Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Twilight Sparkle are the best of friends. What happens when their destinies tear them apart?
Princess Celestia has three bright fillies that she took in as her students. One will become a crazed unicorn bent on her views, one would transfer to another dimension, and the third would follow the destiny set out for her from the start. Over time, they become the best of friends. Can Twilight keep them close enough to eventually bring them back?
It was a bright, sunny day in Canterlot. Unicorn parents from everywhere were walking up the steps that lead to the most prestigious school in all of Equestria. For Diamond Glimmer and her husband Mint Spark, things were no different. Diamond Glimmer looked down at her daughter and huffed in disapproval.
"Hmph! Well, Starlight, I hope you don't mess up on your first day. This is, after all the most prestigious school in all of Equestria and you just barely got your cutie mark in magic." Diamond took a moment to look around at the competition. "At least you actually have your cutie mark. Many of these foals can't possibly be of age yet. Their parents are just embarrassing themselves with the audacity of bringing them here." Starlight couldn't care less about the other students at the moment. Inside, she was in turmoil with the combination of first day jitters and the pressure she was receiving from her parents. Starlight decided to keep her head down until the family made it into the classroom.
Inside, the room was already buzzing with activity. Foals were running around, parents were conversing with themselves and the teacher, all in all, it was a little too much for Starlight. Suddenly, her frightened blue eyes were met with soft plum ones.
"Greetings, little one. I'm Ms. Honey Sparkle. I assume that you're Starlight Glimmer correct?" Before Starlight could confirm the information, her mother stepped into the conversation.
"Yes, she is." The younger mare held out a hoof.
"Then you must be Diamond Glimmer." The older mare nodded, but didn't shake the hoof offered to her. The slight frown created by this notion was easily replaced with a smile as the Honey colored mare bent back down to the smaller unicorn's level. "Why don't you go have a seat then, Starlight. We should be starting soon." Starlight nodded and hurried along, eager to escape from the judgmental eye of her parents.
Starlight looked around, but the only desk not occupied by somepony's school supplies was a desk that was right beside a filly with a wavy red and gold mane. Starlight slowly made her way over to it and gingerly took a seat. The silence between the two fillies lasted about a minute before the orange filly started talking.
"Hey." Starlight looked up from the top of her desk.
"Hi."
"I'm Sunset Shimmer. What's your name?"
"M-my name is S-starlight Glimmer."
"Hey, your name is kinda like mine!" Starlight gave her a look of confusion. "You know. Our first names have something to do with the sky, and our last names have something to do with sparkles." Starlight's eyes widened a bit in realization.
"Oh, sorry."
"Hey, it's okay. So, what made you want to come to magic school?"
"Oh! Well,it wasn't exactly my choice, so much as my parents'. They've always pressured me to be the filly that they want me to be."
"Well that's not cool! You should always be free to be the pony you wanna be!" Starlight nodded. She supposed she could be a little less scared of her parents.But what if her parents didn't like that? What if- "Hey. You okay?" Starlight snapped from her thoughts as she looked up into the other unicorn's concerned eyes.
"Y-yes. I'm fine. Just thinking about what my parents would say." She looked back down again. "I want to be the pony I want to be, but I can only imagine what my parents would say if I tried." She sighed. "I guess I'm just afraid to admit that I'm scared of my parents." She looked back up at Sunset, only to find her facing the front of the room with a glare on her face. She mumbled something darkly. It was when Starlight turned to look in the same direction that she saw what the other pony was supposedly angry about.
At the front of the room was a crowd of foals, all cheering. It wasn't until the crowd thinned out in the middle that Starlight could see what all the commotion was about. Another filly had arrived. Her hair was straight, a midnight blue color with a pink and purple streak running through it. Her coat was a light purple, with a pink six-sided star as a cutie mark to top it all off. Starlight looked back at Sunset.
"Who is that?" Sunset looked back at her, her face still twisted with anger and spite.
"That, Starlight, is none other than the infamous Twilight Sparkle." She paused for effect." She's been the star of every class since magic kindergarten and the teacher's pet to boot." Starlight looked back at Twilight.
"Surely she can't be that bad."
"Oh, trust me, she is." As soon as Twilight took her seat, Ms. Honey Sparkles stepped up to the front of the room.
