The day started as it normally did for Starlight. She woke up, got her castle chores done early, and walked around town until Twilight called her back to the castle for breakfast. Unfortunately, Starlight’s normal morning got flipped upside down the moment she walked into the castle for Breakfast. As she walked in, Starlight noticed the lack of Spike greeting her at the door like he normally does. She thought nothing of it, only assuming that Spike was still finishing up Breakfast, so she went back to her room to grab her Saddlebags for later. She had decided to go take a visit to the Crystal Empire later that day, just to stop in and say hi to Sunburst and hang out with him for the day. Maybe play some games, write some new spells, go shopping, just about anything! Her plans completely changed, however, when she walked into the dining room.
“Morning Twilight. Morning Spike. Good Morning Princess Celestia, Good Mor--” Starlight Paused. She stopped walking and quickly noticed that instead of just Twilight, Spike, and herself, sitting at the table were the Princesses; Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Before Starlight could ask what was going on, Spike walked in and placed down the last tray of food for everypony. Starlight sat down, and as soon as she did, Twilight said something that Starlight thought she would never hear.
“Starlight, the Princesses and I have a favor to ask of you. We could really use your help.” Starlight sat there looking puzzled. She never thought that the Princesses of all ponies would be asking HER for a favor.
Starlight wasn’t sure what the princesses had in store for her, so she hesitantly responded with a barely audible "OK.” After hearing, what sounded like an agreement, Twilight continued.
“Today is the Summer Sun Celebration, and we really need somepony who can help us with difficult magic. Believe it or not, Alicorns are not as all-powerful as we may seem. Celestia and Luna may be able to raise the sun and moon, but that’s only because their cutie mark magic is connected to them.” Twilight was about to continue her rambling, but Starlight spoke before she could. “Can we get to the point? If we let you continue on like this, we’d be here all day.”
“R-Right.” Replied Twilight. “Anyways, you’re the only pony here in Equestria that seems to match us on a magical level, and we need one more pony to complete something special for this year's Celebration." Starlight thought about it for a moment but quickly reached a conclusion.
“Alright, what do you need my help with. If it’s magic based, I can always be of help.” Unfortunately for Starlight, it wouldn’t be too long before she started thinking that she may have made a mistake. She got up and followed the princesses to Twilight’s study to perform the spell.
As Starlight walked into the room, the idea of helping the princesses didn't seem to be one of her best. In the middle of Twilight's study (void of any books because of what could happen), was what appeared to be a number of runes. Each one of them looked like they belonged to one of the Princesses, and in the middle of them all was a rune that looked almost exactly like Starlight's Cutie Mark. Upon spotting this, Starlight pointed it out to the Princesses.
“You do know that one of these runes is basically a carbon copy of my cutie mark, right? It looks as if I’m required for this ritual or whatever it is. My only question is; Why?” Asked Starlight.
“Why? Well, the only other pony who could have possibly helped us lives a different life in another dimension now. You were the only choice.”Little did Starlight know that the spell they were about to cast was attuned specifically for Starlight. Twilight lifted Starlight’s face with her hoof and looked her in the eye. “There’s also another reason, but we can’t go into detail with that right now. You’ll see soon enough; and before you say anything, I just know you’ll be excited to see what it is.” Twilight let go and let Starlight process what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe it. She was actually the only pony in Equestria that could do this? Why? Hadn’t there been other powerful Unicorns that could do the same things she has? She was about to speak up and ask, but when she looked back up, Princess Celestia simply shook her head, as if know exactly what was going through Starlight’s head.
“Alright.” Said Starlight. “Let’s get this over with. I just hope it doesn’t take too long. I really wanted to visit Sunburst today.” Starlight looked down again, tears starting to form in her eyes. It had been Moons since she last saw Sunburst, and she really wanted to see him again. The Princesses saw this and Cadence just said, “Don’t worry Starlight, next time you see Sunburst, you’ll have something extra to tell him about. I just know he’ll love it! Starlight could only wonder what Cadence meant by that.
She shrugged it off and walked over to her spot in the center of the rune circle and stood there waiting for instructions. Princess Luna spoke up and said, “Ok Starlight, this is the spell we will be channeling, and we have need of to act as a magical conduit of sorts. We would do it ourselves, but Alicorn magic is much different compared to Unicorn magic.” Luna hoofed Starlight the scroll containing the spell, and after looking through it, hoofed it back to the princess. She went over the spell in her head. It seemed simple enough. Act as a magical conduit to help the princesses create something for the Summer Sun Celebration. The only thing she didn’t know was what they were creating. She wanted to press the princesses for information but figured that they knew what they were doing.
“Ok, I think I know what I need to do now.”
“Alright, just a warning Starlight, you might feel a little tingly. This isn’t really a normal spell. Let us know if it gets uncomfortable.” Twilight warned.
“Will do Twilight. Let’s get this started.”
All four princesses nodded and started charging their magic. The runes glowed brightly, and Starlight noticed something that was hard to see for normal ponies. The runes that the princesses were standing on started to lose their glow at a slow but consistent rate. At the same time, Starlight’s rune started slowing getting brighter and eventually engulfed the Unicorn’s vision in a blanket of white. She started yelling out at the princesses as her vision was clouded and she started to feel the tingle that Twilight had mentioned.
“I CAN’T SEE! WHAT’S GOING ON? HELP ME!”
Twilight yelled back “Don’t worry, that’s normal!” Starlight only heard it as a whisper though, as everything started spinning and the next thing she knew, she was out cold.
Starlight suddenly re-appeared in what looked like a dark void, but as she floated further into it, she noticed a light starting to form. Once she reached said light, two ponies burst forth from the blinding light, disorienting Starlight. “Twilight?” she asked. “Princess?”
“Hello Starlight” greeted Princess Celestia. “I take it you have a number of questions as to where you are, and why you are here?”
“Yes, I do.” She looked around. “For Starters, what is this place? What’s going on? Why are we here? And where are Luna and Cadence? We were with them just a moment ago.” Starlight inquired. As Starlight looked around she noticed something. “This place looks like it’s some kind of Astral Plane, but it also feels like there’s something more to this place than just being an endless void.”
“So you noticed then?” Asked Twilight. “It took me much longer to understand what this place was before I realized what was happening. And to answer your other question, Luna and Cadence are both back in the castle making sure everything is finished for later today.”
“What? What’s going on? What happened with the spell? Where are Luna and Cadence? Shouldn’t they be here too?” Asked Starlight.
“You are ready.” Stated Celestia
Starlight stared at the princess, hoping to get more out of her this time. “Ready? Ready for what? What exactly is going on here?”
The response was immediate. “Simple, dear Starlight. Look down and you’ll see” Starlight looked downward and started to panic, and she wanted to move away from what she thought she saw, but she couldn’t. The last thing Starlight saw before she fainted, was white.