Over the course of the next few weeks, Starlight has been making great progress, and has even managed to get most of Ponyville to open up to her; including all but one of the elements.

As for the elements themselves, Pinkie Pie was surprisingly the easiest to make friends with, though considering the Party Pony was all about smiles, that wasn't really that hard to do.

Fluttershy was also fairly easy to make friends with as well; and Starlight even appreciated the fact that Fluttershy would look after so many animals. The unicorn mare even going so far as to comment that Fluttershy was probably the best at taking care of animals with how many there were. Even though Fluttershy tried to play it off as no big deal, Starlight did at least say that she's never seen a pony take care of so many different creatures. That did resonate with Fluttershy quite a bit.

Rarity was next after that, and she too was fairly easy. What really resonated with the fashionista was when she found out that Starlight did sometimes donate money to a specific charity; specifically one that was to help foals who were born with a disability.

However, it was during Starlight's work on Applejack's Farm, when the unicorn mare realized what the charity was really doing; making Starlight frustrated about it.

"You know, I REALLY thought that charity was legit. I mean, helping foals with disabilities is a noble goal after all." Starlight said to Applejack.

"Ya didn't know at the time, so ya can't beat yerself up for it." Applejack said.

"Maybe, but I really don't like bait & switch approaches like that. Disabilities don't make anypony different where it really matters. I should know, as my mother had a disability of her own and she was no different then any other mother in the village I came from." Starlight said.

"Wait, yer mother had a disability?" Applejack asked.

"Would I have supported a charity that advertise it'd help disabled ponies if someone close to me didn't have one of their own?" Starlight asked.

"Good point..." Applejack admitted.

"It's still frustrating. Don't know what I'm going to do with the spare bits I get every month that I don't put into savings." Starlight said, sighing.

"You'll figure out something, you've got a good head on yer shoulders." Applejack said.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Starlight noted.

This conversation would show both Applejack and Rarity that while Starlight may have had problems with cutie marks, she was more concerned over foals who didn't really work like others did. It was something Twilight had taken note of that was happening under Celestia's own nose. Of course, Starlight never really had much trouble gaining favor with her teacher, let alone Amiticia. The two did what they could to help Starlight establish a baseline with the other elements and so far, things were looking up.

But with the recent news that Cadence and Shining Armor were going to be having a child soon, Starlight would really like to be able to explore the Crystal Empire on her own merits without the need for changeling guards needing to constantly watch over her. In order for Starlight to not need the changeling guards watch over her, Starlight needed the consent of all the elements to agree that she can be trusted by herself.

There's just one problem with this right now for the unicorn mare, and it's been the hardest task yet: Rainbow Dash.

It seemed to Starlight that no matter what she tried with the recent Wonderbolt Cadet, Rainbow Dash was just not giving full support towards Starlight, with the cadet saying that she just doesn't trust Starlight at all. And with Cadence's child due any day now, Starlight is struggling. It's obviously making the Unicorn mare frustrated beyond belief.

And sadly, Twilight and Amiticia have no idea where Starlight can proceed from here with Rainbow Dash. Which is only adding to Starlight's frustration. And without Rainbow Dash being able to click with Starlight, the Changeling guards for Starlight are looking more and more likely to have to take the trip to the Crystal Empire when everyone gets that invitation to the Crystaling. Which considering how close to the frozen north that is, is not ideal.

Twilight has found a way to keep Amiticia warm while they were over there, which was great for him, but he was concerned about the guards. As such, Twilight had to make an ultimatum: If Starlight wanted to go with Twilight and her friends to the Crystal Empire, then Starlight needed to get Rainbow Dash's approval.

And right now, there was a seemingly impossible brick wall between that pegasus and the unicorn mare.

So out of options, and wanting to go with, Starlight decided to try one final thing. And if this didn't work, there was nothing left.

Starlight met with Rainbow Dash and decided that today, she was going to try the one thing she hasn't done with Rainbow Dash yet: Doing a bit of a small competition between the two. It was the only thing Starlight has not done yet with Rainbow Dash, and she was really hoping things would not come to this, but she was out of options. Nothing like the Iron Pony Competition Rainbow had with Applejack, but something that she believed the two of them could finally bound over.

Starlight's goal here wasn't to win, her goal was to bound with Rainbow Dash over it. This was her last ditch effort to gain Rainbow Dash's trust, and the unicorn wasn't about to let it go to waste.

While Rainbow Dash had managed to win the whole thing; not that Starlight was aiming to win in the first place; Starlight did decide to congratulate Rainbow Dash.

"What can I really say? You beat me and I have no complaints. I did my best and I suppose it just wasn't enough." Starlight said.

"It was something fun I'll give you that. But I still don't trust you." Rainbow Dash said. Starlight's heart sank. What more did she need to do with this mare?

"I don't know what your grip is with me. I've done all I can think of to do with you. Everything even. And if I can't get your trust, then Twilight won't let me go to the Crystal Empire." Starlight said.

"Not my problem." Rainbow Dash said.

"Look, I don't know you don't trust me so much, but I have a strong feeling that if I can't go to the Crystal Empire, I might not be able to reconcile with Sunburst. And that's important to me. There's a strong possibility that Sunburst could be there, and if he is, I don't want to have to hang back." Starlight said.

"You took the cutie marks of me and my friends, plus an entire village. You'd have to do something pretty strong to be able to make up for all that." Rainbow Dash said. "So until you do, your not trustworthy enough for me." She added.

"Your not listening to me...can't you just give me the chance? Maybe if I go, I might be able to help somewhere in the Crystal empire with Cadence's baby. And besides, if something goes horribly wrong, I'd like to be able to help you if I can." Starlight said. "All I need is the chance..." She added.

"...Fiiiiine..." Rainbow Dash groaned. "You get once chance with this. I'll tell Twilight that I'll trust you enough to be able to come to the crystal empire with us without your changeling guards needing to be there. If you behave while we're over there, I'll see about trusting you outside of the castle without those guards. And heck, if Sunburst is over there, then I expect you to reconcile with him. But if he's not, I do expect you to behave at the least." She explained.

"Thank you." Starlight said.

"But just so you know, this is your one chance to prove you can be trusted without those guards needing to be watching over you. And if you can't do that well...then you can just forget ever earning my trust. Period." Rainbow Dash said. "Do I make myself clear?" She asked, staring Starlight down.

"Crystal..." Starlight said. Well at least she could go the empire now.

Ironically, Sunburst was there, and Starlight being able to reconcile with him was the thing that helped out the most about that. Which did make Rainbow Dash glad that she did sign off on letting Starlight go to the crystal empire without needing the guards to go with her. So Rainbow Dash ultimately did start to loosen up around Starlight once they got back. Now perhaps, Starlight could make real progress.

Author's Note

I know I basically glossed over the events of "The Crystaling" here, but honestly, even with Amiticia there, nothing really changed enough to warrant a full chapter dedicated to those events. Seriously, outside of maybe a couple of lines out of Amiticia, everything would still play out the EXACT SAME. And with me not really having much to add to those events, I figured I might as well just briefly mention those events without really going over them all. Because the two parter is more focused on Starlight and Sunburst reconciling then it is in regards to Flurry Heart.