Bits, Pieces and other Scrapped Ideas

by FoolAmongTheStars

In Which A Life Is Told Through Beds

Author's Note:

Summary: The life of Starlight Glimmer is told by the beds she's slept in.

Warnings: Some hints of adult content and major character death. Just mentions without going into detail.

A/N: Just a little Starlight Glimmer character study, with some StarBurst thrown in the mix, obviously.

They say that the life of a pony could be told just by the beds they had slept in throughout their lives, and every bed tells the story of a stage in their lives, a piece of their existence.

Forced to stay in her current bed, Starlight Glimmer didn't have any other distractions except the stitching of the quilt and her memories. A giggle escapes her muzzle because, during the course of her life, she had known a good number of beds...It sounded scandalous to say it like that, and her giggle turned into laughter...Keep your mind out of the gutter, please...

Starlight made an effort to remember her childhood bed because it was deeply connected to her mother's loving care. She had lost her so soon, too soon, and she could never remember her face, though she certainly imagined her as beautiful, if she closed her eyes, she could still feel the gentle caress of a strong hoof, checking for fever, or a gentle touch filed with love on her cheek. But out of everything, the smell of lavender and sheets dried in the sun was the strongest memory of all.

After that, Sunburst came into her life, when her mother passed and her father sought shelter from his grief in his books. Many nights were spent in his house, under forts made of blankets and pillows, reading stories of faraway places well into the night, practicing magic until each spell was perfected. It distracted her from her grief and the pain of living with an absent father, filling her head with the wonders of magic and the adventures to be had. It was then she understood why her father liked books so much. She had been so happy then. Then he got his cutie mark.

When Sunburst left her heart had been filled with bitterness, which she projected onto her room. Painting the walls with the darkest black she could find, hanging posters of tortured-looking singers, and her bed was a mess of dirty sheets which she rarely slept on. Most of the time she would fall asleep on her desk, reading books about magic, the nature of cutie marks, and if there was a way of removing them.

Once she was old enough, she left Sire's Hollow to follow her own destiny, one filled with uncertainty, with only a handful of coins and a wave of twisted anger that morphed into deluded justification. Her bitterness and her rage were the only warmth she had during those years, where she slept in awful and questionable places, with rock-hard beds and thin ratty sheets that didn't keep the cold out. If she was lucky to afford one. During those nights she would grit her teeth to keep them from chattering and closed her eyes tightly, telling herself to endure it for the sake of a brighter future.

Her stubbornness paid off in the end and she had a house and nicer bed all to herself, and most importantly, her philosophy was catching on. She went to sleep those nights dreaming of a world where no pony was better than any pony else...except herself, obviously, even if no one would be aware of that fact. As the town grew so did her responsibilities and soon she had a sizable community on her hoofs, each and every one of its citizens looking up to her, for advice, for guidance, and for the first time since she had embarked on this crusade, she could finally see her dream turning into reality.

And then—like the bed she tossed violently to the side as she made her escape—it was all ripped out from underneath her.

In her quest for revenge, she spent many sleepless nights on the road, perfecting her plan, researching, experimenting, until she had it. The battle that issued would haunt her nightmares for years to come; the fury that coursed through her veins like liquid fire, the glee she felt as Twilight Sparkle failed to stop her again and again, all that she was willing to sacrifice in the name of revenge: she just wanted to see the world burn. And she did. The dusty landscape that received her was what finally put the fire out of her soul, it made her pause, long enough to listen to Twilight's pleas, long enough to recall the incident that started it all.

After all was said and done, when Twilight’s compassion had finally reached her and a second chance was offered, she laid awake in the princess guest bed that night. For the first time in years, she wasn’t angry or bitter and it felt a little odd, now that her head was clear she didn’t know what to do with all that space, so she spent the night thinking and wondering: now what? She never got her answer, but as she fell asleep she thought about Sunburst, and not for the first time she wished he was there to tell her what to do.

Then, as if destiny had heard her, she got her wish.

She didn’t know what to expect when she knocked on his door, and she was still surprised. There he was; a little sadder, a little shyer, a little more disheveled than she remembered, but it was Sunburst, now an accomplished wizard, while she was struggling to relearn the basic rules of social interaction. How ironic, she had spent years dreaming of this moment, and all she wanted to do then was crawl under a rock just so he wouldn’t see what a loser she had become.

It turn out that it wouldn’t be the first, and certainly not the last, time she had been wrong about something in her life.

