Twinkling Through The Dark

The evening went well. Although the dinner wasn’t as grand as Celestia was accustomed to, for her it was what it represented that made it special. Everypony was enjoying themselves, telling each other about some of the funnier moments of the past, like how in the human world, Sunset can touch somebody and see their memories. Although to be fair, human Pinkie Pie was just, well a bit weird to say the least. For that was why she was wearing gloves over her hooves so that she didn’t do into the minds of everypony she came into physical contact with.

Well, everypony except Sunburst who was getting more and more disappointed and depressed as the night went on. He didn’t eat anything, despite the fact that it was his favourite meal. After a while he excused himself from the table and went upstairs to his room. An hour went by and his mother was getting concerned and that went upstairs to see what was wrong.

“Sunburst, dear, are you alright?” Sunswirl said as she knocked on her son’s door but only heard him sobbing.

“Sunburst, what’s the matter? I know that this day has been quite an experience, but you don’t need to hide it, can you tell me what’s on your mind?” Sunswirl said as she entered to see her son curled up on his bed and crying.

“I’m fine mum. Thanks for asking.” Sunburst said, trying to hide his feelings.

“Sunburst, you aren’t dear, you haven’t acted this way since you were a colt. It’s almost like you are missing something or some pony.” Sunswirl said before realising that Sunburst was wanting some pony else to be here with him. Sunswirl was trying to think of what pony would her son would be longing for until she understood what was going on.

“You miss Starlight, don’t you sweetie?” Sunswirl said.

“How? How did you know that?” Sunburst said as he turned to face his mother.

“I remember when you were younger that you loved her company so much that you would be like what you are now if you could not see her for a while. But this time it feels different, as if you… oh, ok, ok.” Sunswirl then figured out her son’s true feelings toward Starlight and just smiled and hugged her son. “Look, these feelings are completely normal and you don’t have to feel ashamed about it. Does she know?” Sunswirl said but before he could answer, Cirrostratus entered the room, although he had been just outside listing to everything. “Sunburst, Twilight said that Starlight should be here in about ten minutes.” Cirrostratus said then both he and Sunswirl repeated the same question.

“Well, Princess Cadance says that she does have the same feelings, but I actually haven’t expressed them to her yet. Also thanks dad, I, um really needed to hear that. I actually have been wanting to see her all day.” Sunburst said as he started to get more and more excited.

“I know, I always had a feeling that it would come to this someday. Tell you what, if you want any advice, on certain particular areas, I will be more than happy to help.” Cirrostratus said as he gave a small nudge in Sunburst’s shoulder while giving a smirk and a suggestive wink for good measure. Sunburst immediately caught on to what his father was hinting at.

“DAD! You are not helping!” Sunburst yelled at his father with his face turning a bright red. Cirrostratus could only chuckle at this.

“Your father is only teasing you Sunburst, now let’s fix you up, you don’t want to see Starlight looking like this.” Sunswirl said as she started to fix up Sunburst’s mane and glasses. And then the three started to head downstairs and heard noises coming from outside.

In her hurry to see Sunburst, Starlight had forgotten that she had no winter clothing besides her coat, but it was not enough to protect her from the cold and as she approached her destination, she was starting to regret getting a better coat. It was already dark by the time Starlight arrived in the village and it was getting colder by the hour and there was a gentle breeze passing though. Starlight started to get anxious about the setting, as it was like the start of her worst nightmares.

Ok Starlight, this is not a dream, you are awake, so pull yourself together. Starlight said to herself as she looked around. But that only helped reinforce her fears and by the time she recognised Cirrostratus’s house, Starlight was trembling in fear as she figured out where she was. It was her old village and all of the painful memories started to flood Starlight’s mind.

Then the door opened and Twilight and Celestia trotted out and asked her to come inside but Starlight couldn’t recognise the princesses due to the obscuring clothing both alicorn’s were wearing. But she then stopped dead in her tracks and was just frozen still in front of the door. Twilight saw Starlight standing there, crying and before Twilight could say anything, Cirrostratus asked who was at the door. Twilight said it was Starlight and as she turned around, Starlight was gone.

