//------------------------------// // She Needs Help // Story: Broken Fences // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// The message received by Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor was as alarming as it was short. Hoofwritten on parchment embossed with "Canterlot Royal Observatory" at the top, the distress call of a message went as follows: "To Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, Luna Shift CO, E.U.P. Guard Canterlot Division - Please meet me at your earliest convenience at my office at the Royal Observatory. I believe you are the only pony that can help me in dealing with my filly's recent distressing change in behavior. - The Most Honorable Star Dancer, Head Canterlot Royal Observatory" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The message immediately set off alarm bells in Shining Armor's head. Star Dancer, the unicorn mare that currently was head of the Royal Observatory, was a longtime friend of both of his parents, Twilight Velvet and Night Light. The relationship dated back to the foalhood of all three ponies and was held together by the special talents they all had related to the night sky. All three had also been pupils of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and upon graduation all took up jobs with the Royal Observatory. Twilight Velvet and Night Light eventually resigned their posts at the Observatory to focus more on raising both their foals, but Star Dancer stayed on, becoming its head a few years before the end of Luna's exile. Star Dancer ended up having one foal of her own: Moon Dancer, who showed every indication of secretly looking up to and wanting to follow in the hoofsteps of Twilight Sparkle, even to the point of enrolling in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns herself. Both Shining Armor and Star Dancer saw Moon Dancer's admiration, but it dismayed both of them greatly that Twilight Sparkle herself did not see it. In the days before Twilight's "enlightenment" regarding the magic of friendship, Shining Armor (among others including the parents and foalsitter Cadance) had gently tried to coax her into trying to make friends with "others her age", all to no avail. As far as she was concerned, friends were a distraction from her magic studies and nothing could persuade her to think otherwise. This refusal to make friends her age was a nasty, terrible blind spot in Twilight's worldview that broke Shining Armor's heart. It hurt him that she wouldn't listen, that he couldn't fix this problem no matter how hard he tried. And now he worried it had reared its ugly head yet again, just when he thought it might fade away into an unpleasant memory. Twilight had a chance to reconcile with some other of her fellow pupils Shining knew about. They had all moved to Ponyville with Celestia's approval, and Shining suspected her blessing as well. Twinkleshine apparently had become a member of the Ponyville Choir despite formerly being assigned as Star Dancer's "apprentice" due to her special talent. Lemon Hearts was now working as an event planner for the Ponyville town government. Minuette was rumored to be practicing dentistry there, although Shining had not seen hard evidence for that. But Moon Dancer was not as lucky as the others were - Shining suspected the "why" had something to do with Princess Luna, but did not think it was a good idea to voice his suspicions to anypony else. Shining worried that Twilight's departure would cause problems with Moon Dancer, and now the message brought those fears back to the surface. Of course he would respond to her distress call, although he feared he couldn't do as much as Star Dancer was hoping he could... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LATER THAT NIGHT... Stepping into the big dome of the Observatory's atrium always brought back a wave of nostalgic memory to Shining Armor. The memories were among the earliest he had, dating from before his younger sister was born. His parents would bring him to work during the summer and school vacation months, explaining about the expansive "Neo-Lunar" atrium dome and the two most important things in the Observatory: "The Schedule" and "The Starmap". Unlike in the human world, the purpose of the Royal Observatory was not to study the stars in the sky but to ensure the constancy of their patterns, night after night. At first, Princess Luna performed the arrangement of the stars in the sky each night, then after Luna's exile Celestia assumed that role. Celestia quickly wearied of the tediousness of the duty, however, and appointed a number of powerful unicorns to assist in the task. Indeed, it very quickly became a symbol of great magic power if a unicorn could even nudge a star from its appointed place in the sky, due to the stars being essentially concentrated points of glowing magical energy affixed to a world-spanning "skydome" through which the sun and moon also moved. These "star-mover" unicorns quickly rose into the Equestrian elite due to their power and important position in Celestia's service, forming the nucleus of what was to become the Royal Observatory. Shining's parents were "star-movers", as were many of his ancestors. While Shining Armor himself was not a "star-mover", and Twilight Sparkle only learned to be one while under Celestia's tutelage, the fact that both of them were the result of the mating of two "star-movers" was the generally accepted explanation for why both of them possessed extraordinary amounts of magical power. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Lieutenant Captain crosses the atrium to the rear of the building. Besides him and two guards posted at the door, there is only a single other pony in sight - an inky blue pegasus stallion about Twilight Sparkle's age, currently pushing a broad broom across the tiled floor. The pegasus glares in Shining's direction as he goes by, but Shining does nothing in response - he's used to getting dirty looks, particularly from younger pegasi, at this point. It was in the back, displayed like the tourist attractions they were, that "The Schedule" and "The Starmap" were located, and where Shining expected to meet Star Dancer. During the day, the Observatory bustled with tourists but was empty of actual workers. During the night, the actual workers - currently Star Dancer and a few others - quietly put snout to grindstone to help the royal sisters with their duties. The most important involved "The Schedule", a yearly record of the sunrise and sunset times for each day - done as much for propaganda purposes as for record keeping. But there was also "The Starmap", the royally proscribed arrangement of stars in the sky that were set up each night during and shortly after the sunset. As Shining Armor approached, he saw most of the unicorn workers busy with The Starmap, carefully rearranging the brass dots in patterns based on the directions shouted from one unicorn mare standing in front of The Schedule next to it. The Lieutenant Captain knew the workers were setting up the following night's patterns, and approached as silently as he could. But he couldn't help but catch the eye of the directing pony - Star Dancer herself, dark pink coated with indigo mane and tail. Soft blue eyes turned to look in relief at him, but her professionalism only dropped for just a moment. "You all have your orders. I'll be back in a few minutes." Star Dancer shouts back in the direction of the other workers before turning her attention fully to Shining Armor. The concern on his face grows more pronounced as she closes her eyes briefly and gives out a heavy sigh before opening them again. "Come with me, Lieutenant Captain. It'll be better to discuss this in my office." Star Dancer speaks to Shining Armor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once in the office, Star Dancer did not mince words or emotional appeal in her pleading expression: "I am very worried for my filly. She's slipping away from me, and I don't know how to reach her." "Slipping away from you?" Shining asks in a very concerned tone of voice. "She doesn't want to throw parties or hang out with any of her friends still in Canterlot. More and more, she just stays in her room reading books. I think she's also sneaking into the castle library, where your sister was, and just stays in there for hours, doing things I have no idea about. And it worries me, because she doesn't have somepony like you to talk things out with." Star Dancer all but pleads. Shining nods in grim affirmation. Moon Dancer didn't have an older sibling or a foalsitter like Twilight Sparkle did, and Princess Celestia was nothing more than the head of the school and head of the Equestrian kingdom to her. Moon Dancer didn't even have a father to turn to - Star Dancer's mate died in an apparent accident a few years after Moon Dancer's birth when a drunken pegasus knocked him off the castle walls and he fell to his death. "Most of her friends either don't interest her or have moved away to Ponyville. The only pony she really seems interested in talking to is Zodiac." Star Dancer continues on. "Who's Zodiac?" Shining Armor naturally asks. "He's a pegasus, about the age of your sister and my filly. You probably saw him sweeping the atrium floor as you came in." the unicorn mare explains. "He used to work at the Weather Ministry, trying to save up bits to enter Wonderbolt Academy, but when that terrible explosion destroyed the Ministry offices he lost his job. I gave him the cleaning duties so that he could continue to earn an income, but now I'm wondering..." "If he's a bad influence." Shining Armor finishes in answer. A frown spreads across Shining's face as Star Dancer nods. To Shining, the concern was quite justified - he had witnessed that pegasi stallions tended to be quite "possessive" and "territorial" about their special someponies. The worst ones could act despicable beyond words, and even the better examples had to constantly wrestle with their impulses molded by nature and society. There were exceptions, and some non-pegasi could act that way of course, but in general there was reason for concern and careful investigation if a pegasus stallion suddenly started exerting undue influence over a mare. "Although I think it really started with..." Star Dancer starts again. "My sister snubbing her party invitation." Shining Armor again finishes, giving a half-wince in the process. "Exactly. I don't think Moon Dancer's moved on from that." "And I'm here because you think I can help you." "Maybe you can't solve the problem, but could you at least try to do something? For the sake of her and for the sake of me? You are Twilight's brother, after all." Star Dancer pleads again. Shining Armor sighs - because Twilight was in Ponyville by the will of Princess Celestia that cut off any solutions involving her, at least for the immediate future. Honor and decency demanded an affirmative answer to Star Dancer's questions, even if he did not think he could do much to help. When Shining gave his reply, he couched it in a way that tried not to promise more than he felt he could deliver: "I do not know how much I can do to help, but I will at least try to help Moon Dancer. I cannot promise any success, however." Star Dancer's face briefly shows disappointment, then resignation - she knew she could not ask any more than she already had of him. And what she was asking was probably not going to help in the long run. But she loved her filly too much to let the slide happen. And Shining loved his sister too much to let her previous mistakes ruin the life of another filly, at least not without putting up a good fight for friendship...