A Million Lights in the Sky

by joe mother

Chapter Two: Stolen [Stealth]

Author's Note:

Finally an update! I'm getting somewhere with this, and I hope you like it. Want it to live up to what I want it to be. Maybe this time, I can actually finish a fic. That' be wonderful.

STOLEN

A MILLION LIGHTS IN THE SKY

by Nexosaur

“Come on!”

I tore myself away from the window to the shop, picking up my saddlebag and running after my friends. They laughed as we ran through the mildly busy streets, having yet to reach their full bustle that morning.

Starry Eyes stopped by a vacant lot and looked inside. There was a rose blooming in the middle of the dirt, sprouting up through the rocks. It was a sharp red in contrast to the brown setting, and was an immediate eye catcher for anypony. So, being the inquisitive plant collector that he was, Starry Eyes plucked it out with a simple levitation spell.

“You gonna study that, too?” Turquoise asked mockingly. “Like every other damn plant you pick up everyday?”

“No!” Starry Eyes spat back, sticking his tongue out. “I’m keeping it to look at. Besides, it’s not like it’s any different than how you pick up rocks and take them home.”

“But rocks are way more interesting than some stupid petals and stems,” the blue-coated colt replied, spitting on the sidewalk. “They’re strong and shiny and come in different colors and forms! Some are also more rare than some dumb rose.”

The white colt huffed angrily back and I snickered. He looked and me and started laughing. Turquoise began as well, his broad shoulders moving heavily with it.

They were my very best friends in the world, and I was nearing a plight with them as we drew closer to school. Right now the saddlebag and their lack of focus had prevented them from seeing it, but I had a cutie mark, and it wasn’t something a good kid like me would be expected to get. The silhouette of a pony, slowly fading out, sat on my flank, and it would only take a glance to know what my talent was. I wasn’t proud of it at all, and I wanted to stay free from it as long as possible.

Starry Eyes’ talent was astronomy, and spent a good chunk of his free time in the observatory, looking at the planets and writing random facts or observations as he watched. He had a hobby of collecting plants, and a secondary hobby of examining them. He was more well known for the latter.

Turquoise, a nickname we gave him thanks to his love for rocks and his light blue coat, was talented with stones and gems and minerals of every kind. His real name was Shine Stone. He was built like a rock as well, with a large build and plenty of muscle to go around. He was good at sports, and put his physique to use daily.

Me, well, they called my Stealth, due to my incredible invisibility spells, something I came up with on my own, and was also very adept at. I could make myself completely vanish and could walk around silently thanks to my light weight and scrawny figure. My coat was a dark grey, adding to the idea that my future was a dark one.

Of course, the school where I went, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, only assumed that I was to be a spellmaker when I grew up, destined to create spells for unicorns around Equestria.

Now I had given them a definite answer to my future ahead.

We arrived at the tall gates for the school, looming over the sidewalk and the fence stretching on down the boulevard. Two statues, one of Celestia and one of Luna, kept watch over the entryway. I had heard rumors that there was a magical gate that kept out ponies not marked with a specific spell, but I had never seen the rumor to be true.

On most days, we would live in dorms on the grounds, but we had just gotten back from the break, and now we were to resume life at the school. The dorms sat near the main campus, which covered a fair bit of land, having buildings filled with all kinds of hobbies and classes and practice rooms.

“See ya,” Turquoise said, starting to run off to his first class.

“Yeah, I should go as well,” Starry Eyes seconded, starting to go in a different direction. “See you in Spells!”

I followed a small path to my first class, and the day began.

Eight hours later, I emerged from my final class, rejoicing in my freedom. I met up with Starry Eyes and Turquoise in the cafeteria, where we ate an early dinner, and I went back to my dorm to study.

In the dorm, I was roommates with Turquoise and another colt we called “Hive.” He was able to control large groups of creatures with one spell, and turn them into a single “hive mind.” It was a really cool ability, but we rarely saw it since he never showed up in the dorms until late at night, where he promptly falls asleep.

I unlocked the door and opened it, and was surprised to find the lights on and the room messy.

“Hive?” I asked.

“Yeah?” he replied, a quiver in his voice, something he had always had.

“Just checking it’s you,” I replied, walking and setting my stuff down. It took a few seconds for it to register that another pony was in our midst. I was about to lie back on my bed when I saw the brown coated filly looking at Hive, who was handing her food.

She was dirty and scruffy, and her mane was long and gnarly, twisting and tangling into a mess of dirt. She had bruises on her face and around her body, and she was taking the food from Hive tentatively, fear in her eyes.

“Who the hell is that?” I asked, dumbstruck.

“I found her wandering in the woods,” Hive replied, giving her another piece of lettuce.

“They’re hardly woods,” I said, coming up behind him. “They’re just a clump of trees big enough to go exploring in for ten minutes.”

“Woods enough for me,” Hive huffed, turning to me and just giving the filly the rest of the lettuce, which she began eating greedily.

“Does she go here?” I asked, more or less convinced about the answer.

“Obviously not,” he replied.

“How’d she get in?” I asked, recalling the statues. “Isn’t there a guard against unauthorized ponies?”

“I got through it,” the filly said, jumping off the bed. After devouring the lettuce, she looked a lot happier. Now she was smirking at the two of us, pride glowing on her features. “It wasn’t too hard to get through.”

I saw that she was an earth pony and tried to put it together, “Wait, how did you get through if you’re just an earth pony?”

She looked offended at that and came up to me, staring me straight in the eyes. It was hard to not comment on her smell.

