//------------------------------// // Ch 23: The Recipe // Story: Out of the Darkness // by SergeantShenanigans //------------------------------// Once again Star found himself with too many responsibilities, especially since the snow had started to fall, because ponies spent a lot of time inside on their sofas enjoying the fire and warmth of their homes a lot of ponies decided that they would like replacements, and that is where Star came in. For an entire month Star was busy doing this, he spent so much time in the store that he had just brought a giant stack of books from the library to read, which he ended up reading about twenty books each week, seeing as he spent about 10 hours in the store each day. From this month of work, he ended up making somewhere around 2000 bits, which was a lot of bits. At the end of the week in the last week of the month he received a package from Davenport, it read Hey kid, Hearth's warming day is coming up in a few days, with this letter is a pouch containing 500 bits, think of it as your Hearth's warming bonus. Also, your work is done until the snow melts so enjoy your time off. Davenport Star looked at the letter then at the pouch, he really didn't know what to do with the money that he already had, along with the 2000 that he made that month, plus this 500, plus the other 1500 that he had from other pay days, he had 4000 bits plus the bag full of platinum bits that was worth 50,000 bits, he was rich and had nothing to do with any of it "I guess it pays off to be the only employee of a company" he thought happily He stared outside at the snowfall, he discovered that he loved the snow, so much so that he had to be told on more than one occasion to go home or go inside before he froze to death. Star chuckled to himself and took a drink of some hot chocolate that he had made for himself. His eyes wandered until they came upon a certain pie on his counter, he had ended up making the sweet and sour pie, and he understood the foot note in his journal about being obsessed with it, it was one of the best things he had ever eaten. He limited himself to one piece every few days, which proved to be very challenging to him, seeing as he loved it so much, but he did not want to become obsessed with it so he had to keep with his procedure. Star had a problem, he was bored, he had absolutely nothing to do, he found himself in this situation one too many times, so he picked up reading books, but even that didn't keep him occupied enough, he read the books too quickly and had to get more during that, he needed something to do with his days. He heard a knock at the door, he opened it to find a shivering Pinkie Pie "Hi Star!" she said happily "Hello Pinkie, please come in" he said standing aside to let her walk in "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company" "Oh, well I haven't seen you in about a month, none of us have, so I decided to come and see if you were okay!" she said cheerfully "As of today, I have until the snow melts for time off, so I won't be so busy anymore for a while" he explained "That's great! Now you will have time to hang out with the six of us and we can pull pranks and have snowball fights and have fun!" she said excitedly before her eyes dropped upon the pie on the counter "What's that?" Star looked at her then to the pie "That is sweet and sour pie, apparently it is a family recipe of mine" he answered "Can I try some?" she asked with a bright smile "Sure, but I have to warn you, it is terribly addicting" he warned her "I will be fine" she reassured him She walked over to the pie and took a piece that was already cut out then ate it whole. Her expression was blank, she gave off no emotion, she simply stared at the pie. After a few seconds of this she suddenly ate the whole pie in one bite "THIS IS THE BEST PIE EVER!" she yelled in excitement "I HAVE TO HAVE MORE!" "Sorry Pinkie, you just ate the rest of it for the month, I am only making one once a month" Star said apologetically, he knew how she felt "WHY! SOMETHING THIS GOOD CAN'T BE PUT TO WASTE! WE HAVE TO MAKE MORE!" she demanded "This is the reason that I am not making any more, it supposedly makes you obsessed with it" he explained "I'm not obsessed with it, I just want more, that is all" she said seemingly back to normal "I'm sorry Pinkie, but no" Star stood his ground "Than at least give me the recipe! I have to have more!" she pleaded "I can't it's a family recipe" he apologized again "Please!" she pleaded again "No, now if you will excuse me, I am going to go to the library and get more books to read" he said indifferently Pinkie followed him the whole way back pleading him until they arrived at the library where Twilight, Rarity and Applejack were speaking among themselves "Hi girls" Star greeted "Hello Star" Twilight greeted "Please!" Pinkie asked again "No" Star said again for he didn't know how many times "What is she asking?" Rarity questioned "She wants the recipe to some pie that I made, but it is a family recipe" he explained "PLEASE!" Pinkie asked again "Why don't ya just make her some then?" Applejack asked "Because I am only making one pie a month" he explained "Why?" she asked "Because apparently ponies get obsessed with the pie if they eat too much of it" he answered "I doubt there is such a pie that would make a pony become obsessed" Rarity scoffed "Regardless, I just came to get some books" he walked over to the section of the library he had left off on, he decided to just take a few books from a section each time until he was finished with them all, instead of just randomly going through them all and not knowing what he had and hadn't read "PLEASE!" Pinkie pleaded once more "No Pinkie, it