The next day, I skipped down the stairs from my bedroom to the living room...and immediately landed on the couch.
Why did I do that? Twilight won’t be coming over for a while and I need to make breakfast.
I sighed and looked towards the kitchen, remembering what I got for breakfast.
Let’s see; I got eggs, cereal, bread, butter, syrup...
The sound of a door closing interrupted my thoughts of what to eat for breakfast. A moment later, Starlight walked into the room from the hallway.
“Thanks for letting me have my own room. That bed was really comfortable."
I couldn't help staring at her. Starlight's mane was completely different from what it was before. Instead of a ponytail on the back and one, wide bang that flowed down her forehead that her horn split into “two” bangs, her mane was now done in one long bang that curled over from one end of her head to the other, ending in a small curl. Most of her forehead was now exposed, and I took notice of its perfect...roundness. I say it was an overall slight improvement over her old manestyle, and it looked cute.
“Sam? Y-You okay there?” she asked with a puzzled frown.
I shook my head to snap myself out of it. “Y-Yeah, I am. It’s just that...I see you changed your mane. How come?”
“I thought that, since I’m getting a fresh start, I should have a fresh look to go with it. Do you like it?”
“Yeah, and I think it suits you better than your old mane.”
“I’m glad you think so. I looked like a nerd with my old style.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And you kinda looked like Twilight too.”
There was a brief moment of silence between us. I wished I could have taken those words back.
“Oh, yeah,” I chuckled, really hoping that would end the sudden awkwardness.
Starlight chuckled, and it was the first time I saw her give any kind of laugh. If felt like her new style kind of went with her eyes and even complimented her laugh. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I got breakfast started for us."
That was a surprise. I didn’t think she would even try to do that. “Really? You did?”
“Since I don’t have my magic, I made us toast!”
I suddenly smelled a new scent and heard a new noise coming from the kitchen. It was the scent of warm bread, and a sound of low humming. I turned toward the kitchen and asked, “What bread did you use? And how are you toasting it?”
“I used the wheat bread you bought yesterday, and I put two slices in the microwave."
Starlight seemed to be serious. There was no chuckle or anything from her to suggest otherwise. I sat up from the couch, walked around her, went into the kitchen, and sure enough, there were in fact two slices of bread in the microwave. It was even running.
Try as I might, I couldn't hold it back and broke out in laughter.
“What’s wrong?” Starlight asked, walking beside me.
I calmed down and sped to the microwave to cut it off, then looked down at her. I couldn’t resist rubbing her mane. The new style was a bit thicker than the old one, but that made it feel better to rub.
“You don’t make toast with a microwave. See that device there?” I pointed to the toaster. Starlight nodded. “What you do is put two slices of bread in there and pull down on the lever. It then heats up the bread, making toast, and it will pop out when it’s ready.”
Starlight blushed with embarrassment and she rubbed her head. “S-Sorry. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a modern kitchen.”
“It’s fine,” I said, getting two fresh slices of bread out, then put it in the toaster. An idea came to mind. “This might be a dumb question, but you’ve heard music before, right?”
“Yeah, the town I grew up in held music festivals from time to time.”
“In that case, follow me.” I walked into the living room, with Starlight following me. I opened the cabinet next to my CD player and looked through the cases.
Slippery When Wet, Frontiers, Use Your Illusion II, Adrenalize...here it is; Joshua Tree. I think she’ll like this.
I opened the case and popped the CD into the player. I pressed the button labeled Track 2, and let the song play.
As the song played out, Starlight stared at the CD player with wide eyes. She almost seemed to be in a trance.
“You like the song?” I asked.
She slowly nodded. “Y-Yeah. What is this...thing, and how is it doing that? I-Is it powered by magic or something?”
I chuckled. I had a feeling she would enjoy that song. “This is called a 'CD player' and it’s not using magic. What this use is called electricity. I’d explain it to you, but I don’t really know the full mechanics of it.”
“Oh, I know what electricity is, but I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m so used to things using magic and...well…I just automatically thought ‘magic’.” Starlight blushed and giggled, and it was so cute.
After the song ended, Starlight said, “That song was just...amazing. I’ve never heard anything like it.”
“Thanks. I thought it was appropriate for a time like this,” I responded.
She looked at me with bigger eyes, showing curiosity. “Why’s that?”
“You’re having a ‘fresh start’, right? I thought you hearing this song could help...inspire you.”
“Well, it was definitely...inspiring,” Starlight admitted, looking back to the player. “Do you have more of those...uh...what was that disk or whatever it is called?”
