Ch. 8: Letters Between Friends
Starlight got into bed, magically pulled the covers up to her shoulders, and levitated her journal off her nightstand. She flipped past the first few pages, which were filled her correspondence with Twilight, until she arrived at the last entry she had written. She flipped one more page and saw Twilight’s latest reply.
Dear Starlight Glimmer,
I’m impressed with your diplomatic progress so far. It’s unfortunate to hear that the Council is starting to fall apart. You can’t let that happen. It’s up to you to sort things out and make sure they all become not just allies, but friends.
Which brings me to my next point. I’ve said this before, but I want to see you working towards making some friends there in that world. I’d start with Sunburst, the other Starlight, the other Twilight, or maybe Rainbow Dash. Or, if that’s too weird since they’re all different versions of the ponies you already know, try befriending somepony you haven’t met in our world.
Good luck, Starlight! I’m proud of you, and I’m always happy to hear about your progress.
Your friend and mentor, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Starlight shook her head. “The world’s in danger, and she wants me to make friends.” She levitated a quill, then her face lit up. “Wait a minute. I think I can make this work.” She dipped the quill into the inkwell and began to write.
Dear Princess Twilight,
Today, I went to Cloudsdale and visited Spitfire. I also talked with Shining Armor and a mare named Lightning Dust. To make a long story short, Spitfire tried to execute her for disregarding orders by making a tornado in Fillydelphia. Shining Armor seems to think that both Rainbow and Spitfire are in the wrong. I honestly don’t know what to think of this whole thing yet.
But anyways, back to Lightning Dust. We met on the air carriage—it’s a pegasus carriage service that runs from Manehattan to Cloudsdale—and we got to talking. We met in a diner later, and I can tell she really needs somepony to help her get back on her hooves. I offered to help her, and we exchanged contact information so we can keep in touch. I think I may have just made my first friend here, and I wasn’t even trying.
Starlight frowned and crossed that last line out. and I didn’t even mean to.
She stared at the page before her, then crossed out that line too. and it was completely on accident. She raised an eyebrow as she re-read the line, then moved on.
When you threw me out of my village, I felt so hurt, so betrayed. I had nowhere to go and nopony to turn to. I want to help Lightning because I see a lot of myself in her. I’m curious, though; for the sake of comparison, do you know what the Lightning Dust back home is like? Have you met her?
Your faithful student, Starlight Glimmer.
Starlight set the journal aside and turned off the lamp the bed. She pillowed her head and was soon fast asleep.
Starlight awoke to a droning, low-pitched hum. Her bed shifted underneath her, and she opened her eyes to see that it wasn't a bed at all, but a small cloud. She raised her head as her cloud continued tilting, eventually dumping her off. Instead of falling to her death, she slid onto the top of a blimp. She watched the cloud drift away as she sat on the blimp.
“Point of reference,” she said to herself. “The cloud probably isn't moving; I am. And I'm on a blimp. That means the blimp is moving.” She looked ahead and saw Cloudsdale afar off.
There was a hiss from behind her, and she turned to see a changeling practically on top of her. She shrieked as she shielded herself and fired a bolt of magic. The changeling seemed perfectly unaffected by the attack, and turned his head to one side. He buzzed and chittered with wings and voice to another changeling nearby, previously unseen. The second changeling chittered back, as did a third and a fourth, until Starlight lost track of how many there were. Green flames raced across the changelings’ bodies, and they took on the form of clouds. They completely covered the blimp with their disguise.
“What's going on? Why didn't they all attack me? Not that I'm complaining.” Starlight gasped. “Am I dreaming?” She thought a moment. “I was lying on a cloud without a cloudwalking spell, I fell onto a blimp, and I got surrounded by changelings that didn't attack me. Yeah, I'm probably dreaming.”
Starlight looked up at the moon. “Princess Luna, are you there?”
There was no response, only an indistinct whispering that pressed at her eardrums.
“Princess?”
More whisperings, and a weak magical presence, like the aura of a unicorn who was deathly ill.
