“Well, you’re unpacked and just need furniture now,” Alex said once he’d carried the last items up the stairs and into the female’s apartment. “I know Daryl usually offers, so I’ll call him and ask… unless you want to, Starlight.”
Starlight looked at him and a few heavy seconds passed before she nodded. “I’ll call him. I think I’d like to hear him make excuses as to why he can’t help us when he clearly has helped others before.”
“I guess you’ll have to deal with him eventually. He’s a good landlord, don’t give him too much trouble and he’ll warm up to you pretty quickly.”
Amy entered the main room and looked around the spartan area. “Yeah, a table, maybe some cushioned chairs, a couch and lazy-boy…”
“Television, radio, clocks, internet, beds,” Starlight groused as she walked to Alex and looked up at him. She extended a foreleg up to him and it took a couple seconds for Alex to realize what she meant by it. He made a fist and bumped her hoof with a warm smile. Starlight’s horn sparked and she gasped. “Do it again!” She demanded and used her magic to pull his hand to her hoof again. Again and again she bumped her hoof to his hand before she stopped and growled loudly to the ceiling. “Why won’t it work?!”
Alex looked at his hand and noticed some light scratches from her hoof brushing against his skin. “You know, maybe it’s something to do with how we connect at certain times and not you pounding my hand with your scratchy hoof.”
“Oh, stuff it, man. If I didn’t need you to get my magic back,” she turned and slapped her tail against his leg, “I wouldn’t even have you around.”
Amy stepped in Starlight’s way. “Stop being such a negative nancy to our friend, Starlight.”
“He’s just some man that wants what all men want! Just wait until he tries to get under your… in your pants.”
Alex frowned. “You know, not all men want or care about that. If you don’t want anything to do with me, then fine, I’ll just ignore you and hang out with Amy and you can figure your magic problem out on your own.” He crossed his arms and looked down at the mare as she looked back over her withers to glare at him.
Starlight nickered as she walked past Amy to the main room and closed the door behind her. She pulled her sleeping bag and unrolled it, laid it out, and climbed into it to hide away as she lit her horn and looked at the frogs of her rough hooves. She growled at the condition of her once pristine and polished hooves for a few seconds before her anger dissipated.
She lowered her muzzle into her hooves and sighed loudly. Her body trembled and she relaxed. “It’s not him. It’s not him. It’s not him.” She repeated to herself as her horn light faded slightly and she felt her magic slightly dwindle. She stopped channeling magic and was left in the dark while she thought of things and people she preferred to be kept to herself.
Amy walked to the door after a couple minutes and knocked. “Hey, I’m gonna go downstairs with Alex, just so you know where I am if you need me.”
“Wait! I… I’ll come, too. Maybe we can talk about some stuff that’s been bothering me.” The humans were left speechless at the announcement and when Starlight opened the door they were surprised to see the mare with watery eyes. “I’m sorry about how I’m treating you, Alex. You’re a good man,” she stopped and looked him up and down, “and I have to remember that you’re not representative of all men. Anyway, let’s go.”
The humans shared a look as Starlight passed between them before Alex shrugged and followed the mare to his door. She waited for him to open it and gesture for her to enter. Alex stepped in after Starlight and held the storm door for Amy. “Take off your shoes at the door, please.”
Starlight looked at her left forehoof while Amy slipped out of her shoes and looked around. “So, what do you wanna do?” Alex asked.
Starlight looked up to the man and held back a scathing comment. “How about we watch some television? I like television, you know.”
“Sure. Wanna take off your… um, dress?” Alex asked hesitantly.
“Wanna take off your…” Starlight started, but saw the look he had on his face. “Ugh, no, thank you. It’s all I have to keep me protected from everything and,” she coughed quietly behind closed lips, “everyone,” she mumbled, but was still heard and understood.
Amy hurried to walk between the two and took a seat on the loveseat and crossed her legs. “What channels does this tv get? Premium package with espagnole?”
Alex and Starlight both chuckled. “It’s Espanole, the other thing is a food reference,” Alex supplied, taking the seat beside Amy. Starlight looked at the soft clean carpeted floor, then to the only chair remaining; a recliner that would fit her nicely.
“And how would you know that, mister know it all?” Amy snarked.
“I was a chef at one point in my life. I’ll cook you a meal sometime to prove it.”
Starlight looked between the humans. Part of her wasn’t willing to accept the generosity Alex was offering, part of her was dying to be treated as an equal like she once was. She hopped up and onto the recliner, holding on with wide eyes as it rocked back and forth before resting. She giggled nervously as she looked at the two humans awkwardly sitting on the one shared seat. “Why don’t you have a couch in here, too?”
“Two reasons,” Alex said as he leaned away from Amy, “one, I’m not popular enough to have a couch, and two, where would I put it? I barely have space as it is. If this was twenty years ago my tv that size would take up half my living room,” he laughed.
