Amareican Glimmer

by Mocha Star

A Small Supper

Starlight changed out of her work uniform, thankful to be naked, if only for a moment, then slipped on her dress and went to the toilets to go before her walk back to her new apartment. She smiled at the thought and let her mind wander over the events of the day. Talking with Frank about her life on Equestria was nice, and he seemed interested in her short stories.

She wondered why it had taken her so long to open up to others and how it must have been Alex that started her on the path. The fact she cried on him probably did something to help; something she didn’t recall but knew of tickled the back of her mind. Friendship is magic. She thought to herself as she began her long trot back to her home. Her home, something she wasn’t sure she’d ever hear or see again.

Admitting it was hard, even in her own mind, but she was ready to lay down in the grass by the river and never get up again. Life had hit rock bottom and she was under the weight of all the ponies she’d trapped in this world. All the troubles they’d endured trying to become seen as even second class citizens across the world they now called home was crushing her still, but it seemed to be a lot less of a bother over the past few days.

As she trotted and cantered across streets, waited impatiently at stop signs and walk signals, and passed other humans taking leisure walks and jogs, she couldn’t help but see them as individual people for the first time in a long time, as opposed to an entire species bent on pony oppression.

“What’s that human done to me?” She asked quietly to herself. One evening with Amy and Alex and somehow her whole view had changed, and it was all her doing. Alex and Amy had been there for her, but she was the one who admitted for the first time in years what she’d done. She was the one who cried, vented, and had opened up on her own.

As she reached a few blocks away she passed a few children playing at a small park. The children saw her and shouted ‘pony’ excitedly, only being stopped from pouncing on the mare by concerned parents. “We don’t want to be rude,” one of the parents said to two children. “How would you like it if you were chased by dogs that you didn’t know?”

Starlight couldn’t help but recognize the relevance. She was a prey animal in their eyes, just below omnivores, who were prey to predators, usually. Not everything was so cut and dry, but for a child, the idea sunk home and the actual nuances didn’t need to be covered. The children waved at Starlight, who nodded her head back in reply and gave the parents that were still looking at her a polite smile and mouthed a grateful ‘thank you’.

Children on bikes rode by and one of them swerved when he saw her, nearly falling over before he caught himself and kept going.

They’re treating me like some kind of spectacle. Like I’m… stop remembering!

With a shake of her head, Starlight crossed the street and began the last three blocks to her home when a small dog started barking furiously at her from a house’s porch. An elderly woman told the dog to be quiet, but it began running down the stairs and toward a concerned pony. The woman shouted the dog’s name causing it to slow down and look back before facing Starlight again and barking again.

Starlight hurried past the house and dog, remembering to stay away from it next time as the woman picked the dog up, admonished it, and apologized to Starlight as the mare cantered another block. Slowing down once she was sure the dog was not going to be a problem, she giggled at remembering something she’d heard once; the smaller the dog, the angrier it seemed to be.

“Facts, I guess, are facts.”

She stopped as she passed a house surrounded by fences and a small grove of three apple trees with apples ready for eating. She smiled fondly, remembering her friend Applejack as she looked around and lit her horn, pulling a fresh small apple from the tree and popping it into her mouth. She hurried past the grove and chomped down, humming as the sweet, tart apple crunched between her teeth and filled her mouth with juice.

Chewing a few more times, she swallowed the fruit and crossed the last street to home. She looked at the blue building and hesitated, then went to the lower door where Alex lived. She knew it was low chance, but she opened the storm door and knocked on the door itself. She waited several seconds, knocked again, then sighed.

Her new friend wasn’t home. Sure, he was a male, but he was nice to her and didn’t seem to want anything like the other ones had. She briefly frowned before closing the storm door and going to her apartment. She removed the key from her pocket and unlocked the door. Opening it she was greeted to the smell of cooking. She stepped in to see Amy over the stove cooking something that made the mare’s mouth water.

“What are you cooking?”

Amy jumped a little in surprise. “Shee-it, you scared me!”

“How did you not hear the door opening or the lock?” Starlight asked as she closed the door and stepped in.

“I was kinda zoned out, Starlight. Crap, I wasn’t expecting you for another hour at least.”

“I had to hurry home. Now that we have a place I can’t just go wherever… I feel like I’m growing a second tail over here, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Amy snerked as Starlight passed her as she got what the mare meant. “I’ve never heard you say anything like that before. Is that a common saying among ponies?”

Starlight slipped her dress off and hurried to the bathroom. “Kinda. It’s a bit crude, but I think you’re the right company to use it around.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “I’m making some pasta with sauce. I have some meat on the side cooking, too.”

She grimaced at the sounds coming from the bathroom from the mare for a couple seconds before the mare audibly nickered in relief. “Yeah? I’ll take some meat, too. Wait, what kind?”

“Beef… if you’re okay with that. I can go ask around for some tofu if you’re not into beef.”

“It’s okay, I can eat meat. I’ve established this a while ago,” Starlight said, “I just don’t eat much. If I had to choose, I’d eat fish, but fish and pasta don’t really go together.”

“Well, I’m going to go back to cooking. I don’t want the sauce to go bad.” Amy said with a wave of her hand towards the bathroom where the mare was doing her business.

“See you in a minute… maybe two.”

---

They ate at a table provided by their landlord while Starlight was at work. It was small and oval, the chairs were barely comfortable for the human resident, and it was clearly used a lot over the years, but it was free and it showed the landlord, Daryl, wasn’t a complete jerk to them.

