Maybe So
A pause. Starlight’s horn glowed as she explored her options. Her magic grasped at Twilight’s saddlebags, but couldn’t find purchase. Her attention flicked over the different sorts of spells she knew, the things she could use to lay the princess low; no answer was apparent. Her teeth grit, anger taking over where denial had left off. Her eyes darted about as she sought options; nothing new presented itself. All the while Twilight stood there watching her. Resolute. Imperious. Implacable.
Permanent.
“…No.”
“No?”
“NO!”
The shout from Starlight was accompanied by a burst of magic, burning away the clouds between the pair and forcing Twilight to conjure another shield.
“I don’t care! You don’t get to win! Not after what you did!” Further bursts of magic followed, all but undirected. Twilight hid behind her shield as clouds and terrified foals (and one gryphon chick) were sent tumbling through the air. “I can’t keep you apart forever? Fine! I’ll just have to spend the rest of my life making you suffer!”
Her outburst lasted longer, but Twilight didn’t get to hear the rest of it; she was whisked away by the reopening portal to a future in which the gryphons had started a war with Equestria.
Starlight was left panting, gradually losing altitude as her magical grip upon herself weakened, watched by fearful pegasi in the distance. Her rage was spent for the moment, dying back from the blazing inferno that had dispersed the flight camp to mere embers of loathing, the sort that had fueled her plan to begin with. These, she clutched close. As her mind cleared, she began to truly appreciate the scope of the task she’d taken upon herself; any minute now, the portal would open, again, and she would have to stop the race, again. Twilight Sparkle had made her realize that despite her protests, she was on the defensive; one loss, and it was over. And she just spent most of her magic crumbling clouds.
The thought alone was almost frustrating enough to have her lashing out again - and had a convenient blue-colored foal been present she well might have - but she reined herself in. “It’s okay,” she told herself, “I don’t need all my power to stop the race; I’ll talk the foals into not bullying each other again. I just have to make sure I have enough that Twilight Sparkle can’t defeat me before the portal takes her away.” Starlight nodded, glad that she had thought it out. She did not find talking to herself to be worrying.
She had just enough time to touch down on the ground before the portal called to her once more. And so, for the next few iterations, she held back her magic; she would make a token attack or two, but she upset the race with words and guile as she recovered. The princess and the dragon seemed content to make similarly token overtures at stopping her, but they mostly watched and waited. Starlight wasn’t sure if they were waiting for her to slip up, let her guard down, or go crazy, but it didn’t matter; she would take the opportunity to recover.
Once her magic was on the mend, she turned to other strategic concerns. Food and water came to mind. The latter was easy enough; Cloudsdale is made of clouds, after all. Food was harder, but so long as she was willing to subsist on lunches stolen from foals she should be fine. With the simple matters settled, the question became sustainability. After all, she had enough magic to deal with Twilight now, but they were right; as time passed, they would grow and she would wither. What she needed was an equalizer, something to let her deal with them. Something that would let her fight on an even level with a full-grown alicorn. Something like an amulet, perhaps. Unfortunately, she had no idea where she might find such a thing; it's not like ancient artifacts of tremendous power grew on trees, after all.
Starswirl’s scroll could help her, but it remained in Twilight's possession. Or...at least it was in the present. Future. Whatever. At her current time, the scroll was unmade and the resources she would need to make a new one were still in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Royal Canterlot Archives. Should she want to create it, she would need to get to Canterlot, sneak in, and either finish it within one loop or steal what she needed. Or try without her notes, but that was a disaster waiting to happen. If she had access to the Cutie-Map it might be easier, but that wouldn't exist until far later. No, she'd have to do without and find a way to tip the balance.
Several further loops passed by, the original events oh-so-cleverly subverted each time. Unbenounced to her, Twilight continued to return to ever-stranger futures; she all but ignored Starlight for three loops straight trying to imagine just how Mr. and Mrs. Cake had conquered Equestria that one time. (She asked while she was there; it didn't help.) As time turned forward for the three of them, and only them, it wasn't much longer before a complication arose that neither of them had considered.
Boredom.
Each loop in total rarely lasted longer than fifteen minutes, and sometimes as few as five; it was only three hours (or ten loops) in when Starlight began to feel it. She already taught the foals, blasted the foals, and distracted the foals; while she could do the same thing again and again, she found herself working to add in variations on those themes. Perhaps a shield spell to block the race. Perhaps a fireworks spell to distract them (they had no attention span, after all). She didn't know it, but her attempts to keep things fresh were doing the same for the futures Twilight was whisked away to. In that regard, Twilight was luckier; she got to see any number of alternate futures play out, even if there were several repeating themes there as well. Of course, they were horrific perversions of the Equestria she knew, so perhaps she wasn't too lucky.
Twelve hours in and Starlight began to worry that alicorns don't sleep. Fifteen hours in, her worries were proven unfounded when she found herself waiting longer than usual to be drawn back to the beginning. After one more hour of not being drawn back in time, she found a modestly-comfortable place on the ground to settle down for a nap. Her sleep was restless, disturbed by daylight and the occasional animal. Still, she got what she could before the portal finally opened for her and dropped her into the past. She drowsily convinced the foals not to fight before the princess showed up, looking better rested than Starlight herself. Indeed, as it turns out Twilight had found an apocalypse intact enough to have an inn she could stay in.
