Starfire, frankly, had hoped to not have to deal with Diamond Tiara. Sure, she was seemingly on the path of redemption and he respected her for that. Even so, he really didn’t want to risk bringing the wrath of her mother down on the school’s head if he could help it. Right now, however, he had to deal with the rich kid, who was twiddling her thumbs while sitting on the chair that he had placed in front of his desk earlier. Just then, he had a thought that stopped his nerves from rising too high;
“Obscenely rich and cold-hearted mother aside, Diamond Tiara is still a student in CHS and she clearly needs my help!”
With a slow breath to keep himself focused on the task at hand, he asked the nervous girl with a voice filled with honest concern;
“What’s the matter, Diamond? Something is clearly bothering you.”
She looked up at him with regretful eyes and told him with a soft voice;
“Principal Celestia… I need your advice on something important.”
Advice… yes, that was doable for Starfire! Nerve-wracking, but doable! With a caring smile, he responded sweetly;
“I’m happy to give some words of wisdom. Now…”
He asked with a more serious tone;
“What’s on your mind?”
Relief filled Diamond’s eyes and face as she explained herself;
“As you’ve noticed by now… I’ve been trying to not be that…”
She expressed a soft growl that was barely above a whisper in terms of volume while looking quite agitated before speaking again;
“Loathsome girl who bullied kids lower than her on the social ladder.”
Her vocal tone further emphasized how frustrated she was with her old self. Starfire felt for that young lady and listened intently as she went on, regret returning to her face with a vengeance;
“While I have done good things for a lot of the students I once bullied, there are three that I haven’t made things right with yet…”
She closed her eyes before admitting;
“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.”
The young man knew exactly who she was talking about before she uttered their names. Thanks to his job as an assistant to the Principal, he was well aware of Diamond's checkered middle-school history with the CMCs. Out of all of the kids she had wronged both back then and in Freshman Year, it was those three she had hurt the most. Starfire really felt for her at that moment. With a breath, Diamond spoke further while giving him a saddened yet determined glare;
“I want to be good to them. I want to let them know that I want to be their friend, not their enemy. It’s just… hard to bring myself to talk with them, you know? After everything I did to those three in middle-school, I’m worried I might make them sad or angry with me all over again. That I might…”
She sniffed back her tears before they could leave her eyes;
“That I might hurt them again…”
Starfire could not let this sadness slide. Yes, it was true that Principals, and school staff in general, had to avoid playing favorites. But, he knew that there were times when a student, any student, would need comfort. Especially when they were emotionally vulnerable..
This was one such time.
He carefully walked over to a crying Diamond Tiara from his desk, got down on his right knee, and hugged her gently. Perhaps out of instinct, she wrapped her arms around him as she sobbed. It took her a whole two minutes to recover. After the hug was released and she quietly thanked him, he returned to his desk and waited patiently for her to resettle herself. He took this moment to think of the best advice he could give her;
“What would Celestia say to this little one?”, he thought to himself. The answer came to him within moments. Once Diamond recovered, he told her with an encouraging grin;
“Based on what I know, you have already taken those first tentative steps on the road to self-improvement: recognizing your problem and working towards bettering yourself. That is far more than what I can say about the average bully, regardless of their social status.”
The rich girl allowed a smile to form on her face as he added two simple yet important questions to his response;
“How can you say that you’ll go back to being a bully when you have worked hard on being somebody else? When we both know that you’ll keep trying no matter how difficult things get?”
He could see the gears turning in her head through her facial expression, which went from being wide-eyed to filled with realization before her smile started to beam with renewed confidence. She giggled a little before telling Starfire;
“Thank you. I guess I needed to hear that.”
He chuckled politely before asking Diamond;
“Will that be all?”
She shook her head and gave her a polite goodbye;
“Thank you again. I’ll be on my way.”
The repentant young lady turned to walk away while adjusting her namesake, which was a tad crooked on her head. Before she could leave, however, the ‘Principal’ called out to her after getting a nice idea;
“One more thing, Diamond Tiara.”
She turned around to face Starfire, who requested to her with a big smile filled with goodwill;
“Give my regards to Silver Spoon. I’m sure she’ll get well soon.”