“It’s called 'CDs' and of course you can. In fact, feel free to listen to anything you want. Just try not to break any of the disks; they’re more fragile than they might look,” I warned. Just then, there was a *ding* from the kitchen. “But let’s eat breakfast first.”
After we ate, I was lying and reading on the couch, glancing at Starlight every so often. She was sitting in front of the player, adorably swaying side to side to the music. I couldn’t help but smile. It felt great seeing her so at peace and happy.
Currently, the album titled "The Circle" was in the player, and Starlight had enjoyed every song she’s heard so far. I couldn’t even tell if she liked one more than the other.
Girl’s got good taste.
As I watched Starlight, I couldn’t help but think about how her attitude toward me changed fast. I didn’t exactly make the best first impression, carrying her from the castle to my house like a pet. And I really didn’t help things when I yelled at her like she was...a pet. She hated wearing that collar, so that sure didn’t help her warm up to me any quicker.
But then, when we finally had a heart-to-heart conversation, and I accepted her offer of friendship, things became...well, great. But I was nearing my limit on hearing her being called my pet!
I was drawn out of my thoughts by a knock at the door.
“That’s probably Twilight. Remember, behave and you just might get that collar off,” I said, petting Starlight’s mane as I walked by.
I really gotta stop doing that. She’s not my pet!
I opened the door to see not only Twilight, but Spike with her. Out of all my friends, I enjoyed hanging out with Spike the most. Maybe it was because he was a guy, or how we were both just kids at heart, but I always found Spike being the easiest to talk to. Closely followed by Twilight, who visited me the most and has more of a sense of humor than I initially thought. She even became one of my favorites to poke fun at.
“Hey, Twilight. And hey, Spike, I didn’t know you were coming too."
“He really wanted to come too, but wouldn’t tell me why,” Twilight replied. “Mind if we come in?”
“Of course. Starlight and I are in here, just listening to music."
Twilight and Spike walked into my house, and Starlight just kept swaying to the music. She didn’t even notice we had...guests.
“I still don’t quite understand how that ‘CD player’ works, Sam,” Twilight said while staring at it. “That kind of uh, ‘technology’ is nothing I’m used to.”
“And I still don’t know how to explain it to you."
Spike just stared at Starlight, his face seemingly glowing. I was forming a hunch on why.
“So...I’ll go ahead and get lunch started, and you guys can just chat or something,” I said, walking into the kitchen, but Twilight followed me.
Once we were in the kitchen, Twilight, with what seemed to be a hopeful smile, asked, “So?”
“So...what?”
“How’s the whole...friendship thing going with her?”
I couldn't believe I didn't get it sooner and even facepalmed over it. “Oh, right, duh. Good, she admitted what she did was wrong and now wants to start over.”
Twilight gasped. “Really? That was fast!”
“Yeah. All she needed was a little...friendship,” I said. I was gonna say “love”, but that would’ve probably sounded weird. “Speaking of which, I told her that if she behaved well enough for you today, you might be willing to let her take the collar off?”
Twilight looked toward the living room. “Well...first, I need to see for myself, just to make sure she isn’t just saying things we wanna hear. Uh, not that I don’t trust you.”
“Fair enough. Be my guest.”
Twilight walked back into the living room, and noticed Spike was still staring at Starlight. He wore a grin that she had only seen him occasionally show when he was around one other pony. She shook her head and walked up next to Starlight, who was still gently swaying back and forth with her eyes closed and a peaceful smile.
“H-Hey, Starlight,” Twilight greeted with as friendly a voice as possible.
Starlight gasped, stopped swaying, opened her eyes, and looked at Twilight. “Oh, hi.”
“Good song, huh?” Twilight asked.
“Y-Yeah, Sam said this thing plays all kinds of music, and it’s unlike anything I’ve heard before,” Starlight responded with a warm smile.
So far, so good, Twilight thought to herself, then said out loud, “So...I just heard from Sam that you understand what you did was wrong and even wanted a fresh start.”
Starlight sighed. “I do, and...sorry about that. It was just something that happened in my fillyhood, and I...” Starlight gritted her teeth and looked down.
“It’s fine, you can tell me when you’re ready,” Twilight said in an understanding voice.
Starlight lifted her head back up. “Thanks, and I really am sorry about that, though. I didn’t even think about how you might have felt until two nights ago.”
“I can tell you are,” Twilight said. After a short pause, she continued, “Even though taking Cutie Marks was wrong, not all you said was wrong. Ponies really should be treated equally and fairly, but that just doesn’t mean they can’t also be unique.”
“I-I guess you’re right,” Starlight admitted.
Twilight smiled. This was going even better than she had hoped. She didn’t until now, but she noticed how Starlight’s mane was different from what she previously saw. “I see you changed your mane.”
