Lakeside Mischief
“Where is that little…” Starburst began to murmur to herself angrily as she scanned the lake and its surroundings. Mindful of her friends behind her, though, she had trailed off before she could call her coltfriend by some very colorful name right in front of them. “Let me just get my hooves on him…”
Her friends all snickered, of course, but fortunately by now they had all run out of jokes and comments that could be said regarding what Starfall had pulled before teleporting out of the Sweet Apple Acres, saying he would wait for them by the lake.
Maybe I should have tried again to fly ahead after all… Starburst mused in annoyance and embarrassment as she continued to look for her coltfriend; when she had tried immediately after he had left, Annie had managed to grab her with her magic. She claimed she did that out of worry about what she would do to Starfall. Yeah right-
“Isn’t that him over there, darling?” Claire’s question pulled her out of her thoughts.
Looking in the direction she was pointing, Starburst finally spotted her coltfriend; he was napping on a hammock made out of his cloak that he tied up between the branches of a tree that grew beside the lake’s north shore. Immediately she spread her wings and flew towards him, not giving her friends time to make any more comments.
“Star!” she exclaimed angrily as she reached him.
He woke up (assuming that he actually was sleeping) and rose on his makeshift hammock, looking at her. “Hi! What-”
“Fix that barn!” Starburst snapped.
About twenty minutes ago, at Sweet Apple Acres…
“Aaaand done,” Starfall exclaimed, spitting the brush to the paint can. Rolling his eyes, he added “Finally…”
Starburst stopped doing her wing-ups and looked at the barn. Indeed, the last wall Starfall was putting the paint on was now completely coated in it.
“That was quick,” she heard Del’s mom say; turning her head she noticed the older mare approaching from around the barn’s corner, carrying more cider for everypony on a tray. “Well, quicker than Ah expected,” she added with a smirk to Starfall, causing him to pout in response. Applejack giggled and looked over his work. “Still, ya did a fine job ‘ere youngin’.”
“Ugh, finally,” Prism spoke up, flying ahead of the others as they approached them. “Does that mean we can finally get going?”
“More importantly,” Starfall immediately began before anypony could answer, “does this mean I can finally start using my magic again?” he asked, turning to the approaching Claire.
“Well, darling, you have fulfilled your end of the deal,” Claire replied, smiling friendly at him, “so yes, of course you can use-”
A wide grin appeared on Starfall’s muzzle.
“Star,” Starburst interrupted Claire, unsure what he was planning to do, “what-”
But before she could even finish that question, his horn began to glow. He turned his head back to the wall he had just finished painting, and after a second the entirety of it started to glow, too.
“What in tarnation-” Applejack began to ask in confusion, but just then the light magnified, causing everypony to turn their eyes away. However, it only lasted for a few seconds, and soon they could all look back it. “What in tarnation…” Starburst heard Applejack repeat her question, barely noting that now there was a the hint of amusement in her surprised voice.
Yeah, what in tarnation… Starburst thought, staring speechless at what Starfall had wrought about.
Where a few moments ago watertight, lightish red paint was, now there was… a painting. It was like a mural out of some old buildings from several centuries ago Starburst remembered having seen in some history book in school. It depicted Starfall on the left side of the wall by the ground, and Starburst by the right side, by the ceiling. Starfall was lying on big water bubbles, while Starburst was lying on a clouds, and the two of them were reaching out to one another, both holding a big apple between their hooves. What was the worst - at least to Starburst - was the way the two were locked into each other’s gazes; Starburst felt certain that it was more or less the way they looked like when the actual them were doing that; except they’d be alone.
Starburst stared at the, admittedly, artistic depiction, for a few moments, before she heard a few snickers from her friends. Blushing from embarrassment, she turned back to Starfall, but as she tried to find her voice back, he smirked.
“What, did you all think I would allow my name to be attached to something as mundane as plain old wall painting?” he asked, then paused to yawn. “Ugh, all that work really tired me out; I think I’m gonna go take a nap. I’m going ahead to the lake,” he told Starburst, his horn glowing.
“Wait-” she finally began to say, but it was too late; he had teleported away. Which caused the snickers to grow louder. Groaning, she turned back to Applejack. “I’m sorry about this, I will get him to fix… whatever the heck he just did,” she added, glancing at the mural (and ignoring the comments her friends had began to make regarding it)l.
It is kinda beautiful… she thought to herself, but then quickly added: But he didn’t have to make me give him that dreamy look! And run away right afterwards, for Celestia’s sake!
“Well, it is a rather nice paintin’,” Del’s mom replied, grinning at her and causing her further embarrassment and more snickers out of her friends. “But Ah would prefer if he wouldn’t put his display of affection towards ya on our barn.”
“Yeah, I’ll go get him right away,” she said, feeling angry at Starfall for leaving her to deal with this, and immediately tried to take off into the air, but to her surprise something pulled her back down to the ground.
“Oh no you don’t,” Annie said, her horn glowing, indicating that she was the one who stopped her. Indeed, as Starburst took a good look at herself, she saw a magical aura of the same color as Annie’s magic surround her body. “I know that tone of voice. You’re about to do something unpleasant to Starfall, aren’t you?”
“Oh for- I’m not going to hit him or anything!” Starburst exclaimed, annoyed that this was her friend’s assumption.
Annie seemed not to hear her. “I think we all had grown rather fond of him-”
“I didn’t,” Prism objected, raising his hoof.
“- and we would prefer if he wouldn’t leave this world prematurely,” Annie finished, ignoring him.
Starburst deadpanned at her blind friend in silence for a few seconds. “You just all want to tease me on the way to the lake, don’t you?” she finally asked.
“Well duh,” Annie replied, sticking her tongue and winking playfully.
Back in present, by the Ponyville Lake…
“I was under the impression that I just finished fixing it?” Starfall replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“You know what I mean,” she growled, narrowing her eyes at him. “Go change that paint back to normal!”
“You mean change it from the magnificent mural I had created, that praises your goddess-like beauty and my own god-like awesomeness, back to plain old watertight paint?” he asked, raising both of his eyebrows this time, as if surprised.
Starburst, however, knew him well enough to notice that he was in fact amused. Still, the way he looked her in the eyes as he mentioned the “goddess-like beauty” part did cause her to blush and some of her anger to ebb away… but then she heard a muffled snickers behind her, announcing that her friends had caught up.
“Yes, do exactly that,” she told her coltfriend, her anger quickly returning. “I don’t think the Apple Family appreciates you making something like that on their barn out of the blue.”
“I did include an apple there…”
“Star!” Starburst snapped, her patience running low.
“Oh fine, I’ll go change it back,” he said, rolling his eyes. He jumped down to stand in front of her. “Are you really that angry over this?” Starfall asked, finally looking a little concerned.
“Maybe I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t left me alone with them,” Starburst replied, pointing behind her at her friends.
Starfall frowned hearing that, then leaned to the side so that he could look behind her (which, seeing how he was taller than her, was completely unnecessary; Starburst quickly realized that he was just being theatrical, again).
“Wow, you guys have a really bad influence on Starburst, you know that?” he told them. “She’s much more fun when you’re not around.”
Well, that is somewhat accurate, Starburst thought, although a part of her couldn’t help but feel that his comment was a bit harsh… but then immediately that part felt annoyed instead, as Starfall glanced at her and winked subtly, showing that he was just joking.
