Bifrost
Chapter 10: Vol. I - Ch. 10: The Wall in Your Mind
Previous Chapter Next Chapter-RAINBOW DASH-
I was trying to chillax alone in my team’s hotel room relatively early in the morning… or at least early in the afternoon. Pinkie and Fluttershy had left to go watch Team Destiny’s final bout, but I wasn’t interested in that… well, not as much as I was interested in having the time to collect my thoughts.
A lot happened since the fight with Team B-Listers. I unlocked the Nightmare Force for the first time in my life—which was a whole thing that I would have to deal with eventually but I didn’t have the spoons to even think about it right now— Team Rainboom was now confirmed to be moving on to the second preliminaries, and Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy made it extremely clear that the three of us are… that we’re fr—
Well.
That we’re more than just teammates anyway.
I groaned and rolled over so I was face-down against my pillow. The idea of friendship was hard for me. Pinkie and I had known each other for the better part of a decade but I never considered us ‘friends’ exactly, because the idea of giving somepony my trust and not having them use that trust to hurt me… was kind of unthinkable to me. Like, I honestly couldn’t even conceive of that being a realistic possibility.
I learned from my parents that trust is something you use, that you make other people trust you so you can more easily defeat them later or so you can gain something from them. It wasn’t something that was given, only taken and abused.
But, shockingly, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie aren’t my parents. They don’t behave the same horrible ways that my parents always did. But even more shockingly, that’s a really hard thing for me to accept. The idea that something you thought you knew your entire life could just be wrong. It’s… a lot.
And to top it all off, there was Rarity.
Pinkie had asked me if I was aware of Rarity’s grudge, and I told her no but that wasn’t true at all. I was painfully aware of Rarity’s hatred toward me, mostly because I encouraged it. Thinking about the mean pranks I pulled on her or the terrible things I said to and about her when we were teenagers… ugh, it made me start feeling sick.
But the damage was done and it was too late to fix it… even if it wasn’t too late there was no way that I could fix it. I’m way too stupid.
I remembered the first time Applejack introduced me to Rarity and how much I wanted her to like me. I really showed off for her back then, but eventually I realized that I, like, really wanted her to like me, and that scared me. So I pushed her away with my stupid pranks and before I even realized what I was doing Rarity hated me and by the time I did realize I couldn’t course correct without admitting that I had really messed up, and that I was wrong.
But I couldn’t be wrong, at least not without it becoming a domino effect in my brain. Like, somehow I figured that if I was wrong about one thing, then that means I’m wrong about everything and that I’m a stupid idiot moron failure who can’t do anything right and… ugh. It just sorta snowballs from there.
Never admit weakness or failure, that’s what my parents taught me.
And now I was in this place of knowing what I did was wrong but being unable to course correct without admitting that it was wrong and if I admitted it was wrong than that made it real… somehow…
I screamed into my pillow as this horrible tide of self-defeating thoughts ran rampant in my brain. There had to be a way to make things right between me and Rarity… right?
I mean, it was so easy to believe that there wasn’t, that everything was messed up forever and there was no way to fix it, an easy excuse to keep going in the same horrible direction I was going in and not go through the painful effort to fix my mistakes or make things right…
I flew off the bed and landed on the ground with a heavy, reluctant sigh. I needed to apologize to Rarity… for a lot of things… but I felt a stabbing pain in my chest and my body became heavy when I thought about that.
To my parents an apology was the greatest sign of weakness. It was, somewhat ironically, the most unforgivable thing you could do. Never apologize, never admit you were wrong or that you failed or made a mistake…
What terrible advice.
And yet I lived by it.
I groaned as I dragged myself over to the door. The least I could do was watch Rarity’s fight and wish her good luck.
****
-PINKIE PIE-
“Please! It’s LIFE or DEATH!!”
I pleaded on my knees to the doorguard standing in front of the waiting room where Team Destiny was preparing for their final bout. “It’s URGENT! A matter of GRAVE IMPORTANCE!!”
Fluttershy just shifted nervously behind me. I knew she was kinda embarrassed by my antics but, like I said, GRAVE IMPORTANCE.
The guard rolled his eyes and groaned irritably, “Ugh, fine. Just make it qui—“
Before he could even finish his sentence I’d already barged through the door, Fluttershy timidly following me and offering a quiet “Thank you” to the guard, which was really sweet of her.
Applejack, Rarity and Twilight were all standing inside the waiting room and looked pretty surprised to see us.
“Hey gals, what can we do for y’all?” Applejack said politely as I barged in and Fluttershy delicately trotted up beside me. “Did Rainbow Dash ever apologize to y’all like she was supposed to?”
“She did,” Fluttershy answered with a smile, me nodding vigorously to confirm. “She gave us a very sweet apology and everything’s smoothed over between the three of us. We’re a team after all, we need to look out for each other.”
“Yeah, exactly!” I added with a beaming smile.
“Hmph,” Rarity turned her head and spoke tersely, “well I’m glad Rainbow Dash was able to take some measure or responsibility for once.”
“Come on, Rarity,” Twilight groaned and bashfully covered her face with her hooves, “don’t be like that, at least not in front of Rainbow’s teammates.”
“No, she’s right,” I said with a nod, the three mares of Team Destiny all fixing me with curious glances.
“It’s not like Rarity’s grudge with Rainbow is a secret…” Fluttershy added quietly, Rarity just shrugging with a haughty chuckle as Twilight groaned irritably.
“Gettin’ back on track fer a sec,” Applejack cleared her throat, “what’d y’all come all this way for? Ya wanted to say somethin’ to us ‘fore our match today?”
“Not exactly…” I bounced toward Applejack and wrapped my hoofsies around her big strong neck, but like in a hugging way and not a strangling way! I gave her a smooch on the cheek and said, “We just wanted to wish y’all good luck in your match today!”
“And to let you know we’re rooting for you,” Fluttershy said, shyly kicking at the ground.
“That’s so sweet!”
A clear lady’s voice chimed into the conversation and took our group off guard. I had forgotten that we were in the shared waiting room until we all looked toward the door on the east end of the room and saw three ponies standing there. I immediately recognized the mauve unicorn standing at the front of them.
“Starlight Glimmer?” I said in surprise, eyebrow thoroughly arched.
“That’s me!” Starlight said with a pleasant smile.
