Love and Lust
The Crystal Empire
Radiant Star was nervous, no, scratch that, Radiant Star was afraid. He still could not believe his mom was making him do this. He hated touchy-feely stuff. For the past ten years, Radiant lived his life in preparation for his role as a leader. He wanted to lead the Crystal Empire to its glorious future. Now that the empire needed true leadership, now during this time of strife and war, now when Equestria faced the greatest military threat it has known in over a thousand years, his mom, Princess Cadance used a guilt trip to make him to go out on a date. Somehow, war seemed a lot easier.
The hard part should be over, He asked her out, (under duress) and she said yes. Why did he now feel like that was the easy part?
“Prince, if you don’t sit still and let me finish I will have to inform your mother.”
Radiant glared at his help. “Who do you think you are? I'm the Prince of the Crystal Empire; you can’t talk to me like that.”
“Yeah, I'm just a lowly help; however, I'm under Princess Cadance’s orders to make sure you make your date on time.”
Radiant gaffed at this tailor, however, he sat down and let him finish. ‘I can’t believe he just pulled rank on me.’ Several minutes later Radiant stood, admiring himself in the mirror. He had to admit, he looked good. “Sorry.” Was his only comment to the pony that helped him.
“No need prince, I'm glad I could help for your first date.”
“It’s not my first date!”
“As the prince says.”
Radiant could not help but notice the sly grin on his face as he walked out of the room. He dismissed him and turned back to the mirror. ‘I have to admit, he does good work.’
Thirty minutes later, the Prince of the Crystal Empire, Radiant Star, was bored. He stood at the top of the hill overlooking the Crystal Palace, waiting for his date to arrive while watching the sun go down. He pondered for the thousandth time just how long etiquette demanded him wait for a date that was late. Almost ten minutes now, if the clock on the tower was anything to go by. He would have left nine minutes ago if he was not sure that his mom would rip him a new one for doing so.
“Prince Radiant?”
The sudden noise almost caused the poor stallion to jump out of his fur. He turned around and stared into the face of the pony that startled him so. The pegasus he was looking at stirred up more emotions than he expected. The light tan mare had the most gorgeous blue eyes. Her mane and tail were the same color as her eyes, with the exception of a light sky-blue stripe that ran through them. He gasped at the casual way she wore her mane, one that exemplified beauty, grace, and a carefree attitude all at the same time. Her cutie mark was a comet shooting across the heavens.
What really stood out to Radiant was the outfit she wore. It was practical and elegant, one that seemed to cover everything and nothing all at once; the dress was obviously designed just for her. On anypony else, it would be wrong. On her, it was perfect. Had he been capable of rational thought, he would have known instantly the one pony who could design such a dress. The main color was dark blue, with sky blue highlights. With this dress, this pony could win a fashion contest just by walking in the door.
“Prince, are you ok?”
Speech was lost on the stallion, as such; he simply nodded his head up and down.
“Are you sure? You seem to be drooling a little.”
Radiant noticed that he had yet to shut his mouth since he first laid eyes on her. He quickly wiped his muzzle with a hoof. “Sorry, sorry.”
She laughed at that. “No I'm sorry, I hate being late but Miss. Rarity insisted that a lady must always be fashionably late to her date.”
A light bulb went off in his head. “Wait? Firestar?”
She blushed a little at that, “I look ridiculous, don’t I.”
It dawned on the prince he had never seen her out of uniform before; in all their meetings, strategy sessions, counsel sessions, and talks. She wore either her Wonderbolt uniform or the Cloudsdale Militia official dress uniform. None of those clothes did this mare justice. They all hid her natural beauty, this dress; this dress highlighted that beauty in ways he could not comprehend. “No, not at all, you look fine.”
“Just fine?” Firestar said with a hurt look on her face.
“Gorgeous, stunning, radiant, breathtaking…” Radiant rambled on, trying to make up for his unintentional slight against her.
Firestar placed a hoof over his mouth to get him to shut up and smiled. “I’m just messing with you, truthfully, I feel a little awkward in this getup. However, Princess Cadance insisted that I wear something nice and sent Miss Rarity to assist. I couldn’t tell her no, no matter how much I wanted too.”
Radiant tried to lament his mom’s interference in his love life again, he tried to anyway. However, looking at the mare in front of him now, he could only feel a sense of gratitude for his mother’s involvement. “Yeah, moms, what can you do?” He spoke with a nervous tone in his voice.
