//------------------------------// // Starlight's World III // Story: Starlight Glimmer Makes Many Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// Twilight was loathe to leave Princess Celestia behind the way she was but there was nothing more they could do for her at the moment. Their only option now was going to the Crystal Empire and stopping things at the source. Twilight bid farewell to the Princess and promised to save her and every other pony from this fate, the Princess was sadly unable to react to or thank Twilight for this declaration but Twilight knew how much she would appreciate it if she could. Starlight, Spike, and Twilight now found themselves on the train north to the Crystal Empire, making no delay in going there. They weren’t sure what entirely they were getting into and what Empress Starlight was capable of but truly that didn’t matter. Because they had to stop her. “So do we have an actual plan?” Spike asked as the three sat in their seats, Twilight and Starlight both absentmindedly staring out the window. Twilight peeled her eyes away from the window. “We’re going to do the same thing Empress Starlight is, I’ll use the Crystal Heart to broadcast my anti-brainwashing spell across all of Equestria. The only problem with that is that without the crystal ponies powering up the heart there won’t be enough magical energy for it to work.” “So somehow we need to have the brainwashed crystal ponies power up the Heart in order to unbrainwash them? How are we going to do that?” Spike scratched his head. “I have no idea!” Twilight yelled in frustration, cradling her head between her hooves. “We could always just destroy the Crystal Heart.” Starlight suggested. “No! Absolutely not!” Twilight frowned at her. “That could have catastrophic repercussions, the least of which being that the frozen north would start to reclaim the Empire.” “It would also undo the magic of Evil me’s spell and have everypony in Equestria slowly return to normal.” Starlight argued. Twilight furrowed her brow, thinking for a second. “You… may be correct but I still don’t want to take the risk of destroying the Crystal Heart. That’s an absolute last resort.” “Fine.” Starlight decided to accept that compromise and returned to staring out the window. Spike was decidedly worried that Starlight would just destroy the Crystal Heart anyways but he didn’t voice that thought. And Starlight probably wouldn’t betray Twilight’s trust like that. Probably. The scenery outside the window started to get more and more wintry as the train made its way further north, just now hitting the outside borders of the frozen north and crystal mountains. Snowflakes started dropping outside the train and frost began to gather on the windows. It wouldn’t take them much longer before they reached their destination and it wasn’t even noon yet, they were making good progress today to finish this little misadventure up as soon as possible. “There’s the edge of the mountains.” Spike said as he peeked around Twilight’s body to get a view of the outside as well. “Yep.” Twilight nodded. “An hour more maybe and we’ll get to the Crystal Empire train station.” “Somehow I doubt we’ll have to fight any crowds when we arrive either.” Starlight muttered. As the train chugged along through the snowy mountains to its destination the cold from outside began to slightly penetrate into the train, lowering the temperature inside and providing a slight coolness for the three passengers. Starlight closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat to relax. There was nothing more to see outside the windows at this point anyways. Twilight during this silence still couldn’t help but think and worry about things, things she wasn’t entirely sure she even wanted to mention at the moment. However Spike could easily tell what she was worried about and had no problem with bringing up a potentially uncomfortable subject. “Are you worried about Shining Armor and Cadance?” He asked her. Starlight’s eyes opened back up as she heard that and she turned to look at Twilight. She hadn’t even thought about Twilight’s brother and sister-in-law. Twilight grimaced, instead of meeting either Starlight’s or Spike’s eyes she turned to stare out the window some more. “I guess.” She said, finally. “I’m just wondering if they’re going to be gone like our friends or brainwashed like Princess Celestia.” The alicorn sighed. “I’m honestly not sure which one would make me feel worse.” “It’s not just seeing them that might be a problem either.” Starlight started. “But if Evil me is controlling them she could have them fight us if it comes down to that. She’s already going to have a whole empire of ponies to throw at us and Shining Armor and Princess Cadance would be hard enough to deal with on their own.” With that reminder from Starlight, Twilight blanched. “I wasn’t even thinking