Starlight nodded in understanding as she thought of where a couch would fit. “I guess that makes sense. What about the other room? You could put it in there and pull it out when people come over,” she said with a smirk. Alex just shook his head and Starlight’s smirk turned into a smile. “How about we talk before we watch tv?”
Amy hesitated before she nodded, sharing a look with Starlight. “Okay, what would you like to talk about?” She asked the mare.
“I’m… not good with people, or ponies for that matter. I’ve always been kind of standoffish and untrusting since I was a filly. I was getting some help and I’d made some friends before I… we were all taken here, and I’d like to figure out why I get my magic back when I touch Alex,” she said, looking at the man’s hands that were clasped on his chest as he leaned back. “There’s something I have to tell you before we get too friendly,” she started and inhaled, holding her breath. “I was a bad pony once.”
The humans looked between one another, then smiled. “That’s not so bad. We’ve all been bad once or twice, whatever you did--”
“I mind controlled a town into slavery, I fought a princess in a battle to the death, I nearly tore reality apart, and I was happy doing it.” Starlight blurted. Alex and Amy were silent for several second while Starlight looked at her forehooves and curled her tail around her side. “Look, if you want me to go…”
“No, it’s okay… um, you didn’t do all that while you were being taken here, did you?”
Starlight shook her head vigorously. “No, that was, like, five years before all this. I was reformed by Princess Twilight Sparkle and became her student, her first friendship student, actually.” She said fondly. “I made a few good friends and got to a high position in the school Princess Twilight started. That’s when--” She went silent with wide eyes, darting between the two humans that were looking at her with confusion.
“When what?” Amy asked.
Alex looked at Starlight and his eyes slowly narrowed. “Yeah, why are you being so cryptic about this part of your story?”
Starlight gulped and her horn sparkled before glowing and then dying out. She clenched her eyes and tried to cast her spell again before exhaling loudly as her head swam. She grumbled to herself before looking at Amy. “I’m the reason we’re here. It was an accident! Please, don’t hate me like the others.”
Alex relaxed while Amy tensed. “If it was an accident, we might be able to fix it.”
“Alex, she just admitted to stranding thousands of ponies on a world that isn’t theirs. How can you be so calm about this?”
Alex shrugged. “We have to look on the positive side for her. Maybe that’s why she’s so mean, because she’s stressed from what happened. Thank you for trusting us with this secret, but, I mean, how did you even manage to do this to so many ponies?”
Starlight frowned at the window, remembering something. “It’s not that I completely trust you both, but I have to start somewhere. I’m not ready to share everything about my life, or why I don’t like men, but you’re not… as bad as some of them, so far.”
“Thanks, I think.” Alex said.
“Whatever. Look, I’ll tell you the same thing I told a few other ponies before they turned on me… but I just don’t think you two will do the same thing. I was a counselor at a school and working with a couple close friends that I haven’t seen since I got here, so I don’t know if they were sucked in, too, but we were trying to make a portal to send students back home to wherever they were from.
“The spell circles were put in several of the most popular pony cities like Fillydelphia, Manehattan, San Franciscolt, and was based in Ponyville, where I was from. We cast the spell linking the portals, which went fine, until it stopped being fine and started sucking us in. I don’t know how many ponies were actually taken in, or if we all survived the journey, only that we all ended up here.
“I don’t know where we all ended up except on this earth and most in the North American continent with all our magic dulled… however I seem to have it a little worse. My magic is weaker than most ponies and it’s led to some cases of arcane illness if I cast for too long or use too much power.”
“Isn’t that the issue where you get headaches?” Amy asked.
“It’s almost as bad as a week long migraine, lasting until my leylines realign. It’s a very rare thing back home, but here…” Starlight trailed off and rubbed her left temple. “Thankfully, I learned my lesson a few years ago about overstressing myself magically. But, that’s why I called for ponies to come meet me in Manehattan, to cast a joint spell on the same circle I used to get us here… but almost nopony showed up, and those that did left when they found out why I’d called them.
“The news barely picked up the story beyond a crazy mare trying to start a cult, which I wasn’t even trying to do! Without any life skills outside of mastering magic, I lost everything. The government doesn’t support ponies that don’t try, so I moved here and got a temp job through a company cleaning up at a local school. I’ve been doing that for about a month and I think I’ll be quitting soon.”
“What? Why?!” Amy asked loudly. “That’s our only source of income.”
“Because the children treat me like an animal! I won’t take anymore selfies, I refuse to let them ride me, and I can’t stand cleaning up after them!”
“C’mon,” Alex said, “they’re only kids.”
Starlight snorted in frustration. “They’re in high school! They should know better than to treat a pony like a barnyard animal. The adults are better, at least, but when they see me eating hay or drinking with a straw, I hear them better than they think I can. They whisper about me and laugh. I’m not some court jester or clown there for their amusement, damnit.”
