Chapter 8: A Matter of Perspective
Starlight Glimmer had been twelve, going on thirteen, when she had been accepted into Celestia's school and chosen as her special student. She had doubtless been happy, judging from that yearbook picture and others Twilight discovered. She must have been still very innocent.
Was she already being corroded by envy and despair? Twilight had spent two days trapped in that horrid little hut, with little to do but listen to Starlight's hatefully-hypnotic voice, endlessly intoning her litany of despair. Starlight spoke of the futility of effort, the worthlessness of distinction, the meaninglessness of all mortal achievement. To believe her words, Ponies could only be happy if they lived like semi-intelligent beasts, caring for nothing but food and shelter, striving to do no great deeds, aiming for mere survival. To believe Starlight, she was completely content leading her little settlement beneath the Crystal Mountains.
But before then, Starlight had -- inadvertently -- given the lie to her own claims, for Twilight had marked the jealousy in Starlight's tone when she spoke of Twilight's own Ascension.
At the time, Twilight had thought little of that vicious bite in Starlight's voice. In her life, Twilight had become used to jealousy from many Ponies -- first as a brilliant primary school student, then as Celestia's special student at the Academy, as a national heroine, and more recently as an Alicorn Princess. Unicorn mages tended to be especially jealous of her, and she had been unsurprised by the emotion coming from Starlight Glimmer.
But after Starlight had imprisoned her, she had gone over every moment of their earlier conversation, repeatedly, with all the power of her eidetic memory pressing up against the suppressing Sameness. And, in retrospect, Starlight's jealousy shone clear -- and was very much at odds with the cult leader's expressed ideology.
Because, of course, if "to try was to fail," why would Starlight Glimmer be jealous of the fact that Twilight Sparkle was a Princess? Indeed, why would Starlight be especially jealous of this honor, but that it was a distinction for which at one time Starlight Glimmer had reasonably hoped? It was that insight which had led her to suspect that Starlight had been also been one of Celestia's special students.
Sunset Shimmer learned that she might Ascend, Twilight Sparkle thought, and went mad with ambition. Twilight had first fought, and then befriended, that strange lonely mare, self-exiled to an alien world in a form not her own -- and had come to realize that she and Sunset were not so different under their skins. Sunset was brave, brilliant, driven by passion and fury, rather like Twilight herself in a slightly bad mood. And when she came to trust one, she showed an underlying vulnerability, even sweetness. Sunset was far from inherently evil; Twilight was certain she had simply cracked under the pressure of her expectations.
She had not liked Dawn Starfall nearly so well -- Dawn had struck at Twilight through her family, and Twilight was far less forgiving of harm done to her loved ones than of harm to herself -- but even in that vicious street rat, Twilight had seen similarities to her own nature: the cold calculation, the courage, and sheer determination. Now, there was Starlight Glimmer. And all four of them, including Twilight herself, of the Light Clan.
What happened to you, Starlight Glimmer? Twilight asked herself. Where did you go wrong?
She had dived into the school yearbooks, hoping for some clue. Had Starlight Glimmer immediately failed of her early promise, had she plunged into deep academic waters and sunk without a trace, Twilight would have seen clear motive for Starlight's later actions. But Twilight saw no evidence of this -- nor had she really expected such. Starlight had to be a genius, in order to be so skilled at both magery and leadership.
What she expected was a burst of tremendous achievement, followed by some sort of emotional breakdown. That pattern was far from uncommon among the gifted; Twilight had seen it happen to several promising students, and it had nearly happened to Twilight herself on more than one occasion. The highly-intelligent could sometimes suffer emotional instability -- such had been the case with the Moon filly she'd hung out with at the Academy, the one who shared her own love of reading, what was her name again? For some reason Twilight's mind slipped off the memory, and right now she couldn't be bothered to think through the blockage.
That was not what she saw, not at first. Not only did Starlight Glimmer get top grades, winning one academic honor after another, but she seemed to have friends. In picture after picture -- thought it was the somewhat cold and formal black-and-white photography of decades past -- Starlight was shown surrounded by other Ponies, some of whom regarded her with obvious affection. She was escorted to dances by young stallions. She seemed happy and sociable -- far more sociable than Twilight herself had been at that age. She did not seem like a mare who would one day take to warlockry and found a cult.
Twilight wanted to understand. She needed to understand. She greatly feared that there were paths she might tread that would end with herself going mad, becoming a Nightmare, cackling madly about ... compulsory friendship? The Early Evening that would last forever? She wasn't quite certain in what direction she might go insane, and didn't want to find out the hard way. She knew much of Luna's fall; she thought she knew why Sunset had slipped; she didn't really like Dawn but had managed to comprehend her as an overconfident mare rather than a monster. She felt it was important that she understand Starlight. The more she understood about madness, the better she might grasp hold of the trail of sanity.
And that was very important, the more so because she had succeeded in her Ascension. She had great power now, but Luna's power had been and was greater, and yet Luna had gone mad. Power was no guarantee against madness, against evil. Quite the opposite. Power corrupted, and great power corrupted greatly. Only through an understanding of one's limitations, an adherence to morality, and an acceptance of the responsibility that came with power might a mere mare hope to handle the power of a goddess without losing her mind.
