My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Starlight Sparkle

A Spark of Friendship

"So how's Rarity?" Spike enquired tentatively as Astra emerged from Carousel Boutique. She stopped before him and shot the dress shop a worried glance.

"You don't wanna know. Let's just move on."

Gulping, Spike flourished the checklist and peered at it intently. "Says here you need to make sure the music is all set. It's being handled by ... Vinyl Scratch? But-"

"What is it?"

Spike lowered the list and stared at her, obviously puzzled by something. "Fluttershy should be taking care of the music, but she isn't, and she isn't mentioned anywhere on the list."

"So?"

"So we should go check on her! If she hasn't been given a job to do don't you wanna know why?" Spike scrunched up the checklist and shuddered as he pondered the implications. "Maybe Twilight did something really terrible to her. Like ... made her explode!"

Astra regarded the little dragon dubiously. "Explode? Really?" She studied his deeply worried expression for a moment before sighing. "Okay, let's go check on her. You'll have to lead the way little guy, I don't know where to find this one."

Spike led her to a cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest that was teeming with wildlife. She became aware of dozens of sets of eyes watching her as they approached the structure, and passed a chicken run at one point. Once at the door she banged a hoof against it to knock. A creamy yellow earth pony with an orange mane answered, startling Spike.

"Carrot Top?"

"Hello Spike. Haven't seen you around in a while."

"Why are you in Fluttershy's cottage? Where is she? Did something happen to her? Is she okay?"

Carrot Top blinked at the barrage of questions. When they had subsided she gave a little sigh and strolled past Spike and Astra. "This way. It's easier if I just show you."

They exchanged worried glances at that but followed the earth pony all the same. She led them around the back of the cottage and stopped before a small tree.

"There she is."

Unicorn and dragon stared at her in incomprehension. They both cast searching gazes about for some sign of the timid pegasus pony, but of Fluttershy they could find no trace. Astra frowned at her whilst Spike shrugged.

"Where? I don't see her," he said. Carrot Top gestured towards the tree she had stopped next to.

"That's Fluttershy."

They both regarded the tree for a moment. It was definitely a tree, and not, say, a pegasus disguised as a tree. It had branches. Leaves. It even looked as if it had roots in the ground. Spike and Astra glanced at each other as if worried she might be losing it.

"That's a tree," Astra pointed out slowly, careful not to antagonise the possibly doollaly pony. Carrot Top rolled her eyes and gestured again.

"Take a closer look at the leaves. Notice the colour?"

They did. Now that she mentioned it, the leaves were a soft shade of pink. The trunk of the tree was also a sort of pale yellow. Astra's eyes grew wide with horror as the realisation struck her.

"Oh no she didn't ..."

"Oh yes she did," Carrot Top countered sadly.

Twilight had turned Fluttershy into a tree. An actual honest to goodness tree. Astra groaned, her head drooping low, whilst Spike rushed forwards and hugged Fluttershy.

"I've been helping take care of the animals here," Carrot Top explained further, "We've all been taking turns. Which reminds me, if you see that little white rabbit hopping about, let me know will you?"

Marvellous. Twilight had sapped Applejack's strength, made Rainbow Dash terrified of heights, turned Rarity into a Gorgon and planted Fluttershy in the ground. That just left Pinkie Pie. With the way things were going Astra wouldn't be all that surprised if she had exploded.

Neither of them felt much like going to Sugarcube Corner to see what fate had befallen Pinkie, so instead they adjourned to the library. Astra wanted to collect some of her things that she had left from her previous visit, and they still had to do the final item on the checklist.

"Let me guess," she muttered sullenly as she magically tided away the books strewn across the floor, "She wants me to rearrange the stars so that they spell out 'ALL HAIL QUEEN TWILIGHT'."

Spike was too depressed to snigger at that. He stared dumbly at the final item on the checklist instead. "She wants you to write her coronation speech."

"Oh is that all?" Astra gave a very fake laugh. "A speech. So I'm a speechwriter now. Will the fun never end?"

The door to the library barged open and a pink earth pony strode in. It took them both a shocked moment to realise that it was Pinkie Pie. She was carrying a cake box in her mouth, which she set down in front of Astra. Gone was the bouncing exuberant party pony Astra had come to know during her brief stay in Ponyville. In her place was a grim gloomy Gus with a flat mane and twitchy eyes. They twitched twice as Pinkie glared at Astra.

"There's your coronation cake, as ordered, your highness."

"Pinkie Pie, what's wrong?" Spike asked, dreading the answer even as he posed the question. He'd only ever seen Pinkie like this once before; when she was convinced her friends were avoiding her and didn't want to be friends with her anymore. Pinkie Pie lowered her head level with Spike's, gritting her teeth together as she growled an answer.

"What's wrong you ask? I'll tell you what's wrong little Spikey; For an entire week the Pinkie Pie hasn't been able to smile, sing or even laugh. That's what's wrong!"

"Why not?" Astra asked, bewildered by her complete change in demeanour. Pinkie raised her head and fixed Astra with a glare that could have melted the frosted icing on a cake at twenty paces. With a tremendous strain she forced herself to smile, her eye twitching constantly as she did so. As soon as a smile 'graced' her features they heard an audible crack, and Pinkie's entire body shook as if she were having a seizure. When it stopped, smoke curled from her mane and her eyes turned crooked. She shook her head to straighten them and pasted a resigned grimace upon her face once more.

"Whoa! What was that?" Spike asked, stunned.

"That was Twilight's parting gift," Pinkie muttered gloomily, "Every time I smile, every time I laugh or try to sing, I get the nastiest shock of my pretty pony life. I've been this way for a whole week, and it looks like I'll be stuck this way forever." She inhaled sharply and then bellowed loudly right into Astra's face. "FOREVER!"

With that she turned and stomped out of the library, slamming the door on the way out. The tremor caused a book to topple from one of the shelves and crash to the floor. Spike stared after her for a long moment and blinked several times.

"Gosh," was all he could think to say to that.

Astra had once read the description 'a bottomless pit of despair' and thought the pony who wrote it was exaggerating. Now she knew exactly what they had meant, because she was feeling it right now. She levitated the cake box and set it on a table, before dragging herself over to tidy away the book Pinkie had knocked from the shelf. As she lifted the volume she discovered a sealed scroll lying beside it. Frowning, she floated it up and unrolled it, scanning the contents.

"Spike, what is this?"

The dragon strolled over to her side and peered at the scroll. "Oh! That looks like one of Twilight's friendship reports."

"Friendship reports?"

Spike nodded. "Whenever Twilight learned something new about the magic of friendship, she would write a letter to Princess Celestia and then I would send it. I guess this one never got sent because she got distracted with your arrival and all. Huh. Guess there's no point sending it now; it's not like Princess Celestia is in any state to read it."

Astra read and then reread the letter. A friendship report? The magic of friendship? So ... Twilight frequently wrote things like this and sent them to Celestia. Astra had no idea.

Somewhere deep within the dark recesses of her mind a tiny spark of inspiration flared, like a star twinkling in an otherwise starless sky.

"Spike!" Astra shouted suddenly, startling the poor little dragon, "Fetch me some ink and parchment. I've got a speech to write!"

She had a plan. It was a long shot. It was the longest of long longshots. If it didn't work - and she really had little reason to believe that it would - then she would be effectively signing her own death warrant. But on the other hoof there was a very very very very very very very very VERY slim chance that it might work, in which case Astra might just be able to fix this horrible mess.

She had to try.