Chapters The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
On the way home from Rainbow Falls, Starlight Glimmer is with me on the train.
“Thanks for making the time, Starlight. I wonder where you three are going next,” I say.
Starlight pulls out a map filled with strings on top. “Well Sunburst, with Rainbow Falls done, Trixie, Discord and I will be on our way to Vanhoover. That’s where we’ll start Day 3 of the Autumnal Nationwide Tour.”
“Uh… that spells ANT.”
Starlight laughs. “Exactly what I told Trixie. She insisted she started with a vowel for the name of this nationwide tour… and make the abbreviation gutterproof.”
“But I don’t think it works that way anyway. Fall doesn’t even have an adjective form like Autumn does, does it?”
“Well, if you don’t count the ‘-ish’ suffix, then no.” Starlight suddenly pauses and looks around. “Can you keep what I’m about to say between the two of us?” she whispers.
“What are friends for?”
“Last spring, Aita taught me something he learned from Carve, so I gave that a shot with Trixie. And now, we can send each other letters.”
“Wait, really? I thought she just did show magic.”
“That was until I taught her transfiguration.”
“So, who’s Aita?”
“Aita’s a juvenile changeling that lives with me, Spike and Twilight.”
Suddenly, the train screeches to a stop, meaning that we’re already at the Crystal Empire.
“Oh! That’s our stop!” I exclaim.
“...but the most powerful thing that happened was when he dreamt about Areola and a discharge brought her back to life.”
As Starlight and I casually walk home, Starlight explains all the crazy stuff Aita has been through. I double take when she tells me about the most powerful thing Aita did.
“Sumnus Revivia? How did he do that?”
“Let’s just say it was combination of REM, electricity and magic.”
When Starlight and I arrive at my house, my new mailbox next to the main entrance is already packed. Starlight elbows me in response.
“You must be popular, Sunburst.”
“Oh that? A-All of that’s junk mail, I’m sure,” I reply, taking all the mail inside as the two of us walk in.
Starlight doesn’t seem convinced, tilting her head and pointing to the mail. “Not all of it. I recognize the seal on one of those.”
I quickly sift through each one until I see what she’s talking about. “Alright, junk, junk, junk, junk- wait…” I recognize that too. I facehoof. “Sire’s Hollow? Oh no…”
“Is this about my dad?”
“Actually, no. My mom constantly writes to me asking me what I’m gonna do for myself now that I’m on my own. I mean I already have a good calling; you saw it when we first caught back up the other spring.”
“I know that, but how come you never addressed it to her? I mean look at the pile.”
I look where Starlight points. Letters are almost touching the ceiling there are so many piled. Without a book on horn, I realize just how high the letters are piling up.
“Oh my! How did I not notice I had this many since I last responded?!?”
“When was the last time you responded to her?”
“I don’t know! I just know it was shortly after I moved here.”
“Sunburst, at least leave her an update on what’s going on in your life. This pile wouldn’t be so big if you just let her know you were a crystaler. That’s a great calling with a gargantuan responsibility, and it’s something well worth sharing.”
“Fine. I’ll grab some parchment.”
I trot across the room and take out a piece of scroll paper and a quill and bring them to my desk.
Dear Stellar Flare, A.K.A. Mom,
I just got back from watching one of The Great and Powerful Trixie’s tours in Rainbow Falls, and I never realized how much you wrote to me since I moved to the Crystal Empire. Well, I’m a crystaler now, which is a significant responsibility where I live. My long-time friend Starlight was hoping if I gave you an update, maybe we could get past all of this “planning” now that I have a calling for myself. And I couldn’t agree more. I won’t mind if you just want to talk, just please no more plans.
Yours truly, Sunburst.
“Is it ready?” Starlight asks.
“Ready as it will ever be.”
I give Starlight the letter, who rolls it up and uses one of the Crystal Empire seals I have to keep it from unravelling. That’s when it happens.
Starlight’s horn briefly flashes, prompting the scroll to burn into the air and out an open window, likely to be sent to Mom. “There. It’s on its way,” says Starlight. “When do you think you’ll get a response?”
“Any time, really. With how frequently Mom writes, that could be in a matter of a few minutes.”
“Even with the hope of otherwise happening, just be ready, Sunburst. In the meantime, I’ll contact Trixie and let her know you’re home.”
Starlight grabs some fresh parchment, takes the quill I used and walks into the other room.
As soon as Starlight is out of my sight, a letter arrives through the same window and materializes. It has the same Sire’s Hollow seal from the pile of letters. When I finish reading it, I let out a frustrated yelp. “Why does it ALWAYS have to be about plans?!?”
Starlight pops her head back into the room, clearly concerned. “Did it not work?”
“Of course not! I… I don’t know what else to do! I can’t even have somepony over without Mom writing to me about the future! What am I gonna do?!?”
Starlight puts a hoof under her chin. “What if you went to my place for a while and tried to recoup, step back and relax? You don’t get much of a chance to visit anyway.”
