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// 136 - I've Been Watching You 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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Silver turned a corner at a trot, only to almost collide with another pony. "Sorry!" he blurted before he even looked to see who he had run into, only to start with surprise. Starlight?

"Hello there. Haven't you been a busy pony?" She had him fixed with that confident smirk.

"Did you come for more magic?"

She reached out a hoof and tapped him on the chest. "So cold, but yes. Probably not the way you imagine. Nice flying trick." She leaned in. "Shame I already know that one."

Silver quirked an ear. He had thought he was pretty unique in knowing it. Wait, was she watching him that intently? "Nice to meet you again, Starlight. I didn't mean to be cold, you just surprised me."

She tilted her head a little. "You mean that, don't you? You're a curious pony, I'll give you that. So here I am, considering how to sneak past angry guards, and while I'm confident I could figure it out, I have you. Why not make use of that?" She flashed her teeth in a brilliant smile. "Let's do some research."

"Should I get rid of her?" purred a new female voice. Nefertari was standing beside Starlight. "The castle can barely contain the egos it already had."

Starlight jumped with surprise. "Who?" She scowled up at the strange being. "What even are you?"

Silver pointed at Starlight. "Ambassador Nefertari, this is Starlight. Starlight, this--" He pointed to Nefertari. "--is Ambassador Nefertari, of the anubites. I hope you can both get along."

Nefer gave a single bark. "Smooth. His words tell me I shouldn't be immediately considering how to... express myself with your attitude."

Starlight raised a brow at the alien female. "And you're an ambassador? I find it difficult to believe you and Silver have the same position."

Nefer exposed her razor sharp teeth, leaning in over Starlight. "I represent a country that understands war in all its delicate and overwhelming flavors. He represents a country that would rather war never exist, and hardly remembers its smell, let alone its embrace. Our difference is not too difficult to piece together, I should think."

Starlight shook her head. "Right. If you don't mind, me and this pony were in the middle of something."

"Oh, I don't mind at all." She didn't move from where she was.

Silver licked his lips. He needed to help her along, and maybe talk to her, this... "Nefer, everything's alright, really. We'll talk later."

"You say that..." She wrinkled her nose before she vanished in a frightful burst of speed.

Starlight slowly looked around the area. "Figures a lackey of Miss Destiny herself would have interesting allies. I'm still not entirely sure why you're so... Never mind that, let's get going, shall we?" She turned towards the archives and began walking.

Silver moved up beside her, matching her pace easily. "So, how did they hurt you?"

"How did who hurt me?"

"Not who, what." He pointed at her flank. "Cutie marks. What'd they do to you?"

Starlight raised a brow. "I don't think we've reached quite that level of intimacy."

Silver blinked with confusion. "Is that, like, a third date question?"

Starlight raised a hoof to his chin. "We'll see if we reach that third date and you can try again." She pushed him to look forward. "For now, let's focus on the task."

They soon arrived at the guards that stood watch over the Star Swirl section. One of them looked to Silver. "If you're not returning a book, you can't take another."

Silver nodded at him quickly. "Sure, but reading's okay, right?"

The guard didn't offer objection, and he walked past the guard, Starlight moving with him. They didn't raise any objection to her presence at his side, which surprised him a little. Once they were past the guards, he turned to her. "Alright, we're in, now can we talk?"

Starlight smiled at him coyly. "Oh, so now you're hoping for a--" She leaned towards him. "--private--" She stood straight, withdrawing. "Conversation? I don't think I'm even slightly interested in your decadent little smutpile. Show me where the time spell is."

Silver felt blood rising in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "That's not what I meant. Christ, I have enough complications in that arena as it is."

"That's a new curse." She raised a brow. "Enough talking, more finding. Do you know your way around here or not?"

Silver began moving through the aisles of books, eyes scanning as he went. "I'm serious. There are other answers."

"To what questions?"

Silver looked over his shoulder. "How to make life fair. How to fix old hurts."

She cuffed him with a sudden hoof strike, knocking him in the side to bump into a shelf and send books raining down on him in a shower of ancient knowledge. "Focus on the task at hoof. You don't know the start of how unfair life can be."

He lifted the books in a field of silver, gently stacking them up. He had no idea what order they should be in, so he just made them neat and left them there for some other poor pony to sort later. "Try me. I've been to pretty dark places. I could tell you stories."

