Luster Dawn grips two vertical bars of a ten foot high steel fence. This late spring day is unseasonably hot, and the metal nearly scorches her hands.
From the ungroomed trees and tangled shrubs beyond, cicadas screech. The burrowing creatures dwelt underground for years, but now crawl up into the light, howling to alert the world of their revenant invasion.
Luster feels something beyond that fence, calling her.
Luster reaches between the bars, touching a bramble bush. She grips a branch, and pulls. Painful thorns pierce her palm and fingers. She draws her hand back, and sucks her wounds.
She shakes her head and quickly walks away, homewards, not looking back.
***
When Luster was little, her parents worried about their daughter, whose nose seemed always in a book. She needs people, her mother said. No woman can be an island.
Give it time, her father said. Give it time. But also, now and then, he brought home books about 'social skills,' and 'how to be popular.' He would leave them lying about, and wait for the bookworm to open them.
She opened them, but she never found them very interesting. The books made 'social skills' sound like work. 'Popularity' just seemed vapid, a lifestyle for people who never like to think.
But one morning, Luster's father gave her a copy of "Magical Ponies Friendship Journal."
At first, Luster laughed. "Isn't a book about magic horses kind of silly?" But once she looked inside, she had to admit the art style was...engaging. The stories, framed as 'friendship lessons,' were well written, in prose simple enough for a child, but elegant enough to charm an older reader too.
Luster felt an unexpected kinship with one of the six main characters, a scholarly pony named 'Bright Sparkle.' In the book's beginning, 'Sparkle' lives in a tower room with thousands of books, and a little brother who she treats as a servant. But as the book progresses, Sparkle teams up with other ponies to save the world, and then discovers friendship can be as good as any book.
The book's very last page is a note to the reader. In the note, Bright says she wrote this book herself, so other ponies could read about the adventures of Bright Sparkle and her friends. Bright Sparkle says she even put a tiny spark of magic into the book, to help every reader find and nurture friendships of their own.
Luster laughed at that last bit. Magic isn't real!
But even after Luster closed the book, she kept thinking about it. About how much fun it might be, to be a little more like Bright Sparkle.
From that day on, Luster became more outgoing, as she tried to apply the book's 'lessons.' Instead of worrying about what kind of isolate their daughter might grow into, her parents felt relief.
***
Years later, Luster is eating lunch with some of her friends, in the Canterlot High School cafeteria.
Luster's friend Sugar Spun asks the group a question, but Luster doesn't seem to notice.
"Maybe waterskiing," another friend, Iris, replies. "If I can get the equipment. I mean, powerboats aren't cheap, but my uncle knows people. Maybe he can hook me up with a loaner, and we could ALL go out on the lake. But what about you, Luster?"
"What?"
"Earth to Luster." Iris guffaws, poking her friend. "What do you think YOU might wanna do this summer break?"
Luster's heart lurches. She pictures that tall steel fence, and the small jungle enclosed within, maybe an acre or two of rank, green thicket. She imagines herself on the fence's other side, pushing and ripping her way through the brambles, and beyond...
Beyond...
She imagines a standing stone, an obelisk, a monument.
A monument to what?
Luster thinks, What is wrong with you Luster don't focus on this weird thing don't focus on it don't make things weird you know how to talk to people Luster this isn't eight years ago you know how to relate like a normal person now you've learned so much
She tries to force herself to think of some harmless, ordinary thing teenagers do, something that isn't about trespassing or a strange, inexplicable craving.
She tries to think of something the Luster of even just three weeks ago might have said.
"Maybe something outdoors," she says.
"Ha ha ha!" Iris laughs. "Well of course! It's summer!"
Their classmate Bunny, maybe sensing Luster's discomfort and trying to provide a distraction, speaks up softly. "I think I'd like to spend more time volunteering at the animal sanctuary."
The other girls share their own answers, and no one worries about Luster's vagueness or preoccupation at all.
They love her anyway. Even if she seems a bit distracted today.
That afternoon, Luster forces herself to walk straight home, without deviating by even one step.
But she can't get that fence out of her head, nor can she forget the mysterious space it encloses.
***
When night comes, Luster dreams.
She sees a young man with a blue sheen to his hair. He grins, teeth gleaming. The grin is for her. His smile isn't just handsome, it's charming. It tells her he's a regular guy, and a really cool guy, and a bit of a dork too.
Whatever she wants him to be, he will be for her.
