"How should I make these muffins?"
"What do I do to make new cloaks?"
"Does anything need rebuilding?"
Double Diamond lifted his head into the air. "Everypony, STOP!"
Everypony outside Double Diamond's new house stopped asking questions and looked at him with confusion.
"Please, everypony, I know we're...short on supplies, but I promise that in the coming days, I will make a trip to a nearby town and get some supplies. I'm sure those six ponies would be more than willing to help us. Now, please, just leave me be," Double Diamond pleaded.
There were a few murmurs among the crowd, but none of them were leaving.
"Please! I'll make the trip tomorrow! Just...go to your homes. It's starting to get late, and winter is nearing," Diamond added.
One by one, the ponies started to slowly make their way to their respective homes. A few of them shot glares to Double Diamond, to which he just gave a nervous smile. After a while, all the ponies were gone...save for his friend Party Favor.
"I'm sorry, man. How did we not notice things were this bad before?" Party Favor asked.
Double Diamond hung his head and shook it. "I...I just don't know, man. I mean, ever since we got our Cutie Marks back and chased Starlight out of town, things have just been falling apart left and right."
Party Favor stayed silent as he rested a hoof on his friend's shoulder.
Double Diamond look Party Favor in the eye and said, "You should go home too. You don't wanna catch a cold."
"You...you need any help with this? I know how much pressure you've been under lately," Party Favor asked.
"I'm fine. Just...go home," Double Diamond repeated.
Party Favor withdrew his hoof. "Alright. But you know you can come to me...to any of us for help?"
Double Diamond nodded as Party Favor left.
Double Diamond closed the door to his home and made his way up the bedroom. When Starlight had left, the townsfolk all wanted him to be in charge of everything. Ever since, he had been living in Starlight's home. He had been inside on a few occasions while she was still here, but he never usually stayed long.
Once he got to the bedroom, he paused. He looked at a picture of an equal sign hanging on the wall. He moved closer to examine it...only to take it off the wall and throw on the floor, yelling in frustration in the process.
Truth be told, Double Diamond kind of missed Starlight. Sure, she took their Cutie Marks and made them keep those obnoxious smiles on their faces, but...she was just fun to be with despite her few...many problems. Not to mention, she actually knew what she was doing when she ran this town.
Double Diamond sighed and lay down in her...his bed. He still wasn't used to living here. Looking back, it's a surprise nopony revolted simply because Starlight had the biggest and warmest house in the village.
Slowly, but not easily, Double Diamond fell to sleep.
He didn't stay that way for long, however. He was woken up by the windows coming unhitched and flying open. He rolled his eyes and got up to close them, only to pause at the view outside. He stared up at the moon and stars above, looking for a shooting star, so he could make a wish for things to get better. As luck would have it, there were no shooting starts in the sky.
Double Diamond finally closed the window and turned back to the bed...only to pause yet again.
"Didn't Starlight escape through a tunnel under here?" Double Diamond asked aloud.
He gave the bed a small push, and, sure enough, there was a staircase underneath the mattress. Double Diamond grabbed his cloak and a lantern and made his way down. It didn't really lead anywhere special, just out the back of the house.
There was something that stood out to him, though: the path Starlight took to run away. Double Diamond lit his lantern and walked up the path.
'A nice walk should do me some good...or cause me to freeze to death. Either way, it's worth a shot.'
Double Diamond took in all the sights along the path, the rubble from the running ponies, the destroyed bridge, he even saw the wagon Starlight had with her.
Seeing all of these things from the past made Double Diamond shed a tear, as much as he tried to hold it back. He knew the others would hate him for even thinking this, but he truly wished Starlight would return, even if just for a few days.
Double Diamond was drawn out of his thoughts by the smell of smoke. It wasn't coming from his lantern, that was running on oil. He looked around and saw a dim, orange light from the other side of a hill. He slowly peeked his head around the snowy hill and saw a few things he wasn't expecting.
First, there was a wooden fire that was surrounded by a light blue field. There was also a small, green tent that was barely holding up, even though there wasn't much of a breeze in the air.
