Friendship is Magic, Drama, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer

SCENE BEGINS. Starlight Glimmer is in her room, sulking; Twilight Sparkle is standing by her door in the hallway. Twilight knocks.

Starlight? Can I come in?

[Muffled agreement]

I’ll take that as a yes. [Enters room]

Starlight, how are you doing? You haven’t come out of your room since our talk in the library.

[Head down, muffled noises]

I didn’t quite catch that.

I failed, Twilight. I failed redemption. I failed friendship. I failed you. I failed!

What do you mean?

Get real, Twilight. You gave me a task as simple as baking a cake, and the moment you turn your back, I proceed to mind control your friends! I haven’t changed! I still think magic is the solution to everything! I’m still doing the same things I did back when I was evil! I’m not becoming a good pony! I’m getting worse!

So much for being reformed…

You think you failed at redemption because of one relapse? Starlight, no. You didn’t.

Sure feels like it.

You know, you’re not the first used-to-be-villain friend of mine who has royally messed up mid-redemption. Ask Princess Luna, who created a monster to infect her dreams and unintentionally gave it enough power to infect everypony elseʼs dreams. Ask Discord, who sold us out to Tirek and gave him the information and resources he needed to take over Equestria. Ask Sunset Shimmer, who messed up our plan so badly it let our enemies know we were on to them and set us back ten steps.

Where are they now?

Reformed. Completely, fully, and I trust all of them with my life. Which I've done, on multiple occasions. The point that I’m trying to make here is that one relapse isnʼt the end of the world. You havenʼt failed your studies, Starlight.

But you said you were disappointed.

I was, but by no means does that mean you failed.

[Heavy sigh]

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a young unicorn who loved magic. Her raw power was unparalleled, but it was wild and uncontrolled. Because of that, she was made the personal student of an alicorn princess.

Canʼt tell if you’re talking about me or you.

As hard as it might be to believe, there were times when Celestia was disappointed in me.

Nonsense! Celestiaʼs proud of you.

On the whole, yes. But Iʼve had my fair share of screw-ups. My story starts a couple weeks after Discordʼs first attack.

You see, back when I was first moved to Ponyville, I was given a task by Celestia - every week, I was to write a report on something new I’ve learned about friendship and dragon-mail it to her. Key word being 'weekly'. There was a week where I missed the deadline.

I lost my mind, Starlight. Completely lost it. For some unknown reason, I was afraid that if I didnʼt submit my assignment by the deadline, I would fail my studies and Celestia would demote me back to magic kindergarten.

That doesnʼt make any sense.

Thatʼs what Spike said! But I was too lost in my head to listen.

I spent the entire day going around, desperately trying to find a friendship problem to write about. And when I couldnʼt find any, I decided to… I decided to create one.

[Hiss]

There was this doll I used as a filly. Itʼs a comfort item I bought when I moved here. That day, I brought the doll out to town, intending to instigate a fight over it. But, naturally, nopony wanted it.

So I cast a spell on the doll. Called it the ‘Want-It, Need-It’ spell. Itʼs intended purpose is to enchant an item and make it irresistible. The moment somepony lays their eyes on it, the item becomes their only purpose.

Sounds suspiciously like mind control.

[Shamefully looks away]

No…

I poured far too much power into the spell. The fillies I was talking to were instantly smitten, but so was everypony who so much as glanced at the doll. Within minutes, Ponyville was plunged into chaos as everypony scrambled to get their hooves on the charmed doll. There had been damage, and I realized that far too late.

Why didnʼt you just… undo the spell?

I couldnʼt! I needed a clear shot of the doll to cast the counterspell, but since I basically brainwashed everypony into getting it…

Eventually, Celestia herself came by and fixed my mess. It took all of one second, and then she looked at me harshly and said, in a cold, stern voice, “Meet me in the library.”

Thatʼs exactly what you told me earlier.

[Smirks slightly] I couldnʼt resist.

Celestia wasnʼt mad at me. No, it was far worse than that. She was disappointed. Up until that point, I was her stellar student with not a single blemish in her academic record. And then, I went ahead and thought mind control was an acceptable way to please my teacher.

I know first-hoof what that feels like.

She didnʼt give up on me, though. My screw up was a learning experience; an opportunity to grow and be better.

Redemption, like friendship, is not a linear path. There will be ups and downs, times where you feel like the best friend ever, and times where you want to curl up in your room and never come out.

But at the end of the day, you keep learning and growing. You apologize, swear to never do it again, and move on.

And I will be with you every step of the way.

[They hug.]

[Sniffling] Your friends are still mad at me, though.

Our friends, and yes, they are. But they wonʼt always be. They’ll forgive you; it’s what friends do.

Thanks, Twilight.

Anytime.

Now if youʼll excuse me, Spike and I need to get started on dinner. [Pauses, small smile] I do hope youʼll join us.

[Sad smile]

(Spoiler alert: she does join them.)

Author's Note

This was what Relapse originally looked like. It began as nothing more than a conversation in my head. Then, I asked JinxJTL to take a a look, and together, we transformed a simple transcript-style convo into a full blown fic that surpassed both of our expectations.

Friendship really is magic, ya’ll.