They were prettier than Starlight could describe. Trixie was gorgeous in her sheer dress, the white lace contrasting beautifully with her powder blue coat. The rose in her mane added a splash of color and fun to her ensemble. Maud was just as stunning. Her simple, full-length gown hugged her figure perfectly, the subtle shimmer of the blue fabric matching the shimmer in her eyes.
Rings were exchanged and they didn’t even wait for the minister pony to finish. They embraced and kissed. Slightly more tongue than most ponies would condone at a wedding, but why would they care? It was their wedding. They were going to show their love for one another.
And then they decided that the reception was optional. Trixe pulled Starlight toward their room, and Starlight pulled Maud right behind her. They began laughing and jumping in the room. Starlight fell into the bed with Trixie on her right and Maud on her left. Her two greatest loves were going to be with her for the rest of her life and this made her the happiest mare in the whole world. And this was going to be the best night ever. Though they were going to need to change the bedding in the morning.
********************
Starlight was jerked awake by loud banging on her door. Groggily, she walked over and opened it up to see the biggest grin she had ever seen in her life. It was attached to an exhilarated Twilight Sparkle. This was truly the most excited Twilight that Starlight had ever seen. She was even emitting a barely audible “squee” sound.
“Hey, Twilight. Looks like you have some good news.”
Twilight bounced, bounced, into the room. She was giggling like a little filly. If she were pink, Starlight would’ve sworn that she was Pinkie Pie. She finally settled into position right in front of Starlight. She reached up and cupped Starlight’s cheeks in both hooves, her smile never leaving her face.
“I did it.” The giggle in her voice was intoxicating and Starlight couldn’t help but giggle a little bit with her.
“What did you do?”
Twilight let go and assumed her more demure posture, though she couldn’t drop her smile. “I found the ley lines.”
“Ley lines?”
“Well, ley LINE, technically. Which in and of itself is a little weird.” Twilight was soon in the midst of her normal contemplative pacing, “You see, I went home last night and decided to keep working, so I was in my library looking through all sorts of books about mental health and mental magic and dreams and anything I could possibly think of that would explain what is happening to you. But, surprisingly, I didn’t have all that much on these sorts of topics, so I resigned myself to going to Canterlot today and visiting the Royal Archives to continue my research there. So I went to bed. But I couldn’t sleep. I had too much rolling around in my head, so I got up and just started pacing around the castle aimlessly. And I just sort of ended up in the basement next to that crystal. So I figured I wasn’t going to be sleeping for a while, so I started examining the crystal some more. I had some equipment made to make deeper scans of the crystal. So I started scanning and discovered that the magic of the crystal isn’t contained in just the crystal. It had made a connection. A Ley Line. So I followed it. And guess where that ley line goes?”
Starlight had to shake her head a bit. Twilight’s rants about magic and science were always so…rambly. “Um, where does it go?”
Twilight reached out her hoof and pointed at Starlight. “It connects directly to you.”
********************
After some tea and a couple hours of convincing, Starlight put Twilight to bed for a much needed nap. She was going to go to Canterlot herself, and do some research. It was nice and far away from the crystal and her friends, so it shouldn’t be any issue. Plus dividing up the work like that meant that things could get figured out faster. And knowing a little bit more about what was going on certainly helped ease her fears. That is, until she stepped out of Twilight’s room after tucking her in.
There was Maud. Blue dress, purple eyeshadow Maud. “Hello, Starlight.”
“Maud! Hi! I, um, I need to go to Canterlot. And help Twilight. She’s taking a nap after another one of her all-nighters.” Starlight chuckled.
Maud blinked. “I see.”
Starlight could sense that Maud was sad. She was really sad. Her beautiful Maud was sad.
Starlight shook her head. “Maud I’m sorry. I swear I’ll explain later, but I gotta go.”
Starlight galloped past Maud and away from the castle as fast as she could. If she couldn’t figure this out and fix it, she would never be able to hang out with her friends again. Her hot tears began flowing once more and she could barely see where she was going. But she kept running.
By the time she got to the train station, her tears had stopped. Her heart, however, was still heavy in her chest. As she waited for the train, her thoughts drifted back to her friends. She really wanted to go kite flying with Maud. She wanted to put on a show with Trixie. She loved just walking quietly with Maud through the park. She loved fighting over pointless things with Trixie only to end with them laughing together at their own stupidity. She missed them.
As the train rolled into Canterlot, Starlight’s resolve was steeled against anything that might come her way. The ride to Canterlot saw Starlight planning her strategy to make her way through the Royal Archives. She drew up an outline of the topics that she would need to cover. She drew out a rough map with X’s on each of the sections of the library that she would need to go to. She was going to knock this out in just a couple hours.
As soon as the train stopped, Starlight hopped out and started trotting to the library. But she was stopped just outside the train station by none other than Princess Luna, herself.
“Starlight, we need to talk.”
Starlight could see that the princess was sleepy, but she decided that making a comment was a bad idea. She simply fell into step behind Luna and followed her into her chariot. Starlight had never been inside a flying chariot like this. It was…smaller than she was expecting.
Luna’s stoic voice caught her attention, “Starlight Glimmer. I know what is happening to you. I was in your dream last night.”
Starlight started to blush, “Oh! Um, the…whole…dream?”
Luna nodded, “Indeed. Do not be embarrassed. Yours was tame compared to some others I have seen.” Her matter of fact tone eased Starlight’s mind. Slightly. “Starlight, I do believe that you are under the influence of some ancient magic. I was unable to interact with you at all during your dream. I have only had this happen twice in my life before. Once, the pony was enjoying their dream so much, he literally willed me out. The other was very similar to what I witnessed last night. You were happy in your dream, yet your happiness was making you uncomfortable. I could sense this, yet all I could do was watch as if you were behind a window. I attempted to discern the source of the influence, but unfortunately, I was unable to do so. But if it’s anything like what I saw all those years ago, we must act quickly.”