Starlight, Eclipsed
Five orbs of magical light hovered in a vertical star pattern, their colors vibrant and steady as Starlight Glimmer walked around them, her tail swishing idly behind her.
“Not bad for a week’s worth of practice,” Starlight said, making sure that she kept her voice level and her expression clear of the pride that wanted to beam through. “Not great, mind you... but not bad.” She stopped and turned to her right so that she could look through the space between the orbs, her gaze falling onto Skyla’s face. “Keep up those exercises I taught you, and your magical dexterity will only get better. At this rate I’ll expect you to handle six orbs soon, so be ready.”
“Yes, Starlight.” Skyla’s lips quirked into a smile, but it only lasted a few moments before it vanished. She gave her horn a flick and the orbs shivered and faded away, allowing the afternoon sunlight to come pouring into the large room once again. Starlight frowned at her young pupil. That’s not exactly the reaction that I was expecting, she thought. I mean, a little enthusiasm or excitement would have been nice...
“What’s going on with you today?” she asked, and a frown creased Skyla’s hitherto lackadaisical expression.
“I’m not sure what you mean. Did I do something wrong?”
“Well, no, not strictly speaking,” said Starlight with a wrinkle of her muzzle. “I mean, you performed every spell I asked you to without any problems, which is great, but...” She sighed and took a step forward. “You seem tired. Or sad. I can’t tell which, but it’s at least one of those. You’re normally so... excited about your magic lessons that I guess it’s throwing me off.” Starlight sat down and gestured towards Skyla with her right hoof. “And that leads me back to my question: what’s going on with you?”
Skyla’s ears folded back towards her mane and she turned her eyes away from Starlight, her tail swishing behind her as she shifted slightly on her hooves. Starlight felt an immediate pang of guilt about pushing Skyla for answers, but the guilt was quickly overridden by a swell of something that Starlight couldn’t quite place – a feeling of need, of deep desire to pick Skyla’s problems apart until they could be solved.
“I just... didn’t sleep well last night, that’s all,” murmured Skyla, her eyes wandering the training area. “Don’t worry about it.” An uncomfortable tightness tugged at the back of Starlight’s chest, and it brought her frown roaring back.
“Um, sorry, but I can’t just ‘not worry about it’,” she said, lifting her hoof again and twisting it around in small circles. “You’re my student, so I’m naturally concerned about your well-being. You said that you didn’t sleep well last night? What were you doing besides sleeping?” She dropped her hoof back to the floor and gave Skyla a grin. “Sneaking out at night again?” she teased. Trying to get a rise out of the filly wasn’t her best plan, considering what had happened the last time she’d done it, but it was better than doing nothing. I mean, at least she’ll get mad at me. That’ll be better than this nonsense. Unfortunately, Skyla simply frowned deeper before turning away from Starlight, her lips pressed tightly together.
“I wasn’t sneaking anywhere,” she answered, her voice flat and almost deadpan, “just... wasn’t able to sleep, that’s all.” She sighed heavily and Starlight had to stop herself from wincing at just how sad it sounded. Dear Celestia, she sounds depressed. “So, what’s the next lesson?” she asked as she turned back to Starlight. “Or are we going to be done for the day?”
The pink unicorn squinted at the young alicorn, her mind working furiously behind her eyes for several long moments of silence; finally, however, she let out a sigh and nodded.
“We’re done,” she said. “You’re clearly skilled enough to handle the magic that I’ve taught you so far, but you’re not here enough today to learn new magic. Like here here.” Starlight pointed her hoof at the side of her own head. “A distracted mind leads to distracted magic, remember? That lesson didn’t happen all that long ago, kiddo.” She placed her hoof back to the floor and shook her head. “So we’ll just have to pick up the new lesson next time.” A wave of disappointment washed over Skyla’s face, illuminating the caverns of her eyes for the briefest of moments before the darkness returned, her ears pressing down against her mane once more.
“I understand,” she said softly. “Well... I suppose I’ll see you later, then.” She turned towards the door, her wings visibly drooping from her body, but before she could take more than three steps towards the exit Starlight Glimmer’s body slid in front of her. She stood sideways, blocking Skyla’s path to the door with her side.