Starlight was standing in front of two mares, one a pale teal unicorn with short pink-highlighted purple hair and a sun hair pin who had a really warm disposition, the other a pale purple earth pony with snow white hair tied into twin tails and big orange glasses, who had a much colder air about her.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in your announcing booth?” Twilight asked skeptically. “What are you doing here?”
“We came to wish you good fortune in our match today, and to introduce ourselves!” Starlight said cheerfully.
“Wait, we’re fightin’ y’all?” Applejack said, tracing her chin with a hoof.
“Starlight,” Rarity added, “I thought that your position as a fight announcer exempted you from these preliminary competitions.”
“That’s true,” Starlight explained, “in exchange for the use of my beautiful voice and regal stage presence as a fight announcer, Team Shadowstar was granted free access to the second preliminaries.”
“We’re here because we want to be here,” the sunny unicorn said perkily, dancing in place.
“So you could have completely skipped the entire first preliminary,” Twilight said inquisitively, “but you chose to fight us.”
“That’s right,” Starlight said with a nod, her eyes narrowing at Twilight before settling on Rarity. I found myself frowning despite myself; something about the way she was looking at Rarity made me feel uneasy.
“I mean, after all, your team has gotten a lot of buzz around it in the audience,” Starlight continued, her voice measured and pleasant, “as the first team to beat Team Rock Farm since… geez, I don’t even know when. Then you mysteriously forfeit your match against Team Rainboom to allow them to go to the second prelims in your stead? It’s almost too interesting!”
“I guess…” Applejack said, unconvinced. This whole thing seemed pretty fishy and the five of us were all still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“We wanted to fight Team Rainboom,” the purple earth pony bluntly stated, “you’re just the next best thing.”
The five of us stared in complete silence at Starlight’s team after that remark, Starlight’s unicorn friend slapping her forehead with her hoof and Starlight just scowling and rolling her eyes.
“A little on the nose, don’t you think, Sugarcoat?” Starlight turned to the earth pony and said irritably, Sugarcoat just giving a half-hearted shrug. Starlight sighed, “Well, I suppose there’s no sense in hiding the truth. We did want to fight Team Rainboom, buuuuut… the three of you will do just as nicely.”
“If ya wanted to fight Team Rainboom so bad,” Applejack sneered, “why didn’t’cha just ask to fight ‘em when ya had the chance?”
“What would the point of that have been?” Starlight scoffed. “We weren’t interested in them before the whole B-Listers fiasco and fighting them in their weakened injured state would’ve been a waste of time.”
The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed drastically, all of Team Destiny plus Fluttershy were now totally on edge, watching the members of Team Shadowstar warily. I felt really out of the loop but I could tell that these three ponies were a lot more dangerous than I took them for at first.
“I…” Fluttershy whimpered sadly, “this room is really crowded…”
“Uh, I’ll get ya outta here, sugarcube,” Applejack walked toward Fluttershy and escorted the yellow pegasus to Team Destiny’s waiting room. Something still felt really off though and I didn’t know what and that was driving me crazy!
Once the two had left, I tapped my hooves together and abruptly spoke up. “Sooooooo…” I figured my best bet to figure out what the heck was going on would just be to ask, “why are you guys so interested in me and my friends’ teams?”
Starlight and Sugarcoat glowered at each other, likely communicating whether it was okay to just blurt out the reasons or not. Starlight nodded and Sugarcoat said in her monotonous deadpan voice, “We’re interested in the Nightmare Force.”
My whole body went stiff and my eyes widened, but I shut my eyes quickly and forced a pleasant smile on my face.
How do they know about the Nightmare Force? How do they know that Rainbow has it?
I felt like ten times as sick as I did a second ago and it didn’t make it any better that Twilight and Rarity seemed completely unfazed by this realization.
No. Rainbow, please don’t tell me that you…
No.
She couldn’t have. She wouldn’t have.
“I figured as much,” Rarity said with a cold sigh. I wanted to scream and ask why that was what she figured but I was still having a hard time dealing with my heart trying to beat itself out of my chest.
“So you wanted to test yourself against this ‘Nightmare Force’,” Twilight said cautiously, “but because you couldn’t fight Rainbow, you want to fight us, or at least Rarity and Applejack, because they’re the only ones you know who have seen it firsthand.”
“Something like that,” Starlight said with a cunning grin on her face. She gave a soft giggle and added, “Although, I also have to admit I’ve taken something of a shine to your team regardless. After all, your fight against Team Rock Farm was certainly…” Starlight’s eyes fixed themselves on Rarity again, the ivory unicorn simply returning Starlight’s gaze with a cold stare, “…something.”
The teal unicorn snickered, “I mean, we also know that Team Rainboom and Team Destiny are weirdly joined at the hip. So when we say you guys are ‘the next best thing’, it’s weirdly literal.”
“On that note,” Starlight’s demeanor had completely changed from perky and friendly to cunning and seductive and I did not like it! “Rarity, will you join me in the hallway? I would like to speak with you one-on-one…”
“I…” Rarity looked toward Twilight who gave a concerned frown and a slight shrug. Rarity took a deep breath and meandered off the couch. “I suppose that would be fine.”
Starlight and Rarity walked into the hall and left me and Twilight alone with Sugarcoat and… the other one, didn’t know her name.
“So, um,” I said nervously, Twilight walking over beside me for solidarity, “what are your names? I’m Pinkie Pie, and this is Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight awkwardly raised her hoof to greet them.
“My name is Sunny Flare,” the teal unicorn scoffed and swept her hair with a hoof, “and my compatriot here is named Sugarcoat.”
Sugarcoat just blinked. She didn’t seem terribly interested in small talk.
“Ah, that’s nice. Those are great names,” I said cheerfully, nodding along with a strained smile. I walked a step or two ahead of Twilight and wiped my smile away with a stern glare, stamping a hoof forward and growling, “Now how in the name of Celestia do you three know about the Nightmare Force?”
“Please, sweetheart,” Sunny Flare said mockingly as she walked up to me and batted at the strand of hair that hung out in front of me, “you didn’t think you were the only one to know of such things, did you? We know more than—”
“We saw the security footage,” Sugarcoat said abruptly, making Sunny Flare freeze in her tracks and blush. Twilight and I couldn’t help but snicker at her embarrassment, “Starlight’s technically a fight official until the second prelims, so she was able to request the footage since it involved Bifrost competitors.”
