While Starburst and everypony else just stared at the spot in which the colt had stood - and at the puddles of water left by his copies - her mom managed to keep a level head. “I want every pegasi guard to spread around Ponyville’s perimeter,” she said, turning to her husband. “If this is truly the Polestar Spell this colt is using, then he couldn’t have jumped far. There’s a limit for the distance in which the markings remain active, and making so many shortens it.”
She paused, glancing around, her eyes taking in the sight of the star-shaped markings, still visible under her Anti-Teleport Field. Her look briefly stayed on Starburst a split second longer, and the pegasus princess felt herself blush with embarrassment as her mother saw the mark on her leg.
Taking her eyes off her, Twilight continued. “I want him captured, but not harmed; he’s still just a kid.”
Flash Sentry nodded and glanced at the royal guards gathered around the town square. “All pegasi!” he said, raising his voice. The addressed guards straightened up, and the pegasi spread their wings in recognition that the next words their commanding officer is going to say were for them. “You heard the Princess’ order! Lieutenant Blue Streak, take a wingteam and scout the west end; 2nd lieutenant Pound Cake, you’ll take east.”
What now? Starburst wondered as she watched her father closely
Aside from him and the two he just named, there was only one ranked pegasus guard within Ponyville. The luck would have it that he was on the patrol that came to apprehend the troublesome colt earlier, which resulted in the entire party being incapacitated.
For a brief moment Starburst allowed herself to enjoy a fantasy that she would be the one to lead one of the wingteams. How great would that be! Not only she would get to lead her own team of royal guards, but also she would be given another chance to catch the thief that humiliated both her and her mom; and entire Ponyville while he was at it.
“I will take the north end of Ponyville,” Flash Sentry continued, undaunted by the problem he must have realized existed. “And south-”
“Need help?”
A lot of heads turned to regard the owner of the voice. Prism’s mom, Rainbow Dash, hovered in the air some distance away from the crowd, her forelegs crossed on her chest as she smirked, her eyes surveying swiftly the crater within the town square. Her husband, Soarin was next to her, but unlike the mother of his foals, his face was serious (and more confused).
Oh right, they were supposed to return to Ponyville this morning… Starburst recalled, having remembered the Wonderbolt’s tour schedule.
“We could use the Wonderbolts help, yes,” her dad replied to the rainbow-mane mare’s question.
He nodded at the two of them and motioned for them to follow him as he headed towards the small gathering of pegasi guards. Starburst’s eyes tailed them for a few seconds, interested to see how her father would split the guards into the patrols, but hearing her mother speak in a raised voice made her turn her attention to her.
“If I may have everypony’s attention,” Princess Twilight started, addressing the crowd of Ponyville’s citizens, “I have to inform you that the town square will be off-limits to everypony for the next half an hour; however, after that time has passed, you can be certain that all the damage it suffered will be repaired.”
She paused to nod to two of the guards, who nodded in reply and trotted towards the crowd, levitating clipboards and pens. “If your wares or other properties had suffered damage during the commotion, please inform these two gentlecolts about it, and the crown will be sure to compensate your losses accordingly.”
That colt is the one that should pay for that… Starburst thought, despite the sense of pride at her mother’s thoughtfulness.
“Also,” her mom continued, looking up at the sky, “I would like somepony to notify the weather team that they will need to clean up the sky again.”
Starburst followed her gaze, confused; wasn’t the sky clear a moment ago? And yet, as she watched, gray clouds were forming above the sphere her mom created.
“How...” one of the town’s pegasi started and trailed off, also confused.
“The explosion of steam caused by Starfall have increased humidity level in the air,” Twilight answered his unfinished question. The stallion shook as he realised that the Princess was talking to him. “You work on the weather team, correct? Please, do something about those clouds before it will start raining.”
“Y-yes, at once, Your Highness!” the pegasus stammered, bowing, before quickly flying into the air.
Starburst saw her mom sigh with irritation at the display, but she quickly brushed her annoyance off. Her eyes hardened a bit as she turned to them and their friends. “Now, would somepony be kind enough to explain to me why you two were standing right next to the epicenter of that explosion?”
She opened her mouth, bewildered. Somehow, it had escaped Starburst that she might hear that kind of question, and she was now at loss as to how to answer it. She could mention that it was because Night Light had just appeared out of nowhere there and she had tried to rescue him, but she had no intention of putting him into trouble with their mom.
