//------------------------------// // 6 - Second Shot // Story: Midnight Starlight // by Moonatik //------------------------------// 21:03 - 21/03/1002 - Canterlot Castle Upon returning to his desk, Sunburst practically fell into the seat. The first time back at the office since setting off for Ourtown, yet the same disorganised mountain of paper sat atop his desk, right as he left it. It was noisy as the chatter of a new work night began, ponies filing in and going to their desks, but to Sunburst it was little more than white noise. Opposite him, Altie was preparing for the work night. He looked up at Sunburst. “Hey, welcome back.” Sunburst looked across, his vision still a little blurry. “Oh. Hi Altie.” Altie leaned forwards a little, furrowing his brow. “Stars, Sunburst, you alright?” he chuckled. “You look like you haven’t slept in three nights. I haven’t seen bags under your eyes like that since I last saw my mother in law.” Sunburst had slept fourteen hours straight after returning to his Canterlot apartment. After that, it was pretty much straight back to work. Didn’t even get a night off after the experience in Ourtown. “I’ve been worse,” Sunburst yawned. His eyes slid off Altie as he lazily scanned the desk, fumbling through the papers and trying to remember where he left off. A minute or so passed before Altie cleared his throat. “Alright, I’m curious. What was it like?” Sunburst looked up. “Hm?” “Being out on an assignment!” Altie leaned over the desk, his ears forward. “Doing some real field work! I wanna know what it’s like, I never get sent out on missions.” “Oh, that,” Sunburst sighed. “It was all about oneiromancy, right?” He’d almost completely forgotten how that it had been his knowledge in oneiromancy had gotten the ball rolling on his mission given, well, everything. “I dunno,” he said, “it’s probably all classified.” “Alright alright, what was it like then?” Altie was tapping his hooves on the desk. “Trying out magic in the field, how’d it all feel?” Sunburst sighed, head in his hooves, utterly out of it. He probably should just ignore or dodge whatever Altie wanted to talk about. Oh, screw it, he needed to vent about it to someone. “You ever worried that you’ve screwed up?” “Ah,” Altie breathed. “Mission failed, then?” “Well, no, not exactly.” Sunburst shook his head. “At least- I dunno, it’s not really the mission itself. I don’t know if it could be called a success or a failure. That’s not it, though, it’s more…” He fidgeted with some papers on his desk. “More about someone who was part of the mission.” “Uh huh, I see.” Altie redirected his gaze towards his desk. “The reason I was chosen in the first place was…” Sunburst looked up at the ceiling, pushing air out of his nostrils. His mind was abuzz with thoughts that he struggled to form into words. “Well, without giving away anything that might be confidential, I was picked because I used to be friends with one of the ponies there. Though, turns out they were nothing like I remembered. More or less.” When Sunburst looked back, Altie was digging through one of the drawers on his desk. “Hm?” He looked up at Sunburst. “Oh no no, go on, I’m listening,” he insisted. “Right,” Sunburst sighed. “Well, it didn’t go well between me and them. They were… kind of nuts. Either way, the last chance I got to speak to them I wanted to say something important, but instead I snapped. Bunch of bottled up rage all came spilling out at once. And because of that I think that bridge is burned for good.” “Nutcase friend, gotcha.” “Like, I had a shot, but now?” Sunburst slumped down, his head landing on the desk. “Whatever relationship we might have had is gone. Even if I thought of something to say, I don’t have a way to contact them. Nothing to say, no way to say it.” “Uh huh.” Altie nodded. “Nothing gleaned about applying oneiromancy, then?” Sunburst nearly scowled at Altie, but struggled to find the energy. He couldn’t blame Altie for not caring about his relationship with Starlight, she didn’t know him. Made sense that he’d only be interested in the… “Wait.” Sunburst sat up. The oneiromancy, dream magic. Something Sunburst had proven himself at the very least capable of. Capable of entering Starlight’s dream’s specifically, meaning… He gasped. His eyes lit up and he practically leapt out of his seat. “That’s it!” Altie shuffled back. “What’s it?” His question went unanswered as Sunburst started making a further mess of his desk. Yanking open drawers, digging through their contents, scanning paper after paper and sending some to the floor. “Hey, you okay?” “I just need to-” Sunburst kicked a drawer shut. “Agh, darnit, where’d I leave my oneiromancy research? Rustling his wings, Altie quietly chuckled. “Don’t hate me for this,” he said. Sunburst paused, turning to Altie, seeing that his winged colleague had a folder in his hooves. “The topic interested me so I thought to look through your desk while you were away and got everything on oneiromancy together. Organised into notes, sources, theory, practice, and the like.” Promptly, Altie passed the folder to Sunburst. Sunburst flipped it open and found it exactly as Altie described, with a remarkable degree of organisation at that. Tabs on everything important, divided into logical sections, it even had a hoofwritten index. There was a ‘?’ section, chock full of notes on torn and crumpled pieces of paper, written in his hornwriting. He could read them, but given his subpar calligraphy skills, he could forgive Altie’s confusion. “That’s…” Sunburst flipped through the folder some more, picking out random topics. “That’s actually super useful. Thanks.” Giving a smirk, Altie shrugged. “No problem.” There was much in the folder Sunburst had only gone over in passing when compiling his original report, but with it all organised for him, he could analyse it with much more rigor. Long range oneiromancy and how to locate specific dreams and dreamers, all things he personally struggled with, were explained in plain Equestrian. All he needed was the time to go through it and work out the practical magic. “Oi!” The pair were startled by a harsh voice from across the room. Both turned to meet the voice, seeing a small, wrinkled unicorn mare marching towards them. Her Institute uniform hung partly loose from her body, appearing a size too big for her, and she sported the same scowl that she always had. Sprit, their supervisor. “You two better be working!” she snapped, shuffling to look over their desks. “Uhm, yes, of course.” Sunburst moved some papers across his desk. “Definitely.” Altie smiled and nodded. Sprit glared at Altie. “Why’ve you got that there?” she spat. Altie raised an eyebrow. “Got what?” “That.” She said, as a hoof shot out to a large glass cylinder on Altie’s desk Altie turned to the bottle. “It’s only a bottle of water,” he said, lifting it up. “You’re not allowed to have it,” she asserted, holding her chin up. “It’s against workplace policy.” “What?” Altie flinched back, nearly dropping the bottle. “Why can’t I have some water?” “You’re being very argumentative!” Altie opened his mouth as if to retort, but he quickly clamped it shut. He groaned under his breath, pushed himself away from the desk, taking his water away. “And what are you doing?” Spirt barked as she snapped back to Sunburst, making him flinch. “Oh, working,” he said, mimicking the action of scribbling down Very Important Notes. After intrusively glaring at him and his desk, Sprit stropped away. Sunburst dug back into the folder. While there was no chance of him figuring out everything he needed to do in one night, he probably still had some time before he had to get back to whatever it is he actually had to do. Probably.   07:56 - 24/03/1002 - Embawk Detention Centre, Canterlot “Why would anyone want to be friends with you?” Some nights had passed, and yet the words Sunburst had said lingered, almost haunting Starlight, as she lay on her bed. Being stuck in a little jail cell with little in the way of stimulation tended to trap someone with their own thoughts. A newspaper was posted under the solid steel door with her breakfast every morning, but it could only entertain her for so long. It was especially hard to engage with it as all the pages were chock full of propaganda. Perhaps her jailors thought that by trapping her in a tight space and only giving her ideological nonsense to chew on, they’d break her. It took her longer than she may have liked to admit to for her to make that connection, and she physically exclaimed “Oh, for crying out loud…” the moment she did. Difference was, this place at least had a bed with pillows and blankets as well as a working sink and toilet. Even the food here was better than back in the village, if only in the sense that there was variety. How long had it been? Four, five years? All that time subjecting ponies to conditions like this, conditions worse than this. And for what? She wouldn’t want to be friends with whoever put her in here, so why would anybody want to be friends with her? Her silence was interrupted by a bang on the door. She jumped to her hooves at the sound. The door then swung open allowing a pair of stallions in guard uniforms to step into the cell. One, a unicorn, wordlessly gestured for Starlight to follow them, and she did as ordered. They escorted her through the monotonous corridors of the jail. Stone brick walls, all painted white, occasionally passing a barred window or a metal door. Before long, she was led into a room with a table in the middle and a single chair on either side, complete with oppressive fluorescent lamps on the ceiling and an ugly off-white colour on the walls. The huge mirror dominating the wall to her right clued her into what sort of room it was. She sat down at the chair on the far end of the room, as instructed by the guard who escorted her. When she seated herself, the guards exited and shut the door behind them, briefly leaving her unattended. Using this possibility to escape had crossed her mind, but given that she was certainly being watched through the mirror, she figured that she might as well see where things went for the time being. Before Starlight could act on whatever course of action she'd prefer, the door opened. A bat pony mare donning a