Chapters The day started as it normally did for Starlight. She woke up, got her castle chores done early, and walked around town until Twilight called her back to the castle for breakfast. Unfortunately, Starlight’s normal morning got flipped upside down the moment she walked into the castle for Breakfast. As she walked in, Starlight noticed the lack of Spike greeting her at the door like he normally does. She thought nothing of it, only assuming that Spike was still finishing up Breakfast, so she went back to her room to grab her Saddlebags for later. She had decided to go take a visit to the Crystal Empire later that day, just to stop in and say hi to Sunburst and hang out with him for the day. Maybe play some games, write some new spells, go shopping, just about anything! Her plans completely changed, however, when she walked into the dining room.
“Morning Twilight. Morning Spike. Good Morning Princess Celestia, Good Mor--” Starlight Paused. She stopped walking and quickly noticed that instead of just Twilight, Spike, and herself, sitting at the table were the Princesses; Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Before Starlight could ask what was going on, Spike walked in and placed down the last tray of food for everypony. Starlight sat down, and as soon as she did, Twilight said something that Starlight thought she would never hear.
“Starlight, the Princesses and I have a favor to ask of you. We could really use your help.” Starlight sat there looking puzzled. She never thought that the Princesses of all ponies would be asking HER for a favor.
Starlight wasn’t sure what the princesses had in store for her, so she hesitantly responded with a barely audible "OK.” After hearing, what sounded like an agreement, Twilight continued.
“Today is the Summer Sun Celebration, and we really need somepony who can help us with difficult magic. Believe it or not, Alicorns are not as all-powerful as we may seem. Celestia and Luna may be able to raise the sun and moon, but that’s only because their cutie mark magic is connected to them.” Twilight was about to continue her rambling, but Starlight spoke before she could. “Can we get to the point? If we let you continue on like this, we’d be here all day.”
“R-Right.” Replied Twilight. “Anyways, you’re the only pony here in Equestria that seems to match us on a magical level, and we need one more pony to complete something special for this year's Celebration." Starlight thought about it for a moment but quickly reached a conclusion.
“Alright, what do you need my help with. If it’s magic based, I can always be of help.” Unfortunately for Starlight, it wouldn’t be too long before she started thinking that she may have made a mistake. She got up and followed the princesses to Twilight’s study to perform the spell.
As Starlight walked into the room, the idea of helping the princesses didn't seem to be one of her best. In the middle of Twilight's study (void of any books because of what could happen), was what appeared to be a number of runes. Each one of them looked like they belonged to one of the Princesses, and in the middle of them all was a rune that looked almost exactly like Starlight's Cutie Mark. Upon spotting this, Starlight pointed it out to the Princesses.
“You do know that one of these runes is basically a carbon copy of my cutie mark, right? It looks as if I’m required for this ritual or whatever it is. My only question is; Why?” Asked Starlight.
“Why? Well, the only other pony who could have possibly helped us lives a different life in another dimension now. You were the only choice.”Little did Starlight know that the spell they were about to cast was attuned specifically for Starlight. Twilight lifted Starlight’s face with her hoof and looked her in the eye. “There’s also another reason, but we can’t go into detail with that right now. You’ll see soon enough; and before you say anything, I just know you’ll be excited to see what it is.” Twilight let go and let Starlight process what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe it. She was actually the only pony in Equestria that could do this? Why? Hadn’t there been other powerful Unicorns that could do the same things she has? She was about to speak up and ask, but when she looked back up, Princess Celestia simply shook her head, as if know exactly what was going through Starlight’s head.
“Alright.” Said Starlight. “Let’s get this over with. I just hope it doesn’t take too long. I really wanted to visit Sunburst today.” Starlight looked down again, tears starting to form in her eyes. It had been Moons since she last saw Sunburst, and she really wanted to see him again. The Princesses saw this and Cadence just said, “Don’t worry Starlight, next time you see Sunburst, you’ll have something extra to tell him about. I just know he’ll love it! Starlight could only wonder what Cadence meant by that.
She shrugged it off and walked over to her spot in the center of the rune circle and stood there waiting for instructions. Princess Luna spoke up and said, “Ok Starlight, this is the spell we will be channeling, and we have need of to act as a magical conduit of sorts. We would do it ourselves, but Alicorn magic is much different compared to Unicorn magic.” Luna hoofed Starlight the scroll containing the spell, and after looking through it, hoofed it back to the princess. She went over the spell in her head. It seemed simple enough. Act as a magical conduit to help the princesses create something for the Summer Sun Celebration. The only thing she didn’t know was what they were creating. She wanted to press the princesses for information but figured that they knew what they were doing.
“Ok, I think I know what I need to do now.”
“Alright, just a warning Starlight, you might feel a little tingly. This isn’t really a normal spell. Let us know if it gets uncomfortable.” Twilight warned.
“Will do Twilight. Let’s get this started.”
All four princesses nodded and started charging their magic. The runes glowed brightly, and Starlight noticed something that was hard to see for normal ponies. The runes that the princesses were standing on started to lose their glow at a slow but consistent rate. At the same time, Starlight’s rune started slowing getting brighter and eventually engulfed the Unicorn’s vision in a blanket of white. She started yelling out at the princesses as her vision was clouded and she started to feel the tingle that Twilight had mentioned.
“I CAN’T SEE! WHAT’S GOING ON? HELP ME!”
Twilight yelled back “Don’t worry, that’s normal!” Starlight only heard it as a whisper though, as everything started spinning and the next thing she knew, she was out cold.
Starlight suddenly re-appeared in what looked like a dark void, but as she floated further into it, she noticed a light starting to form. Once she reached said light, two ponies burst forth from the blinding light, disorienting Starlight. “Twilight?” she asked. “Princess?”
“Hello Starlight” greeted Princess Celestia. “I take it you have a number of questions as to where you are, and why you are here?”
“Yes, I do.” She looked around. “For Starters, what is this place? What’s going on? Why are we here? And where are Luna and Cadence? We were with them just a moment ago.” Starlight inquired. As Starlight looked around she noticed something. “This place looks like it’s some kind of Astral Plane, but it also feels like there’s something more to this place than just being an endless void.”
“So you noticed then?” Asked Twilight. “It took me much longer to understand what this place was before I realized what was happening. And to answer your other question, Luna and Cadence are both back in the castle making sure everything is finished for later today.”
