Stars in the Making

by Borsuq


Another Stormy Night - Part I

“Star?”

Starburst barely heard her mom calling her over the sound of storm outside. Spitting the displaced feather she had just plucked out of her right wing into the bowl beside her bed, she raised her head over her wing and looked at the door of her room. “What is it Mom?”

Twilight opened the door and her head poked through the crack between it and the doorframe. “Are you going to the living room soon? We all agreed to watch some movies together.”

“I know,” Starburst replied, rolling her eyes; she too had agreed to that, although it was mostly due to the storm scheduled for today limiting her other options. “I’m preening my wings, I should be done soon.”

Every week, Starburst had to devote almost entirely of one day to that task. Of course, she would preen her wings during other days of the week, too, with them being so big she needed to keep them in the best condition, but due to her busy schedule those would be very quick sessions. She needed a whole day to care for her wings properly. And although it was a task she enjoyed, at the same time Starburst would find it annoying how much time she would lose as a result. As such, she was quite happy to teach Starfall how to preen her wings after they’d began dating (which was an activity some ponies sometimes referred as “allopreening”, when a pony was preening another pony); with his help, the task would take less than half the usual time for her. Unfortunately, with all the fun they had the day before at the lake with everypony, it slipped Starburst’s mind to ask her coltfriend to come and help her today.

I’ll have to leave them half done and resume preening them after this whole “family quality time” thing is over, Starburst mused, glancing at the wing she had been preening; she was far from satisfied with how it looked. But since her mom had already come to get her…

“Maybe I could help you?” she heard her mom ask; surprised, Starburst turned to her. By then the purple alicorn had half-entered her room, and was looking at her hopefully. “It would take less time with two of us. Come on, it’s been forever since I’ve helped you preen your wings.”

You could say that again, Starburst thought; it has been years at least since the last time she needed her mother’s help with that. She liked being independant; Starfall’s help didn’t really count against that, seeing how he would occasionally tickle her or tease her by pressing on some quite pleasant spots. Well, I suppose since I did agree to the whole thing and I’m about to be late…

“Fine,” she replied, shrugging. “Can you finish my left wing?” she asked, spreading said limb as she returned her attention to the right one.

Nodding, her mother quickly trotted to sit beside her on the bed and began helping her preen. “Those wings of yours have always been so troublesome,” she commented as she surveyed her underwing; clearly she spotted a lot of feathers that would need to be removed. “Your father and I were really worried if you wouldn’t keep tripping over them or-”

“I know Mom, you’ve told me that thousand of times,” Starburst interrupted her, annoyed that she had offered to help and was instead talking.

Twilight sighed. “You’re right, sorry,” she replied before leaning over to the displaced feathers.

Realizing that she had upset her mom, Starburst now felt annoyed with herself. She tried to think of some way to apologize or something, but couldn’t think of how not to make it more awkward. “I still have that ribbon you used to tie my wings, you know,” she finally murmured, embarrassed.

Despite how insignificant her comment seemed, it seemed to do the trick. Starburst heard her mother giggle warmly around a mouthful of feathers she was now realigning. “I know; I still remember how adorable you looked with it as a foal.” Starburst rolled her eyes, but then she stopped as Twilight added “You know, we still have a lot of picture albums from then; perhaps I should take them out the next time you bring Starfall over?”

“M-mom!” Starburst exclaimed, blushing from embarrassment at the thought of Starfall watching her pictures as a foal. “I don’t- aough!” she hissed as her mother plucked a feather that wasn’t completely displaced.

“Sorry,” Twilight apologized quickly, and although she sounded worried, Starburst couldn’t help but notice that there was a note of amusement in her voice, too. “I was kidding, Star, although really, I don’t understand why you’d be embarrassed by your pictures as a foal. After all, Starfall had done much more embarrassing things for you so far, hadn’t he?” she asked, smirking.

“... Maybe,” Starburst replied, not wanting to agree but also knowing that there was no point in trying to disagree, seeing what had happened during the dinner with Aunty Celestia’s family.

