See Me Through The Dark Night
Starlight Glimmer stood out on the balcony on that cold winter night. She watched the snowflakes dance on the breeze as they made their dissent to the ground and listened to the muted sounds of the holiday party going on in Twilight's castle.
Normally, their holiday celebrations were much more low-key, but since this could very well be Twilight's last Hearthwarming in Ponyville, many old friends wanted to make the trip to not only congratulate their friend, but also to have one last get together before Twilight became the ruler of Equestria in the next month. The crowning ceremony Celestia and Luna did last summer was merely a formality, Twilight wouldn't assume full control over Equestria's government until ten days after Hearthswarming.
She thought back to the days when she had first reformed and became Twilight's pupil. Although she was willing to learn, she was still unsure of the princess's true intentions. Were her offers a genuine attempt to better her life, or just a way to get her to let her guard down to later be teleported to Tartarus as soon as she wasn't looking. The more time Starlight spent with Twilight, the more she grew to trust and cherish her. Almost like the big sister she never had. She, Starlight Glimmer, the pony who had taken away other's special talents and had been outcast by society, was about to become the Headmare of the School of Friendship. It was mind boggling.
"Hey, Starlight." The mare turned around to see Twilight standing behind her. She was wearing a knitted royal blue scarf that seems to somehow shimmer in the moonlight. A gift from Rarity, Starlight concluded. She had seen similar thread in her shop in the days prior, and she was the only mare in Ponyville who knew how to infuse thread with gem dust.
"Some party, huh?" Twilight said as she gazed down from the balcony onto the streets of the small town. The roads were entirely empty, illuminated by the candlelight inside of homes filled with families partaking in old traditions and beginning new ones. It truly was a remarkable sight.
"Yeah, getting a bit too stuffy for me, so I thought I'd try to escape for a bit and get some fresh air. I never was one for big gatherings".
"I feel the same. It's one thing if it's all creatures I know but I don't think I've ever spoken to half of the creatures in there more than once. I was hoping Celestia and Luna would be able to make it, but they still have things to prepare for when I officially become the leader of Equestria. They say they're moving to a place called Shady Shoals, I heard it's really nice, but not too nice. I think they'll really like it there."
Twilight sighed and turned away from Starlight to look at the school. "I spent so long getting this school up and running, and now I won't even be here to run it. I know that you'll do a good job as Headmare, I just wish I would be able to stay for a couple more years to make sure things keep running smoothly. But I guess Equestria needs me more than this place does." Twilight's smile faltered a bit.
Starlight looked over at the school as well, and thought about everything that had happened in the past year. It really was a challenge to get that place going. With Chancellor Neighsay and Cozy Glow, it seemed as soon as everything could be normal, something else went wrong. Yet through all of it, Twilight stayed strong. She always was able to get past all of the obstacles she faced and emerge victorious with the help of her friends. Starlight through back to the first time she tried making friends after Sunburst moved away.
"You want to go where?!"
"Saddlebags University. Mom, it's a really prestigious school and-"
"I know that, but do you really think you should go there? You were so late to get your cutie mark and you seem to be almost incapable of making friends after that Sunbomb kid moved away"
"Sunburst. And what does my ability to make friends have to do with me going to Saddlebags?"
"Well, if your father and I are going to pay for you to go to a school such as Saddlebags, we want you to be able to fully experience the college life. What's the point of spending all of those bits when you can just do what you've been doing and study here? I know it can be difficult to make friends your age in a town this small, but you've got to at least try and make an effort, honeybun."
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that if you want to go to this school, you need to make some friends here first. Learning to work with others is an essential part of adulthood, sweetie."
"Dad, help me out here!"
"Oh, I'm sorry sugar plum, but I have to agree with your mother on this one. What if you get lost? I can't bear the thought of my darling little daughter being in a new place and being lonely and sad with no one there to help."
"I'm going to be fine! I don't see why you guys are objecting so much!"
Sunrise Star smiled and put her hoof on her daughter's shoulder. "Tell you what, sweetie. If you can make some friends here before admissions close for the semester, we'll sign the forms and pay for your tuition."
