//------------------------------//
// 4 - Tears 
// Story: Best Served Cold 
// by David Silver 
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Saffron trotted easily up the hill to Twilight's castle. Sure, it was an inconvenient place to put a castle, but hers was... was in the middle of nowhere. She had no leg on to complain. Reaching the large crystal door, she raised a hoof and gave a solid few clops against it. "Anyone home?"

The door swung open to reveal a reptile. A dragon, specifically. "Hey," he greeted, looking Saffron over. "How can I help?"

Saffron smiled at the roadblock. "Starlight hadn't mentioned she had such a fierce door guard."

Spike warmed in his cheeks and waved away the compliment. "I'm Spike, nice to meet you...?"

"Saffron," she offered. "Nice to meet you, Spike. I was hoping to speak to Starlight. Is she in?"

"Oh, uh, let me check." He started to turn away, but Saffron grabbed him in her magic. "Uh?"

"No need for that. I'd rather surprise her anyway." Saffron clapped  her forehooves. "She's had a rough day, and a friendly face will turn that around." She walked past Spike, who did not stop her. "Where is her room?"

Spike pointed the way. "You're friends with her?"

Saffron nodded as she began walking towards her target. "Is that surprising?"

"What? No!" Spike deflected awkwardly. "I mean, um, it's good." He gave an emphatic thumbs up. "Have a nice chat."

Saffron ascended the stairs into the hall that held Starlight's room. She swept her gaze over the many doors. None of them had 'Starlight' labeled on them. She approached the first and pushed the door open a crack. Inside were boxes and crates. The next had books, so many books.

She let out an annoyed grunt, but she heard something besides herself. A muffled sobbing was coming from up ahead. With a wicked smile, she crept up to the door it came from and put her ear to it. Starlight's distressed wailing came from within, though it seemed to be muffled far more than just a single door should have provided.

Saffron hiked a brow before knocking gently. "Starlight? Are you in there?"

The sobs stopped instantly. She could hear things shuffling around in there, then a loud snotty snort. "Yes? Who is it?"

Saffron sat on her haunches and raised a hoof. "Saffron, dear."

"Now's not a good time," called Starlight, her voice quivering.

"Now is the perfect time," argued Saffron. "You sound like you could use a friend."

The door opened inwards a precious inch, Starlight's eye barely visible, peeking out at her. "I don't have any of those..."

Saffron reached forward, pushing on the door gently. "You have one right here, and Spike didn't sound upset at you." That was a thing to fix, later. "You are friends with him, are you not?"

Starlight backed away, allowing Saffron in. "Yeah... he's a good dragon..." She closed the door with magic once Saffron was inside. "Look, really. I just... need--"

"--A good friend." Saffron threw a leg over Starlight's withers, pulling her close. "Is this about Maud?"

Starlight shook her head quickly, but did not reply.

"Did something else happen?" She nudged against Starlight. "Go on, you can tell me."

Starlight buried her face in her hooves. "I don't want to! My past just jumped on me when I wasn't expecting it. I'm not that mare anymore!"

"Tell me about it?" Saffron gently nuzzled at one of Starlight's hooves. "I promise not to judge, just listen."

Starlight peeked between her hooves, then flopped back with a sigh. "Look, I... made some dumb decisions..."

"It can't be that bad," demurred Saffron, rolling her eyes. Starlight was a hero, with a medal Saffron could see hanging there on a wall nearby. Was that a kite, several? Figured.

"Look, alright..." Starlight pulled away and hopped up onto her bed, looking down at Saffron. "Alright... You may as well join the rest in hating me."

"You're being dramatic, dear." Saffron waved it away with a coy smile. "Are you picking up habits from Rarity?"

Starlight's lips quirked into a hint of a smile, but it faded quickly. "Maybe. So... there was a time when I wasn't... sure of a lot of things, but I felt certain it was all the fault of cutie marks." She half turned, displaying her rump and the mark thereon. "My best friend's life changed when he got his, and it took him away from me... I didn't realize how much I... needed him until he wasn't there anymore."

Saffron inclined her head, curiosity building. "Was he a friend, or a friend friend?"

Starlight quickly colored. "We were foals at the time. He was a friend, and that was all I knew, and all we needed..." She ran her hooves together in a nervous rubbing. "He... Let's move on past him. He was gone, and I was upset, and... I found out how to get back at cutie marks, which I remind, I thought was the cause for all evil everywhere."

"So what did you do?" prompted Saffron, even if she knew a good portion of the story already.

"I found a little town, maybe four ponies to the whole place. I told them I could save them. I told them I was a hero..." She sank, shrinking until she was on her belly. "They believed me... They put their faith in me, looked up to me, and I used them. I took their marks, replaced them with... brands that kept their special talents at bay. I ordered them, instructed them, recruited more..." She grabbed a pillow in her magic and pulled it over her face as she rolled onto her back. "I was their little dictator, reigning from on high over a whole dozen or so ponies, thinking that made me a big deal."

