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Twilight Under the Bodhi Tree
Glitter’s eyes scanned the page. Her brow creased; her lips pursed. Still, it was nonsense.
“‘Discord laughed, and picked up Celestia by her tail. “My dear, it’s clear.” The spirit of chaos twisted her around in a small circle, the princess giving a disgruntled groan. “We’re dead, or halfway there.”
Celestia smirked, and reached to the table next to her, picking up the glass that was on the table and balancing it delicately in her hoof.”
Glitter flipped the page. This is where the bookmark was. She didn’t know how far Twilight had gotten here. The bookmark was all the only hint she had.
“‘“This could be the last drink for you and me,” Celestia said,’” Glitter found herself reading along softly. “‘Her muzzle breaking slightly into what Discord immediately misconstrued to be a smile as he took the glass from her. “Don’t swallow.”’”
Glitter stopped reading as she heard the doors to the library open from a few rows down. “Glitter?” came the familiar voice of Spike the Dragon. “Glitter, is that you?”
“Yeah! I’m down a few rows!”
She heard his claws clatter across the crystal flagstone, Spike lumbering into view not a moment later. It was bizarre, seeing how much he had grown since she was a foal. He had barely been half a pony’s size, and now he was twice as tall as her, and three times as broad. He was truly becoming a sight to behold—he was even a foot taller than Princess Ember at this point.
“There you are! I was looking all over for you. Starlight found some things up in one of the attics that she thought you might want to have a look at.”
Glitter looked up from the book. “Oh?”
“Some old paintings, and some boxes of your baby clothes, and stuff,” Spike said with a nod. “She figured that you would want to take a look at it before she let the rest of the girls in on it.”
Glitter shrugged. “Sure. I’ll go up in a second.”
Spike took a few reverberating steps over towards Glitter, craning his neck to get a better look at what she was looking at. “What’s that you’re reading?”
Glitter held up the book for Spike to see; upon the cover was a faded and ornate printing of Discord curled around the trunk a large, ancient looking fig tree with a goblinoid grin besmirching his face. “It’s called ‘Discord Under The Bodhi Tree’. Evidently, it was what she was reading when...”
Glitter trailed off. Spike looked down at the floor for a moment, then looked back up at her, a flickering half-smile on his face.
“What’s it about?”
“It’s mostly a collection of short stories about Discord being an ass,” Glitter said bluntly. Spike laughed. Glitter’s expression remained unchanged as she continued. “This one that she stopped on is really strange, though.”
“Strange how?”
“Discord and Celestia formed some sort of bizarre suicide pact,” Glitter said. “I think. The author of this one lived about fifty years ago, when that whole Celestia’s Light Cult thing was going on. Suppose that was the inspiration. All these stories were written before Discord returned and reformed, though, so it’s actually kind of interesting to see how he’s portrayed by these authors. He’s a lot more charming, if sadistic, when drawing from his mythical portrayals instead of his true-to-life ones. Still, having grown up around him... whole thing comes off as surreal, if anything.”
Spike’s smile was somewhat stronger now. “Seems like you’re really into it.”
Glitter made a strange expression, like she had just tried to swallow a golf ball. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. I found it on her bedside, and I was just curious, I guess. Not entirely certain how I feel about the last story she read being that one, though.”
“Yeah. It’s a bit grim, I’d imagine.”
Glitter sighed. “It’s nothing to fret about, I guess.” She closed the book, setting it down on one of now desolate-shelves. She stared at it, her eyes traveling to where the bookmark was. The bookmark which just so happened to be a faded, but still intact, purple feather.
“Something eating at you?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, some dragon keeps butting into my business.”
Spike snorted. “Sorry. Guess it’s a crime to care about my friends now.”
“If you actually cared,” Glitter snapped. “You’d get together with Starlight, and both of you would have a nice long chat with me about everything.”
Spike looked as though Glitter had just bucked him dead in the chest with both her hind legs full-force. “Glitter,” he started softly. “You know that Princess Celestia wants—”
“Why do we care so much about what Celestia wants?” Glitter spat, uttering “Celestia” as though it were a filthy insult.
“Glitter, I know you’re hurting, but I can’t help if you’re just going to fight me every step of the way.”
Glitter took a deep breath, her body shaking slightly as if she’d just experienced a violently blustery wind.
“I just wish she hadn’t left me alone here,” Glitter found herself saying before she could stop herself. Almost immediately, she felt Spike’s grip tighten on her arm.
“She didn’t.” Glitter refused to look at him, instead focusing on a spot on the floor where a small crack had formed. “We’re still here. And you know she didn’t want to leave.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Glitter inhaled deeply, and gently pressed her hoof into Spike’s claw. He loosened his grasp, and she took a few paces away from him. “Sometimes though, I just think...”
“Just think what?” Spike’s voice carried a tinge of a rumble, something she had only properly had directed at her once and the mere memory of which still made her legs twitch despite themselves.
Glitter groaned, pressing her hoof into her temple as her brow furrowed, her eyes closing.
“Starlight? What are you doing here? I thought you left to go deal with that friendship problem the Princesses were having fifteen minutes ago!”
Glitter looked around the room awkwardly. “Uh. Mom?”
Twilight was not happy; she had both her hooves placed on the sides of her chair, pressed so firmly into the armrests that her forelegs quivered slightly. Her eyes were narrowed, and it almost seemed as if the entire temperature of the room had dropped. Honestly, it very well could have—her horn was sparking like Spike’s mouth after he’d eaten his own “Thirteen Fists Of Fire” nacho blend.
“I’m not in the mood for games, Starlight. Why aren’t haven’t you left already? This is a matter of catastrophic importance! What if the princesses get into a fight? What if they’re escalating it the point of allowing nightmare moon or daybreaker to come out again? What if they’re having a magic duel right now for supremacy? What if Luna doesn’t appreciate Celestia’s cooking? You have to go right now!”
“That doesn’t... Mom? I’m not Starlight. I’m your daughter, Glitter.”
Twilight looked dead into Glitter’s eyes. Glitter felt her heart skip a beat when “Starlight. I am not playing around. If you won’t go...” Glitter’s breath formed a cloud in the sudden cold, but that wasn’t why she gasped. Her mother’s horn was sparkling and crackling, her eyes clouding over with that strange, white mist...