“What? What’s going on? What happened with the spell? Where are Luna and Cadence? Shouldn’t they be here too?” Asked Starlight.
“You are ready.” Stated Celestia
Starlight stared at the princess, hoping to get more out of her this time. “Ready? Ready for what? What exactly is going on here?”
The response was immediate. “Simple, dear Starlight. Look down and you’ll see” Starlight looked downward and started to panic, and she wanted to move away from what she thought she saw, but she couldn’t. The last thing Starlight saw before she fainted, was white.
Author's Note
Please let me know how I can improve. Feedback is appreciated.
Starlight's head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was helping the princesses and everything after it was a blur. She saw both darkness and light at the time, but yet couldn’t distinguish which one was good or bad. She could hear voices, voices telling her it was time, telling her that everything was ok. She wanted to believe the voices, but they reminded her of something she would rather forget. She was swimming in her own consciousness. Only darkness was before her, and then she heard the words. Three words that finally broke her out of her slumber.
“Is she ok?”
Starlight woke with a start, jumping upwards with incredible speed, and soon came to regret her swiftness. Everything hurt. It felt like she had been dropped from 100ft up but without the broken bones. She groaned in pain. Looking around, it looked as if she was in a hospital. Had the spell done something bad to her? She pondered on exactly what could have happened. Was there an explosion? Large amounts of magical feedback? It was unlikely that she would ever know. Then she heard the voice again. Only this time, she heard another as well.
“Is she ok? She looks like she’s in pain, there must be something we can do!”
“I’m sorry Twilight, but she must go through this alone. Your circumstances were different when this happened to you. While you fixed a spell that changed you by itself, her change was done by raw energy. It would hurt anyone to have that much magical energy go through them.” Stated Celestia.
Starlight wondered if they were talking about her. They had just gone through a spell that required large amounts of raw magic, so it was safe to assume so. Also, what did they mean by change?
“That shouldn’t matter! There must be something we can do to help her! Especially because of what’s going on during the celebration tonight! Please princess, there must be something!” Twilight alleged.
"The only thing we can do now is to make sure she feels safe, healthy, and unharmed. If we do much else, it could be more harm than good. Don't you remember how long it took you to get used to everything? This kind of thing takes time. We can't rush it." Responded Celestia.
Starlight heard an exaggerated sigh come from the room over. It certainly sounded like Twilight wanted to do something, but she wasn’t entirely sure what it could be. Then Starlight heard hoofsteps coming her way. She assumed Celestia and Twilight were coming in to check on her. She tried to lay back down after trying to listen in on the conversation and realized exactly how much pain she was in. It may have hurt a lot earlier, but now she almost felt like she was on fire. She leaned back with a huge groan of pain, only to see Twilight run into the room.
“Thank Celestia you’re awake! You’ve been unconscious for 4 hours. I was really starting to get worried!”
Starlight responded with a question. “Twilight. What happened? The last thing I remember is you telling me that the tingling was normal. I feel far from normal right like. I almost feel like I’m burning!”
Twilight sheepishly looked around the room before looking back at Celestia for some help. Celestia only sighed and shook her head. Seeing this, Twilight knew she had to skate around the truth for a little while.
“Something happened during the spell. All of us aren’t sure what happened… We heard you start screaming in pain, so we brought you to the medical wing of Canterlot castle. I know it’s a long distance, but we couldn’t risk taking you to a normal hospital since we never really saw what happened. As for the burning… it could be residual magical energy, but we can’t be sure. Please don’t be mad at us.”
Starlight looked at Twilight with narrowed eyes. She knew Twilight was lying in some way. She just wasn’t sure what Twilight was lying about. She sighed.
“You know Twilight, I could hear you and the princess earlier. What were you talking about? Because it sounds like you aren’t telling me the whole truth.”
Twilight was not expecting to hear that. She gulped and grinned sheepishly. Had Starlight heard all that? Celestia chose this moment to step in and say her piece.
“Starlight, we were talking about how we could further help you, but with the possibility of raw magical energy still lingering in you, we didn’t want to cause further complications. Anything we are to do other than this simple treatment you have now could permanently scar you in horrible ways. Twilight and I are only looking out for your well-being.” Without Starlight knowing, Celestia was speaking to Twilight telepathically and scolding her for being so loud. Starlight may not have heard what was said, but she saw Twilight visibly wince and look downward with tears in her eyes.
“Twilight, are you ok?” Starlight asked. “Why are you crying?”
“Y-yea *sniff* I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You look hurt. What’s wrong?” Starlight may have been the one in the hospital bed, but she hated to see her friends in tears. She wanted to help in any way she could.
“I said I’m fine. Just happy that you’re ok.” Twilight said. Starlight didn’t quite buy it but decided not to press it further, so she looked towards Celestia whom promptly asked her a few questions.
“How are you feeling Starlight? Twilight ran her way in here, so I assumed she heard something bad.”
“I’m alright I guess. Just in a lot of pain. Its concentrating more along my back for some reason. I don’t remember ever hurting my back, so to feel this much pain is a surprise to me. Twilight probably heard me trying to lean back onto the bed. It hurts a lot more than you might think.” Starlight looked back over at Twilight, who seemed to have composed herself, and wondered exactly why her friend was so emotional today.
Twilight locked eyes with Starlight and could only think of one thing. How had Starlight not noticed yet? With the way they felt, she should have noticed the moment she woke up. Twilight looked away, dumbfounded that Starlight couldn't feel anything. Maybe it was because of the pain? Twilight sighed in frustration for a 3rd time that day, just wishing that she didn’t have to tiptoe around the topic.
It was at that moment that Celestia finally spoke up again. “Alright Starlight, we’ll take our leave and let you get some rest. Do feel better soon. We would love to see you at the celebration tonight.”
Starlight just smiled and said, “I’ll do my best to be there. I can’t make any promises though.”
“Goodbye Starlight, rest well.”
Starlight felt her pain ebbing away, but with the pain gone, she ran into a new problem. She was itchy. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but she knew that she had enough of it. She decided to get up and stretch since she had been lying in bed for the past 2 hours. She had begun to feel stiff. Once she got out of bed though, she felt the itching stop.
