Life After Work [Complete]

[Dark Star]

It was a calm day in Canterlot; clear skies, beautiful sights every which way you turn, practically everything you could imagine can be found right there in Canterlot. This day felt perfect to just about any pony who was going there, and Dark Star was no exception. Though she normally slept during the day, this was Friday, the day where she turns in all of her recent research work, and she was feeling proud about it today. The night before, she had managed to come across a brand new constellation that hadn't been seen by any other pony before, and she managed to jot down every last bit of it the minute she saw it. She was so ecstatic about turning in this knowledge that she couldn't sleep at all on the train.

The train arrived at Canterlot at noon and Dark Star tried to hold in her excitement as she departed from it. She trotted down the streets, greeting the occasional pony who recognized her as a regular visitor and managed to come across the place she was looking for, Canterlot University. She walked in, greeted her boss-Professor Specks-and started to unpack her research. The Professor was impressed with her work, so impressed that he offered her the opportunity to assist him in his classes. She didn't want to tell him she had no interest, so she responded with "I'll give it a little thought, then get back to you on that later, Professor". He paid her for her work and she was on her merry little way afterwords.

She stepped out and suddenly realized that, while she had been to Canterlot many times, she never actually knew anything about it. It was only half-past-noon, and there wasn't anything else she had planned for the day aside from sleeping, so she decided then that she would enjoy herself a little in town that afternoon. The first thing she would need though, is some pony to share the afternoon with, so she started towards the town square, hoping that she would make some new friends that would be willing to spend time with her. "Luck be a mare today" she told herself for good luck, and continued trotting towards the square.

[Toast]

It was days like these that Silver loved. Clear skies and Celestias shining sun were all that he needed to be outside, and he figured he would enjoy his old city while he could. He was only up in Canterlot for the holiday season and would be heading back down to ponyville soon. But today Silver just finds himself in the town square alone, taking a small break from visiting family and friends.

Casually walking down the street with a small smile on his face Silver Levitates a Canterlot newspaper in front of him, the one that he used to write articles for before moving away. As he flips through he notices the column originally reserved for his more academic writings had been replaced with a popular section highlighting upcoming fashion trends. He frowns slightly, "Guess I'm not overly missed." He mumbled to himself. Silver was never too popular with the general public. Probably because most of his writings tended to criticize certain parts of Canterlot culture.

Silvers eyes glance up from the paper as he notices Dark Star trotting into the town square, his analytical mind instantly taking off. She looked a bit younger than him, a bit taller though. A unicorn, most Canterlot ponies were, but to him she didn't quite look like she was from Canterlot. But the Red and Black combo was an interesting combo, if a little intimidating. "Well I'm no stranger to that." he thinks to himself. As Silvers fascination continues the magic he was using to hold his paper slips away from him. Caught in a breeze it lands only a few inches away from Dark Stars hooves.

"Sorry about that." He says casually as he approaches to retrieve it, his coat shimmering as he does. "I got distracted for a second and it got away from me." He gives her a pleasant smile as he uses his magic to grab his paper.

[Dark Star]

As Dark Star was trotting into the square, she couldn't help but notice a strange shimmering effect going on close-by. She looked for the source and found it to be a black-and-white unicorn reading a newspaper. She tried to make out any other details but couldn't focus properly because of how the light glistened, which only hurt her eyes as she strained to look in that direction. Before any other thought could come to mind, the glowing unicorn's newspaper dropped down to her hooves. She heard the unicorn's voice, which was distinctly male, and then started to make out some other details about his body.

She didn't have much time to observe as he started to talk to her, even apologizing about dropping his paper in front of her. She readied her own magic on the paper to hand it to him, but by the time she did, he already had it in his grasp, so she simply stopped. "It's alright, these kinds of things happen all the time" she responded solemnly. She tried to look him in the eye, but couldn't help her eyes to travel all along his glistening body. She hoped that her wandering eyes didn't seem too noticeable, and worried in case they were.

