Interlude: Starflight
Starsong sat alone in her room. Just days before the luxurious room had been filled with medical equipment while Canterlot's finest doctors and healers worked round the clock on the unicorn; now the space seemed empty and oppressive to her. I've always hated this place, she thought, though even as she did she knew she was lying to herself.
Starsong closed her eyes. Just as they had every time she'd slept since she was brought back to the estate, her thoughts were immediately consumed by bittersweet memories of her foalhood there...
As a filly, Starsong had enjoyed every possible luxury as the sole heir to the Star Family; Polaris and the rest of the family had doted on the young unicorn. What she wasn't aware of then though was the weight her heritage truly carried... As Starsong grew older, her lack of magical ability began to become more and more of an issue to her father. At the age of 8, Starsong was pulled out of public school and a private tutor was brought in for her and Starshadow. Her sister had excelled at her academic studies and while Starsong was able to barely keep up with the pegasus filly she showed virtually no progress in her now intensive magic training.
While outwardly nothing had changed, Starsong began to notice her family beginning to grow colder towards her, especially her father. When she finally earned her cutie mark for singing, it was clear to the young unicorn that she was a disappointment to her family.
Then there was Starshadow... Starsong had always marveled at the idea that her little sister was a pegasus while she and the rest of her family were all unicorns; from the very start the bond the two shared was unshakable. She alone knew about her sister's secret talent for music and the two often dreamed of becoming famous as a sister act one day. However, the rest of her family, aside from their mother of course, didn't share her views and treated Starshadow like a problem. Even with her influence as the heir to the family, there was nothing Starsong could do to help improve her beloved sister's situation. It pained her greatly to be able to do nothing but watch as the smart little filly became more and more bitter and jaded over time...
When Starsong left home to attend music school in Los Pegasus, part of her hoped to never return to the estate. Unfortunately, unlike her sister, she was bound by her public identity as the Star Family's sole heir and everything that came along with it. The Star Family's wealth and connections had allowed her to become the talented, sophisticated mare she was today, but she always had to carry with her the burden of pretending to be happy and civil with the family that secretly saw her as a failure and a burden. Her family's burdens hardly compared, however, to the weight of her guilt...
When Starsong had heard from her mother that Starshadow had disappeared, she was heartbroken; even her singing, which had always been one of her greatest joys, couldn't lift her spirits. Later, when she and her mother had rescued her pegasus sister and she saw firsthoof what Starshadow had become because of her, Starsong completely broke down emotionally. The once lively, personable unicorn had completely withdrawn from all but the necessary social interactions associated with her birthright; her public identity became a wall behind which she hid her fragile heart away from everypony. It was a wonder that she was able to continue on to become a successful operatic singer, given the emotional turmoil she constantly carried with her...
The following years, after Starshadow had recovered and left to make her own life, Starsong was able to slowly recover her emotional stability, but the wound would always remain in her heart. Even now, she struggled with her decision to leave the estate. Polaris would have eventually sent her away once she was old enough to live on her own, but her growing discomfort around her family had made her leave home years earlier to pursue her own dreams. That selfish decision had hurt Starshadow more than she could possibly conceive of. Deep in her heart she was constantly burdened with the same question. Starshadow... if I had been there with you through those years... if I was there that morning when you got your cutie mark... would things have turned out any differently? Regardless of the answer, Starsong knew that she would always carry the crippling guilt of knowing that she had abandoned her beloved younger sister when she had needed her most...
Starsong opened her eyes slowly and sighed as the sight of her old room filled her vision again. The apartment she currently rented in Los Pegasus was small and humble; the whole of it could probably fit in her room in the estate. However, for all of its affluence, there was nothing in her old room that held any real significance to her, save for one thing...
On the wall behind her bed hung a simple flower necklace her sister had made for her on her 13'th birthday, just before she had left for music school. Starsong had told her sister that it was the greatest gift she'd ever received and that she would cherish it forever. To that end, she had insisted that her tutor preserve the flowers in their current state.
