//------------------------------//
// Starlight Glimmer 
// Story: Magical Curiosity 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

It was sunset with its orange sky, about to become night. Hanging around by the statue in front of school were those seven friends, either sitting or standing around. Pinkie had brought a picnic mat and was serving up her cakepies, hybrids of cakes and pies which looked like cake on the outside but had the sweet filling of pie inside.
Rainbow Dash, sitting on the mat, picked up a slice of cakepie and turned it around. “I still don’t know why we need cakepies.”
“Duh!” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “If you like both cakes and pies, why have a hard time choosing only one of them?”
Rainbow raised a brow. “But, what about a piecake? Like...it looks like pie but it tastes like cake?”
Pinkie scratched her rainbow hair. “I tested it in every possible way possible! There’s no way it can disappoint!”
“But I don’t like pie,” Rainbow stated.
“It’s for those who can’t choose between both, so...have a good day!”
“What?”
Rarity, leaning on the corner of the statue, glanced at Sunset who was scrolling through her messages on her phone. The fashionista looked at where she was leaning on, then at where the portal was though she saw nothing but shiny marble. Then, turning to Sunset: “Darling, what would happen if someone decided to rest their backs on the portal?”
Sunset tore away from the phone and shrugged. Then, she placed her hand through the portal, as if part of her arm was inside the statue.
Rarity’s eye twitched.
Sunset laughed, then returned the hand. “At any rate, Princess Twilight or Spike will notice and bring them back here.”
Fluttershy, who was standing beside Sunset, then asked, “We’re not going to do something like put up a sign?”
“That’d just make the portal more obvious,” Sunset said. Then, worried and tapping her head, “But, someone’s gonna get angry, that’s for sure.”
Rarity made a muffled giggle at that.
Meanwhile, Applejack and Twilight were talking, sitting on the grass.
“What’re you gonna do if you meet your other self through the portal?” Twilight asked, still giddy as could be seen by her smile and heard by her upbeat tone.
Applejack adjusted her hat a bit. “Uh, I don’t know. Greet ‘er?”
Twilight scratched her head, nervous. “Since my pony self is a Princess, maybe I won’t get to hang out with her much...heh-heh, I mean, if we do get permission from Sunset to go there—isn’t that right, Sunset?”
Sunset then looked at Twilight. “What?”
She turned back to Applejack. “See?”
Applejack narrowed her eyes at her. “What I see is someone who’s gone mad.”
Twilight then kept up that smile. “Hah-hah-hah, that’s so funny, Applejack!” She wrapped an arm around her. “Don’t you know you’re so...funny?”
Applejack sighed and glared at Sunset, stuck in a hug and pointing at Twilight. “Exhibit B.”
“Let her be,” Sunset replied, acting relaxed. “It’s not like she’s gonna go through the portal without my permission or the Princess’s permission.”
Applejack sighed again, tried to push Twilight away.
Sunset then looked at Rarity. “So, have you tried fishing—“
Then a bright white glow from the statue’s base, and out came Starlight Glimmer in her beanie, vest, ripped jeans, and sneakers.
Starlight looked around, seeing Sunset and her friends all in front of her. She raised a wobbly hand. “Uh...hi, again!”
Pinkie jumped up, ran, and gave her a slice of cakepie. “Here, Starlight! I’ve been saving this up just for you!”
Rainbow, in the meantime, groaned again and covered her face with both hands.
Everyone else also came nearer to the inter-dimensional foreigner, though Twilight tried to avoid Starlight’s glance as greetings went around with their “Hi!”’s and “Hello!”’s and what not.
Cakepie still uneaten.
Sunset slapped Starlight on the back, almost making her drop her food. “Ready to go to Pinkie’s house? Had to change venue since Rainbow’s parents are having the walls repainted.”
“Sure!” then Starlight noticed Rainbow who was just standing up to walk up to her; she was grumbling. “And you totally don’t live in a house made of clouds...right?”
Rainbow laughed at that idea, her frown disappearing though her laughter sounded canned. “Now, wouldn’t that be cool? But, even if I did, I’d fall off the floors.”
Starlight gave her a smirk. “Oh, and what about I beat you in that game without cheating?”
Rainbow growled. “Sunset!”



