“Has everypony lost their plum mind today? Rainbow Dash, you OK in …”
Applejack’s chastising of Rainbow Dash ends abruptly upon her seeing Starlight Glimmer, nicked up and slightly disheveled but otherwise OK. “Starlight! Thank Celestia we found you! How you holdin’ up?”
“I’m fine, but what about Rainbow Dash?” Starlight observes the blue pegasus stagger to her hooves as she shakes the last of the cobwebs out of her head. Applejack walks over to her and holds up her left forehoof.
“Rainbow Dash, how many hooves am I holdin’ up?” Her friend blinks once and stares at her upright hoof.
“Are you serious, AJ?”
“She’s fine,” Applejack says to Starlight. “Now let’s get outta here and head back to Ponyville. I reckon it’s been a long day for all of us.”
“Seriously, how could the answer be anything but ‘one’ …” Rainbow Dash’s argument to Applejack fades as the two trot out of the cave. Starlight begins to follow, when she notices a glint on the cavern floor. She magically levitates the object causing the glint … and finds it to be the necklace Chrysalis was wearing. Her concentration slips, causing the necklace to fall back to the floor.
This … this doesn’t make any sense.
Starlight again levitates the necklace, placing it around her neck. This necklace is supposed to block unicorn magic. How can I be using magic right now? Does it only work if Chrysalis is nearby to wield it?
“Starlight! You coming or what?”
The shout-out snaps Starlight back to the present, and she quickly recollects the events of the past hour. Grateful to be free from her makeshift tomb, she runs out of the cave and is immediately hugged by Trixie.
“Starlight, I was so worried! Are you all right? Did Chrysalis … do …”
“I’m fine, Trixie, and thank you for your support …” Starlight looks past Trixie for a moment. “Why is Pinkie Pie gnawing on a pine tree?”
Trixie turns around as the gaze of the other ponies … and Discord … focus on Pinkie’s mouth wrapped around an aged pine. Pinkie, upon realization, releases her grip on the tree and spits out bits of bark. “Hey, what gives?”
“Well that’s certainly odd,” Discord comments, “and that’s coming from me.” He snaps his fingers in an attempt to re-transmogrify the tree into a candy cane, with no success.
“Is someone having trouble with his parlor tricks?” Trixie snidely remarks.
“This is serious, Trixie,” Discord chides. “I haven’t been stifled from using magic since—“
“You know what?” Starlight suddenly interrupts. “I think I dropped something in the cave. I’ll be right back.” She then turns and rushes back in.
“Maybe you’re just worn out,” Fluttershy reassures. “Give it one more try.”
Discord snaps his fingers again, and the tree turns bright white with red stripes and sparkles. “Well that’s more like it,” he comments as Pinkie again gleefully savors the stem. “Honestly, I don’t know what went wrong there.”
“Well, fun’s fun but we really should put everything back to normal,” Rarity comments.
“Really now, what is up with you ponies and your sense of ‘normalcy’. It’s so boring!”
“Diiiiiscord …” Fluttershy’s cajoling causes Discord to grumble slightly, before snapping his fingers one last time. The candy cane reverts back to a tree, as the rest of the surrounding area returns to its natural state.
Pinkie again spits herself away from the tree trunk in disgust. “Aw come on!!!”
The trek back from the cave to the road takes fifteen minutes, enough time for Starlight to be regaled with the tales of the others in their search for her. Once back at the road, Trixie hitches herself up to her wagon to resume her trip to Canterlot … happy that she will no longer make the trip alone.
“I’m really glad you decided to accompany me the rest of the way, Starlight.”
“Anything for my best friend,” Starlight replies. “Just need to say a few final goodbyes to the others.”
Starlight first turns to Rainbow Dash. “I owe you my life for breaking through those boulders. I won’t forget this.”
“Aah, no big deal,” Rainbow declares. “Nothing more than I’d do for any of my friends. Also, I’m just awesome that way.”
“You sure you’re still not sore after that? You really hit those rocks hard … as well as the back of the cave.”
“All in a day’s work … but I wouldn’t suggest anypony else do that. Not all of us are blessed with such a thick skull.” Rainbow hears snickers behind her and turns to confront Applejack. “What?”
“Oh, nothin’.”
Starlight walks over to Applejack. “Thank you for leading the others to me. No telling how long I could’ve been in that cave.”
