Starlight Glimmer trudged through the hallways of the castle to the dining room so she could have breakfast with Twilight and Spike.
One look at the unicorn was enough to tell that she was very tired. Bags hung under her eyes, her hair was an uncombed mess, her eyes were half-closed, and overall she looked exhausted.
Although Twilight had been able to return Starlight to her normal self after a particularly nasty nightmare left her psychologically scarred, Starlight suffered from recurring nightmares as a result of said scarring. The nightmares often involved the things she experienced in her original nightmare in Canterlot and often left Starlight with a sleepless night.
As Starlight entered the dining room she was greeted by the sight of her marefriend, Twilight Sparkle, and her number one assistant, Spike. The two each had a stack of pancakes in front of them and had been having some sort of conversation but stopped upon seeing Starlight enter.
“Good morning, Starlight.” Twilight said as she offered Starlight the seat next to her.
“Good morning,—” Starlight raised a hoof to her mouth as a yawn escaped her “—Twilight.” She trudged over to the table and sat in the chair Twilight offered her, something Starlight’s tired mind thanked her for.
“You look exhausted. Did you have another nightmare last night?” Twilight asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
Starlight yawned again before answering. “Yeah, and it was just as bad as the others.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Spike can you go get some coffee for Starlight?”
“You got it.” Spike said as he exited the dining room.
Twilight turned back to Starlight and wrapped a foreleg around her. “I wish I could help you, Starlight, but these nightmares have been going on for so long that I’m not sure what to do. And the fact that I’m part of the reason why you’re having these nightmares in the first place makes me feel terrible.”
“That’s okay, Twilight. Just knowing that you care so much is enough for me. And please, don’t beat yourself up over this. I already forgave you for that and I’m not going to hold anything against you.” Starlight leaned in and gave Twilight a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, Starlight, that means a lot to me.” Twilight replied.
Spike soon returned with Starlight’s coffee, which she gladly accepted. “Thanks, Spike.” Starlight took a sip of the bitter liquid before saying “I hope this will be enough to keep me awake today. Trixie wants me to help her set up for a magic show she’s going to be doing and I doubt she’ll be happy if I fall asleep.”
“I didn’t know Trixie had a show coming up.” Twilight replied.
“Yeah, she’s been making a big deal about it. Something about a never before witnessed magical marvel.”
“And what would that be?” Spike asked.
Starlight took another sip of her coffee before answering. “She hasn’t told anypony what it is. She said she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
“Huh. Well just make sure you’re back in time for our date tonight.” Twilight said.
“Don’t worry, I doubt it will take that long. Oh, did you remember to check the reservations?”
“Yep, everything is set for tonight.”
“That’s good.” Starlight finished the last of her coffee before saying, “Well, I better get going so I can help Trixie.” Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten yet this morning. “Right after I eat some breakfast.”
Starlight hung a pair of curtains onto the stage. She and Trixie had been working on setting up for Trixie’s magic show later and they were just finishing up. It had taken several hours and it was already past noon.
“Wow, you’re really going all-out with this show.” Starlight said as she looked over the magic props Trixie had brought which included a magician’s hat, a box for sawing a pony in half, cards, and various others. “Why is that anyway?”
“The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie plans on having this be the biggest night of her career. I need to make sure everypony is amazed by my performance.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“Oh, it will be. And that’s why I need my great and powerful assistant there to help me.”
“I’d be happy to help, Trixie. When’s the show?”
“Tonight.”
“Oh, sorry, but I can’t do it tonight. Twilight and I are going out to dinner.”
“Can’t you just cancel it or something?”
“Trixie, I’m not going to cancel my date with Twilight just so I can help you with a magic show.” Starlight wasn’t one to cancel her plans just because her friend asked her for help with something, especially not after the last time she did it. Long story short, Twilight ended up spending three days apologizing to Princess Celestia.
“Fine! Go on your silly date, see if I care.”
“What has gotten in to you?”
Trixie sighed. “Sorry. It’s just that you’ve been spending so much time with Twilight it feels like you don’t have any time to spend with me.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me how you were feeling?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“Tell you what. Tomorrow we can spend the whole day hanging out, just the two of us.”
“Really?”
