“So that’s the situation.” Starlight finished with an exhausted breath. She had been pacing manically back and forth as she explained her earlier conversation with Water Lily to Twilight. In fact, Twilight was surprised Starlight hadn’t paced a hole straight through the castle floor. It was obvious this was kind of stressing Starlight out. Understandably so. Water Lily’s predicament was more than a little eyebrow raising.

“Okay Starlight… Let me just gather my thoughts here.” Twilight wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes as she carefully considered everything Starlight had rambled on about for the last half hour or so. “So,” the princess began. “Water Lily came to you asking about making her mom love her. You asked why she thought she didn’t and what she said was… well… somewhat worrying to say least.” Twilight sighed, a heavy feeling weighed on her shoulders. “Starlight, you know as well as I that we don’t know enough about the situation to confidently say Water Lily’s circumstances are dire. But I’ll agree that based on what you’ve told me, this does require a bit of further investigation.”

Starlight nodded in agreement. “Of course Twilight. I didn’t think we needed to get foal protective services involved or anything like that. Not off of what little we know. But I would like you to maybe talk to Water Lily’s mother. And be careful what you say, just in case.”

Twilight rested a hoof on her pupil’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to Water’s mom. I’d like to get ahold of her dad as well, but based on what you've said I'm not sure how easy that'll be. I’ll see about it though.” The alicorn gave a tired yawn. Her wings stretched out behind her and popped as she did so, before folding back nicely against her sides. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention Starlight. I think I’ll fly over to Ms. Tiger Lily’s house now and inquire about little Water so I can get to bed. Long day of teaching.”

Starlight smiled at her mentor and friend. “Of course. And thank you for handling this tonight. I know you’re pretty beat.”

Twilight shrugged, small grin painting her lips. “Meh, don’t worry about it. I know you’d probably keep yourself worrying all night if I put it off till morning. And knowing myself, I’d probably worry over it too. May as well do it now.”

The unicorn pulled Twilight into a quick little hug. “You’re the best.”

Twilight chuckled. “Thanks, I try.”

With that, Twilight and Starlight both exchanged their farewells for the night. Twilight was off to visit the Lily residence and wouldn’t probably be back for a bit. So it was unlikely they’d see each other again until morning.

Once Twilight had flown off, Starlight went ahead and got ready for bed. She wasn’t as tired from the day as Twilight was. But sleepiness was still present. Once finished brushing her teeth and taking a short shower, Starlight tucked herself into the soft warm comfort of her bed. She anticipated seeing Water Lily at school the next day.

Starlight Glimmer woke up a little late the next morning. She had missed breakfast and Twilight had already left the castle. She only barely had enough time to shower, brush, and groom her mane and coat in time to make it to her office before the bell. Not that it would've mattered if she had been a little tardy. It'd be different were she a teacher, but nopony would terribly mind the guidance counselor being an hour behind. Even so, Starlight liked being on time. It made her feel good. It made her feel responsible. So to hear the bell ring moments after she'd entered her office made all the rushing to get there absolutely worth it.

The first few periods of the day came and went. Starlight toiled away her time as she usually did. Finally, after an eternity and a half of waiting, lunch rolled around. Starlight wouldn’t usually look forward to lunch break. Since what she’d be doing then would be about the same as what she did the rest of the day. But today she’d been waiting for a chance to go find Water Lily and ask if Twilight had spoken to her mother.

Gleefully, Starlight got up and pranced out the office door. With a small skip in her step she trotted through the school halls, occasionally saying hello to a passing student or two. It didn’t take too long to find the meek little pegasus. She didn’t appear to be talking to anypony else. Odd, given that’s what ponies usually did during lunch. Starlight didn’t think too much of it though. Or at least, she tried not too. She was pretty shy after all. That much the mare had learned yesterday afternoon. Maybe she just liked keeping to herself. Nothing wrong with being a little shy.

“Hey, Water Lily!” Starlight called out to the filly. When the pegasus turned to see who was calling to her, Starlight grinned and waved. To her surprise, Water Lily turned away. Promptly ignoring her. When the filly then began to walk- no, trot away, Starlight was quick to follow. “H-hey wait, Water Lily! I’d like to have a word with you, if that’s alright!”

