Book 3 The Shadows: obscured by the shadows

It was early in the morning at Starry’s house and her living room was in chaotic disarray. There were some bags, some things half packed into storage containers, and some things moved to make room for other things and left in a precarious spot.

Starry spent the whole evening the day before arguing with Edgy before they finally had an idea of what they were going to do. But even though they came to a stopping point, the issue wasn’t quite resolved. And it showed along with Starry’s smile when she greeted her friends as they came to see her off.

Cass and Bee came into Starry’s house crying. Cass trotted in with Bee as a support. Too scared to fly in her state, she had been trotting the whole morning.

Starry could feel the wet morning dew on her friend’s hooves as Cass hugged her, but she didn’t see the glare that went in Edgy’s direction, nor did she see Bee’s look of approval.

Postage Stamp came in with a grin saying that he heard a commotion, but before he could finish his sentence he was cut off by a hug by Starry.

Cass and Bee made several promises that they would keep up her house and check on Rochester and his family. And Starry felt, that at least in this instance, maybe they would be trusted to do that. But just in case, Postage Stamp whispered in an aside that, if they failed, he would do it for them.

Starry was just about to turn toward the open door with Edgy when Cass and Bee grabbed her by the shoulders to whirl her around once more.

“We have one last thing we gotta give you!”

Starry waited expectantly as Cass grabbed her hoof and placed something small and light weight into it. It was very small, made of brass, and had a few little wisps of curves coming off the sides.

Starry froze.

“This is...” Starry began.

“Yep, it’s the first piece of jewelry you ever made for us,” Cass told her, slightly tearing up in her eyes and finding it mirrored in Starry’s.

“I found it again. You’re going to need something to remember us. Open it.”

Starry was confused, but she used her magic to undo what looked like a sheath and found a small scale on the inside.

“Tempest and Starlight helped us with this one. Starlight found a spell to turn one of Spike’s scales into a memory chip,” Bee explained.

Starry stared into it.

There, in the many hued shine, she could see a picture of herself and her friends.

Her eyes began to sting.

Starry couldn’t take her eyes off it. It wasn’t too long ago she had her life in Ponyville, and her friends, and she had been one pony shooting toward the sky.

But now.

Starry and the two pegasus ponies hugged once more.

“I’m going to miss you two.”

“We’ll miss you, t...”

“Nah,” Cass interrupted Bee, “You aren’t going to miss us one bit.”

Cass began shoving a disgruntled Edgy and a wistful Starry out the door.

“You’re going to have all the fun, you know that?”

Postage Stamp and Bee just shook their heads at Cass’s last comment as they waved goodbye to their friends, not knowing where they would go next