Operation: Starburst

by randomkid

Last second surprises

"Come back here, Flurry Heart! It's not safe to teleport around like that!" Sunburst shouted, as he looked around for the young foal. "You don't want your parents to start worrying about you again, right?!" he called, in an empty plea. Turned out that after the Crystalling, the Crystaller becomes a glorified babysitter.

Suddenly, Flurry poofed back in, right above Sunburst. She let herself fall onto Sunburst's back and he scrambled slightly to keep standing. Sunburst was able to keep his balance, then tried to grab the little filly with his magic. Flurry stopped this by puling on Sunbursts trademark cloak, slightly choking him.

When will I learn not to wear this thing around the baby? "Flurry, I told you, don't pull on that," Sunburst choked out. Flurry just laughed at the struggling Stallion below her. "That spell after the Crystalling was supposed to limit her magic. I guess that didn't work," Sunburst mumbled to himself.

"Looks like you're having fun with the baby," Cadence commented, with a small laugh as she trotted into the room.

"Oh! Princess!" Sunburst bowed on instinct. The filly just looked up at the pink Alicorn and giggled.

"I've told you Sunburst, you don't need to bow with me," Cadence said, soothingly. As Sunburst stood back up, Cadence put a hoof on Sunburst's shoulder. "You're practically family by now."

Cadence gave Sunburst one of her usual calming smiles and Sunburst couldn't help but smile back. "Thanks Princess," he said, softly. Suddenly, Flurry started pulling on Sunburst's cape again, causing him to gag. "Flurry please!"

Cadence laughed again and lifted the young filly with her magic. "Okay, Flurry. That's enough torturing Sunburst. It's only funny for so long," she said, putting Flurry on her back.

Flurry gladly grabbed onto her mother's neck and hugged her. "Momma!" she shouted out.

"Thanks for that," Sunburst said, getting a fresh breath of air. "Sometimes, I feel like the kid's trying to give me a heart attack." Despite his statement, Sunburst looked at Flurry with a smile. Sure, Flurry had made Sunburst angry and tired before, but he still loved her. Sort of makes me want my own kid... but not anytime soon.

"It's good to have you back, Sunburst. Flurry here, was asking about you," Cadence said, smiling at the filly on her back.

"She was? Did she say my name?" Sunburst asked, with hope in his eyes.

"No. But she kept teleporting to your room and pointing to your bed. It was really cute," Cadence replied.

"I wasn't sure if Flurry even cared about me. She's always waking me up in the middle of the night with her teleportation and won't eat for me," Sunburst said, slightly embarrassed.

"Of course she cares about you. Honestly, you probably see Flurry Heart more than Shining and I," Cadence admitted, with slight sadness in her voice.

Sunburst noticed the sadness in her words and got closer. "Well, that's not your fault. I mean, you have all of the Crystal Empire to run. Besides, it's pretty common for monarchs to have others raise their children," he told her. Cadence looked at him with a smile, and Sunburst smiled right back. "That's why I'm so happy you let me go to Ponyville on such short notice. I really thought you'd be mad when I didn't come back for two months."

"Well, there's a reason for that," Cadence told him. Sunburst looked at her, confusion in his face. "Come, follow me. It's time for Flurry's nap." Cadence turned around and headed out of the room with Sunburst close behind.

"What do you mean by that, princess?" Sunburst asked, trotting quietly next to Cadence.

"I knew exactly what the 'Friendship Problem' was for," Cadence told him, as she trotted on.

"Wait, how? I thought that it was Spike's plan?"

"Do you really think Spike was the one who noticed the spark between you two? I'm the Princess of Love, I noticed your feeling the moment I saw you with Starlight," Cadence explained, calmly. "However, I wanted to try my hand at matchmaking without spells. So I suggested that Spike try to get you two together."

Sunburst was dumbstruck. Sunburst could've asked any number of questions but he decided to go with the obvious one. "Why would you do that for me...?" Sunburst asked.

"Well, you've been a huge help with Flurry lately and I wanted to return the favor."

She did that for me? This was a weird feeling for Sunburst. No one had ever cared about him enough, except maybe Starlight, to do something like that for him. "Then... why didn't Spike say anything about you?" Sunburst asked, trying to focus his mind.

"I'm a lot more subtle than you think," Cadence replied, with a smirk. "He still thinks it was all his idea. I knew all you needed was a little time to spend with Starlight and it would eventually happen. So, I convinced Spike that you two liked each other and had him take care of it."

"I think you might be my favorite Princess now," he said, quietly. Cadence just gave him another smirk and continued walking toward Flurry's room. Cadence is a secret mastermind! That's both intriguing and disturbing.

