#crystal prep

MY LITTLE PONY

EQUESTRIA GIRLS

“Trixie’s Okay”

Chapter Two

“This must be the place, Trixie,” Sunset Shimmer said as we looked up at the large Wrought Iron gates before us. I know she really didn’t want to come with me on this mad quest to find someone I didn’t even know, but after a little persuasion she agreed. Though, I have a feeling, she’s tagging along to keep me out of trouble.

I am the Great and Powerful Trixie Lunamoon, what trouble could I possibly get into? Don’t answer that. Sunset knows me too well.

Not being good with computer, and I didn’t want Twilight to know what we were doing, I asked one of the Crusader girls to help look online for anyone by the name of Starlight Glimmer and where they might live.

With that answered, we were now standing outside of a gated suburban community.

I pressed against the gate and it swung inward.

“Welcome to Sire’s Hollow. Welcome to Sire’s Hollow,” came a woman’s voice from a loud speaker just inside the gate. Sunset and I looked at one another and shrugged.

Past the gate was a large fountain that represented the center of the small community. Around this center point were several small shops, including a fruit juice bar, a perfume shop, and a bakery. Beyond them were small pathways towards homes and the rest of the community.

There was a mixture of architecture in the buildings, some were very modern that gave off the appearance of a shopping mall, while others looked ancient. Well, as ancient as teenagers can imagine them to be.

We spent several minutes wandering about the town square and fountain. Looking into shop windows, more out of curiosity than anything else. After a bit, Sunset looked at me, as if expecting that I knew what I was looking for. I didn’t. Would Starlight Glimmer just show up in front of us? It’s not like I could pull her out of my hat. Fluttershy had stopped me from doing that with live bunny rabbits. 

Stopping at the smoothy bar, I asked the attendant if they knew anyone by the name Starlight Glimmer. Both Sunset and I noticed the reaction in their faces.

“Starlight? No, sorry, I can’t help you.” The attendant turned away to help another customer. They hadn’t said they didn’t know anything, just that they wouldn’t help us. Something wasn’t right, obviously. This was a concern I didn’t need. It was the voice in the back of my head saying I should forget this whole friendship quest and go home, but I just couldn’t. I kept remember how the pony Trixie and Starlight were such good friends. I wanted that.

We left the shop and found seats on the edge of the massive fountain.

“Did you really think it was going to be that easy?” Sunset asked after a few minutes. The fruit smoothies were quite good, better than the ones at the mall near our school.

“No, I guess not,” I resigned.

“She might not even be here—” Sunset was interrupted by a loud voice approaching us. It sounded very much like the voice from the entrance gate.

“If you’re going off to college, young man, you have to have a plan. You have to be prepared.”

“I am prepared, Mom.” A young man with fiery red hair, that kept falling over his glasses, and matching goatee replied to an older woman with similar hair as they walking along the path. He sounded exasperated.

“I certainly hope so, I do not want you to have to go through what Starlight Glimmer did when she dropped out of school and ran off to who knows where.”

We both looked up as they passed us.

“It wasn’t her fault. We were all struggling in our last semester.”

“You don’t struggle, you plan, just like your sister did. She planned out everything, even graduating ahead of everyone else. Now she’s at one of the best universities, and knows what she wants in life.” The woman seemed to be scolding him while complimenting his sister.

With that their conversation was at an end as she stepped into the bakery, leaving him outside. He appeared to be relieved, and pulled out a book from his pack and began to read. The title on the book read: Theoretical Physics.

I turned to Sunset and gave her a nudge. When she wasn’t going to move, I got up from the edge of the fountain and headed towards the young man. Sunset quickly jumped up and grabbed my arm to slow me down.

“Hi, I’m wondering if you could help us,” I began to introduce myself, “I’m the great—”

Sunset elbowed me, “You’re not putting on a show. Sorry about her.”

The young man looked up from the book and pushed his glasses up on his nose.

“She’s Trixie by the way,” Sunset went on, “and I’m—”

“Sunset,” he said with a look of shock on this face.

