A Disparate Bond

by the7Saviors

A Stark Contrast

A gentle but urgent knock on the door roused Starlight from her sleep.

She gave a tired groan of annoyance before rolling over and throwing a pillow over her head. She resolved to ignore the second, louder knock, pressing the pillow harder against her head.

On the third knock she grunted in frustration and threw off the pillow. She sat up and glared at the door on the far side of the empty room, ready to give whoever had awoken her a piece of her mind.

The words died in her throat as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. She looked around in momentary confusion before the memories all came crashing back into her mind.

She wasn't home.

Her parents and best friend were dead by her hooves.

She and Twilight had--

A small whimper to her immediate right caused her to turn and her eyes fell on a restless looking Twilight. The lavender filly turned and twisted in her sleep, her mane and forehead matted with sweat and her expression twisted in pain.

Seeing this, all ruminations of what had happened to them both were set aside as Starlight reached over and roughly nudged Twilight. Twilight whimpered again and mumbled something incoherent as she tried to shove Starlight away.

The light pink filly frowned and grabbed Twilight by the withers, opting instead to shake her awake. It worked and Twilight awoke with a panicked scream.

Immediately following this, the door to the room was thrown open and a familiar dark brown and heavily muscled unicorn stepped inside. His sudden entrance renewed Twilight's scream and Starlight, startled from the intrusion, joined in the screaming.

The unicorn stallion's ears folded back and he grimaced in annoyance.

"Would you two knock it off! Seriously, is this going to happen every time I'm around the both of you?"

Starlight's cry faded as she recognized the stallion, but Twilight's did not. Starlight turned and grabbed Twilight, forcing the screaming filly to look at her.

"Twilight! Twilight! It's okay!" Starlight yelled trying to speak over Twilight, "we're safe! We're fine! It's just that stallion from the dungeon!"

It took a second, but eventually Twilight's screams of terror died down into quick and heavy gasps. She took stock of where she was, her eyes moving from Starlight's worried face to the stallion still standing near the doorway wearing an irritated scowl.

She blinked once, then twice before looking back to Starlight. Starlight pulled away from Twilight once she saw that the panicked filly was finally beginning to calm down.

"Are you okay now?" Starlight asked warily, "do you remember what happened?"

Twilight's breathing gradually returned to normal and after another moment, she swallowed and nodded shakily.

"I-I'm okay now," she replied, brushing her sweaty mane out of her eyes, "thanks, Starlight, and..." she furrowed her brow for a moment as she thought back to everything that had occurred. A second later she nodded, her expression turning morose, "yeah... I remember..."

"Are you two finished?"

The two fillies looked back towards the impatient unicorn stallion, then back to each other. It was clear to Starlight that Twilight was still shaken by whatever she'd been dreaming about.

Nevertheless, Twilight nodded once before pushing back the blanket and hopping off the bed, Starlight following right behind her. They both trotted over to the stallion who nodded in return before addressing the two of them.

"I'd say good morning, but judging by all the screaming, apparently it wasn't. Ah," he held up a hoof, forestalling the explanation Twilight was about to give, "I don't wanna hear about it. As long as no one's in danger, I don't care, now follow me."

He turned and abruptly began trotting out of the room, much to the fillies' bemusement and slight irritation. They were about to follow before the stallion suddenly stopped just outside the doorway, looking as though he had just forgotten something.

"Oh, right... introductions," he muttered before turning back to the two, "I think Aeon mentioned it once last night before you two left the dungeon, but my name is Comet -- Burning Comet if you wanna be formal about it. Everypony else here just calls me Comet though."

Twilight gave a small smile and opened her mouth to introduce her and Starlight, but was once again cut off by the brusque stallion as he began trotting up the stairs just outside the room.

"I already know who you two are, so we can skip that part of the introduction," Comet said without looking back, "normally I'm a lot more cordial than this, but I've got a ton of things to do today, so we need to make this quick."

Twilight frowned and made to respond, but stopped when Starlight placed a hoof on her shoulder. She turned to the light pink filly who just shook her head and trotted after Burning Comet.

"It's not worth the effort," Starlight said, trotting up the stairs, "let's just get this over with."

After a moment, Twilight's eyes lit up as she remembered what Burning Comet had come to get them for in the first place. She pushed the dark memory of her nightmare to the back of her mind as she hurried after Starlight.

As the two fillies trotted up the rather narrow stairwell, they squeezed past several ponies making their way down the stairs. Some wore brown and black scholar's robes while others went without.

