Starling

by destinedjagold

Prologue

A brown ear twitches to the sound of chirping outside the window. An annoyed mumble escapes a brown muzzle as a brown set of hooves grab a pillow to bury his head under it.

Seconds fly by.

As well as the pillow.

“I'm late!” the young, brown stallion yelps in surprise as he jumps off of his bed, “Darn it! How could—w-whoa!” and collapses on the wooden floor with a thud. “Oof!”

“Someone's awake,” he heard a feminine voice through his room's door.

“Mom,” the stallion grumbles as he stands back up on four hooves. “Why didn't you wake me up?!”

“I was about to, you lazy bum,” his mother replies from the other side of the door. “Breakfast is ready.”

Grabbing his saddlebags and hoping all his stuff are already in there, he runs out of his room, dashes down the stairs—passing by and ignoring his mom and her scolding words—turns and runs toward the bathroom.

“For Celestia's sake, Jay, slow down!” his mother yells as she turns to the kitchen, glancing at the news on their television, where the camera is focused on Princess Celestia standing in front of her castle in Canterlot. A nervous shudder runs through her body as she takes her seat at the dining table. “Here's to hoping those space beings won't harm us or anything...”

After washing and drying his face, Jay takes a quick look of himself on the mirror. “...Good enough,” he mutters to himself before dashing out the bathroom. Entering the kitchen, he steals a toast from her mother's plate, gives her a quick hug and turn around to the front door. “Gotta go bye!” he quickly says through the toast.

“At least eat the eggs—aaand he's gone.” His mother sighs, rolling her eyes as she stands up and walks towards the opened front door. Closing it, she turns around but the television catches her attention again. With a shrug, she returns to the kitchen, grabs her plate and sits on the couch in the living room, watching the news.

Outside, Jay is galloping through the waking streets of his neighborhood, greeting the ponies he recognizes with either a nod or a quick wave of a hoof without slowing down.

“Morning, kid!”

“What's the rush, kid? It's still early!”

“Slow down, kid!”

“Yo, Jay! Um...bye Jay?”

A shrill whistle erupts in the air. Joining the waiting crowd, Jay impatiently jogs in place as he chews on the toast. A minute later, the traffic pony turns the green sign to red, making the carriages and cyclists to stop. Jay dashes through the crowd of ponies, throwing a quick wave at the traffic enforcer who arches an eyebrow at him.

After a few more minutes of running, Jay finishes eating his toast just as soon as he sees the white gates of the town's high school. A few young ponies flash their identification cards at the guardponies stationed at the gate of the school.

He stops a few paces from the gate, sweating, panting for breath, and glaring at the trio of smirking students grouped together by the gate.

“Look who's early,” says one of the stallions with a black coat and white mane and tail. He looks at the tall clock tower in the distance. “...two minutes before the deadline. Nice.”

“I am so gonna kill you guys,” Jay wheezes out, making the group chuckle.

“Heh,” another said with a white coat and a yellow mane and tail. He fishes out an ID card from his saddlebag. “Your fault for losing that bet yesterday.” He throws it at the panting stallion.

Jay catches it with a brown hoof. “I am still going to murder all of you.”

“Right,” another one nodded, raising a blue hoof to his face to adjust his glasses and to wipe the dark-blue strands of his mane out of his face. “I do hope you won't smell the entire day.”

The four stallions then go inside the school, showing their IDs at the guards to let them in.

“I still can't believe you took that bet, Jay,” the white-coated stallion smirks.

“I can't fucking believe that he lost that one!” the black-coated stallion exclaims.

“Language, Gamma Hoof,” the blue-coated stallion says.

Gamma throws a glare at him. “Oh, sorry, mom.”

The blue stallion rolls his eyes.

“But seriously, Jay,” the white-coated stallion says. “All you had to do was ask for that cute filly's name, not her mom!”

Jay sighs. “...Remind me to never hang out with you guys ever again.”

“Indeed,” the blue stallion nods his head. “If it were me, I'd never talk to any of you stallions ever again.”

“Admit it, Blue, it was hilarious!” the white-coated stallion says.

A smirk flashes on Blue's muzzle. “Indeed it was, Zap.”

“I'm murdering all of you, I swear to Celestia,” Jay grumbles, wiping a few gray strands of his mane out of his face.