Pinkie’s house was close to a bridge and its river. It was fitting for her since the color scheme for her home was pink: the walls were a gray pink, the roof was a dark pink, and the mailbox was a bright pink.
Inside the kitchen, around the central countertop, Sunset and friends were busy helping themselves to a variety of sweet snacks: lollipops, chocolates, jawbreakers, licorice, cakes, pies, and, of course, cakepies. Not piecakes. Cakepies.
Starlight chewed on a slice of apple pie with her fork. She then looked at her hand holding the fork, turned the utensil around.
“What’s wrong, Starlight?” Rarity asked, examining Starlight’s nails from a distance.
Starlight smiled a nervous smile. “I guess I’m still not used to just...holding a fork without magic.”
“Well, surely, you can’t just use your magic to take a bite off roast beef!” Rainbow said, licking her lips at the thought of it.
Then, Starlight looked surprised. “Wait a minute. I just realized...” then pointed a weak finger at Sunset who was busy putting cuts of chocolate onto her cake. “You said something about how your kind can eat meat, right?”
Sunset nodded, turning away from her food. “And...?”
Starlight, with quivering lips, looked at the rest of her friends, though Pinkie and Applejack were absent. “Do you eat meat?”
“All of us except Fluttershy here,” Rarity answered, gesturing towards the girl in question who was having her own slice of cakepie. “She’s a vegetarian.”
Fluttershy, having heard it, looked at Starlight with that kind and tender smile.
Rainbow pointed to herself. “I eat all kinds of meat! Beef, pork, mutton, and certainly fried chicken!”
Twilight grinned, her teeth showing brown spots of chocolate. “Actually, since you’re...well, like that, Starlight,” looking at her up and down, “you can eat meat here without any ill effects! We won’t judge!”
Starlight gulped. “I’m not scared of what you might think of me. I’m scared of what my pony friends might think of me! We’re all herbivores there, so if they found out I ate meat...what will the Princess say? What will Maud and Sunburst say? What would Trixie say?”
“Trixie?!” Rainbow and Rarity cried out loud, shocked.
Starlight slumped her shoulders. “Oh. I forgot to tell you. Equestria’s Trixie is one of my best friends. We see each other often despite her...wandering nature.”
“Wandering nature?” Twilight asked, leaning over the table, careful to not stain her dress and bowtie. “What do you mean by that?”
Starlight twirled her striped hair around. “You see, you already know most of us back home aren’t students at school anymore. Trixie’s job is going around Equestria and performing magic shows in various places. She’s done various tours, sometimes I come along as her assistant, and I’m proud of her success.”
Rainbow gulped down her mouthful of sour licorice. “Wow. Even Trixie can’t beat herself!”
This elicited a few snickers from Sunset, who then stopped when everyone was looking at her. “S-Sorry!”
Starlight peered at Sunset, a hand on her own hip. “What’s the problem with your Trixie?”
Sunset leaned back on her chair. “She’s pretty much the same, except she doesn’t go around doing magic tours.”
Starlight cocked her head. “Then what does Trixie do here?”
Twilight raised her hand and said, “She does magic tricks at school and she’s also part of a band.”
Starlight looked at her skeptical. “Does she go around the world with her band?”
Rainbow snickered. “Starlight, it’s a high school band.”
Then, a couple of heavy steps from around the wall.
They looked that way, and saw Pinkie carrying a pink laptop and Applejack carrying a huge stack of paper bound together with paperclips, staples, and rope.
Starlight smiled and stood up while everyone else stood up and were frightened at the papers right before them, their eyes and mouth open in surprise.
“Uh, Pinkie?” Sunset asked, pointing at the paper. “Is that for art class?”
“No, silly!” Pinkie said, waving the laptop around. “You see, when I played Rainbow’s bomb game, I thought, ‘Wow! I should totally buy that!’ Then, I finished the whole thing by myself and got bored because it was so short! But, there’s a whole website filled with custom puzzles, so I want to introduce you to them!”
Only Starlight smiled at the prospect of having a ton of papers to work with in a video game.
“Are you disappointed?” Pinkie asked everyone else. “I know. I didn’t download all of them. This isn’t even half of it!”
