"But why?" Lyra Heartstrings asked.
"What do you mean?" Starlight Glimmer was seated with Lyra, in the kitchen of the Castle of Friendship, with a bowl of something spicy before each of them. The food had a slight green color, and simply leaning near it made Starlight's eyes water. "It will ruin a pony's destiny."
The Thai-inspired curry Lyra spooned up to her mouth had so much green chili in it that Lyra was sure she would be breathing more fire than Spike by the time she was done. She'd only added the greater amount after serving Starlight's bowl. "If used wrong, magical medicine can kill a pony in a moment. Should we stop ponies from practicing medicine and researching it?"
Despite the way the fumes of her meal seemed to singe her nose hairs, Starlight finally decided to try the curry. It wasn't as hot as she feared, and the mix of flavors was actually pleasing to her palate. "So you're telling me I should keep using the power that steals cutie marks?"
"Stealing them has at least one use I can think of—restraining a pony without injuring them. But I was thinking more research is needed before you say that is all I can do with this power." Pulling a book from the small set of saddlebags she'd worn (and trying not to think how odd it still felt to not wear armor), she passed it over to Starlight. "This might give you an idea how useful different magics can be in different ways."
Biting her lip, Starlight started flicking through the pages. "Meditation? Training regimes? What is this book about?" She got to the actual magic part and froze up.
"It's a manual for unicorns to better learn a few basic spells to help them." Watching Starlight intently, Lyra noticed her eyes weren't shifting to follow the spell patterns. "Is something wrong?" The moment she asked it was like Starlight tried to close herself off.
Leaning back in her chair, Starlight closed the book and put it down. "Nothing important. So, what's it about then? Why give it to me?"
Her time as a training sergeant had shown Lyra this evasion before. "You'll find out after I've taught you something else important. Can you make a light spell for me?"
Weird as the request was, it bent the conversation away from a sore topic. Starlight made the simplest pattern that even a unicorn foal could envisage.
Lyra smiled. "Just a single dot of light magic, right? I mean, you can do fancy stuff with it, but at its core light magic wants to make light." A flick of her own magic summoned a notepad and a pencil. She drew a single dot and made the mark for light magic beside it.
Starlight realized that Lyra had seen through her. She shook, the embarrassment of being an adult unicorn who couldn't read crushing her—but not as crushing by far as Lyra's hug. "What are you doing?"
"Showing you that you're not alone. You're not the first unicorn I've taught to read magic and I hope you won't be the last."
"How did you move that fast?"
"I have had some exceptional hug-teachers. Ask me how old I was when I learned how to read magic." Lyra tested Starlight, easing her hug a little, but Starlight gripped her a little tighter.
"H-How old?"
"I was eighteen. It wasn't easy, but I had an amazing tutor." Now Lyra felt Starlight try to pull back. For just a moment she resisted, then let go.
"Twilight?" Starlight reached her hoof up to her eyes and dried some of the tears away.
"Yup. I was struggling with Celestia's teaching. She was gentle and knew I was way out of my depth, but she couldn't spare the time to teach me everything." Stepping back to her seat, Lyra started working on the next pattern. "Telekinesis. Pick up your spoon and you make what shape?"
Doing as instructed, Starlight made the familiar dot-plus-target pattern in her thoughts and picked up the spoon. "It's a dot with a line leading to the target I want to pick up."
"And that's motion magic." Finishing the diagram, Lyra tore the page from the pad, passed it to Starlight, and then moved on. "You seem to have a handle on single-item-targeting. Would you like to learn more tricks like that or—" She cut herself off as Starlight formed a telekinetic spoon and started eating with it. "You're self-taught, aren't you?"
"Not entirely. When I was a filly, I had a friend who could read all the books and tell me how to do things, but since then I had to learn it all by myself." Slumping, Starlight felt as if she had given up all her secrets.
"That's amazing. And you fought Twilight to a standstill?"
The excited tone was as far from what Starlight expected as anything could get. "It was all the spell's doing. Some weird scroll that just needed a lot of magic to fuel it. I didn't even know it could carry more than one pony."
"It's a shame we don't have it still, but from what Twilight told me about it, we wouldn't want it to be available to the public anyway. Time travel is…" Rolling her hoof around in the air, Lyra searched for the right word; and failed. "It's complicated.
"Anyway, back to patterns. Apart from the cutie mark magic, what else do you know?"
"I can blast with my horn and I can create a repeating sound." Starlight returned some of her attention back to her food.
"Ah, blasts are good spells. Simple and effective ways to use a lot of power as a blunt force. I'd wager Twilight made you work to beat her with that. What's the pattern you use?" At Starlight's confused look, Lyra explained. "Use the smallest amount of power you can, not even enough to make light, and draw the pattern in the air."
Carefully lowering her magic, Starlight did exactly that. With the slightest whisper, she made the arrow-pointed pattern she used for a beam-blast. "Is that right?" Turning her attention from the pattern to Lyra, she was shocked to see the other mare's mouth hanging open. "Did I do it wrong?"
It took a moment for Lyra to realize Starlight was talking to her. She pointed at the pattern hanging in the air with a hoof. "You made an arrow. There are no back-traces or doubling up. How did you make that pattern? Can you draw it slower for me?"
