Silver, Fast and Starlight collected all the abandoned dishes and packed them away to take home. Fast closed the last of the baskets and set it on Silver's side. "Nice food, by the way."
Starlight tipped her head. "Cooking's actually a little hobby of mine."
Silver smiled. "Do you have others?" She looked off where the others had hurried off to. "That wasn't the ending I quite had in mind."
Fast waved at them dismissively. "Forget 'em. They just made a huge mistake."
"Oh?"
Starlight smiled slowly. "They left you alone with us."
Was that something to fear? Silver felt a wave of uncertainty as she shook herself and made sure her load was properly settled in place. "We should get back to the castle and tell Spike what happened."
Fast moved up alongside Starlight. "She gets shy around aggressive ponies, but deep down inside, I'm pretty sure she likes it, when it's somepony that really cares about her."
"Fast!" Silver frowned at the treacherous red mare.
Starlight raised a hoof under Silver's chin, looking into her eyes. "Then we should have no problems at all..."
Silver shuddered violently in a conflict of emotions. "Starlight! What do you even know about me?"
She raised a brow. "More than you expect, clearly." She nudged Silver back towards the castle and they walked together. "I've been following you for quite some time now, through the various... stages of our relationship. I've learned quite a bit about you."
"You'll forgive me for saying that's a little creepy."
"But flattering." Fast grinned like a child with a new toy.
Silver rolled her eyes. "But flattering. What did you learn then?"
Starlight frowned lightly. "Enough to learn, first, that I have no interest in your swapping spell, as interested as I might be in studying magic, but there was one of yours I did enjoy learning." She raised a hoof with a glowing horn and a ball of fire formed within it, bright and round. Silver could tell immediately it was her spell. "Your first, but not the last. You do know many unicorns go their entire life without making a new spell."
Fast bumped on Silver. "That's her talent, don't get worked up about that. I shapeshift, that's what I do." She grinned at Starlight. "I'm also probably half-changeling or something. Tell me that isn't wild?"
Starlight almost stumbled, her fireball rolling off her hoof and smoldering quietly on the ground. "What?"
Fast picked the flaming ball from the grass before too much damage could be done. "It's true, I swear. It doesn't change much, but it's cool to know."
Silver gave a little nod and focused her horn on the ball, pulling it apart carefully, or trying. Starlight's magic was tightly woven, and they could feel one another's efforts, starting to wrestle over it. "You're not an alicorn, why is this so hard?"
Starlight turned the magic back, giving Silver a brief headache. "Practice... Maybe..." She glanced away and back at Silver. "Maybe if I had been born at the right time, the right place, maybe... Celestia would have made me a princess instead."
The words seemed familiar in sentiment. "Like Sunset."
"Who?"
Silver shook her head. "Sorry, nopony, just, you aren't alone. There were many talented young ponies that could have taken the position, but Celestia picked one she was there to see. You can't blame her for that."
Fast frowned. "And her cutie mark?"
"Ah, right." Silver nodded at Fast. "I'm sure that also swayed her."
Starlight grimaced. "Seriously, again?" When both looked at her with confusion, she sighed. "Another time when a cutie mark decided who would have, and who would have not. They said my cutie mark let me get where I am, and to those ponies, I say neigh." She stomped a hoof, then dispelled the ball in a puff of heat. "While it's true I gained it while studying, a little... bitter, I admit... about the whole cutie mark thing, I never stopped being focused. My magic is my will alone, not some cockamaney 'destiny'."
Silver lifted her shoulders. "I don't really know where I fit in with it all. I'm not even from 'here'." She pushed open the door, leading the way into the castle. "I was a whole other species, and sex, and age, and most everything else. Pfft, my writing speed's gone way down since I got here." She turned on Starlight. "Was I meant to come here, to do all these things?"
Fast shrugged. "Maybe?"
"No." Starlight clopped a hoof. "You made decisions. You charted this path through life on your own, and here you are. For better or worse, you should at least know that you decided every little step. When I had you in that cage and I was facing you down, you could have lashed out at me, gave me a bloody snout. That would have turned me off of you quite well, my submissive pony, but you didn't. You could have... but chose not to."
She glanced away, then back at Silver. "I thought you died for a while there. Imagine my surprise when you turned up, with wings, all because of one little decision."
Fast shook her head slowly. "This is getting a little deep. This is a chance for us all to have fun."
Spike poked his head out of the library. "Fun with what now? Oh hey guys! Where's Twilight and Night? I just went to fetch this book for her and here you are." He waved the book he had been asked to fetch.