Her brother, however, had no such problems with ratting himself out. “It was my fault, mom,” the purple colt spoke up, his ears low. “I… I teleported there by accident, and Star just tried to-”
But their mom was no longer listening. “You teleported!?” she exclaimed, beaming up. “Oh my gosh, Nighty, that’s so wonderful! I was almost twice your age before I managed to do that!”
Starburst suppressed an irritated sigh. While she would gladly join her mom in praising Nighty for learning how to teleport - even if he could have picked up his landing destination better - this wasn’t a time or place for that.
But that’s Mom for you, say “magic” around her and she might lose contact with reality for few moments.
“From how far away did you teleport?” Twilight continued, oblivious to her daughter’s growing embarrassment. “And how do you feel? Usually the first teleportation leaves a unicorn stunned, and a bit nauseous…”
“Mom,” Starburst said, deadpan.
“Twilight?” Uncle Spike also tried to bring her back to Equestria.
“Twi?” Mrs. Applejack said at the same time, raising an eyebrow.
Their combined effort made Twilight look up, and notice that everypony around was looking at her with a mixture of bewilderment and awkwardness. Spots of red appeared on the alicorn cheeks as she covered her mouth and coughed, clearing her throat.
“Congratulation, Nighty,” she said in a much calmer tone. Smiling, she added: “We will celebrate it later at home, but right now I would like somepony to tell me what happened here… as well as why exactly you were trying to capture that colt by yourselves rather than leave it to the guards.”
“Mom, Wind flew to fetch them and you while we maintained his attention,” Starburst calmly reminded her. “If it weren’t for us, that thief would have probably run away long before the guards would get here.”
“Not that it went particularly well for them,” Claire observed, glancing at the six still dazed ponies, tended to by medics. She turned to Twilight. “Might have been better to just leave it to the kids, Auntie.”
“‘Kids’?!” Prism cut in, offended. “You’re only five years older than me!”
“Going by how you act, Prism Bolt, I wouldn’t have know how small the difference between our ages is,” Claire replied nonchalantly, making a few of their friends giggle.
Sorry, Prism, Starburst thought briefly, looking at the exchange, your “serious” face won’t work with that star on it. You’re just going to get yourself deeper into this.
“Oh, and you’re the mature one? Jumping at that colt with your claws as soon as he got near you?”
“I was trying to help Starburst stop that ruffian from blowing up the town square, and if a certain somepony hadn’t collided with me, we might have made it,” Claire replied calmly. “Also, I was under the impression that you weren’t exactly friends with him, so why are you-”
“Anyway!” Twilight interrupted them. “While it is true that it was thanks to your efforts the colt stayed here, if you had left him alone he wouldn’t have caused as much damage! And besides, you could have gotten hurt, or-”
“This comin’ from a mare with wings who got nearly eaten by a cragadilly after runnin’ off to save Equestria,” Mrs. Applejack told her, smirking.
Starburst stopped a scowl that was about to appeared on her mouth; she had heard that story - about a thousand times along with all the other tales of her mom and her friend’s exploits - and she knew that it wasn’t exactly Twilight’s fault. She had just gotten her wings, and still hadn’t gotten used to them.
“You know, Applejack, considering how you reacted back then, it’s really amazing how you keep bringing that up,” Starburst’s mom replied, not amused, though Uncle Spike uttered a quiet snort of laughter. “Besides, that was a completely different situation.”
“True,” the orange mare admitted, shrugging. “But ya can hardly fault those youngin’s for tryin’ to help out. Also, it’s not their fault, really: that young whippersnapper has ‘bringin’ troubles’ in his blood.”
Her odd statement caused Starburst to look at her with confusion, but when she glanced at her mom she saw that the purple alicorn was just smiling. “So, you’ve realized as well, huh?”
“Are ya kiddin?” Mrs Applejack replied, rolling her eyes. “Besides the bandanna, fireworks and him lookin’s so darn alike to Trixie, there’s also him calling ‘imself the ‘Great and Powerful’ at the beginnin’ of this.”
Her mom and uncle snorted. Starburst was relieved when she saw that her friends were as confused as she.
“Ya wouldn’t happen to know for certain if he’s really Trixie’s kid, though?” Applejack continued, asking with a raised eyebrow. “Ah mean, I remember ya’ve mentioned meetin’ her a few years back and that she had a foal, but-”
“Actually, I’m fairly certain that he is, in fact, the son of Trixie,” Twilight interrupted her friend. “I was almost sure of it even before he said his name, and since Trixie’s foal was also named Starfall, it has to be him.”
