Rosa

by awf

Chapter 64: Starla's Mystery

The facility's psychiatrist had finally finished asking Rosa silly and embarrassing questions, Some of them had been really bad, like if she'd ever been in love with a colt. She had almost refused to answer out of sheer embarrassment. Rosa had tried to contain both her impatience and annoyance, but some of it might have bled through by the end. Luckily the man hadn't seemed to pick up on it. Maybe he was just bad at reading pony expressions or their body language, but she was grateful for that bit of luck. It would be a disaster if Dr. Mason got a bad report of her behavior the first day Rosa was finally back with her friend Maribelle.

Anyway, she had made it through that and one of the scientists had taken Rosa back to the pony dorm. It reminded her so strongly of school life that she found herself subconsciously falling back into the old ways of thinking. She was starting to consider the days ahead not in terms of escaping from a government facility, but rather in terms of assignments, lessons, homework and chatting with her friends. It was really easy to see why Maribelle and the other two seemed quite happy there.

None of that for Rosa, though. She would stay determined and escape at the earliest opportunity. Maybe living on the streets with Sky Light and Terry and even Velvet's gang had made her more aware of being a prisoner. Whatever the reason, she knew she would have to broach the subject very carefully to Maribelle, or she would dig her heels in and refuse to believe any of it. Actually, that might happen anyway. The mare had everything she wanted there: a relatively large amount of freedom, engineering lessons in line with her special talent, friends, and a prospect of a useful future.

Rosa would have to handle her very carefully. She decided she would start with the good parts, namely her and Sky Light's adventures on the road to White Pigeon. Rosa could tell Maribelle about the time they had stopped to swim, or about the interesting foods they got to taste. Then there were Richie and Pavo and Mrs. Basilius, all good and interesting people who had taken Rosa in like she was part of the family. She could tell her roommate about Richie's collection of 'trucker pony' pictures and how happy most of them looked in the shots. Most importantly, she would have to tell Maribelle all about Sky Light and her happy-go-lucky, carefree spirit. The way she ambled around the city, knowing practically everyone and everything. Rosa would have to tell her friend about Taylor, or 'Mario' as Sky Light called him, and his story of how he met his girlfriend. That was almost like a romantic comedy, right?

All these positive thoughts were making Rosa grin widely and she kept humming her song as she walked around the ponies' living room and tidied up a little here and there. That was how Maribelle found her when one of the staff led her in. Rosa didn't see who it was, but she guessed it was Dr. Barton, her attending... something. It was weird how she'd heard the short title, "attending", but never heard the other part. It was probably something like "attending physician", Rosa figured.

The mare said goodbye to the man, then the door closed. There was no sign of Starla or Speedy, so Rosa focused her entire smile on Maribelle. "Hello!"

She was just finishing putting away the second-to-last cushion as her old friend approached Rosa and returned her grin. "Someone's in a good mood today. Had fun?"

"Mhm!" Rosa answered her happily.

There was no use telling Maribelle how annoyed she had been with the psych exam. It was in the past anyway. She walked to the pile of cushions Rosa had made and flopped right across them. Rosa didn't mind, even if she had spent nearly half an hour stacking them up that neatly. Instead, she moved the last pillow closer and sat on it.

"So, how was your class?"

Her friend smiled and her ears perked up. Her swishing tail nearly slapped Rosa in the muzzle and she moved the pillow closer to Maribelle's head. "Amazing!" she replied. "I mean, at first we just studied diagrams, but then Mr. Roberts showed me this simulator." Maribelle lifted a hoof as if trying to belay Rosa's questions while she explained. "I mean, this one was just on a computer, but he said they had a real, life-size simulator back at the company." The mare turned to her side and reached a hoof up into the air. Rosa understood the gesture and moved closer yet, so Maribelle could stroke her flank. "It's got hydraulics and everything, so you really feel like you're in an actual train. He said he'll ask Dr. Barton if I might be allowed to go see it. I need to train on that if I wanna pass my locomotive engineer exams..."

Rosa was really happy for the mare, but all this was making it harder to tell her about running away. If Rosa ruined this chance for her, Maribelle would be heartbroken. She might never forgive it. It'd be horrible if Rosa had to leave this facility without her friend. She had been the whole reason they'd come there. Well, knowing that Maribelle was happy and doing something she loved would be something, Rosa guessed.

"Rosa? You look preoccupied," Maribelle pointed out.

"Uh? Oh, no! No, I'm fine. Just- thinking."

"I know it's boring if you're not a gear head," the mare giggled.

"No, it's not that, it's-"

"So I'll shut up and you can tell me about what you've been up to, Rosa! You must have seen some interesting stuff out on the run. Was it scary?"

Rosa smiled at her friend and shrugged a little. "Uh, sometimes?" she offered.

Maribelle giggled at the answer and shifted over to make room for Rosa, then she patted the cushions with a hoof. Rosa lay down beside her and she put her foreleg around Rosa's barrel. It was surprisingly comfortable. "You gotta give me more than that, girl! Did you meet any nice colts?"

