Second Chances

by Mediocre Morsov

Chapter 8

"I'm sorry!" Luster Dawn's voice was frantic. "I swear, I don't know what went wrong!"

"Aside from the fact you blinded me?" Flurry was surprised by how calm her voice was given the circumstances. "No, I can't say I know either."

"Oh, this is bad..." the unicorn's voice trailed off into murmuring calculations Flurry only half-understood.

The alicorn felt her eyelids being manipulated, the proximity of some instrument or another near her eyeball. She felt Luster's breath across her lips and suddenly felt uncomfortable at the proximity. Luster shifted and the presence Flurry felt was near her other eye. Then, the unicorn and her instrument were gone, murmuring some more. Flurry heard the scratching of a quill on parchment.

"Alright, well the good news is this condition is temporary," Luster chuckled nervously. "In fact, you should fully recover after a good night's rest."

"Should?" Flurry asked in a deadpan. "Wait, what's the bad news?"

"That you're blind?" Luster sounded confused. "I... I thought that was obvious."

"Plain as the muzzle on my face," the alicorn gave a forced smirk, glaring where she thought her roommate was, "which I can't currently see."

"I'm sorry!" Luster exclaimed. Flurry thought she heard a light thump and when Luster spoke again, she sounded lower. "I understand if you're going to report me to the authorities, but I honestly wasn't expecting you to be back so soon! Oh, Princess Twilight is going to reject me as her student have blinding her niece!"

"Will you relax?" Flurry scoffed. "Yeesh, if it's temporary, then I'm not complaining. It's kinda freaky, but I nearly blinded myself staring at the sun as a foal - like half the foals in Equestria at one time or another. I just want to know what you were doing."

"I was attempting a spell which creates a miniature sun, actually," Luster gave an anxious chuckle. "It's just a little funny that you'd mention it."

"Why would you create a miniature sun?" Flurry tried to not feel impressed. "How did you create a miniature sun?"

"It was an experimental spell I've been working on as a side project for a few years," Luster confessed. Flurry felt bandages being wrapped around her eyes. "For protection from anymore bright lights," the unicorn explained before continuing. "Anyway, I've always been curious how the magic of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna actually works, you know? I figured moving a celestial body would be impossible to me, but if I were to create a small enough one, then I could study the magic required to move it. Honestly, this was a far more successful experiment than the last time I tried this spell."

"What happened the last time?" Flurry couldn't help but ask. Creating a miniature sun to study the magic used by Celestia and Luna? That was amazing! Not that she'd give the smug prodigy the satisfaction of knowing that right after blinding her.

"Uh, well..." Luster made chuckled nervously, "I nearly set the castle on fire."

"Whoa, really?"

"No, not... I did set the castle on fire..." Luster confessed, her shame evident in her voice. "It was mortifying! How many students accidentally burn down the castle of all things?! Thank the stars Princess Twilight was there to stop it."

"Gotta say, that's pretty metal," Flurry grinned. "Here I thought you were a harmless bookworm, but you it turns out you can burn castles to the ground with artificial stars."

"You really think that's impressive?" Luster was stunned.

"I doubt I could do it," Flurry shrugged, "and I'm an alicorn. So, yes, color me impressed."

"No one's really complimented my work since I left Canterlot," the unicorn confessed, cheeks coloring slightly. "I've never... I mean, can I be honest with you?"

Flurry nodded.

"I know I act really confident, but the truth is I feel like I have to advertise my brilliance because no one pays attention to it," Luster confessed, blush deepening. "It's silly, but I was used to being praised for my genius in Canterlot, and here... no one even cares I exist."

"The point of the school is to make friends," the alicorn pointed out, "not stars. It's not that they don't care, it's just that everyone here is more interested in making lasting friendships than scientific or magical progress. Especially since only a small percentage of students can even use magic."

"I know, but being a magical and scientific prodigy is sort of all there is to me!" Luster groaned. "I mean, look at you! You're not just an alicorn; you've got this... punk rock thing going on, too! And you're smart. You have diverse interests and character; you probably have hundreds of friends already!"

"Wow, that's the first time you've complimented me," Flurry noted. "So far you've just casually insulted me."

"I have?" Luster furrowed her brow trying to think back. "Sorry about that. If that makes any difference..."

"An apology always helps. Say, can you fix my eyes with a spell?"

"I never learned medical magic."

"You play around with miniature stars," Flurry began, "but never bothered to learn how to heal yourself if something went wrong?"

"In my defense, if a star the size of a buckball went supernova on me, I don't think there'd be enough of me left to heal," Luster giggled and Flurry joined in. "Thanks."

"For what?" the alicorn was caught offguard by the question.

