This story is a sequel to Wherever the Light Shines: Part 2
After the defeat of Nightfall, everypony began to repair the damage across Equestria. Despite the ongoing scrutiny against the school and Twilight's reputation, the Mane Six are trying to rebuild their lives. Amid that and a traumatized Starlight, Mystic begins to learn more about the ways of friendship and rediscover how her past relationships in her Liberator days were so special.
*Mild violence and gore, nothing explicit*
*Takes place after Season 8 and Best Gift Ever*
*Some Season 9 elements and characters will be implemented*
Commission done by Sirzi! Check out his amazing work!
Chapters (27)
It begins.
Poor Starlight!
Figured that Starlight is still feeling guilty and traumatized after what happened from the previous part. And on top of that, Sunburst is still missing!
And Starlight, you shouldn't keep your problems to herself. Things will get worse if you don't let your friends help you!
And why didn't Princess Luna help Starlight with her nightmares? Am I missing something or... is there something prevented Luna from noticing Starlight's nightmares in the first place?
Anyway, great opening on the third part of your story and I can't wait for the next chapter!
11104243
Actually, regarding Luna, she did help with Starlight as indicated by this here
Starlight recalled Luna’s words of confronting your fears and insecurities. Easier said than done, Princess. Even though one of Equestria’s beloved mothers tended to her a couple of nights, she hadn’t heard from Luna recently.
I don’t blame her feeling obligated to help me, Starlight thought.
“Remember to face your fears and uncertainties before they consume you,” Luna’s voice echoed.
“Yeah, easier said than done, Princess,” Starlight said aloud, taking another spoonful of ice cream.
She also has so many ponies to attend to and with Twilight's friends around she knows Starlight's in a good place.
Glad you enjoyed though. :D
11104273
Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense, especially that Princess Luna was busy helping other ponies.
And does that mean that Princess Luna visited Starlight in her dream off screen?
I did enjoy the chapter, and I can't wait for more!
11104414
Of course. :) That was meant to indicate that she did visit Starlight a couple of times during the week.
Now that was a great chapter!
It was a cute opening that Mystic was playing capture the flag with the CMCs to find her cutiemark. The fun ends when Scootaloo suggests doing scuba diving, not knowing Mystic's fear of water and couldn't swim. I know she wasn't comfortable telling ponies that, but sooner or later, she can't hide her fear forever.
Mystic resisting to sing while questioning why she felt the urge to sing was pretty amusing.
Her first meeting with Discord was funny!
And poor Fluttershy is still feelibg upset from Mystic's words and her events at Oogundaa. A part of her still thinks she's useless.
At least Discord was there to help her. 
Looking forward for the next chapter!
Indeed it won't.
Joke's aside, this is a very good chapter!
I figured Mystic's secret that she can't swim will come out sooner or later, but it was sweet of the CMCs to not only they didn't belittled her, but offering to teach her how to swim.
It looks like Twilight is applying Mystic to the School of Friendship as part of the "rehabilitation progress" for Mystic by Twilight and Hong. Mystic definitely doesn't like that.
And Mystic, while your story of waking up in the middle of a street with an amnesia sounds unbelievable, you shouldn't be keeping the truth from Twilight, especially while she was trying to help you.
And Mystic's first friendship assignment is to apologize and hang out with Pinkie Pie, eh? Let's hope it won't be a disaster like last time.
Can't wait for the next chapter!
Oh Starlight...
I figured that she was both traumatized and felt guilty due to her actions during her time at Oogundaa. Not wanting to use her magic, dodging most of her friends, and now she tried to hide her feelings and problems from Twilight.
It's understandable, but all it does is hurting her further... and her friends too.
Anyway, great chapter! Can't wait for the next one!
Well... that was definitely the wackiest chapter by far!
It started off simple enough, with Pinkie worrying and doubting herself if she could make ponies happy after the event at Canterlot, only for Mystic to come over and apologize for her lie and asked to throw her a party. It's nice to see them made up.
The scenes with Pinkie did a welcome wagon for Mystic (which is a nice callback to the Welcome song, along with a brief Smile song) baked some deserts, setting up streamers, and visiting the Party Planning Cave was great. Cheese Sandwich was a nice (and funny) surprise, and Mystic's reaction and situations was hilarious!
But the moment they have "The Pinkie Elixir", that was when everything went off the rails!
Looks like Mystic won't be partying for a while. It's uncertain if Mystic and Pinkie became friends, but at least they had fun!
Excellent chapter, and I'm looking forward for the next one this February!
Man...
She finally decided to go outside and bumped into Maud. Their friendly hangout turned sour the moment when Maud asked Starlight about Oogundaa.
While it's understandable that Starlight hesitated to tell Maud about digging up a corpse and to bring back her mom, but she hurt Maud fir not letting her in. While Maud, have every right to be mad at Starlight for pushing her and her friends away, but I fear that this will end up hurting Starlight further and scared to let anypony else in.
Good chapter, but poor Starlight!
So...
