My Little Pony Tales: Quest To Babylon

by Phoxjes Rome

The Next Morning...

My Little Pony Tales: Quest To Babylon

Chp. 2: The Next Morning...

Without even remembering what she was doing or where she was a second ago, Starlight found herself in a cosmos space of some sort. Strangely, she found herself able to walk on outer space, including ascending and descending at any point, as if she was climbing up or down stairs.

"Where am I?" Starlight asked herself, seemingly having no concept of a dream. As this question pondered through her head, she began to notice that the more she walked through the galaxy, the bigger the stars appeared to be, and they actually started to look like actually stars.

What's more, these bigger stars looked a lot less like the burning gases in space that you were taught in physics class, and more like the five pointed shapes that children draw in sketch books.

"How did I get here? Am I still dreaming? If so, couldn't I have dreamt of my future wedding with Ace instead of this?" She asked herself, with a small chuckle.

"This is a little more serious than your hopes for your future, Starlight!" A voice called out to her from out of nowhere. Looking around again, there didn't appear to be any one there.

"Wow, I'm in outer space and now I can hear my own subconscious."

"I'm not your subconscious, and this is a special type of dream." The voice announced again. As Starlight was looking around for the source of it, she noticed a small glowing star shaped light approaching her. The light began to expand more and more, until a hoof took a step out of it, and onto the walkway that Starlight found herself on.

As the hoof moved forwards towards her, Starlight took a step backwards. She then saw that another hoof came out, following the first one. The yellow hooves had golden rings on the fetlocks, and more matching rings around her cannon bones.

After she poked her head through the gap in space, Starlight took a better look at her face. Her mane appeared to be long and flowing, and was a mixture of blue and pink. Her eyes were cerulean blue, and for some reason, her pupils were in the shape of stars as well.

This girl looked as though she was the same age, if not slightly older than her. What was noticeable though was the fact that this girl had a horn on top of her head.

"If your not my subconscious, then who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"My name is Star. You, your friends, and even your enemies are in very grave danger." Star replied. "Now you need to listen-"

As she tried to continue, Star began to fade away from her sight, before reappearing a second later.

"Are you okay?" Starlight asked.

"I'm fine. Now listen, I know we've only just met, but believe me: I'm your friend." Star answered, just before she almost disappeared a second later. She still reappeared though, so the conversation continued.

"Okay I believe you." Starlight told her new acquaintance, rushing over to help her from fading again. "But what do you want from me? And how are we in danger? Who are my enemies? What's going on?"

"Starlight, you can tell I don't have much time, so the more questions you ask-" Star almost disappeared again, before reforming for a forth time. "-Then the longer we're gonna be here. Now listen, Illiux is going to-"

That was the last thing that she said, before the light behind her closed entirely, pulling the mysterious girl with her.

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Upon awakening the next morning, Starlight got up from her bed and stretched her fore legs above her head and let out a sigh. Last night really was one to remember: the pillow fights, the makeovers, the gossip, the occasional prank (mostly at Sweetheart's expense), Truth-or-dare, cookies, board games, pretty much everything anyone could imagine girls that age get up to.

Starlight rubbed her eyes, to get the sleep out of her, before scratching the back of her head, feeling how much her hair was scattered all over her head.

"Bed head, much?" She heard Melody's voice ask her from the side of her bed.

"Y-Yeah, I guess." Starlight yawned. As she turned her head to look at her friends, she heard the sound of something that sounded like paper rusting towards her.

"Well, if you really wanna go back to sleep..." Starlight heard Patch's voice inform her, as she held something right in front of her. "I'm sure one look at this little "Dreamboat" will send you right off." Patch finished with a laugh.

The other girls tried to hide their own laughter as Starlight looked at what was right in front of her. The eyes that she had just been clearing a second ago then widened in terror at what was being held right there. It was an A2 size poster of Ace. More specifically, it was HER poster of Ace.

There he was, the handsome jock from the school, teeth shining, the cocky look on his face, the soccer ball in his hoof, the image she knew all too well.

"Where did you find this?" Starlight whispered as her heart skipped a beat. Her answer came in the form of the girls pointing at her wardrobe. The secret cabinet door was opened, the one place that she kept a secret from everyone she knew, including her own parents.

"Why didn't you tell us you built a shrine to Ace?!" Patch laughed so hard that it could be considered dangerous to health.

"That's my shrine! No one but me is allowed to go in there! How did you get in there?!" Starlight demanded to know from her friends, almost bursting into tears as she spoke.

