Growing Up Glimmer

by Lord Camembert

The Starlight Review

Two moons had passed since the start of the term, and Starlight and Midnight were studying in their room. Midnight was utterly lost.

“No, see, I still don’t get it.”

“Ok, you remember that lecture where Professor Likely said ‘to cast this enchantment, envision a white sandy beach kissed by cerulean waters?’”

“It was so weird I don’t think I could ever forget it.”

“Yeah. Completely ignore what she said, it’s totally irrelevant. What you need to do is picture this thing,” Starlight said, gesturing towards a drinking bird sitting motionless on Midnight’s desk before continuing, “dipping its beak into the cup, then moving back up, and so on. All you’re trying to do is… persuade it to do what it normally does, just without the Canternot cycle limitations.”

“Alright, I’ll give it another shot.” Midnight’s horn glowed as the drinking bird vibrated, her desk emitting a faint hum in return. Finally, the bird slowly tipped forward. Midnight’s and Starlight’s eyes moved back and forth as the bird continued dipping its beak into a cup in front of it.

“You did it!”

“I did it! I might actually pass this Celestia-forsaken exam tomorrow,” cheered Midnight.

“Middy, that’s awesome and–Dear Celestia, is it night already?! I told Night Glider I’d meet up with her at the library. Gotta go,” Starlight frantically shouted, disappearing with a zap.

She appeared in front of the main campus library with another zap, sending Night Glider into the air with a yelp. Starlight waited while she calmed down.

“Can’t you just walk up to me like everypony else? It was fine on Nightmare Night, but come on!”

Starlight rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry, I just realized how late I was."

“So what’s this thing you wanted to show me?”

“C’mon, it’s in the reference section; I couldn’t check it out, but… remember after the flydisc tournament?”

“Yeah?”

Night Glider followed Starlight into the reference section of the library, a musty room filled to the top with ancient texts. Many lay behind glass casings, only accessible to researchers. Though a few haggard graduate students were strewn about the tiered balconies of the room, Starlight and Night Glider found themselves alone in the history subsection of the room, where Starlight levitated a cracked leather-bound book from the shelves and opened it to a bookmarked page. Night Glider’s eyes darted about the pages as Starlight explained.

“Remember how you were talking about pre-Equestrian views on cutie marks?”

“Not really? I just remember being really, really mad. Oh, and cupcakes.”

“Right, right, fair enough. Well, it turns out there was a group of ponies in the southern deserts of Equestria who called themselves the ‘Fraternal Society of Friendship.’ Their approach to fighting the windigo storms was to shed everything that made them different: their names, pegasi flight, earth pony strength, unicorn magic–”

“And their cutie marks,” interrupted Night Glider. Her hoof pointed at a sketch of one of the members of the society.

“Exactly. They covered their marks with large linen cloaks, slightly longer versions of the ones they normally wore to keep the sun away. But there’s more–keep reading.”

Night Glider turned the page, reading for a few minutes as Starlight watched. “They were able to drive the windigos off!”

“Yes!”

“Wait, is that a–”

“Flydisc? You bet.”

“You’re not telling me–”

“They invented the game. That’s why they had that rule about cutie marks!”

Night Glider sat down. “This is unbelievable.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I knew that the whole obsession we have today was relatively new, but this… it’s a total rejection.”

“I know! Could you imagine ponies doing that nowadays?” asked Starlight. She started laughing, adding, “They’d be run out of town!”

Night Glider said nothing but nodded. After exhausting the book’s contents related to the Society, Night Glider and Starlight started back toward the library entrance.

“When’d you get the new beanie? That color looks way better on you than all the black you were rocking at the start of the term,” commented Night Glider as she pointed at Starlight’s new pink, starburst-spangled beanie.

“Oh, yeah, haha, that. You can thank Midnight for that. She dragged me to one of the headwear stores downtown screaming ‘it’s for your own good!’”

Night Glider held a hoof up to her mouth, barely able to contain her laughter.

“Could you two please keep it down? We are trying to study here.”

Starlight and Night Glider turned their heads to see two unicorns, one wearing a turtleneck, her red mane tied up, and the other buried in a sea of books. Only her cutie mark was visible from where Starlight stood, a sea of white starbursts with a larger pink one in the middle. Before the red-maned mare could continue with her reprimand, Starlight and Night Glider rolled their eyes and continued out the nearby door.

---

After seeing Night Glider back to her dorm, Starlight walked back to hers. Midnight was standing outside the main entrance, and ran over to her as she approached.

“Ok, you’re here. Good. I have a very important question: do you have a doppelganger?”

“What? No. Also, what?”

“You didn’t tell me your mom looks exactly like an older version of you, Star.”

“My mom is here?!”

“I assumed it was your mom; I got freaked out and ran out here, then I kinda guessed from everything that happened the first time we met that this was how you’d react, so… I figured I’d wait outside to warn you.”

Starlight groaned. “Great. Fantastic. Let’s just get this over with.”

As Starlight and Midnight arrived at their room, Starlight could hear the shuffling of hooves. She opened the door, and but for the lack of a blue streak in her messy hair, a slightly darker coat, and light wrinkles under her eyes, the mare standing in their room looked exactly like Starlight.

“Starlight! There you are.”

