Prisoner of Butterfly Island

by Magic Step

A Common Goal

Starlight screamed and conjured a quick teal shield. “Twilight! No!” she shouted.

“What else have you lied to me about!?” Twilight kept a steady beam of magic pouring into Starlight’s shield. It made her head ache, but surely Starlight would cave first. “Was Celestia ever real!? Did you make me steal from my friends for your own sick amusement!? Were you-”

A sudden concussive blast of magic knocked Twilight backwards and into a desk. Her entire body tingled with numbness.

Starlight groaned in pain as she struggled to her hooves. She stiffly walked over to Twilight. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” she said. “I’m sorry, Tw--why are you laughing?”

Twilight’s voice sounded weak and strange as she giggled. “You blew your hand, didn’t you? All this time you’ve claimed I’m the strongest pony alive, with magic strong enough to take out a princess that burns whole villages, and yet you ended me in a few minutes.”

Starlight blinked, stunned. “No, wait, you… you don’t know anything about magic! Don’t draw conclusions like that! I beat you because Celestia is suppressing your power! Stop talking nonsense, Twilight!”

She looked genuinely baffled but Twilight didn’t trust her instincts anymore. “You still haven’t explained the changeling, though! If your presence was truly secret they wouldn’t know to imitate you!”

“I…” Starlight’s expression relaxed to contemplation. “I… I don’t know… how to explain that.”

“Ha!” Twilight said. “You disgust me. I can’t believe I ever listened to you. I’m telling my brother--”

“And what about Applejack?” Starlight asked. “You’re going to throw away your chance to save her because the ponification of pure evil did something neither of us can explain? You plan to spend the rest of your life trying to pretend that faker is your real friend?”

Twilight quietly reflected on all the time she’d spent with Applejack, before the poor girl had snapped. All the times they’d saved each other’s lives. All the things Applejack had taught her about farming. The way she made everypony feel welcome.

Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry!”

“Shh…” Starlight wrapped her arms stiffly around Twilight. “Sorry, I’m not very good at this comforting thing, but… but I’m not mad. I understand how hard you must find it to believe I only have your best interest at heart…”

Twilight gently unwound Starlight’s legs and looked her in the eye. “You have no idea why that changeling sounded like you?”

“None at all!” Starlight said.

“If they know you’re here, then… then are we exposed?” Twilight asked.

“If anypony knew for sure I was here or that you knew the truth about the island, they wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever it took to restore the status quo. Maybe they’d even force you to forget everything you ever learned, or make you regress to an infant.” Starlight telekinetically pulled her spellbook over. “So, let’s hurry and get the last two ingredients for the spell.”

Twilight was shivering at the thought of having her memory erased. “What’s left…? Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash?”

“Next will be Rainbow Dash,” Starlight Glimmer said. “We need something to symbolize accomplishment in flight.”

“That’s Rainbow all over,” Twilight said wistfully. Then she started. “I’m not going to cut off her wings am I!?”

“No, no, why would you think that?” Starlight Glimmer said, looking offended. “I just want one of her trophies or medals or something like that. Must be a first place one though.”

“Oh! Ahahaha, of course, silly me,” Twilight said. “Sure, I’m sure she won’t miss one... “ Well… then again, Rainbow Dash was kind of overprotective of them. Maybe she did count them all…

***

Actually, the hardest part about getting into Rainbow Dash’s trophy case would be getting into Rainbow Dash’s house.

Rainbow Dash lived in a palm tree grove. Once it had been very misty, but Rainbow Dash had coaxed every little wisp together to make an elaborate set of cloud platforms that made up her jungle tree house. It had been designed purely for her own comfort and use; she could always hang out with her ground-bound friends somewhere else. The exception was that every now and then she’d personally lift someone up to look at her trophy case. But that would hardly work for Twilight’s purposes, since Rainbow would be in physical contact with her the whole time, and looking directly at the things Twilight wanted to steal.

Twilight circled Rainbow Dash’s palm grove, collecting palm leaves. She had a cover story about wanting to measure palm leaves for a science project, in case anypony interrupted her. She could hear Rainbow snoring; that mare did love her naps.

She debated using a balloon to get close enough to use telekinesis. But the palm grove was too thick. And Pinkie Pie’s flying bicycle was too noisy, even if Twilight did manage to borrow it.

