//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight // Story: Book 2 The Light: by the flickering light // by Penelope Anne Ink //------------------------------// The streak of lightning traveled miles up and just barely hit the source of light before bouncing back. The energy crashed into one of the tables and sent flaming pies flying all over the place. More of the ponies lost their smiles and started reacting to Starry’s actions now. They had to, their houses would have caught on fire. A few of the pies landed on the closest houses and their thatched roofs started smoking before a small group of ponies ran for water buckets and dumped them on the beginning flames. In their frenzy they sloshed a trail of water through the streets. A few gave her a stern look and one looked like he was going to attack her when another pony shook her head and calmed him down. Starry couldn’t understand what they could possibly be thinking. Maybe they aren’t allowed to hurt me? She thought she’d try something. She walked up a little hesitantly to a nearby pony. The pony was trying to pick up what was left of the table that Starry blew up. Starry reached out a hoof and tapped on her shoulder. No response. Taking a deep breath, Starry pulled back her hoof. Slap! The pony reeled backwards and a few of the other ponies gasped in shock, but nopony came up to help the pony and the pony, a little woozy, stood back up and continued to pick up what was left of the table. Starry was surprised nopony did anything to her after that. But she was more concerned about the pony she hurt. “I am so sorry! I just, I don’t know what to do or anything!” Starry had started directing her plea toward that pony, but started just desperately looking around at all the other ponies around her. “Then don’t worry about it.” Starry turned around and saw a little filly standing behind her wearing pigtails and a flowy dress. “Have you tried everything that you could?” the filly asked her and looked straight into Starry’s eyes. “Well,” Starry looked off to the side and started rubbing one hoof with the other, “I think so. I mean, I asked and I tried to run off and I even tried to see if there was some barrier I could break. I just don’t know.” The small filly grinned a little. “Then don’t worry.” Starry stopped for a second. She couldn’t tell if the filly in front of her was trying to trick her into something or not, but she knew there must be more to her. “I need to find my friend,” Starry decided to say. At least this one pony was reacting to her, maybe she could figure out something about this place through her. “Are you sure you need to?” “...Yee-es?” “Around here, nopony needs to do anything,” the filly brightened up even more. “We don’t need or want anything at all. Why don’t you join us for our picnic?” Starry looked up and saw that a few of the townsponies had packed up some baskets with the pies and were heading their direction with the same smiles on their faces. “Thanks for the invitation but I don’t really have time for this.” “What’s time?” the filly asked and tilted her head a bit. She asked it like Starry was the filly that was talking nonsense. Starry thought she would have to explain it but decided she didn’t want to waste the time on that either. She didn’t know where she was, but if the light above was any indication, there probably wasn’t such a thing as time where she currently was. If that was the case, even if she did explain to them what time was, it wouldn’t really make sense. “Well what are you?” Starry asked the filly. “I’m a pony,” the filly said, straight faced. And Starry wanted to facehoof. She wanted to be a little snippy at the filly by asking that but at the same time she hoped she’d gain something. She had thought maybe they weren’t real ponies, or maybe they would identify themselves by their town or she’d get the filly’s name or something. But of course the filly would say that. Stupid. *** *** *** *** *** *** Edgy didn’t want to have to climb the cliff side for the third time that day, so he did his best to shout up to the top for help in the hope that the stout pony would hear him. For a minute, he didn’t hear a response or see any movement at the top. So he called again. His voice was going hoarse but he didn’t know what else to do. A second later, he could see the stout pony scuttling down the best he could down the cliff side by some rocks that Edgy hadn’t noticed. And sooner than Edgy could imagine, the stout pony was down beside him. He took one look at Starry and then pointed out the berry bushes nearby. “Don’t worry too much. Your friend is alright. Those weird berries are ludibacas. They don’t taste too good, but they don’t kill you.” Edgy went back to check Starry’s pulse but the cold started creeping into his own hoof. “They actually transport your soul into a pocket dimension.” the stout pony continued. Edgy didn’t feel all that much better knowing her soul was missing. “Well, what do we do then?” he demanded. “There isn’t anything we can do. Her soul can’t come back until she’s worked out whatever has been bothering her the most. That’s how they work.” Edgy put one hoof to his face for a second before turning back toward Starry’s lifeless body. He thought back to her talk when they trotted out here. It can’t take too long to work through that, right? She pretty much apologized already. “And what happens if she doesn’t figure it out?” he asked the stout pony. The stout pony looked back at him and shrugged. “That, I don’t know. Every pony I’ve ever seen eat it has come out just fine, so I wouldn’t worry too much about her. I never actually ate one myself, but I’ve heard other ponies talk about it plenty enough, and it didn’t seem like any had a problem with it.” [Botanist's Note: The ludibaca, or "berry of learning/games,"-results may vary. Consult a doctor if allergies develop or memory loss occurs.]