//------------------------------// // The Best Date Ever // Story: Stars in the Making // by Borsuq //------------------------------// Starburst tilted her head nervously, looking at her reflection in the mirror. For the first time in her life she was genuinely concerned about her looks. Of course, whenever she had some duties she had to attend to as a princess, she would make herself presentable (and usually her mother would make last minute corrections), but this time she actually wanted to look her best. Is there even a point to this? Starburst thought for about tenth time as she smoothed her bangs; she probably wouldn’t have even considered paying so much attention to her mane if Claire hadn’t spent like twenty minutes talking about what she should do with it. I mean, Starfall had already said I am… beautiful… She flushed, recalling how he said it. How back in the cave he complimented her by mentioning how any other colt would be “disturbingly glad” about giving her CPR, and then in her room, just day and a half ago, when he called her beautiful, while he… Starburst scratched her head. She used to think scars were cool, and to be honest, she continued to think so… but those on Starfall’s body were just sickening. Wait, Starburst thought suddenly, did I just call a very distinctive aspect of my coltfriend’s appearance sickening? Groaning with frustration, she slammed her head - gently - against the mirror. And now my mane is ruined, she thought. Sighing, she raised her head and looked at the clock. Starfall was going to be there in fifteen minutes. This is off to a good start… ugh, I give up! Where’s that comb Mom gave me? About ten minutes later, after correcting her mane and making sure she got all the loose feathers from her wings earlier during preening, Starburst entered the living room. Inside were her parents; Twilight was reading a book, while Flash a newspaper. Nighty is probably out playing with his friends, and Valiant must have already left for Canterlot, Starburst concluded, relaxing slightly. This was going to be a bit easier… “Oh, hi Star,” her mother greeted her when she noticed her. “I thought you had already left by n- wait,” she suddenly said. She put away the book and rose from the couch. “Have you… combed your mane?” she exclaimed, shocked. Starburst rolled her eyes when Flash, hearing Twilight, put down his newspaper and turned to look at her with surprise. “Yes, sorta…” she replied, then coughed. “Anyway, I will be gone the whole day...” As much as she would prefer to not mention anything about this to her parents, Starburst knew she couldn’t just go away for the whole day to Celestia knows where and not say anything. Or Starfall knows where, in this case, a tiny voice in her mind corrected her. She quickly mentally facehoofed. Oh great, as if he didn’t have a god complex already! “You combed your mane before going to hang out with your friends?” Twilight asked, raising her eyebrows. Starburst cringed uncomfortably. She wasn’t comfortable with her mother questioning her. “W-what is this?” she asked, deciding it would be best to be offended. “A ‘griffon inquisition’?!” “Hi!” she suddenly heard a very familiar voice on her right. “Ready for our date?” Her eyes went wide… but after a second, she buried her her face in her hooves. I really should have seen this coming… “What, what’s wrong?” she heard Starfall ask. She lifted one hoof to glare at him, and nodded at her parents, not daring to look at them. Puzzled, Starfall - who stood facing towards her - turned his head… and then his eyes, too, grew wide as plates. “Oh, crap…” “Did you just say-” Starburst heard her father start to say, but his words drowned in Starfall’s shout. “I’ll bring her back by nighttime, see you!” he quickly told them as he reached to Starburst and touched her shoulder. After experiencing the feeling of a being pulled through a very narrow space, Starburst realized that she and Starfall were in her family’s mansion garden. “Well, cat’s out of the bag, I guess,” she said, turning to Starfall. “Why did you-” “Not now,” Starfall told her; his eyes were closed and his horn was glowing. “Your mom was casting a spell; I want to get us out of here before she tries to bring us back or something, and teleporting there will take a lot of concentration.” “Wait, where are you teleporting us?” Starburst asked, alarmed; if he was using teleportation as casually as pegasi flew around, where exactly he planned to take them if he needed to concentrate? Starfall did not answer, and before Starburst could repeat her question, the glow from his horn suddenly enlarged