Out of the Darkness

by SergeantShenanigans

Ch 39: A Return to Normalcy

After a few hours, meeting up with his mother and aunt, and ending up in the castle ballroom to give Princess Yellowscale more room to move, Star had just realized how strange the scene before him was. They were all sitting around a rather large table, all four of them had a cup of tea in hoof and hand, and each of them were sporting a top hat, a monocle, fancy mustache and they were all speaking in a fancy Manehattan accent.

"If I may inquire, why are we all wearing this ensemble?" Star asked.

"Quite obviously because it's tea time my dear lad!" Luna explained.

Celestia looked around at the other ponies and dragon and nodded "And might I add that we all look quite dapper, brilliant if I may say."

All nodding in agreement they all simultaneously took a sip of their respective cups of tea "I say Luna; you brew a delightful cup of tea." Yellowscale complimented.

"Why thank you kind madam." Luna replied with a smile.

Taking one final sip of tea Celestia turned to Star "All silliness aside, Star, we have much to discuss."

"Like what?" he asked tilting his head slightly.

She gave him an incredulous look, then looked from him, to Princess Yellowscale, then back to him "Really? You didn't think it important to mention that you made friends with a dragon?" she asked "A PRINCESS of the dragons no less!" she added after a moment.

"I was sworn to secrecy." He explained.

"By whom were you sworn to secrecy?" Luna asked still sporting her Manehattan accent.

"Starswirl." He answered before taking another sip of tea.

"Just how much did you two do when I had my back turned?" Celestia asked.

Star looked to the ceiling in thought "Well… we helped the dragons in a couple of wars, fought some pirates, saved Equestria, procured and hid many dangerous artifacts, and a few other things." He explained.

Before Celestia could respond his eyes widened in realization and he reached into his saddlebag "I know!" he exclaimed before taking out a small book with symbols on it "Here is Starswirl's journal, I think that you should have it. Along with it showing how he felt day to day it will explain what we did during our travels." He said giving her said journal.

She tilted her head and stared at it "I thought that you were sworn to secrecy?" she pointed out.

"Well I was," Star agreed "but I'm not telling you anything, you will be reading it in his journal."

She stared at it with a sad smile for a moment before taking it and giving Star a grateful look "Thank you."

He shot her a beaming smile before finishing off the last of his cup of tea "So, any other questions?" he asked to no one in particular.

"How much of all of your journeys' do you remember?" Luna asked.

"Do you just automatically assume that I have memory problems with everything?" he replied in mock offense.

"What? No! I wasn't- I just meant- I was just-"she stuttered out while attempting to think of something to explain her question.

Star interrupted her panic with a fit of laughter "I was just joking, judging by my background it's not all that surprising that you would jump to that conclusion. But to answer your question I really only remember a few brief periods during my visit to the dragon kingdom when I met Yellowscale, otherwise it's all a blank." He explained.

"So you don't remember stopping an invasion of changelings before they reached the borders of Equestria?" Celestia asked looking up from the journal that she had been reading since she had received possession of it.

"I remember reading about it in my journal but nothing else." Star answered.

Yellowscale raised an eyebrow "What is a changeling?" she asked.

"A creature that is roughly the size of a regular pony that can change into any form and feed off of positive emotions, mostly love. Though as far as I know there haven't been any changelings seen in Equestria for well over a couple thousand years." Celestia explained.

Yellowscale turned to Star "I thought you were just an apprentice to some random sorcerer, but it turns out that you were really a prince and a traveling hero. Got anything else up your sleeve to impress me?" she asked.

Star immediately fell to the floor laughing. "Me? A hero? That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard!" he exclaimed.

He received confused looks from the three of them prompting him to explain. "I've never done anything heroic. As far as I can tell from what I've read in my journal Starswirl is the hero," He explained.

"From what I've read in his journal it completely contradicts that, in fact more than once he claims that he needed to be saved by you." Celestia said while still reading from said journal.

"He's just being modest," Star dismissed.

"If you've never done anything heroic, then what do you call saving your friends from Razor Claw?" Luna questioned.