Banishing her first pattern, Starlight started over. She worked slower, imagining the shape of a large square, tracing two lines along the edges of one corner and then cutting a diagonal with another. The gentle touch of magic was surprisingly comfortable to use. "Like that."
Slumping back in her chair, Lyra stared at the pattern while she went over the building of it in her head. Starlight hadn't traced the pattern with a point of magic, she'd traced three lines at the same time with three different points. Slowly, she closed her eyes and tried to reason around it, then opened them. "Tell me if I'm doing this right."
When Lyra started to make the spell with glowing golden light, Starlight stopped her. "Wait, you're not building a guide. Imagine a square with right-angled corners. You're building the pattern in the corner with the body of it on the diagonal."
Cementing the geometric pattern in her thoughts, Lyra started thinking around the problem. Again and again she tried, pausing for some of her curry between attempts, before she finally made the pattern to Starlight's satisfaction. It was an exciting moment. "I have never seen a pony work a pattern like that before. Do you use multiple lines for all your spells?"
"I, uh." Starlight sighed and nodded. "Yes, I do. You have seen most of them, though."
"Show me the others and I can show you some." Lyra, finished with her curry, pushed the bowl aside and waited. Beside her, on a single page of notebook paper, she had what would likely be another shake-up of unicorn magic in Equestria. On a fresh page, though, she started to sketch out the other three spells Starlight showed her: a cleaning spell, the complicated sound repeater, and a confusion spell that seemed very pointed to her.
"That's a bit more than confusion," Starlight said when Lyra asked her about it. "It does leave a pony confused, but while it is active you can make them focus on things by adjusting the pattern."
"'Adjusting the pattern'? After you've cast it?" Pulling her notepad close again, Lyra beamed in delight. "I want you to teach me everything about adjusting patterns after they're cast."
"How did it go?" Twilight asked.
Gesturing at the table and the spread of burgers, fries, and fizzy drinks, Starlight asked, "Why does everything get done in here while eating?"
"Blame Lyra. I let her into my castle and she made the kitchen into her own throne room. Now Spike won't stop cooking either, and I think they're infecting me with good taste in food. Though, I do sneak hayburgers in from time to time. So"—Twilight popped a straw fry in her mouth—"how'd it go with her?"
"She has a way of opening you up. I spilled everything I knew about magic without meaning to. I figured I'd be getting morality lessons and being told to do homework or something." She gestured to the stack of pages. "Well, she did give me homework, but it's interesting homework."
"Oh?" Twilight picked up a burger and started eating it.
"She wants me to study this book on"—embarrassment threatened to take hold again, but Starlight fought it down—"learning to read magic diagrams. She also wants me to draw the spells I know as best I can." Lifting her head, she asked, "Is it true most spell patterns are made with one continuous line?"
The question caught Twilight by surprise. "Starlight, all spells are drawn with one continuous line. That's how spell patterns work."
"Well, that explains why she was taking so many notes. So, uh, this"—Starlight kept her magic low and barely glowing as she formed the arrow-based beam blast—"isn't common?" Twilight's stunned expression told Starlight everything she needed to know. "She managed to go all afternoon without making it seem weird, but she did pull some funny faces when I—"
"You can't do magic like that! It doesn't work!" Twilight had at least taken the time to swallow her mouthful of hayburger before shouting.
Sliding a piece of paper across to Twilight, Starlight tried her best to look sheepish, but all she really managed was concern.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight let it out as slow as she could. This was, she realized, why she had Lyra as her captain. "I'll wait for the paper this time. Promise me I'll get a copy of the first draft, and I won't cause a fuss."
"Paper?" Starlight asked.
"Yeah. Lyra does a lot of writing. That book you have there, that's one of hers. She's also published several ground-breaking magic papers on new techniques, and she always shares the credit with anypony that helps."
The most that Starlight understood was that Lyra had written the book she was going to be learning to read magic from. "What's a magic paper? Is that something special used for scrolls?"
Twilight settled into her role and started describing the wheels of academia to Starlight. From initial schooling to when a foal starts apprenticing out to experiencing trades and professions, to finally having higher education through both specialist schools or the E.U.P. Guard. By the time she got to the topic of science and magic papers, she could feel a yawn coming on.
Looking at her dinner, with only half the burgers eaten, Twilight sighed—and yawned again. "I can barely keep my eyes open, Starlight. I think I'll turn in."
"Alright. Uh—" Remembering what Lyra had done that afternoon, Starlight rushed to her hooves and hugged Twilight. "Thank you. For giving me a chance, I mean."
Life was always changing, Twilight knew, and now she had a new friend to change it with her. "You're welcome, Starlight."
Trotting through the streets of Canterlot, with his unique armor on, Firelance said, "Relax. She only wants to help. Try to read between the lines of that list and understand what she expects of you. The Princesses' lists are—works in progress. They are guidelines, not laws."
"But did you see the size of it? It's three times longer than I am! Also, who writes on scrolls, anyway?" Starlight had found herself enjoying being with Firelance, but only after she figured out that ponies were staring at him and not her.
"That's how you know she's paying attention. When you get a scrap of paper with pencil on it, from Her Highness, you know you need to stop and ask her what's really going on." Nearing the entrance of the Guard training grounds, Firelance caught more eyes on him now. There were two versions of this armor, and only two suits with his livery. "Sergeant Firelance. I'm here to look over the new recruits." He quickly acknowledged the guards' salutes with his own.
