A Satisfactory Surplus Of Sense
Today was not an easy day for Starlight Glimmer.
Okay, let’s be real, when has Starlight ever had an easy day? To be more specific, Starlight was trying to teach her best friend Trixie a teleportation spell with the latter’s great insistence but when Trixie ended up doing it, she wasn’t paying enough attention and teleported the map table. This was really worrying for Starlight given the severity of the situation and the power the map table holds, but for some reason, Trixie didn’t seem to care much about what was going on and was more excited at the fact she finally did a teleportation spell.
If that wasn’t bad enough, while she was lecturing Trixie, she realized that a red cloud of smoky magic was enveloping from her horn. She quickly excused herself from the room and immediately barged into the kitchen frantically searching the supplies, much to Spike’s concern.
“Hey, are you okay?” Spike decided to ask his roommate.
“I will be, once I use this bottle to contain my anger so I can look for the map table Trixie teleported without much issue.” Starlight told the dragon much to his confusion, especially at seeing the red cloud above her head.
“Do you see this storm cloud? This has never happened before! All this magical energy has to go somewhere, and if I'm not using it to fight a magical duel or something like that then I don’t know what is going to do.” Starlight explained as she levitated a bottle nearby, “So I'm hoping if I bottle up my anger, I won't do who-knows-what to Trixie.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Spike asked.
“What choice do I have? I've got to get that map back, and I don't wanna lose Trixie. If she knew what I was thinking right now, she'd probably never talk to me again.“ Starlight answered sadly.
Spike did have to admit, he could understand where Starlight is coming from but given how severe this problem was, he didn’t really think that Starlight should be alone with Trixie right now, especially if something bad were to happen.
“Okay, I’ll tag along with you. You might need an extra pair of eyes.” Spike smiled reassuringly at Starlight who smiled back as she finished putting the anger magic into her bottle.
The two then walked back to the throne room(with Starlight putting her bottle into her saddle bags) where Trixie was levitating an apple core without a care in the world considering what she just did when she saw that Starlight and Spike came in.
“Oh there you are.” Trixie smiled at her friend, “For a minute, I didn't think you were coming back, and that you might be upset with me for some weird reason. But then I remembered, you never get mad at me.”
Spike was absolutely appalled by what he just heard and considering Starlight had to direct more anger magic into her bottle, he wasn’t the only one that had a problem with what Trixie said.
“Nope, not mad at all.” Starlight chuckled nervously before saying, “So, the map is probably in the last place you were thinking of. Where was that?”
“Ooh, great question. I wish you'd asked it, like, right after I did the spell. I don't remember anymore.” Trixie giggled nervously before using a napkin to wipe her lips so she ended up missing Starlight putting more anger magic into her bottle.
“No worries, how about we take a walk around town, maybe that’ll jog your memory.” Starlight forced a smile.
“Okay, that sounds like fun.” Trixie smiled back before brightening up more.
“Did you remember?” Spike asked hopefully.
“No, but I was thinking we could get some cinnamon nuts on our way out.” Trixie said excitedly.
“Cinnamon nuts.” Spike heard Starlight grit her teeth angrily before she took a breath and spoke brightly, “That’s a good idea.”
“Yes!” Trixie smiled enthusiastically, “I was craving something sweet since you tried making those tea cakes.”
Trixie then began walking off and before Starlight could follow, Spike immediately yanked Starlight’s tail to stop her.
“Look, I get you’re trying to be nice and all but maybe you should tell Trixie how you feel.” Spike advised.
“I’m not so sure Spike, for all I know if I do end up letting it out, my magic will do something disastrous.” Starlight sighed sadly, “Maybe if I wait it out, the magic will eventually pass and I’ll be able to let Trixie know what I’m feeling.”
Spike had to admit, he couldn’t really fault Starlight’s logic there so he shrugged with acceptance, “If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.”
There’s not really much that I need to change about the scenes with the jeweler and Granny Smith, really the only additions I have are that Spike is showing more and more concern about Starlight’s anger magic.
Currently Starlight was walking in front of both Spike and Trixie, feeling more and more drained as Trixie was further angering her. Her mane was even drooping.
“Darn. I could've sworn it'd be at the ice cream parlor, because it was warm in the castle and I thought I wanted ice cream, and— Ooh! Maybe we should check out the Crystal Empire, 'cause Twilight's castle is made out of crystals, so I totally had crystals on my mind.” Trixie told Spike who just glared in annoyance at the magician.
