//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: A Day With Starlight // Story: The Golden Child // by Fusionflare374 //------------------------------// It was a fairly cloudy day in Equestria, the sun was shining behind some clouds. Austin was in bed still, sleeping like a baby. Celestia came into the room and came to his side of the bed. She started to shake Austin a bit to wake him up. “Austin.” Celestia said softly. “Austin, sweetie time to get up.” Austin then started to mumble and rose up the bed quickly. “I’m sorry!” Austin yelled. Wha... about what?” Celestia said worriedly. “O-Oh sorry momma Celestia, I... had a nightmare about that l-lady from yesterday.” “Oh sweetie, just remember it was just an accident. You don’t need to worry about it so much.” “Thank y-you momma.” Austin smiled. “Your welcome sweetie.” Celestia smiled back. “I have a question for you.” “W-what is it?” “Would you like to visit Starlight for a while? You haven’t seen her in a while, so I thought I ask you to see if you do or not.” “Oh umm...” “Say yes.” Shadow Austin said. “Yeah It would be nice to seen her again.” “Excellent!” Celestia smiled. “Would you like a ride there?” “S-Sure.” “Alright, I will get a chariot to bring you to Ponyville.” “Okay.” 20 minutes later, the chariot was ready for Austin. Austin hugged Celestia softly and went on the chariot. As Austin was entering the chariot, Celestia felt uneasy. She felt something inside of Austin, something dark. She shook off that feeling, but she was worried for Austin. Austin waved to Celestia and he was gone. Austin was sitting on the seat on the chariot and waited until he arrived at Ponyville. 10 minutes passed and he landed in Ponyville. As Austin got out of the chariot, he saw ponies with untrusted looks. Austin waved at the Pegasus as they returned to the castle. Austin walked around the village and saw the ponies look at him and Austin looked back, nervously. Austin finally got to the castle and knocked on the door. The door opened and Starlight appeared. “Oh hey Austin! I’ve been waiting for you.” Starlight smiled. “H-hey Starlight.” Austin said. “Come in come in.” Starlight wave her hoof in the building. Austin went inside Twilights castle. “W-where is everyone?” Austin asked. “Oh they went out doing some friendship quests.” “You didn’t g-go along?” “Nah, besides I promised Celestia to hang out with you.” “R-Right.” Austin and Starlight walked around the castle and went to the library. “Here we are.” Starlight said. “What are we d-doing in the library?” “To do some magic of course.” Starlight smiled. “But I’m don’t know h-how to do magic, I can’t even use my soul powers.” Austin said. “It can’t hurt if you try.” “…Alright.” “Great!” Starlight used her magic and took a book off the bookshelf and levitated in front of her. She opened the book and went through the book and stopped on one of the pages. “This one should be easy,” Starlight showed the page to Austin. “You just have to move an object with magic.” “Hmm.. I’m not sure i-if I can do this.” Austin said nervously. “You have to be confident about yourself and if you don’t get it the first time, that’s fine, we can try again.” “O-okay… I’ll try.” “That’s the spirit,” Starlight smiles again. “Now just focus on that apple on the table.” Starlight gestures to the apple a wooden table in the middle of the room. Austin inhaled and exhaled and aimed his hand at the apple. Austin clutched his eyes shut, focusing hard to lift the apple. But instead of lifting the apple, he started to shapeshift. He turned into a human with a helmet on his head and goggles on this eyes. He was wearing a suit with a American flag on one of the sleeves. Austin looked down and gasped in shock. “Thermite? I didn’t want to transform, I wanted to move the apple.” Austin sighed. “It’s okay Austin. Not everyone gets it in their first try. Just relax and try again.” Starlight said to Austin. “Right.” Austin change back to his self and tried once again. He raised his arm at the apple again and closed his eyes. But he ended up transforming again. Austin turned into a Python. Starlight saw him and shrieked. She ran to the nearest table and went on top. Austin slithered towards Starlight, but Starlight used her magic to levitate a broom and swung it at Austin. “Back… back.” Starlight scarily said. Sssstarlight it’sssss me Austin.” Austin