Starlight sighed and resigned to her fate. "Fine," she left the room in a huff and closed the front door a bit harder than usual. She went to the newly built fountain to sit with her thoughts. Making friends came easily to most ponies, so why didn't it come easily to her? It's not hard to walk up to a pony, say hello, start a conversation, find something in common, talk more about that, and repeat over a series of days. And boom! You have a friend. She knew how to make friends and how to be a good one. Or at least, she thought she was a good one. She wasn't sure if she was a good friend or not, but she knew that she had to make some quickly if she wanted to go to Saddlebags. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves splashing in puddles. The air was then pierced by a high pitched streak as as a pony fell to the ground.
"Hey, are you okay?" Starlight asked, concerned. The strap on the mare's bag had broke when she fell, and the contents of her bag had been scattered around the street.
"I'm fine, thank you," She said as Starlight helped her up. When she noticed what had happened with her bag, she groaned and started mumbling to herself "Celestia-dammit, of all the things that could have happened today. I just hope none of them got wet. Starlight started to help her pick up her things, which were an assortment of library books, she noticed a lot of familiar titles.
"Oh, you like Inky Scribbles?" Starlight asked curiously.
"I can't get enough of her. I love the way she uses dialogue in flashbacks to gradually give the reader more information instead of just backstory dumping all at once," the mare replied.
"I thought the same thing! The way she introduces conflict is so clever and thought provoking, especially when she skips the villain narrative in favor of an antagonistic anti-hero, it really adds depth to the story." Just as Starlight finished talking, the sounds of thunder began to rumble in the clouds.
"Well, looks like it's about to start raining again. Thanks for helping me pick up, we'll have to talk more soon, uh, what was your name again?"
"My name is Starlight Glimmer."
"Cool, my name is Honey Glow."
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Starlight," Honey said as she told the books from Starlight.
"Nice to meet you too, Honey." Starlight watched Honey leave as she thought to herself "Saddlebags, here I come!"
Starlight was broken out of her reflection by Twilight shaking her shoulder. "Starlight!" she yelled.
"Hm?" Starlight replied.
"Is something on your mind?" Twilight asked worriedly. "You've been spacing out a lot lately."
"No no, I'm fine. What were you saying before?"
Twilight sighed. Something was clearly wrong, but she wanted her friend to talk to her about it willingly instead of having it coaxed out of her. Prying almost never helped. "I was asking if you wanted to slip away from the party for a little bit to get some fresh air."
"Oh, that sounds like a good idea. But it's your party, shouldn't you be there hosting?"
"I'm sure they'll be fine if I leave for a little while. If anyone asks I'll just say I was tending to a friendship matter." 'Which isn't entirely a lie,' she thought.
"Alright, if you say so." Starlight teleported from the balcony to a couple meters away from the castle, far enough away that nopony could clearly see her from a window. Twilight gracefully flew down and landed next to Starlight.
Twilight glanced at the streets of Ponyville, which were almost entirely empty. "There doesn't seem to be anyone out here, which means we can safely walk without need for any cloaking spells."
"Where are we going?" Starlight asked as they started walking.
"You'll see," Twilight replied. "I just might have a little place in mind."
The two mares slowly walked side by side as the stars twinkled in the night sky."Luna really outdid herself tonight, didn't she, Twilight?"
"Yeah, I don't think they've ever been so festive." Twilight turned over to look at Starlight. "I'm still trying to get better at arranging them myself. I've charted constellations for pretty much my whole life, but I haven't quite mastered making them yet. Luna makes it look so easy, but now I've gotten to see first hoof how difficult it really is."
"I've been meaning to ask you, what was it like raising the sun for the first time?"
"Well, the first time was several years back when Tirek attacked for the first time. It didn't go so well," Twilight replied sheepishly.
"Wait, that was you doing it that day?"
"Yep. I couldn't get it to the right position at first and it didn't move in a straight line at all. I had no training or help from the princesses, everyone must have been really confused."
"Wow, I can't believe I never knew that."
