The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife


Chapter 70

It takes a bit for Astral to realize it- she had slightly more important things on her mind after all.

But when she did, she said the only thing that seemed appropriate.

"Fuck."


"I have a crush on Eclipse" is what Starlight is greeted with when her daughter enters the room.

Baffled, she just let out a little "uh . ."

Astral ignored her. It seemed like that little outburst was actually intended for herself. "But why? He's my bro! And bros can't be together, that'd be weird."

She stood stock still for a moment, a put out look on her face, but teleporting away.


Her aim was off slightly- she landed midair on her Aunt Cadence's dresser.

Yelping, she dropped down, and tried not to bring it crashing down.

"Astral?" Cadence asked, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Quick, Auntie Cadence" Astral dropped down, ignoring the older ponies gasps. "What do you do if you have a crush on somepony?"

"What?"

"What do you do- focus dammit! Yes, I'm here, but I need to know! What do you do if you have a crush on somepony?"

"I, ah" Cadence stammered, trying to shake off her confusion at her nieces glare. "You ask them out?"

Astral paused. "Like, on a date?"

"I, uh, yeah?"

"Great, thanks, bye!" Astral spun around again, teleporting away.


Astral had invited the Crusaders over to help her look presentable. She sold it as a new way to find cutie marks, which she felt kind of bad over, but, eh, priorities.

The sight of mom surprised her- she was supposed to be visiting Alchemy after all.

At the sight of Astral Plane, Twilight's eyes narrowed, in both confusion and anger, for what she wasn't really sure.

"Why did I get a letter from Shining and Cadence saying you had visited them?"

Astral blinked, making her eyes as big as she could. "I have no idea" she said.

Her mom leveled her The Look.

"I mean it!" Astral insisted. "How would I even get over there?"

Twilight hesitated slightly. "T-They said you teleported."

Astral let that hang there in the air for a second, before her mom crumbled. "They were probably just stressed" Twilight mumbled. "Sorry to disturb you and your friends, sweetie."

The Unicorn waved her off casually before turning back to her friends. "Alright Crusaders, make me shine!"


Never let the Crusaders help you get ready for a date, Astral thought to herself as she knocked on the door to Eclipse's room.

It was so bad, she had to maintain an illusion just so nopony would arrest her for her unevenly chopped mane. She cringed. Gods, I hope there's a spell for that.

She knocked, and a very familiar voice drifted through the wood. "For the last time mom! No, I will not apologize! It's his fault for letting that stupid pigeon out in the first place!"

"What?"

A pause, then the sound of paws clicking against the metal doorknob, the door itself swinging in to reveal the very familiar features of Astral's bro.

"Astral?"

"Hi. Wanna go out?"

He blinked at her for a moment, obviously trying to compute the question. It occurred to Astral that in most situations, the female was supposed to angst over the supposed loss of friendship for a lot longer than she did.

Oh well.

"Uh, sure" Eclipse said at last, once he got his jaw working once again. Slowly, a smirk grew across his features as he added "and I know just the place to go to."


The carriage ride to wherever they were going was mostly filled with chatter about this and that.

"Tell me a random fact about the moon" Astral said, staring up at the milky orb just appearing in the distance.

"The God Ebony made it while she was the God equivalent of drunk."

Astral stopped, turning to squint at him. "What."

Eclipse threw his paws in the air, an expression of dread on his face. "I don't know! Dad told me that when I was younger, and it's haunted me ever since!"

The filly threw her head back and laughed at that, a dry sound. The draconequine's grin grew slightly more sly.

"What?" Astral repeated.

"Oh, nothing" Eclipse made a show of casually checking his claws. "Just thinking of a joke I heard the other day."

"I swear to the Gods, if you dare-"

"What kind of cats like to go bowling?"

"No-"

"Alley cats!"

Astral slammed her head into her hooves, both in annoyance and to hide the smile that was growing on her face. She had forgotten Lip's love of shitty puns.

"Annie told me one yesterday."

Oh no.

"So, there's this filly, called Lucky Star, right? And she has a classmate, called Oak Tree. And Oak Tree goes up to her one day, and tells her that all adults have secrets, and if you go up to them and say' I know the whole truth' they'll pay you money to keep quiet, even if you don't know anything."

"Oh no."

"So, Lucky goes home to her parents, and goes up to her mom and tells her 'I know the whole truth.' And immediately her mom starts to freak out, right? And she gives Lucky a couple of bits, under the condition she doesn't tell her daddy."

"Oh no!"

"Then she goes up to her father and repeats the phrase, and, sure enough, he gives her a couple of bits, under the condition that she doesn't tell mommy. And Lucky is amazed and satisfied, so much so, that the next day, when she walks outside the next door, and sees the mailmare putting the mail in the mailbox, she goes up to her and says 'I know the whole truth.'"

Now Eclipse paused, already Cheshire like grin growing even sharper. "Guess what the mailmare says."

"What?"

"Well first, the mailmare drops her mail, before throwing out her arms and saying 'then come and give your mommy a hug!'"

Astral exploded.

The two spent a solid four minutes just wheezing laughing in their carriage, before Eclipse peeked outside. "Oh, we're here."


The 'here' in question was a little cafe in the middle of literally nowhere.

Astral expected Eclipse to change his form, but he stayed, floating by her side, and, when she was about to change, he reached out a paw to stop her.

"Don't worry. Nobody will bother you in here."

Upon stepping in, Astral could see why. It was almost completely deserted, save for a Pegasus behind the counter, who looked up and smiled at the sight of them. She looked completely unsurprised to see two royals here, and Astral had to wonder how many times Lip had been here before.

Eclipse led her to a booth by the wall, where he ordered "his usual" while Astral ordered some gooey chocolate cake.

Sensing her unanswered question, he nodded. "Yeah, I come here a lot."

Astral frowned. "Why?" There were plenty of good cafes in Canterlot, which was a lot closer than this place.

Hell, he could probably just teleport to Ponyville, and order something from Sugarcube Corner.

The Prince's eyes drifted down to stare at the table. "Nobody else really comes here" he said, wings unfurling and ruffling anxiously. "It's- there's nobody here to see me."

Astral blinked. Huh. Fuck, that's actually kind of heavy.

In an instant, Eclipse had straightened up, and was beaming at her, eyes bright. "But it's cool right? It's all" he make vague gestures in the air "old fashioned-ish. This is probably my favorite place."

And maybe Astral should try and dig deeper, but, fuckit, she was here to have a good time, worry later.

So instead she gave him an equally bright grin, and said "Pinkie would be so jealous."

He laughed, loud and relived, as the food came.


When the day was over, he teleported her back to her house.

She wanted to say she could of have done it herself, but decided to let it happen.

Draconequine teleportaton was quite a bit different from pony teleportation. Lip just kind of . . . molded a tunnel through space and jumped into it, taking Astral with him. That was the easiest way to describe it, really.

When they appeared on the other side, he turned around to leave, only to yelp when she spun around and pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"Thanks Lip."

"N-no problem Sparkles."