“Whoa, whoa, I didn’t say you could leave – just that we’re not doing any more magic today.” She turned to face Skyla squarely, the curl in her mane bobbing authoritatively against her cheek. Another frown turned Skyla’s lips downward.
“Then... what are we going to do?” she asked.
“Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it? We’re going to,” Starlight took a deep breath, “talk. About stuff, and... things.” Her heart hammered in her chest as she met Skyla’s quizzical gaze, and deep inside she could feel a swell of panic. What are you doing!? She thought as she gave Skyla her best smile. You should just let her go, and plan this out a little bit better! Never do things like this spur of the moment, Starlight! The alicorn filly lifted her right front hoof and tilted away from Starlight.
“O...kay,” she murmured, her voice tight with uncertainty as she took a step backwards. “I assume that means you have something you wanted to talk about?”
Starlight nodded confidently as her stomach twisted and flopped around inside her. “I want to talk to you about your attitude today, and what’s going on with you.” Skyla’s eyes narrowed again, but she didn’t move towards the door. Instead, she let out a sigh and turned away from Starlight, her tail flicking irritably.
“I told you I couldn’t sleep last night,” she repeated. “There’s nothing more to tell.”
“And why couldn’t you sleep?” pressed Starlight, taking a step after the younger mare as Skyla moved towards the center of the room again. “Did Flurry Heart keep you up? I know that little filly likes to get into your room at night – has she been bothering you?” To her surprise, Skyla stopped walking and leveled a glare in her direction.
“She’s not bothering me,” she said, each syllable as deliberate as the hoofsteps of a waltz. “I actually rather like having her there with me.”
“Okay then, what is it?” Starlight took another step towards Skyla, who turned and moved away yet again, her wings rustling against her back. “I guess if it was your bed or something superficial like that, you’d probably have told us... which means that it was probably a nightmare.” Skyla’s shoulders jerked and she glanced through her mane as Starlight said the word nightmare, and the unicorn couldn’t keep a surge of victory from filling her from hoof to horn. So she had a nightmare! I’m sure I can help with that!
“...yes, I had a nightmare,” confined Skyla softly, her gaze dropping to the floor as she stopped at the center of the training room. “It woke me up early in the morning, and I couldn’t go back to sleep.” She huffed. “There, are you happy now?”
Starlight’s elation dimmed at the tone of Skyla’s voice, and the mare took a step closer to the filly as her brow furrowed. “It must have been a pretty bad nightmare to have turned you so sour,” she muttered, and Skyla plopped her rump down onto the floor with a heavy sigh.
“I guess it was,” she grumbled, her gaze shifting between the squares of sunlight on the training room floor and Starlight’s face. “But there’s really nothing that can be done about it right now, so I’m just kinda stuck with the repercussions – lack of sleep and bad attitude.” She shrugged, her wings bobbing as she did so. “Are you satisfied?”
“No, actually – I’m not,” came the reply, and Starlight felt her eyes widen as the words leaped unbidden from her lips. The response was so instinctual and so visceral that the unicorn fell silent as Skyla’s quizzical gaze fell on her again, her mind scrambling to tug at the thread that tied her spoken words to the thoughts that had spawned them. “Th-that is to say, I’d really rather help you in some way.” She took another step towards the seated alicorn, her hooves clicking against the floor. “Like, maybe you can tell me what your nightmare was about? I’m not one to brag, but I’m pretty well versed in psychology. Who knows? I might be able to offer you some insight that you hadn’t thought of before.” She lifted her right hoof and placed it against her chest. “I’d be happy to help.” Skyla’s eyes met hers for a moment, their normally excitable depths a bland malaise of disinterest.
“I’d rather not talk about it... right now,” she said, the hitch in her words so blatant that it made Starlight’s left ear twitch. Skyla winced as the words left her mouth, and Starlight couldn’t keep a hot wave of anger from swelling up inside her.
“Or is it just that you don’t want to talk to me about it?” she asked, her words as sharp as any spear. “Because it really seems like that’s what this is about.” She stomped her right hoof back to the ground with a resounding clop, her tail lashing her flanks as Skyla turned towards her with surprise written across her face.
