Twilight Sparkle was in her bedroom, getting ready to turn in for the night. It was Starlight’s turn to spend the night with Jake, which meant that she’d be sleeping alone tonight. She didn’t mind sleeping alone, of course, but she did love it when she and Jake would cuddle on the nights she had him. The alicorn princess gave a small sigh just as she heard a knock on her door.
“Who is it?” Twilight asked, curious as to who would be knocking on her door at such a late hour.
“It’s Starlight,” came a voice from the other side of the door. “Can we talk, Twilight?”
Part of Twilight wanted to ask Starlight if whatever it was she wanted to talk about could wait until morning, but another part of her didn’t think that would be a good idea. The way Starlight had said, ‘Can we talk’ made Twilight feel that this was something that couldn’t wait.
“Sure, come on in,” she said.
Starlight opened the door and slowly walked inside. She had her head down and had a sad but serious look on her face.
“Is everything alright, Starlight?” Twilight asked out of concern for her friend.
“Y-Yes, but the thing is…” Starlight began to say before pausing to take a deep breath. “We need to talk...about us.”
“Us?” Twilight repeated, confused by what Starlight meant. “What do you mean by ‘us’?”
Starlight took another deep breath before answering.
“I mean us; you and me. More specifically, what you and I are in this relationship with Jake.”
Twilight’s confusion didn’t dissipate much with Starlight’s explanation.
“I’m still not sure I follow,” she said. “I thought we agreed that we were going to share Jake; we’d be his marefriends, and he’d be our boyfriend.”
“Yes, but...what are you and I in relationship to each other?!” Starlight clarified, raising her voice a bit. “I mean, you’re my friend and teacher, obviously, but are you my marefriend now too? Am I your marefriend? What are we, Twilight?” she concluded as small tears started to form in the corners of her eyes.
It wasn’t that difficult for Twilight to pick up on how distraught all these questions were making Starlight. She’d sometimes thought about them herself but hadn’t given them any serious consideration. But Starlight, however, seemed almost obsessed with them.
“It’s okay, Starlight,” Twilight reassured her friend as she moved toward her and wrapped her in a wing hug. “Come on, let’s sit down and talk about this.”
Twilight broke the wing hug and led Starlight over to her bed. Both mares took a seat on the plush mattress as Starlight composed herself a bit better before speaking.
“I’m sorry I sprung this on you so late,” Starlight said. “But I’ve been asking myself these questions for a while now, and every time I ask them the need for answers becomes greater and greater. Now it’s to the point that they’re all I think about.”
Twilight placed her hoof on Starlight’s in a sign of support.
“I understand your need for answers, Starlight,” she comforted her friend and pupil. “To be honest, I’ve thought about those questions too, but I’ve never come up with any definitive answers.”
“It’s not just about not knowing the answers,” Starlight continued. “It’s the consequences that the answers could bring.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“I mean, suppose we agree that we are marefriends,” Starlight elucidated. “How will that affect our student-teacher relationship? What will other ponies think of us? W-What will J-Jake think of us? Would he…would he s-stop l-loving us?”
Starlight could no longer fight back against her emotions as she asked her final question. She broke down and started crying like she’d never cried before, tears flowing down her cheeks like rivers as she sobbed at the thought of Jake no longer loving her. Embarrassed, she brought her fore hooves up to her face in an attempt to hide her current state, but to no avail.
Twilight quickly wrapped Starlight in a full hug. Starlight returned the hug and placed her head against Twilight’s chest as cried out her feelings.
“I’m sure Jake would never stop loving us because of that,” Twilight softly whispered.
Neither mare said anything further for about ten minutes. Eventually, Starlight was able to compose herself a bit and broke the hug.
“I-I’m sure you’re right about Jake, b-but it’s just so s-scary to think about.” she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Starlight,” Twilight spoke up as gently as she possible. “Is the reason for all of this because you already do have feelings for me?”
Starlight didn’t answer. She just stared at the floor as she bit her lower lip.
“It’s alright if you do, Starlight,” Twilight reassured her as she placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I promise I won’t think any differently of you.”
Again Starlight said nothing, but she did nod her head up and down as new tears ran down her cheeks.
“Oh, Starlight,” Twilight said as she too started to cry. “I’m so sorry that this has been upsetting you for so long.”
Starlight looked up and made eye contact with Twilight through tear-filled eyes.
“D-Do...do you have feelings for m-me?” she asked.
Twilight quickly broke eye contact as she lowered her head. A million thoughts ran through her head as she contemplated what she was about to say next.
“Starlight,” she started to say as she resumed eye contact. “The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you, but...I-I don’t know if I have those kinds of feelings for you.”
Starlight could feel her heart breaking upon hearing Twilight’s words.
“I’m not saying that I for sure don’t like you that way,” Twilight continued. “But right now I just don’t know how I feel. This whole relationship with you and Jake is wonderful, but it’s also confusing at times. I know that I love Jake, but I’m just not sure if I love you in the same way or not.”
Each word only made Starlight feel more heartbroken. She wanted to just run out of the room before she felt even worse, but she couldn’t bring herself to move an inch.
“I want to know though,” Twilight confessed. “I want to explore my relationship with you as much as my relationship with Jake, so...you think you can you give me some time for that?”
Starlight was still feeling a bit heartbroken, but she felt a little better knowing that there was still hope that Twilight might reciprocate her feelings for her one day.
“Y-Yeah, I can do that,” she said with a small smile.
Twilight returned the smile as she and Starlight once again hugged. New tears started to flow from each of them, but now they were tears of friendship and hope.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, though neither mare heard it.
“Hey, Twilight, have you seen Starlight?” Jake Taylor said from the other side of the door.
Starlight and Twilight both immediately broke their hug as they heard the sound of their boyfriend’s voice.
“J-Jake, i-is that you?” Twilight said, trying to sound as composed as possible.
There was a brief moment of silence before Jake spoke up again.
“Twilight, are you alright in here?” Jake asked, a clear hint of concern in his voice.
“W-We’re fine, Jake.” Starlight spoke up.
“Starlight?” Jake said with a mix of confusion and concern. “Okay, I’m coming in.”
“N-No, don’t…” Starlight tried to say just as the door opened.
As soon as Jake walked in the room he stopped dead in his tracks as his heart began to sink. The sight of his marefriends on the bed with tears in their eyes filled him with feeling of dread the likes of which he’d never felt before.
“Oh my gosh,” he anxiously said as he rushed over to the bed and placed a hand on each mare. “Are you two alright? What happened?”
“We’re fine, Jake,” Twilight confirmed. “We were just talking and got a little emotional is all.”
“Actually,” Starlight added. “There’s something I need to tell you, Jake.”
“Of course, Starlight, anything.” Jake replied as he turned his attention to his other marefriend.
“I-I...I have feelings for Twilight,” Starlight nervously confessed. “And I was afraid of what that would do to our relationship. I-I was afraid that you wouldn’t love me anymore if you knew I had feelings for her too.”
Jake wasted no time pulling Starlight into a warm and supportive hug.
“Starlight, I would never stop loving you for having feelings for Twilight,” he confided. “Our whole relationship is about sharing love with one another. If I can love both you and Twilight than of course you can love both me and her.”
Starlight couldn’t help but get emotional again as she heard Jake’s loving words.
“T-Thank you, Jake,” she happily cried. “I needed to hear that.”
Twilight started to get emotional as well as she joined in the hug.
“I don’t know what the future holds for the three of us, but I promise I’ll never stop caring about you both.” She commented.
“Same here,” Jake affirmed.
“S-Same here,” Starlight reiterated.