“Kind of undercutting my dramatic moment there, Sugarcoat!” Sunny stamped her hoof angrily at her friend, Sugarcoat just shrugging nonchalantly.
Sunny groaned and turned back to us, trying to affect her previous dramatic disposition but her moment was kinda lost.
“The point is,” she said, “the Shadowbolts have a vested interest in the Nightmare Force. But the reason is top secret and, frankly, beyond your comprehension so good luck getting it—“
“Hey Sugarcoat, why are you guys interested in the Nightmare Force?” I asked cheerfully.
“There is no reason,” Sugarcoat replied, “we just want more power.”
Sunny Flare screamed in frustration with her forehooves up to her face before stomping them on the ground.
“Sugarcoat! Stop revealing all of our dark secrets!” she said angrily, glaring at Sugarcoat.
“They’re not secrets, Sunny Flare,” Sugarcoat said drolly, glaring irritably at Sunny Flare in return. “It’s not like these plebians can do anything about it anyway.”
“Still!” Sunny harrumphed. “Where’s our sense of mystique if you just blab everything to anyone who asks!”
“That’s it?” Twilight asked perplexedly. “You just want power? For no reason?”
Sunny Flare glared at Sugarcoat who just shrugged. “We have our reasons.”
“Not really,” Sugarcoat grumbled under her breath, her voice nearly being drowned out by Sunny Flare loudly clearing her throat.
“ANYWAY,” Sunny Flare growled, “we’re not going to speak with you any longer! Anything else that needs to be said between us can be said in the ring!”
Sunny harrumphed again and turned around to stomp haughtily out of the room but was stopped by Sugarcoat.
“Starlight’s not back yet,” she said, “we can’t go anywhere.”
Sunny started blushing, and me and Twilight snickered at her expense. She sighed huffily, “Well we’re still not going to talk to you!”
The four of us just sorta sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes before, of all ponies, Sugarcoat was the first one to leave, and she headed out the door straight to Team Destiny’s waiting room for some reason!
“Wh—Sugarcoat!” Sunny said indignantly. “What about ‘we have to wait for Starlight’?!”
“I don’t actually care about Starlight, I just wanted to step on your moment,” Sugarcoat said without looking back as she headed to Team Destiny’s waiting room, “bye.”
I wondered if we should do something about that and looked to Twilight, who simply shrugged with a confused expression. I shrugged it off myself. Applejack was more than capable of handling that pony if she gave her any trouble, and I’d rather wait here for Rarity.
After all, who knows what she and Starlight were talking about.
****
-APPLEJACK-
I decided to get Fluttershy out of the crowded waitin’ room for a bit and into Team Destiny’s waitin’ room cuz I could see she was gettin’ nervous.
“Y’alright?” I asked as she took a seat on the couch and I stood in front of it.
“Y-yeah,” she nodded and absentmindedly batted at a lock of hair fallin’ in front of her face. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” I shrugged, wearin’ a proud grin. “What’re friends for?”
“Oh,” Fluttershy’s ears perked up and her cheeks turned pink but she quickly hid her face behind her hair, “are we… we’re friends?”
“Yeah, why not?” I laughed casually. “You’ve been friends with Rarity for years and you’re on Pinkie Pie’s team, and they’re both my friends, so I don’t have any reason not to consider you a friend too.”
I gave the cute mare a wink and added, “Plus, you’re a total sweetheart, so I’m happy to be yer friend, sugarcube.”
“Oh!” Fluttershy squeaked and her whole face was now hidden behind an adorable wall of pink hair. “That’s…”
I started to worry that maybe I was a bit overeager and that I was overwhelmin’ her… that hadn’t even crossed my mind at first but now it was all I could think of and my face turned red as I took my hat off my head and nervously chewed on the edge of it.
“Thank you, Applejack,” Fluttershy said suddenly, revealin’ her face, and I quickly put my hat back on and tried to pretend like I wasn’t anxious. “I’m glad to be your friend too.”
She gave the cutest shy smile I ever seen in my life and I couldn’t help smilin’ brightly back at her in return.
My smile faltered for a sec and became a bit more sheepish. I took my hat off again and fanned myself with it. “So I wasn’t comin’ on too strong or nothin’?”
“No, not at all!” Fluttershy giggled and coyly bat her hoof. “I think you’re sweet, like-” she snickered and her laughter turned into an adorably undignified snort “-an apple.”
Fluttershy immediately registered how cheesy that was soon as she said it and hid her face again and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“That’s adorable,” I said happily. I put my front legs up on the couch and gently brushed Fluttershy’s hair out of her face. “And yer beautiful like a flower.”
She just stared silently at me with her cheeks turnin’ bright red and suddenly I felt like I was inside of an oven.
“That was, uh, I mean—“ I stumbled backward and bumped into a snack table, which startled me and made me jump, makin’ me even more embarrassed. I tried to laugh it off but my cheeks were as red as my namesake. “Sorry, I didn’t, uh—“
“Thank you,” Fluttershy whispered, holdin’ herself with her forelegs and lookin’ at me with a timid smile. “I don’t think anyone’s ever called me beautiful before.”
“Huh,” I didn’t actually think she’d be receptive to my awkward compliments and I didn’t know where to take it from there. “That’s a crime, cuz… you really are beautiful.”
Nice job, Applejack. That’ll really win her over.
Fluttershy poked her head out from the waterfall of hair and just stared into my eyes with her gorgeous teal eyes. She smiled at me and it was like I was suddenly restin’ on a fluffy cloud without a care in the world…
“Ugh, get a room, you two.”
A terse, irritatin’ voice I vaguely recognized suddenly said and ruined the moment, Fluttershy hiding behind her hair again and I was gettin’ seriously ticked off.
“This is our room,” I said angrily as I turned to face whoever was talkin’. It was one of Starlight’s teammates, that icy purple pony with the white hair and big orange glasses and whatnot.
“I meant a hotel room, genius,” the girl groaned.
“How ‘bout you get outta here,” I walked slowly over to the pony and spoke coldly, glowerin’ at her with half a mind to just start our fight right then and there, “before you need a hospital room?”
The mare just stared me dead in the eyes like she barely even registered my presence, Fluttershy shudderin’ anxiously on the couch and me about ready to buck this girl’s head clean off.
“Hey, guys?”
I wasn’t expectin’ to hear Rainbow Dash’s voice and it took me by surprise, my ears perkin’ up as I looked confusedly at the door she’d suddenly come through.