He puts his hand on his sports car. Opens the door, invites her inside.
"Want me to show you how to play guitar?" he asks. Luster always hungers for knowledge. Maybe he knows this. "Or would you like to go to a diner, see a movie afterwards? My treat."
The dream changes, shifts.
Luster imagines herself in the cinema's darkness, air conditioned cold raising goose bumps on her skin.
On the screen in front of them, no movie is playing. It was never about the movie. The movie isn't what she wants.
She reaches out and holds the young man's hand. His palm is warm against hers. Her other arm reaches across to feel his shoulder. Hidden within his shirt, it's firm, muscular.
Her fingers touch the back of his neck, reach into his shirt collar. She grips it.
In the cold and the dark of the empty theater, a cavernous space private as the inside of a tomb, she whispers into his ear. "You're mine," she says. "Nobody else's. I claim you. You'll be mine forever."
"Yes," he says. "I'll be whatever you want me to be, do whatever you want me to do. I'll be the perfect boyfriend. I won't resist at all."
"Kiss me," Luster says.
Luster wakes up suddenly, drenched with sweat.
What the buck? she thinks. What the buck was that? Who TALKS to a boy that way? A boy she barely knows? And what kind of boy would say things like that BACK?
But she remembers his face. She can't forget it. She doesn't want to forget it.
***
Luster dreams of Flash Sentry every night, now.
In tonight's dream, they're sitting in a 'fifties style diner.' Luster only vaguely remembers what the 'fifties' even are...a setting from an old videogame? From the diner's furnishings and decor, she thinks it has something to do with shiny chrome and brightly colored plastic counters. Pictures on the walls show automobiles with tail fins. Young men with slicked back hair, and poodle appliques on the girls' knee length skirts.
The food is good, though. It's got to be unhealthy and fattening, all fried food for dinner and huge malted milkshakes for dessert, but she doesn't worry about it.
"That makes perfect sense," Flash says. Luster can see the admiration in his eyes. He admires her a lot, not just for looks, but other qualities as well. "I mean, you're one of the smartest people I've ever known. If anyone could learn how to be a good friend from reading books, that person would be you."
Luster frowns. "That's not the point. It's not that I learned it from reading books...well, maybe that IS part of the point. What bothers me is...isn't it kind of like cheating? If I do have a lot of friends, how much of that is me, and how much is the books?"
Flash reaches partway across the table, to touch Luster's hand. "By themselves, the books are nothing. If you hadn't decided to study them, to apply yourself, to take the time to get to know people and really care...the books are just something that helped you get started. YOU'RE the person who chooses to make friendship real."
Luster gives him a doubting look. "Well, maybe..."
Flash grins. "Also, does anyone tell you how sexy you look when you read? When you're thinking really hard, your nose scrunches up just a little bit..." His hand rises, to touch Luster's face. "Here. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen."
Luster almost doesn't believe him. But she doesn't think he ever tells a lie. He just doesn't seem to have it in him. He might be the most honest boy she's ever met, almost like her friend Bobbi Plum.
Luster giggles.
"What?" he asks.
"Oh, I was just wondering...how you'd look in a cowboy hat."
Flash doesn't quite understand Luster's remark, but he runs with it anyway.
"Giddyup. Mosey along, little dogies."
Luster laughs at him. Well, not really at him, more with him. Flash can be funny...but even when things get serious, even when she's upset, he always knows how to make her feel better. Luster has the best boyfriend ever.
When Luster wakes up, she almost cries.
She so much wants Flash to be real.
That entire day she misses him, and wants so much to see him again.
***
In tonight's dream, Luster and Flash sit together in a single chair, his legs spread wide to let her in, her back against his stomach and chest. In her lap, Luster has a guitar. The wall opposite the couple has a large mirror, in which they can see their reflections.
One finger at a time, Flash gently adjusts her left hand's position on the guitar's neck. Luster's right hand strums. Flash says, "So that's how you play a G chord."
"This is so different from how I would have tried to learn to play guitar, back when I was a little kid."
"Of course. Little kids don't have boyfriends or girlfriends."
"That's not what I mean."
"So what do you mean?"
"When I was a little girl, I thought I could learn anything worth knowing by reading books."
"Books CAN teach you a lot."
"But then one day, I read a book called 'Magical Ponies Friendship Journal.' It was about magic ponies who live in a faraway land...maybe even another world, I don't know. A character named Bright Sparkle starts out as a bookworm, just like I was. But then over time she makes friends with other ponies instead of just being a bookhorse. The book says it's about her and her friends having adventures, and that's not a lie...but really it's about her learning how to make friends, and how to be a good friend."
