Just Beyond the Surface

"No, no, no, no, no!" cried Twilight Sparkle, emphasizing each 'no' by rapping her long teaching wand against her roughly constructed lectern.

The throne room had been converted for the day into a makeshift classroom. As Twilight used her magic to angrily adjust her spectacles, which she only wore to put herself into a 'teaching' frame of mind, she stomped over to the blackboard and *whacked* the end of her pointer against one of many chalk drawings. This one seemed to be of a unicorn standing in front of three fillies. A rather crudely drawn doll lay between them. "Let's try this again. You have a weekly friendship report due today. Despite having a week to prepare it, you have solved no friendship problems or learned any new lessons about friendship. The clock is ticking, and you have less than a day to find a friendship problem, solve it, and write a detailed report about the event and what lesson you learned from it. What do you do!?"

Twilight leveled her wand so it stabbed across the room in the direction of Starlight Glimmer, who was perched awkwardly in one of those hard plastic desk-chair combos that both she and Twilight had outgrown many years ago. The unicorn's smile was just as awkward as her posture as her mind raced, trying to come up with the most logical answer to her mentors question. "Well... The first thing I might do is write a letter to my teacher explaining the situation? I'd point out that the scenario held a lesson in and of itself; that friendship cannot be regimented and consigned to a schedule. Friendships, and the problems that sometimes help define them, happen far more organically than that after all. I also might point out that since I've had no friendship problems myself that week, that it just went to show how stable my friendships had become and what a good grasp I must have on the fundamentals of the concept for such problems to have become so... So few and, uh, far between?" Starlight smiled so hard it made her face hurt, such was her worry that she had answered wrong.

The Princess of Friendship stared at Starlight with her mouth hanging open. It was a perfect answer! But it also perfectly derailed the lesson Twilight was trying to teach! Never the less, Twilight rallied as best she could. "That might work," she conceded. "However, what you will want to avoid is the temptation to make a friendship problem yourself, so that you have one to solve. You would not want to, for example, cast a 'Want-It-Need-It' spell on an inanimate object and then attempt to use it to break up a friendship in order to have something to write a report about. The could only end in disaster."

It was Starlight's turn to stare with her mouth open wide. She couldn't hold Twilight's gaze for long before bursting out in uproarious laughter! Twilight didn't see what was so funny, and she was just about to say as such when Starlight managed to gasp between giggles, "I'm so sorry Twilight, really I am, but that's just too funny! I didn't expect your example to be so ridiculous!" She couldn't stifle a fresh bout of chuckling, "Who would ever think of such a silly solution!? Who would even be crazy enough to think something like that would work! Of course it would end in disaster!"

Blushing brightly, her glasses fogging up slightly with the sudden rush of warm blood to her face, Twilight turned away from her student so she wouldn't see that her reaction was causing her to feel intense mortification. These lessons were not going how Twilight had hoped they would.

Not at all.

"Be that as it may," Twilight replied after she'd had a moment to recover her composure, raising her head haughtily, "There's no reason to make such a disruptive ruckus about it. We're supposed to be having a dinner with our friends tonight and we're barely through your lessons! If we don't finish soon we'll never have time to lay out the silverware properly!" Twilight was the one that had the wonderful idea of introducing Starlight's first friend since becoming her pupil to one of Twilight's first friends. While she wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing Trixie again so soon, Twilight was overjoyed that Moon Dancer had agreed to make the trip from Canterlot for a visit. The idea was that they might all become friends with one another over the course of the evening, and strengthen their individual bonds of friendship in the bargain.

Secretly Twilight was hoping that this dinner could serve as a test run for a second attempt at hosting Princess Celestia, but she didn't dare invite the monarch of the sun until she was absolutely sure she had ironed out all the problems from before. It seemed that this had been a wise move on Twilight's part, given how things were going with Starlight's lessons today. If this was any indication of how the rest of the day was going to go, it may well be a repeat of that last ruined occasion.

Starlight, for her part, had quieted her laughter and wore what she hoped was a suitably chastised expression. "Again, I'm sorry Twilight. I'll try to be less disruptive. Do go on."

The Princess of Friendship gave her student her warmest smile. This was more like it! She was just about to point to the next chalk illustration on the blackboard when the double door to the throne room swung open. "Hey Twilight, have you got a sec?" It was Spike.