“That’s odd.” She said aloud. “Why would it stop like that?” she shrugged it off and just proceeded to stretch. That’s when she saw them. In her peripheral vision was a wing. A wing of her coat color. She turned her head back and gasped. She had wings. Starlight couldn’t believe it at first. Then it clicked. She screamed.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.”
She was an Alicorn.
Author's Note
Feedback is much appreciated.
Starlight had Barricaded herself in her bedroom back at the Friendship castle when she found out. Twilight and Celestia had just been down the hall on their way back to Starlight’s room in the medical wing when they heard her scream. They rushed down the hall to find Starlight had disappeared. They had no idea where she went until they heard loud rumbling come from the direction of Ponyville, almost as if something had exploded. Twilight hurriedly ran outside to see that everything was ok but knew that something was wrong. Starlight couldn’t have gotten far, not with her inexperience with Alicorn magic. Then she heard another loud boom and figured out what may have happened. With Starlight finding out she was an Alicorn, her emotions jumbled and caused the innate power to bubble to the surface, which meant Starlight was unintentionally breaking stuff in ways that were not normally possible.
“Princess, Starlight’s upset. We should have told her! Why did you make me dance around it! Now if she’s not careful, her emotions might unintentionally cause the destruction of Ponyville!” Twilight was outraged. Normally she trusted the princesses, but this felt like she was being betrayed. All Twilight wanted to do was help, but now it was next to impossible to get Starlight to listen to her.
“Twilight, you know why we had to do it this way. Her initial pool of magic was so large that if we had told her, it could have-”
“NO! WE DID NOT HAVE TO DO IT THIS WAY! NORMALLY I TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT, BUT IT FEELS LIKE I’M HELPLESS NOW! I JUST WANTED TO HELP STARLIGHT BUT NOW I’M LUCKY IF SHE’LL EVER TRUST ME AGAIN!” Twilight was in tears at this point. She hated seeing her friends upset, but usually she could deal with it if it wasn’t something she could handle. In this instance though, Twilight knew she could have helped, but was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch her friend get destroyed by her emotions. “I just wanted to help her... why won’t you let me… please…”
Celestia sighed. She shook her head. Today was going to be a long day. “Twilight, we told you why. This is what was best for her.” Celestia knew that at this point the only thing she could do was try and calm down Twilight.
“Best for her? Since when do you know what’s best for somepony when they nearly had their lives destroyed by a similar situation? I could have helped her this time...” They only had another 8 hours before the celebration began at this point. If they couldn’t get things under control by then, then this celebration would be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Back at the Friendship castle, Starlight was irate. After 10 minutes of failed teleportation attempts, she had finally made it back to her room. She couldn’t believe it. The princesses had lied to her! And now she was one of them! They had the audacity to do this to her without even an explanation afterwards?
Starlight screamed at the top of her lungs. “AAAGGHHHH! HOW DARE THEY! I TRUSTED THEM, AND THEY USE THAT TRUST TO MANIPULATE ME!” She stomped her hooves in frustration; only to have the castle shake. “What?!? Since when could I do that!?!” She was so mad that it would be impossible to explain to anypony. “First my magic is on the fritz, and now I can create small earthquakes? What the heck? What is happening to me!?!?”
Starlight just flopped on her bed and, once again, she felt the castle shake. She sighed in anger and frustration. She decided to just sleep it off in hopes that it was all a dream, and that everything would go back to normal when she woke up. Unfortunately, she received a rather rude pull back to reality when she heard somepony knock on her bedroom door. “Ugh who is it?” Starlight asked in a rather irritated tone.
“Its Twilight…” She spoke in a small whisper, hoping to not anger Starlight more than she undoubtedly already was.
“What do you want?” She spat with venom in every word. “I can only imagine you’re here to lecture me or to try and regain the trust you lost an hour ago. But, I mean, who would be stupid enough to do that?”
Twilight just whimpered on the other side of the door, tears already falling, knowing that she had likely lost a friend. “I’m sorry… I wanted to tell you... I rea-”
“THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU!?! I’VE SPENT THE LAST HOUR IN MISERY BECAUSE EVERYTHING KEEPS GOING WRONG! I CAN HARDLY TAKE A STEP WITHOUT THE CASTLE SHAKING! I CAN’T EVEN LEVITATE ANYTHING WITHOUT IT BEING THROWN ACROSS MY ROOM! I trusted you above everyone else Twilight, and then you just straight up lie to me? Multiple times no less! You could have told me, but noooo, lied to me and danced around me like I was broken glass.Can I even call you a friend anymore? Should I?” Starlight, without thinking, had said something that would hurt Twilight for longer than she could imagine. And Twilight, because she blindly trusted another, had likely just lost a friend.
“I-I…” Before Twilight could say anything else, Starlight said three words that finally hurt twilight more than anything else ever had.
“Just go away.” That did it. Twilight was already having a tough time but hearing that caused her to have a total breakdown. The river of tears started flowing, and all Twilight could do was stare at Starlight’s door. Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, had just lost a friend. She couldn’t believe it at first, but then it hit her. She felt weak. As Twilight started getting up, she just collapsed. The two things the she feared above all, was losing friends, and above that, losing Starlight, her pupil. Her worst fear had just come true.
Starlight was lying in bed and heard it. She heard Twilight try to get back up, then collapse. ‘Good.’ she thought, ‘maybe now she’ll learn her lesson.’ The problem with that thinking however, was that 30 minutes later, she could still hear Twilight outside of her door. She thought about getting up to tell Twilight to mope somewhere else, but then she heard little feet outside her door, followed by a rather young voice.
“Twilight! Are you ok! I’ve been looking all over for you! I got a letter from Celestia telling me that you got back, I couldn’t find you at first, but when I do, you’re like this! What happened?” It was Spike. Starlight figured he could get her out of there.
Twilight just looked up at Spike, and he gasped in horror. Never, in all the years he had lived with Twilight, had he ever seen her in such a state. He could hardly believe it, there wasn’t much that could actually phase Twilight in such a manner, so to see her in the state she was, was a surprise to say the least. She finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity.