The four walks up the steps toward the school building.

“Oh, hey, guys!” Zap suddenly says, turning to his friends. “Those weird alien ships above Canterlot, you know about them, right?”

“No, Zap,” Blue frowns. “We don't.”

The others snicker as they turn to the cafeteria, led by Zap.

Said stallion rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, today's supposed to be the day the alien leader thing is going to announce something!”

“Oh?” Jay says.

“Mhmm,” Blue nods his head.

“Shame that we won't know what it is until later when we get home though,” Gamma says, frowning. He soon realizes where they are. “...Why are we here, anyway?”

Zap turns and points at the television screens hanging on the corners of the cafeteria, where a few students and staff are grouped together, watching and listening to the news.

Gamma blinks. “Oh.”

Blue smirks. “Nice thinking, Zap.”

“Heheh.” Zap quickly leads them to the nearest screen. Standing on the end of the crowd, he approaches a yellow-coated and black-maned mare and taps her shoulder. “Hey Fourths. Anything interesting we missed?”

“Morning, too, guys,” the young mare says with a smile. She shakes her head and returns her gaze on the screen. “You guys are just in time, actually! Princess Celestia's just about to introduce the alien!”

Just as she says those words, the round of applause from the speakers starts dying down. “Fillies and gentlecolts,” Princess Celestia says, “please let me welcome to all of you, the queen of the extraterrestrials, the Starling Queen.”

Jay notices how subdued the applause is as Celestia steps aside, completely vanishing from the screen, and then from the other side, a strange, golden creature stands in front of the microphone.

A few murmurs erupt from the students in front of Jay and his friends, about how weird the alien looks.

The said queen curiously taps the microphone. It turns to the direction where Celestia is, and a few seconds later, she leans her head towards it, and speaks: “Hello?”

“What a lovely voice,” Zap mutters under his breath, smiling.

“Hello, uh, ponies...and griffons...and minotaurs...and...everyone.”

A low chorus of chuckles erupt from the speakers.

“I am sorry...” the alien matriarch said. “There's just so...so many kinds of you, and I am really, really overwhelmed, and overjoyed that your rulers, your princesses, has allowed us, me and my beloved children, to live with you.”

Jay and his friends share a curious look with each other.

“I am Andromeda, the current queen of my Starlings.”

“Starlings...” Blue mutters.

“I have gathered my children and traveled the cosmos in search for a new home, after...a-after...” She sniffed, eliciting curious murmurs from the offscreen crowd that have gathered outside the palace. “I am sorry... I understand you all need to know the reason why we came here... Why we wish to live here with you all.” She takes a deep breath. “...For you see...our planet... Our home...has died.” As the murmurs erupt, the alien queen shivers. After shaking her pointed head, she takes another breath. “...Unlike your world, ours didn't have anyone who can...control the sun. Our sun was slowly dying, and our planet was getting cold. As the ruler of my children, it was my duty to save all of them.” A sob. “I wasn't able to save them all...”

Silence, other than the occasional static coming out from the speakers.

She takes a breath. “I am sorry. I did not mean to make you all feel sad.” Another breath. “Our days of sadness is over, all thanks to each and every one of you. I cannot thank you enough for allowing my children to live with you.” As a quiet murmur fills the silence, the alien matriarch looks to where Celestia took her exit. After a short pause, she nods before facing the audience again. “I am sorry. I should have explained why I kept on telling how happy I am for you all in allowing us to live with you.”

“Mhmm,” Blue nodded. “I was curious about that.”

“Isn't it obvious?” Zap asks. “They make an alien city and live there.”

“...Maybe.”

“We are Starlings,” the alien matriarch says, “and we live off emotions. Positive emotions.”

“Like Changelings?” Gamma asks.

“That is the sole reason my children and I were able to survive the decades-long journey through the cosmos.”

Jay whistles in awe. “I don't think Changelings can survive decades of nothing but love...” he says as the Starling Queen starts explaining what Starlings are.

“Nope,” Gamma shakes his head. “We certainly can't. At least...” he taps his chin with a hoof. “...that's what Princess Twilight's research says.”

“You need water, too, right?” Jay asks, looking at his friend.

“Yep.”

“Well,” Zap says, looking at them both. “There's always piss.”