"From what I heard, most ponies memories of that day were foggy. Maybe it was because of their magic being taken."
"Tirek never came to the town. He likely never knew of its existence since it was founded slightly before I was born. It's one of the newest villages in Equestria. The other ponies didn't think he was going to do anything to them since most of their magic was sealed away, but I knew that if he did come, the others would find out I still had magic, so I put the village on lockdown and hid in the secret passage under my house. I only came out when I felt a magical surge in the air. I later learned that this was when magic was restored in Equestria, but everypony who wasn't close enough to Ponyville to get a clear view of the fight just assumed that it was some sort of side-effect of him being defeated."
"Oh wow. I never really considered the idea of there being an audience for that whole debacle. I probably should have, to be honest," she chuckled to herself. "Well, we're here!"
Starlight looked up to see just where Twilight had taken her. She gasped when she looked at the familiar building.
The school.
"You made a friend! Oh, Starlight, that's amazing!' Sunrise said as she hugged her daughter. She talked with a sweet tone and a smile, but her eyes remained lifeless."What's her name? When can we meet her?!"
"Well, she's-"
"Firelight! Our daughter made a friend!' Sunrise interrupted.
"Really?" he replied looking at his wife and then his daughter. Starlight nodded tentatively. Firelight's face instantly lit up. "Oh Star, that's so wonderful! We didn't have any doubts you could do it, of course. But I didn't think you'd be able to do it so soon!"
"Well, I don't know about having no doubts," Sunrise mumbled.
"What was that, darling?" he said as he glanced up from lovingly embracing Starlight.
'Oh, I was just asking when we'd get to meet this new friend of hers."
"Well, her name is Honey Glow, I met her last Wednesday. We're supposed to meet at her house to discuss constellations later today, I'll see if she has time to pay you guys a visit."
"That sounds delightful, sweetie! I'll make some milk and cookies!' Firelight rushed to the kitchen to preheat the oven. Sunrise slightly groaned and picked up a dust cloth. Starlight retreated to her room to read. As her eyes swept over the pages, she happily imagined how fun her life would be at Saddlebags. She would have access to a library second only to the ones in Canterlot and she would be taught by some of the greatest living mages and scientists. Nothing in Equestria could be better than this.
Although, she was really captivated with spending time with Honey. At first, she had, admittedly, only sought after her companionship to please her parents. But after getting to know her better, Starlight really enjoyed her company. She almost wanted to be more than friends, but she pushed that thought as far down as she could. They had only just met, after all, and the idea of her liking mares was absolutely absurd.
Three hours later...
"Bye Starlight. Hope you two have lots of fun," Sunrise called out, not even glancing up from her newspaper. Starlight closed the door and walked over to Honey's house. When she arrived, she knocked on the door and waited for a bit. She knocked again just in case Honey didn't hear her. No answer.
"Maybe she's waiting for me to come in?" Starlight thought. She tried the door, and it was open. She quietly walked in and looked towards the empty living room. The kitchen and dining area were empty as well. She was about to leave and lock the door behind her when she heard voices coming from upstairs. She slowly tiptoed up the stairs and started to make out more and more of the conversation.
"...you know she's not worth your time."
"You're so much better than this. We know it. So why are you getting so chummy with this shut-in?"
"Would you guys please stop?" Starlight recognized this voice as Honey's. "Why do you have to be so judgemental of everyone else?"
"We only want the best for you. And that means only forming relationships with the best. So please enlighten us, why are you so keen on giggling over books with this troglodyte?!"
"Why does it matter?! If you really wanted the best for me, you'd see how happy this makes her and leave me alone for once!" Honey shouted.
Starlight cringed at the scene unfolding behind the closed bedroom door.
"Why do you want to be friends with this Starlight mare?" Starlight's ears perked up at the mention of her name, also realizing all of those earlier insults were directed at her and grew angry with the other mare and stallion in that room with her friend, inferring that they must be her parents.
"It wasn't a trick question, Honey! Your father and I demand an answer!"