"That wasn't me saving them, that was me fixing a mistake I made, I should have never let them get involved in that," He said shaking his head slightly.

"What about when I was knocked unconscious by Destruction and you saved me before he could kill me?" Celestia asked.

"I didn't save you, I kept his attention while you and Luna got the elements of harmony and saved me," Star pointed out.

"Why do you keep denying that you have been heroic?" Yellowscale asked.

"I'm not; I just can't see myself even remotely brave enough to do anything of the sort," He said defensively.

"Wait, this story seems familiar …I will be right back." Celestia said putting down the journal and leaving the room, leaving Yellowscale, Luna and Star.

"So, how are you two?" Star asked casually.

"Great! I no longer have to fear Razor Claw coming back and I recently found one of my best friends again," Yellowscale answered.

Star nodded in understanding and turned to Luna "And you?" he asked.

"Brilliant!" she exclaimed still speaking with a Manehattan accent.

Before Star could respond Celestia once again walked through the door "I was right!" she exclaimed.

This was followed by silence and confused looks… "I recognized something from the journal, apparently somepony wrote down all of Starswirl's and Stars journeys and published them as stories, though these books have been in the royal archives since about the time Star disappeared I never made the connections," She explained.

"Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that there are a few books that tell some stories of mine and Starswirl's "adventures"," Star said in realization.

"Says here that you and Starswirl were notorious womanizers..." Celestia remarked with a sly smile.

"A lot of it is just made up, and seriously, why is THAT one of the only things that both you and Twilight looked at?" Star asked with a facehoof.

Celestia looked as if she was about to say something, but she hesitated and instead shook her head. Looking back into the book she now held in her pink aura "It also has about twenty or so conspiracies about you two being secret agents, outlaws on the run from me, or just secretly being omnipotent beings who travel time and space righting wrongs in the universe."

Star looked to be deep in thought 'The description she just used reminds me of something or somepony, I don't know when or where, but I think I've described something like that before…' he had his hoof on his chin in thought for a few more moments before shrugging it off.

A few moments passed in contented silence, besides the occasional sound of tea being sipped or the sound of a page being flipped it was completely silent.

Star took this time to think over what has happened since he woke up that fateful day almost a year ago. Since then he had found out his identity, most of his past, found his family, he made friends, got a job, and found a home.

He smiled at all of this until his mind came to rest on the current situation, causing his eyebrows to furrow in thought. Noticing this when she looked over to Star, Luna decided to ask what was wrong "Is there a problem?"

This broke Star out of his train of thought "Wha huh?" he blurted out before shaking his head to clear his thoughts "Nothing is wrong. In fact," He turned to Celestia "I need to ask you a question. I seem to have an affinity for healing quickly, in example I should be in these casts and disabled for another month or so, but I will be getting out of them in about a week and a half, why is that?" he asked.

He received a simple shrug as a response "Guess that's something else to do with what I still can't remember," He remarked.

Once again the room was filled with silence, besides the occasional turning of a page "Well this was nice, but I have to get back to town and help Davenport with cleaning up the remnants of his store," Star declared.

After they all shared their goodbyes Star made his way outside where he was about to start walking back to Ponyville. However he was stopped by a nearby guard who was pulling one of the chariots "What are you doing?"

"Walking back to Ponyville?" Star said curiously.

"It has been requested that you be taken by chariot to any destination of your choice," The guard explained.

"Really?" Star asked.

"Really," The guard confirmed.

Star shrugged his shoulders, "Guess I don't have much of a choice…" He then hopped into the back of the chariot and they flew off to Ponyville

When he landed, in Ponyville he was surrounded by what he thought to be all of the ponies in town As he started to get out of the chariot they all made a path for him and bowed their heads "What's all of this about?" he asked Lyra, who was one of the ponies in the front of the crowd.

Her head shot up immediately, a look of shock on her face "You're M-" she was quickly quieted by Star's hoof in her mouth.

"I would prefer it if nopony knew who I was, it would make living here much more difficult. So if you wouldn't mind, please don't say anything," He pleaded in a hushed tone.

