Twilight faced her namesake time of day from a patio of her palace, not quite leaning her chin on the golden railing in front of her, eyes closed and idle thoughts wandering. She stretched out her wings to catch the last rays of the sun as it disappeared over the horizon, reveling in the fading warmth. Thus tuned to her senses, she easily heard the hoofsteps behind her, and grimaced as relaxing meditation faded into what she had to do.
She waited until the hoofsteps neared, their maker having crossed half the patio, before sighing. "Base of the skull, please. That'll be fastest."
"I-I'm sorry?" Starlight stopped mid-step, nearly dropping the tea tray held in her telekinesis.
"If you're here to kill me, there's a weak spot in ponies' spines, right between the base of the skull and the top of the spinal column. Slip a knife right in there and I'd be dead before I could get a spell off. Quick, painless, no chance of accidental survival if you do it right."
"Why would you think I'd do such a thing?" Starlight silently lifted the dagger off the tray and teleported it back to her room. Her grip on the tray nearly faltered (maintaining two spells at once was not easy), but she was determined not to mess this up. She knew she would only get one shot, but if Twilight was expecting the dagger then that was not an option. Fortunately, she had alternatives ready to go.
"Yeah, you're right." Still not turning to face Starlight, Twilight sat down tiredly. "Poison, something to neutralize my magic and flight so you can gloat."
Starlight hurriedly added the antidote to Twilight's cup of tea, then to her own just in case Twilight was going to grab the wrong cup. She convinced herself that she had expected Twilight to anticipate the poison, making it just a feint for her backup...
"Or maybe you've made some friends after all. Nothing like plausible deniability."
Starlight pulled out a pocket mirror and flashed the abort sequence in the sniper's direction, knowing the sniper would have harsh words for her in the morning about wasted time. Three plans down, but surely Twilight would not have considered her backup to her backup to her feint...
"Or some sort of 'unpredictable accident'."
In a near panic, Starlight took the tray in her hooves, shut off her telekinesis, and concentrated, carefully defusing each of the exactly set overcharges on Pinkie Pie's party cannon in the distance.
Mercifully for Starlight, Twilight did not speak again until she was done, instead just slumping to the ground. "I couldn't even save one tree. How am I supposed to be a Princess? At least you could pretend to be the same as everypony else."
Starlight set up a transparent bubble shield around the patio, not nearly as strong as Twilight could but enough to check off her remaining plans. Once that was in place, she walked up to Twilight, setting the tray beside her. "What's got you so down?" Right on schedule, barely half a minute after disarming the overcharges, Starlight's ears registered the far-off report of Pinkie Pie's cannon. She breathed in slowly to steady her nerves, lest Twilight hear her racing heart.
Twilight lit her horn and flung a hoof-sized paper ball at Starlight. If she noticed the shield, she said nothing.
Starlight caught it telekinetically, causing the shield to waver momentarily. A quick examination of the wad revealed it to be a crumpled comic book.
"It's one of Spike's. I wanted to see what he was so excited about. I tried to treat it gently, but..."
Uncrumpling it revealed a recent issue of the Power Ponies, still in its shipping cover so Spike had not read it yet. A small corner of Starlight's mind noted that Spike would be upset and wondered how she could work that — no. Twilight was plotting. Any ruse Starlight came up with on the spot would surely have been anticipated and countered, with consequences ranging from humiliation to death and worse. This was a time to be honest.
"Ever since I got my wings, I've been getting stronger. Too strong, sometimes. It's difficult to hold an egg now, and I have to remind myself every night to pull my bedsheets up with my hooves instead of my magic or I'll tear them. Books with solid covers give me something to latch on to for now, and shake to turn the pages, but at this rate it won't be long u-until..."
Hated foe and denier of destiny or not, Starlight knew the horror in Twilight's voice to be real. She could not help but lay down next to Twilight, snuggle up under a wing, and hug.
Now Twilight turned her tear-streaked face toward her companion, looking her in the eyes. "I'm scared, Starlight. What i-if I can't ever read a book again?"
Despite the eye contact, Starlight could not help but wince at the level of worry in Twilight's voice. "There, there. Shh. I..." As she stroked the princess's mane, she felt her cutie mark twitch. "Maybe I can teach you a limiter spell? So you can power down to normal levels when you want to?"
Twilight sniffed, eyes growing wide. "You can do that?!?"
Starlight smiled. "One of my earlier, ah, experiments in equality before I came up with that staff. If it can help you now, I don't care what I was thinking when I invented it."
Twilight hugged back, part of her mind being careful not to squeeze hard enough to break bone. "Thank you! Mmm, you ARE coming along in your study of friendship!"
Starlight chuckled nervously. "Why don't we set that aside for tonight and just be friends?" She grinned. Living well was the best revenge. Maybe it would not be so bad to inflict that on her enemy.
Twilight smiled and buried her muzzle in Starlight's neck, making a mental note to thank Celestia for helping her come up with this ploy to snuff out what remained of Starlight's jealousy.