“Hi, mom–oof!”

Starlight grunted as her mother wrapped her in a tight hug.

“Mom, I can’t breathe,” choked out Starlight.

“And this must be your roommate…”

“Midnight, I–”

Midnight was cut off mid-sentence as Starlight’s mother introduced herself.

“Aurora Glimmer, adventurer and explorer extraordinaire! I hope the kid here hasn’t been giving you too much trouble,” said Aurora with a laugh. Starlight wormed out of her mother’s hug, stepping back to stand beside Midnight.

“Mom. Please, just… what are you doing here?”

“Oh, well, the expedition through the far eastern reaches of the griffon lands ended early when our guide disappeared. Then we returned to Griffonstone, got into a few fights, and, to make a long story short, we got kicked out. We also met that adventure writer, what’s ‘er name, uh… oh, yeah, A.K. Yearling! Funny story, she got all flustered when I called out her name. Looked like she was being chased by some fans or something. Then there was–”

“No, mom, I meant what are you doing here?”

“Did you not get my letter?”

Starlight’s hoof met her face as she replied, “Right, that.”

“Did the locket make it? You’re not wearing it.”

“It did, but I’m not exactly the type of pony to wear jewelry. It’s in the nightstand.”

“But you loved wearing that spiked choker with the leather bracelets back in–”

Starlight covered Aurora’s mouth, glancing at Midnight, who slowly backed out of the room. Once she was gone, Starlight removed her hoof.

“Please, not in front of Midnight.”

“But you’ve never been embarrassed by that bef–oh. Ohoho…”

Starlight’s eyes darted back and forth between the door and her mother. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m sure it’s a coincidence that you’re not wearing a single black piece of clothing, too. And you’re blushing, too!”

“What?! I am not blushing,” denied Starlight as she laughed nervously. Her reflection in the room’s mirror revealed otherwise.

“Anyways, it would have been nice to get some more specific notice you were coming.”

Aurora’s teasing smile faded. “Starlight, there wasn’t any time. I came as soon as I was free, and I got here faster than any letter would have.”

Starlight’s blush gave way to open anger. “But there’s never any time. You’re always away! You seriously couldn’t have been here when I moved in?”

“I did the best I could! I don’t have much control over how long these expeditions go, you know that.”

“This is my job. I’m doing this to support our family!”

“Yeah, sure, and that’s why you’re never around. That’s why this is the first time I’ve seen you this year, huh?”

Both mares were shouting, their voices echoing through the corridor. Starlight continued.

“Maybe if you really cared about us, you’d have found a job that lets you see us more than once in a blue moon.”

“Starlight, I am doing what I was meant to do. Your dad gets that, why don’t you?” Aurora pointed to her flank, bearing a mark of an old parchment map.

“Because I didn’t get a choice!”

Aurora didn’t respond immediately, and for a moment, the only thing that could be heard in the room was heavy breathing as tears streamed down Starlight’s face.

“Maybe it’s for the best if I leave. I’ll see you at Hearth’s Warming.”

“Yeah, sure I will.”

“Goodbye, Starlight.”

A few minutes after Aurora left, Midnight appeared at the still open door to the room.

“Star? Are you ok?”

Starlight lay on her bed, facing the wall, quietly sobbing. Midnight walked over to her, her brow furrowed with worry.

“Alright, dumb question. Do you want to talk about it? I couldn’t help overhearing most of that.”

“How much did you hear?”

“Something about a letter, and everything after that.”

"At least she didn’t ruin that, then.”

“Ruin what?”

“Nothing. If you heard, then I don't think there's much to talk about. I never see my mom, and it's been that way so long as I can remember. She's never around because of that stupid job."

"Oh…"

Starlight rolled to look at Midnight, who gently hugged her with a foreleg.

"My dad always came home late from city hall. He's the mayor back home. I spent a lot of time at home alone."

"I'm sorry, Star."

"I just… want someone to stick around."

"I'm not going away any time soon, ok?"

Starlight smiled slightly. "Thanks, Middy. Appreciate it."

"So… a spiked choker, huh?"

"No."

"With black bracelets?"

"Nope, no, no."

"Please tell me there are pictures."

"I told my dad to destroy every last copy."

“So there are pictures, is what you're saying.”

“You will never. Ever. See them.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Midnight walked to her desk, where the dipping bird still moved. “What did Night Glider want at the library?”

Starlight relayed the story of the Society, excitedly waving her forelegs as she explained their way of life.

“... and that’s how they drove the windigos away from the deserts!”

“Woah. I wonder why they never mention that in the Hearth’s Warming Eve play.”

“I mean, it’d be a terrible story for foals. Could you imagine?”

“Ha; I guess you’re right.”

Starlight turned her eyes to the ceiling and her attention away from the conversation. After some time, Midnight wished Starlight good night and fell asleep.

Starlight, however, lay awake until the morning.

Comments

[Lord Camembert]

10011237
Edited and posted on the 12th.

[Gay For Gadot]

Nice bit of worldbuilding you've got here with the Society. The methods behind Starlight's madness are slowly being revealed...

Damn, that scene with Starlight and Aurora was hard to read. I've always thought that Sunburst alone wasn't a good enough explanation for Starlight's abandonment issues. Your take on her home life fits the bill well, sadly.