“*sniff* Spi-ke. *sniff*” she choked out. It was barely more than a whisper. It was almost as if she had no energy, but Spike knew she hadn’t done too much that day. What exactly had happened that caused her to be in such a state? Spike wouldn’t find out though, as Starlight walked out of her bedroom, hoping to tell spike to hurry up, but when she actually saw Twilight, she choked up, with the only thing going through her mind being. ‘I caused this?’ Twilight was never one to lose her cool like that and seeing Twilight in such a disheveled state made Starlight tear up and start crying herself. Spike was about to question Starlight when she simply picked up Twilight on her back, not wanting to risk Twilight going through a wall, and brought her back into her bedroom.
Spike just stood there dumbfounded. “What just happened?” He had seen crazier things, but seeing Starlight not use magic to pick up Twilight told Spike that something really big had happened. He didn’t want to get caught up in anything, so he went back to doing his daily castle chores.
Starlight laid Twilight down on her bed and just looked at her. She laid there, tail in her hooves, eyes closed, and mane disheveled. Tears never stopped streaming down her face. Twilight looked up, and the only thing that she could say was “I’m so sorry.” every other second. Starlight almost felt bad. Almost. If she was even going to begin feeling sympathy, she would need to hear absolutely everything from Twilight.
“Twilight.” Twilight looked to where Starlight was sitting. “At this moment you have one chance to explain exactly what happened to me and why. If I think you’re lying in any way, the explanation will stop, and you will be required to leave my room until you feel like telling the truth. Is that understood?” Twilight could hardly believe it, Starlight was actually giving her a chance? She simply nodded, tears still filling her eyes. “Good. Start whenever you want.”
After an hour-long explanation, Starlight finally understood what had happened. “So, let me get this straight, it had been your idea to have me ascend, but you had no idea where to start. Is that correct?” Twilight nodded. “Then, after you talked to the princesses, they agreed to help, and set up a spell to cause my ascension?” Again, Twilight nodded. “Then after everything was finalized, you set up everything, not realizing what would happen to me?” Another nod. “You wanted to help but couldn’t bring yourself to distrust Celestia’s judgement on having me figure it out on my, so instead you tried to allude to it when we first talked after I woke up?” Twilight gave a final nod. “Ok, I have two more questions for you then. Number one, why did you keep trusting Celestia’s judgement? Why didn’t you trust yourself? And number two, what role am I exactly supposed to fill as a princess?” Starlight had been wondering that since she figured out she had wings.
Twilight had finally stopped crying after she realized Starlight still trusted her enough to explain everything. “To answer your first question, I trusted her over myself because she had gone through this situation before with me and Cadence. I figured she knew best, but when she just kept telling me to ignore everything, I started questioning her. And to be completely honest, I’m not even supposed to be here talking to you right now. I didn’t exactly leave on the best note with the princess… *ahem* Anyway, to answer your second question…” Twilight paused briefly.
“You are now the Princess of Magic.”
Author's Note
Phew, this chapter was a doozy to write. I teared up a few times myself, and I was writing it! Hope you enjoy! Feedback is greatly appreciated!
Starlight sat there with her head, unable to comprehend what she was just told. She must have heard Twilight wrong. There was no way that Twilight had meant what she said. Perhaps she was delusional after hearing the long explanation from Twilight. Could she have been hearing things maybe? Was Twilight playing a prank on her?
“I-I’m sorry, I think I misheard you.” Starlight said still sitting there like a deer in headlights. “Did you just say Princess of Magic? As in, the one who claims dominion over all magic, one who can do anything with magic as long as they will it? That kind of Princess of Magic?” Starlight wanted clarification. Maybe it was just something minor, like an increased pool of magical energy, or maybe just she more easily learned and created spells.
“Yes Starlight, that kind of Princess of Magic.” Twilight responded confidently. “I’m so sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, but, as I told you, Celestia thought she knew better and tried to hide it from you until she thought you were ready. She apparently wanted to try and ease you into it, but with the Summer Sun Celebration going on tonight, you had to know.” Twilight made sure to emphasize Celestia’s name with venom in her voice.
Starlight continued to sit there and go over everything in her head. She looked up at Twilight with fear in her eyes. She wasn’t ready! She had only become Twilight’s student last year, and now she was a princess? It was almost too much for her. She started hyperventilating. Twilight saw this and knew what was happening. Starlight was having a panic attack.
“Starlight calm down. You’re going to make yourself pass out!” Twilight said in a motherly tone. “Just relax. Everything will be ok.” Thankfully, after a few minutes, Starlight did manage to calm down. Even thought she was physically calm however, her mind was still running a mile a minute, trying to figure out why they made her a princess, and so soon.
“Twilight, why me? Why now? What could have I possibly done to warrant this? I haven’t done anything big since I got here! Even when you were all captured, it was Discord, Trixie and Thorax that did everything! Why?!?” Starlight knew she was an Alicorn at this point, and accepted it, but being told she was the Princess of Magic had set off a chain reaction in her mind. She needed to know why it happened to her and not anyone else.
Twilight sighed, not in frustration, but because she was getting a little tired of all of Starlight’s questions. She knew they needed to be answered though, otherwise Starlight would be lost with her newfound power and title. “We chose you because you alone have the highest level of magical ability in the land. Even when we brought Starswirl back, I could feel how much your magical energy dwarfed his. Heck, you finished a spell that allowed you to go back in time and stay there! It wasn’t a short 15 second burst like Starswirl’s spell. You even made a spell that made you and Sunburst foals! Not even Princess Celestia or Luna can do that without help, yet you did it without anypony else nearby.” Hearing this put Starlight slightly at ease. True, she had come up with and created many new spells, but never really thought too highly of it.
“As for why now, as well as why, you are basically the living embodiment of magic. You held more magic than the rest of us princesses held, as a Unicorn. Honestly, had you not come with me willingly, I don’t think I could have beaten you when you went back in time. You’re the most powerful living pony, period. It seemed right to make you a princess. After I talked to the princesses, they agreed with me, though, Celestia’s methods in dealing with your ascension were and are skewed.” Again, Twilight spoke Celestia’s name with nothing but contempt; only this time, it did not go unnoticed by Starlight, who raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
“Twilight, as flattered as I am after hearing all that, I heard the way you talked about the princess, and that’s rather unlike you, talking about them negatively. I know you explained most of it to me, but what really happened? What’s going on with Celestia?” Starlight hoped that it wasn’t anything too serious.
