“Starlight, come in here for a second!” Twilight yelled from inside her study, her voice echoing far in the cavernous halls of her castle.
“Yes, Twilight?” Starlight answered as she crossed the threshold of the place where she had learned so much from her teacher.
“It’s been a quite a while since I’ve taken you as a student of friendship, Starlight, and I think it’s time to see what you’ve learned.” Twilight said in her most teacherly tone.
“You mean… like a test?” Starlight quivered.
Twilight smiled. She remembered a time where she was in a similar situation with Celestia.
“Yes Starlight, like a test. This test will determine how much you’ve learned while at the castle, and how much more you can still learn from me. I plan to have you take it in about one week’s time, so you have an adequate time to study up. I -” Twilight started, but Spike suddenly let out a huge burp that came with it a letter from Canterlot.
“Oh my. It seems like the dignitaries from Saddle Arabia are causing quite a stir for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They’ve sent for me to help them extend the olive branch after the whole weather debacle. I’m so sorry Starlight, but your test will have to wait until I return.”
Twilight began to pack her things into her knapsack, while Spike got ready as well. “I shouldn’t be more than a week though, so we should start on time anyway. Sorry to just tell you this news and leave, but the matter seemed quite urgent from the letter the Princess sent.”
“...Yes, Twilight.” Starlight began to sweat, as the realization of the consequences of her test came into focus.
Twilight noticed her charged expression, but didn’t understand it quite completely. “Oh Starlight, don’t be so worried. I’ll try to get back as soon as we can so that our friendship lessons can continue! Come Spike, we have to be on our way.”
The study doors slammed shut, and Starlight could have filled a fountain with her nervousness.
"What if Twilight thinks that I haven’t learned enough? Will I be evicted from the castle? I have nowhere to go… I can’t trouble Sunburst in the Empire, and I’m too ashamed to show my face in front of the villagers… What will I do?"
Starlight began pacing back and forth, the sounds of her hooves clacking loudly throughout the castle. Hearing the noise, Applejack and Rainbow Dash got curious, and knocked on the study door.
“Is everything okay in there?” Applejack asked from the other side of the threshold in her characteristic southern drawl.
“Twilight? Is that you in there?” Rainbow Dash quipped.
The two open the door to see Starlight pacing fervently. “Starlight? Where’s Twilight gone?”
Starlight, in a fit of anxiety, rushed to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Applejack! Rainbow Dash! I don’t know what to do!”
“What’s wrong? Has anything happened to Twilight?” Rainbow Dash answered, quick to action.
“What? No! Twilight’s fine - she’s just gone to Canterlot to deal with some representatives from Saddle Arabia.” Starlight said hurriedly.
“Well then what’s gotten you in such a state, sugarcube?”
“Twilight’s given me a test on the values of friendship! And if I fail, I might not be able to stay here anymore, and Twilight might sendmebacktomyvillageand-” Starlight began to speak faster and faster, her anxiety clearly taking a toll on her.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked to Applejack. “Well we can be sure she’s Twilight’s student.”
“Rainbow’s right. I’m sure it won’t be like that, Starlight.” Applejack answered, trying to comfort her.
“You’ll do fiine, Starlight! You’ve been studying friendship under Twilight for what seems like forever, and she’s the Princess of friendship!” Rainbow added.
“But what if I’m just unteachable? What if I fail?”
“Now hush, sugarcube. Twilight made you her student for a reason, and if she’s giving you a test, that means she thinks you’re ready for it. She wouldn’t give it to you if she didn’t think you were ready for it.”
“And Twilight’s not going to kick you out of the castle just for failing a stupid test! Besides, you haven’t just been learning friendship with Twilight. We’re your friends also! And we’ll always have your back, no matter what you’ve done, or what you will do.” Rainbow landed, stomping her hoof firmly on the castle floor.
“That there’s the truth, Starlight. You’ll always have us to rely on.” Applejack smiled. “Now get ter studyin’! We know you’ll do great.”
For the rest of the week, Starlight poured over the tomes and diary entries that Twilight had her read, and her friends had written over the past year, but because she was so stressed about the test, none of the information would stick in her head. She kept forgetting everything she had read almost as soon as she finished reading it. Overburdened by the pressure, it kept leading her down a negative cycle - she would be too stressed to recall any information, but not being able to remember anything only made her more stressed.
Finally, the day of the test drew near, and Twilight was heard to be returning after a hard week’s work at Canterlot.