"Head in, sir. Your guest's name?"
"Starlight Glimmer." Firelance waited for the guard to write it down before heading into the practice fields. The squads of recruits, currently performing a mock battle against their sergeants, were doing reasonably well, though Firelance could see that Solid Ground, the newest training sergeant, was doing more work than either Long Shift (a unicorn sergeant on loan from the Royal Guard) or Bluebelle. "This is going poorly for the recruits."
"How can you tell?" To Starlight, it looked like a wild mess of magic with one big earth pony mare putting herself between the bigger group and the single pegasus and unicorn.
"Because Solid Ground is dictating the flow of the fight. Notice the recruits aren't getting past her at all? She's burning through her magic at a ferocious rate, but that's her jam. If they—" Wincing at the beam that flashed into the sky, Firelance caught sight of the orange streak heading up to intercept it, curve it, and send it crashing down at the unicorn sergeant. "Eeeexcept Scoots knew a way around her."
Staring at the curved beam attack, Starlight couldn't believe what she was seeing. "How did that mare do that?"
"You know pegasi can warp space around them with their magic, to make flying easier?" Starlight's look told Firelance she didn't know that. "Okay. They can. It's instinctual, though, so you don't see it used in any other way except—"
"To bend the space the beam is traveling through so that the beam doesn't actually bend but space does. She really learned how to do that?"
"We did a lot of training to— Ah, the engagement is over." Though he wanted to walk over and congratulate Scootaloo, he knew he had a duty to do first. "I helped her perfect it."
"Ha ha. You know, sometimes I'm grateful that I only tried to fight Twilight and her friends."
The sarcasm laden comment made Firelance laugh. "Nah. The Guard will just defeat you. She's the only pony that would defeat you, give you a hug afterward, and assign homework. "
Living proof of that, Starlight nodded—then she realized they were going to a building that smelled like food. "Where are we going?"
"There's a dark secret of the E.U.P. Guard, Starlight." Firelance walked with a purposeful stride. He approached the doorway of the mess hall and stopped before walking in. "Few know of it, but it has to do with the special talents of most guardponies. You see"—flexing his control of darkness magic, Firelance dimmed the world around them to cast long shadows—"most of us are exceptional cooks."
Having her expectation of something dire completely derailed as the light around them restored, Starlight opened her mouth to question Firelance only to see him walking into the building. Rushing in too, she asked, "What do you mean?" And, then she had to stop because Firelance had halted inside.
"Sir!"
"At ease, sergeant." Sitting down, Stiff Peaks raised an eyebrow at Starlight. "A guest?"
"This is Starlight Glimmer. I'm showing her around Canterlot for Princess Twilight." Firelance looked at the other ponies seated at the table and almost fell over. Without even meaning to, he stiffened again and ticked off the commanders of the various parts of the Guard. Captains Bright Feather, Spitfire, Spring Dance, Sweetie Drops, Poppy Bread, and Daisy Duke.
"Ah, well, with a representative from the Friendship Guard, I guess we can get started properly." Sweetie Drops shot Firelance a big grin. "None of this information is sensitive, and from what your commander has told me, Starlight is trustworthy enough. Have a seat."
Sparing Starlight an apologetic look, Firelance sat down at the table. "What's the topic?"
"We're discussing the new recruits and what we can expect from them. As usual, Spring is getting the largest share signing up." Sweetie flicked through her notes. "Two for Spitfire, four for Bright, one is going to Poppy, three to Daisy, and none for me."
"Sweetie," Stiff Peaks said, "you might not be a secret part of the Guard, but less ponies know about Research and Acquisitions than know about the Dragoons." He nodded to Poppy Bread.
"There's that unicorn, Shining Star. Her magic tests out as strong, but she's just terrible with spells. She hasn't expressed any preference yet," Spring Dance said, passing across Celestia's pseudonym's profile information.
Firelance knew exactly who it was. "She'd make a good candidate for the Friendship Guard." He glanced over the paperwork and was surprised by how low she'd scored in spell casting. "And who knows, if anypony could teach her spells, it'd be Lyra."
When a round of chuckles met Firelance's comment, Starlight found herself agreeing with him. She'd been practicing reading spells and started on the training exercises, and already she could follow along with simple spells in books and had felt the breadth of her magic reserves start to grow.
"Oh, there was one here asking about the Friendship Guard." Stiff slid another page across to Firelance. "How long have you got here? Enough time to talk to them about it?"
Firelance nodded. "We have a day to see the city, so that should be fine. You're okay with it, right, Starlight?"
With everyone at the table looking at her, Starlight agreed. "Yes. That's perfectly fine." And it was. She found the interactions between what she could read were ponies with a lot of responsibility and respect, and Firelance (her opinion of whom was rising rapidly), fascinating.
"Okay. Anything else you need me to take care of?" Doing his utmost to pretend to pay equal attention to both pages, Firelance tried his very best not to laugh at some of the information on Celestia's fake form.
"The recruits will be here shortly. You can talk to Scootaloo then." All pretense was dropped as Sweetie told Firelance. "Spitfire, I take it she meets your—"
"I wouldn't turn her down if she couldn't fly," Spitfire said. She laughed at some of the looks she got. "All I'm saying is, that mare knows how to fly. It's in her blood. If she couldn't actually fly, I could have her teaching recruits and the Wonderbolts would be better for it."
