Chapters Starlight was in the library, currently studying a certain spell that caught her interest.
It was a spell that lets a bubble form around your body, and then you could walk inside the bubble and could shield yourself from magic blasts. It sounded very interesting and could potentially be useful should another Storm King or Cozy Glow incident take place so she decided to try it out.
Spike was supervising her progress to make sure she didn’t do something wrong. Starlight figured she could need someone to keep her in check should the spell go wrong and Twilight was busy in her bedroom getting the lesson plan for the school ready.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Spike asked curiously.
“Well I DO wanna do something helpful for Equestria, and this spell does seem cool so it seems like a good idea.” Starlight reassured the dragon.
“Okay… I guess it makes sense.” Spike says before taking the book from Starlight and reading it out, “It says here you just need to make a bubble with your magic, close your eyes, and concentrate really hard on it as it inflates. Sounds simple enough.”
“Okay then. Let’s do this!” Starlight smiled as she began lighting up her horn, closing her eyes, and creating a bubble, letting it inflate around her body, as soon as heard a boing noise, she let herself relax her horn and opened her eyes.
“Alright Starlight! You did it!” Spike smiled enthusiastically, “Good job.”
“Thanks Spike, that was kinda draining not gonna lie, but I’m glad I pulled it off.” Starlight sighed in relief before she wiped her forehead with her hoof before bumping it against the bubble, causing it to slide against the bubble wall. It began rolling which caused Starlight to start scrambling and scream, “Gah! Hey, hey, what’s going on here?”
She began rolling against the walls which caused her to bounce against them at a very quick pace. Spike then used his wings to start flying and grew a concerned frown.
“Starlight! What’s going on?” Spike asked in concern.
“I don’t know.” Starlight cried out as she kept rolling uncontrollably and soon she went outside the library and began rolling down the castle halls.
“Hold on Starlight! I’ll save you!” Spike said in determination before flying after his friend.
Starlight continued to roll and bounce across the halls, heading towards Twilight’s room much to Spike’s horror as he flew faster to catch her.
Twilight was currently writing on her notes for her lecture and lesson plan for the School Of Friendship and wiped her forehead, it was a bit taxing, but worth it.
She then looked to the left side of the study table, and looked at her clay sculpture of the old tree library she used to live in in nostalgia. Spike made it for her to remind her that her old home was still there with her.
“Man, making these friendship lessons are stressful but it’s still worth it.” Twilight said fondly.
Soon Starlight in the bubble came barreling through the door, “Look out Twiliiight!”
Twilight immediately flew away from the bubble’s range but it ended up bouncing on the front of the bed and hit the table, causing all of Twilight’s notes to scatter and her figurine of the tree library to fall and break. Thankfully, Twilight was able to cancel out the spell Starlight cast, leaving her lying on the ground, a bit dazed.
Twilight soon noticed her figurine was broken and gasped in shock and sadness, “Oh no! No no no no no!”
She looked around and saw her notes scattered around the room and began to get angry, it was going to take forever to reorganize them and now the one reminder of her old home was now destroyed.
Starlight recovered from her dazed state and looked on in shock to see what she had caused. She knew how important that figurine was to Twilight and she just destroyed it.
“Twilight, I am so sorry, I was just trying to study a new spell that I felt would be impressive and helpful to learn…” Starlight began explaining and apologizing but Twilight just glared at Starlight before yelling, “Of course it was a stupid spell! Why did you feel the need to test that spell out?!”
Spike soon arrived to hear the commotion that was going on and gasped at the broken figurine, he immediately knew what was going on.
“Twilight please don’t be mad! Starlight and I took as many precautions as we could, plus the spell didn’t seem that bad.” Spike told the alicorn.
“Well clearly it wasn’t enough considering all THIS happened!” Twilight groaned as she gestured to the mess around the room. “Ugh, I swear Starlight you can be so reckless and annoying, sometimes I just wish you were normal!”
Starlight’s eyes watered a bit, “Oh… I understand Twilight. Do you think I could help clean up this…”
“No!” Twilight said angrily, “I’ll do it myself! You’ve done enough!”
“Understandable.” Starlight sighed before she used her horn and with that, she teleported away from the room.
Spike soon turned to sigh at Twilight, “Did you have to say that to Starlight? She didn’t cause that much of a mess, and you basically just told her you wanted her to change her entire personality… that doesn’t involve her being evil at all.”
“I know.” Twilight sighed sadly, “I didn’t mean it, I was just tired from writing out the lesson, and my prized possession just got destroyed. That figurine of the old library really meant a lot to me, especially since you made it, and I just snapped. I messed up didn’t I?”
“Twilight. The tension will blow over. You can just talk to her tomorrow.” Spike said comfortingly as he patted Twilight's back, “I’ll put in a good word for you so she’ll rest easy, you just focus on getting ready for bed and fixing the lesson plan.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s probably what I should do. Thanks Spike.” Twilight smiled softly.
“Anytime Twilight.” Spike said as he embraced Twilight who hugged back.