is a family recipe, and it is going to stay that way" he said resolutely Pinkie got a shine in her eyes and tackled Star "Marry me!" she yelled "PINKIE!" Twilight shouted "Get off me" Star said in a slightly frustrated tone "Not until you agree to marry me so that I can have that recipe! I mean because I love you" she said quickly "That isn't going to work, now get off" he repeated "Alright, now I have to try some of this pie if it drove Pinkie to proposing to you" Rarity said with wide eyes "Ah agree, ah think that this whole dang thing’s stupid but ah have ta taste this "amazing" pie" Applejack agreed "Fine, I will make some of the pie, but you all have to Pinkie promise not to beg me to make more, or try to marry me for the recipe" Star said half jokingly They each in turn did the pinkie promise and recited it "Good, now get Fluttershy and Rainbow too, I will meet you girls back here in an hour, I will make them Pinkie swear too, so don't get any funny ideas" he threatened Surely enough an hour later Star returned with the pie and made Fluttershy and Rainbow Pinkie swear, it was a cream pie, not a conventional oven baked pie, from the top it looked like a simple banana cream pie "This is what Pinkie has been obsessing over?" Rarity asked "Yes" Star said simply cutting out a piece of the pie for each of them and putting it on the nearby table "Now, dig in" he said reluctantly They all at first took a small bite, besides Pinkie who ate the whole thing in one bite. Applejack was the first to react, she then quickly scarfed down the rest of her piece, followed by Twilight who just shoved the whole piece into her mouth making her mouth puff up, then the rest of them each excitedly ate their piece until there was none left. Rainbow looked annoyed "Why did I agree to Pinkie promise and not beg you to make more" "Now that was some delicious pie" Applejack said with a burp "I agree, I see why Pinkie was pestering you about the recipe now" Rarity admitted "That was um, very delicious" Fluttershy said "That was THE. BEST. PIE. EVER" Pinkie said hopping up and down "This is certainly the best pie I have ever eaten, but it tastes strangely familiar" Twilight commented "Now that that's settled, I am going to get going now, it was nice seeing you all again" Star smiled he turned to the window and saw his reflection, his eyes widened "How long has my hood been off?" he asked curiously "All day" Pinkie said "All day?" he said incredulously "When I saw you this morning you weren't anyway" Pinkie shrugged "All day? Nopony even said anything to me" he thought to himself "Probably because nopony really cared" Pinkie answered his thought "Wait what?" Star said in disbelief "I was just thinking- and you- but then- and I- but- Huh?" "It's just Pinkie being Pinkie" Twilight remarked "Okay, anyway as I was saying, I will see you all later" he said leaving with the books that he had picked out Star walked through the streets absent mindedly, he had nothing to do at home either way. His mind wandered to what he would be doing for the rest of his Hearth's warming break "Wait how do ponies celebrate Hearth's warming day?" He questioned this but it was interrupted by the giggling of a nearby group of ponies, mares, to be more specific, he looked over at them which caused them to giggle even more. He ignored this and went along his path before he was stopped by one of the mares "Excuse me, are you new in town? I don't think we've met, I am Junebug" she said to him with a strange tone and a weird look on her face She was a yellow pony with an orange curly mane, it also had a very light orange line going through it "I'm not very new in town, I have been here for about four or five months now, I am Midnight Star by the way. You may have heard of me, I am also called the ghost who haunts Canterlot, the idiot who was stupid enough to challenge Pinkie Pie to a cupcake eating contest and the winner of the Running of the Leaves competition this year" She laughed at his explanation and once again wore the strange look on her face as she did earlier "That scar you have makes you look rugged, and daring" she commented "That's a new one" he joked "So, what happened to your horn?" she asked curiously "I don't know" he said honestly "How could you not know?" she said in disbelief "I have little to no memory of who I was before five months ago" he explained "I am so sorry, is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" she asked in that strange tone again, along with the strange face she kept making "It's okay, thanks for the offer though" he said happily walking away He looked over his shoulder to see Junebug return to the small group of mares and she started talking excitedly gesturing over to Star he simply shrugged and walked away. Once he rounded the corner he was approached by Rarity "What was that?" she asked "What was what?" he said confused "That whole deal with Junebug" she pressed "She asked if I was new in town, said something about my scar being rugged or something and if there was anything she could do to make me feel better about my horn and losing my memory, and she kept talking weird and making a strange face" he explained "She was obviously flirting with you" Rarity pointed out "Flirting?" Star said questioningly "Trying to get your attention in a way, just a more romantic way" she explained "I still don't understand, why would she want to get my attention romantically?" he asked "You are naïve and as thick as a rock" Rarity said shaking her head "She was hinting that she was interested in you and would like to date you possibly" "Oh" he said in realization his face turning slightly red "I am going to just put this as bluntly as possible" she