Cordial Invitation
“Morning,” Starburst murmured, still sleepy, as she entered the dining room.
“Good morning Starburst,” her mother replied, looking up from some important looking scroll she had been reading while eating breakfast. “Your brother has already left for school, I was about to go and wake you,” she said, slightly frowning. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t train for so long on school days exactly because of how you end up oversleeping the next day.”
Starburst rolled her eyes as she sat beside her at the table, next to a bowl of cereal. “I-” she began, but Princess Twilight cut her off.
“Even if you had passed out during training. You’d think it would give you enough rest,” she added as Starburst groaned.
“That hasn’t happened in over a week!” she said. It wasn’t until her mom raised an eyebrow that she recalled that she hadn’t known about it. Sighing in surrender, Starburst reached for the milk to pour on her cereal. “I didn’t oversleep this time, I’ll still make it to school. And I needed to train yesterday in case my friends or Star would want to do something this weekend.”
In the two weeks since they’ve began dating, Starburst tried to slowly adjust her day-to-day life with having a coltfriend. Which… in all honesty, actually went better than everypony - including both of them - had expected. They’d seen each other every day, been hanging out and talking, even went to the movies last weekend. But at the same time, however, they were only able to spend about an hour or so together daily during the school days. Between her classes and some other school activities, as well as her own training (Starburst didn’t even try to convince Starfall to join her; she doubted he would find it entertaining or that he would be content just to watch her work out; though he did keep her company a few times out of his own volition), it was difficult for them to schedule some alone time. They hadn’t even slept together again, as after that talk with her parents Starfall became worried that Starburst’s mother had placed some additional wards around their mansion and her room that would alert her to his presence. And probably put some tracking spell on his dream charm along with that spell preventing him from using dark magic for good measure. Which despite considering him being paranoid, Starburst had reluctantly agreed that it was a possibility and didn’t press on the idea (though mostly out of fear about her parents finding out that they were sleeping together).
At least Candy and the others gave us some more privacy after that camping trip, Starburst remarked, recalling how the earth pony mare had finally stopped insisting on her joining everypony for whatever the “activity of the day/week” was, as she had done so all the time in the past. Aside from Starfall joining them during recess for lunch, they hardly interacted with him, at least as far as Starburst was aware of. Except for Annie asking us about a double date… she amended with slight annoyance. Thank Celestia her mom took her to visit her grandparents last week.
“I needed to meet my weekly quota,” she added after she put away the milk.
Her mother, having long since gotten used to her constant training routines, merely sighed. “Just make sure you and Starfall are here by five,” she said, turning her attention back to the scroll.
“Yes, we-” Starburst began to nod, then paused. “Wait, me and Starfall?” she asked, confused.
Twilight let out another sigh. “Starburst, don’t tell me you forgot Princess Celestia and her family will be here for dinner today? I’ve told you about it on Monday so that you wouldn’t have anything planned.”
“Oh…” Starburst stammered; on Monday she had the last two classes cancelled, so she went to train on Sweet Apple Acres. By the time she had come home, she was possibly only half-conscious, and maybe missed what her mother had told her. “I, um, it might have slipped my mind,” she explained sheepishly, not wanting her training brought up in this conversation again. Frowning, Starburst asked: “But what Star has to do with it?”
“Well, Illusion will be accompanied by Claire,” Twilight began; already, Starburst eyes grew wide as she realized where this was going, “Princess Celestia will be with Discord and I with your father, so it would be only logical for you to be accompanied by your special somepony too.”
And here I was worried about having a double date with Annie and T, she thought, mortified. Instead I get a quadruple date with my parents AND Princess Celestia and the Spirit of Chaos.
“Let me get this straight;” Starburst said; “you want Starfall to attend dinner with two alicorns and a draconequus?”
“Honestly, Starburst, I know what you are trying to say, but anypony else would assume that your coltfriend is racist,” her mom replied, sighing.
Starburst balked, surprised by the statement.
“And yes, that is exactly what I want,” Twilight continued before her daughter could recover. “He is your coltfriend, and it would be nice if he were to spend some time with your family. And seeing how you are a Princess, he should get used to spending time with other Princesses and their families as well.”
