Starlight Glimmer awoke to the sound of her daughter screaming.
Beside her in bed, Twilight , who was about to leave to see Alchemy, had already started towards the door, but by then Starlight had already teleported across the castle into Astral's room. In the millisecond between crossing from one room to the next, the unicorn ran through all potential scenarios, from nightmare to intruder.
When she got there, however, she had to slam her hooves over her ears at the loud wails coming from Astral. She was lying down, and screaming as tears fell down her face. Her legs were bent, and she looked seconds away from collapsing.
"Astral, sweetie, what's wrong?" As soon as Starlight spoke, Astral straightened up, and stumbled into her mothers body, throwing her hooves around her barrel, and burying her wet muzzle in her neck. When Starlight wrapped her hooves around her, she saw that the fillies sobs were shaking her whole body.
"I killed them." It was whispered at first, until it gained in volume, and suddenly Astral was shrieking "I killed them!" As loud as she could. Starlight wondered who 'them' was, but decided to ask that later. Comforting her daughter came first.
"Ssssh," she said in her best 'Mama' voice. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here now." Starlight gently nuzzled Astral's neck, and the crying intensified.
The sound of hoofsteps signaled the arrival of her wife, and Starlight shot her a desperate look over her shoulder. Twilight mouthed 'what's wrong?" At her, and Starlight helplessly shrugged in response. Twilight's long legs carried her across the room, and she wrapped her soft wings around her family.
"No school today," Starlight said, staring at Twilight defiantly, and the alicorn nodded quietly in response. Staying where she was, she penned a quick letter to Cheerilee explaining Astral was sick.
Their bodies glowed pure white, but even then Astral could see the blood pouring out of their eyes, nose, mouths, forming a puddle in the ground.
"You killed us! I thought we were friends!" Somehow Jam managed to speak around the mountain of blood clogging up her throat.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" Astral screamed, curling up into a ball as her two best friends surrounded her. The puddle was now a river, a river of blood, staining her coat and making it hard to breath as it went into her mouth.
"Don't come near us again, murderer!" Butterscotch said, as both his and Jam's legs gave out, and they crumbled into dust, leaving Astral alone with the blood staining her hooves and iron in her mouth, and no friends.
"I'm sorry!"
"Assie, I made you pancakes," Starlight said, opening the door once more to find Astral curled up in bed, blankets tangled around her as tears streamed down her face once more. "Oh, sweetie," Starlight scooped her up and hugged her close again as Astral wailed.
This went on for a few minutes, and when Astral's voice started giving out from all the crying, Starlight decided to get to the bottom of all this.
"Astral, I need you to tell me what's wrong. It might help," Starlight put a hoof under her daughters chin, and tilted it up so they were making eye contact.
"I killed them! I thought it would- but it didn't- and then they started glowing and-and oh Gods no!" Starlight realized she had no idea what Astral was talking about, and the only clue she had was that she had apparently killed her friends.
"Astral, sweetie, listen to me, okay?"
Once she was sure she was listening, Starlight pushed on. "Did you mean to do it?"
"No! I-I thought- I don't know what I was thinking- I just- Gods" Astral screwed her eyes up tight at the memories.
"Then it wasn't your fault. You didn't murder anyone."
"It wasn't my fault. I didn't murder anyone," Astral repeated, futilely trying to wipe away her tears.
"Don't you dare forget it."
"Mom, shouldn't you be with Alchemy?" Astral asked upon seeing Twilight Sparkle in the kitchen.
"Oh, I had to cancel. He had different plans," Twilight lied, attempting to look casual. Astral just leveled her with a bloodshot stare.
"You can go, you know. You haven't seen him in ages."
Twilight bit her lip, obviously conflicted. She hadn't seen her son in so long, but her daughter needed her. "But what if you need me for something?" She blurted.
"I have mom," she reminded her. "And you're only a couple of hours away, and she knows the letter spell." Twilight trotted over, and pulled Astral into a hug, before letting go to turn to the door.
"Star!"
"Yes, Twily?"
"I'm going to Canterlot to Al! Look after Astral, won't you?"
"Will do!"
This entire exchange took place by Astral's two moms screaming at the top of their lungs across the castle. Astral wished she could say this was out of the ordinary, but, sadly, it wasn't.
Later, after she and Starlight had kissed Twilight goodbye, and had eaten their pancakes, the two sat on the couch in front of the fireplace in the sitting room. "Want to do some origami?" Starlight asked, choosing one of the few things Astral enjoyed.
Astral just shrugged. "Okay," she said listlessly. Starlight bit her lip. I have to find a way to cheer her up.
"Hey mom, can I ask you something?" This surprised her, and Starlight straightened up.
"Of course sweetie. What is it?"
"I'm doing an. . experiment, and I'm not really sure how to go about conducting it," Astral admitted, rubbing her hooves over the blanket on the couch.
"Oh" Starlight's face fell slightly. "That's more Twilight's area of expertise then it is mine." At Astral's disappointed face, she hastened to add "though you should probably start with an hypothesis."
"What's that?"
"It's like a theory of what you think it going to happen. Then, when you test it out, you can see if it's true or false."
A small smile graced Astral's face, but Starlight called it a win. "Oh, um also, I've been trying to improve my magic," Astral added. "I can do telekinesis and the illumination spell, and I'm making progress on the reverse illumination spell, but I can't do the heat or light spell."
"Hmmm," Starlight said, studying her for a moment. "How do you feel when you do these spells?"
" . . . what?"
"I said how do you feel when you do these spells?"
"Why should that matter?" Astral felt bewildered, while Starlight just smiled knowingly.
"Sweetie, magic is powered by emotions. The stronger they are, the stronger the spell will be. I bet you just did the spells just to see if you could do them, am I right?" At Astral's embarrassed look, she smiled. "Next time, try to focus on your emotions, yeah?"
" . . Thanks mom."