Then, Twilight thought about herself and her own friends, whom she had known now for almost five years, and hoped to keep on knowing for decades. Even back in school, when she'd been far less sociable, she'd had a set of at least acquaintances, whose roster had remained roughly stable for at least a few years -- Lyra Heartstrings, whom she still knew casually, had dropped out early, in some sort of scandal; there was ... she thought a moment ... Minuette, the Lemon girl, and Twinkle-whatever, and that Moon cousin whose name she could never remember clearly -- all right, they hadn't been that close with her, but the point was that she did things with them, and -- if anypony had documented these activities (which, come to think of it, somepony had, in the late 1490's editions of the very same yearbook Twilight had just used as one of her primary sources) -- it would have been apparent that she'd stuck with them.
Starlight -- didn't. The fillies and colts around her changed from year to year; sometimes semester to semester. As she grew older, the stallions who escorted her to dances were different each time. She obviously had no truly close friends or coltfriends. She was often in a crowd; yet she must have usually been quite alone in there.
Again, Twilight recalled Starlight's recorded rantings, and the questions Sugar Belle and her friends had asked their party when they had first come to Our Town. Starlight believed that any differences between friends would inevitably break them apart. Had that been her experience in the School, or afterward? Had she been popular, like some mares Twilight had observed in her schooldays, or like Rarity or Pinkie? Had she been self-contained, like Twilight herself? Or had she constantly made friends; desperately hoped to keep them; but always wound up losing them?
After all, was not the whole point of her insanely-Equalitarian, self-mutiliating ideology to keep friends, by making them so similar that there could arise no possible point of dispute between them? The philosophy was poorly-grounded, because Starlight's concept of friendship was fatally-flawed -- part of the point of finding friends was to learn from different points of view -- if everypony was identical, there would be nothing new to learn from anypony else. What might have caused Starlight Glimmer to miss such an obvious aspect of getting to know other Ponies?
Starlight demanded complete conformity from her followers, Twilight rememberered. Everypony smiling all the time, the same way. Standardized clothing and hairstyles. Dancing and marching in perfect step.
Rather like the Guard, Twilight realized. There was no way she could miss that analogy, having stood so many times watching Guard formations drill -- part of being the younger sister of Shining Armor. And more. The Lights have always been of a military tradition, she knew. It dated far back -- before even the Realm, according to some family legends, to the time when a remnant of Unicornia had held out behind inadequate wards against Discord. Indeed, there was no way Starlight Glimmer could have avoided such an awareness of the Light family tradition. The Biographical Dictionary listed her kin -- and some of them were Guard veterans, most bearing Light-traditional names.
The literal uniformity of the Guard, both in their training to march in formation and instantly obey orders, and which extended as far as simple illusions cast on Guard armor to make everypony in a particular Guard formation appear to have the same coloration, had clear purposes. The training ensured that, even in the fog and fear of battle, Guard units would stick together and do what their officers commanded, creating a unit cohesion and morale which ultimately aided survival and brought victory; the uniform appearance made it easy for Guards to tell friend from foe, even in a confused melee. And to some extent, it helped the Guards psychologically identify with each other, to think of themselves as alike, as members of a unit.
Starlight would have known this. The identity of Cutie Marks among the Equal Ponies would have been a side benefit, from her point of view, of the Spell of Sameness. The common clothes and hairstyles, however, was clearly intentional. Dancing, marching and flying in step had been used since Tri-Tribal times as a means of coordinating the movement of militas and imbuing them with team spirit. Had Starlight meant her Equal Ponies to be a military force? The idea almost seemed ridiculous, given the relative power of Celestia, who led a nation of over 83 million Ponies, compared to Starlight Glimmer, who had a hundred or so followers.
But perhaps not. Celestia was tolerant, and there were a lot of odd little sects in this or that isolated rustic village. Had Starlight Glimmer not ambushed Twilight's party, had they not learned about the Cutie Mark Vault, Twilight might have simply gone home, written a casual report, and Celestia missed the significance of what Starlight was doing. She had a lot on her mind, after all. Our Town could have continued under Starlight's rule, grown stronger, and -- at some future date when the Realm was torn by other troubles -- waxed in power.
It would have been a slim chance, with the risk of betrayal and failure at every point. Starlight obviously would have preferred to have had her commune grow larger before being discovered, so that the cost of stopping her in terms of blood would have seemed not worth the gain in bringing her to justice. Had she really been able to get Twilight on her side, she might have been able to somehow combine their power and attempt some sort of coup or other ploy to change the nature of the game.
The more she thought about this, the less Twilight could believe that Starlight's plan had been slow growth and the settlement of the lands under the brow of the Crystal Mountains. Since befriending Applejack, Twilight had learned to see things from the perspective of a farmer, and there was a reason why those northern lands had remained vacant so long, even as Equestria's population was booming with the wealth of the Industrial Revolution. They were cold and mostly-barren.
