Ch 40: Day of the Race
The next morning Star woke gradually and of his own choice, he couldn't say as much for almost every morning since returning to Ponyville.
For a while he just stayed in bed, enjoying the silence and grace of the early morning life. Finally, with much reluctance, he decided it was about time to get up. Stretching first, he decided to assess his activities for the day "Alright, now first I think I still have to help Davenport with the blueprints for the new Quills and sofas, but that's not till one… Next I have to race Rainbow Dash, and… I think that's it!" he thought happily. Slowly getting out of bed he immediately slipped opened the largest of the three piles of letters "And I'm going to get through the rest of these letters…" he realized with a sigh.
Getting to his hooves he found that there was a letter stuck to his face, he removed it from his face and read it. A blush quickly grew on his face as he hastily gathered up the other letters and shoved them into the mailbag that they had arrived in.
With a grumble of his stomach he decided to start his day with a nice breakfast. This plan was quickly shot down as he found out that his home was completely absent of food. Instead of running to the store he decided to go to a nearby diner for breakfast.
After walking through town for a bit he arrived at his destination, a diner by the name of The Hay bale.
Walking inside brought attention to something he had failed to do yesterday. He had forgotten to have Twilight recast illusion spells, so at the moment he still looked like his normal self. The moment he walked to the diner he was mobbed by a group of ponies.
After a few minutes of distraction, weaving and bobbing he finally seated himself off in the back corner of the diner, in hopes of being unnoticed.
His breakfast went off without a hitch. That is, until an all too familiar pink blob appeared in his peripheral vision. Acting quickly he scarfed down what was left of the food on his plate and ducked, just in time to avoid the flying pink projectile.
Upon landing she quickly ricocheted back and tackled Star to the ground in a spine breaking hug.
"!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Pinkie, let go, can't breathe," He struggled through a choked voice.
She quickly let go and gave him a sheepish smile "Sorry about that."
"Now, what was that for?" Star asked getting back up and dusting himself off.
"I found the treasure! All of the sweets in it were delicious!" Pinkie said patting her stomach in satisfaction.
"You already ate them all? There were hundreds of sweets in there! How long did it take you?" he asked.
She looked to the ceiling in thought "Well that depends, what time is it?"
Star looked over to a nearby clock "It's a quarter past nine, why?" he asked.
Pinkie gave a look of surprise "Wow! It took me all morning to eat those! That's the slowest I've ever eaten a bunch of sweets before!" she exclaimed.
"But how did…. you know what? I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore," Star conceded.
"I've gotta go fold my sprinkles now, bye!" she exclaimed shooting out of the diner in a flash of pink.
Star took a moment to absorb what had just happened to him. "How do you fold a sprinkle?"
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he paid for his meal and made his way out of the diner. Upon leaving he found a very antsy looking Rainbow Dash waiting for him.
"You ready for our race?" she asked.
Star looked at her and tilted his head "Shouldn't you still be asleep, for like another ten or so hours?" he asked.
"Nah, saving that for my victory nap! Besides, I figured you'd want to change back to being Midnight Star as soon as possible, so we have to race while you still have wings," She explained.
"It doesn't actually get rid of my wings, just makes them invisible, I think," he explained
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Let's get going," she said anxiously.
"Alright, where are we going to race?" He asked.
"Twice around Sweet Apple Acres," Rainbow answered.
"Well no point in delaying any longer, let's get going," Star said walking towards their soon to be race track.
Rainbow quickly caught up to him "You're gonna walk, huh? Good idea, you'd better conserve all the energy you can, you'll need it," she told him before quickly shooting off towards the acres.
When Star arrived at Sweet Apple Acres he saw Rainbow speaking animatedly to Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.
"You girls ready to see Rainbow kick my flank?" he asked.
"Darling don't be so pessimistic, I'm sure you'll do just fine," Rarity reassured him.
"Ready to race?" Rainbow asked anxiously.
"No, but I am fully willing to participate," Star said with a smile.
"Alright then line up you two," Pinkie said pointing to a white line that had been drawn for both the starting and finishing line.
When they lined up Pinkie approached them "Alright, I want a good, clean race out there. That means no cheating, no hitting, and absolutely no wereponies. Got it?"