Twilight looked down and sighed. Again. For the millionth time that day. “I know it’s not like me Starlight, but to keep things short, Celestia and I are not really on speaking terms right now. With her wanting to try and keep things from you, and it only hurting you, it made me angry. So, I did what I thought was right, and came here to explain everything before things got worse.” Starlight blinked. Twilight didn’t agree with the princess on something? That was new. VERY new.
“Are you and the princess going to be alright? I mean, she was your teacher at one point, and I know for a fact you still looked up to her.” Starlight was a little worried about Twilight because it felt as if she was completely different pony than she had talked to the day before.
“Eventually, but right now, I think it’s best I let her and myself think over things. Hopefully she’ll see her methods were wrong. She’s can kind of stubborn.” Twilight giggled. If only Starlight knew what she knew, especially when it came to Celestia and cake.
“You know, everything is staring make sense” Starlight said, finally putting all the pieces together from before.
“What do you mean Starlight?” What Starlight said confused Twilight. What did she mean?
“Well, for one, when I stamped my hoof in anger a few times earlier, it felt almost like a miniature earthquake. I can only assume that with my ascension, I got the magics from Earth Ponies and Pegasi, and with me being an Alicorn, all the abilities associated with them have been heightened greatly because of me being the Princess of Magic. I mean, even just trying to teleport here was a disaster. I ended up at the furthest ends of Equestria before I finally got home. I guess I need to start practicing magic again huh?”
Twilight just laughed. “Yes, I guess you do.”
Starlight and Twilight walked out of Starlight’s bedroom laughing and giggling like little schoolfillies. Hearing this, Spike, whom had been sitting outside of Starlight’s room in case he was needed, spoke up. “Um, you guys alright? When you went in you both looked really upset, you especially Twilight, but now you guys look like you’re the happiest you’ve been since ever!”
Starlight just giggled and responded with a “Yes Spike, were okay, just some things we had to talk about.”
Spike looked relieved. “Phew, thank goodness. Anyways, come on, we have to go make sure everything is all set for-” Spike froze. “Uhhhhh.” Starlight and Twilight looked at each other confused, then back at Spike. They waved their hooves in front of Spikes face to no avail. They shrugged and started to walk past him only to hear Spike speak up. “wings”
This caused them to turn around, once again, confused. “Spike you’re going to have to speak up, we can’t hear you.” Said Twilight.
“Wings. Wings. WINGS?!?! STARLIGHT YOU HAVE WINGS? SINCE WHEN?” Spike yelled at the top of his lungs. Both Twilight and Starlight, shook their heads trying to get the ringing out of their ears.
“First of all, Ow. Second, yes Spike, I have wings. And I got them this morning.” Starlight said this as she finally got the ringing in her ears to stop. Spike promptly fainted once it was explained.
Starlight and Twilight looked at each other once again. “Well that just happened. Before we go out and start helping you control your magic, we should probably put him in bed. When he faints like that he usually stays out for hours. He’ll probably miss the celebration this year.” Twilight frowned. She wanted Spike to be there when the announced Starlight as the newest princess. Even though the coronation ceremony would be tomorrow, she wanted Spike to see the announcement.
After bringing him upstairs and putting him in bed, they went out back to Twilights personal backyard space. It was moderately sized and best of all, had a dome around it for privacy. “Alright Starlight, ready to beg-” Twilight paused. She pointed at Starlight with a hoof. She just stared at Twilight with a quizzical look on her face.
Starlight waved a hoof in front of Twilights face. “Equestria to Twilight, are you there?” What could have possibly surprised Twilight enough to get to stop mid-sentence. Them Starlight followed Twilight’s hoof and looked down. She gasped. Plants were growing at her hooves, and she wasn’t even doing anything. “Uhhhhhh” was all she could manage to get out. Even though in the back of her mind she was thinking ‘Applejack would love this’.
Twilight finally regained her composure and spoke up. “I knew you had increased magical reserves because of your ascension, but to be attuned to magic in such a way that allows you to manipulate the land like that, just, I have no words!” She looked back up at Starlight and came to a conclusion.
Starlight didn’t like the look that Twilight was giving her and said only one thing. “Uh oh.”
Twilight then responded with words that made Starlight groan. “We’re going to be here a while. Especially if we want to get that under control.” Starlight was not looking forward to this.
2 HOURS UNTIL THE CELEBRATION
Starlight sat there panting. She had never been so out of breath, nor had she ever pushed her magic so far. She could hardly believe this. She was able to control spells for much longer than she ever thought conceivable. 3 hours. That is how long she had spent maintaining a shield spell while Twilight did nothing but fire volley after volley of offensive spells. And that was AFTER the 3 hours they had spent learning to control Starlight’s Earth Pony and Pegasi magic. Starlight knew she could have maintained it longer, but with this power being so new, she was impressed with herself. She looked over at Twilight who looked like she was going to keel over. There was no way Twilight could keep going like she had been. Starlight had Twilight beat in everything magically related. She may have not been looking forward to pushing herself in such a way before, but now, she had to admit, it was kind of fun.
Twilight wanted to keep going, she knew she was nearly at her limit, but she wanted to see how far she could push Starlight. She was about to fire another volley, but then she heard what sounded like a doorbell echo though the open backyard door. She froze. Oh no. Nopony was supposed to see Starlight yet! She had to go and deal with the pony at the door, so she told Starlight to go and hide for the time being.
Twilight took a walk through her castle to the front door, wondering who could be there. ‘I don’t have any visits scheduled today. The princesses are helping the townsponies set up for the Summer Sun Celebration. My friends are all busy doing their part for the celebration. Who could I possibly be?’ When she opened the door, Twilight got her answer in the form of a large white pony who had a pink, blue, and green flowing mane. The pony had an overly large smile adorned on her face. Twilight just gave the pony a blank stare, knowing all too well who it was, and she was not looking forward to this conversation. Twilight just groaned and facehooved herself before looking back up at the aforementioned pony. Twilight spoke with contempt in every word. “Hello, princess”
Celestia was nervous. She was never nervous. She just gulped and looked down at the pony who was her pupil and finally responded with the same unusually large smile she had on her face since she had gotten to the door. “Hello Twilight. I’m so sorry to disturb you. Are you busy at the moment?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, yes I am. Starlight and I are working on maintaining control over her newly obtained and heightened magical energy. We were just about to continue when you showed up. To what do I owe this pleasure of a visit?” Twilight spoke with venom in every word, knowing that it would affect the princess, and after seeing the princess flinch, she knew it had hit her.
