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Nightlight Sparkleheart is a powerful unicorn with Unicorn Syndrome — training to become the Princess of Friendship. The 16-year-old mare displays a classic case of this special condition:

She is a lover of math, science, and programming spells (sci-fi, not magic). But she is very shy about opening her heart to another. She can also melt down when things don't go her way.

Having such an open heart requires a position of vulnerability that those with Unicorn Syndrome have a really hard time accepting. Those on the “Unicorn Spectrum” tend to feel an overwhelming need for control of their environment.

Now that Nightlight is 16, Princess Skylight Sparkle (Skysparkle) is sending her off on a special quest: She is to live as a normal mare in a normal house in one of the nearby pony villages. To earn her crown, she must learn to live as one of her fellow ponies — without relying on her privileges as a rich girl.

This is the last stage of her training at the Royal Academy, within the School for Gifted Unicorns. Nightlight wasn’t born into royalty — but she was born with a silver spoon. Her big brother, on the other hand, can remember when their parents were struggling to buy a decent house.

Up to now, it has been awfully hard for Nightlight's big brother and her parents to raise her. In fact, her parents are usually scared away from their own mansion! Nightlight is so much more powerful than them. In the past, they often fell helplessly to her tantrums. They have had to rely on their much more powerful son to discipline her. The trauma has partially reduced the parents to a childlike state, and White Night has had to act as a caretaker for them.

Oftentimes, even White Night cannot quite control her. He and his parents have had to challenge a lot of common wisdom about the need to control children. White Night has learned to approach his little sister as a friend -- appealing to her desire to be a hero and a princess, rolled up into one. Now that Nightlight is 16, her sense of friendship has truly started to flap its wings.

All four parties have had to cope with their own limitations. In the process, they are about to successfully raise a mare with Unicorn/Asperger's Syndrome -- who will become their new ruler and friend! It will take about a year, but this is one unicorn on the verge of earning her crown and wings!

Note: Parts of this story remain in summary form -- though the scenes are largely fleshed out.

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Unicorn Syndrome is quite similar to Asperger's Syndrome. Moreover, it may be the norm for gifted unicorns (and gifted ponies in general) -- rather than the exception.

So many people think that people with autism (and children in general) need to be kept "under control". Have they ever stopped to think that maybe the other person wants to be a friend? And if they become your friend, won't they go out of their way to please you? (And if you are their friend, won't you seek to please them, too?)

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By the way, these ponies are not naked. At the very least, they are wearing fursuits over their actual fur.

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Starponys: Crowns of Friendship © and ™ of M. Wayne Howell (starponys87@gmail.com), along with all characters therein.