My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition

by SuperPinkBrony12

Chapter 128: The Final Hope

Starlight wasn't aware of what was going on outside, and neither was Sunburst. At the moment, they were just content to make small talk. Each too afraid to tell the other what had happened in their lives since last they'd seen each other.

Spike was determined to find a way to keep things going, and get the two to start talking. So he was currently going over the list, thinking out loud. "There's gotta be something! Something here's got to work!"

"Well, no offense to your teacher, but it's been so long since the two of us even spoke," Sunburst said to Starlight. "I really don't see how anything on that list of his is going to help."

Starlight only laughed. "I know, right? I mean, it's not like there's some kind of spell that would just magically compel us to pick up right where we left off."

"Well, uh, actually, there's... quite a few," Sunburst nervously chuckled, as he began to list off some incantations he'd read. "Mistmane's Material Amity, Rockhoof's Rapport, Flash Magnus' Fellow...ship... or whatever he called it," Realizing he was trailing off and losing Starlight, Sunburst cleared his throat and added. "But I-I get the feeling that Shining Armor's not looking for a spell as a short cut."

"Yeah, definitely not. He'd be insulted for sure if we did." Starlight replied, surprised that she and Sunburst agreed on something.

Just then, Spike cried out! "Aha, got it! 'And if all else fails, ask them to share an embarrassing moment from their past, maybe even something they regret!'"

Spike's comment touched off a long and uncomfortable silence in the room. Both Starlight and Sunburst stared at each other profusely, but neither dared to say a word.

"Uh, I don't see how that would help at all." Sunburst commented.

Starlight was quick to add. "Uh, yeah! Well, I guess Spike and I should just get out of your mane. It's pretty obvious this isn't going quite how Shining Armor would've hoped for. Besides, I'm sure you got a lot of important work to do, Mr. Big, Important Wizard."

"What?" Sunburst remarked, before he quickly corrected himself. "Oh! Right, yes, heh-heh! Uh, no rest for the wizardly. Really need to get back to my studies."

"Right," Starlight nodded. "Come on, Spike, let's go tell Shining Armor the bad news."

Spike just groaned. "Starlight, why didn't you tell Sunburst the truth?! What makes you think he won't find out for himself eventually?!" He thought to himself, as he found himself reluctantly being dragged away.

---

But not long after leaving Sunburst's house, Starlight began to sulk to herself quite loudly. "Well, Spike, looks like my biggest fears came true. Not only does Sunburst want nothing to do with me anymore, but I failed my first big friendship lesson. Some student I turned out to be, huh?" She then added. "I wouldn't be surprised if Shining Armor decides to just give up on me entirely when he finds out, and throws me back into that prison cell. It's probably where I belong."

"Hey, don't be thinking like that!" Spike interrupted. "You know as well as I do that Shining doesn't just 'give up' on somepony! He and Twilight have high hopes for you, as do I! Besides, I'm the one who said we needed this list. It's not even good for anything anymore." He proceeded to burn it to ashes with his flame breath.

"It's not the list, Spike, the list did nothing wrong," Starlight protested, even as she began to shiver a little (she was too distracted by grief to take any notice). "And it's not anything you, or Twilight, or Shining Armor did either. I know what the problem is, it's me. I'm the one Sunburst doesn't want to be friends with, not that I blame him. I was a fool to think I could just come romping back into his life, and expect everything to be as it once was."

"I'm pretty sure he didn't say anything about not wanting to be your friend, Starlight." Spike corrected.

Starlight only shook her head. "He didn't have to say it, Spike. I could tell just the way he was acting, that he doesn't want me to be a part of his life. He's a big, important wizard. And here I am, a washed up friendship student who's lucky to be free."

"Well you know what, regardless of what you've been like in the past, if Shining Armor and Twilight think you're worth being friends with, then I do too!" Spike vowed. "So maybe you and Sunburst got off on the wrong hoof, so what? You can't let one bad experience make you want to give up. Just try again the next time you get a chance, maybe even be more open with him about your past. Perhaps, once he knows what you've been through, he'll understand that you're trying to make amends, not simply pester him."

Starlight couldn't help but smile, as Spike hugged her tightly. "Thanks, Spike, I needed to hear that," She smiled. "At least I still have three friends, even if one of them has dragon breath. Uh, no offense."

"It's not dragon breath, I brushed my teeth this morning!" Spike protested. "It's freezing out! Something is definitely wrong!"

