//------------------------------//
// Books and Letters 
// Story: The Princess of Equality 
// by Summer Knight 
//------------------------------//

The sound of Spike belching out a letter made Twilight's heart soar with hope. She heard his feet padding across the crystal floor of the castle's library and abandoned her stack of books to meet him halfway. 
"Is it from Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked before Spike had a chance to speak. "What did she say? Does she know how to—"
"Twilight," Spike interrupted, "just let me read it." 
"Heh." Twilight forced herself to sit still and listen.  "Right, sorry." 
Spike unfurled the letter and held it out in front of him.
"Ahem. Dear Princess Twilight, I've looked into what you asked me, but I'm sorry to say that there is no known way to reverse a pony's ascension. As far as I know, no one has even asked such a question before."
Twilight groaned miserably.
"I will say," Spike continued reading, "that I am saddened, and a bit disturbed, to hear of your student's reaction to ascending. It shows a fund... uh, funda..."
"Fundamental!" Twilight snapped. 
"Right. A fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be an alicorn.  You must find Starlight Glimmer and help her to understand what she has become. As her teacher and her friend, this burden falls on you. Her ascension is a wonderful thing, but you must help her to see it."
"I knew it," Twilight whimpered. "This is all my fault." If she'd been a better teacher, if she'd prepared Starlight for this—hay, if she'd even realized that it might happen so soon, this could all have been avoided. 
"However, Spike continued, "please do not blame yourself for what happened." As ever, Celestia might as well have read Twilight's mind. "Starlight Glimmer's quick advancement is the result of her talents and your abilities as a mentor. I could not be more proud of either of you. Please do not hesitate to ask if you need any further advice. Yours, Princess Celestia."
"That's it?" Twilight asked. She sounded defeated, rather than encouraged. 
"Um." Spike flipped the letter over to see if there was anything on the back. "Yeah, that's it."
Twilight heaved a heavy sigh and dragged herself back toward her books.
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike asked uncertainly. "Aren't you going to go find Starlight Glimmer?"
"How?" Twilight asked. "I have no idea where she went. Besides, what would I even say to her?" She levitated a book and flapped it open and closed to imitate a mouth. "Hi Starlight, sorry I didn't warn you that you might grow wings and become a princess, I realize now that you might have wanted a say in that. Anyway, can we be friends again?" Twilight set the book back down and buried her head in her forehooves. "She hates me, Spike."
"Well, moping around here sure isn't going to change that," Spike answered. 
Twilight lifted her head up. "No, it isn't," she said with renewed determination. "There's only one way to fix this, and that's to figure out how to reverse the transformation." 
Twilight looked around for Rarity, who was helping her research. Though not a scholar, Rarity was a unicorn of no small power herself and had a keen eye for detail. She didn't immediately spot her among the stacks, but caught a flash of white disappearing behind one of the far shelves. 
"Rarity, have you found anything?" Twilight called out.
"No, darling," Rarity's lilting voice echoed back from across the room. "Of course, it might help if I knew what I was looking for."
"I don't know, that's the problem," Twilight answered. "Anything to do with alicorns. I need to understand how the transformation works if I'm going to undo it."
"Very well," Rarity answered, sounding resigned. They'd been at this for quite some time already. "I shall see what else I can find."

Several hours and many, many books later, Twilight rubbed her aching eyes and set aside yet another useless tome. 
"Nothing?" Rarity had long since given up sounding concerned, and now merely sounded tired. 
"Nothing," Twilight confirmed. "I knew there wasn't much information on alicorns, but this is ridiculous."
"Well, what do we know?" Rarity prompted. "It may give us a starting point, at least."
"Urgh. Let's see." Twilight pulled out the sparse notes she'd managed to collect. "Celestia and Luna were the first known alicorns. Because of all the turmoil Equestria went through around the time they first appeared, there is no surviving record of their ascension. That's assuming that they even did ascend; it's possible that they were born that way. Even the princesses themselves seem unsure of the facts, or unwilling to share the details. Since then, there have been two—now three—other alicorns: Cadence, me, and Starlight. Each time the ascension came about because of something to do with that pony's talent, and in all three cases there was also a powerful magical artifact involved. For Cadence it was the Crystal Heart, for me, the Elements of Harmony, and for Starlight Glimmer, the Jade Orb." She set that sheet aside and picked up another. "That's literally all the facts we have. Now we get into theories: Ascension seems to be closely tied to a pony's talent and destiny. I'm not sure exactly what triggers it, but based on what we've seen it's almost certain that Harmony is the power behind it."
"Then there's nothing to be done," Rarity said. "If it really is destiny, or Harmony, or whatever you like to call it, it's simply the way things must be."
"That can't be true!" Twilight slammed a hoof down on the table. "If this is how things are supposed to be, then wouldn't Starlight be happy about it? She was acting more like—" Twilight cut herself off. 
Rarity tilted her head. "Like what, darling?"
Twilight was reluctant to answer. "Like when I accidentally cast Starswirl's spell on all of you," she finally said. "Like Starlight's destiny was taken from her, and she knows something's wrong, but there's nothing she can do." Twilight shook her head. "And just like that time, I caused this problem and I can fix it!"
Rarity gave a thoughtful hum. "Maybe..."
Twilight shot her a look. "Maybe what?"
"Maybe Princess Celestia was right?" Rarity suggested. "It's been a week or more, surely Starlight's calmed down enough to speak with you."
"How did you know what Celestia said?" Twilight asked suspiciously. She turned to glare at her assistant, who was making a show of looking innocent while looking everywhere except back at her. "Spike!" 
"Yes, Spikey told me what the princess said, and truth be told I think she's right," Rarity insisted. "Before you try rewriting Harmony itself, why don't you at least go speak with Starlight? Maybe you'll find that things aren't as bad as you think. Who knows, maybe it just took her some time to get used to the idea. What have you got to lose?"
Twilight groaned again. It was true that her research here had hit a dead end, but like she'd told Spike, she didn't even know where to begin looking for Starlight Glimmer. None of Twilight's friends in Canterlot had seen her, and she certainly wasn't in Ponyville. She'd even sent a letter to Cadence and Shining Armor, on the off chance that Starlight decided to seek the help of another alicorn, but they hadn't heard anything either. Her last hope was hearing back from Party Favor, who was now running what used to be Starlight's town, but he had yet to return her letter. 
What am I going to do?