This was so frustrating! She even knew the approximate cloud the trophy case was on. She could put her hoof right on the tree that the case rested against…

Twilight did so, and started to laugh. Who needed to fly to get something out of a tree? If she wanted to save Applejack, she’d have to act like Applejack.

Standing an ideal distance from the tree, she took a deep breath and remembered everything Applejack had ever told her.

“In this moment nothing matters but the strike. Throw all the power you can into the stroke and let gravity do the rest sugarcube!”

Twilight shifted her weight ot her front legs, then kicked out with her back legs.

Pain shot up her back half as she made contact and she fell right over. Just like every time she tried this.

Twilight punched the sand in frustration. Then she heard a creaking noise above. She scrambled to her hooves and whirled around, staring intently at the clouds above, her heart in her mouth. Creak… creak…

Then with a jangly tumbling crash, a giant glass display case filled with trophies and medals smashed into the ground beneath the palm tree grove, scattering glass and other sparkly items everywhere.

Twilight could barely restrain the urge to dance with joy. Then she heard Rainbow Dash screaming.

“Noooo!” Rainbow Dash dove out of a nearby tree. “How could this happen!?”

“I don’t know! Maybe it was the wind?” Twilight said. “I was just walking by and it just fell…”

“No talking! Help me gather these up!” Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown as she scooped up trophies and carried them back to her cloud house.

There was no more perfect setup Twilight could have asked for. She was literally ordered to collect medals, and Rainbow Dash would be ducking in and out of sight. She telekinetically picked up dozens of medals and subtly slid one among her palm leaves. When Rainbow Dash swooped back down she helpfully held a bundle of them up so that Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to land.

In ten seconds flat, the sand was clean of medals and trophies, and Rainbow Dash flopped under the palm tree, panting.

“You okay?” Twilight asked.

“F-fine… just a little panicked… that’s all…” Rainbow Dash slowly stood on her hooves again and stretched like a cat. “I’d better count them just in case…”

“Okay; I’m off to study these,” Twilight said, lifting her palm leaves into her saddlebag. “Glad I could lend a hoof!”

“I just don’t know what went wrong,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself as Twilight turned aside and trotted away.

Twilight smiled to herself; she was getting pretty good at this. One more item to go…

She made it to the Sugarcube Sundaes playset before Rainbow Dash suddenly zipped in front of her.

“Twilight!! You didn’t happen to see anyone odd around the grove, did you?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“Odd? N-no, there was nopony around, just me collecting palm leaves…” Twilight said.

“Huh.” Rainbow Dash’s lip curled into a snarl. “That’s surprising. Because there are scuff marks all over the palm tree next to my display case, like the case fell over because somepony hit the tree…”

“You can tell they were put there just now?” Twilight said, trying to hide her fear with innocent surprise. Her eyebrows were probably unnaturally high.

“They were fresh.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “And you’re really sure you didn’t see anypony or hear anything?”

Oh dang. She should have invented a mysterious pony, but now she was stuck. “N-no. I wonder what could have happened?” She let her terror show on her face as she said “Wh-what if it’s a new changeling trick? Turning invisible?”

“They can’t turn themselves invisible; just into other-” Rainbow Dash gasped.

“Other what?” Twilight said.

“Other, um, pests. Yeah. From pests to pests. It, uh, sounded better in my head,” Rainbow Dash said. Then she shook her head as if getting water out of her mane. “Quit distracting me! This is serious! That medal meant a lot to me!”

“What did it look like?” Twilight asked. “I can help you look for it once I get these palm leaves to my house.”

“You really can’t help right now!?” Rainbow Dash said, looking anxious.

“Rainbow, come on. It’s not like your medal is running away and if you don’t chase it now, it’ll have too much of a head start. Can’t you search the whole island in under an hour anyway?” Twilight said.

“Y-you’re right; you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Go on and finish… I… I shouldn’t worry anypony else with my problems…” Rainbow Dash flew back the way she came, looking forlorn.

Twilight hoped that would be the end of that. It hurt to see one of her best friends looking so down.

Especially since she’d caused it.

***

Starlight was drawing a five-pointed star on the cave floor when Twilight entered.

“Oh, hi. Was just getting started,” Starlight said.

“I thought I had one more item to go,” Twilight said.

“You do, but this kind of thing is finicky.” Starlight brushed chalk dust out of her fur. “I was making sure the groundwork was laid down; I’ll draw the more complicated runes in while you get the last item. The sun’s going down so you should have a perfect opportunity.”