Starlight bowed her head and laid her ears back. “You’re—fading.”
“Go,” the voice whispered. “Go—to—Clouds—dale.”
Starlight bowed. “I won’t fail you, Princess. Not again.”
Immediately, the world faded into darkness.
Starlight awoke to birds chirping outside her window. She rubbed her eyes, then sat up, stretched, and yawned. She lit her horn, levitated her journal off the nightstand, and opened it. Twilight's reply was already waiting for her.
Dear Starlight Glimmer,
The fact that you're not even trying to make friends is deeply concerning. (Just because you cross something out doesn't mean it won't send with the rest of the letter.) Starlight gulped. Friendship is the very force that drives our world. In every challenge I've faced, I've had my friends at my side. Look at what happened when a single member of the Council pulled her support. Each pony brings their own unique skill set to the table, whether they're an Element like Rainbow or Pinkie, or whether they have some other skill like Zecora’s knowledge or Shining Armor’s leadership. You must learn the value of friendship, and you must teach it to those other ponies.
I'm sorry, Starlight; this was a difficult choice to make, but I'm considering your actions to be remedial and recalling you to Ponyville effective immediately. “What?” Starlight blurted. “She—she can't do that! I'm fighting a war!” She continued reading. I look forward to seeing your next few friendship lessons completed under my direct supervision.
Your friend and mentor, Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Starlight sighed and fell backwards onto her pillow. Some days, she didn't even feel like getting out of bed. This was going to be one of those days.
Spitfire rounded the corner in the Academy and saw Thunderlane down the hall. She gave him a small, almost imperceptible nod as he drew near. He returned one nod with two. Spitfire chittered at him as she buzzed invisible wings, and Thunderlane replied in kind. The changeling mimicking Spitfire smiled as she walked towards a guarded door. The signal was repeated to the guard, and a similar exchange followed. The guard opened the door, and “Spitfire” entered.
Once on the other side, the changeling dropped his disguise. He was greeted by chittering and buzzing from three other changelings. He replied by producing a piece of paper with writing on it. He levitated it towards the other three while explaining it in Hive Speech, making gestures first towards the cocoons in the corner, then to the window. The other changelings buzzed and chittered excitedly while saluting.
One changeling trotted over to the window. He squinted, tilted his head, then produced a set of confused clicks and buzzes.
The first changeling approached, set an aura around the other changeling’s head, and pointed at a cloud outside the window. He then watched as the other changeling’s eyes shimmered, and a look of awe spread across his face. He spread his wings and raised a hoof, then made a single click with his voice. The first changeling smiled and nodded.
One of the changelings across the room chittered and clicked as he levitated a cocoon and pointed at it. The first changeling shook his head, then levitated the note as he started into Hive Speech again. One changeling glanced out at the sun, while the other two looked at a pocketwatch they had confiscated from one of the Wonderbolts. The first changeling clicked and buzzed some more as he made his way to the door. His subordinates chittered in response and saluted again, then he morphed back into Spitfire and left the room.
“So it looks like I'll be headed back home as soon as possible,” Starlight said with a sigh. From her vantage point at the corner of the table between Sunburst and Shining Armor, she looked around at the other ponies, expecting a mixed response.
“She sent you here for the sole purpose of helping us,” said Rainbow Dash. “She needs to make up her mind.”
“But unfortunately, the other Twilight is a Princess,” said Bon Bon, “so it's not like any of us can give her different orders.”
“Shining Armor,” Rainbow called, “you've got the most legitimate claim to Equestria’s throne. Tell Starlight she has to stay.”
“I'm not actually a prince, Rainbow. And besides, she already has prior orders.”
“Prior orders,” Starlight repeated. “That's it! Last night, Princess Luna spoke to me in a dream. She's at least the same rank as Twilight, and she told me to help save Cloudsdale before Twilight wrote in her journal.”
“Good thinking, Starlight,” said Rainbow. “You too, huh? I got a dream that Chrysalis is sending a blimp to reinforce her position in Cloudsdale.”
