//------------------------------// // 4 - Layers of Deceit // Story: Midnight Starlight // by Moonatik //------------------------------// 07:02 - 20/03/1002 - Ourtown The door creaked open as Sunburst stepped into the house. Cold, blue lamps lit the colourless, drab interior. Inside was a single, mostly empty, room with a couple doors on one side and a staircase going up. “Hello?” he called out. “Welcome!” Sunburst flinched, spinning to face the sudden greeting. That mare from earlier, the one who whispered to him at the end of breakfast, had jumped out of nowhere, her muzzle inches away from his. She had the same smile as everyone else he’d seen so far, every inch of her body was stiff and tense. Now able to get a better look at her features, Sunburst could’ve sworn he recognised her but struggled to put a name to her face. “Come in here all by yourself?” She tilted her head, glancing outside. He backed away from the mare, stopping when his rump bumped into the corner of the nearest wall. “Uhh, yeah!” He put on a grin and nodded. “Is that so?” Her eyes snapped back towards him. “Starlight isn’t with you?” “Y-yeah, I asked her for some space, and she left me alone,” he explained. As if a switch had been flicked, her smile collapsed and her posture loosened. She blinked a few times and her mouth hung open slightly. “Woah, really? That’s a first.” The superficial cheeriness in her voice was gone too; her voice was barely above a whisper. She soothed her cheeks, shook her head, and went to look out the windows. “Huh, okay,” she murmured. Sunburst inched out of the corner. “Uhm, what’s going on?” She closed the curtains and walked to a door on the far side of the room. She turned towards Sunburst as she pushed it open. “Follow me.” Whatever she wanted to say, or do, it required privacy. Probably privacy from Starlight specifically. Slowly, and with frequent glances over his shoulder, he followed the pony down the stairs. As he descended the rickety staircase, he noticed how thick with dust the basement air was. The basement was a lot like the dreary upstairs, only darker and dustier. The only light came from the passageway to the upstairs. “Why’d you bring me down here?” Sunburst stepped off the stairs and onto the cold stone floor. “So nopony overhears us.” The unicorn’s voice returned to a conversational tone. “It’d be best if we talked to you away from Starlight.” Sunburst winced. “We?” “Back here!” came a voice from behind.  He jumped and stumbled back. Cloaked in darkness were two other ponies who shuffled into the light, revealing them to be indistinct from the other villagers save for a few details. Both had equal cutie marks, heavily desaturated colours, and roughly the same manestyle with short-cut bangs and the backs of their manes up in buns. One was a thestral stallion a little shorter than Sunburst himself, his coat a faded green and mane a greyed-out blue. The other was a pegasus mare, the yellow of their coat and pink of their mane barely discernible in the low light. Looking closer at the mare, Sunburst realised she was the mare he’d pointed out during breakfast to illustrate his point regarding unequal food portions. Realising they posed little threat, Sunburst calmed down. “Have you been waiting down here for me?” he asked. “Actually,” the thestral said, stepping forwards. “Lemon Hearts and I were brainstorming a way to distract Starlight so you could talk to her and Fluttershy in private. But it looks like you got away from her yourself. Name’s Rain Bolt, by the way.” “Lemon Hearts?” Sunburst’s eyes lit us as he turned to get a closer look at the unicorn. “Wait, no, I remember you! We were at magic school together!” “Ah!” A bright, genuine smile spread across Lemon’s face. “I was wondering when you’d recognise me!” Rain chuckled. “Wow, is there anyone here Sunburst hasn’t met before?” “Don’t get the wrong idea, we weren’t even in the same year group,” Lemon clarified. “We just ran into each other a few times, sometimes studied in the same places.” “Yeah. So, how have you been, Lemon Hearts?” Sunburst asked, trying to rerail the conversation. “Oh, you know,” Lemon laughed with a flick of her hoof. “Graduating at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Hopping right into a job at the Royal Palace. Having all that blown away when the civil war started. Spending three nights sheltering in a wine cellar with a hundred other ponies. Getting out to find myself treated with mistrust and suspicion at every turn. Running away from Canterlot in search of somewhere that’d accept me. Ending up… here.” Her eyes had floated away from Sunburst as her lips quivered, her smile suppressed. “Anyway! What’s been up with you?” Sunburst put a hoof to his mouth. “Oh, sorry about that. Though um, I’ve been okay. Mentioned that I’m a researcher and all…” “Um, excuse me?” Fluttershy meekly spoke up. “I’m sorry. Weren’t we supposed to-” “Ah, yes!” Lemon perked up. “Sunburst, we need to talk to you about Starlight.” “Oh boy,” Sunburst sighed. “Where to start?” Lemon gave a nod, and a light grumble escaped Rain. “Recently, Starlight’s been…” Lemon moved her hoof in a circle. “She hasn’t been particularly-” “She’s out of her damn mind!” Rain butted in. “Rain! Don’t be so rude!” Fluttershy spoke up. But she shrank away once everypony’s eyes fell on her, her voice falling to a hush. “And, um, keep your voice down, please?”  