After giving him a grateful nod, Diamond walked out of the office and closed the door behind her. After a few minutes of peaceful paperwork tackling, He heard another knock on the door. Soon enough, Sunset Shimmer, much to his internalized dismay, had entered the office. She expressed a most serious look as she walked up to his desk with purpose in every step. To Starfire, an old Wondecolt, this was either a sign of good things to come or a portent of magical disaster. Now more than ever, he thought it best to handle whatever was going to happen cautiously.
One mistake and suddenly, she would start demanding him to tell her where the real Celestia was!
With a calm breath, he asked her politely;
“What brings you to my office, Sunset Shimmer?”
After sitting down on the chair before the desk, she answered with an exasperated sigh;
“A magical problem, Principal.”
Just as he feared. Starfire’s appreciation for having a whole band’s worth of magic-powered students in the school grew three sizes that day. He held in his growing panic well enough to maintain the calm demeanor that he was putting up. Sunset elaborated further;
“I got word from Trixie Lulamoon that, apparently, her ‘great and powerful mind’ was moved into someone else’s head without her knowledge or consent.”
Okay, Starfire knew that was multiple levels of wrong! Containing his growing disgust, he inquired with concern in my voice;
“Whose head did Trixie’s mind get moved into?”
“Bulk Biceps’.”, was Sunset’s simple and direct answer, which was delivered with a slightly unnerving deadpan tone. Just then, the door was violently shoved open by Bulk Biceps, or rather, Trixie! Her newly acquired massive mass of muscle had nearly bonked Sunset on her back by accident, but she was able to get out of the way in time. Trixie gave Starfire a look of horror and frustration as she yelled out in Bulk’s masculine voice;
“The Great and Powerful Trrrrixie demands that her gloriously powerful mind be returned to her proper magnificent body this instant!”
Just then, the door flew open once more, thanks to Trixie, or rather, Bulk Biceps. He ran up to Trixie’s left side and, with Trixie’s feminine voice, yelled at Starfire out of confusion and panic;
“When I said I wanted to get to know Trixie this is NOT what I had in mind!”
“The Understanding and Friendly Trrrrixie does not blame you, Bulk Biceps!”, Trixie told him in an attempt to calm him down. She then gave Sunset a death glare that the acting Principal would never have expected to see from Bulk Bicep’s face and demanded while pointing her thick index finger at the taken aback former bad girl;
“Explain this madness, Sunset Shimmer!”
After taking a quick breath, Sunset replied with an annoyed tone;
“I would if I could. Did any of you see anything magical when your brains got switched? A glowing light? A floating wisp?”
The two shook their heads. Starfire was about ready to get a magic-induced headache when Trixie gasped before noting;
“Trixie did see something glow!”
All eyes were on the stage magician as she explained;
“Bulk was holding onto one of his rulers during Math class when he offered it to Trixie. Seeing the tool as useful for my homework assignment, Trixie took it into her hand. It glowed a white light that covered my eyes and…”
Everyone in the room connected the dots from there, which prompted Sunset to ask with restrained nervousness;
“Is Math class still underway?”
Bulk answered in a much calmer voice;
“No, it had just ended, but I think we dropped the ruler when we panicked.”
This was all the encouragement the group needed to make a run for that Math class. Trixie and Bulk led them to their destination, which was a classroom that seemed quiet enough to be empty. At least, it was, until they heard the soft whimpers of a young lady. Sunset, ever the good sort, slowly opened the classroom door and walked inside before anyone else could react. Starfire followed behind her. It didn’t take long for them to find the ruler, which rested on the floor of the room a few steps away from the door. Soon enough, an audible sniff diverted their attention to two girls who were sitting together at a desk. One of them, seemingly Wallflower Blush, was clearly comforting who appeared to be Apple Bloom, the little one’s tears staining the desk as she laid the right side of her head on it. Her pink bow was as droopy as her mood. Wallflower looked up at Starfire and Sunset as the rest of the group filed in. Her large eyes filled with genuine worry, she declared to them with her best take on a certain southern drawl;
“Howdy, ya’ll.”
It took the group all of two seconds to figure out who was who. After helping Wallflower recover from her sadness enough to speak, the others heard her address Sunset directly while looking her square in the eyes with a most regretful glare and sorrow in her voice;
“If the universe wanted to make me pay for the Memory Stone, then it succeeded.”
