It was a desperate time. The fact that it was a cold, cloudy day itself proved the graveness of the crisis. Many stories start off on bright, sunny ones.
Ponyville, a normally peaceful town in Equestria, found itself being invaded by Queen Chrysalis and the changelings. Nopony expected it in the slightest.
At the first sight of the danger, most ponies immediately hid indoors. Ponies are “flighty” creatures by nature, so they couldn’t help following their instincts to flee.
Luckily, not every pony entered the “flight” mode of the “fight or flight” response. A few chose the “fight” option.
One of the ponies who suppressed their pony instincts to flee was Princess Twilight Sparkle, a powerful lavender alicorn and the Princess of Friendship. Along with her friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and even a young purple dragon named Spike, Twilight sped toward the incoming swarm, ready for battle.
Fight!
In Ponyville’s Town Square, terrified ponies peeked out of the windows of the nearby buildings as punches, kicks, confetti, magical blasts, green fire, and more confetti flew everywhere in a mass brawl outside. Staying in a group to fight as one, the seven heroes would show the changelings what the power of friendship could really do.
Alas, as the battle waged on, it grew apparent that not even the power of friendship would be enough to best the entire swarm of changelings. There were no Elements nor Crystal Heart to turn the tide.
“A” for effort.
After Twilight and her friends yelped from being struck with green beams of magic, they fell backward and rolled on the ground from the force. Lying together and covered in bruises from the attacks, the defeated ponies and dragon scowled at the leader of the mighty changelings: Queen Chrysalis. Lined in a circle around them, the rest of the changelings floated in the air, the sound of their wings' buzzing filling the air.
With a crooked, evil smirk, Chrysalis said, “Wow, I knew you all would fall to me and my subjects, but I never dreamed that you would go down this easy, especially not you, Princess Twilight. I think your princess title has made you soft.”
Twilight growled while gritting her teeth, her blood boiling. Not only was the heroic pony’s pride as both a friend and princess of Equestria wounded by falling in combat to protect her home, but she was being belittled to boot.
Fortunately, the Princess of Friendship knew this wasn’t over. One pony that could fight remained. Yes, one ray of hope still shone. One play left, even if Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t understand that “one play” part: she’s an adorkable bookworm-turned-adorkable princess, not a sports junkie. Defiantly, Twilight declared, “Go ahead and laugh, Chrysalis, but you haven’t won yet!”
“Oh, really?” Chrysalis asked in a condescending tone.
“Yeah, really!” Spike answered.
Rainbow pointed a hoof at Chrysalis. ”Just you wait! You will all be going down hard soon!”
Chrysalis was intrigued by these declarations, even if she thought they were beyond ridiculous. “Now that’s a laugh! I have defeated your princesses, have you at my mercy, and even captured the Lord of Chaos! Who else is left? Some runaway that took off to another world?”
“Who's left is my student, a unicorn named 'Starlight Glimmer',” Twilight answered in a voice full of confidence.
“Ha! That’s rich! Like one little unicorn could do what you and your friends couldn’t! Where is this ‘one unicorn army’ anyway?”
A flash of turquoise light appeared between the downed friends and Chrysalis. When it cleared, a violet unicorn stood where the light flashed, a determined frown on her face. She had a purple mane and tail with an aquamarine streak flowing through both. Twilight and her friends smiled. Their last hope had arrived in time.
Starlight Glimmer, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s protégé, was here to fight.
Thanks to Twilight’s tough but ingeniously calculating magical training, Starlight is the only unicorn alive that surpasses even alicorns in magical power. Twilight realized the beyond-alicorn level potential in Starlight when she took her on as her first-ever student.
Starlight stared at her friends, gritted her teeth, then slowly turned to face Queen Chrysalis. Her muscles tensed. No one hurts her friends and teacher and walks away in one piece. Not after the second chance they had once given her when she reformed. Even so, Starlight's friendship lessons from Twilight taught her to use her words first. “Queen Chrysalis, leave my friends and teacher alone and get the buck out of Ponyville, or I will knock you halfway across Equestria!”
The young mare has a way with words. She would be great to have around when annoying exes come to bug you.
Yet instead of heeding Starlight’s warning, Chrysalis laughed. She saw nothing to even remotely worry about, yet. “You can’t be serious! Princess Twilight, do you really think your knock-off could be a challenge for me and my subjects?”
“OHHHHH!” the changeling swarm roared.