She nodded her head in understanding before he removed his hoof from her mouth "Now, would you mind telling me what all of this," he gestured to the crowd of ponies that were still bowing to him "is about?" he asked.

Lyra looked around the crowd then back to Star "This is how we greet royalty, by bowing to them," She explained.

Star looked around the crowd awkwardly "Excuse me everypony, I'm not all too accustomed to this so please don't think me out of line, but I don't really like this kind of treatment. If you would please, resume whatever it was you were all doing before I got here."

There were many hushed whispers and confused looks shared throughout the crowd before Lyra tapped him on the shoulder "We don't do this because we have to, actually we do this out of respect for our royalty. If you don't let us act like this it would be an insult," she explained "but once you pass through the path that was opened for you they will resume whatever they were doing."

Nodding in understanding, Star walked down the middle of the two rows of ponies. As he passed a pony they would rise and continue to stare at him.

When he finally reached the end of the group he turned back to see them all staring back at him, as if waiting for him to explain something.

'Maybe they're wondering why I'm here?' he thought to himself "I'm not here for any official business, I'm just visiting a friend," He explained.

Most of them nodded and the dispersed, save the odd pony here or there who continued to stay in place and stare at him. Ignoring this he made his way to the library to have Twilight return the illusions to his body so that he could walk through town without attracting the attention equal to that of a circus elephant riding through town on a large rubber ball.

Arriving at the library as he had many times before he found it to be nearly deserted, save Spike, who was taking a nap in his small basket of a bed, which for some reason or another was dragged to the bottom of the stairs.

Curiously Star made his way over to the sleeping baby dragon and prodded him in the side in an attempt to wake him. This however proved ineffective as Spike simply scratched at where Star had prodded him and turned to face the other way.

He furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment before he was struck with an idea "Why of course I will marry you Rarity!" he loudly exclaimed.

Spike immediately sprung from his bed shouting "Not if I have anything to say about it!"

Making a quick scan of the room he did not find Rarity, only Star with an amused grin on his face "What's so funny?" Spike asked.

Star shook his head slightly "Nothing, nothing. Onto more pressing matters, I came here to speak to Twilight; do you know where she is?"

Spike groaned at this, "She's upstairs asleep. I'm down here because she has been talking in her sleep. she woke me up saying something like 'the stallion of my dreams in the starlight' or something like that. I didn't really hear her very well."

"Well if she's still asleep then I will just come back tomorrow, thanks," Star said walking back out the door.

As he watched Star leave Spike wore a confused look "Or was it, 'the stallion of my dreams, Starlight?'" he mumbled before shrugging and going to get himself breakfast, or as it was supposed to be, dinner.

At a loss of what to do with what little hours of light there was left in the day he decided to see how much progress Davenport had made cleaning out the ruins of the store.

When he arrived he was surprised to see that the plot of land was empty, save a group of about 15 ponies wearing yellow hard hats and orange safety vests, Davenport, and a pony in a suit.

Upon further inspection he saw that the pony in the suit was none other than Filthy Rich, the owner of Barnyard Bargains "Hi," Star greeted walking towards the duo.

From Davenport he received a grunt and from Filthy Rich he received a bow "It is nice to meet you Prince Starlight," This made Star cringe.

Hearing this Davenport's eyes widened in surprise "Wait, Prince Starlight? That's strange, you sound just like…"

"Like who?" Star asked.

Davenport stared at him for a few moments before narrowing his eyes "Nopony, just thought I recognized your voice."

"So, what is royalty such as yourself doing at a construction site?" Filthy Rich asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I heard that this building had been leveled due to the dragon attack recently, so I decided to see how bad the damage was," Star explained.

Davenport looked up at him with a knowing smile "Why did you come all the way down from Canterlot to see this?" he asked.

"Mr. Rich, would you excuse us for a moment?" Star asked before taking Davenport out of hearing range.

"How'd ya get out of that wheelchair?" Davenport asked just as they stopped walking.

"I didn't actually need it, it was just the doctor's orders, and how did you know it was me?" Star asked curiously.

Davenport grinned widely "Firstly, your voice gave you away, but that's just because I've heard it so much. Secondly you've been acting the exact same way that you do when you're all dressed up as Midnight Star. Lastly and most noticeably part of the front of your cast came off when you were helping me clean up the debris, it's still missing."

