//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Book 2 The Light: by the flickering light // by Penelope Anne Ink //------------------------------// Starry had a dream that night. She was falling with nothing but open air all around her. She looked up but only saw the wide expanse of dark sky, looking as if it would draw her in. And she almost thought she was falling up as the dark sky grew bigger and bigger the further she got from it. She didn’t want to turn over to see where she was falling to. But she struggled to turn over anyway. Whatever was ahead, she wanted to face it head on. Below her was just more darkness, like a repeat of the dark sky above. She began to panic. In a loud snap, she wasn’t falling anymore. She was on the ground in the Everfree Forest. A Timberwolf howled off in the distance and she could see the moon shining above her. As she watched, the moon started looking like it was swimming in blood. The red light shone down below onto her and she felt a rush of energy. It felt like she was once again being taken out of her body. She could watch as her body was lifted into the air and suddenly, a blue lace appeared at the base of her tail and her mane, weaving in a spiral from her body toward the opposite tips. Her eyes turned a brilliant blue and a blue aura appeared at her horn instead of its normal bright green. The other Starry turned her head up to the sky and so Starry turned to see what she was looking at. A large meteorite was blazing through the sky and looked like it was coming straight at her. The meteorite suddenly turned into a pony. It was Cass, falling toward her like she was trying to crash through her swinging shutter again. And then it became Postage Stamp, clutching on to his carving utensils and a wooden block. Starry was about to bolt toward it when it all went black again. She thought she heard voices and could feel some shadowy forms brush up against her. But everything was too dark. All of a sudden there was a loud snap. She woke up. With one look outside she could see that it was still way too early to be awake. She didn’t want to get up, but, after tossing and turning for a few minutes, she gave up all hope of sleeping. Outside her window, she knew Rochester and his family were still fast asleep. Jane had screeched at her for a few minutes when she finally came home from the party, because the fireworks had woken up the babies just when Jane had gotten them into bed. Rochester could only look at Starry apologetically. He was way too exhausted himself. She could see one lamp shining through a window at Postage Stamp’s house. He worked late at night sometimes. Starry didn’t want to look into the mirror. Her mane was trailing down her face again and she didn’t feel like putting in the energy to comb it back into place. For the most part, she could get her mane to stick in Rarity’s style, but every now and then it had to be readjusted. She thought she heard a noise downstairs. Cass. She knew Cass was combing through her pantry again. Starry began to wonder just how much of her food Cass probably took while Starry was living on the streets. She scrunched up her muzzle. It wasn’t a fond memory. She had just wandered around the park for an entire day and didn’t make it back home before dark. At that point, she had just decided to live on the street for a while. And thankfully, Cass and Bee were there for her for half of that time. But it was still silly. Edgy was still back at the inn. He had said he’d stay a while, though he wasn’t sure for how long. But Starry already decided that whatever he decides to do, she wasn’t going to be snippy about it again. After she paced one or two more times, she began to yawn and crawled back into bed. I’ll worry about it in the morning. To be continued.