//------------------------------// // Really? Why!? // Story: Afterlife // by Star Sparkle //------------------------------// I woke up by some knocks and as, I heard, the door opened and Twilight said ‘’We’re here.‘’ I opened my eyes as Night Light got down from the couch, but Velvet stayed with me, she properly hadn’t noticed that I was awake, so I moved a bit and got Velvet's attention as she said ‘’Guess who’s here?‘’ I got up on the couch as I saw Twilight and Spike in the frame of the living room and on instinct, I smiled, jumped down and ran to them. When I could, I jumped and landed on Twilight chest and as she hugged me, Spike did the same and I said ‘’I missed you two.‘’ ‘’I missed you too, little sis.‘’ Twilight said. ‘’I missed you too Star, did you like your room?‘’ Spike asked. I ended the hug with Twilight and hugged Spike ‘’I love it Spike, thank you.‘’ After the hug I got back on the couch with Spike on my left and Velvet on my right, Night Light and Twilight sat together on the floor as Twilight asked ‘’So how was the weekend?‘’ ‘’It was great, we had hay burgers the first day and mom taught me about the calendar.‘’ ‘’Hehe, that’s great sweet-‘’ She stopped in mid sentence before she asked with a smile ‘’Wait? Did you just call mom, mom?‘’ I nodded which brought a bigger smile on Twilight’s face as Velvet then said ‘’It has certainly been great, but not without its flaws.‘’ ‘’Huh, what do you mean mom?‘’ Twilight asked. ‘’The first day, Star, by accident, broke the old vase we had on the fireplace. But instead of telling us she tried to replace it without us knowing, it was only after dinner we confronted her.‘’ Velvet said and Twilight looked confused but Velvet continued ‘’Don’t be mad at her Twily, she have already been punished.‘’ Twilight nodded ‘’Oh well, I’m sure I’ll hear more about that on the train back to Ponyville.‘’ Twilight said as she smiled. ‘’Sweetie?‘’ Velvet asked me ‘’Did you ever tell us what Princess Celestia told you. Or did you want to wait until now.‘’ ‘’Well, that and I forgot.‘’ I said before I thought back on my conversation with Princess Celcestia and said ‘’Princess Celestia told me that she also believed that it was the spell that’s making me act younger than I am, but she doesn't have an answer, but advised that I should try and care for Flurry, instead of fighting it, that might help.‘’ ‘’I’m sorry little sis, then from now on you-‘’ Twilight paused ‘’Wait, Flurry?‘’ ‘’Yeah, I named my bunny, Flurry.‘’ I felt my blood go to my head as I hugged Flurry closer. I looked at Twilight, she smiled with a tilted head, as she continued ‘’Remember, if it gets worse, then tell me, okay?‘’ I nodded just before Spike hugged me from the side as he said ‘’And you can of course always tell me.‘’ ‘’Thanks Spike.‘’ I said with a smile.. As I remembered what Princess Celestia told me, about what happened to my back, I said ‘’The Princess also told me, that we should get my back checked out at the Ponyville hospital, as if they agreed that my back would need treatment, I would save money on the massages.‘’ ‘’Your back?‘’ Velvet asked in a worried tone ‘’What happened to you back sweetie?‘’ ‘’A branch fell on my back a few days before I meet you.‘’ ‘’What!‘’ Velvet asked in shock ‘’Why didn’t you tell us sweetie? Twilight?!‘’ ‘’It’s okay mom, Twilight took me to the hospital in the morning.‘’ I said. Twilight nodded and said ‘’True, but still, it’s my responsible to take care of Star and I wish I had done something different.‘’ Her voice cracked as she looked at me ‘’So you wouldn’t have been hurt.‘’ I jumped down on the floor and went over and got my front hooves on her chest ‘’It’s okay big sis. Remember, as soon as you found out I was trapped, you tried your best to find me.‘’ It helped as Twily hugged me. As Twilly released me I said ‘’I also learned some more magic.‘’ ‘’Really, what kind of magic?‘’ ‘’After I told Princess Celestia about, me buying the vase, she showed me on how to spot real from fake money.‘’ I said. ‘’Wait, you didn’t know how to spot fake money?‘’ Night Light asked ‘’Didn’t Twilight teach you?‘’ ‘’No, I never said I had taught her that, I have only taught her the basics.‘’ Twilight responded. ‘’Did you get changes sweetie?