Out of the Darkness

by SergeantShenanigans

Ch 17: Denial

"No….." Star said in disbelief "no….. this isn't happening, this can't happen" he was ignoring the being in front of him

"What's wrong little pony? Do you miss him? Do you mourn for him?" Discord said still mocking Star

"This didn't happen, he isn't gone" Star continued ignoring Discords mocking

"This must have been your best birthday ever, your master dies and you gain me as a new ruler!" he gloated, seeing that this did nothing he decided to try a new tactic to anger Star "He created me, I would know what happened to him" Discord said trying to rouse Star

Star's eyes were suddenly filled with a fiery rage "YOU!" Star started to approach Discord "This is YOUR fault! YOU killed Starswirl! YOU killed my best friend, my mentor, my FATHER!" Star screamed at Discord

Discord looked smug after this "That's right, submit to your rage, for with rage, chaos follows close by"

Star ignored this statement and his eyes started to glow a bright gold "I WILL END YOU!" his voice was suddenly layered with several other pitches of voices that made him sound as if he was possessed

Star bolted like lightning at Discord and physically struck him before he could even react, knocking him across the small room. Before Discord could stand back up Star was already at him, hitting him with his hooves "Enough of this!" Discord said using a blast of magic knocking Star across the room "I have more important business to attend to" and with that he teleported into a cloud of smoke

"NO!" Star yelled in his rage and burst out the door searching for Discord.

He started to strike out with magic at anything that moved, until he heard a voice that was calm and pleading "Please, stop this Star"

His eyes started to return to normal as he looked over to the voice and said "m-m-mom…?"

Just then Star regained consciousness and saw that he was still in his bed at home "WAIT!" he shouted "nononono come on!" he closed his eyes "stupid flashback continue!"

He eventually stopped after yielding no results and decided to rethink what he had seen "Discord killed my father, and my father is… Starswirl" he realized piecing what he had seen together, suddenly small flashbacks came back to him, the vision of him and Starswirl talking and the one of his father giving him the amulet, how hadn't he recognized his voice?

He thought for a few more moments and realized a few more things "That still doesn't explain why he didn't want anypony to know that I was his apprentice, or his son. That also doesn't explain why Twilight never told me how Starswirl died" Looking outside and seeing that it was noon, he decided to go and speak with Twilight about this new revelation.

He grabbed his saddlebag and hurried as fast as his legs would carry him and soon found himself at the library. He knocked on the door and which was answered by a very surprised looking Spike "Hey Star….. what are you doing here?" he said only sticking his head through the door

"I need to talk to Twilight, right now" he said urgently

"I kind of can't let you in right now" Spike said looking inside then back to Star

"Why not?" Star asked impatiently

"Because….. um…. She's sick. Yeah! Twilight's sick!" Spike answered

"Sick or not she can still speak and would like to know what I have to tell her" Star countered

"She can't talk she has…. Laryngitis" Spike said hastily

"Fine, I will come back later, just tell her that I have something to tell her that is very important to the past of both me and Equestria" Star said walking away, deciding that he would get some breakfast

After going to Sugarcube Corner and getting his usual muffin and coffee breakfast, he sat and thought again, which he had been doing a lot of lately "Why didn't Twilight want to talk to me right now?" he thought finishing off his muffins and coffee

He arrived back outside and saw that the sun was just past the middle of the sky so it was shortly into noon "Now what?" Star thought as he wandered aimlessly

He decided that he would go into the library and look around for the key that would open the small locked chest, the Journal hadn't specifically said that it was in the library, it had said that it was in Starswirls home, and since they saw beds in the library, he had decided to start looking there.

It was a relatively short trip, but he soon arrived at the cave that housed the library and entered it. He walked into it and saw it the exact same way they had left it, it was still in shambles and destroyed but nothing had been moved.

He walked around and moved things where any type of secret compartment could be, but to his disappointment he couldn't find anything. He took out his amulet "Find the secret compartment" he thought trying to manipulate the amulet as he had done many a time before, but nothing showed up "Show me where the key is!" nothing happened but a small bit of magic floated away from the amulet to a deeper part of the cave, he decided that he would inspect it later, as he didn't want to try anything stupid and lose the trust of his friends.

So he left it as it was and left the cave, he looked up to see if any more time had passed and saw that it was now late in the afternoon, he decided that whatever Twilight was doing, she should be done with it by now so that Star could discuss the matter with her.

The walk back to Ponyville was just as uneventful as the rest of his travels, he soon arrived back at Twilight's library and knocked on the door once again and once again Spike answered the door "What do ya need Star?" he asked

"I still need to talk to Twilight, I figure that half of the day would be long enough for her to be done with whatever you were stopping me from finding earlier" Star explained

"Was I that obvious?" Spike said sheepishly

"Yes, now can I talk to Twilight?" he asked again

"I don't know, let me go and ask" Spike walked back into the building and closed the door.

