“I think it’s time you got ready for bed, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity suggested nicely.
“Aw, Rarity, I’m not tired yet. And besides, we’re having such a good time.”
“Yes, but I promised Mother and Father I’d tuck you in at a reasonable hour. And... besides. There’s another reason I invited you over this weekend.”
“Huh? There is? What is it?”
“Well, you’re getting older now. And while I know you don’t have your cutie mark yet, really, it is just a matter of time. And there are things a young unicorn needs to know.”
Sweetie Belle sagged. “Oh. This is gonna be ‘the talk’, isn’t it?”
“Sweetie Belle, now... don’t take it that way. It’s an important point in your life. So important that I’m having Twilight Sparkle come over this evening.”
Sweetie Belle perked up. “Twilight? Twilight’s going to give me ‘the talk’?”
“Oh, I see, when it’s me, it’s a boring hum-drum chore, but with Twilight...”
“Oh, Rarity,” Sweetie Belle smiled. “It’s just that Twilight’s probably going to put on a show. You know.”
“Yes. I know. That’s why I asked her to help. The truth is, we’re both going to give you ‘the talk’.”
“When?”
“Anytime now. So I’d like you to go wash up your hooves and get into bed, alright?”
“Alright!” Sweetie Belle hopped off the settee and hurried away. Rarity busied herself with the task of putting away the games and snacks they’d been enjoying together until she heard Twilight’s hoof tapping at the door. Her horn glowed and she let Twilight in.
“Twilight, I can’t thank you enough for coming this evening. Really. It’s going to be so much easier with the two of us.”
“I’m happy to help, Rarity. I’m honoured that you’d ask. I know it’s a big responsibility.”
“I remember when I got ‘the talk’,” Rarity said. “I don’t think I slept for days.”
“Me either. It’s a lot to take in. But it’s important she hears this before she makes a mistake.”
“Exactly,” Rarity said, nodding.
“Is that Twilight?” Sweetie Belle shouted from the other room. “I’m ready!”
The mares smiled at each other. “Well, I suppose there’s no point in dawdling,” Rarity said. “Not if she’s ready.”
Twilight nodded, and they made their way to the guest room, where Sweetie Belle was already under the covers. “Hi, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight smiled.
“Hi, Twilight,” the filly answered. “Rarity said you’re going to give me ‘the talk’.”
“We both are,” Twilight said. “Rarity and me. Because when we were your age, we got ‘the talk’.”
“So what is this ‘talk’, anyway?” Sweetie Belle asked them.
Rarity’s horn glowed and she closed the drapes. Twilight lit candles and arranged them around the room. Strange shadows were cast, drifting and flowing, merging and falling apart in the living light. Twilight sat to the right of Sweetie Belle’s bed, and Rarity to the left.
“You’re a young unicorn, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said softly, “and very soon, changes will come over you. Powerful changes. Changes in who you are and what you can do.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. “I know. My cutie mark.”
“It’s different for us, Sweetie,” Twilight said. “Earth ponies and pegasi get their cutie marks too, but for them, it’s about discovering who they are and what they’re best at.”
“And it isn’t for unicorns?”
“Well, it is,” Rarity said, “and it isn’t.”
“Huh?”
“Sweetie Belle, when a unicorn gets her cutie mark, she gets her powers, too,” Twilight said.
“Oh, I know that.”
“I know you do,” Twilight said. “But it’s something you need to think about. Magic is a huge responsibility. It can do great good, or it can do great harm. And that’s something every unicorn has to understand. The other ponies have magic, too, but it’s passive. Mastering the soil, cloud-walking... Our magic is active. We shape and control it. There are things that happen just because we will them to happen. Other ponies have to put a lot of trust in us that we won’t ever use our powers for the wrong things.”
“Oh... I guess I never really thought of that,” Sweetie Belle said.
“You haven’t had to,” Rarity said. “Except when they’re babies, and the things they imagine are easily undone, unicorn foals don’t have their powers. Usually not till their cutie mark appears, though Twilight got hers early, since magic itself is her special talent. But usually, it only happens when they’re ready for them.”
“Or should be,” Twilight emphasized. “They aren’t always wise.”
“And that’s why Twilight and I are here tonight,” Rarity said, “to tell you The Terrible Tale of Starminder.”
Sweetie Belle eased just a little deeper into the covers.
Twilight’s horn glowed, and in the air before the three unicorns, a pastoral scene appeared. “It happened a long, long time ago. Before ponies lived in towns, or even in houses, when ponies were still just nomads on the plains, with no roof above them but the sky. So long ago that there weren’t even unicorns or pegasi yet. And then one day, a little filly was born with a horn growing out of her head. No one had ever seen such a thing before. When she was excited, when she jumped and played, little stars seemed to flake off from her horn, and everyone was amazed. So they called her Starminder. She was the first unicorn.”
Rarity leaned closer and took over the narrative. Sweetie Belle turned to her as she spoke. “At first, they thought it was just something strange the little foal would grow out of. But she didn’t. No. The horn grew longer and sharper, and the stars brighter and wilder. Soon they became afraid of little Starminder, until one day, they called her a monster and chased her away, driving her from her mother, and out into the forest alone.”
Sweetie Belle drew the covers up to her snout, watching the scenes unfold in the glow of Twilight’s magic.
“They thought she would starve, or be eaten up, or simply make her way someplace else. But in any case, she was out of their manes, and that was that,” Twilight said. “Can you imagine how she felt? So frightened. So alone. So she cried out to the stars she was named after, and they answered her prayers. One night, the wolves found her, and they circled in close for an easy meal, taunting her as they drew nearer. She shook with fear. The leader of the wolves pounced!”
