Student Debt

by AsiagoUnicorn

Chapter 2

“Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight sat in an aging government office. The wallpaper looked like it belonged in a black and white photograph, and judging by the way it was peeling everywhere, it had probably been there long enough to have been in one. The carpet was worn thin in several places, and the strong scent of spoiled milk wafted up from it. The chair she sat in wobbled with every shift of her weight.

“Red Ink,” the stallion across from her offered.

He was young, which would have contrasted almost humorously with the state of the office, but he had the eyes of a stallion four times his age and eight times as dead. He had a greasy unkempt mop of bright red hair that clashed with his conifer green coat. Twilight speculated that it may have been dyed as some sort of premature midlife crisis, but it did match his name, and she wouldn't put it past equestrian genetics to produce a... color schemed-challenged pony.

“I'd like to contest a claim that I have a large quantity of student debt.” Twilight shifted in her chair, nearly falling out with how far it wobbled. Bureaucratic officials always made her nervous. She didn't like the idea of giving somepony who was worse at paperwork than her so much power over her life.

“I'm going to need to see some picture identification.” Red Ink responded without emotion. Every day it was the same thing. The same questions. The same responses. Conversation followed a procedure, and the procedure was formulaic.

Twilight went to fumble through her saddlebags, only to realize that she hadn't brought her saddlebags. She laughed nervously. “I may have forgotten my identification at home.”

“If you don't have any ID then we will not be able to proceed. Please come back tomorrow with the proper resources.” Red Ink straightened a small stack of papers on his desk, and motioned towards the door with his eyes.

“Hold on,” Twilight desperately tried to buy time, “I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's personal bearer of the element of magic, princess of friendship. I have saved the world I don't know... countless times.”

Red Ink sighed. “Yes, you are and you have.”

“Then surely you can trust-”

“I can't,” he interrupted, “It's against protocol. Please return with proper identification. Good day.”

Twilight gave him a pleading stare before grumbling and slipping out of her chair to the floor. She muttered tame obscenities and made her way to the door. Giving the stallion one last scathing glare, she slipped out.

Another mare brushed past her and swung the door shut behind her. Their conversation muffled with the closing of the door.

✱ ✱ ✱

There weren't many places within trotting distance of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorn's campus where Twilight could have sated her, at the time, adolescent body's desire for fried sweets. There were even less places that were open at all hours of the night. It was no surprise that she had developed a fondness for Donut Joe's, and it was slightly less of a surprise that she found herself there, carefully considering her options over sweet jelly filled donut and a scalding hot cocoa.

She ran the figures again, and again, accounting for interest, the potential she might actually have to pay the loan, flight time to and from her castle, how tired her wings were... The factors were endless. And each time she worked out the numbers she came to the same solution. With a loan that big, and the most likely interest rate, it would cost her more bits to fly home and retrieve her identification than it would take to “acquire” it.

For the first time in her life, Twilight Sparkle considered violating the law in the interest of saving time and money. Leaning on the counter, she rubbed her temples and groaned to herself before ordering another donut. A donut was worth the time and the thousands of bits in interest.

✱ ✱ ✱

“And then I finally decided on a major and got my bachelor's in meteorology. I mean, how do you think I got a job as a weather mare? They don't just hand that position out to any pegasus who asks. It takes a precise understanding of the way clouds behave.” Rainbow Dash finished her story.

The crunch of dirt underhoof filled the air as Dash lead the trio down the winding Ponyville roads into the center of town, where the farmer's market was in full swing. Barter and banter echoed across the plaza in front of city hall, and the usually empty space was packed to the brim with carts and wagons laden in fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Wow, I just had no idea,” Spike remarked as they entered the sprawl of the marketplace. “I always pegged you for a jock.”

“Hey, wait just one minute” Dash stopped walking and turned to face the dragon. “That's not an insult is it?”

Spike backpedaled instantly. “It's not! I swear. All the jocks I know are great ponies.”

Dash squinted at him, her tail swishing unconsciously behind her.

“So,” Starlight chimed in, her voice filled with eager curiosity, “What are we here to do?”

Dash instantly forgot her grievances with Spike, and straightened her body into a confident pose. “We are here to teach you the art of pranking.”

It was Spike's turn to squint menacingly. “I thought you gave up pranking, Rainbow Danger Dash?”

“Well yeah,” she snickered, “That's why Glim Glam here's the one doing the actual pranking.”

“She will do no such thing!” Spike's inner motherly spirit was out in full force, and had Starlight been a great deal shorter he would have been covering her ears to protect her from the dangerous things the mean mare was saying.

“Uh yeah, she will.” Rainbow Dash leaned down to Spike's height. “Because this is my lesson, and I'm in charge.” Her face was practically coated in a thick translucent layer of smarm.

Starlight watched the two argue heatedly about which of them was technically in charge. It was so childish, she thought, and it showed no signs of stopping. Finally, she decided to step in. “Don't I have any say in this?”

“Yes!” The quarreling friends shouted in unison. They stared her down with their expectant gaze.

Taken aback, she muttered to herself in indecision. She weighed her ceaseless conquest for knowledge against what her moral compass was telling her. Finding that to be a confusing and ultimately non-elucidating endeavor, she instead regarded her friends' demeanor. On one hoof there was vindicating Rainbow Dash's cocky disposition, but on the other there was feeding Spike's motherly delusions of grandeur.

