//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: A Glimmer of the Past // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// "Ahhh, the end of another hectic week." Starlight Glimmer said to herself as she entered her bedroom in Twilight's castle. She unfastened her saddlebags currently full of scrolls and completed assignments and set it down next to her desk before going to the center of her room and slumping down in her beanbag chair. Looking forward to the weekend ahead, she glanced over at the clock on her nightstand, and judged by the time, that Twilight and Spike had to have gone to bed by now. Twilight had already been yawning when she returned this past week's assignments before Starlight had retired to her room for the night. She stole a glance at her closet, then back to her closed bedroom door. Her horn lit up, the lock on her door clicked, and she leaned up and got up from the beanbag chair. There was no reason she'd be bothered tonight. Walking over to her closet, she opened it, and on the ground below the few hanging dresses was a chest. She released the latches and opened it up, and lit up her horn again, lifting the inobservatus enchantment on the inside of the chest, and items of a rather unexpected nature faded into view. 'Time to play,' she thought to herself. Princess Twilight Sparkle yawned for the twelfth time as she walked down the hall to her personal quarters, two dozen unrolled pieces of parchment in her magical grasp, as she struggled to review each one before filing them before bed. She would have liked to turn in at the same time as her student, but the duties of a Princess beckoned, and she didn't get the last of her paperwork done until twenty minutes later. The alicorn's triple checking paid off once again, as scroll number seventeen was an assignment she had forgotten to return to Starlight. "Whoops. Well, that's why I check repeatedly. Her room's right here, I'll just give this to her before she gets to bed." She said to herself. Twilight walked down three more doors to Starlight's room, and softly knocked. "Starlight?" She asked. What she got in return was a startled scream, followed by what sounded like a lamp being knocked over, a thud on the ground, and then nothing. Twilight tried to push the door open, but it had been locked. "Starlight? Are you alright?" After not getting a response for a second, Twilight fired up her horn, magically unlocked the door, shoved it open, and nothing in Equestria could have prepared her for what met her eyes. For there was her student Starlight, who was dazed after apparently tripping over her beanbag chair that her back half was slumped over. She appeared unhurt, but what had Twilight frozen where she was standing was the heliotrope unicorn's current apparel. Her mane was up in two pigtails, she had a pacifier between her clenched teeth, which was attached to a lanyard around her neck, and around her waist and between her legs, propped up on the beanbag chair, was a white disposable diaper. When Starlight's eyes met her teacher's, her pupils became pinpricks. "T-T-Twilight! It's not what it looks like! I-I c-c-c-can explain...! I... I..." Her eyes slammed shut and her horn crackled to life, magical motes of light flowing out of it. The magical aura quickly went from sparkling to sizzling, and in a flash of light, Starlight Glimmer vanished. Double Diamond was enjoying the cool breeze as he was finishing up his late night walk through Our Town, when all of a sudden the air in front of him became hot, bringing his walk to a pause. In a flash, a pony he recognized all too well appeared in front of him. Her chest was heaving, her eyes looked panicked, and her mane looked like it hadn't seen a comb in days. Either that or she had just taken it out of pigtails or something. "S...Starlight?" He asked. Starlight's heavy breathing got even more pronounced when she realized she had just teleported directly in front of another pony. "D-Double Diamond!" She exclaimed, looking as if she was seconds away from bursting into tears. She looked back at her rear half, and put a hoof to her chest as if she was expecting a necklace to be there. "Hey, are you alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost... Or like, a whole lot of ghosts." After realizing she had arrived here with nothing on her, she finally took a few deep breaths. "I'm so sorry for appearing out of nowhere like this. I really wish I could explain, but do you have a place I could sleep for the night?" She asked, almost pleadingly. Though he was still processing everything that had just happened in the last twenty seconds, Double Diamond wasn't about to leave a friend out in the cold. "Of course, sure," he began, trying to set her mind at ease, "And a shower, if you'd like one." He finished, after his nose detected the faint scent of urine. Her face burned red, and he decided to keep his mouth shut, and showed her inside his cottage. Twilight was currently pacing back and forth in her study, wondering what she could have done differently in the situation that had just unfolded. Not ten seconds after she had opened Starlight's bedroom door, her student had panic-fired a teleportation spell, so unfocused that it nearly knocked the Princess of Friendship off of her hooves. In vanishing to Celestia-knows-where, the unicorn had left behind a pair of mane ties, a pacifier on a lanyard, and a disposable diaper, in her size, that had clearly been used, given away by the smell and yellow hue. She wasn't sure if leaving the items in question behind had been done on purpose, or because of how hastily Starlight had used the spell, transporting herself and only herself away from the castle. She had disposed of the undergarment she had only ever seen on foals, and left everything else where it was, and came here to try and sort through the situation in her head. There had to be an explanation, of this, Twilight was nearly certain, and Starlight was so panicked and mortified by being discovered that an explanation was likely going to have to wait. Right now, she just had to know that she was alright, and due to what time it was, only one pony was going to be able to help. She walked over to her desk, got fresh parchment, inked her quill, and began her letter. Dear Princess Luna...