“But isn’t that just running away from my problems?!?”
“Absolutely not. You seem pretty heated at the moment. I totally understand how it feels. But you won’t be able to think if you’re constantly flustered with Stellar Flare’s constant stream of mail.”
I sigh in conceit. “Fine. I’ll go find a train schedule.”
“Actually, why don’t I take you? It’s much faster that way. Let me just tell Trixie and Discord to go on without me.”
Before I can ask if Starlight is sure about this, she grabs another piece of paper and takes it into the other room. Soon after, she returns with the finished letter to seal, then sends the letter on its way.
“Ready Sunburst?”
I nod and let Starlight wrap her hoof around me as she prepares to teleport.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
Once Starlight and I are in front of Twilight’s castle, I knock on the door. When it opens, there’s a green tint on it rather than the usual hot pink. This must be Aita.
“Oh, hi Starlight! Sunburst!”
“Hey Aita,” Starlight waves. “Just thought we’d stop by for a bit.”
“Oh yeah, weren’t you supposed to be with Trixie and Discord?” asks Aita.
“Well… Sunburst needed to unwind.”
Without another word, Aita leads us to the throne room, where Twilight is talking with Spike.
Well, if we go on the sixth, we can still do what we want before the show in Canterlot the day after, Twilight says as Aita walks in, Starlight and me right behind. “Ah! Aita, Sunburst… Starlight? I thought you went with Trixie for the tour.”
“Well, after I took Sunburst home after the show in Rainbow Falls, we ran into some family matters.”
Spike approaches me and Starlight. “Oh, well I can go to Sire’s Hollow if you want me to.”
“That won’t be necessary, Spike,” replies Twilight. “Clearly Sunburst just needed some time here to relax. So Sunburst, do you plan on staying long?”
“Not really? I’ll only be here for as long as I need to be… Actually, I think this is my first time here.”
“That’s okay. Starlight, Aita, would you care to give Sunburst the grand tour? Spike and I are still figuring out how far ahead to go to Canterlot before the show.”
Starlight and Aita nod at Twilight.
Once the three of us are out of the throne room, Aita is the one to initiate a fresh conversation. “So, you really haven’t visited Starlight, Sunburst?”
“Not since she’s been staying here.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it. Ever since I moved here, I made myself a little directory.” Aita teleports in a strange device. It looks so alien compared to the technology of Equestria. He turns it on and, after a little time, shows us a perfect directory to the Castle of Friendship.
“You did this?” I ask, to which he confirms by nodding. “Wow, I’m impressed you were able to do that.”
While we are walking around, navigating the castle together, Aita leads the way most of the time.
“You know Aita, Starlight told me all about your adventures here in Equestria. You must be one lucky changeling to’ve been adopted by Princess Twilight of all ponies.”
Aita laughs. “I know, what a die roll. So what was your personal highlight about my time here?”
“Definitely the time you proved Discord innocent,” I answer. “It’s amazing you were able to do that. Do you know how hard private investigation is?”
“Not if I watch a human figure out what his dog wants. Discord seems to know what I’m talking about.”
Aita’s remark confuses me and Starlight. Might it be some play from his homeworld he’s talking about?
“Meh, I expected those looks. But now to the task at hoof,” announces Aita.
“There are a few key locations to know about. We all have our own rooms… then there’s the throne room, the kitchen, the dining room and the library. Which do you want to see first?”
As Starlight identifies the key rooms, Aita points to each room with his hoof as displayed on his little device. I look at the directory Aita made, and it makes me a bit confused again.
“So where are we?” I ask.
Aita points to a spot in the hall pretty close to the library.
“Ah, I see. Why don’t we do the library first?”
So, at the library, Aita and Starlight are basically doing their own thing. I first check on Starlight while Aita is just messing around with his device. She moves some books on the top shelf to the right from where we enter and takes down a box from behind that spot. Within it is a neat pile of scrolls, the top one at least, written out for a spell.
I take the scroll out and examine it. “What’s this spell, Starlight?”
“That’s the one I used to help make Aita’s present for his birthday. I made it myself.”
“Scrolls to bits, in the slot it fits, modify into a board, that memory can store ?”
“Yeah, I know the rhymes are a bit sloppy, but-”
“How does it work, Starlight?”
“I-I’m not too sure myself. A lot of the terminology flew over my head when Moondancer looked at Aita’s DS. All I know is that it takes lists of instructions and data, and turns it all into a game that Aita can play.”
“Hmm… I think I’ve dabbled into assembly at one point, maybe when I was in Magic School.”
During me and Starlight’s conversation, Aita carefully sets his “DS”, as Starlight calls it, atop a mirror across the room that is hooked up to something powered by a book. He then joins us.
“Hey guys, what’s that?” He points to the spell Starlight has.
“I think you’ll know,” Starlight answers, giving Aita the spell I read aloud.