paused "There may be quite a few mares pursuing your feelings now that ponies can see your face because, firstly, you are quite handsome, you also have the rugged look because of your scar and the sympathy factor because most mares would feel bad about your horn, you also would have their attention regardless because of how few stallions there are in town, so that helps too" she explained "And if ponies were to suddenly figure out that I am wealthy because of the platinum that Starswirl left me?" he asked "Then that would be another factor to make mares want you more" she said simply Star looked at the ground and murmured "I liked it better when ponies didn't know what I looked like" "Why?" Rarity asked barely hearing what he had said "I don't like attention, I'm not very social, the most ponies I have socialized with at once were you, the other girls, Macintosh and Spike" he explained "At least ponies don't know that you are the son of Starswirl the bearded, then you would be famous, rich, handsome, nice, and a gentlecolt, the perfect stallion" Rarity said dreamily "But I'm not any of that, I'm not going to be famous because I don't want anypony to know about my past besides myself, I may be rich for now, but I will probably give it all away, I am clumsy, I don't consider anypony else's feelings on anything, and I am not a gentlecolt as far as I know" he retorted "You are a gentlecolt, you are also humble" she said before shaking her head "What was I out here for again?" she thought out loud "I don't know" he said curiously "What were you out here for?" "I remember now! I had to bring a letter to Derpy to send out, I am ordering more fabric" she said walking away Star watched her leave and continued his walk through town looking for something to do. He found nothing so he finally gave up and went home to read out of the books he had gotten from Twilight When he got to his house Rainbow was standing in front of his door "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked "Nope" she said simply "Would you mind moving out of the way?" he asked "Why do you need me to move out of the way?" she asked "So I can get into my home" he responded "You don't need to get into your house" Rainbow said "You can just stay out here and enjoy the nice cold air" "Move or I will move you" Star said flatly "Just try it!" Rainbow said defiantly Star then levitated her up and away from the door. He walked in to see things thrown everywhere and three ponies searching through his home, he saw Pinkie, Twilight and Applejack "May I ask what you girls are doing?" "We weren't looking for the pie recipe!" Pinkie said quickly before clamping her hooves on her mouth "Well good luck with that, because it isn't here" he said knowingly "Where is it then?" Twilight asked "You don't need to know that, if I tell you then you will look for it another time" he explained "Sorry" Applejack apologized "It's okay" he said cheerfully "Where is it anyway?" Pinkie asked "It is in my old journal" he answered "Where's that?" Twilight asked "It's with the box, Starswirl's journal, and the bag of platinum, in a place where you girls will never find it" he explained "Hey Star, quick question, completely unrelated to the current situation, where is that box? I was wondering what those ponies in the picture looked like again" Pinkie asked "I will show you the picture another time" he said putting his sofa back right side up "I might have an idea who they are, but I have to see the picture again" she pursued "Look, Pinkie, I make the pie once a month, you can all come by and get a piece then" he said cutting to the chase "A whole month? That is too long!" she said in a whine "Tell you what, I will make two pies on those days so that you can eat even more of the pie" Star offered "Fine, but I will be here first thing in the morning in exactly one month from now!" she said in a defiant promise as she left and slammed the door Star turned to Twilight and Applejack "I had a question, how do ponies celebrate Hearth's warming day?" "It is a day to spend time with family and friends, to exchange gifts and enjoy each other's company" Twilight explained "Sounds like fun, when is it anyway?" he asked "In two days" she answered "That's nice to know" he said simply "Do ya need any help cleanin?" Applejack offered "No thanks, I will clean it" he said "Well, I better be goin now, g'bye Twi, g'bye Star" she said before she left "I'd better be out of here too, I will see you later" Twilight said cheerfully before she left After all of his company had left he had put all of his efforts into cleaning up his house, it took him another hour to clean it all up. He sighed as he finally finished, they had made quite a mess trying to find the pie recipe. Star found himself doing what he was doing that same morning, he was drinking some hot chocolate and enjoying the day as it was. After finishing the hot chocolate he picked up one of the many books that he had picked up from the library. The particular book he had chosen to read was about Discord, it explained how Discord had ruled over Equestria with an iron fist for a long time, until Luna and Celestia discovered the elements of harmony and imprisoned him in a stony prison, freeing all of the ponies across Equestria from his rule. "Wait, Discord was created by Starswirl, he didn't rule over Equestria as far as I can tell, where did such a story come from?" He contemplated this thought for a few moments before deciding that it was probably some pony who just wanted to be known for his opinion on the story. Star looked out the window thinking over the events of the day, deciding that tomorrow, he would go out and find presents for his friends.