It didn't add up. "You are only accounting for about a third of them, though." Starlight hadn't realized she'd spoken until afterwards. "S-Sorry."
"As a princesses' representative, you're welcome to ask questions," Stiff Peaks said. "The reason for that is a lot of them don't know what they want. We have further training systems in place to give them a taste of the sort of work they'll find in each division of the Guard. Some might even discover that Research and Acquisitions exists." He tilted his head toward Sweetie Drops and gave her a wink.
"Hilarious. There's an easy way I've found to pick which ponies will become our specialists." Reaching to her saddlebag, Sweetie pulled out a book and passed it to Firelance. "Sit that beside you on the table and see if anypony other than Scoots looks your way."
Looking at the cover of the book, Firelance tried to figure out the significance. "Daring Do?"
"Is that the latest one?" Spitfire asked, trying to suppress her own fond memories of the books.
"Nope. Not the latest. That's a pre-print of the next one in the series. You see, authors get a box of these things to give out to reviewers and friends. They can become quite valuable, though often those with them would consider them priceless." Looking around the group of captains, Sweetie could see a few with overly hungry eyes fixed on the book.
"You're trying to catch ponies who have an eye for excitement with some good bait there," Stiff Peaks said.
The rumble of hooves coming toward the building was noticeable even before the first pony burst through. Herding the pack to queue up to get their food was the three sergeants training them. Sweetie Drops was the first on the table to speak. "Got two nibbles already. Is it me, or are there more ponies in the last few recruiting groups?"
"Numbers of new recruits are up," Spitfire said, sliding some paperwork over to Sweetie that had the details. "But we also have a lot more reservists now. They need their retraining certifications. Plus somepony has encouraged a lot of ex guardponies to renew their training."
"Come on, that's hardly all my fault." The grin Sweetie shot Spitfire was more than enough to get both laughing.
"Uh, sir?"
Firelance looked up at the stallion who approached him. "Speak freely, recruit."
"Can I ask which book is that? I haven't seen it and I'm a big fan of A.K. Yearling's work." No sooner had he asked, but the stallion had far more senior eyes on him than Firelance's. If it weren't for his curiosity in seeing a Daring Do book he hadn't heard of, he would have apologized and run off to a table to hide.
"Captain Sweetie Drops was just telling me about it," Firelance said. "Apparently it's a pre-print version of the next book in the series. If you want a crack at reading it, you'd best talk to her after lunch. What's your name?"
"Recruit Cabbage Patch."
"Come back over when you're done eating and chat a bit. You might even get to take a look at the first chapter." With the recruit apparently fumbling to thank him, Firelance dismissed him before he fell over his words.
"One for me," Sweetie said, reaching to the folder of recruit information to find her mark.
"Recruit Scootaloo requesting permission to approach the officers' table!"
"Request denied." Stiff Peaks didn't even look up from his notes he was pretending to read. "Sergeant Firelance, I understand you're not part of my command, but could you accompany the recruit back to her table and discipline her in etiquette as you see fit?"
"Sir." Firelance stood and stepped around the table before following Scootaloo over to the queue where ponies were waiting for food. "Now, how should I discipline you? That was a massive breach of rules back there. I'd be surprised if you weren't eventually ejected from the Guard." When her wing grabbed him around his withers and pulled him close, Firelance turned his head to catch her cheek with a kiss before she could do the same.
"I've missed you." Scootaloo didn't care that there were two layers of armor between her and Firelance, she made sure they were pressed flank-to-flank. "It's been a blast, though. Mum took us for our first run, then we all split up and started individual assessment, and Sergeant Bluebelle had me teach the class how to bend magic with my wings. She also got me to teach her how to do it. Did you see our sparring earlier? I was—" She was halted in her tracks by another kiss on the cheek.
"I saw. You don't know her, but Twilight has a student now. She was pretty impressed by that." Taking a tray, Firelance hovered a second one for Scootaloo.
"Thanks. Wow, a new student? What happened there?" Selecting her own food, she directed the server behind the counter as to what she wanted, and Firelance did the same. "Oh, is that a fish curry? That smells so good!"
"Careful, it's spicy," the server said, adding a pile of rice to Scootaloo's tray and ladling the yellow curry over it.
"I know. Mum makes it at home." Bouncing to the next spot and fetching a hunk of agege bread that was shaped into a bowl and big glass of water to go with it all. When they got to a table, she finally asked, "Okay, so spill it. Who's the new student?"
"See the mare over on the officers' table, looking out of place and now walking over here? That's Starlight Glimmer. She—"
"Stole Twilight and her friends' cutie marks, ran away, and we've been looking for her for a while," Scootaloo said.
"Well, she came back and dragged Twilight into some kind of battle. Hey, Starlight. Want to grab a tray and chat while we eat? The food here is the best in Canterlot." Firelance nodded toward the front of the room. When she wandered off to do that, he looked back at Scootaloo. "And Twilight helped her deal with whatever was eating her up. She needs friends right now."
When Starlight returned, she found a spot waiting for her beside Scootaloo. "Does everypony wear armor? Do I need to buy some?" Unwilling to try the spicy option, Starlight had opted for the rich vegetable stew and some buttered bread. She expected mass-produced and bland food, but when she took her first mouthful she exclaimed in surprise. "This is really good."