“You know it's bad when a former felon says that,” she heard Illusion remark.
Annie, on the other hoor, quickly trotted towards. “More fun, you say?” she asked Starfall as she reached them. Smirking, she leaned closer and pretended to nudge him with her elbow; apparently mindful of Starfall’s fear of being touched. “What kind of fun? she asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Starfall deadpanned at her. “Yeah, no.”
Thank goodness, Starburst thought, relieved that his sense of humor has its limits at least in this one aspect.
“Oh you’re no fun!” Annie exclaimed, pouting.
“Star,” Starburst interjected as Starfall stared at Annie with mixture of offense and horror after her last statement, “the barn.”
Rolling his eyes, he nodded. “On it, my Nemesis,” he sighed in defeat, although the impression was slightly shattered as he winked at her before disappearing.
Huh, he left his Polestar Mark there? Starburst thought, slightly surprised when he hadn’t teleported.
Annie quickly forced her attention back on everypony else. “Keeping him on a tight leash huh, Nemesis?” Annie asked her, grinning.
“Oh don’t even start,” Starburst snorted, turning back to the rest of their friends who had began setting up blankets already.
“Told you she has him totally whipped,” Prism put in, grinning as well.
Note to self, borrow Star’s saw, Starburst mused, glaring at the pegasus in annoyance.
Perhaps some of that thought had reflected in her stare, or some of her special talent kicked in, because Prism soon cleared his throat and turned away. “Well, as entertaining poking fun at our Star Duo-”
“Oh for Celestia sake,” Starburst cut in, glancing at everypony (and ignoring Illusion’s “Hey!”), “is that what you guys call us now?”
“- I’m gonna go for a relaxing swim; anypony joining me?” Prism finished.
Whirlwind, Candy and Del got up at his question and soon the four were swimming in the lake, with Prism and Whirlwind starting to splash each other playfully, which quickly escalated into a “battle royale” between all four. Starburst watched them lazily, wondering about joining them; it was a bit hot after all today, and it did look like they were having fun. However, more than cooling off from the heat she needed to cool off after this day’s annoyances; which so happened to keep piling up.
“So does Starfall call you by any other nicknames, Nemesis?” Annie asked, nudging her playfully; she laid on the blanket right next to her, with T laying beside her with a wing wrapped over her back.
Yes, Beloved Nemesis and Lil’Lioness, Starburst thought to herself automatically; she always enjoyed hearing him call her by either of them. As well as just plain Nemesis, actually.
Out loud, however, all she said was “What in Celestia’s name made you think I would answer that question?”
“Hey!”
“Lulu, dear, that honestly stopped being funny a while ago,” Claire told her coltfriend; both of them laid comfortably on the other side of the blanked, Illusion’s tail curled around her and intervening with hers.
Illusion looked at her, faking confusion. “That was supposed to be funny?”
Ignoring them, Starburst turned her attention back to Annie, who was pouting at her… briefly. The next second she was smiling. “Then maybe you’d tell us what sort of nicknames you call him?”
“None of your business,” Starburst replied, although she couldn’t help but shrug uncomfortably; she didn’t have any special nickname for Starfall other than just ‘Star’.
She didn’t have much time to ponder whether it was something she should feel bad about; Annie had apparently, somehow, picked up from her demeanor what she was thinking. “Wait, you don’t have any nickname for him that only you call him?” she asked, staring at her with those milky eyes of hers.
Since when does being blind make you able to read minds? Starburst wondered.
“C’mon, surely you can think of something,” Annie continued. “Everypony has a nickname for their special somepony! Claire calls Illusion ‘Lulu’, I call T ‘Big D-’”.
“Does Redneck’s mom usually has such long-winded boring lectures?” Starfall asked, suddenly appearing beside Starburst and interrupting Annie. She glanced at him just in time to see him yawning. He then looked around at everypony else, stopping his eyes on the fiercely red on muzzle T. “Did I miss something?” he casually asked.
Annie beat Starburst to the answer. “I was just telling Star that she should have a nickname for you.”
As Starburst shot her an angry - and completely pointless, seeing how she was blind - look, Starfall said “Oh, she already has a nickname for me, she calls me ‘God’.”
A snort of laughter escaped Starburst out of sheer surprise before she quickly muffled it. She turned back to him, holding back a smile. “Del’s mom hit you upside the head while you were there I see,” she ridiculed him, though she found herself unable to sound too annoyed.
“Why would you say that?” Starfall asked, raising his eyebrows in mocked surprised. “Are you suggesting that I remember some things wrong or something?”
“Yeah, I am suggesting you remember some things wrong,” Starburst countered; she wondered how she got herself dragged into an argument when she knew he must be joking. “When have I ever called you that?”
“Maybe he mistook some things you say in bed when-” Annie began to say but a blue aura began to shine around her muzzle as Claire used her magic to hold it shut.
“Well,” Starfall resumed after they both looked away from Annie, “okay, then I have a nickname for you to use, problem solved anyway.”
“I am not calling you ‘God’,” Starburst stated flatly. “Sweet Celestia, that huge ego of yours!”
“Do you think it’s proportional?” Annie, whom Claire had released by then, asked with a lewd smirk. “You know, to the size of his-” she managed to say before the half dragon again clamped her muzzle shut with her magic.
Starburst sighed heavily and facehoofed (and guessing by the sounds around her, she wasn’t the only one to do so).
“Shouldn’t you say ‘yes it is’ at this point?” she heard Illusion ask Starfall, amused.
“Lulu, please don’t encourage such behaviour,” Claire told him with disapproval, now continuing to hold Annie’s muzzle closed.
“Yeah, like I said, not my kind of jokes,” Starfall replied, then yawned again.
“Are you alright?” Starburst asked, concerned; her anger at him from earlier evaporated. “I know you’re not used to work but you seem awfully tired for such a small task.”
“Didn’t sleep much last night,” he replied, shrugging. He then straightened in attention and turned to look at Annie, who’s muzzle was still in Claire’s magical hold, and he grinned. “You know, it was such an eventful and straining evening after all.”
“HmmHm?!” Annie tried to ask through her closed muzzle.
“I spent almost entire night thinking about it…” Starfall added, gazing at her dreamily.
“Hm HOM HMM!”
Starburst, although feeling slightly embarrassed at the suggestive way Starfall was speaking regarding the dinner and their love confessions (however true it was) and the way he was looking at her, found herself smirking at Annie. “Wow, this must be killing you.”
“Hm.” Annie replied, pouting.
“Anyway, I’m gonna resume my nap,” Starfall said after everypony chuckled. “Remind anypony who’ll try to draw anything on my face that I sleep with one eye open.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that,” Starburst murmured, rolling her eyes. “Since you’ll be sleeping, I’ll be taking a walk then; I want to calm down after all the annoyances earlier,” she added when Starfall, already heading back to his makeshift hammock, glanced at her. Seeing his brow furrow in worry, Starburst quickly added “I mean annoyances with them, not you. Well, mostly,” she added, smirking.
Starfall, now relaxing, smirked in reply. “I see; have fun then,” he said, jumping on his hammock.
“Have a good nap,” Starburst replied, then turned to the others as she got up. “Later guys, be back soon.”
