Out of the Darkness

by SergeantShenanigans

Ch 19: Greed

Star woke the next morning on his own accord, for the first time in a long time, nothing had woken him up, he had the privilege of waking by his own choice. As he got off the bed he felt something squish underneath his hoof. He picked it up and saw that it was a scroll, unrolling it he read

Star, where are you? We heard a commotion outside the castle and there were ponies everywhere with torches and pitchforks screaming something about a ghost, we asked Pony Joe and he said he had seen you and that some ponies had made a commotion about you looking like a ghost and riled up the whole town.

Please respond as soon as possible

Your friend

Twilight Sparkle

Star sighed "What were they going to do to a ghost with torches and pitchforks? If they were going to get rid of a ghost they should have used some type of trapping spell, not pitchforks and torches" he thought while facehoofing

Star walked over to his drawer that was just to the side of his bed and took out a parchment and quill and started to write on the paper. He had forgotten that he couldn't write and he drew lines and squiggles on the paper, which he recognized as the strange symbols that made up all of Starswirls books "I can write in it, but I can't read it, this is the exact opposite of Equestrian, which I can read but not write" he thought ironically

Deciding that they were probably back in Ponyville by then anyway, he left to the library to talk to Twilight not noticing the other letter that had arrived for him that in his hurry he had knocked under the bed. He soon arrived at the library, Spike let him in "Where is Twilight?" Star asked

"I thought she was still in Canterlot with you?" Spike questioned

"I guess that means they are still in Canterlot, would you mind writing a letter to her for me? I can't write" Star asked him

"Sure" Spike said walking over to a table and grabbing a conveniently placed quill and parchment "Tell me what to write"

"Dear friends, I am in Ponyville and I am fine. I have to ask, what were those ponies hoping to accomplish using torches and pitchforks against a ghost? Why didn't they try to use a trapping spell or something like that? Your friend Midnight Star"

Spike laughed after he sent the letter "What is this about a ghost?"

"Some strange acting ponies saw my face and thought I was a ghost, and apparently started some sort of mob to chase down the "ghost"" Star answered putting emphasis on ghost

"Are you serious? You may have a white coat, but I didn't think you were that white!" Spike said laughing again

Just then Spike burped up a scroll and read it to Star "Dear Star and Spike, I assume you had Spike write the letter because I recognized his claw writing. Star, are you serious? There is a mob looking all around for you in Canterlot and all you can think about is their efficiency? Granted, it is very funny, but you had us worried all night! We are heading back to Ponyville right after this letter is sent, we will see you soon your friend Twilight Sparkle"

"I guess that we will see them in an hour or so" Star assumed

"I guess" Spike agreed

"I will see you later Spike, I am going to go home and get some breakfast, I didn't eat before I ran over here" Star said leaving the library and going to his home

Star arrived home and ate a few haycakes; he had learned that he really liked haycakes, almost as much as he loved blueberry muffins.

Just as he was finishing up his meal there was a knock at the door, when he opened the door he was tackled by a blur of pink "There you are! We thought something bad had happened to you!" Star looked up from Pinkie's mane and saw that the other five of his friends were there too

"Why do you girls always assume the worst has happened to me?" Star asked them

"Well, when an angry mob consisting of almost everypony in Canterlot is chasing one of your friends you tend to be worried" Twilight retorted sounding slightly annoyed

"I'm sorry?" Star said carefully

Twilight sighed "It's not your fault; we were just worrying about you since last night"

"You shouldn't have worried so badly, nothing bad would have happened" Star started "I mean really, what is the worst that could have happened, I would be poked a few times by a confused pony and then they would leave me alone because I obviously wasn't a ghost?"

"There is no way you could have known, some ponies could be a lot worse than you assume" Rarity countered

"I appreciate all of your concern, really I do, but I am not a child, as naïve as I am, I can take care of myself, you don't need to worry for my wellbeing at all hours of the day" Star reassured them "Now, will you get off of me Pinkie?"

Pinkie got off of him with a cheerful smile "Okie dokie lokie"

"You're right, sorry for jumping to conclusions" Twilight apologized

"It is okay, I would have worried just as much for any of you" Star acknowledged

"Now that that is out of the way, I have to be going back to the boutique now, goodbye all" Rarity said walking away

"Ah have ta leave too, ah have ta get back ta the farm" Applejack said following Rarity's example

Each of the ponies had their own reasons to leave until Star was once again at his home alone. Star found himself in a situation that had plagued him many a time before, he was bored and there was nothing to do. He decided to go and get some books from the library to read.