Applejack then carefully placed the stack of paper down on the floor. “Good thing she separated ‘em by difficulty, so we’ll have a good enough time, right, girls?”
Almost all of them looked at each other and slowly nodded.
Rainbow Dash, however, placed a slice of cake into her mouth and munched, shuddering at what was coming next.
Then, a loud and gruff voice from upstairs: “Hey, Pinkie! Make sure I hear no shouting! I’m trying to sleep!”
Pinkie waved at the wall. “OK, Limestone!”



The living room was typical. Couches, sofas, tables, television, and radio were all in place; the carpet was there, too, also pink. Hanging on the walls were pictures of Pinkie’s family with two formally dressed parents in gloomy moods and four children who would have been very much alike if it were not for Pinkie. She stood out in those photos by just being pink in a family of gray and brown.
In the middle of the room were two chairs facing away from each other and two small desks in front of each chair. One desk had the laptop which already had Don’t Stop Saying Words and Everyone Lives running at the main menu screen. The other desk had a small portion of the manual, now as thin as a slice of cake, though there were almost thirty pages in that portion alone.
At the laptop’s chair was Starlight, who looked surprised and astonished at the many buttons of keys, numbers, words, and other symbols on the computer, along with the mouse connected to it. She held the mouse up and rotated it, pressed both the left and the right buttons. “This is how you press the virtual buttons in your computer stuff?” She smirked, hearing the click! “Yeah, I got it.”
Sunset laughed, sitting at the manual’s chair as she held it up and flipped through the pages. “Don’t mind the keyboard; you don’t need it for the game.” A pause. “If you want to pick up the bomb, you press the left mouse button.”
Starlight blinked, looking at the screen. “But, I see no bombs. I see the words, ‘Start’, ‘Choose Mode’, ‘Options’—“
“Start!” Pinkie screamed.
And Starlight shoved the mouse around and frantically clicked on “Start”.
Sunset chuckled to herself, looking at the rest of her friends who were seated on the couch as the audience. Then, she continued her instructions: “Since you’re the one with the bomb, you can’t look at the manual. Since I’m the one with the manual, I can’t look at the bomb. You’ll see a bunch of stuff in that bomb, and you have a certain amount of time until you defuse it. Click around to do stuff, and use the right mouse button to rotate the bomb and see what’s attached to it and—“
Boom!
“Agh!”
Sunset spun her head around to see a black screen and a visibly shaking Starlight. “That was loud!”
Pinkie laughed. “She cut the wrong wire before it even started!”
Rainbow added her own laugh. “You won’t see that when I’m in control!”
Starlight glared at her. “We’ll see about that! At least you grew up with hands!”
Sunset sighed, banging her head on the manual. “This is gonna be a long session….”



“OK, it’s on!” Starlight yelled, selecting the bomb.
Timer on the bomb: three minutes.
Sunset flattened the manual. “What’s the first thing you see?”
“Uh, there are some wires...and—“
“How many?”
Starlight gulped. “Five, and—“
“First wire is…?”
Starlight wiped her forehead, seeing those five wires as the timer’s seconds went down. “OK, what is it? Are we talking about how straight it is? Is it the color—“
“What color?!”
Starlight looked at Sunset. “Didn’t Limestone say—“
And Sunset stuck a hand on her face, covering Starlight’s eyes. “No! You look back at the screen!”
Rainbow crossing her legs. “Hah! Can’t even solve the first one without asking for help!”
“Uh, isn’t that the whole point of the game?” Applejack asked.
“Whatever, AJ.”



“Pinkie?!” Rainbow shouted, disoriented by what she saw—or by what she didn’t. “There’s nothing on this part of the bomb!”
“Ooh!” Pinkie flipped through the pages of the manual, sitting behind her. “Just answer me the following questions: How many batteries? How many battery holders? What indicators are there, both lit and unlit? How many port plates are there? Is the timer blue, green, or red? Are there wires, and if so—“
“Uh….”



"I got a fancy ‘ere clock,” Applejack said, stationed at the laptop. “It’s...wait, hold on...three fifty-seven AM!”
“Uh-huh,” Twilight said, browsing through the manual, adjusting her glasses. “Let’s see...color of the clock?”