While he was inside Star heard muffled whispers coming from inside that he couldn't really make out what they were saying so he decided to just wait for Spike to come back out. About 5 minutes later Spike came back to the door "You can talk to Twilight in an hour, come back then" Spike said closing the door once again

Star simply sighed and contemplated what he was going to do for another hour, he decided that he would simply waste the next hour at home trying to decipher more out of the books.

He arrived at his home and for the next hour he tried to decipher more out of the books, but he failed miserably, as he was going to try again there was a knock at his door. He answered it and saw Spike "I came to tell you that you can come into the library now" he said "Let's get going"

He and Spike walked to the library in silence and when they arrived at the door Spike opened the door for Star and he walked into a dark room "SURPRISE!" a bunch of ponies in the room yelled

"What is this for?" he said in surprise

"This is for your late or early birthday since I don't know when your actual one is!" Pinkie said happily bouncing up and down "I would have had it at Sugarcube Corner, but the Cakes are doing an extended hours thing for a while to bring in more late business"

Upon thinking about a birthday, Star's mind went back to his flashback and Discord's voice mocking him about his birthday "Thanks" Star said sounding sadder than he had intended

"Y-y-you don't like it?" Pinkie said in disappointment

"No, no, I love it, this just brought back a painful memory from one of my flashbacks" Star explained

"Something about birthdays?" Pinkie asked curiously

"Yes, but let's enjoy this first, I will explain everything later" Star said cheerfully

For this party, it was Star, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Spike, and Macintosh, just like the last time they had a party.

Just like the last party the six friends were in the middle of the room and dancing, while Star, Spike and Macintosh talked by a small table with snacks on it.

This time however, when he was approached by Pinkie Pie, she dragged Star out onto the dance floor and threw him around dancing and having a fun time, until she accidentally let go of Star's hoof and sent him flying right into the snack table, making him land in the cake "oopsie!" Pinkie said "sorry about that, I can be a real clumsy pants sometimes"

"It's okay" Star said getting out of the cake and wiping as much off of him as he could before deciding that he had to take off his hood to get any cake out of his mane and off of his face.

As he pulled off his hood Macintosh's eyes widened in surprise "So that's what ya look like" he commented

Star looked over to Macintosh "Oh yeah, I haven't shown you what I look like yet have I?"

"Nope" he answered

"I have to go and get what cake I can out of my mane and off of my face" he said walking towards the bathroom, oblivious to everypony in the room staring at him

As soon as he had washed what he could out of his mane he returned to hear the middle of a conversation "-don't you girls agree?" Rarity finished

Each of them nodded "agree about what?" Star asked

Rarity suddenly blushed "Oh, nothing dear" he looked and saw that each of them was blushing, as if they were embarrassed of something

"Alright" Star said dropping the matter, deciding to ask them later

He returned to his spot by the snack table and noted that they were all still staring at him "Oh yeah, I still have my hood off" he said putting his hood back on his head

"Why did you put your hood back on?" Spike asked him as the other ponies resumed dancing

"I don't know, I don't feel uncomfortable with it off anymore, I guess it's because everypony was staring at me" he admitted

"I can understand that" Spike said staring at Rarity "if a bunch of ponies were staring at me, I would want to hide too" he said with a dreamy voice

"Spike… I may not be the most observational pony around, but do you have a crush on Rarity?" Star asked noting his behavior

"W-w-what! N-n-no, I-I don't, w-well maybe just a little" he admitted "but don't say anything!" he added hastily

"Your secret is safe with me" Star told him

"Good" Spike said relieved

Just after that, Pinkie came over and made Macintosh dance with her too, she wouldn't have it if everypony didn't dance at least once in her party

Shortly enough Macintosh made his way back over to Star and Spike when Pinkie had given up on trying to throw him around as she had Star, Macintosh was much broader than Star and much heavier

"So Macintosh, how is learning to control your strength?" Star asked conversationally

"It's gettin better, I haven't broken a tree since that one accident" he said proudly "though a few have been cracked" he admitted

"That's good" Star said happily

They continued to have a good conversation before Pinkie declared it time to do party games. First they played pin the tail on the pony, which got a laugh out of all of them when Rainbow Dash pinned the tail to Spike's back "Good thing that they are tape on and not pinned" Twilight said between fits of laughter

After that they all played a few games of cards, which Rarity and Pinkie won almost every time. Then they played truth or dare.

"Alright, I will start!" Pinkie said hopping up and down "Spike truth or dare"

Remembering what he and Star had talked about earlier he blushed and said "Dare"

Pinkie's eyes narrowed then popped back open again "I know! I dare you to kiss Rarity!" she said deviously

"W-w-w-what!" was Spike's only response

"Go ahead Spike, it was a dare after all" Rarity said turning her cheek towards the dragon

After a lot of hesitation and reassurance Spike kissed Rarity on the cheek making everypony collectively "awwwwww" which made Spike blush and quickly return back to his seat

"Alright, my turn" he said his eyes narrowing and passing over all the ponies until they stopped on Star "Star, truth or dare?" Spike asked

"Truth" Star said snickering a bit because he didn't usually lie anyway

"Who do you like?" Spike asked him

"Everypony I have met so far" Star answered honestly

"no, no, not like that, I mean, like-like" he said emphasizing the second like

"like-like?" Star asked questioningly "Is that like liking a pony, only double?"