"Let's have another look..." Melody said as she rummaged through more of Starlight's property. "A pen he threw away, posters, a lock of his mane, his old jersey, and even a sweatband."

"This is comedy gold." Patch laughed at Starlight, who was now burying her head in between her pillows. "Oh, oh, hold on, it gets better! Starlight, these aren't lipstick marks on here, are they?" Looking at the poster, at Ace's handsome face, Patch felt the pink oval marks, noticing that most of them were around his mouth.

The whole room almost burst out into laughter at the misery and embarrassment of Starlight, as she was covering her face as much as possible.

Sweetheart walked over to Starlight's bed where she was, and began to start sorting her hairstyle out.

"It's okay, Starlight, I think it's really sweet. A little strange, but sweet." She told her, running a brush through her hair.

"But how did you girls find the key for my shrine?" Starlight asked the girl, lifting her head from the pillow and looking at them. "This is so embarrassing..." She added quietly.

"Well, call me an over thinker, but I don't think that putting the key for it right in plain sight inside of your table's top drawer is a smart place to hide it." Clover replied, holding the key in her hoof, and pointing at her makeup table.

"Okay, yeah, but I still- wait a moment." Starlight said, as Sweetheart finished with her mane. She walked over to the table and pulled back the drawer.

"It should have been..." She felt the top of the drawer, and looked in confusion as the tape that had held the key appeared to have been cut open, allowing the key to fall to the bottom of the drawer. Starlight then proceeded to pull the drawer out and stick her head inside of the table, so that she could get a better look at it.

"How's this happened?!" Starlight exclaimed as she saw that tape was broken by something sharp.

"Maybe it fell out, or something." Patch answered, taking the key from Clover Bloom and handing it back over to Starlight.

"Keys don't just fall out, and tape doesn't just break. Somehow, this has been cut open, but who and why?"

"We'll think about that later, okay?" Bon-Bon told the girls, walking into the room. "Starlight, your mom just called us from the Ice-cream shop. Firstly school's apparently been closed down for ANOTHER week."

4 of the girls cheered at the news that they'd just been told. The two who looked disappointed were Bright-Eyes, because of her desire to learn, and Starlight due her inability to see her role model for another week.

"But, she also said that she wants to see us down there, ASAP. No idea why, but apparently it's urgent."

"Well then, let's get going." Starlight told the girls.

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"This better be good." Patch said, strolling towards the shop. "I got outta bed for this."

"Who knows?" Sweetheart said to the girls. "Maybe the colts will have something to do with it."

"Wait, you're hoping that Teddy might have something to do with the Ice-cream shop needing us urgently?" Bright-Eyes interjected.

"Well, for once, that might actually be a good thing, because at least then we know he's safe." Starlight answered.

"Hey, isn't that him over there with Ace and Lancer?" Clover said to the girls, grabbing all of their attention, causing them to look in the direction that she was now pointing in.

The seven of them saw the colts in the distance. The blue colt with the Mohawk and sunglasses, the athletic blonde pony and the rich colt with the Fleur-De-Lys.

"I think so." Starlight answered again. "Sorry mom, but I'll be right back. Hey boys!! What're yo-" She was then cut off as she saw something completely random right in front of her. It was a glass panel, about twice as tall as she was. The panel was yellow/gold and see-through, despite the fact that she could see herself and her friends right behind her. It was almost like a magical window.

"What the?" Starlight asked herself, as she took a step backwards. barely a second later, another panel sowed up, the same size and shape as the first one. then another one came, then another, then another. About seven lined up next to each other, leading to the side of the Ice-cream shop door.

"What are those things?" Bon-Bon asked, for some reason thinking that her friends would know the answer.

"Seriously, you're asking us that?" Patch answered her. Just then the door opened, and the panels began to glow brightly. A pony walked out of the door, and the panels started to shrink in size and float into the hooves of whoever just walked out.

The pony was way older than the girls were, had a dark yellow coat, and a blonde, parted, blown-dried mane, reaching from their forehead to their spine. They were also wearing a long sleeved white preppy shirt and aqua berry sweater.

The pony looked at the panels in their hoof, before something on his forehead lit up and caused them to disappear.

"You're a Unicorn!" Clover said to them, without thinking. Whoever they were, they looked down onto the filly that had just spoken.

"Yes, and you're a beautiful young lady. Have you ever been told that?" He was quick to reply. Clover blushed at the comment, and also at the fact that there was a handsome Unicorn speaking to her. Even the other girls couldn't take their eyes off of him.