Aita mumbles the spell and gasps. “So this was the spell that made Sim Hive?” Starlight nods. “Cool! So, I was just putting my DS on the mirror so that it would charge. Gotta give that battery juice somehow.”
I blink twice in surprise. “Rechargeable batteries? That’s new.”
“My homeworld is has more advanced technology, just like what I said to Bow and Windy. And that world is where I got my DS.”
I clear my throat a bit to get back to the tour of the castle. “Well, where to next, Starlight?”
“Why don’t we-”
“Actually,” Aita interrupts. “There is something else I did want to show you two. I’ve been so swept up relaxing during summer break, I forgot to do that, and then school picked up, then there was-”
“You’re point?” Starlight flatly asks.
“Before I teleport, you guys get to the next room. My starting point will be the main lobby. Wherever that next room is, I’ll find it with only my nose.”
“I-if you say so, Aita,” I reply as Starlight takes her cue to continue the tour without Aita, me following close behind. I wait to hear a magical snapping sound before I whisper to Starlight. “I sure hope he knows what he’s doing.”
“He probably does. Cervix nearly identified me and Trixie by scent alone when you-know-what happened, so if I had to hazard a guess, I bet he’s gonna try the same thing. You know how children behave, flattering everypony with their impressions.”
“Ah.” I nod in recognition of what Starlight is saying, and the event she was referring to. The rest of the trip goes on silently.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
Now that I’m in the lobby, I might as well start retracing our steps until attention falters.
When I start sniffing around for something to catch, I immediately smell two fresh signatures, one of them I recognize as Starlight. So that means the other is Sunburst.
“Oh wow, I must be on fire today.”
I light my horn so that I can smell in space. So would this be the fourth time I’m doing this altogether? There was Twilight and Sunset, then Carve, then Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and now Starlight and Sunburst. So yeah, it’s the fourth.
Anyway, I mosey over to the library awaiting a new trail to take my attention away.
After a half minute, the signatures strengthen with a new emotion of discreteness. Starlight and Sunburst must’ve been talking about me when they left the library. But the point is I found the trail to their new destination.
I sigh in satisfaction. “It feels so good to use my inner-child.”
After another minute, I find a door that the trail goes through. When I open the door, I find a room that I have never seen in the castle before. It sports two bookshelves, a red leather chair, and a futon next to the chair, underneath of a window with blue translucent curtains. It even has several side tables in the seating area.
Starlight and Sunburst are sitting on the futon. In silence, I can hear a clock ticking. “...quick,” Starlight says, seemingly finishing a remark with Sunburst as she gets up off the futon. “I see you found the new room, Aita.”
“Yep. I didn’t know Twilight ever had a room like this. In fact, it gives me an idea.” I jump up onto the chair and clear my throat. “So Sunburst, tell me what’s on your mind,” I recite in a soft, deep voice.
“Are you sure about this, Aita?” asks Sunburst. “You’re only a child. I wouldn’t want to put my troubles on you.”
I change back to my normal voice. “Trust me. If I can handle two criminals at the same time before even considering calling the queens, I’m pretty sure I can handle whatever you have to vent. Besides, like Sunset Shimmer said, sharing your experiences is what helps a friend get to know you.”
“Huh… forgot about that. Well, if you say so.” Sunburst take a deep breath to brace himself. “After I failed Magic School and moved to the Crystal Empire, my mother has been adamant about talking to me. At first I was on board, but she just kept talking about the future, like there wasn’t anything else to talk about. ‘You’re a grown stallion, Sunburst, and you need yourself a calling.’ That’s every letter she sent compressed into a sentence. Starlight had me update her and reason with her in hopes she would ease up, but to no avail.”
“Wait, it didn’t work? And you and Starlight were sure it would?” Sunburst nods at me. “Try to find a way for your mom to listen to you. Changing the subject yourself might be beneficial, so try to get her mind off of the future.”
Suddenly, a letter materializes in front of Sunburst, who takes a look at it, prompting a head-couch from him as letter glides onto the floor. “I can’t even unwind without getting a letter from her about my future! Seriously?!?”
I start getting a little annoyed about this problem, seeing that Sunburst’s mother can now send letters directly to him no matter where he is.
“So it seems she learned the letter-sending spell from me,” Starlight concludes. “How’d she even do that?”
“Starlight, I don’t think she got it from you,” I reply. “Where else do you think Sunburst got the magic to save you from the book tower way back when?”
Starlight thinks for a bit, a little confused at the rhetorical question. “His… father?”
“The point is that spell-reading comes naturally in at least one side of Sunburst’s family: his mother’s. Sunburst…” Sunburst picks his head up and looks at me. “As we could see, your mother is clearly overstepping her bounds if you’re directly getting letters no matter where you go.”
“You… you think so?”
“Would you?” I ask back.
Sunburst quickly gets up in protest. “Of course!”
“There we go. Sunburst, Starlight, I suggest we go to Sire’s Hollow and report this behavior. Staying in the castle won’t solve anything.”