said “I know, but I’m terrified of snakes!” “Do you want me to change?” “Please.” Austin changed back to himself. “Phew, thank you,” Starlight said in relief. “Do you want to try again or do you want a break.” “I want to try one m-more time.” Austin said. “Alright. Whenever your ready.” Austin nodded and turned to the apple with intense eyes. He closed his one last time. He reopened them and he saw the apple floating in the air. Austin was very happy that he made the apple float that he didn’t know he transformed into a person with a gas mask with a red jumpsuit and a flamethrower. All of a sudden the flamethrower ignited and fire hit the bookshelves, burning most of the books. Before Austin could realized he transformed , half of the the books were burned. After he was done with the celebrating, he turned and saw the library covered with fire. Austin gasped and ran to get water, but before he got out the door, Starlight opened the door with water in her magic and used the water to distinguish the flames. The library was covered with ashes and water. Austin transformed back to himself. He went to reach over to Starlight, but she moved from him. “Starlight, I’m so s-so sorry. I-I didn’t realize I transformed and did this. Is their anything I can do to help?” Austin said. “No. You can leave, I’ll handle the mess and blame the accident on myself.” Starlight said. “What, no this is my fault! I-I should take the blame!” “It’s fine Austin, just go.” “But-“ “LEAVE!!” Starlight screamed but quickly calmed down. “Please.” Austin hesitated if he wanted to go or not. He turned to the door, opened it and closed it behind him. Austin opened the front door of the castle and closed it. Austin walked around the village, with a feeling of guilt in his chest. “Why would she take the blame for me? Is that what friends d-do?” Austin said to himself out loud. “She did it to make you feel guilty of what you did.” Shadow Austin said to Austin, appearing in front of him. “But why? I thought s-she was my friend.” “She only did that to show pity to you, that’s why she will take the blame, to make you feel guilty. “Maybe I should go b-back and help.” Austin said as he turned around, but Shadow Austin was in front of him. “No no, she probably already cleaned up the mess and told Twilight what happened.” “Are y-you sure?” “I’m sure.” “… Okay.” Austin said sadly. Austin turned the other way and began walking to the train station. As he was walking, Shadow Austin made a evil looking smile behind him before vanishing back into Austin’s body. Queen Necrafa was looking at the screens to see the progress of Shadow Austin’s work. “General!” Necrafa yelled. General Grevious walked to the door to her surveillance room. “Yes Queen Necrafa?” Grevious grumbled. “Take a look of this.” Grevious walked over to Necrafa and look up at the screen. Grevious saw a man burning down a library of Twilights castle. “Is that him?” Grevious asked. “Yes that’s him, The Golden Child.” “You do know he has a name besides “the Golden Child”.” “Yes I know, but Golden Child sounds better than Austin.” “Whatever,” Grevious grumbled. “So is he doing this himself?” “No, my shadow is taking his powers and using it against his friends.” “To make them hate him, smart.” “Yes. Once he is alone, we will steal his soul essence and then you can go back to your stupid job, killing Jedi.” “It’s not stupid.” “Sure,” Nefcrafa looked at the screen. “For now we just wait and see what happens.” “But what If it betrays you? Are you worried about it?” “No. I know all of its moves it makes. But it betraying me is a possibility, and if it does it will fail.” “How will it fail?” “It’s plan is going to smoothly, eventually it’s plan will fail and I’ll be the one to finish what I started.” “Why didn’t you use plan b in the first place?” Grievous sighed “Because it would’ve been boring and I wanted to spice my plan up.” “I see. And when do me and my troops come in?” “You and Your troops will begin to invade the village and the castle were near so that no one can interrupt my plan.” “Alright, but once you get this kids powers, you will help reclaim my homeland and I’ll continue to kill Jedi, right?” “That is the deal, yes.” “Then I’ll do what it takes to help my species survive.” “Good. Now be a bit patient, things might start to get interesting for us.” Necrafa giggled evilly. To Be Continued…