The poor girl got a group hug within seconds after that. After talking with both affected students, it became clear to everyone as to what had happened. After Bulk Biceps and Trixie had gotten their minds switched, they ran out of the classroom in a panic. Apple Bloom had caught sight of Bulk dropping the magic-powered ruler and went to grab it. Her intent was to get it to Sunset before it could be used for ill deeds. But, as fate would have it, Wallflower had just returned from the bathroom and had accidentally touched the ruler with her arm as she walked past Apple Bloom while it was still held in the kid’s hands. The resulting mindswap had rendered the gardener shocked, mortified, and tear-stricken, but that didn’t stop the young Apple from trying to help her.
“It was all Ah could do to keep her from spiralin’ too far down, ya’ll.”, Apple Bloom, in Wallflower’s body, said while holding what was once her own left hand with her friend’s right. She looked down at her with worry in her eyes, only to see Wallflower look up at her with a grateful expression and a tiny grin. She told her young friend truthfully and with a slight bounce in the Apple’s pink bow;
“Thank you for being there for me. You helped more than you realize.”
Hearing that caused Apple Bloom to let out a big and bright smile that was rarely shown by Wallflower under normal circumstances. Starfire looked over at each of the other students. Sunset was giving the little Apple a look of pride. Bulk Biceps and Trixie were doing the same, while the latter had also given the gardener a quick supportive glance that she took notice of rather quickly. That, in Starfire’s mind, would explain her grin growing just a little bit more. He couldn’t help but feel proud of Apple Bloom for helping Wallflower as well. She, like her two best friends, had grown tremendously during their time in CHS. Then again, every Wondercolt had grown over the years, and he was proud to have seen much of that growth himself.
With the emotional distress resolved, the group went to work on figuring out how to undo the magical mindswap. Sunset made it a point to stash the ruler in a nearby desk drawer and hold vigil over it to keep it from causing more havoc. With the threat temporarily contained, Trixie asked while standing in the classroom;
“Okay, so how are we going to get Trixie’s and Bulk’s minds back into their proper bodies?”
The students and Starfire pondered the question for a few seconds before Wallflower suggested in a soft voice riddled with nervousness;
“Well, if two people touching the ruler at the same time was what caused you to switch minds… maybe touching it again will switch them back?”
All eyes were on the plant-lover, who had to fight back the urge to roll herself up into a ball out of fear. Sunset’s response would ease that fear;
“Magic can be straightforward from time to time, maybe it will be in this case?”
Stafire could count on Sunset Shimmer to be the voice of reason in a crisis. Very much like Celestia, now that he thought about it. After getting affirmative nods from the others, she pulled the ruler out from the desk drawer and carefully placed it on a student’s desk in the room. Trixie and Bulk Biceps walked up to the desk from both sides. The stage magician was the first one to slowly grab the ruler, with the muscleman doing the same after a moment’s hesitation. One flash of glowing white light later and the deed was done. It was just a matter of checking if it worked as the group hoped. Trixie held her face with both hands, which her, thankfully, truly hers. Bulk celebrated by flexing his newly reclaimed jacked arms while yelling out;
“YEAH!”
Trixie was just as thrilled. With a well-practiced twirl and a pose dramatic enough to fit her ego, she declared with more pride than Rainbow Dash could brag about having;
“Behold, friends! The Great and Powerful Trrrrixie is back in her beautiful and glorious body!”
After that, Apple Bloom and Wallflower returned their minds to their proper bodies as quickly as they could. It was hard to tell who was more overjoyed over having their body back, given that the young farmer was square dancing in celebration while the gardener was hugging Sunset with all of her heart. With the crisis resolved , Sunset grabbed the ruler after it was placed on the desk again as soon as she was released from Wallflower’s vice grip, walked over to a relieved Starfire, and said;
“I’m going to stuff this ruler in my backpack until school is out. After that, I’ll take it to Twilight’s house, so that she can carefully study it.”
Starfire thought about her suggestion for a solid few seconds. Sure, as Celestia, he had the authority to have it confiscated without triggering the mindswap. But, Sunset Shimmer and her friends were more experienced with magic than he was, so he felt it wise to adhere to her good judgment. With a grin, he replied;
“Very well. I will leave this item in you and your friends’ hands. I hope Twilight finds useful information in her research.”