No response.

A minute or so of not so inconspicuous following later, Starlight became impatient and resorted to lighting her horn and simply teleporting in front of the filly.

Water Lily jumped back in surprised, then without any hesitation turned to run away. Before she could manage though, Starlight put up a small magic wall in her path. Water Lily shrank as Starlight carefully approached her. The unicorn felt nervous and truthfully, kind of hurt by the display. What could’ve happened to make Water Lily afraid of her? “Water Lily? I just want to talk. Why’re you trying to run from me?” Starlight was gentle and slow with her words. She didn’t want Water Lily thinking she was accusing her of anything, or that she was angry. She only wished to know why she didn’t want to talk.

Water Lily had been holding her eyes closed, but as Starlight inched closer, she couldn’t help but open them. When she did, Starlight was welcomed with the teary eyed stare of a distressed and saddened young pony. “P-please… Ms. Glimmer.” Water Lily began. “Mommy told me not to talk to you anymore. Or Head-mare Twilight. S-so I can’t talk to you.” Her ears folded back against her head, and she sniffed from oncoming tears. “Please leave me alone…”

Starlight opened her mouth to ask for what exactly she’d meant, but was halted when her gaze fell unto Water’s left wing.

It was in tatters.

Feathers were askew and the way it folded against her side made it look as if it’d hurt to move further towards her body. The more Starlight inspected it, she was even able to make out discoloration around one section of the appendage. She held back her gasp as well as she could. “Water Lily…” She began. “What in Equestria happened to your wing? It looks like it really hurts…” Starlight looked around to make sure nopony was watching them. She leaned in towards Water Lily and whispered in her ear. “Water Lily…. Please come with me to my office. We can talk in private there. You don’t have to tell your mother. All I want to do is make your wing feel better… Go wait in my office for me. I’ll go fetch some stuff from the nurses office and be right back, alright?”

Water Lily looked at Starlight. She was hesitating. She looked afraid. But she also looked relieved. Heavy silence passed between the two, time seemed to stand still. But finally Water Lily nodded a yes. “Okay…” She quietly spoke.

Starlight smiled. She reached out to give a comforting pat on Water Lily’s head. Luckily she was able to stop herself. Remembering trying to do something similar yesterday, only to have Water Lily flinch away from her touch. “Go wait for me,” she said. “I promise I’ll be quick.”

The little pegasus did her best to smile. She brought her hoof up to wipe the tears from her eyes, before quickly getting up and galloping away in the direction of the guidance office. Watching her leave, Starlight took a quick and deep breath. “Okay…” She sighed to herself. Lighting her horn once more with her magic’s light blue glow, she cast a quick teleportation spell. She was gonna to be really quick like she promised. But before the nurses office, she used her magic to send herself straight to Twilight.

She materialized right in front of Twilight’s desk, much to the surprise of the purple alicorn. Twilight squealed an amusing squeal of surprise, falling back in her seat with a thud. She groaned and rubbed her head. “Starlight, for the love of Celestia, don’t do that.”

Starlight merely chuckled. “Heh, sorry Twilight.”

Twilight pulled herself up off the floor and breathed a soft exhale. “Now then, what can I help you with Starlight? Lunch break is over in about ten minutes, so if it’s something that’ll take a while it’ll have to wait until school is over. I’ve got a class to teach after this.”

“Actually Twilight, I’m in a bit of a rush too. I just stopped in to let you know something real quick.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “Well then what is it?”

Starlight began to quickly spout off everything she felt needed saying. “I just found Water Lily. I want you to know we’re going to have to have a longer talk later about what happened when you spoke to her mother last night. But for now, I want you to know between then and now she’s gotten some kind of wing injury.”

“What?!” Twilight's eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, is she with the nurse? Is she okay? Oh, dear you don’t think that…” The princess couldn’t quite bring herself to finish that thought. The possibility that Water’s wing wasn’t accidentally injured was a painful one. Especially considering Twilight had seen the filly at home last night. With perfectly healthy wings. Cringing at the thought, she swallowed her words. Starlight knew very well what Twilight was afraid to suggest.