The fillies received more than a few odd looks as they passed, the looks making them somewhat uncomfortable. The majority of ponies however, had their muzzles buried in books or notes or some other type of documents.

Neither Twilight nor Starlight spoke as they ascended to the large library above. Burning Comet was content to stay silent as well, not speaking until they had reached the top of the stairs.

"Alright, now then," Comet began, as the three of them stepped off the staircase and into the library itself, "despite my already extremely busy schedule, Aeon has assigned me to show you two around the Fortress as well as the rest of the Grey Asylum."

Twilight was only half listening, as the sheer number of ponies in the library had taken up a large amount of her attention. Contrary to the quiet, serene atmosphere the library carried last night, the morning had brought a whirlwind of activity to the large room.

It was still relatively quiet all things considered, but there was definitely a lot more energy in the air as countless ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, and even a few of those cat creatures Twilight had seen portraits of, wandered about.

Some sat at the desks in the middle of the circular room, reading, taking notes, or conversing with others in hushed but energetic voices. Others flitted about the many shelves of books around the library, searching for some tome or another.

The sight made Twilight's heart swell with something warm, something familiar... something nostalgic. For the first time in she couldn't even remember how long, she felt at peace -- momentarily forgetting about her troubles as she continued to observe the many library goers.

A sharp jab to the side caused her to start and she whipped around to give Starlight an unamused frown. Starlight in returned rolled her eyes and pointed to Comet who had started trotting towards the library's exit.

"Wait, we're leaving already?" Twilight asked in both surprise and dismay, "what about the library? Isn't he supposed to give us a tour or something?"

"I told him we already got a chance to explore the library," Starlight explain, "so he just gave us a rundown on what type of books the library contained, when we could visit, how long we could check them out for... things like that."

"Wha? But... but I didn't -- I wasn't--"

"Paying attention?" Starlight finished with a smirk. She turned and trotted after Burning Comet, "yeah, I figured as much. Oh well, guess you'll just have to figure it out for yourself."

Twilight's eyes widened briefly before she narrowed them and let out an aggravated grunt. She stomped after Starlight, intent on getting the other filly to tell her just what Burning Comet had explained.

So focused was the filly on her goal that she didn't see the tall gangly unicorn mare crossing her path until it was too late. Both of them yelped in surprise as the tall mare tripped over the smaller filly and fell to the floor, the books in her pale greyish pink aura falling right along with her.

"Ohmygosh I'm so sorry!" Twilight cried, turning to try and help the groaning mare, "are you okay?"

The mare clumsily rose to her hooves and shook her head before lifting the books in her magic. Twilight stepped back to get a better look at the mare.

She was tall -- almost as tall as Celestia -- and incredibly thin, but not so much as to look unhealthy. Her coat was a light grey -- a rather painful reminder of both her own mother and brother -- and she had a pale pink mane and tail that both cascaded downward like eddies in a river.

It didn't take a discerning eye to see that she had a fairly beautiful frame. This however, was heavily contrasted by the sheer awkwardness that hung about the mare like a shroud.

Not to mention the nasty scar marring her forehead just beneath her mane. It looked as though she was trying to hide it, but Twilight had caught a glimpse of it as the mare was trying to stand.

Her expression was withdrawn and somewhat timid looking, her bright magenta eyes constantly shifting this way and that, as if expecting someone to jump her at any moment.

The mare's shifty gaze settled on the filly she had tripped over and her eyes briefly widened in surprise before she quickly turned away. Twilight's ear twitched as she heard the mare mutter something under her breath, though she couldn't quite catch what it was.

"S-Sorry about that," the mare quietly apologized in an accent the filly had never heard before, "I d-didn't... ah... e-excuse me."

She lowered her head and pushed past the confused filly. The tall awkward mare quickly trotted further into the library with her books in tow and soon enough, she had trotted out of sight behind one of the bookshelves, but not before Twilight saw the trio of odd flowery looking symbols adorning her flank.

Twilight frowned in bemusement as she stared after the mare, but a voice from up ahead caught her attention.

"Twilight! Come on!" she heard Starlight shout from over by the library entrance, "Comet says he's gonna leave without us!"

Twilight reluctantly tore her gaze away from where the mare had disappeared to and quickly trotted the rest of the way to the door where Starlight was waiting impatiently.

She didn't know what it was, but something about the mare piqued Twilight's curiosity. As she and Starlight followed Burning Comet out of the library, she decided then and there that if she ever ran into the mare again, she'd take some time to actually talk to her.

But first, she had some important information to get out of Starlight regarding the library.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Fleur? what're you doing here?

[the7Saviors]

8999353
What indeed...