//------------------------------// // Ride on, Shooting Star // Story: Star Overhead // by KorenCZ11 //------------------------------// Twilight The blue skies in Underhoof are always the same. So underdeveloped and out of the way from the rest of Equestria, this town might even have a thousand ponies in it on a good day. Farmland as far as the eye can see, a lazy river that meanders wherever it feels like. A quiet place where nothing ever happens and nopony ever comes to visit. Because the river surrounds town, it’s almost like the bridges out are the only indication that there’s a world beyond this place. Trapped in a ring of fog that rises from the river every morning, it’s like a haze that says the sky is all that’s above us, the never changing, ever blue, cloudless sky. When I reach my hoof out and hope to take hold of something more, I always find myself staring at the sun. The blue skies in Underhoof, are always the same. The sun is shining. Everywhere around me I see stars and blackness, the reds and blues of gases in space, the constellations lined together in glowing streaks. Cygnus, Pegasus, Draco, Andromeda, they all dance around me as I spin. I keep trying to correct my position, I have to catch the sun because the darkness is after me. I can feel it creeping closer, the constellations are being swallowed one by one. The shadow is looking at me, hungrily and ready to eat. The sun will save me if I can just reach it. The sun will save me if it will just reach out for me. The warmth that fights the cold, the light that fights the darkness. Blood starts raining from behind me. The darkness has bitten one of Pegasus’ legs. The teeth climb up in gaseous form, like an all-consuming fog. Pegasus fades and bleeds, trying to reach out to me, but I can’t turn back. I have to get to the sun because I know the sun can save me. Pegasus starts screeching, the blood is falling faster. The darkness has taken Cygnus. The sun is still too far away. The darkness has taken Draco. The sun is still too far away. The darkness has taken Andromeda. The sun is even further away. The darkness is about to reach my leg. “No, no, NO!” When I opened my eyes, I found myself in my room, reaching my hoof out for something and nothing for it to catch. My alarm was screeching its ear shattering chirp and I wanted nothing more than to smash it in my hooves. I felt awful… and when I noticed my bloody sheets, I knew why. “Don’t worry honey, this happens to all little fillies sooner or later, you just had it a little later than sooner, yeah?” Finally out of the shower and dressed for school, Dad caught me before I could escape. He put my sheets in the laundry and felt the need to talk to me about my ‘special gift’ that I’ll be getting every month from now on. I don’t even have my cutiemark yet, why is this happening to me? “I know, Dad, do we really have to keep talking about this? I’m going to be late.” The blue stallion was somewhere in his late thirties and in desperate need of a shave. His dark blue beard had grown half down his neck. It was thin, patchy, and just looked awful. “Well, I talked to your brother about something similar when he was your age, I figured that it was only right that I try to talk to you.” He put his hoof on my shoulder and looked down at me with those tired gold eyes of his. I pushed his hoof away and stepped back. “Well maybe he should come back and talk to me too, since neither of you even know what I’m going through! I’ll be home later.” With that, I stormed off, hoping that this would all just go away. The pain in my abdomen told me that wasn’t going to happen any time soon, though. “Do you always go fishing this early in the morning, or is today a special case?” The pink filly noticed me from under the bridge in the river, doing something and getting the socks and sleeves of her school uniform wet. “It’s better than going to school every morning, don’tcha think?” The fog was thinner than usual today, and the pink skies of the sunrise made it look strange down by the river. In the pink-orange haze, I followed the sidewalk steps to the river bed and met Pinkie in her half-soaked uniform. “Probably. If you want to spend the rest of your life here, anyways. I’m going to get out of this awful place and go somewhere like Canterlot. Maybe I can meet the Queen and get a cushy government job.” “Oh, there it is!” Pinkie went back into the little shallow river and fished up a pink pencil case covered in balloons and rainbows. She tossed it in her bag and threw the damp satchel over her head. “Special day?” I asked. Pinkie rolled her eyes. “No, just your usual one. I figured you would’ve passed me sooner. How about you?” I looked away from her in disgust. I didn’t want to think about it. “Let’s just go. I don’t want to be late just because you don’t want to be there.” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a special day. Ooh! It didn’t finally happen did it?” Before I could react, she ran behind me and flipped up my skirt. I kicked her in the face and had the biggest temptation to shoot a beam at her, if I could manage it. I wasn’t the best at attack magic, but I could still do it… probably. “Pinkie, what the hell!?” She rubbed the blood from her snout and got a big smile on her face. “Oh, somepony is having a special day, isn’t she? It’s not as good as a cutiemark, but hey, at least you get to share in my suffering now.” She got back up and threw a foreleg around my neck with a big dumb smile on her face. I sighed and pushed her off. “You’re still wet. Don’t touch me.” I started for the stairway back to the sidewalk by the road as Pinkie followed quickly behind. “I mean, you’re wet too, just not in any of the fun ways.” I scowled at her. “What does that even mean?” This crazy filly, going off about whatever she feels like. I don’t even know why I bother with her some days. “Oh, you’ll understand when you’re older. Shiny knows what’s up.” I furrowed my brows. “What does my brother have to do with anything? You’re thirteen! You don’t know anything.” Those crystal blue eyes looked like they were laughing at me. The pink pony lowered herself, then she pounced me to the ground. We rolled on the soft grass until she was sitting on top of me. “I know all kinds of things, Twily. I could teach you…” I feel so tired. Every day is the same. Get up, get ready for school, get annoyed at Dad, leave home angry, meet Pinkie by the river, and then she does this. She always does this. “Your mane smells really good today. Did you get a new shampoo?” She bit my ear softly. I could feel her breath on my skin as her hooves traveled inside my uniform. “No, it’s the same as always. Pinkie, we’re going to be late! You’re too young to be doing this. I’m too young to be doing this.” Her lips made their way down to my neck. “We’re the same age, what does it matter?” I pushed her off and made her look at me. “Pinkie, please.” She frowned, but eventually sighed and buttoned my blazer back up. “Spoilsport.” “In other news, today Queen Luna is announcing a plan for space exploration. A new branch of the Equestrian Aeronautics and Space Administration government office will be formed called the Equestrian Space Colonization Agency, or ESCA for short. She believes that the future of ponykind lies among the stars, and the next generation will be the first to visit worlds beyond our own.” Pinkie folded her ears back and groaned at the store across the street. “Geez, does anypony ever just go in that electronics store and complain about the noise? It’s like they want to blow out the speakers on that thing before they even get a chance to sell it!” I didn’t really think it was all that loud, but she’s always like this with noise. She’s usually got headphones on her somewhere to block everything out, but she takes them off around me. “Eh, let them do what they want. Who cares? It’s not like there are enough ponies in this town to even come out this way. I mean, maybe Trixie’s dad or Rarity’s mom would buy it if they really wanted to, but those ponies have real money and can buy better stuff than what that crappy local shop has.” This part of Underhoof was closer to downtown, but because of how small our town is to begin with, nopony ever really comes back this way. It’s empty so often that it’s still considered the ‘outskirts’ of town. The interstate road that runs through our little place is about the only reason Underhoof has to exist, since it makes it easy for our farmers to ship off their goods for the bigger towns to buy. Ponies come, ponies go, but nopony ever stays. Except Dad. Dad stays. Shining left, but I’m still here. “Woah, do you see that!?” Here she is complaining about the volume, then she yells in my ears. After trying to rip my sleeve off and jumping and pointing with her other hoof, I noticed a shooting star in the dawn blue sky. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before.” Pinkie gasped and grabbed my face. “You haven’t!? Oh my goddess, oh my goddess! Twily, when you see a shooting star, you have to make a wish! Okay, okay, I wish… that all the bad ponies would just go away! Okay, now you!” I looked back up at the star as it shot through the sky and thought. A wish? What would I wish for? I stopped believing in Santa Hooves a few years ago when Shining told me he wasn’t real. Why would I make a wish now? Shooting stars are just rocks hurtling through space. They aren’t magic by nature, nothing in space is magical, only earth has stuff like that. But… what if she’s right and it really will come true? I mean… a wish is harmless right? If there’s nothing to it and words are just wind, then… “I wish… I could meet her.” I made sure to whisper it as quietly as I could. It shouldn’t matter, but I don’t need anypony to hear that. “Hey! I shared my wish, so share! What’d you wish for?” She grabbed me and shook me. Thankfully, even though she’s an earth pony, Pinkie has never been as strong as her sisters. I quickly pushed her off and rolled my eyes. “Wishes are dumb. They’re just words. There’s no magic in a rock burning up in the atmosphere, and there’s no magic in just hoping for something. It doesn’t matter what I wished for because it will never happen.” Pinkie pouted and sat and crossed her hooves. “Man, you are a spoilsport today.” She looked back up at the shooting star, but then tilted her head. Pinkie being confused about something is normal, but why…? “Hey uh… does that… look like it’s getting closer?” I stared at the white star myself and, honestly? It did look like it was getting closer. And fast. Really fast. “We should probably run.” Pinkie frowned. “I mean, don’t we die if it hits anyways?” I nodded. “Probably.” As quickly as possible, we bolted from our spots and ran the opposite direction from where the star was heading down the sidewalk. It was still getting bigger. We could see the