Starlight sighed as she laid on her bed aimlessly, Twilight had a point about her. She’s always been too reckless at times, especially with magic.
Maybe Twilight had a point, maybe she did need to act more normal.
Soon her door quietly opened and Spike frowned awkwardly as he walked in, “Uh hey. Are you doing alright?”
“Well, I’m a bit upset by what Twilight said but I can’t act like it wasn’t understandable.” Starlight spoke monotone.
“Yeah, that does make sense. Look Starlight, Twilight was just upset by what happened. She didn’t mean to be that hurtful.” Spike told the unicorn reassuringly.
“It’s fine Spike. I’m not mad at her.” Starlight said to reassure the dragon, “I’m just gonna turn in for now. Thanks for trying to help me though.”
“Okay. Good night.” Spike said happily, before leaving the room.
Starlight sighed as she thought about her next course of action.
‘Twilight has a point, I need to become more normal and I need to do it immediately. ’ Starlight thought to herself before she smiled and immediately teleported to the library and soon looked through the books by levitating herself near them and found a book spine titled Etiquette.
“Perfect.” Starlight smiled to herself before levitating herself and the book to the ground and began flipping through the pages and found a spell called Normalcia and started reading through it, “For this spell to work, the one using it must be completely willing to have this spell casted on them.”
“Huh, they made sure to make it morally safe to use. Well this IS a book about Etiquette after all.” Starlight said with an impressed smile before chuckling.
She then sighed and became serious and began to question herself, “Do I really wanna do this though? This will end up changing my personality.”
She then thought back to Twilight’s words: “Ugh, I swear Starlight you can be so reckless and annoying, sometimes I just wish you were normal!”
“This is for the best.” Starlight sighed before lighting up her horn as magic began coursing through her veins, and giving her a tingly feeling, “Goodbye old Starlight.” She sighed sadly before smiling in acceptance as the spell began to take action.
Twilight yawned happily as she made it to the kitchen table. It was a tiring night yesterday for her but she was glad she was able to have a good night’s sleep.
She then spotted Spike at the kitchen table, twiddling his claws nervously.
“Oh good morning Spike. What’s going on? I thought you’d be making something by now.” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah but Starlight kinda took over herself.” Spike admitted sheepishly.
“She’s still feeling bad about the figurine huh?” Twilight asked sadly.
“Well sort of…” Spike turned to Starlight who was levitating waffles to the table, and now wearing glasses and her manestyle was back to the way it used to be when she was running her old town.
“Starlight?” Twilight asked, a bit weirded out.
“Ah Twilight Sparkle, Princess Of Friendship, Headmare and Founder Of The School Of Friendship. Good morning.” Starlight greeted formally as she sat next to Spike.
“Starlight? Are you feeling okay? You’ve never greeted me like that before.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Never better. I have taken your advice and now I am completely normal.” Starlight smiled as she used a neutral tone.
“What? But how?” Twilight asked in shock.
“Yeah, you can’t just suddenly change your personality in one day. Even when you turned to the good side, you still had to work on your friendship and moral compass.” Spike added.
“Well I cast a spell on myself known as Normalcia, the purpose of it is for the WILLING participant to change their personality into becoming normal.” Starlight explained, “It’s perfectly harmless and now I am the new and improved Starlight.”
“Wait no.” Starlight put a hoof up in thought, “Starlight was the name of a reckless unicorn who uses magic constantly. From now on my name is Glim Glam.”
“So… your Glim Glam Glimmer.” Spike raised an eyebrow, “Doesn’t really roll off the tongue like Starlight Glimmer does.”
“Well, at least it’s a fitting name for me.” Starlight shrugged.
“Starlight, Look. I’m sorry about what I said last night, but you don’t need to change your entire personality to please me.” Twilight told the unicorn as she sat next to her.
“It’s Glim Glam now Princess. Now please, let’s not waste this breakfast I made for us.” Starlight willfully ignored the alicorn’s argument and used her magic to put a pancake on each of their plates.
Spike immediately began using his claws and began chomping on his pancake, while Twilight used her magic to levitate the pancake and eat it.
Starlight turned to the two as they ate their pancakes and rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry but you’re seriously eating with your hands and your magic. That is very uncivilized.”
“But… this is how we always eat these. Don’t you do it too?” Spike asked genuinely curious.
“Not anymore.” Starlight smirked as she used the butter knife and the fork to start cutting up her pancake into four and then cut them into smaller pieces.
“Perfectly balanced. As it should be.” Starlight smiled before taking her fork and eating the pancake piece by piece.
“I mean… It's okay to do this in like a public area, but you don’t have to do it with just the two of us here. It really doesn’t matter as long as there isn’t butter or syrup on it.” Twilight told her friend.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Starlight scoffed in disgust, “If I am to be normal I must act completely civilized.”
Spike soon finished his entire pancake and sighed, “I’m gonna go.”
He then began to walk off sadly as Twilight looked sadly at her two friends, something was seriously wrong with Starlight.