“Do I know you,” she asked a bit thrown by his reaction.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You look so much like my sister.”

“You’re sister?” Sunset Sparkle was so rarely without words. She looked so stunned.

They just stared at one another for a couple of minutes. So, I did what I do best, I interrupted.

“We were wondering if you could help us find someone. I believe they live here. A girl named Starlight Glimmer.”

He snapped out of whatever thoughts he was having and looked at me. “You’re looking for Starlight?”

He glanced back into the bakers to see his mother was finishing up her purchases and chatting with the rugged looking man at the counter.

“If you want to know about Starlight Glimmer, you need to visit the library.” He gestured towards a large building just beyond the town square.

“Uh, Library, right. Thank you.”

He looked from me to Sunset, “And I’d suggest you get moving, before mom comes and sees you here.”

Sunset suddenly grabbed my arm again and started to head across the square.  She suddenly stopped and looked back, “May I ask what your name is?”

“It’s Sunburst,” he answered and turned away, putting his nose back into the book.

“Are you alright, Sunset?” I asked her as we approached the large ancient looking library.

“I’m not really sure,” she answered, glancing back the way we came, “Sunburst. I think I’ve heard that name before, but what I’m certain of is that I do not have a brother.”

“But the other Sunset does? I guess that means not everything has a perfect parallel between the two worlds.” I said, trying to sound smart, but not understanding half the words I was saying.

“Oh, Celestia, I was so selfish,” Sunset stopped and cursed. She looked so upset, “I never once thought that she might have a family before I slipped into her life.”

“That still sounds like you did something to her,” I mused as we entered the library.

“I didn’t!!” She defended a little too loudly.

“Shhhh!” Came scolding hushes from two librarians, one at the circulation counter and the other at information. Information was what we needed, but neither of us wanted to approach her.

Before us were rows upon rows of packed bookshelves.

“Wow,” I said trying to keep my voice down, “Twilight would love this place.”

“Yeah, both of them would,” Sunset replied.

We started further in, but didn’t know where to start. I’m sure we looked lost.

“Can I help you young ladies?” A man came out from between a couple of book shelves. He seemed very proud of the collection, or perhaps of himself. He wore a vest that surrounded his large chest. His greying hair was full.

“Uh, yes,” Sunset began, “we’re looking for someone. It was recommended that we should come to the library for answers.”

“Oh, were you?” He said glancing over our shoulders at the door we had entered through. “Well, my library is where all the answers are.”

He sounded more jovial than he seemed to be.

“Yes, we’re looking for someone by the name of Starlight Glimmer,” I added, and immediately regretted it. The two librarians looked up as if I had shouted a curse word. They started to move books around on the desks in front of them as if they were wards against evil.

“Hmm, follow me,” the man said and headed down the main corridor of the library. We looked at one another as if asking what we should do or if this was safe. Neither of us wanted to remain in the stares of the two women and quickly caught up with the man.

He turned past the ancient book section. Once we joined him, he turned and looked down at us with powerful eyes. Okay, maybe we were in trouble.

“What do you two strangers want with my daughter?”

We looked at one another. What were we going to say? ‘Hi, she doesn’t know me, but I want her to be my best friend.’

“Am sorry, Sir,” Sunset said not giving me a chance to say something stupid, she knew I would, “You’re Firelight?”

He looked at her with concern, “you know me?”

“Starlight mentioned you once.”

“You’ve spoken to my daughter, when?”

“By e-mail,” it was my turn to save Sunset, because I knew she was meaning the other Starlight, “we’re in an online educational chat group and got to talking with her there.”

Sunset stared at me, not liking my obvious lie.

“Online chat, e-mail?” Firelight began to question the story as well, “Why must the younger generations rely so heavily on electronic media. Would it not be better to enjoy reading words on paper,” he flung his arms around indicating all the books, “write a nice letter and send it off.”

We looked at him with confusion. Was this boomer mad at us or not?

“Better still, speak to each other in person instead of on those so-called smart phones. Your mom is always trying to get me to use one.” Oh dear, he thinks Sunset is the one from here.

