//------------------------------// // Chapter 80; Shining Hope // Story: Working Towards The Future // by Dasponi //------------------------------// After finishing up with Pinkie Pie, Star Shine headed straight to the Boutique. The rest of the town was starting to wake up and come to life. Ponies were opening their doors and their windows and letting the light in. Star Shine was also getting a few curious glances, both from the ponies who had read the paper and those who hadn’t. The sight of a pony running through town as fast as he could was sure to attract some attention. Star Shine was aware of the looks and it didn’t take long for him to just fly to the Boutique instead of running there. Flying would have been faster anyway and he wasn’t entirely sure why he wasn’t flying in the first place. It didn’t take long to reach the Boutique and when he did, he rapped politely on the door, taking Rarity’s demeanour into account and being polite despite the emergency. Rarity opened the door shortly thereafter. “I’m terribly sorry dar-” Rarity began before seeing who it was. She was about to announce that she was closed for Sunday as just about everywhere else was. “Oh good morning Star Shine, to what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked, opening the door wide to invite him in. He saw the paper was open on a table. He must have caught her shortly before she read the offending article. “Did you finish reading the paper?” Star Shine asked, nodding towards it. Rarity turned her head around to follow his eyes to the paper on the table. She turned back at him and shook her head, smiling a little. “I haven’t no, and it’s quite hard to do when one has gentleman callers in the early hours of the day.” she teased playfully. Star Shine smiled but wasn’t really feeling it. “I’m sorry for visiting so early but there’s been a bit of an emergency. There’s something in the paper you have to see.” Star Shine said, taking advantage of the open door to enter the Boutique. Rarity didn’t try and stop him and he walked over to where the paper was resting on the table. Rarity joined him and stood next to him as he flipped through the pages until he found what he was after. “I need you to read this, and then I’m gonna need your help with something.” Star Shine explained. Rarity looked at him curiously and did as she was asked. Her response was pretty similar to Twilight’s. A mixture of gasps and shock and mostly by the end, a sense of anger that such a thing had happened. “This...why this is awful! Who would do such a thing?” Rarity asked, frowning. “We think it was Diamond Tiara. We pretty much know it was her. Think you can come to the library and help us do something about it?” Star Shine asked. Rarity nodded and looked determined. “Let’s do this.” She declared vehemently. Star Shine nodded and turned around. He lowered himself onto the ground, offering Rarity his back. “It’ll be faster if we fly, can you hop on my back? I’ll carry you there.” Star Shine said. Rarity looked at him a little nervously. “Will it...will it be safe?” she asked, approaching him. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” Star Shine replied, smiling at her. “Okay then. If you’re sure…” Rarity replied. She delicately positioned herself on Star Shine’s back and giggled as he unfurled her wings and tickled her underbelly as he did so. “Sorry…” he apoligised sheepishly after she’d calmed down. “It’s okay dear.” Rarity replied, patting the top of his head. “For now we have work to do so let’s get going.” she added. As Star Shine took off she thought to herself it was a very good thing that Sweetie Belle was staying with their parents and not with her. Rarity had flown before thanks to the Gossamer Wing Spell so the experience wasn’t as exhilarating to her as it might be to some other ponies. It was still very exciting. Star Shine was flying pretty fast and really pushing his wings to compensate for the added weight of Rarity. Rarity was beginning to see why Scootaloo would stay on Rainbow Dash’s back, other than that she couldn’t fly of course. Before she could really get used to the sensation they were coming in for a landing. Star Shine had pushed his wings to their absolute limit and it didn’t take very long to get back to the library. Star Shine was about to open the door when Rarity tapped him. He turned around to look at her, still on his back. “Sorry to stop you, but I’d like to get off before we go in please.” Rarity said. Star Shine chuckled and lowered himself again so that Rarity could hop off him with no problems. Star Shine stretched his wings after Rarity got off of him and opened the door at last. Pinkie Pie had him flat on his back in an instant. “Why didn’t you just tell me what happened? Oh this is awful! Poor Rainbow Dash. Poor Scootaloo! We gotta do something about this. We just gotta! Why didn’t Rainbow Dash say anything before? Why is Diamond Tiara being so mean? Oh I really hope there’s something we can do. Twilight got her big brother here. I’m not sure how really. I guess when you’re married to an Alicorn Princess who’s related