"I guess I should start this with the root of the problem." She hesitated for a moment before continuing "When your father and I started our relationship everything was wonderful, during the day, I was very busy, but at night, we would meet up and enjoy each other's company, but soon enough the doubt came to his mind just as it had been plaguing mine, alicorns live for thousands of years, but regular ponies have much shorter life spans, so he asked why I bothered being in a relationship with him, if his life was to end centuries before mine. I had questioned myself with this on more than one occasion, but I had come up with an answer beforehoof, I told him that I didn't care about any of that, and that I loved him and that was all that mattered, I thought he had forgotten about it after that, but I was wrong. A few years later you were born, he once again seemed distraught, he worried that he wouldn't be around to help take care of his newborn child as long as his mother, he seemed withdrawn for quite a few months until eventually he approached me, he was ecstatic, apparently he had studied into some of our older spell tomes and found a spell that would supposedly give the user eternal life, though the requirements were dire and the entire thing was very sketchy, I told him that it wasn't worth the risk and that I would rather that he didn't bother with it. For quite a few more years he didn't bring up anything and we enjoyed our lives and watched you grow, but around your tenth birthday he tried to convince me again to allow him to attempt the spell, though I denied it. Over the next fourteen years he tried and tried to convince me to allow him to go through with it, and each and every time I rejected the idea. On the day of your twenty fourth birthday I received a letter from him saying that he had finally done it, he had all the requirements to perform the spell and that he would be doing it as a birthday gift to you, but instead he gave up his life and gave birth to two beings of evil, Discord and Destruction." Celestia explained with almost no pauses for breath in between.
Star sat in silence while the information processed into his mind. The other ponies in the room stared at him in anticipation, waiting for his reaction to learning what really happened "So, all of this happened because he wanted to be there for us…." Star finally said, more to himself than anypony else.
"That's right." Celestia confirmed.
Star suddenly started to shake, as if he were about to explode with emotions, but a small tear trickled down one of his cheeks and he let out a small, bitter laugh, surprising even Celestia with his reaction "Why are you laughing?" she asked.
"I feel like I should be shouting at the skies and trying to find Discords statue to break it or something, but I know that it won't accomplish anything, it's kind of funny though, we told him not to so many times because we were worried about him, but he was only trying to do it because he was the one worried for us." He answered slowly.
After a few moments of waiting for Star to recover from the sudden revelation he looked back to his mother "That does raise one question in my mind though, why did you lie to everypony about the origin of Hearth's Warming day?" he asked.
Celestia tilted her head at him in confusion "What do you mean?" she asked.
"According to the Hearth's Warming story, the three races of ponies founded Equestria on that day with Clover the Clever, who was Starswirls fake apprentice, being one of the main ponies in the event, which isn't possible because I would have been there too, and you would have been ruling over Equestria at the time, also in the story I was told explaining Discord, he ruled over all of the races of Equestria until you and Luna put a stop to it, meaning that it would have to take place a long time after that day, but you were ruler when Discord was created, completely throwing off that timeline, so that means that it is a false story, so what is the true history behind that day?" he asked.
Celestia smiled sadly after hearing this "You got your wit from your father, that much is obvious. Yes the story behind Hearth's Warming day is false, the true story behind that is that the year after you and your father were gone and just before I had taken care of getting rid of all evidence of either of your existences, I was in my room, crying and reminiscing over that day, when Luna and Snowy Day came in to see what was wrong, they comforted me and we ended up spending the night in my room enjoying ourselves and just talking, being friends. I still wanted to celebrate your birthday every year, so I made up the story about the Windigos and the friends triumph over the bitterness of each of the races of ponies as an excuse to celebrate your birthday without being too obvious and attracting suspicion." She explained "But don't go around telling anypony, that celebration brings much peace and friendship with it." She added.
Each of the ponies nodded in agreement "How is Blueblood your nephew exactly?" Rarity asked.
Celestia smiled at this "Actually, technically speaking he is my step-nephew, Starswirl and I may never have been officially married, but we considered it that way, so I considered his sister my sister, and I considered her part of my family, Blueblood is her descendant, thus making him my nephew." She explained.
"If he knew he wasn't really royalty he would have a fit!" Rarity exclaimed between laughs.
After a shared round of laugher there was a contented silence, which was shattered by Pinkie "Oh! I have a question, Since you raise and set the sun, and Princess Luna raises and sets the moon, what was Star going to control?" she asked.