“Sure. I’m not doing anything tomorrow, so as long as you’re free I don’t see why not.”
“Sounds good.”
“Good.” Starlight put a hoof to her mouth as she yawned. Her morning coffee had worn off at this point and the effects of her sleepless night had returned. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head home and get some sleep before my date tonight.”
Starlight awoke from her nap a few hours later. Thankfully she didn’t have any nightmares so she was well rested and felt more awake then she had earlier.
As Starlight got out of bed she heard knocking on her bedroom door. She went over to open the door and was greeted by Twilight.
“Hey, Starlight. I came by to make sure you were awake.”
“Yeah I just woke up. Is there something you needed?”
“Well it’s almost time for our date so I figured I should make sure you don’t sleep so long that you end up missing it.”
“It is? Have I really been asleep that long?” Starlight hadn’t expected her nap to last that long but considering the amount of sleep she had gotten the past few nights, she wasn’t surprised.
“Yeah, but you haven’t gotten much sleep these past few days so I would’ve been surprised if you hadn’t slept that long.”
“Good point. Well I better go get ready so that we can leave.”
“Okay. I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.”
So Starlight went to prepare for her date. She took a shower, brushed her mane, and various other things. Once she was done with all that she returned to her room to decide what to wear. Starlight and Twilight were going to a fancy restaurant that required its customers to dress in formalwear which meant she needed to pick out a nice dress. In the end she decided to wear the dress that Rarity had made for her a couple of months ago. Once she was finished getting ready, Starlight went to the castle entrance where Twilight was waiting for her.
Twilight was currently wearing one of her old Grand Galloping Gala dresses along with a pair of light blue shoes and, to Starlight’s surprise, her crown.
“You look great, Twilight, but why are you wearing your crown? That’s not like you.” Starlight knew that Twilight only wore her crown when performing royal duties so seeing her wear it for any other reason was unusual.
“Well since we’re going to a fancy restaurant I figured I should do something special for the occasion.”
“That’s sweet of you, Twilight.” Starlight said before giving Twilight a short kiss. “Well we better get going so we don’t miss the train to Canterlot.”
“Let’s go.” Twilight said as she pulled Starlight into an embrace with her wing.
After a short train ride and walk through Canterlot, Twilight and Starlight arrived at the restaurant where they were having their date. Usually it was hard to get a reservation at this particular restaurant but Twilight’s royal status made it easier for her than most ponies.
After Twilight and Starlight were taken to their table they looked over the menu and ordered. The two decided to talk while they waited for their waiter to return with their orders.
“So how’d it go with Trixie today? Did you get everything set up?” Twilight asked.
“Yep, we got everything ready for her show tonight.”
“Her show is tonight?”
“Yeah, it’s probably started by now. She wanted me to be her assistant but I told her we had a date tonight.”
“I’m sure she’ll do fine on her own.”
“Speaking of our date, I still can’t believe you were able to get us reservations here.”
“Well they tend to prioritize nobles here and since I’m a princess they were happy to reserve a table for us.”
“Well it’s a good thing I’m lucky enough to have a princess as a marefriend then.”
“And I’m lucky to have a pony like you as my marefriend.” Twilight said before sharing a short kiss with Starlight.
“You know when I was a filly I actually wanted to be a princess myself.”
“Really?”
“Yeah it was just one of those silly foalhood dreams and I ended up losing interest in it when I got older. I doubt a pony like me could become a princess anyway.”
Twilight put her hoof over Starlight’s. “Well I think you would be a wonderful princess.”
“Thanks, Twilight.” Starlight said with a warm smile.
After several more minutes the waiter returned with their orders and Twilight and Starlight spent the rest of their date enjoying their food and each other’s company. After their date was finished the two returned to the castle where they spent some time relaxing with each other before going to bed.
Starlight tossed and turned in her sleep, tears in her eyes and a look of discomfort on her face. It was past midnight and Starlight’s sleep was once again being plagued by a nightmare. Even though she was used to this happening by now the experience never got any easier for her to deal with.
Eventually Starlight awoke from her nightmare with a scream before looking around her room and realizing what happened. “Just another bad dream.” She gave a relieved sigh then looked over at the wall mirror Twilight had given her after she graduated from her pupil status. Looking at the pictures of her friends always brought her comfort after having one of her nightmares.