You might think the insult would anger Starlight. It almost did, but the words that popped into her mind averted it and instead made the corners of her lips curl into a smile. “Funny you said that, Chrysalis. I was just thinking the same thing about you not being a challenge for me.”
“OHHHHH!” Twilight, Spike, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack yelled with smiles.
Chrysalis gritted her teeth, letting out a deep, hate-filled growl. She was the one that usually delivers the roasts, not be on the receiving end of them. “WHAT?! Insolent fool! You dare disrespect me, Queen Chrysalis?”
“That depends. Are you Queen Chrysalis?”
“Of course I am!”
Starlight’s smile grew wider, becoming a smirk. “Then yes, this ‘knock-off’ is disrespecting you.”
The seven friends again yelled, “OHHHHH!”
Chrysalis screamed from the disrespect shown to her, stomping her hooves, or whatever changelings have as feet. It has been centuries since she had been burned this much, and she didn’t even have any burn heal. “Okay, that’s enough of your mouth and the ‘OHHHHs’ from your pathetic friends! I do the roasts around here, and only my subjects can yell 'OHHHHH!' to them!” Chrysalis pointed to Starlight and ordered, “Now, my subjects, GET HER!”
The swarm of changelings surrounding the group swooped inward, all aiming for Starlight.
Starlight eyed the incoming swarm, but her smirk remained unchanged and her horn glowed turquoise. A barrier of the same color materialized over her friends while a seething ball of magic collected around Starlight herself, which fired in every direction in a luminous explosion. The burst of magic slammed into the swarm, sending the hapless changelings flying backward. Some hit and bounced off the ground while others were knocked into trees and off the sides of buildings, all moaning. Some of the changelings called out, “My wing!”
Oops. I used too much power. Oh well, I’ll heal them after I’m done with Chrysalis, Starlight thought to herself.
However, with a green barrier surrounding her, Chrysalis was unharmed by the attack. She dispelled her barrier and said, “So, Starlight Glimmer, you're not the Princess Twilight knock-off I thought you were. But no matter; that level of attack won’t defeat me, Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings!”
“Then let’s have a beam struggle,” Starlight proposed, again wearing the same smirk from before. “You and me, one-on-one, and may the strongest win.”
“A beam struggle? Why not? Let’s go, but don't cheat by making your attack stronger just by yelling louder.”
Starlight’s and Chrysalis’s horns glowed and each launched a powerful magical beam; Starlight’s beam was turquoise and Chrysalis’s was green. The two equal-sized blasts collided with each other, not budging an inch. It looked to be a stalemate.
Yet the faces of the two fighters showed a different story.
Chrysalis’s teeth were gritted, groaning from the effort.
Starlight, though, was still smiling. She loved flying her kites, but she could have used some extra excitement, and she was getting it. After five seconds, Starlight decided to stop milking it and finish the fight.
Okay, that’s enough. Time to end this and make Twilight proud. I hope she can still see this clearly under my barrier.
Starlight’s beam grew wider, forced itself through Chrysalis's and knocked her backward and onto her back. It happened so quickly, Chrysalis failed to even scream "NO!" like a villain facing defeat does.
“KO!” Pinkie Pie yelled, raising a hoof in the air. She missed touching the top of Starlight's magical shield over her by a hair's breadth.
"Perfect!" Twilight shouted, also with a hoof in the air. She's not a type of pony to rub things in, but the perfectionist inside her couldn't resist the urge to point out that Starlight had won without taking any damage.
Since there would be no new challengers, Starlight dispelled her barrier surrounding her friends. With a sympathetic frown, she strolled to Chrysalis. She felt anger for how Chrysalis harmed her friends, yet also felt some pity for the changeling and thus reached a hoof out to her.
Chrysalis stood up, staring at Starlight’s hoof. After a moment, she smacked the hoof away. “Save your pity for yourself. One day, I will have my revenge, and you will pay!”
Well, I tried to do it the easy way. Now I can do this the fun way. Starlight’s horn lit again, firing out a huge beam that smashed into and blasted a screaming Chrysalis out of Ponyville and in the direction of a distant land of Yakyakistan, the home of short-tempered Yaks.
Now the Yaks will have something to smash for a while. Oh, I forgot to give Chrysalis my tab to “pay” for what I did.
Twilight and her friends finally rose and circled Starlight with big smiles.
Rainbow chanted, “That. Was. Awesome!”
“You saved us!” Fluttershy cheered.
Applejack shouted, “Ah knew ya would!”
