I've moved on from Fimfiction. New works on AO3!
The Writers' Group56,640 stories ·9,314 members
Slice of Life8,191 stories ·1,466 members
Rarity3,860 stories ·2,004 members
Oh god! The FEELS!1,953 stories ·939 members
Completed Story Compendium21,103 stories ·1,704 members
Twilight Sparkle may have shown Starlight Glimmer the error of her ways, but Starlight is still new to the concept of true friendship.
Fortunately, Twilight has true friends in high places. Rarity, for example, is always glad to lend a hoof when it comes to bringing out one's personal elegance.
Preread by Mooncalf.
Page generated in 0.132 seconds
Total duration
1,024 users online
2,494,695 hits today, 2,732,798 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Man, I’ve been where Starlight is before. I can really relate to her how she’s depicted here.
I feel like I should be expecting a few more stories in this vein over the next few days.
It's hard when you have doubts that you're any kind of good person at all. I know a little of what Starlight feels like, and I think we all need a Rarity in our lives to tell us how to move forward.
The feels were strong with this one.
Uh-oh, looks like Starlight's getting one of "those" flashbacks.
A good amount of feels were exchanged in this entry. And I get the feeling that since you planted this one just hours after your one with Applejack, you're going to be making this into a series. But who's going to be next: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy?
What episode is the picture from?
8197703
"The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2". Season 5 finale.
Bravo, my friend.....well written and very well told! So very beautiful at every turn!
Well done
It's raining Starlight!
Boop.
But, otherwise, well played. It's great to see Rarity of all ponies be the one to help polish up someone's insides as well as the exterior. We don't get enough of her selfless side, on the whole, I think.
Keen insight and care, exactly what Starlight jeeded at this juncture. And Spike's scene was fantastic as well. Another great entry in this series. I especially love Rarity's speech patterns captured in the patterns of italicization. Thank you for this.
...dang it, this is making me relate to Starlight more than before. That's a good thing by me.
I'm so glad you wrote this, it was a great read! all the characters were simply on point!
This was a good story.
Oh my, I love this Rarity and this Spike. It is always a delight when we see them in deeper roles.
Thank you for the story.
What about the new name style on Starlight?
You know, I saw this story and went to read it because I thought I had missed a Bookish story before it got into the feature box…
then saw I already read it on May 29th when it was released. So, um congrats you got featured?
Hi I have read both your stories which I really enjoyed.
I was wondering are you going to write anymore of what the others and Starlight did during the montarge at the end of serise five.
One of the most fascinating things about Starlight Glimmer as a character is the precise nature of her redemption. Because in contrast to, say, Nightmare Moon, who was basically already a good pony who just needed to be rescued and led back to the light, or Discord, whose reform has been…bumpy, to put it mildly*, Starlight started out in a Bad Place, has worked her way to a good place, and even as she’s stumbled along the way, she is still earnestly trying to walk that better path. Her redemption, in other words, may be a Work In Progress, but it is a Work In Progress she genuinely wants to complete, no matter the struggles and difficulties she runs into along the way. That creates a fascinating area of moral and character exploration “Friendship is Magic” has never really had before, in addition to creating this really rich, deep internal dynamic for Starlight. And “True Beauty” navigates both of those elements beautifully and brilliantly, staking out that fascinating space where they intersect, and in so doing delivering a message that is simultaneously completely outside the show’s own particular style…and yet perfectly in keeping with its moral universe.
Ah, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, aren’t I? First thing’s first, we’ve got ourselves a brilliant little premise here. It’s an idea you’ve played with from other angles, too, the notion of Rarity using her self-expression through fashion as a way of reaching out to someone and making a personal connection that in turn allows her to help them work through their problem. It’s a tried and true concept, too**, but it never feels tired or familiar here, because, as you always do when playing with recurring concepts and themes in your work, you’ve found a new angle to approach it from. As with “Same Apples, New Tricks”, you see, this isn’t Rarity stepping up to a challenge at the request of another (like “Special Case”) or Rarity inviting a friend into her world for the sake of bonding with them (as in “Full Self-Service”). No, as with “Old Apples, New Tricks”, and in keeping with the over-arching theme of this meta-story, this is Rarity taking on the role of Mentor, using her special talents to help a friend recognize something about themselves they may not have realized, and something else they might not care to admit about themselves. It is, unsurprisingly, a mode you work for Rarity with perfect precision; her language, her eye for detail, the way in which each choice, from the fabrics she picks to the questions she asks…it is compelling equally for the insight it provides us into Rarity the Artist, and the clear point it makes about Rarity The Friend. Besides which, it is just exceptionally constructed to boot; your attention to detail in general, and with Rarity in particular, has always been quite strong, but here especially you use it to wonderful effect, allowing us not only to understand Rarity’s perspective, but to understand Rarity’s perspective from Starlight’s perspective. We see her simultaneously as this warm, accommodating, almost-mentor-like figure, but we also see how much her craft and her artistry place her in almost a whole other world from the ponies around her; it never makes her unknowable, but it does grant her the sheen of…I guess Sageness, in a way. Akin to Applejack in “Same Apples….”, it allows us to recognize, not only the wisdom of her methods and observations, but also the full depth of how much she has learned and integrated them into herself. In other words, it’s another example of how, as much as this story is about Starlight and her continuing internal struggle, it is also a wonderful celebration of what has made Rarity such an indispensable friend and a valuable companion over the years.
