//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Healing Wounds And Closer Bonds // Story: Escaping The Invasion // by Starlight Fan //------------------------------// Twilight smiled fondly at the night sky as Spike stood on the stage, breathed into the microphone and enthusiastically stated, “Ladies and Gentlecolts! Give it up for a little…” The spotlight soon shined at the end of the stage where the white pegasus in flashy black clothing known as Songbird Serenade was. Twilight cheered along with her friends, Trixie, Capper, the pirates, and Skystar. “And now, to celebrate the fact that we're all still here in one piece, give it up for Princess Twilight and her friends!” Songbird Serenade said happily as a spotlight pointed at Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and even Starlight and Trixie. Twilight began hearing praises and cheer from everyone around the festival, but soon she saw all three princesses bow in respect in which she did the same. Suddenly the spotlight turned off and Songbird Serenade started singing, “I know you, you're a special one Some see crazy where I see love.” Twilight looked over at Starlight and smiled, and soon she smiled back, for some odd reason, those lyrics reminded Twilight of her. “You fall so low but shoot so high Big dreamers shoot for open sky.” Songbird Serenade continued singing before her backup dancers popped out from behind the stage. “So much life in those open eyes So much depth, you look for the light.” Twilight looked to then see Celeano and Rainbow Dash share a fist bump, Rarity giving Capper a new top hat and black cape, and finally Pinkie Pie and Skystar sharing a laugh. “But when your wounds open, you will cry You'll cry out now and you'll question why.” Soon Queen Novo flew in with some of her Hippogriff subjects and soon Skystar ran up to her and gave her a hug, “Mom!” “You are so grounded.” Novo laughed much to Skystar’s shock, and Twilight also saw Starlight and Trixie look on in annoyance and/or disgust. Twilight couldn’t really blame them, Skystar was helpful to their cause. Suddenly the podium Songbird Serenade was on began to rise. “I can see a rainbow In your tears as they fall on down I can see your soul grow Through the pain as they hit the ground I can see a rainbow In your tears as the sun comes out As the sun comes out.” Songbird Serenade sang as she flew over Twilight and Twilight smiled before looking behind her to see Tempest at the very back of the crowd, so she decided to check up on her and flew over to Tempest who was looking longingly into the distance, she seemed to know Twilight was here so she began speaking softly, “Well, that's one thing that never changes around here. The party.” “Well, I hope you'll stay for it. More friends are definitely merrier.” Twilight smiled softly. “I know. But… in a few moments I’ll be spending a couple weeks in jail and doing community service. I’m just lucky I had a change of heart when I did or I would have gotten a worse punishment.” Tempest sighed longingly, “All this for getting my horn back.” “You know, your horn is pretty powerful, just like the pony it belongs to.” Twilight smiled reassuringly, “And don’t worry, those few weeks you’ll be spending in prison are gonna fly by. Soon you’ll be able to reinvent yourself.” Tempest smiled softly too as she began heading towards the edge of Canterlot, “I did tell you I wanted to show everypony in Equestria what I could do, right?” Tempest soon shot out a lightning bolt and fireworks began shooting everywhere. “I can see a rainbow In your tears as they fall on down I can see your soul grow Through the pain as they hit the ground.”  Twilight heard Songbird Serenade sing as she smiled warmly at Tempest. “Nice touch Tempest.” Pinkie Pie smiled from the crowd. “Actually that’s not my real name.” Tempest admitted sheepishly. Soon Pinkie Pie bounced over as Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity also walked to Twilight and Tempest. “Ooh. What is it?” Pinkie Pie smiled as she leaned next to Tempest. “It’s Fizzlepop Berrytwist.” Tempest whispered with a smile. Pinkie Pie soon gasped happily before yelling, “Okay! That is the most awesome name EVER!” She got a small smile from Tempest before Pinkie spoke up, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go make sure my good buddy Skystar doesn’t get grounded. Bye now.” She soon sped off much to Tempest’s amusement, “She definitely seems like a handful doesn’t she?” “Honestly all of us are oddballs in our own rights.” Twilight heard Starlight say as she and Trixie walked over to the scene. “Sorry to intrude, but we were getting bored of hearing Celestia and Queen Novo talking about political things and blah blah blah.” Trixie said in an annoyed tone. “Why were you even with them anyway?” Spike asked curiously. Pinkie Pie suddenly ran back over and spoke up, “Yeah, I was gonna talk to her before you showed up.” “I needed to talk with Queen Novo about her punishing Skystar.” Starlight admitted with a sheepish smile, “I felt it was unfair she was gonna get punished for helping her friends save their land.” “She’s not mad at us is she?” Twilight asked in concern, the last time they saw Novo she banished them from their underwater kingdom due to Twilight’s attempt to steal the pearl. “No. I was able to clear things up with her. I guess the fact her daughter even came here at least proved the rest of us were genuine with our