[Toast]

Silver feels a little relief as Dark responds kindly, it's something not every Canterlot pony would grant. Of course, this only feeds his need to pry a little more into the nature of her visit in Canterlot. That is, if she indeed isn't from Canterlot. He found it a little odd that he initially made that judgement about her based on only her appearance, which he knew all too well isn't the best thing to judge a pony on.

"That they do." he says as he tucks away the paper in his saddlebag over his back. He keeps eye contact with her as he does, having to look ever so slightly up to do so. Although this means he is ever aware of her quick glimpses of him. This causes a small smirk to appear on his face, although he does his best to hide any other expressions that would let her notice he noticed. It wasn't something he was unfamiliar with, but he would be lying if he said he didn't like the attention from time to time.

"If it's alright to ask. You're not from Canterlot, are you?" He asks in a casual, friendly tone, as the question was only meant to satisfy his own curiosity and not to judge.  Silver had gotten pretty good over the years at pouring on the charm to make him seem more friendly when prying into others lives. Even though that was all he was actually trying to do.

[Dark Star]

As Dark Star talked to this strange new stallion, she rubbed her eyes with a hoof, no longer caring about seeming rude. After blinking twice to clear her vision, she noticed that this stallion was slightly shorter than she was, in spite of how he was clearly older. This was only one of the strange things that she had managed to observe, which she would've done more of had he not questioned whether or not she lived in Canterlot.

"No, but I come here so often you'd think I was, yet I'm actually from Ponyville. Oh! I got so caught up in the brilliance of your coat that I forgot to introduce myself. (bows slightly) My name is Dark Star" she said to the bio-luminescent stallion. "That is, I live in Ponyville, yet at the end of each week, I bring in my research to the university here in Canterlot" she explained. "It's a long commute, but I'm content with it". She smiled and blinked, waiting for the black-and-white unicorn to respond.

[Toast]

"Called it." Sliver thinks to himself as Dark mentions she is indeed not from Canterlot. His expression softens slightly as he takes a small step back when she bows. Her formality was quiet an endearing quality and he couldn't help but find it as such.


His question was fortunate to get two answers, where she was from and what she was doing. Still it was the word research that grabbed his attention. "You do research for the university?" He asks with the sound of intrigue. "That sounds impressive, and exceedingly interesting, I'm a writer myself, I've done a few academic paper, mostly theoretical work but it's all relevant I assure you." Silver catches himself before he beings to ramble, as he was already beginning to speak with increasing speed.


Sorry, I get ahead of myself sometimes." He says as he regains his former composure. "I'm Silver Glow, at your service." He says with a bow of his own, also crossing his hoof across his chest as he does so. He figures if formal introductions were something she was used to then he would come across as more polite, if not then at least more humorous. "I don't know if you were off somewhere or have the time Ms.Star, but I'd love to hear about what you study if you weren't busy."

[Dark Star]

Dark Star could see a feeling of content arise in the glowing stallion as she explained her information to him. She blushed slightly when he mentioned how impressive she apparently was and became intrigued after he mentioned his own writing about relevant topics. He then introduced himself as Silver Glow, 'It figures that's his name' she thought to herself, and even returned the bow and crossed a hoof on his chest while doing so.

When Silver asked whether or not Dark Star were busy, a smile went across her face. "I was hoping you'd ask that" she said under her breath. Silver questioned what she muttered just then, and she responded with "I don't have any plans for this afternoon, but spending the afternoon together would be a splendid idea". "Especially because I'd also like to find out more about you" she said with a smile on her face.

[Toast]

Silver couldn't help but chuckle silently to himself. "Wonderful." He says. " And I'd be happy to answer anything you'd like to know." Silver was happy to see that Dark was so keen to accept has invitation. It can be hard to just willingly agree to hang out with a pony you'd just met, but he hoped that their common interest could help break the ice. It was always interesting to meet another scholar, he had yet to make many friends in Ponyville so he found it would be nice to get the chance to talk to someone, even for just the afternoon.