black suit calmly entered the room, her saffron mane was tied up in a tidy bun, and her piercing orange eyes were locked onto Starlight in a cold stare. Starlight met her with a glare, sitting up in an attempt to make herself look stronger. “Ms Glimmer,” the mare opened. “I am Saitasuna, the Director of the Imperial Institute for Arcane Sciences. How has your stay here been?” Starlight scoffed. “What do you think?” “Then you’re in luck.” Saitasuna sat in the chair opposite Starlight, laying her saddlebags on the ground. “Contingent on your continued cooperation with us, tonight may be the last night you spend in a prison cell. Should you give us what we want, you’ll be moved to an apartment in Fillydelphia, a short trot from the train station, where you’ll be given a new job. The work is simple, and the pay is decent. If you show up to work every night and stay out of trouble, we can ensure you a comfortable living.” Starlight’s eyebrows raised. “Huh, how about that.” “Of course, we’ll be keeping a close eye on you, but it’s a life most ponies would be content with. Consider it a lenient parole,” Saitasuna explained with a subtly warm inflection and a slight smile. Then, her demeanour gave way to a cold, fierce, stare. “But, if you prove yourself uncooperative, the full weight of the Lunar justice system will come down on you.” That last phrase caught Starlight’s attention, and she was listening much more closely then. Saitasuna continued. “You’ll be the star of the biggest trial of the year, journalists from all of Equestria’s newspapers standing by watching, eager to report on the crazed cultist who brainwashed a whole village and stole their cutie marks. You'll be assigned an incompetent, overworked defence lawyer. Your former cult members will testify against you. You’ll be convicted of assault and battery on multiple counts, ponynapping on multiple counts, and spreading a harmful anti-Lunar ideology. You'll be sentenced to at least twelve years of corrective labour. If you’re lucky.” “Corrective labour?” Starlight repeated, letting out a mocking snort. “What, like, shipping me off to a work camp?” “Not just any camp, Ms. Glimmer.” Saitasuna lifted a folder out of her jacket. She picked out a series of photographs and slid them across the table to Starlight. “You're going to the Smerti Coal Mine in northern Severyana, not far from Ourtown believe it or not.” Starlight looked over the provided pictures. One showed a row of miners covered in ash and what was either soot or snow, and the wrinkled skin on each of the ponies made it look like death could claim them at any moment. Another captured what looked like barracks, barracks so dilapidated her village’s houses would be prime real estate by comparison. Another displayed an earth stallion dangling from a rope over a deep shaft, the caption reading “Bloss - RIP”. “It's one of the most dangerous coal mines on the continent due to a record of extremely poor safety equipment and unusually high levels of methane in the air,” Saitasuna explained. “In 990, it was the site of one of the worst industrial tragedies in Equestrian history, when forty miners lost their lives during a single incident. An independent investigation found that the company had been ignoring safety regulations to keep costs down. Nothing was done about it until we took over.” Starlight looked up from the photographs. “Stars above…” “For transparency’s sake, those photographs are a few years old. We've made attempts to improve living and working conditions for miners after our government seized the facility, but it's only been under our full control for a few months, so only so much progress has been made.” Saitasuna put her front hooves together and slowly leaned closer. “The chances of a fatal accident befalling an inexperienced miner are still very high compared to similar facilities.” Feeling small drops of sweat run down her face as her breathing became heavier, Starlight reexamined the photos and looked over the ones she hadn't given much attention to. They didn't paint a much better picture. She gritted her teeth and let out a groan. “What do you want?” Saitasuna retrieved a tape recorder from the saddlebags, placing it on the table. She pressed the 'record' button. “Your cutie mark spell,” Saitasuna said clearly. “How does it work, Ms Glimmer?” It all clicked, and Starlight gulped. “What if I-” Saitasuna tapped the pause button. “What I have presented is our only offer. There is no room for negotiation.” She resumed the recording. A binary choice between doing exactly what the Lunar Empire wanted with her magic, or perishing. Why did it feel so familiar? For a moment she thought that if they were going to use her and dispose of her no matter what, she may as well keep her dignity. But Starlight thought to put her pride to the side for a second, and tried to imagine her predicament another way. What good is pride when you’re breaking your back in a coal mine? And what had her pride done for her, aside from making her the sort of pony nopony would want to be friends with? What was any of that worth when all it resulted in was the