Author's Note

Yes, I know, I should rather continue writing The Expedition, but in my defense: The idea for this struck me, while I was writing the new chapter.

Also, I had no idea, what I should tag this story as, so I just went for "Comedy". I hope it gets at least a few laughters that warrant the tag

Wandering Thoughts

Mornings. Starlight knows full-well that this might be taken as sacrilegious, but she never understood why her fellow ponies are so fond of celebrating the moment Celestia raises the sun. Oh, what she wouldn't give for one of the few days when Celestia had overslept. These days are always pleasant. You get to sleep until 10 a.m. and nopony bats an eye. After all, the sun hadn't risen yet, and how could you be expected to even dare question your princess's ability to wake up on time?

Alas, there is a positive... or rather, a saving grace that she could look forward to. A single ray of sunshine that breaks through the clouds. A sole, lush tree in the middle of a desert. A lone buoy that she could hold onto, in the middle of the hurricane that would be her day.

...Okay, maybe she was being a bit overdramatic.

She groggily makes her way into the kitchen, where Twilight had apparently long since finished her breakfast, evident by Spike just finishing the dishes.

"Morning, Starlight!" The drake greets as he neatly puts everything away and waddles towards the door. "Coffee's ready, just as you like it. I've kept it in the pot, so it should still be warm. Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Spike. You're a dear." Starlight thanks him.

"Don't sweat it. I'm gonna go help Twilight with... stuff... I don't know, but she wanted my help." He shrugs and walks through the door.

"Uhh, suuuure... see you later, then?" Starlight says, as the door closes.

"...I hope?" She adds, knowing that nopony is there to hear it.

No matter. Her nose has already picked up something that requires - nay, begs for - her attention. On the kitchen counter, there stands a pot. Steam is slowly wafting out of its spout, spreading the scent of the liquid within throughout the room.

Starlight can only barely suppress the urge to teleport over and down the coffee in one gulp. After all, even she, in her groggy state, knows full-well about the effects of a hot liquid on a sensitive tongue. Thus, she holds herself back a bit longer, and gently pours the hot, blackish liquid into a cup and takes a tentative sip.

She lets out a relieved sigh once the slightly bitter taste of coffee washes down her throat. Truly, there was a reason why she calls coffee the "brown gold" - even though it looks rather black in her cup. Actually, she had called it "black gold" before, but Pinkie quickly shut her muzzle when she said that out loud. Something about a country called "USA" launching an inter-dimensional invasion, claiming to bring democracy when in truth, they only want Equestria's resources.

"Democracy"... such a strange concept. She had heard about it before, but never saw it actually applied. No wonder, given how it went historically.

The Peloponeighse, she remembered, had re-founded their country of Pelopone on the idea of democracy, after they had overthrown their king. At first, everything seemed to go well, the country flourished in the peace that followed and grew into a true centre of culture and economy.

Then the Romane came knocking on their door.

Previously, the Peloponeighse would've rallied under their king and would've led an army against the encroaching Romanes. However, now that their government was basically built around echo chambers, only very few ponies actually had the courage and loyalty to voluntarily take up arms.

"Why would I fight for a country that doesn't support my opinions?" Said the self-entitled.

"So I should go risk my life for my country, but what does my country do for me in turn?" Added the egoistically ignorant.

"Well, maybe I want to be Romane?!" Argued the foolishly rebellious.

And so it was that the Romane took Pelopone with barely a fight to speak of... or so the tale goes. Of course, Starlight was certain that the tale had long since been muddied by centuries of retelling and ponies adding their own thoughts and opinions to it... But then again, Pelopone did fall. The ruins are a very popular tourist spot today and many a research paper has been written about the ancient scriptures within.

Starlight took another sip of coffee. The Pelopone language had been dead for two centuries before it was rediscovered. How did ponies know how to read it? Did they even know? Or did they just try to decipher it and then went with the first translation that made sense? If so, how could they be certain that their translation was accurate?

A small smile spreads across Starlight's muzzle. Maybe they weren't? Maybe the tales were all wrong and their understanding of history was flawed? For all she knows, the Romane army could've been a Romane gay parade instead. After all, the shift in fashion that followed was rather... peculiar, with stallions of high stature dressing more mare-like than even the mares themselves.

For a moment, the image of Sunburst dressing like that comes to mind.

Starlight giggles.

Then, the image of Sunburst is replaced with an image of Big Mac in the same outfit.

Starlight drools. She definitely needs more coffee.

She empties her cup with another long sip and fills it right up again. After all, the pot wasn't empty yet and she couldn't just let the coffee go to waste, now could she? Lest some of these pesky environmentalists come to her and berate her for wasting precious food.

She really doesn't understand these ponies. She is fully aware that wasting food is a bad thing, they don't need to tell her! And besides, why should she take advice from ponies who glue themselves onto train tracks? And what for, even? Yeah, sure, the trains are blasting smoke everywhere, she knows that much but don't they see that keeping the trains idling in place only serves to keep them on the track longer, thus blasting more smoke into the air?

And that's only counting the times the trains could actually stop in time. After all, trains are known for many things and a short braking distance is not one of them!

This reminds her of an article she had read in the Equestria Daily that one time, when ponies had glued themselves onto the train itself, instead of the tracks. One could think that they had learned something, at least. However, Equestria Daily interviewed the driver and his quote became pretty much the go-to quote when talking about these enviromaniacs.

"Yeah, but that's a MagiTrain."

Even just thinking about it makes her giggle slightly.

She takes another sip.

She really has a hard time understanding what these ponies are trying to accomplish, though. Or rather: she understands their goals, but she doesn't understand how they are going about trying to reach them.

As a former dictator, she knows that, to make ponies do what you want, you have to either make them want to do it of their own volition, or make everything else a distinctly inferior option. Gluing yourself onto stuff accomplishes neither. If anything, it just makes you look like a jackass.

Although Starlight has to admit, their antics make for some decent light comedy, if you aren't directly affected.

Wait, weren't there rumors that these groups were actually funded by the rail-

"STARLIGHT!!!!" Twilight bursts into the kitchen, just when Starlight is taking another sip. The result is that she jerks the cup away from her mouth, hitting the pot and toppling it over, while simultaneously breaking her cup in the process.

Coffeeshed. That is the first word that comes to her mind. It is the same as bloodshed, but with coffee. The precious, brownish liquid slowly drips from her broken cup onto the ground, while a small brown river makes its way from the toppled pot to the edge of the table.

Starlight stands there in silent mourning.

"Starlight! Help!" Twilight shouts again, ripping her out of her grief.

"What?!" Starlight responds with a bit more agitation than she intended.

"It's Spike! I, uhhh, I ran a few experiments and, uhh..." Twilight stammers sheepishy. "Doesn't matter! He turned into a plant and the lab is on fire!" She quickly summarizes.

Starlight blinks in stunned disbelief.

"Come on!" Twilight urges again, fully engulfed in her panic, just like Starlight is engulfed in a purple aura.

Wait, what?

Before she could react, she is yanked out of the kitchen into the hallway, suspended in Twilight's aura, and hurriedly being carried towards the library.

Oh well, it's not like she would've refused to help anyway. For now, she lets herself get dragged along. Then, she will help Twilight save the library, try to return Spike back to normal and prepare a proper funeral afterwards...

... For her coffee, that is.