“Maybe you should save it for the fight, huh?”
Rainbow had just walked in the door from outside the arena and could already sense the tension in the room. It surprised me a bit that her first instinct was to defuse it instead of gettin’ popcorn or somethin’, but she wasn’t wrong.
I huffed irritably at the purple mare and walked back over to Fluttershy, but I still kept my eye on my opponent. Me and Rainbow Dash both glared at her until she just shrugged and walked back out the door she came in from, back into the hallway.
“What was that about?” Rainbow scoffed.
“Dunno,” I shrugged, feelin’ a little restless that I didn’t get to wreck that girl like I wanted, but I supposed it’d just have to wait ‘til later. “Y’alright, Fluttershy?”
“Y-yes,” Fluttershy nodded but her face was still behind her hair. “She’s scary.”
“Eh, I guess so,” I said casually, sidlin’ up to Fluttershy on the couch to keep her company. “I’ll buck her right into next week if I get the chance though.”
“So where’s Rarity?” Rainbow asked abruptly. “I wanted to talk to her before the match.”
“You wanted to talk to Rarity?” I said suspiciously with an eyebrow raised and an amused half-smirk.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said bitterly, like she was bein’ forced to do a school project or somethin’ ‘gainst her will. “So where is she?”
“She went to talk to Starlight Glimmer,” I explained, rollin’ my eyes at Rainbow’s attitude. “Over thataway,” I pointed my hoof toward the door Starlight’s friend came from.
“Got it, thanks.”
Without another word Rainbow dashed off through the door. I was glad to see her leave but I still sighed irritably once she was gone. That mare gave me a headache somethin’ fierce.
“Sorry about all that, sugarcube,” I looked at Fluttershy sittin’ next to me on the couch and smiled weakly at her. “Didn’t expect all this fuss in what was supposed to be a private waitin’ room.”
“It’s okay,” Fluttershy breathed a soft sigh and let go of her hair, letting it fall all around her face but only coverin’ one eye this time. “I appreciate you trying to help me, and…”
Fluttershy blushed and moved her hooves to grab her hair again but she stopped herself, placing all four legs on the couch and smilin’ at me.
“I really like that you-” she blushed again and couldn’t help but avert her eyes from mine “-that you called me beautiful.”
“Anytime, sugarcube,” I said with a proud smile and bright red, flustered cheeks. Fluttershy’s bashful smile that she returned nearly melted my heart into a puddle.
What a sweetheart.
****
-RARITY-
Starlight Glimmer and I stepped into the hall to have a one-on-one chat. Something about Starlight’s demeanor was off-putting to me but I couldn’t quite place it.
This whole situation was fishy though, with her team specifically wanting to challenge our team even though they had already gotten a free pass to the second preliminaries. Something strange was going on and I did not like it one bit, but I was determined to get to the bottom of it and what better way than to just plunge straight in?
“So,” I said politely as the two of us stood facing one another in an empty, almost eerily featureless gray hallway, “what can I help you with, Starlight Gimmer? What is it you wished to speak with me about?”
Starlight chuckled softly, putting on an air of polite elegance.
She was a pony I could very much see myself in at times, but there was still something about her that disturbed me, and that element of her came much more to the forefront when she suddenly stared daggers at me, a delicate smile still on her face as she said, “I just wanted to give you some friendly advice.”
“Is that right?” I said skeptically, putting on an air of polite composure that rivaled—nay, surpassed—hers. “And whatever would that be?”
“Drop out of the tournament,” Starlight said, venom pouring from her words even as she spoke them in the most pleasant of tones. “You’re too weak for this.”
“Ah…” I chuckled nervously.
Where did THAT come from?
“That’s uh, a very odd request. Why do you bring this up?”
“Please, Rarity,” Starlight rolled her eyes and began pacing around me in a circle, “I don’t need to tell you how pathetic that ‘fight’ against Igneous Rock was. You were there.”
I backed myself against a wall so that Starlight could no longer walk around me, since trying to keep up with her was going to make me dizzy, but she walked right up in front of me and cornered me instead, so maybe that wasn’t such a good option.
“And… your point would be?” I asked indignantly.
Starlight let out an acerbic chuckle, “You were pathetic,” she hissed, that ever present smile still on her face before she raised her hoof to her mouth and gave a haughty laugh.
“Don’t even get me started on your attempt to defend your friend from the Mane-iac!” Starlight exclaimed. “She defeated you in less than thirty seconds. You think you can compete in Bifrost with that kind of power? Don’t kid yourself.”
Starlight laughed softly, every breath exhaled like a sharp dagger in my ears.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” I said angrily, lightly yet firmly stomping my hoof on the ground in front of me, even as I felt my cheeks burn from the truth in her words.
I couldn’t deny it of course, as much as I would have liked to. The evidence spoke for itself. I was weak, and I knew it.
Everyone knew it.
“Are you trying to get me off my game? Is that it?” I asked defiantly. “Trying to intimidate me, perhaps? Come now, Starlight Glimmer, what is it you’re after?”
“I’m just looking out for you, Rarity,” Starlight smiled at me and gently brushed a hoof across my inflamed cheek, the mock concern in her voice making me ill.
She stepped ever closer to me even as I was cornered against the wall until my back was practically flat against it.
“Isn’t that what trans solidarity is all about?” Starlight said. “So as a concerned friend, I just want to tell you that you should just give up. It’s hopeless.”
Just give up. It’s hopeless.
There was no way Starlight Glimmer could have known the power those words had over me, could she? After all, how could she have possibly known?
She wasn’t there as a frightened teenager cowered underneath her bedsheets, the bloodied shards of a shattered mirror lying all over the ground as she dropped them, recoiling from the pain of slicing them against her legs.
It’s hopeless.
She couldn’t have known about the teenage mare staring into the empty mirror with a shard held in her magic, pressed tightly, painfully, up against her neck, the voice in her head urging her that just one clean cut would take the pain away.
She didn’t have to know. The effect was the same.
I said nothing and simply stood as firm as I was able on trembling legs, my scowl losing its intimidation factor from the tears that presented themselves unbidden and began to ruin my makeup. I said nothing to the mare as I walked past her, back to my team’s waiting room.
“If you want to prove me wrong…”
Starlight said as she walked the opposite direction to her own waiting room, her poisonous voice sounding so much like the voice in the head of that teenage mare that it caused me to stop in my tracks and turn around to face her.
