//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Nine // Story: Starlight // by PurpleFire135 //------------------------------// "STOP.” The command was not loud, it was not terribly forceful, but in in an instant, every single pony in the room froze in place and stared at the purple alicorn who had materialized in the center of the room. Her features betrayed no emotion. “Now, stay.” She said quietly. A wave of light purple magical energy washed over the room, sticking to any ponies it came into contact with. They seemed to be frozen in place by the spell. Only five ponies avoided the blast, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were all unaffected. The purple alicorn, Twilight by what her friends had called her, sighed. She looked up into the faces of the five ponies standing around her, but only for an instant before she was swept up in a massive group hug. “Twi?! Is that you?!” “I can’t believe you’re here!” “How did you get here?” “This is so great! I can throw a super-duper-your-best-friend-is-back-from-the-dead Party!” “What happened?!” “Where have you been?” The questions flew so quick that Starlight couldn’t even keep track of who had said what. “Girls! Girls!” Twilight laughed. “I’m here to help Starlight! Let me do it!” They broke off, the smiles on their faces wide and happy. “Perfect! You two can fix the sun and totally take down the frozen bad guys and then we can go PARTAY!” Pinkie squealed. A look of total sadness washed across Twilight’s features. “Oh, Pinkie…” “What?! Do you not like parties anymore?!” Pinkie gasped, fully serious. “No, I still love parties.” Twilight said softly, then grinned, just a little. “Then what is it?” Rainbow demanded. “I’m not staying.” Twilight said sadly, but firmly. “WHAT?!” All four of her friends yelled. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m…well…I’m dead. This isn’t even really me, I mean sure I’m sentient and I can talk and appear in full form right now, but as soon as Starlight breaks her connection with the stars, I will vanish again. I’m just a remnant, left here when I died, so that I could help the world’s last unicorn learn about magic. I had no idea that I would also need to help her fix the sun, and appearing to her before now took every ounce of strength I had left. I won’t even exist as a remnant after all this.” Twilight explained sadly. Her friends and Starlight were silent. “But. I’m here now. I will help to make sure the sun is put to rights and that Starlight has what she needs. I’m sorry, but that is all I can do. Besides, everything has a time and mine was ten years ago. I’ve come to terms with that and I’m sure you all have too.” “That sucks.” Rainbow said bluntly. “Like, really sucks.” They were all quiet for a moment. Twilight coughed. “Okay, Starlight, I can’t maintain this spell forever, it’s time to fully connect with the stars and replace the spells on the sun.” “What do I need to do?” Starlight asked, determined. “You’ll need to put another stasis spell in place to stop the supernova, as well as a shrinking spell to return the sun to its original size. It still won’t move, but until there are more unicorns, or another alicorn springs up, there isn’t any possible way to move it. It’s just too far away.” Twilight explained. “You’re going to help with those spells, right?” Starlight asked. “I wish I could, but the sun is well out of my range. The fact that I even cast the stop spell on the ponies here is nothing short of a miracle and is, quite frankly, the absolute last of my magic.” “Oh…Okay.” Starlight said quietly, and then with more determination, “Then I’ll just have to be able to do it myself!” She turned and looked up at the sky. “I believe in you. I may have stayed around to be here when you needed me, Starlight, but really, I didn’t have to teach you. You understand magic in ways that even I don’t fully comprehend and you are only at the beginning of unlocking your potential.” Twilight said. Starlight smiled. She could, no, she would do this. Not because the fate of the world hung in the balance. Not because she had to do it to save her friends. She was doing this because she knew she could do it. She had the magic inside of her, she had finally connected with the source. She finally felt like maybe, no definitely, being a unicorn was not a bad thing. Her magic defined her, shaped her, and was a part of her, and now, she was going to save the world with it. She gulped. That was a lot of responsibility. “Go ahead, we’ll all be right here for you.” Rainbow said from behind her. “Yeppers! And we can have a Saved-The-World cake when you’re done!” Pinkie chimed in. “Don’t worry, you’ve got this.” Applejack encouraged her. “Just do what feels right.” Fluttershy said softly. Starlight turned and looked at them all, the five ponies who had taken her on this journey, who had stuck by her no matter what and who, even though they had lost almost everything during the Uprising, were still here, fighting for…well, for her, even if she had only known them for a little while, they were her greatest supporters, her allies, her friends, no more