"Alright class. My name is Ms. Honey Sparkles. Welcome to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." The room quieted almost instantly as all attention was channeled to the front of the room as their teacher began talking. After a while, Starlight's attention was turned toward a piece of paper dropped onto her desk by a teal aura. She opened the folded paper and found a note.
She really isn't all that.
Starlight waited a moment before taking out a pencil and writing back.
I don't know. She looks pretty nice. Maybe I should go try to talk to her.
Trust me. You don't wanna. Stick with me instead.
You mean, like friends?
Exactly!
Starlight looked up from the note and over at Sunset, who nodded. Starlight looked back down at the paper held in her magic. Friendship. That's a thing that she hasn't experienced in a long, long time.
The bell rang, and as it did, hungry foals rushed out of the classroom and out to the playground in the back of the school. As Starlight stepped outside, she instantly raised a hoof to her face to shield her eyes from the blinding sunlight radiating onto the land. As her eyes adjusted, Starlight found herself looking out onto a fenced play area, complete with swings, picnic tables, and a massive play structure. Looking around, Starlight almost immediately found Sunset eating a sandwich under a tree. She made a beeline toward the tree, plopping down beside her friend.
"Why don't you sit at one of the picnic benches?" She inquired, looking at the ground. "It would probably be cleaner than this."
"Meh, I don't think a little dirt on your sandwich ever hurt anypony. Besides, pretty much all the ingredients came from the ground at some point." Starlight looked at the sandwich she had taken out. She supposed that was true, being that the wheat in the bread and all the vegetables came from the ground. For awhile, the two unicorns ate in silence, until Sunset felt nature calling. "Hey. I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a sec." Starlight nodded as the orange filly abandoned her lunch and made her way to the main building. As soon as Sunset was out of sight, Starlight continued eating.
As Starlight ate her lunch while patiently waiting for her friend, She looked up as she was approached by two other unicorns. Seeing that they were obviously making their way toward the tree, Starlight's mask of shyness instantly flipped on. "Well well well. What do we have here?" Starlight looked up to find a pink unicorn filly with a giant curly blond mane staring down at her with a smug look on her face.
"Haven't seen you around before. Did you ever attend magic kindergarten?"
"N-no." Starlight stood up. "I happen to come from a little village along the outskirts of Equestria. I moved to Canterlot about a month ago." She paused at the sudden spark of courage igniting within her. "Why do you care?"
"Well, whatever your name is-"
"Starlight!"
"Well, Marmite, if you think you're good enough to be one of us, how about a duel?" Starlight faltered at this proposal. A Duel?! She was reasonably good with magic, but having the ability to overpower somepony? That was stretching quite a lot outside her comfort zone. "Well, whaddya say? If you think your such hot stuff, why not showcase it? Everypony's waiting." To Starlight's horror, that was true. A throng of other fillies and colts had accumulated around the scene, each face expecting a swift answer of exception to the proposed challenge. Starlight curled within herself, and the default fear and shyness overcame her newfound boldness almost immediately.
When Starlight didn't answer, things just became worse for her. The offending filly smirked at Starlight's display of fear. "Biting off a little more than we can chew now, aren't we?" A glint of pure superiority sparked in her eyes, and the unicorn's horn ignited in a lime green aura. Starlight squealed in surprise and panic as she felt herself being pulled from the ground by a seemingly invisible force. She watched the ground leave her sight as she was lifted into the air, looking down at the mocking crowd below. She closed her eyes, as if willing them to leave her alone by this simple action.
Until, however, she heard a scream and a blast of magic, sending her careening to the ground. As she made contact with solid earth, she felt pain explode everywhere on her body. Starlight began to cough as the particles brought up by the thick cloud of dust she kicked up invaded her breathing. She soon broke down, whimpering in anguish as tears rolled down her cheeks. She stayed in that position for what felt like an eternity, until a set of hooves gently pulled her from the ground and helped her stand upright. Starlight looked down at the hooves helping her. Finding them to be lavender, her eyes followed them up to the main body of their owner. Seeing who was helping her, Starlight couldn't say a word as a soft voice with a slight squeak spoke to her.
"C'mon. Let's get you cleaned up." All Starlight could do was walk toward the school building, guided by none other than Twilight Sparkle.
