//------------------------------// // What Happened Next // Story: The Celebration // by SpellBinder //------------------------------// Starlight's head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was helping the princesses and everything after it was a blur. She saw both darkness and light at the time, but yet couldn’t distinguish which one was good or bad. She could hear voices, voices telling her it was time, telling her that everything was ok. She wanted to believe the voices, but they reminded her of something she would rather forget. She was swimming in her own consciousness. Only darkness was before her, and then she heard the words. Three words that finally broke her out of her slumber. “Is she ok?” Starlight woke with a start, jumping upwards with incredible speed, and soon came to regret her swiftness. Everything hurt. It felt like she had been dropped from 100ft up but without the broken bones. She groaned in pain. Looking around, it looked as if she was in a hospital. Had the spell done something bad to her? She pondered on exactly what could have happened. Was there an explosion? Large amounts of magical feedback? It was unlikely that she would ever know. Then she heard the voice again. Only this time, she heard another as well. “Is she ok? She looks like she’s in pain, there must be something we can do!” “I’m sorry Twilight, but she must go through this alone. Your circumstances were different when this happened to you. While you fixed a spell that changed you by itself, her change was done by raw energy. It would hurt anyone to have that much magical energy go through them.” Stated Celestia. Starlight wondered if they were talking about her. They had just gone through a spell that required large amounts of raw magic, so it was safe to assume so. Also, what did they mean by change? “That shouldn’t matter! There must be something we can do to help her! Especially because of what’s going on during the celebration tonight! Please princess, there must be something!” Twilight alleged. "The only thing we can do now is to make sure she feels safe, healthy, and unharmed. If we do much else, it could be more harm than good. Don't you remember how long it took you to get used to everything? This kind of thing takes time. We can't rush it." Responded Celestia. Starlight heard an exaggerated sigh come from the room over. It certainly sounded like Twilight wanted to do something, but she wasn’t entirely sure what it could be. Then Starlight heard hoofsteps coming her way. She assumed Celestia and Twilight were coming in to check on her. She tried to lay back down after trying to listen in on the conversation and realized exactly how much pain she was in. It may have hurt a lot earlier, but now she almost felt like she was on fire. She leaned back with a huge groan of pain, only to see Twilight run into the room. “Thank Celestia you’re awake! You’ve been unconscious for 4 hours. I was really starting to get worried!” Starlight responded with a question. “Twilight. What happened? The last thing I remember is you telling me that the tingling was normal. I feel far from normal right like. I almost feel like I’m burning!” Twilight sheepishly looked around the room before looking back at Celestia for some help. Celestia only sighed and shook her head. Seeing this, Twilight knew she had to skate around the truth for a little while. “Something happened during the spell. All of us aren’t sure what happened… We heard you start screaming in pain, so we brought you to the medical wing of Canterlot castle. I know it’s a long distance, but we couldn’t risk taking you to a normal hospital since we never really saw what happened. As for the burning… it could be residual magical energy, but we can’t be sure. Please don’t be mad at us.” Starlight looked at Twilight with narrowed eyes. She knew Twilight was lying in some way. She just wasn’t sure what Twilight was lying about. She sighed. “You know Twilight, I could hear you and the princess earlier. What were you talking about? Because it sounds like you aren’t telling me the whole truth.” Twilight was not expecting to hear that. She gulped and grinned sheepishly. Had Starlight heard all that? Celestia chose this moment to step in and say her piece. “Starlight, we were talking about how we could further help you, but with the possibility of raw magical energy still lingering in you, we didn’t want to cause further complications. Anything we are to do other than this simple treatment you have now could permanently scar you in horrible ways. Twilight and I are only looking out for your well-being.” Without Starlight knowing, Celestia was speaking to Twilight telepathically and scolding her for being so loud. Starlight may not have heard what was said, but she saw Twilight visibly wince and look downward with tears in her eyes. “Twilight, are you ok?” Starlight asked. “Why are you crying?” “Y-yea *sniff* I’m fine.” “Are you sure? You look hurt. What’s wrong?” Starlight may have been the one in the hospital bed, but she hated to see her friends in tears. She wanted to help in any way she could. “I said I’m fine. Just happy that you’re ok.” Twilight said. Starlight didn’t quite buy it but decided not to press it further, so she looked towards Celestia whom promptly asked her a few questions. “How are you feeling Starlight? Twilight ran her way in here, so I assumed she heard something bad.” “I’m alright I guess. Just in a lot of pain. Its concentrating more along my back for some reason. I don’t remember ever hurting my back, so to feel this much pain is a surprise to me. Twilight probably heard me trying to lean back onto the bed. It hurts a lot more than you might think.” Starlight looked back over at Twilight, who seemed to have composed herself, and wondered exactly why her friend was so emotional today. Twilight locked eyes with Starlight and could only think of one thing. How had Starlight not noticed yet? With the way they felt, she should have noticed the moment she woke up. Twilight looked away, dumbfounded that Starlight couldn't feel anything. Maybe it was because of the pain? Twilight sighed in frustration for a 3rd time that day, just wishing that she didn’t have to tiptoe around the topic. It was at that moment that Celestia finally spoke up again. “Alright Starlight, we’ll take our leave and let you get some rest. Do feel better soon. We would love to see you at the celebration tonight.” Starlight just smiled and said, “I’ll do my best to be there. I can’t make any promises though.” “Goodbye Starlight, rest well.” Starlight felt her pain ebbing away, but with the pain gone, she ran into a new problem. She was itchy. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but she knew that she had enough of it. She decided to get up and stretch since she had been lying in bed for the past 2 hours. She had begun to feel stiff. Once she got out of bed though, she felt the itching stop. “That’s odd.” She said aloud. “Why would it stop like that?” she shrugged it off and just proceeded to stretch. That’s when she saw them. In her peripheral vision was a wing. A wing of her coat color. She turned her head back and gasped. She had wings. Starlight couldn’t believe it at first. Then it clicked. She screamed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.” She was an Alicorn.