This time Rosa did blush, but she couldn't keep her treacherous muzzle shut. "Well, one back at school..."

She fell silent as Maribelle 'squeed' excitedly. "Yes! Let's start with that! Tell me everything"

That was the mare Rosa remembered and she started grinning widely as she thought back on her escapades in the colts' room. "Soon after, um, you left, the colts across the hall got their hooves on an iPad..."

---

Rosa had volunteered to do the dishes again after dinner, which had been quite well received. Even Starla had smiled a little at not having to do it, since it would normally have been her turn. The colt retired to the cushion-bed to read a little and Maribelle went to get a shower, so Rosa was alone with the strange, color-clashing mare. She had decided to tell her about the dream after Maribelle had said Rosa could trust her completely. The only problem now was how to start that particular conversation.

Rosa scrubbed in silence for a while, then stopped to look back at the pony. "So, Starla? I know this is going to sound weird..." she began.

"Hmm? Oh, I've heard weird, believe me. I'm no stranger to weird," she said absent-mindedly.

It boded well for what Rosa was about to tell her, but she still gave it some more thought. "Well, I've been having these dreams lately..."

The other mare perked up a little and Rosa got the feeling she was paying very close attention to whatever she was hearing. It was a little bit encouraging. Maybe she wouldn't dismiss it out of hand - hoof - immediately.

"One of them told me to come to White Pigeon, even before I'd ever heard the name. Well, maybe I've read it somewhere at the School or overheard someone talking, but I didn't know it."

It had sounded strange even in her own head and Rosa waited for the mare to start laughing. Instead, she just kept looking at Rosa with her eyebrows raised. "Okay?"

"I sometimes think it's just my subconscious trying to tell me about clues or something, but so far it's been pretty accurate. I dunno what it's really about. It could be ghosts or something."

Surely now Starla would chuckle and tell Rosa that she was imagining things? To Rosa's surprise, she didn't do any of that. All the other mare did was smile faintly with that expectant expression on her muzzle.

"So, the night before last... or was it three nights ago? Anyway, it told me to give you a message. Specifically. By name."

"You're right, that does sound weird," Starla replied, but there was still no derision or disbelief on her face.

Rosa decided to just get it over with. "It said to tell you the year Civil War started and that's how you can find the moon."

The change was surprising and Rosa stopped washing the dishes just so she could watch the mare. Starla had frozen and her ears had folded down as if she was afraid of something, and her eyes had gone nearly as wide as the saucer in Rosa's hooves. "Find the moon? Are those the exact words?"

"Yes!" Rosa confirmed, relieved that she was at least willing to listen.

"Okay, so what was the message?"

"Just a number - year when the US Civil War started."

The other pony rolled her eyes a little and Rosa blushed in shame at having even brought it up. She was about to dismiss it as nothing more than a fancy, but Starla held up a hoof. "Remind me, what was the year?"

That made sense, Maribelle had said Starla was having trouble in History and Literature classes. "Eighteen sixty-one."

"Eighteen sixty-one," the mare repeated, then a few more times under her breath. She was committing the number to memory, it looked like.

"So you believe me?"

Starla caught Rosa's worried look and slipped from her chair to come give her a brief hug. "Oh, of course I believe you. That message sounds very specific, I don't think you would have made it up. You didn't know my name until today, right?"

Rosa nodded and relief flooded through her insides. "Yeah! I thought m-maybe I'd heard it somewhere in the School or something, but I don't think you were at the Pony School."

This time Starla shook her head, smiling gently. "No, I wasn't. I came here from- elsewhere."

Rosa caught the tiny pause, but she didn't push it with more questions. Everyone was entitled to their secrets and she was not about to judge Starla if she didn't want to talk about where she had came from just yet.

"And you're sure about the message? 'Find the moon', that's exactly what it said?" she asked again, as if making absolutely sure. "Wait, how did your dream say it? Was there like writing, or a voice, or someone talking to you? Some mysterious pony?"

Rosa shook her head. "No pony. Just a voice - it c-came from everywhere at once. It was really dark and there were stars."

"Stars?"

"Yeah, stars and sometimes a full moon. Is that important?"

The mare gave her another hug, but now she was smiling widely. "It's more important than you think! Thank you so much for telling me this!"

Rosa could immediately see that the message meant something to Starla and now she was insatiably curious. "What does it mean? Why the US Civil war year? Does that have some significance?"

Starla murmured: "More than you could know," but then realized she had said it out loud and blushed. "Sorry. Yes, it's very significant."

"Will you tell me why?"

Now the mare was thoughtful. She seemed pained, but determined. "Not... yet. Please, can you trust me for a couple of days? I'll think about it and if this is what I think it is, I'll tell you then, okay?" She leaned her head to the side and gave Rosa a long, piercing look. "You said you had another friend in one of the cells here? A pegasus?"

