading a book written by a dog breeder. I can't remember the name of either the book or the author (nor do I remember if it was fiction or non-fiction; leaning toward the latter), but I do remember some parts of the book itself. One part that sticks out in my mind after all these years is a scene at a dog show, and one of the judges was a breeder of a different breed of dog than the one being judged. The protagonist bemoaned the fact that the judge would likely choose the dog that most resembeled his own breed of choice (and as the scene plays out, the protagonist turns out to be correct). If anyone reading this can figure out the name of the book and/or author from that snippet, I'll edit it into this blog post.
I had forgotten reading that book until I started writing this scene and I just had this nagging feeling of 'where have I heard this before?'
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1238600
There are times I like to cut loose and just go crazy. We saw that in Plumsweet's chapter, and we're seeing it some more in this chapter. Pinkie Pie and Discord are characters that allow for goofball, off-the-wall antics, and the latter features prominently in this chapter. We're not going to get into the fandom drama with Discord after the series finale. Starbeam very obviously doesn't like Discord, but she's a very biased point of view. Discord serves as her foil, someone who's wronged her in the past. She's never gotten over it. For him, it was a normal (pre-reformation) Tuesday, and he's not sure why she can't just laugh about it and move on like everypony else in Equestria, but he's also not going to tolerate her antics. He's not back to full strength and he's not happy about it. She used that spell once. He's made sure it won't work a second time.
The insanity going on in Tailadega is, well, odd to say the least. We get a few cameos... from talking cars. KITT from Knight Rider and Wheels & Roadie from Pole Position. Somehow, the latter series has completely escaped ponification to date. I need to change that one of these days.
Tailadega. A train that only makes left turns decorated in racing paint schemes. Nope, no idea at all what this could be referencing.
Talladega, Alabama is home to the fastest NASCAR track, and the train is decorated in the colors of some of the most famous cars to ever grace the track: Bill Elliott's #9 Ford, Dale Earnhardt's #3 Chevy, Richard Petty's #43 Dodge/Pontiac, Jeff Gordon's #24 Chevy, David Pearson's #21 Mercury, and Terry Labonte's #5 Chevy.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/234420
I don't think I need to say who Buck Norris is a ponification of. Obviously, this is Bruce Lee. Just kidding, of course it's Chuck Norris. 
We saw Dolly Hearton back in Rainbow Flash's chapter, and now we see Kenneigh Rogers as their most famous duet surfaces again. It's only fair, right?
What better way to win a contest than to get one of the judges to help you out?
We probably won't hear Islands In The Stream again in this story, but I make no promises. Sometimes things just naturally come back around.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1019576
Post-reformation Discord has to deal with the consequences of pre-reformation Discord's actions. Starbeam isn't going to be poofed out of existence. Now, whether that's because Discord is showing restraint, or because Starbeam is crazy-prepared like Batman, is something that will be determined later. I don't even know the answer to that yet.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/222909
Starbeam Twinkle needs more love. Not just in this story, but in general. She's an obscure toy-only character, but considering she's been around since 2011, she existed through the height of the fandom's popularity, and yet, there's next to nothing out there for her. Very few images, and no one's even made a vector of her cutie mark.
Her toy was only available in a set with Twilight Sparkle and two dozen accessories. It was $20 and only available at Target. I haven't checked the value of her toy these days, but I suspect she goes for more than that now. As you can see below, I have her toy, which I was fortunate enough to pay retail price for in Target back in the day. She wasn't hard to find, as not many people wanted to spring for shelling out the price of four ponies to get a single pony, and a duplicate (because Twilight came with a bunch of other toys).
Also, I didn't realize this until I dug up the below photo for this post, but my example has big hair. Just like she does in the beauty pageant that starts her chapter. She was one of the first toys I picked up, back when I was still trying to style their hair... before I realized I can't even style my own hair, so why would I think I had the ability to do something with ponies' hair?
Source: The collection of AlwaysDressesInStyle
Sunny Rays is next, and she's much less polarizing than Starbeam.
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/lulubellct/art/Sunny-Rays-329996621
Interesting. As you described Starbeam's confrontation with Discord, I remembered a character from a David Drake short story - a SF/Horror story about a disabled Vietnam vet with PTSD, who was confronted with an arthropodic alien that killed its prey the way certain species of wasps kill caterpillars... I half-expected her to borrow a line from the final confrontation in that short:
Yes, Starbeam was very, very, badly damaged by Discord. And where she would lead anyone following her banner is nowhere that I'd want to go.. Yet, as a Gulf War vet and ex-cop, I have to acknowledge that I sympathize with her, as much as I sympathized with Charles Lorne. Make of that what you will...
