AN: Here is chapter two! I hope that you all like it!
^_^ Enjoy, BlondeSky
Chapter 2
A Long Awaited Change
Six months had passed since the day when she had found North and he had accepted her as his shadow. Over the past while she had learned much and grown accustomed to her new life and name. There was a lot of office work to it, but it still managed to be interesting to her. Also there was the fact that North had become more her family than her own. Unlike the others he seemed to process emotion the same way that she could. At this point all of the other foals had already melded into the hive like society. He managed to be unique despite the overall uniformity of their entire species. It was a pleasant and more than welcome change in pace from everypony and everything else.
It was almost dusk so she was preparing to leave as he in turn was preparing to leave for the night sky. Everything had been put away neatly except for a scroll that was unrolled on the desk before him. He was pouring over it carefully as she waited by the door to be dismissed. Even if it wasn't really necessary she always waited to leave before being told to. He, however, was too absorbed in whatever it was that he was reading to notice her waiting for his command. She sat politely by the door not wanting to interrupt and not wanting to leave without permission either.
"What do you know of the surface world?" he asked her rather suddenly after what felt like an eon of silence.
"Surface world?" she inquired not entirely sure of what he was talking about.
"Yes. Where ponies live." he answered simply and finally taking his eyes off of the scroll.
"But we are ponies." she argued cocking her head in confusion.
"I suppose so." he agreed after a moment's thought, "You are dismissed. I will see you tomorrow." he finished turning back to the paper before him. She waited for a moment to be sure that there was nothing else before exiting.
She had been practicing for a while and focused on the look of the inside of her home and willing herself to move there. She heard a zing noise and opened her eyes to find herself in her room. She took a few clumsy steps grinning stupidly from her success. She collapsed on her bed rather contended with her current situation, but pondering the final cryptic question that he had asked her. It was a singular anomaly in the average day that had existed before. It confused her, but didn't necessarily worry her.
She pulled out the multiple papers and quill ink that she kept nearby her bed. She had been doing a lot of writing and whenever she was bothered, or having problems sleeping she would draw the letters in different forms and shapes. It had an almost calming effect and allowed her to devote her attention to something else. It was now a subconscious action, but still managed to distract her. Just moving from one letter to the next in no particular order or pattern. She had already filled multiple pages front and back and was down to the last of her ink. Before long she had to get up to grab a new bottle of ink.
Now though the mundane action reassured her slight doubt and helped her mind to shut down for the quietness of the hours of sleep that were getting progressively shorter as the weeks passed. It wasn't long before she had managed to fill another page with a random assortment and amount of the alphabet. Soon enough though she started to slip into unconsciousness with the page still in front of her. That night sleep came to her on the paper with the quill and nearly full bottle of ink lying next to her.
-/|\-
When she woke up just as every day she brushed her mane and tail which felt wet weirdly. She picked up the empty ink pot that she had used and the other one which appeared to have spilled over the night. Still she dismissed it and headed straight for the office like building that was still of the same white crystalline structure as all of the other buildings that there were. When she entered he was again pouring over a scroll and looked almost as if he'd never even moved from that spot. He looked up as she walked in and his eyes widened in shock as he saw her. "Polaris, are you alright?" he asked cautiously.
"Of course. Why would I not be?" she replied confused.
"It is simply that the entirety of your mane and good portions of the left side of your neck and face are black. Your tail has black streaks in it as well." he told her in concerned tone.
"What?" she asked now slightly worried.
He exited the room and returned with a bucket of water in his mouth. Looking in it she saw that he was telling the truth. She pulled back as she remembered the spilled ink pot. She had been sleeping right next to it. It must have spilled all over her mane. Then when she brushed her hair it was still wet so she had transferred some of it to her tail. "However this is actually good for us. Yesterday I mentioned to you the surface world." He told her moving the bucket away so she could no longer see her reflection. "There they have legends of us, but unfortunately these legends do not lean towards our own moral favor. In other words they do not depict us in the kindest light. Still they do not know that we are real. We are merely legends as I previously stated. I also wish to keep it as such, when you go down there you will be disguised as one of them. You are already almost done with that conveniently. Of course if you do not wish to go down yet I will not force you."
"Why go down there if we want to remain hidden from them?" she queried.
"If you are to lead the star ponies one day it is important that you know of and understand them. You will only be down there for a short time. Just enough to gain an impression of how they operate. Yes we are ponies, but we are very different ponies from them. So, what do you wish to do?" he explained.
"I would like to go now." she replied barely masking her excitement.
"If you are sure." he finished with a nod. "Still, while your mane and tail are already disguised there are still your shoulders to hide." he turned and walked towards a door leading further into the building with her in tow.
She followed as he pulled out a jar with a white substance in it. "This is designed to be used as paint on the body." he explained, "You can use it to camouflage the stars on your shoulders." He then handed it to her after taking the top off so that she could reach the substance inside. She dipped her hoof in and used it to coat both of her shoulders and continued to apply it until the stars that had once been there were completely hidden. She felt incredibly different as she looked her rather altered appearance. North screwed the cap back onto the jar and put the container away where he had gotten it from. "Now, there is the matter of reaching the surface." he finished before leading her out of the building.
She was ecstatic at what she had just been told. The fact that there was indeed something different, her favorite word, out there was wondrous. She wasn't going to waste this chance to break the routine that grew ever more stale as time went on. Despite the fact that the job could've been a great deal less interesting it still wasn't quite exciting. The prospect of a whole new world that was out there delighted her beyond belief. She followed behind him at an energetic trot as she tried to imagine what it might be like. She was practically bounding with joy as they entered the long and low warehouse like structure that he had led her to.
Inside there were several unicorns walking and trotting about the almost completely barren building. The only thing worth noting was the numerous large platforms all over the floor. Each one was round, at least four feet in diameter, raised up to a height of about 6 inches, and made of a bright blue stone. As they entered one of the unicorns tending to the stone platforms nodded acknowledging their presence before continuing their work. The filly shadowing them did the same before following after them. "These are the teleports that are used to move between the two worlds. They were set up a very long while ago and haven't been in use for a rather long time Of course they have been kept in good condition simply because that is what we do. They do come in use from time to time due to that fact that it is rather difficult to travel between the two plains. They're made of astral stone which conducts magic well enough for them to be used to teleport between them without nearly as many problems." he explained to her.
"So what happens now?" she asked slightly nervous.
"You may go down to the surface world. It is still not too far after dawn so you will have the entirety of the day to explore. Your coat will start to glow however as night falls, just as the stars do. It is best to be up here and out of sight by the time that happens." he answered.
"Unisus Isle." he told the unicorn who had acknowledged them earlier.
She nodded and the filly shadowing her came up to Polaris and led her up to one of the platforms. After reaching it she gestured for her to get onto the blue dais and so she stepped nervously onto the platform. She looked over at the unicorn who would be teleporting her down feeling significantly less confident. Her attention however was drawn back to North as he spoke, "Down there there will be a blue rock in the ground, it will be a great deal smaller than this, but it serves the same purpose. Once you are done all you have to do is touch that stone and teleport back." She nodded and the unicorn managing the teleport fired a beam of magic into it.
AN: The mentioned location is completely made up. Chapter three should be out tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