Still, the notion of exactly what to do hadn't been decided yet. Silver takes a second to think about it before an idea comes to mind. "I know just the place to go too, if you didn't have anything else in mind." He says with a motion for them to start walking.

"So what would you like to know? I actually live in Ponyville too like you, but I only just moved there. Before that I was born and raised here in Canterlot so I know pretty much everything about this place." He says doing the best to keep himself from talking to fast. "I'm pretty much an open book so feel free to ask whatever it takes to satisfy your curiosity." He says with a bit of dramatic flair in his voice.

[Dark Star]

Dark Star was satisfied enough to know Silver was willing to hang out during that afternoon, even more so that he knew of a place where they could talk. "I'll just follow you, I can certainly trust that you would know just the spot". She followed him when he motioned to start walking and was happy that her eyes had finally adjusted to his glowing coat. He mentioned how easy he was to find out about and started thinking of things to ask him.

A multitude of different questions came to mind; Why did he decide to move to Ponyville, why did his coat shimmer like that, what kind of magic allowed a Pony's coat to glow, and many other that had to do with his back-story. She was so distraught with questions that she didn't notice a street light and walked face-first into it. She shook her head and hoped that no pony saw that, then responded that she was alright when Silver questioned her condition.

"Well, the one thing that's been burning through my mind is how it is your coat glows like that. Is there some kind of special shampoo or herb that you use, or is there some kind of spell you apply to yourself each day?" she questioned. She said it carefully so it didn't sound too much like she was to pry into it, or that it seemed like it was the only thing she cared about. She desperately hoped that he wouldn't be bothered by her questioning his glowing and awaited his response.

[Toast]

Dark's encounter with he light post goes unnoticed by Silver as he thinks about the best route to take to get where he wants to go. Her question though was something he expected. Nearly everypony he met asked it at some point or another. 

"Heh, shampoo that a new one." He says softly before clearing his throat slightly, "Ahem, no I actually Bathe in glitter ever morning." He says this with a serious tone while looking Dark at with a straight face. Although weird Silver had found a lot of ways to have fun with this question over the years. The blank stare was just to add a sense of dry humour. He waits for any sort of expression of confusion from Dark before continuing.
"No? OK, how about I got bitten by a radioactive firefly." He can't help but smile at this one. "No wait, how about genetic experimentation by a mad scientist pony." He chuckles a bit at this own stupid answers before letting out a little content sigh and taking a moment to think about the actual answer.

"To be honest.." he starts. "I don't really know." He says looking back at Dark with a small sad smile. "I've been this way since I was born, we've tried to figure out why, but pretty much everything we do comes up short." Silver says this all very gently, it's probably not the answer Dark wanted to hear but it was all her had to offer. "All I really know is that it's the sun that does it." He looks up a little bit. "No sun, no shine. Personally, I still think it's some form of unicorn magic that's manifested itself in some other way. But all I have to go off of is observation, if anypony can come up with a testable hypothesis from that then maybe we can figure it out. Until then it'll just remain a mystery."  Silver says this all at a moderate pace with a earnest voice. It was actually almost sad now that he thinks about it, not knowing why he was a certain way, if it possibly meant something more that what it was. Silver did the best he could to mentally shake away the melodramatic feeling.

He looks back at her with a casual glance once again. "Gets even weirder at night." The says with a minor inflection.

[Dark Star]

Dark Star definitely got what she wanted with his answers. The first few, she could tell were bad excuses in an attempt to be funny, the last one was entirely honest. She looked down at the ground for a moment after his explanation was finished. The tone of voice he used for his explanation sounded incredibly somber, something that made Dark Star feel bad for asking it. This feeling of hers was quickly replaced by curiosity once he mentioned a different effect during the night time. She didn't want to pry any further, so she shifted to another question on her mind.

"So, if you were born here in Canterlot, why is it you moved down to Ponyville?" she asked him. She hoped that a change in topic wouldn't seem strange, but couldn't help but feel she needed to dodge certain answers.