Starlight raised a brow. "Alright, you win. I have to hear this." She sat down on a small pile of books. "Tell me about the time a mean pony stole your candy."

Silver took a slow breath, trying to calm down. "Alright, since you put it that way... I once made friends with a pair of exotic ponies, Saddle Arabians. They trusted me to protect them. One of them died for a crime I committed, choking and bleeding to death from a poisoned bit of candy. I was too sick from the same to even see her off, to even wish her well. She was there one moment, and gone the next so far as it went for me. I will never get to say goodbye to her."

Starlight's jaw hung. That was not the story she was expecting. She shook her head, breaking free of the surprise. "V-very nice. I guess you aren't as coddled as you look."

"I have others, if we're comparing old scars." Silver stood tall. "I've been hurt before, but I refuse to be defined by that hurt. Starlight, will you tell me about your pain?" He smiled a little. "I promise not to laugh or judge."

She frowned at him. "We aren't getting any closer to that spell. Keep moving. Where did you dig up that story anyway?" She rolled her eyes. "Probably made the whole thing up."

Silver flinched. It wasn't like he had proof of it. It didn't technically happen, after all. In a twisted sort of way, he did make it up. He decided to resume a slow walk, scanning for the book as he went. "There's nothing to lose in sharing with me. I can keep a secret."

"Like you're keeping me out of this library?" She raised a brow.

"I'm not keeping you from anything you shouldn't see."

Starlight suddenly circled him, cutting off his forward motion. "What do you mean by that?"

He tried to go around her, but she continued to block him. "Are you setting me up?" She thrust a hoof against his chest. "This had better be the right spell, and if guards start crawling out of the walls, I'll make sure you suffer long before I do."

Silver lowered her hoof with his own. "There were better chances to do that if that's what I wanted to do. I haven't done a thing to harm you so far."

They searched in a sullen silence. Starlight broke the quiet. "Why are you so eager to hear about my past? Don't you want to stop me? Wouldn't you rather arrest me or something?"

Silver reached for a book to peek at. "We wouldn't be here if I was set on stopping you, or arresting you."

Starlight suddenly perked. "I got it. Twilight did something to you and you're getting revenge right along with me." A confident smirk spread on her face. "Yes, that makes sense."

It would make sense, but... "No, that isn't it."

She circled around in front of him, barring his view of the books. "Enough. Tell me. No lies, no dodging. Tell. Me. Why."

Just out and telling her would be in betrayal of his goals and would change things too much. "I just know there's a good pony in there."

Her ears fell back. "What?"

"Here it is." His magic snatched a scroll. "This is what you came for. Now, want to share, just a little?"

She took the scroll from his magic quickly. "I've had more than enough of you for one day." She turned away, paused, and looked over her shoulder. "You're a very strange pony."

He gave a little smile. "Maybe I could relay your theories."

"What?"

"Your theory, how cutie marks cause more harm than good. If you could show it to me?"

She peered at him quietly a moment before her horn began to glow and Silver felt a familiar pinch as his cutie mark was pulled from his flanks. A dull haze settled over his thoughts, severing his connection to his intuition. "Do you see that?"

Silver glanced back at the equal signs that adorned his flanks. "I see equal signs."

"Everypony could have that. We'd all be the same." She rolled a hoof. "Nopony would be better or worse. We could all be what we want to be."

Silver tapped his chin, fighting through the fog. "But what's so bad about a pony being good at something? It doesn't... stop them from doing other things."

Starlight fixed him a nasty glare. "It didn't stop him from walking away without looking back."

"What?" Silver's ears perked. "Who?" Was that important? He couldn't tell. Damn that fog...

Starlight suddenly gave him a shove, knocking him back onto his haunches. "The only friend I thought I had."

Silver gave a slow blink as he stood back up. "Why?"

She gave a little rising growl as she advanced on Silver. "Because he got his cutie mark. They rushed him right off to... well, here, actually." She waved a hoof in a grand gesture. "He became a big and powerful wizard, just like you, mister knows-it-all."

He pointed up at his cutie mark. "Have you written him a letter?"

She started back as if stung. "W-what?! He's the one that ran away from me! He's the one that didn't look back. He's the one that never wrote, or called, or anything!" The fury in her was plain even to the dulled Silver as she advanced on him. "Why didn't he do anything? I'll tell you why! His cutie mark!"