closest friend she’d ever have snapping at her? Plus, if they stood by their word, which was a big 'if', she had effectively been given a second chance at life. Deep breathe in, deep breathe out. Starlight shuffled closer to the recorder. “Well…” 03:56 - 2/04/1002 - Peytral Station, Fillydeplhia They actually held up the deal. How about that? Well, they didn’t mention that the job was as a janitor, but them’s the breaks. In all fairness, it was fine. The station itself was a beautiful piece of classic east coast earth pony architecture, functional yet stylish. Liberal application of magic made short work of any filth, so she ended up spending more time trying to look busy than actually being busy. It was the start of her second week on the job, closely approaching the end of her shift. She’d been lucky enough to have a shift during the quiet hours of the station, close to high moon. Just had to take out the trash, then it was back to her apartment. A newspaper was hanging out of a garbage can. She would’ve thrown it in with the rest of the trash and not given it a second thought, but she stopped at the sight of one of the images on the open page. A photo of Ourtown. Intrigued, she took a closer look. Shakeup in ‘Ourtown’ Cult Village Near Nova Griffonian Border Uncovers Former Cult Leaders’ Lies Apparently since her arrest, Double Diamond more or less took over. Diamond was a true believer, Starlight knew as much, but he was far from the leader she was. Half the ponies had already abandoned the town, the remaining half are alleged to be questioning him constantly. At least, if this newspaper was to be believed.  A lot of the language instinctively frustrated her, referring to her village as an ‘academic curiosity’ rather than what it was. No pictures of her, thank goodness. The last thing she’d need is to be recognised by strangers. Also, a cult? Come on, why do they keep calling it that? They weren’t making sacrifices to Grogar or anything like that. Though, the more she thought about it with a clear head… “Starlight!” Her manager’s voice called. She swiftly stashed the newspaper back into the trash and spun around. “Uhm, yea?” she said, punctuated with a nervous laugh. A tall, old earth stallion with an orange coat and greying hair trotted up to her, a smile on his lips. “Getting along well?” “Yep! Just about done! Only got to empty the trash!” She yanked the bag out of the bin and tied it tightly shut. “Looks like you’ve made short work of the place,” he said, his head moving in every direction and scanning the spotless surfaces. His neck went all the way back as he turned to look up at the chandeliers. “Heh, even cleaned out the lights. I didn’t even expect you to do that. Starlight pipped up, her eyes widening. “You noticed?” “Sure I did!” he chuckled, spinning around to show Starlight his flank and the cutie mark it held. It displayed an eye in the lens of a magnifying glass. “See that? I’ve got such a good eye for detail even my cutie mark is all about it.” “Huh.” Starlight smirked. “Well, what do you know?” 12:00 - 10/04/1002 - a desert Shelter from the roasting hot sun was hard to come across in the vast, lifeless desert valley, but Starlight had found some at the top of a rickety wooden tower. At some point in the past, it must have been a clock tower, but the interior had been gutted of anything valuable and replaced with piles of junk and rotting wood. It would’ve provided a pleasant bit of solitude if it weren’t for the idiot trying to sell her stuff. “Try these gloves on Starlight!” the stallion said, literally shoving a pair of hot pink evening gloves in her face.  Starlight batted the stallion’s hooves away. “I’m fine, thanks, really I don’t need-” And then the stallion was gone, the gloves with him. Acting like nothing had happened, Starlight turned to one of the boarded-up windows to peek through the gaps. Yet the moment she got a look, she recoiled and shielded her eyes. The outside sunlight felt omnipresent and oppressive, threatening to blind her with little more than a glance. Even standing in the path of sunlight creeping through the gaps in the fall almost felt like it was singing her skin. She stopped. A chill she hadn’t felt before rushed through her spine. She turned her head away from the window, sensing a sudden presence, and she gasped at the pony before her. Sunburst. “Hey, Starlight,” he meekly said, with a similarly meek smile and wave. “Sunburst?” Starlight jumped back. “How long have you been here?” “Got here when the stallion with the gloves disappeared. Whether that was five seconds ago or two hours, kind of hard to tell with dream logic.” “What?” Starlight cocked an eyebrow but lowered it back to place shortly after as her eyes wandered around the room. “Oh, right. No, I remember now. Guess that means you’re doing the dreamwalker thing again.” Sunburst shrugged. “Yep.” “So, uh,” Starlight pawed at the ground. “How have you been?” “I taught myself longer range dream magic and figured out how to do this in dreams.” Sunburst waved the hand on the end of his leg. “Turns out I’m not completely useless at doing physical