Starlight Glimmer answered the door. Staring back at her was Derpy Hooves, a letter in her mouth. Starlight took the letter with her magical horn, thanked the mailmare, and returned to her room. Twilight and Spike had already gone off to Canterlot, leaving her home alone.

Upon checking the sending address, her heart fluttered. She had once again gotten a letter from her “friend” Sunburst of the Crystal Empire. Ever since they had reconnected after the drama surrounding the crystalling of Flurry Heart, the heir to the Crystal Empire's throne, they had remained in regular contact, largely through the usage of letters. However, in recent months, as Starlight had gotten better at her teleportation spell and had improved the range and accuracy at which she could teleport, she had begun to engage in secret late night rendezvous with her lover.

While the meetings had been completely innocent thus far, she wanted to take their relationship to the next level and formally begin dating openly. Sunburst had thus far insisted on keeping their relationship private, officially because he wanted to avoid getting teased by his friends for being in a long distance relationship. However, Starlight sensed that the real reason for his desire for discretion was that he didn’t want to be publicly associated with someone like Starlight, who, despite her actions in the defense of the Crystal Empire and Equestria, was still viewed by many in Equestrian society as a criminal due to her actions in the “anti-Cutie Mark Commune.”

Starlight nonetheless respected his wishes and had kept their meet ups for the middle of the night, swiftly teleporting herself to Sunburst’s home in the Crystal Empire before returning back home. She hated lying to Twilight about why she was almost always tired. Even though she meant no harm with her lies, she still felt bad about deceiving Twilight, her mentor and savior.