“It’s, uh...blue—“
“Are you sure?” Twilight asked.
“What do you mean, ‘Are you sure?’ It’s blue!”
“What is blue?”
“The clock!”
“Which part of the clock?”
Applejack groaned, about to punch the laptop. “The round part!”
“Round part? OK...what’s the color of the clock’s hands?”
“Moving on to those easy-lookin’ wires over there!”
Twilight moaned, turning to another section of the manual and wasting precious time.



“You’re telling me this is a maze but I can’t see the walls?!” Starlight screamed.
“All you have to do is follow my lead and you’ll be fine!” Rainbow said, holding up the manual for her partner not to read. “First thing you do is tell me where you are.”
Starlight looked at the maze on the bomb, seeing only a grid and a black square. “I’m…in the first row, second column.”
“Wait, wait, let me check up.”
Sounds of rustling paper.
Starlight looked to the right of the maze.
The timer? Twenty seconds and counting down, milliseconds draining fast.
“Rainbow?” Starlight asked, resisting the urge to look back. “We got...seventeen seconds!”
“One moment!” Rainbow cried out, more papers rustling.
Starlight bit her lip.
Twelve seconds.
Her friends were no longer on the couch. They were standing near, leaning their heads and keeping their mouths closed.
A bead of sweat dropped on to the keyboard.
Starlight eyed the lonely black square and then the timer.
Eight seconds.
“Rainbow?!”
“What’s the time?” Rainbow asked nonchalantly, tossing page after page.
“Five seconds!”
“Let me do it!”
Rainbow shoved Starlight to the side, pushed her off the chair, slammed the manual onto the computer desk, smacked the correct answer on the manual with her fist, opened that fist to hold the mouse, pressed the arrows this way and that, and escaped the maze.
The bomb was solved with only 0.10 seconds left on the timer.
And Rainbow closed the laptop, stood on the chair, and looked down on everyone. “And, that, my friends, is how it’s done!”
As Starlight groaned, getting up with Fluttershy’s help.
Sunset looked up at Rainbow, glowering. In a decisive tone: “That was uncalled for.”
Rainbow then looked at Starlight as Fluttershy asked her if she was OK, Starlight herself rubbing her back and her shoulders.
“What do you have to say for yourself, Rainbow?” Sunset asked , eyebrows arched.
Rainbow raised her shoulders and grinned a nervous grin. “It’s the part where I say ‘Sorry’, isn’t it?”
Sunset nodded. “It’s just a game.”
“But, I don’t want to break my winning str—“
“And you cheated once again,’ Sunset went on. “This time, we all saw it.”
Rainbow was silent for a while, seeing Starlight recover from the little pain. Then, she hopped off the chair, took Starlight by the arm, and said, “Sorry, Glimmer. Maybe I got a little aggressive there.”
“A little?” Twilight asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.
“OK, maybe a lot.”
Starlight gave her a single-second hug. “It’s OK!” She held up her pink arms, inspected them. “At least I didn’t get hurt.”
Then, furious steps down the stairs, and through the hallway. Into the living room came Limestone Pie in her gray pajamas, her straight gray hair on one side of her sharp-eyelashes face.
“I was trying to sleep!” Limestone yelled. Then, she looked at the clock on the wall, then stormed back into the hallway. “I’m ordering pizza!”



Half an hour and an angry phone call later, everyone was back inside the kitchen, this time helping themselves not to sweets but to five boxes of pizzas, one of which was a veggie pizza just for Fluttershy—and, to compensate for it being just one pizza against four others, it was the largest size, covering almost half the countertop.
For Fluttershy, her pizza was sprinkled with bell peppers, tomatoes, parsley, spinach, broccoli, cabbages, lettuces, garlic, onion and potatoes. The sumptuous scent emanating from it rivaled that of the other pizzas which had lots of other toppings: alongside perennial pepperoni, there was salami, mushrooms, bacon, beef, chicken, tuna, shrimp, scallops, and dozens upon dozens of types of cheese. Of course, one must not forget the bottles of soda and the box of ice cubes nearby.
And Limestone closed one of the boxes and grabbed it. “This is for me and Marble! You and Maud have your fair shares, alright, Pinkie?”