and enveloped both of them. She closed her eyes as the multi-colored light flashed all around her, and her ears heard familiar sound of the normal teleportation spell… … which was followed by a strange noise. Weird, Starburst thought, opening her eyes carefully, it almost sounds exactly like the sound of waves on a bea- OH MY CELESTIA! Her jaw dropped. She was on a beach! There was sand under her hooves, and she was staring into the sea! “Where are we?” she asked, turning to Starfall… who was breathing heavily. “Are you alright?” Starburst asked, concerned. Starfall shook and waved his hoof. “Yeah, don’t worry; teleporting all the way here always takes a lot out of me, and I never took somepony else with me. But I should be fine in a minute.” “If you say so,” Starburst told him, then returned to observe their surroundings. And there was a lot more to see. Just behind them, the beach ended, and started a tropical forest. Starburst rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. But no, when she opened them, the palm trees and huge grass were still there. “What is this place?” she tried once again. Starfall, who began to get his breathing under control, smirked. “Why don’t you try to look from the sky?” She raised her eyebrows, confused at his expression; what else could be there? Both curious and worried, Starburst spread her wings and flew upwards. A couple beats of wings later, and she got a plain view at the “secluded place” Starfall had brought her to. “Secluded” was an understatement. Starburst jaw dropped once again. Once she recovered a little, she exclaimed: “We’re on an island in the middle of an ocean?!” She could not believe it. They were on an island, in the middle of the ocean! A small island at that, roughly covering the same area her family’s mansion had, with no visible land anywhere in sight! “So, what do you think?” Starfall asked once she landed beside him. Starburst opened her mouth… then she closed it. She looked down at the sand beneath her hooves, tapped it a few times, took a hoof-full of it and let the grains fall down slowly. Starburst then turned to Starfall, taking a good look at him for the first time today. He did not look different than he always did; same light blue coat, same blue and slightly lighter blue mane, same scars on his back, same bandanna around his neck, same smirking expression… Starburst punched his chest gently, and as it turned out, he was indeed there, and not some illusion. Still unconvinced, she turned to the ocean. It this were an illusion, I wouldn’t get wet, right? “Star, it’s real,” Starfall chuckled, apparently tired with her doubting him. “But… how?” she asked, still trying to comprehend this. “Well, I teleported us here-” he started, but Starburst, who just snapped out of her stupor, snapped at him. “I might be a pegasus, but my mom is the freaking Element of Magic! I know the basic rule of teleportation is that you can travel to places you had already been to. So how the hell can you teleport to an uninhabited small tropical island in the middle of an ocean with no other land in sight!?” Starburst exclaimed, her sanity on a verge. In contrast to her, Starfall stayed perfectly calm. “Oh, that’s easy,” he smiled, flicking his hoof. “A whale spit me out here a few years back.” And her sanity fell over the edge… all Starburst could do was stare at the smiling unicorn. “Are you alright?” Starfall asked after a few silent seconds had passed. “Yeah, just… processing,” Starburst managed to reply. She sit down and began to massage her temples. “Please tell me you’re making it up about that whale.” “Why would I make something like that?” “Because it’s impossible!” Starburst snapped again. “Well, okay, the whale didn’t spit me on this island,” Starfall admitted. Starburst sighed with relief; “There are coral reefs all around it, it was too big to swim all the way to the shore. But it spit me out close enough for me to swim here.” Starburst gave up. All she could do was facehoof. Starfall, utterly ignoring her mental breakdown, grabbed her forehoof. “Before you decide what you think about it, let me show you my pad,” he said, smirking, as he dragged her behind him into the small jungle. Given the size of the island, it wasn’t going to take long for Starfall to take Starburst to his “pad”, as he had called it. But it was long enough for Starburst to slowly recover during their walk after her mental breakdown… enough to realize something awful. “My parents!” she exclaimed. She ripped away her hoof from Starfall’s in her shock. “W-wha… how did they react?” Starburst asked. “D-did they