"FLY"

Shining Star found the place. It was equipped with a perfectly functional living space. It was a bit old fashioned. It was like a real house, but the printing press area was just a door away. That was when they still built factories to accommodate their owners. It was perfect for us to raise a family and for him to continue his research. He set up his work in the main work floor. It provided an adequate space for his ample machines. It was actually a business pony who funded his research. I never met him personally, but I knew that Star’s display had caught his attention. Star was thrilled to have his research fully funded without restrictions. He was even more thrilled after you were born.

Shining Star’s eyes were full of awe as he gazed down at the white foal that the nurse had given him. “It’s a boy.”

Velvet smiled at her husband as he returned to her side. “He has your eyes.”

“He has your horn. Our boy is a unicorn, just like his mother.” Shining Star handed the foal back to its mother. “What should we call him.”

Velvet hummed in thought as she nuzzled the nose of her child. “I thought we could name him after you.”

“Really?” Shining Star asked with a bashful smile. “I thought you wanted to name our foal after you grandfather if it was a boy.”

“I know, but Rusty Armor doesn’t seem to suit him.” Velvet pulled the blanket back a little to see her son’s face. “His coat is more like yours.”

Shining Star tapped his hoof against his chin as an idea came to him. “Why not combine his name and mine?”

“Rusty Star?” Velvet furrowed her brow at the that idea.

Shining Star quickly shook his head. “What? No. I mean Shining Armor. How about that?”

A gentle smile grew on Velvet’s face. “That sounds wonderful.”

After staying by Velvet’s side for so long, Shining Star was eventually pulled away by the hospital nurses. He was joined by Night Light who had been waiting in the hospital wing. Since Night Light had been curious about the married couple’s home, Shining Star felt obligated to take him there. The two caught a taxi to the place which was about four or five blocks from the hospital. When they arrived, Night Light looked in amazement.

“Wow. I know you said it was big, but this place is like a mansion.” Night Light followed Shining star through the front door.

“Yeah,” Shining Star agreed, “but the old printing press next door is kind of an eye sore.”

Night Light nodded in agreement as the visual was quite odd. The house was rather attractive with a somewhat antique style about it. Its brick walls which had been painted white were a striking contrast to the red brick building whose walls had been blackened by time and the accumulation of dust and the effects of acidic rain. The inside was a different story. Night Light found the inside to be somewhat darker. Though there was some eye candy to be found in the wedding portraits of Shining Star and Twilight Velvet, the over excessive amount of stained wood that framed the entrance had a dampening effect on the spirits. The light was also strange.

“That light’s a little dim, don’t you think?” Night Light pointed out the low yellow glow of the chandelier hanging above them.

Shining Star sighed as he looked up. “Yeah, I know. I’ve been meaning to fix that. It’s just that the wiring is so old that I’d have to replace it all if I wanted it to be brighter. I already had a run in with this problem when we were fixing up the baby room. The house is hooked up to the city’s new power grid, but it has a few installments that prevent the voltage from being to high. Velvet wanted the light in the baby room to be brighter. And when I tried disabling the installments, the wires just melted when I flipped on the switch.”

“Gosh, sounds like a killer current.” Night Light looked anxiously at the lights.

Shining Star shook his head. “I’m glad the wire was exposed so I could see it smoking. If I hadn’t seen the smoke, I would have burned the house down. I’ve hired a guy to redo the wiring, but it’s gonna take a long while. I didn’t want him destroying the walls, so it’s a delicate process. But, it’s worth it. You don’t find houses like this anymore.”

Night Light gave a rather sarcastic hum at the idea of his friend’s taste in housing. “Where’s the lab at?”

“Oh, follow me.”

Shining Star led Night Light through a narrow hallway that ended with a heavy steel door. Night Light watched as his friend effortlessly opened the door. What Night Light saw on the other side was not what he had been expecting. The walls were mostly if not all white. Countertops were littered with bits of machinery and wires. The white and grey checkered linoleum floor was marred only by a few skid marks. Though the space had mostly been cleaned up, there were still remnants of the old printing press.