Flash says nothing.
"I learned a lot from that book. It's funny how one book sort of changed my life like that."
Luster adds, "The last page of the book is in a different style, written like a 'note' from Bright Sparkle herself. She says she wrote the book to help everyone who reads it learn how to find and build good, true friendships. She says she even put some magic into the book to help with that. Isn't that funny?"
"Why is it funny?"
"Because of course there's no such thing as magic."
Luster feels Flash's arms around her tense. "Is that really true, though?" he says.
"Of course it's true!"
"I mean, sounds like the book worked."
"The book worked because of...how it was written. Because it was a really good book! Not because of some preposterous 'magic.'"
"I can't say."
"Why are you acting like 'magic' can be real? What are you, a little kid yourself? Aren't you old enough to know better?"
Flash sighs. "Just suppose..." He stopped.
"Suppose what? If you have something to tell me, just TELL me."
"You'll think it sounds crazy."
"I'm crazy about you, so tell me anyway."
"No one would believe what happened to me."
"I'd believe you."
Flash sighed. "Just suppose...a few days before the start of my freshman year of high school, I walked to the school grounds. I was excited about turning old enough to go to high school, and about going to a school I'd heard a lot of good things about. But I was kind of nervous too. I thought it might help if I got a better look at the place."
"I can understand feeling nervous. It IS a big change."
"When I arrived, I sat on the school's front steps. And that's when it happened."
"When what happened?"
"The school had a big stone cube in front of it, to support a mascot statue. The stone seemed to...ripple, and a creature came out of it."
"Ha ha, no way!"
"I remembered reading fairy tales when I was little, about stuff like catching a leprechaun so it would have to lead you to its pot of gold."
"I'm pretty sure leprechauns aren't real."
"So when I saw a unicorn come out of the stone--"
Luster laughed.
"As I was saying, when I saw a unicorn walking around on the lawn, I thought I should try to catch it."
"Even if you could catch a unicorn, what would you do with it?"
"I didn't really think that hard, I was just a silly kid. So I sneaked up behind the unicorn, and I tackled it, and I wrapped my arms around it..." Flash smiles. "A lot like I'm wrapping my arms around you right now."
"Oh, no! I'm a unicorn who's been captured!" Luster wriggles to turn partway around on Flash's lap, and kisses his lips. After the kiss, she says, "Don't mess with me, boy. I've got a big, sharp horn and I'm not afraid to use it!"
"Fortunately, the real unicorn didn't stab me. So I asked the unicorn, am I supposed to get something for catching you?"
Luster kisses Flash again. "Because you caught me, you have to kiss me whenever I want you to."
"The unicorn wriggled and squirmed, but it couldn't get away. So finally it said I could have ONE wish, but then I'd have to let it go."
"Huh. Unicorns give wishes?"
"I didn't want to question. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. So I thought about it a little, and then I said, I want to have a girlfriend. I want the prettiest and most popular girl at this high school to fall in love with me."
Flash continued his story: "The unicorn asked, is that one wish or two wishes?
"I said, it's the same wish. I want the most popular girl at school, the one who the other girls wish they could be, the girl who other guys wish they could have as their girlfriend...I want her to fall deeply in love with me, so she'll be MY girlfriend. And so I can be her boyfriend.
"The unicorn said, you don't ask for much, do you?
"I said, you promised me one wish. I thought I'd better try to make it a good one.
"The unicorn squirmed a little more, and stared at that big block of stone. It said, 'Granted!' There was a big flash of light, and the unicorn clocked me on the head with the side of its horn, just about knocked me out. When I got over being woozy, the unicorn was gone."
Luster giggles. "There's a logical explanation for your story, you know. You hit your head on something, or maybe you just fainted...so you thought you saw something you really didn't."
"You might think so..." Flash's voice trails off. "But look, the prettiest girl I've ever seen is sitting on my lap and letting me kiss her. So I think it must have worked." Flash kisses her chin. "My wish must have come true."
Luster giggles. "If you say so."
"I know it's true. And I feel it was worth it."
"Just WORTH IT? THAT'S the best you can say for being my boyfriend?"
"Hey, I risked my life catching a wild animal. Instead of getting a wish, I could have caught UNICORN RABIES. And yes, loving you is MORE than worth it. I'm the luckiest guy in the world."