look angry?” “Um… I’m not sure,” Starfall answered. “They looked shocked. I got us out of your house before they could recover. so… I guess we’ll know once we get back?” Starburst groaned and hid her face in her hooves. This had seemed to be such a good day, and now… “Why did you just jump in like that?!” she asked angrily. “Didn’t it occur to you that my parents might be there? And you just called out about this date-” “Sorry,” Starfall said, and the apologetic and sad tone of his voice made Starburst stop. “I… I wasn’t thinking. I thought that since I told you that I would pick you up, you would be in your room…” She had to admit, he had a point. “I suppose I thought you would just knock on the door or something like that… you know, like a normal pony,” she added, realizing how stupid that assumption was. Starfall was the most opposite of a normal pony as it was ponyly possible; even if she would count his probable part-dragon ancestry, he was still more impossible than even Illusion, who was a half-draconequus. As if determined to prove that, Starfall looked at her as if she was crazy. “Me? Normal?” Rolling her eyes, she replied: “Yes, I know, that was stupid of me. But still, did you had to just appear next to me like that? It was-” she started, but then abruptly stopped. “Wait a minute; you appeared next to me! Not teleported, appeared! Did you leave a Polestar mark on me somewhere?!” Her increasing irritation - that was about to transform into anger - dispersed when Starfall started to laugh. “No,” he replied, sticking his tongue at her. “I am your Polestar mark.” “I… wha?” she asked, tilting her head. “Let me explain; do you remember how you’d beaten me?” “Vividly,” she smirked. Starfall deadpanned at her, but he rolled his eyes and resumed his explanation. “You transferred some of your magic into my body, therefore disrupting my ability to use magic-” “Yes, I know, I just said I remember,” Starburst interrupted him. “Um, sorry,” he said sheepishly. “A magician has to throw a bit exposition to the audience, and I’m still excited after yesterday’s show, so I guess I’m talking like that right now... Did you like it?” “Of course, it was awesome,” she replied at once. “I loved that ‘firedance’ of yours the most-” “Really? I would have thought that cutting Prism in half would be the one you loved the most,” he smirked. “Well, yes, that was hilarious. But Polestar mark?” Starburst reminded him. “Right, sorry. You put your magic into my body. Did you think that magic would evaporate?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Starburst opened her mouth… then closed it. Truth be told, she never thought about what would happen to that bit of her pegasi magic. She was too focused on capturing Starfall to bother about such things. “That magic is still within me,” Starfall continued, patting his chest. He then rolled his eyes and added: “Cue in cheesy talk about you being close to my heart. Because of that magic, I am kind of a big Polestar mark for you, and I was able to… pull myself to where you were, and then get us both to where I left a proper mark.” “You ‘pulled yourself’ to me?” Starburst asked, confused. “How does that work?” “It’s a…” he scratched his head, trying to explain it, “this… wibbly wobbly magic wimey… thingy...” Okay, that is the most un-understandable explanation about magic I ever heard, and that is saying a lot. “Magic what?” she asked, tilting her head. “Hey, give me a break, I didn’t study magic from books,” he rolled his eyes. “Anyways,” Starfall started, looking at her worriedly, “are you mad? About blurting it out before your parents.” “Oh…” Starburst exclaimed; for a moment, she completely forgot about that. “No,” she sighed, rubbing her temples “they would have learned sooner or later… and it’s probably better sooner than later, I don’t want to think how would they react if they were to learn, like, a year from now.” “That’s how long you planned to keep it secret?” Starfall smirked. “Shut up,” she replied. When Starfall grinned, she stuck her tongue at him. “Weren’t you going to show me your… ‘pad’?” “Right behind this conveniently placed giant leaf,” Starfall said without missing a beat, pointing at the gigantic leaf of a fern like plant that obscured what was in front of them. He waited for Starburst to join him and stand before it prior to reaching to the leaf with his hoof. “Ready?” he asked, grinning. His enthusiasm about this began to both excite and worry her. He already brought me to a tropical island in the middle of the ocean, what else could he plan? “Sure,” she replied, smiling. Starfall pulled the