Starlight blushed and bashfully looked down. “Oh, I just did what anyp--”
Rarity interrupted, “No, don’t you try to be modest, Starlight!”
“Yes, you did an amazing deed and made me so proud. Later, we will throw you a party and I’ll graduate you from being my student!”
The eight friends looked toward the changelings still on the ground and in trees. Once Starlight healed the injured ones with a healing spell, Princess Twilight gave a long friendship speech, which eventually persuaded all but one of the changelings to share love, reform, and transform into larger, more beautiful(?) forms prior to the reformation. A changeling known as “Thorax” could not have been happier: he hated fighting.
However, the lone, proud changeling that didn’t change, Pharynx, shouted foul words that I can’t tell you under this story’s rating. It would take him considerable time to accept friendship, if not to get Twilight to stop trying to give him more well-meaning friendship speeches. She does that.
Things had just escalated quickly in the Temple of Ponhenge, an area surrounded by trees and with six stone pillars in a circle formation. Not because of an unexpected attack, but a good-hearted mistake.
With the help of a male orange unicorn named Sunburst, Princess Twilight Sparkle had cast a spell to free six heroic ponies from a state of limbo that had lasted for a thousand years. They were the legendary Starswirl the Bearded, Mage Meadowbrook, Flash Magnus -- not to be confused with Flash Sentry -- Mistmane, Rockhoof, and Somnambula, collectively known as “the pillars”.
Unfortunately, Twilight also chose this time to suspend her normally cautious nature. In her excitement to meet Starswirl, her hero, she overlooked the chance that her plan might free the Pony of Shadows along with the pillars, who they sealed away in limbo with them. Which he was.
Way to go Princess!
Now Twilight, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Starlight, and the pillars found themselves facing the Pony of Shadows, a large black pony who resembled an alicorn. His mane and tail had both light and dark shades of gray. He formed from a cloud of shadows that was released when the pillars were freed.
“Ha ha ha! Looks like your pitiful attempt to seal me away failed, Starswirl!” the Pony of Shadows bellowed.
“Oh, this is bad!” Rainbow said.
Starswirl looked to Twilight, wearing a frantic frown. “Twilight, you are the one that freed us, so you must have a way to return us to limbo, right?!”
Twilight frowned, her ears drooping. “I-I can’t! I only knew how to free you! I-I have no idea how to cast the banishment spell again!”
Starswirl gasped. “No! This cannot be!”
“But it can, and is! Soon, I will steal the light and hope of this world, leaving only the glorious darkness!”
Twilight’s mouth quivered, leaning her head down in shame. She only wanted to free the pillars from limbo and meet Starswirl, not indirectly plunge Equestria into a hopeless darkness. “I...I’m so sorry. I...I just wanted to…oh Celestia, what have I done…?”
Starlight scowled. Twilight blaming herself this badly for potentially bringing the end of Equestria by accident was breaking Starlight’s heart. She wouldn’t have it and gave Twilight an encouraging pat on her back. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I will handle this. You trained me for battles like this, remember?”
Twilight raised her head to Starlight while wearing a smile, her ears straightening, but she said nothing. Her former student had a job to do.
After she harmlessly cracked her neck for dramatic effect, Starlight strode toward her enemy, gaining some distance from her friends and the pillars.
The Pony of Shadows laughed at the sight. Just like Chrysalis once did, he had no idea what he was up against. “Oh, such bravery! In that case, you will be the first to taste the darkness, free of charge!”
The Pony of Shadows launched a large black beam of magic at Starlight, who countered with a just as large turquoise beam. Starlight planned to drag the beam struggle out a little, like she did with Chrysalis, but thinking about how guilty Twilight felt, she chose to not play around this time. Starlight gritted her teeth, her beam grew larger, and it pushed the Pony of Shadow’s beam back, slamming into him, forcing a pain-filled scream from the beast.
The attack was so overpowering, it removed the darkness the villain's body formed from and revealed a smaller gray-coated unicorn that was trapped from within, who fell to the ground from exhaustion.
Twilight stared at the highly unexpected pony lying on the ground. “Who’s that?”
Starswirl answered, “Stygian. He is--’’
“Wait! First, I need to do something.” Starlight turned around to walk back to Twilight. The sisterly bond the two mares had gained required Starlight to give some tough love for her “big sister’s” own good. She raised one of her hooves, then dropped it on Twilight’s head to deliver a good, hard smack, but not hard enough to hurt the alicorn.
