The next morning, Starlight Glimmer was awoken by Sunburst. He smack her nose firmly with a stack of rolled papers.

She knocked him off and yelled, "What are you doing?"

He laughed and jumped away from her.

"Do you have any idea how much that hurts?" she whined.

"Uh-huh, and do you have any idea how unprofessional it is of an Anemone to accuse her buyer of being a killer?"

Starlight lowered her head. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Apology…somewhat accepted. You know, when you were dropped off yesterday, I found myself inexplicably nervous. How was I going to treat you right? How was I going to make you happy? But ever since I found you rooting around in my trash, I'm not particularly worried about those things anymore."

Starlight felt a shiver break out into goose bumps. Sunburst wasn't filthy this morning. He'd had a shower and smelled like spice and prairie breezes, but that still didn't exactly remove the somewhat sketchiness of his general appearance. His chin sported a goatee and his glasses had a little crack on the left lens.

"As I thought about it, I realized that what we need to do now is establish trust between us. That way I'll have a happy slave and I'll be less bored."

"Uh-huh," Starlight said slowly. "And how are we going to do that?"

"Like this," Sunburst said, pulling a black handkerchief from a nearby drawer.

Starlight stared at him, one hundred percent puzzled. "Are you going to do a magic trick?"

Sunburst gawked. "No."

"Then what's that for?"

"To blindfold you with, my dear."

"What?" she squeaked.

He got up and held it out to her. "We need to establish trust. Now, will you trust me enough to put on this blindfold and come on a little trip with me?"

There wasn't a bone in Starlight Glimmer's body that wanted to do this, but she really didn't have much choice. She reached out to take the handkerchief from him when he snapped it out of her grasp.

"I'll do it," he volunteered playfully.

Starlight felt like she was going to die as the black material came over her eyes. "If we're going somewhere, shouldn't I change first?"

"Nope. Nothing to worry about. Probably no one will notice that you're wearing one of my old shirts. I'll help you get your scarf on when we get downstairs." With that, he took her hoof in his and helped her to her feet.

Since Starlight couldn't see a thing, she was forced to use her other senses. Sunburst's hoof was smoother than she thought it would be, and the fragrance of his cologne or deodorant was more pointed. Then she heard the sound of his voice as he counted the steps down to the main level for her so she wouldn't trip. After he wrapped her scarf around her neck he put a coat over her shoulders.

"Are we going outside?"

"Yup. I keep my secrets outside my house. Now to evade further suspicion that I'm a freelance hit-pony, I'm going to show you what I do for a living. You're not afraid of wide open spaces are you?"

"No," she replied, grasping his hoof as he hauled her over the frost covered grass.

"Are you afraid of loud noises? Do you have sensitive ears?"

"No. I used to dance right next to the speakers."

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"No." She had to fight herself from asking snottily, 'Why? Are you taking a survey?' but she managed it.

"Well, I guess nothing I'll do to you will scare you too much."

The chilly air hit her as he brought her out of the house and onto the porch. Then she felt the crunchy frost-covered grass under her hooves as he led her around the house. Then he suddenly let go of her hoof.

"Hey!" she bellowed as he suddenly picked her up and set her down in a seat.

"Calm down. I'm just going to put your seat belt on. Please don't be alarmed, but this is a four point harness, so I'm not feeling around you to get my jollies, okay?"

"Okay," Starlight agreed breathlessly as he secured her. She was totally confused. What car had a four point harness?

Then she felt the door close and within a minute Sunburst got into the seat next to her and with him came a collection of weird clicking noises. "Now," he said once he was in the seat, "Try not to scream too much. It'll spoil my concentration and may make for a bumpy ride."

"What's going on?"

A deep hum started and then a loud chopping noise began. Starlight was okay until she felt them lift off the ground. She bit down on her lip and put her hooves between her knees. She wasn't going to act scared, but even if she said that, there was still hot sweat collecting in her blind fold.