"What else is there to control? I take care of the sun, Luna takes care of the moon, even if I wanted to have him do some sort of royal duty, there wouldn't be anything to do." Celestia explained.
Twilight looked over at a clock on a nearby wall, noting that the sun would be setting soon "We've got to get to sleep early so we can get to winter wrap up on time, so if there was any business you girls needed to get done while you were here you had better get to it." She commented.
After a few moments in which nopony spoke up Star stood up from where he had been sitting "Well, this was revealing, but I think I'm going to rest and collect my thoughts." He said walking towards the door.
He was then stopped by Celestia "Wait just one moment, if you would all please leave, I must speak privately with Star."
With a shrug all of the other ponies evacuated the room leaving just Celestia and Star remaining "Alright, now, how much do you know about mares?" she asked.
After an hour, some misunderstandings, and some very embarrassing explanations later Star emerged from the room with his face a very deep shade of crimson, as he retreated from the room at a quick run down the hall Celestia called after him with a large grin "Remember, it's all about Kama Sutra!"
Star immediately stopped in his tracks and covered his ears with his hooves "Lalalalala I can't hear you lalalalala!" he said trying to block out her explanations.
Celestia simply chuckled and walked off shaking her head at his reaction. After a few moments Star checked to see if the coast was clear, he never wanted to have such an embarrassing conversation with anypony ever again, especially his mother.
Satisfied that she was gone and was done teasing him he made his way to his room to get some rest from that hectic day. He arrived at his room and immediately collapsed on his comfortable bed to get a good night's sleep.
This was enjoyed for a total of 20 minutes until there was a knock on the door "The door is open." Star said prompting the pony that had interrupted his brief sleep to enter his room.
He watched as Pinkie and Applejack walked into his room "Hey girls, what's up?" he asked.
"We were comin ta check if ya wanted ta play a round of truth or dare with us." Applejack asked.
"What is up with you girls and truth or dare?" Star asked.
"It is the easiest way to ask you questions without it seeming like we are trying to find out things you wouldn't normally answer truthfully." Pinkie explained.
"Pinkie!" Applejack exclaimed covering Pinkie's mouth.
"You girls could just ask me any question you want; I don't have any reason to lie to any of you." Star said with a roll of his eyes.
The two other ponies shared a look and a shrug before Applejack let go of Pinkie's mouth "Alright, then would you please follow us to Twilight's room? We would all like to speak with you." Pinkie asked in a very businesslike manner.
Star sighed "Alright."
He left his nice comfortable bed and followed the two over to Twilight's room where their other friends were waiting "You ready to play some truth or dare?" Rainbow asked in anticipation.
"Cut the act Rainbow, he knows." Applejack said quickly.
"Seriously? We had this whole act rehearsed, Fluttershy was even going to stand in the middle of one of the hallways shouting that she ate some bad haycakes." Rainbow said in disappointment.
"All of this because none of you wanted to ask me direct questions?" Star asked in surprise.
This caused everypony to avoid eye contact with Star while a few of them simply looked at the ground and kicked their hoof at the floor "Are you girls afraid of me or something?" he asked.
"Not exactly… we didn't really know how to bring up the subject, what were we going to say "Hey Star, can we ask you some very personal questions and expect you to be perfectly honest?" It seemed like that would be too pushy, and you usually only choose truth when we play so….." Twilight explained.
"What do you mean "very personal questions"?" He asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Like, what did you and the princess talk about when we all left?" she asked.
Stars face turned a very bright red as he averted his eyes to the ground trying to avoid eye contact "O-oh, um nothing really, she was just asking how I was and….. stuff." He said vaguely.
"I doubt that is all she talked to you about, what else?" Rarity pressed.
"I- um… well…. can we please just talk about something else? The way this conversation is headed it is going to be very awkward." Star pleaded.
"So you were talking about something private and awkward huh?" Rainbow accused.
Star looked uncomfortable for a moment before a slight grin grew on his face "I don't really think that any of you want to hear what I was speaking to her about."
"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know." Rainbow pressed.
"Well…. she did tell me about this one time when you were about nine, she saw you at a Wonderbolts show and-" he started, just to be interrupted by Rainbow.
"Okay, okay! I'm not going to ask about it again!" she said quickly "Why was she telling you embarrassing stories about me anyway?"
"She told me stories about each of you, to try and make me feel less uncomfortable about what we really talked about." Star explained.
"Which was….?" Twilight asked.
"Well, a little while after you started your apprenticeship with Celestia, just after the summer sun celebration-" he started again, just to be interrupted this time by Twilight.