Pinkie, who had already sunk her teeth into a slice, nodded. “Okie-dokie!”
Limestone flicked her long hair about, then walked her way out of the kitchen.
Sunset rubbed her hands, feasting her eyes upon a real feast. “Everybody, dig in!”
And everybody did dig in, with Rainbow Dash hoarding up slice upon slice for herself on that dainty little paper plate. Applejack did so, too, although trying not to compete with Rainbow for how many pizza slices they could fit on a single plate. Rarity, wanting to protect her polished nails, slipped her hands into some plastic gloves before taking a slice of the pizza.
“Come on, Rarity!” moaned Applejack, holding up her slice without a glove. “You didn’t do that last time we had pizza!”
Rarity raised her head, closing her eyes like a snob. “This pizza’s too oily for my taste! Haven’t you seen how the crust shines under the light? Like a face without any professional care!”
Applejack turned away. “Suit yourself.”
Twilight sat beside Fluttershy who was not only quiet with her talk but was also quiet in her chewing, taking small bites and taking long looks upon the individual vegetables. She then turned to Starlight who eyed Fluttershy’s pizza.
Starlight also did not have any pizza yet
She then gulped at the rest of the food. Starlight could smell it, that peculiar smell of cooked meat toppings. She raised the tips of her lips in a mix of disgust and baffled relish.
“I know what’s the matter,” Sunset said, patting her on the shoulder, now holding a glass of iced soda. “Getting over your fear of meat.”
“Uh-huh,” Starlight said, sounding more feeble. “On one hoof—heh, I mean, on one hand, it smells so good. On the other hand, I can’t stop thinking about eating a cow!”
Sunset nodded, giving her an assuring look. “I went through that before, when I crossed the mirror for the first time. As much as I wanted to keep my pony diet, the veggie stuff wasn’t cheap. Here, everyone eats meat except for vegans like Fluttershy. Also, the cows here aren’t like the cows there; they don’t talk, they’re just...dumb.”
Starlight looked at Fluttershy, happily eating her pizza. “OK...just gotta remember those cows aren’t the same as our cows….”
Fluttershy kept eating her pizza.
Starlight inhaled, seeing the meaty food on the countertop. “I think I’m good, but what does meat taste like?”
Sunset looked up, thinking. “It’s...it’s hard to explain. It’s like trying to tell you what leaves taste like.”
“Eh. All I know is that it’s savory.”
“Yeah.” Then, Sunset paused, studying the pepperoni for inspiration. “But, it’s more than just savory. Peanuts and beans are savory, but meat is...it’s...how can I put this?” She sighed, but did not give up. “Alright, if you’re talking about the meat on this pizza,” pointing at the pepperoni pizza, “it has the texture of horseshoe fries but the taste of mushrooms plus beans...but that taste is thrice as intense and twice as salty.”
Starlight blinked. “I don’t know if that analogy works out, but it sure does sound tasty to me!” Her fingers rolled about, ready to grab some pizza. Then, stopped herself, a frown appearing. “But what happens when I get back home tomorrow? The meat would be inside me when I go through and change back into a pony. Will I vomit it out?”
Sunset laughed; so did a few others there. “You’ll be fine. I’ve done it before, and, from what Twilight’s observed, the meat instantly turns into usable energy.”
“Smart portal!” Starlight commented as she picked up a slice of the pepperoni pizza. Then, she looked at it, eyeing those circular cuts of processed meat. “Uh…”
“Go for it, Starlight!” Sunset rallied, raising her hand into the air. “I know you can do it!”
And everyone was now looking at her, even Fluttershy, anticipating the moment that meat would be consumed by their pony visitor.
Starlight’s hands wobbled as she held the slice with both hands.
She opened her mouth wide.
Then chomped off the slice, letting it savor in her mouth.
And gulped. Eyes closed. Shook her head. “Ugh….”
Twilight turned her phone on, about to call the emergency number.
Then, Starlight opened her eyes.
And smiled. “It wasn’t that bad!”
Sunset slapped her on the back again. “And what will you tell the Princess now that you’ve eaten meat?”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “Can’t win if you can’t try, am I right?”
And everyone laughed before they continued with their dinner.