‘’ Velvet asked. ‘’No, I didn’t need to,‘’ I said ‘’but I also have to learn some new magic.‘’ ‘’What kind?‘’ Spike asked ‘’Something amazing?‘’ ‘’Actually, yeah, a bit. Princess Celestia has invited me to open this years Grand Galloping Gala with her.‘’ ‘’Wow! Really? Twilight, her friends and I are going too.‘’ ‘’I know, the Princess told me.‘’ I said happily. As I looked at Twilight, she, not surprised, said ‘’Really, I had no idea.‘’ Velvet and Night Light smiled as well, but their smiled told me that they knew and I said ‘’Wait, you all knew.‘’ ‘’Well, of cause sweetie.‘’ Velvet said ‘’You’re still underage, so Princess Celestia asked us if we would allow it.‘’ ‘’Oh, right.‘’ I said as I remembered my age and lowered my head. Twilight nuzzled me as she said ‘’There’s still another thing I wanted to tell you.‘’ ‘’Huh, what’s that?‘’ ‘’Do you remember when you met Ms. Cheerilee?‘’ ‘’The teacher? Yes?‘’ I answered as I thought ‘Wait, where is she going with this?’ As Twilight continued ‘’You have now lived with me for two weeks now and it’s getting difficult to excuse why you’re not going to school.‘’ ‘No, no, she isn’t going to say-’ ‘’And since I’m the personal student of the Princess, some ponies in Ponyville have started to get suspicious and so.‘’ ‘No no, she wouldn’t-’ ‘’Tomorrow you’re starting in the Ponyville schoolhouse.‘’ ‘’What! No! I’m not starting in school, you told me that would be for some time before that.‘’ ‘’Sorry little sis, but I have made up my mind, there is nothing else I can do.‘’ ‘’But, I don’t need school and we live in a library, isn’t that enough?‘’ ‘’As you said, you don’t need school, so you’ll have an easy time there and it will be the same class as Apple Bloom.‘’ Twilight said as she hugged me, I knew that I had no saying in this and that I was going to school tomorrow, but it was always something that Apple Bloom would be there as well. ‘’Sweetie?‘’ Velvet asked, I looked at her ‘’Why don’t you show Twilight your room?‘’ ‘’I love to see you room little sis.‘’ Twilight said. ‘’Oh, okay. Yeah, come on big sis.‘’ I said before Twilight, Spike and I walked towards my room. As we walked up the stairs Spike said ‘’Here you go Star.‘’ As he showed Flurry ‘’I kept Flurry safe for you.‘’ ‘’Thanks Spike.‘’ I smiled. Twilight opened the door to my room and as we walked inside as Twilight said ‘’Hey wait, that’s unfair, why do you get the view to Canterlot Castle.‘’ ‘’Twilight,‘’ Velvet said ‘’don’t you remember? Shortly after Shining went to the Academy you started in Princess Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns. So it just never made sense for you to move in here.‘’ ‘’Oh right, but still, it has the best view in the house.‘’ Twilight complained before she looked around and said ‘’Huh?‘’ As she looked to the door and vase ‘’Is that the vase you bought?‘’ ‘’Yeah.‘’ I said with a smile and felt my head become warm. Velvet hugged me and said ‘’Now she has a reminder of what to do next time, right sweetie?‘’ ‘’Yes mom.‘’ It wasn’t long until Spike had helped me pack my bags, with the silver ball from Luna, the book about fireworks, the souvenirs and all the other things, the only thing that stayed was my blue dress as Velvet wanted to wash it and then I would have it in Canterlot. After we had packed, Twilight took the saddlebag on her and I had Flurry on my back and with Spike, mom and dad we walked to the train station. As we came to the train station Twilight went to get the train tickets as Spike, Velvet, Night Light and I found a place to wait. It wasn’t too busy so we easily found a place to sit, Velvet and Night Light got up, but Spike didn’t and I jumped, but failed as I couldn’t get my rear legs up. I slit a few centimeters before I felt Spike behind me, he pushed me up and after I finally got up I looked down at Spike, smiled and said ‘’Thanks Spike.‘’ He jumped up next to me and I hugged him right after he gave me Flurry. After a bit Twilight came over to us and said ‘’Well, our train should be here in a few minutes.‘’ I nodded and we waited. Some time later I heard the train as Spike and Twilight jumped down on the floor, then Velvet and Night Light hugged me from both sides as Velvet said ‘’Be safe in Ponyville, okay sweetie?