I get off the chair and gesture Sunburst and Starlight to follow suit as I lead the way out of the castle. Through the throne room, Twilight spots us.
“You guys are back?”
“We had to cut the tour short. Sunburst, Starlight and I are headed to their hometown,” I explain.
“Oh, okay. Starlight, Aita, you two are going to need these for the trip.”
Twilight gives me and Starlight a saddlebag each to carry some money for train tickets.
“Thanks Twilight. It shouldn’t take terribly long,” Starlight nervously says. “I sure hope everything goes well.”
On the train to Sire’s Hollow, Aita sits across from us in one of the passenger cars. Aita seems to be the only one assured of this plan. Starlight and I are still murky about it.
“Do you think going to Sire’s Hollow will work?” I ask Starlight.
“If Aita has the confidence it will, I have faith in him. I’m only uncertain how we’re going to get around my dad. It’s just that whenever I do go home, he treats me like a filly, like nothing’s changed since I was a foal.”
Aita tilts his head in curiosity. “Really? You have a similar problem with Sunburst?”
“Obviously not. Starlight, your dad still gives you space. He doesn’t write letters about the same topic to you over and over like Mom does.”
“At least she acknowledges you as a stallion and is looking out for you.”
Aita jumps to our booth and wraps his hoof around Starlight. “Starlight… I get it. If we run into your dad, we’ll have to let him know we have priorities to deal with. And if Rainbow Dash’s parents were anything to go on, maybe I could talk some sweet sense into him, show him we are all capable in our own ways.”
Starlight looks at me and Aita.
“We’re here for you, Starlight,” I say. “Just let us know when things get uncomfortable.”
“Same with you,” replies Starlight.
The train beings stopping, making the rails squeal. As the train brakes are active, Aita jumps into the air. We must be at Sire’s Hollow now. So, Aita, Starlight and I all begin walking out.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
Leaving the platform, Sunburst, Starlight and I walk down the path toward their hometown. It looks pretty much like it did in Starlight’s flashbacks. I can tell they at least enjoy the familiarity of it all, judging by the content, deep breaths the two take.
“The great thing about home is it always stays just how you l-”
As Sunburst is talking, I snap to reality as a gate nearly greets his horn. The two halves of it look like they swing inward under an arch. I stop him with my magic before he can bump into it.
“Hey!”
“Ugh!” Starlight grunts, hitting the gate. She rubs her horn, where she feels some pain. “Aita, you could’ve warned me I-” She stops short when she sees the main entrance to Sire’s Hollow as I do.
I let Sunburst go so that I can open the gate. When it does, a speaker billows Welcome to Sire’s Hollow . I step ahead and look where the speaker is. It seems to be located on the side opposite to the gate on the right side of the arch.
“What happened?” Sunburst asks. “This was never here last I visited.”
“Yeah… that’s strange,” Starlight agrees.
“So could you just walk right into this town way back when?” I ask, to which they nod yes.
Our walk around town gets cut short when a fancy earth pony shoves what looks like an oldschool cologne bottle up to Sunburst’s face. “Essence?” she asks.
Sunburst adjusts his glasses and looks at the bottle. “Essence of what?”
“You tell me,” the earth pony replies as she readies the bottle.
When I see this, my instincts kick in and I make Sunburst, Starlight and myself duck to avoid choking as she sprays.
Starlight looks up and sniffs. “What is it?”
“Chocolate?” Sunburst guesses.
“I really can’t tell,” I reply to the earth pony. “Food can’t turn into Juniper Phoenix. That’s not how it should work.”
She puts the “essence” on a nearby table and closes her eyes. “According to the local development committee, it does.”
Sunburst looks around the stand. “Didn’t this use to be a fruit stand?”
“I don’t know what it used to be.”
“Neither do I ma’am,” I say. “But hey, as long as this town has someplace we can get something solid-”
“That would be the bakery across the residential area,” answers the essence mare, who turns to Sunburst. “Now sir, as for fruit, you can get a smoothie two doors down.”
I look at the aisle of shops. They seem to come together like a plaza. “Whoa… why does everything look so modern? How long ago was this dev-com established?”
Suddenly I hear a different voice from behind us. It almost sounds like Sunburst, only with a higher and more feminine vocal range. “I can explain that to you, young one.”
I turn around to see a unicorn mare that looks similar to Sunburst, just with different clothes, a refined mane and tail, a darker coat, and a normal sun for a cutie mark. this must be who Sunburst was talking about.
“I see you brought my son and his friend along with you. I had no idea they were in your circle.”
Sunburst sighs. “Well, no beating around the bush now. Aita, this is my mother. Mom, this is Aita.”
“Aita? Where does that ring a bell?” Sunburst’s mom starts searching her memory. “Are you the adopted son of Princess Twilight?” I nod. “I thought so. Stellar Flare, so just excuse the formality. Now about the whole modern thing… I have big plans for SIre’s Hollow, plans to give it an identity of its own, set a trend and leave behind the cliche of the humble town in an obscure corner of Equestria.”