As if there was any doubt in his mind that she would. The former Shadowbolt was remarkably smart and a thorough researcher to boot, after all. Soon enough, Starfire was back in his office, sitting at his desk for a moment before using the mic and PA system to make a school-wide announcement;
“Attention students and staff: an unexplainable incident occurred after one of our Math classes earlier today. It has been investigated and resolved thanks to everyone involved. However, if any of you have seen or experienced such an incident at any point today, do not hesitate to send word to Vice-Principal Luna, myself, and any other trusted Wondercolt who can help you. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.”
The announcement was as carefully worded as any other announcement made by Celestia or Luna that concerned magical mishaps. The students and staff knew that hearing of an ‘unexplainable incident’ meant that magic was afoot and the use of the phrase ‘any other trusted Wondercolt’ referred to those who have history with magic, such as the Rainbooms. New students and most visitors would not know to read between the lines, thus magic being a thing was made easier to keep a secret. Starfire never could figure out how the rest of the world hadn’t found out about it yet, especially when he considered the large, loud, and powerfully visible Rainbow Lasers that were used at least three times by the school’s beloved band.
Thankfully for his nerves, the rest of the day went by without further incident. Rainbow Dash, compared to Gilda, handled her conversation with Starfire quite well. She was honest about her earlier altercation with her former friend, held no regrets for defending herself, and was willing to take any punishment Luna and Starfire could throw at her. After taking a moment to convene amongst themselves, it was agreed upon by the pair that Rainbow would not be punished too harshly. She had used self-defense and with restraint, when going by Gilda’s lack of injuries. So, she would not be punished for that. She would, however, be punished for goading her former friend into a fight via insult. A few days to a week in detention, depending on her behavior, would suffice. Before Starfire knew it was coming, the final bell had rung while he, Luna, and Celestia had just finished the final bit of paperwork together. They gave each other knowing grins as they paused their work for a moment before getting back to it. They knew that they still had after-school duties to do as well. As if Starfire was blessed by the universe to have a peaceful rest of his day, performing those duties was relatively painless for him. Checking on the clubs’ activities, doing one last sweep of the halls for any troublemakers (none this time), talking about the day’s events with other staff in the Teacher’s Lounge, taking part in phone call meetings with staff from other schools, that sort of thing. Starfire had Luna and Celestia there with him while performing many of these tasks. Checking the clubs he had to do without Celestia to keep up appearances, but even that was a breeze. Doing these duties gave him time to think on the day and what it had brought him;
“Man, this was a wild and challenging experience at times and this was just one day…”
Soon enough, he found himself back in Celestia’s house, with its owner and her sister standing in her living room together. Luna was holding onto the artifact that started this strange day in her right hand. Celestia, with a smile aimed right at her assistant, asked him calmly;
“So, how did it feel to be the Principal of our school?”
Starfire thought about this for a moment before he began to laugh in Celestia’s voice. The laughter was jovial and not at all mean-spirited, a fact that both sisters approved of. After calming down, he declared to them both with calm surety;
“I know I’ll be ready to become a Principal full-time one day. This whole experience has proven that much.”
The two looked on at him with pride in their smiles as he went on with sheepish chuckle;
“But, I don’t think I’m ready for it today. It’s a stressful enough job as it is, but if you throw magic into the mix, you get a profession that is uniquely stressful!”
With a chuckle of her own, Celestia responded sweetly;
“It is true that my job provides me with challenges both common and unique. While I understand that you may not feel ready to be some school’s Principal yet, you have proven to be capable of handling such challenges with professionalism, consideration, and grace.”
To have been praised by his boss and idol was a great honor to Starfire. He could barely contain his bashfulness as she nodded with a wide grin. He then gave the sisters a simple request;
“Could you change us back now, please? I kinda miss my real body.”
With that, the process with the artifact was performed and the transformations reversed. Even though Starfire had gotten his own body back, his short stint as Principal Celestia, and the situations he helped resolve, would stay with him for a long time. After all, one does not easily forget about literally taking a walk in someone else’s shoes.