Starlight was bored. Absolutely bored, with everything else to do already done twice over. Granted, there wasn’t that much to do and redo, just cleaning and a bit of notes that Twilight had her take. Still, it was all done and Starlight had nothing else. She could have visited Sunburst at the library, but she would just be getting in the way once again.

So, she just stayed indoors and did absolutely nothing. She just sat at a table and sighed, waiting for the day to pass quicker.

Then a green flare flashed in front of her, startling her and knocking her off of her seat. She hid under the table for a few seconds, covering her head with her hooves to prevent the growing fire from taking her completely.

After the few seconds, she realized that there was no growing fire. Confused, she carefully dragged herself out from under the desk to see a scroll sitting on it. No fire in sight.

Starlight groaned internally at her lack of practical magic knowledge. It looked like this spell, whatever it was, could be extremely useful in most any situation. The theatrics were a bit much, but she wasn’t going to complain.

As for the scroll, Starlight reclaimed her seat and took a looksee at it. It bore the still fairly new regal symbol of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark. ‘Of course it’s Twilight,’ Starlight thought, ‘Who else knows I’m here?’

So, of course, she opened the letter to read it. It was a fairly normally written letter. The writing was very very precisely written, characteristic of Twilight writing it herself, and it spoke of well wishes and happy thoughts for the first half. Twilight hoped that Starlight was enjoying Canterlot and was faring well after meeting Sunburst once again.

The second half, however, included Twilight saying she would be coming for a visit the next day, which was all well and good of course. Starlight thought to clean up beforehand, and maybe pick up some food for them to chat over. Then, getting to the end of the letter, she noticed a hurried scrawl of writing. It most certainly wasn’t Twilight’s, as it looked like it’d been written with hooves, which she was very much above. And it read:

Well there goes those plans. She could always just order a pizza and pretend Spike didn’t screw up majorly, saving him from his future death in the only way she knew how.

That is, she would have done that if comedic timing didn’t exist. Instead, as if on cue, there was a knock on the door. It was firm and precise, with only three knockings being needed. In response, Starlight jumped out of her seat. Once again, Twilight had indirectly caused chair related accidents, and she would pay. Maybe.

And so, Starlight stood back up and shook herself off, hurrying to the door so as to not make her second actual friend wait any longer. She stopped at the door, taking a breath to steel herself, and pulled it wide open.

And entering from stage right, Twilight Sparkle, who had already gone in for a hug upon seeing her friend. For a princess of friendship, she seemed to have less knowledge of personal space than Starlight, who hadn’t had a friend in years. Still, she wasn’t going to turn down a hug, so she embraced her friend warmly and happily.

Twilight pulled back slightly to look her friend in the eye. “It’s so nice to see you. How has Canterlot treated you? How has Sunburst treated you? Are you two friends already? More than friends?...” And it just continued like that.

Starlight grimaced as Twilight bombarded her with questions. This was a common occurrence for her now that they were friendos, but she still didn’t have a surefire way of quieting her down. As Twilight continued with her many questions, she thought through a complicated plan that would require a large amount of magic to perform perfectly.

Then she just magicked Twilight’s mouth shut for a second. It seemed like the easier plan, anyway. Rude, but effective.

Twilight glared at her friend for a moment before realizing herself. “Was I talking that much?”

Starlight shrugged slightly. “You were kind of asking a lot of questions.” She then gestured to the inside of the inside. “Maybe we should tackle some of them in the library.”

Twilight followed her inside, not seeing anything wrong with doing that. They reclaimed the table Starlight was previously moping at and began again. This time, much slower.

“So, how has Canterlot been treating you?” She asked.

“It’s been pretty perfect,” Starlight said with a shrug, “I don’t think I’ve seen a cloud once, and not one thing has gone wrong.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Canterlot ponies are a lot more uptight when compared to Ponyville. They make sure absolutely everything is perfect.”

“I’m just waiting for some sort of monster to attack already.” She sighed. “Instead I just have relationship drama to deal with.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, trying to not seem too invested in what was probably the closest she was going to get to a real relationship for herself. “Did something happen with Sunburst?”

Starlight shook her head. “No, we made up perfectly, and we even have a ‘date’ tomorrow. I just think we’re moving too fast.”

If Twilight wasn’t confused before, she was confused now. “How do you mean ‘too fast’? Did he try anything with you?” She leaned forward, taking on a serious tone. “Do I have to throw someone in the dungeon?”