"Now that you mention it, it does seem rather chilly," Starlight commented, eyeing the snowflakes that were falling around her at a rapid rate. "But that could mean anything, right? I mean, the Crystal Heart is supposed to keep the cold weather out, isn't it?"

"Not if something happened to it!" Spike exclaimed, as his eyes grew wide! "Come on! We need to find Shining Armor and the others! I've got a bad feeling we're smack in the middle of another one of their dangerous adventures!"

---

It took quite a while to track down the location of Shining Armor. Luckily, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Thunderlane, and Fluttershy were able to point both Spike and Starlight in the right direction.

When they arrived in the Crystal Empire's library, they were immediately taken aback by the commotion that greeted their eyes!

Shining Armor, Pinkie Pie, Braeburn, Big Macintosh, Rarity, and Fancy Pants, were all rushing about, trying to keep what was clearly a baby alicorn under control! Meanwhile, Twilight and Cadence were busy scanning the bookshelves for something, tossing books into various piles that were stacking up higher and higher with each second! It kind of reminded Starlight of that book stacking game she and Sunburst used to like to play.

"What's going on here?!" Starlight exclaimed! "Did I miss something?!"

"You want the long or the short version?" Pinkie questioned, as she tried to grab hold of the baby alicorn.

"Uh, the short?" Starlight asked, unsure what exactly Pinkie meant by "short".

Pinkie took a deep breath and explained as quickly as she could. "Good news, the baby's got a name, Flurry. And she's an alicorn, a really powerful one at that. Bad news is, her magic's a wee bit out of control, and she accidentally shattered the Crystal Heart, so Twilight and Cadence are looking for a spell to put it back together and save the Crystal Empire from turning into a giant wasteland of ice and snow, and the rest of us are trying to get Flurry under control."

"Oh. I see." Starlight commented. Now was probably not the best time to be bringing up her own problems.

"Flurry, for the last time, come back here!" Shining shouted at the top of his lungs, as he flew towards Flurry! "You are in a big time out when this is over! I mean it this time!"

Flurry normally would've listened, but she was having too much fun to stop. She'd never been outside the palace before, and the change of scenery (along with all the grown-ups chasing after her) left her in an excited state.

Meanwhile, Cadence let out a gasp as she tossed a book to Twilight and shouted! "What about this? Trotter's Tome of Reliquary? Anything in there we could use?"

Twilight quickly flipped through the pages, before at last her eyes fell upon something that seemed promising. "I think this is it! You'd better take a look at this!"

Cadence read aloud from the page Twilight had marked. "'Spell of Relic Reconstitution'! Yes, that'll work nicely!" She happily exclaimed! "I can't believe we found it, I was starting to think we'd hit a dead end!"

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, as she replied to Cadence. "It's a good thing we found when we did then! Without this, I don't know what we'd do!"

Just then, Flurry teleported in front of Twilight, giggling happily. This time, however, her father was ready for her. "Gotcha!" He shouted, as he grabbed Flurry in his hooves and held her tightly. "That's quite enough flying for today, young mare!"

But then, without warning, Flurry fired off a blast of magic from her! Everyone reacted quickly, as one by one, Rarity, Fancy Pants, and Starlight, all reflected the beam with a shield! But unfortunately, once redirected, the beam hit the book Twilight had been holding onto, and passed right through it!

Twilight gasped! "Oh no! No, no, no!"

"Uh, oops?" Starlight blushed, realizing it had been her magic shield which had redirected the beam towards the book.

Author's Note:

I decided to give Starlight and Spike's interactions a bit more weight, by adding a few more lines.

This chapter was originally going to be called "The Last Hope", but it turns out there's a Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu episode that has that name already.

Comments

[Comickook]

Extremely good work on this latest chapter. Indeed, the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up were quite well done in all the right places as usual. I particularly liked the extra lines of dialogue in Starlight and Sunburst's attempted conversation AND Spike's trying to nudge Starlight to fess up to Sunburst concerning certain details (again, he failed, but he still tried). And, honestly Twi, sooner or later, you're going to NEED to start to get Genre Savvy enough to memorize spells that COULD be useful BEFORE you actually need them (sorry about that; couldn't resist a semi-morbid joke [:-D]).

At any rate, I will very certainly be looking forward to more of this, but will also be quite willing to be patient.

[Yoshifan30]

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, as she replied to Cadence. "It's a good thing we found when we did then! Without this, I don't know what we'd do!"

Oh boy you kind of Jinxed it Twilight

[Yoshifan30]

Again again I do love how Starlight and Spike interact with each other but now they need to find a book to fix the crystal hearts but when they found it unfortunately it's been burnt to crisp oops