Although Starburst wanted to argue, she knew her mother was right. Even when they were living in their mansion in Ponyville, their family would have a dinner or something with one or more of the other royal families at least once a month. Practically everyday when they were staying at Canterlot’s Royal Palace. Which seeing how Princess Cadance was her aunt, and both Celestia and Luna were her aunt in all but blood (Princess Celestia especially insisted she’d call her “Auntie Celestia” when Starburst was younger), wasn’t unusual. And when Illusion and Claire began dating, she’d begun joining those dinners too.
So really, Starburst should have known that eventually Starfall would be expected to attend those “events” as well. Although maybe “expected” wasn’t the right word, since it wasn’t like a “rule” or something. More like “preferred” maybe?
Sighing, she reluctantly agreed. “Fine, I’ll talk with Star- Wait, what about Nighty?” Starburst asked, only now realizing that Twilight didn’t mention her brother attending the dinner.
“Nighty and his friends are having a slumber party at that old club house,” her mom explained. Even though she didn’t look up from the scroll, she must have sensed the look Starburst gave her, because she added “I figured it would be alright for him to miss one of those dinners, seeing how he would be the only one without a date. I wouldn’t want your brother to feel lonely.”
Despite her irritation, Starburst just rolled her eyes and didn’t argue. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t skipped a few dinners like those in the past, and a slumber party was actually a good excuse.
Besides, he would probably bother Starfall to teach him some more of his magic tricks throughout the entire dinner, she thought; Starfall had mentioned last week that her brother and his friends “cornered him” when he was taking a nap at the border of Sweet Apple Acres and “made him” make good on his promise to teach him something for telling him how much she liked watermelons. However, apparently manipulating water like Starfall does (or rather, a very basic version of how he does it) wasn’t enough for Nighty, and he’d ask Starfall to teach him more whenever he saw him. Or ask me to ask Star to teach him, Starburst thought in annoyance.
“Fine, whatever,” she told her mom. “I’ll talk with Star about the dinner when I see him,” she added as she turned her attention back to her bowl of cereal.
“Thank you, Starburst. Can I ask when would that be?”
“He comes to school during recess for lunch with me and my friends,” Starburst replied, slightly annoyed by her mother’s questions (and interrupting her breakfast again). “Sometimes he also walks me to school, so he might be waiting outside.”
“Ah yes, some of the guards had mentioned this,” Twilight said. “Starfall sure seems comfortable around Ponyville’s school. Do you think-”
“Mom,” Starburst interrupted her; knowing her mother’s love for knowledge and studying, she also knew all too well where she was going with this. And that was besides the fact that Twilight had asked her about this at least twice already. “I can convince him to come to a dinner with my family and extended family, I doubt I could convince him to start going to school. And I definitely can’t do both on the same day,” she added as she returned to her cereal.
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. It will be lovely to see him again,” she said, changing the subject. “How have you two been, by the way?”
Starburst suppressed a sigh. “We’re fine, thanks.”
“Mhm,” Twilight mused, then for for the next few seconds she stayed silent. “So… are you…” she began, sounding a bit hesitant, “... talking about using Annie’s ‘gift’?”
Frowning, Starburst stopped eating and looked at her mother. “Annie’s gif-” she started to ask, but then she remembered just what Annie gave her lately. “WHA- MOM!” Starburst exclaimed, growing red on her face.
“Starburst, sweetheart, I’m just concerned,” Twilight explained; a slight color on her face betraying that she was at least slightly uncomfortable asking her daughter about this.
Starburst buried her face in her forehooves. “No we’re not!” she muttered in embarrassment.
“Ah, good,” her mom replied, relief in her voice, but then immediately added “Um, well, not ‘good’, just um… good to know,” she finished, uttering a short nervous laugh.
Taking a deep breath as she tried to calm down - and push the memory of this talk down to the darkest corner of her mind - Starburst let go of her face and was about to return to her cereal.
“But you do know how to use those, right?”
Her forelegs dropped as she turned to stare at her mother in stupor.