Rain groaned at Fluttershy, rolling his eyes. “Look, Sunburst, guy,” he said in a softer tone. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it, Starlight’s gone mad with power. Every week or so she does something completely off the rocker. There’s a pony here called Night Glider, as great a friend as any of us. One night she mildly expresses the thought of having her cutie mark back, and you know what Starlight does to her? Locks her in a house all by herself with no food for eight nights!” Sunburst blinked, stepping back. “What, really?” he gasped. “She’s not the only one, too.” Rain rustled his wings, his jaw was tense. “Another pony, Sugar Belle, used to be a baker. One night suggested that we grow more than potatoes, have some variety in our diets. Starlight said ‘If you don’t value the food that we cook for you, see how you fare without it’! Just for making a suggestion, starved her until she came grovelling back!” “That’s- Oh stars.” Horror flooded through Sunburst, stemming not only from the described acts themselves but from the fact that they didn’t arouse a modicum of surprise. It was all entirely consistent with the Starlight he’d seen over the last night. “There’s no reasoning with her, you see?” Rain added. “You step an inch out of Starlight’s line, she breaks you. Those two? Broke both of them. Broke all the others who stepped out of line too. They’re so broken they’re grinning in their sleep. Rest of us don’t smile like that when nopony’s looking.” Sunburst practically froze on the spot. “Wh-what do you want me to do about it?” he stammered. Rain stepped aside, and Lemon Hearts came forward. “Earlier today, at breakfast, I noticed that you noticed that things around here aren’t exactly right,” she said. “Starlight being controlling, a lot of her ideas being contradictory, and nopony’s really able to stand up to her. Am I right?” Sunburst gave a nod. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” “But I think you can give us a chance to do something about it. See, most of us would be punished if we said what you said at breakfast, but Starlight seems to value your opinion enough not to do that.” Sunburst glanced at the floor, then back to Lemon. “I guess you could say that,” he admitted. “Right.” Lemon nodded. “What we were thinking is that we can express our concerns about Starlight and everything she’s done to you. Well, Rain’s kind of already done that, so that part’s covered. To us it looks like you have her ear, so we’d like to ask you to ask Starlight to try doing things differently.” “Oh, really?” Sunburst felt his breath getting heavier. “Mhm!” Fluttershy fluttered her wings. “Starlight can be so mean to us when we disagree with her. But if you talk to her and have her change her mind, things here might get better!” “For what it’s worth, I think there’s no saving her,” Rain admitted. “Honestly, I’d love for you to prove me wrong.” Immediately, part of Sunburst took to the idea. His proximity to Starlight gave him a unique vantage, giving him the chance to amplify the voices of all those ensnared by her most egregious abuses. There was a chance to make a real difference in this place, improve these ponies' lives. A smile was forming on his lips. In fact, he could skip going through Starlight and just drop the truth of Starlight’s deception on the villagers now and get it over with- Suddenly, Sunburst’s smile fell as his mind flashed back to the Corporal’s note. Get the spell without disrupting the social order. If we believe you have lost sight of the objective, we have orders to extract you by force if necessary. “I don’t think I can help you.” Lemon coughed. Fluttershy gasped. Rain scoffed. “See, told you.” Rain shrugged. “Starlight’s too far gone. Even he thinks so. We’re gonna have to bring her down.” “Hey, no,” Sunburst mumbled, “that’s not what I-” “No, we can’t do that!” Fluttershy slipped up to Rain. “We’d rip the town apart!” “Not if we’re quick,” Rain countered. “Starlight’s no stronger than any of us. If there’s enough of us on our side we can overpower and lock her away fast. Then we tell everyone else what’s happened, and there’ll be nothing she can do.” “No!” Sunburst instinctively blurted. The three whirled around to glare at him. “No, no, Fluttershy’s right, you can’t do that,” he mumbled, “because, um…” Sunburst blanked. As much as he wanted to, as much as he felt he’d