Starsong levitated the flower necklace down in front of her. When her sister had made it Starsong had been just a filly herself; as a full-grown mare she doubted that she would be able to fit it over her head and she didn't dare risk breaking it to find out. Instead, she laid the delicate necklace on top of her head, hooked under her horn. Bringing a small mirror to her, she smiled at her sister's hoofwork. The deep red petals with their intricate white patterns accented her yellow coat and silver hair so perfectly. Just like I remembered it, she thought. For a fleeting moment she considered weaving the flowers through her mane, but she quickly dismissed the idea; such a foalish appearance would be unseemly for such a well-groomed, sophisticated mare of the Star Family. Family image always comes first, after all, she thought begrudgingly.
Starsong sat the mirror down beside her and brought a small but ornate jewelry box in front of her. Opening it with her magic, she then unceremoniously dumped its contents onto the floor; several dazzling necklaces and hoof rings, presents from her family and other wealthy ponies (though equally unremarkable to her), scattered across the brushed marble floor. Satisfied that the box was empty, she carefully placed her sister's necklace inside before replacing it on her dresser.
With the deed done, Starsong's thoughts turned to more recent events. She had recognized a few of the ponies that had attacked her and Starshadow in Ponyville as some of her father's agents. There was no doubt in her mind that they had been after Starshadow and her mother later confirmed that Starshadow had been at the estate briefly. However, while Silver Veil had been allowed to tend to her, Starsong was denied even a chance to see her sister before the pegasus was quietly removed from the estate again.
Starshadow... Please be okay.
The pony responsible for everything that had happened, her father Polaris, had also been mysteriously absent the last few days. It made no sense to Starsong. Polaris must have "brought" her sister home in order to force her to fulfill whatever destiny awaited her in the tome; it was the only reason her father had ever cared about his pegasus daughter. So then why send her away again...? She knew for a fact that family law forbade taking the book out of the estate and she had seen herself that it still resided in its case in Polaris's office. Whatever was going on, Starsong knew in her heart she needed to be there for her sister.
She needed to talk to her mother.
Slowly she rose to her hooves; her body felt slow and sluggish as she was still suffering some lingering effects from the attack. Once she was able to steady herself, she quickly made her way out of the room into the hallway. She paused for a moment at the door leading to her sister's now empty room before continuing down the stairs towards the servant's quarters. From the stairwell Starsong could see various ponies scurrying here and there; though the massive estate normly only housed four ponies, the work never ended for the staff it seemed.
Starsong noted that most of the servants were moving towards the second floor balcony. Curious, she made her way there herself. When she stepped out onto the enclosed balcony, she quickly spotted the source of the goings-on; her aunt Starlette was standing over her husband who appeared to be on the verge of throwing up... again. Around her, several servants and nurse ponies were waiting impatiently for their mistress to either give them an order or get out of the way.
Starsong sighed; this was not an uncommon occurrence lately, according to her mother, and in fact it was the third such scene she'd walked in on herself since she was brought back to the estate. As with each previous time, Starsong decided to intervene in order to allow the servants to do their jobs.
"Auntie Starlette," Starsong called out as cheerfully as she could manage.
Starlette visibly brightened at the sound of her niece's voice. "Starsong, you silly filly, how many times do I have to tell you to just call me Starlette? I'm young enough to be your older sister after all."
"That would be unseemly," Starsong replied, guiding her aunt to one side as the servants silently thanked her before attending to their duties.
Starlette was right about her claim, outrageous as it might have seemed to an outsider; the mare was a mere nine years older than Starsong. She had been conceived just before her father died and her mother took control of the family. Her bright red coat and yellow eyes offset the family's silver mane and accented her warm, cheery personality, a trait she had maintained despite the cold indifference the family often favored her with. Like her older brother Polaris, her special talent was combat magic, though in her case it seemed like some kind of cruel joke. The mare wouldn't hurt a parasprite and Starsong was certain she would be lost in a real combat scenario. To make matters worse, she wasn't the smartest unicorn around and she had absolutely no leadership capability whatsoever.
In short, in the Star Family's eyes, she was useless.
Her husband Lance was even lower though. The two had met while Lance was training to become a royal guard. The family had never approved of the commoner unicorn, but after Polaris became patriarch he had eventually relented and allowed his baby sister to marry for love. After it became apparent that Starsong was unfit to become matriarch however, the pressure began to mount on Starlette and Lance to produce a proper heir. Naturally, at first Lance was excited for the idea, but after years of fairly constant trying produced nothing, even after several magically enhanced heat cycles, the stallion began to doubt himself. To drown out those feelings, the stallion had turned to drinking. Hard. Lately, the stallion was drunk out of his mind nearly round the clock.