Mystic now officially became the student of School of Friendship. Although she only focused on getting through her time there rather than making friends... which she was missing the point. I don't think she'll pass the school with that mindset.
Of course Mr. Bullion's sons tried to bully Mystic, only to get backfired and received a few burns from Mystic... even if those burns were disturbing.
But something tells me that this isn't the last time we saw of them.
And what was going on with the Young Six? Every creature except for Sandbar and Yona felt off and not in a good mood, especially Smolder. Even Mystic seemed to have issues with dealing with them. I hope this doesn't lead to any problems between them.
And Twilight secretly hired Neighsay to investigate the plumbing and electrical incidents. Didn’t expect to see him again, but at least he's there to help out instead of trying to close down the school. Let's see if he can find anything about those mysterious incidents.
Anyway, great chapter!
Man, this chapter has a lot of development!
So Mystic actually opened up about her past (most of it) to Starlight to get her to open up. She even agreed to teach Mystic magic... which she regretted afterwards.
Trixie was also upset with Starlight for pushing her away, but at least she was understanding and they made up.
Mystic was reflecting on her life, wondering what her purpose was, but also curious about her past. I wonder if that's going to come back into play?
That one bit with Mystic bothering Rainbow Dash was funny.
And jeez, both Mystic and Starlight are stubborn! With Starlight not wanting to do magic and refuse to open up about her problem, while Mystic refused to talk more about her past. Oh brother!
Can't wait for the next chapter!
Dual Therapy session???
I’d like to see how this goes
Well now...
Despite Mystic is "doing well" with her studies, she still didn't understand about friendship. Even Fluttershy’s advice doesn't seem to get through to her.
I understand that Twilight is getting more pressure about her school and traumatized by Cozy Glow, but oh boy... Twilight’s gone coco in a loco (as Pinkie would say) and she personally tried to teach Mystic.
At least the Young Six and Mystic is slowly getting along. And than Mystic's prank against the Bullion's sons and then the smack down against Bullion himself? *chef kiss*
Both Twilight and Mystic made good points about the situations, but I think I'm siding with Mystic on this one. Yes, it's risky for making a rich snob stallion with many connections angry, but punishing Mystic for not apologizing to the ponies for standing up to them was a bit much.
And Mystic was right about one thing, Twilight needs to stand up for herself against a creep like Mr. Bullion, instead of letting him push her around!
It looks like Starlight still having issues on letting ponies in, but she finally cave in and is going to teach Mystic some magic lessons. But will she follow through is yet to be determined.
Anyway, excellent chapter and enjoy your trip!
11162390
I agree, both of them had good points but yes, Mystic I believe is in the right in this situation, and Twilight's acting irrationally and letting Bullion push her around. She's the princess of friendship, saved Equestria multiple times, why should she let somepony like Bullion push her around and tell her how to do her job?
This is a pretty good story.
Well then...
It would seem that Rarity is also affected from her trip to Oogundaa. Then again, everypony who went on that trip was affected in their own way.
The reason Rarity went overboard with teaching Mystic about Generosity and try out thirty outfits (which is excessive, even for Rarity) was because she sees herself within Mystic? Interesting.
Her slow friendship with Yona was sweet, CMCs teaching Mystic to swim was heartwarming and insightful about cutiemarks, and her moment with Starlight while flying their kites was also a great scene, especially when talking about if angels exist.
And Trixie (in her own way) is telling Mystic to back off from Starlight and she'll "cheer up" Starlight herself? I know it was because she was jealous of Starlight spending more time with Mystic than her, but she's also being selfish by treating it as a competition rather than actually trying to cheer up Starlight.
Still, this will probably not end well the next time she and Mystic meet up with Starlight involved!
Great chapter! Looking forward to the next chapter!
11172261
Thanks. :) Glad you're enjoying. :)
11172350
You're welcome, MLPSolarDash1907. With the right vibes and the right people, it's easy to create something magical.
11172386
Thanks, I agree. :) I do my best. :D
11172389
No problem. I believe in karma, and I believe if you put out positive vibes to everybody, that's all you're going to get back.
That was very good. And I'm glad Mystic is doing well on her magic lessons with Starlight if she keeps this up, she'll be better at it. When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.
I usually don't encourage violence, but this time, I'll let Mystic slide on this one. That perverted cherry vendor pony got what he deserved!
So the pony that Mystic saved from part one of the story was Lieutenant Jia!?
No wonder she was helping Mystic out with the cherry vendor and not treating her harshly! I guess she indebted Mystic for the rescue years back. 
Sheesh, so Hong purposely placed spotters throughout Ponyville just to watch Mystic in case she "screws up" like she did with the cherry vendor. It was good on Jia to give Mystic the heads up, but can she be trusted?
Starlight finally gave Mystic much-needed magic training and the two talked about each other's problems. Starlight is still held back on letting ponies in and she also had a point about the Liberators: Aside from moral codes and saving the city, were they really close?
Great chapter!
