//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Lesser Light: My Time in the Limelight // by soothsayer //------------------------------// Silver Spoon rounded the corner on her march to the nurse's office and stood precariously close to the door. Trying her best to muster enough courage to enter the room she noticed the door knob slowly turn. In a panic she leapt to the side and hid behind the water fountain. The door was flung open and three laughing fillies made their exit. She cursed them under her breath as she watched them, the Cutie Mark Cloudcuckoolanders, turn and walk towards the front door. She waited until they had left the building before she made her move. The as she entered the room the aroma of the previous three visitors still clung to the air. It was a sickening mix of musky spice scented body spray, cinnamon infused shampoo, and a faint hint wildflower perfume. She tried to choke down the bile that had started to creep up the back of her throat, as she noticed another scent. It was like the others it was so very delicate it would have completely eluded an untrained palate, but silver had such a palate. She had grown up the daughter of an emerging cosmetic chemist who the equestran upper crust now referred to as the premier perfumer but Silver knew her by a more sinister name, mom. Following her nose she was brought to the cot nestled in the furthermost corner of the room. Opening her eyes she was met with the form she had been looking for previously but had completely forgot about in her search for the scents owner. "Eep!" silently shrilled Silver as she was surprised by her discovery. Dropping down to her belly she started to regret even coming to face her tormentor. After gulping she shakily rose to eye level with the sleeping monster. The monster must have sensed an intruder because it let out a low growl, which was really just the sound of snoring as the creature unfurled and stretched out to find a more comfortable position. Logic flew at the window as Silver tried her best to not faint from the sudden act of aggression. She was still frozen in place when logic returned like the loyal knight she was to jumpstart Silvers fear griped mind. The investigator in her kept insisting something was amiss, the creature she had faced down before with the help of her friend didn't smell anything like the lithe form laying exposed before her. The monster that haunted her nightmare had smelled like a monster. It had reeked of sweat and filth. She had always assumed that monsters not only looked evil, did evil, spoke evil they smelled evil. Perhaps there was more to the abhorrent race than she now understood. The specimen she had faced before was a dominate male and the specimen she now examined was female. This creatures musk was different. It smelt like fresh greens, hyacinth, and jasmine. It was a common enough perfume scent, it was owned by the bright and beautiful Narcissus flower. The creature was nothing like her namesake. There was no brightness and she wasn't at all beautiful. Her ashen coat and silver mane looked like something that would be left in the wake of a forest fire. Her fleshy wings and the twin daggers that didn't quite hide behind her thin lips spoke ill of her apparent nature. Everything in her screamed to rid the world of such a monster, but for all of her hate it could not drown her fear. Briefly her mind strayed to the source of her current predicament. Had Diamond Tiara not insisted on being the first Ponyville exchange student none of this would be happening. But Diamond being Diamond she got her way as she always did, it was in her nature to partake of the first of anything. The lack of loyalty on her companions part was slowly starting to shift the scales that judged Silvers very being in favor of the abominable prize before her. Sitting beside the cot was a small end table. Narcissus' horn-rimmed glasses sat their looking at silver. Curiosity burned in the gray earth fillies mind so she did the only thing she could she lifted the glasses to examine them. Other than their color and the clip on shade the optics were very much like her own. "At least she has style," mused Silver as she removed her own glasses replacing them with the bat fillies spare eyes. Her footing became unbalanced as her world suddenly became a blurry mess. That very moment she felt a deep heaviness way down her heart. It all clicked into place, the daedalus, the astronomically ridiculous prescription eye wear, and the obnoxious attitude the filly possessed. They panted a painful truth. Narcissus was near blind and her attitude was nothing more than a mask to hide a struggling soul. Silvers own fear seemed to fade away as she looked at all of the fears that Narcissus hid. Narcissus would never fly like a normal pegasus much less become a member of the Wonderbolts. It was a lofty dream holding the filly steady in a sea of impossibility. Silver didn't register the stirrings of the object of her thoughts or the big frown that had claimed her face. "Are you going to cry, spoonbutt?" asked Narci flatly. Silver jumped at the sudden noise. Slowly her eyes drifted to the cot her vision still blurred by glasses she wore. Looking at the blurry silhouette she removed the glasses and replaced them with her own. She was unprepared for what she saw. She hadn't expected Narci's eyes to be such a soft shade of pink, "Your eyes are so....beautiful!" gasped Silver Spoon. "Ugh! Why can't you ponyville fillies not pop my pride like a balloon," groaned Narci as she buried her head in her sheets. Feeling out of place Silver started to slide towards the door when she heard the cots springs lash out in anger at a sudden assault. Her head whipped around to spot the now empty cot, her heart felt like it was trying to dig its way out of her chest as the room was filled with a sound like thunder as hooves stuck the tile floor. A cool object pressed underneath her chin and pulled her head towards its cruel master. "Where do you think you are going with my glasses," hissed Narci as she glared into Silvers eyes, the end of her muzzle a scant few inches away from Silvers. Her wingtip pushed Silver back, Narci took a step forward and the air was filled with an unpleasant crunch. "I'm sorry," cried Silver as she pushed her way around the bat pony and ran out the door. Lifting her now tender hoof up she brought it closer taking in the coppery scent of her own blood. Her wing tips searched the floor beneath her for several moments until the found the twisted frame of her glasses. She lifted it up and gave it a hard look. Returning to her now injured hoof she ran her tongue over the fresh wound feeling for the glass shard imbedded in the frog of her hoof. After finding it she bit down on its end, pulled it out, and then spat the shard on the floor. She then hobbled over to her cot and feel back into its warm embrace. After laying her now broken glasses on the end table she lay there looking at her hoof. Like an injured dog she kept licking the wound, letting the healing properties of night-pegasus saliva work its magic. "First my dad insists on me leaving home to see if I can screw up somepony else's home life, then my daedalus gets shipped to the wrong town, and now I've broken my glasses. The only thing I can do right is waste time." she sighed.