“Fight the darkness, Stygian, you don’t need it anymore!” exclaimed Twilight Sparkle as she tried with all her might to free the pony from the Shadows of his own hatred. This had all been a mess. She should have listened to Starlight, but she got caught up blindly following her idol. She felt ashamed, but they could fix this. Now that she knew that this was a friendship problem, they could resolve this, everything would be fine. “Revenge isn’t what you want. Friendship is!” She said as she started to struggle. Luckily, Starlight stepped up and latched on to Stygian as well, helping her former teacher. The shadow refused to let go, it kept absorbing the small pony into itself. After a few moments, everyone else joined in to help, and with their combined efforts, they managed to free Stygian, successfully banishing the shadow that plagued him for so long.
Every pony climbed out of the hole they had been in, all happy to be done with this and even happier that the elements didn’t disappear, which Fluttershy concluded that it was probably due to them using it for healing instead of vanishing Stygian. This further planted doubt in Twilight’s mind about herself, but she pushed it down for now. Stygian and Star Swirl were the last to climb up the hole where the wizard apologized to his old friend and thanked Twilight for showing him the errors of his ways. This brought up Twilight’s Spirit a bit, to the point where she said the bearded pony’s name backward for some reason. After that, she searched for Starlight. She really needed to apologize for the way she acted. She then spotted her looking down at the hole where they had just been. She approached the mare cautiously. Maybe she was overreacting, and Starlight probably wasn’t that mad at her, but still, she did mess up, not standing up for her when she needed.
“Starlight?” She asked, barely above a whisper. Starlight did not answer , she seemed in deep thought, though Twilight could not help feel that she was ignoring her. “Starlight.” She asked more confidently, which prompted her former student to turn around and face her.
“Huh? Oh hi-hello… what’s it Twi?” She answered seemingly out of it, which made Twilight concerned for her friend. She looked… off to her, like something had changed inside her. ‘Or maybe I’m over thinking, maybe she’s just tired from all of this. She’s definitely not mad at me, nope!’
“Uh, Twilight?” Starlight asks as her former mentor just stood there looking at her like she was about to have a breakdown.
“Oh, sorry… I just wanted to speak with you about what happened today…” Before Twilight could continue, Starlight cut her off. “Look, I now we have some... things to discuss, but I’m not feeling too great right now… Could it wait, please?” She said awkwardly, looking away as if she had done something wrong. Twilight thought about it for a second. Maybe it was for the best to give her some time, and then she could properly make it up to her.
“Yes, we can talk later… just know that-” Before she could continue, she was cut off by the others, who wanted to get a move on to Canterlot. She supposed she could tell her later that she was sorry.
***
Starlight knew something was wrong. Something was off since she flew out of the Pony of Shadows. She had felt something grab her right before she had gotten out, but nothing was on her when she touched the ground. As she looked at the hole, dread started to creep in, and her thoughts became darker. She also felt extremely tired, both mentally and physically. It had been a long day, a day where she had been ignored by one of the most important ponies in her life. She did make up for it in the end and gave Stygian a chance, and seemed remorseful. She couldn’t stay mad at her forever. After all, she owed the alicorn her life. She would have plunged Equestria into darkness if not for her.
Still, she betrayed me... Maybe she never cared for me. Maybe it was all some sick joke. She knew she couldn’t contain me, so she prayed on my feelings.
‘What?’
This sudden thought caught her off guard. How could that even cross her mind? Maybe what Twilight did had more of an impact on her than she thought. Her head was throbbing now.
Once a villain, always a villain…
’what the-’
“Starlight.” Twilight spoke, which startled her. She answered, but the words did not process to her, she felt as if she had little control over herself. She remembers having a bit off a back and forth with her former teacher, but she couldn’t remember most of it apart from it being kind of awkward and her telling twilight that they could talk about… whatever she had said later.
