“... … ...” Starlight Glimmer's bored eyes reflect a tiny rectangle of fluctuating blue snow. Her nostrils flare with a prolonged, disgruntled sigh.
The unicorn stands in the middle of Twilight Sparkle's massive library in the crystalline heart of the Castle of Friendship.
Before Starlight is a podium, and on its mantle there rests an antique book with a blue-tinged binding. The tome is spread open before her—turned nebulously to the middle of its contents—and a patch of paper on the top right is projecting what can best be described as a moving picture of pure blue static.
The mare stifles another groan. Her lethargic eyes drift to the side. Lying directly next to the book is a loose page of paper: blue—just like the tome in its entirety.
With lazy motions, Starlight eventually grasps the piece of paper in her hoof. She carries it over to the book... and lets go.
The page falls like a feather. However—as soon as it makes physical contact with the book—it dissolves in a spiraling motion, accompanied by a trippy noise akin to a multi-dimensional portal farting open then collapsing in on itself. As soon as the reverberations end, Starlight blinks and discovers that the page has been absorbed by the antique book. The noise issuing from the tiny rectangular picture changes, as does its imagery—becoming a mite clearer.
She observes...
Scrkkkk-Scrkkkkk-Scrkkkkttt!!!
An adorable blue face pops into view, eyes wide and grinning from cheek to fuzzy cheek.
The face on the page drifts in and out of joyful clarity.
Scrkkk-scrkkkt-“Oh Starlight!”-Scrkkkktt!-“Thank Celestia!”-Scrkk-sccrkkkt-scckkkt-“Finally, a beautiful face beside Trixie's!”-Scrkkk-scrkkkkkt!-“Listen, Starlight!”-Scrkkk-scrkkktt!-“You gotta help Trixie! Please!”-Scrkkkkt-ssccrkkkt-scrkkkkt!-“Feels like a janky old Saddle CD game in here!”-Scrkkk-scrkkk-scccrkttt!-“You remember the Tower of Power, don't you??”-Scrkkkkt!
“Trixieeeeeeee...” Starlight chides, her eyes narrowing on the book. “What have we talked about you checking out mysterious enchanted books inside Twilight's library without asking for supervision?”
Scrrrkkkkt-scrkkkkt-scrkkkt-“Don't talk to Trixie like she's just a foal!”-Scrkkk-scrkkk-“Besides, it's not Trixie's fault!”-Scrkkkkkt-“The book was so cute and blue!”-Scrkkkkkkkt-scrkkkkt-sssskktt-“Trixie's favorite color!”-Scrkkkkt-scrkkkktt!!
“I don't care what you thought of the book, you shouldn't be—”
Scrkkkt-scrtkkkt!-“Did Trixie ever tell you that???”-Scrkkkt-sccrkkst-sssttt-stt!!!
“Yes, Trixie, you've told me time and time again that your favorite color is blue—”
Sccrkkkkkkkkkkkkkt-“Like the color of night!”-Scrkkkt!-“Trixie wishes she could distill it into a drink and pour it down her throat!”-Scrkkkkkt-scrkkt!
“Trixie, knock it off!” Starlight slaps the podium, making the imprisoning tome rattle. “This is super... super serious!” She gnashes her teeth as she glares at her friend through the static. “You messed around with stuff you shouldn't have and now you're trapped in a stupid, dusty book!”
Scrkkkkkt-scrkkkt!-“But Trixie's in the book now!”-Scrkkkkt-scrkkkk-scrkkkkkkt!-“Not so stupid and dusty anymore, eh?”-Scrkkkkt!
Starlight sighs into a facehoof. “I need to put a bell on you. I swear...”
Scrkkktt-scrkkkt-scrkkkt!-“More like a Great and Powerful Manuscript!”-Scrkkkt-sccctt!
“Trixie, can you tell me exactly what happened to get you in the predicament you're in now? Like, did you simply touch the book? Or did you read some incantation on the pages that led to—”
Scrkkkt-“Is Trixie right?!”-Scrkkkk-scrkkt!
“YES! SURE! WHATEVER!” Starlight flails her forelimbs as she barks at the book. “It's the Great and Powerful Manuscript! The Fabulous and Jaw-Dropping Tome! The Dazzling and Spectacular Memoirs!”
The page bears the hint of a blushing face and pouting lips.
Ssssscrkkkkkkkkkt-“Well you don't have to be so cheeky about it.”-Scrkkkt-scrkk-scrkkkt!
“Ennnghhhh...” Starlight whimpers into her forelimbs again. “...if she wasn't so cute. I swear to all that's astronomical—if she just wasn't so damned cute...”
Scrkkk-scrkkkk-scrkkt-“Anyways, Starlight, relax.”-Scrkkkt-scrkkkt-“And bring Trixie the blue pages.”-Scrkkkkt-scrkkkt!
