//-------------------------------------------------------//
                 Through the Darkest Night                 
                   -by Haysit T Ganaram-                   
//-------------------------------------------------------//
//-------------------------------------------------------//
                  Whispers of the Evening                  
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Whispers of the Evening
Ding....  
7:58  
Twilight's castle.
Starlight heard the gentle chime of the doorbell, and observing the time, let out a long breath. On a normal day, the castle received a decent number of visitors, as it was easily the largest repository of information on most subjects for miles around, but this was no ordinary visitor.  
I wonder if she was waiting outside just so that she wouldn't be too early? Starlight thought to herself.
As nobody had come to answer the door, Starlight gave a worried look around and was about to get it herself before Twilight trotted, almost skipping into view. "Ohmygosh she's here! Spike! Is everything ready?" Twilight yelped loud enough that if somepony had their ear pressed to the door they probably would have heard her.
"Twilight... Everything's been ready for almost an hour now." Spike replied as he entered the dining room.
"Thank you Spike, I can always count on you when it comes to excessive preparation." Twilight patted him on the head.
"Twilight," Starlight interrupted.
"Are you ready Starlight? Are you nervous? Do you-"
"-The door Twi-"
"-Now I know meeting the Princess can be very intimidating but you need to remember tha-" Twilight continued, oblivious.
"-Twilight! The door!"
Twilight whirled towards the entranceway, gasped, suddenly remembering Celestia was still outside, she then immediately teleported right to the door.
For a minute or two Starlight sat waiting, ears perking up to the muffled conversation and shuffle of hooves down the hall. Twilight was apologizing about being so late to get the door, however the responses were barely audible, producing only a bass hum through the walls, the echo made it almost seem like Twilight was having a conversation with herself as marched down the hall.
Finally the procession halted as Twilight entered the room, who spun around announcing "Here we are! I'd like you to meet my new student, Starlight Glimmer."
"Pleased to meet you," the deep voice resonated as it's owner strode out from the shadow of the hall's archway, "I had been wanting very much to make your acquaintance ever since Twilight first mentioned you in her letters."
Now, Starlight had heard a lot about the Princesses from Twilight since being taken in at the castle. Four slender legs capped in golden hooflets supported the toned frame of a pegasus, an elegant swanlike neck, and a alicornia that stretched nearly a meter in the air, surrounded in hair that was a rainbow of mild colors blowing in an ethereal wind.
But her face, for a long moment she could not take her eyes from it, a jawline unlike any living equine hung under two piercing orbs of magenta, seeming to take in everything at once, and for what felt like an eternity Starlight sat staring, for compared to those eyes, the rest of Celestia's god-like figure seemed but an attachment, a mere vessel to-
"-Hey! Starlight! You awake over there?" Spike called out, waving his clawed hands in front of her.
"H-huh, Oh!" She said suddenly realizing she had zoned out completely.  
Spike wore a consternated expression as Starlight came back to her senses.her letters, I can't help but be fascinated by your story, as a matter of fact I found the whole thing so remarkable I just had to come and meet you in person."
Starlight was taken aback by that, "W-well, but, I did so many bad things, and then almost destroyed all of Equestria with Starswirl's temporal alteration spell, I can't understand why somepony like you would want to know a-about somepony like me..." she finished in a downtrodden fashion.
Twilight frowned at her, "Starlight, that's no way to talk about yourself, everypony makes mistakes, I've done lots of crazy things because I thought it made sense at the time, trust me. You can't just blame yourself forever, you need to move on and become a better pony by realizing what you did wrong."
A smile broke out on Celestia's face observing her student, but returning her attention to Starlight she added, "My former student is quite correct, I came to learn about who someone as talented as you wants to become in the future... And to discover what I could have improved to make sure nobody ever makes the same mistakes again," Celestia said, eyes softening to those of a worried parent. "I blame myself more for what happened than you, from what I understand you became distraught at an early age because of a program I developed, that drove you to the outskirts of Equestria with too much spite for one as young as you were, and my own oversight of this town as well led to the mare you became."
Small tears lined Starlight's eyes, wiping them away with a hoof she said in a small voice, "That's kind of you to say, but, it doesn't change the fact that I did a lot of bad things of my own volition, and then nearly destroyed all of Equestria when I failed."
Celestia cocked her head towards Twilight, "What does she mean by that? Did something else happen I'm not aware of?"
Twilight looked back at Celestia quizzically, "No... I am fairly sure Starlight is referring to our tampering with Starswirl's time travel spell."