Wait, Trixie? Starburst wondered, the name beginning to ring a quiet bell in some part of her mind. Wasn’t that the name of some travelling performer who came to Ponyville sometime after Mom first came to live here, and caused some trouble? She snorted. Well, I can see her son continues the grand tradition…
“What happened to Trixie, anyway?” Uncle Spike’s question pulled her out of her musing. “I hadn’t heard about that fraud in years… again.”
“I have no idea. When I stumbled upon her in Canterlot fifteen years ago, I asked her where she had gone for those few previous years, but she gave me only evasive answers. Then after six years she once again dropped from the face of Equestria, this time with her son.”
“Mom knows that colt’s mom?” Starburst heard Night Light ask her very quietly.
“I think so,” she quickly replied, not wanting to miss anything they were saying.
She saw that most of her friends were equally interested. In fact, the only one that seemed bored of the conversation was Prism, who continued to rub his face, trying to get the mark to come off.
Claire, being the oldest, probably had a deeper insight as to who this “Trixie” pony was, as well as why her dad had called her “fraud”, and there was something in her eyes that Starburst wasn’t sure she liked.
“So, ya don’t know where Ah can send the bill for the apple her son stole?” Mrs. Applejack asked.
“Um, Mom, that was just one apple,” her son Gold pointed out. “Ya even told me ya were considerin’ lettin’ him go.”
“Yeah, but that was before Ah was certain whose son he was. There won’t be any free apples for the spawn of Trixie’s loins while Ah’m the head of the Apple family!”
“Applejack, it’s been over twenty years,” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“She should have thought about it before she tried to make me make an applesauce facial,” the orange earth pony snorted.
“Uh, whatever,” Twilight said, not wanting to argue. “But seeing how she’s not anywhere in Equestria, she’s probably somewhere within the Griffon Kingdom, or Zerba Nations… the latter would explain how her kid can jump around as well as I’ve been told.”
“He had those strange beads on his foreleg,” Starburst spoke up. “Now that I think about it, they looked like they were zebra-made.”
“Would you be able to recognize them?” her mom turned her attention to her. Not wanting to disappoint her, Starburst nodded. “Great, we will go through my books later… it could be a clue as to where his mother is…” she trailed off, her brow furrowed, before she shook her head. “Anyway, will somepony fill me in on what exactly happened here while I take Polestar’s markings off you three?”
Before anypony could speak, Starburst began telling about how they entered the town square and heard Granny Smith’s call. She didn’t do that because she doubted that Mrs. Applejack or somepony else wouldn’t be able to do so, nor did she do it because she considered it a “practice” for making reports when she would get into the Royal Guard. The reason why Starburst felt she should recount the events of the last twenty or so minutes was because she stayed “in combat” with that colt the longest, and as such, her recounting would hold the most details. Which, given how many times he had performed incomprehensible feats, she felt her mother would need if she planned to deal with the thief.
As she talked, Twilight moved to her side, to better see that star-shaped marking on her right hind leg. Having her words in mind how she planned to remove it from her, Prism, and T, Starburst turned slightly to the left. While she began describing how the colt started to jump around the town square, her mom closed her eyes in concentration. From her still glowing horn shoot a beam that connected to the mark, not causing Starburst any pain.
At first, nothing happened, other than that the area around the star began to shine with purple light. After a few second, however, the mark slowly peeled off her coat. Starburst paused her recount of the events to watch as it came off her like a bandage, and began to dissolve in the air.
Shaking her head, she resumed talking, while her mom took of the markings of her friends.
“... and just before you came, Nighty and I saw his right flank through the shreds left by Claire’s claws,” she soon neared the end, but when she was about to mention the last important detail she was interrupted.
“Pardon me, did I get it right?” Claire asked, looking at Starburst with a raised eyebrow. “You were looking at that colt’s flank?”
“Yes, I…” she began to reply, only to trail off as she got what Claire was implying. “Oh, grow up!” Starburst snorted.
“Did you see his cutie mark?” her mom asked curiously over the snorts of laughter of Starburst’s female friends.
“That’s the thing!” She wasted only a split second to wonder why Prism hadn’t joined them in having fun at her expense; T and Gold didn’t because unlike him they were gentlecolts, and Nighty didn’t because he had seen what she had. Starburst knew him well enough to know that his dislike of the colt outweighed the need to make fun of her, for which she was grateful. “I didn’t! He’s right flank is seared off!”