fire breaking through what little cloud cover Underhoof had today. The trail was getting larger and I started to hear it. Zooming through the wind, Pinkie and I were running as fast as our legs would carry us, but the sound only kept getting closer. And… weirder? The closer it got, the more I thought it sounded like an engine. Then it did sound like an engine. We passed the point where the star was visible, but the white cone around it was only just above town now. A big shockwave ran through us and a few nearby windows shattered around us. Stunned and at a loss for hearing, I stopped and turned to look. The star was behind us! No, wait, that’s… a pony. On a motorcycle. A flying motorcycle. Carrying a green guitar of some kind off to her side, like it was a sword or something. The ringing in my ears started to subside, and then I processed the music. She was blaring some song and… staring directly at me? “Oooooooh, Starlight darling! Mommy’s home!” The last thing I saw was a big white unicorn mare on a flying motorcycle. None of this made sense. Not her for being as big as she was, not the name she called me by, not the flying motorcycle that looked like it was made twenty years ago, and definitely not the pastel green electric bass she swung at my face. TWANG! “Aaaah! What did you do to Twilight!?” What? Who did what to me? Oh goddess, my head hurts… I feel like my horn was just pushed into my skull. “I hit her with my bass, what does it look like? Geez, are all children this stupid nowadays?” Who is that? She sounds so familiar, but… do I know that voice? “Hmm. Nothing is happening. Well, maybe she needs more encouragement! Come’ere, Starlight!” What is that sound? It’s like somepony is striking chords indiscriminately on a guitar and revving an engine somewhere far away… Oh goddess, everything is so blurry. I can’t see. My head hurts. My stomach hurts. Everything hurts. “Stop it! Why would you hit Twilight!? She didn’t do anything wrong!” Is that really Pinkie? “Wait. This is totally Starlight. I could swear her name was Starlight.” “No! This is Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!” “Oh shit… Damn it, did I hit the wrong kid again? Well. Crap. I can still fix this! She needs CPR!” Somepony was shoved out of the way and heavy hooves clocked closer. CPR? Doesn’t that mean… “But… she’s still breathing?” Goddess, I wish my vision would clear up. What in the world is going on? “I’ll save you Starlight, darling!” I managed to finally blink away the blurriness just in time to see that big white mare open my mouth and force air down my throat. She was so heavy and strong, I couldn’t even fight back, it was like she had me in a vice. My lungs were already full and it felt like they were going to pop, but she just, kept, blowing. I struggled as much as I could to push her off until, finally, she let go of me. “Whew. I was worried I might’ve actually killed one this time. Well, not that worried, but whatever.” All my senses back to normal, I sat up straight and tried to spit out the awful taste of somepony else’s mouth. Why did she do that!? I never stopped breathing! Why did she hit me!? How did she hit me? Nopony can make a bike that flies, much less one that looks older than I am! “Gross! What is wrong with you!?” I finally got a good look at this pony, and she was humongous. A white mare, probably double the size of Dad, and a unicorn by the looks of the gigantic, white spiral shooting out of her helmet. Her coat had a hint of pink in it, now that I studied her, and her eyes were some kind of purple. She was wearing a red leather jacket with black stripes on the sleeves and something written on the back that started with the word ‘top.’ She had a half helmet and goggles on, and a big yellow scarf around the base of her neck. Her mane was a long curly mess of pink, purple, blue, and green, and I could see a yellow shirt between her jacket and black leather pants. Good goddess, did this mare jump out of the last two decades or something? “Hmm… nah, this is definitely the right kid. She looks just like him. One good swing should do it this time. Now hold still, Starlight!” She reared back on her hind legs and raised her hooves up behind her shoulder like she was about to grab something. That green bass I saw earlier jumped from the ground to her hooves in gold magic, and suddenly I realized I was in danger. This crazy old lady is going to kill me! “Wait, sto-” Pinkie jumped in front of her, but rather than, I don’t know, not attacking her, she swung her guitar at Pinkie and hit her right in the temple. TWANG! Pinkie corkscrewed off into the grass by the sidewalk and the bass rang out a chord that sounded… really sweet, almost like the beginning of a lullaby. The old mare smiled wide and pumped one of her hooves. “Hell yeah, that’s a homerun! Hey, she might just work, too. You heard that, it sounded great, didn’t it, Starlight?” Still grinning like a fiend, she fell back down and swung the bass around on her back. She was still looking at me, so I assume I’m Starlight, whoever that’s supposed to be. “Um, my name is Twilight, and what the hell are you doing trying to hit us!? Are you out of your mind!?” The white mare sat and used her other forehoof to cradle her chin in a thoughtful pose. Oh, my goddess, she’s really considering it. “Probably. Hey look, she’s back up! Here, these are for your little problem. Kay, bye~!” The white mare threw