“Um, whose turn was it?” Rarity asks as the four blue glowing Bicycle cards form a fan in front of her face at the table.

Starfall looks up from her six cards, “I’m not sure? Uh, you just go ahead, Miss Rarity!”

“Very well then!” Rarity exclaims before looking down at the table and drawing the 3 of clubs to her hand from the face-up pile and discarding the 2 of diamonds. She looks up at Starfall, “We all need love and empathy Starfall! Even killers like yourself!” she says while placing special emphasis on the word, killer.

Starfall looks up at Rarity with narrow eyes, “But I never got that… I stayed hidden…”

Rarity nods, “Right! And you see how that turned out?”

Starfall frowns in contemplation before deciding to draw the 2 of clubs to her hand and puts down the king, ace, 2, 3, and 4 of clubs on the table and then, discards the jack of clubs to the discard pile to go out. She looks at Rarity, “I believe that means we’re tied now, one for one?”

Rarity smiles at Starfall, “Yes, darling!” before looking at the table and magically causing all the cards to face the same direction in a pile before she begins to shuffle them on the table as her blue eyes stare onward. She says to Starfall, “There’s still one thing I don’t understand about your philosophy, Starfall…”

Starfall looks at the fashionista while frowning, “And what is that?”

Rarity looks at Starfall as she begins magically floating over 7 cards to her, “You say that all ponies are awful and deserve to die, yes?”

Starfall nods, “Yes…”

Rarity nods and begins to float over 7 cards to herself from the pile, “Right! Well, you also said that life is meaningless and not worth living, correct?”

Starfall nods again, “Also true!”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “Well, if you’re ‘just doing them a favor’, as you say, then why bother killing them at all? Wouldn’t just leaving them living be a far worse punishment?” before placing the jack of clubs, face-up next to the pile.

Starfall floats her 7 cards before her in a fan, before looking at the other unicorn and saying, “Clever girl!” before shaking her head and continuing, “But no! The truth is, I enjoy ending their miserable lives and I see no reason not to…” before looking at her hand for a moment and drawing from the pile and finally, discarding the 10 of clubs.

Rarity stares intently, “But why do you enjoy ending them?” before looking down and magically floating a card from the face-down pile to her hand and discarding the 3 of hearts.

“I just do, okay?” Starfall snaps back.

Rarity frowns and blinks at Starfall, “But I don’t understand?”

Starfall magically slams her cards face-down on the table, looks down, and sighs, “Well… It was all I had left, you know? Revenge…” she stares off to the left while keeping her face down.

Rarity normalizes her eyes and leans towards Starfall slightly, “For shunning you? For not acknowledging you, when you went out with your hood and cloak to buy groceries or flowers, correct?”

Starfall looks at Rarity wide-eyed, “H-how did you know?”

Rarity smiles, “I haven’t always been attractive, darling…" She normalizes her mouth, “But you’ve never been attractive, have you?”

Starfall blinks at the fashion pony and frowns, “I’m uh, actually not sure?”

Rarity widens her blue eyes, “What do you mean?”

Starfall narrows her eyes, “I mean that after I got my scar, I was so consumed by rage and fear that I kinda, um, forgot about a lot of other things…”

Rarity blinks, “I see… Well, what can you tell me about yourself now? What did you do with Rainbow Dash and Twilight that you enjoyed so much?”

“Well, I liked flying with Rainbow Dash in her head as she did all of her tricks in the air… That was exciting and I enjoyed her quick turns and lightning-fast reflexes…”

“Go on?” Rarity nods.

Starfall nods, “I also liked pulling pranks with Twilight Sparkle! Not just what we did with Catwalk Strut, but watching Rainbow fly around looking for her precious cloud-house was also amusing…”

“And you enjoy playing cards and chatting with me as well, correct?” Rarity timidly asks.

Starfall blinks, “Well, yes. I suppose I do…”

“And now that you have three friends, what do you think of friendship now? Is it better and more fulfilling than killing?”

Starfall sighs, “Yes, but…”

“But what, darling?”

Starfall blinks again, “But I get this after my exile and death!”

