Starlight

by ThePrinceOfTheNorth

Prologue: Premonitions

I was laying down on my bed in my car on the Starlight Express, my personal train, looking out at the countryside just beyond the windows. It seemed like a lifetime ago I had woken up as I am now. And in that time I had done so much. I'd established a city, and an Empire of steam and iron.

I stood up, walking over to a mirror on the other side of the car to freshen up a bit. Today I was visiting Alexandria, one of the oldest and largest pony colonies on the continent. It helped to think that, while there were no real countries anymore, that we at least still had our continents.

And at least this colony's name was there to remind us what we once were, for it was a name that has always been associated with learning. I always wondered why they never called it New Alexandria. Probably because of Halo: Reach.

This would be my first visit to Alexandria in person, though, and a visit I had long been waiting for. Over the past couple decades, I'd always wanted to go meet these successful ponies, just to see how they were fairing. Most of Blacklight and the greater Starlight Empire had come with me, being a little over a thousand ponies strong now. It's one of things I'm proud of, having established such a proud city after the Event, even if it took as long as it did. Then again, going about building an entire new city is no small task.

Finally reaching the mirror, I looked over myself. My black coat had been washed and cleaned ever so diligently, and my mane and tail sparkled like the stars I named myself after. I was wearing a dress, tailored specially for me, and looked over this all with aqua eyes. I sighed. In a million years, I would have never dreamed what it'd be like to be royalty, nor had I ever dreamed I'd have done the things I had done. Now I was a royal, or as close as it got.

I spread my wings, admiring myself.

"Is there no pony more pretty than I," I asked myself, only to receive and answer.

"I would expect so, Starlight," the reply came.

I turned, my horn nearly hitting one of the lights, to see who had spoken. It was Starless Night, one of the unicorns I'd found in Winnipeg not long after starting out. Then, as now, she was the 'proper pony,' one of the upper class. I'd always liked that she never was scared to get that pristine white coat of hers dirty. She was my best friend, of as close to that as I was ever going to get in this after world.

"STARRY," I exclaimed, leaping across the room to give her a big hug. She tried to get out of the way.

It didn't work, and we both tumbled to the ground.

It took us a moment to get back up again, but when we did, Starless sighed. "And it was such a nice dress."

I looked where she was looking, and saw that there was a huge tear in the dress.

"Oh well," I said, using my magic to take off the dress, "White was never my color."

Starless deadpanned.

"Not you, though," I said quickly, trying to make up, "You're one of the best ponies-"

"Shh," Starless said, a smile coming to her face, "I know I'm your best friend, and I know what you meant."

I just glared at her. "You and your jokes...."

We both started laughing after that.

---

I slowly opened my eyes. That dream was so....real. And I actually remember it for once, in every detail.

Slowly, I got out of bed, not noticing anything wrong or out of place.

That is, until I passed the small mirror at the entrance to my bedroom.

Staring back at me were those same eyes that had stared back in the mirror in my dream. I looked down at myself, and found that the rest of me looked like I did in the dream, except I didn't have the pretty dress, or the horn.

What the heck is going on?

Comments

[Starscribe]

Holy crap you posted it all at once? OMG that's so much stuffs.

-3rd generation after ten years? Don't even human generations take 20 at the least (and often more)?
-Alicorn after ten years? Maybe after a few hundred years, but just a decade? That seems hard to believe in a world with such little contact with Equestria (even dream contact is going to be almost impossible as time goes on and it grows more distant.
-There's really a class system after this short a time?

It's not so much that I think anything in the chapter couldn't happen as depicted in the dream, so much as it seems hundreds of years in the future and not just a few. The fact we're looking at an Alicorn means it might be hundreds and hundreds even, though I seem to recall that isn't what it said.

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

6313746

Before I forget, I posted it all at once to make up for lost time.

I've just finished removing specifics. I put a couple decades so as to give a longer timeframe, say between 50-90 years. The important thing is that Moonless Night is still alive in this glimpse of the future.

And, getting to your last point, for the sake of discretion I won't say nothing to anybody about 'it'.