Return Address

by FoolAmongTheStars


2. Awkward Tea

An uncomfortable silence settled in the sitting room, and Starlight resisted the urge to squirm in her seat. Sunburst sat beside her, purposely sitting from across his father, silent and sullen, looking like he was next in line to be sent to the glue factory. Sunspot, however, looked perfectly at ease, making small talk with Starlight since Sunburst refused to engage. Feeling another awkward pause creeping upon them, she cleared her throat and made a tactical retreat.   

“I, huh, I’ll go make some tea.” She said, rising from the couch. “What kind of tea would you like, Sunspot?”

Sunspot smiled, flashing his pearly white teeth at her. Starlight noted that even his smile was the same as Sunburst, down to the dimple on his left cheek and the gentle lift of his eyebrows. “I don’t have any preference, whatever you have is perfectly alright with me.” 

Nodding, Starlight skipped into the kitchen, leaving the stallions alone and ignoring Sunburst’s imploring look.

“Your friend is very charming,” Sunspot said, once Starlight was out of earshot. Sunburst nodded warily. “So, does she know?”

Sunburst glared at him. “No.” 

“Anything?”  

“No.”

Sunspot smiled, leaning forward in his seat with interest. “Really? And here I thought you two were close.”

“She doesn’t need to know.” Sunburst dropped his stare to the floor guiltily, but his father’s gaze was filled with amusement. 

“This is a surprise,” Sunspot laughed as he relaxed against the couch. “I was pretty clear in my letter about my reason for coming here—don’t look so shocked, what did you expect? That I would simply forget our deal?” He laughed again. “Why didn’t you tell her?”

“Because it doesn’t matter!” Sunburst snapped, eyes flickering to the door Starlight had gone through when he realized how loud he’d been. “She has nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, but she does!” Sunspot smiled, following his son’s gaze. “Such a darling girl, Starlight. I remember how close you two were, like two peas in a pod, but I admit I lost track of her with time, so I did a little research to see what kind of girl you were…living with. Quite the record, to say the least. From enslaving a village and defying the Princess, to saving the world a couple of times, it’s hard to believe it was done by the same mare. I would assume that your leaving affected her greatly, and it must have been hard to gain back her trust. Funny how fragile trust can be…”

Sunburst’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

His pleasant demeanor never slipped as he continued. “How would your friend react if she found out what you’ve been hiding from her for, gosh, years? It would break her heart all over again, and that would be just terrible, wouldn’t it?”

Sunburst gritted his teeth as he stared at the handsome face of his father, seeing so much of himself and hating it. “You can’t do that.”

“I can, and I will, Sunburst.” Sunspot assured him. “I’ve been told that friendship is based on trust, and when that trust is broken one too many times, can you really call that pony your friend? I’m disappointed, I taught you better than to lie to your friends.”

Sunburst lost some of his defiance as he slowly realized that his father had planned this out from the start. He had successfully locked him into a stalemate and Sunburst wanted to scream, but when he opened his mouth all that came out was a mumbled question. “What do you want me to do?”

“Make up an excuse,” Sunspot shrugged. “Or tell her the truth. Whatever you choose doesn’t matter to me, though I assume you will lie to protect her.”

Sunburst swallowed hard. “And if I don’t?” 

Sunspot’s eyes hardened. “Either you tell her, or I will. And I will not be kind enough to spare her feelings. Don’t make me break your little friendship, Sunburst, because I will not give it a second thought if you force my horn.”

“Don’t you dare!” Sunburst hissed, his fear replaced by anger.

“One way or another, you will be coming home with me and fulfill your duties as my son and heir.”

Sunburst opened his mouth to shout a defiant reply, but the tinkling of porcelain cut him short as Starlight carefully entered the room, balancing a tray filled with tea and snacks with her magic.

Across the coffee table, Sunspot smiled and said pleasantly. “Just think about it, that’s all I ask.”  

“Sorry I took so long,” Starlight said as she settled the tray on the table and gave each pony a teacup. “I realized we were out of cookies, so I popped into Sugarcube Corner for some, but there was a line and a dragon crashed into the cake display and almost set the whole place on fire, who knew frosting was so flammable, and then this griffin tried to…ah, well it doesn’t matter, what did I miss?” 

