//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The North Star // by Frostjack //------------------------------// The sun was just starting to set as Starlight entered the castle she resided. The empty halls always filled her with a sense of longing. As if the many rooms within its structure wished for occupants. Her being one of three of its residents found her echoing footsteps daunting. Though as f late she had grown accustomed to the unwelcoming castle. This place was home to Princess Twilight and Spike, but it never felt like a home to her. In fact, no place did. She found that all she was doing was staying here temporary until she mastered friendship, not to say she wanted to leave! Starlight just didnt want to stay so... secluded. "Starlight. Your back. We were starting to worry if you missed your train." Said a voice warmly. Twilight was reading a book seated at her grandiose table. A sight Starlight had seen many a time before. She reached into her saddle bag and pulled out the book. "Sorry, I was late. I was too busy getting you this awesome book!" She levitated the book over to Twilight who gave a squee in excitement. "Clover the Clever's incomplete Guide to Mysterious Oddities?!" She squeezed the book in her arms. "Do you know how rare this is? I haven't heard of anypony whos even read this! Except for Clover the Clever of course!" "Well." Starlight said walking over to her mentor. "Thats probably because its cursed!" She yelled starting Twilight. "What do you mean cursed?" She asked sheepishly. Holding the book an arms length from her. Seeing this caused a chuckle from Starlight who continued. "Apparently Clover put a curse on the book so ponies who read it cant remember what was on the pages." She reached into her bag once again. "Unless you have THESE of course!" She put the goggle she was given over Twilight's head, causing her to blink several times. She glanced and removed the goggles. Opening the book she began to read. Try as she might there was no way she could remember even the sentence before the one she was reading. She gave a weary look at Starlight as she put the goggles back on and read again. They actually worked! She was reading like a mad mare! Already half way done with the first chapter when starlight interrupted her. "Dooo you like it?" She asked with a big toothy grin. "Like it? I love it! Where did you find this book? Where did you find these goggles!? And wha-" She paused squinting at her friend. "And where did you get that?" Twilight asked pointing at her necklaces. Starlight grabbed the gem around her neck, remembering how it got there. "Oh I got it from a friend." She replied sheepishly. "But the Book I got at a secondhoof bookstore I found while sight seeing!" She quickly added. "And this other shop owner let me borrow the goggles." Twilight put the goggles on the table and closed the book. Beckoning her friend to sit next to her. "Sounds like you got quite the story to tell me." Twilight got comfortable in her chair as Starlight began to recant the moments from her day. Now taking the time herself to reflect on what had happen. Twilight noted the fondness of her tone when she mentions the bakery and Polaris's explanations towards curses. What really seemed to intrigue Twilight was the fact there there were ponies out there actually dispelling curses for a day to day job. Twilight hurled questions at Starlight when this part of the story came about and she answered her to the best of her abilities. When she told her of how the spell they used backfired and cause the crystal to break in two Starlight explained how Polaris made it into a necklaces for her. And its mysterious properties. "Can you show me?!" Twilight pleaded, eyes wide with wonder like a little filly. How could she say no? She held the gem in her hoof and began to speak. "Uh, hello? Polaris are you there?" The gem glowed as no replied was heard. "Polaris? Stella? Uh guys? Maybe I am out of range." She began to worry. Just then a light came from the gem and a loud crash was heard from it. "Starlight!?" Said a soot covered Polaris, who seemed to be in the rafters of the shop? "Hey there stranger long time no see!" Starlight giggled at his appearance. "Oh yeah its been ages. Hey what are you doing up there?" She asked as Twilight was covering her own mouth in a desperate attempt not to scream with excitement. "Oh you know! Hanging around!" Starlight raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah Stella tried another spell with the hat of immolation and some of her papers got in the way and sort of blew up