Starlight’s POV:
I wake up in my room, my cutie mark is glowing, well, best go to the map and see where I am going. I wander into the map room to find Twilight staring hard at it, breathing heavily. I look at the map to see I am being summoned to Canterlot. Twilight is not happy about me going to see the Princesses without her, especially since it is a friendship quest by myself. Although, much to my disapproval, she insists that I bring a music box that she can transform herself onto and talk to me. It is a cute, small, gold and teal music box that plays soft orchestral music, mostly cello and violin. Twilight sends me off at the train station, unfortunately, the train must stop at Appleloosa first before going to Canterlot. Thankfully I don’t have to get off there, so I don’t have to deal with seeing Braeburn or any other members of the Apple family.
I arrive at the pristine white brick walls with accents of gold iron gates and designs on the roofs of Canterlot Castle about an hour and a half after leaving Ponyville, it is dark outside, so I will meet with Celestia in the morning. I am escorted to a guest room by two unicorn Night Guards. They leave me alone and I decide to sleep since I don’t have anything to unpack, as I only brought a small bag with my toothbrush and a spellbook.
I wake up the next morning and a guard escorts me to a private dining room for Celestia, Luna, and their guests. I arrive to see Celestia has made pancakes in the shape of faces, I almost feel bad for eating it. Luna walks in looking sleepy, she doesn’t acknowledge her sister’s breakfast, grabs a pineapple, and wanders back out.
“My sister never acknowledges that I get up every morning to make breakfast that she never eats. However, I’m sure that Luna will also say that she does something that I never acknowledge.”
“Well, I guess we will see tonight when I spend a little time with her.” We finish eating and then I spend the day watching and learning about what Celestia does everyday. When Luna awakes I proceed to spend time with her. Mostly learning about what prep she does before she enters the dream realm. I wander back to my room and Twilight decides to check up on me. I admit to her that I believe that the Princesses are not the best at communicating, so they are the friendship problem.
“Uh!” I look at her questioningly, “Sorry, you just used Princesses and ‘not the best’ in the same sentence and it is making me nervous.” Twilight then starts breathing heavily.
“Well their not, so, what should I do?”
“Their fine, you should just let them work it out, I’m sure there is two other ponies that are having a friendship problem.”
“No. Twilight, they are the friendship problem, now leave me alone so I can deal with them tomorrow.” I turn my back to her and lay down to sleep, ignoring her as she returns home, letting the music box play.
I wake up the next morning to pancakes again and as Luna comes in I address both of them, “Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, I figured out the friendship problem.”
“Wonderful Starlight Glimmer, what is it?” asks Celestia quite cheerily.
“You two.” An angry snort comes from Luna, whilst a surprised whinny comes from Celestia.
“I beg your pardon, us? There is no friendship problem between us.”
“We agree with our sister.” Luna says quite sternly, while glaring at Celestia.
“While you may not see it, I do, but Princess Celestia, what do you think about the fact that Luna never appreciates how you make her breakfast every morning?”
“I don’t particularly like the feeling, but I at least I make an effort to smile.”
“And Princess Luna, how does it make you feel that Celestia never notices how much work you put in to lining the walls with fresh lavender every night?”
“It does upset, but at least I work, and not have fun with dignitary ponies all day. Also, like smiling is that hard.”
“I beg your pardon, what do you do all night? You felt around giving ponies lovely dreams.”
“ENOUGH!” I yell, sending the sisters away from each other, casting a spell to switch their cutie marks. They stare at me in shock, “There now you will know what it is like to be each other for the day.?”
“Switch our cutie marks back this instant,” says Celestia.
“I can’t, the spell lasts 24 hours. I think this is still a good idea?”
“Alright Starlight Glimmer, we will try our your plan for the 24 hours.”
“Good. Not like you had a choice.” They both glare at me, “I should stop talking now shouldn’t I?” I follow Luna around for the day, having her following Celestia’s list for the day. Timberwolf rumors in the forest outside of a smaller village, rose smelling competition to judge, school ribbon cutting ceremony, etc.
We return to the castle that night to have Luna immediately retire to bed. I meet Celestia in the hallway and give her Luna’s list for the night. I am so sleepy I lay down on the floor and immediately fall asleep. My dream starts out normal enough, I am sitting with Celestia eating pancakes like we did this morning, suddenly I’m falling. Pancake faces start talking, “I care, I care, I care, I care.”
“Ahhhhh!” POOF! I land on a bed of flowers. I stand up to see Celestia in front of me, looking down at me worriedly. I shake off the flowers and then my dream turns into being in the red carpeted throne room of Canterlot. Nightmare Moon appears, and Celestia says, “Don't worry, I know how to handle Nightmare Moon.”
“But can you handle me?” a mysterious flaming pony behind us says as she appears.
“Who are you?”
“If Luna can turn into Nightmare Moon, you can absolutely turn into me, Daybreaker! The more powerful, prettier version of you!”
“No! I will never turn into you!”
“Haha, you wish!” Daybreaker says, diving towards and addressing Nightmare Moon. “I shouldn’t have banished you to the moon, I should’ve destroyed you!”
“No! Day, night, sun, moon, Equestria needs balance! Without balance there is no harmony!” I breathe in and start bawling, “I’m never going with gut again! Equestria will fall, because of me.”
“No, this will not happen Starlight Glimmer, my sister and I will get along. We both had a hard day and poor Luna has to work alone in the dark.” I lift my head up to look at her, “I understand now how hard it is to do her job and I’m sure she agrees that my job is also difficult. So,” Celestia says, taking off towards the battle raging on near us. She gets in between Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker, stopping each of their bolts with her wings. “I will never turn into you and Luna will not be allowed to turn into Nightmare Moon again. So, you will never exists here or in the real world!” Celestia shouts, shoving the bolts back towards their respective ponies, instantly vanquishing them. I sit up and carefully walk over to a seated Celestia, looking at her in admiration. She makes a dream ball appear of another pony, Styx, and looks into it. Styx seems to be having a normal dream, but the ball soon turns red indicating a nightmare is fast approaching. Luna told me about this in a dream one night, but it is nothing like witnessing it happening. “Do you want to come with me Starlight Glimmer?”
“I think it would be best, maybe so your not as alone?”
“Agreed, ready?”
“Ready.”
We teleport into Styx’s dreamscape to find a nightmare I wouldn’t want to tangle with. Styx is normal with glowing greens eyes, with purple shadows streaming off of them. She is facing towards Twilight, the other Elements, Celestia, and Luna. All of who are looking at each other as they link hooves, ready to destroy Styx, killing her, destroying her very being. As the rainbow beam forms and comes crashing down on Styx, I hear a wailing scream come from her. I react on instinct and try to put a shield around her. However, I only succeed in failing as my magic doesn’t work in the dream realm.