Princess Twilight's Pupil

by starcoder

Something Comforting

Starlight opened her eyes to see Twilight standing next to her bed, a worried look on her face. “Good morning, Starlight,” Twilight said in a distracted tone.

“Good morning, Pri- I mean, Twilight,” Starlight responded, knowing that she would soon be interrogated on yesterday’s events.

“Did something happen yesterday that made you leave the park early? Without telling me?” Twilight asked as nicely as she could. Starlight winced, shook her head, and looked away. “Are you sure?” she provoked.

Starlight sighed. “I was really tired and I left the park. It’s as simple as that.”

“Really? Were you actually tired enough to skip dinner? To not tell me where you were?” Twilight asked, her voice rising.

Starlight shook her head, knowing that she had to tell the truth sometime. And anyways, she didn’t want to hear Twilight yell like that again.

She took a deep breath and spoke calmly again. “I’m sorry, but you had us worried when we couldn’t find you. What’s really happening?”

“I heard a few ponies talking about me. About my past and what I might do to them now that I was here,” Starlight said, her lip trembling, a tear forming. “I never want to do that to anyone, and I never want to hurt them, but they hurt me.”

“And how do you feel about that?”

“Bad. I don’t know,” she said, not wanting to talk about her feelings. Even if she did want to, she was struggling to explain it.

“Well, at least join us for breakfast,” Twilight said, hopping off Starlight’s bed. She walked to the throne room, and Starlight decided to follow her.

---

Starlight sat in Spike’s throne, because everyone else’s seats were taken. Starlight lifted a pancake to her mouth but didn’t eat it. Everyone was looking at her, and they looked concerned. Starlight dropped her pancake back onto her plate. She had just lost her appetite.

She turned to Twilight. “I’m sorry, I’ll just have lunch instead,” she said, quickly jumping out of Spike’s throne and teleporting out of the castle.

---

Starlight gave the salespony three bits and placed the philodendron in her saddlebag. Then she walked to a supply stand and bought a big sheet of cloth, a few sticks, string and ribbon. She gave the pony her bits as she walked away, putting her new materials in her bag. Starlight then walked to where a pair of ponies were, waiting in line.

One was a unicorn, her hair a light shade of teal and white. The other was an earth pony with blue and pink hair. They turned around to face her, and the earth pony greeted her. “Hello, are you new here? What’s your name?” she asked.

Starlight noticed that the unicorn looked at her friend in suspicion, but just shook off the feeling. “Um, hi. Yeah, I’m… new? And my name’s Starlight,” she answered, unsure of what to say.

“Well, welcome to Ponyville! My name’s Bon Bon, and this is Lyra. Do you want our spot in line?” the earth pony named Bon Bon asked.

Starlight shook her head. “You were here first and I can’t take your spot.”

“Please do, we weren’t buying anything, just looking at the options,” the unicorn, Lyra, said.

“Um, okay. Thanks!” Starlight said with a smile. Maybe most ponies here are friendly! she thought to herself. Starlight took a container of purple paint and a paintbrush. She placed them in her backpack and walked away from the line. Turning around she saw Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on a bench, talking.

Starlight was sure they were talking about her, but she couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

“Yeah, really! She’s been staying in touch with me ever since a few weeks ago when she visited Canterlot. She said some powerful unicorn named Starlight Glimmer had her in this time loop,” she heard Lyra say.

Bon Bon’s voice was calmer, sweeter, like the way Fluttershy spoke, but she was a bit louder than Fluttershy. “Well, she seemed pretty nice to me.”

“Yeah, she may seem that way. Twilight said that Starlight had come ‘a long way’ since when she had done all that,” Lyra said, a sense of distrust in her voice.

Bon Bon still couldn’t believe such a nice pony did such bad things. “Are you sure that was her? I know they have the same first name, but…”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. Purple and teal mane, glimmery cutie mark, that definitely sounds like her. She was, apparently, pretty bad,” Lyra answered. Starlight’s ears dropped. Twilight was talking negatively about her? Lyra threw in a few good things, but Starlight couldn’t help but feel that Twilight didn’t trust her.

“Well, I’m sure she won’t do that again. She’s so nice!” Bon Bon argued.

“Yeah, I know,” Lyra answered with sarcasm thrown in.

Starlight walked away from where Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting. She managed to keep her tears in, but her eyes still stung, and the words hurt her just as much as the last time. Starlight wanted to go back to the castle, but now she felt unwelcome.

Starlight didn’t run back to the castle. She could only walk, thinking about everything that happened. She just decided that she would confront Twilight the next time they met. Starlight looked around and teleported herself into her room.

