The Light of the Night

Darkness… So devoid of any form of life… And so cold. A thick mist swept this featureless landscape from where Starbeam Glitter stood, as her vision tried to adjust to the endless barrage of blackness around her. She felt the chill crawl around every portion of her body, she tried to warm herself up with her own bare hands, but they were just as cold, like she had been holding a large block of ice. The only light stemmed from her hands, which glowed a bright aura yet barely extending a few inches.

Starbeam felt utterly alone… Not another soul to be seen. No matter where she looked, all she could see is the darkness… Endless darkness. If this was meant to be how death feels like, Starbeam had never felt more terrified in all her life. But if she weren’t dead, what could be worse for her?

“Starbeam… Starbeam…”

A gasp escaped her lips, her breath made visible due to the fog. She spun around, wandering aimlessly for the source of the voice. The echo rumbled about the dark room and no matter how hard Starbeam looked, her eyes could not pierce through the darkness. Neither could she find the source of the voice bellowing toward her. And she could barely take a step, as if her feet were frozen upon the floor leaving her petrified.

All at once, she felt an icy chill running behind her neck making the young girl tremble. Slowly, she arched her neck behind her, anxiously turning her body as stiffly as a ballerina figure on a music box. And before her gaping eyes, her jaw trembling, floating above her was a frightening sight. Midnight Sparkle, though she did not know her name, facing her with only the left side of her figure. But Starbeam cannot forget the very sight of this frightening demoness.

Her hair was purple with a pinkish streak, floating in the air. Aqua fire surrounded her eye and a glowing turquoise horn with a black magical aura sprouted from her forehead. A black, feathery wing flapped and slightly flowed, complete with a long, purple tail. But what really frightened Starbeam was how similar she looked like her mother, Twilight Sparkle, even her own dress showed off the colors of the star mark on some of mother’s clothes. She did not turn toward the little girl surrounded by her own aura, but her eye was constantly watching her as a grin began to form showing her pearly whites.

“Who are you?” Starbeam asked, her voice echoing.

But Midnight Sparkle did not answer right away. Only her heavy breathing escaped her lips, echoing along the walls and tickling Starbeam’s ears uncomfortably. Her breath swirled through the icy fog in the darkness, as Starbeam Glitter eyed her cautiously.

“Who are you?!”

“Starbeam…” Midnight spoke, sinisterly. “I came for you…”

Starbeam tried to concentrate, trying to channel a strong aura from her hands to blast the mysterious woman… But nothing happened. The only aura from her hands were faint, as if only to serve as a small light and nothing more. And yet, as Starbeam looked toward the woman who never once moved apart from floating nor turned her face fully, the young girl couldn’t take her eyes off the demoness. No matter how much she wanted to turn, her eyes seemed entranced.

“Do I know you?” Starbeam asked.

“No…” Midnight whispered. “No… But I do know you…”

Eventually, Midnight Sparkle descended down toward the ground as if gravity were finally weighing her down as the demoness flapped her wing. But she made no sound when her feet, covered in banded pink shoes, touched the surface of the floor. She finally made a full turn toward Starbeam Glitter, and she gasped when she saw Midnight’s full form.

Half of Midnight’s face and her upper body had morphed, as if parts of her were drifting into the fog that flowed between them. There was no exposed tissue… No bones… No muscle… No flesh to be seen. Just… The emptiness. The whisper of the night, the air unseen when left untouched… Only three quarters of Midnight’s entire body were shown.

“You have no idea what it took me to reach you…” Midnight Sparkle spoke. “But I am pleased we can finally meet… Face-to-face, so to speak.”

Starbeam Glitter says nothing as Midnight Sparkle circles around the little girl, the lass unable to move as if she were a statue. Midnight examines the girl thoroughly, as if she were studying her. Starbeam couldn’t bear to look at her, being that she had only half a face and half a body.

“You have your mother’s eyes…” Midnight Sparkle continued. “Among many… Many features…”

“Are you going to hurt me?” Starbeam asked.

“No… Even as powerful as you are, you are of no interest to me. Too small, in certain places… I always preferred ‘older’ women…”

“… How do you know my mom?”

“I know everything about her… She’s my ‘other’ half, in a sense. I would not exist without her… Just as ‘you’ would not exist… Without her…”

Starbeam Glitter stared at Midnight Sparkle, who as frightening as she appears the young girl felt entranced. As if she were under some form of hypnosis, unable to blink even as the tears streamed down her eyes. And Midnight Sparkle hovered over the girl, eyeing her closely… Very closely.