Hours later, the lights from the bedroom window were on. More laughter ensued, followed by a couple shouts. Then, one could hear the door opening with a bang! and Limestone yelling, “Do you know what ‘peace and quiet’ means?!”
Starlight, who was sitting on the front yard, looked at the window for a while. Then, she turned back to the night sky above.
It was a cold and clear evening for her. The stars were aplenty despite the skyscrapers trying to contest for the night. The moon was full, round and glowing in white. Before her was the street, almost free from cars for several were parked by the sidewalk. She turned her head towards a house across the road and saw a green-haired volunteer gardening some plants for someone else.
“Huh.” She tapped her finger on her chin. “She looks familiar. Isn’t that the Wallflower Blush Twilight’s talked about a while ago?”
She picked up the phone hidden in her vest, hesitated a bit before getting past the lock screen. Once inside the photos app, she scrolled through the pictures until she found a photo of someone just like that volunteer, posing with Sunset by some other flowers.
“She is,” was Starlight’s simple answer to herself. Then, she looked up, seeing the beautiful moon once more. “And to think I’ve never even thought of the moon being controlled by...just being there. The sun, too.” A pause, gawking at the sky.
Then, rustling of locks.
She looked back again.
It was Twilight. She closed the door behind her, walked down the steps, and waved at Starlight. “Oh, uh, hi! Didn’t expect you to be here!”
“Me, too,” Starlight said.
Twilight sat down beside Starlight.
They both looked up at the night sky, sitting on the grass.
“So, what brings you out here?” Starlight asked.
“I was gonna ask the same of you,” Twilight replied.
The beanie-wearing lady laughed. “It’s never the same here. I know that’s a moon up there, but my instinct always pictures Princess Luna inside Canterlot Castle, moving the moon and doing her dream duties. Here, she’s just a vice principal.”
“She likes the night, though,” said Twilight.
“Yeah, there’s that,” Starlight conceded. “But, she doesn’t control the moon here,” gesturing to the ground. “She enjoys night activities, but she isn’t entering people’s dreams.”
Twilight smiled. “Well, doesn’t it sound weird to have the sun and the moon be controlled by two Princesses? Sunset explained it all to me before, but...she accepts it as a fact of life.”
“That’s because it is a fact of life,” Starlight said. “We don’t question it because that’s how it’s always been for a thousand years...OK, there was the whole thousand-year part when Celestia juggled both sun and moon, but you get the point.” She ended with her brand of nervous smiles.
“Uh-huh.”
And they went back to looking at the sky, the moon and stars reflected on Twilight’s glasses.
Then, Starlight felt a tap on her shoulder. “What is it?”
Twilight’s smile disappeared. “Starlight...um, if you don’t mind me asking—“
“Shoot away!” Starlight said with a beckoning hand. “If you’re anything like the Twilight Sparkle I know, your curiosity knows no bounds!”
Twilight smiled again, though with a sober weight on it. “That’s...that’s part of the reason why—I wasn’t thinking about talking it out until I saw you and….”
Starlight raised her brow. “That there are two Twilights?”
She nodded, lowering her head. “I...I don’t know how these dimensions work out, how they’re connected, but...I’m assuming she’s older than me by a few years since she’s a Princess and all….”
“So, what’s your point?” Starlight asked, reserved.
Twilight balked, the answer in her throat. “The thing is, Starlight, I—“
And Starlight’s phone rumbled and rang tons of bells. She picked it up and placed it before her ear. “Uh, hello? Who’s this?”
“Sunset Shimmer?” a troubled yet familiar voice asked. “You do not sound like Sunset.”
“Luna?” Starlight glanced left and right, seeing no one but Twilight there. “This is Starlight Glimmer; I’m sure Sunset caught you up to speed about my being here. What’s the problem?”
“I’m afraid Trixie’s gone through the portal.”
Starlight paused with her mouth open in distress. “Uh, what do you mean?”
“I talked to every single student and teacher who saw her today, and, coupled with her hat I found lying before the statue, I have concluded that she has gone to your Equestria.”
Starlight then dropped the phone to the ground, sweat pouring down on her face.
Twilight stood up. “We’re getting everyone else!”
And Starlight jumped up, ran with her back inside the house.