Starlight woke up, once again the taste of copper making her briefly gag before getting up on shaky hooves. At this point she might have to resort to speaking about it with Twilight, who seemed to be resting, but she really didn’t want to.

Before she could wake up Twilight she noticed that she felt... fine. She was still sore from the fall and she still couldn’t put pressure on her leg without falling over, but she felt much better, and it was bugging her. There was no feasible way she could have recovered this fast. It had only been about a day and Twilight had said she was near death when she first saw her.

Starlight hobbled over to the Princess with some difficulty, and laid beside her. “Princess...” She called out towards her rival while gently shoving her. The alicorn shifted a bit before rubbing her eyes and opening them.

To Starlight she looked tired, granted she hadcaried her for hours, but she looked drained. She had bags under her eyes and she could have sworn the princess’ coat was a bit darker than it currently was.

“What is it?” Twilight spoke in a husky tone, while she looked directly at Starlight. For a moment Starlight just stared at the alicorn until finally she spoke up.

“I... Every time I’ve woken up, I’ve had the taste of blood in my mouth and I know for a fact that it is not my own..." Starlight gave Twilight a once over. "Also, you look like you got ran over by a train. Care to explain?”

“...” For a moment Twilight stayed silent and glared at Starlight briefly before her expression settled down into a more neutral one. Then she looked to the side and briefly shifted awkwardly, before meeting the others gaze once more.

“Well... remember that “healing spell” I casted on you?” She said while her wings slightly twitched.

“Yes?” Starlight said raising a brown.

“Well the spell... it needs alicorn blood...”

Starlight face went pale. She tried to stutter something out but the words just would not come out. Twilight was about to say something but Starlight put a hoof up, silently asking for a moment. After taking a few deep breaths she finally spoke up.

“Why have you been feeding me your blood?” She felt like she should be mad, furious even, yet she felt more conflicted than anything else. She had never heard of such a spell and why did it need alicorn blood?

“Because it wasn’t a healing spell it was...” She trailed off, once again avoiding the others gaze, this only made Starlight irritated.

“Tell me now.” She said through gritted teeth, Twilight flinched but kept her composure.

“It was a resurrection spell, Starlight.” If Starlight had gone pale before now she was cosplaying as Rarity. What did she mean by resurrection? She couldn’t have possibly died, right? She had survived the fall, she must have! But her previous observations resurfaced to the forefront of her mind. Quite frankly the odds of surviving the fall where pretty low, especially when Twilight probably landed on her. But then... Why did Twilight kept giving her blood? Was she...

“Did you... I-” She didn’t know what to say, she truly didn't.

“Starlight, It’ll be-”

“Shut it.” She spat, then quickly regretted her tone. “I-Sorry... we should keep moving.” Starlight looked away in shame, shame over many thing, so many that she couldn’t make them out and differentiate them. She just wanted to not think about it, at least for now.

Twilight seemed like she wanted to object but opted to nod instead and went to the other's side.

“You still can’t walk right?”

Starlight simply shook her head.

“Alright...”

Twilight picked her up once more, though with some difficulty this time. Starlight hated to admit but the feelings of the princess’ wing on her were soothing and made her goal to not think of anything a little bit easier. She yawned as she got comfortable and unknowingly dossed off.

”Well... she took it much better than I expected.” Thought Twilight as she slowly made her way forward through the tunnel. She had noted that the presence of ice was slowly dwindling, being replaced with rocky surfaces and dirt. Hopefully they could find a food source or water, water would be splendid right now especially with her current state.

”Now back on topic.”

Starlight. She occupied most of her mind right now. She felt guilty for not telling her, it was probably very dreadful to think about it for her. Twilight had planned on telling her later on, maybe when they were out of this hole mess and at least on better terms. Now she wasn’t sure if this mess had set them back on what little progress they had made, hopefully Starlight wasn’t beyond reasoning with.

“Hey, Princess...”

Twilight jumped a little, not expecting Starlight to speak to her.

“Please, call me Twilight.” Starlight hummed at that, debating if she should go along with the request. For once she was feeling generous.

“Alright, Twilight.” for some reason she liked the sound of it coming from her. “I want to... No, I need to know why would you keep me alive after what I did? Not only that, I want to know why after you did... whatever it was, you kept doing it and how did you do it?”

It seemed Starlight wasn’t pulling any punches, just how Twilight expected.

“Alright, why I kept you alive should be pretty obvious why.”

Starlight quickly cut her off. “No, no it’s not! It would have been easier to let me... you know. You wouldn’t have to deal with carrying somepony around. Plus I think I showed I was pretty dangerous, so why?”

“Like I said, it’s obvious. Like it or not you are one of my subjects and I wasn’t going to stand by and let you pass...” She waited for a moment to see if Starlight would respond, none came so Twilight continued. “As for why I kept giving you my blood, well, I might have botched the spell... Maybe? I don’t know. You were supposed to be almost fully healed once I casted the spell, but you weren’t. So I kept doing it until you where better.”

“But why? I was going to get better eventually... Probably! I think it’s a bit much to give blood to the point where your as pale as a ghost!” She argued, not really angry but mostly agitated.

