33: Friends
Starshadow groaned as she finally began to regain consciousness. Her head hurt again, and she knew that somepony had once again slipped her something against her will. The last thing she could recall was crying herself to sleep after hearing that Polaris had essentially sold her to Cirro Stratus as his new wife. She wanted to run away to make sure she never became his wife, let alone fall under his control in any way, but once again she knew that her father had made escape impossible. With no choice but to go to bed, she hoped that she would get the chance to see Starsong and Silver Veil in hopes that the three of them could devise some way to free her from Polaris's plot.
As she began to regain her senses, she felt that she was no longer asleep on her soft luxurious bed; instead she was now lying on a much harder, itchy surface. The air around her seemed colder, and she felt a small shiver spread through her body from it.
Suddenly, she heard movement directly next to her. Her fears were confirmed as she felt somepony's hoof gently gliding along her back. Due to her current position of lying on her side, Starshadow was unable to crack her eyes open to catch a peek at her molester, but as the pony's hoof started to make its way towards her flank she came up with a plan. Hearing the unknown pony's breath becoming heavier, Starshadow held her breath as the pony's hoof finally reached her flank. The unknown pony wasted no time and brushed her tail aside and began rubbing their hoof against her puckered rear hole. Deciding enough was enough, Starshadow put her plan into action.
Catching her molester completely off guard, Starshadow spread her wings and whipped her head back, knocking her head against the other pony's. Starshadow's head reeled from the collision but the other pony stumbled backwards, having taken the worst of the hit. Pressing on, Starshadow turned over and flung herself off the cot and on top of her captor. Raising a hoof, Starshadow planned on striking the other pony on their head to buy time to look for an escape route, or at the very least to turn the tables on them, but once Starshadow caught a glimpse of the pony she was pinning down she immediately stopped her attack and stumbled backwards.
"S-S-Sunset?" Starshadow gasped as she looked at the mare on the ground.
Sunset Flash opened her clenched eyes, having been caught completely by surprise by Starshadow's bold attack. She put on a meek smile, a little embarrassed she had been caught trying to molest her old friend in her sleep, but Starshadow was overly excited to see Sunset and helped her friend up.
"Sunset! Oh Luna, I didn't hurt you, did I?" Starshadow said regretfully, looking over the larger pegasus.
Sunset Flash shook her head no, but then surprised Starshadow by rushing forward and giving her a long, passionate kiss. Starshadow let out a high pitched 'eep' from the shock and suddenness, but as she took a step back Sunset took a step forward to keep their lips locked together. She could feel the fiery pegasus trying to force her tongue into her mouth and for a moment Starshadow felt herself beginning to respond to her friend's advances. Just as suddenly as the moment came however, the gravity of her situation dawned on her once again. Starshadow stubbornly kept her mouth tightly shut but Sunset was not giving up; it was only when Starshadow pushed the other mare back as hard as she could with both hooves did the two finally separate from each other.
"S-Sunset! What in Equestria are you doing here? Where am I?" Starshadow asked as she gasped for breath.
Sunset's smile returned as she slowly approached Starshadow again, but this time she merely embraced her. "You're the one marrying Master, aren't you? I'm so happy it's you! All three of us can be together! You and I can give him so much pleasure just like when our old masters used to play with us together."
Starshadow's mind flashed back to her youth when she had belonged to South Pole. Whenever he invited his brother over, both stallions would hold bets by swapping slaves, and whichever brother could make the other's pet cum first would win an hour with both fillies. Surprisingly, both Pole brothers shared similar methods during these contests, but thanks to Sunset's superior experience Starshadow lost most of the time, subjecting her to North Pole's will for an hour. Sunset would also join in, usually prepping Starshadow's body before North Pole would ravage her as much as he wished. Only when he was finished would Sunset step back in to dutifully lick her master's cock clean and making a show of climbing on top of Starshadow to lick her friend's drooling holes clean as well...
Starshadow quickly cleared the memories from her head and stepped away from Sunset again. "No, I can't go back to that lifestyle." she said. "Sunset, you have to help me escape, let's get out of here and get help."
Sunset looked at Starshadow quizzically. "Leave? Why would we want to leave? You're about to marry Master! I'm so jealous of you!"
"But I don't want to marry that scumbag!" Starshadow said, stomping her hoof in order to accent her point.
Without warning, Starshadow felt a sharp stinging on her cheek, and it took her a few moments for her to realize that Sunset Flash had slapped her. There was a look of anger and insult in Sunset's eyes, but the look quickly faded to regret and apology as the fiery mare rushed to her and groveled at her hooves in forgiveness. "Starshadow, I'm so sorry! I didn't like hearing you insult Master like that, but once you marry Master you'll become my Mistress. Please, forgive me!"