“No kidding,” Starlight remarks. “I understand making our town attractive to college fillies, but isn’t this a bit much?”
That’s exactly what I said, filly-cakes. I said to her “Stellar Flare, this seems a bit much.”
Stellar Flare, Starlight, Sunburst and I all turn to face the residential area when we hear another voice coming from that direction. Our vision is greeted by a plum-coated stallion with a sea-green mane and tail, and a fire for a cutie mark.
“Dad…?”
So this is Starlight’s father?
“This village was fine just the way it was without your little dev-com,” he scolds Stellar Flare. “Are you seriously going to waste the money just to turn this into Las Pegasus? It already has its own identity in its history!”
“And are you about to waste it only on upkeep? It’s quite unwise, Firelight.”
“Wait a minute,” I interrupt Stellar Flare and Firelight. “You two are actually fighting over this?”
Stellar Flare looks to me. “This stallion here is my only opposition. Who better than the father of such a young founding filly.”
Starlight looks a bit embarrassed after that remark. “Looks like it’s not my dad to worry about,” she says, coming toward Stellar Flare. “Listen, Stellar Flare. Did you learn to send Sunburst letters wherever he goes?”
“Why yes I did. Whose idea was it to start contacting each other directly anyway? It’s so much more efficient than using the postal service.”
“Don’t you mean faster?” Starlight tries to correct, but I wave a hoof to motion Stellar Flare was at least right on that front.
Sunburst floats his glasses into Starlight’s saddlebag. “That isn’t exactly why we’re here anyway, Mom. Circumventing the postal service means your letters unconditionally get sent in front of my hooves as long as you sign my name at the top! I need space for a reason!”
As Sunburst snaps, Firelight ends up with a look where an idea fell at his hooves. He starts laughing heartily.
“An invasion of privacy, eh Sunburst? Classic Stellar Flare. Should I go get somepony who could take that crime away?”
Starlight begins to smile at the sight of her father offering to help. “Absolutely, Dad. Aita proposed a similar idea back home, so it really couldn’t hurt if you wanted to help.”
When Starlight namedrops me, she also points to me to indicate she’s talking about me.
“Anything for you and your friends, puddin’! I’ll get RIGHT on it!”
FIrelight happily dashes out of the area, presumably to report Stellar Flare’s familial behavior.
I glance at Starlight with a smug grin.
“Wow Aita, you were sure right about priority. Dad didn’t even need to hear us to get the message.”
Sunburst also has a similar expression to mine. “Now what’s this about parents looking out for you?”
“Don’t push it,” Starlight warns.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
Starlight, Sunburst and I walk over to Firelight’s house, only to see he’s writing on empty paper on a coffee table as we enter the living room.
“Well, if you wanna know where I get my ‘going the extra mile’ from, there you go. Aita, you’ve been around one of our friends’ parents before. Why don’t you talk to Dad.”
Starlight pushes me into view of Firelight, who now sees me.
“Oh hey, Aita, right?”
“Yuh-huh. So, you’re making your own report on Stellar Flare, huh?”
“Absolutely. Ambition runs in the family.”
I approach the coffee table and look at the paper. The hornwriting resembles Starlight’s a bit, only neater.
“It seems like it… Did you know Starlight wrote her own spell to help make a video game for me?”
Firelight releases the quill from his magic, amazed about the anecdote. “She DID?!? Now that’s my sugar-plum! She really hasn’t changed since she left for Manehattan all those years ago, has she?”
“Manehattan? I didn’t know she went to Manehattan. I know she established a village all by herself, and became Twilight’s student…”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Starlight covering her face.
“So… do you live with my honey?”
“Firelight, You didn’t know?”
“Afraid I don’t follow the news like Stellar Flare does. Who’s Twilight anyway?”
I jump up in the air in shock, putting my hooves on each side of my head. “WHAT?!? You’ve never heard of Princess Twilight Sparkle?!?”
“...oh, she’s a princess, and you live with her too?”
I slump my shoulders upon confirmation. “Wow, this town really is remote.”
“Aaaand done!” Firelight punts one last period onto the paper, now looking basically like a professional report. “Now it’s time to contact the sheriff. If you’d like you could come with me to the post office. Company can be hard to come by around here.”
I shrug at the suggestion as an outward show of open-mindedness. “Sure. Why not?”
Sunburst and I watch as Dad leads Aita out of the house. Once it’s just the two of us, we look at each other. Sunburst’s glasses slide, prompting him to push them back into place.
“Did you really go to Manehattan?” he asks.
I rub the floor, embarrassed. “Yeah. I went so that I could learn how to route my magic through ordinary objects, which was part of the illusion of…” I shake my head to avoid recapping my past… again. “Anyway, a griffon taught me… well not so much the griffon, more my mother who was momentarily within her.”