Looking closely at the stew, Firelance nodded. "That's one of the classics. Until Commander Heartstrings shared her latest recipe book with Captain Peaks, that was standard fare here. I heard Lyra got all these recipes from a zebra."
Scootaloo nodded. "Yup, Zecora. She lives in the Everfree Forest near Ponyville. One of my friends has been learning cooking and mysticism from her."
"A zebra? In Equestria?" Starlight asked.
Her mouth full, Scootaloo sucked in some cool air and chewed quickly to get the curry down. "Yup. She's really nice. I'll introduce you next time I'm home."
"Assuming she doesn't come to the castle with some kind of friendship problem," Firelance said.
Taking a deep breath, and trying not to sound like she wanted to hijack the conversation for her own ends—when she really wanted to—Starlight asked, "How did you curve that spell?"
"Ah. That was something I came up with and practiced with Firelance. See, I talked to Mum about how pegasus magic works, and then Surprise, and they both concurred that it's a lot of really complex calculations that bend the world around us that pegasi can do instinctually. Well, I figured if I can bend the world, that magic is part of the world so I can bend magic as well. It's not easy, but if you do it just right, it doesn't matter what kind of magic it is except for certain teleport spells."
Starlight's mind raced. She'd been reading up on teleport spells and knew two of the targeting methods (because those had been the easiest) but the math for the most complex ones was something she'd put aside to work on at a later date. What she knew about it, though, was it directly targeted points in space. "Oh! Because you can't predict which part of yourself is being touched by the targeting point?"
"I can sort of predict it, but it isn't worth it. The amount of unicorns that can do those calculations I can count on my hooves, and I only know of one that can do them fast enough to track a moving target. Well, Twilight isn't a unicorn anymore either." Scootaloo smirked at that. "So it's a moot point."
The level of understanding of complex magic in a pegasus surprised Starlight. "R-Right. I've been trying to learn those targeting methods myself but it's"—she puffed a defeated sigh out—"really hard."
Poking Starlight in the shoulder with a feather, Scootaloo said, "Hey, you happen to have the best teachers in Equestria and probably the world for that. Twilight is the only pony who could target me in flight with a point-direct teleport, and she taught Lyra how to teleport."
"So Lyra was Twilight's student before me?" Starlight asked.
"Kinda," Firelance said, giving Scootaloo a chance to eat her lunch. "The way I heard it, Twilight helped Lyra learn the mathematics needed for point-direct teleports and Lyra taught Twilight how to cheat with magic."
"Cheat?"
"Yeah, cheat." Sipping at his own drink, Firelance gestured to the side where a fellow unicorn was studying the Guard handbook for unicorn magic. "All the teleportation spells in that book are cheating ways of doing complex calculations without the calculations. Has Lyra shown you how she flies yet?"
"Uh, she has wings. I assume she flies with those?" Each new revelation was sinking Starlight further beneath an ocean of new questions. She knew this was going to be a different answer to what she expected, but she didn't know how. "Wait, with self-telekinesis, right?"
Firelance froze, his original track scattered to the wind. "You can lift yourself with telekinesis?"
"You can't?" Starlight blinked in honest surprise.
"It's an annoyingly specific knack. It can't be taught. Only about one unicorn in a hundred thousand can ever do it." Nodding toward Starlight, Firelance asked, "I take it you can?"
Starlight nodded slowly. "Is that bad?"
"Not bad at all, except you'll have Lyra poking you with questions so she can learn it. I'll wait for whatever crazy paper she publishes from that."
Scootaloo did as all Guards would when left alone for a few minutes with a pile of food—she ate until it was all gone. Almost at the exact same time as she started guzzling down water for the inferno in her mouth, Sergeant Bluebelle called them to follow her outside. "Gotta go!" She moved fast, using some magic and her feather tips to weave around the table and land a kiss on Firelance's cheek. "I've got two more days and then a week of specialist training. See you then?"
Firelance barely got a "Yes!" out before Scootaloo's tail was out the door and gone. He sighed.
Feeling like a bit of a third wheel, Starlight pondered testing one of the teleport spells she'd been studying—not that she expected it to work since she hadn't actually memorized it. "You're both, uh, pretty close?"
"Me and Scoots? Yeah. We've been hanging out together and then special someponies for a few years now. When she graduates I'm going to—" Stopping in his tracks, Firelance blushed. "I mean… Can you forget I said that? I still need to talk to her moms."
"My lips are sealed, but congratulations." It was something ponies said to each other, but Starlight had a new perspective on life—she wasn't giving platitudes and calculating her responses to engender specific emotions or feelings, she was being genuine. A rush of relief came with that realization as if a blister of her own making broke and she would begin to heal a little more.
When Starlight realized she was being hugged, she jumped a little in surprise. She was hugging back, there were tears in her eyes, and Firelance was being a perfect gentlecolt. "S-Sorry."
"I'd be a pretty poor member of the Friendship Guard if I didn't offer a friend a shoulder when she needed it. And, thanks for the well-wishes." Firelance eased his grip a little, giving Starlight a chance to either mutually let go or keep hugging. When she chose the former, he produced some tissues with a flicker of his magic. "Here."
Taking the tissues and using them to dry her eyes, then blow her nose, Starlight didn't know what to do with them and dumbly offered them back—which Firelance quickly incinerated with little puffs of his magic. "Thank you. I am still so wound up from everything I was doing that when a little bit of it comes free, it can hit me hard. I guess."