Starshadow's stomach twisted when she realized that Sunset was right. The very idea of becoming the mistress of the one pony besides her mother and sister that she considered a true friend from her foalhood, the pony that had helped her get through some of her toughest moments in life, made Starshadow sick to her stomach and she knew that there was no way she could ever live with herself if that thought became reality. "I can't be your mistress, Sunset, or anypony's. Please, you have to help me escape! I can help you be free again! I know Princess Twilight Sparkle, she can make sure we never have to have another owner again like before!"
Sunset looked even more confused. "But... why would I want to leave Master? Master took me in when nopony else wanted me, he saved me from becoming some common whorse. He gave me a home and a life. I don't want to ever leave Master."
A horrid thought dawned on Starshadow. "Have you... have you ever been on your own? How long were you still enslaved after I was sold?"
Sunset thought but couldn't remember. "I don't know." she admitted. "I was released a few years after you were sold, once I became too old for Master's liking... But now my current Master is all I need, I'm so happy with Master."
Starshadow recoiled from Sunset's happy smile as she spoke so adoringly of her master. She could see in her friend's eyes all the things that she herself had escaped. In all the years since Starsong and Silver Veil had rescued her, she had always hoped that her once best and only friend in the whole world had been able to escape as well; now she knew that Sunset had lived that nightmare until it became her whole world.
"You've never been free?" Starshadow said, nearly choking on the words and blinking back the tears beginning to well in her eyes. Her heart felt as though it had been cracked down the middle, seeing her friend like this; Sunset's cheerful yet resolute response shattered it completely.
"Free? Why would I want to be free?"
"There's too much rain falling over western Equestria, all the crops are drowning!"
"You'll turn Neighagra Falls into a giant ice sculpture if you allow that cold front to continue!"
"Why are we diverting this storm over Canterlot? What's wrong with the original course?"
"You can't issue a hailstorm over Los Pegasus, they're still fixing all that damage from that one-pony riot!"
Surrounding one pony, five Weather Factory managers surrounded their sixth coworker, barraging her with question after question after they had received their new orders. The word 'upset' didn't even come close to their true feelings after they found out all the careful planning and calculations that went in to determining Equestria's weather had been thrown out and replaced with something that even Discord would call crazy.
Rainbow Dash wanted to fly away and put everything behind her, but she knew she was stuck. When she handed over the new plans Cirro had come up with she noticed that he had failed to sign off on it. The thought of throwing away the ludicrous plans crossed her mind, but she knew that she would be immediately fired and banished from Cloudsdale forever, and with a few moments of reluctance she finally scribbled her signature on it. She never regretted anything more in her life.
"Stop, stop, stop! Get out, everypony get out!" Rainbow yelled, finally snapping. Beating her wings as hard as she could, she sent the five other pegasi head over hooves, all of them tumbling helplessly out the door. Rainbow quickly rushed forward and slammed the door shut, locking it and collapsing on the ground from mental exhaustion.
The office was a mess, but Dash didn't care. She buried her face into her hooves and screamed in frustration, caught up the chaos between remaining loyal to her boss and her job, or doing what was right and risking her career. As she racked her head for a nonexistent answer her hair bristled as she heard somepony knock on the door.
"Go away!" she yelled, but the pony on the other side of the door knocked again. Fed up with being berated for this mess, Rainbow stormed over to the door and flung it open. "I said leave me alo-"
Rainbow Dash quickly shut her mouth as she found a very frightened Fluttershy in the fetal position on the floor while Twilight Sparkle stood a few feet farther back. "Ohmigosh! Fluttershy, I'm so sorry." Dash quickly said, scooping up the shaking yellow pegasus and hugging her.
Twilight stepped forward with an extremely concerned look on her face. "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here? I was told that this is the CEO's office." she said, looking back at the brass nameplate on the office door.
"It is." Dash said. "He's... on vacation, so I'm stuck covering."
"Well, maybe you can tell us what's going on all across Equestria." Twilight said. "There's been a lot of strange weather occurring everywhere and nopony knows why. Well, I mean we know it's the weather ponies, but even they don't know why they're doing what they're doing. I even went as far as summoning Discord to see if he had cast some sort of mind control and memory erasing spell, but I don't think he's responsible... he's actually furious that whoever is causing this chaos is trespassing on his territory."
Rainbow Dash hung her head. As one of the managers she was obligated not to talk about weather decisions to anypony not authorized to know about the reasons behind weather-related decisions, but right now she need help.
