Learning From A Big Mistake
You never get over your first break up. The wound heals but it still hurts just the same.
Twilight knew that very well when it came to Starlight.
The two weren’t exactly close the first time they met. Though that’s pretty much to be expected since Starlight was a villain before they became friends. Once she did reform, she and Twilight started to grow closer, and that feeling of closeness only increased when Twilight no longer had to give Starlight friendship lessons.
Feelings did start to blossom between the two magically gifted mares, which they did act upon with encouragement from Spike, the little bugger just couldn’t stand the thought of his friends going through so much emotional stress.
When they did get together, things were fine at first. Twilight treated Starlight the same as she always had, and Starlight was a great marefriend to her as well, though the problem was… she was too great to Twilight.
So much so, that whether Twilight knew it or not, she ended up taking advantage of that affection.
Starlight practically groveled at Twilight’s hooves after all that she did for the broken mare when she was getting used to being a new pony. She worshipped the ground Twilight walked on so much that it was a bit concerning, but Twilight shrugged it off as she secretly craved that admiration.
She liked being the one causing ponies to be starstruck for a change, after all despite being a princess, she was still less admired than those like Celestia, Luna, and Cadance.
So she took advantage of that admiration, while she definitely would admit, she was never actively cruel to Starlight. The way she treated her wasn’t healthy in the slightest. She started treating Starlight less like a pony she cared about, and more like a castle guard who she could just get to run any errand. So she started having her do some things that she didn’t feel like doing because she felt she needed some breaks from tending the castle and her princess duties. And Starlight had offered, plus she did reward the unicorn with affection so it didn’t seem that bad to her.
Twilight also began to act more of a dominant presence in their intimate moments.
Granted, the two never had sex because Starlight was too nervous to even attempt it and Twilight had enough respect to not force her into anything that made her so uncomfortable, but Starlight still did basically anything Twilight wanted.
Their friends were starting to get concerned, especially Spike and Trixie but Starlight brushed it off as her just being a good marefriend, so Twilight dismissed the worries. Everything was fine, Starlight was happy, she was happy, they were probably just overreacting.
However Spike did pull her aside at one point to talk.
“Twilight, I gotta be honest, I think you’re taking advantage of Starlight.” Spike sighed uncomfortably.
“What?!” Twilight had practically shouted, “Spike! That’s preposterous, I care about Starlight, why would I ever want to hurt her?!”
“I know you wouldn’t want to hurt her in any way. I doubt you’d ever do anything bad to Starlight on purpose but I noticed how dedicated she was to you and that she’d practically do anything for you. This isn’t healthy for her Twilight. You’re probably the first pony she’s opened up to in a long time.” Spike lectured, with an annoyed but concerned look in his eyes.
Twilight began to think back to most of her moments with Starlight, the unicorn did seem to do a lot for Twilight didn’t she? Then again, if Starlight had a problem with it, she would’ve said something by now, wouldn’t she?
Yeah, she would tell me. Spike’s just worrying too much.
“Your concern is appreciated Spike but she’s fine. If she wasn’t, she would’ve talked to me.” Twilight spoke with a soft smile.
“You probably give off an intimidating vibe Twilight, maybe you can talk to her and see how things go.” Spike sighed before he left Twilight alone with her thoughts.
Spike was definitely, absolutely, not right about this. He was overreacting, this was perfectly normal of Starlight.
Then again, Twilight still thought back to how much Starlight does for her and how much she does for the princess compared to how much Twilight did for her during the relationship.
It was clear to Twilight now that she needed to talk to Starlight.
When the two met at the map table Twilight sighed and spoke up, “Starlight, I’m about to say something important and I need you to be quiet until I’m done talking.”
“Sure thing. Whatever you need to talk about is probably important.” Starlight smiled reassuringly, Twilight just hoped that the smile wouldn’t break.
“I’m gonna be honest. I don’t think our relationship is working out very well and it isn’t healthy. It’s not your fault, you were great to me but I took advantage of that. Instead of getting you to tone your feelings for me down to a healthier level, I let your dedication get to me. I’m so sorry.”
Starlight had an unreadable expression at first before she spoke up, “Yeah, I’ll be honest. I was starting to feel a similar way.”
“Really?” Twilight asked in shock.
“It’s not like I thought you meant to hurt me. I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by some of your requests and our relationship started to feel like less equal and more of a master and servant type of deal.” Starlight admitted with a sad look on her face.
Twilight was shocked by this revelation, had she seriously been hurting Starlight that much?
“If you felt this way why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight asked, saddened by how oblivious she treated her now-former marefriend, although she doubted she even had the right to even be known as Starlight’s marefriend anymore.
“I thought I might have come off as ungrateful, or I’d probably be overreacting.” Starlight answered.
“Starlight, talking to me about your concerns is not something you should be scared to do and I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” Twilight said with some tears, threatening to slide down from her eyes.
“Twilight, I should apologize too. I was too obsessive. I should have known something was going wrong in our relationship as soon as it became obvious, especially when others began to get concerned. Even Discord knew something was amiss. Discord!” Starlight admitted.
“For all your faults, I still allowed this cycle of toxicity to continue as much as you did.” Twilight argued softly, “That’s why we need to break up, it’s the only way we will both continue our lives in a healthy manner.”
“Wait. This doesn’t mean we have to break up, we can still be together. We can learn from this experience, I can be less dependent on you and we can go back to being how we used to. Please! I love you!” Starlight begged.
Twilight’s heart broke hearing Starlight’s plea, she hated this as much as Starlight did but she knew it was best for both of them.
“Starlight, it’s the best way we’ll learn from our mistakes.” Twilight cupped Starlight’s chin with her hoof.
“But I don’t wanna lose you, you being in my life was the best part of my life in a long time.” Starlight said with tears.
“You won’t lose me. We’re still gonna be friends and maybe in the future we could give it another shot but for now this is for the best.” Twilight enveloped Starlight in a hug, which she returned.
As much as it hurts, Twilight knew she did the right thing. Starlight did end up moving on thanks to the positive figures in her life helping her, including Twilight herself, although that didn’t stop Trixie from tossing Twilight the occasional glare.
While she did end up on good terms with Starlight, Twilight still kicked herself for letting a good thing pass by. She figured Starlight was going to eventually find somepony for her, and Twilight would support her in that. After all, if you loved someone, you had to let them go, if they came back, then it was fate, if they didn’t, it was never meant to be.
Either way, Twilight was content with at least having Starlight in her life.
Author's Note
While TwiStar could bring the best out of the two magical ponies, there is a small chance it could bring the worst out of each other, Starlight being the hopelessly dedicated lover while Twilight let’s the dedication get to her.
Hopefully none of you are bothered by how I portrayed Twilight here. I wanted to show that she definitely cares about Starlight but that she let Starlight’s unhealthy dedication to Twilight get to her.
I also wanted to show Starlight wasn’t completely innocent either as she was also in the wrong due to being oblivious to how Twilight was acting and how unhealthy her dedication was.
If you want, I can make a chapter showing Starlight and maybe even Spike’s point of view about the whole thing that’s transpired, only if you want that.