“Just because I’m not a unicorn doesn’t mean I can’t get past some fancy-schmancy magic mumbo-jumbo,” she spat out, getting a bit of spit on my fur. “I can get through any barrier, even this one.”

“Okay,” I said, turning my head away to save my nostrils. “Say, Hive, have you offered her a shower?”

“Wow,” she said disappointingly. “You asked about the shower before the name. Aren’t you polite?”

“I don’t plan on you staying, so it hardly matters if I know your name,” I replied, pushing her back. “The least you can do is clean yourself and go.”

She stuck her tongue out and stomped over to the bathroom, where she slammed the door. There were a few seconds of silence, presumably to figure out the shower controls, and then the rush of water could be heard.

“I want her to stay,” Hive said the moment this happened, a smile crossing his face. “I know she’s only been here for thirty minutes at most, and a large part of the time was just me giving her lettuce, but I feel like we’ve truly bonded.”

“No, you’re an idiot,” I said bluntly, hitting him on the shoulder. “We’re not keeping some filly in our room. In a guy’s dorm especially.”

“Are you saying you are Turquoise plan on doing something really nasty to her?”

“Of course not,” I replied, facehoofing. “I just mean that there will be more awkwardness with a filly around. We’ll probably have to substitute half of our jokes and tone down the innuendo. I can’t deal with that. Also, what about her... heat?”

“Is she even old enough?” Hive asked, glancing back to make sure the shower was still running. “There’s supposed to be an age when it starts, but I can’t remember what it is.”

“I’m not asking her,” I said, shaking my head vigorously. “And she most likely won’t tell us. Honestly, that settles it. I think life will just suck if she stays here.”

“But I want her to stay!” Hive said, pouting. “I don’t think she’ll have a problem with us at all! She was covered in dirt and has super tangled hair and everything! She probably doesn’t care about innuendo or inappropriate jokes!”

I fought hard against Hive’s emotions, but it was hard. I could tell he trying his damndest to convince me, and I was struggling. The shower stopped, and I froze. I had to make up my mind now.

As she stepped out, dripping water onto the floor, I walked up to her.

“You can stay for now,” I started, almost feeling Hive’s burst of happiness from behind me. “But just be warned that you may have to leave anytime.”

“Sure, whatever,” she replied, starting to go towards the carpet.
“Stop!” I declared, pushing her back. “Get a towel and dry yourself off. No dripping water onto the carpet.”

“Fine,” she said, going back. “Also, there’s a bunch of crusty, dried stuff on the walls in there. You should do something about that.”

“Yeah,” Hive said from behind me. “You and Turquoise have to control your urges.”

“Don’t pretend you’ve never done it,” I said back, gritting my teeth.

“Hey, if I do it, I do it out in the forest.”

I gagged a bit, “The hell, man? That’s gross.”

The filly came back in, dried off.

“So,” I said, stepping up to her. “Let’s restart this whole thing. What’s your name?”

“Lock Pick,” she replied, playing with her mane, now just a tangled mess and not a dirt-filled tangled mess. “Talented at lockpicking and other forms of bypass.”

“Stealth,” I said. “Talented at... things.”

“No cutie mark or something?” she said, growing a mischievous smile. “Hah! You look older than me, and even I have my cutie mark!”

She went over and looked at my flank and saw the silhouette.

“Huh?” she said in a bit of surprise. “You do have a cutie mark? And your talent is... stealth?”

I turned away from her and bit my lip, “Y-yeah... it is. You got a problem?”

“Well with the way you’re acting, you do.”

“Am I just being left out over here?” Hive said, exasperated.

“Fine. What’s your name?”

“Hive,” he said proudly, flaunting his cutie mark, a small hypnosis circle. “My talent is controlling groups as one mind.”

“Cool,” Lock Pick said, sounding somewhat truthful about it. Hive beamed with pride as she turned back to me. “Why do you have a problem with it? Mine is basically the same as yours. I pick locks, you hide.”

“Don’t make it sound like we work together or something,” I said. “It’s not that big a deal, my cutie mark.”

“But it hurts to you, doesn’t it?” she replied, stepping up to me. “You don’t want that cutie mark, do you?”

“It doesn’t matter!” I shouted, pushing her back. She stumbled and fell on her flank, and suddenly she fell to her side and started shaking.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice starting to break with tears. “I didn’t mean for this.”

She covered her face and shuddering violently, and tears were falling from her face to the floor, splashing silently onto the sea of grey.

I was incredibly emotionally conflicted on what to do. I didn’t know whether to help her or sit and watch. I chose the former and reached out.

“It’s alright,” I said, taking her hoof gently. Her crying paused as she looked at me, her eyes watery and full of grief. I saw a strange spark from behind them for a moment, as if she realized something completely alien inside her head.

She jumped into a hug, and pressed her head against my shoulder. I held her, uncertain of her emotions, but willing to help with them. She lifted her head back and looked deep into our eyes, our noses almost touching. I blushed as I saw her face, and I noticed that she was pretty cute.

“Thanks,” she said, blushing back. “I appreciated that.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied, letting go. “It was just a–”

Her lips met mine, and suddenly I forgot where my sentence was going. Hive watched with a strange curiosity and the whole thing, wondering what he missed that led to this. I guess he would’ve missed it. It was something that only the two of us noticed. A spark of some strange love that made no sense in logical context, but perfect sense to me and to her.

I heard the door open, but put that behind me, focusing only on the kiss. When we released, I felt a strong hoof pat my shoulder, and Lock Pick gasped.

“You’ve got a hell of story, now don’t ya?” Turquoise asked, giving me the goofiest smile I had ever seen. “I think this is the first time you’ve ever brought a random filly over here.”