“Just in case you’d decide to,” Twilight added as Starburst’s brain continued to fail to restart. “Actually, maybe we should have another talk, like the one we had with Annie and Fluttershy-”
Finally snapping, Starburst shouted: “I DON’T NEED ANOTHER SEX TALK!”
Twilight slightly backed away, surprised by her outburst. Starburst, who just realized that she also stood up from her seat and spread her wings intimidatingly as she shouted, calmed down and was just about to apologize (even though she felt she was totally justified), but she noticed that her mother turned to look at the doorway leading into the dining room.
Following her gaze, Starburst saw her father, Flash Sentry, standing there, looking at them with a mixture of confusion and dread.
Groaning and red all over her face, Starburst slammed her head against the table.
This is all Annie’s fault somehow.
With a sigh, Starburst closed the door behind her.
“Wow, overslept much?”
Having experienced Starfall’s greeting several times already in this fashion, Starburst was only slightly startled. “No. Well, not exactly,” she amended, turning to look at her side where Starfall laid, leaning against a decorative column with his forelegs behind his head. The black eye she gave him by accident had completely disappeared, letting Starburst smile back to him without wincing from guilt at the sight. “I would have left sooner if my mom hadn’t held me up at breakfast.”
“Oh,” Starfall exclaimed, getting up and jumping to her. “Anything serious? AKA related to me?” he added, smirking, as he leaned to kiss her on the cheek.
Starburst blushed, mostly due to the presence of two royal guards standing by the gate nearby. Of course, aside for looking behind startled when Starfall spoke, the guards paid them no mind; it was a rather well known fact now who he was and that they were dating.
“Sorta,” Starburst admitted, keeping her voice low. “C’mon, I’ll explain on the way.”
“So, what was it about?” Starfall asked a few moments later as they left the mansion behind.
“Ugh…” Starburst groaned, unable to think of a good way to approach this subject. “My mom, well, wanted me to invite you to a dinner today.”
“Why, was the last time we talked not awkward enough?” Starfall asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Ugh, tell me about it,” Starburst groaned again, the memory of that time still haunting her. Shaking her head, she focused back on the current topic: “We’re just having dinner today and my mom thought it would be nice if my coltfriend could attend as well.”
Now it was Starfall’s turn to groan. “Well,” he said, slightly grimacing, “I suppose I can understand that… parents usually want to know their kids’ special somepony and stuff, right?”
“I think so,” Starburst replied uncertainly.
She was sure that’s how it was, but… now that she thought about it, the parents of all of her friends that were in a relationships had all known their kid’s significant others for years before they began dating, as most of them also had known their parents too. Discounting that one day she and Starfall had spent together as foals, they were the only odd ones.
“In any case,” she said, shaking her head again, “I don’t think they’ll… bring up the same stuff as the last time, so it shouldn’t be as awkward.” Starburst was certain that she didn’t have to remind him just what that stuff was. “Also,” she added in a stern voice as she frowned at him, “you could use a solid meal.”
“I am eating perfectly fine, thank you very much,” Starfall replied casually.
“I can see your ribs,” she countered, not amused.
Although that was something that she could have always said to Starfall, ever since she first noticed his figure, he had gradually grown thinner over those last two weeks. Starburst easily figured out that it was in large contribution thanks to him having stopped stealing food. Which of course was good, but it began to worry her.
“You try getting fat when you’re fifteen and living on your own,” he retorted, rolling his eyes.
Starburst sighed, not wanting to argue over this. “Well, you better think of a way, before my mom gets a crazy idea of putting you in an orphanage.” She was pretty sure the only reason why Twilight hadn’t done that yet was because everypony knew Starfall would immediately run off from it. “Or worse, thinks of adopting you or something.”
Despite her serious tone, Starfall chuckled. “Wow, your kinky friend would have a field day everyday if that would happen.”
“Star-” Starburst began, but he raised his hoof to stop her.
“I know, I know. I will think of something. Maybe there’s a contest to win a year's supply of food or something,” he mused, scratching his muzzle. “And I guess going to this dinner wouldn’t hurt… necessarily,” he added, rolling his eyes. “Although…” Starfall said, frowning, “you kinda made this dinner today sound like a special occasion.”
