I yawned as I walked through the castle, my hoof-beats echoing on the crystal walls. Since Starlight had brought Sunset Shimmer's present through the mirror, I looked forward to early mornings like today. Coffee. The aroma wafted from the kitchen through the cooridors. The clatter of my hooves increased—even the smell of the black liquid perked me up.
I entered the dining room the same instant Starlight did from the opposite door. She wore a white towel over her withers, her fur dark lavender where still moist. She'd been swimming. We froze. We both knew what this meant.
She yawned.
I yawned, raising a hoof before my muzzle. Still, my heart raced in anticipation.
Starlight lowered herself and firmly placed her legs in a fighting stance.
I mirrored her, but stretched my wings. I might need to throw myself into the air. I adjusted my stance, right fore-hoof out as Zecora taught me, and narrowed my eyes.
Today would be the day.
Starlight's turquoise eyes met mine. She tossed her mane so it didn't block her view.
I returned her gaze. Today would be my turn to win. The unpleasant incident with Trixie and the alicorn amulet had taught me that while checking off a list of spells I could cast with Spike had been satisfying, being forced to use your wits to duel a superior foe was exhilarating. Starlight was my superior in conventional magic. She'd been a street fighter once, and she taught me the quick-draw technique that I was now writing a treatise on.
A bead of sweat rolled down to the tip of my nose. You enter a room simultaneously, you duel.
"Uh, Princess?"
I blinked and stood straighter. "What?"
"It's your turn."
Her statement uncannily mirrored my thoughts. My turn to win, not to— I blinked, then blinked again. "I'm pretty sure it's your turn to call the spell."
"I called it the week before your last mission."
I'd been in the Stormlands helping High Flyer and his tribe, living the life of Daring Do, fighting and friendshipping in the snowy mountains and the midnight forests for weeks. It'd seemed like forever. "That's not what I remember. I remember 'Crystals!' Spike had a lot to clean up after that one."
"Ain't that the truth," came from the peanut gallery in the kitchen.
"That was before I switched the princess's cutie marks. You were stressed. I called illusions."
"No, no, no. That was before."
Starlight sighed. "Then I called food." Her stomach growled loudly.
Surprisingly, mine didn't, considering its emptiness. "That was after I called conjuring."
"Clothing."
"Music."
"Rainbows."
Without my coffee, I wasn't up to this. I wanted to use the quick-draw techniques I'd spent so much time learning—she had to call it for me to do so. "Starlight, please choose."
"Okay."
For a minute her eyes moved around as she thought. She nodded, then shook her head, then scrunched her lips to the right, looking puzzled. Her eyes opened wide and she shrugged. "I don't know."
After that build up, I laughed. "Really?"
"Really." Her stomach growled again. "I'm hungry." A green aura briefly illuminated her horn; she grinned at me, then trotted past the stone table to the kitchen. "Hey, Spike!"
I shook my head hard enough to crack my neck. "Wait? What?"
Spike called back, "Muffins comin' up!", and strode out with a platter of bran muffins, strawberry haystacks, tomato juice, and a carafe of coffee.
Starlight followed him to a chair. Sitting, she held her forelegs wide. "I said, 'I don't know.'" She pointed at the space between us with her nose before levitating a muffin into her mouth.
Something shimmered in the air. I trotted over. Hovering in a soap bubble were vaguely transparent watery letters that sparkled and fizzed.
They read, "This space intentionally TBD."
"T. B. D.?" I whispered.
Starlight said, "To be determined."
My jaw dropped.
"I win," Starlight said cheerfully. I heard flowing liquid and looked to see her pour coffee into my porcelain cup. "Now come and enjoy breakfast."
Author's Note
Spoilers for the movie. Be warned.
Reformed Evildoers Club
Cool after a morning swim in the terrace pool, a damp towel over my withers, I trotted into the dining room to find a purple unicorn entering from the other door. My stomach growled. Breakfast delayed again. Deja vu...
Not.
This tall mare sported a red Mohawk, had a broken horn, wore black armor, and, in a pair of basketweave saddlebags, carried a chevron-shaped shield and broken bars from a pony-sized cage.
Her forest green eyes met mine and narrowed.
I said, "Nice scar."
"You must be my new teacher," she said in the slow-paced malevolent voice I'd once affected. It spoke volumes about being in command, and telegraphing power, and not trusting ponies.
"I'm Starlight Glimmer."