Finally, there was a trail of hoofprints leading away from the tent and further up the mountain. Double Diamond looked up the trail and saw a pony sitting on a snowy hill, facing the village.
Double Diamond titled his head in confusion, wondering what a pony would be doing here at this time of night. He put down his lantern next to the fire and followed the trail of hoofprints. As he came up behind the pony, he saw who it was; it was none other than Starlight Glimmer.
Starlight was facing away from Double Diamond, so his presence was still unknown to her. He silently approached her, and he could hear her crying.
A million and one thoughts ran through Double Diamond's head. He could ask her to come back; he could get revenge on her for taking his Cutie Mark; he could get his friends at the village, so they could all come and confront her. But Double Diamond didn't do any of these. Instead, he took another step forward, careful not to alert her.
Once he was a few feet away from the mare, he reached out a hoof. He was about to tap her, but hesitated.
Should I be doing this? What would the others at the village think?
Double Diamond made up his mind. He reached his hoof out again and gave Starlight a little *tap*.
Starlight gasped and quickly turned her head. As soon as she saw Double Diamond, she stood up.
"D-Double Diamond, h-how did you find me?" she asked.
Double Diamond saw that Starlight's eyes were red, further showing that she had been crying.
"A-Are you okay, Starlight? It's freezing up here," Double Diamond said, ignoring the question.
Starlight's eyebrows furrowed in anger, and her horn began to glow. "How did you find me?" she asked again, her voice becoming more angry.
Double Diamond took a step back. "I-I saw the light from your fire and followed your hoofprints up here. What are you doing here?"
Starlight's horn stopped glowing. "Can't you see I'm living here after you and everypony else kicked me out of my own village?"
Double Diamond knew he should've been expecting that answer. He would have to play this carefully.
"What are you doing here? Come to drag me back and punish me?" Starlight asked, the anger clear in her voice.
"N-No, I was just...worried about you," Double Diamond responded.
"W-What? What do you mean, 'worried about me'?" Starlight asked with disbelief.
"Exactly what it sounds like. I saw you, and I was worried," Double Diamond said.
Starlight scoffed and turned away. "Sure. Well, I'm fine. You can just go back to your friends now and leave me alone."
Double Diamond sat down on his haunches. "Starlight...you should come back...to the village."
Starlight turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Are you kidding? Why should I return?"
"B-Because." Double Diamond knew he would have to play this next part very carefully. "I-I want you back. I miss you, Starlight. You were my first friend in a long time. I never told you this, but you brought me out of a dark place."
It was true. Before meeting Starlight in these mountains, Double Diamond was alone. He had no friends, family, acquaintances, just his skis.
"Yeah, I was such a good friend that I stole your Cutie Mark," Starlight turned her head back to the village.
Double Diamond walked up behind her and rested a hoof on her back. "Look, I don't care about that right now. I was mad before, but we need you, Starlight. Not to take our Cutie Marks, but we need you to help us. Things have been falling apart ever since you left."
Starlight was silent for a moment.
"Please, come back to us. I know the others will forgive you of you help us," Double Diamond pleaded.
"Say I return. Everypony's just gonna let me back into the community and pretend nothing happened?" Starlight asked, a hint of mock in her voice.
Double Diamond tried to think of an answer. He knew the others wouldn't exactly welcome Starlight back with open hooves, but they needed her, whether they admitted it or not.
"That's what I thought. Just leave me alone already, please," Starlight said before Double Diamond could respond.
Double Diamond folded his hooves around his chest as a small breeze ran though the mountains. If he was gonna get her to come back, he need to do it now. "No."
"What?" Starlight asked.
"I'm not leaving without you," Double Diamond said bluntly.
"Well, I'm not coming back with you, so you should just leave," Starlight said just as bluntly.
The two ponies sat there for a while, the temperature around them dropping more and more as time passed.
"Fine then," Double Diamond said, standing up. "I knew it was a long shot. But if you were ever really our friend, you'll follow me back."
Double Diamond started walking away, but he heard a noise behind him.
Fine," Starlight said, getting his attention. "I'll come back with you."
Double Diamond turned his head just enough to face her. "Thank you. Let's go."