Star found his way to the library and picked out a few books to read, two books on spells, a book on cooking, so that he could diverse his menu of meals, and a book on Equestrian myths, he decided that if there was going to be anything that helped him remember more, it would most likely be in a book about myths instead of a history book, seeing as nopony knew that Starswirl created and died at the hands of Discord

Star decided to spend the day reading in the Ponyville Park, because it was such a nice day outside. This is what his days consisted of, teaching himself some spells and trying to find something to help him remember more of his past out of the myths book, he spent his days occasionally seeing one of his friends and talking or working at Quills and Sofas, but otherwise he was researching the book, which to his disappointment, he found nothing pertaining to his past.

After about a week of this he was starting to lose hope in finding something, until he came upon a small section of the equestrian myths book about the spell of eternal youth, it read

There was once a great unicorn, he was renowned among the lands, he had fame, fortune, and friends, everything a pony could ever need. But he was greedy, this wasn't enough for him, he wanted to live forever. He spent years trying to find the spell that would make him live eternally, but to no avail. He didn't end here though, he gave up on conventional magic and started to do darker, more evil magic until he was feared throughout the lands and lost everything he had sought to conserve. One day, he finally succeeded where he had once failed-

While he was in the middle of this sentence the book was snatched from him by something and he heard a fierce cry "SPIKE WANTS!”

Star looked to who had taken the book and saw what looked like Spike running away at top speed, but this creature was larger than most ponies, as it left sight he was trampled by Twilight, and Applejack, who fell onto him as they ran into him "ouch!" Star exclaimed beneath Twilight and Applejack

"Sorry Star" Twilight apologized

"Sorry" Applejack added

"It's fine, but who was that and why did he steal the book I was reading?" Star asked

"It was Spike, for some reason he has been stealing things from everypony and growing larger" Twilight explained in a hurry "We have to stop him"

They suddenly heard a high pitched squeal in the distance "That sounds like Fluttershy!" Rainbow exclaimed as they all went towards the source of the noise

They soon arrived at Fluttershy's cottage "Fluttershy? Fluttershy" Twilight called

"I'm up here!" they heard from the top of a very large tree

"What happened?" Twilight asked

"I was helping my squirrel friends with a dance step when a giant, rampaging *whimper* dragon stormed through" she explained

"That was Spike" Twilight explained

"Spike? Why would Spike steal my chicken coop? He just pulled it out of the ground and filled it with a bunch of apples and stuff" Fluttershy asked

They heard another high pitched scream "That sounded like Pinkie Pie" Rainbow pointed out

"How can you identify their screams from this distance?" Star asked

"They get into trouble…. A lot" Rainbow explained

They ran and soon found themselves at Sugarcube Corner where Pinkie Pie was sitting on top of a shelf throwing cake at a very large Spike "Take that, and that!" she exclaimed

"Pinkie, stop giving him cake!" Twilight said urgently

"I am not giving him cake! I am ASSAULTING him with cake!" Pinkie exclaimed throwing more cakes at him

Spike stole all of the cakes off of the shelf causing Pinkie to fall face first onto the floor "How dare you take the cakes!" Pinkie exclaimed

Spike suddenly hit a growth spurt and broke through the roof of Sugarcube Corner. He lost interest in the ponies inside and with his tail grabbed the chicken coop full of stolen items and went to find more stuff "We've got to stop him!" Twilight exclaimed while she led all of the ponies to chase Spike

As they tried to catch up to Spike they were slowed down by all of the ponies running around. When they caught up to Spike he had his tail wrapped around Rarity, and he had the chicken coop in one hand and a wagon in the other, looking at them as if measuring their worth. His eyes widened and he ran over to the water tower, taking the container right off the stand and making all of the water flow down onto the town ponies.

He placed his items in it and his attention suddenly turned to Rarity, she said something to him and he roared in her face, causing her hair to straighten out behind her. "We have to help her!" Twilight exclaimed

"I've got this. Come on Fluttershy" Rainbow said pulling the shy pegasus along with her. On one side of his head was Rainbow shouting something in his ear and Fluttershy in the other looking like she might have a heart attack from being scared. Spike reacted to this by swinging his tail at Fluttershy and Rainbow, causing Rarity's cape to catch them in a net like position and drop them into the river.

Three ponies flew at him from nowhere and Star heard Rainbow exclaim "The Wonderbolts!"

The Wonderbolts flew at Spike and annoyed him slightly; he then ran to the mountain in the distance and began to climb. As he was climbing the Wonderbolts attacked again and cut most of the scales on his head clean off. Spike then dumped the contents of the water tower into a nearby cave and caught the Wonderbolts in the container, then stuck it into the mountain.