"Get in here." Dash said, quickly shoving Twilight and Fluttershy into Cirro's office. Once the three were secluded, Rainbow Dash broke down and told them everything; from coming back to Cloudsdale with the other managers to implementing the new orders Cirro had ordered personally. Not being from Cloudsdale, Twilight had a few questions about some of the technical aspects of creating and moving around the various weather patterns, but after allowing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy explain the answers, Twilight finally nodded in understanding.
"There's just one thing I don't understand. Why would Cirro Stratus go and change everything so suddenly? He's never done this before, has he?"
Rainbow shrugged. "I don't know, it's like he's gone and completely lost it! I mean, he's never done anything like this before. I tried asking him that, but all he said was he didn't want his friend Polarized to get wet."
"Wait, what was that pony's name?" Twilight asked, her ears perking up. "Did you mean Polaris?"
"Yeah, sure, him. Whatever." Rainbow Dash said. "But I ended up getting the blame for everything! I mean, this is the worst screw up Equestria has ever seen with the weather!"
Twilight missed the last part of Rainbow's sentence as her mind pieced together the clues. "Rainbow Dash, where is Cirro now? Is he still with Polaris?"
"Uh, I think he's still at his vacation house near Neighagra Falls. Yeah, he's there with Sunset Flash. He said he had some special task for her or something." Dash said thinking back.
"And Polaris?"
Rainbow shrugged again. "I dunno, he left when I was there, so I don't think so."
Twilight kicked the ground in frustration. She had just missed Polaris! However, Cirro obviously knew Polaris well, and he was their best lead to finding Starshadow. "Rainbow, can you take us to his house?"
"I... I don't think that's such a good idea. Cirro hates to be bothered when he's on vacation. He'd have me put on sludge duty for weeks if I interrupted him." she replied hastily, recalling the last time she screwed up and was forced to clean up the sludge trap in the cloud machines.
"Really, Dash? Seriously?" Twilight said almost sarcastically.
"Hey, you have no idea what gunk has to be filtered out when we make the clouds! And nopony ever cleans them out unless they're being punished for something." Rainbow whined.
Twilight motioned to the door. "Would you rather stay here and deal with all of this?"
Dash's pupils shrank as she remembered what chaos awaited her back on the factory floor. "Uh... so, ready to head to Cirro's house?"
"Next stop, Canterlot! Canterlot is the next stop!" the train conductor announced as he walked through the train car.
Raising her hat slightly, Applejack looked out the window and saw that the train was just entering the city. Looking at the castle that dominated the skyline, she caught a glimpse of the smaller yet still impressive house next to it. She kept her gaze on it until it disappeared from view, and once the train pulled into the station she got up and went to disembark. "I'm coming for ya." she muttered.
As she made her way onto the station platform, she tried to navigate her way to the station exit but found the going tough. She made it almost all the way to the stairs without bumping into anypony, but as she made the final dash to her goal she ran straight into a pony that had just begun to climb the stairs as well.
"Gah! Beg pardon, miste-" Applejack started to say before she realized who she had bumped into.
Glaring back at the mare that had run in to him, Polaris simply scowled at AJ before continuing on his way. However, Applejack managed to catch a glance at his cutie mark, and her heart skipped a beat as she saw the same aurora mark as Starshadow.
"Hey, hold up there, partner!" Applejack called out. Polaris didn't stop, but Applejack caught up to him just as he was about to climb into his private carriage. "Woah there! I gotta ask ya somethin'!"
Polaris turned and groaned as he saw the same mare that had bumped into him. "What do you want?" he asked in annoyance.
"Sorry ta' bother ya, jus' couldn' help but notice yer cutie mark. Ya'll aren't related to somepony named Starshadow, are ya?"
Polaris was shocked by her question and actually found himself stuttering for an answer. "Am I related to... who's Star... what's it matter to you?"
"Please, ah don' wanna pry, but if ya are, she's in real trouble an' needs help quick." she said.
Polaris silently cursed this random mare as he started to see his plans fall apart. He never expected his rarely-spoken about daughter to have other ponies worried about her safety and go to such lengths to find her, and having this pony report Starshadow missing would raise too many problems for even him to keep quiet. All he could do is hope she was the only pony looking for Starshadow and take care of her as well...
"Oh, you're one of her friends? Please, come with me and we can discuss this matter in private. I'm actually headed for Princess Celestia's castle to finish some business, we can talk there and then speak to Princess Celestia about finding her." Polaris lied.
"Really? Thanks!" Applejack replied happily. She had been worried that this stallion would be a dead end lead based on his initial reaction to her, but not only had she found a relative of Starshadow's, but this pony also had connections with Celestia. There was no way that she would fail to bring Starshadow back home now... at least, not in her mind.