It was no coincidence. It couldn’t have been. “Harvest Moon!?” Starry exclaimed. “That’s the pony who came into one of my dreams. We have to find her!” She dashed off from the dinner table, not even thinking about anything but this other thestral.
Rose dashed in front of her, before she could get back to her bed room. “Hold it! Think about what you’re doing. You don’t even know where she is right now. This Harvest Moon could be anywhere in Equestria.”
“I know exactly where she is! She’s back in San Franciscolt! She was the pony that you three chased off!” The room fell dead quiet. Everypony stared wide eyed at Starry, who was now in no mood to be questioned. “She was trying to help me, and now she’s the only pony who can get me any answers! If none of you will come with me, I don’t even care!”
Honey now came over and placed a hoof on her shoulder like she had always done when Starry was distressed. “Sugar, the last thing any of us want is to keep you from your memories.” Starry was beginning to calm down, and started feeling guilty about getting angry at her friends. “But we believe that you’ll find more answers if you go back to your homeland over the mountains.”
Any semblance of calm now left Starry. Her heart rate picked up again, this time trying to run outside. Compass Rose tackled to the ground before she reached the door. “No! No, I can’t go back there! It’s not safe!” She struggled with all her might to break free from Rose, but the pegasus had her pinned.
Triage trotted over to her side, first aid in hand, incase anypony got hurt. “Darling, what are you talking about? Don’t you want to remember your home?”
Starry was now furious. She could feel rage boiling inside her, filling her up from horn to hoof. “If I go back, who knows what Crow will do to me! Now get off!”
Her eyes glowed white hot, and an intense light emanated from her horn. In a split second, everypony but Starry was thrown against the walls, and lay motionless.
Starry came back to her senses. She saw what she had done to her friends, and her feelings now turned to dread. She didn’t know if her friends were hurt, or worse. Her eyes teared up uncontrollably, and felt like waterfalls down her cheeks. She dashed outside, and saw that numerous lights were turning on in the buildings. As ponies began to file out into the street, she darted behind the house, which stood in front of the woods.
She ran and ran and ran, until her hooves didn’t want to carry her any farther, and she ran past that. The entire time, she never stopped crying. Overwhelmed with guilt, she wondered what kind of monster would hurt their friends like that?
She kept running, until suddenly she tripped over a log, and summersaulted further, finally coming to a halt by the edge of a creek. “Running through the woods in fear.” she said to herself. She stared at her reflection in the water, now ashamed of what she was. “Why is this happening to me again?”
Starry now shambled through the woods. She had hurt her front right leg when she fell, but she didn’t care. She actually felt as if she deserved it. No amount of punishment could atone for what she’d done to the ponies that had been nothing but kind to her since she met them. Despite all of their good deeds, she lost her temper, and did the unthinkable.
She realized she wasn’t walking anywhere in particular, and realized she needed a place to stay, far away from any other pony, lest she hurt them as well. Eventually, she stumble on a small shack in the woods. Now this really was deja vu.
Upon closer inspection, the structure looked like it hadn’t been lived in in ages. There were no obvious roads or paths that led to it, and it was covered from above by the forrest canopy. Perfect for a pony looking to avoid all contact with civilization.
She pushed the door open, and the smell of old wood and natured filled her nostrils. There were still bits of furniture left there, even a stove. The only peculiar thing was the copious amount of tools hanging from the walls, but she figured these could be useful. She figured this would be a good place to hide, forever.
Before she could get to comfortable, she heard the door close behind her, and then she heard her stomach turn in knots. She whipped around to see a silver, red maned mare turning to face her at the same time.
“Hi there! What can I help you with?” Starry couldn’t say a word. She didn’t know how to introduce herself in her current state. This new pony raised an eyebrow, and walked closer to Starry. “You don’t look like anypony I’ve every seen. Where are you from?”
Starry finally mustered words to her lips. “I’m not really sure.” she said, in an unusually meek voice.
The pony immediately rushed over and embraced Starry, harder than any force she had experienced before. “Oh you poor thing. I know exactly how feel. My parents left me to fend for myself, too. But I made this place, and now, I’m completely self sufficient.” Her tone shift sharply from feeling sorry for Starry, to being proud of herself. She abruptly let out a loud gasp. “I almost forgot. My name is May Day. What’s yours?”
Starry was still intimidated by this pony’s personality. “Starry. Starry Night.”
“Well, Starry Starry Night, what can I do ya for? Have anything that needs fixing?” Starry wasn’t really sure what May Day was talking about, until she noticed her cutie mark was a crossed wrench and hammer.
“Actually, I just need a place to stay for now.”
May Day’s eye’s lit up, and she smiled from ear to ear. “That’s great! I’ve always wanted some company out here. It gets really lonely, you know. People only come to see me when they have bad news. This is such a nice change. C’mon, I’ll show you where you can stay!”
Even Honey was never this happy. She was a little bit uncomfortable, where ever May Day was taking her. At the same time, she was glad that a pony could bring her in after what she had done. “But, this is just a one room shack. How do you have guest space?”
“Oh, there’s way more than just one room.” May Day placed a hoof on one of the wall planks, and leaned in on it. She kept pushing on it, straining as if she was trying to move the whole wall, but it didn’t budge. Starry was beginning to question her sanity. “Oops, hee hee. I always get these mixed up.” She shifted down the wall to another planked, and this time, the board sank into the wall a couple of inches.
Sounds began to come out of the walls, and the floor opened up in the center, to reveal a stairwell leading underground. May Day hopped over to the entrance, and beckoned Starry to follow her. “Follow me! I’ll show you my subterranean sanctuary.”
Starry followed her down the stares. When she reached the bottom of the stares she was astonished that May had built it all beneath such a shanty shack. The stares led into an enormous, two-story living room, with several doors leading into different rooms. May Day was hopping between doors, and eventually stopped at one just a few steps away from the entrance.
“This is the guest room. I don’t normally have visitors, so it ought to still be spick and span!” Starry went over to the room, and it was quite well decorated for an underground abode. “Make yourself at home. I’ve got some some job requests to file through.” Starry ran a hoof along the top of the dresser, and couldn’t help but notice the copious amount of dust it collected. May Day really didn’t get much company.
She decided now she could finally rest. She threw herself face down on the bed. She didn’t care that she wasn’t properly under the covers, she was just glad to be in a safe place, not caring about her future, or her past.
Through all of the open doors, she was able to hear May Day answer the door. When she did, it was like a hard punch the gut.
“Hello May. Are you busy? Something happened at the clinic, and I could really use your help to get it looking spiffy again.”
“Okey Dokey, Triage. I can get there in a jiff!”