about that possibility. Even if they’re being manipulated I don’t know if I can fight my BBBFF and my old foal-sitter!” “Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.” Spike pleadingly held up both of his hands to try to calm Twilight down. “I’m sure it’ll be fine and if push comes to shove Starlight and I can handle that part.” “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Twilight.” Starlight reassured her, smiling at her teacher. Twilight wasn’t entirely placated but she nodded at her friends. “Okay. I also really hope that it doesn’t come down to a fight at all though. I’d really like to just be able to talk to this Starlight and convince her that way.” “Uh, yeahhh...” Starlight rubbed the back of her head. “I wouldn’t put much faith in that working. I know me, even a different me like this, and if I “won” already and can look outside my window every morning when I wake up and be validated then just talking to me probably isn’t going to cut it. Evil me is definitely going to not only think she’s right but that what she’s done has obviously worked. Especially since for all intents and purposes it looks like it really has. At seeing Spike and Twilight’s unamused frowns Starlight quickly backpedaled. “I mean it’s still bad, really bad, but she’s not going to think or believe that at all.” Starlight shrugged. “And even for me you had to really show me the terrible consequences of my actions to get me to change. This Starlight can clearly see the consequences of her actions and obviously thinks they’re a good thing. So I don’t really think the usual talk about friendship and all that jazz is going to cut it here.” She finished. Twilight had to admit that Starlight had a few points there. It usually did take a little more than just a talk to solve things when it came to stuff like this. “Be that as it may.” Twilight said. “I’m still going to at least attempt to reason with her if we have to confront her at all. Which hopefully we don’t.” “Yeah I’m sure it’s gonna be that easy.” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Haha, very funny.” Twilight scowled at her. “Eh, she’s got a bit of a point, Twilight. When have things ever been that easy?” Spike put in a word in Starlight’s defense. “Ughhh.” Twilight groaned in annoyance before throwing up her hooves. “Fine! You’re right! It probably won’t be easy at all! It’ll probably be annoying and troublesome because that’s just how unlucky I am!” Spike supportively patted her on the back while Starlight held back a giggle. Despite the situation she couldn’t help but find a little humor in Twilight’s typical attitude. It was a welcome moment of levity and even Twilight probably realized that herself. With another sigh of exasperation Twilight sunk back into her seat. “Okay, enough of that for now. Let’s at least try to rest a little bit before we arrive at the Empire. We’ve already had a long day and it won’t be much longer now that we have to get there.” Like Twilight had said a few minutes before it only took about another hour before the train finally pulled into Crystal Empire Station. The doll-eyed conductor came into their cabin to announce the arrival and the three passengers stepped off onto the empty platform. There was but a single pony occupying the ticket booth and nopony else that any of them could see working at the moment. It was such an eerie and unusual quiet for the station but unfortunately that was now becoming the norm to the three of them for this world. The ponies and dragon walked down through the entrance to the station so they could take their first steps into the Empire proper and hopefully soon solve this mess. “It’s actually kind of weird how nice it looks here you know?” Spike said as he walked and looked around the streets and the rest of the Crystal Empire beyond. “Well even when King Sombra controlled it the Empire was still protected from the weather thanks to the Crystal Heart. So it’s not really surprising that it still looks normal now.” Twilight explained. “Lots of crystal ponies out too.” Starlight mentioned, pointing at plenty that were walking down the streets doing their day to day business. “They have their normal luster, interesting.” Twilight noted, rubbing her chin. “So that hasn’t been affected?” “Study later, Twilight.” Spike reminded her. “Right, right, sorry.” Vacant non-looks from the crystal ponies greeted them as they walked further down the streets. The massive Crystal Castle dominated the view in front of them even from this distance, with it as a landmark getting lost in the Empire would be just about impossible. And the lights being emitted from its spire made it even more of an eye-catcher. The city under it must have been awash in a strange rainbow illumination even in the middle of the night thanks to the constant spread of the lights. “How does anypony sleep around here