than that…her family. Twilight smiled at her. With a giant smile back she flipped around to the open sky above the observatory and sent her magic, part dark purple, part brilliant white spinning up and out toward the sun, farther and farther than she had ever reached before. Long before she expected to hit anything, she felt the heat of the sun start to warm her magic. The sun may have been far away, but it was a star like any other and its magic was a massive part of the world. It had lived so long without a guiding touch. It reached back towards her and when her magic, mixed with the star power, finally met it in the middle a dazzling white-hot light spilled across the sky. Starlight struggled to hold on as the two magics reunited and seemed to dance across the horizon. Her eyes went wide and pure purple as she tried to reign in the enormous amount of energy swirling around her. It would take every ounce of force and concentration she had to direct the energy towards healing the sun. “I-I can’t hold it!” She screamed. Suddenly she felt Twilight right behind her. “Just focus. You can do this. We’re all here for you. Use our energy to divert and direct the force where you want it to go.” She told her. Starlight felt a surge of warmth and energy behind her. A rainbow of magic swirled up around her dark purple and pulled the star and sun energies together into beam pointed directly at the sun. She could finally feel the connection between her and it, and the pain it was in. It was breaking apart and ready to fracture across the sky. No, she thought, not apart…together. Come together. The beams of magic swirled across the sun’s surface, pulling it, condensing it back to its previous size. Starlight felt the stasis spell flow easily from her and up to the sun, it was one of her specialty spells, after all. Slowly, ever so slowly, the explosion that had raced across the sky receded and the sky returned to its perpetual state of twilight. The myriad magics swirling around the sun gave one final burst of rainbow, dark purple, and white energy before dissipating into a shower of colored sparks that rained down over all of Equestria, and probably the whole world. Starlight gasped as her eyes turned back to their usual color and she fell to the floor, as the magic energy released its hold, leaving her feeling empty and very, very tired. Before she hit the ground, she felt something furry slip under her and catch her. She smiled and gave Rainbow a long deserved hug. “Good job, Kid.” Rainbow said simply. “Thanks.” Starlight said happily. They both turned back to face the room. Every pony was smiling, and Twilight’s smile was the biggest of all of them. “You did it! I knew you could!” Twilight exclaimed as her form wavered slightly. “Are you okay?!” Rainbow Dash asked, alarmed. “I’m fine, I just can’t hold on to this form and the spell holding the Guard in place for much longer.” Twilight explained. Starlight frowned. “But I didn’t.” She said. “Well, not really, if you guys hadn’t helped me, I never would have been able to maintain that spell!” She cried. Twilight smiled. “Oh, Starlight. Just because you have help accomplishing something doesn’t make that accomplishment any less important, especially when it’s your friends who got to help you.” Starlight didn’t look convinced. “And, besides! We only helped a little bit, you formed the spell and cast it, we only gave you a little boost.” “I wanted to ask you about that...” Applejack began, looking at Twilight. “How did we do that?” She frowned. Twilight laughed, “We did it the way we always have! With our friendship and the Elements of Harmony, of course!” “What?” Applejack replied. “How is that possible?! We’re missing…” She trailed off, looking frustrated and upset. “Well, darling I might be able to answer that.” A voice said from the side of the room. A pure white, but entirely see-through, unicorn stepped out of the shadows. The only solid part of her was the necklace around her throat, which Starlight recognized as one of the Elements. All five of the ponies stared at the new comer with disbelief. “WOAH! I can’t even believe it! I get to have TWO of my best friends back from the dead on the SAME DAY! Wowie Zowie! I’m going to need some serious cake supplies!” Pinkie exclaimed and pulled her party cannon out of what seemed to be thin air. Twilight giggled. “Pinkie! We don’t have time for that! You guys can celebrate later!” “Aw, bummer!” Pinkie sighed, then perked up slightly. “Starlight! What’s your favorite flavor?” She gasped, turning toward Starlight. “Of what?” Starlight asked confused. “Anything!” Pinkie chirped. “Um…grape?” “Perfect! We can have a grape party! I mean I’ll have to make a new cake recipe and of course I’ll need to get my supplies from my old kitchen at camp, and…” Pinkie trailed off, talking to herself. On the other side of the room, Applejack was staring at the white unicorn with what could only be described as total and utter disbelief. “Rarity…” She gasped. “How?!” “Darling, I would have expected you to be a little more excited at seeing me!” The unicorn, Rarity, Starlight amended