“That's a surprising move for her,” said Bon Bon. “Ever since she was defeated by the Crystal Empire out at Las Pegasus, Chrysalis has kept her forces close to Canterlot. The fact that they’re this far from their stronghold could mean they're adapting to the threat from Sombra faster than we thought.”
“What if she's acting so quickly because she sees this as an opportunity to divide us?” asked Starlight. “Princess Twilight is really stressing the fact that we all need to be unified.”
“I agree,” said Sunburst. “When I met you all—my Ponyville friends—the thing Princess Celestia emphasized the most was always friendship. I didn't always understand why. Sometimes, she had me prioritize friendship over saving the world—like when Nightmare Moon returned. I know not all of us see eye-to-eye with Spitfire, but we need to reach out to her as a friend first and an ally second.”
“Spitfire isn't interested in being friends,” Rainbow fired back.
“What if I had reached out to Trixie instead of showing her up and sending her off?” asked Sunburst. “Would we have lost so many troops at Fillydelphia?”
“What if Twilight had pursued me instead of letting me run away?” asked Starlight.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Just because Spitfire pulled her support doesn't mean she's going full-blown supervillain.”
“The fact of the matter,” Bon Bon interrupted, “is that Spitfire needs our help whether she admits it or not.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow agreed. “Her half-flanked plan failed like we all knew it would, and now we've got to go save her in her own Celestia-darned headquarters.”
“I’m just saying we need to welcome her back as a friend when this is all said and done,” said Sunburst.
“And I'm just saying it's a lost cause.”
“I refuse to believe that,” Starlight said as she stomped a hoof on the table. Rainbow’s gaze met Starlight’s glare, and the pair locked eyes for several seconds. Only when Shining Armor spoke up a moment later did Starlight turn her attention away.
“If we're through arguing, we have another topic to address. Who are we sending?”
“I’m going,” said Rainbow. “Luna said.”
“Same here,” said Starlight.
“I request that I go too,” said Bon Bon.
“You sure?” asked Rainbow. “I really don't like the idea of pitting changeling against changeling. What if you get caught in the crossfire?”
“Because I’m a changeling? Rainbow, that's as ridiculous as me saying you can't fight against the Crystal Empire because you're both ponies.”
“Chrysalis’s forces aren't wearing spiked armor and full helmets. In the heat of battle, it could be hard to distinguish Blue from Green.”
“The Green Changelings don't have blue eyes and light blue wings.”
“I just—don't want you hurt.”
Bon Bon lowered her tone. “That's noble, Rainbow, but this is war. Besides, I want to see if we can't recruit some of the Green Changelings to our side.”
“I’d gladly lead the pegasi of Ursa Company with my sister,” said Limestone.
“It might be a good idea to send up some unicorns, too,” said Shining Armor. “We're going to want the option of dropping behind cover, especially if we're trying to capture changelings instead of kill them.”
“We could send our unicorns, too,” added Pinkamena.
“Anypony else?” asked Rainbow. Nopony answered. “Well, it looks like that's that. We'll meet tomorrow after the mission. Everypony should be ready to leave by sunset. We'll arrive at Cloudsdale just as it starts to get dark. Dismissed.”
As the other ponies rose to leave, Starlight looked over at Sunburst, who was the only other pony already standing. “So, where are you headed?”
“I’ve got to get back to the workshop. Rainbow Dash asked to try out one of the—”
“Hey, Starlight,” Rainbow interrupted. “Got a moment?”
Starlight glanced at Sunburst, then back at Rainbow. “Uh, sure. What's up?”
“I want you to take Twilight here to the east end of the firing range. I'll be there in a bit.” She turned her head. “You ready, Sunburst?”
“Ready if you are.”
Twilight approached as Rainbow and Sunburst walked off. “So, it looks like we're headed out to the firing range,” said Twilight.
“Yeah. Looks like.”
“That sounds like fun.”
