A Tale by Amitaf the Laffy Taffy...
... A Lost Star
The cool spring breeze whipped the unicorn’s purple and blue mane in all directions. Her blue scarf with an ice blue trim was the only warmth she had in the chilly night. Her turquoise eyes gazed up into the starlit sky in amazement of its beauty.
Stars; sprinkled everywhere in the night sky. Their vibrant white color stood out from the midnight blue background they were set upon. The faintest colors of blue, red, and yellow could also be seen in some stars if the pony looked very closely. That’s how she was able to tell the hottest stars part from the coldest stars. The way her mother used to explain it every night.
Tears began to drip from the lilac mare’s eyes as she remembered the times when she was a foal; times before everything went wrong.
A little filly looked up to the night sky in awe. A bright smile crept its way onto her face. This was like every night; alone and comfortable as she gazed into a world of wonder.
“Starlight?” An elderly voice said in surprise.
The filly known as Starlight looked towards the source of the sudden interruption and saw a bright pink mare with a long and straight purple mane and violet eyes; her mother.
Starlight’s eyes widened at the mare’s sudden entrance. “M-mother! Wh-what are you doing here?!” She quickly asked.
The earth pony raised an eye at her daughter. “I’d like to ask you the same question, missy.” She took her place beside her daughter and wrapped her hoof around the filly. “What are you doing out this late?”
Starlight hesitated, but relaxed once she saw her mother’s caring smile. She turned her head back to the sky and closed her eyes. “Watching the stars.” The filly waited for her mother to scold her, but she had received no reply. She looked at the mare in confusion.
“What?”
“Aren’t you mad that I snuck out the house to look at the stars?”
The mare giggled and playfully ruffled her daughter’s mane. “Why should I be mad? If I was, it’ll be like taking away everything I used to do as a filly!”
“What?!” Starlight gasped in shock. “But you’re always so formal! You would never sneak out!”
“That’s how you see me now, Glitter. That doesn’t mean I was the same back then.” The mare saw the confusion was still on her filly’s face. “Look, I know you’re nine, so I guess I should tell you more about your grandmother and father.”
“W-what?”
“When I was your age, I was always fascinated by the stars. I’d stare at them all night and wake up late everyday. My parents was always wondered if I had some sort of sleeping problem. But I didn’t, I just never told them how I loved to gaze up at the stars. So, one day we went to visit my brother, your Uncle Asteroid Blitz, in Canterlot to see how his new job was doing. At night, we went on a walk in the royal gardens. I kept looking for stars in the sky, but I could only spot a few, not a lot like I did back home. My brother wondered why I was so distracted. He came over to me to try and find out what was wrong. ‘Hey, Amethyst! Why’re you so interested in what’s going on up there?’ ‘I can’t see the stars properly. Where did they go?’"
“The stars disappeared?!”
“No, Glitter.” Amethyst giggled. “Aster explained that Canterlot had more light on during the night than we have here. The light takes away the starlight in the sky. That doesn’t make the stars visible to our untrained eyes.” She said, trying to explain it simple enough for the nine year old filly to understand.
“Starlight?”
“Starlight is the light from the stars. And in this little village, the stars are something we treasure, just like I treasure you.” Amethyst warmly said, tightly securing both hooves around Starlight, pulling the filly into a hug.
Starlight blushed at her mother’s remark and returned the hug. “Mother?”
“Yes, Glitter?”
“Why do some stars have so kind of red, blue, and yellow tint in them? I can hardly see the different colors, but they’re kinda easy to see if I look reeeaaally close.”
“Each star is different. They all come in different sizes and colors. The red stars are cold, the blue stars are hot—“
“But I thought red meant hot and blue meant cold!” The filly interrupted.
“Don’t assume things based on what you’re used to, Glitter. Space works in weird ways. Princess Celestia made it that way; something beautiful for everypony to enjoy. Not just her daylight, but the starlight she gave us all.”
The young filly glanced at her mother to see the mare’s wonder-filled face as she looked up beyond the sky. The stars twinkled up above, and it looked like the light— the starlight was making Amethyst’s eyes shine, shine brighter than anything in the whole universe. The filly smiled at her joyful mother and whispered one “I love you, mother.” before falling asleep.
In the present, a grown-up Starlight Glimmer choked on her tears as she remembered how her love for the stars and magic began; all with her mother. The pony who tried her best to raise a unicorn filly when she was seventeen, although she was an earth pony: Amethyst. That was her name. The pony Starlight looked up to her entire life, except for that small portion of six years where she led a town, but she remembered Amethyst her entire life.
