Having now confessed to Starlight a secret he'd wanted nothing more than to keep secret, Sunburst found himself letting out a lot of grievances he'd long kept to himself. I know it's hard for you to understand, Starlight, but not all of us end up achieving greatness." He complained.
"What? Why wouldn't I understand that?" Starlight hissed. "All this time, you let me believe you were this big hot shot, because you thought I couldn't handle the alternative?"
"Oh really? You're gonna play that game?" Sunburst bitterly remarked. "You're the personal protege of the Prince of Friendship! I doubt he just picks any random pony for such a position!"
"Well, technically she's more student than protege," Spike corrected. "In fact, she's only been a student for about a month or so."
That fact meant nothing to Sunburst, he just continued to complain. "Whatever. Look, I'm sorry, Starlight. Sorry I'm not the big, important wizard you and everypony else wanted me to be. But it's not like I didn't try, because you better believe I did! But I never made it past the first semester, I could talk the talk, but I couldn't walk the walk!"
Starlight just shook her head. She could hardly believe Sunburst was like this. "Sunburst, I don't care if you're a wizard or not. All I wanted was my friend back, the pony I knew before his parents sent him off to magic school. But what I don't get is, how. How could a pony like you flunk out of magic school, especially Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns? You always knew so much about magic. I mean, look at all these books!"
"It's because as I learned the hard way, Starlight," Sunburst remarked. "Reading about magic is one thing, but putting it into practice is quite another! You don't know what it was like at magic school, you weren't there! To know so much and not be able to do any of it! You think you can look me in the eye and tell me what that's like?!"
Those very words were enough to make something inside Starlight snap! "You know what, Sunburst?! You're right, I don't know what it was like for you at magic school!" She told him quite bluntly. "But you don't know what it was like to be left behind! You were all I had, Sunburst, the only friend I ever knew! You meant everything to me, and when you just up and left without saying goodbye, I was devastated!" When Sunburst began to gasp, she then added. "That's right, you're not the only one with a past full of regret and disappointment! When you left, I had no one I could turn to! I grew bitter and lonely, until finally I decided to take out my frustration on what I thought was the source of my troubles, cutie marks!"
"You what?!" Sunburst exclaimed in shock!
"I'm not done yet!" Starlight scolded, and then rambled on! "I ended up creating an entire village, where I became a dictator! I made everypony give up their cutie marks and live under my rule, because I thought that would make me feel better! But Shining Armor and his friends brought that all crashing down when they exposed me! So I decided to steal from the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Archives, and travel back in time to rewrite history so I could get back at him! Yet I was still defeated, because the prince took pity on me! And now, here I am, on my first major friendship lesson, trying to reconnect with you! Now, tell me if you know what any of that is like!"
Sunburst was rendered speechless! His glasses all but fell off his face! When at last he found his composure, he asked Starlight. "Did you actually travel through time?"
"Oh she did more than that." Spike taunted.
Sunburst now felt a tremendous sense of guilt well up inside him. "Here I am, wallowing in self pity, and my oldest friend went off the deep end because of my absence." He thought to himself, and he apologized to Starlight. "Well, for what it's worth, Starlight, I'm sorry I allowed myself to lose touch with you over the years. Perhaps, if I done a better job of keeping in contact with you, you wouldn't have been driven to go to those extremes," He paused for a second, before he added. "But for what little it may still be worth, I partially lost touch with you because I was too ashamed to admit I was and am a failure at practical magic - definitely nowhere near as powerful as others. Sure, I have a great deal of knowledge, but I lack the power to put that knowledge to real use. And I was bullied almost constantly too, which I was ALSO too ashamed to admit before."
Starlight sighed, relieved to have gotten such a huge burden off her chest. "Well, it's a bit late, Sunburst, but I'll take what I can get. It's really my fault, I should've told you sooner how I felt, like maybe the day you left for magic school. But for now, let's just say I know what it's like to have something you're not exactly proud of."
"Guess Shining Armor's lesson isn't a failure after all," Spike commented. "And see, Starlight? Didn't I tell you from the start that it was best if you came clean?"
"You're right, Spike, in more ways than one," Starlight replied, lightly ribbing him. "Just please don't rub it in. Speaking of Shining Armor, that's why I came to get you, Sunburst! Even as we speak, Twilight and Princess Cadence are trying to fix the Crystal Heart, but Shining Armor's giving the word to evacuate the empire! So unless you know a spell that will drive back the Frozen North and fix the Crystal Heart so the baby can have her Crystalling, you'd better pack up your things and get out of here while you still can!"
"Crystalling..." Sunburst thought aloud, before suddenly an idea came to him! He gasped, as his eyes lit up like stars in the night sky! "Of course! I know how to stop this! Just hope I'm not too late!"
"This way, hurry!" Shining instructed, as he led the panicking crystal ponies towards the train station! "Come on, there's no need to panic!"
"Just a little bit further, ya'll!" Applejack encouraged over the roaring winds! "The train station's just up ahead! We're goin' to make it!"