Starlight wiped the tears from her eyes and was about to try to go back to sleep when she heard a knock on her door. “Starlight, are you ok?” It was Twilight. No doubt she heard Starlight scream and wanted to make sure nothing had happened.
“Yeah I’m fine. You can come in if you want.”
The doorknob was surrounded by a magenta aura as Twilight entered Starlight’s room. She had a look of concern on her face and was clearly worried about Starlight. “I got up to get a drink and was going back to my room when I heard you scream.” Twilight said as she walked up to the side of her marefriend’s bed.
“I just had another bad dream, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you want to talk about it?”
Figuring she might be able to get back to sleep if she told Twilight about her nightmare Starlight nodded and began to talk about it. “Well, she was there again and just like the other times she had taken over everything. She captured you and the rest of our friends, then she… she…” Starlight began crying as the memories of what happened plagued her mind.
Twilight pulled Starlight into a comforting hug and began running a hoof through her mane to help her calm down. “It’s okay, Starlight. You don’t have to tell me if it’s too hard to talk about.” Twilight continued to comfort Starlight until her sobs eventually subsided. “Are you okay now?”
“Yeah. I doubt I’ll be able to get back to sleep though.”
“Would it help if I stayed here with you?”
“It might.”
“Okay.”
Starlight moved over so Twilight could get in bed with her. Once she was under the covers the two said goodnight to each other. As she rolled over to go to sleep, Starlight felt the soft touch of feathers against her body as Twilight wrapped a wing around her and a small smile appeared on her face as she drifted off to sleep.
Author's Note
This chapter doesn’t have much to do with the main plot but having Twilight and Starlight called by the map right off the bat felt rushed to me, so I decided to put in a chapter covering what they were doing beforehand. Plus it let me introduce something that’s been going on with Starlight between the first story and this one. Which brings me to the second thing I want to talk about.
As you recall (assuming you’ve read the first story and if you haven’t then go read it right now), Starlight suffered psychological trauma which Twilight was able to fix. Well this time I decided to explore possible remaining effects it might’ve had on Starlight’s mind and I ended up going with something you could describe as similar to ptsd.
Starlight slowly began to wake up as the morning light from the sun began to shine through her window.
After Twilight decided to stay with her for the rest of the night Starlight found it easier to get back to sleep then it would have been if she were by herself which meant she wouldn’t have to spend the day feeling tired.
As Starlight laid there thinking about how lucky she was to have someone like Twilight she felt the alicorn stir as she too began to wake up.
Twilight yawned as she woke up and then smiled upon noticing that Starlight was awake. “Good morning, Starlight.”
Starlight smiled back. “Good morning, Twilight.”
“So how did you sleep?” Twilight asked as she got out of bed and stretched.
“I slept great. Thanks for staying with me, it really helped. I hope my snoring didn’t bother you.” Starlight replied as she also got out of bed.
“Glad I was able to help. Though I wish you didn’t have to deal with these nightmares at all. And I’ve lived with you long enough to be used to your snoring.”
“That’s good to hear. And don’t worry, Twilight, I’m sure my nightmares will go away eventually.”
“I hope so. Hey I don’t have anything to do today so how about we go to the spa or something?”
“Sorry, but I promised Trixie I’d spend the day with her today.”
“Oh, okay. We’ll just do it some other time then.”
“Sure.”
After Starlight performed her morning routine and ate breakfast she left the castle to meet Trixie, who had her wagon sitting next to castle as usual. The two were currently walking through Ponyville, discussing what they were to do with their day.
“And then we can head back to my wagon and I’ll show you the new trick I’ve been working on.” Trixie said excitedly as she walked next to Starlight.
“Okay. Then we’ll go to the Ponyville cafe for some lunch.” Starlight replied as she made a mental list of the things they were going to do.
“Sounds good.” Trixie let out a content sigh. “I’m so glad that we’re spending the day together.”
“Well like you said, we haven’t really spent that much time with each other lately so I’m happy about it too.”
“Glad to hear it. Now let’s get going to—“ Just then, Trixie noticed something in the corner of her eye. She looked over at Starlight and saw something that she didn’t understand. “Uh, Starlight, what’s going on with your cutie mark?”