Rarity looks at Starfall intently, “Do you suppose maybe your exile was self-imposed?”

Starfall looks at the other unicorn and a flash of blue light envelopes her to show her face, now with a long vertical scar across her left eye that curves downward into her cheek and a smaller horizontal scar, slightly slanted towards the top, crisscrossing the top of the longer scar. Her normally cerulean left eye is yellow as she says at a higher volume, “Tell me! Would you do business with THIS?”

Rarity gulps at the new visage before stammering out confidently, “Well, yes! Yes, I would!”

Starfall frowns, “Please, Miss Rarity! I couldn’t go anywhere near the Carousel Boutique, looking like this!”

Rarity says hesitantly, “I-I would do my level best to make sure you look pretty!”

“Ha! Good luck!” Starfall says with a grin on her marred face. “But, there’s something else I wish to show you now!”

Suddenly, the ponies are enveloped in a fog that soon dissipates to reveal the table is now in a darkened wooden room, with a wooden door leading to Rarity’s left and one to her right.

Starfall gets up off her chair and trots to the door on Rarity’s right, before making her horn and the doorknob both glow pale blue and the door swings open inward to the left as Starfall points in the other room with her left forehoof and says, “Go in, Miss Rarity! Take a look for yourself!”

Rarity timidly and daintily gets off her seat to the right and cautiously trots around that side of the table to approach Starfall.

Starfall’s horn soon glows and the next room is suddenly illuminated to reveal a sight that makes Rarity gasp in horror… There’s a small bed in the back-left corner and a dresser on the far wall, but Rarity’s blue eyes are trained on a lifeless magenta shape, hanging there from a rope over a wooden chair… Her eyes are open, while her scarred face has the mouth agape with the tongue slightly out… She sees Starfall’s limp and lifeless corpse dangling on the end of the rope…

Starfall smirks and says, “That was my final moment… And that, my dear Miss Rarity is why you can’t help me…” *

Rarity turns her body to Starfall behind her, scrunches her brows, and says boldly, “I think not, darling Miss Starfall!”

Starfall widens her eyes, “W-what?”

Rarity nods, “Your body may have been dead for some time, but you’re still here, are you not?”

“W-what?” Starfall repeats herself.

Rarity frowns, “I’m still able to interact with you and spend time with you, even though you’re dead…”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Starfall snaps back.

Rarity lowers her head as she sighs, “Did it ever occur to you that you’re still, more or less, in the world of the living for a reason?” before slyly looking back up at Starfall with her blue eyes.

Starfall scrunches her brow, “Well uh, I’m actually not sure? I mean, I was still able to possess Rainbow Dash and make her kill?”

Rarity raises her head and nods, “That may be true, but what else could you be doing?” she asks with a slight frown.

Starfall frowns, “Well, I can spend time with you, Twilight, and Rainbow, instead?” Starfall looks down to the left, “I-I’m sorry Miss Rarity…”

Rarity leans forward interestedly with wide blue eyes and a frown on her face, “For what?”

“I…” Starfall looks up at Rarity, “I was trying to scare you… I felt that if I could just frighten you away, I wouldn’t have to worry about how you’d betray me later…”before frowning.

Rarity scrunches her mouth as she stares onward, “How would I do that?”

Starfall blinks, “I-I don’t know, okay? But I still don’t think I should trust anypony… After all, ponies are scum!”

Rarity smiles, “Well, what reason would I have to lie to you?”

Starfall frowns, “Well, you probably care about anypony who I’d kill if you didn’t go along with me?”

Rarity nods, “That’s true, but here’s the thing… You don’t need to trust me right now…”

“W-what?” Starfall asks with a frown on her face.

“What I mean is, you just have to play cards for the moment… Okay? We can build trust as we go! How does that sound, darling?” Rarity says with a small smile on her face.

“I uh…” Starfall looks to the lower right, “Uh, okay, Miss Rarity…" she stares back at the other unicorn, “Back to our game?” she raises her left eyebrow.