"Because I felt bad for her, okay?! We never see her leave the house to go anywhere besides the library and back, I wanted to be her friend and give her a chance at having a social life!" Honey's words echoed through Starlight's mind. Was she really that hopeless? Is that what the other ponies in the town actually thought about her? She galloped home and collapsed onto her bed. She thought about just going to sleep so she wouldn't have to think about how pathetic she was. She turned over and noticed something on her dresser. It was the letter of consent for Saddleton, signed by of her parents, with a smaller piece of paper next to it. It read: We're so proud of you, love Firelight. . Starlight felt tears welling up in her eyes. "Why me? Why can't I make friends? What am I doing wrong? What's wrong with me?" She fell back onto her bed and began to quietly sob.
"Isn't it lovely, Starlight? Starlight? Starlight?"
"Hm? What's lovely?"
Twilight faltered a bit. "I was showing you the changes I made in the main office for when you become Headmare. Look, are you're okay? I can only help if you tell me what's bothering you."
Starlight winced. "It's nothing important. I'm sorry for not paying more attention."
Twilight was more worried than ever, she was contemplating just probing it out, but then she had an idea. "Hey, I think I left a book in your old office, would you mind coming with me to look?"
"Oh, okay," Starlight followed her former mentor into her old office. She sat down on the green couch intended for her clients as Twilight pretended to look for her book. As Twilight searched, Starlight looked around her office. All the familiar items that would soon be taken down for the room to be used by some other pony, while she was going to be running the school. Doing the things that Twilight always did, and Twilight would be doing what Celestia did. Starlight's eyes became glassy. "I... don't think I'm ready to run the school, Twilight."
The purple alicorn stopped looking for a lost item that didn't exist and sat down at Starlight's desk. "What makes you say that, Starlight? You've always been so good to the students here and you're very knowledgeable on all aspects of friendship. "
"But, why me? Why did you choose me to run your school? I used to be so awful to everypony and I basically started a cult! Why didn't you just vaporize me during our fight?" Tears were freely flowing from Starlight's eyes at this point. "What made you think that somepony like me was worth saving?"
"Because you changed."
Starlight looked up, still tearful.
"You're not the pony you used to be, and everyone else knows it. They don't look at you as 'the pony who stole those cutie marks', they look at you as Starlight Glimmer, the pony who helped save Equestria. Twilight gave an assuring smile. "And there's nopony I'd trust more to teach others about friendship."
Starlight gave a slight smile, her eyes still tearful. "Thank you, Twilight. I can definitely see why you're the Princess of Friendship."
Twilight went in for a hug, "Don't mention it, Starlight. Feel free to write me or come to the castle anytime. I can always make time for you." Suddenly, Rainbow Dash burst through the door.
"There you two are! What are you guys doing here? Creatures are starting to notice you're gone and are convinced you've been 'kidnapped by another unspeakably evil demon'. I went out to search for you and for Starlight, because she put a magical lock on the chocolate truffles and I've been dying to try some! Anyway, you guys better get back there before they start panicking."
Twilight looked over at Starlight. "Are you ready to head back?"
"No time better than the present."
The three of them walked back together, with Dash rambling about a recent show about the Wonderbolts had just put on. Starlight listened and thought about the events of that night and what Twilight had said to her. No longer was she that scared little filly or social recluse or cult-leading maniac. She was Starlight Glimmer, and she was ready for whatever tomorrow might bring.
"Hey guys, she's back!" All of the party guests' attention turned to the door. The ponies rejoiced to see their Princess once again. Dash's attention turned to Starlight.
"What were you two doing there anyway?"
Starlight thought for a split second. "Oh, just searching for a book."
Author's Note
I really liked how this one turned out, definitely my favorite story I've written. So like, comment what you liked about it, what you disliked about it, what your favorite Christmas (or Hanukkah, or winter) treat is, a funny meme, or a rant about how much you dislike Cars 2. (Or any unoriginal and unfunny sequel)
Oh, and I'm in Jingemas, so you'll see more from me on Christmas Eve. And I'm working on a bonus chapter, so be sure to track this so you know when that's out!
Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah.
Happy staying in with warm drinksmas
Positive vibes.
