Twilight eyes Starfall from her side of the hill, “Let me guess! You want to be present in my mind at some point to experience the thrill and excitement of being me, right?”

Starfall blinks, “Um, no! Why would I want that? You’re a government official and your life is boring! Bleh!” before opening her mouth and sticking her tongue out.

Twilight blinks, “Hey! I have a good time!”

Starfall widens her eyes to the alicorn, “Oh sure!” as she swishes her bluish-white tail.

Twilight begins to speak faster, “No really! I have all sorts of fun and interesting times as Princess of Equestria!”

Starfall looks at Twilight, narrows her eyes, and smiles, “Like what?”

“Well, um, there was that one time, uh…” Twilight nervously stammers out while narrowing her eyes.

Starfall widens her eyes and raises her voice, “Exactly! Your life is boring!”

Twilight grimaces to the left, “Well, you don’t have to rub it in!”

Starfall grins wider, “You haven’t really had any excitement since you turned the Terrible Trio to stone, have you?”

Twilight looks at Starfall indignantly, “Hey! I’ve been to lots of royal parties!”

Starfall rolls her eyes, “Oh please, Twilight! You go in there, meet a bunch of ponies you don’t want to meet or know, smile and make nice-nice with them, and get through the evening as best you can, knowing that you’ll have more government nonsense to do tomorrow and alcohol is probably the only thing that makes these idiots bearable, am I right?”

Twilight stares at Starfall wide-eyed and frowns, “Well um, that’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”

“But am I right, Twilight?” Starfall says before nodding.

“Well, um…” Twilight narrows her eyes and stares wistfully to the right as she sighs, “Yeah… That’s pretty much it…”

“See, I knew it! You need some excitement!”

Twilight narrows her eyes and mouth to the unicorn, “Well, what do you recommend?”

Starfall suddenly looks at Twilight with wide-open eyes, “I don’t know? I’ve never really had a friend before?” and frowning.

“Hmm…” Twilight says as she lowers her head and scrunches her brow.

Suddenly, a wicked smile forms on Starfall’s face, “Why don’t we play a prank on that kinky white unicorn friend of yours?”

Twilight raises her right eyebrow and narrows her mouth to the unicorn, “What?”

<*****>

Rarity casually trots into her boutique after shutting the door with a blue magical glow and stops dead in her tracks as she sees her favorite model, Catwalk Strut, there standing in the center of her dressing area at the right of her shop, from the doorway. She sees Catwalk there, a sky-blue earth pony with her pink mane and tail, and shimmering green eyes standing on the tan mat. Although Catwalk herself was not nearly as interesting as what she had on at that moment... A black pleather suit with zippers just below the tail, between the legs, and on the sides to expose the nipples. She stammers out, “Uh, C-Catwalk Strut! What are you doing here?”

Catwalk looks up and smiles nervously at the fashionista, “Well, I came into your shop, and you weren’t around. Then, I saw the ‘out to lunch’ sign and was just trotting out the door when I ran into your alicorn friend outside!” her eyes widen, “She said that the new outfits you wanted me to model were in your bedroom closet and that you wanted me to model, post haste! She told me to go ahead and try one on! Uh, I hope you don’t mind?” she smiles. “You’re obviously not done with all of them though, because certain pieces are missing from many of the garments!” She strikes a pose by moving to her left side and rearing upwards, so that her tail and the zipper parts of the ultra-tight hind-end section are now exposed, causing the white unicorn to widen her eyes, but admire the view, all the same...

Rarity gulps, “Th-those outfits aren’t for modeling or the catwalk uh, d-darling! They’re for uh, a special project!” she nods and smiles nervously,”Th-that’s why many uh, pieces are missing! You see, I’m not done with them yet! Uh, go ahead and take that off and I’ll show you what you’re meant to wear!”

Twilight is watching all of this from the side window and trying desperately to suppress the snickers as her face grimaces in amusement.

She hears a soft feminine voice from her mind, “You think that’s funny, huh?”

Twilight’s violet eyes widen as she frowns and stammers out lowly, “N-no!”

“Yes, you do!”

At that point, Twilight busts out in hysterical giggling, that she can only barely suppress by holding her right forehoof to her face so as to not alert Rarity inside!

