Hey, Star!
Sunburst is too busy to see his family, huh? That's pretty lame; I wonder what he's doing where he can't even go home for Hearth's Warming.
Things are fine here. Mom got time off work, and Dad's been cooking up a storm since I got back. You'd think I came back from the dead the way they glomped me when I got home!
Dusty hasn't been doing so well, though. Dad said he's been having night terrors again; I guess something went wrong with the dream disconnection charm. They're gonna try to reapply it soon. I just wish I could do something to help, but all the classes on dream magic won't be until I'm at least a junior, and even then…
I wish you were here. I can't shake the feeling that you could come up with something.
That's probably just wishful thinking, though, isn't it?
Let me know how things go with your mom.
Sincerely,
Midnight
"You're going on another expedition?" Starlight spat out the mouthful of pancakes she'd been chewing on. "But Dad said…"
Firelight looked just as surprised as she did. "Honey, I thought you were staying home this time."
Aurora finished chewing her bite and swallowed before answering. "There's a lot of demand these days. Trade winds are blowing south, and the Manehattan Merchants Guild wants updated maps of the Badlands."
"But Hearth's Warming–"
"I'll have to miss it."
Starlight slammed her hoof on the table, but Firelight spoke before she could.
"Aurora, you promised me you'd be home for the holidays this year!" Firelight stood, his forehooves hammered the table.
"I can't help when the jobs come in!"
"How long have we been talking about retirement?!"
"I want to make sure we're financially ready!"
"We're perfectly ready as is! I've got my pension coming, and we've been saving ever since we got married. A few thousand bits isn't worth the risk!"
"What risk?" Aurora stood, and she and Firelight faced off at the side of the table. Their muzzles nearly touched as they argued. "I've been doing this for decades! I know how to handle myself."
"Every other trip you come home and tell long stories about fights you got into, and it's almost every other time you come back with a broken bone or bones. And you're going to the Badlands this time!"
"Look, they came to me because they need me for this expedition. No one else in Equestria has as much desert experience as I do!"
"Aurora, I need you here! And Starlight deserves to have us both be more present for her."
Starlight shrank in her chair.
"She's fine! She's off at college now, she can handle herself." Aurora waved dismissively at Starlight. "And it's not like I'm the only pony who's been gone."
Firelight winced, but he stood firm. "That's why I'm retiring. We… Starlight–" He stopped as his eyes met Starlight's.
Tears flowed freely down her face.
Firelight hugged her, glaring at Aurora. "We'll talk about this later."
Starlight saw tears in Aurora's eyes. Her mother left the room without another word.
"Are you ok?"
Starlight was silent, her eyes unfocused.
"I'm sorry, sugarbun. I-I'm… I'm sorry." Firelight stroked Starlight's hair as she silently sobbed into his shoulder.
Starlight lay in her bed. The midday sun peeked through the holes in the blackout curtains on the window, illuminating her desk. Midnight had replied to her letter, and the torn envelope and its contents were highlighted by the sunbeams. Starlight uttered silent thanks for Equestrian Post's same-day service.
Starlight turned a newly-filled envelope in her magic above her head, idly watching Midnight's address move in and out of view.
Shouting erupted downstairs. Starlight buried her head under her pillows, willing the sound to stop. When it didn't help, she looked at the envelope, then the door.
Then the window. Starlight cracked open her window, looking at the yard below. Too far to jump safely. Teleportation was safe, but noisy, and the last thing she wanted was to draw her parents' attention. She had an idea.
The window opened further. She stepped onto the windowsill, bracing herself on her hindlegs. All she had to do was levitate herself, and she could fly out of the house, her parents none the wiser.
"Alright, Starlight. You've lifted another pony before. What's so hard about lifting yourself?"
She cast her spell, and felt herself grow lighter as the world turned aquamarine. She leapt from the window and… plummeted. Thanks to her spell, Starlight couldn't feel the gravitational tug that would tell her where the ground was, and when she kicked from the window, she set herself into a spin, turning the world into a mess of white and blue. Fortunately, a hedge in the yard broke her fall, and though it took some doing, she disentangled herself from the hedge with only a few bumps and bruises.