“Star, wait,” Annie called as she was about to go. Wondering what lewd thing the blind pony was about to say this time, Starburst glanced back. “Mind if T and I tag along?”
Okay, didn’t expect this, I’ll give her that…
“So you can make more jokes about Star’s mural, leaving, and this ridiculous conversation about nicknames?” she asked, frowning.
Annie rolled her eyes. “No, so that we can enjoy a pleasant walk with you.” Starburst continued to stare at her in silence. “I promise, I won’t make any jokes or any of my usual comments,” Annie swore, as if sensing her gaze. Not convinced at all, Starburst continued to stare. After a few seconds, Annie added “I swear by T’s penis.”
Starburst’s jaw - and everypony’s elses - dropped at Annie’s serious-sounding promise, which caused T to turn from green to radiant red.
It was Starfall who broke the silence that followed Annie’s statement. “... Why do I believe her suddenly?”
“So,” Annie began as they made her way through the meadow near the lake when they were out of everypony’s earshot, “now that it’s just us, will you tell us what happened?”
“What happened when?” Starburst asked, confused, but the next split second she remembered what her friends had been asking them all morning. “No,” she said flatly.
“Star, I’m not asking that in order to make fun of you,” Annie said, sounding uncharacteristically serious for her. “I’m asking out of concern for you two. You two seem happy together, and I - nor anypony out of our little gang - wouldn’t want you two to start having problems in your relationships so suddenly.”
“Why do you think we’d be having problems?” Starburst countered, frowning at her angrily.
If Annie had sensed the anger in her voice, she seemed unmoved by it. She merely deadpanned at her with her blind stare. “Because it is very unusual to drop the L-bomb after knowing each other for, what, less than a month?” Annie asked.
“... Okay, you might have a point there,” Starburst admitted, looking to the side in defeat.
She felt Annie nudge her with her shoulder. “Come on Star, we just want to help. I promise, we won’t tell anypony. Right T?” she asked, turning to her coltfriend, who nodded silently and smiled at Starburst reassuringly.
I was thinking about talking about this with somepony… Starburst admitted to herself reluctantly. Annie maybe wouldn’t be my first choice if I was forced to pick, but maybe having T here would balance her out… somehow? And if they promise not to tell anypony… she thought, looking from one to the other, still not entirely convinced they wouldn’t tell the rest.
“You promise this won’t become the subject of the next ‘girl talk’ you’ll drag me to or anything like that?” she asked Annie, then frowned as she recalled those awful gatherings. “Speaking of, how come you haven’t tried to do one now? You could have dragged me here and left the guys at the lake or something.”
“Because we didn’t want you to feel cornered?” Annie replied with a question, blinking innocently. Starburst just raised her eyebrow, then looked up in annoyance as she remembered that Annie couldn’t see that. Still, the blind mare figured out she hadn’t believed her. “Okay, maybe also because now we have nothing to blackmail you into staying,” Annie admitted, rolling her eyes.
“I knew it,” Starburst snorted.
“But we really won’t tell the others about this,” Annie continued. “I swear by T’s-”
“Stop swearing by his junk, for Celestia’s sake!” Starburst snapped at her, then shook from disgust. Ignoring Annie’s giggle, as well as T embarrassed and sheepish expression, she sighed and calmed down. “Okay, I… I will tell you.”
“Yay!” Annie exclaimed happily, then quickly pulled Starburst into a hug, causing them all to stop. “I knew you’d decide to talk to your relationship senpais eventually!”
‘Senpais’? And here I thought only my dorky brother watches those Neighponese cartoons…
“So what happened after Starfall got the two of you away from dinner?” Annie asked as she released her and they resumed their walk.
Giving out one last defeated sigh, Starburst began “He took me to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. After we got over the whole ‘saying, um…” she stammered and blushed a little, “... the L-word before my parents and rulers of Equestria’ part, I asked Star if he really meant it. He said yes and made this long speech that he had thought up ahead because it had been on his mind for awhile and he planned to confess eventually, about how he feels when he’s with me and stuff.”
“Aww, sounds sweet,” Annie commented, with T nodding shily.
“Didn’t you say something about us knowing each other less than a month?” Starburst asked her with mild annoyance.
“It’s still sweet,” Annie replied. “Anyway, what did you say to that?”
“Ugh… well, Star said I didn’t have to say anything, but…” she trailed off, feeling heat on her cheeks. Needing a second to force herself to say what she had said, she looked away from her friends and kicked a pebble. “I said that I love him too,” she confessed, a bit reluctantly.
“Really?” Annie asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
“I mean, I added that I think I love him,” Starburst quickly added, embarrassed. Continuing before she’d lose her nerve, she recalled her little speech “I told him how happy I feel and stuff when we’re together and how I think he’s amazing… ugh, why is this even more difficult than when I was actually confessing?” she finally asked in irritation.
“Wow,” Annie exclaimed, still looking surprised, but also a little impressed. “I would have thought it would take Star years to get ‘I love you’ out of you.”
“Should I treat that as an insult?” Starburst asked, frowning slightly at her.
“No, of course not; your character is part of your charm Star,” Annie quickly explained, smiling and winking.
“T-thanks,” she replied, not expecting such a compliment. “But…” she started, hesitantly. “Do you think we said that too soon? Like, what if I only think I love him because he had said it first and he thinks he loves me only because his life before we started dating was like something out of a low-budget TV drama? Or because we’re both in our first relationship?” she asked, voicing her worries.
“I guess those could be possibilities,” Annie admitted thoughtfully. “Especially since you two haven’t known each other for too long. To be honest, I don’t really know if anything I could tell you could be of much help. I mean, T and I knew each other for such long time before we started dating; by then we already loved each other,” she added, exchanging a glance with T, both of them smiling.
“Didn’t he grow awkward around you after you started dating?” Starburst asked, raising an eyebrow. “I remember how he stopped wrapping his wing around you for a while then, and walked a bit further from you.”
“Hey!” T exclaimed, unhappy, while Annie giggled. “Did you have to bring that up?”
“T was just feeling a little intimidated by the whole ‘marefriend’ ‘coltfriend’ names,” Annie quickly defended her coltfriend as soon as she stopped laughing. “And also was unsure what exactly he was ‘allowed’ to do and what not. Colts can be dense like that from time to time,” she added while winking, making T pout at her. She brushed against his shoulder and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek, causing him to relax, before turning back to Starburst and continuing. “Claire and Candy had to sit him down and give him some talking to, and everything was back to normal,” she said, nodding at the wing that T had wrapped around her. “If they hadn’t done that… well, neither of us would like to think of what that might have led to. Which is why we want to help you too, but we can’t do that unless you start opening up a little more,” Annie added, looking at her seriously. “Would you want your relationship to end because of something so silly?”
“... Celestia dammit, that’s a good point,” Starburst admitted reluctantly, looking away. “B-but you guys aren’t making it easy to talk about this stuff,” she defended herself. “How many jokes have you made since before me and Star started dating?!”
Annie frowned, then nodded and looked at her apologetically. “You’re right, we haven’t made this easy for you. So how about this; if you ever have some problems, or would just like to ask for our opinion or whatever of this kind, you will come to one of us and say ‘Hey, I have a real serious problem, can we talk for a few moments,’ and none of us will make fun of you?”