And so, they continued. It wouldn't occur to Starlight for another fifty hours or so (including two more periods of sleep), but that was the first "day" of their eternal battle. When the thought finally did come to her on the fourth "day", as she was transforming Rainbow Dash into a bowl of petunias, it was followed by "exactly how many days do I have to do this?"
"No", she told herself, watching as her opponent was once more returned to the present, "I can't quit now; Twilight Sparkle and her stupid friends have got to pay for what they did. This is the only way for me to get my revenge." Once again, Starlight did not find it odd that she was talking to herself. And any foals that were staring at her were surely just reacting to her transmogrifying one of them into a plant. She didn't have to justify herself to them.
They looped.
They looped again.
Brief skirmishes and magic duels punctuated longer periods of inactivity, neither willing to invest their whole strength. Twilight's sleep schedule was becoming predictable, and Starlight began to learn how to power nap, sparing time while Twilight slept with which to prepare. As each "day" approached its end, she sought more peaceful resolution, which would enable her to move about Clousdale in a way that shooting at foals with magic would not. She learned that the pegasi were surprisingly touchy about that in the loops that she stuck around. In her off-time, she found that the Cloudsdale library didn't have much to offer on advanced magic or artifacts, but she poured over what it did at the expense of rest. It was as she was beginning to make some progress nearing the end of the first "week" that she noticed something new.
Her eternal opponents were playing chess.
Twilight and Spike had found an old chess set in some absurd future, and had brought it with them. In the middle of one of their fights, with magic beams dodged and blasts crashing against shields, Twilight spared enough focus to hold the board steady in her aura. At first Starlight mistook it for some sort of secret weapon, what with the pauses and the way Twilight kept glancing back at it, but no, they were just playing chess. Spike would make a move, and Twilight would make her own after a shield was properly stable before getting back to the battle.
This annoyed Starlight. This enraged Starlight. "How dare they fool around when I'm trying to fight them?"
"Uh, because you're not doing a good job?" answered a little blue foal, just before being frozen solid. The question was rhetorical, after all, even if she said it out loud.
Another loop, and the chess game continued, to Starlight's continued annoyance.
And another.
And another.
She tried to ignore it, she really did, but it was just so irritating that she wasn't being taken seriously. Sure, Twilight made a point that she had a friend with her but this...this was insulting. Still, best not to dwell on it; she had to make them suffer, she had to keep them from the rest of their merry little band of dream-crushing equality-haters. Anti-equalists? Unequalists? Never mind; she'd think up a better word later; she couldn't afford to get distracted. Which is why it was even more annoying when she was snapped out of her obvious distraction by a shout of "Ah-ha!"
Starlight perked her ears, gathering her magic to deal with whatever masterstroke the alicorn thought to unleash against her. Her eyes trained on the pair, her magical senses opened wide, ready to handle whatever they threw at her, to prolong their punishment, to –
"Checkmate!" cried the purple princess.
As it turned out, Starlight was not ready for this.
"WHAT?"
Twilight tilted her head as her attention was drawn to Starlight. "What?"
Starlight seethed, snorting her breath and gathering more of her mystic might. She would end this taunting alicorn.
Twilight's muzzle scrunching in confusion before she suddenly perked up, giving a Starlight a smile. "Oh, I'm sorry, that was rude of me. Do you want next game?"
Starlight's response was a mix of unintelligible yelling and magical violence. Twilight was forced onto the defensive again, the race was stopped due to collateral damage, and the princess found herself in a future of civil war between the Equestrian diarchs.
Fortunately, Starlight had time to calm down and collect herself. Unfortunately, Twilight's first words upon her return to the next loop were "I was serious, you know; you can play if you want to." Starlight restrained herself to only a minor outburst, but it was a close thing.
Loops passed.
They slept.
Loops passed.
While she still didn't recognize the threat, Starlight found herself ever more firmly in boredom's insidious grip. She tried to make the best of it, tried to keep her focus on the little bits of study she could manage, the progress she was making, but the worst kind of boredom is that caused by obligation and boredom is hardest to deal with when someone else is having fun. And strangely, the princess and her dragon seemed to be having fun. Their game gave them a measure of consistency in the ever-changing futures they were flung to, gave them something to focus on that wasn't the unwinnable battle or the horrors between. So it was that Starlight found herself thinking more about the offer to play.
She reasoned that it was just taunting, trying to get her off her game. Her shame that it worked was enough to ignore the thoughts for a while, but they returned. She reasoned that it was a ploy, that there was some sort of trap, and so she would be a fool to spring it. This justification lasted only until she convinced herself that she could spring the trap intentionally and take advantage. She reasoned that it wouldn't be much fun anyway; its not like she wanted to play with the stupid alicorn or her stupid servant. But then it occurred to her that she had been challenged. She, a mage of her might and wisdom, had been challenged to a game of strategy. And her need to scratch the itch to do something agreed with her pride: that could not stand.
So it was that a few loops later, after she was talking down the foals once more, that when she heard Twilight declare "Checkmate!" once more, she spoke up.
"Alright, it's on."
"Huh?"
"You and me, Sparkle. Let's play."
"You...really?"
"Why not? You can't beat me in magic, and you can't beat me in strategy."
"I'm pretty sure I have a strategic victory already, actually."
"Shut up and set up the pieces."
