The cold windowpane of a creaky city bus felt cold on Starlight's head. Early morning light shone between towering glass skyscrapers clustered around downtown Gracia. The bus shoved its way through honking taxis and wayward tourists who managed to wander onto the road.

Starlight reached out an ivory hoof and pressed it against the frosted glass. She traced a little music note before drawing away. She smiled at her creation until the bus jerked to a stop and threw her forward into the back of the seat in front of her.

She grumbled and hauled herself back up. Her violet mane fell over her eyes, and she had to push it back behind her ears. Starlight hated riding the bus, but hated the subway more. Riding a clicking and clacking train beneath apartment complexes and thick skyscrapers wasn't her idea of fun.

The bus turned down forty-eighth street and sped toward a towering granite building. Sweeping columns held a red-tiled roof over carved stone steps that led up from the sidewalk. "Gracia Museum of National History," said the gold letters engraved in the building.

Starlight stared at it and groaned. When the bus stopped in front of the museum, she shoved her way to the front of the bus and out onto the sidewalk. Tourists crowded around her, and she had to push her way through them to reach the front steps to the museum. She took them two at a time up to the gold-tinged double doors.

She sprinted inside, her hooves clopping against the museum's smooth tiled floor. She passed by tapestries depicting wars and hunting, and weaved her way through a hall of panoramas detailing the various cities of the Republic of Teton.

A scale model of Gracia, the capital, stood out amongst the others, a sprawling mishmash of gray apartment buildings and colorful skyscrapers. There were models of the fort city Skyhall, built into the side of a mountain and overlooking Amperdam, the city on the river, and of Sundown, a sprawling metropolis in the desert flats.

Starlight passed by them without a second thought on her way toward the back hallway of the museum. She took a sharp corner and skidded to a stop at her familiar door, only to come face to face with her boss.

His eyes peered at her from his wrinkled, light blue face. "You're late again, Miss Starlight," he said. "The children you're supposed to be giving a lesson to are waiting inside, and getting quite restless."

"I know, Mr. Staten, I know," Starlight said. "It's just the bus this morning and the traffic—"

"No excuses." The aging museum curator sniffed. "You may be the daughter of my old friend, but I do not play favorites. Be late again this month and I will dock your pay again. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Staten."

"Good. Now, get in there and do your job, Miss Starlight."

Staten turned on his hoof and walked away, head held high. Starlight sighed and opened the door the museum's rear classroom. Officially an "Education Center," the goal was for Starlight to entertain the kids with history and keep them out of the hair of their parents.

As Starlight had found, keeping colts and fillies entertained with history wasn't an easy task.

The children watched her as she walked to the front of the white-washed room. They sat on a brightly-colored carpet, while she pulled out a stool for herself. She reached into a bookshelf on the wall and pulled out a picture book, one of her favorites.

"Hi, kids," she said in the cheeriest voice she could produce, "today we're going to learn about history! Doesn't that sound exciting?"

The foals kept quiet, just looking at her.

Starlight cleared her throat. "It's a lesson about the founding of this very city!"

She opened the book and began to read.

---

". . . and in 1812, after our war of independence against the Republic of Fiorza, the temporary capital of Applewood was burned down by retreating soldiers. So, instead of attempting to reconstruct the old city, the founders of the new Republic of Teton decided to move their capital to the land previously denied to them," Starlight told them, cracking a smile and making gestures with her hooves in an attempt to make the story seem more exciting.

"So, they moved the homeless ponies out to here and set right to work building this new city. They called it Gracia, as it was given to them by, according to the settlers, the Grace of Adana. Now, today in 2048, this city holds over ten million ponies!"

The foals oohed and aahed at the figure. Starlight grimaced when they showed more interest in the number than anything else. She ran a hoof through her mane, done up in a braid, and turned the page to reveal a simplistic drawing of Gracia at night. The fanciful picture of the city showed it glowing in a million electric lights. The kids smiled and clopped their hooves.

Starlight set the book back with the others once they had calmed down. She looked at the clock. It was nearly one o'clock, almost five minutes after their parents were supposed to pick them up. She groaned. If her gut feeling was right, Booker was late on his tour again.

One of the foals stuck her hoof in the air and waved it around. She didn't stop until Starlight sighed and called on her. "Yes, you had a question?" she asked.

The little filly stood up. "Could you read us another story?" she asked.