After shooting her a confused look they both nodded in acknowledgement and leaned down low ready to shoot forward as fast as possible.
Suddenly the other five of their friends began quietly giggling, when Rainbow looked over at them, she saw five straight faces staring back. Shaking her head she leaned even lower and narrowed her eyes in anticipation "Alright! On your marks! Get set! GO!" Pinkie announced.
Just as the words left Pinkie's mouth Rainbow shot forward. When the dust settled Star was still standing at the starting line. Casually he turned to the opposite direction and began to fly as fast as he could.
A few minutes later Rainbow passed the finish line "Yes! I won! I'm officially the fastest pony in Ponyville!" she exclaimed.
This was rewarded with full blown laughter from her friends "What's so funny?" she asked.
"You went the wrong direction!" Twilight exclaimed between laughs.
Rainbows eyes widened in surprise as she realized that Star had been going the right way. She quickly looked over to see that Star was done with his first lap and was about a quarter ways done with his second.
She quickly took off in the opposite direction that she had started in, trying desperately to catch up with him.
Rainbow quickly caught up and passed him for her first lap. When she got to her second lap she began feeling confident and checked to see how close Star was to finishing. She let out a small "Crud!" when she saw that he was ¾ of the way done with his second lap.
She immediately responded with a quickened beat of her wings as she pushed herself more and more trying to catch up with him.
Just as Star was about to finish the race, Rainbow shot past him at the last moment to take the win.
Star approached the now very exhausted Rainbow Dash and congratulated her. She shot him an angry look "Thanks for telling me I was going the wrong way! Why didn't you say anything?"
"I tried to tell you, but you were going too fast!" Star exclaimed.
"Oh," she said scratching the back of her head "sorry."
With the race being done the ponies began to disperse, each having something or other that they had to attend to. Star quickly caught up to Twilight as she walked "Hey, would you mind doing something for me?" he asked.
"That depends what it is." she said casually.
"I wanted to know if you would be able to store some magic inside of my amulet, so I don't have to constantly bother you to place the illusions that make me look like Midnight Star and then have you take them off again," He asked.
"Well… that would be much more convenient, but maybe I like when you bother me," she said blushing slightly.
He gave her a blank look "You like it when ponies bother you?"
Twilight sighed "Just give me the amulet for a moment."
Star stared cautiously at his amulet "Can't you just do it while I'm still wearing it?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes "Of course I can't, your body will naturally absorb the magic like that."
He was hesitant to take off his amulet, he had never taken it off before and had no idea what would happen if he did.
Slowly he took the amulet off from around his neck and held it out for Twilight.
As the amulet left his hoofs, his mind began to cloud up and he felt dizzy. Just as he started to fall over Twilight caught him with her magic "Are you alright?" she asked.
After a few moments silence his mind began to clear up and he could stand on his own again "I don't know, but it might happen again soon, so would you please hurry?" he asked urgently.
Nodding in agreement she quickly stored some of her magic within the amulet and gave it back to Star, who quickly put it back on "There you go, that should be enough magic to change you to and from Midnight Star about five times," she explained.
After changing his appearance back to Midnight Star he thanked her and started off on his next priority, buying groceries.
He enjoyed grocery shopping, it was always so peaceful and he almost always found something new to try. Though it wasn't as peaceful as he had hoped, there were two ponies in the middle of one of the aisles arguing about something or other.
Upon further inspection he found the two ponies to be none other than Lyra and Bon Bon. Deciding to find out what was wrong he approached the duo of ponies.
"Lilacs!" Lyra shouted.
"Daisies!" Bon Bon countered just as loudly.
"Lilacs!"
"Daisies!"
"Lilacs!"
"Daises!"
"Excuse me?" Star interrupted "sorry to interrupt your…. disagreement, but what's wrong?"
Simultaneously both ponies turned to stare at him, after a moment a grin grew on Lyra's face "Maybe HE can help us settle this little disagreement," she wondered aloud.
"Well maybe he can!" Bon Bon agreed.
Star wore a look of confusion "Settle what?" he asked.
"You see, Bon Bon here thinks that daisies are better than lilacs, when they clearly AREN'T," Lyra explained shooting her friend a glare "would you kindly inform her that lilacs are clearly better?"