"Yeah, Sky Light. We- um, we were caught trying to break into this place."

"Why were you trying to break into this place?"

"I was- um, h-hoping I could get M-Maribelle out..." Rosa admitted.

Instead of outrage Rosa had been expecting, Starla just smiled. "Noble, if a little... unwise. Okay, please don't tell anything about your dreams to any human, okay? Wait, did you ever tell anyone?"

Rosa quickly thought back through her adventures. "I guess Terry knows - he probably heard me and Sky Light talking about it-"

"Who's Terry?" Starla demanded. Apparently she hadn't been listening to Rosa's story that morning very closely.

"Just this homeless man we used to live with. Well, Sky Light and him lived in this broken down van and I, uh, kinda joined them. He's okay. I trust him. He wouldn't come near here anyway."

This relaxed the mare somewhat, but she still seemed faintly uneasy. "Okay, promise me you won't tell anyone else here. Did you tell Maribelle?"

Rosa gave a slight nod and Starla sighed a tiny bit. "Okay, fine. I think we can trust her. Speedy?"

This time Rosa shook her head.

"Good. Let's keep it this way. Make sure Maribelle doesn't tell him, okay? If this all pans out, I'll tell you all the truth, otherwise it'd just worry you."

The way Starla talked made Rosa very suspicious and she swallowed a nervous lump. "It sounds kinda shady and dangerous," she pointed out.

The other mare lowered her ears and gave Rosa another quick hug. "It is. I'm sorry, Rosa, please just trust me for a little while? It's very important!"

She thought it over, but there was nothing really to decide. Rosa had already chosen to trust her dream-voice when she hadn't mentioned it to Dr. Mason. She gave the mare a slow nod. "I promise."

"Great! Now I have to go and think some stuff over. I'll be in my room if you remember anything else you have to tell me."

"Deal!"

As the mare left, Rosa turned back to the remaining dishes and got to work. Tomorrow sounded like it would be busy, especially after Dr. Mason had told her to skip breakfast because she'd be taking Rosa's blood for some more tests. She had also said Rosa would need to have the 'sex and foals' talk, which was making her a bit nervous.

They wouldn't outright forbid her to have them, right? Well, she didn't want foals [r]right at the moment, not when there was so much happening and Rosa wasn't sure where she would end up, but she wanted the option, someday. She was scared Dr. Mason would have her spayed or something. If became any kind of a serious possibility, Rosa would be bucking her in her face and jumping out the window. She would rather take her chances with gravity than lose that part of herself. One scare like that had been enough!

Hopefully whatever Dr. Mason had to tell her was just because Rosa would no longer have that chip to regulate her hormones. A slight gasp escaped her. Did that mean she would be going into heat soon? Was that what the doctor wanted to warn her about? So Rosa would watch out for symptoms and tell her when they started? That would be a reasonable talk, and Rosa really didn't want to make any indecent proposals to Speedy, nor get herself- well, 'in that way', not here and not now.

Hopefully that was all Dr. Mason wanted. The woman was looking out for Rosa's best interests and for her comfort. Yeah, Eliza had been nice, if a little odd. At the very least Rosa thought she could trust her to tell the truth about what was going to happen. She hadn't answered all Rosa's questions, but so far she had told her about important stuff like the implant and her operation.

After that blood test, Dr. Mason had promised to give Rosa a replacement breakfast. She hoped it would be more pudding. For some reason Rosa really, really craved pudding that day. Black, chocolate, slightly warm, gooey. Just thinking about it sent a shiver down her spine and Rosa shuddered. "Mmmm!"

She wiped down the last plate and left it to dry the rest of the way on the counter, then Rosa went looking for Maribelle. She'd made Rosa promise to tell her more anecdotes from her time with the Boones and Rosa was looking forward to that. She was certain Maribelle would love Lillian just as much as Rosa did.

That reminded her. Rosa had to ask Dr. Mason if there was news about the little girl. Maybe they have found her by now. That would make tomorrow a very good day indeed! Rosa forced her mind to be optimistic. Of course they had found her! She was probably hiding out with some elderly couple who didn't watch the news somewhere beyond the suburbs. The little girl had watched Rosa leave and went in the same direction when she ran away. Someone was bound to see her wandering the woods and then they just kept her safe. The daydream was very far fetched, but there it was. Rosa needed to believe it, or she would break down crying again. If there was any justice in the world, Dr. Mason would confirm it the next day and then Rosa would really be happy!

She started humming as she made her way to the room and Speedy looked up from his book to give Rosa a faint little smile. "I like that song," he said.

Rosa gave him a nod, as she kept humming on her way to look for her friend.

Comments

[BleuBlooms]

Starla is Celestia. Probably. Though, I am curious...you didn't note their pony tribe so...I can assume there all earth ponies?

[Mocha Star]

I wonder what will happen next. Wait, I think I figured out a few things, but I'll have to keep them to myself until later.