>>42275874
>these events correlate to a preexisting condition better than just abandonment
That's eisegesis. All you need to do is follow the logical escalation of abandonment and its effect on her life growing up, remember that it occurred when she was an innocent and naive filly. Another factor to remember is that ponies are a lot more fragile than humans.
>Someone completely inward thinking would be prone to not knowing if the person they're talking to hates them.
That's not it. Starlight already knows Trixie likes her, but she feared giving Trixie a reason to dislike her. This is a very common anxiety.
>It's more like they're threatening her at that point and she goes along with it basically because Twilight said so.
Starlight was not disciplined nor threatened, neither were necessary and would actually do more harm. She already learned that her ideology was wrong and her methods haunted her, she was just not ready to forgive herself yet. Starlight is like a much more developed Luna.
>Those aspects could be interpreted as her trying to understand its function
In terms of trying to understand its function you are speaking of Twilight to a T. You could interpret anyone's actions as psychopathic, but why would you want to unless you wanted to project something relatable to yourself. This reminds me of the mental illness charts redditors would make for the m6 and trannies trying to claim Trixie is trans-coded. Whether or not that is the case for you there are too many contradictions to even make it plausible, one of which is that Starlight would never have backed down to Twilight if she was a psychopath, she would need to be rainbow lasered like the other villains.
>smug and megalomaniacal
She's confident in her magic like Dashie is confident in her flying, that's all.
>They didn't rehabilitate her they just made her obedient.
Starlight was not going through rehabilitation unless Celestia sending Twilight to Ponyville to do friendship reports is considered rehabilitation to you. Twilight just has a different teaching style compared to Celestia. Sure, we could interpret that Celestia is a Machiavellian groomer ensuring she has obedient weapons of mass destruction to use against enemies of Equestria. But again, why would you want to? That's a very cynical take antithetical to the values of the show.
>she never feels fear talking to others.
Literally was afraid to reconnect with Sunburst, was afraid of doing her friendship lessons, and was afraid of telling Trixie how she was making her feel. Fluttershy's introverted shyness is not the only type there is.