The two ponies walked past Starlight's camp and down the path to the village. When they came to the back of Starlight's old home, Starlight paused.
"Y-You found my secret entrance?" Starlight asked.
"O-Oh, yeah. I didn't want anypony to see me leave. Come on, let's get inside," Double Diamond replied, walking into the house.
Starlight slowly followed the stallion, nervous of returning to her old home. Truth be told, she felt bad about what had happened. She didn't really know what she had until it was gone.
Double Diamond looked at the mare. Now that she was inside with him, he could hear her shivering and chattering her teeth.
"Come on, let's get to bed," Double Diamond said, walking up the stairs.
Starlight couldn't hold back a blush as Double Diamond disappeared up the stairs. "W-What?"
Double Diamond's head shot up as he realized what he had said. "Th-There's only one bed in this house. I-I can get a spare blanket so we don't have to sleep right next to each other."
"S-Sure, sounds good," Starlight replied.
Double Diamond grabbed a second blanket from the couch and lay it down on the bed as Starlight joined him in the room.
"I-I won't make a big deal about this is you don't," Double Diamond offered.
Starlight nodded as she picked up and unfolded the blanket in her magic and lay down on the bed, lowering the blanket on top of her, snuggling it closer a few times until she was curled up like a ball.
Double Diamond lay down as well, facing away from the mare. Out of all the female ponies in Equestria, Double Diamond had never expected the first mare he shared a bed with to be Starlight Glimmer.
He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep until he heard Starlight was still shivering. He turned over and saw she had the blanket pulled as close as she could and her eyes clenched shut.
'Who am I kidding? We're here, she's cold, and I'm not.'
Double Diamond turned over to face Starlight and scooted right up next to her. He draped his blanket over her and wrapped his hooves around her. He could feel her cold fur underneath her blanket.
"W-What are you doing?" Starlight asked.
"Warming you up. I can feel you shivering. I don't want you to catch a cold," Double Diamond replied.
Starlight wanted to tell Double Diamond that she was fine, but didn't say anything. Instead, she just buried her head in his chest.
"Th-Thank you, Double Diamond," Starlight whispered.
"For what?"
"For...for convincing me to come back here. And I'm sorry I took your Cutie Mark," Starlight answered.
Double Diamond stroked Starlight mane a few times. "Let's not worry about that right now. Let's just get a good night's sleep, and we'll talk about it in the morning."
With that, both ponies drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Double Diamond awoke to find he was alone is his bed.
'Did I just dream all of that?'
Double Diamond got up, dismissing the events of the prior night as a dream...until he saw a folded up blanket, a few scrolls, and a note.
'Guess not.'
Double Diamond picked up the note and started reading it.
Dear Double Diamond,
I can't thank you enough for convincing me to leave that tent and come back to the village for the night, but I can't stay. I know I should, but I just can't get over the guilt of what I did to all of you.
Don't worry, I'm not going back into the mountains; I'm gonna try a life in the Crystal Empire. I heard it's returned and it's inhabitable.
Anyhow, as for your problems with the village, I left you a few things that may help. First, there's a set of instructions for basic gardening, so you can grow food without any trouble. Second, there is a set of blueprints for each of the buildings, so you should be able to fix anything wrong with them. Finally, there are some materials you can use for making better, thicker cloaks, so you won't freeze during winter.
I don't care whether or not you tell the others about my visit, but either way, I'm most likely never coming back. However, I wouldn't mind at all seeing you again.
Thank you again for your hospitality...and for still being my friend after all that's happened.
Your friend,
Starlight Glimmer
Double Diamond didn't say a word as he read the note a few more times. Eventually, he put the note down and started looking through the other scrolls.
It was a shame Starlight hadn't stayed, but at least she wasn't going back to her camp in the mountains. Either way, Double Diamond felt he had done the right thing.
Author's Note
Hey guys,
This was inspired by a particular line my friend, ThePinkedWonder's story, Nopony Interrupts My FRIENDSHIP SPEECH, Starlight Glimmer!. Wonder if any of you can guess which one
I hope you all liked my first one-shot