Luster giggles again. "Guess I'm pretty lucky myself. Having such a handsome and all around best boyfriend, I mean."
The guitar strap comes undone, and the instrument slips from Luster's lap, falling on the floor with a loud, discordant crash.
Luster wakes up, and sees dim, bluish light filtering into her room around her curtains.
She feels some relief, that she didn't break Flash's favorite guitar. But she also grumbles.
She thinks muzzily, her mind still half submerged in sleep's deep waters, How dare he just vanish like that?
***
The next night, Luster dreams of Flash again.
In a park, Flash and Luster walk hand in hand. Luster takes his hand in both of hers, and lifts it to her face. She kisses his palm. "Hmm."
"Hmm what?"
"Your hand feels real."
Flash grins. "Of course it feels real."
Luster's grip on his hand slackens. "Flash...I suppose I could call you the boy of my dreams."
"I love you too."
"That's not quite what I meant. What I mean is...I know this is a dream."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Flash says, "Let's not talk about that. Let's just...try to enjoy what we have."
"That's not good enough for me, Flash. I think about you every day, even when I'm awake. Every day, I miss you."
"But you know you'll see me every night, right?"
"I suppose. But when I'm awake...I still feel I want to be with you."
Flash doesn't speak.
"There's a place not far from my house. Within walking distance. There's a tall steel fence, and behind it a tangle of what I guess used to be landscaping, before it got all overgrown and wild. Just a tangle of rosebushes and brambles and thorns, twelve or fifteen feet tall."
Flash reaches out, gently takes her hands in his.
"Flash...my heart tells me...I feel like you're in there, in that place, behind that fence and those thornbushes. Hiding from me. If you're really in there, why won't you come out and be with me for real?"
"Luster. If I could...if it would do any good, I would. I'd come out and be with you, in the flesh, in the waking world. Not just a beautiful dream." He smiles. "Have I ever told you how beautiful your dreams are?"
"I want more than a dream, Flash Sentry. I'm in love with you, and so many times you've told me you love me too. You owe me all of you, the real you, not just some...DREAM!"
"The dream is all I can give you."
"The dream isn't enough!" Luster punches Flash's torso, as hard as she can.
He bends over, gasping. Finally he lays upon the cool green grass. "I...I'm sorry. I love you so much, Luster Dawn."
"Not enough!" Luster shouts before she walks away.
***
Luster jerks awake, and sits up in bed. Pinkish morning light filters around her bedroom curtains.
Her boyfriend is...a coward. Too afraid to come out and kiss her for real.
It's too bad she loves him so. She loves him more than words, more than breath, more than life itself.
Well, Luster decides, there's no need to put up with his little snit, his refusal to give Luster what she wants. If he won't come to me, I'll just go right in there to him.
Luster gets dressed in a hurry. She writes a short, vague note for her parents, just enough to keep them from worrying where she is. She slips outside.
***
Luster stands outside that tall steel fence, looking between the bars. She starts walking, looking for a way through.
She finds a gate that matches the rest of the fence. The gate is chained shut with two chains and three padlocks.
How can Luster get in?
Also, even if she does get through the fence, the vegetation beyond is practically like some jungle in a Daring Do book. She sees no clear paths at all. Daring would probably hack her way through the bushes and vines with a machete.
Luster doesn't have a machete. What does she have?
***
Standing by the open door of Rose Blush's backyard toolshed, Luster says, "It's a surprise for a friend. A secret project."
"Sounds cool. Can I help?"
"What?"
"No one knows more about plants than me. So if you're doing a landscaping project...I can help make sure you do it up right." Rose smiles.
"I...um...I want it to be a surprise for everyone. Even for you."
Rose scratches her wavy, messy hair. She asks, "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Luster doesn't so much have an actual plan, as...a feeling, an intuition. She doesn't want to try to explain that feeling to Rose.
Also, she wants her rendezvous with Flash to be a one on one affair, just boyfriend and girlfriend. "I'm sure."
Rose shrugs. "Well, ok. But if you decide later you want any help, you know my number."
"Thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me." Luster hugs Rose, squeezing her hard.
"Oof!" Rose squeaks, then laughs. "Don't squeeze all the air out of me."
"Sorry!"
"No problem. Just have the tools back by the end of the weekend."
***
Luster pushes Rose's wheelbarrow full of tools about half a mile, all the way to the locked gate. With a boltcutter Luster borrowed from Bunny's father's garage, getting through the gate is a breeze.
