Clutching his mug, Sunburst took a deep breath, as his eyes lingered on the potted plant in the corner of the room that had not been there an hour ago. Finally, he settled his gaze on the mare in front of him again.
"Think you got it?" she asked him, with a smile.
Sunburst gave a small shrug. "I think I do. I can't spend all my time here, anyway." He tried to smile too, then sighed. "What do you do?" he asked.
Starshine pondered the question for a moment, tilting her head and biting the inside of her cheek. "I bring desires to this world," she finally answered.
"In other terms?" Sunburst asked.
"I give matter and form to things longed for," said Starshine.
Sunburst nodded, and took another sip from his mug, which had refilled itself. "Is there a limit to what you can create?"
"Is there a limit to the fantasies a mind can conceive?" Starshine asked back.
Sunburst tried not to let himself be shaken too much by the revelation, and largely succeeded. He thought things through for a moment, then asked, "What can't you do? What is the limit within which you express your powers?"
"I can only create things," Starshine answered. "I cannot change what exists. I cannot destroy. Not what is already, not what is after I have created it."
Sunburst slowly nodded. "Define longing."
"Any form of desire or yearn, whether felt or expressed," explained Starshine. "Hunger, conscious thought, sensations, urgency, physical need. It's all enough, regardless of intensity, regardless of clarity, provided it is there and it's sincere."
"Whose desires?" Sunburst asked with some urgency.
"Anyone close enough," said Starshine.
Sunburst slowed his breathing to calm himself, and took another sip. "It's starting to make sense, at least," he said, to buy some more time. Finally he asked, "You are-"
"Yes," answered Starshine, not needing him to finish the question.
Sunburst opened his mouth to speak again, and again the mare interrupted him.
"It was loneliness, mostly. If it makes you feel better. Missing the ones close to you, and of course the added stress of the situation."
"But it wasn't just that," Sunburst said. "Right?"
After a moment, Starshine slowly nodded. "Right. It's deeper than that."
Sunburst took another slow breath, and sighed again. "Starlight, Trixie, my mother, Twilight... Someone else?"
Starshine thought about it for a bit, pursuing her lips and tilting her head as she seemingly studied the ceiling. "Some of Cadence. Some of Twilight's friends. A little bit of everyone, really."
Sunburst blew a few strands of his mane away from his eyes, then took off his glasses and began to clean them. "Trying to tell me something?"
"Asking me or the universe?" Starshine smiled.
Sunburst shook his head. "You're right, this is not what I need right now." He looked up at the mare, knowing he didn't need to speak his question aloud.
"It doesn't," she said. "Trust me. Anyone else might have had the same happen to them, some might have done a lot worse." She tried to smile again. "I was mostly your way to cope with and process things. A manifestation of something you couldn't understand at that point."
Sunburst bit his lower lip for a moment. "At least now I know," he said.