some oval shaped packages at the ground and flashed in golden light from one spot to her bike, then the engine roared to life with a heavy kick to the starter. She pulled back the gas and pulled her goggles down while the front tire soared in the air. The bike lurched forward with incredible speed, blowing the packages away, along with my mane and my skirt. I think I sat there like that for maybe ten minutes, trying to parse together what in the living hell just happened. When I didn’t find an answer, I fixed myself up, picked up the packages, threw them in my backpack, and then collected Pinkie. “I knew we were going to be late.” When I explained to Mrs. Rich why we were late to class, I told her that I’d just started my first cycle and needed to get some emergency utilities, and Pinkie was kind enough to help me. While it wasn’t the truth, it was far easier to believe. There are three schools in Underhoof. One for grades K through 5th , and one for each gender from 6th to 12th. Because of our small population, there were no state funded ‘public’ schools here, making this place the easiest option. Of the 7th grade girl’s classes, we were separated based on scores from a test we took at the beginning of the year. Those with higher scores, like me, went to the advanced class, while the rest, like Pinkie, went to the regular class. I only see her at lunch and after we’re let out for the day and we walk home together. She says she hates it and doesn’t want to be here anymore. Honestly, I don’t like it either, but I know it’s the only way out of this place, so I’ll suffer until I can escape. In class, Rarity told me that ponies were talking about some crazy mare on a motorcycle who was as big as two stallions put together. They called her ‘the Motor Mare.’ Speeding around on her bike, doing double, even triple the speed limit in some places, like she doesn't care if she hit anypony and had no respect for the law. Our little two pony police force doesn’t stand a chance against her, especially against a bike that goes even faster than most of the cars in this place. Even if they did manage to catch her, she can teleport. I’d never seen a unicorn capable of that until today, and my brother was a prodigy. Rarity also told me that she got hit in the face by this mare with some kind of guitar and blacked out. When she woke up, she was here and didn’t remember how she arrived. I told her she was crazy, but I knew better. Almost the same thing happened to me. Underhoof is supposed to be a boring place. Nothing ever happens here, nothing ever changes. The fog sits around the city like a wall that tells ponies that there’s nothing outside of here. This is all the world, and the world is tiny and secluded. But today, all kinds of things have happened. The nightmare, Pinkie, the Motor Mare. What in the hell is going on? In the end, I never told Rarity about my own run-in with the crazy unicorn and pretended like nothing ever happened. The blue skies in Underhoof are always the same. When I finally went home, my head started hurting. After a painful experience in the bathroom, I decided that I was going to sleep until Dad made dinner. Everything hurt, and the worst of it all, I couldn’t get that chord out of my head. I don’t know enough about music to know what it was, but it was so pleasant. Like a song all on its own, a little piece of music that makes my heart ache for something more. She hit Pinkie, but Pinkie didn’t even black out like I did. She said it hardly hurt even though it sent her flying. That sounded great, didn’t it Starlight? She talked to me like she knew me. She kept calling me Starlight, but that’s not even my name. Who is that mare? Why did she attack us? Why did she give me tampons? No, wait, I know why she did that, but why did she help me after she attacked me? The questions kept coming, but I had no answers. Eventually, sleep took me and the white mare evaporated from my consciousness. In my dreams, I was with my brother and his mom in Canterlot, a big city built around the base of a mountain with a large castle sitting high above a waterfall that pours out to either side. The grass was green, the trees were tall and sweet smelling, and everypony looked happy. The royal guard was awarding Shining for another feat of insane magic he performed at the young age of eighteen. An energy beam that could break a shield barrier, teleporting across the city without exhaustion, a real stallion with the stamina and magical prowess to match his body. Muscular and strong, kind and gentle, the type of stallion anypony would want at their side. I only wish it could’ve been real. I woke up drowsy and in a haze. My body still hurt, but at least the headache was mostly gone, and I didn’t feel as bad as I did on the way home. “Twilight, dinner!” I rose from our bunk bed at Dad’s call and put some pajamas on. Maybe eating something will wake me up. Our house was a little two-story building way on the outskirts of the outskirts of Underhoof. The living room, kitchen, dining room, and toilet room were all on the bottom floor. Dad’s room, the room my brother and I shared, and the bathroom were all on the top floor. I never asked why we lived in Underhoof, I’d always assumed that this is where Dad could afford to be. We never left and anything we did as a family was always somewhere around here. Things would never be the same again. When I turned the corner from the