"Which is why I am here to catch you. You don't have to do this alone, Starlight. You might be Twilight's student, but she has built a network of friends who can help. Right, now we've visited here, did you have anywhere you wanted to go? There are some great sights to see here."
"Is there a lookout over Equestria that's far from the mountain? I want to see—see what I'm trying to become part of." It seemed sillier the more Starlight said, but the look Firelance gave her seemed like he was taking her seriously.
"Come on. We can't get to the one in the castle, but there are some spots close to the castle wall we should be able to get to. I'll have to let them know I'm leaving." Turning toward the officers' table again, Firelance waited for Starlight's nod before he left her.
Starlight, without the need to let anyone know she was leaving, gravitated to the door and outside. She looked at the ponies training, it was more of the mock battles, but this time it was nine-on-nine. The earth ponies seemed to be doing the bulk of the work while the unicorns focused on stymying each other; likewise the pegasi.
What surprised her was when an earth pony put themselves between a unicorn and a pegasus and the spell that'd been hurled fizzled. Her mouth dropped open and, under her breath, she said, "How did she do that? Was that a unique talent?"
Walking up beside Starlight, Firelance heard her words and followed her gaze. "What happened?"
"An earth pony took a spell and just— I could see the magic drain away." Starlight watched as the group that had done such, rushed to take advantage of the action. "And they did it again."
"I guess if you didn't know what pegasi could do, you wouldn't know that earth ponies can ground out magic. Sweetie, Scoots' other mom, almost managed to lock down Queen Chrysalis when she was juiced up on Shining Armor's love. It didn't work because there was too much magic potential, but I hear Sweetie's gotten better since then. If you ever want the worst headache of your life, try casting magic directly on a trained earth pony who doesn't want you to."
It was fascinating to watch, and when Starlight turned her attention to another group sparring she noticed the main unicorn caster in one group kept using spells that picked up the ground or fired water in a jet at the earth ponies. "Twilight's friends can do that?"
"Her friends, apart from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, haven't had any special training. Fluttershy's was with Lyra's father, and Rainbow's training with the Wonderbolts lately. Her flying was already pretty good, but I hear she's really tightening up— You have another question."
Starlight started walking beside Firelance, pointedly ignoring the way he glanced at one particular practice field. "I don't think I have anything in me lately except questions and explosive emotional outbursts. Which would you prefer this time?"
"Mmhmm," Firelance said, then spun his head back away from watching Scootaloo flying to look at Starlight. "I'm sorry."
The sincerity made Starlight genuinely laugh. She could see how much he was in love and it made her feel happy for them simply by being near. "I was going to ask about Lyra's father, since you mentioned him. Another great unicorn?"
Snorting, Firelance shook his head. "Not quite. In fact, not at all. We can see if he's home on the way. They live on the edge not far away from where I was going to take you."
"Her whole family is uniquely unique, aren't they?" Starlight asked, not minding the exploration of Canterlot at all. Watching the various ponies (and even the odd griffon) going about their daily tasks in the city was soothing.
"Oh, for sure. She has a sister back home who is the right-hand mare of the entire country. Everypony in that family is amazing on a scale I can't hope to match—but I'm trying." Reaching the intersection that led to the drop off-adjacent home of Tufts and Joyce Mango, Firelance turned onto the spur of the outermost ring of the city. "Have you met many bat ponies?"
"None. Are they that different from other ponies?"
"They have a magic that's all their own. Also, don't say the words mango, banana, or pear around them unless you want a screeching feeding frenzy." Firelance didn't care if Starlight immediately suspected him of playing a joke, putting three big elephants in the room would make the topic irresistible.
About to ask for clarification, Starlight instead closed her mouth as Firelance approached a house and walked up to the front door and knocked.
"Comi— Wait! Gara!" Tufts let out a little screech of concern as his daughter rushed to the door and flung it wide. Relief was only brief. He hadn't felt the kind of malevolence that was the cause of his fear, but it was a habit they were trying to get the filly out of. "Firelance! Come in. Come in."
Plucking Garawang up with his magic, Firelance set the filly onto his back (where she was flapping and generally being a little gremlin) and entered. "Thanks, Tufts. I was just showing one of Lyra's new friends around Canterlot and thought it best if she got to meet some bat ponies before she gets surprised by one. Tufts, this is Starlight. Starlight, this is Tufts and his daughter, Gara."
Staring for a moment, Starlight had to shake her head to figure out how bat pony wings worked. She realized she was staring when Tufts held one wing out to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Sorry! I just— Your wings are fascinating. I've never seen how bat wings worked before and there are so many folds and those are bones in there that hold them apart and oh no I am rambling and can't stop!"
Laughing with a little bit of screech in his voice, Tufts shook his head. "You're fine. We're a little unique, though the embassy will hope to undo that. Take a seat. Have you eaten?"
"Yeah. We ate at the Guard." As he sat down, Firelance levitated Garawang from his back and sat her on the seat beside him. "What about you, kiddo? How have you been since I saw you last?"
"I've went to flying school, but they were confused about how I could fly, so then Mum asked some Wonderbolts if they could help, and they did, but they didn't know some of the things I wanted to learn, so they got one of Princess Luna's friends to come and teach me how to fly!" Stretching out her wings, Garawang gave each a little flick to show how they worked. "What about you? You work for my sister now?"