Starlight bit her lip. "Maybe," she said, "though it's just about time for you all to go . . . maybe something about Sundown?"

The girl shook her head. "No! Read us something about magic!"

"Yeah!" one of the other foals cried. "About ponies who can use magic!"

"And fly!

"And have pictures on their butts!"

The children began to chatter amongst each other, and their high-pitched voices rang in Starlight's ears. She grit her teeth. Just about the time the foals got to the subject of whether flying or using magic was better, Starlight clopped her hooves together as loud as she could.

"Enough!" she cried. They quieted down and the attention fell back to her. "Those are all just stories," Starlight tried to explain.

"They're wonderful to talk about, but they're not real. This is a museum of history, which means it actually happened. Nopony has ever flown or used magic or had a picture on their flank." A chorus of groans met her and she sighed. "That doesn't mean stories are bad, but you have to remember what's real and what's not."

Luckily for her, Booker chose that moment to arrive with the parents at the end of the tour. The children went streaming out of the room toward their parents and left while chattering about what they had learned, most of which was what they had heard from other classmates instead of Starlight, of course.

Starlight glared at the lithe stallion. "Nice of you to finally show up."

"One of the old couples just wouldn't shut up!" he protested.

"Oh, like you're not late every time. You always just leave me here with . . . with them!"

Booker laughed and started to walk off toward his next tour group. "You know, for somepony who reads to foals all day, you don't seem to like them very much."

He was gone before she could get a word in edgewise, so Starlight just huffed and started rearranging the bookshelf. Oh, sure, like it was easy telling kids stories about the Gold Rush out near Sethton when all they wanted to hear were stories about dragons and unicorns and ponies named after their destiny. Heck, at that age, she wouldn't have wanted to hear about that other stuff either.

Her eyes alighted on one of the books near the back of the shelf. The Case for Celestia. She smiled. Maybe she could spice up the next reading just a little bit. It was a Friday, after all.

Starlight grabbed the book just as another group of foals began to pile in and sit on the carpet in front of the reading chair.

---

It was the second Friday of the month: payday. After work, Starlight lined up with the other employees in front of a swivel top desk in the museum's back room. There, an ancient mare who looked to have been installed when the museum opened slid a check across the desk and let them go home. Starlight was behind Booker, as usual.

The line moved forward and Booker became next to receive his check. The mare across the desk glared at him from beneath her sharktooth glasses, but slid his pay across nonetheless. He took it in his hooves and sniffed it, then smiled at Starlight. "Smell that?" he asked. "That's the smell of the last paycheck before promotion."

"You finally got it?" she asked.

He nodded. "The decision's already been made. Starting Monday, I'll be coordinating all the tours instead of running them." He waved the check in the air. "Soon it'll be goodbye knock off pasta and hello discount pasta!"

Starlight laughed as he left and waved after him. Then, she took her place behind the desk. Though the little slip of paper was the cut the same size of Roger's, she couldn't help but see it as a tiny little thing. Perhaps it was because half of it would be used up before she could even cash it. Then, the rest would be gone to go to pay for her apartment.

She sighed, accepted the check, and walked past the desk. There was an old row of lockers by the exit door. Starlight reached hers and produced a pink wool overcoat out of it, which she threw over herself. The weather pony had said it was supposed to be chilly out tonight.

Most ponies didn't mill around the area very long, so Starlight found herself alone in the locker room. That was, until she felt a familiar, morose presence.

"I heard you did quite the job telling fairy tales today," a raspy voice said.

Starlight turned around to catch sight of Staten, still as old as ever. He looked at her through foggy glasses wrapped around a coat that had started to pale with the years. His aqua mane, too, showed some signs of aging. The grimace on his face, however, was as strong as ever.

"I just figured the children might like to hear some, uh, historical interpretations," Starlight said. "I mean, I thought you would be okay with it since we got that new exhibit . . ." Her voice trailed off and she gulped.

Staten sighed and shook his head. "I suppose if it doesn't stray from the records too far it, then it's alright," he said. He reached over toward a coat rack and pulled off a black windbreaker and matching hat. "Though, I trust that you will keep those stories at a minimum, Miss Starlight?"

She nodded. "Of course, Mr. Staten."

"That's what I like to hear." He coughed. "Oh, and would you remind your father that my offer to dinner still stands? He doesn't seem to have been returning my calls lately."