“Huh?” Starlight turned her head to look at her cutie mark and let out a small gasp. What she saw was her cutie mark glowing and pulsating outward. Starlight’s eyes were filled with excitement almost immediately. "Gotta go, see ya!" Before Trixie had a chance to reply, Starlight teleported away.
Starlight reappeared outside the double doors that lead to the castle's throne room where the map that had called her was located. She opened the doors and saw Twilight standing next to the map. The first thing that Starlight noticed was that Twilight’s own cutie mark was glowing just like hers.
“You’ve been called by the map too, Twilight?”
Twilight immediately turned around upon hearing the voice of her marefriend. “There you are, Starlight. Yep, looks like we get to solve a friendship problem together.”
“That’s great! I can’t wait to get started.” Finding out that she would get to solve another friendship problem was exciting enough for Starlight but finding out she would be solving it with Twilight was the best thing she could hope for.
“I’m just as excited as you are because you’ll finally get to find out how great it feels to solve a friendship problem! Especially since I ruined the experience for you last time.” Twilight’s ears folded against her head and her gaze fell to floor as she was once again overcome by guilt.
Starlight couldn’t help but feel sorry for Twilight as she stood there feeling guilty about her past actions, something Starlight herself had done on more than one occasion. “Twilight, please stop beating yourself up over that. Everything turned out okay in the end and I never held it against you.” Starlight laid a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.
“I can’t help it, Starlight. You were so excited about being called by the map and all I did was stress you out and put a ton of pressure on you. And then you had that nightmare and I lost the Starlight I love, all because I couldn’t stop worrying and let you handle things by yourself.”
Starlight placed her hoof under Twilight’s chin and lifted her head up so that Twilight was making eye contact with her. “You’re forgetting that you’re the one who brought me back to normal because you refused to let me be a pony who sits in her room all day and blames herself for everything bad that happens. And look at it this way, if it didn’t happen then I wouldn’t have my own throne here in the throne room and we wouldn’t be dating right now.” Twilight seemed to perk up a bit at that but still had a look of guilt on her face. “Do you remember what you told me the day I got my throne and we started dating? ‘Everypony makes mistakes and that’s okay, the important thing is that we learn from them’, those words helped me realize that the only mistake I made was switching Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks without permission, and now I want you to let them help you get over this.”
A smile appeared on Twilight’s face as she started to cheer up. “Okay, Starlight, I’ll try.”
“That’s all I ask. So, where are we going on our friendship mission?”
“Right there.” Twilight pointed her hoof at a remote town on the western side of Equestria. “It’s a town called Daybreak Village.”
Starlight’s pupils shrank upon hearing the town’s name. “Daybreak?” Images of her nightmares and the pony who haunted them flashed through Starlight’s mind. As she remembered the horrible things she saw in her nightmares fear took over and Starlight began hyperventilating.
Realizing what was happening, Twilight immediately began working to calm Starlight down. “Starlight, it’s okay, just calm down.” She put a paper bag over Starlight’s muzzle so she could breathe into it and began running her hoof across the back of her mane to help her calm down.
After nearly a minute Starlight’s breathing returned to normal and she finally calmed down.
“Sorry about that, Twilight. It’s just that whenever I hear her name or that word I just panic. But I’m fine now.” Starlight explained as she sat down on her throne to recover from the lightheadedness that was caused by her rapid breathing.
“I know, Starlight, don’t worry about it.”
At that moment the throne room doors burst open and Trixie, who was clearly unhappy, came walking in.
“I finally found you. I’ve been looking all over Ponyville for you, Starlight, and I demand to know why you ran off like that.”
“Oh, Trixie. Yeah, sorry about doing that but I was called by the map and I had to come back here to see where it was sending me.”
“The map?”
“Yes, this map, remember?” Starlight asked as she pointed a hoof at the map table.
“Oh, you mean the one I accidentally teleported to-“ Before Trixie could finish her sentence, Starlight planted a hoof firmly over her mouth and hoped that Twilight didn’t catch what she said but it was too late.
“Wait, teleported? Starlight, what’s she talking about?”
