Book 2 The Light: by the flickering light

by Penelope Anne Ink

Chapter Nine

“Where are we then?”

“In a town.”

“What’s this place called?”

“Never named it.”

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?” the filly asked back at Starry. Starry didn’t see any harm in telling the filly, it wasn’t like she had any other options right now.

“I’m Starry. I’m a unicorn. From Ponyville. And I’m lost,” Starry said, pausing after each phrase to think what would be the most important point.

“Well you can’t be ‘Starry’ and ‘lost.’”

Starry couldn’t believe the filly would pull a joke like that, but then again, the filly seemed to take things at their simplest value.

“Well I -”

“Which are you then?”

Starry took a step back.

“My name is Starry, but currently I’m lost.”

“What makes you think you’re lost?”

“I’m not where I’m supposed to be.”

“Why do you think that?”

Starry couldn’t take it anymore.

“Look, I really need to get out of here. I was walking with my friend, Edgy, to find some old pony and I got separated. I...I can’t remember what happened. But I need to get back there. I don’t care what you say.”

Starry slumped over onto the ground. She called Edgy her friend, but she remembered how poorly she treated him. She had snapped at him and avoided him, and he hadn’t done anything but leave Ponyville, which wasn’t his home to begin with. I really am stupid.

“I need to go back home, for one thing. But I also want to make things up to him. I also need to actually go home. I’ve been living on the streets for a week! What was I thinking? And I missed out on Jane giving birth and that’s a long story in itself. And I’ve just been a mess being all full of myself!”

The little filly started smiling, a kind smile this time.

“Then you are definitely where you’re supposed to be.”

The bright light up above started overpowering everything and Starry watched as the colors and shapes around her began fading away into the empty whiteness. She felt like her eyes were blurring and feeling groggy and she felt like she was being held under water.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Edgy had been sitting beside Starry. It was already morning and he hadn’t slept at all for the second night in a row. The stout pony waited a few feet away and managed to fall asleep standing up next to the cliff.

Edgy was sitting about a foot away from Starry, but he could still feel the ice cold of her lifeless body. He wasn’t sure whether it was really coming from her or just his imagination getting to him. He found it hard to look her direction, unsure of whether she’d really come back or not.

Suddenly, he heard a loud gasp and some coughs coming from her direction and turned to see Starry beginning to stir. She acted like she had just resurfaced from nearly drowning and was somehow drowsy but she seemed fine.

Edgy hopped up and ran over and almost hugged her, but at the last second decided against it and gave her a light tap on the head instead. Starry seemed a bit confused until he added, “didn’t anyone tell you not to eat strange plants?”

Starry looked back at the bush she had eaten from and then looked back at Edgy with a shrug. She still felt a little out of focus and numb. But she could also feel her limbs beginning to regain feeling as she slowly wobbled back onto her legs and noticed the stout pony still sleeping behind Edgy.

“How,” she coughed, “did you manage to convince him to come?”

“With my charming personality, obviously,” Edgy winked back at Starry.

Starry found herself beginning to laugh.

“I just wanted to apologize, really apologize for being a jerk to you earlier,” she began. “I just missed you.”

“So you decided to avoid me?”

“...Just take the apology, Edgy.”

“Fair enough.”

They managed to wake up the stout pony and the three decided to hurry back to Ponyville. Starry slowed them down a bit because every step she took felt like a thousand pin pricks. It reminded her of a fairy tale she once read while she was at the orphanage.

Edgy led the way but kept watching to make sure the other two didn’t fall behind. The stout pony occasionally had to keep Starry from stumbling over. But, by the time they made it to Ponyville, Starry had regained most of her feeling in her limbs and could act normal, though her head still felt a bit blurry.

Edgy made his way back to the inn to finally sleep, only after the stout pony and Starry both agreed they’d stay around Ponyville until the party and not give him the slip.

The stout pony was only too happy to have somepony to talk to while they whiled away the time. He decided to show her some of his old haunts and even where he used to live, which had long since been torn down and rebuilt into another one of Filthy Rich’s shops. The stout pony still didn’t tell her why he was there at all, but he did explain to her a bit about the berries, though by the end of his explanation she had already completely forgot what that world was like.