<*****>

Starfall’s face is once again unmutilated as she sits in front of the open grasslands once more, before the pale unicorn and she floats the 3 of hearts to her hand and lays it down on the table, along with the 3 of clubs, and the 3 of diamonds before discarding the 2 of hearts to the discard pile. She looks at Rarity, “Your turn!”

Rarity smirks as her plan is realized and she magically floats the 2 of hearts to her hand and sets it down on the table, along with the ace and king of hearts, before setting down the 3 of spades and discarding the 6 of spades to the discard pile.

“To the wire, huh?” Starfall says with a smile on her face as she magically floats a face-down card to her hand and stares at it with the rest in her fan. She finally magically discards the 10 of clubs.

Rarity looks at Starfall, “You say that ‘ponies are scum’, correct?”

Starfall blinks at the fashionista, “Well, yes… All ponies are awful!”

Rarity nods, “Well, right! But you also said that ‘we’re only going along with you to save the lives of those you might kill?’”

Starfall frowns, “Your point?”

Rarity leans forward slightly, “Well, my point is, if we are indeed just trying to save those ponies, that must mean that we care about them, no?”

“And?”

“Well, if we do care about them, doesn’t that mean that we’re good ponies?”

“Okay?” Starfall says while raising her left eyebrow.

Rarity nods, “And I’ll tell you something else to…” she leans forward slightly, “You don’t need to kill ponies to get us to hang out with you… You’re actually a lot of fun!”

Starfall laughs at the white unicorn with wide cerulean eyes, “Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Rarity frowns, “What’s so funny?”

Starfall stares at the fashion horse defiantly, “You would never hang out with me in real life because of my scar! You’d never know my company, otherwise! The irony is palpable!”

Rarity widens her eyes, “You don’t know that!”

Starfall grins and giggles, “Oh please, Miss Rarity! You of all ponies should know that aesthetics are everything!”

Rarity blinks as she stares at this maniacal unicorn blankly, “I…” she blinks again, “I once believed that, yes…” she sighs, “But now, I know better…” she looks intently at the other pony, “somewhere inside you, there’s a beautiful soul, Starfall…” her eyes and mouth narrow, “I know I saw it earlier!”

Starfall lowers her gaze, “You only saw what you wanted to see, Miss Rarity! Believe me, I know better!”

Rarity narrows further her eyes in determination, “You say that life is meaningless, yes?”

Starfall nods, “Correct!”

Rarity nods before magically moving the 10 of clubs to her hand. She looks at the magenta pony, “I worked very hard to build my fashion empire, Starfall… For awhile, I truly believed that was my purpose…” she looks down and floats the 10 of clubs, 10 of diamonds, and 10 of spades to the table, before looking back up at Starfall, “But later, I came to realize that it’s truly friends and the relationships we build that make life worth living…” she sighs and discards the 9 of clubs to the discard pile to go out… She stares back up, “Tell me, isn’t this better than being alone with your own devices?”

Starfall blinks, “Well, I suppose it is, yes?”

Rarity smiles and nods, “Right! But I simply must know what you’re going to say to Dash! Can you allow me to hear what you say in my mind while you’re saying it to her?”

Starfall smiles…

<*****>

The next day is also uneventful for the fashionista. She wakes up and eats a breakfast of strawberry halves and orange juice before going for a walk around town…

She sees the shops in the market district as she heads north, and she thinks about the magenta unicorn she met in her dreams… She thinks about her lifeless body swinging there from a rope and is deeply saddened. She wonders what could’ve brought her to that point in her life. She wondered what sort of loneliness and despair Starfall must’ve felt before her final moments…

She travels further north and sees the Castle of Friendship and she ponders if she truly showed Starfall a better way? She hopes that she somehow got through to the other unicorn as she frowns in uncertainty…

She then turns left to go west and trots off into a residential area of Ponyville where she sees ponies just now waking up and many of them looking out their doors for the morning paper. She sees a coffee shop in the distance on her left and decides to stop…

As she sips a French vanilla latte, she considers Starfall’s words carefully. She takes another sip and suddenly looks up as she hopes to Celestia to see her again soon…

<*****>

Rarity gets into her plush baby blue bed and decides to use her black sleep mask with sparkly red hearts over the eyes as she floats it from her dark wooden dresser on the left side of her bed to her face, where it slips over her eyes, and she leans back in comfort and luxury as her soft warm pillows envelop her head and neck…

She emerges in a fog, in the same field as before… She looks around and sees Twilight to her left blinking with a startled expression on her face and she looks to her right to see Rainbow Dash there, looking around in stunned bewilderment…

She suddenly hears a soft feminine voice from the front of the trio, “Ugh! You know, getting all of you into this dream really takes some effort!”