have to, he knew he couldn’t divulge the truth of Starlight’s power without incurring the wrath of Starlight or his Lunar higher-ups. Yet if he allowed Rain to go through with whatever he had planned, the absolute best case scenario is that he’d get blamed for disrupting Ourtown. Worst case scenario? He didn’t even want to imagine what a cornered and aggravated Starlight would do. What to do, what to say? “Because what?” Rain said sternly, taking a step towards Sunburst. There was no way forward. Sunburst couldn’t deny that he had walked himself right into a corner. There was only one way out of the corner. It might not be completely honest, but it was something. “Because… I think I can get Starlight to change her attitude.” Fluttershy perked up. “Oh, really?” A smile appeared on her muzzle. “Not what you said earlier, if you don’t mind me pointing out,” Rain added. “What I meant is that I don’t think I could help you for an extended period of time,” Sunburst clarified. “I'm only really here because Starlight is here and I wanted to see her again. After that, I'm going home. You get me, right? Like I mean, sure I could help for a bit? I could push her in the right direction but after that, y'know…” “Hey, look, whatever it is you do, you should do it soon if you want to keep your cutie mark. Fluttershy here-” he pointed his wing to Fluttershy, “-didn’t keep hers for more than a couple hours, and Starlight did not ask first. If you got here when we were asleep, then you’re already breaking records.” “Oh, uh, she told me I could stay as long as I liked and leave if I chose.” Sunburst rubbed the back of his neck.  “That’s what she said to all of us!” Rain seethed. Sunburst stumbled back. “I don’t think Starlight’s let me choose anything since I got here,” Fluttershy mused, rustling her wings. “Or if anyone’s let me choose anything…” “Alright, I get it, I get it.” Sunburst rubbed his forehead. “But if this is all so bad, why don’t you just, I dunno, leave?” His question was first met with silence, each of the three villagers turning to silently look at each other. Maybe they didn’t have an answer. After a moment, they turned to Sunburst, presenting him with frowns and lowered eyebrows. Lemon drew in a deep breath. “Leave and go where?” It suddenly dawned on Sunburst. Ponies don’t find themselves in places like this without a reason. “I already told you my story.” Lemon pointed to herself, then at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy was thrown out of her life when she couldn’t bear the Empire’s barbarism, and Rain…” She gestured to Rain. “You might as well tell us yourself.” Rain sighed through gritted teeth, his eyes at the floor. “I’ve always wanted equality.” He turned up to look at Sunburst, stepping closer to him. “And twice I’ve been burned by madmares who throw the word ‘equality’ around and twist it to suit their own crazy purposes. First the Nightmarists, now Starlight. We can’t do anything about Nightmare Moon, but we can do something about Starlight. There’s something good here, something different. I want it done right. You understand?” Rain’s voice trembled with unyielding determination, but an undercurrent of smoldering bitterness ran strong through it. Every word was delivered with the sharpness of shattered glass, the names of Starlight and Nightmare Moon practically spat. With the distance closed between them, Sunburst could see the weary wrinkles around his eyes previously hidden by the basement’s darkness.  Sunburst was left stunned, and the doubt that lingered in his mind was momentarily pushed to the wayside. “Okay.” Sunburst nodded his head. “I understand. I’ll talk to Starlight as soon as I can.” “You will?” Fluttershy’s wings fluttered a little. “In fact.” Sunburst trotted to the stairs. “I’ll go up right now. Get this done sooner rather than later.” Fluttershy quietly sighed, her wings relaxing. Lemon pumped her hoof before following Sunburst up the stairs. Rain chuckled. “Best of luck to you,” he said, then going over to the base of the staircase. “Yo, Lemon, should we stay down here, or..?” Lemon ducked and turned towards Rain and Fluttershy. “Stay out of sight a little longer,” she said. “Don’t want to draw attention by all coming out at once.” “Ah, gotcha, gotcha.” Rain stepped back. After a quiet few seconds he turned to Fluttershy. “So, uh, you any good with small talk?” “Oh, I’m not very good with small talk.” Fluttershy glanced away from Rain. “But, umm, talking small on the other hoof…” Lemon nudged the basement door shut. She turned to look at Sunburst with a warm smile. “Thanks for doing this, Sunburst. It’s really great that you showed up when you did, you know? Things might finally turn around for the better here.” Sunburst forced out a laugh and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, hah, no problem!” he insisted. No problem at all, absolutely none. All