“You’re doubting me…”

“… I’m sorry… I want to go…”

“No need to leave… Yet…”

“… But my parents…”

“Do you even know how connected we are, you and I?” Midnight Sparkle asked. “Can you even comprehend why you were gifted with powers and yet only ‘one’ of your parents can still wield magic? Twilight Sparkle gave it all up… Because of you… Because you ‘exist’.”

It hurt to move but Starbeam Glitter managed to move her head side to side, trying to deny the monster’s words.

“You were not content with the power she cast aside, in a vain attempt to draw me away from her… But I can ‘never’ leave, not so long as she still feels pain… Everything she’s lost… All for ‘you’ to live…”

“… You’re lying…”

“Am I? I was obliged to come to you; I was obliged to show I still exist… Look at me!”

Midnight Sparkle got up in Starbeam’s face, pointing directly toward the missing half. The side of her face that was nothing but flowing mist drifting in the darkness, pointing with her only remaining claws. Her manic expression scared the poor girl but there was nothing she could do; she felt so helpless, beyond any control.

“I lose a bit of me to be part of you… You exist because I still exist… Your mother’s attempt to use her magic to drive me from her makes everything worse… The fallouts… The hiding… All because they waste their youth just for ‘you’ to live… But there is a remedy… One that will solve both of our problems…”

With her only hand, Midnight Sparkle brushed one of her nails along Starbeam’s cheek, brushing off the single hot tear streaming off. She takes the nail to her lips and sucks the tear as Starbeam looks on silently.

“Make me whole, Starbeam… Make… Me whole…”

Midnight Sparkle reached out to take Starbeam Glitter, inches away from touching her hand. When all of a sudden, a bright light shone in the darkness as Midnight violently turned her head. The wave of light rushed over toward Starbeam, giving her a sense of calmness and peace. A voice echoes through her head.

“Wake up, Starbeam… Wake up…”

“Curse that, wretched—” Midnight growled, folding an arm over her eyes.

As Starbeam felt drawn toward the lights, Midnight’s voice still echoed a final warning toward her.

“You are nothing, without me, Starbeam… You are just ‘writing’ on parchment… The enchantment in a stream… Without these things… Without me… You are nothing… I will take back what’s rightfully mine, even if I must shed innocent blood… Come to me, Starbeam…”

“Come to me…”

<>

“Starbeam… Starbeam… Please wake up…”

A soothing voice… A warm hand upon hers… All the senses returned to life as Starbeam’s sight readjusted. She felt her cold body wrapped in a heavy blanket; her hand grasped with a soft hand. As Starbeam looked up, she gazed into the eyes of her mother… Sunset Shimmer… Her fiery hair in the darkness and right beside her, her other mother… Twilight Sparkle.

“Mom…” Starbeam whispered, groaning.

“Shh… Easy now, you hit your head hard,” Sunset whispered, soothingly. “We barely made it back to the car through all that snow.”

“We were so worried you wouldn’t wake up,” Twilight added. “We would’ve called for a hospital, but you were muttering… Like you were talking to someone.”

Sunset removed a rag off Starbeam’s head, showing a nasty bruise from her fault. Handling with care, Sunset proceeds to apply a fresh rag and carefully wraps around the spot.

“It was… So cold…” Starbeam spoke. “The snow… I didn’t—”

“We know that wasn’t you,” Twilight assured. “We have no idea how that happened; by the time we left, the weather report said it vanished as quickly as it came.”

“We nearly lost you for a moment,” Sunset said. “Twilight said you were shouting at someone; that someone was trying to get to you.”

Starbeam turned away for a moment, realizing that it was not a dream. But how could she tell them about this monster she saw? What could she say about a monster who claims to be a part of the lives of her family? A part of her… None of it made sense.

“Starbeam, I know something is bothering you,” Sunset spoke. “I need you to assure me you can tell me anything. We just want to know you are okay.”

Still, Starbeam’s eyes looked down as if whether whatever was bothering her was tough to talk about. Sunset nodded understandingly and just stood up from the bed. The two mothers were about to leave the bedroom to let her rest, until…

“Actually…” Starbeam spoke up. “Something has been bothering me; for a while actually.”

“What is it, dear?” Twilight asked.

Starbeam Glitter took a deep breath before she continued. She may not have felt up to talking about ‘Midnight Sparkle’, especially if she could be watching her at any time. But there was something on her mind, something from long ago, that something deep down told her needed to be brought up.