"Yup. Lyra's my boss." Turning to include Starlight, Firelance said, "Me and Scoots foalsat for Gara when she was a little filly. Not now, though. She's all grown up."
Starlight found herself the center of attention as everyone looked at her. "I—uh. I'm sorry, I'm not that good with foals."
"I'm not a foal! I'm six!" Garawang said, jumping so her forehooves were on the table.
Tufts reached out with a wing to coax his daughter off the table. "You're five and a half. Also, Garawang Mango, no hooves on the table."
Hearing her full name, Garawang tucked her ears back and lifted her hooves from the table—though she kept leaning against it. "Sorry, Dad, but I am a big girl now!"
In the village she'd run, Starlight had seen several foals. They hadn't seemed worth dealing with directly, though, because they were all taken care of by their parents. That's when her brain caught up with the conversation. "Mango?" She looked at Firelance. "You said not to say that, banana, or pear."
Letting out a screech of excitement, Garawang started bouncing and flapping her wings. "Dad! Dad! Can we have fruit?!"
"You just had lunch, Gara." Tufts knew his weaknesses, and when it came to ponies he had two that lived with him. "Why don't you get me two mangoes from the fridge?"
Screeching all the way to the kitchen, Garawang missed the grins Firelance and Tufts shared.
Firelance looked at Starlight with sympathy as she had her ears clamped down. "That's why I said not to say those words. Also, you get used to the screeching."
"You brought her here for a reason, Firelance?" Tufts asked, his eyes on Starlight. There was something about her that he felt—a dissonance that she was trying to keep within. "I see. I see. This is going to require some help, if you'd like it?"
Starlight turned to look at Firelance, seeing only a supportive smile on his face. "What—what is it? What can you do?"
"I can give you time and a mirror. I promise nothing will leave my confidence."
Exhaling a sharp breath, Starlight slumped a little. "It's like— Like every other pony knows what I did and can see those I hurt. I want— No. I need to confront—" The wing on her shoulder felt like there was some kind of electric charge in it. Starlight looked at where it held her and she sighed.
"My daughter isn't the only one who can feel the pull of fate on ponies. Relax, Starlight, and listen to my voice." Tufts started working his own brand of magic and, when she looked up at him, he counted, "Three," and pulled them both into his corner of the Dreamtime.
It was surreal for Starlight. All her life she'd trusted her own perception of things implicitly, until Twilight had shattered that. Now Tufts did it a second time. She looked around to see him hanging upside down beside her—only he didn't look upside down because, she realized, she was upside down too. "What—?"
"We're Dreaming."
Tufts' words held weight to them. Starlight could see the world around them shifting and changing, but where the notes of his voice touched—solidity reigned. "Oh. That doesn't make sense, though. Wait, you have magic?"
"Sharp. Yes." Tufts gestured to Starlight and then to the world around them. "This is where you were; where you did things in the past. It's where you're sitting at a table in Canterlot while Firelance keeps us safe. It's where you're going and what you'll do."
As he spoke, the world changed around Starlight. The town she'd wronged and the ponies within it milled around the base of the tree, then the tree was in the middle of a table in Canterlot where she and Tufts were asleep, and finally it was in a building with huge, vaulted ceilings and desks and young ponies, griffons, and other creatures she didn't recognize. It was also still upside down. "Why do I have wings?"
"It's not easy to keep yourself separate from the magic in a Dreaming. I know one mare who can, but I will refuse to Dream with her." Shaking his head, Tufts gestured to their surroundings. "What happened here?"
The world solidified into the town where Starlight had wreaked havoc. She shivered and tucked her wings around herself. "I thought I knew a better way to do things. It was— Twilight showed me it was a nightmare we were all living in."
"It's still a sore spot?"
Starlight nodded. "The worst part is they knew it. They all knew it—and they told me it was alright. That it was okay."
"Maybe it is for them." Tufts watched Starlight and felt her recoil from the answer. "But not for you."
It was a distinction that Starlight didn't think existed. "I was wrong. So wrong. I stole their individuality. I stole their cutie marks and locked them away!" Pulling the wings over her face, Starlight hid in the dark.
"And now?" Tufts asked. "They have their cutie marks back?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "How do you plan to make up for it?"
"They don't want me to make up for it!" Not realizing she was yelling, Starlight pulled the wings tighter. "Sorry."
"You are fine to yell in the Dreaming, if yelling is what you need." Reaching out a wing, Tufts plucked a ripe mango from the tree and quickly stripped the skin off it. "Take a deep breath and tell me what you smell."
It felt impossible to avoid him. Starlight inhaled and had the most violent bodily urge of her life. Casting her wings aside, she looked around for the source of the smell only to be passed the golden flesh of the mango.
"Such a simple thing. Giving a body what it craves the most is one of life's greatest pleasures, though." Tufts promised himself he'd eat one when he returned. When Starlight was done rendering the fruit to a licked-clean seed, he asked, "What can you do to make yourself feel better?"
Just as Starlight opened her mouth, Tufts said, "Twilight doesn't have the answer. Neither does Lyra." When she looked at him pointedly, Tufts laughed. "There's only one pony that has the answer."