"Fizzlepop Berrytwist."
Not Tempest Shadow. "Really?"
"Ask my Mum."
I smiled. "When two unicorns enter same room at the same time in this castle, it means one thing."
"What?" she asked.
"Magic Duel!"
A cascade of sparks bubbled up from her jagged horn as she spoke. "My magic is limited."
"Not so limited. I found myself led by the muzzle, my horn ringed so I couldn't do magic, unable to help Twilight." First-hoof experience of what my friends in Our Town felt when I'd been mayor—and I hated it.
"According to plan, and I'm sorry, and, if it's any consolation, I never want to do that again."
"I know what you mean."
She exposed her teeth in a slight grin. "I was wrong about everything I ever did. I'm here to learn friendship."
"Yes, but now... Duel!"
She lowered her stance.
I cast Shield while working up Pegasus Simulation.
She bucked. Her saddlebags emptied midair. With the dexterity I'd seen AJ and Dash demonstrate, she twisted and jumped in a half-twirl to catch the shield's grip in her mouth, holding it crosswise so not to obscure her vision. The cage pieces scattered across the tiles in a chorus of clinking noises.
Surrounded in a turquoise sphere of magic, I flew up near the root chandelier; her eyes and shield tracked me as I flit about. I'd learned her shield's facets could reflect any magic I might shoot at it.
I wasn't firing the first shot, anyway.
Fizzlepop's horn, well, fizzled and popped, sparking ominously—but she didn't fire.
I said, "Okay. We're done," and landed. When her eyes narrowed, I added, "You win," and cancelled my shield spell, my heart beating rapidly.
I'd left myself vulnerable.
She dropped the shield with a gasping sigh. It, too, made a clinker sound, like charcoal.
She looked away. "I thought I'd come here to learn friendship."
My hoofbeats echoed as I approached. "I'm sorry. That might have been a bit harsh; Twilight and I do it all the time, though." I chuckled. "She still can't see how her goody-four-shoes upbringing hampers thinking quickly on her hooves."
"I guess I have a lot to learn about what being friendly means."
"It's a... process."
"Princess Twilight's friends risked everything to save her and to help her save Equestria. She even saved me when the storm swept me away, saying 'That's what friends do.' In the ruined throne room, the revelation of the power of those few words confused me even as it transformed my soul. Then the Storm King climbed over the parapet behind them, but naïve Twilight had dismissed his threat and had looked the other way, hugging her friends. Without a thought, other than my surprise, I dashed at them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash jumped to protect Twilight, but I leapt over as the Storm King threw a Crystallization globe. It cracked against my chest and I swept the spell with me toward him with a momentum that would carry us both over the edge and to our doom. Crystals grew throughout my body and I thought, 'So this is having faith in your friends.'"
Fizzlepop was Luna's height. She looked down into my eyes. "Yet, here I am, alive. I don't understand why I did what I did."
I smiled. "You proved you're a pony, that's all. It's the instinct to protect your friends, your herd. Wouldn't expect anything else from an alpha mare."
She snorted. "Twilight's actions and the Storm King's betrayal opened up my eyes to my illusions about myself, and the horrible things I excused myself for."
"Evil things."
She blinked and nodded. "Evil things."
"Join the club." I laughed, realizing what I'd said. "There's six of us in the, uh, Reformed Evildoers Club of Equestria, now, including you."
R.E.C. Equestria. I stifled a snort.
"Five? What did you do?"
"I enslaved a town and kidnapped ponies' cutie marks, oh, and destroyed Equestria in a time-loop about a half-dozen times before Twilight convinced me to stop."
"Maybe I was less evil than I thought." A half-smile crept onto her lips.
"There's also Sunset Shimmer, Princess Luna, and Stygian," I said, turning towards the kitchen. I took a step and kicked the shield. The spinning thing proved incredibly light, like a glassy stone. "And Discord. You were lucky he was on vacation." I looked closer at the shield and gasped. "This is a piece of Queen Chrysalis' throne!"
"A material impervious to magic."
I looked at her, suddenly admiring her and confident that with her in the "club" nopony would ever conquer Equestria so easily again. I laughed as I trotted to the kitchen, Fizzlepop's metal shoes clicking behind me. "Let's eat!"
"What's so funny?"
"Trixie helped me escape; when the girls saved the day, I was headed to the Changeling lands. You'd blockaded them, hadn't you?"
She snickered behind me. "Great minds..."