"For not freaking out on me, I guess," Luster chewed her lip. "Even in Canterlot, I wasn't popular. A lot of ponies resented me for moving up so high in school, outshining ponies years older than me. When I was made Princess Twilight's apprentice, they claimed it was because I was the daughter of her former student. I had to work hard, but nobody recognized that except Twilight. Then, coming here, nobody even knew or cared who I was. I was suddenly expected to fit in like a regular pony, as if I hadn't been training in powerful magic under a princess for half my life."

"That's... rough, actually," Flurry conceded.

"I don't really care about making friends, honestly, but Princess Twilight says I need to learn about the magic of friendship," Luster groaned and Flurry could hear the unicorn fall back onto her own bed. "I got frustrated because I kept failing, because I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong! I tried to make friends, but I just annoy or anger everyone I talk to! I mean, you had to leave the room for half the day and we only spoke for twenty minutes!"

"You can come off a little strong, that's for sure," Flurry admitted, "but you're perfectly fine now. You should act more like this - like how you really are."

"Insecure and uncaring about others?" Luster snorted. "I doubt creatures will find me not caring about friendship all that endearing."

"Worked for me," the alicorn said. "Okay, well, not exactly. I only have one friend, but that's how we bonded: by being terrible at making friends."

"Really? I thought you were super popular."

"Because I'm an alicorn?"

"Because you're so... cool," Flurry could hear the awe in Luster's voice. "I mean, you play guitar, you wear whatever you like, and you talk to Princess Twilight as if she were your sister!"

"She's my aunt," Flurry pointed out. "Really, I'm not... I'm not that cool. Like I said, I only have the one friend, though I'm trying to make more."

"I honestly don't see how you could only have one friend," Luster sighed. "You're so confident. My books say confidence is key to making friends. I tried being confident, but it just annoys them."

"There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance."

"Okay, ouch," Luster scowled before her expression softened. "Do I really come off as arrogant? I was trying for some kind of professional haughtiness."

"Oh Celestia, that's even worse!" Flurry gagged. "Trust me, you should just be insecure and dorky. Guys love that."

"Why would I care what guys think?"

Flurry laughed until she realized that Luster was completely serious.

"Oh. You like mares or something?"

"No more than anyone else?" the unicorn looked around, confused.

"Wait, do you really not think about romance?" Flurry's eyes widened behind her bandages. She gave a devilish grin. "Or, y'know... anything naughty?"

"Don't really have time for it, honestly," Luster gestured towards her books before she remembered her roommate couldn't see. "I'm sorry about your eyes."

"Don't worry about, really," Flurry waved a dismissive hoof. "As long as it's temporary. Any other crazy experiments I should know about?"

"Haha, no!" Luster snorted, organizing her books again. She stopped to look at one she'd snuck out of the restricted section from Canterlot before leaving: a leatherbound journal of arterial red with aged, gold-lined pages. She spared a look over her shoulder at the alicorn just to make sure she hadn't seen her, but of course Flurry was still blinded. "I am studying something revolutionary, but it's just light reading, really."

"I'd like to hear about it sometime," Flurry made her way to her guitar and began strumming it without power, a suppressed melody floating around the room. "Oh yeah, what's your stance on me rocking it out from time to time?"

"I suppose we could work out a schedule," Luster noted, "that way you have time to play your music and I have time to conduct experiments without endangering you."

"That's mighty thoughtful of you."

"You mentioned you had a friend earlier?"

"Oh yeah," Flurry missed a chord, caught offguard again. "She's a little older than me. Actually, a few years older."

"Really?" Luster raised an eyebrow. "I'm no expert, but it normal for a filly to be friends with an older creature? Isn't that considered, um... problematic?"

"Ms. Scootaloo was a filly when she befriended Rainbow Dash," Flurry shrugged. "It's not too weird."

"I'm sure she must be pretty cool if she's friends with you," Luster returned to her work, smiling softly.

"Yeah," Flurry paused in her music, thinking back to the comments the unicorn had made about Cozy Glow earlier, "she is."

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

And they say Starlight was a Twilight 2.0. Luster seems to fill that role perfectly.

[Comickook]

So, Luster was working on creating a miniature sun so she could study the magic behind moving the sun? Yikes. And, yeah, the chat between Luster and Flurry was great, with Flurry trying to reassure Luster that dorky and insecure works better for making friends than arrogance and Luster admitting she got a lot of grief for going up in the class so quickly and taking accusations no matter how hard she worked. At least Luster and Flurry are starting to bond SLIGHTLY. And Luster had a point about if the mini-star went supernova, she probably wouldn't be alive for healing spells to matter.

Anyway, really good job on the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up. On to the next chapter.

[Razzy]

Seems perfectly safe.