leaf away. … “Oh, you’ve got be kidding me…” She was staring at a horde of gems, gold coins, and jewelry. Well, not as much as a “horde”. It was more like three small knolls of those, laying around a black hammock tied to two palm trees. Starfall, chuckling at her bewildered expression, trotted over to the hammock and jumped on it. “Take your time,” he told her, smirking. This time, Starburst had managed to recover much quicker. “What the hell!?” she exclaimed. “What is all this?!” “Remember how I told you there are coral reefs all around the island? Well, there was a pirate ship that crashed on them and sink.” She facehooved. This cannot be real… “I brought this all from the wreckage,” Starfall continued, swinging on his hammock. “Thought it would make my pad be fitting for somepony of my value.” “Well, if you are converting gold and diamonds into your ego level, I think you are still a few hordes short,” Starburst told him, still eyeing this pirate treasure, as he claimed. As far as she could tell, all the gems were real, as well as the other valuable. Turning to the swinging Starfall, she started: “But wait, I don’t understand this; if you had all this, why…” she trailed away as her eyes caught the brief glimpse of something on the underside of the hammock. Starburst waited for the unicorn to swing one more time to better see it. It was a symbol of a white pony skull. “You’re using the pirate banner as your hammock.” “Of course!” Starfall replied cheerfully. That was too much for Starburst. She fell down to the ground. “Star!” she heard the unicorn exclaim, alarmed. In the next second, he was beside her, having “pulled himself” to her. “Are you-” Starfall started, but he stopped when he saw what she was doing. Laughing. “I-I c-can’t…” Starburst rasped in between the fits of laughter. Everything about this was too ludicrous to not laugh. She had to lay down on the ground out of fear that her sides would burst. “T-this is… you’re impossible!” she managed to say before surrendering herself to laughter, with Starfall quickly joining in. “So where exactly are we?” They were walking around the island, along the edge of the beach. It was so small that it didn’t even take them five minutes to make a full circle, but Starburst - once she had finally stopped laughing, and how long that took she wasn’t sure - wanted to take in the sight of the endless ocean. It was an amazing feeling; to realize how far away they were from the closest pony… how alone they were here… “I think we’re somewhere around the equator, though I can’t be exactly sure,” Starfall replied. He looked up at the sky. “But we are about four hours ahead from Equestria as for timezones, guessing by the Sun so it cannot be too far from the continent.” “So you don’t know where we are,” Starburst summed up. “And you’ve been coming here for how long?” “The first time I came here - and by came, I mean was spitted out by a whale - was about four years ago. But it’s not like I come here every week, it’s really exhausting to teleport all the way here. If I had tried teleporting together with somepony else just a year ago, I would’ve probably failed. And still I won’t be able to use magic for an hour or two.” “But you will recover, right?” Starburst asked, alarmed. “Do you think I would have brought you here if I thought we would get stuck here?” Starburst just stared at him. After a few seconds, Starfall chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds totally like me. But don’t worry, I will be fine. Which is good, considering that I will need my magic for something later on during our date. Until then, what would you like to do?” “Well… you did say this place would be great for working out, and that’s how I usually spend my free time-” “Alright, let’s do it!” Starfall exclaimed enthusiastically. “Shouldn’t you rest?” “Nah, this would be physical workout, not magical one,” he waved a hoof dismissively. “What you want to do first? Run? Or try to buck palm trees?” That was a good question. The island’s beach was perfect for running, but on the other hoof, she had never bucked a palm tree… “I think running first. Wanna race?” she asked him, smirking. “Geez, how did you managed to avoid getting captured by everypony for five years?”  