By the time the two ponies got to Flurry's room, Flurry was already asleep on her mothers back.

"Oh, you've gotten so big, Flurry," Cadence whispered, as she looked back at her filly. "I'm not sure you'll fit in your crib anymore," she continued, looking at the small crib in front of her.

Sunburst looked at the small crib and back at Flurry. Now that he thought about it, the crib definitely was going to be too small for the rapidly growing filly. I guess you can't really expect a crib to last forever. Sure, it fit her last year when she was born, but Alicorns grow a lot faster than regular ponies.

Then, Sunburst got an idea. Sunburst's horn started to glow yellow as he readied a spell. He aimed at the crib and let the spell go, as it made the crib grow to the perfect size for Flurry.

"Oh, well that sure is useful. Thank you, Sunburst," Cadence said, before placing the sleeping filly in the crib. Cadence could see Sunburst trying to hold back his excitement, and smiled. "The better magic is definitely a welcomed side effect of your new relationship."

"You'll have to thank Twilight for that one. She's the one who thought that would work," Sunburst admitted, still brimming from the successful spell.

Cadence smiled. "Yeah, she's great," she told him. "Well, I've got to go find Shiny. He's got to help me out with a few things. I'll talk to you later, Sunburst." And with that Cadence walked out the door and down the hallway.

Sunburst watched her walk away, then turned to the sleeping filly. She was just about the cutest thing he'd ever seen, all curled up in a ball and sucking on her hoof. "I missed you too, Flurry," he said, lowering his head to give Flurry a kiss on the head.

* * *

Starlight stood in awe at the giant crystal castle in front of her. Sure, Starlight had been here before,but it still caught her off guard. She slowly raised a hoof to the door, and was about to knock. The door swung open, just in time for Starlight to jump out of the way of an orange projectile being flung out the door.

The object hit a wall and fell to the ground. Then it started moving. It groaned in a familiar voice.

"Sunburst?" Starlight asked, looking at the orange unicorn. Just then, she noticed a small pink blob cradled in Sunburst's hooves.

"Got you, Flurry!" he said, confidently. "Now, no more gravity spells!" Sunburst looked up to see Starlight, standing over him.

"That's not a very nice way to greet your new marefriend," Starlight said, jokingly. "I'd much prefer a simple 'hello' as opposed to you flying into my face through a door."

"Oh, um, hi Starlight. Wh-what are you doing here?" Sunburst asked, standing up with Flurry in his magical hold. "And why do you have so many bags with you?" Sunburst looked at the half a dozen bags Starlight was floating with her. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were moving in."

"Oh, I am." Starlight replied, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, okay, that explains the- WAIT WHAT?!"

"Yeah, Twilight said something about moving to the Crystal Empire and studying the magic of love." Starlight explained. She put her hoof up to her chin. "I'm pretty sure she just likes the idea of us as a couple."

"But-but where are you gonna sleep?" Sunburst weakly argued.

Starlight gave raised her eyebrow at him. "Sunny, it's a castle, there's tons of rooms," she pointed out. "So of course I'll be sleeping in your room! Okay bye!" she said, quickly, after planting a fast kiss on Sunburst's cheek and running into the castle.

Sunburst was stunned for a second before he realized what she said. He shouted and chased after her, still using his magic to hold Flurry. "I don't think that's such a good idea!" he shouted from behind Starlight, face deep red.

Starlight eventually lost Sunburst and ran into a certain pink Alicorn.

"Oh, hello Starlight. Twilight told me you were coming, but I didn't think you'd be here so soon," Cadence said, looking down at the unicorn.

"Hello Princess," Starlight said, with a short bow. "I was just looking for Sunburst's bedroom. Could you help me find it?"

"Oh, but don't you want to set down your bags somewhere before you talk to Sunburst?" Cadence asked.

Starlight was about to speak up, when Sunburst came bursting down the hallway. "Princess Cadence, tell Starlight she can't stay in my room!"

Cadence looked back at Sunburst, as a mischievous grin crept onto her face. "That's a wonderful idea, Sunburst. I think you two should share a room. It'll help you two get closer as a couple," Cadence said, turning back towards Starlight. "Here, I'll take Flurry with me, and you show Starlight to her new room." Cadence grabbed Flurry with her magic and floated the baby onto her back.

Sunburst was as red as Big Mac by now; as Starlight could practically see all the lewd and embarrassing thoughts running through his head.

Starlight walked over to Sunburst's side and wrapped one hoof around his neck. "Come on, Sunburst! Let's go to our new room," she whispered in Sunburst's ear, somehow making him even redder.