Amy slouched into the seat. “Okay, so I guess that now that I have an apartment I can get a job. I just have to find the right fit.”
“Well, what skills do you have?” Alex asked.
“I used to work as a server in a restaurant for a couple years. I can make coffee because I worked at a local coffee shop, and I’m pretty good at giving directions.”
“Well, there’s always a restaurant hiring, but if you didn’t like it, then maybe you should take a job there while looking for something better, just as a placeholder, ya know?” Alex advised.
Amy sighed. “I’ll just go to the temp agency and use Starlight as a reference. Maybe I can just take over her janitorial job when she leaves.”
Alex nodded. “Maybe you can get an office job, too. No one said you have to settle for the lowest job there is just to make ends meet. Starlight, that applies to you, too. You can get a job doing anything you put your mind to. What do you like doing that isn’t cleaning up after humans or magic?”
Starlight sighed and looked away. “I just don’t know. I was a counselor, but here I need to go to school for that.”
“Then go to school!” Alex exclaimed, startling the mare. “Who said you can’t go to school? There’s a major school in this very town that’ll take you in for free to achieve any degree you want. Go for it, Starlight, you can do anything here.”
Starlight looked at Amy, why was looking intently at Alex. “But, I don’t know where to begin. My phone-”
“Isn’t everything. Heck, once you start going to school you can get a free laptop and tablet. The only downside is you have to spend a semester living in campus dorms, or at least saying you do. I’ll help you get in, then you just have to go to school and get a part time job to make ends meet.”
“I dunno, you’re really passionate about helping me, us,” Starlight said, her ears perking up more and more, “but are you sure it won’t be a hassle?”
Alex laughed confidently. “I can do anything I want, and what I wanna do is help you get into school to get an education and, maybe, get you some more human friends. You sound like you need them more than you’d like to admit.”
Starlight slowly smiled and hopped from her seat to quickly approach Alex. She reared up and opened her forelegs, falling onto him in a lap hug with her head resting against his stomach. “Thank you, thank you so much. I haven’t met anyone willing to help me so much since I was back home.”
Alex patted her head and ran his fingers through her mane. “Hey, it’s nothing. I’m just being a good friend, is all.”
Starlight sighed as her magic grew again. She was enjoying the feeling of her magic swelling, and at the warmth the man was showing her with nothing expected in return. Amy gasped when Starlight opened her eyes. “Your eyes are white!” She exclaimed and leaned away from the mare.
Alex tensed as Starlight looked at him. Her mane waved in an unseen breeze for a few seconds as she controlled herself and stored the power away for future use. “Wow, that was wild. I haven’t felt that since…” Starlight went quiet and she looked at her hooves. She rubbed her temples and worked her jaw while sitting at Alex’s feet. “Something’s different.”
Starlight stood on her four hooves and moved to the center of the room, her horn lit, then she vanished in a flash of light. A thud sounded from above them and Alex and Amy looked at one another before rushing to the door and stepping out into the daylight. Starlight stepped from the doorway to the apartment upstairs with a grin and a smoking horn.
“Did you just…”
“I teleported!” Starlight shouted as she reared up to look over the railing. “I haven’t done that in years. It felt so good to use… magic again.” She said just before falling to her side. The humans rushed up the stairs and helped the weak mare into her apartment, laying her on the floor as she grinned. “I did it. Yay.”
“Well, that’s great, but what does that mean for you going to school? College?” Alex asked.
Starlight waved a hoof and pushed herself up to sitting. “Nothing. It just means I have to start studying our thaumaturgical relationship. There’s something between us that I can’t explain right now, and it could be the key to getting home, finally.”
She pushed herself up to stand and then stumbled a little as she took a step forward. Going back downstairs was arduous, but she made it, refusing help as she took each step like a foal; one at a time.
Starlight followed her friends into Alex’s apartment again. She took her seat on the chair and the humans sat on the loveseat. Alex turned on the television and switched through different streaming services before he stopped and selected once. “Oh, can we watch Heavy Duty?” Starlight exclaimed.
“The one with the pony that works weird jobs?” Amy asked with a sneer. “I don’t like that guy, he’s too cocky.” Alex searched and found the show. “Seriously? You’re gonna watch that garbage?”
“Hey, one episode won’t kill any of us.” Starlight said with a grin.
Amy looked at the mare and her eyes widened. “Starlight, you’re bleeding!”
“What? Where?” Starlight asked as she touched her nose.
Amy and Alex looked fearfully at Starlight. “From the base of your horn.”
Starlight gasped and reached up to touch her horn and shrieked at the contact. “Ouch, that’s not supposed to happen, ever.”
