I should probably mention this now, but Chapters 1-11 were written between August and November, whereas Chapters 12 onwards have been written within the last two weeks. So I might be contradicting some of the things I previously stated in the story, made worse by the fact that I free-write, and don't have a plan for how each chapter is going to turn out or what it's going to focus on. So if you notice any contradictory information, please tell me so I can get it fixed.

As she walked back to and entered her house, just as Starlight’s nervousness was about to go away, she started thinking. And the more she thought, the more she started to worry.

She began to realize that the princess's coming there was both high reward and high risk. If the princess stayed, which would mean her giving up her cutie mark, her village might grow from a few dozen to thousands before she knew it. The problem was that if she left, the other ponies of this village might see this as a rejection of her philosophy. And if, of all ponies, the Princess of Friendship rejected her philosophy, then they might also start to question it. She couldn’t let that happen. That absolutely positively could not happen. She had to do everything in her power to convince Twilight Sparkle to stay.

Of course, she couldn’t force her to stay. However, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t pressure her to stay. Starlight didn’t want to pressure her, but if it seemed like she was about to leave, she had to do whatever it took to make her stay. She didn’t like the thought of pressuring the princess. Starlight wasn't better than her. But she did take solace in the fact that pressuring wasn’t the same as forcing.

She could convince Twilight. She was sure of it. After all, she’d convinced every other pony who stumbled upon the village thus far. While going out and recruiting ponies from other cities might have been an area they needed to improve, Starlight had had massive success once ponies saw her town and saw first hand how exactly her philosophy worked. Besides, it was the Princess of Friendship. She knew she would agree with her when she explained her philosophy better. She had to agree with her. There was no way she’d be able to deny how nice it was for ponies to live there. There was no way she wouldn’t agree with Starlight. She would see reason.

Starlight lay down in her bed and closed her eyes. Things were going to be fine. No, they would be better than fine. Once she had the princess’s approval, and convinced her to stay in her town, everypony in Equestria would want to join. This was a great opportunity for her. It was all going to work out in the end.

Starlight fell asleep, although it wasn’t long before she was awoken by knocking on her door. She rose up and walked into the other room to see Double Diamond entering. He looked nervous as he approached her, and it naturally made her begin to worry again.

“Starlight,” he started, sounding agitated, “I, uh- I have some news for you,”.

Starlight already began to feel sick to her stomach. She almost knew what he was about to say. It was what she feared would happen when she first saw the princess in her village. She had a bad feeling about what Double Diamond was about to tell her, and didn't want to hear it. However, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, gathering the courage to listen. “What is it?” she answered.

“Well, um-,” he stammered. “It’s the princess. Party Favor and I have reason to believe she’s- she’s planning to-”

“Please don’t continue,” Starlight interrupted. She couldn’t bear to listen to what he was about to say to her. She closed her eyes and exhaled, then looked up at him again and said, “I know what you’re about to tell me, and I figured something like this might happen. What evidence do you have supporting…?”

“Well, as we were sitting outside of the bakery, I heard her discussing how ponies can be friends in spite of differences. She was talking with Sugar Belle about this, and then made was what clearly an obvious attempt at talking privately with her out of public sight."

“And then what?”

“Well, I wasn’t able to follow them inside, but I’m fairly certain that Sugar Belle is beginning to have doubts about our philosophy.”

Double Diamond watched as Starlight just stared at him, as if she couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. “Starlight?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Starlight said quickly, shaking her head. “It’s just- this is what I expected to happen when she appeared here. I hoped it wouldn’t, but I expected it,”.

“What do you mean?”

“She’s the Princess of Friendship, Double Diamond,” Starlight told him. “She has a powerful influence on the way ponies think. Seeing her walking through the town is naturally going to make ponies have doubts about our village. That’s why I was wary of her coming into our village. And besides that, she still has her cutie mark, so of course she’s going to think differences are okay. Her title alone conditions her to think that she’d better than everypony else. I mean, how many ponies in Equestria can claim to be a princess, let alone the Princess of Friendship?”.

The way Starlight said it came off as bitter, almost jealous. She couldn’t help but think about how Twilight was in almost the exact opposite situation as she was previously in. Her differences made everypony want to be her friend, while Starlight’s made her unwanted. Anypony in Twilight’s position would do what they could to make sure Starlight didn’t succeed. Which is why Starlight knew she had to succeed. No pony was better than anypony else, and she had to make sure that the whole world knew it.

“Do you know what she’s planning on doing?” Starlight asked.

“Well, she asked me if she could visit the cutie mark vault tomorrow, but I can’t say what she’s planning from there.”

Double Diamond’s mention of the Rock immediately gave Starlight an idea. A bad idea. No, a horrendous idea. It was a horrible idea, one that went against everything she and her village stood for. She knew she couldn’t possibly do what she was thinking. She had to come up with something else. But if she couldn’t…

“What is it, Starlight?” Double Diamond asked, seeing the look of concentration on Starlight’s face.

“It’s nothing,” she said, still thinking. “But stop by tonight, please. I want to talk a few things over with you.”