//------------------------------// // Peace // Story: The Pain of the Past // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// Nearly the entire population of Our Town was awakened by the earthquake that rocked the entire area for nearly two minutes. After everything settled down, they started checking the buildings for any structural damage, of which there was none, and did a head count. Everypony was accounted for, save for one; Double Diamond. After checking his cottage and finding nothing, the overall concern began to rise. "Look, up there!" Night Glider pointed up to the southeast mountain. In the moonlight, they saw a cloud of dust rising from the vault cave. Together, Party Favor, Night Glider, and Sugar Belle galloped up the path. When the cave came into view, they saw that it had completely collapsed; a pile of rubble now poured out of where the entrance used to be. Double Diamond stood in front of it, and when they saw who was in front of him, they came to a stop behind him. "Double Diamond!" Party Favor called out. He glanced back at them, then immediately back to the unicorn who laid unconscious on the ground in front of him. While he had a few scrapes, she was considerably worse off. He was holding his scarf against her head, and slowly lifted it to see if the red gash just to the right of her horn had stopped bleeding. "Is she alright? What happened?" Sugar Belle asked. Starlight began to stir, and her eyes fluttered open. She felt herself on a wooden floor, and lifted her head to see where she was. The Equalization Cottage. Getting a hold of her fear, she glanced back at her flank, and saw her cutie mark. She turned towards the locked door with fierce determination in her eyes, and charged her horn. A purple-white beam of crackling energy surged forth and disintegrated the door, and she charged forward through the smoke, leaping out onto the dirt of the main street. She saw the other Starlight angrily turn towards her, and charge up her own horn. A purple hazy smoke surrounded her and the other unmarked villagers. The two Starlights both fired off magical beams at each other, and they met and clashed in the middle of the street. "There will be equality. You can't stop it!" The other Starlight snarled. "No. There won't be. You are not me. Not anymore. And you are not my friends. Loving one another and serving each other with our unique gifts; that is how we are all equal!" Slowly, Starlight's beam overtook the other's, and upon impacting, the entire area exploded in a white light, and Starlight shielded her eyes. She stood there for several moments, before she lowered her hooves and found herself standing in an endless expanse of white nothingness. "You did it, it is done." A regal voice said behind her. Starlight turned to see Princess Luna coming up to her side, a very small, purple smokey, hazy orb next to her. It calmly floated forward, and melted back into Starlight's barrel. "I did it? So that thing won't bother me anymore?" Starlight asked, as she looked down where it had entered her chest. "No more than normal. You may wake up with a bit of a headache, but yes, you did it. The dark magic behind your vault is gone." Starlight let out a breath of relief. "Thank you so much, Princess Luna." "I merely pointed you down the path, Starlight. You had to walk it." "So... What now?" "Now, you can get a good night's sleep." Luna smiled. Starlight wasn't sure what woke her up first; the sunrise shining through the window, or the throbbing on her head. Giving out a groan, she announced her awakened state to the four ponies in the cottage with her. "Take it easy, Starlight, You took quite the hit on the head." Double Diamond told her. Sitting up in the bed she had been put in, she looked over to the full length mirror, and saw that the right side of her head had gauze wrapped around it. "What happened?" She asked, softly touching a hoof to it. "When the wall exploded, you got hit with a chunk of rock. You're lucky it missed your horn. I was able to drag you out of there right before the whole place came down." Double Diamond said. "Yeah, who knows what you would have done if you lost your horn in a cave." Night Glider quipped. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Double Diamond." "We should be thanking you," Party Favor replied. "Every unicorn in town sensed the dark magic in that place, but we never knew how to deal with it. "Thanking me...?" Starlight repeated, taken aback. "I was only fixing my mistake, making it so no one else could find and use the dark magic in that wall, so I could sleep at night. You shouldn't be thanking me." "Yes, we should. You've owned up to your mistakes, and then some. Like I said earlier, it's because of you that we're all here. You brought us all together here." Starlight got nods all around from her first four villagers, and she gave them a smile as her eyes teared up again. "Now, I don't think you should use your magic to go anywhere until that wound is healed, and the first train to Ponyville doesn't leave until noon. So let's get some breakfast, what do you say?" Sugar Belle suggested. Starlight wiped her eyes, giving her a nod. "Alright. That sounds great." She got up, and together, the four of them left Double Diamond's cottage out onto the main street of Our Town, and began trotting towards Sugar Belle's bakery. The dust from the cave-in had finally settled, and Starlight never noticed before how beautiful the sunrise looked as the first rays of light came over the mountain. "By the way," Party Favor began. "Our third Sunset Festival is next month. Please don't make us bother sending out an invitation. You're always welcome." Starlight smiled. "I wouldn't miss it."