Alex got up and rushed to get a few paper towels for the bleeding and carefully wrapped the horn’s base with them. Starlight grimaced and whined, even after he was done. “There, would any over the counter medicine help with the pain?”
“I don’t know,” Starlight sniffled and reached up to touch her horn again. She gasped with eyes wide as her horn wiggled ever so slightly. “My horn’s loose. That’s not… possible.” She said and lowered her hoof to her chest. “It must be from using so much magic at once, but it’s never happened before.”
“Maybe it’s something to do with the magic here on earth compared to your magic back on Equus?”
“Maybe you should leave the magic to me, Alex.” Starlight said firmly before she reached up to touch her horn again. Alex stopped her hoof before it reached it, though. She was quiet for a few seconds before she suddenly leaned forward and wrapped her forelegs around Alex and began to cry as she held him close. “I can’t… why did I have to trap us all here?”
As Starlight cried, Amy moved to her side and embraced the mare, as did Alex, awkwardly. Starlight began to sob and pressed the side of her face against Alex’s belly as years worth of pain and self blame came out. “Where’s this all coming from?” Alex whispered to Amy, who hushed the man.
A couple minutes later, Starlight pushed away and wiped her snotty snout on her fetlock. She wiped her eyes with her fetlocks and noticed some blood on Alex’s gray shirt from her injured horn. She quickly rubbed at it with her forehoof before realizing it wasn’t helping. “It’s okay,” Alex said as he cupped her cheek in his hand, “I think we can figure this out and fix everything in time.”
Starlight leaned into the touch, then her eyes narrowed and she leaned away quickly. “Don’t touch me like that,” she groused. “Not yet, anyway. I have issues with human men touching me.”
Alex nodded and Amy gave him a confused look. “Okay, I won’t touch you without your permission, unless it’s an emergency or something.”
“Like if you faint or overexert yourself,” Amy added.
“I haven’t fainted since I got to earth and my magic was drained to less than a foal’s level. I’m just glad I can lift a four ounce phone and stylus. If I couldn’t even do that…” Starlight sighed. “I’m one of the weakest unicorns, did you know that?”
“I didn’t know there was a comparison,” Amy said.
“Well, most unicorns can at least lift their own body weight in mass with their magic. For some reason, when I was pulled through, my magic was really pulled out of me. I woke up with a migraine that lasted two days and when it passed, all I could lift was about a pound of weight. It’s only gotten weaker as the years have passed.
“Maybe it’s punishment for what I did. Maybe it’s just chance. Maybe it’s something to do with the ritual spell Sunburst and I were casting that did it. All I know is that if casting a moderate level spell like teleportation can hurt my horn, what would happen if I opened a portal home?”
Alex smirked, irking Starlight. “Well, then we’ll have to make sure you don’t cast it by yourself then, won’t we? I think that if you created a small enough portal to test its opening ability and you sent through a simple note, maybe that would be enough to convince other unicorns to join you and save you the drain of having to cast this spell by yourself. We can record the test and post it online for other ponies to see, and if it works it’ll at least give the ones that want to go home a little hope.”
“What if it works, though? What if I send a letter through and no creature ever finds it? What if my horn breaks off during the casting?” Starlight worried aloud.
“You can spend months going over what if’s, all that matters is the end result. It shouldn’t be hard to find a couple unicorns that’ll be willing to help an experiment to go home, right? Hell, you could go to the thaumatic research wing at the local college and offer to cast the spell there. I bet they’d jump at the chance to work with you.”
“Yeah,” Starlight rolled her eyes and then flinched in pain as Amy adjusted the paper towels around her horn, “just what the world needs to know; the pony that caused all this has been right under their muzzles this whole time. I can see the angry crowds of ponies and humans coming after me already.”
“There are always going to be hate groups, Starlight,” Amy soothed, “like the Human’s First movement and the like, but you ponies have survived everything they’ve tried to do to get you out of the country or have you put into concentration camps.”
Alex frowned for a split second, but Starlight noticed. “What?” Starlight asked.
Alex sighed. “I know my skin color doesn’t really matter to ponies, but it matters to a lot of humans. When I tell people that I come from a long line of Jewish people, they can’t believe that a brown man could be Jewish. Like it’s a new thing or I’m one of a kind out here… anyway, my great grandmother narrowly escaped being sent to one of those camps, but my great grandfather was sent to one and barely survived.”
“Oh, my,” Amy softly said, “I can’t imagine what it would have been like.”
“That’s good, because no creature should have to go through that,” Alex said firmly.
“I’m glad you feel that way,” Starlight said, returning to her chair, “because if this goes wrong, they may push for it again.”
“No one said we were going to go through with anything,” Alex said as he looked at the tear stains and a small line of blood on his shirt, “and even if we do, there are people that will keep you safe from hate groups.”
“I hope so, otherwise my horn problems will be the last of my worries.”