Pasta was one of Starlight’s favorites and the beef was seasoned nicely and was mixed thoroughly into her pasta and sauce. She wondered what her friends back home would think of her eating actual meat; not fish, not eggs, and not milk based items; actual meat from another living creature. She slurped some noodles from her magic into her mouth and chewed with a smile. It was something she’d have to deal with if she got home.

“Is this sauce homemade? It tastes… um, fresh, I guess. It doesn’t have that weird taste cans usually have.” Starlight asked.

Amy smiled. “It is, I asked a neighbor for some sauce, she was really fat, but nice. Her name’s Jessica and she lives downstairs. But, fat people know how to cook so she gave me a tupperware of sauce she had extra.”

“Fat? How fat are we talking? Like Dawn?”

“You’ll see when you meet her. She invited us over to talk and get to know each other whenever we want. I don’t think she leaves the apartment often, so it’s kind of sad. Just try not to mention what I said, human women are very sensitive about a lot of things.” Amy said as she twirled pasta onto her fork.

Starlight nodded in agreement, then glanced down. “What about Alex, is he home yet?”

Amy smirked. “Got an itch you need scratched?”

“I’ll throw a pasta ball at you if you don’t stop with that,” Starlight threatened.

“You’ll have to clean it up, and I don’t think Alex has a washing machine for my clothes. But no, I don’t think he’s home yet. He said last night that he works about twelve to fifteen hours a day during the warm season, so we might have a couple hours before he gets back. I wonder if he’ll bring anything for us.”

Starlight nickered. “It’s rude to expect someone to give you things without asking, Amy. It’s not the way friends should behave to one another.”

“Awe, you got a little horsey just now. You don’t usually make those noises.”

“I do when I get annoyed,” Starlight replied.

“Well, what do you really know about friendship? You said you’ve only had me as a friend for the past couple years, and even before then it was limited.”

“Don’t remind me of my past, Amy. I’m doing fine making new friends lately.” Starlight said as her magic crushed the small ball of pasta so tight the sauce dripped out, leaving her with noodles only.

“Woah, let’s not get crazy, now. I just meant, uh, how’s your friendship going with anyone else?” Amy said, holding up her hands placatingly.

Starlight noticed her magical mishap and sighed, setting the ball of pasta on the plate. She watched as it unfurled partly, but the center wasn’t coming apart without some effort. She sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m just kind of sensitive after the day I had. Nothing went wrong, per se, but I found out the other janitor considered me a friend and I had another surge. It was just as powerful as the one I had with Alex, and that bothers me.

“What if I could have had all my power, or even a good fraction of it all this time but I held myself back from everyone else because of my guilt. What if I could have opened a portal home, but my pride and fear kept me feeling alone in this world. I just can’t believe friendship might be the key to getting my power back and to help me get home.”

Amy had stopped eating while Starlight talked, taking in what the mare was saying. “Well, that’s a lot to realize in a day. It was just today, right?”

“Yeah, my surge was early this morning while setting up the cafeteria with Frank. He said he was my friend and I felt the truth in his words, then I had a surge that helped me set up all the tables at once, instead of struggling one at a time like I usually do, even with his help.”

“Hm,” Amy tapped her chin, “it sounds like that whole friendship is magic works here just like back on Equus. Maybe if you make a few more friends you can try to open that portal thingie.”

Starlight looked at her mostly empty plate for a few seconds, then tilted her head. She began to use her magic to move the pasta into a pattern, then stopped and sighed. “That’s kind of what the ritual circle looked like.”

“Wouldn’t it be funny if you cast your spell on the pasta and opened a portal to a world of pasta?” Amy giggled.

“I think that would be kind of funny. We could be rich selling the pasta world at little to no cost to us.”

Amy tittered. “Until we found out the pasta was sentient and we’ve been stealing their people and eating them.”

“I think we could broker a peace and exchange knowledge. New pastas to be explored, new pastas to taste. Think of the sauces we could experience,” Starlight exclaimed and then joined Amy in a laugh. “Okay, seriously, though,” Starlight said as she regained control of herself, “maybe, maybe I could try to open a portal with a few friends. The only problem is that I need more friends than the three I have.

“Back home there seemed to be a theme of six friends needed to invoke certain powers. I was able to open a portal with Sunburst because I was one of the strongest unicorns and he was one of the smartest. Even if I were to try, I’d need a lot of friendship power,” she said with air quotes, “to even try to cast the spell.”

“Well,” Amy said as she held the fork of pasta inches above her plate, “I think you’re on the right track. You’ve made a few friends over the past couple days, and that’s saying a lot from what I know about you.”

Starlight was silent for a moment, then ate some more while she continued to think. “I think… maybe, just maybe, you’re right.”

Comments

[Olden Bronie]

It’s nice to see Starlight connecting and making friends after so long. It’s understandable that she would blame herself for what happened. Even with the knowledge that ‘Friendship is Magic’, given how most humans and even most ponies have treated her, it would be easy to dismiss or forget its power.

Happy to see her coming out of that situation with the help of new friends. And even happier to see you updating this story. I’ve really been enjoying it.

[Mocha Star]

11732466
Thanks. I had a couple months of meh, but I have to admit this story is fun to write. I don't know where it's going, though, so I hope it all ends well.