On top of all that, you also highlight an aspect of Rarity that all too often goes either unexplored, outright ignored, or worst of all misinterpreted***: her relationship with Spike. It’s a small thing, in the story’s grand scheme, and yet, it’s also a really important piece, too. Because the thing that, even today, too few people recognize is that a key pillar of Rarity’s and Spike’s friendship is that they are partners. They support each other, they understand each other, and each can supplement the other when need be. So when Spike steps in to give Starlight his own little pep-talk, in the midst of Rarity’s Fashion Tour of Self-Realization, it isn’t just a nice opportunity that allows Starlight to better process the emotions she’s currently experiencing by means of a friend with whom she is, I don’t think it’s unfair to say, more familiar and comfortable with than Rarity. It is also a key expression of the role Spike plays, and that Rarity understood he would play, in what she was trying to do, a sign of how much he and she both understand each other, and what they both want to do for Starlight.
Which, at last, brings us to the real central point of all this. Generally speaking, both in the show and in your stories about her thus far, Starlight’s journey has been primarily about the fear that she will never be able to make up for the mistakes she’s made. That, when all is said and done, she will never be able to truly conquer the parts of herself that led her to make those evil decisions. But “True Beauty” stakes out a new, fascinating, almost radical position: that she doesn’t need to. It’s a tough notion to sell, given the nature of Starlight’s transgressions, and the acknowledgement the story makes of that fact via Starlight herself helps us to understand how trying to understand that very fact is a key part of the process Rarity has been subtly guiding Starlight (and by extension us) through the entire story. It’s a brilliant little turn when it makes itself known, too; again, Rarity’s use of fashion as the lens by which ponies can reveal their best selves is well known, and as the confidence that brings up in Starlight starts to grow, and starts to rub up against the more ambitious parts of herself that led her down the wrong road before, one could be forgiven for thinking they know where this is going…until Rarity herself steps in and points out how unfair Starlight is being to herself. How her desire not to be seen a certain way is forcing her to tamp down on traits and abilities that are in fact integral to who she is. And the thing of it is, it’s a thorny thing, those parts of herself. We’ve seen the harm they can do. But then, what does Starlight’s redemption mean if it forces her to deny part of who she is? That’s the key thing, to me. Again, most of the stories about Starlight tend to focus on how she is not the pony she once was, on how she has grown and changed and evolved. And those stories are of great value! But “True Beauty” adds another side to that story, one of equal importance: that for Starlight herself to accept how she has changed requires her to accept all of who she is. Even the scary parts. Because those scary parts don’t have to be bad. Her ambition, her leadership, her influence…these traits, these skills, have value, especially now that Starlight has recognized the harm they can do if applied unfairly. And she deserves as much chance to explore the good they can do as any other pony with a special talent.
Like I said, that’s very atypical of a “Friendship is Magic” moral. And yet, at the same time, it doesn’t feel like a refutation of that morality, but rather of a piece with it. Because in the end, “True Beauty” is about the thing FiM has always valued most: learning to be the best You you can be, even if it isn’t quite in the way you expect it to. It arrives at that concept in a way and from an angle that the show doesn’t really use, but in terms, and with characters, that we understand very well from the series proper. It is, in other words, an especially strong example of that unique thing you do so well, synthesizing your own perspective with that of the show to reach a special, powerful conclusion all your own, one that enhances the show’s own themes without trying to undermine them. It is, forgive me, a thing of beauty.
*or chrysalis, who has gotten Friendship Blasted in the face twice now XD
** I would still rank “Special Case” as maybe one of the absolute best things you’ve ever done.
*** to put it charitably >w>
I am really looking forward to the rest.