Starfall then giggles before saying, “Now, we need to get the hay out of here, before she spots us!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she lowers her hoof and stops snickering, “Right!”

<*****>

Rarity explodes through the throne room doors to angrily trot towards the central chair. “Twilight! I know you got a look into my secret closet, but you WILL keep my private life and professional life separate, this instant!” She shouts before stopping in front of the throne in the aisle and angrily stomping her right forehoof and staring up at the throne, with a, now smirking purple alicorn on it.

Twilight tries to suppress more snickering as her head and mane bob with quelled delight with an obviously unreleased smile on her muzzle, “Why, I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

Rarity narrows her eyes, “Oh, don’t be coy with me, Twilight! I know full well that you told Catwalk Strut the wrong outfits to put on!”

“I’m innocent!” Twilight says wide-eyed, with a big, obviously fake smile on her face.

“Oooohhh ugh! This ends, RIGHT NOW!” Rarity angrily growls before stamping her left forehoof and turning to trot back towards the door and exit as she magically slams the door in a huff!

Suddenly, a soft girly voice chimes in Twilight’s head says, “So, now, we need to get your daredevil friend, yes?”

Twilight frowns, “Well, topping the zombie prank the whole town once pulled on her, might be tricky?”

“So, what do you think we should do, Twilight?”

Twilight’s mouth straightens, “Well, I think we should get Rarity involved this time! So, she’s not too angry about what happened earlier.”

“Hmm, makes sense! Well, maybe we should talk this over with her then? See what she thinks!”

Twilight nods, “Right! If she’s involved, she should definitely have a part in planning it!”

<*****>

Rainbow Dash doesn’t know what sort of emergency this is, but she flies quickly to the Carousel Boutique on the Lower East Side of town. She lands up front and knocks on the door with her right forehoof.

A violet maned white unicorn answers the door with her hair thrown seductively over her should and says with directed and provocative eyes featuring slutty purple eye shadow, “Come on in, Dash…”

<*****>

Rarity frowns at Twilight Sparkle from her place on the left side of the Cutie Map, “I uh, honestly did not see that one coming…”

Starfall snickers in Twilight’s mind, “She means cumming as in orgasm, tee hee!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as she decides not to repeat what was just spoken to her and says to Rarity from her position at the head of the table, “Yeah, I was so sure Rainbow would freak out at the idea of bondage playtime with you! I really didn’t think she was that sort of pony?”

Rarity blinks at Twilight, “So uh, what do we do now?”

“I uh, it’s not my thing… But if you and Rainbow decide to uh…”

Rarity starts, “Oh uh, of course darling!” she looks down and to the right. “I still have no idea how to bring this up to her later, though?”

Twilight stares at Rarity wide-eyed, “So uh, you want to uh, with Rainbow, er, never mind…” before looking down to the left…

Rarity narrows her mouth, “Well, I assumed you would know to leave when I lowered the blinds!”

Twilight starts wide-eyed at the unicorn, “Well yeah! I’m not sticking around for THAT!”

Starfall giggles more, “Well, that’ll teach younotto use my ideas!”

Twilight’s brow furrows as she thinks back, “You were gonna use dead bodies to scare her! Don’t you think that’s kinda morbid?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

Twilight grimaces as she narrows her eyes and scrunches her brow to say lowly under her breath, “Well, at least my friends are enjoying themselves!”

Rarity looks up at Twilight wide-eyed with a scrunched mouth, “What was that dear?”

Twilight looks at the fashionista wide-eyed, “Nothing!” and smiles nervously...

Rarity straightens her eyes, “Well uh, if that is all, I suppose I’ll be on my way and I’ll just uh, see you later then, dear!” before getting off her chair, trotting over to Twilight’s left and hugging the dazed alicorn as she sits there, speechless… Rarity trots out of the Cutie Map Room and leaves Twilight alone with Starfall in her mind.

“So, what’s up?” Starfall says to Twilight.

Twilight frowns, “My life just continues to get weirder! I mean, I used to be just a student of Celestia, and now I have all these responsibilities and now, to top it all off, there’s a ghost pony in my head!”*

“Well, gee Twilight! How do you think I feel?”