“Hey, relax, let’s just get through tonight and then we never have to do this again.” She walked past him, close enough that the ends of their coats were almost touching.
Every part of Radiant was screaming ‘NO!’ at that comment, yet his mouth could only manage a quiet “But… but….”
She turned around and looked at him. “Unless you want to that is?”
“Ok.” Was all he managed to say.
Fortunately, for Radiant Star’s sanity, his mouth actually managed to catch up with his brain and he was able to hold his own in small talk for the rest of the night. Firestar actually had to admit to herself that he was somewhat witty when he wanted to be. She found herself having a better time than expected.
As the two walked around the Crystal Empire for a while, they found their small talk evolving into areas that were more personal. She finally felt the courage to ask a question that was weighing on her ever since her impromptu promotion.
“How do you find the time?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, ever since I became the Commander of Cloudsdale I feel like I'm being pulled a hundred different ways. Don’t get me wrong, leading the Wonderbolts was taxing at the best of times, but this is on a completely different level. Heck, Princess Cadance sent an army of ponies just so I would have time to go on this date.”
He laughed at that, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Firestar. He tried to play it off, but she was a lot stronger then she looked, especially how she looked now. “Don’t laugh at me.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you, just that situation. Every leader goes through the same thing. We all go through the whole ‘how to deal with responsibilities of command’ phase. You learn to deal by making time for the little things.”
“Little things?”
“Well, I always schedule time for sword training, at least an hour a day. My mom gets together with her friends at noon every day for lunch. It keeps us refreshed, and reminds us why we do what we do.”
“That’s ridiculous, how do you get everything done?”
“Simple, you don’t.”
“What?”
“There is a lot to do when you’re on the top, too much. You cannot do it all in one day. Nopony can, as such; the only logical thing to do is not to do it all. Believe me, it may feel daunting to go to sleep at night with items still on the list, however, it will stop you from going insane. Delegate what you can, prioritize what’s left, and spend the day doing the most important items on the list. You will find that those at the bottom of the list, they were not worth your time anyway.”
“Thanks, I’ll try and keep that in mind.”
Firestar’s stomach rumbled in protest to a few too many missed meals interrupting any further conversation they might have had on the subject. “Sorry.”
“Hey its ok, I could eat too. Are you in the mood for anything in particular?”
“It’s your city, you pick.”
“I know just the place.”
The two of them started walking to the east. Unaware that a pony dressed in all black was following them through the streets. The pony silently moved from cover to cover watching them with hawk’s eyes.
“Thank you by the way.”
“For what?” Firestar asked.
“All the help Cloudsdale has been giving us. I know it cannot be easy constantly relocating an entire city every few days, but without your support we would be lost. Also, thanks for not pressing things too far after the whole Rainbow-Tsunami incident.”
“Trust me, he will not be missed. I would tell you what I really felt about the Stallion but it’s not for polite company.”
“Oh there is no need, I read your report.”
“The official one?” Firestar asked hopefully.
“The first one.”
Radiant thought the look of horror on her face was adorable. “Don’t worry about it; I like a mare that can speak her mind.”
Firestar quickly recovered. “You like a lot of mares?”
“No, not really, never made time for all of that before. What about you? You like a lot of stallions?”
“Same boat as you, I had more than a few admirers but none I really wanted to get to know more intimately.”
"Maybe that's all changed? For both of us?" Radiant asked hopefully.
"Maybe." Firestar said with a sly smile.
As the two turned the corner, their stalker fought hard to keep up, the pony was trying to stay close enough so they would not get out of sight, but far enough away so they would not notice. Suddenly, a completely new sight got the ponies attention.
Up in the sky was the tell-tale trail of a Wonderbolt. The pony was dressed in the standard uniform and scanning the ground for something. Finding it, the pony dove straight for the objective, straight for Firestar and Radiant.
The pony in black waited for this newcomer to get into range and teleported the Wonderbolt directly into the pony’s hooves. Holding a hoof over the Wonderbolts mouth to prevent them from yelling the pony waited for Firestar and Radiant to turn the next corner. Satisfied that they were not noticed, the pony took off the mask and turned to the newcomer.
“What do you think you're doing?” Princess Cadance asked, a pissed expression on her face.
“Ma’am, Sergeant Flash, ma’am.” The Wonderbolt snapped to attention at his recognition of a member of Equestria royalty.
“I didn’t ask who you were, I asked what were you doing.”
“Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am.”
“Ok, two things, first calm down. I don’t want you waking up everypony in the empire. Second, stop calling me ma’am and answer the bucking question.”
“Yes ma… Sorry, I'm here to deliver a report to the Commander Firestar directly.”
“What is so important that it couldn’t wait a few hours?”
“Sorry m… I don’t know, I was told to give it to her directly and that she could be found here.”
“Well you can give it to me.”
“I cannot, my orders were to give it directly to Commander Firestar.”
“Well consider those order revoked by Princess Mia Mora Cadenza of the Crystal Empire. Your new orders are to give that to me directly and forward any more communication to Commander Firestar to me as well.”
“Yes ma… princess.”
“And Sergeant Flash.”
“Yes?”
“I will hold you personally responsible if anything reaches Commander Firestar for the rest of the night.”
“Yes, princess.” He snapped another salute and handed the letter to Cadance before taking off into the night.
Cadance teleported the letter to her room and turned around to continue ‘monitoring’ her son's date. Much to her chagrin they were lost in the night, heading to who knows where. She sighed inwardly and headed home. While she could track them with her magic, Radiant was more then used to sensing her power. That would give away her position without a doubt. Cadance silently cursed Sergeant Flash and whoever sent him here as she headed home. She would simply have to wait for Radiant to finish with his date before she could hear the rest of the juicy details. Rarity would not be happy about that.
...
A few hours later Cadance and Rarity found their conversation interrupted by a tired stallion walking past them in the kitchen. “Did you have fun dear?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah, it was ok.”
“I hope it was more than ok. Come on, let’s hear about it.”
“Mom, it was fine, I'm just tired is all.”
“Oh, ok…”
Radiant could not help but notice the dejected tone in her voice. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, ok?”
“Tell us dear, did you two at least have fun?”
“Yeah, I think we both enjoyed it.” He took the milk from the fridge and poured himself a glass.
“So are you going to have dinner together again?” Cadance asked with a smile on her face.
“Oh no, she's far too busy for that.”
Cadance’s smile quickly fell to a frown. ‘I was so sure there was something there.’ She thought.
As Radiant walked out of the room with his glass of milk he paused and looked back at two. “So we are going to start having lunch together instead.”
The smile that appeared on the faces of the two mares made him laugh. “Oh and mom.”
“Yes?”
“I know it was you that was following us, two things, please don’t do it again.”
“And the second?”
“Thanks.”
………………………………………………………
Warclaw
She woke up to a very familiar feeling. Only one place had this sort of smell, only one place had these sorts of sounds. She was back in a hospital room. Aurora was starting to loathe hospital rooms. Testing the waters, she opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. ‘Too bright, far too bright.’ Instead, she stretched each leg in turn. After making sure that each leg still worked with just a little soreness in them, she stretched a wing. Her left one was fine, the right would not move.
Aurora forced her eyes open and jerked her head to look at the offending wing. It took a while but when her vision finally cleared, she was relieved to see that the wing was still there, just in a cast. Testing a few feathers, she could still feel them. Whatever had happened, she would not be flying again anytime soon but she did not lose the use of her wing.
“Morning sleepy.”
Aurora turned her head to the left and looked at her sister. “How long was I out?”
“About ten hours.”
“I'm tired of waking up in a hospital bed.”
“I'm tired of you being in a hospital bed.”
Aurora laughed at that, she had spent the better part of the last few months in such a state.
“You have company by the way.”
A griffin at the end of the bed cleared his throat, grabbing the mare’s attention. She looked over and noticed the familiar coloring and medallion hanging from his neck. “I just wanted to say thanks.” With that out of the way, he turned and walked out of the door.
Aurora turned back to Night. “Was that who I think it was?”
“Yep, the griffin you saved from taking a dirt nap, the Emperor of the Griffin Empire, Emperor Icarus.”
“How long was he here?”
“He’s the one who brought you here after you passed out, he made sure you had a room all to your own, and gave us all passage inside.”
“Really? I was always told he was a pompous ass.”
“Of course he won’t let Spike near anyone, and Ataxia is under house arrest for attacking him.”
“That sounds more like the Icarus I heard of.”
“He wasn’t always like that you know. In fact, you should take that as a compliment, that’s the nicest I've seen him in a while.” A new voice preceded a much older dark grey griffin into the room. Age had taken its toll on this one; he walked with a limp in his step. However, despite the loss of a few feathers, the addition of many wrinkles, and a nasty rasp in his voice, Aurora recognized him instantly. “Emperor Siros!”