again. Here gimme a second." He said as the picture began to fade. They heard a loud thud and a groan as the picture returned to focus. "I dont know how pegausi make it look so easy." He said aloud as he brushed himself off. "Hey pyro! Guess who just gave us a call!" Polaris yelled for his sister. "Oh I cant take it anymore!" Twilight said snatching the crystal from Starlight. "How does it work? How far is the range on it? What spells did you use to alter its magical properties?" Starlight snatched back her necklaces. "Who was that?" Polaris asked walking towards the back room. "Oh thats just the the Princess of Friendship not being able to contain herself. Again!" She said more at her overly excitable friend who smiled sheepishly. "Hehe hello there." Twilight said being ALLOWED to hold the gem. "My name is Twilight Sparkle its nice to meet you." Yelling was heard from the crystal as another pony pushed Polaris out of the way. "Twilight Sparkle as in PRINCESS Twilight? The Headmare of the Friendship school?" The brown unicorn said. "I read your thesis on the effects of magical creatures and there ecosystems!" Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "Oh gosh I wrote that when I was still in Celestaia's classes." She almost didnt remember writing it. "What did you think?" "Well your assumption that the Timber Wolves genius can be altered by region was sort of off." Stella adjusted the workers hat on her head. "My friend who lives by White Tail Woods informed me that its actually the type of wood they assimilate! And did you know- HEY!" Polaris regained the crystal from his sister. "Oh no! We'll be here all night if you go into arcainopologie again. And this mess isn't gonna clean itself!" Complains were heard from Stella as she reluctantly went to clean. "Sorry about that. As smart as she is shes twice as lazy sometimes." A book flew past his head and an innocent looking Stella was in the back feigning ignorance. "Glad to see you made it home okay." He said regaining composure. "Thanks, I just wanted to show Twilight how the gem worked. And.. I.. I mean, and now we have! Ha ha! So good work!" She laughed nervously only to be joined by Polaris equally as awkward. "HA why am I still talking?" She asked her self aloud. "Well I better let you two get back to cleaning!" "Yep! You saw the place. Gots LOADS to clean! Clean as a whistle! Ha ha." The pair stared at each other waiting for the other to say something. A silence grew incredibly loud. "Well have a good night Polaris! Catch you later alligator!" She said raising a hoof. "Okie doke bud! Ill dont be a stranger!" Polaris said still laughing awkwardly. The gems light dimmed and the transmission was cut. Starlight slumped in her chair. "See you later alligator? Who am I Pinkie?" She but her hooves over her face. "What was that all about? Twilight asked startling Starlight. "What was what? I was just showing you the crystal thats all!" She said hurriedly. Twilight cocked an eye at her. "Oh yeah?" She hummed. "You two seemed awfully chummy over the crystal! And he let you keep the book WITH the goggles, not to mention that piece of jewelry!" She was circling Starlight like a shark. "This was cursed earlier you know." Starlight replied trying to make a defense. But Twilight waved her off. "And he got you breakfast! You almost never eat breakfast!" Starlight didn't like where impromptu interrogation was going. "Sounds like you two had a pretty nice DATE!" Twilight exclaimed now snout to snout with Starlight. "Its not like- it wasnt- we didnt-" Stammering for recovering . "You see the pastries-" "J'ACCUSE!" She yelled at Starlight who gave a defeated huff. There was no talking to her when she got like this. "Alright! FINE! I think hes pretty cool okay?" She admitted. "Its not like were gonna see each other again anyway!" Her tone betrayed more than she was willing to let known. This caused a giggle from the princess. "Im sorry Starlight I guess i got kinda carried away there. But I think you'll see him again." She said grabbing her things from the table. "I gotta feeling he thinks your 'cool' too." She trotted way leaving Starlight feeling more exhausted than when she almost missed her train. She gently touched her crystal. "That'd be nice." She though out loud to herself. Gathering her things she headed off to her bedroom. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// At Curiosities and Curses, another gem grew dim. Polaris still smiling at the stone for letting talk to the mare he met that day. "Hey Romeo," his sisters voice said. "I could actually use some help with the cleaning." He sighed to himself and began to wipe soot and ash from the walls. For the second time that day. Thinking on the events that transpired that day only one stuck out in his mind. 