Twilight looks up, “What do you mean?”

“Well, as you know, I’ve claimed three victims!”**

“Uh, we only found two bodies?”

Starfall giggles slightly, “Oh, right! You haven’t found the one by the tracks, yet!”

Twilight shakes her head, “Anyway, three victims?”

“Yes, Twilight… But each of those victims represented something to me… When I kill them, I feel as if I’m killing myself all over again!”

Twilight widens her eyes in shock, “Th-then why do it then? Why kill victims?”

“Because Twilight…”Starfall sighs. “Deep down, I felt that since I had fallen to despair, so should they… Because even though killing them hurt me, I still felt it needed to be done…”

Twilight normalizes her eyes, “Why did you feel it needed to be done?”

Twilight hears Starfall audibly shudder in her mind before slowly responding, “Because I wanted to share my pain, okay? I wanted to take the lives of other ponies because I never got one! You could never know my pain!”

Twilight furrows her brow, “You don’t know that, Starfall…”

Starfall is silent for a moment… “Tell me Twilight. Do you know what it’s like to not be there?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I wasn’t there! There was nopony around me! While they all lived their happy little lives living and working in town, I stayed home, by myself…”

Twilight frowns, “Well, how did you live? How did you make money to feed yourself?”

Starfall says, “Nopony sees you when you work in the back…”

Twilight nods, “So, you had a job! Obviously, somepony hired you! What about your boss?”

“I didn’t see him much… Just once a week to get my paycheck…”

“What about when you bought food in town?”

Starfall sighs again, “Oh, Celestia! That was the worst! I’d put on my cloak at dusk and go out right when they closed and nopony was around...”

Twilight is intrigued at this point… She asks, “Why? What was wrong with you Starfall? Why do you hide your face?”

Starfall is silent for a moment, “I’d rather not talk about it…”

Twilight blinks and stares forward curiously, “Why not?”

“Can we talk about something else please?”

Twilight frowns while deep in thought as she knows there’s definitely more to this story, but she also knows she can’t risk what she’s gained by pressing the issue. She finally decides to say, “Tell me something Starfall… Now, I’ve enjoyed your company and I’d like to think that you’ve enjoyed mine… Would you like to continue this instead of murder?”

Starfall is silent…

Twilight continues, “We can just have fun together! What do you say, friend?”

Starfall is silent before finally giggling, “Well, we still have to get Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Okay, but no more kinky stuff!”

“Well, now your friends are spanking each other!”

Twilight closes her eyes, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

Starfall can only cackle maniacally!

<*****>

Twilight stands on the knoll, looking up at the sky through black binoculars held in front of her face with a purple glow. She sees the rainbow streaks of Dash flying around overhead as Starfall asks her, “How long do you suppose she’ll be looking for her cloud-house?”

“I don’t know?” Twilight replies.

“Well, I say give her another ten or fifteen minutes! We don’t want her too freaked out, after all!”

The glowing binoculars float down, away from Twilight’s eyes, “You care about Rainbow Dash?”

Starfall is silent for a moment before finally saying, “Yes, I suppose I do… Well, on some level?”

Twilight starts, “So, you DO care about somepony else!”

Starfall sighs, “You wanna know what’s weird? I hung myself all that time ago and that ended my life! And yet, I’ve never felt more alive than when I was with you girls! You and Rainbow Dash, Twilight!”

Twilight smiles dimly, “You know, my grandmother was a unicorn named Twilight Falling and losing her was perhaps the hardest thing I ever had to go through!”

Starfall is quiet before saying, “Go on?”

Twilight blinks and normalizes her mouth, “But when I look back at it all, I’m honestly just glad she’s no longer suffering at this point…” she blinks again. “I like to believe there’s something else though. I like to think that maybe, there’s not really such a thing as death… That we all just go through transitional phases…”

“I like that thought, Twilight! But uh, what about me?”

“I don’t know Starfall! I don’t know why you can’t move on, but I know there’s more to this story!”

Starfall falls silent in Twilight’s mind...

“And I’ll tell you this much, Starfall…” Twilight continues, “For a homicidal maniac, you’re really not such a bad pony!”