Sunburst gave a tiny squeak, but didn't move. Starlight looked into his eyes. Sunburst was completely petrified.

"I think I broke him," Starlight said, with a laugh. "Unfortunately, I think I'm gonna have to push you to our new room now. Oh well! I'll find it eventually. Let's go, Sunburst!" Starlight pushed her new coltfriend statue down the hallway, in search of her new room and new life in the Crystal Empire. Her happy, and awkward, new life with her best friend.

Author's Note:

I would like, at this point, to thank each and every one of you for making it this far with my story. A lot of passion went in to writing this story and I've had a lot of fun writing it and reading your comments. I want to thank everyone who liked or Favorited this story. I'd like to thank SilverStar7 for all the help with editing, since chapter 2. Go check out his account, he's got some pretty good stories there. I'm really happy I got to finish this story. I really had no intention of it getting this long, but I don't regret it in the slightest.

Well that's enough thanks. It's time for me to announce my next project. Next, I'm going to be tackling a romance, adventure, comedy sequel story starring my two favorite dragons, Spike and Ember. I would also like to announce that my friend will be drawing several pictures and maybe comics, to go with this story. So look forward to that. Unfortunately, the pictures will take a while to draw and I still need to come up with some more ideas for the story so it might take a while.

In the meantime, I have several other projects. These projects include a Discord and Celestia sad ship fic. A sequel to Family Traditions, where Rainbow has to watch her niece for a week. A different Spike and Ember shipfic that is Christmas related. And lastly, a story about a hopeless shipper named Fluttershy and what happens when your friends find out about your fanfics.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So Cadence was the real mastermind huh? I should've known.

[OmniFox]

Starlight's sexually straight forward with Sunburst isn't she?

[SilverStar7]

Obviously, shipfics have been done for Starlight and Sunburst before. What makes this one different is not the who or what, but the why and how. Why are the two ending up together? And how is it being done? The idea of having Spike play matchmaker was amusing on its own. It could have been done with any two characters, but I think Starlight and Sunburst were a good choice. The most interesting thing about the choice is that the readers don't have as many preconceptions about these characters.

Sunburst has hardly been seen on the show and Starlight, while a featured character in over half a dozen episodes, has been explored far less than the Mane 6 and has been explored by the fandom for a much shorter time than other villains like Discord and Nightmare Moon. This makes them more open to interpretation, but they still have to stay true to what we know.

The whole story centers around, and lives and dies, by how well those characters are written. So, how did it go?

The characterization of Sunburst as a nervous wreck contrasting with a surprisingly playful Starlight were both ideas that I hadn't seen done in other stories. Maybe Season 7 will explore the characters more, and make these characterizations seem less realistic, but for what we know about the characters right now, I buy it. And I'd be willing to buy it even later because it works.

Reading this, it is easy to believe that these characters are long-time friends, partly because Starlight behaves differently around Sunburst. It seems like the readers are privy to who Starlight was before she became disillusioned by the world. Happier, more carefree, and a good friend to Sunburst. And Sunburst, while somewhat nervous around others, has that brought out tenfold when Starlight is around. That's realistic. I don't behave the same way around my closest friends as I do in public.

As a shipfic, most readers would have been fine with: Sunburst shows up already in love, antics, Starlight realizes she loves him too, kiss, the end. One can do that in three chapters, get some views, get a few dozen likes, people go "d'aww!" and then move on to the next story. This story isn't a flawless masterpiece of organic relationship development, but it is certainly better than it needed to be to get attention. The two do not start in the same place, and neither begins ready for a relationship. Sunburst doesn't think he can earn Starlight's affection and Starlight isn't even thinking she wants a relationship. So both characters need to be moved for the story to finish.

Spike playing pep squad and coach to Sunburst is funny. What makes it feel more real, however, is that both characters have to share experiences to see that they love each other. So often I see stories where one character goes off somewhere else, realizes they love the other, and then comes back. That's fine for a story, but when has that ever worked in real life? Starlight only comes to her conclusion through being with Sunburst and remembering who he always was to her. Establishing a backstory for a flashback to solidify Starlight's understanding of her feelings was unexpected and not at all unwelcome.

The call-backs, book-ending, and foreshadowing present in the story make it much stronger. Things like having a spell used for a brief action scene make a comeback later on is a nice touch. Some of the lines, including one in particular from the chapter "What is love?" and the final description of Sunburst, were brilliant. I don't recall there ever being a line, even before editing, that offended me or felt totally worthless.

