Stella Eventide: Wings on my Back

by Shepherd Sheild92

Chapter 6: True friends

Stella sat down at the table in her apartment, studying rigorously for a test she had coming up. Next to her, was an empty bottle of cranberry juice, having been drank dry sometime prior.

This was what Brighteyes walked in on when she entered the room. She could tell that Stella had been crying, as well as drinking pretty hard, if the empty vodka, wine, and scotch bottles in the trash, along with the bloodshot eyes were any indication. Given the vomiting, she heard last night and Stella’s still intoxicated expression, confirmed she also wasn’t in the best of shape.

“Hey, Stella, what are you reading there?” Brighteyes asked, knowing she was studying. Stella however, only acknowledged the question by a quick glance out of the corner of her eye. Seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere by asking, Brighteyes instead opened the blinds. It had the desired effect, as Celestia’s light quickly assaulted Stella’s eyes, leading the pony to hiss angrily at Brighteyes.

“Stella are you alright?” asked Brighteyes. “You haven't been acting like yourself for two days now. This isn’t healthy behavior and whatever is bothering you, you can’t keep doing this.” Stella however, simply packed up her books and started to walk towards her nice, dark room. However, Brighteyes quickly blocked the hungover pony’s way. A low hiss escaped the batpony’s lips.

“Step aside Brighteyes,” Stella hissed. Brighteyes didn’t give an inch. “I know you’re not one who likes to fight, so move.”

“Stella wake up already, ever since you hung out with your mom you’ve been in a constantly bad mood. I know you've been crying at night and I’m sick of the bathroom smelling like alcohol and vomit. I just want to help you.” Brighteyes said these words in a way she knew her roommate would not mishear her.

Stella however, was not moved, wanting to simply smack the Earth Pony out of her way. However, she opted to simply fly away, only for Rize to appear in front of here. Stella stepped back, looking like she was ready to cry, her cold faced slowly melting away. Rize walked up to her and gave her a hug, telling her that he loved her. Stella broke down crying. Rize just held her close to him as she sobbed into his chest.

“What happened between you and your mom?” asked Rize lifting her head up.

“My mother is going to hate me,” sobbed Stella. Brighteyes was happy about Stella letting her feelings out. “At Dinner, she made it perfectly clear how she feels about Batponies and once she finds out I’m one, she’ll….” The now hysteric mare was all but choking on her words, struggling to get them out.”

Rize merely held her close as she cried. “Stella, you don’t know that for sure. And even if that does happen, you’ll still have me, I promise I won’t leave you.” Rize whispered in her ear as he gave her a loving hug. Stella cried harder into his chest. Brigheyes walked off, letting the pair have their moment. When Stella was done crying, she looked up into her coltfriend’s eyes. Rize smiled down at her, moving some of her mane out of her eyes; and kissed her forehead. They walked into her room, so they would not bother Brigheyes.

The two lied down on the bed, Stella grabbed her pillow and Rize just waited for Stella to talk.

“I just don’t know what I’ll do if my mother hates. I don’t want to lose my family.”Rize held her in a hug, Stella began to cry.

“You won’t lose it. Even if, Celestia forbid, that does happen my family will accept you.?” Stella looked up at Rize with hopeful eyes. “Did I mentioned that when they saw a picture of us together, they thought you were the cutest thing they ever saw.

“They did? Well, that’s nice of them. Still won’t stop my mom from hating me,” Stella whipping a tear off of her cheek.

“Stop that, I don’t want to hear any more of this negativity. You need to stop worrying about this and focus on the positives.” Rize said lifting his marefriend’s head. Rize kissed her. “No matter, what path you choose, your friends and I will still care about you. I just want you to be you.” Stella smiled at her colt friend whipped away the last of her tears away as the pair simply embraced each other for the rest of the day.

Stella was in the library, getting ready for her business class, and it was really stressing her out. “Really wishing my brother lived here right now. He’d be able to help me with this dumb class.”