“That’s just it, Sir.” I inserted, “We’ve come to see Starlight in person, but no one will tell us where she is.”

“Ah, that’s better. Starlight really needs friends that will spend time with her. She really hasn’t been herself since she dropped out of school.”

“Oh, when did that happen?”

“Earlier this year. She had always been a hard worker, studying all the time, putting her whole self into everything she does. Then after one of her friends graduated early and headed off to college, she worked harder to follow their example. She was already giving her all, but if it was possible, she was giving 200 percent, and eventually she just broke. Couldn’t handle it anymore and dropped out. The few friends she had were moving on, leaving her behind. 

“I tried to comfort my little girl, give her encouragement to keep trying. She spent so much time in alone. Then something happened one night that changed her course even more.”

“What happened,” I asked, feeling dumb.

“Yes, perhaps we can help her,” Sunset answered, and then hesitated, “as her friends.”

“Well, Sunset, if you’ve come back to help,” He thought for a moment. There was no reason he should be talking about family trauma with a couple of strange teenagers, even if one of them looked like an old friend, “she was in her room, where she spent most of her time, when there was a sudden noise. Like a sonic-boom and a flash of light that engulfed the entire house. I ran to Starlight’s room to check on her, but she seemed just as surprised by it as I was. I never discovered what had happened, and none of our neighbors reported anything like it.”

We looked at one another, wondering what was going on, as he went on.

“I didn’t worry too much about it. Starlight spent most of her time in her room studying, promising she’d enroll again for the next semester. Yet, I wasn’t certain I believed her. One time I went to check on her, she was again busily studying as usual, but this time she was examining what appeared to be a piece of parchment with strange writing on it. I asked her if it was from the ancient book section of the library. She answered no. Starlight became defensive, saying it was just a side project of hers.”

“Did you ever find out what it was?” Sunset asked, she could tell something was very wrong.

“No, and what’s worse, she ran off that evening.”

“She ran away,” I asked. I was feeling very concerned for this girl I had never met, but wanted to.

“Well, it’s not the first time, and I have a pretty good idea where she is.”

“Where would that be, sir?”

“Starlight’s village, of course.”

We just looked at him in confusion.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought Sunset would know. Our family owns a winter cabin in the mountains. Starlight loves visiting there, so much that we’ve come to call the small community of cabins as ‘Our Town’ or ‘Starlight’s Village’.”

“You’re certain that’s where she would be, and you haven’t gone to bring her back?”

“Starlight’s too stubborn for me to just go up there and dragger her back home. She’d just run off again, I’d rather give her time. I’ll check on her in a week or so. If you’re really her friends, maybe you can convince her to come out of her shell, she’s missing so much.”

“Yes, we’ll go check on her,” I said before I had even thought about it.

Sunset didn’t seem happy, but nodded in agreement.

“We’ll do what we can… for our friend,” she added.

He thanked us furiously, and shook our hands. I noticed Sunset’s vision blurred for a moment; she was reading his mind. At least her pony ears didn’t show up.

“He cares an awful lot about Starlight,” Sunset said after we left the library.

“Then she’s got a better father than I do,” I grumbled. My dad spends all his time performing in Las Pegasus. Never showing up for any of my shows or school events.

“What do we do now?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “but Starlight needs me.”

“She doesn’t even know you.”

“I know, it’s just—”

“Sunset!” We looked up to see Sunburst standing near the fountain. With worry, we approached.

“You two really are trying to find Starlight, aren’t you?”

“We want to help her,” I said.

“I think that’s a good thing,” he answered, “because she really needs some friends. I don’t think I was a very good friend when she needed. When Sunset… I mean, when my sister left.”

There was an awkward silence, both Sunset and Sunburst didn’t seem to know what to say to each other.

“You’re the Rainbooms, right?” He finally asked.

“What?”

“You girls are from Equestira High. You— I mean my sister went there before graduating early and going off to university. I looked you up, you’re in that rock band. I saw your music video. It was really good.” He then looked at me, “you’re not in it.”

“No, I’m more a magician than a musician.”