That… that actually doesn’t sound so bad, if I could talk with them without them constantly teasing me, Starburst pondered. She still wasn’t a fan of the idea of opening up so much, but if there would be some situations that she’d feel she’d need to talk about them - like her coltfriend telling her he loves her and her telling him that back - then maybe she could suffer through it?
“I don’t suppose you could just stop making fun of me altogether?” she asked, smiling at them uncertainty.
Annie giggled. “Star, I’m not a miracle worker,” she replied, sticking her tongue out. “Does that mean you’ll agree?”
“Ugh, you’ll know it if I ever come up to you saying I need help,” Starburst replied vaguely; it still caused Annie to smile brightly. Sighing, she decided to give it a rest and just return to the original topic, “So, do you have any advice about this current thing?”
The blind mare looked up thoughtfully. “Hm… when you talked about how you feel when you are hanging out and how you think he is amazing… were you being honest?”
“W-well, yeah,” Starburst replied, wondering where she was going with this. “I mean, I just feel great whenever I’m with him; I don’t even mind when he annoys me and stuff.”
Annie stared at her as she replied, her ears perked up as she listened to her attentively, and then she smiled. “Then I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” she said. “You really do seem like a good couple, so even if you two aren’t in love now - and I think you are, actually - then whatever you two feel right now will become love eventually. However,” Annie added, “if you are still worried about this, it’d be good if you just talked to Starfall. Dialogue is very important in a relationship… even if some other aspects of it are far more enjoyable,” she said suggestively as her tail swished, hitting T in the flank judging by the noise and him suddenly straightening and uttering a short yelp.
Deciding to pretend she hadn’t seen that, Starburst nodded. “Thanks, I’ll think about it… We really seem like a good couple?” she asked, a little surprised to hear that (and partially also to put off thinking about talking with Starfall whether or not they said they love each other too soon).
“Of course!” Annie replied cheerfully, while T nodded. “Everypony thinks so!”
“Seriously?” Starburst asked, now even more surprised.
“Yep! Everypony can see how happy you seem and how you seem more relaxed… well, a little more relaxed,” Annie amended, smirking. “But seriously, I think I would go as far as to say that you two are possibly… second out of our group that will get married!”
Starburst stared at her with wide eyes. “Um… y-yeah, right,” she replied, making a mental note to never let Annie tell Starfall that; she had enough of his jokes about that already.
Luckily, both of them laughed a little, Annie giggling quite loudly and T chuckling somewhat uncomfortably, which might have meant that she was kidding. “By the way,” Annie began after a few moments, “I’ve been meaning to ask; how often do the two of you make out?”
“Wha- Annie!” Starburst exclaimed, shocked. “Wha- Do- I-I mean, why do you even think we have began making out at all?!” she asked, blushing.
“Because of how often your scents are mixed and by how there was a smell of forest undergrowth on you back when we were camping?” Annie countered with a question, causing Starburst’s blush to grow even redder. Waving her hoof dismissively, she added “It is an important question, Star; I want to make sure that when you had said you feel happy when you two hang out that said happiness was caused by emotional reasons, not physical ones. Well, not solely at least.”
“Oh for… yes, we do make out from time to time, but most of the time we just hang out and stuff,” Starburst quickly told her, just to get her off her back; she sincerely doubted that Annie was honest about this. “So, I dunno, every few days? We did it more often back when at the camping, but, you know, with school and everything after that it was difficult to find time.”
As she waited for Annie’s reply, she glanced at T. The big half-dragon had apparently decided to not take part in this discussion, as his eyes were set firmly on something very far away from them.
“Ah, I see…” Annie hummed. “And who does usually initiate it?”
“How exactly would this- ugh, you know what, I don’t think I even care at this point,” Starburst decided, facehoofing. She was grateful for the talk before, but with this bizarre part of it coming out of nowhere - then again, in all honestly she should have expected from Annie - she just wanted it to be over. “I dunno, it depends if I feel bold enough at the time; mostly him though I guess, especially at the beginning as I felt awkward with his past. I mean, I still was the more forward one at times,” she added, reminiscing briefly the first few times the were more intimate with each other and feeling a weird mixture of embarrassment, pride and happiness. “Star even began calling me ‘Lil’Lioness’ after I pounced on him-”
Her eyes bulged the moment she had realized just what she had said, but it was too late; Annie have heard it. And T, who, despite having been pretending to not listen to them, was now glancing at her.
“You’ll forget you’ve heard it,” she told both of them, but mostly Annie.
“He calls you ‘Lil’Lioness’?” Annie exclaimed, grinning. “That is so cute!”
“No it- shut up!” Starburst snapped. “You’re not telling this to anypony else, right! You promised you won’t talk with others about-”
“- about what happened after Starfall teleported both of you out of that dinner yesterday,” Annie finished for her, an evil grin displayed on her muzzle. “Technically, this wasn’t about that, so…” she trailed off, leaving the rest to imagination.
Starburst’s imagination was currently telling her everypony she knew would now begin to mock her with that name.
“Annie-” she began, but before she could develop this sentence any further, Annie had already waved her hoof.
“Star, relax, we’re not going to tell anypony. Well, not now at least,” she amended, crushing whatever hope Starburst had felt briefly after she had uttered that first sentence. “I mean, it could be useful if I’d ever feel that you’d be in a need of a girl talk and would disagree. Or, you know, if T and I would ever decide to spice things up and try out a foursome.”
Both Starburst’s and T’s jaws dropped hearing that casual remark. Fortunately, Starburst was quick to recover, the rational part of her mind taking over before she could put too much thought into Annie’s suggestion.
“Okay, first off, no,” she told her flatly. “Second, I know you wouldn’t actually blackmail me or anypony else into a- that, so don’t bother making that joke again. Third: still no. Fourth: yuck Fifth: double yuck, T’s basically my cousin. Sixth: in case you forgot, Starfall hates being touched by anypony other than me, so even overlooking the previous things that would be still no. Seventh: ‘spice things up’? You two haven’t even done anything of the ‘things’! You two are such goody-goodies your parents trust you to sleep in the same bedroom when you stay over at the other’s house, for crying out loud! I don’t even want to think how my parents would react if they knew Star and I had already slept together in my bed plenty of-”
This time she felt as if her heart stopped beating when she realized what, in her annoyance, she had said. Of course, she had to realize that when it was already too late to change the sentence into something less incriminating, because why wouldn’t she?!
“We just slept!” she quickly added, hoping to at least minimize some of the fallout that would come out of this. Both her friends stared at her now in shock, even Annie. “I mean, we already slept together back in that cave and during the camping trip so this really isn’t that big of a deal…” she trailed off, feeling her cheeks burn as Annie’s shocked expression slowly turned into a grin. “Did you cast some spell on me that makes me blab things?!” Starburst finally exclaimed, annoyed to no ends with herself.
“Oh please, if there was such a spell I would have cast it on you years ago,” Annie replied, smirking. “And sleeping in your bed together is obviously not the same as sleeping in the same tent or in a cave.”
“Annie…” Starburst growled, feeling her eyelid twitch.
“So was sleep the only thing that happened?” Annie asked curiously.
“Yes!”
“Any plans to change that?” she then asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.
“No! I mean, someday- shut up!” Starburst exclaimed, burning with embarrassment as Annie continued to stare at her with that smirk. “You two are not telling a soul about any of this!”