“So how have the two of you been?” her mom asked, continuing the small talk whenever there wasn’t a feather in her mouth.

“You asked me that two days ago, Mom, not much had happened since then,” Starburst replied, plucking out another bad feather.

“You mean, aside from your coltfriend proclaiming he loves you before your parents and ruler of Equestria?” Twilight asked, once again looking at her daughter with a good-humored smirk.

This is going to become a thing, isn’t it? Starburst wondered briefly. Whenever we talk about me and Star, the whole “proclaimed he loves me before my parents and ruler of Equestria” will continue to be brought up like this, won’t it?

“Mom, I told you, I don’t want to talk about it,” Starburst groaned, hoping they would soon be done with her wings already.

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Fine, fine… but you know you can talk to me about anything whenever you want, don’t you Star?” she asked, managing to catch her eye briefly.

Despite being sure that she would never, ever, want to talk with her mom about that, under her gaze Starburst couldn’t help but sigh and nod. “Yeah Mom, of course I know. I just-”

“You’re just embarrassed, I understand,” Twilight finished for her, smiling, before returning her attention to her wing.

Do you though? Starburst thought doubtingly, before shaking her head. Oh well, at least she stopped asking me-

“Did you let Starfall preen your wings already?”

Starburst almost jumped, so startled she was by the question. “M-mom!”

“What? Your Dad and I had began allopreening long before he had told me he loves me-”

“Mom, what part of ‘embarrassed’ don’t you get?!”


“Look who’s finally here,” her brother commented when about ten minutes later Starburst and their mom entered the living room; both Nighty and their dad were already there, sitting on the couch and channel surfing as they waited for them. “What took you so long, Princess?” Nighty added with a snide smirk.

Starburst eyebrow raised in annoyance. “You do know that’s kinda redundant thing to say when I actually am a princess, right twerp?” she told him as she deadpanned at him.

As her dorky brother frowned, embarrassed that his jibe made no sense (Starburst suspected he had probably overheard Candy’s younger sisters, Sugar Rush and Cloudy Skies calling each other that in similar situations, or something along those lines, and didn’t bother to think too much of it), their mother in turn frowned at both of them. “Honestly, you two, what did I tell you about name calling?” she asked, her reprimand directed mostly at Starburst.

“He started-” she began to defend herself, but at that same moment the telephone called. Rolling her eyes as Twilight picked it up (“Hello? Oh, hi Rainbow, did you need something?”) and left the living room to talk with her friend in relative peace, Starburst trotted to the couch and sat beside her brother. “So what are we watching anyway?”

“Well,” her dad replied, turning off the volume on the television; Starburst noticed that one of his ears had perked towards the doorway Twilight had just left through, “we hadn’t decided yet, but seeing how little time you’ve been spending with us recently Starburst-”

Right, because I didn’t just have dinner with you and Aunty Celestia, Starburst remarked in her thoughts, but stopped herself from actually saying that out loud.

“- we had thought that we could first watch the ‘Royal Legion - the World’s Greatest Army’ documentary?” Flash Sentry finished, smirking at his daughter as she gasped in surprise, actually pleased. “Or we could watch our home movie collection of how you’d trip over your wings…” he added teasingly, looking over to the side as if still pondering the idea.

“No no, the documentary is fine!” Starburst quickly assured him, even though she knew he was kidding.

She didn’t enjoy documentaries as nearly as her mom did, of course, but the ones about Royal Guard, the Protective Pony Platoons, the E.U.P. Guard, and, of course, the Pegasus Royal Legion were an exception. Not only did she find them interesting, but also actually fun; an opinion that wasn’t exactly shared by Nighty, as evident by his groan.

“Couldn’t we watch some documentary about unicorns instead?” he asked, pouting at their father, but Flash already shook his head.

“I know you and your mom were watching ‘Star Swirl’s Secrets’ on Discovery last night, Junior, and besides…” he added but then trailed off, his ear twitching; the next second Twilight came back to the room, worry on her face.