Star slowly applauded him "How very observant of you. Did you used to be a detective?"

"No, with all of my spare time in the shop I used to read a lot of mystery books. Now, let's get back to Rich, I was just talking to him about his help in rebuilding the store," Davenport said walking with Star back over to Rich, who was looking at what seemed to be a schematic.

"What's that?" Star asked.

"These are the blueprints for the new Quills and Sofas. I was planning on renovating it soon anyway, all the dragon did was give me that last push to actually go through with it," Davenport explained.

"I am going to need to speak with that employee of yours, Midnight Star, if he is going to be running the shop I think we might need his input on all of this," Rich said while looking over the blueprints again.

Davenport looked over to Star questioningly and Star shook his head. He put one hoof on top of the other, then gestured it going in an arc over to the opposite side of his hoof, like something moving across the sky.

Davenport looked confused for a moment before Star pointed at his Cutiemark, then gestured again moving one hoof in an arc "Oh!" Davenport said in realization.

"What?" Rich asked raising an eyebrow.

Davenport turned to him "He will be busy until tomorrow. Why don't we all meet here tomorrow at one?"

Rich nodded in agreement "Alright, one it is. See you tomorrow," He said walking away.

When he was finally out of earshot, Star turned to Davenport "Why aren't you being all nervous and trying to get my approval? When most ponies see royalty they act weird and only say what they think royalty wants to hear."

Davenport shrugged "I'm not going to treat anypony different because they're in a different social class, even if they are royalty."

Star smiled gratefully at this "Thanks, that's why I usually look like Midnight Star. I hate getting special treatment."

"Well I have to get home; the wife is probably wondering what is taking me so long, see you tomorrow." Davenport said walking away.

As Star was about to walk away Davenport called over to him "One more thing, if you're royalty, why do you need a job?" he asked

Star smiled "I don't want to have everything given to me; I would prefer to have to work for it."

Satisfied with this answer Davenport left, leaving Star alone with nothing to do once again. After a few moments he decided to just go home and get some rest.

When he got to his home he took a moment to look it over. He rarely ever thought about it, but he really loved his home. Not just the way it looked, but the fact that it symbolized somewhere he could come back to after a very trying day. He could just relax, knowing that he had a place to call his own.

Star opened the door to his house just to find it blocked by something at his hooves. Looking down he saw what looked to be a large mailbag, curiously he picked it up and inspected it. On the side he found a note, it read

You have received a lot of mail lately, I decided to just have it all sent to your home. Expect the rest of it soon.

Love,

Mom

Eying the bag curiously, he decided to see what all of this was about. Entering his home and finding a comfortable place to sit he picked a letter at random and read it.

Dear Prince Starlight Sky,

You probably don't remember me, but that's okay, I was the mare that asked if you had a marefriend, and you said that you weren't looking for a relationship, but that's okay! It doesn't have to be a relationship, it can be whatever you want it to be.

Please respond soon,

Strawberry Sundae

Star stared at the letter curiously 'What does 'Whatever you want it to be; mean? For that matter what is 'it' in the first place?'

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he read another, though it was less stalkery and less creepy it was the same concept.

After reading every letter he summed them up into a few different categories; Marriage proposals, relationship proposals and miscellaneous proposals, which made him blush even thinking about.

'What's with all of the love letters? I bet most of these mares haven't even ever seen me,' He thought shaking his head.

With a sigh he put the bag of letters on the table then lay down to sleep.

Comments

[Smatexas]

FIRST
love mail lol
and this story is a nice change between equestria ending and hie

[High_Wind]

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You can always find time to be dapper no matter what you're doing

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cheers

[moguera]

Soooooo...Changelings...dropping hints for future chapters? Perhaps Star once wooed Queen Chrysalis and now she's pregnant with his child. The crazy twists continue.

[SergeantShenanigans]

600031
Now THAT would be a twist, but sadly no, I must let you know now that Star was not a secret womanizer, regardless of whatever those stupid books say

[Chivalry]

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