“I’ll be fighting in the first round,” Starlight looked over her shoulder at me, and there was a gleam in her eye. Bloodlust, perhaps? “Maybe I’ll see you there?
With another soft ladylike laugh, Starlight returned to her room and left me in the hall alone, haunted by the inarguable truth of her knifelike words and the feeling of anger and helplessness brewing inside me.
My nerves were shot and I was trembling as I just stood there, staring at the empty space that Starlight had just filled… it killed me inside that I couldn’t bring myself to deny any of Starlight’s accusations and I grit my teeth in frustration as I realized the utter burden that I placed on my team…
I didn’t feel any better when I finally found the strength to turn back and walk toward the waiting room, only to see a familiar pony standing in the doorway staring at me with her cold violet eyes.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Rainbow Dash said.
****
-TWILIGHT SPARKLE-
Pinkie Pie and I were extremely bored sitting around in the large waiting room watching Sunny Flare do her makeup in silence as we waited for Rarity or Applejack to return, but thankfully Sugarcoat came back instead, which was enough of a signal for me that it was okay to leave, Pinkie Pie reluctantly following me at my insistence.
I just… I just needed to get away from that room, and all the weird stuff that was said there. I knew Rarity would be fine with Starlight Glimmer, nopony I knew was stronger than Rarity, but I was starting to get really antsy and I wanted to just sit in Team Destiny’s waiting room and calm down a little.
Also Rainbow Dash charged through the room and into the far hallway? No idea what that was about.
As for Pinkie and I, we walked back to the Team Destiny room, Pinkie’s tail trailing along the floor behind her as she shuffled her feet behind me with a huffy scowl like a kid being dragged out of a toy store. I tried to ignore that and just head straight for the room where, once we stepped inside and closed the door behind us, we were greeted by the sight of Applejack and Fluttershy locking eyes with each other.
“Are we interrupting something?” I asked innocently, the implications of their interaction one hundred percent lost on me.
“Uh, no,” Applejack said, her cheeks turning red as she turned to look at Pinkie and I.
Pinkie had a very penetrating smirk on her face as she looked at Applejack, and my teammate was seemingly becoming more flustered the more her sister stared at her.
“Me and Fluttershy were just complimentin’ each other, that’s all.”
Applejack smiled wide, a little too wide to the point where it looked a little weird, and Fluttershy smiled and nodded also.
“Okay,” I said cheerfully with a smile. “You’re both great ponies, I suppose a few compliments are only natural.”
“Did somepony say condiments?” Pinkie said abruptly, holding bottles of ketchup and mustard.
Fluttershy and Applejack were both snickering at Pinkie’s antics and my bemused and bewildered face but all I had to say was “No?”
I looked at AJ and Fluttershy who were both still laughing a little and just felt even more confused.
“Eh, that’s okay,” Pinkie shrugged and threw the bottles in the air but I swear I didn’t see them ever land. Pinkie was a strange pony.
“So,” Pinkie stood on her hind legs and pointed at Applejack and myself, completing forgetting about what we had just been talking about or the stuff in the public waiting room, “are you girls ready for your big fight?!”
“I think so,” I said ponderously, tapping my chin with a hoof and wondering if I really was prepared, then I thought what if I wasn’t and started thinking about if there were any supplies or spells or anything that I might’ve needed that I didn’t have—
“I’m absolutely ready to knock some heads, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack said with an assertive smirk, her voice breaking me out of my anxiety spiral.
“Awesome!” Pinkie Pie said in a sing-songy voice.
“Do you think you two will be okay?” Fluttershy asked quietly. “Did you get a good read on your opponents already?”
“Eh, we’ll be fine,” Applejack shrugged and put a foreleg over the back of the couch, her entire body radiating with pure confidence. “Like I said before, everythin’ we need to know ‘bout our opponents we’ll learn durin’ the fight.”
“I agree,” I said, trying to pass off an anxious sigh as merely a deep breath. “Besides, Applejack and I are strong. We won our last fights, I’m sure we can win this time too.”
The entire room went dead silent as we all realized what I had accidentally just said about Rarity and every one of us looked over our shoulders to make sure she was definitely not here or listening.
“Anyway,” Applejack broke the icy silence as I just hung my head and lightly slapped my burning cheeks, “we ain’t gonna let y’all down. That’s a promise.”
“Pinkie Promise?” Pinkie Pie leaned up toward Applejack and stared her right in the eye.
“Of course!” Applejack laughed. As she prepared to do the whole Pinkie Promise thing I suddenly had a flashback to when she showed me it and I remembered it clear as crystal, so I joined her in reciting the Pinkie Promise.
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Applejack and I said in unison, doing the silly gestures in nearly perfect sync.
The imagery of me and Applejack doing that silly chant together was too much for the four of us and we all burst out laughing, Pinkie grabbing the rest of us and pulling us into a warm and comforting hug, and suddenly my fake projected confidence disappeared, replaced instead with real excitement and pride.
Team Destiny was going to ace this, I just knew it.
****
-RARITY-
“What do you want, Rainbow Dash?” I said cautiously. I had no idea what in Equestria could possibly possess Rainbow Dash to want to speak with me before my match but I was certain that no matter what it was my afternoon was about to take another turn for the worse.
“I wanted to wish you good luck,” Rainbow Dash said, pawing at the ground with her head hung shamefully, “and to apologize, obviously, for being, like, the worst earlier. The other day, when you…”
Rainbow grunted and softly kicked the ground with a hind leg. She seemed… genuinely humble, which made me wonder if Starlight Glimmer had cast some sort of illusion on me or something because the Rainbow I knew would never act like this.
“You did my fr—“ Rainbow cleared her throat and said, “You did my team and I a big favor, and I don’t know how to pay you back. But I wanted to apologize for being a real jerk about it… and to wish you the best of luck. Your team absolutely deserves to go to the second prelims as much as our team… and the three of us…”
Rainbow kicked the ground again and grunted painfully, as if she were being prodded to talk by a thousand needles poking into her skin.
“Me, Pinkie and Fluttershy all really hope you’ll be in the second prelims with us. So… good luck!”
With that Rainbow nodded with a stern expression on her face and lifted off in order to leave but I stopped her by saying “Hold on a moment, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow landed back on the ground and looked anxiously at me as I walked closer to her.