“M-Mom?” Glitter took a step back, her breath catching in her throat. Stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm— “Mom! Starlight’s in Manehattan right now! Don’t you remem—”
“Starlight Glimmer,” Twilight's voice boomed throughout the room at a deafening volume, her body beginning to slowly rise up into the air as her eyes went completely blank. A spiral of energy began to wrap itself around her body from her horn like an incandescent, effervescent snake made of platinum smoke. “For brainwashing and enslaving countless ponies, and conspiring to usurp the princesses’ power, and for seeking to unravel all past, present, and future, I sentence you to—”
“Easy there, Twi,” came Spike’s gentle voice. The dragon had appeared almost from nowhere, bundled in his arms a thick lilac and azure blanket. He gently wrapped it around Twilight's body, slowly cocooning her and dragging her down through the air. Twilight struggled for a moment, the atmosphere in the room fluctuating rapidly between a boiling sauna and a deep freezer several dozen times over the span of the next few seconds. Spike kept his grip on her, however, and softly eased her into back into her chair. He wrapped his large, strong arms around her, holding Twilight in a tight but careful embrace. She squirmed and jerked, but soon the glow faded from her eyes and she slumped limply against his arms. Spike slowly moved himself off of her, and Twilight blinked a few times, staring around the room like a curious foal.
“Mom wouldn’t have known at the time that it was a problem with the princesses,” Glitter said, casting a worrisome glance in Twilight’s direction as she shivered under the blanket.
“Her memories confuse the proper order of stuff, a lot of the time, I think,” Spike said, rubbing his arm and fidgeting in place. Glitter shivered uncomfortably as Twilight gave a deep heave and rocked back and forth slightly in her spot. “What she did really took a toll on her.”
“It’s a bit...” Glitter said, her eyes slowly ticking back and forth each time her mother shook.
“Scary?” Spike supplied. Glitter broke from her transfixed gaze on Twilight, and hurriedly switched her focus to Spike, nodding.
Spike nodded in kind. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s terrifying, honestly. I hate seeing her like this too, but... we can be thankful that she’s alive.”
Glitter made a noise, but quickly bit her tongue. Spike’s brow furrowed. “What was that?”
“Nothing. I mean, it’s just—no. Nothing. It was nothing.”
“Say it.”
Glitter briefly looked back at her mother, who was now curled up in her chair, gently running her hoof along her side and muttering something neither of them could hear at that distance. “It’s just... I feel like the fact that I’m going to have to face sooner or later is that my mother died a long time ago, and that husk that she lived in that wanders around is just something that makes her death harder to deal with until it goes away.”
Spike made an low, rumbling noise, a sound that set several of Glitter’s hairs standing on end. “What did you just say? Glitter, I know this has been rough on you, but you can’t just—”
“I’m leaving,” Glitter promptly announced. “I’m going on that trip with Cloudcrasher I had planned to go on when... ‘this’ all happened.”
“What, just like that?” Spike asked, the tone in his voice unmistakable to Glitter. “Glitter, we really need you around. Starlight’s away in Manehattan until tomorrow night or even later, and I can’t take care of Twilight all by myself!”
“Oh yeah, look how much help I’ve been,” Glitter scoffed, her tone so acidic it could have burned a hole through the floor. “I can’t just stand here and watch this happen over and over again. What about those five other ponies who are supposed to be Twilight’s best friends? Get them to take a look after her.”
“Glitter—”
Glitter had already left the room.
Glitter watched as her mother sat under that frankly ugly fig tree in the small field adjacent to the castle. She’d been there for ages; seven and a half hours, to be precise. Glitter didn’t know how a mare who had once spent that time and more pouring over books and passionately (if not meticulously) micromanaging every aspect of her and the ponies close to her’s lives could now waste entire days under that stupid plant.
That said, her mother at least seemed a lot happier whenever she was under it. Maybe it did have some sort of spiritual property to it.
Glitter snorted. Had her mother been losing her grip even before what had happened? It was hard to say. All she knew was that, at least if the stories were to be believed, her mother hadn’t always been like that.
Even though she was incredibly dubious of doing so at first, Glitter was finally able to work up enough courage to approach her mother at some point after the eighth hour. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky at this point, but dusk hadn’t quite fallen yet. The shadows were long, but everything was still perfectly and pleasantly illuminated.
Glitter approached her mother as if she were a skittish mouse attempting to nick a few crumbs of bread. “H-Hey, mom.” Glitter swallowed painfully, her throat dry and her mouth cotton.
Twilight looked up at her, her eyes far duller than they had any business being. “Starlight? Where did you go, Starlight?”
“I’m not—I’m not Starlight, mom.” Glitter sighed. She should have known it was going to turn out like this.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said suddenly. Glitter’s stomach twisted into a complex series of knots and refused to unbind.
“You’re sorry? What’re you sorry for?” Glitter took a step closer to her mother.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight groaned, falling into her front and grinding her face into the grass. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Glitter looked around uncomfortably. She truly had no idea what she was supposed to do here, and it made her feel as if she were drowning upside down. “I, uh... mom? It’s okay... I don’t...”
Twilight suddenly sat straight back up, her cheeks soaked with tears but her eyes as lusterless and devoid of expression as they had been before. “Starlight, where did you go?”
Glitter stared at her mother for a few more moments before turning hoof on her and leaving.
“So you got this from Saddle Arabia?” Glitter asked as she looked over the heart-shaped leaves of the fig tree.
“Yup! It’s a clone from the northeast of there from a legendary tree called The Bodhi Tree. Supposedly, it has great meditative properties when one sits underneath it. It’s very important to the spiritual and philosophical traditions of the area.”
Glitter snorted. “Sounds like you’ve been around Treehugger and Fluttershy too much.”
“You may laugh now, Glitter, and I know what it’s like. When I was your age, and for the longest time after, I had just your attitude. You really do have to learn to trust and put your belief in some things sometime.”
Glitter scoffed. “I really don’t see what you’re supposed to trust here or the point of doing it.”
“There are a lot of things that are outside our control, Glitter. And these are things you’re going to have to make peace with, sooner or later.” Twilight sighed and looked over the freshly planted tree, a small smile dancing over her lips. “Besides, it’s a very aesthetically pleasing tree on top of it all.”
