//------------------------------// // Finding Sunburst // Story: Little Glimpses // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle has not yet awoken. Even with over two weeks having passed, young Twilight is still deeply unconscious. She now resides inside one of the private infirmaries of Canterlot Castle by order of Rainbow Dash, so that she may get the best treatment as swiftly as possible. Twilight’s new sleeping arrangements also allow for Rainbow Dash and castle guard Shining Armor to visit her when they have the free time. With the intense flash that sent her sister-like friend into her coma weighing heavily upon Rainbow’s mind, the young pegasus takes to the skies over canterlot, hoping for some clarity amid the wind and clouds…     “Ugh… this sucks.” Rainbow mumbled irritably to herself, lazily dragging her gaze over the streets of Canterlot beneath her as she slowly flew over them. She wasn’t trying to go fast right now, just moving at whatever speed the winds took her. It was presently the middle of the day and the sky was clear, save for a few stray clouds that added some texture to the blue expanse overhead.     Below, Rainbow spotted numerous fillies and colts stepping out of Celestia’s school for their recess and lunch hour. She saw Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Moon Dancer… still no Twilight, though.     That’s because Twilight is hooked up to all sorts of fancy medical stuffs up in the castle… Rainbow thought bitterly to herself before a sigh escaped her. “It’s stupid…” she growled under her breath before dropping her altitude slightly. She saw a couple other fillies and colts among the crowd of unicorn students she recognized, though she didn’t know their names. There were plenty of them just sitting in groups, chatting while having their lunch. Others were playing games with their magic and others still were doing some light reading before class resumed.     And then there was an orange colt, sitting with his back to a tree and looking intently into his textbook. To be honest, though, the colt himself wasn’t what drew Rainbow’s attention to him. It was a pair of fillies approaching him with an almost predatory look to their approach. Finding herself curious, Rainbow Dash gradually came to a stop, using a stray bit of cloud as cover.     The orange colt looked up and adjusted the glasses on his face. “Huh? What do you want?” he asked with a worried frown crossing his face. The two fillies snickered to each other for a moment before the older looking of the two, a bright purple filly with a silver mane and tail, sauntered forward.     “I guess my friend and I were just wondering when you were going to start being good at magic?” she asked tauntingly. The colt narrowed his eyes and looked back down into his book.     “It won't come any faster with you two bugging me all the time.” he grumbled through clenched teeth.     Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the group as their discussion continued. “Another pair of bullies, huh? You’d think Celestia’s school would have higher standards…”     “Oh come on, Sunburst,” the other filly spoke in an intentionally irritating whine, “You’re always the first to raise your hoof in class to explain a concept or whatever, but you have trouble with even the most basic of spells we’ve been taught this year.”     Rainbow’s ears snapped to attention and her eyes widened. “Sunburst…?” she whispered disbelievingly while sitting bolt upright. The words of that unicorn in the flash, Starlight, echoed in her mind.     I thought Sunburst and I were the same… but we turned out different, AND IT TORE OUR FRIENDSHIP APART!!!     Sunburst...     Could this be…?     “You think I don’t know that?!” Sunburst snapped, sitting up and glaring at the two fillies in front of him. “I get it, okay?! I’m short in the power department, but knowledge is just as useful!”     The fillies burst out into laughter, having gotten the response they wanted. “Not without power to back it up~” The silver-maned one jeered out. Sunburst’s ears flattened back against his head and he slammed his eyes shut.     “Sh-shut up…”     Rainbow had seen enough.     “Okay, that’s enough!” She called out almost casually before jumping off of her cloud and shooting down to stand between Sunburst and the other two. She hit the ground with enough force to kick up a sizable cloud of dust, causing all three of the foals around her to cover their faces and go into coughing fits. Gradually, the fillies hysterics ended and they looked forward, eager to verbally tear apart the pony that interrupted them.     Then they saw who it was.     “Uh-oh…” the purple one whimpered, shrinking away from Rainbow’s serious glare. After a moment of silence, Rainbow pointed at them with a hoof.     “Names?”     “Uh? Oh, uh, m-my name is White Wand, this is Gem Spark, your majesty.” the purple one, White Wand, said nervously in a trembling voice. Rainbow nodded slowly.     “Alright. White Wand, Gem Spark, I want you two to shove off and not bug this colt again. If you do, I’ll make sure Celestia deals with you personally. Can’t be having bullies in her big, fancy school, now can we?” Rainbow asked while looking at them both in the eyes intensely. “Clean up your act and go away. Now.”     