Spike, her faithful assistant.

Spike the dragon who was always so dutiful.

Spike who should know Twilight was not to be disturbed while she was trying to teach Starlight about friendship!

The Alicorn's horn glowed, her magic unconsciously bending her wooden wand until it started to creak, threatening to break. Twilight managed to turn towards the interrupting dragon with a smile on her face, although it wasn't a particularly reassuring one. "What is it Spike?" She hissed through clenched teeth, her smile frozen on her face. Her twitching eye was an indicator that Spike had best answer quickly and well if he wanted to avoid a localized explosion. "I hope it's something suitably important to interrupt Starlight's lessons."

"Well, I don't know about that, but it's definitely something you should deal with yourself," answered Spike carefully. He was well experienced in dealing with Twilight when she got this way. Telling her anything was outright more important than Starlight's friendship lessons would just invite a lecture down on his own head. He found it was best just to be completely honest and plunge ahead with whatever needed doing and worry about cleaning up any broken furniture later. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are here. They say it's a cutie mark problem and one that only you might be able to solve. They have another friend with them too. Cute filly, but kind of creepy."

"What do you mean, creepy? How creepy?" asked Twilight, her temper abating as her curiosity rose to the fore.

"Well, maybe 'creepy' isn't the right word," admitted Spike. "Still, she seems pretty odd. They're waiting in the hall. If you want, you can see for yourself."

"But Starlight's lessons!" Twilight protested, waving her teachers pointer erratically through the air with her magic.

"Actually, I could use a little break," confessed Starlight."I think we both could. Especially if I'm having problems... Focusing. Why don't you go see what they want and I'll grab a snack and we can pick back up in a half an hour?"

Adjusting her glasses, Twilight glanced over her lesson plan. She had set aside some time for a break in another hour. She was as devoted to teaching as she was to studying, but even she recognized that a mind needed a break every now and then to absorb what it had learned. Twilight took off her glasses with her magic, carefully folded them, and set them down on the top of her lectern. "Alright, we have time for a short break. But don't be late coming back, we still have a lot of ground to cover."

Starlight didn't have to be told twice. With a flash of turquoise magic she had teleported out of her seat and across the room to the door that lead to the castle's kitchen. With nothing more than a casual wave, she was gone. Twilight let out a heavy sigh. If Starlight was as enthused about taking lessons as taking breaks, she thought, maybe they'd be done by now.

That wasn't fair though, and Twilight knew it. She reprimanded herself for even having had the thought. Starlight wasn't just her pupil, she was her friend, and if she wasn't enjoying the lectures Twilight was giving her that wasn't her fault. Twilight knew she needed to change her approach and find a method of teaching Starlight that worked for both ponies. Still, it wouldn't have killed Starlight to at least pretend she was enjoying herself.

"Well Spike, let's go see what the girls want," she said dourly. "Perhaps we can do something productive today."

By the time they had walked to the main entrance, Twilight's mood had brightened considerably.

While Twilight was well aware that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had recently achieved their goal and gotten each of their cutie marks, she still remembered that it wasn't that long ago that they had all gathered together for what the girls had affectionately called 'Twilight Time'. In those after school sessions Twilight had helped tutor them in useful skills and taught them new things about themselves and the world around them. It had been a little messy at times, and when the girls had started inviting their little friends along it had become quite chaotic, but Twilight still looked back on that time spent with the the three fillies fondly. As such, she looked on the girls themselves rather fondly as well. She smiled brightly as she laid eyes on Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

It had been some time since they had last asked her for her help, so as a result, Twilight was looking forward to having the chance to both see them and help them if she could. She was all smiles as she greeted the girls and the dark little filly that was standing in the shadows behind them. "Hello! Long time no see! It's so good to see you again!" She practically chirped, her wings flapping happily.

"Hey Twilight," the girls chorused back. Twilight couldn't tell for sure, but the Crusaders seemed a little taller and a little more confident since they had gotten their cutie marks. Even so, they had come to her for help with something. It felt good to still be needed by them.

"So what's up?" The Princess asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Well, ya see Twilight, it's like this~" began Apple Bloom before being interrupted by Sweetie Belle.