After that, it's a simple matter of pruning with lopper and shears to carve the general outline of a tunnel through the thorny growth, and hedge clippers to neaten it.
When she's cut far enough into the thicket to make room, Luster pushes the wheelbarrow through the gateway. She latches the gate shut and redrapes the chains, trying to make her forced entry less obvious.
She shrugs. Probably no one pays much attention to the gate anyway. It's just a routine thing they see every day, something they don't even notice anymore.
And if someone sees her? They'll probably just think she's working as a (much needed!) groundskeeper.
She inhales the scent of fresh cut foliage, and smiles with satisfaction.
***
Sweat mats Luster's hair, and trickles down into her eyes. With the back of one green streaked hand, she wipes the sweat aside.
Behind her stretches a green walled tunnel at least a hundred and fifty feet long. Maybe two hundred. It zigs and zags a bit to dodge tree trunks. When she looks back, she can no longer see the chain-draped gate behind her.
Luster cuts another branch, clearing an entrance to a small glade. She's discovered a sunny, grass carpeted clearing hidden between the brambles.
Luster walks forward, into this secret place. She touches a standing stone, an obelisk about five feet tall. It feels familiar, like she's seen it before.
While cutting her way through this jungle, she's seen no house, no buildings at all. Not even an old foundation.
All she has is this granite marker.
She studies the weather-roughened surface. She finds letters carved into it, an inscription.
Flash Sentry
Always a Friend
Always a Wondercolt
She also reads a birthdate, and a date of death. Flash Sentry has been dead for years. He was only twenty, when he died.
Her heart has drawn her to this place, like a compass, like a magnet. And this is what she's found.
(Maybe a small part of her already knew.)
She takes a shovel from the wheelbarrow, and begins to dig.
***
Luster stands in a hole three feet deep, a hole surrounded by piles of loose earth. She attacks a tangle of roots, stabbing her shovel's tip into it, trying to cut through.
Behind her, someone clears their throat.
Luster turns around, holding her shovel in both hands.
In the green lit grotto Luster carved out to reach this spot, a tall, slim, dark skinned woman stands. The woman wears overalls and a long sleeved shirt. A big, floppy sun hat shades her face. Her hands are marked with age spots. A familiar voice says, "Hello, Luster."
Luster gulps. "Principal Luna?"
The woman nods. "Luster Dawn."
Luster's heart races with panic. "I can explain. I have a perfectly good reason to be here! I'm...uh...helping a friend!"
Good going, idiot, Luster thinks. My high school principal has just caught me literally trying to dig up a grave. I wonder if someone's already called the police. Maybe LUNA called the police.
Luna doesn't scoff. She doesn't scold. Instead, she reaches into a cloth bag that hangs from one shoulder, and offers Luster a squeeze tube.
Luster sets her shovel upright in the ground, accepts the tube. She reads the label. "Sunscreen?"
"It's insect repellent too." Luna clucks her tongue. "I think you're already starting to burn, but at least we can try to keep it from getting any worse."
Luster looks down at her own arms, notices she's already welting up with bug bites. She feels itchy all over. She pops the tube open and squeezes, rubs the goo across her face and neck, covers her arms and the exposed parts of her shoulders. She bends over to coat her legs too.
When Luster straightens up, the principal offers a floppy hat much like Luna's own. "To keep the sun off," Luna says.
Luster puts the hat on her head. "And now what? Are you going to call the cops? Are you going to give me detention? Aren't you at least going to tell me to stop doing this?"
Luna shakes her head. "For all I care, you can keep going."
"Keep going?"
"If that's what you choose to do."
Luster stares at Miss Luna. Finally, the girl lifts the shovel with both hands, turns around, and continues her labors.
***
When the hole is four feet deep, Luster uses roots embedded in the pit's sides as footholds to help her climb out. She takes a water bottle from the wheelbarrow, drinks deeply, swallowing again and again.
Luna sits crosslegged in the green grotto's shade, beyond the area where Luster's shovel has scattered dirt. In one hand, the principal holds a paperback book. She says, "Hungry?"
"Famished."
Luna lays down the book, rummages in her bag. "I brought sandwiches. Do you prefer tuna salad, or cheese?"
"I'd take anything."
The woman holds out a bundle wrapped in plastic. "Cheese it is, then."