“Do you want a hoof-hammer to the head?”

“I'd pay to see that,” Blue says, smirking.

“Of course you would,” Zap says, glaring at him.

Jay and Gamma chuckle before returning their attention to the screen.

“—basically, my children lives by the bond between them and you. We don't feed on you, but rather, the bond you share with us is what makes us live. My children shared a bond with each other, but it is not enough to achieve even simple flight...

Blue arches an eyebrow. “Flight?”

“If these ‘Starlings’ somewhat resemble their queen, then maybe they have wings hidden underneath their golden dress-shell things?” Zap offers.

“Probably.”

The alien matriarch then extends her arms wide.“Once again, thank you all so much for allowing my children to live a new tomorrow. Now... I have let my children wait long enough.” Returning her golden arms to her side, she turns to Celestia. With a nod, she turns back to the crowd. “As a mother, it saddens me to part with my children, and it worries me to let them go to the big unknown, but it makes me happy and proud to see them enjoy this new life you have offered us. Please, I beg of you, take good care of my children.”

“Huh...” Gamma says as the camera zooms out, revealing Celestia standing a few paces beside the alien leader and a huge crowd of ponies gathered in front of the castle. “So...that's it?”

Loud, collective gasps suddenly blasts from the speakers, and the camera turns up to the sky, where the four dark airships start glowing yellow.

Before anypony can further react, the shining airships quietly explode like fireworks, showering the sky like collective meteor showers.

“Pretty,” Zap mutters.

...and then some...no, many of those falling stars start falling down towards Canterlot.

“Holy shi—!” the cameraman can be heard saying as one of the many falling stars is directly falling towards the camera.

The cafeteria is suddenly filled with shrieks, some closing their eyes or looking away.

...but the falling rock stops and hovers inches in front of the screen. “Hi!” it says in a child-like voice. “I'm a Starling! What are you?”

“Uuuhhh...” A pause. “...I need a new pair of pants.”

The floating, yellow glowing rock slowly transforms into a star-like being, blinking curiously at the camera. “...What's a pants?”

A new set of gasps erupt in the cafeteria. Shooting stars phase through the walls and ceiling, and hovers in front of a few startled students.

“HI!” the stars greet their chosen ponies as they slowly transform.

“Aww... They're cute!”

As a few more stars appear before a student and staff, Jay and his group stare at the event in awe.

“Hm...” Blue hums in thought. “They live off of the bond between their chosen pony?”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Zap asks.

Gamma glares at him. “Do you need help pulling your head out of the gutter?”

“Don't you mean ‘mind?’”

“I mean what I say.”

A space rock now hovers in front of Zap. “Hi!”

“Whoa!” the stallion whoa's.

Gamma rolls his eyes. “...Have fun with it.”

Blue and Jay shudders.

Zap quickly throws his hooves around the Starling as he squees. “I'm gonna call you Fluffy!”

“I am Fluffy!”

A rock then hovers in front of Gamma. “Hi!”

The stallion smiles awkwardly at the transforming star. “Erm... H-heh heh... Uh, likewise?”

Another rock phases through the ceiling and hovers in front of Blue. “Nice to meet you.”

“Hm...” Blue stares at it with a small smile. “You're polite.”

The Starling hovering in front of the stallion bows slightly. “I am Polite.”

Blue blinks. “No, I mean—”

Jay chuckles. As he turns, he notices a rock hovering a few inches in front of his muzzle. He blinks.

“...Hello,” the transforming star greets him with a smile.

Jay blinks once again. “...Hi?”

“Looks like Jay's a Starling, too,” Zap jokes, receiving a high-five from his Starling.

Author's Note:

When I was still in high school, where computer games started getting popular, I dreamed of one day becoming a game developer and make games. A few friends of mine started coming up with ideas, sharing mechanics and our thoughts of what would and wouldn't work in the game ideas we had. Aside from a dream Pokémon online RPG game, one game idea stuck to me, and I kept on thinking about the story and mechanics through high school, college and even now. It was called [Starling]. Unfortunately, I didn't end up as a game developer, but oh well...

Anyway, in this fic, and if I can get some time to write and in the mood to continue this, I'm only going to write about major events I've thought for the game, and ponified of course. I hope you'll all enjoy the story!