“If you say so,” Glitter said, crinkling her snout in distaste as she looked over the gnarled and viney tree.
Twilight’s horn sparked, and for a second, despite the fact that she had barely aged a day since she had first become a princess, she suddenly looks very much her age.
”There was something I didn’t bother to look at or learn for a long time, Glitter. I was really caught up on whether or not things were true. Naturally, I only wanted to believe what was true. But there’s something you really do have to understand: you can’t prove everything, and you can’t learn everything. Sooner or later, it’s gonna catch up to, and you can’t waste your time and energy on attempting to prove everypony wrong.”
She gave her daughter a hard look. “You don’t believe in things because they’re true, Glitter. These things, like that ponies are doing the best they can with what they’ve got, that good will triumph over evil, that justice and honor are real and absolute, that you can carry on in the face of immeasurable loss or tragedy, that love transcends all...”
She paused.
”...that friendship is magic... it doesn’t matter if these things are true or not. You don’t believe in them because they’re true. You believe in these kinds of things because they’re worth believing in.”
Glitter laughed. “That’s stupid. I could say anything is worth believing in and use that to justify my actions, no matter how terrible.”
Twilight sighed, her brow creasing more and more as she exhaled. “Glitter, I love you.”
Glitter rolled her eyes. “I’m going inside. I have to get ready to meet up with Cloudcrasher.”
That’s when the sky darkened even further. Glitter yelped as her mane was whipped violently around her face, a gale force wind welling up as the air grew noticeably chillier.
“Glitter!” Twilight screamed over the wind. “GLITTER! Go find Spike and Starlight! Now!”
“What?” Glitter yelled back. “Spike and Starlight? Why would I—”
“Spike will take you to the cellar of the castle, you’ll be fine there! Tell Starlight to get the girls together and then notify the other Princesses, now!”
“Is something happening? Is this what you were preparing—”
“NOW, Glitter! We can’t waste any time! I’ll tell you everything once I get the chance, I promise!”
With that, Twilight took to the air, her horn and eyes beginning to glow as the sky broke open into a roiling tempest. Glitter opened her mouth to shout, but bit it back at the last second. She turned and hurried inside as fast as she could, shouting for Spike and Starlight at the top of her lungs.
Cloudcrasher and Glitter sat huddled in the underground room, Spike resting and curled in a ball on the other side of the cellar. “Guess we have to postpone the camping trip, huh?”
Glitter shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I just wish our parents had any bit of trust in us.”
“Whatya mean?” Cloudcrasher asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t you think they should have told us about what’s happening? We’ve been in the dark for months about something ominous that they won’t ever talk directly about, and then suddenly the weather’s gotten all bizarre over the past few weeks. Now it’s intensified all of a sudden, and our parents are all getting together with the Princesses and Starlight to do something. This seems like a pretty big deal. I mean, you’d think if your mom was either Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash, one of them would tell you something.”
“Whatever, our parents can handle it,” Cloudcrasher said, seemingly unperturbed.
Glitter sighed. “I hope so. Mom said she’d finally tell me what this was all about when she came back.”
The night passed, and early in the morning there was a knock on the cellar door. They had all rushed up to it at once, but when it opened and they saw who was on the other side, they all fell dark. Cloudchaser had flown up to hug his mother at once, of course, but Rainbow had gently told him to go back down and wait beside Glitter for a moment.
“Where’s mom?” Glitter asked Starlight and Rainbow Dash, who were looking down at them from the top of the ladder. Both of them looked as though they’d aged ten years overnight; Glitter had never seen Rainbow look so sombre and defeated. “She said she would be able to explain what was going on once everything got cleared up!”
Rainbow Dash and Starlight exchanged glances. Starlight looked back at Glitter, her eyes distant and shell-shocked. “Well, she came back with us, Glitter, but I don’t think she’s going to be in any condition to tell you anything right now.”
Glitter couldn’t even say she felt exceptionally bad about turning away from her mother at this point. No meaningful conversation of any kind was to be had with her while she was like this. It was pointless to even try. Besides, she’d be happier there, fooling around under her fig tree, without Glitter distracting and confusing her.
“Glitter!”
Glitter froze in her tracks. She hadn’t heard her say that in... she spun around. Her mother was laying on her side, an expression of great concentration screwed up in her features. Glitter could almost swear she even saw the faintest glimmer in her eyes.
“Starlight... no, Glitter, I... I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Can you just bear with me for a second? When it’s like this?”
Glitter opened and closed her mouth like a gasping fish. Twilight strained, attempting to push herself to her hooves as she continued to speak. “I need you to believe that I’ll be okay and be right with you, alright? Even if I-I’m like that, sometimes.”
Glitter stared at her mother for a moment before making an awful, strangled noise and fleeing back to the castle.
Glitter opened her eyes. Spike was standing next to her, biting his lip and looking at her with a concerned gaze.
“You okay?” His voice was gentle. Glitter felt a strange flutter in the bottom of her chest, and for the first time in a while, smiled. She turned to face Spike, who judging by his sudden jolt, was taken aback by the maniac grin of the mare.
“Yeah, actually. I’m feeling... weirdly okay.”
Spike coughed, chuckling lightly. “Ahah... yeah. I don’t think I’ve seen you smile in, well—”
Glitter held up her hoof, her smile still wide. “It’s alright.”
Spike did another double take. “It is?”
Glitter nodded. Spike cocked his head, his eyes narrowing the same as Twilight’s would when she could obviously tell Glitter wasn't telling the full truth. “Are you certain? You’re not mad?”
“I don’t believe I could ever be mad again, Spike,” Glitter said. She wasn’t sure if that was true—but hell, somepony had once said to her that you didn’t believe in things because they were true.
“You—what? Glitter, what’s going on? What happened?”
Glitter laughed, a loud, barking one, and waltzed right out the library, skipped across the second-story mezzanine, her head thrown back, a strange euphoria filling her. It didn’t matter, did it? As her hooves clattered down the stairs, a loud, whooping laugh filled the castle. Ponies could do whatever they liked in this crushing absurdity. She ran through the empty hallway, a strange and vaguely unnatural glee welling up within her like bubbling pot. As the doors to the front of the castle flung open and a warm amber ray of light bathed the main hall, Glimmer’s laugh rose to a fever pitch, the unicorn stumbling over her hooves to get outside.