Author's Note
I was inspired by the SpongeBob episode “Not Normal” and decided to make this. I felt it would fit Starlight well, and to those who are confused, Starlight is still able to think her own thoughts and have her freedom, she just changed her personality and desires.
Twilight was currently holding a meeting in the map table with Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Trixie. She didn’t talk with Trixie much but she knew having one of Starlight’s best friends around might help her with her plans, and Sunburst was busy being a Crystaller and she doubted Maud’s monotone personality would be helpful.
“Thank you all for coming here. I feel like this issue concerns all of us. I think all of us but Trixie have noticed something’s wrong with Starlight.” Twilight told her friends.
“I’ll say. I heard from Silverstream that Starlight was acting less sweet and helpful than normal.” Rainbow Dash said, still kinda shocked from even saying this, “I literally had to make sure she was talking about the right pony and yeah, she’s changed.”
“I absolutely agree darling. Those glasses don’t really correlate with her normal personality and today she went to my boutique to buy a black tux.” Rarity spoke in agreement.
“Wait. Trixie is confused, what is going on with Starlight?” Trixie asked with a raised eyebrow.
“She’s become super serious and cold.” Pinkie Pie explained with a roll of her eyes, “She’s acting so boring now.”
“She’s always been serious and sometimes she can get annoyed. I don’t get what the problem is.” Trixie rolled her eyes.
“She’s basically less eccentric and enthusiastic like she used to be. Sorta like a business pony.” Applejack explained.
“She reminds me of how Discord acted when he tried to change for me, only Discord just lost his will to be chaotic.” Fluttershy added, “Starlight’s lost her will to be bubbly and empathetic.”
“Okay… Trixie knows THAT is something to be concerned about.” Trixie admits sheepishly.
“How’d this all started anyway? Starlight was acting normal yesterday.” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.
“Yeah, that is a good question.” Applejack said in thought, “Twilight, Spike, do you know how Starlight became like this?”
“Well… I do know how she did this.” Twilight admitted sheepishly, “She cast a spell called Normalcia on herself so she can become completely normal, therefore turning her into the pony she is now.”
“What?!” Trixie asked incredulously.
“Why in Celestia would she wanna change her entire personality? She’s already reformed, she can’t really change more than that.” Rainbow Dash asked, clearly puzzled by this.
“Um…” Twilight said nervously which Applejack caught onto and immediately furrowed her eyebrows, “I know that look, you're guilty of something. Do you have something to do with this Twilight?”
Twilight sighed sadly before saying, “Actually I do. Starlight was studying a new spell to form a bubble around herself she could walk in and shield herself from magic blasts from what Spike told me.”
“Ooh. That sounds really useful!” Pinkie Pie smiled proudly.
“Unfortunately, Starlight lost control of the bubble and started bouncing around the castle, until she made it to Twilight’s room, accidentally scrambling all of her notes and destroying the figurine of the old library I made.” Spike added on.
“Oh my.” Fluttershy gasped in shock, “I’m so sorry Twilight, I know it meant a lot to you.”
“It’s okay Fluttershy.” Twilight sighed before confessing, “I was so mad at Starlight, what with all the stress of making those notes and I ended up saying how she can be so annoying and reckless and sometimes I wish she would act normal.”
“So you basically told my best friend that she should change her entire personality over a stupid figurine?!” Trixie asked in fury.
“Hey hey hey. It meant a lot to her.” Rainbow Dash flew in front of Trixie to defend Twilight.
“It doesn’t excuse what she said though. And now thanks to our beloved princess, Starlight’s now a shell of her former self.” Trixie argued angrily.
“The two of you arguing isn’t going to help Starlight!” Fluttershy immediately got in between the two of them.
“She’s right. How do we fix this?” Applejack asked in determination, “I doubt Starlight’s gonna be fully happy in this persona she’s putting up, especially if she did it by magic.”
“Well, the only way Starlight will turn back to her real self is if she willingly accepts herself again. That’s why I called all of you. I need all of you to spend some time with Starlight doing something fun so that she can start returning to her normal self.” Twilight explained.
“And why can’t YOU try doing anything? You’re the one who made her feel this way in the first place!” Trixie asked furiously.
“We figure that Twilight will probably just backpedal the healing process if she tries hanging out with Starlight.” Spike admitted, “Starlight hardly wants to listen to Twilight about her wanting Starlight to return to being Starlight again.”
“Fine. I guess you do have a point.” Trixie sighed before smiling, “I should go first. Starlight is my best friend, so having her go with me first is the best way to help her.”
“Okay.” Twilight sighed reluctantly before adding, “Oh and for future reference, she calls herself Glim Glam now.”
“Yeah I’m not doing that.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.
Soon Starlight walked in the map room wearing her glasses, old manestyle, and now in a black tux.
“Who are you?!” Pinkie Pie asked in horror.
“An excellent question, Pinkamena Diane Pie.” Starlight smirked haughtily, “Overdramatic as it was.”
“It’s like she’s a different pony.” Fluttershy whispered to Rarity who nodded.
“You all have once known me as Starlight, well that mare is gone for good.” Starlight said formally.
