Starburst stretched out, stirring up from her sleep, and reached out with her hoof to hug Starfall. However, all she felt was fabric. Opening her eyes, she realized that she was in her sleeping bag, in her tent, alone.
Wait, how did I get to my tent? Starburst wondered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Last thing I remember was lying down beside Starfall outside… He probably brought me here after I fell asleep. Speaking of, where is he?
Stretching out her limbs and rising to her hooves, Starburst poked her head out of her tent’s entrance and looked around. In the dim light of the half moon she could see that all of her friends had long since retreated to their tents. Bracing herself for the cold air, Starburst left her tent, and immediately shuddered as she trotted to the remains of the campfire.
He better have some good reason for being out in this cold, she thought as wrapped herself tighter with her wings. Stopping by the campfire, she reached carefully to the charred remains of wood. Must have been a good few hours since they put out the campfire, Starburst noted as she moved her hoof right above it. It probably won’t be long before Celestia raises the sun…
Her train of thought stopped as she noticed something bright at the edge of her vision, flickering from behind one of the tents. Turning her head in that direction, Starburst realized that there was a light down the river.
Three guesses who could that be, Starburst thought as she quickly jumped into the air and flew towards it.
As she expected, the source of the light was Starfall. He conjured three small shining orbs as he stood on his hind legs in the middle of the river, about a quarter mile away from their camp. When Starburst got closer, she noticed that there were a few flat stones protruding from the water surface, on which Starfall was standing on.
He was still for only a second longer by the time she landed nearby, quietly so to not disturb him. The orbs - Starburst wondered briefly if those were just lights, or if they were similar to the magic orbs he had used back when she and her friends battled him in the Castle of the Royal Sisters - suddenly all flung towards him, and he quickly jumped away. As he landed on one hoof on the next stone, the orbs, having missed their target, swung back in his direction, still moving with the same speed. Starfall lowered his head and tilted his body to the right, missing two of them, then placed his forehoof on another stone and lifted the rest of his body into the air, causing the last orb to miss his hind leg.
He’s practicing, Starburst realized as she watched him push himself up into the air with his foreleg, spinning to dodge the orbs, and landing on another stone. In the middle of the night. And everypony says I’m training too much, she added, rolling her eyes.
Intrigued, she sat down and continued to watch him silently. The orbs, which Starfall was flinging at himself with his magic, kept on missing him. Starfall was constantly moving, staying on one stone for no longer than a second or two. He kept twisting and spinning his body as well, changing his position so that it was impossible for the orbs to hit him.
All while having his eyes closed.
Starburst didn’t notice it at first, too concentrated at watching his body all but dance. Only when Starfall jumped at the stone closest to where she was sitting and stopped for a second before jumping back into the air and doing a backflip had she realized that.
Well, since he’s the one moving those lights, I guess he doesn’t really needs to see them, Starburst thought. Still, it’s impressive that he remembers the exact positions of all those stones. I wonder how long he must have been at it…
She continued to watch him silently for a few more seconds, but just as she began to wonder when he was going to take a breather, Starfall slipped. Starburst’s eyes went wide as she watched her coltfriend fall into the river, the orbs disappearing as he lost his focus. In the next second, worry replaced her shock and she run towards him.
“Star! Are you alright?” she asked, stopping by the riverbank, ready to help him up.
Starfall turned to her, sharply, startled by her sudden appearance. “Oh, hi Star,” he said after, relaxing. He raised from the water, lighting up his horn and illuminating the area around them again. The current was slow, so he could stand up without any problems, and river was shallow enough for the water to reach only his chest. “What are you doing here?”
Taken aback, she frowned. “Seriously?”
“Well, you were the one sleeping,” he replied, somewhat defensively, as he jumped out the water and onto the riverbank. “I wasn’t, and couldn’t fall asleep, so I found something to do,” Starfall explained before he began to shake off water like a dog.
Starburst shielded herself with her wing from the flying droplets: “I’m not even gonna point out just how ridiculous that sounds.” Sighing, she asked again, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, didn’t hit my head or anything,” Starfall said, finishing shaking. His horn glowed brighter for a second, and his cloak appeared next to him. “And no need to worry about hypothermia this time… although I might feel coldish if you wanna cuddle,” he added, winking, as he wrapped the cloak around himself.