Celestia actually blinked at that, "Twilight, Starswirl himself made several notations on the impossibility of retracing dimensional paths, they can only be recreated in approximation."
This time it was Twilight's turn to blink. "Y-you're right, Starswirl's third book, chapter five, the theory of transdimensional anomalisms specifically states that... Um... Starlight, that parchment with Starswirl's spell on it, the one I destroyed before anyone else could use it, where exactly did you get it from?"  
Starlight, although totally lost on the technical lingo, blushed lightly at the question, "I um, I used my teleportation to break into the Royal Canterlot Archive, I lucked out and immediately found magic related texts, and simply grabbed the nearest book, ripped a few dozen pages out, and teleported away."
Starlight's cheesy anxious smile persisted for a couple seconds before both Twilight and Celestia blinked. Hard.  
Finally Twilight spoke up, "Um.. Ok, Starlight, first off, you can't teleport into the Royal Archive, it's surrounded in a strong anti-magic barrier, secondly, it's also impossible to remove anything from any wing of the Royal Archive, because it will instantly disintegrate if you do. But, thirdly, and most importantly, Why would you ever! Ever! R-Rip pages out of a b-book in the Canterlot Royal Archive! Those are ancient, one of a kind books that aren't even allowed to exist anywhere else in Equestria! How could you-"
"-Twilight, I think Starlight understands what you're trying to say." Celestia interrupted Twilight's tirade.
Starlight bit her lip, "I'm sorry Twilight, I should never have done that but I wasn't thinking clearly at the time," Twilight nodded furiously as Starlight continued, "But, do you mean to say that what I broke into wasn't the Royal Archive at all?"
Celestia nodded, "That's correct Starlight, you probably just broke into a sealed wing of Canterlot library, because while there are some areas only scholars or professionals have access too, there are only a handful of ponies in Equestria allowed to enter the royal wing of the Archives, as the books contained therein are extremely dangerous."
At this point Twilight had calmed down some and asked Starlight another question. "Starlight, what book exactly did you take the pages from, and what happened to them?"
"It was Starswirl the Bearded's third edition on Distortion an Dislocation, but I threw the other pages away because they didn't have the kind of spells I was looking for."
Twilight sighed, "Well someone's sure going to have a problem for their homework assignment this year, that aside I'm glad it was just an advanced magic textbook and not a historical treasure." Twilight then looked over to Celestia and asked, "I did describe to you the nature of the spell, I assume by your reaction you already knew it wasn't one of the really dangerous ones?"
"Yes, Twilight, of course I did, I wasn't entirely sure as it could have been a variation of the spell, but now that I know the book you took it from I'm fairly sure that Starlight was merely using Starswirl's 'Temporal Trace and Optimized Parameter Deductive Generation Spell' or a TT-OP:DG Spell. If you recall it Twilight, it was the spell he developed to generate predictions along a fourth, or temporal, axis using a complex mathematical deductive matrix that he combined with a Temporal Tracing spell to define the initial parameters for." Celestia finished, having possibly even lost Twilight a bit there.
"What?" Starlight raised an eyebrow confusedly.
Twilight however was enthralled at this revelation, "So that means when we went back in time, we were really just looking at a close approximation by a normal temporal scrying spell, and not the real past, hence why me and Starlight never actually saw copies of ourselves at the race track despite having jumped in and out of there half a dozen times, but in reality we were just visiting the same approximation which of course, doesn't include time traveling unicorns."
Celestia nodded to Twilight, "Exactly Twilight, and all the futures you saw were just the results of the spell deducing a possible future given the initial parameters you and Starlight had just altered," Celestia smirked, "and that is of course, why despite almost the exact same change occurring in the past, you got such completely different outcomes, as the amount of uncertain variables in the prediction is exactly why Starswirl and I never found very much use for the spell."
Starlight was at this point, even more and yet less baffled by the conversation ensuing, "So... You're saying we were just playing around with a probability generator? Not actually traveling or altering time?"
"Of course not, any spells which actually cross dimensional boundaries are locked tightly away in the Royal wing of the Archives, and even then, the amount of power to use those on any significant scale would be ridiculously higher than even an extremely talented unicorn could harness." Celestia said gravely.
Starlight gulped, "I'm glad at least, that I was never powerful enough to put anyone in real danger."