he had to do was get Starlight’s mind on a more sensible track, all while making it look like nothing was changing without losing sight of his mission, on top of not giving away the actual reason he was there. Like walking a line finer than the hairs on his head. No pressure. Sunburst looked at the window, he observed minuscule raindrops tracing delicate paths down the dusty windowsill, a few daring droplets breaching the glassless frame and trickling into the room. “Hm, looks like it’s started to rain.” 7:20 - 20/03/1002 - Ourtown As soon as the first drop of rain hit the end of Starlight’s muzzle, she jumped. She might’ve been talking to someone, might’ve been talking to multiple someone’s, didn’t matter. Her legs launched into a gallop on instinct. Barely a few moments had passed and already she’d made her way through the town and disappeared into her house, slamming the door shut behind her. She hurried up the stairs and into her bedroom. Right away she seized a mirror and put it up to her flank. Relief promptly washed over her, as only a few barely noticeable trickles of makeup ran down her flank, the cutie mark beneath still fully obscured. While running indoors at the first sign of rain was obviously strange, she just needed to tell the villagers she dealt with a severe case of ombrophobia. They believed her, because of course they did. Grumbling, she stropped downstairs. Damn Lunars and their weather schedules. Sure, the farm needed the water so plants would grow, but would it be so hard to concentrate it on the farm? Jumping her with rain like that risked her entire image. Were they trying to engineer her downfall? Throwing on a grey raincoat and rain hat as she stepped outside, she noticed that in the short time she’d been inside the light trickle of rain had turned to a thunderous torrent. Most of the villagers had either gone inside and remained there or come back out with their own raincoats, as was common. All the raincoats, Starlight’s included, had equal signs imprinted over the flanks to ensure that the symbol of their sameness was plain in view at all times. One size fits all, too. Starlight’s size, specifically. Her eyes scanned over the village as she strolled onto the street, curious as to where Sunburst had gotten off to. It hadn’t been long since she left him be, hopefully not long enough for him to have scampered off. Though her eyes were drawn up, partially obscured by rain were a number of Night Guards standing on low lying clouds around the village perimeter. The rain didn’t seem to bother them. Not only that, but there were definitely more of them today than there were in the days before. Why the uptick? “Hey, Starlight!” Starlight's head whirled with a swift, almost abrupt motion, pivoting towards his voice. Sure enough, she spotted him in the doorways of one of the houses, waving at her but flinching as the rain hit his face. By his side was… Lemon Hearts, was it? Hard to tell anyone apart at a distance. “Oh, Sunburst!” Starlight called, waving him over. “Follow me! There’s something I need to talk to you about!” He briefly whispered to Lemon Hearts, inaudible under the backdrop of the falling rain. Sunburst struggled to shield himself from the rain. The pair picked up their pace as the rain only got more intense. It was turning into a hostile storm, as if the heavens themselves were trying to force them both inside. The moment she and Sunburst hopped inside Starlight threw the door shut. “Wow, that came out of nowhere,” Sunburst noted, partially shaking himself off. As Starlight had hung up her own coat and hat, she turned to Sunburst and gasped. “Oh, gosh, look at your cloak! You were only out there for a minute!” Water was dripping from Sunburst’s cloak like a sponge. “Hm?” Sunburst looked at his cloak and lifted a part of it up, cringing as he noticed how drenched it was. “Eugh.” “I have a place to dry it upstairs.” Starlight threw a hoof back to the staircase. “I’ll fetch you a towel, too.” “Uh, alright, sure.” Sunburst unfastened his cloak and levitated it to Starlight. She promptly snatched it away from him and made her way upstairs to her room. Her room had some rails bolted into the wall to hold drying towels, though at the time, they were empty. A deft flick sent the cloak billowing through the air, throwing some of the water off but also sending the contents of the cloak’s pockets tumbling onto the floor. The unexpected cascade jolted her, but only for a moment. She absentmindedly threw the cloak onto the rail, her mind fixated the intriguing assortment before her. Without a thought, she dug through the ejected contents, and goodness was there a lot to go over. Pencils, erasers, loose change, a loaded keyring, napkins, a stuffed wallet, a blank piece of paper, a notebook, a yo-yo, and miscellaneous ‘other stuff’. She scooped up the notebook, it having drawn her immediate