Starburst asked him many laps later. Starfall, who was panting on the ground, did not answer. She had to admit, after all the trouble he caused her a week ago, Starburst was quite enjoying beating him in something. She herself was barely winded, the short run feeling to her more like a warm-up than anything more. “Oh, you know...” the unicorn replied, slowly regaining his breath. “Magic. Outsmarting. And jumping.” “You can jump but you cannot run.” “I’m pretty sure... there are different leg-muscles... for those two.” He took a deep breath, and was almost back to normal. “Sorry for not being able to catch up-” “Oh come on, I am not going to think of you less for it,” she rolled her eyes. “Not after you held your own against me and all my friends, the guards, my dad and uncle, and outsmarted my mom.” “Yeah, I’m pretty awesome.” “Though you could gain some humility from this” she quickly added. “Cause that’s totally possible,” he smirked in reply. “Changing the subject, want a coconut?” “Is there anything else?” Starburst snorted humorously. “We can eat grass, Princess,” the unicorn told her, in a tone as if he was explaining to somepony that the sky was blue. “No, really?” Starburst rolled her eyes in a mocked horror. “Well, not those grass at the back of the island-” “There’s a back of the island?” “-cause that’s marijuana-” “What?!” Starburst exclaimed, looking at him with shock. “Or rather the plant that they use to make marijuana,” he winced. “And you do not want to know how I found out about it…” “... seriously?” if it wasn’t a drug they were talking about, she would be probably laughing at him. But... Starfall scratched his head in embarrassment. “It’s not like… I mean, when that psycho ‘Master’ owned me, I was given much worse things to eat… honestly, at times you couldn’t tell if he was trying to make a profit from you or kill you…” Starburst tilted her head. “How’s there not a movie series about you?” “Hey Star?” Starburst glanced at him over her shoulder. “What is it, Lil’Lioness?” he asked back, balancing the now-empty coconut half on his hind hoof. They were laying beneath one of the palm trees, enjoying coconut milk. It took Starburst several bucks before a few coconuts finally fell. The palm trees, unlike apple trees she was used to bucking, were elastic instead of sturdy, and were shaking off her kicks. Afterwards, the two of them broke the coconuts (although Starburst did try to break them with her hooves at first) and sit with their backs to the tree next to each other, drinking. Though it was nowhere near as tasty as watermelon, Starburst enjoyed the taste of the coconut milk quite a lot. As they drank in silence, her thoughts wandered, contemplating the insanity of her situation (And everypony thought that just me going on a date is ridiculous.), and finally she recalled what she had thought about briefly during Starfall’s show. “How did you get your cutie mark?” she asked. Please tell me you didn’t get it by working for that bastard, she pleaded. That you got it after you escaped. “I got it by making my mom to laugh with a magic trick.” Her eyes went wide. Wait, what? “She got back after one show in bad humor,” Starfall continued, oblivious to her shock. “I think it was at some kid’s birthday party, though I don’t really recall it all that much. But I do remember that it was raining that day to boot. So my mom got back to our wagon tired and saddened, and I wanted to make her happier, so I focused and tried to do what I saw her doing during her shows; stroke a pose and tried to make fireworks around me with my magic. It worked, and my mom started to laugh as the sparks fell around me - which in hindsight was really stupid of me to do that in a wooden wagon, but luckily nothing happened - and then my cutie mark appeared.” He chuckled. “Dove was so jealous…” “So,” Starburst started, trying to wrap her head around it, “you got your cutie mark when you were…” “Five,” he replied, grinning. “Well, five and half more like it, but still…” Starburst shook her head. It wasn’t that uncommon for a pony to find their cutie mark so early, but knowing she was dating one… “You really are some sort of prodigy, aren’t you?” she asked him, then frowned. “Wait, who’s Dove?” “Oh, my imaginary older sister.” She raised her eyebrows at that. “What?” Starfall asked, shrugging. “My mom and I kept travelling from place to place, and even without that, I would have difficulties making friends with this going on,” he said, making circle around his face with his hoof, showing her his eyes and fangs. “So I made up an imaginary older sister. She was really realistic, too.” “... doesn’t make you seem insane at all,” Starburst commented sarcastically. Starfall snorted with laughter. “Do you still... see her?” “Nah, I stopped after… you know,” he finished uncomfortably. “By then, I had other things on my head. And by ‘on my head’, I mean-” Starburst cringed, her imagination immediately suggesting her what he