Twilight didn't say anything on the way out to the firing range. She didn't say anything once they got there either unless Starlight said something first. The silence from the stoic mare was unsettling. She felt like a blank slate with no personality of any sort. Starlight tried not to jump to conclusions—not judge a book by her cover—but Twilight seemed more like an encyclopedia than a novel, or for that matter, a character in one of them. When at last Rainbow appeared wearing an alchemic horn, Starlight could hardly have been happier.
“There you are! What are we doing out here?”
“Magic lessons,” she replied.
“But you know I can't do magic,” said Twilight. “Why—did you bring me here—for your lessons?” Magical energy arced from her horn. Starlight wondered where had that emotion been a moment ago.
“Because you need magic lessons too.”
“You think it's that easy?” she asked, taking a step forward. “You think I didn't try that already?” Her horn formed a white aura and her body lifted off the ground. “Three magic schools, two magic teachers, and my brother are all casualties of my—” She began hyperventilating. “Must—not—feel. Internalize it—” She closed her eyes and tucked her legs in. She floated down to the ground, and a white aura formed around her body. Soon she began shivering violently and sweating, and her breathing sped up once again.
Starlight approached and placed a hoof on her shoulder. Her horn soon glowed with a cyan aura. “Twilight, look at me.”
“The last time I tried looking at somepony while having one of these fits, I shot them in the face.”
“It won't happen again. Just look at me.” She rolled Twilight onto her back, but the mare’s eyes remained closed. “Twilight, I'm casting a spell, and I need your eye contact.”
It took a moment, but Twilight’s eyes slowly opened. Within seconds, the aura around Twilight's horn and body began to fade. Twilight rolled onto her side and continued shivering.
“There. Your magic should now be stable enough to use safely.”
“Do you feel any better?” asked Rainbow.
“I feel—cold,” she whispered. “And—fatigued.”
“You're still recovering from your own magic,” said Starlight. “Those aren't side effects of the spell, at least not as far as I know.” Twilight gave off another shudder. “Give it a moment. Your magic hasn't been properly balanced since you were a filly.”
“While we wait, I guess I could explain what we're doing,” said Rainbow. “First, I need weapons training with an alchemic horn. Second, Twilight obviously has a lot of magic potential, seeing as she's the Element of Magic in an alternate universe. Lastly, we also need to test how difficult it is to wield an alchemic horn. No use green-lighting a weapon that takes a year to learn.”
“Well, I guess that depends on how you want to use it,” Starlight said as Twilight moaned and rolled over onto her belly.
“Ideally, we’d be using it as standard equipment. Chrysalis can field soldiers with skill sets as diverse as alicorns. They can fly, they can raise shields, they can levitate objects in their environment, and they can fire magic; if we had troops that could match them, we could be their equals in terms of power. It would also give us an advantage over Sombra’s forces.”
“If you're waiting for me,” said Twilight, “you can go ahead and start.” She was now lying with her head raised.
“You sure?” asked Starlight.
“Yeah,” Twilight said as she rose to her hooves. “I’m fine.”
“Perfect. Let's get started,” said Rainbow.
“What did you have in mind?” asked Starlight.
“Let's try shields.”
“Shields. Good choice. First, I want you to feel shielded.”
Rainbow cocked her head. “What?”
“I’m supposed to—feel?”
“A unicorn's power is directly proportional to her emotions,” Starlight explained.
“Or exponentially proportional in my case,” said Twilight.
“We fixed that. You should be fine now.” Twilight dropped her gaze and stared at the ground. “Are you ready to give it try?”
“I guess.”
“Sure.”
“Great! Emotions are the first half; willpower is the second. The two are similar and closely related, but willpower is used for skill, not power. Imagine the type of shield you want to create; see it; feel it. Call upon emotions that make you feel protected in order to pull together enough power, then use your willpower to put that power to work by making a shield.”
Rainbow closed her eyes, while Twilight took a tentative step backwards. Rainbow flared out her wings and threw her head high as a magenta aura formed around her alchemic horn. Twilight watched Rainbow with ears laid against her head.