"And Lyra here thinks that lilacs are better, when clearly DAISIES are the superior flower. Would you mind telling her that?" Bon Bon asked.
Looking cautiously from one mare to the other he took his time coming up with an answer that wouldn't get him yelled at from either party.
Taking a deep breath he began to mediate "Before I answer, what does it matter which is better than the other?" he asked.
"Because lilacs are the best!" Lyra answered.
"No daisies are!" Bon Bon countered.
"Lilacs!"
"Daisies!"
"Alright!" Star interrupted again "I may not be the best pony to answer this, but here goes nothing. I believe that regardless of what one of you think is the best flower the other obviously thinks otherwise. So why argue about it? Why not just accept that? It's not as if shouting ever got anypony anywhere."
"But what if a bunch of ponies just wouldn't shut up and you needed to tell them all something?" Lyra countered.
"Not helping," he snapped.
"I guess lilacs aren't THAT bad…" Bon Bon conceded.
"Of course they're not! Unlike those Dais-" Lyra was interrupted by a prod and a look of disapproval from Star "Okay Okay! Daisies aren't that bad either!" Lyra admitted.
Thinking the matter settled, Star turned to finish his shopping, he was stopped by a hoof on his shoulder. Turning he saw that Lyra and Bon Bon were looking at him with looks of approval "Anything else I can help you with?" he asked.
Lyra smiled and patted him on the back "You did good there princey boy, you did better than I thought you would."
He gave them a confused look "What did I do?"
"Lyra wanted to test you and see how well you would handle a situation like this," Bon Bon answered.
"Why?" Star asked.
"Because you seem new to this royalty stuff and I needed to see how well you'll be able to do your job," Lyra explained.
"Did I do any good?" he asked.
"Passed exceptionally, but not perfect," she answered.
"Well I promise to perfect the art of argument settling if you promise not to tell anypony else about who I really am," Star offered her his hoof.
"Sounds good to me," Lyra agreed, shaking his extended hoof.
Satisfied with this they each went their separate ways and Star finished what little shopping he had left.
When he got back to his home and put all of his purchased goods away he looked out at the sun to find that it was time for him to go help Davenport and Filthy Rich with the plans for the new store. After checking to see that he had fully closed his windows, he left his home and made his way to the construction site.
Upon arriving he found the group of 15 or so ponies still working on the base of the building, with Davenport and Filthy Rich off to the side.
When he approached the duo Davenport greeted him with his trademark grunt of acknowledgement while Filthy Rich stared, his mouth slightly agape "Is there something wrong?" Star asked.
"No, I've just never seen a pony with such extensive injuries! May I ask what happened?" Filthy asked.
A million scenarios ran through his head "Crud! I never came up with a reason to be this injured!"
"I was uhhhh…" He froze as his mind raced to come up with an answer "How do injuries like this happen? Uhh… falling off a cliff? No… being attacked!" "attacked! Yeah, I was attacked by uhhhhhhh… " He froze up once again "What's mean and attacks ponies? Ursa Minor? No most of them are mostly harmless… Cockatrice? No I would be a statue by now… Timberwolves!" "a pack of Timberwolves! Yeah, I was attacked by a pack of Timberwolves! Mean creatures those ones," Star explained with a nervous smile.
"Why were you even in the Everfree?" Davenport asked with a sly smile.
"I was… helping Zecora look for some herbs." Star answered shooting him a glare.
"Shouldn't we be discussing the blueprints of the new shop?" Star pointed out, hoping to change subject.
"But of course!" Filthy agreed, producing said blueprints. "Davenport and I were thinking of not only making the store bigger, but selling more types of furniture than just sofas and a more diverse selection of quills," He explained giving Star a list of the stores future wares.
Star quickly read over the list "But I thought that quills and sofas were kind of Davenports' thing, that's what his cutiemark is and that's all he makes," Star pointed out.
"That may be true, but I've always wanted to have an extension to my store that sold furniture, and here I have the chance to do that while helping a good friend at the same time," Filthy explained.
"So let me get this straight, Davenport gets a new store and you get to sponsor another store that sells furniture, which you were going to do anyway but doing it like this also lets you help a friend. Is that correct?" Star asked.