"Alright I won't ask!" she exclaimed.
"Alright, if we are done with that, anything else?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What's it like having somepony living inside your mind?" Pinkie asked.
"It's normal, I guess, I don't feel unusual or anything, I haven't even spoken to Solar since earlier today when we were all talking to him." Star explained with a shrug.
Twilight and Rarity glared at each other for a moment before nodding and turning back to Star "So, Star, have you found that special somepony yet?" Rarity asked.
"Special pony? What special pony?" he asked in confusion.
Rarity sighed "I mean have you developed a crush on anypony yet?" she asked.
Stars face turned bright red and he looked to the ground "Can we talk about something else?" he asked.
"So you have! Who is it?" Rarity demanded.
"No, I haven't, I just don't want to talk about this right now." He said defensively.
"Wait a sec, you don't want to talk about this… it makes things awkward…. so….. *gasp*! That's what you and Celestia were talking about!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"No it isn't!" Star exclaimed quickly.
"Yes it is! You are a horrible liar!" Pinkie shouted pointing at him
Star sighed in defeat "Yes, that is what we talked about, in very, VERY, extensive detail." His face could be mistaken for a tomato from the color it was.
This caused everypony in the room to turn red "I can see why you wouldn't want to talk about it now…." Twilight admitted.
"Anything else you girls would like to ask or can I go back to sleep?" he asked after regaining his composure.
He received 6 head shakes, with that as an answer he went on his way back to his room to get some sleep.
The next morning he was woken by a knock at his door. Slowly and groggily he got up and walked over to find out who it was. When he answered the door he found Twilight and Rarity standing in front of it "Hey Star, how would you like to come and help with winter wrap up?" Twilight asked.
"That depends, do I have a choice?" he responded after a few moments of pause.
They both responded by shaking their heads "Alright then, sure." He answered submissively.
"Great! You better get ready, the train to ponyville leaves in an hour!" she exclaimed just before rushing off with Rarity to who knows where.
"…..What's winter wrap up?" he thought aloud.
With a sigh he made his way to the dining hall to get some breakfast, he had a feeling that today was going to be a long day.
When he arrived at the dining hall he found Celestia, Luna, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack eating breakfast.
Star was going to sit down and eat with them, but first he had to get something to eat in the first place, so he walked over to one of the double doors and walked into the kitchen. He was immediately thrown out "Hey!" he exclaimed as he landed on his face.
A pony wearing a chef's hat walked out and glared at him "You would be insulting my abilities if you were to make your own food, now please, take a seat and be patient."
With that Star made his way over to where the other girls were eating and sat by Fluttershy "So Star, have you been thinking of what we spoke about last night?" asked Celestia with a sly grin.
"Which part?" Star asked already knowing the answer.
"When I had a "private" word with you." She answered with a wink.
Luckily Star didn't have to answer this because right then the chef pony walked in carrying a platter, he placed it in front of Star, on the platter was some toast, hash browns, and two very large chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes.
After thanking the chef pony, he simply smiled, took a bow, and walked back into the kitchen. Star turned back to his food and immediately began to eat.
"So, what are you planning to do today Star?" Luna asked.
"Apparently I am going to be helping with winter wrap up in Ponyville." He said as if he had no choice in the matter.
Luna responded with a small giggle "You sound like you don't have a choice in the matter."
"According to Rarity and Twilight I don't." he explained.
"And why not?" Celestia asked.
He responded with a shrug "I have no idea; they just kind of recruited me I guess."
"But why-" Celestia started, but Fluttershy interrupted her by walking up and whispering something into her ear, her eyes widened in realization "Oh, I see."
"What?" Star demanded.
"Nothing." Celestia answered with a giggle.
Star resigned with a sigh and finished his food "Well, there is one more thing to sort out before I leave." He turned to Celestia "I am probably just going to stay and resume my life in Ponyville, though I will still visit and keep in contact, I think it might be good for me to just live in Ponyville for the time being, that is, unless you want me to stay here with you."
She looked lost in thought for a few moments before she seemed to come to a decision "I think that it would be good for you to go back to Ponyville, your friends are there, and maybe even more awaits you." She said with a wink.
Just then Pinkie, Twilight and Rarity walked into the dining hall "Alright girls and Star, let's get going, we have to make it back in time to help with winter wrap up." Twilight called.
"Why did you say "Alright girls and Star" instead of just "Alright everypony"?" Star asked.
"Doesn't matter, let's move!" Twilight said excitedly.
Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Star got up to follow Twilight but Star stopped by Celestia and Luna for a moment to say goodbye.
After that they headed down to the train station where they boarded a very Pinkie Pie looking train, as in it looked like Pinkie Pie had designed the thing. After a 40 or more minute ride they arrived in Ponyville.
As they walked down the streets it was strangely vacant "Where is everypony?" Star asked.
"Over at town hall for the annual pep talk" Rainbow explained.
When they arrived at town hall they saw very large groups of ponies, but they were separated into different groups according to a color of vest that they were wearing"And here they are now, the team captains! And apparently they are being joined by none other than Prince Starlight himself!" she exclaimed.
Everypony in the crowds turned to look at them, causing Fluttershy to hide in her mane and look at the ground "Alright everypony, are you ready for another great winter wrap up?" Twilight asked loudly.
She received a loud "YEAH!" from everypony in the crowd "Alright then, Mayor Mare, anything else to add?" she asked.
"Nope, alright everypony, let's get to work!" she exclaimed.
As everypony dispersed the seven of them walked towards Mayor Mare, where everypony but Star was given a vest "So, who are you going to help?" Mayor Mare asked watching the rest of the ponies leave to their respective jobs, besides Rarity and Twilight.
"I don't even know what I am supposed-" Star started but was interrupted by Rarity.
"He can help me weave baskets!" she suggested.
"No he can't he doesn't have magic to use that can help him and he probably doesn't know how to weave baskets. He CAN help me with checking on how everypony is getting along, though, he doesn't need magic for that, come on Star let's start by checking on how the ice skating is going." Twilight said dragging him away before anypony could protest.
They soon arrived at a small pond looking body of water, where a familiar pink pony was waiting anxiously nearby a group of ponies wearing blue vests, she immediately approached the duo as they arrived "Hey Twilight, do you happen to know where a pair of skates are? I can't seem to find mine."
"Nope sorry Pinkie." Twilight said at a loss.
Star put a hoof to his chin and stared at the sky thoughtfully "Pinkie logic states that there is always something where you know it isn't, so going by that logic they should be….." he started to walk over to a nearby tree and gave it a firm buck, causing a pair of skates to fall to his side "Right here."
He brought the skates over to the now gaping mares "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Pinkie logic." Star said with a shrug.
"I- but- that- that only works for Pinkie!" She shouted.
Star answered with another shrug making Twilight sigh "Fine, Pinkie, here are the blueprints for how the pond should be cut this year." Twilight said taking out a blue scroll of paper and levitating it over to the pink pony.
Pinkie took the paper and smiled at Twilight gratefully; Twilight sighed again, pulled out a clipboard, checked something off, and walked away. When she was just out of hearing distance Pinkie turned to Star "Did you really master my Pinkie powers?" she asked.
Star let out a laugh "Of course not, when I was thinking I looked up and saw them in the tree, but don't let Twilight know, this is going to drive her crazy."
Star ran to catch up to Twilight "What were you talking to Pinkie about?" she asked casually.
"I was telling her not to lose her skates again, they aren't very easy to find." He lied.
Twilight gave him a skeptical look and sighed "Alright, now we're going to see how the farming is getting along.
Soon enough they arrived at a large field that was being plowed by some stallions in green vests, actually it looked to be about the ONLY stallions in town, seeing as there weren't very many. They watched as 8 lines of ponies with 3 ponies in each worked, the one in the front plowed the snow, the second one plowed the land, and the last planted the seeds.
Twilight and Star walked over to Applejack from where she was overseeing all of the work "Any problems yet?" she asked.
"Nope, yer way of doin this is a lot more efficient than how we used ta do it." Applejack complimented.
A small blush grew on Twilights face as she looked at the ground and kicked her hoof idly "Oh, it isn't that good." She said quietly.
"Ah think that ya deserve the praise." Applejack said with a smile.
"Thanks." Twilight said with a happy smile, she then took out her clipboard, checked another thing off and started to leave "Now let's check on Fluttershy."
After a small walk they arrived at their destination, Fluttershy and a few other ponies were setting up a bell system that ran to every animals sleeping den "Hey Fluttershy, how are things going?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, everything is working out nicely; we are just adding the finishing touches on the bell system." Fluttershy said with a cheerful smile.
As she said that a plum colored pony with a light purple mane walked over to her "The bells are all set up, would you like to do the honors?" she asked Fluttershy.
"I would love to." Fluttershy said happily.