stairs and into the kitchen, I felt my eyes shoot open. There she was. The huge white unicorn. She was sitting at the table, talking with Dad. Why is she here? Why did he let her in? Does he know her? Does she know him? Who is she? What the hell!? “Gah! It’s you! The Motor Mare!” I found myself pointing my hoof at her. They’re eating noodles? Dad hates noodle bowls, why would he be eating noodles? “Oh, hi, honey. I hired this live-in maid after she hit me with her motorcycle. Pretty cool, huh?” I couldn’t imagine how my face looked. There wasn’t one word for what I was feeling, and I was really bad at not showing my emotions when I got wound up like this. Anger, fear, confusion, shock. “Pretty cool!? What the fuck is wrong with you!?” The white mare sucked up more noodles and then turned her eyes on me. “Motorcycle, please. I ride only the best. That’s a custom 1981 Harley Davidson, thank you very much.” She pointed to the corner of the dining room, and I had to move closer to the table to see that she had actually brought her bike INSIDE THE HOUSE! “How did you even get that in here!? Who cares what kind of bike it is, why are you in my house!? She hit you, didn’t she!? Why would you hire her!?” Dad shrugged and the Motor Mare picked up some more noodles with chopsticks in her magic and fed them to Dad. He sucked them up greedily, but a green onion was stuck on his chin. The white mare eagerly leaned in and licked it off his face, going so far as to suck his lip into hers before she pulled away, leaving a trail of spit coming off of Dad. If it was possible, I think my jaw would’ve hit the floor. “Oh Nightlight, dear, you are such a messy eater. I can’t trust you to keep clean, so maybe I’ll do it myself♥” Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa- “Celestia, please, not in front of Twilight.” Dad said with a giggle in his voice. “What the fuck.” “Come now, Starlight, I made dinner for everypony! It’s your favorite, instant ramen.” “My name is Twilight! T. W. I. L. I. G. H. T! How many ponies have to tell you that before you get it!?” “Starlight, honey, don’t get upset with Celestia, she only wants to be friends with you.” “Oh my goddess, Dad, what the hell.” “Twilight, don’t rain on Nightlight’s parade. What’s a lonely, thirty-somethings stallion to do when a mare like me runs him over?” “He-! You! Both of you!” “Twilight, your dinner is going to get cold. Celestia went to such an effort to make it for you, you can’t turn down her hospitality like that.” “This is our house! She hit me in the face with a bass!” “You mean… this bass?” The Motor Mare popped a fish out of nothing in her golden magic. I slapped my hooves to my face. If only it was hard enough to break my skull, then this would all just end. “Just because the word is spelled the same…” “Wow, impressive as ever. Where’d you find that Celestia?” “Oh, you know, I just pulled it out of the river on my way here. Can you believe the speed limits in this town? They want me to do less than sixty everywhere I go. That’s just ridiculous.” “It’s a SAFETY concern, so ponies like you don’t run over other ponies!” Celestia reared her head back and looked at me in disbelief. “What? How am I supposed to run ponies over if I’m not going fast enough?” “Oh my goddess.” “You keep saying that, honey. Maybe we should get you some extra materials so you can expand your vocabulary.” “I have no words.” “Speaking of my sister, how is the government these days?” “Oh, you know, space this, space that. The Queen is so concerned about space that she seems to want to start moving ponies to other planets within the next few years or so. Don’t know how she’s going to do that, but you never know what Luna will do when she’s got her mind set on something.” I had reached my limit and decided that it was best to just take the cup ramen and go back upstairs. Dad has no game and basically negative charm, so how he managed to get a hold of somepony as pretty and shapely as the Motor Mare even vaguely interested in him, I’ll never know. Why the Motor Mare was interested in Dad had me even more confused, but the way she… ugh, it just creeps me out. I don’t understand her. I don’t understand him. I don’t understand anything. I finished the ramen, which wasn’t really all that great, but filling enough that I didn’t want to go back to sleep, even after I was so drained from just trying to process anything that happened today. Nothing made sense. How did she even get that bike in here? Did she go through the yard and bring it in through the sliding door? Even if she did that it shouldn’t have fit, those handlebars are crazy wide. The back tire on that thing is almost as big as I am, it just shouldn’t fit! I couldn’t focus on my homework, and I couldn’t focus on my novel, so I decided to turn on the Ponystation and play a game. Before he left, Shining and I would always sit here and play together. He was always better than me at everything, but I never cared about that. I just wanted to spend time with him. He was everything to me. A knock at the door broke my concentration. “It’s unlocked.” “So... How’s the bruise?” That’s not Dad’s voice. I paused and turned around to see that the white mare had taken up residence in my desk chair. She was barely wearing Dad’s black bathrobe and her gigantic mane was dripping and hardly contained by a full-sized towel. My towel, to be exact. Bruise? What bruise? I got up and opened the closet to check the body length mirror in there. I looked tired for sure, today was definitely taking its toll on me, but I didn’t see a bruise. I turned myself every which way, even checking under my pajamas to make sure there was nothing there. Then, a flash of pain in my forehead made me lift up my bangs. Between my eyes, right smack dab in the middle of my forehead just under my horn, was a huge bruise that almost looked like necrosis had taken hold. It was black and greenish, even the thin hair that made up the coat on my face looked sick somehow. “Good goddess! Is it infected!? You did this to me, didn’t you!? What is this!?” The mare tilted her head and part of her wet mane fell over one eye. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. It’s not infected at least, and it won’t get that way, but that’s the least of your worries. I can’t wait to see what comes out of your head.” She had a smirk on her face and I didn’t like it. “Who are you?” “You called me the Motor Mare, didn’t you?” “That isn’t your name.” “I am Celestia.” The way she said it was almost regal, like it wasn’t just her name, but her title. It surprised me. “Why did you hit me?” “Wouldn’t you like to know?” She leaned over the chair back and crossed her hooves. She lowered her massive head to meet me at eye level and smiled even wider. “Look at you. Somepony turned out pretty, didn’t they? Where’d you get that mark on your neck?” Damn it, Pinkie! I slapped my hoof over the mark. “I don’t have to answer you!” Even her one visible eye looked like it was smiling at me. Laughing at me even, just like Pinkie’s when... “How about we make a deal? You tell me the truth, and I’ll tell you the truth.” I don’t have any reason to trust anything she says, she could be just like that other mare and try to take our money. “Why did you hit me?” “I thought it was the best way to get the attention I wanted.” “What do you want with Dad? Are you conning him out of his money? I… I’ll fight you!” Celestia let out a chuckle, then couldn’t contain it anymore and started laughing. It wasn’t mocking, but… light and happy. Like she was genuinely enjoying something enough to just… laugh. “Good goddess, you are just adorable♥ Too cute. Absolutely and utterly too cute.” I was suddenly enveloped in golden light and lifted away from the mirror and into Celestia’s forelegs. “Woah! Hey! Let go of me!” She wrapped herself around me and squeezed me like a filly with a new doll. Oh goddess, she’s so strong! “I can’t believe something like you ever came from something like him. So darling, so precious…” It was a struggle just to breathe, but eventually I managed to slip away from her on account of her still being wet. Great, now my pajamas are soaked. “What is wrong with you!? Keep your hooves off me, and keep your slutty face away from my dad!” Nothing could break that condescending smile she had. She got out of her chair and stood in front of me. I don’t know how she even made it into the house in the first place. Her horn was almost touching the ceiling, and this room was at least ten feet high. She took a step forward, and I took a step back. She took a step forward, and I felt my tail press into the wall. “Y-you said you’d tell the truth!” She took another step forward and leaned her neck down so we came face to face. Her eyes… dark violet with little flecks of gold all along the irises, they looked so similar, but I couldn’t figure out to what. “I came back home for the second time in a thousand years just to chase after your father. Is there something wrong with that?” She turned my head with her enormous hoof and brushed my mane away to get a good look at the bruise. This time, the smile almost seemed… malicious. Satisfied with that, she turned away and climbed up to my brother’s bunk, almost a little comically since the mare was gigantic and the little ladder up was maybe wide enough for one and a half of her hooves. She crashed down on the mattress and it almost looked like the frame was bending with her weight. “A thousand… hey! Get down from there!” Her head picked up from the bed and her horn stabbed into the ceiling. “Hmm? Why? Don’t you sleep on the bottom?” “That bunk is my brother’s, nopony sleeps up there but him!” She wrenched her horn out of the ceiling and used her magic to repair the hole she made. “And your brother is where, right now?” I looked away. “He’s in Canterlot… with his mother.” Celestia flashed from the top bunk to me in her golden light, grabbed me in one of her forelegs, and then curled around me in my bed. Her grip was steel, but her chest was soft and warm. For a second there, I’d forgotten everything. It was nice. Her holding me was… comforting and I felt… safe. Finally, the absurdity of it all was too much and I struggled my way out of her grip. “No, no, no! This is my bed! You can’t be here! I don’t even know you!” “So where will I sleep?” “Go sleep with Dad! He brought you in, go bother him and do whatever slutty mares like you do!” “But I didn’t come home to see him… I came home to see you.” I don’t know what confused me more. The sad look on her face like she was talking about something she regretted, the genuine sincerity I heard in her voice, or… or the longing I felt when she said that. “Why… I just don’t understand any of this…why would you want to see me?” “Because… you’re precious to me.” I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. Why do I feel like