was going to say. Starfall once again chuckled. “So sheltered. What about you?” he asked, changing the subject. “How did you get your cutie mark? And what is exactly your special talent, anyway? That doesn’t exactly look like ‘kicking ass’,” he added, pointing at her cutie mark. “Well, my talent is intimidating others,” she started to say with pride, but then she paused and facehoofed. “Sweet Celestia, it’s like our talents are opposites of one another.” “Intimidating, huh?” Starfall asked, narrowing his eyes and smirking. “Yeah, I can see that… you were especially intimidating yesterday, when I stopped biting your ear…” “S-shut up,” Starburst stammered, blushing, and hit him with her wing as he laughed. “You want to hear my cutie mark’s story or not?” “Of course I want, go ahead.” “It happened in Ponyville, shortly after my mom got me transfered to school there,” she began to say, reminiscing. “Candy was showing me all of Ponyville, and by the end of the day she took me to visit Del at his family’s farm. He showed me around it, and Candy disappeared somewhere.” “That’s the farm right next to the Everfree Forest, right?” Starfall cut in. “You know, the one with timberwolves and other lovely things? And she disappeared off to somewhere” “Yep,” Starburst nodded. “You can probably guess where this is going.” “Maybe. But do go on.” “Del was supposed to take me to the edge of the farm, and then Candy was supposed to come out of the woods, dressed up as a timberwolf, with Prism making noises of one from behind a tree. Which I learned about later, of course. Before we could reach the edge of the forest, we heard two screams, so we ran there. Prism and Candy were running away from it, with a real timberwolf chasing them.” “And what did you do?” Starfall asked, his eye wide with excitement. “I jumped between them and the timberwolf, glaring at it threateningly and making myself look bigger by spreading my wings.” She did not mention that she knew that’s the best thing to do in that situation because of an adventure book her mom read to her when she was younger; Starburst liked it more for him to think that she came up with that herself. “The timberwolf got so scared it stopped, and ran right back to the forest with his tail between his legs.” “Wow,” Starfall exclaimed, impressed. “That was really brave of you.” “Thanks,” she replied, flushing a bit. “I was pretty scared, though.” “Of course, you would have to be stupid not to be scared. Luckily, though, that timberwolf was even more scared,” he smirked. Starfall then frowned, but before she could ask him why, he grinned instead. “So wait, you’re telling me that Prism was a ‘damsel in distress’ even before I came around?” “Are you sure about this?” Starburst asked. They were neck deep in the water. About an hour after they’ve finished drinking the coconut milk (which they spent practicing their bucking skills), Starfall told her that he wanted to go for a swim. And of course, by “for a swim” he meant “diving”. Before he replied, Starfall flashed his horn. “As you can see, my magic is back,” he told her, levitating a few blobs of water around his head. “I told you, I cast this spell on myself hundreds… okay, not hundreds, but still, plenty of times. It won’t stop working suddenly.” “Okay, let’s get this over with,” Starburst said, still a tad worried. Starfall closed his eyes as he concentrated. His horn shone brighter, and a small aura appeared briefly around his head. He then brought his horn close to Starburst, and repeated the process. She waved a hoof before her face, but nothing happened. Starburst glanced at Starfall, who winked and jumped ahead, diving deeper into the water. Oh, what the heck… she thought. Taking a deep breath, Starburst jumped right after him. The water engulfed her… but there was none around her head. She opened her eyes and saw that the Bubblehead spell Starfall used worked. Wow… Starburst thought, looking at the colonies of corals growing at the rocks just ahead at the deepening sea’s depth. They were so colorful… The poke on her shoulder brought her back to her body. She looked at Starfall (with a colorful bubble around his head) as he neared his head to hers, as if about to kiss her. He stopped, though, about a hoof before her face. Their bubbles joined, letting them talk, as he had told her his spell would. “Didn’t I tell you it’ll work?” he asked, smirking. Starburst, a bit distracted by his close proximity, nodded. “Something wrong?” Starfall asked, noticing. “Nothing, just…” she started, but then trailed off, embarrassed. “I just realized that we haven’t… you know, kissed