"I'll be sure to."

"You know, that offer extends to you, too," Staten said. "Outside of work, the daughter of an old friend is always welcome to dinner."

Starlight gave him her best smile. "I'll definitely think about it, Mr. Staten."

The curator gave her a small smile before heading out the door to brave downtown Gracia at dusk. Starlight sighed. Mr. Staten was enough on a normal day, let alone payday.

Starlight hurried to grab her things and whisked her way out the door. Soon she was lost in the crowds walking home from work and just another face among millions.

---

There was a small supermarket shoved between a laundromat and a pizza parlor just a block from her apartment. With her new check in her pocket, Starlight stopped in the squat concrete store to pick up a few things. Her growling stomach, though, called for more than a few things.

A bell dinged as the double doors slid open and she walked through. She took a basket from a station by the door and set out to prowl down the narrow supermarket aisles. Late in the evening, the customers had begun to thin out, so the little corner store was devoid of many customers other than her.

She took her time to pick out her items: pasta, fruit, and about half a dozen kinds of cheese. She rolled her eyes at the new "gluten-free" products that were being offered for all the ponies riding the wave of the latest diet craze. Sure, ponies were supposed to be herd animals, but Starlight preferred comfort foods that allowed her to lounge around on the couch after work.

As she placed the food in her basket, Starlight took a little time to breathe. There wasn't too much noise and she had the aisle to herself, so she closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the supermarket, if only for a moment. Until she opened her eyes again, she could forget about the stresses of her job and stave off what was waiting for her back home.

She tried to think about the icy-green waves that lapped at the rocky shore outside Gracia. To think about when her father had taken her there as a filly, and how she had dove off the rocks into the water. For a moment, Starlight was happy.

Then she opened her eyes.

With a glance around to make sure nopony had seen her, she walked up to the front of the store and placed her basket on one of the checkout counters. The cashier, to her annoyance, wasn't paying much attention. He, like everyone else in the store, was watching the teletube placed up in the corner.

Starlight couldn't hear what the reporter was saying, but she could read the words scrolling by on the bottom of the screen. Something about an earthquake out near Sundown. Nothing big, she supposed, but to her surprise it mentioned something about the IS.

She noticed for the first time that the idle chatter of the employees and customers in the checkout lanes was all focused on that one subject.

"I heard they're closing down the road," said one.

"Well of course they are; it's standard procedure," said another.

"No, no, no, not any roads. The road," answered the first.

"No, they wouldn't!"

"Already have. No traffic getting through the whole city. The IS be setting up checkpoints and everything. I have a cousin out in Amperdam and she told me the whole thing . . ."

Starlight cleared her throat to get the attention of the cashier in front of her. She glared at him, and tapped her hoof on the counter. To her, anything to do with Sundown was unnecessary: far-off concern. Not every pony saw it that way, to her annoyance.

The cashier scanned the items without taking his eyes off the tube. He shoved the items into bags and waited for her to pay.

Starlight pulled out her card from another pocket in her coat and gave it to him. She sighed to herself when somepony turned up the volume on the tube.

The cashier tapped her on the shoulder. "Ma'am?" he said. "Your card is declined."

Her heart sank. "Try it again," she said.

He swiped it through the machine again, then shook his head. "It's still coming up as declined. Is there any other way you could pay?"

Starlight took out her paycheck with a little reluctance and showed it to him. The cashier just shook his head and pointed to a sign taped to the steel register: NO CHECKS.

"But that's not fair!" Starlight cried. "How can you not accept checks?"

The cashier shrugged. "Too many bounced, I guess. It's not my decision. Now, are you going to pay with cash or another card?"

Starlight shut her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. This isn't happening, this isn't happening . . .

She distinctly remembered putting the rest of the cash she'd had on hoof into her account just a few days ago. One hundred rounders should have been more than enough for some groceries and a few snacks.

Then, she remembered.

Anger began to well up inside her. She wanted to scream. Her late insurance payment. A stupid envelope that she had left on the counter one day too late.

"Ma'am, we're going to be closing soon," the cashier said.

Starlight shook her head and began to walk away. "Take it," she said, "just take it. Take it all back."

A few ponies began to stare at her as she walked out of the store, but she returned the look until they found something else to gawk at. With a heavy heart and empty stomach, Starlight trotted out of the store and down the street back to her apartment.