“Kenko . And I thought traveling through time was jaw-dropping. So why is Manehattan embarrassing for you?”
“Because it’s something I don’t think Dad would approve of.”
“Did you ever ask him about it?”
I shake my head no. “This is my first time home since I moved out. I know it goes without saying, but I know my dad more than anypony else. I never did ask him.”
“But why?”
“Because the both of us know what I did when I first moved was wrong!”
I throw my hooves up into the air and slump on the wall when I finish. Sunburst pats my head.
“Starlight… of course we do. But your father isn’t going to know unless you tell him. He didn’t even know there was a new princess when Aita announced it. And if Aita, Spike and Twilight are anything to go off of, Firelight will probably forgive you.”
“Do you think that was why I was afraid I’d be treated like a filly more than I actually was?”
“Maybe, but we can’t know for sure unless we try.”
“...And that’s the story of my whole life,” I tell Firelight as the two of us walk to the local post office. “You probably already know about today, right?”
“Yep. You got my daisy-cheeks and her childhood friend here to deal with Stellar Flare… Wow, I cannot believe how much I was missing out on, Aita: Chrysalis, the real world, Canterlot High School… It’s all so interesting.”
“So, anything interesting about you happen while Starlight was away?”
“Oh not a whole lot. Just living life one day at a time, holding down home, keeping my pumpky-wumpkin’s possessions safe, that kind of thing.”
“Wow… couldn’t help but notice you love to use affectionate nicknames for Starlight. It’s good to see my friends having loving parents like you.”
“Well,” Firelight chuckles. “Thanks, Aita. I don’t normally get that kind of reception.”
“You don’t? Why not?”
“Maybe it’s just the same old thing I’ve done for decades.”
Now we’ve entered the post office. In the midst of all the seating, there is a short line for the counter across from the entrance, only a couple of mares at the counter. The attendant appears to be a griffon with a similar fur pattern to Gilda. Only difference is the white is a little closer to grey, and she’s wearing a headband with some sort of… shocked face on it.
When the griffon sees Firelight, she motions a pony to take over attendance for the line while she talks to him. “Hey Firelight!”
“Granola! How’s it going?” Firelight greets, leading me up to the counter.
“Not bad, not bad. Got a paper to send?”
“It’s, uh, for the sheriff. It was this little one’s idea originally.”
I get a pat on the head when Firelight refers to me.
“A bold move for someone your age,” Granola remarks to me. “I probably would be caught dead pulling a similar stunt twenty something years ago.”
“Well, I have been on a couple of friendship missions. They really did give me a confidence boost.”
Granola chuckles. “With an attitude like that, you’d be one policy change away from becoming a Wonderbolt. So Firelight, what has you contacting Sheriff Mangle?”
“Well, Sunburst has lost his sense of privacy due to his mother. Aita set to resolve this by reporting Stellar Flare’s behavior, and I jumped right at the opportunity to help out.”
Granola lets out an impressed whistle, then takes the report out of Firelight’s magic. “Looks like I’ll be out and about for a while then. See ya later Firelight; you too Aita.”
The two of us wave goodbye to Granola as she flies over the counter and out of the post office. I can’t believe I just met a griffon in the flesh. This one was certainly nice to be around.
When Firelight and I turn around, we suddenly see Starlight and Sunburst at the main entrance, awaiting us.
“Aita, Sunburst, you go ahead and find Stellar Flare,” says Starlight. “I need a moment with Dad.”
Sunburst and I nod at Starlight and starting exiting the post office.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
Once Sunburst and I are out of the post office, Sunburst takes a deep breath.
“I bet talking with Starlight felt good didn’t it?” I remark, smelling the air around me.
“Oh you have no idea, Aita. Now that I got her to share her more recent memories with Firelight, just like you did with me, maybe she won’t dread going home anymore.”
“Do you think that’ll work with Starlight? I know it did for you and me, since neither of us did anything wrong, but Starlight seemed embarrassed about us bringing up her past more than we did.”
“How else would Firelight know if we never tell him? We can’t go around scrubbing our most embarrassing memories. It would be dishonest.”
When I hear Sunburst talking about the dishonesty of whitewashing our memories, I sit down, thinking of the time I accidentally lied to Rainbow Dash in the heat of meeting Bow and Windy again at WBHQ.
“I know what that’s like. I’m just glad Rainbow Dash saved me from all that trouble the last time the map called me… Sunburst, you’re right. I was confident about dealing with Stellar Flare, so I should believe you if you know how to handle Firelight. Let’s find her.”
So, I immediately sniff the area and light my horn, looking for Stellar Flare’s signature. I notice two similar signatures, a strong and familiar one… I just talked to him, so the weaker one must be Stellar Flare. I start walking to follow Stellar Flare’s trail, and within only a minute, I find her.
“Aita, Sunburst, you’re back… and out of the blue.”
“Yes Mom, and I believe Aita here has some news to tell you.” Sunburst cues me by waving his hoof.