Unsure about whether or not she would pass, Starlight decided to take the uncertainty out of it by stealing the answers to the test while Twilight is away. They’d always been right there - the answers. Twilight had left in such a hurry that she had forgotten to take them with her on her journey to Canterlot. She had been studying in their presence the whole time, constantly trying to resist the urge to take them. It would be so easy… to reach out and just take the solutions from Twilight’s table…
Starlight reached out with her magic and lifted the envelope from its resting place. In large letters, the label was unmistakable. Solutions to Friendship Test, it read. And it was right there before her. Overcome by fear, she grabbed the envelope ran out the side way of the study - a more indirect way to her room, but having a significantly lower chance of running into any of her friends. Little did she know that even as she ran out, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had come to the study to wish Starlight luck on her exam, but had seen her grab the package marked the answers and run off.
Shocked, the two stood silent for a time, before Applejack broke the silence.
“We should tell Twilight about this. Maybe Twilight will go easier on Starlight if she knew how stressed she was about the test. If anypony could understand being anxious about a test, it’s Twilight.”
“We can’t just tell Twilight! Remember what we said, Applejack? We said that we’d have her back, no matter what happened!”
“Rainbow, telling the truth is the right thing to do!”
“Even if it means that Twilight might kick her out of the castle?”
“Twilight wouldn’t do that!”
“Even if Twilight wouldn’t, if we told Twilight about Starlight cheating, then Starlight would leave the castle anyway! Like she did with her village! Applejack, this problem isn’t between us and Twilight. It’s between Starlight and Twilight. We should just keep our mouths shut and -”
“No Rainbow, I’ve told a lie before, thinking that it would be better if other ponies didn’t know the truth. That ended badly. I won’t make that mistake again.” Applejack turned, and headed out the study.
“Wait AJ, at least talk to Starlight about it first!” Rainbow flew in front of Applejack, blocking her path.
Unable to come to a conclusion, Applejack and Rainbow decided to talk to Starlight about it. As the two came to Starlight’s room however, they found the door open, with Starlight pacing through her room, the answers unopened on her desk.
“Starlight, dear…” Applejack began.
Starlight jumped almost a full meter off the ground at hearing the voice behind her. Realizing that Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew what she had done, she ran to them in tears, begging them not to tell Twilight that she’d taken the answers.
“Starlight, you have to tell Twilight yourself! Even if you get away with passing this test, it will come back to haunt you later. I’m sure you know this!”
Starlight looked to Rainbow, but she stayed silent. Rainbow flew up to Starlight and put a hoof around her, and in a comforting tone said just what Starlight wanted to hear.
“We’ll always have your back, Starlight. I understand the pressures of thinking that you won’t pass a test, and although I don’t think what you did was right, I won’t tell Twilight.”
Starlight hugged Rainbow Dash from a place of sincerity while Applejack looks on in disappointment. But what she said next shocked them both. “I’ll… tell Twilight that I stole the answers to the test.”
At that moment, a familiar voice called out to Starlight from across the hall.
“I knew you could do it, Starlight.” Twilight had come home early, and had gone to see Starlight even before setting her things down in the study.
“What?! Twilight! But… I wasn’t ready to..” Starlight was too flustered to complete any sentence, much less confess an admission of guilt. But as Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at her with swelling pride, she was able to find her footing and looked Twilight in the eyes. Starlight explained what she had done, and reveals that even though she had taken the answers to the test, she hadn’t looked at them for feeling so guilty about stealing them.
Twilight responded only with a sly smile, and Rainbow could have sworn it was the same kind of smile Celestia wore so often when teaching Twilight about the magic of friendship.
“Starlight, take a look at those answers.” Twilight ordered, lifting the envelop from Starlight’s bedstand. Starlight opened the package and pulled out the pages.
“Why- w-wait, what is this? I don’t understand..” Starlight gasped, flipping through all of the pages, each of them as blank as the last.
“This was your real test of friendship, Starlight. Given the chance to take the easy way out, we all sometimes make bad decisions. That’s normal. But after learning about friendship, I hoped that you would seek out your friends to help you grow from those experiences. I’m so proud of you, Starlight! By telling me what you’ve done, you displayed the honesty that builds up the core of a relationship, and the loyalty to that relationship that proves your trustworthiness both as a student, and as a friend.”
Twilight pulls the journal that she, and all her friends, have written in this past year.
“Why don’t you add an entry to the journal?” Twilight smiled, calmly raising the book in front of Starlight.
With tears still in her eyes, Starlight looked to Twilight and smile back. “Is it really okay? If someone like me were to write in this…?”
“Of course, sugarcube. That book is for all of our friends.”
“And needless to say, you’re our friend.” Rainbow Dash flew up and did a backflip, emphasizing her words.
Dear Diary,
Today I learned that sometimes, we stumble and we fall. We may even decide to do things that are wrong. But owning up to those mistakes and learning from them is what friends - true friends can help you do.
Starlight Glimmer