---

Starlight walked down dirty and cracked sidewalks toward her home with her head down. The eyes of passing strangers all seemed to focus on her, silently judging while her empty stomach growled. She looked down and kept her own eyes on her hooves. One in front of the other, carrying her home.

Overhead, thunderclouds boomed and began to spill their cargo onto the city below. Fat droplets smashed into the ground around Starlight, and trickled down her neck. Ponies around her extended umbrellas into the sky, whose handles lit up with bright lights to help them guide their way.

Starlight ignored the rain and turned a corner onto a lonely sidestreet. A lamp post above her flickered on and off in the storm. Lightning boomed in the distance and Starlight picked up her pace. Her apartment building sat wedged between two others that looked just like it near the end of the block. Far removed from the glass skyscrapers and peace of downtown, Starlight's slice of Gracia was scrubbed over with dirt and grime.

Overhead, a police spinner flew by. Its twin rotors buffeted the ground beneath it while it scanned over the apartment complexes with a bright searchlight. Starlight watched it for a moment until it moved on.

The rain began to fall harder, and Starlight trotted down the sidewalk until she reached her apartment building. She noticed a few dark vans parked on the opposite side of the street, but soon turned her attention away. She cantered up the front steps and through the dingy lobby to a silver elevator on the other side.

Starlight leaned against the wall of the mirrored box. She rubbed her forehead and tucked her pink jacket tighter around her. The elevator took her up six floors before grinding to a halt on in a hazy hallway lit only by a window at the other end.

Starlight stepped out and her hooves slid over the worn maroon carpet. She walked down the hall to her apartment as she always did. Her eyes traced over the wallpaper while her mind drifted off to other topics. Her stomach growled and she thought about Mr. Staten's invitation to dinner.

Her hoof reached out to touch the door lever to her apartment . . . then she stopped. She looked closer, and her heart stopped. It was only barely visible, but her door was already open a crack.

The only key to the apartment was in her jacket pocket, so she started to back away. She kept her eyes on the door and moved toward the elevator. Then, the light above the elevator doors dinged, the car was riding back down.

A crash came from inside her apartment, and Starlight scrambled away. With nowhere else to go, she backed toward the window. Then a shout came from inside the apartment.

"She's outside!"

Starlight turned and ran to the window. She gripped the pane and slid it up just as she saw a dark figure emerge from her apartment. He turned toward her and yelled to his partner.

She didn't stick around to hear what he said. Starlight crawled out the window and landed with a soft thud on a rusty fire escape. She reached up and slid the window shut before running down the stairs.

The metal stairs creaked and groaned under weight, but Starlight didn't slow down. She could hear the glass breaking behind her and more yelling. Sweat ran down her forehead and mixed with the rain that poured overhead. She slipped on a bottom stair and nearly fell off the fire escape before catching herself against the railing.

Thunder boomed in the sky above.

The stallions above her closed in on her. They took the steps three at a time, jumping down the stairways in their pursuit. Starlight guessed they were only a couple levels above her by the time she reached the bottom.

She looked behind her once, then jumped down to the alley below. She hissed from the impact and pain shot through her legs. She didn't have time to think about that, however. Her mind ran on instinct.

She ran out of the alley just as the stallions got to the ground. She took a sharp turn and sped away from her apartment building. The pouring rain got in her eyes, blinding her. Lightning seemed to flash around her and the cars sped by at a dizzying speed. She could hear the assailants getting closer and closer, barging through the few ponies on the street with her. Soon, they would catch up.

She turned right onto another street in the hope she could find a place to hide in a crowd. But when she got around the corner, her stomach dropped. The entire street was empty. Not a car, not a pony, nothing.

Starlight sprinted down the street, but knew they would catch up to her soon. Their hooves all over her, grabbing her and forcing her to the ground . . .

A cry escaped her mouth when a strong hoof suddenly grabbed her. Instead of pulling her to the ground, though, she was pulled into a small side alley. The hoof shoved itself against her mouth to muffle her screams while the two stallions pursuing her passed by.

They yelled and called out to her. When they didn't notice her, they moved on and out of hearing range. Only then did the hoof come off her mouth.

She coughed and swung around to face whoever had dragged her into the alley. "Okay, what gives?" she growled. "And who are you?"

With a snort, Staten walked out of the shadows. He was shaking, and his eyes were bloodshot. "Starlight," he rasped, "I'm going to need your help."