---

Starlight made sure not to drop any tears as she sewed the teal ribbons on to her purple kite. She attached a long string and wrapped it around a wooden spool. She set her kite off to the side as she laid down on her bed, sobbing again. She looked at her plant for comfort, but even she couldn’t cheer Starlight up.

Twilight opened the door without knocking, and this time, she looked angry, but still worried. “Starlight, you’ve skipped three meals in a row! You need to eat!” Twilight hesitated when she saw Starlight crying. “I’m sorry. Did something happen to you?”

Starlight ignored the comment and put on her own angry face and a determined voice. “And you need to tell me about something you told to somepony else. What did you tell your friend, Bon Bon?”

“I didn’t say anything to Bon Bon. Not about you, at least. Now come on. You need some food, and Spike’s cooked up a storm.”

Starlight looked angry and confused, until she realized her mistake. “I meant Lyra. The unicorn. What did you tell her about me? I’m not eating until I know what happened.”

“Well, just that you’ve come a long way, and now you’re my pupil.”

Starlight shook her head. “The whole conversation.”

Twilight sighed and told her pupil about her conversation with Lyra the other day.

---

“Hey, Lyra!” Twilight called as she was walking to her castle.

“Hi Twilight!” Lyra responded, waving for her to come over.

Twilight was too excited to keep it to herself. “Guess what happened today?”

“What?” Lyra asked, intrigued. Twilight wasn’t usually this ecstatic.

“I met this powerful unicorn. Her magic was about as strong as mine!” Twilight said, trying not to reveal too much.

Lyra thought for a moment. “Really? A unicorn with alicorn level magic?”

“Yeah. Her name’s Starlight Glimmer.”

“So, what happened?” Lyra asked, now very interested.

“Well, she went through this time loop and brought me along with her, and she almost, well, caused a bit of chaos until she realized-”

“Hold on. She almost destroyed Equestria?” Lyra asked, seeing right through her friend’s statement.

“Well, yeah,” Twilight hesitated, “but she’s past that.”

“So what did you do about it?” Lyra knew that anyone who did something that bad deserved something big.

Twilight giggled. “Well, she’s my pupil now! My first student ever! And she’s learning about friendship!”

“Wow. That’s not much of a punishment,” she complained.

“I don’t want to punish her. I want her to learn about friendship so that she’ll never do that again,” Twilight argued.

“Hmm. What did she look like?”

“Well, she has a purple mane with a teal streak, and her cutie mark is a glimmer of magic. Huh, I guess that might explain why she’s so good at magic!”

“Yeah, sure,” Lyra grumbled, walking away.

---

“I’m sorry I told her. I was just excited to have my first student ever,” Twilight apologized.

“Is that really what happened?” Starlight asked, now unsure of what to think.

“Yeah, Lyra’s really not as nice as Bon Bon. She’s fun and sweet and all, but not as kind as Bon Bon. Did you run into them today?” Twilight explained, getting a nod from Starlight. “Then you know what I’m talking about. Come on, now. I can’t let you starve.”

Starlight was a bit hesitant, but came anyway. She knew she wanted some food after not having any for the past day.

Twilight paused, turning around to look at Starlight, who just stood there. “Were they spreading rumors and gossip?”

Starlight didn’t want to, but still nodded. Twilight wrapped a wing around her and took her to the dining room, neither of them saying a word.

Author's Note:

Here, listen to this song. I chose the PMV version because, well, ponies. I know the PMV's not meant to describe Starlight, but yeah. It's really pretty and sad, and I even named the chapter after it.

Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading!

Comments

[Starlight Fan]

Where’s the song?

Good for Bon Bon, she really shows her hopeful and kind nature here(even if we don’t know her well).

As for Lyra, I won’t deny that she has a right to be wary but I still feel so bad for Starlight. Hopefully things will begin to work for the better.

Oh btw, are the Starlight episodes gonna stay canon as we go on(I recommend keeping them all intact except for Every Little Thing She Does because barf).

[starcoder]

Oh, sorry, I thought I linked the song. Thanks for notifying me, I'll do it now. Yeah, I don't want to make Lyra too mean, but I do think she's a bit tougher than Bon Bon. Also I ran out of background ponies.
Just hover over "this song" and the link is there

[Catpaw616]

Lyra, its rude to gossip about other ponies when they are in potential earshot >:(

(Why did I not get a notification for this new chapter bruh)

[starcoder]

11367988
Yeah, they thought Starlight was buying stuff and couldn't hear them. Also, they only give you notifications when there is something completely new, like a new post or a new story. I wish they would notify me about new chapters, too. But I think it's worth the effort of checking the stories because the chapter that comes out is always so great!