//------------------------------//
// Chapter I: The Cake is a Lie 
// Story: Starlight Falls 
// by Sky Blue CMC 
//------------------------------//

After a good night’s rest, Starlight and I woke up and got out of bed. Starlight insisted on making me a nice breakfast as thanks for letting her sleep with me, and who was I to deny her offer? So I led her to the kitchen. Since the power was still out, I asked Starlight to use her magic to conjure something up. Sure enough, I was right: Her magic did recharge overnight, but still not enough to teleport between worlds. Anyway, she conjured up a delicious chocolate cake. I didn’t even have to tell her my favourite flavour. She must have known... somehow. But something about that cake, no matter how perfect it tasted, just didn’t feel right. It was as if Starlight wasn’t quite herself when she conjured it.

“I wanted to bake one without magic...” Starlight explained “...but last time I tried that the cake exploded. It wasn’t my fault, really!” Something about how she said that last part... reminded me of my own innocence from when I first started writing. I had no personal experience with anything that I wrote about, so of course I had to take inspiration from other people’s stories. Starlight must have been the same way with trying to do anything without magic.

“I believe you Starly... I mean Starlight.” I sighed as I quickly corrected myself. Why did I just call her what she specifically told me to not call her? I should just use her actual name from now on. “I know how it feels to mess something up... especially when it comes to baking. I once made a cake and I forgot to add the baking powder. Turned out hard as a stone, and I was the only one who ate it. Tasted terrible, but I didn’t want to throw it to the crows. But believe me, I’ve gotten a lot better since then. I could bake you a cake in thirty minutes or less... guaranteed.”

“Wow.” Starlight replied. “Not exactly impressive, but you boast anyway. Reminds me of Trixie. She’s great and powerful, but a little self-absorbed... in a good way. That trait in her just shows that she really believes in herself... even when nopony else believes in her. You share that trait with her... again, in a good way.” Starlight turned her head away from me awkwardly as she compared me to her best friend. I could tell she saw something of Trixie in me. “Now about that cake...”

“Right, the cake!” I exclaimed as I regained my train of thought. “First, since we’ll be baking without magic, I highly recommend you concentrate on dimming your horn.” Starlight looked a bit confused. “Look up.” I explained.

“Oh.” Starlight said as she looked up to see an aura glowing out of her horn, as if she was ready to cast a spell she wasn’t even thinking about. She let out a light chuckle as she dimmed her horn. “Better?”

Though the room got a slight bit darker, I nodded my head yes and chuckled lightly. “You remind me of someone. My sister. She’s always doing things with a certain... je ne sais quois. I don’t know what it is about her, but she always seems to keep her cool and make everything better with a simple smile and a few words.”

“She sounds like a good po- I mean person.” Starlight replied, correcting herself on the human terms. “Anyway, weren’t we gonna start baking a cake?”

I facepalmed. “Riiight.” I said slowly to Starlight. “BAKE TO ADVENTURE!” Starlight looked confused. “Partners in Time. It’s a game from my world. One of the characters says ‘BACK TO ADVENTURE!’ a lot, and I thought I’d make a little allusion to it... as a joke. It doesn’t help if you don’t get it, though. Anyway, about the cake. What shape should it be? I have hearts, circles, rectangles, kites, stars...”

“I like kites.” Starlight interrupted. “Let’s make a kite-shaped cake.”

“Kite-shaped it is then.” I said with a smile. “We can pretend we’re flying a kite as we eat it.”

“OK, so what do we do next?” Starlight asked. “After selecting a shape, I mean? I once tried to bake a cake with Pinkie Pie, and she ended up baking a thousand cakes because I hexed her to make her do exactly what I said. And I told her to copy the instructions in the book, but she thought I meant all of the instructions, rather than just one cake’s worth.”

“I remember that.” I told her. “Like I said, ponies like you appear in a show I watch in my universe. I saw exactly what you just described. That was funny to watch... but I’d imagine that it wasn’t that funny for you.”

“You have no idea.” Starlight sighed as she said this to me. “I wish I could go back in time and change it... without any drastic consequences. You must have seen my battle with Twilight, right before she took me under her wing. Have you?”

“Parts of it.” I told her. “Not the whole thing. I saw bits and pieces of it through the ‘magic’ of the show. You would have destroyed Equestria if Twilight had given up. She couldn’t stop you, so she did the next best thing... from what I remember anyway.”

“Well... I was really set on winning." Starlight explained. "Getting revenge... so set on hurting Twilight the way she hurt me that I didn’t realize why she did it. She didn’t know what I was going through, so I showed her... with time travel magic and the Cutie Map.”

"Right..." I said to her. "and then she told you that friends don't have to be the same, and that differences can make friendship stronger. I believe she was right. I mean... look how different you and I are... way more different than any two ponies could be... and we're friends, aren't we, Starlight?"

"Of course we are, Nay Nay." Starlight replied with a smile and a chuckle. "And I agree with Twilight too... she showed me the error of my equalist ways."

I was a bit annoyed that Starlight called me by my childhood nickname, but I let it slide. I didn't want to force her to call me something else... that wouldn't be very nice of me, would it? "I have a friend who was just the same... my BBBFF..." I told Starlight. She looked confused, so I said what it stood for. "Big Brother Best Friend Forever. Except that I wasn't quite wrong in the same way you were... I was wrong for... a different reason. I couldn't make friends because I was born different. I was born 'socially impaired' because of something called autism. It's a social development disorder that affects people at birth, making it hard for them to learn how to become friends with 'normal' people. I kept making wrong decisions and saying the wrong things to the wrong people... and I hadn't truly mastered common friendship until... actually I still haven't. But the friendships I've made are better for me than common ones... they're one of a kind. Including yours."

"You know what, Nathan?" Starlight asked me. "Suddenly I don't feel like cake. Let's do something else. We already had one cake today anyway... and we really need to figure out a way for me to get home. My magic's coming back to me, and I just remembered a spell that I haven't tried yet..."

I smiled and said "Then waste not another second! Let's go to the Smokey Mountains and find you an open space to... work your magic." I snickered at my lame pun and led the way to the nearest mountain. Starlight looked confused, so I explained... "Not the Smoky Mountains... there's an 'e' in this name... and they're different mountains. Trust me, you'll know 'em when you see 'em."

Starlight, still confused, followed me anyway, without saying another word. She begun cantering and then stopped for a minute... and then... without even thinking, I hopped on her back... as if she was an actual pony, and not a fictional one from a TV show. "Hi ho, Starlight... AWAY!!!"

Even though I couldn't see her face, I could tell that Starlight was annoyed by the way that she bucked me off. "Never... do that... again." She said with a stern voice. "You're too heavy... I could have collapsed under your body weight!"

Is she calling me fat? I thought to myself. Actually... considering that I was being called skinny for the first 14 years of my life, that might as well be a compliment. "I won't." I promised Starlight. "Let's just walk there... OK?"

Starlight nodded, and got back to cantering... looking cuter than ever as she followed me on the... wait what? Anyway, we made our way to the Smokey Mountains... but it took us about an hour... all that walking had made both of us rather tired, even though it was only a little after noon. So we stopped for a light nap before climbing the mountains... and that light nap lasted longer than either of us had planned... if we didn't have each other's bodies for warmth, we could have frozen to death... in the summer! But we were nice and cozy lying down next to each other.