Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto


EFTC

Sunburst sighed as he stepped past the mirror. "Starlight, call me if you figure something out here. I'll go have a look around the school. Maybe there's something to find there." He was mostly trying to get away from the room. Starlight knew that, but she couldn't blame him for it. And he wasn't wrong, really, it was better to look for clues elsewhere than to waste time there when they didn't have any idea what to do.
The mare nodded as she looked around the room again. "And you call me if you find anything out there." She watched him walk out the door, then sighed. "Starshine, you're staying here, right?" she asked. But the alicorn had already disappeared, and Starlight was left looking left and right in confusion.
In the corridor, Sunburst suddenly heard a second set of hoofsteps join his own at his side, just slightly behind him. He stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "Starshine Flicker?" It wasn't really a question, but he could still pretend he wasn't sure it was her.
"Sunburst?" Starshine's familiar voice asked back. It was always the same voice no matter what the pony looked like, one of the few consistent things alongside her name and cutie mark. Sunburst wasn't sure if he should have been happy or unnerved by that fact.
The hoofsteps had stopped, and so the unicorn opened his eyes and turned to his left. The alicorn's face looked back at him, a serene smile plastered onto it. "You te-" Sunburst began, but immediately cut himself off. He then resumed, correcting himself. "You materialised in the hallway. No teleportation there."
"You don't know that," Starshine said, quickly, before the unicorn had a chance to go on.
"I didn't hear the pop."
"I could have cast a silence spell in advance."
Sunburst lifted an eyebrow, but chose not to pursue that particular train of arguments. Instead, he went back to his original thread. "First off, please don't do that again, it's creepy. Even by your standards. Second, why? Why are you following me?"
"Would you rather have me disappear?" asked Starshine.
"I'd rather have you stay with Starlight," Sunburst replied.
There was a pause, and a conflicted expression on Starshine's face that Sunburst had never seen her with. "I can't do that," the alicorn said. "Either with you or nowhere."
At first Sunburst wanted to ask why she couldn't stay with Starlight. What Starshine said made him change his mind and ask something else instead. "What do you mean when you say nowhere?"
"Nowhere," Starshine simply replied. There wasn't any worry in her voice. She seemed as calm as ever, and her expression had gone back to her usual serene one. "But you'd rather keep an eye on me, so I'm here."
"But what do you mean when you say nowhere?" Sunburst pressed on.
Starshine rolled her eyes. "Literally nowhere. No place. You silly creatures of physical matter and your inability to properly process and visualise the concept of non-existence." She sighed, like a mother dealing with her child would. "Just accept it, trust me. Your head will thank me."