Also, Twilight knew Celestia's strategies, and Starlight would have known them as well. More than once, dissidents had gone out into the wilderness and formed communes and colonies in pursuit of this or that crankish purpose. Sometimes they failed, and when this happened Celestia welcomed the survivors back, all but the worst of their crimes to be forgiven. Sometimes they succeeded, and when that happened, Celestia recognized their land tenure with formal grants, and encouraged emigration to the newly-opened region.
In a matter of generations the original, ideologically-motivated populations would be swamped by the immigrants. More normally-governed settlements would spring up all around their communes, and the newer generations of the fanatics lured into the larger Equestrian cultural stream. If the fanatics tried to use force to keep their old domination, then the Watch would put it down as crime, or the Guard suppress outright rebellion. Most of the time, this was not necessary, and there was little or no blood shed.
Thus, Celestia seduced even those who dissented against her to serve her ends in the long run, promoting the growth of Equestria. Celestia played a long game -- and she almost always won. Starlight would have read the same histories as had Twilight, and heard many of the same stories in her Beloved Teacher's own dulcet voice. She would have been well aware that any plan based on slow and steady growth would only lead to Our Town, in a few generations, becoming like any other part of Equestria in all important respects.
No, she had to have been planning something more radical. Something which she perhaps now could not do, given that she had lost her following -- but it was dangerous to rely on mere probability, when dealing with such extreme fanaticism.
Twilight didn't understand Starlight's magic well enough to be sure of what she was and was not capable. What was certain was that what had actually happened had stopped Starlight before she could get too far. But not, unfortunately, stopped her decisively. The real threat was not, and never had been, the poor confused Equal Ponies; they were just misfits who had sought acceptance and found thralldom under a mad warlock. Freed from her power, they would now attempt to re-establish their lives in a saner manner.
The real threat was, of course, Starlight Glimmer. And Twilight Sparkle had no way of figuring out what she meant to do, save by trying to understand what she could do, and what she would want to do -- which was to say, to figure out just what magic she had learned, and the motivations driving her character.
The key must lie in her ideology. It was pretty extreme, and Starlight Glimmer had seriously tried to implement the most radical parts of it. It was not so much the details of the ideology, as the general tone. What sort of Pony would actually want to run or live under a system which deprived one so completely of personal autonomy? Even Starlight Glimmer herself would have had to at least outwardly conform to many of her own rules: that was apparent from the fact that she had hidden the retention of her own Cutie Mark from her followers.
The most shocking aspect of it, of course, was Starlight Glimmer's attempt to abolish marriage. Twilight had heard Fluttershy's account of this, and it had given her a turn. Not because she was unfamiliar with the concept -- Twilight was erudite, and this was a clearly-recurring theme in the history of philosophical bad ideas, all the way back to Hayto's The Common Polity. Nor was she unfamiliar with the practice: neither her Beloved Teacher, after all, nor her dear friend Luna, had ever wed in over two and a half millennia of life on Earth.
Just because Twilight Sparkle was herself quite sexually-conservative did not mean that she was unaware of other possible modes of behavior. She had been raised in the Court at Canterlot, which was one of the greatest centers of all manners of intrigue on the whole continent. She knew in general what went on at some of those country house parties, though she did not participate. And though the Lights were an old and honorable House, some of them were not entirely innocent of affairs extramarital.
No, the really disturbing part of it was that Starlight Glimmer had apparently wanted to abolish Love, at least in the sense of specific friendly or romantic love. The reason, of course, had been that she wanted all loyalty to center on the community, of which she herself woudl be head. Strong friendships, the bonds between lovers or spouses, these would have interposed themselves between the individual Pony and the tiny Realm which Starlight ran. They constituted a risk to unity, as had been demonstrated by the friendship of Party Favor, Sugar Belle and Night Glider. They must be discouraged.
But in doing so, Starlight Glimmer was opposing herself to some of the most basic emotional and social drives of all Ponykind. The Undying Ponies of Paradise Estate had not wed, but they had loved; they had not simply mated catch-as-catch-can, and still less had they been assigned breeding partners. And of course they had formed friendships: some of them had endured for millennia.
Love and Friendship were fundamental to all equinity. Fighting against such fundamental forces was clearly futile. Why had Starlight Glimmer chosen to do this?
Her decision was even more mystifying given that Starlight Glimmer's actual power had been limited by consensus. The warlock had severely limited resources, and not much in the way of a secret police, such as would be required to enforce truly organized despotism. Starlight Glimmer was obsessed with imposing a complete equality not only of wealth but of talent; not only of circumstance but even of friendship and love. This goal was clearly more important to her than were any mere practicalities.
Obviously, Starlight Glimmer considered all differences to be evil. To be the ultimate evil. An evil that would destroy all equine relationships.
There was but one step left on this journey of understanding. Twilight Sparkle trembled to take it, but it was her clear duty.
Applying Starlight Glimmer's implicit belief system, and using Twilight's own personality and values as the origin point of her moral coordinates, Twilight Sparkle considered her own friends ...
Rarity Belle -- a shallow, superficial, absurdly-flirtatious intellectual lightweight, trading on her looks and making sleazy half-mendacious promises to lure stallions into doing her bidding; a parvenu with absurd ambitions, a nakedly-mercenary social climber. Shamefully seducing Twilight's own younger brother; whether from hopes of marrying into the Light Clan, or simply because Spike's youth and inexperience made him an easy victim. Whether she meant to sleep with him or not, in either case, her behavior was disgusting.