A few families were on the streets, heading toward the town center. Starlight's childhood home was close enough to it for her to hear the last-minute shoppers and carolers in the town's plaza. The foals among the families were bouncing with excitement.
No one noticed her as she dropped her letter in the mailbox. Once she returned to the house, however, Starlight paced under her window. She experimented with levitating herself again. First, she tried a few inches, without jumping. Although she was able to maintain a hover, she wasn't able to move very much higher, as she lost her balance each time her hooves moved out of reach of the ground. Then Starlight had an idea.
She angled herself towards her window, then levitated a few inches in the air. Then, with a giant push, she flung herself into the air, passing through her open window and landing on her bed with an "oof!"
Her parents were still shouting. At least that meant they hadn't heard her.
The last few days before Hearth's Warming played out the same way. Starlight woke up and ate breakfast in a room where no one spoke to each other. She returned to her room and wrote to Midnight or read, interrupted occasionally by shouting from below.
Then, on the morning of Hearth's Warming Eve, Aurora left.
“I'll probably be back in a few moons.”
She and Firelight shared a long look. Then she turned to Starlight, slowly and awkwardly acknowledging her with a nod, before turning around and leaving. A glow from her horn, and the front door closed behind her.
She was gone.
Firelight patted Starlight's shoulder to reassure her, but his expression was unfocused. He left and went to his study, closing the door behind him.
Starlight stood at the door. She lost track of time, staring at the door. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for.
Hearth's Warming was quiet. Firelight barely spoke; the only words Starlight heard from him were calling her down from her room for meals.
He shambled about the kitchen, staring at the pie he held in his magic. Starlight came up behind him and took hold of the pie, setting it on the counter. He nodded at the food, then walked past her. Starlight heard the door to his study shut a few moments later.
After she ate, she returned to her room. She went to her closet and dug through a pile of old junk, tossing old clothes and knick-knacks behind her.
She pulled back as a kite floated out of the pile in her magic. It was red and orange, with a similarly colored tail.
She walked downstairs, stopping at the hall to the study. She knocked.
"Come in." His voice was low and hoarse.
"Hey, Dad."
"Hi, sugarbun." Firelight sat at his desk, leading through a photo album.
"So I was digging through some old stuff, and look at what I found!" Starlight held up the kite.
Firelight blinked a few times, squinting at it. "Is that–"
"Yup." Starlight's voice was soft. "I was thinking we could go out and fly it. Together, I mean."
"Honey, I don't think–"
"Please, Dad."
"It's freezing outside, Starlight!"
"I know, but… I just want to…" Her head hung low. "I just want to do something normal."
Firelight sighed as he stood from his chair. He closed his eyes for a few moments, then smiled at Starlight, tousling her hair. "Alright. I guess we could both use some normal."
The park closest to Starlight's home was busy with families and foals playing with their new toys. Though Starlight had become accustomed to the hard winds in Canterlot, the lighter breezes keeping her father's old kite aloft made for a relaxing time.
Firelight stood beside her. "So have you been able to fly much at college?"
"Sometimes. There was kind of… remember that box kite I built over the summer?"
"The blue one?"
"Yeah. It kinda ended up on top of one of the buildings."
"Can't you get it–"
"It's stuck. Like really stuck, apparently. And I don't want to get in trouble for it."
"Ah, I see. Mind if I fly it for a bit?"
Starlight passed the kite to her father.
"I still remember the day I bought this kite. Aurora–" Firelight winced as he mentioned the name. "Your mother sent me home from the hospital so I'd stop bothering the nurses. You know that kite shop in the plaza?"
"Long Line Kites?"
"Yeah. I swear, they had one in the window that looked exactly like that purple starburst in your cutie mark. So I had them custom-make one for you and me."
"Huh."
The kite soared gracefully in the cold breeze.
"You… really had us worried there, Starlight. We didn't…" His voice broke. "We just couldn't understand what was going on. We were so worried we'd lose you."