“S-Starlight, that’s not...” she began, but her words trailed away and she bit her lip as she dropped her gaze to the unicorn’s hooves. Starlight felt her mouth open once more, words of unknown sentiment rising like bile in her throat, but Skyla’s eyes lit with a familiar fire before she was able to speak again. “Why do you even care?” asked the alicorn, her chin rising so that she could meet Starlight’s gaze straight on. “This is my problem, my issue that I have to take care of. It doesn’t concern you in the slightest, so why are you bothering me about it?!” Starlight’s anger flared brighter, but she managed to barely keep it tamped down as she took a deep breath, refocusing her self control. This is the moment... take it easy, Starlight... you can do this... She exhaled before taking another deep breath in, and only then did she speak once more.
“I’m not trying to bother you,” she said softly, irritation coloring her words like the bright red tinges of a bloody sunset despite her attempts to snuff it out. “I’m asking you about how you’re doing because I care, okay?” She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “That’s all. I just want to be able to do more for you than... than teach you.” Her ears drooped and she turned her face away from Skyla, her cheeks burning.
“And why do you care?” grumbled the alicorn, her words so jumbled with emotion that Starlight felt her anger leap again despite Skyla’s subdued tone. “There’s no reason for you to be mixed up in all of this. I... I’m really grateful for what you’ve done for me, but you don’t have any reason to care.” She let out a shaking sigh. “I just don’t get it.” Starlight felt a smile touch her lips, and the cool shadow of sadness floated across her heart.
“Yeah... I had a hard time with that, too,” she admitted, her voice little more than a whisper. “Why should anypony care about what I have to say? Or what my problems are? I’m the only one who can solve them, so why should anypony else care?” She chuckled under her breath. “It turns out that most of the time, the only reason a pony has to care is that they do care. They want to help, or they feel like they can do something to make your life easier... that’s all that Twilight and her friends needed to help me.” Starlight turned her face back to Skyla, their eyes meeting as the unicorn sighed once more. “But I’m not like that,” she whispered, her words trembling. “I... I have a reason...”
At the other end of the room, the door to the training hall opened with a loud bang against the wall. The sound drew the gazes of both ponies in the room, and their eyes widened as the dark blue figure of Princess Luna walked through the doorway, her mane shimmering with the light of a thousand stars.
“Skyla?” she called, her wings twitching along her flanks. “I am sorry to barge in on you like this, but I’d very much like to speak to you, if I could.” Starlight turned to look back at Skyla, who offered Luna a bright, if confused, smile.
“Princess Luna, you’re... you’re here? But why?”
“I came to speak with you about the message you sent me earlier,” she said simply. “Are you finished with your lesson for the day?” Her smile shifted to Starlight, and she had the grace to let her ears droop. “I do apologize, Starlight Glimmer, but this truly is of utmost importance – I only hesitated this long because I felt I must let Princess Cadence know that I was here.”
Skyla’s eyes returned to Starlight, and for a moment the young alicorn’s face clouded. She bit her lip as she shuffled on her hooves, clearly warring with something behind her blue eyes, but Starlight lifted a hoof and gave her head a shake.
“Don’t worry about me, kid,” she said, doing her best to get some of her former temerity back into her voice. “Go with Princess Luna. It sounds like she’s on a mission or something, and making her wait might not be the best idea we’ve had all day.” Skyla’s brow furrowed, but she nodded after a moment of silence.
“All right... I’ll see you later, Starlight.” She gave Starlight a nod before dashing off towards Luna, her curled tail waving elegantly behind her. Starlight watched her go, her emotions battering one another against the rocky shore of her heart as she managed to give Skyla one last smile when she glanced behind her.
“Behave yourself for the Princess!” she called after the filly, who only managed to give her a small smile of her own before Princess Luna extended a wing over her shoulders and whisked her out of the room with one last apologetic glance at Starlight. The door swung closed behind them, and the click resounded in the empty room like the sonorous tolling of a lych bell. The pink unicorn let out a soft, defeated sigh, and plopped her rump back to the floor as her head drooped low. That was my chance, she thought. My one chance to tell her everything...