the whole day-” She was cut of by a pair of lips pressing against hers. “Sorry,” Starfall smirked as he ended the kiss. “I was saving that part of the entertainment for sunset.” “C-cheesy,” Starburst told him, flushing. “Oh please, you will see cheesy later,” he told her, sticking his tongue at her… and by doing so, licking her nose. She yelped, surprised. “Now come on,” he told her, grabbing her hoof. “We’re underwater, with a real coral reef waiting. It’s amazing. And hey, if we’re lucky, we might see dolphins.” “Dolphins?” she asked, surprised. “Yeah, they like the warm water around the volcano’s crater further away.” “The what crater?!” There were no dolphins, sadly, though this was hardly an unexciting experience. Starburst was in awe with all the corals growing around the island. Even though she wasn’t one to usually appreciate the works of nature, she had to admit that it was a beautiful thing. There were also several fishes swimming around them, though they would swim away if they got too close to them. They were all really colorful, blue, red, yellow… Starburst had practically saw all the colors there were underwater. Starfall had also taken her to see the wreckage of the pirate ship. It was really deteriorated and rusted, but Starburst had to admit that it was still imposing. Swimming around it was really exciting, especially when it got so dark that Starfall had to light his horn… but then Starburst saw a real skeleton of a pony and felt sick. And then there was the ‘volcano’. It was on a much deeper level of the sea depth than they could swim down (the pressure was already giving Starburst a mild headache just below the surface). Not that either of them - even Starfall - were crazy enough to go near it. It didn’t exactly look much like a volcano; it was more like a crack in the seabed, glowing with orange light. Starburst had stared at it, wondering how weird it was, swimming in the water and staring at a volcano… … and now she was wondering how oddly similar the glow of the magma was to the sunset. They’d stopped swimming sometime ago when Starfall pointed out it would be best to dry out while the sun was still up. Starburst agreed, though mostly not because of that, but simply because she was becoming hungry. The two of them quickly made their way back to the shore and enjoyed more coconuts while sunning themselves on the beach. Right until the sunset. It was captivating. Starburst could just stare at it. She couldn’t remember ever seeing sunset last so long, but then she had remembered that they weren’t in Equestria, and there it was still about four hours away before Princess Celestia would lower it. And it was… Starburst could not find proper words to say how it looked. The sky was ablaze with fiery orange and searing red, and at the same time the outer edges of it had began to cool with the indigo of the night. The ocean reflected the wonderful sight on its surface, making it seem as if it became one with the sky. “It’s...” she tried to speak, but there was no way she could put those thoughts into words. “... it’s beautiful,” she finally said. “Yeah,” she heard Starfall say, “beautiful.” There was something in his voice that just made Starburst look at him. And she was glad she did. He wasn’t looking at the sunset. She felt heat rise on her cheeks as she smiled. “Cheesy.” “Maybe,” he told her, trotting closer to her. “But also true,” Starfall said, reaching to her chin and lifting her head to look into her eyes. “You’re beautiful.” Blushing more fiercely than she could remember, Starburst did not object as he moved his hoof to the back of her head, bring both of them closer to each other. Nor when he kissed her. Likewise, Starfall did not object when she deepened the kiss. “Told ya this would be cheesier,” Starfall told her, and though Starburst couldn’t see him, she knew he was smirking. They were now laying on their backs. The sunset was several hours ago, and they spend their time by engaging in something that was probably the most mundane activity they did today, although one they found most enjoyable (in other words, they were making out). However as the time for their return to Ponyville was nearing, Starburst realized that she wanted to do something else that she could do here in this secluded island that it would be difficult to do back home. Stargazing. Not that she never looked at the stars back home, but out here, so far away from civilization and any lights, the night sky was much more magnificent. All the stars were so shining… and also there were a few that she was sure that weren’t visible back in