Twilight shrugged, trying not to look pleased with herself as she floated the board out between them. They approached, still on guard, still wary, and the game began. It had to pause shortly after the third turn due to the portal appearing yet again, but it resumed as soon as Twilight had returned. So it continued for several loops, for they had no timer and neither was short on time. The opening transitioned into the middle game, pieces were freed to move about, options were opened, and they spent more and more time thinking about how best to defeat their opponents. Starlight did not grow lazy with regard to the alicorn; she was cautious each time Twilight lit her horn, she worked to distract the foals before Twilight arrived, and even as they gradually drew closer to the board (and each other), she was ready for the first sign of magic breaking the informal truce that developed. Twilight too was cautious, knowing that she could use this as an opportunity, but Starlight could use it just as well.
Another loop came, and a bishop was taken.
Another loop went, and a knight was sacrificed.
Soon, they began to talk. It was not friendly talk, but it was better than silence. A little verbal sparring to accompany the game, taunts about this move or that, cracks about their situation and character. Neither would say it brought them closer, but it did ease the tension between them, let them relax their guards just a little more. Still, it was tenuous; something as small as a gesture made with a piece held in magic would be met with a lit horn, and they would stare each other down until the piece was placed. Even so, the peace between them lasted until several loops and a small amount of sleep deprivation later, and its end began when Twilight smiled smugly.
"And I think that's checkmate."
Starlight blinked, before staring down at the board. Twilight had just taken her remaining knight, but her rooks were still at large and her defenses were otherwise intact. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"You're in checkmate."
Again, she looked to the board, muzzle scrunching. "No, no I'm not."
"You didn't see it?" Twilight gestured vaguely at the board with the sweep of a hoof.
"Didn't see what?"
"How I got you in checkmate."
"What are you talking about? My king is right here! He's not in checkmate, he's not even threatened! And I have control of every square you could use to threaten him!"
"You're right, but there's something you missed."
"And what's that?"
"My pawn advancing."
Starlight's confusion grew to new heights, for Twilight's line of pawns had been fairly static for the last several turns. She scrunched further as she tried to figure out just what the alicorn was talking about.
And that's when Spike landed on her back.
"Gah!" said the unicorn.
"Gotcha!" said the dragon.
"Get her horn!" said the alicorn.
Twilight lunged forward, her own horn glowing as she prepared a binding. Starlight tried to channel the magic she needed to counter, but little scaly claws brought an end to that. She tried to buck him off, but Spike had been bucked off by a real rodeo pony in several Iron Pony competitions, and he was having none of Starlight's amateur attempt. A wisp of green flame curled the edge of Starlight's mane and heated her neck as it passed by one side, and she froze, a scaly hand still holding her horn, giving Twilight the time she needed. Thick bands of purple force encircled the unicorn, and a magical seal descended upon her horn.
"Alright Spike, I've got her, you can let go."
Spike leapt free, and Starlight was freed of her shock. She tried to bring forth her magic, but nothing would come. She cried out in anguish, struggling against her bonds, but only succeeded in falling over on her side upon the cloud.
Spike crossed his arms, a cloud-walking spell letting him make his way back to his friend, much as he had made his way around behind Starlight while the ponies were focused on their game. "Pawn? Really? I jumped on her; I'd say I was a knight."
Twilight smiled sheepishly, her horn glowing as she held her spells in place, giving Spike a shrug of her shoulders. "Sorry, it was just the first thing that came to mind." She spared a glance for the chess board which had been toppled when the tussle began, pieces strewn over the cloud.
"No! NO! Why can't you just lose? It can't end like this!"
Twilight perked up an eyebrow, making sure the restraints were holding. "You mean your revenge?"
"It's more than that! I was helping ponies! I gave them friends! Fellowship! I fixed the rifts their cutie marks caused! You ruined all of that!"
Spike scoffed. "They seemed awfully friendly after they got out from under your hoof."
"It's not going to last! Cutie marks only lead to sadness!"
Twilight shook her head. "Where is this even coming from? Why would you think that?"
"It happened to me!"
"What did?"
"A cutie mark stole my friend!"
The reply came in tandem: "...What?"
"Sunburst! When I was a foal, my best friend, my only friend was a colt named Sunburst. We studied magic together. We did everything together. Then, he got his cutie mark and went off to Celestia's School! I never saw him again! That's when I learned what cutie marks really do, and that's why I started my village: as a place free of being 'special', free of divisions, free of cutie marks!"
Twilight and Spike stared at her, the former's horn softly glowing as she maintained her grip. Starlight panted, gathering her breath after her outburst. Eventually, Spike voiced the obvious question:
"That's it?"
"Huh?"
"That's it?"
"What do you-"
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Your friend moved away, so you think cutie marks are evil? That's just so stupid!"
"Seriously, you've never heard of sending letters?" added a very irate Twilight. "You didn't ever think to visit him?"
"Well I-"
"This is why you tried to brainwash my friends and me? This is why you made your cultists miserable? This is why you've kept me looping through time for over a week?"
"They weren't cult-"
"Did you even see they way they smiled? Cultists."
"That doesn't-"
"You are one of the greatest mages I've ever met. You have enough understanding and raw power to hold your own against me, and I'm the Element of Magic! And this time travel spell is absolutely brilliant! With your skill, you could do something amazing for the good of Equestria, push the bounds of practical and theoretical magic ahead by decades. But instead, due to your amazing inability to figure out the postal system, you decide to hold the most foalish, the most petty of grudges. And if that isn't enough, rather than that grudge being directed at your absent friend or his parents or even the school, you decide cutie marks themselves are at fault. And rather than talking it out or any of the dozens of ways you could solve this, you developed powerful anti-cutie-mark magic, raised a cult, and sought revenge when your obviously evil, misdirected, and unnecessary plan got foiled. Did you ever stop to think during any of this?