Despite Lance's total descent into alcoholism, Starlette's love for her husband never wavered and thus the stallion remained a part of the Star Family. As far as the public knew though, Lance had contracted and was battling some kind of exotic disease; the stallion hadn't been allowed to leave the grounds of the estate in years...
"I'm sorry about all this," Starlette said, shaking Starsong from her reverie. "Lance has had a... busy morning."
"So I see. Well don't worry about it. I'm sure nopony will mind so long as we can get him back to your room before-"
As if on cue, the stallion chose exactly that moment to empty the product of his latest binge onto the floor. Both mares turned to the sound of servants nurses scrambling to deal with the mess of a pony; Starlette, predictably, rushed back to her husband's side and immediately became a burden upon the servant ponies once again. Starsong considered intervening again, but ultimately she deemed it a waste of effort and she really needed to find her mother.
As she turned away from the scene she shook her head and sighed.
_The family now consists of a power-mad patriarch, a combat magician who can't fight or even keep her own life together, a powerless unicorn, and a pegasus somehow...
The Star Family has always claimed to be directly descendant of Starswirl the Bearded; if that really is true, he must be turning over in his grave right now, to see what's become of his bloodline..._
For the next half hour Starsong wandered the grounds of the massive estate in search of her mother. She asked the servants she passed as she went, but nopony had seen the mare that day apparently. Finally, after exhausting every other possibility, Starsong headed to the one place she hadn't bothered to check: Polaris's office.
There, at her father's desk without tripping any of the security wards somehow, sat her mother Silver Veil.
Despite her shock and disbelief, Starsong thankfully still had the wherewithal to knock on the door rather than simply walk into the heavily warded room herself. Silver Veil looked up from the book she had been reading and smiled when she saw her eldest daughter. She then calmly got up and exited the office.
"There you are Starsong. I thought you might come looking for me today."
Starsong was speechless for a long moment before she finally stammered, "M-Mom?! What were you...?! How were you...?! How did you-"
Silver Veil placed a hoof on her daughter's head just under her horn and gently rubbed back and forth; the touch had always calmed Starsong as a filly and even now she could feel her mind stop racing. Silver Veil gave her a warm, motherly smile before pulling her into a hug.
"No matter how old you get, you'll always be my little filly." She finally released her daughter from the hug, but not before planting a gentle kiss on the tip of her horn.
"Thanks mom," Starsong said, a faint blush coloring her features.
"Now then, I'm sure you're wondering how I'm able to bypass your father's security." Starsong nodded. "It's actually pretty simple if you understand the spell structure. Your father's wards are top notch; especially impressive when you consider that his special talent has nothing to do with wards. Polaris does, however, leave a... 'signature,' I guess you could call it, on every spell he casts; I doubt he even realizes that it's there, as he's always done it. For a spell like this that's self-sustained over time, that signature becomes an exploitable weakness. All I have to do is copy his signature and his spell becomes mine."
"That's amazing," Starsong said, genuinely impressed at her mother's ingenuity. "But wait, how are you able to perfectly match Polaris's signature?"
"Let's just say I know your father very well..." Silver Veil laughed at this; Starsong gave a somewhat uncomfortable laugh in return. "Now then," Silver Veil started, suddenly serious again, "what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Mom, I can't stay here anymore. I have to go find Starshadow."
"I know, and I'm so happy to hear you say that." Silver Veil smiled at her daughter but her mood quickly sobered when she saw her daughter's serious expression hadn't changed. "What is it, dear? Come on, out with it."
"Mom..." Starsong paused for a long moment. "Mom, come with me. Please... I want us all to be together again."
Silver Veil closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, but I can't leave with you, Starsong."
"What? Why?! I know you're just as worried for Starshadow as I am!"
"Of course I am, dear. Please try to understand, Starsong. I do want to help you two more than anything; that's why I can't leave now."
"Mom..."
"Think about it. If I left the Star Family I would be nopony, powerless to actually help you two. But here," she gestured towards Polaris's office as she spoke, "I have access to all the same resources as your father. Here I actually have the power to make a difference."
"I understand mom," Starsong said finally though her disappointment was clearly evident in her voice and posture.