with that going on?” Spike muttered. They quickly made their way deeper into the heart of the city, familiar buildings and houses springing up all around them. Even here none of the ponies seemed to really notice the fact that “Empress” Starlight was walking around unless she was right next to them. It just went to show how much this brainwashing magic had set them all to auto-pilot. “I wonder if Sunburst still lives here?” Starlight wondered out loud. “Bleh. Bad either way honestly.” “Speaking of that though should we like, look around first or anything?” Spike asked. “Everything we’re looking for should be in the castle. I’m not sure we need to go looking anywhere else.” Twilight said. "Guess I was thinking just in case or anything.” Spike shrugged. “Well it’s true that I’m not sure what we may find in the Crystal Empire but I think we should stick to our primary destination.” Twilight said. And then a powerful rumbling noise came from Twilight’s stomach. The alicorn paused in midstep as the growling of her empty stomach continued, her face turning redder and redder every second. Spike and Starlight stared at her in surprise before grins broke out across their faces and they struggled to hold in their laughter… until equally powerful roars of hunger came from their own stomachs, causing the two to look away in embarrassment. “Uh… none of us has had anything to eat since yesterday, have we?” Spike asked. “I’m not sure how much I approve of this.” Twilight said as she slowly munched on some hay fries, an untouched hayburger sitting on the plate in front of her. “Can’t save the world on an empty stomach, Twilight.” Starlight said to her while eating her salad. “Agree with Starlight here.” Spike belched through a mouthful of food. The three of them sat in a small cafe a short walk away from the castle and plaza, Twilight had only half-eaten her meal so far, too distracted by their current mission. She kept glancing out the window at the castle and watching the crystal ponies walk down the street. Now that they were just sitting around again her mind kept threatening to drift back to the issue of her brother and Cadance. “Come on Twilight, it’s obvious you’re letting yourself stress out. Eat up already.” Starlight said to her as if she could read her mind. “Yeah, normally you’d have already stuffed your face with that hayburger.” Spike pointed out. Twilight blushed and angrily turned to the two of them. “I do not stuff my face!” Spike and Starlight both shared a glance before flatly looking at Twilight. “Twilight-” Spike started. “You inhale your hayburgers. Everypony who’s seen you eat knows that.” “Honestly the fact that you don’t have ketchup all over your cheeks right now is all the sign we need that you’ve got something else on your mind.” Starlight shrugged. “Grr...” Steam practically started to come out of Twilight’s ears as she grumbled at the two of them before grabbing her hayburger with her magic and taking a huge bite out of it. “Happy now?!” “Yep, that’s the Twilight we know.” Spike winked at her and high-fived Starlight. “Argh!” Twilight collapsed forward onto the table. “So now the both of you are working together?” Spike sighed. “Twilight we’re just trying to help you out a little. Nothing good is gonna come from you not eating enough and stressing like this. And as for working together you can believe I’m definitely not on Starlight’s side when it comes to goofing off. I’m taking this just as seriously as you.” He said while hooking a thumb at the lilac unicorn. Starlight frowned at him. “I’m taking this seriously too. Mostly.” “No you’re not.” Spike scoffed at her. “You haven’t been taking anything seriously.” “This is different from the rest!” Starlight defended herself. Twilight’s eyes darted back and forth between the two as they argued. “Am I missing something here?” She asked with a raised eyebrow directed at them. “No!” They both hastily answered. Twilight’s eyes narrowed but she decided now wasn’t the time. “Alright...” “Let’s just finish our meals and get back on our way to the castle.” Starlight coughed and attempted to nonchalantly eat her salad again. “The two of you are lucky there are bigger things for me to worry about right now… and that I’m hungry.” Twilight said as she took another bite out of her hayburger. Shortly after that the three finished up their meals and left the cafe (Twilight had taken a little while longer than usual to finish since she didn’t want to seem like she was ever a pig when it came to hayburgers). Now there was only a short walk to the central plaza and the castle, as the three walked down the street towards it they kept a vigilant eye out for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. “Nopony has reacted to us yet or anything.” Twilight whispered to Starlight and Spike. “Do you think that Empress Starlight might have some sort of