“Yeah, that’s because it is,” Starburst explained uncomfortably. “We’re... there will be also my extended family.”
“‘Extended family’?” Starfall repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Between your alicorn cousin and fire-breathing uncle, ‘extended family’ is a very broad term. And don’t get me started on the entire Equestrian Royal Family.”
“Funny that you mentioned that- Wait,” she paused, frowning; “what do you mean by that?”
“You have to admit, Equestria has the weirdest Royal Family ever,” Starfall replied, shrugging. “The alicorns, the draconequus…”
Starburst’s frown deepened. “Oh, and I suppose you consider me dating you to be a step into the ‘normality’s’ direction?”
Her coltfriend snorted. “No, I consider it to be par of the course. I was going to bring it up as my next argument, actually,” Starfall added as she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean that in the bad way, you know.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Starburst said, shaking her head.
“So,” Starfall said, sounding almost innocently, “what did you mean by ‘funny that you mentioned that’?”
“Well… do you remember Illusion and Claire?” she asked.
Starfall frowned. “Yeah. They’re kinda hard to forget,” he pointed out. “And Sheclaw had scratched my cloak on top of that.”
It slightly worried her that his voice wasn’t as light as usual when making those comments.
“Well, they will be there… as well as Illusion’s parents.”
Starfall stopped. “His parents?” he asked as Starburst stopped as well. “Remind me, aren’t his parents Princess Celestia and Discord?”
Starburst sighed. “Star-”
“You know, one moves the Sun around and the other makes all the laws of physics non-existent whenever he likes?”
Yeah, that actually sounds spot on, she remarked after he interrupted her.
“He doesn’t do it whenever he likes,” Starburst defended him; although she knew her mom found Discord to be annoying at times, she herself always had found him to be fun. She used to hang out with him quite often when she was little, although admittedly they gradually drifted apart over the last few years. “Anymore,” she added with an eyeroll. “And not all of the laws of physics for that matter.”
Starfall deadpanned at her. “Yeah, that doesn’t fill me with confidence.”
Oh great, now he’s being serious!
“The point is, he’s not going to hurt you. Certainly not with Princess Celestia being there too. And as for Celestia, she’s about the kindest pony I ever met; well, second maybe to Annie’s mom,” she amended.
“For the sake of moving this conversation along, I am not going to bring up the whole ‘banishing to the Moon’ thing,” Starfall said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Star, it doesn’t matter if they are not going to hurt me. They’re a draconequus and an alicorn, and not just any draconequus and alicorn. There’s a red light flashing in my freaking paranoid mind at a mere thought of coming near them. And that’s besides the general nervousness of being in the presence of the ruler of Equestria and the parents of my marefriend.”
Starburst sighed. When her mother told her to invite him, she had expected that things would be going about as well. She mentally kicked herself for not paying attention when Twilight had first told her about this dinner, she would have much more time to figure out what to do. On one hoof, Starburst didn’t want to force Starfall into doing something he would be so uncomfortable with. On the other, though, she didn’t want to disappoint her mom, and since she could easily imagine that Princess Celestia was looking forward to meeting Starfall, she didn’t want to disappoint her as well.
“I know that this will be really tough for you,” Starburst told Starfall, trotting closer to him. “Heck, all things considered, it will be tough for me as well. But… they’re my family. You’d meet them sooner or later. Wouldn’t it be better to try and get used to them?” she asked, brushing her muzzle against his.
Whether it was her words or her touch, she felt some of Starfall’s agitation leave him. “I… suppose it would be a step in overcoming my paranoia,” he admitted, having calmed down a bit.
“You did get used to spending time with my friends,” Starburst pointed out. Seeing that he was still hesitating, she added: “It would mean a lot to me if you’d come. C’mon, I’ll owe you.”
That had an effect on Starfall. Too much of an effect, actually. He blinked, and immediately smirked as he squinted his red eyes. “Owe me, eh?”
Starburst deadpanned. “Seriously? That did it for you?”
He replied by chuckling. “No, just… had some fun ideas when I heard you say that.”
“Well, congrats, whatever it is I’ll do it.”
