I Waited

A couple of weeks had passed since then. It's a wonder how much things change in just a couple of weeks. Then again, that tends to happen a lot.

With time, things began to simmer down in Ponyville. Other than the occasional visit by Celestia or Luna, I didn't really get very many eyes for any of the townsfolk—not that I mind, anyhow.

On a particular day those couple of weeks later, I paid Twilight another visit, helping her move some books to the reference area of the library. She had recently gotten a shipment of new novels from Manehattan and wanted to get straight to organizing.

Oh, and guess what was in there? The Adventures of Huckle and Finn.

I was surprised to see it, considering how it was initially a while before it was to be completed. But then I remembered that the book was part of a series, and the first one was just recently published. I already read it, so I knew every moment of it—but I was more than excited to see them read it too!

Several boxes and a near-accident on the steps down later, we finally managed to get everything down to where Twilight wanted it to be.

"Thanks so much for helping me out," she said to Spike, Starlight, and I with a smile.

"Anything for you, Twi," I grinned back.

Starlight piped up, "Are you kidding? After all you've done for me, this is the least I can do."

"Oh, please," the alicorn waved it off. "I haven't done that much."

"Nah—you just taught me the value of friendship. Not much at all!" Starlight exclaimed sarcastically. It was enough to make the mare giggle.

"I may have offered some guidance, but you are responsible for the pony you've become. I'm proud to call you my student and my friend."

Twilight rested a hoof on Starlight's shoulder, and the two exchanged caring glances. Not wanting to interrupt their moment, I stood aside and went over to Spike.

"So," I started, "how was last night's Ogres & Oubliettes game? Did anything interesting happen?"

I'll admit, I never played that game, but seeing them all play it out as they did when Discord first started playing made me really want to give it a try, but I never had the proper time for it. Until then, Spike was always able to fill me in on the details.

"Actually, it was a bit boring. Neither of us could come up with a good idea for new bad guys. It kinda stagnated from there."

Spike seemed to be a bit disappointed, whereas I was more surprised.

"You'd think Discord would be able to think of enemies off the top of his head without even trying," I murmured to the young drake. "Either way, I wouldn't worry about it. It's like they say: If at first you don't succeed, try—... do you see that?"

I stopped mid-quote to look out the window, pointing in the distance. I heard Twilight call out to Spike, but even she and Starlight were quick to notice the small dot in the distance.

"Is it a bird?"

"Is it a parasprite?"

I looked closer. "Is that... Muffins?"

"It's... It's... incoming!"

As the growing object closed in, we all flung ourselves out of the way and took cover as it came in through the open window and crash landed into the pile of boxes and books behind us. Immediately, we got up to inspect what the mysterious object or figure was, but we were all relieved when we saw who it was.

"I was right!" I exclaimed! "It is Muffins! ... Wow, it really has been long time, no see."

Hanging in the mailmare's mouth was a letter, and initially Twilight assumed it was for her. It turned out, it wasn't for her—but for Starlight.

"For me?" she questioned, taking the letter from Muffins, who then flew off through the same window she came in. I waved her goodbye, but she was turned away.

I turned back to Starlight as she started reading the letter. "Who's it from?"

"The... ponies from my old village."

Twilight and Spike leaned in, definitely curious.

"Are they in danger?"

"Are they upset with you?"

She shook her head at both of those questions. "No... It's worse! They've invited me to the annual Sunset Festival!"

Initially, I was a bit worried at the mention of 'worse', but after the rest of her sentence, I felt—honestly—confused.

"Why is that necessarily a bad thing?" I asked her as she found herself staring at the paper longer than usual.

"Do I have to spell it out?" Starlight's voice was hinted with worry and even a bit of paranoia.

Of course, I knew all about the village. I knew that she once enslaved everyone, took their cutie marks away, and then tried to do the same with the others. But I also knew that she had gone to the village, apologized, and moved on. It shouldn't be a problem anymore...

Right?

Wrong. I was actually wrong.

The next morning, Twilight wrote a letter to me, telling me to come over as soon as I could. The moment she mentioned Starlight, I was there as soon as possible, worrying that something was wrong—and there definitely was.

"She's been up since six o'clock this morning," Twilight explained as she invited me into the castle. "I think she's actually in the kitchen right now."