But just then, Starlight and Sunburst stepped forward, blocking the path! "Stop! We have to go back!" Starlight commented. "I've brought somepony who should be able to fix the Crystal Heart!"
"Ah, Sunburst, thank the stars you're here!" Shining exclaimed, pulling the unicorn close! "You really think you know what needs to be done?! Twily and Cadence are already working on a solution now, but I've no idea if it'll hold."
"Well, it's kind of complicated, it involves combining multiple spells," Sunburst confessed. "But get me to the Crystal Heart, and I think I can make it work!"
"At this point, what choice do we have?!" Starlight encouraged. "The empire's all but frozen already!"
"Under different circumstances, I'd detest that kind of logic," Shining frowned. "That usually leads to bad decisions. But in a situation as dire as this, I'm willing to try anything that stands even the faintest hope! Any plan, no matter how far fetched, is better than the alternative! Come on, Sunburst! If we don't hurry, there may not be time to see whether your idea works!"
Meanwhile, Twilight and Cadence were hard at work trying to repair the Crystal Heart. But when they tried to utilize the spell Twilight had discovered (and briefly read) earlier, it only worked for a second before the Heart fell apart again.
"The spell failed," Twilight commented in a defeated tone. "Granted, it was a long shot to begin with it, but I was really hoping it would work. Now, I don't know what else to do."
"Well, a former student of mine believes that he does," Princess Celestia declared, as Sunburst stepped forward. "I had hoped for the two of you to meet under more pleasant circumstances. Anyway, Twilight, meet Sunburst. And Sunburst, meet Twilight."
"No time for introductions, let me get a good look at the Heart!" Sunburst instructed, and immediately rushed to the scene! What he saw amazed him. The Crystal Heart lay shattered into a million tiny pieces. "The baby did all this?"
Twilight nodded. "She's an alicorn, her name's Flurry. But you probably already knew that. Anyway, I tried to put the Heart back together with—"
"The spell of Relic Reconstitution? Yes, I see," Sunburst commented. "But that alone won't work. The Crystal Heart's been around for millennia. Restoring a relic like this is way beyond one spell. You need to combine it with something else. Something unique to the relic itself. Something that strengthens it and provides it with power...?"
Twilight took but a second to catch on to what Sunburst was proposing. "The Crystalling! Of course!"
Sunburst nodded. "Glad you're catching on, Twilight. I'd expect no less from Princess Celestia's most promising student," Clearing his throat, he added. "Combining that spell with the light and love of everypony gathered for the ceremony, together with... Somnambula's Weather Abjuration to clear away the snow... and a little Fledgling's Forbearance for the parents... Heh. That should help curb the little one's power fluctuations. It should be enough to fix the Crystal Heart and push back the Frozen North. And with Flurry's powers under control, we won't have to worry about this happening again."
"You're not going to take away Flurry's incredible powers, are you?" Cadence asked with concern. "Even if Flurry is all powerful, taking away what makes her unique is wrong."
Sunburst smiled. "Relax, it's not like I'm gonna lobotomize her or anything. I'm merely curbing the strength of her surges, so they'll be no more powerful than any normal foal. It'll even help her, since that'll mean less magic build-up induced headaches."
Flurry giggled, as Shining approached Sunburst and said to him. "Well, I had planned on asking Twilight to be our crystaller today, but since it seems like she'll be busy..."
"I'd be honored, sir!" Sunburst bowed.
"Enough talk, are we ready for this?!" Soarin asked! "Time's running out! So if you're gonna act, you'd better do it now!"
"Soarin's right, the time for talk is over!" Big Macintosh added.
Taking that as a cue, Shining Armor, Cadence, Twilight, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, all lit up their horns, as did Starlight, Sunburst, and even Fancy Pants and Rarity (the two of them figured that every bit of magical assistance that could be provided would help to increase the chances of success, even if they themselves weren't the most magically powerful of their kind).
It worked quicker than anyone had hoped! Even as the wind howled and the snow fell harder, the Crystal Heart began to put itself back together one piece at a time! Soon, Sunburst was able to step out onto the podium, and hold Flurry aloft as he cried out! "Citizens! May I present the newest member of the Crystal Empire!"
Flurry playfully laughed, and the entire crowd clapped and cheered. To them, Flurry was the most beautiful sight they'd ever laid eyes on! And all their magic found its way into the purity crystal Shining had chosen earlier, which Sunburst inserted into the Crystal Heart, just as the last pieces of it were put together! With the heart now fully restored, the harsh blizzards subsided, and everyone was basked in a brilliant crystal glow! Some even had their manes and tails restyled.
"Best Crystalling Ever!" A crystal pony shouted in delight!
And as everyone breathed a much needed sigh of relief, Celestia smiled and looked at Sunburst as she spoke in a warm and friendly tone. "I'm glad to see that you've found a way to share your unique gift, Sunburst. You may be more of a wizard than you think."
"Thank you, Princess Celestia," Sunburst replied. "You were right after all, I don't have to be a wizard to be useful."