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// Chapter 1: Free-Flying 
// Story: A Star's Lament 
// by Zoom Star 
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The universe. A massive expanse of empty space, spanning further than anything we can comprehend. It has billions of galaxies to fill its emptiness, and each of these galaxies has billions of stars. But, what is a star? Science shows us that stars are large balls of gas, floating through the galaxy emanating immense heat. They live for billions of years, before exploding in a spectacular show of colours, sometimes forming new nebulas and other colourful sights.

Or, the become black holes, large gravitational pulls that suck in everything that comes close enough into its gravity fields. Not even light can escape the destructive powers of a black hole. Some scientists have said that if you were to survive going through a black hole, it would send them back into another time. Even Albert Hoofstein, one of the greatest pony minds in history, explained that if two black holes were to connect to each other, they would create a path called a wormhole.

We have learned so much about the universe, and yet, we understand so little. Unicorns may have their magic, as do the Alicorn princesses, but the magic that spans throughout our galaxies, throughout the entire universe, is incomprehensible to us at these times. We haven’t even found a firm explanation as to how the universe was formed; all we can say is that it expanded from a ‘Big Bang’. But, legend tells, of a powerful Pegasus, with the ability to harness the magic of stars. And this is his story.

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The sun rose high above Equestria, as it did every day, signifying a new dawn, a new day. The rays of warmth filled the small room on the northern side of a small tower. This tower sat on the edge of a small town; Ponyville. Under the sheets of the small bed, a creature stirred from his deep sleep, awoken by the sudden change in temperature. He lifted himself up using his hooves and rubbed his eyes with them, removing it of any dust that had collected. After blinking a couple times, he looked around.

The room was clean as usual, as he liked to have kept it. He looked over at the mirror, grunting as he saw his ruffled up coat. He moved around a lot when he slept, which meant his coat usually needed a few brushes to make it suitable to be let out in public. He clambered out of his warm bed, with immense difficulty, and grabbed a small dark blue brush on his bedside table as he approached the mirror. He then took the brush and softly went over his coat, mane and tail with it.

After putting the brush down, and flapping his wings a bit to wake them up, he began trudging out the door and down the stairs to the lower floor of the tower. Looking around, he couldn’t find Ginger Snap or Ginger Bread anywhere. His worrying was cut short when his stomach began to rumble. “Looks like I need to fill the tank” he said, trotting over to the fridge in the kitchen. As he reached out to open it, he noticed a note attached to the door.

Dear Zoom Star,

Ginger Snap and I have gone to Sugar Cube Corner for breakfast, and we won’t be back until 1:00. We’ll be spending our lunchtime with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, so make sure you get yourself something to eat.

Well, that explains their suspicious disappearance, he thought. Zoom Star nodded to himself, and opened the fridge door, grabbing a few things like butter and cheese. He grabbed some bread from the pantry and slid them into the toaster, grabbing a knife while he waited. Since the girls were out today, he decided he’d go and check on Twilight. He had a problem with a dream he had been having repeatedly for the past week, and he wanted to make sense of it.

Once he had filled his stomach with warm food, he grabbed his saddlebag, filling it with the library books he had borrowed last time, and set off out the door. With a large leap, he used his wings to launch himself into the air, blasting off at top speed toward the library. He loved to fly, especially the adrenaline rush he got from it every time he blasted into his top speed, which always made him feel amazing. Once he had a steady pace, he folded his wings back, shooting off like a rocket.

The wind was speeding past him, causing him to speed up as it flowed around his body and pushed it along. His legs were pointed into a sort of plank like shape to increase speed. His mane and tail flowed back as it was pushed by the air being pushed aside by his body. Soon, he had reached his destination, and he began pushing his wings out, slowing himself to a faint hover as he lowered to the ground in front of the door to the library.

After knocking three times, he waited silently for the door to open. Sure enough, the door swung wide, revealing a lavender unicorn, her eyes scanning over the visitor. “Oh, hello Zoom Star! What brings you to the library?” she asked, smiling wide as she stepped aside to let him in. “I just came to return these” he replied, showing his saddlebag full of books. She smiled even wider as he placed it in front of her so she could put them in the right spots.

“Thank you so much! Spike went off to collect all the borrowed books, but you always return them yourself” she added as she began lifting them with her horn. She began looking over their titles to figure out where they would go, when she noticed that a lot of them had a similar topic in mind. “Zoom Star, all these books are about interpreting dreams” she said, looking at him with a worried stare. Zoom Star hated that stare, because it meant he needed to say what was bothering him. There was no denying that stare.