“O-Oh. I’m sorry, I’ll just be on my way then.” The princess spoke with sadness in every word. The way Twilight had spoken wounded her.
Twilight held a blank stare and said two words. “Goodbye Princess.” She started to close the door only to have Celestia tackle Twilight in a hug. Not expecting this, Twilight did what any pony would do, and tried to pry herself out of the princess’s hooves. “PRINCESS! What are you doing!? Let me go!”
Celestia was a became a blubbering mess the second she pulled Twilight into her hug. The only thing Twilight could hear through the tears were garbled words of ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. She struggled for a good 10 minutes before starlight Twilight started to feel bad, but then remembered what was going on and she yelled.
“ENOUGH”
The princess let go of Twilight, still a blubbering mess of tears and the constant ‘I’m Sorry’. Twilight sighed. She knew that if she didn’t deal with this now that it could possibly ruing the celebration. “Celestia. Get a hold of yourself. Calm down. Relax. When you can finally do that, you can come and find me in the backyard with Starlight. Until then. Stay here and mope. I can’t deal with you if all you’re going to do is cry. I’ll talk to you once you’ve calmed down a bit.” Twilight walked back down the hall to her backyard to continue her session with Starlight. “Alright Starlight, you can come back out now, it was just the princess.”
Starlight came out of her hiding place and inquired as to which princess it was. “Who was it Twilight? Luna? Celestia?”
“It was Celestia. She’s a blubbering mess right now. I’ll talk to her later when she’s calmed down.” Truthfully, Twilight wanted to talk to her now, but with all the emotions being jumbled in Celestia’s head, she didn’t want to say anything that could be misinterpreted.
“Are you sure that’s wise Twilight? I mean, if I hadn’t come out of my room to see you where would you be now?” This caused Twilight to rethink what she had said to Celestia. She was about to turn back and go apologize only to find that Celestia was walking into her backyard, seemingly much more composed that a few minutes ago.
Celestia spoke up immediately upon entering. “Twilight, I want to apologize for my actions against you, and to you as well Starlight. It was not my place to decide what was best for you. I guess I just wanted to feel included. Seeing you ascend as Twilight did, I think it made me realize how much Twilight had grown up, and I guess I wasn’t ready for it. I tried to control a situation where I should have just let Twilight handle things. I am truly sorry, to both of you.” Celestia hung her head, hoping her apology had gotten through to both of them. Starlight was the first to take action and wrapped the princess in a hug.
“It’s okay princess, you had our best interests at heart, just next time, let us handle it.” Starlight poked the princess with her hoof and smirked. Celestia smiled and looked at Twilight who nodded her head, then spoke up herself.
“I agree with Starlight, so I’ll say it again, let us handle it next time.” Twilight smiled and hugged her former teacher. The three remained in an embrace until Starlight said something that scared all of them.
“How long until the celebration?”
1 HOUR UNTIL THE CELEBRATION
Twilight ran around the castle looking for the things she needed for the celebration. Her anxiety over this celebration had kicked itself into high gear and make Twilight start freaking out. “Oh, my Celestia, I should have been out there helping! I have to make sure everything is perfect! I need to go inspect everything, get everything ready for the reveal of the new princess! What am I going to do?!?”
“Twilight calm down. The more you think about it the more it’s going to get in your head and the more its going to slow you down. Relax and do it slowly. Don’t you have a checklist for stuff like this?” Starlight was trying her best to diffuse the situation and calm Twilight down. They didn’t need a frazzled princess hosting the celebration.
“You’re right Starlight, I need to go find my checklist and be on my way! I’ll come back for you when the Celebration is about to start! Be sure to get ready! Come with me princess”
Celestia just yelped as she was yanked out the door by a slightly rushing Twilight. Starlight just sighed. There would be no convincing Twilight to slow down. She might as well go get ready. She took a short walk back to her room, so she could decide what to wear until she’s revealed as the newest princess.
As much as she wanted to try and find something that would let her wings breathe, she wanted to mingle and talk with her friends before the celebration. She groaned. Whatever she chose to wear would be an annoyance until her reveal. She decided to just go with it and chose a nice light blue dress that Rarity had made for her a few months back. It looked a lot like the so called ‘princess dress’ Rarity had made for her Canterlot themed line of dresses that had been discontinued a few years ago.
Starlight exited her room and left the castle. She ran into a few friends along the way and talked with them shortly before continuing on her way. Twilight was up on the stage directing the guards to their positions and spotted Starlight walking her way. “You look amazing! Wait, where are the, you know.” Starlight just made a motion that told Twilight they were hidden by the dress. Twilight wiped her brow as if to say ‘phew’. She looked up and saw where the sun and moon were positioned. It was nearly time. “Starlight! Come with me! Lets go get you into a better dress for the reveal! Come on!” Twilight said in a slow whisper. As they headed behind the stage to the underground rooms, they saw Celestia and Luna on their way to begin the ceremony.
The Celebration was about to begin.
Author's Note
This was my favorite chapter to write. I hope the extra wait was worth it!
It didn’t hit Starlight until she saw the princesses walk by. Everything before almost felt like a dream. Sure, she had had a panic attack earlier, but this was on a different level. She was about to revealed to the rest of Ponyville as the next princess. Thankfully, it wasn’t the entirety of Equestia; yet. As she realized this, everything slowly started hitting her again but before Starlight could start panicking again, Twilight grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Twilight knew what was going through Starlight’s mind because she had gone through it before, even thought the circumstances were much different.
“Starlight, don’t you dare. This is your night! Stop worrying!” Starlight was still hesitant, even though the hug really did help. “I’ve been organizing this part of the Celebration for moons! The princesses and I have it all under control!” Moons? Starlight thought that it had been something that had come up recently, so she pushed out of the hug and glared at Twilight.
“You said you talked to the princesses recently about me becoming a princess; Just how long have you been plotting this Ms. Sparkle?” Starlight knew Twilight was just trying to cheer her up, so she decided to poke a little fun. She didn’t like that Twilight had been plotting behind her back, but Starlight knew that Twilight only had Starlight’s best interests at heart.
