Unbreakable

It had been a while since Starlight and Sunburst met each other. Now that they were best friends, everyone agreed that Starlight could stay at Sunburst’s house after school.

Starlight got off where Sunburst usually did. She was reminded of her first day of school, when a few bullies hurt her. She cast a really powerful spell, one she didn’t even try to cast. She decided to tell Sunburst about that today.

Once they were in his room, they decided to have fun. “What do you want to do, Starlight?”

“Can I tell you about something?” Starlight asked.

“Of course!”

“So you remember my second day of school, right?” Starlight questioned. He nodded. “You asked me about the scars on my hooves, but I didn’t answer,” she explained. “I just decided I can tell you about what happened now.”

Sunburst nodded for confirmation. He wanted to find out what happened, and now was his chance.

“On my way home, there were some ponies who got off at my stop. They pushed me and my hooves got scratched. There’s also one thing I was wondering about,” she said.

“What?”

“How hard is it to do a forcefield spell?” she inquired.

“Pretty hard. Why do you ask?” he wondered.

“Because when they cornered me I did a forcefield spell. I don’t know how I did it. I was hoping you might know,” she responded.

Sunburst gaped. “That’s like a grown pony’s spell. I don’t know how to do it, let alone how you did it.”

“Let’s keep this to ourselves,” said Starlight. “Do you know how to play Dragon Pit?”

“Are you kidding? I love that game!” Sunburst exclaimed.

Starlight breathed a sigh of relief. She was happy to change the subject.

Sunburst walked to the dining table, Starlight following behind. She looked down at her food and ate her tomatoes. It wasn’t like she could refuse a meal on her first day at Sunburst’s house.

“How’s school going?” Stellar Flare asked Starlight, who shrugged.

“I like learning magic with Sunburst,” she glumly replied.

Sunburst looked from Starlight to Stellar. “Starlight and I have learned to express ourselves with words better,” he said. Starlight nodded in agreement.

“That’s great!” she responded. Stellar looked at the two foals and asked, “Why don’t I leave you on your own for now?”

After Stellar Flare left, Starlight looked at Sunburst. “I love learning magic with you, but sometimes it’s so hard. It really frustrates me,” she vented, slamming her hoof down on the table and knocking her glass of juice down.

She looked embarrassed until Sunburst said, “Don’t worry,” cleaning up the spill with a cloth. He showed his scroll to Starlight, who read it and quickly cleaned the kitchen up with soap and water. Sunburst beamed at his friend. “That was amazing!” he said.

“That was hard,” Starlight replied. She put her plate in the sink and asked, “Do you want to go to the park?”

They ran outside and set up a picnic blanket. Starlight set up a few blocks while Sunburst read books. Starlight tried to lift a blue one off of the ground, but she struggled with it. It lifted off the ground for a moment, but Starlight couldn’t hold it any longer, and let go. “Why is magic so confusing sometimes?” she complained.

Sunburst floated his book over to Starlight for her to see. She was confused at first, but after glancing at the book, she levitated the blocks easily, spinning them around. “Wow, thanks!” she said.

Sunburst looked up from his book. “No problem,” he said, pointing to the book. “Look, I found something for forcefield spells.”

Starlight looked over his shoulder and read aloud, “Forcfields are tricky feats of magic, and come in different forms. From health bubbles to bursting shields, every forcefield takes time to master.”

“Usually,” Sunburst added, which got a nod from Starlight.

Starlight flipped through the forcefield section and pointed to the one she had cast the other day. “The shell forcefield is one of the simplest. It wraps around a pony and follows them everywhere they go until they stop casting the spell. If you cast it in the air, it will be a sphere instead of a dome.” Starlight glared at the book.

“Does that mean anything to you?” Sunburst asked, concerned.

“No,” Starlight looked at her friend. “And I don’t want it to,” she said, looking away again.

Starlight picked up an aqua gem that matched the color of her magic aura. She definitely wasn’t mad at Sunburst, and she hoped he wasn’t mad at her either. Slipping the gem into her bag, she slipped into the sleeping bag.

Starlight listened as she heard voices coming from the dinner table. “I was concerned for her,” she heard Sunburst say.

“She’s been going through a lot,” said a voice that sounded like Firelight. “She hasn’t skipped dinner for a while. I just hope she’s safe.”

Starlight covered her ears. She couldn’t listen to this anymore. Maybe her life was bad, but she didn’t want to make it so that her friends would have to feel sorry for her as well. Hopefully everything would be better in school the next day. Hopefully.