“What is the last item anyway? Something from Pinkie Pie?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Yes, but something very specific. We need a physical representation of avians, but a flightless one. And it needs to be made of an elastic substance.”

Twilight felt her heart sink. “No… no… I can’t do that.. I can’t…”

“No, I promise, I’ve done my research, and I know she has an item that fits that description,” Starlight Glimmer said.

“I’m not taking her rubber chicken!” Twilight shouted. “You don’t understand! It’s all she has left from a dear friend who hasn’t come back in years!”

“Twilight, you’ve come too far to be like this,” Starlight said.

“All I have to do is tell Shining to come take care of you and this will all be over,” Twilight countered. “Nothing’s too late for anything.”

“And you’d honestly leave thousands of ponies, and your own friend Applejack, to suffer over a stupid gag item?” Starlight Glimmer glared at Twilight.

“It’s not stupid! Pinkie Pie had a fiancee named Cheese Sandwich but he was suddenly called away and he left that as a reminder!” Twilight stomped her hoof. “I’m not going to use it up in any spell. Think of something different that will work!”

“There is nothing else that will work!” Starlight Glimmer said. “Twilight, did you really believe those two? Do you really believe any relationship on the island is real?”

“What are you talking about!?” Twilight snorted.

“Don’t you remember Flash Sentry, and how everypony was pushing you to be with him?” Starlight Glimmer asked. “Everypony wanted you to fall in love with him so you’d be too starry eyed to clearly see what was happening around you.”

“What’s that got to do with Cheese and Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“Since they couldn’t make you yourself fall in love they settled for something similar,” Starlight said. “They gave you some other sweet couples to swoon over.”

“No way!” Twilight said. “What they had was… it was real!”

“Twilight, you silly pony, you’ve never experienced anything real in your entire life,” Starlight Glimmer said. “So don’t tell me about true love!”

There was fire in her eyes as she said it, that made Twilight jump back. “A-are you okay?”

Starlight Glimmer glared silently at Twilight for a moment longer before slowly taking a deep breath and restoring her face to a more neutral expression. “Do what I tell you,” she said tersely.

Twilight felt herself shivering. “I d-don’t want to.”

“Then let more ponies die for you. DIE. Do you understand that word!?” Starlight asked.

“Singular dice?” Twilight nervously guessed.

“Wrong, you puddinghead. It means snuffed out. Lifeless. Motionless. Thoughtless. You get bashed up and burned up so badly that you just sit there in a bloody charred heap and you’ll never move or talk to anyone ever again. Literally gone forever. Never coming back.”

Twilight felt her heart race. “I-I don’t believe you. Something that horrible can’t happen!”

“Don’t be dumb. What do you think happens to changelings then!?” Starlight shouted.

“They just… they… they…” Twilight shook herself. “No, no, that’s not true! We vaporize the changelings; we don’t just break them until they can’t move anymore!”

“And what do you think happens to them after they disappear, huh? Have you ever thought through anything in your entire life or do you just believe anything your friends tell you?”

“That’s not fair!” Twilight shouted, tears in her eyes. “Why are you being so mean to me? I thought we were friends!”

“Shut UP!” Starlight Glimmer slapped Twilight across the muzzle.

Twilight gave Starlight Glimmer a hurt look. Then she just turned away, crying softly. How had everything gone so wrong? Why had she trusted this stranger so much?

A few minutes later, Starlight Glimmer spoke. Her voice was quiet and shameful this time. “Twilight?”

Twilight didn’t answer. Just hiccupped and sobbed.

“I… I shouldn’t have said those things. I’m sorry. I… I just get so frustrated that there’s so little I can do without your help sometimes…”

Twilight slowly turned around to see Starlight hanging her head. Then as Twilight watched, Starlight began to shiver. A muffled sob escaped from her throat, though her eyes were dry.

Twilight crossed the distance between them and gently hugged Starlight. Starlight tensed from Twilight’s touch, then gently relaxed.

“I’m sorry Starlight,” Twilight said. “You’re right. I really don’t know how hard this is for you. I… I want to trust you… I really do… but I’m so scared of everything…”

Starlight sighed softly. “Can’t be helped, I guess. I… I know you’ve considered these ponies as your friends for your whole life, but you need to believe me when I say they’ve been play-acting for you. You need to believe me when I say that though what you’re doing may hurt now, you’ll be saving thousands.”

Twilight nodded stiffly. “Okay. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Comments

[Viper Pit]

wow i did not see that coming

BRING ME NOTHER