The laughter died as if cut by knife. Everypony stared at her, their mouths wide open. Starburst could understand that. The idea of having such a terrible wound on a body was hardly a pleasant thought, but the loss of a cutie mark, even if only on one side of a body…
I wonder… is his left side similarly marked? she thought with dread.
“That can’t be good…” her mom said thoughtfully.
“Well, duh,” Uncle Spike commented.
Twilight shot her former assistant a sharp glance. “No, I mean that-” she paused. “Nevermind,” the Princess continued after a heartbeat. Turning to Starburst and the others, she said: “You kids can go now, sorry for keeping you.”
Starburst masked her frown. She did not miss the quick glance her mother shot her and her friends when she stopped earlier. The pegasus wasn’t exactly happy that she just got dismissed, and the thought that her mom was trying to keep something secret from her was even more aggravating.
But she understood. There were some matters that should be kept away from young ponies, and if a burned off flank of somepony was involved, that probably meant that it was such a matter. Since Night Light was here as well, Starburst wasn’t going to protest.
For now…
“Do you need help with anything?” she asked her mom to be sure.
“Thank you for offering, but no. I will examine the town square for magic signatures Starfall may have left behind; it should take only but a second. You all go have fun the rest of the day, just remember to come to me later to look for information about those beads in the library.”
Having no excuse to hang around, Starburst had to accept the fact that she would probably have to wait to question her mother until they were both back home. She and her friends parted with the Princess, the dragon and the farmer, and almost as soon as they were out of earshot, Starburst saw that the trio of grown-ups started talking about something.
“Well, that was most certainly an exciting afternoon break,” Claire began as she started trotting off to the left, in the direction of her jewelry shop. “But I’m afraid I need to get back to my shop. See you guys later.”
“Aw, I hoped she would hang out a bit longer…” Candy muttered unhappily as she watched the dragon/pony hybrid leave. “Well, at least you’re still here Del!”
“Yeah…” Gold said, looking uncomfortable. “Sorry, Candy, Ah gotta go keep an eye on our wares, and then help Ma with packing up…” he trailed off as he noticed the gray mare looking at him with a quivering lip. He sighed. “Look, Ah’ll try to get a free afternoon tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay!” Candy beamed up at his promise.
Gold sighed again and rolled his eyes, smiling. He said his goodbyes and trotted away, waving his hoof.
“Don’t you think of getting out of hanging around with us,” Candy told Starburst, half-jokingly and half-serious.
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare…” Starburst muttered without much enthusiasm.
“Um.. does this apply to me, too?” her little brother asked from beside her. “Because I really need to get back to everypony, I left them at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“No…” Candy muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Why did you teleport to town square, anyway?” Starburst asked, curious.
“Oh, well, um…” Nighty paused, making her that more interested. “After I teleported by accident while playing tag, St- I mean, somepony dared me to do that again but further, so…”
Starburst glared at Prism, making him shriek back despite knowing that his brother had no idea what his dare would lead to. She knew that too, so after a moment she turned to Night Light, sighing. “Nighty, hadn’t I told you to ignore Icy Storm when he dares you into something?”
“Oh, give the little guy a break,” Candy interrupted her cheerfully. The great earth pony raised a hoof to ruffle the smaller unicorn’s mane. “How could a colt back down in front of the girls?” As Starburst gave her a deadpan look, Candy lowered her head to whisper (quite loudly) to Nighty, whose coat grew a bit reder around the cheeks after her comment. “Out of curiosity, which of my sisters - or the other girls - do you ‘like’ more?”
Night Light gave a weak yelp and now his entire face was rapidly changing colors from purple to red. His reaction caused the other mares to gush over how cute he looked, while Prism chuckled, finding his reaction very amusing.
The “I will pull your tail through your mouth if you do not stop laughing this very instance” look Starburst gave him must have been a totally different case as it made him shut up.
“I-I… I don’t I… I mean…” Nighty began stammering, thankfully ignorant of Prism short-lived amusement.
“You’d better run, Nighty,” Starburst told him, quite serious. “She won’t stop otherwise.”
“Aw, come on, this- hey!” Candy gasped as Night Light disappeared in a flash of light. Frowning, she turned to Starburst. “Did you have to scare him off? This was starting to get interesting.”
“Tease your own siblings about who they like,” Starburst replied, glancing up at the sky.
The Anti-Teleport Field was gone.