"Um...I mean, the spells took a lot of-"
"Shut up. We're going back in time. We're letting events play out like they should. Then, we're going back to my castle and you are getting some friendship lessons. And help for your abandonment issues."
And so she did.
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My friend, I'm pleased to see your triumphant return!
8096812
You and me both; I was none too pleased to see it being added to lists with names like "Dead Stories", deserved as it was. I figured I should do something about that now that I had the chance. And while on the topic:
8087209
I'm trying to stop myself from laughing out loud. That was awesome and hilarious.
And here I thought they would be friends via chess, well, capture then reform is a lot less time-consuming.
Sunburst, not Starburst...
Welcome back to the featured box, you deserve it.
8096891
Woops! Thanks for catching that. I thought something seemed square.
*Snrks*
Been waiting a long time for this chapter and it was worth the wait. Please do another chapter. I wanna see what will happen to Starlight.
Liked this one best, seriously, what the hell Starlight. It's my personal head-canon that either Starlight has some serious psychological issues, or her childhood troubles were just the beginning to her start of darkness. The alternative, that a Unicorn even more powerful than Twilight and at least as intelligent nearly broke the world (and, in all possibility, probably did in alternate timelines) over a silly, childish spat is downright terrifying.
8097022 I think I like the former of the two theories better, she certainly has in the past shown some rather... questionable behavior over things.
Huzzah! Another great chapter!
I know I learned something here today. The postal system can save your friendship.
8097022
My dear prereader is of a similar opinion; they were rather hoping for a "what the hell?" speech for Starlight in the prior chapter, but I'm still kind of fond of the "let's redeem everyone" approach. That said, a week of Bad Futures is enough to make anyone grouchy.
I do tend to agree with your headcanon; Sunburst leaving is a bit weak on its own, but it serves as a fine root, a wedge for other things to drive deeper, and there's plenty of time between then and the Our Town incident for things to get worse. Giving the benifit of the doubt is important.
8097118
And the world.
One thing I never understood from the episode is how a unicorn can fight an alicorn princess, and not be quickly defeated.
Alicorns not only have earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn magic, but buffed-up versions of them.
Unicorns just have plain ol' unicorn magic.
Did Starlight ever attend Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns? I don't remember her doing so, but Twilight certainly did (before becoming the Princess's personal pupil after an incident revealed her dormant power).
Is Starlight anywhere near as studious as Twilight, who's been reading books and practising magic for the majority of her life, and would theoretically spend the entire day reading non-fiction books if her friends (and draconian assistant/little brother/son - she did hatch him) didn't force her to eat or spend time outdoors?
Has Starlight outthought many ancient evils in her time, or had any reason to develop her 'able to think up and execute plans when in peril' skills? Twilight certainly has done both - she charged Nightmare Moon, only to reappear behind her. After being snapped out of Discord's brainwasing via Celestia, the unicorn managed to break the draconequus's hold on her friends and defeat them. Twilight was the only one to realise the 'Princess Mi Amore Cadenza' at the wedding was an impostor, and helped the real one escape - followed by breaking Chrysalis's bonds on Shining Armor and Cadence, allowing the two to defeat the Queen. Twilight was able to figure out that the only way to prevent Sombra from obtaining the Crystal Heart was to sacrifice herself, and give the gem to Spike. Twilight (with all four alicorn's magic) was also able to fight an almost-fully-powered-up Tirek to a standstill, then thought up a ploy to defeat him. Starlight? Had none of this experience, or pure power.
So how could a normal unicorn, who's never had to seriously fight or quickly create effective strategies on the fly, go up against an alicorn princess, who's had more training, is biologically stronger in every way, has fought numerous stronger foes even when she was but a unicorn, and is adept at quickly and strategically planning...well, strategies?
Makes no sense - the only real answers are 'plot' or 'because the writers wanted it', which are really the same thing.
After all these five where Twilight manages to use her alicornity to just outwait, or any other thing, against Starlight I'd like to see five where Starlight "wins". Maybe she FINDS the Alicorn Amulet in off time, maybe something else, so she can keep up the eternal part herself, or defeat Twilight and win but at a price
What is it with me and unexpectedly-long 'rant-like' posts?
I succumb to that both here, and on YouTube. Yet I have issues writing reports and essays for university or (previously) school. The hell?
8097158 the whole reason starlight can fight twilight is simple....mastery.
Rarity has crazy control...but no theory,and little power.
Shining armor.Good Power,low theory.Good control.let's face it,however s a one trick pony.outside that shield spell does he have anything useful?
Twilight has A Lot of power(element of magic duh),some theory,and low control.case in point she blasted Tirek with the Kamehameha...which ironically was enough of an energy drain to let her teleport without going across country by accident.
Starlight has decent strength,amazing control ok and amazing theory. She's done the research,she's mastered her energy control,the only thing she doesn't have is alicorn levels of magic.or TWILIGHT levels.
8096812 I like your avatar, twas a good game.
8097158
Because, despite any inconsistencies and fanon elements in your post, she is a massive Mary Sue - to the point she's gone from 'new character' to 'enormous and shallow plot element'. She is as powerful as an alicorn, who - when she was a unicorn - was more powerful than we were told any unicorn had any right to be. In fact, Celestia even outright says "I've never seen a unicorn with your raw power before before". Y'know, the lady who trains powerful unicorns, has a school dedicated to making sure they learn how to use their magic and develop it properly? Been ruling on her own for a thousand years, possibly more before that with her sister? Seen basically every great unicorn wizard during that time period?