“That was Rainbow calling,” she began, placing the phone back at its charging station. “She had heard from the Ponyville’s Weather Team that when they were moving the storm clouds near the Sweet Apple Acres, they’ve lost several and they drifted off to the Everfree Forest. Star, would you mind going to check on Starfall? The clouds are unpredictable around that forest as it is, those storm clouds could be dangerous.”

Starburst, having realized what got her mother so worried halfway through her explanation, immediately nodded and got up. “Of course. But, um…” she trailed off, looking at the window unsurely; it was raining so heavily that she couldn’t see anything beyond it.

As if to confirm that this wasn’t a weather one could simply leave their house, a lightning flashed outside, and was followed very quickly by a loud thunder.

“I’ll teleport you to the Castle of the Royal Sisters,” her mother explained when thunder passed. “I would go with you, of course, but I have a feeling that it would only unnerve him,” she added, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Starburst murmured.

“And besides, Starfall will surely be able to teleport the two of you back here by himself, so-” Twilight continued, but Starburst realized she had to cut her off.

“Mom, sorry, but… did you just say ‘teleport the two of you’?” she asked, unsure if she hadn’t misheard her.

“Those few storm clouds could easily spread across the whole Everfree Forest; even if it’s not raining over the castle ruins yet, it probably will soon,” her mother began to explain, speaking as if she was talking about something obvious. “I’m pretty sure that most of the castle doesn’t have a roof, so even if we’d overlook the lack of heating, that’s not a place for anypony to spend such a day in. Starfall can stay here, and if it won’t clear out by nightfall, he can sleep in one of the guest rooms, right?”

That last question was directed to her husband; the pegasus stallion quickly nodded. “Of course, I wouldn’t want the colt to sleep in this,” he said, pointing at window behind him.

“You mean Starfall will be spending a whole day with us?” Nighty asked, excited. “Cool! I wonder if he could teach me another trick of his! I’ve been practicing that bubble spell of his, and after reading ‘Inkwell’s Guide to Conjuration’, I think-”

“Mom, Dad,” Starburst spoke up, interrupting whatever the heck her brother was going on about, “let me get this straight; you want my coltfriend to spend an entire day here with us, and very possible the night, too?”

“Oh, Starburst, honestly,” her mother snorted in exasperation and rolled her eyes, “I think we made it clear that we are happy you’re dating and that we like Starfall-”

“You’re not the ones I’m worried about,” Starburst told her, now exasperated herself, shaking her head as her eyes slowly widened in dread and surprise that her mother failed to realize what kind of annoyance she would be about to face with Starfall. “There’s no way Star will agree to that!”

“Starburst, I’m sure you’re overreacting;” Twilight replied, frowning. “Are you telling me he would prefer to stay in those empty ruins in this weather than-?”

“He might quite literally prefer to drown in those empty ruins than spend an entire day and night here,” Starburst said, deadpanning at her mother, though mostly out of annoyance at her coltfriend.

Twilight’s frown grew deeper, but as she opened her mouth to reply, her husband beat her to it “That’s kinda reassuring, actually.”

“Flash!” Twilight snapped at him, mildly annoyed. The pegasus quickly raised his forehooves defensively and shook his head, causing Twilight to sigh as her eyes darted upward in annoyance.

“Even if I do convince him to come here,” Starburst continued, ignoring her dad’s joke (or at least, she thought it was joke), “he’ll spend the entire time being stressed and nervous, especially if he’ll have to sit with us through this family quality time thing; which honestly is quite a scary concept,” she added, burying her face in her hooves and shaking her head to stop trying to imagine that.

I even joked about him coming over, for Celestia’s sake! she realized, now feeling even worse; and at the same time, feeling like bashing her head against the wall, too.

As she recovered, she heard her mother sigh again. “I guess you can skip our family time then, if it will make Starfall more comfortable; it is an emergency, after all.”

“I dunno, I kinda like the thought of our daughter’s coltfriend being nervous and…” Flash Sentry began, but stopped when Twilight gave him an annoyed glare. “Hey, the kid hospitalized me, I should be legally allowed to make those jokes.”