“Glitter!” She barely even registered Spike’s call. She could barely even see in front of her. It had felt like an incredible pressure had been lifted from inside her skull, and everything was suddenly flooding into her head all at the same time. In a brief moment of blissful ecstasy, she closed her eyes and let herself gallop blindly in front of her.
What was I waiting for?
“I don’t need to know! And I don’t wanna know!” she cried out to the sky, hooves flung upward and mane flopping about messily across her face in a most ungraceful manner. Her eyes were still clamped shut, the mild breeze sending a small tingle up and down her spine. She held her position, chest heaving, forelegs upstretched, until her hind legs began to wobble and bow from the strain. She dropped back down, smile still painfull stretched over her lips, panting wildly.
Glitter opened her eyes.
There she was, standing there and looking as if she’d always been there, watching her entire display. The late afternoon sunlight silhouetted her towering form, forming a brilliant and dazzling aurora around her. Glitter’s jaw dropped open and Spike, who was about ten paces behind the her, had stopped dead in his tracks, his claws clamped over his mouth.
“Hello, Twilight Glitter,” Princess Celestia said while wearing the saddest smile Glitter had ever seen. “I have so much to tell you.” Glitter’s mouth popped open, and Spike gave a small cough before slinking away as soon as Celestia began to advance towards Glitter.
She walked herself and Glitter to the field where the two of them sat under the Bodhi Tree and talked for hours, well into the night.
“‘Discord laughed, and picked up Celestia by her tail. “My dear, it’s clear.” The spirit of chaos twisted her around in a small circle, the princess giving a disgruntled groan. “We’re dead, or halfway there.”
Celestia smirked, and reached to the table next to her, picking up the glass that was on the table and balancing it delicately in her hoof.”
Glitter flipped the page. This is where the bookmark was. She didn’t know how far Twilight had gotten here. The bookmark was all the only hint she had.
“‘“This could be the last drink for you and me,” Celestia said,’” Glitter found herself reading along softly. “‘Her muzzle breaking slightly into what Discord immediately misconstrued to be a smile as he took the glass from her. “Don’t swallow.”’”
Glitter stopped reading as she heard the doors to the library open from a few rows down. “Glitter?” came the familiar voice of Spike the Dragon. “Glitter, is that you?”
“Yeah! I’m down a few rows!”
She heard his claws clatter across the crystal flagstone, Spike lumbering into view not a moment later. It was bizarre, seeing how much he had grown since she was a foal. He had barely been half a pony’s size, and now he was twice as tall as her, and three times as broad. He was truly becoming a sight to behold—he was even a foot taller than Princess Ember at this point.
“There you are! I was looking all over for you. Starlight found some things up in one of the attics that she thought you might want to have a look at.”
Glitter looked up from the book. “Oh?”
“Some old paintings, and some boxes of your baby clothes, and stuff,” Spike said with a nod. “She figured that you would want to take a look at it before she let the rest of the girls in on it.”
Glitter shrugged. “Sure. I’ll go up in a second.”
Spike took a few reverberating steps over towards Glitter, craning his neck to get a better look at what she was looking at. “What’s that you’re reading?”
Glitter held up the book for Spike to see; upon the cover was a faded and ornate printing of Discord curled around the trunk a large, ancient looking fig tree with a goblinoid grin besmirching his face. “It’s called ‘Discord Under The Bodhi Tree’. Evidently, it was what she was reading when...”
Glitter trailed off. Spike looked down at the floor for a moment, then looked back up at her, a flickering half-smile on his face.
“What’s it about?”
“It’s mostly a collection of short stories about Discord being an ass,” Glitter said bluntly. Spike laughed. Glitter’s expression remained unchanged as she continued. “This one that she stopped on is really strange, though.”
“Strange how?”
“Discord and Celestia formed some sort of bizarre suicide pact,” Glitter said. “I think. The author of this one lived about fifty years ago, when that whole Celestia’s Light Cult thing was going on. Suppose that was the inspiration. All these stories were written before Discord returned and reformed, though, so it’s actually kind of interesting to see how he’s portrayed by these authors. He’s a lot more charming, if sadistic, when drawing from his mythical portrayals instead of his true-to-life ones. Still, having grown up around him... whole thing comes off as surreal, if anything.”
Spike’s smile was somewhat stronger now. “Seems like you’re really into it.”
Glitter made a strange expression, like she had just tried to swallow a golf ball. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. I found it on her bedside, and I was just curious, I guess. Not entirely certain how I feel about the last story she read being that one, though.”
“Yeah. It’s a bit grim, I’d imagine.”
Glitter sighed. “It’s nothing to fret about, I guess.” She closed the book, setting it down on one of now desolate-shelves. She stared at it, her eyes traveling to where the bookmark was. The bookmark which just so happened to be a faded, but still intact, purple feather.
“Something eating at you?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, some dragon keeps butting into my business.”
Spike snorted. “Sorry. Guess it’s a crime to care about my friends now.”
“If you actually cared,” Glitter snapped. “You’d get together with Starlight, and both of you would have a nice long chat with me about everything.”
Spike looked as though Glitter had just bucked him dead in the chest with both her hind legs full-force. “Glitter,” he started softly. “You know that Princess Celestia wants—”
“Why do we care so much about what Celestia wants?” Glitter spat, uttering “Celestia” as though it were a filthy insult.
“Glitter, I know you’re hurting, but I can’t help if you’re just going to fight me every step of the way.”
Glitter took a deep breath, her body shaking slightly as if she’d just experienced a violently blustery wind.
“I just wish she hadn’t left me alone here,” Glitter found herself saying before she could stop herself. Almost immediately, she felt Spike’s grip tighten on her arm.
“She didn’t.” Glitter refused to look at him, instead focusing on a spot on the floor where a small crack had formed. “We’re still here. And you know she didn’t want to leave.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Glitter inhaled deeply, and gently pressed her hoof into Spike’s claw. He loosened his grasp, and she took a few paces away from him. “Sometimes though, I just think...”
“Just think what?” Spike’s voice carried a tinge of a rumble, something she had only properly had directed at her once and the mere memory of which still made her legs twitch despite themselves.