"Pardon me, my dear." He said, as he walked up to Starlight. "I'm looking for a young lady, by the name of Star. My name is Illiux. Have you seen here recently?"

Starlight looked in shock at the name that he had just mentioned. Seeing her reaction, Illiux knew that she saw Star in the dream last night.

"I think you're talking to her now, Mr. Illiux." Sweetheart commented.

"Yes, perhaps I am." He lied. "Your mother is wondering where you and your beautiful friends are; she seems to want to you for your assistance."

"Oh, okay." Starlight said, still unsure about him. "Yeah, uh, we were just going in to see her."

"Oh, that should be quite a load off of her mind. Because, for a moment there, I thought you were going to disobey her, and walk over to see those boys."

The girls looked in surprise at his last comment, as a warm smile grew onto his face.

"I must bid you auf wiedersehen, ladies." Illiux said to them, before walking away. "But before I leave, a question I must propose to you: Which one of you is Sweetheart?"

"I am." Sweetheart raised her hoof, in answer to him.

"I see. I must say, fräulein, you're a lot more beautiful than Teddy described."

"Teddy!? You know Teddy?" Sweetheart asked.

"I'm a... friend, of his mother. But enough about that, I have a duty to fulfill. Now this will NOT be the last time you see me." Illiux finished, walking away from the shop.

"Wow, he was almost as strange as that Goose girl we spoke to last night." Melody scratched her head. "But, he's still kinda hot."

"I think her name was Swan." Bright-Eyes corrected.

"Gorgeous..." Bon-Bon whispered.

"I hope I see him again." Clover added.

"Come on girls, get a grip." Starlight told them, looking superior. "We're needed in there, now no more distractions."

The seven girls walked into the store, as they had thought Illiux was gone by now. However, once he noticed that they left, he changed his direction and walked towards the colts.

"Foolhardy and predictable." He said to himself, as the colts began to disappear in the same light that the panels did.

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"WHAT?! SOMEONE'S TRYING TO BY OUT THE STORE?!" Starlight asked her mother, in the back room of the shop.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. And unless we somehow manage to meet their price before Thursday, then this place won't be ours anymore." She replied to the girls.

"Why didn't you just say no to the proposition?" Patch asked.

"I did, but then they reminded me that this shop is a publicly invested business, meaning that anyone who meets the price that this store is worth has all the legal procedures to purchase this property, and all of it's belongings."

"Uh..." Patch said.

"She said that she has no power to say no, and that she needs money, badly." Bright-Eyes explained. "What was the designated price, by the way?"

"80 000 Jangles." The motherly mare answered. There was a moment of silence, preferably from the fact that nopony had a reply to the answer.

"... Anyone else hoping that Lancer is feeling generous?" Clover finally spoke up.

"If your talking about that colt from the rich family, then I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you girls again, by telling you that they're away on an apparent business trip, and they won't be back until tomorrow."

"Hold on, That's what Swan told us last night." Sweetheart reminded the girls.

"Who told you what last night?" Starlight's mother asked the girls.

"We tried to speak with some of the colts from school last night, but this Swan girl spoke to us, instead of them, and she said that the boys would be "ready" tomorrow." Sweetheart answered.

"Yeah, but we don't know for sure if where he is has anything to do with Swan."

"Anyway, who is trying to buy out the shop? What do they want from it?" Bon-Bon asked.

"He's a very wealthy young stallion by the name of Illiux." As she finished this sentence, the girls hearts skipped a beat. Knowing that they had just spoken with the same stallion who was now looking at ruining the lives of Starlight's family, it was hard for any of them to say a thing.

"This is a joke, right?" Starlight muttered to herself.

"From what I could tell, he was planning to buy out the shop, renovate it, and transform it into a state-of-the-art health club."

"Why would he want to do that?" Melody asked. "Furthermore, where did this idea come from? Turning an Ice-cream shop into a expanded workout club? What's wrong with Shapes?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't let him do this." Bright-Eyes replied. "This place is far too important to let it be taken from us."

"You can't stop him..." Patch could have sworn that she heard a voice tell her. She looked around for a second, only to realize that no one was there. Although, this voice sounded pretty familiar, like she heard it one other time a long time ago.

"Did you girls just hear something?" She asked her friends, at the risk of sounding paranoid.

"No, why?" Sweetheart asked in reply.

"It's already done..." The voice told her again. The voice wasn't necessarily deep, but was fairly booming. Every word that it said sounded as though it had a faint echo after it, making the voice seem illusionary.