"I know this will be difficult for you and Starshadow to understand but despite everything that's happened I do still love your father."
"Mom," Starsong began. Before she could voice her opinion on the matter though she found herself pulled into another hug. Rather than affectionate though, this time her mother's embrace was protective and fierce.
"That said, nopony, not even my own husband, brings harm to _my_daughters and gets away with it...!"
"What are you planning, mom?"
"I'm going to see to it that nopony comes after either of you ever again." Silver Veil let her daughter go and stepped back. "Now then, if you're going to leave, you should do so quickly before your father returns to the estate."
"But won't I need some kind of cover? If I just left like this-"
"Already taken care of, my dear. I took the liberty of preparing a press release for you as soon as your father brought you back to the estate. Once you recovered from your accident, you decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the orchestra and travel abroad to get away from everything and find yourself again."
"That's perfect! Polaris won't be able to touch me openly."
"Indeed, and after this whole mess, I doubt he would risk sending agents after you either, at least for a while anyway."
"Thank you mom, for everything."
"Of course, my darling daughter. Now can I ask you one thing of you before you go?"
"Of course mom, anything."
"Tell Starshadow that I hope she and her special somepony have a long, happy life together."
"You can tell them yourself before too long, mom." Both mares smiled at the thought. "Those two really are good together. I'm so glad she found somepony like Big Mac after everything she's endured."
Silver Veil nodded. "I know, I could tell by the way she talked about him." She let out a long, wistful sigh before focusing her attention back on her daughter. "Now then Starsong, while we're on the subject, do you have somepony that's special in your heart?"
Starsong was taken completely off-guard by the question. "Wh- Mom, I... I don't have time to worry about things like that. Between my career and my social obligations to the family, I'm far too busy-"
"Nonsense, my dear. You're never too busy to fall in love and it _certainly_isn't something to worry over. All you have to do is keep your eyes open. I'm sure there are plenty of nice young stallions in the orchestra, aren't there?"
"Why are we even talking about this?" Starsong was visibly blushing at this point.
"I just want my daughter to experience the same happiness that her sister has found... And maybe someday give me some adorable little grandfoals..."
So that's what this is about... I should have known. Starsong forced herself to smile. "Okay mom, I'll keep my eyes open." Anything to end this painfully awkward conversation...
"There you go, that's the spirit." Silver Veil suppressed a laugh at her daughter's reaction. "Now then, we both have things we have to do before Polaris returns. We should get moving."
"Yeah, I guess so," Starsong finally said. "It was good to see you mom. I'm sorry it's been so long since the last time I was here."
"It's okay. After that night, I wouldn't want to come back here either if I didn't have to..." Both ponies shuddered at the memory of the last time they had seen each other face-to-face. "I know that the circumstances were less than pleasant, but still it was wonderful to see you and Starshadow again."
"I promise we'll see each other again sooner this time..."
"Don't worry about that, just promise me you and your sister will take care of each other."
"Of course mom."
Silver Veil turned back towards Polaris's office as she spoke. "Okay, I'll schedule that press release to break late tonight. You need to be gone before then." She carefully opened the door and went back inside. Just before she closed the door behind her she turned to her daughter one last time. "Good luck Starsong."
Starsong stood by the door for a moment, watching as her mother sat back down at the desk and resumed scanning the book she'd been reading before. Well, I guess it's time I got moving too...
Starsong quickly returned to her room and went to her closet. While most of the clothes and items there were from when she was a filly, she was able to find an adult-sized saddlebag and a heavy, black cloak. She packed as lightly as she could before carefully placing the jewelry box with Starshadow's necklace on top. Taking a few hundred bits for travel expenses, she closed up and donned the saddlebag.
When she went to put on the cloak however, Starsong's hooves began to shake and she had to force herself to not think about the last time she'd worn it. Finally, after repeatedly reminding herself of the necessity of concealing her identity, she was able to will herself to put the cloak on.
Starsong took one last look around her old room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. A deep sigh escaped her as she glanced around the familiar spaces. Despite her bitter memories of the estate, she couldn't deny that this room still felt like home to her; now that she was about to leave it again, those feelings began to well up. She shook her head. There was no time to waste on nostalgia anymore; her course was set.
Starshadow, I'm coming. I promise I'll never leave you alone again. With this thought in mind, Starsong closed the door to her foalhood behind her