Twilight laughed nervously. “Nearly 6 moons...?” She said this hesitantly because Twilight was unsure how Starlight would react. Starlight continued to glare at Twilight but after a short pause to look around the room they had just entered, Starlight looked back at Twilight and laughed. It was safe to say that Twilight was VERY confused. “Why are you laughing Starlight?” She tilted her head in confusion as she asked her question.
Starlight continued to laugh for a few seconds before she responded. “Twilight, I’m just messing with you, I know you were trying to help me relax by reassuring me, so I decided to have a little fun with it.” Twilight just stared straight ahead for a while. Now it was Starlight’s turn to be hesitant. “Twlight…?”
“Oh.” Twilight had not been expecting that from Starlight. She wasn’t one to usually pull small pranks like that. “Sorry, I guess you just threw me for a loop is all.” Then Twilight remembered she had to be somewhere. “Are you going to be ok to get yourself ready for the reveal? I’m needed to help the princesses with the ceremony. I’ll come and get you once everything is all set, ok?”
“Yea, I think I’ll be ok Twilight.” Twilight got up and turned to leave but Starlight stopped her one last time. “And Twilight. Thank you. For being there to help me through this.”
Twilight responded with an overly large smile. “You’re welcome Starlight.” As Twilight left, she could feel tears falling down her face. Twilight thought nothing of it because she knew what they were. They were happy tears. Twilight had dreamt of this years ago when Starlight first became her pupil, and now, the student had surpassed the master. As she walked down the hall to get to the stage, all Twilight could do was think about all the amazing things Starlight had done. It made her cry tears of joy. Starlight deserved this honor above everypony. She was one of the most kind-hearted ponies Twilight had ever met. When she finally reached the stage, she was stopped by the princesses who held a look of concern on their faces.
“Twilight, are you ok? Why are you crying?” Celestia looked like she was on the verge of tears herself simply because Twilight was crying.
Twilight sniffed. “I’m fine. I’m just… so happy.” Both of the other princesses looked at each other confused looks upon their faces. Twilight said she was happy, yet she was crying a river.
“Ok…? Then why are you so happy?” This time it was Cadence who spoke up as she walked towards them. She had never seen Twilight like this, so she looked the most concerned out of all of them.
“I’m happy because Starlight finally got what she deserved after years of being my pupil. She became a princess. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I never thought I’d have a student and see them excel even more than I ever did.” That line spooked the princesses, because Twilight liked to think of herself as a perfectionist, but now she was saying that somepony was more perfect than she was?
“Are you feeling ok? You basically just called Starlight perfect.” Celestia spoke up.
“Of course I’m feeling ok, And everything I just said is true. Starlight is even more perfect than I could ever be.” After hearing that, it set off alarm bells in Cadence’s head. Then it clicked. Cadence smirked.
“Ok, if you’re sure you’re ok. Are you ready to begin Twilight?” Celestia spoke once again, making sure that Twilight was ready. Twilight dried her eyes and responded with two words.
“I’m ready.”
“Then let us get started! Cadence, you and Twilight know where you need to be. Let’s make this the best we possibly can for the newest Equestian princess!” Luna said with excitement. Twilight wondered if she was as excited as she was about the reveal.
Celestia and Luna went up on stage to begin the ceremony with a speech. While they started the festivities, Cadence leaned down and whispered in Twilight’s ear. “Don’t think that I don’t see what’s going on here.” Twilight blinked.
“What do you mean Cadence?” Twilight was both confused and nervous. On one hoof, she hoped that Cadence hadn’t picked up something she would rather keep to herself at the moment, on the other, Twilight secretly hoped she had so that she could ask for advice.
“You’ve got a crush on Starlight, don’t you?” Cadence said in a hushed whisper. Twilight froze. She had picked up on it! Twilight chuckled nervously.
“Hahaha… ha… ha, what makes you say that…?” Twilight continued with her nervous chuckle and adorned an almost goofy smile.
“Well for one, you spoke of Starlight as if she was literally the most perfect pony on the planet, and that’s hard to take coming from you! You’re miss perfect, so hearing you say that made me realize something that I hadn’t picked up on before. You’re crushing on Starlight. Hard.” Cadence put on a goofy smile of her own. “That, and you’ve also had this almost dreamy look on you face ever since you got back up here.”
Twilight froze once more and looked at Cadence nervously. She chuckled again. She knew she had been caught. “Yea… I do… pleaseddonttellherimnotready!” Cadence was confused. Not ready? They had been living together in the castle for years, surely tonight would be perfect for it.
“What do you mean you aren’t ready? Twilight, tonight, one of the biggest nights of Starlights life, would be the perfect time to tell her. I would never tell her without your consent. I wouldn’t do that to my sister-in-law, or anyone for that matter.” Twilight looked unconvinced. Cadence sighed. “Just think about it, ok?” Twilight just nodded in response.
“And without further ado…” Twilight and Cadence froze. That was there cue to be ready! They raced to their spots and got ready to do their yearly flyby, radiating their specific magics to provide a lightshow for everypony in the crowd.
The Celebration had begun.
Starlight watched the lights show from the window in her room backstage. Everything was so break taking. The princesses had outdone themselves this year. She was so enthralled by the show that she almost didn’t hear the knock at her door. “Who is it?”
“Stage manager miss. You’re wanted outside by Princess Twilight. Seems everything is ready for you.”
Starlight sighed. “Alright, tell her I’ll be out in a few minutes.” She wanted to make sure she looked presentable. As much as she wanted to impress herself, Twilight was the one she really wanted to impress. She didn’t want to disappoint her best friend, and secret crush. After she was finally satisfied with her looks, she went outside to meet Twilight for the reveal.
“There you are Starlight! Are you ready?” Twilight asked excitedly.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I just hope everypony likes me.”
“You’ll be fine Starlight. Come on! Celestia is about to announce you!” Twilight grabbed Starlight and pulled her towards the stairs to get on stage.