“You mean you killed her?!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened before yelling into Starlight’s ears, “NO! Starlight! Come back! Don’t be like the Pony Of Shadows!”
Starlight soon used her magic to levitate Pinkie and muffle her voice, “I’m terribly sorry but she was starting to make my ears bleed.” She not so remorsefully apologized.
“Anyway, to answer that. I am very much the same pony but I am born anew as Glim Glam, a perfectly normal pony who is less silly and crazy than my foolish old identity Starlight Glimmer.” Starlight explained in a neutral tone as she dropped Pinkie Pie and allowed her to use her voice again.
Rarity gasped dramatically and began to faint and Pinkie immediately zipped to her side to catch her as Fluttershy began using her wing to fan her, “Look what you’ve done to Rarity! You know she can’t stand surprising news and bad talk about her friends all in one go.”
“Apologies, but it needed to be said. She will learn to accept this as you all will.” Starlight rolled her eyes neutrally.
“I don’t think we’ll be accepting this new Starlight anytime soon. We prefer the real Starlight.” Rainbow Dash said sternly.
“It is Glim Glam now, and I am the ‘real Starlight’.” Starlight scoffed.
“No you’re not. You’re just hiding behind your hurt feelings by using magic to pretend to be somepony you’re not.” Fluttershy said, showing a rare amount of anger.
Starlight seemed to falter a bit before regaining her composure, “I merely pushed myself to become better. Now if we’re done with this nonsense, I came to inform Twilight that I have completed her notes for her next lecture.”
“Wait? Really?” Twilight asked in shock.
“Of course. It was the least I could do after my…” Starlight began formally before she began to stutter, “disturbance to you last night.”
“Starlight, that’s really nice of you.” Twilight smiled gratefully, “but I feel like you should try and do the things you used to do again. So I arranged for you to spend some time with our friends and your best friend Trixie tomorrow so you can try and be familiar with your old self.”
“You all are seriously not giving up on this are you?” Starlight asked with a roll of her eyes.
“No way Jose.” Pinkie Pie shook her head with a smirk.
“Very well.” Starlight reluctantly agreed, “Tomorrow is the start of the weekend. I shall entertain your attempts to ‘fix’ me, useless as they will be.”
“We’ll see about that.” Twilight smirked confidently before whispering to Spike in worry, “I hope.”
The next day, Starlight and Trixie were heading towards the caravan Trixie lived in and used for her magic shows and soon gestured to the apple on the small table she set up.
“Okay, I know it might be egotistical of Trixie to have you practice magic with me since we’re trying to help you but I do know you enjoy it so I figured we could try practicing some spells again. Which spell do you think would be a good one to practice?” Trixie said enthusiastically.
“Hmm, well given your lack of magical expertise as proven by the time you teleported the map table, we should start with something small like a levitation spell.” Starlight told the showmare.
“Are you sure? We always work on the teleportation spell. I have been improving on it lately.” Trixie asked, unsure of her friend’s decision.
“Ah yes, but I feel you could take a break from it for once.” Starlight patted Trixie’s head with a smile meant to be reassuring but came off as condescending much to Trixie’s annoyance, “Just watch me levitate it and then you do the same.”
Starlight soon turned to the apple and then used her horn to envelope it in her magic and then levitated it into the air and then onto the table.
“There. Easy as pie.” Starlight smiled proudly, “Your turn.”
Trixie soon turned to the apple, clearly bored and then levitated it like Starlight did.
“Oh wow. I did the simplest spell in the book. I feel sooooooo accomplished.” Trixie rolled her eyes.
“Fair point. I guess we were doing the most basic spell.” Starlight admitted with a shrug, “I apologize Trixie, but ever since I cast that spell to change, my interest in magic has faded so to speak.”
Trixie’s eyes widened in shock before saying, “Are you serious?!”
“Never been more serious in my life.” Starlight said naturally.
“Look Starlight, I mean Glim Glam, I know you wanna be normal but you can’t just give up on something you enjoy, can you honestly say that will make you happy? Come on, can’t we at least try another spell?” Trixie said, showing a rare amount of seriousness.
“Hmmmm.” Starlight hummed in reluctance before admitting, “I suppose we could try another spell.”
“Excellent.” Trixie said, happy that she was making some progress, “I was thinking I could try the self levitation spell. It is impressive how you’re able to do that.”
“If you say so.” Starlight shrugged before explaining, “The key to this spell is to light up your horn and perform the levitation spell but channel more power into it so you can do it to yourself.”
“Can you demonstrate?” Trixie asked with a smile, figuring that reminding herself of how she used magic would help bring back the old Starlight.
“If I must.” Starlight said before she began lighting up her horn and slowly began levitating herself which had her smile fondly, “Hmmm, that actually felt pretty good.”
“That’s good. Try floating around a bit, maybe you’ll find that fun.” Trixie smiled excitedly.
“Okay.” Starlight smiled, her voice starting to show some pep again, before she started floating around with her magic, “Hey. This is actually kinda fun. Hahahahahahahaha, look at me! Woohoo.” Starlight said happily before she suddenly stopped floating and levitated herself back to the ground.