"We've got a HUGE problem," Rarity's little sister squeaked, a spark of magic randomly discharging from her horn as she emphasized the word 'huge'.

"It's not that big," insisted Scootaloo glumly. " I'm sure we could figure it out on our own if she'd let us try."

"Will ya let me tell it?" grumped Apple Bloom. Twilight couldn't quite suppress a smile. The Crusaders de-facto leader was showing a gruff side similar to her older sister, Applejack. Bloom took her friends silence as acquiescence and she started again. "Anyways, we have us a new friend here who just moved to Ponyville," Apple Bloom gestured to the dark haired filly who hadn't said anything yet, but stared at Twilight intently. "As ya can see, she's a blank flank. She came to us asking for cutie mark advice but... Well..."

"We kind of don't know that much about the subject she's interested in," admitted Scootaloo grudgingly.

"I mean I know some things about it, but I've never been very good at it," added Sweetie Belle bashfully. "And we just thought that~"

"Am Ah tellin' this or not!?" asked Apple Bloom irritably. Her friends quieted down again. "Ya see Twilight, Violet Flicker here is an absolute whiz when it comes to magic. She's dead set on getting a cutie mark for magic, but no matter what new spells she learns or what she tries her flank just stays blank. You'd be amazed at what she can do, but there's just no pony in Ponyville who knows as much about magic as you!"

"At least that's what Violet says," interjected Scootaloo before getting a cross look from Apple Bloom and a nudge from Sweetie Belle.

"Right," continued the farm pony. "So anyways, we figured who would be better to help Violet get a magic cutie mark than the Element of Magic herself!?"

Twilight took a moment to take a better look at Violet Flicker. Her eyes were a soft violet, like the flower of her namesake, and were striking against the light gray color of her coat. Black bangs curled down over her forehead and perfectly framed her face, white the rest of her long hair had been gathered back into a ponytail. She was shorter than the Cutie Mark Crusaders but, in an undefinable way, she seemed more mature. Maybe it was the dress she wore, a sailor uniform the same color and shade as her eyes, that Twilight had heard was popular with fillies in distant Neighpon. Or maybe it was the way the little unicorn hadn't blinked once the entire time the girls had been talking.

Either way, Twilight thought she could see why Spike had found her somewhat unsettling. Her quiet intensity was even getting to Twilight a bit. To say she seemed a 'little intense' was like saying the sea was 'sort of wet', the sun was 'somewhat bright', or the moon was 'kind of pale'. She tried not to judge her for it though. Perhaps she was just shy? Wasn't there some saying about 'shy little' violets? Twilight thought she had read that somewhere.

"I'm flattered... Really," Twilight said, unable to break Violet's penetrating gaze. "But I already have a pupil that I'm teaching right now. To tell the truth, I'm struggling just trying to handle her education. Until I get that right, it would be irresponsible of me to divide my attention between multiple students." The filly didn't respond. Violet barely seemed to be breathing. Twilight felt an unaccountable urge to explain herself further. "It would be unfair to both you and Starlight, you see? Do you understand?"

"I don't mind," replied the little unicorn, speaking up at last in a soft and light voice. "Twilight, I am your biggest fan! Even if all I'm doing is watching you teach your other pupil, that would be okay. Just getting the chance to bask in the presence of the Princess of Magic would be an education unto itself!"

Twilight blushed slightly. No pony had ever gushed over her like that before, "The Princess of Friendship, actually," Twilight corrected. Just because she was delighted by Violet's words, that didn't mean she would still let a mistake like that get past her. She was still Twilight, after all. "Although I am the Element of Magic, I'm actually the Princess of Friendship, not magic."

"See, I'm learning already!" the unicorn filly responded brightly, her smile lighting up the room like the noon day sun. Once the ice was broken, Violet seemed to be as cute as any other filly. Maybe Twilight had just been misreading her. Her inscrutable intensity from earlier seemed to have faded altogether already.

Spike was busy making a gagging motion where Twilight couldn't see, much to Scootaloo's delight, but Twilight herself found Violet adorable. What would it really hurt? Who was she to turn away a pony who wanted to learn? "Well, I guess if you think it might help you with your cutie mark problem, it might be okay." Twilight turned to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, "Why don't you all come with me for a short demonstration? I've got a few new teaching techniques I've been wanting to try out anyways!"