"Doing...?"

"Just baking. She said it keeps her mind off things."

"This has to do with the festival, doesn't it?"

"I'm afraid it does."

The lavender mare walked me over to the kitchen door. I took a quick peak inside, and sure enough, Starlight was in there like Twilight said, baking what seemed to be a set of pancakes, all while humming some incessant tunes. I happened to notice a little bit of bags under her eyes. How much sleep did she get last night?

"I'll talk to her," I relieved Twilight. "Maybe I can get her to... uh... calm down a bit."

"I mean, she doesn't seem to be freaking out very much—but that would be great. Thank you."

I smiled at Twilight before walking into the kitchen. The smell of fresh pancake batter and also whipped cream violated my nose in a peaceful way. The stove was on and with it, a pan of sizzling pancake batter filled the air with the sound of breakfast wonder.

All being cooked by a unicorn nervous about a festival. If only I was like that.

"Starlight?" The sound of my voice was enough to stop the mare mid-mix, perking her ears up and spotting me.

She greeted me by name with a forced smile.

"Good morning! I was just whipping up a batch of pancakes! I figured we could have a cute little breakfast together! Just you and me... and Twilight and Spike... or maybe just you and me, heehee."

Her voice reeked of nervousness.

"That's great, hon, but—did you get any sleep last night?"

"Oh, I got plenty of sleep last night! A little dozing off here, a little nap there, and then a little nightmare there, and boom! Perfect sleep!"

Starlight went right back to humming, but I wasn't buying it—like I said once: She's a terrible liar.

"Starlight...?" I said with the tone of voice that always caught her attention no matter what, the one where she knew that I knew. "Put the mixing spoon down, slow down, and tell me what's really going on."

Then there was that face, the kind she made when she really wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if she should, or was simply too nervous. But she knew that it was me she was talking to; she knew she could trust me.

With a sigh, Starlight set down the mixing spoon and closed her eyes, but then opened them again as she turned to me.

"I don't deserve to go back there."

"Don't say that," I told her. "You absolutely deserve to go back there. They're your friends."

"Right. What kind of friend am I for taking away their special talents and forcing them to stay there for all those years just because of some dumb kid thing?"

"For starters, a friend who acknowledged her mistakes," I proposed, hoping it would cheer her up.

It didn't do much. Starlight walked up to me and grabbed my hooves carefully.

"I had a nightmare last night. I dreamt that I was there, at the village, and they all just... laughed at me, tore my invitation up and everything, like they didn't even want me there."

"If they didn't want you there, then they wouldn't have sent you the invitation in the first place."

I rubbed the top of her hooves as a way of comforting her. She smiled just faintly, recognizing the feeling.

"Princess Luna was there and basically told me to tell the others how I was feeling about this whole thing, but I don't know. Would it be right to tell them?"

"You're their friend," I informed her. "You shouldn't have to be afraid to tell your friends that something's wrong, no matter how big or small."

"I know, I know. But it's hard, maybe even a bit embarrassing. I want to tell them."

"Then do so. And if you feel that you can't, I'll be right there next to you."

"... Promise?"

A single kiss on her lips was more than enough to give her a proper answer. Starlight smiled, wanting more, but didn't want to get distracted any further.

"I should probably throw these away," the mare said as she stared at the plethora of pancakes and pancake batter that was yet to be cooked.

"Well, since we're inviting everyone over to tell them, why don't we just have one big breakfast?"

"That sounds... a lot less wasteful, actually."

"I've also got another idea—why don't you go get some more sleep and I'll handle the rest of these? That way, you can get some shuteye, and wake up to a big breakfast like last week."

"Add some sprinkles to that and I'll get right back to bed~"

"Alright, fine," I rolled my eyes with a smile, "I'll add sprinkles."

"Eeee," she squealed, leaning over to kiss my cheek, and then headed for the door. "Love you~!"

Starlight left the kitchen, humming another tune with a little bit of sway in her hips. Tired sway, but sway nonetheless. Meanwhile, I was left in charge of cooking up the rest of the batch. As I went along, I found myself humming the same tunes that Starlight was singing just a minute ago.

"Aw, darn it."

I couldn't help that they were catchy.