“Apologies, I lost my cool there for a moment.” Starlight apologized, seemingly embarrassed.
Trixie merely just smiled and walked up to her, “No no! That was awesome! You seemed to be having fun too. Don’t you see? Using magic still makes you happy, and you still love it.”
Starlight seemed to look around awkwardly before shaking it off, “Your attempts to tempt me with silly spells is admirable but I can’t go back to the way I was. I’ll just upset Twilight again. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go meet Applejack at the Sweet Apple Acre Orchard, goodbye.”
She soon teleported away much to Trixie’s sadness.
We then see Applejack at the entrance to the Orchard of Sweet Apple Acres and soon Starlight appeared.
“There you are Starlight.” Applejack said happily.
“Yes yes Glim Glam is here. So what is it that we are doing today?” Starlight asked curiously.
“Well I remember from the times you showed up that you did like joining me in bucking for apples.” Applejack smiled before she and Starlight headed to an apple tree where a bucket was stationed near the tree.
“Why don’t you give it a try.” Applejack suggested.
Starlight rolled her eyes before using her magic to pick off the apples one by one from the trees and put them in the bucket.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Applejack asked curiously.
“I find picking the apples to be much more efficient than bashing my back hooves against a tree.” Starlight explained.
“Uh… hate to break it to you… uh Glim Glam but we earth ponies don’t have horns like you do.” Applejack reminded the unicorn.
“I am aware. I’m just sticking to the most effective way my race can get apples off the tree.” Starlight explained with a smirk.
“Uh… that’s kinda racist Glim Glam.” Applejack glared a bit annoyed at the unicorn.
“It actually isn’t, I never said that unicorns were superior to Earth Ponies or some nonsense like that.” Starlight argued amicably, “Earth ponies are best known for their strength, Pegasi for their flight, and Unicorns for their magic. These are the traits that make us different and unique.”
“Okay then…” Applejack rubbed her chin in thought before she smirked, “Y’know, you could get this done faster if you used your magic to get multiple apples off the tree at once. It WOULD be helpful.”
“Hmm, that doesn’t seem very normal to me.” Starlight admitted with a shrug.
“Well it is efficient and isn’t being efficient normal?” Applejack asked teasingly which made Starlight’s eyes widen.
“I suppose that’s correct.” Starlight grumbled before she lit up her horn and soon multiple apples were picked off the tree and put into the bucket.
“Hmm, that felt oddly exhilarating.” Starlight admitted with a smile.
“Oh yeah.” Applejack challenged with a smirk. “Well I bet ya can’t do it for two trees in a row.”
“Hmm. Child’s play.” Starlight smirked before using her magic to pluck every apple out of the next two trees and then placed them in buckets.
“So you can do two trees? I doubt you could clear half of the trees in the orchard.” Applejack scoffed in amusement.
Starlight just smirked before she levitated to the sky and then used her magic to get all the apples off the trees and put them all in their respective buckets.
She soon levitated down and smirked before realizing what she had done, “Oh goodness, I must have been such a showoff. How embarrassing.” Starlight groaned.
“What? Are you kidding?” Applejack laughed, “I challenged you to do that. You don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”
“Nonsense, there was no need to overdo like I just did.” Starlight scoffed in denial.
“Why are you so upset? You acted efficiently and got this done quicker.” Applejack asked curiously.
“Because Starlight used to overdo and go big with her magic. I’m not Starlight anymore, so I shouldn’t do that. I’m now normal and my name is Glim Glam.” Starlight explained neutrally.
“You know, you can still stay true to what makes you Starlight and still be normal. I get you mess up sometimes sugarcube but you don’t have to change who you are, other than not being evil of course.” Applejack told the unicorn comfortingly.
“I appreciate the sentiment but I’m not sure if I can be Starlight without being a menace.” Starlight sighed in monotone, “Now if you’ll excuse me, Pinkie Pie told me to meet her at the hill overlooking the town and I prefer to not be late.”
With a flick of her horn, she was gone.
“At least I know Starlight’s still in there somewhere.” Applejack admitted with a sigh.
Starlight soon found herself on top of the hill overlooking the town and Pinkie smiled at her happily, “Starlight! Glad you could make it!”
“It’s Glim Glam.” Starlight rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“Okay then.” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes with a smile, “Anyway, I’ve been told by Maud that you love this activity so I figured we could try…” She said as she went behind the bushes before pulling out two kites.
“Kite flying! Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie smiled as she showed Starlight a kite with a cupcake on it and a kite with Starlight’s cutie mark on it.
“Ah kite flying! The most childish of all activities.” Starlight rolled her eyes, “Have you seriously decided to waste my time?”
“Deny it all you want, but I know you really enjoy it. It helps relax you and makes you feel at peace. You can’t deny it, Maud told me this.” Pinkie Pie waved the kite at Starlight’s face which did seem to tempt her, “I… guess it wouldn’t hurt.” Starlight admitted sheepishly.
