Prisoner of Butterfly Island

by Magic Step

The Whole Truth

Starlight Glimmer’s horn lit up with a teal aura matching her mane streak. The glowing gemstones embedded in the cave wall dimmed, leaving them in near darkness.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Twilight said fearfully.

“Shh, I’m focussing on my illusion spell,” Starlight Glimmer said. A white blob materialized in front of Twilight, slowly taking the shape of a pony. It had both wings and a horn and a wavy man of many colors. As the lines of its face refined, Twilight saw that it was a mare. A mare with eyes that burned with fire and a mouth set in a hard cruel line.

“This is Princess Celestia,” Starlight Glimmer said.

“I remember!” Twilight Sparkle said. “Everyone is always thanking her and praising her.”

“Because they fear her.” The illusory alicorn suddenly threw back its head in a silent cackle, her horn lighting up with blazing fire. “She’s been known to wipe out entire villages in her rage.”

“What!? That’s horrible!” Twilight Sparkle said. “Where is she?”

“She rules the wastelands outside with an iron hoof.” Starlight Glimmer dispelled the illusion and the lights came back on. “And you… are her prisoner.”

“P-prisoner!? Why?” Twilight whimpered.

“She made a horrible mistake,” Starlight Glimmer said. “Power over the sun and fire weren’t enough for her; she wanted immortality. And to get that immortality, she used you as the keystone. As long as you’re alive and happy, she’ll live forever… but this also means you have incredible power. Enough power to destroy her without hurting yourself. So to keep you from ever turning against her, or even finding out her existence, she keeps you as cozy and happy as you could possibly be… without leaving the island. Everypony who comes here is carefully screened and faces severe punishment if they ever reveal the truth to you.”

“That’s why everypony is so afraid when I ask them about the outside…” Twilight felt tears welling in her eyes. “What can I do!?”

Starlight Glimmer smiled benevolently at Twilight. “I knew I could count on you to help. The first step is to get you off the island. Once you escape, the rest will fall into place. You have more power than you could imagine, but this island suppresses your magic.”

All of this sounded so outlandish, but it did explain much of Twilight’s suspicions. Anyway, if she left the island and found out it wasn’t a wasteland, she’d know Starlight had lied to her. Butterfly Island would be gone, but the outside world wouldn’t be that bad. On the other hoof, if Starlight was right, how could she stay here enjoying paradise while ponies were suffering? “How do we leave?” Twilight asked. “The portals in the cave won’t let me through… I tried…”

Starlight Glimmer nodded solemnly. “I know. Princess Celestia thought of that, of course.” The pink unicorn levitated a book over to Twilight. It had a picture of a unicorn, then an arrow pointing to the next picture, where the unicorn now had wings. “I have a spell that can give you wings like a pegasus, but much stronger, so that you can fly to the mainland.”

“But… what will I do when I get there?” Twilight asked.

“You’ve fought changelings, right?” Starlight Glimmer said. “Trust me when I say even if you completely wing it against Celestia, you’ll probably be fine, but don’t worry.” She flipped to another page. “I also have a spell to shrink myself so that I can ride along. I’ll give you more advice once we reach the mainland, but as it is it would take too much explanation and too much time to prepare you for what the mainland is like. We need to get started on this spell right now.”

“Okay, okay. I’m ready.” Twilight closed her eyes and wondered what growing wings felt like.

“...What are you doing?” Starlight deadpanned.

“Um… you can cast the spell now,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“I’m going to be altering your biology and magical aura on a fundamental level; it’s not as simple as a flash of a horn,” Starlight Glimmer said. “Open your eyes again and let me go over this.”

“Oh…” Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, feeling a little silly.

Starlight Glimmer shoved her spell book in Twilight’s face. Now it was a picture of a runic circle with a five pointed star in the middle. Each point of the star had a capital letter next to it, and the paragraphs under the star diagram were each marked with a matching capital letter. Little teal motes danced across the page to highlight the parts of the diagram Starlight was talking about.

“There are five items we need to cast this spell,” Starlight explained. “Each component is a representation of the concepts that go into this transformation. And ideally they aren’t just any objects; they should be saturated in the aura of powerful ponies that have special meaning to you.”

“Oh… like my five friends?” Twilight asked.

“...Yes. Your five jailers,” Starlight muttered.

“Hey!” Twilight said. “That’s not very nice! They’ve stood by me forever and-”

“And lied to you repeatedly and didn’t think twice before trying to trick you into dating a pony you hated!?” Starlight shouted, her face contorted into an evil grimace.

Twilight screamed and backed away, tail between her legs.

