In loving memories

Sobbing, Starlight struggled with her ties, as she heard the next pony walking towards her. It was a light yellow mare with thick glasses and a mane style like Twilight's.

The pony sat down on the floor, simply watching her. For a while the only sound to be heard was Starlights frightened sobbing. The pain wouldn’t stop anymore and there was nothing she could do about it.

“I don’t know what’s more disturbing.” the mare mentioned disgusted, “The thought of what you did to Princess Twilight or the way you look now.”

The soft, calm voice made Starlight even more nervous. “Whatever it is, you want to do to me. Do it now and leave me be!” she demanded hysterically.

“Do you know, who I am?” the pony asked calm, watching her with eagerly eyes.

Starlights sobbing got louder. She didn’t even care to answer, for she feared of being tortured again any second. However this didn't happen.

The pony just sat there staring at her. When she finally pulled herself together, she tried to remember, what the pony had asked a few minutes ago.

“You're...” she thought, “Moondancer, aren’t you? I saw you on one of Twilights pictures.”

Moondancer nodded slowly.

“What will you do to me?” Starlight asked and her voice broke halfway through.

“Unlike my companions, I am not mad at you. I know, how sick you are. I’m simply sad for losing the pony I adored most.” she explained, “I want to tell you a story.”

“Oh, thank Celestia!” Starlight whispered to herself, clearly loosing some pressure. She was still breathing heavily. Her wounds burnt like somepony has recently spilled acid over them.

“When I was a filly,” Moondancer started, “I had no friends at all. Only Twilight to look up to. I adored her. Yet, she would only care for her studies. So I followed her example. And when I grew up, I still didn’t find any friends, but that wasn’t bad because I had Twilight. One time, only a few years ago, I thought that there actually were a few ponies that wanted to befriend me. So I gave myself troubles to be nice to them. I even tried to throw a party, but when everypony gathered, one was missing. Twilight.”

“Must have hurt.” Starlight understood, “How did you react?”

“I locked myself into my house and never made a friend again.” Moondancer replied.

“One step further and you could have joined my village.” Starlight answered, now confident enough to joke.

“No I was sick.” the yellow pony replied angered, “And so are you! Tell me, when you met Sunburst again after all these years, how did you feel?”

Starlight didn’t answer. They stared at each other for a moment.

“Or when you visited your old village?”

No answer.

“Maybe bad?” Moondancer teased, “Or perhaps even guilty?”

Starlight did a contemptible snort.

“You know, friendship is a choice that you yourself are making.” Moondancer proceeded, “If you don’t want to engage in it, you won't get any! But then you can only blame yourself if you get lonely!”

“That’s not true!” Starlight rejected, “I couldn’t prevent Sunburst from leaving! Friendship is a lie! As soon as you lose eye contact the friendliness is over!”

“Then how come Twilight and Sunset stayed friends, although they lived in different dimensions?”

“Masquerade!” Starlight sobbed, tears filling her eyes, “All for show!”

“You know that you are wrong.” Moondancer teased further, “You know that it's your fault to begin with. But you needed somepony to blame! And Twilight, the one pony that chose to trust and forgive you, was just a perfect victim! That’s why you offered Rarity to punish you! Because deep within, you knew, you deserved it! Because you knew, you’re the one to blame!”

Starlight couldn't take it anymore. She broke down and cried in her ties.

“You disgust me.” Moondancer concluded, back to her calm voice, “We'll meet again in tarterus.”

With this the yellow pony walked back into the dark.