“Oh. Firelight just contacted Mangle by using the post office.”
Stellar Flare gasps. “WHAT?!? WHY?!?”
“Don’t you remember, Mom? The letters?”
“But sending them in front of your hooves is the only way you’d read them!” she counters.
“That sentiment goes both ways though, Stellar Flare. Us contacting authority is the only way you’d give your son some privacy. He couldn’t even recoup back at my place without you sending him letters!”
“Aita, Sunburst needs to prepare for the future; his current position certainly won’t help on that front alone. He has me to guide him, so I do my best to prompt him a sense of direction.”
“Sure would hate to interrupt this conversation,” a voice calls out behind Stellar Flare. He sounds like that one vice principal I watched back home that always threatened to fire everyone in school. I get a good look, and he seems to be a grey college-age dragon with green spikes and eyes, and a dark blue polo shirt, pinned with a golden colored badge that is the shape of a star. His left wing is holding his cap as he crosses his arms. “Hey there.”
“Who’re you?” asks Sunburst.
“Mangle’s the name. So, I hear we have some mommy issues goin’ on.”
Mangle tosses his cap into the air in a way that makes it land perfectly on his head.
I gasp.
“Sheriff Mangle?!?”
“That’s right, kid. I got a custom report from one of the citizens of our little village, saying somepony wasn’t getting the personal space we all deserve.”
“Well if you must know, sheriff,” replies Stellar Flare. “For the longest time, I used the postal service until I was shown a much more efficient method of talking to my son.”
Mangle laughs. “Nice try on the wording there Stellar Flare. Clarify…” he then pauses to take shades out of a previously hidden pocket next to his badge. “or YOU’RE FIRED!”
“Fine, have it your way. My son’s childhood friend sent me a letter using magic, and being the mother of a former student of Celestia’s school, I picked up on it right away. It cuts time down to just a fraction of what the postal service could offer, not to mention the potential savings it could incur. The scroll gets sent directly to the pony signed on top.”
Mangle takes off his shades, folds them and puts them back in his pocket as Stellar Flare explains her “solution” to pony error regarding mail.
“Well gather your clique around, because I have a story to tell you all, especially you Stellar Flare. Your son, the changeling and I will stay here until that happens.”
Stellar Flare blinks twice. “Oh you mean now. I sure don’t know where this is going, but I’ll play along.”
Now that I’m home with Dad - in the living room in fact, I finally have the time to talk to him.
“So, Sunburst wanted me to share what I did with you.”
“Alright then, sweetie. I’m all ears.”
Dad nods each time I pause. “I uh, went to a griffon in Manehattan so that I could talk to Mom one last time… she taught me to route magic through anything I hold… I started a village by storing all the ponies’ cutie mark in a vault… then when that failed, I altered a spell to stop the sonic rainboom from twenty years ago… then I became Twilight’s student where I live now and reconnected with Sunburst… got behind briefly on friendship lessons… then I was forced to step up to dethrone Chrysalis, who later became my friend when she recovered… and accidentally invited a criminal to Lightning Dust’s welcome-to-Ponyville party.”
With each experience I recap, Dad lowers his jaw little by little until it reaches its limit by the end.
“You… you really went through all of that?”
I look at the floor. “I know, Dad… it’s certainly something I’m not fond of sharing, but it evidently worked between Aita and Sunburst. All I was hoping by getting it all out of my chest was not to dread coming here because you wouldn’t like what I did.”
“Starlight…” Dad props my chin up so that we lock eyes with each other. “It doesn’t matter to me what you experience. It’s what you learn from them that matters. Whatever you experience, I’ll always be here for you. I love you, Starlight, and nothing’s ever going to take that away.”
I wipe my cheeks dry and hug Dad. “Thanks, Dad… you have no idea how much I needed to hear that. I… I’m sorry I never tried to contact you. At least now, I know I’ll have somepony to come back to whenever I do visit.”
“It’s all okay, puddin’. Now, how about we go get some cookies for old time’s sake.”
“Cookies? …I do remember liking those. Sure, why not?”
“That’s the spirit!”
So Dad leads me out of the house over to the bakery.
The Parent Map: TLC Timeline
As it turns out, when Dad and I are trotting past the library over to the bakery, we see Stellar Flare galloping past us, alerting her colleagues about the situation.
“Do you think she’s in trouble?” I whisper, getting a snicker out of Dad.
“No doubt about it, honey. So what flavor would you like before we enter? The usual?”
“For you, Dad. Besides, we don’t wanna miss Stellar Flare getting her comeuppance proper.”
“Right this way then.”
Dad canters into the bakery, me closely following behind.
A baker stallion is standing behind the main counter. He’s an earth pony. His coat is turquoise with a shadow around the chin. His mane and tail used to be all black the last time I was here, but the pigments seem to’ve faded a little. His cutie mark is a stock graph, and he is wearing a white t-shirt and a red apron.
