• Published 3rd Oct 2014
  • 7,703 Views, 230 Comments

Refraction - shortskirtsandexplosions



Twilight goes to spend time with her friends at Sugarcube Corner. She gets the distinct feeling that something is missing.

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Lone Star poked her head into the diner. She paused, blinking, her eyes sweeping from side to side. More than once she had to squeeze against one wall or another, avoiding the bodies of large stallions or impatient mares as they brushed their way down the claustrophobic interior.

Looking and looking, Lone Star couldn't find any sign of her friend. So she trotted even deeper into the diner, checking every table. When at last she had scoured every aisle and booth of the place—summoning no small amount of suspicious glares from the owners—she nervously made her way back outside, taking deep breaths as a cold shudder fell through her figure.

A shape in her peripheral vision mimicked her shivering limbs.

With a jolt, Lone Star looked to her right. Her lips pursed. "Cantershy...?" She trotted briskly to the next building along the edge of Ponyville. There, a dainty pegasus sat, curled up tight in the corner of a lonesome bench. "Cantershy, what gives? I thought we agreed to meet up inside the diner!"

"Mmmm..." Cantershy squeaked inwardly, her eyes locked in a thousand-mile stare.

"Cantershy..." Lone Star knelt down low, smiling gently at her friend. "Cantershy, talk to me. It's okay. I'm not mad. I'm just... a little confused, is all."

"I... I-I tried, Lone Star." Cantershy's breaths came in tiny spasms. "I-I really did. But... I couldn't. I-I just couldn't..."

Lone Star sighed, ears drooping. "Oh Cantershy..."

"It was t-too loud in there." Cantershy clenched her eyes shut, shivering even harder. "Too... t-too many ponies. They were all looking at me... getting ready to laugh at me."

"They were not!" Lone Star rasped. She chuckled good-naturedly. "Cantershy, you have to stop expecting the worst out of everypony! How else are you going to get out and have some real fun in your life?"

"I-I left my apartment, d-didn't I?" Cantershot gulped. "Isn't th-that enough?"

"Cantershy, if you just keep letting the world roll over you like this, how are you ever going to get anywhere?"

"I... I-I'm fine at home." The mare gulped. "F-fine with being inside. There's n-nopony to laugh at me in there."

"There's nopony to laugh at you period! Honestly, Cantershy! What's there to be afraid of?"

"Mmmm..." Cantershy hid her face in her forelimbs. "Everything."

Lone Star opened her mouth, paused, then sighed. She slumped back before the bench, limbs limp.

"I'm sorry..." Cantershy quietly wept.

"Please, just..." Lone Star clenched her eyes shut, inhaling sharply through her nostrils. "... just don't." She gulped. "Don't be sorry, Cantershy. It's..."

"I can tell you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad, Cantershy."

"Yes you are—"

"I'm not mad." Lone Star clasped Cantershy's forelimbs. "Look at me."

Cantershy nervously squinted one eye open. Then the other.

Lone Star smiled softly. "I'm worried about you. You're my best friend. My one and only. And I want what's best for you! But I can't do all the work by myself! You have to be willing to take a leap of faith, sweetie! Don't think of it as as perilous dive! Think of it as... b-baby steps!"

Cantershy said nothing. She merely bowed her head.

"If you can't do the diner, how about some shopping in the market downtown?"

"Mmmm-mmmm..." Cantershy shook her head.

"Uhhhh..." Lone Star fidgeted. "A movie? You know, at the movie theatre?"

Cantershy shook her head again.

Lone Star bit her lip. She brightened. "H-how about the park?! A nice stroll at sunset! You'd like that, huh?"

Cantershy chewed on her lower lip.

"Well...?" Lone Star grinned.

Cantershy gulped. "Okay..." she murmured.

"Heehee... now that's something, at least!" Lone Star helped the mare up onto her hooves. "Here, let's walk together, Cantershy. You can lean against me if you want."

"Th-thanks..." The dainty pegasus shuddered with each step. "I... d-didn't have anything to eat since breakfast."

"You know, we could have done something about that just now."

Cantershy clenched her teeth.

"Sorry." Lone Star cleared her throat. "No more talking about the diner."

"Mmmm... th-thank you."

The two trotted quietly side by side through the streets of Ponyville. When at last they had made it to the park, it was growing dark. Cantershy trembled more, her eyes darting between every strange shadow. Lone Star eased the mare by squeezing her shoulder every now and then. Gradually, Cantershy relaxed, especially when the lanterns of the park flickered to life over their heads. Within the hour, they had found a nice lone bench to sit on, serenaded by crickets between the words of Lone Star's rambling voice.

"...there'll be lots of famous dignitaries and celebrities there, for sure." Lone Star took a deep breath. "I mean, I-I doubt that I'll meet any of them. I'm no princess or anything... heheh..." She brushed back her purple mane while dangling a pair of hooves off the bench. "But I'll certainly feel like one for one night. M-maybe two." She gulped. "I... I-I'm not sure why I'm so bent on attending the Gala. It's... not like I'm going to h-have these many bits to spend freely anytime soon. But... I-I just have to go there. For me, you know?"

She turned and smiled at Cantershy.

