All of Ponyville were gathered in one spot as they somberly watched the Elements Of Harmony board the Friendship Express. Even though the six friends often left on official "friendship business", the same feeling of gloom always swept over the town as if it were the first time they had to experience the leaving of their friends, and it was worse now then ever before, given the circumstance of the trip.
Anyone there could tell you of the atmosphere within the train station. In fact, this odd sense of melancholy was so pungent, Starlight could feel it's presence surround her at the very front of the crowd, it felt as if it was grasping her lungs and squeezing hard enough for each of her breathes to acquire more and more effort. Who could suspect such force from a simple emotion.
She closed her eyes and slowly breathed in, then out. Great. She thought. Why must other people's misery effect me. I think my own is plenty enough to make me feel like crap, it doesn't need to be made worse.
She opened her eyes and examined the Elements, Applejack and Rarity were both saying goodbye to their tearful sisters. Pinkie of course was talking to her pet, Gummy, in a sob-full embrace as if they would never see each other again. While Rainbow Dash said her goodbyes to Scootaloo, both trying to play the situation off as a simple occurance with their usual bravado, and Fluttershy was forcing her way through the crowd of woodland creatures preventing her escape. But Twilight was missing.
Before she could approach them about Twilight's absence, the quite sound of magic being cast from behind caught her ear, but before she could react, a hoof suddenly found itself on her shoulders.
"You don't look to good, are you okay Starlight?" came the voice of the Princess of Friendship.
Starlight yelped as she jolted at the sudden appearance and breaking of silence within the Station as Twilight appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and she was not alone in her reaction. Everypony had noticed her and moved aside to allow her some space, some with smiles on their faces. Most however, had an expression of even more sorrow then when she was missing.
Spike was trailing behind her, carrying two huge traveling packs for the trip. His annoyed expression made it obvious that neither of which were his own.
"W-What do you mean?" She said, quickly gathering herself after he embarrassing display a few seconds ago, " I am perfectly fine. I have known for a while now you guys where going off on a journey at the request of Princess Celestia. Any problem I had with you leaving has been taken care of."
With a small grin on her face Twilight addressed the obvious, "That reaction to my appearance alone let's me know something is bothering you."
"Well in her defense,' came the voice of Spike as he lowered the two travel packs, " I too would be scared if somepony just suddenly appeared behind me and poked my shoulder."
"Oh that much is obvious, I am talking about the fact I didn't even mention our trip in my question," she said as her grin widened, "and it looks like Starlight did a bit of digging. I didn't even tell you or anypony else about that part with Princess Celestia.
Caught and unable to control herself, she blurted, "I know you think this is common for you guys, but this is the Dragon Lands!" Her voice quickly grew in volume. "Not long ago every dragon wanted to devour us and be on their way. Even with Ember being the new Dragon Lord, that doesn't mean every dragon will be willing to accept such a huge undertaking!"
Her face turned bright red as she finished that last sentence. Realizing her outburst sounded more like a whining filly, rather then the pupil of the Princess of Friendship advising her master. She also noticed that she brought forth the fear everypony felt about this mission, and all eyes were on her and Twilight. Even The Elements of Harmony as they waited near the train, already done saying their goodbyes.
Ignoring Starlight's outburst, Twilight met her eyes and smiled, " Do not worry, we have faced much, much worse. This is just an act of friendship, we want to show dragons the pony life-style, finally showing them what ponies are like and that we can live in harmony." Starlight cringed at Twilight's bad Element of Harmony joke, but she carried on, looking at the crowd and raising her voice as to address the ponies listening in on their conversation, so that no one could not hear her. " We should only be gone a week, maybe two weeks if we encounter any problems."
"Yeah, those problems being the dragons attacking you." Starlight said under her breathe so only Twilight could hear her and not the already on edge Ponyville.
Twilight laughed and returned her attention to Starlight. " Do not worry, I am fully certain you are capable of taking care of everypony while we are gone."
Silence followed Twilight's announcement for a moment before Starlight's eyes bulged as her mind finally processed the meaning of her masters news, she could not speak, let alone express her mixed reaction of horror, excitement, and pure guilt as Twilight was so willing to trust her, and seeing the reaction everypony had around them,( with the exception of the The Elements, who just stood and smiled at the proclamation) the feeling was mutual.
"I know you think it might be too much, but trust my judgement. I believe after the Changeling incident a few weeks back, you are completely capable of leading or at least overlooking ponies." Starlight noticed Twilight's tone quickly turn serious. " Especially in times of panic".
Starlight could see that Twilight was troubled by something, " Twilight, do you expect something to happen while you are gone. You know this could be even more reason to-"
She was stopped by the sudden sound from the Friendship Express making it known it will leave in one minute, and Twilight's attention was now completely towards her friends and the train.But before rushing off she looked back at Starlight with a worried expression. Ha! Starlight thought. Now your the one making it obvious you are troubled...and it's not helping.
But that look on Twilight's face quickly vanished and was replaced with a smile as she hugged Starlight and whispered a goodbye. Then quickly picked the bags and Spike up with her magic as she ran to the train.
Surprise briefly caught Spikes expression, and then was quickly followed by irritation, "Hey, if you were going to teleport here and pick them up with your magic, why did I have to carry those bags at all?"
Starlight did not hear the reply from Twilight as she looked towards her other friends and noticed The Elements waving enthusiastically towards Starlight and she responded with her own slightly enthusiastic wave. The only possible goodbye at that point as Twilight caught up to them and boarded the train.
The Friendship Express then slowly started to move as it increasingly sped away from sight, and wasn't until it was completely and entirely impossible to see, that all of the ponies who attended looked at Starlight, first with uncertainty, then followed by trying smiles. Everypony was willing to trust Twilight's judgement. So, as thirty or so seconds had passed since the Train was out of sight, the crowd disbanded, off to continue their daily life's.
Everypony left with the exception of Starlight. Her stomach began to twist as she was now alone within her mind. They're all counting on me now. She noticed it felt even worse to actually have them all depend on her, and now she could not prevent her skin from crawling as she remembered who she was during those times. I thought I got over this...can I really do thi-
Her thoughts suddenly stopped as she caught a green figure moving towards her through the side of her eyes.
She turned her head towards it and found Gummy slowly moving to her with a letter attached to his back. Impatient and not willing to wait, she used her magic to bring the creature towards her and took the note from him.
As she set him down, she opened the letter and was surprised by the the sudden sound of the Party Canon and appearance of "Surprise Confetti" (as Pinkie calls it). I don't know how she does it or how it's even possible to contain sound within paper, Starlight thought.
As the remaining confetti had finished raining down, she read the letter:
We may be leaving for a bit, but don't be sad, we are still with you in spirit and as your friends we know that no matter what, you are fully capable of guiding anypony through any situation. But if you do ever feel lonely or unable to doing everything by yourself. Know that we have asked four very good friends who are able and willing to help guide you through this experience. Each can be found currently waiting in Twilight's castle. We wish you the best of luck!
From, your very best friends, Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity
Starlight felt her eyes water as she finished the letter. I...have the best friends ever. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. Okay, lets do this. What's the worst that can happen.
THE END OF CHAPTER 1