Glitter groaned, pressing her hoof into her temple as her brow furrowed, her eyes closing.
“Starlight? What are you doing here? I thought you left to go deal with that friendship problem the Princesses were having fifteen minutes ago!”
Glitter looked around the room awkwardly. “Uh. Mom?”
Twilight was not happy; she had both her hooves placed on the sides of her chair, pressed so firmly into the armrests that her forelegs quivered slightly. Her eyes were narrowed, and it almost seemed as if the entire temperature of the room had dropped. Honestly, it very well could have—her horn was sparking like Spike’s mouth after he’d eaten his own “Thirteen Fists Of Fire” nacho blend.
“I’m not in the mood for games, Starlight. Why aren’t haven’t you left already? This is a matter of catastrophic importance! What if the princesses get into a fight? What if they’re escalating it the point of allowing nightmare moon or daybreaker to come out again? What if they’re having a magic duel right now for supremacy? What if Luna doesn’t appreciate Celestia’s cooking? You have to go right now!”
“That doesn’t... Mom? I’m not Starlight. I’m your daughter, Glitter.”
Twilight looked dead into Glitter’s eyes. Glitter felt her heart skip a beat when “Starlight. I am not playing around. If you won’t go...” Glitter’s breath formed a cloud in the sudden cold, but that wasn’t why she gasped. Her mother’s horn was sparkling and crackling, her eyes clouding over with that strange, white mist...
“M-Mom?” Glitter took a step back, her breath catching in her throat. Stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm stay calm— “Mom! Starlight’s in Manehattan right now! Don’t you remem—”
“Starlight Glimmer,” Twilight's voice boomed throughout the room at a deafening volume, her body beginning to slowly rise up into the air as her eyes went completely blank. A spiral of energy began to wrap itself around her body from her horn like an incandescent, effervescent snake made of platinum smoke. “For brainwashing and enslaving countless ponies, and conspiring to usurp the princesses’ power, and for seeking to unravel all past, present, and future, I sentence you to—”
“Easy there, Twi,” came Spike’s gentle voice. The dragon had appeared almost from nowhere, bundled in his arms a thick lilac and azure blanket. He gently wrapped it around Twilight's body, slowly cocooning her and dragging her down through the air. Twilight struggled for a moment, the atmosphere in the room fluctuating rapidly between a boiling sauna and a deep freezer several dozen times over the span of the next few seconds. Spike kept his grip on her, however, and softly eased her into back into her chair. He wrapped his large, strong arms around her, holding Twilight in a tight but careful embrace. She squirmed and jerked, but soon the glow faded from her eyes and she slumped limply against his arms. Spike slowly moved himself off of her, and Twilight blinked a few times, staring around the room like a curious foal.
“Mom wouldn’t have known at the time that it was a problem with the princesses,” Glitter said, casting a worrisome glance in Twilight’s direction as she shivered under the blanket.
“Her memories confuse the proper order of stuff, a lot of the time, I think,” Spike said, rubbing his arm and fidgeting in place. Glitter shivered uncomfortably as Twilight gave a deep heave and rocked back and forth slightly in her spot. “What she did really took a toll on her.”
“It’s a bit...” Glitter said, her eyes slowly ticking back and forth each time her mother shook.
“Scary?” Spike supplied. Glitter broke from her transfixed gaze on Twilight, and hurriedly switched her focus to Spike, nodding.
Spike nodded in kind. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s terrifying, honestly. I hate seeing her like this too, but... we can be thankful that she’s alive.”
Glitter made a noise, but quickly bit her tongue. Spike’s brow furrowed. “What was that?”
“Nothing. I mean, it’s just—no. Nothing. It was nothing.”
“Say it.”
Glitter briefly looked back at her mother, who was now curled up in her chair, gently running her hoof along her side and muttering something neither of them could hear at that distance. “It’s just... I feel like the fact that I’m going to have to face sooner or later is that my mother died a long time ago, and that husk that she lived in that wanders around is just something that makes her death harder to deal with until it goes away.”
Spike made an low, rumbling noise, a sound that set several of Glitter’s hairs standing on end. “What did you just say? Glitter, I know this has been rough on you, but you can’t just—”
“I’m leaving,” Glitter promptly announced. “I’m going on that trip with Cloudcrasher I had planned to go on when... ‘this’ all happened.”
“What, just like that?” Spike asked, the tone in his voice unmistakable to Glitter. “Glitter, we really need you around. Starlight’s away in Manehattan until tomorrow night or even later, and I can’t take care of Twilight all by myself!”
“Oh yeah, look how much help I’ve been,” Glitter scoffed, her tone so acidic it could have burned a hole through the floor. “I can’t just stand here and watch this happen over and over again. What about those five other ponies who are supposed to be Twilight’s best friends? Get them to take a look after her.”
“Glitter—”
Glitter had already left the room.
Glitter watched as her mother sat under that frankly ugly fig tree in the small field adjacent to the castle. She’d been there for ages; seven and a half hours, to be precise. Glitter didn’t know how a mare who had once spent that time and more pouring over books and passionately (if not meticulously) micromanaging every aspect of her and the ponies close to her’s lives could now waste entire days under that stupid plant.
That said, her mother at least seemed a lot happier whenever she was under it. Maybe it did have some sort of spiritual property to it.
Glitter snorted. Had her mother been losing her grip even before what had happened? It was hard to say. All she knew was that, at least if the stories were to be believed, her mother hadn’t always been like that.
Even though she was incredibly dubious of doing so at first, Glitter was finally able to work up enough courage to approach her mother at some point after the eighth hour. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky at this point, but dusk hadn’t quite fallen yet. The shadows were long, but everything was still perfectly and pleasantly illuminated.
Glitter approached her mother as if she were a skittish mouse attempting to nick a few crumbs of bread. “H-Hey, mom.” Glitter swallowed painfully, her throat dry and her mouth cotton.
Twilight looked up at her, her eyes far duller than they had any business being. “Starlight? Where did you go, Starlight?”
“I’m not—I’m not Starlight, mom.” Glitter sighed. She should have known it was going to turn out like this.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said suddenly. Glitter’s stomach twisted into a complex series of knots and refused to unbind.