Silver shook her head. "She went off, princess duties, fighting huge evil creatures, you know the deal."
Spike deflated. "Oh..."
Silver trotted over to Spike and threw a leg over him. "Hey, don't look like that. She left us behind too. You're in good company."
"More than you know." Nefertari was holding Spike from the other end. Spike jumped with shock, which was enough to make her laugh. "I do love how skittish you all are. What's this, Silver, about huge evil creatures?"
Starlight rolled her eyes. "I forgot you were here."
Nefertari stood with graceful slowness and stepped towards Starlight, towering over her. "I never forget where my enemies, or rivals, may be, and you could qualify for either." She leaned over Starlight, almost leering at her with her tail wagging. "Silver himself could barely best me, what do you think your odds are?"
Starlight's horn began glowing brightly before she blinked back several feet, hovering in the air. "Care to try? Twilight isn't here to protect you right now."
"Protect me?!" Nefertari put a paw over her chest. "You are a hilarious little horse." She glanced at Fast, Silver and Spike. "Care to watch me set her in her place? This has been a long time coming."
Silver shook her head rapidly. "Twilight's castle, let alone Ponyville, is not ready for this fight."
Starlight gestured upwards towards one of the peaks visible from Ponyville. "Let's go then. No need to frighten my new friends."
Silver stepped forward. "Girls, please. I don't want either of you being mauled by the other."
Nefertari appeared beside Silver, stroking along her mane gently. "Your concern touches me, but it's not required. Come, and watch us. I don't plan either of us to die today, but a few broken bones... I can't promise that."
"All you have is speed. It won't be enough." Starlight shoved the door open and flew outside in a streak of light.
Nefertari glanced at Silver. "She's so naive it hurts. Come, all of you. I insist." Silver and Spike tried to reason their way out. Fast looked excited about it. All of them were gathered together, and the world changed around them with the sensation of being hurtled a great distance. They were on a mountain peak. They could see Twilight's castle down below in the distance, and Ponyville beyond it.
Starlight nodded, floating in the air. "I was wondering if you'd already given up."
"As if you should be so fortunate." Nefer clapped her paws together. "The spirits have spoken. This is a lesson you must learn, that only I am qualified to instruct."
"Hold a moment."
"Hmm?" Nefer raised a brow, bits of shadow flickering off the edges of her form. "Have you changed your mind? Ready to concede defeat to me?"
"Oh nothing so boring." Starlight's horn crackled with power as she grinned at Nefertari. "We should wager. What use is a fight with only bragging rights as the prize?"
The jackaless considered this. "And what would you have us bid our might against?"
Starlight raised a hoof. "If I win, you support my place beside Silver."
She laughed, more of a cackle really as she threw her head back. "More the fool you are. I was content enough to watch you fumble your way, but you wish that, very well. When I prove victorious, you are to leave Silver alone, never to touch them, ever."
Silver raised a hoof. "Don't I get a say in this?"
Both glared at her with such intensity that she collapsed to the ground. Nefertari gestured across the mountains. "The next cry of a bird shall be our signal." Her paws clenched, auras of shadowy mist gathering around her along with the whispers from beyond the world gathering with every breath. "Prepare yourself."
The air grew tense as Starlight wasted no time gathering her arcane might. Her opponent was no soft pony, no princess. She either went all out, or admitted failure from the start. Her entire body hummed with building arcane fury.
A hawk cried, swooping down for the kill. Nefertari wasn't where she began. Starlight exploded with power, magic bursting free in a rapidly expanding sphere that caught Nefertari and threw her back into a mountaintop. "Too predictable. Speed, all speed."
Nefer rose quickly from the snow and struck her paws together, squeezing them together so viciously the claws bit into the flesh. "Ancestors answer, here awaits a cub in need of chastising."
Spike leaned in closer to the other two. "Uh, are we safe here?"
Fast giggled a little. "Probably not."
The blackness around Nefertari emerged in two screaming columns with reaching hands and manic eyes bulging all along their surface. Starlight directed an arcane bolt of fury down along one as she flew away from the other, but her beam passed right through without effect. Both columns were coming for her, the black mass itself forming long fingers beside the hands reaching out from within it at her.
Silver shook her head slowly. "I think only Twilight and company are in a less safe place to be right about now."
The sky lit up with an explosion whose shockwave sent snow falling around them down the slope. From the ball of wailing and fire, Starlight soared, looking furious, but not defeated.