“Aurora Flash! It does my heart good to see you again. It's been years my dear. But please, just Siros now.”
“Sorry about that, my modeling career kind of took off on me. I don’t have much free time to get away.”
“No need to explain anything to me, I have a standing order for a copy of each picture you take.” He laughed a little, “I had it written into the second treaty I signed with your mom in fact.”
Aurora blushed at that. “In fact, I was hoping you could sign one for me, if you feel up for it that is.”
“Anything for you.”
Siros pulled out a picture of a little green and pink pegasus filly with her wings spread wide and handed Aurora the picture with a quill. She took the quill in her mouth and signed her name to it, adding a little something extra. ‘To my Uncle Siros, thanks for everything, Aurora Flash.’ She passed the picture back to Siros, who took it with a smile on his face.
“Thank you my dear, it does these old bones good to feel this happy again. You have no idea how bad it has been lately.”
“Oh, we might have you beat on that one.” Shimmering Night replied.
“Has Ponyville been under constant dragon attack due to the week long night?”
“No, I can’t say it has.” Shimmering Night replied. Despite herself, and the situation, Aurora took a small amount of pleasure in knowing who would win this argument.
“Well, I guess we win.”
“Almost, Ponyville was just completely destroyed by a Titan, Canterlot burned to the ground at the hooves of a revenant possessed Twilight Sparkle, Celestia was beheaded, and to make matters worse, another Titan is on its way. One we are in no position to stop on our own.”
“Night, that was mean.”
“He started it.”
Siros looked like he was going to faint. If even half of that were true -- and he had no reason to suspect otherwise -- they would all be in serious trouble before this was over. “Night, Night do something!”
Shimmering Night levitated a chair directly behind the former emperor. He fell right into it. ”Here I thought you might have come to help us.” A haunted look crossed his face.
Aurora crawled out of bed and walked over to him, several of her muscles grunted in pain at the sudden movement. ‘I'm lucky to move at all, I need to remember to thank Rarity for the Dragon Steel Armor when I get back.’ She noticed the armor stacked neatly in the side of the room. Dismissing it for now, she placed a hoof on Siros’s back. “Hey we might still be able to help you, tell me what’s happened.”
“Don’t tell them anything, they're outsiders.”
“Hey look at that, grumpy feathers has returned.”
“That’s emperor to you.” He glared at Night.
“Fine, Emperor Grumpy Feathers then.” Night stuck her tongue out at him.
“ENOUGH.” Siros found his voice.
“But dad…”
“No buts. They are political envoys from Equestria and have a right to know what has occurred to one of their neighbors. In times of crises, we all have to come together for the good of everyone. I thought you knew that already.”
Icarus tilted his beak back in disdain. “Hmm, we don’t need anyone, much less a pony.”
“Says the griffin who got knocked out of the sky by one less than twelve hours ago.”
“I was injured!”
“Hey, you picked the fight, not us.”
“You came on the back of a DRAGON! What should we have done?”
“I don’t know; how about use your brain for starters. What dragon has ponies riding on its back?”
“If you two are done comparing ego sizes, I would like to hear what has occurred here.” Aurora shot daggers to each of them in turn, she was not surprised to see Night back down (being the older sister had its benefits), but when Icarus turned away from her gaze, she felt a little surprised. ‘The blush on his face is priceless’
“Thank you, Aurora.”
“No problem, please continue, uncle.”
“It started a few weeks ago with the loss of the sun. Celestia has never failed to raise the sun on time before; as such, most of us were scared. I tried my best to get ‘someone’ to send an envoy to Equestria in order to find out what happened.”
Icarus simply grunted at that. “It wasn’t our business what the Equestrians were doing.”
“Yeah, how did that work out for us?”
That shut him up and Siros continued with his story. “Well, we were not the only ones affected. The dragon migration was on its way. Several decades before it was meant to. The dragons, scared by the loss of the sun, they attempted to find a warmer spot. The natural terrain around here made this the perfect spot for them, and lets just say some griffins should leave negotiating to those more suited for the job.”
Aurora could easily imagine the rest. Griffins were prideful at the best of times, but against dragons? It was easy to put together the pieces. They would confront the dragon horde head on. Words would be passed back and forth. Tempers would flare, one thing would lead to another, and war was simply the inevitable result.
