Desert Star nervously paced alongside the Dodge Junction railroad station, craning her head to observe as the last train of the day pulled in. As the passengers piled out of the train, Star breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted Maud Pie and Twilight Sparkle walking out of a nearby carriage. Putting on a smile, Star quickly trotted towards them, her worries temporarily disappearing in the presence of one of her oldest acquaintances.
“Hi Maud, it’s been a while!” she exclaimed, giving Maud a quick hug. “You’re looking as sedimentary as ever, I see!” she added playfully.
“Thanks,” replied Maud, allowing a small smile. “It’s good to see you too.”
“And it’s an honor to meet you too, Princess,” Star said, turning her attention to Twilight. “I may not be able to perform magic and all, but I read some of your research papers out of curiosity and the one on thaumic entanglement is simply fascinating. If not way over my head.”
Twilight blushed. “Aww, thanks! Well I’m glad it was interesting enough to spread beyond the typical university circles. It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Desert Star. And please, call me Twilight.” She shifted her hooves before continuing. “Anyways, I heard you and Maud were once roommates?”
Desert Star fluffed her wings proudly. “Yep, that’s right! Maud and I both share an interest in rocks, so we spent a summer together in Appleloosa studying anything from boulders to the sand. I think we got to know each other pretty well. Hey Maud! What happens when you read too many geology jokes?”
Maud stared forward, as if she’d heard the joke a million times. “You hit rock bottom.”
“Ahh, gets me every time!” Star said with a laugh, and wiped a tear from her eye. “Anyways, I received your urgent summons, but it didn’t have a lot of information on it. What does an arenophile like myself possess that can assist Equestria’s best geologist and most bookish princess?”
Maud raised an eyebrow. “Comparing you to an arenophile is like comparing a mountain to a pebble. Star, I may know a lot about rocks, but you know more about sand than anypony else.”
Twilight gave Desert Star a quick moment to stammer a sincere thanks before she chimed in. “Which is why we’re here. I’ll tell you more, but first, let’s get somewhere private. I don’t want to make too many ponies anxious.” She peeked backwards and gestured to a large cloth-covered object she’d brought along.
Desert Star gulped, only now noticing its suspiciously horse-shaped curvature. “That’s… we’re not hiding a dead body in the middle of the desert, are we?” she inquired with a loopy grin. “You know what? I don’t want to know the answer to that question. My house isn’t too far from here, come on! I’ll show the way.”
It was almost dusk when Heyyu, beaded with sweat from a hard day’s work, noticed Desert Star, an earth pony, an alicorn, and a levitating curiously-shaped object heading up the hill leading to Desert Star’s house. Even though he was a reformed changeling now, Heyyu had never found the need to drastically change — he continued to work and lend a helping hoof here and there, minus the disguise. It was not long after Chrysalis’s defeat that he had met Desert Star from a job search. The two struck it off instantly — Star provided Heyyu with food, shelter, and pay, and Heyyu provided Star an innate ability to manipulate sand and rock like putty, as well as the ability to change into whatever creature an excited Star would see racing through the desert shrubs. They’d been working together ever since, and Star greatly recognized how large of a role he’d played in helping her make new discoveries about the ever-changing landscape.
As Desert Star approached with her two companions, Heyyu wiped his forehead with a kerchief, then extended a hoof in greetings. “I presume you are Princess Twilight Sparkle and Maud Pie. Any friend of Desert Star is a friend of mine.”
Twilight shook his hoof first, her interest clearly piqued from a changedling so far away from the hive. “It’s a pleasure to meet you…?”
“Heyyu.” he quickly interjected.
“Heyyu.” Twilight finished. “Uh, cool name. And please, just Twilight is okay.”
Maud shook his hoof second, nodding quickly and stepping off to the side, clearly interested in the work Heyyu had been doing. Desert Star had mentioned Maud to Heyyu before, but now that he was meeting her in person he could tell why both ponies knew each other so well — they both possessed some sort of inner firmness that he appreciated. Maud also seemed admittedly more changeling-like than most ponies he’d met, which was always a plus.
Desert Star unlocked the door and ushered everyone inside. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. So, what’s the issue we’re talking about here?”
Twilight set the object down, took a deep breath, and then slowly levitated the cloth off. Desert Star gasped as a bright gold, petrified Starlight Glimmer was revealed, mouth shaped in a small “O” as if mildly surprised by what happened to herself.
“Not stone dead,” Maud quipped, “but dead stoned. Or gilded.”
“This is my dear friend Starlight Glimmer,” Twilight explained. “For Celestia-knows what reason, she decided to take a walk into the Everfree Forest, and I found her like this. I checked for signs of cockatrice magic, but I found nothing. So then I tried to reverse engineer the spell, but still — ohh, if only I’d stopped her from entering the forest in the first place…” She wiped a tear from her eye.
Maud put a reassuring hoof on her back. “Twilight asked me to see if I could recognize anything she didn’t. Aside from traces of gold and sediment, I recognized it was not mainly gold, but rather a very reflective sand. No signs of pyrite. Also, the longer I looked at her, the more I was reminded of Mudbriar. Swoon. But I also consider Starlight a good friend. So I would appreciate any assistance you could bring.”
Desert Star had mostly calmed down by this point, so she brought a careful hoof to the pony-turned-statue. “Well this is sand all right, but I’m honestly not sure about the composition either. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though. After all I’ve learned about sand, it should take no less than a day to completely deconstruct it with your help. Not physically of course, hehe,” she grinned. “Heyyu, does this remind you of anything?”
The usually quiet Heyyu, almost forgotten in the corner, padded towards Starlight. After a quick hoof and magic inspection, he replied, “I am unfamiliar with the material as well. However, there seems to be a faint essence of maleficence from days past, not unlike that of my former Queen. Is that a problem?”