“Buh?” Starlight lowers her forelimbs and glares dumbly at the book that is talking to her. “Blue pages?”
Scrkkkkkt-“Yes.”-Scrkkkst-“Bring Trixie the blue pages.”-Scrkkkkt!!
“What blue pages?!?!?”
Trixie's wide eyes fly briefly towards the picture frame before backing up with a demented grin.
Scrkkkkkt-scrkkkt-“The blue pages, Sirrus!”-Scrkkkt-“I mean Starlight!”-Scrkkkkt-scrkkkt-“Pleeeeease? Pretty please! Bring Trixie the blue pagessss!”-Scrkkkt-scrkkkt!!!
Starlight's muzzle scrunches. “Who's Sirrus?”
Scrkkkt-scrkkkt-“Are you even listening to Trixie?!?”-Scrkkkkt!!
“Trix, I'm trying.” Starlight winces, rubbing a hoof against her fuzzy lilac ear. “But—to tell the truth—I've had tinnitus that made more sense than you right now.”
Sccccrkkk-scctt-ssscttt!-“What's not to understand?!”-Scrkkktk-“Bring Trixie the blue pages!”-Scrkkkt-sctkkk!
“What blue pages?!” Starlight shrugs. “I haven't a clue what you're talking about!”
Sccrkkkt-scrkkkst-scrkkkt!!-“Sure you do!”-Scrkkktk-scrkkkkttt!-“Trixie's Great and Powerful Best Bestie is super smart!”-Scrkkkkt-scrkkkktssttt-ssttt-scrkkkt-“Besides, didn't you just bring one blue page to Trixie just now?-Scrkkt-scrkkktt!
“... … ...” Starlight fidgets on all four hooves. “I... uhhhh... maybe...?”
Scrkkkt-scrkkkkt!!-“Bring Trixie the blue pages, Starlight!”-Scrkkkt!
“Will you stop repeating yourself! Just—” Starlight drags a hoof over her stretchy face. “I had so much... so much that I had planned to do today...”
Scrkkkkt-scrkkkt!!-“Come onnnnn! I'll give you Great and Powerful Cuddles if you do!”-Scrkkkt-scrkkkt-“Don't you like Great and Powerful Cuddles?”-Scrkkkkt!!!
Starlight's tail flicks. Her lilac cheeks redden as she looks towards the far end of the library. “Those... are the b-best kind of cuddles...”
Scccccrkkkt—“Then bring Trixie the blue pages! Pronto!”-Scrkk-scrkkkt!!
“Alright alright!” Starlight grits her teeth. “I'm going!”
Sccccrkkkt-sscctkkt-“Quickly! Before they port Trixie to the Amigoats!”-Scrkkkt!!
… … ...the silhouette of an equine figure grasping a book falls from a momentary crack of atmospheric daylight and plunges into the abyss.
I realized, the moment I fell into the fissure, that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned.
“Uhhhh...” Starlight manages to speak while in free-fall, surrounded by stars. “...hello?!?”
It continued falling into that starry expanse of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit, however— such conjecture is futile.
“Yeah... uh huh... look, loud booming voice, I get it. I touched a magical book and now it's whisking me away to an otherworldly dimension. That's cool and all... but—”
Still, the question of whose hands might someday hold my—
“Really, though, can I skip this? Please?? I've got a friend to find blue pages for and I'm in no mood for—”
Starlight's body strikes an obsidian black surface below, forming bright white cracks against the nothingness.
She squints into bright sunlight. Her ears echo with the cackling of seagulls. Her nose tickles with the pungent smell of salt water.
She looks to her right.
Atop a round outcropping of water along the edge of a grand ocean, there is a pair of enormous blue cogwheels locked into one another. These are surrounded by brass railing, belying some sort of arbitrary purpose.
Wind billows past Starlight's shuddering figure. The persistent lapping of water forms a soft, vaguely creepy ambiance all around.
Starlight looks ahead of her.
A miniature platform looms. A single switch rests at the very top.
She flips it again.
Thap!
Nothing happens.
Starlight looks to her left.
Down past a partially winding set of steps, there is a wooden dock. Another switch platform rests there, and beside it is a sailing ship... a partially sunken sailing ship, submerged in the shallow waters of grand ocean that surrounds the island.
All is still. All is calm. Just Starlight Glimmer alone, surrounded by cryptic randomosity.
The image of a corridor entrance swirls in on itself and returns to a solid canvas.
The unicorn isn't finished blinking when she hears a mechanical clatter to her right. She looks to see a previously innocuous bookcase slowly collapsing into a short set of stairs leading into a familiar corridor.
That's when she notices that the room is no longer billowing with salt air.
Starlight looks to her left to see that the door that leads into the antique library has shut completely.
“... … ...”