magic.” “Oogh, freaky.” Her face wrinkled up in reaction. A moment later she blinked. Turning towards the window, she gave it a curious look. She leaned into the incoming light, the rays lighting up her smiling face. “Hey, now that I’m lucid the light isn’t blinding me anymore, ain’t that neat? I sometimes forget how hot the sun was.” “You don’t seem mad,” he noted. “Hm?” Starlight looked back to Sunburst. “Oh! Yeah, I know. My bad. Sorry about the way I treated you, by the way.” “O-oh.” He blinked. “Apology accepted, then. And, uh, sorry about what I said back on the train. I kind of lost it there.” “Psh, please,” she dismissed with a flick of her hoof. “I needed that reality check. Heck, I should probably be saying thanks.” “Uh?” Sunburst gasped. “You mean that?” “Yeah, of course I mean it!” Starlight giggled. “Not just for the rant, but for basically forcing me to face the truth. That whole village thing was doing nopony any favours, probably best for everyone now that it’s gone. “Wow, really?” said Sunburst, tilting his head. “What the heck did they do to you?” “Gave me a job taking out the trash.” Sunburst scratched his head. “No, seriously!” Starlight laughed. “It’s nothing special, I’m just a janitor. Night shift too. Well, off shift I should say. Been doing it for a couple weeks or so. Honestly, it isn’t that bad. Tiring, boring, but magic helps me get it done quickly and the folks there appreciate me. A few nights ago the big boss of the station did a surprise inspection to see how I was getting along, and they were really pleased with me! Shift manager even chimed in to say that I’m one of the most reliable they have. It’s nice, you know? Being rewarded for a hard night’s work? Really, the whole thing made me see the value in cutie marks, everypony’s cutie mark brings something special.” Sunburst held back a laugh. He couldn’t believe his ears. Had he wound up in the wrong dreamspace? “After all this time, wondering how I might have to account for arcane barriers that might be put up around a prison. I thought they would’ve locked you up for sure after, well, you know.” She nodded. “Mhm! All is forgiven! Guess hoofing over a cutie mark removal spell on a silver platter is the price of freedom in this country…”   “Yeah, no worries.” He shrugged. “Wasn’t too sure how the department got the spell.” “Say, did you get to do anything with it?” She smirked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. “Oh, mhm, yeah, a little.” He rubbed the back of his head. “They let me give it a try on this weirdly enthusiastic test subject, but, uh, I couldn’t pull it off. Some ponies have, apparently.” “Huh.” She scratched her chin. “Wonder what they’re going to do with it.” “Whatever it is, they haven’t told me.” “Something better than trying to create an impossible utopia, I hope.” Sunburst blinked. “Wow.” He titled his head and furrowed his brow. It prompted a curious look from Starlight. “So you’ve really, just-” “Oh, yeah!” Starlight beamed, a proud smirk spreading across her face. “I am a changed mare. No longer do I detest cutie marks! Henceforth, Starlight Glimmer officially renounces Equalism. The old Starlight would surely say I’m blinded by cutie mark ideology, but as far as the new Starlight is concerned, that’s progress!” “But…” He raised a hoof. His eyes slid off to the side, then shifted back onto Starlight. “You realise what you did wrong, right?” “I just spelled it out for you, didn’t I? Or do you need me to repeat it?” she chuckled. He took a step back, his jaw slowly sank. He took a moment to consider his next words, taking deep breaths. “That’s not the problem, Starlight.” “Hm?” Starlight’s grin started to fade. “It was that you lied. Not anything about cutie marks, it’s that you were a liar who hurt ponies who didn’t go along,” Sunburst asserted, feeling his voice growing more confident. “That you had this system of manipulation and control, that you abused anyone who stepped out of line and tricked ponies into thinking you were helping them when you were enslaving them. Even foals! Foals! Like, you get that, right? You understand how wrong that was?” Starlight’s smile slowly faded while Sunburst was talking. After he’d finished, she didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Oh,” she mumbled. “I mean, yeah, of course I know lying is bad,” she snorted, the smile partly returning as she rolled her eyes. “I’m not a filly, Sunburst.” “Well…” Sunburst’s hooves pawed at the ground as he subconsciously shook his head. “Well no offence, but you’ve done a lot of lying the last few years. I just want to know that- that you’re not like that anymore. That you won’t do what you did to those ponies, what you tried to do to me, anymore. I know it’s a process to change, that it doesn’t happen overnight, but I want to know that you’re going to try. Can you promise me that, Starlight?” “Sure,” Starlight said abruptly. Her face was unchanged. “You certain?” Sunburst took a step closer, leaning his head forward. Starlight glanced at the boarded up window, sunlight still trickling through. She turned back to Sunburst and put on a grin. “Of course.”