Celestia's smile slipped away from her face, "Don't get me wrong, Starlight, despite the mistake of choosing a harmless spell, your conviction was undeniable, whether or not you intended to do serious harm to anypony doesn't change the fact that you acted on calculated, deliberate plan with ruthless efficiency. If it hadn't been the case that you had never received any kind of formal tactical training or tutelage in the magical arts, then your actions might have had very drastic consequences."
Twilight faced Celestia to stand up for her student, "Yes, they could have, I realized right away that someone with the experience and natural talent of Starlight Glimmer could not be left to fend for themselves, so I offered to teach her how to control her power and use her magic for good."
Celestia softened somewhat, "I was glad Twilight, to hear that you had decided to take Starlight on as a student, you always were an inspired teacher, it was inevitable that you would someday realize your true potential."
Twilight frowned a bit, "Well... I did try to lead study hall a few times back when I studied at your school for gifted unicorns. But all the other foals said that I couldn't 'stay on topic' or 'explain things simply' and would always 'forget to breathe when lecturing' but of course now I know what they meant, I didn't really have much experience with other ponies at that age.."
"Yes, it does take a degree of tolerance and understanding in order to teach ponies, not just raw knowledge of the subject." Celestia responded, and then looking over towards Starlight, "In fact, Starlight you too have likely experienced the rigors of public opinion, from what I understand."
Starlight paled somewhat, remembering the townfolk she had used to lead, "Y-yea, sort of, I never really thought about it much, I just told them what I thought was r-right and they were compelled to listen to me.." She stammered out in reply.
".. Is that so..." said Celestia quietly, her face turned up, a glass of sparkling white wine hovered in her golden aura tipping upwards to her lips.  
Twilight paused briefly to chew a cabbage roll, and during the lull in the conversation Starlight allowed her concentration to wander, her eyes drifting across the table, it was a beautiful setting, everything was polished to a sheen, plates, candles and cutlery, the food looked magnificent as the décor.  
It was nearly a perfect evening, regardless, looking over to the clock, she noted the time as 8:43.  
Trixie's show starts in 15 minutes... she thought to herself sadly.
"Whoopsie, someone's up past their bedtime~" Twilight cooed, looking over to Spike, whom was leaning back against his chair snoring smoke circles up to the ceiling. Twilight picked him up in her magic and floated him over to her, "I'll be right back." she said before teleporting out of the room.
Starlight returned to staring up at the clock,   
I really wanted to go see Trixie's show, but I knew a meeting with the Princess was too important to miss, I hope Trixie will understand, I wouldn't want her to think I just didn't care enough to show up.  
Starlight didn't even notice the sombre look on Celestia's face, swirling her wine around in her glass she keenly eyed Starlight, looking her up and down in an appraising way.  
A quick smirk crossed over her face just before Twilight teleported back into her chair at the table.
"There we go, I can't believe Spike fell asleep at the table, who knew he could find a conversation on speculative temporal generation magic boring." Twilight said smirking ironically.  
Starlight snapped back into reality from where she had been staring at the clock and returned her attention to the table.
As she turned back her eyes met with Celestia's, who had been watching her intently the whole while, and as her glass floated back down to the table Celestia's lips curved up into a coy grin, she then asked Starlight "Pardon me, but I noticed you keep checking the time, perhaps, are you waiting for something.. Or am I just that boring?" She finished, her mouth turning down and eyes narrowing.  
Starlight's entire face lit up red, Oh my gosh, she noticed! What do I say? She looks mad at me! Should I tell her about Trixie's show? Oh no oh no oh no this isn't what It looks like!
Meanwhile Twilight, who was wholly unaware of the awkward exchange had trotted around to take her seat.  
Starlight turned back to Celestia, but whatever she had seen before, it was gone now.
Sitting before her at the table was Celestia, Princess of Equestria, she had a golden crown, a nice white dress and wore a kind, friendly smile.  
Twilight smiled outwardly "Celestia, I'd like you to meet Starlight Glimmer, my new student of friendship here at the castle."
"How do you do miss Starlight?" Celestia asked her with sincerity.
"I-I um, I'm doing fine, thank you..." Starlight meekly responded.
Celestia leaned forward in her chair, still projecting an air of casual interest, "Twilight has told me so much about you in   
A long moment passed as Starlight flopped hopelessly to say something in response, until at last Celestia broke her stone faced act.   
"Haahaahaahaahaahaa hmmhmhmm...." Celestia into amused laughter, "You know you have the same expression as Twilight does whenever she thinks she's irreparably offended somepony..." she finished with a shit-eating grin that would make a noble-pony jealous.  
Starlight meanwhile couldn't bring herself to do much more than stutter incoherently as her blush died down.