Sunburst forced a smile as he took the steaming cup, which turned a little more genuine when he realized that Starlight had made his tea just how he liked it—a dash of cream and a spoonful of honey. “Ah, thanks, we were just…” he trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“Catching up.” Sunspot finished for him, waving the issue away without another word. “I trust you know that Sunburst is an accomplished wizard?”

Starlight nodded and smiled. “Yes! That’s actually how we reunited.”

Sunspot glanced at Sunburst, “Really? Sunburst never told me the story, I would love to hear it.”

Starlight took a sip of her tea and stepped in to fill the silence since it was obvious to everypony that Sunburst wasn’t going to do it. 

“Well, it all started with my first friendship lesson. Princess Twilight decided that I should reconnect with an old friend from my past,” she nudged her head towards Sunburst, “who happened to live in the Crystal Empire, and we arrived just in time for the birth of Princess Flurry Heart. We were lucky he was there, all things considered.”     

“How come?”

“Princess Flurry Heart was born an alicorn, a pretty powerful one, and she broke the Crystal Heart in a tantrum. No pony knew what to do to fix it, and without it, the Empire was defenseless against the Frozen North. But Sunburst came up with the idea to use the Crystalling ceremony to fix the heart and save the day.” Starlight glanced at Sunburst with a confused frown. “You seriously never told him about this?”

Sunburst took a sip of his tea to hide his pout. “It must have slipped my mind…”  

“Good thing that Starlight was there, then.” Sunspot sighed. “This is all very interesting, but I have yet to hear how you two met up…” 

“Oh, right, sorry!” Starlight said after giving Sunburst one final glance; she just couldn’t understand his animosity towards his father—the stallion was a perfect gentlecolt. “Since everypony was busy with the baby, Twilight sent me towards Sunburst house with Spike (that’s her assistant, by the way) to supervise the lesson. When we finally met face-to-face, it was…a little awkward to say the least, since we hadn’t seen each other in a long time.” Sunspot nodded in understanding. “I was so nervous that I pretty much botched our first meeting…”    

“Why is that?” Sunspot said, as though he was riveted by the tale. Sunburst resisted the urge to jump across the table and strangle him. He was taunting him, soaking up every bit of information to use it for his own gain.   

“I thought that Sunburst was an important wizard and that he didn’t want to be my friend anymore, but it was all a big misunderstanding,” she turned to smile at Sunburst. “Once we came clean to each other, it was easy for us to be friends again.” She giggled. “And just in time, because it gave me a chance to explain what was going on with the baby and the heart.”  

“And for Sunburst to step in to save the day,” Sunspot finished for her. “My, this is quite a romantic tale.”

Starlight blushed slightly as she continued. “I just had to explain everything once and Sunburst already knew what to do, once he got what he needed we rushed towards the Palace. He took one look at the situation and gave everypony there a task. He might not have been the most powerful unicorn in the room, but he was the only one with a plan, even the Princesses were impressed with his smarts.” 

Sunspot leaned closer, and Sunburst could tell that he was genuinely interested for the first time. “The Princesses were there? All five of them?”

Sunburst glanced up from his tea and narrowed his eyes at his father. “Does it matter?”

“Not everypony gets to see a Princess every day, let alone all five of them in one room,” he said, his smile dropping, but his expression was calm. He was probably seething with jealousy at the fact that his son was so close to the Princesses. Or maybe he was angry that Sunburst had kept that bit of information from him all this time. Sunspot turned his attention back to Starlight, “And then what happened?”

Not sensing the hostility between the two males, Starlight smiled and continued. “I stayed with Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Twilight to hold the pieces of the Crystal Heart together, while Sunburst went out with the others to conduct the ceremony. I wasn’t there to see it, but I knew he succeeded when he came rushing in with a shining piece of crystal,” Starlight raised her hooves with a grin as she pantomimed the events that followed. “He jumped in the air, stabbed the Crystal Heart in the center, and boom! The whole kingdom was filled with light and love, and the Crystal Heart was as good as new. After that, we became good friends again and promised to stay in touch this time around, and the rest is history.” 

“That's quite a tale. It’s amazing how magic can bring ponies together,” he smiled at Starlight before turning towards his son. “But I must ask, Sunburst, why weren’t you at the Crystalling in the first place? It’s my understanding that it’s an open event, almost a holiday of sorts in the Empire.”

