I ran home with tears in my eyes. The horrid memories of moments past replayed themselves in my mind. The only sanctuary I believed I could find was in the walls of my beloved home. As my conscience screamed "why!" I choked on my own spit. My hooves brushed aside sticks and stones. All I wanted was to forget this day.
"Star, is that you?" Daddy called from the doorway.
I did not reply. My breathing was uneven and my heart skipped every other beat. The light from the house showed me the final steps to my sepulcher. The closer I came to my father, the less calm I became.
"Daddy, I did what mother said! I did it!" I pitifully yelped.
Father did not respond with his mouth, but with his eyes. The large saucers on his face were wide with the unknown. I passed him by through the entrance and ran straight for my room. The smell of dinner briefly entered my nostrils before being pushed away by the speed of my movement.
"Star! Wait!" Daddy said desperately.
I ignored him and slammed my room's door with my magic. I was surprised I even retained the concentration to perform this act of magic. I then proceeded to throw myself on my bed and cry into my pillow. It was a pathetic sight to anyone, I'm sure.
"Star, are you alright?" Daddy asked from the other side.
"Don't come in!" I screeched.
As usual, my father took no heed of my immature demand. The door opened slowly and his loving face looked in with concern. I could barely see him through the tears in my eyes and I hugged my pillow tightly like it was my only friend.
"Pumpkin...what happened?"
"I did as Mommy said to. I showed those bullies discipline," I answered through a sob.
"Oh honey..."
"I hurt them so much! I said such mean things! Daddy...I think I was more a bully than they ever were!"
He leaned over me and gently stroked by mane with his large hoof. His acts comforted me enough to compose myself only slightly. The sobs softened and I could speak with some fluidity.
"Daddy, I thought I would feel great and special after that, but I don't! I feel evil!"
"Evil? You're not evil, Pumpkin. I'm sure you just got the best pf them," he tried to relieve me. "They probably won't come after you anymore."
"Daddy! I didn't just stand up for myself. I attacked them! Oh, why did I do such a thing?"
"You just weren't thinking, that's all. You know, I've let myself go wild sometimes when anger gets a hold of me. It's a mistake we make, but we can get better from it. At least you know now how you feel afterwards."
"The worst thing is....I kinda enjoyed it..."
"Oh fine! But I'm only doing this for you, my dear."
Discord gently placed me back on the floor. The pegasus jumped up and hugged her monstrous friend. She then tried to give me a hug, but I pushed her back with an extended hoof.
"Thank you, Discord," Fluttershy gave him a second hug.
"Alright, alright!" he pushed her away with his goat leg. "There's only so much of this hugging I can take."
"I second that," I muttered.
Fluttershy ignored both of us. "Well, with that...uhh...experience out of the way, we should get more tea! I can get Angel to-"
A bright flash of magical power cut the mare off. I covered my eyes with a hoof, but the flash was gone before I could shield them properly. The Princess of Friendship was in the living room, her eyes red with anger. It was almost warming to see her in such a frustrated mood. I think I even grinned at her unannounced arrival.
"Discord!" she screamed. "I'm gonna turn you back to stone! You hear me! I'm gonna..."
Twilight paused when she faced the kitchen and saw the three of us. Her redness was soon replaced by a shade of bright pink as she chuckled innocently and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Well, uh...nice to see you all here," she tried to recover.
"Nice to see you too, princess," I spoke. "You missed quite the action."
Fluttershy walked over and placed a hoof on the princess's shoulder. "Don't worry, Twilight, we got it all taken care of. We just had some talk about accepting differences and moving on from the past."
"We did?" I blinked. "Sounded more like an argument whether or not you were the one at fault for ruining my life."
"I guess it could be taken that way too...?" Fluttershy backed off.
"So..I'm not needed here?" Twilight hesitated.
"Of course you are," I answered. "Everything revolves around you and your ability to solve problems. Didn't you know that?"
"Alright Starlight, I don't need that from you," Twilight frowned.
"There is only so much pony talk I can take," Discord complained. "Sometimes I feel like I'll never understood you! You can deal with little Miss Order there, but I'll be back if she tries anything...not funny."
With a grand snap of his fingers, he disappeared in a flash. Saying that I was relieved at his departing would be a great understatement. I recall even tapping on the table in delight, but that was soon halted by the princess and her liar of a friend.
