Story of Starlight (Part 1)
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[It started with her]
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[She was the first]
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[She was the first to see its glory]
…
The sun was setting, but Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst couldn’t help themselves. With how much busier their lives have been, what with The School of Friendship and Twilight’s upcoming coronation, they couldn’t resist any opportunities to explore the concept of magic together, studying spells and artifacts, and even testing them as long as it’s safe. Tonight, the two of them sat out behind Twilight’s castle, going through some recently-found books that Sunburst brought.
“It’s amazing how after all the years that we’ve been into magic, reading through spells just never seems to get old!” Sunburst beamed as he flipped through a book.
“Yeah,” Starlight nodded in agreement. “It’s a bit of a nice breather after everything that’s been happening. What with us managing the school, the incident with Grogar’s bell, preparing Twilight for her coronation…”
“Yes, it’s quite a lot.”
Starlight didn’t know how to continue the conversation, leaving the two of them sitting in silence. Even though it’s been a long while since they reunited in the Crystal Empires, moments of silence were not uncommon.
Sunburst was the first to break it, quickly clearing his throat. “So. Headmare Starlight, huh? It has an interesting ring to it.”
“Yeah, I can’t believe that day is almost here.” Starlight put the book down. “It feels like the school just opened yesterday. Even though so much happened between then and now. And now with what’s coming up, I’m wondering what the future holds for Equestria.”
“Well, the future is filled with possibilities and mystery.”
“Doesn’t that ever scare you?” Starlight asked.
Sunburst raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“There are a lot of possibilities. Some good. But then there’s bad. Not knowing when, or how you’ll die. Not knowing what situations you’ll be in. Fighting for your life through taxes so you can live somewhere, or… well… fighting in general so you can live.” Starlight couldn’t help but chuckle. “I know, I know, I think too much. I’m Twilight-ing.”
“No, no, those are understandable thoughts. It’s a common thought, it just doesn’t seem that way because it’s not something ponies or creatures publicly express.”
Starlight smiled. “And then you have Pinkie, and her optimism.”
“We’ll never find answers for the logic behind her…” Sunburst shuddered.
“Oh there’s an answer: it’s Pinkie.”
It was Sunburst’s turn to laugh. “Yeah. It’s Pinkie.”
Starlight enjoyed moments like these, and even though it would be completely nighttime at any minute, she for sure did not want it to end. “Well, Luna’s going to raise the moon soon. Should we take this inside, or?…”
“I don’t really have a preference. It’s not going to rain tonight so I’m not too concerned about continuing inside or outside.”
“Outside it is then!” Starlight proclaimed. “It makes watching the sunset even better, anyways!”
“Oh yeah! I think it’s happening now!”
Both Starlight and Sunburst went silent, and they both watched together as Celestia’s sun lowered down the horizon until it completely vanished, and Luna’s moon rose upwards, illuminating the starry sky.
The moment the moon went still, one of the books shuffled. Alarmed, both Sunburst and Starlight’s ears perked up, and they glanced at each other.
Starlight started to speak. “Did you-“
“No…” Sunburst shook his head. “I thought you-“
The book moved again, this time making a small jump on the ground, before shaking violently as if it was fueled with unstable magic. Though there was no hint of magic. Not even a glint of light.
Starlight and Sunburst backed away, confused at what was happening before them. Scared? They’ve experienced much worse than a shaking book. There was no reason to be scared.
So why did, deep down, the two of them feel a sharp sense of dread?
“Maybe the book is cursed!” Starlight suggested.
“It-it could be possessed by a spirit!” Sunburst stuttered. “I don’t know!”
“How do you not know?! YOU were the one that found them!”
The book went still.
The ponies blinked. There wasn’t really an explanation that they could think of for what had occurred.
“That was…” Sunburst adjusted his glasses. “… strange.”
Starlight had no response. Instead, she slowly approached the book. As safe as everything seemed, the pit in her stomach refused to leave. Maybe it was shock. Yes, that’s it! Shock.
When Starlight got to the book, she picked it up with her magic.
“Heh…” she wiped her forehead. “It was probably nothing.”
The book then burst open.
Black ooze, with what seemed to have small bits of flashing and interchanging colors, spat out from the book, wrapping itself around Starlight. Starlight screamed and fell, dropping the book in the process.
“STARLIGHT!” Sunburst cried out.
Starlight tried getting up. But for some reason, she struggled. More of the black substance rapidly leaked out of the book, starting to spread throughout the area at an increasingly rapid pace. It began making its way towards the town, towards the castle, and towards Sunburst.
Sunburst wanted to run. But he couldn’t leave Starlight behind. When he saw his friend collapse and the dark ooze spread over her even more, he grabbed her hoof with his magic in an attempt to pull her out.
“Starlight! Hold on! I got you!”