"You are still so naïve" Rarity said shaking her head

"I mean, who do you have a crush on?" Spike said impatiently

"Why would I crush someone? I am not that mean!" Star said incredulously

"How couldn't you know about something like that?" Spike asked in surprise

"I lived over a thousand years ago, I don't know all that much culture-wise" Star admitted

"Having a crush on somepony is like thinking you are in love with that pony, but the feeling isn't so strong as to call it love yet" Rarity explained

"Ooooooh" Star said understandingly "Nopony"

"Nopony? There has to be somepony" Spike pressed

"Nope, I haven't really thought about anypony like that" Star said simply

"Really? Nopony?" Spike asked in disbelief "how old are you anyway?"

"I thought we had this established, I am over a thousand years old" Star said jokingly

"Haha fine, it's your turn" Spike said finally giving up

He wanted to ask them what they were talking about before he had walked in, he thought about who would choose truth and not dare, if he asked Applejack, Pinkie, or Rainbow they would all say dare, but if he asked Fluttershy, Twilight, or Rarity, they would all say truth so he decided to ask Rarity, because she had asked the question "Rarity, truth or dare?"
"Truth" she answered

"What were you all talking about when I walked into the bathroom to wash up?" he asked them

Rarity started to blush and looked at the ground "We all saw your face again and I commented on how you… you look… handsome, and the others agreed too"

"Okay?" Star said not knowing what to think on the matter "now Rarity it's your turn"

Rarity looked taken aback "You really just don't care? You aren't flattered or embarrassed or anything?" she asked incredulously

"Nope, everypony has their own opinions on things, and I just learned what yours is on my face, nothing wrong with that?" Star said simply

Spike stared at Star "Rarity just said that you are handsome and you just shrug it off?" he said incredulously before blushing intensely and hiding his head in his hands

"I'm not shrugging it off, it just isn't that big a deal, why should it be?" Star asked

"Because I was giving you a compliment on how you look good, and you aren't accepting it" Rarity said a little annoyed

"I am accepting it, I just don't care what I look like to most ponies, if you girls think I look good then thank you" he said simply

"If you don't care what you look like to most ponies, then why are you wearing that hood?" Twilight pointed out

"Because I feel uncomfortable without it, I don't like ponies staring at me all the time" Star answered

"That means that you do care what ponies think you look like" Twilight pointed out

"I guess it does, but I only care to the extent that I don't want ponies to stare at me all day because of a scar on my face or a broken horn" Star admitted

"Alright, why don't we do something else?" Twilight said trying to change the subject

"Sounds good to me!" Spike threw in

They ended up just talking for a few hours before it came to the subject of why Star wanted so desperately to talk to Twilight earlier that day "Twilight, how did Starswirl die?" he asked curiously

"He died of old age, why?" Twilight asked

"No he didn't" Star stated

"You just asked me how he died and I told you, how isn't that how?" Twilight asked

"I had another flashback last night, and it revealed a lot about my past" Star admitted "It started and I was in some kind of small house, Discord was taunting me about my dad being dead, I didn't react I was in denial, even when he pointed out that it was my "best" birthday ever, I lost my father and I gained him as a ruler, I only reacted after he said "he created me, I would know what happened to him" and then I snapped, I got mad and in a furious tone I told him "YOU! This is YOUR fault! YOU killed Starswirl! YOU killed my best friend, my mentor, my FATHER" then my eyes started to shine a bright gold and I had a layered voice and I yelled that I would "end him", after hitting him a few times he retreated in a puff of smoke, then my mom appeared out of nowhere and calmed me down, as I was about to see what she looked like, the flashback ended" Star summed up

They all stayed silent for a while until Pinkie spoke up "That doesn't sound like the best birthday ever to me!"

"Star does that mean that Starswirl was your…?" Twilight asked

"As far as I can tell from my flashbacks and that, yes" he answered

"Not only did Starswirl have a secret library, he also had a secret apprentice, a son, and he created and was killed by Discord" Twilight said in disbelief "This wasn't in any of the books about Equestrian history, I wonder why Princess Celestia would hide something like this?"

"I don't know, but until we find out more we can't ask her" Star pointed out

"I guess" she said reluctantly

"So, I haven't heard anything from any of you yet, what do you think of it? My father was one of the best wizards in all of history and he also created one of the worst things to happen to Equestria, any comments?" Star asked them all

"Nope" Macintosh answered

The rest of them were silent "If there is nothing else, then I guess that I am going home to get some rest, I will talk to you all later" Star said getting up from where he was sitting and left

When he got to his home he decided to try one more time to decipher more of the journal, he succeeded in deciphering a few pages, they explained a two things, firstly, he learned that Starswirl didn't live in the library, he and Star had lived in a house near the Everfree forest, much like he did now. And he learned that Starswirl had proposed whatever plan he had done to create Discord more than once and Star had denied him every time.

Thinking about all of this he decided to go to sleep for the night.