Then the world craps out Starlight Glimmer who is clearly a sociopath, and due to the finale shows us that she thinks nothing of the world so long as revenge is hers (even creating new parallel worlds full of war, death, slavery, and even complete annihilation) over an incident so fucking NORMAL as a friend moving away. Literally garbage character. People have to resort to fanon to try and say why she's good or 'not as bad' when canon clearly spells out that no, that's not the case, she's just insane, stupid, and alicorn-level.
To answer all of the questions about how Starlight could fight Twi right here.
She is as strong as the plot demands for conflict.
That's it.
There's no explanation other than that she is incredibly powerful and strong, which is strange considering her friend was incited to a magic school and she wasn't. Canon can't be used to help explain because it doesn't make sense. Her reason is so generic and simple that was blown way out of proportion so that is could be resolved simply rather than give a complex and meaningful backstory that could explain everything leading up to it.
Now the show has to go along with having an impossibly powerful, self trained, unicorn that somehow can't solve every problem in the show, mostly because she is causing the problem.
And that's not even talking about the ending of the season after this where we get a joke of a finale. At least Discord has a reason for not solcing every problem that makes sense with his character and position of power. She doesn't, she is powerful because the badly written plot requires her to be powerful.
I haven't read it, yet I feel I've read something with an identical title and have somehow experienced a pyrrhic Dormamoo (or whatever the spelling is) paradox of attrition.
8097188
I think the only thing that cooled my spitting rage after the season five finale was in season six, when they showed that Starlight is still clearly evil. (I mean, ANGEL loves her. What more proof do you need.) Sure, she has friends now, but contrary to frequent belief, evil people can have friends. (Even I have several...!)
In my opinion, they didn't so much as redeem starlight as basically offer "come, join me, and we shall rule Equestria and friend and friend!" and she (being Starlight Glimmer and not Starluke Skyglimmer) accepted.
And I can grok that, actually probably better than most. Really, I think it was the only thing the could have done to make me not intensely dislike her (some folk of my acquiance did so so much they have more-or-less topped watching the show, sadly.) It is, arguably, a bit of an arse-pull and I, were I the show staff, wouldn't have written them into that corner in the first place (at the very least not in that way; but it, for me at least, is mollifiying enough.
(As I've often said, all they had to do was have Starlight crack after being shown the most desolate future[1] and it would have been more credulous. Aside from the motivation thing, there wasn't much defense for that, even speaking as someone who is ASTOUNDINGLY petty and grudge-holding[2].)
[1]I'm still convinced that was Angel's villian future,
[2]I permenantly boycott Burger King because, many years ago now, they hauled my mate away for a shift (after he'd booked the day off) during a wargames convention where he was helping me demo (and at the time, he was too daft and afriad of losing his job to tell them where to go). And fracking NOBODY messes with my starships and gets away with it.
So...basically I was correct when I said "plot" and "because the writers wanted it".
Christ, instead of sending a bookworm, an apple-tree-bucker, a scaredy-cat pacifist, a reality-warping party planner, an appearance-possessed fashionista, and a tomboy athlete after countless evils, why not send Starlight? Insanely overpowered plot device here! I bet she'd be able to actually magically duel with Nightmare Moon or Sombra --- wait, she was alive during Tirek's rampage, and he supposedly absorbed "all the magic in Equestria", which must include Starlight...no wonder he was so powerful; he had sucked up Starlight's OP-ness*. And Celestia saying "you're the strongest unicorn I've ever met" - does that mean she's more powerful than the mystical Starswirl the Bearded? Yeah, sure, magic as a field has come a long way since his time, but 'magical aptitude' should still be comparable.
* No "HAH YOU SAID 'PENIS'" jokes, please. I've had my fill of that from chuggaaconroy's Xenoblade LP, where he said '1080p-ness' when describing the game's aesthetics.
7100118 I first read that as "the number 666 likes people", as in "John likes pie".
It took me a couple more re-reads that you're referring to the total number of 'thumbs-up'. Ah, my mind can be so interestingly weird at times...
Awesome! I love being able to move a story out my 'dead fics' folder!
Thanks for the update!
8097158 8097188 8097219 8097387
Now I'm not the most perceptive chap, but I'm starting to think you folks don't like Starlight Glimmer.
In all seriousness, I'd say your complaints have some merit - though there's also some devil's advocating to be done. The big thing is we haven't seen Starlight's rise to power; with Twilight, we know where she gets her skill set from, more or less, but Starlight is largely an unknown with only one aspect of her past touched on. Even then, we do see that she was powerful, and we get a delightful contrast between her apparent raw power and control to Sunburst's theoretical prowess, but it's not exactly the full story. To me, this looks like the sort of backlash that an OP OC gets when written poorly. The key thing with any OC is to make the audience care about them; if the readers or watchers are invested, either because they want to see them succeed or they want to see them fail, it forms interest. It's not powerful OCs that are bad, it's not alicorn OCs that are bad, it's OCs that fail to earn sympathy or empathy or interest. The classic Mary Sue is uninteresting because everything is handed to her; her skills don't seem justified and break the suspension of disbelief and either characters or the plot or both revolve around her to an absurd degree. And because of the contrast you folks point out with Twilight, that sort of disinterest is understandable - if not universal.