Patch took another look around the shop, looking for whoever it was talking to her. The other girls caught on to her, and looked at each other in confusion.

"Patch, if you've finished over there, can you focus on this please?" Clover asked her friend, causing her to turn around.

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"So, any thoughts on this Illiux guy?" Melody started the conversation between herself and her friends, as they walked back to Coltonville square.

"He's a rich jerk?" Patch said, without having to waste a second, "But a hot one..." She added quietly.

"Where did he come from?" Bright-Eyes added to the conversation.

"Does he have Teddy?" Sweetheart worried to herself.

"Why does he think Coltonville needs a second gym?" Clover asked the girls.

"If we keep asking questions to each other, then we'll just end up going nowhere." Starlight announced to the girls around her, stopping them all into a circle.

"Yeah, but it's not like there's a lot we can do right now." Bon-Bon said back to her.

"That's not true! We can still find a way to raise all the money we need before 4 days; we already did it once, so we can do it again."

"Yeah, but last time we only needed 200 jangles to buy a teaset, and really we only pulled that off because Lancer helped us at the last second." Melody reminded her. "This time, we need 400 times that amount to save a shop, and Lancer can't help us even if he wanted to. There's no way we can do this by ourselves."

"Maybe not, but who says it needs to be by ourselves?" Starlight replied. "We'll get everyone that we can to help: friends, family, public, fans, anyone that we know who can lend a jangle or two. We'll try everything we can, from bakes sales to concerts, and everything in-between to save what we love."

The girls smiled at the motivational speech that they were now being given.

"The school... I don't know what's happened to miss Hackney, but now, more than ever, I'm determined to find out, because students are not just allowed off school for no reason, and therefore we will not accept it this way. Whatever happened, it can't be better than what's happening here, and so we can't let it happen."

The others started to become more determined by what was being said.

"And I know that we may not be their closest friends in the world, but Teddy, Ace and Lancer need our help, and one day we may need theirs in return. We are not about to give up on them, the same way that they wouldn't, even on us, or themselves. Whatever this 'Illiux' and 'Swan' are planning to do with them, and the shop, we can't fail at this point in life."

Starlight walked closer into the middle of the circle and extended her hoof.

"Now who's with me?" She rhetorically asked them, knowing that they would all join her. The seven of them all had their hooves touching together.

Without warning, a bright light showed up in the sky above them. The seven girls broke the connection and looked above to where the light was, and the light began to illuminate brighter.

Eventually the light revealed itself to be some sort of star shower descending over the sky. Although appearing as a bit random at first, the girls took it upon themselves to take a closer look at the shower out of nowhere.

"Um, I don't think that's normal." Bright-Eyes told her friends, as if it wasn't obvious. The stars in the sky actually began to approach the girl's direction, towards where they were standing.

Noticing this, the ponies instincts would have told them to evacuate the area. Six of them did, trusting their common sense and running away. All of them, except for Starlight herself, who surprisingly felt as if the falling stars were calling out to her.

"Starlight, what are you doing?!" Patch yelled to her friend. She got no response, almost as if she could hear her friend.

"We need to get out of here! NOW!" Melody called to the same filly. Still no reply.

The only thing that Starlight could do right now was stare directly into what the other girls thought was her approaching doom. What the girls found strangest of all though, was the fact that Starlight looked as though she knew exactly what was going to happen the second those stars made contact.

Inevitably, the falling comets were low enough to hit the girls below. However, right before the stars above could impact the surface beneath, they all appeared to stop midair. Without any warning, the apparent impending death right in front of the girls just halted.

That was, until, the stars had a glowing light right in the center of them. The bright lights, now extending the reach from the stars above, began to envelop the seven girls.

Before any of them could say anything about what was happening, the illumination swallowed them all, blinding everything around them.

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As you would probably expect from the protagonist, Starlight was the first of her friends to wake up from the unconscious state that she and her friends were now in.

"Urgh... Where... am...?" She asked herself, before looking around to find herself in a similar, if not identical cosmos as from last night's dream. The space, coloring, and even strange stars in the distance were all back, replicating the scene from the previous encounter.

However, Starlight then noticed one more additional detail this time, that she really didn't know how to feel about. Her friends, like herself, were all sealed within some star shaped barriers. Each one of the seven were kept separate from each other, preventing any kind of communication. What was even more worrying to her though, was the fact that she saw that all of her friends were still unconscious.

Author's Note:

The newest OC, Star, is a character based off of my youngest sibling.