'She was so understanding about the curses.' Normally whenever he told anypony about his and his sisters job, ponies usually got away from them as fast as they could. But not Starlight. Sure he could tell she was wary, but nopony in there right mind wouldn't be! Curses have an connotation with evil and such. Polaris was wonderfully surprised that his attempts to scare the book from her, with the mention of its curse, were a huge failure. He was so sure he would scare her off but there she stood. Wanting to help him, and she even warmed up to the idea of curing curses! He stopped cleaning the wall for a moment. "Hey sis, you dont think I could tell Starlight abou-" "You being cursed? You sure you wanna move again?" She said sharply causing Polaris to flinch. "You might have just made a friend little brother but you cant be sure she wont use your secret to hurt you." "But she wasnt afraid of the cursed objects! She even helped us with one!" He pleaded. "Its different when the object is a pony." Her tone grew harsher. "Remember what happened last time Polaris?" He wouldn't meet her eyes. "Do you?!" "I do." He solemnly said. "They burned out house down! It was a miracle Uncle got us in a train outta there without being seen! I dont want my house burned again!" She was shouting now. She noticed her brothers ears folding down. A heavy sigh came from her mouth. "Im sorry Polie, I just dont want anypony to hurt you again. Your curse is too dangerous to tell anypony about." She put a hoof on his shoulder. "But maybe one day we can figure out a way to break it. Maybe with the knowledge we have now we can even alter it!" She said trying to be upbeat. Polaris forced a smile. "Yeah your right sis. Good call." He pulled away from her and went back to his cleaning. "Hey why dont you get some rest? You did explode twice in one day. This mess will still be here tomorrow. And so will I." a soft chuckle was heard from the earth pony. "You are by far the worse of the two." A light punch came from Stella. "Jerk." She gave him a hug. "Love you Polie. Night." She made her way to the spot she was cleaning at as he started up the staircase. "Night Stella." As he began his climb all the elation from talking with Starlight went away from him. He was tired of lying to ponies, tired of not being able to his true self, tired of always looking over his shoulder. But mainly he was tired of this damn curse. He just wished things could go back to the way they were. When his sister studied curses for fun rather than obsess over them for his sake. He missed his uncle and his home. Home. He thought about that word as he entered his room. Looking around it he found it barren. Little accessories were strewn about the place but none of them held any substance. This place wasnt home. Just a habitat for existing. He hated it here. He thought about running away many a time before like most colts his age but he knew his sister would try to stop him. All she wanted to do was protect him. "But what about me?" he said to himself. "What about what I want? Maybe I dont wanna stay safe forever. Maybe I dont want to keep up this stupid lie." He could feel his blood boiling. "Why cant I just talk to somepony who'll listen!?" The furniture around his room begun to shake snapping him out of mood replacing anger with fear. "Its fine Polaris, just...chill." Calming down he sat in his chair and rubbed his hooves over his face. "I just want a friend to vent to you know?" He said talking to the poster of his favorite movie. 'Shadow Eye Private Detective.' "Do... do you think I should tell her?" The Poster remained stoic in its answer. "Heh, classic Shadow Eye. Never answering stupid questions." He reached for his crystal and activated it the glow illuminated his room for a few moments and then dimmed. "Well now we know what a missed call looks like. Ill call her again a bit later." He paused for a moment. "Well I dont want to annoy her what if shes sleeping?" He began to worry. It was nerve-racking enough thinking about telling her the truth. I mean they just met for Celestias sake! He didn't want to get on her bad side the second day of knowing her! "You know what? Ill just let her call me! Yeah Thats a good idea." He turned of the light to his room and gazed at his crystal. "Im sure she'll call soon enough." And with that his eyes closed and he fell asleep. Hoping for a better day.