Mom must have decided it was pointless to keep it up at this point, she mused. The colt had most likely left Ponyville’s limits, and he wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back here.
In the meantime, Candy carried on being annoying. “I do! But they only colts Sugar and Cloudy hang out with are Nighty and Stormy, it gets boring asking about the two same colts over and over again!”
She seriously asks them about things like that? Starburst thought as she looked at her friend in annoyance.
“What’s with your sudden interest in romance, anyway?” Wind asked, voicing the question she had on the tip of her tongue for awhile.
“I just think it’s cute when ponies fall for each other when they’re so young,” Candy replied in a reminiscent voice.
A bit too reminiscent voice...
Well, that explains why she was so disappointed that Gold wasn’t going to join us, Starburst concluded. I felt there was something off with those two for some time now.
“You know” the gray pony trailed off, glancing smugly at Wind and Prism, “just like you two were. Speaking of which, are you going to get back to each other?”
“What!?” the two pegasi said in unision.
They glanced at each other, red all over their faces, then back at Candy.
“With him?!”
“With her?!”
“Candy, that was ages ago!” Wind added in bit calmer tone.
“Yeah, and it was just kids stuff!” Prism continued, still aggravated.
“Yep, and it was still cute!” Candy replied, smirking.
“You know, I think I was supposed to clean the house yesterday before my folks came back,” Prism stated nervously, very badly masking that he wasn’t thinking about what Candy said. The fact he avoided looking at both her and Wind wasn’t helping him. “I’ll see you guys later, let me know when the guards catch this colt!” he called back as he flew away. “I’ll want to give him a piece of my mind!”
“Yeah, I need to go as well, sorry,” Wind said, also flying away. “I have a… thing to do…”
Oh, for the love of… Starburst thought as she spotted the quick glance Wind threw at the disappearing further Prism.
She glanced at Candy, not sure how the gray pony was going to take the departure of their friends. To her surprise - and mild distress - the pink-and-white maned earth pony was looking from one disappearing pegasus to another, deep in thoughts.
Before either she, Annie or T could ask her what was she thinking, Candy gasped. “Yes, it’s decided! Starburst! Turquoise Blitz! Anthea!” she called out their names as she turned to them. “We’re going to get Prism and Wind together!”
Just when I thought this day wasn’t going to get any more ridiculous…
“Um, Candy…” T said uncomfortably. “I’m not sure if that would be a good idea…”
“Oh? Why not?”
“Well, for starters…” The green dragon/pony hybrid looked at Annie and Starburst, searching for help.
Starburst just shrugged; at this point, she planned to run away as soon as an opportunity presented to her, so it didn’t really matter to her what they were going to do.
Annie, on the other hoof, spoke up. “I think we should try.”
Unfortunately for T, she didn’t agree with him.
Okay, that’s it, Starburst decided when Annie huddled closer to Candy and the two began discussion how to get that with this idea.
Taking advantage of the fact that the gray pony’s attention wasn’t on her, she quickly made her escape. As she was about to disappear behind a corner of a house, Starburst locked eyes with T briefly. He shot her a pleading look, making her feel somehow bad for leaving him behind with this situation, but she had bigger things on her mind.
Once Starburst reached her family’s mansion, she immediately headed for the library to her mom’s study. Starburst found her searching through some old books, as expected.
“Hi Mom,” she called out as she entered the library, making the alicorn look up.
“Oh, perfect, you’re back already,” her mom smiled. She turned her head to the side and used her horn to levitated one of the books. “Could you take a look at these, and let me know when you see beads similar to those Starfall wore on his hoof?” she asked as she passed her the book.
“Sure,” Starburst immediately replied; she didn’t get a chance to work with her mom on something other than royal matters too often.
She took the tome and sat down by one of the tables. “Do you think those beads will have anything to do with why a colt around my age is so freakishly powerful?”
She glanced through the pages written in Zebra; she could read and understand it with some difficulty, but she was just supposed to find one kind of beads, so her eyes were mostly on the pictures. Zebras made many different beads, to either ward some things off or attract others, like luck and such, so this task could take her a while.
“‘Freakishly powerful’?” Starburst’s mom repeated the giggled. “Oh, Star, you fell right into his illusion.”
“Huh?” she asked incoherently, looking up from the book. “What do you mean?”
“Misdirection, my dear,” her mom explained. “A magic performer’s main tool. Starfall made you think he’s a powerful unicorn, when in truth he isn’t. Do you remember how you told me how he seemed out of breath on the roof after you hit him?” she asked, and then looked at her sternly. “And on a side note, if it weren’t for Starfall trying to blow up those poor guards at the time, I would have scolded you for threatening him with the spear.”