Starlight turns about and trots up towards the painting of an open doorway.
She touches it.
This image also swirls.
Another mechanical noise.
She pivots about to see that the corridor has closed up and the library entrance has reopened to daylight and ocean breeze.
“... … ...”
She trots back to the painting of the corridor, touches it, and summons the corridor entrance once again.
Then she strolls over to a topographical map of the island. As she places her hoof against it, she sees the words “Tower Rotation appearing at the bottom of the canvas. A red line spins around... and she releases it while it is aimed at the white silhouette of a large rocket
The entire library shakes from the sound of grinding gears and hissing hydraulics somewhere deep in the building.
Then, after a while, the noise stops completely.
Blinking multiple times, the mare slumps back on her little lilac rump.
The ceiling of the planetarium is covered in twinkling little stars.
She looks to the center of the room.
A reclining seat with red cushions looms, affixed to a computer console of sorts.
Starlight trots over, mounts the recliner, and lies back staring up at the stars.
Stretching her hoof, she pulls the console over until it hangs between her muzzle and the ceiling.
The interface is mechanical, with white arrow buttons pointing up and down. To the left is a black screen featuring a tiny selection of stars zoomed-in close. At the bottom is a liquid crystal display featuring a date: Jan. 17. 1207 5:46AM.
“... … ...”
Starlight taps several arrow keys at random... then presses a black button in the center of the console.
There is a high-pitched whirring sound. The black screen to the left flips through a few hundred frames of random constellations until settling upon a singular star formation. There's a new date: Feb. 22. 3297 2:21AM.
“... … ...”
Starlight presses more buttons.
Another high-pitched whir. The stars spin, cycle, and spin some more. Finally—there's another constellations and another date.
Her muzzle scrunches.
She presses buttons and buttons and buttons and buttons.
She squats—hunched over—beside a bird bath with a sunken model of a tiny sailing ship. Random insignias loom all around her on tall pedestals.
Meanwhile, she's busying herself with a haphazard smattering of notepads, upon which she has scribbled countless numbers, figures, illustrations, diagrams, and constellations.
“Okay... okay so...” There are bags under her eyes. Her mane is a frazzled mess. Nevertheless, she floats a pen from paper to paper, frenetically circling and scribbling and underlining bits of data. “October eleventh, nineteen hundred and eighty-four. Ten o'four in the morning. Right. Right right right...” She licks her lips and peruses more notes. “January seventeenth... November twenty-third...” Her eyes reflect starry dots, then a series of cryptographs. “Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Sooooooo...”
Wincing, she stands up on creaking knees.
The mare hobbles over to three pedestals, one after the other.
“Snake...”
She presses the outline in question.
“...Leaf...”
She presses another button on another pedestal.
Then, at last...
“...Beetle.”
Click.
She stands in place, holding her breath. Her eyes dart left and right. And then...
...the sound of rushing water.
Her breath sucks in. She bites her bottom lip with anticipation.
The rushing water escalates into a deluge. It almost sounds like a whirlpool in reverse. Then—after much liquid cacophony—the phenomenon is over.
“...please... pretty please...!”
She turns to the bird bath.
The model of a sailing ship bobs healthily at the surface, its upper hull completely dry.
“... … ...yes...”
She gallops past the library and planetarium.
Her hooves brake against grass and she slides to a stop just before the wooden dock.
Her muzzle hangs open wide, beaming with a gorgeous smile.
“... … ...yes!!!”
The boat in its entirety is now securely moored to the dock. It is no longer sunken. Not a single droplet of water clings to its mast or sail.
“I raised the boat!” she squeals.
Starlight Glimmer dances in place before hopping around in happy horse circles.
“I raised the boat I raised the boat I raised the boat I raised the boat!!! Eeee-heee-hee-heee!”
The doors to Twilight Sparkle's library bust wide open.
Panting, a sweaty and haggard Starlight Glimmer gallops in. She clutches a blue page in her smiling mouth.
Before she's even halfway inside the crystalline chamber, she's stripped of her saddlebag and pulled the blue-tinged tome out.
She slaps it down onto the podium and—still breathless—flips to the very center of the book.
Starlight then plucks the precious page from her muzzle... and drops it onto the open tome.
It flutters like a feather before dissolving in a spiral. The picture frame in the top right corner lights up, and the fuzzy showmare inside appears a bit clearer than before.
Snkrrrkkkkt-scrktttkkk-scrkkttk-“Sirrus? Er... Trixie means Starlight?!-Scrkkkkkt-Is that you?!?-Scrkk-scrkkkkttt!