Ignoring her dad’s jokes, Starburst pondered her mother’s proposal; it would be easier to convince Starfall to come here if they were to stay away from everypony. On the other hoof, though, she had already agreed that she’d spend today with her family. Even if she did find this to be somewhat annoying, she didn’t like the thought of going back on her word (and the fact that they were going to watch something she was actually interested in made her like that thought even less).

Oh well, I suppose it can’t be helped, Starburst thought, glancing over at the window; the rain was still pouring heaving against it.

“Alright, I’ll go,” she finally spoke up, “it’s not like I have a better idea. But don’t be surprised if it takes me a while to get back,” she added.

Her mother nodded. “I understand, but please, do hurry. If you won’t be back in twenty minutes, I will go get both of you.”

Twenty minutes to convince Starfall to spend the entire day with my family? Sure, no pressure…

A sudden whim came to her and she decided to obey it. “Hey Nighty,” she asked, glancing at her brother as their mother approached her, “wanna come with?”

Her brother blinked, then turned to the window, just as another lightning struck outside, causing him to jump up on the couch. “Y-yeah no, I’m good here,” he replied nervously.

Heh, scaredy cat, she thought, smirking.

Turning back to her mom she noticed that she was looking at her sternly. Smiling innocently, she waited for her mother to sigh and shake her head, as her horn began to glow.

“Be safe,” she told her a moment before teleporting her away.


“Aaa!” Starburst almost immediately yelped in surprise as she felt water dripping right on her head.

This can’t be a good sign, she thought as she quickly moved out of the way water stream - then she moved away again, as she had stepped into a puddle - and began to brush her mane.

“Star?” she heard Starfall’s surprised voice even before she took a look around; not that it would help her, compared to her living room this place was pitch-black. The one source of light was a familiar multi-colored glow of magic, which was quickly approaching. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked her as he reached her, levitating something beside him.

“I…” she began, but almost immediately forgot about what she wanted to say as she watched him place a bucket under the dripping water. “Um, what are you doing?”

“What I can with my provisional roof leaking?” he replied with a question. “Dunno if you noticed, but it’s raining.”

Of course, Starburst did notice; if the water dripping on her head wasn’t big enough of a clue, she could also hear the rain falling, as heavily as back in Ponyville if not more.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m here… wait, what roof?” she asked instead, having trailed off in mid-sentence after realizing what he had said; she knew too well that this part of the ruins - a quick glance around the visible area had told her they were in the Throne Room - had a giant hole in the ceiling.

In reply, Starfall conjured a ball of light, which he send upward. Starburst’s gaze followed it as it reached the ‘ceiling’, illuminating it. Immediately, she was very, very glad that her mother had decided it would be better for her to come alone; Starburst didn’t want to think how she would react to the sight of the ancient tapestries being tied to the roof - “how” was a question she didn’t want to think of now - and serving as a “tarpaulin” of sorts. Or roof, as Starfall had referred to it just now.

Forget Mom, how would Aunt Rarity react?! Starburst realized with dread. That does it, we are never going to bring up what he does with this Castle to my relatives.

Still, she had to give Starfall this; if it weren’t for his “innovative” usage of the tapestries, the Throne Room would have probably been flooded by now, if the storm she could hear raging outside was as bad as it seemed. Still, it wasn’t a perfect solution, as evident by the dripping water and the bucket Starfall had placed under the leak. It wasn’t the only one; Starburst managed to spot several more as the light passed around the ceiling, through which water dripped right to bucket Starfall had set up before she had showed up.

She shook her head to stop getting distracted. “Nevermind. Star, my mom teleported me here; she heard from Prism’s mother that Ponyville’s weather team lost a few storm clouds and they escaped to the Everfree Forest-”

“Gee, I didn’t notice,” Starfall interrupted her sarcastically, just as another leak began to drop from the ceiling.

“Yeah, my mom hoped that it wouldn’t have reached the ruins yet, if at all,” Starburst commented. Sighing, she readied herself for the difficult part. “Anyway, the reason she sent me here was to invite you over to our mansion until the rain passes; she even said you could sleep in one of the guest rooms.”