I actually think Starbeam is pretty cool, and I liked Diamond Rose, too!
I like starbeam as a charachter, she seems pretty good. Although i would enjoy to see a secret scene thing where discord apologizes and in the end theyl be friends but in public will pretend to hate eachother.
Could work really well cause starbeam showed she can effect discord
"A low functioning 8 won't stop until they've completely destroyed the target of their ire, and they're not particularly concerned with consequences... or for that matter, collateral damage. As long as their target goes down too, that's all that matters. She wraps it up as 'protecting Equestria' but she's really out for revenge."
Hm. Well, now I'm wondering about something: I saw something in the comments from you about how she could have fought off the guards and drained Discord all the way (I think; sorry, I'm in something of a hurry at present), and I was thinking that she didn't because then that would be attacking them, and contrary to how she was seeing herself -- at least, since they only showed up once she thought she'd already drained Discord enough. Is that not the case, though, then? And if not, why did she choose to not cause that collateral damage to accomplish her full goal?
...I don't know, I'm just having trouble seeing her as completely unconcerned with collateral damage, sorry, even if I could see it being more about maintaining her own self-conception as a misunderstood protector than about concern for those guards' wellbeing.
Oh, and thank you for writing, of course!
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She still recognizes their authority (even if she doesn't respect it). So if the police tell her to stop, she stops. The post you saw is quoted below:
I had toyed with that idea. But she's powerful enough to take on a squadron of guards and still keep up the drain on Discord. Honestly, all she'd need to do is divert half her power to a simple shield spell and the guards could've hit it with everything they had and she would've had time to complete the process, even if it would've taken six minutes at half power. By the time the Royal Guards could've gotten backup capable of taking her on, the job would've been done.
The problem with that from a storytelling perspective is she wouldn't have gotten off with a slap on the hoof if she'd done that. Discord would be completely powerless, and Twilight would've punished her far more harshly than she did. As it stands, things worked out far better for her than they had any right to. So instead, she recognizes the authority, even if she has no respect for it in the least.
One point that may be an issue in her reform: This “reformed” Discord has made multiple threats against Starbeam Twinkle’s very existence. Yet who has an apology tied to their sentence? Only Starbeam. Why hasn’t Twilight or Fluttershy made the same demands upon Discord?
Also, if Starbeam is so powerful and the Royal Guards are such a joke, why did she stop her assault on Discord when they appeared? There were dozens of ways she could have used her magic to prolong the fight, but she chose not to. Why? If Starbeam was obsessed about being proven right in the eyes of others, her surrender would make more sense. However, she is too self-centered for that to be a factor.
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They're viewing this as an attack on Discord. Aside from that, Discord tends to get more leeway than other characters on the show too.
She still obeys authority figures, regardless of whether she respects them or not. In addition, she realizes its a way of gaining an audience with Twilight Sparkle and having the opportunity to present her side and attempt to sway the princess' opinion. She doesn't respect Twilight either (as she released Discord), but she's not completely delusional. She knows who's in charge of Equestria. If she hadn't been wearing a horn suppressor in the courtroom, that scene could have ended very differently. Starbeam's powerful, but she's not on Twilight's level, and fighting her and Discord simultaneously would be a battle she couldn't win. But she probably would've tried anyway.
We see this side of her when she's demanding a refund for the pageant she drops out of. She gets angry and then when the stallion agrees to refund her she just stops in her tracks.
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...Sorry, I'm still not successfully reconciling "She still recognizes their authority" with "not particularly concerned with consequences... or for that matter, collateral damage. As long as their target goes down too, that's all that matters.". Just... how are those two both true here? She doesn't care about any obstacles in her way and also cares about at least one obstacle in her way? What am I missing?
And thanks for the quote!
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I don't think it can be rationally explained.
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Ah, a "model of the character in your head saying that this is what they'd do" sort of situation, without you being clear on the reasoning? Righto; thanks!
...Hm. Though I'm afraid that that does leave me doubting that detail of your description of her, since she appears to be disproving it? ...Though I suppose that could also be her conceptualizing what "going down" means differently, or something.
(And there's still a chance I'm taking that "all" in "all that matters" more literally than you intended; you didn't say I was, but you might not have thought to (which I'd take no offense from, to be clear), so there's still some uncertainty there.)
(Also, sorry if this reply isn't as polished as it might be; a Surprise Urgent Work Thing came up suddenly and unexpectedly, and I'm now trying to finish comment-replying, which I was already nearly done with, quickly to get to it.)
But anyway, thanks! Sorry about the bother.