“Spare me your sentimental nonsense! I gave these ponies real friendships they never could’ve had otherwise!” Starlight argued.

“How do you know that?” Double Diamond asked, throwing his ski helmet off of his head. “You never even gave us a chance!”

Her eyebrows furrowed, her teeth clenching, and her horn lit, she created a big, bright forcefield that exploded, giving her the chance to run through the cave without being seen.

“She’s getting away!” she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice echoing through the cave.

Starlight held her breath, resting against the rocks in the caves, listening for their next response. “We’ll never find her in there,” a voice that sounded like Double Diamond replied.

She could barely hear the next voice, which probably belonged to Princess Twilight. “We just have to hope that when she’s had a chance to think it over, she realizes that you all have taught her something.” And with that, she let out a huge sigh, both from relief and holding her breath for too long.

Starlight was too busy trying not to laugh that she didn’t hear the others speaking. Taught me something? Yeah right. All you’ve taught me is that getting revenge on the Princess of Friendship is harder than you think. But when you do, it’ll be totally worth it.

Starlight stood up and peered from behind the rock. Everypony was still there, but they were too busy laughing and hugging or whatever gross friendship thing it was to notice her. Sugar Belle said something, and they all laughed, walking back towards the village.

Starlight looked at the broken glass that once contained all the cutie marks in her village. If it weren’t for those six ponies, especially the alicorn, she would’ve still been happy, leading her town, being more powerful than the rest.

Now I’ll never feel happy! I’ll always feel the way Sunburst did when he left me! Starlight thought. Princess Twilight and her stupid friends, her stupid cutie marks! Why did they have to take my whole life away?

Starlight had spent a few more days in the cave, shivering and despising her choice to stay in the cave. She looked to the cutie mark vault and shook her head. Why would she want to remind herself of her own defeat? She walked to the edge of the cave, which was half covered in snow. She smugly smiled as she looked at the village below her. They were all living a normal life, now, one with special talents and pain. So, angrily, but also happily, Starlight teleported away to a place where Twilight, her friends, and the rest of her village couldn’t find her.

Everything was gray. The ground was gray, the rocks were gray, and somehow, even the sky was completely gray. But there was a barn and a silo here, and she’d take living in a warm, bleak farm over a cold, snowy cave any day. She opened the door to the silo and stepped inside. It was, surprisingly, empty, other than the rocks and hay-covered ground. She sat down and laid down on the hay, settling in for a more comfortable night than she would ever have expected.

Starlight woke up to the sound of an annoyed, raspy voice. “Listen, I don’t care if you’re a stranger or what, but if you want to stay here, you’ve gotta work here.”

Starlight sat up straight, and her ears flipped down. “No thanks,” she answered, and lit up her horn to teleport. But before she could get away, the pony who had woken her stomped on her tail.

“No,” she said, getting closer to Starlight’s face. “If you’re going to live on our farm you gotta at least pay the price.”

Starlight smirked. This girl was almost as tough as she was. Almost. She stood up, nodding, but wearing a big grin on her face. Maybe she could use her in her plan.

“One day’s worth of work for one night’s worth of staying,” the pony, named Limestone Pie, told her, handing her a rock pick.

Starlight took it with her horn and followed Limestone out to where she was instructed to work. “If this is a farm, why isn’t it-”

Limestone silenced her with a glare. “Less talking, more farming,” she blandly replied.

Starlight’s eyes narrowed. She hated working here already. She levitated the rock pick and sat down. Then, she hammered at the rock, imagining as if that rock were Princess Twilight. Just the thought of Twilight going through all that pain made her grin.

Limestone looked back at the unicorn to make sure she was doing what she should’ve been, not messing around. But of course, she was. “Hey! What are you doing?” she shouted, stopping the pick from moving. “You have to be gentle, or else the rocks will break and we’ll be short on supply.”

Starlight clenched her teeth, her eyebrows furrowed. This was the most boring place ever. Why had she come here, again?

Starlight snuck away from the rock farm, looking around for someplace to stay. And then she found it. Well, not really, since she wasn’t there, or even close to there. But she knew exactly where to go. And she would head there right after she got a little rest under some nice, shady trees…

Starlight was already breathing heavily. And so far, she’d only gotten to the edge of Ghastly Gorge. She groaned as she started to walk around the Gorge, and then, her ears perked up in realization. If she’d just slid down there, maybe she could cross more easily. Plus, there was less of a chance that anyone would see her…

She screamed as she fell towards the ground. Levitating herself, she quickly clamped her mouth shut. She carefully placed herself onto the ground and trotted along the riverbank. That’s when a dusty wind blew. It was so dusty, she had to close her eyes shut. And it was so windy, it blew her into the river. But after a while, she figured it was an improvement. The river’s current would carry her along, and she could open her eyes underwater if she wanted to. Which she did.

She drifted along the water, bracing herself for the terribly strong winds in the tunnel ahead of her. She shrieked when she saw vines all over the place, thistles all over them. Quickly hopping out of the water, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then she teleported herself as far as she could from Ghastly Gorge. And of course, that meant right at the edge of Ghastly Gorge, so close she almost fell back in, almost killed herself. Luckily, it had taken her to the side she needed to get to, and not all the way back to the start.

Taking a deep breath, she walked into the forest. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of a challenge. All she had to do was blast the timberwolves with her magic, one after another. When she finally reached the edge of the Everfree Forest, she smiled, taking in the sight she saw. A bridge, leading to a small town, a joyful, playful town. And in that town rested the ponies who had taken away her own town. Now, she could finally get some ideas for revenge on Princess Twilight, straight from the horse's mouth. Literally.

Author's Note

"Golly," this took a while. Sorry if I've been inactive for a while, to those of you who have been waiting for the next chapter of Revenge. I've been kind of unmotivated latetly, so thanks for having so much patience with me. I hope you liked reading it, and for those of you who read this all the way through, thanks so much!

Anyways, if you were wondering why Starlight didn't just use her magic to get to Ponyville, it's because she's not too emotional right now, and she's pretty exhausted, so her magic's not too strong. Plus, I needed to make this chapter longer and extend the amount of time it took before she got to Ponyville.