There was a moment of silence as both ponies turned to look at Sunburst. Swallowing the last of his tea with a gulp, he shrugged, “I never liked crowds or parties that much.”  

Starlight nodded in understanding, easily accepting his answer, but Sunspot’s smile grew a few inches when he caught the lie. 

“Well, it’s a good thing Starlight found you. It would have been a shame if you never made friends with her because you were hiding.”

“Yes, that would have been bad,” Sunburst agreed, keeping his voice steady. “Luckily, that didn’t happen.”

“Yes, luckily,” his father gave him an amused stare before glancing at his pocket watch. “Oh my, look at the time. I’m afraid that I must get going.” Sunspot stood up, with Starlight and Sunburst following him to the foyer to see him out. “It was wonderful to see you again.” He said before pulling Starlight in for a quick hug. “And I thank you for looking out for my son, ah! Before I forget, Starlight, I know this is very short notice, but are you doing anything tomorrow?”

Starlight could practically feel Sunburst’s heavy gaze on her, begging her to say yes, but she ignored him. “No, why?”

Sunspot grinned at her. “I would love to have lunch with you, I want to get to know you better, my treat of course. I would send a carriage to pick you up at, say, two o’clock?” 

“Oh, huh, sure, that works for me.” Starlight smiled, slightly surprised.

“Until then!” Sunspot turned, gracefully waving over his shoulder. “Think about what I said, Sunburst. I’ll be expecting an answer soon,” was the last thing he said before he left.

As Sunburst shut the door rudely behind his father, Starlight shot him a look. “What did he mean by that?”

“Family business,” Sunburst growled out, turning back to head inside the castle. Frowning, Starlight followed after him.

“Well, your dad seems nice.” Starlight pressed, nudging his shoulder as they walked. “What does he do exactly?” When Sunburst didn’t answer she sighed and kept talking. “I guess I’ll have to ask him tomorrow.”

Sunburst stopped in front of the library’s doors, turning slowly to face his friend. “You shouldn’t…Don’t go to lunch with him.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Your dad was nothing but nice to us. Maybe he’s changed.”

Sunburst shook his head, giving her a desperate look. “Starlight, you don’t understand!”

“What, Sunburst?” She said while stomping a hoof against the floor, as her annoyance started to rise. “What is it that I don’t understand?”  

He stared at her for a moment, his blue eyes clouding over with dread. “Anything.”

He said it so softly that Starlight almost didn’t hear him. Confused and concerned, she took a step towards the stallion—Sunburst rarely acted so cryptically. “What are you talking about? You’re freaking me out.”

Sunburst didn’t meet her eyes, choosing to look at the ceiling instead. “Nothing. We…We can talk about it tomorrow, okay? I promise I’ll tell you everything.”

“...Fine,” she said just as softly, but still very much confused. “You know you can tell me anything, right? If something is bothering you, we can figure it out together.”

Sunburst nodded, bringing his eyes down to rest on her face. “I know, I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Don’t be sorry. We can talk tomorrow when you’re ready.” She gave him a small smile before reaching out and patting his shoulder reassuringly. “I trust you.”

The contact lasted only for a moment, and then she turned away as she headed down the hall, probably to clean up the mess in the sitting room. Sunburst watched her go, feeling his heart being torn into two. He lowered his head with shame as he trudged his way to the library, slamming the door behind him, mind already racing. 

“But you shouldn’t.”

Why hadn’t he told her? It would have been so simple if he had come clean since the beginning, then she could have decided for herself. But he hadn’t. He hid everything behind a shroud, and Starlight never pried, because he never gave her a reason, always trusting him to tell her anything she really needed to know. Anything that would affect them both.

And he had betrayed that trust. 

He crashed into one of the couches and buried his face in one of the throw pillows with a groan. If he had known that helping in the Crystalling would put him on the map like that, he probably wouldn’t have been so eager to help. He was supposed to stay alone, to never succeed. But Starlight had asked him for help, and she had praised him, vouched for him when everyone doubted him. She had been the first one to do so. And because of that, he had come out of hiding, throwing away his plans. Sighing, he sat up and stared dejectedly at the frayed edges of the pillow.  

What was he going to do now?