"Oh, gee Twilight, ya know how much we love yer lessons and all," said Apple Bloom, not entirely believably. "But we've got so much stuff ta do today like... Uh..."

"Earning our cutie marks?" hazarded Sweetie Belle.

"We already did that," hissed Apple Bloom.

"Doing chores?" offered Scootaloo with a shrug.

Apple Bloom sighed heavily, "Like doin' chores," she echoed weakly. "We got us a whole heap of chores waitin' on us."

"Nonsense!" Said Twilight, already sweeping the girls down the hall towards the throne room with her wings. "There will be plenty of time for chores afterwards. Besides, I know how you're always looking for an excuse to get out of them. Why not expand your knowledge of the magic of friendship while you're doing it!?"

The girls groaned, but Twilight pretended not to hear.

"You too Spike," Twilight said as the dragon attempted to slink away unnoticed.

"Do I have to?" moaned her assistant.

Twilight thought it over for a moment. "Yes!"

Starlight bustled, clinking around the dishware until she found the bowl she was looking for. It was very much her bowl, one of the few possessions she'd brought with her from her home village. It was something she had made when she was little. It was kind of rough, and she'd managed to misspell her own name on the side as 'Starlite', but the little earthenware bowl had sentimental value. She'd made it in elementary school along side her dear friend Sunburst. She giggled as she remembered how his bowl had distorted slightly when it was fired in the kiln and it had ended up looking as if he'd written his name as 'Sunbutt'.

It had been a while since she had thought about that. She found the memory strangely comforting. It used to be a sad memory. During all of those years when she had cursed cutie marks for 'taking away' her friend. It was a wonder she'd held onto the little bowl for so long. But as Starlight's tummy gave a growl, she was reminded that she would have plenty of time to reminisce while she ate.

As she turned away from the cupboard and back to the glowing stove, she had to shoo a fly away from the bubbling contents of a wooden handled pan. She made a disgusted face.

Starlight detested flies.

The filthy things got everywhere, and if you weren't careful they'd quickly multiply. Once, when she still lived in what she still unconsciously thought of as 'Our Town', she had left her house for a week to stay with one of her followers who was having doubts about their community. At such times she would have normally asked the wavering citizen to stay with her in her own home until their doubts had been dispelled, but not this time... It had required a more hooves on approach on Starlight's part. She wasn't proud of the memory, but that wasn't what she was recalling right now anyways.

No, she was reminded of something that had happened afterward.

When she had returned to her own abode, it was to a strange buzzing sound. She wasn't frightened, of course, because this was her town. Nothing bad could ever happen here, she had thought. That didn't mean that she hadn't been cautious as she investigated the source of the sound, though. Taking measured, careful steps, her every sense alert, she had walked carefully through her own tiny home.

She wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't the wave of sickening stench that greeted her as she entered her tiny kitchen. She had forgotten to take out the garbage before she had left. When she opened the lid of the garbage can, a great cloud of flies had whooshed out like a small black tornado. That was bad enough but, as she looked into the can, she realized the garbage was moving.

More than that... It was pulsing, as if it were alive!

Maggots started dripping over the side of the bin as the blind larvae tried to escape from the sudden unwelcome light that Starlight had let into their refuge. She'd almost thrown up there and then as a few of the tiny worms spilled over her hooves. Fortunately, Double Diamond had escorted her home. The earth pony had rushed to her aid when she had screamed, and had taken care of things... Removing the garbage and cleaning out the can, making sure that all of the flies were aired out of the house and every last maggot was disposed of. she'd watched him do it all. Even so, the unwelcome surprise had left her more shocked than she thought she had a right to be.

But this was her town. Nothing bad was supposed to happen here. There was something about the foul rot and decay hiding at the heart of her home that had left Starlight truly shaken.

She lay awake for a few nights after that, sure that she could still hear a tell-tale buzzing coming from her kitchen. Once, in the middle of a hot summer night, she had pulled back her covers only to find another blanket beneath. A living blanket, that writhed and pulsed, wriggling moistly over her body. Starlight had awoken immediately, but sat shivering in the dark with only the light from her horn to comfort her. She wasn't able to sleep under any blankets after that for a month. She could still feel those dream maggots crawling on her skin.