Saffron was about to speak, but Starlight charged ahead, "then she came!" Starlight threw her pillow free. It bounced off a wall and slid to the ground. Starlight flopped over, on her belly again, facing Saffron. "She and her friends. Twilight saw what we had, my little town that had grown so quickly under my hubris. She found it, and she dismantled it. She undid everything I had done." She clapped her hooves. "Just like that. And do you know what I did then?"

Saffron rolled a hoof at Starlight. "She took you in as a student?"

Starlight gave a strangled, hysteric, laugh. "No! No... Heavens no..." She sat up, shaking like a leaf. "As if it were that simple... I was so angry I couldn't see straight. All I could think about was getting revenge on that mare."

Saffron put a hoof over her mouth as if in shock, but it served equally well to hide her smirk. That was a feeling she could understand.

"I followed her..." Starlight thumped her bed. "I stalked her. I learned how she moved and where she lived. I prepared... Then I struck!"

Saffron's eyes half-closed. "And what did you do to her? She doesn't seem angry at you." Yet, she silently added.

"I erased her link to her friends." Starlight smiled a crooked smile. "And... I broke Equestria... I... destroyed the world..."

Saffron narrowed her eyes to a squint. "Pardon me, dear, if I have a hard time believing that."

"Not even just once," continued Starlight. "But Twilight realized... something." A crooked smile spread on her face, tears streaming from her eyes. "I was too powerful to just hold down. I was an enemy that couldn't be warded away with the Elements. There was no artifact there to save her, so she surrendered, in a uniquely Twilight way."

Saffron rolled a hoof for Starlight to continue, but she didn't. "What'd she do?"

Apparently, she had been waiting for a proper prompt. "She told me she would do what no other pony had done since he left me. She would be my friend. She would atone for her own mistakes, and hoped I would atone for mine. She..." She huffed softly. "I'm... maybe overdramatizing it again, but she offered a hoof of friendship... and I accepted it."

Saffron twirled her ears back against her head. "Did she betray you as soon as it was safe?"

Starlight blinked at that. "Huh? No! No... she's been... nothing but kind..." She sat up slowly. "I... thought I learned a lot from her, about being a good person... I even tried to pass it on... There she was, queen of the changelings... We had laid her low, just as Twilight had done to me. She was... bare and vulnerable and... I just wanted to help her. I wanted... It doesn't matter. She didn't accept my hoof. She ran away, and all I could think of is how pathetic I was compared to Twilight."

Saffron's ears lifted a little even as her jaw tensed. She remembered that moment quite clearly. "What would you have done, if she had accepted? Would you have paraded her around, 'look at what I did!', that'd show them you were as good, if not better, than Twilight, yes dear?"

Starlight flopped to her belly. "I'm not sure... I... She's so much like me... On some level... I really thought we could be friends." Her voice was soft and distant. "I thought... maybe we could understand each other. I hope she's alright." She turned, rolling to face Saffron. "Do you think she's okay?"

"H-how would I know, dear?" stuttered Saffron as she recoiled a few inches. "She is queen of the changelings. I bet she has a whole new hive and everything. Aren't you afraid she'll exact some terrible revenge on you?"

Starlight's shadow of a smile returned. "Maybe I'd deserve it... Or maybe that would be my chance to offer a hoof of friendship. Maybe she'd even take it? That would... be nice, I think." She continued her roll, ending up on her back, looking at Saffron upside-down. "Anyway... that's enough about me. You didn't come here just to listen to me be a mess."

"On the contrary." Saffron shook her head slowly. "I came here to talk to you, and offer a shoulder, and that is precisely what I'm doing, dear. Now, you haven't said how that attaches to today. All of that is dreadful enough, dear, but that's in the past, is it not?"

Starlight tensed before she rolled right off the bed and back to her hooves. "A pony showed up with one of my equal signs on his rump! It wasn't paint. I... don't even know how that happened! I'm the only one that knows that spell! I didn't even share it with Twilight, and she has asked, let me tell you."

Saffron inclined her head. "Oh my. Was he one of the ponies from your little village?"

"I didn't recognize him..." she said in an uncertain voice that implied she might not remember the face of all of her subjects. "He was spouting the party line though, about equalization and the evils of cutie marks, and... it was awful... I shoved him away and made a mess and now everypony thinks I'm a psycho..."

"There, there..." Saffron advanced on her 'friend', throwing a leg over her and hugging gently. "Some ponies just don't understand how much you've changed. This'll all blow over in time. You've been nothing but a hero for these ponies, surely they'll see that and forgive such... little inconveniences that you didn't even cause."

"Maybe..." Starlight allowed the first real smile, small as it was. "Thank you, for listening, and not running and screaming."

"What are friends for?" argued Saffron even as she felt a nourishing taste of love. It wasn't romantic love, not by far. It was friendship, and that was a love of a sort. It was a taste, and she lapped it up silently. It told her that Starlight was not wise to her tricks. That was good... "Now, let's get you out of this room."

"You go on ahead..." Starlight pointed to the door. "Again, thank you. I appreciate it, really... but I need some time to sort myself out. How about tomorrow?"