Her skin tingled and wavered as her vision returned, as if her body was a mist that was just starting to reform back into a pony. The wasteland around her, filled with so much nothingness, was a sparkly blue which swallowed her whole. The abyss sparkled with stars and lights and faraway voices that she couldn't make out.
Then she landed, but didn't. She felt something underneath her hooves, something solid, but when she looked below her it was just more of that endless spacial ocean. Then she looked up and around, and she was met with purple.
Twilight Sparkle smiled at her and held out a hoof, and Starlight thought she should say something, but... it just didn't feel right. Not here. She just quietly took Twilight's hoof in her own, and the two of them silently strolled down the beautiful catwalk of light and color...
Starlight woke up screaming. She shrieked into the dark and leaped out of bed, her body slicked with a cold sweat. She was shaking, she couldn't breathe, her ears were ringing, everything was hot, too hot--
She could barely handle being in charge of a single party! She couldn't possibly be put in charge of more than a few ponies, and certainly not as royalty. Maybe she was getting better, maybe she saved ponies, but what if she messed it all up again?! She couldn't be a--
"Woah woah woah, Starlight!" came Spike's voice. He came barreling into the room, the crystal door swinging behind him with a heavy thud. Immediately he was at Starlight's side, a gentle claw on her foreleg.
Starlight couldn't breathe, her lungs felt like they were full of hot needles-- but Spike was here. Clearly that was just... just a dream. She was fine, and she hadn't been put in charge of an-- she gulped against her dry, tight throat-- an entire town, or even an entire country. Spike, her friend, was here.
"Are you okay, Starlight? What, was it another one of those nightmares again?"
"I... yes," she smiled. "I think so, Spike. But I'm fine now. Really."
Spike gave her another wan (unbelieving) smile back, and comfortingly stroked down her agitated fur. "Well, if you're sure. If you need anything though, you know just the dragon to call! You could always talk to Twilight too, of course. She'd be happy to help."
Starlight nodded, and then there was a pregnant silence between the two of them. She thought of saying thank you again, or maybe sending him off to bed, but before she could...
... Her heart sank. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been overturned on her spine. Everything dropped away, and all she could hear was her own frantic pulse. She could feel the blood rushing in her ears and horn. She thought she might puke. She thought she might collapse. Everything hurt.
Because Spike stared at her back, and then he patted her, right on her-- right on where there hadn't been anything before, but--
"Especially now. Alicorn magic is really finicky, and it will be kind of weird with your emotions and stuff for a while. At least, that's how it was for Twilight."
Starlight gasped. Starlight stopped breathing.
"Hey, uh, Starlight? Starlight?! Oh my gosh, what's happening to you? Do you need Twilight? Starlight?"
And Equestria's newest Princess broke down sobbing where she stood.