Starlight shot a quick glare at Trixie before turning to Twilight to explain. “Remember when you and the girls went on that friendship retreat while a stayed here to teach Trixie magic a couple days after I graduated? Well Trixie convinced me to teach her how to teleport objects and she accidentally teleported the map instead of an apple like she was supposed to. We ended up spending the whole day searching for it because Trixie couldn’t remember where she teleported it to and we eventually found it at the Ponyville spa. We had just finished returning it when the six of you walked in.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about this?”
“Because I didn’t want you to be mad at me or think that you couldn’t trust me to be in the castle by myself.”
“It’s okay, Starlight, I’m not mad and it would take more than that to lose my trust.”
“Really?”
“Of course. It was just an accident right? You could’ve just told me what happened and I would’ve understood.”
“Well that’s good to know. Anyway we better go get ready so that we can get going before the next train leaves.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?” Trixie suddenly asked.
“Yes, Trixie, I have to go to where the map is calling me and Twilight so we can help somepony with their friendship problem.”
“Can’t you just tell it to wait until tomorrow when we aren’t spending the day together?”
“No, Trixie, I can’t. I’m sorry but we’re just going to have to do this some other time.”
“Ugh, fine.” And with that, Trixie left the throne room.
Twilight and Starlight were on the train heading to Daybreak Village. After Trixie had left the two of them had gone to prepare for their trip and were able to catch the train before it left. The town was a good distance away from Ponyville which meant Twilight and Starlight would likely have to spend the night there, so they made sure to pack everything they’d need for an overnight stay.
Upon arriving at the station and exiting the train, Twilight and Starlight got their first look of Daybreak Village. The town was filled with houses much like the ones in Ponyville with the main difference being that they had tiled roofs instead of straw roofs. As they entered they noticed that several shops were also located throughout the town and ranged from clothing stores to bakeries and everything in between.
The thing that stuck out the most, however, was the ponies. They all had the same unhappy expression on their faces and none of them seemed to be getting along with each other, a few of them were even fighting. This was immediately noticed by Twilight and Starlight and both of them were concerned by it.
“Uh, Twilight, this whole town seems to be one big friendship problem.” Starlight said as she watched two of the ponies continue to fight.
“This is insane. The last time I saw a friendship problem like this was when you and I first met and even that wasn’t this bad.”
“Who the heck are you?!” Somepony suddenly yelled.
Twilight and Starlight turned to source of the yelling and saw a yellow earth pony stallion with a light-blue mane giving them the same angry look everypony else in the town had.
“Oh, hello. I’m the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, and this is my marefriend, Starlight Glimmer. It’s nice to meet you.”
“And just what are you doing here?”
“Well Twilight and I are here to solve the friendship problem you guys seem to be having. I really think we can help you to—“
“We didn’t ask for your help and we don’t need it!” And with that the stallion stormed off.
“Well that was something. I guess we should just check around town and see if we can find somepony who’s a bit nicer.”
“Yeah, we should.” Twilight agreed.
And so Twilight and Starlight explored the town hoping to find somepony who would be willing to talk to them but they had no luck. Most of the ponies they tried to talk to either refused to talk to them or just ignored them completely. The few ponies who were willing to talk either reacted the same way the stallion did or said that they didn’t need friendship. Eventually enough time had passed that the sun had begun to set and night would soon begin. Twilight and Starlight decided that it would best if they checked into a hotel for the night and continued searching for somepony in the morning. Hopefully they would have more luck finding someone that would explain just what was going on the town so that the two of them could help fix it. With their plan made the two went off to find a hotel they could stay at.
Author's Note
We now know who is haunting Starlight’s nightmares; Daybreaker. The reason for this is that she basically had more of an impact on Starlight’s mind back when she was psychologically traumatized by her nightmare and has left Starlight with a strong fear that is difficult to overcome, especially since Daybreaker only exists in Starlight’s dreams.
Of course all of this has also affected Twilight. As you can see she still feels guilty about what she did, especially since Starlight is having these nightmares as an indirect result.
And finally we have Daybreak Village. I think it’s pretty obvious what the problem Twilight and Starlight have to solve is. However, this isn’t like in the Kirin village where a few disagreements turned into a huge problem, there is something bigger going on here.
Credit goes to Mirror Star for giving Daybreak Village it’s name.
I have no excuse for how long it took me to finish this chapter.