Starlight rolled her eyes up toward her mane. “Yeah, I just thought it was time for a new style for my fresh start.”
“I see, and it looks nice. Did Sam help, or did you do it yourself?”
“I did it myself. Sam spent most of yesterday denying I was his pet, so I thought he wouldn’t want to help me brush my mane like I'm...his pet,” Starlight replied with a small chuckle.
“Who called you his pet?” Twilight asked, chuckling a little herself.
“Let’s see; a few ponies in town, Rainbow Dash, oh, and Discord made a huge deal about it,” Starlight explained, frowning at the end.
“Oh, you and Sam met Dis-” Twilight’s chuckling stopped, and she formed an annoyed frown. "Wait, Rainbow Dash and Discord called you Sam’s pet?”
“Yeah. It...bothered me when they did. I don’t know Discord’s problem, but it’s pretty obvious Rainbow’s still mad at me. I should apologize to the rest of your friends too.”
Twilight stared at Starlight, deep in thought over Starlight’s words.
“Umm, you okay?” Starlight asked.
Twilight gasped and shook her head, breaking out of her trance. “Oh, yeah. Well, when Sam told me about how you’ve changed, he asked if you could get that collar off.”
Starlight's lips formed a particularly big smile. Some small sparks and even a little heart appeared in her eyes. “Yeeeaaaah?”
“Aaand,” Twilight smirked. “I think he was right.”
Starlight hopped up and down three times in excitement. “Really?”
Twilight could only hold back a laugh and nod. She then lit up her horn and used magic to unclip the collar around Starlight’s neck, and it fell to the floor. “Sorry you had to wear it at all.”
Twilight’s words went unnoticed by Starlight. The grinning unicorn’s attention was on the collar falling to the floor. Once it hit the floor, the joy brimming inside made her rear up and kick out her forelegs in happiness. Once back on all fours, Starlight threw herself at Twilight and wrapped her forelegs around the Princess in a tight hug, but it wasn’t painful. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Princess Twilight!”
Twilight giggled and in turn wrapped her forelegs, though less tightly, around Starlight. “You’re welcome, Starlight, and you can just call me 'Twilight'. And you can call me your friend.”
The two ponies released each other. Still filled with happiness, Starlight hopped in circles. “You won’t regret this! I promise I’m gonna make up for everything I did in the village, and--“
“It’s okay, Starlight, I believe you,” Twilight said, still laughing. She’s like an excited filly hopping in circles like that. Is that how I looked when I did it?
Starlight stopped hopping. A few moments later, Sam came back into the room.
“Hey, lunch is ready." Sam looked at the collar on the floor. "Oh, I see you took that collar off. Think you can take off the suppression ring or whatever it's called too?”
Twilight looked at Sam and rubbed the back of her head with a frown. “I want to, but I’m going to need the consent from all my friends for that.” Twilight looked down and continued, “To even get Starlight her second chance, I pushed my...authority as the Princess of Friendship more than I ever wanted. I don’t want to do it again to my friends.”
Starlight gave an understanding but disappointed frown. “That’s okay. At least you’re starting to trust me.”
Twilight lifted her head, wearing a smile. “But, as I said, I do want to remove that ring from your horn, and I know the best way to get my friends’ permission.”
Full of hope, Starlight grinned. “What is it? I’ll do anything that wouldn’t be...bad.”
“Okay. If you make friends with them, I believe they will be okay with it coming off. I suggest starting with Fluttershy,” Twilight suggested.
Starlight hopped one time in joy. “Of course! When can I do it?!”
“Why don’t we do it after lunch?” Sam said, feeling a bit ignored.
Twilight looked at him and chuckled. “Good idea, thanks for having us.” Twilight looked at Spike, who still had a lovesick smile. "Come on, Spike.”
Spike remained motionless, eyes still locked on Starlight.
“Spike? You alright?” Twilight asked.
Spike said nothing. He didn't even blink.
Oh, no. Not this again, Twilight thought to herself.
Starlight chuckled at the odd sight.
Twilight smiled nervously and moved toward her assistant. She cleared her throat and shouted, “Equestria to Spike!”
Spike jumped his full height in the air and turned his head to Twilight. With a nervous grin, he exclaimed, “W-What was that?”
“Sam just offered to serve us lunch,” Twilight answered, trying her best to sound polite.
“Oh, okay. Let’s eat!” Spike cheered as he walked into the kitchen, but look one more quick look at Starlight.
Twilight blushed with embarrassment as Starlight and Sam shared a laugh.
After the friends ate, Spike said that he needed to do something important, but would return soon.
As for Starlight, it would be time for her to make friends with Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.