Starburst frowned, but instead of saying anything right away, she first trotted up to Starfall and sat beside him. He unwrapped his cloak and put it around her as well as she leaned against him.
“So what are you doing up?” he asked.
“I just woke up, noticed you were gone and went looking for you,” Starburst replied, wondering how to best say what was on her mind. After a brief hesitation, she started: “You know, it’s not exactly like you to slip away like that. Is, um, is everything alright?”
“Why would anything be not ‘alright’?”
Starburst sighed. She wasn’t really good with talks like these, and Starfall’s attitude wasn’t helping her. Still, Starburst didn’t intend to give up; she was way too stubborn to let her coltfriend get away with this so easily.
“Because it’s you we’re talking about,” she replied.
“You mean that in ‘you’d never slip away otherwise’ way or ‘something is always not alright with you’ way?” Starfall asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Both,” Starburst told him sharply, not in the mood for jokes. In gentler tone she added: “C’mon Star, you can tell me.”
Starfall let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, something’s been bothering me.”
She smiled, happy that he was opening up to her-
“But I don’t wanna talk about it.”
-and her smile turned into a deadpan.
“Star-” she began again (after facehoofing), finding it harder to maintain her tone, but Starfall cut her off.
“I’m just not used to this. Being able to confide in somepony,” he explained. Tilting his head to look up into the sky, he continued: “I’m used to keeping everything to myself and ignoring my problems.”
“Well… you don’t have to do that anymore,” Starburst told him, blushing as she unfolded her wing under the cloak and hugged him. “Couples are supposed to talk about stuff like this.”
“I know, I know,” Starfall said. “It’s just… difficult to change old habits.”
“Is this about hanging out with my friends again?” Starburst asked, trying to guess what was wrong.
“No… well, not exactly. But on that note, it might have been too much to hang out with them all for so long,” Starfall admitted. “It hadn’t been easy with my paranoias. I keep worrying that I made a bad impression, that they’re going to attack me…”
“They’re not going to attack you,” Starburst told him. Then, rolling her eyes, she amended: “Well, maybe besides Prism, but at this point you’re asking for it.”
“I know,” he replied, rolling his eyes in return, “but I spent years expecting that everypony is about to harm me at any time; you can’t expect me to just stop because I know they aren’t really going to do that.”
I suppose he has a point there, Starburst thought. “You don’t think I’m going to harm you though,” she pointed out.
“Well, you’re different,” Starfall replied, winking.
She smiled at him, while at the same time continued to think what was really bothering him. And then Starburst recalled what he had said earlier when they were listening to the stories around the campfire.
“Is this about your friend?” she asked gently. “You know, the one you said is dead?”
Her guess seemed to annoy him, if the tired groan he let out was any indication. “You’re not going to drop it, are you?”
“I told you we’ll have to talk about it later, didn’t I?”
“What if I don’t want to talk about it?” he snorted, turning his head away.
Starburst’s jaw dropped from the shock. It was the first time Starfall had talked to her like that. If it were anypony else, she would have probably gotten angry or annoyed, but instead she immediately regretted pressing the point and bringing up his dead friend. Did I push him too far? Starburst wondered as her ears dropped and she looked down at the ground in shame.
“Sorry, I… didn’t mean to upset you,” she said.
Hearing him sigh, Starburst looked up. “You didn’t upset me,” he said; although he was no longer looking away from her, he wasn’t meeting her eyes either. “I just… don’t want to talk about her.”
“You don’t have to,” Starburst assured him, although she couldn’t help but wonder why was that.
He all but casually mentions that his mother had been murdered or that he was a slave, but doesn’t want to talk about this?
“But I should, huh?” Starfall asked, interrupting her train of thoughts. “Since couples are supposed to talk and all?”
“Oh please, I was just repeating what Claire told me,” she snorted, rolling her eyes. “Doesn’t mean it’s true all the time just because she said that.”
“Well, she is dating royalty...” he began to point out, but Starburst had a counter ready.
“So are you, and don’t even get me started on the stuff you say and how right it is.”
“Wha- I’m always right!” Starfall replied, frowning.