A few things to touch on though. LucarioFan, she is indeed shown to be bookish; the scenes from her foalhood show both an interest and aptitude in magic, and she does look things up rapidly in Every Little Thing She Does. We do not know if she attended Celestia's school, and indeed we actually don't know how old she is to begin with. With her voice, I had her pegged as older than Twilight, but that's just me. However, going by her willingness to use magic to compel and lack of true social skills (improving though they may be), it seems believable that she spent a great deal of time in study or honing her craft. She does drop a few off-lines to that effect. But again, the real issue is we don't know much of her past.
Plus, let us note: it's not clear whether "alicorn magic" is a unique additional form, a boost to the three tribe's magic, or something of both. Further, we actually haven't seen Twilight preforming much more in the way of magical feats as an alicorn than she did when she was a unicorn, which leads to the fan theory that alicorns aren't inherently super-powered, but can simply grow their powers to extreme degrees due to long lifespans or otherwise.
Aurora, your latter characterization isn't quite accurate. Remember, in the time-traveling finale she wasn't aware of the bad futures for most of it. She just thought she was breaking up a fated friendship; that's both malicious and petty, but it is not on par with thinking nothing of the world. When Twilight first pulled her into the Wasteland Future, she was disbelieving; she didn't know and at first refused to believe that the friendship she was trying to break up was so important to Equestria. Mind you, that suggests she hadn't heard of the Elements and their triumphs, but to be fair few ponies seem to. Back to the point, seeing the bad future was part of what lead to her breakdown and defeat in canon, so I'm going to rule against sociopathy here. Abandonment issues, possibly narcissism or megalomania, and the need to be in control, but not sociopathy.
Craxnor, you rather hit the nail on the head; we simply haven't been given most of the explanation. Now, it's possible that that's a "yet", since she has gotten several episodes focusing on her, but we don't really know if she was self-trained or what have you. As to her reason for evil, like I said in another comment it does seem entirely insufficient on its own - which I think tends to suggest that it was merely the beginning; it's the thing that stuck with her as her reason why, but it had to have had numerous experiences (and poor choices) after, or other issues built on it, for it to twist her so badly. And do note, "what do I do with power" is a very popular source of drama; powerful characters learning how to best use (or not use) their abilities is something of a classical theme. She's no Superman, but I'm sure you see the point.
This made more sense than the episode
8097182 Thanks!
It was.
8097582
Sociopathy was not proven by her destroying the lives of billions of innocents across multiple worlds (I was well aware she didn't realize she did it even if that doesn't absolve the blood on her... hooves). It was due to her canon, on-screen actions prior. You attributed your complaints about my post to the bit about how she is become Death, Destroyer of Worlds, when this was not the case nor my intention (hell, even after the finale, mind control episode anyone?).
And no, as of polls and general spoken consensus seen about FIMFIC, most of the speaking fandom that we are exposed to does not like Starlight Glimmer. As I stated, one has to reach in order to try and find a reason to like her, usually dipping into headcanon and trying to present it as fact. Much like people did with Flash Sentry. It seems the more a character is disliked, the more often people crop up who go hard trying to prove they're likeable.
Glimmer is a bad character. I've seen a number of fanfic depictions which 'fix' this and make her likeable/intellectually interesting in that particular continuity, but the canon Glimmer is a bad character. I'm not even blaming the writers saying they messed up on writing her. We have all the elements of a character present in her (unlike Brad originally), but those elements are either too highly-tuned, or too ridiculous to be in the mix and taken seriously.
If you don't agree, that's fine, I respect that you have different tastes, and I support that you like different characters than I do, and will get on the ass of anyone who tries to tell you your best pony is not best pony for you. But canon is something that can be taken objectively (though we must all agree it can be enhanced greatly with some deductive analysis and a touch of subjectivity), and she's just an awful character... officially.
8097582
As of the end of season five, I really didn't.
Season six and Starlight still being clearly Evil (whether they intended that explicitly or not), however, changed my mind. (Did that not come across in my post? I was first thing in the morning.) That, I thought, made for a very interesting addition, other than what might have been Sunset-done-badly.
This is how it should of ended
8097787
Aw shucks, it's not like I'd hold that against you; I'm just glad you like the story in the first place!
Though I was hoping for a little more banter about the "versatile little phrase" you inspired, and I can't do that if you don't peek at the new chapter.
pegasi
8097180
I'd attribute it to "Starlight has studied combat magic. Twilight hasn't."
8098567 Much obliged.
8097180
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it in a nutshell.
Starlight was probably a really late bloomer for her own cutie mark, and we know that cutie-marked foals stop hanging out with blank flanks, judging from how often Apple Bloom hangs out with her former best friend Twist, which is to say, never. And the whole reason Starlight was so late to come to her own cutie mark, reinforcing her belief that cutie marks themselves destroy friendship, is that her mark is for control. Whatever Starlight sets out to learn, she has total focus on, and she learns an incredible level of precision and a massive amount of the theory behind it... which takes her years. So she obsessively researched magic, probably initially so that she could go to Celestia's school to be with Sunburst, later because magic was her only companion. She's older than Twilight, definitely (note that Sunburst knows more about magical theory than Celestia's prize student, the bookworm who used to have total access to nearly all of the magic books in Canterlot Palace. The only way that's even possible is if he's a good bit older than her, to have had more time to read more books than she has. Therefore Starlight is also significantly older, and has also had more time to learn magic than Twilight.)
