Shooting star looked down at the cold hard rock in front of her. She had never been underground and now her first time would be an full unpleasant one. As the pegasus closed her tired eyes, she thought back to how she had come to be in this place.
"Rise an’ shine sunshine!" A cheery voice rang in a young unicorns ears. Shoot star watched as the unicorn tugged at her quilt and rolled to face away from Star. “Five more minutes…." The young unicorn mumbled. Star shook her head as she grab a corner of the quilt and whipped it off the unicorn who responded by rolling over again and looking at the pegasus beside her bed. “Can’t you let me sleep in at least once?" She said as she sat up and shook her head. “Maybe some day." Star replied as she turned to trot out of the room. Trotted down the hall into the kitchen, Star went over the days agenda. It was the same as always. Work, work, work. As Star checked on the sliced apples frying on the stove, the young unicorn walked into the kitchen and sat at one of the two seats of a small table. As Star set a plate with fried apples in front of the unicorn, she looked out the window. “Better back an umbrella today Maple. Looks like rain…." Star said as she looked at the unicorn. Maple focused on one of the fried apple slices and her horn started to sparkle white as well as the apple slice. The apple slice slowly lifted off the plate and levitated before Stars voice broke Maples thoughts. “Don’t play with your food." Star said as she bent her head down and silently ate her breakfast. Maple swooped her head down to eat the apple slice. “Sorry," she mumbled as she finished and got off her chair. Leaving her plate on the table, Maple shuffled her saddlebag on and trotted to the door. “Bye, I’ll be home right after school." The young unicorn softly called out as she left. Star sighed as she finished her own breakfast and cleaned up both the plates. Glancing at the clock, Star quickly dropped the plates from her mouth into the sink. Just as Star was opening the door, a gray unicorn wearing a black neck tie held a hoof up, ready to knock. “Oh, ummm.. Can I help you?" Star asked as she moved back fro the door and shifted around as she watched the unicorn collect from his surprise. “Are you a miss Shooting Star, a pegasus?" The official looking unicorn in front of her asked. Looking around him, Star could see two other unicorns dressed almost the same as the one who had just asked her a question and had now started to tap his hoof, still waiting for an answer. “Yes.. Yes I am Shooting Star." Star said looking back at the unicorn directly in front of her. “Would you mind coming with us?" Shooting Star have the unicorn a questioning look, but before she could say anything, the unicorns horn began to glow black and she was being sucked into some sort of void. Than everything went black.
When Shooting star awoke, she was laying on a cool hard rock surface. Blinking away the haze from her eyes, she looked around. She was in a small room. The floors had been smoothed, but the walls were bumpy and jagged in places. A single wooden door stood on the wall in front of her and too the left. Slowly standing up, Shooting Star kept her eyes on the door. Than it started to open.
"I’m home-!" Maple called while shrugging her saddle bag off, letting the ‘e’ in the word carry long out. The door had been wide open when Maple had arrived home, but than maybe Star had been in a rush this morning and forgot to shut it. “Typical sis…." Maple thought as she kicked it shut with one if her back legs. A small pile of books in her saddle bag started to sparkle white and levitate just a little bit over the ground. Trotting off, Maple went to her room and closed the door. Surly Star would call her down for dinner when se came home. She always did.
A unicorn entered the small room Star was occupying. She had a light pink coat and a rosy redmane. Her lab jacet covered her flank. A unicorn that Star couldn't see closed the door behind her. "Hello, I am Miss Rose Petal ." The unicorn, Rose Petal said. Just as Star opened her mouth, Rose spoke again. "You will only call to me Miss. Now lets get down to an understanding. You are here at what i like to call 'the magic factory'. Judging from your wings and reather touchy, touchy past, you know about the rainbow factory." The last two words seemed to hit Shooting Star in the face. "H-how did you know that i used to work there?" Star said, almost in a whisper. "I worked so hard.. to hide that up...." Stars words seemed to go unheard to Rose. "Here at the magic factory, we produce magic that we supply everywher with. Dont get me wrong, us unicorns and alicorns can create our own magic even with out this factory, but sometimes we might need a little 'boost' of magic. Heres where you come in." Rose smiled as she said this and Star took a few steps back. "Oh dont worry, were not like you monsters at the rainbow factory, murdering other ponys or unicorns to make something like a pretty rainbow. No, we use you for labor." Rose looked at a still-tense Star. "Heres the deal," Rose began, taking a step closer to Star. "You work your way up in the ranks, and you'll be able to visit your 'sister'. Disapoint us and you'll be punished." Rose turned around and tapped the door twice with her hoof. "Its really quite simple. You'll get used to it all in time my dear. All in time." And with that, Shooting Star was alone again. 'I wonder how Maple is....' Star wondered as she looked around her cell one more time before laying down for a rest.
Maple looked up from her book to her bedroom door. 'Why hasn't Star called me down for dinner yet?!' she thought as she marked her page and stood up. Looking out her bedroom door, Maple only saw a dark hallway. "Shooting Star.. Are you home?" Maple called out, but only silance answered her. Making her way down the hall, Maple entered the empty kitchen. Using her still-develiping magic, Maple lifted an apple off the counter and took a biteout of it. 'She must be working late tonight, yeah, thats it!' But Maple still couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad might have happened. Star always made sure to tell her if she would be late or would have left a note. Returning to her room, Maple locked her door and closed the curtain. Climbing under her messy quilt that still hadn't been fixed since her awakening early that day. Tossing the apple core in her paper-filled trash can, Maple tried to snuggle under her quilt. 'Star would never do this! Ever!' And with that thought, Maple fell into a troubled sleep.