"I want to be back with you so, so, so much…” Starlight whispered, the tears still running down her cheeks. “But you still aren’t the only pony I’ve betrayed with my cloudy mind.” Looking up once again, the mare’s turquoise eyes widened as she saw a picture in the sky— a constellation of a filly and colt stacking blocks on a table. “I-I betrayed my best friend. I did it because I’m that worthless, pathetic, STUPID!” Starlight cried in agony. "Why did I do it? I DON'T KNOW! I WAS THAT FOOLISH TO THINK LIKE THAT! AND I JUST. DON'T. KNOW. WHY!"
"Starlight! Star, you home?" A tangerine colt called for his best friend. "You won't believe what I found out in this book! It's a new spell!"
"Really?! You found another one?" A lilac filly asked as she ran down the steps to meet her friend. "At this rate, we'll be waaaayy ahead of the entire class!"
"Yeah! We'll be the 'Magic Champs!' like we always wanted to be!"
"With Starlight and Sunburst, there's no beating us! The rest of the class has to eat our stardust!"
"Yeah!"
The two foals bumped hooves as they giddily chatted about the newest tricky spells they found. They began to help one another master the spells. It was what they both did everyday.
"You two back to mastering magic?" Starlight's mother, Amethyst, happily asked.
"Yeah!" Both foals exclaimed.
"I'm glad you can learn magic by yourself, Starlight. I wondered how an earth pony could teach a unicorn magic."
"I'm just getting some help from my fellow 'Magic Champ!"'
Amethyst giggled and walked out the room. "I'll let you two spell away!"
Starlight clenched her teeth and pounded her hooves together in an attempt to stop her tears. "Why was I so foolish? Why did I let that happen?" She sadly whispered. "I want to redo my life from the moment Sunburst got his cutiemark so badly." Starlight closed her eyes, remembering all the good times she had. In doing so, she remembered how much time she wasted. The time she wasted for everything. "I've just used up my time, the element barrier's time, and the used the time of everypony in that so-called perfect civilization!"
"But you can get those happy times back." A voice said.
Starlight gasped and opened her eyes to see a lavender-coated alicorn looking at her with a sad smile. "T-Twilight?" She said in disbelief. "Wh-what're you doing here?"
"I'm here to let you know that you're not what you think you are." The princess said, seating herself in the grass beside her student. "Starlight, you led a group of heroes that defeated Queen Chrysalis, was able to create a time travel spell, and you have great magical ability. Why are you doubting yourself?"
"Why are you here?"
"I stayed up late tonight reading. I heard something and saw you go outside. I didn't know where you were going, so I followed you."
A small smile crept its way to lilac mare's face. "Stalker much? That sounds like something Pinkie would do!"
"Okay, this isn't the brightest thing I've done, but it's late! 1 o' clock, what are you doing?"
"I-I don't feel comfortable telling you..." Starlight started, but silently trailed off at the end.
"Starlight?" Twilight worriedly said. She rested her hoof on her friend's shoulder. "What's going on? Why did you sneak off?"
"I thought you wouldn't let me." The mare grumbled.
"I would've let you go. But you also don't need my approval. You are a free pony. I'm not teaching you as a punishment of yours. I'm just concerned."
There was a small period of silence between the two. A sudden chill wind went by, causing the midnight-maned princess to shiver.
"Here, take mine." Starlight quietly offered, using her magic to take off her scarf and wrap it around her friend. She stood up and began to make her way to Friendship Castle. "Let's go home."
"Starlight. Are you sure everything's okay?"
Starlight's turquoise eyes took one more long hard gaze at the starlit sky; a beautiful sight that pained her. She sighed and didn't look back as tears rolled down her muzzle. "I'm nothing but a lost star..." She softly whispered just out of Twilight's hearing distance.
Author's Note
Alrighty! This shit exists cause of me, your welcome people!
Now, please let me know how you people feel about this. Since this is my first story, I'd like to know how to improve! Tell me how you think the characters acted and how well or how badly I presented the themes. Constructive criticism appreciated!
By the way, who else thinks that Starlight was another missed opportunity for a really good character? Season six could've been something really deep and adventurous. Instead, it was what it was. But it had some really awesome times! Who agrees? Who disagrees? Lemme know ponies!
I also think I ended this story a little too quick, and that I kinda threw Twilight into any readers face like splat! How do you guys feel? I wanted this story to be centered around Starlight's insecurity. I might update this in the future. I'm also thinking of making a sequel that focuses on Starlight getting past her insecurities. Right now, her character is basically insecure! Lemme know what you want!