Equestria. “Oh, be quiet,” she told him, giggling. They were lying on their backs, with their heads right next to each other. “You were the one calling me cheesy today,” he reminded her, poking her with her ear. “And yet you proposed to stargaze.” “Fine, it’s cheesy,” she said, rolling her eyes. She then sighed. “We should get back soon, right?” “Yeah…” Starfall replied, and he sounded as unhappy about that as Starburst. “Pity. I had a really great time today,” she said, raising and looking at him. She frowned as thought occurred to her. “This place is four hours ahead of Equestria, right?” Starfall started to laugh. “As much as it would be hilarious if it was otherwise, yes, it’s four hours ahead.” “Right, it would be hilarious if I would go home at… three in the morning? As if things weren’t going to be awkward for me already…” “Want me to come with you?” She was surprised by the question. “You would do that?” “Sure,” her replied, standing up. “After all, this is mostly my fault… your parents aren’t going to kill me, right?” Starburst frowned at him. “No, but still… I think it would be best if I would just talk with them alone… it’s going to be awkward enough without you. Besides… I’m still not sure what they would think about me dating you.” “If they worry that I won’t be able to provide for you or something like that, tell them about that mountain of treasures-” “And since we’re back to that:” Starburst interrupted him, frowning, “why the heck did you steal for living if you have a mountain of treasures?” “‘Cause… it was more fun?” he said, smiling awkwardly. Before Starburst’s frown could grow deeper, Starfall quickly added: “But I swear, I’m not gonna do that again!” Starburst rolled her eyes. “I think you should come up with a better excuse if my parents ask you about that. So… are we going?” “Yeah, give me a moment to prepare myself,” Starfall replied, massaging her head. “So you’re sure that you can deal with… whatever waits for you back home alone?” “Yes, thanks for offering, but I really think it’s for the best.” “Thank heavens,” he sighed heavily with relief. Starburst looked at him sternly while he smirked. “Joking. I will teleport us a bit away from your house,” he told her as he trotted closer and sat beside her. “In case there are guards around the place with orders to arrest me or something.” “Oh come on, I don’t think my parents would do something like that,” she said, shaking her head. “But before that… want to meet again tomorrow?” Starfall asked, looking at her hopefully. “Ye- wait!” Starburst exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. “I completely forgot! My friends want to go on a camping trip tomorrow, and they - well, some of them at least - wanted me to invite you. Do you want to come? I won’t mind if you don’t,” she quickly added. “We can hang out someplace else, I won’t mind.” Starfall rubbed his chin, pondering. “Hm… I suppose I should get to know your friends sooner or later, so I might as well go. Although,” he added, smirking. “it’s a pity we won’t be spending some time alone, Lil’Lioness…” That was indeed a pity. “We can sleep together in my tent,” she told him, embracing him into a hug. “Sound better?” “With all your friends around?” “W-well…” she stammered, but she calmed down. “Oh, to hell with them, they’re gonna poke fun at me whatever we would do. Besides, Annie will probably sleep in the same tent with T, Candy with Del…” Starburst trailed off. “Come to think of it, the only two ponies who aren’t a couple there will be Lance and June.” “I really need to get the names of everypony,” Starfall murmured. She glared at him, but then he moved in for a kiss. She was more than happy to comply; she still found it weird how sharp his fangs felt when she brushed them with her tongue. When they parted, they looked into each other eyes. “Ready to get back?” Reluctantly, Starburst nodded. I should start thinking what to tell Mom and Dad… she thought as Starfall cast his teleportation spell. Maybe I could convince them that this was all a joke? No, wait, Lance would probably tell them once we’ll get back from the camping trip, Starburst realized as they appeared back in the washed in Twilight Ponyville. “Are you okay?” she asked as Starfall staggered, grabbing his head. “Yeah, same as in the morning-” he began to reply, but his next words were drowned out in the sudden noise of multiple teleportation spells. Out of nowhere, it became very bright. So bright, that Starburst saw that they were surrounded by a bunch of royal guards, with her cousin among them. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”