“Shoot, sugarcube, I can’t take all the credit for that. It was Pinkie Pie’s idea to … well, ‘alter the landscape’.”
Applejack turns to her left, where she sees Pinkie grazing on the natural grass. “Uh, you know that ain’t cotton candy any more, right?”
Pinkie looks up. “Well, I do need more green in my diet anyway … besides mint chocolate-chip ice cream.”
Applejack sighs. “That’s Pinkie Pie, I guess; always findin’ a way to chew the scenery.” Her face then brightens up. “But good job today, Pinkie … you really came through for us, twice.”
“Yes, I heard it was your insight to see through those fake equal marks,” Starlight adds. “You really are somepony special.”
“Yeah, I know,” Pinkie agrees, before resuming her grazing.
Starlight next turns to Rarity. “From what I heard, you fought for me more than the others. Why?”
“Because I’ve been there,” Rarity notes. “More than anypony else here, I know firsthoof what it’s like to lose control of your desires. I caused a great deal of distress once, turning all of Ponyville into a gilded wasteland; you can ask Spike all about that incident upon your return, if you like. But don’t beat yourself up over this … this ordeal is done, and we’ll all be the better for having endured it.”
“Well thank you again,” Starlight repeats. “And I will have to ask Spike about …” her smile quickly fades. “SPIKE! We forgot all about Spike!”
Pinkie stops her grazing and looks towards the two unicorns. “Oh, he’s probably still with the Cake family,” she reassures.
“Now don’t you worry about Spike,” Rarity adds. “Once we return, we can explain everything to him.”
“And as for that …” Starlight winces slightly. “As for what I did in the Cutie Map room, let me clean that up when I return … again.”
“Well, I suppose we shouldn’t expect any summoning as long as Twilight is away. I’ll tell Spike, if you insist.”
“I do, Rarity … and thank you again.” Starlight then turns her attention to Discord.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this again so soon,” she admits, “but you really came through for me. Thank you again, for being there when I needed you.”
“Oh please,” Discord scoffs, “spare me the sentimentalism. Besides … there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
Starlight closes her eyes and blushes … then opens them, and realizes that he’s addressing Fluttershy.
“You did real good today,” Fluttershy asserts.
“Well, yes I did … but I think some other pony deserves a special reward.” Discord flashes a mischievous grin and snaps his fingers. A puff of smoke envelops Pinkie Pie, causing the others to turn in her direction. When the smoke clears, the others gape in astonishment.
“What,” Pinkie asks, before inspecting her body … and her new wings. She gasps in amazement, then quickly soars above the others. “I love them!!!” she declares.
“Yes, I do think ‘Pegasus Pinkie’ has a nice ring to it. Sadly, though, this will have to be temporary; I think some other pony might want them back.”
Hearing those words, Rainbow Dash quickly inspects her own wings … and finds herself wanting. “HEY!!!”
“Discord!” Fluttershy growls as she turns to the draconequus.
“Well it’s only temporary, as I said. Anyway, ‘sporty pony’ could use some time to work on walking around instead of flying everywhere. Take it from me, it’s easy to forget how.”
Oblivious to the scene below, Pinkie performs loop-the-loops in the air. “See you back in Ponyville,” she declares as she flies off down the road.
“HEY, GIVE THOSE BACK!” Rainbow Dash gallops down the road in an attempt to catch up.
Applejack sighs before turning to Starlight and Trixie. “Guess we better go and try to catch Pinkie Wings. Good luck with the Canterlot shows, Trixie.” She then trots down the road, along with Rarity and Fluttershy, with Discord hovering along with them.
Trixie watches the silhouettes of the others disappear into the darkness. “That was weird, even for Discord,” she says as she turns to Starlight … and sees a sullen look on her friend’s face. “What’s wrong?”
Tears start to form in Starlight’s eyes. “I … I have to leave you.”
Trixie groans at Starlight’s display. “You can’t possibly still think that this wasn’t all Chrysalis’s work, can you? Starlight, I saw two of you before I got stunned.”
“I know you did,” Starlight concedes, “but …” She then looks behind her as Trixie follows her gaze.
A glow emanates from the undergrowth, and Starlight … another Starlight … emerges from the bushes and walks towards them. This Starlight retains her usual cutie mark, and wears a black necklace around her neck. Trixie quickly shifts her gaze to the Starlight she was talking to; with a puff of smoke, that Starlight disappears.