“I…I really hope not..” Starlight spoke, melancholy in her tone. “Let’s call that a worst case scenario. Just… Look, I have her in my office. I’m about to go pick up some supplies from the nurse and I have a few healing spells up my sleeve as well. Her wing will be fine. But I’m going to try and get her to tell me what happened.”

Twilight relaxed into her seat. “Okay, okay. Sounds good. You’d better go talk to her then. I’ll let whoever’s in charge of her next class know she shouldn’t be counted absent.”

“Will do.”

With that out of the way. Starlight was quick in retrieving everything she needed from the nurse. She grabbed some bandages and a wing brace in case it was bad enough to need it. She didn’t plan on using any large scale healing magic. Afterall, Starlight had spells essentially a few steps from necromancy at her disposal. But such extravagance wasn’t needed. And Medi-magic was pretty tricky. What with everything going on, she likely didn’t have the patience or focus to heal the wing to perfect health anyways. A little pain relief magic in combination with the bandages and such should do the trick.

Utilizing teleportation one more time, Starlight brought herself from the nurses office right to her office door.

Carefully, she peeked her head in and saw Water Lily had in fact come to wait for her. This brought Starlight much relief, as she’d been worried that maybe the filly would’ve just run off again after getting the chance. She knocked a couple knocks to let Water know she was coming in, then subsequently did just that.

“Hey Water Lily, hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

The pegasus didn’t immediately respond. Truthfully, she still didn’t look like she wanted to be there. Not entirely at least. But it was only seconds that passed before Starlight got her reply. “N-no… It was okay. Sorry to trouble you Ms. Glimmer.”

Starlight grinned, then waved her hoof dismissively. “No, no. You’re not causing any trouble. Don’t worry about it.” Her eyes fell again on Water’s wing. “Do you mind maybe showing me your wing? I’d like to heal it and wrap it up for you.”

Water Lily attempted to move her wing so she herself could look at it, but winced in pain at the feeling that shot through her torso when she tried. Warily, she nodded her head and turned so Starlight could better see.

The unicorn couldn’t help furrowing her brow at the sight. The base of her wing was obviously bruised from getting hit with something. The surrounding flesh purpled, turning her beautiful softened blue coat reddish. Her feathers, as mentioned, were a mess. Starlight frowned deeply at the sight. She didn’t want to believe anypony would do something like this to such a sweet little filly. She didn’t yet know that somepony did deliberately do this. But… her intuition was telling her…

So as to not alarm Water Lily, Starlight gave her a heads up before she began working her magic. She took hold of the wing, then took a deep breath and focused on relieving the nerves surrounding the inflicted area. It brought a small smile to Starlight’s face when she saw Water Lily slouch comfortably into her magic’s hold. Once her horn’s glow died down, she inspected the harmed bit of wing. Of course, it was still hurt. But now it didn’t seem to flinch and twitch. A telling sign that she had successfully lessened the pain a considerable amount. Satisfied with her work, she began bandaging everything up.

She finished and sat back. Making sure to give Water Lily some space. The filly turned with a look of great appreciation showing through all the fear and sadness that had been inhabiting her face. “Thank you.” She softly spoke. “That feels a lot better.”

“I’m glad…” With that out of the way, it was time to dampen the mood. It was a shame, but Starlight didn’t want to beat around the bush. “Actually Water Lily…. Would you mind telling me how your wing got hurt?”

Water Lily froze. She shook her head. She looked away.

“I can’t say.”

“Water Lily, please. I need to know. I care about your safety.” This was true. In two short days, Starlight had grown a sort of protectiveness over this filly. She wasn’t sure why, or how. But seeing the poor thing hurt in any way, shape, or form filled Starlight’s chest with feelings of anger.

“I’m sorry.” The pegasus whimpered. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?” Starlight questioned.

“I can’t tell you that either.”

Frustration began creeping up on the unicorn. Her ear twitched in annoyance. She couldn’t take this, she needed to know. Without thinking, she went ahead and asked. Her voice was cold as ice, a growl hiding just behind her tone. “Water Lily… was it your mom?”

Deafening quiet fell over the two ponies.

Author's Notes:

Dun dun dun

Alrighty, two chapters in. That's a good sign. One time (my old account) I had an entire Fallout: Equestria story planned and it was gonna be super bad-ass and awesome but I gave up after writing chapter one.