Much like her battle with Twilight—except with less magic and violence—honesty from both their parts was what it took to rekindle their friendship and save the day. With the Crystal Empire safe once more, they made a promise to keep in touch and she boarded the train back to Ponyville, a little sad for having to leave him behind but reassured in the knowledge that this wasn’t a ‘goodbye’, but a ‘see you later’.

Despite living in a castle, Starlight’s room wasn’t as grand and exuberant as many would think. She didn’t have a four-poster bed with draping curtains and satin sheets, or walls bedazzle in diamonds and gold with expensive portraits on the walls. None of that. Her bed in the castle was simple but just as comfortable as any other bed she had sleep in; and sure, the walls and the floors were made with some kind of enchanted crystal, but the stone wasn’t near as exuberant as the one in the Crystal Empire, so she didn’t feel bad when she covered the walls with personal items as the years went by.

It was this bed that witnessed her personal growth, her bouts of doubt, and her budding feelings for her childhood friend. She kept her promise and send him letters, opening up to him little by little with each correspondence, and he did the same, telling her about his life, his fears, his hopes, and dreams. Starlight treasured each and every letter that her friends sent her, but she appreciated his letters a little more than the rest, as selfish as it sounded, and when Trixie found out she used this fact to tease her on occasion.

Here she learned the true value of friendship, learned to be a better pony, and truly reached her full potential.

She cried in its pillow the night before she had to move away from the castle since there was nothing more for Twilight to teach her, but only a little. While she was sad to leave the place where she had learned so much, she understood that it was time for her to put her teachings to use.

After much deliberation, she decided to go to the Crystal Empire, thinking that spending some time with her oldest friend would help her give some insight into what to do next. Thinking that maybe if she reflected about her past, especially with someone from her past, it could point her in the right direction. Little did she know that no exciting journey awaited for her once she arrived at Crystal Empire, in fact, she wouldn’t leave it for quite some time, because she had unknowingly arrived at the place she needed to be all along.

Starlight had finally redeemed herself fully, and now she had a future to look forward to.

And finally, she arrived at the marriage bed.

The bed of innocence, where two inexperienced lovers learned the body of the other, tracing a map of the mysteries of carnal pleasure, of the most devoted kind. Where the sweetness was mixed with the passion, and where two souls become one.

The bed in this stage of her life was relatively small but big enough to not invade the others' space in their sleep. It was large enough that, if they were angry for whatever reason, they could ignore the other if they laid perfectly still. Luckily, Sunburst was not one of those to fall asleep if there was still a problem to be solved. And well...he definitely didn't let her sleep until the situation was cleared...

As time went on the bed proved to be too small, but they made it work in the stormy nights when their bed was filled with the proof of their love. Two little heads of purple, two fillies, and the eldest, a son that was the spitting image of his father. Sunburst would then speak, adopting the posture of a trained storyteller, and told them stories of faraway places, or of their mother's adventures before she got married, especially ones that involved a clumsy wizard, until little by little, the thunder went away and they closed their eyes.

It was in this same bed where she had first rocked her children to sleep, where she sang them lullabies that she didn't know that she knew, hidden in some corner of her mind, forgotten until the right moment. It was there where she would watch over their slumber when fever or disease put a halt to their rambunctious laughter.

There wasn't a day in her long life where she hadn't yearn for her most precious light, the one who made her love him with his gentle ways, the one who had always shined through in her darkest hours. But time takes as much as it gives, and she had lived a long life, a life filled with the coldest of shadows and the warmest of lights. She had loved and been loved. She had left her legacy and made her mark in the world, which her foals and grandfoals will continue. Now, laying on the bed of her twilight years, prisoner of her traitorous and tired body, she waits for the day where she reunites with her dearest light, the half of her heart—when she crosses the border of this life into the next.

Always waiting for her, Sunburst...

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

The Teen Rating is just a precaution.

What do you mean by that?

[FoolAmongTheStars]

9536049
Teen rating it's use when a piece of media touches on more mature subjects, like dark humor, light cursing, violence with mention of injury and a little blood, some innuendos, etc. Think about things that you would find in a PG-13 show/movie, nothing too bad but not that very kid friendly either. So far this is the first chapter that warranted the T rating, since its heavily implied that Starlight and Sunburst consummated their marriage multiple times, something I wouldn't want a kid to read, but definitely something a teenager or adult would understand.

[howard035]

Quite moving.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Oh wow that was beautiful. Teared up a bit. The description of their marriage bed was so romantic.