Silence rang around Starlight as she sat in the big, empty room, and as the noiseless air wrapped around her like a cloak she felt a shiver lace its way up her spine. This feels like how things used to be, she thought. Still and silent... just me and my thoughts... Her head drooped even lower than before, her ears laying flat against her mane as the silence began to ring in her ears. Before she could get too far into her melancholy, however, the door at the end of the room opened again and Sunburst’s voice rang out through the room.
“Starlight! Thank Celestia that you’re here.” His hoofsteps came towards her at a full gallop, and Starlight only had time to raise her head and blink in confusion as the stallion roared towards her.
“Whoa, whoa, easy there,” she warned, lifting her right hoof towards him as if to ward him off. “If you run me down right now, I might just stay down.” The stallion slid to a halt in front of her, a look of confusion washing across his face.
“You might stay... oooooh...” he winced. “I see... so the Princess came and got Skyla from your class.” His ears drooped. “Am... I to assume that you would have liked it better if she’d stayed?” Starlight’s eyes drifted towards the door, and her hear chest squeezed uncomfortably.
“No, she can do what she wants,” she said dismissively, rising to her hooves. “Don’t worry about that.” She gave him a wry smile. “Did you actually need something, or do you just enjoy plowing into rooms uninvited?”
“Huh? O-oh! Right!” He grinned proudly and stroked his goatee with a hoof. “You know that contingency plan that we were working on?” Starlight’s ears slowly perked up, and her tail swished around her as her eyes widened.
“What about it?” she asked, unable to keep hope from surging to the surface of her words. Sunburst puffed his chest out, straining against his blue robes.
“I figured it out,” he announced. “I thought about what we’d discussed and applied my knowledge of spells against it, and I realized that the answer has been staring us in the face the whole time.”
“And what do you mean by that?” Starlight arched an eyebrow, but Sunburst just grinned and gestured around them.
“Skyla’s been learning an awful lot about magic these past few weeks,” he said softly, placing his hoof back to the ground. “About how hard it is to control... and what happens when it stops being controlled.” Starlight frowned, her mind spinning wildly as she tried to grasp what he meant; when she did, however, her eyes widened again.
“Oh... oh SUNBURST,” she stammered, and the orange stallion nodded eagerly.
“We need to finalize some things, but if all my math is correct,” he lifted a hoof and brushed it against his chest, “and it always is...”
“...then this might actually work,” muttered Starlight with a slow nod. “Yeah... yeah!” She leaped to her hooves and started for the door. “Well, don’t just sit there congratulating yourself! We’re not done with this research yet – not by a long shot!”
“I’m glad you agree!” said the stallion as he briskly rose to follow her. “I’ve already taken the liberty of constructing a monitor that will help us keep our magical studies separate from the castle’s ambient magical output, and-...” He continued to talk in that bustling, excited way that Sunburst did when he was enthusiastic about something, but Starlight didn’t hear him. Her thoughts quickly turned inward, pulling forward all of the calculations that she’d made the last time they’d spoken.
I might not be able to tell Skyla everything, she thought as she pushed the door to the training room open, but I can at least protect the place she calls home... and show everyone that I’m willing to clean up my mistakes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Princess Luna... what are you doing here?” Skyla’s voice was quiet as they left the training hall behind, her wings fidgeting along her sides as she felt Luna’s feathers brushing her back. “I mean, I’m happy that you are – very happy, in fact – but still... what’s going on?” She turned her head and glanced up at the taller alicorn, who withdrew her wing and gave Skyla a warm smile.
“I’m sorry to intrude on your lesson,” she said, her voice careful and measured, “but I’m afraid that I needed to speak with you quickly, and could not wait another moment.” She quickened her pace for a moment to take the lead, and turned down a side hallway that Skyla knew would take them towards the stairs. “Your journal entry earlier surprised me greatly,” she continued, her hoofsteps clicking slightly louder than Skyla’s on the smooth crystal floor, “and I could not, in good conscience, wait a moment longer to address the issue.” In spite of herself, Skyla felt her ears droop against her mane.