Luster joins Luna in the shade, rips the plastic open, and takes a big bite. "This is so good! Thank you!"
Luna nods. "Hunger and hard work are the best seasonings, they say."
Luster devours the sandwich in less than a minute. "I hate to ask this, but...can you spare another?"
Luna offers the tuna, which vanishes almost as quickly as the first.
Luster sighs. She lays down on the ground. "I don't understand what it is with you."
"Oh?"
"You find me...practically robbing a grave, I guess. And all you do is...offer to help?"
"I wouldn't say I've really HELPED with your little project."
"You gave me sunscreen and a hat. How is that not helping?"
Luna softly chuckles. "It isn't helping, so much as...trying to reduce the scope of harm."
"You're trying to protect me."
"To an extent. Making mistakes is part of growing up. I can't prevent that. I can try to limit the damage a bit. And I can try to let my students know that someone cares about them."
"My family LOVES me. And I have a LOT of friends! And they care about me too!"
"Yes," Luna agrees. "I believe they all care about you, both family and friends. But how many of them did you tell what you were really going to do today?"
Luster blushes.
Luna reaches out with one hand, to brush a lock of hair out of Luster's eyes. "It's hard to talk about, isn't it?"
"It is. How can I explain it? I don't even understand it myself!" Luster moaned. "I feel so stupid! Not to mention practically insane!"
"How so?"
"I was literally trying to dig up a dead body so I could, I don't know, take it to Prom or something like that. How can I NOT feel stupid?"
"I've seen teenagers persevere far longer in much worse mistakes."
"What could be stupider than trying to date a corpse?"
"It was before your time, but...long ago, I had a student with truly Machiavellian political skills. She turned nearly every student in all four grades of CHS against each other. She manipulated everyone so subtly, I myself missed most of what was happening."
"That sounds...bad, I guess."
"She persevered in that poisonous project for more than three years. And in my ignorance, my naivete, I let her. I still feel deeply ashamed of that. I made a serious mistake, a mistake much larger in scope than your small..." Luna smiles. "...archeological expedition here."
"How can you make light of it?"
"Because I can see the larger perspective. You feel foolish, but you haven't terribly harmed anyone."
"But I still feel like an idiot. And I don't understand what's happened to me. I STILL don't understand it. There's a part of me that feels his presence, KNOWS he's here, DEMANDS he come out and love me! Even now, part of me still wants to dig him up."
Luna says straight facedly, "Digging him up is still an option, of course."
"But even if I pull his rotting corpse out of the ground, shake him by the shoulders--"
"Not too hard, or he might fall apart."
Luster Dawn snorts. "You think?"
"I'm sorry I said anything. I suppose whether he might lose his head...or any other parts, I suppose...is for you to judge, not me."
"I don't understand anything. I have all these feelings I don't really understand, and it's scaring the crap out of me."
"I can't blame you for feeling scared, Luster. I would feel scared too. But I can give you...something of an explanation. I can even tell you a remedy or two, although they might seem a bit drastic. If you want to hear me out."
"What's more drastic than digging up a dead body? Spill!" Luster's mouth twists a bit, as she releases her sudden grip on Luna's shirt collar. "I mean, please tell me."
"Years and years ago, long before you enrolled at Canterlot High School, there was a youth named Flash Sentry."
"I've heard of him," Luster says dryly.
"Sometime...roughly the beginning of his freshman year at CHS, something very strange happened. Some say he found a magic lamp with a genie inside. Others say he offended a powerful Fae. One of the Fair Folk, the Faeries."
"Magic," Luster remarks.
"I know it's an unusual word, in this day and age. Do you require an explanation that avoids it?"
"No," Luster says. "I want the best explanation I can get. I want to understand how I can FIX this weird, terrible thing that's happened to me."
"The word doesn't bother you?"
"Not at all."
Luna squares her own shoulders. "We don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow, this foolish boy Flash Sentry gained a single wish."
"He told me," Luster remarks, "when I was dreaming about him...he caught a unicorn on the CHS front lawn. Before his first day of school."
Luna's eyes widen slightly. "Really. A unicorn?" She does some quick arithmetic in her head. "That WOULD fit the calendar, I suppose. I just don't understand why the creature would be in that form, if it was on the CHS front lawn. You're sure it was ON the CHS lawn, and not some other place CONNECTED TO the school grounds?"
"I'm just telling you what he told me." Luster's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why, does it matter?"