"And I'll be taking as many photographs as I can. Heck, I might even pay a stallion to take a photo of me beside the front gate of the Castle! I'll be sure to have him frame the picture just a little bit to the side." She winked. "That way, it'll be like you're there with me." Twilight exhaled out her nostrils as she gazed down at her hooves once more. "You... will be there with me, Cantershy. In a lot of ways. I'll be dreaming up all sorts of conversations to have with you once I return... about the expensive dresses I see, the sweet foods I taste, even—heehee—the handsome stallions that'll wink at the other mares and—"

"Lone Star?"

The unicorn's ears perked up. She turned towards her. "Y-yes, Cantershy?" She leaned over. "What is it?"

Cantershy looked up, her eyes glossy in the buzzing lanternlight of the empty park. "...why do you hang out with me?"

Lone Star blinked. Her lips pursed, lost between searching for an answer and simply repeating Cantershy's words.

The pegasus continued. "There is nothing special about me. Nothing fun... nothing exciting." She gulped. "And yet, you've shown up out of nowhere, a newcomer to Ponyville, and... you've stuck by my side... you've talked to me... invited me to places... given me gifts." Cantershy sighed. "At times, I think I'm the only reason you even stay in this town. But I simply don't understand. What's so special about me?"

"Cantershy..." Lone Star murmured, her muzzle agape. "You're my friend."

"Why?"

Lone Star blinked.

Cantershy sniffled. "I'm nothing. But you? You deserve so much better."

Silence.

Lone Star took a deep breath. She pivoted about and grasped Cantershy's hooves with her own. "I'm going to tell you the Honest-to-Celestia truth," she said in a firm tone. "Are you listening?"

Cantershy hesitantly nodded.

"Okay." Lone Star gulped and leaned forward. "Cantershy, you are the nicest, gentlest, most sincere pony I know. I don't care how delicate or squeamish you may be on the outside. But deep within, there is something... something..." She gritted her teeth. "I-I can't put my hoof on it! But, Cantershy, you and I... we have something that cannot be erased." Lone Star sniffled suddenly. She fought the moisture in her eyes and spoke, "You are more than the reason why I stay in Ponyville. You are the reason why I get up in the morning. I am here... we are all here to make connections with one another. And you, Cantershy, are my one and only connection. And though you might sell yourself short, you mean the whole world to me." She gave a fragile smile, eyes watery. "You are my whole world. This friendship... this connection we have is harmonious. It has to be. Without it... where would we be? What would we be doing? I..."

She grimaced, looking past Cantershy as the night's collective starlight coalesced like a spark in her eyes and was gone again.

"...I cannot even pretend to imagine just... h-how empty... how purposeless..." She gulped. "Without... without..." She clenched her eyes, or else she might melt.

Cantershy gazed at her.

After a labored breath, Lone Star reopened her eyes, bearing a determined frown. "You mean so much to me, Cantershy. And it breaks my heart to see you just... l-let the world shove you into a corner, deep in darkness... when there is so much to seek... to find... to explore and relish. And the world could certainly use more of you... of your kindness... of your tender-hearted gentleness. It really could, Cantershy. I really wish you could see it."

Cantershy was silent for a long time. At last she murmured, "I'm afraid of a lot of things, Lone Star," she said. "But most of all... I'm afraid of what will happen to you when I'm gone."

Lone Star grimaced at that. Her eyes instantly welled up again.

"Sorry." Cantershy shuddered, bowing her head. "I... I-I'm sorry—"

"Don't." Lone Star's voice cracked on a sob. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against Cantershy's. "Don't." She would have said more words. She should have, but she sobbed instead. A fluttering little cry, like the breaths forever pent-up inside her quiet friend. Weakly, Lone Star grasped the back of Cantershy's head, feeling her soft short bangs as she nuzzled her gently, stifling the tears between them. After five shuddering minutes, Lone Star looked up, and something brazen and fiery shimmered from beyond the veil. "Tomorrow... we'll try again. I'll be early this time, Cantershy."

"Lone Star—"

"We'll go inside the diner together. Okay?" Lone Star gulped, nodding her head against Cantershy's. She squeezed the mare's shoulder. "No pony deserves to go alone into this world without a friend. I won't let that happen to you."

Cantershy fidgeted. At last, she sighed. "Okay..."

"Okay?"

"Okay, Lone Star."

Lone Star managed the briefest of smiles. She nuzzled Cantershy once more. "Here, sweetie..." She stood up, helping the delicate mare off the bench. "I'll walk you home."

Lone Star did, and when Cantershy walked the rest of the path to her apartment's front door, the unicorn stood at the fence just outside the yard. Lone Star sat back on her haunches, hugging herself, even minutes past Cantershy's departure. At last, bathed in twinkling starlight, Lone Star turned hesitantly toward the far side of town.

She trotted through darkness, untouched and unseen, until even the sound of her hoofsteps no longer resonated in her throbbing ears.

She didn't realize that she was inside the library until she felt the cold creak of the door shutting behind her. She gazed across the shelves covered in dusty books, the desks crumpled over with notes full of woeful words for nopony to read.

Lone Star stifled a whimper. She was already turning her head towards the shadowy corner just as that voice lifted icily across the domain.

"Twilight Sparkle?"

A tear ran down Lone Star's cheek. "Please. No more." She hiccuped on a sob. "End it here."

"Are you happy, now?" The hovering eyes lit up.

Lone Star seethed: "I beg y—"

Everything was consumed in the bright beam.