“Ah... I see.” She felt her heart clench in her chest as she turned her gaze towards the floor, and she knew that she couldn’t stop her wings from sagging against her sides. I made her worry, she thought. Dear Celestia... I made her worry enough that she dropped EVERYTHING to come and see me...! Like so much of her life recently, the thought tore Skyla in twain: one part of her was overjoyed that Princess Luna had taken such a visceral interest in her well-being, and the other was horrified that she had pulled one of the reigning royals in Equestria away from her duties with a selfish and self-centered journal entry. She winced behind her bangs and searched for something she could say to dissolve her guilt, but before she could find the words Princess Luna spoke again.
“Be at ease, Skyla – you needn’t feel badly about this.” The pink alicorn lifted her eyes and met the other mare’s brilliant aqua gaze, the Moon Princess’s smile as soft and gentle as moonlight itself. “I asked you to inform me if anything happened, and you did so.” Her words drifted across the empty hall like feathers being chased in the wind, their sounds swirling between their hoofsteps as they moved towards a stairway nearby. In spite of her guilt, Skyla felt her muzzle scrunch as Luna’s words tickled her heart and made her feel sad in a way that she hadn’t expected. “I’m very glad that you did, as a matter of fact,” continued Luna, her voice rising back to her regular, regal tone as she put a hoof onto the stairs and began to climb, “because the issue you have raised is one that requires my immediate and personal attention.” Her wings rustled against her flanks as she frowned at the rising stairs before her, her brow furrowing as if the poor crystal steps had insulted her whole family as far back as memory could go.
“O-oh does it?” Skyla felt an icy sliver of fear slide into the spot just between her shoulder blades as she watched Luna climb. I didn’t realize that having a bad dream would get such a reaction out of her... She felt more questions pile up behind the first one until they spilled down her throat, but she kept her teeth tightly closed as she followed Luna up one flight to the floor above them, where the blue alicorn turned to her right and started moving down the hall at a deliberate pace.
“I’m not certain if Flurry Heart informed you,” Luna said after a few moments of walking in silence, “but here in our version of Equestria, dreams are... a bit different than they may have been in the Crystal Empire.” Skyla’s eyes widened and she hurried forward to walk next to Luna, giving her a nod as the other pony looked at her.
“She mentioned it. She said something like...” she frowned, “something like ’bad dreams don’t just happen here, Skyla’, but she never gave me anything else to go on.” She turned her gaze to Luna just in time to see the alicorn nod, Luna’s eyes focused on the empty hallway ahead of them.
“She’s quite right. Under my watchful eye, all dreams in Equestria tend to be pleasant ones. Now, that is to say that I cannot stop every nightmare – some dreams are bound to come, either through stress or worry or both – but dreams with evil intent, dreams that are meant to dishearten or discourage a pony?” Her eyes narrowed. “I ensure that all such dreams, no matter their origin, are kept from my subjects.” Their hoofsteps filled the hall as Luna’s words fell away, and Skyla had to swallow against a sudden dryness in her throat.
“Does that happen often?” she managed to whisper. “Dreams with evil intent, I mean.”
Luna glanced back at her, and the secrets behind the Moon Princess’s aqua eyes told her everything that she needed to know. A shiver laced its way down her spine with such force that her rump wiggled. I don’t really think I want to know any more about that, she admitted silently.
The pair turned another corner in the expansive castle and stopped before a closed door before Skyla had even truly realized that they had done so. The pink alicorn blinked at the door before casting a confused glance at Princess Luna, her mind whirling for a moment.
“Where are we?” she blurted, and she was ashamed to hear her pinion feathers shake as a shiver hit her once more. To her relief, Luna gave her a small, easy smile before placing a hoof on the doorknob.
“I suppose it would be folly to assume that you know every inch of the Crystal Castle, despite your pedigree,” chuckled Luna. She gave the knob a twist and the door a firm push, allowing it to swing open and reveal a medium sized room inside; there were small bookshelves and a desk that sat at the far end, and around that desk sat Shining Armor and Cadence, their heads close together and their backs towards the entrance. As the door opened to its fullest, the two of them straightened and looked back.