Spike himself -- tagging after Rarity as if he were neither a Light nor a Dragon, demonstrating absolutely no pride, either of House or Kind. Emotionally-dependent, defining himself solely in terms of assisting others, no real intellectual or social ambitions of his own. Spike was almost as greedy and shallow as Rarity herself -- perhaps the two fools deserved one another!
And Fluttershy -- her informant regarding Starlight's ideology. Pathetic shyness and false diffidence concealing passive-aggressive manipulation. High-born but decadent, rightly rejected by her proud old Wind Clan, dishonorable both in love and in war. She'd seduced Rainbow Dash and broken her heart; taken advantage of Bulk Biceps to his near-destruction; and whored herself to Discord. She always flinched before the fire -- she'd almost gotten them all killed on Mount Smokey, and just when Twilight could have used her help in keeping Spike safe during the Dragon migration, she'd run out on her friends. She wasn't even entirely an Equestrian Pony -- she was half-Changeling, a repulsive thing that pretended to Friendship, the better to feed on Love. Superficial sweetness and beauty, hiding a deep and ugly corruption.
Rainbow Dash, herself. Boastful, blustering -- and as thick as solid stone. Claiming to be loyal -- but, in practice, often either tricked or blundering into betraying her friends. Physical prowess masking psychological weakness. Discord hadn't even needed to use his powers on Rainbow Dash to break her! Naive and silly, impulsive and thoughtless -- nearly brainless. Twilight was ashamed to associate with such an imbecile!
Applejack was hardly any better. She'd had the chance to better herself by a sophisticated Manehattan education, and thrown it all away to bury herself on an apple farm. She was stubborn, and sometimes refused to accept reality -- most obviously, that Landscape Carrot, missing for seven years now, wasn't ever coming back. Yet she continued to search for him, wait for him, even though it was painfully clear that he'd never return to fulfill his Intention. Rustic fool!
And as for Pinkie Pie? Silly and childish and irrational. Bouncing through life with the delusion that everything could be solved by laughter and parties and smiles. How could a full-grown mare of twenty-four still see the world with the eyes of a silly little filly? She cheated, of course -- she had those impossible powers to keep her from ever having to face the real world. Twilight despised Pinkie Pie!
As she came to each cruel conclusion, her world darkened, the happiness she normally drew from her love for her friends dying piece by piece, a shadow blotting out the Sun of her soul. Who next would prove merely equine, merely fallible, imperfect? She thought briefly of her Beloved Teacher, and recoiled in horror. No! That would be near to blasphemy! Instead, she turned her gaze upon the entity closest to her whom she had not yet judged.
Herself.
In the merciless light of her own ideals, she was wanting. Weak ... self-indulgent ... vain ... unpleasant ... clumsy ... stupid. Her self-loathing grew. She felt her mind distorting, a whine of magical feedback rising in her brain, pain building ...
... and just before she might have done herself irreparable harm, she realized what was happening, saw the danger, and flung off the mindset as if it were a pair of goggles, literally screaming in utter revulsion.
"Gah!" cried Spike, coming out of a nap to stare at her in horror. "Twilight! What happened to you?"
Twilgiht's bleary eyes -- there seemed to be something wrong with her vision, some sort of psychic residue that dispersed as she blinked it away, beheld Spike. Her dear baby brother, her loyal Number One Assistant, good and honorable, noble in conduct and pure in love, choosing to help her, choosing to love Rarity, giving of himself because he had the heart of a true hero beating within his small scaly purple-and-green frame. And, the others ...
Rarity ... generous and kind, caring deeply for Spike in return, trying to bridge the gap of age and species with her fabulousness, trying to balance the demands of love and morality, convention and desire, a good and honorable Pony who strove to make the world beautiful. Fluttershy, whose concept of equinity extended beyond her own species, beyond even sapience, building a new morality in which all life could live as sisters, her heart overflowing with kindness and compassion for all the Universe, whose sweeteness had moved even Discord to reform. Rainbow Dash, whose great heart and high courage were like something out of an old legend, who was too good and pure to even fully-understand any foul motivation. Applejack, her best friend, the sister of her heart, who loved loyally and lived honorably, who would go to any lengths to help a comrade: tough as leather and sweet as a sugarcube. And Pinkie Pie, whose high spirits and laughter were like a gage thrown down by Life to Death, a denial of any necessity for Tragedy, an affirmation of love and friendship in the face of an uncaring Universe.
The best and noblest friends whom any Pony might ever have, and in the distorting lens of Starlight Glimmer's world view, they had seemed false and treacherous scoundrels! What must merely ordinary Ponies seem to the warlock? How base, how ugly? No wonder she had gone mad, turned her great talent to bad ends, if this was how the world looked to her all the time! No love, no friendship, only endless despair and evil. The only ones she felt she could trust were those who parroted her beliefs, but had been reduced to lesser levels of power by the Sameness. And even those had turned on her in the end!
