//------------------------------//
// F-H 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"Oh." Starshine didn't stop smiling. "That's okay. You don't need to decide now. You don't need to decide at all, if you're not comfortable with it. I wouldn't want to bother you so." She sat down, still looking at Sunburst.
For his part, Sunburst sighed, opening and closing his mouth a couple times without saying anything. "I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about," Starshine replied. "If you don't want me to be here, I can go for now. Like I said, I don't want to bother you, and you know I wouldn't be bothered by not existing a while longer."
"I do want you here," Sunburst hastily replied. "And I want to understand this, it's just... tough. I want to get through this, but not go through it, I guess."
"You ponies can get so complicated." Starshine tilted her head to the other side. "I wonder if me being like that too would help."
"At this point I don't know." Sunburst stared at the desk for a moment. "And I don't want this discussion to derail into something else."
"You're saying that for yourself. You know I wouldn't try to derail it if you didn't want to," said Starshine. "You did want me to remind you of that."
Sunburst took his head in his hooves, trying to focus. After a few deep breaths, he looked to Starshine again. "Is there an easy way around this? Can I just will myself to know the answer?"
She shook her head. "We can only alter myself, and create physical things that are not part of existing creatures. No instant knowledge or personality manipulation. Or sudden tumors."
"I see." Sunburst nodded. That was at least progress. Directing the conversation where it needed to go. "Could we create a book containing all the answers, and then just read that?"
"You could try," Starshine said. "But you'd only get the answer you want to have. And there's a decent chance you wouldn't be able to ask all the right questions. It likely wouldn't work the way you want it to."
"Alright." Sunburst thought for a moment longer. "Can you answer the questions, then?"
"Only the way you want me to answer them, but yes." Starshine nodded. "If you think you do have the presence of mind to wish for an honest answer over a comfortable one, then we can do it." She smiled a little wider. "You did ask for that encouragement, yes. But it is true."
Sunburst took another, deeper breath, and pushed himself back against his chair. "Let's start at the beginning." He swallowed. "I created you, didn't I?" he asked, pushing all the words out on a single quick breath.
"You did." Starshine softly nodded once. Then her smile curved into something a little more mischievous. "Which technically means I do get to call you Daddy."
"Starshine this is not helping," Sunburst replied. "This is the opposite of helping and not derailing the conversation."
"Well it's not my fault you have all of this repressed horny." Starshine pouted.
"I don't-" Sunburst sputtered. "Don't word it like that! That is possibly the single worst way you could ever word that, and it severely undermines the nuances of the actual issue."
"Well what are you gonna do about it, huh? Planning to spank me, D-" The rest of the sentence was muffled and indistinguishable, mostly due to Starshine's sudden lack of a mouth.
Taking slow breaths and shaking slightly, Sunburst reached for the steaming mug of chamomile tea that hadn't been there before and emptied it in a long, slow sip. Then he set the mug back down. "This is going to take a while."
For her part Starshine stared at him, mouthless yet still smiling.