"I… had no idea. I'm sorry, Dad."
"It's alright, pumpkin. We figured it out after that incident at school, which, oh me oh my, that was a mess." Firelight chuckled as Starlight covered her face in embarrassment. "I get the feeling the Stones never voted for me again after that!"
Starlight groaned.
Firelight cleared his throat. "I was so happy to see you get excited about flying kites. Part of me wondered if you might've got your cutie mark before you discovered your talent!"
They laughed. Starlight relaxed and sat next to her father, and they watched the kite dance.
Eventually, Starlight spoke. Her voice cracked with hesitation. "Hey, Dad… are things gonna be okay with you and Mom?"
Firelight's stance stiffened for a moment. He sighed, then took a long breath. "I don't know, Starlight. I hope so."
"Did I… was it..." The kite became blurry through a haze of tears.
Firelight wrapped a foreleg around her. "No. Not at all."
Starlight sniffled.
"Want a distraction?"
She nodded.
"How are things going with Midnight?"
"Good." Starlight wiped her face with her scarf. "She's great, and we have some classes together, so we get to study together a lot."
"You know, I didn't expect you to pounce on somepony the day you met them!"
"Dad! It's not–"
"It's just so unusual! You've always been my shy little silly filly."
"Dad! She's not–we're not–"
Firelight doubled over laughing.
"Ugh! Dad! You're the worst!"
"I know, but you're distracted, aren't you?"
Firelight was rewarded with a beanie to the face.
"You know it's not like that, don't you?" asked Starlight, flatly.
"Of course!"
Starlight groaned, rolling her eyes.
"But I'm happy things are going well." Firelight returned the beanie. "So what else has been going on?"
Starlight rubbed her foreleg. "I'm, uh… I started going to a sociology seminar."
"Oh? I wouldn't have thought you'd be interested in that."
"Well, it's about cutie marks."
"Neat!"
"Yeah. I met someone who doesn't like their special talent, and–"
"Really?"
"Yes, really, and I found some stories about this old group that sort of acted like they didn't have cutie marks or special talents. Nopony was better than anypony else."
"That sounds interesting."
"And the seminar series has speakers talking about cutie marks and their relationships to social dynamics, and–"
"You're interested in all that?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You always seemed so focused on magic."
"What's wrong with liking more than one thing?"
"Nothing, I'm just a little surprised is all. So you're going to these seminars…"
"And a discussion series. Technically. It's just me and a sophomore, right now."
"Only two students?"
Starlight sighed. She gestured to the kite, and Firelight allowed her to take the reel into her magic. "Yeah, the professor wanted to run a discussion thing, and I may have gotten into a tiny little… fight… with another student during the first seminar I went to."
"You what?!"
"Yeah, we kinda argued in front of everyone in the auditorium. Heh."
Firelight's jaw dropped.
"So the professor kinda forced us to join the discussion group if we wanted to keep going to the seminars."
"Wow."
“Well, okay, technically I was ‘strongly urged’ to attend.”
Firelight scratched his head.
"Oh, there was that one time we won a sports tournament."
"We?"
"Me, Midnight, Night Glider, and Sugar Belle–"
"Are those your friends?"
"Yeah. We all entered this intramural tournament and we won. Well, okay, we lost on a technicality, but we totally won."
"Sounds like a lot happened."
"Yep." Starlight looked from the kite to her father. Firelight was beaming at her. "What?"
"Oh, nothing." Firelight looked back up at the kite. "It sounds like you’re having fun, sugarbun.”
“Please don't call me that in public, Dad."
The two returned home as the sun waned. Firelight made dinner while Starlight responded to the day's message from Midnight. After dinner, at Firelight's suggestion, they played a few board games. At the end of the night, they climbed the stairs to go to bed.
Firelight turned to Starlight before entering his room. "Starlight?"
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted you to know… I'm gonna miss you when you go back to school, but I'm so happy you found friends and you’re doing well. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Goodnight, sweetie."
"Night.”