“Starlight! Starlight where are you! There is nothing to be afraid of, come back!” Twilight called out trying to get her student back. Sunburst heard the yelling and came out with Twilight and noticed hoof prints in the snow and started to follow them.

Starlight by now have galloped across most of the town by this point had already convinced herself that this was a dream and she felt that she had to get out of here, as she was being chased down by the same ponies that haunted her filly-hood. In reality, her fears were blinding Starlight to the truth, that or the constant stream of tears flowing from her eyes. Suddenly, in a yellow flash, a cloaked pony appeared in front of her and pleaded to her to stop running.

”LEAVE ME ALONE!!” Starlight screamed as she fired a magic bolt at Celestia. The princess was able to cast a shield spell in time to block the blast, but she underestimated its power and sent her flying a few metres. Twilight and Sunburst looked on as Starlight then teleported out of sight.

“Celestia! Are you alright?” Twilight said as she got Celestia back on her hooves. Celestia said she was fine but commented on the sheer power of the blast. Then Sunburst noticed another pony approaching donning a black cloak. Then the pony lifted the hood and revelled herself as the Princess of the Night.

“Princess Luna? What are you doing here?” Sunburst asked.

“Twilight requested my presence to help, for Starlight has a darkness in her that I wished I didn’t know all too well.” Luna went on explaining that she knew what Starlight was going through as she had experienced all those years ago and did not want another pony to go through the same thing.

“But how are we going to find her now? She could be anywhere by now!” Sunburst shouted with a growing sense of despair as he was feeling that he was losing her all over again. Then Luna came up to him.

“You my dear Sunburst are the key to finding Starlight Glimmer.” Luna said while placing her hoof on his shoulder. Sunburst didn’t understand where the princess was coming from, then Luna explained; “You have a deep personal connection to Starlight, Sunburst. Those who have that sort of connection can sense what the other is feeling, their fears, their anger, their hatred and especially, their pain and suffering. Search your feelings Sunburst and that will be our guide.” Luna said and Sunburst nodded. Then he lowered his head and closed his eyes and began to feel what the princess was talking about and it started to get stronger as faced the nearby forest.

“She went into the forest over there.” Sunburst said while pointing to the forest.

“Your feelings serve you well, Sunburst. Now lets us go, but we must be cautious.” Luna said while warning the others. “Why should we be cautious princess?” Sunburst asked Luna.

“In the state Starlight is in, if we force her into a corner, she will resort to channelling her anger and hatred into her magic and thus make it much more powerful. However by doing so, she will blind herself to her actions and might do something she will not ever do if she was calmer in mind. So don’t take everything she might say or do fully otherwise we might make a grave mistake that we might regret later.” Luna said with Celestia fully understanding what that was like.

“During the time loop me and Starlight were in, she could match me, hoof to hoof without much effort.” Twilight said recalling the potential for Starlight to approach and match alicorn levels of magical power if she fuelled her magic with her emotions.

“We should prepare for the worst, and we must be on edge and be ready for anything she might throw at us. And we must hurry, for she has no real protection from the cold out there.” Celestia said as the four entered the forest.

“That will be only a concern if we get her to snap out of it. Using the darkness like she is using can make you survive events and conditions that normally would be impossible. How do you think I was able to survive on the moon for 1000 years as Nightmare Moon without food, water or air?” Luna said explaining that the seemly impossible feats that could be achieved if one were to exploit their emotions.

“I never thought about that before now Luna.” Sunburst said, never questioning why no pony would talk about that awkward fact.

“Sunburst my dear, dark magic can be a pathway to many abilities and skills that most would consider to be unnatural. It can grant the user great power, however after what happened to me and what is happening to Starlight Glimmer, trust me, it’s not worth the corruption of your soul or mind.” Luna explained how the costs of such magic use is the user’s complete eventual mental destruction.

“Starswirl was right to say, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Everypony has a dark side to them. However it get quite dangerous when it concerns unicorns and if us alicorn’s succumb to it, well I don’t need to explain to you what could happen.” Luna went on saying that no pony is purely good, it’s what we do that separates the good from evil. Then Sunburst noticed a light in the darkness, like a star twinkling through the dark and the four raced over to it.