Rarity sees Starfall standing there at the top of a hill, near some pink and red flowers as the wind blows her bluish-white man to her right and she blinks as she begins to steady herself once more…

Starfall takes a deep breath before looking at Rainbow Dash, “Okay! First order of business! Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow looks at the magenta unicorn and blinks, “Um, yes?”

Starfall blinks before saying, “Rainbow, I’m not a pegasus and even I know your wing positioning is sloppy! Also, your speed needs serious work and your turns could be tighter…”

Rainbow widens her eyes, “W-WHAT?”

Starfall nods, “Honestly, your flying sucks, Rainbow Dash! If you had a LOT of practice, you just might be average!”

“Okay, first off, that WAS just a practice run! And secondly, I don’t see how you’re in any position to make assessments! And finally, I…”

Starfall doesn’t let the daredevil finish before she smiles and says, “Gotcha!”

Rainbow gives a wide-eyed start before smiling and saying, “Oh! You are SO gonna pay for that one!”

Starfall chuckles, “Well, don’t blame me! It was Rarity’s idea!”

Rarity starts wide-eyed and says, “LIAR!”

Starfall looks at the fashionista, while continuing to smile “I know!”

Rarity starts, grins, and starts giggling, “You’re a tricky one, Starfall!”

Starfall sighs, “So, I’m told!” she sighs again deeply before looking to her right at Twilight Sparkle, “Twilight Sparkle! You are currently Princess of Equestria, yes?”

Twilight stares at Starfall and frowns, “Well, yes…”

Starfall sighs again, “Yes… Okay, I’d like to apologize for murdering three ponies now…” she blinks, “I realize at this point that if friendship truly does make life worth living, that killing them was probably wrong?” she frowns…

Twilight blinks and scrunches her mouth as she stutters, “Do you feel any guilt or remorse for what you’ve done?”

Starfall frowns as she looks down, “Well um, not really?” she adjusts her gaze to the alicorn, “But you know, no amount of guilt is going to bring those ponies back to life at this point, so I’m not even sure if it matters?”**

Twilight widens her eyes and frowns deeply, “Well uh, that is technically true, I suppose?”

Starfall looks up and nods, “Right! So, how about this, then! I’ll be all of your friends, and in return, I won't kill ponies!” she gazes to Twilight, “You’re an alicorn and will live for a very long time. You realize that this means you won’t be alone, even when your other friends are gone?” she smiles, “You’ll have a ghost pal, now!”

Twilight blinks at Starfall before stammering, “That um, is actually a really good point!”

Starfall nods, “Right! So, you’re not alone and I don’t kill ponies! Everypony wins!” she turns to face the whole trio, “And as for the rest of you miscreants,” she sighs and smiles, “I’d very much like to be your friend to… If you’ll take a killer like me?”

Rarity nods her head, “Absolutely!”

Rainbow grins at Starfall, “Well, I still need to get Twilight back, right?”

Rarity glances over at Rainbow and lowly says, “Hush slave!”

Starfall snickers at this as she shakes her head, “Only after death, do I get a life!” as Rainbow stares at Rarity out the left corner of her eye and wonders what she got into, Rarity grins at the flier, and Twilight stares onward blankly and wondering where this ghostly new friendship will lead…

(The end… To be continued?)

Author's Note

*This scene hit me hard because I know that was supposed to be me at the end of that rope… That’s how I chose to die, once upon a time…

**Starfall is a sociopath. She does not feel guilt or remorse, but she can be taught to behave.