Sweetie Belle shut her eyes tightly, unable to watch. She heard Twilight say, “Starminder crouched and closed her eyes, just like you, wishing with all her might that she could stop the wolf and be spared the feeling of his teeth in her throat. And then...”
Sweetie Belle looked up, and saw before her a vision of the alpha wolf, suspended in the air, kicking and snarling in the glow of Starminder’s magic. The other wolves were looking on in amazement.
Rarity continued. “Then, what she wished for, happened. Her powers had come to her. And what powers they were...”
Sweetie Belle watched as the look of surprise on Starminder’s face became one of cool self-confidence. Starminder swung the wolf around, and threw him far over the trees. The other wolves turned to flee, but were instantly enmeshed in the glow of Starminder’s magic too.
Rarity said, “Starminder was the first unicorn, and because of that, maybe the most powerful, too. The legend says she went home to her herd that night, bringing the wolves with her. When she arrived, the ponies scattered in terror, but she called them back to her, assuring them they were in no danger. When the ponies understood that the wolves were trapped and in Starminder’s power, they gathered around. Now it was their turn to taunt the wolves, who had terrorized them from the edges of the forest since the beginning of time. Laughing and cheering, they followed as Starminder led them to a cliff. They were still cheering as she threw the first of the wolves over the edge. Some of them were still cheering after the second. Perhaps a few still cheered when she threw the third. But it died away, and they stood in silence as one by one, Starminder threw the wolves off the cliff, young and old, male and female, until they were gone, and the ponies stood alone.”
Twilight stepped to the foot of Sweetie Belle’s bed, under the vision she was casting. “She turned to her herd and assured them that no one would ever hurt them again so long as she was around. And that was when they saw it. The new thing, the strange picture on her flank. A crescent moon and three stars. It was the first cutie mark. They all knew it was fateful.”
Rarity joined Twilight. “In the years that passed, Starminder’s popularity grew with her powers. She became the leader of her herd, and finally all the herds. She helped some ponies learn new ways and work the soil, and they found they could settle down in one place and not have to move around. She chose other ponies to manage the weather, and sent them into the skies on wings that they could keep. The best and strongest and brightest stallions came from far and wide to sire her foals, and some of them were born unicorns too.”
Twilight said, “And they began to build...” And Sweetie Belle watched as the first shelters went up, and the first crude village of thatched huts huddled together. “Everything we really are began. It should have been enough. But it wasn’t. The ponies grew lazy, and more and more they depended on Starminder’s growing magic. First they forced other creatures to do their work for them. But that presented its own problems,” she said, and Sweetie Belle watched ponies chased across the plains by a furious herd of cattle in rebellion.
“But by then,” Rarity said, “Starminder was becoming aware of another realm. A spirit realm, full of such power and wonder. She could close her eyes and glimpse it. And she knew if she could reach it, control it, that they ponies would never have to toil again. They urged her to try. And so she set out to learn how to touch the other world, and how to hold it in check when she did.”
“Oh, no,” Sweetie Belle said.
Twilight nodded. “One night, under the full moon, the ponies were ready. They gathered, and Starminder opened the realm with her mind. Her magic was strong, and at first, the spirits arrived and were bound to her will. But more and more of them came. And each one that came taxed her abilities that much more. With each arrival, her control was less. She tried to stop them from coming, and close the portal, but it was too late. Finally, it was too much even for her, and the spirits from the beyond broke free. They fell upon the ponies, who scattered in terror, but not before the spirits had captured and dragged away to the other side dozens, maybe hundreds of ponies, including Starminder herself. To this day, no one knows exactly what it was Starminder let cross over into this world, or if it’s still connected even now, and no one knows what became of her and the others. The herds and her children who survived gathered again, and left that place, never to return, and it remains lost to the knowledge of ponydom.”
“And rightly so,” Rarity whispered.
The image of Starminder, ghostly and sorrowful, floated before Sweetie Belle, coming nearer and nearer, blocking sight of Twilight as she spoke. “And so, young unicorn, remember Starminder, the first of us all, who, though the greatest, was not so great to escape the consequences of her pride and arrogance. Whatever you may become, whatever your powers may be, exercise caution and use them wisely. Remember the ponies around you who count on you not to put them in danger. Keep in mind the foals who deserve the same chance as you to grow up in safety. And think.”
The vision faded, and Sweetie Belle trembled like the candle light, teary-eyed. “I don’t want powers!” she wailed.
Rarity smiled and pressed close to her. “Now, Sweetie Belle. We didn’t tell you that to frighten you. You’re a unicorn, and magical powers are natural. When you get them, they’ll be something to celebrate!”
“Exactly,” said Twilight, smiling brightly. “We only told you this to that when you get them, whatever they are, you’ll understand that they’re a huge responsibility, right from the start. I never cast a spell without first considering who it will affect, and how it could go wrong.”
“And I do the same thing when I’m designing a dress,” Rarity said. They all laughed.
Sweetie Belle wiped away her tears and looked at them. “I think I understand now,” she said. “Powers are something wonderful, but they’re something to be careful with, all the time.”
“Oh, Sweetie, I’m so proud of you,” Rarity said, giving her peck on the cheek. “Do you think you’ll be able to sleep tonight? Should we stay with you for a while?”
“Well,” said Sweetie Belle, “I think maybe a few more games of Steeplechase might help calm me down, especially with Twilight here. Oh, and hot chocolate.”
Rarity pulled a face and glanced at Twilight. “Well, I suppose a slightly later bedtime this evening wouldn’t hurt,” she said.
“Yippee!” Sweetie Belle shouted, springing from bed. “And with marshmallows?”
“I think that can be arranged,” Rarity said.