At least the library was quiet, that helped somewhat. However, two ponies were making a lot of noise, and Stella could other ponies shushing them. Stella could have sworn one was Princess Twilight, but she was too busy reading to care. Instead, Stella thought about going to Manehattan with Brighteyes and Rize, along with a trip to the Crystal Empire and the Noc-Pony colony with Princess Luna. The later especially intrigued her, if only to learn more about Noc-Pony culture. These thoughts, along with the stress of finals and her friends had managed to pull Stella out of her funk. Her anticipation of winter break had effectively taken central focus in her mind.

“Hey, Stella, I didn't know you knew where the library was,” laughed Brighteyes, sitting next to Stella.

“ We went to the library before the first day of school, hell, I showed you where it was,” Stella lightly snapped back. “So, unless you want to help me study, please leave.”

“AHHH!” came the voice of a mare, followed up by more shushing, meriting an angry growl from Stella.

Deciding to try and be helpful Brighteyes looked over at Stella’s books and homework. “The answer is B by the way, Stella. I understand why you choose D, but a clause is the end of a contract, like think about a cat's paws.

“Paws, really?”

“Yea, a cat’s paws comes before its claws, and a contract pause comes before a clause.”

Stella rolled her eyes at her friend.

The studying over the past few days proved most helpful as the morning of Stella’s first exam quickly arrived, with her and Brighteyes standing outside the exam building with several others students. The doors opened up and an older Earth Pony came out.

“All ponies taking the Psychology Final please come in and take your seats, no talking is permitted during the exam. Once the exam begins you will have 2 hours to complete it,” the mare calmly said with a smile. Stella sat down at a seat and started the test when the instructor gave the okay.

“I really should have studied a little bit more for this. I can’t even tell if my answers are right or not,” Stella thought to herself, trying not to panic. She looked to her right and left to see ponies getting ready to burst into tears. However, there were others blazing through it with ease. In particular, Brighteyes somehow managed to turn the exam in after only 45 minutes. Despite Stella’s apprehension, she quickly shook off any doubt and pushed forward, answering the questions as best she could.

“Here’s hoping I at least managed to pass this time.”

Sadly it wasn’t over for Stella, on top of her stupid Psychology Final, she had her Astronomy Final as well She knew that is was going to be hard since she had to draw the constellations, talk about the zodiac, what it meant to be born under each sign, and the laws that the cosmos follows. Of those elements, it was the laws of the great cosmos she’d struggled with the most. For Stella, this was her hardest class, even with Luna’s help.

Stella walked with the herd of students into a darkened room, illuminated only by the glow from the dark star charts, before each student took their seats The exam itself was odd. The students were to use ink that would glow in the dark, and the questions were lit up with magic. As expected, the questions were extremely difficult, leaving Stella sweating bullets through many of the questions, though there were a few she could answer without thinking twice, mainly questions about her own zodiac sign, Pisces.

The following day was her Business Final and it was odd, even by Stella’s standards. Each classmate was given 150 bits, plus some kind of stones, about thirty of them. The idea was to sell or buy these stones and earn a minimum of over six-hundred bits as well as have no stones left in order to pass. Before the exam started they had a half-hour to socialize and plan.

When the exam started it was a madhouse, students buying, selling, and waiting for the right time to strike. Stella, along with three other ponies, managed to work together to pass the exam and managed to do so without much trouble, finally ending Stella’s testing days. By the time it was all over, Stella’s mind needed a rest, and she planned to sleep the rest of the day away. Even more exciting was that for tomorrow, Luna, her guard, and a few maids are going to the Crystal Empire and the Noc Pony colony.

Stella and Brighteyes went out to the Canterlot market to grab some food to eat at home. The marketplace was full of vendors and all sorts of goods. Yet despite the occasional chaos of the location, Stella enjoyed the market, mostly because the high and mighty ponies would never step hoof in this part of town. Stella hated how other ponies would call her a Vampony or demon who wanted to steal foals from their families, and at least here that wasn’t a problem.

