Starlight, Starbright, the Brightest Star I See Tonight

Starlight Glimmer has been a Programmer in the Equestria for her entire life, working with the vast computer cores that maintain and operate the ship. As Celestia, one of those cores, takes an interest in her happiness, Starlight finds herself seeking unorthodox methods to analyze her own personality and needs.

This is an entry into the Science Fiction Contest III by Bicyclette.

Cover artwork is being used with permission of the artist, Marenlicious.

Chapters (7)

Ch.1 - I can't remember · 14th May 2024 · 1,264 words
1,264
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Ch.2 - Who I was before · 14th May 2024 · 1,153 words
1,153
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Ch.3 - But I do know · 14th May 2024 · 1,486 words
1,486
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Ch.4 - Who I will be · 14th May 2024 · 1,114 words
1,114
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Ch.5 - If I follow you · 14th May 2024 · 924 words
924
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Ch.6 - Into the dark · 14th May 2024 · 1,407 words
1,407
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Ch.7 - to light your way. · 14th May 2024 · 1,423 words
1,423
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Comments ( 11 )

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mishun

mishun #1 · May 22nd · 1 · · Ch.4 - Who I will be ·

Curiosity and fascination.

i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/564/fluttershynature.png

The Hat Man

The Hat Man #2 · June 3rd · 1 · · Ch.7 - to light your way. ·

Hey there, fellow contestant! Here's my review of your story:

Just to start off, a few minor nitpicks:

Since it's the name of the ship, you should probably italicize the Equestria.
Similarly, at some point Brightest Star became "the" Brightest Star in these last couple chapters, which is weird since that's... his name, I think?

But okay, those are minor things. I think the core premise of the story is actually quite solid. It takes a version of our canonical Starlight Glimmer and places her in this reality where she's a bit of a forlorn incel with no motivation to seek actual happiness. It makes for an interesting potential dynamic between the two.

However, that gets set aside for the much more grandiose premise of Starlight and Starbright facing down Brightest Star as a power-crazed collector of cutie marks. As a consequence, we don't really get to see Starlight and Starbright compare their viewpoints and address what it is that really makes them happy, This makes Brightest Star's appearance jarring, and it doesn't sell us on how Starlight manages to outmaneuver him.

Still, even if the story falls a bit short of its ambition, I think it presents some really interesting ideas and I genuinely think it deserves more attention than it's received so far.

Hope

Hope #3 · June 3rd · · · Ch.7 - to light your way. ·

11919625
Thank you so much!!!
My intention is to cover the original conflict in two contradictory sequels. One in which Starlight flees with Brightest's power to travel the multiverse, one where she gives it up and stays, trying to help reform Brightest.

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #4 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.1 - I can't remember ·

She could say "most of her life" now, because she'd passed her thirty-fifth birthday, and she'd started working there when she was seventeen.

oh hey she’s around my age!

But while she'd been interested in most of those paths, the ship's primary computer had assigned her the Mark of a Programmer. A purple spark, signifying data, and a wisp of magic above it, signifying creation.

ooh love this interpretation of Starlight’s cutie mark, and the hints that she might have reason to be dissatisfied with the cutie mark system in this universe as well

It was full of centuries old trees, gnarled and yearning for the artificial sun suspended above them. Wild plants, as wild as any plant could be, sprouted up in the shadows and underbrush.
In her opinion, it was one of the most beautiful places in the entirety of The Equestria.

hehe, also very fun way to have the Everfree be gnarled and weird in a way that makes sense for the context of a generation ship

Starlight paused, as Luna finished generating a report of every activity she’d taken during the night.
Luna, due to the more straightforward programming she utilized and the extra focus she gave each task, had a much more pragmatic interaction with the ponies of The Equestria. She generated reports, directly made the changes needed, and she generated a holographic representation of herself whenever she had to speak. But Celestia had a lighter touch, and a way of hinting or prodding at things over time.

also great way to have the two Princesses fit heircanon roles while also computer programs!