In that moment Twilight Sparkle pitied Starlight Glimmer, for she must hate herself as well, just hate herself a little bit less than she hated everyone else in existence. But in that pity was mingled fear, because if this was how Starlight Glimmer viewed the world, then she had absolutely no reason not to try the most dangerous, the most doom-laden spells, if she thought this could end her pain, which she imagined to be the World's Pain. And Twilight Sparkle had also studied the secret magic of Star-Swirl the Bearded, magic deemed with good reason to not yet be safe in the grasp of ordinary Ponies, or even most extraordinary ones. She knew what some of those spells could do, if wielded unwisely.
She looked again at Spike, whom she had briefly and unjustly despised, and she felt a great guilt.
"Oh, Spike," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Spike asked, puzzled. "Scaring you?"
"I scared you?" asked Twilight. "By screaming?"
"Well," said Spike, "that, and the fact that you were leaking dark magic from your horn and eyes. Which -- your eyes, I mean -- were starting to glow, and I think your pupils were becoming slitted; sort of like mine, but creepy instead of handsome. Basically, you were starting to look like you were going Nightmare. And I should know what that looks like. You'd be the fourth Nightmare I've seen, if that did happen."
That, Twilight reflected, thinking upon what had happened to Rarity two and a half years ago, would be right. We lead perhaps a too-adventurous life.
"I was trying to understand how Starlight Glimmer saw the world," Twilight explained, "and I made myself think like her. I think I accidentally triggered some sort of Friendship Magic effect. Or dark Friendship Magic. Or anti-Friendship Magic. Something like that. And I sort of short-circuited my soul. And started going mad. And because I'm an Alicorn, if I'd gone mad, I might have gone Nightmare." She shivered at the full realization of this. "Which might have had some very bad consequences."
"What?" Spike asked in alarm. "You mean, worse ones than you going crazy? Or becoming a Nightmare?"
"Well," said Twilight, "when Luna went crazy, she cursed a whole village to become undead monsters. And wrecked her own castle. And levelled a good part of a city. So -- short answer -- yes."
Spike stared at her in utter horror. "Yes," he finally agreed. "Those would be some very bad consequences."
"The only good thing about the situation," Twilight decided, "is that there aren't any Night Shadows around right now to possess me, so I might just come out of the Nightmare state on my own. Before leveling my castle or Ponyville or casting any horrible eternal curses."
"How do you know there aren't any Night Shadows around?" Spike asked. "Not that I'm complaining or anything," he added hastily.
"Oh," said Twilight, "that's because this castle is pervaded with the power of the Harmony. They can't get in here. So as long as I stayed in the castle, I'd be safe."
"Well, that's good news," commented Spike.
"I wonder how long I would have stayed in the castle?" Twilight mused. "Never mind. The point is, I think I now know what makes Starlight Glimmer tick."
"Which is?" asked Spike.
"She's incredibly intolerant and pretty much hates everyone," Twilight said. "Including herself. Oh, and she may know enough magic to, in theory, end the world."
"What?!" yelped Spike.
"Only in theory," pointed out Twilight. "It's not that easy to end the world. If it was, it would have been done long ago, by some mad warlock or another."
"Um, I guess that's a relief," Spike said.
"But we don't want to give her time to figure it out," said Twilight. "So we need to warn the Sisters, so that they can counter whatever it is she tries to do before she can do it." She wrinkled her muzzle. "In some cases, do it before she does it even after she does it."
"Uh -- that doesn't make any sense," pointed out Spike, raising one talon by way of objection.
"Of course it does," said Twilight with a smile. "In a temporally non-linear fashion. Which is how some of Star-Swirl the Bearded's magic works."
"Why do I think sometimes that you like logical puzzles so much that you enjoy them even if they mean that the whole world is in danger?" Spike complained.
"Because I do," said Twilight, smiling broadly. The world is so beautiful when you don't hate everyone in it, she thought to herself. I never noticed it before until I saw it from Starlight's perspective. I feel positively giddy with happiness right now! "Now come on! I know exactly what to write, now. Let's get this report finished and sent to Canterlot, before Starlight recovers and comes probing at the Sisters' defenses!"
They pitched into the papers. Spike rewrote the parts that Twilight had jotted down on the train; Twilight hammered out the biography, psychological evaluation, threat assessment and strategic predictions regarding Starlight Glimmer. For once, Twilight went for speed rather than perfection: this was a timed test, and she wouldn't get an "A plus" if Starlight was able to seize the key contents of the Star-Swirl the Bearded Wing, or break into the Night Watch's Secret Archives, while Twilight did her third and fourth drafts. And right now, she felt a vague disquiet at the notion of pursuing complete perfection -- it reminded her unpleasantly of the horrible world that lived in Starlight's perceptions, because she could not accept reasonable equine flaws and harmless differences.
Two hours later, they were finished. They had edited and collated the multi-section report, placed it in a nice cream-colored envelope, folded it in neatly, tied it off with a multi-colored ribbon, streaked like her mane, and closed it with a blob of hot purple wax the colors of her eyes, using her new seal, which said "Princess Twilight Sparkle" around an engraving of the Friendship Castle.
"Send it to ... Princess Luna," Twilight decided. "She'll actually be awake now, and there's no point in waking Princess Celestia out of a sound sleep."
