Trying to sleep while Flaming Star was snoring was a challenge; I failed. So, for an alternative way to spend the travel time I tried to figure this out for myself.

It’s been quite some time since I got my ability, along with the others, of course. We’ve seen other people, artefacts and such that were all imbued with Equestrian magic. We even saw some sort of magic outbreak. Perhaps there are many other artefacts out there that might cause some trouble, ones we don’t know anything about yet. However, in the middle of all of this, Flaming Star and Steely Armor haven’t caused any trouble except for their own mistakes, which I still believe were accidental. They didn’t do something like the Sirens did. Or, to name a better example, me myself.

I got the sense that Flaming Star desperately wanted to get rid of his magic. But at the same time he uses it so creatively it’s like normal for him now. He has the power to turn anything to ashes, but here he is, using it to make stupid knock-knock jokes. He’s either silly or protective. Either way he’s not controlling the minds of a whole city or trying to conquer another realm. I don’t know why, but that night, I felt really close to him. I felt that I didn’t need to use my magic to understand him. We have things in common, things we need to hide and don’t just give away quickly or ever, like me. Now that I think about it, it’s ridiculous that we’ve known each other for months and even went out a couple of times, and knew nothing of each others’ past.

We were on the road for hours, but finally we reached town. I tried to wake him up by calling his name, but that didn’t work. I nudged him on the shoulder; nothing. Then I remembered that one of the kidnappers woke him up by slapping him; for a second I thought that would work, but I stopped myself. I remembered him telling me how he felt about my trying to read his thoughts and how he wanted me to start wearing gloves around him. So I grabbed a small pillow from a seat across the bus aisle, about one foot square, and smacked him in the face with it. It worked.

“WHO? WHERE? WHEN?”

“We’re here. Time to go. “

“What was that for? You think this is one of your lame slumber parties?”

“Sorry,” I said, wiggling the fingers of one hand, “I left my princess gloves in my other jacket.”

He paused for a second, “Uh, OK, OK, let’s get going, then.”

We were finally back in town. The only thing we needed to do now was to go home, on foot since it was so early there were no vehicles around.

“So, I guess I have to say goodbye now,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess.” He straightened up his posture, looking like a suit of clothes that had suddenly been starched. “Take care.” Then he started running.

It had been a very long night. When I got home, I just fell into bed. I didn’t bother checking the cupboard or the fridge because I knew there was no food. I’m not sure what I dreamed about exactly, but it had to do with Pinkie Pie and cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes

Author's Note

Make sure to cheek out other chapters too.

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.