While my theory that she was a late bloomer is just a theory (though to the best of my knowledge nothing's contradicted it yet), I am pretty damn sure that by hiring the voice actor they did and drawing Starlight the way they did when we first met her, she was intended to be older than Twilight -- rather like Sunset Shimmer is, though going through the portal equalized them somehow. In literary terms, as a foil, she's Future Twilight That Won't Happen Now, the person that Twilight could have ended up being had she not found the magic of friendship, so I think it's really likely that she's supposed to be older, and it's really the only possible explanation for Sunburst's knowledge. (It can't be access to tomes from the Crystal Empire that Twilight didn't have growing up, that simply hasn't existed long enough.) And we all know that old age and treachery defeats youth and skill... but time is always on youth's side.
8098378 No, I can't. I love part 2 too much to sully my memories of it. I can go on any rollercoaster and watch any horror movie, but I can't read part 3. Weird.
Anyway, I'm glad you published part 3, because it reminded me that part 2 is my favourite chapter of anything I've ever read on this site, and I'll be back to read it much more regularly from now on.
So for now, have a follow.
8098959 Fair enough then; far be it from me to insist, especially when that's just about the nicest thing anyone's said about my writing.
Thanks again for that, and I'm very glad to know you've enjoyed. And for your inspirational comment way back at the beginning too.
I actually like this version of Starlight's Heel-Face Turn: Twilight loses her temper, tells her that she's an idiot and smacks her on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper every time she tries to do anything but come with her and learn about Friendship. This is because Twilight has met a few megalomaniac psychopaths in her time but Starlight is just Celestia-damned pathetic.
Part of the problem with Starlight Glimmer is that people don't really understand her or her motivations. The explanation we're given is so weak and petty, so inadequate to explain everything we've seen so far, that we're left wondering what the actual story is; because the alternative, that that's all there is, is just downright ridiculous. Starlight showed some real issues when she was onscreen, some real, big issues, and that's got a lot of people wondering 'why?'.
Let's start with Our Town. Why did Starlight brainwash people? It's one thing to spread your message to others, and another thing entirely to shove down their throats with psychological torture. I think she could have been a lot more interesting as a wandering preacher-type character trying to go against everything Celestia's Equestria stands for, bonus points if she actually kind of has a point in places. Next, you got the obvious deleterious effects of her equalization. Equalizing people seems to reset them to the lowest common denominator, and nothing they do seems to change that. Society can't function like that, and Starlight isn't stupid enough to think it can, which means that at that time she was so delusional it didn't even register. Which is pretty stupid, it would have been a lot more interesting for her to be very obviously aware of the problem, but blame it on the magic of Cutie Marks pigeonholing a pony into a singular role, a minor glitch in her plan that she's working on fixing instead of a huge gaping plot-hole that she pretends doesn't exist.
Then you've got the hypocrisy, the idea of 'oh, I'll just take all your Cutie Marks and leave mine!', it would have made more sense if the people of Our Town knew that Starlight hadn't given up her Cutie Mark because she still needed it to use the Staff of Sameness and work out the kinks with the Equality Cutie Mark. Starlight being a villain on a mission, someone with an actual point that desired to make the world a better place instead of just using that as an excuse to live out a childish power fantasy would have been a lot more interesting than what we got.
And that's literally just the beginning of Starlight's problems! She gets defeated and called out on her hypocrisy fair and square, instead of accepting defeat gracefully and trying again in another town she becomes obsessed with making Twilight and her friends pay, because... I don't know, she's just incredibly petty and spiteful I guess? We're never really given a good reason. She then proceeds to play merry havoc with the timeline, and yeah, I get it, she refuses to accept that the EoH are important or any way in the right, but still, she's fucking around with the timeline, I refuse to believe that ponies don't know, at length, just how colossally bad of an idea that is. That she's doing this all for the sake of petty revenge makes it even worse.
Okay, so she realizes she's a baddie and we all get to go home right? Unfortunately no. Starlight is still incredibly reckless and still sees nothing wrong with abusing her magical abilities whenever she considers it easier or perhaps just convenient to do so, up to and including involuntary mind control, because she's right and you're wrong and you should be listening to her anyway. In the comics, if nothing else, Twilight goes to great lengths to explain why she doesn't just blast villains in the face with her magic, it is, quite literally, illegal to do things that way except in certain specific circumstances. While I don't always consider the comic canon, or agree with it's decisions, that brings up a very interesting question, what is the legality of Starlight Glimmer's constant 'slip-ups'? Has Twilight simply just absolved her of any and all responsibility? That doesn't seem very fair.
The other big thing that bugs a lot of people is yes, her power, it just doesn't make sense to them and I totally understand that. Starlight Glimmer has not been mentioned in the show before, Twilight and Celestia do not recognize her, and her backstory (for the most part) is totally unknown. And yet, she's more powerful than Twilight, someone who was formerly known as one of the most powerful Unicorns Celestia has ever met, and at least as intelligent if not moreso. She is a literal unknown quantity and that irks a lot of people. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's impossible for a Unicorn to be that powerful and that skilled; canonically, Sombra did some downright ridiculous stuff that would even leave the likes of Starswirl scratching his head in confusion, not to mention that once he recovered from his thousand year imprisonment he managed to make war on all of Equestria and very nearly succeed. Not to mention there exist things like the Alicorn Amulet to tell you that Starlight is far from the first Unicorn to branch into this region of power.