curiosity, and she flicked through its pages. Yet she could only squint at the unintelligible and incoherent hornwriting. The few words she could read, a few notes about oneiromancy, lacked any semblance of flow or grammar. Chances were it made sense to Sunburst and only Sunburst. Otherwise it was nothing but scribbles. “Hm.” She shrugged. She retrieved the contents and stashed them into a dry burlap sack for safekeeping. Along with that, she picked up a towel from the dresser and collected her secretly kept magical kit, then headed back downstairs with all of it in her arcane grasp. Back downstairs, she saw Sunburst was leaning against the windowsill and staring into the rain with a hoof to his chin. “I’m back!” she announced, nippily drawing his attention. She lay the burlap sack on the ground and passed Sunburst the towel. “Thanks.” He aggressively rubbed the towel over his head, tangling up his mane. “Say, that unicorn you were just talking to, do you know her?” she asked. Sunburst peered up from the towel and blinked. “Lemon Hearts?” he stammered. “Mrh, a little? We were at magic school at the same time.” “Ohh, I see.” Starlight struggled to stop a groan escaping through her teeth. “What were you talking about?” “Uhh, how much better her life is under equality?” He shrugged, putting on a smile as his brow furrowed. “Hey yeah, what did you want to talk to me about again?” She started back in silence for a moment. “Ah yes!” She laughed, magically pulling a table to the centre of the room and laying all the pieces of her magic kit out on top. Sunburst stepped up to the table, his eyes going over all the kit, while Starlight made her way up to Sunburst. “Okay, so I was thinking about this last night. I’ve never figured out how to do the whole cutie mark thing without, ahem.” Leaning close towards him, she dropped her voice to a whisper. “My magic, right?” “...Yeah?” “But!” Starlight pulled away, giddily skipping on the spot. “You’re a serious theoryhead, you’ll know all about how artifacts and such can be developed to get around those limitations, and even if you don’t know how to do this specifically, you’ll be able to find out! Right? Right?” “Maybe?” He shrugged, giving a weak smile. “So my idea,” she giggled, hoof to her smiling mouth as her whole body was jittering. “We should make the Staff of Sameness into a real thing!” “What!?” “Yes!” A broad grin spread across Starlight’s face as she threw her head back and rubbed her hooves together. “We’ll do it in here. Nopony comes inside without my permission, so we’ll have privacy. You can keep your cutie mark until it’s done, as will I obviously, but as soon as we’re done? It’ll all be fixed! Sorted! We’ll never have to worry about cutie marks getting between you or me or anypony here ever again!” For a moment, Sunburst said nothing. He stared blankly, his jaw slack and eyes barely blinking. “Um, well.” He drew a breath through his teeth and rubbed the back of his head, glancing to the side. “I don’t really know if that’s possible, to tell you the truth.” “Not with that attitude!” she carried on, completely undeterred. “If you knew how the spell worked, you could easily figure something out! Here.” She grabbed a scroll and quill. “I’ll write it down for you.” “Wait, just like that?” he gasped. His glasses nearly slipped off his muzzle. “Just like what?” she inquired. “I mean, yeah! That’d work!” A grin appeared on his face. “Just like that, I could figure something out if I saw your spell in writing! That’d be much easier.” “Perfect!” Right away she put the spell to scroll. She knew it by heart, so writing it down was no problem at all. Words and symbols flowed straight from her head and onto the page, as naturally as speaking. It didn’t take much longer than a minute until she had the whole scroll filled out. Once done, she passed the scroll over to Sunburst. Sunburst grabbed the scroll and held it out in front of him, his eyes scanning the paper in wonder. “Wow.” A bewildered laugh left his mouth, hardly repressed. Starlight tilted her head. “What is it?” A second or two passed with a wide-eyed Sunburst marvelling at the spell. His focus snapped back to Starlight, blinking and shaking his head a little. “Ah, uh, nothing, just, the sorcerership on this spell. It’s impressive.” Chuckling, Starlight flicked her wrist at him. “Oho, thank you.” “Though before we start.” He rolled up the scroll and held it close to his body. “There’s one more thing I wanted to mention.” “Uhuh?” “Just um, I was…” He pushed up his glasses up. He turned away from her, his gaze dancing around the room. “I was thinking…” He pushed his glasses up again. He put his hoof up to his mouth. He shook his head. “I… Uh.” He rubbed his chin. He pushed up his glasses again.  