intentions.” Starlight spoke reassuringly before gaining a nervous grin, “Although… she does want to speak with you. That’s the real reason I showed up.” Twilight gulped, she was about to face the very ruler that she tried to steal a magic pearl from and likely was going to face her former mentor too. Twilight had no doubt she was screwed. Starlight was apparently able to sense this emotion and asked, “Do you… need me to come with you? I have no problem supporting you on this.” Twilight smiled at this, after everything that’s going on, she felt like she could really use a friend right now. “That would be nice.” Twilight admitted happily. “Actually, there’s no need to find us.” A familiar voice spoke from above, soon Celestia and Novo both flew in front of Twilight with neutral looks, though Twilight couldn’t contain her nervousness and immediately began babbling, “Queen Novo I am so sorry! I shouldn’t have stolen the pearl! I should have had more faith that we could turn our situation around by more civil means, I shouldn’t have tried to steal from you!” Twilight soon sighed as she looked behind her to look at her five Ponyville friends and then Starlight, “I was so delusional in my twisted methods to save Equestria that I also ended up hurting the ones near and dear to me.” “I’m ready for whatever punishment you have in store.” Twilight sighed sadly. “Twilight, we are disappointed in the methods you took to save Equestria, we cannot deny that.” Celestia admitted. “But in a way, we could understand where you were coming from. From what Celestia told me, your land was being enslaved by that monster.” Novo added with a sigh, “Honestly I just wish I was more willing to stand up to the Storm King like you were. Your friend Starlight also gave me a better understanding of what you were going through to protect Equestria.” Twilight looked in shock at Starlight who sent her a reassuring wink, which she smiled at. “So even if we believe your methods were wrong. It would feel unfair to punish you.” Celestia smiled warmly. “Thank you.” Twilight shared a hug with Celestia before Celestia then said, “Now if you’ll excuse me, me and Novo need to discuss how to better improve our relations with both our kingdoms.”  The two then flew off and Twilight soon embraced Starlight, “You didn’t need to stand up for me, but I’m grateful you did.” “I had to stand up for you. You would’ve done the same for me, plus you didn’t deserve to be punished.” Starlight smiled back. Starlight began to get ready for the train ride home as she began packing her saddlebags with some of Trixie’s magic show equipment with the showmare herself at where Trixie’s show was stationed. After a while, the festival began to die down and every creature was getting ready to go home, well except Capper, he would be joining Captain Celeano and her crew from now on to make a brand new start. Starlight smiled fondly at that, at least Capper would finally be free from that town full of dirtbags. She then saw Tempest and Grubber walk over to where they were with two royal guards at their side. “Tempest? Grubber? I thought you two would be serving your sentences by now. I will say I’m glad you two are at least getting off easy.” Starlight admitted with shock, yet said happily. “We wanted to talk to you first though. Celestia gave us the okay to do so.” Grubber explained with a smile, “Thanks for not blasting me with your magic horn. You had every right to do that but you didn’t.” Starlight smiled at this, she knew there was some good in Grubber after all. “You’re welcome. I didn’t see a good reason to do so given you seemed relatively harmless and from what you said, you were just trying to help your friend get her horn back.” Starlight told the hedgehog happily who shared a smile with Tempest. “And I wanted to thank you for giving me the courage to eventually redeem myself.” Tempest told her fellow unicorn before continuing, “I also wanted to give you some advice, don’t give up on what you have with Twilight. From what I heard, you were both equally hurt from that argument you had with each other. It’s clear you two mean a lot to each other.” Starlight blushed as she remembered all the good times she had after Twilight helped her see the light, “Yeah, she really means a lot to me.” Trixie just rolled her eyes with a smirk at this. “Then let her know that. I’m sure you’re already making progress with her given your hug, but I don’t think you talked with her about the argument.” Tempest advised her. “You’re right… I haven’t.” Starlight admitted with a sigh, “I plan to talk to her though, I can’t shake off what we said to each other.” “I’m glad.” Tempest smiled proudly before she and Grubber were led by the guards to the castle, “Now if you’ll excuse us. We need to serve a few weeks in the Canterlot Dungeons.” Trixie was a bit shocked at that statement, “Only a few weeks. That seems like their getting off easy.” “Tempest sacrificed herself to save me and the others while Grubber hardly did any acts of aggression except being an ally to the Storm King. Twilight also vouched for them a bit.” Starlight explained as she packed up the last of Trixie’s equipment with her magic and put it in her saddlebags. “I suppose that makes sense.” Trixie admitted with a shrug as she picked up her saddlebags and they both started heading for the train back to Ponyville where Twilight and the others were waiting for them. “That party was AWESOME!” Pinkie Pie cried out joyfully. “I have to agree.” Fluttershy smiled, “It was good to see Discord was able to come back from his vacation to show up.” “Honestly it would have been better had she showed up from the beginning. That Klutzy Draconequus can’t do anything right.” Trixie rolled her eyes angrily. “Come on Trix. Things did work out in the end. Discord didn’t know this was gonna happen, and if we’re being honest, the Storm Guards do have magic shields and Tempest also had those Obsidian Orbs so I’m not sure how quickly he could have ended things.” Starlight spoke in defense of Discord. “Eh, fair point I guess.