Starlight frowns as she stares up at her next destination. She hadn't had to levitate since her, shall we say, unfortunate altercation with Twilight a couple weeks prior, and she would rather not have to just float awkwardly in the air the whole time she was talking to Rainbow Dash. Oh well, guess it can't be helped. Starlight sighs and casts the spell, feeling a mite tired- She sure had been casting alot of teleportation spells that day, and adding a levitation spell to the mix made it quite the magical workout.
Floating up to the lip of the cloud house that was her destination, Starlight ponders how to knock- She couldn't actually touch the cloud door, and just barging in seemed like a bad idea, especially since Rainbow Dash was one of the ponies who was most suspicious of her. So instead, she simply uses her horn to create a burst of noises that at least tangentially resembled knocking, and waited patiently. There is an odd ruckus from inside, and some childish squeals that gives her pause. Just what is going on in there..? Starlight wonders.
After a long delay, the door finally opens, revealing a very sheepish looking Rainbow Dash and, in the background, an ecstatic- almost smug- orange filly with a purple mane. Rainbow Dash does a double take. "Huh? Star-"
"Hey, Sunlight!" Scootaloo announces eagerly. "Wait, how are you-"
Starlight groans internally. Was she going for a world record of different ways to have her name misremembered today? What were the odds that her name would get mixed up with sunburst in two ways in one day?
"Oh. Right. Levitation." Rainbow Dash finishes the thought both Scootaloo and her were having, looking up at Starlight's horn flippantly and with a hint of unease, taking a protective stance in front of Scootaloo as if worried that Starlight would hurt the filly in some way. Though it's subtle, Starlight still notices the maneuver with a pang. It hurt to be mistrusted like that. "So, Starlight. What's up? I haven't seen you around since... You know." Rainbow Dash awkwardly skirts around the issue. Rainbow spending most of her time up in the clouds meant that, unlike Twilight's other friends, their paths had not crossed since the whole timeline fiasco.
Starlight takes a deep breathe and clears her throat. "Well, actually, I'm here on Twilight's behalf. We had some problems yesterday, and now it seems like Spike has become an Alicorn somehow and none of us can remember how it happened." Starlight announces in a by now well rehearsed speech. "I'm here to ask if you know anything about what we were up to yesterday, so we can try to figure out what happened."
Rainbow Dash does a double take, as Starlight had grown used to by this point. She settles in to wait for her prismatic friend to finish processing what she had just said.
"I- But, what? But, Spike's a dragon, what-" Rainbow Dash stammers, blinking several times in rapid succession. "I... Uh, ok, wow. That's alot. Uh..." Rainbow narrows her eyes, suddenly suspiciously. "Hey, that's awfully convenient, isn't it? Why would Twilight send you?" Rainbow asks in an accusatory tone.
Nothing Starlight wasn't prepared for. "She needs to look after Spike. Having a rogue Alicorn on the loose is kind of a big deal." Starlight explains, wondering while she did if she should have just gathered all of Twilight's friends to ask them at once... It would have cut the explanations down a lot, if nothing else.
Scootaloo, meanwhile, was prancing from hoof to hoof excitedly in the back, wings buzzing in excitement. "Tell her, Rainbow! Tell her what you did yesterday!" Scootaloo seems enraptured, whatever it was had certainly caught the fillies attention. Starlight's brow took an unscheduled trip up north as she looks at Rainbow Dash in confusion.
"What... Did you do yesterday?" Starlight asks, skeptically. Rainbow Dash sighs in resignment.
"Alright, Alright. So there I was practicing for the Wonderbolts, right? But Twilight comes over and says she needs my help with something. Now being the awesome pony I am, of course I was ready to help out at a moments notice. She tells me about how she found some dusty old scroll, but she seemed pretty excited about it, and said she needed some water or something to make it work." Rainbow Dash starts, in the voice she reserves for when she was bragging about the awesome things she had done.
Starlight looks even more skeptical. "Uh, water..? Why would she need you for that?"
"You didn't let me finish!" Rainbow Dash protests. "Like I was saying, it wasn't just any water, it was water from a river in Tartarus. Twilight needed a brave, agile, and lightning-fast pony like me to get to it safely!"
Starlight looks confused. Wouldn't it have been easier to just teleport..? Maybe there was more to it that Rainbow wasn't understanding correctly. At any rate, why would she need water from Tartarus of all places? "...Just like that? You just flew to Tartarus to get... water? Was there anything else to it..? Did she say what it was for?" Starlight asks, intently.
Rainbow Dash flings her mane back, rolling her eyes. "How would I know? I'm an athlete, not an egghead. My friend says she needs my help, and I'm there to help, that's all there is to it." Rainbow Dash states. "She did seem pretty concerned about it though. She was very intent that I didn't touch the water at all while getting it. Not a problem for a pony whose as great of a flier as me, though, it was fillies play to fill a bucket without ever touching the surface." Rainbow elaborates.
Starlight looks thoughtful. "Alright... Well, that's something, at least. You sure you don't know anything else?" She presses; This was the most anypony had told her so far.
Rainbow shakes her head. "Nope. Like I said, not an egghead."
Starlight might have continued questioning for more details, but she was getting cold- hovering up in the air like that had that effect. "Alright. I guess I'll continue my investigation elsewhere, then. Thanks for the intel." She thanks, before teleporting off somewhere warmer.
Starlight had considered skipping over the last of Twilight's friends, given that she already had a decent amount of information for her mentor, but she had already come this far; at this point, she might as well finish what she had started. With that in mind, she struts into Sugarcube Corner at a brisk pace, eager to finish up and get back to the castle.
"Why, hello there, Moonswirl!" Mrs. Cake calls out to Starlight, who just looks at the earth pony incredulously. Starlights eyelid twitches in irritation; Having her name mixed up by fillies was understandable, but this was an adult! Not to mention, that wasn't even close to her actual name. What was it with all the ponies in this town..?
Starlight makes a mental note to make sure everypony knew her proper name later, but right now she was more concerned with finishing her mission, so she just leads with a simple "Its Starlight Glimmer. Anyways, have you seen Pinkie-" Before she can even finish, the pink party pony in question appeared from up the stairs, bouncing excitedly.
"Ooh! Ooh! Hey Starlight, what are you doing here? Wait, no, let me guess! Did Spike spontaneously turn into an Alicorn because Twilight tried casting one of Starswirl's old spells again even though that literally always causes problems, and in the process had a laboratory accident with some of the water from the river Lethe causing you to all lose memory of what you did and resulting in her needing to send you out to try and piece together what happened while she looks after him?" Pinkie asks, all in one single run-on sentence and with no pauses for breathing whatsoever.
Starlight just blinks- Now, it was her chance to be overwhelmed. Pinkie's other friends might have gotten used to the chaotic mare's shenanigans, but Starlight certainly hadn't yet. "Wh-What? How did... But I... Huh?" Starlight's brain struggles to keep up. "Wait, how did you know any of that? And, is that what happened?"
Pinkie Pie just shrugs. "Beats me, I have no clue. I wasn't there." Pinkie Pie doesn't seem even slightly concerned about her apparent omniscience, while Starlight just falls back on her haunches, eyes wide.
"I... But, what... Did... Did you see Twilight at all yesterday?" Starlight finally asks, lamely, her brain so confused it just defaulted to what she had asked the others.
"Nope!" Pinkie Pie announces, before bouncing off again, leaving a very befuddled Starlight to collect her thoughts and finally teleport back to the castle of friendship.