As they got closer to the stage, Twilight wrapped a wing around Starlight. Starlight thought it was to try and hide her wings until she was fully revealed to the crowd. Twilight however, did it for two reasons. She did it because she just wanted to embrace Starlight like that, because she thought it wouldn’t happen again for a long time. She also did it to hide Starlight’s wings.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, tonight, events are going to go slightly different. Normally we would disperse at this time to have fun playing games and mingling, however, there have been some events that have taken place recently that require us to inform you. This morning, Cadence, Luna, Princess Twilight, and myself cast a spell, one that has never been cast before, to bring you all something special.” Celestia turned her head and motioned for Twilight to bring Starlight to the front of the stage. Both Twilight and Starlight took their place in between Celestia and Luna. The crowd was muttering between themselves. What was Starlight doing up on stage with the princesses? They started to quiet down as Celestia started speaking again. “This is Starlight, Princess Twilight’s pupil of the last few years. She has shown promise and growth in multiple areas, especially magic.” This got the talking once more. “Twilight came to me close to a moon ago, and she approached with a proposition, one I quickly agreed to. After planning to coincide this proposition with the Summer Sun Celebration, we got to work. The aforementioned spell was cast on Starlight, which leads us to now.” The crowds muttering started to rise in volume, only to be quieted by Celestia raising a hoof.
Celestia continued. “Starlight has more than once proven herself to be worthy of what she was granted. She saved us all from the clutches of Queen Chrysalis, as well as saved the pony known as Stygian from the being known as The Shadow. These acts showed just how ready she was for what you are about to see. Ponies of Ponyville, put your hooves together for…” Celestia motioned one more for Twilight to move, only this time, to the side. “Your newest Princess, Starlight Glimmer!” Starlight unfurled her wings and the crowd gasped, but beyond that, everypony was silent. She waved nervously to the crowd and gulped. As she did this, the crowd erupted into cheers.
Starlight was speechless. She hadn’t expected that kind of reaction. Twilight poked her in the side and just said “See? I told you that you had nothing to worry about. They love you!” Thankfully for Twilight, Starlight didn’t pick up on the “and so do I” that Twilight whispered to herself. Starlight just stood there. A goofy smile upon her face.
“Nothing.” Starlight thought. “Could ever top this feeling.” How wrong she was.
2 HOURS LATER
Back at the friendship castle, all of Twilight’s friends and the princesses were relaxing and talking after a long day.
All of them had said their congratulations earlier, but now, it was Twilight’s turn to speak. “Starlight.” Twilight started, sounding kind of sad. She had realized that Starlight would be ruling over her own place by tomorrow afternoon, and she had to say her piece now, or she may never get to say it. “I have a confession to make. I normally would have waited longer, but I’m not sure where you princessdom will take you. So, I might as well say this now, as well as my congratulations. Over the past few months, I’ve felt something, but up until recently, I didn’t know what it was. Now I do. I hope you understand what I’m about to say.” Starlight just tilted her head in confusion. What could Twilight possibly mean? The only one in the room other than Twilight that knew what Twilight meant, was Cadence.
“Starlight. I love you. I don’t what brought these feelings to me, but today, seeing you in that dress, and the way we bonded today, I just couldn’t stop thinking about you. I understand if you don’t feel the same, I just had to get it out.” Twilight looked almost like she was crying. Oh wait, she was. Why was she crying? Because Twilight knew that Starlight didn’t feel the same. How could she?
Starlight looked at Twilight in awe. She had not been expecting that, and apparently, neither had her friends or most of the princesses. They all looked similarly shocked. Twilight loved her? She could hardly believe it. Starlight had liked Twilight for some time now, and had no idea that Twilight felt the same. Starlight sat there for what felt like forever just thinking about what she said.
“Twilight.” Twilight looked up. Tears stained her face. Everypony else in the room looked nervous. What was going to happen? The unexpected is what happened.
Starlight grabbed Twilight and kissed her. Twilight’s eyes opened wide. Twilight couldn’t believe it. Starlight kissed her? After it ended, they just looked at each other. After a minute of nopony saying anything, they both spoke up.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!?” they said in unison.
Everypony else in room must have thinking the same thing, because they all decided to leave and let Twilight and Starlight talk. After another short silence, Starlight spoke up.
“Twilight. I have a lot of questions, but the biggest one is, Why now?” At this point Starlight just wanted answers. She may not have shown it, but she was beyond happy that Twilight liked her.
Twilight’s response was “Why now? Because I don’t know where you’ll be tomorrow. Celestia could send you halfway across Equestria and I’d be sitting here wishing I could have told you sooner! I couldn’t wait any longer! I saw how happy you were up on the stage and I just wanted to help make this day better than it already has been!” Twilight was crying at this point. She was distraught. Even though Starlight had kissed her she was still so confused. Did Starlight really like her in the same way she liked Starlight?
Starlight took this as the cue to get up and hug Twilight. They just sat there. In Twilight’s throne room. With nothing but the sounds of Twilight sobbing. “It’s okay Twilight, I’m not mad, I’m happier than I look.”
Twilight looked up, her eyes still filled with tears. “You are?”
“Of course! I’ve felt this way for a long time!” Starlight had liked Twilight since the day she had become Twilight’s pupil. She, like Twilight, just never found the right time to say anything.
Starlight sighed. “Come on, get up, it’s early in the morning and we didn’t get any sleep last night. Let’s head to bed. You can spend the night with me if you want to.” Starlight put on a huge smile, trying to get Twilight to get up, but she wouldn’t budge. “Twilight, just so you know, knowing that you like me, has made this already great day, the best day ever.”
Twilight put on a weak smile. “I’m glad.”
“Now come one, let’s get to bed.’
Neither of them knew it, but Celestia had heard everything from outside another door. She stayed behind to make sure there was no fighting. She was happy that she didn’t have to step it. Celestia sighed. Her original plans were to send Starlight back to her old village and hopefully help the area grow larger. Her plans changed after hearing that exchange between the two. She knew what had to be done. Starlight would rule alongside Twilight, as the princesses of Friendship and Magic. “Fitting.” She thought. “Friendship and Magic. Side by side”
Starlight thought her ascension and reveal were good news? Being told that they would rule together, would surely top both of those. “The Coronation” Celestia thought. “Equestria will learn of the arrangement then, as will Twilight, Starlight, and their friends. I must prepare.”
This would be the beginning of success for both Friendship, and Magic.
Author's Note
Hope you all enjoyed!
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