“Okay… maybe I didn’t.” Trixie said nervously before taking a look to see Starlight’s drained state.
“Is Starlight doing okay, she looks a little, oh how do I put it… uck-la-la.” Trixie asked the drake who was unsure how to answer that before he settled on a half-truth.
“She’s just a little stressed about finding the map table is all. She doesn’t want Twilight to lose trust in her.” Spike explained to the showmare.
“But… she didn’t do anything wrong.” Trixie raised an eyebrow, “I’m the one who teleported the map table, Twilight’s not gonna blame her for this.”
“Maybe she saw you as her responsibility and is upset that she couldn’t keep this from happening.” Spike guessed before giving a sheepish smile, “Uh… no offense.”
“None taken.” Trixie shrugged it off before gaining a serious look, “I should probably talk to her about this.”
Suddenly the bottle of red smoke rolled beneath Trixie’s hooves much to her confusion, once she saw that Starlight’s bags were sort of open, she realized that Starlight dropped it.
“Hey Starlight, you dropped your bottle of…” Trixie began calling out before looking confused at the contents of the bottle, “What is this?”
Trixie began using her horn to open the bottle but Starlight was quick to react, “Trixie, don’t touch that!”
Starlight immediately swiped the bottle and closed it up before any of the smoke could escape but all that did was increase Trixie’s suspicion.
“What’s in the bottle?” Trixie asked pointedly.
“It’s-It’s…” Starlight began before sighing, knowing that lying to Trixie would only make the situation worse.
“It’s my anger.” Starlight answered solemnly.
“Anger? How would you-“ Trixie began before Starlight interrupted.
“I don’t know. My magic is tied to my emotions so I guess when my anger was out of control it turned into that. And… I was really upset with you today.” Starlight explained nervously.
“You were? Why?” Trixie asked in concern.
“Simply put, you lost Twilight's map table, and you make passive aggressive remarks about it like it's no big deal. It's like you don't even care you could get me in a lot of trouble. If we can't find that table, Twilight's never going to trust me again, and the worst part is YOU DIDN’T EVEN SAY YOU WERE SORRY!” Starlight ranted which surprised Trixie but she couldn’t say it was a complete surprise.
“I’m-I’m sorry. I honestly should’ve known that you’d be upset over this.” Trixie said remorsefully.
“It’s not completely your fault, I was bottling it up.” Starlight began calming down.
“No, but you clearly were stressed out about this and in all honesty, I was acting insensitive about it. There’s just one thing I need to know, why did you feel the need to bottle up your anger anyway?” Trixie spoke softly.
“Other than potentially having something bad happen with my magic, I didn’t want to lose you.” Starlight explained before Trixie immediately bumped Starlight on the shoulder playfully.
“Pfft! Come on! It'd take a lot more than that to lose me. Our friendship is stronger than a few angry words and besides, I’d take that over how drained you were becoming anyday. The Starlight I love is passionate, lively, and yeah, sometimes angry. Those are my favorite parts of you. That and the fact that you forgive me every time.“ Trixie smiled at her friend.
“I’ll forgive you, if you forgive me.” Starlight smiled back before the two moved for an embrace.
“Deal.” Trixie accepted as she continued hugging Starlight. Meanwhile Spike looked at the bottle Starlight and Trixie seemed to forget about, he smiled at the sight, the bottle was completely empty.
In the end, Trixie remembered where she had teleported the map and it was to the Ponyville Spa, she was thinking about it due to it being the first place she met Starlight. She tried to teleport it back but Starlight and Spike were quick to stop her, they’d take the long way back anytime.
They even ended up getting the map table back in place before Twilight and her friends found out. What? Did you expect there to be a liar-reveal story? That’s way too predictable and considering how everything worked out, Twilight really didn’t need to know about this one mistake.
Then again, what would stop the Spa Ponies from blabbing?
Author's Note
So that’s our first chapter. All Bottled Up. I honestly don’t hate this episode that much, but this is a pure example of Trixie being a terrible friend at times. I didn’t really know how to improve this episode too egregiously, but I decided to have Spike tag along since he should know Starlight’s antics could lead to trouble if they are left unchecked.