to two other Alicorn Princesses you don’t question how things happen. Still it was pretty surprising for him to just appear. Twilight sent a message to him asking him for help and he just appeared. Poof! Like magic. It would be magic. He was probably teleported here. Teleporting is magic.” Pinkie Pie said, barely stopping to breathe and leaving Star Shine terribly confused. The only words he’d really caught were “Big brother” and “Alicorn Princesses”. “ Hey Shining, were you teleported here?!” Pinkie called into the library. “I didn’t tell you how I got here?” Shining Armor said, appearing at the doorway. Pinkie Pie shook her head as Star Shine watched on. He gulped as he saw the large white colt and realised who he was looking at. Who Pinkie was talking to so casually. “Oh. Yeah Cady and Celestia sent me here. Luna’s still sleeping. She looks cute when she sleeps but don’t tell Cady I said that.” Shining Armor explained. Pinkie Pie zipped her mouth shut. It was then that Shining Armor noticed Pinkie Pie was sat on a colt he’d never met before. “Who’s that you’re sat on Pinkie?” Shining asked, laughing a little. He was quite used to some of Pinkie’s antics. “That must be Star Shine right?” Pinkie nodded and got off of Star Shine, who himself went wide eyed that a Prince would even know his name. “You...you know my name?” Star Shine asked, still shocked. Shining Armor helped Star Shine up this hooves. “Yeah, Twiley filled me in on everything while you were gone.” Shining Armor explained. “Good morning Shining dear.” Rarity said, walking past Star Shine and into the library. She had had enough of waiting around. “Good morning Rarity.” Shining Armor replied, nodding at Rarity as she entered the library. “Say, where are Applejack and Fluttershy? When Twiley said you were getting all Rainbow’s friends I thought you meant all the Elements.” Star Shine looked around in confusion. “Apple...jack? Flutter...shy?” he asked slowly. He was already tired from all the flying around, not to mention carrying Rarity. Add to that the awe one feels in the presence of royalty, and the confusion one feels to see a royal acting so casually, and you have a very slow brain that struggles to comprehend information. They were both names that he had heard before, he knew that much. Rainbow Dash had mentioned an Applejack who could make amazing pies and a Fluttershy who fell down from Cloudsdale. “Hey Twiley, he forgot Applejack and Fluttershy.” Shining Armor called into the library. “I’ll send them letters if we need them, or just to fill them in if we don’t. For now let him in and we’ll get to work. I don’t think he’s met them before, so it’s not too surprising he didn’t get them. We don’t have to blast anything with a dose of harmony so let’s go with what we have.” Twilight called back. Shining Armor entered the library and allowed Star Shine to come in too. When Star Shine entered the library he saw that there were books piled around as well as various pieces of paper. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were sat at a table with Twilight and all three of them had some form of hot drink. There was also a fourth drink that was presumably Shining Armor’s. Shining Armor joined them at the table and Twilight motioned for Star Shine to also join them. “So what do we have so far?” Star Shine asked, sitting down. “Twiley came up with a list of things we need to do, so see if there’s anything any of you think needs to go on there too.” Shining Armor replied. The mares (plus Star Shine) nodded and Twilight took out her list. “Okay in no particular order we need to find some way to prove that Diamond Tiara did this. I asked Shining if it was possible to get a search warrant for her house-” Twilight began. “If we have some kinda proof she lied to anypony and we have a really good reason to suspect her then I can. If not it’ll take a while to process it.” Shining Armor interrupted her. Twilight glared at him, narrowing her eyes. “What would count as that?” Star Shine asked, further annoying Twilight. “Well she told Twilight a bunch of stuff, so if any of that was a lie, and we have proof, that should do.” Shining Armor replied. “Cheerilee!” Twilight exclaimed suddenly, surprising everypony. She laughed nervously at the looks they gave her. “Cheerilee.” she repeated. “Diamond Tiara told me that she heard Rainbow Dash telling Scootaloo that they couldn’t go out because of the fight, but Rainbow Dash told me that Cheerilee got annoyed at her because Rainbow Dash was still going out. Rainbow Dash never told Scootaloo that they couldn’t go, and was actually quick to tell her they still could.” Twilight explained. “Oh, for a second there I thought you’d gone crazy.” Shining Armor teased. Twilight jabbed him on the foreleg. “Well that would do actually. I’ll go talk to Cheerilee and see what she says. I’ll be back soon guys.” he added. He got up and left the library. The others, Star Shine in particular, watched him leave and felt hope that maybe something really could be done. One thing was going to be taken care of. They just needed to take care of the rest.