Meanwhile Twilight was pacing around the library in worry while Spike was lounging on the chair nearby, “Oh. I don’t know what to do Spike, I’m not sure how we can fix Starlight and bring the real her back if our friends can’t convince her to turn back to her actual self. I don’t want Starlight to be ‘normal’ , I want her to be Starlight!” She spoke in a panic before sighing, “I just wish I could’ve let her know that sooner.”
“You done?” Spike asked curiously and nonchalantly.
“A bit rude but yes I’m done.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Good.” Spike smiled before getting out of his chair and flying to the shelf and pulling a book titled ‘Chaos’ which then opened a purple portal.
“What the heck?!” Twilight asked incredulously.
“This portal was something Discord had given me in case I wanted to visit him.” Spike explained to his oldest friend.
“Are you kidding me? How is Discord of all creatures gonna help me? He’s likely just going to laugh at me for what I did.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Just come on. He’ll probably me more helpful than you think.” Spike groaned as he led Twilight inside the portal.
Soon they found themselves at the doorstep of Discord’s house, Spike then knocked on the door which made a doorbell sound.
Instead of the door opening, Twilight and Spike were teleported inside to a mismatched chaos of Discord’s house.
“Oh goodness. This place belongs to Discord alright.” Twilight cringed.
Soon Discord appeared in front of them with a smirk, “Oh! I see The Princess Of Friendship decided to visit me along with my little buddy Spike.” He gave a playful noogie to the dragon in question before asking, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Well Discord, we have a bit of an issue and you have some experience in this type of situation.” Spike admitted sheepishly, “You see, Twilight got mad at Starlight for accidentally destroying her figurine of the old treehouse library I made for her and said she wished Starlight would be normal.”
“Hmm, that does sound harsh of Twilight to say.” Discord admits as he strokes his beard, “But what ended up happening after that?”
Spike bumped Twilight on the sides causing her to sigh and confess, “Well, Starlight basically granted my wish.” Twilight sighed sadly, “She cast the spell Normalcia on herself to turn herself completely normal. She’s basically unrecognizable, she’s no longer bubbly, passionate, or as empathetic as she used to be. Now she just feels like a boring brick wall.”
“Blegh.” Discord gagged in disgust before coughing up a hair ball, “I’m sorry but I’m disgusted by what she has become. Unfortunately I can’t help you. The spell she cast on herself has to be undone by her accepting herself for who she truly is, not by any other magic.”
“I know.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“So basically what we’re asking is how we should turn Starlight back to Starlight. I figured you would be best for this type of question since you also tried to change for Fluttershy.” Spike explained.
“Well Spike, I must admit, I did try to change for Fluttershy but the reason wasn’t because of Fluttershy herself but that was due to other ponies making me question my friendship with her. She was the source of my inse-“ Discord began explaining before gagging once again and coughing up a piece of Swiss cheese, “My insecurities.” Discord sighed.
“So what does that mean?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It means that what I was going through with my emotions wasn’t as bad as what Starlight is going through since you’re the one who gave her the urge to change.” Discord explained bluntly much to Twilight’s annoyance, “Gee. Thanks for the vote of confidence Discord.” She said bitterly.
“What I’m saying is, what me and Starlight both have in common is that we were trying to change for the ponies we care about, I did it for Fluttershy, and she’s doing it for you. Once Fluttershy ended up confronting me herself, I managed to accept myself for who I am.” Discord answered.
“So… if I want to convince Starlight to return to herself again, I should confront her? But she doesn’t even listen to me when I talk to her about it.” Twilight groaned.
“Then make her listen, and try to dig a bit and get her to admit what she’s insecure about and help her with it.” Discord said before snapping his fingers and a bulldozer appeared with himself inside it.
“Like so.” Discord smirked before he dug through his house floor and created a hole in it before he appeared in front of Twilight yet again.
“Do you get the picture?” Discord asked happily.
“I… I think I do.” Twilight smiled in surprise and enlightenment, “Thanks Discord, I think I know what I need to do.”
She then flew outside the house with a smile on her face.
“Uh how long till she realizes that she was no idea where she is?” Spike asked curiously to Discord.
“Eh, I’d give it a couple more seconds.” Discord checked his watch with a smirk.
Soon Twilight and Spike were back at the map room of the castle where the rest of their friends were waiting along with Trixie.
“Starlight did seem to be having fun with the kite flying at first but then suddenly she just shook her head and left in a hurry.” Pinkie Pie told the group.
“Well you made more progress than I did. She did enjoy helping me sew clothing, but I barely caught a glimpse of her original self and all I got was her Canterlot noble-esque attitude, except she wasn’t nearly as obnoxious.” Rarity admitted sadly.
“Still better than my attempt. Starlight didn’t even get a chance to help take care of the animals, she was afraid of her suit getting filthy and also stated she felt exposed without it.” Fluttershy sighed.
“Is she crazy? We’re always exposed!” Spike asked incredulously.
“I know. That’s why it’s so confusing.” Fluttershy said sadly.