Starburst rolled her eyes. “Okay, so he exerted himself with all that jumping. So-”
“No, he exerted himself by countering Clarity’s flames,” Twilight interrupted her. “I believe this was the first spell that had actually taxed him today.”
“B-but that doesn’t make sense!” Starburst protested. “He had casted a complicated illusion on all of us, made the puppet, and all that teleporting… Mom, you yourself were surprised that he could do this Polestar Spell!”
“Ah, yes, the Polestar Spell… Do you want to hear about it?”
Starburst nodded. She might not have her mother’s interest in magic, but the Captain of the Royal Guard would have to understand all possible threats that come from the unicorns who abuse powerful spells like those.
Twilight smiled, most likely grateful for her attention on the matter they so rarely could talk about with a mutual interest. “Well… Star Swirl the Bearded was its original creator. He was looking for a way to increase teleportation’s efficiency. As you know, teleporting over long distances can be really taxing for a unicorn, or even for an alicorn. Also, there is also the matter of transporting objects or other ponies along with the caster, which costs even more from the unicorn. Star Swirl hoped to come up with a way to make teleportation more accessible for traveling and transport purposes.”
The alicorn paused to pick up one of the scrolls that lied on her desk and show it to Starburst. It displayed some magic formulas she could only somewhat understand, and a draft of a star symbol, similar to the one she had on her hoof not so long ago.
“He discovered that, if a pony would record his magic on an object - or a different pony - then he could actually teleport to it with just a thought, without even casting a spell,” Twilight said, but the her mood grew sour. “But in the end, Star Swirl the Bearded had to abandon this spell.”
“Wait, what?” Starburst exclaimed.
“Recording your magic isn’t a simple matter,” her mom began explaining. “A unicorn has to separate a part of her or his essence and leave it out of their body. It’s basically the same principle as when casting a Duplication Spell. This is extremely difficult, and if a unicorn isn’t careful, they can end up exhausting themselves very quickly. Are you following this?”
“Yes… I think,” Starburst replied. “But then how did this colt had learned to do it without passing out from exhaustion? And why could he leave those markings just by touch? He didn’t cast any spell when jumping around, or when touching T’s chest.”
“Well, since the Polestar Spell is basically recording a pony’s own magic, and not casting a spell, a physical contact is all that it’s required to leave a mark. As to how Starfall had managed to make the spell work…” she trailed off. “Humor me on this one: when you saw him cast that water shield in a hurry, the aura of his magic was multi-colored, like those two sphere he put in those water copies, or when creating that Jōki Cōlt, right?”
When Starburst nodded, the alicorn smiled: “And before that? Whirlwind told me in passing that his horn glowed with blue light.”
It suddenly light up lights in Starburst mind. “Yes, it did! And after that…” she concentrated to remember better. “I think a it was paler…”
Twilight nodded. “Of course, a unicorn changing the aura’s color of his magic is unheard off. However, I think I might have an idea how he does that. Remember how I asked you if you saw his cutie mark? Well, as you know, a unicorn’s magic usually has the same aura color as the main color of their cutie mark. But… what would happen if the cutie mark of a unicorn was a palette of colors, all mushed together like an-”
“Like an aurora!” Starburst finished for her. “So you think that’s his cutie mark color?”
“I believe so,” the alicorn smiled, visibly pleased with her daughter. “Now, hypothetically, if there was such a pony, then it could be possible that the unicorn could learn how to distinct one color over the others, like blue, for example. With a pony who seemingly uses his magic as if it was a magic show, it would seem to make a lot of sense for him to learn that.”
“So he can distinct one specific color of his magic aura over the others…” Starburst said slowly, thinking her words through; she really wanted to impress her mom by figuring this part out. “and in that case… it should be really easy for him to figure out how to leave behind a minimal amount of magic while leaving a recording of it somewhere for this Polestar Spell!”
“Exactly!” Twilight exclaimed proudly. “And that’s not just it; by mastering this skill, Starfall had also managed to use all those simple spells to make it seem that he was really powerful. Remember who he caught you and your friends into an illusion? That should have been impossible, right? Most illusion spells affect vision, unless they are cast by a specialist. But tell me: what he did before you started seeing him stretch out his body?”
“He… bursted those bubbles?”
