Starlight and Aurora: The First Step

Starlight tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep because of all that was on her mind. Returning to her old home, not Our Town, but to where it all began? That was not going to be an easy thing in any sense of the word. She hadn’t been home in over a decade, would anything even be remotely the same anymore? Even returning to that old village seemed tame in comparison to going back to her childhood home.

“Can’t sleep,” Starlight moaned to herself, getting up and sitting up against her bed. “Why would I make such a foolish agreement to go back home? I can’t just set hoof in a place like that so easily. If I go back, I’ll break. Besides, everypony will probably have forgotten who I am by now. Why did I agree to do it?”

And thus Starlight remained in that troubled position for the rest of the night. By the next morning, she was struggling to make her way down to breakfast.

Twilight noticed this right away and gave her student a very concerned look. “Seems to me like you didn’t get enough sleep last night,” She commented. “Anything on your mind?”

“Well,” Starlight sighed, sitting herself down next to her teacher. “I just think going back to where I used to live will be unhealthy for me. I don’t even know if this is all a ploy that Aurora’s trying to get me to move back in with her. Doesn’t she understand why I left home in the first place?”

“It’s obvious that you don’t want to go back,” Twilight replied, taking her attention off of her breakfast. “However, I think your mother has good intentions, and a good reason. There are probably ponies there who want to have a chance to talk to you. You really should give it a chance.”

Starlight turned her attention away from Twilight, and was so tired from her lack of sleep ,that she took a banana and ate the peel instead of the fruit.

“Um, Starlight?” Twilight meekly commented. “You just ate the peel of the banana.”

“So what?” Starlight grunted, swallowing the peel. “Now you’re going to tell me that not eating banana peels are essential to going back to my old home?”

“No, it’s just that banana peels are disgusting,” Spike answered, playing with his Rarity plushie. “Got to go with the fruit. That’s the best part!”

“That’s beside the point, Starlight,” Twilight added, getting back to the topic at hoof. “What is the point now, is that there’s probably more to your old home than meets the eye, Starlight. You just assume that everypony there will be hostile and unforgiving to you, but none of the ponies in your old village were like that, even after everything you said and did to them. I doubt anypony in your childhood town even knows what’s become of you,” She then commented. “There’s an old saying that goes as follows: ‘Sometimes we need to do things that we don’t want to do.’ And I’d say this is one of them. If it makes you feel better, why don’t you bring Trixie along?”

“This is a matter that doesn’t concern her, Twilight,” Starlight countered. “And neither does it concern you. Why should either you or Trixie come with me and Aurora? I mean, it’s not like either of you came from my old home as well. I know this because I’ve met your parents, and Trixie had no parents growing up.”

“Perhaps Trixie could make some new fans,” Spike suggested, eating some pancakes. “Trixie could help keep you in line. And ever since you unleashed your anger on her, she’ll probably want to help you in any sense of the word.”

Starlight was unsure about Spike’s suggestion and said nothing (she simply went back to eating her breakfast). Then, she went back to bed to try and catch up on the lack of sleep that she’d ended up missing because of her restless night before.

A few hours later, Starlight woke up feeling rested and ready to take on the day more eagerly. However, Aurora was already there, waiting for her down in the castle’s lobby with Twilight.

“I hope you’re willing to make the trip to your former home,” Aurora said to her daughter. “It will do you some good, Starlight. Sweetheart said so herself.”

“All it will do is bring back bad memories, Aurora,” Starlight sighed. “If you want me to visit for a few hours, then that can work for me. But, if this is a ploy to get me to start calling you ‘mom’…’”

“It’s not,” Aurora interrupted, feeling somewhat exasperated. “Why do you have to sound so negative, Starlight? You’re making this all seem like a bad thing when it’s really not. I want you to come home and reconnect. Reconnect with the ponies you left behind.”

“And relive everything that happened?” Starlight asked bitterly, stamping her foot down. “Sorry, that’s not in the cards for me, Aurora! Just because I’m coming home, doesn’t excuse you from getting comfortable or getting used to me being there forever. I’m a young mare now and I have my own life to live by!”
The sounds of her daughter’s voice sent chills down Aurora’s spine. In her mind, it didn’t matter whether Starlight was a mare or a filly. She was still Aurora’s foal (and daughter for that matter).

“Well those who live their own lives sometimes return to where it all began,” Twilight suggested, as Starlight turned to leave the lobby. “I know that the past can hurt, Starlight. The choice is yours, but I hope you can make the right decision.”

Starlight, with a heavy sigh, left the lobby. She was in no mood to dwell on what Twilight had said.

“I don’t understand why she’s behaving like this, Twilight,” Aurora commented. “I thought the progress we were making with Sweetheart was working,” With a sigh she added. “She’s got to come home. Perhaps, maybe, this will help her see sense after all the damage she caused.”

“Remember, your husband was the one who played a major part in causing the situation you find yourselves in,” Twilight advised. “She might be afraid of reliving the horrors of what happened during that time.”

“I was a victim in this as much as Starlight was,” Aurora replied. “But, I couldn’t leave my husband, I thought that I could help him. But all it really did was cause me to neglect my own daughter in her time of need.”

“And she’s not pinning it all on you,” Twilight remarked. “She’s afraid, Aurora, afraid to revisit the source of her pain. But, I still believe that going back to her old home will not only do Starlight good, but you as well.”

Aurora heard the door to Starlight’s room slam, the sound of it made her wince. Even if going back to Starlight’s old home would make things better, both she and Starlight were in for a long and bumpy road of recovery.