“Ow! What was that for?!” Twilight rubbed her head from the smack.
“For not listening when I told you something like this could happen if we freed the pillars! Now, we can listen to what Starswirl was about to say.”
Starswirl went on to explain who Stygian is, what he did one-thousand years ago, and how he became the Pony of Shadows. Stygian explained his reasons for it, then was forgiven and accepted. Unlike with the changelings, Twilight didn't need to give a friendship speech, which secretly disappointed her.
In a chamber under the library of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship, another crisis was occurring.
A pink pegasus filly, Cozy Glow, had captured all of Equestria’s magic in one large, blue sphere that floated high in the chamber. Six artifacts from under the sphere, each firing a blue beam to it, powered the magic absorption. This was how Cozy, despite being a pegasus and a filly, managed to trap the magic in the first place. She also floated in the air by flapping her wings, wearing a gold crown on her head.
Inside the blue chamber, with white and blue stalagmites that had grown from the floor, some of the students of the school -- mostly ponies, but also included a few from other races such as a young yak -- stood in awe at the sight. Cozy had also just told them what the orb was and her plan: to rule Equestria as Empress Cozy Glow with all the friendship in Equestria.
And did I say that Cozy Glow is a FILLY?
“You’ll never get away with this, Cozy!” a young male light-green earth pony shouted. “Wait until Headmare Twilight and our professors come back!”
Bearing a smug grin, Cozy countered, “As if! Thanks to one of my plans, they’re locked away in Tartarus forever!”
All the students asked in unison, "What?!"
A male blue griffon asked, “How?!”
From behind, an exasperated female voice called out, "Seriously?!"
Cozy and the students spun around, seeing the School of Friendship’s Guidance Counselor and two-time hero of Equestria, Starlight Glimmer, bearing a scowl. She had teleported into the chamber during Cozy’s monologue, but remained quiet.
A female pink hippogriff pointed toward the chamber’s newest occupant. “Hey, it’s Guidance Counselor Starlight!”
Starlight stormed through the crowd of students to get between them and Cozy. “Okay, Cozy Glow, did you say that you trapped Twilight and the professors in Tartarus?”
Cozy smiled innocently to mock Starlight. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Starlight groaned and facehoofed. She knew that her friends were becoming gradually more vulnerable to being caught or defeated, but THIS was on an unheard level! She thought, Oh, for the love of...Twilight, Spike, you and the girls have spent too much time with the Princesses. Out loud, she asked, “Cozy, I know you said you want all the friendship in Equestria, but why?”
“Why?” Cozy flew toward Starlight as she continued, “Because friendship is power! The more friends I have, the more power I have! With all the friendship in Equestria, I’m unstoppable!”
Starlight rolled her eyes. Not only were her friends duped so easily, but Cozy got the idea that friendship equaled power. Either Princess Twilight seriously needs to word her friendship lessons better, or Cozy severely missed the point of what friendship really is. Most likely the latter if you ask me.
Regardless of who was more at fault for Cozy’s twisted view on friendship, Starlight had a world to save, again. She noticed the six artifacts below the magic, still with blue beams surging from them and to the larger magical ball. Her horn glowed and she detached the items from the magic.
Mere seconds later, the magic in the blue ball pulsed out in every direction in an explosion. Starlight teleported everycreature outside and in front of the school just in time, so nocreature was hurt.
Outside, Cozy spun her head back and forth. “What?! How?! How did you know to do that?!”
“Easy. It was obvious that those artifacts were working together to hold the magic, so removing them would free it.” Starlight’s lips became a sympathetic frown. “Cozy Glow, you did a really bad thing by stealing Equestria’s magic, but I think that you just need some gui--”
Twilight Sparkle, as well as Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Spike teleported in front of Cozy; Twilight stood beside Starlight, but in front of the others.
“Cozy Glow! I heard what you planned from Tirek! Why did you trap us, and why did you try to take all of Equestria’s magic?” Twilight asked.
“Because friendship is power, and if I had all of Equestria’s friendship for myself and you in Tartarus, I could have done whatever I wanted!” Cozy answered defiantly.
Twilight’s ears flopped, a frown forming on her lips. “Cozy, friendship is powerful, but it’s not something you use to just do what you please. I’m sorry if I failed to teach you that.”
Starlight set a comforting hoof on Twilight’s back. “No, Twilight, you didn’t fail, and if we tr--”
“Cozy Glow, come with me! We have decisions to make!” an echoing voice bellowed.