A Satisfactory Surplus Of Sense
Starlight and Trixie were facing a dilemma. Thorax’s brother Pharynx was causing major problems in the Hive and has been making every Changeling miserable. Originally, they were planning on talking to Thorax about banishing his brother but after hearing their history together where Pharynx always tried to protect Thorax, Starlight didn’t have the heart to tell him to banish his brother.
So Starlight quickly excused herself and Trixie and led her to a private location of the hive, no you perverts, it’s not for the reason you think.
“What are you doing? I thought we agreed you'd tell Thorax he had to kick his brother out of the hive!” Trixie whispered harshly to Starlight.
“First of all, I never agreed on you throwing me under the bus,” Starlight narrowed her eyes at her friend before brightening up, “Second of all, we may not need to get him banished. Maybe if we appeal to Pharynx’s more protective side, we could try and work out a solution for his role in the Hive.”
“How would we reach a compromise? The hive seems to be doing just fine.” Trixie raised an eyebrow.
“Not really. Thinking about it more, Pharynx has a point. The Changelings are putting a lot of faith in plant trails to lead the Maulwurf away but that’s not really effective. If we can get Pharynx to tone down his behavior and get him to talk with Thorax, we might be able to work something out.” Starlight explained.
“I guess you have a point. But who’s going to get Pharynx?” Trixie asked curiously.
Starlight immediately gained a malicious smirk and booped Trixie on her nose, “I nominate you!”
Before giving Trixie any more time to process that, she teleported away much to the magician’s annoyance.
“Trixie honestly should’ve seen that coming.” Trixie muttered to herself before turning to a cyan Changeling walking nearby.
“Um… excuse me. Have you seen Pharynx? He’s looks like you except… evilly.” Trixie asked curiously.
“Oh, I’m sorry… but Pharynx is gone.” The Changeling said politely.
“Wait what?” Trixie’s eyes widened.
When Starlight got back to the throne room, she was surprised to see Thorax being swarmed with his fearful subjects.
“Everyone, please calm down. I know things look bad right now.” Thorax was trying to calm down the crowd.
“The Maulwurf is literally heading towards us!” One of the Changelings cried out angrily.
“We’re all gonna die!” Another Changeling spoke with despair.
“Thorax!” Starlight called out in concern.
“Oh. Starlight.” Thorax said in relief before flying down to where she was, “Thank goodness you’re here. The Maulwurf was just seen earlier near the Hive. I need your help rounding up the rest of the Changelings. Where’s Trixie?”
“She’s getting Pharynx. I felt you two needed to talk.” Starlight told the Changeling King before hearing the rest of the Changelings in the area groan in annoyance which made the unicorn narrow her eyes a bit, but she couldn’t really blame them.
Speak of the showmare, Trixie immediately ran to the scene and panted as she stood next to Starlight.
“Glad to see you’re okay Trixie, where’s Pharynx?” Starlight rubbed her friend’s back in concern.
“He left the hive.” Trixie explained.
“What?! And he’s all alone with that Maulwurf. I have to find him!” Thorax began flying off before Starlight began following.
“I’m coming with you.” Starlight said hurriedly before turning to Trixie, “What about you?”
“I… guess I can join, if only for morale.” Trixie said nervously before standing next to Starlight.
“Who else is coming?” Thorax asked before the Changelings awkwardly turned away and starting chatting amicably.
“Ugh, fine.” Thorax groaned but Starlight wasn’t having any of it.
“Oh, sure, you could all stay here, not help Pharynx and he won't bother you anymore. It's your choice. But remember when you didn't havea choice! When you were forced to obey Chrysalis! You might have been unstoppable, but you weren't free to choose! And now you are, because of Thorax!” Starlight began speaking in a motivating tone as she began to smile, “Well, it's his brother out there, and now it's your chance to prove you're just as strong embracing love as you were feeding on it! Now is your chance to show what changelings can really be! Not because you have to, but because you choose to!”
So you know the story after that, the Changelings don’t go with Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax until after they find Pharynx and the Maulwurf. Pharynx ends up using his fighting skills to lead the Changelings to defeat the Maulwurf and everything pretty much works the same way as the show, and Thorax is only a little upset that Starlight and Trixie drove Pharynx away.
Author's Note
So yeah, To Change A Changeling didn’t need much rewriting. All I had to do was just remove Starlight’s stupid plan and the episode is infinitely better. The episode itself was fine to me but the thing is… even with Starlight’s idiotic plan, she’s still the most likable character in the group. Trixie was an insufferable menace, Thorax was a bit too gung-ho about how Trixie and Starlight treated Pharynx at the end and Pharynx himself wasn’t exactly pleasant until the end.