Green magefire flared, and the letter was on its way.
They then awaited a reply. Improtant reports, such as this one, usually received a swift acknowledgement. Twilight fully expected that Luna would consider this report to be urgent.
She was not disappointed. A mere five minutes later, she received a reply. It consisted of two letters, both from Princess Luna.
The first one read:
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I did receive and scan over your initial detailed report regarding your defeat of the warlock Starlight Glimmer. Rest easy in the knowledge that my Sister and I have warded our Selves and the Palace alike against her. She shall not find us easy victims.
I strongly advise you against making further use of that Mind-Masking to comprehend Starlight Glimmer. There is a very great danger that you might damage your own Mind in such attempts. You are too important to the Realm to take such a risk.
My Sister will probably wish to converse with you in the near future. I shall first pay you a visit, and soon -- though I have one or two matters to which I must first attend. Then we shall meet, to discuss our Plans.
Your Friend,
Luna Selena Nyx,
Princess of the Moon
The second one was considerably less formal. It read:
Mine Own Dear Friend Twilight,
I am saddened and angered to hear of the Suffering Thou hast endured in the Service of the Realm and Pursuit of Harmony. I wish that I might have been there, to Destroy the Warlock before she might have done Thee harm; or failing that, suffer alongside Thee, my dear Benefactor. I again do caution Thee against Masking as Starlight Glimmer. I Pray Thee, dearest Twilight, do not risk Thy fine Mind and sweet Soul, for they are precious both to the Realm, and to mine own Self.
Eternally Yours,
Luna Selena Nyx,
Who was Moondreamer Finemare
Post Scriptum - Lady Rarity Belle hath unquiet dreams, and might well be warded by the company of your Number One Assistant. I urge thee to let him go to her.
The effect of the two papers, together, was rather like that of a military missive followed by a mash-note -- which was not uncommon for Luna's letters to Twilight Sparkle. She read the first one out loud to Spike; then folded the second one and put it away. "Boring stuff about, um, past business," she explained to Spike. "You wouldn't be interested."
Spike glanced at her skeptically. She was a terrible liar, where her Number One Assistant was concerned.
Which reminded her.
"Spike," she said. "you really helped me a lot tonight. Thank you. Now, I know it's late, and she's probably asleep, but if you really want to check up on how Rarity's doing ---"
"Okay thanks I gotta go see ya!" said Spike, and dashed out the door.
Hmm ... thought Twilight. I guess he really did want to check up on Rarity. I hope she's not too mad at him showing up at her door in the wee hours of the morning.
She sat and awaited Princess Luna.
The scary thing is that Twilight was in her own way in almost as much danger of going mad as was Starlight Glimmer, when she was young. And Starlight Glimmer, of course, did go mad. One key difference was that Twilight had a much more supportive and sane family.
"We are Equestria. Resistance is irrelevant. You will be assimilated!" 
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So now we see what drives her: self-loathing. If everypony is the same, she can't be hurt and doesn't have to face the fact that, boy, does she live in the wrong universe.
Oh right, that one moment where Twilight realized they already had ponies trying to be her friend in Canterlot, and she just brushed them aside. Never realized how deeply she hurt them.
She wasn't quite certain in what direction she might go insane, and didn't want to find out the hard way.
Well, her counter part showed... Brianiac from DC comic, completely understand the world at any cost, including ripping it to atoms.
responsibility that came with power
spiders
Lyra Heartstrings, whom she still knew casually, had dropped out early, in some sort of scandal;
???
and Twinkle-whatever,
That fact she was brainwashed by Chrysalis, and she doesn't even remember Twinkle Shine, shows Twilight's TRUE flaw with friendship.. those who aren't her friends, aren't worth remembering.
Rather makes nightmare Eclipse's mentality even more disturbingly logical.
Starlight believed that any differences between friends would inevitably break them apart.
There are some differences that can't be reconciled, or ignored.
-- part of the point of finding friends was to learn from different points of view --
I thought it was to find common ground. If the above was true, I'd have a bajillion friends by now. I'd had NOTHING but different views...
illusions cast on Guard armor to make everypony in a particular Guard formation appear to have the same coloration, had clear purposes.
So that's your answer for it. Heh.
Had Starlight meant her Equal Ponies to be a military force?
I doubt it. Doesn't seem her style. And doesn't fit her Messiah complex. She wanted to convert Twilight, figuring she'd be the perfect picture girl for her philosophy.
"Sometimes they succeeded, and when that happened, Celestia recognized their land tenure with formal grants, and encouraged emigration to the newly-opened region."
The Pies are doing rather well. After all, they're not forcing OTHER ponies to use the choosing stone to pick their one and only.
And of course, the above never happened with the Pies clan, since they've held onto their traditions and remained their own sub culture. It's can't be said they AREN'T eccentric or crankish.
I think the scary thing here is... Twilight doesn't understand that she isn't dealing with someone whose in this for herself, or in it for simple greed. Starlight sees herself as the savior of Equestria from the enslavement of cutie marks.