Twilight smirked as well, remembering full well what that felt like, she was quick to reassure starlight however "Heehee, sorry Starlight I probably should have warned you Celestia isn't exactly as uptight as you'd assume."
"... wheew.. That's good, for a moment there I thought you were serious." Starlight said slumping back in her seat.
Celestia smiled softly, "On the contrary, I really am curious as to why you seem anxious about the time, but I couldn't resist."
Starlight begun explaining, "I... Well.. I met a new friend in town after Twilight encouraged me to try to reach out to the locals, a performer actually, she had a show tonight at nine, but of cour-"
Celestia raised a hoof to stop her, "It's quite alright Starlight, You needn't worry, trust me, I always mean to help ponies, not to distract them from the things that are truly important." Starlight gawked at her, then glanced at Twilight, who seemed as confused as she was, then back at Celestia.
Starlight blurted out "A-are you sure I-I mean I ca-"
A white hoof patted the top of purple mane, "Nine, I believe you said it was, that leaves only about five minutes..." Starlight whirled around to look at the clock, then to Celestia who wore her typical inscrutable smile, towards Twilight, and, upon receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Twilight, she jumped up from her seat.  
Celestia turned towards the door "I intend to stay for a while, perhaps my chariot-bearers wo-" A bright flash interrupted her sentence, eliciting a small yelp from her as did a double-take to where Starlight had just been standing.
"Though I suppose it was obvious from your letters describing her magical talent, I really never would have assumed she even mastered quick-teleportation." Celestia commented to Twilight.
"Yes she is quite the prodigy, considering she never had any training." Twilight remarked back.
"Hmmm, What a curious mare, I wonder Twilight if it would be ok to ask for your personal opinion on her?" Celestia asked.
"Absolutely, but I won't claim to know very much, she doesn't talk much about her past." Twilight said frowning.
Celestia paused, gazing out the window where the fireworks of Trixie's show had just begun in the outskirts of ponyville.  
".. Is that so..."
~~~~<) Two hours later (>~~~~
"Thank you, thank you all, that's it for tonight, have a nice night and remember to tell your friends about the Great! And Powerful! Trixie!" Trixie proclaimed raising her forelegs in the air in a triumphant pose.  
Fireworks exploded filling the air with a final flash of color and light, the blue satin curtains closed behind Trixie as she left the stage for the night.  
A minute later Starlight and Trixie trotted back towards Trixie's carriage as the audience started to peel away for the night.  
Starlight was laughing and smiling, Trixie, of course, smirked arrogantly as always.  
They seem happy, content even, a rare thing for ponies such as them
As a cloud passed by the moon it shone down upon a hill outside of ponyville, revealing a large white mare laying upon the dewy grass and looking down upon the festivities, particularly at one light pink mare.  
Celestia rose from where she sat, turning back towards her chariot, eyes closed in consternation as she pondered the nights occurrences.  
Just as she reached the crest of the hill, she gazed back one last time at the mare below, walking with her friend.
Her mouth curved up in a small, genuine smile, the first in quite a while, and then continued back down to her chariot to return to Canterlot.  
If she was right, there was a great deal of preparations she had to make in the coming months.  
I wonder what she'll do, not one pony is ever quite the same and I only hope she can handle it, I do have confidence that she will, she must, the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance. But I must remind myself, that unlike before, this isn't up to me, no, this time it's up to them, no matter what the cost.
A cold night breeze blew past Starlight, her hair whipped in the light wind as she turned her head to the breeze, the moon was full and cast silver light across the trees and rooftops of ponyvile, contrasted only by the yellowed streetlamps.  
She looked out to a tall hill outside of ponyvile, and for a moment she could have sworn she saw a tall horn and piercing magenta eyes staring at her from the dark foliage.  
A cold wind had blown in from the north, and whipped at her mane as Starlight trotted to catch up to her friend.
Author's Note
First in a series I have been meaning to write for a VERY long time.  
I need serious feedback because I'm not confident in progressing it until I'm satisfied with my writing skill.  
Particularly in the area of proper dialogue I have limited experience and the rules are rather specific.  
I would highly appreciate both grammatical and atmospheric critique.
How to shit-eating-grin  
https://camo.derpicdn.net/fcea4307abff505f8ef86a83a124ddfd53224550?url=https%3A%2F%2Forig05.deviantart.net%2F8152%2Ff%2F2010%2F152%2F8%2F2%2Fsheldon__s_grin__big__by_ingdianita.gif