“Wha- really?” Starfall asked, blinking in surprise.
“Sure. I mean, it would be only fair to do whatever you’d want in return for coming to this dinner,” Starburst explained. “And I trust you. I know whatever this is you are thinking about can’t be bad. Or too bad at least,” she corrected herself.
Starfall blinked again. “You do know that considering how we’ve met, saying ‘I trust you’ probably doesn’t speak too well about you.”
“Very funny,” she replied, a bit annoyed. “Don’t make me regret saying that, like, five seconds afterwards.”
“Sorry,” Starfall laughed, then sighed and shook his head. “Getting back to the dinner… I guess it won’t be as bad as I assume.”
“So you’ll come?” Starburst asked, her ears perking up.
“Well, I was going to anyway,” he replied rolling his eyes, much to her confusion. “Considering how crazy I am about you, all you have to do is whistle and I’d come running.”
“Oh…” Starburst exclaimed, blushing. “W-well… I wouldn’t want to make you do something you don’t want to like that,” she said as she recovered, frowning.
“I know,” Starfall said, shrugging. Sticking his tongue out, he added: “Just letting you know. Anyway, let's continue to your school before you’ll be late. I’ll do some… mental preparing later,” he sighed as they began to trot again.
“I see,” Starburst said, somewhat curious what exactly did he mean by that. “Will you still join us at recess?”
Starfall chuckled warmly. “Of course I will, Lil’Lioness.”
Starburst sighed, tired of this day already, as she and Annie sat besides her friends at one of the picnic tables on the school’s grounds.
Prism turned from Whirling to look at her and Annie. “Geez, did you have a test today or something?”
“No, Star’s been like this all day,” Annie replied, leaning against T and frowning at Starburst.
Indeed she had. Starburst had spent the last several hours trying to imagine how this dinner with Starfall, her parents, and Princess Celestia and Discord would look like. Every scenario that went through her head was less than optimistic. At this point, Starburst realized that she would actually consider a dinner with just her parents to be a pleasant experience compared to this.
“Is something wrong?” Candy asked, sitting on the opposite side of the table from her.
Starburst sighed again, but instead of answering, she pointed at the empty seat beside her. As she expected, at that moment Starfall appeared, sitting and falling with his head on the table, groaning. Starburst glanced at him: unlike before when he was walking her to the school, he wore his cloak now, as usual when he’d join them for lunch. She wasn’t sure if he did that to hide his scars from other ponies or so that her friends wouldn’t stare.
“Wow,” Candy exclaimed, staring at Starfall. “What got both of you so down?”
“We’re having a dinner with Princess Celestia and her family today,” Starburst replied, leaning her head against her forehoof. “And my mom thought it would be a nice idea if Star were to come too.”
Her friends blinked, surprised, then Prism and Candy burst into laughter, joined by less loudly Whirlwind and Annie, and T, who smirked somewhat awkwardly.
“Thanks for the moral support,” Starburst murmured, rolling her eyes. She glanced at Starfall. “What were you up to?”
“I was learning proper dinner etiquette,” Starfall replied, groaning and rubbing his temples. “Question, do you guys actually do that whole ‘five spoons, six forks’ thing or-”
“Oh don’t be ridiculous, this is a normal family dinner,” Starburst snorted. “You don’t need to learn any etiquette-”
“Did you actually see me eat dinner?” Starfall interrupted her. “As in, ever?”
Starburst opened her mouth, but then hesitated. “Well… huh, now that you mention it…”
“Exactly,” Starfall replied, shrugging. “I figured it would be best to learn how normal ponies do that.”
“Wow, you sure are putting a lot of effort into this Starry,” Candy commented. She then looked to the side and added: “I think.”
“It’s more like I needed to focus on something other than being the same room with two alicorns and a draconequus in a few hours,” he admitted, waving his hoof dismissively. “ But even besides my paranoid fears, I’d like to make a good impression… especially since it seems those things happen regularly.”
“Well, duh, all the Princesses and their families get together from time to time,” Candy replied, rolling her eyes. “Not to mention getting together with friends, and various dignitaries sometimes…”
Oh, thank you so much for scaring my coltfriend, Starburst thought, annoyed, as she watched Starfall’s eyes to grow wider.