However, what Stella hated most of all was ponies who thought that Noc Ponies were some kind of invading army. Luna only had sixty Noc Ponies from the colony in Canterlot, and only twenty of them were in the guard. Stella remembered the Changeling attack on Canterlot during the wedding. While they tried to help as best they could, like the other guards they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of Changelings. That fact alone made the idea of the Noc Ponies as an invading army laughable at best.

The sound of Brighteyes talking to her snapped her back into the here and now.

“Stella that is a lot of fruit, even for you. Why are you buying so much?” asked Brighteyes, nudging her roommate. Stella took a few steps away from her friend.

“Rize is coming over tonight to hang out.” Stella grabbed some peaches and gave the salespony five bits. “We are planning on…well, I’m not sure yet to be honest.”

“You two always spend time in your room. Plus didn’t you say you were going to the Crystal Empire as well as the Batpony colony?”

“NocPony,” Stella cut Brighteyes off, assisting her due to the fact Stella was so adamant about referring to all three of Luna’s created races as Noc Ponies.

“I’m sure you two will just be making out or more,” Brighteyes smiled to herself with a small laugh, meriting a death glare from Stella.

“You really think Rize and I would lose control tonight. I may be playful and a social drinker…” The Earth Pony just rose up an eyebrow. “Okay, I’m a very social drinker. But, do you think that I have zero standards?” The Batpony snapped. However, despite the tone, the two ponies chuckled at each other, knowing the comment bore no ill will. It was bits like this, where the pair could casually disagree with each other and yet not be at each other's throats that reminded Stella why she enjoyed having a roommate.

While they walked home, Stella decided to think about the time she and her sister had similar disputes about treating their parent’s servants with respect, as well as the times they fought about clothes. Looking back at it, they were pretty foolish during those times. Stella smiled to herself and gave her friend a friendly smile, which the Earth Pony returned. The two of them laughed and opened the door to their apartment.

That night Rize came by to be with his marefriend. Stella and Rize hung out in her room, which was still kind of a mess, but cleaner then it had been in awhile. The two of them sat down on the bed. Stella finished the book she was reading, whileRize decided to draw some random doodles until Stella put her book down and bit his ear playfully. Rize just smiled as he tried to get his ear out of her mouth.

“Stella, what is it with you and the biting?” Rize laughed as he freed his ear. Stella licked her lips and kissed him.

“I’m just a playful little bat, and you don’t do anything to stop me, so I decided to bite your ear,” Stella laughed and looked at Rize’s doodles, which were random drawings of animals, ponies, and some random scribbles.

“So you're leaving tomorrow, right?” Rize asked putting his sketchbook away.

“Well don’t you just know how to kill the mood, Rize,” laughed Stella. “Yes, the train is leaving at Nine A.M. Of course, Luna is not too happy about the hour of it.”

“I don’t understand you ponies sleeping during the day,” Rize said pushing Stella on her back. He turned around to lie next to his cute Noc Pony marefriend.

“You know the sun is blinding to me right?” She kissed the Unicorn next to her. The two of them smiled. A knock came at Stella’s door, and Stella just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Stella, do you know if Rize is spending the night here?” asked Brighteyes, her voice muffled through the door. Stella just faced-hoofed and mumbled something to herself, mentioning something about Luna’s royal plot.

“Yes, and it will be on the couch. Thanks for killing the mood, Brighteyes,” Stella hissed as she opened the door.

Brighteyes walked over to her closet and pulled out a blanket and a pillow and placed them on the couch. She sighed and retreated back into her room, which was in one word a disaster. Her room was full of comics, tabletop character building guides, her college books, and some papers she wrote for class on her desk.

She looked down at her floor, picked up a book and sat down on her bed. The sound of Rize leaving Stella’s room was a tad loud, do to Stella’s laugher. Brighteyes smiled to herself and put the book down on her desk. She picked up a pill bottle, to take pills for her heart.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

You made the picture, right?

[Dragon of Shadows]

“You know the sun blinds use,” She kissed the Unicorn next to her. The two of them smiled. A knock came at Stella’s door, and Stella just rolled her eyes in anioness. us