That said, the problem is that she essentially came from nowhere. How does a pony this powerful and this talented fly under the radar so long? Who taught her, did she teach herself? It's questions like that that keep people from accepting Starlight Glimmer's addition to the cast. They want answers, they want backstory, they want to know how and why she flip-flopped so completely without getting blasted by the rainbow light of reformation. Just being told to accept that this character is an integral part of the cast now without any context feels kind of like a slap to the face. You want us to like her and sympathize with her? Fine, but can we please have some fucking answers first?!
8097158 It's one of those mildly disappointing things that I remember sometimes. Best not to think too hard about what might have been.
8097943 Point me towards those fics of better Starlight versions please?
8098567
This is my headcanon too. Twilight has shown only basic combat skills in the fights she's been in. She zaps, dodges, and blocks. She doesn't get creative with her magic in ways she very well SHOULD be able to. The only variation she had during her fight with Starlight was to copy her own crystalizing spell to use against her. Where was her wide area hold spell, or making Starlight's eyebrows grow out of control to blind her, or maybe transmuting her into a banana? I know her job is princess of Friendship...but as often as she goes into dangerous situations, she really should have taken at least a crash course in battle magic a long time ago.
8103542
I think Celestia's helped make [refined] combat magic just not a thing people think about.
Having not seen any EqG, I don't know how much Sunset Shimmer's got, though fan-portrayal has her with Strong Affinity and Expertise with it.
Twilight's also trying to Be Friendly, which cuts off a lot of her options, like dispelling Starlight's levitation.
Are we seriously still doing stories where characters just spit fire at Starlight about how totally stupid her backstory is?
You'd think we'd all have processed the fact that she was a child at the time, and that children can get messed up over silly reasons, and that mistakes during childhood can continue to have repercussions throughout adulthood.
I mean, I know most of the audience lives fairly sheltered lives, but we were all children once.
8100044
What's downright ridiculous is that so many people assume that's all there is. Have they never heard of people being able to work out exactly which incident it was that spawned everything else horrible in their life? Especially since her backstory was introduced in a time travel episode, where tiny changes caused massive timeline divergences.
To explain slightly further: The Sonic Rainboom is not the sole reason why the Mane Six have their special connection, but it is the first reason. It's where it started, and where everything else flows from. And yet, the vast majority of this fandom seems willfully ignorant of the idea that Sunburst losing touch with Starlight is just the inciting incident rather than the be-all end-all.
8105978
No, we're doing stories in which characters react like people do; people are neither perfectly logical nor omniscient, but are influenced by emotion and act on limited information. And people don't always choose the best or wisest course over a momentarily-gratifying one. Consider, what's the difference between Twilight's behavior in the last chapter and this one? A week spent in bad futures, and emotions riding high at the capture itself. And even then, while she berates she still wants to help. While you might not feel that justifies her actions, I tend to think it at least explains them. Mind you, I'm somewhat biased.
I like your take on Twilight's character very much: smart, level-headed and benevolent --- real princess of friendship.
I'm a bit confused about what happened here: has Starlight agreed to cooperate and Twilight released her? Or has Twilight learned how to use the scroll herself? Or, maybe, loop was reset as usual and Starlight lied restrained somewhere near the camp until Twilight appeared?
On a grimmer side: I tried to think about possible reasons for Starlight using such ridiculous revenge plan assuming that she's smart and plotted for months (apart from show writers thinking that time-travelling season finale would be cool), and it seems that there is a fair chance of her having little intention of surviving her revenge at all. So such ultimatum would only make her angrier. Starlight agreeing to be taken into custody in the first ending looks kinda too easy: she could at least try not disrupting rainboom and hoping that Twilight wouldn't reset timeloop. Or try to take scroll from Twilight by force. Or take Spike hostage and exchange him for scroll.
8109260
Thank you; glad you like it! To explain the first quoted section, it was the latter. Starlight had neither agreed nor been released. Rather, because the race was already disrupted that loop she was going to get sucked into another Bad Future. So her plan was drag Starlight along, use the scroll with the map one more time to go back, and then let the race occur. Following, with things back to normal the portal would draw them both back to the original present. (Future. Whatever.)
Towards the second, she actually does make an attempt on the scroll, visible at the very beginning of both the two endings. Granted, she doesn't spend all that long trying before surrendering in the first ending. Though I can sees your point; I hadn't considered that she might not intend to survive her plan. If she didn't, a surrender may indeed be too easy.
8109612
I've just read older comments and it doesn't seem that you believe in some "simple explanation" like Starlight being crazy or evil psychopath either. It is really interesting what do you think about her motivations then. Are there any chances of this theme appearing in this or future stories?
Also, now I see that "having little intention of surviving her revenge" sounds kinda mysterious --- I feel I should clarify here. It seems that after "Our Town" incident Starlight understands perfectly that her utopia hurts ponies, and she doesn't want to push that agenda anyway at the expense of others (in the other case there are much better things to do than toying with powerful alicorns: found a new village, try to topple Equestrian government, destroy cutie map or even assassinate Twilight in efficient way). Her problem is that loosing her illusions leaves her lonely, unable to make friends, without hope and with Twilight to blame. So Starlight's criteria for plan are probably something like "how can I make Twilight loose all hope (or suffer at least) while not hurting others much and with no regard for myself?". It kinda explains what we see in the episode and even why Starlight pulled out "Lesson Zero" in season 6. Or it may be hindsight bias on my part.