Starlight was afraid of his reply because it came with his wingtip poking her. "I need to look for it myself," she said.
"You've got help."
More bat ponies were preening their wings and screeching to each other now, each had the features of ponies Starlight had recently met. There was, of course, one mint-colored unicorn hanging upside down with the rest, grinning like an idiot at her. "What do I do until I find it?"
"Hang upside down, learn to love fruit. I don't have answers." Tufts reached up for another mango and tossed it to Starlight. "I only have mangoes."
Examining the fruit, Starlight used her thumb claws to peel it. It felt so natural to simply be a bat here, even if being a bat wasn't something she'd ever been or seen. She ate slower, contemplating the mango and its flavors.
It was life at its simplest. Eating. Making her body work. Starlight kept eating the fruit and tried to think past all those supporting her. Some left, some new faces appeared—but the crowd was never gone, even when their surroundings changed to the strange building again. "I know you don't have answers, but do you know what this is?"
"My daughter would call it a lot of things. Big, complicated words that have power because she believes in them." Tufts didn't put any effort into clarifying the future.
"Fate," Starlight said. "Harmony. Destiny." They weren't as heavy words to her as what Tufts seemed to be implying, but Starlight could feel some weight to them. "I thought I didn't believe in it—not after he, Sunburst, left."
"What happens will happen, but only if you let it. This Sunburst left you and took part of you with him. Why don't you find him and see if he will offer it back?" Tufts gestured to a bat pony that, though his features were hard to make out, sparked a gasp of recognition from Starlight. "But first you should eat that mango. These are the best ones in all Equestria."
Returning to the task of eating, Starlight thought of everything they'd explored. As she nibbled away the last of the fruit's flesh, she reached out for Tufts and hugged him. He was warm and real and had offered her no easy answers, but it was what she'd needed. "I will. Thank you, Tu—"
Waking up, Starlight was momentarily distracted by her lack of wings. She shook her head to clear the dysphoria and looked around the room. Firelance was in the kitchen with Garawang and Tufts was sitting beside her at the table. She was about to open her mouth and ask if it had all been real when the front door opened.
"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!" Garawang raced past the table with her wings flapping a little. She didn't even notice Tufts catching a bowl from the table she'd knocked off or Starlight grabbing a whole side table that was halfway through falling over. Crashing against her mother, she wrapped her wings around her and started to climb. "Firelance came and we have been cooking!"
Joyce Mango didn't so much ignore the stranger sitting at the table as accept her presence and move on with her evening. "And what have you been cooking?" she asked when her daughter had climbed all the way to her withers and wrapped both wings around her neck.
"We made a froooot cake!" Garawang let out a joyous screech at the title, then broke out into a case of giggles. "Dad has been helping Starlight. She needed to see a bit better, Firelance said. Why didn't she get glasses?"
"Because glasses can't show you everything, Gara," Joyce said, walking to her waking husband and kissing his cheek. "Sleep well?"
Letting out a happy chirp of a sound, Tufts nodded. "The Dreaming worked, I think. What about you?" He looked at Starlight with an eyebrow raised.
"It—It was certainly something. I thought you said you don't have any answers?" Starlight asked.
"I don't. All I have are Mangoes." To validate his assertion, Tufts stretched his wing out to gesture at his wife and daughter. "My wife, Joyce Mango, and my daughter, Gara Mango." He grinned without a single hint of sympathy for his pun. "But you got everything you needed?"
"I don't think I'll ever have everything I need, which is probably for the best. We should be going." Starlight looked at Firelance and caught a nod from him.
Stretching, Firelance reached a hoof up and ruffled Gara's mane until it went frizzy. "Yeah, we have to go do some paperwork and a million other things. Starlight wanted to see the edge, too. Know any good spots?"
"There's a reason we got this place, remember?" Joyce nodded toward the back door. "Take a look. It's a breathtaking view."
Following along, Starlight actually gasped when she left the house and saw there was an unguarded edge at the back of the garden that had empty air beyond it. Walking slowly, she stopped when her hoof touched the edge and looked.
Laid bare before them, Equestria was visible all the way from the Applewood mountains in the far distance, Ponyville below and to the left, and Cloudsdale up and to the right. Neither could see any of the big cities, but one thing stood out in Ponyville.
"Her castle is amazing," Starlight said.
"Yeah. You don't often get to appreciate the world like this. Well, if you can fly, I guess you can." The view was impressive, even if a tiny little bat-winged missile ran past them and jumped off.
Starlight jumped and was about to reach out and grab Garawang with her magic when she saw the filly spread her huge wings and soar up into the sky above them. She sighed and leaned sideways against Firelance. "I could do without the heart palpitations."
"She's been doing that since she was three. Joyce joked that she was flying around the maternity ward until a unicorn managed to coax her to land with a mango." No sooner had he said the word than Garawang dove and landed on his back. "I don't have any mangoes, Gara."
"Aww." Climbing down from Firelance's back, Garawang galloped back toward the house.
"Tell your mom and dad that we're heading out now," Firelance said, noting that he got a nod from the filly that he hoped meant she'd heard his request. "We could go up to the castle now if you want. I think Lyra is giving another talk up there today."
"Not unless you want to. I think I need to head home to Ponyville and see about making a few more friends." It wasn't her own idea, of course, but what Twilight had said. Who else, she mused, would know more about friend-making than the princess of friendship?