mentally, fake pouted before smiling a huge, warm smile. “I am!” Applejack exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock as it slowly dawned on her that yes, Rarity was actually here and talking to her, even in her ghostly form. “Wow! That’s incredible! The power from the elements must have stored some memory of you, Rarity, and when we powered them up unintentionally, a sort-of remnant of you came through. Huh, I wish I would have had more time to study the elements!” Twilight lamented. “Yeah, but if you had then the writer couldn’t use them for plot-devices to bring us all together for last chapter good feels!” Pinkie said happily while blowing up a balloon that popped as she tied it. “Gosh darn it!” She said and pulled another out of her mane. “What?” Starlight asked. “What?” Pinkie asked. Starlight sighed, she figured that she would never really understand Pinkie. Although, on that note, did any pony? Pinkie let go of the new balloon and it floated to the glass dome of the ceiling, despite the fact it was clearly only filled with air. Nope, they sure didn’t. “Twilight, dear, what in the wide realm of Equestria are you doing here? You didn’t manage to survive the Uprising, did you?” Rarity asked. “Ha! No, I’m a remnant, just like you. I’m just more solid because I was recreated by star energy, rather than accidentally element set-off.” Twilight smiled. “It doesn’t matter, does it? For right now, we’re all here!” Rainbow yelled, flying up at the ceiling, and then swooping down to hug Twilight. “Yes, it does seem like that!” Fluttershy smiled. “Yay!” Pinkie said, launching herself onto Fluttershy, who fell over with an “Oof!” Rarity turned to Applejack, who stood apart from the group, smiling, but still just standing there. “Come on, let’s all be together one last time.” Applejack sighed. “I know they don’t want me over there. I…” She trailed off. “What is it?” Rarity asked, confused. “Well, after you…well, you know…” Applejack stopped again. “Darling, spit it out! Time is of the essence, as it were.” Rarity sniffed. “Well, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of since you….passed.” Applejack finally said, “The mare I became, the things I did…They don’t want me over there. I betrayed them.” Applejack hung her head in shame. Having to admit to all this to Rarity of all ponies, was horrible. “Applejack…” Rarity began. Applejack turned away from her. “Don’t be so dramatic! I know about all that, and I don’t care. If I’ve forgiven you, they damn well can do the same.” Rarity said confidently and pulled Applejack over towards the group hug that was fast under way. “Look at that!” Rainbow Dash said, looking up at the sky. “What?” Starlight asked, following the direction of Dash’s outstretched hoof. Then, she saw it, up in the sky, right in the center between the moon and sun was a brilliantly shinning white star, the only one in the sky. “Where did that come from?” Starlight asked. “Do you really need to wonder?” Twilight laughed. “It’s your star!” “What? Mine?” Starlight asked again, looking up with new wonder. “Well, yes! Old unicorn legends used to believe that each star in the sky was tied to a certain unicorn, and new ones appeared when a unicorn first received her cutie mark.” Twilight explained. “Wow! Is that really true?” Starlight asked. “Well, actually, uh…no. Its presence in the sky is merely indicative of a renewed connection with the magical energy of the stars that has lain dormant since the absence of the unicorns ten years ago. In time, with the birth of new unicorns, and with the growth of your own and other’s magics, more stars will reappear independent of young unicorns and their cutie marks,…but it’s a nice story to tell your grandfoals someday!” Twilight laughed and pointed to Starlight’s flank. Starlight gasped and looked down. A brand-new, shiny, awesome cutie mark stood out against the purple fur on her flank. It was a circle of six stars, connected by a rainbow. A pointy-rayed sun shone out from the center of the circle. “Starlight! That is a seriously cool cutie mark.” Rainbow said, coming up behind her. Pinkie jumped up behind them. “Alright every pony! GROUP HUG! I’ve been waiting ten years for this!” Pinkie yelled. They all laughed and obliged. --- “Ah…I should probably unfreeze all of them.” Twilight said, looking around at the Guard ponies. “Oh. Yeah! I totally forgot they were even here.” Rainbow laughed. “Actually, can you wait until we get out of here?” “Absolutely!” Twilight laughed. “Um, not to interrupt any pony, but I seem to be fading. It’s been lovely seeing all of you, but it seems that my time is up.” Rarity said, looking down at herself. “It was good to see you!!” Pinkie laughed. “I’ll miss you.” Applejack said softly. Rarity smiled. “Don’t be silly, darling. We’ll meet again.” With that, she disappeared completely and the element around her neck fell to the floor. Applejack leaned down, picked it up and solemnly slipped the necklace into her pocket. She turned back to the rest of the group with tears in her eyes. “Now, how are we going to get out of here?