Ponyville Adjusts To Starlight

by The REAL Mister Pkmn

Incident Five: Hurricane Sunset

When morning came, Starlight woke blearily. There wasn’t any construction today, which was odd. Nevertheless, it was a welcome change from yesterday. Starlight was feeling a bit strange, as if something wasn’t quite right, but she couldn’t quite figure it out. She found her way to her bathroom so she could freshen up. She went through the motions of coming her mane, and then splashed her face to help her wake up. She looked into the mirror and froze. Starlight stared at her reflection with a mortified expression and screamed. Her slim figure was ...! Gone! How’d she become this pudgy overnight? Her thoughts raced at speeds unlike ever before as she tried to figure it out, but then it became clear who the culprit was. Her blood boiled as her anger rose and her eye twitched. She couldn’t stop herself from yelling at the top of her lungs. “SUUUUUUUNSEEEEEET!”

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Across town, Berry Punch awoke blearily. Had there been some sort of sonic boom? She couldn’t be sure. She got up to make her favorite breakfast, but when she went for a taste… It was bland. Her eyes shot open wide. She took another taste, and it was just as bland. It a panic, she rummaged through the fridge. She took out all the food she could, and took a taste of each. Apples. Bland! Pears. Bland! Strawberries. Bland! Grapes. Bland! She crumpled to the floor, hyperventilating. Her sense of taste had never failed her before… and now, nothing had taste anymore. How could this’ve happened? “What’s happening to me…?”

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Up in the clouds, Thunder woke up far more groggily than she ever had before. She felt so much more sluggish than she had before. Everything she did felt like it was at a painful crawl. Getting out of bed, she dragged herself slowly across the floor. For whatever reason, she felt she’d no energy for her usual speed. Something clearly was wrong, but she couldn’t seem to put her hoof on what. She shrugged, figuring that she’d worry about it later. “Meh, probably nothing…”

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Elsewhere, Crescendo was panicking. No sound was coming out of her mouth. She’d noticed as soon as she yawned silently as she woke. She’d never thought that she’d go mute! How was she going to give interviews about her conducting now? She also noticed that Thunder was being much too quiet today… With a nod, she went to check on her.

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Cherry had woken when she’d heard Starlight yelling. She sighed, and got out of bed. But when she looked down, she yelped. “My crystal sheen! IT’S GOOOONE!” Tears welled up as she collapsed on the floor. “How’ll everyone celebrate the first famous Crystal Pony chef if I don’t have my crystal sheen?”

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Serenity had noticed something wrong when she started to smell herself as rotten. No matter what she did, the stench wouldn’t go away. With a nod, she decided to go to the agreed meeting place in a scenario like this… the town library.

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Starlight could hardly believe that she‘d agreed to meet here, but that was nothing compared to what awaited her as her friends joined her. Berry came in first, not looking too different, aside from her constant crying. Crescendo dragged Thunder in soon after, with no words coming from Crescendo as Thunder seemed far too apathetic. When Cherry came in, Starlight noticed immediately Serenity’s distress about her crystal sheen being gone. Finally, Serenity came in smelling repugnant. Starlight growled. “I don’t know how she did it, but this has Sunset’s hooves all over it. This is all to get back at us!”

Thunder shrugged. “You sure…? I don’t see what’s wrong…”

Crescendo pointed to her mouth, an angry look on her face. Starlight levitated a piece of paper and pen over to her, and she wrote a single line down before showing it to the others. It read: “I’ve gone mute, and Thunder is apathetic. Starlight is overweight, Cherry’s lost her shine, Serenity reeks to high heaven, and Berry insists that everything tastes bland to her. What sort of magic could Sunset obtain to do this to us?”

Starlight shrugged with a sigh. “I don’t know. How Sunset did this is beyond me, but there has to be a cure.” She looked around the library with a grimace. “We have no choice. Maybe there’s a medical book here somewhere, or a book that describes what did this to us. We need to find it, so…” She looked around to her friends. “Split up and look for books that might help. I’ll… I’ll do so too. We need to kick this thing, somehow…” A nod was shared among them- though Thunder just shrugged. The girls separated to look through the library, combing through all the shelves. It wasn’t long before they returned to the center room, a few books in tow.

Crescendo wrote something on the paper, and held it so that the group could see. “One of these must have it, so we should all leaf through them until we find the right one.” A nod went through the group as five of them grabbed a book to read and Thunder sluggishly began to doze off.

Each of them rummaged through the books, until Starlight stumbled upon one with a peculiar title: Supernaturals: Antidotes that are Naturally Super. Shrugging, she figured that she might as well read it. She read carefully until she found a certain page. She turned to her friends, and smirked. “Hey, I think I found something!” She beckoned them over, and most of them came on their own. She pointed to the page confidence oozing. “A cure for Poison Joke. That’s gotta be what Sunset used on us.” She stood, keeping the book in her magic grasp. “Well, looks like we’re going back to the Everfree. That’s where all the ingredients are, so…” She had a firm look on her face. It’d take more than a flower to shake her, and Sunset would learn that soon enough.

Author's Note:

Well now, seems that when the chips are down, Starlight will stop at nothign to solve an issue, even if she has to read.