“Did you guys… Ever have a fight?” Starbeam asked. “Over me?”

“… Recently?” Twilight asked, curiously.

“No… I mean it sounds crazy, but…,” Starbeam answered, before turning to Sunset. “I had this dream… I saw you… And it sounded like you were arguing… With mom…”

It was difficult for Starbeam to put it in words, trying to explain how she could possibly remember such an argument if it were years ago. But as Sunset heard each word from their daughter, she nodded understandingly. She knew what she was trying to describe, as she saw it in Starbeam’s memories. But whether Starbeam understood that or not, it seemed only now she decided to bring up something she had been carrying for years.

“I know what you’re talking about,” Sunset spoke.

Twilight Sparkle turned toward Sunset Shimmer, who merely nods with reassurance. Together, they make their way back toward Starbeam’s bed, each taking a seat by each side of her. Starbeam makes herself comfortable, adjusting the two pillows for her to lean on as she listened attentively to her mom’s story.

“I did have an argument, but it was ‘never’ with your mother,” Sunset reassured. “You see Starbeam, you were not born a normal girl. As a matter of fact… You weren’t human when you came to our world.”

To say that Starbeam Glitter was confused was an understatement, even when her blank expression seemed hard to read. But she allowed her mother to continue, at least to keep her mind occupied.

“You weren’t just gifted with magical energy; you were born because of magic… Your mother’s magic. But in order to do so, we sought advice from a very old friend of mine, who in a way is like your mother but not at the same time. The biggest difference being was that she wasn’t just a Princess of a magical kingdom, she was a pony… Like me… And you.”

“… Me?” Starbeam asked, surprised. “I… I’m a pony?”

“It’s hard to understand, I know,” Sunset nodded. “But in that world, there were no human beings. The majority of the land is run by three different kinds of ponies: The Earth, the Pegasus… And Unicorns. There was this process where a unicorn would have to use a great amount of their magic that makes creating life possible, but it’s a very dangerous procedure… One that almost killed your mother.”

“Was mom a unicorn too?”

“Oh no,” Twilight Sparkle answered, shaking her head. “No, I had magic that’s true… But I wasn’t a unicorn. I came to that magical place to seek advice from the princess and it was there that the procedure took place. At first, we agreed to split the magic between myself and the princess, but…”

“She chose instead to give all of her magic up,” Sunset cut in. “I admit when I first found out, I was angry with my friend for even allowing this to happen. But I was mostly mad because… I was afraid I’d lose your mother and the whole thing would’ve been for nothing. You must understand, it’s never been done before… We just never predicted that you would be able to actually use magic. I hope this isn’t too upsetting.”

Starbeam laid there silently for a moment. On one hand, she would have been angry about her whole upbringing being a lie. One being that she wasn’t born a human or being one of the few to control magic especially. And yet, in the non-traditional means of absorbing this information, she was more… Confused than angry. It was so much for even this very mature young girl to take, considering the circumstances.

“What was I like?” Starbeam asked, quietly. “As a pony?”

Twilight Sparkle smiled warmly, placing a gentle hand along Starbeam’s shoulder.

“You were the most beautiful baby unicorn I have ever seen in my life,” Twilight Sparkle answered. “I knew that the moment we saw you, when I first saw life in your eyes, you were meant to be very special. Whether as a pony or a human girl, you are the daughter that I wanted to share with your mother, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“But… Back at the trail… I lost control,” Starbeam admitted. “What if it happens again even if I get older? You almost—”

“What happened was not your fault, we promise you,” Sunset assured. “It was scary what happened but none of us got hurt. We may not understand what happened… But we will help you get through this somehow. It’s better we were told of your concerns now than never.”

“We’ll leave things right here for now,” Twilight concluded. “You should rest up, you deserve it… Oh! I almost forgot.”

Twilight Sparkle then got up from the bed, as their daughter watch her approach the corner of her bedroom. Twilight Sparkle then made her way toward the counter and picked up something very familiar to her daughter: Her red cordless headphones.

“My headphones!” Starbeam gasped, quietly.

“I found them when the snow disappeared,” Twilight replied. “The fact that they are still in one piece is a miracle. Thought you might like to have it back.”

Starbeam slowly takes the headphones from her mom’s grip, looking over the piece of engineering in the palm of her hands. She then places them on the sheets and proceeds to wrap her arms around her mother.

“Thank you…”

“Don’t mention it, little one,” Twilight smiled, hugging her back.

“Now get some sleep,” Sunset spoke. “We’ve all got a big day tomorrow.”