Right now, Starlight seems herself as the only sane pony in an entire Equestria's that's been Discorded. Twilight needs to ask herself what SHE'D do in that situation, after losing the only community of harmonized ponies in the world.
This is what I thought of while I was reading this chapter. This story just gets better and better. I eagerly await more.
Who is Dawn Starfall? I recognize that you have the habit of adding stories you like to your Canon, but I'd like to hear your take the character.
I can't help but read deeply into this, especially since you've established that Twilight has an eidetic memory. Something may be blocking her. And given what Moondancer has in her basement...
I think we may have already seen a glimpse of a Nightmarish Twilight in the Smarty Pants incident.
... Or not. Apparently the Nightmare state of the Princess of Friendship is uttermost loathing for every living thing. Makes sense to me. Congratulations on your first use of changeling magic, Twilight. I don't recommend an encore performance.
Very interesting psychological analysis here. I wonder what Starlight would think of it. In any case, definitely looking forward to more.
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Precisely. Though it wouldn't have worked if Twilight had really cared about her Canterlot circle of friends in the first place.
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I'm not making any excuses for Twilight's treatment of her Canterlot circle of friends. While in my fanon one reason is the side effects of an anti-scrying spell Moon Dancer cast to cover up her own necromancy and demon-summoning (much of it seriously illegal) this wouldn't have caused somepony as powerful as Twilight Sparkle to forget a whole circle of friends, most of whom weren't Moon Dancer, if she hadn't taken them all completely for granted as Ponies in her background.
To Twilight's own credit, she's horrified when she realizes what she's done.
When Cloud Kicker still had Winning Through Degradation at full power, she decided to make Lyra her minion, and had her drop out of the Academy and run off with her to Ponyville. When Pinkie and the Paradise Entity defeated Winning, Lyra (who did not clearly remember what had happened, beyond having inexplicibly chosen to run off with Cloud Kicker) decided to stay in Ponyville; in part because she'd already met Bon-Bon (a Night Watch agent sent in pursuit of the mysterious demon whose existence, though not identity, had been deduced, and who wound up her fellow-captive).
Twilight Sparkle has no idea what actually happened. She doesn't even know that it was Cloud Kicker with whom Lyra "ran off," and probably has a vague notion that it was Bon-Bon. This is one of the many things she might have been able to figure out if she'd been more serious about her first group of friends.
Incidentally, in the Winningverse story from which I modified this part of Lyra's background, Ponibus makes this look every bit as sinister as it is in the Shadow Wars Story Verse: there's a chilling scene where Lyra pretty much gets used as a living prop by Cloud Kicker to impress Twilight Sparkle, and Lyra actually says that when she was young she believed in love, but Cloud Kicker taught her better. It's like something one would expect the victim of years of mind control to say, to emphasize the villain's evil in-story. It's even more chilling when one remembers that Ponibus doesn't consider Cloud Kicker a villain, and that in the SWSV this story would be set in the Degradingverse, where Pinkie lost the fight against Winning and in consequence Cloud Kicker has been growing in power and evil for many years at this point: in that world, Lyra's mind and soul are both badly eroded.
In fact, that scene was one of the things that convinced me that Cloud Kicker had to be the host for some demonic force. Mere charisma doesn't work that way, not in an open social environment.
In the Shadow Wars Story Verse, Lyra's condition is much less dire -- she remembers the episode with Cloud Kicker as something weird she did in her brief wild youth, and has been happily in love with Bon-Bon for years. She even sees Cloud Kicker as a friend, because the exact structure of Cloud Kicker's original conditioning prevents her from remembering the periods when Winning would sadistically let her partly free, just so that she could appreciate her enthrallment and how hopeless her situation seemed.
Bon-Bon, for her part, who was likewise enthralled but for a much shorter period of time, does not trust Cloud Kicker at all. Bon-Bon doesn't consciously remember what happened, and imagines that the demon simply escaped. But her will is stronger than Lyra's, and she remembers just enough subconsciously that she views Cloud Kicker as a smiling enemy pretending to be a friend. If Bon-Bon remembered, she would deeply hate Cloud Kicker, more for abusing Lyra than for abusing herself, though that latter part wouldn't make her happier.
In my opinion, Twilight is a naturally-ruthless Pony who has been tamed by friendship. Sane-Twilight isn't evil, she's not only good but morally-idealistic in her goodness -- but she is ruthless, and will do what she imagines necessary. This is why it's not an entirely bad thing that she's Lawful Stupid at times; imagine Twilight, unrestrained by the rules!
On differences and friendships: It's true that some differences are intolerable ("You want to value Pony life, I want to torture Ponies to death and bake them into cupcakes to gain eternal life, are we really so different?"). On the other hand, some differences are tolerable (Twilight wants to read books, Pinkie Pie wants to party, as long as each lets the other do what she wants, there's no problem).
We learn from friends due to their tolerable differences, because each friend (even a very similar friend) will pay attention to different aspects of life than we do, thus observing different evidence, and come to different conclusions based on the evidence they observe and the assumptions through which they process it. Twilight and the others of the Mane Six share certain fundamental moral beliefs, but they all view the world rather differently, and in consequence will notice different things and behave in different ways from one another.