Starfall, who had turned away from her as he looked around the Throne Room - probably looking around for something else he could use as another container for the dripping water under the new leak - now had turned back. He blinked, then looked over at the filling up buckets, then at the ceiling, then back at her, his eyebrow raised. “Yeah, I think I might actually prefer to stay here and drown.”

“You know, I would be kinda offended if I hadn’t said the same thing,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Star-”

“How exactly does your mom imagine this would work?” Starfall interrupted her, abandoning his search for another bucket and turning his full attention to her. “Didn’t my display at the that dinner show that I’m not really good with interacting with other ponies? I wouldn’t know what to say and how to act, and-”

“You don’t have to interact with anypony, we can just spend the time together, alone,” Starburst quickly interrupted him, getting annoyed at how he began to panic. “My family won’t bother you. My mom is just concerned for your safety.”

“Well, that’s very nice of her,” Starfall replied, snorting and crossing his forelegs on his chest. “But I am perfectly fine here, so there’s no reason to-”

With a loud scratch! the tapestries with which Starfall had covered the ceiling gave out and were torn apart, causing a wall of water - and whatever else was gathered on them, probably mud from the stones on higher towers and century old dirt of tapestries - to fall on them.

Apparently even the Everfree Forest is tired of his ego, Starburst thought, brushing her wet mane out of her eyes.

“What were you saying?!” she asked, shouting to be heard over the storm.

Starfall’s horn’s glow grew brighter, and it stopped raining over them. Starburst shook herself, trying to get as much water off her as she could; both of them were drenched.

“What happened to your cloak?” she asked, noting that he wasn’t wearing it. Shuddering from the cold, she added “Wasn’t it waterproof?”

“I have it blocking a hole back in my room,” Starfall explained, looking up with concern; following his gaze, Starburst watched as droplets of water bounced off an invisible wall or rather bubble that was above them. Hearing him groan made her immediately turn back at him. Starfall was frowning in concentration, and held one hoof pressed to his temple. “Damn it’s raining heavily…”

“Now can we go to my home?” Starburst asked, deadpanning at him. “Come on, we’re already all wet, we need to go someplace warm and dry- achoo!” she suddenly sneezed.

“Star?” Starfall exclaimed, worry in his voice. “Are you alright?”

She shot him another deadpanning glare, but it was almost immediately ruined by another sneeze. “Just t-take us back to my home already,” she said, her voice stuttering a little due to the cold.

“Ugh, fine,” she heard him say, and looked up in time to see his horn glow even brighter…


“But only because I don’t want you to catch a cold,” he said, crossing his forelegs in annoyance as their surroundings changed; from dark, cold and wet to bright, warm and dry.

“Thanks-” Starburst began, but was immediately cut off.

“Oh goodness, are you two alright?” she heard her mother ask; turning her head towards her, Starburst realized that Starfall had teleported them right to the center of the living room, where they now stood, water dripping from them, before her family, who were all staring at them in surprise.

Her father and brother were first to recover. “Hi Starfall,” the both said, Flash Sentry seeming amused, while Nighty seemed both excited and a little bashful at the same time.

Starfall, who looked as if he, too, was surprise by the current situation, smiled sheepishly. “H-hello. Um, I guess I should have remembered to aim for the foyer or something…” her coltfriend muttered awkwardly. “Sorry for-”

He wasn’t given a chance to apologize properly; Starburst’s mother conjured two big towels out of thin air that she immediately wrapped around both of them.

“Don’t tell me you two fell into a river again?” Twilight asked sternly, moving from the couch towards them.

Starburst blushed as she recalled the memory, of another stormy night - although it wasn’t as nearly bad as the current one - not so long ago, when they fell into a river. Though that led to them to reconcile and grow close, eventually leading up to them dating, Starburst was still embarrassed about how they fell into it.

“No Mom, we just…” she trailed off, thinking how to best describe just why they ended up so wet. “Let’s just say that Star isn’t exactly a carpenter,” she finished, shrugging as she began to wipe herself with the towel.