Starlight held a hoof out, literally begging for him to speak. “Come on, what is it?” she chuckled. “I…” He locked eyes with her, his body freezing and expression going blank. Suddenly a grin appeared as his eyebrows pressed together. “I feel really naked without my cloak. Mind if I go get it?” Silence, then Starlight snorted. “That was it?” “Y-yeah,” he insisted, glancing at the door. “Pft.” Starlight shrugged. “Alright, it’s in my room. It’ll still be wet though.” “Aha, just a little rain never hurt anypony!” He rushed past her and up the stairs, keeping the spell scroll in his magic. Starlight leaned on the table, content to wait for Sunburst to walk back down. Rain continued to pound against the walls and occasionally trickling into the house, not letting up at all. If anything it was getting heavier. Given how drenched his cloak was, he’d probably take it off after a few minutes. Was this a new thing or was he always this strange? Then Starlight remembered the sack of Sunburst’s stuff, she hadn’t told him that she’d taken everything out and bagged it up to keep it all dry. He might freak out a little, but he’d probably understand once he got down and explained it. Shrugging, Starlight thought it best to make sure everything actually was dry. A flick of magic carried the sack onto the table and she poured its contents out, finding to her relief that everything was still dry. Everything aside from a few drops of water that had gotten onto the blank piece of paper. She levitated the paper close to her face, inspecting the water damage closely. Not like there was anything to damage, of course. She could hear Sunburst galloping down the stairs behind her. “Hey, Starlight, you haven’t seen my-” His hoofsteps abruptly stopped. Starlight looked up. Hind legs still on the staircase Sunburst was back in his damp cloak with the scroll levitating by his side. But his entire body had locked in place with a look of abject terror on his face, like he’d just seen a ghost. His stare, solid and unmoving, was dead on her. But on a second glance, she noticed he wasn’t staring at her, he was staring at the blank paper. “Starlight, I'd like that back.” Starlight snorted. “This?” She spun the paper around in her magic, scanning both sides. “It’s a blank piece of paper.” “Yes.” His lips were unnaturally pushed together. “I’d like it back, please.” Starlight glanced at the blank paper, then back at Sunburst. She cocked an eyebrow. “Why?” “It’s- It’s important to me, for-” Sunburst gulped. “For p-private, personal reasons. Okay?” If the cloak thing wasn’t weird enough, this certainly was. What was so special about a blank piece of paper? Maybe it really wasn’t her business, so she reluctantly moved to levitate it towards Sunburst. Until she froze too. She felt the light tingle of thaumic radiation, immediately flaring her interest. There was a spell on the paper. Not a strong spell, a very simple and weak spell. Something a newbie could pull off. Something a filly could pull off. A spell she recognised the vague silhouette of, something she’d used in her foalhood on her private diary, something to render ink invisible. It hit her. She just stopped herself from gasping. “Starlight, please.” He was sweating so much it was like he’d just walked in from the rain. “Just give me the paper.” A light magical push purged the paper of its magic, and a hoofwritten note was revealed. She read it, but struggled to believe it. They were orders. Orders to infiltrate her village. Orders from military personnel.  No doubt Lunar military personnel. Including language about the social order, Night Guards, and getting the spell off of her. It all suddenly made sense. Sunburst, the extra guards, his behaviour, everything. For a good few moments, she was motionless, only her lips and eyebrows trembling. It felt like a black hole had ripped her chest open. Soon the light in her horn faded and the note fluttered to the ground, her eyes wide and mouth agape. Momentarily, she tried to force herself not to believe it, but she knew she had no choice. “I see,” she sighed. A gulp. “Starlight, I-” “I should’ve known it was too good to be true!” she screamed, casting the table aside. “Please calm down.” He raised a hoof in defence. “Of course it was!” She stomped forward, mag. “You finally coming to see me after all this time, just to pull me through this whole song and dance to get spells for the freaking Lunar Empire!?” “Y-you’re scaring me Starlight.” He shuddered. “Because stars forbid you ever actually come here to reconnect with me!” she manically laughed, now pacing back and forth. “Even after all this time, after all of this, your cutie mark is keeping us apart!” she seethed, throwing an accusatory point at him. “Starlight, just let me-” “No!” A blast of magic burst out of her horn. It filled the room with light and incinerated the scroll instantly. Sunburst staggered back and gasped, nearly tripping on the stairs. “You want my cutie mark spell so bad?” she raged. “Fine! Why don't I demonstrate!”