Starlight hated flies.

But dwelling on such thoughts would put her off her meal. Starlight ladled some left over oatmeal from their earlier breakfast into her bowl. It wasn't much of a snack in and of itself but after reheating it on the stove top, and with the judicious application of a little maple syrup, it would help pick her right up. Using her magic, the bottle drifted over to the bowl, and squirted out two lines in an equal sign. This was quickly followed up by one long curve, turning the equal sign into a smiley face. She'd done this since she was little, but it never failed to put a smile on Starlight's own face.

"Wow, you still do something as childish as that?" came a young girls voice from directly behind her. Starlight jumped, nearly spraying maple syrup all over the kitchen.

"Oh my! You can't sneak up on a pony like that!" Starlight turned around and came face to face with a little unicorn filly in a lavender dress. "Just who are you anyways? Are you one of Apple Bloom's little friends?"

The little unicorn tilted her head. "No, I don't think so."

That was not the response Starlight had expected. Was it possible some filly had just wondered in off the streets? Twilight was pretty loose about letting people come and go in her castle as they pleased, but Starlight didn't expect to encounter a complete stranger in a setting like this. The whole situation felt dream-like and unreal. Surely there was a more sensible explanation to be had. "How about Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle? Are they your friends? Did they bring you here?"

"No. They are not my friends," the filly answered decisively this time. "Though you could say they did lead me here. I'm here to see Twilight Sparkle!" Mentioning Twilight's name brought a broad smile to the filly's face.

There was something about that smile that Starlight found both familiar and unsettling. She suddenly felt like she was the one intruding rather than the little unicorn. It was an odd feeling. What was worse is that the filly never seemed to blink. As Starlight watched in horror, the fly she had earlier shoo'ed away landed on one of the child's unblinking eyes. The insect started rubbing its forelegs together, occasionally flapping its wings with a soft 'buzz' as it explored the jellied surface of the filly's violet iris.

Starlight couldn't help but cringe.

Thankfully the fly flew away of its own accord as the filly spoke again, "Aren't you going to eat your oatmeal?"

Starlight looked to the bowl of cooling mush. Was that a slight twitch in its brown depths? Was it, just perhaps, moving? Surely it was just her imagination. But still... there had been that fly buzzing around it earlier. "I think that I may not be as hungry as I thought after all." She quickly took her bowl to the sink and started to wash it out. Of course there was nothing in the bowl aside from oatmeal... Certainly no maggots, at least. It seemed like such a terrible waste watching it swirl with the water as it went down the drain, but wasteful or not, Starlight had lost her appetite.

While she was occupied with scraping the last of the sticky contents out with a spoon, she felt a sharp prick on her flank. Startled, Starlight looked down just in time to see a needle sticking into her side, and watched the strangely colored contents of the syringe disappear as they were pushed into her veins.

The effect was immediate.

Starlight felt her bowl slip from her grasp, fall, and shatter in the kitchen sink. She didn't have any time to think about what a terrible loss this was, as she soon found herself swooning. She landed face first on the floor. The tiles were cool against her cheek. They were almost comfortable, except for the strange crawling sensation she felt running over her skin. The sensation of tiny, invisible maggots, nibbling at her skin. Her ears rang, and then buzzed as if she was in the middle of a swarm of flies. Even that might not have been so bad were it not for the smiling filly looming over her, with her face only inches from her own.

The filly's face warped and twisted, like one of those horrible visages that lurk just beyond the surface of a fun house mirror. Blood spilled from the corners of her mouth and eyes as flies erupted from her skin. She was laughing, causing more blood to spill, mixed with tiny white maggots that writhed and twitched as they pooled under Starlight's nose. She wanted so badly to look away, but she couldn't move a muscle. The filly only grinned wider, showing rows of cracked and filthy tombstone teeth and a serpentine tongue lurking behind that stretched out like a red carpeted road leading to the depths of Tartarus.

Starlight tried to close her eyes, but found she couldn't. Instead they were locked with the filly's own unblinking orbs. Those lifeless eyes burned into Starlight's mind as unconsciousness rose up and claimed her. There was only the incessant buzzing in her mind and the feeling that just beyond it, she could hear laughter.