“Starlight, honey, language!”
Firelight’s admonishment was enough to make Starlight flinch, snapping her out of her daze, just in time to see her new roommate giggling as she extended a white forehoof and introduced herself.
“Midnight. If you’re Starlight, you must be my new roomie!”
Starlight shook the outstretched hoof while Midnight glanced over her shoulder at Firelight.
“Or is it ‘Glimmykins’?”
Firelight enthusiastically waved as Starlight responded, “Yep, Starlight, is me! That’s who I am!” She glanced at Firelight and grumbled, “Definitely not Glimmykins.”
Midnight’s face scrunched up as she suppressed more giggling. “Nicknames aside, need any help getting unpacked? I’m sure that your dad...”
“Firelight! It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Same here. I’m sure that he’d like to check out the parents’ orientation they’re running at the student union.”
“Oh, hey, that sounds like a great idea! Starlight, I’ll be right back to help you finish unpacking.” Firelight moved closer to Starlight and loudly whispered, “You know, a roommate’s a great opportunity to make a friend!”
Midnight’s scrunched expression became almost pained as she turned to cover her face. Starlight could hear her quiet laughter as Firelight spoke.
Starlight pushed her father out the door as she quickly stammered, “Ok, yep, dad, I’ll see you later!” She slammed the door behind him, ignoring his protests.
As Starlight turned to Midnight, her eyes darted around the room.
Dammit, no place to hide, Starlight thought.
“No place to hide?”
Midnight was looking quizzically at Starlight.
“Did I say that out loud?”
Midnight beamed. “Sure did! Seriously, though, don’t worry about it. That was nothing compared to what my parents did earlier.”
“Worse than ‘Glimmykins’?”
Midnight threw herself to the floor, feigning tears. “‘Oh, how can I say goodbye to my precious Midnight Star?’”
Starlight chuckled, replying, “Ok, that is pretty bad. Thanks, though. My dad is pretty embarrassing when he’s around.”
“Yeah, I get it. Don’t worry, he won’t be back for a good while.”
“How long is that orientation?”
“Oh, there is no orientation. There isn’t even a student union, but I figure it’ll take your dad an hour to figure that part out.”
“If he goes anywhere near the history building, you can probably bump that up to three hours.”
“Good thing it’s called Union Hall, then.”
“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”
Midnight opened the door and wrapped Starlight’s bags in a white aura, carrying them inside before replying, “Maybe. There is a Union Hall on campus, but I have no idea what they do there.”
They started unpacking. Starlight put away her clothes, a melange of hats and scarves. Midnight, digging through one of Starlight’s other bags, commented, “That is a lot of black hats. And scarves–”
“It’s not all black: see, this one’s really dark purple!”
Glancing up at her own hair, Midnight conceded, “I’ll allow it on technicality.” She pulled a skull out of the bag she was unpacking. “Is this thing real?”
“No,” Starlight sheepishly replied, taking the skull from Midnight’s aura. She paused before putting the skull on her nightstand. “His name is Benny.”
“Benny?”
“Well, he’s a dire rabbit skull. The name just sort of came naturally.”
“You’re an interesting gal, aren’t you, Glimmer?”
“Haha, yeah…”
An hour later, and they’d finished unpacking. Starlight excused herself to take a shower. As she lathered up, her thoughts wandered to her roommate.
Alright, that could have gone better.
I’m sure she doesn’t think I’m a total loser.
Since when do I get embarrassed about wearing all black?
Oh, Celestia, my hair!
Starlight had noticed the water streaming from her mane was jet black, and tugged at her mane with her magic to look at it. The cheap dye she’d used in the morning was very soluble in water.
“Well, yeah, that would be the case, wouldn’t it?”
“Is everything ok in there? You’ve been talking to no one for a while.” Midnight’s voice echoed from somewhere outside the bathroom.
“Oh, just singing to myself!” Starlight muttered to herself, “I gotta work on this thinking out loud thing.”
“I knew that wasn’t your natural color,” remarked Midnight as Starlight returned. “It looks much better this way.”
“Thanks,” said Starlight, following it up with a self-conscious chuckle.
For the first time, Starlight was able to take a good look at Midnight’s side of the room. Myriad posters and photos lined the walls: a guide to the constellations, Midnight with her parents, book release flyers for numerous sci-fi franchises, awards, and the like. One award caught Starlight’s attention.
“The Junior Astronomers Club… you discovered a constellation?”
“Yep! The official name is something like MID2HD001, but I just call it ‘Middy.’ It’s how I got this baby,” Midnight said as she pointed to the mark on her flank: at a passing glance, it had looked like a bunch of white dots, but a closer look revealed an array of small starbursts; a field of stars. “That’s what my friends call me too.”
“MID2HD001?”
Midnight smiled at the quip. “If you put that much effort into saying my name, I can’t even be mad.”
“Alright, then: Middy it is. Are you in the astronomy program then?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Magic, in the, uh, honors program.”
“Oh, an honors gal, huh?” Midnight gestured towards Starlight’s nightstand, where Benny lay. “I had you pegged as a vet student. How’d you end up in magic?”
Starlight’s face fell flat. “It’s a long story.”
Midnight moved near the door. “Well, we’ve got plenty of time; the whole year, in fact. In the meantime, want to hit the dining halls? I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
Starlight winced. “Oh, no, I should probably wait for my dad to get back–”
The door burst open, throwing Midnight into Starlight and knocking them both to the ground. The two were struggling to detangle themselves as Firelight trotted in, his face buried in a pamphlet.