Watching all of this happen from the bottom of the mountain annoyed Star so he teleported up near Spike, not knowing what he was going to do. When he arrived up near Spike he saw Rarity scolding him, she tore off whatever outfit she was wearing showing it to him and yelled something else at him. Spike stared at Rarity as she folded her arms in annoyance.

Spike suddenly shook his head and looked confused, then he transformed back to his normal self, in midair. Star watched as his two friends fell to the ground, thinking quickly he ran over to the spot where they would land to try and catch them, luckily for him Rainbow and Fluttershy caught them in the same cape that had trapped them earlier.

Deciding that they had the situation under control he made his way over to the water tower, where he used a levitation spell that he had been practicing a lot of, he wasn't good at it but he only needed to push it slightly and it fell. He looked over to the Wonderbolts who were shivering in fear when they noticed that they were free, they quickly approached Star and the one with the fire orange hair spoke to him "Thanks for the help, but we have to get rid of the dragon"

"The dragon is taken care of, you don't need to worry about that anymore" Star explained

"You took care of the dragon?" she said incredulously

"No, the situation resolved itself" he explained "I have to get back to my friends; it was nice meeting you ponies"

When Star finally arrived at the bridge he saw Rarity kiss Spike on the cheek, he also noticed that he was the only one who had seen it so he didn't bring it up "Now, will one of you please explain to me what in the hay happened here?" Star asked

"It was Spike's birthday today and he got a few presents from ponies but got greedy and began to grow" Twilight explained

"So Spike will only grow out of greed? He won't grow up and will stay like that forever?" Star asked

"Not exactly, most dragons just grow up and grow larger, but apparently when a dragon is greedy, the larger that their horde grows the larger they grow, and when they grow in this "greed grow" they don't grow wings either" Twilight answered

"Okay, so where did he leave his horde? He stole the book I was reading in mid story" Star asked

"On top of the hill" Spike guessed

"Thanks" Star said making his way towards the mountain

After a few hours of searching in the cave he found the book, but when Spike had grabbed it his claw had gone clear through the book and now it was un readable "*sigh* I guess I won't know what happened now" Star left in disappointment

When he got back to town he saw ponies wandering around the wreckage and cleaning things up, Star decided to see if Twilight had another book on myths since he had nothing to do with his time anymore. He arrived at the library as they were just finishing putting the books back into the book shelves "Hey Twilight, do you have any other books about myths? When I was reading the one you lent me Spike grabbed it in his fit of greed and his claw went straight through it"

"Nope, sorry, I don't usually get books on myths, I think that they are pointless" she admitted

"Too bad, oh well I guess that I will try something else to help jog more of my memory, by the way, how is the spell book?" Star asked

Twilight suddenly burst into laughter "I can't believe that you were scared of an ostrich!"

"You would be scared if a bird that is taller than you chased you for two hours!" Star said in defense

"Yeah, well you were right about me laughing at the book" Twilight said after another fit of laughter

"Is there a book in here that will help me with learning to write? When I tried to write back to you and answer your letter today I wrote in those strange symbols that the books are written in" Star asked

"You can read in Equestrian, but not write in it, you can write in these strange symbols, but not read it" Twilight said in disbelief

"Yep" Star confirmed

"I think I have a book about that somewhere…." Twilight said skimming through the books "aha!" Twilight levitated Star the book with a huge grin on her face

The book read Writing for Dummies "Perfect!" Star said happily making Twilight laugh hysterically

"When did you develop a sense of humor?" Twilight asked Star

"Before you did" Star said back with a grin that Twilight couldn't see

They talked for what seemed like hours before Star finally left; when he was outside he noticed that it was night time. He arrived home after about half an hour of walking and immediately delved into learning about writing. He knew words and letters he just had problems in writing them down, which he slowly started to get right.

He spent a few hours working on writing down the letters then he started on words, his hoofwriting was barely legible but he would work on that once he could write in complete sentences.

He worked late into the night until he was too tired to keep working on it and walked over to his bed. He lay down and slept for a while before in his sleep he rolled off the bed and rolled under it in one tumble, he didn't feel the floor on his face though, he felt something smooth, grabbing it he pulled it and himself out from under the bed and lit a candle.

He looked at what he had found under his bed and saw that it was a dark blue envelope, similar to the one he had received from Princess Luna, he opened the letter and read

Dear Midnight Star, I may have found a solution to your problem