“In regards to how normal ponies live?” Starburst asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, you meant with the boring stuff. Then no,” he replied, sticking out his tongue.
Rolling her eyes, Starburst brought back her wing from around his back and swatted him playfully. Chuckling, Starfall raised his forelegs in defense. She smiled seeing him back to his usual self, and tried to think of something she could do to help him stay like that.
It didn’t take her long to think of something.
“Come on, get up,” Starburst told him, unwrapping herself from his cloak and rising.
“Why, what are we doing?” Starfall asked, looking at her with confusion.
“You wanted to take your mind off things, right?” she asked, grabbing her foreleg and pulling it to her other shoulder. Continuing stretching out, she explained: “I’ve always found sparring to be great for that.”
Starfall smirked. “Why do I have the feeling that you just want to kick my flank?” he asked as he got up as well and quickly stretched.
“Well, it is how we met, basically,” Starburst replied. “But this time don’t use magic and try to block hits instead of dodging. I’ll go easy on you,” she added.
“Oh please, I can take some beating,” Starfall snorted, rolling his eyes as he assumed a fighting stance.
Starburst smiled, excited at the thought of sparring with her coltfriend, even if it wouldn’t be too challenging. As swift as Starfall was, he wasn’t a fighter. Without magic and on flat ground he didn’t stand a chance.
It’s about time we do something about this.
“Remember to raise your forelegs to cover your head,” she told him before repeating: “And no magic.”
Starfall, as usual, smiled confidently. “Alright, no magic. Want me to just block or to attack as well?”
“Of course I want you to attack too, what kind of sparring match would it be otherwise? Now, ready?” she asked him, lowering her body as she prepared herself.
“Ready,” Starfall replied, nodding and still smiling.
“Go!” Starburst said, about to charge at him-
His horn stopped glowing.
Oh, Starburst thought, stopping, right, forgot it’s the middle of the night…
Of course, with all the stars and the moon on the sky, they should be able to make each other out, but it would take a bit for their eyes to adjust-
Sounds of stomping hooves and rustling grass let her know that Starfall apparently either needed less time for that, or had some experience when facing opponents he couldn’t see.
Or that he didn’t really care, Starburst added, rolling her eyes as she easily blocked Starfall’s hoof.
She could only barely make out his shape, so she couldn't’ take that hit on her foreleg as she normally would. If it wasn’t for Starfall not being physically strong, that punch would have hurt quite a bit.
As it were, though, Starburst immediately focused on a counter-attack. Digging her forehooves into the ground, she spun around and brought her hind leg to Starfall’s head, remembering to lower the strength she put into this spin kick. Half-expecting him to dodge out of reflex, Starburst was pleased when she felt her leg connect with Starfall’s foreleg. She also felt him stumble a bit.
“Try to put more weight on your other legs when you block,” Starburst told Starfall quickly before she kicked him with both hind legs, using the momentum from the spin kick to turn around.
This time, however, he dodged. Helping herself with her wings, Starburst whirled around to see where he was. With her sight having grown somewhat accustomed to the poor light the moon and the stars offered, she was able to see that Starfall hadn’t exactly moved from his earlier position. Rather, he lifted his body up and stood now on one hind leg. Starburst noticed that just in time to duck under his other hind leg as he tried to kick her.
Clever, she commented as again she spun around, intending to hit the leg he was standing on and cause him to fall, but you left yourself open.
However, he dodged her once more by jumping up into the air and doing somersaults to put some distance between them. Starburst quickly lunged after him, flapping her wings to gain momentum, and threw a punch. However, she didn’t hit her mark. Before her hoof could come in contact with Starfall, she felt his hoof on her leg and gently pushed it so her punch missed him. He redirected her next strike similarly, as well as the third, but not the fourth. With all her punches being deflected like that, Starburst decided to use a spin kick. She whirled around and raised her hind leg, finally hitting him.
“Augh!” Starfall yelped in pain, falling down.
Starburst stopped in mid-air, her heart skipping a beat. “Star!” she shouted, immediately going to his side. Crap crap crap! she repeated in her head, panicking, I forgot to not hit so hard! “Are you alright?!”