“You’re sorry? What’re you sorry for?” Glitter took a step closer to her mother.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight groaned, falling into her front and grinding her face into the grass. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Glitter looked around uncomfortably. She truly had no idea what she was supposed to do here, and it made her feel as if she were drowning upside down. “I, uh... mom? It’s okay... I don’t...”
Twilight suddenly sat straight back up, her cheeks soaked with tears but her eyes as lusterless and devoid of expression as they had been before. “Starlight, where did you go?”
Glitter stared at her mother for a few more moments before turning hoof on her and leaving.
“So you got this from Saddle Arabia?” Glitter asked as she looked over the heart-shaped leaves of the fig tree.
“Yup! It’s a clone from the northeast of there from a legendary tree called The Bodhi Tree. Supposedly, it has great meditative properties when one sits underneath it. It’s very important to the spiritual and philosophical traditions of the area.”
Glitter snorted. “Sounds like you’ve been around Treehugger and Fluttershy too much.”
“You may laugh now, Glitter, and I know what it’s like. When I was your age, and for the longest time after, I had just your attitude. You really do have to learn to trust and put your belief in some things sometime.”
Glitter scoffed. “I really don’t see what you’re supposed to trust here or the point of doing it.”
“There are a lot of things that are outside our control, Glitter. And these are things you’re going to have to make peace with, sooner or later.” Twilight sighed and looked over the freshly planted tree, a small smile dancing over her lips. “Besides, it’s a very aesthetically pleasing tree on top of it all.”
“If you say so,” Glitter said, crinkling her snout in distaste as she looked over the gnarled and viney tree.
Twilight’s horn sparked, and for a second, despite the fact that she had barely aged a day since she had first become a princess, she suddenly looks very much her age.
”There was something I didn’t bother to look at or learn for a long time, Glitter. I was really caught up on whether or not things were true. Naturally, I only wanted to believe what was true. But there’s something you really do have to understand: you can’t prove everything, and you can’t learn everything. Sooner or later, it’s gonna catch up to, and you can’t waste your time and energy on attempting to prove everypony wrong.”
She gave her daughter a hard look. “You don’t believe in things because they’re true, Glitter. These things, like that ponies are doing the best they can with what they’ve got, that good will triumph over evil, that justice and honor are real and absolute, that you can carry on in the face of immeasurable loss or tragedy, that love transcends all...”
She paused.
”...that friendship is magic... it doesn’t matter if these things are true or not. You don’t believe in them because they’re true. You believe in these kinds of things because they’re worth believing in.”
Glitter laughed. “That’s stupid. I could say anything is worth believing in and use that to justify my actions, no matter how terrible.”
Twilight sighed, her brow creasing more and more as she exhaled. “Glitter, I love you.”
Glitter rolled her eyes. “I’m going inside. I have to get ready to meet up with Cloudcrasher.”
That’s when the sky darkened even further. Glitter yelped as her mane was whipped violently around her face, a gale force wind welling up as the air grew noticeably chillier.
“Glitter!” Twilight screamed over the wind. “GLITTER! Go find Spike and Starlight! Now!”
“What?” Glitter yelled back. “Spike and Starlight? Why would I—”
“Spike will take you to the cellar of the castle, you’ll be fine there! Tell Starlight to get the girls together and then notify the other Princesses, now!”
“Is something happening? Is this what you were preparing—”
“NOW, Glitter! We can’t waste any time! I’ll tell you everything once I get the chance, I promise!”
With that, Twilight took to the air, her horn and eyes beginning to glow as the sky broke open into a roiling tempest. Glitter opened her mouth to shout, but bit it back at the last second. She turned and hurried inside as fast as she could, shouting for Spike and Starlight at the top of her lungs.
Cloudcrasher and Glitter sat huddled in the underground room, Spike resting and curled in a ball on the other side of the cellar. “Guess we have to postpone the camping trip, huh?”
Glitter shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I just wish our parents had any bit of trust in us.”
“Whatya mean?” Cloudcrasher asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t you think they should have told us about what’s happening? We’ve been in the dark for months about something ominous that they won’t ever talk directly about, and then suddenly the weather’s gotten all bizarre over the past few weeks. Now it’s intensified all of a sudden, and our parents are all getting together with the Princesses and Starlight to do something. This seems like a pretty big deal. I mean, you’d think if your mom was either Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash, one of them would tell you something.”
“Whatever, our parents can handle it,” Cloudcrasher said, seemingly unperturbed.
Glitter sighed. “I hope so. Mom said she’d finally tell me what this was all about when she came back.”
The night passed, and early in the morning there was a knock on the cellar door. They had all rushed up to it at once, but when it opened and they saw who was on the other side, they all fell dark. Cloudchaser had flown up to hug his mother at once, of course, but Rainbow had gently told him to go back down and wait beside Glitter for a moment.
“Where’s mom?” Glitter asked Starlight and Rainbow Dash, who were looking down at them from the top of the ladder. Both of them looked as though they’d aged ten years overnight; Glitter had never seen Rainbow look so sombre and defeated. “She said she would be able to explain what was going on once everything got cleared up!”
Rainbow Dash and Starlight exchanged glances. Starlight looked back at Glitter, her eyes distant and shell-shocked. “Well, she came back with us, Glitter, but I don’t think she’s going to be in any condition to tell you anything right now.”
Glitter couldn’t even say she felt exceptionally bad about turning away from her mother at this point. No meaningful conversation of any kind was to be had with her while she was like this. It was pointless to even try. Besides, she’d be happier there, fooling around under her fig tree, without Glitter distracting and confusing her.
“Glitter!”
Glitter froze in her tracks. She hadn’t heard her say that in... she spun around. Her mother was laying on her side, an expression of great concentration screwed up in her features. Glitter could almost swear she even saw the faintest glimmer in her eyes.
“Starlight... no, Glitter, I... I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Can you just bear with me for a second? When it’s like this?”
Glitter opened and closed her mouth like a gasping fish. Twilight strained, attempting to push herself to her hooves as she continued to speak. “I need you to believe that I’ll be okay and be right with you, alright? Even if I-I’m like that, sometimes.”
Glitter stared at her mother for a moment before making an awful, strangled noise and fleeing back to the castle.
Glitter opened her eyes. Spike was standing next to her, biting his lip and looking at her with a concerned gaze.