“Thank you for that,” I said. My tone sounded rather cold, although that was not my intention, I just had no idea how to contextualize the woman in front of me with the bully that I knew. “I appreciate that you would come all this way to support my companions and I, and I accept your apology.”
“Yay,” Rainbow said meekly, making me absolutely lose it and erupt into a snorting laugh, which caused Rainbow to snicker as well.
I walked past Rainbow to return to my team’s waiting room, an oddly enchanted smile on my face, but Rainbow said something that caught me off guard.
“Do you, um…” She took a deep breath and I looked over my shoulder at her and waited for her to speak. “Do you miss… the past? I mean, like… childhood time… when you and I… used to be… when you, me and Applejack used to hang out?”
It struck me as odd that Rainbow would recall such a time. It was so long ago, and the three of us only got along for maybe a few months, maybe a year, before everything went downhill… very strange of her to ask. Still, I couldn’t lie to her.
“No.”
I couldn’t bring myself to conjure any pleasant memories I had of Rainbow Dash, if there were any to recall whatsoever they had been long since buried under a mountain of humiliating pranks and mean-spirited bullying.
“Ah,” Rainbow said, turning her head to look away from me.
I shrugged it off and returned to the waiting room where my team would prepare for our match. I had more important things on my mind than dissecting whatever was going through Rainbow Dash’s mind.
****
-RAINBOW DASH-
I left my talk with Rarity feeling… really embarrassed. I think my face was still all red by the time I left the waiting rooms and stood outside the arena, letting the rain wash over me and remind me what an idiot I was.
“Rainbow Dash!”
I didn’t have long to contemplate that though, as Pinkie Pie’s voice immediately distracted me. I turned around to see her bouncing toward me with an umbrella hat on, Fluttershy walking timidly behind her as usual, trying to cover her head from the rain with her wings.
“Hey, Pinkie! Hey, Fluttershy!” I said with a confident smirk, shoving my embarrassment down into a dark crevice where no one could see it and putting my game face on instead. “I came to watch the match with you girls.”
Pinkie Pie gasped in delight and hovered off the ground for a second and, quick as lightning, ran over to me and hugged me, nearly strangling the life out of me too. “That’s so great! Ah, I wish I’d brought cotton candy or something! We could have like a snack-and-cheering-for-our-friends party!”
“I don’t think cotton candy is good for rainy days,” Fluttershy said with a soft giggle, her hoof pressed against her mouth.
Pinkie looked up suddenly like it hadn’t even occurred to her that it was raining, despite her umbrella hat, and then got rain on her face and bounced away from me to shake her head violently.
“Still though!” she said suddenly, hopping in place excitedly, “I’m really glad you decided to join us, Rainbow!”
“Me too,” Fluttershy added.
I nodded and smiled but kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to share what happened between me and Rarity and I didn’t want to disappoint my teammates by… I dunno, letting them see what a big stupid embarrassed loser I was.
The three of us walked into the stands to take our seats for the fight, Fluttershy trembling with anticipation and anxiety and Pinkie jittery and excited, a big smile on her face as she rubbed her front hooves together.
As for me, I played it cool but all I felt was sick. Not just from embarrassment, or at least not just from firsthand embarrassment. But quite frankly, I didn’t have to watch Rarity’s first fight to know it was a disaster, and that couldn’t have been easy for her.
Rarity… she had that ego, that haughtiness. I recognized it in her since I had something similar going on, and I knew better than anyone that the bigger the ego, the lower the self-worth. Losing another match, especially after being the one to decide to throw her team’s fight with my team, would be devastating for Rarity.
And that’s not even going into if another member of her team lost… to fail to reach the second prelims, all because she wasn’t strong enough? And because she sacrificed her team’s easy victory for my team? Ugh, like I said… I was getting sick thinking about it.
“Are you okay, Rainbow?” Pinkie asked me, gently nudging me with a hoof. “Do you need my umbrella hat?”
“I…” I looked upward and suddenly realized I was soaking wet. “Uh… if you don’t need it.”
“Nah, I have a spare,” Pinkie pulled another umbrella hat out of her hair and handed it to me. She pulled a third out for an eager Fluttershy, who happily put it on her head.
I placed the umbrella hat on my head and even though I knew I looked like a total knob, I didn’t care. I felt better not just because I stopped getting rained on, but because… it was really sweet of Pinkie to look out for me like that.
Acknowledging that feeling was really embarrassing and it took an awful lot of willpower not to rip the hat off my head and throw it but I forced myself to keep it on because… well because I deserved to be happy, I guess, and to appreciate the gestures of… of my… teammates.
I took a deep breath in through the nose and slowly let it out through the mouth, letting go of my anger and embarrassment, or at least letting them just be.
As the three of us sat eagerly in the stands we finally saw the first two fighters enter the arena… and one of them was Rarity. I put my hooves together and silently wished her the best of luck.
Please don’t blow this, Rarity.
****
-RARITY-
“You super sure about this, Rarity?” Applejack said cautiously, pacing nervously across the floor of the waiting room just as I had finished explaining my desire to fight Starlight Glimmer in the first round.
“I am,” I said with a confident nod, though I was anything but confident, not helped in the slightest by the painfully furrowed brow on Applejack’s face, my old friend looking more concerned than I had perhaps ever seen her before.
“I dunno…” Twilight anxiously tapped her hooves together as she sat on the couch, her breathing slow and steady and methodical, but above all else, very nervous. “Starlight’s the leader of her team, right? Wouldn’t she be the strongest?”
“Well technically Rarity’s the leader of our team,” Applejack said, “so not necessarily.”
Applejack’s eyes widened suddenly as she realized what she said and she tipped her hat bashfully to me as her gaze drifted toward anything but my eyes.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—“
“It’s quite alright, Applejack,” I sighed bitterly, unable to deny the truth in Applejack’s accidental statement, no matter how much that truth stung at my pride. “I am well aware that I am the weakest of the three of us…”
To be honest, it was quite likely I was the weakest of the six of us, counting Rainbow Dash’s team.
“And that’s why I need to do this,” I said, “I need to prove I’m not completely worthless.”
The others both fixed me with concerned looks and I added with a polite chuckle, “In a fight, I mean.”
No, I meant it quite literally, and while neither pony questioned me, I think they both knew what I meant.