What am I going to do?
Party Favor looked once more at the letter on his table, as if this time it would somehow reveal the proper course of action. He'd received the letter several days ago and still hadn't decided what to do about it. 
It was from Princess Twilight, asking whether he'd seen or heard anything about Starlight Glimmer. There were no specifics, but the letter said that Twilight was worried about her student and was desperately seeking any information on her whereabouts. Normally he would have sent a reply without a second thought to reassure the princess that Starlight was safe and staying here in the town for a while, but a couple of things had stayed his hoof. 
First of all, it was very odd that Princess Twilight didn't know where her own student was. It suggested that Starlight didn't want her to know. Second, there was Starlight herself. She'd been acting very strangely since she came back. While she was all smiles and small talk in public, she was spending most of her time locked away in that repurposed prison, and she was skittish in a way that he'd never imagined Starlight could be. She always seemed on edge whenever anypony else was around, no matter how she tried to hide it. Starlight was worried about something, and she wouldn't tell anypony what it was. When he put the pieces together, Party Favor couldn't come up with any answer except that Starlight was avoiding her teacher for some reason.
The thing to do, of course, would be to take the letter to Starlight and see what she wanted done with it. But she'd seemed so upset on that first day back, and she'd been behaving so oddly that he was afraid of how she might react. He was also just afraid in general. He'd forgiven Starlight and meant it, but he couldn't forget what she'd done. What she'd done to him. 
It wasn't like she was going to lock him up again, Party Favor argued with himself for the hundredth time, with no more success than before. The thought of bringing this up with her still tied his stomach in knots. He put the letter back into its envelope and returned it to his otherwise-empty inbox.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Party Favor called. 
The door glowed teal and swung open. Starlight Glimmer walked in, nearly causing him to jump in surprise. Speak of the devil and she appears. 
Party Favor mentally scolded himself for the mean-spirited thought. 
"What can I do for you?" he asked. His voice was very nearly steady. 
"You've done more than enough for me already," Starlight answered cheerfully. "I was actually wondering if there was anything I could do. Any work that needs doing, or anything that you need help with?" She wouldn't say it out loud, but Starlight was secretly hoping that a bit of menial work would help reassure her that she was no better, no more special, than anypony else. 
"Oh! Uh, not that I can think of right now," Party Favor answered her. Whatever he'd been expecting, that wasn't it. "There's really not a whole lot to do. Like I said, the place pretty much runs itself these days." He gestured toward his mostly-empty desk. "As you can see, I'm not exactly swamped." 
"No, I suppose not," Starlight answered with a forced chuckle. She walked slowly around the house, lost for a moment in her memories. Despite how awful she'd been, they weren't all bad. Plenty of happy times had been had in this very house. Her gaze fell last upon Party Favor's desk, and the single piece of paper still on it. 
Starlight gasped, and Party Favor winced. 
"What is this?!" Starlight demanded. She levitated the envelope to take a closer look. There was no mistaking the writing style, so different from a pony's mouth or horn-writing. "This is Spike's handwriting, isn't it? Party Favor, what is this?" 
"I'm sorry Starlight, I should have told you," Party Favor babbled. "I should have come to you as soon as I got it. But you seemed so upset and I didn't know why, and I didn't want to make anything worse. I'm sorry, I just—"
"It's alright," Starlight cut in, though her voice was still tense. Any thought she'd had that it was just a coincidence, that it was a letter about something other than her, was gone. It had been a faint hope anyway. Of course Twilight would suspect that she'd come back here. 
Starlight took a deep breath, fighting to keep her temper under control. "You should have come to me," she said, "but... I understand why you wouldn't want to. Please, excuse me." 
Starlight trotted out carrying the letter with her. No sooner was she outside than Party Favor heard the sound of paper ripping. He dared a glance out the window and saw Starlight reading the letter, the shredded remains of the envelope floating alongside her. 

Starlight read over the words again and again. It was a short letter and completely impersonal, mentioning nothing of apologies or an explanation for what had happened to her. Of course it was meant to be read by Party Favor, not her, but still...
Starlight's eye twitched angrily and her teeth ground together. So Twilight Sparkle was trying to find her. Of course she was. No doubt Twilight thought she would kiss Starlight's hooves, get her forgiveness, and wrap the whole thing up with some preachy lesson about friendship. Well, if she really wanted Starlight's forgiveness, it was going to take a bit more than a form letter to Party Favor. 
And how dare he keep that from her!
The letter and envelope burst into magical flames and the ashes scattered away on the wind. Whether it was the magical display of her temper or simply the murderous look in her eyes, ponies gave Starlight a very wide berth as she returned back to her new home. She slammed the door behind her. It was several minutes before Starlight's breathing steadied. 
What in Equestria am I doing? Starlight asked herself. The way the other ponies had shied away from her suddenly stood out in her mind. How they had moved to the very edges of the road while she stomped down the center of it. How mares and stallions had nudged their foals behind them. Of course, that was even why Party Favor hadn't come to her once he got the letter. They were scared of her. 
With a heavy heart, Starlight removed her vest and stretched out her wings. 
How much more scared would they be if they knew the truth?