Starlight’s face shifted to a worried expression, and she took a deep breath before continuing. “Sorry. I… I just was so upset at them for tricking you like that, and I found it hard to forgive them…”

“You’ve been watching us?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. These spell components are really tricky and I knew that once you knew the truth, we’d be in a very dangerous position, very likely to be found out. So I had to determine which things would be most likely to work in advance.” Starlight Glimmer set the book down, still open to the spell, on a corner of the workbench. “Anyway. First, we need something to represent the new, beautiful growth that we hope to achieve when we create your new wings. Probably a flower. Your friend Fluttershy has a small flower garden, correct?”

“Oh, yes,” Twilight said, “but if we’re looking for growing things, wouldn’t Applejack be a better pony to start with?”

Starlight Glimmer paused before answering. “Well, I said that the objects need to be saturated in the auras of ponies who have been your friends your whole life, right….?”

Twilight felt her stomach sink. She’d long suspected it and long been trying to prove it, but hearing it confirmed was still a small shock. “What happened to the real Applejack?” she whispered.

“It… it would be too hard to explain,” Starlight Glimmer said, suddenly looking sympathetic, like she regretted saying anything.

“Can I save her?” Twilight’s throat was hurting. Please, please, please…

“We… we can try,” Starlight Glimmer said, smiling weakly. “But… right. So. You think you can get Fluttershy to give you a flower?”

“Okay,” Twilight said, her mind elsewhere. “Should I just come back here when I have it?”

“Be extremely careful you’re not followed,” Starlight Glimmer said. “If anypony, even your friends or Shining Armor, suspects anything you may lose your only chance.”

“Even Shining Armor?” Twilight said fearfully.

Starlight Glimmer nodded. “You can’t trust anyone,” she whispered.

The self-contradictory nature of that statement wasn’t lost on Twilight.

***

Twilight made it back to the party just in time to watch Spike light the fireworks. The giant purple dragon, five times the size of any pony and covered all over with green spines, waved at Twilight as she ran up, a sly grin on his face that made him look hungry.

“S-sorry I wasn’t here to greet you,” Twilight said, feathers flying off her hastily redonned gown. “I was looking for ferns--”

“I heard,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “You little ponies are such weaklings.”

“Don’t talk to your adopted mother like that,” Twilight said, glaring at him.

“Well excuse me, princess.” Spike spat a glob of acid into the sand, leaving a blackened crater. He’d gained acid powers in addition to fire powers when he’d grown up, and lost the ability to send mail. All normal for a dragon’s life cycle, according to the book Twilight had ordered from the mainland. “Now that you’re finally here, the party can start.” He dramatically arched his neck while blowing fire to create a figure eight of flame, then, once he had everypony’s attention, he blasted the fireworks in a blazing green inferno. Many of the ponies missed the fireworks because they were trying to put out the grassfire and Spike had set off everything at once instead of sequentially.

“So, Twilight. Anything else?” Spike asked.

“No,” Twilight said, masking her annoyance. She tried to remember what a sweet child he’d been and how she’d told herself she’d never, ever regret having him in her life.

“Then I’d better head back to the lighthouse,” Spike said, before yawning in an exaggeratedly bored manner. “Smell you candy ponies later.” He leapt into the air and divebombed some ponies to startle them. Then he circled higher and higher until he blinked out of existence like everything did when it went too far up.

Twilight stared after him for a moment, then returned her thoughts to earth. She had a mission.

Fluttershy had found an inchworm to spend time with on the far edge of the dance floor. She was quietly cheering it on as it scrambled along the ground.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Eek!” Fluttershy jumped behind a bush and shyly peeked out. “Oh, it’s just you Twilight. How do you like the party?”

“It’s… it’s a little melancholy, since I learned the Cakes will be leaving,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Oh, but we get to keep those adorable Cake babies!” Fluttershy closed her eyes and smiled sweetly.

“Mmm-hmm… Um, anyway, I was thinking of making a bouquet of tropical flowers for them to take home and press,” Twilight said. “You know, since the mainlands have no flowers.”

“Oh, that’s very thoughtful of you, Twilight. You’re such a sweet friend,” Fluttershy said. “Would you like to visit my garden for some flowers? I’d love to make all of you happy.”

This was truly the simplest espionage act ever. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I really appreciate it.”

Twilight followed her friend away from the gently dying party. She began to worry about how easy it was. If Starlight was correct and these friends of hers were really her jailers, why were they so unsuspecting? No, she’d asked Fluttershy for flowers many times. Surely this didn’t mean Starlight was mistaken…or lying.

Comments

[Viper Pit]

and the mystery thiccens

[Book_Wyrm]

Oh, this is fun. Who's right and who's lying. Who can you trust.