“Let's go pranking.”

Dash pumped a hoof in the air and let loose a cry of victory. “I knew you would be up for it!” She suddenly quieted, and leaned into Starlight's ear, “Okay, so here's what you have to do.”

✱ ✱ ✱

Roseluck hummed to herself as she set out vase after vase of perfectly cultivated and expertly arranged roses. It wasn't long before it was hard to see her little stall through the sheer volume of flora. She looked it over, tapping a hoof in thought. Something wasn't quite right. The positions of the vases weren't just so.

She shifted each piece of the display with the speed and precision of an expert. Stepping back, she admired her work once again. Still, though, something was off. She readjusted and re-observed. Again, it lacked that flair it usually had.

It was almost as if something was blocking her creative juices she needed to create perfection. Like something had stepped between her and her special talent. Like some crazy powerful unicorn had stolen her cutie mark or something equally preposterous.

Something shifted out of the corner of her eye. She spun to face it, only to find nothing but Carrot Top setting up her carrot cart. Beautiful, gorgeous Carrot Top. Glancing back and forth she sighed and muttered to herself, “You're in the market, of course things are moving, Roseluck. One of these days you're going to kill yourself with stress.” Quietly she turned back to her work. There was still something missing, and she couldn't open until she figured out what it was.

There it was again, suspicious motion at the edge of her vision. This time she whirled around just in time to catch it. There, all the way across the bustling farmer's market was a sky blue mare... Rainbow Dash? She was gesturing wildly, and mouthing something.

Roseluck squinted to make it out. “Do... it... now... starve kite.”

A sharp pain prodded her flank, blossoming outwards in red agony. Roseluck gasped loudly. She fell to her knees as a dangerous warmth spread through her body. Struggling for air, she finally managed to scream, “I've been hit! I'm dying!” Her vision began to dwindle and she collapsed writhing on the ground. “The horror! The horror!”

Carrot top snickered as she looked on over the spectacle. Her perfect little curls bobbing up and down as her head shook with laughter. Her deep green eyes sparkled with what Roseluck couldn't bring herself to admit was malice.

“How could you laugh when I lay before you dying, Carrot Top?” Roseluck sobbed. “And to think-” She moaned in pain. “To think that I was infatuated with you.”

Carrot Top froze at the realization she might actually be dying. Then her mind registered the second half of her sentence. “Wait, what?” Her eyes wandered over the prone mare; her luxurious pale coat and wine red mane. The way her cutie mark sat starkly on her flank, advertising to the world exactly who she was. So open... So caring... Desire that she had locked away long ago welled up within her.

She dashed over to Roseluck and sat down by the dying mare's side, scooping her limp body up in her forelegs. “You're going to be okay.” She spoke with a firmness that was nothing more than a facade. She had always loved Roseluck, even if she had hidden from it. To have those feelings realized and snatched away from her so quickly was the cruelest injustice she could have imagined.

“You're going to be okay.” Tears sprung from her eyes unbidden. Roseluck was dying in her arms and there was nothing she could do. So many dinners they would never share; nuzzles that would never be; kisses that would never be realized.

The mare lay still in her forelegs. She looked so peaceful with her hair swaying gently in the breeze and her eyes staring into the sky, cloudy and unseeing. Carrot Top sobbed. She buried her face in Roseluck's chest fluff, streaking it with tears.

She could feel the stares of the gathered crowd all over her. “Go- away-” she forced out between sobs. Couldn't they see that she just wanted to be left alone?! “Just go away!”

“Carrot Top.” The voice reached her ear like the gentle whisper of wind through reeds.

“Roseluck?” she croaked, not daring to look up for fear she would dispel whatever apparition was talking to her.

“Carrot Top,” the voice spoke again, so calm, so serene. “I'm okay, Carrot Top.”

Carrot Top turned to look Roseluck in the eyes. “I thought you died.”

“I did too,” Roseluck spoke in absolute sincerity, “Turns out I just got pricked by something.”

Emotion warred within Carrot Top's mind. Anger, annoyance, and gratitude, duking it out for dominance. Finally, she laughed. “You big drama queen.”

Roseluck grinned. “You're just as bad as me.”

“I guess I am.” Carrot Top slowly leaned into Roseluck. “Can you blame me? I love you...” she whispered.

Roseluck wrapped a hoof around the back of Carrot Top's head and pulled them together, muttering into the other mare's mouth, “I love you too.”

A distance away, trying to pretend they weren't watching, Starlight Glimmer remarked to Rainbow Dash, “I just poked her with a needle...”

Comments

[OmniFox]

Identification security must have been in play due to the Changeling Invasion.

[superfun]

It was Spike's turn to squint menacingly. “I thought you gave up pranking, Rainbow Danger Dash?”

I'm pretty sure the lesson was more that she had to make sure her pranks amused both her and the pony she pranked.

And Carrot Top x Roseluck, huh? Eh, I ship it.

[Gavier]

A distance away, trying to pretend they weren't watching, Starlight Glimmer remarked to Rainbow Dash, “I just poked her with a needle...”