“Starlight, after I woke up you were barely breathing. You were battered and bleeding. You had cuts everywhere and you're leg... It’s not even healed yet... After I closed your wounds, I left you for a moment to make a fire and when I returned to your side, you were cold and you weren’t breathing and I panicked and I had recently read about the spell but I had no experience with it and- and.” Twilight took a moment and fought back a sob. Starlight looked at her but Twilight kept her gaze forward.

“I casted the spell and you started to breath again. I was so relived, so relieved that I didn’t fail, that I didn’t fail you. But then I realized that the healing process was taking too long. I realized that even if I didn’t fail, I had not really succeeded either. I knew I had to make it better, to be better, I wasn’t going to let you suffer for days or weeks until you eventually...” Twilight trailed off, still unable to meet the others gaze.

Starlight was simply dumbfounded.

Twilight had been essentially sacrificing herself for someone she barely knew. All because she cared. But how could she care? She was supposed to be her enemy! Starlight didn’t know if she would do something so... selfless. It was admirable whether she wanted to admit it or not.

But now what did she say to all that? She had to say something. Shouldn’t she?

“I Think you did enough, more than enough... You were basically giving me a part of you, just so I could survive. I think... that’s pretty admirable.” The words naturally came from her mouth, no need for thinking her words over for it was the truth. Though as soon as she processed what she had said, she felt her heart rate skyrocket.

Twilight stopped and quickly gazed at her. They looked at each other for a brief moment, until Twilight gave her a grin.

“I... T-Thank you, Starlight!” She said happily. Starlight felt her cheeks ablaze, caused by the sight of the purple alicorn stupidly grinning at her.

”Curse you Twilight!” Calmly thought Starlight Glimmer.

She was still conflicted over how to feel about the princess. She was still bitter about her village and she would do something about it! Probably. Yet... the fact that Twilight was willing to risk her well being for her was...conflicting to say the least.

But for now she was going to enjoy a nice nap.

After awakening from an all too short nap, Starlight thought about herself. What should she do after this? She was not escaping from the law, even if she wanted to. Starting over was going to be impossible, especially growing a new community from scratch. Plus... she wasn't feeling too confident in herself.

The revelation that she had died was a definite blow on her pride and confidence. Not only had she been beaten, she was beaten by gravity. Gravity! She felt absolutely pathetic. Not only that, but she now depended on the pony who had driven her away from her village to simply move around. She had been absolutely useless ever since the fall and it was getting to her.

And Twilight was driving her insane as well, though, not in the way one would expect. Twilight's stupid decision to keep her alive and help her even though they were supposed to be enemies was stirring up feelings that she did not want to acknowledge. Not now anyways.

"So..." Twilight trailed off.

"Hmm?" Starlight wasn't really in the mood to speak, yet she could make an exception she supposed.

"Hm... I'm curious about you're stance on cutie marks." Twilight simply asked.

"Huh? W-Why would you want to know?" Starlight responded defensively.

"Like I said, I'm curious. I also think it might be a good way to understand each other."

Starlight took a moment... she couldn't possible be serious? She had admit, the alicorn kept surprising her.

She didn’t know if she hated it or not.

"Uhm, sure? What do you want to know specifically. Also, we should probably lay down for a while." Starlight would never say it out loud but she was more than a little concerned about the princess. She looked better than before but they yet had to find food or water and it was probably for the best if she got to rest for a while.

Twilight nodded but instead of laying Starlight and leaving to another spot she laid beside her, a wing still wrapped around her.

“I think... I think I'd like to now why you hate them so much. Cutie marks that is.” Twilight said barely above a whisper.

They both looked at each other, getting lost in each others gaze before Starlight spoke up. “Well...” She took a moment, It was kind of hard to think when you had a pretty purple alicorn by your side wrapping their wing around you, though Starlight would say that it was definitely not because of Twilight, she was just-

”IT’S BECAUSE OF THE COLD! YES THAT’S IT!” She composedly thought.

”Come on Starlight, get a grip, this could be you're chance to convince her that you are right.”

“Cutie marks cause inequality, ponies with better talents are often revered more than those who may have more... lackluster talents. Not only that but those who have better talents might be favored and have better opportunities to grow said talents, leaving those with worst talents to be further behind than what they where initially. That’s not even to mention those rare instances where someone may not have cutie marks...”

Starlight looked towards Twilight to see if she was paying attention to her rant and what she saw stunned her. Twilight was not only paying attention, she was looking at Starlight with such intensity, that she could feel her eyes boring into her very soul.

And she was close, much closer than before.

“Uh- I-I cutie flanks I m-mean- Ugh.” Starlight put her hooves on her face, covering her shame.

Twilight was now very confused. ”Did I do something?”

Well whatever Starlight was going through, she needed to snap out of it, because Twilight was now invested. “Uhm, could you continue? I don’t know what happened but, even if I where to disagree, I still want to hear it fully!”

Starlight’s head snapped out of her hooves in an instant. She looked at her companion for a moment before nodding.

“Sorry, I got cold hooves... can I take a moment to gather my thought?”

“Of course!” Twilight grinned at her while swishing her tail, quite frankly she looked adorable.

“She’s going to be the death of me...”

Author's Note

Don’t worry, their debate/conversation while be continued in the next chapter. Hopefully what little I gave of Starlight’s thoughts on cutie marks is alright, idk I kind of just winged it.

Plus I saw that a StarTwi Story came out and I’m gonna read that so I needed to get this chapter done LMAO.