crying? Why is she looking at me like that? I hate this. I hate all of it. I’m just so tired. I broke away from the accusing eye of the big white unicorn and climbed up to the top bunk and hid under the covers. “I don’t care what you do. I’m sleeping here tonight.” “Geez, Pinkie, it’s way too late to be outside right now.” “I know, I just… I wanted to get away.” It was one in the morning. I got a text from Pinkie saying she wanted to meet me at the bridge and that it was important. Sometimes, I wish she had other friends, but with as crazy as things have been at my own house… I understood. It was cold at night in Underhoof. There are hardly any trees here, and most of the Midwest of Equestria is basically all flat land. Save for the big foggy river that runs around town, it really doesn’t have too many features aside from the air base. When the fog wasn’t too bad, if you looked from a small hill, you could see across the river to the Equestrian Air Force base. It wasn’t very big, and it mostly just served as a hangar for repairs, but planes would land here occasionally with new goods for town or to be repaired to keep the few soldiers stationed here working. The bridge that leads from the main roads and branches off to the Pie family mine and my house was where we always spent our time together. It rose above the land just enough to act like a vantage point, so you could always see the base from here. The red lights on the tower and the hangar blinking slowly, the air strip lit just in case somepony needed to make an emergency landing. They always had a sort of calming effect on us. It was easy to relax here. Pinkie took a lighter and a cigarette from her black coat’s pocket and lit it. She took a deep puff and sighed as she blew shapes in the air. A balloon. A tiered cake. A party hat. I could never figure out how she was doing it, and the one time I tried it, I didn’t like it. It burned and made it hard to breathe. “You know, your dad is going to catch you one of these days. Those aren’t good for you.” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Who cares? He’s always got some reason to be mad at me anyways. One more thing I do that he hates isn’t going to bother me.” I always liked the cold. Underhoof doesn’t have much of value, but when the river freezes and it snows, I always like to imagine this place as an untouched wonder. A stretch of land that gets wiped from existence a few times a year. So many memories of the three of us playing in the snow, building snowponies and igloos, secret tunnels under the white. Pinkie had nearly finished her cigarette and stood to lean over the guard rail. “Do you miss him?” she asked. Pinkie stared at the moon and let the butt drop from her mouth and into the water below. The river would take it away and nopony would ever know that she had it. “I do,” I sighed. I don’t know who was hurt more when we found out he was leaving, me or her. He’s my brother, I spent all my time with him. Pinkie though… she lost some of her color that day. Her mane has never been as poofy as it was when Shining was around. Now it’s just flat and straight, like all the rest of her sisters. I always thought she was an anomaly in that family, but then again, she is a twin. “So… who did it?” I asked. She laid her head on the railing and let out a final smoke ring. “Who do you think? It’s never anypony different. They’re all the same. I wish they would just fucking die.” She spat a gray glob into the water and watched it float away. “Pinkie…” “No, you know what? No. Just don’t. I didn’t come here to hear another fucking lecture, and I certainly didn’t come here to hear you complain about me. Aren’t you my friend?” She got off the rail and stepped up in my face like I was attacking her or something. I pushed her back and stood my ground. “Don’t go off on me, I just want to help! If I wasn’t your friend, would I be here at one in the morning, on a cold October night, just so you don’t have to smoke alone?” Her frown quivered and liquid started to pool in her eyes. She latched on to me and started to pour her tears in my mane. I wrapped my hooves around her and slowly rubbed her back. “I hate it here! I hate them, I hate school, I hate this town, and I want it all to go away! He was the only one! He loved me, and then… and then…” A massive shot of pain sparked through my head and I staggered away from Pinkie. “Oh goddess, it hurts!” A burning, stabbing sensation, pulsating from my forehead. My vision became blurry, my balance was off, and nausea gripped me from every angle. “T-twilight!? What’s wrong!?” “M-my head! It’s… it’s… it’s gonna explode!” Like too much magic was used for a spell, or too much pressure was put on a balloon, it felt like my horn popped. Something was exiting my head, something big and black that rolled like fog and screeched like a wild beast. It looked like a pony, but more feral, more carnal. It was made of almost fog that looked like flesh, and it moved in the light like some kind of giant black rabid dog. Another hoof, a pony’s hoof, punched the black beast. The monster twisted and corkscrewed, the black shadow leaving a trail of darkness that acted like ink. Another shadow pulled itself out of my horn and kicked off my face to go after the beast. I rolled away and only stopped when Pinkie caught me and helped me back up. “What the-” “-hell is going on!?” Pinkie finished for me, pointing at the black pony and the