Shooting Star was awoken by some pony gently nudging her shoulder with their hoof. "Psst! Wake up... Come on." A voice whispered into Star's ear as she blinked away the grogginess of her short rest. Looking up, Star saw a light purple pony looking at her. "Come on, if you don't get up and moving soon, the guards might punish both of us!" The pony said hastily than looked at the guards with a fake smile and waves them back saying "She's getting up, it's fine!" Star stood up and stretched a leg. Before she could ask the other pony what he was doing, he ushered her out of the room and down a hall dimly lit hall. After looking back at the unicorn guards that were standing watch on the three doors, the other pony sighed than smiled at Star. "Sorry about that. I was assigned to show you around. Oh yeah, I'm Blue Jay, but everyone just calls me Jay." Star studied the stallion as he spoke to her. His coat was a fair blue and he had a main of black, white, and small light blue streaks here and there. His wings had white on the tips of the feathers. "And your name is..?" Jays questioning voice interrupted Stars silent inspection of Jay who had stopped and was looking at her. "Sorry, I'm Star. Shooting Star." Jay gave Her a quick overlook before resting his eyes on her flank. "I hope you don't like have any personal attachments to that cutie mark of yours..." Jay said as he looked her in the eye. Jays face took on a shadow when he spoke next. "One of the first things they do here is take away your cutie mark. I don't know how they do it, all I know Is I don't want to know." Shooting star cast a quick glance at her own cutie mark. It was a rainbow following a shooting star. Nothin special. It didn't stand out among her white coat or light orange mane. Shooting Star than noticed that Jay didn't have a cutie mark, in fact, that area of his coat on his flank was lighter than the rest. It looked like that area had just faded away. Looking back at Jay, Star just shook her head. "Well than, welcome to the magic factory." Jay said, sadness hinted in his voice, as he pushed open one of the larger wooden doors that Star hasn't noticed in front of them before. As the two pegasus walked through the open door, they were hit with a slight cool gust of air. Star looked around. They were standing on a large metal balcony that went all around the top and middle part of the open and large room. Down the center of the room a large rock seemed to flow with my colours, more than the ones i the rainbow. Below Star could see many other ponies, mostly pegasus'. A few earth ponies walked and worked among the pegasus, but only unicorns in white lab coats walked around with authority. As Jay guided her to the left and into the first of many doors, Star cast a quick glance to the right and saw a metal staircase leading down to a lower metal balcony and than the main floor of the large room that Star had now realized was a large cave. Entering the room, Star saw it was a large medical office. Unlike the hallway, this room was more brightly lit. The walls looked like they had been smoothed down quickly. A desk with papers as books scattered on it sat in one corner with an examining next to it. In the corner opposite the desk sat an odd looking machine. It had a platform and two things opposite each other that looked like suction cups. "Hello, I presume you are a Shooting Star?" A voice once again cut into Stars inspection of the room. Turing around, Star faced a musters yellow unicorn in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. Glasses sat perched on his nose as he went and sat at the desk. Using one of his hoofs to push back some of his brown mane, he looked at Star. "Lets get this medical examination underway now, shall we?" His voice sent a chill through Star who took a step back. Casting another quick glance around, she saw that Jay was no longer in the room. 'Please let Maple be ok!' Star thought as the doctor pulled out a needle.
Maple turned around in her bed, trying to ignore the telephone ringing in the background. 'Why hasn't Star gotten it yet?!' She thought as she cast a quick glance at the clock on her wall. 'Why hadn't she woken me up yet?!' Maple thought as she quickly shot out of bed. Running into the kitchen with a brush in her mouth, Maple cast a a quick glance around in hopes of a ready breakfast. Seeing nothing, she quick grabbed an apple and set it on the tableland sit down. Leaning down to take a bite while she quickly brushed her hair, Maple considered all the things that could have happened that could have kept her sister from coming home last night. When nothing came to mind, Maple took a frustrating bite out of her apple just as the phone started to ring again. Sighing, Maple jumped down from her seat and set the brush on the table as she trotted over to the phone. Picking up the receiver with her magic, Maple answered. "Hello, is this Miss Shooting Star I'm speaking to?" A squeaky voice asked. Swallowing hard, Maple responded. "No, this is Maple. Who is this?" Maple heard the flipping of a few papers on the other side of the line before the squeaky voice spook again. "I'm your sisters boss. She didn't report in for work yesterday and didn't give us a notice beforehand. I'm just calling to inform her of some news I have for her. Can you tell her to call me when she can? Thanks, good day." And with that the pony on the other end hung up. Maple hadn't noticed the beeping in her ear telling her the pony had hung up on her. 'Not going to work? But she stayed late last night at work!' Maple had a thousand thoughts running through her head. The one thought that Maple knew was true was that something had happened to her adoptive sister.