The problem with Starlight Glimmer's beliefs is that she imagines all differences to be morally-objectionable and entirely destructive of friendship. Consequently, she demands complete conformity to her own belief system by anypony who wants to be her friend. What's worse, since she is the originator of this belief system, and it extends down to trivialities such as how one wears one's mane, as well as requiring complete identity of talent, it is oppressively totalitarian in its application.
Equestrian culture allows for considerable diversity. It just tends to homogenize over time, because of freedom of internal movement and a strong defense of the rights of the individual. Starlight Glimmer's cult couldn't survive without, essentially, keeping its members prisoner and routinely violating their liberties. In contrast, the Rock Pony families are bound by love, and they do not hold their members captive.
She does not wholly understand Starlight's motives, but she's starting to realize that Starlight may be horribly desperate and vindictive now.
Needless to say, in the SWSV, Lyra and Bon-Bon do not have threesomes with Cloud Kicker. Or anypony. They're totally in love with each other, and only each other.
Starlight is Diana Moon Glampers.
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Pretty much, yes.
The only thing I can think of to add to this story is this little realization I had.
If everyone thinks the same way, and one person can't notice a problem, how many problems are festering unnoticed?
She had not liked Dawn Starfall nearly so well -- Dawn had struck at Twilight through her family, and Twilight was far less forgiving of harm done to her loved ones than of harm to herself -- but even in that vicious street rat, Twilight had seen similarities to her own nature: the cold calculation, the courage, and sheer determination.
Who exactly is Dawn Starfall, and when did she attack Twilight?
I liked the view into Starlight's mindset through Twi; that works very well. Possibly too well!
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Dawn Starfall (under two different names in two different versions of the story, "Dawn Starfall" is the one I like best) originally comes from Scipio Smith's Vengeance of Dawn, which I partially folded into my fanon because it fits my theory as to the potential dangers of forcing the premature development of Alicorns from amongst a population of Ponies.
She's rather like a more amoral and vicious version of (pre-reform) Sunset Shimmer; or to put it another way, she's the sort of Pony who Twilight Sparkle might have been had she been raised as a street rat rather than a member of the Canterlot gentry. She learns of the prophecy of a Chosen One which Celestia is following, searching for somepony to save Luna from the Nightmare, and she figures she's destined to be that Chosen One, and collects friends to be her Elements. She proceeds to become so nasty to other Ponies that Celestia has to expel her from the Academy.
Since part of her plan involves doing some really horrible things to Cadance and Shining, Twilight takes it really personally and (IMO) would not completely forgive her for this, even after Dawn comes to realize that her plan is at best very poorly conceived (among other things, she wants to wake a Balrog right under Canterlot, just to play the hero by defeating it (without being entirely sure how she's going to defeat it) and at worse incredibly villainous and dangerous (she wants to wake a Balrog under a major city cantilevered over a mile-high abyss!!)
Dawn Starfall is, rather obviously, insane -- even crazier than Sunset Shimmer at her worst, though not as coldly horrible as Starlight Glimmer -- and the point of including her is that it makes a pattern -- of four known potential Chosen Ones, only one of them (mostly) stayed sane -- the other three had megalomaniacal episodes of varying duration and seriousness. Though there's an obvious observational bias here (any of Celestia's favorites who simply failed without going mad and went on to have happy and productive and sane lives wouldn't be noticable by their commission of acts of insane warlockry, because they didn't, it's also obvious that Celestia's methods pose some risk of driving her favorites insane.
6612291 Thanks for the explanation! I'll have to check that story out.
Dawn Starfall is, rather obviously, insane -- even crazier than Sunset Shimmer at her worst, though not as coldly horrible as Starlight Glimmer -- and the point of including her is that it makes a pattern -- of four known potential Chosen Ones, only one of them (mostly) stayed sane -- the other three had megalomaniacal episodes of varying duration and seriousness. Though there's an obvious observational bias here (any of Celestia's favorites who simply failed without going mad and went on to have happy and productive and sane lives wouldn't be noticable by their commission of acts of insane warlockry, because they didn't, it's also obvious that Celestia's methods pose some risk of driving her favorites insane.
Maybe, or maybe Celestia was looking for ponies that combined high power and unstable personalities in the hopes of 'turning them around' and both making them into trustworthy citizens and avoiding the rise of another Nightmare Moon?
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That's the basic problem with totalitarian societies, be they ever so benevolent, in a nutshell. It's why, save when it's very important to keep something secret (usually because it involves dangerous magic which could wreak mass destruction), Celestia basically protects free speech within her Realm.
6612337 Or maybe the stupid nag hasn't figured out that treating ponies like toys or chesspieces tends to BREAK them.
STARLIGHT GLIMMER IS TOM RIDDLE! - (Minus the Lord Voldemort transformation)
IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!
I'm choosing to attribute Twilight misremembering Discord using his mind powers on Rainbow to the fact that she wasn't present when it happened and Rainbow would be the kind of mare too proud to admit he had no real trouble inflicting them on her.
Really intense chapter, loved the adition of Dawn altough it speaks poorly of Celestia as a teacher that of her 4 personal students 3 became mad with power or greed to some extent and the one left isn't exactly the most stable of ponies