Annie didn’t reply right away, instead stared at her for a few moments, as if contemplating her request. As Starburst began to grow nervous of what new evil thoughts could be going over her head, the blind pony smiled. “Under one condition.”
Starburst bit her lip. She knew she wasn’t in a position to refuse whether twisted condition she had came up with. “What is it?” Starburst asked, dreading what new devilry she was about to hear.
Please don’t be a foursome, don’t be a foursome, don't be a foursome…
Annie, her muzzle bearing a predatory grin, leaned over to her ear; Starburst had no idea why, she still spoke loud enough for T to hear every word. Said half-dragon had resumed pretending to not be the part of this conversation, but when Annie said her condition, he still glanced at her with shock.
“You’ll be telling me everything you two do,” Annie had said, her smirk widening as if she could see the expression on Starburst’s face, and leaned back.
Starburst needed to look at her for only a second to be sure that she was speaking seriously. “You’re evil, you know that?” she asked, facehoofing.
After she had agreed - having no choice in this matter, really - Annie had thankfully let go of that topic through the rest of their walk. She have however resumed pestering her about coming up with a nickname for Starfall.
“I’m just saying,” Annie had said, “if he calls you such loving nicknames like Lil’Lioness, you should call him by something cute too.”
Starburst had done her best to ignore her of course, but she couldn’t help but ridicule a few of her suggestions. Considering how bad - not worth a mention, even - they were and how Annie wanted her to come up with the nickname in the first place, Starburst had figured out that she had made them up only to get her into the discussion, which she had avoided.
Still, she couldn’t help but ponder this privately in her thoughts as Annie continued to go on. What the hell would I call him? she wondered for about tenth time as they were finally about to get back to the others; she could already make out their friends around the lake. Making his name into something diminutive sounds too easy, and with our names being so similar it’s kinda stupid… Celestia forbid it would be about his abilities, he has enough of an ego about them as it is… So something about his looks? she wondered as she had gotten over all the points Annie had just given her about coming up with nicknames. Well, he has those red eyes with narrow irises… and fangs… and scars all over his back and some around his neck, ugh. Well, ‘Scar’ is out of the question…
Her musing was suddenly interrupted as she felt a hoof blocking her path. Starburst glanced in surprise at Annie, who had put her hoof on her chest. To her surprise her blind friend’s ears were perked in the direction of their friends, and after she had turned to her Annie nodded in their direction.
Starburst followed her gaze, perking up her ears as well. Annie had pointed in the direction of where they put their blankets, and just as they left them, only Claire and Illusion where there, with Starfall lying in his hammock next to them; the others were still swimming in the lake. Ignoring them for now, Starburst trotted quietly a bit closer; her hearing was, of course, nowhere near as good as Annie’s, but she still managed to make out what the three were talking.
“Really, darling,” Claire was saying, “you could make quite a decent living with those shows of yours; I cannot imagine why you’d rather continue living this way.”
“Yes, I heard you the first ten times,” Starfall replied; even from where she stood with Annie and T Starburst could clearly hear exasperation in his voice.
Just how many times did Claire bring up this subject? she wondered. And what else were she and Illusion talking to him about?
Apparently, Claire had pestered him enough for Starfall to grow really tired of this discussion, as he glanced at her sharply. “If I tell you my reasons, will you let me get back to my nap?”
“Hm, well dear, I suppose just understanding why you are being so silly about this would be enough,” Claire replied, frowning a little.
“And you won’t tell this back to Star,” Starfall added, glaring at both of them.
Wait what? Starburst thought, utterly surprised. Since when does he keep anything from me?
Noticing the surprise on on Claire’s muzzle, she expected her to echo the question she had asked herself in her mind. However, before the dragon-pony hybrid could open her mouth, Illusion had noticed Starburst and the others standing further away and listening in. The Prince of Equestria smirked in their direction before turning back to Starfall.
“Sure, no problem Starfall,” he said, glancing briefly at Claire; Starburst was certain he winked at her. “We won’t tell Starburst, you have my word on that.”
“Okay, good enough for me,” Starfall replied, apparently completely missing the deception, as he laid more comfortably in his hammock.
Wow, he must be really sleepy if he really fell for that, Starburst thought, annoyed, while Annie and T giggled quietly beside her.
“The reason why I don’t want to become a professional stage magician and start putting on shows is quite simple,” Starfall began, sounding nonchalant. “Even though Starburst doesn’t care about this, she is a princess; sooner or later the subject of her dating life will become a gossip in Equestria. I will not have her made fun of by any stupid pony who has too much time on their hooves and nothing better to do just because she’s dating somepony like a stage magician.”
Starburst’s jaw dropped. The others were also looking at Starfall with surprise, and confusion.
“Let me get this straight darling,” Claire spoke up after she recovered. “You are concerned about Starburst’ reputation, and you think that ponies are less likely to make fun of her for dating a stage magician rather than an unemployed and homeless pony?”
“That is my thought process, yes,” Starfall replied casually.
Starburst facehooved hearing his reply. “Great Celestia, I’m dating an idiot,” she exclaimed, then looked around in alarm as she realized just how loud she had said that.
However, her worries were quickly dispersed when she noticed that Annie’s horn was glowing. “Sound-dampening Spell,” the blind unicorn quickly explained, winking. “I got you covered. I did say that colts can be dense from time to time, didn’t I?” she added, nodding at Starfall.
“That’s not dense, that’s borderline retarded!” Starburst exclaimed, staring at her coltfriend with annoyance. “If you’d excuse me, I’m about to punch some sense into his thick skull,” she added, taking a few steps towards him.
“Also,” she heard Starfall speak up again; she stopped, wondering what stupid thing he was about to say this time, “as a stage magician I would have to begin travelling from town to town; performing in the same place for too long caused the audience to familiarize themselves with the performances. I remember that we usually wouldn’t stay longer than two weeks in the same town with mom. And I happen to enjoy this life in Ponyville,” Starfall finished, shrugging. “I don’t plan on moving away from Starburst.”
… okay, that was actually not so stupid, Starburst decided, actually liking this reason. She still wanted to punch him for that earlier one, but now she hesitated; wasn’t his reasoning (as idiotic as it was in the case of the first reason) proof of how much he cared about her and their relationship? Either that or he’s just lazy I suppose, she added in an afterthought, rolling her eyes.
After a brief internal struggle, Starburst took a deep breath, deciding to simply talk to Starfall (despite how tempting the vision of smacking him upside his thick head was right now). She took another step towards him, but just as then a sudden commotion erupted behind her.
“Annie! And T! I wondered if we’d run into you guys here!”
Startled, Starburst turned around, then starred in surprise. It appeared that their group of friends wasn’t the only one that had thought of coming to the lake to enjoy this warm day. Heading towards them were Hot Head, Lucky Star, and Amber Lily, all three friends Annie had made back in the orphanage, but also, strangely, Nidra. Intrigued by their sudden appearance, Starburst momentary put her coltfriend and her concerns she had regarding his ‘reasons’ (also known as ‘idiocy’ for the time being) out of her head and trotted back to Annie and T as the other group reached them.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” Amber, the bright colored mare exclaimed as she hugged Annie, her eyes gleaming. “I see your hunk is still as grabby with you as ever huh?” she added with a smirk, noting T’s wing that was still partially wrapped around the blind unicorn.
