//------------------------------// // Mending Hearts and Drying Tears // Story: You know what… No // by Starlight Fan //------------------------------// Things seemed to be going back to normal for Equestria, heck normal may not be putting it the best way, everything would be better now that the Pillars are back from being banished. The best part is that they still had the Elements Of Harmony at their side. Celestia and Luna were overjoyed to reunite with their old mentor as he was to reunite with her. In fact the princesses were happy to let them stay in the castle until they could find a way to integrate into the new society. Meanwhile Twilight, her friends, and Sunburst were all staying in her castle themselves to unwind after dealing with the Pony Of Shadows and to make up for the lack of rest to bring back the Pillars as well, but there was still an elephant in the room. Twilight and Starlight could barely talk to one another. Currently, Starlight was playing Dragon Pit with Sunburst and introducing it to Spike, so that allowed Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity to confront Twilight on what was going on in the map room. “Okay Twilight, be honest with us. Did something happen between you and Starlight in that library?” Applejack tried to patiently get an answer out of Twilight for why she and Starlight were being so distant. “I’ll be honest… something did happen in the library. When Starlight was trying to convince me and Starswirl to try and reform Stygian. Neither of us listened to her and Starswirl coldly cast her aside, I didn’t even try to defend her, even after Starswirl made a snarky remark ‘once a villain always a villain’, so I feel like something in her just snapped and she tore into why second chances have always worked before to Starswirl and how she believed she was lucky that he wasn’t around when I decided to be her friend or she’d have been banished to limbo too.” Twilight explained solemnly. “Well… that’s certainly bad, but we figured you two might have made up by now or-“ Rainbow Dash began before Twilight interrupted. “She said she loved me!” Twilight blurted out, much to the shock of all her friends except for Pinkie who just shrugged. “Saw it coming to be honest.” Pinkie Pie admitted. “And… I love her too, but now she doesn’t believe that I’m being genuine because of how quick I was to ditch her for my idol and just thinks that I just have a crush on her.” Twilight sighed sadly. “Oh dear. I hope you two can get out of this okay.” Fluttershy’s said sympathetically. “Yeah, and hey. You might even get a girlfriend out of it too.” Rainbow Dash smiled encouragingly. “I appreciate the confidence, but I’ll be lucky if she wants to stick around after what I did.” Twilight scoffed, “I know I need to face her eventually but I have no idea where we’ll stand.” “Darling, if I may vent.” Rarity smirked confidently, “One little fight between the two of you isn’t going to be enough for Starlight to stop caring from about you and invalidate everything you’ve been through. You share similar hobbies, had so many good memories, taught her the value of friendship, managed to be close in spite of your arrangement, and for Celestia’s sake you SAVED her from losing herself to evil.” Twilight smiled lightly at this before hugging Rarity, “Thanks Rarity, I needed that. I should probably go talk to Starlight. The sooner the better.” Once Twilight let go of Rarity, she turned to her friends and smiled at them, “Wish me luck.” She then teleported out, leaving her friends to converse. “Hopefully it goes well in there, Starlight seemed really upset when I saw her.” Fluttershy said in concern. “Those two mean everything to each other. I'm confident they'll be able to work through it." Rarity smiled back at the pegasus. We then see Twilight was near the library entrance and saw that Starlight, Spike, and Sunburst had switched to playing cards, and took a breath to compose herself. This was it. Twilight then knocked lightly at the open door, getting their attention. “Uh… Starlight, can I talk to you?” Twilight said with an awkward smile. “I suppose we needed to eventually.” Starlight admits with a shrug before turning to the boys, “You two should go.” “Of course.” Sunburst nodded before walking off, and gestured Spike to follow. Once they were out of the room, Starlight began speaking. “So Twilight, what did you want to talk about?” Starlight asked with a polite smile. “I’m sorry.” Twilight blurted out much to Starlight’s surprise, but Twilight continued with her apologetic rant, “I thought that if I just listened to Starswirl everything would be okay but I shouldn’t have ignored your ideas. I made you feel like you didn’t deserve your second chance, and I can’t express into words how wrong I was to do that. There’s no excuse for what I’ve done and I just hope we can still be friends.” “Twilight. Settle down.” Starlight gripped the alicorn’s hoof before looking at her eyes with a soft smile, “I’ve already forgiven you for that.” “You did?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have jumped to help Stygian when you realized it was possible if you didn’t truly care about your values.” Starlight told her, “I know you care about me, I’m sorry I ever doubted that.” Twilight smiled back before she gained a look of confusion, “But if you forgive me, why were you hesitant to talk with me?” “Because I know we have to address the confessions we made.” Starlight sighed, “I meant what I said Twilight, I do love you and that didn’t change.” Twilight realized what this meant and immediately pulled Starlight in for an embrace, “I meant what I said too Starlight. I do love you, heck, that’s probably the reason I was so upset about you potentially leaving in the first place. I don’t think you get that upset over a crush.” Starlight teared up with joy when she heard that and immediately wiped her eyes after Twilight let her go, “Wow, you have no idea how much that means to me. So where do we go from here?” Twilight immediately blushed and nervously grinned at Starlight, “Well… I never had my first kiss before.” “I haven’t either.” Starlight smirked, knowing where she’s getting at, “I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”