//------------------------------// // Wish You Were Here // Story: All the King's Horses // by Vanity //------------------------------// Starlight Glimmer let out a low groan of pain as her hind legs seized once again, forcing her to drop the pile of scrolls she had been carrying in her magical grip. Like all too many Equestrians, she had known better days. Her legs ached. Her vision was fuzzier. She had aged prematurely, and every time she glanced at herself in the mirror, she could have sworn she saw a new wrinkle, or greying strand of hair, each a tiny, irreversible marker of her own mortality. What had once been a cluster of bearable aches had worsened dramatically after she'd attempted to protect one of her students, the son of the Griffon ambassador, from the clutches of the army. For her efforts, she had been beaten within an inch of her life and the boy arrested anyway. Her doctor had informed her that several of the wounds would likely never completely heal, but she didn't care. She wore the marks as proudly as any medal, but they only increased her daily pains. She wished so often for the lost days of her youth; those carefree years where she had studied under Princess Twilight and her friends, which had forged her into the new mare she was now. Now, with her mentor gone and her old friends more distant than ever, she felt... alone. Her job kept her busy, of course; there were always students to be educated, minds to be enlightened, and she was rarely able to take an evening off just to herself. But that was, of course, some small comfort. Forcing herself to keep walking, she pushed the door of her office open and laid the parchments down gently. As she seated herself and levitated the first over to her, she absent-mindedly recounted her old friends. Pinkie Pie, living in Manehatten with her husband and foals. Starlight had smiled and gushed politely about her three fillies, but privately a small part of her was thankful no descendants of Pinkie Pie would be around to cause chaos at her school. Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Wonderbolts, entertaining all the wealth and power that came with the position. Since the war, the two of them hadn't spoken - and likely never would again. Applejack had been somewhat more reconciliatory, but she knew their relationship was stronger than her friendship to Starlight ever would be. Rarity, the fashionista superstar she had always dreamed of being. Every major store carried her name, every celebrity wore her designs, and every magazine and newspaper printed her name as though it was going out of style - as unlikely as that was. Her busy schedule had quickly overwhelmed her life, and the rare times Starlight saw her, she seemed strangely unhappy, no matter how big a smile she tried to put on. And Fluttershy, who had vanished from the face of the earth since Discord's... incident. No letters, no note, nothing. One day, she had visited only to find an abandoned house, animals and all. A part of her didn't blame Fluttershy one bit. She only hoped that, wherever she was, she could find peace. The only pony she still saw regularly from those days was her old friend, whom she had spent so many wasted years hating in a dark cloud of bitter regret and hatred. Sunburst. The stallion who she'd once hoped to never see again was, ironically, one of her closest friends. The pair of them could talk and laugh for hours about the past, the present, and things to come. Cultured and intelligent, there was nothing she cherished less than his friendship. Yet every time she saw him, there was a longing for... more. She was a fool, delusional even, to still entertain the thoughts she'd once pushed deep down inside her. Sunburst wasn't just her co-worker, he was her best friend - and married. She had been his best mare on the day. River Jewel was a wonderful mare, a kind wife, and a loving mother. She made him happy. Yet her own jealousy couldn't help but rear its ugly head whenever she thought about her. A small part of her knew that once, Sunburst had most likely felt the same way. All but told her on one occasion. But she had pushed him away. Out of cowardice and fear, a belief that she had not yet done enough to redeem herself, to deserve such happiness. And so, slowly, day by day, he had gotten over her. Moved on, found somepony else. And now, it had been too long. There was no changing the past. And she certainly had no desire to say anything that might... upset him, not to mention his foals. He was happy. His family was happy. Who was she to take that from them? She should look elsewhere, but in truth she now felt too old for such things, even if she wasn't. She preferred to think of herself as married to her job - which would almost certainly be with her till death did them part. A tapping at the door broke her out of her stupor, and when she looked up, Sunburst was standing there. Taking in her groggy, disoriented expression, a look of concern quickly formed on his face and he leaned back, as if embarrassed to have walked in on her in the middle of her thoughts. "Oh. I'm sorry, should I come back later?" "N-no." Starlight pushed the door open with her magic, letting out a shaky smile. "You - you're right on time. Here." The stack of parchment quickly separated into two piles, one of which slid across the table. "Come on, these tests aren't going to mark themselves." Sunburst laughed, giving her one of his wonderfully warm smiles. "It's almost seven o'clock. Those can wait until tomorrow, surely! Say, why don't you come around to my place tonight? You've been working too hard recently. A night off would do you some good." "Really?" Starlight screamed internally at the obvious enthusiasm in her voice. "I mean, if you're sure..." "Oh, yeah. River Jewel always makes too much food on a Friday." Starlight stiffened. "I keep telling her, she's cooking for us, not Ponyville, but you know what she's like. Wouldn't hear a word of mine on cooking, not since last Hearts and Hooves Day." A theatrical shudder ran through his body before his smile returned. "What do you say?" "I..." For a moment, Starlight wanted to turn him down. She couldn't imagine a worse fate than being trapped in a room with Sunburst and River Jewel, forced to listen to them recount happy memories of their years together while she occasionally murmured or laughed politely. She opened her mouth, ready to tell him just what she thought of him and his wife... "Sure. Looking forward to it." She gave him a kindly smile. "Let me just put these away, I'll be right out." She knew she'd never get over Sunburst, but was she really going to make his life a misery just because she had been too cowardly to accept his affections when she had most wanted them? As she opened a drawer and stuffed as many parchments as would fit into it, she chuckled as she imagined what her old friendship teacher would have said if she could see her now. "Ready?" Sunburst said as she stepped out of her office and extinguished the lights. Starlight looked up at him and nodded, smiling. "Lead the way."