“I’m glad my sister doesn’t go there anymore. Strange things have been happening at that school a lot.”

“You could say that,” I interjected.

“You all have extraordinary abilities of some kind. I’ve studied all the news reports on what happens at that school and around your friends.”

“Be careful, the last person that researched what happens at our school got turned into a monster.” I said without thinking. Why do I keep doing that?

Sunset pushed me to the side, “Ignore her. Yes, my friends and I have magical powers. Let me show you.”

She reached out and touched Sunburst’s arm. Suddenly there was a glowing aura about her, and her hair grew nearly to the ground in an almost flaming ‘pony tail’ and I watched as her ears moved to the top of her head.

“Those… those are horse ears.” Sunburst said shocked.

“They do that when they ‘Pony Up.’” I tried to explain, it didn’t help.

Sunset’s eyes suddenly went wide and glowed brightly.

“You and Starlight really were close in school,” she says aloud in response to whatever memories of Sunburst’s she sees, “and you’re upset that you let something happen to her. She got mad when her grades slipped and you couldn’t help her because your mother kept you focusing on getting into college. Now that she’s run away, you’re even more worried and can’t do a thing to help her.”

“You—you’re reading my mind?” He says, pulling away from her.

With the connection lost, Sunset’s body reverts to normal.

“Yes, it may not be the most visual of powers compared to the others, but it can be useful… and dangerous,” Sunset answered, I knew she was worried about what she had done before with controlling people’s minds. She didn’t want to be that monster ever again.

Sunburst thought about all this, rubbing his goatee.

“The powers come from these stones,” she indicated the crystal in her necklace.

He looked at it, wanting to examine it closer, but didn’t.

“These stones, your powers, aren’t from here. The energy they produce isn’t common to this universe, so it’s from some other dimension.”

“Well, that’s as good a way of explaining magic from another world as any, I guess,” Sunset shrugged.

“All the girls in your band got effected by this other worldly… magic?”

“Not only that,” I interrupted again, “Sunset’s from that other world too.”

“Trixie!”

“Sorry,” I slumped down and sat on the edge of the fountain.

“You’re from another world? A parallel Earth? That’s why you look so much like my sister.”

“Yes, but I don’t have a family like yours.”

“Then I don’t exist in your world?”

“I don’t know about everyone, but I believe Sunburst is a Wizard in the Crystal Empire.”

“A Wizard? Crystal Empire?” He burst a little too loud, someone at the juice bar looked over then turned away ignoring us. “After college I plan on being a Librarian and Archivist. I’ve already applied for an internship at Crystal Precatory School.”

I wanted to say something about Crystal Prep and the kids from there, but I kept my mouth shut for once.

“You’re looking for Starlight Glimmer. Why?” He may have been struggling with the concept of magic and other worlds, but he put it aside to focus on more important things.

“Let’s call it a Friendship Quest,” Sunset said indicating me and I looked up, “Trixie here briefly got to meet the Starlight from Equestria. That’s the name of the world I’m from, by the way. She’s wanting to meet the Starlight from this world.”

“Oh… Kay, a creature from another world, that looks a lot like my sister, wants to find my best friend, and I shouldn’t be worried about this?”

“Not at all,” I finally stood up, “we didn’t know anything was wrong before we got here. I want to help her, and bring her home if I can. I need to help her.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ll be able to do that, Starlight can be very stubborn in her ways. Also, don’t do anything to upset her, she has quite the temper when she’s not in control.”

“We’ll do our best,” Sunset replied.

“Alright then, when you find her, give her this. For some time now, she’s been seeking this book. Told me it had to do with some project she had doing, and asked if she could have it delivered to my home so as not to alarm her father. He’d never let it out of his library.  I’ve only glanced at it, and I’d say there’s good reason to be concerned.”

Sunburst reached into his backpack and pulled out several books and set them aside before pulling out one more and handed it to me. It had a grey silver cover, with an odd design on the front. A unicorn’s head with wings on both sides.

“An Alicorn,” Sunset gasped.

TO BE CONTINUED

Read Chapter One here.