“Doing great, Rainbow! Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“What’s going on?”
Twilight bit her lip. “I—I can’t.”
“Yes you can, Twilight. I know you can.”
“My magic has only ever hurt ponies.”
“It won't anymore.”
With a grunt and a forwards flap of her wings, Rainbow projected a magenta dome around herself. “Heh. I did it.”
Starlight raised a hoof and leaned forward. “That’s amazing!” A sly smile crept onto her face. “Do you—mind if I test how strong it is?”
“How do you do that?”
“By firing at it.” Rainbow was visibly taken aback. “I won’t hit you. I’ll aim high.”
Rainbow turned to face Starlight. “Ok.” She lowered her stance and raised her wings.
Starlight charged her horn and fired a single burst of magic. Rainbow grunted, and her shield shattered with hardly any resistance. She folded her wings as she returned to a normal standing posture. “What happened?”
“You did great. Creating a shield on your first try is more than most unicorns can do. Just because it broke doesn’t mean you failed.
“You just cast a spell called Defendere,” she continued.
“De-fend air-ray?”
“Yeah. It’s Pony Latin. It predates even Old Ponish. All pre-classical spells have a Pony Latin name. Some from later eras don’t; Star Swirl was notorious for flipping between the two, sometimes even in the same text.”
“Why does the spell have a name if I don’t have to know it in order to cast it?”
“It’s mostly so we can codify and organize them. Have you ever tried using a spellbook that doesn’t list all the spells in the same language? It’s horrible. Nothing is where you expect it to be. You look up the Old Ponish name, only to find out it's listed under its Pony Latin name. Make that mistake twenty times during the same sitting, and it'll drive you up the wall. Some spells are more commonly known by their Ponish name like the Want It, Need It spell. Thankfully, later unicorns reclassified it as Vis Necessaria.
“Defendere is the easiest and most basic shield spell. There’s a whole lot you can do with it since it’s so fundamental. You can create exemptions for your allies or weapons to pass through, increase the size, make it a deflection or absorption shield instead, make it a partial or shaped shield, flare your shield outward as a weapon, all kinds of fun stuff.”
“Do they get stronger?”
“That comes with practice. You need to be in touch with your emotions and your will. Envision your aura as a fluid that flows through you. The part of your aura that appears around your horn is just that—a part of your aura. The rest of it resides within you. Through introspection, you can strengthen your connection to your aura, which leads to a strengthening of your magic.”
Rainbow glanced to the side, then did a double take. She looked to her other side, then back to Starlight. “Uh, where’s Twilight?”
Starlight looked all around. Twilight was gone. “I don’t know.” She laid her ears against her head. “Do you think she’s ok?”
“I don’t know. I thought this would help, but…” Rainbow shook her head. “She’s not the one going to Cloudsdale tonight. Let’s get in some more practice.”
“Well—ok,” Starlight said.
Starlight’s words still rang in Twilight's ears. Creating a shield on your first try is more than most unicorns can do. It didn't matter that the pillow and covers were over her head; she couldn't unhear those words.
She’d long since lost track of time by the time somepony knocked on her door. “Twilight?” called a muffled female voice. It was Starlight.
I’m asleep, Twilight told herself.
“Twilight, are you there?” she asked as she knocked again.
No. I’m asleep.
Before long, Twilight heard hoofsteps—her indication that Starlight was departing. Twilight drew a quivering breath and rolled over to face the wall.
Twilight knew she couldn’t hide from her forever. Starlight knew that she lived on the base with her brother, and besides that, she’d be at all the Council meetings with her. But right now, Twilight needed just enough time to fall asleep. If she could stay in her room just that long, she would be fine.
Starlight approached the house she had taken to calling home. She knew this house well from the time she’d spent under house arrest, but it now had a second occupant—the other Starlight.
Starlight opened the door and found Starlight sitting in a chair in the living room, reading a book. “Hey, Starlight,” she called from the chair. “We got mail. I think it’s for you. I left it on the dining room table.”