“You okay?” His voice was gentle. Glitter felt a strange flutter in the bottom of her chest, and for the first time in a while, smiled. She turned to face Spike, who judging by his sudden jolt, was taken aback by the maniac grin of the mare.
“Yeah, actually. I’m feeling... weirdly okay.”
Spike coughed, chuckling lightly. “Ahah... yeah. I don’t think I’ve seen you smile in, well—”
Glitter held up her hoof, her smile still wide. “It’s alright.”
Spike did another double take. “It is?”
Glitter nodded. Spike cocked his head, his eyes narrowing the same as Twilight’s would when she could obviously tell Glitter wasn't telling the full truth. “Are you certain? You’re not mad?”
“I don’t believe I could ever be mad again, Spike,” Glitter said. She wasn’t sure if that was true—but hell, somepony had once said to her that you didn’t believe in things because they were true.
“You—what? Glitter, what’s going on? What happened?”
Glitter laughed, a loud, barking one, and waltzed right out the library, skipped across the second-story mezzanine, her head thrown back, a strange euphoria filling her. It didn’t matter, did it? As her hooves clattered down the stairs, a loud, whooping laugh filled the castle. Ponies could do whatever they liked in this crushing absurdity. She ran through the empty hallway, a strange and vaguely unnatural glee welling up within her like bubbling pot. As the doors to the front of the castle flung open and a warm amber ray of light bathed the main hall, Glimmer’s laugh rose to a fever pitch, the unicorn stumbling over her hooves to get outside.
“Glitter!” She barely even registered Spike’s call. She could barely even see in front of her. It had felt like an incredible pressure had been lifted from inside her skull, and everything was suddenly flooding into her head all at the same time. In a brief moment of blissful ecstasy, she closed her eyes and let herself gallop blindly in front of her.
What was I waiting for?
“I don’t need to know! And I don’t wanna know!” she cried out to the sky, hooves flung upward and mane flopping about messily across her face in a most ungraceful manner. Her eyes were still clamped shut, the mild breeze sending a small tingle up and down her spine. She held her position, chest heaving, forelegs upstretched, until her hind legs began to wobble and bow from the strain. She dropped back down, smile still painfull stretched over her lips, panting wildly.
Glitter opened her eyes.
There she was, standing there and looking as if she’d always been there, watching her entire display. The late afternoon sunlight silhouetted her towering form, forming a brilliant and dazzling aurora around her. Glitter’s jaw dropped open and Spike, who was about ten paces behind the her, had stopped dead in his tracks, his claws clamped over his mouth.
“Hello, Twilight Glitter,” Princess Celestia said while wearing the saddest smile Glitter had ever seen. “I have so much to tell you.” Glitter’s mouth popped open, and Spike gave a small cough before slinking away as soon as Celestia began to advance towards Glitter.
She walked herself and Glitter to the field where the two of them sat under the Bodhi Tree and talked for hours, well into the night.
Even as a first draft, this is all kinds of painful and powerful for me. The emotions are all there, and I think the story's execution serves the idea well. I like the gradual reveal using chronological skipping about, although in places I did have a hard time following the sequence of events. There was some confusion for me (in just a couple of places) about who was speaking or being spoken to, but perhaps that confusion is part of the story.
I get that from this work as a whole--a sense that I mostly understand what's going on, and that the parts I don't understand may become clearer if I meditate on them a while. I'm okay with that, but I would also love to see this expanded if there are things the author didn't get to include in the original draft.
The one thing that bothered me has to do with the ending. Specifically, that Twilight's brief breakthrough with Glitter is the last we see of her. I understand why Glitter would run away, and that this is really more Glitter's story than Twilight's. I get that she's experiencing a moment of great enlightenment and, I think, of letting go. But when Twilight finally addresses her, it's a literal cry for help that she makes with what seems like tremendous effort. It's "I'm still here, I'm still me, please stay with me." And then she's left alone under the Bodhi Tree, and I just hurt for her, and it feels unresolved. Maybe it's meant to feel that way. I jUST NEED TO KNOW SMART PONY IS OKAY, OKAY? (just kidding maybe but seriously though.)
Thank you, author. You made me care about this story and these characters, enough that I feel invested in their well-being. Whatever you decide to do with them now, that is a job well done.
I get that from this work as a whole--a sense that I mostly understand what's going on, and that the parts I don't understand may become clearer if I meditate on them a while. I'm okay with that, but I would also love to see this expanded if there are things the author didn't get to include in the original draft.
The one thing that bothered me has to do with the ending. Specifically, that Twilight's brief breakthrough with Glitter is the last we see of her. I understand why Glitter would run away, and that this is really more Glitter's story than Twilight's. I get that she's experiencing a moment of great enlightenment and, I think, of letting go. But when Twilight finally addresses her, it's a literal cry for help that she makes with what seems like tremendous effort. It's "I'm still here, I'm still me, please stay with me." And then she's left alone under the Bodhi Tree, and I just hurt for her, and it feels unresolved. Maybe it's meant to feel that way. I jUST NEED TO KNOW SMART PONY IS OKAY, OKAY? (just kidding maybe but seriously though.)
Thank you, author. You made me care about this story and these characters, enough that I feel invested in their well-being. Whatever you decide to do with them now, that is a job well done.
I'm not sure what to think about this one.
I am a big fan of stories that play with a nonlinear narrative. That being said, there are times in this story (specifically around the scene breaks) where it becomes difficult to understand who is speaking, and when the event is happening. I'm sure some of this is on purpose, to disorient the reader, but at times it takes away from the telling of the story.
I'm also uncertain what happened to Twilight. At any point. There was some sort of bad thing which seriously messed her up, then after dealing with what seemed like brain damage she died?
I also don't understand Glitter's arc. I don't know why she had an epiphany in the end or what it was about, and I don't understand her reaction to seeing Twilight lucid. I also don't understand the meaning behind the book, or of Celestia showing up in the end.
I guess there's just a lot I didn't understand about this story. I thought it might be more about Glitter coming to terms with what has happened to Twilight, but that didn't really happen. Twilight's depiction also felt off to me: I remember when my grandmother began to forget people and things (and, eventually, herself) and this just didn't feel like that to me.
Also, I was thrown for a loop when Twilight gave the speech from Secondhand Lions (or close enough, anyway).