surveillance system in place or a way to check if everypony is actually brainwashed and doing what they’re supposed to? I was thinking it seems like the kind of thing an evil you might come up with but if we haven’t been confronted yet I guess not.” “Well thank you for that ringing endorsement.” Starlight sarcastically replied. “But if I’m being honest for a second I think I’d be too overconfident and self-assured right now to bother with something like that, it was kind of a flaw of mine in the past and I think any version of me calling themselves “Empress” is gonna have it even worse.” “A massively smug Starlight? It scares me just thinking about it.” Spike ribbed her. “Haha. Let’s just check out the castle already.” Starlight said, scowling. “Starlight’s right, but before we just walk up to the castle let’s hold on for a moment.” Twilight said and motioned the two to walk up onto the sidewalk of the street and slowly make their way down it until they came to the last building on the lane. Now the only thing before them was the towering castle itself, separated by only a small bit of open plaza. Starlight craned her neck to look up at it, seeing the uncomfortable lights dancing from the top of the spire. She, Twilight and Spike stood at the edge of the sidewalk, their goal finally in front of them. “So why’d you want us to stop?” Spike asked Twilight. “Look.” Twilight pointed between the legs of the castle to the central open space right below its great belly. Spike and Starlight both did, seeing nothing of interest. “Yeah? And?” Spike asked again. Twilight rolled her eyes. “No Crystal Heart, Spike. It’s not down there.” “Oh.” Spike realized. “Oh, that would’ve made things a lot easier.” Twilight groaned in annoyance. “Yes, it would have. And if it’s not down there there’s only one other place I can think it would be.” She said as she looked up to the top of the castle. “Probably right about that.” Starlight agreed. “That’s why I wanted to stop for a second. I wanted to see if the Heart was going to be down here or not. Since it isn’t I have a plan for us.” Twilight explained to them. “Okay, what’s the plan?” Spike asked. The alicorn smiled at her number one assistant. “Spike, I want you to fly up to the top of the tower and see if the Crystal Heart is there. Meanwhile Starlight and I are going to, well, walk in through the front door.” “My kind of plan.” Starlight grinned. “If the Heart’s up there then that’s good,” Twilight continued. “But be extra careful to make sure you aren’t seen flying up the castle, we don’t know what kind of security measures Empress Starlight might have, overconfident or not. Starlight and I will come find you when we’re done searching the castle on our own, so just stay up there regardless.” “You got it.” Spike flapped his wings a few times and flew up over their heads. “Good luck.” He called back to the two of them before flying off. “Good luck, Spike.” Twilight waved him off. She then turned her attention to Starlight. “And now it’s time for the “Empress” to get us into her castle.” Starlight giggled. “Leave it to me.” The two walked straight towards the doors that opened up at the bottom of one the castle’s supporting “legs”. Getting closer they noticed that there were in fact guards stationed around it, five armored crystal ponies standing at attention and staring forward unblinkingly. “I guess even Evil me wants guards.” Starlight said. “Maybe she just wants to keep things normal. Every castle has guards.” Twilight reasoned. As the two made their way directly to the guards they noticed that the central guard was actually paying attention to them. Surprisingly she wasn’t a crystal pony but a regular white unicorn mare with a blonde mane and tail that had a single orange streak running through it, however she had the same vacant brainwashed eyes as the other guards. Seeing that she wasn’t going to just move aside even for the “Empress”. Starlight and Twilight stopped in front of her. “Hello there!” Starlight cheerily waved to the guards. “It’s me, Empress Starlight, and this is my friend.” She gestured to Twilight. “We’d like to go inside my castle now, thank you.” The unicorn guard shook her head. “No.” Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise while Starlight frowned, her brow furrowing in annoyance. “What do you mean no? This is my castle.” “No it’s not, you’re not Empress Starlight.” The guard replied in a simple monotone. “Yes I am! I am one hundred percent Starlight Glimmer!” Starlight yelled at the guard, completely unaware of Twilight poking her trying to get her attention. The guard didn’t even blink but simply raised her hoof and pointed at Starlight’s head. “Your mane is wrong. And the Empress is currently inside in the throne room.” She turned to the guards next to her. “Sound the alarm and alert the Empress, we have changeling intruders.”