“I killed three ponies…”

Twilight sighs, “Yes you did, Starfall, but I think there’s a reason!”

“Reasons don’t justify murder…”

Twilight is silent before finally saying, “You could stop killing?”

“Twilight?”

“Yes, Starfall?”

“Do you want to know the real reason I stayed hidden? I mean, sure! Users came and went! But after I got rid of them, I was all alone again… Do you want to know why I was alone?”

“Um,” Twilight blinks before saying louder, “actually I do! Why were you alone, Starfall?”

Starfall is silent before saying, “A roc attacked me… What you saw in the dreams was my visage before, but that’s not really what I looked like…” Starfall sighs before softly saying. “I didn’t know that I was between it and it’s hatchlings…”

“Were you scared?” Twilight asks with wide concerned eyes.

“Yes, Twilight… I was terrified!”

Twilight has concern in her eyes at this point, “What did you do?”

“I ran, of course! I tried to hide in the woods, but it found me and wouldn’t stop! It just wouldn’t stop when it got to me!”

Twilight is almost panic stricken as she asks, “What did you do? What happened?”

Starfall is silent again before finally saying matter-of-factually, “I had a big grievous scar across my left eye that went from top to bottom before it finally left me alone… The cornea on the eye itself was also broken and so, it looked yellow, whereas my other eye was a pale green color… I felt that I was hideous and could no longer approach other ponies… Then, I thought about them and their happy little lives… And how that was stolen from me…”***

Twilight frowns, “That still doesn’t explain why you thought they were so awful?”

“I already told you that too, Twilight… I was only ever approached or befriended by drifters and ponies who only wished to exploit my hospitality… They weren’t really my friends; I later came to realize…”

“So, you thought ALL ponies were like that?”

Starfall sighs again, “I uh, I guess so? I guess when you only hang around that sort of pony, you eventually start to believe they’re all like that? I…”

Twilight leans forward concerned again, “What, Starfall?”

Starfall loudly replies in Twilight’s head, causing her to wince, “I was… I was angry, okay? I was angry at the world for what happened to me, and I was angry at other ponies for ignoring me, but mostly, I was angry at myself for not figuring out a solution!”

“Did you ever seek help, Starfall?”

“From whom?”

Twilight lowers her head, “Well, I’m not that great at visage manipulation, but surely somepony?”

“There was nopony, Twilight! The doctors told me there was nothing that could be done!”

“But don’t you think you should’ve given other ponies a chance?”

“I already told you what other ponies are like…”

Twilight shakes her head, “Not all ponies are bad, okay! I mean, you’ve had fun with me and Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Well, yes… I suppose we had a good time?”

Twilight smiles and nods, “Well, now you have two friends!”

“T-two friends?”

“Rainbow Dash and me, okay? Look! I don’t know what awaits you when you cross over, but I do know that you’re here now…” her smile widens. “My ghost friend, Starfall!”

Starfall finally giggles again, “Ghost friend! Yeah, I like that…”

Twilight blinks, “And if dealing with Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer have taught me anything, it’s that your past doesn’t need to be your future! You can change! You can be a better pony!”

“A better ghost pony?”

Twilight blinks as her mouth straightens, “Right! That!” her eyes grow narrow as she focuses her thoughts. “But I’ll also tell you this Starfall… I know I saw good in you today… I don’t think you’re really such a bad pony after all…”

“But?”

Twilight lowers her gaze and she sighs, “But eventually, you’ll have to deal with the guilt of those three ponies you killed…”

“Perhaps later? But not at the moment…”

Suddenly, Twilight hears a raspy voice coming from 10 feet in front of her, “Uh, Twilight! I know you moved my cloud-house!”

Twilight starts to look at the rainbow maned pegasus before her with wide eyes, “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” before smiling widely at the pegasus…

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*A “ghost” is how I often describe my “former self” as a transgender person. Starfall is a representation of demons from my past.

**The number three is also metaphoric here as that represents the number of “false starts” I’ve had in life and their respective broken promises.

***Starfall’s scar represents how I often feel about myself… I’m neither “male” nor “female” at this point and I often think of myself as a monster, a mutant, or a freak… I often have trouble believing that I actually belong anywhere…