Everycreature turned to the source of the voice. It belonged to a white alicorn, Princess Celestia, who had spoken in her Royal Canterlot voice. She had just arrived with a dark-blue alicorn, Princess Luna. They had VERY difficult decisions to make with Cozy Glow.
Once the Princesses and Cozy were gone, Starlight gave Twilight, Spike, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack smacks to the head for getting tricked and captured by a F-I-L-L-Y. Starlight couldn't bring herself to smack Fluttershy on the head though, even if they were ultimately out of kindness.
Of all the crises Equestria has ever faced, the current one was its most dire yet.
It was not from one, but three villains.
The ex-Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, a centaur with thick, red arms, and Cozy Glow, now an alicorn, invaded Equestria’s capital, Canterlot, owning ponies left and right. Thanks to the power of a green bell, known as Grogar’s Bell, the three were more powerful than ever: this was how Cozy triggered Cozycorn.
In the throne room of Canterlot Castle, much like they did in Ponyville during the changeling attack, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike had stepped up to save the day.
And just like back then, it ended with them defeated and covered with bruises. The wall on the side of the room they lay the closest to had been blown off in a massive blast of magic from their adversaries, which also destroyed Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's thrones in the process.
The seven friends did what they could, but Tirek's, Chrysalis's, and Cozy's power proved to be too extreme for even Twilight to last long against. Celestia and Luna were on the floor in front of them: they had already been defeated and had their magic stolen, though the two rulers tried their best to defeat the villainous trio.
Seriously. Those two alicorns went down fast, but they did their best.
On the other side of the throne room by its doors were Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy, standing or floating in the air beside each other; Tirek stood in the middle and Cozy remained in midair by flapping her wings.
“Fools! Did you really think you could defeat all three of us?” Tirek asked.
Chrysalis added, “Especially without your one-unicorn army, Starlight Glimmer?”
With a glare showing no fear, Twilight yelled, “Like our last battle, Chrysalis, maybe we can’t beat you, but Starlight will when she comes!”
Tirek said, “I wouldn’t count on your secret weapon to bail you out this time.”
“Why’s that?” Applejack asked.
Rolling in the air gleefully, Cozy answered, “Oh, I had a disguised Chrysalis send her into the mountains saying somepony needed help, but we had hundreds of the biggest, baddest, most dangerous creatures hiding there. She should be a pony swiss kabob by now!”
“WHAT?!” all the heroic friends and Princesses shouted, frowns on their faces now.
Chrysalis said, “Yessss! So you have no Elements, no Crystal Hearts, no Starlight, no nothing! And for the record, I sent Starlight on my own accord and was my idea, not Cozy’s.”
“Don’t listen to that filly and bug: sending Starlight to her doom was my idea!” Tirek said.
“No! This can’t be true!” Twilight yelled.
“I know, right? Don’t listen to Chrysalis and Tirek: it was my idea to send that annoying Starlight away!" Cozy put on a cute smile. "Would I lie to you?”
Twilight answered, “Yes you would, Cozy, but I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about how Starlight survived and will save us, I know she will!” Memories of the magical training she gave Starlight entered Twilight’s mind. The training was harsh, but Twilight knew Starlight could take it (she even embraced the challenge), become more powerful than even alicorns, and make her proud. This filled Twilight with more hope that Starlight Glimmer, who had grown into the sister that she never knew she had, was alive and would save Equestria once again. “Tirek, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, do you hear me?! Starlight will come and save us, Canterlot, and Equestria! My little sister ALWAYS comes through for us!”
A flash of light appeared. When it faded, right in front of Twilight, it revealed Starlight, bearing a determined frown, like she did before her first battle with Chrysalis. “And I will, big sis.”
Twilight and her friends -- including Celestia and Luna -- grinned, with Twilight’s grin being the biggest.
On the other hoof, the villains gasped. They underestimated Starlight’s alicorn level+ power. It may be their last mistake.
“WHAT? Starlight Glimmer?! You’re alive?!” Chrysalis shouted.
Cozy asked, “How?”
Tirek pointed at Starlight. “Not even you could have taken those beasts on all by yourself!”
Starlight laughed, waving a hoof at the shocked evil trio. “They were supposed to get rid of me? I thought they were there to give me a light warm-up!”
Chrysalis growled and said, “Well, in that case, we will use all the power we gained, all the hate we have for you and use every trick in the bo--”
“Guys?” Starlight interrupted in a serious voice.