After a couple minutes of waiting, Sunburst said, "You can take your blindfold off."

Cautiously, Starlight reached up and pulled it down. What she saw was simply blue sky and then as she looked down, she saw that she was sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter. The floor in front of her feet was clear and she could see the farm land shooting under them in yellow streaks.

Sunburst was smiling under his Top Gun shades. "Just to get rid of your weird ideas about me, I want to be clear. I'm a charter helicopter pilot and I need an assistant. I've tried to hire girls before, but my hanger is too far away from the town for anyone to commute. I've tried to hire girlfriends for the job and attempted to convince them to move in with me."

Starlight swallowed the knot in her throat, but it just wouldn't go down. She was so relieved and yet terribly cross. Was everything a joke to this guy? Why couldn't he have just told her what he did and what he wanted her for last night before she jumped to any wild conclusions?

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" Starlight asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "We're on a break. I told her I was going to go get some help if she didn't volunteer. She said that I should give up the business and move into town for her."

"Why didn't you?"

"Town? Let me tell you how it works here. Town is tiny. I have no way of making money there. She's being unreasonable and when we get to town you'll see how impossible it really is. So, short answer – no girlfriend."

Starlight Glimmer should have known she wasn't going to end up being a pampered palace brat like some of the other girls who signed up with Sable’s Garden Inc. It wasn't like she was a runway model – and she meant that literally. Once a year they woke up the best models they had in stock for a show and in the three years Starlight had been there, she'd never been chosen. How was she going to catch some rich pony's eye when she was probably the lowest price model they had?

"Are you upset?" Sunburst suddenly asked her. Actually, he kind of screamed it at her over the chopping sound of the rotors.

Starlight didn't know what to say. Her brain was a jumble. Usually a model should be happy that her purchaser didn't want her for a love interest. Unless she was sadly mistaken, he probably just wanted her to sit on the other end of the transmitter as a safety precaution. Well, she guessed she was happy. It could have been worse.

Then her brain started humming, 'how could it be worse?'

He had no money.

He had a bad sense of humor.

He was making her live in the middle of nowhere.

He was going to make her work.

She couldn't figure out what that guard at Sable’s Garden Inc. had been talking about. He wasn't hot. He was sketchy and shady and his snout had a weird white spot in the middle. She looked at him again to make sure she wasn't jumping to conclusions. But looking at him was a slap in the face to her ego. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him. She bet he made most mares hyperventilate. The problem was that he wasn't the stallion she loved.

"Are you all right?" Sunburst said. "You look sick. You're not going to throw up, are you?"

"No," Starlight said quickly. "I'm fine."

"Good. We'll be touching down soon. See that puny cluster of buildings over there? That's where we're going."

Starlight nodded.

Even though Starlight had been fine during lift-off and flight, her stomach took a turn for the worst when the helicopter touched down. It felt like a fast moving elevator going down and she thought her stomach had somehow ended up in her knees.

She stuck out her tongue and unbuckled her harness. "What are we doing here?" Starlight asked. There was nothing around but old grain elevators and empty-looking warehouses.

"I brought you here to go clothes shopping," he said. "But we'll have to walk a bit. This is the only place I can set down within the town boundaries."

Starlight waited for him to come around to her side of the helicopter and open the door for her. She felt rather touched. This was nice. He brought her out to buy clothes. Now that sounded like the sort of thing a purchaser should do. Day one: shopping spree! She smiled and hopped down.

But he wasn't kidding when he said they'd have to walk a bit. They walked past old green houses and oddly old looking mansions.

"They used to be farms," Sunburst explained. "Before it became illegal to eat cabbages."

"They look nice."

"They were. They're like my house – old tech – except they're newer. Some of them have intercom systems installed. The best I've got is a door bell."

Starlight didn't know what to say to him. He sounded positively archaic. Well, when she got her run of his house, they'd get an intercom system … but not before they got a garbage disposer.