As T blushed and unwrapped his wing, Annie giggled. “Well, if you had given him time maybe he would have taken his wing off. Hey guys,” she added to the rest as they caught up with Amber. “So what are you all doing here? Especially you Amber,” she said, turning back to her. “You do know there’s a lake over there, right?”
Amber rolled her eyes. “Oh please, as if something like that would stop me from spending my first free day in forever with a friend and my babies,” she replied, reaching with her forelegs to pull both Lucky and Hot Head into a hug and give each a quick nuzzle. As Hot Head almost immediately broke free and looked at her with affront while blushing, Amber continued, muttering in a hushed voice as she released Lucky. “Besides, I don’t plan to go near water, so it’s okay… Oh, Princess Starburst!” Amber said as Starburst approached them. “It’s a pleasure to see you, too. I’ve been hearing quite a lot about you,” she added, smiling mischievously.
“Hi,” Starburst replied hesitantly, confused. “What do you mean, Amber? And don’t bother with ‘Princess’,” she added with an annoyed eye roll.
“Hm, funny how you hadn’t said anything along those lines,” Hot Head told Nidra with a smirk.
The bat pony alicorn shrugged. “If somepony wants to address me by my title, who am I to forbid it?”
“Anyway,” Amber said after she rolled her eyes at Nidra’s reply (followed by several other present ponies), “what I mean is, I’ve been told by Hot Head and Nidra that you had recently gotten yourself a scrappy coltfriend.”
“Scrappy?” Starburst repeated, taken by surprise by such word.
“It does describe him accurately,” Annie pointed out, giggling.
“Speaking of, where is Starfall?” Nidra asked, raising and eyebrow at her. “I’ve been hearing that you two were becoming as inseparable as those two,” she added mockingly, nodding at Annie and T.
Putting your hearing into question… Starburst mused, deadpanning at Nidra before replying.
“Star’s back there with the others,” she said, pointing with her hoof behind her. An idea struck her and she decided to go with it, adding “He was about to take a nap when the three of us went on a walk, but I think Claire and Illusion were pestering him about something.”
When the four ponies had approached them, Annie had cancelled her spell, making it possible for Starfall to hear them. Though Starburst intended to confront him later over what he had said, she thought that for the moment it would be better to hide from him what they had heard and pretend as if they just got there.
Amber, who’s gaze followed where she was pointing like everypony’s else, suddenly appeared a little nervous. “Oh, Claire’s here too…”
The heck? Starburst thought, surprised by her change of demeanor. She’s met Claire way more times than she’s met me, hasn’t she?
However, after a quick shake, Amber once again appeared her usual, confident self; Starburst figured she must have imagined it.
“And more already in the water,” Hot Head, who flew a few yards into the air to get a good look, observed. “Is everypony here?” he asked as he landed back next to them.
“June had to stay at the farm and look after her cherry trees,” Annie quickly replied.
“And my cousin Lance is back in the Crystal Empire,” Starburst added, shrugging. “But other than that, yeah, everypony.”
“Great…” he heard him mutter in a slightly annoyed tone, causing Lucky, the purple unicorn, to lightly elbow his shoulder. Hot Head rolled his eyes at him; Starburst wondered if those two had some sort of ‘mental talk’, or something.
“Well, now, since you guys came,” Annie said, smiling. Retreating back to T’s side, who quickly wrapped his wing back around her, she added “So how about we go over there?”
Due to them having been within the earshot the whole time, Claire and Illusion had already risen from the blankets to greet them (unlike Starfall, who either managed to fall asleep in this short time, or was pretending to sleep; in either case, the way his hammock was hanging, the newcomers probably hadn’t noticed him yet anyway). “Hello everypony!” they said, then, after everypony exchanged greetings, Claire turned to Amber: “Amber, it’s been a while.”
“W-well, yes,” Amber replied, slightly stammering, but quickly shaking off whatever had came over her. “You know how busy nurses can be.”
Unfortunately for her, Starburst wasn’t the only pony who had caught on her weird behaviour; and while she would ignore it, the other one certainly wouldn’t.
“Amber, is Claire making you anxious or something?” Annie asked, looking at the older mare with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “You stuttered a little there. Surely, the mare that taught me so much couldn’t be nervous while talking to a mare, right?” she added, becoming even more amused as she brought up how Amber was the cause of her inappropriate sense of humor.
Annie’s words seemed to help Amber back into her usual self, as she smirked in reply. “Well, even I can become anxious when talking to such a remarkable mare as Claire,” she said, winking at Claire.
Her remark - or maybe borderline flirting - must have stroked Claire’s ego, as she giggled softly. “Aww, aren’t you sweet Amber,” she said, lifting her foreleg to scratch the mare under her chin gently and causing her to shudder.
What the hell is happening? Starburst thought, bemused by the scene.
She was about to glance at the others to see what they thought of… whatever this was, but at that moment a familiar voice mercifully took everypony’ attention.
“Whole lot of sh*t just started to make sense.”
Starburst turned to Starfall, who was still lying in his makeshift hammock. However, he had now leaned his head a little so that he could deadpan at Claire and Amber, apparently deciding that his nap - pretended or not - could wait.
“Starfall dear, that was a rather rude interruption,” Claire told him, glaring at him with annoyance, while Amber and the other newcomers were still startled by the beep noise he made with his magic.
The scarred unicorn rose from his hammock and started at her with both eyebrows raised in bewilderment. “You just flirted right in front of your coltfriend and I am the rude one-” he cut himself off as he looked at Illusion; following his gaze, Starburst saw that the half-draconequus covering his muzzle with his paw and laughing silently. “Forget it, I’m not touching this,” Starfall exclaimed, falling back on his hammock and murmuring to himself: “Five years of travelling around the world and four years a slave in circus, and this is the place where I hear the most innuendoes and sex jokes…”
Everypony stared at him, then most of them turned to Starburst, several amused. “Oh, what are you looking at me for, he has a point!” she exclaimed, frowning and crossing her forelegs on her chest.
Amber burst with laughter. “Wow, Nidra and Hot Head described you perfectly,” she said, trotting a bit close to Starfall.
“Oh right, new ponies,” Starburst rolled her eyes as she heard Starfall mutter before raising from hammock once again. When he did, his usual smirk had returned to his muzzle. “Hi,” he said, waving with his hoof. “I’m Starfall, but feel free to call me just Star. Or Starfall the Magnificent, Starfall the Master of the Impossible, God… no wait,” he paused, turning to Starburst, “where were we on that nickname for me just for you to use?”
“Oh for- not happening,” Starburst replied him immediately, causing a few snorts of amusements.
“And you weren’t kidding about his ego, wow,” Amber commented, glancing back at Nidra and Hot Head. Chuckling and shaking her head, she turned back to Starfall: “I’m Amber, and this is Lucky; you’ve already met my other baby Hot Head,” she added, nodding at the pegasus, who facehoofed.
“Amber…” he muttered, but apparently failed to come up with a response.
While some ponies snorted with short laughter - Starburst included; it was a nice change of pace this day, for somepony else to suffer misfortune - Starfall had merely looked at him, his eyes widening briefly. “Wow, so many things becoming clearer this day…” he muttered to himself before shaking his head. “So that’s why you made that sorta-terrified face when Shiny-eyes was flirting with Sheclaw?” he added, looking at Hot Head with a raised eyebrow.