As Starlight was led into the bathroom and gently set onto the floor, she finally felt the ability to form words slowly return to her. "T-twilight?!"
"Yes, I'm here!" the purple filly rushed to her side, a damp cloth held in a magenta aura in tow.
"W-what happened?" Starlight mentally slapped herself for wording her question so stupidly. But Twilight seemed to understand.
"You were just being antagonized by Honey Hearts, Ms, Honey Sparkles's niece. She thinks that just because her aunt is a high ranking teacher and close friends with Celestia that she's a big shot and can treat everypony like dirt. Hold still." Starlight flinched as pressure was applied to one of the many scrapes she had received from the fall. She was so scared to ask Twilight her next question, but it came out before she could properly restrain it.
"Aren't you supposed to be a little like that too?" Twilight paused her cleaning, holding the damp cloth in her magic in midair. Soon though, instead of getting yelled at, or left in the middle of the bathroom, Starlight saw a smile creep up on the other unicorn's face, quickly followed by laughter.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Twilight burst out in a violent fit of laughter, collapsing the ground. "AHaha. Hoo Hoo! Hehe." Twilight cleared her throat as she regained her composure, turning to face a confused Starlight. "That explains a lot."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you hanging out with Sunset." Twilight chuckled again before continuing. "She's always been bitter about this one time in magic kindergarten where I beat her in a magic competition. She still holds a grudge against me for it."
"Then why was everypony cheering for you when you walked in?"
"Oh, that was because my big brother Shining Armor was performing some crazy spells as a confidence booster for me in the hallway. He can do some pretty amazing things when we're hanging out together. Aaaaaaaand there. I've done what I could, but we should really head down to the nurse's office to get something better." Starlight looked down at her body. All the scrapes and bruises were clean, but she could agree that they definitely should get some bandages. She looked up as a hoof was offered to her. "Need a friend to go with you?" Starlight's mind stopped dead in its tracks. There's that word again, Friend. What, is there something going on with her social gravitational pull? Quickly snapping out of her stupor, Starlight once again took the hoof offered to her and rose from the floor. She began walking, using the other pony as a crutch. The two laughed when they fell, but soon got into step, as they hobbled together toward the nurse's office at the front of the school.
Twilight waited outside the nurse's office while Nurse Magicaid tended to Starlight. On the outside, she looked completely content, almost bored with the lack of action within her vicinity. But on the inside, the gears were turning in her analytical mind as she processed and followed the many strings attached to the recent events that kept themselves stuck in replay in her head. Her brow furrowed as the same stack of questions ran a muck around her head.
Why is Starlight so timid? Her frightened vibe is always telling me that something is wrong. Should I be worried?
She was so lost in her thoughts that a certain orange tinted filly never caught her attention until she was right in Twilight's face.
"YOU!" Twilight was snapped out of her thoughts as she looked up to address the burning turquoise eyes in front of her.
"Can I help you?" She asked coolly. The angry face in front of her contorted even further at her response.
"Don't play games with me, Sparkle! First you take my talent, now you take my friend! What the heck! I'd outta-"
"Sunset, that's enough!" Twilight yelled out in rage as she moved forward, moving the unicorn further away from her. "How dare you accuse me of stealing your friend! Last time I checked, you've only known Starlight for half a day, been her friend for even shorter!" She went on a tirade, advancing with each word that traveled through her mouth. "Besides, I wasn't even trying to steal her away from you in the first place! I was just playing the role of an innocent bystander! I couldn't just stand there watching her get hurt! I had to step in and do something!"
"That's exactly what I'd expect from a goody-fourshoes like you!" As the two continued shouting at each other, neither pony noticed the steadily increasing amount of noise they were making; stamping their hooves against the tile floor and shouting to the heavens. They made so such a commotion that neither filly payed attention to the sound of hoofsteps making their way towards them, stopping in front of the pair and waiting. After a few seconds, Twilight notices the presence of the third pony, poking Sunset in the chest as she did so. Sunset, infuriated that Twilight wished to go physical, was about to strike when she too noticed this pony's presence. She lowered her hoof and stood in innocent attention beside Twilight, trying her best to paint herself in the best possible light. She soon noticed that, unfortunately, her innocence tactics were not working. Nurse Magicaid cleared her throat and spoke in a cold, crisp voice.
