//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Three // Story: Starlight // by PurpleFire135 //------------------------------// Starlight floated in the ball of magic and the rest of the world around her fell away. Am I doing this? She wondered. The magic aura was purple, like hers, but it was the wrong color, magenta instead of the darker hues her magic was made of. She glanced up at her horn. It wasn’t lit up at all. So, I’m not doing this. She floated, suspended in the nexus of magic for a few seconds. “Hello?” She asked cautiously. As if in response to her question, the bubble expanded and filled the world around her in shimmering magenta and purple twinkles and sparkles. She was left both feeling like her hooves were planted firmly on the ground, and simultaneously like she was floating through space. It was a very odd feeling to say the least. “Is any pony here with me?” She asked, trying to get another response. “Wherever here is…” she muttered to herself. In a burst of stars and more magic, an image of another pony materialized in front of her. Starlight gasped and backed up in surprise at the sudden appearance of the other mare. She was a light lavender and her purple eyes stared down at Starlight, who found herself looking not at the mare’s eyes, but instead at her horn. Starlight’s eyes widened. The pony was a unicorn. Starlight had never actually seen another unicorn. She could barely contain her surprise as she looked up at the elder pony. Her image was distorted though, and Starlight couldn’t really get a good look. The whole image fizzed, parts coming clearer and parts going fuzzy or blurry. The only part that stayed clear for any amount of time was the pony’s face. “Who are you?” Starlight asked. The unicorn smiled, but as she was about to speak a cold blast of energy ripped past them, the entire magic field around them rippling. “No time. This is important.” The unicorn said, her voice fuzzy like her image. She closed her eyes and a magic pulse went up her horn. For a few short seconds she solidified and her voice came through stronger. “You have to get to the source of the magic, call on it and we’ll…” Her voice cut out, even though her image continued to mouth the words. “Yes! I know where it is! I just have to find it for sure!” Starlight replied, trying to light up her own horn to replicate the magic the other unicorn was using. She hoped she could duplicate the spell and strengthen the connection on her end. The energy field warped. “No! Don’t use magic!” The unicorn gasped. Starlight cut off the spell abruptly. The unicorn continued to send out pulses of magic, her voice coming in and out of focus. “Sorry, I’m….not….controlling….dreamscape…..magic…..disrupts…” “This is a dream? You aren’t real?” Starlight asked. The unicorn nodded, then frowned. “Real…” Her voice said fuzzily. “You are real, but this is a dream?” Starlight tried clarifying. The unicorn smiled and nodded. “Source…magic?” She asked. “Yes! It’s in the City! I’m on my way there now. Do you know anything else?” Starlight asked. The unicorn shook her head. “Wrong…source….city…source…you…star…” The pony said, her voice getting weaker and more distorted. Another blast of cold magic raced past them, and the unicorn disappeared completely for a second. “Wait! What’s wrong? The source is me? The source is Starlight? I need to know more! Where in the City is the source?” Starlight was becoming desperate. “Calm…Source…star…” The unicorn said. “I don’t understand!” Starlight cried. “Source….star…magic…stars…stars…” The pony said, trying to get the message across as she faded. A final blast of cold, dark energy ripped the magical bubble apart. The pony’s image sparked as her eyes widened in surprise and then she vanished. Starlight was left alone in the darkness with only the burning questions in her mind. --- Starlight sat bolt upright, cold sweat slicking down her spine. Her heart raced and her breathing was heavy. Slowly, as she realized where she was she calmed down. Gone was the cold stone and the magenta bubble of her dreams. For that was what they were, nothing but dreams. She looked around the clearing, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were still sound asleep. “Bad dream?” Applejack asked from behind Starlight. She had been up on watch most of the night. Starlight turned around, the images of the nightmare still playing in her head. The last part with the unicorn hadn’t been scary, but Starlight could still hear the voices that had yelled at her in the first part of the dream. She nodded, and then shivered. She didn’t even have to say anything for Applejack to see the truth on her scared face. Applejack nodded understandingly. “That’s not even a little bit surprising. You’ve been through a lot lately. You should try going back to sleep though, we have a lot more ahead of us. We have a few more hours before we have to get going.” Starlight frowned. She didn’t want to go back into that dream world with the Rainbow Dash that wasn’t really Rainbow Dash. Just thinking about it made her stomach hurt. “It’s okay, I’m not really tired anymore. I’ll just stay up with you until Pinkie and Fluttershy wake up.” She said, trying not to let her voice waver. Applejack wasn’t buying it. “You look pretty darn tired to me.” Applejack was right. Starlight was tired, exhausted in fact. She felt like she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. She was more tired than when they had settled down for camp that night. She sighed. Even if she had wanted to sleep, she didn’t think she would be able to. Applejack looked over at her sad little face and scooted closed to her. Starlight looked up at her, surprised, but didn’t move away. It was kind of nice to have some pony nearby again. It was like having a big sister, like having Rainbow there, well, not quite, but close. It wasn’t what Starlight had expected from Applejack, who seemed to be every bit the focused and rigid Guard commander she had been. What she did next surprised Starlight even more. Applejack started singing. “Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are…” She hummed softly. When Starlight looked up at her in disbelief, Applejack gave her a little smile and shrugged. “It helped Apple Bloom when she was a filly having nightmares.” She went back to singing. She was right. Starlight could already feel herself drifting back to sleep, one she hoped wouldn’t have any more nightmares. Applejack started over. “Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are…” Starlight had never heard the song before, but she liked it. She loved the stars, even if she had never seen them. She yawned. “What were they like?” She murmured. “Huh? What were what like?” Applejack asked. “The stars. I’ve never seen them.” “Oh! Huh, I didn’t even realize what I was singin’, just picked the first song that came to mind. Kinda fits here though…yeah, the stars... Well, they were real pretty. I loved lookin’ at them. They were good for remembering things, and thinkin’ about things, and sometimes it could feel like those stars up there were the only ones who understood what you were going through.” “What do you mean?” “Well, like they were up there watching out for you. Sometimes it even felt like being watched by some pony you lost…friends…family. I don’t know, but I do know that even when everything else seemed wrong or bad, the stars were always there, looking down…and then one day they were gone too. When the unicorns started disappearing so did the stars, and eventually the sun and moon stopped moving too, like they just didn’t have the energy to keep going. A lot of us felt that way too, you know, back then….” Applejack trailed off. “But you didn’t wanna hear about all that. You just asked ‘bout the stars…sorry.” “No, I think I understand. I’m sorry I won’t ever see them....They sound...wonderful.” Starlight sighed, which prompted another yawn. “That’s a real shame, especially since you’re kinda a star yourself.” Applejack replied, a little sadly. “What?” “Well, it is the first part of your name, Starlight.” She smiled. Starlight nodded. Applejack was right. Maybe it was why she loved the stars so much. They were a part of her. She yawned again. She really was exhausted. Applejack took the hint and continued the song. Starlight’s eyes began to droop and then finally close. She breathed out and let herself relax, the soft grass underneath her felt nice. She knew she was about to fall asleep, as she entered that halfway dozing place where a pony isn’t really asleep or awake. “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky…” Starlight jerked and her eyes flew open. Up above! The first part of her, her name! She understood now. Her heart sped up and her mind raced as she realized the answer that had been there all along.