“I did take Starlight out for a bit of a flight since she does seem to like flying. She enjoyed it for a bit before asking me to put her down.” Rainbow Dash told everyone.
“I think me and Trixie made the most progress with her along with Pinkie. We both encouraged her to use magic to levitate herself and pluck the apples outta the trees and she seemed really happy… until she felt embarrassed about it.” Applejack told the group.
“She told me that she couldn’t go back to the way she was because she thought she’d upset Twilight again.” Trixie narrowed her eyes at Twilight hatefully.
Twilight sighed sadly before speaking up in determination, “You know what? I’m done hiding behind you girls. Thank you for at least giving Starlight reminders of her old self but I need to confront her about this. It’s clear that she’s doing this because of me so I need to be the one who helps her.”
Soon Starlight walks inside the map room with a haughty smile, “I got your letter Twilight. You said you required my services.”
“Yes. I need to talk to you about your new persona.” Twilight said sternly to Starlight.
“Ugh. This again. I told you Twilight, this is the new me.” Starlight rolled her eyes angrily.
“I’m not so sure about that Starlight, from what I heard from our friends, you at least felt a little something special about the activities you did. You still love using magic, flying kites, and just letting loose, you’re just acting as if you don’t.” Twilight argued softly.
Starlight seemed nervous at first before scoffing in frustration, “It’s Glim Glam now. So what if I did, it doesn’t matter. I’m better off being normal.”
“But why do you feel that way? Why do you feel like you need to be normal to please me?” Twilight asked sadly.
“Well… after you told me you wished I could act normal, I began thinking about all the reckless and idiotic things I have done in the past and figured that my personality was the problem. So… I thought if I cast that spell on myself, you’d be able to accept me more and I’d no longer get you mad at me.” Starlight said solemnly, finally showing more emotion.
“Starlight I only said what I said out of frustration. It doesn’t make it any less wrong but I don’t want you to change who you are.” Twilight put her hoof around Starlight before tearing up and beginning to rant,
“I want the Starlight who took a chance on the Changelings and Stygian and showed them compassion to help them see the light, the Starlight who encouraged me to disregard the EEA and do the School Of Friendship my way, the Starlight who’s empathetic and is willing to help students with their problems, the Starlight who helps calm me down when I have a freak out, the Starlight that I know and love.” Twilight ended off her tirade as tears began to flow before she wiped her eyes and closed them, “Though I guess I probably should’ve told you sooner. I don’t blame you for being upset.”
Soon she heard a sniffling noise and looked to see Starlight with tears in her eyes but smiling.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, confused by this sudden emotional change in Starlight.
“I think your emotional tirade might have done something.” Spike smiled.
“Are you okay Glim Glam?” Twilight asked carefully.
“Better than okay, I guess I forgot that there are good things about me to be proud of.” Starlight smiled gratefully as she took off her glasses to wipe her eyes and threw them to the side, “And my name is Starlight Glimmer. Not Glim Glam.”
Suddenly a bright turquoise light surrounded Starlight causing her to smile as she knew what was happening next.
Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Trixie watched in awe yet confusion. Pinkie Pie pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her mane with a smirk but Twilight and Spike both looked at each other with smiles, both knowing exactly what was about to happen.
Suddenly Starlight’s mane changed from her old bangs to her small bouncy purple and teal swirl.
Soon Starlight floated back to the ground and soon she shined a bright light before it faded.
“Starlight? How do you feel?” Rarity asked carefully.
“Well I feel…” Starlight began before she suddenly cringed at her suit she was wearing, “That this suit is so annoying. Goodness, what was I thinking when getting this?”
She soon teleported the suit off of her and onto the table and breathed out a sigh of relief, “Oh that feels so much better.”
“She’s back!” Trixie immediately embraced Starlight causing her to get squeezed a bit and make a wheezing motion causing Trixie to let her go, “Oh sorry.” She sheepishly smiled.
“It’s okay Trixie.” Starlight smiled warmly before looking at her front hooves and tearfully smiled, “I’m free… I’m free!”
She soon began levitating herself across the room and cheering and laughing, “I finally feel whole again! It feels so good to be myself again!”
She then saw Twilight’s gleeful smile levitated back down to the alicorn and immediately embraced her, “Thank you Twilight. I’m so sorry for what I did. I’m trying my best to not be reckless but I still sometimes screw up.”
“I’m sorry too. I should have been more understanding about what happened and I shouldn’t have been so upset over a figurine of my past. Our friendship is more important and something of the present, which is just as important to me as the past.” Twilight hugged her friend back.
Applejack soon spotted Rainbow Dash’s eyes watering as she smiled and smirked at the pegasus, “I can see those tears Dash.”
“Ugh.” Rainbow Dash scoffed playfully as she wiped the tears, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just happy they made up.”
“I’m still holding this over Twilight’s head.” Trixie admitted with a whisper earning her a glare from Spike, “Hey, Starlight’s back to her old self so the Great and Understanding Trixie won’t be mad forever.”
Spike shrugged, “Better than nothing I suppose.”