She trotted over to where the rope was hanging from a nearby tree and pulled it, causing bells to ring in front of all of the animal dens.
Satisfied with the results Twilight checked this off of her clipboard list "Alright Star, now let's check up on Rainbow's group."
They made their way to a particularly large cluster of clouds, a pegasus peered down at them from on top of one of the clouds then retreated, bringing back Rainbow, who flew down to greet her two friends "Hey guys, how's everything going?" she asked.
"Everything is going as planned, now, is your group ready to get rid of the snow?" Twilight asked.
"Of course we're ready!" Rainbow exclaimed before shooting back up to the large cluster of clouds.
After a few moments of waiting they saw a large group of pegasi fly through the clouds, causing it to look like some sort of tornado, they flew right over the snow causing it to follow quickly behind being sucked into their tornado like formation.
Twilight crossed this off of her list also before a frown grew on her face "Alright, now we just have to check on Rarity."
They very slowly made their way to where Rarity was working on birds nests, Twilight was moving especially slow for some reason. When they arrived they saw Rarity and a few other ponies quickly working on putting together some nests, judging from the pile nearby they were almost finished.
Rarity looked up at the two and had a scowl on her face, that quickly turned to a smile "Hello you two! How does the overseeing go?" she asked.
"It goes well, this is the last place we need to check on before we are done." Twilight said in a matter of fact tone.
"That's nice; we are about done here ourselves." Rarity said competitively.
They glared at each other competitively for a moment before Star interrupted it "Twilight? Rarity? Heloooooooooooo, are either of you alive?"
Twilight and Rarity shook their heads simultaneously "Oh, right, well looks like you are all doing very well." Twilight said checking off the last thing on her list.
When Twilight finally finished looking over the checklist again she turned to Star "Well, our work is done, I'm hungry, do you want to get some food?" she asked.
"Sure, sounds great." Star said happily.
Twilight beamed at this, as they were leaving she turned to Rarity and stuck her tongue out, then proceeded to lead Star to the library, where they found Spike sleeping in the middle of the room "Spike! Why aren't you out helping with winter wrap up!" Twilight scolded, waking up the sleeping dragon.
"Huh wait what?" Spike said jolting upright.
"You've been asleep this entire time and everypony else has been helping with winter wrap up!" Twilight exclaimed.
"I usually only help you anyway, so it isn't like I really missed anything, besides, if you needed my help you would have come and woken me up." Spike pointed out calmly.
"That's not the point, the point is that you should have been out there helping somepony, even if it wasn't me." Twilight scolded.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, but what are you two doing here instead of being out there and helping then?" Spike asked suspiciously.
"We finished our work and decided to come and get something to eat." Twilight explained.
"Oh, well would you mind making me something too? I'm hungry." Spike said rubbing his stomach.
"How about since you didn't help with winter wrap up YOU make all of us something to eat?" Twilight offered.
Spike sighed "Fine, but only if you get me some gems to eat with it."
"Deal." Twilight agreed.
A half an hour later after Twilight had gone out and gotten some gems and Spike had cooked them all some Macaroni and Cheese with hay, they all enjoyed their meals "Wow Spike, this is good." Star complimented.
"Thanks, I kind of like to cook, after doing it so often I started to enjoy it." Spike said while gnawing on one of the gems that Twilight had gotten him.
After finishing their meals Twilight turned to Star "Okay, I have to tell you something I-" she was then interrupted by the door bursting open.
"Hello all! I just came to see how you all were." Rarity said happily walking into the library.
"Hi Rarity." Star said indifferent to the sudden interruption "Now, what is it you have to tell me Twilight?" he asked turning back to Twilight.
"Twilight has something to tell you huh?" Rarity asked suspiciously.
"I…. was just going to ask if you wanted seconds!" Twilight said quickly.
Rarity narrowed her eyes at Twilight for a moment before looking back at Star "So, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?" she asked.
He hadn't really thought of this, after thinking about it for a moment something hit him, when Celestia had taken the spell off of his mind it might have taken the spells off of his and Starswirl's journals "I have to go and check something, I will see you all later." He said quickly leaving the library to run to his house.
When he arrived he walked over and placed his saddlebag on his bed, he emptied the contents and found the book he had been looking for, the book titled Star's Journal, he picked it up and began to read.
A/N Woohoo! This one is finally caught up with the one on fanfiction! Now all of you have to deal with my infuriatingly frequent cliffhangers and my almost once a week updates! But don't worry, sometimes I update two or three times a week, but either way now you all have to suffer my deviousness!