Slowly, Starlight raised her head. Her eyes were entirely blank and lifeless, and yet, they had a bit of a glow. She smiled at Sunburst, the corners of her mouth stretched across her face. It wasn’t normal. It was just sickly. Sunburst paused, his insides starting to twist at what he was seeing. And yet his magic still held onto Starlight’s hoof.
“… S-Starlight?”
Starlight’s jaw began to extend, her jawbone emitting loud cracking sounds as it grew. The black sludge trickled even further up her body.
Sunburst didn’t know what to do. But he didn’t have anymore time to think. From behind him, the ooze snagged on his robe. Before Sunburst could even take it off and flee, he was pulled in, and then, darkness.
[Starlight Glimmer was the first]
From that moment onwards, the Darkness spread throughout Equestria. Through other locations, through other objects, the darkness emerged and claimed its victims at a rapid pace. By the time it was midnight, nearly all of Ponyville and beyond had fallen.
Even Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, and the majority of her friends, didn’t make it.
There were only a few survivors left in town. One of them had managed to evade a group of infected ponies and flee to Twilight’s castle hoping for refuge. Without thinking, she ran inside, failing to notice the dragon flying out from the window above, and to safety.
That mare was Trixie Lulamoon, a reformed unicorn magician, once a former enemy of Princess Twilight’s, and currently, a friend of Starlight’s. She had fled to the castle in hopes of seeking help from either Twilight, or Starlight. It wasn’t easy for her to get away… as she was being chased by corrupted ponies to the castle, she had used up most of her smoke bombs to avoid getting caught.
When Trixie got to the castle, she had quickly rushed into the doors, and shut them behind her as fast as possible. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop the doors from letting out a loud BANG, and she jumped, placing a hoof over her thumping chest.
“Is this a bad idea?…” she whispered to herself. Upon seeing the black sludge all around the walls and floor, she had already come to the conclusion. “Yep.”
Trixie didn’t want to call out to anyone. She’d only be calling attention to herself, in the events that she was already too late. She turned to leave, but when she attempted to open the doors, they wouldn’t budge.
“Oh no…” Trixie tried even harder to open the doors, from pushing on them, to trying to open them with her magic. Nothing. From between the closed doors, the dark ooze started to leak through, forcing Trixie to back away. She was trapped.
“No no no no no no-…”
All she could do was run.
From behind her, Trixie heard the sounds of clopping hooves alongside sounds of dripping slime and gargled groans. She turned around, seeing Starlight Glimmer right in front of her. Trixie resisted the sense of nausea that Starlight’s appearance gave her… the blank eyes and wide smiles were not pleasant for her to see.
Although Trixie felt it would do nothing, she couldn’t help but begin to plead to the mindless mare in front of her.
“S-Starlight, listen, it-it’s me! Trixie! We’re friends! Don’t you remember?”
Starlight’s head cocked to the side, before her grin got even wider. Deep within’ in her mouth, as deep as her throat, Trixie could see pure white teeth, teeth that did not even look like those of a ponies, which made the sight of them even worse than it was meant to be.
Although it didn’t look like it, it seemed to Trixie that Starlight was… angrier.
Starlight began to gallop Trixie’s way, forcing Trixie to use her very last smoke bomb. She threw it down right in front of Starlight before instantly taking off, galloping down the halls. Trixie could hear Starlight give chase, but she was too terrified to even look behind her.
Starlight let out a sickening shriek.
”T̸R̵I̷I̶I̵I̴I̷I̶I̴X̶I̶I̷I̴I̷I̷E̵E̶E̴E̴E̵E̶!̷!̶!̸!̶”
Trixie didn’t know what to do. She took her chances to get help, and the odds were against her. Now she was trapped in the castle with no way out, being chased by her now lost friend. She had nothing to use. And fighting-wise, she was not that experienced either, even after all those times Starlight had been teaching her actual magic.
All Trixie could do now was find another way out. But where was there to go, in order to even find it? Every turn Trixie took, she found herself getting more and more lost.
Small tendrils from globs of the dark mass that were scattered all around the hall attempted to reach out to Trixie in an effort to grab her. She had managed to miss them, her panic increasing when it became apparent to her that it was happening. As she ran, she prepared to take off her cloak and hat so that if her cloak was grabbed, she couldn’t get caught.
She was too focused on that, distracting her from the tendril that broke through the ground beneath her and wrapped around her back leg, twisting it to the point where it crack. Trixie cried out and fell, as searing pain soared through her twisted leg.
Trixie finally looked behind her. Starlight was no longer running. Rather, she was now slowly approaching Trixie, her posture like one of a predator about to kill its prey. Starlight had already won, and now, she was making this as slow and tense as possible, clearly toying with Trixie.
This really was how it would end. And as she stared at Starlight’s lifeless gaze, she couldn’t help but reminisce over their history has friends. Both good, and bad.
As she did, she started uncontrollably speaking her thoughts out loud as the dark infection started to sever her own control over her mind and body. One of her eyes went blank, leaking out the black substance.