She was relieved to hear him grunt and see him rise from the ground shakingly. Starburst reached with his forehooves to him, but before she could blink, he pounced on her, pinning her to the ground.
“Pinned ya,” he told stunned Starburst, flashing his horn at the same time.
Starburst grunted as the light nearly blinded her, forcing her to close her eyes for a moment. She didn’t need her eyes opened however to know Starfall was smirking. She could hear it.
“I guess I win?” she heard him ask as he loomed over her, his forehooves holding her forelegs.
“This doesn’t count,” Starburst told him in annoyance, frowning.
“Well, you didn’t say time out, so…” Starfall began to explain as she carefully opened her eye.
The first thing she saw (after his shining horn of course) caused her to stare at him wide-eyed, her annoyance completely forgotten.
“What?” he asked, noticing her reaction, as if completely oblivious to his swollen eye.
“Your eye,” Starburst said, feeling guilty for kicking him so strongly.
“Ah, that,” he replied, his left eye looking to right as if trying to see how it looked, and closing the right eye. “It’s alright. I know it looks bad but I’ve been through worse,” he assured her, smiling.
“S-” she began, trying to apologize, but before she could even finish the first word he cut her off.
“If you’re gonna apologize I will bite you,” Starfall said, frowning at her. “I said I’m fine.”
Starburst sighed. As always, he didn’t want to see a pony sad, even if it was during apologizing. “You’re going to have a black eye from this,” she pointed out.
“Cool, been a few years since I had a black eye, you have no idea how well it goes with a red pupil,” he retorted, winking.
“Ugh, you’re impossible,” she grunted, giving up on this argument. “Can you get off me now?”
“Not until you admit I won,” Starfall replied, sticking his tongue out.
“You didn’t win,” she replied, frowning once again, “I was checking on you because you were hurt.”
“So you got distracted, and I seized opportunity,” he told her, smirking. “Basic battle 101.”
“It wasn’t a battle, it was a sparring fight,” Starburst countered, getting really annoyed. “One of us winning wasn’t the point of us having this fight.”
“And yet you can’t admit that I won.”
“You know I can break myself free right?”
“Yeah, but you would have to go more violent to do so, and besides,” he added, leaning closer, “I don’t think you’ll be able to.”
“What are you-” Starburst began, but stopped as she noticed that his forehooves were no longer holding her forelegs.
Starfall grinned as she realized what he was about to do, but she didn’t have enough time to try and stop him. He mercilessly began tickling her sides, belly and chest. Starburst burst with laughter as she wriggled underneath him, trying to get away, but she couldn’t focus enough to break free, let alone push Starfall off her.
“S-s-stop it!” she managed to say in between bouts of laughter.
“Say I won,” Starfall replied.
“Ough, you…,” she began, trying to hold it in, but quickly lost control and laughed again. “F-fine, you won!”
Immediately, the tickling stopped. “See?” she heard him ask her. Opening her eyes she saw him smirking down on her. “Was that so hard?”
Breathing heavily, she deadpanned at him. “Yes. Now get off.”
“Sure, as soon as you tell me what I win!” Starfall said cheerfully.
Starburst rolled her eyes and sighed. “What do you want?”
“Well…” Starfall began, sounding a bit - much to Starburst’s confusion - embarrassed. “I had thought of… something we could do…”
Starburst confusion deepened when she realized that Starfall was slightly blushing. Wait, she thought, her heart skipping a beat as he lowered his mouth to her ear, d-does he mean…
“Oh!” she exclaimed as he whispered what he was thinking about.
“So? What do you think?” he asked her, smiling shyly as he got off her and extended a hoof to help her up.
“Y-yeah, okay,” she mumbled, blushing. “Just… thought you were going to say something else,” Starburst admitted as she accepted his hoof and got up.
“What do you-” Starfall began to ask, but then he must noticed her blushing from embarrassment and must have realized what she meant. “You’ve been hanging out with that friend of yours a lot, haven’t you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and slightly blushing himself.
“Very funny,” Starburst replied, frowning. “You know I wouldn’t have thought of that if you hadn’t said it like that, or weren’t pinning me to the ground.”
“Yeah, sorry,” he said, chuckling. “So, are we doing this?”