Now, she found herself in her room looking at the ceiling. Old demons seemed to be eating away at her, and a longing for her old life was eating away at her. She didn’t understand. Starlight thought she was over this. Why are these hateful feelings coming back? They didn’t feel natural, the thoughts weren’t hers, they couldn’t be. She felt detached from them, but they were also familiar to her. She groaned as she flipped on her bed and groaned onto her pillow out of frustration. She needed to sort this out, especially before she talked to Twilight.
‘It can’t be because… I’m mad at her, right? It seems disproportionate to have these feelings… I know she’s sorry, and I don’t necessarily blame her. Maybe if the roles were reversed, I would have done the same.’ Before she continued her assessment of her current predicament, she heard a knock on her door.
“Starlight, Twilight would like to speak with you in the throne room as soon as possible!” Said Spike from the other side of the door. Starlight got off the bed quickly. She supposed she knew what this was about. It had been a few hours, but when she said to Twilight “we should talk later.” She was thinking more along the lines of a day or two.
‘Its fine…’
“I’ll be out in a minute!”
***
Starlight walked through the corridors of the castle; her trot was not as graceful as it usually was. She felt slightly better now that she was out of her room, probably because she really didn’t have anything on her mind apart from getting to the throne room. She approached the door and slowly opened it, peaking her head inside. “Twilight?” She called out into the room where her former teacher sat. “Oh, hi Starlight! Sorry, I know you said you wanted some time to yourself, but I thought it would be better if we talked now rather than later. Plus, Spike helped me make some food for us while we discuss and… Oh, I got you something!” She rambled as Starlight sat down next to Twilight.
“Oh wow, Twilight, you didn’t have to do all this for me… but thank you” she said, very appreciative of the gesture.
“No need to thank me, it’s just… I’m very sorry for how I treated you, I should’ve stuck out for you more and-” Starlight quickly shush Twilight with her hooves.
“Its fine Twilight, you gave Stygian a chance, and that’s all that matters… It did hurt, but I knew you’d do the right thing in the end.” She said with a reassuring smile, but Twilight still wanted to say more.
“Yes, but still, I feel awful. What kind of “princess of friendship” doesn’t listen to her friends?” She said, putting her head down in shame. Starlight held her shin up to the mare’s surprise, their eyes making contact.
‘So close…’ Thought Twilight.
“You are a great princess; you took me in after all I did to you and your friends. It’s sometimes hard to believe that you even gave me a shot and didn’t send me straight to Tartarus. Not only that, but you offered me a place to stay and taught me your ways. Sure, I felt awful about what happened, but no one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, even you, princess.” As soon as she finished, she gave her former teacher a hug.
“I... suppose you are right… Thank you, Starlight, you have no idea how proud I am.” To this Starlight felt her chest swell with pride, getting a compliment from the princess always made her feel better.
As the night progressed, they kept talking about different things as they ate their food that Twilight and Spike had made, which had been excellent in Starlight’s opinion. She was having so much fun, the dark thoughts that had plagued her mind before struggled to take hold of her, though they still lingered as so did her headache. After opening her present—a custom made kite originally meant for her birthday— which had prompted Starlight to squeal in excitement, they both wished each other a good night and headed to their respective rooms.
‘I think that was a success in my book, Starlight seemed happier than before and even gave me some advice. I hope we can do something like that again it was very rewarding and… never mind. Still, I need to do more to make it up to her, she deserves it.’
As for Starlight, she went directly to bed, still feeling a bit ill but much better. She always liked her alone time with Twilight. Sadly, for her, a creeping evil was slowly approaching, and they were none the wiser.
Author's Note
Damn, this kinda cool, might drop a random update on this someday. If not, then definitely after I finish S&T get stuck in a cave.
Anyways, I think this is a good starting point but I need to actually hash out the plot because when I originally wrote this I was like ‘oooh cool concept’ then after I finished the chapter I was like ‘uuuuuuh’ so yeah.