The fillies wasted no time in turning around and galloping away, leaving Rainbow Dash glaring after them and Sunburst gaping at her in awe and wonder. After a moment, Rainbow turned around and gave Sunburst a big, friendly smile. “Hiya.” Sunburst’s glasses slipped down his muzzle a few inches. After a moment he pushed them back up before bowing to Rainbow Dash. “Thank you for your help, Princess…” he mumbled respectfully. Rainbow rolled her eyes and lightly thwacked him on the shoulder. “Stop bowing, would ya? It bothers me,” she said light-heartedly, at which Sunburst gradually stood back up. “Secondly, I don’t like bullies. I had a couple I had to deal with back in Cloudsdale on a routine basis and it was a pain in my butt, to be sure.” “Right…” Sunburst looked away, unsure of how to speak to Rainbow, who was still standing there. After a moment, Rainbow’s expression hardened slightly. “While I did help you get rid of the bullies because bullies are bad, I did actually have another reason for approaching you,” she said simply, causing Sunburst to perk up and look at her curiously. Rainbow sighed and leaned over, speaking in a quiet voice. “Do you know anypony by the name of Starlight?” Sunburst jumped in surprise. “Starlight? Starlight Glimmer? Er, yes, I know her. Why? Did something happen? Is she okay?!” he asked in concern before Rainbow stuffed a hoof in his mouth. “Yeah, see, that’s the thing; we can’t really talk about this in public. I take it Celestia’s inside?” she said in a sharp whisper. Sunburst nodded, now a bit worried. Rainbow nodded as well before removing her hoof from his mouth. “Alrighty, then. Come on. We’re probably going to have some questions for you.” Confused and somewhat nervous, Sunburst nodded slowly and followed Rainbow as she made her way to the large building that was Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Celestia glanced up from behind her desk when the door to the office swung wide open without even so much as a knock or an announcement of who it was. Predictably, this meant it was Rainbow Dash. Celestia smiled at her daughter as she strode in, then lost her smile to a confused frown at the orange colt behind her. She shot Rainbow a small smirk. “Are you going to keep bringing me other foals, Rainbow? This is the second time you’ve just shown up with one.” Rainbow jabbed a hoof at the alicorn. “Last time, you were the one to come to the filly. I simply announced that she was there and that we needed your insight,” she shot back with a smirk of her own before turning to face Sunburst a bit more seriously. “As it is, this is Sunburst.” Celestia nodded with a small frown. “I know the names of my students, Rainbow.” “Right. Anyways, you remember that one mare I mentioned when I told you about the flash? The unicorn called ‘Starlight?” Rainbow continued on without missing a beat. Celestia slowly nodded with a raised eyebrow. “She mentioned somepony named Sunburst. I get the feeling this is the same pony.” Sunburst looked between the two with deep confusion in his eyes. “Uh… with all due respect your majesties… what are we talking about?” Celestia put on a comforting smile and nodded for Rainbow to close the door. “A bit of an explanation is required,” she began while Rainbow did as instructed, closing the office door with a soft ‘click.’ “You see, several of my subjects, including my faithful, personal student, Twilight Sparkle, have been experiencing strange visions over the last two years. They always seem to depict situations of their adult selves, sometimes among familiar faces, sometimes not.” “What makes it odd is that, sometimes, these ‘visions’ are just straight-up not possible.” Rainbow added with a small frown on her face. Celestia nodded along before continuing. “Now, as it stands, these flashes, as we have dubbed them, are typically harmless. They cause the pony experiencing them to suffer through a complete black-out for up to several minutes before they snap out of it, a bit dizzy and confused, but otherwise fine,” Celestia then slowly stood up from her place behind her desk and circled around it before setting herself down to be close to Sunburst’s eye level. “But the most recent flash that we know of took place over two weeks ago. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were knocked out from the force of this flash for several days and Twilight has not yet woken up. They experienced this flash at the same time as well, which is something that has not occurred in any of the others.” Sunburst blinked and nodded slowly, trembling a bit but took some comfort in the gentleness of Celestia’s voice. “Okay… I’ll help however I can, but what does this even have to do with me? You said Starlight was in one of these ‘flashes’?” “Yeah she was,” Rainbow nodded firmly. “She was in the big flash that put Twilight, my friend, into a coma. And she referenced you by name!” Sunburst instantly shrunk away as some of Rainbow’s pent up frustration began to leak into her words. Celestia swiftly brought a wing in front of Rainbow and shot her a look. After a moment, Rainbow sat down and started taking deep breaths to calm herself. As she did so, Celestia looked once more to Sunburst. “I would like you to tell me more about Starlight. From the way Rainbow described her flash, it sounds like you and her are friends.” Sunburst scuffed the floor with a hoof awkwardly, his ears falling against his head. “Well… I mean… We kinda… lost touch.” he finally managed regretfully. “Where does she live, then?” Rainbow asked, having regained some composure. “Uh, in my hometown. We spent all of our free time together before I got my cutie mark and came here…” Sunburst answered a bit hesitantly. “Hm… the way you say it makes it sound like she’s just a filly. Is that correct?” Celestia prodded gently, to which Sunburst only nodded. Celestia slowly sat up and frowned. “Rainbow, a discrepancy has appeared.” “Yeah, I noticed,” Rainbow grumbled while slapping a forehoof to her face in exasperation. “The Starlight that Twilight and I saw was a full-grown pony… No new leads there, then.” Sunburst fidgeted awkwardly as the room gradually fell into a thoughtful silence. “So… now what?” he asked with an awkward smile. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well, you go on and go back to your studies, okay? Try not to bring this up with anypony else, okay?” Sunburst nodded before bowing to Celestia. Then, without another word, he turned and left the room, a bit more briskly than seemed normal. Rainbow glanced up to Celestia with a disappointed look on her face. Celestia spoke first, however. “Don’t worry, I’ll look into this Starlight filly when I get the chance. If anything relevant turns up I will let you know.” Rainbow nodded before a small sigh left her lungs. She turned and left the room, nothing more needing to be said. She left the school and launched into the air before banking hard to her left for Canterlot castle. She was going to pay Twilight a visit...