"It probably doesn't change the essentials, no." Luna frowns. "He made a wish, and it was granted. Do you already know what he wished for?"
"He told me he wished for the prettiest, most popular girl at CHS to be his girlfriend. To fall in love with him. And he would get to be her boyfriend."
"Yes, that seems to be the gist. And now, I must ask you to contemplate. Have you ever thought seriously about the nature of high school popularity?"
Luster takes a deep breath. "Maybe more than a lot of people. I mean, I've even read books about it. My father brought them home for me, starting when I was a little girl. He worried about me, that I was too much of a bookworm and not enough of anything else."
"So he tried to fix that with...more books?"
"Ironic, I know. But it worked. Eventually." Luster's brows draw together. "The first book that really seemed to help me make more friends...even said it was magical."
"Oh." Luna's fists clench.
"I don't think it was a BAD book. I mean, I don't think it ever hurt anyone. It just helped me learn how to make friends."
Luna slowly nods. "So...about Flash Sentry's wish.
"His first three weeks at CHS," Luna says, "he immediately became involved with a sweet, bubbly girl named Pinkie Pie. Very likable girl, very popular.
"After that," Luna continues, "he became involved with that Machiavellian schemer I already told you about. The one who became the 'most popular' girl not because people really liked her all that much, but by making the other students hate each other."
"Ouch. I'm so sorry."
"Water under the bridge. But Flash's senior year, CHS acquired a new student through...unusual means. In less than three days, she destroyed Sunset Shimmer's schemes--"
"Sunset Shimmer?"
"That was the manipulative schemer's name, the student I told you about before. Sunset Shimmer."
"I see."
"The new student became the most popular girl at CHS...a well earned popularity, I might add...and immediately--"
"Fell in love with Flash Sentry?"
"And he in love with her, I think. It was like he instantly...changed personalities. For this Twilight Sparkle, he became forthright, honest, a real Boy Scout. The kind of boy who effortlessly discovers and exposes a fraudulent, nasty scheme instead of helping it along. The most amazing thing, though..."
"Yes?"
"He was also the only boy able to go anywhere near her strange, avant-garde dancing style without suffering a concussion. They really, truly seemed meant for each other."
"Huh."
"What I'm saying is...every year, the most popular girl at CHS falls in love with Flash Sentry. No matter what it takes to make that happen."
"Even though he's DEAD?"
"Yes."
"So...I've been cursed by some insane magical 'wish' made by a boy who isn't even around to ENJOY it anymore. A wish that made ME crazy. A wish that STILL has me wanting to dig up a dead body and..." Luster blushes. "Do things to him."
"Yes. Things."
"You told me you had a SOLUTION."
"One thing always works, but you might think it's drastic."
"What could be more drastic than..." Luster waves her arms around, but especially at the hole she's dug. "...this?"
"If you were expelled from CHS, and barred from entering the school grounds, that would help you to no longer be the most popular girl at CHS."
"Expelled!?"
"Or if you'll agree to it, you could simply TRANSFER to another school. Your grades are quite good: I'm sure you could do well at Crystal Prep. Principal Cadance at Crystal knows about CHS's little problem, but she also knows our 'most popular' girls usually have excellent leadership skills. I'm sure she would be happy to have you. I think we could even arrange a full ride scholarship."
"You want me to leave Canterlot High. To leave my friends behind."
"It's not like you'll never be allowed to see them again. But, yes, you would see less of them. That's kind of the point."
"This is terrible."
"Yes, it is a tragedy, and it's unfair. But better than doing nothing at all."
"How long do I have to decide?"
Luna glances towards the stone obelisk, and the dirt heaped around it.
"That long, huh?"
"Some decisions," Luna says, "are better made for oneself...but also best made quickly."
Luster sighs. "I guess I'd better start filling in that hole, huh?"
"If you do, I wouldn't stop you."
Luster slowly gets to her feet, groaning a bit. "I ache all over."
"I promise," Luna says, "pushing the dirt back down into the hole is easier than digging it out."
Luster walks stiffly to her excavation, and starts filling it back in.
"I'm proud of you, Luster."
Luster barks out a bitter laugh. "How can you be PROUD of me, at a time like this?"
"Because," Luna says, "anyone can make a mistake. Everyone DOES make mistakes. But not everyone catches themself in time to stop their mistake before it becomes a true disaster. Not everyone does their best to undo the damage."
"Not everyone gets threatened with expulsion from Canterlot High School."
"Not everyone. But some of our very best."