“Ah! Firelight! What a lovely surprise to have your daughter back!” the baker stallion enthusiastically says. “So, what will it be?”
“A dozen chocolate chip cookies.” Firelight floats a bag of bits from his shirt pocket and puts it on the counter.
The baker proceeds to duck below the counter. When he inevitably comes back up, his right hoof contains- wow, look at that: twelve.
“You two enjoy. I hear the sheriff is about to reverse those recent changes we had.”
Turns out Dad has a good eye for other ponies in the background. He gallops close to the main entryway to Sire’s Hollow to meet my friends. However, there appears to be a dragon in the local sheriff’s uniform.
“Hm. It really has been a while since I was last here. Who’s this?”
“Oh, this is Sheriff Mangle,” Aita introduces. “He’s the one your dad sent the report to.”
Mangle steps forward and offers to shake my hoof with his wing. “You must be Firelight’s daughter. So good to see you for the first time.”
I accept the shake. “Nice to meet you, Mangle.”
Suddenly, everyone - including my dad - starts facing in the same direction. When I follow them, I see Stellar Flare running up to us with a few other mares in tow.
“I’m back. So what story did you have in mind for me and the staff of the SHDC?”
As Dad and I start eating our cookies, Mangle clears his throat to make sure he has everyone else’s attention and puts his shades on. “It’s about this unicorn active within her community, who established a dev-com to blow the city budget to attract college students. It’s… actually the reason I got this position in the first place. Point is, loved ones showed up and exposed that mare’s actions, who was taken to trial in Canterlot.”
It’s pretty obvious who Mangle is talking about by telling this story. When he mentions that somepony going to trial, he reaches into the pocket his shades were in and pulls out a pair of cuffs. He then hooks them to Stellar Flare’s hind legs.
“Stellar Flare, for invading Sunburst’s space by circumventing the postal service, I personally arrest you.”
“W-What?!? You can’t do this! I have an important committee to run!”
“Do you really think that’s more important than what inspired it?” Mangle rhetorically asks. “It’s the same reason you’re about to serve. some. time.”
Mangle proceeds to pick up Stellar Flare under the torso and fly off with her in the distance.
Aita and I turn to Sunburst, who is in awe at Mangle’s performance. “Well, Sunburst,” I start. “You sure were right about talking to Dad. I guess my conclusions were a little too cynical to be true.”
“Thank Aita though, Starlight. He’s the one that taught me. Just because you’re embarrassed about something doesn’t mean you go keeping it to yourself. You might be telling just the right person. But where’d you even learn that anyway, Aita?”
“I got that from Sunset Shimmer when I visited her world,” replies Aita.
“You know,” Dad says. “It seems to me you guys were right to come down here. Sunburst has his space now when he gets back home. So what do you and Aita plan to do after the train ride?”
“Oh, I have school. But where exactly are you, Trixie and Discord going to be tomorrow?”
“Las Pegasus,” I answer, to Aita’s recognition. “Then after that, we have Appleoosa, Baltimare and Canterlot.”
“Wait, Las Pegasus? That’s where I was when Chrysalis got her kingdom back. Starlight, if you do see Rusty Flashlight, Pane Fall or Carve at the show, tell them I said hi.”
“Will do, Aita. But they have met me before too… hey Dad?”
“Yes?”
“I enjoyed having cookies with you. The next time I do visit, wanna do it again? My treat.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, dear. But for now, you go out there and give Las Pegasus a tour the populous will never forget.”
I give Dad a hug that lasts a good ten seconds. “You got it… Oh, one more thing. It’s going to be a straight shot for Las Pegasus, so would you mind me borrowing some parchment? Gotta let the others know I’ll join them there.”
Dad nods and teleports in exactly what I asked for. “Any time, sweets. You’re a grown mare, and that means you make your own choices. Now have a safe trip you three! Good luck in school, Aita! Buh-bye now!”
Aita, Sunburst and I walk to the gate and push it open as Dad waves us goodbye. As we arrive back on the platform, the train comes our way. All three of us take a long deep breath at the same time, stretching out our sigh of relief that we finally got everything done we needed to do here in Sire’s Hollow.
“So Sunburst, what are you gonna read when you get home?” I ask as we board.
“O-oh! I think there’s something perfect I can read to unwind: The Houyhnhmn’s Guide to Magical Arcana! It just never gets old no matter how many times I read it!”
I beam. “Actually, I do like myself some Power Ponies every now and again. Rusty introduced me… so much fun.”
“And Rarity did get me into Shadow Spade at the tail end of summer break. What a quotable series! Daring they may be, Goal Post is an innocent pegasus all the same. ”
Sunburst and I laugh with Aita as we sit the same way we did most of the way over.
Sunburst realizes something though… “Aita, you read Shadow Spade? A little advanced for someone your age, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but I managed to solve a real mystery myself. Who doesn’t like using their head?”
To Aita’s response, we all have another laugh.