“Huh,” he exclaimed as Candy began to giggle because of his expression. Turning to Prism, he said: “Now I understand why you weren’t depressed when Princess dumped you, Damsel. Good thing I’m tougher than-”
Prism, who had been enjoying listening to Starfall’s misfortune, frowned and interrupted him. “Nidra didn’t dump me, Snotfall, it was mutual.”
“Mutual in what way?” Starfall asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Mutual in a sense that you were both single the moment after she dumped you?”
Prism was about to reply, but Whirlwind cut him off by erupting with laughter. “Yeah, that way,” he murmured, grumpy, as Whirlwind - who was still laughing - wrapped her wing around him in apologetic manner, brushing her head against him.
“Seriously, though,” Annie spoke up, “you knew Star’s a Princess when you started dating her, you must have known you’d have to do such things like dinners with other Princesses and stuff.”
“Yeah, to be honest, I might have been thinking of something more along the lines of dancing at a ball until midnight, being abducted by an evil queen that shapeshifts into dragon and losing a glass slipper in the process, being fed a poison apple that turns me into a swan and imprisoned at the top of a tower in the clouds where a giant beanstalk reaches from a frozen kingdom where I’d get stung by a cursed spinning wheel and fell asleep, all while being guarded by the evil dragon-queen and an army of snowponies and toy soldiers that Starburst would have to defeat to save me; when thinking about dating a Princess.”
Starburst blinked in silence as Starfall finished. “What the… that’s like wrong in… eleven different ways!” she exclaimed as everypony else burst with laughter.
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have preferred that over the dinner?” Starfall asked, raising an eyebrow.
“... no, I think I would prefer that,” Starburst admitted, lying her head on the table and sighing.
“So anyway, it’s not cravate noire, is it?”
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It's alive. It's Alive!!!
Glad to see this update!
I like the time skip, kind of poetic considering how long its been since we got a new chapter.
Either way, I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
Welcome back! More please!!!!
=)
No doubt the upcoming dinner between the Royals will be an interesting one to say the least.
Glad to see this story again. Gotta say, watching Twilight awkwardly talk with Starburst about protection along with Starfall's reaction at being invited to dinner with Starburst' parents, Discord, and Celestia was funny. Thanks for the chapter.
all those Disney references
Though enough that you're visibly freaking out over the whole ordeal? Yeah, sure....
ITS ALIVE ITS ALIVE ITS ALIVE IM SO HAPPY
The minute I saw the new chapter, I became as happy as Cicero was when the dovakin said he or she was the listener.
PS: Cicero is my favorite Skyrim character. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get mother some flowers soon. Pretty, pretty flowers.
8252599
Always happy to see this back. It's just as great and hilarious as I remember it.
This chapter was funny. I love how red I pictured Star turning when she shouted that infront of her father. Thanks for the return and for the chapter. I can't wait to read how Discord reacts to Starfall. That is going to be interesting.
First of all. Yeeaah new update...
Second of all i really like your story and it's prequel. Starfall really fits into the AU. I really enjoy the sotry and the character, as well as his interaction with Starburst and the gang.
So please continue, i die to read more of it.
Noticed a few errors, the biggest being a lack of possessive terms (which is almost as bad as having the wrong possessive terms) throughout the chapter.
In addition, this is a very confusing and poorly chosen choice of wording.
Glad to see you're back
I think Starfall and Discord will actually go nicely along and Celestia will do an "Are you a Good Pony?" As she flips from joy at the thought of Sombra's son not going in his footsteps.
I love EVERYTHING about this story. I love this ship and it is THE BEST SHIP EVER!!!! Please make more (I beg of you) :D
I have a feeling that Illusion and Starfall will become best buds
If there was a Hearth's Warming song for Starfall, it would go like this: Joy to the world, Starfall has come! lol
I know I'm the only one to comment on this story in a while but please don't cancel this. I love everything about this story and I personally think it's one of the best I've read. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. I love Starfall and Starburst and I want them to have adventures and fun and all that jazz. Who doesn't right?
I agree with StormyFics. This is a great story!