“Couldn’t find the orientation or the student union building, Starlight, but I did find this pamphlet on the history of the university! Did you know that the magic department was founded 400 years ago by an earth pony named Jebediah Cornflake as an agricultural magic school, and that it was only 100 years ago that the departments split into what they are now? Sweetie?”
Firelight lowered the pamphlet, finally noticing the two mares sprawled on the ground.
“Oh! I should have knocked! I’ll just get out of your–”
“Nope, dad, we were just leaving!”
A bright flash forced Firelight to cover his eyes. When the light faded, all that remained of Starlight and Midnight was a scorch mark on the floor.
An explosion of blue-green magic heralded Starlight and Midnight's arrival at the front of their dorm building. Midnight's eyes spun, whirlpools of green and black, as she tried to stand up. With Starlight's magic supporting her, Midnight was able to stay upright.
"Ugh… what just happened? My horn itches..."
Starlight laughed nervously. "Teleportation?"
"Oh. Isn't that, like… really hard?"
“Nah, it’s easy, you just gotta picture where you’re going and I’ll tell you all about it when we get to the cafe ok let’s get going now!” Starlight was half supporting and half pushing Midnight as her speech accelerated beyond comprehension.
Midnight closed her eyes and shook her head before continuing, though her confusion remained. “Cafe… right. I think it’s this way?”
The two walked silently while Midnight gathered herself and Starlight wondered how hard it would be to erase Midnight's memory of the last few hours. Midnight was the first to speak.
"What just happened?"
"Well, my dad knocked you on top of me, and he thought we were making out or something, and then I teleported us here to get away?"
Midnight cocked an eyebrow and gave Starlight a long look. "Right… are you ok now?"
"Would you believe me if I said yes?"
Midnight slowed as she put a hoof on Starlight's shoulder, her voice softening. "Not really. With the dad stuff, I totally get it. And I hope I didn't make a bad first impression with all the teasing; it's just how I get to know new ponies."
"Really?"
"Really. If you don't like it, I can stop. We have to get along for the next year at least, and it'd be nice to be friends."
A small smile grew on Starlight’s face. “I’d like that.”
"Good! Now you gotta answer my question from earlier: how did you teleport both of us that far?"
"Cookies."
"Cookies?"
"Yep, cookies. My parents always caught me when I tried to sneak cookies from the kitchen. I knew that teleportation was a thing, and I wanted to use it to sneak by them, but I was just a filly; I couldn’t do it. So I read through my dad’s copy of Applied Spatial Theory in Magic, and after a few weeks of practice, I could teleport!”
“And you stole the cookies?”
“Nope. I teleported right in front of them, in the living room.”
Midnight guffawed. “Seriously? Do you just have terrible luck or something?”
Starlight rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Maybe.”
“But you were a filly when you learned to teleport? Are you some kind of genius or something? I can’t do that now!”
“I… guess I had some help,” Starlight said, adding a nervous chuckle.
"Oh?"
Starlight opened her mouth to reply, but no words came.
"Don't want to talk about it?"
"Not particularly."
"That's ok. We're almost to the dining hall, anyways." Midnight gestured towards a nearby squat building. Ponies carrying plates of food and talking with friends could be seen through its predominantly glass exterior. A sign above the main entrance to the hall read "Spoiled Rotten Memorial Hall."
Starlight looked at the sign, then looked toward Midnight, who merely shrugged before walking through the entrance doors.
Starlight and Midnight dined and made small talk, primarily centered around the mediocrity of the cafeteria fare. When they returned to the dorm, Starlight noticed an envelope on her nightstand bearing her dad's signature.
As Midnight began settling into bed, Starlight began reading. First, there was a small note written on stationery Starlight recognized as her dad's.
Hey, sugar bear,
I had to leave for the train to get back to Sires Hollow in time for work. Sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you or Midnight; I hope you two get along and become friends.
I'll miss you a lot. Please write me and your mom occasionally. See you in a few months for Hearth's Warming!
Love,
Dad
Starlight wiped a tear from her eye before moving to the second paper in the envelope. The hornwriting was as messy as her own. It looked like her mom's.
Heya, kiddo. Sorry I wasn't able to come see you off to college; I left this letter with your dad in case I couldn't get back in time.
I'm so proud of you. You're the most talented sorceress I've ever seen, and I've seen some crazy stuff all over Equestria. You're gonna kick flank at whatever school you go to. I'll swing by once I get back home; hope you're not too cool to spend time with your mom!
I've included a little something from my travels that's kept me going when things got rough.
Good luck, Starlight.
Love,
Aurora Glimmer
Starlight shook the envelope and a small locket fell out. It was worn and tarnished, some areas where gold leaf gave way to a brass core, and the chain was thin, eaten away by time and years of travel. Starlight opened the pendant with a bit of magical manipulation. Inside was a picture, faded by time, of a young filly with twin pigtails, Starlight herself, flanked by her parents, free of the wear and tear of the time since past. The opposite inside face of the pendant was tarnished save for one freshly polished section: an engraving of Starlight's cutie mark.
Starlight closed the locket and put it away in her nightstand drawer, then hopped into bed.
"Night, Starlight!"
"Night."