“How do you know?” Starlight called over her shoulder as she trotted into the next room. “It’s got both our names on it.”
“Yeah, about that… I’ve decided it would make everything simpler if I just changed my name.”
Starlight returned with the envelope in her magic. The other Starlight had stuck a bookmark in her book and set it on the end table between her chair and the couch. “I—I don’t know. I don’t feel right about coming into your world and making you change your name. I’ll change my name and let you keep yours.”
“Really?”
“Sure. I’ll just go by a different name. Something like… Time—Skipper.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Time Skipper?”
“Yeah,” Starlight replied nervously. “Is—that too weird?”
“I thought you went back in time, not skipped ahead.”
“Well, yes. But it would be ‘skip’ as in ‘skipping rocks.’ I’m skipping across time like a rock across a lake.”
Starlight put a hoof to her chin as she gazed upward for a moment. “I kind of like it,” she said with a smile.
“Great! Now we have to figure out which of us this letter is addressed to.”
“It’s from Cloudsdale. I don’t know anypony there. Do you?”
“Cloudsdale?” Time Skipper asked aloud. For the first time since she’d picked up the letter, she looked at the return address. Confused, she walked over to the couch, opened the letter, and began reading.
Dear Starlight Glimmer,
I wanted to say thanks for following up with me at lunch. I’m writing this letter on the air carriage, and I’m going to slip it in with the Manehattan mail as soon as I get back to the post office. Tomorrow, as of when I’m writing this letter, I’m going to go see what’s going on with the Wonderbolts.
“Tomorrow,” Time Skipper muttered. “That’s today! That’s the same time we’ll be in Cloudsdale!”
I hope that by helping the Wonderbolts, I’ll start to make up for my mistakes. I’m not sure how much damage I’ll be able to do alone, but I’m going to try. I’ve still got friends in the ‘Bolts; I won’t let them get captured by the changelings.
Your friend, Lightning Dust.
“No! Lighting Dust!” she moaned. “What are you doing?”
“Who’s Lightning Dust?” asked Starlight.
“No time to explain. I have to get back to base now!”
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To solve the issue of no alicorns why not clone the prime ones? They yave the mirror pool or likely some other way to clone them.
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Act I, both in name and in theme, is Harmony. First, there was disharmony between Starlight and the Council. Then, it was between Rainbow and Spitfire. Bon Bon and Rainbow had a scene a couple chapters ago where they butted heads. More often than not, council meetings have been free-for-all shouting matches. Princess Twilight's words mirror my own: if the Council doesn't learn to work together, they don't have a snowflake's chance in Tartarus.
Adding in cloned alicorns would be one way to force compliance, but it would still be forced compliance, not harmony. Better than nothing, perhaps, but still not ideal. In a world where friendship reigns supreme, maybe it would fix the problem, but maybe it would just delay it.
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Thinking more of terms of power, sun and moon, and morale boost.
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Mirror pool wouldn't work without the actual LIVE alicorns. Even then it wouldn't be the real thing. Remember how clone Pinkies were.
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Talking using the prime veesiobs and the first one was close.
If Glimmer tried to fix the universes she created in the show, I might actually like her.
Nice fic, liked and followed!
Wow, Princess of Friendship, just because she's spent a few weeks and not had her ever waking moment focused on making friends you demand she return? That's a little odd... And really, she should be happy enough that friend shipping is happening despite that lack of focus. And Starlight has been making friends, even if it's still budding...
Permanent Traumatic Stress Disorder Twilight is going to be a real tough cookie to crack. You can physically heal someone, but the mental side.... That's where Starlight will have the next major portion of her friend shipping exam...
Keep going! ;)
Don't know what is going on in AliTwilight's head, but she fails to understand that forging friendships is not some codified, step-by-exact-step process. Each pony must follow their own paths in making friends. If Starlight leaves, she is throwing away the friendship bonds which have already begun to form. If she stays, just by staying, she will be strengthening the bonds that have formed.
As for a new name. One should call herself simply 'Starlight', and the other, 'Glimmer'.