“You know, I think we both learned a friendship lesson from this. And speaking of my past, I think there’s something from my past I’d like to share with you.” Twilight told Starlight with a smile.
Celestia and Luna were currently sitting in the throne room, a bit bored given they didn’t have much to do when suddenly a scroll appeared in front of Celestia.
“Oh, this is a shock.” Celestia admitted as she levitated the scroll to read it, and soon Luna grew curious and read over her shoulder, “What does it say sister?”
Dear Princess Celestia,
It’s me, Twilight. I know I don’t really send these to you anymore but I figured this felt warranted given what me and Starlight learned.
I learned that even when you’re mad at your friends, you shouldn’t say stuff like that they should change their personality and be more understanding when they screw up. As I learned, sometimes it could end up hurting their feelings to the point where they feel they need to change.
From your former student Twilight Sparkle
Before you close off this letter. I, Starlight Glimmer, also like to say something.
Even when you screw up with your friends like I did, you shouldn’t try to change your entire personality, you should work on a couple flaws of course but don’t become an entirely different creature when you don’t need to be. It doesn’t truly make you happy as you basically are preventing yourself from being who you truly are.
From a friendly acquaintance, Starlight Glimmer
Celestia and Luna smiled as they read the letter, they might not know what happened between Twilight and Starlight but from what it looked like, they learned a very valuable lesson.
Author's Note
And it’s done. That was a tear jerker to write.
If you’re confused on how the Normalcia spell works, allow me to explain. The creature who performs the spell is supposed to want to willingly become normal but for it to be undone, the one who is under the spell has to accept who they truly are, once again by their own volition.
So once Starlight accepted who she was again, she fell out of the spell she put herself in because she wanted out of the spell herself.
So basically, Starlight is back to normal because she wanted to turn back, not because of any magical interference.
Epilogue: Lingering Doubts
Despite how Starlight turned back to the way she was. Twilight still felt tremendously guilty about the whole affair.
Twilight had been treading more lightly around Starlight, always giving short replies to whenever Starlight speaks to her or just sometimes distancing herself from the unicorn in general. Not because she wanted to, but because she felt she didn’t deserve to be in the same room as Starlight.
Twilight sighed as she laid on her bed, silently tearing up,How could she even stand to be around me? Because of me, Starlight nearly cast a spell on herself to turn into a shell of herself. What kind of friend am I?
Twilight then heard the door open, and was surprised to see Starlight at the entrance. Though given everything that’s happened, she probably shouldn’t be.
“Twilight, I think we need to talk.” Starlight said sheepishly, “Ever since I turned back to myself, you’ve been a lot more distant lately.”
Twilight sighed as she sat in an upright position, “Is it that obvious?” She asked sadly.
“Yeah it is.” Starlight said as she sat on the bed and put a hoof around Twilight’s back tenderly, “Twilight. I’m not mad at you for what happened. I’m the one who cast the stupid spell.”
“No Starlight, don’t blame yourself.” Twilight immediately spoke up, “I’m the one who said you should become normal, and I shouldn’t have said that. All it did was make you feel like garbage and make you try to be somepony you’re not. And all to please me, a pony who just lashed out at you because she can’t control her temper.”
“Twilight. You were justified in being upset.” Starlight said reassuringly, “I was being reckless and yes, you shouldn’t have said what you did but I also should have talked to you instead of using that spell. We both screwed up here but we can learn from this.”
“I’m not sure I can Starlight.” Twilight admitted, “I…I hurt you with my actions. This isn’t like any normal or abnormal issue I have with my friends, I genuinely hurt you. I said out of anger that you should be normal, aka turn into a completely different pony despite knowing how sensitive you can be. Even without the spell you cast, I can see it still affecting you badly and I should have thought before speaking.”
Twilight began bursting into tears, but she was still brought into a hug by Starlight, “You have a point, you should have thought more before speaking but that doesn’t mean you can just distance yourself from me. You still want to be my friend right?”
“Well yeah. Obviously.” Twilight wiped her eyes with a sigh.
“Well we still can. We can slowly move past this. I’m aware we’re both gonna take a while to recover from this Twilight. It took a while for Thorax to fully forgive me after the Maulwurf thing.” Starlight explained to the Princess.
“I still don’t get how you thought Pharynx could defeat the Maulwurf alone.” Twilight giggled a bit sheepishly.
“In my defense, he’s a shapeshifter with a ton of combat experience.” Starlight smirked, just as playful.
Twilight laughed before smiling hopefully, “So… you really think we can work through this.”
“If you were able to get me back to normal, well, my actual self that is. I think we have a good chance at getting past this.” Starlight answered confidently.
Soon Twilight embraced the unicorn for a hug, which Starlight returned.
Twilight knew that she’d have to work on her temper from now on, just like Starlight was planning to work on her impulsive behavior, but in the end, they still had each other, and that is all she needed right now.
Author's Note
A short epilogue but not every chapter can be 1,000 words. I decided to add this epilogue to show that the effects of Starlight almost changing had an affect on Twilight, so I added this.