“He comes up with nicknames for everypony, just go with it,” Starburst quickly told Amber as she looked at Starfall with confusion.
“Yeah, you should hear what he calls Starburst when they-” Annie began, but Starburst cut her off by covering her mouth with her wing immediately.
Laughing nervously to the others, Starburst leaned to her. “Did you forget about our deal?” she whispered, a threat in her voice.
“Weeell, technically, the deal was about the part that came after your slip up with that nickname, sooo…”
“Annie!” Starburst hissed.
“Oh relax, I’m just pulling your tail,” Annie replied, rolling her blind eyes.
Hearing her assurance did cause Starburst to relax. Unfortunately, however, the exchange didn’t escape the notice of everypony “Oh? ‘When they’ what?” Amber asked, looking from Starburst to Starfall with an excited grin as she sat on a blanket Lucky and Nidra had set up.
Starburst opened her mouth, working out what to say, but it was Starfall who replied: “When we had fought. You know, when I moved here and met everypony,” he explained. (Nice save, Starburst thought, relieved.) “I believe back then I had called Star ‘Knight’, which is not nearly as funny as… um, what is Damsel’s real name?” he asked Starburst, scratching his head. When she facehoofed instead of replying, he added: “You know, the annoying pegasus with the rainbow mane.”
“You seriously never learned his name or are you just kidding?” Starburst asked him as everypony who hadn’t yet heard Starfall’s nickname for Prism laughed. “Because even for me it’s hard to tell sometimes.”
Starfall was about to retort, but he was cut off by two voices, “I bet that’s not the only hard thing she could tell us about,” Annie and Amber said and the same time to each other, then exclaimed: “Ah, jinx! Double jinx!”
Starfall watched them for a moment with bemusement as they giggled and hugged before he shook his head. “Would you be surprised if I had begun to honestly think that it was his real name?” he asked Starburst, causing her to facehoof again. He must have then had turned his attention to Hot Head, who was still laughing, as he added “Dunno why you’re laughing, Damsel Two.”
“Wait what?” Hot Head exclaimed, confused.
Before the red pegasus could become angry, however, Starfall had turned his attention away from him. “And speaking of…” he said, nodding in the direction of the lake. Looking over, Starburst noticed that her friends were coming out of the water, probably having realized that they had company. She then heard her coltfriend let out a sigh. “This is going to be my whole day today…”
Frowning, Starburst made a mental note to ask him what he had meant later as she watched everypony greet themselves. Very quickly though, the greetings between four specific ponies captured almost everypony’s attention, and almost immediately created an air of awkwardness around.
“Oh, Nidra…” Prism stammered slightly, surprised to see her. “Um, hi.”
“Hello Prism,” Nidra replied, more calmly, but Starburst noticed that she was slightly sullen. “Hi Whirlwind,” she added more pleasantly to the mare beside Prism.
“Hi Nidra,” the pegasus replied, then turned to Hot Head. “Hi Hot Head,” she said, sounding a bit awkward.
“Hi Whirlwind,” Hot Head greeted her, smiling at her with some awkwardness as well while scratching the back of his head. His gaze grew cold though when he turned to the pegasus colt beside her. “Prism.”
“Hot Head,” Prism replied, narrowing his eyes at him.
Great, now we’re officially in a sitcom… Starburst mused observing the exchange. Though I suppose in a sitcom something stupid would happen now- why do I even bother? she groaned inwardly as the very second after Prism greeted Hot Head each of the two got hit by a volleyball right in the head.
The two balls that had hit them out of nowhere had bounced back off their faces. Starburst, like everypony, followed them with her eyes - recognizing one of them as the one they had brought over along with their blankets and two baskets with some snacks and juices - and was not surprise to see them return to Starfall. Even if she was surprised to see him over there when literally the moment before he had been lying on his hammock.
Seriously, when did he move over there, grab our volleyball and another one - of unknown origin at that - and throw them at those two? she wondered as Starfall, who must have jumped into the air the moment he kicked the balls, landed on top of one with only his forehoof, while the other volleyball he “caught” with his hind hoof that he held outstretched right up into the air, turning his scarred back towards everypony as he stretched his neck up to look at them. Though he did disperse this awkward tension, I’ll give him that...
“So, did you guys bring those here for some game or what?” Starfall asked casually, as if he wasn’t balancing on top of a ball with just his forehoof while holding on his hind hoof another one. He then bounced off the volleyball, causing the one on top to fall down, did a mid-air flip above it as it fell, and then landed on top of it with his hind hoof as the ball in turn landed on top of the other one. “Because I think I had enough of sitting around and talking,” he added as he balanced perfectly on the two volleyballs.
Despite being used to his acrobatic skills already, Starburst found herself admiring the display he had performed. She wasn’t the only one; of course, Amber and Lucky, who hadn’t yet seen him, were practically staring agape, but even the others were looking at him with surprise.
“Are we sure he’s part dragon and not part draconequus?” Illusion asked after a second. “Because it’s amazing how much that would explain.”
Starfall snorted. “I don’t need some chaos magic genes to be amazing, Prince,” he replied, rolling his eyes.
“Actually, a game of volleyball sounds like a fun idea,” Amber spoke up before anypony could retort to Starfall’s earlier question. She then again grabbed both Lucky and Hot Head with her forelegs and brought them closer to her. “What do you say boys?”
“So we’re not going to address how he took the ball from our saddlebags without any of us noticing?” Lucky asked while Hot Head, who didn’t try to break free from Amber’s embrace - apparently resigned to his fate - merely sighed and nodded. “Just asking; I don’t mind a little game.”
“Trust me, it’s pointless to try and figure out how he does stuff like that,” Starburst told him while most of the others also agreed to a short game.
“Yeah, I’m basically like the Prince of Thieves,” Starfall added, still standing on the two balls, before jumping and kicking one up to land on his nose as he himself still stood on the other one on his hind hoof, and began to hop on it to cause it to turn around and roll towards an space beside the lake that was wide enough for them all to play. “Except I suppose I’m now retired,” he added as he kept the ball balanced on the top of his muzzle.
As they all - minus Claire, Annie and T, who all opted to sit the game out, content to just observe - followed him, Starburst heard Illusion talk to Nidra. “So how come you’re with them? I didn’t even know you knew them, aside from meeting Hot Head back at the camping trip.”
“Oh, I’ve been bumping into Amber at several parties back in Canterlot as ‘Jet Stream’,” she replied, referring to the name she would use while hidden by Illusion spell as a pegasus whenever she wouldn’t want ponies to recognize her. “Only recently I’ve realized we had common friends when she dragged Hot Head with her once. So, you know, talking happened, partying-”
“-waking up in the same bed...” Amber cut in, smirking at her.
Despite her real dislike of such conversation topics, Starburst couldn’t help but stop and stare at the two mares in surprise. She wasn’t the only one, of course, and she noticed that Nidra was also staring at Amber, stunned. However, before that could be explained, somepony else decided to create a scene.
“Wait what?!” Prism exclaimed, flying closer to them. “Y-you two?! Oh no, Nidra, did I break you?!”
“Break me?” Nidra asked, perplexed and annoyed.