“Yes! Now, as he was able to make the magic in them explode on contact and leave his mark on its victims… why would you assume that’s all it did? I believe Starfall manipulated magic residue in the water when those bubbles bursted into air. You all inhaled small bits of it along with air, and the magic spread through your body and into your brain, affecting your senses!”
“You mean we had parts of him in our bodies?!” Starburst asked, repulsed by the idea.
“Fascinating, isn’t it!?” her mom asked in return oblivious to her discomfort. “Also, by distincting a bit more of his magic, he was able to create those water copies by gathering the humidity left by the explosion of steam, as well as that remotely controlled puppet! And all the while using just basic unicorn spells of levitation and - simple for him, at least - color changing! Trixie must be so proud of him!”
Hearing the enthusiasm in her mother’s voice, Starburst could only facehoof. “Wasn’t Trixie some fraud you chased out from Ponyville?” she wondered out loud.
Her comment made the alicorn scowl. “Remind me to have a talk with Uncle Spike,” she said, calming down. “That story was a bit more complicated… and she wasn’t exactly a fraud-”
“Didn’t she claim that she had vanquished an Ursa Major?”
“-except for that part,” her mom amended with a roll of eyes. “But she was a travelling magician; she was bound to exaggerate her abilities.”
“And the Alicorn Amulet…” Starburst continued.
Her mom shot her an annoyed look. “True, that’s another reason why she never became friends with us,” she admitted. “She apologized afterwards, and that’s what important. When she disappeared from the face of Equestria about twenty years ago, I was actually a bit worried. So when I spotted her fifteen years ago in Canterlot, I invited them for a tea in the Castle.”
“Wait…” Starburst cut in; she did not miss the word the alicorn had used. “‘Them’?”
“Yes, her and her son, Starfall,” her mom explained, smiling… very oddly. Using her magic, she reached out to another book that laid on her desk. “Tell me, do you recognize those two ponies?”
Starburst stared at the book’s cover, confused. It was their old family photo’s album. What could possibly her mom want her to see in it?
She got her answer as soon as she took a look at the picture on the page the alicorn opened the album on. It showed two foals; one was Starburst herself, easily recognizable even with her wings so small on this photograph. The other foal…
“Is… is that..?” Starburst stammered, staring at the blue unicorn foal with a blue-and-white mane.
Her eyes were glued to the photograph, but she could hear the smirk her mother wore. “Yes, that’s Starfall.”
What completely stunned Starburst wasn’t merely the fact that the colt she had met today was actually on a photograph next to her when they were both foals. No, what made her stare at the picture with her jaw dropped was that they were both asleep on it, curled up together very tightly.
It took her a while to find her voice again. “If… you’ll excuse me,” Starburst managed to say after she did. “I think I’ll go take a bath in a boiling-hot water…”
She had actually began to turn around, but her mother’s magic took hold of her. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Princess Twilight sighed as she levitated her to make her sit next to her.
“‘Ridiculous’?!” Starburst repeated, not believing her mother just said that; she thought she was repulsed before by the thought of his magic affecting her through the air she had breathed, but this… “The colt that embarrassed me, you, my friends and my entire town, not to mention he nearly blew up Nighty, had hugged me as a foal and we slept together!”
“Oh, you make it sound like this is a big deal,” her mom giggled, amused by her reaction. “It’s actually kind of sad to see you act like that, given what happened that day.”
Even though she was afraid to hear the answer, she still asked: “Why? What happened?”
Her mom’s grin was even bigger than it was during their last visit in the Star Swirl the Bearded Travelling Museum. “Weeeell, when Trixie came to the castle with her son - per my invitation, you were just born a few weeks earlier, and I thought it would be nice for you to play with a foal your age - you two immediately became inseparable!”
“Oh goodness…” Starburst muttered with dread.
“You two giggled happily at the sight of each other and started playing with toys while laughing cutely,” the alicorn continued, either oblivious to her daughter’s distraught or simply finding it hilarious. “Trixie and I found that really amusing, especially since both of you are named ‘Star’. We left you two in your room under the watch of one of the Castle’s maids while we went to drink some tea and talk in a bit quieter environment. It wasn’t until a few hours later that we heard what you two had done.”
“W-what do you mean?” Starburst asked, resigned to her fate. Surely, nothing at this point could be worse…
… it was.
“You had run away from your foalsitter and went on a chase across the entire Castle,” her mom giggled. “Between your flying and Starfall’s magic surges you made quite an unstoppable combo for the Castle’s staff. No guard could catch you, and the mess you left in your wake had caused several ponies to break down and cry!”