“Like I said,” Applejack sat on her haunches and shifted uncomfortably, giving me a piercing –if gently concerned— stare, “if yer sure this is what ya wanna do, I ain’t gonna stop ya. But I got a bad feelin’ about this.”
“Likewise,” Twilight added, taking a rather painfully slow deep breath before she continued speaking. “I would really rather face Starlight myself… I’m pretty sure I’d be a match for her…”
Twilight groaned and I couldn’t help but laugh at her awkward realization that she also unintentionally insulted my abilities.
“No offense.”
I let out a polite chuckle that elegantly masked the cold bitterness that chilled my entire body as I was faced with not only the reality of my inadequacy, but the unambiguous confirmation that everyone knew it.
“Listen, girls,” I said, “the fact that you are both so antsy about me accepting this challenge is exactly why I need to do it.
“I know that, because of me, we have a loss on our record… and the outcome of this fight will determine whether or not we can continue in Bifrost, but…”
I groaned sadly, almost pitiably, and hung my head. I exhaled sharply through my nose and looked sternly at the others. “If I cannot even win a single bout on my own, then what business do I have in Bifrost?”
“I get that,” Applejack said tersely, “but why her? Why does it have to be Starlight Glimmer? I dunno why, but that girl gives me a seriously dangerous vibe.”
“Because, darling…” I rolled my eyes and realized… that I didn’t really have an answer to that. Not a good one at any rate. Was it just because she challenged me?
No, not exactly. It was because I needed to prove her wrong. She was like the little voice in my head that haunts me given flesh, saying all the horrible things that I always say about myself but from an outside perspective. I needed to prove her wrong, prove myself wrong…
“Think of it this way, Applejack,” I said wistfully, giving a cold smirk to the orange mare, “it’s a matter of pride.”
Applejack stared at me in silence for a brief yet seemingly endless moment before taking a deep breath and releasing it with a slowly exhaled sigh.
“We’ve already given our answer, Rarity,” Applejack said, her head hung low so that the shadow of her hat framed her brow and shielded her eyes from my view. “We support you, even if we would advise against this.”
I turned towards Twilight, satisfied with Applejack’s response, and gave my sister the most charming smile I could muster. The poor dear looked like she was going to sweat herself into a puddle but all she did was smile back at me and nod slowly.
“Thank you both,” I said with a respectful bow of my head, “I won’t let you down.”
When I walked into the arena, Starlight Glimmer was already waiting.
“I’m glad to see you, Rarity,” she said with a polite smile and venom dripping from her soft voice. “I didn’t think you would show up.”
“I suppose I don’t know when to give up,” I said regally, flicking a hoof through my illustrious mane.
“We’ll see…” Starlight said ominously with a smile.
The two of us stared each other down, glaring icy daggers toward one another as we measured the strength of the other’s grit and determination. This would be an intense battle and we both knew it.
“Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy the show!” Starlight exclaimed suddenly, putting on a cutesy demeanor and waving to the crowds.
“Will you focus on what’s important?!” I shouted in annoyance and stamped my hoof.
On any other occasion, I would happily have been waving toward the crowd right alongside her, eager to lap up the affections of the enormous audience. I suppose the fact that I was solely focused on her and on our fight was a clear sign that she was already getting underneath my coat.
Starlight chuckled with a hoof raised in front of her mouth. “This is a public spectacle, Rarity. Making sure the audience is entertained is important,” she put her hoof on the ground and narrowed her eyes at me, her aura cold as ice. “But you should already know that, right?”
She wasn’t wrong. I looked into the stands full of agitated and eager spectators and marveled at their sheer number, before just as quickly finding myself sweating under their gaze as though a heat lamp were right above my head.
My mind flashed back to the sensation of feeling blood dripping out of my shattered skull and down my neck, and I nearly retched as I considered the notion of how many of these spectators here had seen that shameful display.
“I suppose I’m just focused on winning,” I said flippantly, flicking my hair to the side with a shake of my head.
“What a conceited thing to say,” Starlight said with an irritating smirk.
I simply glowered in response.
No more words, it was time for battle.
The illusion was cast shortly after and I found myself alone in a crisp, dimly lit forest under a grey sky, the sun barely peeking through sickly green-grey clouds, the land dense with trees and other plant-life that would make it difficult tracking Starlight’s movements… although not nearly as difficult as I expected as I immediately heard her voice among the trees.
“Rarity.”
Her calm and pleasant voice made me anxious as I stalked the brush looking for a visual cue to her location. “I want to ask you a question. You don’t have to answer, mind you, but I’m going to ask regardless.”
“By all means,” I said calmly, my gait becoming a more relaxed walk with my head held high. Projecting confidence was key, I didn’t want to look like she had me on edge right out of the gate… even if she absolutely did. “Ask away, Starlight Glimmer.”
“What do you think is the most powerful school of unicorn magic?”
Starlight’s question was odd to me, I was expecting something much more personal, or at least philosophical.
“I wouldn’t know, Starlight,” I said drolly, my eyes still darting through the gaps between the trees for any sign of Starlight but coming up empty thus far. “I believe all the schools have their own strengths and weaknesses, isn’t that right?”
“Oh, sure,” Starlight chuckled and I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “But in any competitive field, there will always be a hierarchy where someone or something reigns over all the others. So what do you think, is it… divination?”
Starlight’s voice echoed through the trees and I suddenly realized that I had been following her voice like a complete fool without even considering that she was throwing it with magic.
I stopped dead in my tracks in an eerily lit clearing. I tried to make use of my own divination to find the source of Starlight’s magical aura. Even though my divination wasn’t terribly strong, finding a pony in the midst of casting a spell should have been a simple feat… but I found nothing.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t find a trace of a magical aura, but rather that in this phantasm the entire world around me was composed of a magical aura and I was having difficulty disseminating Starlight’s aura from that of the illusionists who controlled the phantasm.
“The answer is no, Rarity,” Starlight’s voice echoed through the air again, sending a shiver up my spine. “It is not divination. Perhaps it’s… conjuration.”
I turned my head to the sky and saw several large spheres of teal flame crashing down into the forest around me, setting several trees ablaze. I was able to dodge the thrown fireballs with quick footwork and a few minor abjurations, but it was still far too close for comfort, and then I had to worry about the burning trees as they began to fall toward me.
I dodged the first falling tree but I had nowhere to go but further inside the forest as it continued to burn with teal fire. It felt like the flames were being controlled as they licked the air around me, my barely-competent skill at abjuration the only thing rescuing me from severe burns.