"Once you two are finished fighting, Ms.Glimmer requests your presence at her bedside. And I believe that afterwards a visit with the headmaster is in order." Twilight and Sunset looked at each other and gulped. Being sent to the headmaster's office was one of the worst punishments they could earn in the school. Their looks of terror morphed back into cold glares as the two followed the older mare into the infirmary, keeping steady eye contact with each other. A stony silence settled in between the pair until it was finally cut by the nurse. "Miss Glimmer, your friends have arrived." Sunset and Twilight both snapped their heads up in the direction of the bed that held their friend. Starlight was looking a little worse for wear. She was bandaged up in multiple places around her dirt covered body, and one of her pigtail ribbons was missing, leaving half of her face shadowed by locks of green striped purple hair.
"STARLIGHT!" They both shout, running to her bedside. Both fillies begin to talk a mile a minute, making wild gestures with their hooves as they spoke. Starlight made repeated attempts to silence them, failing each time. It wasn't until she cried out for her friends to stop that they ceased their rambling immediately, staring at her with wide eyes. Sunset was the first to speak.
"Star, what's wrong?" This became the final straw for Starlight. She looked down at her hooves and spoke, voice frightfully low.
"What's wrong?" Her head snapped back up, staring angrily at the two with tear filled eyes. "WHAT'S WRONG?" The two unicorns flinched at their friend's furious tone. "I'll tell you what's wrong! Look at you! you're both babbling away and don't even give me a chance to speak! Oh, and don't think I didn't hear your little fight out in the hall!" Her expression softened, her voice lowered. "It's just, you two are separated by something that happened a long time ago. I feel I've brought it back just by being here. So, either you two can learn to get along, or-or I refuse to be your friend!" Twilight and Sunset looked at Starlight, then at each other, minds racing on what to do. Twilight was the first of the two to speak.
"They weren't cheering for me in the hall, you know." Sunset looked up at the purple unicorn in disbelief.
"Oh yeah? If it wasn't for you then who was it for, then?"
"It was for my big brother, Shining Armor. He was performing some magic displays as a confidence boost for me." She paused before continuing. "And you know that my "big upstaging" back in magic kindergarten was lifting a feather off of a desk, right?" Sunset looked bitterly at the ground before everything connected in her mind. She facehoofed. How stupid she's been all this time, holding a grudge over such a little thing for this long! A small smile formed on Sunset's lips.
"I've been a big idiot all this time, haven't I?" Twilight giggled.
"Only a little." Twilight offered a hoof to Sunset, who looked up at her. "Friends?" Sunset sighed with a smile.
"Fine. Friends." She took the hoof, ending up pulled into a hug by Twilight. Starlight looked at them, beaming. The two separated after a few seconds, brushing themselves off. The two looked back at Starlight with looks of remorse upon their faces.
"We're so sorry that you've ended up in this, Starlight." Twilight said.
"Yeah, we really shoulda been paying attention to your feelings." Sunset continued. Starlight smiled.
"Apology accepted." The trio avoided eye contact in silence for a few minutes until Sunset spoke again.
"So," Sunset began, "Is that friendship deal still on?" Starlight's smile grew wider.
"You bet it is." She moved to the front of the bed and pulled Sunset and Twilight into a hug, which the pair gladly accepted.
It had been a few weeks since the first day of school, and the trio of unicorns were as busy as ever. Sunset and Twilight each received three days of after-school detention for disorderly conduct, which neither filly considered too harsh now that they were friends again. Although friendships had been rekindled and repaired, none of them had really advanced. Everypony remained in their separate ways, until a particular fateful day that would begin a chain reaction when the time was ripe.
Starlight walked in to her classroom and took her respective seat next to Sunset. both fillies looked across the room and nodded to their purple coated friend, who nodded back. Before any filly had a chance to speak, Miss Honey Sparkles softly cleared her throat, gradually silencing the conversations of the class.
"Now that I have your attention, it's about time for the school announcements to begin." As soon as she spoke, the loudspeaker in the room crackled to life, revealing the headmaster's voice. Professor Dumbearddore, who all three unicorns agreed looked oddly like Starswirl the Bearded, began with the usual announcements, the countdown to progress reports, important test dates for certain students, and birthdays for the day. Starlight at this point was zoning out most of what the headmaster was saying, until he let something pass his lips that seemed to make the whole school snap into attention.