Starburst sighed. “Well, I already agreed… b-but don’t tell anypony about this,” she told him, embarrassed at the thought of her friends finding about this.
Chuckling, Starfall nodded. “My lips are sealed, Lil’ Lioness,” he said before raising on his hind legs and offering her his hoof.
Despite her embarrassment, Starburst smiled and accepted his hoof, letting him help her up again. Standing on her hind legs beside Starfall and keeping herself balanced with the help of her wings, she grasped his hoof tighter as he pulled her closer. He placed his other hoof at her waist while she put her on his arm. Starburst followed his lead as he took two steps to the left and turned.
“How did you know I like to dance?” she asked, feeling hot all over.
“I honestly did not,” Starfall replied, smiling. “I figured since you can move so well you wouldn’t have any problems dancing though. So your friends don’t know about it, huh?”
“Well, most of them,” she admitted as they continued to dance. “I don’t want the rest to know. It’s just… too girly, I don’t want them to make fun of me.”
Starfall chuckled. “Well, if you ever want to dance, feel free to use me as an excuse, tell them that I wanted to.” Starburst gasped as he suddenly turned them around and lowered her almost to the ground. “How does that sound, my Beloved Nemesis?” he asked, his head once again right above her.
Instead of replying, Starburst just smiled and leaned towards his lips.
“Hey you two!” a shout from outside of their tent stirred Starburst from her sleep. “We’re all starting to pack up! Wake up or we’re leaving you!”
Alright, maybe dancing in the middle of the night for so long might have been a bad idea, she thought as she turned her head to the tent’s closed entrance.
“We’re up, we’ll be out in a moment,” she called to Prism, suppressing a yawn.
When he didn’t reply - probably having gone back to work on his tent - Starburst turned back to Starfall, who was still sleeping. After they finally got back to their tent, finally having gotten tired, all they could do was crawl back into the sleeping bag and cuddle before they fell asleep.
As good as she felt with his foreleg resting around her and her muzzle so close to his, she couldn’t help but feel awful the moment her eyes rested on the black eye she gave him. The purple area around his right eye wasn’t too big thankfully, but it still didn’t look pretty.
I should have told him to teleport us back to the mansion and get some ice for that eye, she thought, then sighed. Yeah, trying to talk reason to him, as if that would work.
“Star?” she tried to wake him up, prodding his chest gently.
He opened his eyes almost at once. Starfall looked at her, then yawned, flashing his fangs right at her face. “Mmm, morning Lil’ Lioness. How did you sleep?”
“Very long apparently, the others are all up,” Starburst replied. “We need to get up and start packing,” she added as she began wiggling her way out of the sleeping bag and his embrace.
Starfall groaned unhappily as she got her hind half of her body out, feeling his foreleg brush past her tail and legs. “Fine, let's get up,” he mumbled as he followed her.
“Does your eye hurt?” she asked, trying to make her voice sound neutral; while she thought he was being ridiculous for getting annoyed at her for worrying about it, she didn’t want to start an argument right now.
“Yeah, but you know how my back looks, I’ve been through worse,” Starfall replied as he got out of the sleeping bag and stretched his back like a cat.
“I imagine it would be pointless to tell you to see a doctor?” she guessed as she stretched out as well.
“Yep.”
Starburst sighed and opened the entrance to the tent, still stretching as she walked through it outside. “Ugh, we shouldn’t have stayed up for so long,” she told Starfall as he joined her, noticing that everypony was busy packing their tents. “And I should have stretched some more before we started, I’m so sore…” she added but then trailed off as she realized all the clatter around them ceased.
Confused, Starburst looked at her friends, and found them all staring at the two of them with wide eyes, having stopped whatever they were doing.
“Wha-” she began but Prism cut her off.
“Dude, why do you have a black eye?!” he asked, pointing at Starfall.
Oh, crap, Starburst thought, realizing just now that they would have to explain this to her friends. She glanced at Starfall and opened her mouth, about to do just that - as soon as she’d figure out how to say “I kicked my coltfriend in the face” that would sound good - but somepony else spoke up.
“Ha! I knew Starburst would be the rough one!” Annie exclaimed, triumphant. “Claire, pay up!”