Director's cut: Caught and Punished, chapter 6: Forgiveness, part 2.

On hindsight, I really should have had both chapters 5 and 6 on this blog. Oh well.

First, Rainbow Dash. I wanted to give her a reason to be so unwilling to forgive Starlight that was beyond just the fact that she took her Cutie Mark. That alone didn't feel like quite enough, so I wanted something more. This is where the fear she kept hidden about potentially not being there for Scootaloo and the worry she had that Scootaloo might have thought she abandoned her, if she didn't escape, came in.

Second, the "no offense" from Rarity? There had to be at least one "no offense" in this. Unlike what Sunset Shimmer went though, this isn't going to be a running joke in this story.

As for edits, the first half or so of this chapter didn't have any noteworthy edits.

As for the second half, one noteworthy edit is to Starlight's story. Initially, Starlight's parents weren't there for her because they were too busy, but when she was very young, they were. This change made Starlight feel like they didn't think she was no longer anything to them. This idea was a fusion from a tweet from Josh Haber saying that Starlight was a "latchkey" kid, and how season 8 suggested what filly Starlight might have went through with the excessive babying/"foaling". For this reason, Starlight even brought up that her dad used to call her pet names like "Sugarplum". But Donnnnn suggested using the power of the AU tag to change it to her parents just not caring about her. It's way too soon to say more about this.

Another noteworthy edit, also Don's idea, was to have somepony ask why Sam didn't join in their group hug, and have Sam explain he didn't because he was still in shock over Starlight's parents not being there for her, and then told them about his dad passing two years ago. Sam didn't mention this before editing.

Possibly the toughest part of this chapter, save for the feels, was the cuts to Starlight's story. Before editing, it had more words, so trying to get it down, but still not take too much out, was the hardest. And did I mention the feels? A few tears even came down my face when I was writing this chapter.

On a related note, the stories/chapters I've written where I've had this kind of time writing:

Chapters 10, 11, and 16 of A Giant Adventure to Equestria

The second half of The BSBFF's and LBBFF

Chapter 14 of When Dating a Sunset... though there was less tears during this one.

And if you read the first director's cut, I said that some changes I did to the prologue and first 4 chapters were there for a reason. In case this chapter didn't reveal it, I'll reveal something about that now.

In the prologue, remember when Starlight begged Twilight to not take away her magic because she'd be "nothing" without it? The part where she said "she'd be nothing" is exclusive to my version of Caught and Punished In fact, any time she said anything about "being nothing" is only in my story's version. That was some foreshadowing I slipped in for chapter 6, and was a hint on why Starlight did what she did. This also was what helped make Starlight truly remorseful in chapter 2. When she wondered if she made the ponies in her village feel like "nothing" when she took her Cutie Marks (though this wasn't said outright in her lines) this hit her hard. It was the thing Starlight wanted to prevent making ponies feel like. Even so, she still wouldn't feel the full guilt until chapters 5 and 6.

Lastly, from this point on, instead of doing a director's cut for every chapter, each one will be about two chapters. That means the next one will be about chapters 7 and 8 in the same blog.