“Those things still work?” Night Light asked.

Shining Star laughed a little. “Sort of. They have some funky hydraulics. I was puttering around with them while I was waiting for some parts to arrive, but I couldn’t fix the limiter. It’s basically just a giant hydraulic press now.”

Night Light turned his attention to the two pony sized pods in the center of Shining Star’s makeshift lab. Both had moderately large glass view ports. A purplish pink light glowed from the inside of each pod. “So there it is. The future!”

Shining Star’s smile faded. “Yeah. The future.”

“What’s eating you?” Night Light was a bit confused by the tone in his friend’s voice. “You’re married. You got a beautiful son, from what I hear. And to top it all off, you’re going to revolutionize the world with the technology you’ve created! You should feel proud of yourself.”

Shining Star shifted towards one of the drawers under a counter with various cages that held lab rats. “I’ve actually hit a snag.” Pulling open the drawer, he pulled out a jar. “Something isn’t going right.”

Night Light’s eyes grew in amazement. “Woah! Where’d you get one of those.” He took a closer look at the two headed rat that was floating in a mixture of formaldehyde and water. “These are rare!”

Shining Star looked nervously at the pods. “I made it.”

Night Light gave a weak half hearted laugh. “What?”

“It’s the problem with the machine. It has trouble differentiating two distinct life forms. It’s not a rat with two heads. It’s two rats with one body. At first they were fine. They were still alive, I mean. But, they gradually lost their hair. Their genes almost seemed to infect each other like a cancer. Then, they just died.” Shining Star returned the jar to the drawer and pulled out a different jar. “I tried fixing this problem. But, the results were even more discouraging.”

Night Light forced himself to look away and cover his mouth before he gagged. “What in the name of Celestia?” He gradually gained the courage to look at it again. “Is that?”

“Yeah,” Shining Star let out a depressed sigh, “it’s a snake and a rat.”

The creature in the jar was horrible. The body of the rat was distinguished, but the snake’s tail replaced the rat’s. The rat had the snake’s slitted eyes. Part of the snake’s head and neck protruded from where the rat’s left foreleg should have been. The red bulbous eyed snake head was still clasped onto the neck of the rat. The rat’s mouth was still open from the pain. Night Light could make out a distinguished fang piercing the lower lip of the rat’s lower lip where his other front tooth should have been.

“Star,” Night Light stared in horror at the jar, “what have you done?”

“I don’t know!” Shining Star slid the jar back into the drawer and slammed it shut. “I can’t figure out what’s gone wrong.”

“What about single transportation? Does that work okay?” Night Light sat down on his haunches to take in a few stabilizing breaths.

“Of course. Any singular teleportation works just fine.” Shining Star looked at the rats that had been separated into two cages. The control group was in one cage while the successfully teleported group was in another. “Flawlessly.”

“Then that’s enough. Just slap a regulation sticker on the side saying one pony at a time.” Night Light could see the growing pain on his friend’s face. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re not serious.”

“Why wouldn’t I be.”

Night Light shook his head at his friend. “What happened to your foster parents wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have saved them from that fire.”

“I could have! If I was a unicorn I could have!” Shining Star stormed off over to the pods. Brushing a hoof against one he clenched his eyes shut. “I couldn’t. And, I’ve had to live with that.” He shook his head. “One at a time, the firefighter said. They had me go first. The moment I got out, backdraft. They never found them.”

NIght Light gave his friend a comforting hoof on the back. “Hey. It’s all in the past. Even if you were born a unicorn and you saved them by teleporting them out of that fire, what about Velvet? If you hadn’t lost your parents, you would never have been inspired to build all this. You would never have met Twilight Velvet, and you would never have had a son with her. Would you give up the family you’ve made by changing the past?”

“No. I wouldn’t give Velvet or Shining up for anything in the world.”

Night Light pat his friend on the back. “The past is already written. But, your future is yours to write.”

Shining Star smiled. “Then I’ll have to work hard to get it right.”