The entire Castle’s staff… Starburst echoed weekly. That’s it. My life had been ruined since I was a foal…
“It was really a stroke of luck that you two bumped into Princess Celestia at some point, otherwise who knows what could have happened.”
“Wait, Princess Celestia?!” the pegasus princess exclaimed; how much more there could be?! “Please please please, tell me Illusion doesn’t know about this! If he does, and Claire tells him about this colt, then he will figure out that’s him and I won’t hear the end of it-”
Her speaking had approached the speed of Candy’s or her mom’s, but thankfully Twilight stopped her by placing a hoof on her mouth. “Star, calm down. Take a deep breath.”
Taking support from her mom’s calm demeanor, Starburst had somehow managed to inhale deeply through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. She repeated the process a couple times while the alicorn spoke.
“No, Illusion doesn’t know; he was away from Canterlot the entire day with his father. And even if he did, what of it? You were just a foal then.”
Starburst fought the urge to shake her head. Her mom just wouldn’t understand that there are some things other ponies would never let them live down, even if they happened so long ago.
“So, um… what did Princess Celestia do when we… bumped into her?” she asked uncomfortably; she really hoped that hadn't been her first meeting with her.
“She caught you - which still wasn’t exactly easy - and brought you back to me and Trixie. After she had finished apologizing for Starfall, Trixie tried to leave.”
“‘Tried’?” Starburst wasn’t really sure at this point if she wanted to know what else had happened on that day.
“You two started crying almost as soon as Trixie said ‘Say goodbye to your friend’,” her mom answered, making Starburst groan and slam her forehead against the desk. “After a few seconds we just didn’t have the heart to separate you two so soon, so Trixie had decided to stay a while longer, waiting for both of you to fall asleep. That’s when I took the picture,” she added, sighing. “It’s such a pity your dad was also away from Canterlot, you looked so cute… though given that it was a colt you were sleeping with, it might have actually been better, huh?”
“Mom, please, do not even joke like that…” the pegasus managed to mumble with her face pressed against the desk.
Twilight giggled in reply. “Sorry… but anyway, after you fell asleep, Trixie picked up Starfall and left. I offered to help her find some job around Canterlot - as I suspected a great deal of crying once a certain somepony would wake up - but she was too prideful to accept help.”
Starburst groaned as she lifted herself, calmed down a bit. “So... what happened to them after that?” she asked as she returned to her task.
“Trixie travelled from town to town, performing magic tricks, at least for a few years; however, I stopped hearing about her about nine years ago,” her mom said in a slightly worried tone. “As I’ve mentioned, she had disappeared earlier as well, so I wasn’t that worried… aside from the fact that you would have never see Starfall again.” Starburst rolled her eyes as she turned the pages of the book about zebra beads. “But now, with him coming to Ponyville like that… I’ve been looking through some old newspapers to pinpoint where exactly Trixie performed last.”
Starburst looked up from the book to the stacks of newspaper on the desk… and those under it… and the pile next to it… She hadn’t paid much attention to them when she entered; her mom always had about half her library next to her when working. But… that was certainly a lot of material to read through.
The alicorn must have noticed her gaze, because she explained: “Trixie might not have been my friend, but she was still another pony, and one that I knew; if something bad has happened to her, then I’d want to help her.”
The pegasus nodded, accepting the explanation, as she turned another page.. and stopped.
“This is it!” she called out, exited. “Those are the beads he had been wearing!”
She looked more closely at the symbols, small stones, pearls and what not that were on it, a lot of them marked by cuts and markings. Yes, that was it, no doubt about it!
“Let me see…” her mom said, squishing the stand beside her. She looked thoughtfully at the discretion under the picture, which Starburst had some difficulties to read. “Hm, interesting…”
“What?” Starburst asked. “What does those beads do?
“They ward off bad dreams and nightmares,” Twilight replied, her eyes still on the text,
“‘Bad dreams and nightmares’? That’s it?” the pegasus asked in disbelief. When her mom nodded, she snorted. “What a waste of time…”
“Not necessarily…” the alicorn spoke up. Though her words said otherwise, she seemed... troubled. “I think that might be an interesting clue when taking into account Starfall’s show today. You see, these beads protect the one wearing it from nightmares… but…” she trailed off, to look Starburst in the eyes. “what’s interesting, is that they would also keep Princess Luna from entering his dreams.”