“Starlight, I know I wasn’t the g̷-̴g̸-̵g̶r̴e̶a̵t̷e̶s̶t̴ friend to you, but in spite of that, we’ve done a lot together. When we first became friends, when we s̴-̶s̶-̵s̷a̵v̶e̵d̶ Equestria from Queen Chrysalis, our trip to Saddle Arabia. You never gave up on me even if I wasn’t perfect, and you helped me learn so much about f̴-̴f̶-̵f̵r̸i̶e̴n̴d̸s̸h̷i̸p̷…̷“
Starlight stopped, going still where she stood. Trixie was nearly gone, but she managed to let out a few last words.
“The G̸r̸e̷a̷t̶ ̸a̶n̸d̵ ̷P̸o̷w̶e̸r̴f̷u̴l̷ Trixie shall bow and thank you for being her friend…”
Trixie lowered her head. And with that, she was gone.
For another second, Starlight remained unmoving and still. Her eye then twitched. Her head followed. And then her entire body. All of the black ooze on her body fizzled as Starlight’s body convulsed and shuddered. She let out a terrifying shriek as the dark sludge ran down her eyes and body.
A pulse then came from her body, and all of the small globs of the mass that were on her body flew off, splattering all around the hallway. Starlight, her twisted smile gone, collapsed.
At first, nopony in the hallway moved. Both Trixie and Starlight, for the next few seconds, remained motionless.
Starlight was the first to move. Opening her eyes, she groaned. Her vision was blurry, and her head throbbed.
It had taken a good few moments for Starlight to realize that she was back. But how? When she was corrupted, she was practically trapped in her own mind, with little to no idea as to what was happening on the outside. She struggled to even go anywhere. But at some point, she felt a sudden chill, a rush of memories and motivation, and a stronger desire to get out because of it.
And get out, she did. Starlight was free.
She had then seen Trixie on the ground, her leg twisted horrifically, and the sludge… the Darkness, she had learned to call it… was crawling throughout her entire body.
“Trixie?…” Starlight didn’t want to get closer to her friend… it would be too risky. But Starlight couldn’t help but get the tinge of a feeling that Trixie had something to do with this.
Trixie then started to get up, the tendril around her back leg retreating. She was clearly unbothered with the leg standing on the ground along with the others.
She looked back at Starlight. The sight of Trixie’s malformed smile and white eyes made Starlight back away.
Starlight didn’t want to run. And she wasn’t going to fight either. She refused. If Starlight could break out then… others could be saved, too! Starlight wasn’t going to leave Trixie behind. She had to help her!
“Trixie, listen-“
Starlight was cut off when Trixie ran her way. Starlight yelped, and teleported out of her path, reappearing behind her.
“Trixie, wait!”
Trixie stopped where she was, turning back around. Starlight tried her hardest to ignore the sight of Trixie’s leg pressing against the ground. But just the grotesqueness of Trixie’s smile did not make things easy.
Trixie didn’t charge this time. She just slowly began to walk towards Starlight. Starlight stood her ground and fought the urgency inside her, choosing to stay, and choosing to help. She had opened her mouth to speak, but then a faint sound caused her ears to twitch.
Starlight cursed herself for what she did next. Instead of teleporting away, the smart thing to do, curiosity got the best of her, looking behind her to see who else was after her.
She was met with a powerful magenta blast striking her in the face.
Starlight toppled over, the scorching pain in her face causing her to cry out. Her eye felt excruciating. When she had brought her hoof up to hear face as reflex, she could feel blood from the raw, burnt skin.
Starlight couldn’t handle it anymore, and as much as she wanted to help Trixie, she was in no condition to do so, and whoever shot her was about to reach her and strike a finishing blow. She lit her horn, and teleported away to a much farther-away spot in the castle.
Trixie stopped in her path, and the one that shot Starlight, Twilight Sparkle herself, had also stopped charging for Starlight the moment she was gone.
Trixie didn’t stay any longer. She had turned to leave, going down the hallway that lead to the exit.
Twilight, however, stayed, turning her head every which way to look around. She had a feeling that Starlight was still in the building. The corners of her already wide smile seemed to go up in glee.
She wasn’t going to get away.
T̶h̸e̷ ̵D̴a̷r̴k̴n̴e̷s̶s̸ ̴w̸i̷l̸l̷ ̴c̶a̶t̷c̷h̵ ̷h̵e̶r̸ ̴s̶o̵o̷n̴e̸r̷ ̴o̴r̷ ̸l̴a̴t̴e̶r̴.̶
[She was the first]
[Starlight Glimmer was the first to break free]
Author's Note
We’re back, fellas! WE’RE SO BACK-
Keep in mind, I AM rusty, so if there’s any editing mistakes in here, then please point them out! I appreciate constructive criticism! 🙏
