The Rise of Starlight Glimmer

Starlight woke up feeling good. Very good. She got out of bed and noticed a sheet of old paper on her pillow : Cutie Mark Disappearances

Perfect!

It was raining outside but to her, the world was sunshine and rainbows. She trotted down stairs for breakfast excitedly :

"Hi mom!" she said sitting down at the kitchen table.

Her mom looked at her with a frown and her dad lifted his head from his newspaper. He never lifted his head from his newspaper.

"Good morning darling..." said her mom a little wearily. "It's nice to see you've recovered from the... incident."

Oh yeah! That.

"Well... I'm trying to forget it because it's gonna chase me for the rest of my life if I don't. So I'm looking at things on the bright side! Like the fact that you are all very nice to me and that Moonlight is very nice too so I'm guessing that I have to be very nice then!"

"Wait, I have to be nice to who??" asked her dad confused.

"To every pony! And if every pony is nice to every pony then the world will be a better place. That's what I'm gonna do. Make the world a waaaay better place. Like that no pony will ever commit... suicide".

Starlight's left eye twitched when she said that word but she shook herself and trotted back to her room.

"That was fast! and what about breakfast?!" called her mother from the kitchen.

"I'm uh... not hungry anymore! I've got to do... stuff..." answered Starlight, not looking back.

She heard her father get up and start to trot agitatedly around the kitchen.

"Are you sure we shouldn't go see a doctor? She's recovered in just one night!" he said.

"Listen, maybe she is just hiding her feelings. It's not easy to loose some pony like that and she probably doesn't want us to keep looking out for her" answered her mother.

"Yeah... Maybe a good night sleep was all she needed. Or maybe she dreamed of him and it made her feel better".

Starlight continued her way to her room.

"You have no idea" she whispered to herself all evil like.

Starlight locked her door and turned back to her bed where she had hidden the spell. She took it out and read it.

"Hmm let's see... Focus deeply during the spell... You must be able to perfectly control levitation and teleporting spells before trying... Make sure no pony sees you... Blah blah blah... Sparks of magic must come out of your horn... Don't forget to breathe... Wait... WHAT?!"

Starlight read the bottom line again.

"This spell can take weeks to manage" she read, " Please use with caution...?? Sheesh! Who writes these?" frowned Starlight.

Then she frowned. Yeah... Who writes these? I can't remember seeing the face of the pony in my dream. Come to think of it, she helped me with a lot and I never saw who she really was!

But her doubts cleared as she recalled what good things she would bring to society if she learned the spell. Cutie marks were indeed a big problem. And she was going to fix it.

"Starlight!" shouted Bluespace for the fourth time "come down and eat your dinner, it's going to get cold!"

"Maybe she's not hungry", suggested her husband staring hungrily at the herb soup she had made.

"But the poor thing hasn't eaten for two days now! She's going to starve if this continues" replied Bluespace.

"Mom, I left her a bowl of salad yesterday and you told me she was acting fine this morning so we shouldn't be too bothered" Moonlight shrugged.

"I know, I know. Please, can you carry some soup up for her darling? Then we can start" said the anxious mother.

Moonlight rolled her eyes and lifted a portion of the herb soup with her horn, then climbed up the stairs and across the hallway. She stopped in front of her little sister's door and put it down. She was about to leave when something caught her eye.

It was a flash of blue, near the keyhole. Moonlight put her eyes to its level and peeked through. What she saw left her stunned.

Starlight was floating in the middle of the room, engulfed in her blue magic. She was reading out loud a piece of paper that was in front of her. It was some kind of ancient spell that Moonlight did not recognize. It was the kind of spell that older ponies would learn, not twelve year old fillies!

Starlight finished reading it and closed her eyes in concentration. Sparks of energy were flying everywhere. A sudden blast of magic shot out of her horn and hit her little princess Celestia doll. Her sister frowned. Was Starlight trying to kill the princess or something?

Everything calmed down and the magic cleared away to leave a rather sweaty pink filly in the middle. She gazed at her doll and picked it up to look at it's flank. Moonlight found that a little disturbing until her little sister jumped up in the air :

"YES!" she squealed and looked at the flank again. Her happiness faded away and she groaned. "Ugh! A few seconds for all of that concentration? And every pony is going to suspect something if I start talking out loud during the spell. It's got to be discrete if I'm going to do this. Perhaps if I think of them a different way or that I learn how to teleport further away..."

Moonlight backed away from the door. This certainly wasn't homework! That spell was the most complicated spell she had ever heard of! And why was her sister hiding all that? Why would any pony suspect anything during the performance of it?

She shook her head and knocked on the door. Starlight's muttering stopped and the door opened. Her face brightened up at the sight of her sister.

"Hey Moonlight! What are you doing here? By the way thank you so much for the salad yesterday! It was really nice of you" she chirped.

What about that spell you just did??!

"Uh, no prob Starlight. Come on down, dinner is served" Moonlight said a little stunned.

"Wow did I miss mom calling me?"

"Yeah, what were you doing?" asked her sister.

"Ohhhh nothing just listening to music and stuff. Let's eat!" and she rushed down the stairs.

Why are you lying to me?

Moonlight followed her sister and sat at the table as they began to eat.

"What were you doing up there honey?" asked Bluespace to her youngest daughter.

"Music," she replied, too busy eating to even look up.

"And... What like... homework do you have ? You know I just want to see if you're learning big stuff yet" her sister asked, carefully looking at her.

"Nah, we've only just started to learn teleportation spells and I am really bad! I'm going to have to study hard," Starlight answered smiling.

How the heck did you learn to lie so well?!

"You do know that If ever you need something, we're here," said Starbeam, "Right?"

The other two nodded and Starlight thanked them.

She later went to bed, leaving the three 'alone' in the kitchen.

"She definitely is not better" sighted Starbeam.

"Yeah!" said Moonlight, "I saw..."

She stopped. Maybe she could keep this a secret until she finds out more...? Yes. That was probably a better idea than scaring her parents.

"Nothing, never mind".

The family went silent again. Moonlight tried to think of something to say but couldn't. She finally gave up and yawned.

"I'm going to bed too. Goodnight!"

Her parents wished her a good night too and she left the kitchen. While going to her room, she crossed Starlight's door and could not resist taking a look inside.

Her little sister had drawn calculations in the air and was surrounded by books of all kinds. She was still muttering to herself and kept modifying the writings on the piece of torn up paper.

Moonlight continued her way back to her bedroom and snuggled in her bed. She turned the lights off and closed her eyes.

Then a scary thought hit her. What if her sister was trying to bring her friend back from the dead?!

Images of ghosts and ghoul ponies crossed her mind and she cowered under the covers, shaking a little.

Great.