"Starlight, I'm...I'm beginning to reconsider my methods," Twilight started. "I don't think this is the best way to teach you friendship."
"Really?" I faked by astonishment. "Whatever made you make that conclusion?"
"You're right," her ears drooped. "I should have known it would be tougher to make you see. I just don't ever want to overstep the line. I don't want to brainwash you or blast you with magic. I just want to show you friendship. But I see it now. All I'm doing is trying to replicate what happened to me when I met my friends. I learned about each one of them, spent time, and had adventures together. I should remember that this doesn't work for everypony."
"You've already overstepped your bounds when you removed my magic."
"And I'm sorry!" Twilight quickly returned.
"Twilight," I began slowly. "The reason why your methods do not work is because you are forcing me to have friends with ponies I have a not-so-friendly past with. It's that simple. I do not see wrong in friendship at all, but I also believe your friendships are lies. You are far too different, too disagreeable to be actual friends. That's the problem. You see, I can make friends-"
"No you can't," Fluttershy shook her head. "I'm sorry to say this, but...you just can't make friends. All you can do is make them appear to be your friends."
Her words messed with me. I seemed better at handling criticisms from Twilight than this foolish mare. Oh, she appeared kind, she appeared shy and innocent, but there was more there. She thought I could not make friends? Well it wasn't my fault that I was bullied. It wasn't my fault that I had to be so vastly different that no one accepted me. It wasn't my fault that I had to teach ponies to love and be equal. They knew equality already and just deny it constantly. It was never my fault!
"You really believe that?" I shot back. "You didn't live with them. You never saw the true fruits of my success in Our Village. All you did was come in there, with your bigotry and biased outlooks, and saw nothing but evil. There was never any evil there. Ponies lived there in peace. I helped them live in harmony. They were my friends, until you all took them away!"
"Starlight, you're deceiving yourself," Twilight said simply. "They were never your friends."
My lip began to quiver. "You just spit that out without any proof!"
"Starlight, please listen..."
"No!"
I lit my horn and fired a beam at the princess. Twilight quickly raised a shield just in time to absorb my attack. Fluttershy screamed and threw herself under the table. The areas around where my beam passed were charred and some tiny embers glowed in the cottage's wooden walls. I fired again and again, each time making the princess take a step back.
"Starlight! Stop!"
"You always think you're in the right!" I told her. "You always think you're the answer to the world's problems. Cease with your overblown ego, Twilight! You're nothing but an overrated student who was doted upon by your teacher! You haven't learned anything. You've never suffered! You don't know how it is to feel defeated before you even begin!"
One of my attacks bounced off her shield and blow a hole in the cottage, sending all the animals around fleeing into the forest. With tears in my eyes, I fired and fired. The princess was not trying to counter at all and simply absorbed every blow. My anger kept rising, and with it, my magical skill.
"Keep still!"
I took hold of the floorboards with my magical grip and forced Twilight into the ceiling of the home. A scream left her as her magical bubble did not against the physical contact. She was much more resilient than I expected as she almost instantly recovered and fired a charged arcane bolt at me.
No shield was needed against such a simple attack. I instead took one step to the side and watched it melt through the floor. However, this move took away my offensive advantage as when I returned my attention to her, she was charging right at me. Before I could react, which is a minuscule amount of time, she tackled me into the floor.
"Starlight! Stop this! This is why we are trying to reform you. You resort to violence or other methods to get your way. Not everything needs to be your way!"
"Are you joking?" I scoffed. "Everypony resorts to such after negotiations fail. I try to explain my views to everypony before doing anything else. If they can't see the obvious, it's their fault!"
I created a force wave which sent the princess hurling away from me. Seeing that this battle was doing nothing but destroying a cottage, I teleported out and into the nearby woods.
From the edge I could see the smoke rising from Fluttershy's cottage. She deserved it, yes, but I couldn't help feel guilty at starting the fight. In a way, I felt defeated. I always believed myself the best at reasoning, at showing others my point of view, but I failed here. I was in the wrong here.
I cursed loudly and threw my head into a tree. Not even a day after regaining my magic, did I use it to try to take down the princess. They had predicted me better than I did predicted me. That was not a feeling I ever wanted to experience.
"Oh, Starlight, you insane fool! What have you done?" I yelled at myself.