“I know I wasn’t the best coltfriend for you, but…” Prism began, then trailed off as if lost, looking from her to Amber, who appeared to be having the time of her life.
Nidra, on the other hoof, seemed to have enough of this. “Prism, for the love of my aunt, Amber and I only slept, literally,” she said, confirming what Starburst had suspected when she noticed the stare she gave Amber. (I blame Annie for that other thing to be my first assumption.) “Can you please stop making a scene? Not that watching you have a mental breakdown isn’t entertaining mind you.”
“Oh…” Prism exclaimed, looking relieved. “So I didn’t break you?”
“How do you put up with him when he goes like this?” Nidra asked Whirlwind instead, who shrugged.
“Patience, I guess,” she replied, and when Prism turned to her with bemusement, she patted his head.
Amber in the meantime turned to Nidra. “And here I thought you like pranks, Princess,” she giggled. “Who would have thought you could get so easily embarrassed.”
“Maybe if I were warned first…” Nidra began, but when Amber continued to giggle, she smirked maliciously. “Buuut I suppose if you’re such a fan of embarrassing stories, we could talk about that dream you had. You know, the one with C-”
Whatever the dream she talked about was about, the rest of the tale was stopped by a hoof pressed to her muzzle. Amber, who’s eyes had widened the moment she said the word ‘dream’, had threw herself at her and covered her muzzle, laughing nervously.
Starburst could tell that several of her friends were curious to know more about the dream, but Illusion had decided to change the subject, as he cleared his throat and turned to Nidra. “So wait, you slept outside of the castle? When was that?”
“Um, last week,” Nidra replied when Amber released her.
“Oh, so that’s what that commotion was about,” Illusion exclaimed. “I thought Dad had tried to cook again.”
“Not that this isn’t an interesting conversation,” Lucky interrupted gently, “but I just noticed that our teams won’t be even.”
Oh, he’s right, Starburst realized, casting her gaze around and counting ponies; there were eleven of them.
“Should we ask somepony to join us?” Lucky added, glancing back at the trio that was still lying by the blankets.
A short laugh replied him. Starburst immediately turned to Starfall, who stood in the middle of the space big enough for a field. By ‘stood’ meaning that he was still balancing on a volleyball while keeping the other on top of his muzzle.
“You clearly hadn’t heard enough about me,” he exclaimed before jumping into the air, leaving the balls behind as he flipped a few times in the flight before landing beside the lakeshore, turning towards them all. His horn flashed, and a small, multi-colored sphere emerged from it. At the same time, a blob of water rose from the lake, being levitated by Starfall’s magic. The sphere plunged into it, causing it to flash briefly, before the transparent water began shifting with colors as the blop took shape. In the matter of literal seconds, a second Starfall stood beside him. Both of them rose on their hind legs, and, leaning against each other’s shoulder, their spread their forelegs. “Jazz hooves!” he said, smirking as he shook his forehooves.
Long since having gotten used to this spell, Starburst merely rolled her eyes at this dramatization, and suspect that most of her friends had done the some. As such, the excited shriek had really taken her by surprise.
“Amazing!” Amber exclaimed, staring at Starfall oddly. Turning to Starburst, she smirked and said “No wonder you like him so much Starburst.”
“Um…” Starburst stammered, taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“What, you’re telling me you never had him use that spell in bed?” Amber asked, her smirk turning into a predatory grin.
In bed? Starburst wondered, now even more confused. What the hell does she… she began to think as she turned to look at Starfall… and then it hit her.
There were two of him. Two Starfalls. And the things done in bed…
Starburst had no idea how long did she stare at her coltfriend and his water duplicate, her mind blank after that realization. She was dimly aware of others smirking as they caught on what Amber was suggesting, as well as Annie, who had overheard everything with her hearing, shouting as she ran to Starfall “Great Celestia, how come I hadn’t thought of that?! Star, you’ve gotta teach me that spell!” It probably hadn't lasted more than a few seconds. Her senses did return to her as she began to feel pressure in her wings; she shook herself off her daze completely and banished those thoughts before she could sprung a wingboner; her friends would have never let her forget it if her wings suddenly unfolded right there and then.
“Wait, Star, were you thinking about it?” Candy, who was watching her, asked, covering her mouth with in bewilderment. “I mean, I know you like to challenge and push yourself, but daaamn…”
“O-of course not!” she quickly replied, deadpanning at her. “And neither was Star,” she added, turning to her coltfriend…
Her blood froze when she noticed the familiar smirk on both his and his water duplicate’s muzzles.
“No,” she said firmly, and the smirk turned into a grin. “Don’t you dare joke right now… wipe that grin off your faces!” she exclaimed angrily as she began to panic while he continued to ignore her.
Before she could say anything else, both of them appeared right beside her. His grin was gone at least, but instead he was gazing at her now in that way that made it very hard for Starburst to be angry at him, even with everypony around them.
“What grin?” the Starfall on her left asked, and the other added: “Honestly, you make it sounds as if I was plotting something.”
Now she was certain, he was plotting something. And she had a pretty good idea what it could be.
Great Celestia, I’m going to make out with both of them… Starburst realized, terrified; and yet, she realized that she was also partially… something else.
Starfall then erupted into laughter. “Oh relax Star, I’m kidding,” he said, smiling.
The other one bumped against her shoulder. “You know my opinion on this subject, right?” he asked, smirking.
Oh yes, she did know his opinion on this subject.
He didn’t make sex-related jokes. Which meant that what he just said was for the others, who all began to laugh or shake their head, or both. The earlier part was serious… or at the very least, he intended to tease her some more later on.
Ugh, I’d better talk this over with him the first chance I get, I don’t think I’d want to make out with both of them… Starburst though, then felt a shudder go over her as she recalled how affectionate Starfall could get, and imagined what those affections could finally lead to. And I don’t want my first time to be a threesome!
But then, an even bigger prospect, one that could only incite terror in her, came to her as she recalled a certain promise she had made and she mentally screamed.
I don’t want to tell Annie that my first time was a threesome!
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Wow, I’m so happy to see another chapter of this amazing story. It was awesome to see Amber and Lucky finally appear on the setting and seeing Amber flustered by Claire was funny, though slightly weird as Illusion and Claire are too young to complain about having to ‘spice up’ their life. Seeing Annie making oaths by T’s penis and the murals painted by Starfall made me roll on the floor with laughter. Overall, this chapter was amazing and I hope to see more of this story in the future.
That was funny!!!
THAT WAS FUNNY!!!
I was laughing for a whole minute during the last part. Great job. Great chapter. Thanks for the update. You did a wonderful job here. You are going to make me smile for the rest of the day.
Wow I woke up today and never thought I would see another chapter of this when I wasn't really looking. I just happened to look across this and check if there were any new chapters. Thank the moon there was! Love the chapter! Wonder how the romance will continue, and with who. Keep up the good work!!
Okey this was hilarius
I realy needed this after my week
Poor Starburst, Annie is positively evil.
Great chapter yet again. Was starting to think Annie was getting a biiiiiittt much with the innuendo but then having her actually take things serious for a second and give Star some sound relationship advice, brilliant. Keep up the great work, the wait has always been worth it.
This was to funny.
That was hilarious
Excellent work sir! I absolute love the way you combined all the kilalaverse stories in this chapter
This was funny as all hell!