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow rolled her eyes and fluttered her wings. “We can fly down.” “What about Starlight and me?” Applejack asked. “Starlight can ride on me and I’m sure you can get down yourself.” Rainbow said dismissively. Twilight frowned. “Get along.” She scolded. Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack had the good sense to look shame-faced. “It’s okay, don’t worry about me!” Starlight said, “If you each carry one pony, I can levitate myself down.” “Looks like you’re gonna be carryin’ me.” Applejack said to Rainbow. Neither of them looked pleased, but again, they didn’t want Twilight to say anything “What about you Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight smiled knowingly. “I’ll wait here until you’re all out and safe. Then I’ll discharge the spell. After that, I’ll disappear.” “I don’t want you to go.” Pinkie said sadly. “It’s okay. I’ll always be with you. I promise.” “Pinkie promise?” “Pinkie Promise.” Twilight assured her. “Well, you should go. I don’t know how much longer I can hold the freeze spell.” Twilight smiled ruefully. “Okay, Twilight.” Fluttershy said softly and picked up Pinkie. They flew out the window on the top of the dome together. “Byeeee~” Pinkie yelled as they went. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” Applejack said, frowning up at Rainbow, who swooped down and hauled the orange earth pony into the air. “You’re heavy!” She huffed. “Oh, quit you’re complainin’ you’ve never had a problem carryin’ me before!” Applejack replied. “Girls!” Twilight said with a look. “Bye, then Twilight. Take, uh, good care of yourself!” Rainbow said as she lifted through the skylight. “Stop squirming or I’ll drop you!” “Stop flying like a squirrel!” “That doesn’t make any sense!” “Yes it does!” Twilight laughed. Starlight started making a levitation matrix around herself. “Hold on a second, Starlight.” Twilight said quickly. “I need to talk to you before you go.” Starlight turned around. “What do you want to talk about?” Starlight asked. “Well, first, gosh, I’m so bad at stuff like this…” Twilight trailed off, took a deep breath and started again. “Never give up, you’re magic is amazing. You have the potential to one day become an even greater mage than, well, me. Keep learning, keep trying new things and looking for new inspiration. Find more ponies, and well, zebras like Zecora, they can only help you. Keep all four of them,” She gestured toward the skylight where Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack had gone, “close, they are the best friends I’ve ever had and will ever have, and there are no better ponies to be around in all of Equestria.” Twilight smiled. “You’re going to be fine, Starlight, and if you want to, you’ll be able to do great things. Always remember that I believe in you and am more proud of you than I could ever put in words.” Starlight felt something wet slid down her face. She was crying. Why was she crying? She turned to go. “Starlight, have you ever wondered where you came from? Who your parents were?” Twilight asked softly. “What?” Starlight asked, turning around. “I just thought you should know if I don’t see you again.” Twlight said. “I didn’t think you would know.” Starlight replied. “I once asked Rainbow Dash, and she said she had no idea. I didn’t figure you would know either then.” Twilight took in a deep breath. “You’re my daughter, Starlight.” Starlight was speechless. She had given up on whoever her family was a long time ago. She knew that they would be unicorns and she also knew that they were dead because of that. “I’m sorry. So, so, so sorry. I never wanted you to have this life. I wanted to be there for you, I swear I did….It…just didn’t work out that way….I’m so sorry.” Starlight smiled through the tears that were now coursing down her face. “It’s okay.” She sniffed. “Well, it’s not okay, but…I understand. I forgive you…and…thank you for helping me when I needed you most.” Starlight laughed. “What other mom can come back from the dead when you need them?” Twilight laughed too. “I love you Starlight.” Starlight ran towards Twilight and hugged her tightly. “I love you too….mom!” They hugged and then, in the blink of an eye, Twilight was gone. Starlight looked around wildly before realizing that the Guard ponies were waking up. She quickly threw up the levitation matrix and floated out of the skylight before any of them regained full senses. As she floated down to her friends on the ground she could hear outraged shouts and yells coming from the observatory, most notably, Iron Flare screaming at the top of his lungs to find them all. She laughed. Good luck She thought. “Starlight! We need to get going!” Rainbow yelled up to her. “Hop on!” Starlight landed on Rainbow’s back. Pinkie and Applejack took off running while Rainbow and Fluttershy flew overhead. Starlight sighed. “No worries now! We’re heading back to Fluttershy’s place, and I promise we’ll be safe there.” Rainbow said from underneath her. “Pinkie Promise!” Pinkie laughed from the ground. Rainbow Dash smiled and Starlight smiled back. “Pinkie Promise.” They both said in unison.