“Wait.” Shimmering Night interrupted. “Why are they still giving you trouble after the sun came back?”
“Dragons hold a grudge, our only options are to stay and fight, or leave and hide.”
Night knew that if those were the two choices they had, stay and fight would naturally win. “Maybe… Maybe we can talk to them?”
“Like dragons would listen to a bunch of ponies.”
“Icarus, first thing we are not all ponies, or did you forget the dragon that we road on. Second, we are not all a bunch of pompous asses in Equestria and actually have decent relations with the dragons.”
“I thought I told you to call me emperor.”
“Fine, Emperor Pompous Ass.”
“Enough you two!”
“Dad!”
“I said enough!”
“Why are we even talking to them?” Icarus gestured a hoof at the two ponies in the room.
Siros stood up to his full height. Even in his old age, he was still an imposing figure. He stretched his wings to their full distance. “Son, Aurora Flash saved your life after your pathetic attempt to ambush them on their way in, despite me telling you not too. Her sister, Shimmering Night is an alicorn, one of only five… four in existence. If she is half as powerful as her mother, that makes her the strongest being this side of Equestria. Beyond that, they are both daughters of my two friends. You will get out of this room and not insult any of these ponies again.”
Icarus puffed up his chest, ready to reply to this insult on his honor. However, the look his dad gave him caused him to deflate. Defeated, he turned around to storm out, for a split second; Aurora swore she saw a blush on the griffins face when their eyes made contact.
“He’s kind of an ass” Night commented.
“Yeah, he is.” Siros could not help but agree.
Aurora simply nodded to the other’s comment. ‘He’s kind of a ‘cute’ ass. Wait? Where did that come from?’ Her thoughts betrayed her.
“Siros, can you get me in to speak in front of the council? Maybe I can get everypony… griffin to calm down enough to solve this issue.”
“I think I can still arrange that.” Siros spoke as he sat back down, his old age taking its toll. “Although, Spike cannot be allowed to walk around on his own. Until this is solved I don’t think our citizens will be receptive to a dragon walking around the town.”
“I’ll let him know, I should also be the one to tell Ataxia too.”
“What's with her anyway? I stopped by to talk to her first, but she was, how do you say, less than receptive.”
“Well, you are keeping her father against his will.”
“Wait, Spike is her father? You mean adopted father right?”
Two heads shaking back and forth answered his question; it just was not the answer he was expecting. ‘Is it possible…’
“Aurora why don’t you stay here for now, rest up. I'll go with Night and let the guards around your friends know that they will not be necessary.”
“Oh, ok…”
“Don’t look down Aurora, I'll come right back to see you. After all, I want all the juicy stories you can tell these old bones.”
“Oh, I got some good ones too.”
Shimmering Night mouthed ‘Don’t you dare.’
Aurora’s reply came in the form of a devious grin.
Commander Firestar -Just change her cutie mark-
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
965 users online
158,627 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hay, who exactly is Firestar's father?
4329702
a wonderbolt.
Spitfire got drunk one night… no idea who the father is. She just knows it's another Wonderbolt
I'm grinning so friggin stupidly right now, as it's really adorable how Icarus and Aurora seem to be falling for each other. Also, I personally think Firestar's cute. This chapter was short and sweet.
I really enjoyed it quite a lot.
4329757
thanks, I was worried about cutting it short, however, I think the next part is better suited for the next chapter.
I really had no idea that Firestar would become an actual character. (I came up with her as a way to save Luna, never had any ideas beyond that.) her character has grown on me since then though. and my fans, who's comments caused me to bring her into the spotlight.
I love writing for that reason!
4329702
how did you like their first date?
Yay! Just read it! Can't wait to read more!
4325557
When you read 'for those we love' there are some sections that need, lets just say, help
If you can think of better ways to reword them let me know.
4330012 Loved everything about it.
4341697 nice to see you back on.
How goes your recovery?
firestar looks adorable, looks nothing like i'd have expected, but hey better for radiant that way.
4343677 I went looking for pics of a pony that had similar coloring to Spitfire, (enough to be related) when I found that one I was sold!
i would've been too in your position it makes her adorable in the minds of the readers
. when she isnt being her normal no nonsense military self 
I love that sequence, gets me every time
him.
insisted.
"her" isn't needed.
sergeant.
"on the faces of two", i think.
"the" isn't needed.
Okay, isn't it supposed to be make (or other form of this word) there instead of does??
I always thought that "everypony" is going together