It was designed to pay five times as much attention to ponies who were in the “isolated” category, which Starlight obviously was, as she had fewer than ten acquaintances that she enjoyed interacting with, or fewer than five friends, or fewer than two significant friends.

Starlight is Starlight in any universe

“I was on the verge of saying ‘magical auras’ but I see now where your mind has ventured.”

ahaha

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #5 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.2 - Who I was before ·

"Technically, it is possible," Luna shrugged.
Starlight waited for more information before frowning at the hologram.
"And... how? What is the method?"

hehe, the way the personalities of these AIs differ from each are other are being drawn out here and i especially like this exchange

Cadance was the third computer core, one focused on security and care. She had very few restrictions and did not adhere to privacy protocols, but she very rarely released any data whatsoever. Usually, she only intervened to stop someone from dying.

yay Cadance is in this

She was lying to herself, she was lying to Luna, this wasn’t about companionship. This was still her seeking that eerie hollowness in her heart, trying to understand what she was missing.

now that’s the Starlight we know!

It sent an eerie chill up her spine as she realized that the god-computers she trusted with her life every day were forbidden from this place. The bare idea that there was any place they could not go or see, that was enough to scare her.

ooh! that is indeed how one should feel when in a place separated from the Alicorn Princesses

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #6 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.3 - But I do know ·

Her mother had raised her with confidence and strength, to approach every problem like a puzzle to be conquered and destroyed, and so she’d never had her ego fail her. She’d lived the life of a programmer, asserting her will on reality through the digital beings that she saw often as extensions of herself rather than beings in their own merit.

very funny to point out how this very Starlight personality is also very fitting for a programmer

She was suddenly so deeply aware of how much of her behavior was predictable to a computer like Luna, and she wondered if Luna needed her anymore, now that she’d fetched her such a powerful magical artifact.

and yeah, these are the thoughts Starlight should have in the presence of living deities! very much not how she was in her canon episodes with the Princesses, unfortunately

“I… would say ‘happiness’ but I don’t know…”
“Oh, happiness is absolutely quantifiable,” Luna chuckled smoothly as the mirror lit up in silver light. “It’s an emergent property of safety, stability, purpose, and the harmony quotient of their social circle.”

hehehe, take that those who believe in the transcendence and fundamental inscrutability of the equine experience!

She was smiling, as she ate a simple sandwich of rye and greens.

aww that sounds like a nice time

An impossible and bizarre outcome, but one that then lead to learning about other ponies, spending time with them, becoming a councilor of all things at a university, helping save the world a few times, and then becoming the headmistress of the university.

of all things indeed! i was just as surprised as this Starlight was about how that Starlight ended up

“Well that’s absolutely horrifying,” the Other Starlight admitted calmly. “So I don’t actually exist.”

yeah that is a lot to hit her with at once. also brings up a lot of ethical questions!

“Well, I’m going to need a new name, clearly. Let’s go with Starbright.”

oh hey that’s where the story title is from!

“It’s a bit grim that I’m the happiest of our multiversal selves, honestly,” she finally concluded.

yeah when you put it that way it is pretty grim that the happiest Starlight in all the multiverse is the one that did a lot of war crimes and genocides!

“But not best friends,” Bright said simply, and sadly. “You never got that spark back, that made you feel special.”
Starlight grimaced, eyes tight to try and hide the tears, before lighting her horn and teleporting away.

oof!

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #7 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.4 - Who I will be ·

“In the industrial age, the Windego crafted ponies into worker bees for chaos,” Starlight recited from the history books she’d learned from when she was young. “We gladly gave up our cutie marks to them for their benevolent rulership and a day to day existence, until the Alicorn sisters, Celestia and Luna, defeated them. The First Revolution united under them, only to realize that the world was destroyed. Frozen and decaying before their eyes. They used Windego technology to build shelters and greenhouses, but with most of the other races of the planet dead, they were living in a tomb hostile to life. So, they dedicated their efforts to escaping their world, and it’s cursed magic.”

ooh that is a really cool backstory!