I took one long look at the destruction I had created. Twilight was flying above it, not looking for me, but already trying to fix her friend's home. Discord had appeared again, but was not helping at all. Even at that distance, I could see an unholy fury emit from him. This all built up to him screaming madly at the heavens.
Now it was decision time. Once again, I had the choice to stand my ground or flee into hiding. In all my life, I had picked the latter. I had always decided to run from my problems and create a home where they would not exist. Perhaps, it was time to pick something else...
I chose to flee once again.
=
So wait...this is leading into the season finale?! WHAT?! I thought this was AU?!
Still...AWESOME CHAPTER!!!
6690722 Well, it wasn't UNTIL the season finale (so it's AU now). So I put this on a short hiatus to see what the show did. Now I'm gonna use parts of season 5 into this to get what I want.
6690729 Oh...okay. I just hope there are still more chapters and not just a direct lead-in into the finale.
6690740 Nope, that won't be the case at all.
6690758 YAY!!!
Aaaand Starlight's a dead mare.
6690941 Most certainly.
I read this chapter again and...I love this chapter! I can't wait to see what happens next to Starlight. Starlight is so hypocritical in this chapter, its unbelievable. I also love the fact that Fluttershy can so easily knock her off balance.
6690941 Oh, if the various fics I've read about Discord are any indication, she'll wish she was.
6691376 I appreciate the love mate. When you love a character like I do with Starlight, it certainly helps one write about her.
6691806 That's very true.
"They were never your friends."
Berserk button. Even when compared to challenging her egocentric mentality... In particular since the ENTIRE POINT of Our Town was for Starlight to have an entire town full of friends who would never leave her.
I wonder when Starlight will tell them about Sunburst.
6692730 you must remember this story was started before anything about Starburst. However, I do have the ability to implement him since it'll take the place of what would have been an OC.
I like the fact that there is actual good philosophy behind Starlights anti-cutie mark agenda.
The implication that she was a blank-flank adult who was good with magic before her cutie mark appeared says a lot about her need for a cutie mark.
The rejection of the magical enhancement that a cutie mark gives is a very legitimate philosophy, and so is the ability to remove the cutie mark. If she was less radical and allowed ponies to stand out without their cutie marks via getting better by specializing in something by studying and training, she might have actually succeeded in having a legitimate viewpoint.
6695436 Just another case of lacking moderation. Radicalism will always set you on a path you did not want to go, but by the time you realize you're on it, you think it was for the best.
It feels like both sides are wrong.
Starlight is the extremist that does not see the ends does not justify the means. She also get angry to fast and is a hypocrite.
While Twilight and friends are mostly ignoring that she is right about things. Out of the six, only Pinkie looks to be treating Starlight well. Pinkie does not agree fully with her. But is also not attacking Starlight.
The others get angry when she calls them out on stuff. Three of their sisters are being bullied and they do little to deal with it. Worse the teacher even gave a lesson, that to a young mind, could imply that your life is not worth while till you get your mark.
There is a lot of "you will get your mark some day", and not much "I love you for who you are", or "sweetie/bloom you are great at a lot of stuff and you should be proud of your hard work. So you are not a no pony for not having a mark yet".
If you get your mark should you give up on anything else you like just to follow your mark? Rainbow mark is for speed. So her mark is saying she should have went off and joined minor racing teams and work her way up to the wounder-bolts: not work as a wathermare.
6710980 *does a fist pump*
That's the purpose of the story: to break down the social problem that is the cutie mark and you have two very different sides trying to show the good and bad of it.
Because Starlight is such an extremist, she has a harder time communicating her views without resorting to threats or mocking.
Twilight and gang are trying to show her the wrongs, but are having trouble because they can't get a real grasp of her. They have to balance a tight-rope as Starlight is trying hard to knock them off with every word they say. Almost all of Twilight's words and backhanded with a snarky remark from Starlight.
But, throughout all of this, is the question of the cutie mark. Starlight shows valid points and Twilight knows that she doesn't understand the cutie mark fully, and thus has a harder time explaining its perks. the real sufferers of this conflict are the CMC who have spent so much time and energy for little merit and are now questioning if they will ever get their marks. This shows how Starlight is right. However, we know how ponies feel when they get their marks, which shows that Twilight is right.
Discord is gonna put her through the wringer.
6790221 that'd be fun to see
6837573 And that's fine. Unlike her, I actually like the diversity of opinions.