The other two ponies shared a look "That pretty much sums it up," Filthy acknowledged.
"Yep," Davenport agreed.
"So… why do you need me here?" Star asked.
"I just thought that you might like to be included in what's going to be happening to the store, seeing as you're basically the manager at this point," Filthy answered.
"Well if the store is getting bigger and getting more furniture then won't you need to hire more employees?" Star asked.
"Didn't actually think about it," Davenport shrugged "how's about I put you in charge of hiring? I think we only need about three other ponies to help out."
"I'll put an ad in the paper and leave a sign outside the shop as soon as construction is finished," Star assured.
"That's all settled then, all I need is your signature on this document," Filthy said holding out a rather large document.
"Why do you need my signature?" Star asked.
"Legal reasons," Davenport explained.
Satisfied with this answer he signed the document in his best hoofwriting, which is to say that it was still barely legible.
After making idle conversation for a few more minutes they went their separate ways. They decided to meet back at the site in one weeks' time, which was the estimated date that the building would be finished.
It was still too early in the day to retire back to his home for the evening so he decided to aimlessly wander Ponyville.
After walking through town for what felt like a few hours he looked up to find that it was still relatively early in the day, there was still at least five hours left of light.
Looking at this made Star sigh in despair "I need to get a hobby or something, I have WAY too much free time," Star decided.
Instead of dwelling on the matter he decided to do something about it, by looking around town for something he could do in his spare time.
After searching for what felt like an eternity his results came up empty, he found absolutely nothing to do.
Completely out of ideas he decided to just pick up a book from the library and spend the rest of his day reading it
Upon arriving at the library he found a large group of ponies just outside the door, most of which had cameras in their mouths.
Curious as to what happened he quickly pulled one of these ponies to the side "Excuse me, but what exactly is going on here?" Star asked.
"Juicy news story! We have a bunch of sources saying that that new prince keeps comin' to the library for somethin' and we think he might be in a relationship with the librarian!" the newspony explained.
"What makes you think that?" Star asked.
"Usually stallions don't just go somewhere for long amounts of time to spend time with a mare for nothin'," the newspony explained "by the way, names' Snap Shot, but my friends call me Snap,"
Snap was a grey earth pony with a light grey mane and a camera giving off a flash as his cutiemark.
"I'm Midnight Star," Star responded, shaking the stallions hoof "and wouldn't it be possible that he's just, you know, reading?" he asked.
He received a blank look from Snap "Oh, didn't really think about it like that, be right back," he said running back to the group of reporters.
They quickly huddled up and discussed something before Snap ran back over "That seems pretty likely, but ponies don't like a borin' story like that! So we're just gonna keep with the one we have,"
"What if you found a more interesting story?" Star asked.
"Then we'd go report about it," Snap responded with a shrug.
An idea hit him that would get rid of the mob of newsponies. Acting quickly he ran behind a nearby building, got rid of the illusions, and ran back into the open "I'm hungry, I think I'm going to go to Sugarcube Corner!" he announced loudly to get the reporters' attention.
Before they could catch up to him he ran behind the building once more and recast the illusion spells, right when the mob of reporters appeared running right past him.
Pleased with the result he then went back to doing what he was going to originally, get a book to read.
When Star tried to open the door to the library it seemed to be locked "Is anypony home? I wanted to get a book to read!" he asked.
"How do we know you aren't with the reporters?" Spike asked from behind the door.
"Because I just want a book?" Star guessed.
"I'm not falling for that," Spike said as the door was opened by a familiar lavender aura.
"Thanks Twilight," Star said waking into the library.
"Twilight! He could have been in cahoots with the reporters!" Spike exclaimed.
"Why would Star be in cahoots with the reporters? And for that matter since when do you say cahoots?" she asked.
"Sorry, those reporter guys were starting to rub off on me. And why WOULDN'T he be in cahoots with them?" Spike retorted.
Twilight raised an eyebrow "Because their news story was about my alleged relationship with Prince Starlight?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Spike said pushing his index fingers together.
"By the way, how did you get them to leave?" Twilight asked.
"I just wasted one of the transformations and had them following a fake trail to Sugarcube Corner," Star explained grabbing a few books at random.