It was no wonder that she was a teacher, she felt.

aww so that’s why Starlight was so surprised at our Starlight becoming a teacher!

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #8 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.5 - If I follow you ·

“Bright is complex enough to manage it, I think. She could have proper magic, and a body-effect aura that would make us feel her presence.”

oh, that’s good! so Starbright can have a normal pony life on this spaceship

“Well, in my world I build and fly kites,” Bright said, a peaceful smile settling on her face.
Starlight was intensely jealous of that smile.

huh, maybe that was the secret. our Starlight had a love of kites while this Starlight had nothing and thus really did have nothing to fall back on to not be completely miserable always

An alicorn, his whole body and wings were patterned with hundreds if not thousands of cutie marks. They formed a fractal pattern across his fur, endless detail and potential dotting him from his neck down.
Under one eye, Celestia’s sun. Under the other, Luna’s moon. Around the base of his horn, Twilight Sparkle’s purple star of magic.

well, that’s not good! also definitely what the evil alicorn form of Starlight would take as their theme

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #9 · 4 weeks ago · · · Ch.6 - Into the dark ·

The three of them slipped into the hallways around the computer core, pillowcases tied around the hooves of the two living unicorns to dull their movements.

aww what a cute detail in the middle of a life-threatening crisis

“I took them, Sunburst,” he purred, whispering gently as he loomed over her. “I became the Brightest Star of them all. I took them from my little cult, freeing them from the responsibility. Then I took them from the Elements of Harmony, freeing them from the burden. Then I took them from every single pony that existed in my world. Except for you. Except for my lovely Sunburst. Because she deserved to understand finally what a price her ascension took from me.”

hoowee wouldn’t want to be Sunburst right now. also nice use of “brightest star” to continue the nursery rhyme theme as well as the theme of evil alicorns having thematically appropriate ominous names

Secondly, because cutie marks were created in her world, they had the ability to manipulate them. They used a magically imbued device to determine the mark the pony should have, and then they created that mark and made it physical. If she reversed the process, she could rip the cutie marks from the Brightest Star’s body.

ooh, very fitting for the evil Starlight to be defeated by cutie mark mechanics if so

“Yes. I cannot use this device. It goes against my morals. Starbright, you’ll have to control it.”

an interesting application of ethics!

“Ah… yes, this I’m familiar with. Let’s do this.”

ehehe love how that comes full circle

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #10 · 4 weeks ago · 1 · · Ch.7 - to light your way. ·

“Maybe you need some friends,” Starlight coughed out.

hell yeah!!!

“Well maybe that’s why we’re so miserable,” Starlight replied bluntly. “Because I opened the mirror to try and find what was missing from my life. I’m seeking data. I want to understand. The version of us I found, the happiest one of us? She has friends and fucking hobbies. You have near limitless power. So convince me which one I should pursue.”

huh, Starlight wasn’t kidding when she said she thought like a program

All ponies, all equient creatures.

love it. first time seeing the word “equient” but i might have to make sure i see it more times

“It was a distraction!” he shouted as he tried to blast her with magic, only for Cadance’s pink shields to pop up and protect the digital pony.

and yes thinking at this level, communication itself is a suspected vector of attack!

It was hard to care about his pain, when she felt so good.
Maybe that was why sheer power was so dangerous, because it made the normal small things that ponies thrived on just seem petty and meaningless.

oof, if this is how most Starlights are it makes sense why Brightest Star turned out the way he did

She closed her eyes, and she made the choice she’d always been fated to make.

ooh, ambiguous ending, nice! because yeah, i could totally see both. it would be very fitting for this Starlight to take her first steps to being reformed through her relationship with her Sunburst, as happened to our Starlight, and that ending would be fated as an echo of the story we know. but given the parts of her own personality explored in the last section, and the fact that our Starlight was the exception in the multiverse of Starlight, choosing the way of Brightest Star is just as fated!

in any case, great work in exploring the more sociopathic facets of Starlight in an AU setting that cleverly brings together the parts of the MLP canon most relevant to Starlight’s story in different forms, and thank you for writing!

McPoodle