Once in town, Sunburst took her down the main street to a tiny café.

"Is this where your girlfriend works?"

He rolled his eyes. "I said she's not my girlfriend, but there's nowhere else to eat, so get in and don't say anything that might embarrass me."

"Like what?"

"Like, don't say I bought you."

Starlight gawked and clattered her bracelet at him. "They're gonna find out."

Sunburst untied the blindfold from around Starlight’s neck and tied it around her wrist. "There. Satisfied? We're not going to spend that much time in town anyway. There'd be no end of the harassment from the locals if they knew I bought you. Come on," he said, grabbing her hoof. "Let's go in."

Inside the café was a lot like the inside of a waiting room of a mechanics garage, except you couldn't pour your own coffee. At least that was what Starlight thought as she scooted her butt onto a bar stool. The floor needed to be re-tiled, the wall needed to be re-papered, and the unicorn working behind the counter needed to be made-over…badly.

"Hi Moon Dancer," Sunburst said, talking to the mare.

"Hi," she said, pouring him a cup of coffee and staring at him and Starlight by turns.

She set out a coffee cup for Starlight as well, but Starlight refused. "No. I'd like unsweetened apple juice. No coffee."

"I don't have unsweetened apple juice," Moon Dancer responded, flicking her dyed-too-many-times ponytail. "Do you see unsweetened apple juice on the menu?"

Starlight glanced at the wall behind the mare's head. "Well, do you have some apples? I'm sure it wouldn't be that much trouble to squeeze them."

"No. I don't have fresh squeezed apple juice on the menu either," Moon Dancer snapped.

Sunburst was snickering behind his hoof. "Just bring her the closest thing."

In a second, a short glass of brown colored something was placed in front of Starlight. She took a sip and gasped. "Are you trying to poison me?"

"What?" Moon Dancer burst – totally outraged.

"What's wrong with it?" Sunburst asked levelly.

"I don't know. It tastes like she put something in it. Something toxic."

"Did you spit in it?" Sunburst asked Moon Dancer.

"No!" the girl shouted.

"Okay." Sunburst took the glass from in front of Starlight and took a swig of it. "That's how it normally tastes."

Starlight Glimmer frowned in dismay. "Yuck," she said sadly.

"Moon Dancer, just bring her a glass of water," Sunburst said reasonably.

"Like Hell I will!" Moon Dancer said as she stormed into the kitchen.

Sunburst hopped off his stool and chased after her. "Don't be like that, Honey," he said as he ducked under the counter and followed her in.

If Starlight Glimmer had any hopes that their conversation wouldn't reach her ears, she was on the losing side. She could hear everything and so could the two baseball capped farmers who sat at the other end of the bar.

"Who is she?" they heard Moon Dancer shriek.

"What do you mean, 'who is she?'" Sunburst's voice tumbled after hers. "We already talked about this. We've been talking about for the last four months. I asked you to move out with me and you always said no. Then you broke up with me. I already warned you — repeatedly — that if you didn't do what I needed, I would find someone who would."

"That brat?"

"That brat," Sunburst said evenly.

"She's wearing your shirt!" Moon Dancer wailed.

"So? You've worn my shirts dozens of times and what has that meant? Nothing."

"Well …" Moon Dancer stuttered.

"Well, nothing. I'd go to a different café if there was one. Now, I know you need the business, so just be a good girl and bring us both a couple pancakes. Can you do that, Honey?"

"Stop calling me Honey!"

"Get over yourself. I call everyone Honey."

"Even her?"

Sunburst came out of the kitchen and holding the door open answered Moon Dancer. "No. I call her Anemone."

Author's Note

It feels weird to add technology to MLP, even if a helicopter does feature in an episode (heck, there's even a toy of it!) still, writing sci-fi with ponies is a little odd, just bear with me a little longer guys. As always thanks for the lovely comments!