"Also, I am pleased to announce that Princess Celestia is looking for one lucky unicorn from our First Years to take under her wing as her personal student. if anypony from our First year wishes to take part in this wonderful opportunity, please see our deputy headmistress Miss Winnieva Winnienogal to collect the application that must be filled out and signed by you and a legal guardian. The applications are due by the end of the month. A week after the due date of the applications, rosters will be posted throughout the school showing who's applications have been accepted. If you are selected, you will be assigned a date, a time, and a specific room within the school at which you will be subjected to a series of both written and practical evaluations overseen by a panel of judges sent from the University of Canterlot. At our Fall semester award ceremony, the princess shall announce the winner. That pony will from then on be pulled from regular classes and taught by the lesson plan set out by the princess. if you have any questions regarding this event, please ask your teachers. have a good day."
When the speaker switched off, it was about fifteen seconds before the class erupted in eager conversation regarding the news that was just made aware to them. a lot was at stake here. If they were selected, they would be taught and practically raised by the princess herself! It took Miss Honey Sparkle ten entire minutes to regain control of her excited class. When all was quiet, she spoke once more in her soft, sweet voice. "Now, I know that you all are very excited about this news, but we still have things to do in this class." When groans and shouts of protest erupted from her class, the mare rolled her eyes and quickly added "But keep in mind that the closer you pay attention, the better prepared you'll be for the exams, thus increasing your chances of winning." With this statement she quickly quieted the class and had their attention once more. "Good. Now, everypony take out their Magic Theory books and open them to page 65..."
Like everyday, the lunch bell rang throughout the school, and ponies eagerly grabbed their packs and made for the classroom doors. Starlight, Sunset, and Twilight took their lunches to their respective spots under the big tree in the corner of the schoolyard.
"Wouldn't it be cool if the three of us were selected the be Celestia's prized students?" Sunset wondered aloud.
"It would, but remember what professor Dumbearddore said? Only one First year student will be selected." Twilight added. True, she thought, all her dreams would come true if she was selected, but the odds of that happening were close to impossible in her mind. Even worse, if she was the lucky one, she would have to leave her friends behind! Sunset turned to her other friend.
"Well, what do you think of the competition, Starlight?" Starlight heard Sunset, but wasn't listening. On the outside, she quietly chewed on her apple, but in her head, she was panicking. She knew that her parents would sign her up right away, no questions asked. They would also do everything in their power to ensure that she won. She winced at the horror that her mother would unleash if she didn't get accepted.. That's it! Her eyes lit up. All she had to do was ensure that her parents never heard about the competition for the rest of the month. She smiled at the thought of not being punished for failing... "Well, you know what? I'm marching in there and signing us all up! That way, if we all do the best and get the same scores, They'll have to keep us together!" Sunset exclaimed, standing and preparing to trek down to the office. Starlight paled. There goes her plan to keep her parents in the dark. She watched in horror as the orange unicorn's distance from the tree grew farther.
Later, when Starlight was preparing her desk area for class that afternoon, she was startled by a hoof slamming down on the surface of her desk with a packet several pages long. Regaining her bearings, Starlight looked up at the excited face of Sunset Shimmer.
"Here's your application, delivered as promised. She noticed Starlight's frightened face. "Oh, don't worry, I gave Twilight hers a few minutes ago." When that didn't ease the pink filly's facial expression, Sunset was about to speak when the bell signalling the end of lunch rang. The filly quickly sat down next to Starlight and took out her things as their teacher walked in and began the lesson. Starlight looked down at the application sitting on her desk and felt sick. She took a deep breath, sighed, and placed her textbook over the offending paper.
The bell rang at the end of the day. Miss Honey Sparkles attempted to slip a few final statements in as the class rushed to pack their things and escape into the freedom of the outside world. Starlight had picked up her last book that was to be placed in her saddlebags when a packet fell to the ground. Weary from the day and bracing herself for reentry into her stressful home life, Starlight just scooped up the packet and stuffed it in with all her other schoolwork, not once examining the content of the stapled papers. Starlight swung her bags over her back and made her way out the door with the last trickle of students left in the room, not ever stopping to think about what she was bringing home.