“What?” Cozy asked.
“I would love to make this look like an epic fight, but after what I learned right before your 'visit', I can’t risk getting hurt in my belly. I’m just going to get this over with.”
Starlight’s horn glowed. Three beams, two large and one small, were fired at near-light-speed. The large beams slammed into Chrysalis and Tirek and sent them screaming into a wall in the throne room, which they bounced off of and fell face-down to the floor with a grunt. The third, smaller beam wrapped itself around Cozy painlessly like a rope and made her drop to the floor, forcing her to groan from frustration. It even stripped her alicorn magic and reverted her back to being a pegasus. The three beams came at such shocking speed, the villains had no time to activate Grogar’s Bell to steal Starlight’s magic.
Now a four-time hero of Equestria, Starlight looked at her smiling friends and said, “Well, that’s that! I need to go to the Crystal Empire and see Sunburst. I have something very important that I need to tell him." She faced the laid out Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy. "Oh, and before I forget, if you guys want me to pay, put how much I owe on my tab.” Starlight created a sheet of paper from her magic and tossed it toward the villains.
“OHHHHH!” Starlight's friends and Princesses yelled.
"Touche," Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy muttered.
Her job finished, Starlight left the castle to tell Sunburst the life-changing news she learned earlier.
In her bedroom, Luster Dawn, a young unicorn filly, was having her mother tell stories about some of Equestria's past battles as a bedtime story. The pink filly lay in a bed under a blue blanket; only her head, which reated on a white, fluffy pillow, was uncovered. Luster's mother, Starlight Glimmer, sat in a wooden chair beside the bed. A shelf in the room was full of books about spells.
"...And that’s how I saved Equestria once again! What do you think about that, Luster?”
With a big smile, Luster responded, “Wow, Mom! You really took on three bad guys all by yourself?”
“Yep!” Starlight raised her head proudly, wearing just as proud a smile.
“You must be the strongest unicorn in all of Equestria!”
Starlight giggled, wanting to seem at least a little modest. “Well, maybe I’m one of the strongest, but even if I am, I want you to someday become even stronger! Think you’re up for it?”
With a confident smile, Luster nodded her head. “Yes, and I’ll do my best!”
Starlight’s smile deepened, filled with pride for her daughter. “That’s my girl. That won't be for several years, though, but for now, time to go to sleep.”
"Okay, Mom!"
Starlight rose from her chair and leaned forward, giving a motherly kiss to Luster’s forehead. “Sleep tight, and tomorrow night, I’ll tell you about how I made this purple guy not feel so good when he tried to take out half of Equestria’s population. His so-called ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ was nothing against your mom!” Starlight walked out of the bedroom, closing its brown door with her magic.
Starlight started to walk down the hallway, which had a picture of herself, Sunburst, and a one-month-old Luster -- held in one of Starlight’s forelegs -- hanging on the wall. Only after a few steps, the sound of a pony clearing his throat was heard. Starlight froze and gulped. Walking out from a different bedroom was Sunburst, Starlight’s husband and Luster’s father, wearing a disapproving frown.
“Starlight, I heard you in there.”
Starlight smiled nervously. “Uh, you did?”
Sunburst nodded. “Yep, and you know what you said isn’t true.”
Starlight sighed and admitted, “Okay, I know I...stretched the truth in there, but I got one-shot by Chrysalis, twice, because I let my guard down. Worse, before that, I let myself get captured by a sociopathic filly! What will our daughter think of me if I told her that instead?”
With a supportive smile, Sunburst walked beside Starlight and wrapped a foreleg around her. “Come on, Starlight, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Chrysalis was super-charged, remember, and you still held your ow--”
“Sunburst, did you hear me? I got tricked and captured by a FILLY! Just let me have this.”
“Fine, fine.” Sunburst lifted his foreleg off Starlight and rubbed his beard. “But you know, when Luster gets older, she’s going to learn what really happened anyway.”
Starlight’s eyes and mouth widened. She failed to even consider that Luster Dawn would later learn how the battles Starlight told her really went from the current ruler of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle, once Luster is old enough to enroll in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight now runs the forementioned school, but didn’t change its name out of respect to ex-Princess Celestia. “Oh...right, she will.”
Sunburst gave a kiss on Starlight’s cheek. “Oh, Starlight. I love you and you have gotten better at it, but after all these years, you have got to remember to think things through.”