“Wait, those things were carpets? I thought they’re called tapestries,” Starfall asked, blinking in surprise.

As Starburst sighed and facehoofed, wondering whether he was joking or not, her mother stared at him in surprise for a moment before shaking her head, as if dismissing whatever she was thinking about. “I’m glad Starburst have convince you to come, Starfall,” she began. “I know you prefer being on your own, but during a storm like this it’s better that you’d be with a roof over your head.”

“Thank you kindly for your invitation,” Starfall said, dropping his usual attitude and bowing his head graciously. “Despite my, um, reluctance, I am grateful for it. I hope I won’t be too much of a bother.”

“You, ‘bother’?” Flash Sentry spoke up, smirking. “Never.”

Starburst’s mom gave him an annoyed glare before smiling back to Starfall. “What Star’s father wanted to say is that you are most welcome. Anyway, I think it would be best if you two got yourself cleaned,” she added. Starburst looked at her coat and feathers; the water that gathered on the tapestries before falling on them had definitely tons of dirt in it. “I’d suggest you both go take hot showers; separately, of course,” she added, glancing at her husband with mild annoyance even before he grunted loudly. “Star, can you show him off to the bathroom near the guests rooms before you go to your own?” As Starburst nodded - while rolling her eyes over how her parents thought they had to specify about them not taking a shower together - Twilight smiled again. “Afterwards you two can go do whatever you want.”

“Wait, I thought you mentioned you guys were going to spend some family time?” Starfall asked, looking at Starburst questioningly.

“Well, yeah,” she began to reply, “but since you’re here, and well, you’re you…” she said meaningfully and trailed off, knowing he would get what she means immediately and not pursue the topic further.

He did get what she meant, indeed, but his reply surprised her. “Oh, you are not missing out on family time just because your coltfriend is not right in the head,” he said, snorting. Turning to her mother, he asked “Since Star seem to be my designated chaperone during my stay here, would it be alright if I’d join your family time too?”

“Of course,” Twilight replied, delighted. “You will be most welcome.”

Starburst blinked. “What just happened?”

“You did mention something about me getting used to your family,” Starfall replied nonchalantly, shrugging.

She continued to stare at him for a few seconds before narrowing her eyes. “Either you hit your head in the ruins or are doing this just to annoy me.”

“Or I don’t want you to miss spending time with your family. As, you know, somepony who doesn’t have any,” he added, making a sad face.

“... I hate you so much right now,” Starburst said after a moment, deadpan.

“No you don’t,” Starfall replied calmly. As her family all chuckled quietly at their exchange - making her blush with embarrassment - he began to turn towards the door. “Now, how about you lead me towards that bath- gah!” he suddenly exclaimed, taking a step back.

Surprised and confused, Starburst leaned around him to see what startled him. To her surprise - an annoyance - her pet albino ferret Snow was standing before Starfall, glaring at him.

Huh, I wondered where he had gone off too, she thought, knowing he had to be somewhere around the mansion with the storm outside. Starburst opened her mouth to berate her ferret for glaring at her coltfriend like that, but before she could say anything said coltfriend lowered his head to be on the same level as Snow’s.

“We meet again,” he told the ferret menacingly, matching his glare.

Sweet Celestia, Starburst thought, rolling her eyes. “Star-” she began, but was cut off by Snow hissing, to which Starfall replied with a growl, baring his fangs.

Deadpanning at her family, who, while appearing a little confused, all began to chuckle, Starburst decided enough was enough. “Great, now I have two red-eyed idiots to deal with here,” she exclaimed as she walked past Starfall, freeing her wing from the towel to grab Snow. “Come on,” she added to Starfall as she grabbed his foreleg and pulled him out of the living room.

“Hey, we hadn’t finished saying hello,” Starfall exclaimed, amusement dripping from his voice.

Starburst turned her head back for a short retort, but just then they heard her father ask: “What do you think he meant by ‘we meet again’?”

The two of them exchanged glance. “On second thought, let’s go already,” Starfall said as they hurried away.