Starlight was now deep in the forest using a lighting spell to light her way, her mind racing, she did not notice the upcoming slope and stumbled and then fell down into a small clearing with a large rocks to her right and behind, and trees to her left and front. Starlight would still remember getting driven into the woods and being cornered like this and beaten relentlessly by her tormenters until they had their fun and leave her, bruised, bloodied and writhing in agony as she would try to get home after the ordeal and felt like it was going to happen again. And to her horror, four ponies came into view, although she thought that they were those same bullies and to make things worse, she could not register their voices or what they were saying.

“Starlight! It’s me Twilight! You need to come back with us, we want to help you but you need to calm down.”

“YOU LIAR! YOU DON’T WANT TO HELP ME! YOU JUST WANT TO HURT ME! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU TO DESERVE THIS?” Starlight screamed back as she started to crawl back towards the rock behind her.

“Starlight my dear, you are not being yourself. Now just take a few deep breaths and come with us back to the village so we can help you with your problems. You just….” Celestia went on before she was suddenly silenced as if she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“QUIET!!!! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!!!! YOU THINK I’M A WEAK AND HELPLESS FILLY WHO CAN’T TAKE CARE OF MYSELF, WELL YOU ARE WRONG!!!!”Starlight went on while strangling Celestia before launching her into a tree and knocking her out by slamming her into a nearby tree, with Twilight galloping over in shock and fear for her former teacher’s wellbeing. After seeing what had happened to her older sister, Luna was losing grip on her own anger and started to shout back at Starlight trying to get through to her.

“STARLIGHT GLIMMER!!! THOU MUST HEAD THY WARNING!! IF THOU NOT CEASE THY ACTION, YOUR DARKNESS WILL CONSUME YOU COMPLETELY AND THOU WHILST BECOME THY OWN LIVING NIGHTMARE!!!!” Luna screaming in the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice and partially reverting to her old linguistics. Starlight, incredibly was unfazed by even this.

“YOU ARE JUST A HYPERCRITE!!! YOU LIKE TO PICK ON THE SEEMILY WEAK BUT IN REALITY, IT IS YOU THAT ARE WEAK!!!” Starlight shouted back as she then fired another magic bolt, this time at Princess Luna, who then proceeded to fire back and the two beams collided in a blaze of green cyan and blue white light. But Luna underestimated Starlight’s power and was being pushed back and was struggling to keep her position. Starlight seemed to relish in fighting back and started to gloat about her power.

“NOW YOU WILL EXPERIENCE MY TRUE POWER YOU FOOL, MY UNLIMITED POWER!!!” Starlight yelled out as Princess Luna was hit and flew back a good distance away from the others. Sunburst was just standing there, almost paralysed by fear of what Starlight was becoming, his body and mind was telling him to run, but his heart was telling him otherwise. I can’t leave her now. If I do, I will lose her forever. Sunburst thought to himself as he realised that this was going to be extremely painful, but it would be far less to him if he didn’t do anything.

So Sunburst started to trot towards Starlight. Twilight noticed this. “Sunburst! Stop! What are you doing!?” Twilight yelled at Sunburst as she was clenching Celestia in her hooves. But Sunburst didn’t listen to her protests. “Twilight, if I don’t do this, I will regret it for the rest of my life, and I can’t risk it. Starlight needs me more than ever.” Sunburst said as he continued to trot towards Starlight, who by now, was positively seething with anger and hatred.

“Starlight, it me, Sunburst, please stop doing this! Do you have any idea what you are doing?” Sunburst called out. For a brief moment, it seemed that what he was saying got through to her. But she relapsed back and if anything Starlight got even angrier. “OH, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING! I’M FINALLY DOING WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING WITH MY MAGIC. IT’S NOT LIKE YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE, YOU IMPOTENT FOOL!!!” Starlight screamed back at Sunburst, her veins showing on her neck, mocking his lack of real magic. To Sunburst, it felt like a dagger going straight though his heart. He would be relentlessly picked on in school for his underwhelming magical abilities but Starlight was the last pony he’d ever thought to hear those words come from, but his love of her was way beyond mere words.