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. They soon boarded the train and she and Trixie decided to sit in front of Twilight and Spike. It didn’t take Trixie much hesitation to do so, Trixie was at least familiar with Twilight and Spike more than the others. The train ride was silent, and Starlight knew exactly why, Twilight and her were going to have to talk about the beach argument, and they couldn’t really find a way to not talk about it in front of the rest of the townsfolk on the train. Twilight immediately collapsed onto the floor when she, Starlight, and Spike finally made it back home. It was a long day and Twilight just needed to take a breather from all the world saving and partying they did. “Wow. You seem exhausted.” Starlight noted as she patted Twilight’s mane softly which made Twilight sigh with a smile. “Yeah. We went through a lot today.” Twilight hummed in honesty. “We sure did.” Starlight sighed softly. Twilight knew now was the time to talk to Starlight, she deserved to have a proper apology. “Spike, I’m gonna talk to Starlight. You mind getting ready for bed?” Twilight asked softly to the dragon. “Sure thing.” Spike smiled in understanding before he began walking off. Once Spike was out of hearing range, Twilight turned to Starlight and began apologizing profusely, “Starlight I am so sorry for what I said to you at the shore. You had every right to get mad at me and I… I said the most hurtful words I could possibly say to you. I don’t expect you to forgive me yet, but I figured I should just…” “Stop.” Starlight interrupted Twilight before talking, “I shouldn’t have been so hard on you either. I should’ve tried to understand why you stole the pearl like you did when I tried to get rid of cutie marks. We both acted out of line here, especially since I practically insulted your Princess title. Even if I don’t find you in the same league as Celestia, Luna, and Cadence due to our bond, I still shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry too.” Twilight was shocked to hear Starlight  “But why did you get so mad at me anyway? You seemed much more upset than Pinkie and Trixie were.” Twilight asked curiously. “I… I felt like what I saw wasn’t the real you out there, and I didn’t like what you were starting to act like.” Starlight admitted with a tearful frown, “Stealing the pearl like that is something I wouldn’t even think of you doing, you weren’t being yourself and… it reminded me of when I acted like that. I guess that triggered some sort of rage inside me. I know you could never be like how I used to, but the thought of you doing so felt so awful. “I promise I’ll never be like that.” Twilight embraced Starlight comfortingly, “Even at my worst, I don’t ever think I could become like Tirek or Chrysalis and I never plan to, not if it would hurt you or any of my other friends.” “I believe you, I just got a little worried about you is all.” Starlight admitted. “I understand. We all have our worries about our friends going down a bad path.” Twilight said understandingly as she released Starlight. “You know, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” Starlight admitted sheepishly. “Why? Did I do something wrong?” Twilight asked in concern. “No, it’s not you, but I just can’t shake the feeling that if I’m alone, something bad will happen. I’m still a bit shaken up by the adventure.” Starlight admitted rubbing her hoof nervously. Twilight began to think about how to help Starlight, this wasn’t like when Spike had a fear of ghosts, this was something that actually affected her friend. “Maybe… you could sleep with me tonight.” Twilight suggested with a nervous smile before quickly adding, “Not in an inappropriate way of course, just so you don’t feel alone.” Starlight looked a little shocked by the offer before smiling with an awkward blush, “Are you sure? I don’t wanna make things weird.” “My bed can fit us both. It doesn’t bother me. Besides, I had worries about you too. I think we both need each other right now.” Twilight smiled at Starlight. “Okay. If you’re sure.” Starlight smiled sheepishly. Starlight looked at the castle ceiling as she laid on the bed in thought. Today had been hectic, she had to escape the Storm King army, go on a rescue mission to save Twilight and all of Canterlot, and they even still had the Friendship Festival afterwards. All of this journey, Starlight never truly felt at ease, she hardly felt a feeling of warmth or safety. Soon she felt her torso being grabbed by Twilight as she softly smiled in her sleep. Starlight knew she was only doing it platonically as a way of comfort, but it still made Starlight smile fondly, it was proof that Twilight did care about her, and still valued their friendship and Starlight now knew she could always count on that. She finally felt warm and safe.