“Ehehehehe,” Twilight laughed nervously. “Let’s not talk about that. So Miss Star, how can I help?”
Desert Star held a wing to her face, quickly scanning before pulling an especially narrow feather out. Barely wincing, she held the quill end up to Starlight, tracing over some of the faintly visible cracks on the surface. “See these cracks? Just detecting their depth, length, and frequency can tell me a lot about how this sand was formed. Its cohesive nature and lustre also give me a lot of clues. With enough information, we might not be able to manually reverse the spell, but we might be able to figure out which creature caused it!”
“I suppose that’s where I come in,” Twilight said. “I can’t solve the thaumic energy matrix just yet, but with those unknowns turning into constants, I just might be able to figure it out with a little guesswork. Then we can save Starlight! I’ll grab a paper and quill and then we can get started.”
After a few rapid-fire scribbles, Twilight instructed Star and Maud to measure certain variables, with the help of Heyyu. Every once in a while, she would scribble something else, go into a deep think, then return with an increased determination. Even though halfway through Heyyu made a full kettle of tea, dusk turned into night and caffeine could not prevent everycreature from feeling the urge to sleep. Maud was the first to turn in, followed by an incredibly drowsy Star.
Finally, Heyyu decided to call it a night, rising besides Twilight, her horn gently glowing in the darkness. “Are you sure you’ll be alright alone, Twilight?”
Twilight gave a sleepy smile. “Don’t worry about me, Heyyu. I’ve done this plenty of times before. I’m not giving up until I figure out what caused this.”
“Good luck,” said Heyyu. “I will see you in the morning then.”
Twilight’s eyes followed him out of the room, and as soon as she heard the gentle click of his door being closed she sighed and turned to her quill. “Well I guess it’s just you and me, old friend. Let’s do this thing.”
Twilight managed to make it a long way, but just as with many other long nights, sleep overtook her. In her dreams, she wandered fields teeming with mythical creatures — bugbears, phoenixes, hydras, and cragadiles circling her with glowing eyes, ready to turn her into golden sand. Until…
Twilight’s eyes snapped open. “Of course! Cragadiles, why didn’t I think of that before? Cragadiles are known for their rock-covered hides. Alligators, including Gummy, are a neighboring species and are known for their distinctive eyes. So somewhere in between could be a creature that can use their eyes to turn ponies into sand!” She added some more notes to her lengthy equations. “That creature would be — “ Her eyes widened. “Caimans! They’ve never been observed to petrify ponies before, but that just means we could be making a new scientific discovery!” Her determination renewed, Twilight began furiously writing again.
Celestia’s dawn came and went, and finally Maud, Star, and Heyyu woke to find a victorious Twilight Sparkle lying hooves up on the couch.
“I presume you’ve done it?” Heyyu asked.
“Yep!” Twilight exclaimed. “Everything checks out, even the equations. The creature responsible for Starlight’s petrification is the caiman.”
“Wow, that was fast,” said Desert Star. “I knew you were good, but not that good. But aren’t caimans native only to the bogs of Everfree? That sounds like an awfully dangerous journey just to find and capture one.”
“It is,” Twilight replied, “but I came up with a solution to that. With the right measurements, you can combine the magical signatures of other creatures to approximate that of any creature. If we obtain the magic signature of a caiman, we can reverse it into a potion. Unfortunately, Zecora isn’t here, so we’ll have to take some extra precautions. But if we pour the potion on Starlight, it should dilute the material and weaken the magical bonds keeping Starlight petrified. Then, I can use my magic to finish the job!”
“As much as I enjoy Starlight’s rockiness, I miss her more as a friend,” Maud stated solemnly. “How do we help?”
Twilight sat up and swept a hoof in a half circle in front of her. “I’m going to need everycreature’s help for this. First, Star, are you familiar with the Appleloosan Hypophthalmichthys Nobilis?”
Desert Star blinked before recognition set in. “Ah, the AHN? Indeed, they’re a freshwater fish that resides near the sandy shoals of Appleloosa. That isn’t too far from here, so getting that will be a piece of cake.”
Twilight smiled. “Wonderful. In that case, I’ll leave you to gather and supply all the ingredients, if that’s alright with you. Here’s a list of common ingredients you can find at any marketplace and some bits to purchase them, and to compensate you for all the help you’ve given. And as a final ingredient, we need something from a caiman’s prey. There should be plenty of small insects running around Dodge Junction, so that should do.”
Star took the scroll and bits, then snapped to a mock salute. “Yes ma'am!” she exclaimed playfully.
“We need one more thing,” Twilight said, shifting her focus to Heyyu. “The feather of a roc. I am not dealing with those after last time – “ She shuddered at the memory. “So I think it would be okay if we had you change into a roc for a while, just to keep things simple.”
Heyyu nodded. “Can do.”
“Thank you,” Twilight stated. “Also, I should be calculating this right, but just in case, during the final process I’d appreciate if you could stand by.” Twilight finally turned to Maud. “Maud, I’m going to need your help monitoring Starlight to make sure that the final chemical reactions are happening as planned.”
Maud also nodded. “Solid. Let’s rock and roll.”
“Alright everycreature, then let’s commence Operation Save Starlight!” triumphantly exclaimed Twilight.
Desert Star cheered in jubilation. “Can you summarize the mission for Heyyu and I again, just in case? I don’t want to mess this up!”
“Alright,” responded Twilight. “Here’s the plan:”
“Heyyu - you’re on call. Star - to get your caiman, go purvey.
Heyyu - you’re a roc. Star - get the shoal AHN, get prey.
All of Glimmer is gold,
Only diluting Starlight breaks the mold.”
Author's Note
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