“I did it, Trixie!” Starlight sings. She grins from ear to ear, despite her teetering tiredness. “I read these journals and I saw these pictograph symbols and they matched stars and I remembered the dates that popped up when I aimed the tower at the planetarium and I coordinated with the images and I pressed the buttons and I raised the boat and it took me to a waterlogged bunch of rocks with some creepy living spaces built underground but I quickly figured out the water pumps and that compass thingy and the wooden trunk that needed to be emptied so it could float and let me put the chained key into the lock beneath the trap door and—”
Scrkkkst-scrkkkkt-“Whoah whoah whoah! Slow down so that Trixie can catch up!”-Scrkkkkkt-scrkkkkt!
Starlight exhales. “I raised the boat, Trixie!” Her cheeks turn rosy. “I raised the boat!”
Scrkkkkst-scrkkkst-scrrttttt-“Way to go, Starlight.”-Scrkkkkkt-scrkkkkt!-“The Great and Powerful Trixie is proud of you.”-Scrkkkktt-scrkkkttt!!!
“I raised the boat, though...!”
Scrkkkkst-“Yeah yeah. Uh huh.”-Scrkkkt!-“Did you bring Trixie the blue pages?”-Scrkkkktt!!!
“... … ...” Starlight blinks long and hard. “Well... uh... yeah.” She raises a hoof, gesturing. “I mean... found one in that stone-y world with the water pumps. I put it in the tome just now.”
Scrkkkkst-scrkkkt-ssttt-“Are you sure?”-Scrkkktttt!
“Yeah... uhm...” Starlight nods, gulping. “I'm pretty sure, Trix!” She leans forward. “Now that I've done so, what's next?”
“... … ...” Starlight runs a hoof over her face. “You've got to be bucking kidding me—”
Scrkkkktt-“Come onnnn, Starlight! Trixie promises this is super important!”-Scrtttscttt-“Knock Knock!”-Scrkkkt-scrkktktt!!!
Starlight slumps in place, eyes rolling to the ceiling. “Who's there?”
Scrkkkktt-“Azure!”-Scrkkkt!!!
“Azure who???”
Trixie's fuzzy face shifts in and out of the frame, busting with smiles.
Sccrkkkst-scrkkttt-“Azure there aren't more blue pages to bring Trixie???”-Sccrkkt-stssttt-scrkkk!!!
“... … ...” Starlight's frown could cut diamonds.
The showmare in the book saunters in and out of blue snow.
Scrkkkst-sccrtstkkkt-scrkkkktt-“Oh lighten up, Starlight. We both knew it couldn't be that simple.”-Sccrkkt-scrkkst-scrrttt-sccrkkkt-“Look on the bright side! Maybe there'll be a 'Kite Age' waiting for you!”-Scrkkkt-scrttt-“Now wouldn't you love that? Trixie knows you would. A-wiiiink!-Scrrkcct-scrttt!!!
Thap!
With a lazy wave of the hoof, Starlight slaps the blue book shut.
“Meh.” Starlight picks the book up and hobbles limply across the library. “Cuddles can wait for another day, Trixie.” She blows frazzled strands of mane hair out from her tired face. “Praise your lucky stars that I save-stated.”
Starlight Glimmer sits in her room, surrounded by kites and framed photos of friends.
She fills out School of Friendship paperwork, yawning every once in a while before taking sips from a mug of tea.
There's a knock on her door.
“~Come in~” she says.
The door opens. Spike waddles in, dragging a bookbag over his shoulder.
“Hey, Starlight.”
“Good afternoon, Spike.” She smiles over her shoulder. “What's up?”
“Nothing much.” He raises an eyecrest. “Although I'm surprised to find you here working. I thought you and Trixie had a mare's-day-out planned for this evening.”
“We did. Butttttt...” Starlight rests the mug of tea back down onto her coaster—which happens to be a blue-tinged tome. “...that's gonna be delayed for a bit.” She huffs. “At least until after I can find a friggin' walkthrough.”
“Oh, cool... I guess...”
“Did you need something, Spike?”
“Well, now that you mentioned it...” Spike reaches into the bookbag. “Something popped out of the portal in the basement overnight. Looks kinda cursed to me.”
“You don't say?” Starlight turns around and motions at him. “Here. Let me see.”
Spike hands her a red-colored antique book.
“Uhhhhh...” Starlight's ears fold back. With a nervous breath, she slowly peels the book up to its very middle.
There's a picture frame on the top right corner. It dances with static snow.
And then...
Sscrkkkt-scttt-“Achenar???”-Scct-ssctt-sccdtt!!!
Sunset Shimmer's distressed pony face looms into view, squinting. She blushes—matching the static all around her.
Ssccrst-ssst-sst-“Oh. Starlight. Hi there. Eheheheh...”-Scct-scrkkkst-sttt-scct-“Anyways, can you find me the red pages?"-Scrrcckt-scctt-sckktt-“Pretty pleeeeeease?"-Scrkkkt-scccttt!!!
Starlight slaps the book shut, making Spike flinch.