He moved closer to Starlight, which seemed to make her even angrier, to the point where she cast an arc of electrical power at Sunburst and he dropped to the ground in agony. But to Starlight’s shock, instead of galloping away in terror, he got up and continued to get closer. “GO AWAY!! LEAVE ME ALONE, CELESTIA DAMMIT!!!” Starlight screamed back as she fired another blast at Sunburst. At this point, he was screaming in agony. But even this wasn’t stopping him, continuing to bear unbelievable pain, he got closer and closer with Starlight upping the power the closer he got.

By the time he got right in front of her, Sunburst was at the limits of his endurance, only his love of her was keeping him standing. It was enough for him to do something that Starlight never saw coming, as she saw a hoof coming up to her cheeks she braced for what she thought was going to be the start of a vicious beating, instead he came up to her and kissed her, before finally passing out and collapsing on to the ground. It was at this moment that Starlight began to see things as they were and not she perceived them to be. She looked around and saw Celestia just beginning to wake up with Twilight looking at her in complete shock.

“Twilight? Where are we and what just happened?” Starlight said rubbing her eyes and seemed confused on what was going on around her.

“You don’t remember anything? Anything at all?” Twilight asked as she did not want to approach her just in case as she did not have the strength to fight back if she had to.

“The only thing I remember was me having one of my flashback nightmares, where I was cornered in a cold forest, and in my fear and anger, I nearly strangled a pony to death, blasted another to who knows where and I nearly electrocuted another. And now I’m waking up here with you, in the cold…. facing a pony gasping for breath…. another pony missing… and…. and….” Starlight said as she began to realise to her horror that that this wasn’t a dream and then saw Sunburst by her hooves, smoking and lying motionless.

“Sunburst? SUNBURST!! Nononononononononononononononono!!!!! Sunburst, wake up! Please wake up!!!!! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!!!! TWILIGHT HELP ME PLEASE!!!!” Starlight screamed as she slumped on the ground, grasping and shaking Sunburst in her hooves trying to wake him, but seemly to no avail.

“What have I done!? THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING, NO! IT’S NOT REAL, I COULDN’T OF… I COULDN’T HAVE DONE THIS TO HIM! I COULDN’T HAVE!!” Starlight screamed as she was grasping what she had done and just stared into black space. “I was going to tell him something today, something that he’ll would have been so happy to hear. I was going to… to…” Starlight said as she started to sob uncontrollably, burring her head into Sunburst’s chest. Then Twilight watched as the nearby trees and boulders started to break and shatter as she was pouring her grief and angst into everything around her.

Starlight thought that in her anger, she had just killed the only pony she ever truly loved. But then Starlight heard moans and Sunburst starting to move in her hooves, although he could not probably register what was going on around him, but for Starlight, this did not matter, for she would not have to bear the thought of the unthinkable.

“Sunburst, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for everything!!!!” Starlight said as she began kissing the delirious stallion in her hooves and continuing to sob and cry. By this time, Celestia had gotten back on her hooves and Luna had made her way back. Luna could sense that Starlight was in pain, terrible emotional pain and approached Starlight and knelt down next to her.

Starlight then saw the empathetic gaze of Luna in front of her. “Princess Luna, I feel, I feel so cold….” Starlight said trembling as she was quenched in Luna’s grip and as she hugged the trembling unicorn. For she understood all too clearly that feeling of being touched by true darkness. Celestia and Twilight joined her in comforting Starlight before Twilight recommended that they moved on. Celestia then took Sunburst in her telekinetic grip, although Starlight didn’t want to let go. Luna said he’ll be fine and that they weren’t going to take him away from her and then Starlight let go, although it didn’t help her feelings or remorse or guilt for what she’d had done.

“I’ll guide the way out, and we should get Sunburst home.” Celestia recommended but Luna protested. “After all that, you want to separate them again? I think that would be unwise, for you saw that all three of us were unable to really put up much resistance to Starlight. Do you want to risk a relapse?” Luna explained with Starlight staring into Celestia’s eyes begging her to change her mind, although she thought she would have no say, but Celestia wasn’t finished. “As I was trying to say, we should get Sunburst and somepony else home as well.” Celestia went on and Twilight understood where Celestia was coming from and the five made haste from those cold, and lonely woods.