Sunset plants a warm kiss upon Starbeam’s forehead as the two parents made their way toward the bedroom door, watching their daughter as Twilight closed the door behind them. The door did not close all the way though, as a tiny crack was more than enough to shine a bit of light into her room. Starbeam noted how dark it had gotten outside, that she truly had been out for a countless amount of time. And Starbeam laid there upon the bed, coming to terms with a part of her past she had not expected to discover.

“I was a unicorn…” Starbeam thought. “Suddenly, it all makes sense… Or does it?”

Before Starbeam tucked herself into bed, she heard a commotion outside and slowly stepped out from beneath the sheets. Her feet slightly creaked on the floor, but she did her best to take lighter steps as she creaked open her bedroom door. Making her way down the hall, she takes a few steps down the stairs till she could just see the living room near the center of the stairs. She sat on the steps and listened, as a conversation took place between her parents.

“… We have to discuss this with her at some point,” Twilight Sparkle said. “You and I both know there’s something else going on; that snow, I have a gut feeling that ‘she’ is back…”

“What would I possibly have to say?” Sunset Shimmer asked. “She didn’t help us the first time Midnight Sparkle tried to take advantage of you; what makes you think she’ll help us now?”

“Sunset… It’s been five years since we’ve last seen her. I know you’re still upset with her about that day, but it wasn’t your fault... And it’s certainly not her fault either. If you want someone to blame, blame it on me! I’m the one who convinced her to let me do this.”

“You know I would never do that! That’s unfair of you to ask me!”

“Then it’s ‘also’ unfair for you to care for me, yet not do the same for her. She was your friend long before you ever met me. We may be completely different as far as our upbringing, but there’s a part of me that reflects the same as Twilight. She was there to help us when we wanted Starbeam, who’s to say she won’t help her again?”

Starbeam could hear a sigh escape from Sunset’s lips, while the former simply tried to keep quiet. She knew this conversation would come up, but she tried to make sure they didn’t know she was listening. Still, being curious, she had to know what they’d do.

“Look… All I’m asking you is to at least ‘try’ reach out to her, tell her what’s going on. If what I fear is true and Midnight might attempt to use our daughter to get to me, then my worst fear is coming true. We need to make sure she’s protected; we need Twilight’s help more than ever. If you won’t do it for myself, at least do it for Starbeam. I don’t want to lose her; you don’t want to either.”

“… Okay Twi,” Sunset relented. “You win. I’ll talk to her.”

Starbeam let out a deep breath as she stood up onto her feet, eventually climbing back up the stairs. As she made her way back to the bedroom, she saw the bathroom door open… And Midnight Sparkle’s half face looking at her from the bathroom window. Starbeam didn’t say a word, but she glared at the demoness… While she in turn merely returned a silent sinister grin. Starbeam never took her eyes off her until she made her way toward the bedroom door and shut the door behind her.

<>

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer had opened a drawer in the bedroom she shared with Twilight Sparkle. She looks at the old book, the symbol of her cutie mark on the cover, with a star on the right side. Sighing to herself, Sunset Shimmer opens to the last page and grabs a pen from the counter. And for the first, in five years since, she began to write an entry.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

How have you been? Good? Well… These past five years have been good for us too. Twilight and I couldn’t be happier, we’re raising a beautiful healthy baby girl who is slowly becoming a bright young woman. She is so smart, Twilight… So smart…

I know we haven’t spoken in a long time, but I want you to know I was never mad at you. I was just so scared, not just for Twilight… But for our daughter. If something went wrong, if ‘anything’ went wrong, if I lost the two most important people of my life… I’d break. I’d break so badly that I might never recover. I know I should’ve told you this sooner, but I really wanted the time to think… I fear now there is no time.

I’m worried about Starbeam, we think something is haunting her and we have reason to believe Midnight is targeting her. Somehow Starbeam is able to control an insane amount of magic and it’s drawing her attention. We really need your help more than ever; I would never ask this of you if it wasn’t important. I wouldn’t blame you if you’ve given up on me though, I realize I can still be a jerk especially the way I acted. But my daughter… She’s everything to us…

I hope to hear from you as soon as you can.

Your faithful student,
Sunset Shimmer

After finishing the entry, Sunset Shimmer slowly closed the book and put the pen back on the counter. Just as she went toward the drawer to return it, slowly walking across the room, the book suddenly glowed in her hands. Her eyes widening, Sunset quickly opened the book and sure enough…

I never gave up on you, Sunset.

Now tell me… How may I help you?