Before I knew it I was set upon by a pack of timberwolves who ran out of the fires to attack me. I ran further into the forest but the fire was spreading faster than I could run, eventually barring my egress as another tree was set ablaze and fell before my path.
I couldn’t exactly make my way past a solid wall of fire and bark so I turned on my hooves to face the timberwolves.
“Nope, that’s wrong too.”
Starlight’s voice suddenly ringing in my ears didn’t do my concentration or morale any favors as I stared down the snarling, flaming timberwolves with a wall of fire at my back.
“Hmm… what about transmutation?”
Suddenly the trees that still towered over me were no longer ablaze, which would have been marvelous if not for the fact that their roots coiled around my body and my limbs, trapping me in place as the blazing timberwolves slowly approached, forcing me to think quickly if I wanted to survive this.
I may not have known how to cast powerful spells but years of being present for Twilight’s magical experiments certainly taught me how to screw them up!
I funneled all the energy I could muster into my horn and just let it explode out of me, a bright blue light enveloping the area around me for several feet, annihilating every tree, fire and wolf in its path and leaving me standing breathless and weary in a dimly lit clearing yet again.
“Well done, Rarity.”
Starlight walked slowly out of the forest into the area of desolation I had wrought, and sweat dripped down my brow as I stumbled back, my breathing still heavy as she slowly drew closer and closer.
“But my question has yet to be answered,” Starlight said. “Oh, what if the strongest magic is necromancy?”
My eyes widened as I felt the cold touch of bony fingers on my legs and I looked down in horror as black skeletal clawed hands crawled out of the dirt and grabbed all four of my legs, binding my front legs and hind legs together and bringing me to the ground.
I tried to struggle against them but every second they touched me made my limbs feel colder and weaker until I could barely feel them anymore.
“Let me… go!” I struggled more and tried to channel more magical energy but another hand crawled out of the dirt and grabbed my horn, sucking the energy from it and making me feel weak.
Last but not least, another pair of hands wrapped themselves around my muzzle, silencing me.
“Mmmrmfgh! Frrmgh!” I tried to open my mouth but only those pathetic squeals came out, immediately searing my cheeks with embarrassment.
“The answer, darling Rarity,” Starlight spoke with a cold, almost sadistic cheer as she paced over to my location, “is that the most powerful school of magic…” she lowered her head toward mine with an eerie smile on her face and whispered, “…is illusion.”
My eyes widened as the pieces of the puzzle all clicked into place and I was beginning to realize the scope of danger that I was in.
“Do you know why illusion is the strongest magic, Rarity?” Starlight stood above me and looked at me with a sneering smile.
I tried to weakly struggle against the ghoulish bonds keeping me captive but my strength had severely waned from their magic and I had no fight left in my limbs.
“What’s the matter, Rarity? Why won’t you answer my question?” Starlight said teasingly, my red cheeks burning a little brighter at her mocking.
Starlight paced around me in a circle just like she did in the hallway and began her tiresome monologue.
“The reason illusion is the most powerful magic,” she said, “is because ponies believe what they see. It’s a fact of our existence, we all believe what we see. If you change what someone sees, you can change what they believe, and if you can change their beliefs you can control them just as easily.”
Starlight looked around at the forest clearing surrounding us, completely shattered or charred black trees as far as we could see, as the sky was quickly covered in darkness that was meagerly lit by a blanket of stars.
“This fact of our existence,” Starlight continued, “is true in an obvious literal sense, but is much more interestingly applied to the mind. Take history for example. If you encounter loss after loss after loss in your life, you begin to see yourself as a loser, and you believe it. On the other side, if you hit a vein of good luck and go on a winning streak for a bit, you believe yourself invincible.”
Starlight sighed and stood in front of me but she couldn’t help but chuckle at my pathetic visage, any color in my limbs sucked away by her ghoulish magical attack. Given her whole spiel I knew she was using illusion magic on me, but I had no idea how it was keeping me physically bound or how it sapped my strength so easily.
“That’s why anxiety, depression and dysphoria are such nightmares,” Starlight said, her tone becoming noticeably more grim than before. “These things trap you in a prison inside your own mind, they cast a wall of words, expectations, painful memories… this wall in your mind isn’t real but slamming into it is as painful as hitting a wall of brick or stone.”
Starlight clicked her tongue and grinned viciously. She walked over to me and gently placed her hoof atop my cheek, bearing down just enough to make me feel it but not enough to cause injury.
“Bringing it back to the history thing I mentioned,” Starlight continued as she ran her hooves tenderly across my blushing face as my mouth was sealed shut by the hands wrapped around it, “nopony can see the future, but we can all see the past so we let our history guide and control our future.”
She roughly tapped her hoof against my cheek once, twice, thrice, a painful wince coming from my sealed lips each time.
“Somepony says we’re this or we consider ourselves that and suddenly that’s what we see and what we believe, so we become that thing and we never consider just how arbitrary every facet of our existence really is.”
Starlight suddenly stomped on my ribs with her front legs, sending a wave of crushing pain through my body, a pained grunt kept sealed inside my throat by these cursed bony hands.
Starlight climbed on top of me and placed one hoof on my neck, tearing away the dark teal scarf and pressing down with a hoof against the bright pink mark underneath ever so delicately, just enough to make me sweat.
“At the end of the day,” Starlight said with a sinister smile, “the things we see aren’t real, they are completely arbitrary. But we can’t help believing in them regardless. We’ll cling to anything that claims to make sense of the chaos in our existence, but every single thing is arbitrary and meaningless.”
Starlight hopped back onto the ground in front of me and as she was finished toying with me the black hands melted away, returning to me some modicum of strength.
I was able to stand back on my legs, shaky though they were, without Starlight’s interference and we stood in the clearing for a moment simply staring at each other without words.
“Control what someone sees,” Starlight said with a serene smile, “and you can control their entire life. And that’s why the strongest magic… is illusion.”
I felt my strength returning to me and backed up a few inches. This battle was just about to start for real… but suddenly I felt a heat inside my body and began to breath heavily, my cheeks burning as I felt the eyes of the entire audience on me out of nowhere. I wasn’t blind to their presence before now but for some reason… I couldn’t separate myself from their gaze in my mind.
“Now then, darling,” Starlight said, a black leather leash appearing in front of her, held in the air via her magic, “this where the fun begins.”