11178780
Glad you enjoyed. :D
Well, we never saw Mystic saving Lieutenant Jia in Part 1 because we never saw the adventure up North like Jia and Mystic talked about here. We saw the Liberators and Mystic talking about it before they left for it and we cut to after events happened up North. But yes, Mystic did indeed save Lieutenant Jia back then.
I did enjoyed it. That was very brave of Twilight to stand up to Bullion. To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.
11186278
Agreed. :) Besides, who's Bullion to tell Twilight how to do her job and put her under so much pressure when she's done so much for Equestria?
Also, what Mystic said to Twilight and when she stood up to Bullion in the cafeteria also pushed the alicorn to finally make her stand. :) Glad you enjoyed it.
11186282
You're welcome.
Awesome chapter!
It's about time that Twilight stood up to that jerkwad and his two spawns and then kicked them out of School of Friendship! It has been a long time coming! 
Hong showed up to Mystic just to taunt her and tell her that her new "friends" will turn on her? Did he do all that just to mess with her head or something much more sinister?
Can't wait for the next chapter!
This is starting to get pretty good, MLPSolarDash1907 I like it. I see that Mystic is writing to Sunset in the magic journal to see how she's doing in the mirror world. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
A new chapter taking place in the human world? Nice!
Love that the chapter took place from the eyes of Sunset and showed what her life is like, especially with everyone happy to see her.
I also like that Mystic now has her own journal to communicate with Sunset and Sunset giving her advice about letting go of hate and be happy.
And Mystic wanted to visit Sunset? Do I sense foreshadowing?
Excellent chapter!
11193289
Glad you're enjoying it. :) And I hope you continue to enjoy the story as it goes on. :)
11193311
You're welcome and I will.
Starlight needs to see a therapist soon.
The scene with Discord was funny. Also Mystic needs to tell somepony she can't swim so she can learn it otherwise she'll end up having to be saved from drowning.
I'm sure that Mystic will eventually be forced to reveal her amnesia but I don't know how or when. Apologizing to Pinkie will be difficult for her but it's still necessary.
Starlight is clearly in denial about several things the biggest being that she really needs therapy.
At least Mystic had fun at the party even if she did go overboard.
Maud was correct in her assesments and Starlight is still in denial about her need for therapy. Everything in the previous story does actually point in the direction of a spell since her sanity derailed rather quickly when in the Crystal Empire. Also she wasn't certain why she did certain things.
Mystic wasn't impressed by those bullies since they aren't remotely close to Hong in how nsty they are. It's good that Twilight has asked for help with the issues the school's been having.
The conversation between Mystic and Starlight was interesting.
It's clear that Wilight is under a lot of stress and has difficulty dealing with it. That's also the only reason I can think of why she hasn't done something about Bullion since her behaviour in the previous story seemed to be understandable caution but now it seem sless reasonable. Twilight is right that Mystic shouldn't have antagonized Bullion even if the prank she pulled was mostly harmless. It seems that Mystic and Starlight are getting somewhere.
I think that Starlight is right that Mystic didn't have much of a bond with the Liberators. She respected Cierra and Meng and to some degree Song and Juan too but the only pony she was friends with was Sunshine Smiles and when things started to go downhill because of Cierra's loss of sanity that became somewhat strained.
It's good that Twilight got rid of Bullion despite the risks nad he's probably overestimating himself. Hong's actions were very low he just showed up to mess with Mystic and to rub in Sunshine's death. Mystic reporting this to Twilight is the smart thing to do.
Visiting Canterlot High would be an experience for Mystic. Mystic should try to let go of her hatred for Hong but she doesn't need to forgive him for anything.
Starlight and Mystic's bonding skills is starting to go very well. Also, looks like Twilight did it again for standing up to Hong and it's all thanks to Mystic's words. So far so good, on this new chapter, MLPSolarDash1907. This is starting to get pretty good. I think standing up for yourself is great thing to me. Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
It's good that Twilight wants to investigate possible connections Hong has in Canterlot. I don't really see what Mystic is being punished for although she should do something to compensate the damage she cause with the bowling ball.
11200617
She's not really being punished, Twilight was just trying to be a little cautious considering all that's surrounding Mystic but ultimately just gave her an assignment rather than punishing her.
I enjoyed it. This new chapter was amazing, MLPSolarDash1907. That was really an off start for Mystic to say that to Rainbow Dash, I hope she'll forgive her from everything they've been through. You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it's important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.
While Rainbow Dash did make mistakes Mystic was being unfair to her. Lightning Dust may not have cheated but she hasn't exactly become a better person. I'm sure that when Twilight hears about this they will both receive a lecture.
11207404
Rainbow's attempts to bond with Mystic were kinda half-baked and she didn't really try as hard as she could've, she was making it more about her "awesomeness" and how great Cloudsdale and her team was, rather than trying to properly bond with Mystic. And while in part, Mystic might've been unfair to Rainbow, she was right about a lot of what transpired, she just got fed up and acted pretty unfairly towards the end.
Lightning has improved her act and has become somewhat nobler but is still the arrogant, reckless pegasus but she's got boundaries now but still loves to push her limits.