For just a moment, Skyla saw the remnants of a frown across Cadence’s face, but it was gone so quickly that the small alicorn wasn’t completely sure that she’d seen it in the first place.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Cadence’s words were light and easy, but Skyla could see her red-rimmed eyes from the hallway. You’d have to be more blind than a fruit bat to not see it, she thought to herself as Cadence made a quick swipe at her eyes with the back of her left hoof. Despite all that she’d been through with each of the ponies in this room, Skyla’s chest gave a squeeze that reminded her all too well that such situations – minus Luna, of course – had happened before, and that there was a reason that she didn’t immediately recognize this room.
“It’s mother’s study,” she whispered, almost to herself. She squeezed her eyes closed for a heartbeat, and in the darkness of her mind she could see the room once again, though it was very different than the clean, organized study that physically sat before her. In her memories she could see long black and red drapes that covered the window on the far side of the room; she could smell the scent of frozen flesh, of burning incense and parchment, of rotting wood and ill-kept stone; and most of all she could see her mother as clearly as if she’d been standing in front of her, the Queen standing behind her broken desk, her brilliant eyes staring icicles into Skyla’s heart.
“It is Cadence’s study.” Luna’s voice wriggled into Skyla’s memory, the simple correction on who owned the study breaking apart the vision so violently that Skyla opened her eyes with a gasp. The memory of what had been faded away, and slowly the Queen became Cadence and Shining Armor, their eyes full of worry as they watched her. The ruined room seemed to reconstruct itself into the room in which she now stood, though she couldn’t remember actually stepping inside.
“I... ah...” she stammered. Cadence and Shining Armor opened their mouths to speak, but it was Luna’s voice that filled the study.
“Do not be consumed by what has been,” said the Moon Princess softly, and a gentle touch along Skyla’s back told her that the dark alicorn had extended a wing to cover her. “I fear we have much to discuss on that account already, and we cannot lose your focus before we’ve begun.” Skyla turned her gaze to Luna, who offered her a warm, knowing smile. “Let your heart know peace, Skyla – once this discussion is finished and my plan is enacted, I am certain that whatever haunts your dreams will be gone forever.”
A moment of pure silence filled the room, and Skyla felt her heart skip a beat.
“Y... you mean it?” The words slipped from her lips and fell to the floor, and her tone was so childlike and helpless that she felt her pride give a cry of anguish in her soul. Oh boy, just what I need – the ponies who I care about most, looking at me like I’m a child... hooray...
“I do,” declared Luna, and Skyla heard only confidence in her voice as Luna gave her a small smile. “I believe it is time for you to see the other side of my magic, young Skyla – and this time, I believe you shall be most suitably impressed.”
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Boy oh boy, it’s back!
Oh, if only I could like this more than once...
IT'S ALIVE
I am so very happy to see this update. And what an update it was. I wanted answers but all I got was moRE QUESTIONS
yay more story !!!!!!
So nice to see this story back! I hope Starlight and Sunburst’s plan works.
IT LIVES!
Huzzah! Skyla hath returned!
but you can see I'm not the only one who wanted more!
I know I got on your case about this quite a few times; sorry if it got bothersome...
Soooo.... maybe I'm not that sorry.
Starlight loves Skyla...
Let that motherbucking ship live!
glad your back
Hooray! Welcome back!
Great chapter! Feel a little bad for Starlight, Skyla still has trouble opening up. Hoping that dream was just a nightmare not the Queen playing the multiverse's most disturbing game of peek-a-boo.
9645245
...Damn. That's intense.
Well, I just marathoned this and it’s prequel. A very engaging story. I’m looking forward to Luna kicking some dream butt in the near future. I have really enjoyed the portrayals of all the characters, and while I generally dislike Flash on sight, I find his presence here survivable. (That’s as close to admitting I like his representation here as I can manage.) The only really weird thing that seems out of place is the TwiBurst shipping, but shippers gotta ship and it’s very low key. I can’t wait to see more!
I found this story browsing for high wilson-score stories that had recently updated, and marathon read it as well. I'm not usually one for dramas, but this story is one that I'm glad I made an exception for. I really hope to see how this story concludes!
I think that the final battle is coming and it will only be afterwards that Sunburst and Starlight can close the doors forever.
Oh hey, I missed this update. Glad to see this story is still around.
Ohh! Just got caught up and What a story idea!! A emotion blast to read.
I cant wait for more to be released and see what will happen if her mother will come back and hurt the ones she loves or something else that will happen