"So, any particular reason you came here?" she asked.
"Just to get some reading material, without an actual job I don't really have anything to do during the day," he explained.
"You don't have a job?" she asked.
"You didn't hear? Razor Claw destroyed Quills and Sofas," he explained.
"That was one of the buildings he destroyed?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, but don't worry about it, it's being rebuilt. It should be back up and ready for business in about a week," Star assured.
"That's good, Celestia knows how many sofas this town goes through in a year," Twilight joked.
Thanking her for the books Star started on his way back to his home, where he was going to begin reading this random assortment of books.
When he walked into his home he was surprised to see another mailbag, but this one was a lot larger than the last one "Great, that's exactly what I needed, more stalkerish and creepy mail,"
With a sigh he immersed himself into reading them all, but instead of the type of mail that he found last time, he found letters that were mostly written by children.
These weren't the type of letters that he had expected to read, some were from fillies saying that they wanted to grow up and marry him. While others were from colts saying they wanted to grow up and be just like him "Seriously, what is up with these ponies? Most of them don't even know who I am or anything about me!"
Once again confused as to why he was getting these letters he decided it was about time to hit the hay.
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Life in Ponyville is hectic as usual, I see...
This story is on FimFiction as well?! I was about to suggest to you about submitting it here via FanFiction. What are the odds?
It has been a while but it's so great to see another update.
m.onet.pl/_m/f86384421d215d4e6c61e5b1a0e89fe4,62,37.jpg
yah update
762501
At least you still have some hair...
762571
hell, I'm happy to still have pants
Ah it's clear that Star is a neutron star. There's no other explanation for how he can be so dense.
*throws other shoe at you* UPDATE MORE OFTEN.
765314
Heh, you know the funny thing is that that exact pun came into my mind when I wrote out that scene...
765335
Ouch! Okay okay! I am working on the next chapter! Just please, I have to know, where did the first shoe go?
765590the first shoe? i am busy covering it with nepam so it will hurt and cause you to combust... xD (the first time it was attached to a string)
765598
Crap... I'd better get writing then!
i just noticed something, he has yet to meet cadance!
777867
Yep, right now they are still back around the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 episode.
why is this update taking SOOOO long? i am terribly confused now
852000
Right now I am working on a collaboration with MsgtLaborin, he is helping with the next story arc (in fact, the entire idea is his and it is brilliant) sorry for it taking so long though, Laborin has been having stuff he has to do in RL.
well the next arc had better be good to compensate for the lack of updates
854411
From what I've heard, there will be more "Action, romance, and explosions" so it might be good.
better be
You take to long *loads about fifty shoes into high artillery cannon* FIRE.
868602
*Smack* Ouch! I'm s-*smack* I'm sorry! It's just- *smack* the next chapter is- *smack* going to be for th-*smack* the collaboration and- *smack* and we're workin-*smack* working on it!
*smack*
*smack*
*smack*
Will you stop- *smack* shooting those!
Increase power! *shoes start breaking the sound barrier* buahahaha.
Doctor: get the straight jacket, he cracked again!
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Other Doctor: You think a straight jacket is going to hold him this time? After he literally burnt it off of his body last time? No! We're gonna need to banish him to keep him down this time, CELESTIA!
* pulls out pistol and proceeds to headshot both doctors* you shall never take me alive!
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Intern: There's only one thing left to do... *activates nuclear reactor beneath location*
Nukes? Pfft that's old... Say hello to anti-matter! *blows up entire dimension*
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Ah well, you win, I was hoping to save some people, but it looks like we're all dead now...
you're fired *unfaves*.
1071949
But boss! It won't be gone forever! Just for a while longer!
you are totally the most insufficiant time-saver/ writer ever *loads laser cannon* FIRE. *throws shoe*
*pokes story. pokes it again
Just some words of encouragement here, had found this on Fanfiction and loved both your OCs and the premise of the whole story.
1597444
Sorry about the many month long delays, but on the bright side I have the first half of the next two chapters done.
1599886
No problem, just glad to know that you're still working on it, kinda guessed life was keeping you busy or the like. Your blog post brought this story back up to the front of my mind, gonna have to give it another read.