[Toast]

"Change of pace I suppose." Silver says with a small hint of apathy. It felt hard for him to pinpoint an exact reason for his move. "I think I just wanted to see a little more of Equestria, Ponyville felt like a good place to start. I mean the ponies there are a lot different from here, but it's still close to home so you never feel like you're too far away." He pauses there for a second as he realizes how well reasoned his decision to move was. Initially he felt commended for doing some a more spontaneous in his life, but it wasn't spontaneity if it was all well thought out.

"Hmm, can't be helped I guess." He think to himself, it just who he was after all.

Silvers demeanour picks up a bit when they come to an alleyway in the street. "Here he are." he mumbles to himself. As he turns to face the ally he sits down on his haunches. The ally itself looks dark and dusty, old rags hang from the side of the buildings, a few abandoned crates and broken pieces of wood lay scattered around, and every now and then you could swear you saw a shadow scurrying across. Still, Silver knew it was the fastest way to get here he wanted to go.

Silver smiles and blinks a few times before looking back a Dark. "Now, this is going to seem a bit strange." He says raising a hoof. " But I do need to ask one, very important question."

"Do I." He touches his raised hoof to his chest. "To you." He points the same hoof back to Dark. "In our brief interactions with each other." He says this part rather quickly. "Seem like a trustworthy Pony?" He lowers his hoof back down on the ground and with the same little smile waits for Darks response to the odd situation.

[Dark Star]

Dark Star listened and felt, strange as it may seem, enlightened by Silver's response. She felt as if she had just found herself in the best part of a good novel-the part where the two heroes get to know one-another. This feeling made her feel a bit more curious, but she didn't really have much more time to listen as the two unicorns stopped in front of a dark-looking alleyway.
She looked around, seeing a few broken crates and the occasional shadow-looking object moving around matched with the sound of scurrying feet. She looked back at Silver with a confused facial expression, 'Strange..." she thought to herself. He then gestured to himself, then her, all the while asking her whether or not he seemed trustworthy.

"Well...perhaps a bit suspicious based on the way you glow, plus those bizarre markings across your body..." she said shyly. She could see a surprised look on his face, so she decided to correct herself, posthaste. "But, then again, I never judge a book by it's cover alone. I take the time to truly read through it, proving everything I may have thought about wrong" she explained. She smiled at him and hoped that her words would convey the message and waited to hear what he had to say about that.

[Toast]

Silver knew it was likely a odd situation for Dark. A strange unicorn she had only met asking if she trusted him. He only assumed as well that she knew his intention was to traverse the creepy alleyway. At her answer to his question, Silver just smiles and nods as she speaks. He admires how observant she is, as well as her not judgemental mentality over his appearance. He wonders to himself though if he would give himself the same answer, or at least the same level of trust were he in her position.

"Probably." He thinks.

"...Well maybe."

"Wonderful." He says sitting back up and taking a few steps towards the alleyway. Really her answer to hie question had no influence over his decision to take this route. It was only, once again, a question he used to satisfy his own curiosity. It was his own subtle, non-subtle way of finding out what someone thinks. Tying the question into the scenario helped alleviate some of the awkwardness of asking it straight up.   "So will you then join me through this dark, creepy alley." he says looking back at her. Once again he spoke with a bit of humorous drama in his voice, all intended of course.

[Dark Star]

Dark Star could see a look of satisfaction on Silver's face as she answered. She knew that he had to be some kind of smug, self-satisfied stallion at this rate, yet she merely shrugged it off as a unique quirk that makes him stand out from other ponies. She knew that she herself had many quirks that made her unique, so she really couldn't bring herself to judge those of another. She simply smiled and went along with the bio-luminescent stallion, agreeing whole-heartedly with his decision, knowing full-well that it must've been a form of shortcut he knew about.

"My research primarily takes place in the Everfree Forest back in Ponyville, I can handle walking through a simple alley" she said confidently. "What's more, my eyes are completely used to darkness due to my work and living habits, so I can proudly say that the dark has no affect on me". She trotted forward taking her words in strides and waited for Silver to follow.