Starlight frowned playfully, forcefully fighting back her laughter at her friend’s expense. “Nothing like that, Twilight. If anything, he’s been pretty distant.” She let out another sigh. “I mean, we’ve hugged, but I still hardly know anything about him anymore. He keeps on changing the subject when we start to talk about him.”

“Have you tried being honest with him?” Twilight asked almost immediately. “Maybe if you tell him a bit about yourself, you would spur him to share a little about himself.”

“I’ve tried!” She exclaimed. She then blushed at her outburst, readjusting herself in hopes that Twilight would ignore what she’d just said. “I’ve tried to talk about my past. I even talked a bit about how you and I met, but he’s always seems nervous about talking about himself. The most I’ve got out of him yet is him talking about his friend.”

“The one who stole Celestia’s crown?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah.” Starlight said with a nod. It took her a second to put pieces together. “Wait, how did you know?”

Twilight gave a small grin. “It’s her favorite story to tell. She has probably told it to me a few hundred times, and it always ends with the two worst pranksters of the academy making friends.” She shrugged. “I assumed that your Sunburst is the same one that I glared at from behind the princess’ leg, and that brown colt is the one that always stuck around with him.”

“So you know them both?” Starlight asked, leaning forwards in interest of finally getting some information from someone.

Twilight noted her friend’s interest, then grimaced when she realized she couldn’t do anything to sate it. “I knew of them. I didn’t really talk to anypony back then, just family mostly, so there wasn’t any chance to actually get to know either of them. They were just ‘those colts who were mean to Celestia’ to me.”

Starlight groaned, leaning back in her chair. “You don’t have anything you can tell me about Sunburst?”

Twilight thought on it for a second, going through just about anything she could remember from what she’d seen and what Celestia told her. Upon finding something, she realized with a frown that it probably wasn’t the best to bring up. So, she simply smiled and lied through her teeth. “All I know is what you and the princesses have told me. Like I said, I was too busy with books and schoolwork for friends.”

Starlight turned away from the ceiling, looking back at Twilight after missing her varying facial expressions. She smiled, not knowing that her friend was lying to her face. “That’s fine. I can probably tear something out of him tomorrow. Maybe a bit of wine would help him open up.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “I hope you aren’t actually considering that.”

“I can’t say that I’m not.” Starlight admitted with a sigh. “I’d try anything if it’d mean getting him to share a little.”

Twilight nodded sagely. “Just be patient. If he’s hiding something, there’s probably a reason for it.”

“I guess you’re right.” Starlight said, once again sighing loudly. She paused for a few moments, trying to think of something to move to. It wouldn’t be right for the entire conversation to be about her, of course. So, she went with the most obvious. “How has Ponyville been while I was gone?”

Twilight perked up at the sudden topic change. It helped quell her conscience for a tiny bit, and that felt amazing. “It’s pretty much the same. You haven’t missed a monster attack, or anything.” There was a moment of pause before Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Oh, right. There was a new arrival while you were gone. I think you might like him.”

“Are you trying to set me up with someone, Twilight?” Starlight asked curiously.

Twilight was taken aback, shaking her head wildly. “No, nothing like that,” she said quickly, obviously made very nervous by Starlight’s insinuations, “It’s just that he’s an interesting figure, is all. And I felt you should know, as you, he, and I will be living under the same roof.”

This time it was Starlight’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “So you’re introducing me to your boyfriend, then?”

Twilight’s face immediately developed a gigantic blush. Taking notice, she did hid her face with her hooves. “He’s not my boyfriend.” She exclaimed. “He’s just a stallion that I may or may not have coaxed to live with me and am now hosting in my basement.”

Starlight was about to respond, only taking in the first half of the statement. Then she processed the rest of it and decided to figuratively take a step back from the conversation to steady herself. She took a deep breath in, raising a hoof as if she was about to continue, but she instead covered her mouth with the hoof and contemplated with a sigh. Pursing her lips, she tried again as she raised both of her hooves, directing them towards Twilight. Alas, she still couldn’t figure a thing.

So, she attempted the generic route as she looked Twilight in the eye and simply asked: “What?”

Author's Notes:

ᛏᚻᛁᛊ ᚹᛖᚾᛏ ᚢᚾᛞᛖᚲᛟᛞᛖᛞ ᚠᛟᚱ ᚨ ᚹᛖᛖᚲ
ᚾᛟᚾᛖ ᛟᚠ ᚢ ᚷᛖᛏ ᛊᚻᛁᛏ