‘’ ‘’I will mom.‘’ I answered. Night Light said ‘’And do as your big sister tells you.‘’ ‘’I will dad.‘’ I hugged them both as said ‘’Bye mom, bye dad, I’ll see you next time.‘’ ‘’Definitely.‘’ Velvet said as she lifted me and Flurry onto Twilight’s back. ‘’Here’s our train.‘’ Twilight said. Velvet and Night Light hugged Spike and Twilight goodbye and we walked onto the train, after it was clear and quickly found a seat. As the train moved we all wayed goodbye to Velvet and Night Light. As the train pulled away from the Canterlot train station I sat back on my seat and asked ‘’So what happened while I was gone?‘’ ‘’Well, the day after you left, we went to a cute-ceañera.‘’ ‘’Was that the cute-ceañera that Apple Bloom went to?‘’ ‘’Yes.‘’ ‘’You also sent a letter to the Princess, something about thinking a thing would cause you to lose friends, but it would actually help you find your true friends.‘’ ‘’Hehe, yeah, that's the short version.‘’ ‘’What else happened?‘’ ‘’Well, I discovered that Pinkie Pie have a pinkie sense.‘’ ‘’What’s a pinkie sense?‘’ ‘’Pinkie Pie can predict an impossible thing, like if something would fall, her tail would twitch.‘’ ‘’Really?‘’ ‘’Yes, but being honest, I didn’t believe her and tried to find out how her Pinkie sense worked, but it didn’t work out well.‘’ ‘’What happened?‘’ ‘’Long story short I got a bit hurt, but I’m fine now and by the end Pinkie got what she calls a doozy and believed that Fluttershy was in danger at Froggy Bottom Bogg and we went to save her. I hoped to prove Pinkie wrong, but then a hydra attack us.‘’ ‘’Wait what?! A hydra?‘’ ‘’Yes, a four headed dragon like creature. It chased us to the top of a cliff and when I was the only who hadn’t jumped the gab collapsed.‘’ ‘’But then you teleported over, right?‘’ ‘’A four headed hydra chased me. I couldn’t really focus enough to teleport, so by Pinkie’s call I jumped, landed on a bubble that launched me into the air and I landed next to Spike, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack, in safety.‘’ ‘’Oh, that make sense, the teleportation part.‘’ ‘’But Pinkie said that the hydra wasn’t the doozy she felt and I gave up trying to explain her pinkie sense and I accepted it as true. That then turned out to be the doozy, Pinkie never thought that I would never believe her.‘’ Twilight giggled and Spike joined her. When they were done giggling, I asked ‘’Did you also send a letter to Princess Celestia?‘’ ‘’I did and I said that I realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them, and sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way.‘’ After Twilight had said that I could help to remind myself of my world and the crazy people who just wanted others to believe, just because they believe it and I asked ‘’Really?‘’ ‘’Yes, that was more or less the letter I sent to Princess Celestia.‘’ ‘’From what I’ve been told about Pinkie, that pinkie sense could make sense, I mean magic and all, but umm… We’re friends, right?‘’ ‘’Of course,‘’ Twilight said ‘’You’re my little sis.‘’ ‘’So if I told you something that you could neither prove or disprove, would you then believe me, even if I knew I lied.‘’ ‘’Why would you lie?‘’ ‘’It’s just an example, but would you believe me?‘’ ‘’Hmm… If I didn’t knew you were lying, then I think I would.‘’ ‘’Why?‘’ ‘’Because you’re my friend and little sister.‘’ ‘’You wouldn’t use a bit of skepticism?‘’ ‘’Depending on what you said, what Pinkie did, that was impossible for me to say how she was able to predict it, but if she said that something would fall, then I either got a frog in the face, or fall down into a ditch.‘’ ‘’Oh, so she proved what she said?‘’ ‘’Precisely.‘’ ‘’Still… Did you also write that you should still use skepticism when hearing something that you can’t explain?‘’ ‘’I did, I wrote the letter in the context of what happened that day, nothing else, but of cause, everything you hear you should use skepticism.‘’ ‘’Oh, okay. It was just the wording you used I found to be a bit odd.‘’ ‘’Oh yeah, out of context it would sound like I’m going to believe everything I hear.‘’ Twilight said as she giggled and I giggled with her before I leaned up on her and hugged Flurry as Ponyville got closer.