When I read this story for the first time months ago, it was just a fun piece of fluff. In many ways, it still is, but it ended up being something deeper than it had to be. In my mind, it's the best kind of fluff. If the reader just wants a story with some fun moments and a happy ending, they'll find it. But it also scratches at the surface of being something deeper without losing the charm of being a simple shipfic.

Yes, it isn't perfect. It occasionally is guilty of telling instead of showing. It takes the story in directions I wouldn't have. But it never loses its characters. The story keeps the focus on them as they begin in one place, end in another, and the whole while are still the same at their core. I like who the characters are. I wanted to see what would happen. And I was happy when they finally got together.

In the end, that's what I expect from a story like this, and it's exactly what I got. Thanks for writing this and I look forward to your next story.

[SilverStar7]

So Sunburst is now a red statue of a coltfriend. Makes sense. I can imagine the epilogue going something like this:

A few halls later, Shining Armor rounded the corner. "Oh, hi Sunburst. And it's good to see you again... Starlight, right?" Starlight nodded. "Have either of you seen Cadence?"

"We saw her earlier," said Starlight with a huff as she took a break from moving her Sunburst. "I think she was taking Flurry Heart to her room."

"Thanks," Shining Armor tried to walk past the two, but stopped when he realized that Sunburst wasn't moving. He also noted that the stallion was redder than his own wedding uniform. "Sunburst? Are you okay?"

"Possibly," said Starlight, tapping gently on Sunburst's temple. "Princess Cadence said the two of us are going to be sharing a room in the castle."

"Oh, right, Twilight mentioned you coming to live here in her last letter." Shining Armor stepped as far to one side of the hall as possible and slowly squeezed past the statue of Sunburst the Bearded. "So, you're living together? That's a big step."

"I thought it was just a step, but apparently it was actually a giant leap." Starlight pulled Sunburst farther to the other side of the hall to help Shining get through. "A giant leap Sunburst's brain couldn't make."

Shining had gotten around the pair and turned back to face them, locking eyes with the stallion. "You know, Sunburst, even though I was a Captain of the Royal Guard. Even though I'd seen some of the most terrifying things ever imagined by pony-kind! I was actually scared when I went to live with Cadence for the first time. It takes some adjustments, and it seems scary, but if you're with the right pony, everything will work out. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"He's been catatonic for twenty minutes," Starlight said, flatly.

Shining Armor blinked. "Okay, then. I'll go get the castle doctor."

[randomkid]

7917169 I... I don't even know what to say. While writing this story, I felt a lot of pressure to try and keep the characters in character, based on how I thought of them. But, I also try to add something new to a character, like Starlight's playfulness with Sunburst and Cadence's subtle mischievousness.

I thought of Sunburst as a very awkward introvert whose only tie to the outside is Starlight, and maybe Sunset, which explains why he went into hiding when he lost them both. Starlight, I saw more as a pony who regrets her past, but wants to work towards a better future and she's able you recapture some of her happiness as a filly because of Sunburst. Which is an unspoken factor for Starlight loving him. Sunburst is able to bring positivity and happiness back into her life because one, she has her old friend back, and two, because she has to be strong for him. The way I saw Sunburst, he wasn't able to stand up for himself, so Starlight has to drag Sunburst out of the abyss of negativaty he's falling into.

[00RaiserGundam]

7917191 Oh my gosh, yes! That would be perfect for an epilogue.

[Spade_McTrowel]

Finally got around to reading this.
It was a cute story. Have a like.

Curious though, were you planning on taking the idea of Sunburst's sister anywhere?

--Spade

[randomkid]

7943114 Maybe some day in the future. I never planned to have her show up in this story.

[LunarGalaxy89]

Nuuu Its Over!! I Luved It CADENCE U BETRAYED US U MASTERMIND!!

[randomkid]

8274610
Hehe. Thank you for the kind comments. ^^

[LunarGalaxy89]

8305260
Your Welcome ^-^

[randomkid]

8351951
Writing at the time, it was basically 3rd person mixed with a bit of 1st person. As you notice, it switches from Starlight to Sunburst from time to time. I made it so when the story was focused around each character you didn't know what the other was thinking. So when it focused on Sunburst, the reader didn't know what Starlight was thinking or going to do. I had a lot of fun writing this story that way because it let me sort of do a first person story without actually writing a 1st person story.

[lillytheomegawolf]

This capped the story off really well.
This was a fun read.

[Nightspawn]

Some people Don't like this ship, and feel It's forced.. I'm not one of them, I love shiping Starlight and Sunburst... Of course I always have unpopular opinions (I ship Maudbra for Faust's sake!)

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Haha, nice.