I'm sorry that this story just didn't really work for me. Maybe I'm missing something, not the story, but in the end, it is how it is. I hope these criticisms didn't come out to harsh, I just wanted to give my honest feelings towards the piece.
I am a big fan of stories that play with a nonlinear narrative. That being said, there are times in this story (specifically around the scene breaks) where it becomes difficult to understand who is speaking, and when the event is happening. I'm sure some of this is on purpose, to disorient the reader, but at times it takes away from the telling of the story.
I'm also uncertain what happened to Twilight. At any point. There was some sort of bad thing which seriously messed her up, then after dealing with what seemed like brain damage she died?
I also don't understand Glitter's arc. I don't know why she had an epiphany in the end or what it was about, and I don't understand her reaction to seeing Twilight lucid. I also don't understand the meaning behind the book, or of Celestia showing up in the end.
I guess there's just a lot I didn't understand about this story. I thought it might be more about Glitter coming to terms with what has happened to Twilight, but that didn't really happen. Twilight's depiction also felt off to me: I remember when my grandmother began to forget people and things (and, eventually, herself) and this just didn't feel like that to me.
Also, I was thrown for a loop when Twilight gave the speech from Secondhand Lions (or close enough, anyway).
I'm sorry that this story just didn't really work for me. Maybe I'm missing something, not the story, but in the end, it is how it is. I hope these criticisms didn't come out to harsh, I just wanted to give my honest feelings towards the piece.
All right, crackpot Theory time. My theory is that the reason Glitter's first name wasn't said until the very end, during the post Epiphany moment, was because she's not really Twilight's daughter.
Twilight and Discord did a Fusion Dance, and formed the inseparable new life-form known as Twilight Glitter. All of the scenes with Twilight's confusion and Glitter's reluctance was the Persona of Twilight psyche merging together with the cognitive whole to create the new life-form.
Yeah... I'll go with that.
Twilight and Discord did a Fusion Dance, and formed the inseparable new life-form known as Twilight Glitter. All of the scenes with Twilight's confusion and Glitter's reluctance was the Persona of Twilight psyche merging together with the cognitive whole to create the new life-form.
Yeah... I'll go with that.
I'm honestly not sure what to say about this one. It's too much of a rough draft for me to say anything beyond that it needs more work before any sense can be made of it. But I feel like the author already knows that.
Ho hum.
I suppose I can say I didn't like Glitter's character very much; she seems to flip-flop between many different characters throughout the story. She was introspective and curious, she was angry at the world despite nothing really triggering it, she was frightened, and then bratty, and then frightened again, and then ridiculously happy for reasons I can't explain. I know the story is told non-linearly, but even after rearranging the pieces in order I can't seem to follow her trail.
Overall, the story doesn't make sense to me (yet), but—on the understanding that some editing needs to be done—very well written.
Also, I recommend using italics when somebody is reading something. The fact that the book and the dialogue both got quotation marks really threw me for a loop. Like what is even happening in that 5th paragraph...
Thanks for writing and good luck!
Ho hum.
I suppose I can say I didn't like Glitter's character very much; she seems to flip-flop between many different characters throughout the story. She was introspective and curious, she was angry at the world despite nothing really triggering it, she was frightened, and then bratty, and then frightened again, and then ridiculously happy for reasons I can't explain. I know the story is told non-linearly, but even after rearranging the pieces in order I can't seem to follow her trail.
Overall, the story doesn't make sense to me (yet), but—on the understanding that some editing needs to be done—very well written.
Also, I recommend using italics when somebody is reading something. The fact that the book and the dialogue both got quotation marks really threw me for a loop. Like what is even happening in that 5th paragraph...
Thanks for writing and good luck!
I'll start by saying that, had you managed to give a more rounded narrative, you would've gotten one of the top spots of my voting. Hell, just a well-rounded conclusion would have satisfied me. That's how much I liked this story. You have a solid foundation here, but I feel it trips within a few strides of the finishing line. It's not as though I think you need to spell out everything about what happened to Twi (still, a few extra details would be appreciated) but we never get closure on Glitter's arc. What is going to happen to her relationship with her mother?
I think you have something great here, and with just a few rounds of editing and expansion, it could be amazing.
I think you have something great here, and with just a few rounds of editing and expansion, it could be amazing.
Toying with the non-linear scene arrangement is cool. My only structural complaint is that in the first scene with (sane) Twilight and Glitter, it takes a bit too long to really establish who the second character is.
That said, while this really pushes almost all of my buttons just the right way, I feel like I'm missing any sort of real narrative payoff here. Twi's fried from doing a thing, Glitter almost ran off once because dealing with Alzhiemer's/disabled family is goddamned hard (I get that all too well), and then Celestia shows up and they have a chat. I guess I'm confused about what overarching problem we're supposed to be following and ultimately seeing (having seen?) the resolution for. All of the pieces are great, but I feel like there's a scene or two missing to really complete the full story.
That said, while this really pushes almost all of my buttons just the right way, I feel like I'm missing any sort of real narrative payoff here. Twi's fried from doing a thing, Glitter almost ran off once because dealing with Alzhiemer's/disabled family is goddamned hard (I get that all too well), and then Celestia shows up and they have a chat. I guess I'm confused about what overarching problem we're supposed to be following and ultimately seeing (having seen?) the resolution for. All of the pieces are great, but I feel like there's a scene or two missing to really complete the full story.
I'm trying something experimental this round (and seeing if it makes reviewing at all easier for me) with rambling audio reviews. I don't normally do this, so apologies for roughness while I see if this works out for me.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZlDTd0a_Yl49DmAHES3Me9BVNljj4ROd/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZlDTd0a_Yl49DmAHES3Me9BVNljj4ROd/view?usp=sharing
This is one of the best. I think I'd like it more if it were a natural malady than a supernatural one, though. Maybe something physical made dementia appear more quickly than it otherwise would have? Then it wouldn't feel like the characters gave up on solving Twilight's mental status.
I cannot effing believe this didn't make it into the finals.
I read and carefully reviewed every entry and this was the top one on my slate. (In retrospect, I was tired when I voted on it and it was near the end, but it's still really good.)
I read and carefully reviewed every entry and this was the top one on my slate. (In retrospect, I was tired when I voted on it and it was near the end, but it's still really good.)