monster exchanging blows. The horse made of darkness charged to slam the black pony, but it stepped aside and flipped in the air, landing a back-hoof on the monster’s head. The half of the giant shadow-like pony… skeleton? staggered away and roared at the black pony. It was hard to tell them apart because they were both so dark in the street light, almost featureless. The little light that did reflect showed me that neither pony really had any eyes, and that was unnerving. From a distance, I heard a familiar sound. I knew this sound. This sound was something I had heard earlier, but… what was it? “Is that the Motor Mare?” Pinkie asked. I turned my head away from the fight just in time to see the giant white mare on her Harley, wielding her green bass by the neck again and heading straight for the shadows. Somehow, the big skeletal beast was even bigger than Celestia on her massive bike, and it was still leaking ink from its missing back half. “Gotcha now, bitch!” Celestia leapt from the bike, letting it crash and roll off the bridge and took her bass in both hooves to swing it at… the black pony. Not the monster, but the thing fighting the monster. “Uh…” “Did she miss?” The black pony went flying across the bridge and the skeletal monster turned after Celestia. “Oh, that’s not the right one.” “She did miss!” The monster charged after her, the beast’s teeth being fought back by Celestia’s bass, one minor chord after another with each clash. She sidestepped and whipped around to slam the body of the bass into the monster’s face, but it bit it. “Well. That’s not good.” Using the bass against her, the skeletal horse reared its head up, bringing Celestia still attached to the bass with it, and then slamming it down on the bridge. Celestia’s head bounced violently off the concrete before the monster stomped with one hoof and bucked her into the guardrail with the other. Blood flew out of Celestia’s mouth when her body bent the rails, but she never let go of the bass’ neck. The ink leaking monster prepared to charge, and before I even knew what I was doing, I ran to protect her. “Don’t touch her!” I stood between them, but nothing changed. The monster charged, its massive hooves stomping the ground toward me, only a few steps and it would be on me. It was just about to ram me when some random white pony jumped out of nowhere and kicked it in the face. The monster tumbled and rolled, pieces of its jaw went flying, covering more of the bridge in the black ink. The white pony was faceless. No eyes, no mouth, just a mane, tail, and body that looked almost like matte plastic. It nodded at me, then chased after the beast. The black monster was struggling to get back up, its broken jaw looked like it was leaking smoke on the ground in a slightly different way than the ink from its back half. The white pony leapt into the air with his forehooves raised like he was about to grab something. Then, I felt a massive body step from behind me, and only had time to realize that there was a giant hoof on my face as Celestia too, used me as a springboard. “It’s about damn time!” She met the white pony’s forehooves, and the moment it had a hold of her, it swung her down like a weapon while she swung her bass like an ax. The green instrument finally let out a resonant chord and the beast let out its faltering screech as the bass caved in its skull. The rest of the skeletal monster shattered into a million pieces and evaporated into black smoke, dissipating with the wind. Celestia hopped from the white pony’s hooves and spun herself over her bass and landed in a T-pose with her bass on her shoulder. “Well, I think that we did pretty good, don’t you?” She was smiling the same way she was when she first showed up today and I couldn’t decide if that was just her natural smile, or some wild, crazed face she makes when she just beat the hell out of something. She was looking at Pinkie, whom was probably even more confused than I am. Pinkie looked to me for help, but I just shook my head. “I uh. What?” Celestia went back down on all fours and brought a hoof to her lips for a moment, then clapped. “Still too early. You should probably go home.” Pinkie managed to start to get up before she disappeared in golden light. “Wait, where did she go!? Do you even know where she lives!?” Celestia frowned and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on Twilight, don’t you think I at least research the ponies I think will be of use to me? I am far more competent than my sister.” Celestia put a hoof to her mouth again, and then whistled. From far down the river, I saw water splash up in the moonlight, like something was riding through it. Despite all the things that have happened today, I was still surprised to see her Harley driving down the river, just above the water, on its own. The bike wheelied and jumped up on top of the bridge, swinging into a J-turn and stopping right beside Celestia. “Good boy.” It sort of… wiggled from side to side while Celestia petted the headlight, and then she and the plastic pony mounted. I blinked. “I… have no words.” Celestia rolled her eyes and shook her head. She formed a soft smile and held her helmet out to me. “Come, Twilight. Let’s go home.” As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I knew I’d made a mistake. When she said that, the way she looked at me, that genuinely warm expression, if only for a moment, reminded me of my brother.