All I really needed to do was fix Starlight and make Trixie less annoying.
A Satisfactory Surplus Of Sense
Things were not going well for Twilight and her friends(plus Starlight Glimmer, I was counting her), all they were supposed to do was have a Friendship Retreat but they each kept splitting up in the Everfree Forest, and running into the evil clones of themselves that the unreformed ex-Queen Chrysalis had made with dark magic and creepily stealing hairs from their manes. Goodness, why do people think she’s cute?
Anyway, now Starlight and Rarity have come across Twilight and Pinkie who were arguing next to a crying Fluttershy.
“Of course I care about Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled at Pinkie Pie.
“Then you've got a super weird way of showing it!” Pinkie Pie yelled back, yeah Pinkie, I have a list of super weird ways that show YOU care so you shouldn’t be talking.
“Get out of my head!” Pinkie Pie suddenly yelled much to the other ponies’ confusion, giving Starlight the opportunity to ask what’s going on.
“What is going on with you two?” Starlight asked in concern.
“Twilight is so into her retreat that she doesn't even care if her friends are upset! She just wants us to ‘stay on schedule’!” Pinkie Pie began mocking the alicorn, which made Twilight begin to tear up.
“Well, I'm sorry, Pinkie! If I knew you thought this was a ‘boring, lame, no-fun retreat’, I wouldn't have invited you in the first place!” Twilight began arguing.
“I NEVER SAID THAT! WHEN DID I DO THAT?!”Pinkie Pie shouted, which made Twilight’s eyes widen.
“Wait what…” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry, y'all. We would've been here sooner, but we had to take the long way after Rarity ran off with all my stuff.” Applejack said as she and Rainbow Dash showed up with the former glaring at the fashionista.
“What?! I did not!” Rarity spoke incredulously.
“She’s not lying, I was with her the whole time!” Starlight glared furiously at the farmer, “YOU were the one who traveled with US and laughed at me relentlessly about how ridiculous I looked carrying the gear!”
“What?! I never did that.” Applejack said angrily, while also looking confused.
“It’s true. I was with her.” Rainbow Dash added.
“Well I was with Starlight and that’s exactly what happened, are you calling her a liar?!” Rarity glared at the two tomboys.
“Wait, this doesn’t make any sense.“ Twilight interrupted the conversation, “I highly doubt Applejack OR Rarity did the things you’re all accusing each other of and Rainbow Dash and Starlight both have alibis to prove it. Which means you, me, and Pinkie might have been tricked.”
“Uh… Rainbow Dash apparently left me alone in the woods, but… I don’t think that was what happened either.” Fluttershy said meekly.
“Something is clearly messing with us, we better get to the Tree Of Harmony and FAST.” Twilight said quickly before she and her friends began running and/or flying as fast as they could.
“I just don’t get it, who would be able to trick us like that?” Rainbow Dash asked skeptically.
Starlight’s eyes immediately widened before they narrowed, “Oh I think I know EXACTLY who.”
Chrysalis was livid, first her new servants betray her and now she can’t even use the Tree Of Harmony because they basically got destroyed.
“Servants always fail you in the end!” Chrysalis spoke venomously, “Just wait, Starlight. I will have my revenge!”
Suddenly, she felt a blast of magic hit her on the back of the head and soon fell unconscious.
It was revealed that behind her, Starlight had shot a blast of magic directly at her to make her fall while the Mane Six stood behind.
“Phew, glad my hunch was right.” Starlight smirked before asking, “She’s not dead is she?”
Fluttershy went to check her pulse and said, “Nope.”
“We should probably take her to Canterlot.” Twilight grumbled before sighing, “Why do my plans always get interrupted by villains?!”
“I have no idea but this was the worst day ever.” Pinkie Pie laughed hysterically.
“And that makes you happy?” Starlight questioned.
“Sorry, it’s just so absurd.” Pinkie Pie shrugged.
Indeed Pinkie Pie, this episode was a big mess to fix.
I know right.
Author's Note
So this episode wasn’t too hard to fix, I needed to change the ending though because my goodness this ending was contrived. People say that the Mane Six had to be derailed for Starlight to look competent but I disagree, THIS is making the Mane Six AND Starlight look incompetent for Chrysalis to look competent. I was over Chrysalis by this point.
